Will the Earth blackout in 2013?

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

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

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Sam

A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure

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

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Sam

Free Fast Public DNS Servers List

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