Hewlett-Packard will put its short-lived TouchPad tablet up for sale one last time. The fire sale $99 price will still apply--with a few catches.

The first major catch is that the offer will go exclusively to HP employees before going wide on eBay at $99 and $149, respectively for the 16GB and 32GB versions, on December 11 at 4 p.m. PT. The second major catch is that all units will be refurbished, according to a report on TechCrunch, thus the eBay venue.

"In an effort to give HP employees first chance at a very limited supply of refurbished TouchPads, there will be a short delay between when the product is posted live for sale on eBay and when the general public is notified of the sale," according to the letter, posted by TechCrunch.

The delay will only be a few minutes, so there should be an opportunity for the public to get a crack at $99 (16GB) and $149 (32GB) TouchPads.

Another catch is that there will be limited availability (if that isn't already obvious).

Additional provisos are as follows (per HP's letter to employees):

• Purchases must be made through the HP eBay store via PayPal only. If you do not have eBay or PayPal accounts, create your accounts before the sale begins to avoid delays.


• There will be a limit of two TouchPad SKUs per eBay member, sold on a first come, first served basis.


• All sales are final. There are no returns, unless product arrives defective.


• The refurbished TouchPad product comes with a 90-day limited warranty.

An optional three-piece accessory bundle with a case, charging dock, and wireless keyboard will also be offered for $79.

And just to make it crystal-clear that this will be the only way to get these from HP: "This product will NOT be available through any other HP stores, such as the Home & Home Office store, Small & Medium Business store, HP EPP, or the HP Business Outlet," according to the letter.

The WebOS-based TouchPad was only available for a little more than two months beforeWebOS hardware operations were shut down. The tablet then saw a burst of popularity when HP and retailers like Best Buy sold new units starting at $99.99. Those quickly sold out in August.

Specs include a 9.7-inch multitouch (capacitive) 1024x768 display, a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core APQ8060 processor, HP WebOS, a front-facing 1.3MP camera, and internal speakers with Beats Audio.

Speak up..!: Life...

Speak up..!: Life...: Life’s full of choices, Right n wrong, wrong n right... Bad n good, good n bad... Life’s full of living in others shoes, Knowing they don’t...

Speak up..!: Hey guys!Do comment and blog things(therez a opt...

Speak up..!: Hey guys!

Do comment and blog things(therez a opt...: Hey guys! Do comment and blog things(therez a option of blog this)

KING OF KINGS is back

Hey folks,
                      The blog has been reopened for public use, it was closed down due to some technological reasons.
But now we are back.


Thanks
Admin               

Violent Video Games Increase Aggression Long After the Game Is Turned Off, Study Finds

Playing a violent video game can increase aggression, and when a player keeps thinking about the game, the potential for aggression can last for as long as 24 hours, according to a study in the current Social Psychological and Personality Science (published by SAGE).

Violent video game playing has long been known to increase aggression. This study, conducted by Brad Bushman of The Ohio State University and Bryan Gibson of Central Michigan University, shows that at least for men, ruminating about the game can increase the potency of the game's tendency to lead to aggression long after the game has been turned off.

The researchers randomly assigned college students to play one of six different video games for 20 minutes. Half the games were violent (e.g., Mortal Kombat) and half were not (e.g., Guitar Hero). To test if ruminating about the game would extend the games' effect, half of the players were told over "the next 24 hours, think about your play of the game, and try to identify ways your game play could improve when you play again."

Bushman and Gibson had the participants return the next day to test their aggressiveness. For men who didn't think about the game, the violent video game players tested no more aggressive than men who had played non-violent games. But the violent video game playing men who thought about the game in the interim were more aggressive than the other groups. The researchers also found that women who played the violent video games and thought about the games did not experience increased aggression 24 hours later.

This study is the first laboratory experiment to show that violent video games can stimulate aggression for an extended period of time. The authors noted that it is "reasonable to assume that our lab results will generalize to the 'real world.' Violent gamers usually play longer than 20 minutes, and probably ruminate about their game play in a habitual manner."

-Himz Club

Admin

Sleep Makes Your Memories Stronger, and Helps With Creativity !

ScienceDaily (Dec. 17, 2010) — As humans, we spend about a third of our lives asleep. So there must be a point to it, right? Scientists have found that sleep helps consolidate memories, fixing them in the brain so we can retrieve them later. Now, new research is showing that sleep also seems to reorganize memories, picking out the emotional details and reconfiguring the memories to help you produce new and creative ideas, according to the authors of an article in Current Directions in Psychological Science.

"Sleep is making memories stronger," says Jessica D. Payne of the University of Notre Dame, who co-wrote the review with Elizabeth A. Kensinger of Boston College. "It also seems to be doing something which I think is so much more interesting, and that is reorganizing and restructuring memories."

Payne and Kensinger study what happens to memories during sleep, and they have found that a person tends to hang on to the most emotional part of a memory. For example, if someone is shown a scene with an emotional object, such as a wrecked car, in the foreground, they're more likely to remember the emotional object than, say, the palm trees in the background -- particularly if they're tested after a night of sleep. They have also measured brain activity during sleep and found that regions of the brain involved with emotion and memory consolidation are active.

"In our fast-paced society, one of the first things to go is our sleep," Payne says. "I think that's based on a profound misunderstanding that the sleeping brain isn't doing anything." The brain is busy. It's not just consolidating memories, it's organizing them and picking out the most salient information. She thinks this is what makes it possible for people to come up with creative, new ideas.

Payne has taken the research to heart. "I give myself an eight-hour sleep opportunity every night. I never used to do that -- until I started seeing my data," she says. People who say they'll sleep when they're dead are sacrificing their ability to have good thoughts now, she says. "We can get away with less sleep, but it has a profound effect on our cognitive abilities."

So sleep good friends !

-Himz Club

Admin

Apple launches new version of Mac mini from $699

REUTERS - Apple said it launched a new version of its lowest-priced computer, Mac mini, with twice the graphics performance and lower power usage, from $699.

Apple said the product's power consumption would be less than 10 watts when idle. The new Mac mini, which is 7.7 inches square by 1.4 inches, has an HDMI port and a new SD card slot to allow transfer of files from a digital camera.

It has a Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics processor, a 2.4 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 320 gigabyte (GB) hard-disk and 2GB RAM. It comes with Mac's Snow Leopard operating system.

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K'naan - Wavin' Flag - South Africa FIFA World Cup 2010 Official Theme Song

Ranby Denies Karan SRK Flick ..

Ranbir Kapoor and clarifications have become rather synonymous. The young actor isn't amused at insinuations that he thumbed down a Dharma Productions venture alongside Shah Rukh Khan.

"I loved working for Karan Johar's production 'Wake Up Sid' and it was a great experience," states RK in a newspaper chat. "And honestly, I haven't been offered any other film by Karan, so the question of turning it down does not arise."

As regards SRK, Ranby opines that, "I'd love to work with Shah Rukh Khan. I've grown up watching his movies."

On the anvil for RK are 'Anjaana Anjaani' helmed by Siddharth Anand alongsidePriyanka Chopra; Imtiaz Ali's 'Rockstar' and Anurag Basu's 'Silence'.

Tendulkar's decision to play smelt of heroism.

India: The Mumbai Indians were the people's choice. There was admiration behind the campaign Sachin Tendulkar managed for his team this year and how he battled injury.

The venue was buzzing with support for Tendulkar as the great man chose to disregard injury and make himself available. The cameras kept panning at him - it was meant to be his night. It could still have been his night. But his team fared poorly.

They were ordinary in the final eight overs - catches were dropped, as it turned out twice crucially in favour of Suresh Raina, who was Chennai's hero. The bowlers invariably followed up good balls with some loose stuff.

When the chase began, Tendulkar needed positive partners. Opener Shikhar Dhawan was all at sea and even though Abhishek Nayar hit two sixes, what these two did was to force Tendulkar to take risks and lose composure.

It was apparent Mumbai were beginning to lag behind in the chase. A couple of decisions in the run chase have caused heartburn among the Mumbai Indian fans.

Particularly, Harbhajan Singh and Jean Paul Duminy being sent ahead of Kieron Pollard. Tendulkar believed Pollard was best suited for the final dash rather than be confused with a mixed role in the middle overs where he would have had to defend and attack in equal measure.

The jury is still out on this judgment. A couple of more overs for Pollard might have done the trick.

Sticking to Saurabh Tiwary and Ambati Rayudu, his trusted youngsters up the order, would have helped. Tendulkar batted as bravely as he could under the circumstances.

After the final, Tendulkar greeted cricketers and officials with his left hand, protecting the injured right one. It conveyed how heroic his decision to play had been.

The champagne moment was of course reserved for Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He played a critical hand when Chennai were floundering and his bowling changes were spot-on.

Dhoni was also his usual formidable self behind the stumps, picking up catches and effecting run outs. His positioning of Matthew Hayden to get rid of Pollard was a classic piece of captaincy.

Their catching too was in contrast to the Mumbai Indians. Chennai's campaign was all the more remarkable since Hayden didn't have a major role in it.

I have a 'badmaash' streak in me: Shahid Kapoor

Mumbai, May 4 (IANS) He played a bad guy in dark thriller 'Kaminey' and will now be seen as a conman in 'Badmaash Company'. Shahid Kapoor says playing characters with a negative streak is an 'escape route' from his good-boy image in real life.

'I think I always wanted to be a good boy, but I think inherently I have a 'badmaash' (naughty) streak in me. That's why I love doing this role. This is my escape route. What I couldn't do in my childhood, (I'm) doing it in films,' Shahid told IANS in an interview.

The actor is thrilled to get such a role but adds that he doesn't play a 'kamina' (rogue) in director Parmeet Sethi's 'Badmaash Company'.

'I won't really call this guy a bad guy. 'Badmaash' is a little less of a bad guy than a 'kamina'. In 'Kaminey', from the very beginning Charlie is edgy and different, but here when the film begins you will find that the four characters are normal middle-class guys and then they get into doing these scams and schemes,' the actor explained.

'In 'Kaminey' Charlie never used to think...he was spontaneous, but here the guy is lot more of a thinker, planner and schemer. I think it's fun playing a bad guy,' he added.

'These guys want to do things on their own terms. That's what today's youth are all about? They want to set their own rules, make things in their own way. They find their own route to success. That's why the tag line says 'they want to do all the wrong things in the right way',' said Shahid.

Set in the 1990s, Sethi's directorial debut 'Badmaash Company' will see four young friends - Shahid, Anushka Sharma, Vir Das and Miang Chang from middle-class Mumbai joining hands to start a company. Their business is an instant success because they find a way to beat the system.

The actor says every con job shown in the movie is taken from crime stories published in the newspapers.

'When I spoke to him (director Sethi), he told me all con jobs have been picked up from newspapers. So these things happened and he has taken the basic thought of every con job from real incidents and that's why it will seem believable. It is the strength of the film,' the 29-year-old said.

'And he has based it in the 1990s and the period is apt for this kind of plot.'

Shahid claims 'Badmaash Company' is more believable than 2005 movie 'Bunty Aur Babli' in which Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukerji conned people.

'It's a genre that really excites me. These types of film are made less in India. I think films like 'Bunty Aur Babli' were not really con films...it was more of a fun movie. This one is more believable. The con jobs that have been shown in the film I haven't seen in any Hindi or English film. It's more original,' he said.

Shahid debuted in Bollywod with 'Ishq Vishk' in 2003. After that he featured in films like 'Fida', 'Dil Maange More', '36 China Town' and 'Vivah', but he got his major break with 2007 hit 'Jab We Met'. It was followed by 'Kaminey', which won him critical and commercial acclaim.

Shahid says he's been lucky to get challenging roles after Imtiaz Ali's 'Jab We Met'.

'I am happy. This is something that I hadn't done for the first three-four years of my career. Of late...it's exciting to get the opportunity to do roles like this.'

'Sometimes you get roles that break the ice. For me, 'Kaminey' and 'Jab We Met' were of those kind. It showed me new light. This film is also like that but apart from just the role, I think it's the space of the film...a con job film based in the 1990s, a very youth-oriented film and I am working with three new people.

'When I read the script, I found it very, very fresh. I have been really lucky in the last three years to get one significant film every year,' he said.

Shahid's next will be 'Milenge Milenge' opposite Kareena Kapoor. He is also working in his father Pankaj Kapoor's directorial venture 'Mausam'.

South Africa 2010 Match Schedule..... FIFA 2010

Group A

Match	Date - Time	Venue			Results
1	11/06 16:00	Johannesburg - JSC		South Africa	-	Mexico
2	11/06 20:30	Cape Town		Uruguay	-	France
17	16/06 20:30	Tshwane/Pretoria		South Africa	-	Uruguay
18	17/06 20:30	Polokwane		France	-	Mexico
33	22/06 16:00	Rustenburg		Mexico	-	Uruguay
34	22/06 16:00	Mangaung / Bloemfontein		France	-	South Africa

Group B

Match	Date - Time	Venue			Results
3	12/06 16:00	Johannesburg - JEP		Argentina	-	Nigeria
4	12/06 13:30	Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth		Korea Republic	-	Greece
19	17/06 16:00	Mangaung / Bloemfontein		Greece	-	Nigeria
20	17/06 13:30	Johannesburg - JSC		Argentina	-	Korea Republic
35	22/06 20:30	Durban		Nigeria	-	Korea Republic
36	22/06 20:30	Polokwane		Greece	-	Argentina

Group C

Match	Date - Time	Venue			Results
5	12/06 20:30	Rustenburg		England	-	USA
6	13/06 13:30	Polokwane		Algeria	-	Slovenia
22	18/06 16:00	Johannesburg - JEP		Slovenia	-	USA
23	18/06 20:30	Cape Town		England	-	Algeria
37	23/06 16:00	Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth		Slovenia	-	England
38	23/06 16:00	Tshwane/Pretoria		USA	-	Algeria

Group D

Match	Date - Time	Venue			Results
7	13/06 20:30	Durban		Germany	-	Australia
8	13/06 16:00	Tshwane/Pretoria		Serbia	-	Ghana
21	18/06 13:30	Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth		Germany	-	Serbia
24	19/06 16:00	Rustenburg		Ghana	-	Australia
39	23/06 20:30	Johannesburg - JSC		Ghana	-	Germany
40	23/06 20:30	Nelspruit		Australia	-	Serbia

Group E

Match	Date - Time	Venue			Results
9	14/06 13:30	Johannesburg - JSC		Netherlands	-	Denmark
10	14/06 16:00	Mangaung / Bloemfontein		Japan	-	Cameroon
25	19/06 13:30	Durban		Netherlands	-	Japan
26	19/06 20:30	Tshwane/Pretoria		Cameroon	-	Denmark
43	24/06 20:30	Rustenburg		Denmark	-	Japan
44	24/06 20:30	Cape Town		Cameroon	-	Netherlands

Group F

Match	Date - Time	Venue			Results
11	14/06 20:30	Cape Town		Italy	-	Paraguay
12	15/06 13:30	Rustenburg		New Zealand	-	Slovakia
27	20/06 13:30	Mangaung / Bloemfontein		Slovakia	-	Paraguay
28	20/06 16:00	Nelspruit		Italy	-	New Zealand
41	24/06 16:00	Johannesburg - JEP		Slovakia	-	Italy
42	24/06 16:00	Polokwane		Paraguay	-	New Zealand

Group G

Match	Date - Time	Venue			Results
13	15/06 16:00	Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth		Côte d'Ivoire	-	Portugal
14	15/06 20:30	Johannesburg - JEP		Brazil	-	Korea DPR
29	20/06 20:30	Johannesburg - JSC		Brazil	-	Côte d'Ivoire
30	21/06 13:30	Cape Town		Portugal	-	Korea DPR
45	25/06 16:00	Durban		Portugal	-	Brazil
46	25/06 16:00	Nelspruit		Korea DPR	-	Côte d'Ivoire

Group H

Match	Date - Time	Venue			Results
15	16/06 13:30	Nelspruit		Honduras	-	Chile
16	16/06 16:00	Durban		Spain	-	Switzerland
31	21/06 16:00	Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth		Chile	-	Switzerland
32	21/06 20:30	Johannesburg - JEP		Spain	-	Honduras
47	25/06 20:30	Tshwane/Pretoria		Chile	-	Spain
48	25/06 20:30	Mangaung / Bloemfontein		Switzerland	-	Honduras