21 November 2008
22 October 2008
Nandi Hills is a hill station of southern India, in the Chikkaballapur District of Karnataka state. It is 60km from Bangalore. It is 4851 ft above sea level. It is located in close proximity to the newly constructed Bangalore International Airport, the second largest in India. In addition, the hills are located about 20 km from the National Highway (NH-7) just after Devanahalli Town. Due to its location, Nandi Hills is rapidly developing and numerous commercial and residential ventures are underway in the region. The Central Government wants it to be a National tourist spot and wants to undertake it from the State Government.
It is the highest point in the whole of Karnataka.
Nandi Hills is the source of the Penner , Ponnaiyar and Palar rivers. Nandi Hills gets its name from an ancient Nandi temple situated on this hill. This temple has a thousand year old sculpture of Nandi. An ancient lord Shiva and Parvati temple also adorns this hill. Some people say that from the sky the hills look like a Nandi bull and hence the name Nandi Betta which means Nandi hills in the native language.
Nandidurg was traditionally held impregnable, and its storming by Cornwallis in 1791 was one of the most notable incidents of the first war against Tipu Sultan of Mysore. It was formerly a favourite resort for British Raj officials during the hot season. Francis built the summer residence here for Sir Mark Cubbon. There is a place called Tipu drop where prisoners were brought for execution; they were pushed from that spot.
The hills are now a popular tourist spot during summer. The state horticulture department maintains a garden for the tourists. The pressure of tourists on the environment here is great with a considerable problem of litter, noise and physical disturbance. There are a lot of monkey’s and dogs on top of the hill so tourists must be careful of their belongings which might be snatched and thrown away by the monkey’s.
Review: Karzzzz
This is a recarnation of the three decade old Karz directed originally by Subhas Ghai. This is directed by Satish Kaushik and is very much simillar to the original Karz but gives a touch of moderness to the film. The music is ofcourse given by the actor Himesh and is a typical of his songs...
09 October 2008
27 March 2008
Future Hindi Movies - Some Titles
- Java wale job le jayenge
- Hum Disconnect Ho Gaye Sanam,
- Meri hardisk tumhare paas hai
- Aao chat kare
- Hum Hai Programmer Oracle key
- Programmer no 1
- Mera naam developer
- Badalate platforms
- Kuch kuch download hota hai
- Kahani Keyboard ki
- Hum aapke memory mein rahate hain
- Har kohi jo hack ho gah
- Do(2) processor baarah(12) terminal
- Mera code chal gaya
- Har Din jo mail Karega
- Khel Virus ka
- Aur Logout Ho Gaye
- Virus Aur Antivirus
- Yeh Raste Hain internet kay
- Network Ke Ush Paar
- Debugging koi Khel nahi
- Jis Desh mein Bill(gates) rahata Hai
- Client ek numbari, PROGRAMMER Dus Nambari
- Onlinepan
- Login karo sajana
- Naukar PC ka
- Firewall (Border)
- Net bin
- Meri debugging
- Restart to hona hi tha
- Tera Mera Program
- Partition (Deewar)
- Rehna Hai Tehre Inbox Main
- 1942 - A Bug Story
- Kabhi Connect, Kabhi Disconnect
- Raju ban gaya MCSE..!
- Kaho Na Virus Hai
LYCHEE
Benefit and uses of Lichi
Lichi to relieve coughing and to have a beneficial effect on gastralgia, tumors and enlargements of the glands.
It is crushed seeds are used to alleviate pain and for intestinal problems. A tea from the lichi peel is taken to control diarrhea. Root, flower and bark extracts are taken as a treatment for sore throat. The roots show anti-cancer activity.
Lichi fruit increase body fluids needed for good health. Fruit also contains about 0.7% protein, 0.3% fat, 0.7% minerals (particularly calcium and phosphorus) and is a reasonable source of vitamins C (64 mg/100 g pulp), A, B1 and B2.
The lichi fruit increase your energy.
Ashwarya Rai Bachchan is Exquisite
20 March 2008
Health Tips!!
- Answer the phone by LEFT ear
- Do not drink coffee TWICE a day.
- Do not take pills with COOL water.
- Do not have HUGE meals after 5pm.Reduce the amount of OILY food you consume.
- Drink more WATER in the morning, less at night.
- Keep your distance from hand phone CHARGERS.Do not use headphones/earphone for LONG period of time.
- Best sleeping time is from 10pm at night to 6am in the morning.
- Do not lie down immediately after taking medicine before sleeping.
- When battery is down to the LAST grid/bar, do not answer the phone as the radiation is 1000 times.
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--Imagination is more important than knowledge. - Einstein
Guide for installing and configuring Raid!!
With the advent of onboard raid controllers becoming more mainstream, I thought a guide for installing and configuring raid might be helpful. First a short discussion on what raid can do for you and what it will not do for you.
First and foremost, raid is NOT a backup solution. While Raid-1, Raid-01, or Raid-5 offer some degree of backup in regard to a hardware failure, it does nothing if you get a virus, bad driver install, etc. What raid can do for you is to offer either some performance increase [generally around 35-40%] in regard to disk read/writes OR some protection for a failed hard disk.
If you think you would like to try running raid, the first thing to decide is what type of raid you want. The options here are as follows.
Raid-0.
Raid-0 offers only a performance increase; there is NO redundancy in regard to hardware. A failure of one drive will result in the loss of ALL data on the array. Again backups cannot be stressed enough. Raid-0 does have the advantage that you do not loose disk space. If you use two drives of 120gig, you have an array of 240gig. The advantage here is performance only.
Raid-1.
Raid-1 offers the advantage of recovery in the advent of a disk failure. If one drive of a Raid-1 array fails, you replace the failed drive and restart. Enter the raid bios and rebuild the array. Use of Raid-1 will result in no performance increase AND the loss of ½ of your disk space. If you use the same two 120gig drives in Raid-1, you end up with an array of 120gig. Note there can be a slight decrease in disk performance since everything must be written twice.
Raid-5.
Raid-5 offers the advantage of both speed increase and the ability to recover from a single drive failure. With Raid-5, you will loose some of your disk space. With three 120gig drives, you have a 240gig array. Raid-5 is not generally as fast as Raid-0 however loss of one drive does not result in complete data loss. There are other variants of Raid however those are the most popular so that is what I will deal with here. Note many onboard type controllers only support Raid-0, Raid-1, or sometimes Raid-01. Often if you want Raid-5 you must buy a real raid card. If you have not ordered your motherboard yet, now would be a good time to do a little research and see if the board you are considering will support the type of Raid you want to run.With that out of the way, we can continue with setting up our array. Again I always recommend using drives of the same size, speed, and cache size.
Step 1 Connect your drives to the controller. If you have an older ide type raid controller, each drive should be jumpered as master on its own ide channel. As an example you connect your first drive to ide1 on your controller and your second drive to ide2 on your controller. Set jumpers as master on both drives. Connect power to the drives.If you have sata type drives, you simply connect the drives to the controller and connect power. The only jumper on a sata drive is for speed limiting. If your controller only supports sata1 and you have sata2 drives, then you should set the speed limit jumper.
Step2 If you have an onboard type controller ie it came on your motherboard, you must set the controller mode to raid. This is done in the system [not raid] bios. As each bios is different you must read your manual as to how to set the controller mode. Note if you are using a real raid card such as a promise, highpoint, adaptec, etc. You do not need to set the mode.
Step3 Select your drives. Restart your system and enter the raid [not system] bios. To enter the raid bios you will hit a key combo. Popular key combos are Ctrl>I for intel, Crtl>H for highpoint, Crtl>F for promise. Again read your manual. Once in the Raid bios you will see your drives. Select to create an array. Next is what type of array; Raid-0, Raid-1, etc. Note this is often called stripe or mirror; again read the manual. Next step you will add drives to the array. Generally this is just highlight each drive you want to add and hit enter. Once done with that task you will create the array.
Step4. Make the array bootable. Most raid bios default to this however highpoint does not do this. You must select the array and select the option to make bootable. Restart the system and enter the system bios [not the raid bios] make sure your array or your add-in card is listed as the boot drive / device. While in the bios set the CD as the first boot device. Save settings and exit.
Step5 Partition and format the array. Now we are ready to install an operating system. Insert your win2k, xp, or vista cd/dvd in the drive and restart. Note for win2k or xp, you MUST have the Raid driver on a floppy disk. If you are installing vista, there is a very good chance vista will have drivers for your controller. I know it has promise and intel drivers; I have not installed it on any other raid controllers. During the first part of setup for win2k or xp you will have to hit the F6 key to load the driver. Note often a motherboard will come with either a driver floppy OR your support CD has an option to make a driver disk. Real Raid cards come with a driver floppy. Once you load the driver, you will see your Raid array displayed on the “Where to install menu page” You will need to create one or more partitions and format with ntfs.
Since many new systems are built without a floppy drive, here are two alternate methods of coping with the need to load the raid drivers.
First method.If your current install of windows is working fine without problems, you can clone it to your Raid array. To do this connect the drives and create the array as previously. Leave your current drive [with operating system and apps, etc] connected for now. Make sure you have the Raid controller installed and showing that it is operating correctly in device manager. Now boot your system with your cloning app. I use and recommend Acronis True Image for this task. Choose the source [old drive] and destination [new raid array] During this part Acronis will give you the option to retain your current partition size, to keep the same percentage, or it will allow you to resize the partitions. Note this must be in expert or manual mode to do this. Once you are sure of partition sizes, etc, complete the clone process. Now shutdown and disconnect your old drive. Note you can just pull the power connector from the drive. VERY IMPORTANT do not reboot with the old drive and the array connect; this WILL result in drive letter problems. Restart the system and make sure it will boot, drive letters are correct, etc. Once you are sure all is well, you can shutdown and reconnect your old drive; windows will assign the next available drive letter to the old drive. Note if the old drive was ide, many motherboards will default to that drive as the boot drive. Before you let windows boot with the old drive connected, enter the bios and make sure the Raid array is listed as the boot drive.
Second method.This option requires you to make a slipstreamed windows install disk with the raid drivers integrated into the install disk. There are various apps to choose from to accomplish this task. The only one I have used for this is Nlite. It does work well however you must have .NET installed to use Nlite. Slipstreaming is a whole guide on its own so if you want to use this method, you need to do some reading on your own. FWIW I have made custom install disks with win2k or xp for nvidia, promise, and highpoint controllers. This method works very well.
Once the raid driver is loaded during setup, it is no different than loading windows on any drive.You now have a raid array and either increased disk performance or increased hardware redundancy.
Congratulations!!!!!
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--Imagination is more important than knowledge. - Einstein
The reason we use Linux!!!!
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--Imagination is more important than knowledge. - Einstein
What every programmer should know about memory
Here are all of the links to each part of the article:
Memory Part 1. Introduction.
Memory Part 2. CPU caches.
Memory Part 3. Virtual Memory.
Memory Part 4. NUMA support.
Memory Part 5. What programmers can do - cache optimization.
Memory Part 6. What programmers can do - multi-threaded optimizations.
Memory Part 7. Memory performance tools.
Memory Part 8. Future technologies.
Memory Part 9. Appendices and bibliography.
-- Anil
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Imagination is more important than knowledge. - Einstein
MICROSOFT FACTS!!!!
Nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the computer which can be named as "CON" . This is something pretty cool...and unbelievable . At Microsoft the whole Team, couldn't answer why thishappened !, TRY IT NOW ,IT WILL NOT CREATE " CON " FOLDER
For those of you using Windows, do the following:
Katrina Kaif
- Katrina Kaif is half British and half Indian.
Indian supermodel
Has 6 sisters and 1 brother.
She refuses to speak about her personal life in the media.
She doesn't do ramp shows anymore.
She was chosen as the face of the year for the Lakme India Fashion Week (2005).
Her favorite Indian designers are Rina Dhaka, Tarun Tahiliani, Rocky S.
Her favorite international designers are Armani, Miu Miu, Prada, Versace.
Favorite actor is Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Shahrukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Aamir Favorite actresses are Kajol and Madhuri Dixit.
Favorite cricketer is Irfan Pathan.
Favorite Indian food is dahi and rice.
Favorite movies are Umrao Jaan (1981), Casablanca (1942), and Gone with the Wind (1939).
Prefers acting over modeling.
Nickname:Kat
Height5' 8½" (1.74 m)
Mini Biography
Born on July 16, 1984 Katrina Kaif is one of eight siblings, all girls, from a mother who is a Caucasian of British Nationality, and a father who was formerly from Kashmir, India, but who has since acquired British citizenship.Katrina grew up in Hawaii, but was brought up in London, UK. She started modeling accidentally when she was in Hawaii at the tender age of 14, when she was approached for a jewelery campaign. Thereafter she continued modeling in London.Continuing to model was the reason she got her break in a Bollywood movie "Boom" offered by none other than film-maker Kaizad Gustad.She was flooded with modeling assignments the minute she set her foot on Indian soil, especially with her innocent expressive face, hour-glass figure, and drop-dead gorgeous looks.Professionally she started off as a model with photographer Atul Kasbekar, and upon being accepted, she received offers from LG, Cola, Fevicol, Lakme, & Veet. It was the Lakme commercial that got her noticed. She retained Matrix as her Manager to accept work on her behalf and at the price she deserved.Moving to different culture and country was not much of a culture shock for her, as she states that no matter where you come from, the bottom line is that everyone wants to be loved, respected, and cared for.Unlike other artistes from foreign lands, Katrina did not experience any difficulties in getting a visa nor of getting it extended in India.Although linguistically challenged, Katrina puts on a bold face and states that other Bollywood artistes like Sridevi, who did not know Hindi, did get offers from Bollywood film-makers, and she is no different. She is taking Hindi and dancing lessons to fit in with the Bollywood culture. She likes to display a picture of her learning Kathak dancing where she used to dance 7 hours a day non-stop.Despite of her soft gorgeous looks, she is not easily intimidated, but admits that she is very emotional, almost an incurable romantic, wears comfortable non-revealing clothes when at home, hates to do her hair, and above all dislikes make-up. Admitting to being lonely in the beginning, but now has several nice friends who she can hang out with.Although her first movie "Boom" was panned by the critics and shunned by the audiences, two other Telegu movies "Malliswari" and "Pidugu" did get her noticed. She grossed Rs.70 lakhs for Malliswari - making her top the list of the highest paid actresses during a South Indian movie debut.Not done with South Indian movies, she has been signed in a Tamil movie "Bheema" opposite National Award Winner Vikram.She has received decent reviews for her part in "Maine Pyar Kyon Kiya", as well as a brief appearance in "Sarrkar".Katrina has now made Bombay her base, and doesn't mind singing and dancing around trees while she's at it, and is determined to make it big in Bollywood.
Indian supermodel
Has 6 sisters and 1 brother.
Was born in Hong Kong and then moved to Hawaii till she was about 14, then she moved to London. Presently, she lives in Mumbai.
Unlike other artistes from foreign lands, Katrina did not experience any difficulties in getting a visa nor of getting it extended in India.
She was discovered at age 14 as a model for a jewelry campaign.
When moving to India, she worked for photographer Atul Kasbekar and did commercials for Fevicol, Lakme and Veet among others.
She is very particular about her clothes which she wears a bold outfit on screen or for ads, but she feels more comfortable in not-so-revealing clothes in personal life. And the one thing she hates is make up.
She refuses to speak about her personal life in the media.
Besides walking the ramp for several top designers and being on magazine covers, Katrina has also been the stunning face of Estelle jewelery, Lakme, Pantene, Veet, Kodak cameras, L'Oreal, Samsung, LG etc.
She doesn't do ramp shows anymore.
She was chosen as the face of the year for the Lakme India Fashion Week (2005).
Her favorite Indian designers are Rina Dhaka, Tarun Tahiliani, Rocky S.
Her favorite international designers are Armani, Miu Miu, Prada, Versace.
Favorite Indian food is dahi and rice.
Favorite movies are Umrao Jaan (1981), Casablanca (1942), and Gone with the Wind (1939).
Favorite perfume is Gucci Rush.
Prefers acting over modeling.
Personal Quotes:
Her thoughts on Bollywood accepting her, being an outsider British girl, into Indian cinema: "I have no complaints. I think I'm especially lucky. As you said, I've come from outside and I'm not even anywhere closely connected. But I have absolutely no problem here. People have been more than welcoming, even before I was ready. There was a time when I felt that I need to take time to understand more about the industry, the workings of it. I was doing my modeling, which I really wanted to do at the time. So that's why even my entry into films was later than people expected."
"I've been very blessed, I think, or what do you call it... mmm... lucky to get at this stage what I have. It's not like I've come from acting school and done work at an academy or something. I feel I've been given a very huge chance and opportunity."
Kareena Kapoor
Childhood and Early Life
Due to family tradition, her father wanted her to get married early and settle down, thus avoiding acting, which was considered a taboo for Kapoor women. This led to irreconcilable differences between her parents, and resulted in her mother leaving the house along with Kapoor and her sister. She was raised by her mother, who, with difficulty, worked several jobs to support the family, until her sister got into films in 1991.
Kapoor did her schooling at Jamnabai Narsee School in Mumbai, and later Welham Girls Boarding School in Dehradun. After studying commerce at Mithibai College, Vile Parle for two years, she took a three-month summer course in microcomputers at Harvard. She developed an interest in law, thus enrolled at the Government's Law College in Churchgate. After completing one year there, she returned to her initial plan to become an actor, and began training under Kishor Namit Kapoor, the founder of Kapoor Acting Lab
Birth Date - September21, 1980
Height - 5'5"
Father & Mother - Randhir Kapoor & Babita KapoorSister - Karishma KapoorFavorite Films - Awaara, Sangam,Bobby, Kal Aaj Aur Kal.Favorite Actor - Raj KapoorFavorite Actress - Nargis, of course, after BabitaFavorite Color - Black and RedFavorite Song - "Rahe na rahe hum mehaka karenge..."First Crush - My 4th std. Desk partner while i was in SchoolStrengths - My mom & sisterWeakeness - My sister and food
Debut Movie - Refugee (Starring Abhishek Bachchan)
Filmfare Awards
2001 Filmfare Best Debut Award, Refugee2004 Filmfare Special Performance Award, Chameli2005 Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance, Dev2007 Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance, Omkara2008 Filmfare Best Actress Awards, Jab We Met
Film Career
She perform every kind of role so well, so beautifully and do perfect justice for their character ... character can be of a prostitute Chameli (2004) ... may be a character of rural based girl with touch of urban in Omkara (2006) as Dolly or a bubbly and fun loving girl Geet Dhillon in Jab we met (2006). Her dialogue in Jab we met ... "main apni favorite hu" is now common among young and teen age girls of India ... her bad period as an Actress was 2002 - 03 ... during this period her six films were not successful ... two were under top ranked banner ... Yash Raj (Mujhse Dosti Laroge) and other one was Rajshri Production (Main Prem ki Diwani Hoon)
Kareena Kapoor in various character and awesome perfomance
Personal Life
Kareena admire the talent and ability of Shahid and on one of her interview she said "I have seen Shahid from his first film to Jab We Met and I can say that there is a marked difference. According to me he is a bundle of talent waiting to explode. I have that much of faith in him as an actor.
Kareena and Shahid were the perfect couple in bollywood ... and still their well wishers want they get back together ... but this wish come to an end when Saif confirmed on October 18, 2007, during Manish Malhotra's grand finale show at the Lakme Fashion Week, "Yes, we are not exactly shouting from the rooftops but yes, clearly we are together. And we are happy together!"
14 March 2008
Hero Honda Karizma: Always Ahead, Always GAME!!!
General information | |
---|---|
Model: | Hero Honda Karizma R |
Year: | 2008 |
Category: | Sport R |
Introduction:
With the 223cc, 17.76bhp, 18.35Nm Karizma, Hero Honda has once again wrested the title of king of the performance hill (it helped create with its CBZ some four years ago) from the Bajaj Pulsar 220 which held it convincingly for over a year and a half.The bike which is not only quicker and faster than its competition but also handles, steers and brakes like no other bike in the country - today.
There I was flat out on the Bangalore - Mysore highway, in a very good frame of mind after testing the Karizma and heading back to base. The new 223cc bike from Hero Honda had impressed me truly , not beccause it had clocked the quickest acceleration and roll-on times plus also recorded the fastest speed for a present day production motorcycle but because the bike was in too mellow a state of tune and therefore had tremendous potential to perform even quicker and faster!
With this thought paramount in my mind and the bike really zinging that day in the fourth and fifth cogs for much of the 120km run, I guess it was all going too much to my head as I came upon an open stretch of road with a slight uphill section curving to the left. What I saw was no traffic when all of a sudden a cyclist with a large trunk crawled out of the woodwork and suddenly decided to do his variation on the twirl perfected by John Travolta in Grease but right in my intended flight path. While it looked pleasing and aesthetic in the film, it was anything but so on the road. While Travolta and team delighted the audience, here the audience suddenly had his heart in his mouth. The one bit which is obviously a sore point (of just a few such) on the new Hero Honda was proved no end and I am referring to the inadequacy of the horn because I am sure the cyclist never heard it and in the whirl of those few seconds it didn't ring a bell in my ears as well!
But in case you are thinking about a stunning crash scene as in Grease there was no such thing. The superb dynamic balance of the Karizma with its highly pleasing weight distribution and suspension geometry came to my rescue as did the fantastic 276mm dia disc brake up front (courtesy a new player in the motorcycle brake market - Tata Yutaxa). A slight squeeze on the front brake lever, a rapid downshift to third from fifth, a blip on the throttle and the gyrating bicyclist was passed with metres to spare and thankfully no contact. For a moment I thought it was all going to end in tears but when I had got my breath back and was motoring sedately (if cruising at 110kmph can be called that on our roads), I once again began to appreciate what a fantastic bike Hero Honda had produced. In fact by the time I had ended doing the test the Karizma had done enough to wipe out the memories of the CBZ which had promised much but had failed to deliver, and it further emphasised that it was the best bike ever made by Hero Honda but with tremendous potential yet lurking to be unleashed should the competition cook up some goodies on similar lines.
It is a different way to start a road test report but then this is a different bike in itself and unlike any from Hero Honda.With the Karizma, I think that they finally have made a bike which has the potential to silence doubters like yours truly but here again they have failed because instead of silencing they have everyone of our performance driven staffers yelling out in glee! Sometimes 'even when you win you lose' sort of syndrome (works the other way round as well) but better for Hero Honda to be saddled with such than nothing at all.
The need to do a Karizma!
The CBZ was the very first bold move by the leader in Indian motocyles to offer a performance offering. On its own, the CBZ was a standout and even today in the aesthetic sense and when ergonomics are taken into account, nothing comes close to it. Sadly its weaknesses in power delivery, harsh engine straining at its top end and a slight handling imbalance when at full chat were shown up when first the Fiero from TVS came up and impressed with it engine and fluid power delivery and then the Bajaj Pulsar came and zapped all to show what all round performance was all about.
Mind you the Pulsar was yet just 220cc and Hero Honda knew that it had to make a bike appeal to those who lusted after the Pulsar but wanted more. Also the Pulsar being much too single minded in its focus - that of being a super streetfighter - there was always the opportunity of someone coming up with a proper conventional sportsbike. Hero Honda had been given the basic Honda building block of a strong bottom end which could employ cylinder blocks varying in capacity from 133cc right up to 223cc and this modular unit was already used by the company to come up first with the CBZ and then with the Ambition. The frame was similarly versatile for being used all across this displacement spectrum and using these and understanding where customer preference was headed, the Honda boffins alongwith the marketing men from Hero Honda came up with the Karizma. I have always maintained that a good quarter-litre bike could be the best useable machine in the Indian perspective and maybe this thought was also prevalent in the minds of the Hero Honda team when they were developing the Karizma. As it has turned out, the bike is still 27cc shy of the 250cc mark but it is a good step towards getting there.
Style & Build
Game attempt to be modern but solidly put together.
The first things which dominate the senses once you lock eyes on the Karizma are its front end and the overall mass of the bike. The front fairing is a piece of art when viewed from certain angles and looks real rakish and sporty, being a scaled down rendering of the unit adorning the VFR800, right down to the design and cut of the headlamp. But if you even deviate a bit to any other side from its most pleasing angle, the ungainliness creeps in thanks to the side panels on which I frankly thought not much was done. The fixed fairing's meshing with the tank is blemishless but it is the style which has got jumbled for it just doesn't comes across harmoniously. This is one of the biggest let downs of the Karizma for as you move from the tank backwards, the style accents are there in the traditionally pleasing Honda sports bike fashion.
The tank with its sculpted knee recesses adds to the great biker feel as does the super saddle which makes the straddling posture so very inviting. Certain elements of the side panels running right to the tail of the bike look like they have been seen before (on the Ambition if you please) but Hero Honda has excelled in using different paint shades and finishes on the plastic and metal parts to contrast and gell well to accentuate the mechanical as aesthetically as possible. The finish on the engine (head, barrel and crankcase covers), the pseudo plastic cover denoting a mock-frame rail meging into the side panel, the black powder coated exhaust pipe running into the de-rigeur large diameter end can, the black-finished springs (on the shock absorbers) and also the mag wheels do take care of the aesthetic end of the bike in a big way.
The front headlamp is a great job and Hero Honda brings modern day superbike style to India with it. The instrument panel with its three dial layout (large speedo in the centre flanked by the rev counter on the left and the digital read-out roundel on the right) is well conceived and treated but what spoils the visual appeal is the lack of shrouding at the top yoke area, daylight streaming through there. This detail should have been shrouded and maybe Hero Honda will take us up on this positively.
Performance:
The Karizma comes across as the quickest and the fastest Indian-built production motorcycle i've have ever tested (the Yamaha Drag Star which goes on sale in India later in the year is a CBU and doesn't therefore count here). What is praiseworthy is that this is a bike which has been built singlehandedly to perform but with good manners and pleasing power delivery rather than being a firebreather of a motor. The higher cubic capacity always helps and this it has done but the engine's new found willingness to rev clean and sharply whenever the rider twists the throttle reveals a whole new direction for a Hero Honda engine.
The engine has a great new zeal to spin away in a strong linear manner with torque making it haul away from rest - a very important factor considering its 150kg kerb weight. With our man Aspi in the hot seat during the performance tests and data acquisition, the Karizma just sizzled away to the top of the performance hill, edging out the present incumbent - the Pusar 220 - from its perch.
In the acceleration tests, the 220 Pulsar with its kerb weight (148 kg) gets off the line quicker and is ahead uptill the 50kmph mark but from there on the Karizma ups the pace, gets into its thurst mode and opens up a gap which keeps on getting larger and larger. The Karizma took 4.7 seconds to go from standstill to 60kmph and in the crucial 0-100kmph run she took 14.5 seconds. Comparative times for the Pulsar 220 were 4.8 seconds and 16.5 seconds respectively. In the standing quarter mile acceleration run, the Karizma once again showed who is the new king of the hill, recording an 18.83 second time with a 109.95kmph terminal speed.
In all these runs, what was manifest about the Hero Honda was its strong consistent thrust, not seeming to run out of steam even with our repeated acceleration cycles and also not losing its edge in tune. This, for me was, more than the obviously high performance the bike delivers, a stand-out detail especially since I was so hooked up on the CBZ but which disappointed with its lack of consistent performance. Even in the roll-ons the Karizma continues it rule-all sweep and in the top speed department we have to give credit to Hero Honda for sticking its neck out and claiming a 125kmph because the Karizma in our dual direction top speed run recorded 125.6kmph! It doesn't get closer than this and the only area in which we couldn't match up to the manufacturer's claims was in the zero to 60kmph time of 3.8seconds. Till the time we develop a 60kg tester (or see anyone from our lot resorting to an impossible weight loss programme) to be as good and effective as our 90kg genius Aspi we do not see anyone from our end coming close to Hero Honda's claim in this performance test. But then the Karizma has performacne all across its spectrum and in every respect it comes out on top, stops all discussion doesn't it?
Rinspeed creates underwater scuba car
Roger Moore's feats as the iconic British spy may be difficult to match, but a Swiss company says it has created a vehicle that really can turn into a submarine - though without the firearms. The concept scuba car developer Rinspeed calls its "sQuba" the first real submersible car. Unlike military vehicles, which can only drive slowly on a lakebed, Rinspeed says its car can provide a stable "flight" at a depth of 10 metres. "For three decades I have tried to imagine how it might be possible to build a car that can fly underwater," says Frank Rinderknecht, Rinspeed's 52-year-old CEO and a professed Bond fan. "Now we have made this dream come true." Passengers will be able to keep breathing underwater through an integrated tank of compressed air similar to what is used in scuba diving. But they will get wet.