Lenovo ThinkPad T430u

Posted on January 11, 2013 by admin

The Lenovo ThinkPad T430u is the Ultrabook version of Lenovo’s popular T range of business notebooks. It looks almost identical to its significantly more expensive cousin the T420, but the slim T430u stands just 21mm thick and weighs 1.9kg. It isn’t the lightest Ultrabook we’ve ever seen, but it is portable, and its soft touch finish complements its business-orientated design.

Our review sample came with a dual-core Intel Core i5-3317U processor that runs at 1.7GHz (although it can Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz within certain thermal conditions), 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard disk. The T430U managed to score a respectable 44 overall in our multimedia benchmark tests, which is lower than we expect from an Ultrabook at this price.

Its integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 chipset provides the graphics, and the T430u was just about capable of playing Dirt Showdown on High Quality settings and a 720p resolution, averaging 16.6 fps in our benchmark tests. You may get away with playing some modern 3D games, but you’ll really have to reduce the display settings to get a playable frame rate.

Lenovo ThinkPad T430u
Excellent viewing angles and a matt finish make the screen ideal for work

The T430u has maximum resolution of 1,366×768, and its 14in display lets you make the most of it. The T430u also has superb viewing angles, with 180-degree screen tilt to help you find the perfect working position no matter where you are. Its matt finish posed no problems with reflections either, but it did make the screen slightly dimmer overall, which meant colours were often not very bright or vivid.

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Lenovo IdeaPad Lynx review – Hands On

Posted on January 11, 2013 by admin

Lenovo IdeaPad Lynx review – Hands On | Expert Reviews Skip to navigation Home Laptops PCs Components Printers Digital cameras Photography Displays Networking Storage Audio Home entertainment Mobile phones Video cameras Software Gadgets Peripherals Tablet PCs Car Tech Home / Laptops / News Login|Register Log In Your email: Your password:

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RSS Feeds News | Forum | Store Windows Phone Kodak Printers ESET Smart Security 5 Latest News Lenovo IdeaPad Lynx review – Hands On Lenovo IdeaPad Lynx tablet Lenovo IdeaPad Lynx Atom CPU Previous image 1 of 3 Next image Gallery Posted on 7 Jan 2013 at 07:00

Although shipping in the US already, CES 2013 was our first chance to get a hands-on look at the laptop-tablet hybrid, the Lenovo IdeaPad Lynx.

In a similar vein to the Asus Transformer Prime, the Lenovo IdeaPad Lynx is a tablet that can connect to a keyboard dock to turn it into a more traditional laptop. Rather than Android, as used by the Asus Transformer products, Lenovo has used Windows 8.

The IdeaPad Lynx uses the full Windows 8, not the cut-down tablet Windows 8 RT as used on the Microsoft Surface RT tablet.

Lenovo IdeaPad Lynx tablet

Without the keyboard dock the Lynx is a proper tablet

Essentially, the IdeaPad Lynx can be thought of as a convertible netbook, as it has a 1.8GHz Atom processor, rather than a full Intel Core CPU as used in the similar Lenovo ThinkPad Helix. That said, the tablet felt smooth enough in the short time we used it, although we’d like to give it a thorough work out with some proper desktop apps before we pass final judgement.

Lenovo IdeaPad Lynx Atom CPU

An Atom processor means the Lynx is more like a netbook than a laptop

The Lynx has up to 64GB of storage, 2GB of RAM and an 11.6in IPS touchscreen with a 1,366×768 resolution (just enough to use Windows 8′s new modes, such as side-by-side apps).

We saw the tablet in a brightly lit convention centre room, but the screen was bright and viewing angles were excellent. We’ll save full judgement on screen quality for when we get a full review sample.

In tablet mode, Windows 8 Start Screen apps are likely to be the most useful, as Desktop apps are going to be too fiddly to use. However, dock the tablet securely into the keyboard and you’ll be able to use any application with ease. As you fold the screen out, the dock it connects to acts as a stand, propping the keyboard up at a slight angle, making it more comfortable to type on.

We only had a few minutes to test out the keyboard, but the keys were all a good size, with enough travel and feedback. However, we did notice that the keyboard tray flexed a lot, even under light pressure. In this regard, the keyboard doesn’t appear to be as good as the one on the ThinkPad Helix.

Using the keyboard dock gives you two USB ports and a second battery, extending battery life up to a quoted 16 hours. That’s plenty for a full day’s work and evening use, too.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Lynx is due out in the UK soon, although no pricing has been announced. However, if Lenovo can get close to the US price (as listed on Amazon.com) of $600 (around £370), then it may win over people tempted by the Surface that want full Windows.

For all the latest news from the CES show, read CES 2013: In-depth, hands-on coverage from our team in Las Vegas

Author: David Ludlow

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Intel reveals 4th generation Core Ultrabook requirements

Posted on January 11, 2013 by admin

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RSS Feeds News | Forum | Store Windows Phone Kodak Printers ESET Smart Security 5 Latest News Intel reveals 4th generation Core Ultrabook requirements Intel 4th Generation Core Ultrabooks Previous image 1 of 3 Next image Gallery Posted on 8 Jan 2013 at 07:05

Intel has used its CES press conference to outline some of the hardware requirements for its fourth generation Ultrabook certification, which all manufacturers have to abide by if they want to sell their ultra-thin laptops as official Ultrabooks.

Chief among the new requirements is the need for every screen to support touch – with Windows 8 having been optimised for touchscreens and many Ultrabook convertibles already drawing the line between laptops and tablets, this seems like a wise move on Intel’s part, and one which could lead to ever more innovative designs.

The second new requirement is the inclusion of Intel’s Wireless Display technology, which can connect a laptop to a compatible TV or monitor wirelessly.

Intel revealed that there are already 140 different Ultrabook designs on sale across the globe, with 40 supporting touch – considering the platform only launched in 2010 this is a huge achievement, but the company is expecting even more growth in 2013 and beyond.

To demonstrate what’s possible within the redefined Ultrabook requirements, Intel revealed its North Cape convertible concept. The convertible Ultrabook has an 11.6in display, but uses a unique Smart Frame feature to expand into the bezel, turning it into a 13in laptop when required. It’s possible this technology will benefit convertibles more than standard Ultrabooks, as you never hold a laptop by its display bezel, but it’s a novel concept.

Intel 4th Generation Core Ultrabooks

The reverence unit, powered by Intel’s 4th generation Core processor (previously known as Haswell) has a claimed 13-hour battery life and can detach from its keyboard dock with one hand. Batteries are built into both the display and the keyboard, yet the display is just 10mm thick and weighs 850 grams. We’ll be taking a closer look at the North Cape concept when Intel opens its booth tomorrow on the CES show floor.

For all the latest news from the CES show, read CES 2013: In-depth, hands-on coverage from our team in Las Vegas

Author: Tom Morgan

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Japanese Chef Cooks and Serves His Own Genitals

Posted on November 3, 2012 by admin

This story is not for the faint of heart. News video below.

Mao Sugiyama, a self-described “asexual” from Tokyo, cooked up, seasoned and served his own genitalia to five diners at a swanky banquet in Japan last month, Calorie Lab reported.

In most cases, “asexual” is a word used to describe a person who is non-sexual. Sugiyama, however, embraces it as a way to show that he does not affiliate with either gender.

Mao Sugiyama Finner Sugiyama sparked a firestorm of interest on April 8 with one tweet: “[Please retweet] I am offering my male genitals (full penis, testes, scrotum) as a meal for 100,000 yen …Will prepare and cook as the buyer requests, at his chosen location.”

That tweet generated so much buzz that Sugiyama decided to host a public tasting, which he called ‘Ham Cybele- Century Banquet,’ at Tokyo’s Asagaya Loft event space. Six people signed up for the $250/plate experience; five of them showed up for the big date. Sugiyama, dressed in chef’s attire, seasoned and braised his own genitals on a portable gas burner and served them up in various creative dishes.

Shigenobu Matsuzawa, a 29-year-old event planner, was one of the “lucky” diners. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance, so I decided on the spur of the moment to do it,” he tweeted.

Diners had to sign waivers releasing Sugiyama from anything that might have gone wrong from eating human genitals. A local police spokesman told CalorieLab that despite many citizen complaints, there was nothing they could do, since cannibalism isn’t illegal in Japan.

Just days after Sugiyama’s 22nd birthday, the artist underwent elective genital-removal surgery, divvied up the severed penis shaft, testicles, and scrotal skin between five people, and garnished it with button mushrooms and Italian parsley.

On April 13, five of six diners who signed up for the $250-a-plate feast, sat down to dinner. The sixth person was a no-show.

The next day, an organizer posted a blog — subsequently deleted — containing pictures of the event. Images showed dozens of people who attended the event just to catch a glimpse of the rare treat.

The extra diners were served crocodile-based dishes while Sugiyama cooked up the exclusive meal.

The story went viral in Japan. Some showed even more interest, while others complained. But Calorie Lab called Japanese authorities, who deemed the banquet legal because there is no law against cannibalism in the country.

Chinese husband sues wife for being ugly, wins $120,000

Posted on November 3, 2012 by admin

Northern Chinese resident Jian Feng divorced and sued his wife for $120,000 and won! The story goes that Mr. Feng was deeply in love with his beautiful wife until they had a baby girl.

Feng was horrified at how ugly the baby was and demanded to know who his wife had cheated on him with because the baby resembled neither of the parents

As it turns out, his wife didn’t cheat, but did gloss over the fact that she had spent $100,000 on intense plastic surgery to severely change how she looked before she met him. It’s the kind of thing that can slip your mind on the first date. After his wife revealed this to him, Feng took the only right-minded course of action and divorced and sued her, claiming that she got him to marry her under false pretences. The false pretence presumably being that she was good looking. Incredibly, the (presumably male) judge sympathised with Feng and he won $120,000 in the case.

He won the amount he requested, $120,000 while his now divorced wife had spent $100,000 on extensive plastic surgeries by apparently very gifted South Korean surgeons.

Source: Daily Mail

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Zombie Bees

Posted on November 3, 2012 by admin

zombie bees Parasite turns honey bees into zombies

A fly parasite is being blamed for an epidemic that has struck the honey bee population around the world. The parasite nests in the stomach of the bees and causes them to walk in circles, sometimes pursuing bright lights, before eventually dying.

The Parasitic Phorid Fly Apocephalus borealis is responsible for the zombie transformation, laying its eggs inside the abdomen of the honey bee.

“When we observed the bees for some time, the ones that were alive, we found that they walked around in circles, often with no sense of direction,” said San Francisco State University’s Andrew Core lead author on the bee parasite study in the journal Plos One.

Bees usually just sit in one place, sometimes curling up before they die, said Core. But the parasitised bees were still alive, unable to stand up on their legs.

“They kept stretching them out and then falling over,” he said. “It really painted a picture of something like a zombie.”

And while the parasite may be causing immense damage to the honey bees population, there is an upside to their discovery, according to the Mirror, “Scientists discovered the parasite by accident but they believe it may help them discover what is causing colony collapse disorder which is devastating honey bees in Europe and America cutting some populations in half.”

The parasite is believed to be new and similar to one currently affecting the bumblebee population. Scientists are still figuring out exactly how the parasite works, but an early theory by San Francisco State Professor John Hafernik holds that the parasite changes the bees’ “body clocks,” which causes their erratic behavior and deaths.

War among the roses: historian digs first world war trench in his garden

Posted on November 2, 2012 by admin

Garden trench A corner of England that is forever some foreign field … Andy Robertshaw in his garden. Photograph: Connors Brighton/JOHN CONNOR PRESS ASSOCIATES

It is a brave man who attempts anything unusual with his back garden in these days of rampant nimbyism, when a too-tall leylandii can result in a court summons.

But when Andy Robertshaw dug a first world war trench in land at the back of his Surrey house – complete with latrine – his neighbours passed over cups of tea rather than issuing a writ.

Robertshaw, a former history teacher turned military historian who was a consultant on Steven Spielberg’s film War Horse, admits he did not tell next-door that he was recreating the Great War in their vicinity until work was well under way.

But he insists there have been no complaints thus far. “It’s not as if it’s going to become a tourist attraction or anything,” he said on Thursday.

He plans to hold an open day over Easter next year, but claims the purpose of building the 60ft trench was primarily to understand what soldiers went through between 1914 and 1918.

So far Robertshaw has staged two sleepovers in the trench, which boasts a dugout where a military office has been recreated, along with a kitchen. Intrepid guests have dressed up in period costume, including itchy woollen underwear and tin helmets, and have been given real first world war rifles to play with during re-enactments. The “worst soldier” has been made to empty the antique latrine bucket.

Robertshaw is keen to make the experience as authentic as possible, but admits that modern life does sometimes intrude, largely thanks to Gatwick airport, which is just two miles down the road from his house in Charlwood. “Our biggest problem is noise pollution. It’s hard to pretend you’re in the Great War when a jumbo jet goes thundering overhead,” he said. He has had to make certain concessions to modernity, notably in the form of sanitising hand gel and the risk assessment he filled in to comply with health and safety.

He will record his findings in his upcoming book, 24 Hours in Battle, which is set in April 1918 and will be released next year. He has already written one book about first world war life, 24 Hour Trench, which imagined life in a trench in 1917.

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Cocaine given to trick-or-treat children

Posted on November 2, 2012 by admin

cocaine bags Snap bags of cocaine were given to children trick-or-treating on Halloween in Oldham. Photograph: Alamy

A man has been charged with possession of class-A drugs after children out trick-or-treating for Halloween were given bags of cocaine.

Snap bags containing the white powder were handed to youngsters taking part in traditional Halloween fun in Royton, Greater Manchester, at around 7.50pm on Wednesday evening.

The bags were taken to police and examined and confirmed to contain cocaine.

Donald Junior Green, 23, has been charged with possession of class-A drugs and is due before Oldham magistrates’ court on Friday morning.

A 21-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of possession of class-A drugs and was later released without charge.

Superintendent Catherine Hankinson, of Greater Manchester police, said: “The parents and police acted quickly when this report was made, in the interests of public safety.

“We understand this to be an isolated incident.”

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Halo 4: sexist jerkiness in online gaming is under attack | Mary Hamilton

Posted on November 2, 2012 by admin

A character from the Halo 4 video game A character from Halo 4, the most eagerly awaited game of the year. Photograph: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Halo 4 is one of the most eagerly awaited games of this year, and is likely to be one of the most successful. The franchise has shifted more than 46m units before its release next week, and it’s no surprise that developers of the game are doing the rounds this week to drum up support.

But two developers in particular have made some notable comments about sexism in the game, discussing the moderation policy in Microsoft’s online system and coming out firmly against the culture of slurs, abuse and general jerkiness that’s often perceived to pervade online first-person shooter (FPS) play. In a Gamespot interview, Halo 4 executive producer Kiki Wolfkill and 343 Industries head Bonnie Ross decried sexist behaviour in gaming, and said that there was a zero-tolerance approach in place for discriminatory comments generally on Xbox Live servers, where Halo 4 online games will be played.

Although the pair discussed the existence of lifetime bans for infractions, their comments don’t seem to indicate that these bans are specific to Halo 4 – rather, that this is part of Xbox Live’s wider moderation policy. It’s not clear how long that policy’s been in place, or how widely it’s implemented – the fact that the games press are reacting to this as a news story, and that the community is surprised by it, suggests that either it’s a new policy, or that it’s far from fully implemented and understood.

But the fact that these game developers are going on the record to denounce online harassment and abuse in the gaming community is a welcome change from the events of this year so far, which have featured far too many women getting far too much abuse, and far too many developers complacent about their impact – either positive or negative – on this issue.

Speaking to Gamespot, Ross said: “This is behaviour that is offensive and completely unacceptable. I’d like to think most of our Xbox Live players don’t support this kind of behaviour … As developers, we have a personal responsibility to think about how our games come across.” It’s both refreshing and affirming to see people with influence in the industry acknowledging that they have some ability to affect the communities associated with their games – and some responsibility to do so.

There are more examples of progress in the wider gaming community. There’s long been controversy over the existence of booth babes – models paid to wear skimpy clothing and act as eye candy at conventions and expos. After a particularly distasteful incident where female models in hotpants wore QR codes (designed to be scanned with a mobile phone camera) attached to their asses, Eurogamer recently decided to ban booth babes from its yearly expo.

Other games, too, are more firmly enforcing codes of civility and anti-harassment policies. Massively multiplayer Guild of Wars 2, after handing out suspensions and bans for people using abusive language in messages and in-game chat, took to Reddit to tell people precisely why they were banned. The results were often profoundly peculiar: people banned for using racist, homophobic and sexist language seemed to fail to remember that they had done so, or to draw a connection between their words and the punishment they received.

It’s possible that these reactions of disbelief are the result of a history of large games and whole platforms that create anti-abuse policies but fail utterly to enforce them. E-sports like Defense of the Ancients can be particularly vicious, with many new players facing a type of verbal hazing – the community takes a no-holds-barred approach to insults, where any perceived difference is attacked. League of Legends has instituted a player-driven tribunal for abusive chat, but it’s often perceived as unfair, open to abuse and drawing the line in the wrong place – much like the staffed moderation on Guild Wars 2.

Xbox Live has long been the poster child for this particular problem, as highlighted by sites like Fat, Ugly or Slutty, which documents harassment and discriminatory language. Popular online video series Extra Credits devoted an episode specifically to suggesting solutions for the Xbox Live community, and calling for Microsoft to implement tools to reduce harassment. While its solutions weren’t perfect, they represented a serious attempt to tackle abuse with the community’s best interests at heart – but as yet, the results have been so paltry that game developers simply discussing the existing policy is newsworthy.

Against this backdrop, Ross and Wolfkill’s strong stance is admirable and groundbreaking. For two highly influential game developers, working on one of the largest franchises and most hotly anticipated titles in the industry, to lay out a clear line on abuse is not only unprecedented but also unexpected. The proof, as with every harassment policy, will always be in the implementation and the enforcement, the edge cases and the tricky misunderstandings that fall into grey areas and force uncomfortable decisions.

There will undoubtedly be a process of change and adjustment, both for players accustomed to harassing with impunity and for players used to muting voice chat, disabling messages and ignoring the wider community for fear of abuse. But clear, powerful voices supporting moderation that makes gaming online a more civil space is a bold move in a good direction. Let’s hope it helps.

This article was amended on the 1st November to correct the name of the game Defense of the Ancients.

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Alex Reid’s ‘sex dungeon’ shows him to be a fearless man

Posted on November 2, 2012 by admin

Alex Reid: give that man a medal. Photograph: David Fisher/Rex Features

What times we live in: strange and mutable, packed with incident. But every so often, something occurs that makes the very ground shake beneath us, an event of such importance that those who witness it feel the world stop for a moment, before continuing: but different now, changed for ever. We take these events with us to the grave, remembering not only their details, but the details of our own lives at the moment they occurred. In years to come, we feel driven to recall both, wryly contrasting the mundanity of the latter with the magnitude of the former.

Lost in Showbiz feels confident that, at some distant point in the future, children too young to remember Tuesday 30 October 2012 firsthand will look to those who bore witness and plaintively ask us: “What were you doing when former Celebrity Big Brother contestant Chantelle Houghton revealed that her ex-partner, cross-dressing cage fighter Alex ‘The Reidinator’ Reid, had ‘turned my house into a sex dungeon’?”

For a mercy, there isn’t space here to go into the full chain of events that led up to Houghton’s Twitter explosion: the marriage proposal on live TV, the breakup, Reid’s demand that Houghton stop airing their grievances in public – a demand fairly mind-bogglingly made in a video shot by Now! magazine during an interview with showbiz reporter Dan Wootton.

But even before his former partner took to the microblogging site, it was shaping up to be a bad week even by the standards of The Reidinator, a man who earlier this year had to contend with his ex-wife Katie Price enlivening a press conference to promote her new novel by informing the assembled journalists that she had once stuck a vodka bottle up his bum. There was an appearance on Celebrity Come Dine With Me, during which Reid’s cage-fighting tough-guy image took a bit of a knock when he was relentlessly bullied by, of all people, TV medium “Psychic” Sally Morgan, his woes compounded by glamour model Nicola McLean offering her frank appraisal of his personality: “I think he’s a bit of a twat.” Worse, the resulting programme was outranked in the ratings by both Autumnwatch and Watchdog. But such things paled into insignificance following Houghton’s online tirade, in which she also accused him of texting prostitutes about orgies, arranging to meet a man “for sex” while dressed as his alter-ego Roxanne, and trying to get his hands on money placed in a trust fund for their daughter.

And yet, at the sex dungeon revelation, Lost in Showbiz found itself swelling with a certain admiration for Price’s hapless former paramour. For one thing, there was Houghton’s insistence that he had thus transformed her home when she was eight months pregnant with their child. Lost in Showbiz doesn’t know how much experience its readers have of heavily pregnant women, but it can remember only too vividly the tsunami of wildly unpredictable hormonally driven emotions that constituted the latter months of its own wife’s pregnancy, a period of its life that Lost in Showbiz spent in a permanent state of bafflement and fear, having quickly realised the most innocuous of queries, suggestions or actions could provoke a tearful screaming fit. It recalls with a shudder the evening that the question “this gravy’s nice, what’s in it?” was inexplicably answered with a lengthy and expletive-laden monologue, delivered at enormous volume centimetres away from Lost in Showbiz’s face, in which its multitude of failings as a husband and indeed human being were expounded on in wounding detail. Frankly, by the time its wife was eight months gone, Lost in Showbiz was so terrified of her that it wouldn’t turn over the TV without getting written permission first. Given that, at the same period in his partner’s pregnancy, The Reidinator apparently took it on himself to turn her house into a sex dungeon without telling her, Lost in Showbiz can only boggle at his fearlessness. This man doesn’t deserve our opprobrium, he deserves a medal for bravery. What a pity this year’s Pride of Britain awards have already come and gone.

Second, who can fail to be impressed by the sheer scale of the enterprise? After a thought-provoking afternoon’s Googling, Lost in Showbiz can report that the internet abounds with websites offering helpful information on the construction of a DIY sex dungeon: presumably you don’t just ring up your local builders and ask them to give you a quote for one (“Are you Check-A-Trade registered? I’m looking for someone to make me a sex dungeon”). Their advice ranges from the practical (“a cheap Ikea overdoor shoebag makes ideal storage for sex toys and nipple clamps”) to the eye-watering (“construct a testicular vice out of perspex so the victim’s crushed flesh can be seen”) to sad tales of BDSM “bloopers” (“unfortunately the load-bearing studs were not conveniently located for a fucking sling”). But they all have one thing in common: they’re about converting a single room. By Houghton’s account, Reid converted her entire house. The remodelling works were so extensive she had to move out and “sleep on my flat floor”.

Without wishing to condone turfing a heavily pregnant woman out of her own home in order to create a more pleasing environment in which to slake your fell desires, Lost in Showbiz once again feels impelled to take its hat off to the Reidinator. A whole house! This is a man with vision! Come Dine With Me? He should have been on Grand Designs. What an episode that would be: Kevin McCloud sadly shaking his head as a supporting wall is inadvertently removed to make way for a mock gynaecological examination table, and earnestly asking: “Did you not consider having this so-called ‘rim chair’ made out of sustainable materials?” Lost in Showbiz doesn’t want to tell Channel 4 its business, but it is fairly certain more people would tune into that than Autumnwatch.

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