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Lenovo a major manufacturer of branded desktops and laptops has launched two new notebooks -> Lenovo Y300 and Y500 - for Indian consumers. The unique feature of these new notebooks is the fact that they feature Lenovo’s proprietary biometric face recognition technology, which add a new layer of data security for laptops and allow the notebooks to be used by multiple users.

The Lenovo Y300 is a portable laptop which packs in a 13.1-inch screen and weighs in at a light 2.03 kg. The Y300 also makes use of the face recognition technology which is used in conjunction with the Veriface software. The software works by taking a digital snapshot of the user, extracting key features of the user’s face, and then creating a digital map that becomes the system’s ‘password’. By using this feature it recognizes multiple users and logs onto the Windows operating system and other applications without requiring users to remember a single password similar to a finger biometric check. In the event of an unauthorized attempt, the notebook photographs the user and stores the image in a log for verification. The Y500 is aimed at multimedia users with its 15.1 inch screen and features an advanced Dolby Home Theater, a Shuttle Center for easy navigation between features, a slot-in ODD and a TV Tuner card. The Lenovo Y300 is priced at Rs. 61,990 and the Lenovo 3000 Y500 is priced between Rs. 31,990 and Rs. 69,990 depending on the specification that the user chooses to configure it to.

Its interesting to know that now State owned telecom, MTNL has announced that it will offer broadband speed of 2 Mbps, to all its existing and new subscribers, in Delhi and Mumbai.
The announcement comes along with the inauguration of the new building of MTNL, ‘Mahanagar Doorsanchar Bhawan’, in Delhi.

Perhaps this offer comes in a bid to further popularize internet broadband usage in the country, Last week the Indian Department of Telecom has touted the year 2007, as the ‘Year of Broadband’ and has already announced a speed upgrade for BSNL subscribers. Both, MTNL and BSNL subscribers will be liable for the broadband speed enhancement upto 2 Mbps from 1st January, 2007 at the existing rates.

The new MTNL building in Delhi, will house futuristic services of the MTNL, such as convergent billing, this will enable MTNL to provide single bill of all services they offer, instead of multiple bills. MTNL aims at enabling its subscribers to access their billing status on real-time basis, via the Internet.

Dayanidhi Maran, minister of communications & information technology, revealed that the convergent billing system of MTNL will come into effect from 31st March, next year.

Top row: Steve Wood (left), Bob Wallace, Jim Lane. Middle row: Bob O’Rear, Bob Greenberg, Marc McDonald, Gordon Letwin. Bottom row: Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood, Paul Allen. December 7, 1978.

I had promised to update my previous post about Guru’s music with artist names. I found this and more on a Rahman fan site. It would have made my previous post too long so I decided to do a new post on this. Here’s some information about the songs:

1. ‘Barso Re’ Shreya Ghoshal & Uday Mazumdar. Picturised on Aishwarya Rai in Athirapally waterfalls, Kerala.
2. ‘Tere Bina’ A.R.Rahman, Chinmayi, Additional Voices ‘Murtaza, Qadir’. A.R.Rahman termed it as his favorite song in the album, in his MumbaiMirror interview.
3. ‘Ek Lo Ek Muft’ Bappi Lahiri, K.S. Chitra, Additional Voices Tanvi, Saloni, Boney, Jaidev. Mentioned as ‘Yammo Yammo’ and ‘Bolo Guru’ in different sites, this is a Bengali number sung by Bappi Lahiri. This is a seven-minute song, which is reportedly used when the opening credits of the film roll up.
4. ‘Baazi Laga’ Udit Narayan, Madhushree, Swetha, Bhargavee. Additional Programming Pravin Mani.
5. ‘Mayya’ Maryem Hassan Toller, Chinmayee, Keerthi. Programming & Additional Arrangements - Ranjit Barot. This song has been picturized in Turkey, and features Mallika Sherawat.
6. ‘Ay Hairathe’ Hariharan, Alka Yagnik. Additional Voices, A.R.Rahman, Aslam Mohammed.
7. ‘Jaage Hain’ K.S.Chitra , A.R.Rahman & Madras Choral Group.

UPDATE (11/20) : Here’s another review of Guru that I found interesting. Here’s a translation of some of the songs.

UPDATE (11/21) : Soundtrack with some nice comments is available here.

So far Guru is different. This was something I was eagerly awaiting. After all, it’s the Rahman-Mani Ratnam combination once again, the same combination that delivered great albums like Roja, Bombay, Dil Se, Alaypayuthey (Sakhi in Telugu, Saathiya in Hindi), and to some extent, Yuva. After Rang De Basanti (RDB), I had great expectations from this album, and, to say the very least, it’s actually a very high quality album if you discount Baazi Laga). And it has been a pretty long wait too, after RDB. That album was released in late 2005. Wow!! Feels like eternity. Since then, I’ve shifted many blog addresses. On a personal front too a lot has changed since then. This blog didn’t exist then. I hadn’t even started writing about Bollywood then. So, has it been worth the wait? While this is not his best album, I think some of the songs are really good). Here’s the list of songs and my comments about each one (note: I don’t know who the singers are, I’ll update that later):

Barso Re : A decent song with a nice Rajasthani tune, probably one of the better ones in the album. I liked the background beats a lot. Also, I love the way the tune changes. It sounds a little bit like Yeh Rishta from Meenaxi, but there’s not much in common between the two songs to say Rahman was inspired by it.

Tere Bina : As of now, I think this is by far the best song in the album. It’s Continue reading »

Song: Tere Bina
Movie: Guru

Dum dara dum dara mast mast dum
dum dara dum dara mast mast dara
dum dara dum dum o humdum
bin tere kya jeena
Tere bin beswaadi
beswaadi ratiyaan. Oh sajna
Rookhi re oh rookhi re
kaatore kaate katena
Na jaa chaakri ke maare na ja
Souten pukare
saawan aayega toh puchega
na ja re
Pheeki pheeki beswaadi
yeh ratiyan
Kaatore kaate kate na
ab tere bin sajna sajna
kaate rate na
katena katena tere bina
Tere bina beswaadi beswaadi
ratiyaan, oh sajna oh
Tere bina chaand ka sona khota re
peeli peeli dhool udawe jhoota re
Tere bina sona peetal
tere sang keekar peepal
aaja kate na ratiyaan
Dum dara dum dara mast mast dum
dum dara dum dara mast mast dara
dum dara dum dum o humdum
bin tere kya jeena

Download the Video of above song Tere Bina here