Current Feed Content from 29 Jun 08 14:29
Can't Get Enough Of Blue-Ray? Wait Till You Here This
2008-04-19T12:56:00.013+05:30The format war might be over for Toshiba's HD-DVD, but it seems that the next target on the list of casualties will be the victorious Blu-Ray. Those of you who are already prepared to toss the Blu-Ray movie titles and jump in the new format's bandwagon, are advised to wait a little more, as the new format is still in diapers.
Red-Ray Players Give You the Mind-Blowing HD Experience
The mighty Red-Ray format is a new standard, able to deliver "Beyond-HD" video quality, namely movies at impressive 4096 x 2048 pixels screen resolutions.
Blu-ray players are also marketed as "Beyond-HD" devices, but this labeling is at least misleading, since high-definition specifications say that the HD standard is achieved at 720p (1280 x 720), 1080i (1920 x 1080i), and 1080p (1920 x 1080p) resolutions. The Blu-Ray standard is only able to deliver 1080p, which is in the HD range.
The "Beyond-HD" image quality is achieved by increasing the essential specifications of the standard, namely the rendering resolutions. The only format able to support "Beyond-HD" definitions is the one backed by Red. Its playback device is able to display videos running at blaring resolutions of 4K (4096 x 2048), 2K (2048 x 1024) and regular 16:9 4K (3996 Ă— 2160).
The Red One camera is able to record images at Quad-HD resolutions
However, the Red-Ray player cannot work with either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD discs, but instead, it allows users to play back video content from SD and Compact Flash memory media. The player is still a work in progress and is expected to hit the market sometime in 2009, just in time to force the transition from the Blu-Ray to another HD standard.
The device already sports a couple of important drawbacks, such as its pretty salty price. The new players will come with a price tag of $1000, and is almost useless, given the fact that there are no movie titles to offer 4K screen resolutions. Actually, such resolutions can only be caught on digital supports using a Red One camera, which is quite expensive ($25, 000).
Provided that you have the device and the accompanying movie titles, there's still one question left unanswered. Average HDTV screens are able to work with video content of up to 1080p resolutions, and the only Quad-HD TV sets can run at maximum resolutions of 3840 x 2160 pixels. Such displays are not only hard to find, but they are also expensive.
However, a lot of things could change until 2009. Let's not forget that When Pentium 4 chips hit the market, they cost a fortune, and now they're powering the kitchen toaster.
Source: Softpedia NewsRajDemonoid Is Back Online!
2008-04-18T19:07:00.005+05:30
Hurray! Demonoid is back online! I know it's a bit late and most of you guys are already aware that the most popular Bit Torrent website was back online few days ago. Demonoid had to go down because some copyright holders alleged it to be distributing illegal material. Recently, TorrentSpy was shut bearing the same issue.
A message was posted on the Demonoid forum, "Since a few months ago, Deimos, the site administrator, lacks the necessary time to take care of the website, because of personal matters he's been needing to attend to. For this reason, he has decided to leave the site staff. Before leaving, he assigned a new site administrator from among his friends to take care of the site. The old moderator team will continue helping with the site, unchanged. We will try to keep running everything just as it always has been. The trackers and website seem to be working properly, and should any issues arise, they will be taken care of as soon as possible. The site might be going on and offline over the next days as we work out any problems". Well, no word of CRIA but on November 2007 Demonoid stated, "The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding". Anyway, im sure all the Demonid fans are happy to have it back online.RajA New Theory On The Big Bang
2008-04-17T21:22:00.003+05:30A new controversial analysis by an astronomer of Indian origin has suggested that the Big Bang might not have come at the beginning of the Universe, but after a long and slow period of shrinkage.
Amit yadav
According to a report, the theory has been put forward by Amit Yadav, an astronomer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
If this theory holds any ground, it would show that the early universe did not inflate with the smoothness that many theorists expected. "The standard, canonical models will be ruled out if this holds, " said Yadav. "The simplicity is gone, " he added.
Yadav's result suggests that models of inflation - a furious hyperexpansion in the instant after the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago - have to be much more complicated than previously thought, or else that inflation never occurred at all and that the Big Bang came after a period of contraction.
"If the result sticks, it would be the first time that one of the predictions of simple inflation failed. And it could also lead to a radical reinterpretation of what the Big Bang was and whether it marked the universe's beginning, "he said.
Standard, simple inflation – needed to achieve a flat, smooth universe - holds that, just after the Big Bang, a uniform negative gravitational field drove a brief period of accelerated expansion.
Then the field died out, creating the matter and energy known in the universe today and leaving an afterglow of microwave radiation just a few degrees above absolute zero. If simple inflation theory is right, this imprint should be almost, but not quite, perfectly gaussian - a pattern with smooth-looking noise.
The analysis of Yadav and adviser Benjamin Wandelt showed that the CMB map was not gaussian with a certainty of 99.5%.
Source: The Times Of IndiaRajMaking Sense Of Windows’ Irrational Pricing And Licensing
2008-04-17T18:59:00.004+05:30Ed Bott, a blogger from Zdnet says:
A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced it was cutting the price of retail, shrink-wrapped copies of Windows Vista. The new suggested price for an upgrade edition of Windows Vista Ultimate is $219, down from $299. The cost of an upgrade edition of Vista Home Premium drops to $129 from $159. Those price cuts were effective with the release of Vista Service Pack 1 in mid-March, and the actual prices that people pay (the so-called street price) will invariably be lower: Amazon, for example, is offering discounts on the upgrade editions of Vista Ultimate and Home Premium for $195 and $95, respectively. The full versions are $300 and $216.
Those prices are, frankly, higher than what any sane person would pay. You can get a better deal direct from Microsoft, just by installing an unlicensed copy of Windows and not activating it within the first 30 days. As I noted back in December, Microsoft will sell you a fully legal Vista Ultimate license for $199, no questions asked, as part of its “get legal” program. In fact, Microsoft’s direct prices are significantly better than the suggested retail prices and practically identical to the discounted prices available from partners like Amazon.
But the customers who really get the short end of the deal are those who consider upgrading after they buy a new computer with Vista preinstalled. A customer who buys a new Dell XPS 420, for example, can choose Vista Home Premium preinstalled or can upgrade to Vista Ultimate at the time of purchase for $150. If they wait, however, the price goes up to $159 (and the hassle increases as well).
Trying to find the best price for Microsoft software is a frustrating game, with a constantly shifting set of rules that leave most people feeling like losers. Trying to understand whether you’re staying within those rules is stressful. I don’t know a single person who thinks the retail price of Windows is fair and that the terms of use are understandable. In fact, the entire licensing structure for Windows feels Byzantine and outmoded. It needs an overhaul, and next year’s launch of Windows 7 offers a perfect opportunity for Microsoft to give its consumer and small business customers a fresh start. If I were in charge of the retail launch, I’d make five changes:- Clean up the version confusion. Offer Home and Business versions (equivalent to the current Home Premium and Business editions) and an Ultimate edition that combines both.
- Cut the price. Make the Home edition $49, and sell the Business edition for $99. The cost of Ultimate? Add the other two prices together to get $148.
- No more upgrade SKUs. A license is a license, whether it’s new or an upgrade. You shouldn’t have to sort out ”qualifying upgrade products” or kludgey install workarounds that confuse even so-called experts.
- Sell a family upgrade pack. Copy Apple, and sell a pack of five licenses (Home only) for $199. And just like Apple, don’t offer that discount to businesses.
- Offer a deactivation option. Product activation is a necessary evil, but other companies do a better job of it. Adobe, for instance, allows Acrobat users to deactivate a license so they can uninstall are reinstall the software, on the same PC or a different one. Windows should do the same.
I’m sure some Microsoft execs are recoiling in horror at the thought of slashing prices and redoing licensing procedures. But I’ll bet the company’s bottom line would actually improve with this model, customer satisfaction would skyrocket, and it would kill the misperception that Windows is overpriced compared to the Mac OS.
Of course, there’s still the little matter of actually delivering a product people want to buy and then marketing it intelligently. But that’s a topic for another day and another post.
Source: Zdnet BlogsRaj2009 BMW 7-Series To Use Eight Speed Transmission
2008-04-15T13:14:00.003+05:30
With automakers like Chevrolet and Pontiac offering six-speed automatic transmissions, it just doesn't seem right that the world's leading car makers would offer the same number of cogs on their flagship models. Mercedes -Benz has been offering a seven-speed transmission for some time now and Lexus has stepped up its game with an eight-speed box. And, according to a new report, BMW will also be taking things up a notch.
According to Bimmerfile, BMW will equip its next-generation 7-series sedan with an eight-speed automatic transmission. The new transmission will also see the shifter moved from the steering column back to the center console.
Despite having two more gears than the current 7-series , the new gearbox won't take up any more space than the six-speed and will also be smoother and more efficient. The extra gears should also help the 7-series see a 6 percent bump in fuel economy.
The new transmission is also said to be very versatile, meaning it will probably spread to other BMW models after its debut in the next-generation 7-series.
Source: LeftLaneNewsRajThe 'Black hole' Scientist Dies At 96
2008-04-15T12:53:00.002+05:30'John Wheeler, the US physicist who coined the term "black hole", has died at the age of 96'
He died at his New Jersey home on 13 April of pneumonia, his daughter said.
Involved in the Manhattan project that developed the world's first atomic bomb, Wheeler was one of Albert Einstein's last collaborators.
Wheeler, who was for many years a professor at Princeton University, also worked with Niels Bohr, the Nobel Prize-winning Danish scientist.
President George W Bush said he was saddened by the death of "one of America's greatest physicists" who had "worked on projects that changed the course of history".
The expression "black hole" became a household term after he used it to describe the phenomenon of a star collapsing into such a dense core that light cannot escape from it. He died at his New Jersey home on 13 April of pneumonia, his daughter said.
Involved in the Manhattan project that developed the world's first atomic bomb, Wheeler was one of Albert Einstein's last collaborators.
Wheeler, who was for many years a professor at Princeton University, also worked with Niels Bohr, the Nobel Prize-winning Danish scientist.
President George W Bush said he was saddened by the death of "one of America's greatest physicists" who had "worked on projects that changed the course of history".
The expression "black hole" became a household term after he used it to describe the phenomenon of a star collapsing into such a dense core that light cannot escape from it.
Source: BBC NewsRajExploding Batteries In Notebooks Finally Have a Solution
2008-04-13T16:44:00.003+05:30'The new technology uses solid compounds instead of the traditional Li-Ion electrolytes'
A group of German researchers have just announced a new type of lithium-ion battery that promises to be safer and more reliable, even when used
in extreme conditions.
Recent incidents involving exploding batteries have put their reliability under question. You might remember the massive Sony battery recall in 2007 or the extended investigations conducted by LG Chem right after notebooks powered by its batteries started to catch fire.
According to the group of researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC, the new batteries are extremely safe thanks to some crucial innovations in their manufacturing process. "We have succeeded in replacing the inflammable organic electrolytes with a non-flammable polymer that retains its shape, " said ISC team leader Kai-Christian Moller.
Batteries built with lithium-ion technology are widely used in consumer electronics appliances, as they are more efficient and long-lasting than the previous generation of alkaline devices. Lithium-ion cells feature high power density and an easily rechargeable mold.
The "side-effect" in using lithium-ion mixtures is that the compound is less stable than other power sources, and it can get out of control when it gets overheated. For instance, when the battery pack heats up, the built-in flammable organic electrolytes usually spark into flames.
"This considerably enhances the safety of lithium-ion batteries. What’s more, because it is a solid substance, the electrolyte cannot leak out of the battery, " said Moller.
According to the ISC researchers, they had to face numerous technical challenges during the development of the new technology, as the solid-based compounds are less conductive than the lithium-ion electrolyte.
Moller claims that they solved the issue by using multiple interconnected cells. "For example, we can use coupling elements with two, three or four arms. As a result, we have more possibilities, " he detailed.
The new technology is not one of the miracles that take years until they get fully developed. ISC's invention is already functional, and the team is ready to showcase their prototypes at a trade show that will take place in Germany later this month.
However, mass-availability is a thing of the future, as the technology needs to be tested and validated.
Source: Softpedia NewsRajIBM working on a revolutionary memory format
2008-04-11T17:54:00.003+05:30
Solid-state (pictured) and conventional hard drives
could eventually be replaced by racetrack memory
IBM researchers are working on a new hi-tech form of memory they believe could eventually replace hard drives and flash-based memory altogether.
Based on the recently discovered spintronic phenomena, the new memory format has been dubbed racetrack memory by the IBM researchers working on it and uses tiny magnetic boundaries, known as domain walls, to store data.
The domain walls are read by exploiting the weak magnetic fields generated by the spin of electrons.
Years away
Although the IBM research team have yet to build a functioning racetrack memory unit and estimate that the technology is another eight years away from becoming viable for commercial use, they are confident that the technology could eventually replace existing storage methods.
Currently, conventional hard discs are cheap, but consist of moving parts that can break down. Solid state memory, by comparison, is quicker and more reliable, but costs considerably more that hard discs.
The IBM researchers expect that, once fully developed, racetrack memory will be cheaper, faster and more reliable than any existing storage medium.
Replacement
Ultimately, the IBM researchers hope it will come to replace hard disc and solid state memory altogether.
It’s believed that the capacity of racetrack memory could be up to 100 times that of existing hard drive technology, which means even more songs and movies on your portable media player.
Source: TechRadarRajTen Things You Can Do To Avoid Cancer
2008-04-10T00:55:00.003+05:30
Many people think cancer is entirely genetic and cannot be avoided, but that's not true.
Healthy behaviors could prevent about half of cancer deaths, according to the American Cancer Society.
Here are 10 lifestyle changes, all based on the latest research, that can improve the odds against cancer. The tips come from Dr. Anne McTiernan of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
- Don’t smoke or use any other tobacco products. If you’ve tried to quit before, don’t give up — eventually something will work.
- Get screened for cancer regularly (colon, breast, prostate, cervix and skin should be tested — ask your doctor for intervals and age at which to start). Finding cancer early can greatly increase your chance for a cure and reduce your risk of dying from the disease.
- Keep your alcohol consumption low. This means no more than two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women. Keeping your alcohol intake to the minimum daily level doesn’t mean that you can “save up” all your drinks for a week and binge on Friday night with your weekly “allotment.”
- Protect your skin from the sun. Use sunscreen every time you go outdoors (preferably one with an SPF of 30 or higher that protects against both UVA and UVB rays). Keep covered with a broad hat and sunglasses.
- Keep a physically active lifestyle. You don’t need to be an athlete to get the benefit of exercise. Activities such as brisk walking, biking, dancing or any exercise that raises your heart rate and makes you sweat will be beneficial.
- Keep your weight in the normal range for your height. That means keeping to a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or less. (You can calculate you BMI with online calculators). Try to stay within 5 to 10 pounds of what you weighed at age 18.
- Avoid taking menopausal hormone therapy. If you need to take hormones, limit your use to less than five years.
- Consider taking medications, after consulting a doctor, for reducing cancer risk. There are several medications that have been tested and found effective for reducing risk for cancer.
- Avoid exposures to cancer-causing substances. Radiation exposures and some chemicals are known to cause cancer.
- Eat a cancer-risk-reducing diet. The role of diet in cancer is far from established, but research suggests that a plant-based diet is associated with reduced risks for several cancers, especially for colon cancer. Guidelines include: Keep your intake of red meat to no more than 4 ounces of red meat (about the size of a deck of cards) per day on average; avoid processed meats such as sausages and bologna; eat a variety of non-starchy vegetables and fruits every day, at least five servings; and minimize your intake of sugared drinks, juices, desserts and candies, refined breads and bagels, and chips.
Source: LiveScienceRajThe Bamboo - A Miracle Material
2008-04-09T23:48:00.008+05:30In the world of the building materials, bamboo could compete successfully against steel, concrete, wood and glass. Because of its exceptional mechanical qualities, low price and design, bamboo could turn into one of the preferred building materials of the future. Even if it looks like a tree, the bamboo is just a woody perennial evergreen grass, related to cereals like wheat, corn or rice.
Bamboo plantation
For more than 2, 000 years, the bamboo has been used for building suspended bridges, houses, scaffolds, but also for making home products, furniture, pirogues, and musical instruments. The Chinese employed it in making a wide range of tools, from surgical needles (pieces with widths of tenths of millimeters, used for sewing nerves) to pipe lines, even during the 4th century BC. They used bamboo pipe lines to transport the brine from the salt mines of Tsu-Liu-Ching (Sichuan province).
Some bamboo construction resisted over the millennia. The suspended bamboo bridge at An-Lan (over the Min River), built during the 3rd century AD (!), 320 m (1, 066 ft) long, still stands (but it requires two maintenance sessions annually). The bridge is sustained by 15 bamboo cables, each having 5 cm (2 in) in diameter, whose resistance is four times higher than that of hemp ropes.
In 1905, China still had drilling stations made entirely of bamboo. They were 75 m (250 ft) tall and worked from 220 AD (!).
Tabashir, a siliceous resin secreted by some bamboo species, was used as chemical catalytic agent. In southeastern Asia, tabashir was used against asthma, coughing and even as an aphrodisiac. From heated bamboo, people extracted a
wax used for lighting. The first light bulb made in 1880 by Thomas Edison used a fiber of calcined bamboo as filament.
The Chinese also made a type of universal measurement standard based on bamboo. A bamboo rod was used as the length standard and when the distance between two knots made it possible, a bamboo rod was used as pipe. The hundredth part of this length was considered the size of a seed or grain, and the volume of the cylinder comprising 1, 200 seeds was the standard for capacity. The weight of the 1, 200 seeds gave the standard for weight.
The Japanese build spectacular bamboo kites. The largest were those of the Shikoku Island: they could be 24 m (80 ft) in diameter and weighed up to 4 tons, requiring the effort of 200 persons who had to hold the 1 km (3, 300 ft) long cable. The last kite of this size was built in 1914. Modern kites are up to 19 m (63 ft) wide, 13 m (43 ft) tall and weigh 80 kg (200 pounds), being raised in groups of two during a May festival.
Records and qualities of the bamboo
The bamboo is the plant with the fastest growth rhythm: 2-3 cm per hour. The record is detained by a Japanese species: 1.2 m (4 ft) in 24 hours. In 5-6 weeks, a bamboo reaches the adult height of 18-20 m (60-66 ft). For short periods, the bamboo can reach maximal growth speeds of 40 inches (1 m) per hour. The largest bamboos grow in Brazil: up to 40 m (133 ft) tall, with a diameter of 33 cm (1.1 ft).
If for cutting a timber tree you have to wait 20 to 70 years (respecting its natural cycles), the bamboo can be harvested in 3-5 years, when its stem is strong enough. Thus, the efficiency of a bamboo plantation is much higher than that of a forest.
Another advantage of the bamboo: if you pull out a stem, another one grows instead. The bamboo has an underground net of rhizomes and roots that naturally generates other aerial stems at a distance of 6 m (20 ft) from the central stem. On a hectare of bamboo plantation, there may be 187 rhizomes, whose fertility maintains for a decade. The bamboo rhizomes are very effective against soil erosion, land slides and even earthquakes, stretching the soil in a very dense knit.
Like in the case of wood, the bamboo stem cells have a cell wall made of very dense layers of cellulose, embedded in a matrix of lignin (from "lignus", wood in Latin) which confer an extraordinary resistance to bamboo stems. French researchers checked traction, flexion and compressing resistance of the bamboo, finding it to be 2.5 times higher than that of the oak wood.
Bamboo production costs 8 times less than that of the steel and, during earthquakes, the concrete cracks easier than the bamboo. Still, this material is rather used artisanally in southeastern Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The 91 genera and about 1, 000 species of bamboo are associated with tropical climate, because they miss from Europe and most of North America. But in the mountains of China, Korea and Japan, they can stand -24o C. Bamboo can be found up to 5, 000 m (16, 660 ft) in altitude and, in East Asia, up to 50°N latitude. In Argentina and Chile, they are found at 47°S latitude.
The An-Lan bridge
The main bamboo producer countries are India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Kenya, Costa Rica and Brazil. The annual bamboo production is estimated to 10 million tons.
A weak point of the bamboo is its blossoming. The bamboo flowers just once in its lifespan and the effect is the exhaustion of the roots and the rhizomes. Even if some bamboos flower annually, most species flower infrequently, at intervals of 10, 30, 60 or 120 years. This is called mast flowering (gregarious flowering), with all bamboos in an area flowering at the same time. After flowering, bamboos die in mass, and this compels the cultivators to renew the plantations soon after the flowering periods.
Another undesired trait of the bamboo is its variable height and diameter, varying from one stem to another, depending on the soil quality, clime and species. Assembling the pieces, too, is complicated. Traditionally, the stems are joined with complicated knots like those used by the sailors. Industrial solutions like glues, nails and bolts are investigated.
The French Michel Abadie built Flyboo, a bamboo airplane, 6 m (20 ft) long and 8 m (26 ft) wide. Only the joining elements, engine and landing gear were made of another material. The flying machine can reach 50-120 km (30-75 mi) per hour and develops 49.6 H.P.
Bamboo, rats and panda
The mass fruiting of the bamboo comes with many unexpected consequences. The enormous amount of available seeds induces a boom in rat populations. As the rats turn increasingly numerous, they start attacking crops, causing famine in local human populations.
This happened in 1954-1955 with the Melocanna bambusoides population from northeastern India, which has a mass flowering period of 30-35 years. The rats can also spread deadly diseases like typhus, typhoid, and bubonic plague.
5.99 % of the panda bear's diet is made of bamboo. An individual ingests 38 kg (90 pounds) of bamboo (shoots, stems and leaves) daily (an activity that takes around 14 hours) and eating bamboo requires some adaptations.
Pandas have wide molars and premolars (grinder teeth) and highly developed zygomatic arches (bones where chewing muscles are inserted) correlated to highly developed chewing muscles, adaptations for grinding tough bamboo stuff. They have a sixth "thumb", a bony projection of the fore paw which enables them to grip bamboo stems while eating. The esophagus is folded by a keratin layer so that it is not scratched by bamboo shafts.
As it is so dependent on bamboo, the invasions of the bamboo Chinese rat (Rhizomys sinensis) – a large subterranean rodent (40 cm (1.3 ft) long and 1 kg (2.2 pounds) heavy) – represent a huge challenge for the panda.
Source: Softpedia NewsRajIntel Prepares For The Cosmic Ray Threat To Computer Chips
2008-04-09T12:18:00.004+05:30'Computer processor manufacturer Intel have revealed details of a patent for protecting future generations of computers from the growing threat of cosmic rays'
The company has designed an on-chip cosmic ray detector to try to cope with the particles, which originate in space before sporadically entering the Earth's atmosphere and going through everything they encounter.
Because the operation of computers is through charged particles, the unpredicatable hits from the rays are problematic, potentially causing the system to crash.
The problems are multiplied as the number
of chips increases
"What happens is if a cosmic ray causes a collision inside the silicon chip, that releases lots of charged particles, " Intel's senior scientist Eric Hannah told BBC World Service's Digital Planet programme.
"All our logic is based on charge, so it gets interference."
'Bigger disturb'
The risk from cosmic rays may not be thought of as a big problem on a single computer with a single chip, as there is the potential for error only perhaps every several years.
But Mr Hannah explained that on a supercomputer with 10, 000 chips, there was the potential for 10 or 20 faults a week.
And the risk of cosmic ray interference will only increase as chips get smaller. This is because circuits will require less charge per switch to operate.
You could be going down the autobahn at 200 miles an hour
suddenly discover your anti-lock braking system doesn't work
because it had a cosmic ray event
Since the amount of charge from cosmic rays will remain the same, there will be a "bigger disturb, " Mr Hannah explained.
And this is potentially a problem not just for PCs and supercomputers, but anything with computer-operated parts - for example cars.
"You could be going down the autobahn at 200 miles an hour and suddenly discover your anti-lock braking system doesn't work because it had a cosmic ray event, " Mr Hannah said.
"It's strange, but this is the reality we're moving into as we get smaller and smaller circuits."
The cosmic ray detector is therefore designed to spot when rays have caused interference and then tell the chip to repeat the command.
"Everyone else was trying to do it with circuit resistence and more robust designs, or looking at the archetecture, " said Mr Hannah.
"I looked at it and said, 'that's a lot of energy being deposited in a short amount of time, and if you could detect that event with a cosmic ray detector.'
"Being a physicist it didn't look too hard to me - we could simply say, 'you were just hit by a cosmic ray, you may want to redo that calculation'."
He said that discussions are now under way within Intel about how to build such a detector and see how it works.
But he admitted that it will be hard to say when such a device may become a practical reality.
Such devices are "not too easily built, " he said, and required a way to build, for example, very small microphones.
"It's hard to say when it might or might not hit a product, " he added.
Source: BBC Technology NewsRajYou Can't Travel Back in Time, Scientists Say
2008-04-07T14:42:00.004+05:30
The urge to hug a departed loved one again or prevent atrocities are among the compelling reasons that keep the notion of time travel alive in the minds of many.
While the idea makes for great fiction, some scientists now say traveling to the past is impossible.
There are a handful of scenarios that theorists have suggested for how one might travel to the past, said Brian Greene, author of the bestseller, “The Elegant Universe” and a physicist at Columbia University.“And almost all of them, if you look at them closely, brush up right at the edge of physics as we understand it. Most of us think that almost all of them can be ruled out.”
The fourth dimension
In physics, time is described as a dimension much like length, width, and height. When you travel from your house to the grocery store, you’re traveling through a direction in space, making headway in all the spatial dimensions—length, width and height. But you’re also traveling forward in time, the fourth dimension.
“Space and time are tangled together in a sort of a four-dimensional fabric called space-time, ” said Charles Liu, an astrophysicist with the City University of New York, College of Staten Island and co-author of the book “One Universe: At Home In The Cosmos.”
Space-time, Liu explains, can be thought of as a piece of spandex with four dimensions. “When something that has mass—you and I, an object, a planet, or any star—sits in that piece of four-dimensional spandex, it causes it to create a dimple, ” he said. “That dimple is a manifestation of space-time bending to accommodate this mass.”
The bending of space-time causes objects to move on a curved path and that curvature of space is what we know as gravity.
Mathematically one can go backwards or forwards in the three spatial dimensions. But time doesn’t share this multi-directional freedom.
“In this four-dimensional space-time, you’re only able to move forward in time, ” Liu told the source website.
Tunneling to the past
A handful of proposals exist for time travel. The most developed of these approaches involves a wormhole—a hypothetical tunnel connecting two regions of space-time. The regions bridged could be two completely different universes or two parts of one universe. Matter can travel through either mouth of the wormhole to reach a destination on the other side.
“Wormholes are the future, wormholes are the past, ” said Michio Kaku, author of “Hyperspace” and “Parallel Worlds” and a physicist at the City University of New York. “But we have to be very careful. The gasoline necessary to energize a time machine is far beyond anything that we can assemble with today’s technology.”
To punch a hole into the fabric of space-time, Kaku explained, would require the energy of a star or negative energy, an exotic entity with an energy of less than nothing.
Greene, an expert on string theory—which views matter in a minimum of 10 dimensions and tries to bridge the gap between particle physics and nature's fundamental forces, questioned this scenario.
“Many people who study the subject doubt that that approach has any chance of working, ” Greene said in an interview . “But the basic idea if you’re very, very optimistic is that if you fiddle with the wormhole openings, you can make it not only a shortcut from a point in space to another point in space, but a shortcut from one moment in time to another moment in time.”
Cosmic strings
Another popular theory for potential time travelers involves something called cosmic strings—narrow tubes of energy stretched across the entire length of the ever-expanding universe. These skinny regions, leftover from the early cosmos, are predicted to contain huge amounts of mass and therefore could warp the space-time around them.
Cosmic strings are either infinite or they’re in loops, with no ends, said J. Richard Gott, author of “Time Travel in Einstein's Universe” and an astrophysicist at Princeton University. “So they are either like spaghetti or SpaghettiO’s.”
The approach of two such strings parallel to each other, said Gott, will bend space-time so vigorously and in such a particular configuration that might make time travel possible, in theory.
“This is a project that a super civilization might attempt, ” Gott told the source website. “It’s far beyond what we can do. We’re a civilization that’s not even controlling the energy resources of our planet.”
Impossible, for now
Mathematically, you can certainly say something is traveling to the past, Liu said. “But it is not possible for you and me to travel backward in time, ” he said.
However, some scientists believe that traveling to the past is, in fact, theoretically possible, though impractical.
Maybe if there were a theory of everything, one could solve all of Einstein’s equations through a wormhole, and see whether time travel is really possible, Kaku said. “But that would require a technology far more advanced than anything we can muster, " he said. "Don’t expect any young inventor to announce tomorrow in a press release that he or she has invented a time machine in their basement.”
For now, the only definitive part of travel in the fourth dimension is that we’re stepping further into the future with each passing moment. So for those hoping to see Earth a million years from now, scientists have good news.
“If you want to know what the Earth is like one million years from now, I’ll tell you how to do that, ” said Greene, a consultant for “Déjà Vu, ” a recent movie that dealt with time travel. “Build a spaceship. Go near the speed of light for a length of time—that I could calculate. Come back to Earth, and when you step out of your ship you will have aged perhaps one year while the Earth would have aged one million years. You would have traveled to Earth’s future.”
Source: LiveScienceRajMan shot by a killer robot
2008-04-07T14:28:00.003+05:30
AN 81-year-old Gold Coast man built, an intricate suicide machine to remotely shoot himself, after downloading the plans from the internet.
The Burleigh Heads man, who lived alone, left notes of his plans and thoughts as he struggled to come to terms with demands by interstate relatives that he move out his home and into care.
He spent hours searching the internet for a way to kill himself, downloaded what he needed and then built a complex machine that would remotely fire a gun.
He set the device up in his driveway about 7am yesterday, placed himself in front of it and set it in motion.
His notes explained that he chose the driveway as he knew there were tradesmen working next door who would find his body. The plan worked as the workmen heard the gunshots and ran to investigate.
The source website did not reveal how the machine worked, but they said it was attached to a .22 semi-automatic pistol loaded with four bullets.
It was able to fire multiple shots into the man's head after he activated it.
Suicide experts told the source website that such machines were not unheard of, but were very rare.
In November last year, a euthanasia campaigner who once compared her plight to that of a sick dog, took her own life, ending her battle with bladder cancer and multiple sclerosis.
Warwick mother-of-four June Burns, 67, was finally at peace after taking her life, said her husband Bob.
Euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke said she died after using a drug she had kept since the late 1990s.
Mr Burns said his wife had been comforted during her illness by the fact she had a way to end her life.
Source: GoldcastRajMan Gets Killed in an Attempt at Squeezing Gold from Computer Hardware
2008-04-06T10:46:00.001+05:30'He got intoxicated with mercury vapors'
A man got killed after an unsuccessful attempt at extracting gold from his own computer hardware devices. Tulsa resident Tony Winnett died after weeks of getting intoxicated with mercury, a metal he used to substitute gold from the computer's circuitry.
Winnett, aged 55, experimented with mercury for such a long time,
that not only he got lethally poisoned, but his house was so contaminated that living inside it will be extremely dangerous and could result in other individuals getting poisoned.
According to Durant/Bryan County Emergency Management Director James Dalton, Winnett along with his partner Melissa Lake heated the mercury during the gold separation process and involuntarily inhaled the dangerous vapors.
Dalton enlarged upon the matter and said that mercury is used on a large scale for separating gold, as a result of a simple chemical reaction, but this operation is not to be done at home, and rather in a specially controlled industry environment.
Winnett's home has already been surrounded by the law enforcement agents and the authorities are awaiting a verdict from the Environmental Protection Agency.
"We’re going to be in touch with the health department and the district attorney’s office on what type of action we have to take to abate it, " Dalton said.
His partner was treated for severe respiratory problems inflicted by the inhalation of the toxic metal, but doctors estimate that she will survive.
Gold is used on a small scale in the computer hardware industry thanks to its increased electric conductivity and prolonged lifespan, among other qualities. However, the gold parts are insignificant in terms of quantity (estimations claim that there are less than two grams in a high-end computing system).
Computers may be a great way of spending the leisure time or communicating, but they certainly are not to be regarded as gold mines.
Source: Softpedia NewsRajTooth Regeneration May Replace Drill-and-Fill
2008-04-04T16:42:00.003+05:30
Dentistry has taken the same approach to tooth decay —
filling cavities — for decades, but new techniques for rebuilding teeth
from the inside out could transform the profession over the next decade.
The next time your children get cavities, they might get tooth regeneration instead of fillings.
That's because materials scientists are beginning to find just the right solutions of chemicals to rebuild decayed teeth, rather than merely patching their holes. Enamel and dentin, the materials that make teeth the strongest pieces of the body, would replace the gold or ceramic fillings that currently return teeth to working order.
"What we're hoping to have happen is to catch [decaying teeth] early and remineralize them, " said Sally Marshall, a professor at the University of California at San Francisco. Marshall gave a talk last week at the spring meeting of the Materials Research Society on rebuilding the inner portions of teeth.
While regrowing your uncle's toothless grin from scratch is still a decade away, the ability to use some of the body's own building materials for oral repair would be a boon to dentists, who have been fixing cavities with metal fillings since the 1840s. Enamel and dentin are remarkably strong and long-lasting, and they can repair themselves. But as scientists are continuing to find out, dentin in particular is a remarkably complex structure.
The outer covering of teeth is enamel. The body makes it by growing tiny mineral crystals in a highly regular crystal lattice. Underneath that ceramic-like covering, dentin is like hard clay reinforced by fibers of collagen, similar to the way adobe bricks contain clay reinforced by straw fibers.
"The tooth is a beautiful structure, " said Van Thompson, dentistry professor and chairman of New York University's Department of Biomaterials and Biomimetics.
But teeth, because they are made from minerals, are susceptible to what is essentially erosion. Acids, like those produced by bacteria or Coca-Cola, demineralize the enamel of the teeth. Usually the body is constantly repairing small amounts of damage, Marshall said. But when the body's defenses become overwhelmed, bacteria break through into the dentin below, and you get tooth decay, commonly called a cavity.
The acid produced by the bacteria eats into the minerals in the dentin, turning it mushy and useless. Normal dentin is twice as stiff as pinewood, but damaged dentin is more like rubber, which makes it pretty hard to chew with.
Marshall's newest work, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Structural Biology, focuses on regrowing dentin in damaged teeth with the help of a calcium-containing solution of ions (electrically charged particles).
By putting a layer of the solution on individual test teeth, Marshall has already been able to remineralize some parts of the teeth. The challenge is to get the crystals to regrow throughout the dentin.
To heal properly, the crystals need to form from the bottom of the tooth up to the enamel. Marshall isn't sure whether that's happening yet, but she is confident that she'll find a way to restore dentin functionality over the next few years.
Stephen Bayne, professor of dentistry at the University of Michigan, noted that while many groups are working on regrowing teeth, Marshall has "incredible stature" in dentistry for her groundbreaking work helping dentists understand the structure of the tooth.
Still, even with the recent progress, the very complexity that Marshall and other researchers have discovered in the humble tooth is likely to keep her technique out of your local dentist's office for a few more years.
"We're still a ways from being able to grow back dentin and enamel, " Bayne said.
Source: WeirdRajThe Left Brain And The Right Brain Are Clearly Distinct
2008-04-04T16:37:00.004+05:30
The cerebral pineal complex of a transgenic zebrafish larvae,
with glowing proteins
Some people really have a problem with telling rapidly which is right and which is left (researches proved that women more than men), but your brain doesn’t. Your left brain and right brain are quite different. The right brain hemisphere is linked mostly to emotional functions and music feeling, while the left hemisphere is more analytical, linked to logical thinking, speech and abilities.
A new research carried out by a team led by Stephen Wilson at the University College London, and published in the journal "Neural Development, " shows for the first time how the left and right parts of our brain are wired at neuronal level.
The team focused on the left- and right-sided neurons (brain cells) in the brain nucleus called the habenula in zebrafish, in this case similar to that of the human brain. The team made the habenular neurons to synthesize a bright green fluorescent protein which enabled the researchers to visualize their axons, the long nerve fibers that transmit information between neurons.
"It's clear that the left and right halves of the brain process different types of information, but almost nothing is known about the differences in the brain's circuitry which achieve this. One possibility is that totally different types of neuron might be found on the left and right. Alternatively, both sides could contain the same building blocks but put them together in different ways, " said Wilson.
The team found two types of habenular neurons, both encountered in the left and the right side. But the left neurons predominantly had spiral axons shaped into a domed crown. These neurons were scarce on the right. Most of the right neurons made flat, shallow spirals, very rare in the left side of the habenula.
"In the same way that an engineer can make different electronic circuits from the same set of electronic components, so the left and right halves of the brain use the same types of neuron but in different combinations, " said co-author Isaac Bianco, a UCL student who did this work as part of his Ph.D. research.
The left and right habenular neurons connect to the same brain area, where their signals either combine or are processed independently.
"Even though language is processed largely on the left side of the human brain, people don't speak with only one half of their mouth. The brain must contain circuits which take information from the left or right and then send it on to targets on both sides of the body, " said Wilson.
Source: Softpedia NewsRajMatrix-Like Virtual Realities Will Soon Be Created By SuperComputers
2008-04-04T16:32:00.002+05:30'The technology will be perfected during the next years'
Supercomputers could be able to create extremely detail-rich virtual realities, that are strikingly similar to the ones presented in The Matrix. Researcher Michael McGuigan claims that extremely powerful supercomputers could be able to render virtual worlds that are so accurate that they can be mistaken for the real environment.
The new worlds would allow the subjects to interact with the virtual environment as it would be able to do in the real life. "By interaction we mean you could control an object – rotate it, for example – and it would render in real-time, " McGuigan says.
The existing computers can spice up artificial scenes with high level of details, yet they require incredible amounts of graphics power. For instance, an image with the necessary amount of detail to trick the human into taking it for real would take hours to render completely. In order to overcome this obstacle, McGuigan says that photorealism should be paired with software that can render images in real-time, at a high frame rate per second.
The most powerful computer in the world is IBM's BlueGene/L, that sports 18 racks, each rigged with 2000 standard PC processors that work in parallel for a joint processing speed of 103 teraflops. McGuigan tested the supercomputer's ability to render photorealistic scenes and found out that it can run ray-tracing software 822 times faster than on a standard PC.
"The nice thing about this ray tracing is that the human eye can see it as natural, " McGuigan says. "There are actually several types of ray-tracing software out there – I chose one that was relatively easy to port to a large number of processors. But others might be faster and even more realistic if they are used in parallel computing."
No matter how powerful the BlueGene/L is, it still cannot render the hi-res images at a sufficient pace to fool the human. McGuigan considers that, in order to pass the test, the computer needs a rough computing power of about one petaflop (1000 teraflops).
The advent of virtual worlds might be possible in a couple of years now. However, there are much more challenges that need to be addressed before proclaiming it as a fully-fledged alternative, such as coordinated movement and realistic animation, especially when it comes to fluids.
Source: Softpedia NewsRajAdding Human Brain To A Computer Gives A Brain Box?
2008-04-04T10:53:00.004+05:30'A new type of computer that mimics the complex interactions in the human brain is being built by UK scientists'
Manchester scientists' work aims to
make computers more reliable
The ÂŁ1m machine, nicknamed the "brain box", will be constructed at the University of Manchester.
The first of its kind in the world, it will be used to help researchers engineer fail-safe electronics.
Professor Steve Furber, of the university school of computer science, said computer science had much to learn from biological systems.
"Our brains keep working despite frequent failures of their component neurons, and this 'fault-tolerant' characteristic is of great interest to engineers who wish to make computers more reliable, " he explained.
Visual encoding
In the brain, groups of neurons work together, producing bursts of activity called "spikes".
These spikes give rise to the characteristic brain wave patterns seen on an electroencephalogram (EEG) trace.
The "brain box" will use large numbers of microprocessors to model the way networks of neurons interact.
"Our aim is to use the computer to understand better how the brain works at the level of spike patterns, and to see if biology can help us see how to build computer systems that continue functioning despite component failures, " said Prof Furber.
Another function of the computer will be to help scientists understand how details of complex visual scenes are encoded by the brain.
Source: BBC Technlogy NewsRaj15 Must Have Freewares
2008-04-03T15:52:00.004+05:30
You know that there are tons of Freewares available on the web and most of them are useless and infected with at least an adware. They suck bad. Many people fail to get the right freewares to cover up all the computer browsing needs (well...almost) and they are forced to purchase expensive softwares that possess the 'same' or 'almost same' features which are easily available for free. Why waste money when you can get it for paying nothing? Now, here's the list of Free softwares that are safe and useful:
Security---
Zone Alarm Firewall:Features:
- Easy-to-use firewall blocks hackers and other unknown threats.
- Systematically identifies hackers and blocks access attempts
- Automatically makes your computer invisible to anyone on the Internet
Download Page: Click here
Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition:Features:
- On demand scanning
- Scheduled scanning
- Immediate scanning
- Skinable interface
- Reports
Download Page: Click here
Spybot Search & Destroy:
Features:- Removal of adware and spyware
- Removal of dialers Removal of keyloggers
- Removal of trojans and other baddies
- Removal of usage tracks
- And much more!
Full list of features
Download Page: Click herePeer Guardian:
Features:- PeerGuardian is Phoenix Labs’ premier IP blocker for OS X.
- PeerGuardian integrates support for multiple lists, list editing, automatic updates, and blocking all of IPv4 (TCP, UDP, ICMP, etc), making it the safest and easiest way to protect your privacy on the Internet.
Download Page: Click here
CCleaner:
Features:- CCleaner is a PC optimization tool
- It combines a system cleaner that removes unused and temporary files from your system and also a fully featured registry cleaner
- CCleaner allows Windows to run faster, more efficiently and gives you more hard disk space
Download Page: Click hereMultimedia---
K-lite Mega Codec pack:Features:
- With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play all the popular movie formats and even some rare formats
Download Page: Click here
GOM Player:
Features:
- GOM Player supports most of the condecs (AVI, DAT, MPEG, DivX, and many more)
- Watch video files while downloading them
- Play broken AVI video files
Download page: Click here
AIMP 2 (Music Player):
Features:
- Supports playback of almost every Audio format
- Skinable Interface
- And many attractive features Click for the full list
Download Page: Click here
VLC Player: ( For backup. If any of the media files fail to play in GOM Player)
Features: Features list
Download Page: Click here
Photo Editing, Fixing & Managing---
Picasa:Features:
- Picasa instantly locates and organises all the pictures on your computer
- You can add passwords to any of your Picasa collections
- Makes advanced editing simple by putting one-click fixes and powerful effects
- Picasa 2 will maintain any albums and any edits that you made to your photos
- And much more!
Download Page: Click herePaint.NET:
My comment: ' A total replacement for the windows paint program. It has a lot of features that are required for basic editing of pictures'.
Features: Feature list
Download Page: Click here
Internet Browsers---
Maxthon 2:
My comment: 'Its an innovative internet browser with lots and lots of features to keep you playing with them. It still has to go a long way with respect to the stability. Use it if you are willing to try something new.'
Features:
- Great new design
- Tab manager
- Favorites manager
- RSS manager
- MaxFav for online favorites
- Search as you type
- And many more
Download page: Click hereMozilla Firefox:
My comment: 'Currently the best and the safest browser available'
Features:
- Comprehensive
- Popup controls to keep unwanted advertising off your desktop
- Tab browsing mode that lets you open several pages in a single window, allowing you to load links in the background without leaving the page you're on
- Integrated search (powered by Google)
- Industry leading accessibility with Find As You Type - find links and page text by simply typing
- Simplified privacy controls that let you cover your tracks more effectively
- A streamlined browser window that lets you see more of the page than any other browser while at the same time being more configurable
- A large variety of free downloadable extensions and themes that add specific functionality and visual changes to the browser.
Download page: Click hereDownload manager---
Free Download Manager:
Features:
- Free Download Manager (FDM) offers you a vast variety of options to control and schedule your downloads. This is a light-weight but powerful download manager
- FDM can resume your broken download so that you needn't start it from the beginning after casual interruption. You can resume unfinished download from the moment when it was interrupted. Also this program warns you if resuming isn't supported by the servers. It allows you to make a decision about the downloading. So with FDM you save your time and money
- FDM allows you to limit the downloading speed. There are 3 modes of network usage: Light, Medium and Heavy
- Capability to split download into several sections allows you to increase download speed up to 600%
- FDM can connect to the Internet at a set time, download the files you want, launch any program, disconnect or shut down your computer when it's done
- This download manager allows you to specify the settings of network usage, such as login and password, maximum number of connections, default group, etc. So you can avoid adjusting these settings every time you need to create new download from the server
- Also you can download the whole web sites from the remote server. You can adjust FDM to download files with the extensions you have specified
Download Page: Click here
Miscellaneous---
Regcleaner:
Features:
- Remove unwanted startup entries
- Remove file types
- Remove entries of old software
- Uninstall and remove Software from the Add/Remove list
- Remove unused DLL files
- Remove unused Shared DLLs (Automatically detected)
- Automatic backup feature
Download Page: Click Here
Raj- Easy-to-use firewall blocks hackers and other unknown threats.
Sony's "World's Smallest Full HD Cam" Has Miniature Sensor
2008-04-03T15:33:00.005+05:30'The HDR-TG1's WOW factor tainted by MemoryStick format'
Sony's diminutive new heir to the newly minted "world's smallest Full HD camcorder" throne is the travel-ready silver titanium frame HDR-TG1. While Full HD (1920x1080, also known as 1080P) with a 1.3 x 4.7 x 2.5 inch body and $900 price tag would have seemed like fantasy just a short while ago, Sony made it real and gave it a horror twist that just one day after the launch already has potential customers complaining. Stealthy voyeurism in HD may have to wait a while more.
This is a memory card camera, but it can only use Sony's unsuccessful proprietary MemoryStick format. While it ships with a 4GB PRO Duo Mark 2 card, using it in its most attractive role – as a travel/vacation cam - would most likely force you to buy extra MemoryStick cards, which just happen to be more expensive than (almost twice as much as) the norm. I can see this camcorder joining the pile of Sony products being boycotted by savvy gadgeteers who are dissatisfied with the lack of memory card flexibility.
The HDR-TG1 camcorder with black cradle
The 1/5 inch, 2 megapixel ClearVid CMOS sensor is coupled with a 10X Carl Zeiss zoom lens. The sensor's Exmor technology should reduce some of the noise originated in the really small sensor . The highest possible compression quality here is 16Mbps in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 (an improvement over similar miniature models), for a recording time of 25 minutes on a 4GB card. In the Japanese press release, a slow-motion mode is mentioned but at the moment it is not clear what its exact specs are.
Surprisingly, the HDR-TG1 takes 4 megapixel photos (twice the sensor's native resolution), presumably through interpolation. Stills can be snapped while recording. The face-detection system can identify up to eight faces and encodes the selected parts of the images with extra bits. The built-in zoom microphone records 5.1-channel surround sound.
The HDR-TG1 - transparent internal view
Control is exerted through a joystick located on the back of the camera. A small zoom ring surrounds the joystick, within quick access distance of the camera holding hand's thumb. The ring has, as can be deduced from the Sony launch video, quite a bit of response lag.
Sometime last year, Germany's Fraunhofer Institute released a decidedly less handsome Full HD camera. While not exactly up to the standards of consumer cams (it can only be controlled through a web interface, as it has no actual buttons), it is smaller than the TG1, has a huge 2/3" sensor, and advertises 9 stops of dynamic range. While no price is known, the Fraunhofer MicroHDTV is the real "world's smallest full HD camcorder".
The HDR-TH1 will cost $900 in May, and pre-order sales have already started.
Source: Softpedia NewsRaj
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