Global Warming

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

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

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