Microsoft Offers Free Windows 10 Beta Download: Where To Get The Technical Preview

Microsoft Corp. is expected to offer a free download of Microsoft Windows 10 to computer enthusiasts and IT professionals at 12 p.m. EDT on Wednesday. The new operating system is Microsoft’s answer to critics of its touch-centric 2012 release, Microsoft Windows 8 operating systems.

The software giant has so far said only that it will open registration for the Microsoft Windows 10 Technical Preview “soon,” but Microsoft often releases technical previews at 9 a.m. PDT (noon EDT) – the start of the business day at the company’s Redmond, Washington, headquarters.

There's a lot riding on the release of Windows 10 operating systems for Microsoft following poor reception to Microsoft Windows 8. Microsoft attempted to bridge tablets and PCs with a unified interface in Windows 8, but instead was criticized for features that worked well with a touchscreen but not a keyboard and mouse, and others that were hard to manage with a tablet. In fact, the new naming convention – which leapfrogs Windows 9 entirely – shows how much Microsoft wanted to distance Windows 10 operating systems from its last operating system.

The Microsoft Windows 10 operating systems technical preview will be available for download on Microsoft’s Windows site sometime Wednesday. The company recommends that only expert computer users and IT professionals download the preview, and that they install it on a secondary computer. The download will likely be open only to current Windows users running a PC with compatible hardware.

Microsoft warns that Microsoft Windows 10 operating systems contains a number of bugs, since it is still under development. However, Microsoft’s head of operating systems, Joe Belfiore, promises the company will quickly update Windows 10 to get it ready for a release sometime next year.

Indonesia halts search for missing AirAsia plane as night falls

 Indonesia called off until first light a search for an AirAsia plane with 162 people on board that went missing on Sunday after pilots asked to change course to avoid bad weather during a flight from Indonesia's Surabaya city to Singapore.

Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501, an Airbus 320-200 carrying 155 passengers and seven crew, lost contact with Jakarta air traffic control at 6:17 a.m. (2317 GMT on Saturday). No distress signal had been sent, said Joko Muryo Atmodjo, an Indonesian transport ministry official.

On board were 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans and one each from Singapore, Malaysia and Britain, plus a French pilot, the airline said in a statement, correcting earlier information.

Tatang Kurniadi, head of Indonesia's National Committee of Safety Transportation, expressed hope of locating the aircraft quickly and said it was too early to detect any of the so-called electronic pings from its black box recorder.

"We are using our capacity to search on sea and land. Hopefully we can find the location of the plane as soon as possible," he told a news conference.

"What I need to emphasize is until now, we have not found out how the plane fell or what kind of emergency it was."

Indonesia AirAsia is 49 percent owned by Malaysia-based budget carrier AirAsia (AIRA.KL), which has had a clean safety record since it began operating 13 years ago. The AirAsia group also has affiliates in Thailand, the Philippines and India. The aircraft had accumulated approximately 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights, according to Airbus (AIR.PA).

The pilots of QZ8501 "was requesting deviation due to en-route weather before communication with the aircraft was lost," the airline said in a statement. Singapore, Malaysia, Britain, South Korea and Australia offered to help in the search and any investigation. Malaysia said it was sending vessels and a C130 aircraft while Singapore had also sent a C130. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said a P3 Orion aircraft was on standby if needed.

ANXIOUS RELATIVES

Flight QZ8501 was between Tanjung Pandan on Indonesia's Belitung island and Pontianak, in West Kalimantan province on Borneo - almost halfway between Surabaya and Singapore - when it went missing. There was bad weather over Belitung at the time and the aircraft had been flying at 32,000 feet before asking to fly at 38,000 feet to avoid clouds.

In both Surabaya and Singapore, anxious relatives of people on the plane awaited news.

Louise Sidharta was at Singapore's Changi Airport waiting for her fiancée to return from a family holiday.

"It was supposed to be their last vacation before we got married," she said.

A man named Purnomo told TVOne in Surabaya of a lucky escape.

"I should have been on the flight," he said. "We, seven people, had planned to go to Singapore for vacation but this morning I had an emergency. I had my passport in hand."

Tony Fernandes, chief of Malaysia's AirAsia, said he was heading to Surabaya.

"My only thoughts are with the passengers and my crew. We put our hope in the SAR (search and rescue) operation and thank the Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysian governments," he said on Twitter.

AirAsia swapped its distinctive bright red logo for a grey background on its website and social media accounts.

The incident comes during a troubled year for Malaysia-affiliated airlines. Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 went missing on March 8 on a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board and has not been found.

On July 17, Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

Indonesia AirAsia has a fleet of 30 Airbus A320s. The missing plane has been in service for just over six years, according to airfleets.net.

All AirAsia-branded airlines operate aircraft made by Airbus, which has orders for several hundred planes from the group. AirAsia is considered one of the European planemaker's most important customers.

Jaguar Heritage Driving Experience - A Rare Chance Indeed

More often than not, we, the automotive journalist folks, are busy getting behind the wheels of the fanciest cars and even not really the fancy ones. However, if I were to be honest, it is rare for even us to get our hands on the heritage variety. Not any more though, thanks to the Jaguar Heritage Driving Experience. Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations announced the launch of the Jaguar Heritage Driving Experience yesterday, which present participants with the chance to drive cars like the Le Mans-racing legend Jaguar D-type, legendary E-type and Jaguar's most potent sports car ever, the F-TYPE R Coupe.

People will be able to avail the myriad options under the experience from November, 2014 at a 200-acre testing facility, Fen End, in Warwickshire. Interestingly, several cars in the collection will be driven by members of the public for the very first time, having been prepared for high octane test action following Jaguar's recent purchase of over 500 outstanding British heritage cars from a private collector.

Here are a few examples of the packages on offer

:

Jaguar Experience (£95 - £250) - From passenger rides to driving alongside a professional, visitors can choose from individual models - including an XK150 or Mark 2 saloon - or selected pairings such as the Series 1 and Series 3 E-type. Alternatively, you can also choose to drive heritage cars alongside their modern counterparts, such as an E-type with a F-TYPE.

Le Mans Experience (£750) - This one includes drives in the C- and D-types, the XKSS and F-TYPE R Coupe, for half a day. Oh, also, there's lunch.

Grace and Pace Experience (£2,000) - This one is perhaps the best, and also the most expensive, out of the lot. From post-war racers to sports saloons, coupes, roadsters and much more, including the new XFR and F-TYPE R Coupe models, the Grace and Pace experience is all about a full day of driving the legends. Furthermore, it will also feature opportunities to drive Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations cars. If you still care about lunch while spending a day amongst these legends, there are chauffeur-driven transfers in classic Jaguar saloons to a lunch venue.

How drinking water helps reduce dark circles

It is said that drinking plenty of water helps reduce dark circles and puffiness around the eyes. But what actually are the reasons and the connection behind it? Puffy eyes could be due to a number of factors — ageing skin, drinking too much alcohol, smoking, stress, bad eating habits etc.

How drinking water helps reduce dark circles Water helps flush out the toxins from your system and thereby reducing the amount of salt concentration in and around the eye area. If you've been eating salty food lately, chances are you will wake up in the morning with puffy eyes.

Flushes out toxins from your body: If you have been drinking too often, you will notice that the area around your eyes is puffy when you wake up the next morning. So, instead of taking medicines, drink lots and lots of water (preferably lukewarm water) so that it can flush out the toxins from your system, thereby clearing your face.

Makes your skin glow: Apart from taking care of puffy eyes, drinking plenty of water actually cleanses your system and thereby makes your skin glow. It washes away and removes acid and other toxins from your body and brings a natural glow on your face.

Kawasaki Z250 launched at INR 2.99 lakhs

Bajaj today launched the Kawasaki Z250 and the ER-6n in India. The Z250 marks a new chapter for the Japanese manufacturer, as it is the most affordable product in the lineup priced at INR 2.99 lakhs, ex-Showroom, New Delhi.

The Z250 borrows its styling from the larger and more expensive Z800. Based on a tube diamond steel frame, the motorcycle measures 2,010 mm in length, 750 mm in width and 1,020 mm in height. It has a wheelbase of 1,400 mm and a ground clearance of 145 mm. The Z250 weighs 168 kg and has a 17-liter fuel tank.

The street-fighter is assembled with a 37 mm telescopic fork at the front and a Bottom-Link Uni-Trak with gas-charged shock and 5-way adjustable preload at the rear. Even more impressive are the dual semi-floating 300 mm petal discs at the front and the 220 mm single petal disc at the rear.

However, the highlight of the Z250 is its liquid-cooled, four-stroke, parallel-twin, 249 cc 8v DOHC engine. This fuel-injected unit is paired to a 6-speed transmission, and sends out 32 PS (31.54 hp) at 11,000 rpm and 21 Nm of torque at 10,000 rpm.

Kawasaki says that the engine is fitted with a sleeveless, plated, die-cast aluminium cylinder and lightweight coated pistons to ensure reliability.

Cyclone Hudhud blasts India's east coast

Cyclone Hudhud blasted India's eastern seaboard on Sunday with gusts of up to 195 kilometres an hour (over 120 mph), uprooting trees, damaging buildings and killing at least three people despite a major evacuation effort.

The port city of Visakhapatnam, home to two million people and a major naval base, was hammered as the cyclone made landfall, unleashing the huge destructive force it had sucked up from the warm waters of the Bay of Bengal.

Upended trees and wreckage were strewn across Visakhapatnam, known to locals as Vizag. Most people heeded warnings to take refuge, but three who ventured out were killed, officials said.

The chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, the state that bore the brunt of Hudhud's onslaught, said the extent of damage would only become known after the storm abates.

"We are unable to ascertain the situation. Seventy percent of communication has totally collapsed ... this is the biggest calamity," N. Chandrababa Naidu told Headlines Today television.

"We are asking people not to come out of their houses," Naidu said, adding that damage assessment would start on Monday. "We are mobilising men and material immediately."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Naidu and promised "all possible assistance in relief and rescue operations", his central government said in a statement.

The low toll reported so far followed an operation to evacuate more than 150,000 people to minimise the risk to life from Hudhud - similar in size and power to cyclone Phailin that struck the area exactly a year ago.

After a lull as the eye of the storm passed over the city, winds regained massive potency. Forecasters warned Hudhud would blow strongly for several hours more, before wind speeds halve in the evening.

"Reverse windflow will be experienced by the city, which will again have a very great damage potential," L.S. Rathore, director-general of the state India Meteorological Department (IMD), told reporters in New Delhi.

The IMD forecast a storm surge of 1-2 metres above high tide that could result in flooding of low-lying coastal areas around Visakhapatnam, Vijayanagaram and Srikakulam.

TERRIFYING WIND

A Reuters reporter in Vizag said the storm had smashed his hotel's windows and flooded the ground floor. It was difficult even to open the door of his room, he said, as wind rushing through the corridors drove it shut again.

"I never imagined that a cyclone could be so dangerous and devastating," said one businessman who was staying in the hotel. "The noise it is making would terrify anyone."

An operations centre in state capital Hyderabad was inundated with calls from people seeking help, including 350 students stranded in a building with no food or water, said K. Hymavathi, a senior disaster management official.

Vizag port suspended operations on Saturday night, with its head saying that 17 ships which had been in the harbour were moving offshore where they would be less at risk from high seas.

The city airport was closed and train services suspended.

The IMD rated Hudhud as a very severe cyclonic storm that could pack gusts of 195 km/h and dump more than 24.5 cm (10 inches) of rain.

The cyclone was strong enough to have a "high humanitarian impact" on nearly 11 million people, the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS), run by the United Nations and the European Commission, said.

The evacuation effort was comparable to one preceding Cyclone Phailin, credited with minimising fatalities to 53. When a huge storm hit the same area 15 years ago, 10,000 people died.

Hudhud was likely to batter a 200-300 km stretch of coastline before losing force as it moves inland, forecasters said.

According to the IMD, peak wind speeds will drop to 60 km/h by Monday afternoon. Hudhud is expected to continue to dump heavy rains in northern and northeastern India and, eventually, snow when it reaches the Himalayan mountains.

Iranian nuclear power station 'begins generating electricity'

The reactor building of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, 750 miles south of Tehran. Photograph: Bagher Nasir/AP

Iran's first nuclear power plant has started adding electricity to the national grid after years of delays, according to the state news agency.

"The Bushehr nuclear power plant joined the national grid on Saturday at 11.29pm (6.59pm GMT) with the power of around 60 megawatts (MW)," the Isna news agency said.

Hamid-Khadem Qaemi, a spokesman for the country's Atomic Energy Organisation, told Iran's Arabic TV station al-Alam that the plant would be officially inaugurated by 12 September, by which time it would be operating at 40% capacity. The agency was not immediately available to comment.

The $1bn (£616m), 1,000MW plant on the Gulf coast is the first of what Iran hopes will become a network of nuclear facilities that will reduce its reliance on its abundant fossil fuels.

Started by Germany's Siemens in the 1970s before Iran's Islamic revolution, the project was later taken over by Russian engineers and has since suffered a series of delays.

The west fears Iran's nuclear programme is aimed at making atomic weapons, which Tehran denies.

Experts say firing up the Bushehr plant will not bring Iran any closer to building a nuclear bomb because Russia will supply the enriched uranium for the reactor and take away spent fuel that could be used to make weapons-grade plutonium.

26836f82e46040fca5a806badc0036547afa3dbd