Check your name

Name Meaning
Instructions: What you do is find out what each letter
of your name means.

Then connect all the meanings and it describes YOU.
(It’s TRUE) &



(Isn’t it GREAT!!)

If you have double or triple letters, just count the
meaning once.
For Example: MAHESH

M = Success comes easily to you.
A = You can be very quiet when you have something on
your mind.
H = You are not judgmental
E = You are a very exciting person.
S = you are very broad-minded
H = you are not judgmental

A = you can be very quiet when you have something on
your mind.
B = You are always cautious when it comes to meeting
newpeople .
C = You definitely have a partier side in you, don't
be shy to show it.
D = you have trouble trusting people.
E = you are a very exciting person.
F = everyone loves you.
G = you have excellent ways of viewing people.
H = you are not judgmental.
I = you are always smiling and making others smile.
J =Jealously
K = you like to try new things.
L = Love is something you deeply believe in.
M = Success comes easily to you.
N = You like to work, but you always want a break.
O = you are very open-minded.
P = you are very friendly and understanding.
Q = you are a hypocrite.
R = you are a social butterfly.
S = you are very broad-minded.
T = You have an attitude, a big one.
U = you feel like you have to equal up to people's
standards.
V = you have a very good physique and looks.
W = you like your privacy.
X =you never let people tell you what to do.
Y = you cause a lot of trouble.
Z = you’re always fighting with someone

10 interesting things

1. Between 1942 and 1944, Academy Awards were made of plaster.

2. John Madden is an accomplished ballroom dancer.

3. In 21 states, Wal-Mart is the single largest employer.

4. One of Hewlett Packard's first ideas was an automatic urinal flusher.

5. There are more cars in Southern California than there are cows in India.

6. The province of Alberta, Canada is completely free of rats.

7. There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.

8. Hawaii is moving toward Japan 4 inches every year.

9. Chimps are the only animals that can recognize themselves in a mirror.

10. One person in two billion will live to be 116 or older

April Fools Day (The truth)

As April draws near, non believers around the globe celebrate a holiday on the first of the month known as April Fool’s day. The traditional practice of this day is to play some sort of practical joke on someone and make him the “April Fool”.

Pranks performed on this day range form the simple, (such as saying, “your shoes are untied!”) to the elaborate. Whatever the prank, the trickster usually ends it by yelling to his victim, “April fool!”

The history of April Fool’s Day is not totally clear. No exact date can be found pinpointing the first official celebration of the holiday. There are, however, many narrations regarding the reason the tradition is practiced. One narration states that it is a day the Spanish celebrate in remembrance of the day that they defeated the Muslims and swept them from power in lower Spain. According to this narration, the Christian army could not conquer the Muslims there and sent spies to discover why. They discovered that the Muslims were strong on faith and obedient to Allah. The tradition goes on saying that the Christians sent in alcohol and tobacco, which the Muslims used and became the means in which they lost their obedience to Allah. Then the Christian army invaded lower Spain and conquered the Muslims on the first of April and began celebrating April Fool’s Day ever since. As this story has been circulating between our Muslim brothers strengthening their beliefs about the history of this day I deemed it appropriate to clarify a few points about the history of April Fool’s Day. The truth of the matter is that this story is not true in many aspects.

First, let us confirm the historic fact that Muslim rule in Spain ended on the 12th of January in the Christian year of 1492 A.D. April Fool’s Day was not heard of until over sixty years later. The most authentic reports according to Christian historical books such as Encyclopedia Britannica as well as many others trace the roots of the holiday back to 16th century France. Prior to the year 1582, the new year was celebrated for eight days, starting with the 25th of March. The celebration culminated on April 1st. With the reform of the Christian calendar under King Charles IX, through the influence of Pope Gregory, the Gregorian calendar was introduced, and New years Day was moved to the first of January. However, due to lack of communications in those days, many people did not receive the news for several years. Others, the most obstinate crowd, refused to accept the new calendar and continued to celebrate the New Year on April 1. These backward people were classified as “fool” by the general public and were often subject to some ridicule. Hence, the tradition of April Fool’s Day began.

Second, we should acknowledge the fact that tobacco products were not even invented until after the time of the fall of Muslims in Spain. According to the State College in Framingham, they quote that smoking of any kind did not exist in Spain until after it was brought back from the New World in the times after King Ferdinand of Spain had come to power. Tobacco use did not become widespread until the 19th century.(Introduction to human biology, Framingham State College, Roger N. Morrissette, Ph.D.)

So regarding the rumor claiming that April Fool’s Day is a celebration of the take over of Muslim Spain, it is clear the whole thing is a fabricated story. It is in fact a lie made by the nonbelievers to mislead Muslims and in realty create a “Muslims Fool Day”! True Muslims would never propagate lies especially when it comes to the history of Islam. It is our duty to educate our brothers on these kinds of topics.

Regardless of the history of April Fool’s Day or not, there still isn’t any sort of a reason for a Muslim to practice such a foolish tradition. It is a in reality a holiday created by the enemies of Allah to prove how really foolish they are by denying the truth revealed to the world through the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him). As Muslims it is our job to avoid imitating the nonbelievers in all aspects of life and this includes celebration of their holidays. No matter how hard you try to please them you will always fail unless you become one of them. And to become one of them is to earn Allah’s wrath. And to earn Allah’s wrath is to condemn oneself. Allah says in the Qur’an, “And never will the Jews nor the Christians be pleased with you until you follow their millat (traditions, ways, religion, etc.).”(Chapter 2, verse 122)

Dear readers! Know that Islam is the only religion, which is free from faults and innovations. Such an easy religion to follow is Islam. The Prophet said, “Indeed religion is easy”(Bukhari). Allah just asks that we obey Him and His messenger sallalahu alaihi wasallam. Yet we try to go out of our ways to be obedient to those cursed people who have shown disobedience to Allah. What a pity for him who chooses to enjoy the pleasures of the world over the pleasures of the hereafter. By imitating the nonbelievers, all we do is show people that we are one of them and that they are beloved to us as we to them. The Holy Prophet said, “ A person will be raised on the Day of Judgment with whom he loves.” So whom do we prefer to be raised with, the Noble Prophet sallalahu alaihi wasallam and his companions or the celebrators of April Fool’s Day? The answer is obvious to all. In this age of innumerous trails and tribulations, we must try our hardest to stay steadfast on the straight path shown to us by our Beloved Prophet sallalahu alaihi wasallam, which is the only path with guaranteed success from Allah. In the long run, he will be successful who avoids such useless practices that are nothing more then a waste of time. May Allah keep us pure from such deceptions and avoid making us the “April Fool”. Ameen.

Silent Hill:Homecoming

The fifth entry in the dark-as-death survival horror series improves rapidly after a dull first few hours, but you can’t escape the feeling that it’s a pseudo pastiche of Silent Hill 2, with clunky cameos from Pyramid Head and nods to previous events.

Available on: PC , Xbox 360, PS3

Genre: Action
Release date: Nov 6, 2008
Published by: Konami
Developed by: Double Helix
Franchise: Silent Hill
Min system requirements: 2.8GHz processor (3.2GHz Vista), 1GB RAM (2GB Vista), and a 256MB graphics card

The Silent Hill franchise has always been the blossoming antithesis of its survival horror rivals. Where Resident Evil has the player desperately foraging every drawer, chest and corpse for ammunition to fire at hordes of flesh-eating creatures, Silent Hill immerses the player in a macabre and enigmatic world of suspense, panic and uneasiness filled with nightmarish aberrations and the most flaccid of weapons to fight them with.

All the more disappointing that, with all this horror ancestry behind it, Silent Hill: Homecoming rarely does any of these things, and it is half-arsed and arbitrary when it does. The environments at first seem to convincingly capture the atmospheric and claustrophobic mood that you expect from this franchise, but the illusion is almost immediately exposed by the obvious linear nature of the game. You’ll spend a lot of your time wandering aimlessly up and down corridors and streets, fruitlessly trying door after door, only to be continually presented with that blasphemous profanity of action/adventure gaming: “This lock is broken”. You are thus left with the aneurism-inducing task of trying every door to figure out which predetermined path you’re supposed to be following.

In terms of combat, the clunky system of the previous games, which limited your capacity for fighting, was an endearing weakness that genuinely added to the sense of desperation and helplessness. This has been somewhat lost in Homecoming with the inclusion of a dodge button making a lot of the encounters with skinless dogs and spasmodic faceless nurses a little too easy and formulaic.

Homecoming is more of a Hostel-nodding, Jacob’s Ladder-winking attempt at emulating the Silent Hill movie, rather than the original game. We’re left with something that looks like a genuine tribute to its thriller heritage, but its mediocre and clichéd story, as well as linear and more combat-centric gameplay, means that Homecoming is too old-fashioned and lacks the originality and tension that made the previous games so enjoyable.

You'll love

• Keeps some elements of the original
• Story-driven
• Still has great atmosphere

You'll hate

• Does little new
• Too obviously linear
• Not overly scary

ATI Radeon HD 5970 Review:The Best Agp Card On Earth

ATI revealed its last generation Radeon 5000 graphics family last September, when we got the chance to review the ATI Radeon HD 5870, and what a treat that was.

In a few tests the single-GPU Radeon HD 5870 was able to outgun the mighty GeForce GTX 295, while in most it managed to match or improve upon the Radeon HD 4870 X2. As you are likely aware, both of these products carry dual GPUs, which bring a number of implications, not to mention bigger price tags.

Looking forward we knew Nvidia would have no immediate response to the new Radeons, while on the other hand ATI was not done unleashing its full series of products. Subsequently we looked at two more products that were meant to underperform the flagship HD 5870: the slightly cut down Radeon HD 5850 and the mainstream aimed HD 5770.

From left to right: Radeon HD 5770, HD 5850, HD 5870, and HD 5970.

But as we discussed in our preliminary Radeon 5870 review, on the horizon was also a follow-up to the Radeon HD 4870 X2, code-named "Hemlock XT", which in essence would put together a pair of Radeon HD 5870 GPUs on a single PCB.

Today AMD is officially unveiling the Hemlock as the new ATI Radeon HD 5970, hoping to expand its current dominance in single-GPU performance with the fastest single-slot graphics card on the market -- a title that until today was reserved for Nvidia's dual-GPU GeForce GTX 295.

The Radeon HD 5970 looks to be well suited for the job. The GPUs used in this card use exactly the same configuration found on the Radeon HD 5870, while core and memory frequencies match those of the Radeon HD 5850. This provides the HD 5970 with an unmatched memory bandwidth of 256GB/s.

All this horsepower will come at a hefty price, as AMD expects to charge as much as $600 for it. This is a bit hard to swallow, but all things considered it's about where we expected it to stand among the rest of high-end graphics offerings.

Full exposure: A "naked" Radeon HD 5970 graphics card.

The $400 Radeon HD 5870 is still sold out virtually everywhere due to extreme shortages. The Radeon HD 5850 version still costs $300, meaning that a pair of them would cost the same amount as a single Radeon HD 5970, and we do not expect the performance to be nearly as good. On the other side of the equation, Nvidia's top performer, the GeForce GTX 295 is selling for around $500.

As we see it, only extreme users looking for the best possible gaming experience - or the bragging rights attached to the label - will find the Radeon HD 5970 to make complete sense.

Knowing this is the 5970's intended market, AMD has stamped a big "unlocked" label over the card in our press kit. Perhaps more marketing buzz than actual functionality, the Radeon HD 5970 allows you to jack core and memory frequencies as high as you like -- or at least as high as they will go without compromising stability. This in itself is far from exciting news as there's been software available to do just that for ages.

The most interesting part should come from the ability to adjust voltages and thus increase the card's overclocking room, something we'll be checking in detail next.

Radeon HD 5970: The Card In Detail

The Radeon HD 5970 is a truly massive graphics card, even for a high-end dual-GPU product. Its dimensions whale anything previously seen, measuring in at 30cm long and weighing a little over 1kg.

Our review sample hung a total of 6cm off the edge of our Asus P6T Deluxe motherboard used for testing.

Cooling the Hemlock XT GPUs is a large aluminum heatsink made up of 36 fins. Measuring 16cm long, 7cm wide, and 2.5cm tall, it is slightly larger than that used in the Radeon HD 5870. Connected to the base of this heatsink is a massive copper plate which helps improve efficiency, while a 75x20mm blower fan draws air in from within the case and pushes it out through the rear of the graphics card.

For the most part this fan operates very quietly, helped by the impressively low 42 watt idle consumption of the Radeon HD 5970. When gaming, the fan will inevitably spin up as the card can consume up to 294 watts under load, but even with the increased thermal stress the 5970 does not scream at intolerable levels.

The heatsink and fan have been enclosed within a custom built housing that conceals the entire graphics card, which is the same design used with the Radeon HD 5870. This setup helps protect the card very well; Nvidia has been using similar enclosures for some time with their most prized graphics cards, such as the GTX 295.

Removing the heatsink exposes the two GPUs, GDDR5 memory chips, and a few other critical components.

With the heatsink off the Radeon HD 5970 looks almost identical to the Radeon HD 4870 X2, though it is noticeably longer.

Key changes involve the new GDDR5 memory, improved power circuitry, and an updated 2.0 PEX bridge from PLX Technologies, used to link the GPUs together. All this hardware is cooled via the large heatsink that covers the majority of the card’s 30cm long PCB.

GDDR5 memory works at an ever more impressive frequency (1.0GHz x 4) on this particular model, which features a total capacity of 2GB. The core configuration of the Radeon HD 5970 doubles everything in the 4870 X2 with 1600 (320x5) SPUs, 80 TAUs (Texture Address Units), and 32 ROPs (Rasterization Operator Units).

AMD’s reference card came equipped with Hynix ICs (H5GQ1H24AFR-T2C parts). These GDDR5 modules are rated for 1.25GHz operation, so we expect to push them beyond the stock 1.0GHz configuration without hassle.

In order to feed the graphics card enough power, a pair of PCI Express power connectors are used (6-pin and 8-pin sockets). This is the same configuration used by previous dual-GPU graphics cards such as the GeForce 9800 GX2 and Radeon HD 4870 X2, so current high-end power supplies should cater for this new graphics card.

The Radeon HD 5970 naturally supports CrossfireX technology, and therefore in the standard position we find a single connector for bridging two cards together.

The only other connectors can be found on the I/O panel. Our sample featured two dual-DVI connectors and a Mini Display Port connection. Just like the Radeon HD 5870, the 5970 can support a maximum resolution of 2560x1600 on not one but rather three monitors.

ATI Radeon™ HD 5970 Graphics Feature Summary

• Dual GPUs with a total of 4.3 billion 40nm transistors
• TeraScale 2 Unified Processing Architecture
  • 3200 Stream Processing Units
  • 160 Texture Units
  • 256 Z/Stencil ROP Units
  • 64 Color ROP Units
• GDDR5 memory interface
• PCI Express 2.1 x16 bus interface
• DirectX 11 support
  • Shader Model 5.0
  • DirectCompute 11
  • Programmable hardware tessellation unit
  • Accelerated multi-threading
  • HDR texture compression
  • Order-independent transparency
• OpenGL 3.2 support¹
• Image quality enhancement technology
  • Up to 24x multi-sample and super-sample anti-aliasing modes
  • Adaptive anti-aliasing
  • Super AA
  • 16x angle independent anisotropic texture filtering
  • 128-bit floating point HDR rendering
• ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology^2,3
  • Three independent display controllers
    • Drive three displays simultaneously with independent resolutions, refresh rates, color controls, and video overlays
  • Display grouping
    • Combine multiple displays to behave like a single large display
• ATI Stream acceleration technology
  • OpenCL 1.0 compliant
  • DirectCompute 11
  • Double precision floating point processing support
  • Accelerated video encoding, transcoding, and upscaling^4,5
    • Native support for common video encoding instructions
• ATI CrossFireX™ multi-GPU technology⁶
  • Dual card performance scaling
• ATI Avivo™ HD video & display technology⁷
  • UVD 2 dedicated video playback accelerator
  • Advanced post-processing and scaling⁸
  • Dynamic contrast enhancement and color correction
  • Brighter whites processing (blue stretch)
  • Independent video gamma control
  • Dynamic video range control
  • Support for H.264, VC-1, and MPEG-2
  • Dual-stream 1080p playback support^9,10
  • DXVA 1.0 & 2.0 support
  • Integrated dual-link DVI output with HDCP¹¹
    • Max resolution: 2560x1600¹²
  • Integrated DisplayPort output
    • Max resolution: 2560x1600¹²
  • Integrated HDMI 1.3 output with Deep Color, xvYCC wide gamut support, and high bit-rate audio
    • Max resolution: 1920x1200¹²
  • Integrated VGA output
    • Max resolution: 2048x1536¹²
  • 3D stereoscopic display/glasses support¹³
  • Integrated HD audio controller
    • Output protected high bit rate 7.1 channel surround sound over HDMI with no additional cables required
    • Supports AC-3, AAC, Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio formats
• ATI PowerPlay™ power management technology⁷
  • Dynamic power management with low power idle state
  • Ultra-low power state support for single and multi-board configurations
• Certified drivers for Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP

Speeds & Feeds

• Engine clock speed: 725 MHz
• Processing power (single precision): 4.64 TeraFLOPS
• Processing power (double precision): 928 GigaFLOPS
• Polygon throughput: 1.45 billion polygons/sec
• Data fetch rate (32-bit): 464 billion fetches/sec
• Texel fill rate (bilinear filtered): 116 Gigatexels/sec
• Pixel fill rate: 46.4 Gigapixels/sec
• Anti-aliased pixel fill rate: 185.6 Gigasamples/sec
• Memory clock speed: 1.0 GHz
• Memory data rate: 4.0 Gbps
• Memory bandwidth: 256.0 GB/sec
• Maximum board power: 294 Watts
• Idle board power: 51 Watts

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1. Driver support scheduled for release in 2010
2. To enable a third display you require one panel with a DisplayPort connector or an active DisplayPort adapter
3. ATI Eyefinity technology works with games that support non-standard aspect ratios which is required for panning across three displays
4. Requires application support for ATI Stream technology
5. Digital rights management restrictions may apply
6. ATI CrossFireX™ technology requires an ATI CrossFireX Ready motherboard, an ATI CrossFireX™ Bridge Interconnect (for each additional graphics card) and may require a specialized power supply
7. ATI PowerPlay™, ATI Avivo™ and ATI Stream are technology platforms that include a broad set of capabilities offered by certain ATI Radeon™ GPUs. Not all products have all features and full enablement of some capabilities and may require complementary products
8. Upscaling subject to available monitor resolution
9. Blu-ray or HD DVD drive and HD monitor required to play Blu-ray / HD DVD discs
10. Requires Blu-ray movie disc supporting dual 1080p streams
11. Playing HDCP content requires additional HDCP ready components, including but not limited to an HDCP ready monitor, Blu-ray or HD DVD disc drive, multimedia application and computer operating system.
12. Some custom resolutions require user configuration
13. Requires 3D stereo drivers, glasses, and display

Mobile : LG GD510 Pop & HTC HD2 Details

LG GD510

It shows how far the mobile world has come when even the most budget-friendly phones can pack some touchscreen action. We’ve seen a few devices try and go down the smartphone route on the cheap (the HTC Tattoo) and some offering bog-standard touch at rock-bottom prices (Orange Vegas we are looking at you), but LG’s latest money friendly endeavour, the LG Pop, tries to bridge the gap between price and functionality.


Popping on to the scene for a snip under £100, the LG GD510 Pop has a surprising amount of decent features on offer. On-board there’s a 3.2-megapixel camera, a 3-inch WQVGA screen, wireless FM radio and expandable MicroSD memory.


But it’s also surprising the lack of features it houses, some that you’ve come to expect on even the most standard of devices –3G and to a lesser extent Wi-Fi are both missing in action. Size-wise the phone is the Kylie of the mobile world: small but perfectly formed.


Size matters


While it measures a mere 97.8 x 49.5 x 11.2mm, it does boast the biggest touchscreen on a phone this size, something that will come as relief to those with fumble fingers. In an attempt to make things as simple as possible, real buttons are scarce. What you get is three in all: one on the Pop’s front which acts as a home screen button; one on the side of the handset which, when pressed, transports you to your favourite apps and also moonlights as the shutter button for the phone’s camera; and finally there’s one on top which powers the GD510 down.



The main interface of the Pop is an interesting one. You can cram it as much as you want with widgets available on the phone. If the UI looks to be getting a bit cluttered, then shake you’re the Pop to align them. It’s a great little feature which gives the phone a bit of character.




Those who have played with the LG Cookie will be right at home with the Pop. Like the Cookie, default widgets on the homepage include a clock, calendar and access to this internet – although all of these can be toggled to your specs. Flick the screen to the left and you will notice that there are two more ‘home’ screens to add things to. One of these is for your contacts, while the other can be an extension of your original homepage. This is where the Pop shows off its true colours. With access here to avatars for your contacts and even a virtual farmyard, LG is definitely pitching the phone at younger social-networkers.



Being a budget-friendly device means that the phone’s touchscreen is a bit of a ’mare to use. The resistive touch is sluggish and accessing widgets took longer than expected to open. Sometimes it did take two to three attempts to perform a task which was a tad annoying.


Handy features do keep popping up to make you think the device is offering more than its budget price suggests. Things like the Status Summary page, which points out how much battery memory you have left is great, and from here you can also toggle Bluetooth on and off.


Pop tart or pop star?

Drill into the phone a bit more and it does become apparent that what you are using is a low-end device. Opening up and playing songs and movies is far too sluggish for our liking and while it’s great there’s an on-board camera and camcorder the footage you get from both doesn’t exactly set the world on fire. It’s a shame the phone wasn’t smarter as there’s a mountain of features available. With around 32 apps to choose from, the phone is perfectly packed to make your on-the-go life that little bit easier.



In the end, the LG GD510 Pop teases you with the amount of features it’s got but never really delivers. It’s great for those who have never tested the touchscreen waters before but those who can spot a resistive screen from 12 paces may want to look elsewhere.

HTC HD2

Windows Mobile with a touch of HTC Sense

HTC has stuck-firm with WinMo, now it's created the HD2 featuring a plethora of world’s firsts - it’s the first mobile with a whopping 4.3-inch screen, the first WinMo phone with a capacitive screen and more importantly - the first phone to make Windows Mobile work.

Take a closer look with our HTC HD2 hands-on review and video


The HD2 is also the first time HTC has used the Sense UI outside of the Android range, bringing with the likes of integrated Facebook status to your contacts and a Twitter client directly on the home screen.


In practice Sense on a WinMo phone is actually more of a mashup between HTC’s standard TouchFLO interface, seen on the likes of the HTC Diamond, and Sense, with elements like full screen weather updates and the tabbed homescreen browsing allowing a huge amount of information from the swipe of a finger.


And that finger swipe is a real pleasure - it’s easily as good as the iPhone, with every brush of the screen registering correctly.


We mentioned before that this phone makes Windows Mobile look like a good OS, and that’s not to say it’s terrible usually - there’s a lot of power behind it, but a poor user interface usually hides that behind a kaleidoscope of frustration.


Not so here - with HTC’s messaging widgets, email and texting is super easy to set up and even easier to read - simply flick through a pile of messages to see what’s been going on.


Media has also been improved for the HD2, and shows the power of the Snapdragon processor under the hood of the phone. Flicking through album covers to change songs is a dream, and when you turn the phone on its side, the system automatically moves in to Coverflow mode, and skimming through the pictures is thoroughly devoid of slow down.


Video is less appealing, which is a shame given the huge screen. It’s not bad to watch (and there’s always the irritating mobile version of Windows Media Player if you want it all in one place) but finding your way to your favourite movie is a convoluted process. You either have to scroll through all photos and videos you’ve taken before you get to it, or have to go through two separate album menus to get to the videos on your phone memory / memory card.


Video looks good enough in playback though, and the sensitivity of the screen means that scrolling backwards and forwards to find a certain point is very easy indeed.


Internet on the HD2 is also very good, although the functionality is divided over two built-in browsers. For Flash video, you’ll have to use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer - for pinch and zoom web browsing, you’re going to have to go with the default Opera browser.


But both offer a slick experience thanks to the uber processor and sensitive touchscreen, and saving relevant pages is nice and easy too.


As you can imagine, one of the strengths of Windows Mobile is its messaging prowess, and it shows that off well in the HD2. You can sync up to 10 email addresses into the phone, either from Exchange or IMAP and POP3, and all of them work on a push basis (providing, in the case of something like Google Mail) you have them correctly synced to the phone).


Typing messages is not such a fun experience though, as the Windows Mobile confusion shines through once more. The ‘Send’ key is located scarily close to the comma button, so on more than one occasion we ended up sending a message halfway through writing.


And while we’re talking about things that don’t really work that well, the camera could do with a bit of an upgrade too. While there are a huge amount of setting to play with, pictures still come out lacking detail and colour on most occasions, and the dual LED flash is brighter than the surface of the sun.


This means detail is not just washed out, but obliterated like a nuclear blast on many pictures. In fact this feature is only useful to scare your friends with how bright it gets.

Windows Publishing ur Name !!

Open notepad dump the following lines into it and save it with the name OEMINFO.INI in the c:\windows\system32 directory:
[General]
Manufacturer=Your Name Here
Model=Your Model Here
[Support Information]
Line1=Your Name Here
Line2=Your Address Here
Line3=Your Email Address Here
Save the file, then make a right click on my computer select properties, in the general tab a button will be highlighted (support information) make a click on it, you will be able to see the changes.

Make ur own spy sunglass !!

What you'll need

1. Spy Camera that has an optional 9 volt power clip.
2. 1 Pair wraparound sunglasses
3. Soldering station
4. Hot glue gun
5. Wire Strippers/snips
6. Heat shrink tubing
7. 9 Volt battery
8. Small Camcorder

Steps

First trim back the molding on the camera to reveal the wiring. Kip's camera had 4 wires. 1 for Video, Audio, Power and ground. cut the wiring about 4 inches from the camera, keep the cut wires. You'll need them later

Now you want to add about three feet of wiring to the wires still connected to the camera. After marking what each line is, solder one length of wire to each of the 4 cut lines coming from the camera. Add some shrink tubing and then solder the other ends of the new wire to the connector end.

Install the newly wired camera in a far corner of your wraparound sunglasses and secure with hot glue. Clean the glasses before you install the camera because you are not going to be able to access the lens area again once installed.

Then secure the wiring along the arm of the glasses.

Connect the camera to a recording device. Kip used a small camcorder with A/V inputs.

Add the 9 volt battery clip and you are ready to shoot some spy footage!

Scientists identify host factors critical to dengue virus infection

The dengue virus is often spread among humans by the Aedes agypti mosquito Credit: Johns Hopkins University
By painstakingly silencing genes one at a time, scientists at Duke University Medical Center have identified dozens of proteins the dengue fever virus depends upon to grow and spread among mosquitoes and humans.
The research, appearing in the April 23 issue of the journal Nature, opens the door to new ways to potentially prevent or treat the disease, which infects millions of people around the globe every year.

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne illness that can cause debilitating sickness and death. According to the World Health Organization, almost half the people in the world are vulnerable to the dengue virus. Public health officials are worried because dengue appears to be popping up in places where it has rarely appeared before and there is some concern that current epidemics are may be fueled by global warming.

"Dengue is a nasty disease, and right now, there is no treatment for it and no way to prevent it," says Mariano Garcia-Blanco, M.D., Ph.D., professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke University Medical Center and senior author of the study. "But if we can find a weakness in the virus, we can design a strategy to fight it. This study has helped us identify some gaps in dengue's armor."

Garcia-Blanco, who is also professor of emerging infectious diseases at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore, used RNA interference (RNAi) to unlock dengue's secrets. RNA interference is a normal biological process cells use to turn gene expression on or off depending upon which gene products, or proteins, are needed at any given moment. "That very same system proved to be the perfect investigative tool for our study," says Garcia-Blanco.

Garcia-Blanco and colleagues in Duke's RNAi facility were able to knock down gene function in fruit fly cells infected with a strain of the dengue virus known as DENV-2. Silencing one gene at a time (there were about 14,000 of them) allowed researchers to pinpoint which genes, or host factors, were essential to viral growth and which ones were not. They used fruit flies as a model because the genetic tools needed for the same work in mosquitoes have not been developed yet.

The process yielded 116 host factors that appeared to be important to successful dengue infection in fruit flies. In testing several of these host factors in mosquitoes at Johns Hopkins University, researchers subsequently discovered that at least one - and possibly a second - was necessary for dengue infection to occur in the insects.

Scientists also infected human cells with the DENV-2 virus and found 82 of the mosquito genes had analogous genes in humans. About half that number turned out to be dengue-specific host factors important in human infection.

"Each one of these newly identified host factors is a potential therapeutic target that could be used to block or slow dengue infection," says Garcia-Blanco. Currently, there are no vaccines to prevent the disease, "so new ways to fight the disease are important," he added. There are a couple of dengue vaccine candidates in development.

Scientists say the study reflects the value of the growing research partnership between Duke University Medical Center and the two-year old Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore. Since opening its doors to its first class of medical students in 2007, the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School has attracted some of the top students and scientists from around the world. Garcia-Blanco says Singapore's critical mass of knowledge about dengue was key to the success of the current study.

"I like to say that my research is a tale of two islands. I was born in Puerto Rico, where dengue thrives, but Singapore is my classroom. The faculty there has nurtured my enthusiasm for virology and given me the intellectual support to translate their knowledge about dengue into application in Duke's laboratories, where the RNAi studies were done. Each of us needs the other in this venture, and we are hoping this partnership continues."

Source: Duke University Medical Center

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Awsome Techs: 2009 Guinness awards for Techincal Excellence

The recently released 2009 edition of Guinness World Records covers a whole host of inspiring, intriguing and amazing records in the fields of technology, science, gadgets and video games.

Lightest mobile phone

The world’s lightest mobile phone is the modu, which weights 40.1 g. It is manufactured by modu of Israel and was launched at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 11 2008. The modu is just 72.1 mm tall, 37.6 mm wide and 7.8 mm thick. It has a full-colour screen and 1 GB of internal memory for music and photos.

Best-selling smartphone

According to analyst firm iSuppli, the original Apple iPhone outsold all other models of smartphone in the USA in July 2007, its first full month on sale. In the last four months of last year, Apple sold 2,315,000 iPhones, making the iPhone the fastest-selling smartphone yet. "Records are being broken all the time," says Craig Glenday, editor of Guinness World Records. "And the iPhone is the nicest, sexiest bit of kit out there."

Best-selling video game

In 1985, Nintendo released Super Mario Bros on the NES console. The game’s large, complex scrolling levels changed 2D platformers forever and it remains the best-selling video game of all time, with over 40 million copies sold. "It has that kind of unending appeal," says Craig Glenday, editor of Guinness World Records. "It's somehow reassuring that all these oldies and classics are still with us."

Most-played online game

Since January 21 2008, Call of Duty 4 has been the most played Xbox Live game, according to unique user statistics, consistently beating Halo 3 into second place with more than 1.3 million people playing the game daily. High figures are also reported for the PlayStation 3 edition of the game. "Everyone has this idea that the most-played online game is World of Warcraft," Guinness World Records editor Craig Glenday told Tech & Gadgets. "But the amount of variation in Call of Duty 4… makes it the record holder."

Strongest genetically modified mouse

In November 2007, American scientists announced the creation of a genetically modified mouse with extraordinary physical abilities. In tests, the mouse ran nonstop at 20 m per minute for five hours. It is described as being 10 times more active than a normal mouse.

Most powerful laser

The world’s most powerful laser by output in terms of wattage is the Texas Petawatt Laser at the University of Texas. On March 31 2008 it achieved an output of one petawatt (1,000,000,000,000,000 Watts) when it was fired for a tenth of a trillion of a second (0.0000000000001 seconds).

Fastest production car

The world’s fastest production car is the Ultimate Aero TT, manufactured by Shelby SuperCars of the USA. The Ultimate Aero achieved two-way timed speeds in excess of 256 mph on Highway 221, Washington, USA, on September 13 2007. "Everyone remembers the Bugatti Veyron as being the fastest - but now it's the Aero TT," Guinness World Records editor Craig Glenday told Tech & Gadgets.

First fully submersible sports car

The first fully submersible sports car is the Rinspeed sQuba car, manufactured by Rinspeed of Switzerland. It was presented to the public at the Geneva Motorshow on March 6 2008. This open-top car can be driven on land, float on the surface of water and steered to depths of 10 m – by a driver wearing breathing apparatus. The sQuba, inspired by James Bond’s underwater car in The Spy Who Loved Me, is also environmentally friendly, powered by lithium ion batteries.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 Lifetime Lisence Trick

01. Install fresh KIS 2010 or delete any existing key and activate a trial key.
02. Go to KIS setting>option and disable self defense.
03. Pause KIS protection and exit (its very important that no KIS process is running).
04. Type "regedit" in run and enter.
05. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\KasperskyL ab\protected\AVP9\environment (I am using Win7, if you cant find it under other OS then go to Edit>Find and search for "productstatus" and press F3 until you find the\KasperskyLab\protected\AVP9\environment\Produc tstatus)
06. Find the key named "productstatus" and double click it. Change its value "Release" to "Beta".
07. Open KIS, it will show a error, Go to activate new license then activate a beta license.
08. Now you have a beta license for 31 days which is as good as a registered key.
09. Enable Self Defense and Resume Protection.
10. After 31 days, KIS will tell you to activate new license.
11. Turn off self defense.
12. Close protection.
13. Go back to regedit, kaspersky lab environment avp9 blah blah.
14. Change product status back To "Release"
15. Exit regedit, reload kaspersky.
16. A message comes up saying your beta key isnt valid, and gives you a bunch of options, it should also show you the Beta key id along with a red "X". Click on it to delete your Beta key.
17. Close kaspersky again after closing self-defence.
18. Go back to regedit, and change product status again to Beta.
19. Open kaspersky, now when it asks you to activate your license and itll show the "Activate Beta License" option.
20. Again

Do u hav AIDS !! :S..dont worry..smoking(?) might b helpful!

The tobacco plant could soon redeem itself in the eyes of public health experts, say scientists who are producing huge amounts of a powerful but prohibitively expensive HIV drug inside modified tobacco leaves.

"This is very significant news," said Polly Harrison, Director of the Alliance for Microbicide Development, who was not involved with the research.

"So often it's difficult to make enough of a promising drug to even do laboratory studies, but here production is at a level that allows them to literally make tons of the drug," said Harrison.

Scientists have known for years that the drug, known as griffithsin, protects some people from HIV infection by stopping the virus from colonizing the vaginal lining.

What has prevented griffithsin from becoming a standard HIV preventive measure is the cost of producing it.

The only known naturally occurring source of griffithsin is a red algae found off the coast of New Zealand, which grows in amounts too small to be effectively harvested.

Scientists can produce larger amounts of griffithsin by genetically engineering E. coli bacteria to produce the drug, but maintaining the necessarily high temperatures, supplying the raw materials, and harvesting the drug is expensive.

Now scientists have turned to a virus, the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), that commonly infects tobacco plants.

TMV is rod-shaped, about 18 nanometers wide by 200 to 300 nanometers long. Once the virus enters a plant cell, it hijacks the cell's molecular machinery. Usually the hijacked plant cells are reprogrammed to produce more virus.

The scientists first mail-ordered a synthetic version of the red algae gene that produces griffithsin. They then injected that gene into the TMV, mixed it with water, and sprayed the virus over a greenhouse field of eight-inch-tall Nicotiana benthamiana, a close cousin of commercial tobacco plants that is especially susceptible to TMV.

After a few days the leaves of infected plants began to wilt. The scientists harvested the plants by hand and processed them to extract the griffithsin.

The research is published in this week's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

The most effective way griffithsin can prevent HIV infection is in a vaginal cream applied before sex, said Kenneth Palmer, a researcher at Owensboro Cancer Research Program who was the corresponding author on the study.

A cigarette containing griffithsin hasn't been discounted either, said Palmer.

Tobacco-derived griffithsin in a gel has already been tested in both mice and in the cells of women who have had their cervix removed. In both cases the griffithsin stopped all HIV transmission without any toxic side effects and without any sign of inflammation or irritation.

The researchers hope to begin phase one FDA clinical trials of the microbicide gel within a year.

A next-generation Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine, also produced inside Nicotiana benthamiana, is already scheduled for clinical trials later this year.

Swiss researchers test high-speed WLAN network

A prototype of a MIMO station with four antennas. 25cm high by 12cm wide. Credit: Photo: Group Prof. Boelcskei/ETH Zurich
According to the communication theory, only a limited amount of data can be transmitted within a given bandwidth for wireless communication. Ever since these limits were revealed 60 years ago, we have been trying to reach the boundaries determined by physics as efficiently as possible. In light of the growing significance of cellular phone networks and WLAN connections, scientists are seeking new ways to transfer more data than ever before – after all, transmission capacities are in short supply and, therefore, a valuable commodity.
Thanks to so-called MIMO technology, which stands for “Multiple Input Multiple Output”, it is possible for several transceivers to communicate with each other on the same bandwidth at the same time. Transceivers have several antennas. “It is as if several people are communicating with several other people”, explains Helmut Bölcskei, profes-sor at the Communications Technology Laboratory at ETH Zurich. “At face value, it just seems like an incomprehensible babble. If the listeners skillfully combine the hubbub, however, they can filter out the original messages.” In terms of wireless communication, this means you can transfer far more information than with existing procedures.

ETH Zurich researchers had already furnished proof that MIMO technology works in a similar test facility three years ago – albeit with only one user. However, until recently it was still unclear as to whether and how the increase in capacity could be implemented in complex networks with several users. This is the aim of the European research pro-ject “MASCOT” (Multiple-Access Space-Time Coding Testbed), in which ETH Zurich is involved with its Communications Technology Laboratory and Integrated Systems Labo-ratory. It was with this in mind that the prototype developed at these two institutes was enhanced.

For the first time, the Zurich-based researchers were able to demonstrate that the principle of multiple antenna systems is actually feasible for use in complex wireless net-works both theoretically and using their test facility. In doing so, they succeeded in constructing a compact multi-user system, currently with three stations in a bench scale, where every station transmits or receives via four antennae. This meant that the utiliza-tion of the frequency range for each of the three users could be up to four times higher than with present-day WLAN networks.

One crucial point of the research project was the development of procedures to unscramble the jumble of signals in the receiver as efficiently as possible. This presented the researchers with a problem: the more antennas and participants the system has, the more data that can in principle be transmitted; however, this also means that its demodulation is all the more difficult. As the antennas are meant to be installed in inexpensively manufactured equipment, the signals have to be decoded with as inexpensive a chip as possible, i.e. a small one. The smaller the chip, however, the smaller its computational power.

Thanks to a deeper understanding of the theoretical principles of multi-antenna systems, the researchers were able to develop efficient decoding algorithms that require a much smaller chip area. The receivers developed at ETH Zurich are currently so efficient that the new MIMO technology can easily be installed in commercially available laptops and WLAN stations.

It may be some time before MIMO technology is used in cellular phones as the antennas on hand to date require a certain distance for reliable data transfer. Consequently, the antennas have to be improved first.

ETH Zurich researchers used the real-time demonstrator of a MIMO WLAN network to test the practicality of their theoretical algorithms under real conditions. The test envi-ronment currently consists of 3 stations, each equipped with four antennas to transmit or receive. This enables the overall data rate of 54 Mbps (megabits per second) in modern WLAN systems to be increased to up to 216 Mbps with only one antenna for each station.

Source: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

Convert Your Urine 2 Drinking Water ...

The new toilet, which leads a double life disguised as looking like any other toilet, is going to be available for the crew on the International Space Station early next year. It will provide the necessary facilities astronauts require in space with one added feature; it filters the urine into drinking water!

Purchased by NASA from the S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation (I don’t think they need to worry about another sale for a while to make ends meet) this toilet comes complete with leg restraints and thigh bars. This toilet can compete but wins hands down, with the priciest toilet on the face of the earth, which is located in Hong Kong. Made in 2001, this Chinese flusher resembles something that might have come from the tomb of King Tut! Made of solid 24-carat gold and coated with gems, this particular toilet is not for public use but is solely a tourist attraction. Even the fixtures are made of solid gold!

Since water supplies are problematic to deliver in space, the fact that this new toilet is designed to filter urine into drinkable water is a primary advantage. Astronauts in the past have been known to use edible toothpaste and no-rinse shampoo in order to save on the water supply.

This innovative Russian filtering system processes urine into drinking water by removing non-water molecules, including organic urine waste, through a variety of filtering layers.

Worlds first Transparent Phone!

Lets face it, the outer look or design of a cellphone can no longer get any more special. Perhaps adding a little transparency to the design of a cellphone will make it more special and outstanding in the crowd. That’s what LG has made for its new phone, LG-GD900.

The LG-GD900 was shown at the WMC 2009 as well, which is a crystal-like phone that you can see through. This phone’s keypad is translucent, and it has a polished silver body. When the keypad slides open, the phone will light up in a cool glow in a reflective and refractive way. Apparently, the LG-GD900 transparent phone is the next move of LG, hoping to add little revolutionizing tech to the mobile phone industry, after the 3G watch phone.


The LG-GD900 transparent phone can be expected to arrive in the 2nd quarter of 2009. No much information about this phone has been disclosed yet. And the only thing that is sure is it supports Bluetooth connectivity and most likely it’ll come with a Bluehtooth headset. The phone is 13.4 mm in thickness and it also supports the HSDPA 7.2Mbps connectivity..

Watch out FUTURE TRUCKS : AWSOME !

Designer Luigi Colani with one of his truck designs at the Colani Museum in Karlsruhe, Germany.
The aerodynamic design reduces fuel consumption. The driver sits in an aeroplane-style cockpit and controls the vehicle using a joystick and video cameras instead of a steering wheel and mirrors.

The Colani Truck – another Luigi Colani design – sticks to his ethics of "biodesign", looking "to the superiority of nature for the solutions".By tinkering with a Mercedes-Benz engine and working on the aerodynamics of the truck, Colani was able to reduce fuel consumption by 30 per cent, he says.

Designed by Haishan Deng, the Chameleon Truck would change its shape to fit its cargo, thus reducing inefficiency when not carrying a full load.
The truck can "swallow" its load by driving over it and then loading itself, reducing the time taken and the extra vehicles needed for loading conventional trucks.
A soft fabric shell contains the load and reduces weight. The shell also adds safety and absorbs impact in the case of a crash or collision.

Unveiled in March, the Daimler Innovation Truck is built on an aluminium chassis, a feature already available in other Daimler trucks.
Rear-wheel fairings smooth the airflow around the wheels, and under-body panels do the same job under the chassis.
A roof deflector directs air over the trailer, and an air splitter has been incorporated into the front bumper to pass air around the truck.

The Renault Radiance's exterior has been shaped to improve aerodynamics.
The front end includes large air inlets for cooling an engine that is more powerful, quieter and cleaner than its predecessors.
Video "mirrors" replace traditional mirrors, and a proposed electronic "steer-by-wire" system is intended to reduce danger in a crash.

The Hybrys is a second concept truck from Renault. It uses hybrid engine technology for better fuel economy.
The Hybrys is designed for urban transport, particularly waste collection, and can be fitted with an electric engine or a diesel/electric hybrid engine.

Making of Bosnian Bread (Traditional)

Ok, so this is the bread that my mom and I always make, as far as I know it is pretty much the standard recipe for bread in most Bosnian homes, give or take a few variations.

Oh, and by the way, if you follow the recipe carefuly you should end up with really delicious bread.

WHITE BREAD RECIPE

2 tbsp yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp salt
6 cups or more of white flour
vegetable/olive oil for pan

First, combine the salt and flour in a large bowl; in a smaller bowl, sprinkle the yeast on top of the 1 1/2 cups of warm water, now sprinkle the sugar on top of the yeast, let it all disolve and rise. Mix all ingredients to a smooth dough by kneading by hand for aproximately 5-10 min, add extra water or flour if you need to, place in a greased bowl and cover with a clean cloth. Let rise to the brim of the bowl one or two times (or overnight for sourdough bread). Cut up the dough into equal amounts and shape into loaves, sprinkle with flower. Place the loaves onto lightly greased pan(s). Let rise one more time for just a half hour or so. Bake 350-400F for about 1 hr or untill the inside of the bread is done.

P.S.:
WHEAT BREAD
Substitute 3 cups of whole wheat flour for the equal amount of
white in the White Bread Recipe.

P.P.S:
Add butter or whatever, you will love it, that is my guarantee.

Radar technology can be used to stop bird strikes!!

March 2, 2009 -- The story is now legendary: bird strikes caused both engines to fail on U.S. Airways Flight 1549 on Jan. 15, 2009, sending it to a watery landing in the Hudson River. Everyone on board survived.
Now officials at DeTect Inc. and the U.S. Air Force say that bird detecting radar technology available today could have prevented, or at least lowered the chance, of a bird strike bringing down the flight.

"We have the technology to ensure that bird strikes don't happen as often," said Ron Merritt of DeTect Inc., a company marketing bird- detecting radar systems to airports. "We hope that the benefits of this technology will arrive from [the interest in the Miracle on the Hudson] instead of lawsuits."

Bird detecting radar is based on the same physics used to watch air planes; radio waves travel into the atmosphere and bounce back when they encounter an object. Older radar systems use longer radio waves, good for detecting large objects like planes, but not so great at detecting smaller objects, like birds.

Today, bird monitoring largely consists of someone armed with binoculars scanning the horizon. The system works well on sunny days, but at night or during foggy periods there are obvious problems.

Newer radar systems, like the one being tested by DeTect Inc. and others use radio waves 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) long, small enough to see planes and birds of all size and number.

DeTect's bird detection radar consists of two sets of radar mounted on a medium truck trailer. One set gives a 360 degree view of bird activity. The other radar unit is tilted on its side and usually aligned with a runway to determine bird elevation.

The bird's location can then be sent to a person on the ground to scare birds away before they near an airfield, or could be radioed to pilots so they could change their flight path or take other actions to avoid the animals.

One place you won't immediately see the information going is into civilian aircraft control towers. All equipment in control towers must be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, which is currently testing the equipment.The U.S. Air Force is allowed non-FAA approved equipment in their control towers however, because a special officer, the Supervisor of Flying, is authorized to receive such information, said Eugene LeBeouf, the Chief of the USAF Bird/Wildlife Aircraft Strike Hazard Team.

The U.S. Air Force is currently testing bird strike radar systems at four airports and one bombing range. Each radar unit gathers data about a different aspect of bird and aircraft interactions, from individual starlings to flocks of Canada geese around low level bombing runs to high altitude dog fights.

Using the data gathered from these five bird radar units, the USAF wants to develop a handbook, for how pilots and airports can most effectively use bird strike radar.

Bird strike radar is estimated to cost about $300,000 to $500,000 for each unit. Merritt claims that by reducing the number of bird strikes by even 10 percent will pay back the cost of the radar system. DeTect Inc. claims that its radar system can reduce bird strikes by up to 80 percent.

Officials and both DeTect Inc. and the USAF say that bird strike radar can't prevent all bird strikes. Birds are simply too good at flying, able to perform maneuvers and change course much more quickly that any human-controlled aircraft.

"Birds can do a lot of things that we are still learning how to do," said LeBeouf. "They wrote the book on flying, we are just poor students."

ASUS Triton 81 CPU Cooler for Core i7 Systems

ASUS has released its first CPU cooler for the soon to be released Intel Core i7 platform. The ASUS Triton 81 offers a 90mm fan that functions between 800 RPM and 2,500 RPM, with a noise level of 18 dBA during normal operation. The cooler is controlled by the motherboard’s PWM, and presents a blue glows when running. ASUS’s Triton 81 is constructed of copper, and includes copper heatpipes that link its base with the fins. The unit weighs 24.16oz, and supports Intel (sockets 1366 and 775) and AMD (sockets 939/940/1207/AM2/AM2+) motherboards. Pricing and availability information has not yet been announced.

Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB WD20EADS

First benchmark tests of Western Digital's 2TB hard drive reveal this model offers competitive performance.

The Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB WD20EADS hard drive boosts the capacity game to a whole new level. This $299 drive crams 2 terabytes into a single drive--making this drive a boon to anyone with a large data archive, multimedia library, or space-hogging video collection.
We've used words like gargantuan and massive before to describe the capacity of a hard-disk drive, but this model blows all other examples away. Western Digital is the first drive maker to achieve 2TB in one drive. The previous top honors for capacity went to the Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB drive.

This capacious internal drive provides an areal density of 400 gigabits per square inch on four 500GB platters. The drive is also part of WD's Green Power line of hard disk drives, billed as environmentally friendly drives due to their lower power consumption.

In our PC World Test Center benchmarks, the 2TB drive came in fifth place among all drives tested--one better than its nearest-capacity competitor, Seagate's Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB. Its performance was above average and bettered that of its sibling, the Caviar Green 1TB WD10EACS, which finished ninth overall in our performance tests.

This model lagged behind our performance leaders (the Western Digital RE3 Enterprise 500GB and the WD VelociRaptor) on some results--most notably, the write-intensive disk imaging test that we perform as part of PC WorldBench 6. On other core metrics, though, the 2TB drive performed very competitively. For example, it completed our "write files and folders" test in 112 seconds and our "write large files" test in 92 seconds. On each of those tests, its results were off those of our performance leaders by a dozen seconds or less.

The 2TB drive has several WD technologies inside that the company says enable this model to achieve its balance of price and performance. StableTrac reduces vibration by securing the motor shaft at both ends, and this in turn permits accurate head tracking during read and write operations. IntelliPower, according to WD, adjusts the balance of spin speed, transfer rate, and caching algorithms for optimal balance between performance and power consumption. IntelliSeek optimizes seek speeds to enable lower power consumption, noise, and vibration. And WD's NoTouch ramp-load technology keeps the recording head from touching the disk media.

The storage fiend in me salivates at the thought of 2TB in a single 3.5-inch hard-disk drive. Such a high ceiling on capacity means that I no longer need to make choices about where I'm storing my data; instead, I can better organize and consolidate my data across multiple subjects. But even though I like the idea of consolidating my data under a single roof, I shudder to think what the costs to recover a ginormous 2TB drive might be if anything should go amiss.

I also admit that, at first blush, the 2TB model's $299 price tag gives me pause. That is, until I realized that its $.15 per gigabyte cost is actually fairly competitive with that of other drives on the market; the only difference is that this particular drive's supersize capacity skews the upfront costs accordingly.

The slight lag in performance shouldn't be enough to deter people who have large data libraries from getting the WD Caviar Green 2TB WD20EADS. Nor should it put off casual and professional digital media enthusiasts, who will rightly crave this drive. For these audiences, the price and performance tradeoffs are a small price to pay for the honor of packing a 2TB drive inside.