Tablet PC from Dell

The Latitude XT has been announced since May through the Direct2Dell blog. The convertible device was alleged to targeting the enterprise and several vertical markets, and also healthcare and educational or learning institutions. The launch could be regarded as an important event in the company's history, as Dell had only sold third-party tablet PC, such as Motion Computing, but did not offer a Dell product. This policy has been adopted, as Dell did not believe that there would be a constant demand for such high-end computers.

Other companies that already had a Tablet PC line pressured the market with their own products. This was the case of Lenovo who had worked on a new and improved version of its ThinkPad X61 tablet. The new product was due to marketing in early May, and it sold for a starting price of about $1,800.

It is in the current trends that, even if the high-end computing devices such as tablets, ultralight laptops and ultramobile PCs are making the newspapers' headlines, most of the potential customers stick to the old habits and pick standard laptops for day-by-day computing. Things are about to change, as Microsoft built tablet features for their latest operating system and showed potential customers what they could miss along with the tablet PC.

Superspeed USB 3.0, a next gen Interconnect

Popular USB Computer Connection Technology Expands performance with Proposed USB 3.0 Specification.

Intel and other industry leaders have formed the USB 3.0 Promoter Group to create a superspeed personal USB interconnect that can deliver over 10 times the speed of today's connection. The technology, also developed by HP, Microsoft Corporation, NEC Corporation, NXP Semiconductors and Texas Instruments Incorporated, will target fast sync-and-go transfer applications in the PC, consumer and mobile segments that are necessary as digital media become ubiquitous and file sizes increase up to and beyond 25 Gigabytes.

USB (Universal Serial Bus) 3.0 will create a backward-compatible standard with the same ease-of-use and plug N play capabilities of previous USB technologies. Targeting over 10x performance increase, the technology will draw from the same architecture of wired USB. In addition, the USB 3.0 specification will be optimized for low power and improved protocol efficiency.

USB 3.0 ports and cabling will be designed to enable backward compatibility as well as future-proofing for optical capabilities. "USB 3.0 is the next logical step for the PC's most popular wired connectivity," said Jeff Ravencraft, technology strategist with Intel and president of the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF). Intel formed the USB 3.0 Promoter Group with the understanding that the USB-IF would act as the trade association for the USB 3.0 specification. A completed USB 3.0 specification is expected by the first half of 2008. USB 3.0 implementations will initially be in the form of discrete silicon. The USB 3.0 Promoter Group is committed to preserving the existing USB device class driver infrastructure and investment, look-and-feel and ease-of-use of USB while continuing to expand this great technology's capabilities.

About the USB-IF:
The non-profit USB Implementers Forum, Inc. was formed to provide a support organization and forum for the advancement and adoption of USB technology. The USB-IF facilitates the development of high-quality compatible USB devices, through its logo and compliance program and promotes the benefits of USB and the quality of products that have passed compliance testing. Further information, including postings of the most recent product and technology announcements, is available by visiting the USB-IF Web site at www.usb.org.

source: Intel press release

Scientist invents computer pillow to stop snoring

Invention by German professor shifts the head's sleeping position until the noise stops. It can also be used for neck massages. A German scientist has come up with a solution for snoring, a computerized pillow that shifts the head's sleeping position until the noise stops.

Daryoush Bazargani, a professor of computer science at the University of Rostock and the pillow's inventor, was displaying a prototype of his pillow at a health conference in Germany on Wednesday.

"The pillow is attached to a computer, which is the size of a book, rests on a bedside table, and analyzes snoring noises," Bazargani told Reuters.

"The computer then reduces or enlarges air compartments within the pillow to facilitate nasal airflow to minimize snoring as the user shifts during sleep," he said.

The ergonomic pillow can also be used for neck massages. Bazargani said several U.S. firms were interested in manufacturing the pillow.

"I invented it because I snore," he said. "I tried all sorts of products, but nothing worked. I hope people who use it will sleep more peacefully."

Source: Story Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

Sony's 40GB PS3 due 28 October?

Rumours that Sony is preparing a cut-price 40GB PlayStation 3 may have been dismissed by the consumer electronics giant as "speculation", but evidence is mounting that just such a box is indeed coming later this month.

UK online retailer Play.com, for instance, is listing an unspecified PS3, clearly separate from the other models, and which is revealed when visitors to its website do a search for 'ps3 40gb'. Presumably, then, we can safely assume Sony is readying a 666GB version of the console.

HE LAST CAUGHT

Late at night
under the stars

everything was dark
except the thought
that i had
of the last CAUGHT

picturing you in the sky
we play around, run n fly
.
...
.....

wondering now, to meet again
to capture u once again


hours spent in your thought
but, now it were the rays.. that i caught
striking the eyes woke me up
breaking the thought that i BROUGHT

nishi...

Irish firm launches 'global' mobile phone

Irish firm Cubic Telecom has launched the first 'truly global' mobile phone at a major industry exhibition in California.

The 'Cubic Mobile' phone was launched Monday at the prestigious TechCrunch 40 trade show in San Francisco, where Cubic was the only Irish exhibitor of the 40 companies in attendance. The new phone is a dual-band GSM/Wi-Fi device that includes several features the company says will help reduce the cost of long-distance calling.

It uses the 'MAXroam' SIM card, claimed to be the world's first universal SIM card, which offers favourable country-to-country phone rates anywhere in the world. Cubic says the card is the result of years of negotiations with GSM carriers around the world. The phone also offers full PBX functionality, allowing users to create up to 50 permanent local phone numbers for themselves. Cubic is also offering free Voice over IP (VoIP) calls within its network.

Cubic says the new phone is aimed at three key sectors of the mobile market: Emigres who buy pre-paid calling cards to call friends and family overseas, travellers looking to reduce the costs associated with roaming, and globally distributed teams from commercial, not-for-profit or governmental organisations.

Two versions of the handset will be available from 1 October: A basic version priced at EUR99.95 and a Windows Mobile version selling for EUR159.95. Both devices come with the MAXroam SIM card pre-installed. The card can also be purchased separately for use in any unlocked GSM phone, priced at EUR29.99.

The launch of the Cubic Mobile comes after the company secured EUR5 million of funding for the development of new products in August of this year. Cubic has offices in Canada and Portugal as well as headquarters in Cork and offers its services in 160 countries. The firm currently employs 10 people worldwide but says it is aiming to double its headcount by the end of the year.

Apples iPod classic released

The iPod Classic has a metal face, not a plastic one. The shiny, curved chrome-like backplate is still there, but now it's attached to an anodised aluminium sheet that curves gently forward before forming a flat space in which the display and click wheel are mounted.

The casing - its the same material used in last year's iPod Nano update - is tactile and has a satin sheen quite unlike the patent gloss of old. That's good for the black Classic, which is now far more resistant to fingerprints than its predecessor was and probably more resistant to scratches, though only time will tell for sure. The back of the player however, is just as susceptible to scrapes and scratches as it always was, as we discovered when we were a little reckless in docking the device.

Banner Ad Trojan Served on MySpace, Photobucket

"Yahoo feeds Trojan-laced ads to MySpace and PhotoBucket users. Several banner ads containing Trojan horse programs that can compromise a user's computer have been running on some high-traffic Web sites for the past several weeks, including MySpace.com and Photobucket.com, Security Fix has learned.

According to Web security company ScanSafe it first spotted the tainted banner ads on Aug. 8, and estimates that the hostile ads ran several million times for the next three weeks. Other sites that ran the ads included Bebo.com, TheSun.co.uk, and UltimateGuitar.com, officials at ScanSafe said. All a visitor to one of these sites needed to do to infect their machines was to browse a page that featured the ads with a version of Internet Explorer that was not equipped with the latest security updates from Microsoft.

The banner ads in question were traced back to an ad network exchange run by a company called RightMedia, which was recently acquired by Yahoo!. The ads were being delivered to RightMedia's network from a third-party ad server. According to ScanSafe, those third-party servers included in their rotation several malicious ads that used Macromedia Flash files to load an invisible "iFrame" (used to insert content from another Web site into the current Web page).

The malicious iFrame in turn pulled down code that leveraged a security hole in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser (a flaw Microsoft patched in February) to install a generic Trojan horse program.

Tools like the "noscript" add-on for Firefox can help users block powerful programming languages like Flash and Javascript from running automatically when a user visits a Web site. However, noscript may do little to prevent these types of attacks if the visitor has previously instructed "noscript" to trust the site permanently.

Another key takeaway here is the importance of Windows users keeping their systems up to date with the latest security patches, particularly those issued by Microsoft to plug holes in IE and other vital system components."
source: washington post

First 40Gbps Silicon Laser Modulator

Intel silicon photonics researchers achieve another breakthrough with the world’s first silicon laser modulator to encode optical data at 40 billion bits per-second. With a speed matching the fastest modulators deployed today, these low cost, low power devices could one day bring terabit/s optical I/O to PCs and servers.

Check out the blog for more information from Ansheng Liu, Principal Engineer in the Photonics Technology Lab and Lead Architect of the 40G Silicon Laser Modulator.

http://blogs.intel.com/research/2007/07/40g_modulator.html
source: intel

Tiny Storage device

Seagate announced nine new products on the eve of its annual analyst meeting, scheduled to take place later this week.

Seagate's DAVE 3.5 x 4.7 x .47-inch form factor into which you can cram 20GB ~ 60GB and cost less than $200 (digital audio video experience) platform, for instance, is geared toward people who want to use their phone as an MP3 player, movie player or video recorder.

The unit, which contains a 60GB 1.8-inch drive, can connect to a phone via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or a USB cable, and it can fit inside a coat pocket. Most phones come with a few gigabytes of capacity, at best, so a DAVE would significantly increase the amount of remote storage.

Some companies are also testing out the DAVE as a vehicle for renting movies. In this scenario, customers would walk up to a kiosk and select the movies they wanted. The kiosk would then beam them into the DAVE unit. The movies would contain copyright protection to prevent piracy, Watkins added.

In a twist, Seagate doesn't plan to market the DAVE as a product under its own name. Instead, it will make the DAVE for cellular companies and let them brand it.

At the other end of the Seagate spectrum is a drive optimized for security cameras. The drive, which offers up to 1 terabyte of storage, contains firmware that enables it to accept video streams from several sources.

The product launch also included a 1-terabyte desktop drive, a 250GB notebook drive, and backup drives from the Maxtor line. Seagate acquired Maxtor last year and continues to use the brand for its "value" (i.e. cheaper and less fancy) line of products.

The desktop Maxtor backup drives sport up to 750GB of storage space and cost about $270 each. In 2004, Sony showed off a 1-terabyte home server in Japan that cost about $5,000, so the price of storage continues to plummet.

Seagate also announced new drives for the first quarter of 2008, with enhanced error correction for digital-video recorders, including a 1TB model. In Japan, consumers are already asking for 2TB drives for their DVRs.

Seagate has also said it plans to move into the market for flash-based hard drives. The company now sells only hard drives that store data on magnetic platters.

Samsung Electronics and SanDisk have already released flash drives for notebooks and blade servers. By coming out with its own flash drives, Seagate can participate in what Watkins claims will be a corner of the storage market.

Flash memory is more reliable and consumes less energy, but it costs more, in terms of cents per gigabyte.
source: cnet

Breakthrough drug for schizophrenia

The first new class of drugs in more than a decade for treating schizophrenia worked at least as well in a clinical trial as standard medications, a study released on Sunday showed.

Unlike current anti-psychotic drugs, which block the uptake of a naturally occurring chemical called dopamine, the new drug acts on a different neurotransmitter, glutamate.

The new treatment also reduced certain undesirable side-effects, according to the study, published in the British journal Nature Science.

Imbalances in the brain of these chemicals are largely responsible for schizophrenia's disabling symptoms, which range from hallucinations and delusions to a severely impaired ability to express emotion. Environmental factors are thought to play a role too.

Until now, the only drugs able to keep the most severe symptoms in check without debilitating side-effects acted on dopamine receptors.

Dopamine is the chemical messenger in the brain mainly involved with thinking, emotions, behaviour and perception.

In a double blind clinical trial, a team led by Sandeep Patil, a researcher at Eli Lilly, which funded the study, administered the new drug -- known as LY2140023 -- to 97 patients alongside smaller groups given placebos or olanzipine, a commonly prescribed anti-psychotic medication.

LY2140023 matched the effectiveness of olanzipine for both "positive" symptoms such as hallucinations as well as "negative" ones, including withdrawal.

As important, it avoided some of the adverse effects associated with dopamine-targeting drugs: weight gain, increases in blood fat called triglycerides, periodontitis, and inflammation of the gums.
source: Agence France-Presse, Paris

Storm virus

The Storm Trojan / Bot continues to spread and is now using a YouTube video to lure users. The latest version has a variety of subjects and email bodies but now uses the filename video.exe.

Email subject example: Sheesh man what are you thinkin.

Upon connecting to the URL, which is referenced as a YouTube link but is actually a Storm IP, the same exploit code used in past attacks attempts to run. As in the past if users are not vulnerable they will get a page displayed that requests they run the code manually such as in the screenshot below:

Motorola Q9m

A Windows Mobile 6 smartphone destined for Verizon Wireless. After messing around with it and comparing it with the original Q, it seems quite obvious to the Q9m is a re-skinned Q with a new OS and a number of software enhancements.

Physically, the Q9m is a near masterpiece. It is a simple but good looking device. It is very solidly built, and the metal frame around its edges make it look quite rugged. The soft-touch paint on the back cover has a nice feel to it, and the grippy matte surface on the keyboard is something haven't seen on a phone before. In fact, the QWERTY keyboard on the Q9m is probably the best I have ever used on a Windows Mobile device when it comes to typing. It shares its layout with the original Q, which is its only problem. Prefer if the Q9m had a shift key on both sides of the keyboard instead of just the right. Also would rather have seen a back key in the keyboard layout. As is, users have to rely on the back key that is located next to the d-pad or the one that is located beneath the scroll-wheel on the right hand edge of the phone.

Everything on the Q9m is in nearly the exact same position as on the original Q. For those that count millimeters and grams, its dimensions are 117.5mm x 65mm x 15mm (4.6" x 2.6" x .6"), and it weighs 134g (4.7oz). The only real differences, apart from the keyboard and the choice of materials, are the lack of an IR port on the Q9m and the fact that the d-pad and the plastic keys that surround it have changed slightly in size and position. The new d-pad looks better than the Q's, but I think I prefer the old one for actual use. In any event, it works fine.

How to watch TV on your PC

Feature Watching TV used to be a passive affair: you sat back and watched whatever happened to be on. These days, passivity is passé. Digital Video Recorder (DVR) set-top boxes can pick up programmes beamed out from a terrestrial transmitter, sent via satellite or pumped down a cable and save them on a hard drive so you begin watching five minutes after the show started or at any other time.

You can do all this on a PC too. Getting TV on a PC is just a matter of plugging in one or more TV tuners, either as an internal add-in card or a USB clip-on, and running the control software. While your computer's screen might not be a sharp or as big as the telly in your living room, having TV on your PC does mean you can keep an eye on what's happening in the world while you're at work or at play. It's a doddle to archive recorded shows to DVD, and network connectivity means you can watch on any computer in any room in the house or anywhere outside while you are on vacation.

Hardware:

Picking a TV tuner for your PC can be a confusing task as you'll be faced with a stack of choices and a host of acronyms and abbreviations. The first choice: analogue, digital or both - the so-called hybrid tuner? When we reviewed HP's IQ770 PC, which uses Windows Vista, we found that the analogue TV tuner provided a handful of fuzzy TV stations that were unwatchable. To our mind, the appeal of analogue TV is past, particularly with the upcoming end of analogue broadcasts in the UK and other countries.

TV tuner specialist Hauppauge told us: "Analogue provides two key features: the ability to capture from analogue sources, such as VCRs, and flexibility. USB tuners are often used in more than one place, and digital signals may not be available in all of them."

Indeed, we've used Elgato's EyeTV Hybrid tuner to digitise old VHS tapes that aren't available on DVD.

If you want to watch one digital channel while you record another then you need two tuners. However, there's nothing to stop you going multiple tuners. Windows Media Center is designed to run two tuners. However, we're told that you can hack it to run at least six tuners, should you feel the need. Multi-channel, multi-monitor display system, anyone?

souce: register

Compact Disc: 25 years old

Forgotten Tech The Compact Disc is 25 years old. Though the digital audio format's development stretches back many years before 17 August 1982, that was the date on which the world's first CD pressing plant punched out its very first disc.

According to Philips - with Sony, the format's co-developer - the first disc off the Hanover, Germany production line was Abba's The Visitors. While CD production commenced in August 1982, the format wasn't formally brought to market until November, and then only in Japan. US and European music lovers had to wait until March 1983 for the first discs specifically tailored for them. They embraced the format wholeheartedly.

In the UK, Dire Straits' 1985-released Brothers in Arms was immediately snatched up by early adopters keen to put their new CD players through their paces. It was one of the first CDs produced from a digital master made from digital recordings - a so-called 'DDD' album. But other albums proved even more popular.

For many years, it was claimed record label EMI had a single CD pressing plant to producing copies of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, such was the demand for that album. Dark Side of the Moon remains the archetypal CD album - who wants to get up and turn an LP over when you're happily getting intergalactic to the Floyd's spaced-out sounds?
Source: register

Nokia issues battery warning over 46m batteries

Batteries used in a range of Nokia handsets, from the 1100 to the latest E60, are at risk of overheating during charging. Of 300 million BL-5C batteries manufactured by Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. for Nokia last year, 46 million belong to the dodgy batch.

One hundred incidents have already been reported, but none have resulted in explosions, fire, or even a burnt finger. However, Nokia has said if your phone has a BL-5C battery you should probably keep an eye on it when charging.

Or, visit Nokia's website and check your battery's serial number against a list of the dodgy ones. If it appears on the list, Nokia will provide a replacement free of charge. Which is nice.

Though the risk seems minimal, and Nokia is certainly playing down any danger, it's probably worth checking.

Test-driving lunar rovers

NASA is gearing up to put autonomous rovers on the moon for the first time in 2020, so to simulate the lunar conditions, the space agency is testing its robot technology on a remote Arctic crater. Pictured here are two lunar robot prototypes, K10 Black and K10 Red, on expedition to the Haughton Crater at Devon Island, Canada. Credit: NASA

Linux database becomes a browser

"The fashion for "web mashups" just got a steroid boost with the release of a browser that is really a desktop database, with full SQL scripting and the ability to manipulate tabular data found on the Internet.

The browser, Kirix Strata, started life two years ago as a Linux desktop database, said Kirix founder and president, Nate Williams. He told The Register that "the world seemed very excited about it at the time, but sadly, the demand for a Linux desktop database, however powerful, wasn't large... people really wanted server products like MySQL."

Also, the original database lacked two features, said Williams. "People asked us 'Does it do scripting?' and 'Can I work on data in existing files?' and we had to admit, it didn't."

What Strata doesn't lack is muscle. Nate Williams told us that it's a full-blooded database, capable of handling a billion records. "We already have clients using it with 100m record data bases," he said. "We can sort a million records in a minute; so if you sort a ten million record data base, it takes ten minutes."

Even so, Williams and his brother, Kirix Chief Scientist Aaron Williams, felt that the market for a Windows and Linux database on the desktop wasn't going to get them famous: "We felt we wanted to differentiate ourselves a bit, and go beyond a Me-Too product. So we looked at the entire Web as a database, and decided to build a product that would handle that."

Today, as Kirix Strata enters public beta, it takes all those powerful database features, and embeds them in a Gecko-engined specialist browser. A tutorial screen cast will show how the browser works, and it can be downloaded in beta versions for Windows or Linux format.

"When it comes to working with data on the web, standard tools like spreadsheets or even web browsers behave like fish out of water," Williams told us. "Strata puts web data front and centre so you can deal with it in context and then manipulate it quickly." It handles many data formats natively, such as HTML tables, CSV files and RSS feeds. Right-click, and pick a tool, and you have an on-screen, structured table which you can manipulate with your mouse in real time, can control with ECMA standard versions of Javascript, or even, mount a remote MySQL database and link.

"We really didn't think it was worth trying to embed this very powerful database engine as a FireFox extension," said Nate Williams. "There are now quite a few special purpose Gecko-based browsers, like the Flock browser for social networking, or the Songbird music browser. We think that auditors will simply cry out for this ability built into a browser, and we think people are quite willing to try these speciality browsers, nowadays."

In any case, he said, a data engine capable of handling 60 billion records per table would probably never fit into FireFox as an add-on.

In the meantime, Kirix is building up a list of web sites with CSV and structured data, which would otherwise require tedious manipulations with mark, cut, and paste into spreadsheets or standalone databases, but which Strata can simply manipulate directly.

"We're asking people to try it out for us and let us know if they run into problems or have any suggestions for making it better," said Williams. "To return the favour, we're giving our free licences of the final version to anyone who provide us with good feedback during the beta period. Check the beta information page for further details." ®"
source: register

Can't Log On to Windows XP?

If that's your only problem, then you probably have nothing to worry about. As long as you have your Windows XP CD, you can get back into your system using a simple but effective method made possible by a little known access hole in Windows XP.

This method is easy enough for newbies to follow. it doesn't require using the Recovery Console or any complicated commands. And it's free - I mention that because you can pay $200 for an emergency download of Winternals ERD with Locksmith which is a utility for unlocking lost Windows passwords. See here:

http://www.winternals.com/products/repairandrecovery/locksmith.asp

ERD is an excellent multi purpose product, but you should know it is not a necessary one if you have a healthy system and your sole problem is the inability to logon to Windows due to a forgotten password. Not necessary because you can easily change or wipe out your Administrator password for free during a Windows XP Repair. Here's how with a step-by-step description of the initial Repair process included for newbie's.

1. Place your Windows XP CD in your cd-rom and start your computer (it's assumed here that your XP CD is bootable as it should be - and that you have your bios set to boot from CD)

2. Keep your eye on the screen messages for booting to your cd Typically, it will be Press any key to boot from cd.

3. Once you get in, the first screen will indicate that Setup is inspecting your system and loading files.

4. When you get to the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER to Setup Windows now.

5. The Licensing Agreement comes next - Press F8 to accept it.

6. The next screen is the Setup screen which gives you the option to do a Repair. It should read something like, If one of the following Windows XP installation is damaged, Setup can try to repair it. Use the up and down arrow keys to select your XP installation (if you only have one, it should already be selected) and press R to begin the Repair process.

7. Let the Repair run. Setup will now check your disks and then start copying files which can take several minutes.

8. Shortly after the Copying Files stage, you will be required to reboot. (this will happen automatically, you will see a progress bar stating ?Your computer will reboot in 15 seconds.

9. During the reboot, do not make the mistake of pressing any key to boot from the CD again! Setup will resume automatically with the standard billboard screens and you will notice Installing Windows is highlighted.

10. Keep your eye on the lower left hand side of the screen and when you see the Installing Devices progress bar, press SHIFT + F10. This is the security hole! A command console will now open up giving you the potential for wide access to your system.

11. At the prompt, type NUSRMGR.CPL and press Enter. You have just gained graphical access to your User Accounts in the Control Panel.

12. Now simply pick the account you need to change and remove or change your password as you prefer. If you want to log on without having to enter your new password, you can type control userpasswords2 at the prompt and choose to log on without being asked for password. After you?ve made your changes close the windows, exit the command box and continue on with the Repair (have your Product key handy).

13. Once the Repair is done, you will be able to log on with your new password (or without a password if you choose not to use one or if you chose not to be asked for a password). Your programs and personalized settings should remain intact.

I tested the above on Windows XP Pro with and without SP1 and also used this method in a real situation where someone could not remember their password and it worked like a charm to fix the problem. This security hole allows access to more than just user accounts. You can also access the Registry and Policy Editor, for example. And its gui access with mouse control. Of course, a Product Key will be needed to continue with the Repair after making the changes, but for anyone intent on gaining access to your system, this would be no problem.

And in case you are wondering, NO, you cannot cancel install after making the changes and expect to logon with your new password.

Cancelling will just result in Setup resuming at bootup and your changes will be lost.

Ok, now that your logon problem is fixed, you should make a point to prevent it from ever happening again by creating a Password Reset Disk. This is a floppy disk you can use in the event you ever forget your log on password. It allows you to set a new password.

Here's how to create one if your computer is NOT on a domain:

* Go to the Control Panel and open up User Accounts.
* Choose your account (under Pick An Account to Change) and under Related Tasks, click
"Prevent a forgotten password".
* This will initiate a wizard.
* Click Next and then insert a blank formatted floppy disk into your A: drive.
* Click Next and enter your logon password in the password box.
* Click Next to begin the creation of your Password disk.
* Once completed, label and save the disk to a safe place

How to Log on to your PC Using Your Password Reset Disk

Start your computer and at the logon screen, click your user name and leave the password box blank or just type in anything. This will bring up a Logon Failure box and you will then see the option to use your Password Reset disk to create a new password. Click it which will initiate the Password Reset wizard. Insert your password reset disk into your floppy drive and follow the wizard which will let you choose a new password to use for your account.

Note: If your computer is part of a domain, the procedure for creating a password disk is different.

Given below is the step by step instructions:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;306214&

Book Composed on Cell Phone

An Italian writer decided to put his nokia mobile phone to good use during his daily commute to and from work -- by writing a book.

Robert Bernocco, an IT professional took advantage of his travel time by writing a 384-page science fiction novel, "Compagni di Viaggo" (Fellow Travelers), on his Nokia using the phone's T9 typing system.

"It really was a time management issue. He had a book in him and really wanted to write it but found he just didn't have the time to sit and do it on a computer," said Gail Jordan, PR director at the book's publishers, Lulu.com.

Writing in standard Italian rather than text-message shorthand, Bernocco divided his manuscript into short paragraphs, saved them on his phone and then downloaded them onto his home computer for proof reading and editing.

"Only a few years ago I would have struggled to find both the time and the publisher to enable me to create this book," Bernocco said in a statement. "Thanks to my Nokia and Lulu, I am now proud to be a published author."

Lulu.com has more than a million registered members and was developed by Canadian businessman Bob Young to publish books, videos and multimedia on the Internet.

"The fact that this gentleman had this -- no pun intended -- novel idea to do it off his phone and found it so simple to then upload it on our site and create a book speaks exactly to what we do, we are time saving for people," Jordan told Reuters.

There are about 323,000 items published on lulu.com. Bernocco's book is currently ranked at 19,720 by sales and can be purchased for $17.38.
Source: Reuters

India added 7.3 mln wireless users in June

"Indian wireless telecom operators added a record 7.34 million subscribers in June, lifting the user base to 185.13 million, the country's telecoms regulator said on Wednesday.

Wireless phone subscribers in June were 65 percent higher than a year earlier, according to TRAI report. India is the world's fastest growing market for mobile services.
Analysts forecast the wireless user base will top 500 million in 5 years, as less than 20 percent of India's 1.1 billion population own a telephone. Including fixed-line phones, total telephone subscribers grew 47 percent from a year earlier to 225.21 million, the regulator said.

During the April-June quarter, 20.02 million wireless users signed up, but fixed-line connections witnessed a decline of 0.66 million, it said. Bharti Airtel, which had a subscriber base of 42.7 million at the end of June, is India's top mobile services firm, followed by Reliance, Hutchison Essar and state-run BSNL." Report: Reuters

Nokia N-Gage gets developer support

Nokia is the most targeted platform around the world, according to a survey of mobile developers. The research, from Evans Data, a specialist in analysis of developer trends, says the situation is slightly different in the US where the focus is on Motorola.

The dominance of Nokia in Europe is no surprise, but the company's platform is now the most popular in Asia too - in fact, everywhere except the US.

The research also shows that 64 per cent of development companies are working on some form of open source application, and half of them plan to introduce location-based information into their apps - except in Latin America, for some reason.

In other Nokia news, premier mobile games developer Digital Chocolate has signed up to create content for the new N-Gage platform. ®

World map of social networks

Here is a world map of social networks. Social network was first pioneer by friendster but now it appears that they’re fighting a lost cause, retreating to south east asia only.

Next version of Ms OS Windows "7" will release within 3 years

Microsoft's Windows 7, the next client version of the operating system, will be among the steps taken by Microsoft to establish a more predictable release schedule, according to sources.

Like Vista, Windows 7 will ship in consumer and business versions, and in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The company also confirmed that it is considering a subscription model to complement Windows, but did not provide specifics or a time frame.

Next up on Microsoft's agenda is Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista, which is expected before year's end. Windows 7 was previously known by the code name Vienna. A Microsoft representative confirmed that Windows 7 is the internal code name for the next client release of Windows.

Origin Of Perennial Water-ice At South Pole Of Mars

Combined with models of the Martian climate, scientists can now suggest how the orbit of Mars around the Sun affects the deposition of water ice at the Martian South Pole.

The OMEGA instrument on board ESA's Mars Express has characterised the types of ice deposits present in the South polar cap of Mars as the arrows, superimposed on an image taken by the HRSC instrument, indicate. (Credit: ESA - DLR - FU Berlin (G. Neukum)) Early during the mission, the OMEGA instrument (Visible and Infrared Mineralogical Mapping Spectrometer) on board Mars Express had already found previously undetected perennial deposits of water-ice.

They are sitting on top of million-year old layered terrains and provide strong evidence for a recent glacial activity. However, only now a realistic explanation for the age of the deposits and the mechanism of their formation could finally be suggested. This was achieved thanks to the OMEGA mapping and characterisation of these ice deposits, combined with the computer-generated Martian Global Climate Models (GCMs).

The mapping and spectral analysis by OMEGA has shown that the perennial deposits on the Martian South Pole are of essentially three types: water-ice mixed with carbon dioxide (CO2) ice, tens-of-kilometres-wide patches of water-ice, and deposits covered by a thin layer of CO2 ice.

The discovery of the ice deposits of the first type confirms the long-standing hypothesis that CO2 acts as a cold-trap for water-ice. But how were the other two types of deposits, not ‘trapped’ by CO2, accumulated and preserved over time? Franck Montmessin, from the Service d'Aéronomie du CNRS/IPSL (France) and lead author of the findings, explains how the deposits of water ice at the Martian's poles 'behave'. "We believe that the deposits of water-ice are juggled between Mars’ North and South Poles over a cycle that spans 51,000 years, corresponding to the time span in which the planet's precession is inverted."

Precession is the phenomenon by which the rotation axis of a planet wobbles. Montmessin and colleagues came to the conclusion by turning back time in their Mars climate computer model. This was done by changing the precession together with other orbital information. The scientists set the clock 21,000 years back, when the closest vicinity of the planet to the Sun corresponded to the northern summer – a situation opposite to that of today. The model has shown that water at the North Pole was in an unstable condition and was easily transported to the South Pole in the form of water vapour, to then re-condense and freeze on the surface.

Up to 1 millimetre of water ice was deposited at the South Pole every year. After Mars has spent more than 10,000 years in that climatic configuration, this accumulation led to a layer up to 6-metre thick. About 10,000 years ago the precession cycle was inverted, and started to return to its current configuration. Water-ice at the South Pole became unstable, and was forced to progressively return back to the North.

About 1000 years ago, by a not-yet-well explained trigger mechanism, the erosion of the water-ice deposits at the South pole was blocked as soon as layers of CO2 ice were deposited on the water-ice and trapped it, as OMEGA has observed them. Mars is currently experiencing 'Southern summer' – that is, water ice is more likely to accumulate at the North Pole.

The findings appear in the paper 'On the origin of perennial water ice at the South Pole of Mars: a precession-controlled mechanism?', by F. Montmessin, R. M. Haberle, F. Forget, Y. Langevin, R. T. Clancy and J.-P. Bibring, accepted for publication in the JGR Planets journal, and presented at the 7th International Conference on Mars, Pasadena, California (9-13 July 2007).

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by European Space Agency.

Lioness freed from Gaza

Sabrina, Lioness stolen 2 years from Gaza Zoo, was kidnapped by

Hasaneen family, a powerful mafia gang. They removed her claws and teeth and used her as a main attraction in a studio Gaza city.

Google Maps is ready to create a mashup

"Google Maps is launching a new feature that enables people to create customized maps with content from multiple mashup Web sites.

Users can browse the 100 or so many maplets for content to add to their maps. There aren't necessarily a lot of maplets available right now, but I'm sure the list will grow. For instance, searching for "bike" there was only bike path maplets for Boulder and New York City. But residents of Tokyo and Santiago will benefit from having access to their subway maps available.

Google has distributed more than 50,000 Google Maps API keys, said Thai Tran, a product manager for Google Maps. Creators of existing Google mashup Web sites can modify their code slightly and add it to the Google maplet gallery so that it can be combined with other mashups on anyone's personal map, he said.

Google is really pushing the mapping envelope. In April, the company introduced a feature that lets people add their own text, photos and video to customized maps, in essence enabling anyone to create a mashup. A few weeks ago, the company unveiled a feature that lets people click and drag to change the Google Maps driving directions."
report Posted by Elinor Mills in cnet

Google, Yahoo creating new social networks

"Bloggers are reporting that Google and Yahoo are working on new social networks now that their existing services (Orkut and 360, respectively) have failed to gain traction, except in Brazil in Orkut's case.

Google sponsored a project last year at Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute that was designed to "rethink and reinvent online social networking," the Google Operating System blog reported. The site also has screenshots. Dubbed "Socialstream," the service would be more like a unified social network that would allow someone to have accounts on multiple services but centralized contacts in one location.

Meanwhile, Yahoo already started "ourcity" a new network in india and they have a project called "Mosh," according to TechCrunch. The posting was updated with a job description for a summer intern spot at Yahoo on a "cool new social network product." According to the post, Yahoo's looking for someone with lots of friends on MySpace and Facebook and who is "damn funny."

Representatives from Google did not immediately return an e-mail seeking comment on the report. A Yahoo spokeswoman said: "We recently gave our employees the chance to test out an alpha service, which will help people benefit from the social web. We do not have any other details to share at the moment, but we will be sure to keep you apprised of our efforts."

Microsoft, for its part, has talked about a couple of strategies, including making Windows Live Messenger more social network-like as well as creating some kind of meta-social network where people could centralize multiple existing networks."
*** reports Posted by Elinor Mills in cnet

.ASIA domain will be available from October 2008

New internet registration of dot names under .asia on regionwise will issue from October 2008. For this purpose an organization already made up in the name of DotAsia Organisations Ltd. to control the registration of governments and trademark owners of asia region only.

According to ICANN the registration for DotAsia is already started through many registrars around the globe. Other dot names available are .travel etc

AMD and Intel going to cut desktop processor price

AMD cut prices of desktop processors, almost 30 per cent off what it charges for its gaming, mainstream and budget CPUs, as expected. Still, an much-anticipated move to drop single-core chips from the line-up did not take place.

From the top down, AMD cut the price of the 3GHz Athlon 64 FX-74 from $799 to $599, a drop of 25 per cent. The dual-core FX-72's price remains unchanged, at $599, but the remainder of AMD's dual-core desktop CPUs, the Athlon 64 X2 line, all became cheaper by between 29.8 per cent and 15.4 per cent.

Pruned from the list: the X2 3600+ and the X2 3800+. In their place come a 65W 4200+ and an 89W 4200+, in both Socket AM2 and Socket 939 forms.

The single-core Athlon 64 series, which some websites were last week alleging were for the chop today, all saw $10-15 knocked off their prices, making for cuts of 12.7-17.2 per cent. One of the three 3500+ that appear on AMD's previous public price list now no longer appears: the "energy efficient" version aimed at small form-factor systems.

That still leaves an energy efficient 3500+ on the list, but the energy efficient Sempron chips also offered for small form-factor systems are gone. The remaining desktop Semprons saw their prices fall from between 11.9 per cent and 23.2 per cent.

AMD's cuts come ahead of arch-rival Intel's next round of price reductions, expected to take place on 22 July - on which date the chip giant is also expected to roll out revised Core 2 Duo and other desktop processors that up the maximum frontside bus speed to 1333MHz.

World's billionaires 2007

Rank	Name	Citizenship	Age	Net Worth ( $bil.)	Residence
1	William Gates III	US	51	$ 56.0	US
2	Warren Buffett	US	76	$ 52.0	US
3	Carlos Slim Helu	Mexico	67	$ 49.0	Mexico
4	Ingvar Kamprad & family	Sweden	80	$ 33.0	Switzerland
5	Lakshmi Mittal	India	56	$ 32.0	UK
6	Sheldon Adelson	US	73	$ 26.5	US
7	Bernard Arnault	France	58	$ 26.0	France
8	Amancio Ortega	Spain	71	$ 24.0	Spain
9	Li Ka-shing	Hong Kong	78	$ 23.0	Hong Kong
10	David Thomson & family	Canada	49	$ 22.0	Canada
11	Lawrence Ellison	US	62	$ 21.5	US
12	Liliane Bettencourt	France	84	$ 20.7	France
13	Prince Alwaleed Bin T. Alsaud	Saudi Arabia	50	$ 20.3	KSA
14	Mukesh Ambani	India	49	$ 20.1	India
15	Karl Albrecht	Germany	87	$ 20.0	Germany
16	Roman Abramovich	Russia	40	$ 18.7	UK
17	Stefan Persson	Sweden	59	$ 18.4	Sweden
18	Anil Ambani	India	47	$ 18.2	India
19	Paul Allen	US	54	$ 18.0	US
20	Theo Albrecht	Germany	84	$ 17.5	Germany
21	Azim Premji	India	61	$ 17.1	India
22	Lee Shau Kee	Hong Kong	79	$ 17.0	Hong Kong
23	Jim Walton	US	59	$ 16.8	US
24	Christy Walton & family	US	52	$ 16.7	US
24	S Robson Walton	US	63	$ 16.7	US