I just got my Gmail themes

Just minutes after my last rant about not having Gmail themes, I got them!!!

The guys at Google must be reading my blog!!!!

Where are my Gmail themes

Apparently, Gmail has released their long rumored themes to select users which means a few lucky ones of us will get to change the way our Gmail looks and also flaunt in front of the less fortunate. I wonder if Google randomly selected a few lucky ones or had some criteria in doing so.

Google themes...which I dont have

In any case, the Gmail blog tells us that the themes will be offered to all the rest of the less fortunate humans soon. So if you don’t have themes don’t fret, you’ll get it soon.

In any case it isn’t that much big a deal….(sour grapes???…I know…)

Alienware – In a league of its own!

The ultimate laptop!!!

These laptops are the dream of gaming freaks like me. I came to close to buying one but had to end up with a Dell Vostro with a NVIDIA 8600 MGT instead. Not very clever..I know but given the cicumstances, it was the best I could do.

Ok so lets see the latest product from Alienware. A 17 inch laptop featuring the world’s first mobile quad core processor!!! We recently purchased desktops with quad core processors and they are amazingly fast!!! So I can’t even imagine the power of a quad core based laptop!!!

The laptop also comes with the latest “ATI CrossFire” GPU!!! The dual core version of this graphics processor can burn any of the existing benchmarks in the world today. Among other attractions, it has 4GB of RAM and a 1 TB harddisk!!! Yes 1 Tera Byte!!!

Feast your heart out on the complete tech specs here!!!

Operating Systems	Windows Vista® Home Premium (32- and 64-bit) Windows Vista® Ultimate (32- and 64-bit)
Processors, Chipset & Memory	Intel® Core™2 Duo and Extreme Processors (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB) Intel® Core™2 Quad and Extreme Processors (12MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB) Intel® PM45 + ICH9M-E Chipset Up to 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz 2 dedicated SO-DIMM slots for Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
Graphics & Video	Single Graphics ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870 Dual Graphics ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870 – CrossFireX Enabled! Connectivity Video out 1x HDMI Connector HDMI to DVI-D Adapter – Optional Video in: Integrated HD TV (ATSC) Tuner (Coaxial) – optional Video/TV out: One HDMI 1.3b Connector Video/TV out: One VGA Connector
Storage	Single Hard Drive 5400 RPM – Up to 500GB SATA 7200 RPM – Up to 320GB SATA Dual Hard Drives in RAID 0 5400 RPM – Up to 1TB (2 x 500GB) 7200 RPM – Up to 640GB (2 x 320GB) Optical Drives 8x Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW, CD-RW) 8x Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW, CD-RW) w/ LightScribe Technology Dual Layer Blu-ray Disc Reader (BD-ROM, DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Networking	Wireless Connectivity Internal Intel WiFi Link 5300 a/b/g/Draft-N Integrated Bluetooth 2.1 Wired Connectivity Integrated Gigabit Ethernet RJ-45 (1000 Mbps)

Audio	High-Definition Digital Audio Integrated 4 Channel Support Up to 7.1 Support Through Digital Out Two Speakers with Subwoofer Connectivity 1 Auto-Sensing Headphone Jack 1 Auto-Sensing Microphone Jack 1 TOSlink Digital Out Optical Audio
Peripheral Connections	3 Hi-speed USB 2.0 ports 1 eSATA/USB 2.0 Combo (2-in-1 port) ExpressCard Slot IEEE 1394a (4-pin) port 7-in-1 Media Card Reader (SD/MS/MSPRO/RS-MMC/MMC)
LCD Panel	17-inch Widescreen WUXGA 1920 x 1200 with Clearview 17-inch Widescreen WXGA+ 1440 x 900
Battery	12 Cell Lithium-ION Battery
Keyboard & Touchpad	Full Size Keyboard with Separate Numeric Keypad Full Size Illuminated Keyboard with Separate Numeric Keypad Full Size Touchpad with Scroll Functionality Instant Access Buttons include: Internet Email Windows Media Player Power DVD Play/Pause Skip Forward Skip Backward
Security	AlienSense Facial Recognition Software Biometric Fingerprint Reader 1 Kensington Lock Slot
Case & Chassis	Height: 1.7” Width: 15.65” Depth: 11.80” Weight: 9.5 lbs

Awesome ain’t it!!!! Everything cool thing you can possbly think of has been incorporated into this laptop. it is one mean machine!!!

Nothing gets better than this!!!

This model is priced 1399$ upwards. Please be advised that the configuration of which I speak of will cost 2000$ at a minimum.

Alienware laptops are recommended for the gamers at heart who also have a fat wallet(many a times this rule is mutually exclusive!!!)

I hope to get an Alienware next year….hopefully….thats unless one of you readers decide gift me one

To boldly go where no man has ever gone before….

These legendary words spoken by Capt. James T Kirk during the opening credits of the original series continue to resound in the ears of trekkies(star trek fans) decades after the series ended. When I was a kid in India, the national channel played a few episodes of the series and I was too young to understand things back then. I also remember seeing magazines with stills of some pointy eared guy who seemed to be flying with the aid of rocket shoes. He was also carrying two other people. This was Star Trek 5 of course.  Finally when I was in the 7th grade, a private channel started airing episodes of the series and thats when I became a fan. I was hooked onto this. We also got to see episodes of the next generation which aired in the weekends.  Slowly but steadily, the premise, characters, story lines, time lines etc of both shows started to permeate into my brain. You can even add episodes of “Lost in Space” to this mix.

Later on, with the advent of the internet and sites like the Wikipedia based “Memory Alpha”, I was boldly going where I had not gone before and learning all that is learnable about Star Trek. Now I feel I know it all, though I never bothered a lot with the newer shows like Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise.

I will always love the original series. Those campy styled episodes with over the top acting from most of the cast and yet this was a show from the 60’s which had an optimistic vision of mankind’s future. At a time when racial tensions were at their peak, the communications officer was an African American and a lady at that!!! At a time when the cold war was at its peak, the series envisioned future peace between the USA and USSR by having a Russian navigator and a proud, vain Russian at that!!! There were Chinese, Indian, Scottish and others. And the best part was the presence of a Vulcan…Spock!! Definitely one of the most endearing characters in the show.

A lot is spoken of William Shatner who played the role of Capt Kirk. We’ve heard the stories of how he is over rated and always tried to overshadow his cast mates. But no matter what you say, you have to agree. Star Trek was what it was because of Shatner. His brilliant over-the-top performance as Capt Kirk was the pivottal element around which the rest of the show revolved.

Kirk, Spock and Dr “Bones” McCoy were the trinity of the show. Their unique friendship accentuated with the constant jibes between Spock and Bones endeared them to Millions. Not to forget Scotty who was unique in his own way. Arguably the most famous among the rest of the supporting cast, who can forget him doing marvelous and wonderful feats on a daily basis to get the “Enterprise” out of dangerous situations.

I have seen all episodes of the three seasons that the show lasted. It is a pity that it didn’t do well in its first run but it is also a wonder that it rose to national prominence in syndication and made its cast world famous. I loved all the 6 movies with the original cast(Yes I like the eternally derided “Final Frontier” too!!!).

Many other shows sprung up which rode on the coattails of the original. Yet none of them barring the “next Generation” came close to the original series in terms of sparking the imagination of the fans and earning their love.

Now as we look upon the release of the new Trek film with new stars who will portray the main characters in their youth, I cant help but wonder if that old magic can ever be re-created. I probably think not. I thank the creator Gene Roddenberry for creating such a great show with its own great immense universe with endless possibilities similar to the world of Star Wars…but that will another blog by itself