Troops seized eastern suburbs of Damascus from rebels late on Sunday, opposition activists said, after two days of fighting only a few kilometres from the centre of power of President Bashar al-Assad.
"The Free Syrian Army has made a tactical withdrawal. Regime forces have reoccupied the suburbs and started making house-to-house arrests," an activist named Kamal said by phone from the eastern al-Ghouta area on the edge of the capital.
A spokesman for the Free Syrian Army of defectors fighting Assad's forces appeared to confirm that account.
"Tanks have gone in but they do not know where the Free Syrian Army is. We are still operating close to Damascus," Maher al-Naimi told Reuters by phone from Turkey.
Activists said earlier on Sunday soldiers had moved into the suburbs at dawn, along with at least 50 tanks and other armoured vehicles. At least 19 civilians and rebel fighters were killed in that initial attack, they said.
Fighters had taken over districts less than eight km (five miles) from the heart of the city. The areas have seen repeated protests against Assad's rule and crackdowns by troops in the 10-month-old uprising.
"It's urban war. There are bodies in the street," said an activist speaking from the suburb of Kfar Batna.
Residents of central Damascus reported seeing soldiers and police deployed around main squares.
The escalating bloodshed prompted the Arab League to suspend the work of its monitors on Saturday. Arab foreign ministers, who have urged Assad to step down and make way for a government of national unity, will discuss the crisis on Feb 5.
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby left for New York where he will brief representatives of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to seek support for the Arab peace plan.
He will be joined by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, whose country heads the League's committee charged with overseeing Syria.
Elaraby said he hoped to overcome resistance from Beijing and Moscow over endorsing the Arab proposals.
A Syrian government official said the Arab League decision to suspend monitoring would "put pressure on (Security Council) deliberations with the aim of calling for foreign intervention and encouraging armed groups to increase violence".
Assad blames the violence on foreign-backed militants.
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 41 civilian deaths across Syria on Sunday, including 14 in Homs province and 12 in the city of Hama. Thirty-one soldiers and members of the security forces were also killed, most in two attacks by deserters in the northern province of Idlib, it said.
State news agency SANA reported the military funerals of 28 soldiers and police on Saturday and another 23 on Sunday.
Read More >>
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Save your laptop battery: Read documents on your Kindle
Need to review a document while you're on the go? The time-tested way to do this is to read it on your laptop, but that's increasingly out of step with today's modern lifestyle. Perhaps you want to save your laptop's battery for something that's really important, or maybe you're not even carrying a laptop at all. No worries: It's now a snap to copy virtually any kind of document -- from Word to Excel to PowerPoint to an AutoCAD drawing file -- to your Kindle.
read more>>
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high qulity laptop batteries:
Acer BATBL50L6 battery
TOSHIBA PA3399U-2BRS battery
FUJITSU FPCBP155 battery
read more>>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
high qulity laptop batteries:
Acer BATBL50L6 battery
TOSHIBA PA3399U-2BRS battery
FUJITSU FPCBP155 battery
Sunday, January 15, 2012
THE IT GUY: Laptops get 'ultra' sleek for 2012
The 2012 Consumer Electronics Show was held this past week in Las Vegas. As usual, Apple dominated the show -- even though they weren't there. Speculation is rampant that they will introduce some sort of TV this year (my guess is they won't be able to secure the kind of licensing deals with the networks to make it worth their while, at least not this year).
Beyond that, the theme of the show was the "ultrabook," everyone's answer to Apple's MacBook Air. Here were some of the highlights (or, if you will, gadgets I would like to personally own):
VIZIO GETS INTO THE PC BUSINESS
Best known for their low-cost, high-quality TVs, Vizio will enter the Windows PC market this year with 24- and 27-inch all-in-one desktops, 14- and 15.6-inch laptops and a 10-inch tablet running a custom skin on top of Android (Honeycomb, apparently). The computers are beautifully designed and Vizio gets points for trying to out-Apple Apple instead of just copying them. If they can be competitive on price, they will be a welcome addition to the computer/tablet space.
article from source: read more
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rechargeable Laptop Batteries:
ACER AS07B31 battery
Dell 312-0090 battery
Rechargeable Smart Phone Batteries:
SAMSUNG Smart Phone Battery
HTC Smart Phone Battery
Beyond that, the theme of the show was the "ultrabook," everyone's answer to Apple's MacBook Air. Here were some of the highlights (or, if you will, gadgets I would like to personally own):
VIZIO GETS INTO THE PC BUSINESS
Best known for their low-cost, high-quality TVs, Vizio will enter the Windows PC market this year with 24- and 27-inch all-in-one desktops, 14- and 15.6-inch laptops and a 10-inch tablet running a custom skin on top of Android (Honeycomb, apparently). The computers are beautifully designed and Vizio gets points for trying to out-Apple Apple instead of just copying them. If they can be competitive on price, they will be a welcome addition to the computer/tablet space.
article from source: read more
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rechargeable Laptop Batteries:
ACER AS07B31 battery
Dell 312-0090 battery
Rechargeable Smart Phone Batteries:
SAMSUNG Smart Phone Battery
HTC Smart Phone Battery
Thursday, January 12, 2012
News:California new standards for battery chargers
Battery chargers are very important in many electrical equipment. California will become the first state in the nation to require greater energy efficiency in the battery chargers that millions of consumers use to power their cell phones, laptops, power tools and other electrical devices.
The California Energy Commission on Thursday unanimously approved new standards for battery chargers, which the agency says waste nearly two-thirds of the energy they collect.
Thursday's decision is the latest in a series of actions by the commission imposing first-in-the-nation energy standards on appliances and consumer products. In 2009, the commission adopted new rules for flat-screen TVs.
Since 1976, the commission says, its efforts to make appliances more energy-efficient have shaved $36 billion from Californians' energy bills.
Energy commissioners said the new rules for chargers will save consumers roughly $300 million a year, conserve enough electricity to power a city the size of Bakersfield and remove 1 million metric tons of greenhouse gas from the atmosphere – the equivalent of taking about 75,000 cars off the road each year.
"Once again, California is setting the standard for energy efficiency, keeping the state's dominance as the most energy-efficient state per capita," said Energy Commission Chairman Robert Weisenmiller.
The new rules were supported by environmentalists and California utilities. But manufacturers and electronics companies argued that they will increase costs for consumers and don't provide businesses with enough time to make the necessary changes to their products.
Consumer products built after February 2013 will have to meet the new standards. Rules for battery chargers that power heavy equipment such as forklifts go into effect in January 2014.
Chargers built and sold before February 2013 are not affected.
According to the commission, there are about 170 million battery charger systems in use in California, or roughly 11 for every home. They're found in products as diverse as computers, cell phones, power tools, electric razors, commercial bar code scanners and battery-powered golf carts and forklifts.
A vast majority of those chargers waste energy by continuing to collect electricity after the batteries have been fully recharged or after the batteries have been disconnected, the commission said.
The state agency said it won't cost much to improve the efficiency of battery chargers by using off-the-shelf switches that turn the power source off once the battery is charged. Such switches might run 40 cents for a toothbrush and 50 cents for a laptop, the commission said.
It said making those fixes will cut energy usage statewide by about 2.2 gigawatt-hours each year, or the amount of electricity used by 350,000 homes.
Sacramento resident Samantha Garcia, interviewed Thursday in the parking lot of a Target store, said she'd be willing to pay a small upfront cost if it helped benefit the environment and produced savings later.
Garcia said she and her husband tend to be environmentally conscious but sometimes will leave a charger on all day. "I'm definitely for something that may cost a little more but could help save the planet," Garcia said.
Conny Anderson, also of Sacramento, said she thinks the added cost of making chargers more efficient would be lower than the cost of building a new power plant or using more foreign oil.
"That's a small price to pay for the quality of life for my children and their children," said Anderson, who was walking near the Energy Commission headquarters.
Electronics manufacturers disputed the commission's cost estimates and argued that the state exaggerated the savings.
The Consumer Electronics Association, an Arlington, Va.-based trade group, said the commission's estimate of $300 million in savings assumes that millions of existing battery chargers are immediately converted into more efficient ones once the rules go into effect. But that transition could take years, delaying savings for consumers.
___________
Tipes of laptop batterids , battery charges.
The California Energy Commission on Thursday unanimously approved new standards for battery chargers, which the agency says waste nearly two-thirds of the energy they collect.
Thursday's decision is the latest in a series of actions by the commission imposing first-in-the-nation energy standards on appliances and consumer products. In 2009, the commission adopted new rules for flat-screen TVs.
Since 1976, the commission says, its efforts to make appliances more energy-efficient have shaved $36 billion from Californians' energy bills.
Energy commissioners said the new rules for chargers will save consumers roughly $300 million a year, conserve enough electricity to power a city the size of Bakersfield and remove 1 million metric tons of greenhouse gas from the atmosphere – the equivalent of taking about 75,000 cars off the road each year.
"Once again, California is setting the standard for energy efficiency, keeping the state's dominance as the most energy-efficient state per capita," said Energy Commission Chairman Robert Weisenmiller.
The new rules were supported by environmentalists and California utilities. But manufacturers and electronics companies argued that they will increase costs for consumers and don't provide businesses with enough time to make the necessary changes to their products.
Consumer products built after February 2013 will have to meet the new standards. Rules for battery chargers that power heavy equipment such as forklifts go into effect in January 2014.
Chargers built and sold before February 2013 are not affected.
According to the commission, there are about 170 million battery charger systems in use in California, or roughly 11 for every home. They're found in products as diverse as computers, cell phones, power tools, electric razors, commercial bar code scanners and battery-powered golf carts and forklifts.
A vast majority of those chargers waste energy by continuing to collect electricity after the batteries have been fully recharged or after the batteries have been disconnected, the commission said.
The state agency said it won't cost much to improve the efficiency of battery chargers by using off-the-shelf switches that turn the power source off once the battery is charged. Such switches might run 40 cents for a toothbrush and 50 cents for a laptop, the commission said.
It said making those fixes will cut energy usage statewide by about 2.2 gigawatt-hours each year, or the amount of electricity used by 350,000 homes.
Sacramento resident Samantha Garcia, interviewed Thursday in the parking lot of a Target store, said she'd be willing to pay a small upfront cost if it helped benefit the environment and produced savings later.
Garcia said she and her husband tend to be environmentally conscious but sometimes will leave a charger on all day. "I'm definitely for something that may cost a little more but could help save the planet," Garcia said.
Conny Anderson, also of Sacramento, said she thinks the added cost of making chargers more efficient would be lower than the cost of building a new power plant or using more foreign oil.
"That's a small price to pay for the quality of life for my children and their children," said Anderson, who was walking near the Energy Commission headquarters.
Electronics manufacturers disputed the commission's cost estimates and argued that the state exaggerated the savings.
The Consumer Electronics Association, an Arlington, Va.-based trade group, said the commission's estimate of $300 million in savings assumes that millions of existing battery chargers are immediately converted into more efficient ones once the rules go into effect. But that transition could take years, delaying savings for consumers.
___________
Tipes of laptop batterids , battery charges.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Asus Ux31 Thin Laptop Review
The Asus Zenbook UX31 has a style that's not all it's own — when you see its profile, the first thing you think of is a MacBook Air. When you open its lid and peer at the keyboard, you also get taken back to Appleland. However, it does attempt to offer a little more of its own character: it has a wonderful 'spin' pattern on its lid and a brushed palm rest.
The Zenbook, as the company calls it, is extremely thin and only the most important ports like USB 3.0, mini VGA, and SD card reader and HDMI have been included. We have mixed feelings about the notebook's build, though. The power slot is extremely delicate and wobbly when the charger is connected. So much so, that a slight push or nudge might just break it. But in terms of design, the Zenbook clearly holds its own in this huge market full of similar looking laptops.
The 13.3-inch UX31 has quite a high resolution of 1600x900 and is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor running at a frequency of 1.8GHz. There's 4GB of RAM, a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) and Intel's integrated HD 3000 graphics card. Apart from this, there's Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n, a webcam with Bang and Olufsen speakers.
Boot up times are exceptionally quick, at an average of 16 seconds, so you'll start off with your work within no time. The brightness levels of the laptop are brilliant; in fact, they're almost blinding even if you're in a lowly lit environment. The B&O speakers flex their muscles when you play music or movies. They're quite loud and good for personal usage.
However, the notebook's biggest flaws are the trackpad and keyboard. Buttons on the keyboard have poor feedback and the manoeuvring on the trackpad isn't exactly quick.
As far as heating is concerned, the UX31 does a brilliant job keeping things cool.
Great Asus battery life. The Zenbook comes with a powerful, non-removable battery. Under heavy usage with the brightness maxed out, you can still crank out three hours and 40 minutes of non-stop usage, which is definitely an impressive feat. Under normal use, you will easily be able to double that to around six and a half hours.
The Asus Zenbook is like Angelina Jolie. It's hot to look at, but you know full well that a long-term relationship is going to be painful and difficult. Well, we know that, because we've tested the Zenbook and have heard lots about Angelina Jolie having her partner's blood in a container around her neck.
Its design, while sleek, wreaks havoc with our hands. The bezel is just torture to rest on for any length of time.
The trackpad is bad too. Despite its clear effort to copy Apple's system, it is slow, unresponsive and frustrating to use. The buttons are a good idea though, and we like to see the flexibility offered by both gestures and physical keys. The problem was, gestures are horrible to use. Pinch zoom is so bad, we had to turn it off and we didn't find the two finger scroll all that relibable either.
We loved the styling of the Zenbook, we think the power and laptop battery are brilliant. We love the fact that there are a decent number of ports, and that there are included breakout adaptors for Ethernet and VGA. We also love the supplied case.
The Zenbook is a good package, but with a laptop, not being able to type comfortably and use a reliable trackpad is kind of a deal breaker. Definitely one to try before you buy.
The Zenbook, as the company calls it, is extremely thin and only the most important ports like USB 3.0, mini VGA, and SD card reader and HDMI have been included. We have mixed feelings about the notebook's build, though. The power slot is extremely delicate and wobbly when the charger is connected. So much so, that a slight push or nudge might just break it. But in terms of design, the Zenbook clearly holds its own in this huge market full of similar looking laptops.
The 13.3-inch UX31 has quite a high resolution of 1600x900 and is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor running at a frequency of 1.8GHz. There's 4GB of RAM, a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) and Intel's integrated HD 3000 graphics card. Apart from this, there's Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n, a webcam with Bang and Olufsen speakers.
Boot up times are exceptionally quick, at an average of 16 seconds, so you'll start off with your work within no time. The brightness levels of the laptop are brilliant; in fact, they're almost blinding even if you're in a lowly lit environment. The B&O speakers flex their muscles when you play music or movies. They're quite loud and good for personal usage.
However, the notebook's biggest flaws are the trackpad and keyboard. Buttons on the keyboard have poor feedback and the manoeuvring on the trackpad isn't exactly quick.
As far as heating is concerned, the UX31 does a brilliant job keeping things cool.
Great Asus battery life. The Zenbook comes with a powerful, non-removable battery. Under heavy usage with the brightness maxed out, you can still crank out three hours and 40 minutes of non-stop usage, which is definitely an impressive feat. Under normal use, you will easily be able to double that to around six and a half hours.
The Asus Zenbook is like Angelina Jolie. It's hot to look at, but you know full well that a long-term relationship is going to be painful and difficult. Well, we know that, because we've tested the Zenbook and have heard lots about Angelina Jolie having her partner's blood in a container around her neck.
Its design, while sleek, wreaks havoc with our hands. The bezel is just torture to rest on for any length of time.
The trackpad is bad too. Despite its clear effort to copy Apple's system, it is slow, unresponsive and frustrating to use. The buttons are a good idea though, and we like to see the flexibility offered by both gestures and physical keys. The problem was, gestures are horrible to use. Pinch zoom is so bad, we had to turn it off and we didn't find the two finger scroll all that relibable either.
We loved the styling of the Zenbook, we think the power and laptop battery are brilliant. We love the fact that there are a decent number of ports, and that there are included breakout adaptors for Ethernet and VGA. We also love the supplied case.
The Zenbook is a good package, but with a laptop, not being able to type comfortably and use a reliable trackpad is kind of a deal breaker. Definitely one to try before you buy.
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