Keep Shelly In Athens are a Greece based dream pop band that are making some pretty big waves even before their debut LP hits the streets. We have talked about them a few times before, and the group recently dropped their latest song off of their forthcoming debut LP Our Own Dream. “Lazy Noon” is a little bit more upbeat and lively than their other material, but it is still a rather dark track that features the groups effect heavy pop contrasted with the silky smooth vocals. Expect some big noise from this group in the future months.
More zip from your battery HELP FILE/ Q&A for a digital world
International Herald Tribune September 4, 2008 | J.D. Biersdorfer The New York Times Media Group J.D. Biersdorfer The New York Times Media Group International Herald Tribune 09-04-2008 More zip from your battery HELP FILE/ Q&A for a digital world Byline: J.D. Biersdorfer The New York Times Media Group Edition: 1 Section: FINANCE/BUSINESS
[Q.]My laptop battery doesn’t hold a charge like it used to. Is there any way to improve its performance? If I do get a new battery, are the cheaper replacements made by other companies OK? hpwarrantycheck.org hp warranty check
[A.]Laptop batteries can only hold a limited number of charge cycles before the chemistry inside them begins to wear out. If the laptop is still under warranty, check with the manufacturer to see if the battery is covered. Ask about a replacement and check the support section of the manufacturer’s site to see if they have posted any battery recalls that might affect you.
Apple and Hewlett-Packard are among the companies that suggest recalibrating the battery (letting it run all the way down and then making a full charge) to reset its internal processor so it can give a more accurate power reading. Apple has care tips for its batteries at snipurl.com/3kp67, and HP’s page is at snipurl.com/3kp5y.
If you decide to go with a replacement from a third-party vendor, there are a couple things to keep in mind. Make sure you select a replacement that is listed as compatible with your particular laptop, and check the battery specifications.
Less expensive batteries may have lower milliAmp Hour, or mAh, ratings, which means they have lower storage capacity and will not last as long between charges as higher-rated batteries. And a third- party battery may not fit as well in the battery compartment as the manufacturer’s own replacement.
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Surfing with Silverlight
[Q.]I was trying to watch a video on the Web and got prompted to download and install something called Silverlight. What is this, and will it mess up my system?
[A.]Silverlight is a free Microsoft browser plug-in for streaming high-quality video and other interactive Web applications. It is a competitor to Adobe’s Flash software and has been used recently for the video on the Olympics Web site of NBC, the U.S. broadcaster.
The latest version, Silverlight 2 beta, is still a work in progress. As to how it will affect your system, that depends on your computer. According to snipurl.com/3kooh, Microsoft’s system requirements page, Silverlight 2 beta is compatible with Windows Vista and Windows XP Service Pack 2 systems that run Internet Explorer 7 or the Firefox 1.5 and Firefox 2 versions. Windows 2000 and Internet Explorer 6 are also supported.
Some users running Windows XP Service Pack 3 with Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3 have reported that the new Silverlight causes the browsers to crash or freeze. The new Silverlight software is also available for Mac OS X 10.4.8 systems and later using the Safari browser, Firefox 1.5 or Firefox 2. But Macs running on the older PowerPC processors instead of the newer Intel chips can only use Silverlight 1.0. here hp warranty check
The user agreement and a link to download the software are at www.microsoft.com/silverlight. If you find that the plug-in causes your browser to freeze or crash, uninstall it. Microsoft has instructions and video clips on how to do so in the “Installation and setup” area at support.microsoft.com/silverlight.
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TIP OF THE WEEK: Designing a document in Microsoft Word and need to put in sample text to hold the space until the real copy arrives? You don’t have to cut and paste a thing – and you can tell Word exactly how much fake text to supply. In your document, say you want to add four paragraphs of three sentences each. Just type in “=rand(4,3)” on its own line, without the quotation marks, and press Enter. Word will fill the space with random text in the requested amount of paragraphs and sentences. For more details, go to support.microsoft.com/kb/212251.
J.D. Biersdorfer The New York Times Media Group
