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Base64 Encoding and Decoding in C

2011-07-21T22:58:00.001+05:30

Base64 is a method of encoding arbitrary data as plain ASCII text. It is one of the techniques employed by the MIME standard to send data other than plain text. Base64 encoding takes three bytes, each consisting of eight bits, and represents them as four printable characters in the ASCII standard. It does that in essentially two steps.

The first step is to convert three bytes to four numbers of six bits. Base64 only uses 6 bits. The 64 characters are 10 digits (0 to 9), 26 lowercase characters (a to z), 26 uppercase characters (A to Z) as well as '+' and '/'.

For example, the three bytes are 155, 162 and 233, the corresponding bit stream is 100110111010001011101001, which in turn corresponds to the 6-bit values 38, 58, 11 and 41.

These numbers are converted to ASCII characters in the second step using the Base64 encoding table. The 6-bit values of our example translate to the ASCII sequence "m6Lp".

155 -> 10011011
162 -> 10100010
233 -> 11101001

100110 -> 38
111010 -> 58
001011 -> 11
101001 -> 41

38 -> m
58 -> 6
11 -> L
41 -> p

This two-step process is applied to the whole sequence of bytes that are encoded. If the size of the original data in bytes is a multiple of three, everything works fine. If it is not, we might end up with one or two 8-bit bytes. For proper encoding, we have to append enough bytes with a value of '0' to create a 3-byte group. The Base64 uses '=' as a padding character.

Sample C Program

The following program in C can be used for Base64 Encoding and Decoding.

Code: Base64EncodeDecode.c

/*<br /> ============================================================================<br /> Name        : Base64EncodeDecode.c<br /> Author      : Sam Ernest Kumar<br /> Version     :<br /> Copyright   :<br /> Description : Base64EncoderDecoder in C, Ansi-style<br /> ============================================================================<br /> */<br /><br />#include <stdio.h><br />#include <string.h><br />#include <stdlib.h><br /><br />/* Macro definitions */<br />#define TABLELEN        63<br />#define BUFFFERLEN      128<br /><br />#define ENCODERLEN      4<br />#define ENCODEROPLEN    0<br />#define ENCODERBLOCKLEN 3<br /><br />#define PADDINGCHAR     '='<br />#define BASE64CHARSET   "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"\<br />                        "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"\<br />                        "0123456789"\<br />                        "+/";<br />/* Function prototypes */<br />int Base64Encode(char *input, char *output, int oplen);<br />int encodeblock(char *input, char *output, int oplen);<br />int Base64Decode(char *input, char *output, int oplen);<br />int decodeblock(char *input, char *output, int oplen);<br />/* Its always better to move the macros and function prototypes to a header file */<br /><br />int decodeblock(char *input, char *output, int oplen){<br />   int rc = 0;<br />   char decodedstr[ENCODERLEN + 1] = "";<br /><br />   decodedstr[0] = input[0] << 2 | input[1] >> 4;<br />   decodedstr[1] = input[1] << 4 | input[2] >> 2;<br />   decodedstr[2] = input[2] << 6 | input[3] >> 0;<br />   strncat(output, decodedstr, oplen-strlen(output));<br /><br />   return rc;<br />}<br /><br />int Base64Decode(char *input, char *output, int oplen){<br />   char *charval = 0;<br />   char decoderinput[ENCODERLEN + 1] = "";<br />   char encodingtabe[TABLELEN + 1] = BASE64CHARSET;<br />   int index = 0, asciival = 0, computeval = 0, iplen = 0, rc = 0;<br /><br />   iplen = strlen(input);<br />   while(index < iplen){<br />      asciival = (int)input[index];<br />      if(asciival == PADDINGCHAR){<br />         rc = decodeblock(decoderinput, output, oplen);<br />         break;<br />      }else{<br />         charval = strchr(encodingtabe, asciival);<br />         if(charval){<br />            decoderinput[computeval] = charval - encodingtabe;<br />            computeval = (computeval + 1) % 4;<br />            if(computeval == 0){<br />               rc = decodeblock(decoderinput, output, oplen);<br />               decoderinput[0] = decoderinput[1] =<br />               decoderinput[2] = decoderinput[3] = 0;<br />            }<br />         }<br />      }<br />      index++;<br />   }<br /><br />   return rc;<br />}<br /><br />int encodeblock(char *input, char *output, int oplen){<br />   int rc = 0, iplen = 0;<br />   char encodedstr[ENCODERLEN + 1] = "";<br />   char encodingtabe[TABLELEN + 1] = BASE64CHARSET;<br /><br />   iplen = strlen(input);<br />   encodedstr[0] = encodingtabe[ input[0] >> 2 ];<br />   encodedstr[1] = encodingtabe[ ((input[0] & 0x03) << 4) |<br />                                 ((input[1] & 0xf0) >> 4) ];<br />   encodedstr[2] = (iplen > 1 ? encodingtabe[ ((input[1] & 0x0f) << 2) |<br />                                              ((input[2] & 0xc0) >> 6) ] : PADDINGCHAR);<br />   encodedstr[3] = (iplen > 2 ? encodingtabe[ input[2] & 0x3f ] : PADDINGCHAR);<br />   strncat(output, encodedstr, oplen-strlen(output));<br /><br />   return rc;<br />}<br /><br />int Base64Encode(char *input, char *output, int oplen){<br />   int rc = 0;<br />   int index = 0, ipindex = 0, iplen = 0;<br />   char encoderinput[ENCODERBLOCKLEN + 1] = "";<br /><br />   iplen = strlen(input);<br />   while(ipindex < iplen){<br />      for(index = 0; index < 3; index++){<br />         if(ipindex < iplen){<br />            encoderinput[index] = input[ipindex];<br />         }else{<br />            encoderinput[index] = 0;<br />         }<br />         ipindex++;<br />      }<br />      rc = encodeblock(encoderinput, output, oplen);<br />   }<br /><br />   return rc;<br />}<br /><br />int main(void) {<br />   int rc = 0;<br />   char input[BUFFFERLEN + 1] = "";<br />   char encodedoutput[BUFFFERLEN + 1] = "";<br />   char decodedoutput[BUFFFERLEN + 1] = "";<br /><br />   printf("Enter a string: \n");<br />   scanf("%s", input);<br /><br />   rc = Base64Encode(input, encodedoutput, BUFFFERLEN);<br />   printf("Base64 Encoded value: %s\n", encodedoutput);<br /><br />   rc = Base64Decode(encodedoutput, decodedoutput, BUFFFERLEN);<br />   printf("Base64 Decoded value: %s", decodedoutput);<br /><br /> return rc;<br />}<br />

Sam

How to check if your antivirus is working properly?

2011-07-03T22:20:00.003+05:30

Here is a simple method to check if your antivirus program is working properly or not. Follow the steps below.

Open Notepad and copy the text given below.

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

Save file as "checkantivirus.com" including quotation-marks. (not necessary to be same as this file name, but save it in extension .com

Seconds after saving this file, your Anti-Virus should come with the message that this file is infected with virus asking permission for its deletion/clean.

This file is secure and it’s not going to infect your computer in any way. It is a standard text developed by the European Institute for Computer Anti-virus Research (EICAR). Every Anti-Virus is programmed to load this file as a virus.

If your Anti-Virus will not detecting this file as a virus, then you should probably find some other Anti-Virus up to date. It means that your PC might already being infected from viruses and your current Anti-Virus does not recognize them.

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Sam

Will the Earth blackout in 2013?

2010-06-10T18:52:00.004+05:30

If you’ve had your fill of apocalyptic scenarios, earthquakes, volcanoes and global warming, here comes a new threat which may wipe out the world in 2013. Imagine a scene from any of Hollywood’s disaster films. An eerie scene where mobile phones go on the blink, GPS is knocked out, TVs go blank and the world is plunged into chaos.

Looks like disaster flicks aren’t too removed from reality since all this could well be the potential result of a gigantic solar storm, according to a new report by NASA. The report, a warning, says Earth and space are coming together in a way that’s new to human history. A solar storm, which is essentially violent eruptions in the sun, can eject destructive radiation and charged particles into space. These are closely connected to magnetic fields – which are hazardous for satellites and space stations.

There are reports of a geomagnetic storm sparked by a huge solar flare that swept over the Earth in 1859. Telegraph wires shorted out and set houses on fire. A brilliant aurora was seen in Hawaii—so bright that "people could read newspapers by [its] red and green glow." Scientists predict that in May 2013, the sun’s solar cycle will peak at about the same level as in 1859. (This content courtesy a post on Gawker.com)

High-tech systems are critical for life as we know it today. Everything that we depend on and take for granted – air travel, GPS navigation, banking services (even a credit card transaction uses a satellite) and emergency radio communications – can all be knocked out by intense solar activity. To get an idea of scale, a massive solar storm could result in 20 times more damage than the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina which hit south-eastern US in August 2005. The storm killed 1,800 people and caused damages worth $81 billion. Some good news is that some of the damage and destruction can be avoided with warning of an impending solar storm. There is technology to put satellites in ‘safe mode’ and disconnect transformers to protect them from destructive electrical surges.

The task of accurately forecasting a solar storm lies with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the US. "Space weather forecasting is still in its infancy, but we’re making rapid progress," said Thomas Bogdan, director of NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado. The key for Bogdan lies in NASA and NOAA collaborating. "NASA’s fleet of heliophysics research spacecraft provides us with up-to-the-minute information about what’s happening on the sun. They are an important complement to our own GOES and POES satellites, which focus more on the near-Earth environment."

Says Bogdon, "I believe we’re on the threshold of a new era in which space weather can be as influential in our daily lives as ordinary terrestrial weather." So far, we’ve been lucky to escape any big solar storms. I guess we could send Bruce Willis (a la Armageddon) to save us from the Sun in true Hollywood style. But then I would rather wait for NASA and NOAA to save us from space weather.

Source: yahoo

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Sam

writing Bug free C code

2010-05-28T15:34:00.009+05:30

The C language provides a minimal, efficient framework. A key to writing bug-free code is learning from your mistakes. Designing a module right the first time saves time. Programming without a goal is like a sailboat without a sail. You drift. Never reinvent the wheel. Always code what to do, not how to do it. As a general rule, try to keep functions under one page.

Always review changes before checking source code back in. An API must be designed right the first time because changes to an API are costly. Before you can write bug-free code, you must have a bug-free, rock-solid base. Provide a code wrapper around all system calls. Use macros as an aid to porting so that your code base does not change at all. Try to hide how something works to provide an abstraction that aids.

Macro names should be in uppercase. Macros beginning with an underscore are to be used only in other macros, not explicitly in source code. New data types should be in uppercase. New data types must be declared with a typedef statement, not a macro definition. Variables should be named using Hungarian notation. Hungarian notation allows you to know a variable's data type without seeing the data declaration. Functions should be named using the module/verb/noun convention. Think twice and do once.

If I had eight hours to chop down a tree,

I'd spend six hours sharpening my axe. -- AbrahamLincoln

Sam

A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure

2010-05-19T14:42:00.004+05:30

Question: Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?

APJ Abdul Kalam: Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India 's satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India 's "Rohini" satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources -- but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.

By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we thought we were ready. As the project director, I went to the control center for the launch. At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed that some control components were not in order. My experts -- I had four or five of them with me -- told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine. In the second stage, a problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal . It was a big failure.

That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at 7:00 am, and the press conference -- where journalists from around the world were present -- was at 7:45 am at ISRO's satellite launch range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India ]. Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for the failure -- he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the organization.

The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite -- and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told me, "You conduct the press conference today."

I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience.

Source: This is from Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam at Wharton India Economic forum, Philadelphia , March 22,2008

Sam

Free Fast Public DNS Servers List

2010-01-20T11:28:00.026+05:30

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participants. Most importantly, it translates domain names meaningful to humans into the numerical (binary) identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices worldwide. An often used analogy to explain the Domain Name System is that it serves as the "phone book" for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. For example hostnames such as google.com is translated to IP address 209.85.231.104.

This is a list of better, fast public dns servers and free dns server (as compare to your ISP / DSL / ADSL / cable DNS service providers dns servers). These dns servers are free to all. I was able to improve my browsing speed with following DNS servers. Use any one of the following provider.

Google [ 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 ]

ScrubIt [ 67.138.54.100 or 207.225.209.66 ]

dnsadvantage [ 156.154.70.1 or 156.154.71.1 ]

OpenDNS [ 208.67.222.222 or 208.67.220.220 ]

vnsc-pri.sys.gtei.net [ 4.2.2.1 or 4.2.2.2 ]

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Sam

Earth's Atmosphere Came from Outer Space

2009-12-14T10:40:00.007+05:30

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A new study finds the gases which formed the Earth's atmosphere as well as its oceans did not come from inside the Earth but from comets and meteorites hitting Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment period. A research team tested volcanic gases to uncover the new evidence. They found a clear meteorite signature in volcanic gases which could not have contributed in any significant way to the Earth's atmosphere. Therefore the atmosphere and oceans must have come from somewhere else, possibly from a late bombardment of gas and water rich materials similar to comets.

According to the theory of the Late Heavy Bombardment, the inner solar system was pounded by a sudden rain of solar system debris only 700 million years after it formed, which likely had monumental effects on the nascent Earth. So far, the evidence for this event comes primarily from the dating of lunar samples, which indicates that most impact melt rocks formed in this very narrow interval of time. But this new research on the origin of Earth's atmosphere may lend credence to this theory as well. Until now, no one has had instruments capable of looking for these subtle signatures in samples from inside the Earth.

Source: universetoday

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Sam

Curiosity - The Key to Discovery

2009-10-30T19:12:00.007+05:30

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Curiosity is an emotion related to natural behaviour such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in human and many animal species. The term can also be used to denote the behavior itself being caused by the emotion of curiosity. As this emotion represents a drive to know new things, curiosity is the fuel of science and all other disciplines of human study.

Curiosity is common to human beings at all ages from infancy to old age, and is easy to observe in many other animal species. These include apes, cats, fish, reptiles, and insects; as well as many others. Many aspects of exploration are shared among all beings, as all known terrestrial beings share similar aspects: limited size and a need to seek out food sources.

Strong curiosity is the main motivation of many scientists. In fact, in its development as wonder or admiration, it is generally curiosity that makes a human being want to become an expert in a field of knowledge. Though humans are sometimes considered particularly curious, they sometimes seem to miss the obvious when compared to other animals. What seems to happen is that human curiosity about curiosity itself (i.e. meta-curiosity or meta-interest), combined with the ability to think in an abstract way, lead to mimesis, fantasy and imagination - eventually leading to an especially human way of thinking ("human reason"), which is abstract and self aware, or conscious. Some people have the feeling of curiosity to know what is after death.

To be curious, all it takes to start is imagination and curiosity. If you've got these qualities, along with persistence, you've got what it takes to consider a career in science-perhaps an award winning career. That wonderful world of the future, now only in your imagination can become real. If you act on your curiosity, you can help make it happen!

Sam

Why Should We Hire You

2009-09-02T10:47:00.003+05:30

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When it comes to job interviews, there are several questions that are not exactly related to the work, but are one of the major reasons why your job interview does not have the results that are in your best interests. One such question is the question “Why should we hire you?” Basically, this question is one of the master strokes during an interview.

For one, the interview question “Give us reasons to hire you” or “What can you bring to our company” is something that differentiates the best candidates from the other, good candidates.

This question is more often a surprise question to most individuals who are not as experienced in the process of the job interview. Also, this question works as a divider between the people who are looking for a job just casually and the people who are really seeking a job. While answering this question, remember that the answer should not come across to be egotistic or be completely unrealistic. You should focus on providing reasons to hire you over someone else in the best way you can.

The following are some points to consider:

1. One of the best ways to answer this question is to make a short list of all your advantages that would point out the positive aspects that you have for the new job position.

2. One of the points that you can raise is the similarity of the job profile you are aiming in the company basis to the job profile you enjoyed in the previous job.

3. You can also take the interviewer’s attention towards your key skills and strengths, name – quick learning, excellent communication skills, etc

4. In addition, your professional ambitions should be made clear – the motivation and dedication that you have for the profession and the opening position.

5. Make sure that your answers do not come out to be too much about yourself or even can be translated into bragging.

6. The body language when you answer the question is important too. For example, your body language should make it clear that you have thought about the answer and given a carefully worded answer, instead of coming up with a made up, dummy answer.

7. The last sentence, a phrase that can be used is, The job is tailored to my (or- I will bring my) experience, knowledge base and abilities and I believe I can maximize my skills for the benefit of the company.

Source: job-interview-site

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Sam

Rainbow at Night

2009-08-12T12:56:00.002+05:30

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We have all seen rainbows during the day but what about rainbows at night? They are elusive, but powerful to see. Yes "Moonbows" are rainbows created by light from the Moon. Conditions have to be just right, and there are only a small number of places in the world where they regularly materialize, such as Victoria Falls on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe as seen above, Cumberland Falls in Kentucky, Yosemite Falls in California, and Waimea on Hawaii. Because they are so faint, moonbows are difficult to see with the naked eye (they usually appear just white). But with long-exposure photography, all the colors of moonbows can be seen.

Moonbows are rare because moonlight is not very bright. A bright moon near to full is needed, it must be raining opposite the moon, the sky must be dark and the moon must be less than 42º high. Put all these together and you do not get to see a moonbow very often! To the unaided eye they usually appear, as in the small image, without color because their light is not bright enough to activate the cone color receptors in our eyes. Colors have been reported and might be seen when the moon is bright.

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Sam

Intelligent Economy

2009-08-08T15:21:00.007+05:30

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It is the month of August, on the shores of the Black Sea. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town. He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 Euro note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to choose one. The hotel proprietor takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the pig grower. The pig grower takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel. The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the town's prostitute that in these hard times, gave her services on credit. The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 Euro note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.

The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 Euro note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his 100 Euro note, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.

Source: Sivakumar

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Sam

Artificial Brain By 2019

2009-07-30T15:39:00.003+05:30

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A leading scientist has claimed that an Artificial Brain could be built within a decade.

Henry Makram, director of research group the Blue Brain Project, has already created parts of a fully functioning rat brain and hopes to build a human one in the next 10 years. He told the TED Global conference in Oxford that a synthetic Human Brain would be of particular use finding treatments for mental illnesses, reports the BBC.

“It is not impossible to build a human brain and we can do it in 10 years. And if we do succeed, we will send a hologram to TED to talk,” he said. The Blue Brain Project, launched in 2005, aims to engineer a brain from laboratory data, with a software model of “tens of thousands of neurons” reconstructing the brain’s circuitry and processes.

“It’s a new brain,” he explained. “The mammals needed it because they had to cope with parenthood, social interactions complex cognitive functions. “It was so successful an evolution from mouse to man it expanded about a thousand fold in terms of the numbers of units to produce this almost frightening organ.”

Source: health.taragana.net

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Sam

Thinking Out of Box

2009-07-29T18:35:00.004+05:30

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Try to answer the following questions!

Question(A):

You are driving along in your car on a wild, stormy night, it's raining heavily, when suddenly you pass by a bus stop, and you see three people waiting for a bus.

Old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
An old friend who once saved your life.
perfect partner you have been dreaming about.

Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing very well that there could only be one passenger in your car?

This is a moral/ethical dilemma that was once actually used as part of a job application.

You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first.
You could take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back.
However, you may never be able to find your perfect mate again.

The candidate who was hired (out of 200 applicants) had no trouble coming up with his answer. Guess what was his answer?

Answer(A):

"I would give the car keys to my Old friend and let him take the lady to the hospital. I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the partner of my dreams."

Question(B):

Interviewer (To a student Girl candidate) - One morning you woke up & found that you were pregnant, what will you do?

Answer(B):

"I will be very excited and take an off to celebrate with my husband."

Normally an unmarried girl will be shocked to hear this, but why should one think it in the wrong way!

Question(C):

The interviewer asked the candidate "This is your last question of the interview. Please tell me the exact position of the center of this table where u have kept your files."

Answer(C):

Candidate confidently put one of his finger at some point at the table and told that this was the central point at the table.

Interviewer asked how did u get to know that this being the central point of this table. He answers quickly that, "sir you are not likely to ask any more question, as it was the last question that u promised to ask!

The candidate was selected because of his presence of mind with humor.

Thinking outside the box means coming up with creative ways to solve problems, new ways to look at things.

How can you do it? First you have to understand what the "box" is. Then you can look at how to get outside of it. The "box" is the normal way of looking at things, doing things, and all the assumptions that almost everyone involved is making. Your best way to start thinking out of the box then, is to identify and challenge all the assumptions that make up the thinking inside the box.

Willingness to take new perspectives to day-to-day work.
Openness to do different things and to do things differently.
Focusing on the value of finding new ideas and acting on them.
Striving to create value in new ways.
Listening to others.
Supporting and respecting others when they come up with new ideas.

тнιηк συтѕι∂є тнє вσχ!

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Sam

Go Green Save Trees

2009-07-29T15:14:00.005+05:30

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σвנє¢тѕ ιη тнє мιяяσя αяє ¢ℓσѕєя тнαη тнєу αρρєαя

We the inhabitants on earth, have reached that stage where we need to redesign and reconsider our lifestyles for further survival on this planet. If we want the generations to look forward to a healthy and green earth, then we really have to change ourselves at the earliest.

The forest has drastically depleted over a period of time owing to the human needs and activities. One contributing factor towards this is the paper industry.

Worldwide more than 300 million metric tons of paper and paperboard is produced every year. Of the total global wood harvest for industrial use. 42 per cent goes into paper making and it is expected to reach 50 per cent in the next fifty years. In every country they have paper mills producing different varieties of paper. On an average each one of us uses 700 pounds of paper products every year. For the production of paper special kind of tree plantations are made called as the managed timberlands.

These managed timberlands comprises of the special kind of trees, which are required for the pulp and paper manufacturing like the softwood tress (pine, fir etc). It means the diverse natural forests have been replaced by these managed plantations (like fast growing conifers), which has a direct impact on the biodiversity of the whole forest. Designing of the managed timberlands for pulp generation means the loss of valuable wildlife habitats, poor soil quality and ecosystem. They have 90 per cent fewer species than the natural forests. The managed timberlands often use chemical herbicides and pesticides in order to ensure fast production rates, causing acute environmental pollution.

Paper can be made from a variety of other materials like cotton, hemp, grass and even elephant dung but unfortunately in most parts of the world it is made by sacrificing the trees only. Paper products are the largest ingredients at a waste disposal sites. Pulp and paper production industry is the third largest producer of air and water pollutants, waste products and the gases responsible for climatic changes (green house gases). Pulp and paper production is the largest industrial consumer of energy, water and forest resources.

Huge water consumption involved in paper making process can lead to reduced water levels, required for fish and other aquatic flora and fauna along with alterations in the water temperature. Air discharges of the pulp industry include certain hormone disrupting and carcinogenic chemicals like the polyclinic aromatic hydrocarbons. About one fifth of the contents of household dustbins consist of paper and card, of which half is newspapers and magazines. Industrial nations with 20 per cent of the world's population consume 87 per cent of the world's writing and printing papers.

In front of all these facts and figures, now the question is what can we do to turn the situation into our favour.

There are many things that can be done like recycling of the paper, avoiding wastage of the paper or the development of non-tree based paper production methodologies etc.

But one much simpler and easier way to cut down the use of paper is to emphasise on the use of soft copies of the information and data rather than the hard (printed) form. With almost each and every sector of the world being computerised and connected through the Internet, all forms of organisations should give stress on using the soft data thereby avoiding the use of printed matter.

Source: merinews

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Sam

Harmful Effects Of Smoking

2009-07-18T12:09:00.020+05:30

ĤÁŔМƒÚĹ ĔƒƒĔČŤŚ Őƒ ŚМŐĶĨŃĞ

Cigarettes and more specifically tobacco smoke are full of chemicals and poisons. Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, many of which make smoking harmful.

Effects of Tobacco Smoke

1. Smoking KILLS

2. Every year hundreds of thousands of people around the world die from diseases caused by smoking.

3. One in two lifetime smokers will die from their habit. Half of these deaths will occur in middle age.

4. Tobacco smoke also contributes to a number of cancers.

5. The mixture of nicotine and carbon monoxide in each cigarette you smoke temporarily increases your heart rate and blood pressure, straining your heart and blood vessels.

6. This can cause heart attacks and stroke. It slows your blood flow, cutting off oxygen to your feet and hands. Some smokers end up having their limbs amputated.

7. Tar coats your lungs like soot in a chimney and causes cancer. A 20-a-day smoker breathes in up to a full cup (210 g) of tar in a year.

8. Changing to low-tar cigarettes does not help because smokers usually take deeper puffs and hold the smoke in for longer, dragging the tar deeper into their lungs.

9. Carbon monoxide robs your muscles, brain and body tissue of oxygen, making your whole body and especially your heart work harder. Over time, your airways swell up and let less air into your lungs.

10. Smoking causes disease and is a slow way to die. The strain put on your body by smoking often causes years of suffering. Emphysema is an illness that slowly rots your lungs. People with emphysema often get bronchitis again and again, and suffer lung and heart failure.

11. Lung cancer from smoking is caused by the tar in tobacco smoke. Men who smoke are ten times more likely to die from lung cancer than non-smokers.

12. Heart disease and strokes are also more common among smokers than non-smokers.

13. Smoking causes fat deposits to narrow and block blood vessels which leads to heart attack.

14. Smoking causes around one in five deaths from heart disease.

15. In younger people, three out of four deaths from heart disease are due to smoking.

Source: www.quit-smoking-stop.com

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sam

The Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxy may collide In about 3 billion years

2009-07-08T11:33:00.006+05:30

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If mankind can stick it out on Earth for another two billion years, our descendants may witness quite a show in the night sky. Researchers estimate that the Milky Way will collide with its nearest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, at around that time—well before the sun collapses into a white dwarf, perhaps destroying the Earth in the process. This close encounter of the galactic kind could easily kick our solar system to the farthest reaches of the galaxy, and there is a small chance we might even take up residence in Andromeda.

Astronomers simulated the collision by estimating the relative speed between the two galaxies and the amount of gas and dark matter in the intervening space, which exerts a drag on their motions. Andromeda is currently 2.3 million light-years from our galaxy. Researchers know that the two neighbors are approaching each other at 120 kilometers per second, but they are far less certain of Andromeda's sideways speed. If moving fast enough to the side, it would miss us entirely.

Taking their cue from the latest models of the galaxies' structures, Andromeda would first graze the Milky Way two billion years from now, they report in a paper submitted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The two galactic cores would orbit each other for another three billion years before merging.

During that time, the stars making up the two spiral galaxies would slowly coalesce into a more elliptical combo galaxy, "Milkomeda" (or the Andromedy Way, if you prefer). Although most of the stars would be too sparsely spaced to bump together, one galaxy's gravity would jostle the other stars.

The fate of the sun, which is expected to last at least until the simulated merger, would depend on where it was in its 24,000 light-year-wide orbit around the galactic core. The researchers estimate that by the time the cores had fused, the solar system would have a 50 percent chance of being swept to a wispy tail extending from Milkomeda, three times further out from galactic center than it is now. There is 3 percent chance of the sun being nudged into orbit around Andromeda when the two galaxies first collide. Of course, they note, different assumptions for the simulation would likely result in different outcomes.

Wonderful Album: How Small We Are [Dont Miss]

Source: ScientificAmerican

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Sam

Remember Your A B C 's

2009-06-10T14:26:00.005+05:30

[click to view larger image]

Avoid negative sources, people, places, things and habits

Believe in yourself

Consider things from every angle

Don't give up and don't give in

Enjoy life today, yesterday is gone, tomorrow may never come

Family and friends are hidden treasures, seek them and enjoy their riches

Give more than you planned to

Hang on to your dreams

Ignore those who try to discourage you

Just do it

Keep trying to matter how hard it seems, it will get easier

Love yourself first and most

Make it happen

Never lie, cheat or steal, always strike a fair deal

Open your eyes and see things as they really are

Practice makes perfect

Quitters never win and winners never quit

Read, study and learn about everything important in your life

Stop procrastinating

Take control of your own destiny

Understand yourself in order to better understand others

Visualize it

Want it more than anything

Xcellerate your efforts

You are unique of all God's creations, nothing can replace you

Zero in on your target and go for it!

Source: Wanda Hope Carter

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Sam

Validate XML against XSD in C

2009-05-26T14:31:00.037+05:30

The XML documents can reference schema documents that specify how the XML documents should be structured. The rules for validating the XML document is specified in the schema which use the extension .xsd For more information about W3C XML Schema click here

In this Tutorial I'll show how to use libxml2 to Validate XML documents.

Libxml2 is the XML C parser and toolkit developed for the Gnome project (but usable outside of the Gnome platform), it is free software available under the MIT License. XML itself is a meta language to design markup languages, i.e. text language where semantic and structure are added to the content using extra "markup" information enclosed between angle brackets. HTML is the most well-known markup language. Though the library is written in C a variety of language bindings make it available in other environments.

Libxml2 is known to be very portable, the library should build and work without serious troubles on a variety of systems (Linux, Unix, Windows, CygWin, MacOS, MacOS X, RISC Os, OS/2, VMS, QNX, MVS, ...)

Sample program in C to validate xml against xsd using libxml2

Environment & Settings:
* Install libxml2 2.6.32 binary [Installed by default in most of the Linux].

* Install libxml2-dev 2.6.32 package.

* IDE Eclipse CDT [GCC Compiler]

* Right click the project --> Properties --> C/C++ Build --> Settings

select Tool Settings --> GCC C Linker --> Libraries
Add "xml2"(without quotes) in Libraries

select GCC C Compiler --> Directories --> Include Paths
Add "/usr/include/libxml2" (without quotes)

* This sample program uses test.xml and test.xsd

Code: xmlvalidation.c

/*<br />============================================================================<br />Name        : xmlvalidation.c<br />============================================================================<br />*/<br />#define LIBXML_SCHEMAS_ENABLED<br />#include <libxml/xmlschemastypes.h><br /><br />int main()<br />{<br />xmlDocPtr doc;<br />xmlSchemaPtr schema = NULL;<br />xmlSchemaParserCtxtPtr ctxt;<br />char *XMLFileName = "test.xml";<br />char *XSDFileName = "test.xsd";<br /><br />xmlLineNumbersDefault(1);<br /><br />ctxt = xmlSchemaNewParserCtxt(XSDFileName);<br /><br />xmlSchemaSetParserErrors(ctxt, (xmlSchemaValidityErrorFunc) fprintf, (xmlSchemaValidityWarningFunc) fprintf, stderr);<br />schema = xmlSchemaParse(ctxt);<br />xmlSchemaFreeParserCtxt(ctxt);<br />//xmlSchemaDump(stdout, schema); //To print schema dump<br /><br />doc = xmlReadFile(XMLFileName, NULL, 0);<br /><br />if (doc == NULL)<br />{<br />fprintf(stderr, "Could not parse %s\n", XMLFileName);<br />}<br />else<br />{<br />xmlSchemaValidCtxtPtr ctxt;<br />int ret;<br /><br />ctxt = xmlSchemaNewValidCtxt(schema);<br />xmlSchemaSetValidErrors(ctxt, (xmlSchemaValidityErrorFunc) fprintf, (xmlSchemaValidityWarningFunc) fprintf, stderr);<br />ret = xmlSchemaValidateDoc(ctxt, doc);<br />if (ret == 0)<br />{<br />printf("%s validates\n", XMLFileName);<br />}<br />else if (ret > 0)<br />{<br />printf("%s fails to validate\n", XMLFileName);<br />}<br />else<br />{<br />printf("%s validation generated an internal error\n", XMLFileName);<br />}<br />xmlSchemaFreeValidCtxt(ctxt);<br />xmlFreeDoc(doc);<br />}<br /><br />// free the resource<br />if(schema != NULL)<br />xmlSchemaFree(schema);<br /><br />xmlSchemaCleanupTypes();<br />xmlCleanupParser();<br />xmlMemoryDump();<br /><br />return(0);<br />}<br />

FYI
you can also validate XML against XSD using the following command in linux.

xmllint --noout --schema test.xsd test.xml

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Sam

What Makes The Difference?

2009-05-19T13:50:00.004+05:30

[click to view larger image]

Ever heard the story of the giant ship engine that failed?

The ship’s owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

Two of the ship’s owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away.

The engine was fixed!

A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.

”What?!” the owners exclaimed.

“He hardly did anything!”

So they wrote the old man a note saying, “Please send us an itemized bill”

The man sent a bill that read:

Tapping with a hammer ……………………. $ 2.00
Knowing where to tap ………………………. $ 9998.00

Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort in your life makes all the difference.

Source: Inspirational

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Sam

print friendly

2009-05-19T12:59:00.002+05:30

[click to view larger image]

Ever reading a or online news article and want to print it out, but don’t want the sidebar and other graphics to waste your ink? A lot of sites aren’t particularly print friendly and perhaps don’t make this process as easy as it could be.

Enter PrintFriendly, a new site that simply lets you enter the URL of a webpage and get a printable version: just the content and inline images, in a very readable font. If you want, you can go one step further and remove the images from the post. You can also download the content as a PDF. Neat!

It doesn’t work perfectly: sites that have in-text widgets don’t convert particularly well. PrintFriendly could compensate for these issues by allowing you to edit the document before printing. Nonetheless, it’s a handy tool to have at your fingertips should you ever need a quick printout without wasting ink.

Source: http://www.printfriendly.com/

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Sam

Broad Mind

2009-05-19T12:53:00.004+05:30

[click to view larger image]

Once an unhappy young man came to an old master and told he was very sad and asked for a solution.

The old Master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it. “How does it taste?” the Master asked. “Awful,” spat the apprentice.

The Master chuckled and then asked the young man to take another handful of salt and put it in the lake.

The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and when the apprentice swirled his handful of salt into the lake, the old man said, “Now drink from the lake.”

As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, the Master asked, “How does it taste?” “Good!” remarked the apprentice.

“Do you taste the salt?” asked the Master. “No,” said the young man. The Master sat beside this troubled young man, took his hands, and said,

The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains the same, exactly the same. But the amount we taste the ‘pain’ depends on the container we put it into. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things..

Stop being a glass. Become a lake

Broader Mindset will solve most of the problems we face. So don’t allow problem to grow broader than your mind.

Source: Inspirational

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Sam

Astronomers Compile Most Detailed Map of Nearby Universe

2009-05-19T12:41:00.003+05:30

[click to view larger image]

A new detailed map of the nearby Universe reveals not only where local galaxies are currently, but where they are heading, how fast and why. “It’s like taking a snapshot of wildebeest on the African plain,” said Dr. Heath Jones of the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO), lead scientist for the Six-Degree Field Galaxy Survey (6dFGS), the most detailed survey of nearby galaxies to date. “We can tell which waterholes they’re heading to, and how fast they’re traveling.” it has recorded the positions of more than 110,000 galaxies over more than 80% of the Southern sky, out to about two thousand million light-years from Earth, Galaxies are tugged around by each other’s gravity.

By measuring the galaxies’ movements, the researchers were able to map the gravitational forces at work in the local Universe, and so show how matter, both seen and unseen, is distributed. Giant superclusters of galaxies are huge concentrations of mass, but they can’t be weighed accurately by looking at their light alone.

“Light can be obscured, but you can’t hide gravity,” said Dr. Jones.

The survey shows strings and clusters of nearby galaxies on large scales in unprecedented detail, and has revealed more than 500 voids—”empty” areas of space with no galaxies. The special aspect of this survey is that it will let the researchers disentangle two causes of galaxy movements. As well as being pulled on by gravity, galaxies also ride along with the overall expansion of the Universe. For about 10% of their galaxies, the 6dFGS researchers will tease apart these two velocity components: the one associated with the Universe’s expansion, and the one representing a galaxy’s individual, “peculiar”, motion.

Source: Universe Today

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Sam

God Exists

2009-05-11T12:17:00.003+05:30

[click to view larger image]

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said, “I don’t believe that God exists.”

“Why do you say that?” asked the customer.

“Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things.”

The customer thought for a moment, but didn’t respond because he didn’t want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop.

Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber, “You know what? Barbers do not exist.”

“How can you say that?” asked the surprised barber. “I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!”

“No!” the customer exclaimed. “Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside.”

“Ah, but barbers DO exist! That’s what happens when people do not come to me.”

“Exactly!” affirmed the customer. “That’s the point! God, too, DOES exist! That’s what happens when people do not go to Him and don’t look to Him for help. That’s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world.”

Source: Fr Eugene Lobo SJ

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Sam

How To Be Successful

2009-04-25T19:46:00.003+05:30

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Every day, we fight the fight.
Every day we play the game.
Every day we expect good things.
Every day we want to do our best.
So what's the secret? Where's the answer?

Well here it is. There isn't one.

No matter how long you live, all you can do is improve upon the mistakes and reap the success. That's it.

That's your job. So instead of searching for the magic waters, live for now. Wake up with that smile, that energy, that goal, and strive on. It might not happen or work today, so what. Guess what, it probably didn't for the next person either.

So you take what you have, and try again. Because every day is another chance, another opportunity. There will always be a next time. Remember that.

"Can't" is an excuse and giving up is not an option. So get out of your comfort zone and get something done. Nobody can make you do it but YOU! Not this quote, or anything else you read. It's you.

So find that personal motivation. Make it happen. Because the magic potion is somewhere very few people look, with-in you.

"I'm not in competition with anybody but myself. My goal is to beat my last performance." - Celine Dion

Source: Curt Bachman

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Sam

How To Survive A Heart Attack When Alone

2009-04-25T15:35:00.003+05:30

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Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness.

However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.

Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital. Tell as many other people as possible about this. It could save their lives!!

A cardiologist says: If everyone shares this information to 10 people, you can bet that we'll save at least one life.

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Sam

Warp Drives Probably Impossible

2009-04-21T10:35:00.007+05:30

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Just when I was getting excited about the possibility of traveling to distant worlds, scientists have uncovered a deep flaw with faster-than-light-speed travel. There appears to be a quantum limit on how fast an object can travel through space-time, regardless of whether we are able to create a bubble in space-time or not. We have no clue about how to generate enough energy to create a “bubble” in space-time.

This idea was first put on a scientific grounding Michael from the University of Mexico in 1994, but before that was only popularized by science fiction universes such as Star Trek. However, to create this bubble we need some form of exotic matter fuel some hypothetical energy generator to output 10⁴⁵ Joules.

If a advanced human race could generate this much energy, we would be masters of our Universe.

[click to view larger image]

According to new research on the subject, quantum physics has something to say about our dreams of zipping through space-time faster than it. What’s more, Hawking radiation would most likely cook anything inside this theoretical space-time bubble anyway. The Universe does not want us to travel faster than the speed of light.

In short, Hawking radiation (usually associated with the radiation of energy and therefore loss of mass of evaporating black holes) will be generated, irradiating the occupants of the bubble to unimaginably high temperatures. The Hawking radiation will be generated as horizons will form at the front and rear of the bubble. Remember those big numbers physicists aren’t afraid of? Hawking radiation is predicted to roast anything inside the bubble to a possible 10³⁰K (the maximum possible temperature, the Planck temperature, is 10³²K).

Source: UniverseToday

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Sam

World's Worst Password 123456

2009-04-02T20:13:00.006+05:30

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'123456' is the most common world's worst password by people on the Internet. Names of fast cars, even ncc1701 - the ship number for Star Trek's Starship Enterprise, have made it to the list of top 500 worst passwords of all time.

Compiled by whatsmypass.com, the list features passwords most commonly used by Internet users. And topping the list of the most common password is "123456", "dragon", followed by "password" in third place. Other popular password choices were first names, repeated letters and numbers, pop-culture references. Even batman, bond007 and cocacola made it to the list.

The website said that almost one out of nine people use at least one of the passwords mentioned on the list, and one out of every 50 people use one from the top 20. In fact, a study commissioned by digital communications agency @www found that an average adult had as many as 15 passwords to remember. But 61 per cent of people used the same passwords for as many different accounts as possible in order to make life easier.

Source: Yahoo

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Sam

Excellence

2009-04-01T10:10:00.003+05:30

A German once visited a temple under construction where he saw a sculptor making an idol of God. Suddenly he noticed a similar idol lying nearby. Surprised, he asked the sculptor, "Do you need two statues of the same idol?" "No," said the sculptor without looking up, "We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage." The gentleman examined the idol and found no apparent damage. "Where is the damage?" he asked. "There is a scratch on the nose of the idol." said the sculptor, still busy with his work. "Where are you going to install the idol?"

The sculptor replied that it would be installed on a pillar twenty feet high. "If the idol is that far, who is going to know that there is a scratch on the nose?" the gentleman asked. The sculptor stopped his work, looked up at the gentleman, smiled and said, "I will know it."

The desire to excel is exclusive of the fact whether someone else appreciates it or not. "Excellence" is a drive from inside, not outside. Excellence is not for someone else to notice but for your own satisfaction and efficiency.

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Sam

Six Keys To Success

2009-03-17T19:42:00.006+05:30

1. Attitude
Bloom where you are planted. You have a choice to get back up after temporary set backs. Attitude is a small thing that makes a big difference!

2. Direction
If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there. Write your short term goals down on paper. I have discovered and continue to discover that putting your dreams and goals down on paper lock in or focus your belief that they can be achieved -- even if you have to take a course correction in achieving your goals. Success comes in cans, failure comes in can'ts.

3. Values
Explore what is important to you. Maybe it is family, friends, your spirituality or working hard at any given task. I can assure you that your priorities will change as you grow older. Very important that you value yourself and treat yourself like the valuable gift from God that you are.

4. Interests
Birds of a feather flock together. This is to say that if you are hanging around winners or others with a "can do" mind-set, you'll likely adapt to this same kind of thinking. Remember -- "SUCCESS LEAVES CLUES!

5. Commitment
Feelings may change, commitments do not. "Success is getting up one more time than you fall." I have often wanted to give up, and then I must think to myself about what the consequences of giving up will be. Generally, this is more than enough of a motivation to make us stick to the task at hand even if we don't feel like it. When the task is achieved, Whow! -- IT FEELS GREAT!

6. Encouragement:
Be an encourager and comforter to friends that are feeling discouraged. I promise that you will not regret this as you will be encouraged by one, if not many, when you are feeling down. Encouragement and love are contagious qualities that can change the minds of the most stubborn and "hard-to-get-along-with" people you know. I have seen it happen over and over again.

Source: motivateus

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Sam

Live Space Video

2009-03-12T18:21:00.010+05:30

Live streaming video is now available every day of the week from the International Space Station. The video will show views of Earth and the exterior structure of the station, as seen from cameras mounted outside the ISS, and other times, activities going on inside the station. If you regularly watch NASA TV online, just go to the same website, and now there's another choice of channels. Just click on the "Live Space Station Video" tab to enjoy. The Earth views will usually be seen during what is the crew off-duty or sleep periods, usually from about 6 pm to 6 am GMT. During times when the crew is awake and working, selected video will be available, accompanied by audio of communications between Mission Control and the astronauts.

During times when the shuttle is docked to the station, the stream will include video and audio of those activities. Whenever video isn't available, a graphical world map will be shown that depicts the station’s location in orbit above the Earth using real-time telemetry sent to Mission Control from the station.

Since the station orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes, it sees a sunrise or a sunset every 45 minutes. When the station is in darkness, external camera video may appear black, but also may provide great views of city lights below.

The streaming video is being webcast as part of NASA's celebration of the 10th anniversary of the space station in orbit.

Source: NASA

Track Other Satellites Live [Not Video]

Spot ISS from your country

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Sam

Google Phone Search

2009-03-05T17:24:00.005+05:30

Google Phone Search is now available in India. Search includes [Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore] cities as of now. Now you can dial a Toll Free number 1-800-41-999-999 from any phone in India to voice search for local businesses, movie show times, flight status and get the results free via SMS.

The great thing about this service is that its completely free of charge, and helps you find the information you need, right when you need it the most. Since the local business information used by Google Phone Search is sourced from Local Search, its a good idea to add your local business to Google Local Business Centre.

Google Phone Search is still in its pilot stage. The search initially included Hyderabad and Delhi, and has now been expanded to include Mumbai and Bangalore in India. Its will be soon available for Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad and Ghaziabad. The information is available only in English, Hindi and Telugu languages.

Google is using the speech recognition technology, in case when it fails to recognize you, they transfer your call to a local operator after 2 recognition failures so that they assist you with your query. If you get stuck, press ‘9’ to talk to an operator available from 8 am to 12 midnight everyday.

Next time you need to find a local business in any of these cities, simply dial 1-800-41-999-999 from any landline or mobile phone, and check it works.

Source: http://labs.google.co.in/phonesearch/

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Sam

How Small We Are

2009-03-03T10:36:00.034+05:30

[click to view larger image]

An amazing picture of comparison of the earth size with the known biggest stars & planets in our Milky way Galaxy. The thing that I like the most is that, you can get a feeling of size and scale in the universe, look at how tiny the earth looks and imagine how tiny we are!!!

If you’ve ever had trouble grasping the true sizes involved in astronomy and the size of earth compared to other planets and stars, as you will see here the scales involved are mind blowing.

The VV Cephei is an eclipsing binary star system located in the constellation Cepheus, approximately 3,000 light years from Earth. It is 3rd largest star found in our galaxy.

[click to view larger image]

VY Canis Majoris (VY CMa) is a red hyper giant star located in the constellation Canis Major. It is 2nd largest known star in our galaxy and also one of the most luminous known. It is located about 4,900 light years away from Earth.

WOH G64 is a red super giant in the Large Magellanic Cloud. With 2000 times the radius of the Sun, it is the largest known star in our galaxy.

Here is the List of Largest Known Stars

[click & zoom to view larger image]

These are the findings within a small part in our Milky way galaxy. Our technology and research has reached only a fraction of % in our galaxy. There is yet to discover more.

The center of our Milky Way galaxy is 26000 light years away from us. Even If you travel at the speed of light it will take thousands of years to reach the center of our galaxy. Like our Milky Way galaxy there are Billions of galaxies!!!

Its unimaginable to think the size of the universe holding billions of galaxies. We can only think on how wonderful and supernatural the God's creation is.

Wonderful Album: How Small We Are [Dont Miss]

Related: Milky Way Could Have Billions of Earths

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Sam

10 Important Things For Life

2009-02-26T19:16:00.004+05:30

10 Most Important Things

1. LOVE
The Special Feeling That Makes You Feel All Warm And Wonderful.

2. RESPECT
Treating Others As Well As You Would Like To Be Treated.

3. APPRECIATION
To Be Grateful For All The Good Things Life Has To Offer.

4. HAPPINESS
The Full Enjoyment Of Each Moment. A Smiling Face.

5. FORGIVENESS
The Ability To Let Things Be Without Anger.

6. SHARING
The Joy Of Giving Without Thought Of Receiving.

7. HONESTY
The Quality Of Always Telling The Truth.

8. INTEGRITY
The Purity Of Doing What's Right, No Matter What.

9. COMPASSION
The Essence Of Feeling Another's Pain, While Easing Their Hurt.

10. PEACE
The Reward For Living The 10 Most Important Things.

Source: motivateus

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Sam

Mobile Number Portability

2009-02-26T10:50:00.004+05:30

The Mobile Number Portability allows customers to retain their old number while shifting from one operator to another operator.

Indian 'Union Communications and IT Minister' Mr.Raja said, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) was planning to start mobile number portability (MNP) in major cities of the country by August 2009, and in the remaining cities by the end of the year. Bids had already been invited for providing the MNP switches, the minister added.

Source: Times Of India

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Sam

Invisible Threats [Dark Comets]

2009-02-24T18:03:00.010+05:30

The biggest threat to our little blue planet may turn out to be something that we don't see/detect an approaching deadly comet . Yes, "Dark Comets" are invisible and very hard to detect.

"Dark Comets" are formed when an active comet's reflective water ice has evaporated away, leaving behind an organic crust that only reflects a small fraction of light. Astronomers have previously spotted comets heading towards earth just days before they passed. In 1983 a comet called IRAS-Araki-Alcock passed at a distance of just 5 million kilometres, the closest of any comet for 200 years, but it was noticed just a fortnight beforehand.

A composite of images from NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft shows features of comet Borrelly's nucleus, dust jets escaping the nucleus and the cloud-like coma of dust and gases surrounding the nucleus.

Hazardous comets and asteroids are monitored by various space agencies under an umbrella effort known as Spaceguard. UK-based astronomers Bill Napier claim that many comets could be going undetected.

He warns that some of these comets may still be zipping around the solar system. Other observations support their case. The rate that bright comets enter the solar system implies there should be around 3000 dark comets buzzing around, and yet only 25 are known.

Source: Newscientist

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Sam

Oscar 2009 Winners

2009-02-23T11:44:00.007+05:30

Oscar 2009 Winners:

Complete list of winners at the 81st annual Academy Awards, presented Sunday night [22-02-2009] at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles.

— Motion Picture: "Slumdog Millionaire."

— Director: Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire."

— Cinematography: "Slumdog Millionaire."

— Sound Mixing: "Slumdog Millionaire."

— Original Score: "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman.

— Original Song: "Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman and Gulzar.

— Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, "Slumdog Millionaire."

— Film Editing: "Slumdog Millionaire."

— Actor: Sean Penn, "Milk."

— Actress: Kate Winslet, "The Reader."

— Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight."

— Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona."

— Foreign Film: "Departures," Japan.

— Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black, "Milk."

— Animated Feature Film: "WALL-E."

— Art Direction: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

— Sound Editing: "The Dark Knight."— Costume: "The Duchess."

— Documentary Feature: "Man on Wire."

— Documentary (short subject): "Smile Pinki."

— Makeup: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

— Animated Short Film: "La Maison en Petits Cubes."

— Live Action Short Film: "Spielzeugland (Toyland)."

— Visual Effects: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

Academy Award winners previously announced this season:

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (Oscar statuette): Jerry Lewis

Gordon E. Sawyer Award (Oscar statuette): Pixar Animation co-founder Ed Catmull

Source: www.oscar.com

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Sam

Apple's Mac OS X New Threats

2009-02-21T10:56:00.006+05:30

A new technique lets hackers targeting Apple's OS X cover their tracks more effectively.

Fans of Apple computers often boast about superior security. But as Macs have gained in popularity over the past few years, this has brought much more attention from hackers. At the Black Hat DC computer-security conference in Washington, DC, one security expert will reveal a technique for attacking the Mac operating system--OS X--without leaving a trace.

Vincenzo Iozzo, a student, explains that the technique allows an attacker to break into a machine without leaving a trace in its permanent memory, which means that evidence of the attack will disappear as soon as the victim's computer is turned off. Such a technique could be used, for example, in combination with another software flaw to covertly replace a legitimate version of Apple's Safari Web browser with a malicious one that logs the user's keystrokes and sends them to the attacker. The technique identifies an active process (such as that for Safari) and injects malicious code into the space in memory where it is running. When the system reads from the expected location, it executes the attacker's code instead of the legitimate program.

Iozzo says that it may take time for Apple to respond to his technique because it exploits fundamental elements of the operating system's structure that can't be changed with a simple software patch. He says that it may require a larger upgrade, such as the introduction of the new version of OS X, called Snow Leopard, which is scheduled to ship in 2010.

In the meantime, the users can protect themselves by keeping their systems up to date with any security patches released for OS X. Since the technique relies on other flaws that an attacker might exploit, users should focus on reducing those other threats as much as possible.

Source: Tech. Review

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Sam

The Milky Way Could have Billions of Earths

2009-02-19T19:25:00.016+05:30

[click to view larger image]

With the upcoming launch in March 5th 2009 of the Kepler mission to find extrasolar planets, there is quite a lot of buzz about the possibility of finding habitable planets outside of our Solar System. Kepler will be the first satellite telescope with the capability to find Earth-size and smaller planets. At the most recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago, Dr. Alan Boss is quoted by numerous media outlets as saying that there could be billions of Earth-like planets in the Milky Way alone, and that we may find an Earth-like planet orbiting a large proportion of the stars in the Universe.

"There are something like a few dozen solar-type stars within something like 30 light years of the sun, and I would think that a good number of those — perhaps half of them would have Earth-like planets. So, I think there's a very good chance that we'll find some Earth-like planets within 10, 20, or 30 light years of the Sun," Dr. Boss said in an AAAS podcast interview.

Dr. Boss is an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, and is the author of The Crowded Universe, a book on the likelihood of finding life and habitable planets outside of our Solar System.

This sort of postulation about the existence of extraterrestrial life (and intelligence) falls under the paradigm of the Drake Equation, named after the astronomer Frank Drake. The Drake Equation incorporates all of the variables one should take into account when trying to calculate the number of technologically advanced civilizations elsewhere in the Universe. Depending on what numbers you put into the equation, the answer ranges from zero to trillions. There is wide speculation about the existence of life elsewhere in the Universe.

The speculation by Dr. Boss and others will be put to the test later this year when the Kepler satellite gets up and running. Set to launch on March 5th 2009, the Kepler mission will utilize a 0.95 meter telescope to view one section of the sky containing over 100,000 stars for the entirety of the mission, which will last at least 3.5 years.

The Milky Way From Earth

[click to view larger image]

If you look up into the night sky on a very clear night, in an area with very little light pollution, you will see a band of stars splashed across the sky. That band is the Milky Way, the spiral galaxy in which our Solar System lies, and where almost every object you can see with your naked eye calls home.

The Solar System is inside the disk of the Milky Way, and orbits in one of the spiral arms at 26,000 light years from the center of the galaxy. We can't see the spiral structure of the galaxy from our planet because we are inside the disk and have no means of taking images from above or below the galaxy. Images of the Milky Way's spiral structure are created from computer modeling based on information from stars as they orbit the galaxy.

Much of the Milky Way is invisible to us because we have to look through the plane of its disk - a lot of the Milky Way is on the other side of the galaxy, and there is so much dust and so many bright stars closer to us that we can't see the stars behind all of this matter. Of the 5,000 to 8,000 stars in the Milky Way visible to the human eye from Earth, one can usually only see about 2,500 at a time. In fact, the few thousand stars we can see of the Milky Way with our naked eye are only about 0.000003% of the 200-400 billion stars that inhabit the spiral.

Source: BBC
NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/index.html

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Sam

Satellites Collide In Earth Orbit

2009-02-13T10:28:00.003+05:30

A commercial Iridium communications satellite collided with a Russian satellite or satellite fragment, on Tuesday, creating a cloud of wreckage in low-Earth orbit, according to CBS News. A source quoted in the article said U.S. Space Command is tracking about 280 pieces of debris, most of it from a non-operational Russian satellite. It appears the International Space Station is not currently threatened by the debris, but it's not yet clear whether the debris poses a risk to any other satellites in similar orbits. Iridium operates a constellation of approximately 66 satellites, along with orbital spares, to support satellite telephone operations around the world.

The unprecedented collision between two large satellites on February 10 has created a cloud of debris that likely will cause problems in Earth orbit for decades. To help understand the collision and potential future problems of the debris, Analytical Graphics, Inc., (AGI) of Philadelphia, working with its Colorado Springs-based research arm the Center for Space Standards & Innovation, has used its software to reconstruct the event, creating images and providing an interactive tool that allows the user to view the collision from any position or time. "We've worked around the clock since the collision to create these images and a video of the event," Stefanie Claypoole, Media Specialist with AGI told Universe Today. "Our software can also assess the possibility of additional collisions by applying breakup models for debris prediction."

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Sam

LHC Restart

2009-02-12T18:59:00.003+05:30

It may seem that the delay is getting longer and longer for the restart of the LHC after the catastrophic quench in September 2008, but progress is being made. Repair costs are expected to hit the $16 million mark as engineers quickly rebuild the damaged electromagnets and track down any further electrical faults that could jeopardize the future operation of the complex particle accelerator.

According to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the Large Hadron Collider will resume operations in September 2009 and the first experiments will hopefully commence by the end of October 2009. It may be a year later than when the first particle collisions were planned, but at least a better idea is forming about when the hunt for the Higgs particle will recommence…

Source: CERN

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Sam

Google Power Meter

2009-02-12T10:41:00.006+05:30

The Mountain View, California Web giant Google has developed a new tool called Google PowerMeter which will allow consumers to track their household energy consumption.

Google has partnered with a host of electric utilities, device makers, regulators and other tech companies to deliver how much electricity they consume and is intended to provide live electric data consumption information about home energy usage to raise consumers' awareness and potentially inspire them to be more energy efficient.

Devices such as washing machines, dryers, and dishwashers will provide a visual display of how much money it will cost to use the device at that particular time.

Google doesn't give any specific information if the Power Meter will come with a price or not. Once it becomes available later this year the Power Meter will work on the iGoogle home page.

Google PowerMeter, now in prototype, will receive information from utility smart meters and energy management devices and provide anyone who signs up access to her home electricity consumption right on her iGoogle homepage. The graph above shows how someone could use this information to figure out how much energy is used by different household activites.

Source: http://www.google.org/powermeter/

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Sam

NTFS Hidden Threat

2009-02-11T19:07:00.005+05:30

A relatively unknown compatibility feature of NTFS, Alternate Data Streams (ADS) provides hackers with a method of hiding root kits or hacker tools on a breached system and allows them to be executed without being detected by the systems administrator.

ADS is the ability to fork file data into existing files without affecting their functionality, size, or display to traditional file browsing utilities like dir or Windows Explorer. Found in all version of NTFS, ADS capabilities where originally conceived to allow for compatibility with the Macintosh Hierarchical File System, HFS; where file information is sometimes forked into separate resources. Alternate Data Streams have come to be used legitimately by a variety of programs, including native Windows operating system to store file information such as attributes and temporary storage.

Amazingly enough, Alternate Data Streams are extremely easy to make and require little or no skill on the part o the hacker. Common DOS commands like “type” are used to create an ADS. These commands are used in conjunction with a redirect [>] and colon [:] to fork one file into another.

For instance: the command
“type c:\anyfile.exe > c:\winnt\system32\calc.exe:anyfile.exe”
will fork the common windows calculator program with an ADS “anyfile.exe.”

Alarmingly files with an ADS are almost impossible to detect using native file browsing techniques like command line or windows explorer. In our example, the file size of calc.exe will show as the original size of 90k regardless of the size of the ADS anyfile.exe. The only indication that the file was changed is the modification time stamp, which can be relatively innocuous.

Once injected, the ADS can be executed by using traditional commands like type, or start or be scripted inside typical scripting languages like VB or Perl. When launched, the ADS executable will appear to run as the original file - looking undetectable to process viewers like Windows Task Manager. Using this method, it is not only possible to hide a file, but to also hide the execution of an illegitimate process.

Unfortunately, it is virtually impossible to natively protect your system against ADS hidden files if you use NTFS

Source: http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Alternate_Data_Streams.html

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Sam

Privacy fears over Google Latitude

2009-02-11T10:20:00.006+05:30

Google's Latitude service which allows users to share their locations with elected friends, is drawing fire from a privacy watchdog, reports the BBC.

The "opt-in" Latitude service uses data from mobile phone masts, GPS, or wi-fi hardware to update a user's location automatically. Users can also manually set their advertised location anywhere they like, or turn the broadcast off altogether.

The service has raised a number of security concerns, as many users may not be aware that it is enabled.

Industry watchdog Privacy International argues that there are opportunities for abuse of the system for those who may not know that their phone is broadcasting its location.

Source: Textually

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Sam

You Are The Result Of Yourself

2009-02-07T10:41:00.006+05:30

Don't blame anyone, never complain of anyone or anything

Because basically you have made of your life what you wanted.

Accept the difficulties of edifying yourself

And the worth of starting to correct your character.

The triumph of the true man arises from the ashes of his mistakes.

Never complain of your loneliness or your luck.

Face it with courage and accept it.

Somehow, they are the result of your acts and

It shows that you'll always win.

Don't feel frustrated of your own failures, neither unload them to someone else.

Accept yourself now or you'll go on justifying yourself like a child.

Remember that any time is good to start

And that no time is so good to give up.

Don't forget that the cause of your present is your past,

As the cause of your future will be your present.

Learn from the brave, from the strong,

From who doesn't accept situations

From who will live in spite of everything.

Think less of your problems and more of your work.

Learn to arise from your pain,

And to be greater than the greatest of your obstacles.

Look at the mirror of yourself and you'll be free and strong

And you'll stop being a puppet of circumstances.

For you yourself are your destiny.

Wake up and stare at the sun in the mornings and breathe the sun of dawn.

You're part of the strength of your life now,

Rise up, fight, walk, be sure and you'll win in life.

Don't ever think of 'fate'

For fate is the excuse of failures.

-- Pablo Neruda [Chilean Writer]

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Sam

Global Warming

2009-01-22T15:20:00.014+05:30

The global surface temperature increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) during the 100 years ending in 2005.

The causes of the recent warming are an active field of research. The scientific consensus is that the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases due to human activity has caused most of the warming observed since the start of the industry era.

Antarctica is heating up than scientists had thought. A large part of West Antarctica, not just the peninsula area, has warmed during the past 50 years, a study shows. The issue of climate change on the frozen continent has been controversial because East Antarctica has been cooling and temperature records are sparse. The evidences shows the continent as a whole is getting warmer.

Warming in West Antarctica exceeded 0.1 degrees a decade during the past 50 years. Significant warming extends well beyond the Antarctic Peninsula to cover most of West Antarctica, an area of warming much larger than previously reported, ice sheets in West Antarctica was at greater risk of melting. Along with the Greenland ice sheet, a complete melt of both sheets would raise sea levels by 14 meters.

Another study, also published in Nature, has found that the seasons are starting about a 1.7 days earlier on average around the globe than during the first half of the century.

Source: smh
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

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Sam

Windows 7

2009-01-17T12:33:00.004+05:30

One week after Microsoft began offering preview downloads of Windows 7 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, experts are generally optimistic about what they're seeing. The full release of the new operating system isn't planned until 2010. But the software giant seems to be hoping that the preview release will allay the concerns of Windows users who were unwilling to switch from Windows XP to its troubled successor, Vista.

Vista, which was released in late 2006, met with some bad reviews and sluggish adoption in the business world. Forrester Research reports that by June 2008, only about 9 percent of its clients had switched to Vista. Microsoft went on selling XP months longer than it had planned. Now, the company is promoting Windows 7 as a response to user feedback.

Windows 7 features a few changes to Microsoft's familiar user interface. Buttons for open windows no longer appear along the bottom of the screen. In their place are larger icons representing active and frequently used (or user selected) programs. When a user hovers the cursor over the icon for an active program, preview thumbnails of the open windows pop up, and the user selects the one that she wants. Certain cursor movements also trigger common changes to windows. Dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes it, dragging a window to the side snaps it in place so that it takes up half the screen, and dragging the cursor down to the right-hand corner of the screen makes all the open windows transparent so that the user can see down to the desktop. Microsoft also says that it has made it easier for users to create home networks, and that Windows 7 makes better use of resources than Vista did. The system requirements are similar to those for Vista Home Premium, but early reports say that Windows 7 manages memory better and runs faster.

The first and only release candidate of Windows 7 is expected to be released in April 2009. The OEM of Windows 7 is aiming for an autumn release while the final retail release is expected to be available at the beginning of the Christmas season.

Link: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/
Source: TechologyReview

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Sam

Google India's Free SMS Channel

2009-01-02T14:43:00.008+05:30

Stay up to date with the latest information via SMS. Create your own SMS-based communities.

Google Labs in India recently launched SMS Channels, a new free SMS messaging service for India. It may prove to be incredibly useful. The service allows anyone to set up a group of mobile subscribers to message to, or for a group to message each other many-to-many. A user can receive news alerts and blog updates via SMS

There are many commercial group messaging solutions in India where the primary means of mobile communication is SMS. However, unlike GupShup, Zook and MyToday, Google’s SMS channel is two-way, enabling subscribers to publish to the channel.

Link:
https://www.google.com/accounts/Login?continue=http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/

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Sam

"Faster Yahoo Mail" How to disable advertisements

2008-12-22T19:44:00.011+05:30

Most of the time when we check mails in Yahoo, the browser takes a long time to load the advertisements!! There is a small trick to disable them. No need to use any java scripts or any Add-ons. Just follow the instructions below.

[For Windows]
1. Go to the path "C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc"
[For Linux]
1. Go to the path "\etc"

2. Open hosts file in a text editor

[For Windows]
3. Add 127.0.0.1 ad.yieldmanager.com below #System Administration Related Entries
[For Linux]
3. Add 127.0.0.1 ad.yieldmanager.com below 127.0.0.1 localhost

4. Save the file [Need Administrator/Root Privilege]

Now your "hosts" file will look like this

[For Windows]
#System Administration Related Entries
127.0.0.1 ad.yieldmanager.com

[For Linux]
127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 ad.yieldmanager.com

Thats it... you have done it.. No more annoying ads!! Enjoy faster Yahoo Mail!!

If its not working for you let me know...

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Sam

The Linux Promise

2008-12-20T12:06:00.006+05:30

When you think “iPhone”, you may just soon find yourself thinking “lock-in” with every feature, as a customer of Apple’s phone, services, and partners. Fortunately, hope springs eternal. Increasingly, all other handset manufacturers are coming together and embracing Linux as their platform. Linux fundamentally promises “freedom” and “openness”, enabling you to unshackle yourself from vendors who wish to tie you in with their hardware, software and services. Linux also spoils you for choice: You get access to a much larger base of software that is being developed or ported to mobiles.

Finally, Linux also spurs innovation as it gives end-users and developers free reign to author or improve any software or feature they want. Starting in the last quarter of this year, expect an explosive growth of Linux-based mobiles and handheld devices by 2009. Apple may just find itself fighting in isolation with an exponentially larger market-force.

Discover more:

LiMo Foundation: This is a large industry consortium swelling in numbers. In February, it unveiled 18 models from seven vendors, including the Motorola RAZR2 V8, MOTO U9, MOTOROKR E8, and the Samsung SGH-i800. http://www.limofoundation.org

OpenMoko: With its inspiring ‘Free Your Phone’ slogan, this project allows anyone to freely innovate and customize almost every aspect of the mobile experience, including the hardware. http://www.openmoko.com

Open handset: The Alliance A group of more than 30 hardware, software and telecom companies developing Linux and FOSS-based open standards for mobile devices called Android. http://www.openhandsetalliance.com

Android: Google’s Linux-based software platform and operating system, first unveiled in November 2007. Early prototypes demoed in February and May. The first product is expected in the US by the last quarter of the year. http://code.google.com/android

Moblin: Focused on developing Linux-based open-source software for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). Other new categories of devices such as Netbooks and Net-tops. Intel’s new CPU, called Atom, play a significant role as well.
http://www.moblin.org

Nokia Internet Tablet OS, and maemo: Currently ships with the Nokia N810. http://www.maemo.org

Qtopia: A behind-the-scenes application platform for embedded Linux-based mobile devices. It ships on more than 45 models of handheld devices, including 11 mobile phones. Several million devices run Qtopia. http://qtopia.net

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Sam

Sending text messages into space to contact extra terrestrials

2008-12-19T18:25:00.004+05:30

According to The Telegraph, believers in aliens are sending text messages into space in a bid to make contact with little green men.

"The messages are sent through a website originally created to send Information's, Messages and expressions of love into the cosmos. They are beamed across the universe on radio waves using a giant satellite dish.

Chris Thomason, one of the founders of website SentForever.com, based in Surrey, said: "Lots of people believe we're not alone. They send messages saying 'I am here, Any one there', or 'Waiting for reply to contact me'."

The website accepts messages that it passes on free of charge, but users who want a certificate of transmission must pay £9.95, which includes postage.

Earlier this year social networking site Bebo arranged to have more than 500 images and text messages transmitted into deep space. The signal was aimed at a planet known as Gliese 581C, which was selected because scientists believe it is capable of supporting life."

Source: Textually

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Sam

Serious security flaw found in IE

2008-12-18T19:13:00.005+05:30

Users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer are being urged by experts to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed.

The flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer could allow criminals to take control of people's computers and steal their passwords, internet experts say.

Microsoft urged people to be vigilant while it investigated and prepared an emergency patch to resolve it.

Internet Explorer is used by the vast majority of the world's computer users.

"Microsoft is continuing its investigation of public reports of attacks against a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer," said the firm in a security advisory alert about the flaw.

Microsoft says it has detected attacks against IE 7.0 but said the "underlying vulnerability" was present in all versions of the browser.

Other browsers, such as Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari, are not vulnerable to the flaw Microsoft has identified.

"In this case, hackers found the hole before Microsoft did," said Rick Ferguson, senior security advisor at Trend Micro. "This is never a good thing. If users can find an alternative browser, then that's good mitigation against the threat."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7784908.stm

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Sam

The Social Life of Routers

2008-12-18T10:57:00.007+05:30

How a 1960s sociology experiment could hold the key to better Internet routing.

Just like an old-fashioned piece of mail, data traveling over the Internet normally follows a predictable path. As the Internet continues to grow, however, experts have begun to worry that current routing protocols will be unable to cope with increased congestion. And so, as researchers search for new solutions, some are taking inspiration from a famous social experiment that called on people to deliver mail using only a network of friends.

For many years, Internet routers have used a standard known as the border gateway protocol (BGP) to map out the path that data takes. BGP requires each router to store a list of network addresses, known as a routing table, which tells it where to forward packets of information (based on a complete picture of that network). But as the number of Internet-connected machines increases, routing tables grow longer and need to receive updates more frequently, potentially slowing some traffic to a crawl. A major sticking point for the BGP protocol is that every time part of the network changes, every router must process an update.

This is where the work of sociologist Stanley Milgram could help out. Milgram carried out experiments in the 1960s that helped make famous the idea of "six degrees of separation." Milgram gave volunteers the task of forwarding a letter to a stranger by sending it to friends or acquaintances that might be one step closer to the target. Milgram measured how many hops there were between the sender and the end recipient, and found it to be, on average, 5.2. (The term six degrees of separation was coined later by playwright John Guare.)

In 2000, inspired by Milgram's work, Jon Kleinberg, a professor of computer science at Cornell University, in New York, created a mathematical model for routing information across any kind of network. Kleinberg says that he drew from the fact that Milgram "demonstrated not just that short paths were present in large social networks, but that people--operating without a global view of the network--could efficiently find them."

Now, research from Marián Boguñá at the University of Barcelona and colleagues, suggests that the approach could indeed by applied to real-world networks, including the Internet's routing system. In work published recently in Nature Physics, Boguñá and his colleagues argue that the work of Kleinberg and others can be applied to real-world networks and, specifically, could be used to design a protocol that allows routers to keep track of less information about a network, thereby reducing congestion.

source: Technology Review

Sam

Google Brings Customized Maps to Android Smartphones

2008-12-17T19:45:00.004+05:30

Internet search giant, Google, has made its ‘My Maps Editor’ feature available on Android smartphones, allowing users to create, edit, and share customized maps on their mobile devices.

Users of the T-Mobile G1 (the first phone based on Google’s Android OS) can now map out tour routes and mark destinations using the ‘My Maps Editor’ tool at maps.google.com.

Possible applications of the My Maps tool include keeping track of a vacation (and adding photos upon visiting interesting places), or planning out holiday shopping routes.

“Create a map on your computer with markers for all of the stores you need to visit. Color code the markers according to importance, category, or sales. Then as you visit each store, change the icon to indicate that you’ve been there and list what items you were able to get in the description. If you find a store you didn’t think of, you can quickly add a marker for it to help future planning,” explained Google software engineer, Brian Cornell, on the Google Maps blog.

Sam

<< Im Entering The Blogosphere >>

2008-12-16T15:56:00.007+05:30

Hi all, this is my first BLOG entry. I am thinking for a long time "why not to start a blog to share some useful Information"... Finally it happened on December 12th 2008 !!!

A word about the blog title "knol2share"

knol-------> Knowledge [is]
2-----------> To
Share-----> Share

I can realize that there is so much information that I come across web that is truly useful and I want to share those things in this blog. I hope all my time and effort helps you on many levels.

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Sam Ernest Kumar