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We need your help to stop the carnage taking place on fur farms around the world, including the slaughter of nearly 2 million cats and hundreds of thousands of dogs each year in China. Donate Now The skin is then ripped off their broken and abused bodies and will be turned into fur-trimmed hats, jackets, gloves, and other items—items that you will find on the shelves of department stores this fall.

For the Chinese fur industry—one of the world’s largest suppliers of animal fur—this isn’t just about fur coats. The result of the suffering of animals in China may be creeping into consumers’ daily lives right now, often without their even knowing it. You can help us protect animals killed for their skin and stop the fur industry in its tracks by making a special gift today to support PETA’s unique and vital work to end animal abuse.

The ways that the suffering caused by the fur industry appear in the lives of otherwise compassionate consumers is insidious. It may come in the form of a toy purchased for a cat at a pet-supply store—a toy that could be made from the skin of another cat who was stolen, loaded in a crate onto a truck with thousands of other cats, forced to endure days of suffering while being transported to a slaughterhouse in northern China, and then cruelly beaten and skinned. But the label won’t tell you that.

Or those little fur tassels on a pair of gloves. Those might be the fur of a German shepherd or a chow chow, who was once loved and cherished—and then was one day kidnapped and sold at the local animal market. After days without water or food and after being beaten repeatedly, the dog was painfully killed and stripped of skin. Did the label mention that?

The fur industry is so desperate to push its cruel wares that it has even stooped to lying to unsuspecting consumers, intentionally mislabeling fur garments as fake—or as coming from rabbits or other animals when they’re actually from cats and dogs. The fact is that it takes expensive DNA tests to prove what kind of animal was killed to make each piece of fur trim, coat collar, glove lining, cat toy, or furry trinket. So as you can imagine, these tests are rarely, if ever, done.

PETA is leading the fight against the fur trade—both in China and worldwide—and we’re making significant progress. Through our thought-provoking campaigns and groundbreaking undercover investigations, we’re getting major designers and retailers like Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Liz Claiborne Inc., Polo Ralph Lauren, and Tommy Hilfiger to swear off using fur in their collections. But none of what we do is possible without your support.

That’s why I hope you will make a generous donation today to help us call attention to the horrors that animals killed for their skins endure and work to shut down this violent and bloody trade for good.

Together, we can help the dogs, cats, rabbits, and countless other individual animals who are suffering on fur farms in China and around the world.

Directed by Prabhu Deva
Produced by Karunamoorthy, Arun Pandian
Written by Prabhu Deva
Starring
Vijay
Nayanthara
Vadivel
Biju Menon
Prakash Raj
Music by Devi Sri Prasad
Cinematography Ravi Varman

Devi Sri Prasad has already composed a music album for vijay and is well known for his peppy and energetic music. Sachin had really good music as the focus was on the story and not Vijay the actor. The script is different this time around as the music director has tried to score the music for a typical Vijay movie.If I were to rate the music director on that basis he has done a commendable job.

Dheemthanakka Thillana (Devi Sri Prasad , Divya)
Devi Sri Prasad is all about the energy he brings to the table and this song is a classic example. This is a fast paced song with a catchy tune. It is not electrifying by any means but the heavy voice of Divya and Devi Sri Prasad seems to fit the bill perfectly for this song.

Jalsa ( Baba Sehgal , Rita)
Baba Sehgal is an iconic Indian rapper who was famous in the mid 1990s. I think this is the first time he has sung a tamil song. He has done a decent job and the song is tailor made for his voice. The heavy beats in the middle are interesting. Baba gets to Rap a bit as well . Rita does not have a lot to do in this Sehgal dominated song.

Nee Kobapattal (Sagar)
The only slow song in the album. There is no dearth of orchestration even in this song . Sagar seems to be an exact replica of Devi Sri Prasad as his voice is very similar to that of the music director. The news is that Devi Sri Prasad has a twin named Sagar who is currently a playback singer.This is just an average song which passes muster.

Vada Maapilley (Tippu , Rita , Vadivel)
A rhythmic song with interesting tune and beats. The song seems to be inspired from the ganna songs from the 80’s. The song definitely reminded me of the yesteryear block buster Surangini. I was not all that impressed but this might really interest the front benches and folks who like the gana genre.

Daddy Mummy (Divya)
The song starts with a nice piano interlude and transforms into a nice rhtymic song. The tune is very catchy and Divya’s voice is unique. The lyrics are simply horrible and are a huge let down.

Hey Rama ( Amalraj , Kovai Sarala)
This fast Kuthu Song has a very catchy tune. Kovai Sarala , the famous comdian is the surprise package. This is most likely when Vijay is introduced in the movie.

Are You Krazy (Divya)
Obviously this song is supposed to be funny and nothing else. There is nothing to review other than the fact that this piece could have been avoided.

Overall the album is decent and is strictly aimed at the actors fans. A genuine music lover will find this album average at the most.

Devi Sri Prasad has the talent to compose a much better album. That said he has delivered on the commercial front and the fast numbers will be a huge hit with the actor’s fans.

I had a Windows XP box before. I had a Belkin print router which was connected to two HP printers, Logitech web cam,HP Media Vault and Logitech Blue tooth speakers.

I purchased a 64 bit Vista Ultimate box from HP with 6 GB RAM. Every single device I had connected works without any issues now. Vista even downloaded drivers for most of those devices without any issues.The bluetooth Keyboard and mouse installed automagically when I had to struggle to make them work in my XP box. I installed iTunes( there is no integration with IPhone but it is not Microsoft’s fault), muvee auto producer, Eclipse and NetBeans.

I installed the 64 bit flavors of IE , Firefox(minefield) and ITunes and they are lightning fast.

My verdict is Vista has come a long way and if you get a pre-installed box from HP or Dell you might like Vista.

General Motors unveiled the Chevrolet Volt this morning, revealing a car that is much sleeker than the angular concept we saw almost two years ago. It’s the strongest evidence yet that the range-extended electric car is on track to appear in showrooms by the end of 2010, and a good sign that GM may stick around more than a couple years past its hundredth birthday.

CEO Rick Wagoner pulled the sheet off the Volt during GM’s centennial celebration in Detroit, hailing it as a technological leap and a new direction for a company — and an industry — facing an uncertain future.

“Revealing the production version of the Chevy Volt is a great way to open our second century,” Wagoner said. “The Volt is symbolic of GM’s strong commitment to the future … just the kind of technology innovation that our industry needs to respond to today’s and tomorrow’s energy and environmental challenges.”

The Volt is not a Johnny-come-lately second-rate Prius. It’s a technological step forward and a bit of a surprise from a company that has for decades been known for evolution, not revolution. The Volt’s 17-inch wheels are driven by an electric motor that gets its juice from a T-shaped battery with 220 lithium-ion cells. GM says it’s good for 40 miles of zero-emission electric driving. The small gasoline engine under the hood acts only as a generator, charging the battery as it approaches depletion and eliminating the “range anxiety” that make EVs a tough sell for road-trip-lovin’ Americans.

The sleek, rounded car Wagoner showed off today shares little family resemblance with the angular concept he unveiled in 2007. The radical redesign was borne of necessity — maximizing aerodynamic efficiency is essential to squeezing every last mile from the battery, and the original design was about as slick as a brick.

After discovering the concept car’s wretched drag coefficient of .43 — roughly the same aerodynamic efficiency as a Chevrolet Silverado pickup — GM’s designers and engineers spent more than 1,000 hours in the wind tunnel reworking the exterior. What they emerged with is, according to GM, more aerodynamic than the Toyota Prius or the Honda Civic Hybrid. “We spent three times longer on this car than any other car [in GM’s history],” says Nina Tortosa, the engineer who oversaw wind tunnel testing. “It will be one of the most aerodynamic cars out there.”

Some will look at the Volt and see the Prius, and aerodynamic necessity meant the two cars would have similar silhouette — though the two vehicles are based on different technologies, they share the same constraints: They’re small 5-door sedans designed for maximum aero efficiencies. The laws of physics and the properties of aerodynamics give designers only so much leeway.

Still, GM insists the production model shares many of the same styling cues as the concept — the grille, the “athletic stance,” the crease along the side and the mirrors. The Volt also is longer, lower and wider than the Prius. The nose is longer, the roof flatter and the tail lower. “The Prius doesn’t have stance,” says Bob Boniface, Volt lead designer. “It’s got a big body on little wheels. The Volt’s got a wide, low stance.”

Reaction to this mythic stance has been mixed, with many people condemning it as a Prius clone. A poll of 1,388 people by fanboy-site GM-Volt.com found 57 percent preferred the concept. But the site’s founder, New York neurologist Lyle Dennis, likes it. “I think it has a clean look,” he says. “The concept was more extreme in appearance than a mainstream car could be.”

Chelsea Sexton, director of the EV advocacy group Plug-In America, agrees. “I definitely liked the more aggressive design of the concept, but it wasn’t realistic from an aerodynamic perspective,” she says. “The redesign will still capture a lot of people aesthetically, but just as much, I think, from a functionality and user experience perspective — especially the interior.”

GM seems to have taken a page from the Apple design playbook when designing the interior of the Volt. Its most prominent feature is an LCD touch screen to control the climate and infotainment systems and a smooth control panel with what resemble click wheels.

Of course, the car Wagoner unveiled today was little more than a full-size model. Though the design of the exterior is now finalized, GM still has to perfect the innards to make a working car. They key to that is nailing the batteries, and GM has its engineers testing batteries around-the-clock. Bob Lutz, VP of global development and the guy cracking the whip to keep the Volt on schedule, says the batteries are performing “flawlessly” and “it’s almost scary that we aren’t seeing any problems with them.” Still, it remains to be seen whether the batteries will deliver on their promised range and survive 10 to 15 years of abuse at the hands of American drivers.

GM is road-testing the Volt’s drivetrain in a fleet of converted Chevy Malibus (see, not all of them are rental cars), and company execs say we’ll see production prototypes on the road next year. It’s an aggressive timeline, but industry analysts say GM is in good shape to meet it, and the company reportedly plans to spend another $400 to $500 million getting the car on the road.

“They’re throwing lots of money at it, and they’re moving forward,” says Aaron Bragman of Global Insight. “Where they are in terms of testing, two years seems like an achievable goal. They’re on track.”

Original Source : http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/news/2008/09/volt_revealed

Someone in Symantec actually did make the changes that most of us were asking them to do. They have reintroduced the password manager as Identity Safe . This new program actually is actually a tool bar on both IE and Firefox. It will store passwords in a secure way and it also has the option to display the passwords in clear text. I was so mad that Symantec did not support this feature in their newer releases and I was very reluctant to use other applications .

One of the main issues if you are migrating from the password manger is that you cannot import the passwords and no other program other than the password manager can actually import the data exported from the software.Hopefully the symantec folks won’t make the same mistake and allow all future versions of Identify safe to be backward compatible .

These are the major features of Norton 360 2.0

Norton 360 also keeps PCs optimized and tuned for peak performance and protects the data on them by making it easy to back up photos, music, and financial records and restore them at any time. I really like the disk optimization and temp files cleanup feature.

It works slightly different in Vista but the functionality is actually the same. The memory footprint is smaller than the previous version and it boots up a lot faster.

Any company which listens to customer feedback and acts upon it deserves a pat in the back and symantec has earned that now.

I wanted to write about this for a while now. The SVP of my company, Charlie Herrin presented me with this Linux based Personal Music Player . Before I go any further with my own experience of the product here is the list of awesome features of this player from Heir.

1) Rhapsody support
2) Wifi
3) FM Radio
4) Updatable skins via AirSkins
5) Web Browser
6) Video support (AOL)
7) Podcast

The player supports up to a max of 30GB which is quiet impressive. It can connect to any wi-fi network and stream rhapsody music on the fly.  You can store photos and the 2.5-inch LCD screen is very good to watch photos. You can transfer any format you want (my favorite is Youtube videos) using the Rhapsody software. The software actually encodes the videos so they are suitable for viewing in the player. There is no visible glitch when watching the videos mainly due to the linux kernel and the processor.

If you are a Comcast customer like me you can download the Real Rhapsody software for free and listen to up to 25 songs for free. You can actually enter your rhapsody information in the device and listen to songs straight from the device without having to actually download and transfer them. If you have a Rhapsody All subscription then you can download as many songs as you want directly using the device or transfer songs from your computer. The songs will be licensed and you will have to connect the device the computer every 30 days to make sure they don’t expire.

The AirSkins feature is really good as it gives you lot of skins you can choose from and most of the skins are actually very easy to use and pleasant.

The only thing that can work against this player is the appearance. You will either love it or hate it. The User Interface could be better but once you are used it, the experience is not all that bad. The battery is the killer though as it drains very fast. The player actually ships without any equalizer support but the latest update seems to have fixed the problem. The quality of music is not all that great but I think the player works very well with Bose Headphones. There is not too much bass from the player and any typical Bose speaker enhances the bass at Zero to have a good audio experience in the car.

Overall the player is worth the price ( around 250$’s) as it is packed with a lot of cool and useful features.

The Sandisk – Sansa e250R Rhapsody is a great product for any Rhapsody To Go subscriber. The configuration is not that easy but the player does deliver on the rhapsody integration. I had to try several times to finally get the whole thing to work.

This is all I had to do

1) Install the Rhapsody player ( I have the comcast Rhapsody which is free for every comcast.net user). I purchased the Rhapsody To Go subscription. This model allows you to download songs from Rhapsody ( you can’t burn them to a CD) and transfer them to Rhapsody compatible devices.

2) Plug in the player and the Rhapsody software will automatically detect it and display it in the left panel. You have to then authorize the device to transfer the songs.

3) You can configure the player to either automatically sync the songs or manually transfer them.

4) You can only transfer songs which are part of the “subscription” . The player has difficulty with purchased tracks.

The good news is that you don’t have to buy Audio CD’s anymore . You can download any song you like and transfer them to the Sandisk player or allow streaming and play it using the Roku Soundbridge anywhere in the house.

The Rhapsody software as such sucks big time. It does not work in vista and it crashes a lot in XP . The most weird behavior is the sign out issue , the player just signs you out for no reason.

You can connect the device to your car audio if it supports auxiliary inputs (Acura MDX 2007 with the entertainment package supports Auxiliary inputs). You can also buy the charger so the device is charged for the entire trip.

Personally I think the subscription mode for music is the way to go for the future. This will also help avoid piracy.

The major issue is with the Rhapsody software , it is too clunky and Real should really work on creating a more reliable experience for the user.