NEW TECHNOLOGY

Vodafone to launch iPhone 3GS in India

2010-03-26T18:13:00.001+05:30

Telecom major Vodafone Essar on Friday said it will launch Apple iPhone 3GS in the country beginning today, priced at Rs. 29,500 onwards. iPhone 3GS is the fastest iPhone yet and is equipped with a three megapixel autofocus camera, video recording and hands free voice control features.

The handset also provides access to Apple’s App Store, which has more than 1.5 lakh applications ranging from games to social networking.

“We are delighted to offer iPhone 3GS in India. We are confident our customers will enjoy the revolutionary iPhone and the flexibility of our tailored tariff plans,” Vodafone Essar Chief Marketing Officer Kumar Ramanathan said.

Vodafone Essar will offer three plans - a prepaid plan of Rs. 100 and two post paid plans with Rs. 799 and Rs. 999 as rental respectively.

Under the Rs. 799 plan, the customer would get 249 minutes talk time and 250 MB data usage free, while the 999 plan would offer free talk time of Rs. 299 and data usage of 600 MB without charge.

iPhone 3G is available at Rs. 33,500 (for 8GB version), Rs. 40,500 (for 16GB) and Rs. 47,500 (for 32GB) in Mumbai, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, respectively.

For other regions, the handset would be available for Rs. 29,500 (for 8GB version), Rs. 35,500 (for 16GB) and Rs. 41,500 (for 32GB).

Israeli scientists have invented a laser security system which they claim can beat today's hackers and the hackers of the future

2010-03-25T09:18:00.001+05:30

Israeli scientists have invented a laser security system which they claim can beat today's hackers and the hackers of the future with existing fibre optic and computer technology.

The researchers at Tel Aviv University's School of Electrical Engineering have found that by transmitting binary lock-and-key information in the form of light pulses, the device ensures that a shared key code can be unlocked by the sender and receiver and absolutely nobody else.

According to lead author Dr Jacob Scheuer, if it's done right, the system could be absolutely secure. Even with a quantum computer of the future, a hacker couldn't decipher the key.

"When the RSA system for digital information security was introduced in the 1970s, the researchers who invented it predicted that their 200-bit key would take a billion years to crack," Scheuer said.

"It was cracked five years ago. As computers become increasingly powerful, the idea of using the RSA system becomes more fragile thus the solution lies in a new kind of system to keep prying eyes off secure information," he said.

He added, "Rather than developing the lock or the key, we've developed a system which acts as a type of key bearer".

But how can a secure key be delivered over a non-secure network -- a necessary step to get a message from one user to another? If a hacker sees how a key is being sent through the system, then he could be in a position to take the key, Science Blog reported.

So Dr Sheuer found a way to transmit a binary code (the key bearer) in the form of 1s and 0s, but using light and lasers instead of numbers.

"The trick is for those at either end of the fibre optic link to send different laser signals they can distinguish between, but which look identical to an eavesdropper," the author said.

Dr Scheuer developed his system using a special laser he invented, which can reach over 3,000 miles without any serious parts of the signal being lost.

This approach makes it simpler and more reliable than quantum cryptography, a new technology that relies on the quantum properties of photons, the researcher said.

With the right investment to test the theory, Dr Scheuer says it is plausible and highly likely that the system he has built is not limited to any range on earth, even a round-the-world link, for international communications.

"We've already published the theoretical idea and now have developed a preliminary demonstration in my lab. Once both parties have the key they need, they could send information without any chance of detection," he said.

The Age Prediction Machine that tells person's age using mosquito noises!

2010-03-01T00:19:00.005+05:30

Japanese experts have created a device that can help determine the true age of a person using high-pitched mosquito-like noises.

The Age Prediction Machine makes use of high-frequency buzzing noises to asses people's years based on how well they can hear it.

The pocket-sized device, costing around 10 dollars, breaks down noise levels by age range: teens, 20s, 30s and 40-plus, the New York Daily News reported.

People less than 25 years of age apparently responded to the quieter settings, while those over 40 would only be able to hear the loudest, the paper said.

Microsoft eases desi language input on computers

2010-03-01T00:19:00.003+05:30

Global focus on Indianisation of computer applications takes a major step forward as Microsoft introduces the Indic Language Input Tool.

While still in the beta version, the software seamlessly enables input of Indian Language text not only in web pages, but also any application running on Windows. The tool supports major Indian languages such as Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu in the current version. This capability is expected to be extended to other languages also with free-form transliteration, a syllable-based conversion model.

Users can enter text in the English alphabet, spelling out words from Indian languages in a natural phonetic manner. The tool makes use of the syllables in the input text to identify a suitable equivalent in the conversion. The web based version enables easy input of Indian language text on any webpage, while the desktop version works in an offline manner and enables a similar input on any application running on Windows, such as Word, Notepad and Messenger. In addition to automated transliteration, both versions also contain a visual keyboard, for manual assistance.

First showcased by Microsoft in Hyderabad in the last week of November, the product attempts to address the growing need for Indian language input, especially at a time when rural India is waking up to the dawn of long distance communication via computers. If the language barrier was what restricted computer technology to the urban regions, this is a step towards removing that barrier.

3D display made of flying pixel-copters on the anvil

2010-03-01T00:19:00.001+05:30

The idea of pixels flying around like helicopters and coming together to form a coherent image in three dimensional space may sound pretty farfetched, but researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology think it's possible.

Two teams at MIT are working on a unique 3D display dubbed Flyfire, in which a flock of tiny aircraft carrying multicoloured LEDs hover in front of the viewer to form an image.

As pixels that can move through space, the free-flying LEDs could form a shape-shifting 3D display.

As well as the pixels displaying moving images like a normal screen, they could change their position to add real depth.

"We're fascinated by the idea of flying pixels. It's a 3D display with a dual aspect - it can show an image like a traditional display, but then those pixels can move and transform into another shape," New Scientist quoted E. Roon Kang at the SENSEable City Laboratory, as saying.Emilio Frazzoli, head of MIT's Aerospace Robotics and Embedded Systems lab, coordinated the initial proof-of-principle experiments using quad-rotor helicopters, each a few tens of centimetres across.

"We have run experiments with up to 10 quads," he said.

Frazzoli's team can precisely control each helicopter's altitude to within 3 centimetres.

"Horizontal positioning is harder - I would say to within 10 centimetres. We're working on it," he said.

Kang said that the ultimate goal is to make a Flyfire display containing 1000 or more much smaller flying pixels.

"If, when that happens [in five years or more], there are other smaller-scale technological or even biotechnological solutions, we should use those instead of the helicopters," he said.

Frazzoli said that with that number of pixels flying around, manoeuvres would have to be carefully choreographed to minimise collisions.

A combination of onboard controls and a central control system that communicates with all the aircraft will be needed to coordinate pixel movement, he said.

Now, an iPhone app that keeps adultery secret!

2010-03-01T00:14:00.000+05:30

An iPhone application has been launched which promises to cut the risk in adultery by making text messages vanish without trace as soon as they have been read.

TigerText enables the sender to set a lifespan for the message. Once this ends, the app erases the text from both the sender's and recipient's phones.

Costing 1.60-pound a month, the app is being marketed at people who need privacy and want to "cover their tracks", reports The Times.

It works only if the sender and recipient are both using Apple iPhones and have the app installed.

Paula Hall, a counsellor with Relate, said: "For couples where infidelity is a possibility, this just makes cheating easier."

Internet marketing- Is it worth the risk ?

2010-02-08T12:12:00.003+05:30

Though many of you have come across this , not many knows how to do it right. In this rapidly changing phase of business expansion and business promotion, internet marketing is regarded to be godsend for businesses that need quality promotion of their products or services at an affordable price. known under the tiltles, e-marketing or online/internet marketing has created a revolution because of its nominal cost of advertising. Because of its interactive nature and around the clock availability, online marketing can be easily accessible than the conventional offline marketing campaign but is not free from limitations and security tamperings.

of course, internet marketing unlike other marketing business does not require big capital nor heavy investments since it is purely online.Indeed it is a low cost promotional strategy and is the easiest way to reach the global market. Internet marketers can reach a worldwide target market. Therefore, internet marketing gives online business a higher chance of success. Internet marketing reaches a target market in an instant. Potential customers can reach your online business as quickly as one click. Therefore, internet marketing makes online business move fast.

Internet marketing lacks in building and maintaining the trust of it's customers.One can choose only from the given limited range of products.It takes time for an internet marketer to gain the trust of online users. Many business oriented people see this medium a reliable tool for business transactions, This calls for constant upgradation of the products and needs to keep pace for meeting the tough competition. One of the biggest barriers is the low-speed internet connection.Security is a major concern. . As far as the sensitive information like credit card numbers etc. are concerned Customers are sometimes hesitant to buy products online because of their lack of trust in marketing websites. Companies that engage in online businesses often claim that they will keep the customer information private and confidential but have time and again been caught for selling information.

Therefore, it is better to think twice before you jump off being an internet marketer yourself.

Credit card - an inevitable friend or foe!!!

2010-02-08T12:12:00.001+05:30

In this highly expanding world of commerse and business, credit cards play a vital role in our daily life. Over the years the number of credit card users around has been exploding. If used wisely it becomes your friend but if misused it turns out to be your foe unknowingly getting you trapped in debt. With innumerable companies offering credit cards, acquiring a credit card is very simple and easier than the process of opting out of the scheme.

Those you market credit card mostly give false promises but the reality lies in the other way. A credit card marketer is only eager to complete the sale and earn their commission. Just like everything it is a matter of how you use it.Judicious use of credit cards can make our life comfortable. Before applying for a credit card just check this out :

As a friend:
1. You can make purchases on credit without carrying a lot of cash. This allows flexibility.
2. Allows record-keeping to be accurate by consolidating purchases into a single statement.
3. Convenient remote purchasing is possible as you can pay for large purchases in small, monthly installments.
4. Allows you to withhold payments for merchandise which is defective.
5. Cheap for short-term borrowing- interest needs to be paid only for the remaining debt.

As a foe:
1. You become an impulsive buyer and tend to overspend on purchasing of goods and services you cannot really afford.
2. Credit card is a relatively easy way of obtaining credit if not used carefully because of it's high interest rates and other costs.
3. Lost or stolen cards results in some unwanted expense and inconvenience.
4. Use of a number of credit cards leads you even further into debt.
5. Using a credit card ,especially remotely, introduces the risk as the card details may fall into the wrong hands resulting in fraudulent purchases. Fraudulent charges may take months to dispute, investigate, and resolve.

Therefore the option is left open to ' We' the customers. Anticipate problems rather than inviting them!

New chip can sniff out type, severity of cancer

2009-10-02T21:41:00.005+05:30

Researchers have developed a microchip that is sensitive enough to quickly determine the type and severity of a patient's cancer and nip the disease in the bud.

"This remarkable innovation is an indication that the age of nanomedicine is dawning," says Professor of medicine at the University of Toronto (U of T) David Naylor.

"Thanks to the breadth of expertise in Toronto at U of T, cross-disciplinary collaborations of this nature make such landmark advances possible," he said.

The new device can easily sense specific markers that indicate the presence of cancer at the cellular level.

These biomolecules- genes that indicate aggressive or benign forms of cancer and differentiate its subtypes - are generally present only at low levels in such samples.

Analysis can be completed in 30 minutes, a vast improvement over the existing diagnostic procedures that generally take days, says a U of T release.

"Today, it takes a room filled with computers to evaluate a clinically relevant sample of cancer biomarkers and the results aren't quickly available," says Professor in pharmacy and medicine U of T, project investigator and study co-author, Shana Kelley.

"Our team was able to measure biomolecules on an electronic chip the size of your fingertip and analyse the sample within half an hour. The instrumentation required for this analysis can be contained within a unit the size of a BlackBerry," says Kelley.

Google offer: USD 10 mn for ideas that can change world

2009-10-02T21:41:00.003+05:30

Building a real time, user-reported news service might sound utopian but the idea is one among the 16 that could end up getting millions of dollars from internet major Google.

The company has shortlisted 16 ideas that has the potential to help the most number of people and up to five of them, would receive funds worth USD 10 million.

According to information available on its website, the project is a "call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible".

The 16 ideas such as building a real time, user-reported news service and making educational content free online, were shortlisted from thousands of ideas submitted by people from different parts of the world.

Going by the website, the firm would give USD 10 million to fund the implementation of as many as five ideas.

As per descriptions available on the website, the user-reported news service would help people find and report timely, important local information.

"Implementation of this idea would involve creating a system that enables ordinary citizens to easily report news that's happening around them, from meaningful local events to important global stories," the website said.

Other ideas include creating genocide monitoring and alert system, promoting health monitoring and data analysis and building better banking tools for everyone.

The public can vote on these ideas till October 8.

Now, a 'switch' to reverse biological clock!

2009-10-02T21:41:00.001+05:30

For the first time, scientists have pinpointed a chemical ‘switch’ that can reverse the "biological clock" by making human muscles younger and stronger .

As time passes, our muscles slowly lose their ability to regenerate. This not only occurs in the muscles of our arms, legs and torso but also the internal ones such as our hearts. As the muscles weaken, we lose strength, become less agile and eventually our organs fail leading to death.

However, all this can now be overturned - thanks to the breakthrough which implies a drug that rejuvenates old muscles and prevents young muscles from ageing can be created.

In the study, researchers have shown that the process appears to turn-off in elderly patients - preventing the fibres from repairing themselves so they begin to wither away, reports The Daily Express .

But when the switch is turned back on, it triggers a chain of events that allows muscles to rejuvenate. To reach the conclusion, researchers from the University of California at Berkeley carried out tests on tissue samples from around 30 healthy men. Half the volunteers were 21 to 24-year-olds and half aged between 68 and 74, reports The Daily Express .

Samples of tissue were surgically removed from the participants’ thighs. Then the volunteers had one of their legs immobilised in a cast for two weeks so their muscles began to waste. Following the removal of the casts, the men exercised with weights.

Then more tissue samples were removed three days and then four weeks later. When tests were carried out on these samples, the scientists found that during the exercise period the muscles of younger volunteers had four times more regenerative stem cells engaged in tissue repair than those of older participants. Old muscle also showed signs of damaging inflammation and scarring.

Dr Morgan Carlson, a member of the Berkeley research team, said: "The old muscle didn’t recover as well with exercise. This emphasises the importance of older populations staying active because the evidence is that for their muscle, long periods of disuse may irrevocably worsen the stem cells’ regenerative environment."

After understanding what happens when human’s age, scientists began to look at how to stop it happening. After analyses, they found that a key protein is needed to allow muscle stem cells to get to work repairing tissue.

But in case of older people, the protein called mitogen-activated protein kinase, was missing.

However, when it was added to samples of elderly patients’ muscles, they began to repair. And when it was blocked in younger patients, they did not repair as well.

The team believes this protein and the switch it turns on and off, called Notch, will be the key for drug development in the future.

Microsoft releases free computer security software

2009-10-02T21:40:00.003+05:30

Microsoft released free software that people can use to protect computers against viruses, spyware and other malicious codes in arsenals of cyber criminals.

Microsoft Security Essentials is available for download at microsoft.com/security_essentials and is built on technology that the global software giant uses in computer security programs it designs for businesses.

"With Microsoft Security Essentials, consumers can get high-quality protection that is easy to get and easy to use, and it won't get in their way," said Amy Barzdukas, general manager for consumer security at Microsoft.

"Consumers have told us that they want the protection of real-time security software but we know that too many are either unwilling or unable to pay for it, and so end up unprotected."

Microsoft hopes that the free software will be broadly adopted, particularly by those who have not been vigilant about protecting computers from hackers, and thereby "increase security across the entire Windows ecosystem."

More than 90 percent of the computers worldwide run on Windows operating systems made by the US technology firm.

"Microsoft is helping to reduce some of the barriers that constrain consumers from running (anti-virus software)," said IDC security analyst Jon Crotty. "Microsoft is focused on the challenges that prevent consumers from running up-to-date anti-virus software today, particularly in emerging markets where there is a growing prevalence of malware."

Security Essentials is designed to run behind the scenes, defending machines against infection by malicious computer codes.

The real-time nature of the software means it is automatically kept up-to-date regarding viruses.

Computer security specialty firm Symantec downplayed the Microsoft offering, saying it is lightweight and isn't tuned for new forms of attack being used by hackers.

Symantec referred to Security Essentials as a stripped-down version of an old Microsoft OneCare product that got poor ratings. "From a security perspective, this Microsoft tool offers reduced defenses at a critical point in the battle against cyber crime," Symantec said of the free offering that competes with Norton products sold by the firm.

"Unique malware and social engineering tricks fly under the radar of traditional signature-based technology alone -- which is what is employed by free security tools such as Microsoft's," it said.

Ardi, 4-mn-year-old human ancestor, rewrites history

2009-10-02T21:40:00.001+05:30

The story of humankind is reaching back another million years as scientists learn more about "Ardi," a hominid who lived 4.4 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia.

The 110-pound (50-kg), 4-foot (1.22-m) female roamed forests a million years before the famous Lucy, long studied as the earliest skeleton of a human ancestor.

This older skeleton reverses the common wisdom of human evolution, said anthropologist C Owen Lovejoy of Kent State University.

Rather than humans evolving from an ancient chimp-like creature, the new find provides evidence that chimps and humans evolved from some long-ago common ancestor--but each evolved and changed separately along the way.

"This is not that common ancestor, but it's the closest we have ever been able to come," said Tim White, director of the Human Evolution Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

The lines that evolved into modern humans and living apes probably shared an ancestor 6 million to 7 million years ago, White said in a telephone interview.

But Ardi has many traits that do not appear in modern-day African apes, leading to the conclusion that the apes evolved extensively since we shared that last common ancestor.

A study of Ardi, under way since the first bones were discovered in 1994, indicates the species lived in the woodlands and could climb on all fours along tree branches, but the development of their arms and legs indicates they didn't spend much time in the trees. And they could walk upright, on two legs, when on the ground.

Formally dubbed Ardipithecus ramidus--which means root of the ground ape --the find is detailed in 11 research papers published on Thursday by the journal Science.

"This is one of the most important discoveries for the study of human evolution," said David Pilbeam, curator of paleoanthropology at Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

"It is relatively complete in that it preserves head, hands, feet and some critical parts in between. It represents a genus plausibly ancestral to Australopithecus--itself ancestral to our genus Homo," said Pilbeam, who was not part of the research teams.

Scientists assembled the skeleton from 125 pieces.

Lucy, also found in Africa, thrived a million years after Ardi and was of the more human-like genus Australopithecus.

"In Ardipithecus we have an unspecialized form that hasn't evolved very far in the direction of Australopithecus. So when you go from head to toe, you're seeing a mosaic creature that is neither chimpanzee, nor is it human. It is Ardipithecus," said White.

White noted that Charles Darwin, whose research in the 19th century paved the way for the science of evolution, was cautious about the last common ancestor between humans and apes.

"Darwin said we have to be really careful. The only way we're really going to know what this last common ancestor looked like is to go and find it. Well, at 4.4 million years ago we found something pretty close to it," White said. "And, just like Darwin appreciated, evolution of the ape lineages and the human lineage has been going on independently since the time those lines split, since that last common ancestor we shared."

Some details about Ardi in the collection of papers:

* Ardi was found in Ethiopia's Afar Rift, where many fossils of ancient plants and animals have been discovered. Findings near the skeleton indicate that at the time it was a wooded environment. Fossils of 29 species of birds and 20 species of small mammals were found at the site.

* Geologist Giday WoldeGabriel of Los Alamos National Laboratory was able to use volcanic layers above and below the fossil to date it to 4.4 million years ago.

* Ardi's upper canine teeth are more like the stubby ones of modern humans than the long, sharp, pointed ones of male chimpanzees and most other primates. An analysis of the tooth enamel suggests a diverse diet, including fruit and other woodland-based foods such as nuts and leaves.

* Paleoanthropologist Gen Suwa of the University of Tokyo reported that Ardi's face had a projecting muzzle, giving her an ape-like appearance. But it didn't thrust forward quite as much as the lower faces of modern African apes do. Some features of her skull, such as the ridge above the eye socket, are quite different from those of chimpanzees. The details of the bottom of the skull, where nerves and blood vessels enter the brain, indicate that Ardi's brain was positioned in a way similar to modern humans, possibly suggesting that the hominid brain may have been already poised to expand areas involving aspects of visual and spatial perception.

* Ardi's hand and wrist were a mix of primitive traits and a few new ones, but they don't include the hallmark traits of the modern tree-hanging, knuckle-walking chimps and gorillas. She had relatively short palms and fingers which were flexible, allowing her to support her body weight on her palms while moving along tree branches, but she had to be a careful climber because she lacked the anatomical features that allow modern-day African apes to swing, hang and easily move through the trees.

* The pelvis and hip show the gluteal muscles were positioned so she could walk upright.

* Her feet were rigid enough for walking but still had a grasping big toe for use in climbing.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics of the University of California, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and others.

Only Indians make, receive missed calls

2009-07-10T18:43:00.001+05:30

India does more than just make and receive calls on its mobile phones. It is the only country in the world to send and receive missedcalls, has the lowest usage of multiple SIMs, while Indian women show a unique preference for public phones, including PCOs to make calls, according to a study.

The study also reports consumer-led innovation like wives using tracking devices on phones to pin cheating husbands or a migrant worker using the local grocer to transfer funds to his family by transferring load (prepaid value) from his mobile phone to the grocer.

These are some of the findings from a six-country qualitative survey of teleuse at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) in Asia by leading ICT think tank LIRNEasia.

Rural and low-income consumer segments are attracting immense interest as they are expected to contribute to the next wave of growth in India, particularly for telecom products and services.

Many industry experts believe that the next billion telecom subscribers will come from the BOP. Telecom adoption at the BOP highlights the role of telecom in enhancing household income and transforming personal identity by increasing accessibility and hence, credibility. Telecom adoption is also seen to impact their social and professional network coordination by strengthening family ties and increasing business coordination by overcoming challenges posed by location and context.

"If we are to have an inclusive society, it is imperative that the poor are connected to electronic networks. How can that happen unless companies deliver services that meet their needs? What LiRNEasia does with this survey is bridge that gap", says Rohan Samarajiva, chairman & CEO, LIRNasia.

"The complex and different nature of demand for telecom services among households making less than two dollars a day is illuminated by the teleuse@BOP research, enabling companies to develop appropriate products and governments to implement appropriate policies", Samarajiva explains. Missed calls are used by a high 84% of the sample to minimize communication expenditures.

They are used when people run out of load on their mobiles or when they want someone else to call them.

Missed calls are also used to check if another person is on the callers’ network. If the recipient is switched onto another network, he/she will be signalled to switch to a SIM corresponding to the callers’ network so that lower on-net charges can be availed of. Those below 35 years make the most use of missed calls as well as SMS, multiple SIMs and friends and family packages in order to manage their communication expenses.

Interestingly, Indian women are the only ones to display a preference for public landline phones. The reason is that they are enclosed during the conversation, which ensures safety and privacy, as also a place to sit.

At home, married women are especially starved for privacy which is at a premium when they want to converse with parents and siblings. Shopkeepers help by allowing women credit if they run out of money and also keeping messages for them in case they do not have phones.

The survey incorporates findings from a 45-minute questionnaire administered on 11,000 people in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Thailand.

Broadband Satellite Internet Takes Broadband to a New Level

2009-06-18T23:58:00.001+05:30

Satellite high speed Internet is the best way to get on the information superhighway called Internet especially for people in rural and other remote areas. A broadband satellite Internet connection is an excellent option for people residing in rural areas where Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and cable modem connections are not available or if available the condition is poor.

What is Satellite Internet?

In a satellite Internet connection the upstream (outgoing) and the downstream (incoming) data are sent and received from a computer via satellite. The signals are sent to the satellite with the help of a satellite dish antenna and a transceiver that operates in the microwave portion of the radio spectrum. As the nature of the broadband satellite Internet connection offers high speed it is considered really a good option for Web browsing and for downloading of files.

Satellite Internet providers can get a satellite Internet connection installed even in remote areas where even the most basic utilities such as electricity is lacking. In such a situation if there is a generator or battery for power supply to run a computer system you can think about getting a satellite Internet connection. Thus, getting a broadband satellite Internet connection is the best choice as location and hi-fi infrastructure is not an issue here. The dish provided by the satellite Internet providers is designed to pick up the signal from practically any where.

Pros and cons of satellite Internet connection

Before you seriously think of getting a satellite broadband Internet connection, you must be aware of the pros and cons associated with the usage of broadband satellite Internet. The biggest advantage is undoubtedly the convenience related to the use of this fast growing technology. Secondly it always promises fast and reliable connection speeds without any location barrier.

And speaking of cons the integrity of your satellite Internet connection largely depends on the weather condition. Rain, moisture, strong winds, and other obstructive weather patterns determine how well the transmitter provided by satellite Internet providers communicates with the Internet satellite service. But this problem can be resolved easily with the help of a signal amplifier or signal locator. With the help of this additional hardware connection can be made stronger and more resistant to disturbance with a signal amplifier.

Now if you need a satellite connection find a good, reputed satellite Internet service provider and place your order. But before ordering there are certain basic requirements for broadband satellite Internet connection that you need to take care of.

Apart from a clear view of the sky and a solid roof to install the satellite dish antenna, you will also need a powerful computer system to enjoy uninterrupted Internet connection anytime, anywhere. You need a Pentium II 333 MHz or faster system with Windows 98SE or Windows Me with 64MB RAM, while for Windows 2000 and Windows XP the requirement is 128MB RAM. There must also be free hard drive space of 20 MB, one extra USB port and CD-ROM drive.

Even though satellite Internet connection is bit costly as compared to other types of broadband connection, it is a good option as it comes bundled with plenty of benefits which will serve you well in the long run. Get your own broadband satellite Internet connection today as life without the Internet technology is simply impossible to visualize.

Ron Taylor writes on latest technological developments with main focus on Satellite high speed internet, Broadband Satellite Internet, digital Satellite TV, Satellite radio and also top Satellite Internet Providers.

New age DVD that can hold 2,000 movies

2009-05-21T19:22:00.002+05:30

A DVD that can store up to 2,000 films - equivalent to 300 DVDs in a single disk - can revolutionise the way we store films, music and data, scientists say.

The ultra-DVD is the same size and thickness as a conventional disc, but uses nano-technology to store vast amounts of information. Scientists believe that such a product can be on sale within five years.

The breakthrough comes from Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia, where scientists created a prototype using 'nano rods' - tiny particles of gold too small to see - and polarised light, in which the light waves only flow in one direction, reported Daily Mail.

Min Gu, professor whose findings appear in the journal Nature, said: "We were able to show how nano-structured material can be incorporated on to a disc to increase data capacity without increasing the size of the disc."

A convential DVD can hold up to 8.5 gigabytes (GB) of information, enough for a movie, several special features and an alternative soundtrack.

Blu-ray discs, which were designed to replace them, can store 50 GB, enough for a film and extra features in high definition. But ultra-DVDs will be able to store 10,000 GB.

A conventional DVD records music, pictures and computer files as digital code - a series of ones and zeroes. The code is written as a series of pits under the clear surface of the disc and is read by a DVD player's laser

The new disc stores information using two extra 'dimensions' - the colour of light and the direction, or polarisation, of light waves.

"These extra dimensions are the key to creating ultra-high capacity discs," said Min Gu.

To use colour, the researcher inserted rods of gold too small to see with the naked eye onto the surface of a disc.

The rods were designed to react to particular wavelengths - or colours - of light. That allowed researchers to record information in a range of different colours on the same physical area of the disc.

They were also able to add extra information by using polarised light, which is made up of light waves that vibrate in just one direction. Light that has been polarised can be blocked using a special filter.

"The polarisation can be rotated 360 degrees," said co-author James Chon.

"So for example, we were able to record at zero degree polarisation. Then on top of that, we were able to record another layer of information at 90 degrees polarisation, without them interfering with each other."

The researchers, who have agreed a deal with Samsung, admit recording on to ultra-DVDs is complicated and time consuming.

The discs would allow vast amount of information to be stored on a cheap, disposable disc.

Currently, people have to use portable hard disc drives to store the equivalent amount of data.

Consumers would need to buy new DVD players to use the discs - although they should be able to read the older Blu-ray and DVDs, the researcher said.

Young minds lured to the world of science

2009-03-04T00:35:00.001+05:30

In keeping with the aim of the National Science Day, scientific institutions in the city organised debate and quiz competitions for children. The occasion was used to lure young minds into the scientific fields.

To commemorate CV Raman’s discovery of ‘Raman Effect’, National Science Day is observed on February 28 to popularise science and develop scientific reasoning in young minds. The two-day event organised by Regional Science City to mark the occasion concluded on Saturday. There were events like poster making and written quiz contest to give children a scientific bent.

Meanwhile, institutes like the National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) and Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) observed ‘open day’ on the occasion.

The Institutes were open for the general public. Students from different schools, researchers and even senior citizens visited these institutes.Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (IITR) screened a film, ‘battling the toxicants’, giving an overview of the institute to school students. Besides, an interactive session between students and a distinguished panel of scientists was also organised.

Department of biochemistry, Lucknow University also marked the National Science Day by organising a lecture titled ‘Recent developments in spectroscopy’ by vice-chancellor Prof AS Brar. Many competitions were also held on the day.

Motorola launches Rs 1.11 lakh mobile phone

2009-03-04T00:34:00.000+05:30

With everyone looking preoccupied with recession, cellular handset maker Motorola on Friday gave the wealthy people a new obsession
called 'AURA', a hand-sculpted mobile phone that costs Rs 1,11,000.

"We are delighted to offer AURA to Indian consumers with its luxurious design, artistry and sensory experience," said Faisal Siddiqui, Head of India Operations, Motorola Mobile Devices.

AURA is Motorola's latest high-tier mobile device targeted at the trend-setter Indian who has a taste for the exquisitely stylish, unrivalled quality and sensuous luxury, he added.

The phone was launched by the Bollywood celebrity and Motorola's brand ambassador Abhishek Bachchan, who presented the first Aura to fashion designer Manish Malhotra yesterday in Mumbai.

The unique handset breaks convention and re-establishes artistry in the design and manufacturing of mobile devices for the discerning Indian consumers, Siddiqui said.

The hand-sculpted richness of AURA can literally be felt in its stainless steel housing, textures and patterns chemically etched into its surface, he said.

Researchers develop hair counting software

2008-11-04T19:42:00.001+05:30

Australian researchers have developed a new software which can count hairs in a patch of skin and could help in testing the effectiveness of baldness treatments and depilatory creams.

Researchers from CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences in Sydney report their findings in the November issue of the journal Skin Research and Technology.

The software, developed in partnership with a UK company, will make it easier for researchers developing hair removal creams to accurately assess how well they work, image analyst Pascal Vallotton was quoted as saying in ABC report here.

"Up to now they were counting the number of hairs that survived after treatment manually. That's hard work and it's difficult because you may count a hair twice or you may miss it, so image analysis offers distinct advantages because you always get the same counts and you get the right counts," he said.

The software relies on images captured by a small flatbed scanner pressed onto the skin. Using a mathematical algorithm, the software then identifies and traces each individual hair based on an understanding of a hair's unique features, such as its relative straightness.

The software is able to distinguish between hairs and other features on the skin such as wrinkles, wounds or moles.

"We have a lot of defects in our skin irregularities that make it difficult to say this is a hair or this is a wrinkle," Vallotton said adding comparison between earlier and later images can also determine if hair is growing quickly or slowly.

Japanese clone mouse from frozen dead cell

2008-11-04T19:41:00.001+05:30

Japanese scientists said on Tuesady they had created a mouse from a dead cell frozen for 16 years, taking a step in the long impossible dream of bringing back extinct animals such as mammoths.

Scientists at the government-backed research institute Riken used the dead cell of a mouse that had been preserved at minus 20 degrees Celsius, a temperature similar to frozen ground.

The scientists hope that the first-of-a-kind research will pave the way to restore extinct animals such as the mammoth. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.

The scientists extracted a cell nucleus from an organ of the dead mouse and planted it into an egg of another mouse which was alive, leading to the birth of the cloned mouse, the researchers said.

"The newly developed technology of nucleus transfer greatly improved the possibility of reviving extinct animals," the research team led by Teruhiko Wakayama said in a statement.

The cloned mouse was able to reproduce with a female mouse, it added. But the researchers said tough challenges remain ahead on how to restore extinct animals, which would require breeding with animals that are still alive.

To revive a mammoth, researchers would need to find a way to implant a cell nucleus of a mammoth into the egg of an elephant and then implant the embryo into an elephant's uterus, it said.

HP Slaps Open Source License on Unix File System

2008-06-23T23:52:00.000+05:30

Hewlett-Packard announced it is letting its Tru64 Unix Advanced File System (AdvFS) source code run free in the Linux Verio brings something extra to Linuxcommunity. Access to this code will provide capabilities that increase uptime, enhance security and help ensure maximum performance of Linux file systems, according to HP officials.

The AdvFS source code will give the Linux community a reference implementation for an enterprise Linux file system. That includes design documentation, test suites and engineering resources.

HP's code contribution provides Linux kernel developers with a comprehensive foundation to improve today's Linux file system functionality, according to the company. HP is making the source code available under the terms of General Public License Version 2 for compatibility with the Linux kernel.

"A lot of work is going on to bring the Linux operating system to the next level," Doug Small, director of global alliance marketing for HP, told LinuxInsider.

What It Is

HP developed AdvFS as a file system that has been deployed for more than 16 years by enterprises throughout the world. It simplifies file and storage management, enables online system backups and increases data availability, according to HP.

The integration of key AdvFS file system features also accelerates the road map of future solutions designed to strengthen Linux for enterprise customers. This type of advanced file system will be a big advantage to core operations at data centers, said Small.

"To ensure the highest levels of data security and availability, Linux customers need full and immediate access to established technology," said Martin Fink, senior vice president and general manager of business critical systems at HP. "We continue to invest our engineering resources in the development of that technology while working with the open source community to ensure accessibility and seamless integration."

Leaving Legacy

Over the years, HP has made several contributions to the Linux community, Small explained. For instance, HP engineers worked on scalability and management issues. Also, HP launched in January its software governance initiative to help companies address the legal, financial and security risks faced when adopting free and open source software (FOSS).

"HP's contribution of the Advanced File System code, coupled with its overall resource commitment to Linux, will greatly accelerate the development and commercial availability of improved system functionality for Linux," said Jim Zemlin, executive director of Linux Foundation. "The technology and engineering resources being made available for next-generation file system projects are proof that HP is a true open source community leader."

Business demands are driving the Linux kernel development community to focus on the advancement of file system functionality. Currently, file systems are being developed through an open community process. HP's contribution expedites these efforts, according to Small.

Growing Linux Market

"The existing file system matches many of the workloads used in enterprise today. But many more workloads are more demanding and need a more advanced open source file system associated with Linux," Bdale Garbee, chief technologist for open source and Linux at HP, told LinuxInsider.

For example, increasing the size of the partition and volume can let users do tasks with one command instead of having to use several, he said. There is an ever-increasing demand to increase the size.

Improvements to the file system will benefit more than just high-end enterprise Linux users, Garbee said. For instance, some of these enterprise features -- like taking a snapshot of the file system while the application is still running -- can be useful on the desktop.

Skype's latest focuses on watching who you call

2008-06-18T09:37:00.002+05:30

Net phone provider Skype is expected to begin public testing Wednesday of a new version of its software that aims to make casual video chatting more common.

The Luxembourg-based unit of online auction leader eBay said that public testing of Skype version 4.0 would begin making video a more integral part of the service, which lets consumers make free or low-cost phone calls.

The 4.0 test version invites users to post bigger photos of themselves, instead of just thumbnail images, to encourage callers to see and be seen.

It also incorporates features for non-technical users that detect computer settings, available bandwidth, and connected audio or video devices to make getting started easier.

Skype lets users make international computer-to-computer calls to other users in most countries for free, and calls from Skype-equipped computers or phones to landlines or cell phones at low rates. Skype generated $382 million in 2007 revenue and Wall Street analysts expect it to top $500 million in 2008.

The 5-year-old service counted 309 million registered users as of the end of March, and plays host to 12 million simultaneous users at busy times of day. Its users can send computer instant messages and text messages to phones, share big data files, or chat via video phone.

"Skype users are communicating in many different modes--often at the same time," said Josh Silverman, a veteran eBay executive who took charge of Skype as president this year.

"We thought it was time for software to take that into account," Silverman said in a phone interview. "Now video is really bringing together all those modes of communication."

Skype gives computer-based callers a simple way to hold full-screen video chats instead of constricting conversations to a small window in a corner of the screen, as before.

Full-screen resolution of video in Skype 4.0 is high enough quality to let users make real eye contact, Silverman said.

He said Skype was ready to take heat from fans of its classic, small-screen design for the significant revamp in 4.0, which features a more video-friendly, full-screen setup.

Skype has offered video calling since late 2005, but due to unfamiliarity with it then--and a lack of Web-camera-ready computers--it was an afterthought for many users.

The rise of video-sharing site YouTube has since popularized, especially among younger users, the use of Web cameras connected to home computers. This has fueled a surge in video calling on Skype, and it already constitutes 28 percent of all calls made on the service, Silverman said.

That growing popularity of video calling has taken place despite the fact that existing versions of Skype software make the video feature hard to find. Users must first start a call to a friend, then find the button to add video to that call.

Skype's sometimes controversial software is built on bandwidth-sharing technology that lends computer processing power to users with less bandwidth from users with spare capacity. This has advantages for improving video call quality that conventional landline or mobile networks lack.

Michael Bartlett, director of Skype product management for Windows, said Skype engineers have designed data compression technology that enables rich-quality voice conversations with as little as 2 kilobits per second of bandwidth and video calls on connections as slow as 6Kbps.

Version 4.0 takes advantage of faster average speeds--now typically 256Kbps or better, he said. For high-resolution, full-screen Skype video calls, 90Kbps is ideal, he added.

Skype will post further details on its blog later on Wednesday. Windows PC users wishing to test Skype 4.0 may then download it there.

Facebook and Google still not ready to connect friends

2008-06-18T09:37:00.001+05:30

The meaning of openness in the realm of social networks continues to be difficult to pin down. At a panel discussion Tuesday at Supernova 2008 in San Francisco, representatives from Facebook, Google, and Plaxo discussed their various interpretations of openness and got into the ongoing controversy between Google and Facebook over their friend-connecting APIs.

"The point is that the individuals have shared custodianship of it because they have overlapping knowledge of each other's connections," said Kevin Marks of Google regarding who owns the social graph data. Users understand that if they violate the implicit social contract, it will upset fellow users. "The goal of OpenSocial (Google's set of application programming interfaces for allowing applications to access a social graph) is to have an abstraction so the social contract can be enforced by the containers," Marks said.

"Open is when users are mashing up things and in control. It's driven by what is valuable to the user," said Plaxo's Joseph Smarr.

Facebook's Dave Morin defined openness as giving people control over the information they share and providing developers with the capability to build on top of the Facebook platform. Social data breaks down into three categories, Morin said: identity data, social graph data, and feeds and social actions. With 80 million users, Facebook has a responsibility to make sure that users understand what and how they are sharing information, he added.

"You should be able to take your identity wherever you go and keep social graph in sync," Morin said. The notion of "dynamic privacy" is at the core of Facebook's openness efforts. Users set up privacy controls inside Facebook to share more information and to be more open, and have it always in sync, Morin explained.

It's on the point of being able to take your identity across social networks that has put Google and Facebook at odds.

Last month Facebook blocked Google's Friend Connect service, claiming that it violated its terms of service. According to Facebook, Google Friend Connect's violation was redistributing user information from Facebook to other developers without the users' knowledge.

"When Facebook Connect initially launched and Google Friend Connect launched, both implemented different technology. We found Google to be in violation of our terms of service, so we asked to talk about it with them," Morin said. "We are in direct contact with Google representatives to find ways to work together. It's important that on this panel we are talking about this...It's important that we figure out how to make it work together.

Marks asked Morin what Google would need to change in Friend Connect to make it work for Facebook.

Morin answered, "We would like to work together on how to make dynamic privacy happen for everyone, so every privacy setting on our site works on other sites."

Marks was unclear as to what Google was copying from Facebook in its Friend Connect implementation, using OpenID, OAuth and OpenSocial, that would cause a violation in Facebook's terms of service.

Morin said he preferred not to talk about legal matters. "Our representatives are talking so a fight on the panel doesn't need to happen."

It wasn't a fight but Morin's answer that representatives are talking makes it seem that lawyers instead of engineers, who are at the core of the two companies, are running the show.

Smarr chimed in, "We see each other all the time, and we are all in Silicon Valley, so there are overlapping back channels."

"What Facebook is doing (with dynamic privacy) is very laudable--if you choose to share something in one place, it should appear in another. It's just not clear on how this dynamic privacy will work. If Facebook tries to do it by themselves and not with other people, it will be hard to make it really scale," said David Recordon of Six Apart, who has been involved in data portability efforts.

New DNSChanger Trojan variant targets routers

2008-06-18T09:35:00.000+05:30

Secure Computing researchers have discovered a new variant of the DNSChanger Trojan in the wild that attacks routers, meaning any Web surfing computer on that network could be at risk of being redirected to a malicious Web site.

The DNSChanger Trojan changes the DNS settings to point to a host Web site address supplied by the attackers, Sven Krasser, director of data mining research at Secure Computing, said in an interview with CNET News.com on Tuesday.

"Your network is essentially reconfigured to do all the (domain) name resolutions over this malicious name server," he said.

The DNSChanger Trojan is able to access all the settings and functions on the router. It only knows about a few popular router Web interface URLs that it can use to change DNS settings at this time, but that is expected to change and more routers will be affected, according to a Secure Computing blog entry.

The Trojan is believed to be created by the creators of the family of malware called "Zlob," which masquerades as an ActiveX video codec.

Internet-connected coffee maker has security holes

2008-06-18T09:34:00.004+05:30

An Australian man has discovered security vulnerabilities in his Internet-connected coffee maker that could allow a remote attacker to not only take over his Windows XP-based PC but also make his coffee too weak.

Craig Wright, a risk advisory services manager at professional services firm BDO, found several security holes, including a buffer overflow in the Internet Connection software that links his Jura F90 coffee maker to his PC.

Once connected to the Internet, the high-end coffee maker, which retails for nearly US$2,000 on Amazon, lets you do things like set the strength of your coffee and get remote diagnostic help over the Internet without having to send the appliance in for service.

Wright posted the information on the vulnerabilities, and the fact that there is no patch available yet, to the BugTraq security e-mail list on Tuesday.

A U.S.-based public relations representative for the coffee maker said she would try to reach spokespeople in the Switzerland headquarters for comment.

The threat hasn't kept Wright awake at night, although the coffee does, he said in an interview with CNET News.com at 2:30 Wednesday morning Sydney time.

"I don't know if many people would target this particular vulnerability because there probably are not a lot of coffee makers at the moment that are Internet-connected, and in my case it's behind a firewall," he said.

However, Internet-connected appliances are the wave of the future. There is already an Internet-connected refrigerator, at least one prototype of a Web-enabled oven, and pilot tests for dryers and water heaters.

Eventually "you'll be able to turn on your oven with your mobile phone" and a malicious hacker could wind up burning the house down, Wright said.

Firefox 3: Good Browsers Come to Those Who Wait

2008-06-18T09:34:00.001+05:30

Tuesday was D-Day for Mozilla with the scheduled launch of the third version of Firefox, its open source Web browser. The company had billed the day as "Download Day" and aimed its sights on setting a Guinness World Record for the most downloads of an application in a 24-hour period.

Over the weekend, I dutifully I pledged to download the new browser, and today I anxiously checked the site over and over and over to see if the download was ready.

Finally, at 1 p.m. EST, the hour arrived ... but still no luck. Ominously, the download site seemed to have crashed. Indeed, the site had been overwhelmed with the demand, according to blog posts from Mozilla staffers Melissa Shapiro and Mike Schroepfer. As Shapiro put it, Mozilla's "servers are currently feeling the burn." However, she assured users that the servers "should be back to normal shortly."

Back to normal came at exactly 2:23 p.m., when the e-mail. I had been waiting for arrived with a link and instructions for getting the new browser. Wasting no time, I joined the 14,000 other people downloading Firefox each minute and soon had the browser up and running.

Later in the day, activity appear to be subsiding -- at about 4:30 p.m. here on the East Coast, that number was down to about 8,000 downloads per minute. Nevertheless, according to Nina Beniash, a Mozilla spokesperson, that puts Mozilla "on track to clear 5 million to 7 million downloads on the first day."

Worth the Wait

After years of using the often sluggish Internet Explorer from Microsoft,Mozilla can now count me as a true convert. The performance of Firefox 3 left IE 7 in the dust, and that was with just one tab open on each browser. Expanding the number to five made no changes in Firefox's performance, but IE 7 was a bit slower. A zippier surfing experience was one of the key changes Mozilla had promised for Firefox 3 and the developers' hard work and diligence paid off.

One feature that stood out was the "undo close tab," available with a right-click on any tab. As a multi-tabber, more than once I have mistakenly shut down a tab in IE 7. This new Firefox feature saves users a couple minutes of backtracking to returning to a specific page without having to go into the Web browser's history hoping to recognize the URL (Uniform Resource Locator).

Thumbs Up

The Awesome bar, also new, is pretty awesome -- to put it simply. Type in a site that has been archived in your Firefox 3 library, and it goes straight to the site. If you have not been there, the browser returns a list of search results based on what it has "learned" about that user. Results improve as the browser is used, and after a few false starts, finding tech sites and information on Firefox 3 was remarkably easy.

Bookmarking in Firefox 3 works much the same as it does in most other browsers, but now users can tag bookmarks, adding details that allow you to find bookmarks by typing the tag in the browser. Adding keywords to the Library also simplifies the process of getting to favorite sites. Just like a tag, all you have to do is type the keyword into the address bar and up pops the associated Web site.

From what I have seen thus far, Mozilla Firefox 3 gets a definite thumbs up.

Making Long-Distance Partnerships Work

2008-04-24T11:03:00.001+05:30

Technology makes it possible to run a business from practically anywhere on the planet. But what if your business partner lives in a different city or a different time zone? How do long-distance partners make it work?

The answer appears to be with lots of planning and smart use of technology. And even in the best long-distance arrangements, an old-fashioned in-person meeting now and then seems to reignite the spark.

Kathi Elster, an author and consultant who specializes in interpersonal relationships at work, says she has encountered many long-distance partnerships and never seen anyone break up over it.

“The frustration usually comes when there is a time difference, like if someone is in India or China, and the other has to be up in the middle of the night to communicate,” Ms. Elster said. “You rely on e-mail, cannot do a lot of talking and the subtleties can get lost. So you do miss things.”

Still, she says, these arrangements generally work, especially if the partners have a high level of trust in each other. “It’s not going to work if one person has to fly out to see what is going on because the other isn’t pulling their own weight,” she added.

In early 2006, Ben Finkel and Andrew McClain, friends from Brown University, started Fluther.com, an online knowledge-sharing collective, when both were living in San Francisco. But Mr. McClain had plans to move to Los Angeles to pursue a side career in acting.

The two had some concerns about whether the business would survive Mr. McClain’s move and dual career. So they included language in the initial draft of their partnership agreement protecting Mr. Finkel in the event Mr. McClain could not commit the necessary time to the business.

As it turned out, they abandoned those provisions by the time they completed their agreement because they were satisfied with how things were working out.

The subject of planning comes up often in talks with long-distance partners. “If you are a mature business person, you understand that a detailed communication structure is required for success in any partnership, whether across the hall, across the room, or across the country,” said Richard Sloan, who runs the small- business radio show and Web site, StartupNation, with his brother, Jeff. The Sloan brothers themselves are now putting that observation to a test.

After five years of running their company together out of a 3,500-square-foot office in Birmingham, Mich., Richard has just moved to San Francisco, a market that has become increasingly important to their business. They set up a regularly scheduled weekly telephone call. “And for a six-month period of time before my move, we ran the business this way even though we were both still in the same city,” Mr. Sloan said.

Mr. McClain, who works out of his home in Los Angeles, and Mr. Finkel, who works in a co-working space in San Francisco, say they rely heavily on communications technology. But sometimes it can be a cause for frustration. “The problem is when the technology does not work,” Mr. Finkel said. “When you really want to have a conversation, you can go from shoddy cell reception to iChat to Skype and none of them are working. At some points we would have been better with a landline from the 1950s.”

The two say they prefer to be able to see each other when they converse and to share views of what is on each other’s computer screens.

“We have probably been through about 20 communication tools,” Mr. Finkel said. “In the old days, we used something called Bosco’s Screen Share, but then Leopard, Mac’s new operating system, came out with a snazzier version.”

This technology raises some privacy issues, according to Mr. McClain and Mr. Finkel. So they have learned to be careful after a few instances of leaving the camera on and walking away from the computer without logging off. “Once, when Andrew forgot to turn off the camera and his girlfriend started typing, I could see her,” Mr. Finkel said. “But she didn’t have the headphones on so I couldn’t tell her.”

The partners say they value meeting in person. “Every three months or so, I will either go to San Francisco or Ben comes to Los Angeles and we recharge the battery of personal connection,” Mr. McClain said.

Some partners see geographic distance as a boon. In 2000, while living in Orlando, Fla., Melinda Tomasello and Pamela Grimes started Originality Inc., a design firm specializing in custom and corporate gifts.

When Ms. Grimes’s husband was transferred to Washington about a year and a half into their business, she moved, along with him and their two children. Ms. Grimes soon started joining organizations and attending trade shows in the Washington area, which opened a new market for Originality. “These are two big hot spots in the country, so it is great for us,” Ms. Tomasello said.

The company has incurred modest costs, mostly in upgrading technology, to accommodate Ms. Grimes’s relocation. But they say much of that might have happened had they remained in the same city since they had each always worked out of their own home offices. They say that two software tools have proved particularly helpful: Billingorchard.com to keep track of electronic billing and Quickbooks for accounts payable.

“With these programs, we can share information even though our computers are not networked,” Ms. Grimes said. “We are just waiting for Quickbooks to add a feature to track all of the purchase orders. Right now we track those separately.”

They have had some mishaps, mostly when items have been shipped to the wrong office. “We are very careful now when we order things to be very clear. ”

Flying Cart, a company that provides tools for small businesses to create online stores, is run by three partners who live in different cities. The three founders all have connections to the University of Wisconsin in Madison, but only Mr. Beerman still lives in that city: Rishi Shah lives in Chicago, where he moved to pursue another job, and Margo Baxter, a triathlete lives in Austin to be near her trainer.

Mr. Shah says working remotely keeps them focused. “For a time, Margo and I worked side by side in Madison for a month in a half. We went to a coffee shop together and worked side by side each day. At first it was amazing. We were totally focused and totally pumped. But by the third week, we kept bugging each other and our productivity level went down. I am working on sales and she is working on development and when we work apart, we just get so much more done.”

Still, there are challenges. “When you are starting up, you can get demoralized really quickly,” Mr. Shah said. “When you’re alone and frustrated, you don’t always have an area to vent. That’s why we have weekly meetings over Skype.”

Microsoft Reveals a Web-Based Software System

2008-04-24T11:01:00.000+05:30

Microsoft is preparing to take its most ambitious step yet in transforming its personal computer business into one tied more closely to software running in remote data centers.

The software giant announced on Tuesday a data storage and Web software system, called Live Mesh, that is intended to blur the distinction between software running on the Windows operating system and an elaborate array of services that will be delivered to a growing collection of electronic gadgets. Live Mesh is Microsoft’s late entry into a rapidly growing market described as cloud computing. The term refers to the movement of software applications and services from PCs to centralized data centers, where they are made available via the Internet. Companies like Amazon.com, Google, Salesforce and dozens of others are building computing centers that will effectively outsource data processing and make it a commodity that companies purchase as they would electricity.

The introduction of Live Mesh is a significant strategic shift for Microsoft, whose operating system helped popularize personal computers. Bill Gates, the company’s co-founder, chairman and chief architect, said in an interview on CNN a year ago, “We’re making the PC the place where it all comes together.”

However, a strategy document circulated to company employees on Tuesday that was written by Ray Ozzie, one of the Microsoft’s two chief technology officers, countered that view.

“The Web is the hub of our social mesh and our device mesh,” he wrote. That statement is the first of a set of three “guiding principles” that Mr. Ozzie outlined in the five-page document entitled “Services Strategy Update.” In taking the PC off center stage, Microsoft is refocusing some of its resources to catch its cloud computing rivals.

“This is a pretty significant public statement that the battle is really a cloud battle,” said Mark Stahlman, a research vice president at Gartner, an industry consulting group. “It’s not an ad search battle or a desktop operating system battle. Those are fought and won already. This is the one that’s wide open.”

Marc Benioff, chief executive of Salesforce, a company that began by offering software that managed customer relations through a Web browser, said Microsoft’s entry “means that the Internet is the center of the world.” Salesforce has more recently begun broadening its product line to a wide range of computing services, also available through a browser. “Consumer services have shown us the way to the next generation of computing,” Mr. Benioff said.

Microsoft refers to its strategy as “software plus services.” However, the new vision is built on Web-based software that will help deliver entertainment as well as business software to devices like Microsoft’s Xbox game console, to Zune music player, to cellphones running Windows Mobile software, even to Apple’s Mac computers and other consumer devices in the home.

The company now believes that no single device will dominate the Web-oriented consumer electronic world of the future. Underscoring that belief, Live Mesh’s logo is a Tolkienesque graphical ring intended to give the user a visual sense that all the devices are interconnected.

Displayed within a Web browser, the Live Desktop page will not be so much a Web-based operating system, said Jeff Hansen, general manager of Microsoft’s Live Services group, but a control mechanism that blurs the location of documents ranging from MP3 and video files to spreadsheets and text documents.

“We’re adopting a wider and wider diversity of increasingly powerful devices,” Mr. Hansen said.

The Live Mesh system, however, is viewed by the company as a software platform in the data center for an evolving array of services, ranging from remote control of computers and electronic devices to data storage. Microsoft also hopes that software and service developers will create applications based on the service.

In the plan outlined by Mr. Ozzie, he refers to the power of choice for customers and acknowledges that software development will be based on “small pieces loosely coupled.” Both of those concepts echo industry buzzwords in the open-source Web development community that has grown outside of Microsoft during the last half decade.

In a telephone interview this week, Mr. Hansen said that the current version of Live Mesh was a “technology preview” that would be available only to a group of about 10,000 test users and software developers. “We want to engage the Web community and software developers,” he said.

On Tuesday evening Microsoft described 15 components of the new Live Mesh service, including a notification feature, a news feature and an information window displayed by the service, but only two user-oriented applications. One synchronizes files on multiple computers. The other, Live Mesh Remote Desktop, is a free software service that will permit users to control computers and other devices over the Internet.

Mr. Hansen, who has been using Live Mesh in a private Microsoft test, said he was able to surprise his wife using the Live Mesh Remote Desktop. From work, he was able to start a song playing on his Xbox at home.

Microsoft said it would begin a public test later this year. The basic service, which will be available initially on devices running Windows XP and Mobile, will later support Mac computers and other mobile devices. Five gigabytes of free data storage will be included, but the company declined to speculate about charges for additional features and services.

Want to die. Push this suicide machine's button

2008-03-31T22:36:00.000+05:30

Just one press of a button and you’ll take your last breath. One of Germany's most promising conservative politicians and lawyer has unveiled Europe's first suicide machine for people with a death wish.

The killing machine, ‘Perfusor’ can end a person’s life with a swift injection of potassium chloride.

If the machine, designed to evade strict laws banning assisted suicide, goes into production then Germany rather than Switzerland could soon become the destination of choice for those seeking to kill themselves.

“The machine is simply an option for fatally ill people,” Times Online quoted Kusch, as saying.

The machine is painted in green and it looks like a cross between an electric transformer and a paint spraygun.

“Nobody is forced to use it but I do believe that it will contribute to a debate that is moving thousands of people,” he said.

The machine would be lent or rented so that the patients could insert the needles themselves and then push the button releasing the potassium chloride.

Supporters of the ‘death machine’ say that the machine will bring about death in seconds. Death Row cases suggest the process could be longer.

Gerhard Strate, a defence lawyer from Hamburg, said: “As long as the sick person is fully conscious and aware, then lending the machine to him is no more illegal than lending him a kitchen knife or a razor blade. It becomes illegal only if the potential suicide asks someone in the room to press the button for him.”

No cybersquatting, UN tells unscrupulous webmasters

2008-03-31T22:34:00.000+05:30

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) ousted a record number of "cybersquatters" from Web sites with domain names referring to trademarked companies, foundations and celebrities in 2007.

WIPO, a UN agency based in Geneva, received 2,156 complaints alleging "abusive registration of trademarks on the Internet" last year, up 18 percent from 2006 and 48 percent more than the filings lodged in 2005.

"These increases confirm that 'cybersquatting' remains a significant issue for rights holders," Frances Gurry, WIPO's deputy director-general said on Thursday. Most complaints came from the pharmaceutical, banking, telecommunications, retail and entertainment sectors.

Drugmakers were the top filers "due to numerous permutations of protected names registered for Web sites offering or linking to online sales of medications and drugs", WIPO said.

Last year's domain name disputes involved a wide range of products, events and people — including Airbus's A380 jet, the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Harvard Business School, Lance Armstrong's Livestrong foundation, talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, and television show The Simpsons.

A quarter of cases were settled without a WIPO panel decision. Of the remainder, in 85 percent of cases the panels transferred the disputed domain names to the complainant, and in 15 percent the panel ordered no change of the site registration.

Most domain name complainants came from the United States, France and Britain, while respondents were mainly based in the United States, Britain and China, WIPO said.

Here is how you can never lose your laptop

2008-03-31T22:16:00.000+05:30

Losing a fifty-thousand-rupee-laptop is a reason to be worried, but it may not be so any longer.

Laptop locating software – a silent burglar alarm – can now be easily installed and a company like Unistall offers just such a service.

When a laptop that has the software disappears, Unistall’s servers pick up its distress signals the instant the thief tries to surf on the stolen laptop. The Internet Protocol address is quickly tracked and just as quickly, the cops can recover the laptop.

Locate Laptop’s Project Manager Manu Bharadwaj says that it took them 1.5 years to create the software.

Bharadwaj also adds that if the laptop is not traced, they would give 7.5 times the money spent.

For some, though, the deterrent in using Unistall’s software would be that it costs Rs 3,000.

However, Unistall is not the only software available.

Softwares such as Locate PC and Snap Files, both of which are easily available on the Internet offer the same protection without charging a penny. They even work exactly like Unistall.

There is catch, however. No matter which of these softwares are used, if once someone formats the hard disk, none of them would be able to track the laptop.

Think before you swipe credit card for cash

2008-03-28T07:44:00.001+05:30

What’s the worst thing to do with your credit card? Use it to withdraw cash from the ATM, says a financial expert. In your monthly credit card statement, there is a mention of cash limit. That is the extent to which one could withdraw cash using a credit card. But the googly is the interest rates. It’s actually a very expensive proposition to withdraw cash as the interest rates on such withdrawals fall in the range of 40% on an annual basis.

Usually, the credit card company mentions the interest rate as a percentage per month which typically varies from 2.7-2.85% per month. And since this interest is compounded monthly, the effective annual rate of interest tends to be anywhere from 38 to 40% per annum.

Essentially, credit card companies charge the same interest rates for cash withdrawals made through credit cards and for rolling over credit card balances. But if one pays the entire amount on due date, one gets around 30-45 days of interest free credit. But what is important to know is that rule doesn’t apply in case of cash withdrawals; the credit card company levies the interest rate the moment you withdraw the cash.

Cash withdrawals can also attract an additional withdrawal fee. This charge falls in the range of 3-3.5% of the withdrawn amount. That will be added along with the interest rate to your bill. Therefore, unless you have emergency needs, do not withdraw cash on your credit card. The better option though is to go for a personal loan.

Says RL Prasad, general manager and head of cards and personal loans at Standard Chartered Bank, “You should look at this option as the last resort. If it’s a planned expenditure and you don’t have sufficient liquidity then a personal loan is be a viable option.”

Credit card cash withdrawals vs personal loan

Personal loan is a better option as the average interest rate on personal loans is between 15-20% per annum. The only handicap however, is that it takes around 7-10 working days for the banks to process personal loans.

For the uninitiated, every credit card statement has a billing date. For example, if your credit card payment is due on March 15 then the bill would have been dated around February 27.

So if you purchase anything on February 28 or later, that payment would be due only on April 15. So you get some time to cough up that money to pay off the dues. If you are unable to pay the outstanding amount, then the credit card company charges a month rate of 2.95% of the total amount. But this breather doesn’t exist on these cash withdrawals.

Obscene callers get a rude shock, e-spy on the hunt

2007-12-28T16:27:00.000+05:30

The defence counsel in Pravin Mahajan's case had to look high and low for a software expert, but the next there is a report of a cyber crime, help is just a phone call away. Thanks to an institute called e-Forensics.

This software expert group was instrumental in Pravin Mahajan's trial. e-Forensics demonstrated to a sessions court in Mumbai that it is possible to tamper an mobile text message.

If Pramod Mahajan's cell phone had been put in evidence collector bag by the police, the controversy about the SMS being tampered with simply would not have arisen for the bag completely blocks the signals coming into the mobile.

National Institute of e-Forensics (NIEF) in Mumbai uses many state-of-the-art tools to investigate cyber crimes. Much of these high-end equipments will be used to help people who call on the institutes's toll free number with their electronic grievances.

Though the service has just been started, the institute has been flooded with work requesting investigations into all kinds of cyber crimes —from credit card fraud to women getting obscene calls.

Now, track all the on-field action without television

2007-10-27T00:01:00.001+05:30

So how do you identify talent even from the remotest corners of the country? Chennai-based 'Sports Mechanics' have come out with a new tracking device-that will not only help look for new talent but also aid coaches in training players.

The best of the actions from the sports world would have been lost to us without video capturing and it's precisely this, that's now being put to use in this new tool-that captures every frame of action, tracks every sequence and even gives you information on the angle, line and length of a particular player on field. Chennai-based 'Sports Mechanics' has introduced this technology-to enable coaches to monitor players on field and train them based on the data generated from it.

"What we're recording is a ball-by ball-in this case of the match-description on what's happened-it could be a player's action, it could be the umpire's movements and this data is available for retrieval at any point of time," says S. Shankara Narayanan, Chief Operating Officer, Sports Mechanics.

Video-analysis so far had been done using footage from television broadcast-but the new tool makes it possible to obtain information on individual players, analysing their performance throughout the day. Even the umpire-decisions could be reviewed and bettered using the technology. Also selectors can review any matches happening at any part of the country and come to a decision based on data.

S. Ramakrishnan, Director, Sports Mechanics says, “The technology can help you bring about a change in coaching methodologies. It helps in talent-scouting that is remote monitoring helps in talent scouting.”

According to Ananth Seshan, Director-Board of Directors, Sports Mechanics “Selection or any decision that the coach can come to is supported by valid data. And that data is available as reports, video or the coach's annotation."

The tool could be extended to track players in any sport-and could even be used by players on their own to better their performance.

The new video technology has already found patrons not just in India, but also abroad. And it's hoped that this would help in unifying coaching principles and setting new standards to the game.

Credit card scam, banks yet to detect fraud

2007-10-27T00:00:00.000+05:30

In an age when credit card holders are complaining that they're being harassed by banks, here's the story of a group that has cheated 13 banks of several crore.

Maurice D Souza is an expensive catch for the Bangalore police. An MBA student, Maurice and his three associates are in the police net for spinning a credit card racket that cost some 13 banks nearly six crore rupees.

Bangalore East DCP B K Singh says, “He used to submit forms with forged documents to get credit cards. Once he got it with limits of one to two lakh, sometimes five lakh they used to spend completely. Since all documents were forged, no one knew where they were. So loan recovery was no possible.”

The police, acting on a tip off, raided the residence of the four people and recovered 92 credit cards brought under different names and addresses.

“Problem is, banks had mostly outsourced credit card work from issuing for to verification even credit manufacturing even verification agencies were outsourced. That way the form was processed and they got credit cards,” Singh added.

It's one of the biggest hauls as far as cheating is concerned. Four vehicles, several kinds of mobile phones, and more than 300 gm of gold have been recovered by the police.

And until now, none of the banks have filed a complaint, as they're yet to detect the fraud. The police are waiting for the banks to give them complete statements of transactions now.

Apple cracks down on iPhone unlocking hacks

2007-09-21T20:21:00.000+05:30

Barely four months after Apple Inc unveiled its much-hyped showcase product, the iPhone, there was a flood of iPhone unlocking hacks in several parts of the US and Europe, putting Apple in serious trouble.

The iPhone is yet to reach most parts of the world. In fact, it was only of Wednesday that Apple Inc took iPhone trans-Atlantic, announcing a November roll out in Britain that could presage a further expansion into Europe.

Apple has already sold over a million iPhones and it has also cut the price by a third to about £200. But then break-ins have been flying fast and furious in the last month or so.

One of the first full SIM unlocks involved using a Turbo SIM card, a somewhat complex process for the average consumer. Then a teenager, George Holtz, published a way to unlock the hardware with some soldering iron-fu and released instructions for other adventurous unlockers.

And then a firm called iPhoneSIMfree unveiled the first commercial software unlock of the iPhone, sending waves through the iPhone community to push for a free unlock. And earlier this week, a hacker group released a free, open-source version of the unlock hack.

Apple is not ready to take this onslaught sitting down. On Tuesday, Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs announced a crackdown on the hackers and vowed to thwart the attempts of hackers who try to unlock the iPhone.

During Wednesday’s unveiling of the UK version of the iPhone, the reality-bending Steve Jobs said that Apple would actively try to break hacks that unlock the iPhone for use with any SIM card.

”It's a cat-and-mouse game,” Jobs said. “We try to stay ahead. People will try to break in, and it's our job to stop them breaking in.”

Steve, however, didn't go into the details about how he plans to ‘stay ahead’ of the iPhone unlockers. Presumably, however, it’s going to be a software update that could knock out any resident unlocking applications on the iPhone.

Later this month, iPhone is likely to unveil a software update, which will include features like the highly anticipated Wi-FI iTunes store. Unlocked iPhones usually get padlocked again whenever an Apple update is installed in it.

iPhone, the phone that reserved a place for itself on the wish lists of gadget freaks the world over, comes locked with America’s mobile service carrier AT&T.

What that translates into is that in order to use an iPhone one must be located within the periphery of America and willing to sign up for an AT&T connection. So really the only way that someone outside the US can even think of using an iPhone is by unlocking the popular gadget.

AT&T made some noises about legal action against those trying to sell iPhone unlocking applications.

Quite naturally, the efforts to find a possible workaround the ‘iPhone Lock’ started as soon as it was released in the US markets in June. In late August, people like George Hotz found a hardware tweak to unlock the phone. Since then many paid and free to use software hacks have been made available on the Internet as easy iPhone unlock options.

Interestingly, there is some speculation on the Internet that perhaps allowing iPhone hacks might be a part of Jobs’ plans for his product.

There are also reports that the iPhone Development Team is already working on a one-click tool sporting a graphical interface that will unlock an iPhone. “A new version of the GUI tool is almost complete,” the group said on its site.

Blue-tooth enabled phone can act as wireless web cam

2007-08-04T09:05:00.001+05:30

You usually listen to music, use the camera sometimes, message, SMS with your mobile phone. But did you know that you can actually use your blue-tooth enabled phone to act as a wireless webcam?

Check out a Nokia N-70. In looks, it has nothing exceptional as compared to other brands in the same category: You usually listen to music, use the camera sometimes, SMS and call with your mobile phone.

But did you know you can actually use your blue-tooth-enabled phone to act as a wireless web cam? That's right. The thing that today's cell phones substitute for almost every other electronic device be it a music player, a camera, a mailbox or even a wireless web camera!

An application is being developed by a company called motvik.com that allows you to do just that. All you need to do is visit the website www.motvik.com first and download the application and install it in you personal computer. It will trigger an installation on your mobile phone as well through the blue-tooth.

You can transfer the application through blue-tooth to the mobile phone and then install it on your mobile phone as well. It searches for devices around which are blue-tooth enabled.

And instantly you have a wireless webcam right at your disposal. It works on a Nokia N-70.

But what about, say a Samsung phone or a Motorola, the models supported by Wego? "The application supports models are Nokia 6600, N70 and 6680. These are the phones, which are called as series 60 version 2 Nokia phones. And, we'll roll out products for Microsoft and Palm as well," the founder of motvik.com, Thyagarajan, says.

Planet to be named after Mumbai boy

2007-08-04T08:31:00.000+05:30

A few people have roads named after them, some others have buildings but a boy from Mumbai has a minor ice planet somewhere in the solar system named after him.

“If I look up at the sky, I can always feel there's something out there named after me. That's an excitement and rush like nothing else,” says 17-year-old Rishin Behl.

Rishin's world has acquired a dizzying spin of its own, heady with excitement.

“The exact coordinates will come along with my Intel award,” he says.

It's a project which Rishin presented at an Engineering Fair organised by Intel in the US that has earned him the honour and a scholarship to study electrical engineering in the US.

And that's not all. One of the leading defence forces in the world is now eyeing his innovative design and the details are top secret.

“I can't talk about it right now,” says Rishin.

It is this piece of equipment that has earned Rishin his place in the universe so to speak.

A seismograph, which is used to measure the intensity of an earthquake, much like the ones in our met department, but Rishin designed his using a magnetic field and a laser to make his computer generate a 3-D image of the shock wave.

It is considered a huge improvement over the conventional mechanical device. But Rishin is not resting by his laurels just as yet.

“I plan to use the same technology to create a portable device which can detect anomalies in the heart in case of a cardiac arrest,” he says.

And it isn't just technology but also tennis that drives this young innovator to play on.

Robot unravels mystery of walking

2007-07-13T01:13:00.000+05:30

Roboticists are using the lessons of a 1930s human physiologist to build the world's fastest walking robot.

Runbot is a self-learning, dynamic robot, which has been built around the theories of Nikolai Bernstein.

"Getting a robot to walk like a human requires a dynamic machine," said Professor Florentin Woergoetter.

Runbot is a small, biped robot which can move at speeds of more than three leg lengths per second, slightly slower than the fastest walking human.

Bernstein said that animal movement was not under the total control of the brain but rather, "local circuits" did most of the command and control work.

The brain was involved in the process of walking, he said, only when the understood parameters were altered, such as moving from one type of terrain to another, or dealing with uneven surfaces.

The basic walking steps of Runbot, which has been built by scientists co-operating across Europe, are controlled by reflex information received by peripheral sensors on the joints and feet of the robot, as well as an accelerometer which monitors the pitch of the machine.

These sensors pass data on to local neural loops - the equivalent of local circuits - which analyse the information and make adjustments to the gait of the robot in real time.

How does Runbot walk?

Information from sensors is constantly created by the interaction of the robot with the terrain so that Runbot can adjust its step if there is a change in the environment.

As the robot takes each step, control circuits ensure that the joints are not overstretched and that the next step begins.

But if the robot encounters an obstacle, or a dramatic change in the terrain, such as a slope, then the higher level functions of the robot - the learning circuitries - are used.

About half of the time during a gait cycle we are not doing anything, just falling forward

Prof Florentin Worgotter

The latest findings of the robot research study are presented in the Public Library of Science Computational Biology journal.

Four other scientists - Poramate Manoonpong, Tao Geng, Tomas Kulvicius and Bernd Porr - are also involved in the project, which has been running for the last four years.

Professor Woergoetter, of the University of Gottingen, in Germany, said: "When Runbot first encounters a slope these low level control circuits 'believe' they can continue to walk up the slope without having to change anything.

"But this is misguided and as a consequence the machine falls backwards. This triggers the other sensors and the highest loop we have built into Runbot - the learning circuitry - and from that experience of falling the machine knows that something needs to be changed."

Dynamic process

He said human walking was a dynamic process.

"About half of the time during a gait cycle we are not doing anything, just falling forward. We are propelling ourselves over and over again - like releasing a spring.

"In a robot, the difficulty lies in releasing the spring-like movement at the right moment in time - calculated in milliseconds - and to get the dampening right so that the robot does not fall forward and crash.

"These parameters are very difficult to handle," he said.

All these big machines stomp around like robots

Runbot walks in a very different way from robots like Asimo, star of the Honda TV adverts, said Prof Woergoetter.

"They are kinematic walkers - they walk step by step and calculate every single angle, every millisecond.

"That can be handled through engineering but it is very clumsy. No human would walk like that. All these big machines stomp around like robots - we want our robot to walk like a human."

The first step in building Runbot was creating a biomechanical frame that could support passive walking patterns.

Passive walkers can walk down a slope unaided, propelled by gravity and kept upright and moving through the correct mechanical physiology.

Prof Woergoetter said: "Passive walking looks pretty realistic - but that's level one. On top of this we have local circuits, nested neural loops, which operate between the muscles (the joints of the robot) and the spinal cord (the spinal reflex of Runbot)."

He said Runbot learned from its mistakes, much in the same way as a human baby.

"Babies use a lot of their brains to train local circuits but once they are trained they are fairly autonomous.

"Only when it comes to more difficult things - such as a change of terrain - that's when the brain steps in and says 'now we are moving from ice to sand and I have to change something'.

"This is a good model because you are easing the load of control - if your brain had to think all the time about walking, it's doubtful you could have a conversation at the same time."

Nervous system

The principle was first discussed in the human nervous system by Russian physiologist Nikolai Bernstein.

Prof Woergoetter said: "He said it made sense that local agents, local networks, do the basic job, but the brain exerted control whenever necessary."

So using the information from its local circuits Runbot can walk on flat surfaces at speeds of more than three leg lengths per second.

Prof Woergoetter said Runbot was able to learn new walking patterns after only a few trials.

"If walking uphill, the gait becomes shorter, the robot's upper body weight shifts forward," he said.

The key lesson from the study, he said, was that the nested loop design first proposed by Bernstein more than 70 years ago "worked and was efficient".

He said the challenge was now to make Runbot bigger, more adaptive and to better anticipate situations like change of terrain.

Frames 1 - 3: The robot's momentum causes the robot to rise on its standing leg and a motor moves the swinging leg into position

Frame 3: The stretch sensor of the swinging leg is activated, which triggers the knee joint to straighten

Frames 3-6: The robot falls forward naturally, with no motor functions being used, and catches itself on the next standing leg

Frame 6: As the swinging leg touches the ground, the ground contact sensor in the foot triggers the hip extensor and the knee joint of the standing leg and the hip and knee joints of the swinging leg to swap roles

Sun Micro to revamp Solaris with Linux features

2007-07-07T14:41:00.000+05:30

Sun Microsystems Inc. is revamping its Solaris operating system, incorporating key pieces of rival Linux software in a move that could gain better support from developers who have massed behind Linux.

Solaris is one of the main varieties of the Unix family of operating systems, known for their ability to safely and securely handle major computing tasks rather than for ease of use.

Sun itself is known for its business computers that can handle major corporate loads and it long has courted programmers who cooperatively develop Linux and other so-called open-source software, with mixed success.

The revamped Solaris system will have features borrowed from Linux that could make it easier to use, correspondence on Sun's Web site shows.

"This is a big deal to the extent that it lowers the barrier for adoption of Solaris," said IDC software analyst Al Gillen.

The new system will keep the Solaris kernel, which is a basic group of code at the heart of the operating system that controls the way other programs interact with each other as well as the computer's hardware.

"Solaris is hard to set up. It doesn't have good hardware support," said Ladislav Bodnar, founder of Distrowatch.com, a Web site that reviews open-source software. "The hope is that things may change."

Sun executives declined to comment in advance of a formal unveiling next week of the plans, called Project Indiana.

iPhone: The Good, Bad And Ugly

2007-07-07T13:32:00.000+05:30

Steve Jobs has succeeded in creating myth and hype around iPhone and the number of people waiting to buy the device proves that enough. But iPhone has many reasons for people to dislike it, one of them is its battery replacement programme.
There is nothing in iPhone that you don't like, unless you have bought it. A lot has been written about iPhone and that has only added to the hype Steve Jobs must have been expecting. Nothing disappointed him. Now, with some 5,25,000 iPhones sold since the launch on 29 June 2007, iPhone sale has undoubtedly become one of the rages of all time. But, once people overcome the hype and really begin looking at how useful the device is, it will turn out to be a Pandora's box. However, iPhone did succeed in setting some new trends. It changed the way telecom operators worked. It changed the whole chemistry between network operators and device manufacturers, and it also changed the way people used to look at mobile phones.
There is not much point in arguing what all features iPhone has; there are thicker volumes than War and Peace written on it in the last six months. It is a good device, no doubt, but there is an ugly face to it as well. Many observers wonder why would Apple make iPhone an inferior device. It does have multi-touch screen, 4-8 GB of storage capacity. And it has an iPod too. But, what it doesn't have is video capture capacity, it is not 3G and you cannot transfer music from one device to another, the way you do with your regular smarter smartphones.

Another reason Apple has given people to hate iPhone is its battery replacement programme. Similar to iPod, you cannot replace the battery of iPhone; you will have to send it to Apple for replacement. And Apple will take at least three days to change your battery costing you around $79, plus $6.95 shipping, i.e. $85.95 per unit. In Indian currency, its around Rs 3,434.962. Besides, you will have to pay local taxes on this.

If you think you could get it done so 'cheaply', you are wrong. One of the observers said, how could you survive without a phone for three days if you have sent it for battery replcement. Apple has a solution, you can avail an AppleCare Service Phone. All the data of your iPhone will be erased during replacement process, so you need to take a backup on your iTunes and transfer this data to the AppleCare Service Phone. The only problem is you will have to pay Apple around $29 to get this AppleCare Service Phone!

But getting a AppleCare Service Phone won't come that cheap. According to Apple's iPhone Rental Terms and Conditions, "Customer will prepay Apple $29 plus applicable taxes (rental charges). In addition, a reserve against the customer’s credit card equal to the equipment replacement value of $600, plus applicable taxes (equipment replacement value) may be made at any time on or after the effective date but prior to the termination of this agreement. This reserve will be maintained by Apple and will be applied against any damage to or loss of the AppleCare Service Phone or other payments due Apple."

It continues, "If the AppleCare Service Phone is not received by Apple by the end of the rental period, customer’s credit card will be charged with the full equipment replacement Value, but if customer later returns the AppleCare Service Phone and it is received by Apple within 10 days after the end of the rental period, Apple will retain $50 as additional rental, plus applicable taxes and the cost of repair for any damage for which customer is responsible, and the remainder of the equipment replacement value will be credited to customer’s credit card. Upon termination of this agreement, and after all charges are paid in full, the reserve will be released from the credit card."

You must be having a real heavy pocket to afford this 135 grams iPhone.

Cisco Releases A Slew Of Products For SMBs

2007-07-07T13:13:00.000+05:30

Cisco has released Cisco Unified Communications system 6.0 -- a comprehensive communications system for voice, video and data. The new release introduces capabilities that will improve the productivity of mobile employees and cost-effectively deliver unified communications to small and medium-sized businesses. Cisco Unified Communications system 6.0 is part of an integrated solution that includes network infrastructure, security, mobility, network management and lifecycle services.

Cisco also launched Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition which combines key unified communications applications for mid-sized businesses on a single platform with common provisioning and management, and Cisco Smart Business Communications System for small businesses.

"Cisco Unified Communications system 6.0 is built on open industry standards so organisations can mix and match their communications technologies to meet their business needs. The system is secure and extensible and integrates smoothly with existing business desktop tools for plug-and-play functionality that simplifies deployment, lowers training costs and reduces capital and operating expenses," said Ranajoy Punja, vice president, business development, advanced technologies, Cisco, India and SAARC.

Cisco Unified Mobile Communicator provides employees with access to their enterprise unified communications capability from mobile phones and smartphones using an intuitive graphical interface, and allows access to presence-enabled enterprise directories, sending secure text messages, viewing business e-mail and voicemail.

Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phone 7921G enhances voice over wireless LAN communications to the enterprise and supports the wireless 802.11 a/b/g standards.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition provides a package of voice and video communication features; single business number capabilities with Cisco Unified Mobility, Cisco Unity Connection 2.0 integrated messaging and presence services.

Cisco Unified Web Interaction Manager and Cisco Unified E-Mail Interaction Manager offer a common agent interface designed to improve productivity and provide easy access to a shared knowledgebase and customer history.

Adobe Flash-based Web conferencing capabilities with Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 6.0 provide an enhanced user experience with increased applications support and a single solution for an effective voice, video and Web conferencing.

Cisco Unity 5.0 introduces features that allow users to listen to and answer messages as they are being recorded, hands-free operation with speech recognition and the ability to view, sort and play messages on the display of a Cisco Unified IP Phone.

Powered by Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express and Cisco Unity Express, Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series supports the portfolio of Cisco Unified IP Phones, including softphone Cisco IP Communicator, Internet connectivity with firewall protection, virtual private networks (VPNs) and wireless LAN access. Combined with its optional desktop application support, Cisco Unified Communications 500 enables more effective collaboration by using capabilities such as instant messaging, single-number reach and desktop control of all calls and messages.

Cisco Smart Business Communications System integrates with existing desktop applications such as calendaring, e-mail, customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) to help improve customer service and business agility.

IPcelerate, Cisco Technology Developer Programme partner, is claimed to be the first to offer customised business productivity applications for the Smart Business Communication System.

Laptops with flash memory may signal end of HDD

2007-06-18T16:00:00.000+05:30

This might well be the beginning of the end for the hard disk drive. In mid-May, Dell became the first manufacturer to market a laptop using flash memory instead of a hard drive. Other manufacturers will be joining the company before the year's end with Solid State Disk (SSD) technology of their own. For users, this is all good news.

Hard drives (HDD) use "ferromagnetic" storage media: to record data. The surface of special metal plates is magnetized. SSD, by contrast, works purely digitally. The fundamental difference between SSD and its other flash storage brethren and HDD lies in the fact that flash technology has no moving parts, explains Dell's Christoph Kaub.

SSD is already in use in MP3 players and cell phones, and like other flash storage media is not sensitive to jolts, notes Joerg Wirtgen from the Hanover-based magazine c't.

"If you drop your laptop, for example, the data will almost certainly remain undamaged," he says. Another benefit of SSD is that it makes little noise and generates less heat, Kaub claims. One can also expect it to use less energy. Another bonus: speed. "SSD memory is several times faster than normal laptop hard drives," Wirtgen says.

Dell is currently offering flash memory with 32 or 64 gigabytes of storage - relatively small compared with hard drives. That's because SSDs are currently more expensive to produce.

"The costs are significantly higher than for a comparable laptop with a traditional hard drive," says Christoph Kaub. Consumers should plan on shelling out several hundred more dollars. "We hope that the prices will drop significantly by the end of this year or the beginning of 2008," Kaub says.

Other manufacturers nevertheless also want to bring SSD laptops onto the market. Fujitsu Siemens, for example, has indicated it will release a model this summer. The Lifebook Q - a business model - will hit the stores with flash memory inside. Samsung too reports intentions to release an SSD device.

The usefulness of flash memory in desktop PCs is questionable. Conventional disk drives and RAM maintain a significant cost advantage over SSD.

"I think the prices for traditional drives will continue to sink, meaning that SSD will have a hard time competing in the near future," Kaub says.

Flash memory does not just work in the form of SSD: Intel has a model that supports hard drives. The technology, known as Robson or turbo memory cache, consists of a 512 megabyte (MB) or 1 gigabyte (GB) hard drive. It notes which programmes are used heavily and saves portions from them, explains Intel spokesman Hans-Juergen Werner. It can help programmes load and run faster.

Intel plans on offering the turbo technology for desktop PCs soon - with 2 or 4 gigabytes of memory. Wirtgen from c't sees the trend more likely to head toward hybrid hard drives, namely traditional drives with turbo memory modules.

"Those could be interesting if the flash buffer is large enough," says Wirtgen.

New filter technology promises crisper photos

2007-06-14T13:34:00.000+05:30

A year from now, capturing a crisp, clear image of a candlelit birthday party could be a piece of cake - even with a camera phone.

Eastman Kodak Co. said today it has developed a colour-filter technology that at least doubles the sensitivity to light of the image sensor in every digital camera, enabling shutterbugs to take better pictures in poor light.

"Low light can mean trying to get a good image indoors of your kid blowing out the birthday candles. It can mean you want to take a photograph on a street corner in Paris at midnight," said Chris McNiffe, general manager of the photography company's image sensor business.

"We're talking about a 2-to-4-times improvement in (light) sensitivity." Analyst Chris Chute does not doubt that the new filter system, intended to supplant an industry-standard filter pattern designed by Kodak scientist Bryce Bayer in 1976, represents a breakthrough in boosting photo quality - especially when light conditions are not ideal.

"It's often the most simple concepts that can have the most profound impact," said Chute of IDC, a market research firm near Boston. "This could be revolutionary in terms of just changing that very simple filter on top of the sensor and basically allowing companies to use it in all different kinds of cameras."

Kodak expects to provide samples of its new technology to a variety of camera manufacturers in the first quarter of 2008. The technology is likely to be incorporated first in mass-market point-and-shoot cameras and camera-equipped mobile phones beginning sometime next year.

Google urges US to raise H-1B visa cap

2007-06-07T18:14:00.000+05:30

Internet search giant Google urged the US government to raise the number of H-1B visas by highlighting the contributions of its co-founder Sergey Brin and the company's principal scientist Krishna Bharat, both foreign-origin workers.

In Congressional testimony, Google Vice President of people operations Laszlo Bock cited the emigration of the parents of company co-founder Sergey Brin from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1979 as evidence that admitting foreign workers into the country benefits the US Economy.

"We opened our doors to Sergey's parents -- a mathematician and an economist," said Bock.

"Our educational system served Sergey well -- he attended the University of Maryland and Stanford University. Our free market economy supported Sergey and Larry's entrepreneurship and rewarded it when they proved that they could turn their idea into a successful business."

Bock said people were Google's most vital competitive asset and without these talented employees and others, the company and high-tech industry as whole would not be the success it is today.

Krishna Bharat, a native of India joined Google in 1999 through H-1B visa, and was one one of the chief creators of Google News and is now its principal scientist.

Bock said without Krishna and many other employees Google "will not be able to offer innovating and useful new products to our users."

Each day Google finds itself unable to pursue highly qualified candidates because there are not enough H-1B visas, he said adding it will encourage Congress to significantly increase the annual cap of 65,000 H-1B visas to "reflect the growth rate of our technology driven-economy."

Bock said Google is not the only Silicon Valley company to benefit from immigration. "In fact, Google is just the most recent story for immigrants in Silicon Valley. Intel, eBay, Yahoo, Sun Microsystems, and many other companies were all founded by immigrants who were welcomed by America". Over the last 15 years, foreign nationals have started 25 per cent of US venture-backed public companies, accounting for more than $500 billion in market capitalisation and adding significant value to our economy, he noted.

"Hiring and retaining the most talented employees regardless of national origin essential to US ability to compete globally. Companies like Google will benefit from improving our policies towards non-US workers including in the area of H-1B so that we can continue innovating and growing."

Bock said some 8 per cent of Google's US employees are in this country on a six-year H-1B visa because the company's "need to find the specialised skills required to run our business successfully requires us to look at candidates from around the globe -- many of whom are already in the US studying at one of our great universities."

"We are not the only ones recruiting talented engineers, scientists and mathematicians. We are in a fierce worldwide competition for top talent unlike ever before. As companies in India, China and other countries step up efforts to attract highly skilled employees, the US must continue to focus on attracting and retaining these great minds," he said.

In the knowledge-based economy companies depend primarily on their employees for their success. "America's edge depends on the ability of US companies abilities to innovate...And that ability to innovate and create, in turn, depends on having the best and brightest workers," he added.

The H-1B visa programme allows foreign scientists, technologist and engineers to work in the US for six years.

Blu-ray Chases HD DVD Into the Bargain Basement

2007-06-05T18:10:00.000+05:30

The high-def DVD format wars took a turn Monday when Sony (NYSE: SNE) , backer of Blu-ray DVD technology, announced it has cut the price of a Blu-ray disc (BD) player by US$100. The company's latest model, the second-generation BDP-S300 available next week, will now sell for $499.
"The BD format gained great momentum in the past several months, and we're going to capitalize on that with the new model," said Chris Fawcett, vice president of marketing for Sony Electronics' home product division. "The player gives a broader consumer segment the opportunity to experience the exceptional quality of Blu-ray disc format at a competitive price."
The surprise price drop comes some nine months after Sony launched another player, the BDP-S1, with a list price of $999. That player is now available for around $799. In 2003, Sony's first Blu-ray player and recorder, the BDZ-S77, was priced at a whopping $3,815.
The Format Wars
Sony, along with a string of other high tech manufacturers including LG, Panasonic, Pioneer and Samsung have placed their bets on Sony's Blu-ray format. In the other corner is Toshiba's competing format, HD DVD, behind which Fuji Intel, HP, Microsoft, NEC, Paramount RCA, Sanyo have aligned.
Like the VHS vs. Sony's Betamax format wars during the early 1980s, which Sony lost, the quest for dominance as the preeminent high-definition DVD format could mean billions of dollars in sales for the group of companies that comes out on top.
Both Sony and Toshiba have jockeyed for the lead position, principally by slashing prices and offering rebates. Sony unveiled its second-generation BDP-S300 in February for $599. Soon thereafter in April, Toshiba cut prices down to $399 for some models. In May, the HD DVD Promotions Group announced that Toshiba would offer a rebate of $100 on its new HD DVD players through June 12, further dropping the price of its HD-A2 entry-level player to a scant $299.
Numbers aside, Blu-ray will come out on top, according to Elizabeth Curtis, an associate research analyst at IDC.
"IDC believes that Blu-ray has the necessary studio support and a more compelling product that will eventually lead them to win the format war," she told TechNewsWorld. "At this point it's hard to tell which camp is ahead, but it's undeniable that both are fully invested in this for the long haul.
"The Blu-ray camp definitely feels the pull to decrease player prices as HD DVD continues to drop prices on their players," she explained. "In the future, as more players are sold, Sony will be able to ramp up production to the point where price cuts are due to increased production. Meanwhile, although sales and production are increasing, Sony is still most likely to losing money on these players and cutting prices to remain competitive in the format war."
Consumers Win
The recent cuts, said Yankee Group analyst Joshua Martin, are not likely due to growing demand.
"From a high level, there are a couple reasons for [the lowered price]. Primarily, one is to get some more volume on the Blu-ray players -- the diode or the laser head. That will do two things. One, it will increase the penetration in the market for Sony players -- which is competing against other people in the Blu-ray space, not like Toshiba, where they are the only game in town for the most part," he noted.
"But also, it helps the PS3 to a certain extent. If they can get the production costs down on the Blu-ray, they can lower the cost per unit of the PS3s they are producing. The other major concern for them is that HD DVD has had a lot of success with the rebate program they had. They're selling for $299 and going into Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) , and it's a very difficult price point to compete with.

Google to make Web work offline

2007-06-01T00:11:00.000+05:30

Google Inc. said it had created Web software that runs both online, and offline, marking a sea change for the Internet industry by letting users work on planes, trains, spotty connections and even in the most remote locations.

The technology, called Google Gears, would allow users of computers, phones and other devices to manipulate Web services like e-mail, online calendars or news readers whether online, intermittently connected to the Web or completely offline.

By bridging the gulf between new Web services and the older world of desktop software, where any data changes are stored locally on users' machines, Google is pushing the Web into whole new spheres of activity and posing a challenge to rival Microsoft Corp, leader in the desktop software era.

"The Web is great but it doesn't work very well when you don't have a Web connection," Jeff Huber, Google's vice president of engineering, said in an interview. "Gears addresses a functional gap on the Web."

Google plans to make the Gears technology available for free as "open source" software, meaning other developers are free to use and enhance the software in their own products.

Gears promises to expand the usage of scores of Google products and services, as well as thousands of programs from independent software makers, by making them more accessible at previously inconvenient times and places.

The technology also allows developers to build Internet search and indexing of Web pages into their own software applications, Huber said.

Many such products will be able to make limited searches offline, since they will have downloaded data automatically when connected. Google's full Web search functions would return once the user reconnects to the Internet.

Early partners who will use Gears in their products include design software leader Adobe Systems Inc, maker of Flash animation and Acrobat document-sharing software, as well as new Apollo tools that work online and offline, Adobe said.

Other organizations working with Google are Norway's Opera Software ASA, maker of a Web browser popular with mobile phone users, and Mozilla, the group behind Firefox, the biggest alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, according to Google.

BEYOND DESKTOP

Analysts said Google's move capitalizes on a growing trend over the past couple of years for Web applications to behave as responsively as desktop software.

Microsoft already offers technologies like Groove, which allows users to work offline, then synchronize changes when connected later. But the software giant has been reluctant to make existing products work both online and offline.

Technologies such as AJaX, shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, Adobe's Flash or Microsoft's new Silverlight technology have made this increasingly possible.

"Now the Web is becoming so good that there is less and less of a reason to build software that just runs on desktop computers," said Gartner analyst David Smith of Bedford, New Hampshire. "In the past, developers had to make some pretty clear trade-offs between the Web and software for desktops."

Google Gears promises to help further close the gap for software developers across the industry. "This is a very big step, but I would say it is an obvious step," Huber said.

The first Google product to feature Gears will be Google Reader, which allows consumers automatically to track updates to hundreds of Web sites. Users could connect temporarily for updates, then go offline and read up on recent Web news.

"We expect this to be extended to other Google applications over time," Huber said, without setting any timeframes.

Once retrofitted, for example, Google Apps, the company's free, advertising-supported group of Web programs including word processing and spreadsheets that can be shared and edited by groups, could work with only periodic Web connections.

Huber said Gears' biggest impact could be in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America, where poor or non-existent Internet connections hobble access to digital information.

Google made the announcement ahead of its Google Developer Day conference, which is taking place on Thursday in 10 cities around the world starting in Sydney and culminating at the San Jose Convention Center in Silicon Valley later in the day.