Rule 5-2, Cross-check

A player may not check his opponent with his crosse in a cross-check position. That is, a check with that part of the handle of the crosse that is between the player’s hands, either by thrusting away from the body or by holding it extended from the body.
(NFHS Rules Book 2009)

Penalty: A cross check is a one minute personal foul

Translation: “Crosse” is the fancy lacrosse way of saying “stick.” Players may not initiate a body check with another player by leading with their stick.

I have to say that I really couldn’t have attained this kind of mileage without all of my friends.

Seriously.

It’s not that any single friend rode 4,000 miles with me, but some people (like Michael) have done 2,500+ miles with me. Some people (like Diane and Jeff) have done as little 15 miles with me. It doesn’t matter how many miles a single person did with me; each one of you contributed by spending time with me. Just having someone to talk to while I ride or keep company with is enough to make a ride a hundred times more enjoyable than it would otherwise have been. You helped motivate me when you didn’t even know I needed motivation.

Sure, I’ve done a lot of rides by myself–commuting to work, the MS 150–and I don’t mind it at all on most days. I used to ride by myself all the time because I didn’t know anyone who wanted to do the miles with me. I thought I would always ride in solitude. Until I found my place with the Akron Bicycle Club. It was with ABC that I found more rides and more people to ride with. It really changed my cycling intensity. Some would say for the worst; I say for the better because even though I don’t look with my beer gut, I’m probably healthier now than I’ve ever been in my entire life. And I’ve gone places, climbed hills and done rides, I’d never even knew I could do.

XOBA was a real turning point for me this year. I’d never ridden the nearly 500 miles in one week that that ride required. I pushed myself 72 miles with a knee that was determined to inflict pain on me. But I did not give up. Ironically, that is the day that I rode alone and very well could have jumped the next SAG wagon without an ounce of guilt–no sidelong glances from a friend as he/she watched me quit. No, I found it within myself to push onward, to put the pain in a small compartment in the back of my mind. Determination. I think my life–all that I’ve been through–is proof that I have determination to surmount any pain, whether physical or emotional. Pain I never knew–never dreamed–I could survive.

Survivor. That’s what Mike used to tell me I was. And he was too. I never really fully believe that I have the strength I do until I push myself beyond what I think I can handle and then, when I come through okay, I am surprised. I like to test myself and push. I hate giving up. That’s what makes me a good athlete. If you can call what I do athletics. For some reason, I always downplay my riding. People have called me athletic and I’m aghast. My elementary school gym teacher–Mrs. Meers, that evil hag–used to tell me I was defective as an athlete. She wanted my mom to have my legs broken and reset to fix a problem I have where my legs splay out when I run. She told my mom I would never have athletic prowess. I wish I could see her now.

The girl without athletic prowess has run in more 5Ks than she cares to remember. The girl without athletic ability rode west to east across the state of Ohio–496 miles by her calculations–and she did nearly 100 of those miles on an injured knee. The girl who was told she never would do anything physically spectacular just rode a bicycle 4,000 miles in one year! Who doesn’t have athletic prowess now, Mrs. Meers?

Of course, I know that there are many people who do a lot more miles than I do. Some who do a lot more miles in a single ride than I’ve ever done in a day. My accomplishment looks minor to some and impossibly huge to others. I don’t care what anyone else thinks. I ride for myself. I ride because I like it. I ride because I can. And for me, 4,000 miles is a personal accomplishment. I’ll take it. Everything happens in baby steps. I remember when I didn’t ride more than 100 miles a year. I remember the first time I did the MS 150 (on a mountain bike, ugh!) and only completed the first day of 75 miles. Back then, 75 miles was a major accomplishment. I never knew I would become a total bike-a-holic and complete not only one 100 mile ride–which was something I thought I would do once, someday–but eight in one year. Who knew?

I still contend I could not have done this many miles without friends. Besides my injury day, I had friends riding with me throughout XOBA. I had friends riding with me all year. If I didn’t have the many options of rides to attend in Ohio or with my bike club every week, I don’t think I’d be as inspired to ride because I’d be tired of all my own routes. And I’d be somewhat lonely. It’s nice knowing that on a day when I feel kind of like riding, I’ve got some friends whom I can join. It’s nice that when I get to the top of a really hard climb on a ride like the Fredericksburg Library Roll last week, I’ve got a friend waiting for me at the top. I can do a lot of riding and I can do it alone but it’s nice to know I don’t have to.

So thanks, everyone! Thanks for keeping me going! Here’s to many more great miles!

By the way, it was Beau who pulled me over to 4,000 on this very chilly Wednesday night. Whew-hoo!

A Quebec junior hockey player has been found guilty of assault with a weapon after cross-checking an opponent in the face last fall.

Source:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090918/sports/crime_hockey_assault

I picked it up today. My dream, my obsession, my passion–the Surly Cross Check. Ah, how I awaited the moment! I was picturing what it would look like in my head based on the base model I saw at the Century Cycles shop a few weeks ago and my brief flirtation with a Long Haul Trucker to try bar-end shifters, which I ended up not liking, and to check the size I would require for a Cross Check since I guess the builds are similar between the two models. These Surly bikes feel so sturdy, strong, and stable. After riding the Long Haul Trucker last week, I felt the fervor and took the plunge: I told Derrick to give me a quote on a Cross Check.

It only took the length of the weekend for us to go back and forth on the appropriate components for my dream bike. My goal was to make a nice touring bike, something I could take on and off road. Better than my hybrid was, but for similar use purposes. I wanted fenders (oh, how I dreamed of fenders for those wet fall and spring days). I salivated over thicker tires. I wanted STI shifters. I wanted a combination of road and hybrid and I got just that!

I was so excited when Derrick brought the bike out. I was prepared to like the way it looked, but I didn’t think I’d fall instantly in love. I used to think fenders kind of looked dorky on a bike… but when I saw the bike for the first time, I thought that the fenders actually complimented it! It probably helps that the bike is black, thus matching the fenders. But still. On a bike like this, fenders just seem appropriate.

So. The ride. After chatting excitedly with all my CC peeps, I donned my new steed–whom I christened Beau about half way through the ride–and headed towards roads that I knew were particularly bothersome on my Giant.

First stop: that road that goes in front of Hale Farm. (According to Google Maps, this is Oak Hill/Buckeye Trail — but we’re not talking about the part of Oak Hill that even good cyclists fear to climb.) This road is usually pretty bumpy and crappy and filled with potholes, especially when you get north of Hale Farm. For some reason tonight I had trouble finding potholes (yes, I was looking for them) but then I wondered if maybe the road feels more lumpy when you’re on a road bike. I seem to remember riding through there a few times and feeling unnerved by a lot of broken road. Well, I didn’t find any of that tonight.

I passed the Everett Road bridge and decided to take this photographic opportunity to snap some pictures of Beau.

And a close up shot: forget the bridge and look at my pretty bike!

By this point, I was seriously in love with this bike. Despite the fact that the bigger wheels probably make it a little slower than a spin on my Giant. But, I remind myself, this bike was built for comfort, not speed. If my Giant is a low-end sports car (like an Acura RSX Type S), then the Surly Cross Check (at least the one I had built) is the Cadillac of road bikes. I could tell this fact right away. It felt cushy, absorbing the road shock and two passes over railroad tracks with grace. And I’m so glad I picked that shock-absorbing seat post!

From the Everett Road bridge, I moved on up Riverview Road to Major. Hey, I had to take a climb, right? Try those granny gears…? make sure they work…? okay, I like climbing hills… But, actually, the main point of heading in that direction was so that I could ride down Stine Road, which is currently a bit torn up, though I forgot that the torn up part was on the side you would climb, not the side you would go down. Oh well! All’s fair in giving a new bike a shake-down.

The trip up Major was what I would expect: it was a climb. I was pushing a little harder than I normally would just to figure out if I have to work harder on this bike than I do my Giant. But since I was pushing harder than normal, I failed to accurately assess the results of that test. Suffice it to say, I felt just as good as I normally do climbing Major. Which really isn’t that bad, it’s not that hard of a hill.

Going down Stine, however, I was filled with a false sense of security due to my big thick tires. I took the downhill with a little more momentum than I do on my Giant and the Cross Check felt incredibly stable the whole way down. Of course. I mean, it’s a steel frame on 700×37c tires!

Next, I decided to really test the bike by taking it off-road onto the towpath (since I didn’t have any other off-road alternatives that I know of in the valley). I turned down Riverview and floated down the hill to Boston Mills toward the Boston Store. I purposely took a trip through the grass to get to the towpath. Why? Because I could, dammit!

The towpath was in all loveliness. Which I forget because I’ve spent so little time on it once I converted myself to a high-mileage road junkie. Because it was evening, there were not a whole lot of people on it, either, which was nice. The few people that were on it, I passed with my high pedaling cadence. Beau the Cross Check ate up the towpath like it was pavement. Ahhhh, fahrfegnuggen.

I stopped by a nice pull off by the mighty Cuyahoga River which was raging with rapids.

See? My new bike can do rugged! Can you see me with the bike tripped out in panniers and rack pack as I head off onto some wilderness bike trail? Well. Beau is ready! Beau likes backpack riding!

I took a moment to get a few gratuitous close-ups of Beau’s lovely make and model information. “Surly” is also printed vertical down the front fork and back stays. Which makes my Giant very jealous.

The towpath brought me back to the Lock 29 area and Century Cycles. But the shake-down wasn’t over yet! I decided I just had to go down to the unpaved stone quarry known as the Lock 29 overflow lot because I particularly hate it when I have to ride my Giant out of there.

Oh, but Beau don’t care about no stinkin’ rocks; Beau just runs right over them as though they were pavement. Nervous? Ha! No need to be nervous on Beau!! He’s strong and steady. “Unpaved” is Beau’s middle name. I had fun riding around the lot fearlessly as though I were riding my Giant on the smoothest of pavement. Ha! This is good because the ABC club rides start at Lock 29 in the fall and throughout the winter and often I’m stuck in the overflow lot. Now, I will have no fear (except for pre-season when I’m still riding my Giant).

And a view from the top…

I even rode over a few parking blocks just for fun. Yeah. I wanted to see how he held and he passed the test. I felt like a driver at a monster truck rally, purposely driving over objects and seeking rough road. But that’s what one does on a shake-down. It was Beau and me getting to know each other.

Anyway, I returned to the Century Cycles parking lot with much excitement. It was too bad they were closed because I was glowing with happiness and just itching to shout my enthusiasm to the world. What a great bike! Beau’s going to be quite happy in his new home. And the Giant–my Black Beauty–doesn’t seem too intimidated.

My only sobering thought is I might need to buy skinnier tires/wheels at some point so that I can change out these bigger ones when necessary for a little improvement in speed performance. I don’t know if I necessarily need these big of tires on TOSRV but I definitely need the comfort and fenders. But maybe I’m just being picky. I’ve got to put it out of my mind that I need to have a 16mph average to be a good rider. As it is, I did fine on this test run with a 14 average over 18 miles. It’s not outstanding, but it’s not horrible.

But I’m satisfied. The bike looks great and rides better. Sometimes you just gotta splurge. Even when you know you should be splurging on something else. Like, say, remodeling your house…

A new international agreement will boost Australia’s ability to detect and identify immigration fraud and cast a wider net when checking the backgrounds of unauthorised arrivals and other people held in immigration detention.

The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, said today that an agreement for biometric data-sharing between Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom was signed last night. Under the partnership, Australia will be able to securely and confidentially cross check fingerprints with Canadian and UK databases.

Currently, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship collects fingerprints from all people in immigration detention, including irregular arrivals and illegal foreign fishers. It is expected fingerprint collection will be progressively rolled out to other people in the immigration caseload in the future.

‘The Australian Government’s ability to detect immigration and identity fraud will be greatly improved as a result of new biometric data-sharing arrangements with partner agencies in Canada and the United Kingdom,’ Senator Evans said. ‘This data-sharing will help to establish the true identities of unknown people, and ensure that fraudulent cases are dealt with appropriately through the improved ability to detect inconsistent identity and immigration claims.

It will also help authorities to increase the chance of detecting people with criminal histories and other people of concern, aid in the timely removal of unlawful non-citizens where their identities and/or nationalities were previously unknown or uncertain, and improve detection of fraudulent immigration practices and trends.

The new biometric data-sharing plan was developed at the Five Country Conference, which is a forum on immigration and border security between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The US is expected to join the data-sharing arrangement in due course.

The benefits of international biometric data sharing were highlighted recently when an individual claiming asylum in the UK was found to have previously been fingerprinted in the USA while travelling on an Australian passport.

The individual was subsequently confirmed as an Australian citizen wanted for sexual assault. The man was removed to Australia to face court, and is now serving a jail sentence.

Senator Evans said the new data-sharing arrangements would not affect privacy laws.

‘The protection of personal information is important to all the countries involved in these arrangements. All data shared by my department will adhere to the Privacy Act 1988,’ the minister said.

Bike mechanic Julio, my accomplice

Surly is not speaking to me. Not a word since yesterday. I told him we were going out to get an ice cream cone, then ended up at a bike shop on the outskirts of town, scraping his skin with a dull, rusty knife and painting his wounds a dirty red.

Surly, shiny and innocent

AFTER: I felt like an abstract artist

I was left with no other choice. Within 24-hours of pulling Surly from his box and riding down Cartagena’s history rich streets, one thing became glaringly obvious: Surly was too sexy for his own good.

Everywhere people stared at his shiny components that, with each pedal stroke, clicked a quietly confident yet uppity “look at me.” His delicate Eggshell white skin glistened in the Caribbean sun, guiding thievery-type attention to his eyelets and double-butted design. When Surly and I rolled up many would ask: “How much did that cost?” (One boy squeaked: “Mister, mister, it looks like a motorcycle”). Surly’s bling was exaggeratingly blingy in this world of humble juice vending tricycles, single-speed pushcarts, and utilitarian beach cruisers with crate box baskets.

BEFORE: Surly before realizing life is not always shiny and Chrome-plated

AFTER: Surly, having learned the ways of the world

Poor Surly, what have I done? I’m starting to wish I would have gotten my dear friend in Beef Gravy Brown.

There are few phrases that rise from the sea of my second language Spanish and completely flood out my more fluid, natural English. Swear words, for example, almost always fly from my mouth in Anglo grunts. Yesterday however, as small strips of Surly curled off the knife like orange rinds and the new paint camouflaged his better side, there was only one phrase with no direct English equivalent that could summarize my sadness: “Me duele el alma.”

AFTER: Close-up of top tube

Roughly, it pains my soul. I’m sorry Surly.

This hideous make-over—and Surly’s justified anger—were necessary so that we both finish this trip together. No regrets. Onward ugly duckling!

If you’d like to fuglify your bike, check out this tutorial for step-by-step instructions. When doing an overseas bike tour I recommend you complete these steps before arriving to your destination while supplies are still readily available.

Surly & Bob, entirely too overdressed for the tropics

Go ahead Surly, this is Colombia, take it off!

Surly exposed

Bob letting loose

Bob has nothing to hide

I moved from poolside to inside---the sun is intense here

Surly & Trevor enjoying their first Caribbean sunset together

And Bob? Unfortunately Bob is still recovering from his long flight and is a bit cranky no pretzels were served in the cargo area. Guess what else? Bob forgot his rear wheel axel in Texas—now Trevor & Surly need to ride around town finding a suitable replacement before they can begin their journey. Silly Bob.

Here is the bike that the previous posted wheels were built up for.

A frame-up build resulting in a flat-bar city bike that will be used for commuting and pulling a kid’s trailer, hence the 19t gear on the Dos freewheel. Normal riding conditions will see the 17t getting used on the freewheel side or 18t for the fixed gear.

The 48t chainring might look a little big for Iowa City, but have no fear, this bike was built up for a long-distance Broken Spoke customer that lives in Brooklyn, New York. It’ll get shipped out to him in the very near future!

UPDATE: Yesterday I received word from the Colombian shipping company Servientrega (www.servientrega.com) that my bike Surly and bike trailer Bob arrived safely to Cartagena, Colombia. In July I will unbox, assemble, and deep tissue massage both to get them ready for the long ride south.

On Monday night, the Calgary Flames defeated the Chicago Blackhawks for the first time this season, cutting the deficit in their Western Conference Qu.[More..]


The online source for Calgary news, business, sports, entertainment, classified ads, horoscopes, weather, local news and more.[More..]

Calgary head coach Mike Keenan was happy with a 4-2 win in Game 3 of the the Flames best-of-seven series with Chicago, but upset that Hawks forward Adam Burish was not punished for a cross-check late in the game on Flames forward Rene …[More..]

These are Sleek, effective and good looking to the boot…3 Cheers!

These speakers are made from 100% recycled materials, and can be folded flat for easy storage and portability.

They apparently sound great, and cost a meagre $14.95.

They come in a wide range of colours, from functional brown to girlie purples and pinks.

What else do you want for this change?

Support this Green Product!!!

Apple had to change its long standing position on the defacto world standard for playing videos – Adpbe Flash!

It announced that now iPhones could play Flash based videos. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen has revealed that Apple and Adobe are “collaborating” on making Flash a reality on the iPhone, citing the technical challenge it presents. If Android could do it, so could iPhone..

That’s a great news for Flash based sites and news aggregators as well as iPhone users .

Palm Pre Smart phones ….

Its a real smart move from Palm. It has taken the best features of 2 top sellers and created a product mashup..

...Palm has learned its lessons & also lessons from Apple. So what it did?

….It combined the Touch screen & QWERTY keyboard of Blackberry

….. Like the iPhone, the Pre features multi-touch and an accelerometer, so photos and videos switch between horizontal and vertical view when the phone is turned.

…….The area just below the touch screen, which would normally be considered dead space on most phones, is actually a gesture pad that allows the user to navigate menus and programs on the phone without touching the screen.The gesture pad comes in handy for the phone’s “Card” display system, which is similar to how windows are shown on a computer desktop.

……….Each application that is running, whether it’s the MP3 player or web browser, is displayed as a Card on the screen, and it can be rearranged just like windows on a computer.

Palm Pre Applications

• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth
• carrier-assisted and stand-alone GPS
• three-megapixel camera
• PP also includes a universal search function where you type a few letters and you get suggestions (much like Google Suggest)

You can design a software for the  PP  and will be free to do so and won’t be required to seek Palm’s approval, as seen with others such as Apple.

The Pre can also be charged wirelessly when placed on a small puck-shaped magnetic induction device, which then plugs into the wall. The Pre interacts with the charger as well, so if a call comes in while the phone is being charged, it can be answered by just lifting it off the pad without pushing any buttons.

Service Cloud – The logical Customer service..

Salesforce on Thursday rolled out its next-generation solution for customer service.

Service Cloud is a next generation blend of Force.com & Cloud Computing..

What will Service Cloud do?

• Service Cloud will capture customer-service conversations with the goal of empowering companies to leverage the expertise of partner sites, which include cloud platforms like Google, Facebook and Amazon.com, to customers, agents and partners, regardless of location or device.

• Majority of customer conversation takes place in the cloud – So the Sales Cloud will make customer service consistent across all channels

“The Service Cloud is the first customer-service solution that empowers companies to join and manage all service conversations happening in the cloud,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com. “This has been made possible through the emergence of native cloud-computing platforms like Force.com that are built to harness the power of other clouds like Facebook, Google and Amazon.com.”

A New Customer-Service Model

Salesforce.com said the Service Cloud is vying to create a new model for customer service by joining two disconnected worlds. The Service Cloud captures and funnels information from inside the enterprise and in the cloud into the knowledge base.

The Service Cloud is made up of seven main components around the knowledge base to gather, distill and disseminate the expert knowledge found in the cloud to customers, agents and partners. Those components are ..

• community
• social
• search
• partners
• phone
• e-mail
• chat

According to Gartner analyst Michael Maoz, the new generation of consumers trusts content created by peers. “This consumer expectation that they can create answers and content as part of a community will lead businesses and other organizations to adopt similar techniques to succeed,” he said. “Ultimately, organizations will have to change their singular emphasis on tools for agents to a broader strategy that also supports the role of community experts.”

“Customers are already sharing knowledge and having meaningful support conversations in the cloud with their community of friends and experts,” Hoban said. “Salesforce.com will allow us to join the conversation with this expert community to improve the way we serve our customers.”

Pricing & Availability

Service Cloud packages start at $995 per month, which includes the ability to create an online customer community with unlimited usage for up to 250 customers, set up a contact center with up to five agents, connect with native cloud-computing sites like Facebook and Google, and invite up to five partners to participate in the service cloud.

iSale..is for sales

Lets see what iSales is..

• First of it is an iPhone application
• The iPhone app is free, but it requires iSale 5.5, which costs $40. (Equinux offers a trial version that lets you try out three free auctions.)
• iSale mobile works with both the iPhone and the iPod touch.
• So you can consider iSale as an auction expediter
  
• iSale integrates with Apple technology

How iSale works?

• You can consider it as an auction helper on the go
• So, now your auctioning while driving too…pretty neat but dangerous too…choice is yours!
• But, is the auction real time?
• No
• iSale ets you create online auction drafts while you are on the move.
• You can pick from among 222 iSale templates …. write a description for your auction item  …..set the starting price, auction duration, and category.
• When you’re back near your Mac (and the desktop version of iSale), you can transfer all that data via WLAN.

Steve Jobs email to his employees..

“

Apple CEO Steve Jobs today sent the following email to all Apple employees:

Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Steve

“

Captured moments printed free for iPhone & iPod users!

HP today announced HP iPrint Photo, a free application available on the Apple App store that gives iPhone and iPod touch customers the ability to easily print photos anytime, anywhere.

• HP iPrint Photo is the first photo printing application of its kind and allows for quick and easy wireless printing of 4 x 6-inch photos from an iPhone or iPod touch to most HP inkjet printers connected to a local Wi-Fi network.
• The application is fully compatible with Apple’s Bonjour technology and uses the innovative Multi-Touch interface for the easiest and fastest wireless iPhone or iPod touch print experience.

“Today’s news demonstrates how HP is enabling customers to turn special moments captured on the go into high-quality photos,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. “More than any other company in the world, HP has re-imagined, re-engineered and re-invented the power of printing with exciting new technologies that address real customer needs.”

That’s right! Its not a new headline, we just didn’t care. So, here it comes again when we are looking for answers to human profligacy..

HP today introduced a program that offers consumers in the United States a simple way to receive cash for their unwanted technology equipment or, if there is no value, to recycle it.

The HP Consumer Buyback and Planet Partners Recycling Program aims to reduce the amount of electronics in landfills by refurbishing technology for further use or safely recycling it.

• Through the program, consumers can receive cash back for their unwanted PCs, monitors, printers, digital cameras, PDAs (personal digital assistants) and smartphones of any brand. If there is no value, consumers can responsibly recycle their HP and Compaq-branded products for free.

• The HP Consumer Buyback and Planet Partners Recycling Program is a service provided to HP customers through Market Velocity Inc. More information on how to receive a quote for, or recycle, unwanted technology equipment is available at www.hp.com/go/ConsumerBuyback.

“As part of the HP Eco Solutions program, we offer practical solutions that make it easy for customers to go green,” said Tony Prophet, senior vice president, Worldwide Supply Chain Operations, HP. “The HP Consumer Buyback and Planet Partners Recycling Program is yet another example of HP’s longtime commitment to reducing environmental impact by providing a convenient way for customers to responsibly recycle electronics.”

How to participate

The HP Consumer Buyback and Planet Partners Recycling Program makes it easy to be rewarded for unwanted technology equipment or dispose of it in an environmentally responsible way. Follow these steps to participate in the program:

1. Visit www.hp.com/go/ConsumerBuyback.
2. Enter the required product information (brand, model, specs, etc.).
3. Receive an instant buyback quote, net of shipping costs, if there is value.
4. If there is residual value, simply box up the product, apply the shipping label provided by HP and drop it off at a local UPS location.
5. Once HP receives the package and checks the integrity of the product, it will mail a check.

If the product does not have residual value, HP will recycle HP and Compaq-branded products for free. Simply box up the product, apply the provided label and drop it off at a local UPS location. For an additional fee, home pickup of products is available.

“Market Velocity has been managing the HP Trade-in Program for seven years and is pleased to be expanding the program to include the Consumer Buyback and Planet Partners Recycling Program,” said Mark Eigenbauer, president, Market Velocity. “Market Velocity is proud to be chosen by HP to manage this compelling new program, which clearly demonstrates HP’s commitment in providing environmentally sound solutions for their customers.”

Source: From HP News room

HP Mini 2140 Notebook PC

It was always talked but seldom taken to the drawing board. HP has finally come up with an workhorse which is sleek, which is not a Laptop and which is a real workhorse.

Features:

Genuine Windows Vista or Windows XP.

Minimized size. Maximized productivity.

See bigger and better.

Cut the cords and stay connected.

Built to last.

Get the complete Specs here.

The music Industry is listening..

Warner Music group has finally listened to the market  …Its going social.

Finally, it has made the shift towards consumer-oriented conversation. WMG will utilize the EOS Platform of Cisco for this channel migration.

As of now, WMG plans to add such functionality to the sites for Atlantic artists Laura Izibor and Sean Paul. Other artist sites will migrate to the platform over the course of the year.

“As the Web shifts from the enterprise to the consumer in terms of where the traffic is coming from, the social media revolution — which is all about fans interacting with artists — is going to provide an enormous opportunity,” said WMG executive vice president of digital strategy and business development Michael Nash. “This is a recognition that having a social media strategy is not just about partnering with social networks, but it’s also about what we do with our direct-to-consumer efforts.”

D-Link SideStage

Sounds Interesting? Well, great concept but simplicity at the core. Extremely handy for multi-taskers. Might find a lot of favor from Share brokers & Investment bankers.

SideStage FEATURES:

• It’s a 7-inch LCD monitor that you can plug into your computer via a USB port
• The port then both powered and feed data for the screen to display
• It shares the main screen from your main monitor after you plugged it via USB
• SideStage features 800 by 480 resolution with both landscape and portrait modes
• Weighing only 1.34 pounds and housed in a sleek black frame, it is 7-inches wide, 4.6-inches tall and only .75-inch thick.

The

Panasonic today announced the introduction of two new DVD home theater systems that combine outstanding sound quality with functions that are sophisticated yet easy to use.

• SC-PT770 and SC-PT670 both feature a built-in Universal Dock for iPod to play audio, video and photo content stored on an iPod and displays the audio and video titles on the TV screen.
  
• Included with the SC-PT770 is the SH-FX70 Wireless Kit for Rear Speakers.
  
• Users can easily connect the rear speakers wirelessly without cables running from the front of the room to the back, so there is no tripping hazard to worry about or unsightly cables to hide.

Both models will be available in the spring of 2009.  The SC-PT670 will have a suggested retail price (SRP) of $299.95 and the SC-PT770 will have a SRP of $399.95.