Tech news and world news

Second Google phone from T-Mobile

2009-06-24T09:01:00.005+01:00

Competition in the smartphone market is heating up this summer as one new hot smartphone after another hits the street. The latest is T-Mobile's next Google Android device, called the myTouch.

Second Google phone, dubbed MyTouch, is thinner than the first Android phone by T-Mobile.

T-Mobile announced the new smartphone Monday. It is the second smartphone the carrier has introduced that uses Google's open-source mobile operating system, Android.

T-Mobile introduced the world's first Google Android phone, called the G1, last fall. And so far the company claims it has sold over 1 million devices.

The myTouch is manufactured by HTC and is essentially the same hardware design as the Google Ion, which is also known as the HTC Magic. The device was introduced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February and is now being sold by Vodafone in various markets around the world.

The Google Ion/HTC Magic has been described as thinner than the G1 and slightly smaller than Apple's iPhone. But it features a large 3.2-inch touch screen with a resolution of 320 x480 pixels and no physical keyboard.

The phone offers network support for 3G and Wi-Fi.

The myTouch comes with 512 Megabytes of internal memory and supports microSD for external storage. The device will ship with a 4GB microSD card, but customers can add more storage if they'd like.

Even though T-Mobile's first Android phone hasn't even been out a year, T-Mobile is calling the myTouch its premier Android smartphone, said Andrew Sherrard, vice president at T-Mobile.

The carrier will announce a few more Android devices later this year, but it will be focusing much of its marketing efforts promoting the myTouch. And while Sherrard said the G1 isn't going away anytime soon, he believes the myTouch will have an even better chance to pick up new customers who are looking for an easy to use smartphone.

T-Mobile plans to sell the myTouch for $199 with a two-year service contract, and it will be available to current T-Mobile customers starting July 8. Non-T-Mobile customers will be able to get the new phone in early August.

The myTouch is entering the market just as every major smartphone maker is also introducing its latest and greatest device. Three other smartphones makers have already started selling phones this summer.

Palm's much anticipated Pre was introduced on Sprint Nextel's network two weeks ago. Nokia followed with its U.S. debut of the N97, touch-screen smartphone. And Apple started selling its faster and memory-enhanced iPhone 3G S on Friday.

Like the Palm Pre and Apple iPhone 3G S, the myTouch will be sold exclusively through a single wireless operator in the U.S. And as a result the $199 price tag is subsidized and requires consumers sign a two-year service contract with the carriers. By contrast, Nokia's N97 is not subsidized and is sold at full retail price without a service contract.

So how does T-Mobile expect the myTouch to stand out among all these other cool new phones? The key, Sherrard said, is personalization. While the basic hardware design of the myTouch is the same as the HTC Magic, T-Mobile has made enhancements to the device both in terms of hardware and software.

"No two myTouch devices will be alike," Sherrard said. "They will be as unique as the users that own them."

From a software perspective, consumers will have the opportunity to completely customize their myTouch device with various Android applications. In retail stores, T-Mobile sales representatives will help customers set up their own personalized device before they leave the store.

One example of an application that will make the phone more unique to a particular individual is called Sherpa, created by Geodelic. This application is a location-based service that uses GPS to help users find restaurants, movie theaters, and other businesses or points of interest that are nearby.

What differentiates this service from other location based services is that Sherpa learns where users have been and what they have searched for in the past, and the application is able to make recommendations. It might show some local businesses that it thinks a user might be interested in, such as the nearest dry cleaner.

Or the application might highlight special events going on in that area. It also will tell users how far they are from whichever location they are trying to find.

The application, which is one of 5,000 applications available on the Android Marketplace, will be exclusive to T-Mobile, Sherrard said. The myTouch will also have special Google features baked in, such as easy picture uploading to Picasa and easy video loading to YouTube, both Web properties owned by Google.

Some other ways users will be able to customize their phones includes the ability to add widgets, music, a personal calendar, photos, and Web link shortcuts that can all be accessed with a single click.

"What we have found is that once consumers know how to customize a device and they add everything they want on it, they respond very well to having a phone that is specially designed for them," Sherrard said.

Still, the battle for the smartphone customer could get bloody. Even though Apple's iPhone 3G S offered only a modest hardware upgrade, it still flew off the shelves the first weekend it was on the market.

Analysts said earlier they had expected Apple to sell 500,000 iPhone 3G S devices during the weekend, and it's likely that the company easily exceeded these expectations.

The Palm Pre also got off to a good start with devices selling out the first weekend it was on sale. And Research In Motion, one of the biggest smartphone makers on the market, expects to introduce the BlackBerry Tour and the next generation of its touch-screen BlackBerry phone, the Storm, later this year.

In the end, Sherrard believes consumers will seethe myTouch as more than just a phone.

"This is more than a product launch for us," Sherrard said. "We want consumers to view this as an experience that we are creating for them."

How to change windows boot screen

2009-05-03T13:18:00.002+01:00

In this tutorial, I’ll teach you how to change windows boot screen.

First, inorder to change the bootscreen you should have installed TuneUp utilities. You can download it from here

After you’ve installed tuneup utilities open tuneup styler which you can open through start/allprograms/tuneuputilities/utilities/tuneup styler or you can even open through tuneup utilities customize windows button and then click tuneup styler.

Then Tuneup styler will appear like this

In that click “Bootscreen” under the interface bar. then a window will appear like this

Now click make new screen , a window will appear like this. In that you could show your creative styles by adding any wallpaper or photos etc.

How to change the icons of individual drive

2009-05-03T13:18:00.001+01:00

In this post let me show you how to change the icons of individual drives.

First you have to download a software called icon packager. you can download it from here.

Then you have to open that. It will look like this

Then click on “Icons and cursors”. A window will appear like this.

In that, click drives.

In that click the button “Individual drive mode”. This will show you the individual drive icons.

Finally select the dirve icon which you want to change and clickthe change button.

On clicking a browser will appear. In that you have to browse and select the icon which you want to put it as your drive icon.

REMEMBER: You can put only .ico files as your icons. But, you can convert .png files into .ico files using this software. Click here to download it

Sony Ericsson C905

2009-04-03T07:33:00.000+01:00

The Sony Ericsson C905 has an stunning design specification which makes it a high end mobile camera phone. The C905 slider phone is the successor to the popular 5-megapixel K800i but takes photo imagery to a different level.

It has a TFT display of 256k colours and is 240 x 320 pixels. Internal memory is clocked at 160MB with an additional M2 memory stick supporting up to 8GB. Battery life allows for stand-by up to 380h without re-charging and talk-time up to 9h. The phone is available in night black, copper gold, ice silver and tender rose colours.

The following are the key technical features of the C905:

* 8.1 MP autofocus camera with Xenon flash and active lens cover. Xenon flash – uses white LED for snapping high quality night time photos. Shoot well lit photos indoors or in dark environments.

* BestPic – press camera key fully down for 7 shots at once that range from before to after the key was pressed. Useful for shooting moving objects and helps make you look skilful with a lens.

* Dedicated camera mode switch, two camera/gaming keys over the display
* Face and Smile detection, smart contrast, image stabilizer, red-eye reduction
* Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and HSDPA (3.6 Mb) / tri-band HSDPA for US version
* Auto focus – provides sharper pictures by homing in on the subject. The phone features 16x digital zoom.
* Face detection – makes facial features the focus of your shot and includes red-eye reduction.
* Image stabiliser – reduces the chance of blurred images caused by hand movements during picture taking.
* Geo-tagging – applies a label to show where you took your photos.
* HSDPA – delivers broadband like speed of 3.5G for super fast downloads and streaming.
* Wi-Fi enabled – support for fast wireless Internet connectivity in hotspots. Wi-Fi b/g with DLNA and SIP VoIP support, Bluetooth (with A2DP), USB v2.0
* GPS with A-GPS function– built in satellite navigation with trial version of Wayfinder Navigator pre-installed.
* Scratch resistant mineral glass 2.4″ TFT 256K-color display
* Enhanced user interface with basic multi-tasking
* Media Center, Smart search, Manage Messages, extended TrackID
* FM radio with RDS and TrackID
* 160 MB built-in memory, M2 card support, 2GB included

Main disadvantages:

* Display is relatively small for a high-end device
* Video recording limited to QVGA resolution at 30fps
* No front facing video call camera
* No office document viewer
* Sliding lens cover of questionable durability
* Exposed connectivity port
* Fiddly battery cover

Full Specification

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 2100
		HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 - C905a
	Announced	2008, June
	Status	Available. Released 2008, October

Size	Dimensions	104 x 49 x 18-19.5 mm
Size	Weight	136 g

Display	Type	TFT, 256K colors
	Size	240 x 320 pixels, 2.4 inches
		- Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate

Sound	Alert types	Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, MP3 ringtones
Sound	Speakerphone	Yes

Memory	Phonebook	1000 x 20 fields, Photo call
	Call records	30 received, dialed and missed calls
	Internal	160 MB
	Card slot	Memory Stick Micro (M2), up to 8GB, 2GB card included

Data	GPRS	Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
	HSCSD	No
	EDGE	Class 10, 236.8 kbps
	3G	HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, DLNA
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
	Infrared port	No
	USB	Yes, v2.0

Camera	Primary	8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, xenon flash
	Features	Geo-tagging, face detection, smart contrast, image stabilization, smile detection (with update)
	Video	Yes, QVGA@30fps
	Secondary	Yes

Features	Messaging	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
	Browser	WAP 2.0/HTML (NetFront), RSS reader
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS
	Games	Yes + downloadable
	Colors	Night Black, Ice Silver, Copper Gold, Tender Rose
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support; Wayfinder Navigator 7
	Java	Yes, MIDP 2.0
		- MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player - TrackID music recognition - Picture editor/blogging - TV-out - Organizer - Voice memo/dial - T9

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Po 930 mAh (BST-38)
	Stand-by	Up to 380 h (2G) / Up to 360 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 9 h (2G) / Up to 4 h (3G)

Sims 3 - At a glance

2009-03-27T06:58:00.007Z

Catch a gradual snap of what's fresh in this extremely awaited game, and look at a glance at the Modern life-goals system also.
The Sims 3 is at last coming this year, and with it, the renewed trusts and dreams of everybody who's ever so desired to build little computer mass have little computer on night-stands, or make them expire awfully in kitchen fires. The 3rd episode of this will bring with it new features and improvements to the older stuff--such as better graphics, with increased lighting and shading, and dozens of expressive newfangled animations.

Let's begin with the game's customization and editing tools, which are being added to greatly for The Sims 3.In The Sims 3, facial features will pretty much all have diverse sliders that will volunteer much more deep tweaking choices.
The Sims 3 will also have sliders that will allow you pick out custom-made gradients for complexion (to best represent diverse ethnicities, too as blue-skinned aliens, green-skinned witches, or what have you); gradients for primary and secondary hair color ; a slider for body character that will permit you decide how slim, strong, or obese your characters are; and the new "create a style" swatch tool, which will let you edit and save assorted color patterns, and then use them to anything in the world that has a pattern.

You'll find new-and-improved customization and building options in The Sims 3. Plus, you can be a gold miner.
The greater part of the tale of the Buy and Build modes will be the use of create-a-style to paint all of your piece of furniture, besides your house, with whichever patterns you want as freeform wallpaper and carpeting--such as with, let's say for the sake of example, leopard print. Switching in custom-made items created by the fanatically patriotic Sims community will also be made easier in The Sims 3 with an inbuilt application that runs out of the game's launcher . Besides uploading and downloading furniture, customized sims characters, and housing to and from the community site, The Sims 3 will feature an in-game movie-making tool that will allow you upload and download videos to and from the Exchange.

Moreover, exterior lots have been altered so that there will now be only one and only vast, uninterrupted locality , within which time is perpetually escaping. Likewise, your neighbors' lives are constantly varying at the same time. The neighborhood view in The Sims 3 has been changed to be a real real-time 3D space that indicates context-sensitive icons that assure you precisely where you need to go if you plan to go out to a gymnasium, restaurant, shop, recreational area, or where else. The difference is that in The Sims 3, the neighborhood view is real 3-D space and so you will be able to seamlessly move from your house to a lot, or from one lot to another, without having to hit a loading screen. As a matter of fact, if your have a bicycle or automobile, your sims can directly hop on and take a ride; if not, sims will be fitted with a cellphone that they can use to automatically call a taxi to whisk them away to where they're going in real time.

And here's a entire list of the game's 32 lifetime wishes: professional writer, world-renowned surgeon, become a superstar athlete, CEO of a megacorporation, hit film composer, heartbreaker, rock star, the tinkerer, become a master thief, forensic specialist: dynamic DNA profiler, become an spaceman, master of the fine art, perfect mind/perfect body, gold miner, star news anchor, living in the lap of luxury, jack of all trades, surrounded by family, renaissance sim, chess legend, the culinary librarian, golden tongue/golden fingers, international super spy, super popular, presenting the perfect private aquarium, celebrated five-star chef, illustrious author, swimming in cash, the perfect garden, leader of the free world, the emperor, and become a creature-robot cross-breeder.

Japan warns of iPod nano fire risk

2008-08-20T02:28:00.000+01:00

Japan on Tuesday warned users of Apple iPod nanos of a potential fire risk, after two new instances in which the popular portable music players overheated.

The economy, trade and industry ministry has received two new reports of minor fires in August in Tokyo caused by overheating iPod nanos, said ministry official Hiroyuki Yoshitsune. There were no injuries and the cause is still unclear, he said.

Japan had already launched an investigation in March after another Apple iPod nano sent out sparks. According to the ministry, Apple Computer has been notified of a total of 14 similar cases in Japan. Out of those, two users suffered minor burning.

The ministry said the incidents were caused by four models - MA004J/A, MA005J/A, MA099J/A and MA107J/A - of which 1.81 million units were sold between September 2005 and September 2006 in Japan.

"Users need to be careful about overheating of the machines," the ministry said in a statement, warning that particular care is needed when recharging the iPods.

"Our ministry told Apple to improve its technological development and probe the cause of the incidents so that similar incidents do not happen again," the official said.

There was no immediate comment from Apple. Public broadcaster NHK said the company has no plan to recall any iPods but is ready to exchange defective parts.

The US computer giant has already warned that iPod, iPod nano or iPod shuffle may generate excess heat while being charged in certain carry cases.

Lithium ion batteries, which Apple uses for iPods, are common in consumer electronics, such as mobile telephones and personal computers.

However, major battery makers, including electronics giant Sony Corp., have occasionally been forced to recall their lithium ion battery packs after reports of overheating and fire.

Lost world 'found' in Antarctica

2008-08-05T11:57:00.001+01:00

Scientists have discovered a lost world in Antarctica, which they claim is preserved exactly the same way when it was frozen some 14 million years ago.

An international team has found fossils of plants and animals in the mountains on the interior of Antarctica, which it believes became extinct due to an abrupt climate cooling of 8 degree Celsius in 200,000 years.

In their study, the scientists have combined evidence from glaciers from the preserved ecology, volcanic ashes and modeling to reveal the full extent of the big freeze in part of the southernmost continent called the Dry Valleys.

According to them, the lost world is an extremely rare find in the continent, one that also provides an insight into what could be there in a century or two as the planet warms, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Lead researcher Professor Adam Lewis of North Dakota State University said, "The discovery of lake deposits with perfectly preserved fossils of mosses, diatoms and minute crustacea called ostracods is particularly exciting. They are the first to be found even though scientific expeditions have been visiting the Dry Valleys since they were discovered during the first Scott expedition in 1902-1903."

"The fossil finds allow us to examine Antarctica as it existed just prior to climate cooling at 13.9 million years ago. It is a unique window into the past. To study deposits is akin to strolling across the Dry Valleys 14.1 million years ago," said co-researcher David Marchant of Boston University.

However, what caused the big freeze is yet unknown though theories abound and include phenomena as different as the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and tectonic shifts that affected ocean circulation.

"If we can understand how we got into this relatively cold climate phase, then that can help predict how global warming might push us back out of this phase.

"For the vast majority of Earth history there was no permanent ice like is common today at poles and even the tropics at high elevation," Prof Lewis was quoted by the British newspaper as saying.

The findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

India developing $100 laptop

2008-07-30T16:54:00.000+01:00

Students across the country will be able to buy specially designed laptops at affordable prices with the Government planning to provide them the gadget at around Rs 4,000.

Research in this direction is being already carried out at the Indian Institute of Sciences in Bangalore and IIT-Madras to develop a special laptop at a cost of $100 for students to help them excel in studies.

"The government aims to provide 100-dollar laptops to students and research in this direction is on," said D Purandeshwari, Minister of State for Human Resources Development.

The initiative has been taken by government to enable students to make the most out of Information Technology, which is emerging as a catalyst for the country's socio-economic development, she said.

Her announcement came at the inaugural session of 'e-India 2008,' an international conference of IT solution providers and government agencies to facilitate practices of e-governance and digital learning in the country.

Holding that the Information and Communication Technology will play a key role in the country's education system, the minister said: "in the coming years, thrust will be on using ICT to strengthen various mode of learning both in school and at higher education levels.

"To deliver the benefits of ICT in the learning process, a new scheme namely 'National Mission in Education through ICT' will be launched, with the objective of providing connectivity to the learners to the 'Knowledge World' in cyberspace," she said.

The Chinese will be hard to beat

2008-07-27T13:59:00.001+01:00

Worthy successors to legends ready to provide the thrills

China owns seven of the last eight men’s World team titles
In the women’s section, the U.S. looks set to emerge team champion

Always one of the most popular disciplines in the Olympic roster, gymnastics, which has seen some colourful personalities, has provided memorable moments ever since the sport was included into the Games at St. Louis in 1904.

Even as one looks forward to the August 9-19 competitions at the Beijing National indoor stadium, it is hard to resist the temptation to look backwards because the inspiring images of the likes of Larisa Latynina, Olga Korbut, Nadia Comaneci, Viktor Chukarin, Boris Shaklin, Sawao Kato, Nikolai Andrianov and Vitaly Scherbo simply fail to fade away.

All legendary figures provided gymnastics and the Olympic Games with glitz and glamour during their time; creating new benchmarks with difficult and gutsy routines in this sport of tumbles, vaults and falls.

Worthy successors

Fortunately enough, we do have worthy successors to these ever-green superstars, even as the fall in the standards of such powerhouses like Russia and Romania is quite hard to digest. In Beijing, it would be the Chinese, particularly their men gymnasts, who would be hard to beat, given the vast advantage they hold while competing at their own backyard.

Led by the three-time World all-around champion, Yang Wei, the Chinese are the firm favourites for the team gold, having shown their capability at last year’s World championships in Stuttgart winning the title by an astonishing five points.

A huge margin by any account considering the fact that the total team score was made up of only 18 routines.

The fact that China now owns seven of the last eight men’s World team titles indicates the depth of the Chinese squad, which besides Wei comprises Xiao Qin, Zou Kai, Huang Xi, Liang Fuliang and Chen Yibing.

True, the Chinese have a tendency to falter under Olympic pressure, but it is hard to visualise such a surprise in Beijing as they battle it out with Japan, Germany, the United States and South Korea for the top honours.

In the all-around competition, though the defending champion, Paul Hamm (United States) is back after an injury, it could be Wei all the way should he repeat the same form that he displayed in Germany last year.

The Chinese are also likely to pick a lot of medals in the finals of the various apparatuses, though they could face stiff challenge from the likes of Brazil’s Diego Hypolito (floor), Hungary’s Krisztian (pommel horse), Holland’s Yuri van Gelder (rings), Poland’s Leszek Blanik (vault), Slovakia’s Mitja Petkovsek (parallel bars) and Germany’s Fabian Hambuechen (horizontal bars) besides their arch rivals from Japan and the United States and veterans like Jordan Jovtchev.

U.S. women formidable

In the women’s section, it is the United States which looks set to emerge as the team champion though the Chinese have in them the capability to turn things around.

The Americans, having won the title in Stuttgart, would be looking forward to their first Olympic triumph on foreign soil in Beijing. In Shawn Johnson, the U.S., has a popular all-around World champion.

The 16-year-old, having added quite a few nuances to her regular routine, could be a runaway winner of her section against her own teammate Anastasia Liukin, Romania’s Stevlana Nistor, Brazil’s Jade Barbosa and the Chinese duo of Yang Yilin and Xiao Sha.

Though the Americans are capable of winning a medal in each of the apparatuses finals it could well be a touch-and-go affair considering the fact that the Chinese represented by Cheng Fi, He Ning, Jiang Yuyan and Li Shanshan can prove to be quite a handful before an adoring home audience.

With the scoring system having been changed in 2005, Beijing is also set to see the new accumulative points scoring system, which lays emphasis on content and execution rather than daring, in operation.

In essence, you could hardly witness the perfect 10.00 being awarded in Beijing, but the third Olympics in Asia could still have its thrills and frills if the gymnasts get going.

Digital camera resolution reaches a new high

2008-07-18T02:37:00.002+01:00

The Swedish company Hasselblad's announcement of the launch of Hasselblad H3DII-50, featuring a new Kodak 50-megapixel sensor, has pushed the available resolution in digital cameras to a new high.

Such high resolution goes beyond the needs of most consumers but professional photographers would appreciate the unprecedented level of detail provided by it.

"The H3DII-50 has been designed to meet the challenging demands of high-end photographers who require the best in image quality, performance and creative freedom," said Hasselblad CEO Christian Poulsen in a press release.

The camera, which would be available from October 2008, would also prove useful for applications such as aerial photography as the availability of higher resolution allows the plane to fly higher and the number of pictures necessary for covering a given area is also reduced.

The new Kodak image sensor, which produces an array of 8,176-by-6,132 pixels, would be implemented in the same size housing as Hasselblad's existing 39-megapixel H3DII-39 camera.

Kodak has also added a set of new features on the sensor, such as new dyes, that would result in richer colours. It also includes quick flush technology that enables faster image capture and lower power consumption, resulting in longer battery life.

Watch out for brightest Jupiter on July 9

2008-07-08T16:57:00.001+01:00

Keep your telescopes handy for a wonderful celestial activity - Jupiter will shine at its brightest when it aligns directly with the Sun and Earth on Wednesday.

“It is an interesting phenomenon as Jupiter and Earth would be in a straight line. Both the planets come closest at this time of the year and Jupiter, in turn, shines at its brightest,” said Nehru Planetarium director N. Ratnashree.

Ratnashree said if we could see Earth from Jupiter then it would be passing in front of the Sun.

The planetarium will put out a telescope for people interested in watching the planets from the Nehru Memorial.

“We want people to come and watch the event. If the weather is clear, we could have the clearest view of Jupiter and its moons from Earth,” Rathnashree said.

This celestial event will be followed by a solar eclipse on Aug 1.

“The solar eclipse will be seen partially in India, but there is likely to be considerable excitement arising from the fact that a large fraction of the eclipse would be seen from the northern parts of the country,” Ratnashree said.

New navigation system to help motorists avoid jams

2008-07-07T17:18:00.001+01:00

A new car navigation system is being developed to help motorists negotiate rush hour jams by advising them about the best possible routes.

The 'Congestion Avoidance Dynamic Routing Engine' (CADRE) uses “artificial intelligence”, or AI, to interpret live traffic information shared among vehicles fitted with a special GPS, or Global Positioning System.

CADRE can sense traffic slowing down and building up into jams and works by “monitoring” other vehicles, informing motorists eight to 16 kilometres ahead of a situation as it is happening and recommends steps to avoid it while they can.

The software is built around “fuzzy logic” that mimics human reasoning.

The capability comes from the University of Portsmouth's Institute of Industrial Research (IIR) that specialises in using AI techniques for industrial applications.

David Brown, who heads IIR, said: “The system interprets live data from current traffic conditions so the motorist receives up-to-the-minute advice and can make an informed choice.”

The system takes into account of how traffic speeds vary by day of the week and time of day and even on individual roads.

It means that journey times are predicted more accurately and better routes are calculated that take into account typical traffic conditions for the time of travel.

“At present, routing can be carried out for minimum time or distance, but this can easily be extended to other criteria such as minimum cost or minimum carbon dioxide emissions,” said Brown.

Future plans for the system would extend it to ferries, trains and even planes allowing travellers to examine different departure times to estimate the best time and route to travel. CADRE could be in the shops in as little as 18 months.

Greater emission cuts needed to prevent irreversible damage

2008-07-04T12:52:00.001+01:00

Much greater cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases are required to prevent the global average surface temperature from increasing by more than two to three degrees above pre-industrial levels, a scientist has warned.

Failure to incorporate this information into policy processes now could close off options to avoid dangerous climate change in the future.

Policy makers have been urged to incorporate critical climate-carbon cycle feedback information into the decision making process to prevent irreversible climate changes.

Climate-carbon cycle feedback reflect the interaction between temperature change, atmospheric carbon dioxide and the carbon cycle - the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged between land, ocean and atmosphere.

Global warming could significantly reduce the uptake and storage of carbon by land and ocean sinks.

This risk has profound implications for climate policy. If the uptake and storage of carbon by natural sinks declines, a greater proportion of carbon emissions will remain in the atmosphere.

As a result, meeting climate targets based on atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide will be more difficult, requiring a greater reduction in emissions than would otherwise be necessary.

ONGC discovers new oil field in Iran

2008-06-29T16:20:00.000+01:00

DUBAI: India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has discovered a new oil field in Iran, the website of Iran State television said.

“India’s ONGC has discovered a new oil field in the Farsi oil block of the Persian Gulf,” Mahmoud Zirakchianzadeh, the managing director of Iran’s State offshore oil company was quoted as saying.

“The Indian company will undertake the development of the newly discovered field upon determining that its development is economically feasible,” he observed. Based on the ONGC’s technical studies, the capacity of the new oil field would also be announced, the official said.

Mr. Zirakchianzadeh pointed out that the new field could be developed concurrently with the Farzad B gas field, which is also located in the Farsi block. This gas field has estimated reserves of 12 trillion cubic feet.

The ONGC and the Indian Oil Corporation each have a 40 per cent participating interest in the Farsi block, while the Oil India Ltd. has a 20 per cent stake. The ONGC’s overseas arm, the ONGC-Videsh Ltd. (OVL) is involved in executing projects abroad. The ONGC had earlier announced plans to invest $3 billion with its partners to develop gas fields in the Farsi block. The consortium has reportedly already invested $ 90 million in the block.

Midas touch: Scientists discover gold nanoparticles

2008-06-24T16:47:00.001+01:00

Scientists have for the first time discovered gold nanoparticles, setting to rest speculation about whether they existed at all.

Scientists of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said that they discovered these particles in western Australia.

“In the southern areas of the state, groundwater is very salty and acidic. This water dissolves primary gold and re-deposits it as pure gold crystals on fracture surfaces and in open pore spaces,” said Rob Hough, who led the search for the nanoparticles.

“On investigation of these crystals, there appeared to be a dark band across them. However, high magnification imaging showed the band was in fact, a mass of gold nanoparticles and nanoplates," he added.

These gold nanoparticles are in fact identical to those being manufactured in laboratories around the world for their unique properties.

The research team concluded that gold nanoparticles imaged represented the 'invisible' gold in the clay, and that this nanosized gold was common in similar environments.

“The gold nanoparticles have not been identified earlier because they are transparent to electron beams and effectively invisible,” Hough said.

“However, they are probably a common form of gold in this type of natural environment worldwide, where saline water interacts with gold deposits. They also provide the first direct observation of the nanoscale mobility of gold during weathering," said the researcher.

With gold fetching around Australian $950 an ounce and expected to rise, this study is good news for Australia's gold explorers.

The findings of the study have been presented in a paper published in the latest issue of the journal Geology.

New internet domain names in 2009: ICANN

2008-06-24T16:41:00.001+01:00

Internet users should soon be able to use new domain names such as .love, .paris or .bank if one of the world wide web's biggest shakeups is approved this week as expected by the web regulator ICANN.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which opened its annual general meeting Monday in Paris, was due to vote on the new names this week.
"Apart from the .com, .net or .org, the 1.3 billion web users will be able from early 2009 to acquire generic addresses by lodging common words such as .love, .hate or .city or proper names," ICANN president Paul Twomey told French newspaper Les Echos.
The meeting has gathered more than 1,300 delegates from 130 countries.
ICANN, a non-profit organization based in southern California, oversees the assignment of domain names and internet protocol addresses that help computers communicate.

The Brightest X-Ray source

2008-06-21T16:30:00.001+01:00

The x-ray has just got 100 million times brighter, thanks to next-generation light sources like free electron laser oscillator - or the X-FELO.

X-FELO will open up breakthrough scientific opportunities in various research fields. Its characteristics are ideally suited for bulk-sensitive, hard x-ray photo-emission spectroscopy.

Existing technology uses undulators to create bright x-ray beams of spontaneous emission at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne.

Much of the research for x-ray free electron lasers has been concentrated on self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE), which would amplify them by a factor of a million or more in a single pass.

A user of SASE will see x-ray brightness that is about 10,000 times brighter than what the APS is delivering, Argonne's Kwang-Je Kim said.

X-FELO, devised by US Department of Energy scientists, the electron pulse enters an undulator and generates an x-ray that is reflected back into the undulator entrance by crystals and connects with the next electron bunch and again travels back along the undulator. This pattern is repeated indefinitely with the x-ray intensity growing each time until equilibrium is reached.

An X-FELO will enhance the flux by six to eight orders of magnitude, shortening the data collection times by the same factor.

The intensity of individual x-ray pulse from an X-FELO is lower by about three orders of magnitude. However the X-FELO pulse has extremely narrow bandwidth, three to four orders of magnitude narrower than the SASE.

Accordingly an X-FELO user will see a brightness which is about six to eight orders of magnitude brighter than any previously created and three to four orders of magnitude brighter than proposed SASE technology.

The Double heads

2008-06-18T16:38:00.001+01:00

A telescope that spans over four continents

2008-06-18T13:38:00.001+01:00

Astronomers have set up a radio telescope which spans over four continents, a feat they claim is the first in the world.

Scientists have long combined observations from individual telescopes through interferometry, a process that produces the same resolution as a single dish as wide as the distance between the antennas.

Now, an international team, led by Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, has developed the integrated telescope.

Its size gives it ten times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope, allowing the array to image objects, like the bright 'afterglow' formed when a high-speed jet of matter from a gamma-ray burst slams into its surroundings, that just look like points to individual radio telescopes

In an observational run, it was found that antennas in North America, South America, Europe and Africa all pointed in the same direction. Signals were fed by fibre optics in a bid to create real-time images at a hub in the Netherlands.

Previously, data from each telescope was recorded on discs and mailed to a central location. Now, data is sent via fibre optic cables to produce real-time images of celestial objects

For the astronomers, the telescope will allow them to plan follow-up observations for rapidly changing phenomena, such as supernovae.

Such observing plans, which can change quickly depending on what the target does, were hard to justify when the data was still in the mail. These are very expensive telescopes. They don't just give away time on the off-chance that something will happen

Inflammation of arteries causes blindness, says study

2008-06-18T13:36:00.002+01:00

Inflammation of arteries in the brain is likely to cause blindness, according to a new study.

Researchers at the Geisinger Health System came to this conclusion after examining a disorder known as temporal arthritis -- a condition where arteries swell and restrict blood flow to the brain.

Temporal arthritis can cause headaches, jaw soreness and flu-like symptoms. Untreated, the disease can lead to blindness or stroke. The average age for disease onset is 70.

A giant version of white blood cells that destroy bacteria are often found in patients with the disease, and these make them far more vulnerable to blindness, as compared to healthy patients.

Besides, patients with these giant cells are three times more likely to experience Polymyalgia rheumatica, an inflammatory disorder that causes muscle aches and stiffness primarily in the arms, thighs and neck.

US military makes world's fastest supercomputer

2008-06-10T17:17:00.002+01:00

A US military supercomputer, assembled from components originally designed for video game machines, has reached a long-sought-after computing milestone by processing more than 1.026 quadrillion calculations per second.

It has out beaten the IBM BlueGene/L, which is based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California

Thomas P D'Agostino, the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said that if all six billion people on earth used hand calculators and performed calculations 24 hours a day and seven days a week, it would take them 46 years to do what the Roadrunner can in one day.

The $133 million supercomputer, called Roadrunner in a reference to the state bird of New Mexico, was devised and built by engineers and scientists at IBM and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

It will be used principally to solve classified military problems to ensure that the nation's stockpile of nuclear weapons will continue to work correctly as they age.

Before it is placed in a classified environment, it will also be used to explore scientific problems like climate change. The greater speed of the Roadrunner will make it possible for scientists to test global climate models with higher accuracy.

The high-performance computing goal, known as a petaflop - one thousand trillion calculations per second - has long been viewed as a crucial milestone by military, technical and scientific organisations in the US, as well as a growing group including Japan, China and the EU.

The Roadrunner

The Roadrunner is based on a radical design that includes 12,960 chips that are an improved version of an IBM Cell microprocessor, a parallel processing chip originally created for Sony's PlayStation 3 video-game machine.

"Roadrunner tells us about what will happen in the next decade," said Horst Simon, associate laboratory director for computer science at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "Technology is coming from the consumer electronics market and the innovation is happening first in terms of cellphones and embedded electronics."

Roadrunner, which consumes roughly three megawatts of power, or about the power required by a large suburban shopping center, requires three separate programming tools because it has three types of processors. Programmers have to figure out how to keep all of the 116,640 processor cores in the machine occupied simultaneously in order for it to run effectively.

Many executives and scientists see Roadrunner as an example of the resurgence of the US in supercomputing.

Scientists develop wonder glass that regenerates bones

2008-06-07T05:06:00.003+01:00

A new kind of glass will enable patients to re-grow bones by dissolving and releasing calcium into the body, possibly making bone transplants redundant.

The porous glass, developed by scientists at Imperial College here, dissolves in the body and stimulates bone growth, without leaving any toxic residue.

Specific concentrations of soluble silica and calcium ions in the glass activate genes that encode proteins controlling the bone cell cycle and differentiation of the cell to form bone matrix and rapid mineralization of bone nodules.

The gene is activated only when the timing sequence of a cell cycle is matched by that of the glass surface reactions and controlled release of ions.

“To allow people to remain active, and to contribute to society for longer, the need for new materials to replace and repair worn out and damaged tissues becomes ever more important,” the researchers said.

Canada first in the world to pass climate act

2008-06-05T17:09:00.003+01:00

The Canadian House of Commons has become the first parliament in the world to pass a climate act, which commits the country to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050.

The House passed the Climate Change Accountability Bill Wednesday(June 4 2008). It was moved by the leader of the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) Jack Layton.

The two other opposition parties - the Liberal party and the Bloc Quebecois - supported the bill.

"This is a world first," Layton said in a statement later.

"Our legislation sets tough but achievable targets that will ensure Canada does its share to avoid the dangerous two-degree increase in average global temperature that scientists warn us about," he said.

To ensure that Canada meets long-term pollution reduction targets, short and medium-term targets are also enshrined in the law, the opposition leader said.

The bill sets an interim target of 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020 and requires progress reports from the government every five years.

However, the minority Conservative party government is adamant on its own environment plan, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent, below 2006 levels, by 2020.

But Layton said his bill enshrines "targets endorsed by world leaders".

"Instead of looking back and dwelling on past targets, missed because of the inaction of previous governments," he said his party was looking forward to a sustainable future for Canada's economy.

What's new in Internet Explorer 8

2008-06-03T08:06:00.003+01:00

Microsoft has kept development of Internet Explorer 8 pretty quiet, but already the next major version of the most widely-used browser is available for downloading in a beta version.

While the focus of IE 7 was on security and the incorporation of a tabbed interface, version 8's main features centre on stability and usability.

In terms of stability, IE 8's new automatic crash recovery feature is designed to solve one major problem that most IE users know all too well. Today, when an IE window or tab freezes or crashes, other browsers instances or tabs will likely become inoperable as well.

Automatic crash recovery does a better job of isolating instances of the IE browser - or separate tabs within the same browser - so that one stalled browser or tab can be terminated without affecting any other.

If a crash does bring down the entire browser, automatic crash recovery will attempt to restore the browser to its previous state - including all open tabs - the next time you open it.

Greater stability is fine - but ultimately boring. Luckily, that's not all IE 8 has going for it. The new browser's usability features will generate the most buzz - and are likely to tempt lots of folks to give IE 8 a try.

The new Activities feature, for instance, attempts to save you a lot of time by cutting down on the number of separate sites that you have to visit to accomplish a task. In essence, the Activities feature allows you to invoke the essential services offered on separate sites without ever leaving the page you're currently on.

Let's say, for example, that you're reading a web page and you see an address for a restaurant you'd like to visit.

Activities feature

Today, in order to get directions to that address, you would probably go to a mapping site and type or paste the address in and then wait for the service to provide you with a map from, say, your apartment to the restaurant.

The process is time-consuming and involves at least two browser windows and tabs, plus a bit of copying a pasting.

With IE 8's Activities feature, when you select the address, a small Activities button appears next to your mouse cursor. Clicking that Activities button brings up a context-sensitive menu of possible activities, with one of the options being the ability to map the tool using your favourite mapping site.

Selecting that mapping option actually invokes the mapping site in a smaller preview window inside the current browser tab.

Another Activity might pull from a review site of restaurants, allowing you to see what others have said about the restaurant without your having to visit another site.

The Activities feature was also created with a nod toward the growing popularity of social networking sites. Just as you can pull services from other sites, the Activities feature also allows you to push information to popular networking sites such as Facebook and Digg.

If you want to refer a friend to the page from which you got the address for the restaurant, for instance, you can select the Send to Facebook option on the Activities menu, and IE 8 will log you into Facebook, send the URL to Facebook, and present you with the Facebook page that allows you to add an entry.

A set of default Activities comes with the IE 8 browser, but you easily customise the service providers that appear on your Activities list.

Web Slices

Another time-saving feature of IE 8 is called Web Slices, which are designed to allow you to subscribe to frequently-updated portions, or "slices," of certain websites.

Instead of spending your time visiting three or four websites to get updated information from a portion of each of those sites, you would simply use Web Slices to pull that information into a single location in IE 8.

A site such as eBay, for instance, lends itself to the Web Slices feature.

Say, for instance, that you are running or watching several auctions on eBay. Typically, you would visit eBay multiple times per day to check the status of those auctions.

With Web Slices, you can instead simply subscribe to a section of the auction page by clicking a Web Slice icon that appears when you allow your mouse cursor to hover over a portion of a site that is frequently updated.

Clicking the Web Slice icon adds a new button to a Favorites bar that appears above your browser tabs. Clicking the newly-created Web Slice button on the IE 8 Favourites bar will pull the latest data from your subscribed page and show it to you in a preview window.

You can visit the page itself merely by clicking a link within the preview window.

As with Activities, Web Slice-enabled sections of sites must be made available by web site owners themselves. The code for doing so is fairly simple and non-proprietary, however, so it will likely simply be a matter of time before many sites become "IE 8 aware" and users start seeing the Activities and Web Slices icons as they surf their favorite sites.

Click here to download IE 8 Beta

World's highest radio station enhances reach

2008-05-31T02:50:00.001+01:00

The reach of the world's highest radio station was further enhanced when Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad inaugurated an FM station and satellite uplink facility in the cold desert region of Ladakh.

The world's highest radio station located at 11,800 ft above the sea level in Leh district of Ladakh region in India was linked to low-power transmitters at Nyoma, Khaltsi and Diskit.

Addressing a function in the premises of the All India Radio at Leh, the chief minister welcomed the introduction of the FM transmitter and satellite uplink station and called for further improvement to cover the shadow areas in the region where television and radio signals were not received due to geographical constraints.

"The inauguration of the FM station here is a boon for the young generation as it was a craze with the youth all over the country. The popularity of FM transmission had transcended boundaries and youth were feeling a special connect with these transmissions," Azad said.

Television or Computer, GOOD or BAD ?

2008-05-29T09:01:00.015+01:00

Television, a rectangular piece of glass with some electrical components inside which made us sit in front of it and doesn't make us avoid it, but surely lands us to trouble by making us forget our work and people.
Surely making us gain weight and make us more lazy with just making us to press some button according to what we like.
So, what does it do for us ?....... Enrich us of the world, make us enjoy the famous football and baseball match, entertain us with movies and much more. Though gives us a lot of entertainment, also gives us a lot of health problems.
So what to say whether to say its good or its bad?

Computer , the world famous invention without which I wont be writing this brought the world in our hands but whats the use we cant hold the world with out small hands.
It opened the portals of unlimited knowledge and made us pass time with loads of games, continuous music with lots of entertainment and also with trouble like neck pain, back pain and also making us wear those lenses as vision aid.
So what can I say? Neither I can say the computer is good nor bad, hence you decide!!

Xenitis to make lowest-price mobile phone handsets

2008-05-28T12:22:00.004+01:00

Xenitis Telecommunication, a newly floated venture of West Bengal-based conglomerate Xenitis Group, plans to invest Rs 2.5 billion for setting up a mobile handset manufacturing facility in West Bengal, India.

They will set up a mobile handset manufacturing unit with an investment of Rs 2.5 billion in West Bengal. and have already bought 10 acres of land, adjacent to their existing unit in Hooghly district, for the project. They will be producing the lowest-priced mobile handsets at Rs 499 which comes to less than $12.

The mobile handsets, priced between Rs 499-Rs 2,000, are targeted to penetrate the rural areas of West Bengal. These affordable handsets would be available in the market from August this year. It would be the first mobile handsets manufacturing unit in eastern India.

This year the Xenitis Group posted a turnover of Rs 10 billion and Xenitis Infotech, the flagship company of the group, contributed Rs 8.6 billion and Global Automobiles, the two-wheeler manufacturing wing, registered a turnover of about Rs 1.5 billion.

They've have already booked an order for manufacturing 160,000 mobile handsets per month, of which about 50,000 would be exported to Dubai and the Middle East.

They would invest Rs 2.2 billion in Xenitis Infotech for its capacity expansion and Rs 1.1 billion in company's automobile manufacturing business in the current financial year,

A 20-member team from West Bengal state assembly's standing committee on commerce and industries Tuesday visited the factory site of Xenitis Group in Hooghly district to monitor the progress of its ventures.

As gas goes up, driving goes down

2008-05-27T09:50:00.011+01:00

Summary

March figures show steepest decline in driving since 1942

Compared with last year, drivers have logged 11 billion fewer miles, the DOT says

Americans planned to drive less over Memorial Day weekend, AAA reports

Public transportation ridership on rise, in part because of gas prices, group

At a time when gas prices are at an all-time high, Americans have curtailed their driving at a tremendous rate.

Americans are not driving as much as they did a year ago as gas prices explode.

The Department of Transportation said figures from March show the steepest decrease in driving ever recorded.

Compared with March a year earlier, Americans drove an estimated 4.3 percent less , that's 11 billion fewer miles, the DOT's Federal Highway Administration said Monday, calling it "the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history." Records have been kept since 1942.

According to AAA, Americans said they were planning to drive less over the Memorial Day weekend than they did the year before.

Some people decided to camp out in the backyard and enjoy their camp in their backyard, while others share a ride with their friends instead of riding on their own vehicle.

According to AAA, the national average price for a gallon of regular gas rose to a record $3.936. That compares with an average price per gallon of $3.23 last Memorial Day.

With the price near $4 a gallon, people decreased their speed and start their engines only when they are about to set off.

Some Americans have turned to public transportation. Ridership increased by 2.1 percent in 2007, in part because of rising gas prices, according to the American Public Transportation Association.

Americans took 10.3 billion trips on public transportation in 2007, the highest level in 50 years,

The Energy Information Administration says gas consumption for the first three months of 2008 is estimated to be down about 0.6 percent from the same time period in 2007.

Mars images by Phoenix mars lander

2008-05-26T09:05:00.006+01:00

This image, one of the first captured by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, shows the vast plains of the northern polar region of Mars. The flat landscape is strewn with tiny pebbles and shows polygonal cracking, a pattern seen widely in Martian high latitudes and also observed in permafrost terrains on Earth. The polygonal cracking is believed to have resulted from seasonal freezing and thawing of surface ice.

Phoenix touched down on the Red Planet at 4:53 p.m. Pacific Time (7:53 Eastern Time), May 25, 2008, in an arctic region called Vastitas Borealis, at 68 degrees north latitude, 234 degrees east longitude.

This is an approximate-color image taken shortly after landing by the spacecraft's Surface Stereo Imager, inferred from two color filters, a violet, 450-nanometer filter and an infrared, 750-nanometer filter.

The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.his image shows a polygonal pattern in the ground near NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, similar in appearance to icy ground in the arctic regions of Earth.

Phoenix touched down on the Red Planet at 4:53 p.m. Pacific Time (7:53 p.m. Eastern Time), May 25, 2008, in an arctic region called Vastitas Borealis, at 68 degrees north latitude, 234 degrees east longitude.

This is an approximate-color image taken shortly after landing by the spacecraft's Surface Stereo Imager, inferred from two color filters, a violet, 450-nanometer filter and an infrared, 750-nanometer filter.

The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

This view of one of the footpads of NASA's three-legged Phoenix Mars Lander shows a solid surface at the spacecraft's landing site. As the legs touched down on the surface of Mars, they kicked up some loose material on top of the footpad, but overall, the surface is unperturbed.

Each footpad is about the size of a large dinner plate, measuring 11.5 inches from rim to rim. The base of the footpad is shaped like the bottom of a shallow bowl to provide stability.

This image was taken by the spacecraft's Surface Stereo Imager shortly after landing, at 17:07 local time on Mars.

The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

Source: NASA

G8 calls for 2050 emissions goal

2008-05-26T06:22:00.002+01:00

Major emerging economies such as
China also attended the talks

Environment ministers from the world's biggest economies, the G8, have called for rich countries to take the lead in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

In a statement issued after talks in Japan, they urged their leaders to set a target to halve global emissions by 2050 when they hold a summit in July.

The G8 agreed last year in Germany to "seriously consider" the move - a proposal opposed by the US and Russia.

The talks aimed to set the agenda for this year's G8 summit in Toyako, Japan.

"To halve emissions, advanced countries should exercise leadership to achieve major cuts," the Japanese Environment Minister, Ichiro Kamoshita, told a news conference.

The G8 ministers - who were also joined by major emerging economies such as China - said a strong political will had been expressed to place developed countries at the forefront of the campaign.

The G8 is made up of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

The World's smallest copter

2008-05-26T03:30:00.002+01:00

ONE MAN COPTER: Yasutoshi Yokoyama, employee of Japanese Gen Corporation takes a demonstration flight on the GEN H-4 helicopter, the world’s smallest one-man helicopter, in Vinci, the birthplace of Leonardo da Vinci, near Florence, Italy on Sunday 25 may 2008.

Full turnout in Shanghai for relay

2008-05-24T08:15:00.002+01:00

SHANGHAI: After a week spent in mourning the victims of the Sichuan earthquake, the city of Shanghai allowed itself a few cheers on Friday as the Olympic torch finally made its way to China’s most prosperous city following a three-day suspension of the relay.

Celebrations were however considerably muted as the torch went its way along a significantly shortened route through the city’s streets. As a mark of respect to more than 55,000 people who lost their lives in the May 12 earthquake, local authorities shortened the distance of the torch route to 200 km and cancel the fireworks display and carnival that had been planned for Friday.

The torch was originally scheduled to reach Shanghai on Tuesday, but the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) suspended the relay for three days after a period of national mourning was declared on Monday for the first time in the country’s history. The relay resumed its course in the eastern port city of Ningbo on Thursday, before making its way north to Shanghai. Residents turned out in full force with tens of thousands gathering amidst tight security in the city’s public places, including the famous People’s Square and the Bund along the Huangpu River.

The relay began at the Shanghai Museum with a minute’s silence observed to remember the calamity of last week. In a short speech, Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng said Shanghai’s 19 million citizens were connected “heart-to-heart” with Sichuan’s victims, and that the passing of the flame would give confidence to those displaced by the quake to rebuild their homes.

As the torch made its way through the city, the hundreds of residents who had lined up along the streets in their replica Olympics shirts cheered loudly, but the memories of Sichuan were not far away. “Go, go China, go, go Sichuan and go, go the Olympics” they chanted, cheering and waving national flags. Rows of donation boxes for earthquake victims were set up all along the relay route, and among the 400 torchbearers were four local residents – a doctor, two soldiers and an IT engineer – who had traveled to Sichuan last week to help in the rescue efforts. They were flown in to Shanghai early on Friday morning, and they will all return to the devastated district on Saturday to carry on their work.

For many, the torch relay presented a time to heal after last week’s mourning. Caught up in the moment, some of the vendors who had set up shop along the relay route started handing out their flags and China tattoos for free.

The relay relay ended in Pudong, the crown-jewel of Shanghai’s districts and China’s financial capital.

The two-day Shanghai leg of the relay will conclude on Saturday afternoon in Anting, an automobile hub in Shanghai’s suburbs, and home to the city’s new $ 240 million Formula One race-track.

Rather appropriately, Sichuan will be the last stop before the torch ends its long journey in Beijing.

The torch was scheduled to reach Sichuan on June 12, but the BOCOG decided to postpone its arrival to August 3 to allow reconstruction work in affected areas to continue. The opening ceremony will be held in Beijing on August 8.

Mozambique cops 'too fat to run'

2008-05-20T07:42:00.002+01:00

All Mozambican policemen will have to undergo fitness training

Mozambique police officers are to undergo a compulsory physical training programme, because some of them are too fat to run after criminals.

Interior Ministry advisor Pana Chande told the BBC that the poor lifestyle of many police officers was to blame.

Many of them have very large bellies and drink too much alcohol and smoke cigarettes, he said.

"Some of them are so large it is affecting their health and ability to run," he said.

"We are in a process of training officers and commanders at our training centres… We need men who are able to perform without problems," he told the BBC's Jose Tembe.

Mr Chande said many were slow and inflexible, often unable to chase criminals or act swiftly to avoid crime from occurring.

The physical training involves, among other things, running, gymnastics and simulating the chase of criminals.

He explained that the retraining programme is not a form of punishment, but an exercise aimed at improving the performance of the entire police.

Prince Caspian outbeats Iron Man

2008-05-19T17:24:00.002+01:00

Prince Caspian is the second Narnia book to be made into a film

The latest film adaptation of CS Lewis' Narnia books has dethroned Iron Man from the top of the US and Canadian box office, according to studio estimates.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian took $56.6m (£29m) between Friday and Sunday to bump Iron Man off the top spot after two weeks.

Romantic comedy What Happens in Vegas, starring Cameron Diaz, took $13.9m (£7.1m) to hit the third spot.

Speed Racer, from Matrix masters Andy and Larry Wachowski, was fourth.

The big-budget anime-inspired film, starring Emile Hirsch and Christina Ricci, took $7.6m (£3.9m) in its second week.

Jeff Goldstein of the film's studio Warner Bros' said next weekend - which is Memorial Weekend in the US - was "do or die" for the film, which cost $120m (£61m) to make.

Motherhood comedy Baby Mama, starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, made $4.6m (£2.3m) to inch ahead of Patrick Dempsey's romantic comedy Made of Honor, which earned $4.5m.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall was in seventh with $2.5m (1.3m), followed by Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay with $1.8m (£0.9m).

Jackie Chan and Jet Li's martial arts movie The Forbidden Kingdom dropped a spot to ninth with $1m (£510,000).

Rounding out the top 10 is newcomer The Visitor with takings of $687,000 (£350,000).

The eagerly-anticipated Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, will open in cinemas in the US and Canada on Thursday.

Indian rocket puts 10 satellites in orbit at one go

2008-05-18T16:54:00.002+01:00

India's space programme made history on Monday (Apr 28, 2008) with the successful launch of a Rs 700 million ($17.4 million) rocket that placed in orbit 10 satellites - two Indian and eight foreign.

At precisely 9:23 am, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)-C9 rose into the sky, emitting thick orange flame, and placed in orbit an Indian cartography and a mini satellite to maintain leadership in the remote sensing domain. It also slung eight nano satellites into outer space - marking the world's second largest such mission.

The record is with Russia that launched 16 satellites at one go in 2007.

But there was uncertainty at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota , about 80 km from the Tamil Nadu capital of Chennai, soon after the rocket blasted off. While the signal that three of the satellites had been separated successfully came in, there was no immediate news about the other seven.

Scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) heaved a sigh of relief when the news that all satellites had separated came in, signalling that the mission was a success.

Fourteen minutes into the flight, the 44 metre tall rocket first slung the 690 kg Cartosat-2A and followed it by slipping the 83 kg mini satellite and the cluster of eight nano satellites into a high polar sun synchronous orbit (SSO).

"It is a memorable moment for Team ISRO. The rocket stuck to its path without any deviation and delivered all the 10 satellites in their intended orbit," said G Madhavan Nair, Head of ISRO, immediately after the launch.

Mission Director George Koshy said, "The success of this launch has added more responsibility on us for the prestigious Chandrayaan (moon mission)."

Immediately after the payloads were ejected into orbit, the Spacecraft Control Centre at Bangalore with the help of ISTRAC (ISRO telemetry, tracking and command network) network of stations at Bangalore, Lucknow, Mauritius, Bearslake in Russia, Biak in Indonesia and Svalbard in Sweden monitored the satellites' health.

Several firsts for ISRO

This is ISRO's second successful launch this year after January when it launched an Israeli satellite.

Monday's launch marked several firsts for ISRO - the first time an ISRO rocket carried 10 satellites at a time, the first time a mini satellite was designed and sent up and the first time the Indian space agency utilised the optimum capacity of the PSLV's core alone configuration.

The two earlier core alone PSLVs carried a payload of 352 kg and 535 kg.

The Rs 2 billion Cartosat-2A is the thirteenth Indian Remote Sensing satellite. The data from the satellite will find applications in urban and rural infrastructure development and management as well as land and geographical information systems.

The satellite carries an advanced panchromatic camera that can take pictures with a spatial resolution of about one metre and can cover a land strip of 9.6 km.

The mini satellite incorporates many new technologies and has miniaturised subsystems apart from multi and high spectral cameras.

India, a world leader in the remote sensing data market, earns around Rs 520 million from this.

After the latest launch, India has a total of eight remote sensing satellites orbiting the earth -- IRS-1C, IRS-1D, Oceansat 1, TES, Resourcesat 1, Cartosat 1 and Cartosat 2 and Cartosat 2A.

The real iron man

2008-05-17T16:35:00.002+01:00

Rex Jameson bikes and swims regularly, and plays tennis and skis when time allows.

Rex Jameson stretches in a robotic soldier suit that can multiply its wearer's strength and endurance.

But the 5-foot-11, 180-pound software engineer is lucky if he presses 200 pounds -- that is, until he steps into an "exoskeleton" of aluminum and electronics that multiplies his strength and endurance as many as 20 times.

With the outfit's claw-like metal hand extensions, he gripped a weight set's bar at a recent demonstration and knocked off hundreds of repetitions.

Once, he did 500.

"Everyone gets bored much more quickly than I get tired," Jameson said.

Jameson -- who works for robotics firm Sarcos Inc. in Salt Lake City, which is under contract with the U.S. Army -- is helping assess the 150-pound suit's viability for the soldiers of tomorrow.

The suit works by sensing every movement the wearer makes and almost instantly amplifying it.

The Army believes soldiers may someday wear the suits in combat, but it's focusing for now on applications such as loading cargo or repairing heavy equipment. Sarcos is developing the technology under a two-year contract worth up to $10 million, and the Army plans initial field tests next year.

Before the technology can become practical, the developers must overcome cost barriers and extend the suit's battery life. Jameson was tethered to power cords during his demonstration because the current battery lasts just 30 minutes.

But the technology already offers evidence that robotics can amplify human muscle power in reality -- not just in the realm of comic books and movies like the recently debuted "Iron Man," about a wealthy weapons designer who builds a high-tech suit to battle bad guys.

"Everybody likes the idea of being a superhero, and this is all about expanding the capabilities of a human," said Stephen Jacobsen, chief designer of the Sarcos suit.

The Army's exoskeleton research dates to 1995, but has yet to yield practical suits. Sarcos' technology sufficiently impressed Raytheon Co., however, that the Waltham, Massachusetts-based defense contractor bought Sarcos' robotics business last November. Sarcos also has developed robotic dinosaurs for a Universal Studios' "Jurassic Park" theme park ride.

Jack Obusek, a former colonel now with the Army's Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center in the Boston suburb of Natick, foresees robot-suited soldiers unloading heavy ammunition boxes from helicopters, lugging hundreds of pounds of gear over rough terrain or even relying on the suit's strength-enhancing capabilities to make repairs to tanks that break down in inconvenient locations.

Sarcos' Jacobsen envisions factory workers someday using the technology to perform manual labor more easily, and firefighters more quickly carrying heavy gear up stairwells of burning buildings. Disabled people also may find uses for the technology, he said.

"We see the value being realized when these suits can be built in great numbers for both military and commercial uses, and they start coming down in cost to within the range of the price of a small car," said Jacobsen.

He declined to estimate how much the suit might cost in mass production.

But cost isn't the only obstacle. For example, developers eventually hope to lengthen the suit's backpack battery's life and tinker with the suit's design to use less energy. Meanwhile, the suit can draw power from a generator, a tank or helicopter. And there are gas engines that, while noisy, small enough to fit into the suit's backpack.

"The power issue is probably the No. 1 challenge standing in the way of getting this thing in the field," Obusek said.

But he said Sarcos appears to have overcome the key challenge of pairing super-fast microprocessors with sensors that detect movements by the body's joints and transmit data about them to the suit's internal computer.

Much as the brain sends signals to tendons to get muscles to move, the computer sends instructions to hydraulic valves. The valves mimic tendons by driving the suit's mechanical limbs, replicating and amplifying the wearer's movements almost instantly.

"With all the previous attempts at this technology, there has been a slight lag time between the intent of the human, and the actual movement of the machine," Obusek said.

In the demonstration, the bulky suit slowed Jameson a bit, but he could move almost normally.

When a soccer ball was thrown at him, he bounced it back off his helmeted head. He repeatedly struck a punching bag and, slowly but surely, he climbed stairs in the suit's clunky aluminum boots, which made him look like a Frankenstein monster.

"It feels less agile than it is," Jameson said. "Because of the way the control laws work, it's ever so slightly slower than I am. And because we are so in tune with our bodies' responses, this tiny delay initially made me tense."

Now, he's used to it.

"I can regain my balance naturally after stumbling -- something I discovered completely by accident."

Learning was easy, he said.

"It takes no special training, beyond learning to relax and trust the robot," he said.

Bin Laden urges Muslims to liberate Palestine

2008-05-16T15:16:00.002+01:00

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden -- in a blunt new message that coincides with Israel's 60th anniversary -- urged his followers to liberate Palestine..

This image accompanied a message from Osama bin Laden in November.

In a message titled "The Causes of Conflict on the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israeli Occupation," bin Laden reiterated jihadist opposition to the existence of the Jewish state and its policies.

Bin Laden's audio message, released Thursday, told listeners that "liberating" Palestine should be the aim of every Muslim, according to terrorism analyst Laura Mansfield.

The message, played over a still image on jihadist Web sites, runs 9 minutes and 40 seconds.

Bin Laden's last message came on March 20, when in an audiotape he called Iraq "the perfect base to set up the jihad to liberate Palestine."

In an audiotape released the previous day, bin Laden condemned European countries for siding with the United States in Afghanistan and for allowing the publication of cartoons considered insulting to Islam's prophet Mohammed.

Al Qaeda -- which is responsible for the September 11, 2001, attack on the United States -- regularly condemns Zionism, the philosophical underpinning of Israel.

President Bush referred to al Qaeda on Friday in an address to Israel's parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem.

He decried the actions and the motivations of terrorists and noted that bin Laden teaches that "the killing of Jews and Americans is one of the biggest duties."

Legless lizard discovered in Brazil

2008-05-16T07:13:00.002+01:00

Scientists in Brazil have discovered legless lizard, a dwarf woodpecker and another 12 suspected new species in the country's fast-disappearing Cerrado grasslands.

The discoveries were made during a 29-day expedition by US and Brazilian scientists in Brazil's vast wooded grasslands, one of the world's 34 biodiversity conservation hotspots, Conservation International said in a statement.

The grasslands are threatened by encroaching farmland; the expedition focused in and around the Serra Geral do Tocantins Ecological Station, a 7,160 square km protected area that is Cerrado's second largest.

The 14 suspected new species discovered include eight fish, three reptiles, one amphibian, one mammal and one bird, the environmental group said.

The legless lizard, of the Bachia genus, resembles a snake due to its lack of legs and uses its pointed snout to move about its predominantly sandy environment.

Other outstanding new findings include a dwarf woodpecker of the genus Picumnus, and a horned toad of the genus Proceratophrys.

Besides the new species, the scientists also recorded several threatened animals such as the hyacinth macaw, marsh deer, three-banded armadillo, the Brazilian merganser and the dwarf tinamou, among more than 440 species of vertebrates documented.

Oldest irrigation system safe

2008-05-15T17:26:00.002+01:00

BEIJING: The safety of the world’s oldest operating irrigation system was not compromised by 12 may 2008 quake in China, though it sustained minor damage, said the Ministry of Water Resources on Wednesday. The quake caused cracks in the V-shaped dyke in Dujiangyan project, which is more than 2,000 years old, and there were collapses in a sluice control room and a standby power generator room, it said.

The city of Dujiangyan, near the epicentre in Wenchuan County, was one of the worst-hit regions in the 7.8-magnitude earthquake.

The Ministry urged protection of the Zipingpu Reservoir between Dujiangyan and Wenchuan, and on the upper stream to Dujiangyan. It said the irrigation system and Dujiangyan City “would be swamped” if major problems emerged at the dam and at the reservoir.

The emergency response office of the Sichuan government said on Tuesday that cracks had appeared on the surface of the dam at Zipingpu and workshops collapsed, while all hydropower generators came to a halt.

99 Names of allah

2008-05-13T09:18:00.001+01:00

#	Arabic	Transliteration	Translation (can vary based on context)
1	ar:الرحمن	Ar-Rahman	The All Beneficent, The Most Merciful in Essence
2	ar:الرحيم	Ar-Rahim	The Most Merciful, The Most Merciful in Actions
3	ar:الملك	Al-Malik	The King, The Sovereign, The True and Ultimate King
4	ar:القدوس	Al-Quddus	The Most Holy, The Most Pure, The Most Perfect
5	ar:السلام	As-Salaam	The Peace and Blessing, The Source of Peace and Safety, The Most Perfect
6	ar:المؤمن	Al-Mu'min	The Guarantor, The Self Affirming, The Granter of Security, The Affirmer of Truth
7	ar:المهيمن	Al-Muhaymin	The Guardian, The Preserver, The Overseeing Protector
8	ar:العزيز	Al-Aziz	The Almighty, The Self Sufficient, The Most Honorable
9	ar:الجبار	Al-Jabbar	The Powerful, The Irresistible, The Compeller, The Most Lofty, The Restorer/Improver of Affairs
10	ar:المتكبر	Al-Mutakabbir	The Tremendous
11	ar:الخالق	Al-Khaliq	The Creator
12	ar:البارئ	Al-Bari'	The Rightful
13	ar:المصور	Al-Musawwir	The Fashioner of Forms
14	ar:الغفار	Al-Ghaffar	The Ever Forgiving
15	ar:القهار	Al-Qahhar	The All Compelling Subduer
16	ar:الوهاب	Al-Wahhab	The Bestower
17	ar:الرزاق	Ar-Razzaq	The Ever Providing
18	ar:الفتاح	Al-Fattah	The Opener, The Victory Giver
19	ar:العليم	Al-Alim	The All Knowing, The Omniscient
20	ar:القابض	Al-Qabid	The Restrainer, The Straightener
21	ar:الباسط	Al-Basit	The Expander, The Munificent
22	ar:الخافض	Al-Khafid	The Abaser
23	ar:الرافع	Ar-Rafi‘e	The Exalter
24	ar:المعز	Al-Mu‘ezz	The Giver of Honour
25	ar:المذل	Al-Mudhell	The Giver of Dishonour
26	ar:السميع	As-Sami‘e	The All Hearing
27	ar:البصير	Al-Basir	The All Seeing
28	ar:الحكم	Al-Hakam	The Judge, The Arbitrator
29	ar:العدل	Al-`Adl	The Utterly Just
30	ar:اللطيف	Al-Latif	The Subtly Kind
31	ar:الخبير	Al-Khabir	The All Aware
32	ar:الحليم	Al-Halim	The Forbearing, The Indulgent
33	ar:العظيم	Al-Azeem	The Magnificent, The Infinite
34	ar:الغفور	Al-Ghafur	The All Forgiving
35	ar:الشكور	Ash-Shakur	The Grateful
36	ar:العلي	Al-Aliyy	The Sublimely Exalted
37	ar:الكبير	Al-Kabir	The Great
38	ar:الحفيظ	Al-Hafiz	The Preserver
39	ar:المقيت	Al-Muqit	The Nourisher
40	ar:الحسيب	Al-Hasib	The Reckoner
41	ar:الجليل	Al-Jalil	The Majestic
42	ar:الكريم	Al-Karim	The Bountiful, The Generous
43	ar:الرقيب	Ar-Raqib	The Watchful
44	ar:المجيب	Al-Mujib	The Responsive, The Answerer
45	ar:الواسع	Al-Wasse‘e	The Vast, The All Encompassing
46	ar:الحكيم	Al-Hakim	The Wise
47	ar:الودود	Al-Wadud	The Loving, The Kind One
48	ar:المجيد	Al-Majid	The All Glorious
49	ar:الباعث	Al-Ba'ith	The Raiser of The Dead
50	ar:الشهيد	Ash-Shaheed	The Witness
51	ar:الحق	Al-Haqq	The Truth, The Real
52	ar:الوكيل	Al-Wakil	The Trustee, The Dependable
53	ar:القوى	Al-Qawaie	The Strong
54	ar:المتين	Al-Matin	The Firm, The Steadfast
55	ar:الولى	Al-Walaie	The Protecting Friend, Patron and Helper
56	ar:الحميد	Al-Hamid	The All Praiseworthy
57	ar:المحصى	Al-Muhsi	The Accounter, The Numberer of All
58	ar:المبدئ	Al-Mubdi'	The Producer, Originator, and Initiator of All
59	ar:المعيد	Al-Mu‘id	The Reinstater Who Brings Back All
60	ar:المحيى	Al-Muhyi	The Giver of Life
61	ar:المميت	Al-Mumit	The Bringer of Death, The Destroyer
62	ar:الحي	Al-Hayy	The Ever Living
63	ar:القيوم	Al-Qayyum	The Self Subsisting Sustainer of All
64	ar:الواجد	Al-Wajid	The Perceiver, The Finder, The Unfailing
65	ar:الماجد	Al-Majid	The Illustrious, The Magnificent
66	ar:الواحد	Al-Wahid	The One, The Unique, Manifestation of Unity
67	ar:الاحد	Al-Ahad	The One, the All Inclusive, The Indivisible
68	ar:الصمد	As-Samad	The Self Sufficient, The Impregnable, The Eternally Besought of All, The Everlasting
69	ar:القادر	Al-Qadir	The All Able
70	ar:المقتدر	Al-Muqtadir	The All Determiner, The Dominant
71	ar:المقدم	Al-Muqaddim	The Expediter, He Who Brings Forward
72	ar:المؤخر	Al-Mu'akhir	The Delayer, He Who Puts Far Away
73	ar:الأول	Al-Awwal	The First
74	ar:الأخر	Al-Akhir	The Last
75	ar:الظاهر	Az-Zahir	The Manifest, The All Victorious
76	ar:الباطن	Al-Batin	The Hidden, The All Encompassing
77	ar:الوالي	Al-Wali	The Patron
78	ar:المتعالي	Al-Muta'ali	The Self Exalted
79	ar:البر	Al-Barr	The Most Kind and Righteous
80	ar:التواب	At-Tawwab	The Ever Returning, Ever Relenting
81	ar:المنتقم	Al-Muntaqim	The Avenger
82	ar:العفو	Al-‘Afuww	The Pardoner, The Effacer of Sins
83	ar:الرؤوف	Ar-Ra'uf	The Compassionate, The All Pitying
84	ar:مالك الملك	Malik-al-Mulk	The Owner of All Sovereignty
85	ذو الجلال و الإكرام	Dhu-al-Jalali wa-al-Ikram	The Lord of Majesty and Generosity
86	ar:المقسط	Al-Muqsit	The Equitable, The Requiter
87	ar:الجامع	Al-Jami‘e	The Gatherer, The Unifier
88	ar:الغنى	Al-Ghanaie	The All Rich, The Independent
89	ar:المغنى	Al-Mughni	The Enricher, The Emancipator
90	ar:المانع	Al-Mani'e	The Withholder, The Shielder, the Defender
91	ar:الضار	Ad-Darr	The Distressor, The Harmer This attribute can only be found in hadith
92	ar:النافع	An-Nafi‘e	The Propitious, The Benefactor
93	ar:النور	An-Nur	The Light
94	ar:الهادي	Al-Hadi	The Guide
95	ar:البديع	Al-Badi	The Incomparable, The Originator
96	ar:الباقي	Al-Baqi	The Ever Enduring and Immutable
97	ar:الوارث	Al-Warith	The Heir, The Inheritor of All
98	ar:الرشيد	Ar-Rashid	The Guide, Infallible Teacher and Knower
99	ar:الصبور	As-Sabur	The Patient, The Timeless.

Additional Names

Another epithet found in the Qur'an is Dhul Fadl al Azim (ذو الفضل العظيم) "The Lord of Infinite Grace" (2.105, 3.74, 8.29, 57.21, 57.29, 62.4), but it is not part of the traditional list of the 99 names of God.

The following list contains Names that are not in the traditional list of 99 Names above.

#	Arabic	Transliteration	Translation	Qur'anic Usage
1	ar:المالك	Al-Maalik	The True, Complete and Controlling Owner of Everything	2 times
2	ar:المليك	Al-Maleek	The Constant Owner and Controller of Everything	1 time
3	ar:ذو الفضل العظيم	Dhul Fadl al Azim	The Lord of Infinite Grace

Pakistan test-fires nuclear capable Hatf-VIII missile

2008-05-09T09:35:00.002+01:00

ISLAMABAD, Thursday, 08 May: Pakistan on Thursday test-fired the air-launched cruise missile Hatf-VIII capable of carrying both nuclear and conventional warheads accurately to hit targets on land and at sea, a day after India successfully tested its long range Agni-III missile.

The test of the Hatf-VIII or Raad missile, which has a range of 350 kilometres, was part of a "continuing process of validating the design parameters of the weapon system", said a statement from the military. The statement did not say where the missile was tested.

India yesterday successfully tested its long range Agni-III ballistic missile with a range of 3,000 kilometres.

Describing the launch of Raad, which means "thunder" in Arabic, as successful, the statement said the indigenously developed missile had "special stealth capabilities".

It said the Raad was a low-altitude, terrain following missile with high manoeuvrability and could deliver all types of warheads "with great accuracy".

The Raad, exclusively developed for launch from aerial platforms, "has enabled Pakistan to achieve a greater strategic stand-off capability on land and at sea", the statement said, adding such complex cruise missile technology has been developed by "only a few countries of the world".

In a message, President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani congratulated scientists and engineers on their success in the test.

The Raad was tested for the first time in August last year. Officials earlier said that the missile had a very low probability of detection due to its stealth design and the materials used in its construction.

In April, Pakistan test-fired long-range surface-to- surface Shaheen-II or Hatf-VI. Pakistan has conducted a series of missile tests in the past few months.

Digital Camera resolution

2008-05-07T11:51:00.004+01:00

The amount of detail that the camera can capture is called the resolution, and it is measured in pixels. The more pixels a camera has, the more detail it can capture and the larger pictures can be without becoming blurry or “grainy.”

Some typical resolutions include:
256×256 - Found on very cheap cameras, this resolution is so low that the picture quality is almost always unacceptable. This is 65,000 total pixels.
640×480 - This is the low end on most “real” cameras. This resolution is ideal for e-mailing pictures or posting pictures on a Web site.
1216×912 - This is a “megapixel” image size — 1,109,000 total pixels — good for printing pictures.
1600×1200 - With almost 2 million total pixels, this is “high resolution.” You can print a 4×5 inch print taken at this resolution with the same quality that you would get from a photo lab.
2240×1680 - Found on 4 megapixel cameras — the current standard — this allows even larger printed photos, with good quality for prints up to 16×20 inches.
4064×2704 - A top-of-the-line digital camera with 11.1 megapixels takes pictures at this resolution. At this setting, you can create 13.5×9 inch prints with no loss of picture quality.

Photo courtesy Morguefile
The size of an image taken at different resolutions
High-end consumer cameras can capture over 12 million pixels. Some professional cameras support over 16 million pixels, or 20 million pixels for large-format cameras. For comparison, Hewlett Packard estimates that the quality of 35mm film is about 20 million pixels [ref].

Next, we’ll look at how the camera adds color to these images.
How Many Pixels?
You may have noticed that the number of pixels and the maximum resolution don’t quite compute. For example, a 2.1-megapixel camera can produce images with a resolution of 1600×1200, or 1,920,000 pixels. But “2.1 megapixel” means there should be at least 2,100,000 pixels.

This isn’t an error from rounding off or binary mathematical trickery. There is a real discrepancy between these numbers because the CCD has to include circuitry for the ADC to measure the charge. This circuitry is dyed black so that it doesn’t absorb light and distort the image.

GTA IV Synopsis

2008-05-07T11:51:00.003+01:00

Official Synopsis

What does the American Dream mean today?

For Niko Bellic, fresh off the boat from Europe, it is the hope he can escape his past.

For his cousin, Roman, it is the vision that together they can find fortune in Liberty City, gateway to the land of opportunity.

As they slip into debt and are dragged into a criminal underworld by a series of shysters, thieves and sociopaths, they discover that the reality is very different from the dream in a city that worships money and status, and is heaven for those who have them and a living nightmare for those who don’t.

Developed by Rockstar North, Grand Theft Auto IV will be simultaneously available for Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and will be in stores worldwide on April 29, 2008.

More Plot Details

Niko comes to America after receiving word from his cousin Roman. Roman brags of a fantastic lifestyle with 15 sportscars, two beautiful women and hotubs galore. All of this is a lie and nothing Roman claims is true. He is only covering for his own embarassing failure at living the “American Dream” so he dupes Niko into travelling across the world to clean the mess he has gotten himself into.

Niko finds himself in America with Roman as his only contact. Roman is heavily in debt and needs Niko’s help as he runs a failing Taxi Depot business in Broker. You are lowlife European immigrant, and you must fight for survival in Liberty City. Rockstar Games claim that you can ‘choose you destiny’. This means that how you play the game and the outcome of your choices affect what happens between Niko and his friends/foes.

How Digital camera works

2008-05-07T11:50:00.004+01:00

In the past twenty years, most of the major technological breakthroughs in consumer electronics have really been part of one larger breakthrough. When you get down to it, CDs, DVDs, HDTV, MP3s and DVRs are all built around the same basic process: converting conventional analog information (represented by a fluctuating wave) into digital information (represented by ones and zeros, or bits). This fundamental shift in technology totally changed how we handle visual and audio information — it completely redefined what is possible.

The digital camera is one of the most remarkable instances of this shift because it is so truly different from its predecessor. Conventional cameras depend entirely on chemical and mechanical processes — you don’t even need electricity to operate them. On the other hand, all digital cameras have a built-in computer, and all of them record images electronically.

The new approach has been enormously successful. Since film still provides better picture quality, digital cameras have not completely replaced conventional cameras. But, as digital imaging technology has improved, digital cameras have rapidly become more popular.

In this article, we’ll find out exactly what’s going on inside these amazing digital-age devices.

Understanding the Basics
Let’s say you want to take a picture and e-mail it to a friend. To do this, you need the image to be represented in the language that computers recognize — bits and bytes. Essentially, a digital image is just a long string of 1s and 0s that represent all the tiny colored dots — or pixels — that collectively make up the image. (For information on sampling and digital representations of data, see this explanation of the digitization of sound waves. Digitizing light waves works in a similar way.)

If you want to get a picture into this form, you have two options:
You can take a photograph using a conventional film camera, process the film chemically, print it onto photographic paper and then use a digital scanner to sample the print (record the pattern of light as a series of pixel values).

You can directly sample the original light that bounces off your subject, immediately breaking that light pattern down into a series of pixel values — in other words, you can use a digital camera.

At its most basic level, this is all there is to a digital camera. Just like a conventional camera, it has a series of lenses that focus light to create an image of a scene. But instead of focusing this light onto a piece of film, it focuses it onto a semiconductor device that records light electronically. A computer then breaks this electronic information down into digital data. All the fun and interesting features of digital cameras come as a direct result of this process.

In the next few sections, we’ll find out exactly how the camera does all this.

Cool Facts

With a 3-megapixel camera, you can take a higher-resolution picture than most computer monitors can display.

You can use your Web browser to view digital pictures taken using the JPEG format.

The first consumer-oriented digital cameras were sold by Kodak and Apple in 1994.

In 1998, Sony inadvertently sold more than 700,000 camcorders with a limited ability to see through clothes.

Top 5 Digital Slr Cameras

2008-05-07T11:50:00.003+01:00

Ready to move up from the point-and-shoot minor leagues? Here are our top five digital SLR cameras.

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
A great camera for amateur digital SLR photographers, the EOS Digital Rebel XT offers the easiest operation in its class. It features an 8.0-megapixel CMOS sensor, Canon’s own DIGIC II Image Processor and compatibility with more than 50 EF Lenses. Improving on its predecessor, the Digital Rebel, the Digital Rebel XT has an all new lightweight and compact body, nearly as small as digital SLRs get, with the responsiveness of a bigger semi-pro model.

Canon EOS-5D
The new Canon EOS 5D boasts a full-frame 12.8-megapixel CMOS sensor in a relatively compact magnesium-alloy body. Canon’s DIGIC II Image Processor provides outstanding image quality, and “Picture Style” color control gives you superior command of color balance, contrast and sharpness. Pictures look great from almost any angle on the large 2.5-inch LCD, and easy-to-use menus simplify shooting operations so you can focus on your vision.

Olympus EVOLT E-500
Never worry about dust on the image sensor interfering with your pictures with the Olympus EVOLT E-500. This easy-to-handle digital SLR camera uses an exclusive vibrating filter to eliminate dust and produce spotless pictures no matter where you change lenses. It has an 8-megapixel CCD and 25 shooting modes so you can take great pictures with a minimum of effort. A high-resolution, 2.5-inch LCD lets you view and share your shots from a wide viewing angle. And it’s all housed in a lightweight, portable chassis.

Konica Minolta Dynax 5D
It’s called the Maxxum 5D in North America, the Dynax 5D elsewhere, but no matter which name it goes by, this is a great little digital SLR camera from Konica Minolta. It employs an exclusive built-in anti-shake technology, enabling blur-free shooting in just about any situation, even at slower shutter speeds. Its 2.5-inch LCD displays detailed, easy-to-read information about settings and exposure values. And it has a wide variety of customizable settings so you can control color balance, contrast, saturation and sharpness in every shot.

Nikon D50
Compact and lightweight, the Nikon D50 can go anywhere you do, and its lithium-ion battery lets you shoot about 2,000 images before needing to be recharged. It has a high-performance 6.1-megapixel CCD and is compatible with Nikon’s wide variety of high-quality Nikkor lenses. High-speed continuous shooting allows you to shoot for up to 137 uninterrupted frames, depending on the type of SD card used, and a new small-picture function lets you choose the resolution you want when saving each shot, maximizing your storage capability.

The Nokia N96 and N98

2008-05-07T11:49:00.002+01:00

Nokia N96

Nokia has added another phone to the n series The Nokia N96 . The design looks stunning and it has a 16 gigabyte expandable memory with microSD slot. It has a 5mp camera with autofocus and also it has 3d speakers. It seems that Nokia has made this as an entertainment device and with this new phone one can also see live streaming TV via DVB-H receiver and it also buffers 30 seconds of instant replay. It is a double slider like its series mate the N95 and it is beautifully designed.

Nokia 98

There are some news about the release of the new Nokia N98. Looks like Nokia is going to release it soon, but the new Nokia n98 looks more like the Apple IPhone clone. But its features are far beyond the IPhone and also looks like a concept.It has an insane 7.2 mega pixel camera with 5x optical zoom and 20x digital zoom with 3.5″ touch screen and also has Graphics Accelerator and has become the Big daddy of cell phones. The Nokia N98 has caught enough attention from the people all over the world.The N98 has the lens of Carl Zeiss with built-in Xenon flash. Nokia has made the N98 a multipurpose superphone (I say superphone because it has enormous features) It’s screen has 16 m clolours

The Nokia N98 also records video at an incredible 60 fps with a resolution of 720 x 576

Acer Aspire Gemstone blue

2008-05-07T11:48:00.003+01:00

Acer has launched two series of notebooks under its ‘Gemstone Blue’ brand: the 18.4-inches Aspire 8920 and the 16-inches Aspire 6920 series. Both series are characterized by a dominant feature — the color Blue; hence the brand name “Aspire Gemstone Blue”.

Notebooks under both series are powered by Intel Centrino Processor technology, featuring the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors, mobile Intel PM965 Express Chipset, and integrated module for wireless connection.

Aspire 8920 notebooks can be equipped with either Nvidia’s GeForce 9650M GS graphics engine with up to 1280 MB of TurboCache (512 MB of dedicated GDDR3 VRAM, up to 768 MB of shared system memory) or GeForce 9500M GS with up to 1280 MB of TurboCache (512 MB of dedicated GDDR2 VRAM, up to 768 MB of shared system memory). In either case, these notebooks support Nvidia PureVideo HD technology, Shader Model 4.0, and Microsoft DirectX 10.

According to Spooner , “Acer faces a particularly difficult task in doing so in the United States, where the Acer brand name has largely stood for low-cost brand. The company also faces stiff competition from HP and Dell, which have also been working to improve the cache of their respective PC product lines.” Acer hopes to break through this mental barrier with the Aspire Gemstone Blue which will ship from this month onwards, with prices starting from $900 and stopping at $1,700, depending on what you want to have inside.

The Fastest Car

2008-05-07T11:47:00.003+01:00

Bugatti Veyron

The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 is the most powerful, most expensive, and fastest street-legal production car in the world, with a proven top speed of over 400 km/h (407 km/h or 253 mph). It reached full production in September 2005. The car is built by Volkswagen AG subsidiary Bugatti Automobiles SAS and is sold under the legendary Bugatti marque. It is named after racing driver Pierre Veyron, who won the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1939 while racing for the original Bugatti firm.

To say that the Veyron is impressive would almost be an insult, considering just how unbelievable this car really is. The luxurious, classic interior is reminiscent of the brand’s racing past while the outside is striking with dual color enameling, chrome-plated radiator shutter and protruding back fenders which enhance the car’s sleek, athletic look. With some cars, looks can be deceiving, but here any performance expectations you might have by just looking at the car are sure to be exceeded.

According to Volkswagen, the final production Veyron engine produces between 1020 and 1040 metric hp (1006 to 1026 SAE net hp), so the car will be advertised as producing “1001 horsepower” in both the US and European markets. This easily makes it the most powerful production road-car engine in history.

Reaching 60 miles per hour in just 2.5 seconds, the Veyron has a seven-speed DSG twin-clutch transmission, a direct-injection 8.0-liter W-16 engine with 64 valves and 4 turbos and a top speed of 250 mph. This means that if you want to grab dinner in Los Angeles and a show in Las Vegas, the Veyron will get you there in one hour! The car’s speed capabilities are enhanced by aluminum and magnesium components, which help keep it light. Its power output tops at 987 horses (1,001 metric horses) at 6000 rpm with 922 lb.-ft. of torque at 2,200 rpm. Toggle switches on the steering wheel sequentially switch transmission, and power is evenly distributed with continuous four-wheel drive.

The fastest plane SR-71

2008-05-07T11:45:00.004+01:00

The Lockheed SR-71 is an advanced, long-range, Mach 3 strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed YF-12A and A-12 aircraft by the Lockheed Skunk Works. The SR-71 was unofficially named the Blackbird, and called the Habu by its crews. Clarence “Kelly” Johnson was responsible for many of the design’s advanced concepts. A defensive feature of the aircraft was its high speed and operating altitude, whereby, if a surface-to-air missile launch were detected, standard evasive action was simply to accelerate. The SR-71 line was in service from 1964 to 1998, with 12 of the 32 aircraft being destroyed in accidents, though none were lost to enemy action.

The SR-71 remained the world’s fastest and highest-flying operational manned aircraft throughout its career. From an altitude of 80,000 ft (24 km), it could survey 100,000 square miles per hour (72 square kilometers per second) of the Earth’s surface. In addition, it was accurate enough to take a picture of a car’s license plate from this altitude. 28 July 1976, an SR-71 broke the world record for its class: an absolute speed record of 1905.80993 knots (2,193.1669 mph, 3,529.56 km/h), and an “absolute altitude record” of 85,068.997 feet (25,929 m). Several airplanes exceeded this altitude in zoom climbs but not in sustained flight.

When the SR-71 was retired in 1990, one was flown from its birthplace at United States Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California to go on exhibit at what is now the Smithsonian Institution’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center (an annex of the National Air & Space Museum) in Chantilly, Virginia. The Blackbird, piloted by Colonel Ed Yielding and Lt. Col. J.T. Vida, set a coast-to-coast speed record at an average 2,124 mph (3,418 km/h). The entire trip was reported as 68 minutes and 17 seconds. Three additional records were set within segments of the flight, including a new absolute top speed of 2,242 mph measured between the radar gates set up in St. Louis and Cincinnati. These were accepted by the National Aeronautic Association (NAA), the recognized body for aviation records in the United States. An enthusiast site devoted to the Blackbird lists a record time of 64 minutes. The SR-71 also holds the record for flying from New York to London in 1 hour 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds, set on 1 September 1974. This equates to an average velocity of about Mach 2.68, including slowing down for in-flight refueling. Peak speeds during this flight were probably closer to the declassified top speed of Mach 3.2+. (For comparison, commercial Concorde flights took around 3 hours 23 minutes, and the Boeing 747 averages 6 hours 15 minutes.)