Monday, February 28, 2011
Automobile Industry welcomes Union Budget
Dr Pawan Goenka, President, SIAM welcomed the Union Budget 2011-12, terming it as a “Reform Oriented Budget”. Hon’ble Finance Minister has talked about several reform initiatives including roadmap for Direct Taxes Code, Constitutional Amendment Bill for Goods & Services Tax (GST) which would be tabled in the current session of the Parliament and also, pilot project across 11 states for implementation of IT towards GST introduction. The amendments related to the Finance Sector will help in streamlining operations and boosting the economy.
Mr S Sandilya, Vice President, SIAM added that the increase in flow of money to the rural areas from Rs. 3,75,000 crores to Rs. 4,75,000 crores would lead to demand creation in rural areas. However, this may also lead to increase in food inflation which one needs to keep a watch on. He added that the Hon’ble FM has also initiated a lot of course corrections, for instance, direct subsidy to Kerosene customers, which would remove a lot of malpractices from the system. Increase in investment in rural warehousing and encouragement for cold storage facilities is also a welcome move. He also welcomed increased allocation to the National Clean Energy Fund and National Skills Development Fund.
Dr Goenka remarked that Hon’ble FM has given a clear message to the industry by announcing setting up of National Mission for Hybrid and Electric Hybrid vehicles. He thanked the Department of Heavy Industry for taking it up on behalf of the industry. He also talked about several fiscal measures for promoting such vehicles including introduction of 10% excise duty for Fuel cell and Hydrogen vehicles, exemption to specified parts from Basic Customs Duty and CVD along with 5% excise duty, etc. which would provide a significant incentive to promote the development, manufacturing and sale of such vehicles in India.
The Hon’ble Finance Minister has also removed certain anomalies in the excise duty structure, which SIAM has been requesting for removal, like Taxi Refund extended to vehicles with seating capacity up to 13 persons and exemption to factory-built ambulances from additional excise duty.
Dr Goenka also welcomed that the Hon’ble FM has accepted our request of not rolling back the economic stimulus package and maintaining the Central CENVAT rate. The industry, however, was expecting some rationalization of excise duty on larger cars and utility vehicles, at least removal of additional excise duty of Rs. 15,000/- from such vehicles, which was not announced.
He hoped that the implementation of all the measures announced in the Union Budget today would fuel growth of overall economic activity and have a positive impact on the automotive industry.
Courtsey: indiainfoline.com
List of Oscar Winners 2011
List of Oscar Winners 2011
BEST actress
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
WINNER: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine
BEST DIRECTOR
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Joel & Ethan Coen, True Grit
David Fincher, The Social Network
WINNER: Tom Hooper, The King's Speech
David O. Russell, The Fighter
BEST SONG
"Coming Home," Country Strong, Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
"I See the Light," Tangled, Alan Menken, Glenn Slater
"If I Rise," 127 Hours, AR Rahman, Dido, Rollo Armstrong
WINNERS: "We Belong Together," Toy Story 3, Randy Newman
BEST EDITING
127 Hours, Jon Harris
Black Swan, Andrew Weisblum
The Fighter, Pamela Martin
The King's Speech, Tariq Anwar
WINNERS: The Social Network, Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Alice in Wonderland, Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Sean Phillips and Carey Villegas
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1, Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
Hereafter, Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
WINNERS: Inception, Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
Iron Man 2, Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Exit Through the Gift Shop, Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz
Gasland, Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
WINNERS: Inside Job, Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
Restrepo, Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington
Waste Land, Lucy Walker and Angus Aynley
BEST SHORT FILM
The Confession, Tanel Toom
The Crush, Michael Creagh
WINNER: God of Love, Luke Matheny
Na Wewe, Ivan Goldschmidt
Wish 143, Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite
BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
Killing in the Name
Poster Girl
WINNERS: Strangers No More, Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
Sun Come Up, Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
The Warriors of Qiugang, Ruby Yang and Thomas Lenno
The King's Speech won Best Picture as many people had expected. In total, The King's Speech won four Oscars. The same amount was also obtained Inception. The difference is, film directed by Christopher Nolan had brought home the technical categories such as Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Cinematography. The film also shines is Toy Story 3 Pixar returnees continued supremacy in the category of Best Animated length. The Fighter prove as a film with the acting prime players, Christian Bale and Melissa Leo, who each earned a Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.
BEST FILM
127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
WINNERS: The King's Speech
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone
BEST ACTOR
Javier Bardem, Biutiful
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
WINNER: Colin Firth, The King's Speech
James Franco, 127 Hours
TATA Best Costume
WINNERS: Alice in Wonderland, Colleen Atwood
I Am Love, Antonella Cannarozzi
The King's Speech, Jenny Beaven
The Tempest, Sandy Powell
True Grit, Mary Zophres
BEST MAKEUP
Barney's Version, Adrien Morot
The Way Back, Eduoard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk, Yolanda Toussieng
WINNERS: The Wolfman, Rick Baker and Dave Elsey
BEST SOUND EDITING
WINNERS: Inception, Richard King
Toy Story 3, Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
TRON: Legacy, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
True Grit, Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
Unstoppable, Mark P. Stoeckinger
BEST SOUND MIXING
WINNERS: Inception, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo, and Ed Novick
The King's Speech, Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen, and John Midgley
Salt, Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan, and William Sarokin
The Social Network, Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, and Mark Weingarten
True Grit, Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, and Peter F. Kurland
BEST THEME MUSIC
127 Hours, AR Rahman
How to Train Your Dragon, John Powell
Inception, Hans Zimmer
The King's Speech, Alexandre Desplat
WINNERS: The Social Network, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
WINNER: Christian Bale, The Fighter
John Hawkes, Winter's Bone
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Hors la Loi (Outside the Law) (Algeria)
Incendies (Canada)
WINNERS: In a Better World (Denmark)
Dogtooth (Greece)
Biutiful (Mexico)
BEST ORIGINAL SCENARIO
Another Year, written by Mike Leigh
The Fighter, Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson, Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
Inception, written by Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right, written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
WINNERS: The King's Speech, Screenplay by David Seidler
BEST ADAPTATION SCENARIOS
127 Hours, Screenplay by Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy
WINNERS: The Social Network, Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3, Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
True Grit, written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Winter's Bone, adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini
ANIMATED FILM
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
WINNERS: Toy Story 3
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Day & Night, Teddy Newton
The Gruffalo, Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
Let's Pollute, Geefwee Boedoe
WINNERS: The Lost Thing, Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
Madagascar, carnet de Voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary), Bastien Dubois
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech
WINNERS: Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
Best Cinematography
Black Swan, Matthew Libatique
WINNERS: Inception, Wally Pfister
The King's Speech, Danny Cohen
The Social Network, Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit, Roger Deakins
BEST OF ARTISTIC
WINNERS: Alice in Wonderland, Robert Stromberg, Karen O'Hara
Happy Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1, Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
Inception, Guy Hendrix Dryas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat
The King's Speech, Eve Stewart, Judy Farr
True Grit, Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh
The reason why Keyword 'Kebaikan SBY' become 'keburukan SBY' in Google search engine
Below the reason why Keyword 'Kebaikan SBY' become 'Kebaikan SBY' in Google search engine. There are many reasons why Google automatically perform searches revision. This could be related to differences in the contents of the index, the number of keywords keburukan that more and more, "said Budi Raharjo. The first possibility, there are many people who make a good article about SBY but contains more information about the keburukan SBY in the article body. Because Google is a search engine that uses the number of keywords then Google automatically make corrections. Second, many people who write in the title or the beginning of paragraphs in the article indexed in Google, put the word 'kebaikan SBY'. However, on the next page, comment or link the article appears to include many words about the evils of SBY. "We can not know directly on the front page of Google about the overall content of related articles 'kebaikan SBY'. The phenomenon of Google's suggestions include revision of the word 'keburukan SBY' in the search word 'kebaikan SBY' is a rare occurrence. Still, there are explanations. No element of premeditation in the Google search engine because it is just automatic. "This is not intentional. Could be, many of which include the word keburukan SBY on comments and links." A third possibility is the installation of index and categories of words in the form of 'badness SBY' on the article or the Internet contains good news SBY. "All the articles on the internet basically includes an index and category.Therefore, the discrepancy could be the installation of the index and the category of news content. "
Tûranor PlanetSolar wallpaper and price
The exclusive Tûranor PlanetSolar wallpaper. Tûranor PlanetSolar is ultramodern Yacht price U.S. $ 17.5 million that can reach speed of 12 knots and aims to demonstrate the potential for air pollution-free travel. while browsing the world, some traditions are still carried out sailing. Between lainsaat first voyage across the Equator. Said project leader Gerhard Beinhauer, while it also conducted a ceremony or ritual journey "By the god Neptune, who is assisted by Helios, god of the sun." During his efforts around the world, Tûranor PlanetSolar, sailing at 30 degrees latitude trajectory Equator to maximize exposure to sunlight. This ship is fully using the sun as a source of energy. Sunlight on the 825-some solar panels installed on its wings extended, which can generate electricity up to 93.5 kilowatts. Lithium-ion batteries in both the float to move the ship at night and enough to pass through three full days without sunlight. A computer controls the flow of energy into the batteries and motors that drive the propellers 1.8 meters long yacht.
Contemplating getting a GoPro HD HERO Wide camera
Specification Comparison Chart (courtesy of http://www.helmetcamreview.com)
ContourGPS HD 1080p | GoPro HD HERO Wide | |
Suggested Retail Price | RM1280 | RM1299 |
Included mounts | Goggle and flat surface, extra stickem pad | Vented helmet, headband, 2 flat surface, 2 curved surface, adjustable pivot arm, WP housing* with add'l open "audio" back, 2 quick release mounts |
Included cables | USB | USB, HDTV and RCA |
Software | Online download available | No |
Lens/Field Of View (FOV) | 110 deg. on 1080p, WVGA 135 deg. on 960p & 720p | 127 deg. on 1080p 170 deg. on 960 & 720p |
Adjustable camera settings | via software: Time, 4 video quality, audio gain, bit rate, contrast, exposure, sharpness, spot/center/avg. metering | via camera menu: video settings exposure metering |
Video settings | 1080p@30fps 960p "full frame"@30fps 720p@30 or 60fps WVGA (848x480 @60fps) | 1080p@30fps 960p "full frame"@30fps 720p@30 or 60fps |
File Type/codec | QuickTime .MOV/H.264 | MP4/H.264 |
Battery / included | rechargeable lithium - yes | rechargeable lithium - yes |
Battery run time | 3 hrs (as per Mfg.) | 2.5 hours (as per Mfg.) |
Internal memory | No | No |
Memory Storage | MicroSD up to 16GB | SD up to 32GB |
Memory included | Yes - 2GB | No |
Still photos? | No | Yes - 5 mp, several modes |
Digital zoom? | No | No |
Remote or LANC | No | No |
weight w/battery | 4.4oz | 6.3oz in wp case*, 3.5oz without |
Size L x W x H | 3.75" x 1.27" x 2.15" | 1.6" x 2.77" x 2.5" (in case) |
Weather resistance | "water resistant" Not WP without WP housing - NOT included | Yes, only with WP housing* (included) |
Other notes: | GPS tracking, Rotatable lens, dual laser sighting system Online video hosting/posting | *housing must be used for mounting of camera |
Judging from the reviews and user feedback from numerous sites on the internet, boths products have their strengths and weaknesses. In my case however, I'm looking for a camera that provides high quality footage and ease of editing (the GoPro camera excels in these two areas). Mounting and ease of use are secondary since the camera will mostly be mounted inside the car (the Countour camera is easy to deploy and is less of a hassle to mount). So whats the verdict?
Have a look at this video comparison between the two cameras and I'm sure you'll come to the same conclusion that I arrived at:
Oh and check out this awesome GoPro video of a ProSports car race between Porsches and Jaguars as they battle it out at Laguna Seca.
Contemplating getting a GoPro HD HERO Wide camera
Specification Comparison Chart (courtesy of http://www.helmetcamreview.com)
ContourGPS HD 1080p | GoPro HD HERO Wide | |
Suggested Retail Price | RM1280 | RM1299 |
Included mounts | Goggle and flat surface, extra stickem pad | Vented helmet, headband, 2 flat surface, 2 curved surface, adjustable pivot arm, WP housing* with add'l open "audio" back, 2 quick release mounts |
Included cables | USB | USB, HDTV and RCA |
Software | Online download available | No |
Lens/Field Of View (FOV) | 110 deg. on 1080p, WVGA 135 deg. on 960p & 720p | 127 deg. on 1080p 170 deg. on 960 & 720p |
Adjustable camera settings | via software: Time, 4 video quality, audio gain, bit rate, contrast, exposure, sharpness, spot/center/avg. metering | via camera menu: video settings exposure metering |
Video settings | 1080p@30fps 960p "full frame"@30fps 720p@30 or 60fps WVGA (848x480 @60fps) | 1080p@30fps 960p "full frame"@30fps 720p@30 or 60fps |
File Type/codec | QuickTime .MOV/H.264 | MP4/H.264 |
Battery / included | rechargeable lithium - yes | rechargeable lithium - yes |
Battery run time | 3 hrs (as per Mfg.) | 2.5 hours (as per Mfg.) |
Internal memory | No | No |
Memory Storage | MicroSD up to 16GB | SD up to 32GB |
Memory included | Yes - 2GB | No |
Still photos? | No | Yes - 5 mp, several modes |
Digital zoom? | No | No |
Remote or LANC | No | No |
weight w/battery | 4.4oz | 6.3oz in wp case*, 3.5oz without |
Size L x W x H | 3.75" x 1.27" x 2.15" | 1.6" x 2.77" x 2.5" (in case) |
Weather resistance | "water resistant" Not WP without WP housing - NOT included | Yes, only with WP housing* (included) |
Other notes: | GPS tracking, Rotatable lens, dual laser sighting system Online video hosting/posting | *housing must be used for mounting of camera |
Judging from the reviews and user feedback from numerous sites on the internet, boths products have their strengths and weaknesses. In my case however, I'm looking for a camera that provides high quality footage and ease of editing (the GoPro camera excels in these two areas). Mounting and ease of use are secondary since the camera will mostly be mounted inside the car (the Countour camera is easy to deploy and is less of a hassle to mount). So whats the verdict?
Have a look at this video comparison between the two cameras and I'm sure you'll come to the same conclusion that I arrived at:
Oh and check out this awesome GoPro video of a ProSports car race between Porsches and Jaguars as they battle it out at Laguna Seca.