Sunday, December 16, 2007
India set for mission to moon
India's unmanned mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-1 is all set for launch in April 2008.
The ground infrastructure for the mission is being set up by Indian Space Research Organisation, (ISRO), in the rural outskirts of Bangalore. And now, installation of a giant antenna is complete and it is all set to begin performance tests.
It would seem to be an unlikely place from which to provide tracking and command support for India's first mission to the moon. But the area around Byalalu village was ideal in many ways for the setting up of the country's first Deep Space Network Station.
''Bangalore is already congested with too many mobile towers and telecommunication networks. We cannot afford to in that midst to have any sensitive installation in terms of radio frequencies. Barriers that you see around, hillocks that really protect our campus, with that we have physical barriers for the noise that intrudes into our system,'' said SK Shivakumar, Director, ISTRAC, ISRO.
''Now, three years after deciding that this was the spot, a 32 metre diameter antenna has been installed. This portion of the project will cost Rs 100 crore out of Chandrayaan's total project cost of 386 crores - and is the work of several agencies. The antenna is now ready to undergo performance tests for its important tasks.''
''It provides two way communication with the satellite. It enables reception of downlink signals, what we call telemetry signals coming from the satellite - that will tell us all about the health of the satellite,'' said Shivakumar.
''Also we should talk to the satellite because many of the signals are switchable from ground, so we need to switch a system on or off, all these telecommand operations where you order a satellite to do certain things from ground - these are also helped by the same antenna. And also we do the tracking operations,'' he added.
The Deep Space Network will take care of not just Chandrayaan-1 but future deep space missions as well, for both India and other countries.
This rough, rural area outside Bangalore is part of a natural crater. And that makes it an ideal location for that giant antenna which has a diameter of 32 metres. And that great big antenna actually marks a giant leap forward for India's very first mission to the moon.
The ground infrastructure for the mission is being set up by Indian Space Research Organisation, (ISRO), in the rural outskirts of Bangalore. And now, installation of a giant antenna is complete and it is all set to begin performance tests.
It would seem to be an unlikely place from which to provide tracking and command support for India's first mission to the moon. But the area around Byalalu village was ideal in many ways for the setting up of the country's first Deep Space Network Station.
''Bangalore is already congested with too many mobile towers and telecommunication networks. We cannot afford to in that midst to have any sensitive installation in terms of radio frequencies. Barriers that you see around, hillocks that really protect our campus, with that we have physical barriers for the noise that intrudes into our system,'' said SK Shivakumar, Director, ISTRAC, ISRO.
''Now, three years after deciding that this was the spot, a 32 metre diameter antenna has been installed. This portion of the project will cost Rs 100 crore out of Chandrayaan's total project cost of 386 crores - and is the work of several agencies. The antenna is now ready to undergo performance tests for its important tasks.''
''It provides two way communication with the satellite. It enables reception of downlink signals, what we call telemetry signals coming from the satellite - that will tell us all about the health of the satellite,'' said Shivakumar.
''Also we should talk to the satellite because many of the signals are switchable from ground, so we need to switch a system on or off, all these telecommand operations where you order a satellite to do certain things from ground - these are also helped by the same antenna. And also we do the tracking operations,'' he added.
The Deep Space Network will take care of not just Chandrayaan-1 but future deep space missions as well, for both India and other countries.
This rough, rural area outside Bangalore is part of a natural crater. And that makes it an ideal location for that giant antenna which has a diameter of 32 metres. And that great big antenna actually marks a giant leap forward for India's very first mission to the moon.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
NASA to Attempt Space Shuttle Launch on Sunday
NASA will attempt to launch the shuttle Atlantis and a European-built lab toward the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday despite suspect sensors inside the orbiter's orange external tank, top mission managers said today.
Atlantis and its STS-122 crew are set to rocket spaceward from their seaside launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center at about 3:20 p.m. EST (2020 GMT) with stricter flight rules in place to compensate for the spacecraft's erratic fuel tank sensors.
"We had basically a unanimous decision to go forward," NASA shuttle program manager Wayne Hale told reporters here in an afternoon briefing.
Commanded by veteran shuttle astronaut Stephen Frick, the spaceflight has been delayed since Thursday, when two of four engine cut-off (ECO) sensors inside the liquid hydrogen portion of Atlantis' 15-story external tank failed a standard countdown check. A third sensor also gave erroneous readings once the tank was drained of its liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant.
According to the agency's flight rules, at least three of the four sensors, which serve as a backup system to ensure Atlantis' three main engines shut down before its fuel tank runs dry, must check out during tests before a shuttle can launch spaceward.
Mission managers decided today to impose even stricter guidelines, which call for all four of the sensors and a set of voltage meters that monitor their performance, to function properly before a launch attempt can go forward. They also curtailed Atlantis' five-minute launch window to just one minute in order to conserve fuel and ensure the shuttle's fuel tank has enough propellant to reach orbit should the sensors fail during liftoff.
While some shuttle engineering groups did suggest possible troubleshooting methods, none voted to abandon Sunday's launch attempt, mission managers said. Launch controllers plan to begin fueling Atlantis with the more than 500,000 gallons (1.9 million liters) of super-chilled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant at about 5:55 a.m. EST (1055 GMT).
"We'll fill up the tank and we'll see what we get," said LeRoy Cain, head of Atlantis' mission management team. "If we meet our criteria, we'll go fly and if we don't, we'll scrub and we'll get a good tanking test and we'll go forward from there."
Intermittent glitches with the fuel sensors have plagued NASA since 2005, when the space agency resumed shuttle flights after the Columbia tragedy. Despite some design modifications and the new voltage meters, the sensors continue to behave erratically for reasons engineers have yet to understand.
"I would like to quit talking about ECO sensors," Hale said, adding that he has directed engineering team to reevaluate the sensor system for signs of the glitch. "We're going to have to pursue it at an even more vigorous level."
The agency also plans to upgrade equipment in space shuttle main engines and revisit protocols overseeing external tank propellant reserves to increase flight safety, Hale added.
Atlantis' seven-astronaut crew will deliver the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory to the ISS during a planned 11-day mission. Current forecasts predict an 80 percent chance of good weather at launch time, with low clouds and nearby rain showers posing the only concern.
"I can tell you that the launch team is extremely excited about having the opportunity to make a launch attempt tomorrow," said Doug Lyons, NASA's STS-122 shuttle launch director.
NASA must launch Atlantis by Thursday in order to fly the STS-122 mission to sun angles become unfavorable for docked operations. If the shuttle cannot launch Sunday, the next opportunity opens up on Monday at 2:55 p.m. EST (1955 GMT).
Atlantis' STS-122 mission will mark NASA's fourth shuttle flight of 2007 and the second this year to deliver a new orbital room to the high-flying space station.
NASA is broadcasting Atlantis' STS-122 mission's Sunday launch live on NASA TV beginning at 5:00 a.m. EST (1000 GMT). Click here for SPACE.com's shuttle mission coverage and NASA TV feed.
News from : space.com
Friday, November 30, 2007
Google rolls out mobile locator
Internet search leader Google Inc is testing technology that will find the location of people using its mobile mapping service, even if the phone making the connection isn't equipped with a GPS receiver.
The new tracking feature introduced is being touted as an added convenience because it will enable people on the go to skip the task of typing a starting address on a mobile handset’s small keys when they turn to Google’s maps for guidance.
Using the technology, dubbed “My Location,” simply requires pressing zero on a mobile handset equipped with the new software.
The sender's location shows up as a blue dot on Google’s mobile maps.
“The tracking system isn't set up to collect a user’s phone number or any other personal information that would reveal a person’s identity,” said Steve Lee, product manager for Google's mobile maps. As a safeguard, the feature can be turned off at any time by simply clicking on a link in the help menu.
Those assurances probably will alleviate privacy concerns raised about the new service, said analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence.
After trying out “My Location” on a Blackberry device, Sterling predicted people will embrace it. He called it “an incremental improvement but still meaningful.”
Unlike GPS, Google's tracking feature works while handsets are indoors. “My Location” also drains less power from a phone’s battery than a GPS receiver does.
“On the downside, Google’s service isn't as precise as GPS. In most instances, Google hopes to get within one-quarter to three miles of a user’s location -- close enough to provide helpful “neighborhood-level” information,” Lee said.
The database that identifies the location of a mobile phone is still under construction, so the service still draws a blank. The company expects to fill in the holes as more people use the service, Lee added.
The tracking system's database currently spans more than 20 countries, including United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the Russian Federation and Taiwan. It doesn't yet work in China or Japan.
“By knowing more about a mobile phone's location, Google conceivably could make more money displaying ads from nearby businesses hoping to lure in more customers. The Mountain View-based company currently doesn't plan to show ads on mobile maps but may in the future,” Lee said.
Already the owner of the most lucrative advertising network on the Internet, Google eventually hopes to do a better job of mining profits from the mobile Web.
To help realise that goal, Google plans to introduce a new mobile software package called Android next year in an attempt to make its online services more accessible to people while they're away from computers at home or the office.
Although a growing number of so-called smart phones come with GPS receivers, Google estimates that about 85 per cent of mobile handsets now in use don't have the satellite-powered technology.
Google's alternative will work on most smart phones, including the Blackberry and the latest generation of Nokia handsets.
But it's still not compatible with the iPhone, Motorola Q, Samsung Blackjack and Palm Treo 700w and other models.
The new tracking feature introduced is being touted as an added convenience because it will enable people on the go to skip the task of typing a starting address on a mobile handset’s small keys when they turn to Google’s maps for guidance.
Using the technology, dubbed “My Location,” simply requires pressing zero on a mobile handset equipped with the new software.
The sender's location shows up as a blue dot on Google’s mobile maps.
“The tracking system isn't set up to collect a user’s phone number or any other personal information that would reveal a person’s identity,” said Steve Lee, product manager for Google's mobile maps. As a safeguard, the feature can be turned off at any time by simply clicking on a link in the help menu.
Those assurances probably will alleviate privacy concerns raised about the new service, said analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence.
After trying out “My Location” on a Blackberry device, Sterling predicted people will embrace it. He called it “an incremental improvement but still meaningful.”
Unlike GPS, Google's tracking feature works while handsets are indoors. “My Location” also drains less power from a phone’s battery than a GPS receiver does.
“On the downside, Google’s service isn't as precise as GPS. In most instances, Google hopes to get within one-quarter to three miles of a user’s location -- close enough to provide helpful “neighborhood-level” information,” Lee said.
The database that identifies the location of a mobile phone is still under construction, so the service still draws a blank. The company expects to fill in the holes as more people use the service, Lee added.
The tracking system's database currently spans more than 20 countries, including United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the Russian Federation and Taiwan. It doesn't yet work in China or Japan.
“By knowing more about a mobile phone's location, Google conceivably could make more money displaying ads from nearby businesses hoping to lure in more customers. The Mountain View-based company currently doesn't plan to show ads on mobile maps but may in the future,” Lee said.
Already the owner of the most lucrative advertising network on the Internet, Google eventually hopes to do a better job of mining profits from the mobile Web.
To help realise that goal, Google plans to introduce a new mobile software package called Android next year in an attempt to make its online services more accessible to people while they're away from computers at home or the office.
Although a growing number of so-called smart phones come with GPS receivers, Google estimates that about 85 per cent of mobile handsets now in use don't have the satellite-powered technology.
Google's alternative will work on most smart phones, including the Blackberry and the latest generation of Nokia handsets.
But it's still not compatible with the iPhone, Motorola Q, Samsung Blackjack and Palm Treo 700w and other models.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
How to speed up your computer
Everyone has experienced a slow pc at some point in their life. It can be one of the most frustrating things in the world when it takes ages to open applications or perform simple tasks. There are things in which you can do to keep the speed of the pc in good condition.
Firstly the main thing to check for is the processor, a processor can only handle so much and once it reaches its peak there’s not much you can do. By upgrading this component you can guarantee that the performance will be increase but this may entail more components needing to be upgraded such as the mother board. You can check the diagnostics of your computer by typing ‘perfmon’ in the run utility located on the start menu.
Upgrading the processor can be a very costly task if you need to upgrade your mother board as well, always check before you buy anything so you are fully aware of what needs doing and how much it will cost you. If you’re on a budget there are other methods of speeding up the performance of your computer.
You need to ensure that your computer has sufficient memory in order to perform multiple tasks at the same time. If you were to have insufficient memory your computer would begin to use the hard disk space as memory, this will significantly slow down your pc as the hard disk runs at a much slower speed. You also have the potential to over work your processor as it will be reading and writing to the hard disk.
If you have an old hard disk then you are advised to upgrade that as the newer Serial ATA hard disks run at a much faster speed which will boost the performance of your pc. You have to ensure your computer is capable of having Serial ATA as not every processor can handle it.
If you are on a really tight budget and cannot afford to spend money upgrading components there are still ways you can slightly speed up the computer on a whole. You can go through the add/remove programs list and remove anything that you don’t need anymore, these programs are wasting space on your hard drive. The more space you have the more chance of your pc running smooth and problem free.
Always ensure you run the defrag tool on a regular basis to ensure that your hard drive isn’t clutter and will run at optimised speeds.
About the Author: Andy Tao
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Friday, October 5, 2007
Monday, October 1, 2007
GPCRs: Exploring New Paradigms
As one of the largest and most diverse protein families in nature, the G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) superfamily play important roles in a variety of biological and pathological processes such as development and proliferation, neuromodulation, angiogenesis, metabolic disorders, inflammation, and viral infection. Not surprisingly, it is one of the most targeted protein families in pharmaceutical research today (Schlyer 2006).
All members of this superfamily share a similar seven transmembrane domain, but are grouped on the basis of shared sequence motifs into the following broad classes:
Class A Rhodopsin-like
Class B Secretin-like
Class C Metabotropic glutamate/pheromone
Class D Fungal pheromone
Class E cAMP receptors
Frizzled/Smoothened
Vomeronasal receptors
Putative/unclassified
The pharmaceutical industry has focused on development of modulators to this protein family, but GPCRs also represent an attractive target as biomarkers. Recent studies have implicated endothelin receptors, chemokine receptors and lysophosphatidic acid receptors in tumorgenesis and metastasis, and a recent in silico analysis found a number of GPCRs that were up-regulated in various cancers which suggests not only targets of therapeutic value, but of diagnostic and prognostic value as well. A summary of these up-regulated receptors is below.
Lung cancer
Edg2, P2Y purinoceptor 6, PAR-2, PAR-3, GPR68
Breast cancer
CCR1, CXCR-4, PAR-2
Prostate cancer
Beta 2 adrenergic receptor, CXCR-3, CXCR-4, GPR68
Melanoma
Edg6, PAR-2, mGluR1
Gastric cancer
CXCR-4, P2Y purinoceptor 5
Lymphoma
Beta 2 adrenergic receptor, Edg1, CCR7
While research continues, it is evident that GPCRs are critical in countless biological functions--and disfunctions. While the emphasis is on their role in drug development, it is becoming increasingly clear that G-protein coupled receptors will play a critical role as indicators of disease with diagnostic and prognostic potential. IMGENEX carries over 900 IHC, WB, and flow validated GPCR antibodies. View our complete GPCRs antibody list grouped by class and family. Also see our complete list of Tissue Microarray slides--perfect for GPCR localization.
About the Author: IMGENEX India Pvt Ltd. the only biotech company in Orissa and one of its kinds in Eastern India. IMGENEX India started in Oct as an outsourcing branch of IMGENEX Corporation,San Diego, USA. Find out more information about GPCRs.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Are we "Livin" or just "Survivin"?
Apoptosis is regulated by death domain (DD) and/or caspase recruitment domain (CARD) containing molecules and a caspase family of proteases. A novel CARD domain containing protein was recently identified and designated ARC for apoptosis repressor with CARD (1). For more details read out the article:The inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) family protects cells from self-execution by blocking the relentless caspase death cascade. IAPs bind to and inhibit activated caspases through their BIR domains. Some IAPs such as Livin also contain a RING domain that has E3 ubiquitin ligase activity and promotes the degradation of Smac/DIABLO through ubiquitination. Since Smac/DIABLO promotes apoptosis by inhibiting IAP-caspase interactions, degradation of Smac/DIABLO allows IAPs to more effectively block caspase activity thereby promoting cell survival.In general, members of the IAP family are highly expressed in several types of cancer. However, Survivin, an IAP that lacks a RING domain, definitely stands out among the family for its clear association with cancer. Abundantly expressed during development but scarce in normal adult tissues, Survivin is upregulated during tumorigenesis and associated with chemotherapy resistance and poor patient survival.IAPs are fast emerging as targets for potential diagnostics and therapeutics. For example, patients suffering from diverse cancers develop antibodies against Livin suggesting that Livin may be a novel diagnostic or prognostic tumor marker. Additionally, preclinical studies indicate that down-regulation of Survivin can sensitize tumor cells to chemotherapy, thereby increasing apoptosis and overall treatment response.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Vodafone prepares to battle Apple iPhone
With Apple claiming that the innovative iPhone has already reached the coveted 1 million unit sales point – less than three months since its June 29 launch – it’s safe to say that the touch-screen handset is already a storming success. Therefore, as the device’s European release looms, it’s perhaps unsurprising that network giant Vodafone is readying itself for war by spreading an impressive content offer before its customers.
With Apple apparently set to slip beneath the ‘exclusive carrier’ bed sheets with the O2 network for UK-based iPhone coverage, a rumour that could be officially confirmed before the close of the month, Vodafone has whipped the covers off a new deal that gifts users with music access for a mere £1.99 GBP per week, reports Channel 4 News.
Vodafone’s unlimited music download offer will certainly arrive as a boon for the network’s existing customers, though the Newbury-based company will likely be hoping the subsequent impact will attract a wealth of new users in the face of the considerable draw that O2 will revel in during the Christmas consumer rush.
For the £1.99 GBP per week charge, Vodafone customers will be given total access to any music held within the network, although widespread access for such a small amount will mean that track playback will be strictly limited to mobile phone handsets only. Users wishing to transplant music from their handsets to other digital devices will have to spend £0.99 GBP per song for the privilege.
Vodafone’s music downloads are to be delivered by Omnifone’s MusicStation via the Vodafone Live! Internet portal. More than 1 million songs will be made available from the likes of EMI Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group, which are the world’s four biggest music publishers.
In other news, a Vodafone spokesperson has revealed that the company will introduce some 19 new handset devices in the build up to Christmas. These devices will include 2 new BlackBerry offerings along with 15 third-generation (3G) Internet phones from manufacturers such as Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.
With Apple apparently set to slip beneath the ‘exclusive carrier’ bed sheets with the O2 network for UK-based iPhone coverage, a rumour that could be officially confirmed before the close of the month, Vodafone has whipped the covers off a new deal that gifts users with music access for a mere £1.99 GBP per week, reports Channel 4 News.
Vodafone’s unlimited music download offer will certainly arrive as a boon for the network’s existing customers, though the Newbury-based company will likely be hoping the subsequent impact will attract a wealth of new users in the face of the considerable draw that O2 will revel in during the Christmas consumer rush.
For the £1.99 GBP per week charge, Vodafone customers will be given total access to any music held within the network, although widespread access for such a small amount will mean that track playback will be strictly limited to mobile phone handsets only. Users wishing to transplant music from their handsets to other digital devices will have to spend £0.99 GBP per song for the privilege.
Vodafone’s music downloads are to be delivered by Omnifone’s MusicStation via the Vodafone Live! Internet portal. More than 1 million songs will be made available from the likes of EMI Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group, which are the world’s four biggest music publishers.
In other news, a Vodafone spokesperson has revealed that the company will introduce some 19 new handset devices in the build up to Christmas. These devices will include 2 new BlackBerry offerings along with 15 third-generation (3G) Internet phones from manufacturers such as Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.
Iphone software unlock finally in the wild
TODAY MARKS D-DAY for the legions of buyers keen to get their hands on an Iphone, but not so keen to sign up to two years of AT&T service - the day that the unlock hits the virtual shelves of retailers across the globe.
Iphone Sim Free, the company behind the unlock, has frustrated users over the past three weeks by demonstrating a software-based unlock - which doesn't require a user to take apart the Iphone - but then compounding delay after delay with bad communications and shadowy business practices.
However, the legions of Apple fanboys who have been taking them to task have, characteristically, changed themselves into fawning groupies as the software is distributed to Iphone users and has been proved to work in the 'real world'. The UK's very own Paul Taylor had the honour of being first man in line.
This means that any Joe can pick up an Iphone from an Apple store, run this software and plonk in a Vodafone or T-Mobile card with impunity - a kick in the teeth to the network which spent millions bending over backwards to meet Apple's specifications, not to mention the European networks still yet to launch.
The cost of the unlock - around $50 bought through a reseller - has angered those in the 'open hacking' community who have expected to see a free unlock developed by enthusiasts. They have promised to reverse engineer the Iphone Sim Free hack before the week is out and make it available for free.
Meanwhile, Apple claims to have sold its one millionth phone, keeping it on track for 10 million sales by the end of 2008.
With Iphone owners already a little 'touchy' about the new Ipod Touch, at least a carrier unlock is something to be happy about.
Iphone Sim Free, the company behind the unlock, has frustrated users over the past three weeks by demonstrating a software-based unlock - which doesn't require a user to take apart the Iphone - but then compounding delay after delay with bad communications and shadowy business practices.
However, the legions of Apple fanboys who have been taking them to task have, characteristically, changed themselves into fawning groupies as the software is distributed to Iphone users and has been proved to work in the 'real world'. The UK's very own Paul Taylor had the honour of being first man in line.
This means that any Joe can pick up an Iphone from an Apple store, run this software and plonk in a Vodafone or T-Mobile card with impunity - a kick in the teeth to the network which spent millions bending over backwards to meet Apple's specifications, not to mention the European networks still yet to launch.
The cost of the unlock - around $50 bought through a reseller - has angered those in the 'open hacking' community who have expected to see a free unlock developed by enthusiasts. They have promised to reverse engineer the Iphone Sim Free hack before the week is out and make it available for free.
Meanwhile, Apple claims to have sold its one millionth phone, keeping it on track for 10 million sales by the end of 2008.
With Iphone owners already a little 'touchy' about the new Ipod Touch, at least a carrier unlock is something to be happy about.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Google News to Host Wire Service Stories
Articles from the AP, AFP, U.K. Press Association, and the Canadian Press will appear directly in Google News pages.
Google Inc. took another step Friday in its continued attempts to improve its relationships with wire services, when it announced a program to host full articles from news agencies on Google News pages.
Google News, a site in which Google aggregates links to articles published on news outlets' Web sites, is generally valued by publishers who make money from online advertising and as such benefit from the traffic Google News sends to their sites.
But Google News has been a tougher sell for wire services, which generally make money by licensing their content to newspapers and magazines, and not by attracting readers to their own Web sites.
Agence France Presse (AFP), one of the world's largest wire services, sued Google for alleged copyright infringement on the News site. Although never publicly acknowledged, it's widely believed that the Associated Press threatened to file a similar lawsuit.
Although Google maintains that running hyperlinked headlines, text snippets and thumbnail images from news outlets in Google News is protected by the fair use principle, it eventually settled with AFP and signed a licensing agreement with it, as well as with AP.
Friday's announcement appears to be the first concrete result of those licensing agreements, although the AP deal is now more than a year old. The AFP settlement and agreement were announced in April.
Now, if they want, people will be able to read the original articles from AP, AFP, the U.K. Press Association and the Canadian Press in Google News pages. Google also entered into licensing agreements with the U.K. and Canadian wire services.
Previously, because wire services' Web sites typically feature either a small sample or none of their stories, the way to read their articles was go to the sites of their syndication clients, such as newspapers.
The new feature unveiled Friday is called "duplicate detection," which lets Google News identify the original source of a story that may appear in tens or hundreds of news outlet Web sites. If the source story is from one of the four news service agencies that Google has licensing agreements with, Google will display the story on a page that it hosts.
But the feature will benefit all types of news outlets, not just wire services. For example, if a New York Times story gets syndicated, Google News will know that it originally came from this newspaper.
For such outlets that have their own public Web sites, "duplicate detection" will simply let users click over to their sites, which is the traditional Google News model.
Removing duplicated articles opens up more room on Google News, leading to a better user experience, said Josh Cohen, Google News business product manager.
"Our goal with what we're launching today is to provide the best experience for our users and help our partners get credit for their content," he said.
Asked whether the hosting of full articles on Google News will weaken the fair-use protection claim, Cohen said that it will not. "We respect copyright laws. When we go beyond fair use, we enter into licensing agreements," he said.
The "duplicate detection" feature is already operational on the site, he said.
SOURCE : PC WORLD
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Nikon enlists new cameras, faces in battle vs Canon
Nikon Corp`s newest advanced cameras and a lineup of fresh faces will help it outrun rival Canon Inc in a scramble for loyal fans throughout Asia, Nikon executives said on Thursday. The precision-equipment maker said it would hold on to at least a 40 percent market share in Japan this year, while winning more customers in South Korea and China, helped by its new D300 and D3 digital single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras, to go on sale in November. "This is the real thing," Nikon President Michio Kariya told a news conference, when asked how Nikon`s cameras were different from Canon`s new digital SLRs targeting the same mid- to high-end market. Nikon held a 47.5 percent market share in January-June, beating Canon`s 36.5 percent, Tokyo-based research firm BCN said. Nikon is pricing its D300 at around 230,000 yen ($1,980) with initial monthly production of 60,000 units. The D3, aimed at professionals, would sell for about 580,000 yen, with initial production of 8,000 a month. Earlier this week, Canon announced the launch of its EOS 40D model from August 31, and the EOS-1Ds Mark III for professionals from late November, vowing to regain its lead over Nikon by year-end. While Canon picked Oscar-nominated veteran Japanese actor Ken Watanabe to promote the EOS 40D, Nikon opted for younger faces, including South Korean actor Bi in South Korea and Taiwanese-American singer and actor Wang Leehom in China. "We want to attract young, hip users, especially in China," Nikon Operating Officer Yasuyuki Okamoto said. "If we do not somehow corner the China market, there is no future." Nikon expects to ship a total 3.2 million digital SLRs in the year ending March 2009, up from 2.6 million this business year. Shares of Nikon closed up 2.5 percent at 3,280 yen, while Canon, which announced a share buyback program, rose 5.9 percent to 6,260 yen.Saturday, August 18, 2007
IBM Desktop Hindi Speech Recognition Software launched in India
Software giant IBM gas developed a speech recognition software in Hindi. The company hopes that this development will help physically challenged and less literate Hindi speakers to access information using a variety of applications.
Called the Desktop Hindi Speech Recognition technology, this software was developed by the IBM India Software Lab jointly with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing.
The new IBM technology could help to provide a natural interface for human-computer interaction.
According to Dr. Daniel Dias, Director, IBM Indian Research Laboratory, the technology which helps transcribe continuous Hindi speech instantly into text form, could find use in a variety of applications like voice-enabled ATMs, car navigation systems, banking, telecom, railways, and airlines.
Besides, the technology could also enable C-DAC to ensure a high level of accuracy in Hindi translation in a number of domains like administration, finance, agriculture and the small-scale industry.
The IBM Desktop Hindi Speech Recognition software is capable of recognizing over 75,000 Hindi words with dialectical variations, providing an accuracy of 90 to 95%. What’s more; this software also has an integrated spellchecker that corrects spoken-word errors, enhancing the accuracy to a great extent.
The Desktop Hindi Speech Recognition Technology also integrates a number of user-friendly features such as the facility to convert text to digits and decimals, date and currency format, and into fonts which could be imported to any Windows-based application.
“IBM believes in taking high-end research to the benefit of the masses and bridging the digital divide through a faster diffusion process,” concluded Dias.
SOURCE : TECH SHOUT.COM
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Rare river dolphin 'now extinct'
 An extensive survey of its habitat failed to find any sign of the baiji |
The researchers failed to spot any Yangtze river dolphins, also known as baijis, during an extensive six-week survey of the mammals' habitat.
The team, writing in Biology Letters journal, blamed unregulated fishing as the main reason behind their demise.
If confirmed, it would be the first extinction of a large vertebrate for over 50 years.
The World Conservation Union's Red List of Threaten Species currently classifies the creature as "critically endangered".
We have yet to take full responsibility in our role as guardians of the planet 
Dr Sam Turvey,
Zoological Society of London
Sam Turvey of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), one of the paper's co-authors, described the findings as a "shocking tragedy".
"The Yangtze river dolphin was a remarkable mammal that separated from all other species over 20 million years ago," Dr Turvey explained.
"This extinction represents the disappearance of a complete branch of the evolutionary tree of life and emphasises that we have yet to take full responsibility in our role as guardians of the planet."
If confirmed, it would be the first extinction of a large vertebrate for over 50 years.
'Incidental impact'
The species (Lipotes vexillifer) was the only remaining member of the Lipotidae, an ancient mammal family that is understood to have separated from other marine mammals, including whales, dolphins and porpoises, about 40-20 million years ago.
The white, freshwater dolphin had a long, narrow beak and low dorsal fin; lived in groups of three or four and fed on fish.
The team carried out six-week visual and acoustic survey, using two research vessels, in November and December 2006.
"While it is conceivable that a couple of surviving individuals were missed by the survey teams," the team wrote, "our inability to detect any baiji despite this intensive search effort indicates that the prospect of finding and translocating them to a [reserve] has all but vanished."
The scientists added that there were a number of human activities that caused baiji numbers to decline, including construction of dams and boat collisions.
"However, the primary factor was probably unsustainable by-catch in local fisheries, which used rolling hooks, nets and electrofishing," they suggested.
"Unlike most historical-era extinctions of large bodied animals, the baiji was the victim not of active persecution but incidental mortality resulting from massive-scale human environmental impacts - primarily uncontrolled and unselective fishing," the researchers concluded.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Phoenix spacecraft launches to Mars
The NASA mission embarks on a 10-month journey to the Red Planet's north pole, where it is expected to be the first to sample the water of another world.
NASA's Phoenix spacecraft launched Saturday morning from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a 10-month journey to the north pole of Mars, where it is expected to be the first craft to taste the water of another planet.
The Delta II rocket carrying the 7-foot-tall lander lifted off at 5:26 a.m. on a scheduled 423million-mile journey that should deliver Phoenix to the Martian surface on May 25.
"We certainly are excited about launching, but we are still concerned about our actual landing, the most difficult step of this mission," Smith said.
NASA has a mixed record with Mars missions. Its twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity have been resounding successes, still going strong after 3 1/2 years on the surface.
But the last mission to the polar region, Mars Polar Lander, was lost on arrival in 1999.
If this mission unfolds as planned, the lander will parachute to the Red Planet's surface, using its descent engines to slow itself to about 5 mph. Once on the ground, it will unfurl its power-generating solar panels and extend its 7.7-foot robotic digging arm, the key component of the $420-million mission.
A scoop on the arm will dig down to a layer of water ice — thought to lie within 3 feet of the surface — that the Mars Odyssey spacecraft detected from orbit in 2002. A drill-like tool was added to the scoop after scientists realized that the ice on Mars could be much harder — more like cement — than ice on Earth.
Samples of soil and ice collected by the robotic arm will be transferred onboard for analysis. Phoenix carries eight tiny ovens that will heat the samples in search of organic compounds that could indicate past or present biological processes. Each oven will be used only once to avoid contamination.
NASA has tried to keep expectations low, asserting that Phoenix is not searching for life, merely trying to understand the water story. "Water is central to every type of study we will conduct on Mars," Smith said.
NASA learned to manage expectations with the Viking missions to Mars in 1976. The public, its appetite whetted by generations of science fiction writers envisioning Martians plying canals like Venice boatmen, waited excitedly for news of the discovery of life, only to have the spacecraft report a sterile, lifeless world.
That disappointment haunted the Mars program for decades. Only in recent years, with such discoveries as large subterranean deposits of ice and tantalizing evidence of surface flows, has there been renewed interest in Mars.
Some scientists now believe that the Viking landers either were searching in the wrong places or weren't equipped to look for the right clues.
Even the optimists acknowledge that Mars is, and possibly always has been, too hostile an environment for complex life forms. But scientists no longer rule out the possibility that some rudimentary forms of life could once have existed, and may still, possibly in some watery underground environment heated by the planet's interior.
In contrast to Earth and Venus, with their substantial internal sources of heat-causing volcanic activity, Mars' volcanoes appear to be long dead, a kind of "warm corpse," researchers say.
Scientists believe that Mars has gone through three ages, starting with what they call the Noachian, the first billion years and the most livable era, when the planet may have had a much warmer surface with running streams and possibly rain. The Hesperian era came next, a 500-million-year period when geologic activity slowed and water pooled underground.
The current period is referred to as the Amazonian, a 2- to 3-billion-year era during which the surface became desiccated and the atmosphere grew thin.
Scientists hope that scientific instruments aboard Phoenix will fill out the story.
In a space mission, as with air travel, the launch and landing are the most dangerous events. Phoenix's landing site is on an arctic plain called Vastitas Borealis, which is similar in most respects to central Greenland or northern Alaska.
The craft is expected to touch down in a shallow valley 30 miles wide and 800 feet deep.
The site was chosen after an early favorite turned out to be covered with large rocks. If one of the lander's three legs came to rest on one, it could tip precariously.
During Mars' winter, when temperatures can drop to minus-199, the area is covered with carbon dioxide frost and ice. So the craft will land in late spring, when the surface is more typical of Mars, covered with thick dust.
Winter's harshness is one reason Phoenix will not contend with the rovers for longevity. The lander will become shrouded in carbon dioxide ice, imposing a short lifetime of about 90 Martian days for the mission.
The spacecraft was designed and built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Hybrid cars are big in Berkeley - how far behind it is the nation?
As Berkeley goes, so - eventually - goes the nation. As frightening as this may sound to some, it's a fact borne out by history.
Opposing the Vietnam War, spearheading ecological concerns, mandating energy-efficient buildings, banning smoking in public places, demanding equal access for the disabled - these causes were all dismissed as "Berkeley radical thinking" in their time. Today, they've all long since been integrated into mainstream America. While some might still quibble with one or another of them, in retrospect, most of us would now regard these causes as honorable and thoroughly American.
Today there's another revolution brewing in Berkeley, albeit a much quieter one. No matter where you look, the streets of this small university town are teeming with hybrid vehicles - most of them made by Toyota, with a lesser number from Honda, and practically none, I'd point out, made by that blundering straggler, General Motors.
If Berkeley proves as prescient in this "radical" trend as it has in prior ones, the environmental implications are vast. For one, it signals the beginning of the end for conventional internal-combustion-powered vehicles, many years earlier than auto industry analysts and other in-the-box thinkers would have us believe. Then again, these are the same folks who saw nothing shortsighted about GM cashing in on SUVs while leaving their advanced-vehicle programs to molder.
What's so different about hybrids? While conventional cars have huge gasoline engines sized to meet peak-power demands (which typical drivers use perhaps 1 percent of the time), a hybrid uses a small, high-efficiency gasoline engine to generate electricity on board. This, in turn, powers an electric motor that moves the car. This smaller engine is sized to provide power for average cruising, not for peak demand. When extra power is needed, as in climbing a grade or passing, it's provided by the batteries or by the gasoline engine, as appropriate. Hybrids also have a regenerative braking system that transforms braking energy into electricity instead of wasting it in heat, as a normal car does.
The small size and steady running speed of the hybrid's engine, the regenerative braking system and other features let hybrids achieve about twice the mileage of conventional cars while producing a fraction of the pollution. These advantages will only become more pronounced as the cars are refined over time.
While hybrids have some of the same shortcomings as conventional cars - an inherently inefficient internal combustion engine that burns gasoline and spews pollution, and a relatively friction-laden drive train - they nevertheless represent a huge advance over the clumsy mechanical-drive cars most of us own, providing an important steppingstone to true zero-emissions vehicles.
The only bad news is that the American auto industry will probably be at the tail end of this revolution, watching foreign competitors write the conventional car's epitaph, thanks to the monumental stupidity, shortsightedness and greed of General Motors executives, who preferred to wallow in the lucrative SUV trough while foreign competitors did their homework. Maybe those GM folks should've gotten out of the boardroom now and then, and taken a drive around Berkeley.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Think twice about clicking on that e-card
Spammers launched a widespread attack on e-mail inboxes this month. But instead of trying to lure users into opening a corrupted attachment, they're concealing a computer virus in a link to an online greeting card.
Last week, the FBI warned consumers about greeting-card spam; earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission held a summit on the growth of malicious e-mail. Symantec, an antivirus company, also said it has seen a proliferation of online-greeting-card scams recently.
In most cases, the subject line informs recipients that they've received a greeting card or a postcard from a "friend," "family member," "worshipper," "school-mate" or "neighbour." When the e-mail is opened, there's a link to a Web site that uploads viruses to the recipient's computer.
Now that consumers generally know about the dangers of opening attachments from unknown senders, some hackers have turned to using links instead. Web site links don't generate the same level of suspicion among Internet users, as consumers regularly send online gift cards, share online photo albums and offer birthday wishes via e-mail.
Users of infected computers have few choices beyond buying and installing software to scan and clean their hard drives. Those who receive a purported greeting-card e-mail — but don't recognize the sender — are instructed to delete the e-mail.
source : google news
Sunday, July 15, 2007
`Red ring of death': What's wrong with Microsoft's Xbox?
There are seven stages of grief: shock, denial, anger, bargaining depression, testing and acceptance. But with the Xbox 360, which has been giving a significant number of its owners grief, Microsoft last week moved directly from the first stages to the last -- from denying any problems with it to admitting a US$1 billion problem that potentially affects all 11.6 million consoles sold so far.
Three weeks ago Todd Holmdahl, vice president of the gaming and Xbox products group, said repeated problems where people had to take back up to 11 consoles came from "a vocal minority" (tinyurl.com/yqtm4w) and dismissed suggestion of endemic problems.
Then last week Microsoft abruptly announced that it would set aside between US$1.05 billion and US$1.15 billion, charged against the just-finished 2007 fiscal year, to cover the costs of extending the warranty for every machine from one to three years, and to fix the many which show the "red ring of death" -- three red lights on the front panel control ring, indicating a general hardware failure.
How many? Unfortunately, Microsoft still isn't ready to deal with that issue.
PS3 surge
"When you look at the financial implication, obviously it's not a small number," said Robbie Bach, president of its entertainment and devices unit.
Sony, which last week had denied it would cut the price of its struggling PlayStation 3, saw an opening and snipped US$100 off the US retail price, prompting a surge in sales there.
Microsoft repeatedly declined to talk to me about precisely what problems the failed consoles suffer from. However, Peter Moore, head of the Xbox division, told Gamesindustry.biz: "There are a lot of different issues that eventually could all combine to create the three flashing red rings that appear on the power button on the console; no [one] specific issue."
He was repeatedly evasive in interviews, leaving the impression that the problems were either profound -- or embarrassingly simple.
The financial problems, though, are stark. The sum being set aside amounts to between US$90 and US$99 for every console sold -- extra loss on machines that are already sold at a loss. On its launch, analysts reckoned that each Xbox contained US$525 worth of components; but the machine sold for, at most, US$499, and more price cuts are rumored to be on the way to keep ahead of Sony. On average, Microsoft took a US$126 loss on each console sold at its starting price -- US$1.4 billion so far.
The billion-dollar figure also indicates that Microsoft's repeated insistence that the failure rate was about average for such hardware -- that is, between 3 percent and 5 percent -- cannot have been true. The real failure rate is probably about five times greater than the company has admitted, which would put repair costs at between US$330 and US$660 per console. At that upper limit, it would be cheaper for Microsoft simply to send a cheque for a brand new console. So what are the causes?
overheating
Owners and analysts have made their own investigations. The most obvious suggestion is that parts overheat; the Xbox 360 draws 160 watts, which has to be dissipated via two large heatsinks and two fans. One suggestion is that when the machine gets hot, the motherboard warps and pushes the graphics processing unit (GPU) off its board. Another is that some of the soldering is imperfect and so cracks at high temperature. A Microsoft support document (tinyurl.com/2qnefa) also suggests, improbably, that surge protectors and extension strips contribute to the problem by preventing the current surge needed for the fans to turn on; this seems unlikely, since that surge would be too small to trip them.
In desperation, some owners have turned to home-grown cures, including wrapping a towel around the machine, blocking the fan vents. This may -- depending who you believe -- either cause the solder to reflow or the GPU to reseat. (Microsoft has not commented.) The fixes sometimes work, at least temporarily.
We can deduce some of the reasons from the fact that Microsoft is declaring that the problems are sorted out -- just as it is moving from 90-nanometer to 65nm chips, which should reduce its power consumption significantly, and using a two-part heat sink in the new designs.
The key question though is whether these flaws will put off future customers, and how badly they have annoyed existing ones. The principal problem for the latter is that any content bought online must be re-enabled for a replacement console.
dream over?
Does the admission mean that Microsoft's dream that the Xbox will form the centerpiece of a strategy to put Microsoft software and hardware into everyone's living room has been permanently sunk?
A report this week from Jupiter Research suggests that there is now everything to play for.
"Jupiter Research anticipates the competitive field will be much closer than in the past; at the end of the current [console] cycle in 2012, the range in market shares is projected to be just under 10 percent compared with the 33 percent range in market shares at the end of the last cycle in 2005. Then, the PS2 dominated, and Nintendo was nowhere. Now, Nintendo's Wii is rocketing towards the Xbox 360 total; sales data suggests it is selling nearly three times faster than the Xbox 360 or PS3," the report said.
The optimistic forecast -- written before the Xbox's problems were admitted -- suggests that the Xbox will continue to sell. Moore repeated his insistence that the Xbox division will move into profit next year; having shovelled the billion-dollar faults back into the last fiscal year, it can look for profits from its online service, peripherals and games. The strategy remains untouched. All that has changed is the time it will take to pay back. But Microsoft is prepared to play the longest of games -- even when it has no chance of winning.source : TAI PEI TIMES
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Wednesday, July 11, 2007
IE or Firefox: Who's to blame for newest browser zero-day?
Both browsers must be present for the vulnerability to be exploited
Confusion reigns around a zero-day browser vulnerability made public yesterday, with four researchers or organizations squaring off over whether Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer or Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox is at fault.
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Confusion reigns around a zero-day browser vulnerability made public yesterday, with four researchers or organizations squaring off over whether Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer or Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox is at fault.
Image via Wikipedia
According to researcher Thor Larholm, the zero-day bug is in IE. "There is an input validation flaw in Internet Explorer that allows you to specify arbitrary arguments to the process responsible for handling URL protocols," Larholm said on his blog. That becomes a problem on PCs that also have Firefox 2.0.0.2 or later. Firefox, said Larholm, registers a URL protocol handler called FirefoxURL, designed to let Web pages force a Firefox launch if the "firefoxurl://" uniform resource identifier (URI) is used.
IE doesn't perform any input validation on the protocol, which means an attacker can use IE to pass malicious a script -- JavaScript code, say -- to the browser. The result: a PC hijack. Symantec Corp.'s analysts backed up Larholm's conclusion.
Larholm also said that the IE bug is similar to the input validation vulnerability in Safari 3.0 that he spotted the same day Apple Inc. released the Windows browser in beta.
Others, however, blamed Firefox for the vulnerability. In an e-mail, Thomas Kristensen, chief technology officer at Danish bug tracker Secunia, did not dispute Larholm's findings but did have a problem with his conclusion. "This is in fact not an IE issue, it is a Firefox issue," said Kristensen. "The way in which the URL handler was registered by Firefox causes any parameter to be passed from IE (or another application) to Firefox when firefoxurl:// is activated." FrSIRT, a French company that also monitors vulnerabilities, agreed with Secunia.
"Registering a URI handler must be done with care," said Kristensen, "since Windows does not have any proper way of knowing what kind of input potentially could be dangerous for an application. Improper usage of URI handlers and parameters supplied via URIs has historically caused problems."
No matter which browser is to blame, it takes two to tango or, in this case, both must be present to let an attacker inject malicious code. Only PCs with Firefox 2.0.0.2 or later (Firefox's most recent update was to 2.0.04) are vulnerable, and then only if the victim uses IE to surf to a malicious site sporting the firefoxurl:// protocol.
Secunia rated the threat as "highly critical," its second-highest ranking; FrSIRT, meanwhile, pegged it as "critical," its top-most warning. Several proof-of-concept exploits have been posted to security mailing lists or Web sites, including one by Larholm and another by a researcher named Billy Rios, who goes by the initials BK.
Image via Wikipedia
No fixes -- for either Firefox or IE -- are available, although in a comment posted last month to a security message forum, Dan Veditz, a Mozilla developer, said the team is preparing a patch. "[We are] working on protecting users from this on our end for a future security update," said Veditz. Nonetheless, Veditz, like Larholm and Symantec, said IE should shoulder responsibility for the zero-day vulnerability.
"I do think IE should escape quotes in URLs (RFC 1738 considers them an 'unsafe' character in URLs), but the Firefox team has been looking into back-stop protection in our app since we saw Thor Larholm's Safari 0-day post," Veditz wrote.
Source : Computer WorldThursday, July 5, 2007
Affair with iPhone cools when handset breaks
After four days with phone, trouble in paradise
 | A customer at an Apple store at Southpark Mall in Charlotte, N.C., examines the new Apple iPhone during the first day of sales for the device June 29. |
Jason E. Miczek / AP file |
By Joe Hutsko
MSNBC contributor
Falling in lust with an expensive device like the iPhone sets owners up for a hard fall if it stops working. I know, because mine died after only four days into our relationship.
At first I thought it was just a hiccup when the iPhone was working fine one minute, then wouldn’t turn on the next. I tried the prescribed reset (hold down the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons at the same time for several seconds until the device restarts) with no luck. Black screen, period. But when I plugged it in the Apple logo appeared as if restarting. Then it vanished, the screen went black again, and a few seconds later the logo reappeared, as if restarting. Again. Then again. And again. Trouble in paradise.
On a whim I held the buttons for a reset again but this time kept holding, until eventually a bright yellow triangle appeared, instructing me to Connect the iPhone to iTunes. This forced “restore mode” allowed the otherwise endless-looped iPhone to appear in iTunes, which prompted me to restore the phone. Since iTunes backs up the phone’s data after every sync I said sure, gladly, please do.
I contacted the AT&T store and was told I could return the phone for a refund (with a 10 percent restocking fee) but could not exchange it for a replacement; all iPhone support is handled by Apple. I contacted a public relations person at Apple and she said she’d have customer service call me. While waiting on that call I decided to drive to the nearby Apple Store with the far-flung hope that they’d simply swap the phone for me (crazily assuming they’d even have another 8 GB model in stock).
An extremely polite Apple customer service rep named Nate called just as I was walking into the Apple Store. He introduced me to the store manager, Sean, who was also on the line. We hung up with Nate and conducted the service business in person. Sean said they’d simply swap my phone for another, and after some help from two guys named Chris at the Genius Bar, they took back the broken one and I left with the new iPhone. Driving home, I had a number of questions. Would they completely erase my iPhone when it reached the service department, so that my private data remains mine alone? What if they hadn’t had another iPhone in stock?
I got answers from Apple’s PR department. Yes, all iPods and iPhones that are exchanged for replacements get wiped clean. As for the in-stock issue, iPhone owners can swap a “DOA” phone for a replacement if within 30 days of purchase. If the store is out of stock or if the purchase is past thirty days (or if a customer doesn’t live near an Apple Store), the repair-by-mail process kicks in.
The owner removes the SIM card (which will work in the previously used phone that the iPhone presumably replaced), mails the iPhone to Apple, and they repair it and send it back. Apple offers the option of a rental iPhone during the repair process for a $29 fee — something that is bound to rub customers the wrong way.
There was no such fee from AT&T when one of my previous phones — the Palm Treo 680 — went in for repairs. While under warranty AT&T automatically ships a loaner phone, which you wind up keeping if they deem your original dead.
They do charge a small fee if you want the replacement sent overnight, but otherwise the repair process is free. (AT&T waived the rush fee the two additional times I had to send the Treo in for replacement due to the thin plastic bezel around the screen repeatedly cracking despite my handling the device with kid gloves.)
Why did my iPhone fail so soon? Apple’s Geniuses couldn’t say on the spot. But I think it had something to do with heat — my iPhone would get incredibly hot to the touch when plugged in and charging while I was on a long phone call. So hot I lived those first three days in constant fear that it would heat to the point of burning up.
So hot that I was tempted to put some raw egg in a foil cup and set it atop the iPhone to see if it would cook — or if not actually cook, turn opaque from the iPhone’s super-heated back surface. Describing this on my blog JOEyGADGET promoted one other iPhone owner to comment:
“Yep, mine seems hot but I don’t know if it’s too hot. Hotness is relative you know.” Agreed when discussing physical attraction, but when talking about physical touch, take my word for it, my original iPhone all but burned the skin on my hand.
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Sunday, July 1, 2007
Microsoft plans job portal in India
NEW DELHI: Microsoft Corp yesterday announced that it was in talks with partners in government and industry for a job search portal.
The company said that it plans to launch a job search service this year for the country's nearly 400,000 engineers graduating every year. Microsoft's job portal will compete with Info Edge (India) www.naukri.com and Monster Worldwide’s www.monsterindia.com, among others. Its online portal www.msn.com will provide educational content to students.
The company has also entered into an agreement with Advanced Micro Devices and Zenith Computers to make and sell personal computers in India.
The computers, priced at Rs 21,000, would be sold in 10 retail outlets each in Bangalore and Pune from July on a test basis for three months and will be expanded later on the basis of response.
"We don't see any gain in the short term. Our perspective is long term," Microsoft India chairman Ravi Venkatesan told reporters.
In 2006/07 the total installed base of PCs in India was 22 million, that is, a PC for about every 50 Indians, industry tracking body IDC said in a recent report.
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The company said that it plans to launch a job search service this year for the country's nearly 400,000 engineers graduating every year. Microsoft's job portal will compete with Info Edge (India) www.naukri.com and Monster Worldwide’s www.monsterindia.com, among others. Its online portal www.msn.com will provide educational content to students.
The company has also entered into an agreement with Advanced Micro Devices and Zenith Computers to make and sell personal computers in India.
The computers, priced at Rs 21,000, would be sold in 10 retail outlets each in Bangalore and Pune from July on a test basis for three months and will be expanded later on the basis of response.
"We don't see any gain in the short term. Our perspective is long term," Microsoft India chairman Ravi Venkatesan told reporters.
In 2006/07 the total installed base of PCs in India was 22 million, that is, a PC for about every 50 Indians, industry tracking body IDC said in a recent report.
SOURCE : THE TIMES OF INDIA
Thursday, June 28, 2007
BBC web downloads set to launch
The BBC's on demand TV service, the BBC iPlayer, will launch to the public on 27 July, the corporation has revealed.
UK users will be able to download popular shows over the net seven days after broadcast to watch on their PC.
Later this year, the service will also be available via links from YouTube and could also appear on other websites such as MSN, Bebo, and Facebook.
At launch the application will only work on Windows PCs but a version for the Mac could be available by autumn.
iPlayer
Shows can be watched seven days after transmission
Over time other features will be added to the iPlayer including live streaming of programmes, the BBC Radio Player and "series stacking", which will allow users to download episodes from series retrospectively.
Director General Mark Thompson said: "Forty years ago, in July 1967, BBC Television launched colour TV.
"This July we are going to launch the iPlayer and in our view, the iPlayer is at least as big a redefinition of what TV can be, what radio can be, what broadcasting can be, as what colour television was 40 years ago."
Timely launch
The iPlayer has been in development since 2003 and received final approval from the corporation's governing body, the BBC Trust, in April 2007.
In that time it has been through numerous revisions, many demanded by the Trust and the broadcast and telecoms regulator Ofcom, whilst other broadcasters, such as ITV and Channel 4, have launched their own on-demand services.
"The market badly wanted to make the BBC go through a proper due process," said Ashley Highfield, director of Future Media and technology at the BBC.
BBC iPLAYER
iPlayer will allow viewers to catch up on TV programmes for seven days
Some TV series can be downloaded and stored for 30 days
Viewers will be able to watch shows streamed live over the internet
Users will not be able to download programmes from other broadcasters
Classical recordings and book-readings are excluded from iPlayer
Who else offers TV on-demand?
He added that the long process had been "frustrating" but had ultimately made the iPlayer a "better" proposition.
"Nobody wants to be the first to innovate and the last to implement but I don't think that matters," he said.
"We are right at the beginning of the video over the internet revolution, these are really early days."
At launch users will be able to download programmes seven days after their first transmission and will then have up to 30 days to watch them.
Programmes will include popular series such as Life on Mars; soap operas such as EastEnders and documentaries such as Planet Earth. Initially, 400 hours of programming will be available.
Some sporting events, such as Euro 2008, will be offered through the iPlayer as the service expands.
Mr Highfield said that over a 2MB broadband connection half an hour of programming would take approximately half an hour to download.
Once viewed in entirety, programmes will be automatically deleted.
Critical view
The lifetime of downloads is controlled by a digital rights managements system (DRM) supplied by Microsoft.
Some critics of the iPlayer, notably advocacy group the Open Source Consortium (OSC), has said that programmes should be made available without these digital locks.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
iPlayer screengrab
Operating system: Windows XP SP2
Browser: Internet explorer 6.0 or above
Media Player: Windows Media Player 10 or above
Net connection: Broadband
However, Mr Highfield said this was not possible.
"We wouldn't be able to launch the iPlayer at all without digital rights management," he said.
"The rights holders - the people that make the programmes, from Ricky Gervais to the independent producers that account for up to a third of our programming - simply wouldn't have given us the rights to their programmes unless we could demonstrate very robust digital rights management."
The OSC has also criticised the BBC for initially releasing the iPlayer as a Windows-only system and has threatened to make a complaint to the European Commission.
The OSC argues that the system should work on all computer operating systems.
"I am fundamentally committed to universality, to getting the BBC iPlayer to everyone in the UK who pays their licence fee," said Mr Highfield.
"This is the approach we have always taken but we have always started with the platform that reaches the most number of people and then rolled it out from there."
Mr Highfield said that a version for Apple Macs could be available in autumn, with versions for Window's Vista and mobile devices to follow.
Versions for Freeview and cable viewers are also planned with Virgin Media expected to roll out the service later this year.
Deals with other distributors such as MSN, AOL, telegraph.co.uk, Tiscali, Yahoo, MySpace, Blinkx and Bebo were also in the pipeline, whilst a commercial iPlayer for global audiences could launch in 2008 he said.
"Wherever you are on the internet you will come across BBC programmes," said Mr Highfield.
SOURCE : BBC NEWS TECHNOLOGY
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Friday, June 22, 2007
Banned video game is 'fine art'
The US publishers of a video game banned in the UK and Ireland have described it as a "fine piece of art". Take Two chairman Strauss Zelnick said Manhunt 2 had his full support and that consumers should decide for themselves.
"The Rockstar team has come up with a game that fits squarely within the horror genre and was intended to do so," Mr Zelnick said in a statement.
The sale of the game is unlikely to go ahead in the US and has not been granted certification in the UK.
"It brings a unique, formerly unheard of cinematic quality to interactive entertainment, and is also a fine piece of art," Mr Zelnick said.
The game has been designed Adult Only in the US but both Nintendo and Sony have confirmed that the title will not be able to be released on their platforms as originally intended.
In a statement, developers Rockstar said they were disappointed by the British Board of Film Classification's (BBFC) decision to refuse classification of Manhunt 2.
It said: "While we respect the authority of the classification board and will abide by the rules, we emphatically disagree with this particular decision.
The adult consumers who would play this game fully understand that it is fictional interactive entertainment and nothing more Rockstar statement
"Manhunt 2 is an entertainment experience for fans of psychological thrillers and horror. The subject matter of this game is in line with other mainstream entertainment choices for adult consumers."
Rockstar are also the developers of other controversial titles including Grand Theft Auto and Canis Canem Edit.
The game features many violent scenes
In rejecting the game, David Cooke, director of the BBFC, said: "Manhunt 2 is distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone.
"There is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game."
Rockstar's statement continued: "We believe all products should be rated to allow the public to make informed choices about the media and art they wish to consume.
"The stories in modern videogames are as diverse as the stories in books, film and television. The adult consumers who would play this game fully understand that it is fictional interactive entertainment and nothing more."
Manhunt 2 was developed for the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2 consoles.
SOURCE : BBC NEWS : TECHNOLOGY
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Monday, June 18, 2007
Human genome further unravelled
A close-up view of the human genome has revealed its innermost workings to be far more complex than first thought.
The study, which was carried out on just 1% of our DNA code, challenges the view that genes are the main players in driving our biochemistry.
Instead, it suggests genes, so called junk DNA and other elements, together weave an intricate control network.
The work, published in the journals Nature and Genome Research, is to be scaled up to the rest of the genome.
Views transformed
The Encyclopaedia of DNA Elements (Encode) study was a collaborative effort between 80 organisations from around the world.
It has been described as the next step on from the Human Genome Project, which provided the sequence for all of the DNA that makes up the human species' biochemical "book of life".
| We are now seeing the majority of the rest of the genome is active to some extent
Tim Hubbard, Sanger Institute
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The researchers focussed on 1% of the human genome sequence, carrying out 80 different types of experiments that generated more than 600 million data points.
The surprising results, explained Tim Hubbard from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, "transform our view of the genome fabric".
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THE DNA MOLECULE
The double-stranded DNA molecule - wound in a helix - is held together by four chemical components called bases
Adenine (A) bonds with thymine (T); cytosine(C) bonds with guanine (G)
Groupings of these "letters" form the "code of life"; a code that is very nearly universal to all Earth's organisms
Written in the DNA are genes which cells use as starting templates to make proteins; these sophisticated molecules build and maintain our bodies
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The other 97% or so of the genome was said to be made up of "junk" DNA - so called because it had no known biological function.
However, junk DNA may soon need a new moniker.
Dr Hubbard said: "We are now seeing the majority of the rest of the genome is active to some extent."
He explained that the study had found junk DNA was being transcribed, or copied, into RNA - an active molecule that relays information from DNA to the cellular machinery.
He added: "This is a remarkable finding, since most prior research suggested only a fraction of the genome was transcribed."
'Complex picture'
Dr Birney added that many of the RNA molecules were copying overlapping sequences of DNA.
He said: "The genome looks like it is far more of a network of RNA transcripts that are all collaborating together. Some go off and make proteins; [and] quite a few, although we know they are there, we really do not have a good understanding of what they do.
"This leads to a much more complex picture."
The researchers now hope to scale up their efforts to look at the other 99% of the genome.
By finding out more about its workings, scientists hope to have a better understanding of the mechanics of certain diseases.
Dr Birney said that in the future, they would hope to combine their findings with some of the larger studies that are currently investigating genes known to be associated with particular conditions.
He added: "As we understand these things better, we get better insight into disease, and when we get better insight into disease, we get better insight into diagnosis and the chances to create new drugs."..
SOURCE : BBC NEWS
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