The Dodge Challenger is a blast from the past. Dodge brought back the Challenger line of cars to compete against Ford’s Mustang. It is a coupe with a choice of 3.5, 3.6, 5.7, 6.1, and 6.4-litre engines. The 3.5-litre engine is a SOHC V6, the 3.6-litre engine is a Pentastar V6, and the other engines are Hemi V8s.

The Mazda RX-8 was manufactured by the Mazda Motor Corporation between 2002 and 2012. It used a 1.3-litre rotary Wankel engine that generated 247 hp of power, which is quite remarkable for an engine of its capacity. Also, the car, from a distance, appears to be a coupe and one can only notice from close observation that the car actually has four doors although the rear seating is cramped.

The Mahindra Quanto is a smaller variant of the Mahindra Xylo and is priced at roughly Rs. 6 lakh with the top-end variant at Rs. 7.5 lakh. It has a mileage of 17.5 km/litre and has a 100bhp 1.5-litre diesel engine. The Mahindra Quanto is just under 4-metres in length, which results in tax benefits for the consumer.

The Mahindra Quanto has the microHybrid technology that has been included in the Mahindra Scorpio. Essentially, it means that the engine is automatically turned off when it is not required, therefore saving on fuel. The Mahindra Quanto is a direct competitor to the Maruti Ertiga.

(Image Source: India.com)

In a quiz, I put together a question to pick from 4 options the one that isn’t a processor. I had the names of 3 processors, including a Sparc and an AMD processor that some students had marked as the answer. The fourth option was the Roland-808. The Roland-808 isn’t a name that I made it. It is a device that does exist, and was very popular for its time, but it is not a processor. Here’s what it looks like:

The Roland-808 is a rhythm synthesizer that was a low cost alternative to the LM-1, which costs roughly 5 times as much. It was manufactured between 1980 and 1984. They did not precisely match the sounds of the instruments that they mimicked but were popular nonetheless. Today, you can find some rhythm synthesizers shaped like a stove with hot plates (think of a flat surface with round pads), operated by two drumsticks.

After you’ve used a Nokia N9 for as long as I have, which is roughly a year (or slightly less), the iPhone feels like a step back. First off, you can use a Nokia N9 with just the gorilla-glass touchscreen. It does not have a home button and once you’ve used an all-touch interface, the idea of a home button simply feels primitive. The use of gestures on the Nokia N9, which is powered by Harmattan/Meego, initially takes some getting used to if you are an iPhone user because apart from the pinch-and-zoom and slide-to-scroll that the iPhone boasts, there isn’t much in the way of gestures that the iPhone does. The Nokia N9 lets you switch between applications, minimize applications, and close applications with gestures.

The Nokia N9 also integrates Skype and GoogleTalk contacts into its phonebook, so you do not really feel like you have to keep two different applications running in the background. There is a unified interface for instant messaging as well, and support for video chat through Google is another plus. The one thing the Nokia N9 is missing is video chat through Skype. If you can have a video chat through GoogleTalk, who would expect that the developers would leave out video chat through Skype?

An overall impression for the Nokia N9 user is that the N9 is a device that will simply last. The Corning Gorilla glass lives up to its promise of no scratches despite having the device battle it out with coins and key chains in the pocket. Harmattan and Meego may have been abandoned by Nokia in favor of Windows Mobile, but those software does not feel outdated yet and could perhaps last another year of innovation by its competitors. All in all, Nokia N9 users have the best that the industry has yet to offer.

According to Rosana Spero (2011), switching to a different insurance provider can lead to a lower insurance costs when compared to staying with the same insurance provider. The reason is that 85% of car owners tend to stick to the same insurance provider so the providers focus on the 15% by offering them incentives to sign up. On an average, vehicle owners remain with the same insurance provider for 3 years, which means that they are paying a higher premium for 2 years before they finally make a switch. The providers do not reward customer loyalty but when most of their customers choose to renew with them despite the higher charges, they do not see any immediate need to change their policies.

While Ubuntu Linux is the most widely used desktop Linux distribution, it does have its critics. Some of the criticism may just be the price of its success, but there definitely is some valid criticism out there.

Outdated Packages

The Ubuntu package repository often contains old versions of packages. Right now, NetBeans 7.2 is what I wanted to install because of the bug with the GUI editor in NetBeans 7.1, yet the only versions available from the package repository is NetBeans 7.1. There is lots of other software that users complain about over finding outdated release in the repository (try a Google search for “ubuntu outdated”).

Buggy

While Canonical takes bold steps with Ubuntu, it does tend to break some of the functionality. Using a long-term support release and sticking with it may help alleviate this problem for some users, but for Linux enthusiasts looking for the latest and the best, the bugs are definitely an annoyance.

The Nissan Altima 2013 was launched in Dubai today. After taking a lot of flak over the design of the Juke, Nissan needs the new design of the Altima to be well-received. The old Altima was one of the best-sellers in its segment, and there are no brownie points for guessing that the new Altima would have similar expectations.

The Nissan Altima comes with a 2.5-litre 182hp 4-cylinder engine or a 3.5-litre 270hp 6-cylinder engine, both of which are available with an automatic continuously-variable transmission (CVT). The Altima is expected to sell for between AED.80,000/- and AED.115,000/-.

Hyundai recently launched the Hyundai HB20 in Brazil. The vehicle is available with a 1.0-litre 3-cylinder 80PS Kappa engine or with a 1.6-litre 4-cylinder 128PS Gamma engine. Automatic transmission is available only with the 1.6-litre engine.

If you are using Ubuntu 12.04, the Privacy option under Settings seems like a great way to clear all of your recent files. It removes all of the recent documents from the Unity start menu. However, if you open up the Totem Movie Player or any other GNome application, you will find that the recent file history still exists! To truly get rid of the recent file history, you have to go to your home directory, locate the ~/.local/share/recently-used.xbel file, delete it, and touch (re-create as empty) it. Now, when you go back to the Totem Movie Player or to the Unity start or home menu, all of the recent entries would be wiped out.