Apple TV connects your computer to your TV

url : http://news3.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-03/22/content_5881199.htm

Hyeon Chung

Apple TV is a box that can connect computers and TVs without wires. After many delays, Apple TV finally went on sale Wednesday for 300 U.S. dollars.
Apple does have competition in Microsoft's Xbox 360 (400 dollars), which also acts as a bridge between PC and TV, and Netgear's week-old EVA8000 (350 dollars). Xbox 360 also has its own online movie store, and Netgear features an Internet connection for viewing YouTube videos and listening to Internet radio.
A good feature of Apple TV is it's small and quiet compared to the Xbox, but a drawback is it requires a widescreen TV -- preferably an HDTV. It doesn't work with the traditional TVs many people still have.
Apple defends its audience-limiting decision by saying the future is HDTV; Apple is just "skating to where the puck is going to be," as a product manager put it.
Apple TV doesn't come with any cables. You're supposed to supply the one your TV requires (HDMI, component video or HDMI-to-DVI adapter).
Basically, Apple TV is an iPod for your TV. It copies the iTunes library (music, podcasts, TV shows, movies) from one Mac or Windows PC on your wired or wireless home network to its 40-gigabyte hard drive and keeps the copy updated.
The drive holds about 50 hours of video or 9,000 songs; if your iTunes library is bigger than that, you can specify what subset you want copied -- only unwatched TV episodes, for example.
You can play back videos, music and photos even if the original computer is turned off or (if it's a laptop) carried away. (Photo playback requires iPhoto on the Mac, or Photoshop Album or Photoshop Elements on Windows.)
A tiny white remote control operates Apple TV's stunning high-definition white-on-black menus, which are enlivened by high-resolution album covers and photos. You can see the effect at apple.com/appletv.
The integration of iPod, iTunes and Apple TV offers frequent payoffs. For example, if you paused your iPod partway through a movie, TV show or song, Apple TV remembers your place when you resume playing it on your TV.
Although only one computer's files are actually copied to Apple TV, you can still play back the iTunes libraries of five other computers by streaming -- playing them through Apple TV without copying them. Starting playback, rewinding and fast-forwarding isn't as smooth this way, and photo playback isn't available. But it's a handy option when, say, you want to watch a movie on your TV from a visitor’s laptop.
All of this works elegantly and effortlessly. But there are lots of unanswered questions that make onlookers wonder if Apple has bigger plans for the humble Apple TV.
For example, it has an Internet connection and a hard drive; so why can't it record TV shows like a TiVo?
Furthermore, it's a little weird that menus and photos appear in spectacular high-definition, but not TV shows and movies. All iTunes videos are in standard definition, and don't look so hot on an HDTV.
And then there's the mysterious unused U.S.B. port.
Still, if you stay within the Apple ecosystem -- use its online store, its jukebox software and so on -- you get a seamless, trouble-free experience, with a greater selection of TV shows and movies than you can find from any other online store.

The dinosaurs that burrowed to safety

David Hyun
URL:http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21420880-30417,00.html

A NEW kind of dinosaur that burrowed into the ground to build a protective den has been discovered in the US.
The fossil remains of an adult and two young have provided the first evidence of burrowing behaviour among dinosaurs. The discovery in Montana raises the prospect that some dinosaurs may have initially survived the catastrophic event - widely thought to have been an asteroid impact - that led to the group’s extinction 65 million years ago. Small mammals are thought to have sheltered from the “nuclear winter” that would have come after an asteroid impact by burrowing underground. The burrowing dinosaurs have been dated to 95 million years ago, in the Cretaceous period, not long before the catastrophe in evolutionary terms. Though no examples have been found that date from nearer the time of the impact, it is conceivable that some may have survived it in their dens. “Burrowing behaviour allows vertebrates to escape harsh environmental conditions,” David Varricchio, of Montana State University, who led the research, said.
“Small dinosaurs could potentially have withstood severe conditions, such as drought or daily or seasonal temperature extremes. Such behaviour would have allowed dinosaurs to occupy high mountains, desert environments and polar regions. “Survival of terrestrial vertebrates at the end-Cretaceous event has been attributed to sheltering behaviour, with the extinction of nonavian dinosaurs resulting from their inability to find an appropriate cover. Burrowing dinosaurs would challenge this argument, but these are yet to be found in the latest Cretaceous formations.” The new species, which is described in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, has been named Oryctodromeus cubicularis, which means “digging runner of the lair”. The adult found by Dr Varricchio’s team measured 2.1m and weighed 22-32kg. It and the two juveniles were at the end of a sloping tunnel more than 2m long and 70cm wide, which would have ended in a larger chamber. Several pieces of evidence indicate that the structure was a burrow built by the creatures. Its dimensions are a good fit for Oryctodromeus’s body, and the close proximity of an adult and young hints at parental care. The tunnel is similar to those made by modern burrowing animals, and there are no bite marks on the remains, making it unlikely that they were carried into the den by predators. Oryctodromeus also shows several anatomical adaptations for digging. “For a digging animal to apply a force to the ground effectively, it must counteract the equal opposing force generated,” Dr Varricchio said. “For example, mammals that dig with their forelimbs brace themselves with their hindlimbs and tail. Oryctodromeus exhibits skeletal features that among extant vertebrates are associated with such behaviour.”

Google quashes mobile phone talk

url: http://www.smh.com.au/news/mobiles--handhelds/google-quashes-mobile-phone-talk/2007/03/21/1174153139660.html

Hyeon Chung

Google has poured cold water on claims it is developing a mobile phone.
The search giant said it was more logical to form partnerships with existing handset makers instead.
Google's South-East Asia managing director of sales and operations, Richard Kimber, yesterday echoed statements made by Google's chief internet evangelist, Vinton Cerf, that building hardware would be a dramatic shift in the company's business model.
"At this point in time, we are very focused on the software, not the phone," The Australian Financial Review today quoted Kimber as saying during his speech at the Search Engine Room conference in Sydney.
Kimber said Google was keen on porting its search and other technologies to mobile devices, but it was not interested in entering the crowded handset market, as Apple has recently done with its iPhone.
This is highlighted by recent deals Google has made with manufacturers such as Samsung, resulting in its search software coming preloaded on certain handsets.
Extending Google's search technology to mobile phones would allow it to serve advertising to a far wider audience - particularly those in developing countries who do not have access to a computer.
Kimber said mobile ads posed unique challenges but described them as being "extremely effective".
In a telephone interview earlier this month, Dr Cerf, who is credited with being one of the founders of the internet, said "becoming an equipment manufacturer is pretty far from our business model".
"On the other hand, we're very interested in the platforms that other people are building. We are quite eager to be part of the mobile revolution."
A Google Australia spokesman said the company was focused on developing partnerships with existing industry players but did not confirm or deny that Google was developing a handset.
"Mobile is an important area for Google and we remain focused on creating applications and establishing and growing partnerships with industry leaders to develop innovative services for users worldwide," he said.
Google's latest comments are at odds with the slew of recent reports that suggested it was shopping a phone design to potential mobile phone manufacturing partners in Asia.
In a note to clients, sighted by Reuters, London-based phone analyst Richard Windsor wrote: "Google has come out of the closet at the CeBIT trade fair admitting that it is working on a mobile phone of its own.
"This is not going to be a high-end device but a mass-market device aimed at bringing Google to users who don't have a PC."
A US venture capitalist, Simeon Simeonov, wrote in a blog post earlier this month that there was "a team of about 100 people at Google working on the Google Phone".
Simeonov said his "inside source close to the company" described the device as being a "BlackBerry-like, slick device". He added a number of recent mobile-related acquisitions made by Google backed up the rumours.
Samsung was widely rumoured to be Google's manufacturing partner; a photo published on the Engadget blog, which purported to be a prototype, showed a sparse touchscreen design similar to the iPhone.
But all of these rumours now appear to be quashed, bringing back memories from a year ago when Google was said to be building its own line of computers. Those reports were soon proved false, and the product Google was working on turned out to be a free software pack.

Problem Solved: Century-Old Math Mystery Deciphered

David Hyun
URL:http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=abM.SNM8uq3c&refer=us
March 21 (Bloomberg) -- Researchers using supercomputers unraveled a 120-year-old mathematics mystery, a solution they said promises advances in their field much like the mapping of the humane genome is aiding developments in medicine.
The solution of the math structure E8, unveiled this week at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, would cover an area the size of Manhattan if written on paper. E8, discovered in 1887, is a mathematical problem related to equations used to explain symmetry.
``It's a big step,'' said Jeffrey Adams, 50, a mathematics professor at the University of Maryland in College Park who led the project by 18 mathematicians and computer scientists from the U.S. and Europe. ``You never know where it's going to lead.''
The project will help math researchers find solutions to problems related to symmetry, string theory and geometry, Adams said. Understanding how E8 works also might help physicists develop a unified theory that takes in gravity and other fundamental forces, said Hermann Nicolai, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany, in a report on the discovery.
The E8 solution might be the math field's equivalent to the basic knowledge produced by human-genome mapping in the 1990s and early 2000s, Adams said. That work spurred a wave of methods for analyzing genetic causes of disease and led to the discovery of genes that may predict a person's risk of disease or other biological clues that may help doctors in treatment decisions.
``I like to say that the human genome itself doesn't give you drugs and cures for cancer,'' Adams said.
Other Researchers
Besides researchers from MIT and Maryland, the project drew collaborators from France and from U.S. universities including Cornell, Harvard, Stanford, Michigan and Utah.
E8, discovered in 1887, is a mathematical problem from the Lie groups, which were developed by Norwegian Sophus Lie during his study of symmetry. Mathematicians explore symmetries in theoretical dimensions greater than the familiar three- dimensional objects such as balls and cylinders. E8 has 248 dimensions. The E8 calculation is part of a larger project on all the Lie groups.
It took researchers two years of ``pencil and paper'' work and one more for software writing before the solution could be tackled by computer, Adams said in a telephone interview. The single calculation required computer power and memory that wasn't available until recently, said the National Science Foundation, which provided funding along with the American Institute of Mathematics.
Underlying Math
``The literature on this subject is very dense and very difficult to understand,'' said team member David Vogan from MIT in the report on the project. ``Even after we understood the underlying mathematics, it still took more than two years to implement it on a computer.''
Researchers broke the puzzle into smaller parts, producing partial answers that were later assembled to find the eventual solution. The final calculation took about 77 hours on the Sage supercomputer, built by San Diego-based Western Scientific.
The calculation created a file 60 gigabytes in size, enough to store music that could play for 45 days in the MP3 format. Data on the human genome, which contains all of the genetic information of a cell, can be stored on less than a gigabyte.

PlayStation 3 launches at record price

url: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21426496-2,00.html
Hyeon Chung
Launch parties for Sony’s priciest-ever game console will begin across the country tonight but there is anger over the difference between the Australian and US versions.
PS3 systems available in Europe and Australia will not have the same capabilities of the US and Japanese models, despite costing around $300 more.
The 60GB PS3 was launched in the US last November with a price tag of $US599 ($770) and costs ¥60,000 ($640) in Japan. The model on sale in Australia will cost $999.95.
And if the price tag wasn’t enough to make gamers throw their controllers out of their prams, cost-cutting measures mean the Australian versions have limited “backwards compatibility” – meaning it will not be able to play all PS1 and PS2 games.
"About 50 to 60 per cent of (earlier) games are playable in some form, but some of the big-name games like Gran Turismo 4 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas don't play properly," said Peter Bayliss, a PhD student in Video Game Theory at RMIT.
"While it's generally good news, some of the games people actually want to hold on to might not work."
Australian PS3 owners will also need to install upgrades available through PlayStation online to play PS1 and PS2 games.
Sony Computer Entertainment Australia managing director Michael Ephraim said more titles would become compatible with the PS3 over time.
The PS3 was originally scheduled to launch in Europe and Australia in November last year and was expected to support all games released for earlier models.
Billed as a "home entertainment system", the PS3 includes a 60GB hard drive, Blu-ray Disc player, high-definition TV output and an internet browser.
Pioneered by Sony, Blu-ray discs can store up to 10 times more information than a DVD. Its main competitor is the HD DVD (high-definition DVD), backed by Microsoft, Intel and Toshiba.
There are currently fewer than 100 titles available on Blu-ray in Australia and Sony will be relying in part on the PS3 to boost demand for the format.
"Sony did a lot for popularising DVD with the PS2," which included a DVD player, said Mr Bayliss.
"Some people have said they'll buy a PS3 because it's a lot cheaper than buying a stand-alone Blu-ray player at the moment."
Blu-ray players currently sell for between $1500 and $2500.
The high price of the PS3 in Australia was not unexpected, said Mr Bayliss.
"It always has been (more costly) in Australia. Part of it is increased shipping costs, but... there's simply less consumers in Australia so all the fixed costs of distribution get shared over less people," he said.
US models of the PS3 are made with part of the PS2 chipset inside, allowing it to run older games. That hardware has been replaced in European and Australian models with a software emulator, at a rumoured saving of between $20 and $30 per system.
A list of PS1 and PS2 titles compatible with the Australian PS3 has been posted online. The games are classified as "should play with noticeable issues", "minor issues" and "no known issues".
Mr Ephraim said the list included almost 75 per cent of the PS2 game catalogue.

Minsung's Results

semiconductor
Source: answers.com/semiconductor
Def: Any of various solid crystalline substances, such as germanium or silicon, having electrical conductivity greater than insulators but less than good conductors, and used especially as a base material for computer chips and other electronic devices.
Inventor: TI
Date of Invention:

microprocessor
Source: answers.com/microprocessor
Def: An integrated circuit that contains the entire central processing unit of a computer on a single chip.
Inventor: Intel and TI
Date of Invention: Late 190s Early 1970s

circuit board
Source: answers.com/circuit board
Def: An insulated board on which interconnected circuits and components such as microchips are mounted or etched.
Inventor: Paul Eisler
Date of Invention: 1936

radio
Source: answers.com/radio
Def:The wireless transmission through space of electromagnetic waves in the approximate frequency range from 10 kilohertz to 300,000 megahertz.
Inventor: Heinrich Hertz and Guglielmo Marconi
Date of Invention: 1901

bluetooth
Source: answers.com/bluetooth
Def: Bluetooth is an industrial specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs). Bluetooth provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices such as mobile phones, laptops, PCs, printers, digital cameras and video game consoles via a secure, globally unlicensed short-range radio frequency.
Inventor: Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia, Toshiba / Bluetooth Special Interest Group
Date of Invention: 1998

television
Source: answers.com/television
Def: a) The transmission of dynamic or sometimes static images, generally with accompanying sound, via electric or electromagnetic signals. b) An electronic apparatus that receives such signals, reproducing the images on a screen, and typically reproducing accompanying sound signals on speakers. c) The visual and audio content of such signals.
Inventor: No specific inventor.
Date of Invention: First version 1884, but was made from past experiments by others.

mechanical computer
Source: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_invented_the_first_mechanical_computerDef:
Inventor: Vannevar Buh
Date of Invention: 1928

electrical computer
Source: http://www.city-net.com/~ched/help/general/tech_history.html
Def: Inventor: Howard Aiken, IBM
Date of Invention: 1943

digital computer
Source: answers.com/digital computer http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi152.htm
Def: A computer that performs calculations and logical operations with quantities represented as digits, usually in the binary number system.
Inventor: John Atanasoff
Date of Invention: 1937

CD-ROM
Source: answers.com/cd-rom web.mit.edu/invent/iow/russell.html
Def: A compact disk that functions as read-only memory.
Inventor: James T. Russell
Date of Invention: 1965

DVD
Source: answers.com/dvd http://inventors.about.com/library/bl/bl12a.htm
Def: A high-density compact disk for storing large amounts of data, especially high-resolution audio-visual material.
Inventor: Matshusita
Date of Invention: 1996

http://www.google.com/search

Definition

inventor

date of invention

semiconductorwww.inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blmicrochip.htmAn element, such as silicon, that is intermediate in electrical conductivity between conductors and insulators, through which conduction takes place by means of holes and electrons.Robert Noyce

microprocessorwww.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/microprocessor.htm - 24kA master control circuit.Ted Hoff1968

circuit boardhttp://www.answers.com/circuit%20boardBoards used in electronic devices that are made from an insulating material and contain electronic components that are interconnected to form a circuit or group of circuits that perform a specific function.Charles Ducas 1850s

radiohttp://inventors.about.com/od/rstartinventions/a/radio.htmAn instrument that uses radio waves to communicate with other vesselsNikola Tesla1943

bluetoothhttp://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/06/ericsson_drops_bluetooth_dev/A wireless connection that enables devices to exchange information.Ericsson

televisionhttp://www.videouniversity.com/farnhal.htmTelevision is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distancePhil, Cliff1927

mechanical computerhttp://www.answers.com/mechanical%20computerhttp://www.diycalculator.com/popup-h-mechcomp.shtmlA machine such as a Charles Babbage's analytical engine.Joseph-Marie Jacquard early 1800s

electrical computer

digital computerhttp://www.reference.com/search?q=digital%20computerA programmable machine which operates using binary digital data.
CD romwww.web.mit.edu/invent/iow/russell.html Compact Disk Read-Only MemoryRussell1970s

DVDwww.web.mit.edu/invent/iow/thomasf.html

Digital Versatile Disc Warren Lieberfarb 1996

Diana Jung

Diana Jung
definitioninventordate of invention
semiconductordefinition: a substance, as silicon or germanium, with electrical conductivity intermediate between that of an insulator and a conductor: a basic component of various kinds of electronic circuit element (semiconductor device) used in communications, control, and detection technology and in computers. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/semiconductor)inventor: Robert Noycedate: 1970 (http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/hoff.htmhttp://www.answers.com/microprocessor)
microprocessordefinition: integrated circuit semiconductor chip that performs the bulk of the processing and controls the parts of a system; "a microprocessor functions as the central processing unit of a microcomputer"; "a disk drive contains a microprocessor to handle the internal functions of the drive" (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/microprocessor)inventor: Ted Hoff (http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/microprocessor.htm)date: 1968 (http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/microprocessor.htm)
circuitboarddefinition: a sheet of insulating material used for the mounting and interconnection (often by a printed circuit) of components in electronic equipment (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/circuit%20board)inventor: Austrian engineer Paul Eisler(http://www.answers.com/circuitboard)date: 1936 (http://www.answers.com/circuitboard)
radio definition: The wireless transmission through space of electromagnetic waves in the approximate frequency range from 10 kilohertz to 300,000 megahertz (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/radio)inventor:Nicola Tesla, Guglielmo Marconi, Reginald Fessenden, Nathan Stubblefield (http://www.answers.com/who%20invented%20radio%3F)*date: 1892 (http://www.answers.com/Who%20invented%20radio%20and%20when%3F)
bluetoothdefinition: an industrial specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs). Bluetooth provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices such as mobile phones, laptops, PCs, printers, digital cameras and video game consoles via a secure, globally unlicensed short-range radio frequency. The Bluetooth specifications are developed and licensed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group.(http://www.answers.com/bluetooth)inventor: Ericsson (http://www.answers.com/Who%20invented%20bluetooth%3F)date: 1998 (http://www.answers.com/Who%20invented%20bluetooth%3F)
televisiondefinition: The transmission of dynamic or sometimes static images, generally with accompanying sound, via electric or electromagnetic signals.(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/television)inventor: The Americans will tell you it was Philo Taylor Farnsworth. The Russians and RCA will tell you it was Vladimir Zworykin. Like all complex devices, the television has many contributing inventors./ Scottish inventor, John Logie Baird, the father of this pervasive technology, first publicly demonstrated television date: 26 January 1926
mechanicalcomputerdefinition: The transmission of dynamic or sometimes static images, generally with accompanying sound, via electric or electromagnetic signals.inventor: Willoughby Smith, Paul Nipkow,John Logie Baird , Charles Francis Jenkinsdate: 1873-1926(http://www.answers.com/television)
electricalcomputerdefinition: Related to or associated with electricity, but not containing it or having its properties or characteristics; often used interchangeably with electric.inventor: John Vincent Atanasoffdate: 1974(http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/hpcwireWWW/03/1031/106295.html)
digitalcomputerdefinition: A computer that performs calculations and logical operations with quantities represented as digits, usually in the binary number system.inventor: John Vincent Atanasoffdate: 1974

BrainMan

Savant Syndrome - Daniel Tammet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bVVQ0FZeys

The internet search

A semiconductor is a solid whose electrical conductivity can be controlled over a wide range, either permanently or dynamically.
Stanford Ovshinsky
1904 - 1949
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/may97/862851265.Eg.r.htmlhttp://www.answers.com/semiconductor
An integrated circuit that contains the entire central processing unit of a computer on a single chip.
Marcian Edward "Ted" Hoff, Jr.
1970s
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/hoff.htmhttp://www.answers.com/microprocessor
An insulated board on which interconnected circuits and components such as microchips are mounted or etched.
Paul Eisler
1936
http://www.answers.com/circuit%20board

The wireless transmission through space of electromagnetic waves in the approximate frequency range from 10 kilohertz to 300,000 megahertz.
Alexander Stepanovich Popov,Nikola Tesla,Guglielmo Marconi ,Reginald Fessenden ,Lee de Forest ,Edwin H. Armstrong, Roberto Landell de Moura,
1893-1895
http://www.answers.com/radio
A wireless personal area network (WPAN) technology from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (http://www.bluetooth.com/)
Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba.
1998
http://www.answers.com/bluetooth
The transmission of dynamic or sometimes static images, generally with accompanying sound, via electric or electromagnetic signals.
Willoughby Smith, Paul Nipkow,John Logie Baird , Charles Francis Jenkins
1873-1926
http://www.answers.com/television
A machine such as a Charles Babbage's analytical engine.
Konrad Zuse
1938
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa050298.htm
Related to or associated with electricity, but not containing it or having its properties or characteristics; often used interchangeably with electric.
John Vincent Atanasoff
1974
http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/hpcwireWWW/03/1031/106295.html
A computer that performs calculations and logical operations with quantities represented as digits, usually in the binary number system.
John Vincent Atanasoff
1974
http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/hpcwireWWW/03/1031/106295.html
A compact disk that functions as read-only memory
James T. Russell
1960s
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/russell.html
A high-density compact disk for storing large amounts of data, especially high-resolution audio-visual material.
Fred Thomas
1983
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/thomasf.html

Jacky

Test

Semiconductor
Definition: A material that is neither a good conductor of electricity (like copper) nor a good insulator (like rubber). The most common semiconductor materials are silicon and germanium. These materials are then doped to create an excess or lack of electrons. Computer chips, both for CPU and memory, are composed of semiconductor materials. Semiconductors make it possible to miniaturize electronic components, such as transistors. ...
Inventor: Gordon E. Moore csc.lsu.edu/~chen/HGAwardList.htm
Date of Invention: 1991 www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/db/indices/a-tree/m/Moore:Gordon_E=.html
Microprocessor The silicon chip with thousands of electronic components that serves as the central processing unit (CPU) in microcomputers. Ted Hoff www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/microprocessor.htm 1968 www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/microprocessor.htm Circuit Board A thin board, usually fiberglass, on which components are mounted. Also called a printed circuit board (or PCB) because the connections between the components are printed onto the board. Paul Eisler www.ecp13.gr/ 1943 http://www.answers.com/Circuit%20BoardRadio Region of the electromagnetic spectrum corresponding to radiation of the longest wavelengths. Guglielmo Marconi http://inventors.about.com/od/rstartinventions/a/radio.htm 1895 http://inventors.about.com/od/rstartinventions/a/radio.htmBluetuse Bluetooth is a computing and telecommunications industry specification that describes how mobile phones, computers and PDAs can easily interconnect with each other and with home and business phones and computers using a short wireless connection. Ericsson http://www.answers.com/bluetooth 1998 http://www.answers.com/bluetoothTelevision System that converts both audio and visual information into corresponding electrical signals which are then transmitted through wires or by radio waves to a receiver which reproduces the original information. Paul Gottlieb Nipkow http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bltelevision.htm#Mechanical%20Television 1884 http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bltelevision.htm#Mechanical%20TelevisionMechanical Computer Charles Babbage http://www.diycalculator.com/popup-h-mechcomp.shtml 1834 school.discovery.com/lessonplans/programs/inventioncomputertechnology/ Electrical Computer a machine for performing calculations automatically http://www.thefreedictionary.com/electronic+computer John Atanasoff http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa050898.htm 1941 http://www.k9ape.com/publicservice/Who%20Invented%20The%20Computer.htmlDigital Computer A machine that expresses data using a system of pre-set values. Digital computer representations can be broken down to simple binary expressions. All modern computers are digital as opposed to analog computers which would express values as individual points on a continuum. A slide-rule would be an analog computer. George Stibitz inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blstibitz.htm 1939 inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blstibitz.htmCD Rom CD ROM stands for Compact Disk Read-Only Memory. CD ROMs store and read massive amounts of information on a removable disk platter or solid state storage chip. Unlike the data on hard drives and diskettes, data on CD ROMs can only be read--not altered--by the user. Also called "firmware." 1984 http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa010500a.htmDVD "Digital Versatile Disk." (Formerly Digital Video Disk.) Same size as a CD but stores seven times CD capacity on a single side. DVDs can also be double-sided or dual layer. Today most DVDs are used to display full-length commercial motion pictures, plus additional material such as outtakes, director's notes, movie trailers, etc.
* Definition is all from Google

Semiconductor

(Lily Baik)

http://www.answers.com/semiconductor

A solid crystalline material whose electrical conductivity is intermediate between that of a metal and an insulator. Semiconductors exhibit conduction properties that may be temperature-dependent, permitting their use as thermistors (temperature-dependent resistors), or voltage-dependent, as in varistors. By making suitable contacts to a semiconductor or by making the material suitably inhomogeneous, electrical rectification and amplification can be obtained. Semiconductor devices, rectifiers, and transistors have replaced vacuum tubes almost completely in low-power electronics, making it possible to save volume and power consumption by orders of magnitude. In the form of integrated circuits, they are vital for complicated systems. The optical properties of a semiconductor are important for the understanding and the application of the material. Photodiodes, photoconductive detectors of radiation, injection lasers, light-emitting diodes, solar-energy conversion cells, and so forth are examples of the wide variety of optoelectronic devices.

Semi- Conductor

Hyeon Chung

Definition: http://www.answers.com/topic/semiconductor
Any of various solid crystalline substances, such as germanium or silicon, having electrical conductivity greater than insulators but less than good conductors, and used especially as a base material for computer chips and other electronic devices.

Inventor: http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/ovshinsky.html
In the 1950s, Stanford Ovshinsky created an entirely new realm of materials science, which in turn has given new life to the engineering of semiconductors, solar energy, and electric cars.
Stan Ovshinsky was born in Akron, Ohio in 1922. After graduating from high school, he went straight to work. In 1955, he began working the field of amorphous materials, that is, materials that lack a definite crystalline structure. Ovshinsky was the first engineer to devise a method, called "phase change," for crystalizing these disordered materials, with resulting novel uses: for example, films that gain metallic properties without losing their original optical capabilities. One result was amorphous semiconductors --- which the engineering community had previously considered an utter impossibility.
In 1960, Ovshinsky founded Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ECD), in order to continue and expand his work in amorphous semiconductors. Meanwhile, engineers nationwide had eagerly entered an entirely new field: "ovonics" (from Ovshinsky Electronics).
Ovshinsky earned numerous patents in the 1970s and '80s for amorphous semiconductor materials. These materials became essential to optoelectronic copying and fax machines, as well as large, flat-panel liquid crystal displays like those of computer monitors. As early as 1970, Ovshinsky had used his ovonic phase change principle to invent a reversible optical memory disk: that is, a prototype rewritable CD-ROM. Today, thirteen high tech companies around the world are developing rewritable CDs using Ovshinsky's technology.
Ovshinsky went on to use his thin-film amorphous silicon to invent a manufacturing method that might do for solar energy what the assembly line did for automobiles. In 1983, he patented a system that allowed photovoltaic solar panels to be manufactured in continuous rolls 1000 feet in length. Ovshinsky's "Continuous Amorphous Solar Cell Production System" operates much like a newspaper rollpress, speedily imprinting a plasma of amorphous silicon semiconductors in a continuous web onto a thin, anodized metal sheet.
The high energy-conversion efficiency of the thin-film cells and the high throughput of the process make Ovshinsky's photovoltaic cells a revolutionary leap forward for solar energy. They have been installed at various sites around and above the globe, from Mexican mountain villages to the Mir space station. Ovshinsky's "Uni-Solar" roofing tiles, for residential buildings, have won Popular Science's "Best of What's New" Grand Award (1996) and Discover Magazine's Discover Award in the Environment category (1997).
More recently, Ovshinsky has taken a strong step closer to a feasible electric car. After years of development, he earned a patent in 1994 for a high energy-storage, environment-friendly, maintenance-free, rechargeable battery. Although he is far from alone in the search for the perfect electric car battery, Ovshinsky's nickel metal-hydride (NiMH) model, when compared with its nickel-cadmium and lead-acid competitors, is twice as powerful, with none of their fatigue and discharge problems. In fact, Ovshinsky's battery shattered the Department of Energy's performance targets. Recently, ECD formed a joint venture with GM, whose EV1 features Ovshinsky's NiMH battery, to mass produce the battery for electric cars worldwide. A more modest version of the NiMH battery has been licensed by many of the world's major battery companies for retail consumption.
In total, Stan Ovshinsky has earned about 200 US patents, at a pace which has not flagged since the early 1970s: eight granted in 1999, and three more by February 1 of this year. He has also won many local, national and international awards for his work, which extends far beyond the products described above; and he will doubtless win further fame, as the once impossible products he has invented come into broader use.

Def. of Microchip

Lily Baik
http://www.answers.com/microchip

Microchips, also termed "integrated circuits" or "chips," are small, thin rectangles of a crystalline semiconductor, usually silicon, that have been inlaid and overlaid with microscopically patterned substances so as to produce transistors and other electronic components on its surface. It is the components on the chip, not the chip itself, that are micro or too small see with the naked eye. The microchip has made it possible to miniaturize digital computers, communications circuits, controllers, and many other devices. Since 1971, whole computer CPUs (central processing units) have been placed on some microchips; these devices are termed microprocessors.

Invention & definition of Microchip

Hyeon Chung

Definition: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci212564,00.html
A microchip (sometimes just called a "chip") is a unit of packaged computer circuitry (usually called an integrated circuit) that is manufactured from a material such as silicon at a very small scale. Microchips are made for program logic (logic or microprocessor chips) and for computer memory (memory or RAM chips). Microchips are also made that include both logic and memory and for special purposes such as analog-to-digital conversion, bit slicing, and gateways


Inventor: http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa080498.htm
"What we didn't realize then was that the integrated circuit would reduce the cost of electronic functions by a factor of a million to one, nothing had ever done that for anything before" - Jack Kilby
It seems that the integrated circuit was destined to be invented. Two separate inventors, unaware of each other's activities, invented almost identical integrated circuits or ICs at nearly the same time.
Jack Kilby, an engineer with a background in ceramic-based silk screen circuit boards and transistor-based hearing aids, started working for Texas Instruments in 1958. A year earlier, research engineer Robert Noyce had co-founded the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation. From 1958 to 1959, both electrical engineers were working on an answer to the same dilemma: how to make more of less.
In designing a complex electronic machine like a computer it was always necessary to increase the number of components involved in order to make technical advances. The monolithic (formed from a single crystal) integrated circuit placed the previously separated transistors, resistors, capacitors and all the connecting wiring onto a single crystal (or 'chip') made of semiconductor material. Kilby used germanium and Noyce used silicon for the semiconductor material.
In 1959 both parties applied for patents. Jack Kilby and Texas Instruments received U.S. patent #3,138,743 for miniaturized electronic circuits. Robert Noyce and the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation received U.S. patent #2,981,877 for a silicon based integrated circuit. The two companies wisely decided to cross license their technologies after several years of legal battles, creating a global market now worth about $1 trillion a year.
In 1961 the first commercially available integrated circuits came from the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation. All computers then started to be made using chips instead of the individual transistors and their accompanying parts. Texas Instruments first used the chips in Air Force computers and the Minuteman Missile in 1962. They later used the chips to produce the first electronic portable calculators. The original IC had only one transistor, three resistors and one capacitor and was the size of an adult's pinkie finger. Today an IC smaller than a penny can hold 125 million transistors.
Jack Kilby now holds patents on over sixty inventions and is also well known as the inventor of the portable calculator (1967). In 1970 he was awarded the National Medal of Science. Robert Noyce, with sixteen patents to his name, founded Intel, the company responsible for the invention of the microprocessor, in 1968. But for both men the invention of the integrated circuit stands historically as one of the most important innovations of mankind. Almost all modern products use chip technology.

What is Semiconductor?

URL:http://www.answers.com/semiconductor
Brian Lee

A solid crystalline material whose electrical conductivity is intermediate between that of a metal and an insulator. Semiconductors exhibit conduction properties that may be temperature-dependent, permitting their use as thermistors (temperature-dependent resistors), or voltage-dependent, as in varistors. By making suitable contacts to a semiconductor or by making the material suitably inhomogeneous, electrical rectification and amplification can be obtained. Semiconductor devices, rectifiers, and transistors have replaced vacuum tubes almost completely in low-power electronics, making it possible to save volume and power consumption by orders of magnitude. In the form of integrated circuits, they are vital for complicated systems. The optical properties of a semiconductor are important for the understanding and the application of the material. Photodiodes, photoconductive detectors of radiation, injection lasers, light-emitting diodes, solar-energy conversion cells, and so forth are examples of the wide variety of optoelectronic devices.

invention of digital computer

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-1825/digital-computer
Hyeon Chung

Blaise Pascal of France and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz of Germany invented mechanical digital calculating machines during the 17th century. The English inventor Charles Babbage, however, is generally credited with having conceived the first automatic digital computer. During the 1830s Babbage devised his so-called Analytical Engine, a mechanical device designed to combine basic arithmetic operations with decisions based on its own computations. Babbage's plans embodied most of the fundamental elements of the modern digital computer. For example, they called for sequential control—i.e., program control that included branching, looping, and both arithmetic and storage units with automatic printout. Babbage's device, however, was never completed and was forgotten until his writings were rediscovered over a century later.


Of great importance in the evolution of the digital computer was the work of the English mathematician and logician George Boole. In various essays written during the mid-1800s, Boole discussed the analogy between the symbols of algebra and those of logic as used to represent logical forms and syllogisms. His formalism, operating on only 0 and 1, became the basis of what is now called Boolean algebra, on which computer switching theory and procedures are grounded.
John V. Atanasoff, an American mathematician and physicist, is credited with building the first electronic digital computer, which he constructed from 1939 to 1942 with the assistance of his graduate student Clifford E. Berry. Konrad Zuse, a German engineer acting in virtual isolation from developments elsewhere, completed construction in 1941 of the first operational program-controlled calculating machine (Z3). In 1944 Howard Aiken and a group of engineers at International Business Machines Corporation completed work on the Harvard Mark I, a machine whose data-processing operations were controlled primarily by electric relays (switching devices).
Since the development of the Harvard Mark I, the digital computer has evolved at a rapid pace. The succession of advances in computer equipment, principally in logic circuitry, is often divided into generations, with each generation comprising a group of machines that share a common technology.
In 1946 J. Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly, both of the University of Pennsylvania, constructed ENIAC (an acronym for electronic numerical integrator and computer), a digital machine and the first general-purpose, electronic computer. Its computing features were derived from Atanasoff's machine; both computers included vacuum tubes instead of relays as their active logic elements, a feature that resulted in a significant increase in operating speed. The concept of a stored-program computer was introduced in the mid-1940s, and the idea of storing instruction codes as well as data in an electrically alterable memory was implemented in EDVAC (electronic discrete variable automatic computer).
The second computer generation began in the late 1950s, when digital machines utilizing transistors became commercially available. Although this type of semiconductor device had been invented in 1948, more than 10 years of developmental work was needed to render it a viable alternative to the vacuum tube. The small size of the transistor, its greater reliability, and its relatively low power consumption made it vastly superior to the tube. Its use in computer circuitry permitted the manufacture of digital systems that were considerably more efficient, smaller, and faster than their first-generation ancestors.
The late 1960s and '70s witnessed further dramatic advances in computer hardware. The first was the fabrication of the integrated circuit, a solid-state device containing hundreds of transistors, diodes, and resistors on a tiny silicon chip. This microcircuit made possible the production of mainframe (large-scale) computers of higher operating speeds, capacity, and reliability at significantly lower cost. Another type of third-generation computer that developed as a result of microelectronics was the minicomputer, a machine appreciably smaller than the standard mainframe but powerful enough to control the instruments of an entire scientific laboratory.
The development of large-scale integration (LSI) enabled hardware manufacturers to pack thousands of transistors and other related components on a single silicon chip about the size of a baby's fingernail. Such microcircuitry yielded two devices that revolutionized computer technology. The first of these was the microprocessor, which is an integrated circuit that contains all the arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry of a central processing unit. Its production resulted in the development of microcomputers, systems no larger than portable television sets yet with substantial computing power. The other important device to emerge from LSI circuitry was the semiconductor memory. Consisting of only a few chips, this compact storage device is well-suited for use in minicomputers and microcomputers. Moreover, it has found use in an increasing number of mainframes, particularly those designed for high-speed applications, because of its fast-access speed and large storage capacity.
By the beginning of the 1980s integrated circuitry had advanced to very large-scale integration (VLSI). This design and manufacturing technology greatly increased the circuit density of microprocessor, memory, and support chips—i.e., those that serve to interface microprocessors with input-output devices. By the 1990s some VLSI circuits contained more than 3 million transistors on a silicon chip less than 0.3 square inch (2 square cm) in area.
The digital computers of the 1980s and '90s employing LSI and VLSI technologies are frequently referred to as fourth-generation systems. Many of the microcomputers produced during the 1980s were equipped with a single chip on which circuits for processor, memory, and interface functions were integrated. See also supercomputer.

The History of Computers

URL:http://inventors.about.com/library/blcoindex.htm
David Hyun

First man to create digital computer

(Lily Baik)
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/bulgaria-faq/part7/section-1.html

The name John Atanasoff is not very well known but this is the manwho has created the modern digital computer. 50 years have passedsince John Atanasoff has created the first digital computer.

John V. Atanasoff, 91, who invented the first electroniccomputer in 1939

Earlist Mechanism by Paul Lee

Examples of early mechanical computing devices included the abacus, the slide rule and arguably the astrolabe and the Antikythera mechanism (which dates from about 150-100 BC).

First Radio By Paul Lee

History
Guglielmo Marconi successfully sent the first radio message across the Atlantic Ocean in December 1901 from England to Newfoundland. Marconi's radio did not receive voice or music. Rather, it received buzzing sounds created by a spark gap transmitter sending a signal using Morse code.
The radio got its voice on Christmas Eve 1906. As dozens of ship and amateur radio operators listened for the evening's traffic messages, they were amazed to hear a man's voice calling "CQ, CQ" (which means calling all stations, I have messages) instead of the customary dits and dahs of Morse code. The message was transmitted by Professor Reginald Aubrey Fessenden from a small radio station in Brant Rock, Massachusetts.
In the years from 1904 to 1914, the radio went through many refinements with the invention of the diode and triode vacuum tubes. These devices enabled better transmission and reception of voice and music. Also during this time period, the radio became standard equipment on ships crossing the oceans.
The radio came of age during World War I. Military leaders recognized its value for communicating with the infantry and ships at sea. During the WWI, many advancements were made to the radio making it more powerful and compact. In 1923, Edwin Armstrong invented the superhetrodyne radio. It was a major advancement in how a radio worked. The basic principles used in the superhetrodyne radio are still in use today.
On November 2, 1920 the first commercial radio station went on the air in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was an instant success, and began the radio revolution called the "Golden Age of Radio." The Golden Age of Radio lasted from the early 1920s through the late 1940s when television brought in a whole new era. During this Golden Age, the radio evolved from a simple device in a bulky box to a complex piece of equipment housed in beautiful wooden cabinets. People would gather around the radio and listen to the latest news and radio plays. The radio occupied a similar position as today's television set.
On June 30, 1948 the transistor was successfully demonstrated at Bell Laboratories. The transistor allowed radios to become compact, with the smallest ones able to fit in a shirt pocket. In 1959, Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce received the first patent for the integrated circuit. The space program of the 1960s would bring more advances to the integrated circuit. Now, a radio could fit in the frame of eyeglasses or inside a pair of small stereo earphones. Today, the frequency dial printed on the cabinet has been replaced with light emitting diodes or liquid crystal displays.

‘R2-D2’ mail box one of only 400 in nation
http://www.jg-tc.com/articles/2007/03/17/news/news003.txt

CHARLESTON -- A new mail collection box from “a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away” is being offered by the Charleston Post Office.

Postal workers installed a collection box that looks like “Star Wars” droid R2-D2 early Friday morning under the University Union skywalk on Eastern Illinois University’s campus. Customers can drop their mail into the R2-D2 box, which is temporarily replacing the traditional blue one.

This box is one of about 400 R2-D2s that were installed nationwide Friday to promote a joint venture of the U.S. Postal Service and Lucasfilm Ltd., the company formed by “Star Wars” creator George Lucas. They will remain on the street for about three weeks in conjunction with the “Star Wars” 30th anniversary celebration.

Charleston Postmaster Butch Hackett said the Postal Service contacted him about a month ago to make arrangements for bringing R2-D2 to town. He said the Postal Service wanted to keep word of the Lucasfilm joint venture as quiet as possible prior to the unveiling on Friday.

“I didn’t even tell my wife. It had to be a big secret,” Hackett joked.

Hackett said he is proud Charleston was included in the relatively small number of sites for the R2-D2 collection boxes. About 50 were placed in Illinois.

The Postal Service has 280,000 collection boxes across the country. He said the presence of Eastern brought the “Star Wars” droid to Charleston.

“They went to colleges because (the Postal Service) thought college-age kids would enjoy the ‘Star Wars’ culture’,” Hackett said.

The postmaster said he recommended the skywalk as the location for Charleston’s R2-D2 because it is the most heavily used collection box on campus. He estimated it receives 250-300 pieces of mail during the average school day. He said this number could increase as people who want to see R2-D2 bring their mail with them.

Hackett said postal workers will be extra watchful of R2-D2 to ensure no one tries to take it for their personal “Star Wars” collection. He said tampering with mail and mail containers is a criminal offense.

The R2-D2 boxes feature the address of a Web site, www.uspsjedimaster.com, that gives clues about a promotion that will be offered by the Postal Service and Lucasfilm. More details about the promotion are set to be announced March 28. The Postal Service reported a customer vote on “Star Wars” stamps would be part of this promotion.

Report: Google mobile phone, software in the works

http://news3.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-03/19/content_5866807.htm

BEIJING, March 19 (Xinhuanet) -- The latest Wall Street rumor is Google is developing new software to run on Google mobile phones, along with integrated applications for accessing the search engine's Internet services.
A top Google executive in Europe confirmed the existence of a phone project this week, according to the Wall Street Journal. And Spanish site Noticias.com reported Google's chief for Spain and Portugal said her company has investigated developing a mobile phone.
But, so far, no official confirmation on either project.
"Mobile is an important area for Google and we remain focused on creating applications and establishing and growing partnerships with industry leaders to develop innovative services for users worldwide," said Google spokeswoman Erin Fors in a statement. "However, we have nothing further to announce."
The first whispers about a Google phone emerged in December 2006 when The Observer reported Google seems to be interested in developing a "branded Google phone." The Observer also reported Google has held talks with Orange about a multi-billion-dollar partnership to create a "Google phone" that makes a web search simple.
The article quoted a source close to the talks, saying: "Google are software experts and are doing some amazing work compressing data so that the mobile user gets a much better experience. They don't know so much about mobiles, but they are eager to learn from Orange's years of experience."
Google CEO Eric Schmidt told Reuters in November 2006, he thinks in the future mobile phones should be free for the consumers. Not for everyone, but for those who are willing to accept watching targeted forms of advertising. Speaking with Reuters, Schmidt said mobile phones are used eight to 10 hours a day for talking, texting or Web access.
"Your mobile phone should be free," Schmidt told Reuters. "It just makes sense that subsidies should increase" as advertising rises on mobile phones.
Eric Schmidt added also he believes mobile phones may never become totally free to the consumer. At the time, Eric Schmidt also said Google had no plans to directly give away phones itself.

Samsung Digital Picture Frames Get Wi-Fi

Samsung Digital Picture Frames Get Wi-Fi
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,129935-c,wirelesstechnologyservices/article.html

Sunday, March 18, 2007 07:00 PM PDT


Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. this week showed off a soon-to-be-released version of its digital photo frame with Wi-Fi and two larger versions that will hit markets later this year.
Samsung displayed unreleased 12-inch and 8-inch versions of the company's digital photo frames, alongside a 7-inch version of the frame that can connect with a PC over Wi-Fi. The displays were on display at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany.
The €229 (US$305) SPH-72P, which hits European markets in May, uses Wi-Fi to automatically discover and connect with PCs running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista operating system and can display photos stored in Windows Media Player 11.
Like the €179 SPH-72H model, which does not have Wi-Fi and will hit European markets at the same time, the SPH-72P has a four-in-one memory card reader and a USB port that can connect directly to a digital camera or portable hard disk.
Both picture frames have a 7-inch screen that offers a resolution of 800 pixels by 480 pixels, and they can play MP3 files and movie clips.
The SPH-72P can also display JPEG photos downloaded by RSS (Really Simple Syndication) from Web sites, such as Windows Live Spaces. But a Samsung sales executive manning the company's booth said photo frames sold in Europe may not initially support this feature.
Samsung plans to ship the 8-inch and 12-inch versions later this year, and they could be on the market during the third quarter, the sales executive said. Detailed specifications of the larger photo frames were not available.

Show goes on, partial solar eclipse today

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Delhi/Show_goes_on_partial_solar_eclipse_today/articleshow/1776264.cms(By. Lily)

NEW DELHI: March has proved to be a lucky month for sky gazers. A partial solar eclipse will take place on Monday, even as some you will be reading this article.
Delhiites will open their eyes to an already eclipsed rising sun on Monday morning. After the lunar eclipse on Holi on March 4, this is the second time this month that Delhiites will get to witness an eclipse.
According to astrologers, the eclipse falling under 'leo lagna' and 'poorvabhadrapath nakshtra' wouldn't affect individuals particularly but will operate at a macro level.
"It wouldn't affect individuals per se. However, offering prayers to personal deities and offering water to the sun after the eclipse is considered good,"said Naveen Khanna, an astrologer.
Though, ruling out affects on individuals, the astrologers however added that there might be some natural calamities in store due to the eclipse.
The phenomenon is expected to be good for Aries, Gemini, Libra, Scorpio and Pisces, according to some astrologers, while it may pose challenges for sunsigns like Capricorn, Taurus, Cancer and Virgo.
The sun would be seen in city sky around 6:27 am, by which time about 8.5% of the disc would have been eclipsed. "It is a partial solar eclipse. The peak of eclipse will be around 7:06 am, when 47.8% of sun's surface will be eclipsed by the moon,"said N Rathnasree, director, Nehru Planetarium.
The eclipse will be over by 8 am, so only early risers will have a chance to watch the sun being shadowed by the moon.
The eclipse would be seen all over India, though it would be more prominent in northern regions. In eastern parts however, the eclipse will occur after sunrise.
But here is a word of caution for the sky gazers. No matter how tempting the view, do not watch the celestial phenomenon with naked eyes.
"People think it is safe to view the eclipse with naked eyes during sunrise or while the sun is setting, but it is not. One should watch it using certified filters which are easily available in planetariums,"added Rathnasree.
One can also watch it through the LCD display of a digital camera. Public skywatch will also be organised at Teen Murti grounds, which will be equipped with projection apparatus and solar filters.

Immense ice deposits found at south pole of Mars

(By. Lily)

http://www.thanhniennews.com/worlds/?catid=9&newsid=26118
The topography of the south polar region of Mars A spacecraft orbiting Mars has scanned huge deposits of water ice at its south pole so plentiful they would blanket the planet in 36 feet of water if they were liquid, scientists said on Thursday. The scientists used a joint NASA-Italian Space Agency radar instrument on the European Space Agency Mars Express spacecraft to gauge the thickness and volume of ice deposits at the Martian south pole covering an area larger than Texas.
The deposits, up to 2.3 miles thick, are under a polar cap of white frozen carbon dioxide and water, and appear to be composed of at least 90 percent frozen water, with dust mixed in, according to findings published in the journal Science.
Scientists have known that water exists in frozen form at the Martian poles, but this research produced the most accurate measurements of just how much there is.
They are eager to learn about the history of water on Mars because water is fundamental to the question of whether the planet has ever harbored microbial or some other life. Liquid water is a necessity for life as we know it.
Characteristics like channels on the Martian surface strongly suggest the planet once was very wet, a contrast to its present arid, dusty condition.
Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who led the study, said the same techniques are being used to examine similar ice deposits at the Martian north pole.
Radar observations made in late 2005 and early 2006 provided the data on the south pole, and similar observations were taken of the north pole in the past several months, Plaut said.
Plaut, part of an international team of two dozen scientists, said a preliminary look at this data indicated the ice deposits in at the north pole are comparable to those at the south pole.
Search for life
"Life as we know it requires water and, in fact, at least transient liquid water for cells to survive and reproduce. So if we are expecting to find existing life on Mars we need to go to a location where water is available," Plaut said.
"So the polar regions are naturally a target because we certainly know that there's plenty of H2O there."
Some of the new information even hints at the possible existence of a thin layer of liquid water at the base of the deposits.
But while images taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft made public in December suggested the presence of a small amount of liquid water on the surface, researchers are baffled about the fate of most of the water. The polar deposits contain most of the known water on Mars.
Plaut said the amount of water in the Martian past may have been the equivalent of a global layer hundreds of meters deep, while the polar deposits represent a layer of perhaps tens of meters.
"We have this continuing question facing us in studies of Mars, which is: where did all the water go?" Plaut said.
"Even if you took the water in these two (polar) ice caps and added it all up, it's still not nearly enough to do all of the work that we've seen that the water has done across the surface of Mars in its history."
Plaut said it appears perhaps 10 percent of the water that once existed on Mars is now trapped in these polar deposits. Other water may exist below the planet's surface or perhaps some was lost into space through the atmosphere, Plaut said.

Battle of the game consoles

url: http://www.smh.com.au/news/games/battle-of-the-game-consoles/2007/03/18/1174152859094.html
Hyeon Chung

It's all-out war between Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's new PlayStation 3. Charles Purcell tackles the question from neutral territory.

One day your grandkids will ask: "What were you doing on March 23, 2007, Daddy?" And your answer might be: "Why, I was out buying a PlayStation 3 along with the rest of Australia, son."
Yes, it's that time again, when the entire country will grind to a halt to gaze in awe upon Sony's newest technological marvel. Despite fierce opposition from the Xbox and the GameCube, the PlayStation 2 proved it was king of the gaming jungle. But will the same be said of the PlayStation 3? Sony has already given its competitors precious months to secure market share after they released their respective consoles before Sony.
Nintendo has made a brave fist of it with the Wii, but the true battle of the consoles now is between Xbox and PlayStation. The question is: just how good is the PlayStation 3? And does it have the features and content to take down Bill Gates's pride and joy?
For this face-off, I am comparing the most powerful of the two systems - the $999, 60GB PlayStation 3 (the 20GB will not be available at launch) and the $649 Xbox 360 non-core version.

[The console]
Frankly, anything is an improvement on the black behemoth that was the first Xbox. The Xbox 360 is a smooth white device much more pleasing to the eye.
The PS3 is a sexier, more futuristic proposition, however. You might marry the 360 - and keep the PS3 as your mistress. As with Henry Ford's early Model T cars, you can have any colour in the launch PS3 as long as it's black. The PS3 has just one cord to plug into the power point, rather than the chunky brick attachment that comes with the 360.
The PS3 has a front-loading slot for discs as opposed to the 360's tray loader. It also has more ports than the 360 for items such as memory sticks and the PlayStation Portable. I was impressed by how quickly and easily you could transfer music and media from the PS3 to the PSP.

[Controllers]
The PS3 controllers are modelled on the previous generation. The Sixaxis wireless controllers use motion sensor technology as an added feature to the controls, something I observed while playing the downloadable games Flow and Super Rub'a'Dub. You move the whole controller rather than press any of the buttons to control the duck in Super Rub'a'Dub (but the shark still got my baby ducks - no-o-oo). The Sixaxis controller uses Bluetooth to talk to the PS3. You can use up to seven controllers at a time, against the 360's four. There is also a button in the centre of the controller that acts as a central hub and main menu button.

Force is with USPS as R2 puts stamp on mailboxes

David Hyun
http://news.bostonherald.com/national/view.bg?articleid=188816
WASHINGTON - Thirty years ago, in theaters near and far, far away, a movie opened the imaginations of millions, combining the magic of mythology and special effects to launch the “Star Wars” phenomenon.
A star of those films - the brave little robot R2-D2 - is about to take a turn collecting mail as the Postal Service and Lucasfilm Ltd. commemorate that movie launch.
The post office is wrapping mail collection boxes in some 200 cities nationwide in a special covering to look like R2-D2. It’s part of a promotion for a new stamp to be announced March 28, postal marketing chief Anita T. Bizzotto said.
“It’s a little teaser for the upcoming announcement and we decided to have a little fun with it,” she said. About 400 mailboxes will be covered to look like the stout droid. “When you look at a mailbox, the resemblance to R2-D2 is too good to pass up,” she said.
While postal officials would like people to look for these mailboxes, Bizzotto urged people not to tamper with them. That’s a crime.

Google Phone is in the works, say insiders

(by. Lily)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/18/AR2007031801143.html

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc. (GOOG.O) is developing its own mobile phone, according to industry insiders and analysts, while a Google official in Spain last week acknowledged the company is "investigating" such a project.
Google isn't commenting directly on leaks from Europe and the United States which describe a low-cost, Internet-connected phone with a color, wide-screen design. Newspaper and blog reports in recent months have Google shopping its phone design to potential mobile phone manufacturing partners in Asia.
"Mobile is an important area for Google," Google spokeswoman Erin Fors said on Friday. "We remain focused on creating applications and establishing and growing partnerships with industry leaders to develop innovative services for users worldwide. However, we have nothing further to announce."
Gadget enthusiasts who only two months ago were obsessed with the potential revolutionary impact on the phone industry of Apple Inc.'s (AAPL.O) iPhone device -- due out in June and at prices starting at $500 -- have shifted their attention to whether Google is developing an even lower-cost phone.
"We obviously need another mythical mobile to drool over and speculate about -- and the natural candidate is, of course, the so-called Google phone," geek hardware site Engadget wrote earlier this month http://tinyurl.com/3b7bow.
To be sure, feverish speculation about Google products has been wrong before. Google was widely reported to be building its own line of personal computers a little over a year ago. What in fact materialized was a set of free software programs designed to make any existing Windows PCs easier to use.
But Richard Windsor, a phone analyst with brokerage Nomura in London, told clients late last week that unspecified Google representatives at a major European conference in Germany had confirmed the company is working on its own phone device.
"Google has come out of the closet at the CeBIT trade fair admitting that it is working on a mobile phone of its own," Windsor said in a note entitled "Google Phone: From myth to reality."
"This is not going to be a high-end device but a mass market device aimed at bringing Google to users who don't have a PC," he said.
Over the past year, Google has branched out beyond computers to bring Web search, e-mail, mapping and other Web services to millions of new and existing phone browsers worldwide. Rivals Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O) and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO.O) also are racing to run Web services on mobile phones.
Polaris Venture Partners, said in a March 4 blog post http://tinyurl.com/2z23o7 that an "inside source close to the
The device Simeonov describes could handle voice over Internet phone-calling. He said it is being developed within a 100-person mobile phone group at Google that includes Andy Rubin, the creator of Sidekick, a popular phone/Internet device that he developed at a prior company he founded, Danger Inc.
Lending further clues, Isabel Aguilera, head of Google's Iberian operations, was quoted last week in Spanish news site Noticias.com as acknowledging the existence of a part-time project by some Google engineers to develop a mobile phone.
In her interview at http://tinyurl.com/2feypv/, translated
In January, Engadget circulated a photo purporting to be a prototype Internet phone with a wide, color screen designed by Google and built by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930.KS). This unconfirmed report replaced an earlier theory published by The Observer in December that Google was working with Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) (2498.TW) on a mobile phone.
A source at a rival Internet company who has talked to the same mobile phone manufacturers said on Friday that "Google is going to build their own phone, whether it is with HTC or Samsung or some other ODM (original device manufacturer)."
Windsor, the London-based Nomura analyst who tracks mobile phone handset makers like Nokia (NOK1V.HE) of Finland, argues that a Google Phone "will meet with limited success and lose money" because it lacks the necessary phone industry relationships to reach the massive scale needed to compete.

Three versions of Halo 3 coming

url : http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=74264

Hyeon Chung

Microsoft has confirmed that three editions of Halo 3 will be available when the game launches later this year.
First up is the plain old Standard Edition which is comprised of the standalone disc, plus a box and manual we'd wager.
Then there's the Legendary Edition which will be released "in limited quantities", according to a statement. It will come with a collectable Spartan helmet case, Halo 3 storyboard art and two bonus discs.
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The first disc will feature exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, including a Making of Halo 3 documentary, plus a look at early game concepts. It will also include an audio-visual calibration tool "never before seen on a videogame", which has been custom designed by the Halo 3 team and will allow you to enjoy high definition footage and optimised audio.
The second disc, which will only be available with the Legendary Edition, will include remastered cinematic material from Halo 2 and Halo: Combat Evovled, complete with developer commentaries.
You'll also get a featurette about a day in the life at Bungie, plus exclusive content from the Machinima artists who created Red vs. Blue and This Spartan Life.
The Limited Edition version of Halo 3 will come in a shiny metal case. Along with the first bonus disc from the Legendary Edition, you'll get a Halo fiction and art book which features a guide to the game's universe and previously unseen material.
Microsoft also confirmed that Halo 3 will arrive in shops this autumn, though they haven't said exactly when yet.

Missing Drivers And Security Holes: Growing Pains For Vista

David Hyun
http://www.playfuls.com/news_06594_Missing_Drivers_And_Security_Holes_Growing_Pains_For_Vista.html
A modern operating system like Windows Vista includes millions of lines of code. Thousands of workers toiled for years to develop Microsoft's newest product - which means all the more potential for bugs. Although Vista has already been on the market for a few weeks now, negative reports have actually been relatively mild. A few hiccups are clearly audible, however. "The biggest problem is missing drivers," says Axel Vahldiek from Hanover-based c't magazine. Without those programmes, generally provided by hardware makers, peripheral devices either cannot function properly or will not work at all. The problem isn't just limited to older or exotic hardware: the GeForce 8800 graphic chip supports the DirectX 10 graphics interface used by Vista and is found on fast, high-end graphics cards. Yet Nvidia still hadn't managed to make a driver available by the end of February. The website for the market leader in graphics chips has long offered a beta, or preliminary, version of the driver. Vahldiek warns against using such beta drivers, however: "They do not ever work error-free." Relying on them can lead to data loss, he says. Another problem with Vista is related to security: In the view of the German Federal Agency for Security in Information Technology (BSI) in Bonn, the current discussion surrounding Vista's account administration function, User Account Control (UAC), is particularly interesting, says Thomas Caspers, an expert on operating system security. The discussion was given a jolt by Polish security expert Joanna Rutkowska, who publicized a hole in the system. UAC is designed to require administrator access to install new software. That means increased security at first. Yet, according to Rutkowska it also means that games downloaded off the internet are also granted full rights. From a technical point of view, this is completely unnecessary. If malicious code is hidden in the game, then it has a clear path to the computer. Passwords are effective only for keeping curious lay users from accessing the computer. Little more than a bit of determination is needed to crack the access passwords on Windows Vista. Elcomsoft, a Russian firm, is for example offering software to perform just that job - ostensibly for users who have forgotten their password. Anyone in possession of a Vista version with the BitLocker encryption programme should use it. The software makes files encrypted with BitLocker unreadable even if an intruder gains access to the computer using the Elcomsoft programme. All in all, however, the problems with Vista more closely resemble "growing pains" than serious flaws. Vista does not assign standard rights to many antivirus programmes to access all folders, Vahldiek explains. Yet if a virus scanner cannot check through certain parts of the computer that might potentially contain bugs, it is not performing its duty. In such cases manual configuration is required. Still, no major problems have as yet turned up for Vista. Peter Knaak, computer expert for the German consumer testing organization Stiftung Warentest in Berlin presumes that some vulnerabilities will start showing up for Vista in the coming weeks and months. He therefore recommends waiting until Microsoft releases Service Pack 1 for Vista before making the switch. Service packs are a collection of updates to iron out a large group of individual problems. No date has been provided as yet for Service Pack 1, says Microsoft spokeswoman Irene Nadler. What is certain is that Microsoft will release security-related updates on a regular basis via the Update function built into Windows. INFO BOX: Vista's speech recognition as security hole Experts are reporting on a potential security hole in Windows Vista: its speech recognition system. It could be used to send commands to remote computers from over the internet - in theory, at least. According to Thomas Caspers from the German Federal Agency for Security in Information Technology (BSI) in Bonn, it remains unclear whether talking malware will end up being an amusing side note or, in certain scenarios, a genuine threat. The BSI suspects it will be the former, and is not yet recommending specific countermeasures.

Samsung Digital Picture Frames Get Wi-Fi

url: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,129935-c,wirelesstechnologyservices/article.html

Hyeon Chung

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. this week showed off a soon-to-be-released version of its digital photo frame with Wi-Fi and two larger versions that will hit markets later this year.
Samsung displayed unreleased 12-inch and 8-inch versions of the company's digital photo frames, alongside a 7-inch version of the frame that can connect with a PC over Wi-Fi. The displays were on display at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany.
The €229 (US$305) SPH-72P, which hits European markets in May, uses Wi-Fi to automatically discover and connect with PCs running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista operating system and can display photos stored in Windows Media Player 11.
Like the €179 SPH-72H model, which does not have Wi-Fi and will hit European markets at the same time, the SPH-72P has a four-in-one memory card reader and a USB port that can connect directly to a digital camera or portable hard disk.
Both picture frames have a 7-inch screen that offers a resolution of 800 pixels by 480 pixels, and they can play MP3 files and movie clips.
The SPH-72P can also display JPEG photos downloaded by RSS (Really Simple Syndication) from Web sites, such as Windows Live Spaces. But a Samsung sales executive manning the company's booth said photo frames sold in Europe may not initially support this feature.
Samsung plans to ship the 8-inch and 12-inch versions later this year, and they could be on the market during the third quarter, the sales executive said. Detailed specifications of the larger photo frames were not available.

What is "Naver"??

url: http://www.answers.com/naver (imformation from Wikipedia)

Hyeon Chung

Naver (Hangul:네이버) is the # 1 web portal in South Korea. Naver was launched in June 1999. Using its own proprietary search engine, Naver was the first portal to provide search service in Korea including integrated searches. It has since remained in the lead in the development of Korean search service. It also provides a wide range of Internet services including a news service with comprehensive coverage from more than 90 media sources, an e-mail service, and an academic thesis search service.

Definition of Naver is the word NAVigate+ER(e.g. engineER; writER).