The week in re(ar)view

Water, water everywhere
We've read the news headlines that the country is facing severe draught in the northern regions. Farmers have fields lying vacant where cattle spend the entire day talking about what else but draught. You can tell that they (cattle) are deeply contemplating the water crisis as they thoughtfully chew the abundant grass.

But all that has changed. In the past week there have been severe water crisis but this time the flow has been reversed. Too much water and people are complaining that, well, there is too much water. On 18 September a violent storm hit the coastal belt with the death toll reaching 91 as of September 25 and likely to reach higher numbers still. About a 1000 fisherman are reported to be missing as well as a navy captain. Seems we can't have anything but extremes. Scorching damp heat (figure that) followed by drowning waters.

This storm may have drastically affected the lives of many fishermen but it is a boon for the political opposition party activists and leaders. Now they have yet another complaint against the government that they (govt.) failed to warn people in the coastal regions about the storm. The Met. Office says they issued a level 3 warning but the fishermen ignored it.

The capital city went under as severe water logging occurred in most places while it rained for around four days at a stretch.

Bring changes through hartal
Apparently the country is all about politics now. Everything is politically related. Soon it will get to a stage that simply going to the toilet will become a political related event. One of the recent headlines was that Dhaka is blockaded 'FOR' reforms as the opposition enforces hartals. There have been several hartals so far and more to come all in the name of changes. Maybe the first change anybody can bring about is that of calling hartals on the slightest whim. We the citizens want a change from wanting changes.

By Gokhra and Mood Dude

RS Mailbx

Darklords love

I couldn't help but notice that the article 'Love at first sight' by The Dark Lord was awesome! I totally agree with the point that we teenagers can also fall in 'actual' love. It doesn't have to be an infatuation all the time as the experts (or should I say barnacle-heads) says so. If you don't believe me then just open your eyes and look around. You'll get a dozens of them in no time.

I also fell in love with one of my classmates exactly six years ago when we were in class four and it was a first sight love. We are still in the same school and he knows all about it and he doesn't love me. Unrequited still.

Now, if you still think it is an infatuation then you can only be against love or plain bone-headed...accept it.

May be we are young, immature, whiper-snappers and all that, but there's no way one can think that we can't fall in love. It's not about the age, it's about the heart. Isn't it?
loveangel_1435

I was very overwhelmed by the extract that you wrote ‘Love at First Sight’. The same thing happened with me but my friends were not at fault; I was too late to tell her. She has a boyfriend now, I have her cell phone number but I think its too late, I left it to the Almighty to do what is best for me. TRUE LOVE NEVER DIES. You may be the Dark Lord but I am in a darker place than you.
R.A.S ,Dhaka

You Thought Wrong: Why the PS3 won't lose out in the next-gen console wars
Sony has been long enough in the console business, far more than Microsoft. So it is not going to let that crown of No.1 console slip off its head, not yet.

All of the recent discussions in forums, blogs, analysts' reactions seems to indicate that the PS3 could lose out on the next-generation console wars. But I beg so to differ.

The main dispute seems to be with the $600 price tag (although there is a cheaper version for $500). I mean no one's ever going to spend that much money on a console, right?

Why bother 600 bucks for a PS3 when there are cheaper alternatives like the X360 or the Nintendo Wii for that matter? So you'd be thinking that no one is going to bother about it in Bangladesh, right? Well you thought WRONG!

If everyone wanted the cheapest of everything, then we wouldn't had Mercedes or BMW's rolling down the streets of Dhaka, or first-class flights, or the A380, or those ridiculously expensive home theatre systems for that matter! Now ask yourself. Did that price tag on the expensive T-Shirt hold you back on purchasing it? The Nintendo Gamecube is a whole lot cheaper than the PS2, but did you buy it? I don't think so.

And besides, the extra price is for the Blu-Ray Disc reader that you'd be getting. For the X360, you have to spend around 200-300 dollars for the optional HD-DVD reader. And the launching price of anything is unreasonably high. The only ones who is going to get the console with its launching proce are those who are plain stupid (and with tons of money). As time goes on, the price is surely to drop, I mean its basic Economics! Case in point: The PS2 cost around $500 as it was released in the US in 1999. But look now, you can get it for less than 200 bucks! So I am definitely sure that the price will go down.

The next seems to be about the Blu-Ray discs. It has “that” state of the art copy protection technologies that everyone is fearing, so that pirates have a hard time cracking it. Well, it is going to take some time for pirated discs to appear. But nobody said it is not going to! And did you ever think once about what the No.1 piracy hater Microsoft is going to put in their HD-DVD discs?

The PC games that come with SecureRom, StarForce, etc. employ the toughest copy protection technologies (to date), but did that stop pirated discs from appearing? No! You can play those games just as well. And stop moaning if no-one can't pirate your favourite PS3 game it will save the game publishers billions of dollars in lost revenue and you can finally play it over the internet.

So in the end, Sony might win again in the console wars. My predictions are that Sony will claim the first spot, with Microsoft at second and Nintendo at third (as usual). I am no analyst here, it's just my opinion from the years of experience I had with games and technology. But then again, this is a dog-eat-dog business, so we might even see Nintendo in the 1st spot. Yeah right, that'll happen. When cars fly.

P.S. - You can check out a detailed analysis of the PS3 vs XBOX360 at www.gamersworldbd.com/features/ps3_vs_x360.htm
The Gaminglord (100% Deshi Gamer)

On a silent night

When friends are few
I close my eyes
and think of you
a silent night,
A silent tear,
A silent wish that
U were here.

I sat beside the fire place thinking of these words. Only one who suffers can understand how it feels losing a close friend. I have lost Sam just because of my fault if I did not get offended by his silly jokes then this would not have went wrong.

It was my birth day and I wanted him to wish me first but I guess that wouldn't happen, when suddenly I saw something flickering. It was a shooting star. I prayed to God so that everything gets better. Sam never believed in these kinds of things but I did. My memories with him freshened up. Tears ran down my cheeks when I remembered those. I wiped away my tears thinking that Sam would not like it. He never liked to see me cry. I could not help my tears and I started screaming. That was what I always did when anything went wrong.

Suddenly I saw someone near the door. I stood up and to my utter surprise it was Sam. I was really happy to see him there. He wished and lighted up the candle on the cake. I could not believe it until he hugged me and said ''Angel,
I am sorry.''
By: Sana Shahid

Top Tunes

UG
1. Scarecrow- Oparthib
2. Disciples- Harano Podochchhap
3. Cryptic Fate- Danob
4. Arbovirus- 64min 53sec
5. Poizon Green (Self titled)

Overall
1. Fuad- Vibration 25
2. Ajob (Self titled)
3. Faissa Gechhi- Hyder Husyn
4. Mila
5. Milon Mahmood- Bhalobashae Ahobaan
6. Lamp Er Alo- DJ Rahat
7. Shafeen Ahmed- Kotodin Dekhina Tomae
8. Baul Shah Abdul Karim
9. Bangla- Prottutponnomotitto
10. Stoic Bliss- Light Years Ahead

Courtesy: TunesBD.com