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Cassini Finds Oxygen on Dione

2012-03-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

Dione

Cassini probe, launched by NASA and the space agencies of Europe and Italy, passed near Dione; one of Saturn's moons, in April 2010. After analyzing the data acquired by Cassini, NASA recently uncovered the fact that Dione has an atmosphere with oxygen, but in small amounts. Scientists say that the atmosphere one would encounter there would be similar to the conditions at 300 miles (483 kilometers) above Earth. With an average temperature of -121°F (-186°C) and the ultra-thin oxygen layer, Dione would not be a place for us to live. But it further clarifies the fact that a considerable number of moons (satellites) with oxygen atmospheres exists around planets like Saturn and Jupiter. It also shows us the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial life, most probably as microbial life forms, within our solar system.

How Dione got Oxygen

Scientists say; the reason for the availability of oxygen in the atmosphere of Dione, could be due to the impact of solar photons and energy particles from Saturn's magnetic field, with the chilly ice layer of Dione. Due to these bombarding's, the Hydrogen and Oxygen atoms in ice escape into the atmosphere.

About Cassini

Cassini probe was named after Giovanni Cassini, an astronomer who discovered Dione in 1684. Cassini was sent out on mission in 1997, and it made its arrival at Saturn in 2004. Cassini would serve the mankind probably until 2017.

Happy Birthday Einstein!

2012-03-14T06:52:00.000-07:00

14^th March 2012 marks the 133^rd birthday anniversary of an extraordinaire: Albert Einstein.

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Württemberg, in the German Empire; on 14^th March 1879, to Hermann Einstein and Pauline Einstein. He contributed for the progress of physics by developing theories such as Relativity and the Quantum Theory. He received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921.

Einstein’s father wanted him be an electric engineer until Einstein clashed with authority’s teaching methodology and quit. At the age of sixteen, he sat for the entrance examination of the Swiss Federal Polytechnic. While he failed to reach the required standard, he obtained exceptional grades in Physics & Mathematics. In 1900, Einstein managed to get the Zurich Polytechnic teaching diploma. Einstein was awarded a PhD by the University of Zurich. His dissertation was entitled "A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions". His papers: photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and the equivalence of matter and energy brought him recognition in the academic world.

Becoming a citizen of United States in 1940, Einstein made decisive discoveries regarding nuclear fission, which ultimately turned out to be the production of a nuclear weapon.

Einstein's Signature

Albert Einstein died at the age of 76 due to an internal bleeding, while he was in Princeton Hospital on 17^th April 1955.

Scientists say; "Toss this up!"

2012-03-11T09:58:00.001-07:00

Taking a panoramic shot is now not a complicated job as it used to be. It is now as simple as tossing a ball in the air. The interesting part is; the image that is taken is not an ordinary panoramic shot.

Jonas Pfeil, a recent graduate of Technische Universtität of Berlin, created an amazing camera as his diploma thesis. A ball of size of a soccer ball, outfitted with 36 fixed-focus 2MP cameras, which can shoot spherical panoramic shots was the creation that he came up with.

How it works
First of all, this ball camera has to be tossed in the air. As soon as the ball begins to lift up, the built in accelerometer measures the initial acceleration, and predicts the time to the highest point of the motion of the ball. When the ball is at the zenith of its motion, where it becomes motionless, images are taken simultaneously by the 36 cameras. The "stitched" spherical panorama could be viewed using a specially created viewer software, once the images are downloaded from the ball camera to a computer via USB.

Kristian Hildebrand, Carsten Gremzow, Bernd Bickel and Marc Alexa - the colleagues of Pfeil- also contributed to this creation, while the Computer Graphics Group of Berlin gave their support for this project.

For more information, go to http://jonaspfeil.de/ballcamera - The official web page

Mobile World Future Unveils at MWC 2012

2012-03-08T22:24:00.000-08:00

Last week marked the conclusion of one of the biggest events of mobile technology, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012, which was held in Barcelona, Spain.
As the world's largest exhibition for the mobile industry, with an attendance of about 60,000 including world’s top mobile manufacturers, the MWC 2012 became an excellent place for pre-launching new products.
The following are several smart devices, smart phones, tablet PCs and even two new “Phablets” or super tablets, first launched in the form of the Samsung Galaxy Note, showcased under consumer electronics manufacturers that spawned them:

SAMSUNG
Samsung, ranked as the world’s number one phone maker, made its impact at the MWC 2012 by launching a new 10.1” tablet PC in the form of Galaxy Note 10.1. Powered by a 1.4GHz Dual Core CPU, the new Galaxy Note version offers up the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) tablet specific operating system with improved convenience to the user. The device also consists of 3MP rear and 2MP front cameras.
7” and 10” models of the new generation Galaxy Tab 2 smart phones, running of Android 4.0 with 1.5GHz Dual Core CPUs plus 3G technology, were also unveiled at the event. The new models will reportedly be priced at $420 upwards when they are launched in the incoming months.
Additionally, Samsung joined the other consumer brands which presented novelty products, by showcasing the Galaxy Beam, which comes with a built in projector with a high output battery that can project an image of 640px X 360px for 3 hours straight. Galaxy Beam has all the utilities of a smart phone and it is likely to become unavailable for the public purchase by the 2nd quarter of 2012.

NOKIA
Nokia made its impact at the exhibition by launching 3 new entry-level smart phone models; the Asha 202, 203 and 302. The 202 and 203 run on Nokia’s Symbian operating system.

Lumia 610, which runs on Windows Phone Tango operating system, was also unveiled by the Nokia Company. Xbox Live integration, 800MHz Snapdragon processor and a 5MP rear camera with LED flash are some features present in Lumia 610.
Nokia 808 Pureview which features a 41MP camera was also showcased at the event.

HTC
HTC showcased its enhanced camera and imaging offering, the One series. The One series comprises the One X, the One S and the One V. The 4.7” touch screened One X is one of only a few smart phones at MWC 2012 which offered up the new 1.5GHz Quad Core CPU.

HUAWEI

Huawei unveiled their new 10” tablet; the MediaPad 10, which claims to be the world’s first Quad Core tablet PC. The MediaPad comes with a 1.5GHz Quad Core processor, and utilizes Android 4.0.

SONY ERICSSON
Sony Ericsson utilized the MWC 2012 to launch their 2 new Xperia products; the Sony Xperia P and the Sony Xperia U.
Xperia P and U differentiate only in their screen sizes and camera resolutions. While the P consists of a 4” touch screen and an 8MP camera, the U has a 3.5” touch screen and a 5MP camera. However, both run on Dual Core processors and Near Field Communication (NFC) chips.
Though most companies unveiled Quad Core products at the MWC 2012, Sony Ericsson was unable to do so. However, the company stated that they would achieve this target by 2013.

LG
Apart from Samsung, and may be Huawei, LG was the only other company to showcase a new “Phablet”, or super tablet, with its Optimus Vu. Optimus Vu featured a 5” touch screen, 1.5GHz Dual Core CPU plus Android Gingerbread OS version.

Also, as a further addition to the exhibition’s novelty offerings, LG previewed the Optimus 3D Max smart phone. Consisting a 1.3GHz Dual Core CPU along with a 4.3” touch screen and NFC chip, Optimus 3D Max differentiates itself from other novelty products with its unique 3D view feature, which does not need 3D glasses. This could be used to view images, movies and even apps, such as Google Earth, in 3D.

Poll Results - December 2011

2012-03-06T22:14:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the absence in the past few weeks. So, we decided to cover up somethings we missed during that time. From the poll we held to the end of the last year, we have decided to go more with Hacking and Programming topics since most readers feel that way. But, no, we are not going to let the other guys down either. For those who joined in the poll, Thank you very much for your feedback and thanks for sharing what you believe with us.

Here's the summary:

Not much participation as you see. But, it did certainly encourage us. So, expect more new stuff... soon

NASA GRAIL Gravity Mapping Satellites Now in Orbit

2012-01-13T03:56:00.000-08:00

Grail(Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) satellites is the first NASA spacecraft that will map the gravity field of the Moon.

GRAIL mission satellites lifted off on 10th September 2011. The satellites entered Moons orbit recently on 31st December 2011. Grail mission is expected to improve knowledge of Moon's gravity by 100-1000 times what was previously known.

Scientists believe that details from it might help us to better understand the nature of the far-side of the Moon. The first gravity-mapping mission will take 82 days. In early June, the Moon will go into eclipse behind the Earth. If the probes can outlast the darkness on their battery power, scientists will likely send them even closer to the surface later in 2012 to conduct a second study, according to BBC News.

Gravity Measuring Technique:

As the pair travel over the moon's orbit, each one will accelerate or de-accelerate as the lunar gravity affect it, the different in distance between the two satellites will be measured and used to determine the gravity irregularities of the moon.

Sir Timothy Berners Lee;

2012-01-12T19:29:00.000-08:00

Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee is a computer scientist in Britain and a MIT professor. Most of all, he is the inventor of the World Wide Web(that is the software part of the Internet). He is popularly known as 'Tim Berners-Lee' or 'TimBL'.

In 1989, he proposed an information management system based on hypertext at CERN which eventually gave rise to the WWW. His prototype work of the Web was a system named ENQUIRE. It was on 25th December in 1990 the first successful implementation of an HTTP communication via the Internet tookplace. However, Lee was an independent contractor at CERN. "Info.cern.ch was the address of the world's first-ever web site and web server, at CERN. The first web page address was http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

Berners-Lee is the director of the World Wide Web Consortium(W3C), which is the organization involved in further development of the Web. W3C itself was founded by him. For his pioneering work, he was knighted in 2004 by Queen Elizabeth.

Tim Berners-Lee was born on 8th June 1955 in London. His parents had worked on the first commercial computer: the Mark1. In 1976, he received a first-class degree in Physics from the Queen's College, Oxford.

Hacker; the Definition

2012-01-08T08:13:00.000-08:00

The term 'Hacker' refers to the person who involves in hacking. Hacking itself is defined differently by different groups of people. This has led to the state called 'the long standing hacker definition controversy'. Mainly, there are 2 conflicting definitions used by 2 different groups.

Most people involved in computer security attributes 'hacker' as

"A person who finds out weaknesses in the computer system and exploits it."

In this meaning, a negative sense is brought upon.

However, most people involved in programming refers to 'hacker' as

"A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and stretching their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary."

This definition gives a totally different view on the term and is attributed with highly positive sense.

It is assumed that the term 'hacker' was originally used to someone messing about something in a positive sense. Over decades, it became a reference to computer criminals. Today, this is the popular definition. But still, within the computing community it is used to describe a brilliant programmer or technical expert(the historical meaning). How this controversy was created is considered the responsibility of mainstream media. Since most of the technical community insist on the historical meaning, terms such as 'cracker' has been raised to replace the popular definition. Further terms such as 'black hat', 'white hat', 'gray hat' came into use when laws against breaking into computers were set.

It is clear that there is no single universally accepted definition for 'hacker'. People involved in different fields have different views about the definition. And no matter how contrasting they may be, most of them are acceptable.

The Story of Silicon Valley

2012-01-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

Silicon Valley refers to the southern region of San Francisco Bay Area in North California of the United States. Today, it is often considered as the world's high technology center which is home for many famous companies.

The term 'Silicon Valley' originally referred to the large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers who settled in the region. But, it is now generally regarded as the American high-tech sector. Geographically, Silicon Valley includes the Santa Clara Valley, the city of San Jose, southern peninsula, and the southern East Bay. It is said that the region was initially nicknamed as the Valley of Heart's Delight.

Stanford University which itself located in the Silicon Valley is considered a major institue which shaped the creation of the Silicon Valley. Many leading companies like Cisco Systems, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Netscape Communications, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo! were initiated by the Stanford faculty or its alumni. It is worthwhile to mention here that there are several other universities in the valley as well.

The incident which marked the birth of Silicon Valley is an interesting one. William Shockley who became the chief inventor of the transistor while working in Bell Labs left the institute in 1953 due to a disagreement regarding the invention. Then, he founded the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory. Unlike most other researchers, Shockley favoured in using Silicon in transistors. After sometime, eight engineers who worked under Shockley left the company and formed the Fairchild Semiconductor company. Later, Two of original employees of Fairchild Semiconductor: Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore founded Intel. Development of such Silicon related industries paved the way for the 'Silicon Valley'.

Today, thousands of notable companies like Adobe, Amazon.com, AMD, Apple, Cisco, eBay, Electronic Arts, Facebook, Fujitsu, Google, HP, Intel, Mozilla, Nvidia, Oracle, Symantec, VMware Yahoo!, Youtube have their heaquaters in Silicon Valley.

Jonathan Ive Knighted

2012-01-02T20:15:00.000-08:00

Jonathan Ive has been honoured by Queen Elizabeth II as a Knight Commander of British Empire (KBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours List in appriciation for "service to design and enteprise".

Sir Jonathan, whose full name is Jonathan Paul Ive, is currently Apple’s Senior Vice President in Industrial Design: the mastermind behind Apple's favourite designs like iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, MacBook, PowerBook...

Jonathan Ive is said to be inspired for designing through his father who had been a Silversmith. After studying Industrial design at Northumbria University, Ive became a co-founder of London design Agency called 'Tangerine'. Like most companies, Apple also sought design tasks from Tangerine. Apple was impressed with Ive's work on a notebook design and invited him to join Apple. In 1992, Jonathan Ive joined Apple. But, it is said that Ive was dissapointed with Apple those days due to certain company issues, until Steve Jobs was regained by Apple in 1997. With Steve Jobs arrival, Jonathan Ive was appointed to his current position. His first assignment was the iMac. iPod was his next worldwide design success. He gained enormous popularity within Apple while his designs make popularity for Apple.

In Steve Jobs' biography written by Walter Isaacson, Mr. Jobs has described Mr. Ive as his "spiritual partner". However, it is also said that Ive was hurt by Mr. Jobs taking credit for innovations by the design teams. Ive had never cashed in on his fame. It is reported that Sir Jonathan currently holds over 400 design patents.

Sir Jonathan is previleged to use 'Sir' as he is a citizen of British-commonwealth, incontrast with noncommonwealth knights such as Bill Gates (who too was honoured with knighthood in 1986).

Apple Corporate Museum

2011-12-30T04:28:00.000-08:00

The world's largest collection of Apple's history related lineup is currently managed by the Stanford University. The collection includes items ranging from 1976 to the recent times; but remains unopened for the public for reasonable causes.

The archive is reported to contain all sorts of items such as documents, letters, hardware, software, recorded interviews etc. The materials were donated to the University by Apple in 1997 and had been intended for an Apple Corporate Museum. However, the idea never came into life. In addition, donations from former employees are also included.

The stock is owned and managed by the Stanford University at a location away from the campus. Still the precise location where it exists has not been revealed to the public for safety issues.

Google to Beat iPad

2011-12-26T22:42:00.000-08:00

Eric Schmidt, the current executive chairman of Google hints on a potential Google tablet powered with 'real Android' and has mentioned plans to market a tablet of highest quality within the next 6 months.

A tablet computer (tablet) is a mobile computer larger than a mobile phone. Its primary input is usually via a touchscreen.

The current best-selling tablet is considered to be the iPad released by Apple in 2010 which runs iOS. iPad was originally launched under the supervision of Steve Jobs.

Google has already involved in smartphones with Google Nexus series which combines hardware with Android OS. However certain analysts point out that a Google tablet may take a much longer time to come into use.

How 'C' Got Its Name

2011-12-24T19:20:00.000-08:00

C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed by Dennis Ritchie(between 1969 and 1973). It is a structured procedural language and was originally intended for use with Unix OS with the intention of designing System software.

Today, it has become one of the most widely used programming languages of all time; not just for system software, but for all sorts of portable application software.

Around 1964, Cambridge And London Universities introduced a computer Language called CPL (Combined Programming Language). But, CPL never survived. One of its developers, Matin Richards designed a simpler version of it: BCPL (Basic CPL).

Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie decided to use BCPL for writing Unix Operating System. A strip-down version of BCPL which was called 'B' was considered by Dennis Ritchie who then made it alot easier and portable. Now, that the language has been modified, new naming was required. Since it was a developed from 'B' language, he decided the name as 'C'.

C was used to write the Unix Operating System and later became so popular. Almost all operating system cores these days are written in C (Thanx to Ritchie).

With the enormous popularity, many further developments came into use such as C++, Turbo C, C#, Visual C++ etc.

A Man Who Shaped the Modern World

2011-12-24T08:42:00.000-08:00

Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie who was born in 9^th September 1941 was found dead on 12^th October 2011. He is considered one of the few people who dared to shape the digital era. He is the founder of C programming language(1970s). And also co-founded the original UNIX operating system along with his long-time colleague, Ken Thompson.

Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie

In 1983, Ritchie and Thompson received Turing Award for developing theory of generic operating system. Turing Award is considered a highest honour in the field of IT. That is not all, he achieved many more awards.

It was reported that he had several health issues recently prior to his death.

The Story of Android

2011-12-22T19:12:00.000-08:00

Heard of Android? May be you just have used it.
Android is an operating system for mobile devices. Developed by Open Handset Alliance; headed by Google and is released under a free software license. These days it is considered the best selling mobile platform in the planet.

Open Handset Alliance is an association of 84 computer technology companies looking forward to advance Open standards for mobiles.

Android OS was originally a development by a company called Android Inc. which was purchased by Google in year 2005. At the end of 2007, Android OS release was officially declared.

The operating system kernel is based on Linux kernel. Most of the core of the OS is written in C. Android is Java Enabled and its user interface is written in Java. It is said that C++ is also used for programming. Most of its code is released to the public.

There has been several Android version releases. Each version is assigned a name of a dessert and naming continues in alphabetic order, starting from 'C'.

Android versions: Cupcake (Android 1.5), Donut (Android 1.6), Eclair (Android 2.1), Froyo (Android 2.2), Gingerbread (Android 2.3).

The latest version is called Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0)

A large number of developers write applications for Android. This is one major reason why Android has become so popular. Most applications are based on a customized Java version. Further development and maintenance of Android is assigned to Android Open Source Project(AOSP). Some people says the next version will be 'Jelly Beans'!

Chrome 15: Ranks the Most Popular Web Browser for the first-time

2011-12-20T08:02:00.000-08:00

In the last week of November, StatCounter claimed that Google Chrome version 15 has become the Worlds' most popular web browser! Still Microsoft's Internet Explorer is the most popular one collectively with all its versions-StatCounter claims...

StatCounter says, 23.6 percent of the browsers tracked by its global system were Chrome 15. Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 accounted for 23.5 percent.

Google Chrome Logo Story Joke

"It's just one browser version during one particular week"

When all versions are taken into account, IE is the most popular browser with 40.09% of market, vs 26.31% for Chrome, whereas Firefox is at 25.07%. Apple's Safari has secured 5.86% while Opera is at 1.91%

The reason as to why Chrome is ahead in version-wise evaluation is that it carries a built-in updating system which quietly updates users to new versions. Analysts however predicts this achievement by Chrome may not last for long. Older version IE8 users who outnumbers Chrome 15 users may soon register in trackings, and may snatch the title within the next weeks to come.

Internet Explorer remains the most used web browser since the 1990s when Netscape Navigator collapsed; which was the previous leader. Firefox came into light to provide worth competition to IE and came into steady-state when Google released its version of browser: Chrome which soon surpassed Firefox. Internet Explorer still has the best potential since it comes pre-installed on Windows Operating System. But, it would be unwise to decide Chrome could not overthrow IE sooner or later.

Kepler22b; the first Earth-like planet confirmed

2011-12-19T01:42:00.000-08:00

Kepler-22b is the most Earth-like planet discovered yet. Orbitting a star at 600 light years away from Earth, it has liquid water on its surface. It was the 22^nd planet recorded by Kepler and is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth.

Kepler is a space observatory(telescope) by NASA to search for terrestrial planets. It is the first mission to study Earth-like extra-solar planets. With mission duration at three and a half year, Kepler was launched on 6^th of March, 2009. Kepler was put into orbit around the sun (with one revolution of the sun every 372.5 days) and has been assigned more than 100,000 targets(stars) that belongs to Cygnus and Lyra constellations

Kepler's main objective is to determine the frequency of terrestrial planets and specially on planets in habitabal zones (Areas where water can exist in its 3 states[specially liquid state]). Planet detection mechanism used is called the Transit Method.

Kepler's quest is planned to end in 2012; but has the potential to serve 3 years further.

Hotmail Story

2011-12-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

As a free webmail service with over 350 million users, Windows Live Hotmail has placed the world's most popular web-based e-mail service while Yahoo! Mail and Gmail hold records for the 2^nd and 3^rd places respectively. In full, Hotmail is referred to as 'Windows Live Hotmail' which was formerly referred to as 'MSN Hotmail'. It represents Microsoft's version of webmail. But, it was not the Microsoft who invented it.

It was originally launched as 'Hotmail' by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith in 1996 as one of the first free web-based mail service. Sabeer Bhatia used to work as a hardware engineer at the Apple Company. But, to everyone's surprise, he left it just after 9 months to start a business of his own. It was Jack Smith who then gave the idea of starting a free webmail service to which Bhatia assigned 'HoTMaiL' when working with HTML pages during its construction.

Within its first year, over a million of clients had registered for Hotmail. Meanwhile, Microsoft eyeing for its version of webmail identified the potential in Hotmail and offered a deal of 160 million dollars which was carefully rejected by Bhatia. In a matter of months, the deal was completed for 400 million dollars and the service was renamed as 'MSN Hotmail'

Initially it provided 2MB free storage space per account which is now over 5GB free storage and over 10GB paid storage. While Hotmail ranked first, Yahoo! Mail and Gmail proves worth competition with 300 million and 200 million users respectively.

Has JavaScript got anything to do with JAVA?

2011-12-16T18:43:00.000-08:00

Anyone interested in web development is sure to have heard of JavaScript and most of them might even have studied it.

Ever wondered how JavaScript got its name? Originally it was called Mocha when developed by Netscape Communications Corporation. It was first released titled "LiveScript" with a Netscape Navigator Release. But why did it suddenly associate with "JAVA"?

Java and JavaScript are 2 seperate languages. They share no common origin. But, both of them are Object-Oriented. Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling of SUN Microsystems. Web applications based on Java are in a form called 'applets'. Applets however doesnot fully embed in HTML code; they come in seperate files.

JavaScript is a scripting language developed by Netscape. As a scripting language, it comes fully-embedded in HTML code.

Why LiveScript was renamed as JavaScript is believed to be just a marketting plot. At the time of LiveScript release, Java was gaining high popularity. Seeing this oppotunity, Netscape renamed its scripting language as 'JavaScript' and claimed similarities between the 2 languages. Netscape made sure that they get permission from SUN Microsystems for the name while agreeing to implement Java support on Navigator browser.

With the help of Java wave, JavaScript became popular: causing most people to think it as a version of Java.

Netscape Navigator competitor at the time (which was Microsoft's Internet Explorer) implemented their compatible scripting language as 'JScript'.

With time, popularity of JavaScript declined until the advent of AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript And XML). And now yet again, it is gaining popularity.

Java Applications Run Anywhere?

2011-12-14T21:13:00.000-08:00

Unlike applications written in most languages, Java applications can work across most Operating System platforms (Windows, Linux, Solaris, iOS, etc.). This is a major reason why Java is becoming more and more popular. But how does Java behave with such portability?

Not all operating Systems allow all sorts of executables to run in them. For example, a Windows executable would not run under Linux, at least not without any tricks. These different types of executables contain binary instructions compatible with their native OS platform.

Most languages like C, C++, Pascal etc, come with compilers which compiles the code directly into binary executables compatible to the targeted Operating System platform. So, an executable compiled targeted to one platform may not run on another platform.

What java compilers do is to compile the code into an intermediate code known as the bytecode. Bytecode however is not executable to any plain OS platform! For any OS to execute this bytecode, an environment called JVM (Java Virtual Machine) must run within itself. JVM knows how to execute the bytecode. Plus, for each OS platform, there is a compatible JVM. Sometime, JVMs come built into the OS itself so you need not install the JVM. So, as long as an OS is Java enabled, it can run any Java written application despite its platform.

A downside of Bytecode is decreased efficiency. Prior to execution, bytecode should be converted to a compatible form with the OS platform. While JVM is involved in doing this, efficiency of execution may be decreased. In contrast, any other executable with compatible binary data can execute instructions without any unnecessary steps.

G.C.E Advanced Level 2011 Result Release Being Delayed...

2011-12-12T22:20:00.000-08:00

Department of Examination of the Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka has been failing: to properly organize the G.C.E. A/L 2011 result release as was scheduled.

IT Imprint understands the situation has resulted due to several factors:

1. G.C.E. A/L 2011 examination included participation of new syllabus students and old syllabus students. Due to slight differences in content and structure of the papers allocated to the 2 groups, assignation of marks also differed. Despite such deviation, both the groups will be ranked within the same list; which will be used to grant university entrance.

2. Considering these facts is had been previously decided that the new syllabus shall be favoured in rankings. Accordingly, it had been set that ranking should be in 60%-new syllabus to 40%-old syllabus ratio. This design was challenged and after several rounds of discussions, was abolished.

3. In addition, several discussion sessions had to be held regarding paper marking on certain subjects (eg: Accountancy…)

4. Previously, totaling of subject marks was done by marking panels. However, due to inefficiencies related to 2010 G.C.E. O/L examination evaluation, the Department of Examinations tookover the totaling process- creating additional workload.

5. Rumors exist that after marking sessions completed, some unmarked papers were found during data entry and extra-time was spent on marking them.

6. The newly introduced ICT subject evaluation revealed most answersheets not scoring marks as the answers provided by students remained insufficient. Extra-time was taken on remodeling the issue.

7. As a tradition, a committee comprising participation from the University Grant Commission, Statistics Department has to assemble to conclude A/L examination results. Due to certain legal issues, participation of Legal Officers in the committee was declared recently. However, it is reported that several sessions of assembly ended in failure due to unattended members.

8. General acceptance is that A/L results should be released before O/L examinations begin. However, under current circumstances, D.O.E. has failed to do so.

9. The Examination Commissioner General is currently on a 3 month service extension over his scheduled retirement; hoping to release evaluation results sooner- but has failed so far.

Recent media reports pointed out that G.C.E. Advanced Level results will be out within this week to come. Let’s hope it will…

* Above content relates to ideas of variety of persons. The publisher does not accept to take any form of responsibility or credibility regarding the given matter.

Do you need to Defragment your Flash drive

2011-12-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

Most people think defragmentation speeds up data access speed in mass storage devices. But, should it always be true?

Defragment in sense is the process which reduces fragmentation within a file system. This attempts to arrange content of files in sequence which they are accessed. This increases the compaction of the file system and also attempts to create large continuous regions of free space. The objective of this ordering is to reduce the time taken by the drive to locate the next data segment of the sequence.

It is only in electromechanical drives that such locating operations take time significantly. For example, in a drive such as a hard disk, to locate and read a data segment, the read-write head has to move across the respective platter and platter has to rotate. This mechanical operation takes time. Since defragmentation arranges relevant data segments in sequence, mechanical work that has to be done reduces significantly.

But, flash drives are not electromechanical devices. They do not have moving mechanical parts and thus are referred to as solid-state devices. So, access time in these drives is independent of the arrangement of file fragments. Therefore, defragmentation is unnecessary on flash drives (EEPROMs). In contrast, defragmentation may have a disadvantageous impact on flash drive lifetime.

Lifetime of EEPROMs are limited to usually about 10,000 to 100,000 write/erase cycles. Defragmenting could waste some precious (limited) cycles.

Still you there's no barrier to defragment your Flash drive. But, think twice before doing it.

The Final Total Lunar Eclipse in 2011

2011-12-09T19:35:00.000-08:00

The final total lunar eclipse for 2011 was viewed on 10^th December 2011. Western Russia, Asia, and Australia had the chance of experiencing the total lunar eclipse form 11:33:32 UT/GMT till 17:30:00 UT/GMT (as sources suggests)

View Eclipse Sequence >>

This eclipse was the second one falling in year 2011. The first total lunar eclipse was experienced on 15^th June by Africa, Middle East, Central Asia and Southern Asia.

Eclipse Experience

Compatible Sri Lankan Time was from 17:00 till 23:00

Recorded Image Sequence:

Check out more info on:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2011_lunar_eclipse

http://eclipsegeeks.com/TotalLunarEclipse10December2011.aspx

Why Open Source Is Slow Gaining in Developing Countries

2011-12-08T21:15:00.000-08:00

Several years ago I had read from magazines and heard from some speeches: how Free and Open Source Software will submerge the monopoly of proprietary software that existed then. Such statements used to arouse fear in one’s mind while creating excitement in another’s.

Years have passed by keeping us waiting for this revolution to happen, but still there’s no sign of such movement casting its shadow. And now I doubt anyone who truly awaiting the “Open Source dawn” will find such statements entertaining any further.

Having experienced various volunteer movements to promote FOSS awareness, it has long been clear to me that such an “FOSS dawn” would not happen so soon (or a bit more later). With such voluntary groups are being looked upon as aliens by certain groups while certain others believing them as gypsies, we could not doubt why these groups feel discouraged. So, I suppose this is why such groups still remain small and few; and unable to have a significant impact in the existing system.

This is a very serious issue. If this trend continues, it will surely push “the dawn” further away into the future. However, it must be mentioned here that such issues does not emerge without a proper cause.

The current system within countries like Sri Lanka has been heavily monopolized by Proprietary software companies which have taken insuring steps to immunize such countries against possible establishment of FOSS. People have been using pirated copies of well famous copyrighted software for several decades and have been molded into using such software which can be accessed in plenty for almost no charge at all. These pirated copies, while making loss to the rightful companies, on the other hand, have provides immunity against establishment of FOSS; thus saving potential clients of proprietary software companies. Under these conditions, it is usual that most people refuse to transit to FOSS which may sometimes have incompatibilities with the existing system.

Admirable projects such as the “Ubuntu Distro free shipping” project by the Canonical Corporation, largely contributed to popularize FOSS. But unfortunately, such movement achieved below expectations and it was a common sight to see most distros ending up as souvenirs to most people.

Certain proprietary software companies have been maintaining partnerships with government organizations to ensure their existence. To make matters even worse, some of them have even succeeded in integrating their products into national educational curriculums; hence enabling themselves to adhere their products to future generations of those countries. So, I guess handling such issues should be given priority. Otherwise, all attempts to popularize FOSS in developing countries would be in vain.

There’s no rule why FOSS should popularize or not. People have the freedom of choosing what they want. But, certainly something like software piracy is not acceptable; especially when there is FOSS. So, efforts of the few volunteers of this world who would choose to serve the humanity of FOSS should be highly praised.

Kegalu Vidyalaya IT

2011-12-06T06:13:00.000-08:00

Kegalu Vidyalaya, being a national school of Sri Lanka, is located in the district of Kegalle. Known famous for active student involvement in IT, Kegalu Vidyalaya has secured a foremost rank in quality IT education within the country. In 2010, Kegalu Vidyalaya was able to host the first ever large-scale IT Day program conducted by any organization outside the capital of the country. Titled "Beyond IT" this IT day program was considered the IT identity of Kegalu Vidyalya in spreading IT Knowledge.

IT education has been prevailing in KV since the 1970s. There had been several IT societies in the history of Kegalu Vidyalaya over the decades, promoting IT education at the school level. “Vidyalions’ IT Society” being the latest of them was formed in 2010 which in contrast extended its objective for promoting IT education at regional level. “Beyond IT 2010” was a step taken by VITS to achieve this target.

As a student society, VITS has faced the challenge of finding new talent in the face of more experienced ones completing schooling each year. Though this trend has resulted in fluctuations of performance of VITS, it has paved way for the minds nourished by VITS towards flexibility.

Its notesworthy to mention here that though student involvement in IT of KV exists at a high level, underperformance in IT has been continued by some of the teaching staff and administrative staff.

I myself as an alumnus of KV, I believe that Kegalu Vidyalaya IT has to go a long way. And Im sure most alumni will be looking forward to support if (when) they (we) will be requested.