Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Google's body browser

Google's new innovative service "body browser". This experiment will allow you to navigate through human body in 3D. You require a browser with a webGL support, currently webGL is supported only in the beta versions of the leading browsers. body browser homepage suggests users to download chrome beta. Even though a link to khronos.org is provided in the same page which lists all the browsers with webGL support. Is it a ploy to lure more users to adopt google chrome?

Monday, December 20, 2010

Indian Neutrino Observatory (INO) to boast world's biggest magnet


INO is setting up a neutrino observatory  in Bodi West Hills Reserved Forest in the state of Tamil Nadu. This is the first of its kind in India. INO plans to study atmospheric neutrinos. The Hills selected for this observatory is a granite block which will help in shielding the muons. This observatory will have the largest magnet 50,000 tonne magnetized iron compared to 12500 tonne in CMS detector at CERN's LHC. INO is hoping that the observatory will also detect anti neutrinos as well.

INO website: http://www.imsc.res.in/~ino/

Friday, November 19, 2010

Plant communication

I was amazed by the concept of plants and animals communicating with each other in the movie AVATAR. Some scientists claim that this happens not only on fictional planet "Pandora" but also right on our planet EARTH but this network is not extended to animals. Research by the South China Agricultural University shows that plants communicate with each other through a network of colonized fungi below the earth. How the communication takes place is still unknown.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827864.600-fungal-threads-are-the-internet-of-the-plant-world.html

Monday, November 15, 2010

Stuxnet cracked

Stuxnet is cracked finally, Symantec blog says it has discovered that the Stuxnet worm targeted specific motors used, for instance, in uranium enrichment processes. The malware focus on converter which drive the motors and operate between 800-1200Hz. These findings indicate the political motive behind the worm.

http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/stuxnet-breakthrough

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Thursday, November 4, 2010

LHC's mini Bing Bang experiment

LHC (Large Hadron Collider) which is managed by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) will be starting a new experiment which, will reproduce the conditions of the early universe fraction of seconds after Bing-Bang. Scientists predict that the early Universe existed in a special state of matter called Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP).
This experiment will re-create QGP. LHC will achieve this by colliding Lead Ions at a very high velocities. At temperatures generated during the collisions, even protons and neutrons, which make up the nuclei of the atoms, will melt, resulting in a hot, dense soup of quarks and gluons. This condition will exist only for a fractions of the second.

Till now LHC has been smashing protons at high energies in order to prove new physical laws like super symmetry and to discover elusive particles like Higgs Boson which exist only in theory.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Spice Mobile launches 3D mobile in Indian market

Spice Mobile launched the first 3D mobile in Indian market. The spec says that the mobile has a Auto stereoscopic Display which will enable the user to view a 3D pictures and videos without the need of special glasses.

http://www.spiceglobal.com/SpiceMobiles/Model.aspx?Id=171


This 3D display technology is somewhat similar to the one used in Nintendo 3DS
http://e3.nintendo.com/3ds/

Sunday, October 24, 2010

FireFox 4 beta faster than Chrome

  For the first time javascript engine in Firefox 4 beta 8 builds clocked faster then google chrome's V8 engine. Mozilla’s “Are We fast Yet?” charts are showing the combined Firefox TraceMonkey and JaegerMonkey build to be faster than Chrome in Webkit’s Sunspider test.

  "JaegerMonkey" is the code-name for a new javascript engine, It is a JIT compiler for Javascript. TraceMonkey is the original javascript engine that is introduced in FireFox 3.5 . JagerMonkey is a general-purpose compiler which converts entire methods to machine code. When it detects a loop that can be traced, it automatically engages the trace compiler, which makes it even faster. Mozilla is optimizing the combination of  Jaeger and Trace working together in Firefox4 to get the best of Tracing and JIT.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Why the Stuxnet worm is like nothing seen before

Stuxnet is a Windows-specific computer worm first discovered in June 2010 by VirusBlokAda, a security firm based in Belarus. It is the first discovered worm that spies on and reprograms industrial systems. It was specifically written to attack Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. Stuxnet exploits the known windows vulnarabilities and implants the malicious code on target system which then reprograms the programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and hide the changes. It is the first-ever computer worm to include a PLC rootkit.  Furthermore the worm's probable target has been said to have been high value infrastructures in Iran using Siemens control systems. It has also been said that the infestation by this worm might have delayed the start up of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant. Kaspersky Labs has released a statement that Stuxnet will lead to creation of a new arms race in the world, while noting that the infections in Iran are off the charts. Stuxnet could make Iran the first victim of cyber warfare in history.


More about Stuxnet

Friday, September 24, 2010

Mozilla SeaBird

Mozilla jumps into the mobile world with its new seabird mobile phone experiment as part of Mozilla labs "Concept Series". Concept Series is an open forum hosted by Mozilla labs.

 This will have an in-built pico projector which can beam keyboard on to a flat surface, along with touch screen and blue-tooth dongle this will change the way user interacts with his mobile.

  Mozilla in its website says that  
"Seabird is not a Mozilla or Mozilla Labs project but part of the Mozilla Labs Concept Series. The Concept Series provides a place for the wider community to create and collaborate on projects which push the boundaries of the Web and the browser."





http://mozillalabs.com/conceptseries/2010/09/23/seabird/
http://mozphone.com/

Also checkout the website of Billy May Concept Series community member who created this project.
http://www.billy-may.com/

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Why is Impressionist painting so popular?


Interesting article on why impressionist paintings are so popular.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727781.300-brainhacking-art-making-an-emotional-impression.html

"The crude brush strokes delay our conscious response and engage the brain's emotional centers"

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Large Hadron Collider again in news

A Tour of the Subatomic Zoo: A Guide to Particle Physics (Volume 0)Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider have seen hints of quark-gloun plasma, this state of matter thought to have filled the universe few nano secs after bing bang.


 
http://cms.web.cern.ch/cms/News/2010/QCD-10-002/index.html




Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Firefox Tabcandy is now Firefox Panorama

Finally tabcandy is in firefox 4 beta as Panorma. Tab Candy could revolutionize the way we browse and manage the browser tabs. Rather than browsing in the traditional browser window, we could be using the browser entirely through a graphical tab interface.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Experiment with igoogle gadgets ...contd

Adding to the list of gadgets in my previous post

Nasa Image of the day
Latest Images from the Nasa Image Gallery website.


Add to Google
Add this gadget to your webpage

Nasa Earth Observatory Image of the day
Latest pictures from http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov website. The Earth Observatory's mission is to share with the public images and stories about climate and the environment that emerge from NASA research, including its satellite missions, in-the-field research, and climate models.

Add to Google
Add this gadget to your webpage

Amul Hits
Amul Hits is the longest running advertising campaign started in 1967. This campaign started of as sketches starring Amul baby company's mascot commenting jovially on the latest news and current events.

Add to Google
Add this gadget to your webpage

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Phishing and New Mozilla Account Manager add-on

Phishing is all about deception. Check out Aza's blog post which talks about one such interesting way. Finally the post boils down to publicize the new Mozilla's Account manager add-on. http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/a-new-type-of-phishing-attack/ This add-on sounds like another form of open-ID implementation, with no cloud footprint and with its own spec. Still in the beta phases this feature might get included in the firefox browser soon. With this user security is as good as the security of the local data (to be more specific the Mozilla's security manager). Integration of this with One time password is a good to have. More Reading http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/accountmanager/ https://wiki.mozilla.org/Labs/Weave/Identity/Account_Manager

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Check out Save Our Tigers | Join the Roar

Title: Save Our Tigers | Join the Roar
Link: http://gotaf.socialtwist.com/redirect?l=734607605976646930421