Path to Humanity

IBM Breakthrough - this could be something

2010-09-23T14:43:00.002-04:00

An article from http://news.cnet.com - this is something.

On Friday, IBM Research will publish a paper in Science laying out its recent breakthrough allowing its scientists to measure rapid changes in behavior of individual atoms.

(Credit: IBM Research)
SAN JOSE, Calif.--Scientists at IBM Research say they have figured out for the first time how to record rapid changes at the level of individual atoms.

Until now, it has usually taken hours to get a picture of what is happening to a single atom. But according to IBM Research, scientists at Big Blue's $6 billion R&D unit have figured out how to use a scanning tunneling microscope to record and study very fast changes at the atomic level. It is thought that the scientists will now be able to record atoms' behavior at speeds of up to 100,000 times faster than was previously thought possible.

And while it's not known what the practical implications of the innovation could be, it's thought that understanding how long an individual atom can hold on to information could one day take Moore's Law to its extreme and extend data storage much closer to the particle level. It is also thought that the advance could help in the creation of much more efficient photovoltaic cells, and with quantum computing.

The scientists will publish their findings (see video below) Friday in the journal Science.

According to Sebastian Loth, the post-doctoral researcher at IBM's Almaden Research Center here who was the lead writer on the paper, the team's breakthrough is tantamount to advancing the state of imaging of atoms from the status quo being a still camera--where most of the physics was already over by the time any image was captured--to a new era of movie camera-like capabilities where the imagery is captured in near-real time.

One chief advantage of the new technology, Loth said, is that researchers should be able to determine for the first time the effect changes in the environment around an atom affect the particle. For example, he said, when using a needle inside the scanning tunnel microscope to measure atomic behavior, it was previously possible, over the course of several hours, to determine that an iron atom could retain information for a nanosecond. Now, scientists can see that when placing that same iron atom near a copper atom, its data retention time increases to up to 200 nanoseconds.

And while that is still a minuscule amount of time, Loth acknowledged, being able to see that change, and understand how variations in the atomic environment affect individual atoms could one day be a huge advantage in building new products. In other words, he said, scientists can now go looking for ways to affect atoms that will give them results they desire.

"If the environment affects atoms," Loth said, "I can do something with that. I can change the environment. I can move atoms together and try different things."

He added that, "We're not building the next computer, but [we are looking to see] what we can do at the end of data density."

The scanning tunneling microscope IBM used to achieve its breakthrough.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
The truth is, Loth added, that it might take 20 more years to figure out how to build products around this kind of advanced atomic understanding, and it may well never result in anything new coming to market. But by the same token, understanding the far reaches of the data density spectrum, or how photovoltaic cells can be built to be far more efficient than ever before with such technology in mind could alter the face of electronics forever. As well, the breakthrough could open up entirely new research areas, Loth suggested.

Spinning atoms
The new technology works, Loth explained, by placing the tip of the scanning tunneling microscope on top of an atom and blasting that atom with a burst of voltage. When hit with this rush of electrons, the atom starts to spin. And by probing the atom to see what orientation it is in when it stops spinning, scientists can measure the effect of the voltage blast on the atom.

Until now, however, that process only allowed scientists to come up with an aggregate measurement for a single atom by looking at groups of them and extrapolating. But with this new process, they will be able to measure effects on any individual atom at any time--and that's crucial, Loth said, because atoms are heavily affected by what's going on in their environment. "So that's why it's so important to [measure] at the individual atom level," Loth said, "instead of groups."

One thing that's notable about the IBM Research team's breakthrough, Loth said, is that the new understanding of how to use a scanning tunneling microscope will mean that labs all over the world--or at least anyone who has such a microscope--will be able to apply the new knowledge to their research.

"Every university can do this research and develop with all the other tools for scanning tunneling microscopes," he said. "They can build things one atom at a time."

New telescope on its way - 2013 James Webb

2009-02-23T13:14:00.001-05:00

This is an article from NPR

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10116416

The Hubble Space Telescope has given scientists unprecedented images of the universe. But Hubble is growing older; it's been orbiting Earth for 17 years.

And astronomers are never satisfied. They're working on an even bigger space telescope. Unlike Hubble, which sits right next to Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope is going to be sent to a spot nearly a million miles away.

Scientists started planning this ambitious telescope about 20 years ago. Peter Stockman, head of the James Webb Space Telescope Mission office at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, says that, a decade ago, when he would show people sketches of the idea, they were mostly not impressed.

"They would giggle. I think it made them nervous," Stockman recalls. "Nervous like, 'This will never work.' They had no faith that such a thing could be done, and they had some reasons."

After all, this conceptual telescope depended on about 10 technologies that hadn't even been invented. But over time, the project moved forward. And this month, NASA announced that all the prototype technologies had been reviewed and approved by an independent panel. That means the James Webb Space Telescope, named after the second administrator of NASA, should soon become a reality.

To show what the telescope will look like, project managers have built a full-scale model that they've been taking around the country. Stockman says it's an impressive sight.

"It takes your breath away. It's pretty outlandish," he says. "It's so big, and it's unlike any other telescope I've ever seen."

This week, aerospace contractor Northrop Grumman set up the cloth and steel model on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It looks a lot like a giant ray gun that's about to zap the dome off the Capitol building. But actually, "it collects rays, it doesn't send rays," says Martin Mohan, program manager for the telescope at Northrop Grumman.

He says the light the James Webb telescope will collect is very faint, from stars that are more than 13 billion light years away.

"And a light year is about six trillion miles, so if you do the math it's a long, long way away," he says.

James Webb will see about a half a billion light years farther than Hubble. That means the telescope has to be bigger.

The main part of the telescope is something that looks like a golden satellite dish. This is the light-collecting mirror. It will be made of 18 hexagonal pieces that fit together like a honeycomb.

"The mirror itself is 21 feet in diameter, and it has an area about seven times that of the Hubble Space Telescope," Mohan says.

The mirror sits on top of a sun shield that's as big as a tennis court. It has five layers, and looks like a fancy, silver trampoline.

"It's basically like a huge beach umbrella, if you want to think of it like that," Mohan says. "It's there to put the telescope in the shadow of the sun and the reason is, this telescope has to be very, very cold."

The telescope will be kept at around 370 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit. It needs to be that cold because it's designed to sense infrared radiation, which comes from anything warm. The telescope could be blinded by warmth from the sun or anything else. So it's going to be sent out into the cold of space, nearly a million miles away from Earth, about four times farther away than the moon.

To get there, the whole telescope is going to be folded up like origami and stuffed into a rocket. Once it's in space, it's supposed to deploy itself. If it doesn't, it's going to be too far away to fix, unlike Hubble, which famously had some corrective optics installed by astronauts.

Peter Stockman, at the Space Telescope Science Institute, says that some people find this a little worrisome.

"We have to constantly reassure astronomers, and people who fund us, that these things are being tested sufficiently on the ground, that they won't go wrong," he says.

NASA, along with other space agencies, plans to invest more than $4 billion in building and operating this telescope over its five- to 10-year lifetime. In 2013, if all goes well, the James Webb Space Telescope will head out to its lonely outpost in the blackness of space.

The telescope will capture images of what the universe looked like just 400 million years after the Big Bang.

"We're trying to see, what were the conditions like back then," Stockman says. "How was it that it chose to form into the stars and galaxies and planets that we have today? It's a curiosity and a fascination, and our lives, in a large sense, were affected by what went on then."

Indian incidents compared to US'

2009-01-11T14:43:00.002-05:00

Something that perplex me is why any major incidents that happen in India is compared to the ones in US.

Militants attack on Mumbai (Taj, Oberoi) was compared to US 9/11 and now the satyam debacle is compared to US Enron.

Are we that bad to compare ourselves with a country that tops in trade deficit? Did we loose our originality? Why are we so much hung up on the western world? Or is it good to compare with country that is doing bad and alert ourselves not to go in that direction in the future?

Is US really that great to be compared? Hope I will dig far enough to find some answers?

How to Accept Criticism With Grace and Appreciation

2008-10-10T09:57:00.000-04:00

This is from wikihow.com

How do you deal with criticism? The first reaction for many of us is to defend ourselves, or worse yet to lash back. And yet, while criticism can be taken as hurtful and demoralizing, it can also be viewed in a positive way: it is honesty, and it can spur us to do better. It’s an opportunity to improve and build up our true talents.

[edit] StepsStop your first reaction. If your first reaction is to lash back at the person giving the criticism, or to become defensive, take a minute before reacting at all. Take a deep breath, and give it a little thought. For example, let a critical email sit in your in-box for at least an hour before replying. Or walk away from someone instead of saying something you’ll regret later. That cooling off time allows you to give it a little more thought beyond your initial reaction. It allows logic to step in, past the emotion. This is not a criticism against emotion, but when it’s a negative emotion, sometimes it can cause more harm than good. So let your emotions run their course, and then respond when you feel calmer.
Turn a negative into a positive. One of the keys to success in anything you do is the ability to find the positive in things that most people see as a negative. Sickness forces you to stop your exercise program? That’s a welcome rest. Tired of your job? That’s a time to rediscover what’s important and to look for a better job. Super typhoon ruined all your possessions? This allows you to realize that your stuff isn’t important, and to be thankful that your loved ones are still alive and safe. You can do the same thing with criticism: find the positive in it. Sure, it may be rude and mean, but in most criticism, you can find a nugget of gold: honest feedback and a suggestion for improvement.
See it as an opportunity to improve — and without that constant improvement, we are just sitting still. Improvement is a good thing. For example, this criticism: “You write about the same things over and over and your blog posts are boring and stale", can be read: “I need to increase the variety of my posts and find new ways of looking at old things.” That’s just one example of course — you can do that with just about any criticism. Sometimes it’s just someone having a bad day, but many times there’s at least a grain of truth in the criticism.
Thank the critic. Even if someone is harsh and rude, thank them. They might have been having a bad day, or maybe they’re just a negative person in general. But even so, your attitude of gratitude will probably catch them off-guard. Thanking a critic can actually win a few of them over. All because of a simple act of saying thank you for the criticism. It’s unexpected, and often appreciated. And even if the critic doesn’t take your “thank you” in a good way, it’s still good to do — for yourself. It’s a way of reminding yourself that the criticism was a good thing for you, a way of keeping yourself humble.
Learn from the criticism. After seeing criticism in a positive light, and thanking the critic, don’t just move on and go back to business as usual. Actually try to improve. That’s a difficult concept for some people, because they often think that they’re right no matter what. But no one is always right. You, in fact, may be wrong, and the critic may be right. So see if there’s something you can change to make yourself better. And then make that change. Actually strive to do better. You'll end up being glad you made the extra effort.
Be the better person. Too many times we take criticism as a personal attack, as an insult to who we are. But it’s not. Well, perhaps sometimes it is, but we don’t have to take it that way. Take it as a criticism of your actions, not your person. If you do that, you can detach yourself from the criticism emotionally and see what should be done. But the way that many of us handle the criticisms that we see as personal attacks is by attacking back. “I’m not going to let someone talk to me that way.” Especially if this criticism is made in public, such as in the comments of a blog or on a forum. You have to defend yourself, and attack the attacker … right? Wrong. By attacking the attacker, you are stooping to his level. Even if the person was mean or rude, you don’t have to be the same way. You don’t have to commit the same sins. Be the better person.
Stay calm and positive. If you can rise above the petty insults and attacks, and respond in a calm and positive manner to the meat of the criticism, you will be the better person. And guess what? There are two amazing benefits of this:

Others will admire you and think better of you for rising above the attack. Especially if you remain positive and actually take the criticism well.
You will feel better about yourself. By participating in personal attacks, we dirty ourselves. But if we can stay above that level, we feel good about who we are. And that’s the most important benefit of all.
Rise above the criticism. How do you stay above the attacks and be the better person? By removing yourself from the criticism, and looking only at the actions criticized. By seeing the positive in the criticism, and trying to improve. By thanking the critic. And by responding with a positive attitude. A quick example:

Someone criticizes something you have written by saying, “You’re an idiot. I don’t understand what x has to do with y.” A good typical response should be to ignore the first sentence. And second, to say something like, “Thanks for giving me an opportunity to clarify that. I don’t think I made it as clear as I should have. What x has to do with y is … blah blah. Thanks for the great question!” And by ignoring the insult, taking it as an opportunity to clarify, thanking the critic, using the opportunity to explain your point further, and staying positive, you have accepted the criticism with grace and appreciation. And in doing so, remained the better person, and you will feel great about yourself.

Next step in the internet world

2008-08-13T14:15:00.001-04:00

An article from BBC

'Slow' light to speed up the net

A huge increase in the speed of the internet could be produced by slowing parts of it down, say researchers.

Applying the brakes could be the "metamaterials" that may make it possible to create invisibility cloaks.

The net's speed limit comes about not in transporting information, but in routing it to its various destinations.

Metamaterials could replace the bulky and slow electronics that do the routing, paving the way for lightning fast speeds.

Dividing light

High-speed telecommunications routes include fibre-optic cables that span vast distances, carrying different streams of information in different channels—each with its own frequency of light.

As data nears the end of its journey, these frequencies must be separated and sent to their destinations.

The separation is accomplished with bulky equipment that spreads the closely spaced frequencies in the pulses into different detectors.

The ability to slow the light could be a tremendous force for telecoms

Xiang Zhang

The light must then be converted into electrical signals which are stored, routed, and turned back into optical signals with lasers. The conversion, besides adding significant cost and complexity, also slows down the data transmission.

"It limits the speed of the whole process to the speed of your electronics," says Dr Chris Stevens from the department of engineering sciences at the University of Oxford.

"The light and the fibres can quite cheerfully sustain a couple of terahertz, but your electronics can't do more than a few gigahertz."

It is at this point that the metamaterials prove most useful. If the light signals could be slowed sufficiently during the switching process, there would be no need for the electrical conversion step.

Hurry up and wait

The optical properties of metamaterials are accomplished by design—which is why they are touted for use in cloaking—and they can be engineered to deliberately slow light down.

The effect could be used to store light signals, with different delays for different frequencies, in a so-called "all optical network".

"The ability to slow the light could be a tremendous force for telecoms that is sure to enhance speed and efficiency," says Professor Xiang Zhang, the University of California researcher who demonstrated cloaking earlier this week.

The design of the metamaterials gives them their properties

The metamaterials could be engineered to accomplish the frequency spreading step as well, working much like a prism that splits white light into a rainbow.

"With these materials, you could imagine something more like a single chip with the metamaterial handling the routing—all the capability of one of these big filtering systems, but the size of your fingernail," says Dr Stevens.

Professor Ortwin Hess of the University of Surrey says that the jumps in speed will become increasingly necessary as more people use bandwidth-intensive video-on-demand services such as the BBC iPlayer.

"We're living with what was put into the system before the telecoms bubble burst in 2000," Prof Hess says. "There needs to be more clever ideas so that the existing infrastructure can be used in a different way."

How Orbits work

2008-06-24T16:28:00.002-04:00

Source : http://my.execpc.com/~culp/space/orbit.html

SPACE EXPLORATION MERIT BADGE
How Orbits Work
What an Orbit Really Is
The drawings at the right simplify the physics of orbiting Earth. We see Earth with a huge, tall mountain rising from it. The mountain, as Isaac Newton first envisioned, has a cannon at the top. When the cannon is fired, the cannonball follows its ballistic arc, falling as a result of Earth's gravity, and it hits Earth some distance away from the mountain. If we put more gunpowder in the cannon, the next time it's fired, the cannonball goes halfway around the planet before it hits the ground. With still more gunpowder, the cannonball goes so far that it never touches down at all. It falls completely around Earth. It has achieved orbit.

If you were riding along with the cannonball, you would feel as if you were falling. The condition is called free fall. You'd find yourself falling at the same rate as the cannonball, which would appear to be floating there (falling) beside you. You'd never hit the ground. Notice that the cannonball has not escaped Earth's gravity, which is very much present -- it is causing the mass to fall. It just happens to be balanced out by the speed provided by the cannon.

Getting Into Orbit
The cannonball provides us with a pretty good analogy. It makes it clear that to get a spacecraft into orbit you need to

Raise It Up (the mountain) to a high enough altitude so that Earth's atmosphere isn't going to slow it down too much. In practical terms you don't generally want to be less than about 100 miles above the surface of the Earth. At that altitude, the atmosphere is so thin that it doesn't present much frictional drag to slow you down.
Accelerate It until it is going so fast that as it falls, it just falls completely around the planet.
The required speed for a particular altitude A can be found from the formula

where A is in miles and v comes out in miles per hour. So for example the shuttle, orbiting at 200 miles up travels at

At that speed, it takes about 90 minutes to complete one orbit (an hour and a half to go all the way around the Earth!).

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If we place a satellite way up - at an altitude of 22,284 miles, then to stay in orbit, the satellite should travel at

At that speed, you can show that it takes 24 hours to orbit the Earth. But since the Earth is rotating once every 24 hours, the satellite is going around the Earth at the same exact rate that the Earth is turning. The satellite stays above the same point on the Earth, or looking at it from the Earth's surface, the satellite stays in the same place in the sky. This is called a "geostationary" orbit, since the satellite seems to be stationary - it looks like it doesn't move! This is great if you have to point your satellite dish to pick up a signal from this satellite. Point it once and you're done.

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Apogee Kick
How does a satellite get from low earth orbit (where the shuttle lets go of it) to geosynchronous orbit?

Elliptical Orbits: most orbits are not perfectly circular. All orbits are ellipses (flattened circles) with a high point (apogee) and a low point (perigee).
At apogee, when the satellite is farthest from the earth, it is going the slowest - it's ready to fall back toward the earth.
As the satellite falls it gains speed, and "overshoots" the earth, swinging quickly through perigee, then gaining altitude back toward apogee.
The satellite doesn't stay in orbit at the apogee distance because it isn't going fast enough when it reaches that point. It doesn't stay in orbit at the perigee distance because it's picked up so much speed by that point that it starts climbing again.

Transfer Orbit:
If we speed the satellite up while it's in low circular earth orbit it will go into elliptical orbit, heading up to apogee.
If we do nothing else, it will stay in this elliptical orbit, going from apogee to perigee and back again.
BUT, if we fire a rocket motor when the satellite's at apogee, and speed it up to the required circular orbit speed, it will stay at that altitude in circular orbit. Firing a rocket motor at apogee is called "apogee kick", and the motor is called the "apogee kick motor".

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Gimme More! Orbital Mechanics Web Page an outstanding reference!
Back to Space Exploration Home Page

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Questions
Your questions and comments regarding this page are welcome. You can e-mail Randy Culp for inquiries, suggestions, new ideas or just to chat.
Updated 20 March 2004

Ms Software meet Mr. Hardware

2008-06-05T10:36:00.000-04:00

Article from Wired.

June 5, 1833: Ms. Software, Meet Mr. Hardware
By Randy Alfred 10 hours ago

Ada Byron, daughter of Lord Byron, devised a way to calculate Bernoulli numbers using Charles Babbage's analytical engine. It's widely considered the first computer program.Image: Ada Picture Gallery
1833: Ada Byron meets Charles Babbage. He designed an early computer, and she would write the first computer program.
Ada's father was the poet Lord Byron, but her parents separated when she was a month old. Her famous -- and poetically wild -- father went to Greece, and she never knew him.
Ada was 15 when she met the Cambridge mathematics professor Babbage 175 years ago today. Babbage had already received funding from Parliament to build a "difference engine" that could do mathematical calculations. While that project was still unfinished, he conceived in 1834 a new and broader idea: an "analytical engine" that "could not only foresee but could act on that foresight."
In 1835, Ada married William King, who inherited the title Earl of Lovelace in 1838, making her Countess of Lovelace. They had three children, but Ada's family and social responsibilities did not keep her from continuing her study of advanced mathematics.
Babbage, meanwhile, gave a seminar on the analytic engine in Turin, Italy, in 1841. Countess Ada translated the article about the presentation and showed it to Babbage. He was apparently better at conceiving things than explaining them (unheard of in a mathematician, eh?) and suggested that Ada expand the article with her own notes.
When published in 1843, those notes ran three times as long as the original article. Ada predicted that a computing machine could compose music, draw graphics and find application, so to speak, in business and science.
She also wrote a plan for the analytical engine to calculate Bernoulli numbers. It's now considered the first computer program. The countess originated the idea of a loop in a program, which she likened to a "snake biting its tail."
Ada was also a friend to novelist Charles Dickens, scientist Michael Faraday, inventor Charles Wheatstone and David Brewster, creator of the kaleidoscope. She was an opium addict who had numerous affairs and gambled away a lot of her family fortune. She died of cancer in 1852, two weeks shy of her 37th birthday.
The countess of Lovelace has attained recent fame through Betty Toole's 1992 edition of her correspondence, Ada, The Enchantress of Numbers and Lynn Hershman-Leeson's 1997 film Conceiving Ada, starring Tilda Swinton.
The U.S. Department of Defense named a computer language "Ada" in her honor

Google once again rocks!!!!!!!

2008-05-29T14:21:00.002-04:00

Man am I just falling in love with Google innovative ideas

Google reaches out to developers
By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, San Francisco

Google's Vic Gundotra said he wanted to move the web forward
For Google the future is about beefing up the browser and its bottom line.
This honest explanation of what motivates the search giant was given at Google IO, its developers conference being held in San Francisco.
One of the "reasons we invest in moving the web forward is if it benefits Google economically," admitted Vic Gundotra, engineering vice president.
But he also stressed: "The more money Google makes, the more it pours back into open source projects."
High on the agenda at IO was Android, Google's open source software platform being designed for smart phones.
A demo at the conference revealed some new applications for its Android mobile operating system.
These include a way to unlock phones by drawing a specific shape on the touch screen, a compass tool that automatically orientates maps when a user looks at photographic images of a city, a magnifying tool to zoom in on web content and a mobile version of the video game Pac Man.

The Android touchscreen is reminiscent of the iPhone
The phone being used at the conference relied on fingertip touch but Andy Rubin, who is overseeing the project, said Android could also be tailored to work with a tracking ball.
The first phones powered by Android are due out in the second half of this year.
With about three billion mobile phones already on the market, some analysts believe Google could make about $5 billion annually within five years.
'Key goals'
Google's engineering head Mr Gundotra played down any notion that Android is set to take on the iPhone even though it looks and acts a lot like Apple's phone.
"I wouldn't say that at all. I think the iPhone is just a world-class device with a great web browser that delivers in many respects on one of Google's key goals; to bring the web to the mobile device."
"I am a very avid user of Apple products. I buy everything they make. We wish every mobile phone was as good as the iPhone. Apple demonstrates there is plenty of opportunity to go around."

A demo of Pacman on the Android platform was shown
Many of the developers at IO had come to hear about Google's App Engine, which was launched six weeks ago as one of a host of development platforms aimed at encouraging developers to put the browser ahead of the desktop.
Ten thousand people signed up for beta testing while another 150,000 went onto a waiting list.
The reason so many developers want to work with the engine is because it uses the same infrastructure that Google uses for many of its applications.
Create something
During a conference presentation, Kevin Gibbs, the technical lead for the project, announced to cheers and applause that the engine would now be open to everyone and there was no waiting list.

Google hopes Earth in a browser will be as popular as Google Maps
"You can log in immediately and start using it, so please create something and let us know what you think."
Google also unveiled a rough draft pricing plan which will be finalised and become effective later in the year.
Under the new structure, developers start with a free quota of 500MB and enough computer processing power and bandwidth for about five million page views per month.
Mr Gibbs estimated that an application which received a total of 10 million page views would cost the developer about $40 (£20) a month.
The web has won
As a company known primarily for search, Google is trying to extend its reach and lure developers away from designing applications for the desktop and opt for the web instead.
"We want to accelerate the capability of the browser," Mr Gundotra said during his keynote speech to developers.

Google employees are on hand to demonstrate the browser is the dominant force
"The web is maturing at an amazing rate and it's getting better and better. I don't think there's any question that in terms of the question 'What has become the dominant platform?', the web has won."
Demonstrating the power of the web and the browser, Google said its Google Earth 3D visualisation software could now be embedded on web sites using a simple plug-in.
Google Earth technical lead Paul Rademacher said he expected it to be popular with property sites, where people can get 3D views of houses, and on travel sites where consumers can see the view from a hotel room.
"Now inside a web page, you'll be able to fly through San Francisco or see a 3D model of a cabin with exactly the view out the window of the mountains."

Mission to Mars

2008-05-25T09:27:00.001-04:00

An article from BBC.

Mars probe set for risky landing

Extreme Mars challenge: Entry, descent and landing
An American spacecraft is about to attempt a perilous landing on the surface of Mars.
Nasa's Phoenix lander is due to touch down on Monday in the far north of the Red Planet, after a 423-million-mile journey from Earth.
The probe is equipped with a robotic arm to dig for water ice thought to be buried beneath the surface.
Scientists say the mission should give the clearest indication yet of whether Mars could once have harboured life.
The final seven minutes of the probe's ten-month journey is regarded as the riskiest part of the mission.
The main goal of the mission is to get below the surface of Mars to where we are almost certain there is water
Dr Tom Pike
Phoenix Diary: Mission to Mars
After it enters the top of the Martian atmosphere at nearly 5.7km/s (13,000 mph), the probe must perform a series of manoeuvres to come safely to rest.
It will release a parachute, use pulsed thrusters to slow to a fast walking speed, then come to a halt on three legs.
If all goes to plan, the Phoenix lander will reach the surface of Mars at 0053 BST (1953 EDT) on 26 May.
Nasa controllers will know in about 15 minutes whether the attempt has been successful.

Phoenix will land further north than previous missions
David Catling from the University of Bristol is a co-investigator on the mission. He said the landing phase would be one of the most exciting and tense parts of the journey, with so much riding on Phoenix's safe descent.
"Everyone involved is on tenterhooks and eager to start this unique exploration," he said.
If all goes to plan, Phoenix will begin a three-month mission to search for ice beneath the Martian surface.
It will use a robotic arm to dig through the protective topsoil layer and lift samples of both soil and ice to its deck for scientific analysis.
Building blocks
Dr Tom Pike of Imperial College, London, is part of the British team involved in the project.
"The main goal of the mission is to get below the surface of Mars to where we are almost certain there is water," he told BBC News.
"The orbiters that are around Mars have already surveyed in great detail the area in which we are landing and we know that there is ice - solid water - 10cm, or maybe even less, below the surface.
"Water, of course, is of critical importance because it is one of the building blocks - one of the essential habitats we need - for life."
Landing on Mars is a notoriously tricky business. Of the 11 missions that have tried to land probes on Mars since 1971 - only five have succeeded.

Phoenix carries seven science instruments
Phoenix is an apt name for the current mission, as it rose from the ashes of two previous failures.
In September 1999, the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft crashed into the Red Planet following a navigation error caused when technicians mixed up "English" (imperial) and metric units.
A few months later, another Nasa spacecraft, the Mars Polar Lander (MPL), was lost near the planet's South Pole.
Phoenix uses hardware from an identical twin of MPL, the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander, which was cancelled following the two consecutive failures.
The probe was launched on 4 August 2007 on a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

J Krishnamurti again....

2008-05-08T15:20:00.000-04:00

It is not possible to have a discussion with a large group like this. So it’s a dialogue, a conversation with two people. And we will, if you do not mind, treat it as such. Two friends are talking over together about their problems. They are real friends, not convenient friends, but friends who have known each other for some time, and they are walking, perhaps, in a wood, sitting on a bench, and talking over their intimate problems, as friends do. So this is not only a conversation between two people, you and the speaker, and it’s a dialogue, a friendly conversation, each one trying to penetrate into the problem as deeply as possible, and trying to find an answer to all their innumerable struggles, pain, anxieties and so on. So that’s what we are going to do this morning, two people talking over together and not asserting anything, neither one nor the other, two people who are concerned, deeply, with life, with all its complexities, with all its subtleties, its varieties, the craziness that goes on in themselves and outwardly. So we are together, like two people who have known each other for some time, friendly, going to have conversation together.The first question they ask each other:-1st Question: My son died three years ago, my husband four months later. I find it extremely hard to let go of the memory of their utter desperation. There must be a way, perhaps you may know it. I have come a long distance and found help in listening to your talks – could you speak about death and detachment, please.First of all, let us talk over together what does it mean to be attached and what is the difference between attachment and dependence. What is attachment? Why is one attached to a country, to a person, to some experience they’ve had, to some ideology, to some definite conclusion? Why do people do this throughout the world, depending upon their circumstances, upon their environment – social, moral and so on? This is the pattern man has repeated over and over and over again. I’ve had an experience, something that stirs me deeply, brings a colour to my life, gives a meaning, and that experience, which has gone, dead, and I hold on to the memory of it. Why do we do this, my friend asks me, and I’m talking over with my friend why human beings, wherever they live, cling to this in some form or another, to their land, their property, their wealth, their wives, their husbands and so on. Why? Please, we’re talking over together, my friend and I – you are the audience who is listening. Why do we cling, be attached? The word attachment comes from Latin ‘attaccare’, Italian, which means to put your grips into something and hold.Is it because in ourselves we are insufficient, inwardly? Is it because there is loneliness, there is a sense of to possess something, whether it’s a piece of furniture or a house or a person, to possess something, to say ‘It’s mine’ gives a great deal of pleasure. Is it that we human beings, you and I, have nothing deeper, more vital, and therefore we hold on to something very, very superficial, something that may pass away? We know it unconsciously, something is passing away – but we hold on. We may hold onto an illusion. The word ‘illusion’ means to play – the root meaning of that word is to play. And we play with illusions – they are very, very satisfactory. Or we invent a subtle form of ourselves at a different level. So we create all these things and hold on. Why? Is it that one is afraid to be nothing, to have nothing to hold on to? Is it because in possessing, holding, clinging to something, it gives us a great sense of security, a sense of well-being, because life is very uncertain, dangerous, incredibly brutal. You see the world is becoming more and more like a concentration camp.So why are we attached, each one of us, to something? And when we look at the different forms of attachment, see the consequences of it, that is, fear, anxiety, pain – to see it, and not allow time to end it. That is, I’m attached to my wife; and I see both intellectually and deeply that this attachment has many consequences – painful, desperate – and I see it all logically, I see it intellectually, rationally, and I can’t let it go because I am afraid to be alone, lonely. And I see all this, because my friend and I are fairly intelligent, we are both looking at it. And we say time will allow me to be free of this attachment, gradually I will understand, gradually I will let it go. That attitude of graduality is stupidity, because either I see the whole thing and end it immediately, or I’m foolish, because I like to cling to something, to a memory that is dead, gone. Right? So intelligence is to see the whole movement of attachment, the whole process of it, both the inward and outward, and the very perception of it is to end it. That is intelligence. Not to postpone, not to allow time to dullen the mind… the brain, because if one postpones, neglects, accepts, you are living in a pattern that is already over, that is in the memory of the past – memory – it is dead. And so the brain is living with something that is finished, with something that is past. And living in the past always dulls the quality, the vitality of the brain. Right?So we have examined, you and I, sitting on that bench in the forest, and now let’s examine what is detachment. Is detachment the opposite of attachment? If one pursues detachment and makes that another form of attachment, you are exactly the same thing as before. I hope this is clear. That is, if detachment from my attachment is its opposite, then there is conflict. Right? There is conflict between attachment and ‘I should be detached’. And then my whole attention or my energy is trying to be detached, and yet I know I’m attached. So there is conflict going on. So we have to find out what is the relationship, if there is any, between attachment and detachment. Or there is no relationship whatsoever. When there is an ending of attachment, there is no need to use the word ‘detachment’. There is the ending of it. But for most of us, our brain is conditioned to this process of the opposites.And one has to question if there is an opposite at all. At the physical level there are the opposites – tall, short, wide, broad, ugly, beautiful and so on. But psychologically, inwardly, is there an opposite at all, or only what is? And we invent the opposite in order to lever or get rid of the – get rid of what is. Right? I hope you and I sitting on that bench, are talking about this, and we understand each other. There is no authority between two friends. There is no assertion between two friends who have gone into this matter. So it is a mutual, co-operative understanding. It is not one is telling the other, they are both travelling together along the same path with the same intensity, with the same depth. So if that is clear between us two, that there is no relationship between attachment and detachment, there is only the ending of attachment and nothing else.Now is love attachment? I love my friend, I am attached to every evening to sit on the bench with him, talk over my problems. And I miss when we don’t meet with him, every day on the bench; sit down. So we are asking each other, is love attachment, to possess somebody, to hold onto somebody, whether it is the idea of god, whether it is the idea of liberation, freedom, whether it is the idea, concept, that in possession love grows. So we are questioning what is the relationship between attachment and love.My friend who is married and has had several marriages, and he’s rather wounded by all that. He’s rather unhappy. And he thinks that he still loves his present wife. And he says to me in our conversation, ‘I can’t lose her, I must hold on, because my life is empty without her.’ You know all this, don’t you? (Laughter) I can’t let her go. She wants to do something totally different from me, and it may lead her away from me. So I yield to her, I suppress my desire, my wanting something else, but I’ll accept her and follow her. But inwardly there is conflict all the time, between her and me. Right? You know all this, don’t you? It’s not a new story is it?So I have reduced the whole immensity of love, which is extraordinary, which I don’t understand, to something so trivial. That is, I’m attached, possessive, I don’t want to lose. If I lose I’m unhappy. And this I call love. So is it love? Please, don’t agree. Don’t say it is not. If it is not, that is the end. But most of us – my friend is afraid to look at it, look at the complexity of it. My friend wants to move away from the subject, because if he really sees that attachment is not love, then can he go to his wife and say, ‘I love you, but I’m not attached to you’? What would happen? She might throw a brick at me. (Laughter) Walk away, because her whole life is to be attached – to the furniture, to ideas, to children, to the husband. You follow? So then what is my relationship, who have seen that love is not attachment, is not jealousy, not ambition, competition. Then to me that’s a reality, not just a verbal structure. And what is my relationship to her who is quite different? Go on, sir, it’s your problem, not mine.She will not accept what to me is truth. And see, sir, see what is involved in this. How painful it all is. It’s nothing superficial. It touches the very core of one’s being. And what shall I do? Have patience? Patience, to be patient, doesn’t require time. Patience is not time. Whereas impatience has the quality of time in it. Think it over. Right? When I realise my wife is different from me, everything which I think is totally wrong, and I have to live in the same house and so on, do I have patience, knowing, for myself that patience is not a process of time? Do I realise that, that process, patience, which is putting up, allowing, time to resolve? I can’t do anything but perhaps some other day, another week, another year, we’ll settle everything. So I tolerate the situation. And is tolerance love? Go on, sir, think it out. To put up with something knowing it is ‘wrong’ – wrong in quotes – and say, ‘Well, time will gradually eliminate it’, which is, I’m really impatient to find a result. Right? So I put up with it. So what shall I do? Go on, sir. Divorce? Run away? Leave her my house, my goods, etc., and say goodbye, and disappear altogether?Or I’m asking, can my love, intense, can that bring about a change in her? Please, you’re asking these questions. Can I, who have understood this whole phenomena with all its depth, will that quality of love, compassion, intelligence, bring about a change in her? That is, if she’s at all sensitive, if she’s at all observant, listening to what I am saying, wants to understand each other, then there is a possibility of her changing. If she puts a ball, as most people do, then what am I to do? Go on, sir. Don’t look at me, look at your selves.You see, one of our peculiarities is that we want a definite answer, we want something settled, because then I’m free, then I can do what I want. So, as there is no definite answer to this question, it depends on the quality of your attention, your intelligence, your love.And the question my friend asks: my son and husband are dead. I’m attached to their memory. I’m getting more and more desperate, more and more depressed. I’m living in the past, and the present is always coloured by the past, so what am I to do? And the question my friend asks: let’s talk over the problem of death. You and the speaker sitting on that bench, with birds singing all round them, with thousand shadows and the river running down, swiftly, making sweet sound, and he raises this question. He says, I’m quite young, any moment an accident can happen, and there may be death, not only of my son and my husband, but also my own death. He says, ‘Let’s talk about it.’We’ve spent half an hour on half a question. You don’t mind? Let’s talk about death.From the ancient of times, historically, culturally, from all the paintings and statuary, man has always asked, ‘What happens after death?’ One has gathered a lot of experience, struggled to be moral, aesthetic, collected a lot of knowledge, gone into the depths of oneself. If death is the end, then what’s the point of all this? What’s the point of all this struggle, pain, experience, knowledge, wealth? And death is always waiting at the end of it. I may belong to one sect, accept certain costume because I belong to that sect, which is again an isolating process. And death is the common factor for all of us: for the guru, for the Pope, or the innumerable popes in the world. So that’s a fact. We all want to understand the significance, the depth of that extraordinary event, which is extraordinary. And what is the relationship between death and living? Please, I hope you’re following all this – I’m asking my friend – I hope you’re following what I am saying. He says, go ahead, I follow verbally, I understand this.Various civilisations throughout the world have tried to overcome death. They’ve said, life after is more important than now. So they prepared for death. And at present now, people say we must help our patients, our friends, to die happily. We never ask, what is important – before death, of the many years before death, or after death – which is important, which is essential? I’m asking my friend. Naturally he says, ‘Before dying’, the long years one has lived, maybe ten, fifteen, thirty, fifty, eighty, ninety – those long years before the ending. That is the period of living. That is far more significant than the ending of it. Why is it we are always asking, he and I, why don’t we ask this question? Not what is after, or help me to die happily, but what is my life that I have lived for eighty years? It has been one constant battle, with occasional lapse where there has been no pain, no struggle – something occasionally rarely happens. But the rest of my life has been struggle, struggle. And I’ve called that ‘living’. Right? That’s what we are all doing, not only my friend and I, but all human beings are that – struggling to have work, being unemployed, wanting more wealth, being oppressed, the tyranny of totalitarian states, and so on. It has been a vast jungle. That’s been my life. And I cling to that, to the struggle, to the pain, to the anxiety, to the loneliness – that’s all I have. Right? That has become all important.So I’m asking… we’re asking each other, what is it that dies? Now this becomes a rather complex question. My friend and I have time, it’s Sunday morning and no work, so we can sit down and go into it. Is it the individual that dies? Please enquire as a friend, who is it that dies? Apart from the biological ending of an organism, which has been ill-treated, it has had several diseases, illnesses. That inevitably comes to an end. You may find a new drug that will help man to live 150 years, but always at the end of 150 years, that extraordinary thing is there, waiting.Is my consciousness – the whole of it, with all its content – is it mine? That is, my consciousness is its content, the content is my belief, my dogmas, my superstitions, my attachment to my country, patriotism, fear, pain, pleasure, sorrow and so on, is the content of my consciousness, and yours. So both of us, sitting on that bench, recognise this fact, that the content makes up consciousness, without the content consciousness as we know it doesn’t exist. Right? So my friend and we see the logic of it, the rationality of it, and so on. We agree to that. Then, is this consciousness which I have clung to as mine, and my friend also clings to it, calling ourselves individuals, is that consciousness unlike other consciousness? Right? Please be clear on this point. That is, if you’re lucky to travel, observe, talk over with other people, you’ll find that they are similar to yours. They suffer, they are lonely, they have a thousand gods though you may have one god, they believe, they don’t believe, and so on. All most similar to yours, though on the periphery there may be varieties, on the outskirts of our consciousness. You may be tall, you may be short, you may be very clever, you may be scholarly, you’ve read a great deal, you’re capable, you’ve a certain technique, efficiency – it’s all on the periphery, on the outside. But inwardly we are similar. Right? This is a fact. Therefore our conditioning which says we are individual, separate souls, is not a fact. This is where my friend begins to squirm, because he doesn’t like the idea that he is not an individual. He can’t face the fact, because all his conditioning has been that. So I say to my friend, look at it, old chap, don’t run away from it, don’t resist it, look at it. Use your brains, not your sentiment, not your desire – just look at it, is that a fact or not? And he accepts it, vaguely.So, if our consciousness is similar to all mankind, then I am mankind. You understand? Please understand the depth and the beauty of this. If I am the mankind, the entire mankind, then what is it that dies? You understand? Either I contribute… Either I move away from that entire consciousness, which is me, I cleanse the whole of my being from that – right? – that I am not individual, that I am the whole of humanity. Then is there emptying of the consciousness, which is my belief, my anxiety, my pain, my blah, blah – all that? Is there ending to all that? If I end it, what importance is it? You follow? What importance is it or what value to humanity is it? I am the humanity, I am asking this question. What value, what significance has this when, after a great deal of intelligence, love, I observe this and in that observation there is the total ending of those contents. Has it any value? Value in the sense of moving humanity from it’s present condition. Right? You understand? Surely it has, has it not? One drop of clarity in a bucket of dirt, confusion, messy, that one drop begins to act.And the questioner, my friend says, I’m beginning to understand the nature of death. I see that the things I’m attached to, if I hold onto them, death has a grip on me. If I let them go, each day as they arise, I am living with death. You understand? Death is the ending, so I’m ending while living everything that I will lose when I die. Right? So, the question my friend asks, can I let go every day my accumulation, end it, so that I am living with death and therefore a freshness, not living in the past, in memories. Right? So from this arises a very complex question, what is immortality? One question, we’re still going on, sorry! What is immortality? That is, beyond mortality, beyond death.As we said the other day, where there is a cause, there is an end. There is an end to the effect and if the cause remains it creates another effect. It’s a constant chain. Right? And we are asking, is there a life without any causation? Please, you understand? I’m asking my friend, do you understand what I’m saying? We live with causes – you know, I don’t have to go into that. All our life is based on many, many causes. I love you because you give me something. I love you because you comfort me. I love you because I’m sexually fulfilling, and so on, so on, so on. That is a cause, and the effect is – the word I use is ‘love’ which it is not, and any motive I have is a causation. So I’m asking my friend, is it possible to live without any cause? Not belong to any cause in the sense, organised cause or in myself, to have no cause. Knowing if there is a causation there is an ending, which is time. Now we’re going to find out together if there is a life, daily living, in our daily relationship, in our daily activity, not some theoretical activity, actual – can one live without a cause? Look into it, my friend, don’t look to me but look at it, look at the question first. Knowing when I say, I love you because in return you give me something, in that relationship of causation there is always ending of that relationship. So we’re asking each other, is there a life without cause? See the beauty of it, sir, first, see the depth, see the vitality of that question, not the mere words. We said, love has no cause – obviously. If I love your because you give me something, it’s a merchandise, a thing of the market. So can I love you, can there be love, without wanting, nothing physically, nothing psychologically, inwardly, nothing in any form? So that is love, which has no cause, therefore it is infinite. You understand? Like intelligence, which has no cause, it is endless, timeless, so is compassion. Now if there is that quality in our life, the whole activity changes completely.Is that enough of that question? I hope our friend who put this question has understood.2nd Question: How do you pose a fundamental question? Is holding, looking, observing a question in the mind, a thought, is it a thought process?I’ll read that question. How do you pose a fundamental question? That’s what the questioner asks. And looking at it, observing it, holding it as a jewel in your hand, will that lead to a fundamental understanding of the problem, of the question? Or the understanding, the looking, a thought process? Right? Is that question clear?Sir, I have a problem, the problem is my death. What is the fundamental question I can put about death? Fundamental, deep question that is reality, not just superficial reaction. ‘My wife is dead, I’m unhappy, please answer how to get over my unhappiness’ – that’s a very superficial question. ‘Tell me how to be detached’. That’s very simple. But to put a fundamental question, which we rarely do. And does the fundamental question come out, happen, when there is an observation, listening to the question without any bias, without any direction? Or can thought find, discover the fundamental question? You understand now? My friend, I say, do you follow what I’m saying? He says, ‘Quite. Go on.’Have we ever observed without the word? Look at it, sir, go into it. Because the word has become all important to us – the capitalist, the dictatorship, the German, the French – the word. And do we observe, do he and I observe that our brain is caught in a network of words? Right? Are we aware of this? The word being time, thought, memory. Right? The word is the symbol, the word is the effect of a cause, and we live with words, which is, the movement of thought, expressing itself in symbols, words, but it is movement of a thought which lives with words. Right? Look at it.So the question is, can thought with its words and time, can it put a fundamental question? You understand? Thought being limited, broken up, and can such thought ask a fundamental question? Or, the questioner wants to know, my friend wants to know: fundamental question is not related to thought. Then my friend asks, how does this fundamental question arise? You’re following all this? Please look, exercise your brain, your energy, to find this out, not go off to sleep or all that.Does the fundamental question arise through pure observation? That is, to observe. To observe means not only with the optical eye, but observe means also listening, not only with the sensory ear but the inward ear, to listen, and to look, not translate what you look at into your own terminology, into your own words. If you translate it to suit you or look at it for your convenience, your observation then is limited. Therefore can you observe your wife, the tree, that extraordinary movement of water, those mountains – observe without the word, and listen without the word, and observe without any direction, that is, without any motive? Can you do that? That is, are you listening, I’m asking my friend, are you listening to what I’m saying? Or you can’t sustain a state of attention for some time, because then only you listen.So can you listen without the accompaniment of thought? Which is verbalising, making an abstraction of what you hear, what you see into an idea and pursue the idea. You understand? Can you observe so totally, completely? And if you so observe, what is the need for a fundamental question? What is the need of a question at all? Look, sir it’s like understanding envy. Let’s take envy. Look at envy, which most of us are, envious. I’m sure you’d all like to sit on the platform. (Laughter) And you know, this quality of envy – wanting more and more and more, power, position, reputation, well-known. Now envy: to look at the reaction called envy without the word. When you say, ‘I’m envious’ you are merely associating the present reaction to past memories of envy. Right? Past memory. Therefore you are not looking, observing that movement of envy in the present. Can you observe envy without any movement of the past, which is thought? And when you do so observe, it’s a totally new reaction and therefore it is something new which we have to observe. And when you observe the fundamental question may be, is there an end to it? Of course. Where there is a cause for your observation, there is an end to your observation. When you observe without a cause – you understand?Shall we do one more?3rd Question: I have lived in a forest, close to nature. There is no violence there, but the outer world is the real jungle. How am I to live in it without becoming part of its competition, brutality, violence and cruelty?First, how easy it is to live by yourself in a wood. I tell my friend I have done it, without any boast or anything, it is natural. I’ve done it, it’s very easy, because you’re not related to anybody, you look at the trees, the rivers, the plant, they invite you to look at them. The more you look at a tree, the more beautiful it becomes. The shadow, the leaves fluttering in the wind. It doesn’t demand anything of you. You are enjoying yourself, listening to the birds, to the sound of water, to the lovely clear morning. And one is tempted to live like that for ever. But you can’t. Even there, if you live in a forest, you’re related to somebody or something. You’re related to the man who brings you milk. So there is always – even though one is a hermit – you are always living in a certain kind of relationship with another. And if you are a neurotic saint, then it becomes very easy. Most saints are neurotic. And then they give you food, clothes and all the rest of it.So when one enters the world, the trouble begins. The world which human beings have created, not only the past generation upon generation, which has created this society, but also all of us are contributing to it. When you buy a stamp, when you post a letter, you are contributing to war. When you take the train, you are contributing to war. So you might say, I won’t take a train, I won’t post a letter, I won’t telephone, I won’t pay taxes, and so on. Taxes are rather difficult – the Government will be after you, if you have money. So what will you do? Withdraw completely, not write a letter, not travel? You understand, sir, this question has been put to the speaker, often. Say you are against war, peace and so on, but you’re contributing to it by travelling all over the world. So where shall I stop? You understand? Not write a letter, not travel, not do all the things that are contributory, that help war? Or do you ask a much more fundamental question, which is, why does war exist at all? Why has man, who is so-called civilised, so-called educated, why does he support killing another, another human being. So what is the fundamental question there? Is it nationality, is it this whole idea of isolation? – national isolation, individual isolation, communal isolation. When I put on a monk’s robe or a different kind of robe, I am isolating myself. So is isolation the cause of war? Obviously. When I say I’m British, you’re French, you’re this, you’re that, I’m isolating myself; I’ve a long tradition as a British or an Indian. If I am an Indian, I have a much more ancient tradition, which is isolating me. So any form of isolation must contribute to war, which war being not only killing each other but the conflict with each other. Right?Now seeing all that, which requires intelligence, not just a vague utopian idea, seeing that, the very perception of this fact that where there is isolation of any kind, belonging to one group against another group, one sect against another, one uniform of purple, yellow – isolating. These are the actual – contribute to isolation and therefore inevitable conflict. To perceive that, to see the truth of it, requires intelligence, not say ‘I agree with it’ and do nothing about it. But when I see the truth of it, that very perception is the action of intelligence. Right? So with that intelligence, I enter the world. Which is, that intelligence which has no cause, that love that has no cause, compassion obviously cannot have a cause, with that beauty, with that clarity, with that energy, I meet, I meet the world which is brutal. I act from that love. Or rather, that love that has no cause, acts. I may be a beggar, or very good technician, but the quality of that can never enter the world of ambition, brutality, violence.Now, my friend says, ‘I understand. I understand very clearly what you say, I have grasped intellectually what you have said, superficially.’ Now, how am I to capture it, how am I to hold it, as I hold breath, as I breathe, hold something so enormous? What is the method, what is the system that will help me? Of course, obviously when you follow a system, you are gone, finished. Because you want to achieve that state of real love, and you want to achieve because you’re unhappy, therefore you have a motive, therefore it’s not intelligence, therefore it’s not love. So when you have this perfume, then you can go through the world never that perfume losing its beauty.

J Krishnamurti

Truth about Life

2008-05-07T17:28:00.002-04:00

I found this quote very interesting and I would love to follow this and be one there is nothin comparable in this world than to enjoy the nature's beauty which is God's gift.

"When you look at this life of action—the growing tree, the bird on the wing, the flowing river, the movement of the clouds, of lightning, of machines, the action of the waves upon the shore—then you see, do you not, that life itself is action, endless action that has no beginning and no end. It is something that is everlastingly in movement, and it is the universe, God, bliss, reality. But we reduce the vast action of life to our own petty little action in life, and ask what we should do, or follow some book, some system. See what we have done, how petty, small, narrow, ugly, brutal our action is. Please do listen to this! I know as well as you that we have to live in this world, that we have to act within time and that it is no good saying: “Life is so vast, I will let it act, it will tell me what to do.” It won’t tell us what to do. So you and I have to see this extraordinary phenomenon of our mind reducing this action which is infinite, limitless, profound, to the pettiness of how to get a job, how to become a minister, whether to have sex or not—you know all the petty little struggles in life. So we are constantly reducing this enormous movement of life to action which is recognizable and made respectable by society. You see this, sirs, do you not—the action which is recognizable and within the field of time, and that action which knows no recognition and which is the endless movement of life."

- J Krishnamurti

Innovaters - An article from BBC

2008-04-09T17:27:00.001-04:00

Innovators shortlisted for award

Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys is based at the University of Leicester
The creator of DNA fingerprinting heads the shortlist for the prestigious Millennium Technology Prize.
Professor Alec Jeffreys is joined by Prof David Payne, co-inventor of an optical amplifier which transformed telecommunications, on the list.
Prof Payne's co-inventors, Prof Emmanual Desurvire and Dr Randy Giles, are also finalists.
Dr Andrew Viterbi, whose algorithm aids communications, and biomaterial pioneer Prof Robert Langer are also contenders.
The Millennium Technology Prize, a kind of unofficial Noble Prize for technology, is one of the most prestigious awards for innovation and is given every second year for a technology that "significantly improves the quality of human life, today and in the future".
The prize is awarded by the Technology Academy Finland, an independent foundation established by Finnish industry, in partnership with the Finnish government.
If nothing else, DNA has captured the public's imagination
Sir Alec Jeffreys
The winner of the prize receives 800,000 euros, while the creators of the other innovations will each be awarded 115,000 euros.
Previous recipients include Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the world wide web, and Prof Shuji Nakamura, inventor of blue, green and white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and the blue laser diode.
Continued development
Sir Alec, from the University of Leicester, UK, said being shortlisted was a great honour and "a great recognition for DNA technology and the way it has progressed over the last 24 years".
"If nothing else, DNA has captured the public's imagination; it's out there every single day in papers and on the television; and the technology has reached out and touched the lives of 20 million people," he told BBC News.
He added: "Every single time this has happened it's a drama for that person, in terms of a DNA test; whether it's a father learning about his son, an immigrant family being reunited or an innocent man being saved off death row."
Sir Alec's innovation has been described as a "Eureka" moment, when he looked at the X-ray of a DNA experiment he was working on in September 1984 and saw both similarities and differences in his technician's family DNA.
He said the only people not celebrating this honour were "criminals who were being caught thanks to DNA fingerprinting".
The current research focus, he explained, was to reduce the time lag between taking a DNA test and getting a result, or fingerprint.
"It can be as quick as a few hours, but we want to get it down to a second, to real time. Imagine the security possibilities if we could establish identity that quickly," he said.
Fibre solution
Prof Robert Langer, who is based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a pioneer in biomaterials and has been shortlisted "for his inventions and development of innovative biomaterials for controlled drug release and tissue regeneration that have saved and improved the lives of millions of people".

Prof Payne's co-creation helped transform global communications
Italian-American engineer Andrew Viterbi has been shortlisted for his creation of an algorithm that makes billions of phone calls every day possible on mobile networks.
The Viterbi algorithm, said the Academy, was "the key building element in modern wireless and digital communications systems, touching lives of people everywhere".
Three scientists have been shortlisted for their work in developing technology which made possible the creation of a high-speed global fibre-optic network.
In the mid-1980s, Prof David Payne, and his team at Southampton University, was in competition with Dr Emmanuel Desurvire and Dr Randy Giles at Bell Labs to develop an optical amplifier that could solve the inadequacies of fibre optic cables of the day.
The two teams developed an optical amplifier, called an erbium-doped fibre amplifier, which was power efficient and enabled light to travel along cables without having to be transformed into an electrical signal and then resent with a new laser.
Keeping pace
Prof Payne was first to publish a paper about erbium-doped fibre amplifiers, but Dr Desurvire, now at Thales Research, and Dr Giles, now director of optical subsystems at Bell Labs, were first to make it a working tool.
The amplifier transformed the telecommunications industry and is now a vital part of the global optical fibre network that acts as a backbone to the net.
Prof Payne said he was proud and humbled by the way his amplifiers had helped the global roll-out of the internet and optical telecommunications.
He said fibre to the home was essential if Britain was going to compete with broadband take-up around the world.
"Sadly broadband speeds in this country aren't really broadband at all. I won't be happy until every home has a one gigabit per second connection," he told BBC News.
He added: "If we were able to afford to dig up the road in the 1980s to roll out cable TV then we can afford to do it again."
He said fibre networks needed to grow if they were to cope with demand for bandwidth in the future.
"Forward projections show that we will fill up the bandwidth of the existing backbone around 2015. What that means is that you have to put in as many fibres every year as the growth of the internet.
The winner of the Millennium Technology Prize will be announced on 11 June.

Dikembe Mutumbo - One of whom I inspire

2008-03-26T14:51:00.002-04:00

I have a great passion for basketball game and one person who has inspired me in the game of basketball is Dikembe Mutumbo. Not only is he one of the greatest center's in all time NBA basketball but also a great humanitarian. The world needs more humanitarians like him. Recently I came across this article in Houston Chronicles, I see God in such kind hearted humanitarians.

An article from Houston Chronicle - I want to preserve this for my life time.

They were going to hold a retirement party for Dikembe Mutombo tonight at Toyota Center.
Except he won't stop.
Last year when Yao Ming broke his leg, Mutombo picked his venerable body up off the bench and helped the Rockets hold their season together with a 20-12 record.
Last month, when Yao went down again with a stress fracture in his left foot, Mutombo, 41, stepped up once more, and the Rockets have remained in the hot playoff race with 12 wins in 15 games.
"He's done more for us than I would ever have expected," said coach Rick Adelman. "I can't think about next year. I'm sure he'll decide when it's time."
That time keeps getting pushed back over the horizon every time Mutumbo steps onto the court, blocks a shot, wags his finger, grabs a rebound and lopes down the floor with unbridled glee.
Senior citizenThe NBA's oldest player said back in training camp that this — his 17th — would be his final NBA season.
But now, with the Rockets and the NBA planning a halftime tribute during tonight's game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, he's not so sure.
"It is a celebration of Dikembe Mutombo's career as it's getting close to saying goodbye to the game," Mutombo said, laughing. "Am I putting it correctly or not?"
NBA commissioner David Stern and Rockets owner Leslie Alexander will honor the league's second-leading shot-blocker of all time and its foremost humanitarian. The Rockets will present Mutombo with an oil painting that depicts many of the key moments in his career, and Alexander will make a $500,000 donation to the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital and Research Center, the 300-bed hospital named after his late mother that he built in his hometown of Kinshasha, Democratic Republic of Congo. Each fan will be given a commemorative foam finger in honor of his trademark finger wag after a blocked shot.
"I think it's a good ceremony and a great effort on behalf of the Rockets organization to dedicate a special night for me and the (17) years of my career," Mutombo said. "It seems like a long journey.
"I'm feeling like I've been invited to another State of the Union. I didn't think the commissioner was going to come."
Neither did Mutombo think he would get to this point in the season and still be feeling the pull of his teammates, the front office and the game he loves to return for another season.
"People are trying to get me to say, 'OK, I'm coming back,' " Mutombo said. "I don't want to say that right now.
"I want to play this year and go home. If I change my mind, I'll let you know. At some point, I have to come to the decision that I'm going to walk away from this game. If it doesn't happen today or tomorrow, someday it has to happen."
After one season with New York in 2003-04, Mutombo was told by then-general manager and now head coach of the Knicks Isiah Thomas that the day had come, and that blunt message has driven him for the past four years.
Wounded by Thomas"It's still a wound," Mutombo said. "My wife and I still talk about it. It's still a bit sad to see the commissioner coming and all those people coming to celebrate the 17 years of my career and accomplishments and you look back and say that about (four) years ago, I had a guy tell me that I couldn't play basketball no more, to go to the beach and onto vacation. That's the same guy who's losing his job tomorrow.
"I never said nothing (to Thomas)," Mutombo said. "The last time we played at the Garden (Jan. 9), my wife asked me to go shake his hand, to just forgive him. I went and shook his hand and I told him, 'On behalf of my wife, I want to shake your hand and I forgive you for everything you've done to me.'
"He said, 'Tell your wife I said thank you so much.' That was the way to put it behind me.
"I think it helped me a lot. You might not be appreciated by everyone. But you have to fight your own war."
The Knicks traded his rights to Chicago in August 2004 and one month later he came to the Rockets, where he quickly became beloved.
"What can you get the man who could be the reincarnation of Mother Teresa," teammate Shane Battier said. "I don't think there is anything we could give him to signify how much we love him as a teammate and how much he means to the NBA. Honestly.
Hibernation over"What he is doing is miraculous. Almost an old bear waking up from hibernation after a long winter's sleep and coming out and running up and down the court like a young bear again. I don't really think anybody expected him to repeat his success after Yao went down last year."
In a league and sport where offense is the focus of most attention, Mutombo carved out his career at the other end of the floor.
"I want to be remembered as one of the greatest defensive players to ever play this game," he said. "Right now, as we talk about it, I see myself falling into that class with Bill Russell, Hakeem Olajuwon, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, (Patrick) Ewing, (Alonzo) Mourning, David Robinson, Gary Payton and all those guys that were considered being a stopper. I feel like I'm in that class.
"There will be kids coming into the NBA that want to follow the footsteps of Dikembe Mutombo — being a great shot-blocker and a great defender."
There might also be kids coming into the NBA in another year or two who get to learn from him firsthand.
"Knowing him and knowing his heart," Battier said, "it's going to be very, very, very difficult for him to sign his retirement papers when the time comes."
If it ever does.

Nanomagnets 'could target cancer'

2008-03-05T16:49:00.001-05:00

An artice from BBC.

The tiny magnetic particles are produced in bacteriaTiny magnets made by bacteria could be used to kill tumours, say researchers.
A team at the University of Edinburgh has developed a method of making the nanomagnets stronger, opening the way for their use in cancer treatment.
The bacteria-produced magnets are better than man-made versions because of their uniform size and shape, the Nature Nanotechnology study reported.
It is hoped one day the magnets could be guided to tumour sites and then activated to destroy cancerous cells.
The bacteria take up iron from their surroundings and turn it into a string of magnetic particles.
They use the chains of particles like a needle of a compass to orientate themselves and search for oxygen-rich environments.
For nanoparticles to be used in medicine you need them to be a very uniform size and shape and bacteria are very good for that
Dr Sarah Staniland, study leader
There has been a lot of interest in their potential application in medicine, but how useful they could be will depend on the strength of the magnets.
Scientists at Edinburgh University grew the bacteria in a mixture that contained more cobalt than iron.
The addition of cobalt in the nanomagnets made them 36-45% stronger.
This meant they stayed magnetised longer when taken out of a magnetic field.
'Exciting research'
The ability of the nanomagnets to remain magnetised opens the way for their use in killing tumour cells, the researchers said.
They could be guided to the site of a tumour magnetically.
Once there, applying an opposite magnetic field would cause the nanomagnets to heat up, destroying cells in the process.
They could also potentially be used to carry drugs directly to the cancerous tissue.
Study leader, Dr Sarah Staniland, a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh, said: "For nanoparticles to be used in medicine you need them to be a very uniform size and shape and bacteria are very good for that.
"This increases the scope for their use in cancer.
"You would move them with a normal magnetic field and then heat them with the opposing field."
Liz Baker, Cancer Research UK's science information officer, said: "Targeting treatments specifically to cancer cells is an exciting area of research, but in this case work is still at a very early stage.
"It will be interesting to see if further research into nanomagnets will provide us with a new and effective anti-cancer therapy."
The research was carried out alongside scientists at Daresbury Laboratory in the UK and the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France.

Top tech influencers (Wish I can be one someday)

2008-01-29T14:41:00.001-05:00

An article from BBC

The top tech influencers
Darren Waters
29 Jan 08, 09:28 GMT
The results are in, the votes have been counted and I can now reveal the top 45 most influential figures in technology over the last 150 years.
But before I do, I should point out that I was part of the panel that helped compile the list. And when I say “panel”, I mean I was invited to cast my votes alongside other tech journalists, including hacks from IT Pro and The Inquirer, ZDNet, among others.
We didn’t vote en masse, we all have individual votes from a long list of about 70 names, which contracted and swelled as we immediately struck out some names – eg Richard Branson – and added others, such as Don Estridge, who led the team behind the original IBM PC. We all gathered to discuss the names, but in truth there was minimal debate and I have no idea how the others voted.
Here’s the top 10:
Tim Berners-Lee – Founder of the modern-day World Wide WebSergey Brin – Co-founder of GoogleLarry Page – Co-founder of GoogleGuglielmo Marconi – Inventor of the Radiotelegraph systemJack Kilby – Inventor of the Integrated Circuit and CalculatorGordon Moore – Co-founder of IntelAlan Turing – played a major role in deciphering German Code in WWIIRobert Noyce – Co-founder of IntelWilliam Shockley – Co-Inventor of the TransistorDon Estridge – Led the development of the IBM computer
So who’s in and who’s out?
Microsoft’s Bill Gates is in. “Of course he is,” you say. But on the night there was a strong lobby from some journalists that his influence has not been that great on the technology industry. But he is not as high up in the list as Steve Jobs, for example. Right or wrong? And Mr Jobs is much higher in the list than his Apple partner Steve Wozniak, the engineering brains behind the first Apple computers.
Tim Berners-Lee is top of the pile – but was this more a reflection of a British voting panel? Certainly, he was the favoured candidate among dot.life readers when I first blogged about the poll.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is out. So what? Well, he made the long list.
There’s no Clive Sinclair, the British home computer pioneer.
George Boole, the father of modern computer arithmetic, is in. How many people would have thought of him immediately?
The inventor of the transistor, William Shockley, is at number 9 while Jack Kilby, the inventor of the integrated circuit is at number 5.
Interestingly, the inventor of Ethernet poll, Robert Mecalfe, polls higher than Vint Cerf, the co-creator of TCP/IP, the underlying architecture of the net.
Shawn Fanning, creator of Napster, makes the cut, and Philip Rosedale, creator of Second Life, doesn’t.
The whole exercise was organised by Intel. And two of the firm’s co-founders made the top 10 - Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce. And the whole list has been put in front of Sean Maloney, who passed comment.
"It’s fitting that the people who have influenced the internet turn up in the top three of the list,” said Sean Maloney, executive vice president of Intel. “This emphasises the way the world is heading and that the internet is our industry’s demand driver.”
Here’s the full list. Remember don’t blame me: I was just one of the judges!
The 45 most influential people in technology:1. Tim Berners-Lee2. Sergey Brin3. Larry Page4. Guglielmo Marconi5. Jack Kilby6. Gordon Moore7. Alan Turing8. Robert Noyce9. William Shockley10. Don Estridge11. Doug Engelbert12. Robert Metcalfe13. Vint Cerf14. Steve Jobs15. Andrew Grove16. Seymour Cray17. Pierre Omidyar18. Shawn Fanning19. Dennis Ritchie20. Ted Hoff21. Linus Torvalds22. Shuji Nakamura23. Dave Packard24. Jean Hoerni25. William Hewlett26. John Logie Baird27. George Boole28. Martin Cooper29. John Pinkerton30. Grace Hopper31. Bill Gates32. Herman Hollerith33. Thomas Watson34. Jeff Bezos35. Meg Whitman36. Ada Lovelace37. Nolan Bushnell38. Claude Shannon39. Charles Babbage40. John Chambers41. Philo Farnsworth42. Steve Wozniak43. Larry Ellison44. Michael Dell45. Maurice Wilkes

Getting there - nano world

2007-11-13T16:55:00.000-05:00

An article from bbc

Getting more from Moore's Law
By Jonathan Fildes Science and technology reporter, BBC News

The silicon industry has already introduced new materials such as HafniumFor more than 40 years the silicon industry has delivered ever faster, cheaper chips.
The advances have underpinned everything from the rise of mobile phones to digital photography and portable music players.
Chip-makers have been able to deliver many of these advances by shrinking the components on a chip.
By making these building blocks, such as transistors, smaller they have become faster and firms have been able to pack more of them into the same area.
But according to many industry insiders this miniaturisation cannot continue forever.
MOORE'S LAW
The number of transistors it is possible to squeeze in to a chip for a fixed cost doubles every two years
First outlined by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel
Published in Electronics Magazine on 19 April, 1965
"The consensus in the industry is that we can do that shrink for about another ten years and then after that we have to figure out new ways to bring higher capability to our chips," said Professor Stanley Williams of Hewlett Packard.
Even Gordon Moore, the founder of Intel and the man that gave his name to the law that dictates the industry's progression, admits that it can only go on for a few more years.
"Moore's Law should continue for at least another decade," he recently told the BBC News website. "That's about as far as I can see."
Tiny tubes
As a result, researchers around the world are engaged in efforts to allow the industry to continue delivering the advances that computer users have come to expect.
Key areas include advanced fabrication techniques, building new components and finding new materials to augment silicon.
Already new materials are creeping into modern chips.
As components have shrunk critical elements of the transistors, known as gate dielectrics, do not perform as well allowing currents passing through the transistors to leak, reducing the effectiveness of the chip.
To overcome this, companies have replaced the gate dielectrics, previously made from silicon dioxide, with an oxide based on the metal hafnium.
The material's development and integration into working components has been described by Dr Moore as "the biggest change in transistor technology" since the late 1960s.
But IBM researchers are working on materials that they believe offer even bigger advances.
"Carbon nanotubes are a step beyond [hafnium]," explained Dr Phaedon Avouris of the company.
'Superior' design
CARBON NANOTUBES

Sheets of carbon atoms folded into a cylinder
Unusual strength and electrical properties
Promise to revolutionise electronics, computers, chemistry and materials scienceCarbon nanotubes are tiny straw-like molecules less than 2 nanometres (billionths of a metre) in diameter, 50,000 times thinner than a strand of a human hair.
"They are a more drastic change but still preserve the basic architecture of field effect transistors."
These transistors are the basic building blocks of most silicon chips.
Dr Avouris believes they can be used to replace a critical element of the chip, known as the channel.
Today this is commonly made of silicon and is the area of the transistor through which electrons flow.
Chip makers are constantly battling to make the channel length in transistors smaller and smaller, to increase the performance of the devices.
Carbon nanotube's small size and "superior" electrical properties should be able to deliver this, said Dr Avouris.
Crucially, he also believes the molecules can be integrated with traditional silicon manufacturing processes, meaning the technology would more likely be accepted by an industry that has spent billions perfecting manufacturing techniques.
The team have already shown off working transistors and are currently working on optimising their production and integration into working devices.
Tiny improvement
Professor Williams, at Hewlett Packard is also working on technology that could be incorporated into the future generations of chips.
As well as exploring optical computing - using particles of light instead of electrons to significantly increase the speed of today's computers - he is building new electronic components for chips called memristors.

Nano chip developer
Multi-core chips
Multi-core 'myth' He says it would be the "fourth" basic element to build circuits with, after capacitors, resistors and inductors.
"Now we have this type of device we have a broader palette with which to paint our circuits," said Professor Williams.
Professor Williams and his team have shown that by putting two of these devices together - a configuration called a crossbar latch - it could do the job of a transistor.
"A cross bar latch has the type of functionality you want from a transistor but it's working with very different physics," he explained.
Crucially, these devices can also be made much smaller than a transistor.
"And as they get smaller they get better," he said.
Professor Williams and his team are currently making prototype hybrid circuits - built of memristors and transistors - in a fabrication plant in North America.
"We want to keep the functional equivalent of Moore's Law going for many decades into the future," said Professor Williams.

Internet IP addresses closing the limits

2007-11-06T17:10:00.000-05:00

Article on BBC

Warning over net address limits

Vint Cerf is one of the founding fathers of the netInternet Service Providers urgently need to roll out the next generation of net addresses for online devices, internet pioneer Vint Cerf has said.
Every device that goes online is allocated a unique IP address but the pool of numbers is finite and due to run out around 2010.
A new system, called IPv6, has been awaiting roll out for 10 years.
Unless IPv6 is switched on in the coming years, some devices might not be able to go online, Mr Cerf has warned.
Mr Cerf, who played a key role in the development of the protocols which underpin the global net, said: "There is a risk of not being able to get online."
He added: "The rate of consumption of available remaining IPv4 numbers appears to be on track to run out in 2010/11."
Mr Cerf is about to step down as chairman of Icann, the body which oversees the net, and is also Google's chief internet evangelist.
Potential shortage
The current system, called IPv4 provides four billion addresses but the explosion in the number of devices which go online has led to the potential shortage.
Although IPv6 was standardised 10 years ago it has not been rolled out at speed.
While modern computers, servers, routers and other online devices are able to use IPv6, internet service providers have yet to implement the system.
"The reason they haven't - which is quite understandable - is that customers haven't asked for it yet," said Mr Cerf, adding, "my job, whether with my Icann hat on or not, is to persuade them to ask for it.
To be clear - if we finally exhaust the IPv4 pool it doesn't mean the internet stops working
Vint Cerf
"If you don't ask for it, then when you most want it you won't have it."
IPv6 will create 340 trillion trillion trillion separate addresses, enough to satisfy demand for decades to come.
"To be clear - if we finally exhaust the IPv4 pool it doesn't mean the internet stops working. But people wanting an IPv4 address won't get one.
"If there is an internet that does not support IPv6, not getting an IPv4 address means not getting on the net."
He added: "The appreciation of the importance of getting IPv6 into operation is very much more visible than before.
"I'm anticipating in 2008 a substantial increase of use of IPv6, introduced in parallel with IPv4."
One complicating factor is that IPv6 and IPv4 are not compatible so ISPs will have to run the two systems in parallel - adding to costs.
In Asia, governments in China, Korea and Japan have begun to lead roll out of IPv6 and the European Union is reviewing methods to encourage adoption.

Google keeps rocking huh ...

2007-11-06T16:49:00.000-05:00

An article from BBC

Google has launched an open operating system for mobile phones, called Android. It has also formed an Open Handset Alliance with 33 partners, promising "better, cheaper" mobile phones.
What is Android?
Android is a series of software tools built by Google designed to power a next generation of mobile phone handsets.
The tools are based on Linux - and so are open source and free to use. It means any one can develop software for the platform and that Android itself can be tailored for individual phones, networks and potentially users.
What is the Open Handset Alliance?
Thirty four companies, including Google, have formed an alliance to promote Android and to develop features and handsets to take advantage of the platform.
Companies include handset manufacturers such as LG, HTC, Motorola and Samsung, chip firms such as Qualcomm and mobile networks like T-Mobile and China Mobile.
What is different about Android?
Google is stressing the open nature of the platform. Operating systems on current phones - such as Windows Mobile, RIM, Symbian and Palm - are proprietorial and have to be licensed for use. Google believes it will be easier and quicker to develop new applications for Android than the other systems.
What kinds of features and phones will we see?
That is the big question. Google and its partners believe that the new phones will make the internet experience on a mobile "better than on a PC".
But they have given little details about how this will be achieved, except to say Android includes an advanced web browser.
Most mobile web experiences are hampered by the limitations of the browser and screen resolution of the handset.
But devices such as the Apple iPhone and Nokia N800 - which are not powered by Android - are already showing the potential for a PC-like experience on a mobile device.
Google and partners have said the new phones will be able to take make web experiences, such as video, sharing content and social networking, much easier on a handset.
The first phones are not due until the second half of 2008 but developers will be able to get a look at the Android tools from next week.
Will my current phone work with Android?
No. You will have to buy a new phone that is running the Android platform.
Does that mean current phones are obsolete?
Not at all. Rival platform systems, such as Symbian, Palm, Windows Mobile and Blackberry, will continue to exist on an ever expanding array of devices. The companies behind all these platforms say they are also working on more accessible web experiences on future devices.
What has the reaction been to Google's big jump into mobiles?
Mixed. Analysts are emphasising the impressive partners Google has secured. But it is clear that none of the handset partners in the alliance are ditching deals with existing platforms in favour of Android. Google's system will be part of the mix.
Forrester analyst Charlie Golvin wrote: "Paradoxically, Android will increase complexity for developers initially since it represents yet another platform to support."
Technology writer Om Malik has described the move as a "massive PR move, with nothing to show for it right now".
He added: "The partners - with the exception of HTC and T-Mobile - are companies who are, in cricketing parlance, on the backfoot. Motorola, for instance is not exactly a bastion of handset excellence."
What are the business implications of the Google deal?
It is clear that Linux - the open source operating system - is going to be a big player in the mobile space. Android is based on Linux and there are other Linux-based mobile OSes in existence, such as OpenMoko, LiMo and Qtopia.
ABI Research predicts that Mobile Linux will be the fastest growing smartphone operating system over the next five years.
Linux-based smartphones will account for about 31% of such devices by 2012, the analysts have reported.
Why is Google doing this?
There are more people with mobile phones with access to the net right now than there are PCs with online connections.
This is a massive potential market for Google - and every other online firm - that is yet to be tapped and developed.
Improving the mobile web for all is a rising tide that will float all boats, including the Google battleship.
More people online means more people using Google's services, which means more advertising revenue for the firm.

PS3 network enters record books

2007-11-02T16:58:00.001-04:00

An article from BBC.

PS3 network enters record books

Protein folding is critical to most biological functionsA project that harnesses the spare processing power of Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) to help understand the cause of diseases has entered the record books.
Guinness World Records has recognised folding@home (FAH) as the world's most powerful distributed computing network.
FAH has signed up nearly 700,000 PS3s to examine how the shape of proteins affect diseases such as Alzheimer's.
The network has more than one petaflop of computing power - the equivalent of 1,000 trillion calculations per second.
"To have folding@home recognized by Guinness World Records as the most powerful distributed computing network ever is a reflection of the extraordinary worldwide participation by gamers and consumers around the world and for that we are very grateful," said Professor Vijay Pande of Stanford University and a leader of the FAH project.
Disease link
Distributed computing is a method for solving large complex problems by dividing them between many computers.
CELL SPECS

256 billion calculations per second
2.5MB of on-chip memory
Able to shuttle data to and from off-chip memory at speeds up to 100 gigabytes per second,
234 million transistors
The Cell's hard sell They harness the idle processing power of computers to crunch small packets of data, which are then fed back over the internet to a central computer.
The technique has been used by several groups to study everything from how malaria spreads to searching for new cancer drugs.
One of the most high profile projects is seti@home, which uses computer cycles to search through thousands of hours of radio telescope signals for signs of extra-terrestrial intelligence.
FAH uses distributed computing to examine protein folding and how it maybe linked to diseases.
Proteins that do not fold correctly have been implicated in diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntingdon's, BSE and many cancers.
Speed test
Until March this year, FAH only ran on PCs.
The program had around 200,000 computers participating in the program, the equivalent of about 250 teraflops (trillion calculations per second).
The addition of 670,000 PS3s has taken the computing power of the network to more than one petaflop.
By comparison BlueGene L, which tops the list of most powerful supercomputers, has a top speed of just 280.6 teraflops.
The boost is in part because of the PS3's powerful processor, known as the "cell", which runs up to 10 times faster than current PC chips.
"It is clear that none of this would be even remotely possible without the power of PS3, it has increased our research capabilities by leaps and bounds," said Prof Pande.

Innovation at its best

2007-10-01T21:22:00.000-04:00

Article from BBC

Ultra-thin TV to hit the market

Sony hopes the screen will re-invigorate its fortunesAn ultra-thin television brighter and crisper than current generation screens will go on sale from Sony in December.
The TV uses organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) to produce the image, resulting in a screen only 3mm thick.
OLED screens are more energy efficient than LCD panels as they do not need a backlight to boost brightness.
But it is difficult and expensive to make large screens using the technology. Sony's first OLED TV costs £850 and has an 11in display.
OLED screens are brighter than LCD panels and also have better contrast ratio - resulting in sharper pictures.
The diodes emit a brilliant white light when attached to an electricity supply and are also being developed for use as replacements to traditional light bulbs.
Colour display
Different organic materials produce different colours and are combined to produce a colour display.
Sony has hailed the new television as a signal of its returning strength as a technology innovator.
"Some people have said attractive products are slow to come at Sony despite its technological strength," said Sony president Ryoji Chubachi at a news conference at its Tokyo headquarters.

I do believe this is a type of technology with very high potential
Katsumi Ihara, Sony
He added: "I want this world's first OLED TV to be the symbol of the revival of Sony's technological prowess.
"I want this to be the flag under which we charge forward to turn the fortunes around."
Other firms are also working on OLED screens - Samsung has shown off a 40-inch TV using the technology - but Sony is the first to market.
"I don't think OLED TVs will replace LCD TVs overnight. But I do believe this is a type of technology with very high potential, something that will come after LCD TVs," said Sony executive deputy president Katsumi Ihara.
The new TV goes on sale in Japan on 1 December. There are no plans for a global launch as yet.
The OLED TV has a lifespan of about 30,000 hours of viewing - half that of Sony's LCD televisions.

GSLV Launched successfully

2007-09-02T17:20:00.001-04:00

Article from "The Hindu" leading Indian newspaper

Another milestone: GSLV-F04 lifts off from the Sriharikota spaceport on Sunday. It put into orbit ISRO’s latest communication satellite INSAT-4CR.
SRIHARIKOTA: The launch of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, GSLV-F04, from here on Sunday turned out to be “a sweet success,” with the launch vehicle injecting the communication satellite, INSAT-4CR, in its pre-determined orbit.
This was the heaviest satellite to be launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), with the INSAT-4CR tilting the scales at 2,130 kg.
It was a remarkable comeback for the ISRO after the failure of the GSLV on July 10, 2006. What added to the success of the latest mission is that it was the third consecutive successful mission this year.
On January 10, the PSLV put in orbit a spacecraft that was brought back to the earth, and on April 23, a pared down version of the PSLV put in orbit Italian satellite Agile.“A fantastic job”
ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair said the ISRO team had done “a fantastic job” after the failure of the GSLV mission in 2006, and appreciated “the precision with which this mission had performed the job.”
Dr. B.N. Suresh, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, described the launch as “a sweet success.”
It showed that the GSLV was a robust vehicle, whose systems performed as expected.
As Mr. Nair described it, “from all points of view, it was a highly dramatic mission.”
The vehicle was scheduled to lift off on September 1. But the heavy downpour on August 26 played spoilsport.
“Every night, clouds would come in from somewhere. … There will be lightning. We lost 40 hours in the countdown sequence.” So the launch was postponed to 4.21 p.m. on September 2.
But 15 seconds before lift-off at 4.21 p.m., there was a problem. The signal related to the readiness of the upper, cryogenic stage did not reach the computer, which takes over the entire launch sequence 12 minutes before lift-off.
So the computer halted the launch. After the problem was addressed, the launch was re-scheduled for 6.20 p.m.
In the twilight hour, the GSLV-F04 shot off from its second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre and rode a ball of flame. All the three stages ignited and jettisoned into the Bay of Bengal on time. Seventeen minutes after lift-off, INSAT-4CR was injected into the geosynchronous transfer orbit at a velocity of 37,000 km an hour.Signal drop-outs
The were other heartbreaking moments. There were signal drop-outs from the tracking stations at Brunei and Biak in Indonesia, and the ISRO lost track of the vehicle. This happened on and off for three and a half minutes. But at the end of 17 minutes, jubilation filled Sriharikota.
While G. Ravindranath was the Mission Director, N. Jayachandran Nair was the Vehicle Director. Prahalada Rao was the Satellite Director.Pat for scientists
PTI reports from New Delhi:
President Pratibha Patil, Vice-President Mohd. Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Sunday congratulated space scientists on the successful launch of communications satellite INSAT-4CR.
Ms. Patil congratulated Indian Space Research Organisation and the scientists involved in the launch of the satellite.
This successful launch further validates the immense economic and strategic importance of the country’s space programme, Mr. Ansari said.
Mr. Singh also congratulated ISRO on successful launch of GSLV-F04, which placed into orbit a communications satellite that is expected to augment Direct-to-Home television service.
Mr. Chatterjee said the successful launch “proves the point that the GSLV is a reliable vehicle.” It also underscores the self-reliance of the country’s space programme, the Speaker said. — PTI

An Eyeopener ...

2007-08-12T11:30:00.000-04:00

This is something about conserving old buildings in India. I was talking to my friend who is an architect and she mentioned so many things about the conservational aspects, which was really an eye opener for me and thought I should include it in my information depo. Well am really not sure how this is working in other parts of the world, coz I am not an expert in architectural field :) ( I am sure it is the same)

One of the most unique and valid point which made me think was, how can we conserve old buildings, whether it may be of historical importance or not? Well here is the answer... In countries like India which is high in population, when people tend to construct more new buildings it makes the country more congested (which already is), this results in more environmental calamities. When I say environmental calamities it includes many aspects and would like to mention a few .. for example, if we start constructing new buildings we are going to destroy/eradicate more nature (which includes trees, plants, air flow etc etc), and this causes lots of pollution and as a matter of fact, recently the whole world is talking about Global Warming.

So in order to avoid all the above, her solution or rather her suggestion was to renovate the existing old buildings. By doing this we can achieve three things 1. preserve old buildings and save more space in the country and allow the nature to be at peace. 2. If the old building is of historical importance we don't loose the history/culture (it is always something pleasant to visit a place which has some historical importance). 3. I correlated her thoughts about preserving old buildings with Global Warming, I strongly believe that this will help us save the nature.
When I talked to her it was really an eye opener and I decided to renovate one or two old buildings and preserve it and at the same time help the community to save the nature. So you all can think about it.

Adios..

Best in show: emerging technology

2007-08-10T17:07:00.000-04:00

An article from BBC

Here the BBC News website gives a brief rundown of the most innovative and eye-catching.
BYU-BYU

Byu-Byu users blow on to the screen
This aims to add another dimension, namely wind, to communication via video screens.
The system consists of fine-meshed screens that let air pass through them but also display images projected on to them.
The screens are also fitted with 64 sensors that bend when blown upon. Light bounced off tiny mirrors attached to the rear of the sensors lets the system work out where someone is blowing on the screen and how hard.
Sitting beyond the sensors behind are banks of small fans that can send strong or gentle breezes back through any section of the screen.
Masahiro Furukawa, one of the creators of Byu-Byu, said it added a tactile element to video communication. He said it could be used to blow out candles on a birthday cake thousands of miles away or play games such as virtual air hockey.
The name of the project, Byu-Byu, is an onomatopoeic Japanese phrase used to describe a howling wind.
FREQTRIC

Users have a tiny electric current running through their body
This interface aims to add another dimension to computer gaming and musical performances by making success depend on touching other players or artists.
At the heart of Freqtric are game controllers that, via a steel plate on their underside, trickle a small electric current through a player's body.
Sensors in the controller spot when this current is disrupted when they are touched by another player.
Tetsuaki Baba, creator of Freqtric and a student in the graduate school of design at Kyushu University, said touch could be put to different uses in a game. Shooting an opponent, for example, could be made to depend on touching them, he said.
How soft or hard someone is touched can also be sensed to add another, more subtle, aspect to game playing.
Mr Baba added that multiple Freqtric controllers could be used.
Tests of the system have involved four or five people becoming living instruments who, when touched, trigger a particular note or sound to be played.
GRAVITY GRABBER

The system allows people to feel the weight of virtual objects
This system makes use of the discovery that squashing and rolling the sensitive pads on the ends of a person's index finger and thumb can give a realistic impression of weight.
Post-graduate student Kouta Minamizawa and colleagues, from the Information Physics and Computing department at the University of Tokyo, aimed to exploit this using a lightweight, wearable ring fitted with tiny motors that pull on a narrow band of cloth.
Those using this system slip these rings onto their index finger and thumb with the band stretched across the tip of the digit. They get a sense of the weight of virtual objects when the tiny motors pull the band tight around the pad of the finger or slip the band from side-to-side.
The system can be used to represent single bulky objects like bottles when they are empty or have a liquid sloshing around inside them. It can even give the impression of several separate objects rattling round inside virtual containers.
Mr Minamizawa said it could be used in games to give players a more realistic sense of what their character was holding or doing.
SOAP

Moving the skin around the hull moves an onscreen cursor
This handy gadget aims to be a replacement for the mouse and other interface devices for people using wall-based displays or sitting a long way from a screen.
The gadget, about the same size as a bar of soap, has a loose outer skin that can move freely around a deformable inner hull.
Inside the hull is an optical sensor, taken from a computer mouse, that can work out how far the slippery fabric has moved or detect when it is moved by pressure being applied to the outer hull.
On screen cursors can be moved by sliding the fabric skin around the hard hull.
By squeezing and releasing the hull, the device can be used to click an onscreen button or pull a virtual trigger.
Patrick Baudisch from Microsoft Research who created the device said prototypes had been tested with large wall-based displays, media centres on TVs typically controlled from a couch and interactive games.
STRING WALKER

The system can be used to stroll through virtual worlds
This system aims to make simulations much more immersive by letting people walk through the virtual environment while staying in the same place.
The String Walker uses a broad turntable in the middle of which are two shoes each one of which has four strings attached to it.
Those using the walker put on the shoes and take steps as if they were strolling around. The tight strings are moved to cancel out the step and keep the person in the centre of the turntable but move them on a pace in the virtual world.
Touch sensors in the heels of the shoes work out which foot is being moved.
The turntable can handle sidestepping or walking round corners and rotates to keep the walking person always facing the same way, although their view in the virtual world may have shifted.
Developed by Hiroo Iwata and colleagues from the University of Tsukuba, the system could find an initial use in training simulators for safety courses or for the military.
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India Moves Beyond the Back Office

2007-06-06T17:11:00.000-04:00

India Moves Beyond the Back Office

Boston Consulting's Sirkin and Bhattacharya say India has all the ingredients to emerge as a 21st Century manufacturing hub
by Harold L. Sirkin and Arindam Bhattacharya

In today's global economy, the division of labor between China and India couldn't be clearer: China makes things; India does things.
Beneath the surface, however, this has started to change. Driven by its vast domestic market and an abundance of relatively low-cost workers with advanced technical skills, India is becoming an important and potentially world-class manufacturing hub, according to a recent report by the Boston Consulting Group and Knowledge@Wharton.
It has several hurdles to overcome first, the most significant of which is the country's notoriously substandard infrastructure: shabby airports, potholed roads, clogged ports, and insufficient electric power.
Plagued by Power Shortages
This latter problem is especially acute. According to the Ministry of Power, peak demand during the fiscal year ended Mar. 31, 2006 exceeded supply by approximately 11.6%. Ravi Aron, a senior fellow at the Mack Center for Technological Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, notes that overpriced and unreliable energy supplies have forced many Indian businesses to invest in their own generators. About three-fifths of all Indian manufacturing depends on such power, compared to less than a fourth in China. "This is an additional capital investment that shows up on the balance sheet," Aron notes. "Insulating yourself from India in India is an expensive business."
Acknowledging the problem, Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told us last fall, during Boston Consulting Group's first-ever global partners meeting in that country, that India will have to spend an estimated $150 billion over the next seven to eight years to bring infrastructure up to par. The importance of this can't be overstated. If the efforts are successful, India should be able to boost its annual gross domestic product growth rate from the current 8% to 9% per year to a sustainable 9% to 10% per annum.
More and more multinationals are aware of India's vast potential and have been setting up operations in the country. Ford (F), Hyundai, and Suzuki all export significant numbers of cars manufactured in India. LG, Motorola (MOT), and Nokia (NOK) either manufacture handsets in India or have plans to start, with a sizable share of production being exported. ABB, Schneider Electric (SU), Honeywell (HON), and Siemens (SI) have Indian plants that manufacture electrical products for both the domestic and export markets.
Less Dependence on Home Economy
A number of globally competitive Indian companies also are making their mark. Over the past five or six years, many Indian firms have restructured their manufacturing operations and have implemented world-class practices. Moser Baer has established itself as a global manufacturer of CDs, DVDs, and other data-storage media. Indian pharmaceutical companies, many of which already meet demanding U.S. Food & Drug Administration manufacturing standards, are entering the global market in increasing numbers. And Indian auto parts manufacturers are becoming prominent institutions in the global supply chain.
As Wharton Management Professor Saikat Chaudhuri points out, until recently, global manufacturing in India has been driven strictly by domestic demand. But the dependence of the manufacturing sector on the domestic economy, the Wharton expert notes, is starting to fade. Toyota (TM), for example, is building transmissions for its global manufacturing operations in a factory near Bangalore. Hyundai Automotive Group has designated its Indian manufacturing plant as the only Hyundai facility worldwide that will make small cars, marking a major shift in manufacturing operations from South Korea to India.
While the services sector has been red-hot for some time, India's manufacturing competitiveness is a recent phenomenon—and rests on its ability to do technologically advanced, high-end manufacturing at comparatively low cost. This is possible when you graduate an estimated 400,000 engineers per year, second only to China.
A Simple Business Equation
Consider the rapidly growing auto parts industry, which has emerged as a major supplier to many leading multinationals.
Bharat Forge—the largest chassis manufacturer in the world—is the dominant figure here, but by no means the only player. More than a dozen Indian automotive parts manufacturers already have been awarded the prestigious Deming Prize, the Japanese quality award presented by the Union of Japanese Scientists & Engineers. Prize winners include Sona Koyo Steering Systems, brake manufacturer Sundaram-Clayton, and TVS Motor. (The latter two are both part of the TVS group.)
For many multinationals, the business equation is really quite simple. As Sachin Nandgaonkar, a colleague of ours in BCG's New Delhi office, puts it: "If I can have Japanese quality at a much lower cost, then why not?"
Service Sector as Model
Besides auto parts, telecom equipment, and pharmaceuticals, India has the potential to be competitive in a variety of other skill-intensive industries, such as fabricated metal products, high-end chemicals, consumer electronics, and computer hardware.
Between 1990 and 2005, manufacturing's contribution to the Indian economy remained more or less stagnant, rising marginally from 25% to 27% of gross domestic product.
Over the same period, the service sector's share of GDP rose from 37% to 52%. In 2005, manufacturing exports, according to BCG estimates, were just 6% of GDP, compared to China's 35%. The point is: There's much room for growth. But the more important point, perhaps, is that the service sector provides the model.
Leveraging Brainpower
Indian manufacturing, if it is to prosper in the global marketplace, will be knowledge-based. India's service providers have been moving up the value chain for some time now. Gone are the days when Indian companies were merely an extension of the back office. Today, Indian companies are providing customers with "knowledge process" outsourcing (KPO), services requiring specialized expertise, judgment, and discretion.
That's the road less traveled that Indian manufacturers would be wise to take as well: leveraging their technical skills and brainpower to seek competitive advantage. All that stands in the way is the road well traveled: an inadequate and antiquated infrastructure that can't sustain a modern manufacturing powerhouse.
Sirkin is a senior vice-president and director of Boston Consulting Group, based in the firm's Chicago office. Bhattacharaya is a BCG vice-president and director in the company's New Delhi office. For more on this topic, see the recently published BCG/Knowledge@Wharton report, "What's Next for India: Beyond the Back Office," available at www.bcg.com under "Publications."
Sirkin is a senior vice-president and director of Boston Consulting Group, based in the firm's Chicago office. Bhattacharaya is a BCG vice-president and director in the company's New Delhi office. For more on this topic, see the recently published BCG/Knowledge@Wharton report, "What's Next for India: Beyond the Back Office," available at www.bcg.com under "Publications.".

Be-Confident

2007-04-10T17:07:00.000-04:00

How to Be Confident

We are all human and have flaws. Even if your physical appearance, intellectual ability, or social skills aren't what you wish they were, that doesn't have to stop you from being confident. Here's how to believe in yourself.

Steps

Make a list of special talents you have, or of things you do that are good—morally or otherwise. Focusing on your attributes helps distract you from those parts of yourself that you think are flawed. It doesn't have to be a specific skill or activity, either; it can be an approach or an attitude that you champion through life. Do you always stay calm, cool and collected, even in harried situations? Are you very patient with people? Do you always see the humorous side of things? Are you always there for your friends?

Find your passion.

Whether it's baton twirling, martial arts, classic cars, or basket weaving, you will feel confident pursuing that endeavor by recognizing what you enjoy doing the most. More importantly, you'll be enjoying your progress.

Choose a role model, whether someone close to you, or someone famous. Think of the qualities, that the role model displays, whether physical, emotional, moral, and/or spiritual. Work towards acquiring those.

Accept compliments gracefully. Don't roll your eyes and say, "Yeah, right", or shrug it off. Take it to heart and respond positively ("Thank you" and a smile works well).

know that you have important things to say and do. When you feel strongly about something,
speak loudly and clearly and make eye contact with people. Be yourself.

Take care of yourself. Eat healthy and get enough exercise. Don't abuse your body, don't overload it, and don't deny it of the things it needs. At the same time, don't obsess. Buying all the moisturizers, creams and conditioners will not bring you closer to who you want to be. Those things are only band-aids and make up. Confidence comes from within. Take the time to reflect on your life and do some emotional maintenance. In order to be confident, you must value yourself and understand that your well-being is important.

Stick up for yourself. If people put you down (and not in a good-natured, joking way), then let them know that their opinion of you is not held by everyone--most of all yourself. This may, at first, be hard to do. But once you stick up for yourself a few times, your confidence builds and you get more adept at it.

Celebrate your individuality. If you know you've got something special or different, then embrace it—don't hide it! That's diversity! You may wish that you were taller, or shorter, skinnier, stronger, whatever the case may be. But you need to realize that, if you were like everyone else, then you wouldn't be who you are. "What am I?" you ask; the answer's easy: You're a unique individual who is capable and growing and learning.

Take action. It is surprising at how powerful the simple step of taking action can be. And the action you take need not be something extravagant or grand. It could be something as simple as tackling a task that you have been procrastinating, such as writing a letter or tidying up that corner of the garage that has been out of control for the last several months. It could also be something as interesting as taking a class in yoga, art, interior design, anything that interests you that you haven't done yet. Whether large or small, action brings with it exhilaration, enthusiasm, and the confidence that other things can be done as well.

Tips

Try not to compare yourself so much with other people. It is a wasteful pursuit and you could be doing something better with your time and energy. Know what you, personally, want and expect from yourself, and focus on attaining those things. The things that you want and expect from yourself shouldn't have anything to do with how you measure up to others.

Consider attending leadership classes. Learn to take control of things. If you are in school, then consider running for a social position, such as a president of a club. The ability to lead others and respond to others' behavior under your leadership will help to bring you self confidence.

Listen to your inner monologue—your inner voice. In situations where you believe you lack confidence, realize that your inner voice is telling you negative things. You need to retrain that inner voice to be positive in those situations. If you need help, find someone who can help you do that.

Warnings

Don't put yourself down. Everyone is different and has a valuable contribution to make to a diverse society. You are important for the person you are.

Don't stop yourself from doing what you want to do.

Remember that there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Be careful not to portray a pompous or cocky attitude.

Never excuse your virtues. For example, don't say, "Sorry for being here on time" when your friend is not ready.

Article on IT by Amartya Sen

2007-03-08T18:07:00.000-05:00

I.T. AND INDIA [1]
Amartya Sen
1
Some admirations come from near, others from very far. My respect and reverence for the IT industry in general and the extraordinarily dynamic and triumphant Indian IT industry in particular have come, by necessity, from some distance, since I am a dabbler in things far away from IT services and software. When the invitation came to attend this year's NASSCOM meeting and the leadership forum, I thought that this either indicated some mixing up of my identity ("wake up, wake up," I wanted to say, "I teach non-IT subjects at a university!"), or alternatively, it reflected generous interest of NASSCOM leaders to reach out (or as my students say, "hang out") beyond their principality.
Of the two possibilities, identity confusion is the more exciting. My late friend Isaiah Berlin, the philosopher, recounted to me his exciting experiences when he was invited to a musical gathering under the mistaken impression that he was Irving Berlin, the musical composer, rather than Isaiah Berlin, the political philosopher. Apparently, the assembled gathering was somewhat disappointed by Isaiah Berlin's inability to respond to repeated requests to provide some insights into the melodies from Annie Get Your Gun or Call Me Madam. And, of course, Sen is a more common name than Berlin , offering more opportunity of identity confounding. Indeed, I was once asked in a gathering of very energetic and very globally minded Ugandan students - this happened at the Makerere College in Kampala - whether I, Amartya Sen, was any relation of Sun Yat Sen. I had to tell my interlocutor, "No, but we are trying hard."
It is, however, the second possibility - not identity confusion - on which I want to speak this afternoon, that is about the possibility of the IT industry to reach out beyond its principality. I want to talk not, of course, about my being here at this NASSCOM meeting, but about the case for the IT industry to bring its influences somewhat beyond what can be seen as its traditional domain.
Of course, the idea of what counts as "traditional" is hard to articulate in the case of a field of enterprise as new as information technology. Indeed, a little over a century ago, in 1885, when the Indian National Congress had its first meeting in Bombay, which was attended by among others Jamsetji Tata (he would establish his new "Swadeshi mills" next year), Jamsetji would have been, I imagine, a little puzzled if he were told that the enterprise he was pioneering would soon include a huge operation in software and IT - indeed the largest in the country (my friend Ramadorai, who heads it, is here). The importance of information has, of course, been acknowledged over many millennia, but the ideas of IT technology and software are quintessential contributions of contemporary modernity - not something with any ageless recognition. Indeed, the entire idea of a National Association of Software and Service Companies (that is, NASSCOM) would have appeared quite mysterious to the pioneering industrial leader of India. As it happens, the domain of IT is still evolving, and I would like to argue for taking an even broader view than has already got established.
My point is not that the IT industry should do something for the country at large, for that it does anyway. It already makes enormous contributions: it generates significant incomes for a great many Indians; it has encouraged attention to technical excellence as a general requirement across the board; it has established exacting standards of economic success in the country; it has encouraged many bright students to go technical rather than merely contemplative; and it has inspired Indian industrialists to face the world economy as a potentially big participant, not a tiny little bit-player. My point, rather, is that it can do even more, indeed in some ways, much more. This is partly because the reach of information is so wide and all-inclusive, but also because the prosperity and commanding stature of the IT leaders and activists give them voice, power and ability to help the direction of Indian economic and social development.
2
Let me begin by asking a question that no one here will, I think, ask (because everyone I meet here seems so polite and well-behaved): why should the Indian IT industry have any sense of obligation to do things - more things - for India, more than what happens automatically from its normal operations (as a by-product of business success, rather than as a deliberated goal to be advanced, among other demands and necessities)? Why assume there is any obligation at all for IT to do anything other than minding its own business?
I think part of the answer lies in reciprocity. The country has made huge contributions, even though they are not often clearly recognised, to help the development and flowering of the IT industry in India, and it is not silly to ask what in return the IT might do for India .
But how has the country helped? Perhaps most immediately, the IT sector has benefitted from the visionary move, originally championed by Jawaharlal Nehru, to develop centres of excellent technical education in India, such as the IITs, to be followed by the Institutes of Management and other initiatives, aimed at enhancing the quality and reach of Indian professional and specialized education. Despite Nehru's moving rhetoric in favour of literacy for all (which was plentifully present even in his celebrated speech on the eve of independence on 14th August 1947 - the speech on India 's "tryst with destiny"), he in fact did shockingly little for literacy. I would suggest that Jawaharlal Nehru did not really think through how to ensure the practical realization of his goal of literacy for all, in which he did believe with sincerity and conviction, but not with any sense of practicality. It was, however, entirely different as far as technical education is concerned - here Nehru's sense of ways and means nicely supplemented his fervent passion. India was not only the first poor country in the world to choose a robustly democratic from of governance, it also was the first country with grinding poverty to give priority to the development of technical skill and the state-of-art education in technology. And from this the IT sector has benefited a lot, since the entire industry is so dependent on the availability, quality and reach of technical education.
However, IT's links with India 's past goes back much further than that. The nature of Indian society and traditions have tended to support the pursuit of specialized excellence in general and the development of IT in particular. There has been a historic respect for distinctive skills, seeing it even as a social contribution in itself. Indeed, even the nasty caste system, which has so afflicted the possibility of social equity in India, has tended greatly to rely on - and exploit - the traditional reverence for specialized skill, which, in its regimented form, has been used to add to the barriers of societal stratification. There is a tradition here that can be taken in many different directions, and it is a matter of much satisfaction that the IT industry's use of the same respect is remarkably positive and potentially open and inclusive. I will come back to that question of inclusiveness later on (it is an important subject on which there is a case for more deliberation and action), but before that let me comment on a few other connections, since they are often missed, between the success of IT in India and some particular features of India's past.
Going well beyond respect for specialized skill, there is also a general attitude of openness in India to influences from far and near - of admiring excellence no matter where it is produced. This is particularly important since the IT success of India did draw initially, as indeed was inevitable, on what was going on with much accomplishment abroad. The experiences of the Silicon valley, in particular, was very important for the yearning of skilled and discerning Indians to learn from others - and then to make good use of it. While many Indians have a deep preference for what we can see as total local immersion and even succumb to evidently strong temptations to denigrate things happening abroad (and this attitude rears its ugly head from time to time in contemporary Indian politics as well), there has also been for thousand of years a very robust tradition here of admiring, using and learning from excellence anywhere in the world.
The IT technical experts may not readily perceive that there is a remarkable similarity between (1) their own valuational commitment to learn what they can from anywhere which has good ideas to offer, and (2) the open and welcoming attitude to departures originating elsewhere which Rabindranath Tagore articulated with compelling clarity in a letter to a friend (in a letter to Charlie Andrews in fact) in the 1920s, at the height of our struggle of for national independence:
Whatever we understand and enjoy in human products instantly becomes ours, wherever they might have their origin. I am proud of my humanity when I can acknowledge the poets and artists of other countries as my own. Let me feel with unalloyed gladness that the all the great glories of man are mine. Therefore it hurts me deeply when the cry of rejection rings loud against the West in my country with the clamour that Western education can only injure us.
It is, of course, to the credit of Western centres of excellence in education and practice that they were so welcoming to learners from abroad (I think America and Europe do not always get enough recognition for its liberal priorities in this field, despite their narrow-minded national and local priorities in other areas), but it is also important to see that the interest and initiative of bright Indians to learn from abroad for domestic use was strongly founded on an open-minded willingness to comprehend, as Tagore put it, that "whatever we understand and enjoy in human products instantly becomes ours, wherever they might have their origin."
I want to point to one further connection between the development and achievements of Indian IT and the Indian intellectual traditions on which Indian IT draws. I don't refer here only to the love of mathematics that has inspired so many young Indians throughout history, and which is important in many different ways, for the efficacy IT operations. The general maths-friendliness of Indian intellectuals is relevant here: according to some accounts, the mathematician Bhaskara even tried to convince his daughter Lilavati that if she came to master mathematical puzzles then she would be highly popular when she went to parties, which seems to me be, to say the least, a little doubtful. But aside from being fascinated by maths, Indian intellectuals have also typically been very excited about arguments in general: it is a subject on which I have even indulged in writing a book (incidentally, in my last trip to Mumbai I was very impressed to be offered a cut-price pirated edition of my book, The Argumentative Indian, by a street vendor near the airport, who also had the exquisite taste of explaining to me that this book was "quite good" - and from him, also "very cheap").
IT is a hugely interactive operation and in many ways Indian IT has depended on what we can call TI, that is, "talkative Indians." It is not hard to see how a tradition of being thrilled by intellectual altercations tend to do a lot to prepare someone to the challenges of IT interactions.
3
Given what the country has done for Indian IT, it is not silly to ask: what specially can the IT industry do for India (other than what happens automatically without any deliberate pursuit of non-business ends)? This seems to me to be right, but I would also like to emphasize that historical reciprocity is not the only - perhaps not even the most important - reason for being interested in the social obligations of the IT industry. Many considerations arise there.
There is, of course, the elementary issue of the obligation of those who "make it" vis-a-vis those who do not manage quite so well, which is a very basic ethical demand that, it can be argued, society places upon us. This raises immediately the question what any prosperous group may owe to others not so well placed. This is not only a reflective demand for social deliberation - part of what Immanuel Kant called a "categorical imperative" - but it is also a part of enlightened business operation. There is, as it happens, a very well established tradition in a part of Indian business to do just that, particularly well exemplified by the Tatas for example, through various socially valuable activities such as building hospitals, research centres and other social institutions of high distinction. I am impressed to see that many of the major IT leaders seem to be very seized of this challenge.
If that possible role is obvious enough, there is some need to understand better other roles in which the IT industry can make a very big difference in India. As it happens the key to the success of IT, namely accessability, systematization and use of information is also very central to social evaluation and societal change. There is, in fact, a very foundational connection between information and social obligation, since the moral - and of course the political - need to pay attention to others depends greatly on our knowledge and information about them.
Indeed, already in the 1770s (more than two hundred years ago), that remarkable Scottish philosopher, David Hume, had noted the importance of increased intercourse in expanding the reach of our sense of justice. He had put the issue thus (in his chapter "Of Justice," in An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals):
....again suppose that several distinct societies maintain a kind of intercourse for mutual convenience and advantage, the boundaries of justice still grow larger, in proportion to the largeness of men's views, and the force of their mutual connexions. History, experience, reason sufficiently instruct us in this natural progress of human sentiments, and in the gradual enlargement of our regards to justice, in proportion as we become acquainted with the extensive utility of that virtue.
Negligence of suffering of others is sustainable, given human interest in justice and equity, only when we know little about that suffering. More information in itself goes a long way to breaking that chain of apathy and indifference.
This foundational connection also gives the information industry a huge opportunity to help India by trying to make its contribution to the systematization, digestion and dissemination of diverse clusters of information in India about the lives of the underdogs of society - those who do not have realistic opportunity of getting basic schooling, essential health care, elementary nutritional entitlements, and rudimentary equality across the barriers of class and gender. This can also be said about problems of underdeveloped physical infrastructure (water, electricity, roads, etc.), as well as social infrastructure, that restrain the broad mass of Indians from moving ahead. There are particular causal connections also here: an enterprise that hugely depends on the excellence of education for its success - as the IT sector clearly does - has good reason to consider its broad responsibility to Indian education in general.
I do not know enough about the IT operations to see whether all this can be turned into a business proposition as well. But my point is that even if it cannot be so transformed, it is something that the IT sector has good reason to consider doing. Can there be a group initiative in any of these fields? Can NASSCOM itself play a catalytic role here? Informational issues are thoroughly rampant in morality and politics, and in many direct and indirect ways, the preoccupation of the IT enterprise links closely with the foundations of political and moral assessment and adjudication.
Even though in this presentation I am mainly concentrating on domestic issues, I should mention in passing that the role of information and informed understanding can also be very large in the pursuit of global peace and in defeating ill-reasoned violence. When we consider how many of the brutalities in the world today are linked with ignorant hostility to cultures and practices abroad, we can appreciate the contribution of informational limitation, among other causal factors, in cross-border belligerence. I could have talked about that too, in developing some ideas presented in my last book (Identity and Violence), but given my time limits I will resist that temptation.
4
I return now to the domestic scene. In emphasizing the role of the moral domain for the IT sector to feel some responsibility towards making India a more equitable country, I do not want to give the impression that there is not also a prudential case for going in that direction. One of the huge obstacles to the domestic development of the IT sector is the size of the local market, which is still quite small, despite all the recent expansions. Indian IT has done very well in making excellent use of the global market, but competition there is likely to be increasingly fierce. Other countries are trying to learn from the experience not only of America and Europe but also from India , and while India has some peculiar advantages in the IT field (which I have already discussed), the barriers may well be gradually removed in many countries - indeed even in many poor countries - in the world. China, which has a much larger domestic market already and will continue to expand that market very fast, is not as vulnerable as we may be, in this particular respect.
As it happens, one of the reasons for the larger domestic reach of IT in China is its much wider base of good basic schooling. So, what is an issue of equity, on one side, is also a matter of central importance for prudential reasoning about domestic economic expansion, on the other. The same goes for a much wider base of elementary health care in China, though this, as it happens, has been going through some turmoil since the Chinese economic reforms of 1979 which effectively abolished free health care for all, through insisting on privately purchased health insurance. It is a subject on which I have written elsewhere, so I will not go further into it here, other than noting that the Chinese authorities are quite receptive now of critical scrutiny of the present system of health care that China has ended up having. This, in fact, is in sharp contrast with the past when we had made similar criticisms earlier, and I do know that very serious critical scrutiny is currently going on in Beijing on this, in a very constructive way. I expect major changes to happen in China in a more inclusive direction before long.
Excessive reliance on private health care in India for the most elementary problems of ill-health and disease (resulting mostly from the limited size, reach and operational efficiency of public health facilities) is similarly a barrier to the availability and entitlement to health care for all Indians, and this obstacle urgently needs removing. These are all subjects on which the IT sector is well placed to provide considerable enlightenment and guidance. As it happens, the IT sector itself will indirectly benefit (for reasons I have already outlined) from playing a constructive and deliberated role in widening the base of social and physical infrastructure. But the more immediate - and also the more foundational - reason relates, I think, to demands from the moral domain to which the IT sector has reasons to respond. This is so, I have argued, for a variety of reasons, varying from Indian IT's unequal current success and its debt to India's traditions and priorities, on one side, to - and this is often unrecognised but happens to be extremely important - the central role of information in moral reasoning, on the other. There is indeed, I would argue, something of a socially connected obligation here, the recognition of which could make a huge difference to the future of India.

Mother Esther - Biography

2007-01-25T20:42:00.000-05:00

I feel greatly honored to write about a person whom I met during my long but short and wonderful trip to India.

Every individual around the world is dedicated in doing something for a purpose and tend to have great expectation (on the positive side), may it be for a good or bad cause. But one can only find a few among them who dedicate or rather sacrifice their entire life for a good cause of others (people not related to oneself).

I wanted to write this biography, because I felt it is my duty to do so. I am a normal human being surrounded by a big wall of “EMOTIONS”, because of which I am not able to go beyond the wall and see the other side of the world and I am sure most of us in the world are on the same boat.

Every religion has a designated Messenger to God. In the same way, I consider this great person as a Messenger to the world, who is beyond the wall of EMOTIONS that surrounds me.

Mother Esther, is the great person I am talking about and from whom I came to know the true meaning of dedication. Every one of us would like to help people who are in need, like Orphans, Old age, poor, diseased etc. So we tend to go to an orphanage, old age home and many other places to help them.

Mother Esther is an exception; she is one among the few who dedicated her life for the good will of others. I was curious to know about her as to what made her enter into the life of complete dedication and true sacrifice.

Mother is running an Orphanage place named “Saranalaya” in Coimbatore, India. As soon as I entered the orphanage, I was surrounded by a group of young kids and I could see tons of true love and affection in their faces. Mother received me and my mom with a warm welcome and gave us a good authentic Indian tea and some wonderful snacks.

I talked to her for a long time, which ended my curiosity but came to know a new meaning of dedication. I would like to share this with everyone.

Mother, was born in a beautiful place called Kanyakumari, southern most tip of India and a place where visitors can have a great view of sunset and sunrise. She has four siblings (brothers) and she is the only girl child in the family. A girl child going for a school during those days is a big ordeal. During her third grade, she was the class topper, but she was never recognized in her family for her studies. She had to cry to her family members for her higher studies during her young ages.

Days passed by, after lots of refusal and oppositions she somehow struggled to reach tenth grade. She was topper in her village of all the girls in her tenth grade final exam, which was a big thing during those days. Her family members felt proud of her achievements and wanted her to go for higher studies.

This made her think, that her family members wanted her to go for higher studies because she brought pride to her family. She decided not to do things for people, who don’t realize the true effort but go for pride. She always had a thought about becoming a Nun. One fine day she stepped out of her house and went in the direction of a Church to become a Nun.

From there on, she decided to live for others and not for herself. She was given posting in the Church as Nun for various social activities. Even though she was doing lots of social activities she still was not satisfied. She felt that somebody somewhere is waiting for her and is in need of her help. One fine day in a place called Coimbatore, TamilNadu she decided to go to a jail to give consultation for those who are terrorists, criminals, etc. But there was always a big opposition in her organization.

Her unstoppable thirst to help the real people who are in need made her to go against the organization. She went to the jail to meet the Superintendent of Police, which is an arduous task because an individual is not allowed into jail without prior appointments and the reason for making an appointment should be genuine. She found a picture of hers’ taken in a function along with other Sisters, Mothers and Superintendent of Police (whom she wanted to meet in the jail) who was the Chief Guest.

She went to the jail with the picture along with full faith in God. She went passed all the policemen and finally reached the destination where she wanted to be. Yes, she was in SP’s (Superintendent of Police) office. Firstly, the SP didn’t realize who she was and then she showed the picture and made him realize. She then went on to tell him the purpose of her visit. Initially, SP said it was not possible and finally she convinced him but then according to the jail rules, she needs to get an approval from an authorized person in her organization.

By God’s grace, there was a Baptist who was able to provide her the full support and approved her for doing this job. Finally after all the struggle and hurdles she is in a service of her choice. Her great faith in God made her feel and look audacious when she was walking along the jail corridor. She went into a hall filled with the most stubborn or the so called stubborn criminals. Her first session was not that good because everyone turned their heads with a great disrespect. Mother was kind enough to let it go and she realized that one day things will come her way with the help of God.

Days passed by, Mother went through all the curses and criticisms from people in jail as well as from her organization, but because of her patience she was able to overcome all those obstacles. She was able make every individual in jail listen to her and now they feel that the day is not complete if they don’t consult with Mother for few hours. She had one specific experience with a person in jail which made her take another diversion in her life.

One among those in jail was very stubborn and was never willing to attend Mother’s consultation hours. He was put in jail because he murdered an individual who criticized him for being a lower caste. He is a well educated and honored who has great respect for others. One fine day, he came to Mother and cried for a long time and he did regret for his mistakes. He talked to Mother about his kids who are helpless and that their career was in stake. Mother realized that her task is incomplete and decided to help the kids of the all the individuals who are in jail. She realized that young kids are not supposed to suffer because of the mistake of their parents.

Mother went in search of all the kids who are in need; some lived in nearby places and some in remote villages. Most of those kids were diseased; she brought them to her home, provided them with all the basic necessities and all the necessary medications to cure their diseases. Now every kid is talented in something and some kid passed their 10th and 12th grade with some excellent job opportunities.

Kids come and go, but Mother is always the same doing her duties with a great satisfaction and tremendous amount of faith in God. She goes to jail everyday for consultation, take care of their kids until they get good job opportunities and provide them all the necessary talent.

God can be realized, felt and seen through people like Mother Esther and I feel that I did see and will always see God in her forever. Thank You GOD!!!!!

Network Drivers ....

2006-12-27T10:47:00.000-05:00

This is an interesting article ... I am not a big time networking guy but this gave me a good understanding and above all it provided some useful information ... have fun reading it ..

http://www.thejemreport.com/mambo/content/view/293/

The battle for wireless network drivers

Written by Jem Matzan
Dec 20, 2006 at 08:52 PM
BSD and Linux programmers have had a lot of success in creating drivers for new computer hardware in a timely manner, but much of their effort has been without the support of major hardware manufacturers. Intel, Marvell, Texas Instruments and Broadcom, though separate and competing entities, seem by one consent to prevent non-Microsoft operating systems from working properly with some of their most widely-used network chips. To find out more about this situation, I interviewed representatives from network chip manufacturers and programmers from free software operating systems. Their answers are below.

The problem

If you have not had any trouble with network drivers recently, you probably aren't aware of the problem that this article addresses, so here's a quick overview: The increasing need for higher network chip performance and lower cost of manufacturing has encouraged companies that create computer network chips to abstract software that was previously permanently stored on the chip. When this software is integrated with the hardware, you don't have to think about it -- it works without any extra effort, and all you need is a driver so that your operating system can interact with it. If hardware specifications are not provided, the device can be reverse-engineered to create a driver from scratch. Programmers generally do this by playing with the hardware registers until they figure out how to interact with it.

When the software is abstracted from the hardware, it changes from an invisible program stored on a memory chip into a file that must be loaded into the network chip's memory through the driver. Generally this software (no matter where it resides) is called firmware. In this case the driver does not interface with the hardware directly; it only does so through the firmware. In this scenario it is impossible to reverse-engineer the hardware because it is essentially brain-dead without its firmware -- all it knows how to do is load the firmware. Once the file is loaded into the network chip, then the hardware knows how to be a network device. Essentially the firmware is its own device-specific operating system. Programmers are unable to reverse-engineer this kind of hardware because the only registers they can play with are the ones that load the firmware; they can, however, reverse-engineer the firmware interface once it is loaded. That's still not an easy thing to do, but even if it weren't so complicated, many operating system developers don't want to write their own device firmware -- all they want to do is write a driver that can load and interface with it.

The first challenge for operating system developers is obtaining the right to distribute the firmware file, which some manufacturers will not allow without significant restriction. Firmware is not operating system-specific, so the same firmware file can be used with any OS, provided it has a driver that can interface with it. So the second challenge is creating such a driver, which requires firmware interface documentation. Not surprisingly, many of the same manufacturers that prohibit or restrict firmware distribution also won't provide interface documentation.
This problem is most prevalent with wireless network chips, but it's also creeping into the wired variety as well. Most notably, Broadcom has developed a new PCI Express 10/100/1000 LAN card that uses several discrete MIPS processors, all of which require proprietary firmware to be loaded. According to a network driver programmer I spoke with, they are employed as such: One of the processors is responsible for loading the firmware onto the other chips; one sends network packets; one receives packets; one tracks packet state to perform TCP offload assistance and various other things; one handles negotiating with the host CPU as it puts/removes packets in/out of the descriptor rings. In this case, all of the firmware fits into an 87k file, but firmware files can be considerably larger: Intel's firmware files are just under half a megabyte, and the firmware for the Alteon Networks Tigon II network controller is in the vicinity of 2MB.

Unrestricted redistribution of firmware files is satisfactory for some open source operating system projects like OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and many varieties of GNU/Linux, but others like Fedora Core and Debian demand an entirely free software environment, so redistribution of the firmware without the ability to modify and distribute the source code is prohibited. The standard response to this from the Free Software Foundation is to reverse-engineer the device and provide free firmware. So even though it is very difficult -- almost impossible -- to do it in the absence of documentation, could such firmware eventually be reverse-engineered? The development team that works on the OpenBSD operating system has a lot of experience with reverse-engineering, but both project leader Theo de Raadt and OpenBSD network driver programmer Jonathan Gray agree that such work would be impractical. Of reverse-engineering firmware and the hardware that it runs on, de Raadt told me, "We can sometimes reverse-engineer how to talk to a device... some are worse than others... but imagine reverse engineering the firmware of 300-400 devices on the market today! Behind their little ARM/MIPS buses, they are a no man's land of undocumented-ness and bugs; hundreds and hundreds of bugs created almost all by the realities of 'time-to-market pressures.'" The issue, in other words, is made worse by hastily-designed hardware that doesn't work as it should, and requires specific workarounds in the firmware and/or driver. Sometimes manufacturers provide patches or documentation for driver programmers; sometimes they don't.

So instead of lobbying for documentation to write open source firmware, de Raadt would prefer to simply have the right to freely distribute necessary proprietary firmware files with his operating system, along with correct firmware interface documentation so that a driver can be created, and information from the manufacturer regarding bug workarounds. Many network chip manufacturers stubbornly refuse to grant these requests, however. Theo de Raadt told me in an email, "Our efforts to do more wireless involves a few approaches. We reverse-engineer what we can. We borrow from other people's reverse-engineering lessons where we can, for instance, prism54.org is a Linux team, but their reverse-engineer work has resulted in knowledge which we can obviously use to write a BSD driver. And finally, we dialogue directly with vendors to get more free access to documentation, early access to hardware, or firmware distribution rights (sometimes there is just no other way). Some vendors (in particular Ralink or Realtek) will even give us hardware before it goes on sale. Some give us documentation, some give us code. But largely a lot of American vendors are still stupidly resisting giving anything. In any case, all these efforts together now mean that we have more wireless support in OpenBSD than all the Linux distributions. Maybe even combined!"

According to Jonathan Gray, the drivers that OpenBSD currently has that require firmware that vendors won't let the OpenBSD Project distribute are:
acx (4) - TI ACX100/ACX111 IEEE 802.11a/b/g wireless network device
ipw (4) - Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 IEEE 802.11b wireless network device
iwi (4) - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG/2225BG/2915ABG IEEE 802.11a/b/g wireless network device
malo (4) - Marvell Libertas IEEE 802.11b/g
bcw (4) - Broadcom IEEE 802.11b/g (this driver is still under development and does not currently work)
wpi (4) - Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG IEEE 802.11a/b/g
pgt (4) - Connexant/Intersil Prism GT Full-MAC IEEE 802.11a/b/g wireless network device
uath (4) - Atheros USB IEEE 802.11a/b/g
wpi (4) - Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG IEEE 802.11a/b/g wireless network device
And the wireless devices that either do not require firmware, or that have runtime firmware that OpenBSD is allowed to distribute:
atu (4) - Atmel AT76C50x USB IEEE 802.11b wireless network device
ral (4) - Ralink Technology IEEE 802.11a/b/g wireless network device (2nd gen 802.11 Ralink)
rum (4) - Ralink Technology USB IEEE 802.11a/b/g wireless network device
zyd (4) - Zydas ZD1211 USB IEEE 802.11b/g wireless network device
Intel requires that people who use its Centrino wireless firmware submit to a lengthy license agreement before downloading and using it. While the majority of end-users may just scroll down and click the "I Agree" link to get past it, the process is not quite so simple for free software operating systems, which would have to provide the same license hurdle for every one of their users, and agree not to modify any of the driver header code that Intel provides. Commercial desktop GNU/Linux distributions like SUSE, Mandriva, and Linspire already do this, or have independent distribution agreements with Intel.

When reverse-engineering works Reyk Floeter and various other OpenBSD programmers managed to write a free replacement for the proprietary Atheros hardware abstraction layer (HAL) called ar5k or "OpenHAL." The HAL isn't firmware; it is a form of abstracted device driver that actually loads into the operating system kernel through a small amount of driver code. The big difference between a HAL and a firmware is where the code resides; if it's on the device, it's firmware, and if it is loaded into the operating system's kernel, it's HAL.
ar5k works with many Atheros-based wireless cards and has been examined and recently given a clean bill of copyright health from the Software Freedom Law Center. Mysteriously, it has virtually no support from the Madwifi Project, which is the development team responsible for creating Atheros drivers for Linux-based operating systems. Madwifi continues to primarily support the proprietary Atheros HAL, though there is an old and uninformative page in the Madwifi Wiki about it. The email addresses listed for the Madwifi developers either bounce or elicit no response to requests for comments on why there is no apparent effort to use the open source HAL in Madwifi. So if it exists, it's free-as-in-rights, and it works, then why doesn't Madwifi use ar5k instead of the proprietary HAL? It may very well be pressure from Atheros that keeps ar5k out of Madwifi, but no one at Madwifi or Atheros would talk to me about it.

The manufacturers speak -- or don't

In order to find out why network chip manufacturers are so polarized in their support of free software operating systems, I made contact with company representatives at Atheros, Intel, Marvell, Atmel, Ralink, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, and Realtek. Not surprisingly, the manufacturers who shun operating system programmers also seem to be reluctant to talk to the press.

Atheros

After weeks of repeated requests and pleas for any kind of response just to verify that the PR email address works, an Atheros representative told me that she was unable to find anyone at the company who was qualified and willing to comment for this article.

Intel

Intel punted me to different people a few times, then after a short delay and a bizarre inquisition into my professional background and "intentions" in writing this article, told me that the company had nothing to say on the matter of wireless firmware distribution rights and interface documentation. Considering Intel's outstanding PR record and its general willingness to provide hardware documentation for the PCI chipsets and drive controllers that it makes, this behavior is unusual. One of the questions I asked Intel was if it felt its uncooperativeness with free software developers was in direct conflict with this presentation about the importance of participating in and supporting open source software development that Intel engineer James Ketrenos gave last summer. In it, Ketrenos says several things in favor of corporate cooperation with open source software developers, including these points:
Enable the community to do as much as possible
Only keep internal those things that the community can not contribute to (Example: Certification testing)
If you need to keep IP closed source (for example some whiz-bang algorithm), document the hardware sufficiently that the community can provide their own.
Treat the community as if they were a member of your internal team

Broadcom

The Broadcom press relations person I spoke with very much wanted to help me, but could not find anyone at Broadcom who felt qualified to comment.

Marvell

I have already written about the substandard responsiveness of Marvell's outsourced PR agency (see the bottom of the linked article).

Texas Instruments

An internal Texas Instruments press relations person was very responsive to my requests for comment at first, then punted me to an outsourced PR agency which, in turn, ignored several emails asking for information. After more than two weeks of repeated inquiries, a representative of the PR agency informed me that she was unable to find anyone at Texas Instruments who was qualified to comment on TI's policies on providing hardware documentation and firmware redistribution agreements.

Ralink Technologies

I had no trouble getting through to Ralink, where I spoke with company representative Lillian Chiu.
Ralink has been responsive to requests for hardware documentation without requiring an NDA. Why can Ralink do this when competing manufacturers such as Intel and Marvell require non-disclosure agreements?
Lillian Chiu: It's our philosophy to spread the technology without border, along with high performance and low cost.
Because of Ralink's cooperativeness with projects like OpenBSD and Linux kernel developers, Ralink's products tend to be very well supported in so-called "alternative" operating systems. Do you see this as a competitive advantage? Does Ralink sell more network products as a result?
LC: Our customers have often provided positive feedback for our best-in-class device support. We see it as a win-win situation where advanced users get more flexibility while we sell more products.
If a programmer needs to access Ralink hardware documentation, whom at Ralink should they contact?
LC: Please visit Ralink Web site at www.ralinktech.com for details under /support/forums.

Atmel Inc.

Richard Bisset, product marketing director of the multimedia and communications group, offered several minutes of his time to answer some questions about wireless drivers and firmware.

Atmel has been responsive to requests for hardware documentation without requiring an NDA. Why can Atmel do this when competing manufacturers such as Intel and Marvell require non-disclosure agreements?
Richard Bisset: For some things we do require non-disclosure agreements, but we are generally able to provide the API documentation and the firmware driver interface specifications for our hardware. As to why others may not be able to do this... well, our software is developed in-house, but others might out outsource their driver development to third-party companies, so they may not even have the documentation that a programmer requests.
As to why Intel might be so secretive with this information if they do have it, I can't say. Perhaps because more and more features are actually being moved from the firmware to the driver, some companies are being more guarded than others. Additionally, as the Centrino laptop processor includes wireless, it may be they don't want to give up any potential IP that could help their competition -- I don't really know for sure.

Because of Atmel's cooperativeness with projects like OpenBSD and Linux kernel developers, Atmel's products tend to be very well supported in so-called "alternative" operating systems. Do you see this as a competitive advantage? Does Atmel sell more network products as a result?RB: Well, if you look at the success of Intel, Marvell, Broadcom, etc. -- the big players in the wireless industry -- they are successful with the OEM and peripheral markets. As the embedded markets generally require more technical support, they probably don't care much about getting another 50,000 or 100,000 units sold and can be tight with their APIs. We were late to market with our 802.11g products, so we missed the OEM opportunities, and with wireless, you've only got three real chances for success: you can be first to market with a technology, or you can have valuable and unique features that no one else has and the market wants, or you can have the lowest price. Atmel wasn't first, didn't have any new unique features, and wasn't the cheapest, either. With the PC and OEM markets being somewhat locked out, we repositioned to focus on the embedded space where the market was experiencing and predicting large growth. In the embedded market, if you don't get documentation to developers, then you both fail.

What's the big secret with device firmware, then?
RB: Firmware is generally running on the chip itself, as opposed to the host. The code is written tightly coupled to the chip it is running on and implements/enables functions that the hardware supports. Therefore, there generally is a lot of IP within the firmware. Our firmware is loaded from an external flash into internal SRAM, but more and more semiconductor manufacturers are moving firmware functions to the driver.

We usually provide driver source code, and we try to put it under the GPL if possible, so that's usually good enough if you want to write your own driver. If you want to see more than that, we generally require an NDA, or if you're an embedded customer, we provide reference platforms.
So the firmware is so secret that you have to sign an NDA to see it, but not secret enough that some stranger who works on an obscure operating system can see it with merely a signature?
RB: It is kind of a strange situation, yes, and sometimes we run into people who are reluctant to sign NDAs. It really depends on the customer and target application. We don't require an NDA to see hardware APIs, and I think that's what you're talking about with regard to documentation.

If a programmer needs to access Atmel hardware documentation, whom at Atmel should they contact?
RB: We have contact forms through our Web site where you can make requests, and they are directed to the proper person at Atmel.
Realtek Inc.
After a few emails, I made contact with Tracy Ho, a Taiwan-based representative for Realtek.
Realtek has reportedly been responsive to requests for hardware documentation without requiring a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Why can Realtek do this when competing manufacturers such as Intel and Marvell require NDAs?
Tracy Ho: For some years Realtek has been one of the largest NIC/LOM solution providers. One of the major reasons for this is that Realtek takes customer service as one of its top priorities. We aim to work with our customers as partners in a mutually cooperative environment. Our product sales and technical support teams are well-recognized by our customers and we strive to provide them with the convenience of flexibility and real-time support. One of the ways we do this is by releasing general hardware documents without requiring a NDA.

Because of Realtek's cooperativeness with projects like OpenBSD and Linux kernel developers, Realtek's products tend to be very well supported in so-called "alternative" operating systems. Do you see this as a competitive advantage? Does Realtek sell more network products as a result?
TH: Realtek has been working very closely with various operating system providers pretty much since the company was first started, and we do consider this to be one of our competitive advantages. Over the last decade, the great expansion of networked devices throughout the home and work environment, and the use of open-source operating systems in many such devices, has definitely helped us expand market share.

If a programmer needs to access Realtek hardware documentation, whom at Realtek should they contact?
TH: For most hardware documentation, programmers can access Realtek's website. Any other questions can be directed to our technical support teams (contact information available from the "Contact Us" link on our website).
All we need to do is make sure we keep talking Some of the non-responsiveness of manufacturers may just be bad PR work, but the same companies that wouldn't talk to me have also refused to reply to free software programmers who have requested the same information. The impression I got from most of these companies (excepting Intel) was that they were not at all prepared to deal with the issues of firmware redistribution rights and hardware API documentation requests. That they have ignored free software programmers' requests is not necessarily a sign of unwillingness to participate, but perhaps a general sense of confusion as to how they are able to help. No one seems to know whom to talk to at the company, and in some cases the proper documentation may not exist -- or it may belong to yet another company that the hardware manufacturer outsourced the firmware development to.

On the other hand, it was just as difficult to contact and get comments from the Madwifi developers, and it seems that each individual wireless driver in the Linux kernel has different people working on it. Even if one of the above companies wanted to provide the appropriate materials to create free drivers and firmware, how would they know whom to contact? The irony in this story is that the heart of the problem lies in a lack of communication, but not between operating systems and network devices -- between hardware manufacturers and the software developers who are trying to support their devices.

Physics promises wireless power

2006-11-15T17:47:00.000-05:00

An article from BBC

The tangle of cables and plugs needed to recharge today's electronic gadgets could soon be a thing of the past.
US researchers have outlined a relatively simple system that could deliver power to devices such as laptop computers or MP3 players without wires.
The concept exploits century-old physics and could work over distances of many metres, the researchers said.
Although the team has not built and tested a system, computer models and mathematics suggest it will work.
"There are so many autonomous devices such as cell phones and laptops that have emerged in the last few years," said Assistant Professor Marin Soljacic from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the researchers behind the work.
"We started thinking, 'it would be really convenient if you didn't have to recharge these things'.
"And because we're physicists we asked, 'what kind of physical phenomenon can we use to do this wireless energy transfer?'."
How wireless energy could work
The answer the team came up with was "resonance", a phenomenon that causes an object to vibrate when energy of a certain frequency is applied.

This would work in a room let's say but you could adapt it to work in a factory
Marin Soljacic
"When you have two resonant objects of the same frequency they tend to couple very strongly," Professor Soljacic told the BBC News website.
Resonance can be seen in musical instruments for example.
"When you play a tune on one, then another instrument with the same acoustic resonance will pick up that tune, it will visibly vibrate," he said.
Instead of using acoustic vibrations, the team's system exploits the resonance of electromagnetic waves. Electromagnetic radiation includes radio waves, infrared and X-rays.
Typically, systems that use electromagnetic radiation, such as radio antennas, are not suitable for the efficient transfer of energy because they scatter energy in all directions, wasting large amounts of it into free space.
To overcome this problem, the team investigated a special class of "non-radiative" objects with so-called "long-lived resonances".
When energy is applied to these objects it remains bound to them, rather than escaping to space. "Tails" of energy, which can be many metres long, flicker over the surface.
"If you bring another resonant object with the same frequency close enough to these tails then it turns out that the energy can tunnel from one object to another," said Professor Soljacic.

Wireless energy transfer has been thought about for centuries
Hence, a simple copper antenna designed to have long-lived resonance could transfer energy to a laptop with its own antenna resonating at the same frequency. The computer would be truly wireless.
Any energy not diverted into a gadget or appliance is simply reabsorbed.
The systems that the team have described would be able to transfer energy over three to five metres.
"This would work in a room let's say but you could adapt it to work in a factory," he said.
"You could also scale it down to the microscopic or nanoscopic world."
Old technology
The team from MIT is not the first group to suggest wireless energy transfer.
Nineteenth-century physicist and engineer Nikola Tesla experimented with long-range wireless energy transfer, but his most ambitious attempt - the 29m high aerial known as Wardenclyffe Tower, in New York - failed when he ran out of money.

Wireless power for gadgets
Others have worked on highly directional mechanisms of energy transfer such as lasers.
However, these require an uninterrupted line of sight, and are therefore not good for powering objects around the home.
A UK company called Splashpower has also designed wireless recharging pads onto which gadget lovers can directly place their phones and MP3 players to recharge them.
The pads use electromagnetic induction to charge devices, the same process used to charge electric toothbrushes.
One of the co-founders of Splashpower, James Hay, said the MIT work was "clearly at an early stage" but "interesting for the future".
"Consumers desire a simple universal solution that frees them from the hassles of plug-in chargers and adaptors," he said.
"Wireless power technology has the potential to deliver on all of these needs."
However, Mr Hay said that transferring the power was only part of the solution.
"There are a number of other aspects that need to be addressed to ensure efficient conversion of power to a form useful to input to devices."
Professor Soljacic will present the work at the American Institute of Physics Industrial Physics Forum in San Francisco on 14 November.
The work was done in collaboration with his colleagues Aristeidis Karalis and John Joannopoulos.

HOW WIRELESS POWER COULD WORK

1) Power from mains to antenna, which is made of copper
2) Antenna resonates at a frequency of 6.4Mhz, emitting electromagnetic waves
3) 'Tails' of energy from antenna 'tunnel' up to 5m (16.4ft)
4) Electricity picked up by laptop's antenna, which must also be resonating at 6.4Mhz. Energy used to re-charge device
5) Energy not transferred to laptop re-absorbed by source antenna. People/other objects not affected as not resonating at 6.4Mhz

Indian Prime Minister speach at Cambridge University

2006-11-12T15:37:00.000-05:00

Prime Minister's Address at the University of Cambridge Towards Inclusive Globalisation (11 October 2006)
The Chancellor The Vice Chancellor Professors, Fellows and pupils of Cambridge University My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen
I am deeply conscious of the honour that you have bestowed upon me by inviting me to deliver this lecture and by conferring on me the degree of Doctor of Law. I crave your indulgence as I begin on a personal note. I am one of the fortunate few to have been embraced by Britain's two oldest universities. Before I went to the other place by the Isis, I saw the river Cam when I came up to study for my Economics tripos at St John's. In the beginning was St.John's. The colour light blue is one of my favourites and is often seen on my head. My memories of my days in Cambridge are deep. I was taught by teachers like Nicholas Kaldor, Joan Robinson, Maurice Dobb and Professor R.C.O. Mathews. I have vivid recollections of the economist Pierro Srafa working at the Marshall Library. It was here that I became a contemporary of Amartya Sen, Jagdish Bhagwati, Mahbub-ul Haq and Rehman Sobhan - all renowned economists from South Asia who became lifelong friends. My teachers and my peers in Cambridge taught me to be open to argument and to be fearless and lucid in the expression of one's opinions. These virtues, and a relentless desire to pursue intellectual truth were inculcated in me at Cambridge. In many important ways, the University of Cambridge made me.
I am certainly not the only Indian who is thus indebted to this University. Jawaharlal Nehru was at Trinity as was his grandson, Rajiv Gandhi. Both became Prime Ministers of India. I am thus the third Prime Minister of India to have come out of Cambridge. Sarojini Naidu, known as the `Nightingale of India', played an extremely significant role in India's freedom movement and she studied at Girton. Looking beyond the arena of political leadership, there were many eminent Indians, who studied in Cambridge, and then made significant contributions to the world of science and to public life in India. In this context, I think of Jagadish Chandra Bose, who was at Christ's in the 1880s and was a pioneer in the study of radio waves and the life of plants. I think of Srinivasan Ramanujan, the master of the theory of numbers who was brought to Trinity by G.H.Hardy. I remember P.C. Mahalanobis who was at King's and then founded the Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta. Homi J. Bhabha, who played a crucial role in the development of India's nuclear programme and established the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai was at Gonville and Caius. M.S. Swaminathan, the man who envisioned the Green Revolution in India, was at St. Catharine's. I mention here only the very eminent but there are many others in the social sciences, in education and the bureaucracy in India who, like me, claim this university as their alma mater. The links between India and Cambridge are long and enduring.
Globalisation
When I came up to Cambridge in the mid 1950s, the Cold War had frozen the world into two blocs. India had won Independence a few years before and under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru was trying to establish its own place in a divided world. For Indians it was an era of hope, and there was great optimism about the prospect of development.
Today the world appears radically altered. The Cold War is history. A new age of freedom has harnessed to it new technologies that have transformed production and communication. The dismantling of state control has unshackled economic forces. More countries are now integrated into a global economic system in which trade and capital flow across borders with unprecedented energy. The age of freedom is also the age of economic growth. Prometheus has truly been unbound.
A very significant feature of the global economy is the integration of the emerging economies in world markets. In fact, the weight of global economic activity is gradually shifting to these emerging economies. They now account for more than two-fifths of world exports compared to a fifth twenty-five years ago.
In many parts of the developing world, especially India and China, per capita incomes are doubling or are expected to double over every decade. This will lift millions of people out of poverty. This pace of change is unprecedented, far exceeding what was witnessed during the Industrial Revolution in Europe. Freer trade and financial flows in the world as a whole are helping to contain inflation, keep interest rates low, and sustain higher levels of investment.
In my own country, the economic reforms we initiated in the early 1990s have made our economy more competitive. Indian business is responding to new market opportunities. India's growth is underpinned by a vibrant and growing entrepreneurial class. Indian youth is keen to get into technical and scientific institutions - helping India gain salience as a knowledge based economy. Our country, I believe, is now on a growth path of 7 to 9 per cent per year, while maintaining price stability. The proportion of people living below the poverty line is declining.
Globalisation: Some Concerns
These achievements of the era of globalization should not blind us to the new anxieties that globalization has brought in its wake. The reach of globalization is yet to touch many parts of the world. Moreover, the evidence suggests that the process has not removed personal and regional income disparities. In many developing countries, growth is by-passing the rural areas. Also, in the face of stagnation in their real pay, the working classes in industrialized countries are becoming fearful of the opening of markets. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening. This, coupled with the inability of the public sector to provide adequate and quality services in health and education, and cater to the needs of the poor, is causing resentment and alienation. This is nurturing divisive forces and putting pressure on the practice of democracy.
These are real and palpable concerns and they cannot be ignored. Ladies and gentlemen, I suggest to you that we address these vital concerns by making globalisation an inclusive process. We need to work for inclusive globalisation. This calls for a new global vision.
Make Globalisation Inclusive
That vision must ensure that the gains from globalization are more widely shared. It is a matter of deep concern that the Doha Development Round of trade negotiations has reached an impasse. If trade is to be an instrument of combating poverty and spreading manufacturing capacities more evenly in the world, it is vital that barriers to the export of agricultural goods from developing countries be eliminated.
Nearly 2/3rd of the population of developing countries live in rural areas. In the developed world this falls to less than ten per cent. My appeal is that developed countries should not allow short-term national interests to prevail at the cost of promoting freer trade and combating poverty. The prosperity of so many cannot be sacrificed for protecting the interests of so few. The price of myopia is heavy on the exchequers of the developed world. The issue also has profound moral dimensions.
To convince people in poor countries about the benefits of globalization we must take a more enlightened view in liberalizing trade in services and labour intensive manufactures, in which developing countries are competitive. I see trade not only as a means to prosperity, but also as peace building. Collectively we need to devise an enlightened approach to negotiations over the reduction of harmful gas emissions, intellectual property rights in the production of life saving drugs, transfer of technologies that help to combat poverty and such issues.
Prosperity, ladies and gentlemen, is not divisible. Neither is global peace possible without the eradication of poverty. As Jawaharlal Nehru said in his address to the Canadian Parliament in 1949:
"There can be no security or real peace if vast numbers of people in various parts of the world live in poverty and misery. Nor can there be a balanced economy for the world as a whole if the underdeveloped parts continue to upset that balance and drag down even the more prosperous nations."
Terrorism and Fundamentalism - From a "Clash of Civilisations" to a "Confluence of Civilisations"
The best efforts to eradicate poverty will be defeated if our societies and nations are threatened by the spectre of terrorism and extremism. Open societies like India and Britain are more vulnerable to this threat. The very openness of our societies makes us more vulnerable. Yet we must fight terrorism without losing the openness or the rule of law that guarantees the freedom of the individual.
I believe that terrorism can be defeated only by combating fundamentalism and promoting respect for diversity. Britain, the land of John Stuart Mill and Bertrand Russell, the cradle of common law, liberty and democracy, has a unique role to play in fighting fundamentalism. India too has its own pluralistic traditions and openness to other cultures. The legacy of Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru ordains that we remain committed to combating fundamentalism. We do not believe in a "clash of civilizations". What we believe in is enrichment of the human condition through cultural inclusiveness and a "confluence of civilizations".
Global governance
As democracies we must also stand together in making governance across the world more democratic. As a democracy we aspire to a world in which global institutions are more democratic and more representative of all the peoples of the world. The governance processes of global institutions of today - be they Bretton Woods institutions or the UN Security Council - reflect the realities of the world as it was more than half a century ago.
A more inclusive global process that carries the population of the world with it calls for a reform of these institutions, in which the developing world will have a greater voice. Not to do otherwise is to risk alienation and to render ineffectual the global system. I look to Britain, the Commonwealth and other great nations of the world to join forces in bringing about such a reordered global system.
Ladies and Gentlemen, you may well wonder why I have expressed these thoughts at this forum. Before the First World War, a young man from Allahabad came up to Trinity via Harrow. After the Second War, a simple young Indian came to St John's from an obscure university in Punjab. Cambridge University embraced both. This inclusive character of my alma mater emboldened me to speak to this august gathering about inclusive globalisation. I thank you very sincerely for your patience and your indulgence.
Thank you.
The Hindu

New Super Computer

2006-09-13T18:01:00.000-04:00

Fastest supercomputer to be built

Currently, BlueGene/L is the most powerful computer in the world Computer giant IBM will build the world's most powerful supercomputer at a US government laboratory.

The machine, codenamed Roadrunner, could be four times more potent than the current fastest machine, BlueGene/L, also built by IBM. The new computer is a "hybrid" design, using both conventional supercomputer processors and the new "cell" chip designed for Sony's PlayStation 3. Roadrunner will be installed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico.
The laboratory is owned by the US Department of Energy (DOE). Eventually the machine could be used for a programme that ensures the US nuclear weapons stockpile remains safe and reliable, the DOE said in a statement.

Using supercomputers to simulate how nuclear materials age negates arguments for the resumption of underground nuclear testing.
Peak speeds

The new machine will be able to achieve "petaflop speeds," said IBM. One petaflop is the equivalent of 1,000 trillion calculations per second. Running at peak speed, it will be able to crunch through 1.6 thousand trillion calculations per second.

TOP FIVE SUPERCOMPUTERS
Blue Gene/L, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California. (131,072 processors)
BGW Blue Gene, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, New York (40,960 processors)
ASC Purple, Department of Energy, USA (12,208 processors)
Columbia, NASA Ames Research Center, USA (10,160 processors)
Tera-10, Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (CEA), France (8,704 processors)
Source: Top 500 Supercomputers
By comparison, BlueGene/L is capable of mere "teraflop" (trillion calculations per second) speeds.

Installed at the DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and also used for the DOE's Stockpile Stewardship Program, it has achieved 280.6 teraflops and is theoretically capable of 367 teraflops. Roadrunner should be capable of much more. It will achieve its superfast performance using a hybrid design, built with off-the-shelf components.
The computer will contain 16,000 standard processors working alongside 16,000 "cell" processors, designed for the PlayStation 3 (PS3).

Each cell chip consists of eight processors controlled by a master unit that can assign tasks to each member of the processing team. Each cell is capable of 256 billion calculations per second.
The power of the cell chip means Roadrunner needs far fewer processors than its predecessors.

Spare power

This is not the first attempt by scientists to harness the power of the cell.
In August, scientists at Stanford University in California announced plans to distribute a program that could run on gamers' PS3s. The cell processor was originally designed for Sony's PlayStation 3

The folding@home program would tap the cell's spare processing power to examine how the shape of proteins, critical to most biological functions, affect diseases such as Alzheimer's.
This distributed computing method uses each individual machine to process a small amount of data, with results fed back over the internet to a central machine where they can be viewed together.

The Stanford researchers say that 10,000 consoles running the program would give a performance equivalent to one petaflop. The team hopes eventually to enlist 100,000 machines.
Although a network of this size would in theory out-perform Roadrunner, the two systems would be used to solve different types of problem.

Computer talk

Both involve huge sets of data that are split into smaller packets to make them more manageable. On a distributed computing network these small packets can be processed independently, with results brought together at key stages of a project.

For example a PC running the SETI@home project, which examines thousands of hours of radio telescope signals for signs of extra-terrestrial intelligence, processes just a small chunk of data.
inding a signal does not depend on the outcome of other PCs running the program.
However, on a supercomputer like Roadrunner, the different units must be able to "talk" with each other all of the time, which is vital for applications such as weather simulation which feature a huge number of constantly changing and interacting variables.

When Roadrunner is finished in 2008 it will cover 12,000 square feet (1,100 square metres) of floor space at Los Alamos National Laboratory IBM says it will start shipping the new supercomputer later this year.

Vande Mataram

2006-09-08T15:28:00.000-04:00

Little tit-bits about Vande Mataram - Indian national song

The song, written by Bengali poet Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in 1876, was first sung at the Congress Party session in Varanasi in 1905.

Vande Mataram, which translates as "Mother, I bow to thee" or "hail to the mother", became the rallying cry for Indians fighting British colonial rule.

The song was tipped to be India's national anthem, but lost out to Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's more secular Jana Gana Mana following opposition from Muslim groups.
But Vande Mataram is still regarded highly and the song is played in parliament at the beginning and end of each session.

How credit card works

2006-08-29T18:40:00.000-04:00

CREDIT GOES TO THE CARD…

In order not to carry too much of money we carry technology. No? Yes, we do. What is a credit card then, it is a sleek package of technology. No less than a computer, it is also software.
Have you ever wondered how a credit card works! Even I never pondered over it until I sat to write to you. You must have seen a black strip at the backside of your card. That’s the trump card. This black strip contains a code fed with a particular radioactive frequency and is called Bar Code. This bar code is different for different cards. When the card is swapped in the reading machine, the machine tries to adjust to the frequency of the card. If the frequency matches the money gets credited.

This is about the working of the software credit cards are made of, in very short. But, what about the software? What is this software? How are they manufactured? Let’s get to know the nitty-gritty of this wonderful form of money.

The card is a component which is feeded with a software application. This system is called ‘component based software application.’ These applications are as follows:
• Easy to install
• Flexible and scalable configuration
• Comprehensive reporting system
• Advanced security and network monitoring system
• Stand-alone, intranet and internet capable

The soft ware enables real-time processing of all phases in issuing the credit card. These cards enable manufacturers, consumers and retailers to quickly and more cost effectively creates and introduce exclusive credit transactions. The applications of the cards provide widespread backing functions for processing and managing money and cash accounts. Common software advantages are:
• Rapid deployment
• Competitive advantages
• Scalability
• Lower total cost of ownership
• Multi-currency processing
• Multilanguage support

There are further innovations being made in the software used presently. The new applications will enable noteworthy increase in operating efficiency and increase in the ability of the users exploit technological advances. The renovated products will include features like:
• Embedded localization
• Flexible pricing and payment terms
• Web graphical user
• Complex rule based authorization
• Real time processing
• Effective dating
• Unlimited hierarchies
• Embedded multilingual and multi-currency support
• Security

The software’s made are compatible with the tools developers. Every compiler includes uses support that comes directly from manufacturers and offers updates, technical support and expertise.

Software development time should now be shortened and optimized for handheld devices. Now build faster and more stable system and application software. This will support multiple operating systems. And, get the best ever performance from your applications.

There’s an any card, it is a credit card authorization program and it is also software. It possesses the ability to process credit cards. That too, if you do some publishing in the academic world. Any card is useful when most credit card software is way beyond those people’s reach that have average income, e.g. Teachers.

“Installation is easy, with a built-in modem tester and detailed instructions on how to run practice verifications to ensure proper operation. The software will dial the center and with a click of the interface transmit the customer's credit-card info,” said ZDNet site, which reviewed any card.

Though there are some commercial software programs which communicate with the processing computer, any card does not communicate with the computer which processes it. Also, this communicating software is very expensive and needs to be approved by the processing center. But, any card functions very differently.

It works in accordance with the voice or touch-tone processing. Now, what is this? It is a type of processing that chooses your low volume of cards and your wish to keep things simple. This, in turn, lowers the overall cost.

As soon as you use voice or touch-tone processing, the processing center is called. There, the processing center's computer asks you about your key-in your merchant number, the customer's card number, the expiration date and amount. It isn't easy keying in all those numbers. With Any Card you get everything set up in advance.
• Click a button, and dial the processing center.
• Click on the merchant number button, and key in the number
• Click on the credit card number button and key in the number
All this with the help of only, any card.

Consume less Earth's resources -- live long and happy

2006-07-14T16:53:00.000-04:00

People can live long, happy lives without consuming large amounts of the Earth's resources, a survey suggests.

The 178-nation "Happy Planet Index" lists the south Pacific island of Vanuatu as the happiest nation on the planet, while the UK is ranked 108th. The index is based on consumption levels, life expectancy and happiness, rather than national economic wealth measurements such as GDP.

The study was compiled by think-tank the New Economics Foundation (Nef).
Size doesn't matter One of the authors, Nef's Nic Marks, said the aim of the index was to show that well-being did not have to be linked to high levels of consumption.
'HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH'

Population: 209,000
GDP/capita: $2,900 (£1,575)
Climate: tropical
Resources: forests, fish
Economy: agriculture, tourism
Environmental issues: deforestation and clean water
Source: CIA Handbook 2006
Country profile of Vanuatu

"It is clear that no single nation listed in the index has got everything right, but it does reveal patterns that show how we might better achieve long and happy lives for all while living within our environmental means," Mr Marks said.

The small island state of Vanuatu is situated in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean, and has a population of 209,000. Its economy is built around small-scale agriculture and tourism.
Latin American nations dominate the top 10 places in the index, while African and Eastern European nations fill most of the bottom 10.

Among the world's largest economies, Germany is ranked 81st, Japan 95th, while the US comes in at 150th. Retail therapy will not bring happiness, according to the studyRichard Layard, director of the Well-Being Programme at the London School of Economics' Centre for Economic Performance, said that the index was an interesting way to tackle the issue of modern life's environmental impact.

"It reminds us that it is not good enough to be happy today if we are impoverishing future generations through global warming. "Over the last 50 years, living standards in the West have improved enormously but we have become no happier," Mr Layard told the BBC.
"This shows we should not sacrifice human relationships, which are the main source of happiness, for the sake of economic growth."

Although Vanuatu tops the happiness index, it is ranked 207th out of 233 economies when measured against Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Simon Bullock, economics co-ordinator for Friends of the Earth, which helped compile the data, said the findings showed that happiness did not have to cost the Earth.

"The UK economy hoovers up vast quantities of the world's scarce resources, yet British people are no happier than Colombians, who use far fewer," he said.

"The current crude focus on GDP is outdated, destructive and doesn't deliver a better quality of life."

Nef is calling for the adoption of a "global manifesto for a happier planet" that will list ways nations can live within their environmental limits and increase people's quality of life. The recommendations include: Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger Recognising the contribution of individuals and unpaid work Ensuring economic policies stay within environmental limitsThe index builds on a report that Nef published earlier this year that warned if annual global consumption levels matched the UK's, it would take 3.1 Earths to meet the demand

Technology Bite ....

2006-07-14T16:45:00.000-04:00

An article from BBC

Scientists seek to restore sight

A diagram of the retinal prosthesis from the University of GlasgowPioneering work to tackle two common forms of blindness is being undertaken by University of Glasgow scientists.
Dr Keith Mathieson hopes an electronic optical implant will help blind people to regain their vision.

Technology similar to that found in devices like digital cameras could be in use within a decade.
Dr Mathieson said: "By implanting a device into the eye, we hope we will be able to fool the brain into believing the retina is still in working order."

The chip would assist about one million people in the UK with age-related macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa.

'Recognise faces'

Dr Mathieson said: "Advances in microelectronics have allowed us to develop a small device to be implanted on the retina itself. "The device would contain an imaging detector. "If light forms an image on the detector, then the result will be electrical stimulation of the retina in the shape of this image.

"The stimulated cells then send the information via the optic nerve to the brain."
The implant prototype has 100 pixels but the team hope that number will increase significantly as their work progresses.

Dr Mathieson, said: "Around 500 pixels would allow people to walk down the street and recognise faces. "Beyond where we are today it might be possible to make smart chips which have memory in them which would allow action replay and slow motion."

Dr Mathieson, from the University of Glasgow's department of physics, is working on the project with Dr James D Morrison from the neuroscience and biomedical systems department.

India's first war of Independence - 'Sipoy Mutiny'

2006-07-14T12:01:00.000-04:00

When did the first mutiny against British rule take place in India?

If you accept the version of most historians and the Indian government, it was in 1857, when Indian soldiers of the British army rebelled against their colonial masters in what was known as the "sepoy mutiny" or the "first war of independence".

In fact so convinced is the Indian government of the date that it is now drawing up elaborate plans to commemorate the 150th anniversary in a grand manner next year.
But not everyone agrees that 1857 is the right date.

Overlooked

The Chief Minister of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, M Karunanidhi, argues that the first mutiny in fact began during the early hours of 10 July 1806.

So convinced is he that he has issued a commemorative postal stamp which depicts the first "sepoy mutiny" as happening in the fort in the town of Vellore, 130km (80 miles) from the state capital Madras.

Tipu Sultan was at the forefront of resistance to British rule That is 51 years before the better-known "sepoy mutiny" of 1857. Mr Karunanidhi's contention has much sympathy in the south of India, where historians and politicians complain that when it comes to recording Indian history, the north of the country often ignores or overlooks events in the south.

One of their greatest grievances is that south India's participation in the Indian independence struggle is neither recognised nor recorded - hence the debate over when the first "sepoy mutiny" took place.

Dress code

According to them, the Vellore revolt was the first organised uprising faced by the British involving Indian soldiers in the British army.
After the death of Tipu Sultan in 1799, the British detained his family members at the fort in Vellore.

Mr Karunanidhi says recognition of the revolt is better late than never
In 1806, the British introduced a dress code for its mostly Indian soldiers which required them to remove caste-marks, earrings and beards.
Instead the soldiers were ordered to wear newly designed turbans with leather embellishments.
Most of the Indian soldiers resented this, and by May 1806, the British authorities in Madras came to know of their simmering resentment. They identified some of those troops expressing dissent and punished them by publicly lashing some and sacking others. But the rebelling soldiers did not relent. Seized control Using the marriage of one of Tipu Sultan's daughters - scheduled on 9 July - as a pretext, they gathered at Vellore fort.

The rebellion began at Vellore fort

According to Madras-based historian S Muthiah, many of the 1,500-strong Indian garrison at the fort took part in the uprising, which began at 0300 the following morning.

More than 100 of the 350 European soldiers on garrison duty were killed, and by mid-morning the rebels had seized control of the fort.

But they made a fatal mistake. The celebrating sepoys failed to close the gates of the fort securely, and later that morning the British and Madras Cavalry - based 20 miles (32km) away in Arcot - charged through them.

A massacre ensued, with more than 350 of the rebels killed and an equal number injured before the British finally recaptured the fort.

The British suspected the Mysore princes of having instigated the rebellion and transferred them to Calcutta.

Chief Minister Karunanidhi says that after 200 years, the move by the Indian postal department to bring out commemorative stamps has at last given "due recognition" to India's "first war of independence".

Microsoft opens up on file styles

2006-07-06T17:12:00.000-04:00

An article from BBC

Office users will get more options for the way they save filesUsers could be in for less frustration as Microsoft makes flagship programs handle rival ways of saving documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

The initiative covers the Word, Excel and PowerPoint programs from the Office software suite.
The prototype of the first tool to translate between formats will be made available as a free download on 6 July. Microsoft said it started building the software tools in response to requests from government customers.

File style

Every PC user knows how careful they have to be when moving important files around because of the incompatibilities between different programs, such as word processors, that do the same job. Saving a file in a format in one program can make it difficult to open in another, without sacrificing some of the way that the information in the file is laid out or formatted
Both Microsoft and the broader technology industry have been working to remove some of these problems by standardising the ways information is saved so it appears the same when opened by different programs.

This tool promises to be a very significant development in the trend towards practical open document standards Andrew Hopkirk, National Computing Centre, UK
Before now, Microsoft and the technology world have chosen to go their own ways.
The new initiative ends some of this diversity and will make it possible for anyone using programs in the Office software suite to save files in more so-called "open" formats.
Specifically, the tools will make it possible to save and work with files using the Open Document format - a specification developed by the open source community as an alternative to the proprietary formats used by large software firms.

Microsoft has been working towards a more open way of formatting documents based around the Extensible Markup Language (XML). This helps preserve the structure of data in a document, such as a spreadsheet, so that relationships between figures are preserved as they are opened in different programs or used for other purposes.

"This tool promises to be a very significant development in the trend towards practical open document standards and, critically, customer-friendly means to move between them," said Andrew Hopkirk, director of the UK's National Computing Centre's e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) programme, in a Microsoft statement.

Some of the free tools will be add-ins for older versions of the programs in the Office suite, said Microsoft. Prototypes of the translation tools will be made available via the SourceForge website which allows anyone to participate in the software development process.

The Microsoft-led project is being carried out with three other companies - French firm Clever Age, Aztecsoft in India and Dialogika in Germany.

'HIV stigma' drives India suicide

2006-07-03T11:21:00.000-04:00

An article from BBC

A 15-year-old Indian boy whose parents had HIV was driven to suicide by the stigma associated with the virus, police say.

Santosh Baniya died of burn injuries after setting himself on fire in the western city of Ahmedabad last week. Both his parents were diagnosed with HIV two years ago. They are among more than five million people infected with the virus in India.

Before he died the boy had expressed fears about surviving his parents.
'Mentally tormented' Investigations suggested Santosh Baniya feared being ostracised once it became public knowledge that both his parents, who were vegetable sellers, were HIV positive, police said.

More than 5m people in India have HIV"He was mentally tormented as he could not face the humiliation owing to both his parents being HIV-positive," a police spokesman told the Press Trust of India news agency.

The boy, who had three siblings, had stopped attending school regularly after his parents were diagnosed with HIV, AFP news agency reported. A United Nations report in May estimated India had overtaken South Africa as the country with most people with HIV, the virus that causes Aids. But Indian authorities dispute the UN figure of 5.7 million sufferers, saying only 5.2 million have the virus.

People with HIV and Aids in India can face discrimination, including being ostracised and denied access to schools and hospitals.

My Views

People around the world, especially in India (that includes me) should realize that young kids like Santosh Baniya die everyday. Their aims, goals, etc everything goes in vain. What harm did these kids do to this community? Is this the reward that they get for being innocent?

When we start thinking about this, the main root cause for all this is ignorance. The kid died because of his parents ignorance. There are so many kids in world who die for no harm of theirs. This is completely insane and ridiculous.

Even though one doesn't kill these kids physically but mentally they are murdered and I personally feel that everyone of us are some how or the other involved in commiting this sin. The reason why I say this is because most of the individuals are involved in their own interests which is why people who know things are not able to (or rather don't spend time) in sharing information to people who are ignorant.

We have to wake up now and try to put some assertive thoughts in innocent people or rather people who are ignorant and make them realize certain things, the way it is supposed to be.

Rage for Money

2006-07-01T09:53:00.000-04:00

Money, Money and Money is all what this world is about. Every individual in this world is working hard all day, all nights and all weekends just to smell the aroma of money - Rupees, Dollars, Euro, Yen and what not. There was a time when an individual was evaluated based on his charisma, talents, character and health but those days are way behind us.

In the present world of "Money and Hatred", everything is evaluated based on the wealth. Wealth is considered to be equivalent to the so called in those days charisma, talents, character and health. If an individual has wealth, he is considered to be one the most popular person in his community.

Well, frankly speaking this is what current world is all about, if a person says that he is not for money then he is considered to be "not worthy". Money is the one which brings relationships, quarrels, hatred, pleasure both mentally and physically, tears of joy and sorrow, makes a person impeccable and finally last but not the least "The Pride", for which, every human in this world is longing for.

Money plays a vital role at the time of birth and death. As day progresses, "hatred and sin" among humans is increasing drastically for various reasons. All reasons for these hatred and sin fall under one category called "The Money". God has created every human being on this beautiful Earth for some reason and most of us don’t realize that we have a duty to perform; instead we have screened ourselves behind an illusive screen, "The Money".

Most of us are squanderers, we don’t realize that our main purpose to be on this Earth is to maintain a good kinship within our race and eradicate animosity, which does not happen in the present world. Ofcourse, there are people who are not for Money; they do help the needy both in terms of money and food. There are some excellent and inspiring people all over the world, who are not money-minded, but only a chosen few to talk about and they are countably finite. We need more people who do not value their near and dear based on Money.

We should be fortunate enough to give birth as a human, because one big difference is the sixth sense, which no other living being on this earth is gifted with. This sixth sense makes the human race as the most intelligent living being on this earth. When God has gifted us with such an extraordinary power why do we have to utilize it in the improper way?

Plenty of technological improvements happened over the past decades and it is still ameliorating further as day progresses, but the overall poverty level is marching strongly up the hill rather than falling downwards inspite of this technological progress. We are so diligent and try to expose our skills and talents to lead a life of luxury which goes hand in hand with Money. We are never satisfied with what we have and when it comes to Money - It is our insatiable thirst. The technological improvement has done nothing to alleviate the pain of the people who are beyond the poverty line.

Present world is filled with corruption, war, looting, murder and many things to say. The main reason for all these things to happen in this world is Money. People do all these crimes for their pride and survival, which requires Money. The rich people do all these crimes to maintain their Pride in the society and the poor to Survive in this society (as per present world, a person is distinguished between rich and poor based on Money).

We talk about people who are millionaires and billionaires, but we never think about people who are dying every day at some corner of the world striving for good food. We have all the time in this world to fight against each other just for a thin rectangular sheet of paper which has some value for it, but we don’t have time to think about our kinship, near and dear who are dying without proper food and shelter. The world is filled with jealous, hatred, pride and ego; this is growing everyday which destroys the man himself and the people surrounding him.
It is high time that we start thinking about our mankind rather than focusing on Money, ofcourse Money is very important in our life and every one should realize that Money is necessary for a person to survive and lead his life in the most meaningful way, it shouldn’t be used in a way that it harms our own race. We are gifted with so much power and talent with which we can do miracles in many good ways rather being a brutal thing which doesn’t have any kind of concern for anything in this world. There are people who think good for their community but that count is very minimal. Every human in this world should try to be peaceful and harmonious, if not, try not to harm others for which we should be satisfied with whatever Money we earn or get.

“More the rage for Money, more the hatred and sin”. Let us first get satisfied with whatever we have and try not to fall into the deep valley of Money because of which we will not be able to have the complete vision of the world, which is in need of our help and harmony. Let us be a human being in this world rather than being Money minded carnivorous being, which intends to destroy their own race for Money.

Let us be good to ourselves, good to others, lead a meaningful life and make every moment of our life the most useful and memorable moment, for which we need to tear apart the illusive screen “The Money” screened in front of us and see the whole world with our God given gift of kind hearted vision.

“Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one.” – Ben Franklin.

learning curve.. 06/30

2006-07-01T09:42:00.000-04:00

It was a pretty long day ... the start of the day was pretty horrible for me, it was all because of my lethargic act ...

I went to a place without complete preparation ... and that costed me sweat and embarassment even though I mentioned in my previous "learning curve" that I should be lot prepared with 2-3 backups .... I was not ...

hmmm it is not that easy to get things in place within a day right ...

This time I was well prepared but not complete ... I didn't have 2-3 backup plans in case of primary failures ... anyways that was a good leason ... to tell something is always easy but someone will learn it only when they face it and this time I did ... from now on MAN I will freaking prepared in anything I do.

learning curve .. 06/29

2006-06-29T21:07:00.000-04:00

At the end of the day, there was something interesting that I learned

1. be more organized and make a note of everything that I do and make a list of things that needs to be done the next day. because I badly missed something which should have been done two days ... my bad anyways will correct myself.

2. Not to get too excited, this is tough on my side but will get there ...

3. I should read more to know more and share the knowledge with others ....

Dr. Abdul Kalaam - my all time inspiration

2006-06-29T18:56:00.000-04:00

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalaam's speech in Hyderabad.
[OUR HONOURABLE PRESIDENT OF INDIA]

"I have three visions for India.

1. In 3000 years of our history, people from all over the world havecome and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. F romAlexander onwards. The Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese,the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us,took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any othernation. We have not conquered anyone.

2. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history andtried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we respect thefreedom of others. That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM. Ibelieve that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when westarted the war of independence. It is this freedom that we mustprotect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one willrespect us.

3. My second vision for India is DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years we havebeen a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developednation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. Wehave 10 percent growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levels arefalling. Our achievements are being global ly recognized today. Yet welack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developednation, self- reliant and self-assured. Isn't this incorrect?

4. I have a THIRD vision. India must stand up to the world. Because Ibelieve that, unless India stands up to the world, no one will respectus. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as amilitary power but also as an economic power. Both must gohand-in-hand. My good fortune was to have worked with three greatminds. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai of the Dept. of space,Professor SatishDhawan, who succeeded him and Dr.Brahm Prakash, father of nuclearmaterial. I was lucky to have worked with all three of them closelyand consider this the great opportunity of my life.

5. I see four milestones in my career:
Twenty years I spent in ISRO. I was given the opportunity to be theproject director for India's first satellite launch vehicle, SLV3. Theone that launched Rohini. These years played a very important role inmy life of Scientist. After my ISRO years, I joined DRDO and got a chance to be the part ofIndia's guided missile program. It was my second bliss when Agni metits mission requirements in 1994. The Dept. of Atomic Energy and DRDO had this tremendous partnership inthe recent nuclear tests, on May 11 and 13. This was the third bliss.The joy of participating with my team in these nuclear tests andproving to the world that India can make it, that we are no longer adeveloping nation but one of them. It made me feel very proud as anIndian. The fact that we have now developed for Agni a re-entrystructure, for which we have developed this new material. A Very lightmaterial called carbon-carbon. One day an orthopedic surgeon from Nizam Institute of Medical Sciencesvisited my laboratory. He lifted the material and found it so lightthat he took me to his hospital and showed me his patients. There werethese little girls and boys with hea vy metallic calipers weighingover three Kg. each, dragging their feet around.
He said to me: Please remove the pain of my patients. In three weeks, we made these Floor reaction Orthosis 300-gramcalipers and took them to the orthopedic center. The children didn'tbelieve their eyes. From dragging around a three kg. load on theirlegs, they could now move around! Their parents had tears in their eyes. That was my fourth bliss!

6. Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India soembarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We aresuch a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but werefuse to acknowledge them.

7. Why?
We are the first in milk production.
We are number one in Remote sensing satellites.
We are the second largest producer of wheat.
We are the second largest producer of rice.

8. Look at Dr. Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribal village into aself-sustaining, self driving unit. There are millionsof suchachievementsbut our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.

9. I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. Itwas the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths hadtaken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaperhad the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years hadtransformed his desert land into an orchid and a granary. It was thisinspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details ofkillings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buriedamong other news.

10. In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Whyare we so NEGATIVE?

11. Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things?

12. We want foreign TVs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreigntechnology. Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we notrealize that self-respect comes with self-reliance?

13. I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girlasked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is.
She replied: I want to live in a developed India.
For her, you and I will have to build this developed India. You mustproclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highlydeveloped nation.

14. Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance.Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choiceis yours.
YOU say that our government is inefficient.YOU say that our laws are too old.YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke,The airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach theirdestination.YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolutepits.YOU say, say and say.

15. What do YOU do about it? Take a person on his way to Singapore.Give him a name - YOURS. Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of theairport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don'tthrow cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are asproud of their Underground links as they are. You pay $5 (approx. Rs.60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway orPedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOUcomeback to the parking lot topunch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or ashopping mall irrespective of your status identity. In Singapore youdon't say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public duringRamadan, in Dubai. YOU would not dare to go out without your headcovered in Jeddah. YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs.650) a month to, "see toit that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else." YOU wouldnot dare to speed beyond 55mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, "Jaanta haimain kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Takeyour two bucks and get lost."

16. YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than thegarbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand.
Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo?Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates inBoston??? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respectand conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in yourown. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the momentyou touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciativecitizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India?

17. Once in an interview, the famous Ex-muni cipal commissioner ofBombay, Mr.Tinaikar, had a point to make. "Rich people's dogs arewalked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over theplace," he said. "And then the same people turn around to criticizeand blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. Whatdo they expect the officers to do? Go down with a broom every timetheir dog feels the pressure in his bowels?

18. In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has donethe job. Same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here?" He'sright.

19. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeitall responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect thegovernment to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totallynegative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going tostop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop topick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learnthe proper use of bathrooms.

20. We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of foodand toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the leastopportunity. This applies even to the staff who is known not to passon the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issueslike those related towomen, dowry, girl child and others, we make loud drawing roomprotestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse?"It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if Ialone forego my sons' rights to a dowry." So who's going to change thesystem?

21. What does a system consist of? Very conveniently for us itconsists of our neighbors, other households, other cities, othercommunities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When itcomes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system welock ourselves along with our families in to a safe cocoon and lookinto the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr. Clean tocome along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand orwe leave the country and run away.

22. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to baskin their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecurewe run to England. When England experiences unemployment, we take thenext flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand tobe rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is outto abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system.Our conscience is mortgaged to money.

23. Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for agreat deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too....I amechoing J.F.Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate toIndians.....
"ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKEINDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY"

24. Lets do what India needs from us.

Man : Emotions : Computer woow sounds interesting

2006-06-29T17:38:00.000-04:00

This is an article from BBC

Computers 'set to read our minds'

An "emotionally aware" computer system designed to read people's minds by analysing expressions will be featured at a major London exhibition.

Visitors to the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition are being invited to help "train" the computer how to read joy, anger and other expressions.

Its designers say there are potential commercial uses, such as picking the right time to sell someone something.

But it may also help improve driver safety and help people with autism.
The computer, which is connected to a camera, locates and tracks 24 facial "feature points" such as the edge of the nose, the eyebrows and the corners of the mouth.

A total of 20 key facial movements - including a nod or shake of the head, a raise of the eyebrow or a pull on the corner of the mouth - have been identified.

Combinations of these movements, which are thought to represent underlying emotions, are then fed into software and used to detect the same facial combinations in real-life situations.

Subtle variations Peter Robinson, professor of computer technology at the University of Cambridge, said: "The system can already cope with the variation in people's facial composition; for example, if you have a round or thin face, or if you wear glasses or have a beard.

"However, there are small variations in the way people express the same emotion."
The scientists have been "training" the recognition system by using actors to make different facial expressions. They hope the exhibition will generate valuable new data to improve the programme's ability to read faces.

Professor Robinson added: "Our research could enable websites to tailor advertising or products to your mood." For example, he explained, software linked to a webcam could process a person's image, encode the correct emotional state and transmit the information to a website, which could then display products or advertising.

Dashboard aid The technology is also being developed for use in cars to improve driver safety. The team is recording the faces of volunteers in driving situations and monitoring facial movements to identify more complex expressions linked to confusion, boredom or tiredness.
"We are working with a big car company and they envision this being employed in cars within five years," Professor Robinson said, adding that a camera could be built into the dashboard.

The team is also working with colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop a wearable version of the system, to help those with conditions, such as autism and Asperger's syndrome, who have particular difficulty in reading other people's facial expressions and emotions.

The headset, which is at its first prototype stage, would interpret other people's moods and communicate those to the wearer.

The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition runs from Monday 3 July to Thursday 6 July at The Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG.

learning curve ...

2006-06-28T22:37:00.000-04:00

Today it was really interesting coz I got to know a lot about whatz going on in my company :) not politically but technically ... because it was a day of information sharing within our team which was pretty interesting ....

Even though I didn't give any presentation for the day, I was really impressed with all the presenters they did their best to give the best out of 'em applauds to all ...

I learned three things at the end of the day

1. When you give a presentation - be humorous
2. Be thoroughly prepared ... always have 2-3 backup plans even if the primary and secondary plans is a debacle
3. Have lots of pictures in your presentation so that people know what you are talking.

Well even though I have done many presentations in my career, I still have tough time in making others laugh because I am not good at that, anyways I will get there one day ...

Krishnamurti: On War

2006-06-28T22:13:00.000-04:00

My friend directed me to read this article it is very impressive, kudos to my buddy Faisal oh by the way he is my colleague at work ... anyways letz get to the article ...

Questioner: How can we solve our present political chaos and the crisis in the world? Is there anything an individual can do to stop the impending war?

Krishnamurti: War is the spectacular and bloody projection of our everyday life, is it not?War is merely an outward expression of our inward state, an enlargement of our daily action. It is more spectacular, more bloody, more destructive, but it is the collective result of our individual activities. Therefore, you and I are responsible for war and what can we do to stop it? Obviously the ever-impending war cannot be stopped by you and me, because it is already in movement; it is already taking place, though at present chiefly on the psychological level. As it is already in movement, it cannot be stopped- the issues are too many, too great, and are already committed. But you and I, seeing that the house is on fire, can understand the causes of that fire, can go away from it and build in a new place with different materials that are not combustible, that will not produce other wars. That is all that we can do. You and I can see what creates wars, and if we are interested in stopping wars, then we can begin to transform ourselves, who are the causes of war.

An American lady came to see me a couple of years ago, during the war. She said she had lost her son in Italy and that she had another son aged sixteen whom she wanted to save; so we talked the thing over. I suggested to her that to save her son she had to cease to be an American; she had to cease to be greedy, cease piling up wealth, seeking power, domination, and be morally simple – not merely simple in clothes, in outward things, but simple in her thoughts and feelings, in her relationships. She said,” That is too much. You are asking far too much. I cannot do it, because circumstances are too powerful for me to alter.” Therefore she was responsible for the destruction of her son.

Circumstances can be controlled by us, because we have created the circumstances. Society is the product of relationship, society changes; merely to rely on legislation, on compulsion, for the transformation of outward society, while remaining inwardly corrupt, while continuing inwardly to seek power, position, domination, is to destroy the outward, however carefully and scientifically built. That which is inward is always overcoming the outward.

What causes war – religious, political or economic? Obviously belief, either in nationalism, in an ideology, or in a particular dogma. If we had no belief but goodwill, love and consideration between us, then there would be no wars. But we are fed on beliefs, ideas and dogmas and therefore we breed discontent. The present crisis is of an exceptional nature and we as human beings must either pursue the path of constant conflict and continuous wars, which are the result of our everyday action, or else see the causes of war and turn our back upon them.

Obviously what causes war is the desire for power, position, prestige, money; also the disease called nationalism, the worship of a flag; and the disease of organized religion, the worship of a dogma. All these are the causes of war; if you as an individual belong to any of the organized religions, if you are greedy for power, if you are envious, you are bound to produce a society which will result in destruction. So again it depends upon you and not on the leaders – not on so-called statesmen and all the rest of them. It depends upon you and me but we do not seem to realize that. If once we really felt the responsibility of our own actions, how quickly we could bring to an end all these wars, this appalling misery! But you see, we are indifferent. We have three meals a day, we have our jobs, we have our bank account, big or little, and we say, “For God’s sake, don’t disturb us, leave us alone”. The higher up we are, the more we want security, permanency, tranquility, the more we want to be left alone, to maintain things fixed as they are; but they cannot be maintained as they are, because there is nothing to maintain. Everything is disintegrating. We do not want to face these things, we do not want to face the fact that you and I are responsible for wars. You and I may talk about peace, have conferences, sit round a table and discuss, but inwardly, psychologically, we want power, position, we are bound by beliefs, by dogmas, for which we are willing to die and destroy each other. Do you think such men, you and I, can have peace in the world? To have peace, we must be peaceful; to live peacefully means not to create antagonism. Peace is not an ideal. To me, an ideal is merely an escape, an avoidance of what is, a contradiction of what is. An ideal prevents direct action upon what is - which we will go into presently, in another talk. [not on this website] But to have peace, we will have to love, we will have to begin, not to live an ideal life, but to see things as they are and act upon them, transform them. As long as each one of us is seeking psychological security, the physiological security we need – food, clothing and shelter – is destroyed. We are seeking psychological security, which does not exist; and we seek it, if we can, through power, through position, through titles, names – all of which is destroying physical security. This is an obvious fact, if you look at it.

To bring about peace in the world, to stop all wars, there must be a revolution in the individual, in you and me. Economic revolution without this inward revolution is meaningless, for hunger is the result of the maladjustment of economic conditions produced by our psychological states – greed, envy, ill-will and possessiveness. To put an end to sorrow, to hunger, to war, there must be a psychological revolution and few of us are willing to face that. We will discuss peace, plan legislation, create new leagues, the United Nations and so on and on; but we will not win peace because we will not give up our position, our authority, our money, our properties, our stupid lives. To rely on others is utterly futile; others cannot bring us peace. No leader is going to give us peace, no government, no army, no country. What will bring peace is inward transformation which will lead to outward action. Inward transformation is not isolation, is not a withdrawal from outward action. On the contrary, there can be right action only when there is right thinking and there is no right thinking when there is no self-knowledge. Without knowing yourself, there is no peace.To put an end to outward war, you must begin to put an end to war in yourself. Some of you will nod your heads and say, “ I agree”, and go outside and do exactly the same as you have been doing for the last ten or twenty years. Your agreement is merely verbal and has no significance, for the world miseries and wars are not going to be stopped by your casual assent. They will be stopped only when you realize the danger, when you realize your responsibility, when you do not leave it to somebody else. If you realize the suffering, if you see the urgency of immediate action and do not postpone, then you will transform yourself; peace will come only when you yourself are peaceful, when you yourself are at peace with your neighbour.

Questioner: Why do men fight?

Krisnamurti: why do young boys fight? You sometimes fight with your brother, or other boys here, don’t you? Why? You fight over a toy. Perhaps another boy has taken your ball, or your book and therefore you fight. Grown-up people fight for exactly the same reason, only their toys are position, wealth and power. If you want power and I also want power, we fight, and that is why nations go to war. It is as simple as that, only philosophers, politicians, and the so-called religious people complicate it. You know, it is a great art to have an abundance of knowledge and experience-to know the richness of life, the beauty of existence, the struggles, the miseries, the laughter, the tears- and yet keep your mind very simple; and you can have a simple mind only when you know how to love.

Out Sourcing

2006-06-28T21:57:00.000-04:00

Clip:

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=1674437

My comments about the clip

Go India!!!!!

He was 100% right about India emerging as a great country in terms of economy. This is a good sign, and he also did have an interview with an Indian born american and he mentioned that everything starts from the streets "eventhough outside it looks shabby but inside we have a pentium PC". This is very true.

But, let us take a step back and think in the other direction for a moment. Technologically, economically India is doing great, well and good but what about millions of people who are still laid back? what about people who are still behind the line of poverty? According to recent survey, Indian poverty is still over 60% which is a lot for a country like ours. The video was concentrated completely on the outsourcing and how people in India are connected to it.

But my concern here is how can we overcome the big HOLE of poverty in India. As you all know the rich is getting richer and the poor is always poor, as mentioned in the video the journalist asked the women in the slums of Bombay as to how many years she was living there and she mentioned "25", well wait a minute this is something to think about. When India is emerging so good why does a family have to live in the slums with no improvement in their life for 25 years. I feel that instead of us concentrating more and more on how to get connected with the western world, we all should start thinking as to how we can overcome this big HOLE called Poverty HOLE.

Also, I personally feel that India is getting more dependent upon the western countries like US, UK for projects which is a very bad sign. The more dependent we get, the more vulnerable we are to debacle. The reason being now the economy is bad all over the world, but this is not going to be the same all future, this will change and the economy will get better in countries like US, UK etc. When this happens, these countries will mind their own ass and stop outsourcing .... in this case India will be in a deep shit, back to square one as we were in 1990's where in our economy was OK. When India gets more and more dependent on western countries I have a sense of feeling that we are being USED for other countries economic growth which is good as well as bad.

We should start thinking in the direction of being a completely Independent country. The more independent we are the more brighter the future is for us. I know this is a long long long way but feel its completely plausible.

Well I always wanted to share it with my friends, foes, relatives, etc etc ...

Anyways at the end Go India!!!! and Bharath matha ki jai!!!!