17/12/2011

Mithun Mathew

Scientists break world record for data transfer speeds
Data was moved back and forth at a combined rate of 186Gbps (gigabits per


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16174972

Johny James

Up until now, the powerful smartphones we carry in our pockets have been useless at indoor navigation due to poor GPS signal quality while beneath a thick slab of concrete. Help is on the way however, however, with companies like Google and Nokia working to remedy the situation with the development of inside positioning systems, or IPS for short.

The wireless technology behind IPS is nothing new as it makes use of WiFi and Bluetooth in conjunction with cell towers to triangulate your position, rather than satellites in orbit around the Earth. Using those technologies with accurate cartography of inside locations enables companies to provide location services that help consumers get to where they want to go.

The most wide-spread use of IPS comes in the form of Google Maps. Mountainview’s Maps team recently turned its attention to large structures like the aforementioned Mall of America and IKEA to test the reliability of its IPS process. As you enter one of those locations from street side, the Maps app on Android starts polling wireless routers that are placed around the area to compare coordinates with cell tower readings. These routers are strategically placed around the whole building, handing users off to each other to keep locations synced. It’s been reported that this method has an accuracy of up to 5 meters, which isn’t bad at all.

Nokia on the other hand is claiming to be able topinpoint your location within 30 centimeters (12 inches) using Bluetooth 4.0 to communicate with smart devices. As yet unavailable to consumers, this system relies on much more hardware than Google’s method. Bluetooth doesn’t have great range, so to be able to provide location information relative to position, there would have to be quite a few Bluetooth transmitters to ensure coverage. Whether or not retailers are going to be willing to bear the brunt of the extra cost of hardware in exchange for accurate locations is yet to be seen.

A third company, Sensewhere, is taking an altogether different route to tackle this issue. Sensewhere takes the stance that a WiFi signal is too undependable to rely on for location, so it has developed an app that measures the changes in a smartphone’s radio environment as you walk around. As the spectrum makeup changes, the app can relate that information to a location on a map. Great idea, but what happens if there is no cell signal to be had?

There are hurdles to all the IPS technologies listed above. As you know from having WiFi in your home, signal quality can degrade with the tiniest change of where you sit, or the position of furniture or appliances. Imagine now that you are trying to administer a router in a world-class shopping mall that has tons of people and changing store fronts. It could be a nightmare to ensure everything stays up and running.

For now, if you are going to brave an IKEA store and are an Android user, you should have no problem finding that mattress or loveseat amongst the myriad other products. Make sure to update your Google Maps app before you go! Watch a brief video on Google’s new IPS offerings below

REESHMA RAMESAN

From January, Internet Explorer (IE) users will be automatically updated to the latest version of the browser.

Microsoft said it was starting the project to update millions of machines to improve security online.

Future updates to the browser would be applied without a user's knowledge to help beat scammers catching people out with fake updates.

Those who did not want their browser updated could opt out or uninstall the software, said Microsoft.

"The Web overall is better - and safer - when more people run the most up-to-date browser," wrote Ryan Gavin, Microsoft's IE boss, in a blogpost explaining the plan.

He said the data gathered by Microsoft for its security intelligence reports showed that many cyber criminals targeted old or outdated software when they tried to trick people into installing fake updates.

To beat such scams, Mr Gavin, said that once the latest version of the browser was installed all future updates would arrive silently and be applied without a user getting involved.

Demise of IE6

The giant upgrade programme will affect IE users running Windows XP, Vista and 7, and will first be rolled out in Australia and Brazil. Only those Windows users with automatic updates turned on will be enrolled in the programme.

Those using Windows XP will be upgraded to IE8, while those on Vista and 7 get bumped up to IE9. This will probably mean the demise of IE6, a 10-year-old version of the browser that Microsoft has been trying to kill off for a while.

Figures gathered by Microsoft suggest IE6 is used by about 8.3% of people around the world, with the biggest number of users in China, where almost 28% of people remain wedded to it.

Globally, Internet Explorer is still the most popular browser, with more than 52% of people using it, according to net market research firm Net Applications. Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome are battling it out for second place.

Microsoft said it had made tools that would let people avoid or uninstall the more up-to-date versions of the browsers if they wanted to stay with an older copy.

AJAY PAUL

 A new type of fibre-reinforced bendable concrete will be used for the first time in Michigan this summer. Developed by University of Michigan scientists, the new concrete looks like regular concrete, but is 500 times more resistant to cracking and 40 percent lighter in weight. Tiny fibres that comprise about 2 percent of the mixture's volume partly account for its performance. Also, the materials in the concrete itself are designed for maximum flexibility. Because of its long life, the Engineered Cement Composites (ECC) are expected to cost less in the long run, as well. 

for more http://www.gizmag.com/go/4019/ 

Vivek Kanissery

hi all,
       we all are having a small relation with supercomputers..
for those who don't have the basic idea..i felt that going through
this will help you in a way or two..!!
##all the following things are copy paste stuff##
The High Performance Cluster Computing System,'Dakshnina Cluster
Series-II', is the software upgradation of Dakshina -I with better
speed performance and better resource management in the hardware
system. It utilizes heterogeneous operating systems of customized
Debian 5 of Linux with BSB as firewall system. It has recorded 9600
crores floating operations in a sec..!!

Dhakshina Cluster Series II is a High Performance Computing System
developed by the FISAT Free Software Cell using the Beowulf
Architecture.
The backbone of Dhakshina is formed by two IBM X series servers with
Quad Core Xeon processors. It has 32 computational nodes, 3 login
nodes, all Intel Pentium 4 machines (3.0 GHz with HT technology) with
1.23GB of RAM, and 80 GB of hard disk storage..
Dhakshina is benchmarked at a top speed of 180 Gflops.


now lets develop some knowledge regarding the best as of now in the world..

http://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/tech/k/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_computer

ANTO VARGHESE 

Intermittent photic stimulation

 In medicine, Intermittent Photic Stimulation, or IPS, is a form of visual stimulation used in conjunction with electroenciphalography to investigate anomalous brain activity triggered by specific visual stimuli, such as flashing lights or patterns.

IPS and EEGs are often used to diagnose conditions such as photosensitive epilepsy. The field is relatively new and the details of use of IPS have not been widely standardized. IPS is often used in conjunction with other controllable generators of visual stimuli, such as low level visual sensations.

Photic stimulation may also be used to elicit myoclonus, especially cortical reflex myoclonus when present in photo-sensitive forms.

IPS may be used to stimulate the visual system for patients with amblyopia. This system uses a visual stimulus that is usually red in color with a frequency of about 4 Hz to stimulate the neural pathway between the retina and the visual cortex. The objective is to improve the visual acuity of an amblyopic (lazy) eye.

Arun Jose

google Patents Driverless Car Tech for Sliding In and Out of Tight Spots

The U.S. Patent Office has granted Google a patent that covers the way in which cars could transfer from human-driver mode to autonomous-driving mode. Google has already conducted many driverless-car experiments, claiming it's logged 200,000 miles of driver-free travel. However, it's unclear how extensively this technology will be used in the future.

LINK:http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Google-Patents-Driverless-Car-Tech-for-Sliding-In-and-Out-of-Tight-Spots-73995.html

athira

The seawood solution

By swapping graphite for silicon as an electrode material, start-ups have made lithium ion batteries that can hold twice as much as energy as they used to. Silicon is better at holding charge, but because it swells so much when it’s charged the electrode tends to break up quickly. Companies in California, England and korea have been developing new ways of structuring the silicon so that it has room to swell, and now scientists in Atlanta have found a potentially cheaper way: a common food additive derived from seawood can hold the silicon while allowing it to swell and shrink as needed.