Lenovo’s IdeaPad Z Series Laptops Unveiled

Lenovo has announced the launch of its IdeaPad laptop family with two new Z series models such as IdeaPad Z360 and IdeaPad Z560.

These new IdeaPad Z models are laden with Intel Core 2010 mobile processors with Nvidia GeForce graphics. Apart from that, the devices come with Blu-ray optical drive as option for playing the HD movies on the laptop.

Lenovo is expected to offer the prices of the Z series laptops starting at $650 (Rs. 29,300 approx.) in the US.

Lenovo IdeaPad Z360 series laptops have been painted with metallic finish and bear 13.3-inch widescreen display. The devices are capable enough to play HD movies due to the presence of Intel Core family processor and Nvidia GeForce 315M graphics. There is also significant improvement in sound environment due to Dolby Advanced Audio.

The IdeaPad Z560 laptop boasts of a 15.6-inch widescreen and incorporates the similar configuration as mentioned above.

The IdeaPad Z565 laptop is also in the same Z family with quad-core AMD Phenom II processor and integrated ATI Mobility Radeon graphics. It has 8GB DDR3 RAM and 640GB HDD and is designed with a stylish keyboard.

Meanwhile, Lenovo has upgraded the existing IdeaPad U series laptops with Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 Ultra Low Voltage Mobile processors too. The models include 11.6-inch U160, 14-inch U460 and 14-inch U460s models weighing under 1.75kgs and measuring less than an inch-thick.

It is said that the U460 and U460s will get Intel Core i7 series mobile processors whereas U160 and U460 will get ultra-low voltage processors for longer battery life. These models are expected to come in June at $699 (Rs. 31,500 approx.). However, the Indian customers have to wait for some time to get the experience of those models.

Katrina woos children

Katrina’s been wooing the older lot ever since she stepped into B-Town. This time, the pretty lady, chose to entice the children instead.

She came together with AR Rahman, the musical maestro, to launch Rhymeskool, a nursery rhyme album for little children, under the label of Sa Re Ga Ma.  The music has been composed by the students of Rahman’s school, The KM Music Conservatory, under his guidance. The album contains reinvented nursery rhymes. Katrina takes them through the various songs and attempts to make learning easier for them.

But, the question is what motivated the lady to lend her voice to such a venture. “Nursery rhymes are the very first things children learn and I would like to help them take their first steps in life. Besides, I love children and there is no better way to connect with them than through music.”

Ask her what she is going to do with the CDs and she smiles, “I’m going to donate them to Mercy Home Orphanage in Madurai. My mum’s closely associated with them.” It’s no wonder that she feels passionate about the cause as well. And then she coyly adds, “Yes, I will play these CDs for my own kids.”

We ask her about her favourite nursery rhyme and her eyes light up. “It was twinkle, twinkle little star. Now that there is a rap version, my favourite nursery rhyme has gotten even better,” she signs off.

Complaint Letter

An allegedly real-life customer complaint letter sent to the NTL complaints dept..

Dear Cretins

I have been an NTL customer since 9th July 2001, when I signed up for your 3-in-one deal for cable TV, cable modem, and telephone.

During this three-month period I have encountered inadequacy of service which I had not previously considered possible, as well as ignorance and stupidity of monolithic proportions.

Please allow me to provide specific details, so that you can either pursue your professional prerogative, and seek to rectify these difficulties - or more likely (I suspect) so that you can have some entertaining reading material as you while away the working day smoking B&H and drinking vendor-coffee on the bog in your office:

My initial installation was cancelled without warning or notice, resulting in my spending an entire Saturday sitting on my fat arse waiting for your technician to arrive.

When he did not arrive at all, I spent a further 57 minutes listening to your infuriating hold music, and the even more annoying Scottish robot woman telling me to look at your helpful website.... how?

I alleviated the boredom to some small degree by playing with my testicles for a few minutes - an activity at which you are no-doubt both familiar and highly adept.

The rescheduled installation then took place some two weeks later, although the technician did forget to bring a number of vital tools - such as a drill-bit, and his cerebrum.

Two weeks later, my cable modem had still not arrived. After several further telephone calls (actually 15 telephone calls over 4 weeks) my modem arrived...

A total of six weeks after I had requested it, and begun to pay for it.

I estimate that the downtime of your internet servers is roughly 35%... these are usually the hours between about 6pm and midnight, Monday to Friday, and most of the useful periods over the weekend.

I am still waiting for my telephone connection. I have made 9 telephone calls on my mobile to your no-help line this week, and have been unhelpfully transferred to a variety of disinterested individuals, who are it seems also highly skilled bollock jugglers.

I have been informed that a telephone line is available (and someone will call me back); that no telephone line is available (and someone will call me back); that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been cut off); that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been redirected to an answer machine informing me that your office is closed); that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been redirected to the irritating Scottish robot woman...and several other variations on this theme.

Doubtless you are no-longer reading this letter, as you have at least a thousand other dissatisfied customers to ignore, and also another one of those crucially important testicle-moments to attend to. Frankly I don't care, it's far more satisfying as a customer to voice my frustrations in print than to shout them at your unending hold music.

Forgive me, therefore, if I continue.

I thought BT were crap, that they had attained the holy piss-pot of god-awful customer relations, that no-one, anywhere, ever, could be more disinterested, less helpful or more obstructive to delivering service to their customers. That's why I chose NTL, and because, well, there isn't anyone else is there? How surprised I therefore was, when I discovered to my considerable dissatisfaction and disappointment what a useless shower of bastards you truly are. You are sputum-filled pieces of distended rectum - incompetents of the highest order. British Telecom - wankers though they are - shine like brilliant beacons of success, in the filthy puss-filled mire of your seemingly limitless inadequacy.

Suffice to say that I have now given up on my futile and foolhardy quest to receive any kind of service from you. I suggest that you do likewise, and cease any potential future attempts to extort payment from me for the services which you have so pointedly and catastrophically failed to deliver - any such activity will be greeted initially with hilarity and disbelief - although these feelings will quickly be replaced by derision, and even perhaps a small measure of bemused rage.

I enclose two small deposits, selected with great care from my cats litter tray, as an expression of my utter and complete contempt for both you and your pointless company. I sincerely hope that they have not become desiccated during transit - they were satisfyingly moist at the time of posting, and I would feel considerable disappointment if you did not experience both their rich aroma and delicate texture. Consider them the very embodiment of my feelings towards NTL, and it's worthless employees.

Have a nice day - may it be the last in you miserable short life, you irritatingly incompetent and infuriatingly unhelpful bunch of twats.

Love Quotes

 I recently read that love is entirely a matter of chemistry. That must be why my wife treats me like toxic waste.
David Bissonnette

I've been in love with the same woman for forty-one years. If my wife finds out, she'll kill me.
Henry Youngman

It's better to have loved and lost than to do forty pounds of laundry a week.
Laurence J. Peter

If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?
Unknown

If love is the answer, could you rephrase the question?
Lily Tomlin

Love is the delightful interval between meeting a beautiful girl and discovering that she looks like a haddock.
John Barrymore

Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.
Robert Frost

A kiss can be a comma, a question mark or an exclamation point. That's basic spelling that every woman ought to know.
Mistinguette

Absence -- that common cure of love.
Miguel De Cervantes

Batting failure did us in: Dhoni

Bounced out for the second straight game and virtually of the competition, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, however, refused to admit the Indian batting’s inability to cope with the short stuff, blaming the pressures of the format for the successive defeats instead.
“It’s no rocket science, it’s not that we have come up against it suddenly. Outside the subcontinent, we always have to face short-pitched deliveries, so we are equipped to cope with them. But the problem in T20 is that if the opposition consistently bowls short, you can’t leave too many balls and the pressure to score increases. We had prepared well for the tournament, we knew we will face short-pitched stuff but the execution was not good on our part,” Dhoni said.
In a match delayed by 30 minutes due to damp pitch, the Indian skipper defended his decision to bowl first and without an extra bowler, blaming the defeat on batting failure. “Batting has always been our strength. Chasing 170 wasn’t impossible but our batting failed. Our bowlers did well; the opening bowlers are doing extremely well and have given us a good start in the first six overs. Most of the batsmen have struggled against our spinners as well, specially Bhajji. I don’t think we were short of bowlers,” he said.

Suspended IPL chief seeks graft charges delay

NEW DELHI — Suspended Indian Premier League boss Lalit Modi on Monday sought more time to answer corruption charges that have sparked a government investigation into the cricket tournament, sources said.
Modi was due to respond to the allegations by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which suspended Modi as head of the IPL two weeks ago pending its own probe into corruption, tax evasion and money-laundering.
He was also stood down as a BCCI vice-president and as chairman of the T20 Champions League, a separate club tournament organised jointly by India, Australia and South Africa.
"He wants five more days," a BCCI source told AFP, adding that the extension was likely to be granted.
Modi has run the IPL as a virtual one-man show since its inception three years ago, creating a heady and lucrative blend of star-studded Twenty20 cricket, big business and Bollywood glamour.
But Modi, a flamboyant and often divisive personality, has lost much of his support both within the BCCI, which owns the tournament, and the IPL's governing council.
"I am going to reply personally because there is nothing to hide," Modi was reported as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency on Saturday. "I have not gone anywhere. I have only been suspended."
Asked if the IPL would be affected by his suspension, Modi said the league would weather the current storm.
"We have built a strong organisation," he said. "I don't think the IPL will suffer. I think we have enough competent people to run the organisation. It's a very strong brand."
Modi's troubles began when he revealed the ownership details of a new franchise set to join the tournament in 2011.
He embarrassed a high-profile member of the government, junior foreign minister Shashi Tharoor, by leaking on the Twitter micro-blogging site how Tharoor's girlfriend had been given a free stake in the new team.
Under pressure from the opposition, which accused Tharoor of misusing his office to secure benefit for himself, the minister was forced to resign.
The charges faced by Modi include rigging IPL bids, holding proxy stakes in teams, taking cash from companies in return for broadcasting deals, and having a dictatorial management style.
Modi faced another scandal last week when it emerged he tried to divide world cricket by proposing a parallel event in England.
The plan, revealed by England's cricket chief Giles Clarke in an email to Indian officials, involved English county sides playing an IPL-style tournament.
Modi held a secret meeting with officials from three counties -- Warwickshire, Yorkshire and Lancashire -- in New Delhi in March to discuss the proposal without the knowledge of the concerned boards, according to the email.

Navadeep arrested under DUI charges

Reel life hero Navdeep turned real life villain on Saturday midnight when he was caught by the police for drink and drive on May 09. Along with his friend he was arrested on the charges of drink and rash driving at Banjara Hills, Hyderabad by the city police.

The incident happened near Indo-American Cancer Hospital when cops tried to stop him he took a wrong side to escape and finally police chased and arrested him. The medical reports confirmed that the actor had taken the alcohol beyond the permissible limit and he has also been charged for behaving in a rude manner.

However, Navadeep and his friend have got bail after they were produced before a magistrate on Sunday.

Rakhi Sawant Digs Her Own Grave On The ZND Stage

Rakhi Sawant, known for her unstoppable attitude, dug her own grave on the sets of Zara Nachke Dikha after she passed comments challenging Mastkalandar captain Aamir Ali’s decision of putting contestant Mukti Mohan on the elimination target.

 

The Mastkalandars beat the Masakalis by a margin of 20 points at the end of the fourth episode and were asked to put any one contestant from the girls team on the “Nishana” or target for elimination.

 

After a discussion with the rest of his teammates, Captain Aamir Ali put Mukti Mohan on the target. When asked by host Jennifer Winget as to why he decided to put Mukti on the target, Aamir explained that, “Mukti is a very good dancer. She has performed very well and even the judges are happy with her performance so we want to see her full potential. We want her to dance with her full potential when she comes next so that she evades her elimination and comes back into the competition.”

 

Rakhi Sawant could not digest his giving such an excuse for putting her teammate on the target and said, “All these are excuses. He could have put me on the target as well.” Aamir, unhappy with the comment, then offered Rakhi the option to step up and become the target herself. He said that Mukti and Rakhi could take a decision amongst themselves and decide and even the judges nodded in agreement to that.

 

After a discussion with her team. Rakhi decided that she would become the target herself and said that the team needed Mukti.     

'3 Idiots' bags 14 nominations in IIFA

NEW DELHI: Aamir Khan-starrer "3 Idiots" has bagged maximum number of nominations at the 2010 International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards to be held in Colombo from June 3.

Directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, "3 Idiots" marked its presence in all categories except best supporting actress. It has received 14 nominations including best film, best actor, best director and best actress, among others.

Other films nominated are Saif Ali Khan's "Love Aaj Kal" that has bagged nine nominations, while IIFA brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan-starrer "Paa" and Shahid Kapoor's "Kaminey" both got eight nominations each.

"Colombo marks the second decade of IIFA. The nominees for the Micromax IIFA Awards 2010 are a compilation of the best work from the previous year and the suspense and celebration of these worthy nominations will undoubtedly create another magical IIFA," said Sabbas Joseph, one of the directors of Wizcraft, in a statement.

The nominations were released after voting in March. Results were audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The event will take place June 3-5 in Colombo, Sri Lanka.