www.formula1spot.co BAHRAIN will host the fourth Formula One Grand Prix race of 2009 and not the third as per the provisional schedule drawn up by the world organising body earlier this year. The International Automobile Federation (FIA) last night released a revised calendar for the 2009 season according to which the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix will now be held from April 24 to 26.

It will now follow the Grands Prix in Australia, Malaysia, and China. "We were obviously planning on an earlier race date, but it is a reflection on the organisational ability of Bahrain that FIA have the confidence in both the BIC and the country being able to accommodate a date change at this reasonably late juncture," said Bahrain International Circuit chief executive Martin Whitaker.

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www.themanchesterunited.com The Portuguese winger was involved in a long-running transfer saga over the summer and was quoted as saying he wanted to move to Real Madrid. The 24-year-old eventually stayed at Old Trafford, and he has drawn parallels with the reaction he faced after the World Cup two years ago, where he was vilified for his part in Wayne Rooney's red card in England's quarter-final defeat.

"A part of the supporters show themselves to be more unhappy than others. But I hope to change their minds," he said. "When I put on the United shirt I give my maximum. Nobody can condemn me on this. "I hope it will be similar to when I came back to England after the 2006 World Cup and I can win the fans back."

United were critical of Madrid's approach and refused to sell their star asset, but Ronaldo insists it was his decision to stay. "Nobody can convince me about anything," he said. "Since I was young I've had to make decisions, I make them alone.

"I want to win more at this club. If the boss thinks I have to stay on the bench I respect that, even if it's difficult." Meanwhile, Carlos Tevez has said he is happy at United, despite struggling to keep a regular place in the starting line up.

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www.autobackstage.com Undeterred by slowdown in car demand, Japanese auto major Toyota on Wednesday said it would almost double its investment for its second plant at Bangalore to Rs 3,200 crore by pumping an additional Rs 1,553 crore.

"An additional amount of around 33 billion Yen (about Rs. 1,553 crore) will be invested for both general-purpose and specialised equipment necessary for manufacturing a new compact vehicle," the company said in a statement. The company had earlier said it would invest about Rs 1,650 crore (35 billion Yen) on its second plant in Bangalore, which would manufacture its 'strategic small car' to be launched by 2010-11.

The new plant, being constructed by Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) at the same site of its first plant, is scheduled to begin operations in 2010 with an initial capacity of 1,00,000 units. "TMC is expanding its local production in India and is actively investing to create attractive products. Its policy is to continue to contribute to the development of India's automotive industry and to the country's overall economy,"

Besides the small car, TKM plans to produce its passenger car, Corolla, from the upcoming plant. "The aim is to meet the broad needs of customers in India, where motorisation is expanding rapidly. Both TKM plants will play an important role in TMC's sustainable plant activities, which seek to emphasize the role of nature in creating production sites that are in harmony with their natural surroundings," the statement added.

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www.gadgetsbuzz.com Even when money is tight, gadgets are high on holiday wish lists. But instead of rushing to grab the latest gizmo, many folks are eyeing refurbished TVs and stripped-down purse-sized laptops under $600.Retail analysts said a shaky job market amid an economic downturn is making consumers "trade down" across most retail categories. Shoppers are buying fewer and less pricey products.

In the highly discretionary consumer electronics arena, that trend is hitting some sellers especially hard.Circuit City (CC, Fortune 500), the No. 2 specialty electronics seller after Best Buy (BBY, Fortune 500), announced Monday that it was shuttering 20% of its U.S. stores as its sales continue to evaporate. 

"We believe that while Best Buy is likely faring better, the results from Circuit City are indicative of a weak consumer electronics market," Deutsche Bank analyst Michael Baker wrote in a note this week.At TigerDirect.com, sales of refurbished electronics have spiked over the past two months.

About 20% of TigerDirect.com's sales are now refurbished products that include personal computers, flatscreen televisions, digital camera, GPS devices and even Apple's iTouch."It's not a tidal wave, but it's definitely increasing," said Bruce Matthews, vice president of business development with TigerDirect.com.

Matthews explained that refurbished products typically offer consumers savings of between 20% to 25%.These aren't defective products. They're items that people decided they didn't want and returned them in the 30-to-60-day return period," Matthews said.

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/www.thegametalk.com WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009With realistic images and the first-ever co-op story mode, the leading fighting game franchise is clothes-lining the competition. Wii, X360, PS2, PS3, PSP, DS. ($30-$80)Secret Service: Ultimate SacrificeIt is Inauguration Day in Washington, D.C., and an extremist group has attacked the Capitol. Guess who is in the line of fire? X360, PS2, PC. ($20-$40)

Monster LabSet in the Uncanny Valley where Baron Mharti rules with a cruel hand, players must create their own monster. Wii, PS2, DS. ($30-$40)Better Business Bureau Online (bbb.org). The BBB’s Web site is ready to help fight shady business practices in these turbulent economic times.
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InteliHealth (intelihealth.com). Sure, it has a funny URL, but Harvard Medical School’s online warehouse of consumer health information has lots of user-friendly articles on health, disease and drugs. BEST BET Remote-Controlled Hand SignsTired of getting cut off in traffic without recourse? Want to go postal in gridlock but can’t? Then let other drivers know exactly how you feel with this R/C sign. ($40)

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Rubik’s WorldTaking the shape and functionality of the original 1980s sensation, this game features plenty of mental twists and turns for players, young and old. Wii, DS. ($30-$40)My Baby Boy/My Baby GirlThese two games simulate the life of a baby boy or girl — without the smelly diapers and cries in the middle of the night. DS. ($30)

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/www.itbuzzed.com  I'm a PC and you're a developer. Microsoft wants to help all you software start-ups and entrepreneurs get in the game with its new business program BizSpark, which offers a slew of its tools for free. The program provides start-up software companies with access to the company's current full-featured development tools, server products and production licenses of server products with no up-front costs and minimal requirements, the Redmond, Wash.-based company said. (In the fine print on its Web site, Microsoft said that "as a demonstration of Microsoft's commitment to start-up success, a program fee of $100 is payable on exit from the program rather than up front when joining)."

Companies qualify for the program if they are in business for less than three years and have less than $1 million in revenue. The program is broken into six divisions: business applications; collaboration; consumer; enterprise infrastructure; mobility; and online content and service.

BizSpark comes with a three-year Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Professional subscription; MSDN allows developers to download development tools that are needed to build, test and maintain an application on the Microsoft platform, including Microsoft Visual Studio and the Microsoft .NET Framework.

For start-ups building hosted software, BizSpark includes production licenses for application hosting and management servers, including Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server, BizTalk Server and Systems Center, with Microsoft Dynamics CRM to be added in the near future.  

The program also provides a global network of hosting partners that offer discounted hosting services to start-ups that want to take their businesses or products online. Start-ups will also be profiled and promoted on the BizSparkDB, Microsoft's online directory of start-ups, where Microsoft said it will promote "promising" start-ups every day.

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www.msvistablog.com If there’s one thing non-techies know about technology right now, it’s that Windows Vista is not being received all that well by consumers. At first, it seemed Microsoft’s answer to this problem was spending $300 million on advertising to try and change the outlook on Vista, and though Microsoft’s recent demonstration of Windows 7 at their Professional Developers Conference may not change Vista’s future, it certainly makes the future of the Windows line as a whole look a lot better.

Windows 7, which is scheduled to be released sometime in late 2009, will contain many user interface and feature changes, while retaining the new and much more reliable and secure core of Windows Vista. Judging from Microsoft’s presentation at the conference, they’ve been paying attention to what users didn’t like about Vista and have taken into account lots of little things, like what percentage of users have their taskbar on the right side of their screen and have made changes based on such information.

The taskbar, formerly a textual interface, will now focus on using icons instead. Users familiar with Mac OS X’s Dock will recognize the concept quite easily. Hovering over an icon shows you a preview of the window for that application, and clicking on the preview will bring up that window. “Scrubbing” over an application’s icon in your taskbar will make all other applications transparent so you can see only the one whose icon you’ve scrubbed over.

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www.youtubeic.com A pensioner is cooking up a storm with his own version of top chef Gordon Ramsay's Cookalong show.Peter Oakley, 81, has posted his own clip of tips for a great microwave chicken casserole on video sharing site YouTube.The elderly cook's video has been posted in response to Ramsay's advert on the site looking for recruits for his Cookalong show.

Mr Oakley's one minute 39 second clip, entitled Response to Cookalong The Geriatric Way, has attracted 68,274 views - not far off Ramsay's 70,279 - since it was posted two weeks ago.It shows him preparing a microwave chicken casserole, advising viewers on the importance of timing in avoiding soggy vegetables.

During the clip, retired motorcycle dealer Mr Oakley can be seen sipping from a glass of wine as he prepares to microwave the meal at his home in the Peak District, Derbyshire.His valuable advice is: "It's always a good idea to sample the wines that you are going to serve with the meal because if you sample enough of them, if it all turns out rubbish you don't really care."

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 www.islandsity.com I close my eyes and I see my six year old self in Westhampton — a little town on Long Island — standing next to a railing with my grandparents, eating a gingerbread cookie from Simon’s Beach Bakery. A winding road runs through the middle of town, cluttered with high-end boutiques, eateries and little shops on each side. There is a bookstore called The Open Book and I wander in, eyes wide in awe of all the bound pages. All the worlds I long to explore. My grandpa lets me pick out a book, and of course I pick Nancy Drew. She was the badass I always wanted to be.

We leave the bookstore and my eyes automatically spot the Ben and Jerry’s across the street. I tug on my grandpa’s pants and beg him to get me some ice cream. He acquiesces immediately — the true mark of a grandparent who isn’t much concerned with the extent to which he spoils his grandchildren. My grandma rolls her eyes at how easily I charm my grandpa, but follows us into the shop. I get a small cup of vanilla ice cream and the three of us walk down the sidewalk enjoying the cool breeze of autumn.

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/www.travelbug101.com/ It was churned brown by the wind and under a lowering sky of rain clouds but somehow the Caspian Sea still breathed an air of romance.Not the hearts and flowers kind, although for Iranians the Caspian is a favoured honeymoon destination and summer holiday spot. I'm talking about geographical romance.

In reality the immediate view from the shore beside my hotel is of a rock-strewn breakwater littered with plastic bottles and other detritus.But I'm looking beyond that and imagining I'm in a small boat, pushing off from the coast and heading into the waves (which would be a totally foolhardy exercise on a day like this, of course).

If I sailed due north I'd reach the Russian coastline, and maybe find the mouth of the Volga River and become a Volga boatwoman; if I veered east I could strike land in that weirdest of Central Asia nations, Turkmenistan. Its late ruler even renamed its Caspian Sea port after himself - Turkmenbashi; if the wind blew me far to the west I'd be threading my way through the off-shore rigs into the oil-rich capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, where Humvees guzzle their way along the streets.

I like, too, the geographaphical conundrum that is the Caspian. It's called a sea but is in fact the world's largest lake; but it's salty and not fresh water.This might merely fascinate me, but it causes international lawmakers and negotiators needless headaches.

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