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Views: 5526
At PDC today, Microsoft gave the first public demonstration of Windows 7. Until now, the company has been uncharacteristically secretive about its new OS; over the past few months, Microsoft has let on that the taskbar will undergo a number of changes, and that many bundled applications would be unbundled and shipped with Windows Live instead. There have also been occasional screenshots of some of the new applets like Calculator and Paint. Now that the covers are finally off, the scale of the new OS becomes clear. The user interface has undergone the most radical overhaul and update since the introduction of Windows 95 thirteen years ago. First, however, it's important to note what Windows 7 isn't. Windows 7 will not contain anything like the kind of far-reaching architectural modifications that Microsoft made with Windows Vista. Vista brought a new display layer and vastly improved security, but that came at a cost: a significant number of (badly-written) applications had difficulty running on Vista. Applications expecting to run with Administrator access were still widespread when Vista was released, and though many software vendors do a great job, there are still those that haven't updated or fixed their software. Similarly, at its launch many hardware vendors did not have drivers that worked with the new sound or video subsystems, leaving many users frustrated. While windows 7 doesn't undo these architectural changes—they were essential for the long-term health of the platform—it equally hasn't made any more. Any hardware or software that works with Windows Vista should also work correctly with Windows 7, so unlike the transition from XP to Vista, the transition from Vista to 7 won't show any regressions; nothing that used to work will stop working. So, rather than low-level, largely invisible system changes, the work on Windows 7 has focused much more on the user experience. The way people use computers is changing; for example, it's increasingly the case that new PCs are bought to augment existing home machines rather than replacement, so there are more home networks and shared devices. Business users are switching to laptops, with the result that people expect to seamlessly use their (Domain-joined) office PC on their home network. As well as these broader industry trends, Microsoft also has extensive data on how people use its software. Through the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), an optional, off-by-default feature of many Microsoft programs, the company has learned a great deal about the things that users do. For example, from CEIP data Microsoft knows that 70% of users have between 5 and 15 windows open at any one time, and that most of the time they only actively use one or two of those windows. With this kind of data, Microsoft has streamlined and refined the user experience. Check out the slideshow of the screenshots of Microsoft Windows 7.http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081028-first-look-at-windows-7.html
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Patrick Edwards -- a ride receiver for the University of Houston's football team -- suffered a compound leg fracture in an accident during the Cougars' 37-23 loss at Marshall.Houston QB Blake Joseph threw deep in the end zone to WR Edwards, causing him to run and smash his right shin into a band equipment cart. The impact caused a compound fracture of Edwards' right leg.The cart had been left a few yards past the out-of-bounds line. It is not clear why the cart was there in the first place, but is however stirring speculation that Edwards and his family may file a lawsuit.Cougars' coach Kevin Sumlin told the Houston Chronicle that while he had "his opinions" on the subject, he would have no comment. Houston Athletic Director David Maggard said he would pursue the matter with Marshall officials."It was duly noted, and I think we'll save the conversation for another day," Maggard told the Houston paper."I don't think there is any question that it is a problem. We all noticed it, and we want to find out why something like that would occur. It was a serious injury, no question about it."
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Hook laden and demanding you to dance, the third Kaiser Chiefs album is one of the most fun British Rock albums of the year.Full review at transpozed
Views: 5990
First impressions The Mini 1000 is easily one of the most attractive netbooks we have seen yet with a smooth black plastic casing that has the HP imprint technology on the lid. The device is less than an inch thick, one of HP's design goals, and starts at 2.2 pounds making the Mini 1000 one of the thinnest and lightest netbooks around. The build quality is superb and feels very sturdy in the hand and could easily take the rigors of traveling. The first thing we checked out on the Mini 1000 was the keyboard as the outstanding keyboard on the Mini-Note is easily the best on any netbook. We are happy to report that HP listened to the praise of that keyboard and the Mini 1000 has retained the same keyboard. This keyboard is 92% the size of a full keyboard and it is tailor-made for touch typing like a banshee. It feels good to use and has no poorly placed keys which is common on other netbooks. This is still the best keyboard we have used to date on a netbook and kudos to HP for sticking with what works.(by James Kendrick source)
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Here are some kinetic typography projects from the online community...Fight Club Rules, Zoolander, Ocean's Eleven, V for Vendetta.
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Microsoft announced this morning at its PDC conference that the next release of Microsoft Office will include browser-based versions of some of its main office software products - Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. These will be "lightweight versions", but Microsoft told us yesterday that they'll still have rich functionality and will be comparable to Google's suite of online office applications. The apps will enable users to create, edit and collaborate on Microsoft Office documents through the browser. The apps will work in IE, Firefox and Safari browsers (no word on whether Google Chrome will be supported). Update: Commenter Sean, who says he works on the project, said that this will be 100% HTML + AJAX - rather than Silverlight or a proprietary MS plug-in. The online versions will share the same names as their desktop counterparts (Word, Excel, etc), although unfortunately they don't fully escape the awkward and confusing branding that Microsoft gives to most of its Internet apps. The collective name for these apps is "Office Web Applications". To remind you, there is also an Office Online (a separate Microsoft site where users can download templates) and an Office Live Workspace (for sharing office files between desktop and Web - our coverage). The "Office Web applications" will be available to consumers through Office Live, a service which has both ad-funded and subscription options. Business users will be offered Office Web applications as a hosted subscription service and through existing "volume licensing agreements". There will be a private technology preview of the Office Web applications later this year. Last month we ran a poll asking which word processing tool you primarily use. We got over 2,600 separate votes and a resounding 49% of people still use Microsoft Word as their main word processing tool. Its open source desktop equivalent OpenOffice got 16%. Google Docs was the best placed Web Office app, with 15%. The results showed that there is still a big place for desktop Office apps. Nevertheless, with the announcement yesterday of Microsoft Azure - a so-called cloud computing OS - Microsoft is clearly serving a growing demand for browser-based office software. We expect these apps to become more full featured over time.
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A colorful festival that is celebrated by all Hindus worldwide is Deepavali(Diwali), which is also known as the festival of lights. This festival usually falls around late October and November. One important practice that the Hindus follow during the festival is to light oil lamps in their homes on Deepavali morning. By lighting the oil lamps, the Hindus are thanking the gods for the happiness, knowledge, peace and wealth that they have received. The Hindus consider Deepavali as one of the most important festivals to celebrate.The Legend -There is even an interesting legend behind this festival. The story goes that Narakasura, a demon, ruled the kingdom of Pradyoshapuram. Under his rule, the villagers suffered a lot of hardship as the demon tortured the people and kidnapped the women to be imprisoned in his palace. Seeing his wickedness, Lord Khrishna set out to destroy the demon and the day Narakasura died was celebrated as Deepavali, the triumph of good over evil!Preparations -Preparation for Deepavali starts usually at least two to three weeks before the festival. It is known that the Hindus will be busy cleaning their houses to prepare for the festival. Some would even renovate their houses to prepare it for Deepavali. Usually the family will shop for new clothes and for accessories to decorate their homes. Prior to the festival, Indian shops will be selling festive items like Deepavali greeting cards, carpets, Punjabi suits and flowers. The Hindus will frequent these shops when they are shopping for Deepavali.Celebrations -The Hindus usually awake early in the morning of deepavali around 3am and the first ritual will be having an oil bath, which is an important feature of Deepavali. Hindus will be dressed in their new clothes on Deepavali. Most of the ladies would be clad in silk saris or Punjabi suits of various bright shades. Hindus particularly dislike dressing in black on that day, as they consider black an inauspicious color for the festival. Hindus would also pay their respects to the elderly and most families would go to the temple after having breakfast. This is also an important practice for them. The reason why they would be going to the temples is to pray to get happiness and prosperity on Deepavali. The houses would be decorated with oil lamps and children will play with firecrackers to celebrate the festival. On the first day, they would not go visiting but would stay at home to welcome the guests who visit them.Food -Visiting Hindus during Deepavali will be an interesting activity, as you will get to taste a wide variety of delicious food. In every home that you visit you are bound to be served with a tempting spread of sweets. Some of the popular sweets are halwa, burfi and laddu. Hindus love eating spicy food and for non-vegetarians they indulge in favorites like chicken tandoori, prawn sambal and fish head curry. In homes of Hindus who are vegetarians popular dishes like thosais, idlis and naans are prepared.(source: http://www.essortment.com/)
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This is one of those rare albums that, once familiar, there is a desire to sincerely thank the musicians involved in its production.Full review on transpozed.
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"High School Musical 3: Senior Year," the first big-screen adaptation of Walt Disney Co's popular TV movie franchise, rocked movie theaters around the world during its first weekend of release, the company said on Sunday. The movie sold $42 million worth of tickets across North America for the three days beginning on Friday, and grossed $40 million internationally. It was No. 1 by both counts, becoming the first worldwide chart-topper since the Batman sequel "The Dark Knight" in July, Disney said. The "High School Musical" franchise has generated two smash TV movies, two chart-topping albums, and made teen idols out of its stars, Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale. The plot of the new film brings the cast back to their fictional New Mexico high school, where Troy (Efron) must decide between pursuing a basketball scholarship or his song-and-dance dreams. The usual teen-angst issues ensue. Elsewhere at the North American box office, "Saw V" came in at No. 2 with $30.5 million, in line with the previous three installments in the horror franchise. The series was released by Lionsgate, a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. Last weekend's champ, the Mark Wahlberg thriller "Max Payne," slipped to No. 3 with $7.6 million, taking its 10-day haul to $29.7 million. The film was released by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp. (Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by Bill Trott, yahoo)