Windows 7.0 with Touchscreen is coming in October 08

It’s time to put speculations at rest, software giant Microsoft has confirmed that its next operating system Windows 7, successor to Windows Vista, will be unveiled next month (28 October) at its Professional Developers Conference (PDC). Earlier this week, Microsoft technology evangelist Mike Swanson had posted that PDC 2008 attendees will receive USB 2.0 based 160GB external HD with Windows 7 pre-beta build. The company is also known to have added more than a dozen Windows 7-specific sessions to the PDC agenda. These include: New APIs to Find, Visualise and Organise; Integrate with the Windows 7 Desktop Taskbar and Best Practices for Developing for Windows Standard User. In May, Microsoft publicly demoed Windows 7 at a news conference. The high point of the new OS is its "multi-touch" interface. Other than, the touchy feely look, the demo also showed a user manipulating photos, browsing a map and playing an onscreen piano with simple one and two-finger taps and gestures. However, the company did not confirm when it plans to ship Beta 1 of Windows 7. Microsoft plans to unveil the final version of Windows 7 around January 2010.

You have any idea... Send it to Google & Win $10 Million

Google is offering $10 million as prize money in a competition aimed at transforming the world's best ideas into useful products. As part of the company's 10th anniversary celebrations, Project 10 to the 100th asks people to submit ideas in seven categories to the project. "Never in history have so many people had so much information, so many tools at their disposal, so many ways of making good ideas come to life," said an announcement Thursday on the website. "Yet at the same time, so many people, of all walks of life, could use so much help, in both little ways and big."
The competition is open to anyone. The seven categories include sustainable energy use, environment, health, education, shelter, encouraging communities, and building opportunities to help people better provide for themselves and their families. An eighth category is simply titled "everything else". Ideas can be submitted through a form available on the website, which poses questions including, "If your idea were to become a reality, who would benefit the most and how?" and "Describe the optimal outcome should your idea be selected and successfully implemented". A panel of independent judges will choose the best ideas and divide the prize money equally among the winners. The website says that Google is looking for simple ideas that will help large numbers of people, especially those with urgent needs. Among the products cited on the website is the Hippo Water Roller, a 90-liter container that holds water and can be easily rolled on the ground with a handle, taking some of the burden off people in areas where clean water is scarce, such as parts of Africa.

Internet IP Addresses To Run Out By 2010?!

When the first internet protocol structure was put in place in 1977 by Vince Cerf and his team, little did they know that 31 years later, the world would be on the verge of running out of free IP addresses.According to Cerf, out of the 4.2 billion possible addresses (that's 256 x 256 x 256 x 256), there are only around 600 million left and with the expected explosion in the number of mobile devices connected to the internet, the world could run out of free addresses as early as late 2009/early 2010.He told The Times that "This is like the internet running out of telephone numbers and with no new numbers, you can't have more subscribers".There's a new system, known as IPV6, already in place though which should provide 340 undecilion IP addresses - that's 340 followed by 36 zeros (ed: that should be enough for a foreseeable future).The lack of available IP addresses will mean that there will be no slots for new devices to connect unless the move to IPv6, which has been available for a decade, is accelerated.It will be interesting to see whether, a decade after the Millennium bug, the world will be gripped by another tech-related "bug".

Night Effect Mobile Phone: Samsung Armani M75500

Samsung and Armani have been working together for quite sometime. Previously, the giant brands have worked together on an LCD TV and a mobile phone. Now, the collaboration between luxury and technology has been extended from Giorgio to Emporio designs.
Samsung and Armani announced their latest joint venture, the M75500 mobile phone aka Night Effect.
The slim candy bar phone comes embedded with Emporio Armani’s name with blue, red and green illuminating light to lure everybody’s attention in the night, offering a ‘night effect’ as the name suggests. Furthermore, it also entrenches Armani’s logo.
In addition to the design and the look, the Night Effect handset features a 3.2 megapixel camera, a 2.2-inch reinforced glass AMOLED display, a dedicated music player that supports MP3 and WMA files with built-in FM Radio. It also inlcudes 120 MB of internal memory with a support for expandable microSD card slot.
Connectivity wise, the M75500 integrates a HSDPA, USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0. The quad-band GSM phone also bundles a 16-button keypad and an external speaker.
The Samsung Armani Night Effect phone is expected to hit the European market by November. There is no mention about the pricing yet.

Alltel Wireless announces MOTORAZR VE20 Mobile Phone

Alltel Wireless has announced the availability of Motorola’s latest mobile phone, dubbed MOTORAZR VE20.
The sleek flip handset from the iconic RAZR brand features a large external screen with touch-sensitive controls, Bluetooth function, 2 megapixel camera with video, MP3 player with 3.5mm headset jack capabilities, GPS capabilities and an expandable memory slot.
In addition, the clamshell handset also comes pre-loaded with Alltel functionalities such as Alltel Search, City ID, Alltel Navigation, and Aricent Celltop. For fun and entertainment, the MOTORAZR VE20 installs Music Connect function to allow users to effortlessly transfer music from a PC to the handset.
“The RAZR is one of the most popular wireless handsets of all time, and Alltel’s next generation RAZR, the VE20, will impress anyone seeking form, function and fun in their wireless device. This latest addition to our handset lineup continues our mission of providing our customers with the phones they want at prices that they can afford,” said Brian Ullem, vice president of device strategy at Alltel Wireless.
Weighing 3.17oz, it comes dressed in navy and licorice color shades. The mobile phone has the ability to offer up to 250 minutes of talk time and 360 hours of standby time.
Alltel has started accepting pre-orders for $99.99 (approx. Rs. 4,580) after a $50 mail-in-rebate. The MOTORAZR VE20 flip phone will be available through retail stores and at the Alltel website from September 25th.

China launched a three-man crew into space

China launched a three-man crew into space Thursday night, including one who will make the country's first spacewalk — its most challenging mission since its first orbital flight in 2003.
The Shenzhou 7 spacecraft, China's third manned mission, blasted off atop a Long March 2F rocket into a clear night sky in northwestern China.
Hours later, the spacecraft moved into a round orbit 213 miles above earth, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The three astronauts — who were reported in good physical condition, with body temperature and blood pressure normal early Friday — were scheduled to assemble and test their space suits later in the day ahead of the spacewalk, which Xinhua said will most likely happen on Saturday afternoon.
China Manned Space Engineering Office said earlier that the spacewalk could occur either Friday or Saturday, depending on how well the astronauts adapt to weightlessness and other physical demands of their environment.
Underscoring the mission's weighty political overtones, President Hu Jintao was shown live on state television before blastoff praising the crew at the launch site near the northwestern town of Jiuquan.
"You will definitely accomplish this glorious and sacred mission. The motherland and the people are looking forward to your triumphant return," Hu told the three, who were dressed in their flight suits and stood behind glass to avoid germs.
Following the announcement of a successful launch, Hu congratulated the crew and ground controllers, calling it the "first victory of the Shenzhou 7 mission."
The launch was carried live on state television in a display of China's growing confidence in the 16-year manned space program. Shortly before the transmission ended, one of the crew reported in that all were in good condition and had extended the three-module spacecraft's solar panels.
Friday's maneuver to a round orbit was necessary to ensure smooth operation of the ship and a precise landing when its re-entry vehicle bursts through the earth's atmosphere to settle on the steppe in Inner Mongolia, Xinhua said.
It came at 4:03 a.m. when the astronauts executed a 64-second burn to shift the spaceship from an oval-shaped orbit in which its distance from earth varied into a round one in which the distance was constant, Xinhua reported.
The mission, expected to last three to four days, is devoted almost entirely to the spacewalk. The event is expected to help China master the technology for docking two orbiters to create China's first space station in the next few years.
The two astronauts who don spacesuits for the Shenzhou 7 spacewalk will be supported by Russian experts throughout the mission. Only one will actually leave the orbiter to retrieve scientific experiments placed outside. One of the astronauts will wear China's homemade Feitian suit, while the other will wear a Russian-made suit.
Zhai Zhigang, an unsuccessful candidate for two earlier missions, has been touted by Xinhua as the leading astronaut to carry out the spacewalk, expected to last about 40 minutes. He is joined in the craft by Jing Haipeng and Liu Boming. All are 42-year-old fighter pilots with more than 1,000 hours of flying time.
China's last manned mission was in 2005, two years after the country first put a man into orbit. Dean Cheng, an expert on the Chinese space program, said the additional year China took in launching Shenzhou 7 may reflect a desire for caution in the face of the complexity of walking in space.
"This is part of a sustained, methodical effort," said Cheng, of the Center for Naval Analyses Corp. in Alexandria, Va.

Wireless printers have arrived

As Internet access increasingly goes wireless — thanks to home, office and public WiFi hotspots — PCs are freeing themselves from Internet access cables. It was inevitable that the printer, too, should unshackle itself from the mess of wires.
Last week’s annual regional tech showcase of printer leader Hewlett Packard underlined the trend: At least half the consumer printers due for launch in India in the coming months will have wireless connectivity, through a built-in 802.11 link, otherwise known as WiFi.
As almost all laptops now sold come, by default, with the same feature, it will be easy to send files and pages from laptop to printer. “Wireless-enabled printers will be the rule rather than the exception,” Mr Chris Morgan, HP’s Vice- President for the Imaging and Printing group in Asia-Pacific and Japan, says. India launch
Wireless-enabled HP printers, whose launch in India is imminent, include the Photosmart C4580, C6388 and C5380 — all multifunction print-scan-copy inkjets. In addition to WiFi capability, they have an optional Bluetooth link which enables quick transfer of pages or pictures from mobile phones or digital cameras, over a few metres. The machines are internationally priced at $139, $149 and $199 respectively. Even the cheapest of these can print 30 pages a minute in monochrome and 23 pages in colour. The HP trend means wireless is coming to the budget end of printing, and not just to the pricier offerings. Indeed, wireless will first be common in the consumer end of the printing spectrum — and not at the enterprise end, Mr Morgan says.For legacy printers
For those who have legacy, non-wireless printers of any make, wireless kits (mostly Bluetooth) are available; so the old printers can print wirelessly by simply plugging in the USB device. This costs about $50 equivalent.
For home users who increasingly have at least one desktop in the family as well as a laptop for professional uses, wireless-enabled printers allow greater use of a WiFi home network. As home WiFi routers now cost less than Rs 2,500, many domestic as well as small-office users have already installed one to better utilise their wired broadband connection.
A wireless printer for such home or corporate users is just the last piece to be slotted into their wireless Web world.

Big Bang Experiement Shuts Down For Two Months because of Helium Leak

After last week’s transformer failure, a new hardware malfunction has stopped the LHC dead in its tracks. This time, the electrical link between two of the particle accelerator’s massive 30-ton superconducting magnets has failed, causing a magnet quench event. Due to having to warm up the section of the tunnel containing the magnet in order to conduct repairs, and then cool it back down to its -271°C operating temperature, these repairs will take at least two months.
Technical setbacks have plagued the Large Hadron Collider ever since it was started on September the 10th, including a transformer failure which shut down its cooling plant, which was only repaired on Thursday. Immediately afterwards, on Friday, during a test, one of the bus bar connections which linked cables between the magnets failed, and melted thus causing roughly a ton of liquid helium to leak into one of the tunnel sections. The fire brigade had to be called to handle the situation. "It seems to be a badly made connection – but this all has to be confirmed once we have had the chance to take a look at it," said James Gillies, director of communications at CERN.
The rather large dipole magnets that are used to steer protons around the Large Hadron Collider’s circular tract, are superconductive. What this means is that scientists have taken advantage of a property of matter by which its electrical resistance is lowered to naught when cooled very close to absolute zero. This allows much more current to be passed through the magnets, giving them much more force in steering the supercharged particles, which can run at up to 7 terra-electron-volts.
Non-superconductive magnets simply would not be strong enough to handle the proton beams, which would steer off-track, hitting the collider pipe walls. These particles, at such energy levels, can melt through several feet of steel in nanoseconds, so you don’t want those out of control.
Getting the magnets to and out of such low temperatures however – colder than outer space – takes a while however, and were it not required to use superconducting magnets, the repairs would only take a few days. This way, it will at least take two months, dangerously narrowing the window of opportunity in which to conduct the collision tests. This is because the LHC facility shuts down during the winter to save on energy costs. If they don’t get the problem fixed by then, there won’t be any collision until 2009.
CERN physicists are not very worried though, and are calling this an expected setback as the LHC, which is arguably the most complex machine ever built, has been in construction for 20 years and has so far cost more than $8 billion, and such hitches have been very probable since the beginning.
"If you keep an eye on the big picture, we've been building the machine for 20 years. The switch-on was always going to be a long process," said Gillies, who went on to say that "A year or two down the line, this moment will be a distant memory, and we'll be running smoothly."
The LHC’s Gala Inauguration party, set for October 21, will still take place, according to Dr. Gillies.

With Google Phone, HTC Comes Out of the Shadows

When executives from Google and T-Mobile converge on a stage in New York Tuesday to unveil the first mobile phone powered by Google’s software, the event will be a coming-out party of sorts for another, far more obscure, but no less ambitious company — HTC.
The Taiwanese electronics manufacturer was chosen by Google more than two years ago to build the first mobile phone based on its “Android” software in large part because of its proven ability to design and build head-turning mobile devices.
For HTC, it amounted to another victory in its efforts to do battle for the high end of the phone market with the likes of the iPhone maker Apple, BlackBerry’s maker Research in Motion and others.
“I think we are ready,” Cher Wang, a Taiwanese plastics mogul’s daughter who helped found the company in 1997 and serves as its chairwoman. “We have a strong customer base of people who want our devices.”
A lot of Americans already use HTC phones — they just do not know it.
HTC accounted for about one in six smartphones in the United States in the first half of this year, but the overwhelming majority of them do not carry the HTC brand, according to Nielsen Mobile.
For much of the past decade, the company operated in relative obscurity as a contract manufacturer for companies like Compaq, Palm and many cellphone carriers, who stamped their own brands on the products.
About two years ago, HTC decided to come out of the shadows with an ambitious goal: establish a global consumer electronics brand that its executives hope will become synonymous with quality.
“We are far from being there,” said John Wang, HTC’s chief marketing officer. But Mr. Wang said that the company is off to a good start. The company sold two million units of the HTC Touch, introduced last year, and in just three months, one million of the follow-on Touch Diamond, a slick and slim device that reviewers have compared with the iPhone.
The Google-powered phone will be the next step in HTC’s road to global recognition, he said. (Over all, HTC’s revenue, which it reports in Taiwanese dollars, was about $1 billion in the most recent quarter, a 29 percent jump from a year earlier.)
The Google phone, which has been called the HTC Dream and the T-Mobile G1, has a touch screen that slides out to expose a five-row keyboard. It offers easy access to Google’s services and to a range of third-party applications.
Many analysts and industry insiders say HTC has turned them into believers. “HTC has been pushing the innovation envelope for quite a long time,” said Jeffrey K. Belk, a former senior vice president for strategy at the cellphone chip maker Qualcomm. “It is only now that people are starting to get know to them better.”
Still, analysts say that HTC faces long odds in its quest to become a global consumer electronics powerhouse. It is competing against much larger rivals in a market where few niche players have been able to establish themselves.
The company began running ads in the United States this year, but a global marketing campaign could be expensive. And unlike some of its most successful competitors, like Apple and Research in Motion, HTC does not control the software that powers its phones.
“HTC is trying to compete on better hardware in a point in time when more and more of the differentiation of phones is going to be in the software,” said James Faucette, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities.
Much of HTC’s success to date has been tied to that of a software company, Microsoft. The Windows Mobile operating system powers 12 percent of smartphones sold worldwide and 20 percent of smartphones sold in the United States. HTC accounts for roughly half of those devices.
The roots of the collaboration between the two dates back to the late 1990s, when HTC began making Windows-based personal digital assistants, including the first color model in 1999 and the first wireless model in 2002. The same year, HTC built the first Windows-based smartphone, the Orange SPV, which was sold in Europe.
“When we decided to get into the phone business in the early 2000s, they were the natural choice,” said Scott Horn, general manager of the mobile communications business at Microsoft.
Ms. Wang, the chairwoman, said she got the idea for what would become HTC in the early 1980s, while working for First International Computer, an electronics equipment maker. As part of her job, she was forced to haul cases packed with computer parts she was hoping to sell.
“I remember I was in France, early in the morning, and I was dragging these computer cases up and down all these stairs, waiting for a taxi,” she said. She began to ponder what it would be like if the devices could be smaller and not so heavy to carry around, she said.
Her father is Wang Yung-ching, a plastics and petrochemicals tycoon who was ranked second on Forbes’s list of the richest people in Taiwan. Ms. Wang attended high school in Oakland, Calif., in the mid-1970s and attended the University of California, Berkeley, as a music major. She quickly changed to economics and graduated in 1981 with a master’s degree.One of the co-founders, Peter Chou, who is HTC’s chief executive, also spent several years in the United States working for the Digital Equipment Corporation, a computer industry powerhouse in the 1980s and 1990s.
Along with other HTC executives there, they have sought to infuse the company with the style and culture of many Silicon Valley pioneers.
For example, three years ago HTC created Magic Labs, a group that in addition to about 50 software, hardware and mechanical engineers and industrial designers, includes a writer and a jewelry designer. They all help brainstorm ideas and design new products. Many have titles like software magician and mechanical wizard. The marketing chief John Wang’s business card reads “Chief Innovation Wizard.”
One of the group’s mandates is to generate ideas at a torrid pace with the understanding that most of them will never turn into products. “We have an organization that is designed to fail,” said Mr. Wang, who helped start Magic Labs. “It takes close to 1,000 ideas to turn up a few projects that are worth running.”
One idea that the company considered worthy was TouchFLO, the iPhone-like touch screen technology that powers the Touch line of HTC products.
During the development of the Android phone, HTC shipped about 30 engineers to work at the “Googleplex” in Mountain View, Calif. “It was quite amazing how similar the culture was to Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial style,” said Andy Rubin, senior director of mobile platforms at Google. “It was clear that these guys were entrepreneurs. They get moving really really fast.”

Taking India to the Moon

If everything goes as planned, any of the days starting October 19th to 28th would be remembered as a red-letter day for us Indians. Our very first, homespun lunar probe, Chandrayaan is all set to make its first voyage to our nearest celestial body -- the Moon on these tentative dates -- depending on the weather conditions then. If the weather plays spoil sport, the mission will need to be postponed to December. In any case, a successful mission will no doubt put India in the elite club of counties who have been able to send missions to moon. Chandrayaan is still undergoing tests and is yet to clear the vibration and acoustic tests, which it would be subjected to later this week. These tests will simulate the conditions that the probe will need to bear at the tine of launch. These include high-temperatures, vibrations during take off and not to mention, the tremendous noise that is expected of a typical rocket launch.

Chandrayaan will carry as many as 11 payloads -- five from India, three from the European Space Agency (ESA), one from the Bulgarian Space Agency (BSA) and two from NASA, making it a truly global initiative. The two-year mission will be invaluable as the Chandrayaan is programmed to orbit the Lunar surface and digitally map it. It will also send information on the traces of the composition of the lunar surface apart from looking for atomic minerals such as thorium and uranium. The probe is also equipped with high-resolution cameras which could help shed some light on the existence of water on the moon. A modified (rather upgraded) PSLV launch vehicle will be used to transport the probe to the lunar orbit. Due to the modifications, the PSLV C-11 will have a lift-off weight of 316 tonnes, which is much higher than the "standard" 294-ton version. Additionally, the payload capacity too has been increased from 1600 kg to 1800 kg. The PSLV has been the most successful launch vehicle for ISRO till date. It also holds the record for sending as many as 10 satellites simultaneously during its last mission. This time round, it is all set to break its own record by carrying 11 different payloads. Undoubtedly, the Indian space program has come a long way since its initial stages when the first rocket transporter happened to be a bicycle, which carried the 9 kilo rocket to the "launch pad"! That was back in 1963 when visionaries like Vikram Sarabhai and APJ Abdul Kalam laid the foundation of what has become one of the greatest success stories of India.

A Small Tip Helps Big

Can’t you play a CD or DVD to watch a movie and to listen to your favorite music album.Here is the way to clean scratches of useless CD or DVD and get them back to working condition by simple home remedy
To clean them you just need a banana, banana peel and some glass cleaner. Take CD / DVD that has scratches,apply a fresh banana piece on it in circular motion.
Then Wipe it down with a banana peel because the wax of peel will help polish andclean the disk.
Next, using cotton cloth, wipe the entire surface of disk moving in a circular motion and be sure to apply moderate pressure. This should be done for around 3 to 4minutes.
Finally, spray the disc with glass cleaner and wipe it clean. It’s done!!
Now your disc sparkles like a new one and you can enjoy by playing your music andmovies.

Microsoft's Zune Slowly Catching Up to Apple iPod

The Zune has a long way to go to become a threat to the iPod. But it is getting closer.
With updated Zunes and new iPods hitting the market in the past week, I spent some time with each: a black-on-black version of Microsoft Corp.'s music and video player and a bright red model of Apple Inc.'s iPod Nano.
It became clear that there are a few things Apple can learn from the Zune — though not surprisingly, Microsoft might want to take some notes as well.
The Nano ($149-$199) remains the more attractive of the two. Its new look is sort of growth-spurt chic, combining the long, lean looks of earlier models with a reoriented 2-inch screen that debuted with the shorter, wider third-generation model.
In addition, its sides are rounded, which gives it an oval-esque shape that felt awkward cradled in my hand but was easy to slip into a back pocket.
The new Nano comes in an array of bright colors, and this alone may appeal to buyers who want something that stands out from the crowd.

The latest flash memory-based Zune ($150-$200) comes with some new color options, but they're not nearly as loud, and overall the device is identical to the one Microsoft rolled out in October.
At 3.6 inches tall and one-third of an inch thick, it is the same height as the new Nano but noticeably bulkier.
Looks aside, the biggest differences are in the players' new features, which include wireless music downloads and streaming on the Zune and an accelerometer that makes it easier to manipulate song-shuffling, gaming and image viewing on the Nano.
Unlike the iPod family, Zunes have always included a wireless feature, but it was limited to sharing songs with other Zune users (who can be hard to find) and to synchronizing music, videos and photos with personal computers.
On the most recent Zune, this has been expanded so that when users are in Wi-Fi hotspots they can access the Zune Marketplace online music store straight from the device.
The ability to download songs over the air is not unique — the Nano's big brother, the iPod Touch, can snag songs from Apple's iTunes Store via built-in Wi-Fi — but it certainly gives the smaller Zunes an edge over the wireless-lacking Nano, and a free update makes it work on older Zunes, too.
I found the Zune's Marketplace feature easy and definitely satisfying, especially since I tend to think of music I want while I'm listening to tunes.
The feature lets you search by lists of top songs, or by sluggishly tapping in artist names; most users will probably find the former simpler, but I did appreciate the option of the latter.
Another neat Wi-Fi feature on the Zune is the ability to download songs you hear over the built-in FM radio. This was simple, and only required a few clicks from start to finish. If you don't have Wi-Fi access, you can still choose songs and they will queue up so you can download them the next time you connect to your computer.
Users who pay $15 per month for Microsoft's all-you-can-eat Zune Pass music subscription can also stream songs over Wi-Fi, and I found songs came in pretty clearly.
The new Nano, meanwhile, does have a few tricks up its chrome sleeves. Apple added an accelerometer, which it had previously included in the iPod Touch and iPhone.
The accelerometer lets you do things like turn the Nano sideways while listening to music to scroll through album covers. That had its own menu tab on the previous Nano. You can also give the Nano a shake to shuffle it to another song.
I thought the shaking-shuffle feature was kind of annoying. With the slipperiness of the Nano's curved sides I worried I would throw the little guy onto some subway tracks or a busy street while commuting.
But the accelerometer can make games cooler. Apple included a simple game called "Maze" to give users an idea of how this works, and I was surprised at the responsiveness of a little, silver on-screen ball as I tilted and maneuvered the Nano. This was one trick I wished the Zune could learn.
You can also view photos either in portrait or landscape mode on the Nano; the Zune only shows photos in landscape mode, and both devices limit video playback to landscape mode, too.
Another highlight of the Nano's makeover is the new "Genius" feature, which is meant to help you put playlists together by taking one song as a starting point and suggesting other tracks with a similar sound or feel.
If you try this from a computer while using the iTunes software, a Genius sidebar shows related songs you can buy from the online iTunes Store.
This gave me some interesting suggestions, like Fujiya & Miyagi's light electro-groove tune "Cassettesingle" when I used The Bird and the Bee's dreamy-sounding pop song "Because" as a starting point.
But it seemed a bit off-base by suggesting Jason Mraz's cheerful "I'm Yours" when I started with Rihanna's dark-sounding "Disturbia."
The Zune's latest software includes a similar feature called Mixview that uses thumbnails of album art and artist photos to illustrate users' listening patterns and give music suggestions.
Visually, Mixview is miles above the Genius feature, as the images show up in a circular pattern around a rectangle containing a user's profile information.
I liked being able to click on each thumbnail to find related albums, artists who may have influenced the music I'm checking out, or profiles of other Zune users who listen to that music.
Beyond these features, there are plenty of similar specs on the two players. Both sound good, power up fully in about three hours and are rated for up to 24 hours of audio or four hours of video playback per charge.
Their screens appeared similarly bright, and a photo of my brother's bandana-clad dog looked equally crisp (and cute) on the Zune and Nano.
Videos looked very good on both, but the Nano is easier for watching because it has a larger viewing area — 2 inches on the diagonal, compared to 1.8 inches on the Zune.
Both are solid multimedia players, though. And while Apple may be at the front of the pack right now, clearly Microsoft is making strides — and maybe making consumers think twice before running out to buy a new iPod.

Large Hadron Collider Shuts Down!

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), after a launch that made us all heave a sigh of relief, is now offline, thanks to a failed magnet. The failure--called a quench--took down around 100 of the LHC's superconductor magnets, raising their temperatures by about 100 degrees C. Don't get startled by that number--the magnets are supposed to be kept at 1.9 degrees above absolute zero, so they were still at less than -70 degrees when this happened. So while there were no fires, about a tonne of liquid helium leaked into the tunnel, rendering it useless. For now. This isn't the first problem to beset the world's biggest atom smasher--just a few hours after the first test last week, one of the LHC's transformers went pfft, though the operator didn't report it till recently.
The scientists (and common sense) tell us not to be too worried the largest machine ever built by man is bound to have a few problems, and it would have been more surprising if everything was hunky dory. If you're worried about the consequences of October's impending particle collision, you can perhaps take some joy in this delay. For the rest of us, we'll just get on with our lives.

Large Hadron Collider set to resume collisions after power glitches

The giant, atom-smashing Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is set to resume its work after a number of cooling system glitches blamed on a power failure.
When fully operational, the massive $10 billion USD machine, operated by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (known by its French acronym CERN), will attempt to recreate the conditions around one trillionth of a second after the Big Bang.
The first beam of photons was sent around the machine's 27 kilometre circuit last week in a successful first stage test, however power was lost for a short time later, causing the vital cooling system to go down.
However, CERN scientists are confident the problem has now been fixed and are ready to resume circulating photons around the complex. Beams will be fired in the opposite direction next week, and "low-intensity" collisions will be smashed together inside the LHC's four detectors.
The Times newspaper reports that, while the energy achieved will be a mere six percent of the collider's capability, it could be a vital step forward for the experiment. The collisions will allow monitoring scientists to test the detectors ahead of atom smashing at 70 percent capability, which is due to begin next month.
The head of cryogenics at CERN, Laurent Tavian, told the newspaper that the cooling problems have been ironed out and the groundbreaking experiment is ready to resume.
“The plan is now to capture the second beam, and once both beams are ready and captured we can start to do collisions,” said Dr. Tavian. “We should now be able to capture the second beam at the end of this week, so we have two beams circulating at the same time. If all goes well, then next week we could have the first collisions in the machine.”
As well as giving scientists a greater insight into the conditions experienced at the beginnings of our universe, physicists hope to uncover evidence of the elusive Higgs boson, the theoretical so-called "God particle".
For a range of images, diagrams and video clips relating to the Large Hadron Collider experiment, click here for The Tech Herald's specific coverage.

ultra sleek and palm-sized keyboard from Logitech

Logitech has finally announced the availability of the ultra sleek and palm-sized diNoVo Mini keyboard in the Indian market.
Combined with media remote and ClickPad functionality, the stylish miniature keyboard is a perfect peripheral for people who wish connect their PC to their TV. Users can easily take advantage of the round-shaped ClickPad to scroll, click and operate the computer without the need to of a mouse.
Based on Bluetooth 2.0 wireless technology, the diNoVo Mini assures easy navigation while sitting at a distance of up to 30 feet from a screen. Dedicated hotkeys are also included onto the diminutive keyboard to access media players and Windows Media Center along with an array of media controls.
“The Logitech diNoVo mini keyboard extends Logitech’s tradition of developing innovative products to meet the changing times,” mentioned Subrotah Biswas, Country Manager, India & SAARC, Logitech. He added, “Today, more and more people are hooking up their PCs to their TVs. The sleek, minimalist design and thoughtful function make the diNoVo Mini keyboard the perfect complement to the living-room or home-theater PC.”
Apart from the above mentioned buttons, Logitech has also added a keypad, internet browsers, prominent Page Up and Page Down buttons and even buttons to zoom in and out of the documents and images. The Page Up and Page Down buttons also support the command to quickly change channels while watching Internet-based television.
The compact diNoVo Mini keyboard features two backlight modes. On accessing in touch-pad mode, the ClickPad’s backlight turns orange. And once switched to media-remote mode, the ClickPad’s directional buttons are backlighted in green.
Now, it is easy to type IM messages, enter URLs and search-text queries and carry forward various other operations by just resting on your couch with this sleek sliver-and-black profiled diNoVo Mini keyboard!
Working on rechargeable Li-ion batteries, the portable and mobile keyboard ensures up to one month of battery life between charges.
Logitech diNoVo Mini is priced at Rs. 9,495 and is currently available at all leading electronic stores and through Rashi Peripherals in India.

Antarctica to have biggest ozone hole in ``one or two weeks''

A new Canadian study says that cosmic rays, not chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), are the main cause of the depletion of the ozone layer in the earth's atmosphere. The study also predicts that the largest ozone hole - larger than the size of the US and Canada combined - will occur over Antarctica in ``one or two weeks.''
The ozone layer in the earth's atmosphere absorbs the sun's high-frequency ultraviolet rays which are deadly for life on earth and cause diseases such as skin cancer and cataracts.

Qing-Bin Lu, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Waterloo and a specialist in the study of ozone depletion, said on Tuesday that his study belies the two-decade-old theory that the earth's ozone layer is depleted by chlorine atoms produced by sunlight-induced destruction of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the atmosphere.
On the contrary, he said, more and more evidence points to a new theory that the cosmic rays - energy particles that originate in space - play a major role in the destruction of the ozone layer. Lu said data from several sources, including satellites of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), confirmed a strong link between cosmic ray intensity and ozone depletion.

He said laboratory measurements also demonstrated a mechanism by which cosmic rays cause drastic reactions of ozone-depleting chlorine inside clouds over the South Pole (Antarctica).
Satellite data from 1980 to 2007, covering two full 11-year solar cycles, also demonstrated a significant link between cosmic rays and ozone depletion, he said.
``This finding, combined with laboratory measurements, provides strong evidence of the role of cosmic-ray driven reactions in causing the ozone hole and resolves the mystery why a large discrepancy between the sunlight-related photochemical model and the observed ozone depletion exists,'' said Lu.
Recent experiments by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme, which use photochemical models, predict the earth's ozone hole will increase by one to 2.5 per cent and the Antarctic springtime ozone hole by five to 10 per cent between 2000 and 2020.
In sharp contrast, Lu said, his study predicted the severest ozone loss — resulting in the largest ozone hole — over the South Pole (Antarctica) this month.
He also predicted another large ozone hole around 2019.

Upside down rainbow

This is no camera trickery. It really is an upside down 'rainbow'.

It was photographed in Cambridge by astronomer Dr Jaqueline Mitton who says she has never seen anything like it before.
Scientists call the optical phenomenon a circumzenithal arc.
Oddly, they don't need rain and cloud to form like conventional rainbows - they happen only when skies are blue and when ice crystals are present.
The arc appears when a low sun shines at a certain angle through a thin veil of cirrus clouds at between 20,000 and 25,000 feet.
It takes the shape of a quarter of a circle parallel to the horizon.
Dr Mitton said: "The conditions have to be just right: you need the right sort of ice crystals and the sky has to be clear. It's quite surprising for this to occur somewhere like Cambridge, usually it's in places that are colder."
The colours of a circumzenithal arc are reversed from those of a rainbow; the red range being closest to Earth.
In most cases, an arc will last at least half an hour. They are most common in colder climates, where ice crystals tend to collect in the sky with abundance.
It is also possible to see one from the inside of an aeroplane.

Next Generation iPods Arrive

Apple unveiled their next generation iPods in India. Though the iPod Shuffle and Classic look pretty much the same, the Nano has undergone some noticeable changes.

Apple unveiled their next generation iPods in India. Though the iPod Shuffle and Classic look pretty much the same, the Nano has undergone some noticeable changes starting with its form factor. To put it in their words:
The fourth generation iPod Nano is the thinnest iPod ever featuring a sleek new design with a curved aluminum and glass enclosure, in nine vibrant colors. The new iPod Nano incorporates Apple's breakthrough Genius technology which automatically creates playlists from songs in your music library that go great together, with just one click. The new iPod nano also features a refined user interface, a high resolution portrait display and a built-in accelerometer which automatically switches to Cover Flow when rotated and automatically goes into Shuffle mode when lightly shaken. The new iPod nano gives users up to 24 hours of music playback or four hours of video playback and is available in an 8GB model for Rs.9,700 and a 16GB model for just Rs.12,500. Both models come in silver, purple, blue, green, orange, yellow, pink, and black. Though I did manage to fiddle around with it for a couple of minutes, I will reserve my judgment till we put it through the grind. But it does look neat. The broad (fat) design has paved way for an elongated form factor. But the 2-inch screen remains and and is now placed vertically. Thanks to accelerometer, screen-alignment is not an issue at all. Though the new design is slimmer (by half a millimeter) and curvy, it does have a few sharp edges at the top and bottom.
The iPod touch also received a minor face-lift (actually the back has been made curvy; the face remains the same). This is what they have to say about it: Apple introduced the second generation iPod touch featuring an amazingly thin contoured metal design, a gorgeous 3.5-inch widescreen glass display, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi wireless networking, integrated volume control buttons, a built-in speaker for casual listening, a built-in accelerometer and other advanced sensors, and Apple's revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface. iPod touch, now available for just Rs.15,100 for the 8GB model, is perfect for playing music, movies and games. Once again, watch out for our review to know what we think about Apple's "Funnest iPod ever" (the first time I came across that word in their presentation, I misread it as Funniest and wondered why).

NASA's Phoenix Lander Sees, Feels Martian Whirlwinds In Action

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has photographed several dust devils dancing across the arctic plain this week and sensed a dip in air pressure as one passed near the lander.

These dust-lofting whirlwinds had been expected in the area, but none had been detected in earlier Phoenix images.
The Surface Stereo Imager camera on Phoenix took 29 images of the western and southwestern horizon on Sept. 8, during mid-day hours of the lander's 104th Martian day. The next day, after the images had been transmitted to Earth, the Phoenix science team noticed a dust devil right away.
"It was a surprise to have a dust devil so visible that it stood with just the normal processing we do," said Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, College Station, lead scientist for the stereo camera. "Once we saw a couple that way, we did some additional processing and found there are dust devils in 12 of the images."
At least six different dust devils appear in the images, some of them in more than one image. They range in diameter from about 2 meters (7 feet) to about 5 meters (16 feet).
"It will be very interesting to watch over the next days and weeks to see if there are lots of dust devils or if this was an isolated event," Lemmon said.
The Phoenix team is not worried about any damage to the spacecraft from these swirling winds. "With the thin atmosphere on Mars, the wind loads we might experience from dust devil winds are well within the design of the vehicle," said Ed Sedivy, Phoenix program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Denver, which made the spacecraft. "The lander is very rigid with the exception of the solar arrays, which once deployed, latched into position and became a tension structure."
Phoenix monitors air pressure every day, and on the same day the camera saw dust devils, the pressure meter recorded a sharper dip than ever before. The change was still less than the daily change in air pressure from daytime to nighttime, but over a much shorter time.
"Throughout the mission, we have been detecting vortex structures that lower the pressure for 20 to 30 seconds during the middle part of the day," said Peter Taylor of York University, Toronto, Canada, a member of the Phoenix science team. "In the last few weeks, we've seen the intensity increasing, and now these vortices appear to have become strong enough to pick up dust."
A key factor in the whirlwinds getting stronger is an increase in the difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures. Daytime highs at the Phoenix site are still about minus 30 Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit), but nighttime lows have been dropping a few degrees, getting close to minus 90 Celsius (minus 130 Fahrenheit).
The same day as the dust devils were seen, the photographed swinging of Phoenix's telltale wind gauge indicated wind speeds exceeding 5 meters per second (11 miles per hour).
Images from spacecraft orbiting Mars had previously indicated that dust devils exist in the region where Phoenix landed.
"We expected dust devils, but we are not sure how frequently," said Phoenix Project Scientist Leslie Tamppari of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "It could be they are rare and Phoenix got lucky. We'll keep looking for dust devils at the Phoenix site to see if they are common or not."
The dust devils that Phoenix has observed so far are much smaller than dust devils that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has photographed much closer to the equator.
The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith at the University of Arizona with project management at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and development partnership at Lockheed Martin in Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus in Denmark; the Max Planck Institute in Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

NASA'S closes Johnson Space Center for Ike

The U.S. space agency closed the Johnson Space Center at noon Thursday because of the threat posed by Hurricane Ike, which is expected to cross into Texas.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the International Space Station Flight Control Room at Mission Control in Houston was shut down Thursday morning, with flight control continuing through backup teams near Austin, Texas, and Huntsville, Ala.
In addition, officials said most NASA aircraft at Ellington Field, located just north of Johnson, were flown to a facility in El Paso (NYSE:EP), Texas. That included three of four shuttle training aircraft. Nine other aircraft undergoing maintenance were secured in hangars at Ellington.
NASA said the space center will remain closed until the threat posed by the hurricane has passed.

New method makes more efficient solar cell

U.S. scientists say they have devised a method of slicing wafers of germanium for use in more efficient types of solar power cells.
University of Utah researcher Dinesh Rakwal and Assistant Professor Eberhard Bamberg say their new method should lower the cost of such cells by reducing the waste and breakage of the brittle semiconductor.
Inexpensive solar cells are used mainly on spacecraft. But the researchers said they believe their improved wafer-slicing method will allow the use of germanium-based, high-efficiency solar cells in areas where cost is a hampering factor, said Bamberg.
Rakwal, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering, added, "We're coming up with a more efficient way of making germanium wafers for solar cells to reduce the cost and weight of these solar cells and make them defect-free."
The study is to be published online in the Journal of Materials Processing Technology later this month or early October and will appear in the journal's print edition next year.

Google to Release Android "Dream" Phone

T-Mobile USA plans to begin selling the first smart phone powered by Google Inc.'s new mobile software late next month, according to people familiar with the matter, facing off against Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry with a device that blends aspects of both.
While some wireless companies working with Google's Android mobile software have hit delays, the T-Mobile phone is coming out on schedule. Backers are optimistic Android-based handsets can take sales from rivals.
The phone's manufacturer, HTC Corp., forecasts sales that are rosier than analysts' estimates. HTC says it expects to ship 600,000 to 700,000 units of the smart phone, dubbed the Dream, this year, a person close to the situation said Monday. The target exceeds analysts' estimates of 300,000 to 500,000.
T-Mobile, a Deutsche Telekom AG unit, is expected to announce the phone Sept. 23, people familiar with the matter said. The device is due to hit stores as soon as the end of October, these people said. The phone's pricing couldn't be determined.
HTC, which is based in Taiwan and is a large provider of phones for Microsoft Corp.'s mobile software, declined to comment beyond saying it would ship its first Android-based device later this year. Google and T-Mobile representatives declined to comment.
Anticipation around the phone -- the first based on Android -- has been mounting for months, and the companies face pressure to impress. The Federal Communications Commission granted authorization for the HTC Dream, which enables T-Mobile to market it, last month.
While the phone is targeted at the same sort of technology-savvy consumers who have been buying iPhones, it has a very different look and feel. It is expected to be heavier than the iPhone, according to people familiar with it, and it is likely to have a large touch screen, a swivel-out full keyboard and a BlackBerry-style trackball to help with navigation.
T-Mobile USA is introducing the high-profile device as it begins to upgrade its network nationwide to support third-generation broadband services. Google hopes that hundreds of phone models will be built around Android, giving the company another way to deliver advertisements and drive revenue.

Apple to launch iPod touch in October

Aple Inc's iPod touch will be available to Indian customers from October 8, a top company official said.
"The new iPod touch will be available on October 8 for a maximum retail price of Rs 15,100 for the 8 GB model, Rs 19,100 for 16 GB and Rs 25,000 for the 32 GB model through Apple authorised resellers," Apple Asia Pacific Senior Manager E Y Yeo told reporters here on Monday.
iPod touch users can listen to a million songs, watch thousands of Hollywood movies and the 'App Store' will let one download and play hundreds of games, Yeo said.
The 32 GB model holds up to 7,000 songs, the 16 GB model up to 3,500 songs and 8 GB holds up to 1,750 songs.
The new iPod touch works with the latest iTunes 8 Genius feature allowing customers to automatically create playlists while on the go.
It is the world's most popular family of digital music players with over 160 million pieces sold. Apple's new lineup includes the iPod shuffle starting from Rs 2,700. The fourth generation iPod nano is available for Rs 9,700.
Apple's iPhone and iPod touch users have downloaded more than a 100 million applications from its groundbreaking new App Store since its launch in July 2008.
More than 3,000 applications are currently available on the App Store, with over 90 per cent priced at less than USD 10 and more than 600 offered for free, Yeo said.

First image released of planet orbiting Sun-like star

An infrared image has been released by Canadian astronomers showing a planet circling a star similar to our own Sun, the first time such an event has been detected.
Using the Gemini Observatory in Mauna Kea in Hawaii, three scientists from the University of Toronto have taken the images of the star "1RXS J160929.1-210524", and a possible companion orbiting planet just 500 light years from Earth.
The only previous discoveries of exoplanets have been either freestanding (not circling a star) or those that orbit the comparatively dim brown dwarfs, which make planetary companion detection easier, the team said in a press release.
“This is the first time we have directly seen a planetary mass object in a likely orbit around a star like our Sun,” said David Lafrenière, lead author of a paper submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters. “If we confirm that this object is indeed gravitationally tied to the star, it will be a major step forward.”
The planet is estimated to have a mass around eight times that of Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet. The team have said the planet, if it is indeed orbiting its star, orbits around 330 times as far from its star as the Earth is from the Sun.
This distance has surprised the scientists and challenged some preconceptions, said Ray Jayawardhana, team member and author of a forthcoming book on extrasolar planets entitled 'Worlds Beyond'.
"This discovery is yet another reminder of the truly remarkable diversity of worlds out there, and it's a strong hint that nature may have more than one mechanism for producing planetary mass companions to normal stars," he said in a press release.
Lafrenière said evidence was strong that the planetary object was orbiting the star, though he added that further observations would be necessary.
"Of course it would be premature to say that the object is definitely orbiting this star, but the evidence is extremely compelling. This will be a very intensely studied object for the next few years!" he enthused.

computer chip with six brains

Intel Corp, seeking to increase the speed of server computers for hosting websites and storing files, said customers will begin selling machines with six processors built into one piece of silicon. Dell Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co, International Business Machines Corp and Sun Microsystems Inc will begin selling computers that use the Xeon 7400 chips this week, platform director Shannon Poulin said in an interview. Intel, world's largest semiconductor maker, is speeding up product development to increase pressure on Advanced Micro Devices Inc in the server market, the most profitable segment of the chip industry. The new Xeon chip was to go on sale in the fourth quarter and debuted earlier than planned, Poulin said. “The performance is heads and tails above our previous products and where the competition is,” Poulin said. The chip uses less electricity and is as much as 48 per cent faster than previous models, he said. Intel, based in Santa Clara, California, fell 80 cents to $19.36 at 4 pm New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have dropped 27 per cent this year. Chips for server machines can cost more than $1,000, 10 times the average price of PC processors. The more cores, the greater number of tasks processors can perform simultaneously. The majority of chips today have two cores and more expensive models employ four. AMD doesn't have six-core chip. AMD, based in Sunnyvale, California, made its biggest gains against Intel in the server market with its Opteron chip, introduced in 2003. AMD's share in some parts of the market rose to as much as 50 per cent in 2007, before Intel fought back by speeding up product introductions.

New Mouse from Microsoft

Two new mice from Microsoft Hardware have been unveiled that use the revolutionary Microsoft BlueTrack Technology. The technology ensures efficient operation virtually on any surface other than both optical and laser mice by combining the power of optical and precision of laser.
Called Explorer Mouse and Explorer Mini Mouse, the mice feature 2.4 GHz wireless, 30 ft. reliable wireless range, glowing blue light effects, 4-way scrolling for greater efficiency and comfort with Tilt Wheel Technology, and customizable buttons to quickly access media, programs and files.
A chrome trim and blue lighting around the bottom rim of the mice deliver a soft glow.
Both the right-handed Microsoft mice, featuring ergonomic design, can be easily paired with PCs and laptops that support Windows Vista and Windows XP operating systems.
The Explorer Mouse and Explorer Mini Mouse carry a price tag of $99.95 (approx. Rs. 4,510) and $79.95 (approx. Rs. 3,610), respectively.

Only For Ladies : Lotus Mobile from LG

LG Electronics, in partnership with fashion designer Christian Siriano has unveiled the new Lotus phone. It goes without saying that the phone features stylish and fashionable look. The purple colored designed phone sports a feminine look and is capable of making a style statement.Coming to the features, the flip phone integrates a full QWERTY keyboard. Unlike other flip phones, the LG’s new device comes in the unique square design. Furthermore the handset includes One Click, a highly-customizable user interface that makes texting, web access, email, Sprint Navigation, Sprint TV, Sprint Music Store(SM) and other features easier to access.In addition, the LG Lotus also features a 2 megapixel camera and camcorder, stereo Bluetooth, music player with external controls and a microSD memory slot. Users can choose black and purple colors.Talking about the new fashionable phone Ehtisham Rabbani, vice president of product strategy and marketing for LG Mobile Phones said, “Fashion is so important because it helps convey individual personalities. Similarly, we believe mobile phones have the same ability and have become a fashion accessory within their own right. We are very excited to partner with Christian Siriano and look forward to seeing his unique accessory inspired by the LG Lotus on the runway at Fashion Week.”The LG Lotus phone will exclusively be available in US with Sprint in next month.

The World Is Safe Even After The Big Bang Experiment

The Large Hadron Collider, built by European scientists, is expected to bring about the biggest advances in the field of particle physics and other related fields in decades. For some time, tangible advancements in physics lagged behind as the capabilities to experiment theoretical possibilities did not keep up with researchers' desires.Now, the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider and its highly sensitive detectors are effectively the world's most advanced particle physics experiment, which is also backed by some mega-powerful computers to process the large amounts of data extracted from the detectors. There are some allegations that the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is somewhat similar or even better than the LHC. This is indeed very false: it's not the accelerator itself which is much better (and it is), but rather the detectors and the entire computer processing system that make the Large Hadron Collider by far the best particle accelerator, ever.The powerful machine was designed to offer scientists an inside view at an explosion very similar to the one that caused the so-called ‘big bang’ phenomenon – a theory about a massive explosion responsible for the formation of the stars, the planets and everything else found in the Universe.The experiment will be possible by using a series of magnetic accelerators to take beams of protons to up to 7 teraelectronvolts (TeV) and collide them together all across the machine’s 27 kilometers.In February, the last piece of the ATLAS detector, the world’s largest general-purpose particle detector, has been lowered down a 300 feet shaft at the European Organization for Nuclear Research's (CERN) underground facility along the Swiss-French border. This concluded the construction of the high-tech device which started in 2003.The project will look for signs of the Higgs particle, which is believed by some scientists to be responsible for giving other particles their mass. CERN said in its statement that its entire muon spectrometer system contains an area equal to three football fields, including 1.2 million independent electronic channels.The scientific base was built at the border between Switzerland and France and demanded the assistance of thousands of workers and scientists from more than 85 countries. The United States, an observer country, sent more than 1.200 scientists and also contributed with $531 million.Only one elementary particle predicted by the Standard Model has not yet been detected: the Higgs boson, which is thought to interact with other particles to give them mass. Scientists really believe in its existence and hope not only to be sure of its actual existence but also hope to find additional space dimensions. Scientists say there’s nothing to worry about, as the safety of the project, 20 years in the making, has been thoroughly considered.CERN, the Geneva-based European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's leading laboratory for particle physics. Its Member States are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The United States is one of the Observers.Unfortunately for the United States, the European accomplishment is just the tip of the iceberg in what appears to be a continuous diminishing of our country's scientific and research efforts. While tremendous amounts of money have been spent for waging war, funding on high-end research has been drastically cut.In the long run, it is very likely that the technological edge which the United States once had will erode completely, if that is not already the case.

CERN scientists switch on the Big Bang machine

The biggest and most expensive civilian experiment in the history of science is finally underway.
At 9.25am UK time, the control room at the CERN laboratory erupted into cheers and applause as a pair of dots on a computer screen showed that a beam of particles had successfully completed its first lap of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the £3.6 billion “Big Bang machine” that will open a new window on the Universe.
It took less than an hour to guide the stream of particles around its inaugural circuit: the first protons had been fired into the 27km ring at 8.32am.

“Thank you, thank you everyone,” said Lyn Evans, project leader of the LHC, as the beam finished its first lap.
Almost an hour earlier, scientists endured an anxious 48-second wait between the generation of the first pulse of protons, and a tiny flash of light on a screen that showed the beam had made it around the first 3km of the ring.
The LHC team then steered the beam of protons around the entire circuit, stopping it at points along the way to correct their aim. By 8.55am, the beam was half way around, passing through the first four of the atom-smasher’s eight sectors.
“Wow!” Dr Evans exclaimed, as it emerged that the beam had completed its first half-lap just 23 minutes after the insertion process began.
“The beam is now half way around the LHC, and it’s been through two experiments, ALICE and CMS. CMS has seen some beautiful tracks. We’ve now stopped the beam and we’re making some corrections, and then we’ll move around octant by octant. We’ve got four more to do. At the rate we’re going, within an hour we’ll have the beam all around the LHC.”
Beam-stoppers - absorbing blocks with the diameter of a 50p piece - were being used to prevent the beam from passing too far along the vacuum tube, before scientists think they have pointed it correctly. These were being progressively removed, until protons could circulate.
The LHC’s clockwise beam has been inserted first, to be followed by the anti-clockwise beam with which it will eventually collide to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang. Scientists will also attempt to “capture” the beam, so that it fires in neat 2mm pulses.
Lyn Evans, the LHC project leader, started the process at 9.15 with the words: “Let’s get started, everybody.”
He said: “We have a beam already at the entrance to the LHC, and in a few minutes we’ll remove the absorber block the beam is hitting, and start taking it around octant-by-octant. We’ll then make any adjustments we need.”
The first beam process took 12 hours when the LHC’s predecessor, the Large Electron-Positron Collider, was switched on. Dr Evans said: “How long it’ll take I don’t know. I hope the LHC will be much faster.” It turned out to be much, much faster, taking just 53 minutes.
Robert Aymar, director of Cern, said the day brought a “mixture of pleasure and hope,” in an address to the control room staff immediately before the switch-on.
“Today is a big day for Cern and the LHC. Everything is ready for us to succeed. Bravo everyone, and good luck. It will go well, I’m sure. Thanks to everyone.”
There were some last-minute nerves as an electrical storm on Monday evening caused a loss of power to some of the cooling systems that keep the LHC’s superconducting magnets chilled to -271C. These had been restored by late last night, allowing the “first beam” day to begin on schedule.

Nokia launches advanced multimedia handset N96

The N96 will be available in the market from September 15 and its retail price is Rs 34,999.

The N96 will offer a memory size of 16GB that can be increased to 24GB with an optional microSD card, allowing consumers to store hours of media and entertainment on the go.

"In the Web 2.0 era, the new Nokia N96 places the power to shape in internet in your hands. Nokia N96 offers the most personalised mobile internet experience to date and it defines convergence by blending phone and multimedia options seamlessly," Nokia India Marketing Director Devinder Kishore told reporters here.

The dual-side N96 is a perfect of style and cutting edge technology and represents a whole new chapter in mobile technology and is best optimised for superb web and entertainment.

The N96 can be store upto 18,000 songs, up to 20,000 images at 5 mega pixel, upto 60 hours of video or full length movies. With multifunctional media keys and a 2.8" screen, music, movies and games and will be available at the touch of a button.

"Nokia NSeries has always been at the forefront of innovation and has time and again added new paradigms to mobility and introduced devices that cater to the consumer aspirations," Kishore said.