Putin and Lukashenko Play Ice Hockey in Sochi

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On Saturday, in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, President Vladimir Putin played a friendly ice hockey match with Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko and hockey stars. Putin and Lukashenko played in one team with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, as well as NHL legends Pavel Bure and Vyacheslav Fetisov. Their team won 12-3. After the game at the site of the Olympic hockey final, Putin and Lukashenko continued talks in an informal atmosphere.

On Friday, Putin tested the ski slopes at the Olympic host city of Sochi as the city counts down to the start of the Winter Games. Putin skied a few runs at the Laura Biathlon and Ski Complex, on the Psekhako Ridge in Krasnaya Polyana, which will host the mountain competitions when the Winter Olympics get under way on 7 February. Earlier, Putin’s press secretary Dmitri Peskov said that Putin would inspect all the Olympic facilities at Sochi’s mountain and coastal clusters during his visit to the city. The Winter Olympics are the focus of intense international scrutiny and security concerns after the double suicide-bomb attacks in late December in Volgograd, 428 miles (688 kilometres) away, that killed 34 people and injured more than 60 others.

4 January 2014

RIA-Novosti

http://en.ria.ru/sochi2014/20140104/186236478/Putin-Lukashenko-Play-Ice-Hockey-in-Sochi.html

 

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5 January 2014. The Desktop is Dead… Long Live the Desktop

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Let’s start with a little something:

There’s little reason to buy a desktop or laptop computer any more. Tablets do the same functions… playing music, sharing photos, web surfing… that most consumers use PCs for, and they’re made to use on the go. They can also be much cheaper. For instance, Apple’s iMac’s start at 1,300 USD (43,150 Roubles. 1,384 CAD. 1,452 AUD. 957 Euros. 792 UK Pounds) and MacBook laptops start at 1,000 USD (33,200 Roubles. 1,065 CAD. 1,117 AUD. 736 Euros. 610 UK Pounds), but iPads start at 300 USD (9,960 Roubles. 320 CAD. 335 AUD. 220 Euros. 183 UK Pounds). Of course, ditching desktop PCs isn’t for everyone… graphic designers and traders, for instance, who need large screens would find it hard to part with traditional computers. However, data shows that PCs are starting to fall out of favour. According to the latest data from IDC, an information-technology research firm, worldwide shipments fell 4 percent in 2012 from a year earlier… to the lowest level since 2009.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-things-not-buy-2014-124030371.html

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Of course, for most people, tablets are the way to go… let’s face it, most people are only cyber-consumers! However, if you’re a cyber-creator, a merchant, or a business, you still need a desktop. Firstly, most desktops simply have more power than tablets will ever have. There’s simply more room to put things. Secondly, if you’re using a machine for an appreciable amount of time, a larger keyboard is more comfortable and faster. Thirdly, if you do large amounts of fine image work, you need a large screen, and that’s that. Fourthly, I find the “death” of the desktop overstated (like so many things “out there”). It’s simply that Joe Schmo & Co aren’t going to have them… they don’t need them… why take up space? They need it for the large-screen TV for the sports broadcasts!

In short, people like me NEED desktops… maybe, you don’t. It all depends on how much you create. Shall this mean that the web will become more “passive?” God only knows…

BMD