Marvels of technology

Google search by voice tool for Iphone

2008-11-14T22:32:00.000-08:00

Google released the version 2 of its search application for IPhone on friday, 14 November 2008. It is similar to the first one but this version is a much cool one with a search-by-voice addition, by which the users can get rid of the virtal keyboard entirely. Sounds great eh? The working of the voice search utility can be explained somewhat as follows:

The new search App uses the gadget's accelerometer and proximity sensors to check whether you are lifting your phone to your face. Once it is done, all you have to do is to speak the keywords for search through the mic. Your speech is turned into proper keywords and the search result is displayed within 15 seconds. IPhone owners can get the application via IPhone app store.

Prior to its release, Google had created a demo video on how this works.

Microsoft live search- Another bad attempt to outwit google

2008-11-05T09:16:00.000-08:00

Today Microsoft announced introduction of Live Search Map services in India. So I thought of just trying out the product online. But I found out that Live Search was just another bad attempt by the software giant to outdo the works of Google. Google had earlier introduced Google Earth, an applications which made the papparazzis ( or was it Google itself?) claim that it used satellites to locate the places while you rotated and zoomed into the virtual globe. I found that it has been just a bogus two years ago while trying out Google Earth after downloading the application.

Trying out the Live Search, I could come to one conclusion for sure. Even though Google Earth was introduced much before (circa 2006) than Microsoft's Live Search Maps( introduced in April 2008), the latter contains lesser details. In spite of having such applications like "Bird view images", similarities with Google Earth fails to impress the users world-wide. Google Earth at first impressed the users by the fabulous photo collections they had of important tourist places around the world. When I tried browsing trivandrum, I could at least get some photos of important tourist places here. But a similar search in Microsoft Live maps only resulted in some funny looking map with no further details. It's high time that Microsoft forgot all about winning and started working with renewed energy utillising the capabilities to the maximum.

How will Indians recieve the facility here? Let's wait and see...

Why Microsoft should launch Windows Azure?

2008-10-29T07:38:00.000-07:00

While Windows Vista’s Beta version was released in 2006, Microsoft’s expectations were a bit high due to inclusion of many better features like the 3-D desktop, new versions of Windows media player and other applications by the same company. However, the impact of vista on the market at first failed to continue while the service pack 1 was released in 2008 because people began to demand more out of it. Performance-wise, I think windows XP is better than Vista and I bet this could be the opinion of most of the customers around the world. It could be only because of this reason that microprocessor giant Intel requested Microsoft to continue sale of XP till 2010 so that they could increase their market.

Though there are many better features in Vista like the 3-D desktop, Windows media player 11, better search (it finds out the files that the user is looking for by auto-completion of the queries) for files, faster CD burner and the like, the configuration demands put forward by Vista seemed too sophisticated. In spite of the huge propaganda about reliability of Vista, BPO companies of PC manufacturers like DELL received calls from every nook and corner of the world, complaining about one major problem they encountered – “Operating system not found”- in the new laptops they just bought. Several complaints like this ceased the progress of Microsoft and it began facing crisis in the market as never before.

A 2GB RAM platform (or 1GB dual core) and at least a good graphics drivers like NVIDIA only could make gaming in Vista give an “average” look. Frankly speaking, gaming and other graphical applications developed by the user could run with better speed in XP than in Vista. Moreover, with an average PC configuration, customers find XP to run faster than the 2GB RAM supported systems with Vista included.

It is high time that the software giant realized from its folly and made moves to get better support from people world-wide. It might be the realization of this fact which urged Steve Ballmer to give a hint about their next venture formerly addressed “Windows Cloud” at the Microsoft Student Technology day on October 1, 2008. . On Tuesday, 27 October 2008, Ray Ozzie, chief developer of Microsoft declared that their next product code-named Windows Azure is being developed. It is a cloud-computing enabled system with features including geo replication, network management model, and a SOA model. The new Operating system is expected to hit the market by 2010 and a Beta version of the same may be released by the end of 2009.

Home-made Operating system for Indians

2008-10-26T23:23:00.002-07:00

It has been over two decades since personal computers found their place in the Indian markets. All the time, the system and application softwares used by us had not been Indian softwares anyway. But now, a "desi" operating system is going to hit the Indian market.

BOSS (Bharat Operating System Solutions) is the new venture of C-DAC Chennai. The new GNU/Linux is an opensource software ( as linux always had been before. The desktop version 3.0 is said to support 18 indian languages. Moreover, it has other good features like 3-D desktop, bluetooth compatibility, a PDF reader and other application softwares in all Indain languages.

If you want to give it a try, you can download it at:

http://www.bosslinux.in/

You may also get a free DVD copy if you order the OS at any of the CDAC-BOSS support centres in Kolkata, Mumbai,Thiruvananthapuram, Pune, Hydrabad, Mumbai, Delhi etc. Contact address is given at the website.

who is the best? Google or Cuil?

2008-10-20T06:53:00.000-07:00

figure 1
figure 2

Well, its a bit hard to answer this question. In fact, the comparison itself may seem a little bit awkward if you know that one of the cofounders of cuil was also once popular as the google search engine architect? Yes, that's true. Cuil was found by the most respected husband-wife duo of the Stanford University professor Tom Costello and the former google search engine architect Anna Patterson.

Launched on July 28, cuil is now coined as the latest, largest and swiftest search engine the world has ever witnessed. It was described by software developers world-wide as the " super stealth search project". Cuil is built with a database of over billion pages, that is , about thrice the volume of google index. While I made some searches in the site, I found that there were some features worth notice in the site which could outdo google search engine.

While google depends on autocomplete of the search words by looking at the searches made earlier, cuil finds out the possible words that the user may be looking for. The figure 1 shows the pull down menu that appeared while I tried a search on robot. The figure 2 shows the search results. As you see, the way the results are put onto the web seems to be far better enhanced, with appropriate tab for each category of search results. Also, there is a separate column " Explore by category" which shows similar search results that the current user may be interested in.

But the drawback of Cuil is that it is nothing more than a search engine. Several other services offered by google such as the gmail, google earth, blog search, news, etc tend to make users stick onto google search while not trying out Cuil. But it is not the right time to judge Cuil. There may be add ons later. Even google took almost a decade to shape into as you see it today. Let's wait and watch!

New Frankeinstein type robot in town

2008-09-20T01:22:00.000-07:00

The new innovations that were made recently at the University of Reading, Paris have undoubtedly paved way to prove the century long demarcation between natural and artificial intelligence to be just a mere concept of no value in the future. Scientists of the University have developed a robot "Gordon", the first robot ever to be controlled exclusively by living brain tissue made out of preserved rat neurons.Gordon's brain is composed of 50,000 to 100,000 active neurons!
Gordon is perhaps, a milestone in the area of artificial intelligence which can aid in study of fundamental building blocks of memory and learning - which have always puzzled scientists. Observing how the brain tissue communicates by sending electrical impulses can be helpful to tackle the problems of brain tissues like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The robot has no human or computer control and completely works on its own, making science-fiction writers' dreams come true.

What is a Wi-Fi?

2008-08-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

The term Wi-Fi is an abbreviation for Wireless Fidility, which has almost the same meaning in case with Hi-Fi, which means High Fidility ( a term used in the context of audio recording). It was first used by a consulting firm called Interbrand Corporation.
Enabling Wi-Fi in a device such as a PC, a laptop or a PDA helps in connecting the device to the internet,when it is within the range of the wireless network connected to the net. The basic idea is of having an access point called a hot spot which can be a single one or a series of overlapping access points that extends to a long distance. Wi-Fi also enables connectivity in another fashion in which the devices are able to connec with each other. Such a facility is known as peer to peer mode of connectivity.
The wireless transfer of data from various accessories is the prime advantage of Wi-Fi. Even routers with a modem and a hotspot can give internet access to any device tat is logically connected( which means connected through cable or wirelessly connected) access to the net. Unlike LAN, it can provide secure transfers and a better firewall and so many other functions.
As the price of Wi-Fi chipsets are decreasing day-by-day, it will be a clever move to use Wi-Fi connections instead of LAN since the latter needs cable. So, cost of setting up the system is considerably reduced.
But problems with Wi-Fi connections cannot be ruled out at the same time. Some of them are as follows:
*limited range of service.
*mobility is reduced while used in wider range
* WEP, which is used for encryption is easily breakable. AS a result of the so called security problems, it is easy for another person to monitor the channel data transfers and virtually "hack" the device connected through Wi-Fi.
* Changing channels according to convenience of use require the users to configure the device each time the need arises.
* Due to the use of Wi-Fi by different devices within the range of the same access point, there will be development of noise in the system

Green optical network

2008-07-14T06:52:00.000-07:00

Green optical network is the new product of IBM scientists, which they believe, will be a turning point in the field of Information Technology and data transmission. This new network, which will enable high-speed optical database is said to have a speed of eight terabytes per second(equal to five thousand high definition video streams)!

The most appealing thing about this network is that the whole process will be achieved using only a power of a 100W electric bulb! The green optical link will be providing the possible bandwidth for petaflop and exaflop supercomputing also. The optocards( printed circuit boards) and the optochips of this new network will lead to wider developments in the field of mobile communications and other networks.

The application areas of such a network are so many that they cant be quoted on a single page. Some of them are
*They can be used for speedy transmission of MRI scan images
*They can be used for atomic studies and for subnuclear physics.
*Weatherforcast can be done with ease
*Easy determination of disease and treatment in the field of medical science

New yahoo domains leading to tripled size of free mail

2008-06-19T21:52:00.000-07:00

It had only been a fortnight since yahoo bid " good bye" to microsoft's offer to take up part of its share and signed agreement with google in which the latter was allowed to place google ads in yahoo's search results. Now, yahoo has highlighted its name in news once again. But this time, its not a tale of the partnerships. Yahoo has tripled the size of its free email services.
Giving its journey to regain its faded fame a better start, yahoo has announced introduction of "ymail.com" and "rocket-mail.com " as the yahoo mail addresses. By this step it intend to give its users to have better choices. John Kremer, the Yahoo Mail Vice president says that since they have many user IDs its is pretty crowded. " We want a remedy that will make sure users get the IDs they want". Yahoo's ymail is used for a version of email customised for mobile phones.

New robot penguin in town

2008-06-13T23:42:00.000-07:00

After the successful concert of ASIMO, it seems that revealing robo-pets to the public
has grabbed the attention of the media. South Korean researchers have revealed a robot
penguin which can interact with humans..

Pomi(Penguin Robot for Multimodal interraction) has the senses of hearing, seeing and touching and can emit smells as well as make faces like humans. It can even move its lips,eyebrows and even dialate pupils to express its feelings.

Pomi is developed by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research institute(ETRI). Pomi is programmed to reply users using voice recognition technology. Even it shows a varied range of pulses with the aid of a heart box implanted on the chest. The institution plans to put pomi for commercial uses and the software which enables it to show human expressions will be made available in the market next month.

New technology uses human body as a means of communication

2008-05-20T10:39:00.001-07:00

Nippon Telegraph and Telephones of Japan will launch a system in the near future that will help executives as well as other employees of a firm to enter the company without taking the trouble of searching for id cards in their pockets.

The key for access lie in your body itself. The new technology uses the surface of human body as a means of data transmission.As a result, anyone carrying a special card can unlock the door by touching the knob or standing on a particular spot without taking the card out. The future applications may include walk through ticket gate, cabinet that opens for only authorised people, or a cab which opens to the cab driver who has the right key in his pockets.

The price will be a bit higher than the usual IC card system, the latter comprising of only a chip embedded card abd a reading device, onto which the user keeps the card for reading.

When released, this product will be the world's first commercial application of human body communication.

Holographic memory

2008-05-13T08:41:00.000-07:00

Today's CDs and DVDs store data at the surface of the discs. But scientists are working on a new optical storage method called holographic memory which enables data storage on the entire volume of the disc rather than on the surface only. This 3D storage method may help to store very large data on small surface and will offer faster data transfer times.

100 GB HDD for mobile phones

2008-05-08T11:08:00.002-07:00

Toshiba storage devices unit have successfully
made a 1.8" 100 GB hard disk for mobiles. They
made it using the perpendicular magnetic
recording technology. The electronics giant
feels that its product can be incorporated in
handy and sophisticated equipments for daily
life ( such as a mobile phone) in the near
future.

Smallest mp3 player

2008-05-08T11:08:00.001-07:00

Imagine an mp3 player which is only of the
size of a fingertip. Now a 2.4cmx2.4cm mp3
player with 2GB memory and capable of playing
mp1,mp2,hsfw,maw,mv formats in addition to mp3
format is available at th market. The mp3
player also features fm radio facility.

Biometric thumb drives

2008-05-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

Heard of biometric security for computers? Ya,
the same technology which is shown in the
advertisement of latest lenovo laptops in
which face identification is done as a
security for logging in. Well, leading flash
drive manufacturer Transcend has made a flash
drive which uses biometric security - Jetflash
220 USB thumb drive. It uses special sensor to
scan fingerprint so that only the actual owner
is able to view the contents of the thumb
drive.