Rescue your cell from water

No matter how hard you try, at least once in its lifetime, your cellphone will find its way into the potty or the sink. But does it mean it’s time to bury your dear one? Definitely not, especially if you try this home remedy. First, take the phone battery out immediately to prevent electrical short circuits from roasting your phone’s innards. Next, wipe the dripping piece of machinery gently with a tissue, and bury it into a jar full of uncooked rice. Yes, rice. Remember the coconut-in-dry-rice routine to keep moisture away? It’s the same logic that works here too. It’s been found rice has a high chemical affinity for water — which means it has an almost magnetic attraction for water droplets. So, instead of sticking to the cold metal of your cellphone, they will get soaked by the rice, thus leaving your phone dry as a bone (well, almost).



How to extend laptop battery

Another most common gripe with laptop users is that its juice runs out when you need it. So a good home remedy is to remove the battery from your laptop when you are using the AC power exclusively. This reduces constant charging/ recharging of the battery. Maintaining the battery at full charge for extended periods can shorten its service life. Should you opt not to remove the batteries but run the laptop so that it is nearly always plugged in, it’s a good idea to remove the charger cord frequently — at least once a week — and run the computer off battery charge for an hour or two. A similar techniqe, by the way, works for your iPod too. If your iPod’s battery stubbornly refuses to charge or doesn’t charge completely, try making the battery completely dry. Next, simply pull out the battery from the iPod and leave it outside for 24 hours. Plug it back and notice the difference.


Squeeze cartridge ink

If the ink dries out just when you are in the middle of printing an important document, simply remove the cartridge and run a hair dryer for three-four minutes and place it back into the printer and print again while it is still warm. Tech experts say the hair dryer melts the thick ink, thus releasing extra ink for a page or two.


Revive your dead hard drive

If you have been hit by the blue screen of death — the hard drive just crashed on you — don’t panic. You might be able to salvage your precious data. The nuskha is simply freeze the hard drive for an entire night. This might sound silly, but here’s the logic. Tech experts say, many hard drive failures are caused by worn parts that no longer fit in with each other, making it impossible to read from the drive. Engineers have found that if you freeze the drive, lowering the temperature causes its metal and plastic internals to contract slightly. Thawing it will cause those parts to expand again, thus possibly binding them. This might not bring the drive back to life essentially, but give you enough window to transfer data to a safe place. Worth a try, right?

Nokia N86 8MP Smartphone

Posted by ~AKRATI~ | 6:09 AM


The award winning Nokia N86 8MP, the most advanced Nokia imaging device, is coming to the US

The smartphone is a 2-way slide dual-mode mobile computer supporting WCDMA/HSDPA, EGSM, and WLAN. Enjoy videos, music, and graphics on the 2.6” Active Matrix OLED display and orientation sensor.

One can find directions and locations with the integrated A-GPS and included maps. At the same time it can take photos with a 8-megapixel autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics, Tessar lens and dual LED flash.

N86 8MP comes with additional features include Flash lite 3.1, USB charging with simultaneous data transfer, UPnP and TV out. Supported WCDMA frequencies depend on the region where the device is available.

With its eight megapixel camera, dual LED flash and Carl Zeiss Optics, the Nokia N86 8MP will allow US consumers to carry a true replacement for single purpose point-and-shoot camera.

Sharing images and video with your social network couldn’t be easier with the Share Online client that is preinstalled on the Nokia N86 8MP and its one-click upload.

With over-the-air uploads, media can be seen within seconds from Ovi Share and other media sharing sites. The Nokia N86 8MP also comes preloaded with Ovi services including Ovi Maps, N-Gage and Ovi Files.

With exceptional build quality and loaded with features, the Nokia N86 8MP continues the reputation that people expect from the Nokia Nseries.

The Nokia N86 8MP will be available for $558.00 through Nokia Flagship Stores.

Microsoft has given the press a limited preview of some of the new features that will be coming to the Xbox 360 dashboard, and while the Twitter and Last.fm functionality has yet to arrive, what is there points to a rosy future for the 360 as a media box... not to mention a more friendly platform for advertising. Let's take a look at the changes coming to the system.

Netflix is now browsable, without an extra computer

One of the nicest additions to the service is the ability to browse the content available via Netflix. Streaming Netflix content on your 360 used to require a computer or laptop to fill your queue, but will soon be able browse movies directly from the system—a much-needed update.

You can also share content with your friends in a virtual movie theater, where your Avatars watch the same film or TV show, as long as everyone has Netflix. I'm not sure how many people want to see movies together with your virtual friends, but hey, it's there. Netflix is now also more adaptable to "changing network conditions." You also have the ability to see what your friends are watching, or you can choose to hide that information.

Netflix is much easier to use on the Xbox 360, and content is likewise simple to find and watch. If you liked the Netflix feature before, be prepared to fall in love.

Rate games, spiff up your avatar

Combing through arcade games and content used to be something of a pain, but now you can rate every game, every add-on, every arcade release, and likewise arrange games by rating. Right now Geometry Wars Evolved has 78 ratings, showing four and a half stars. That's a game worth checking out! Bankshot Billiards 2, on the other hand, shows 22 ratings with an average of two and a half stars... you may be safe skipping that one.

While putting too much stock in user-controlled ratings may not be wise, they certainly give you another data point when browsing titles, and could help to separate the good stuff from the junk. With so much content on Xbox Live, every little bit helps. The system is also granular, meaning that a game is rated, as well as its add-on content. That way users can send the message that a certain game is great, but a $5 update that adds bigger breasts to the NPCs is rather lame.

One annoying issue? When you select "top rated" under Game Add-Ons, it gives you the top rated games, not the content. I would have loved to have seen what content was top rated, but the system apparently isn't set up to share that sort of information. For instance, I know that Mass Effect is a highly rated game, but that shouldn't make it jump to the top of the charts in Game Add-ons when the Bring Down the Sky content has zero ratings. Disappointing.

You can also now check out the expanded store for clothing and accessories for your Avatar, although there isn't much there to see yet. You can browse through branded clothing from Halo 3 or Fable 2, or simply pick up some Steampunk duds. How does 80 Microsoft points for Black Boots sound? Or 160 points for a Halo Hoodie? The concept of real money for fake goods is nothing new, and with Microsoft using Avatars for more and more content, this sort of for-pay add-ons may catch on faster than many expect.

Indie games, Games on Demand, and other updates

Community Games have now been rebranded as Independent Games, and with the aforementioned ratings, are now much easier to browse to find good games. The new name, matched with user ratings, should do much to make this area of Xbox Live much more popular.

There is a slot for Games on Demand, but we've been told the 360 games won't be available until a later preview closer to August.

The rest of the updates may sound unremarkable when taken individually, but as a group they add much usability to the system. Party invites are now one-click affairs, and if you become disconnected you're automatically reinstated into the party. This now a badge showing how long you've been an Xbox Live subscriber, and you can get a feel for how many achievements you've earned with new graphical information. Console settings have also be re-organized to be easier to use.

The only issue is that, at least in the preview build given to the press, the responsiveness of the dashboard has been severely compromised. The 360 runs slllloooowww at the moment, with frequent pauses and stutters between windows. I'm sure that's an issue with what may be unfinished code, but at the moment the system can be frustratingly unresponsive.

Buying full games with real cash, not points, as well as Twitter, Last.fm, and Facebook functionality will be coming in future updates, but so far we like what we see. If you'd like to take the update for a test drive yourself, sign up for the testing program; Microsoft is allowing a good amount of gamers to explore the new options.

Facebook Fact

Posted by Bhavin | 9:55 AM

Facebook was originally named TheFaceBook and it was developed by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg. The first use of the FaceBook was on the Harvard campus and it was limited only to Harvard students. Soon the FaceBook spread like wild fire around the other major U.S. Universities. Mark Zuckerberg dropped the Harvard and pursued his facebook dream to become one of the 4th most-trafficked websites in the world with more than 90 million active users. The FaceBook website is built on PHP-MySQL technology and it is probably the most popular PHP website ever built. Interesting fact is that the facebook.com domain was purchased for $200,000 and FaceBook has more than 24 million photos uploaded daily.

Interesting facts about 2012

Posted by Bhavin | 9:51 AM

2012 is expected to be year of great positive change. It is not the end of the world! Back in 1899 something was identified called Schumann Cavity Resonance. It is the heart beat or frequency of the Earth. Since its discovery till 1986 this heart beat frequency was constant 7.8 Hertz per second. From 1986 it started to raise dramatically and in 1998 it was reported to be 10 hertz per second. On other hand magnetics of the earth are dropping dramatically and it is expected they will reach zero point in 2012. Maya calendar and other calendars end in 2012, but it is not the end of the world just beginning of the new one since every 26000 years Earth goes through grand cycle of evolution.

A new class of BLACK HOLE

Posted by Bhavin | 9:47 AM

Only two sizes of black holes have ever been spotted: small and super-massive. Scientists have long speculated that an intermediate version must exist, but they’ve never been able to find one until now.

Astrophysicists identified what appears to be the first-ever medium-sized black hole, pictured in an artist’s rendition above, with a mass at least 500 times that of our Sun. Researchers from the Centre d’Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements in France detected the middling hole in a galaxy about 290 million light-years from Earth.

The discovery may shed some light on the origins of super-sized black holes like the one at the center of our own galaxy. These astral heavyweights top out at several million to several billion times the mass of the Sun, but their origin remains a mystery.

Small black holes, between three and 20 times the mass of the sun, are created when big stars collapse and leave behind a gravitational pull strong enough to block nearby light rays. Researchers have speculated that super-massive black holes result from the successive fusion of many smaller black holes. But without finding evidence of a medium-size hole, it was a tough theory to prove.

“The existence of such intermediate-mass black holes is in dispute,” the French scientists wrote Wednesday in Nature, “and though many candidates have been proposed, none are widely accepted as definitive.”

The new discovery is the most convincing evidence to date that medium black holes exist. Using the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton X-ray space telescope, the researchers identified a radiation source that gives off X-rays 260 million times brighter than the radiation of the Sun.

Called “Hyper-Luminous X-ray Source 1,” the structure sits on the edge of galaxy ESO 243-49. Because of the source’s physical characteristics and the pattern of its radiation, the researchers conclude it must be a black hole more than 500 times the mass of the sun: not too big, not too small, and the first of its kind.

World's First 256GB Flash Drive

Posted by ~AKRATI~ | 8:07 AM

After boasting over the 128GB Data Traveler 200 Flash Drive marvel, Kingston has now announced whopping 256GB DataTraveler 300 USB Flash Drive. This high capacity USB flash drive comes with new Password Traveler software that allows creating and access password protected area on the drive called 'Privacy Zone'. At this moment, Kingston Europe is selling Kingston DataTraveler 300 256GB flash drive at an astonishing price of 657 Euros (Rs. 45, 100) which is more than even 256GB SSDs.

Likely to be a proud possession of select few, the new 256GB DataTraveler 300 has the usual retractable pin interface. This 256GB Flash drive allows storing data of up to 10 Blu-ray Discs or 54 single layer DVDs or 365 CDs. Kingston claims that this USB drive offers read speed of 20MB/sec and write speed of 10MB/sec without any stutter in data access.

For Windows Vista and Windows 7 based systems, DT 300 is already ReadyBoost enable and thus will allow Vista users to use this flash drive as memory. Ideal for netbook users who are looking for extended, portable storage which can be easily carried in pocket. However, it's a fact that this pocket toy will literally burn a hole in the pocket.


A rumored Android based handset that will be targeted at the low to mid range segment. The idea behind this phone is to gradually enable more people to come into the Android fold. Not everyone can afford a Hero or a Rachael, mind you. So, what we have here is a stripped down smartphone that comes laden with the bare essentials, skis the eye candy and stuff. This will of course be priced reasonably and will still be a full-fledged Android phone.

Now, we do not have any inkling as to what the specs of the HTC Click look like. By the looks of it, this might be a quite a decent phone with unassuming looks and well that's just about it. Watch this space!

Google promises 'the end of viruses'

Posted by ~AKRATI~ | 8:16 AM


Google's Engineering Director has promised that its forthcoming Chrome OS will see 'the end of malware'.

Google is promising what the latest issue of New Scientist magazine refers to as "a carefree antivirus nirvana" with its forthcoming Google Chrome OS.

Linus Upson, Google's Engineering Director, has promised the company is: "Completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work."

Chrome browser patched

Ironically, Google is also in the news this week due to security flaws in its Chrome browser.

Two of the most recent Google Chrome web browser security flaws (one relating to malicious code exploitation in the Chrome tab sandbox and one relating to memory corruption in the browser tab processes) have now been fixed.

You can see the full run-down of all the latest changes over on Google's Chrome site.

So is the cloud computing future really going to be more secure than our current system of downloading regular security patches to constantly fix the software that's sitting on our hard drive?

"Downloading updates is always going to be a step or two behind the cloud approach because it takes a while to get a fix out to a PC to install it," argues Paul Jackson of Forrester Research.

And while Jackson agrees that "the cloud approach allows patches to be applied much faster" he notes that any web-based OS is still going to be at risk from malware targeting the browser or Linux.

Robert Caunt, an analyst from CCS Insight in London, notes that Google has a good record on security to date: "Its Gmail spam filter and search engine's phishing-detection is good. They know what needs doing."

Major computing brands such as Nvidia, Dell, Asus, Acer and others have already confirmed that they will be fully supporting Google's Chrome OS. Stay tuned for further Chrome OS news updates as and when we get them.

Google launches voice-powered search

Posted by ~AKRATI~ | 8:17 AM


Google, the renowned name in the area of internet search, has introduced new concept to make search easier for mobile users. It has come up with voice-based search and map solutions to strengthen its application portfolio.

Users can get information regarding particular site, opening Google search page that shows top results of the category. The firm aims to capture large market share by providing the facility to low-cost GPRS handsets and offering cheaper data plans.

Google India Head of products, Vinay Goel said, "Mobiles (more than 400 million) outnumber the personal computers (PCs -- slightly over 30 million) concentration in India. A big part of the population accessing Internet going ahead would do so on a mobile handset and so we need to offer enriching experience to these users."

The company has recently introduced a free voice-based mobile Internet search, a master piece of its India engineering team, for BlackBerry users. Mr. Goel said that apart from BlackBerry users the facility will be soon extended to other handsets by December this year.

A leading technology related blog adds, "With this app you get local business suggestions even before you click the search button if My Location is enabled."


Google Wave , Google’s new real-time communication platform that will launch to the public later this year.
What is Google Wave?
Google Wave is a personal communication and collaboration tool announced by Google at the Google I/O conference, on 27 May 2009 .It is a web based service and computing platform designed to merge e-mail, instant messaging, wiki, and social networking. It has a strong collaborative and real-time focus supported by robust spelling/grammar checking, automated translation between 40 languages, and numerous other extensions. It is expected to be released later in 2009.Google Wave has a lot of innovative features, but here are just a few:-
Real-time: In most instances, you can see what someone else is typing, character-by-character.
Embeddability: Waves can be embedded on any blog or website.
Applications and Extensions: Just like a Facebook (Facebook reviews) application or an iGoogle gadget, developers can build their own apps within waves. They can be anything from bots to complex real-time games.
Wiki functionality: Anything written within a Google Wave can be edited by anyone else, because all conversations within the platform are shared. Thus, you can correct information, append information, or add your own commentary within a developing conversation.

Open source: The Google Wave code will be open source, to foster innovation and adoption amongst developers.
- Playback: You can playback any part of the wave to see what was said.
- Natural language: Google Wave can autocorrect your spelling, even going as far as knowing the difference between similar words, like “been” and “bean.” It can also auto-translate on-the-fly.
- Drag-and-drop file sharing: No attachments; just drag your file and drop it inside Google Wave and everyone will have access.

Official Google Website : http://wave.google.com/
More About Wave :http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-drips-with-ambition-can-it-fulfill-googles-grandwebvision/
====http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Wave


NASA's plan to replace its three aging space shuttles with Orion capsules to carry astronauts to the moon by 2020 may not justify its $35 billion cost if it stops there, said Aldrin, one of the first humans to set foot on the moon during the apollo 11 landing on July 20, 1969.

Instead, the United States can aid international partners in exploring the moon and free up its own spaceflight resources to develop systems for even more ambitious goals, he told in an interview.

"While the international explorers, with our help, are going to the moon, we can develop the long-duration life support systems for other things," said Aldrin, 79. "Flying by a comet, visiting an asteroid and station-keeping with it."

With an international base on the moon and vital technologies like in-space refueling, Aldrin envisions an ambitious series of expeditions to send astronauts on a deep space mission to visit the asteroid Aphophis when it swings near Earth in 2021. A temporarily manned base on the Mars moon Phobos could follow, he added.

"By that time, we'd be ready to put people in a gradual permanence on Mars by 2031," Aldrin said. "That, in a nutshell, is what I really think we should be doing."

NASA's current transition from the space shuttle to orion is a huge step backward, Aldrin said. The shuttle's may not have lived up to its initial expectations, but its ability to haul tons of cargo to orbit and land on a runway is a capability that should not be lost in order to replace it with something faster and cheaper, he stressed.

"What happens to U.S. space global leadership if everything is going to be done on the cheap and we're not going to think ahead, and we're going back to the moon for some reason that really won't justify the cost of human habitation," he said.

The United States should "do the things that this nation can do and strive toward maintaining globally space leaderships. And that means lifting bodies, runway landers and not going back to the moon, because we've been there," Aldrin added.

While the future of American spaceflight remains to be seen, Aldrin said he takes comfort knowing that the history-making apollo 11 moon landing still resonates today.

"I'm kind of glad it does," he said. "Whatever we do in space is not on the front page unless there's something going wrong or it's highly unusual. And it doesn't capture the budget discussion."

Aldrin and Neil Armstrong spent a day on the lunar surface and just 2 1/2 hours walking outside their Eagle lander. Their crewmate Michael Collins orbited overhead inside the command module Columbia. Five other Apollo moon landings followed.

In the past, Aldrin has frankly recounted the depression and bout with alcoholism that followed his flight aboard Apollo 11.

Now, 40 years after the mission, he said he's matured considerably since the flight - his last space mission and has released a new autobiography "Magnificent Desolation." In a bid to spark interest in spaceflight in today's youth ad children, he rapped about the moonshot with Snoop Dogg and Talib Kewli, and has a new children's book about space exploration.

The Apollo 11 anniversary, he said, is a chance for NASA to remind the American public of the country's technical prowess.

"I do think that it does momentarily keep the public abreast of what we're doing now, and they'll look back," Aldrin said. "Of course it's been a long time, so many people weren't alive when those things happened, and those that were are, I guess, maturing a little bit and look back with a bit of nostalgia."

But the moon, Aldrin added, hasn't changed.

"Well, it still looks about the same when I look at it," Aldrin said. "But I know inside, it sounds kind of trite, that it's really not the stranger that it was. It's somewhat of a friend now because I've been there."

Aldrin said he still vividly remembers that first moonwalk. Armstrong called the view beautiful, but it was so much more. Aldrin, instead, saw what described as magnificent desolation.

"Beautiful, I thought, that's not quite right," he said. "It's magnificent that we're here ... but what a desolate place this was."

He still recalls the apparent stillness.

"No life, no motion, no air. And just the same uniform color of all the dust that reflected light differently depending on the angle of the sun and your view," Aldrin said. "It just wasn't a very welcome place at all."


When you try to take pictures under lower light conditions, you are largely left with one of two options. You can use the flash and get all sorts of unnatural and uneven lighting. You can avoid the flash and get one big blurry mess. Well, a couple of students are coming up with a much better alternative.

Some people are calling it a “dark” flash, whereas others are referring to it as an “invisible” flash. Whatever you choose to call it, the innovation is supposed to provide us with much better photos at night and under other dim lighting conditions.

Hailing from New York University, Dilip Krishnan and Rob Fergus are developing a two-step technique that can be completely automated in regular digital cameras (and maybe even camera phones). The flashbulb has been modified to emit a wider spectrum of light, but it filters out visible light.

The UV and IR filters that are normally present in camera sensors have also been removed. The net result is a picture that looks like an infrared image, similar to the picture you see on the left. The blur is gone and the lighting is even, but it’s the wrong color, right?

An algorithm takes care of that. A second photo is taken immediately after the second one, but without the “dark” flash being used. By doing so, the camera is able to grab the color information from the resulting grainy and shaky pic. Combining the detail from the first pic with the colors of the second, you get the picture on the right.

This sounds like it could be quite a fantastic innovation if it really works as promised, but it almost sounds like the camera has to be dedicated to this purpose. If they can merge the technology with existing tech for “regular” photos, they could have a very lucrative patent on their hands.


Give me more time... I don’t even have an e-mail ID,” an exasperated Nandan Nilekani said on the sidelines of a book launch by Pearson Education today.
Nilekani, who has been appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to head the National Authority for Unique Identity, has been in the news for providing a unique identification (UID) number to all Indians. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is being established under the aegis of the Planning Commission.
When asked where his office would be (Nilekani is sitting in the Planning Commission office currently), the former co-chairman of Infosys said that, as of now, he did not even have an e-mail id. As for what his priorities would be with regard to the ambitious UID project that would create a ‘national verification process’, he said: “Give me more time. Wait till August 15.”
The UID intends to enable a unique identity which will ensure that people have a unique number. This is also expected to help in creating a national verification process, and create a national enrollment capability as it would be a database of Indian citizens.

The government has earmarked an initial budgetary allocation of Rs 120 crore for the UID project in the fiscal year 2009-10. In fact, in 2008, the government implemented a pilot project for a ‘Multi-purpose National Identity Card (MNIC) in 13 districts of 12 states and one Union Territory wherein more than 1.2 million identity cards were issued to people above 18 years of age.

The unique ID will require creation of a database that links an individual to a unique identifier that remains constant over his lifespan, like parentage, date and place of birth. The card automatically gets activated as a voter identity card at the age of 18.


EVER IMAGINED driving a car which would communicate with other cars to prevent a collision? Very soon, such talking cars will be seen running on the roads, much to the relief of the drivers. Scientists have developed a set of algorithms that will allow future robotic cars to talk with each other to help avoid accidents.
Under the guidance and supervision of Indian-origin scientists, Dr Bhibhya Sharma and Dr Utesh Chand, an international team in the University of South Pacific, have developed mathematical equations which would instruct robotic cars on how to drive and change lanes safely. The series of such mathematical equations would instruct the future robotic cars on how to merge lanes, thus bringing down the accident rate and easing traffic congestions.

Dr Sharma said that flocking was a biologically-inspired technique and strategy commonly used in robotics. The advantages of flocking make robots work together and achieve what would normally take an individual far longer.

According to the scientists, each robotic car will be controlled by a centralised brain which will be guided by a series of algorithms which will enable the brains to talk with each other and instruct the cars to merge lanes and altogether move together in a formation that avoids collisions.

Using computer simulation, the team demonstrated the technique and is currently trying it out in two-wheeled robots. Dr Chand said that the cars would have targets they move towards. Whenever the cars finds itself in a merging situation, one car would take the lead position and the rest would follow. The team has noted down equations for attraction towards a target, enabling the cars to stay in the lane and avoid crashing into each other. According to the team the only challenge would be to allow the robot to automatically plan how to avoid collision with the side of the roads and cars moving close by.

The scientists have put forward and presented their findings at the 1st Rim Mathematical Association (PRIMA) conference that was held in Sydney.

Future of personal Computing

The next generation of mobile computing... ....
you dont need to carry laptops or heavy mobile sets......
projector + camera + computer + internet + sixth sense
makes computing easier...... ..

6th sense - technology by MIT student----- ------absolutely amazing!!!
Must watch - This video shows the new wearable technology
that makes takes personnel computing to a whole new level.
This is done by an Indian Student who is in MIT
Pranav Mistry


Worth to watch this:
so just have a look.



the G41 chipset-based motherboards from MSI are designed for the gamers, engineering and multimedia professionals. They feature Intel's integrated GMA X4500 graphics processing unit, which is not only faster compared to its predecessor but is also DirectX 10 and OpenGL 2.0 compatible.

Additionally, the G41 chipset also supports faster hardware decoding, which decreases the loading on the CPU while rendering a movie or a scene. The chipset supports dual video and audio output as well as HDMI for easy connectivity with other multimedia devices. DirectX 10 support provides a better gaming and graphics experience with Windows Vista or Windows 7 as the operating system.



The motherboards also feature APS intelligent power management, USB safeguard protection and M-Flash BIOS recovery. These boards feature a solid capacitor design which enhances the product's life span and stability. These boards can be easily overclocked via the BIOS-located 'Switch'.

MSI's G41 series motherboards include G41TM-E63, G41TM-E43, G41M4-F, P41T-C31, P41T-C33, G41M-FD and G41M-FIDP.

A team of scientists have developed a robotic rat that could eventually help rescue people from man-made and natural disasters.

Researchers from the Bristol Robotics Lab and the University of Sheffield have developed the SCRATCHbot, which can find objects using its sensory whiskers in dark or smoky rooms. And unlike previous rodent-like machines, SCRATCHbot adapts the way it moves its whiskers when it makes contact with an obstacle.

The project was inspired by the use of touch in the animal kingdom – specifically how rats explore their environments using whiskers in poorly-lit places.

Watch the robot rat at work:

Web slows after Jackson’s death

Posted by ~AKRATI~ | 7:48 PM


The internet suffered a number of slowdowns as people the world over rushed to verify accounts of Michael Jackson’s death. Search giant Google confirmed to the BBC that when the news first broke it feared it was under attack. Millions of people who Googled the star’s name were greeted with an error page rather than a list of results. The microblogging service Twitter crashed with the sheer volume of people using the service. Full Story : BBC.com….


New study in the journal Science that is coauthored by University of Notre Dame physics doctoral student Pu Wang and researchers from Northeastern University suggests that the risk of mobile phone virus attacks will increase as a few operating systems gain more market share. The study also analyzes the pattern and speed of the spread of infection for Bluetooth and multimedia messaging services (MMS). Smart phones, which can share programs and data, could attract virus writers at a level more disruptive than computer viruses. Mobile viruses can be spread by either Bluetooth or MMS communications protocols. Bluetooth viruses can infect phones with the technology within a local area, comparable to the spread of contact-based disease. The infected phone must be moved into another tower’s range in order to infect a new set of phones. The slow spread provides time to develop protection from the virus. Full Story : Physorg.com…..

Trojans: The Method of Infection

Posted by ~AKRATI~ | 8:05 AM

The most simple method is to send a trojan via email. So you receive a message saying that a wonderful file is attached and it will coerce you to click on it. This one is for dumb heads. I assume you are not one of those who click every attachment without scanning it with an up-to-date AV.

Secondly, you may receive a file from someone you know and the file looks harmless enough. On clicking you find a small application running, so you rest assured that the file was not a trojan. Here is where the ingenuity of the hacker comes into play. What he does is that he joins the trojan horse with an harmless application. . Such joiners are widely available on the Net. (If you want one, try Joiner). He designs a new icon for it using Micro Angelo. If he uses sub 7, the best and the most dangerous trojan according to me, then the latest version comes with an inbuilt icon changer. So one can easily assign a mp3 icon to a sub 7 server. (More on sub seven later)

If you are an experienced net user, you can easily restrict yourself from falling prey to above methods. But can you resist the feminine charm? . So you get an incoming file request, say pic.jpg. Now you know that trojan has to be an .EXE file, so this cannot be one. So you receive it and click it.

The file is indeed a Jpg file joined with a trojan. But it is a fact that though you can bind an exe file to a Jpg one, the final file has to be an exe. What the hacker does is that he renames the file as pic.jpg.exe. ICQ shows this as pic.jpg. So you end up making a fool of yourself.

These are not the only ways. New ingenious ways are being designed by thinking minds to get better of you. So keep your senses wide awake when dealing with someone unknown on the Net.

Chandrayaan 2 Set for 2013 Launch

Posted by ~AKRATI~ | 7:41 PM


he Chandrayaan II mission will be far more complicated as compared to the first one because of the Moon Rover landing that this mission involves. Landing a rover on the moon is a complicated task, as the moon does not have an atmosphere that can slow down the descent of the rover with parachutes. The ISRO is working on alternatives that will endure a safe landing for the rover.

With the Chandrayaan I continuing to dazzle scientists with fresh data being received from the craft everyday, it is only natural that the Chandrayaan II needs to be launched later to supplement data received from its predecessor. ISRO will also launch a geostationary, weather satellite in the near future for recording monsoon patterns and cloud shifts in the next few years.

India is also planning a mission to Mars, which has been stalled owing to the lack of qualified personnel. Nair, in what seems to be an indirect call to the student community, has requested young students to take up careers that would help the country achieve success in missions like these. Currently, there seems to be dearth of ideas and most students it seems do not seem to take up research activities as a career option.

Audio CAPTCHA

Posted by Bhavin | 8:32 AM

CAPTCHAs (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) as the name suggests are used to differentiate automated computer programs or bots from humans. CAPTCHAs are used for various purposes such as preventing automated account creation on websites, prevention of traffic flooding on websites and spam-protection etc., but CAPTCHAs deny access to visually impaired humans as well. Most visually impaired people use narration softwares, so visual CAPTCHAs deny access to those considering them as bots. Audio CAPTCHAs help the visually impaired people pass the test, though they possess major challenge as bots may pass such a CAPTCHA by voice to text translation. Hence, some trivial or lingual techniques need to be employed in order to make them effective against bots but easy to crack for humans.