Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC) is the academic and training wing of Maya Entertainment Limited (MEL), a leading computer animation and visual effects studio for film and television in India . MEL was started in the year 1996 by Ketan Mehta, the internationally acclaimed producer-director (credited with the making of Bhavani Bhavai, Holi, Mirch Masala,Maya Memsaab, Sardar and The Rising.

When it comes to the next generation of thin and light notebooks, Apple’s MacBook Air along with Lenovo’s ThinkPad X300 and X200 series notebooks have been getting all of the attention. Sony is looking to turn a few heads of its own with its new lightweight, ultra-thin VAIO TT Series notebooks.

The VAIO TT uses a carbon-fiber chassis and a sharp 11.1″ (1366 x 768), LED-backlit XBRITE-DuraView LCD screen with 100% color saturation. Due to its lightweight and compact construction, the VAIO TT weighs in at a mere 2.87 pounds and is just 1-inch thick.

As if its slim and trim design weren’t enough, Sony is also using Intel’s new Montevina platform. Processing power comes from an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor SU9400 running at 1.4GHz while the machine is backed with 4GB of PC3-6400 memory. The graphics subsystem is built around an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD which can share up to 1.3GB of system memory. An HDMI port is included for HD output to a television or widescreen monitor.

Networking options abound with the new VAIO TT. The notebook comes with a built-in GbE port, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, Intel WiFi Link 5100AGN, and a Sprint Mobile Broadband card is available as an option.

When it comes to storage, the notebook can be equipped with dual 128GB SSDs running in RAID-0 mode or an optional Blu-ray drive.

“This engineering marvel packs the power of HD technology into an ultra-light, ultra-portable notebook,” said Mike Abary, senior vice president of VAIO product marketing at Sony Electronics.

Sony’s VAIO TT starts at $2,000 with a 160GB HDD and DVD burner while stepping up to the model with built-in Blu-ray will set you back $2,700. Going for the VAIO TT will a single 128GB SSD rings up at $2,750. Opting for dual SSDs will likely push the price well into the $3,000 range.

via[dailytech]

Technical setbacks have plagued the Large Hadron Collider ever since it was started on September the 10th, including a transformer failure which shut down its cooling plant, which was only repaired on Thursday. Immediately afterwards, on Friday, during a test, one of the bus bar connections which linked cables between the magnets failed, and melted thus causing roughly a ton of liquid helium to leak into one of the tunnel sections. The fire brigade had to be called to handle the situation. “It seems to be a badly made connection – but this all has to be confirmed once we have had the chance to take a look at it,” said James Gillies, director of communications at CERN.

The rather large dipole magnets that are used to steer protons around the Large Hadron Collider’s circular tract, are superconductive. What this means is that scientists have taken advantage of a property of matter by which its electrical resistance is lowered to naught when cooled very close to absolute zero. This allows much more current to be passed through the magnets, giving them much more force in steering the supercharged particles, which can run at up to 7 terra-electron-volts.

Non-superconductive magnets simply would not be strong enough to handle the proton beams, which would steer off-track, hitting the collider pipe walls. These particles, at such energy levels, can melt through several feet of steel in nanoseconds, so you don’t want those out of control.

Getting the magnets to and out of such low temperatures however – colder than outer space – takes a while however, and were it not required to use superconducting magnets, the repairs would only take a few days. This way, it will at least take two months, dangerously narrowing the window of opportunity in which to conduct the collision tests. This is because the LHC facility shuts down during the winter to save on energy costs. If they don’t get the problem fixed by then, there won’t be any collision until 2009.

CERN physicists are not very worried though, and are calling this an expected setback as the LHC, which is arguably the most complex machine ever built, has been in construction for 20 years and has so far cost more than $8 billion, and such hitches have been very probable since the beginning.

“If you keep an eye on the big picture, we’ve been building the machine for 20 years. The switch-on was always going to be a long process,” said Gillies, who went on to say that “A year or two down the line, this moment will be a distant memory, and we’ll be running smoothly.”

With all the buzz going around about Google’s recently launched browser, you probably would have downloaded Google Chrome. If you are using it and planning to use it in the future as well, why not give it some ‘facelift’ time to time just like you give to your Operating system. Below I am going to share five Google chrome themes I found here. Try them and tell me If you liked them or not. Click on the theme image of your choice to download.

To match the epic price slash Microsoft inflicted on its Xbox 360s in early September, the company’s now offering the 120GB hard drive accessory for $30 less, dropping the cost from $179 to $149. In…

Additional Features
* Protection from viruses, Trojans and worms
* Protection from spyware and adware
* Protection from all types of keyloggers. Improved!
* Detection of all types of rootkits. Improved!
* Protection from viruses when using ICQ and other IM clients
* Rollback of malicious changes on your PC
* Self-defense of the antivirus program from being disabled or stopped
* Tools for creating a Rescue Disk
* Free technical support

Sony Ericsson’s new CEO Hideki Komiyama told The Wall Street Journal this is just the beginning of products planned to boost the company’s presence in the United States. He said the company will add hundreds of U.S.-based engineers over the next couple of years as it further develops its U.S. strategy and offerings
via[IT businessEdge]