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MSU trio take away 1st prize at IIT Bombay TechFest

Sukriti — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:31:49 +0000

A day after civil engineering department students of Faculty of Technology and Engineering, MS University, secured third position in Bascule Bridge designing competition, students from metallurgy and material department stood first in Mech Compute competition. Looks like this time its raining awards for thes young enthusiasts who’ve participated in TechFest 2010, Asia’s biggest technical festival hosted by IIT Bombay.

The challenge was to make a mechanical calculator without using electrical or chemical power. The device should be able to perform operations of addition, subtraction and multiplication on any set of non-negative integers, at least for digits up to output of a two-digit number.

Device prepared by MSU students was chosen as the best model in the competition. The team comprised of third year metallurgy engineering and material science department students which include Rohan Chakrabarty, Mithun Banjan and Nitin Batra.

“We have been working since last four months to put together this calculator. Our device was adjudged as the best one as we were the only team that could make gears and entire pin wheel system. The cost of making also came to Rs 200. This prize is special as it is after a long time our faculty could bring back first prize in the competitive event at IIT tech fest,” said Chakrabarty.

“The other advantage of our device is that it can be used as a teaching tool in primary schools to explain concepts of addition and subtraction very easily,” added Chakrabarty.

Skype Brings Video Chat to Flat-Screen TVs

Sukriti — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:36:14 +0000

VoIP provider Skype has struck deals with two TV makers to offer over-the-Internet videoconferencing features to users. LG and Panasonic will release Web-connected TVs later this year which, combined with a separately sold webcam, will enable video chat from one’s living room. Skype also announced the availability of 720p HD video chat on its existing PC video call technology.

The makers of popular software that allows users to make free phone and video calls via the Internet announced new deals Tuesday with LG and Panasonic that put Skype inside new Web-connected versions of their HDTVs. Starting sometime in mid-2010, consumers who buy new Panasonic Viera TVs and LG sets with NetCast Access will be able to plug in special webcams (sold separately) and enjoy face-to-face conversations with family and friends.

Skype earned its reputation as a low-cost alternative to traditional phone calls via your PC, and that particular platform wasn’t ignored in Tuesday’s spate of announcements. The company also said it is now supporting 720p high-definition video calls over computers, and those attending this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will get a chance to check out new HD webcams from Skype partners faceVsion and In Store Solutions that do all the software encoding within the cameras.

Google Nexus unveiled!!

Sukriti — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:33:33 +0000

Google has officially unveiled the Nexus One smartphone, a handset running an advanced version of the Android operating system. The Nexus features an AMOLED display, a 1 GHz processor, and extensive speech input capabilities. The phone is available immediately either as an unlocked phone or with a two-year contract with T-Mobile. A Verizon version is expected soon.

The device hit the market in two versions Tuesday — an unlocked version that will run on any GSM network, and a subsidized one from T-Mobile.

In addition to standard high-end smartphone features such as an accelerometer, a global positioning system (GPS), and connectivity to social networks, the Nexus One offers three-dimensional (3-D) capabilities and voice-enablement in all its text fields.

“Smartphones like the Nexus One are really minicomputers,” pointed out Erick Tseng, Google’s Android product manager. “We wanted to push the capabilities of their high-end chipsets with 3-D capabilities.”

Take a look at its specifications here…

Go!!!Get IT

Sukriti — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:36:44 +0000

Google has open-sourced an experimental programming language that attempts to crossbreed a dynamic web-happy language like Python with a compiled language like C++. There has been a growing rebellion against cumbersome type systems like those of Java and C++, pushing people towards dynamically typed languages such as Python and JavaScript, [but] some fundamental concepts such as garbage collection and parallel computation are not well supported by popular systems languages.

Google believed it’s worth trying again with a new language, a concurrent, garbage-collected language with fast compilation. Dubbed Go, the new language was unveiled via the Google Open Source blog.

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Nokia to make laptops

Sukriti — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:36:44 +0000

Nokia Corp., the world’s largest maker of cell phones has said that it will start making a small, light laptop, similar to ones PC manufacturers are already selling through wireless carriers around the world.

The Finnish company says the Nokia Booklet 3G will run Microsoft Corp.’s Windows software, have a 10-inch screen and weigh 2.8 pounds. That puts it squarely in the “netbook” category pioneered by Taiwanese manufacturers like AsusTek Computer Inc. Nokia said it would reveal the price and launch date of the PC on Sept. 2. Most netbooks sell for less than $500.

Unlike most netbooks, Nokia’s Booklet will have a built-in GPS navigation chip coupled to Nokia’s Ovi Maps software, and an aluminum cover to contrast with the usual plastic. Nokia has previously tried to expand its portfolio beyond cell phones, making a “tablet” computer that runs non-Windows software. It hasn’t been a mainstream success.

Fine threat puts The Pirate Bay off the Internet

Sukriti — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:35:49 +0000

The Pirate Bay, one of the world’s most popular filesharing websites, is off the Internet after a Swedish court threatened its bandwith supplier with a hefty fine, news reports said Tuesday. Stockholm’s district court on Monday ordered Black Internet to stop providing bandwidth to The Pirate Bay or face a fine of 500,000 kronor (70,000 dollars, 50,000 euros).

A Swedish court in April found the four men behind The Pirate Bay guilty of promoting copyright infringement by running the site, sentencing them to a year in prison. They were also ordered to pay damages of 30 million kronor (2.72 million euros, 3.56 million dollars) to the movie and recording industry. The four have appealed the verdict, and — prior to Monday — the site remained in operation.

Another attack downs Twitter, briefly this time

Sukriti — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 05:36:33 +0000

Twitter has suffered from another attack following one that left the site down for several hours last week.

Tuesday’s outage was brief. The online messaging site said in its status blog Tuesday afternoon that it is analyzing its traffic data to determine the nature of the latest attack. No other details were given.

Last Thursday, Twitter was inaccessible for several hours following hacker attacks targeted at a Georgian blogger who uses the site. Fake traffic flooded Twitter, making it inaccessible for millions of legitimate users. While the blogger’s accounts on Facebook and LiveJournal were also hit, only Twitter suffered an extended shutdown.

SUN Announced an Alliance with Emerson for Data Center Technology

Sukriti — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 05:34:23 +0000

SUN Microsystem, the computer hardware and software vendor made an announcement with Emerson, an Electrical product Manufacturing company that they will collaborate each other in terms of business technology for further improvement of energy efficient data centers. Although, none of the companies announced further financial details. SUN’s share went up 8 cents to $9.24 in afternoon trading, while Emerson shares shot up $1.11, or 3.1 percent, to $37.14.

Wireless Reading

Sukriti — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:30:27 +0000

In the first week of May 2009, Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon, has introduced the latest version of the e-reader, names as Amazon Kindle.
Kindle DX is the third edition of e-reader which is released just after 3 month of kindle 2.
This time Amazon has introduced some more features with new look in Kindle DX. This version of Kindle DX has a 9.7” diagonal e-link screen that looks like a real paper, that is about 60% larger then the previous versions. It can display 16 shades of grey with 1200×824 pixel resolution screen. Its 3G wireless technology lets you download books from your kindle DX without any monthly or annual fee. Continue with the technical specification, it provide with a long battery life so that you can read for the days without recharging it.

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Journey to the space!!

Sukriti — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:27:33 +0000

Have you ever thought about the elevator that can carry you to the edge of space.

According to the scientist at York University in Toronto, a huge inflatable tower can take you to the edge of space without any rocket, cable-based elevator.

If it could be built from a stable mountain it could reach an altitude of approximate 20 KM, from where it could be used for different purposes like tourism, telecoms etc. They are assembling the structure from different modules that are constructed from Kevelar-polyethylene composite tubes and made them rigid by inflating with a gas like helium because helium is very lightweight.

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