Facebook CEO speaks out against SOPA, PIPA

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he's against a pair of proposed anti-piracy bills that sparked a blackout of several websites in protests, adding the social network "will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the internet."

Mark Zuckerberg

In a status update posted to his public profile, Zuckerberg spoke out against the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, saying the bills would hamper the growth of the Web.

"The internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world. We can't let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the internet's development," Zuckerberg says in his post. "Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the internet."

Facebook Logo

Here's more from Zuckberg's response:

"The world today needs political leaders who are pro-internet. We have been working with many of these folks for months on better alternatives to these current proposals. I encourage you to learn more about these issues and tell your congressmen that you want them to be pro-internet."

The comments arrive as several websites, including Wikipedia, Google and Reddit, have staged protests against the bills aimed at websites selling pirated goods or violating copyrights.

Google has a simple black box covering its home page logo, which links to more details on its protest. Wikipedia and Reddit have joined other websites in an all-day blackout.

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Life spotted on Venus: Russian scientist

Several objects resembling living beings were detected on photographs taken by a Russian landing probe in 1982 during a Venus mission, says an article published in the Solar System Research magazine.Leonid Ksanfomaliti of the Space Research Institute of Russia's Academy of Sciences published a research that analysed the photographs from the Venus mission made by a Soviet landing probe, Venus-13, in 1982.The photographs feature several objects, which Ksanfomaliti said, resembled a "disk", a "black flap" and a "scorpion".

Picture of venus released By NASA

All of them "emerge, fluctuate and disappear", the scientist said, referring to their changing location on different photographs and traces on the ground.

"What if we forget about the current theories about the non-existence of life on Venus, let's boldly suggest that the objects' morphological features would allow us to say that they are living," the magazine quoted Ksanfomaliti as saying.

No data proving the existence of life on Venus, where the ground temperature is 464 degrees Celsius, has ever been found.

Small Created spotted in Venus 

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New gesture and voice-controlled TVs to come soon replacing remote control

Remote controls could soon become outdated with the advent of new generation gesture and voice-controlled televisions, tech observers say.

The new technology allows viewers to control a new line of TV sets simply by speaking or gesturing at them, eliminating the need for clunky pointing devices and opening up a range of new ways people can use and interact with their televisions, the Los Angeles Times reported.

At a giant booth constructed by Samsung Electronics for the Consumer Electronics Show last week in Las Vegas, a young lady gave a demonstration of the company's new line of Smart TV sets, which come with a built-in Web browser as well as online applications such as Netflix, Skype and Facebook.

Voice Controlled TV

"Hi TV," she said, issuing the verbal command for the TV to turn on.

"Channel 1034." The TV switched to a news channel.

"Web browser," she continued, and the Yahoo home page popped up.

Tech observers have asserted that gesture and voice recognition systems will grow more refined as the computers embedded in smartphones, TVs, tablets and home appliances become more powerful.

That will bring to end an era of mice and remote controls, which started in 1950 with Zenith's "Lazy Bones," a remote connected to the TV through a long wire.

Samsung TV thats runs by Voice

According to Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research, with the newer controls, "you can simply use what God or nature gave you: your hands or your body or your voice — and that's all you need".

People may take some time to go remote-less but once they do, Golvin insisted, "most people would say it's simpler and more natural." 

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Get wireless mouse that has no batteries!!!

Almost everyone of you may hate wires running around all over your computer desk.

Then again, you may have tried wireless mice many times over the years and always go back to a wired one after forgetting to recharge the wireless mouse or not having a spare battery handy.

People who like to be green are also concerned about using a bunch of batteries that will be thrown away, while rechargeable ones are hard on the environment when they reach the end of their lifespan.
 But Genius has a new product that green geeks and people who just want a nice mouse with no wires will appreciate.

The peripheral is dubbed the DX-ECO, and it can basically be described as a wireless mouse that uses a capacitor rather than a battery. It's not clear exactly how long the charge will last, but the good news is that it charges back up very quickly.

The gold capacitor needs only three minutes to recharge for use and can be charges 100,000 times. The wireless tech inside is 2.4GHz and boasts 15-meters of wireless range. The mouse has adjustable sensitivity between 800dpi and 1600dpi. This is pretty sweet because typical mice only have 800dpi setting, and more sensitivity is great if you use larger screens. The mouse also features seven programmable buttons.

The DX-ECO is a right hand only design, and it comes with a little micro USB receiver to connect to your computer. Another thing that often annoys people who use wireless mice on the go is the inability to track accurately on shiny surfaces. It's not always convenient to carry a mouse pad on the road, but some desks and counters aren't ideal for mouse use. Luckily, the DX-ECO will track accurately on just about any surface, including marble, carpet, clothing, and glass that is dusted or at least not completely clear.

The DX-ECO mouse is currently available at a $40 price point.

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Italian man with two hearts suffers a double heart attack - and lives

In what can be called a medical miracle, doctors have managed to save the life of a 71-year-old Italian man who had two hearts and suffered double heart attacks at the same time.

At first, doctors thought they had a typical case of cardiac arrest – the man was short of breath, sweating profusely and his blood pressure was low.

However, they were in for a surprise when upon closer inspection it was found that the patient had been walking around with two hearts and had now suffered a dueling attack.

According to medical reports, the man wasn't born with two hearts but had undergone a rare heart transplant (called a heterotopic transplant) years ago in which a new organ was paired with the diseased one.

"You can develop two independent heart rhythms, especially in a scenario where one heart gets a little better," Rade Vukmir, professor of emergency medicine at Temple Universityand a spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians told MSNBC.

This is apparently exactly what happened to the Italian patient.

After being admitted to the hospital, doctors administered drug therapy in an attempt to correct his dysrhythmia, only to have the medicine shut down both of his hearts.

Doctors then were able to successfully use a defibrillator to revive both hearts simultaneously. He's now reportedly doing well with his two functioning hearts.

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Megaupload.com Owner Kim Dotcom Arrested in newzland

Some uninvited guests showed up at Kim Dotcom's mansion outside Auckland, New Zealand, on Friday: The police, in two helicopters.

They had an arrest warrant for Dotcom, 37, who was born Kim Schmitz and is accused by U.S.authorities of criminal copyright infringement through the website Megaupload, which he founded.

Kim dotcom Owner of Megaupload.com

Finding their target was not easy. When Dotcom, who holds Finnish and German citizenship, first saw the police, he ran inside and activated several electronic locks, part of the estate's sophisticated security system. As the police made their way through those, he barricaded himself in a safe room. Officers cut their way through to get him, standing near a firearm that they said looked like a sawed-off shotgun.

"It was definitely not as simple as knocking at the front door," said Grant Wormald, a detective inspector.

Kim Dotcom's Mansion in newzland

In what the American authorities have called one of the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought, the Justice Department and the FBI shut down Megaupload.com and instigated the arrest of Dotcom and three other people in New Zealand. In all, seven people connected with the site were charged with running an international enterprise based on Internet piracy.

Police seized millions of pounds, a vast collection of luxury cars and sawn-off shotguns yesterday when they raided the mansion of a man accused of being one of the world’s biggest internet pirates.

Dotcom, 37 – nicknamed Dr Evil – has Finnish and German citizenship. He and six of his employees face charges by U.S.prosecutors in what they say is one of the biggest criminal copyright theft cases ever brought.

Kim dotcom and his workers are arrested 

MegaUpload, which the U.S. government shut down yesterday, is a Hong Kong-based ‘cyberlocker’ service that allows users to download pirated films, TV shows, music and e-books with just a few clicks.

It is accused of costing copyright owners £322million in lost earnings and of making £113million by selling advertising and premium subscriptions. 

A neighbour of Dotcom's told the New Zealand Herald she heard a helicopter circling the property at about 6.30am.

'I thought it was his private helicopter, which is parked up behind the trees, and I thought he was going out for breakfast, as he sometimes does,' said the neighbour, whose name was not given.

'I thought "this is going on a bit long" and it was a bit annoying at that time of the morning and so I got up and realised it was a police helicopter.

'It was there for about an hour and then my friend texted me that a lot of cops had arrived.'
Police said that in total officers served 10 search warrants at businesses and homes related to Dotcom around the city of Auckland.

The arrests come in the middle of a controversy over congressional efforts in the United Statesto curtail Internet piracy.

Megaupload, a so-called locker service, allows users to transfer large files like movies and music anonymously over the Internet, and media companies have long complained that some files are being transferred in violation of copyright law.

A grand jury indictment says seven people in all were part of a criminal conspiracy involving Megaupload, charging each with five counts of copyright infringement and conspiracy. The possible penalty is 20 years in prison. The indictment says Megaupload caused $500 million in damages to copyright owners and made $175 million by selling ads and premium subscriptions.

Megaupload's lawyer has said that "the government is wrong on the facts, wrong on the law."

The police in New Zealand said they were continuing to search the Aucklandproperty. In all, about 20 search warrants connected to the case were executed in the United States and in eight other countries, including New Zealand.

About $50 million in assets were also seized, as well as a number of servers and 18 domain names that formed Megaupload's network of file-sharing sites. The police said they seized $4.8 million in luxury vehicles; include a Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé and a pink 1959 Cadillac. They also seized art and electronic equipment and froze $11 million in cash in various accounts.

Kim dotcom enjoying with unknown women

The arrest of Dotcom, the central figure in the case, was not his first encounter with the law.

In February 2001, Dotcom told Die Welt that he had spent three months in a Munich jail in 1994 and had served two years' probation for breaking into Pentagon computers and observing real-time satellite photos of Saddam Hussein's palaces during the Persian Gulf war of 1991. In the mid-1990s, Dotcom received a suspended two-year sentence for a swindle that made use of stolen phone card numbers.

In 2001, Dotcom was accused in what was then the largest insider-trading case in German history. Prosecutors in Munichsaid he bought shares in a struggling business, letsbuyit.com, and then announced that he planned to make a major investment in the company and rescue it from insolvency.

Dotcom reportedly made more than $1 million when the shares soared.

Dotcom eventually fled Germany to escape those charges but was captured in Thailand, extradited and convicted in 2002. He spent five months in jail awaiting trial but received a suspended sentence on the underlying charges.

Dotcom dropped from view until last year, when German newspapers started reporting rumors of his luxury compound in New Zealand.

Dotcom and the three others who were arrested in New Zealand appeared in court Friday afternoon and were denied bail. Extradition proceedings will continue Monday.

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Artificial Meat to come in market soon !!!

Are you fond of eating meat but afraid to eat meat because you don’t like animals to be killed? If yes, than your problem seems to be solved as scientists have discovered how to grow artificial meat in a laboratory and now working out how they can sell it in shops.

 The artificial meat is grown in Petri dish using muscles cells. It currently takes a long time to produce and is very expensive process. However nearly 30 teams around the world are trying to develop the project so that it can eventually be bought as easily as real meat from supermarket or shop.

 The discovery of artificial meat is not only good for environment but it reduces animal suffering. it can also solved the world hunger however it may affects the natural ecosystem at the same time. But it is always interesting to see whether artificial meats will be available in local market or not.

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Chinese supercomputer begins operations

As everyone knows china is growing economically to be the greatest economy of the world in coming days but may be fewer know that Chinais turning out to be a technological Giant. Yes China is the third country to develop supercomputer of its own. China's Sunway BlueLight supercomputer, which was built with domestically-produced microprocessors and is capable of performing around 1,000 trillion calculations per second, has officially begun operations. The computer began working Thursday at the National Supercomputing Centre in the eastern city of Jinanin Shandongprovince, Xinhua reported.

Chinese Super Computer

The computer was installed in September 2011 and underwent a three-month trial period before going into official use, making China the third country in the world -- after the US and Japan -- to produce such a supercomputer with domestically-produced processors.

Developed by the National Research Centre of Parallel Computer Engineering and Technology, the Sunway BlueLight marks a great technological leap for China's indigenous innovation in development and utilisation of high-performance computers, the centre said.

The Sunway BlueLight will promote scientific and economic development of Shandong in fields of ocean utilisation, biopharmacy, industrial design and financial risk prediction.

The computer will also serve as a node in China's national computing grid, contributing to scientific and economic development of the whole country.

As a product of a combination of high-density packaging and low energy consumption technologies, the Sunway rank among the world’s leading supercomputers in terms of comprehensive performance.

Workers Near super computer

The Sunway BlueLight will be used to help increase the accuracy of climate simulations conducted by Chinese scientists and assist them in ocean monitoring, according to oceanology experts.

"It allows scientists to simulate water movement more than 5,500 metres below the ocean's surface," said Pan Jingshan, assistant director of the centre.

Comprising nine three-metre-high boxes and equipped with a total of 8,704 homegrown Shenwei 1600 microprocessors, the Sunway is among the 20 fastest supercomputers in the world.

It is about 74 percent as fast as the Jaguar Supercomputer in the US, which ranks as the third fastest computer in the world, although it is less power-hungry, Pan said.

The Sunway's power consumption is as low as one megawatt, much lower than the Jaguar's seven megawatts, thanks to its innovative use of liquid cooling system.

Steve Wallach, a consultant to the US Department of Energy Advanced Scientific Computing programme at Los Alamos National Laboratory, told Xinhua that the most impressive part of the Sunway BlueLight was that "most of the technology, especially the microprocessors, were homegrown", unlike some other Chinese supercomputing system which uses foreign-made processors

 

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Darwin's fossil collection discovered by chance

Fossils unearthed by Charles Darwin have been discovered in a dusty old cabinet in London after being lost for 165 years.

Found by chance at the British Geological Survey, they've been photographed, and can now be  seen online.

"This is quite a remarkable discovery," says  Dr John Ludden, executive director of the Geological Survey. "It really makes one wonder what else might be hiding in our collections."

The discovery was made quite by chance by Dr Howard Falcon-Lang, from the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway.

"While searching through an old cabinet, I spotted some drawers marked ‘unregistered fossil plants’. I can’t resist a mystery, so I pulled one open. What I found inside made my jaw drop!" he says.

"Inside the drawer were hundreds of beautiful glass slides made by polishing fossil plants into thin translucent sheets. This process allows them to be studied under the microscope. Almost the first slide I picked up was labelled ‘C. Darwin Esq.’ This turned out to be a piece of fossil wood collected by Darwin during his famous Voyage of the Beagle in 1834!"

The collection was originally put together by Joseph Hooker, a botanist and Darwin’s best friend, who briefly worked for the British Geological Survey in 1846.

Other specimens include fossils that Hooker found during an Antarctic voyage in 1840, as well as some owned by the Revd John Henslow - Darwin’s mentor at Cambridge - whose daughter later married Hooker.

Unfortunately, Hooker failed to number them in the formal 'specimen register' before setting out on an expedition to the Himalayas. Over the years, the unregistered fossils were moved several times, and their significance was gradually forgotten.

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Your DNA may tell how long you will live

How long someone will live may be predicted by measuring their genes as early as a newborn baby, say scientists.

The Glasgow Universityscientists said that life expectancy is written into our DNA and is there to be seen from the day we are born.
It all depends on the length of the telomeres, which are described as 'acting like the plastic ends on shoelaces' to protect chromosomes from wear and tear.

Telomeres are being studied extensively - and are thought to hold the key to ageing.

DNA

And the longer your telomeres, the longer you will live - dependent, of course, on not dying accidentally, from disease or from lifestyle factors, the Daily Mail reported.

It was known they could be shortened by life choices, including smoking and stress. But this is the first indication that our lifespans might be predetermined from birth.

"The results of this research show that what happens in our bodies in early life is very important," said Professor Pat Monaghan, who led the Glasgow University study.

"It is not understood why there are variations of telomere length but if you had a choice, you would want to be born with longer telomeres," he said.

The study – which used zebra finches, one of Australia's most common bird species – is the first to measure telomere lengths at regular intervals through an entire life. With people, it is usually only the elderly who are studied because of the timescales involved.

Blood cell samples were taken from 99 finches, starting when they were 25 days old.

The results exceeded even the researchers' expectations. The birds with the shortest telomeres did tend to die first – from as early as seven months after the start of the trial.

But one bird in the group with the longest telomeres survived to almost nine years old.

The results hold huge implications for humans, whose telomeres work in the same way. In future, people might be tested to see how long their telomeres – and their life expectancy – could be.

The groundbreaking research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 

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Dark chocolate and red wine 'the real food of love'

Dark chocolate and red wine have "positive components that are good for your heart", a new study has claimed.

According to Susan Ofria from Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, red wine and dark chocolate with a cocoa content of 70 percent or higher contain resveratrol, which has been found to lower blood sugar.
Red wine is also a source of catechins, which could help improve "good" HDL cholesterol.

Dark choclate

"You are not even choosing between the lesser of two evils, red wine and dark chocolate have positive components that are actually good for your heart," Newswise quoted Ofria, a registered dietitian at the Loyola University Health System's Melrose Park campus as saying.
Ofria, who is also a nutrition educator, has also recommended a list of heart-healthy ingredients for February, which is national heart month, and for good heart health all year.

Along with red wine and dark chocolate, the list of heath-healthy food comprises of salmon or tuna, especially white, or albacore, tuna and salmon, as they "are excellent sources of omega-3 fatty acids, and canned salmon contains soft bones that give an added boost of calcium intake."

Next comes golden or brown flaxseeds, followed by oatmeal and black or kidney beans.

Red Wine

Walnuts and almonds, which "contain omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E, magnesium, fiber and heart-favorable mono- and polyunsaturated fats", come next in the list.

Blueberries, cranberries, raspberries and strawberries, which "are a good source of beta carotene and lutein, anthocyanin, ellagic acid, vitamin C, folate, potassium and fiber," round off the top eight heart-healthy foods.

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Bill Gates sad as Pakistani child prodigy dies

Microsoft Chief Bill Gates was saddened to learn about the death of Pakistan's Arfa Karim who became the world's youngest Microsoft certified professional in 2004 when she was barely nine.

Arfa Karim in front of Microsoft Office

Arfa Karim Randhawa was 16. She died Saturday night after complications resulting from an epileptic stroke.

After she was taken to hospital, Gates offered to pay for her medical care, reported the Daily Mail.

He also proposed moving the wonder kid to the US for better treatment.

Arfa Karim 

Her father, Amjad Karim, said that Bill Gates was saddened to learn of her death.

He thanked Bill Gates and said that his daughter was a spark that "got attention and love from everyone on the globe".

Arfa Karim went into a coma Dec 22 after suffering an epileptic attack and cardiac arrest.

Arfa Karim with Bill Gates

She was admitted at the Combined Military Hospitalin Lahore where she suffered a tracheotomy complication Saturday evening.

Arfa Karim  getting Homage ater death in her local city

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Radio telescopes to try taking first photo of black hole

A radio telescope project that would connect up to 50 telescopes scattered around the globe could help photograph a black hole for the first time, scientists have said.

The radio telescopes would include those on the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii and also a dish at the South Pole, the Daily Mail reported.

The project, called the Event Horizon Telescope, could capture the first images of the huge black hole --four million times the mass of the sun -- at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy.

Artist Imagination of Black Hole

Event horizon refers to the boundary at the edge of a black hole beyond which the laws of physics cannot describe what happens. It is a point of no return, from which no light or radiation can escape. Because of it, black holes are invisible from Earth, the report said.

The idea of black holes was first raised by Albert Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity, and has been confirmed by decades of measurements and observations of space.

"Nobody has ever taken a picture of a black hole. We are going to do just that," said Dimitrios Psaltis, an associate professor of astrophysics at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory.

Array of Umbrella to create powerful Radio Telescope

"Even five years ago, such a proposal would not have seemed credible. Now we have the technological means to take a stab at it," said Sheperd Doeleman, assistant professor at MIT and principal investigator of the project.

Black holes pull in light and all other energy and no radiation reaches Earth. They appear as blank space to telescopes. But a glow round the outside could let scientists see the outline.

By imaging the glow of matter swirling around the black hole before it goes over the edge of the point of no return, scientists can see the outline of the black hole, also called its shadow.

Black holes remain among the least understood phenomena in the universe.

Most if not all, galaxies are believed to harbour a supermassive black hole at their centre, and smaller ones scattered throughout.

The Milky Way is known to be home to about 25 small black holes ranging from five to 10 times the sun's mass. 

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Auto-pilot' car that drives itself at up to 80mph is about to come

Can you imagine driving car with out driver? If you are thinking not to hire driver, than your imagination is about to turn into reality. A leading carmaker Volkswagen has developed a new temporary auto pilot system that takes complete control over braking, steering and speeds up to 80mph, without letting the drivers do a thing.

The research car is being used as a 'test bed' for autopilot technologies - and these are slowly filtering through into Volkswagen's new cars, the Daily Mail reported.

The new Up! comes with a laser-assisted City Emergency Braking system that automatically slams on the brakes in case of objects in front of the car - based on technologies from the Temporary Auto Pilot car.

Laser sensors fitted to the car detect white lines at the centre and side of roads to make sure that the vehicle stays in the correct lane.

Inner look of auto pilot car

It also scans the road ahead for obstacles or other motorists and applies the brakes to slow down the car or bring it to a halt.

It implies that a driver can accelerate to their desired speed, turn on cruise control - and take their hands and feet off the wheel and pedals.

"What we have achieved is an important milestone on the path towards fully automatic and accident-free car driving," Professor Jurgen Leohold, director of research at Volkswagen, said.

The system has been designed to avoid accidents caused by inattentive or distracted drivers

Autopilot car 

Volkswagen logo

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Scientists create world’s smallest hard drive from just 96 atoms

Nanotechnology deals in making or developing materials, devices or structures by manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. It is very diverse. Now, scientists from IBM and German Center for Free-Electron Laser service have invented the world’s smallest hard drive with the help of nanotechnology. Scientists have just used 96 atoms to create data worth one byte. Drives used today at least require half a billion atoms for each byte. It won’t be long when one would find hard drive of the size of rice grains, and music players would be so small that they might fit into your ears. Such tiny hard drives could store information 200 to 300 times compared to those we normally use in our day to day life. The world’s smallest hard drive is built of atoms with the help of Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM). The scientists aligned regular pattern of iron atoms in rows of six atoms each. This might interest you to know that for storing one bit, only two rows are sufficient. Eight pairs of atom rows combine together to form a byte and this uses an area of only 4 by 16 nanometers (a nanometer being a millionth of a millimeter). The world’s smallest hard drive corresponds to a storage density that is hundred times higher when compared to the modern hard drives, as mentioned by Sebastiam, one of the members of CFEL.

A pair of atom rows has two possible magnetic states, which represent the two values 0 and 1 and the data would be written into or read out from the world’s smallest hard drive with the help of Scanning tunneling microscope (STM).

Scanning Tunnelling Microscope, also known as STM sends an electric pulse, which flips the magnetic configuration from one another. The nano magnets are only stable at a frosty temperature of -268 degrees centigrade (Kelvin). The weaker pulse sent from STM reads out the configuration . For the first time, the scientists have managed to deploy a special form of magnetism for data storage purpose and it's known as ant -ferromagnetism. Though scientists expect arrays of some 200 atoms to be stable at room temperature, it will, however; take some time before atomic magnets is used in data storage. The spins of neighboring atoms with anti-ferromagnetic materials aligned oppositely compared to that of conventional hard drives render the material magnetically neutral on the bulk level. This means that anti-ferromagnetic atoms can be spaced much more closely without magnetically interfering with each other and hence, the scientists were able to pack bits only one nanometer apart. This resulted in creation of the World’s Smallest Hard Drive based on nanotechnology.

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Windows 8 likely to come in October 2012!!!

Are you waiting for new version of Operating System? If yes now wait is about to over.Apparently the next major evolution in Microsoft operating systems is about nine months away.

Pocket-lint.com quoted a Microsoft spokesperson during CES when asked about the potential Windows 8 launch window.

"Windows releases come round about every three years and this year will be three years in October since we launched Windows 7. So I think that's a good guideline to consider," the company rep reportedly said.

Possible outlook of window 8

Windows 8 will arguably bring more changes to the operating system than any other iteration.

All the changes revolve around what Microsoft is calling the "Metro UI," which allows users to have complete customization on their home page, including widgets, RSS readers, weather information, date/time, etc.

Metro UI will also have deep multitasking chops, giving users the ability to easily toggle back and forth between different apps and websites. The prototype unit shown at BUILD looks similar to an iPad, with virtually no buttons on the device itself. Microsoft wants touch input to be the main control mechanism, but in a way that's new and different - not just tapping, but swiping and gesturing.

When the beta launches, so will the Windows Store - the recently announced digital storefront that will allow users to pay for software and download it right away. The idea is that users will no longer need to jump around to third-party download sites and can get all their content from one central platform.

The Windows Store will launch with only free content at first, but premium downloads will be available in the following months. 

Log on page of window 8

Some Features of Window 8:

Cloud Backup Using Azure :

A job post on the Microsoft Career Site states that Windows 8 will be having Online Backup Solutions. They are making it more reliable using the cloud computing and Windows Azure.

Improvement In Windows Authentication :

Another job post in the Microsoft career site states that the security and the authentication in Win 8 will be improved using Strong 2-factor and modern biometrics authentication. The programming and the testing background will also be polished. Win 8 will be more secured making it secure using your Smart Cards, Phone, Biometrics and OTP.

Desktop as a Service :

Many of you must be aware about the Virtualization in Win 7 i.e. you can boot into Win 7 Enterprise or Ultimate Edition into your copy of Win 7 using Windows VM. This features will also be improved in Win 8, many minimal amount of information is available at present but lets hope for the best from Microsoft where right now compatibility is a Major issue.

Dedup :: New Storage Reduction Feature :

As per the leaked information there will be a new added feature in Win 8 i.e Dedup. This is a storage reduction features which will deal with the clusters of the drive and the Cloud of Windows Azure. No proper information is available right now, lets hope some thing quite good for cloud users.

Apart from all the above things it will be having major changes and upgradation in its Touch Screen support, Battery Identity Management, Biometric Support, etc. Also, it will have a faster boot up and Microsoft will be having and app store for Win 8 to beat the Apple and Android market.

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Wikipedia to shut down website for 24 hours

Popular online encyclopaedia Wikipedia will voluntarily shut down for 24 hours Wednesday as a protest against internet piracy laws in the US. Co-founder Jimmy Wales said the internet "will not tolerate censorship" in response to allegations of copyright infringement. Walessaid the decision to either enforce a "US-only" blackout versus a global blackout was made after a vote of the community.

"The community vote on the choice of US-only blackout versus global blackout was 479 to 591 in favour of going global, so while there was a solid majority, it wasn't the overwhelming majority that we had for the whole concept. It seems to have been somewhat of a tough choice for many people," Wales to the Telegraph.

Other American technology companies have refused to support Wikipedia.

"The general sentiment seemed to be that USlaw, as it impacts the internet, can affect everyone," Wales told the British daily.

"As for me, what I am hoping is that people outside the US who have friends or family who are voters in the US, will ask them to make a call to their senator or representative, and I hope we send a broad global message that the internet as a whole will not tolerate censorship in response to mere allegations of copyright infringement," he said.

The major targets of the protest are the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA).

The English version of the website will be inaccessible from 5 a.m. GMT Wednesday till 5 a.m. Thursday, Waleswrote on Twitter.

Instead of the online database of over 3.8 million articles, internet users will be greeted by a letter encouraging them to contact the US Congress in protest.

Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo was asked if the microblogging website would also shut down its global service o support the cause

"That's just silly. Closing a global business in reaction to a single-issue national politics is foolish," Costolo tweeted.

Walessaid around 100 million English-speaking Wikipedia users will be affected by the blackout.

Opponents of the SOPA and PIPA argue that they "impose unfair responsibilities" on websites like Wikipedia to check that no material they host infringes copyright, the daily said.

Under current laws, if websites remove pirated content when they are notified by the copyright holder they are not liable for damages.

The proposed laws also make it easier for American copyright holders to cut off access to foreign websites hosting unlicensed copies of films, music and TV programmes. 

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Soon, e-books to let you flip pages like paper-based magazines

Are you adapted to read on your computer? Of course its hard to read e-books than paper books. The problem has now been solved and you are able to read e-books easily in laptop, PCs or smartphone. Researchers have come up with a technology that will make reading on smartphone and tablet PCs easier than it is now.

"Smart E-book System", developed by Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) headed by Howon Lee from the IT Convergence Research Institute, allows users of smartphones and tablet PCs to effortlessly flip through the pages of an e-book or cross-reference its contents, just as they would with paper-based books and magazines.

Unlike conventional displays and user interface technologies, where users' finger movements are locked within the screen of display, the Smart E-book System recognizes finger touches made beyond the screen.

In other words, this algorithm-based conversion technology detects "touch and entry events" on the circumference of smartphones and tablet PCs and connects them with the "events" occurring within the screen, thereby preserving compatibility with traditional e-book interfaces while providing users with new functions.

Therefore, users can readily flip the pages of an e-book from the start-up screen without entering any function keys or touching the screen.

Skimming through the pages of a book, a feature that was previously unavailable with e-books, is also possible through 3D rendering of the contents on the pages being flipped.

A bookmark function allows users to conveniently go back and forth between pages of interest. In addition, the system has a "multi-touch" function as well as a smart capability of recognizing dragging time, finger pressure, and finger gestures.

"I hope that our technology will accelerate the wider use of e-books and contribute to Korea's endeavours to lead the development of software application technology for mobile devices," Howon Lee said.

Lee and his research team have filed 11 patents for the Smart E-book System in Koreaand abroad.

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New Load Shedding Schedule of Nepal ( effective From 16th january 2012)

Dear residents of nepal , the Loadshedding hours in nepal have been increased and New Schedule will eb effective from  16th january 2012. So its necessary to know the schedule to perform the housework perfectly. So here is the new Schedule of Loadshedding that will be effective from today. Depending upon the condition, load-shedding could increase/decrease by one hour.

The load-shedding will be two more hours in the areas of the feeders where 40 to 50 per cent of electricity leakage is recorded.

The load-shedding will be three more hours in the areas of the feeders where more than 50 per cent of electricity leakage is recorded.So please inform the NEA authority if you find someone stealing electricity near your place and get less load shedding 

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Breast-fed babies cry more and laugh less

Breast-fed babies tend to cry more and laugh less when compared to their bottle-fed counterparts, who are the best behaved, a new study has revealed. A study of British infants also found that those who were breast-fed were harder to soothe and get off to sleep than their formula-fed babies.
However, the Cambridgeresearchers have asserted that the irritability linked to breastfeeding is only natural, and is not an indication of stress or even necessarily hunger.
Instead, it is the baby's way of bonding and seeking attention and security, the Daily Mail reported.
Apparently the bottle-fed babies look more content because they may simply have eaten too much.

Researchers said that a crying baby may merely be seeking the comfort and closeness of its mother.
In one of the first studies of its kind, the temperament of more than 300 babies was analysed when they were three months old.
This was done by asking their mothers to answer around 200 questions about their children from how they responded to being washed and dressed to how easy they were to get down to sleep.
Although the results varied little between boys and girls, socio-economic status of the parents or the mother's age, there was a clear relation with the method of feeding.
"If anything, what might account for the difference is that bottle-fed babies possibly get more nutrients than is typical," Researcher Ken Ong, of the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge, said.
"Research suggests that these infants may be over-nourished and gain weight too quickly. Our findings are essentially similar to other stages of life; people often find that eating is comforting.

"Rather than being put off breast-feeding, parents should have more realistic expectations of normal infant behaviour and should receive better understanding and support to cope with difficult infant behaviours if needed," Dr Ong added.

The study has been published in the journal PLoS ONE.

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New Particle was discovered that could help to cool Earth

Scientists have discovered a particle that could "cool the planet" and naturally clean up the atmosphere.

According to researchers from The University of Manchester, The University of Bristol and Sandia National Laboratories, Criegee biradicals are invisible chemical intermediates and are powerful oxidisers of pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide, produced by combustion.

Although these chemical intermediates were hypothesised in the 1950s, it is only now that they have been detected. Scientists now believe that, with further research, these species could play a major role in off-setting climate change.
The detection of the Criegee biradical and measurement of how fast it reacts was made possible by a unique apparatus, designed by Sandia researchers, that uses light from a third-generation synchrotron facility, at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Advanced Light Source.

Earth

The intense, tunable light from the synchrotron allowed researchers to discern the formation and removal of different isomeric species – molecules that contain the same atoms but arranged in different combinations.

The researchers found that the Criegee biradicals react more rapidly than first thought and will accelerate the formation of sulphate and nitrate in the atmosphere. These compounds will lead to aerosol formation and ultimately to cloud formation with the potential to cool the planet.

Carl Percival, Reader in Atmospheric Chemistry at The University of Manchester and one of the authors of the paper, believes there could be significant research possibilities arising from the discovery of the Criegee biradicals.

"Criegee radicals have been impossible to measure until this work carried out at the Advanced Light Source. We have been able to quantify how fast Criegee radicals react for the first time," Percival said.

"Our results will have a significant impact on our understanding of the oxidising capacity of the atmosphere and have wide ranging implications for pollution and climate change.

Evolution of Green house gases

"The main source of these Criegee biradicals does not depend on sunlight and so these processes take place throughout the day and night," he added.

The study has been published in Science.

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World's biggest Koran with 7ft-high pages is unveiled in Afghanistan

The completion of the world's largest Koran was hailed as a major achievement for the Afghanistan when it was officially unveiled in the nation's capital.

Measuring more than 7ft long and 10ft wide, the text's 218 pages are decorated in 30 different calligraphy designs and took almost five years to finish.

Its inauguration ceremony was held yesterday in front of key religious figures, clerics, scholars and government officials to coincide with the opening of Hakim Nasir Khusraw Balkhi Cultural Center and arts exhibition in Kabul.

unvieling the world Larget Koran

According to Daily mail.co.uk The project was inspired and sponsored by His Excellency Alhaj Syed Mansoor Naderi, a well-known religious personality and leader of the Shia Ismailies in Afghanistan, it was reported on Khaama Press.

Calligrapher Mohammad Saber Yaqoti Hussaini Khedri and his students started the composition in September 2004, which involved at least two years of continuous work for the shafting and archiving.

All the 30 parts of Koran has been done in 30 different designs. It was finally completed in September 2009.

Speaking at yesterday's ceremony, Mansoor Naderi described the completion of the book as a major achievement for the Afghan nation and all Muslims around the world, according to Khaama Press.

world's Largest Koran

Those behind the project were then handed Appreciation Letters by Afghan Senate House speaker Fazal Hadi Muslimyar.

The Koran is the central religious text of Islam and is a record of the exact words revealed by God through the Angel Gabriel to Muhammad.

Muslims believe it was periodically revealed to Muhammad over the 23 years before his death at the age of 40 in 632AD.

It is divided into 114 suras which are classified either as Meccan or Medinan depending upon their place and time of revelation.

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