Couple of pictures:

Torrent link to download the entire video is here.

–Karan

So our expectations were true.A new planet-spanning Web site–Google Mars (mars.google.com) – launches it on what would have been Mars astronomer Percival Lowell’s 151st birthday. At the heart of the new Web site lies a gigantic picture-puzzle image of Mars created by researchers at Arizona State University’s Mars Space Flight Facility.Provides – Regions,Mountains,Plains,Spacecraft,Canyons,Ridges,Stories,Dunes Craters.Just like the Google Moon which is web based.On 12 March(my B’day) the domain mars.google.com was found to be pointing to Google as seen through CNAME record.Within 1-2 hours of release mails started bothering me asking for the same.Then I went to the google homepage and saw the logo.Gaush ! Google Mars was out !

As pathetic as Apple is in India, it seems that even Apple is not stupid enough to not cut down costs by moving tech centres to Bangalore. Read this news excerpt from Macworld.com/News:

Apple is setting up a technical support center in Bangalore, India, according to a report Thursday in a local Indian newspaper.

Apple will hire 1,500 staff at the technical center by the end of this year, according to The Times of India newspaper. The center will have 3,000 staff at the end of next year, the report said.

Representatives from Apple’s Indian operations were not immediately available for comment.

A number of multinational technology companies, including computer maker Dell Inc. have set up technical support centers in India, to support their global operations.

Something really peculiar happened to me today. I had gone to a job interview, and as is usual, the employer asked me about some of my hobbies and how I got into computers. Please note that this employer is a research scientist at the robotics institute at Carnegie Mellon. So obviously I tell him about Exun. Here is the surprising bit, he knows what Exun is. In fact when I used his computer to go to the exunclan.com, it showed up on his history. Apparently, he and a few of his colleagues usually look up highschool tech websites for the fun of it, and he reads lnexun every so often.
I was pleasantly surprised, I mean it is something that people like him read sites started by highschoolers, and especially ours.

–Nisheeth

Here’s a comparison of the two, there’s quite a noticeable difference in image quality. Checkout these screenshots of the respective versions of Fellowship of the Ring, click to enlarge (obviously)

HD

DVD

lol 🙂

Ishita Kapur
“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”

Abhisheyk Gaur
“The best way to accelerate a Macintosh is at 9.8m/sec2.”

Swati Gupta
”Just about a month from now I’m set adrift, with a diploma for a sail and lots of nerve for oars.”

Raman Khatri
“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”

Vibhas Jain
”The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.”

Nikhil Agrawal
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

Dhruv Agrawal
“Put your future in good hands – your own.”

Aditya K.
“There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It’s a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you ‘play’ with them!”

G

This video was linked from Slashdot and it’s so amazingly cool that I just had to link it here

Disclaimer: Broadband Internet Access will most probably be required. Don’t try it in school unless you’re a masochist or we’ve got the 1Mbps line.

Also, a touch-screen video iPod? You tell me.

–Karan

Write-up from Infinite Loop at Ars Technica

// Start

Happy Valentine’s Day from Apple! We woke up this morning to the very surprising announcement that Apple had decided to bump the specs on the MacBook Pros from 1.67GHz and 1.83GHz to 1.83GHz for the low-end and 2.0GHz for the high-end model at no additional cost.

All models of the new MacBook Pro will ship with faster Intel Core Duo processors than previously announced, delivering even greater performance at no additional cost. The $2,499 model now includes a 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, up from the previously announced 1.83 GHz, and will begin shipping this week. The $1,999 model now includes a 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, up from the previously announced 1.67 GHz, and will begin shipping next week.

You can also now build-to-order your MBP with as fast as a 2.1GHz processor.

As I sit on hold with Apple while writing this post, it’s unclear as to the reason for this mysterious and sudden bump in speed just before they start shipping out. Perhaps there was an unexpected availability of faster chips at the last moment from Intel?

The lovely representative who just spoke to me on the phone just assured me that everybody’s orders will automatically be upgraded to the higher specs, however the order status page itself may not reflect those changes (it still says 1.67GHz for me) right away or even at all. I’m a little saddened that my order page says they expect to ship by tomorrow but the press release above says that it’s shipping next week, but oh well. C’est la vie of an Apple user…

// End

Happy Happy Joy Joy time for Apple fans!

–Karan