The DO Network Enterprises

These battery holders are a clear winner over other cell containers. Mine’s loaded with Eneloop AA & AAA cells (and a Duracell 9V), in my tool kit, ready to keep me moving. Regular Alkaline cells fit in there too, of course. I’ve got a lot of small equipment that use these small batteries. Being prepared to change them when they’re low is easier than Periodic Preventative Maintenance like charging everything monthly or something. And less time consuming than zooming off to get replacements when something quits. Better for the cells, too, than charging them when they don’t really need it. I don’t know yet if these will survive a winter, but the plastic seems of a type that should fare well. Certainly better than the other types of plastic battery boxes that seem to explode when the temps drop. A pretty good variety of shape/combos and colors are available. While these do a good job of protecting the cells from shorts, they’re not absolute, so be careful about jamming them i...

Shine

RIM's attention around its  QNX -based platforms might revolve around  BlackBerry 10  as of late, but don't think that it's leaving  BlackBerry PlayBook  users behind. A PlayBook 2.1 update is rolling out today that fills in some of the gaps left by 2.0 earlier this year. Habitual messagers can now start SMS text messages directly from the tablet when tethered through  BlackBerry Bridge ; they also get overdue support for a portrait view in email, calendars and contacts. If communication isn't the cornerstone of your life, you'll still find a few niceties such as  Android App Player  support for the camera and in-app purchases, device encryption that extends to personal data and wireless printing beyond the local network. For now, you'll have to be an owner of the original, WiFi-only PlayBook to leap on the 2.1 train today -- those who sprang for the usually carrier-bound  PlayBook 4G LTE  should get their upgrade within a month.

Jasminder Pal http://www.bebo.com/JasminderP2

In 2008, when the Eee PC was revolutionizing the computing world and driving every manufacturer to make cheaper and smaller laptops, Sony washed its hands of the whole thing. The " race to the bottom ," the company said, would profoundly impact the industry, killing profit margins and flooding the market with cheap, terrible machines. Sony was wrong, its stance lasting about a year before joining the competition with its own  VAIO W . Four years on we're buying better laptops than ever before and, with the netbook class now more or less dead, that downward competition seems to have shifted to the tablet front. A flood of cheap, truly awful slates preceded Amazon's  Kindle Fire , the $200 tablet from a major brand that looks to have been the proper catalyst in plunging prices. The latest challenger to enter the competition is ASUS, partnering with Google to create the first Nexus tablet, a device that not only will amaze with its MSRP, but with its quality. It...

Osho on Marriage and Friendship Question :  Why is it so difficult for men and women to be Friends? It Seems so ordinary, and turns out to be almost Impossible.  Either there is an ugly compromise -- like man and wife -- Or else Passion that eventually turns into Hate. Why is There always ugliness between men and women? Osho  :  It is very simple to understand. Marriage is the ugliest institution invented by man. It is not natural; it has been invented so that you can monopolize a woman. You have been treating women as if they were a piece of land, or some currency notes. You have reduced the woman to a thing. Remember that if you reduce any human being to a thing -- unaware, unconscious -- you are also being reduced to the same status; otherwise, you will not be able to communicate. If you can talk with a chair, you must be a chair. Marriage is against nature. You can be certain only of this moment that is in your hands. All promises for tomorrow are lies -- a...

Bloomberg Businessweek's analytical dissection of Apple post-iPhone 5 launch is mostly full of things we already knew: Tim Cook is different than Steve Jobs. Apple is still doing really, really, phenomenally well. Everyone hates Apple Maps. But one thing that stood out was the fact that Steve Jobs was so incensed with Google that he not only wanted to remove Maps from iOS, but  also Google search . Whoa. In discussing the assembling of Scott Forstall's Apple Maps team, Businessweek had the following to say: At the time of his death, Jobs had come to loathe Google, which he felt was copying features of the iPhone while withholding a key feature of Google Maps that allows smartphones to dictate turn-by-turn directions aloud. Jobs also discussed pulling Google search from the iPhone, but figured that customers would reject that move, according to two former Apple executives. It's probably safe to assume that the motivation to remove the YouTube app came from a simila...