Laptop Mouse pictures

eBay Bargain Is Latest MoD Data Leak

The data on the drive was easily retrieved and had handily-labelled folders. One marked ‘Nato Secret’ held information and photographs of police command posts in Helmand and notes about the police manning the area. These included the number of men, their weapons and patrol details.

The files also held pictures and personal information about “hundreds” of volunteers who had joined the Afghan police force and army. There was also a copy of the “Afghan National Police Tactical Handbook” which showed how the police would tackle the Taliban rebels and gave details on how to recognise a roadside bomb.

All of the data was unencrypted and freely accessible. Had it fallen into the hands of the Taliban, the information could have put Afghan lives in greater danger and compromised the British presence in the country.

Sugden, a graduate of Sandhurst, served with the Coldstream Guards as an anti-tank platoon commander in Afghanistan and has since just completed a year as the Queen’s equerry, or personal assistant.

This laptop story is the latest in a string of bad news about Ministry of Defence (MoD) data losses. In July it was revealed that 340 laptops and numerous USB memory sticks had been lost or stolen over a two-year period and a complete server was taken from a secure site in 2008.

The eBay laptop has now been returned and the MoD said that it is investigating how this latest security breach came about.

Black Friday 2010 Ads, Deals, & Sales - LAPTOPS

Black Friday 2010 ads, deals & sales - laptops are something that many consumers want. After all, nothing's better or makes a better gift than a laptop computer - and there's a plethora of them at various Black Friday sales.


If you're looking for a MacBook or a MacBook Pro, chances are you will be out of luck. There may be some discounts on the Apple laptop lineup, but you're not likely to find the rock-bottom prices that you will find on HP, Compaq, and eMachines laptops.


In the Best Buy Black Friday list, I found the MacBook Pro 13" computer for $1,199 - a quick glance at Apple.com confirmed my beliefs, as that is the retail price of the MacBook Pro in question.


MORE BEST BUY DEALS AVAILABLE HERE.


However, other Black Friday deals on laptops at Best Buy include: $150 off any Samsung Laptop, a Compaq 10.1" Netbook w/Intel Atom Processor, 1GB RAM,


160GB HD, Windows 7 Starter for $149.99


Compaq 10.1" Netbook w/Intel Atom Processor


1GB RAM, 250GB HD, Windows 7 Starter for $199.99


HP 15.6" Laptop w/Intel Core i3 Processor 4GB RAM, 500GB HDWindows 7 Home Premium for $499.99


Sony Vaio 15.5" Laptop w/Intel Dual-Core Processor, 3GB Memory, 320GB Hard Drive for $399.99


Sony Vaio 15.5" Laptop w/Intel Dual-Core Processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB HD Bundle for $499.99


Toshiba 15.6" Laptop w/AMD Turion II Dual-Core Mobile Processor, 3GB RAM and 320GB HD for $349.99 and MORE.

30 to 34-inch L.C.D.

According to data released by the research firm, Pacific Media Associates, the share of the TV market for 30 to 34-inch L.C.D. TVs jumped to 24 percent in February from 16 percent in January.

That move was at the expense of larger sets. Market share sales for 45 to 49-inch L.C.D. TVs dropped to 14 percent from 18 percent and the 40- to 44-inch L.C.D. and plasma segment moved to 18 percent from 20 percent.

The reason, according to Alfred Poor, Pacific Media Associates’ senior research associate, is obvious: it’s the economy.

Anytime I read the word "obvious", I have an immediate need to try and prove the statement wrong. Now, Mr. Poor (great name for this thesis by the way) could be correct, but I see two other possible explanations for this trend.

First, as TV prices lower, people who weren't previously able to afford an HDTV can now do so. The richer people are still purchasing their expensive TVs, but now additional customers are purchasing lower end models. This quote appears to back me up:

One interesting counterpoint to the shift to smaller and cheaper sets is that the biggest TVs, those 50 inches and above, have not seen a drop in sales.

Second, as many people already have upgraded their primary TV to HD, now they are looking to upgrade the one in the bedroom or in the kids' room. This secondary TV is not going to be watched as often and therefore people choose to pay less for it.

And once I got into my debunking mood, I couldn't let this statement go unchallenged either:

By shifting to smaller-sized models, consumers are saving hundreds of dollars. In February, the average 40 to 45-inch set cost $1,287, according to Mr. Poor. But the average price for a 30 to 34-inch model was almost half that, $685.

At the beginning of this decade, the average selling price for a standard-definition 34-inch picture tube TV was around $400. “We’ve asked consumers to triple the price they pay for a TV. It’s amazing that people have been paying this much.”

Mr. Poor may find it amazing that we pay this much, but I find it amazing that people pay so little for their TVs. Let me explain.

Intel Core i5

The MSI GX740 is a gaming notebook, and is a very powerful machine featuring the Intel Core i5 processor and a high-end ATI graphics chip.

The real selling point of this machine is its price, and this much power for under £1000 makes it a very affordable option, especially when the likes of an entry level Alienware M17x, providing very similar performance, will cost you around £500 more.

As we'll see, however, cuts have had to be made to keep the price low.

Some people like their gaming rigs styled with all the bells, whistles and flashing lights. Personally we don't, and it's fair to say that the GX740 has struck a fine balance between sophisticated and showy.

The lid features a brushed aluminium finish which looks and feels fantastic. It isn't shiny in any way and is therefore easy to keep clean, and also resists fingerprints and scratches well.

The same material is repeated on the palmrest. Again, it's very easy to keep clean but we did notice the area got a little warm after prolonged gaming sessions. It certainly isn't uncomfortable, but worth noting.

Significantly more irritating is the intrusive specification sticker MSI has slapped on the left hand side of the GX740's palmrest.

The company has an irritating habit of doing this, having previously stuck something similar on the excellent MSI Wind U160 netbook. Why you'd want to stare at an ugly silver sticker is beyond us, and it wouldn't be such an issue if it wasn't near impossible to remove without leaving acres of glue behind.

MSI's traditional red trimming adds a splash of colour to proceedings, and offers a nice contrast to the dark brushed aluminium. Above the keyboard part of the speaker system sits behind a metal grill, with a bank of black and red touch-activated hotkeys positioned in the centre.

This looks great, giving an almost retro flavour.

The GX740's 17-inch screen is pretty decent. It doesn't feature a full high definition (HD) resolution, plumping for a 1680 x 1050 instead. This, of course, means that it features a 16:10, rather than a widescreen 16:9, aspect ratio.

While not all games support a widescreen mode, most do these days so it seems a little strange MSI has implemented this technology, and has a lot to do with keeping costs low so as to pass on savings to the consumer.

It shouldn't cause a problem when playing games, as you can alter the settings of most titles to suit your screen, but widescreen movies and TV will appear with the classic black letterbox sandwiching in the picture, which might not suit everyone.

Nevertheless the GX740's panel is bright, detailed and colourful, with contrast especially impressing. Games and films look fantastic, and the shiny Super-TFT screen coating is surprisingly effective at suppressing irritating reflections in bright light.

The keyboard is mounted fairly well into the GX740's chassis, but there remains quite a bit of flex when typing at speed or gaming hard.

Also, despite the large chassis, the board feels a little cramped, and to accommodate the dedicated number pad the Backspace, Enter and Shift keys have been cut small, and are quite easy to miss-hit as a result.

MSI has painted the WASD keys – commonly used gaming keys – red, making them easy to locate during frantic gaming, which is a nice touch.

Set just above the keyboard is the row of touch-activated hotkeys mentioned above. From left to right they control your media (skip back, stop, pause/play and skip forward), activate MSI's Eco mode, Cinema Pro mode, webcam, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and a programmable button.

All the keys glow blue when activated, and all are quick to respond. The media controls work great and are compatible with players such as Spotify, but we'd liked to have seen volume control buttons also included.

The GX740's Eco button lets you switch between various power programs to help you get the balance of battery life and processing performance right, and includes a gaming mode, movie mode, office mode and turbo battery mode.

The Cinema Pro hot key is designed to provide greater screen detail and higher sound quality, but the only noticeable difference was louder speaker play back, and we can't envision anyone using the feature much.