Google’s new OS could hit Microsoft, see where it hurts

It’s the ultimate showdown in the technology world, the clash of giants that has been eagerly awaited for years. Web giant Google is taking its clearest aim yet at Microsoft with its plan to produce its own operating system that would optimise the way computers work on the Internet.

The Chrome operating system is due to be out in the second half of next year and will initially be used in netbooks, company executives Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson said in a blog posting. The operating system would be released as free, open-source software, which would allow anyone to use or modify it.

At the core of Google’s vision is the most important trend in the networked world: the move from running applications on a desktop computer to running them through a web browser.

From Gmail to Facebook and Picassa to Twitter, the most popular uses for computers are no longer the disc-churning software programmes like Microsoft Office, which have clogged up hard drives for years. The new paradigm is cloud-based computing, where all the heavy lifting and storage is done on companies’ server farms, which people access over their broadband connections.

According to Google, it’s time that computers reflected the change.

“The operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web,” Google executives Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson wrote in a blog posting announcing the move.

The Chrome operating system is Google’s “attempt to re-think what operating systems should be”, based on three key attributes: “speed, simplicity and security”.

“We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you on to the web in a few seconds. We are completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.”

That vision sounds like digital heaven for computer users who have wrestled forever with bloated software and computers that progressively get slower and slower.

“People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them,” the Google blog said.

“They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware or have to worry about constant software updates.”

As enticing as that prospect may seem, it’s not guaranteed to work, says Don Retallack, vice president of research at Directions on Microsoft – a company that tracks the software giant.

“Google may or may not have the experience and capability of actually producing an operating system and getting it deployed,” he said. “It may not realise how hard it is.”

Source: http://www.siliconindia.com/

Nokia Announces N86: 8 MegaPixel Camera Mobile

After a long wait, Nokia has finally announced their first 8 MegaPixel phone. The phone is called N86 and it will now compete with the likes of Samsung Memoir and Samsung Omnia i8910 HD. The phone comes with a wide-angle Carl Zeiss Tessar lens and can be compared to a high quality stand alone digital camera capturing brilliant and wide angle images.
It is a slider phone and resembles the N8X series. It has a 2.6 inch QVGA , OLED screen having 240 X 320 resolution and a scratch resistant hardened glass display. It is the first mobile device that comes with variable aperture which can produce good results even in low light conditions. The Camera also has auto focus along with Dual LED flash. Connectivity options include HSDPA, Wi-Fi, EDGE, Bluetooth with A2DP and USB 2.0. The phone also has GPS and A-GPS support and comes with 8GB of memory which can be extended to 16GB using microSD cards. FM radio with FM transmitter and 3.5mm AC socket is also present.
The phone will begin shipping in the second quarter of 2009 and the expected price is Rs 23,331 (EUR 375) before taxes.

Source: http://www.techlivez.com

Retro style mini media centre PC design by Thomas Thomassen

Check out this fabulous retro PC design by Thomas who is a BA (Hons) student at the Arts Institute in Bournemouth, though this was just a one off final year project for Thomas, I certainly wouldn’t mind paying to have one of these sitting in my living room as a media centre and impressing my guests.

Source: http://blog.gadgetlite.com/

Protect your PC from a virus

There are many ways of knowing that your PC is infected from the Internet or elsewhere.

1. An infected computer always will behave differently from its normal state, and you may not be able to boot your system, or it may slow down to a crawl.
2. There will be strange or unfamiliar messages or graphics on your screen, and you may be unable to reverse these changed display settings. The programs that you use everyday may start acting funnily.
3. There may be a sudden rise in the current data traffic going out of your PC, even when you are not actually on the Internet.
4. Files may start removing from your hard disk, and your machine may start sending out spam or other malicious emails to all your email contacts without your knowledge.
5. Viruses can be hard to detect, and are more likely to work quietly in the background rather than give you any immediate indication of their presence. Things like your system slowing down or your hard drive space being chewed up can happen for a number of other reasons as well.

When you begin to suspect that your PC is infected, you should take it off the local as well as the Internet or unplug the network cable altogether.

How to Choose Best Microscope for Your Laboratory?

The right lab equipment can prove to be invaluable for a great laboratory. One of the most important things of laboratory is magnifying instrument. The right microscope for a multitude of jobs can prove to be worth its weight in gold.

But maximum people don’t know how to choose microscope and which type of microscope that they need for their work. One type of microscope that is perfect for general lab is the light microscope. There are two ways of microscope; they are low and high power. You have to know what your requirement is. The low microscopes are perfect for looking at images that are larger than most invisible items.

These are often referred to as stereo microscopes because they offer a three dimensional look at a specimen. A high power microscope is more popular for hobbyists alike. With high power microscope you can see invisible items such as blood and bacteria.

The light goes under the specimen and allows one to see the object. These are relatively inexpensive, but no matter what one does, plastic microscopes for children are not recommended because of the inability to see items well.

Other equipment that will be used in the lab with microscopes and it’s also essential for viewing objects are its slides. You can purchase from anywhere and relatively inexpensive. One can find prepared slides with items already on them, or an individual can find slides onto which their own items can be placed.

If you purchase blank microscope slides, then make sure that the solution will be needed or not in order to view the objects correctly. Many retailers also sell the slide mounting fluid that is needed to see so many of the basic images that are looked at under a microscope.

Choosing lab equipment for a small lab can be hard to understand. If one is a parent or a hobbyist who is looking to begin one’s creative genius when it comes to science, then the best place to begin is by finding the right microscopes for the job. Understanding this crucial element can help an individual create the best environment for seeing the invisible and learning about the world around them.

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) Technology

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) provides an entire multimedia experience of photos, text, pictures, animations, audio and speech. By using the MMS facility, user can send their multimedia message, but the phone that supports MMS and also you have enabled the MMS service. With MMS technology, the mobile users can send or receive MMS from other mobile users. Even MMS supports audio formats like WAV, MIDI and MP3. MMS is also used for sending Video clips.

MMS is just like a SMS. But the difference is, SMS contains text messages with minimum character limits. But in MMS, you can send messages with more text capacity. SMS has limitation like only pictures and text can be send. MMS is user friendly, like you can send any picture, video files, and animation pictures. Older mobiles phones do not have the MMS facility or they don’t support MMS technology. But now, many mobile companies introduced MMS support phone. The price of these mobiles phones are little bit more than other phones. All the service providers have also started to offer MMS facility to their customers.

Every mobiles company provides complete multimedia knowledge and this facility increase the mobile communication usage. Many in the communication industry, for networks of 2.5 G and 3G, consider MMS as one of the biggest potential moneymakers.
When we send MMS, it’s usages the same method like SMS. MMS is considered as best and proven messaging technology. Now MMS has captured maximum market and greater business opportunity in the whole telecommunication market. MMS is designed to operate with GPRS, 1x/EVDO mobile packet data services.

MMS is delivered in two modes and they are immediate and deferred. You can take a snapshot using your camera and then you can send that picture through MMS to anyone. You can also send your video files to your friend. MMS faces lot of challenges like bulk messaging, distribution lists, WAP Push, handset configuration and content adaptation. MMS is different from EMS that is Enhanced Messaging service that is SMS with additional capabilities. MMS is going to be used as community-based communication method in the future years.

How Technology effecting our lives

Today’s world is full of pieces of technology that we take for granted, the microchip has truly revolutionized the way in which we live and do business. The world we see would not be recognizable to people of a few generations ago and nowhere is this truism greater than in the world of computing. Hence it is important to stay up to date with technology news; while many may think that this type of news is purely for geeks it is clear that all of us should have at least a passing interest in news of technological developments.

Technology almost touches all of our lives in some way and hence technology news is a vital resource that can keep us up to date with developments and ways in which the world will be changing. For example we can take the case of onset of digital television which is affecting most of the people. In the same way, news of technologies that may make our cars safer and more efficient is important to all those who drive on our roads.

The point to be noticed is that the technology now covers such a diverse range of subjects that it would be foolish for any reporting company not to write stories on the genre. Technology can apply to elements of the medical industry as well as the automotive industry. It is this diversity that makes technology news articles so interesting to read and why subscribers from all over the world regularly catch up theses stories.

We ca take the case of computers, we all are living the world of computers and can be truly said that it is a computer age in which we are living a period where computers are becoming increasingly important to our way of life. Ultimately we are becoming evermore reliant on our computers and without them we would be lost; there are even news stories of some now being addicted to their computers and handhelds. This is the extent that technology has encroached upon our lives that people now do not feel the need to unplug from this. Computers become more powerful and have greater and greater applications it will not be long that we will plan our lives around the computer.

Global System for Mobile Communications(GSM)

Global system for mobile communication (GSM) is the Pan European standard for mobile communications defined by the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) and published in 1990.

GSM is a digital mobile telephony system that is widely used in world. GSM uses a variation of time division multiple access(TDMA).It is most widely used in three digital wireless telephony technologies(TDMA,GSM and CDMA). GSM digitizes and compresses data and sends it to a channel with two other streams of user data, each in its own time slot. It works on either the 900 MHz or 1800 MHz frequency band.

GSM, along with other technologies, is part of the evolution of wireless mobile telecommunications that includes High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data (HCSD), General Packet Radio System (GPRS), Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), and Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS).

Services provided by GSM

Using the ITU-T definitions, telecommunication services can be divided into bearer services, teleservices, and supplementary services. The most basic teleservice supported by GSM is telephony in which speech is digitally encoded and transmitted through the GSM network as a digital stream.

By Using GSM technologies telephony, emergency services, facsimile, SMS and data services can be provided through wireless communications. It can also send messages such as traffic updates or news updates. Messages can also be stored in the SIM card for later retrieval.

It also provide bearer and teleservices service such as call forward when the mobile subscriber is unreachable by the network, and call barring of outgoing or incoming calls, for example when roaming in another country and other services , such as caller identification, call waiting, multi-party conversations.

GSM users can send and receive data, at rates up to 9600 bps, to users on POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service), ISDN, Packet Switched Public Data Networks, and Circuit Switched Public Data Networks using a various of access methods and protocols, such as X.32. As GSM is a digital network, a modem is not required between the user and GSM network.But an audio modem is required inside the GSM network to interwork with POTS.

GSM security

It provide moderate level of security. The system was developed to authenticate the subscriber using a pre-shared key and challenge-response. Communications between the subscriber and the base station can be encrypted. The user with a longer authentication key to give greater security.

GSM uses several cryptographic algorithms for security such as A5/1 and A5/2 stream ciphers ,that are used for ensuring over-the-air voice privacy.A large security advantage of GSM over earlier systems is that the cryptographic key stored on the SIM card is never sent over the wireless interface. Serious weaknesses have been found in both algorithms.

According to GSM World, there are now more than 2 billion GSM mobile phone users in the world. GSM World references China as “the largest single GSM market, with more than 370 million users, followed by Russia with 145 million, India with 83 million and the USA with 78 million users.”

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Wireless communication : AMPS technology

Advance Mobile Phone System (AMPS) is the analog mobile system standard which is introduce in Amarica during 1980s.Now,these days analog system is no longer advance,almost whole world become degital system.

Technology :

It was a first-genaration technology,using FDMA(Frequency division multiple access) technology.It means that each cell site would transmit on different frequencies, allowing many cell sites to be build near each other.But it had disadvantage that each site did not have much capacity for carrying calls.It has also poor security,but latter it was improved by introducing newer digital TDMA(Time division multiple access).

AMPS Channels :

The frequencies allocated to AMPS by the FCC range between 824 to 849 MHz in reverse channels (mobile to base) and 869 to 894 MHz in forward channels (base to mobile). They are not contiguous blocks because the initial 40 MHz allocation by the FCC was later extended by 10 MHz when the service’s popularity became evident. There are now a total of 416 channels available in each direction, numbered from 1 to 1024 with gaps in the numbering.

Frequency bands :

In that time, there were to be two licensee (networks). Each network is authorized to use 416 channels in the 800 MHz band. Each channel is consists of 2 frequencies. 416 of these are in the 824~849 MHz range for transmissions from mobile stations to the base stations and paired with 416 frequencies in the 869~894 MHz range for transmissions from base stations to the mobile stations. Each cell site will use a subset of these channels, and must use a unique set to avoid interference. This significantly reduces the number of channels available at each site in real-world systems. Each AMPS frequency is 30kHz wide.

The AMPS band was taken from the same 806~890 MHz frequency band which was originally UHF TV channels 70~83. This meant that these UHF channels could not be used for UHF TV transmission as these frequencies were to be used for AMPS transmission.

Science and Technology

Technology is the process by which humans modify nature to meet their needs and wants.
Most people think that the technology means computers and software, aircraft, birth-control pills, and microwave ovens etc. But technology is much more than these tangible products.

Technology includes all of the infrastructure necessary for the design, manufacture, operation for corporate world and engineering schools to manufacturing plants and maintenance facilities.Technology is means of knowledge that expertise the people in perticular stream for manufacturing,designing and operating.

Technology is a product of engineering and science, the study of the natural world. Science has two parts:

(1) a body of knowledge that has been accumulated over time and

(2) a process of innovative thinking that generates knowledge about the natural world.

Engineering provide knowledge of the design and creation of human-made products-and a process for solving problems. Science try to find secret of nature by answering the questions- “why” and “how” of nature.Engineering with science try to shape the natural world to meet human needs and wants wihout voilating the law of nature.

Hence, we can say that Engineering must have constraints such as environmental limitation, reliability factors, safety,cost, ease of use, available human and material resources, manufacturability, government regulations, laws, and even politics to meet their needs and wants.

Therefore,we can say that Science and technology are tightly coupled. A scientific understanding of the natural world is the basis for much of technological development. Conversely, technology is the basis for a good part of scientific research.

It is difficult to separate the achievements of technology from those of science.Science is a integral parts of Technology.