Interesting Writings

Firefox 3 new homepage...third screenie

2008-06-18T00:19:00.002+05:30

homepage looks ready, but download is still not available

Firefox 3 new homepage...second screenie

2008-06-18T00:07:00.004+05:30

Its coming up slowly....still has the version 2 download link.

Firefox 3 new homepage...first screenie

2008-06-17T23:55:00.002+05:30

Still has the version 2 download link

Black holes reveal more secrets

2008-04-25T22:21:00.000+05:30

Scientists say they have unlocked some of the secrets behind black holes, the gravitational fields known for sucking up light and stars from the Universe.
In a report in the journal Nature, US researchers say they have worked out how black holes emit jet streams of particles at close to light speed.

Source

Human line 'nearly split in two'

2008-04-25T22:20:00.001+05:30

Ancient humans started down the path of evolving into two separate species before merging back into a single population, a genetic study suggests.
The genetic split in Africa resulted in distinct populations that lived in isolation for as much as 100,000 years, the scientists say.
This could have been caused by arid conditions driving a wedge between humans in eastern and southern Africa.
Details have been published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
It would be the longest period for which modern human populations have been isolated from one another.
But other scientists said it was still too early to reconstruct a meaningful picture of humankind's early history in Africa. They argue that other scenarios could also account for the data.
At the time of the split - some 150,000 years ago - our species, Homo sapiens, was still confined to the African continent.

Source

Microsoft unveils its web vision

2008-04-25T22:16:00.001+05:30

Microsoft has lifted the lid on a new web service called Live Mesh, designed to connect a multiplicity of devices and applications online.
The service is seen by many as a key plank in the company's vision for the future of the web.
Live Mesh is designed to blur the lines between running software and storing data on a desktop and "in the cloud".
Microsoft's Amit Mital said Live Mesh would "connect and bring devices together... to work in concert".
Live Mesh pits Microsoft against companies like Amazon, Google and Salesforce.com which are already offering different varieties of so-called software-as-a-service systems.
It comes as Microsoft is engaged in a bid to buy rival Yahoo and emphasises just how important the web has become to the firm.

Source

Skype introduces 'unlimited' world calling plan

2008-04-22T10:42:00.000+05:30

Maintaining its free computer-to-computer video, voice, and instant messaging, peer to peer telephone company Skype announced today an "unlimited" €8.95 monthly calling plan for connecting to international cell and landlines.

Source

New release of Linux kernel presents major changes

2008-04-22T10:41:00.000+05:30

Linux expert Linus Torvalds announced in his blog on Wednesday that Linux kernel version 2.6.25 has been publicly released, with changes to WiFi support, file system management, and virtualization.

Source

Windows XP Service Pack 3 Released to Manufacturing

2008-04-22T10:35:00.000+05:30

“Today we are happy to announce that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) has released to manufacturing (RTM). Windows XP SP3 bits are now working their way through our manufacturing channels to be available to OEM and Enterprise customers.

We are also in the final stages of preparing for release to the web (i.e. you!) on April 29th, via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center. Online documentation for Windows XP SP3, such as Microsoft Knowledge Base articles and the Microsoft TechNet Windows XP TechCenter, will be updated then. For customers who use Windows XP at home, Windows XP SP3 Automatic Update distribution for users at home will begin in early summer.

Thanks to everyone here who installed the public betas – you not only gave us detailed feedback but also helped each other out with timely troubleshooting. Through the beta program we found several important issues and were able to confirm some essential fixes. We couldn’t have done this without you.

We will still be monitoring this forum during the next few weeks in case you have more feedback about the release of Windows XP SP3.”

Source

Microsoft Wants Yahoo

2007-05-05T06:57:00.000+05:30

Stung by the loss of Internet advertising firm DoubleClick to Google last month, Microsoft has intensified its pursuit of a deal with Yahoo!, asking the company to re-enter formal negotiations, The Post has learned.

While Microsoft and Yahoo! have held informal deal talks over the years, sources say the latest approach signals an urgency on Microsoft's part that has up until now been lacking.

The new approach follows an offer Microsoft made to acquire Yahoo! a few months ago, sources said. But Yahoo! spurned the advances of the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant. Wall Street sources put a roughly $50 billion price tag on Yahoo!.

"They're getting tired of being left at the altar," said one banking source who has recently had talks with Microsoft. "They now seem more willing to extend themselves via a transaction to get into the game."

Part of the reason for that is because Google keeps trumping Microsoft on the deal front, beating out the company on not just DoubleClick, but also for a renewed search advertising pact with AOL in 2005 that Microsoft lusted after.

Source

India Looks To Produce World's First $10 Laptop

2007-05-05T06:55:00.000+05:30

Forget the one hundred dollar laptop. India has bigger, but cheaper, plans. Ten times cheaper to be exact: India's Ministry of Human Resource Development is spearheading the project, with help from Semiconductor Complex, a state-sponsored designer and manufacturer of integrated circuits. Officials from those organizations are presently weighing system designs submitted by an engineering student from India's Vellore Institute of Technology and a researcher from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. The Times of India on Friday reported that the efforts thus far have yielded designs for a laptop that would cost about $47, while a $10 system remains the ultimate goal.

Last year, Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child Organization submitted a proposal to the Indian government under which the group would have worked to produce laptops for Indian students starting at $100. Indian officials at the time criticized the proposal as insufficiently mature to be taken seriously and rejected it.

Source

Google Checkout on Google Sponsored Links

2007-03-23T10:12:00.000+05:30

Caught this today on my Blog. Google has added an icon on the links which support Google Checkout on their list of sponsored links.

CD Music Sales Down 20% from 2006

2007-03-22T17:36:00.000+05:30

The Wall Street Journal notes that CD music sales are down 20% from the same week a year ago. The seven year decline in CD sales doesn’t look to be turning around anytime soon.

And while legal music download sales are increasing by 50% or so a year, overall industry revenue is still down 25% from a year ago by some estimates.

Source

Laptops Set to Outsell Desktops

2007-03-22T10:11:00.001+05:30

Analysts IDC have said that by 2011 laptops will outsell desktop computers as portable machines become quicker and more efficient. The report predicts that laptop sales will grow 16.1% year-on-year until 2011, compared to 3.8% for desktop PCs. There will also be a short burst in desktop sales this year, due to the release of Vista, it predicts.

More than 82 million portable computers and nearly 140 million desktop PCs were shipped around the world in 2006, according to the report. The gradual shift away from fixed machines may reflect the needs of an increasingly mobile workforce and the ubiquity of wireless networks.

Source

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

2007-03-16T11:54:00.000+05:30

Interesting video about Web 2.0

Google Cell Phone

2007-03-16T10:24:00.000+05:30

If the above screenshot shows the actual mobile phone that Google is developing in association with Samsung, Apple iPhone or the Nokia Internet Tablet may be in for some serious competition.

The phone specs say that "it combines the traditional voice and SMS capabilities of phones with all the exciting Google services from the PC such as Search, Gmail, Maps, Blogger"

And check the screenshot of that paid Google survey that actually caused this "Google Phone Storm" in the blogger community.

More details on ZDNet and Dirson.

Cource

GoogleTalk Gadget Added to Personal Pages

2007-03-15T10:34:00.000+05:30

Google just announced integration of their instant messaging service, Google Talk, with Google IG, their personalized home page. The flash-based widget plugs into your Google Personal Home Page as an integrated buddy list and IM window. The new widget can be added to your page here.

Google IG is still only 1/7th or so the size of Yahoo’s competing product according to worldwide Comscore numbers. But Google’s integration with it’s own widget platform puts it ahead of the personal page giant Yahoo, which hasn’t integrated with it’s own konfabulator widget platform. Yahoo widgets have also been tough for others to wrangle. Netvibes’ Universal Widget API won’t include the platform in its first iteration.

The widget isn’t just a copy of the Gmail version, it also has some of its own cool new features. Compared to popup message windows in the Gmail version, the widget’s conversations open up tabs instead. The new widget will also will also intelligently parse Picassa and YouTube links, displaying the content embedded right in the conversation.

Source

A World Time Clock for your System Tray from Microsoft

2007-03-15T10:22:00.000+05:30

If you have friends, co-workers and clients in different cities of the world, Microsoft has a small desktop utility for you that will come very handy when making telephone calls or scheduling online meetings.

This free tool called Microsoft Time Zone runs as a tiny icon in your system tray and allows you to watch the current date and time of upto 5 cities around the world simultaneously.

Microsoft Time Zone also lets you compare times at different places in the world without changing your system time. Would be of great help when you are scheduling that next meeting with a client who's on the other side of the Pacific.

Source

India leads Asia billionaire club

2007-03-12T13:09:00.000+05:30

India has the most billionaires in Asia with a total wealth of $191bn between them, according to the Forbes magazine annual list of richest people.

With 36 billionaires, India has overtaken Japan's 24 billionaires, after two decades of Japan topping the Asian rich list.

Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal leads the Indian billionaire club, with a net worth of $32bn.

Globally, there are a record 946 billionaires, up from 793 last year.

"It was a sizzling year in Asia. Both India and China saw huge gains, " Forbes associate editor Luisa Kroll was reported as saying by the AFP news agency.

Source

Adobe, Give Us A Lite Version of Photoshop for Free

2007-03-08T09:37:00.000+05:30

Adobe has decided to put Photoshop online for free. Adobe plans to generate revenue from online advertising (like GMail) though the web based version of Photoshop will not be as sophisticated (or complex) as the desktop application.

Plot Your EMail Trajectory on Google Maps

2007-03-08T09:33:00.000+05:30

Wondering what physical path an email message (from a friend or some spammer) had followed before reaching your inbox ? Try the Email graphic traceroute service.

You copy-paste your email headers in the Email Routemap web interface and the service draws the path of your email message on Google maps.

For the above screenshot, we used a test mail sent via yahoogroups.com.The orange icon (destination) denotes the location of Yahoo! Mail servers while the green pin indicates the origin or the location from where that email message was sent.

Another very interesting Google Maps mashup is Google Maps Traceroute - type in any IP address and the service will show the exact physical location of that IP on Google Maps.

Source

Download Windows Vista Fonts Legally from Microsoft Office Website

2007-03-08T09:31:00.000+05:30

Windows Vista includes several new fonts based on ClearType that can be used on Windows XP as well as Macs. These beautiful typefaces were created especially for improving the on-screen reading experience in Vista.

Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't provide a direct way to download these fonts without buying Windows Vista.
But here's a simple trick to download the Vista fonts for free and legally without buying a Vista license:

Download either the free Microsoft Powerpoint 2007 Viewer or the Microsoft Office Compatibility pack - both the software include the new Windows Vista fonts.

Source

Earth seen from 4 billion miles away

2007-01-17T18:36:00.000+05:30

Earth seen from 4 billion miles away, photographed by Voyager 1 on June 6, 1990.

Microsoft Hits 100 Million IE7 Installs

2007-01-17T18:24:00.000+05:30

Microsoft announced Friday it has hit the 100 million installation milestone for Internet Explorer 7, a figure that makes the new browser the second most used behind IE6. Web analytics firm WebSideStory reports that 25 percent of all Web surfers in the United States are now running IE7.

Source

$100 laptop project launches 2007

2007-01-03T17:27:00.001+05:30

The first batch of computers built for the One Laptop Per Child project could reach users by July this year.
The scheme is hoping to put low-cost computers into the hands of people in developing countries.
Ultimately the project's backers hope the machines could sell for as little as $100 (£55).
The first countries to sign up to buying the machine include Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Nigeria, Libya, Pakistan and Thailand.
The so-called XO machine is being pioneered by Nicholas Negroponte, who launched the project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab in 2004.
Test machines are expected to reach children in February as the project builds towards a more formal launch.

Source

Scan shows how brains plot future

2007-01-03T17:24:00.000+05:30

Brain scans have given US scientists a clue about how we create a mental image of our own future.
The Washington University team say that specific areas of the brain are active when thinking about upcoming events.
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study could help doctors trying to understand damage inflicted by strokes, injuries or diseases.
The findings tally with damage spotted in the brains of patients who have lost the ability to 'think ahead'.

Source

Sun's Surface From 5000 Kilometers

2006-12-29T15:00:00.000+05:30

Source

Google Passes Yahoo in Tally of Visitors

2006-12-24T09:09:00.000+05:30

Google, the search engine company, displaced Yahoo as the world’s second-most-visited Web site in November and closed in on the leader, Microsoft, a market researcher said yesterday.
Visitors to Google’s sites rose 9.1 percent, to 475.7 million in November from a year earlier, while those to Yahoo sites rose 5.2 percent, to 475.3 million, the researcher, ComScore Networks, said. Both sites trail Microsoft, which had 501.7 million visitors, ComScore said.
It was the first time that Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., attracted more visitors than Yahoo, reflecting Google’s growing popularity outside the United States. Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., is still the most-visited site within the United States, ComScore said. Microsoft’s visitors increased 3.3 percent from a year earlier.
Visitors to Fox Interactive Media sites, owned by the News Corporation, rose almost fivefold, to 130.4 million, in November from a year ago, reflecting a surge from the purchase of MySpace.com.
Visitors at YouTube, bought by Google for $1.65 billion in November, rose more than 24-fold to 107.9 million, ComScore said.

Source

How the shuttle returns to Earth

2006-12-22T21:50:00.000+05:30

To return to Earth the space shuttle must make a series of complicated manouevres to align itself into the correct position to achieve a safe descent.

1. The shuttle flies upside down in orbit to control its heating.
2. To re-enter the atmosphere, the shuttle is turned tail first to the direction of travel, and fires its engines to slow its speed.
3. The orbiter is then flipped the right way up and enters the top layer of the atmosphere at about a 40-degree angle from horizontal with its wings level.
4. The orientation keeps its black thermal tiles facing the majority of the heat - as high 1,650C (3,000F) on the leading edges of the wings and nose.
5. As its speed drops, the shuttle starts to fly more like an aircraft, using its rudder and wing flaps for control. It banks sharply to slow its speed still further
6. The shuttle falls from a height of more than 360km at speeds that top Mach 30, and at an angle of 19 degrees, far steeper than that of a commercial aircraft. The spacecraft comes to a dead stop half a world a way from where it began the descent.

Source

Social networks top Google search

2006-12-19T16:16:00.000+05:30

Social networks Bebo and MySpace were the two most searched for terms of 2006 using Google's search engine.
The two rival sites allow users to create individual web pages, with photos, music and video.
The football World Cup was the third most searched for term while Paris Hilton topped the news searches.
The top 10 searches were dominated by web 2.0 developments, such as video site Metacafe, music streaming service Radioblog and encyclopaedia Wikipedia.
The word video was the seventh most searched for term of 2006, reflecting the growth in services such as YouTube and MetaCafe, and offerings from Google, Yahoo and MSN.
Mexican soap opera Rebelde was the eighth most searched for term on Google over the last 12 months, a sign of the importance of the Spanish language on the net.
Rebelde ended its run on television in June but the actors in the soap opera have formed a popular band, called RBD, which keeps interest in the soap opera alive.
The top news searches of 2006 were dominated by celebrity, illness, tragedy and the bizarre.
Orlando Bloom was the second most searched for item on Google News, followed by cancer, podcasting, hurricane Katrina and bankruptcy.
Google was asked a lot of questions in 2006 and the most popular "Who is....?" question was about Borat, the TV and film character created by Sacha Baron Cohen.
Surfers also asked lots of questions about Hezbollah and different types of drugs, from Acyclovir to Xanax.
In the "How to" section, people most wanted to learn how they could refinance, set up a wiki page, drift, podcast, scream and levitate.
In the battle of the celebrity weddings, Nicole Kidman's marriage to singer Keith Urban was searched for more often than Tom Cruise's nuptials with Katie Holmes.

TOP 10 GOOGLE SEARCHES 2006
1. Bebo
2. MySpace
3. World Cup
4. Metacafe
5. Radioblog
6. Wikipedia
7. Video
8. Rebelde
9. Mininova
10. Wiki

Source

Nasa and Google form cosmic union

2006-12-19T16:14:00.000+05:30

Detailed 3D images of the Moon and Mars will soon be just a click away for web users, following a deal between search giant Google and US space agency Nasa.
The Space Agreement Act, signed on Monday, will put "the most useful of Nasa's information on the internet".
Real-time weather data and the positions of the International Space Station and shuttle could be included.
The deal will also see scientists from both institutions working together to solve complex computational problems.
"This agreement between Nasa and Google will soon allow every American to experience a virtual flight over the surface of the moon or through the canyons of Mars," said Nasa administrator Michael Griffin.
The deal will make "Nasa's space exploration work accessible to everyone," he added.

Source

IE safer than FF?

2006-12-16T17:05:00.000+05:30

Seems that IE is safer than FF 2.0 according to Yahoo.

Gates: Digital locks too complex

2006-12-16T08:10:00.000+05:30

Microsoft boss Bill Gates has told a group of influential bloggers that copy protection for digital music and video is too complex for consumers.
Mr Gates was speaking to an invited party of bloggers and web developers at Microsoft's Seattle headquarters.
Digital Rights Management (DRM), which is used to stop copying, is a big issue for some people who feel it limits what they can do with legally bought files.
"DRM is not where it should be," said Mr Gates, reported blogger Steve Rubel.

Source

Prize offered to tag an asteroid

2006-12-15T10:52:00.000+05:30

A $50,000 (£25,000) competition has been launched to find the best way to tag a 400m-wide asteroid.
The Apophis space rock is set to make a close pass of Earth in 2029 and scientists would like to confirm that it poses no danger to our world.
The Planetary Society will give a prize to the designers of a mission that would allow the huge asteroid's orbit to be tracked with the most precision.
The competition has support from the US and European space agencies.

Source

High IQ link to being vegetarian

2006-12-15T10:50:00.000+05:30

Intelligent children are more likely to become vegetarians later in life, a study says.
A Southampton University team found those who were vegetarian by 30 had recorded five IQ points more on average at the age of 10.
Researchers said it could explain why people with higher IQ were healthier as a vegetarian diet was linked to lower heart disease and obesity rates.

Source

MySpace Is Biggest Site on Internet

2006-12-13T09:43:00.000+05:30

The November Comscore numbers show the inevitable: Fox Interactive (mostly MySpace) now has more page views than the combined Yahoo sites, taking the no. 1 spot for the first time. This was less to do with MySpace growth than with a 9% dip in overall Yahoo traffic (total Internet traffic for all sites in November dipped just 3%; Google was up 5%).

Source

Get Non-Gmail EMails in Gmail now

2006-12-11T12:45:00.000+05:30

Google is slowly integrating Mail Fetcher which enable you to access non-Gmail email accounts from within the Gmail interface. If you have a Yahoo email account, and a work email account, etc., you can simply access that email from within Gmail, using POP settings. Gmail will now work in a very similar way as Outlook does on the PC desktop.

Get a Gmail account now

2006-12-11T12:38:00.000+05:30

Google has opened up Gmail in a few countries (Australia, South Africa, Egypt and Japan). If you do not live in anyone of those countries, you can still create a Gmail account.
Use a proxy from anyone of those countries where Gmail is opened up and voila you have a Gmail account.
For some strange reasons, I was not getting the link(create Gmail account) on the Gmail home page, but when I signed out and came back to Gmail homepage I could see the link.

Gmail's new feature?

2006-12-02T17:52:00.000+05:30

Found this popup at the bottom of the browser window (Gmail window) when I was reading a thread mail which had almost 10 replies and some one has just replied to that thread mail.

Good feature isn't it?

Download Windows Vista Wallpapers

2006-11-28T10:19:00.000+05:30

Source

Gmail - slow internet connection message

2006-11-25T15:37:00.000+05:30

This is what Gmail shows up when you try to login with a slow internet connection.

Live Mail doesn't recognize mails from Microsoft

2006-11-22T19:36:00.000+05:30

I have subscribed to a bunch of Microsoft Newsletters. It seems that Live Mail does not recognize those mails and marks them as 'Unknown Sender'.
I am made to click on 'Allow Sender' every time I get a newsletter from Microsoft.

Does anyone have the same problem?

A mouse that floats

2006-11-21T08:03:00.000+05:30

The CrazyPC Hover Mouse is the world's first 100% friction-less mouse. Utilizing advanced, patent-pending electromagnetic hovering technology, the Hover Mouse floats one centimeter above the mousing surface at all times. It is a well established fact, that friction results in wear to your mouse and decreased accuracy while gaming. Since the Hover Mouse is friction-less wear is eliminated, and in-game accuracy sky rockets. Be the first on your block to own a Hover Mouse! Ideal for all gamers or for those suffering from arthritis!

Source

Spectacular Meteor Caught on Video during Football Game

2006-11-20T07:57:00.001+05:30

Computer industry 'faces crisis'

2006-11-18T09:21:00.000+05:30

The computer industry faces a skills crisis, the president of the British Computer Society has told BBC News.
Unless steps are taken now, there will not be enough qualified graduates to meet the demands of UK industry, warned Professor Nigel Shadbolt.
Prof Shadbolt said there was increasing demand but decreasing supply of graduates in computer science.

Source

Indians Form 28% Of Immigrant Entrepreneurs In US

2006-11-17T13:12:00.000+05:30

Indians are a key factor in the success of US entrepreneurship especially in the tech areas. According to a latest study, Indians account for 28 per cent of all foreign-founded private start-up companies in America.
The study titled, ‘American Made: The Impact of Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Professionals on US Competitiveness’, a first of its kind, found that over the past 15 years, immigrants have started 1 in 4 (25 per cent) US public companies that were venture-backed, representing a market capitalisation of more than $500 billion.
After India (28 per cent), they are the UK (11 per cent), China (5 per cent), Iran (4 per cent), and France (4 per cent).
The other findings are that nearly half of the immigrant entrepreneurs in the survey (46 per cent) arrived in the US as students. More than half of the founders started their businesses within 12 years of entering the United States.

Source

Californian Newspapers Outsource Advertising Jobs To India

2006-11-17T13:08:00.000+05:30

Now advertising jobs are being outsourced to India. It’s done by newspapers directly to ad design shops located in India. For instance, advertising production jobs at the Contra Costa Times (California) will be outsourced to a firm called Express KCS in India, says a report. Express KCS calls itself as India’s leading media preparation business, and it has clients like prepress firms, ad agencies and retailers. The firm will take over ad production operations within the next several months.
Contra Costa’s sister concern San Jose Mercury News may also consider outsourcing their ad jobs to Express KCS.
I am sure next will be interactive ads being outsourced to India if it is not being already done.

Source

Mysterious force's long presence

2006-11-17T06:48:00.000+05:30

Dark energy - the mysterious force that is speeding up the expansion of the Universe - has been a part of space for at least nine billion years.
That is the conclusion of astronomers who presented results from a three-year study using the Hubble Space Telescope.
The finding may rule out some competing theories that predict the strength of dark energy changes over time.
Dark energy makes up about 70% of the Universe; the rest is dark matter (25%) and normal matter (5%).

Source

Half a second delay killed user satisfaction

2006-11-16T09:35:00.000+05:30

Google VP Marissa Mayer just spoke at the Web 2.0 Conference and offered tidbits on what Google has learned about speed, the user experience, and user satisfaction.

Marissa started with a story about a user test they did. They asked a group of Google searchers how many search results they wanted to see. Users asked for more, more than the ten results Google normally shows. More is more, they said.

So, Marissa ran an experiment where Google increased the number of search results to thirty. Traffic and revenue from Google searchers in the experimental group dropped by 20%.

Ouch. Why? Why, when users had asked for this, did they seem to hate it?

After a bit of looking, Marissa explained that they found an uncontrolled variable. The page with 10 results took .4 seconds to generate. The page with 30 results took .9 seconds.

Half a second delay caused a 20% drop in traffic. Half a second delay killed user satisfaction.

This conclusion may be surprising -- people notice a half second delay? -- but we had a similar experience at Amazon.com. In A/B tests, we tried delaying the page in increments of 100 milliseconds and found that even very small delays would result in substantial and costly drops in revenue.

Being fast really matters. As Marissa said in her talk, "Users really respond to speed."

Marissa went on to describe how they rolled out a new version of Google Maps that was lighter (in page size) and rendered much faster. Google Maps immediately saw substantial boosts in traffic and usage.

The lesson, Marissa said, is that speed matters. People do not like to wait. Do not make them.

Source

Physics promises wireless power

2006-11-15T20:46:00.000+05:30

The tangle of cables and plugs needed to recharge today's electronic gadgets could soon be a thing of the past.

HOW WIRELESS POWER COULD WORK

1) Power from mains to antenna, which is made of copper

2) Antenna resonates at a frequency of 6.4Mhz, emitting electromagnetic waves

3) 'Tails' of energy from antenna 'tunnel' up to 5m (16.4ft)

4) Electricity picked up by laptop's antenna, which must also be resonating at 6.4Mhz. Energy used to re-charge device

5) Energy not transferred to laptop re-absorbed by source antenna. People/other objects not affected as not resonating at 6.4Mhz

Source

KFC's logo first to be seen from space

2006-11-15T12:10:00.000+05:30

KFC has the honor to be the first brand to be visible from outer-space, according to company officials. The 87,500 square feet logo was created by tiles placed in the Nevada desert, near the super secret Area 51. The stunt marks the revamp of the KFC logo, which now features a more streamlined image of Colonel Sanders.

Source

Zune software - screenies

2006-11-14T22:12:00.000+05:30

Installed the Zune software, 43+ MB install which includes the online install.
Interface looks good when compared to the Windows Media Player.

Full view

Mini View

Microsoft to Add Wireless Video Sharing to the Zune

2006-11-14T18:10:00.000+05:30

Microsoft's portable media player, the Zune, has just been released and already talks have started about future updates to the device. While no time line has been given, Steve Ballmer told Bloomberg.com that the ability to share songs wirelessly will be expanded to also allow the sharing of videos. Information regarding DRM limitations that would undoubtedly be placed on the shared videos was not shared, though the "3 plays in 3 days" system is the most likely candidate.

Source

Google Docs & Spreadsheets - Blogger integration

2006-11-14T18:04:00.000+05:30

Post to Blogger from Google Docs and Spreadsheets

Java OpenSourced - JVM and javac

2006-11-14T17:55:00.000+05:30

Interesting info from the read-me text that bundles along with the HotSpot (JVM) source.

'This directory contains the sources for the Java(TM) HotSpot(TM)
virtual machine, the best Java virtual machine on the planet.
The HotSpot code base has been worked on by dozens of people, over
the course of 10 years, so far. (That's good and bad.) It's big.
There are nearly 1500 C/C++ header and source files, comprising
almost 250,000 lines of code. In addition to the expected class
loader, bytecode interpreter, and supporting runtime routines,
you get two runtime compilers from bytecode to native instructions,
3 (or so) garbage collectors, and a set of high-performance runtime
libraries for synchronization, etc.'

India sets record in GSM connections

2006-11-12T11:32:00.000+05:30

New GSM — Global System for Mobiles — connections in India in the past two months have been the highest in the world, according to Director-General of Cellular Operators Association of India T.V. Ramachandran. Although China has recorded new connections of 60 to 70 lakh in a month earlier, the new connections in India during September and October this year have been the highest in the world for these months, added Mr. Ramachandran.

Source

Steve Ballmer - “Search” Is Most Sought After Web App

2006-11-12T11:30:00.000+05:30

Microsoft Corp CEO Steve Ballmer is in India. Here are the main points of his speech at IndiMIX ‘06 — Microsoft India’s event for Web designers and developers — in Mumbai on Thursday. The event was attended by over 40,000 Web designers, developers and decision-makers. Reliance Communications is believed to have streamed the event live on mobile phones.

-E-commerce will finally win: “Most of the transactions are still in analogue mode, and there is a lot more work to be done. The magic of the Internet will increase when all transactions become digital. This will result in a spurt in e-commerce.”
-Search most sought after web app: Search is the entry point for many people on the Web. It is also the entry point for corporate intranets, and it will continue to be one of the most sought-after applications on the web. (By the way, why did MSN lose out on search?)
-Digital advertising to take off: With the media moving into an interactive zone, digital advertising would emerge with multiple touch points like web, video, mobile and gaming consoles.
-New versions of Windows XP: Will introduce major innovations in Windows XP (SE 2) and would launch enhanced functions in Windows Vista.
-Upbeat about IPTV: The future of television viewing will change with the emergence of IPTV. India would have a good presence in the segment.

Source

GMap, YahooMap and MSN Map Comparison

2006-11-11T22:46:00.000+05:30

RockStarApps.com produced a mashup application that enables users to compare the three maps: Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Virtual Earth Map.

Try here

Gmail Atom Feed

2006-11-11T22:36:00.000+05:30

Pretty old stuff....
Try this link on Firefox 2 - Gmail Atom Feed

How Microsoft Chose New Windows Sounds

2006-11-11T22:24:00.000+05:30

Some musicians spend 18 months working on a whole album. At Microsoft Corp., that's how long it took to perfect just four seconds of sound.

Of course, this isn't just any four-second clip. It's the sound — a soft da-dum, da-dumm, with a lush fade-out — that millions of computer users will hear every day, and perhaps thousands of times in total, when they turn on computers running Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Vista operating system.

To set the right tone — clean, simple, but with "some long-term legs," according to Microsoft's Steve Ball — the software maker recruited musician Robert Fripp.

Fripp, best known for his work with the '70s rock band King Crimson, recorded hours of his signature layered, guitar-driven sound for the project, under the close direction of Ball and others at Microsoft. Then, it was Ball's job to sort through those hours of live recordings to suss out just the right few seconds.

Listen to the new sounds of Vista in Larry Magid's report
Source

MSDN Library August 2006 Edition - Available Free

2006-11-11T22:23:00.000+05:30

Microsoft have followed up on there promise to release versions of MSDN library for free by making the August 2006 edition of the MSDN Library available for download from Microsoft Downloads.

MSDN Library provides access to essential programming information, including technical white papers, software development kits and code samples necessary to develop web services and applications. This is an updated version of the MSDN Library for Visual Studio® 2005.

Download

ActiveWin Vista RTM Screenshots

2006-11-11T22:19:00.000+05:30

Windows Vista RTM (Gold) Screenshots Build 6000.16386.061101.2205 from ActiveWin

More...

Nottr.com - Gmail like interface

2006-11-10T20:08:00.000+05:30

Nottr.com is a free website where you can write your notes.

Nottr.com

AVG Free 7.1 Upgrade Popup

2006-11-10T19:31:00.000+05:30

AVG Anti-Virus Free 7.1 popped up this dialog box when I booted into Windows today.

Clicking on the link available on the dialog window took me to the AVG site and I clicked on the Free 7.5 link displayed on the bottom which took me to the free AVG site from I downloaded the Free 7.5 version (16.5 MB)

Yahoo Mail IM integration

2006-11-10T15:59:00.000+05:30

Yahoo is combining their two products, yahoo Mail Beta and yahoo instant Messenger.

Source

Gmail's New Features

2006-11-10T08:33:00.000+05:30

Found these new messages on Gmail today

This one pops-up when you open a mail and are interested in replying to that
(The regular/old way was to reply by clicking on the left bottom link within the message frame, and its still there)

Clicking on the drop down arrow

This one shows up right after the mail is sent

Google CEO: Take your data and run

2006-11-09T16:08:00.001+05:30

Google wants to make the information it stores for its users easily portable so they can export it to a competing service if they are dissatisfied, the company's CEO said Tuesday.

Source

China's satellite navigation plans threaten Galileo

2006-11-09T16:04:00.000+05:30

China's decision to expand the functionality of its satellite navigation network could undermine the economics of Europe's nascent Galileo system, according to sources close to the project.

Source

Silent aircraft

2006-11-08T14:34:00.000+05:30

Engineers from the University of Cambridge and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have unveiled a radical design for a "silent aircraft".

1. Airframe 2. Engines
3. Exhausts 4. Undercarriage
5. Trailing edge 6. Leading edge

Source

Orkut - 'No donut for you'

2006-11-08T08:36:00.000+05:30

Found this right after I tried logging into orkut

SMART-1 birthday postcard of Apollo 11 landing site

2006-11-07T17:30:00.000+05:30

This image, taken by the advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE) on board ESA’s SMART-1 spacecraft, shows the Apollo 11 landing site in the Mare Tranquillitatis on the Moon.

Source

Internet Explorer 7 running side by side with IE6. (standalone)

2006-11-07T10:25:00.000+05:30

If you already have Internet Explorer 7 installed you might be interested in Multiple-IE. An installer for the standalone versions of IE6, IE5.5, IE5, IE4 & IE3!

Source

Microsoft launches Google Earth killer

2006-11-07T10:19:00.001+05:30

Microsoft is about to upgrade its mapping product, Live Local, to Microsoft Virtual Earth, a competitor to Google Earth. We got a live preview of the product a few days ago and will have a hands-on review shortly. These impressions are based on the demo. In a word: Wow. Microsoft is doing with its Earth program what I've wanted from Google for a while: Making one integrated mapping and globe-exploring service, not two products with different interfaces. With Virtual Earth, you get all of Microsoft's Live Local features (traffic data, email integration, bookmarks) with the additional capability to zoom around the 3D planet and see your locations from any angle.

Microsoft, like Google, has 3D buildings in its virtual world, but Microsoft's are photo-realistic, not just gray boxes. There should be 15 cities with 3D buildings at launch, with 100 by summer. In the demo (of San Francisco), the buildings looked great. The service will have an API, so people will be able to use the Virtual Earth globe in their own apps and mashups. However, don't expect too many people to create Virtual Earth mashups, since the service only works in Internet Explorer. There are some other snags. The super-zoomed "bird's eye" view continues to have a different interface than the map and globe tools, and this might cause some confusion. And there's no Sketchup-like building creation utility. But Virtual Earth is great eye candy, and if you're an Internet Explorer user, the integration between it and Microsoft's online mapping product is very powerful.

Microsoft Virtual Earth
MVE Control SDK
c|net's News.com

Time magazine names YouTube Invention of the Year

2006-11-07T10:18:00.001+05:30

YouTube bashers often argue that the video-sharing site offers little more than a place for people to watch other people behave as fools. Fans say that YouTube, a service that allows anyone to post videos on to the Web, is a new form of communication. On Monday, Time magazine sided with the latter group by naming YouTube "Invention of the Year." San Bruno, Calif.-based YouTube beat out such innovations as Gardasil, a vaccine that fights off a sexually transmitted disease and the Hug Shirt, which simulates the feeling of being embraced by a loved one. "YouTube had tapped into something that appears on no business plan," writes Time's Lev Grossman, "the lonely, pressurized, pent-up video subconscious of America. Having started with a single video of a trip to the zoo in April of last year, YouTube now airs 100 million videos and its users add 70,000 more every day."

Source

Google AdSense Website Down - Different Language Messages

2006-11-06T21:56:00.000+05:30

Captured this while accessing the site

The Google AdSense website is temporarily unavailable. Please try back later.
We apologize for any inconvenience.

Google AdSense の web サイトは一時的にご利用いただけません。後で再度お試しくださいますようお願いいたします。
お手数をおかけいたしますことをお詫びいたします。

Die Google AdSense-Website ist vorübergehend nicht verfügbar. Bitte versuchen Sie es später noch einmal.
Wir entschuldigen uns für eventuell enstandene Unannehmlichkeiten.

Le site Google AdSense est temporairement indisponible. Veuillez réessayer plus tard.
Nous vous prions de nous excuser pour le désagrément occasionné.

El sitio web de AdSense de Google no se encuentra disponible en estos momentos. Por favor, inténtelo de nuevo más tarde.
Disculpe las molestias.

Google AdSense 网站暂时无法浏览。请您稍候再尝试。
对于造成您的不便我们感到抱歉。

Il sito AdSense di Google è temporaneamente non disponibile. La preghiamo di provare più tardi.
Ci scusiamo per il disagio.

De website van Google AdSense is tijdelijk niet beschikbaar. Probeert u het later opnieuw.
Onze excuses voor het eventuele ongemak.

Google AdSense Sayfası geçici olarak hizmet dışıdır. Lütfen, daha sonra tekrar deneyin.
Bu geçici sorundan dolayı özür dileriz.

O site do Google AdSense não está disponível no momento. Tente novamente mais tarde.
Pedimos desculpas pelo inconveniente.

The Google AdSense website is temporarily unavailable. Please try back later.
We apologise for any inconvenience.

Witryna programu Google AdSense jest chwilowo niedostępna. Prosimy spróbuj później.
Przepraszamy za wszelkie niedogodności.

Веб-сайт Google AdSense временно недоступен. Попробуйте, пожалуйста, еще раз через несколько минут.
Мы приносим свои извинения за причиненные неудобства.

Google AdSense webbplats är för tillfället inte tillgänglig. Försök igen senare.
Vi ber om ursäkt för eventuellt besvär.

Google AdSense-webstedet er ikke tilgængeligt i øjeblikket. Prøv igen senere.
Vi beklager ulejligheden.

Google AdSense 웹사이트를 일시적으로 사용하실 수 없습니다 . 나중에 다시 시도해 보십시오 .
불편을 끼쳐드려 죄송합니다 .

Google AdSense-webområdet er midlertidig utilgjengelig. Prøv igjen senere.
Vi beklager eventuelle problemer dette medfører.

Google AdSense 網站暫時無法流覽。請您侍候再嘗試。
對於造成您的不便我們感到抱歉。

A Google AdSense oldal jelenleg nem elérhető. Kérjük, látogasson vissza később.
Elnézést kérünk az esetleges kellemetlenségekért.

Google AdSense –sivusto ei väliaikaisesti ole saatavilla. Yritä myöhemmin uudelleen.
Pahoittelemme tämän aiheuttamaa hankaluutta.

Stránka Google AdSense je dočasně nedostupná. Zkuste to později.
Omlouváme se za způsobené nepříjemnosti.

Stránka Google AdSense je dočasne nedostupná. Skúste neskôr, prosím.
Ospravedlňujeme sa za spôsobené nepríjemnosti.

Google AdSense sučelje trenutno je nedostupno. Molimo Vas pokušajte kasnije.
Ispričavamo se za neugodnosti.

إن موقع Google AdSense غير متوفر وقتيا. يرجى تكرار المحاولة لاحقا.
نعتذر عن أي إزعاج.

אתר Google AdSense איננו זמין כרגע. אנו מצטערים על אי הנוחות.
אנא נסה שנית מאוחר יותר.

Windows Vist - File Copying - Progress Bar

2006-11-06T21:41:00.000+05:30

Captured this while copying a 200 MB File.

The progress bar is yet to show the actual progress as it has almost transfered 60% of data.

2007 Microsoft Office System Is Golden

2006-11-06T20:28:00.000+05:30

2007 Office system released to manufacturers; the company looks ahead to worldwide business availability.

Source

Microsoft® Office Accounting Express 2007 - Free Download

2006-11-04T10:49:00.000+05:30

Microsoft® Office Accounting Express 2007 is everything you need to make your small business idea flourish. Whatever your idea, take it further with these great features:

Save time on everyday tasks
* Create quotes and invoices; track expenses and employee time
* Enter data once and share it seamlessly with other Microsoft Office system programs
* Manage payroll and taxes with ADP’s integrated payroll service

Get a complete view of your business
* Store and organize all your customer, vendor, employee, and financial information in one place
* Get business insights with over 20 customizable reports
* Easily share your books with your accountant through Office Live

Grow your business online
* List items on eBay, track sales activity, and download and process orders
* Email invoices and get paid faster with PayPal
* Monitor your customers’ business credit in real-time through Equifax

Download from here

Spotted Google Video Ad

2006-11-03T10:52:00.000+05:30

Spotted this Google Video Ad on BetaNews today..

Google at 2084

2006-11-02T20:40:00.001+05:30

Source

Mac Marketshare Up 34.6% From Last Year

2006-11-02T20:30:00.000+05:30

Apple's marketshare continues to climb, up 34.6 per cent, year on year, new statistics reveal. According to Net Applications' latest research figures (for October) for platforms used when accessing the web, Mac usage has climbed a phenomenal 52.8 per cent since January 2005.

Macs accounted for a total of 5.21 per cent of the web usage market in October. What makes the statistic even more interesting is that Intel Macs accounted for 1.12 per cent of that figure, implying that around one-in-five Macs used online are now Intel-based. In September, all breeds of Mac accounted for 4.72 per cent of the market, with Intel Macs accounting for 0.84 per cent of that.

In January, Intel Macs had no presence whatsoever online, the researchers claim. Safari now holds 3.93 per cent of the browser market, Firefox 12.96 per cent and Internet Explorer retains a sliding 81.18 per cent. These statistics were first gathered and analysed by the Switch To A Mac website.

Source

More Windows Vista Packaging and Disc

2006-11-02T20:28:00.000+05:30

Take a look at how the Windows Vista packaging will open up to reveal the media inside. Also, it is our first peak at what the Windows Vista discs will actually look like.

The design on the disc is unique and fresh. Microsoft has adopted pretty much the same looking holographic CD/DVD’s since Windows 2000 and its nice to see it be given a fresh new look - which seems to be a reoccurring theme with the Windows Vista packaging in general.

Source

Yahoo is to launch a Food site soon

2006-11-02T17:03:00.000+05:30

The firm of Sunnyvale in California stated yesterday that it was going to offer to the users of Yahoo thousands of receipts, councils of considered chefs, culinary guides in video and tools Internet easy to use to help the hearths to answer this highly gastronomical question: “What does one eat?. Will google follow suite?

Source

Web reaches new milestone: 100 million sites

2006-11-02T16:59:00.001+05:30

Netcraft, an Internet monitoring company that has tracked Web growth since 1995, says a mammoth milestone was reached during the month of October.

More here

Dell launches first AMD-based notebook

2006-11-02T16:55:00.000+05:30

Dell Inc. launched its first notebook PC powered by a processor from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) instead of an Intel Corp. chip. With the Inspiron 1501, Dell offers users a choice between AMD's low-end Sempron, mobile Turion 64, and dual-core Turion 64 X2 chips. It is aiming the product at home entertainment and small business users, offering a baseline configuration of the Sempron chip, widescreen 15.4-inch display, 80G-byte hard drive and 512M bytes of memory for a starting price of US$549. Dell launched the product on Wednesday without fanfare, simply listing it on the company Web site without the usual flurry of press releases. The company did not return calls for comment.

Dell had announced in May that it would begin selling AMD-based servers, after remaining loyal to Intel processors for so long that it was the only major PC vendor not offering its customers a choice. By then, AMD had eaten significant chunks of Intel's enormous market share, riding the success of its efficient Opteron server chip to acclaim for its full range of chips. Indeed, by September Dell had also launched AMD-powered desktops.

Source

iPod Shuffle, The Second Generation

2006-11-02T14:30:00.000+05:30

Apple has started to ship out the 2nd-generation iPod Shuffle. Delivery date has been set for November 3rd, 2006. The new iPod Shuffle weighs just 0.55 ounces and holds 1GB of memory.

Source

Fasterfox for Firefox 2

2006-11-02T14:26:00.000+05:30

Performance and network tweaks for Firefox.
Fasterfox allows you to tweak many network and rendering settings such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS cache, and initial paint delay.
Dynamic speed increases can be obtained with the unique prefetching mechanism, which recycles idle bandwidth by silently loading and caching all of the links on the page you are browsing.
A popup blocker for popups initiated by Flash plug-ins is also included.

Download from here

Orkut Bigger Than MySpace? Ok, Maybe Not

2006-11-01T17:52:00.000+05:30

Google’s Orkut has been steadily rising on the Alexa charts, and for the first time today overtook MySpace in total page viewsSince all of the other indicators suggest that MySpace is still significantly bigger than Orkut, we took a look at the Comscore data, which tells a different story than Alexa. Comscore September numbers (October will be out in a couple of weeks) say that MySpace is generating over a billion page views per day (35 billion total in September), while Orkut is at about 200 million page views for the entire month. So Myspace generates 5x the monthly page views of Orkut in a single day.

For fun we compare Alexa and Comscore for all of the other large social networks as well. Both sets of data are below. Clearly something is out of whack at Alexa with regard to Orkut specifically. And according to Comscore, MySpace still has more monthly visitors and page views than all of the other social networks listed below combined.

Source

Awesome Time Lapsing Videos

2006-11-01T17:41:00.000+05:30

This is actually pretty cool, on this website, you see the lapsing of a banana going through decomposition. So, people basically take stills, put them all together, and come up with a great effect. A must see!

European Zune delayed until 2008?

2006-11-01T17:33:00.001+05:30

Microsoft's Zune music player and online content store combo is "way off launch" in Europe and the UK, the company has admitted. The "earliest date" it might appear here? The end of 2007, or possibly even 2008, a Microsoft executive has revealed.

Source

Microsoft to launch Office Live on November 15

2006-11-01T17:31:00.000+05:30

More great news coming in from the software giant Microsoft. The company is all set to launch its online service that would help small companies to get their work done online like developing websites and maintaining business contacts. The company has confirmed that they would be launching Office Live in the United States November 15. It would also simultaneously launch test versions of the software in France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom.

This platform has already been available to beta testers for more than eight months now and is being developed to help the company take on internet companies like Google and Yahoo!

Source

Windows Vista and Office 2007 Packaging Revealed

2006-10-31T10:03:00.000+05:30

Windows Media Player 11 Released

2006-10-31T05:40:00.000+05:30

As promised and revealed by Neowin, Microsoft has released Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP.

Windows Media Player 11 is re-designed to support the URGE music store, Zune and provides better synchronisation for existing MP3 players.

Download: Windows Media Player 11 x86
Download: Windows Media Player 11 x64
View: Windows Media

Copying own CDs 'should be legal'

2006-10-30T15:47:00.000+05:30

A think-tank has called for outdated copyright laws to be rewritten to take account of new ways people listen to music, watch films and read books.

Source

Open Source Java: 30-60 days Away

2006-10-30T15:43:00.000+05:30

Demonstrating a perhaps more aggressive path than anticipated, Sun Microsystems is set to announce the open-sourcing of the core Java platform within 30 to 60 days, Sun President and CEO Jonathan Schwartz said at the Oracle OpenWorld conference on Wednesday morning.

Source

Mozilla Looks Ahead To Firefox 3.0

2006-10-30T15:42:00.000+05:30

From the Never Happy... dept.:
With Firefox 2.0 out the door earlier this week, Mozilla Corp. will turn its attention to version 3.0, said company executives, with a goal to deliver the new browser in 2007.

Officially Firefox 3.0 but code named "Gran Paradiso," the application will pick up where Firefox 2.0 leaves off, said Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla's director of engineering. Among the features Mozilla wants to get into 3.0 is "Places," the revamped bookmarks tool which was dropped from Firefox 2.0 in April.

Source

They Write the Right Stuff

2006-10-30T11:23:00.000+05:30

As the 120-ton space shuttle sits surrounded by almost 4 million pounds of rocket fuel, exhaling noxious fumes, visibly impatient to defy gravity, its on-board computers take command.

Read more here

Over 2 million Firefox 2 downloads in first 24 hours

2006-10-28T05:31:00.000+05:30

Firefox developer Mike Beltzner blogs about the success of Firefox 2's launch, with had over 2 million downloads in the first 24 hours of Tuesday's release and a peak download rate of more than 30 downloads per second. That's some serious bandwidth. Beltzner also looks back on Firefox's success and discusses why the browser has been so popular

Source

Blue Jean Dye Kills Cancer Cells

2006-10-28T05:26:00.000+05:30

The dye in your blue jeans could soon be used to kill cancer cells, say scientists.

UK researchers are employing tiny gold "nanoparticles", 1/5000th the thickness of a human hair, to deliver the chemical compound directly into cancer cells, tearing them apart instantly. The common dye found in blue jeans and ballpoint pens is called phthalocyanine and is a light-activated, or photosensitive, agent with cell-destroying properties.

This has been known for at least 15 years but, until now, scientists have not been able to successfully deliver it into cells; hence there's no harm in wearing blue jeans. The University of East Anglia (UEA) team used the gold particles as "trojan horses". Their small size enables them to easily enter cells, and the phthalocyanine is taken up along with them.

When pulsed with laser light, the compound produces a highly reactive form of oxygen which causes the cancer cells to commit suicide. UEA's Dr David Russell explained: "Because this compound does not dissolve in water, it is difficult to get it into cells. But this 'fat soluble' property is precisely what makes it a great potential therapy. "We have shown using nanotechnology that we can get phthalocyanine into the cancer cells where it binds and, on activation, causes substantial cell death," he told the British Association's Science Festival.

Source

Gtalk Gmail Auto Status

2006-10-27T22:12:00.000+05:30

I recently happened to observe my Gtalk status changes to idle (orange) on my Gmail page when ever I don't access the Gmail browser window even though I have signed-in. Status changes to available(green) when ever I either maximize/click on my Gmail browser window.
Cool feature..isn't it?