Channel FX

Mozilla building mobile OS to battle Chrome

2011-07-26T05:27:00.000-07:00

Mozilla revealed preliminary plans today to take the Gecko engine that drives its Firefox browser and turn it into an open-source operating system that will eventually work on phones and tablets.

Called Boot to Gecko, it is known that the source code will be released to the public "in real-time," wrote Andreas Gal, a Mozilla researcher. Gecko is the rendering engine that powers Firefox and the e-mail client Thunderbird. By contrast, while Google's Androidmobile operating system is open source, the main development work on it does not become available until after Google has green-lit its publication--sometimes not until months afterward.

"We will do this work in the open, we will release the source in real-time, we will take all successful additions to an appropriate standards group, and we will track changes that come out of that process. We aren't trying to have these native-grade apps just run on Firefox, we're trying to have them run on the web," Gal said in a forum post. Mike Shaver, Mozilla's vice president of technical strategy, said that the Boot to Gecko apps won't use the Android SDK but instead run new and current Web app APIs

He also identified four areas for development. One is new Web APIs, which means building "prototype APIs for exposing device and OS capabilities to content." This is how the operating system would support current essential mobile features such as telephony, SMS, cameras, USB, Bluetooth, and near-field chips. A second area for development is to build a privilege model, which is a key security feature for ensuring that new features are "safely exposed to pages and applications," he said.

Boot to Gecko will include some low-level Android code for kernel and driver support so that it can run on Android devices. This does not exist yet, and porting it to a new system could prove to be extremely challenging. Then there is the final area of development--that of applications. The idea behind Boot to Gecko is to create a system where native Web apps can run just as well as the native apps for iOS do on that device.

Shaver added that the company is looking at Tegra 2 devices because they offer hardware acceleration of open audio and video formats.

For people who want to get a stronger idea of what Boot to Gecko will amount to, Gal noted that its "starting point" is a device running Firefox for Android as its homescreen, with some custom APIs thrown in. He also admitted in that post that there is an "ultimate goal" to the project, that of "breaking the stranglehold of proprietary technologies over the mobile device world."

Source: http://download.cnet.com

Nokia C6-01

2011-07-22T09:56:00.000-07:00

The new Nokia C6-01 is full 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen display mobile phone running the latest Symbian ^3 OS.The new Nokia C6-01 sports a 8 mega-pixel camera with dual LED flash and a secondary front camera (VGA) for video calling.Nokia C6-01 features the best of social networking and mobile entertainment in a stainless steel and glass design.

The key features of the new NokiaC6-01 are :

8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash
nHD touchscreen display
High speed 3G connectivity
Symbian^3 OS
Wireless LAN WiFi
Bluetooth
USB
Audio Player
Video Player
FM Radio

The detailed specifications of the new Nokia C6-01 mobile phone are :

Dimensions
- Size: 103.8 x 52.5 x 13.9 mm
- Weight : 131 g
Display and user interface
- Screen size: 3.2-inch
- Resolution: 640 x 360 AMOLED
- Up to 16.7 million colours
- Capacitive touch screen
- Orientation sensor
- Proximity sensor
- Ambient light detector
Keys and input methods
- Touch screen
- Front: application key, send & end/power key
- Side: camera key, lock key, volume up & down
Colours
- Black
- Silver grey
Personalisation
- Three customisable home screens with the option to add widgets, theme, shortcuts and icons
- Customisable profiles
- Ring tones: mp3, AAC, AAC+ 64-tone polyphonic, AMR, WMA
- Themes
- wallpapers
- screensavers
- ring tones
- pre-installed themes
- changeable colour themes
Battery
- BL-5CT 1050 mAh Li-Ion battery
- Talk-time (maximum):
- GSM 720min
- WCDMA 290min
- Standby time (maximum):
- GSM 420h
- WCDMA 380h
Memory
- microSD memory card slot, hot swappable, max. 32 GB
- 2 GB microSD memory card included
- Internal memory: 340 MB user memory
Operating Frequency
- Quad band GSM,HSPA
- Automatic switching between GSM bands
- Flight mode
Data Network
- GPRS/EDGE class B, multislot class 33
- HSDPA cat 9 10.2 Mbps
- HSUPA cat 5 2.0 Mbps
- WLAN IEEE802.11 b/g/n
- TCP/IP support
- Capability to serve as data modem
- Support for MS Outlook synchronisation of contacts, calendar and notes
Connectivity
- Bluetooth version 3.0 with Enhanced Data Rate
- High-Speed USB 2.0 (micro USB connector)
- 3.5 mm AV connector
- Micro USB charging
- FM radio
Software platform & user interface
- Symbian^3 OS for Nokia
- Java MIDP 2.1
- Flash Lite 4.0
Applications
- Nokia Messaging
- Social
- Ovi Maps with free lifetime navigation
- Ovi Store
- Nokia Ovi Suite
- Cmail
- Flashlite 4.0
- Ovi Suite 2.2
- Web TV
- Games
Email and messaging
- Easy-to-use email client
- Email web widget
- Nokia Messaging for email
- Mail for Exchange
Browsing and internet
- Full web browsing of real web pages
- Web browsing with touch control
- Supported markup languages: HTML, XHTML MP, WML, CSS
- Supported protocols: HTTP v1.1, WAP
- TCP/IP support
- Visual history, HTML and JavaScript suppprt, Flash LIte 4.0 and Flash video support
- Nokia Mobile Search
- RSS reader
- Ovi Store for application downloads
- Support for streaming video
- Social networking profiles visible in phone contacts
- Upload and view photos and see locations via Ovi by Nokia Social client
- Social networking events visible in phone calendar
GPS and navigation
- Integrated GPS, A-GPS
- Ovi Maps with free car & pedestrian navigation
- Wi-Fi Positioning
- Compass and accelerometer for correct orientation of display
- Use Nokia Ovi Suite to get the latest country maps for Ovi Maps for free
Camera
- 8 megapixel camera (3264 x 2448)
- 2x digital zoom
- Dual LED flash
- Second camera (VGA) for video calls
- Image formats: JPEG, Exif
- Face recognition feature
- Automatic location tagging (geotagging) of images and videos
- Red eye removal, face tracking and automatic motion blur reduction
Video cameras
- Main camera
- Take high-quality 16:9 videos
- HD quality 720p resolution
- Video capture 720p 25 fps with codecs H264, MPEG-4
- Settings for scene, video light, white balance, colour tone
- Secondary camera (VGA) for video calls
- Video codecs & formats
- H.264, MPEG-4, VC-1, H.263 (CIF 25fps), Real Video 10 (QVGA 25fps), ON2 VP6 (VGA 25fps), Flash video (VGA 25fps)
- Streaming D1 25fps: MPEG-4; H.264; VC-1, RealVideo 10 (QVGA 15fps), 3GP
Music features
- Nokia Music Player and mono IHF speaker
- Ovi Music
- 3.5 mm stereo headphone plug
- Music codecs: .MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, eAAC, eAAC+
- Music meta-data ID3 tags, album art
- Bit rate up tp 320 kbps
- DRM support WM DRM, OMA DRM 2.0
- Stereo FM radio with RDS
Gaming

Use the touch UI to play games
Includes preloaded games
Download games from Ovi Store

Source: Tharun's Blog

Government shutting down hundreds of data centers

2011-07-21T08:52:00.000-07:00

The U.S. government is aiming to pull the plug on hundreds of unneeded data centers over the next few years in an attempt to save the taxpayers some hard-earned cash.

In blog published yesterday, the White House's Office of Management and Budget admitted that instead of consolidating data centers as many businesses have done in recent years, the government went in the opposite direction. Between 1998 and 2010, federal agencies actually quadrupled their number of data centers despite increases in the efficiency of data storage.

And of course, taxpayers have been stuck paying the bills for those data centers and all the equipment, supplies, and controls they require. The energy costs can be especially high as such data centers can soak up 200 times as much power as standard office spaces, according to the blog.

In a mea culpa over its spending spree, the White House said it plans to shut down a total of 373 redundant and unnecessary data centers by end of 2012. The government has already closed 81 so far this year as part of its goal to power off 195 such centers throughout 2011 as a whole. Looking down the road, Washington is aiming to shut down more than 800 data centers by 2015, a plan it believes would save taxpayers more than $3 billion.

"By shrinking our data center footprint we will save taxpayer dollars, cutting costs for infrastructure, real estate and energy," the OMB's Deputy Director for Management Jeffrey Zients said in the blog. "At the same time, moving to a more nimble 21st century model will strengthen our security and the ability to deliver services for less."

The data centers due to be put out of commission are located across roughly 30 states and include ones run by a variety of federal agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of the Treasury. Taxpayers who want to see which data centers are going out of business can view a Google map of them set up by the government.

Source: news.cnet.com

India VS England 2000th Match

2011-07-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

London, July 15: Many are asking the question whether Test cricket is a tenable sport in this fast-paced day and age. An 8-hour-a-day, five-day game that oftentimes culminates in a draw, may defy the norms of entertainment in the present paradigm. But the fact that the 2000th such encounter is all set to unfold at the home of cricket Lords, England, with a sell-out crowd ready to witness the epoch, is validation of its enduring popularity.

England has always been one to purport tradition and custom and now there are nine other such participating countries following suit where Test cricket is concerned (with the appearance of new entrants on the horizon). Today's set up is indeed a far cry from the early years of this long-winded contest where the only countries that engaged in such were England and Australia.

Indeed, Test cricket has certainly come a long way in terms of its global appeal, from its first edition which took place between the inaugural Ashes series in Melbourne in 1877. Naturally, it follows that the volume of matches played has also soared - from 803 in its first hundred years to nearly 1,200 in the last three-and-a-half-decades.

Test cricket even came in for a water-shed modification in tactics during the infamous Bodyline series when Douglas Jardine's England toured Australia in 1929/30. The ruthless England skipper redefined the way the game would be played for the decades that followed by having his pacemen Harold Larwood and Bill Voice bowl straight at the batsman's body to stifle the flow of runs. He defended the controversial new strategy as "legitimate leg-theory". Australia were taken off-guard at such a ploy and many of their premier batsman, including the great Don Bradman, had no answer as the English ran amok and reclaimed their Ashes glory.

By then Test cricket's membership had opened up to the West Indies, New Zealand and India, with the former colonies of the British empire demonstrating their mettle and passion for the sport. A spate of dull series by game's oldest rivals in the early 1960s threatened its existence till a colourful West Indies unit came up with more vibrant innovations.

The rest as we know, is history.The advent of one-day cricket in the international arena and the recent phenomenon of Twenty20 has done little to shirk the momentum behind cricket's purest format. Long Live Test Cricket!

Dhoni Wins it For India

2011-04-02T20:30:00.000-07:00

Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni's stellar partnership paved the way for India to end its 28-year wait for a World Cup title even as Mahela Jayawardene's century and Muttiah Muralitharan's swansong ended in hurt and despair.

Chasing a target of 275, India were pegged on the back foot as early as the second ball of their innings when Lasith Malinga trapped Virender Sehwag plumb in front, and though the Indian opener asked for a referral, it was upheld. Malinga then struck again in the seventh over when he had Mumbai's icon Sachin Tendulkar caught behind in the seventh over. But, the title was sealed when Dhoni hit the first ball of the 49th over for a massive six to put the icing on the cake and send a billion people into raptures.

And, to make things even sweeter for India, Yuvraj Singh was named Man of the Series for his 15 wickets and 362 runs. This win has also completed the career CV of Tendulkar, who didn't contribute to the final as much as he may have liked to, but his innings in the lead-up to the final, not least in the semi-finals against Pakistan, It was also the perfect send-off for coach Gary Kirsten, who has now ended his tenure with the Indian team.

Coming back to the loss of those two early wickets, Gambhir and Kohli got the run chase back on track with a 83-run partnership as the Delhi boys got India right back into the match taking minimal risks and milking the Sri Lankan bowling to the fullest. And, even after Kohli was caught off his own bowling by Dilshan, Dhoni and Gambhir took the chase forward.

Dhoni has not been in the best of forms with the bat in the World Cup, but he potentially played the knock of his career in the final as he remained unbeaten on a 79-ball 91 and shared in a 109-run partnership with Gambhir as they snuffed the fight out of the Sri Lankan attack and broke their spirit with each run they made. And, even though Gambhir was bowled going for a massive hit when on 97, India wasn't denied to be a win and it was fitting that Dhoni and Yuvraj, who have shared in so many monumental partnerships were in the middle, when the mission was finally achieved.

Malinga (2-42) made the early dents, but wasn't able to make any more inroads in his subsequent overs. But, however, the most telling blows was felt by the Sri Lankan spinners, Suraj Randiv and Muralitharan, who bowled 17 overs for 82 runs without taking a wicket; and that's really where Sri Lanka lost the match and plot.

Earlier, Jayawardene scored his 14th one-day international century as his unbeaten 103 helped Sri Lanka set India a target of 275 to win the final of the 2011 World Cup at Mumbai's packed Wankhede Stadium.

Jayawardene was the anchor in Sri Lanka's innings as he scored at more than a ball without taking too many risks and he also strung together important partnerships with his skipper Kumar Sangakkara, Thilan Samaraweera, Nuwan Kulasekara and Thisara Perera to negate the good work done early in their innings by Indian pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, who bowled three maiden overs on the trot at the start of the match.

Sreesanth, who shared the new ball with Zaheer, bowled reasonably well in his first two overs, but Tillakaratne Dilshan it him for a couple of boundaries over midwicket and to the midwicket boundary to break the shackles the left-arm pacer had sprung on the Sri Lankan opening batsmen. In between, Zaheer had Upul Tharanga caught byVirender Sehwag at first slip. Tharanga was all at sea against Zaheer and was beaten on more than one occasion; in fact the Sri Lankan opening batsman was unable to score a single run off the 18 deliveries he faced of Zaheer before he was put out of his misery. Zaheer's first spell figures read 5-3-6-1 and he was the main reason Sri Lanka scored only 31 for 1 in their mandatory power play, their lowest score in this spell of play in the entire tournament. Zaheer's bowling apart, exceptional fielding by Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina at point and cover point respectively further shackled the Sri Lankan top-order.

Earlier, Sangakkara won the toss and elected to bat. However, there was some controversy as the toss took place twice as no one including match referee Jeff Crowe had heard Sangakkara's call first time round. India made only one change with S Sreesanth coming in for the injured Ashish Nehra; but Sri Lanka made four changes as Chamara Kapugedera, Thisara Perera, Suraj Randiv and Nuwan Kulasekara replaced Chamara Silva, the injured Angelo Mathews, Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath.

Dilshan was kept uncharacteristically quiet thanks to Zaheer and with Munaf Patel also keeping things tight at the other end it was tough going for the Sri Lankan opening batsman and Sangakkara. Dilshan did all the hard work and just when he looked as though he would play yet another big innings in the 2011 World Cup, he was unfortunate to get a glove as the ball lobbed back and ht the stumps as he was out for a 49-ball 33. Dilshan though ended the World Cup on exactly 500 runs, and became only the fifth batsman to score so many runs in the mega-event after Sachin Tendulkar (twice), Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Jayawardene. Sangakkara and Jayawardene then looked untroubled during their 62-run partnership for the third wicket in just over 11 overs before 'golden arm' Yuvraj Singh had the Sri Lankan captain caught behind by Dhoni for a well-made 48 in 67 balls.

Jayawardene, who continued to look as though he was batting on another pitch, was in full control even as Samaraweera led a charmed life in his 34-ball 21 before he was trapped in front by Yuvraj, who finished the 2011 World Cup with 15 wickets. And, though, Zaheer dismissed Kapugedera with a slower ball soon after, Jayawardene continued on his merry ways and was well supported by Kulasekara and the pair added 66 runs for the sixth wicket in quick time.

Jayawardene got to his half-century off 49 balls and then accelerated thereafter bringing up his ton off 84 deliveries. Sri Lanka also took maximum advantage of the batting power play scoring 63 runs for the loss of only Kulasekara's wicket with Jayawardene getting to his century in the space of three deliveries in the 48th over bowled by Zaheer including back-to-back boundaries. Perera then finished the Sri Lankan innings off in style scoring 16 runs including two boundaries and a six as he finished unbeaten on 22 off only 9 balls.

Zaheer destroyed all his good work in the batting power play as he leaked runs and eventually ended with figures of 10-3-60-2, while Yuvraj (2-49) and Harbhajan (1-50) were amongst the other wicket-takers. Sreesanth (8-0-52-0) disappointed yet again, while Munaf did well to finish well with 0-41 off nine overs.

8.9 magnitude earthquake hits Japan, causes tsunami

2011-03-11T17:39:00.000-08:00

A massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake occurred in northern Japan early on Friday. The earthquake's epicenter is 130 km (81 miles) east of Sendai, in the Honshu island of Japan. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the epicenter was at a depth of 24.4 km (15.2 miles).

The earthquake triggered tsunamis in various parts of the country. Japan issued a tsunami warning immediately after the earthquake, followed by tsunami warnings for New Zealand, Australia, Russia, Chile,Guam, Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Hawaii, Northern Marianas (USA), Taiwan, andCalifornia. It is confirmed for the Philippines that if the tsunami doesn't hit the country for 2 hours (5:00 - 7:00) it will be slightly safer, it is currently alert number two for all regions.

The tsunami attained a height of 10 meters, and swept houses, buildings and cars according to reports.Shinkansen stopped the bullet train service following the quake. According to reports, an oil refinery was set ablaze by the quake at Ichihara, Chiba prefecture to the east of Tokyo.

2011 Sendai earthquake - refinery fire

The National Weather Service said that earthquakes "of this size" often "generate tsunamis potentially dangerous to coasts outside the source region." "Based on all available data a tsunami may have been generated by this earthquake that could be destructive on coastal areas even far from the epicenter," it added.

About 20 people were reportedly injured in Tokyo following the collapse of a roof of a hall. 4 million people are estimated to be without power in the capital. In Sendai, several people are feared to be buried under the remains of a collapsed hotel.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said there had been no nuclear plant radiation leaks caused by the disaster. He expressed sympathy to all victims in his address, promising help, and stating that an emergency response headquarters had been set up. 288 people have been confirmed dead so far.

However, a 2-3 km area around the Fukushima Nuclear Power plant has been evacuated as a precaution as the temperature inside on of the nuclear reactor has "remain[ed] at a high temperature" despite the plant being shut down. Trade Minister Banri Kaieda advised that there is a possibility of a radiation leak at the plant.

Oracle India head Bhaskar Pramanik quits

2011-03-03T07:02:00.000-08:00

Company’s India technology sales head Sandeep Mathur will succeed.

In less than a year since he took over to lead software maker Oracle India's business, Bhaskar Pramanik, the managing director of the company, has put in his papers. Sandeep Mathur, vice-president, technology, has been appointed as the new MD.

Oracle India spokesperson confirmed the development in an email to Business Standard. "We confirm that Bhaskar Pramanik, MD, Oracle India, is resigning to pursue other opportunities. The new MD is Sandeep Mathur, who was the vice-president, technology, leading the company's database and Exadata business in the country," said the email.

This development follows the high-profile exit of Ravi Venkatesan, chairman and corporate vice-president, Microsoft India operations.

A graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Pramanik has over three decades of experience in the technology industry. He joined Oracle India as MD last April, after Krishan Dhawan relinquished his position after serving the company for five years.

Industry insiders say Pramanik's appointment was driven more by the need to integrate Sun Microsystems, which the company acquired for $7.4 billion in April 2009. He headed Sun Microsystems India.

Even though the reasons behind Pramanik’s exit is yet to be ascertained, industry observers say the company wanted to re-energise its India team by bringing in a fresh set of leaders as most of its competitors such as SAP and Microsoft were moving aggressively.

India is an important market for Oracle. According to a third-party-data, India is a $1.5-billion revenue unit for the company. After the acquisition of Sun, this went up to almost $2 billion. "There are certain segments where Oracle has no competition in India, such as customer relationship management (CRM), database etc. They will not want to let go of this," said an analyst from an advisory research firm.

Oracle has been operating in India for over 20 years, first through a distributorship and since 1993 through its subsidiary. They employ over 24,000 people in India and its revenue at the end of 2010 was $26.82 billion.

"There was a buzz that Oracle might want to get someone else for this role. India is a big market and integration with Sun Microsystems did play a major role in choosing Pramanik. Also, he is a hardcore technology person with expertise in servers and storage. On the other hand, Oracle has aspects like application, software, server and database," said a source on condition of anonymity.

Industry sources also confirmed the much-needed integration of both the companies, is yet to take place. "The marketing and sales personnel at Sun still maintain a different accounts team, pre-sales team etc. Even issues like a common email ID and visiting cards are yet to be sorted out," said another source. However, this could not be confirmed individually with the company.

Sandeep Mathur, who succeeds Pramanik, joined Oracle in 2003 as a director of Oracle Direct, the North America sales where he was instrumental in setting up offshore inside-sales operations. A BE in Electronics and Communication from Bangalore University, he held many senior level positions in Oracle's Asia Pacific business being responsible for strategy, business development and specialist sales for the technology business across the region.

In his previous role as the VP, Technology at Oracle India, Mathur was responsible for driving sales and increasing Oracle’s market share in India across its technology business including database and Exadata.

Earlier, Microsoft India had announced the resignation of its chairman Ravi Venkatesan who left the company citing personal reasons The company is yet to announce his successor.

Bioelectronics: nanotransístor is connected to the DNA molecule

2011-02-22T07:26:00.000-08:00

The only electronic component not directly

detected the connection,

but also amplified the charge of

individual biomolecules. [Photo: Columbia University]

Electronics and biology

Joining electronics and biology is, perhaps more than an old dream, a promising possibility.

Of neural sensors and the construction of prostheses controlled by thought, even dreams of fancy radical transhumanist, have long talks in humans enhanced by technology.

And it was enough that the transistors reach an adequate level of miniaturization, with dimensions comparable to a few cells, so scientists began to make direct connection between biological and electronic, with a level of control only imagined - but it had not been done until now.

Transistor detects DNA

An interdisciplinary group of Columbia University, USA, used electronics nanotransistores common - similar to those used in computer processors - to directly detect the interactions between molecules, which occur at such high speeds it is virtually impossible to follow them directly.

The nanotransistores were used to uncover links between the two halves of each strand of DNA to another DNA molecule, attached to nanotransístor.

The only electronic component not directly detected the connection, but also amplified the charge of individual biomolecules.

Until now, to observe the interactions at the level of individual molecules, scientists have used fluorescence techniques - that's what the studies have been made of folding, assembly, dynamics and function of proteins, for example.

But these techniques require that the target molecules are labeled with fluorescent dyes, and the bandwidths for the detection of information is limited by the time needed to collect the small number of photons emitted by the dyes.

Nanotube transistor

The nanotransistores used were made with carbon nanotubes .

Although still emerging field of electronic applications, these nanotubes are extremely sensitive because the biomolecule can be anchored directly to them - the connection of a single DNA molecule is detected by reading the current that travels between the electrodes of the transistor.

Scientists say the new technique will allow the study of interactions between biological molecules on time scales several orders of magnitude smaller than is possible with techniques based on fluorescence

20 Facts about youtube

2011-02-19T09:12:00.000-08:00

20 facts about YouTube

1. YouTube (Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim) All three founders of YouTube
(Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim) worked on Paypal, when you started your
project.

2. YouTube domain was registered at St Day. Valentine's (February 14, 2005).

3.70% of registered YouTube users from the U.S., 50% of YouTube users under
20 years of age.

4. If YouTube was a Hollywood movie company, it would have enough material
to produce 60 000 new movies every week.

5. To produce as many videos as it was uploaded to YouTube over the past 2 months,
broadcasters NBC,ABC, CBS would have to work around the clock seven days
a week since 1948.

6. The total volume of traffic on YouTube about the same as used all over the Internet in 2000.

7. Need more than 1000 years to see all the videos on Youtube (but by that time videos
uploaded to YouTube, there will be more per billion).

8. YouTube. The most popular category for video uploading - it's "Music", it contains about
20% of all videos YouTube.

9. The United States has charged more than anyone else on YouTube video, followed by Great Britain.
U.S. users also watch most of the video, followed by hits - Japan.

10. The first-ever video posted on YouTube, it's "I'm in a zoo", downloaded Apr. 23, 2005 one of the
founders of YouTube, Javed Karim.

First Video uploaded on youtube

11. Daily number of video views on YouTube is more than 2 billion.

12. Google bought YouTube in 2006 for 1.65 billion dollars.

13. The first video that opened the Russian version of YouTube in 2007 to the year,
became Peter Nalitch clip for the song "Guitar".

14. March 13, 2007 Company «Viacom» filed a lawsuit against Google, accusing the service
of YouTube massive copyright infringement and demanding transfer her personal details
of all service users. Federal Judge of the Southern District of New York granted the
plaintiff's demands, contrary to U.S. federal law.

15. Many users whose videos become popular on YouTube, later became the
stars and beyond the Internet.YouTube. For example, a boy superstar of Canada
Justin Bieber received an expensive contract with a record label for its recordings,
which his mother laid out on YouTube.

16. "Easter Egg" on YouTube: if during the download video push the button up, down,
left or right (choice: tighten up and left), then turn on the game "Snake".

17. According to the statistics for November 2010, at the moment on YouTube
loaded 35 hours of video, and a day - 50,400 hours.

18. Video, marked as deleted are not necessarily physically deleted. With the help
of special applications such as Deleted YouTube Video Viewer, these files can be viewed.

19. In March 2009, the Chinese government blocked access to YouTube after it
appeared on videotape beingbeaten by Chinese soldiers of Tibetan monks
and other Tibetans.

20.YouTube. According to Wikipedia, 15 February 2005 - the official beginning of
the history of YouTube.

SCADA

2011-02-18T08:51:00.000-08:00

SCADA

SCADA stands for supervisory control and data acquisition. It generally refers to industrial control systems: computer systems that monitor and control industrial, infrastructure, or facility-based processes, as described below:

Industrial processes include those of manufacturing, production, power generation, fabrication, and refining, and may run in continuous, batch, repetitive, or discrete modes.
Infrastructure processes may be public or private, and include water treatment and distribution, wastewater collection and treatment, oil and gas pipelines, electrical power transmission and distribution, Wind farms, civil defense siren systems, and large communication systems.
Facility processes occur both in public facilities and private ones, including buildings, airports, ships, and space stations. They monitor and control HVAC, access, and energy consumption.

Common system components

A Human-Machine Interface or HMI is the apparatus which presents process data to a human operator, and through this, the human operator monitors and controls the process.
A supervisory (computer) system, gathering (acquiring) data on the process and sending commands (control) to the process.
Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) connecting to sensors in the process, converting sensor signals to digital data and sending digital data to the supervisory system.
Programmable Logic Controller (PLCs) used as field devices because they are more economical, versatile, flexible, and configurable than special-purpose RTUs.
Communication infrastructure connecting the supervisory system to the Remote Terminal Units.

Supervision vs. control

There is, in several industries, considerable confusion over the differences between SCADA systems and distributed control systems (DCS). Generally speaking, a SCADA system always refers to a system that coordinates, but does not control processes in real time. The discussion on real-time control is muddied somewhat by newer telecommunications technology, enabling reliable, low latency, high speed communications over wide areas. Most differences between SCADA and DCS are culturally determined and can usually be ignored. As communication infrastructures with higher capacity become available, the difference between SCADA and DCS will fade.

Summary: 1. DCS is process oriented, while SCADA is data acquisition oriented. 2. DCS is process state driven, while SCADA is event driven. 3. DCS is commonly used to handle operations on a single locale, while SCADA is preferred for applications that are spread over a wide geographic location. 4. DCS operator stations are always connected to its I/O, while SCADA is expected to operate despite failure of field communications.

The term SCADA usually refers to centralized systems which monitor and control entire sites, or complexes of systems spread out over large areas (anything between an industrial plant and a country). Most control actions are performed automatically by Remote Terminal Units ("RTUs") or by programmable logic controllers ("PLCs"). Host control functions are usually restricted to basic overriding or supervisory level intervention. For example, a PLC may control the flow of cooling water through part of an industrial process, but the SCADA system may allow operators to change the set points for the flow, and enable alarm conditions, such as loss of flow and high temperature, to be displayed and recorded. The feedback control loop passes through the RTU or PLC, while the SCADA system monitors the overall performance of the loop.

Data acquisition begins at the RTU or PLC level and includes meter readings and equipment status reports that are communicated to SCADA as required. Data is then compiled and formatted in such a way that a control room operator using the HMI can make supervisory decisions to adjust or override normal RTU (PLC) controls. Data may also be fed to a Historian, often built on a commodity Database Management System, to allow trending and other analytical auditing.

SCADA systems typically implement a distributed database, commonly referred to as a tag database, which contains data elements called tags or points. A point represents a single input or output value monitored or controlled by the system. Points can be either "hard" or "soft". A hard point represents an actual input or output within the system, while a soft point results from logic and math operations applied to other points. (Most implementations conceptually remove the distinction by making every property a "soft" point expression, which may, in the simplest case, equal a single hard point.) Points are normally stored as value-timestamp pairs: a value, and the timestamp when it was recorded or calculated. A series of value-timestamp pairs gives the history of that point. It's also common to store additional metadata with tags, such as the path to a field device or PLC register, design time comments, and alarm information.

Typical Basic SCADA Animations ^[1]

A Human-Machine Interface or HMI is the apparatus which presents process data to a human operator, and through which the human operator controls the process.

An HMI is usually linked to the SCADA system's databases and software programs, to provide trending, diagnostic data, and management information such as scheduled maintenance procedures, logistic information, detailed schematics for a particular sensor or machine, and expert-system troubleshooting guides.

The HMI system usually presents the information to the operating personnel graphically, in the form of a mimic diagram. This means that the operator can see a schematic representation of the plant being controlled. For example, a picture of a pump connected to a pipe can show the operator that the pump is running and how much fluid it is pumping through the pipe at the moment. The operator can then switch the pump off. The HMI software will show the flow rate of the fluid in the pipe decrease in real time. Mimic diagrams may consist of line graphics and schematic symbols to represent process elements, or may consist of digital photographs of the process equipment overlain with animated symbols.

The HMI package for the SCADA system typically includes a drawing program that the operators or system maintenance personnel use to change the way these points are represented in the interface. These representations can be as simple as an on-screen traffic light, which represents the state of an actual traffic light in the field, or as complex as a multi-projector display representing the position of all of the elevators in a skyscraper or all of the trains on a railway.

An important part of most SCADA implementations is alarm handling. The system monitors whether certain alarm conditions are satisfied, to determine when an alarm event has occurred. Once an alarm event has been detected, one or more actions are taken (such as the activation of one or more alarm indicators, and perhaps the generation of email or text messages so that management or remote SCADA operators are informed). In many cases, a SCADA operator may have to acknowledge the alarm event; this may deactivate some alarm indicators, whereas other indicators remain active until the alarm conditions are cleared. Alarm conditions can be explicit - for example, an alarm point is a digital status point that has either the value NORMAL or ALARM that is calculated by a formula based on the values in other analogue and digital points - or implicit: the SCADA system might automatically monitor whether the value in an analogue point lies outside high and low limit values associated with that point. Examples of alarm indicators include a siren, a pop-up box on a screen, or a coloured or flashing area on a screen (that might act in a similar way to the "fuel tank empty" light in a car); in each case, the role of the alarm indicator is to draw the operator's attention to the part of the system 'in alarm' so that appropriate action can be taken. In designing SCADA systems, care is needed in coping with a cascade of alarm events occurring in a short time, otherwise the underlying cause (which might not be the earliest event detected) may get lost in the noise. Unfortunately, when used as a noun, the word 'alarm' is used rather loosely in the industry; thus, depending on context it might mean an alarm point, an alarm indicator, or an alarm event.

Hardware solutions

SCADA solutions often have Distributed Control System (DCS) components. Use of "smart" RTUs or PLCs, which are capable of autonomously executing simple logic processes without involving the master computer, is increasing. A functional block programming language, IEC 61131-3 (Ladder Logic), is frequently used to create programs which run on these RTUs and PLCs. Unlike a procedural language such as the C programming language or FORTRAN, IEC 61131-3 has minimal training requirements by virtue of resembling historic physical control arrays. This allows SCADA system engineers to perform both the design and implementation of a program to be executed on an RTU or PLC. A Programmable automation controller(PAC) is a compact controller that combines the features and capabilities of a PC-based control system with that of a typical PLC. PACs are deployed in SCADA systems to provide RTU and PLC functions. In many electrical substation SCADA applications, "distributed RTUs" use information processors or station computers to communicate with digital protective relays, PACs, and other devices for I/O, and communicate with the SCADA master in lieu of a traditional RTU.

Since about 1998, virtually all major PLC manufacturers have offered integrated HMI/SCADA systems, many of them using open and non-proprietary communications protocols. Numerous specialized third-party HMI/SCADA packages, offering built-in compatibility with most major PLCs, have also entered the market, allowing mechanical engineers, electrical engineers and technicians to configure HMIs themselves, without the need for a custom-made program written by a software developer.

The RTU connects to physical equipment. Typically, an RTU converts the electrical signals from the equipment to digital values such as the open/closed status from a switch or a valve, or measurements such as pressure, flow, voltage or current. By converting and sending these electrical signals out to equipment the RTU can control equipment, such as opening or closing a switch or a valve, or setting the speed of a pump.

The term "Supervisory Station" refers to the servers and software responsible for communicating with the field equipment (RTUs, PLCs, etc), and then to the HMI software running on workstations in the control room, or elsewhere. In smaller SCADA systems, the master station may be composed of a single PC. In larger SCADA systems, the master station may include multiple servers, distributed software applications, and disaster recovery sites. To increase the integrity of the system the multiple servers will often be configured in a dual-redundant or hot-standby formation providing continuous control and monitoring in the event of a server failure.

Operational philosophy

For some installations, the costs that would result from the control system failing are extremely high. Possibly even lives could be lost. Hardware for some SCADA systems is ruggedized to withstand temperature, vibration, and voltage extremes, but in most critical installations reliability is enhanced by having redundant hardware and communications channels, up to the point of having multiple fully equipped control centres. A failing part can be quickly identified and its functionality automatically taken over by backup hardware. A failed part can often be replaced without interrupting the process. The reliability of such systems can be calculated statistically and is stated as the mean time to failure, which is a variant of mean time between failures. The calculated mean time to failure of such high reliability systems can be on the order of centuries.

SCADA systems have traditionally used combinations of radio and direct serial or modem connections to meet communication requirements, although Ethernet and IP over SONET / SDH is also frequently used at large sites such as railways and power stations. The remote management or monitoring function of a SCADA system is often referred to as telemetry.

This has also come under threat with some customers wanting SCADA data to travel over their pre-established corporate networks or to share the network with other applications. The legacy of the early low-bandwidth protocols remains, though. SCADA protocols are designed to be very compact and many are designed to send information to the master station only when the master station polls the RTU. Typical legacy SCADA protocols include Modbus RTU, RP-570, Profibus and Conitel. These communication protocols are all SCADA-vendor specific but are widely adopted and used. Standard protocols are IEC 60870-5-101 or 104, IEC 61850 and DNP3. These communication protocols are standardized and recognized by all major SCADA vendors. Many of these protocols now contain extensions to operate over TCP/IP. It is good security engineering practice to avoid connecting SCADA systems to theInternet so the attack surface is reduced.

RTUs and other automatic controller devices were being developed before the advent of industry wide standards for interoperability. The result is that developers and their management created a multitude of control protocols. Among the larger vendors, there was also the incentive to create their own protocol to "lock in" their customer base. A list of automation protocols is being compiled here.

Recently, OLE for Process Control (OPC) has become a widely accepted solution for intercommunicating different hardware and software, allowing communication even between devices originally not intended to be part of an industrial network.

The United States Army's Training Manual 5-601 covers "SCADA Systems for C4ISRFacilities".

SCADA systems have evolved through 3 generations as follows:

In the first generation, computing was done by mainframe computers. Networks did not exist at the time SCADA was developed. Thus SCADA systems were independent systems with no connectivity to other systems. Wide Area Networks were later designed by RTU vendors to communicate with the RTU. The communication protocols used were often proprietary at that time. The first-generation SCADA system was redundant since a back-up mainframe system was connected at the bus level and was used in the event of failure of the primary mainframe system.

The processing was distributed across multiple stations which were connected through a LAN and they shared information in real time. Each station was responsible for a particular task thus making the size and cost of each station less than the one used in First Generation. The network protocols used were still mostly proprietary, which led to significant security problems for any SCADA system that received attention from a hacker. Since the protocols were proprietary, very few people beyond the developers and hackers knew enough to determine how secure a SCADA installation was. Since both parties had invested interests in keeping security issues quiet, the security of a SCADA installation was often badly overestimated, if it was considered at all.

These are the current generation SCADA systems which use open system architecture rather than a vendor-controlled proprietary environment. The SCADA system utilizes open standards and protocols, thus distributing functionality across a WAN rather than a LAN. It is easier to connect third party peripheral devices like printers, disk drives, and tape drives due to the use of open architecture. WAN protocols such as Internet Protocol (IP) are used for communication between the master station and communications equipment. Due to the usage of standard protocols and the fact that many networked SCADA systems are accessible from the Internet, the systems are potentially vulnerable to remote cyber-attacks. On the other hand, the usage of standard protocols and security techniques means that standard security improvements are applicable to the SCADA systems, assuming they receive timely maintenance and updates.

Trends in SCADA

North American Electric Reliability Corporation has specified that electrical system data should be time-tagged to the nearest millisecond. Electrical system SCADA systems provide this Sequence of events recorder function, using Radio clocks to synchronize the RTU or distributed RTU clocks.

SCADA systems are coming in line with standard networking technologies. Ethernet and TCP/IP based protocols are replacing the older proprietary standards. Although certain characteristics of frame-based network communication technology (determinism, synchronization, protocol selection, environment suitability) have restricted the adoption of Ethernet in a few specialized applications, the vast majority of markets have accepted Ethernet networks for HMI/SCADA.

A few vendors have begun offering application specific SCADA systems hosted on remote platforms over the Internet. This removes the need to install and commission systems at the end-user's facility and takes advantage of security features already available in Internet technology, VPNs and SSL. Some concerns include security,^[2] Internet connection reliability, and latency.

SCADA systems are becoming increasingly ubiquitous. Thin clients, web portals, and web based products are gaining popularity with most major vendors. The increased convenience of end users viewing their processes remotely introduces security considerations. While these considerations are already considered solved in other sectors of Internet services, not all entities responsible for deploying SCADA systems have understood the changes in accessibility and threat scope implicit in connecting a system to the Internet.

Security issues

The move from proprietary technologies to more standardized and open solutions together with the increased number of connections between SCADA systems and office networks and the Internet has made them more vulnerable to attacks - see references. Consequently, the security of SCADA-based systems has come into question as they are increasingly seen as extremely vulnerable to cyberwarfare/cyberterrorism attacks.^[3]^[4]

In particular, security researchers are concerned about:

the lack of concern about security and authentication in the design, deployment and operation of existing SCADA networks
the belief that SCADA systems have the benefit of security through obscurity through the use of specialized protocols and proprietary interfaces
the belief that SCADA networks are secure because they are physically secured
the belief that SCADA networks are secure because they are disconnected from the Internet

SCADA systems are used to control and monitor physical processes, examples of which are transmission of electricity, transportation of gas and oil in pipelines, water distribution, traffic lights, and other systems used as the basis of modern society. The security of these SCADA systems is important because compromise or destruction of these systems would impact multiple areas of society far removed from the original compromise. For example, a blackout caused by a compromised electrical SCADA system would cause financial losses to all the customers that received electricity from that source. How security will affect legacy SCADA and new deployments remains to be seen.

There are two distinct threats to a modern SCADA system. First is the threat of unauthorized access to the control software, whether it be human access or changes induced intentionally or accidentally by virus infections and other software threats residing on the control host machine. Second is the threat of packet access to the network segments hosting SCADA devices. In many cases, there is rudimentary or no security on the actual packet control protocol, so anyone who can send packets to the SCADA device can control it. In many cases SCADA users assume that a VPN is sufficient protection and are unaware that physical access to SCADA-related network jacks and switches provides the ability to totally bypass all security on the control software and fully control those SCADA networks. These kinds of physical access attacks bypass firewall and VPN security and are best addressed by endpoint-to-endpoint authentication and authorization such as are commonly provided in the non-SCADA world by in-device SSL or other cryptographic techniques.

Many SCADA systems are deployed in critical infrastructures. Attacks to these systems can impact public health and safety. A famous example of a computer-based attack to a SCADA system is the attack carried out on Maroochy Shire Council's sewage control system in Queensland, Australia.^[5] Shortly after a contractor had installed the system in January 2000, it began to experience unexplainable problems. Pumps did not run when needed, alarms were not reported, and extensive flooding with sewage occurred in a nearby park and contamination of a river. After careful observation, it was determined that sewage valves were opening of their own accord. This was believed to be a system bug, until careful monitoring of the system logs revealed that these malfunctions were the result of a cyber attack. After 46 reported attacks, the culprit was identified as a disgruntled ex-employee of the contractor company that installed the system, and who was trying to be hired back to solve the problem.

Many vendors of SCADA and control products have begun to address these risks in a basic sense by developing lines of specialized industrial firewall and VPN solutions for TCP/IP-based SCADA networks as well as external SCADA monitoring and recording equipment.^[6] Additionally, application whitelisting solutions are being implemented because of their ability to prevent malware and unauthorized application changes without the performance impacts of traditional antivirus scans.^{[citation needed]} Also, the ISA Security Compliance Institute (ISCI) is emerging to formalize SCADA security testing starting as soon as 2009. ISCI is conceptually similar to private testing and certification that has been performed by vendors since 2007. Eventually, standards being defined by ISA99 WG4 will supersede the initial industry consortia efforts, but probably not before 2011.^{[citation needed]}

The increased interest in SCADA vulnerabilities has resulted in vulnerability researchers discovering vulnerabilities in commercial SCADA software and more general offensive SCADA techniques presented to the general security community.^[7]^[8] In electric and gas utility SCADA systems, the vulnerability of the large installed base of wired and wireless serial communications links is addressed in some cases by applying bump-in-the-wire devices that employ authentication and Advanced Encryption Standard encryption rather than replacing all existing nodes.^[9]

In June 2010, VirusBlokAda reported the first detection of malware that attacks SCADA systems (Siemens' WinCC/PCS7 systems) running on Windows operating systems. The malware is called Stuxnet and uses four zero-day attacks to install a rootkit which in turn logs in to the SCADA's database and steals design and control files.^[10]^[11] The malware is also capable of changing the control system and hiding those changes. The malware was found by an anti-virus security company on 14 systems with the majority in Iran.[12]

Source: wiki

How Does 3D Technology Work?

2011-02-18T08:23:00.000-08:00

The Innovative Entertainment Series is supported by Dolby. “Like” Dolby for a chance to have Adam West read your Facebook status update, live, on camera, February 18th.

In 1838, Sir Charles Wheatstone first described the process of stereopsis: the process by which humans perceive three dimensions from two highly similar, overlaid images. Or, the process by which Avatar looks like a mind-blowingly immersive alien landscape instead of a bunch of brightly colored fuzz.

3D technology has come a long way since Wheatstone developed his stereoscope, then used to view static images and eventually pictures. Now we get to wear Wayfarer knock-offs and enjoy 3D films, television shows and video games.

For some people, seeing cool images might be enough. But others might be curious how Pandora was brought to life, or how TRON: Legacy zapped them into its glowing world. The answer is both reassuringly simple and inordinately complex, depending on who you ask and how you look at it.

How do 3D films work? What’s the difference between polarity and anaglyph (we’ll get there), and what are the next steps for 3D gadgets and imagery? Have a look below for a breakdown of how today’s “it” technology functions. Plus, we put in some sweet looking pictures. What’s not to love?

A tremendous thank you to David Leitner, Rob Willox and Professor Ian Howard for their collective insight and help in describing the various forms of 3D technology below.

Stereoscopy 101

Big words! Academic nomenclature! Relax, this is actually the easy part. 3D, or “stereoscopy,” refers to how your eyes and brain create the impression of a third dimension. Human eyes are approximately 50 mm to 75 mm apart — accordingly, each eye sees a slightly different part of the world. Don’t believe me? Hold up a pen, pencil or any other thin object. Close one eye. Now switch.

The image on either side should be pretty similar but slightly offset, like that line behind the woman’s head in the picture above. These two slightly different images enter the brain, at which point it does some high-powered geometry to make up for the disparity between the two images. This disparity is “3D” — essentially, your brain making up for the fact that you’re getting two different perspectives of the same thing.

This is also, essentially, what modern 3D technology is trying to replicate. All those silly sunglasses and silver-coated projectors are all designed to feed your individual eyes different perspectives of the same image. Easy, right?

Well, yes. It is pretty easy for your brain to figure out the disparity between the two images. Your brain can automatically figure out all the angles and math and geometry to sync the images. The hard part is getting a camera to do the same thing, and to get those individual images to your individual eyes without butchering the whole effect.

What We Watch

Films

Film has been one of the pioneers of 3D, thanks to its hefty budgets and some technological daring. There are largely two ways 3D has been achieved in motion pictures: anaglyph and polarized glasses.

Anaglyph is a fancy way of referring to the red-and-blue glasses we used to wear. By projecting a film in those colors — one in red, one in blue — each eye would get an individual perspective and your brain would put the 3D effect together. Other colors could be used, providing they were distinct enough to be separated on screen. This technique, however, didn’t allow for a full range of color and had a tendency to “ghost,” or have the once-distinct images bleed into one another. Not cool.

Much more common is the use of polarized glasses, which take advantage of the fact that light can be polarized, or given different orientations. For example, one image can be projected in a horizontal direction while the second can be projected in a vertical direction. The corresponding glasses would allow horizontal polarization in one eye and vertical polarization in the other. The problem is that this kind of 3D requires you to keep your head still, à la A Clockwork Orange. Tilting your head can distort how the waves get to your eyes, messing with the color and 3D effect. Also not cool.

This is the tricky part. To counteract this, 3D now uses rotational polarity, meaning the film being projected actually has two different spins to it. The glasses then pick up those opposite rotations — clockwise in one eye, counterclockwise in another eye — to separate the image. Now you can tilt your head or place it on your boy/girlfriend’s shoulder and still be able to watch the movie.

Television

It’s possible to use the same techniques in film projectors for home theaters, but you would need some serious cash. Films use special silver-coated screens that are much better at reflecting light back to the viewing audience. Your television, unfortunately, is not silver-coated. There are, however, two ways to get 3D at home: active and passive.

The most common, active 3D, involves wearing those electronic RoboCop glasses. The glasses are synced up to your television and actively open and close shutters in front of your eyes, allowing only one eye to see the screen at a time. This sounds like a recipe for a stroke, but the shutters move so quickly that they’re hardly noticeable. These shutter lenses are made possible because of the refresh rate on televisions. 3D-enabled televisions have high image refresh rates, meaning the actual image on screen is quickly loaded and reloaded. Through the glasses, you receive one constant image instead of a flicker.

Passive systems are less common but run much like your 3D film. These televisions have a thin, lenticular screen over the standard display. A lenticular screen is made up of a series of incredibly thin magnifying strips that show a slightly different perspective of the screen to each eye, as illustrated above. While this technology doesn’t require bulky, expensive glasses, it can limit the image quality. Essentially, each eye only sees one half of the screen at any given time. For example, if a screen had 100 pixels, 50 pixels would be magnified and sent to the left eye and the other 50 pixels would be magnified and sent to the right eye. In practice, your brain is actually able to put the two images together and retain the entire 100 pixel fidelity.

How It’s Made

Cameras

There is a lot of fancy footwork that goes into creating 3D. The real heavy lifting, however, is all just a matter of geometry and precision. To get a 3D image, you essentially need two versions of the same scene filmed from the precisely correct angle as if your eyes were seeing the same scene. Filmmakers need to triangulate the distance between the two cameras and make sure they are focused on the same object. They also need to zoom and track, or move, at the same speed, otherwise the images won’t sync up. In modern film rigs, these two cameras are bolted into place preventing any unwanted jostling or disparity.

Close-ups, a staple of modern film, are hard to capture in 3D because the cameras need to be extraordinarily close together to mimic the angle of your eyes. To solve this, filmmakers sometimes use mirror rigs. Mirror rigs film through one lens, and that image is then bounced by a tiny internal mirror to another camera where a second image can be recorded. Providing there are no imperfections on the mirror (including scratches, dirt or warping), the close-up will be filmed in 3D.

Computer Graphics

There is a difference between creating three-dimensional graphics and images that appear to be 3D in the theater. Again, it’s all just a matter of some high-tech geometry. To get a movie like Toy Story 3 into 3D, animators create two versions of each frame, one from the perspective of each eye. Because computer-generated movies don’t need cameras, it’s much easier to get perfectly synced images and to fine-tune any mistakes in post-production. The downside is that this technique requires a lot of time and elbow grease to get perfect.

It’s possible to create a 3D video game using the same technique; however, games add their own complications. Films and shows are largely pre-recorded and all have a fixed perspective — you can’t move the camera’s focus or orientation when you’re watching a film. Video games allow you to change the perspective by moving your on-screen character. This creates a labor-intensive problem since animators need to create objects that can be seen in 3D from a variety of angles depending on where the user is looking and moving.

The Future

One of the toughest problems to solve with 3D technology is the fundamental halving of any image. Lenticular screens send half the image to each eye, shutter lens glasses physically block one eye from seeing the image, and polarized glasses only send half the displayed light to each eye.

The human eye needs approximately 50 frames per second in order to see film as one continuous image. 3D effectively halves that so each eye would only see 25 frames per second and get some nauseating flicker. Modern technology has been able to significantly up that frame rate (or refresh rate in televisions) so that we can achieve the illusion of 3D.

Advances in computing and memory have also made 3D possible in a number of handheld and consumer products. There are already prototypes for 3D laptops, cameras, camcorders, and a variety of other tech.

In the coming years, keep a look out for technology that uses autostereoscopy, or 3D that doesn’t require glasses in any way. The Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo’s newest portable 3D gaming device, is one such device. One of its tricks is syncing a lenticular display with its forward-facing camera. By using eye recognition, it can track where the user’s face is and shift the display to accurately display 3D no matter how the user views the screens. Look for autostereoscopy to test the waters on handheld devices before it heads to large format screens.

We’re just at the start of what 3D can offer, with a lot more successes and failures to occur in the meantime. Let us know in the comments what you hope to see for the future of 3D, or what 3D-enabled tech you’re looking to scoop up.

Source:www.mashable.com

Solar flare eruptions set to reach Earth

2011-02-17T09:14:00.000-08:00

Solar flare eruptions set to reach Earth
By Paul Rincon

Science reporter, BBC News

Click to play

Time lapse image of the solar flare as seen by Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory

Scientists around the world will be watching closely as three eruptions from the Sun reach the Earth over Thursday and Friday.

These "coronal mass ejections" will slam into the Earth's magnetic shield.

The waves of charged solar particles are the result of three solar flares directed at Earth in recent days, including the most powerful since 2006.

The biggest flares can disrupt technology, including power grids, communications systems and satellites.

The northern lights (Aurora Borealis) may also be visible further south than is normally the case - including from northern parts of the UK.

"Our current view is that the effect of the solar flare is likely to reach Earth later today (Thursday GMT), possibly tomorrow morning," said Alan Thomson, head of geomagnetism at the British Geological Survey (BGS).

He told BBC News: "In the scientific community, there's a feeling that it's not as intense as we first thought it might be. But it's possible still that it could be a large enough event for us to see the northern lights in the UK."

However, weather forecasts suggested cloudy conditions could mar views of any aurorae.

Technological impact

The US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said that three coronal mass ejections (CMEs) were en route as the result of solar flares on the 13, 14 and 15 February (GMT).

"The last of the three seems to be the fastest and may catch both of the forerunners about mid-to-late day tomorrow, February 17," read a statement from Noaa's Space Weather Prediction Center.

The northern lights could be seen further south than is normal

The flare recorded at 0156 GMT on 15 February was the strongest such event in four years, according to the US space agency (Nasa), which has been monitoring activity on the Sun. The event was classified as a so-called X-flare, the most intense type.

The source of all three events, sunspot 1158, has expanded rapidly in recent days.

Solar flares are caused by the sudden release of magnetic energy stored in the Sun's atmosphere.

Their effects can interfere with modern technology on Earth, such as electrical power grids, communications systems and satellites - including satellite navigation (or sat-nav) signals.

Although scientists are expecting most geomagnetic activity to occur on Thursday, Chinese state media has already reported some disruption to shortwave radio communications in the south of the country.

Awakening Sun

In 1972, a geomagnetic storm provoked by a solar flare knocked out long-distance telephone communication across the US state of Illinois. And in 1989, another storm plunged six million people into darkness across the Canadian province of Quebec.

Dr Thomson said it was possible infrastructure could be affected this time, but stressed: "The X-flare that was observed the other day was lower in magnitude than similar flares that have been associated with technological damage such as the loss of the Quebec power grid... and even the large magnetic storm in 2003, which caused some damage to satellites in orbit."

Scientists will have around half an hour's notice that the wave of charged particles is about to hit the Earth's magnetic shield.

This is taken from the point at which a Nasa satellite called Ace (the Advanced Composition Explorer) registers the solar radiation on its instruments: "We're sitting waiting for that event to happen," said Dr Thomson.

Researchers say the Sun has been awakening after a period of several years of low activity.

Source: BBC News

Opening ceremony of World Cup 2011 begins in Dhaka

2011-02-17T05:14:00.000-08:00

The 10th edition of the 2011 World Cup is underway in Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh. A total of 14-team are competing in the event along with hosts India and Sri Lanka. After the Bangaladesh national anthem was played out, the captains of respective teams entered the stadium on decorated rickshaws.

India singer Sonu Nigam then entertained the crowd with an English number.

Canadian rocker Bryan Adams helps kickstart the 2011 cricket World Cup on Thursday at the tournament's opening ceremony, marking the start of a gruelling six-week sporting marathon.

Favourites India will go into the tournament opener against Bangladesh on Saturday in Dhaka in buoyant mood after two wins in their warm-up matches, including a crushing 117-run victory on Wednesday over New Zealand.

Source: hindustantimes.com

Cricket captains to ride rickshaws to World Cup opening

2011-02-16T08:25:00.000-08:00

Dhaka, Feb 16 (IANS) The rickshaw, the common man's traditional transport in Bangladesh, will occupy the centre stage in Thursday's Cricket World Cup opening ceremony here. The captains of all participating teams will make a grand entry into a packed Bangabandhu Stadium riding these humble vehicles.

'The rickshaw is our traditional transport. It is a part of Bangladesh's heritage. So, we want to present it before the guests. All 14 skippers will enter the stadium in rickshaws,' tournament director for Bangladesh Ali Ahsan Babu told IANS.

Babu said the rickshaws will be brightly decorated and colourful.

'Our rickshaws are known for their multi-colours. We will also present before the guests aesthetically designed rickshaws. There will be bright illumination so that the skippers are all visible from even the galleries,' said Babu.

He said the rickshaw portion will be the first of the five-part inaugural ceremony that will showcase the culture of the three tournament co-hosts - India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Singers Shankar, Ehsan and Loy will also feature in the Indian part of the programme.

The Bangladesh presentation would include the war of liberation, excerpts from a famous speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country's founding father.

Bangladesh's language movement that saw the martyrdom of three students for the sake of their mother tongue would also be depicted besides the tribal dances of Chakmas, Rakaines, Marmas, Shautals and Garos.

The Bengali New year would also be brought alive through song, dance and visual effects, he said.

A saleout crowd of 25,000 will cheer every moment of the 135-minute programme.

'We had printed a total of 10,000 tickets of three denominations - 1,000, 10,000 and 20,000 takas. All the tickets were exhausted within a short time. The rest 15,000 include some complimentaries and some given to the government.'

Source: sify.com

Demining experts disarm Word War II bomb

2011-02-16T08:11:00.000-08:00

VIENNA - Demining experts have disarmed a World War II bomb found at a major Vienna construction site.

Police say the bomb was discovered during excavation work at the site where the Austrian capital's new main train station is being built.

Surrounding streets were closed to traffic Tuesday while government demining experts disarmed the 250 kilogram (550 pound) bomb.

Google's Schmidt says Nokia still welcome to join Android

2011-02-16T03:44:00.000-08:00

Eric Schmidt, now chairman of Google, seems to have developed into a permanent keynote fixture here at Mobile World Congress. Last year, just his very presence was enough to stir up an atmosphere. This this year, in the immediate wake of the Nokia/Microsoft tie-up - which left Google's Android the loser - perhaps Schmidt and Google appear less the all-conquering threat and more like just another powerful player in the mobile ecosystem.

“We would have loved Nokia to choose Android and we certainly tried,” Schmidt told those assembled. Asked what might happen if the alliance between Microsoft and Nokia failed or was less successful than anticipated, Schmidt answered: “The offer remains open for the future.”

Indeed. The question many people have been asking here is not "Why Microsoft?", but rather why didn't Nokia hedge its bets and adopt both operating systems? It doesn't appear that the agreement with Nokia involves any exclusivity and it's an approach other companies have adopted. Elop has also called Android "a worthy candidate" so the option doesn't appeared to have been ruled out on the Nokia side. Plus, having more or less dumped both Symbian and Meego, Nokia has the R&D resources.

As things stand now, Nokia is facing a significant sales shortfall in Smartphones over the next 6 months as its potential users either wait for its new Phone 7 phones to appear or, just as likely and even more damaging, go out and buy an Android instead. Then there's the possibility that, when Phone 7 Nokias do arrive, users find themselves unexcited by them and don't buy those either.

If Phone 7 doesn't generate big smartphone sales for Nokia and its share price tanks even further, perhaps Schmidt's offer will be taken up.

Source:telecomtv.com

VMware Android handset virtualization hands-on

2011-02-15T08:32:00.000-08:00

VMware and LG's virtualized Android OS demo at MWC 2011 is pretty slick. The speed of the transition from the owner's OS to the virtualized OS is nothing short of amazing considering it is all running from the device's SD card. As we posted earlier, the potential in the work world are pretty impressive: an
employer can simply provision and add the new OS replete with all the security policies, remote wipe capability, security, VPN config, mail settings, and all that magic. Sure, VMware has started with Android and LG, but there's apparently nothing holding them back from offering this on any smartphone platform -- and honestly, we can't wait to see more. But until then, the following video will have to do.

Source: engadget.com

Marvell tips UMTS/TD-SCDMA combo chip, new open source dev platform

2011-02-15T08:12:00.000-08:00

Marvell announced a 1.2GHz processor for mobile devices claimed to be the first to combine 3G UMTS and TD-SCDMA cellular technology. In addition to unveiling the PXA978 processor, which is also touted for its advanced 3D graphics and 1080p multimedia playback, Marvell announced an open source mobile development platform called Kinoma.

According to Marvell, the PXA978 offers a unique combination of UMTS (universal mobile telecommunications system) with China's TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access) -- including HSPA (high speed packet access) support. This will allow developers to create smartphones or tablets that can be used globally, saving months of design time and cost, the company says.

China Mobile, the world's largest carrier with more than 500 million subscribers, recently reported that there are currently more than 18 million TD-SCMA users in China, says Marvell. That number is "expected to grow exponentially," the company adds.

Marvell says its "world phone development platform" will include not only the PXA978, but also the "industry's first Mobile MIMO" in the form of the Avastar 88W8797. This is an 802/11n 2x2 SoC (system on chip) "designed to support high data rates for next-generation mobile devices," says the company.

Regarding the PXA978, Marvell added that the chip is fabbed using a 40nm process, clocked at 1.2GHz, and capable of 1080p video playback. That's all the company (never lavish with information) had to say, though the "PXA" prefix indicates the device is part of the ARM-based XScale line Marvell acquired from Intel in 2006. That would imply compatibility with Linux, Windows CE. and Windows Mobile, but not Windows Phone 7.

Marvell co-founder Weili Dai (right), stated, "The quest to deliver seamless connectivity on a global scale requires fundamental breakthroughs in mobile telephony. I'm very proud of our engineering teams for continuously delivering some of the most innovative technologies in our industry. It's truly amazing that a tiny chip like the PXA978 integrates both 3G and TD-SCDMA basebands, a powerful application processor, and advanced 3D graphics capability, with a very low-power profile and affordable cost structure."

A new software platform

Marvell also announced Kinoma, modestly touted as "a software platform that will dramatically transform the way consumers interact with the devices that fuel their digital lives." It will allow developers to create software with a unified look and feel across an array of products, from handheld devices to smart appliances to "smart furnishings," the company says.

"Developers will be able to adapt Kinoma for any device they can imagine," Marvell says, adding that the software will be offered under an open source license. No word about what operating systems will be compatible with the platform was provided: a report byVentureBeat suggests it will work on "pretty much any," though a report by Engadgetsuggested it might only work with Android.

The announcement of Kinoma stems from Marvell's recent acquisition of a company by the same name. Kinoma was originally associated with its Kinoma Player 4 EX, a popular media player for Palm OS devices. In 2008, it released Kinoma Play (below), a media player for Windows Mobile 5.x and 8.x devices.

Marvell says the newest version of Kinoma Play is now the first product to be built on the Kinoma platform. "Featuring an elegant, touch-friendly design coupled with lightning fast speed," it offers 40 different functions, ranging from social networking, to digital media, to location, to search, the company adds.

Two different Kinoma software development kits (SDKs) will be provided, adds Marvell. The first SDK is for application developers to fully integrate their content and services into Kinoma-powered devices, while the second is for OEMs and manufacturers to port and customize Kinoma for their products.

A video of Marvell's Kinoma
(click to play)

Further information

Marvell did not say when its PXA978 processor will become available. Further information on Kinoma licensing and development will be offered "in the coming weeks," according to the company.

Kinoma Play is being demonstrated at the ongoing Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Courtyard CY15, says Marvell.

Source: linuxfordevices.com

WWII bomb discovered in Vienna

2011-02-15T06:01:00.000-08:00

Explosives experts had to defuse a 250-kilo aerial bomb in Vienna this afternoon (Tues).

The World War Two (WWII) era missile was found by construction workers at the site where the city’s new main train station is currently being built.

A team of experts sent out by the federal interior ministry decided to evacuate the area for safety reasons. The operation caused significant traffic jams in some of the busiest roads in the Favoriten district.

Only last month, an aerial bomb from WWII was discovered at Albern harbour in Vienna-Simmering. The 250-kilo object was deactivated, and no-one was injured.

Around 28 tons of unexploded missiles from both World Wars were found and defused across Austria in 2009. Figures for 2010 have not yet been provided.

VIJAY FANS CLUB: Nanban Shooting Spot Photos

2011-02-08T18:22:00.000-08:00

VIJAY FANS CLUB: Nanban Shooting Spot Photos: "SJ surya in guest appreance"

Nanban Shooting Spot Photos

SJ surya in guest appreance

Spam the Spammer !!!

2011-02-07T10:12:00.000-08:00

Every time when we check our mail we will be get annoyed if there is a spam message.We will definitely tried to locate the spammer in some of the crucial situation but we failed to locate him.

Now its our chance to spam the spammer.Thanks to ip-address.com for their new e-mail trace program which helps us to trace the spammer's identity.This gives us a chance to spam the spammer.

Just copy and paste the original message of the spam and locate the spammer.

Visit here for E-mail Tracer

Lose your TV remote? Use a Samsung app on your Galaxy phone or Tab

2011-02-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

Who needs a TV remote when you have a smartphone or tablet?

Samsung has released an app to the Android Market that turns your Android-powered Samsung smartphone (OS 2.1 or up) or Galaxy Tab tablet into a digital remote--so long as you use it with a compatible TV.

The Samsung TV Remote uses Wi-Fi to form a connection with the TV. A QWERTY keyboard, numbers, and directional arrows do the rest of the work.

The free remote app works with Samsung LED C6500 series and higher, the Samsung LCD C650 series and higher, and the Samsung Plasma C6500 series and higher. It will also work with some "smart TVs" from Sammy's 2011 lineup.

Source: reviews.cnet.com

Introducing Blogger Android App

2011-02-04T06:45:00.000-08:00

Introducing Blogger Android App

Posted by Vinay Sekhri

Have you ever wanted to write up a quick blog post on the go? Now there is an easy way to do this on your Android phone! We are excited to announce our first version of the Blogger Android App. Using the app you can easily compose a post, attach a photo that you just took with your phone, and either save it as a local draft for later or immediately publish it to your blog. If you are an Android user, you can start using the Blogger app today by downloading it for free from the Android Market.

Feature highlights

Multiple accounts and blogs: You can easily switch between different accounts and blogs that you have author rights to. Simply choose your account and blog and you are all set to go.

Write and save/publish: You can write a post, assign labels, and then either save it as a draft or immediately publish it. Saving as draft is handy if you need to wait until you have Internet connectivity.

Photos from camera and gallery: If you see something interesting, you can take a photo directly from the app and include it in the blog post. You can also browse your gallery to include the ones you like.

Sharing to Blogger from gallery or browser: Blogger is one of the available sharing options. If you come across a photo in the gallery, or a website while browsing, you can share the content to the Blogger app directly from the sharing menu.

Share location: You can share your location by activating the location bar and selecting the correct location. This information will be included in your post.

View saved/published posts: By switching to the List View, you can view all your drafts and published posts that you wrote using the app. By performing a long-press on a published post you can invoke a menu that includes the option to view your post in a browser.

We hope you enjoy the app. As always, we would love to hear what you think so please feel free to share your thoughts with us through our feedback form. (Note: this app is available only on Android devices but we are working toward supporting other smartphone platforms to allow more of our users to easily post to Blogger on the go.)

Dell Partners With Ubuntu for Linux Cloud Computing Technology

2011-02-03T08:57:00.000-08:00

Ubuntu Linux vendor Canonical is expanding its cloud horizons this week, thanks to a new cloud partnership with Dell.

Dell will be making the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) technology available on Dell PowerEdge C2100 and PowerEdge C6100 servers. The UEC deal marks a major milestone for Ubuntu as it moves from Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) desktops to servers.

"It is the first offer that involves Ubuntu Server Edition at Dell," Nicolas Barcet, Ubuntu Server product manager, told InternetNews.com. "So it's a major step extending the strong relationship we have had on Ubuntu Desktop and Netbook editions.

UEC has been part of the Ubuntu Linux distro since the Jaunty Jackalope release in April 2009. Subsequent Ubuntu releases have further improved on the technology that is based on the open source Eucalyptus project. In April 2010, Ubuntu told InternetNews.com that it had 12,000 active deployments of UEC, with 200 more being added each day.

The deal with Dell also involves some money, although it's not clear exactly how much.

"Dell receives a share of the UEC Assist contracts it sells; details are not public," Barcet said. "Dell does the entire sell, which includes the reselling of UEC Assists contracts."

As to why Dell has chosen now to make UEC available, Barcet noted that Dell and Canonical have been working on providing a simple and stable deployment methodology. That methodology is reflected in both reference architecture documents and a set of pre configuration files.

Looking beyond Dell, Barcet said UEC is not yet certified and integrated with hardware from other major system vendors, such as IBM or HP.

UEC offers Ubuntu users the promise of enabling their infrastructure to run as a private or even public cloud deployment. While the price utility of cloud computing economics has made it an attractive approach for some, some challenges that are still left to be overcome.

"Novelty of Infrastructure as a Service is the strongest barrier," Barcet said. "We believe that seeing trusted partners join forces to provide an end-to-end solution will help establish the solution."

Source: serverwatch.com

Google Debuts a Honey of an OS

2011-02-03T08:52:00.000-08:00

By Richard Adhikari

LinuxInsider

02/02/11 2:40 PM PT

Google hosted its big Honeycomb show-and-tell Wednesday, elaborating on the new Android version's features and capabilities. This is the first version of Android optimized specifically for tablet devices, and it will arrive in iPad rivals from many different manufacturers in the coming months. Google also released a preview of the Honeycomb SDK so developers can become accustomed to making apps for the platform.

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) staged an in-depth look at its Android 3.0 operating system, aka "Honeycomb," at a press conference Wednesday. It marks the official arrival of the first version of the Android operating system to be optimized specifically with the tablet form factor in mind.

Features mentioned in the presentation include richer notifications for incoming messages, faster access to home screen settings, optimized 2D and 3D graphics performance and improved streaming video processing.

Google focused heavily on developers, also announcing the Android Market Web store and in-app purchases, among other things.The event ended with the presenters conducting a video chat with musician Cee-Lo Green.Backstage, 18 developers demonstrated functions like in-app billing and other apps created with Honeycomb. Google announced that 50 developers will show off Honeycomb-optimized apps at the Mobile World Congress, to be held in Barcelona later this month.

Android 3.0 Stuff

Google's offering templates in Honeycomb that let app devs create richer, more advanced notifications, such as having the sender's picture pop up when the user receives an instant message on the device.While these Honeycomb notifications are "stronger and more impressive" than those offered by Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iOS for now, the two companies "will begin to leapfrog each other going forward," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, pointed out.Google did not respond to requests for comment by press time.Existing Android apps for smartphones work on Honeycomb, and Google demoed the game "Fruit Ninja" as proof.Honeycomb supports video chat with video stabilization technology. This keeps the image smooth and by so doing saves bandwidth because less movement means less bandwidth is required to render the video.

Gunning for the App Devs

Google focused heavily on developers in creating Honeycomb.The new OS includes a user interface framework to create apps for devices with larger screens, such as tablets. Devs can use new UI components, new themes, richer widgets and notifications and other new features.Honeycomb comes with a property-based animation framework that lets devs add visual effects to their apps. It has a built-in GL (graphics library) renderer that lets developers hardware-accelerate common 2D rendering operations in their apps."Performance and responsiveness is important for developers and is certainly key for a new generation of applications that really take advantage of the tablet's larger screen," Al Hilwa, a program director at IDC, told LinuxInsider.

A new 3D graphics engine called "Renderscript" lets devs add rich 3D scenes in Honeycomb.

"The 2D and 3D hardware acceleration is huge and may lead to much richer games and stronger user experiences," Enderle said. Also, the "Monster Madness" demo is "a good indication that gaming will be strong" on Honeycomb, he added.New multimedia features such as HTTP Live streaming support, a pluggable digital rights management framework and easy media file transfer through MTP/PTP help devs create rich content.Honeycomb includes new APIs for Bluetooth A2DP and HSP. These let apps offer audio streaming and headset control.For the enterprise , Honeycomb comes with administrative policies covering encrypted storage, password expiration and other features.Android 3.0 is optimized to run on either single- or dual-core processors.

Getting to the Money

Google Wednesday extended the Android market client from mobile devices to every desktop through Android Market on the Web. This includes merchandising features such as suggestion-guided search, deep linking and social sharing."If you don't need to go to an app market but can download an app from the Web, it makes things a lot easier for everyone and may translate to better sales," Enderle said.

The Honeycomb SDK

Google has released a preview of the Android 3.0 SDK with non-final APIs and system image.

However, applications developed with this can't be published on Android Market. Google will release a final SDK sometime in the next few weeks that can be used to build apps that can be published on the Android Market."The fit and finish of the SDK is not there yet, but for developers, what matters is a familiar language and IDE (integrated development environment)," IDC's Hilwa stated.

"Having Java as the base language is one of the key assets of Android as a whole and one of its key success factors," Hilwa remarked. "This will definitely carry over to Honeycomb."Android 3.0 is "among Google's best work yet," Enderle said. "I'm very impressed." - LinuxInsider

Source: linuxinsider.com

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