Sci-tech Today

The Alphadog

2011-10-04T21:26:00.002+05:30

Am not talking about the movie Alphadog, but a REAL robot..!
Boston Dynamics have been developing this combat escort robot called the Alphadog, many of you are might be aware of it. Well, its a newest prototype of the same.

people call it by many names,, as 'Mule Poodle', 'Monster mutt','Bigdog-on-steroids' etcetra but, 'Alphadog' is the actual name...:)

Alphadog well fully ready, can navigate through any rough terrain conditions, and will carry 400 pounds of equipment for 20 miles without having to refuel..!! how cool is that..??

It doesn't need a driver, it uses its GPS, computer vision etc to follow the troops wherever they go..!

So let me just show it to you rather than describing it...:p

A concept..!

2011-10-03T22:35:00.000+05:30

After a looooong time.....:p Anyway its good to be doing what I love..:) So let me tell you what I got to know today...

"Is it a phone ? Is it a netbook ?..." the question may pop up in your mind when you look at this concept..!
The concept created by Abhi Muktheeswarar, this device is rotatable dual display handset, that can be turned into a mini netbook or a portable console.

No specifications of any kind are provide yet. But sice a picture is worth a thousand words, am gonna put some pics of the concept below... let me know what do you think.

What do you think its specs should be..? lets see who comes with the best specs....:)

Triple Flip - An innovative concept phone

2011-04-05T18:56:00.003+05:30

Just when you think that the era of flip phones ended, the Triple Flip appears..! Dave Schultze has created this cool and very innovative concept phone which ,I think has everything..:)

If you think one flip for your cell isn't enough, it has two sides to flip..! Not only that...

It has a full HD touch screen of 2000X1000 resolution
A querty keypad
runs on windows phone 7
And most important of all, if it comes to market its a must have phone for gamers...!!

Why...??? Watch the video....its better than whatever bullshit written above...:p

Angry Birds Rio - 10 in 10

2011-04-05T18:21:00.004+05:30

Angry birds - The best way to kill time...! Angry bird is one game, the popularity of which is growing at every second. The latest version of the game is 'Angry Birds Rio' , might be the most popular game till date..!!

As you can see, its based on the latest movie called Rio. The Rovio mobile, the creators of angry birds, tweeted as below....

10 in 10:-) Angry Birds Rio breaking all records. A massive thanks to all our fans!!!!

After seeing the tweet, Mobile Entertainment guys contacted Rovio mobiles to ask them what the hell did they mean by that tweet. Rivio said "It means Angry Birds Rio reaches 10 million downloads in 10 days since it was launched..!!!!"

OMG right....??...:)

Angry Birds Rio is available both for Apple’s iOS platform and Google’s Android platform. So Enjoy...:)

Typescreen - Turn your iPad into a typewriter..!

2011-04-01T23:18:00.005+05:30

Unlike music or fashion industries, in the world of technology we rarely see something which is considered as old coming into picture again. But in this case it has..! sometimes its very difficult let go of something when something newer comes in, even though it's better than the old one. Typewriter is one such thing. I am sure that in this era of touch screens, there are people who really miss using typewriter. So for all there typewriter fans, here comes 'Typescreen' which would turn your iPad into a typewriter hence giving it a cool retro look...!!

With an effort of 16 months, spinning Hat has come up with this unique design. There isn't much to tell as the picture of it says everything..:)

Well, you can buy it in here......http://www.spinninghat.com/product/typescreen

The 'Creepy' app

2011-04-01T20:32:00.006+05:30

The name of this app is 'Creepy'..! Don't think it as a foolish name for an app, because this one is really creepy..!!

In today's world, we live more in the digital world than in the real world. For us, our 'avatar' is more important than our real selves. Its a harsh fact but we have to admit it.

So living in this digital world, we leave out loads n loads of our personal information accessible to anyone on the internet. We do not think it as a 'no biggie', but you would be amazed or horrified to be more precise, to know how these small 'no biggie' details can be used against you...!

This app for desktop computers called 'Creepy' is a “geo-location information aggregator”. i.e, using a this a person can know where all the places you had been and can hence easily find out the place where you would likely to be..!

Now, you might be going "oh shit..!!"..:) How does it do that..??

Well, we constantly upload pictures and share them with the world. From these pics, its possible to extract geo-location information .......

tweets have geolocations. ....
Coordinates when tweet was posted from mobile device
Place (geographical name) derived from users ip when posting on twitter's web interface. Place gets translated into coordinates using geonames.com
Bounding Box derived from users ip when posting on twitter's web interface.The less accurate source , a corner of the bounding box is selected randomly.
Geolocation information accessible through image hosting services API
EXIF tags from the photos posted.

So 'Creepy' sniffs all these and much more details from the web and presents it in a map marking all the locations your target has been hence making it easy to find out the places you frequently visit, the places you likely to be found..!

If you are stalking somebody, then its a must have app..:p You can download it here.. http://ilektrojohn.github.com/creepy/

To prevent 'creepy' from stalk you, some simple tips...

better not to reveal too much of your personal details.
do not post anything that you dont want others to know.
Don't try to be in a 'limbo' when there is so much on the real world.

Cool 'Dynamic Views' for blogger..!!

2011-03-31T19:31:00.007+05:30

There was a time when many would think blogger blogs do not look good and it was true too to a certain extent. but then, Blogger provided the bloggers with a large variety of customizable templates to make those blogs look pretty. Now Blogger has gone another step forward and has introduced 'Dynamic views'....!!

Before I tell you much about it, Its better to just experience it..!! So Click this link ....
http://sci-tech-update.blogspot.com/view

I know you liked it...:) So to enable it on your blog,

Your blog should be public. i.e, people do not need to sign in to view your blog.
Blog should have feeds fully enabled. Then, in the settings > site feed tab , you have enabled either Full or Jump Break for your Post Feed.
Then in settings > formatting tab, set the option for Enable Dynamic Views is set to Yes.

With all the above settings done, you are ready to roll. What the visitors of your blog have to do is to just add a "/view" (without quotes) to the blog URL and they can enjoy browsing your blog too..:)

Also FYI, for this feature to be enabled you should have a newer browser like firefox 3.5+, Internet Explorer 8 etc.

Ex: [blog url]/view

Have fun...!!!

Smoothee - A steadicam for your mobile..!

2011-03-29T22:56:00.003+05:30

High quality video capturing is not only limited to some professional video cameras now a days. All today's mobile phones come with the same HQ video recording capabilities. So we are so excited by this, and buy one such mobile with such feature. After some time, we get so frustrated by it because its SHAKY as hell..!! When you try to shoot your dog playing, the video shot, will have everything except the dog..:p All those videos shot by our phones, looks just like those pirated movies which some assholes film it in a movie theater...!

So the answer to all those frustrated minds is ( answer is not to buy an original video camera..:p ) 'Smoothee'.

What is it..??

Its a steadicam for our mobiles. The reason why the video shot on mobiles is shaky is that the mobiles are too light and cant get a steady support. That's what 'Smoothee' do. It fills in what's missing, 'A steady support'.

As you can see in the pic,

The mobiles are mounted on the top.
The curved arm provides the balance in weight.
The holder is a pistol kind of a grip, attached below the mobile mounted surface.
Knobs are provided to move the mobile over the surface in the directions, left-right or front-back in order to balance its weight perfectly over the Smoothee.
Smoothee currently supports iPhone 3GS and 4, iPod touch and FLIP Mino HD. But the Smoothees for other handsets are also being developed.
The cost of smoothee is $200.

The entire below video has been shot on a mobile using Smoothee...!!

World of Smoothee from H. Wilson45 on Vimeo.

Microsoft Cinema - A 234" touchscreen ..!

2011-03-29T17:33:00.010+05:30

OMG...!! Its 234" touch screen display...!! I don't think everyone can afford it ..:p but I think, it gives an awesome way to give a presentation...!

The Microsoft Germany and Stereolize came up with this massive touch screen called the Microsoft Cinema. The screen has been showed off for the first time at CeBIT 2011.

The screen is sensitive to gestures like flicking n panning. And it would really revolutionize the way the presentations are normally given. You will agree after watching the video below..:)

FYI, it is not stated if the screen is touch sensitive even at the top...:p also no one has checked it...coz its so HUGE..!!

2022 Qatar world cup

2011-03-28T19:45:00.006+05:30

Hey.... Don't get confused...! I have not changed by blog topics from technology to Sports..:) There is something amazing about 2022 World cup in Qatar referring to the technology going to be used.
Its the ' Man-made clouds to shade the stadium'..!!!!

The world cup will be in months of June and July. Do you know the temperature in those months in Qatar..?? Its freakin 41 degree Celsius (106 F )...!! Sometimes, it goes as high as 50 degree Celsius (122 F)...!! Can you imagine running behind a ball in the open ground with the sun determined to drain out every drop of water in your body..!?!?

So a team of scientists from the Qatar University have taken a high-tech approach to solve the problem. They are going to create some artificial clouds and let them float above the stadium hence provide shade for both players and fans ..!!

The team is lead by Dr Saul Abdul Ghani, Head of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department at QU. "The "clouds"......

would be made from a lightweight carbon structure carrying a giant envelope of material containing helium gas.
It would also feature solar panels on its upper surface to power engines that allow the cloud to be moved via remote control.
The system would cost around US$500,000.

The stadium to built for the world cup includes all types of cooling technologies available and capable of reducing the temperature inside by up to 20 degree Celsius.

Now we get the doubt as, why cant they move the world cup to a cooler months like January ..??? I don't know ...'They just CAN'T "...!!!

Rolltop - A futuristic laptop

2011-03-28T18:41:00.005+05:30

When we talk about technology and bringing something 'new', that 'new' should be,

simpler and smaller than the 'old' one.
more efficient than the 'old' one.
The 'new' one should be able to serve more of our needs in a more better ways.

So there are many concepts of those' new' things, but not all have the features mentioned above.
Now, you are definitely know that what am going to tell you and that concept has all those features..:)

You are absolutely right..!! Its called 'Rolltop'...
Germany's Orkin Design has proposed this fantastic concept of a futuristic laptop. The rolltop is a 'rolled up' laptop. By using the flexible OLED and touchscreen technologies, the created concept is a cylindrical laptop which can be rolled out when need sto be used and can be rolled up again when not used.

Since I said, it has all those features to make itself 'better'.... they are...

As you know, laptop is portable. But rolltop is ultra-portable..!
For a laptop, you need a laptop bag. But rolltop fits in whatever bag you have.
All those charges n wires which makes you sick, is not needed with rolltop..! All those are integrated in the central cylindrical system of rolltop. It has speakers, usb ports, lan port and a camera.
The top of the column detaches and acts as a power plug while the carry strap doubles as a power cord
When rolled up, Rolltop will be 11 inches (28 cm) long and have a 3.26-inch (8.3-cm) diameter

There are many of such features..... But I just don't like to type those ..:p Also am damn sure not many have read whatever written their and think all those as bullshit..!! All will look for some video or pics....So lets cup the crap n watch the video..:)

Microsoft's vision of 'Future of Gaming'

2011-03-22T20:46:00.004+05:30

The video which am going to share you with is a recently leaked video on microsoft's vision of future of gaming. Microsoft is showing the world how it the future of its Windows Gaming Experience platform implemented with Xbox Live.

Now, for those who don't know what Windows Gaming Experience or WGX is, it's an internal group name for all of Microsoft's PC gaming efforts, including Games For Windows,MSN, windows live messenger. Let me clear you some things in the first place, before you watch the video......

Whatever you are going to see is still purely conceptual for the time being.
It mainly focuses on 4 experiences of gaming.

1) Social : This deals with enhancing the social gaming experience. Especially the facebook games such as Farmville. You may be thinking, why they are trying to enhance such small games, when there are games like Call of duty or Halo...! Well, you may not be knowing, how big is this 'small' game business...:) Did you know that the 'Farmville' on facebook is worth $10 billion....?!?!? How could microsoft ignore millions of casual gamers..??

2) Avatar : Deals with customizing your 'Avatar' with a virtual wardrobe.

3) Search : It eases finding the games n apps through bing.

4) Transaction : It focuses on delivering the digital content with simplicity irrespective of its size and price.

Now lets watch the video.......

One - Touch Disaster alert app

2011-03-17T22:56:00.004+05:30

'Earthquake, Tsunami and nuclear crisis' ....what a combination...!! Japan is experiencing the most horrific, darkest nightmare ever possible. In such disasters, rescuing people is a very challenging task, when they don't know where exactly the person is trapped under that enormous rubble.

So with an intention of helping people under such situation, researchers from Tiwan have released a new mobile app called Mobile Savior.

The app can transmit the location of users trapped under the rubble, to any number of people with one single touch...! The app sends out the latitude and longitude co-ordinates of the people stranded in the disaster areas.

The mind behind the app, Liang Chih-hsiung, assistant professor of multimedia and gaming development at Lunghwa University of Science and Technology says that "This project was my idea, because Taiwan has experienced earthquakes and mudslides where we can't find people, With one touch, location data can get out, and maybe that would save your life. If you were crushed but still alive, someone can still find you."

The new app is available for download for $2.99 in English, Chinese or Japanese.

Parellel Universe

2011-03-08T23:15:00.004+05:30

Am not an expert in neither physics nor string theory, but I find these ideas and theories highly fascinating. These ideas look very interesting when we do not go deep into it. like, derivations or proofs....:) Oh.. you want some proof for that...?? Here it is,

The following are the mathematical topics a person has to be familiar with if he wants to learn String theory,

Real analysis
Complex analysis
Group theory
Differential geometry
Lie groups
Differential forms
Homology
Cohomology
Homotopy
Fiber bundles
Characteristic classes
Index theorems
Supersymmetry and supergravity

Need more.... below is just a piece of derivation in string theory...

Looks like we are going to be in deep shit as we go deeper n deeper right...??..:p

So lets all not worry about those n enjoy the little we know.... below videos make these concepts so simple...!! But more importantly, they take you to a different world...!! Enjoy.... (FYI there are 5 parts of the video)

10th dimension

2011-03-08T22:50:00.004+05:30

As I mentioned in my previous post Imagining the dimensions higher than 4 looks like impossible right..? But its possible...! To be honest with you, I really have no idea how to write an article about the higher dimensions when myself is stuck imagining 5th dimensions...! So, as would every one would do, I went on exploring about the topic. Seriously, it made me more confused...!! The following is a paragraph which I got on a website, it goes,

The first four are the ones we all know and love: Three dimensions for space and one dimension for time.
The other 6 are called 'internal degrees of freedom' and are related to the number of fundamental symmetries present in the physical world at the quantum scale. The equations that physicists work with require these additional dimensions so that new symmetries can be defined that allow physicists to understand physical relationships between the various particle families. They think these are actual, real dimensions to the physical world, only that they are now 'compact' and have finite sizes unlike our 4 dimensions of space and time which seem almost to be infinite in size. Each point in 4 dimensional space-time has another 6 dimensions attached to it which 'particles and forces' can use as extra degrees of freedom to define themselves and how they will interact with each other. Do not confuse them with 'hyperspace' because the particles do not actually 'move' along these other dimensions. They are not 'spatial' dimensions, but are as unlike space and time as time is unlike space!
I didn't understand a word...:p But I found this great video on youtube, which explains it beautifully, check it out...

String theory - Prepare to be amazed and confused..!

2011-03-08T21:43:00.005+05:30

String theory, probably is the hottest thing in the world of physics. Its the most famous idea in the modern physics at the same time, damn confusing..!

Am not going to give you detailed article about the theory, or teach you any derivations..:p but am just give you trailer of the theory, which would tickle your imagination and make you explore about it more.

FYI, this idea will question everything you know and learned till now......So according to the theory,

The idea or the theory starts by saying that the fundamental particles we know are NOT point like dots but made of tiny strings...! These strings are so tiny that no instruments of ours can show it.

We are familiar with 1 dimension, 2D and 3D but string theory predicts the existance of 10 dimensions...!! (I know its hard to imgine even the 4D, but how could we even possible think of 10th dimension...?? I will tell a little about it in the next post... HERE....)

Now the concept of 'universe', its old..! its time for 'multiverse'...!! that's right, according to the String theory, there exist not one but many parallel universes..!! String theory describes 10⁵⁰⁰ separate universes, with different constants of nature and even different laws of physics. This parallel universe concept is really mindblowing..! Will tell you a little more about it HERE....

Another one of string theory's most dramatic predictions is that we should find cosmic strings. These would be billions of light years long, thinner than a proton and spectacularly dense. As they could reveal themselves in images of distant galaxies, the search is on.

So the physicists say all the particles in the universe are made of tiny strings and how they interact each other is through the vibrations of these strings. Hence they think the whole universe we live in, as a symphony...! Though the idea is revolutionary, and so beautiful, the problem physicists facing is while proving the theory.

Over many many years the dream of scientists to give 'the theory of everything' , a theory that would explain every phenomena in the universe. Many believe that the String Theory is the theory of everything. Is it true...?? Will they able to prove it..?? Lets wait n see..:)

Google Body Browser

2011-03-04T16:15:00.003+05:30

Do you like Google Earth ? then you will love Google Body browser. For all those who are into medical and anatomy, I think its a dream come true.

Google Body browser is a very interesting Google earth styled WebGl application which lets you navigate through out the human body making you know and learn every inch of it.

To experience Google Body browser, you DO NOT require Flash, Java, or any other plugins..!! All you need is a WebGl enabled browser. following browsers have WebGl enabled...
Chrome 9 Beta, Firefox 4 beta, Webkit Nighty

Its a great tool for all those medical students out there and also to every other human being as I think everybody should know about our own body. Google has made it easy, interactive and interesting like never before. Enjoy the app HERE

Know more about it in the video below........

Volvo car with pedestrian detection system

2011-02-26T15:30:00.005+05:30

While making any vehicle, safety is the most important factor above looks, top speed ,mileage or any other. you may ask why.... below is the piece of line from a study by WHO...

Each year, 1.2 million drivers, passengers, cyclists, and pedestrians are killed in traffic crashes. By 2020, traffic deaths are expected to increase by 80 percent as hundreds of millions of cars are added to the roads.

So, To anyhow contribute to the safety of both driver and pedestrian, Sweedish Vehicle manufacturer Volvo has introduced a new 2011 model S60 fitted with The Collision Warning with Full Auto Brake and Pedestrian Detection system.

Everything you need to know about this car with a brain, is in these videos... enjoy..:)

Telepathy is not science fiction ...!

2011-02-26T14:39:00.004+05:30

Telepathy ( communicating with our thoughts ) is indeed a dream technology. Whenever I saw those magic shows where the magician lifts a person or things with his mind, I used to think, it would be so cool if those were real and not illusions. But we humans are so intelligent, that we are making everything possible which was once impossible.

Personally, am a big fan of TED. Just watch the demo of this brilliant technology in the TED video below, and you will understand everything you need to know about this brain computer interface technology.

Solving Avatar - The mystery of 'I'

2011-02-19T19:38:00.006+05:30

Who haven't watch James Cameron's Avatar....? A brilliant movie with never before seen sci-fi technologies... Well, the Swiss Researchers are quite hopeful to make some of those flashy technologies, a reality...!

In the movie, the scientists use Na'vi(aliens)-human hybrid bodies called avatars that are operated via mental link by genetically matched humans. There the humans are linked to those bodies in such way that they feel that body as their own. i.e, self-consciousness. You know, that feeling of being in or owning our body is the fundamental human experience. Have you ever wondered where does it originate..? or how or why we feel that way...? That's what researchers are trying to figure out.

By combining techniques from cognitive science with those of Virtual Reality (VR) and brain imaging, Professor Olaf Blanke, a neurologist with the Brain Mind Institute at EPFL and the Department of Neurology at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and his team are zeroing on the first experimental, data-driven approach to understanding self-consciousness.

Now let me make a little bit clear for you about what is its connection to 'Avatar' and what exactly did they do in their experiment.....

The people who volunteered for the experiment, were fitted with an electrode-studded skullcap to monitor brain activity and exposed to different digital, 3D environments through a head-mounted stereoscopic visor or projections on a large screen. They immersed these people into the body of an 'avatar' or virtual human via virtual reality settings.

Then the team, tried to dig out the most fundamental questions with those people such as, "Where am I localized in space" and "What is my body?" by physically touching their real-life volunteers either in or out of sync with the avatar.They even swapped perspectives from first to third person and put their male subjects inside female avatars, at the same time measuring each of their brain activities.

Why they are doing it...?? You may not be aware but there are cases in neurological patients reporting out-of-body experiences. And the data show marked changes in the response of the brain's temporo-parietal and frontal regions -- the parts of the brain responsible for integrating touch and vision into a coherent perception.The researchers are are trying to compare the experimental results with those case studies.

But finding the basic brain response to VR is just beginning.In the next step, the researchers are going to induce stronger illusions of the self by altering signals of balance and limb position -- two very powerful bodily cues.Once subjects can no longer distinguish between the real and the virtual self, cognitive science and brain imaging may be able to answer all the questions about self-consciousness and there by solving the mystery of 'I'.

Cracking this mystery, could.....

lead to advances in the fields of touch and balance perception
great advancements in the fields of robotics and virtual reality.
neuro-rehabilitation and pain treatments.
contribute to the understanding of neurological and psychiatric disease.

Lets hope the future it make the future better.

Touchscape - Multitouch Table

2011-02-18T22:30:00.004+05:30

We got to know about touch screens in one of my older posts ( here.. ), now a multi touch on a touch screen display ,refers to the ability to simultaneously register three or more distinct positions of input touches.

There are many of 'multi touch' gadgets but this one caught my eye. Its a multi touch table from Touchscapes. Its cool, its fun and it can be very useful too..!

Touchscape Multi-Touch (MT) Table combines looks and style with high powered surface computing to create a product which could be a stylish addition to any environment. THe specification of the Touchscape Multi Touch table is as below....

Sports a 47'' High Definition LCD Screen
The screen is HD, with 1920 x 1080p Resolution.
Quad Core Processor
This surface is can be configured to be a native Windows 7 touch input device (just like Microsoft Surface) or can serve TUIO touch events for use with SUSHI or other multitouch SDK.

When you watch these videos here.. you will get know about it more. So lets not spare too many words here .. see it yourself..:)

10 most dangerous computer viruses in history

2011-02-16T17:38:00.013+05:30

A computer virus is a computer program which can copy itself and infect a computer. and it can scare the hell out of a computer user..:) We try so harder in this digital world to keep our computer healthy than ourselves...yet some geek can write some lines of codes sitting at his home and piss us off...:p There were some legendary viruses which are considered as the most dangerous viruses in the history. Today we are going to know which they are......

Jerusalem 1987

This virus struck the world when people had hardly known the existence of computer viruses. This is the first MS-DOS virus that hat caused enormous destructions, affecting many countries, universities and companies worldwide.On Friday 13, 1988 it manged to infect no. of institutions in Europe, America and the Middle East.
You may be wondering, why the name 'Jerusalem'.That's because, 1st place to get affected by this virus was Jerusalem University.

Morris (Internet Worm) - November 1988

This virus infected more than 6000 computers is US including NASA..!! It also manged to send millions of copies of itself to different network computers, being able to entirely paralyze all network resources.It used the errors in the operating systems to able to spread.It could also pick user passwords.
Believe it or not, the damages it caused were estimated to be $96 million..!!

Solar Sunrise - 1998

This virus was worse than the last one. Hackers, using this virus, took over more than 500 computers which belonged to army, government and private sector of the United States..! Initially it was believed that the hackers were from Iraq, but later it was found that the hackers were two teenagers from California. The virus 'Solar Sunrise' was named after he popular vulnerabilities in computers that run on the operating system called Sun Solaris.

Melissa - 1999

The name of the virus 'Melissa' comes from a lap dancer from Florida..! Confused..?... She was not the programmer but the programmer, David L. Smith from New Jersey was got acknowledged with the dancer.
Melisa virus also known as “Mailissa”, “Simpsons”, “Kwyjibo”, or “Kwejeebo”, is a mass-mailing macro virus. World came to know about Melissa,On March 26, 1999, when the virus shut down the internet mail system..!Melissa was hidden within a file called "List.DiC", which featured passwords that served as keys to unlocking 80 pornographic websites. The original form of the virus was sent through e-mail to different users.
It didn't end well for the creator of the virus, he was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison and ordered to pay a fine of $5,000.

I Love You - May 2000

This virus was similar to Melissa. It too sent usernames and passwords to users, just like Melissa.It managed to infect millions of computers around the world overnight.The virus started to spread when a user received an email with the subject “ILOVEYOU” and an attachment “LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs”. As soon as the file was opened, the virus managed to send its copy to every address present in the Windows Address Book.
Officials tracked the virus and found a young Philippino student was the hacker behind the virus. But he didn't face any charges as Philippines did not have any law that would prevent hacking and spreading malware. This lead to the creation of European Union's Global Cybercrime Treaty.

The Code Red worm - July 2001

The 21st century virus caused damages worth $2 billion.....! Code Red was actually developed to use the power of all computers it infected against the official website of the White House at a predetermined date. However, White House managed to decode the code Red and stop it from happening.
The Code Red worm was first discovered and researched by eEye Digital Security employees Marc Maiffret and Ryan Permeh. The worm was named the .ida “Code Red” worm because Code Red Mountain Dew was what they were drinking at the time, and because of the phrase “Hacked by Chinese!” with which the worm defaced websites.

Nimda - 2001

It affected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide shortly after the 9/11 tragedy. Due to its 5 different methods of infecting computers systems and being able to duplicate itself, it is considered as one of the most complicated computer viruses.

Downadup - 2009

Its the most dangerous virus till now, Downadup Worm . Its also called "Conficker". It has affected more than 6 millions of computers worldwidein just 3 days...!!.This malicious program was able to spread using a patched Windows flaw. Downadup was so "successful" in spreading across the Web, because it used a flaw that Microsoft patched in October in order to distantly compromise computers that ran unpatched versions of Microsoft's operating system.But the real power of the virus is, it makes the computer to download the destructive code from random drop point. According to the internet Security Company, F-Secure, the most affected countries are China, Russia and Brazil.

How much information is there in the World..?

2011-02-11T17:16:00.004+05:30

"Hey .. I have 500Gb of movies in my pc..!", "Hey I have a collection of more than 1000 books at my home..!" .....so now, a single person has 5ooGb of information only of movies...! Just hold that thought and think how much information would be there in the whole world...?!? Don't tell me its impossible to calculate, because a study appearing on Feb 10 in Science Express calculates the World's total technological capacity.How much information humankind is able to store,communicate and compute.

So lets find out what's the study say.... Prepare yourself for some mind blowing facts ..!!

Looking at both digital memory and analog devices, the researchers calculate that humankind is able to store at least 295 exabytes of information. And FYI, exabyte is the number with 20 zeros in it..!!

In other words, if a single star is a bit of information, that's a galaxy of information for every person in the world. That's 315 times the number of grains of sand in the world. But it's still less than one percent of the information that is stored in all the DNA molecules of a human being.

2002 could be considered the beginning of the digital age, the first year worldwide digital storage capacity overtook total analog capacity. As of 2007, almost 94 percent of our memory is in digital form.
In 2007, humankind successfully sent 1.9 zettabytes of information through broadcast technology such as televisions and GPS. That's equivalent to every person in the world reading 174 newspapers every day.
On two-way communications technology, such as cell phones, humankind shared 65 exabytes of information through telecommunications in 2007, the equivalent of every person in the world communicating the contents of six newspapers every day.
In 2007, all the general-purpose computers in the world computed 6.4 x 10^18 instructions per second, in the same general order of magnitude as the number of nerve impulses executed by a single human brain. Doing these instructions by hand would take 2,200 times the period since the Big Bang.
From 1986 to 2007, the period of time examined in the study, worldwide computing capacity grew 58 percent a year, ten times faster than the United States' GDP.
Telecommunications grew 28 percent annually, and storage capacity grew 23 percent a year.

The lead author Martin Hilbert of the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism says, "These numbers are impressive, but still miniscule compared to the order of magnitude at which nature handles information.Compared to nature, we are but humble apprentices. However, while the natural world is mind-boggling in its size, it remains fairly constant. In contrast, the world's technological information processing capacities are growing at exponential rates."

Touch screens - What do you know..?

2011-01-30T18:24:00.009+05:30

Touch screens nowadays are becoming so common that every gadget in the world is going touch screen. Every person in his day to day life will interact with something which is touch screen. But have you ever wondered what these touch screens are made of..? How do they work..? What's the technology behind it.?

Many people don't know about these. After you finish reading this, you will be amazed by the technology and think of it as a miracle..!

I don't think defining 'touch screen' is necessary as you know what it means. you can easily write,navigate,open windows etc with touch screen. But think of this, ' within fraction of second your touch is your touch is translated into control commands that a computer understands'..! but how..??

To know that, lets look at different type of touch screens.

Capacitive touch screens : Its a wafer thin electrode made of ITO ( indium tin oxide) coated below glass. In such screens, an electrical field is generated on the surface of the screen. That field is disrupted by the user's touch, and electrodes on the edges of the screen measure changes in the current and can thus define the location of the disruption.
Resistive touch screens : Its composed of many layers. The most important are the two electrically conductive layer separated by a small distance. When you touch on it, the two metallic layers become connected at that point.This results in the change in the current and computer locates the point of contact.
Acoustic pulse recognition : It makes you of piezoelectric transducers. They "hear" sound waves caused by the user's touch. Sensors in the edges of the screen measure the amount of time it takes for the pulse to reach the edge, and can then calculate the location of the touch.

There are many other type of touch screens too like surface acoustic wave, optical imaging, self capacitance etc. Please feel free to explore the web...:)

The mobile touch screens what we use everyday uses 'Capacitive touch screens' as they are light and inexpensive. But there is a problem....!! The material used in the manufacture of these screens i.e, ITO (indium tin oxide) is very rare. There are only few deposit of indium anywhere in the world. So thinking of the future, scientists are looking for an alternative for ITO.

Now the updated news in the touch screens technology is that the researchers at Fraunhofer have come up with an alternative to ITO which is as efficient as ITO also cheaper ..!!

Its main components are carbon nanotubes and low-cost polymers. This new electrode foil is composed of two layers. One is the carrier, a thin foil made of inexpensive polyethylenterephthalate PET used for making plastic bottles. Then a mixture of carbon-nanotubes and electrically conducting polymers is added that is applied to the PET as a solution and forms a thin film when it dries.

So now you know about a technology and tell others and make yourself look intelligent..:) So see you when something significant happens in the world of science n technology...:)

Facebook will be shut down on 15th march - Truth or Hoax...??

2011-01-29T19:54:00.005+05:30

I bet you have heard the news that facebook will end on march 15 as it is spreading like wildfire on the internet especially on facebook. Is this news true...?? rather than answering that question directly , let me give you some stats about facebook....

Facebook is officially worth $50 Billion.
DST invested $50 million while Goldman Sachs invested $450 million. The remaining investment came from overseas shareholders participating in Goldman Sach’s Facebook investment vehicle.
It has More than 500 million active users
People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.
Entrepreneurs and developers from more than 190 countries build with Facebook Platform
More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook, including over 80 of comScore's U.S. Top 100 websites and over half of comScore's Global Top 100 websites

I can go on giving such stats but the above few clearly show what a giant facebook is.....! So now if I ask the same above question, if facebook shuts down on march 15..... the answer is obvious, "NO, its impossible".

Yes guys, its hoax....! Facebook will NOT end on march 15. So where did this news originate..? The news was published by Weekly World News. Its shown below.

As you can see, any man with little bit of common sense, will say its not true. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg never said things like "managing [Facebook] has ruined my life. I need to put an end to all the madness."

But unfortunately its not stopping many many facebook users to spread this hoax. More than a million users have already fallen for this hoax..!

just visit this website 'Weekly World News' and you will see. The whole website is full of nonsense news and hoaxes such as, 'alien spacecrafts will attack earth in 2011','Megan Fox is a Man','Micheal Jackson faked his own death' etc. This proves how 'reliable' their news is.

So don't believe everything you read on the internet, and think twice before you pass a story on to your friends.