New Tech Cafe

5 Tips For Living In The Moment And Achieving Your Dreams

2013-05-15T01:15:00.001+03:00

Let me share with you a different thing rather than technology related issues.

This is written by DAVID ARENSON

I frequently get asked, “Why is my life not working. Why am I not happy?”
In an age of abundance, why are so many people struggling to find happiness and balance? The answers are manifold, and I will only explore a few concepts for the sake of brevity.

Five ways to nurture your soul:

1. Instill stillness.

Happiness is our birthright. It comes to us as naturally as breath. It is only thoughts that create mental clutter, which interrupt the natural flow of life. Thoughts may be calmed via time in nature, breath, exercise, yoga, meditation, relaxing music. Calm thoughts allow us to be present, conscious of our surroundings, conscious of our body-mind-spirit… awake. ?

2. Connect and live from the heart.

Are you living from your heart? A predominantly head-centered society has not led to a happy society. The heart is the true seat of wisdom, the true source of innate intelligence. Nothing is more powerful than listening to your heart. ?

3. Follow your passion.

Are you following your passion? The heart yearns to be free of disruptive chaotic thought, so it can communicate to you with clarity and power. When you open yourself up to listening to your heart, it will guide you to follow your passion. Your heart is the vehicle for your passion to be made manifest in the world. A life of passion is a life of happiness.?

4. Clean out your beliefs with a mental detox.

What are your beliefs about life? Are most of your beliefs based on society? Government? Parents? Religions? Media? To change your life, start with cleaning out your beliefs, gaining a fresh perspective, and starting anew with a clean slate.?

5. Cultivate your thoughts.

What do you tell yourself? Does your inner voice say positive things? You are the story that you tell about yourself. So if you want something different, you have to start telling yourself different things. If you want to be happy, then thinking happy thoughts is an absolute necessity.

The time to begin change is now. There’s no time like the present. Smaller actions when done consistently change everything. Consistent action ignites cosmic alchemy, which guides you to your desired destination. See your first step as an adventure, something to anticipate with excitement.

Cosmic alchemy is no dream. In this world, the technology of change is based on three fundamentals: dream, thought and action.

Consciously creating your own destiny takes all these things. If happiness is your dream, shift your thinking to accommodate a new way of being (a happy state)… now take action. Live your dreams by doing something about achieving them. Then they'll no longer be dreams, and every step you take is a step closer to your destination.

Remember to have fun with every leap, enjoy the sweat pouring off your face and enjoy waking up early. These are not punishments, but are merely the way to fulfillment. With each step comes greater courage. Success feeds success. Don't lose sight of your dreams, your destination, but also don’t forget to live in the moment!

Speed Up Your Computer By ReadyBoost

2012-10-25T18:14:00.001+03:00

Improve your computer's performance by using ReadyBoost
Try and See the difference!

Here are some useful links about the ReadyBoost feature,

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/take-a-closer-look-at-readyboost-features-in-windows-7/2225

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/keep-tabs-on-readyboost-with-windows-7s-performance-monitor/2257

Yandex, the Russian search engine in Turkey

2012-07-22T16:39:00.001+03:00

Can a regional internet giant find success in a foreign market?

This is the question that Yandex, the Russian search engine, is asking as it seeks to replicate its Russian success in a country where it lacks the linguistic and cultural advantages it enjoys in Moscow.

Yandex launched its Turkish site, yandex.com.tr, in September, and is prepared to take on Google in other European markets where its American competitor holds a virtual monopoly.

While Yandex isn’t hoping to usurp Google or make inroads in its US home market, it does think it can be a viable competitor, and a viable alternative for consumers in those markets, says Ilya Segaolovich, Yandex’s co-founder and chief technology officer.

“In some European countries there is no such thing [as Yahoo]. They have Google and that’s it,” he told a small group of journalists in Moscow on Wednesday. “The idea that we are trying to touch is [whether] it’s possible to change that state of mind and people will use the second option.”

Segalovich stressed that Yandex would be looking at very specific markets, and is not trying to become the next Google. “It’s not a global view. It’s not like we are going to become [the world's] number-three search engine…It’s a trans-local approach.”

According to Segalovich, it will take about 18 months for the company to determine whether its operations in Turkey hold potential and whether it will take the strategy forwards to other markets.

In January the Turkish site reached 100,000 daily users, and, like Yandex, contains mobile, maps and music streaming apps.

Maps have always been a strong point for Yandex, which has been able to chart small Russian towns, that Google hasn’t, and provide the most accurate readings of Moscow traffic. And it is niches like this that may give Yandex an edge. Before Yandex Maps entered Turkey for instance, no online map service, including Google Maps, gave Istanbul house numbers, Segalovich says.

Preparing for the Turkey launch was difficult, he admits, and required reworking the company’s entire internal development infrastructure so that they could teach Yandex’s Russian programmers to build a site whose content they couldn’t actually understand. “None of our engineers understand Turkish,” says Segalovich. “It’s like gibberish to them. It’s like a moon language.”

Yet now that the one-year restructuring process has been completed, it should be relatively easy for Yandex to repeat the process in a completely different market and language, he claims. And the company may very well be right.

Resources:

http://company.yandex.com
http://www.facebook.com/YandexComTr

http://www.searchcowboys.com/

http://www.ft.com/intl/comment/blogs

Apple's new iPad

2012-03-10T12:47:00.000+02:00

The iPad's new screen is a stunner. That's really all you need to know about the new iPad (yes, that's the name). That, and a reminder that pricing still starts at $499 for a 16GB Wi-Fi model, with 4G starting at $629.

Forget all of the minor tweaks and incremental updates Apple has made to its third-generation tablet. The faster processor, the upgrade to 4G data, the improved camera--it's all housekeeping. It's the stuff it had to do. It's the stuff any manufacturer could have done.

Now, increasing the iPad's screen resolution to 2,048x1,536 pixels that exceeds any current tablet or laptop--that's a move only Apple has the scale and industry muscle to pull off.

The tablet's glass and aluminum construction is still 9.5 inches tall and 7.31 inches wide. Thickness is now 0.37 inch, weighing in at 1.5 pounds. You get the same home button on the bottom of the screen, and a volume rocker on the right side along with the mute switch/rotation lock. Up top you have the sleep/wake button and headphone output, and the bottom edge retains the 30-pin port.

Apple knocked the camera quality up to 5-megapixel with 1080p video recording and backside illumination. The front-facing camera remains the same.

The screen

The new screen packs 2047×1536 pixels, or twice the resolution of the iPad 2. While this resolution is essentially the 3:4 aspect ratio equivalent of the widescreen 1080p (1920x1080px) format, Apple is right to tout that an iPad packs many more pixels than even 1080p devices do. Supposedly this will improve the viewing experience dramatically, as demonstrated by Apple many times, though we played with a high-resolution Asus Transformer Infinity recently and didn’t notice too much of a leap. However, that was not iOS and not an iPad.

Apple is also bringing back the term “Retina display,” which was used to describe the 960×640 pixel resolution of the iPhone 4 and 4S. However, the scale for what constitutes a “retina display” has slid downward with the marketing. While the iPhone 4 has a 326ppi (Pixels Per Inch) display, which means that a normal person (said Steve Jobs) wouldn’t be able to distinguish pixels at 10 inches away). The new iPad may have a much higher resolution, but it’s also a much larger screen, giving it a 264 ppi.

iPhoto comes to Apple's third-generation iPad. A Facebook update is no more convenient on an iPad 3 than on any smartphone, but the Maps app on the iPad confers a feeling of omnipotence no other mobile device can match. Games, movies, photos, and magazines all take on a realism that seems almost absurd on a handheld device. It's only a matter of time before someone gets motion sickness from this thing.

What else is new?

The iPad's processor has been upgraded to an A5X. While the CPU remains dual-core, the graphics processor has been beefed up to quad-core. This seems to be a necessary measure for juggling four times the pixels of the previous model.

We never thought the idea of Siri on the iPad was as natural a fit as it is for the iPhone. Luckily, Apple feels the same way. While Siri won't be coming to the iPad, voice dictation will. That said, voice dictation on a tablet still strikes us as weird.we are assuming that you won't jog with your iPad and want to transcribe your every brilliant utterance, the way you would with an iPhone. Also, if someone asks you where to find great Thai food nearby, your phone is likely to be your first point of reference. Still, voice dictation is a welcome addition, and we suspect it will come in handy for dictating e-mails and bypassing the touch-screen keyboard when searching for information online.

Bluetooth 4.0 is another feature that has trickled over from the iPhone 4S. With it comes the promise of one-touch pairing, and huge improvements in battery efficiency.

And finally, for all of you jet-setting, mobile-data-devouring types, the iPad is now available in a 4G LTE model. Prices for 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB come in at $629, $729, and $829, respectively.

What's missing?

As far as disappointments go, Apple could have been more aggressive with its processor performance, or perhaps brought the iPad's cameras up to iPhone 4S specs. Perhaps it could have gone thinner or done more to extend its lead in battery life, which Apple claims is still 10 hours, or 9 hours on 4G.

Heck, let's also throw in the age-old complaints about Apple's reluctance to include microSD memory expansion, a dedicated port for video output, or a truly universal charging connection. Oh yeah, and Adobe Flash support while you're at it.

Sources:
http://news.cnet.com/
http://www.digitaltrends.com
http://beta.techradar.com
http://mashable.com

Hackers seized control of NASA computers

2012-03-05T14:20:00.001+02:00

Hackers targeting sensitive NASA computers have gained access to employee credentials and taken control of systems at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, among other things, a federal report says.

The space agency's inspector general, Paul K. Martin, cited one case involving hackers with IP addresses in China. In that case, intruders gained "full system access" to change or delete sensitive files and user accounts for "mission-critical" systems at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he said in a report issued this week."In other words," Martin said, "the attackers had full functional control over these networks."

In another attack, hackers stole credentials for about 150 NASA employees, the report said.NASA reported that it was the target of 47 sophisticated cyberattacks - the report calls them "advanced persistent threats" - in 2011. Thirteen of those 47 attacks successfully compromised NASA computers.

"The individuals or nations behind these attacks are typically well organized and well funded and often target high-profile organizations like NASA," Martin said in his report, titled "NASA Cybersecurity: An Examination of the Agency's Information Security."

In total, the space agency reported 5,408 incidents "that resulted in the installation of malicious software on or unauthorized access to its systems" in 2010 and 2011. "These incidents spanned a wide continuum from individuals testing their skill to break into NASA systems, to well-organized criminal enterprises hacking for profit, to intrusions that may have been sponsored by foreign intelligence services seeking to further their countries' objectives," Martin said.

NASA has conducted 16 investigations over the last five years that led to the arrests of foreign nationals from China, Great Britain, Italy, Nigeria, Portugal, Romania, Turkey and Estonia.

These intrusions "have affected thousands of NASA computers, caused significant disruption to mission operations, and resulted in the theft of export-controlled and otherwise sensitive data, with an estimated cost to NASA of more than $7 million," the report said.

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk

http://security.blogs.cnn.com

What is Amazon Kindle?

2012-02-10T23:01:00.000+02:00

The Amazon Kindle is a series of e-book readers now in their fourth generation, which enable users to shop for, download, browse, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other digital media via wireless networking. The hardware platform, developed by Amazon.com subsidiary Lab126, began as a single device and now comprises a range of devices — most using an E Ink electronic paper display capable of rendering 16 shades of gray to simulate reading on paper while minimizing power consumption.

Kindle hardware has evolved from the original Kindle introduced in 2007 and a Kindle DX line (with a larger screen) introduced in 2009. Announced in September 2011, the range now includes devices with keyboards (Kindle Keyboard), devices with touch sensitive screens (Kindle Touch), a tablet computer with a reader app and a color display (Kindle Fire) and a low-priced model with an on-screen keyboard (Kindle).

Amazon has also introduced Kindle software for use on various devices and platforms, including Microsoft Windows, iOS, BlackBerry, Mac OS X (10.5 or later, Intel processor only), Android, webOS, and Windows Phone. Amazon also has a "cloud" reader to allow users to read, and purchase, Kindle books from a web browser.

Here are some of the newest types of kindle eBook reader which are called the 4th generation kindles.
The 4th Generation Kindles were announced to the world in September 2011. A surprise for many, the range includes an entry level tablet as well as touch-screen readers and a basic cheap Kindle too.

Kindle 4

The lowest price Kindle to date offers anyone who simply wants to read, the perfect choice of ebook reader. There is no keyboard (only a virtual one on screen if an when required), and no touch-screen navigation or audio output. There also isn’t any 3G option. But what you do get is virtually instant downloads via wi-fi, the same 6″ Pearl E-ink display used in the rest of the range, a 5 way controller plus menu buttons and the paddle side controls.

Kindle Touch Reader

The Kindle Touch reader comes in 4 versions. Choose wi-fi, or 3G+wi-fi and then decide whether you want the cheaper price off-set by discounts and special offers.

All are about an inch shorter than the keyboard model, and an ounce lighter. There are no buttons, as you use the multi touch display for all navigation. The device has the same 6″ Pearl E-ink display as the rest of the range, but is proving popular as people respond so well to touch-screen devices nowadays.

For now the keyboard models are still available, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see them phased out is sales of the touch-screen model do as well as expected.

Kindle Fire Tablet

The Kindle Fire is a 7-inch Android tablet, and Amazon has decided to go super aggressive on the price. You’ll be able to pick one up for $199 with 30-days of free Amazon Prime two-day shipping. After that, you’re paying $79 for it.

While cheap at under $200, there isn’t much in the way of features. The Kindle Fire does not have a camera or a microphone and will be WiFi-only for now. It is being seen as a small step up from the Kindle for those who want color, video, and proper touchscreen web access.

As for the interface, Amazon has apparently added its own layer of navigation on top of the default Android interface which will no doubt favor access to other Amazon services. Digital video, music, and access to e-books are expected to be key services both advertised for and accessible on the Fire.

Here is one of the 3rd generation kindles.

Kindle Keyboard

Amazon will continue to sell the
existing Kindle, complete with its physical keyboard, as the Amazon Kindle Keyboard. Although the retailer has announced new touchscreen Kindles, as well as an entry-level model at $79, there’s still an option for those who want to enter text without pecking at the touchscreen or shifting a cursor around an on-screen board with a D-pad.

For more information or purchasing please visit these websites:

- https://kindle.amazon.com/

- http://www.reeder.com.tr/lp/amazon-kindle/?gclid=COf7uYX_k64CFcVN3godYnkSKw

Sources:

https://kindle.amazon.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org
http://digitaldesi.com/
http://www.amazopia.com
http://www.geek.com

Megaupload file-sharing site shut down

2012-02-01T14:36:00.000+02:00

MegaUpload, one of the largest file-sharing sites on the Internet, has been shut down by federal prosecutors in Virginia. The site’s founder Kim Dotcom and three others were arrested by the police in New Zealand at the request of US authorities. MegaVideo, the streaming site belonging to same company, and a total of 18 domains connected to the Mega company were seized and datacenters in three countries raided.

The site's founders have been charged with violating piracy laws.

Federal prosecutors have accused it of costing copyright holders more than $500m (£320m) in lost revenue. The firm says it was diligent in responding to complaints about pirated material.

In response, the hackers group Anonymous has targeted the FBI and US Department of Justice websites.

The news came a day after anti-piracy law protests, but investigators said they were ordered two weeks ago.

The US Justice Department said that Megaupload's two co-founders Kim Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz, and Mathias Ortmann were arrested in Auckland, New Zealand along with two other employees of the business at the request of US officials. It added that three other defendants were still at large.

"This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime," said a statement posted on its website.

The FBI website was intermittently unavailable on Thursday evening due to what officials said was being "treated as a malicious act".

The hackers' group Anonymous said it was carrying out the attacks.

The Motion Picture Association of America's website also suffered disruption.

Source(s):

http://www.bbc.co.uk

http://torrentfreak.com

The Popularity of Programming Languages

2012-01-24T03:17:00.001+02:00

This link is the TIOBE Programming Community index which is an indicator of the popularity of programming languages. The index is updated once a month.
http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html

This is another useful link to compare different programming languages.

http://www.ohloh.net/languages/compare?measure=commits&percent=true&l0=-1&l1=csharp&l2=cpp&l3=java&l4=pascal&l5=visualbasic&l6=-1&commit=Update

Double-Sided Design Solves USB Problem

2012-01-23T01:35:00.002+02:00

Sometimes something begs for a simple solution. The nearly-ubiquitous USB port is perhaps the technological poster child for an obvious failure to work both ways (right-side-up or upside-down) despite looking perfectly symmetrical on both sides. Thankfully, and finally, this has been tackled from two directions (appropriately enough): one more idealistic, one more realistic, but both ingenious.

Ma Yi Xuan is a student designer who has solved the problem in theory, and in reality by UltraTek‘s new Flipper. These answers have been a long time coming. This author, for example, has bend more than one USB plug (and port), though fortunately only destroyed one to date.

In the student version, there is a piece on either side of the interior that slides out of the way to reveal a data connection – which half moves depends on what way the plug is placed into the accepting slot. Simple, but vital for making this work both ways.

If you have not encountered the error of normal-style USB plugs, well, it is becoming a bigger issue the more we compute on a daily basis. In short: while there are sometimes visual indicators on the exterior housing of a plug-in, a forceful failure to insert the cord in the correct way can damage the socket permanently. Having a switchable solution could save many people from painfully expensive hardware fixes and replacements.

Source:

http://dornob.com

Happy New Year 2012

2011-12-31T22:02:00.004+02:00

Happy New Year Everybody

I hope this year brings peace and happiness to everyone

Here are the Top 10 news of 2011.

1. Year of the Hacktivist

2011 is undeniably the year of the hacktivist. Till 2010, hackers limited their attention and effort to hack for personal gain but year 2011 changed everthing.

As the hackers collectives such as LulzSec and Anonymous emerged, the motive behind hacking became more of a social crusade and less of personal gain. And in strokes after strokes, Web sites of major companies such as Sony Pictures, News Corporation and Petrobas, and government agencies such as FBI and CIA and even the U.S. Senate, which were once considered off-limits to hackers, fell.

The gaming industry was also not spared. PlayStation Network, Bethesda Game Studios and EVE Online were hacked impudently and taken down.And though, LulzSec quietened down in June/July (and probably disbanded), Anonymous refused to play dead and carried on to take on the might of nations such as Syria, Malaysia, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, Brazil and Australia.

2. Social Media Stirs a Revolution

The power of social media to organize and influence the history was revealed to the fullest extent in year 2011. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter were no longer being used to just put up updates about one's life - they started to be used as tools for social change and influence the politics and the law of many nations. During 2011, the social media came to be used to mobilize grass root efforts all over the world, especially in Middle East and Africa such as Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria to protest the status quo.

3. Steve Job's Death

Steve Jobs, a creative genius and a visionary who had established the most valuable company in the world, Apple, passed away at the age of 56, on Oct. 5.

People around the world paid rich tributes to him, including Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg, Barack Obama and other celebrities and admirers. It was not surprising, as Jobs had radically changed the way people use technology in their daily lives.

4. Siri

When iPhone 4S was launched, critics said it had nothing spectacular to offer and Apple fans would be disappointed. However, Apple proved the critics wrong as iPhone 4S turned out to be the best selling iPhone ever - it even smashed previous debut weekend sales record. This was largely in part because of Siri and industry analysts later noted that Siri has become the most popular feature of the Apple iPhone 4S.

5. Ice Cream Sandwich

Ice Cream Sandwich, Google's newest operating system (Android 4.0) for phones, tablets, and more, was officially launched at the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich release event on Oct. 19 2011.

Android 4.0 boasts of exciting features, including easy multitasking, customizable home screens, rich notifications, resizable widgets, and deep interactivity. Moreover, Ice Cream Sandwich also adds powerful new ways of communicating and sharing.

6. Year of the Apple: iOS 5, Mac OS X Lion and iCloud Launched

After a long wait, Apple's iOS 5, Mac OS X Lion and iCloud were unveiled at WWDC (worldwide Developers Conference) 2011 on June 6.

iOS 5, which is regarded as Apple's "major" and “incredible” release for developers and customers alike, has over 200 new features, including Improved Notifications System, News Stand, Improved Mobile Safari, Reminders, Camera, Mail, PC Free Function, iMessage and more.

Mac OS X Lion, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers, was a huge hit, notching a sales record of 1 million units on the first day of its release. It was the first time Apple sold Mac OS as a downloadable software.

iCloud, Apple's cloud storage and cloud computing service which replaces MobileMe service, can help users to store data on remote computer servers for download to multiple devices including iOS-based devices, and personal computers running Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows.

7. Nest Energy Efficient Thermostat

Nest Energy Efficient Thermostat, a sensing, automatic energy-saving thermostat developed by Tony Fadell, the creator of iPod, made waves in 2011.

The thermostat is no ordinary, traditional mercury-filled home thermostat we're all used to. Unlike other thermostats, the user-friendly Nest will "learn" and keep track of when you turn its temperature up and down. It remembers those adjustments in line with the particular times of day and night when you change them. And, after about a week, Nest will start regulating the temperature on its own for you.

8. Acquisitions - Hits and Misses

This year, the acquisitions among tech companies made headlines for one reason or the other. Microsoft bought Skype in May for $8.5 billion, which is the software giant's largest acquisition ever. In August, the Internet search engine giant Google acquired Motorola Mobility, the maker of smartphones and set-top boxes, for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of about $12.5 billion.

9. Amazon Kindle Fire

In 2011, for the first time, Apple's evergreen iPad met its match (or just about) in the form of Kindle Fire from e-retailer Amazon. When Amazon made headlines by launching a price-breaking tablet ($199) and though the company said Kindle Fire is not out there to challenge iPad, Apple's popular tablet faced real threat for the first time as Kindle Fire turned out to be Amazon's best selling product ever.

For the first time, people woke up to the potential for e-reading and consumption of audio and video contents and the success of the 7-inch tablet has now emboldened other tablet makers to announce plans of launch of affordable tablets in 2012.

10. Apple Versus Samsung Courtroom Battles

The courtroom battles between Apple and Samsung around the world never seems to end. Early in April, Apple sued the Korean electronics giant in the U.S., claiming Samsung infringed its patent for list-scrolling software and three smartphone and tablet design patents. Subsequently, the patent war between the two companies expanded to Europe and Australia.

sources: http://www.ibtimes.com

http://www.google.com

How To Enable Facebook Timeline

2011-11-03T17:08:00.003+02:00

Timeline will go live on Thursday, November 10, 2011. (as it is announced by Facebook)

But How if we want to try it right now :)

Thanks to GREG KUMPARAK for his article

Here is how:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/22/how-to-enable-facebook-timeline/

Mark Zuckerberg at F8 Developer Conference

2011-09-25T13:03:00.002+03:00

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivered keynote address today, known as the F8 Developers Conference. With 2,000 people in the auditorium to watch live and hundreds of thousands watching streaming video of the event online, here's an update on what we've learned.

So here's what we've learned so far:

Timeline - Billed as the "story of your life," Timeline will give you "new ways to express who you are," according to Zuckerberg. It looks nothing like your regular profile that you know and love now. Rather, it's laid out magazine style, left to right, and you can drag things into it to fill out your Timeline. For example, Zuckerberg took a picture of himself from 1990 and dropped it.

Real Time Serendipity - Zuckerberg talked a lot about music and how he wants to better integrate tunes into Facebook. He likes Jay-Z and Greenday if you were wondering. With the new status bar, you'll be able to see what music your friends are listening to, click on their name and the track, and join in on the fun, or "listen along."

Here you can watch the video of the conference

http://f8.facebook.com/

Google+

2011-08-08T19:38:00.000+03:00

What is Google+ (Google Plus) and do I need it?

Google+ vs. Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg's Reaction

-------------------------------------------------

We are all waiting for the Full version of Google+

With my regards

Abdullah

Turkey Plans Internet Filtering (coming soon 22 August)

2011-08-07T17:45:00.000+03:00

Under a decision on “Rules and Procedures of the Safety of Internet Use,” approved by the Information Technologies Board or [BTK] in February, Internet users in Turkey will have to choose one of four Internet packages: family, children, domestic or standard. The list of websites filtered by each package will be decided by the BTK but will not be made public.

The change will be implemented starting Aug. 22

Users will have to choose one of four filters. One is called the family filter and another is for children. The domestic filter blocks all foreign sites. And the standard package will be the default. Yaman Akdeniz, a law professor at Bilgi University, worries that Turkish authorities will use these filters to step up control of the Internet.

“They are not telling us whether there will be monitoring of everyone’s habits and usage, since everyone will have a user name and password under this system,” said Azdeniz.

The head of the telecommunications regulatory agency, Tayfun Acarer appeared on television and denied that any filters would be mandatory. He said that the measures are meant only to enforce Turkish law.

“Turkey is more transparent than many other countries regarding this issue,” Acarer said. “I want to emphasize this. When you go to a banned site in a European country, you see only a flag or a stop sign. But if a web site is blocked in Turkey, it is always clearly stated when, why and by which institution the page was banned.

As the board’s decision does not have a legal basis, its limitations and authorities are not clear either, according to Kerem Altınparmak, an expert in human rights law who spoke Tuesday in an interview on NTVMSNBC. “According to what extent [and what measures] will such a decision be applied? There is no [provision] on this [on the decision].

“If we assume that a family consists of five members, of ages between 8 and 60 and it has only one computer: which package shall it choose?” Altınparmak said, adding that adults risked to be treated like children regarding access to various Internet websites.

I like to remind you that thousands of people in more than 30 cities around Turkey took to the streets on May to protest the new system of filtering the Internet that opponents consider censorship.

sources:

http://www.nytimes.com

http://www.theworld.org

IBM scientists create a new memory technology that’s 100x faster than flash

2011-08-06T00:19:00.000+03:00

IBM developed a new type of computer chip memory that can store multiple data bits per cell, a discovery that could lead to better performance for enterprise data storage and cheaper memory chips for consumer electronics like mobile phones.

Traditionally, data is stored as an electrical charge. But this new memory chip technology called phase-change memory stores data by changing the state of a material from amorphous to crystalline. PCM stores data when there’s a resistance change in the material. It uses less power than flash memory and can write data 100 times faster than any flash memory that is available today.

Currently only single-level cells PCM are on the market and are found in products like Samsung’s GT-E2550 GSM mobile phone. The multi-level cell technology could lead to better storage density, keep data forever and reduce manufacturing costs.

“As organizations and consumers increasingly embrace cloud-computing models and services, whereby most of the data is stored and processed in the cloud, ever more powerful and efficient, yet affordable storage technologies are needed,” Haris Pozidis, manager of Memory and Probe Technologies at IBM Research said in a statement.

The chip is 90 nanometers in width. It can store data when there’s no power supply and won’t corrupt the data. IBM researchers have been working on PCM for a while. In 2005, IBM partnered with Infineon and Macronix to develop PCM because the researchers saw a potential for PCM to succeed flash memory chips, which are in consumer electronics such as digital cameras.

However, IBM won’t produce the new memory chips, but plans to license the technology out to others.

source: http://www.smartplanet.com

Google SSL Search

2011-07-24T12:09:00.000+03:00

SSL Search

With Google search over SSL, you can have an end-to-end encrypted search solution between your computer and Google. This secured channel helps protect your search terms and your search results pages from being intercepted by a third party. This provides you with a more secure and private search experience.
To use search over SSL, visit https://encrypted.google.com each time you perform a search. Note that only Google Web Search and Google Images are available over SSL, so other products like Google News and Google Maps are not currently available over SSL. When you're searching over SSL, these properties may not appear in the left panel.

What is SSL?

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a protocol that helps provide secure Internet communications for services like web browsing, e-mail, instant messaging, and other data transfers. When you search over SSL, your search queries and search traffic are encrypted so they can't be read by any intermediary party such as employers and internet service providers (ISPs).

Read More..

Source: http://www.google.com

What is CAPTCHA?

2011-04-21T02:01:00.000+03:00

A CAPTCHA is a program that protects websites against bots by generating and grading tests that humans can pass but current computer programs cannot. For example, humans can read distorted text as the one shown below, but current computer programs can't:

The term CAPTCHA (for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart) was coined in 2000 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas Hopper and John Langford of Carnegie Mellon University.

CAPTCHAs are used in attempts to prevent automated software from performing actions which degrade the quality of service of a given system, whether due to abuse or resource expenditure. CAPTCHAs can be deployed to protect systems vulnerable to e-mail spam, such as the webmail services of Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! Mail.

CAPTCHAs are also used to minimize automated posting to blogs, forums and wikis, whether as a result of commercial promotion, or harassment and vandalism. CAPTCHAs also serve an important function in rate limiting. Automated usage of a service might be desirable until such usage is done to excess and to the detriment of human users. In such cases, administrators can use CAPTCHA to enforce automated usage policies based on given thresholds. The article rating systems used by many news web sites are another example of an online facility vulnerable to manipulation by automated software. As of 2010, most CAPTCHAs display distorted text that is difficult to read by character recognition software.

Because CAPTCHAs rely on visual perception, users unable to view a CAPTCHA due to a disability will be unable to perform the task protected by a CAPTCHA. Therefore, sites implementing CAPTCHAs may provide an audio version of the CAPTCHA in addition to the visual method. The official CAPTCHA site recommends providing an audio CAPTCHA for accessibility reasons, but it is not usable for deafblind people or for users of text web browsers.

Even audio and visual CAPTCHAs will require manual intervention for some users, such as those who have disabilities. There have been various attempts at creating more accessible CAPTCHAs, including the use of JavaScript, mathematical questions ("how much is 1+1") and common sense questions ("what colour is the sky on a clear day"). However, these types of CAPTCHAs do not meet the criteria for a successful CAPTCHA. They are not automatically generated and they do not present a new problem or test for each attack.

Some researchers promote image recognition CAPTCHAs as a possible alternative for text-based CAPTCHAs. Computer-based recognition algorithms require the extraction of color, texture, shape, or special point features, which cannot be correctly extracted after the designed distortions. However, human can still recognize the original concept depicted in the images even with these distortions.

A recent example of image recognition CAPTCHA is to present the website visitor with a grid of random pictures and instruct the visitor to click on specific pictures to verify that they are not a bot (such as “Click on the pictures of the airplane, the boat and the clock”). Image recognition CAPTCHAs face many potential problems which have not been fully studied.

Nokia Phone Concepts

2011-04-14T22:33:00.003+03:00

Nokia Morph

Unveiled in 2008, the Morph was the product of a joint study into the future of mobile phones by Nokia and the University of Cambridge’s Nanoscience Centre.

It tops our list because some of its super cool ideas are just mind-blowing! Its flexibility for starters; it could be worn around the wrist or held up to the face. The Morph would also contain self-cleaning surfaces that absorb solar energy so it can recharge the phone’s battery. Last but by no means least, it looks like something straight out of a futuristic Sci-Fi film!!!

Nokia 888

Dubbed the Nokia 888, this concept phone is ultra-lightweight, wafer thin and incredibly flexible. It is powered by liquid battery and has a touch screen display. What more could you want?

Nokia E-Cu

Scaling the dizzy heights at number 2, is a concept phone that uses your body heat to charge itself! We’ve all been there, our mobile phone is about to die and we can’t get to a charger in time. Well the Nokia E-Cu would solve this problem. Built with a thermo generator, it could convert heat into energy. The idea is that by putting the phone in your pocket, you will get a charge, so by our logic, putting it next to a radiator would give you a turbo-charge it!

Nokia Kinetic Concept

Designed by Jeremy Innes-Hopkins, the Nokia Kinetic concept phone turns digital information into kinetic energy by way of the electromagnet in its base. In normal speak this basically means that when a call is received, the weight in the base can be shifted and the phone rises. Don’t want to take the call? Just tap it back down. How cool is that?!

Nokia E97 Envelop

When I look at the E97 Envelop concept phone from Nokia, I got convinced that a man’s imagination has no boundaries.
The Nokia E97 Envelop is definitely designed to impress. How nice it is to see a new Nokia concept phone, even if the mobile phone is not materialized by the company itself, but thanks to all the talented people it become possible to imagine what a Nokia phone in the future might look like.

With dark and smoothed edges, the Nokia E97 has a unique liquid crystal screen that comes out of the keyboard and can be removed from the cell, you simply pull the screen like a paper envelope, and the unplugged display can be used as a storage device, a flash drive for example. The smartphone features a AZERTY keyboard.

Plus, the phone works with two SIM cards (sim) simultaneously.The concept of this mobile with a pull-out LED display that comes out of a keyboard, and that can be removed from the phone itself was developed by a young student named Fabien Fabien Nauroy (France) and he called this phone E97 Envelop.

Nokia UNIX

Talk about a concept cellphone which brings things to a whole new level with the Nokia Unik. Designed by French designer Clement Logereau, the Unik comprises of 152 small squares, where the handset is able to transform itself by virtue of adding in new squares that are different in material and color. These squares can be added after a purchase from Nokia stores, leacing you with a choice of metal, transparent and rubber squares. Something tells us that the Nokia Unik will remain just that – a unique concept.

Sources:

http://blogs.nokia.com

http://www.ubergizmo.com

How Acer's Dual Screen Laptop Works

2011-04-10T16:19:00.000+03:00

The $1,300 Acer Iconia laptop is certainly unique. The machine features two 14-inch touchscreens instead of the tried and true screen-and-keyboard combination, while retaining the same form factor as a standard laptop.

techland.time.com

3D Desktop Printer

2011-03-19T00:10:00.000+02:00

Breaking News: Blogger Banned in Turkey

2011-03-02T00:46:00.000+02:00

According to FalconHive "Turkish Blogger users reported that Digiturk caused ban of Blogger again. As we know Digiturk, the leading satellite TV provider, sued some blogspot adressses for streaming live football matches online and Turkish courts decided to block the entire blogspot blogs including Blogger.com three years ago, in 2008. Recently some webmasters have used Blogger to stream live football matches again and as a result Digiturk has caused the ban of Blogger in Turkey.

After many Blogger users used social media to make Digiturk and Google hear their voice, Digiturk published a written press release which stated that Google Turkey was irresponsive to their requests of banning the given blogspot links which were about twenty. Turkish Blogger users are determined to unblock the access to Blogspot links and they keep protesting both Google and Digiturk using#blogumadokunma hash-tag.

Since it is not possible to stream something live through Blogger, the decision taken by Turkish court can be considered as wrong decision. Actually webmasters get an embed code from some live streaming websites and use the code in their blogs to drive traffic and monetize their short-term blogs easily. So both Digiturk and the Turkish courts should deal with those live streaming sites instead of free blog providers. Feel free to tweet this post to support Turkish Bloggers’ effort."

sources:

1) http://www.falconhive.com/2011/03/blogger-banned-in-turkey-blogumadokunma.html

2) http://elmaaltshift.com/2008/10/25/bloggercom-banned-in-turkey/

Cleaning Robots

2011-02-15T21:35:00.010+02:00

Dirt, dust, crumbs and pet hair. Floors are often so hard to keep up with due to all the daily traffic. But not with Roomba, this vacuuming robot does all the work for you, lifting an amazing amount of debris from your carpets and hard floors.

We're guessing you have a pool so you can enjoy it, not so you can clean it. Now spend more time splashing and less time skimming and scrubbing with the Verro Pool Cleaning Robot. Choose the specific model for your in-ground or above-ground pool. Verro requires no installation, no hoses, no booster pumps - just drop it in and let it go!

Scooba is sure to become the superhero of your cleaning routine. This amazing robot washes tile, linoleum and sealed hardwood floors clean of all the caked-on spills, dirt and gunk that life leaves behind, removing up to 98% of common household bacteria*. And there's no pre-sweeping needed!

For more information and more robots visit www.irobot.com

802.11ac Standard Will Bring Gigabit Speeds to WiFi

2011-02-11T15:09:00.000+02:00

Wi-Fi connectivity will get faster with the next version of the 802.11 standard to be drafted this year. The 802.11ac standard will provide speeds of up to 1Gbit/s, and according to market watcher In-Stat, will be implemented in nearly 1 billion devices by 2015. Frank Dickson, VP of research, In-Stat, says, "The timing for 802.11ac approval is to have a draft standard created by 2011 and have the first 802.11ac products out by the end of 2012. The technology behind 802.11ac has not been finalized. However, it will likely involve bonding four or even eight channels together and some tweaks to the modulation scheme."

In-Stat also says that mobile devices with Wi-Fi will continue to dominate shipments, and it projects that shipments of mobile phones with embedded Wi-Fi will reach 800 million by 2015.

The analyst also says that by 2015, 100 percent of mobile hotspot shipments will be 802.11ac-enabled. Plus, e-reader Wi-Fi attach rates will increase from three percent in 2009 to 90 percent by 2015, and in 2012, Wi-Fi automotive shipments will reach nearly 20 million.

sources:
http://www.eetasia.com
http://www.daniweb.com

Tech Products

2011-02-08T00:36:00.000+02:00

SmartSwipe Credit Card Reader

What is SmartSwipe?

SmartSwipe is the new, smarter, more secure way to shop online. The SmartSwipe is the world's first truly secure personal credit card reader. When you install SmartSwipe, you can swipe your credit card at your home or office computer just like you would in a store. Plug the SmartSwipe into your computer's USB port, go shopping to your favourite online stores and swipe your credit card - it's that easy. The best part is that you know your credit card information is safe and secure.

Why use SmartSwipe?

Credit card companies, online retailers and security professionals spend millions every year to make the internet a safer place for credit card transactions. Despite these constant advances, credit card data is stolen every day. Why? Because your computer is vulnerable.

The problem is that traditional online security (which revolves around concepts like encryption and SSL) only protects information as it travels from your computer to the online shopping site.

But what happens to your information as you type it in and as it sits in your computer's memory? In most cases, this information is vulnerable to malicious software (like spyware and viruses). Because of this vulnerability, criminals can steal your information right off of your computer, usually without you knowing about it ... until it is too late.

SmartSwipe secures your computer by protecting your sensitive information as you swipe your card through the device. Since your personal information is protected before it enters your computer, it is no longer vulnerable to these kinds of malicious software attacks.

Shocking Pen

Perfect for a little revenge on the boss, that irritating colleague, or anyone else who deserves it! This shocking pen packs a punch!

As kids we all had one type of shocking gag or another, but not like this - they always used to be a bit obvious, and didn't really fool anyone.

Working like a normal pen, this pen shocks you through the 'clicker' at the top, where you would usually make the pen come out of the case.

So, why not go to a meeting with your boss, take some notes, and 'accidently' leave this in his office, or casually drop this into someones pen container, or a desk drawer...

You'll hear them squeal across the office, and revenge is yours!

Zerone Binary Watch

The Binary Watch is a perfect accessory for the technology conscious or for the fashion trendy hipster. Made of high quality stainless steel these watches feel and look incredible.

If all that ‘big hand and little hand' business is just too boring for you, go for this dramatically different Binary Watch

The watch displays time in binary format. It uses LED lights to indicate hours and minutes. LED ON means 1. LED OFF means 0. First row denotes the hours and second row indicates the minutes. Translation of time from binary to decimal is easy:

Add the numbers of lit LEDs on upper row to tell hours.
Add the numbers of lit LEDs on lower row to tell minutes.

Transforming Robot

The huge Radio Controlled Robotic Car is unlike any other RC vehicle around, because it has a secret – it can transforms from car to robot to truck to tank and back again!

The RCRC Robot Car can also transform into a stand-up robot, complete with arms and legs!

Use the wireless remote to drive your car forwards, backwards and side to side at incredible speeds. Turn and spin the car with fluid, easy-to-use controls. But when you're ready for even more action, turn your super sports car into an awesome robot at the touch of a button!

But that's not all! One transformation isn't enough and this amazing machine can then transform even more! Extra modes include a hi-top truck and robot tank!

The RCRC Radio Controlled Robot Car dominates the roads unlike anything else out there! If conventional remote control toys are getting a little too... conventional for you, then the RCRC is an awesome answer that'll satisfy anyone that loves to mix things up and surprise anyone expecting just another ordinary RC car!

Video Sunglasses

The MP3 and Video Recording Sunglasses are the ultimate fashion, music and spy accessory.
Whether you are a music lover, a budding spy, or just a very cool dude (or all three combined), the MP3 and Video Recording Sunglasses will undoubtedly be your eyewear of choice.

The fashionable looking shades come with a 1.3 mega pixel CMOS hidden camera in the frame, so that you can video record whatever it is you are looking at, and include an in built MP3 player, so you can provide a sound track to your own movie.

For such a small camera lens the video resolution is an amazing 640*480, 25fps, there is a built in 500MA polymer lithium rechargeable battery, and plenty of memory for both sound and vision.

Source: http://www.boysstuff.co.uk

DNA computers are the next generation computers!!

2011-01-25T15:46:00.000+02:00

Even as you read this article, computer chip manufacturers are furiously racing to make the next microprocessor that will topple speed records. Sooner or later, though, this competition is bound to hit a wall.

Microprocessors made of silicon will eventually reach their limits of speed and miniaturization. Chip makers need a new material to produce faster computing speeds.

You won't believe where scientists have found the new material they need to build the next generation of microprocessors. Millions of natural supercomputers exist inside living organisms, including your body. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecules, the material our genes are made of, have the potential to perform calculations many times faster than the world's most powerful human-built computers. DNA might one day be integrated into a computer chip to create a so-called biochip that will push computers even faster. DNA molecules have already been harnessed to perform complex mathematical problems.

While still in their infancy, DNA computers will be capable of storing billions of times more data than your personal computer. In this article, you'll learn how scientists are using genetic material to create nano-computers that might take the place of silicon-based computers in the next decade.

Silicon vs. DNA Microprocessors

Silicon microprocessors have been the heart of the computing world for more than 40 years. In that time, manufacturers have crammed more and more electronic devices onto their microprocessors. In accordance with Moore's Law, the number of electronic devices put on a microprocessor has doubled every 18 months. Moore's Law is named after Intel founder Gordon Moore, who predicted in 1965 that microprocessors would double in complexity every two years. Many have predicted that Moore's Law will soon reach its end, because of the physical speed and miniaturization limitations of silicon microprocessors.

DNA computers have the potential to take computing to new levels, picking up where Moore's Law leaves off. There are several advantages to using DNA instead of silicon: As long as there are cellular organisms, there will always be a supply of DNA.

Unlike the toxic materials used to make traditional microprocessors, DNA biochips can be made cleanly. DNA computers are many times smaller than today's computers.

DNA's key advantage is that it will make computers smaller than any computer that has come before them, while at the same time holding more data. One pound of DNA has the capacity to store more information than all the electronic computers ever built; and the computing power of a teardrop-sized DNA computer, using the DNA logic gates, will be more powerful than the world's most powerful supercomputer. More than 10 trillion DNA molecules can fit into an area no larger than 1 cubic centimeter (0.06 cubic inches). With this small amount of DNA, a computer would be able to hold 10 terabytes of data, and perform 10 trillion calculations at a time. By adding more DNA, more calculations could be performed.

Unlike conventional computers, DNA computers perform calculations parallel to other calculations. Conventional computers operate linearly, taking on tasks one at a time. It is parallel computing that allows DNA to solve complex mathematical problems in hours, whereas it might take electrical computers hundreds of years to complete them.

The first DNA computers are unlikely to feature word processing, e-mailing and solitaire programs. Instead, their powerful computing power will be used by national governments for cracking secret codes, or by airlines . wanting to map more efficient routes. Studying DNA computers may also lead us to a better understanding of a more complex computer -- the human brain.

Sources:

http://www.tech-faq.com/

http://computer.howstuffworks.com