Archive for January, 2007
January 31, 2007 at 8:42 am
· City · Politics
indianexpress: He is called the CEO of Pune by his admirers and a dictator by his detractors. He has been lauded for all the good things that the city is known for and blamed for possibly everything that has gone wrong with it. The brass plaque on his office table says: The Buck Stops Here. And he says, criticise me but give credit when it is due.
A day before the civic polls, Pune Newsline showcases two-time Lok Sabha MP from Pune and flamboyant Congress leader Suresh Kalmadi in vintage form.
Be it criticism of not being a Puneite or not working for the development of the city or to the charges made by his bete noire and Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar, Kalmadi has an answer for everything. If he is confident about retaining control over Pune Municipal Corporation, he is unsure about neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation where NCP has a majority.
“We will win 70-74 seats in the PMC. If we do not get majority (in PCMC), we will sit in the opposition. But we will never join hands with BJP and Shiv Sena,” he says. And then he lists out the reasons behind his confidence of retaining PMC.
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January 31, 2007 at 8:41 am
· City
indianexpress: As the campaigning for the February 1 civic polls ended on Tuesday, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) decided to do away with closed circuit televisions (CCTVs) and video cameras to check bogus voters and malpractices in the 1,674 polling centres. Instead, the civic body will deploy photographers in 61 sensitive wards.
The reason, according to civic officials, is to avoid “extra expenditure” and make the polls “cost-effective”.
Last month, the PMC had announced that CCTVs and video cameras would be installed in all the polling centres, especially in sensitive wards. Municipal commissioner Nitin Kareer said 55 video cameras have been distributed among zonal commissioners, returning and ward officers and also police officials to keep track of malpractices. “They will be recording the activities in slum areas,” he said.
Kareer said there were some technical problems in procuring 1,700 video cameras to be installed at all the centres on the polling day. “In spite of inviting tenders twice, the response was low,” he said.
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January 31, 2007 at 8:39 am
· City · Special Mention
indianexpress: The traditional method of using pumice stone on denims for the stonewash effect is on its way out. Instead an enzyme will do the job. The enzyme obtained from a bacteria —alkalothermophilic Thermomonospora— which is capable of growing in extreme conditions has been found in the soil at Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh by scientists of Pune-based National Chemical Laboratory (NCL).
A report published after trials were conducted at Ahmedabad textile industry’s research association in Wiley InterScience Journal on September 1, 2006 says, “Use of cellulase for denim washing is a standard eco-friendly technique to achieve desirable appearance and softness for cotton fabrics and denims.”
The report added that till now enzymes used to wash denim had a back-staining problem which cause discoloration. According to NCL scientists, the cellulase reduces hairiness in the fabric, made it lighter, softer, while giving it the stonewashed effect.
NCL scientists say the enzyme will develop an eco-friendly technology that fits with the strict environmental norms in the textile industry. When used to achieve high degree of indigo fading, the pumice stone in a water-loaded tumbling machine produces severe wear and tear that weakens the fabric. Pumice stones also clog the machine’s outlet.
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January 31, 2007 at 8:38 am
· City · Politics
indianexpress: Candidates used SMSes and landlines to reach voters on the last day of campaigning on Tuesday. Traffic on most city roads was at a standstill throughout the day due to padayatras and road shows. Narrow lanes in the Peth areas too witnessed snarls as candidates took out processions.
MNS candidates carried replicas of railway engines through the wards. Independent candidates took out padayatras. Rajesh Shende from ward number 56 Law College Road campaigned on a road roller.
The Congress had organised public meetings of Revenue Minister Narayan Rane at Shahu Chowk on Tuesday while MP Suresh Kalmadi participated in roadshows. The Nationalist Congress Party’s last public meeting, organised in Kasba Peth, was addressed by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Monday.
Candidates of Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance too took out padayatras and rallies in the wards. Many concentrated on door-to-door campaigning. The Congress and BJP candidates used SMSes and phones to reach voters. An SMS on behalf of MP Suresh Kalmadi said— Assure best roads, effective public transport—metro, tram, skybus. Request clear majority. Vote for Congress in historic effort for Global Pune: Suresh Kalmadi. The message was sent by an office-bearer of the Athletics Association of India
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January 31, 2007 at 8:36 am
· City · Crime
indianexpress: The Chatuhshrungi police booked Congress candidate Nitin Jagtap and four others on charges of distributing money to voters in Janwadi area on Tuesday.
The other accused are Rajendra Bhonsale, Jaymala Pillay, Sanjay Dhole and Jitendra Dange. All five were found distributing money to voters near Sanskrutik Bhavan on Senapati Bapat Road, the police who acted upon a complaint lodged by Deepak Mukhari Dhotre, a contractor from Janwadi. Police Inspector Govind Pawar said, “Jagtap and his accomplices were found distributing money to voters to influence them. We have got a written complaint against them and accordingly, we made the arrests.” An amount of Rs 2.5 lakh has been recovered from the accused.
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January 31, 2007 at 8:35 am
· City
indianexpress: The MSRTC will inaugurate a weekly Pune-Shegaon bus service on Wednesday at Shivajinagar depot. The facility will be available every Wednesday. “We are trying to provide a travel package. The bus will leave for Shegaon at 6 pm and start for Pune on Thursday at 7 pm,” said assistant traffic inspector A N Bhise. Commuters can book tickets in advance from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Swargate and Shivajinagar. The bus will go via Aurangabad, Chikhali and Khamgaon.
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January 31, 2007 at 8:32 am
· Technology
techtree: Adobe has announced that it’s Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 software is now available for pre-order, and is expected to ship in mid-February 2007.
After completing the beta test of over 12 months, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 now includes innovative features that streamline digital photography workflows.
The Photoshop Lightroom includes new functionality added since Beta 4.1, with changes made to the Library and Develop modules that complement the improvements to the slideshow, print, and Web components. In the advanced Library module, keywording tools help photographers filter through large collections, and an improved import dialogue with more flexible file handling allows more choice when determining file location.
According to Adobe, the new Key Metadata Browser provides quick access to key information tags, with an improved ranking and rating system that now incorporates color labels and a pick/reject system that sorts and locates photographs faster than ever. While in the new Develop module, Virtual Copies and Snapshot tools help present multiple versions of the same image, providing the most choice to clients without the confusion of saving separate physical versions.
Additional tools added include a hue, saturation, and luminance targeted adjustment tool for precise and intuitive image edits. Clone and Healing features provide non-destructive edits to eliminate sensor dust across one or many images.
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January 31, 2007 at 8:31 am
· Technology
techtree: Transcend has announced its new T.sonic 820 series of MP3 players.
With a 1.5-inch color OLED screen, the T.sonic 820 is an advanced MP3 player designed to play music, photos, and video, which also has an FM radio and digital recording features to record sound using its built-in microphone, an external microphone, or line-in devices (such as a CD Player).
Reportedly, you can use the T.sonic 820 to read e-books, and as a storage device to store your computer files. Moreover, Transcend’s T.sonic 820 has a playlist builder, real time clock, and Karaoke-type lyrics display that shows the lyrics of a song on the screen.
Transcend’s T.sonic 820 is a handy MP3 player that measures 82 mm x 41.5 mm x 12 mm and weighs a mere 45g (with Li-ion battery).
Transferring music to the T.sonic 820 is easier; connect the unit to your computer, and then store your digital music onto the player. The Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connection will take care of the rest. In addition, the player’s advanced digital voice recorder can be used to record memos.
Some of the other features of the T.sonic 820 are, A-B repeat function, which allows you to replay a designated section of a track, and if you combine this with the unit’s adjustable variable track playback speed control, you get all the functionality of a language-learning tool; seven equalizer effects including a customizable USER EQ mode; and song/artist title display in 12 user languages.
Transcend’s T.sonic 820 is now available in two
high-capacity models, 2GB (White) and 4GB (Black). The unit is powered using a rechargeable Li-ion battery, and a fully charged battery supports over 15 hours of continuous playback.
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January 31, 2007 at 8:29 am
· Technology
bbcnews: The time has come to bid farewell to one of the PC’s more stalwart friends – the floppy disk.
Computing superstore PC World said it will no longer sell the storage devices, affectionately known as floppies, once existing stock runs out.
New storage systems, coupled with a need to store more than the 1.44 megabytes of data held by a standard floppy, have led to its demise.
Only a tiny percentage of PCs currently sold still have floppy disk drives.
“The floppy disk looks increasingly quaint and simply isn’t able to compete,” said Bryan Magrath, commercial director of PC World.
Iconic status
It is not the first time the death-knell for the floppy has been sounded. The first nail in the coffin came in 1998, when the iMac was revealed without a floppy disk drive.
Then in 2003, Dell banished disk drives from its higher spec machines.
In 1998, an estimated 2 billion floppy disks were sold, according to the Recording Media Industries Association of Japan.
Since then global demand has fallen by around two-thirds to an estimated 700 million by 2006.
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January 31, 2007 at 8:28 am
· Technology
msnbc: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday that Sony BMG agreed to settle charges that it secretly embedded potentially damaging anti-piracy software in some of its CDs.
The settlement requires Sony BMG, a joint venture of Sony Corp. and Germany’s Bertelsmann AG, to make further disclosures, to allow consumers to exchange the CDs at issue and reimburse consumers for up to $150 to repair any damage to their computers, the FTC said.
“Consumers’ computers belong to them, and companies must adequately disclose unexpected limitations on the customary use of their products so consumers can make informed decisions regarding whether to purchase and install that content,” FTC Chairman Deborah Majoras said in a statement.
The FTC said Sony BMG violated the law by embedding some music CDs with software that installed itself on consumers’ computers without their consent and restricted the number of times the audio files could be copied. It also was used to help send them marketing messages, the FTC said.
The software was “unreasonably difficult to uninstall” and created security vulnerabilities that could allow hackers and other third parties to gain access to consumers’ computers, the FTC said.
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