The curious case of the Kottayam Signboard

For the past three days, I have been seeing an image of a signboard that shows three distances to Kottayam Town (a town in Central Kerala). The image seems to have gone viral and has seen quite a few hilarious comments and some even blaming the Kerala PWD for being dumb to do something that is as evidently stupid  as this.

Hey There!

Phew! It's been quite a while since my last post here. Just too many things to do which kept me busy. But I guess, I will try to keep this one updated more frequently in the future.

This blog has seen many changes. From being a personal blog to being a tech blog to being a personal one again. I was unsure what to do with it - hence.

Anyway, now since  have other places where I can write all my techie stuff, this one would exclusively serve as my ranting page and and for posting any random crap that comes to my mind. It could be anything - from tech to current affairs to movies. Even trains.

So, be prepared.

Lyrics - Khel Mandala, Natrang

I have been listening avidly to the songs of Natrang lately and absolutely loved "Khel Mandala"

Thought of posting the lyrics of the song here:

Here we go!

Tujhya paaya rishi kuni saan thor nhai

Saad sunya kalajachi tujhya kaani jayi

Hey..

Tari deva sara na hyo bhog kasha payi

Haravali vaat disha andharalya dhai

Vavaluni udhelato jeev maya bapa

Vanava hyo uri petala

Khel mandala

Khel mandala

Khel mandala..devaa

Khel mandala..

Sandali ga reet bhat ghetalavasa tuzha

Tuch vaat daakhivaga khel mandala

Daavi dyevha pail paar pathishi tu rha ubha

Hyo tujhyach umbaryat khel mandala

Hey...

Usavala gana gota saara aadhar kunachaa nhai

Bhygalalya bhui pari jeena angaar jiwala jali

Bala de zunjayala kirapechi dhal de

Inaviti pancha pran jivharat taal de

Karapala raane dyeva jalalya shivaar

Tari nhai dhira sandala

Khel mandala...

-----

I have also sung a version of the sung. Check the upload below :) Please excuse the recording quality :P

Multi Level Marketing. Scam or a Genuine Opportunity? Part 1

So, here I am, writing about one of the most interesting topics I have come across in recent times. I am sure many of you might have come across at least one Network Marketing scheme or the other by now.

I have seen many blogs - mostly with opinions heavily biased against Network Marketing. Most of these authors, lack objectivity in their posts mainly because, right from the start, they are against the entire idea of people joining an MLM (Multi Level Marketing) or question its effectiveness. They also call those people who are involved with an MLM to be under some kind of spell. Some even call them greedy, money minded people! These same people work hard for what? Money. How then is an MLM-er more greedy than say, an employee or a self employed individual? I for once do not think aspiring to be financially free constitutes greediness. In my opinion, anything has be be scrutinized, analysed and all sides of the entire thing be looked in detail before dismissing anything away or calling it a scam. Same is the case if one believes an MLM is a great way to earn perfectly legal passive income. Present objective facts before claiming it is a genuine opportunity.

I want this blog post to clear some misconceptions regarding this controversial topic. Before I begin, let me take this opportunity to clarify the reason for writing this post. I have been associated with Networking Marketing since its early days in India. I am talking about the late nineties here. I guess a 10 year "hands on" experience should be a good qualification for me to write fairly authoritatively about this topic. I will do this post in a QnA format. Before that, I wanted to talk in brief about the perception this industry has in the world. Almost everyone knows the Amways, the Oriflames, the Tupperwares the RMP's and the Herbalifes. But this knowledge is mostly "their perception" of the thing. Most people have been told different things about these companies which might be true or false. Most of these opinions are from folks who actually do not know what happens behind the scenes eventually become their so called knowledge about the entire thing. Your friends friend might have been in Amway, continued it for say two years, , didn't earn a penny out of it. Naturally, it would be seen as a loss making venture and for the same reason, a thing that doesnt work (for him/her). He is absolutely correct when he says it doesn't work! However that necessarily isn't the case for a few others for whom the idea worked.

Let's begin the QnA section now.

1. What is an MLM/ Network Marketing System?

An MLM is a way of marketing products directly from the manufacturer to the consumer - removing the middlemen who are involved in the traditional marketing system.There are companies who have their own products (Amway, Oriflame and Tupperware for example) and some who simply markets products made by other companies. (RMP for example).

2. Is MLM Legal?

This is a very controversial section. In most countries globally, it is legal. The US Government for example differentiates MLM system to be different from Pyramid and Money Circulation schemes. In India however, any company that sells directly to consumers and also offers them an opportunity to earn commissions on future sales through them are wrongly put in the same bracket as illegal, pyramid schemes. If we are to go by the Indian Prize Chits and Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act,1978 in which MLM companies according to me are wrongly put, it indeed turns out to be illegal. In my opinion, there is a need to pass a law that legalizes genuine business opportunities and bans illegal "schemes" that masquerade as "MLM opportunities". Simply put, if we are to go by the Indian law, MLM giants like Avon, Amway, Herbalife and even Max NewYork Life Insurance (All Billion plus Dollar Corporations) turn out to be illegal!

3. Does an MLM actually work?

Depends. If you joined an MLM due to constant persuasion, it is highly likely that you will quit the business by the end of the very first year (and for the same reason, didn't work for you) :). It is simply foolish to expect returns from a business that you joined because someone wanted you to join. You joined for them, not for you. It is no less similar to you opening a shop because your neighbor asks you to open one. Any business will only work if you treat it like a business. If you happen to be an ex MLMer, there could be multiple reasons for your failure. Like any other business, an MLM needs constant attention. You need to learn how to approach people (the art of prospecting). You also need to identify people who would be an asset to your "group". An MLM is something that CANNOT be done by each and everyone. If you are in an MLM, your idea should be to form a strong down-line with people who could be leaders to their down-lines- and so on... in the future. Going in for quick gains by sponsoring as many people as you come across simply doesn't work.

4. How can you claim it works?

Well, I don't claim it works. When someone says something doesnt work, he is conveying his experience or something which he has heard from someone. If a Maruti 800 that you owned constantly failed, that car doesnt work for you. At the same time, there might be M800 users who have used their cars for ages without any issues. So, if you say it doesnt work for you, you are right! It doesnt! I have been involved with MLM since 1999. I had joined it because of the same reason as most people end up in an MLM. Force, coercion. As expected, it didn't work for us! One thing that was different in me (and my dad) was that we researched quite a bit to figure out why it din't work for us - instead of blaming the entire MLM system to be a farce. We figured that an MLM business is by no means an easy thing to do. It takes relentless effort to create a sustainable MLM business platform that can provide you with a decent passive income. Like I said before, you HAVE to treat it as just another business that needs constant attention. The investment required to start an MLM business is considerably lower than any conventional business. Sometimes, it is this very reason that people fail to treat it as a traditional business. The rate of failure in an MLM business is just a tad higher than the rate of failure in a traditional business .. BUT the former seems to be blamed more even though its financial implications are hardly a blip on the radar as compared to a traditional business.

Apart from all this, I have also seen/met/personally know MANY MLM leaders who are leading very comfortable lives - with a steady, above average income. These people, whom some blame to be money minded people (some actually are) comprise of many people who in spite of reaching a very comfortable income level continue to help others achieve what they did. In short, I wanted to convey that while it did not work for me, I refuse to blame an MLM for my failure.

I think this post might turn out to be boring if I make this any longer.. so I guess we would need a part 2 in the weeks to come. Till then!

Adios!

Yet Another List of Ten Things To Do When Twitter Goes Down

1. Go to Facebook.com and try to use it like Twitter. So what if it is #fail

2. Did you ever notice how many birds are there in that Fail Whale Image?

3. Keep on pinging http://status.twitter.com and try to bring it down too

4. Inform @chetan_bhagat, even he can’t block this outage

5. Try to calculate how many others will be making a “10 things to do when twitter was down” list

6. Log on to Orkut

7. It’s a good time to see, if you can still reset those Yahoo and Hotmail passwords.

8. Call your girlfriend (If you have made one through Twitter) and inform her about the outage and impress her by revealing that you were the first to spot it on the twitter status page that there was actually a problem which Twitter admitted.

9. Revive your long dead blog. Like I did.

10. Try to set up a self-help group for all affected by the tragedy. Life has to go on – even without Twitter

Agyaat: What You Really Want To Know

Watched Agyaat over the weekend. RGV's latest magnum opus has been ridiculed, torn to shreds and dismissed as (one of) the most pointless movies ever made by the so called film critics. I Disagree! It's ONE brilliant piece of work I say. Actually, if you have seen the movie, very carefully, it will of course come to you what RGV has actually intended to convey. Not getting still? I'll try again.

See, If you watched Agyaat and came out banging your head, it's just because you ain't bright enough to understand the concept. Thats it! C'mon not everyone has the same IQ levels! We're different people! For example, not everyone is as brilliant as me. So, I hereby proclaim whoever found this movie pointless, they possesses the IQ of a dingbat. I would go on to say that this work of art should be scrutinized (by intelligent people) and be kept as reference material. If you still haven't got the point, let me reveal it to you anyway.

The entire film is nothing but a trailor for Agyaat 2 that RGV is making. What? Agyaat 2? (Those who don't know, you miss vital pieces of information if you do not stay till the end of the movie). So, you see, what RGV is trying to do here is to create this huge aura about this Agyaat killer thats lurking in the jungles. Its scary, it's scared of water and it doesn't help if you pray when its in front of you and about to kill you because its stupid and doesn't know God exists. Oh and those who said "they should have at least revealed what killed Setu, the director and the producer", bummers, the film is titled Agyaat. So, even RGV doesn't know what killed them. Its Agyaat for gods sake!

And this is for those who said "What a pointless movie?". Have you ever thought what your purpose in life is? Think about it. You get up every morning, go to work, return home, watch TV, spend time with friends, worry about why he/she hasn't called you yet, fret about tomorrows commute to work.. and so on? Isn't THAT pointless? And you call this movie pointless? Bloody Hypocrites.

Go watch the movie. If you ain't scared by it, it will at least make you laugh.

Tribute: Rajan P Dev

One of Malayalam Cinema's finest actors, Rajan P Dev passed away earlier today at private Hospital in Ernakulam. The actor was known for his power packed performances and his amazing adaptability to perform various kinds of roles. Be it a negative role, a positive one or a comic one, he peformed it with great aplomb.

I personally loved his style of acting and will always remember his performances in the countless movies he has acted. He had this amazing ability to make you hate him when he performed negative roles. At the same time, in some other movies you just love the man. To say that his loss is irreplaceable would be an understatement. I loved many of his films and his performances in "Thommanum Makkalum", "Chanthu pottu" and many others. In fact, to list all his peformances would be a daunting task!

The Malayalam film industry has lost some great talents in 2009. If it was Lohithadas last month, we have now lost Rajan P Dev now, exactly a month later. You will be sorely missed sir! May his soul rest in Peace.

A recent Interview of the great man below.

Singers: Get Your Pronunciations Right!

As I type this, the popular Malayalam Reality musical show, Idea Star Singer is underway. The show is extremely popular amongst Malayalees, across the globe. Starting off on a very modest scale back in 2006, the show returned the next year in a bigger format promising contestants a flat worth Rs. 1 crore. The next year the prize money was doubled to 2 crore each for one male and one female contestant.

Now to the facts as to why am I talking about this program here on my blog. To start off, I am a big fan of this show. The contestants are high quality singers and the judges are by far the best ones in the business. I have never found the judgement "biased" or anything like that. The judges go out of their way to point out mistakes and other issues with "sangathis" as they call it!

But when it comes to Hindi songs some contestants sing, I see lots of scope for improvement. Some of the contestants need more training to "shrug off" their Malayalmised Hindi accents. While some contestants do manage to shrug it off (Hats off to them! It's NOT an easy thing to do, mind you), some others need to do a lot more. Some songs sound outright ridiculous and embarrassing if you happen to watch it along with your North Indian friends.

I have no complaints against the show, but if there is one thing that needs to be done to improve the quality of the show, it should be ensured that the contestants should get their pronunciations right. It's not just about Hindi. If I sing a Marathi song, (I am a Malayalee), it may sound awesome to a Malayalee, but a Marathi manoos listening to it should not feel like kicking my butt off because I ruined his favorite song. I am a singer myself and I “know” how bad it sounds when you do not sing a song correctly (as in, with the correct pronunciation). The worst part is that performances like these are given high marks because the judges might have not heard the original song.

I am not against Malayalees (I am one too, after all and proud to be one!) or the mallu accent, but in some situations, the accent can do more harm than good. Additionally, in my experience, it is quite not an impossible task to work on your diction. You just need to listen to the original song very carefully and learn it. I would rather not sing a song at all, till I get the pronunciation right. And, this is not just limited to a Malayalee singing Hindi songs, the rule to get the pronunciations right can be extended to all languages.

Mistakes while singing is OK, but this is not! I don't know how many people agree with me on this here! Just my 50 cents worth. :)

Confessions of a Twitterholic: I Am Addicted

So, I have admitted it finally. I hereby certify myself to been addicted to Twitter. The reasons of course wil be expounded, but that comes later (in a separate post!).

When I joined Twitter back in July 2008, it was just because my colleague @shadez was there. The interesting thing about me was that, I have always been a techie (oh yeah!) but the Twitter bug never really hit me until then. In fact, I hadn't even heard of Twitter till last year. It's kinda strange but true. One of those things.. you know?

I was more busy with "traditional" geek stuff like being member of tech forums and other such communities. For example, I was quite active on Esato Forums where I was amongst the top 5 posters. In fact, I can honestly say I was addicted to Esato, prior to Twitter. Posting day in and day out since 2004. I was a lurker there long before I finally "jumped in"

Now, let's get back to Twitter. After joining in July, I was limited to a few tweets per day and followed some new people whom I personally knew. There came a time when I used to simply gawk at @shadez who was actively involved and went to tweetups, met people and stuff. It was then that it dawned on me that, this thing actually isn't as pointless as I thought it was. That was it, I started actively following interesting folks.

The moment of truth came when the unfortunate Terror attacks in Mumbai were unfolding, I watched Twitter grow from being this "tweet and meet" thing to something very serious. Infact, during the attcks I was continuously tweeting information and helpful bits of information to folks who were in Mumbai. It was also then I realised how quickly Twitter could mobilise people. Within hours of the attacks there was a centralised blog that provided updated information, all kinds of them to folks who were looking for the near and dear ones. From blood-bank addresses , blood group equirements everything was in order.

During the same time, I personally was going through a lot of stress (mushy stuff) and now I have to admit, it was some of my Twitter buddies, who have been instrumental in getting me back on track! The fun part is that most of em don't even know they have helped me out. I won't reveal their names, but you know what? There are some really nice, special peope out there.

Yes, some may argue about its pointlessness, but the beauty of Twitter is seen when you are actively involved in it. For those who came just to check out the sevice, it will obviously remain pointless. No! Seriously! Who in the right frame of mind would want to tell the world, what they're doing now? @twitter, you need to change that slogan, I say!

The Tech Chronicles is now Techniclez!

That correct.. I am turning this into my personal weblog and will concentrate more on my new Blog Techniclez which was launched on 4th December 2008.

I had thought of importing all stuff over to Techniclez but chose not to do so because of the footprint that whizkiddreloaded had with search engines. So all previous articles will remain here.. No more tech posts here though.. this will turn into a personal musings page where I will talk all things non tech.

Head over to Techniclez then and let me know your feedback! Its still under works with some rough edges here and there.

Thank you for your support!

Coming Soon: Supercharged EDGE!

While we still await the arrival of 3G here in India, here is some refreshing news for us EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) users here for whom this has been the fastest available method of Internet access on our GSM networks.

Apparently, Nokia-Siemens Networks has developed an “enhanced” version of the existing EDGE technology, which it calls the “Dual Carrier EDGE” solution that will enable users to attain downlink speeds of up to 592 kbps on existing EDGE-capable GSM networks. For the uninitiated, EDGE was limited to a theoretical speed of 384 kbps with existing technology. While the speed jump might not be very substantial on paper, it will certainly help users who are solely dependent on EDGE connectivity while on the move. Another heartening piece of news is that the application of this version of EDGE does not require a hardware update on the networks side. The Downlink Dual Carrier happens to be software based solution that can be easily implemented.

There’s more good news. Nokia-Siemens Networks are also on their way to further enhance EDGE. They are also working on something known as EGPRS 2B which aims to quadruple the downlink and uplink speeds on EDGE. How do a 1.2 Mbps download and 473Kbps upload speed sound on EDGE? Sweet!

For those who thought EDGE is dead, think again. This new technology will help users to continue their 3G experience in areas where there is still no 3G coverage. Even if India does implement 3G in the very near future, the thought of a widespread coverage area is still a distant dream. How would you feel if you go off a 3G network while traveling away from the city to a place where there is no 3G coverage yet? EDGE is sure to play an important role in situations like these where users will demand continuity in services.

Techtree link

PDF Preview Handler Outlook 2007 & XP Error

Many of you must be still using Windows XP like me. Those who do will truly feel happy why they stuck to it.

Similarly many must have upgraded to MS Office 2007, a totally redesigned-from-scratch Software which has turned out beautifully & Further, many in the office rely on the ever-important Outlook 2007 to take care of their E-mailing needs.

For Quite some time now I have been using outlook for E-mailing. & I extensively use the "Preview" Feature for the Documents (.Doc), Images (.JPEG / .BMP....) & Most Importantly Adobe PDF Files.

But recently I discovered a rather frustrating problem: On Single-Clicking the PDF in the recieved E-mail one should be taken to the Preview directly, but here it gave me a Handler Error: The Preview Handler Has encountered an Error. To view the File, Double-Click on it. WTF!!!

As is my tendency I am not the one to give up so easily. Hence I fired-up Google & began searching for a Suitable Alternative. I encountered only ONE: Foxit PDF Preview Handler. But unfortunately it failed to satisfy me (Pun Un-intended).

But I was not about to give up. many Searches later I stumbled upon THIS PAGE. This Page has a beautiful Preview Handler, which does Perfectly what till recently the inbuilt handler used to do.

I also urge you to visit THIS PAGE. It has Preview Handlers for: SWF / HTML/HTM/XML / ASF/WMV/WMA/AVI/WAV/MPG/MPEG/MP3/MIDI/AIFF/AUASF/WMV/WMA/AVI/

WAV/MPG/MPEG/MP3/MIDI/AIFF/AUCS/VB/SQL/JS

COOL Huhh!!

New rating system for Mobile chargers introduced

A group of mobile manufacturers has launched a common energy rating system for chargers, making it easier for consumers to compare and choose the one that saves the most energy. The star rating system developed and supported by LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung Electronics and Sony Ericsson is one of a series of measures being taken by the industry to reduce the environmental footprint of its products.

Many consumers are unaware that chargers consume electricity when disconnected from the phone but left plugged into the wall socket. Around two thirds of the energy used by mobile devices is wasted in this way. Manufacturers are addressing this by continually improving the efficiency of their chargers and in making it easier for consumers to pick the ones using the least energy.

The new rating system indicates how much energy each charger uses when left plugged into the wall socket after charging is completed. The ratings covers all chargers currently sold by the five companies, and range from five stars for the most efficient chargers down to zero stars for the ones consuming the most energy. If the more than three billion people owning mobile devices today switched to a four or five star charger, this could save the same amount of energy each year as produced by two medium sized power plants.

People will be able to visit the websites of each manufacturer to view and compare the results for every charger. The ratings are based on the European Commission's energy standards for chargers and the internationally recognized Energy Star standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency in the U.S. The ratings will be reviewed regularly and developed further in order to drive constant improvement.

Many of the manufacturers are also working on other ways to reduce energy consumption. Most major producers have begun introducing visual alerts into their devices to remind people to unplug the charger from the mains when the battery is fully charged.

The group of manufacturers was initially created as part of a European Commission Integrated Product Policy pilot project looking at how different industries could reduce the environmental impact of their products and inform consumers of better choices. Nokia proposed the mobile phone sector to the Commission and was joined by a number of manufacturers, operators and others in the industry.

Links

http://www.lge.com/about/sust[....]climate_energystar.jsp#battery
www.motorola.com/environment/chargers
www.nokia.com/chargerenergy
http://uk.samsungmobile.com/greenmanagement/energy.do
http://www.sonyericsson.com/c[....]/company/sustainability/energy

Maya 2009 comes to India

Autodesk, Inc.has announced the India launch of Autodesk Maya 2009, 3D animation and visual effects software, in celebration of the software's 10-year anniversary at Autodesk Developer Day in New Delhi today. Maya 2009 includes a wide range of advancements in modeling, animation, rendering and effects that maximize productivity, optimize workflows, and provide new creative possibilities.

"We are celebrating the work done with Autodesk Maya over the past 10 years by many artists and creative visionaries in film, television production and games, as well as in industrial design and architecture," said Marc Petit, Autodesk's Media & Entertainment senior vice president. "We designed Maya 2009 as a tribute to creative innovation and production efficiency. The new release will allow artists to raise the bar and deliver even more ground breaking computer graphics work."

Commenting on the features of Maya 2009, Vishal Anand, Visual Computing Labs (VCL), a division of Tata Elexsi, said “We are looking forward to the launch of Maya 2009 in India as it will change the way artists think about dynamics, rendering, compositing and pipelines. This new workflow will optimize render times for multiple render layers and, in turn, elevate the quality of work. Maya has an intuitive user interface, which facilitates customization and fine-tuning of effective workflows.”



Key Highlights of Autodesk Maya 2009

Complexity Managed

While the complexity and size of scenes continue to rise, Maya 2009 provides new tools to make them more manageable. These tools include the new Maya Assets toolset, which enables users to encapsulate a set of nodes into a single container and publish a view of the data suited to the artist's task. The release also offers a new Render Proxy feature in mental ray, and additional multi-threading work and algorithmic speedups that boost interactive draw, simulation and rendering performance for even the heaviest scenes.

Accelerated Modeling Workflow

Maya 2009 gives modelers and texture artists unprecedented control over polygon modeling and UV texturing through powerful selection management features, efficient modeling workflows and precision UV unfolding and layout options.

Collaborative, Iterative Projects and Pipelines

Tighter schedules and budgets demand that projects and pipelines take full advantage of available resources. Maya 2009 supports collaborative, iterative workflows and promotes data reuse. The software has a new animation layering paradigm that provides animators with increased non-destructive flexibility, as well as an updated Render Pass toolset that offers precise control over render output and optimizes integration with Autodesk Toxik procedural compositing software.

New Creative Tools

Maya 2009 offers an innovative Maya nParticles dynamic simulation module and an extensive Maya Muscle feature set. nParticles is part of the Maya Nucleus Unified Simulation Framework, a ground-breaking approach to creating complex physics simulations that interact directly with each other. Furthermore, to help studios capitalize on the growing popularity of stereoscopic 3D films, Maya 2009 offers a flexible new stereo camera rig, complete with in-viewport stereo viewing.

For a complete list of new features and enhancements in Maya 2009, visit http://www.autodesk.com/maya.

The above is a press release from Autodesk.

Site moving to new host: Expect downtimes!

The Tech Chronicles is moving to a new host and the transistion might see a few outages with the site being unavailable for extended periods of time. I am working on the transistion to be a smooth one. But you never know!

It might be a while before the site limps back to normalcy as I do this between my work schedule!

Thanks for reading..

First Look at Opera Mini 4.2

Its New, Better and Faster!

read more | digg story

Schmidt says no to Tech Czar post

Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, in a recent television interview has stated that he has no plans to join the Barack Obama administration post the Presidential Inauguration scheduled in January. Schmidt was one of the high-profile supporters of Obama and his involvement in the Obama campaigning had sent rumour mills on fire with some even speculating he might end up in the administration as “Chief Technology Officer”.

The rumours though have been laid to rest now with the confirmation from Schmidt himself. In a television interview with CNBC host Jim Cramer, who had posed the question, Schmidt said, “"I love working at Google and I'm very happy to stay at Google, so the answer is no." As for who will be occupying the coveted post if not Schmidt, there is also a little rumor going on about Internet pioneer Vint Cerf , who has been Google’s chief Internet evangelist. Another prominent name coming up is Reed Hundt, a former regulatory authority official.

Via: Cnet

Gigabyte launches X58 Series of motherboards

Gigabyte has announced their latest X58 Series motherboards, the GA-EX58-EXTREME and GA-EX58-UD5 in India. Designed for Intel’s new Core i7 processors, these high-end motherboards are all set to burn the performance charts.

The new motherboards boast of a host of new features including the new QPI interface, 3 channel DDR3 support, 3 Way SLI and CrossFireX support, Ultra Durable 3 technology and an extensive range of overclocking features. Thw much touted QPI interface is actually a replacement for the Front Side Bus (FSB). The QPI has a transfer rate of 25.6 GB/sec which is double the bandwidth of the 1600MHz FSB thereby eliminating the communication bottleneck between the processor and chipset.

The X58 Series features Intel's Turbo Boost Technology, which is able to power down idle processor cores and dynamically reroute the power to the active cores for significant performance boosts, and at the same time, maintain greater energy efficiency.Additionaly, with 3 PCIe x16 2.0 slots, supporting both ATI CrossFireX™ and 3 Way NVIDIA SLI, this is a gamers dream come true.

Other Features

Visible Overclocking Reminder
OC-Alert LED indicates the level of CPU overclock from low to high.

Visible Temperature Reminder
Two sets of Temperature Alert LEDs indicate the current temperature level of the CPU and North Bridge

DualBIOS - Patented Dual Hardware BIOS Protection
DualBIOS is a GIGABYTE patented technology that automatically recovers BIOS data when main BIOS has crashed or failed. Featuring 2 physical BIOS ROMs integrated onboard, GIGABYTE DualBIOS allows quick and seamless recovery from BIOS damage or failure due to viruses or improper BIOS updating.

EasyTune6
Gigabyte has completely redesigned EasyTune6 to manage and monitor your hardware resources as well as tweak your system settings in order to achieve maximum system performance. It provides all the tools you need to quickly and effortlessly fine tune your system.

Precision OV - Hardware Overvoltage Control ICs
Gigabyte X58 Series motherboards also include Hardware Overvoltage Control ICs which provide more voltage control options than before for the CPU North Bridge and memory

As for the price, the Gigabyte GA-EX58-EXTREME and GA-EX58-UD5 Motherboards are priced at Rs.24650 and Rs.20400 respectively making it a stricly enthusiast -only board!

Sony Ericsson launches the W705 Walkman

Sony Ericsson today announced its latest Walkman device, the W705 at the MTV Europe Music Awards where Sony Ericsson is one of the main sponsors.

The W705 is a compact-slider phone loaded with features. The camera is a 3.2 megapixel unit with 3.2x digital zoom. Apart from this, the phone also supports photo and video blogging.

Other features are listed below:

Accessories
In-Box:

W705
Battery
Battery charger
4GB Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™)
USB cable
Stereo PHF
Sony Ericsson PC Suite
Media Manager
User guide




Facts and Figures

Size: 95 x 47.5 x 14.3 mm
Weight: 98 grams
Colours:
Luxury Silver
Passionate Red
Screen: 262,144 colour TFT
Resolution: 240 x 320 pixels
Size: 2.4 inches
Phone memory: Up to 120MB
Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) support
Talk time GSM/GPRS: Up to 10 hrs
Standby time GSM/GPRS: Up to 400 hrs
Talk time UMTS: Up to 4 hours
Standby time UMTS: Up to 350 hours
Video talk time: Up to 3 hours
Music listening time: Up to 20 hours
Availability and versions
Networks:

W705 and W705u:
GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
UMTS/HSPA 900/2100
Available in selected markets from early Q1 2009.

Features

2.1 audio (left, right and subwoofer)
Built-in FM radio
Monochrome OLED display
Touch control and music settings for bas and treble
3.5mm line-in
Bluetooth™ A2DP and AVRCP

Website Review: Laptop Community

Laptop community is an India centric website dedicated for all things laptop. As the name suggests, the site is dedicated to laptop reviews -- user reviews to be precise. This is what distinguishes this site from the others.

While there are other websites offering user reviews, there is a dearth of dedicated review sites specifically for laptops. Laptop community aims to be your one-stop shop when it comes to laptop reviews. Yes, there are "expert reviews" out there, however in most cases, a well written user review is far better than reading a review on a tech website which usually concentrates on the specifications and the value for money part while missing out on the actual usage reports. It is the abundance of these kind of reviews that makes laptop community worth a visit prior to homing in on that elusive laptop you were on the lookout for.

So, does the site a deserve a visit before you buy a laptop for yourselves? Read on.

Interface
The website has an uncluttered look to it. The top menu has been intelligently used to list the reviews by brand. The home page lists the latest reviews and shows up to 20 reviews. In case you need a preview of more, there is a dropdown option where you can increase the number of reviews listed.
                                                   Click on the image to enlarge

Pretty neat. Although this might not be a very obvious feature, it does make the navigation much easier.
The left side-bar lists popular laptops by model names listed according to the average user ratings. The good thing about these ratings is that it is category specific.

Sections
While concentrating more on user-reviews, there are different sections as well. These include useful stuff like featured articles, new launches, news and even a QnA section where visitors can post their queries and get answers from the laptopcommunity panel of experts. The video section has a good collection of laptop related videos. The forum though seems to be still in its nascent stages.

Ease of use
The website, with its comprehensive list of reviews does deserve a look before you set out to purchase a laptop. While some of the reviews may not be up to the mark (grammar, punctuation and details), this is to be expected from a site of this nature. This is far better than totally unreadable so called "reviews" I have come across many times on other popular web sites.

Overall
The website loads quite quickly. No complaints on that front. I did come across some dead links though. The Toshiba section for example when clicked upon, gave me a 404 error. Submitting a review is an easy task. All the user needs to do is to click on the prominent "write a review" link seen on all the pages. Pretty neat overall.

So is the website worth a visit? Definitely. The sheer number of user-reviews available should be enough for you to head this way. Who knows this website might just influence your choice next time you head out to buy a laptop!