BigDog - The Most Advanced Quadruped Robot on Earth!!!

Terminator Trilogy might be one of your favourite series... One of the reasons for that being your favourite might be Arnold and his bulging biceps... however, it might be that the imagination that machines would grow to such a scale sometimes makes us wonder, although a bit creepy... This article that you are currently reading is about such an innovation and feature loaded Robot which is capable of such acts that you'd be astounded!!! What you read below are the excerpts from the original article...

BigDog is the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots. It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system.

BigDog's legs are articulated like an animal’s, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next.

BigDog is the size of a large dog or small mule, measuring 1 meter long, 0.7 meters tall and 75 kg weight.

BigDog has an on-board computer that controls locomotion, servos the legs and handles a wide variety of sensors. BigDog’s control system manages the dynamics of its behavior to keep it balanced, steer, navigate, and regulate energetics as conditions vary. Sensors for locomotion include joint position, joint force, ground contact, ground load, a laser gyroscope, and a stereo vision system. Other sensors focus on the internal state of BigDog, monitoring the hydraulic pressure, oil temperature, engine temperature, rpm, battery charge and others.

In separate trials, BigDog runs at 4 mph, climbs slopes up to 35 degrees, walks across rubble, and carries a 340 lb load.BigDog is being developed by Boston Dynamics with the goal of creating robots that have rough-terrain mobility that can take them anywhere on Earth that people and animals can go. The program is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA).

Such robots when become affordable and production ready are going to bring about a revolution in our world and the way we live currently... hope we are not really moving towards the Judgement Day!!!

Source:BigDog Website...

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The Winglet!!!

While you were a child or were growing up, you just might have thought of a travel system which is affordable and highly efficient... May be you learnt skating, or how to use a skate board to achieve that, if not on the national highway, surely in the large Shopping Malls or the Airports... or it just might be the long corridor of your college...

Keeping in mind a similar requirement, Toyota has developed a motorized, stand-up-and-ride scooter designed to help people dash around at malls and airports. But the "Winglet" takes some getting used to. A demonstrator accompanying a reporter cautiously trying out the Segway-lookalike on a short course in a Toyota showroom was visibly worried about its safety. Toyota officials insist anyone can learn to ride it with some practice, including the elderly its major target buyer.

But Toyota Motor Corp. has no plans yet to turn the Winglet into a commercial product. The Japanese automaker will start testing the two-wheeler later this year at an airport and resort complex and next year at a shopping mall, all in Japan, to get user feedback. Overseas test plans are undecided.

The Winglet goes up to 6 kph (3.7 mph), about the same speed as pedestrians and far slower than U.S.-made Segway at 20 kph (12.5 mph). It stops easily with little pressure, pivots full-circle and goes smoothly over bumps on roads, according to Toyota.

The machine is designed to respond almost intuitively moving forward when you lean to the front, and turning when you sway to the right or left, similar to skiing.

One of three models shown comes with a protruding handle that can be grabbed and used like a steering wheel.

Toyota executive Takeshi Uchiyamada, who zipped around on a Winglet as though he was on a skateboard, said experimenting new ways of mobility and robotics is a pillar of company strategy to contribute to society through helping the aged and providing environmentally friendly products. Winglet, which runs on electricity, goes about 5 kilometers (3 miles) on one charge.

"We hope to create friendly robots that can exist side by side with people," said Uchiyamada. "Winglet will help everyone move around safely and stay active."

The smallest version of Winglet, weighing 22 pounds (9.9 kilograms), can be folded up to be carried on commuter trains or packed in car trunks. Winglet evolved out of Toyota's takeover of parts of Sony Corp. robotics division last year after the Japanese electronics maker decided under reforms led by Chief Executive Howard Stringer to focus on electronics and wipe out its Aibo pet robot and other peripheral businesses.

Toyota Project General Manager Yoshihiro Kawarasaki, a former Sony engineer, said Winglet is designed to be unobtrusive in elevators and other tight spaces.

"This is the kind of product that's making a completely new proposal to society,"

he said, adding that it can come in handy in urban neighborhoods with steep slopes. Toyota envisions a future in which Winglet will be packed with wireless technology so it relays shopping information at stores. Or it may move on its own to recharge its batteries, or collect its owner when summoned, Uchiyamada said.

Toyota has previously shown human-shaped robots that play the violin and the trumpet. It has also shown an experimental single-seat vehicle that resembles a motorized wheelchair. Further ore once this product becomes a reality, a production ready conveyance material we all are going to be on our toes and active...

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A robot that displays Emotions!!! - Heart Robot.

How do you react when dealt with respect, when cuddled, when scolded and when loved? Now thats a genuine human reaction which is almost unique to inidividuals... As much as those emotions are automated... so is the desire to innovate and create...

Something on those lines: Scientists have come up with a ROBOT which is able to display emotions when it is dealt with love or anger...

It has a beating heart, a breathing belly and appears to react emotionally to the way it is treated - no it is not a human being but a mechanical robot 'with feelings'.
Scientists have developed Heart Robot, which relaxes when it is shown kindness and flinches at anger.

Heart Robot has sensors that respond to movement, noise and touch. Cuddle him, and he seems to soak up the affection. His limbs become limp, his eyelids lower, his breathing relaxes, and his heart beat slows down. But if he is given a violent shake, or shouted at, he gets upset. He flinches, his hands clench, his breathing and heart rate speed up, and his eyes widen.

Created by scientists at the University of the West of England in Bristol, the evolutionary machinery was designed to explore how humans react to a machine that appears to show feelings.

Holly Cave, who helped organise the Emotibots event at the Science Museum where the machine was unveiled, said:

"Heart Robot looks like a cross between ET and Gollum and is about the size of a
small child." "He's half robot, half puppet.

You move him around by hand, but he has innate responses that appear emotional. Different children react to him very differently. They either want to hug and cuddle him, and look after him like a doll or baby, or they just want to scare him," Telegraph quoted Cave, as saying.

Now imagine having a robot similar to the Heart Robot with you, how would you react?

"We hope to create friendly robots that can exist side by side with people," said Uchiyamada - Toyota executive, while zipping around on a Winglet as though he was on a skateboard "Winglet will help everyone move around safely and stay active. more on this next...

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The Bluetooth Spectrum and its Viability

You may never have realised, that Bluetooth is named after the Danish king “Harald Bluetooth Blaatand”, is designed to connect laptops, PDAs, phones and other portable equipments and is a high-speed and low power wireless link technology.

In order to understand the effectiveness of Bluetooth Technology, it is essential to compare this technology with the other technologies which are the ubiquitous in the present day and are proving beneficial and easing the human life.

Wireless technology as it is, it transfers data among devices which has been intermediary between telecom and computing industries. The uses are varied from accessing a network or internet by wireless connection of a computer with a cellular phone to synchronizing information from notebooks or desktops by connecting without a cable. It is also called as the RF (Radio Frequency) technology of short-range upto 32 feet which operates at 2.4 GHz.

Now, how it is different from WiFi or Infra-red technology. Although all these have been an emerging technologies in the epoch of seamless communication,

they are different in terms of range and speed.

WiFi Or Wireless Fidelity is a progress in terms of speed as the change in specifications happened. From, 802.11a to b and to g, it has been phenomenal in providing the best LAN services. Initially it was limited to indoor use but now has become the defacto requirement and is accessible through the Wi-Fi Hotspots at outdoor locations such as hotels and airports.

Almost the whole corporate sector benefited with its use as it provides for higher throughput and covers a greater range. However, it requires the use of more expensive hardware and also consumes more power. Bluetooth on the other hand is effective in providing only low speed data communication analogous to 2G systems whereas Wi-Fi is analogous to 3G systems.

In totality, the both Bluetooth enabled technology and Wi-Fi are inexpensive technologies and easy to operate. Both have brought a major revolution in the consumer electronics industry ranging from PDAs, digital cameras, iphones, music players, notebooks and printers. Since both of them employ different modulation techniques, Bluetooth is used in a variety of applications, whereas Wi-Fi is used in LAN(local Area Networks).

The greatest limitation of Bluetooth technology is its effectiveness only in
low-bandwidth situation. Of course it allows many devices at a time to be
attached with a computer over a single adapter.

The Bluetooth technology as compared to Infrared technology is more efficient in terms of the distance it covers. Infrared technology is used in the television remote. Depending on the strength of the remote, infrared travels a distance but on a normal note, it covers up less than 50 feet. Its greatest disadvantage is both the remote as well as the TV should be in a direct line of sight. If there are barriers to it like a wall in between these two, the infrared will not pass through or travel.

Bluetooth on the other hand allows transmission through walls and any other
objects since it uses a radio frequency.

The range is usually 30feet. It can act as bridge between many devices at a single point of time, for example between cellphones, computers and entertainment devices. Bluetooth is undoubtedly a preferred technology over infrared because of its multiple utility, higher range, low-power radio-waves and of course no requirement of the line of sight as in the television remotes.

This technology also allows two users to actively transfer files. But, on the whole Wi-Fi is preferred over Bluetooth because of its higher speed. Then, there are health hazards of using Bluetooth.

On the Brand front, Apple Inc. relied heavily on Bluetooth technology. Even the Microsoft platforms and the Windows XP and the later releases supported this technology. The whole effectiveness of Bluetooth can be judged from the fact that most of the broadcast channels are using this technology in order to enable Bluetooth information points. Additionally, it also enables topology management. But the future of this technology depends upon the market situation. In any case, this and the other technologies are best suitable to different mode of applications.

Its not only the technology or the Pros and the Cons which make a technology adaptable, but also the feasibility, cost involved and the ease of replication and use of the technology which actually lets any particular technology to thrive.

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Digital Signage : The next NEW technology

If we look around, everything is going digital these days. Mobile phones, cameras, TV Channels, computers etc are working in digital mode and are advancing our lives a bit forward. The next step in digital technology and implementation in the world is through digital sign boards. Digital signages are basically used to provide information, advertisement of a product or to entertain others. This is a more impressive and inspiring way to express your ideas in the form of animation or transition effects. Market leaders in digital signage manufacturing are Sony, NEC Display Solutions, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Mitsubishi, and Sharp.

Information of digital signage can be displayed on a LCD or even an array of LCDs, message board, electronic billboard, plasma display panels, LEDs or projections screens etc. Digital signage makes its usage convenient as it is controlled by some computing device, making it trouble-free to amend its contents through internet. Technology of digital signage can be implemented by number of users for various purposes. Some of them include but are not limited to:

Marketing: use of digital signage for marketing is a very good choice. This is a wonderful alternative for trade show displays, branding, advertising networks etc. this is the way to express your ideas more impressively and effectively. It makes your presentations more eyes catching and i think we can all reiterate

"A Picture is worth a 1000 words!"

Interactive information sharing: Digital signage is a good media of sharing information in interactive way. It can be helpful in ticket booking and inquiry portals, casinos, pubs and clubs where an interactive media is required to share information.

Source of information: The novel technology of digital signage is proved to be a very good source of information, when it is used as electronic bullet board to display latest news headlines in an educational institute. It provides timely information at an airport about the plane timings.

Influences customer's behavior: It can be a technique to influence customers behavior in a restaurant waiting for their order, or time spend on any store for a your turn and we can have on display some interactive displays and give them a proper and interesting way of whiling away the time till their turn comes.

Corporate communication: Digital signage is the best source of corporate communication. It can show fruitful results in a meeting, seminar and in a presentation. One can express itself in an effectual way through this digital signage. alternatively, this might be used for the Video-conferencing or training sessions internal/external to the organisation.

Brand building for new product launch: Very Effective media is generally required when any new product is launched. This can be successfully used to create a platform for the new product launch. If a company places a big digital hoarding on a road side, it will most definitely attract the attention of passengers passing by and some might give the product a second thought for starters, and thats more than what we require for a very new product to be launched.

Global market is welcoming this new technology with open hands and its getting increased preference gradually.

According to a recent survey digital signage is one of the fastest growing marketing channels. This can be estimated from the statistics where 430,000 digital devices were sold in the year 2005 and this number increased to 33% more in the year 2007. If a report is to be believed there are predictions that up to year 2009, the digital market will need 900,000 more digital displays and i think you'd agree that is a fairly large number.

A recent digital signage study conducted by Info Trends showed that the 47.7% people find it considerably effective on brand awareness, 29.5% finds its effects influencing purchase decisions of prospective customers, 32.8% influencing for repeat buyers.

Statistics do convey a lot and looking at the aboev one there is no further questions on the future scope of this technology.

We are limited ONLY by our imagination... the Technology Tabloid keeps you updated!!!

Satyam Software sued for 1 billion USD - is it TRUE!?

UPAID SYSTEMS, a closely held, American based mobile and online payment specialist, with a huge number of subscribers in its pocket (in tunes of 50 million consumers) and working with a large part of Brazilian mobile service providers for Brazil as well as some parts of South America, has sued Satyam Software Services for fraud and intellectual property infringement. The purported damages asked are around USD 1 billion, and yes. Satyam Software Services (from now onwards ‘ Satyam’) is a $2.5 billion company.

A blow by blow account of the entire procedure is listed below:
* Circa 1996, Simon Joyce and Prafulla Gupta of Upaid Systems(from now onwards ‘Upaid’) develop the idea of converting any phone into a de facto pay phone through the use of a pre paid account associated with a caller identification number. To develop these idea considerable portions of core-project is outsourced to Satyam.
* In June 1998, Upaid decided to file for patent rights with US IP office and this needed the transfer of ownership and any other rights in the idea which is held by Satyam. But the MoU signed before only talks about ownership of inventions and not IP rights (or transfer thereof)
* Negotiations of transfer were going on, but Upaid filled a provisional patent application with USPTO by Sep 15, 1998
* Same year, December, a complete set of declaration forms were given by Satyam to Upaid, declaring the transfer of invention rights. Upaid alleges that Satyam showed 36 “inventor” employees in the list, while only 20 of them were existing people who were working on it.
* By the beginning of 1999, Upaid owed over 2 million USD to Satyam for the services rendered which were rendered as debt converted to equity by a swap. By Sep 1999, Satyam consolidated around 27.06% in Upaid and invested around 2.5million USD.Srini Raju, Satyam veteran was in the board of Upaid
* By 2002, the relationship was well on its way to getting soured, Upaid claimed, Satyam’s services were pathetic, Satyam complained about the non payment of the services and talked about the IP had reverted to Satyam under Services Contract. Upaid complained furthermore that Srini Raju did not act in the best interests of Upaid, while Satyam complained that, Raju was not allowed to participate in the board meetings wholly and fully. More seriously, Srini Raju has set off another company which was based on the proprietary platform of Upaid, MBiz Platform
* On November 1, 2002, the parties met in Hyderabad, and decided to call off the entire relationship with Settlement Agreement signed on and effective as from Dec 1, 2002. Settlement agreement decided under English Law. The Settlement Agreement talked in these words in Clause 3.1(b)
…Further, Satyam confirms all assignments of intellectual property rights to Upaid by it and those assignments executed by Satyam employees as co-inventors of Upaid intellectual property and such assignments will survive and shall be governed by such Assignment agreements. ..”
* What turned out murky, was when Upaid sued Verizon and Qualcomm for patents right infringement in June 2005, “on the grounds that those companies had developed software platforms and were offering network services in a manner which infringed Upaid’s 947 patent and subsequent patents.
* The two companies in question, Verizon Wireless and Qualcomm produced declarations of two former Satyam employees, Mr. Mambakkam and Mr. Govindacharyula (known hence forth as Mr. M and Mr. G) who sold their invention rights to these companies for a fee. Upon much unearthing by handwriting experts, it was found that Satyam most certainly forged the signatures on the assignment documents. Mr. M had in fact sold off his rights in the inventions to Verizon.
* Upaid asked Satyam about this, and naturally they were not forthcoming with the explanations and assistance. Upaid alleges that as a consequence of wrong allegations it had to settle of the case in a bitter pill. So Upaid is now out and out with a vengeance.
* So in effect, Upaid claims, complete return of IP rights to Upaid by Satyam and damages worth 1 billion USD to settle for what was an extremely draconian and unfavourable settlement with two of the most aggressive and heavyweight mobile players in US.

Possible consequences: If out of court settlement doesn’t happen successful then there is more likely of thing getting pretty murky for Satyam. If Satyam is held guilty then it will come as a huge financial and goodwill blow to the company. One possible way it can avert and it is trying to take that way is if Satyam is able to prove that the forgery was not done by it. Secondly Satyam looks to be pretty much in a shaky ground for the want of better evidence supporting its innocence.

It all depends on how things pan out. Presently, Satyam is pretty much downbeat for the case is being solved in Texas Court in 2009. More importantly if we are to assume, that

Satyam does in fact have to shell out, hard cash for such an infringement, then
it will be a big blow for the company.

What seems is that Upaid is out there baying for blood, so rule out any out of court settlement. But if, the war becomes long and protracted, (which again seems to be pretty much out of reason) then Upaid and Satyam both will emerge as bleeding parties. The only situation visible from here in Chennai and thousands of miles away from Ground Zero, that Satyam may have to cough up 1 billion plus damages awarded by the jury (if any), quick and fast. Strictly from a business point of view,

Satyam, which is a 2.5 billion dollar company, has a high chance of turning
bankrupt

. Although Cash reserves for IT companies are tremendously huge but it’s no where to take a toll of 1 billion USD.

So what will happen if Satyam indeed takes the bite? No body knows how it will roll, for it is almost a dramatic statement to hear the failure of Satyam, and then most probably and most certainly in short term Infosys and Wipro will have a higher market capitalization. Expect around jumps of 10-12% [speculative]. But it will need a Robert Preacher to decide about how will it affect the overall business and trust factor for US business community to reel under such a trust breach coming from such respectable software giant like that of Satyam.

source:http://jumpup.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/satyam-softwares-sued/

Not sure how true those facts are, but if they are then this is a very pathetic instance of the amount of integrity and poor levels of ethical maturity, that an IT firm in india has demonstrated.

Please keep watching this space for more updates... the Technology Tabloid keeps you updated!!!

The iPhone! or is it a Desktop Computer!?!

The First Generations computers were very large. people and teens computing 20 to 25 years back from now may not have even imagined about the desktops we are using now. The size of Desktop is reducing very fast; recent events convince, that the transition of desktop computing towards laptop is accelerating at high rate.

What’s next???

Expecting the same for Laptop of future, which would probably be reduced to handheld device just like a Cell phone, and thats exactly what Apple's iphone is. What precipitated these changes? The arrival of the Apple iphone, of course. When i had a chance to check that out, it seemed like an okay phone and an excellent multimedia device, but now, with the promise the Apple SDK holds and the introduction of the Exchange ActiveSync software, it's about to become much, much more.

The iPhone's only missing factor as of now would be lack of physical keys like Black Berry’s pearl. The future iPhone comes equipped with a Touch screen and or Virtual Keyboard, making it much easier easy for access.

Its target market (young, hip 20-somethings) adopted the iPhone immediately and
figured out how best to use the virtual keyboard to message, text, and search in
the Safari browser, and so on.

The addition of business-class tools, such as synchronized e-mail and contacts, and the promise of a whole new world of other apps will transform this product from a really smart phone to a pocket-size PC.

Psychographics aside, the iPhone remains the most important product of the still-young 21st century. Excellent interface software and hardware innovations, including the multitouch screen and internal accelerometer, present possibilities for computing experiences that no deskbound PC can match. Laptops, even ultra portables will pale in comparison, too. Obviously, some people will always want the raw horsepower of a desktop PC. Photo editors, video graphers, musicians, and those working on extremely rich, long, and complex documents will, at the very least, need the power of a mainstream desktop.

PC gamers will demand the power of a desktop or super-charged laptop.

These niches will always exist, but the vast majority of consumers and businesspeople simply need their PCs to handle e-mails, Web browsing, instant messaging, phone calls, word processing, videos, and photos. If they can get all of this from something that fits in their pocket and is ready to do their bidding anytime and anywhere, then why have a PC at all?

That said, there will still be the occasional need for bigger screens and faster input than what you can get from the iPhone. So, expect to see a new class of iPhone docks that provide access to a full-size QWERTY keyboard and the wide-screen display of your choice. The most important attribute is Apple’s iphone is a 3G enabled device, making it accessible for high speed data connectivity. The iPhone will also connect up to Gigabytes' worth (or more) of storage that could be local, a NAS in your home, or on the office network. All business documents will live in the central server, and you'll carry just a subset on your iPhone. You will be able to pull down a file whenever you need it via Wi-Fi (through a VPN, of course) or over the high-speed cell network.

The iPhone's size and motion capabilities offer potential for consumer and business apps we never imagined. How about a notepad app that stores notes with a shake or acts like an Etch A Sketch and erases scribbles with a jiggle of the phone?

What if you could pass notes between iPhones by shaking them in the direction of
a recipient, or play "catch" by gently tossing a virtual ball from one iPhone
screen to another? Or, imagine adding effects to video simply by making the same
motion you want the moving image to make.

Instant messaging will take on a whole new flavor as you tickle the screen to create a smile on the other end of the conversation or give the phone a hard shake to send an angry face to your chatting companion. You'll push slides in presentations by shaking the phone left or right, play Concentration by rocking the phone back and forth, and store ten on-screen files in one folder by tilting the phone and "pouring" them all in.

Yes, there are countless smartphones and ultraportable laptops (and even mid-size UMPCs) out there, but the iPhone is special. One of the reasons Apple's iPhone stands to be a game changer is because people lust after it. Young people buy it because

it's something of a passport to coolness, acceptance, and good times

among their demographic. Businesspeople who like to appear hip want it, too, but many have held off. Without synchronized e-mail, they'd still have to carry their BlackBerrys. Sure, the BlackBerry Pearl is sexy, but it doesn't have the iPhone's cachet.

Iphone was initially launched in United Stated in June 2007. Now, it is attaining more and more popularity with time and its market is growing. Along with its popularity, it is giving a very tough competition to various products of the similar category in the market. Some extra ordinary features of the iphone are 3.5 inches screen, 320 x 480 screen resolution, 8 GB of internal memory, 2.0 megapixel camera, advanced navigation system, etc.
Top competitors of iphone are: Nokia N95, Sony Ericsson W950i,Samsung S700,LG Prada phone, Blackberry Pearl.

Thinking on the innovative side, adding some advanced feature like digital lock, Master Remote control will make the future iPhone a Very powerful handheld device.

The possibilities are limited only by your imagination!!!... the Technology Tabloid keeps you updated!!!

Myths ~ Semantic Error!!!

Technology hold ups : What lies behind ?

Technology is everywhere and is affecting our society and its surroundings in number of ways. Technology has revolutionized human life. People around us have some myths related to technology. Sometimes these myths slow down the technological progress in society. If you have any myth related with technology, then it is a good idea to confiscate your technical confusions soon. Here we are trying to eradicate some of your technical myths.

Magnet near a PC can spoil some components: This is generally a very common myth that a magnet placed near a PC is harmful for some of its components. This was absolutely accurate in case of a floppy drive. The floppies have a magnetic coating on its storage area. A magnet placed near it can really data spoiled in a floppy. But, this is not true in case of hard drives, laptops, memory cards etc., this is just an illusion nothing else. They are just immune to magnetic radiations. of course if a magnet is placed near a CRT we do see some discolouration of the display, which is because the CRT usees a magnetic field to control and direct the Cathode rays onto the picture tube. Although prolonged exposure of the CRT to a powerful magnet may cause some depreciation in the efficiency of the CRT there is no short term effect as such.

Stop' a USB device before unplugging: Another technical myth is about USB device. It is believed that removing USB from an unplugged device can corrupt data stored in a USB. Actually,

it is absolutely safe and sound to remove a USB, when it is idle

This is the same case like we can easily remove a keyboard, a mouse, printer or a scanner from a computer when they are not in use.

Computer monitor emit harmful radiation: Some computer users think that a monitor emits harmful radiations that can cause dangerous diseases like skin cancer and brain tumor. But actually this assumption is absolutely wrong. No doubt a monitor emits some radiations and prolonged exposure to those radiations at short distances may cause eye strain, but the rays emitted are so weak that they can’t cause any harmful disease.

Cookies keep track of every move: Cookies are basically tiny text files that assist a web browser to memorize information like your ID, password, ATM card number etc.

Cookies are basically tools that facilitate your next visit to a specific site

. One more stressed point is information stored in a cookie is deleted when you shut down your PC. It is very unproblematic to remove a cookie from a web browser. however, certain malicious viruses use this information, or simply steal this information and provide it to Hackers who then may use the information in a adverse manner.

X-ray machines can damage or erase your digital camera's memory card: Some people believe that X-ray machines can erase data stored in digital camera. But the truth is that a memory card is a secure version to accumulate data. According to tests a memory card can survive in adverse circumstances like a dip in a water tank. Secondly, there are some softwares to restore data from a damaged memory card. Examples of such software are Ontrack’s EasyRecovery Lite and WinRecovery's CardRecovery.

A high-speed flash cards in a digital camera lets you take photos faster: This is an illusion at best, some users think that high speed flash card aids in clicking photos in fast speed. But, this is not the case. Actually it amplifies speed to pile up photos. When a user captures a picture, camera processes it and saves it to the memory card. A high speed card helps in fast storage and the user gets an apparent feeling that user is capturing pictures fast.

Keep watching this space for more updates...

Yamaha YZF R1 for India...

If you have ever dreamt of riding a fast, powerful, and dashing superbike and think that dreamd come true... Yamaha recently launched the "Yamaha YZF R1 for India" for the middle segment, well not exactly, look closer!!!, its the much awaited "Yamaha YZF R15"!!!

Packed with state-of-the-art technologies, the new YZF-R15 boasts performance worthy of a supersport model and a body design that evokes the image of the YZF-R series and gives visual expression to the quality of its ride. It is truly an embodiment of Yamaha’s desire to bring customers a model to help them “Enjoy riding” and "Live Racing".

This is a new lightweight supersport bike in India as part of
a corporate priority to build the Yamaha brand's business here.

Well you may be wondering after reading till here, whats this doing here in the Technology Tabloid??? What does this have to do about technology!?

Well there is a lot in it, that makes it a technology contender... To begin with let me mention the Specifications:

The YZF-R15 features a newly designed 150cc liquid-cooled, 4-stroke, SOHC single-cylinder, 4-valve fuel-injected engine on a Deltabox frame. Think that sounds exciting?! May not be if you hear the asking price of the bike, i.e. expected to be Rs. 1,11,000/- in Mumbai, India. Also considering the fact that this is only a 150 CC Bike with astounding power of approximately 17PS @ 8,500rpm, which though makes it comparable to the likes of the Bajaj Pulsar and Hero Honda CBZ Xtreme, is far ahead in terms of power and stability. Furthermore the design is prime in its class and there is simply no competition with the 'R' gene from the YZF - R model of bikes from the Yamaha Stable.

Well we may try to justify the price tag when we look at the firsts we are going to have>>

1. It is India’s first Bike with forged pistons.
2. It is India’s first Bike with a Diasil Cylinder.
3. It is India’s first Bike with the Deltabox frame, again based on the R1.
4. And it is India’s first Bike with a 6speed gear box.

Say whatever you may, one thing that you probably, would not be able to say is that this fine piece of machinery, built with myriads of innovation of technology, is not an item in the desire list, there might be lot other reasons for not really going for one, such as Fuel Prices, Environment Pollution, fear of it being stolen or even envy from the neighbour... and just like everytime and all around the world, for the second time, yamaha rocks!!! after the two parents of the R15 -> YZF - R1 and the FZ1500.

Lets hope the bike scenario of india changes once for the better as was once done by the advent of Pulsar into the market in the paast and now with the YZF-R15.

The official site to look for the bike and its finer nuances is: http://www.yamaha-motor-india.com/product/r15/index.html

keep watching this space for more updates...

Computing with Half a Computer!!!

I say you'd definitely agree, if i said that humans are the most cleverest and capable beings on the surface of the earth. Now!, even being so clever, we become invalids or handicaps without our senses of perception, it may be Sight, Touch, Smell, Hear or Taste, without which, it becomes very difficult for our survival. Imagine! how a lesser immortal, a mere computer system would be able to survive, without its appendages, which it used as its perceptory receptors? yes! o'course!, I'm talking about the mouse and the keyboard, the primary and most ubiquitous input devices of a computer, which are somewhat mandatory for a computer till date.

Well, the future certainly dictates a different predicament for the computer, as Scientists are making computing devices of Next Generation, Small, Compact and trendy & without wire, i.e. to say without the appendages, without both, the mouse and the keyboard. Now! just imagine, what is the MAGIC behind, what is the technology, which would make this transition a pleasure, instead of a shock...?

Well the underlying magic is touchscreen technology, also known as 'Haptic Technology". Technology has made our life easier by providing us with so many innovative solutions. Touchscreen is such one solution.

The essence of touchscreen lies in the Haptic technology.

Haptic technology is driven by the vibrations, or touch and feel of the human. This technology has many wider applications and has seen its advent already in many. It has seen its advents in the computer science and in the applications like screens, Remote control or displays of cellular devices.

This technology empowers you to perform the desired activity on your screen via a touch. It allows you to enter into the virtual world of computer icons by the feel of your touch on the screen lying in front of you. It has added new experience to the navigation and going through the menus to search what lies inside. The application of this technology to the cellular devices has reinvented this field and it is just the one field where it has found its application.

The other major application of this technology is in the field of medicines and clinical researches. It is helpful to provide the students with simulators where they can perform their practical practices.

Everything is virtualized with a pinch of reality in every application.

In case the student is at wrong with some diagnosis practice, the simulator will response in that way. The other area where the analysts seek its wide application is the e-commerce. They are positive about the fact that with in some years the consumers who prefer online shopping will be able to judge the fabric by feeling it via computer using the haptic technology. They are optimistic about the fact that this advent will boost the consumer’s confidence and will broaden the horizons for online experience.

The initial glitches this technology may face is the slow response of the systems, the touch or the instruction needs to be parsed by the system, decoded and understood by the system, that would be an overhead while using the technology.

Imagine arcade gaming where split second clicks are necessary for an enjoyable
gaming experience, the drag or delay in the reception of the clicks would limit
the gaming experience.

Also, another fault point might be when there needs to be a separation of the intended, instructional touch to the undesired, accidental ones while providing inputs. The system has to filter the exact touches and understand and be intelligent enough to not take in the accidental ones.

However this system may grow, fast or slow, this would no doubt revolutionalize the technology sphere, where in there would be compact sophisticated systems, which may have 2D or even 3D, multi touch deciphering capabilities which would make the computing experience much more delightful. it may find its uses in various other sections of the industry which has not even been visualized till date.

The rate at which the technology is growing, there is ample amount of
scope of such growth and we are always ready to view and be the change...

Please leave your comments on the article... Thank You!

Please keep watching this space for more updates...

Want a Faster Internet Connection!?!

Even now, when there still exist in the world, countries which struggle to have decent internet connectivity speeds, the advent and innovation of new technology, is on the brink of making the Internet obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now allegedly built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds. At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, and has been christened “THE GRID”, is said to be able to send "the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds".

The latest spin-off from CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) , the particle physics centre that created the web, the grid could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call. David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technologies could “revolutionise” society.

“With this kind of computing power, future generations will have the ability to
collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine,”

he said. The power of the grid will become apparent this summer after what scientists at CERN have termed their “red button” day - the switching-on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the new particle accelerator built to probe the origin of the universe. The grid will be activated at the same time to capture the data it generates.

CERN, based near Geneva, started the grid computing project seven years ago when researchers realised the LHC would generate annual data equivalent to 56m CDs - enough to make a stack 40 miles high. This meant that scientists at CERN - where Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the web in 1989 - would no longer be able to use his creation for fear of causing a global collapse. This is because the Internet has evolved by linking together a hotchpotch of cables and routing equipment, much of which was originally designed for telephone calls and therefore lacks the capacity for high-speed data transmission.

By contrast, the grid has been improvised and built with dedicated fibre optic cables and modern routing centres, meaning there are no outdated components to slow the deluge of data. The 55,000 servers already installed are expected to rise to 200,000 within the next two years. Professor Tony Doyle, technical director of the grid project, said:

“We need so much processing power, there would even be an issue about getting
enough electricity to run the computers if they were all at CERN. The only
answer was a new network powerful enough to send the data instantly to research
centres in other countries.”

That network, in effect a parallel Internet, is now built, using fibre optic cables that run from CERN to 11 centres in the United States, Canada, the Far East, Europe and around the world. One terminates at the Rutherford Appleton laboratory at Harwell in Oxfordshire. From each centre, further connections radiate out to a host of other research institutions using existing high-speed academic networks. It means Britain alone has 8,000 servers on the grid system – so that any student or academic will theoretically be able to hook up to the grid rather than the internet from this autumn.

Ian Bird, project leader for CERN’s high-speed computing project, said grid technology could make the internet so fast that people would stop using desktop computers to store information and entrust it all to the internet.

“It will lead to what’s known as cloud computing, where people keep all their
information online and access it from anywhere,”

he said. Computers on the grid can also transmit data at lightning speed. This will allow researchers facing heavy processing tasks to call on the assistance of thousands of other computers around the world. The aim is to eliminate the dreaded “frozen screen” experienced by internet users who ask their machine to handle too much information.

The real goal of the grid is, however, to work with the LHC in tracking down nature’s most elusive particle, the Higgs Boson. Predicted in theory but never yet found, the Higgs is supposed to be what gives matter mass. The LHC has been designed to hunt out this particle - but even at optimum performance it will generate only a few thousand of the particles a year. Analysing the mountain of data will be such a large task that it will keep even the grid’s huge capacity busy for years to come.

Although the grid itself is unlikely to be directly available to domestic internet users, many telecoms providers and businesses are already introducing its pioneering technologies. One of the most potent is so-called dynamic switching, which creates a dedicated channel for internet users trying to download large volumes of data such as films. In theory this would give a standard desktop computer the ability to download a movie in five seconds rather than the current three hours or so. Can you imagine the current day Hard Disks crumbling under the load of such data transfer speeds? The Primary Memory of 1 GB falling short to accumulate all the data received in the time the Hard Disks even begin to respond...

Additionally, the grid is being made available to dozens of other academic researchers including astronomers and molecular biologists. It has already been used to help design new drugs against malaria, the mosquito-borne disease that kills 1m people worldwide each year. Researchers used the grid to analyse 140m compounds - a task that would have taken a standard internet-linked PC 420 years. “Projects like the grid will bring huge changes in business and society as well as science.” Doyle said.

“Holographic video conferencing is not that far away. Online gaming could evolve
to include many thousands of people, and social networking could become the main
way we communicate. The history of the internet shows you cannot predict its
real impacts but we know they will be huge.”

To really feel the impact of the data transfer speeds that the grid is about to make ubiquitous, a fast computer system with Extended RAM and Scuzzy (SCSI) Hard disks might be the order of the day, and all those current day average systems would almost imminently need to be prepared for upgradation.

Although in the first glimpse this looks very progressive and lucrative, call it good fortune or probably bad, the access of the regular citizen to The Grid is not available at present and would take a while before its really accessible or the technology is implemented into the existing infrastructure, until then its the same old unreliable internet bandwidth providers and crunching speeds, with partial availability...

Please keep watching this space for more updates...