Sunday, March 26, 2006

TALES FROM THE MOUSEPAD

LogicalTips.com e-zine goes for this week:

Like a lot of people, after we got a digital camera, we starting taking a
lot more pictures. We found freedom from film developing is incredibly
liberating. You don't have to wait a week or even an hour to see your
pictures. Load them onto your computer and there they are. If you have a
bunch of photos you really like, you also can use them as your screen saver.
You don't need any special software; all you need is Windows XP.

The process is easy. Mostly you tell Windows where the photos are and it
does the rest. To set up the screen saver, follow these steps:

1. Right-click an empty spot on your desktop and choose Properties from the
pop-up menu.

2. In the Screen Saver tab, under Screen Saver click My Pictures Slideshow.
By default, Windows looks in you're My Pictures folder for photos, although
you can change it. My computer doesn't have any pictures stored in the My
Pictures folder, so I got a little message in the display telling me so.

3. To use photos that are stored in a different folder, click the Settings
button. Click Browse to find the folder that contains your photos. For
example, I have a lot of photos of my dogs, so I pointed it to a folder on
my system called HoundFaces.

4. Using the sliders in the My Pictures Screen Saver Options dialog box, you
also can change how quickly the pictures change and how big you want them to
appear on your screen. Other options let you show file names, add transition
effects and scroll through the pictures yourself. You also can optionally
stretch small pictures, but I've found that option tends to produce weird
results.

5. When you're done setting options, click OK. You see a mini-preview of
your new screen saver. Note the setting next to Wait. That's the amount of
inactive time Windows waits before starting the screen saver. If everything
looks good, click OK to exit the Display Properties dialog box.

As you can see, the process is simple. So the next time you are quietly
sitting in your cubicle wishing you were on vacation, load up a few vacation
photos as your screen saver and you might just feel better.

Friday, March 24, 2006

Run your PC like a pro!

Empty TEMP folder on startup:#When this option is enabled Windows automatically deletes the contents of the TEMP folder when you power up or restart the system.

This is useful for two reasons: It can help to stop data garbage collecting in the TEMP folder and it can also improve security, as the folder may sometimes contain data you don't want unauthorized people to see.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

This command automatically uses the folder defined by the TEMP environment variable, which is generally not \\WINNT\TEMP, even though this folder usually exists. Before activating this function please check which folder your TEMP variable points to (enter "set" in the command prompt console) and make sure that it does not contain any files you want to keep.

Empty TEMP folder	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WinExtra\TweakUp	ClearTempFiles	DWord	1	True	False	Active immediately
Delete cookies at Windows startup	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WinExtra\TweakUp	ClearCookies	DWord	1	True	False	Active immediately	When this option is activated your cookies are automatically deleted when Windows starts.
Delete temporary Internet files	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WinExtra\TweakUp	ClearInternetFiles	DWord	1	True	False	Active immediately

With the last option you can be freed from temp net files. When this option is activated all your temporary Internet files are automatically deleted when Windows starts. NOTE: This also deletes any offline content you may have stored with Interrnet Explorer's "Make available offline" option.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Call for Papers: FECS'06 : International Bioinformatics e-Society

From: Dr. H. R. Arabnia

C A L L F O R P A P E R S
=============================

The 2006 International Conference on Frontiers
in Education: Computer Science & Computer Engineering
(FECS'06)

June 26-29, 2006
Monte Carlo Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

The 2006 International Conference on Frontiers in Education:
Computer Science & Computer Engineering (FECS'06) will be held
in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 26-29, 2006.

The FECS'06 Conference will be held simultaneously (ie, same
location and dates) with a number of other international
conferences and workshops (for the complete list of joint
conferences refer to: http://www.world-academy-of-science.org/)

The last set of conferences (FECS and affiliated events) had
research contributions from 76 countries and had attracted over 1,500
participants. It is anticipated to have over 2,000 participants for
the 2006 event.

You are invited to submit a draft paper of about 5 to 8 pages
and/or a proposal to organize a technical session/workshop (see
the submission information). All accepted papers will be
published in the conference proceedings. The names of chairs of
sessions/workshops will appear as Associate Editors on the cover
of the conference proceedings/book.

SCOPE: Topics of interest include, but are not limited to,
the following:

O Accreditation and assessment
O Student recruitment and retention methods
O Choice of first programming language
O Distance learning; methods, technologies and assessment
O The balance between coursework and research
O Capstone research projects: examples and case studies
O Incorporating writing into CS and CE curriculum
O Computer Science and Computer Engineeting Curriculum issues
O Active learning tools
O Innovative degree programs and certificates
O Innovative uses of technology in the classroom
O Preparing graduates for academia
O Preparing graduates for industry
O Partnerships with industry and government
O Learning models
O Team projects and case studies
O Undergraduate research experiences
O The role of visualization and animation in education
O Student observation and mentoring strategies
O Advising methods
O Evaluation strategies (professors, students, ...)
O Computer and web-based software for instruction
O Proposed methods for ranking departments
O Transition to graduate studies
O Integrating gender and culture issues into computer
science and engineering curriculum
O Learning from mistakes
O Debugging tools and learning
O Expanding the audience for computer science and
computer engineering
O Computers in classroom
O Ethics in computer science and engineering
O Undergraduates as teaching assistants
O Funding opportunities for curriculum development
and studies
O Pilot studies
O Recruiting methods to attract graduate students
O Academic dishonesty in a high-tech environment
O Collaborative learning
O Using the web
O Factors that lead to success in CS and CE

GENERAL CHAIR AND COORDINATOR:

H. R. Arabnia, PhD
The University of Georgia
Department of Computer Science
415 Graduate Studies Research Center
Athens, Georgia, USA 30602-7404

Tel: (706) 542-3480
Fax: (706) 542-2966
E-mail: hra@cs.uga.edu

WORLDCOMP'06 PUBLICITY CHAIR AND FECS'06 PROGRAM COMMITTEE MEMBER:

A. M. G. Solo
Maverick Technologies America Inc.
Suite 808, 1220 North Market Street
Wilmington, Delaware, USA 19801

PURPOSE / HISTORY:

FECS'06 is an international conference held simultaneously
(ie, same location and dates) with a number of other
joint conferences as part of WORLDCOMP'06 (The 2006 World
Congress in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and
Applied Computing). WORLDCOMP'06 is the largest annual
gathering of researchers in computer science, computer
engineering and applied computing. Each of the joint
conferences in WORLDCOMP is the premier conference for
presentation of advances in their respective fields.
WORLDCOMP'06 is composed of the following international
conferences: Parallel & Distributed Processing Techniques &
Applications; Scientific Computing; Grid Computing &
Applications; Security & Management; Artificial Intelligence;
Machine Learning; Software Engineering Research & Practice;
Programming Languages & Compilers; Internet Computing; Semantic
Web & Web Services; Computer Design; Real-Time Computing
Systems & Applications; Embedded Systems & Applications; Wireless
Networks; Pervasive Systems & Computing; Image Processing,
Computer Vision, & Pattern Recognition; Computer Graphics &
Virtual Reality; Modeling, Simulation & Visualization Methods;
Computer Games Development; Frontiers in Education in Computer
Science & Engineering; Foundations of Computer Science;
e-Learning, e-Business, Enterprise Information Systems,
e-Government, & Outsourcing; Data Mining; Information &
Knowledge Engineering; Bioinformatics & Computational Biology;
Computing in Nanotechnology; Engineering of Reconfigurable
Systems & Algorithms; Communications in Computing.

The motivation is to assemble a spectrum of affiliated
research conferences into a coordinated research meeting
held in a common place at a common time. The main goal
is to provide a forum for exchange of ideas in a number
of research areas that interact. The model used to form
these annual conferences facilitates communication among
researchers in different fields of computer science,
computer engineering and applied computing. Both inward
research (core areas of computer science and engineering)
and outward research (multi-disciplinary, Inter-disciplinary,
and applications) will be covered during the conferences.

PROPOSAL FOR ORGANIZING TECHNICAL SESSIONS:

Each technical session will have at least 6 paper
presentations (from different authors). The session
chairs will be responsible for all aspects of their
sessions; including, soliciting papers, reviewing,
selecting, ... The names of session chairs will appear
as Associate Editors in the conference proceedings and
on the cover of the books.

Proposals to organize technical sessions should include
the following information: name and address (+ E-mail)
of proposer, title of session, a 100-word description of
the topic of the session, the name of the conference the
session is submitted for consideration, and a short
description on how the session will be advertised (in
most cases, session proposers solicit papers from
colleagues and researchers whose work is known to the
session proposer). Mail your proposal to H. R. Arabnia
(address is given above); E-mail submissions are preferred.
We would like to receive the proposals by December 29, 2005.

SUBMISSION OF PAPERS:

Prospective authors are invited to submit their draft
paper (about 5 to 8 pages - single space, font size of 10
to 12) to H. R. Arabnia by Feb. 20, 2006. E-mail submissions
in MS document or PDF formats are preferable (Fax or postal
submissions are also fine.) All reasonable typesetting
formats are acceptable (later, the authors of accepted
papers will be asked to follow a particular typesetting
format to prepare their papers for publication.)

The length of the Camera-Ready papers (if accepted) will
be limited to 7 (IEEE style) pages. Papers must not have
been previously published or currently submitted for
publication elsewhere. The first page of the draft paper
should include: title of the paper, name, affiliation,
postal address, E-mail address, telephone number, &
Fax number for each author. The first page should also
include the name of the author who will be presenting
the paper (if accepted) and a maximum of 5 keywords.
Also, the name of the conference that the paper is being
submitted to must be mentioned on the first page.

Papers will be evaluated for originality, significance,
clarity, and soundness. Each paper will be refereed by
two researchers in the topical area. The Camera-Ready
papers will be reviewed by one person.

MEMBERS OF PROGRAM & ORGANIZING COMMITTEES:

The Program Committee includes members of chapters
of World Academy of Science (chapters: supercomputing;
scientific computing; artificial intelligence; imaging
science; databases; simulation; software engineering;
embedded systems; internet and web technologies;
communications; computer security; and bioinformatics.)
The Program Committee for individual conferences is
currently being formed. Those interested in joining
the Program Committee should email H. R. Arabnia
(hra@cs.uga.edu ) the following information:
Name, affiliation and position, complete mailing address,
email address, tel/fax numbers, a short biography
together with research interests and the name of the
conference offering to help with.

LOCATION OF CONFERENCES:

The conferences will be held in the Monte Carlo Resort
hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (with any overflows at other
near-by hotels). The Monte Carlo Resort is a mega hotel
with excellent conference facilities and over 3,000 rooms.
The hotel is minutes from the airport with 24-hour
shuttle service to and from the airport. This hotel has
many recreational attractions, including: waterfalls,
spa, pools & kiddie pools, sunning decks, Easy River
water ride, wave pool with cascades, lighted tennis
courts, health spa (with workout equipment, whirlpool,
sauna, ...), arcade virtual reality game rooms, nightly
shows, snack bars, a number of restaurants, shopping area,
bars, ... Many of these attractions are open 24 hours a
day & most are suitable for families & children. The
negotiated room rate for conference attendees is very
reasonable. The hotel is within walking distance from
most other attractions (major shopping areas, recreational
destinations, fine dining & night clubs, free street
shows, ...).

IMPORTANT DATES:

Jan. 10, 2006: (Extended deadline) Proposals for organizing/
chairing sessions
Feb. 20, 2006: Submission of papers (about 5 to 8 pages)
March 20, 2006: Notification of acceptance
April 20, 2006: Camera-Ready papers & Prereg. due
June 26-29, 2006: The 2006 International Conference on Frontiers
in Education: Computer Science & Computer
Engineering (FECS'06) +
The 2006 World Congress in Computer Science,
Computer Engineering, and Applied Computing
(WORLDCOMP'06 - 28 joint conferences)

3rd International Symposium on Networks in Bioinformatics

3rd International Symposium on Networks in Bioinformatics
29, 30 and 31 may 2006
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
http://isnb.amc.uva.nl/

Deadline for abstract submission: 1 april 2006
Early-bird registration: before 1 april 2006

Symposium focus: Bioinformatics of networks
Bioinformatics of biological networks involves a range of interconnected multidisciplinary research topics. Research areas include the quantitative understanding of the dynamics of regulatory and metabolic networks by using modeling and simulation techniques, the reconstruction of biological pathways from experimental data, identification of pathway modules, the analysis and interpretation of experimental data in the context of biological networks, the construction and use of (public) pathway databases, network visualization and the development and use of pathway markup languages such as SBML and BioPax. Biological questions and new experimental techniques as well as ongoing (bio)informatics and statistics efforts will guide the development of the next generation of bioinformatics software packages. The combination of computational and genomics research will accelerate the detailed understanding of biological networks, which will find many applications in all application domains of life sciences.

Bridging the gap between disciplines
ISNB is specifically aimed at researchers working in life sciences, which includes disciplines like molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics, biostatistics, informatics, computational life sciences and mathematical biology. Since more and more researchers are focusing on biological networks from different perspectives there is large interest in a dedicated symposium like the ISNB. ISNB provides a platform to bring together these different researchers in this field to exchange ideas and facilitate new national and international collaborations. Experience from ISNB2004 and ISNB2005 learns that there is a significant interest in this symposium. This symposium will also contribute to merge ideas and research from scientific programs in the field of bioinformatics, computational life sciences ( e.g. simulation and modeling) and the experimental genomics work.

Scientific program and tutorial lectures
The Third International Symposium on Networks in Bioinformatics (ISNB 2006) is likely to continue its success from previous years by bringing together different disciplines to discuss ongoing research in this exciting field of biological networks and bioinformatics. In continuation of ISNB 2005 we aim to organize a three day meeting during which we will again schedule a mix of tutorial lectures and scientific presentations. The scientific program includes research and poster presentations from Dutch and international acknowledged researchers but also from young researchers starting in the field. The tutorial lectures provide an excellent opportunity to have well known researchers in the field give an introduction to junior and senior researchers and students who recently started working in related projects. The setup of the symposium facilitates sufficient possibilities to meet and talk to colleague researchers, which will facilitate many new and exciting collaborations and research projects.

Amazing Tech Facts!

The WHO says there is still no evidence to prove that cellular phones pose any health rosks but further research is needed. Recently BBC also got something about no relation between brain tumour and cell phones.
In 1998, online pornography accounted for about 80 percent of all e-commerce. However, the figure has today fallen to 20 percent. it was a $ 1 billion industry in 1998.
Sony introduced the 31/2 inch floppy in 1981 and got so fast replaced or better rejected from the industry than anyother devices did.
Yahoo! derived its anme from the word Yahoo coined by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels. A Yahoo is aperson who is repulsive in appearance and action and is barely a human!

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Blogging on Biscuits

It's really wonderful world where blogs are the foremost 21st century personal pages. Some blog for news, some for bucks, some for what sbd eats, some for nothing really, some symbolize veteran writings, some blog for travel updates... and the list is endless. By the way, what am I blogging for? Help me.

Ok, I am talking about this blog, click to explore yourself, but "Nice Cup Of Tea and A Sit Down" Can you really imagine what this must be about. The Biscuit's world. BBC goes as

If you enjoy nothing more than a nice cup of tea and a biscuit then you definitely need to take a look at nicecupofteaandasitdown.com. OK, it's not the most streamlined URL in the world, but it really makes sense when you look at the content of this hugely entertaining blog site all about tea and biscuits. Well, actually, it's mostly about the biscuits.

And what else are you waiting for go and explore the world or commence entering your posts on what you wear or how you do bath every time or what's going on your mind right now right here.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

How To Create Bootable CDs?

Smart guide to … stuff

There are many applications for
bootable CDs - the most common
being when undertaking
large roll-outs and when using test
rigs,where it is often useful to combine
operating systems with boot and diagnostic
diskettes to automate the process
of setting up machines.
If you need to repeatedly test from
clean installations it can save lots of
time if you image a disk drive and put
the image, along with the imagingsoftware,
on a bootable CD. It can also be
a timesaver to have frequently-used
boot and diagnostic diskettes on CD,
and it’s an easy way to work with PCs
that do not have a floppy disk drive.
To see if a PC supports booting
from a CD, check your BIOS setup
screens. SCSI drives have their own
BIOS on the adapter; IDE drives use
code in the system BIOS.Most modern
SCSI adapters have a BIOS that allows
it, and most motherboards of the last
two years support booting from IDE
CDdrives. If you are able to change the
boot options, and it lists “CD-ROM”,
your system supports booting from a
CD. If you have a 1995 or 1996motherboard
or SCSI cardthat doesnot support
it, it’s probably worth contacting
the manufacturer - many have BIOS
upgrades available.

Tips
l A rewriteable CDR drive is an extremely
useful tool when experimenting
with bootable CDs.
Although your test CDRW may be
unusable in some standard CD
drives, it can be used on themastering
systemif the CDRWdrive is set
as the primary CD, and this is
enough for general test purposes. If
you are planning on making a variety
of bootable CDs, or just experimenting,
CDRW has the obvious
advantage of media cost. If you
don’t have a CDRW, any failed experiments
can be used as multi-session
backups.
l When making hard disk image
CDs, an old hard disk drive around
650MB in sizemakes a useful addition
to your mastering system. As
hard disk images have certain partitioning
requirements, detailed
above, it’s much easier to have a
whole disk to use for your layout if
you are doing this type of work.
l UnderWindows NT, you will need
to have administrative rights if you
are creating hard disk images (this
requires access to all disk sectors).
l It is possible that you will encounter
older CDs that start to boot, fail
immediately and hang your system.
This is because there was no
initial standard for the first few sectors
of CDs and, although unlikely,
somemay contain a correct “validation
entry” without any of the other
required boot files.

For details: www.itp-journals.com

Postings are mere informative and may not comply with standards!

Do You MP3 MP4?

This blog is all about mp3 and mp4 players which are gaining popularity everyday among every aged man.

Be a music aficionado or an impulsive data carrier or web from portables, what all you need is a MP3 or MP4 player. I do own one now for more than 7 months. Usually they are cheap but yet very friendly and easy to get on. What are you thinking of? Explore these beauties by miniaturization.

This is not a simple pen to write with neither this one is a wrist simple watch to get time.

Not only sunglasses for Your eyes but for music too, time has changed since we are no more just human, and yet there are more stuffs to go ahead with.

Most of these products are manufactured in China but yet go off the international markets. They might be best alternative to iPod.

Wikipeida goes as this:
A flash based MP3 player, mostly manufactured in China, capable of viewing images, videos, and text files. Although commonly called MP4 Players, they really can't play MP4 format videos. They are limited to proprietary file formats like MTV, DMV, MPV, AMV and similar formats.

MTV Video Format
MTV Video format was created with the idea to have some video playback capabilities on inexpensive mp3 player hardware with almost no additional implementation cost.
MTV is a format that will quickly flip through raw image frames while at the same time playing MP3 audio.

The MTV format consists of a file header of 512 bytes length, followed by alternating image and audio frames. While the audio frames are encoded with MPEG1 Audio Layer 3 (aka MP3), the image information is stored in uncompressed raw format, according to the the players display hardware specification.
During decoding of the video stream, the audio frames are passed to the mp3 hardware decoder, while the memory pointer of the display hardware is simply adjusted to the next raw image within the video stream.

While this concept does not require additional hardware for the decoding process, it leads to huge memory requirements as no compression is applied to the image information.

Firmware Updates

The product manual might say something like "go to the website for firmware updates"; but usually, no website is given. Also if you do end up finding the site, it may not have a firmware update for your particular player. Although, many unnofficial websites are hosting firmware updates. If you aren't sure that your hardware is capable with the firmware, don't install it! It could ruin your player for eternity.
65k Color OLED Display
Different from the most common LCD's, most players feature a 65k OLED display. OLED displays don't have as good image quality, but are bright and vibrant.

One Chinese mp3 manufacturing company website run these words:
Flash MP3 players have revolutionized the way we listen to music. Recently the prices of all mp3 players have dropped immense – so there is really no excuse not to have one!There are many advantages to own a flash mp3 player: You can take some anywhere, anytime and they can store much more music than other music players, such as CD Players. You can download all your music from the internet; even track by track, which means that you only have to pay for the tracks you want to listen to. This way is much cheaper then buying the full album.Portable Flash MP3 Player from the chinese market are essentially the most common type of mp3 player available. These players dont have any moving parts to play the music, just memory chips and circuit board inside.All the products you see here are from local factories and manufacturer in China. All our flash MP3 Player are small and lightweight. Perfect for using it while you are on your way or while playing sports.We offer a wide range of the best and advanced digital music players you can find in China. Possible the cheapest wholesale prices you have seen.

Postings are mere informative and may not comply with standards!

Friday, March 10, 2006

AN UNUSUAL TELEPHONE SERVICE CALL

This story was related by Pat Routledge of Winnepeg, ONT about an unusual
telephone service call he handled while living in England.

It is common practice in England to signal a telephone subscriber by
signaling with 90 volts across one side of the two wire circuit and
ground (earth in England). When the subscriber answers the phone, it
switches to the two wire circuit for the conversation.

This method allows two parties on the same line to be signalled
without disturbing each other.

This particular subscriber, an elderly lady with several pets called
to say that her telephone failed to ring when her friends called and
that on the few occations when it did manage to ring her dog always
barked first. Torn between curiosity to see this psychic dog and a
realization that standard service techniques might not suffice in this
case, Pat proceeded to the scene. Climbing a nearby telephone pole
and hooking in his test set, he dialed the subscriber's house. The
phone didn't ring. He tried again. The dog barked loudly, followed
by a ringing telephone.

Climbing down from the pole, Pat found:

a. Dog was tied to the telephone system's ground post via an iron chain
and collar.

b. Dog was receiving 90 volts of signalling current.

c. After several jolts, the dog was urinating on ground and barking.

d. Wet ground now conducted and phone rang.

Which goes to prove that some grounding problems can be passed on......

Biotechnology: All You need to know about!!!

“Biotech”

Biotechnology is the manipulation of biological organisms to make products that benefit human beings. Biotechnology contributes to such diverse areas as food production, waste disposal, mining, and medicine.

Although biotechnology has existed since ancient times, some of its most dramatic advances have come in more recent years. Modern achievements include the transferal of a specific gene from one organism to another (by means of a set of genetic engineering techniques known as transgenics); the maintenance and growth of genetically uniform plant- and animal-cell cultures, called clones; and the fusing of different types of cells to produce beneficial medical products such as monoclonal antibodies, which are designed to attack a specific type of foreign substance.

History:

The modern era of biotechnology had its origin in 1953 when American biochemist James Watson and British biophysicist Francis Crick presented their double-helix model of DNA. This was followed by Swiss microbiologist Werner Arber's discovery in the 1960s of special enzymes, called restriction enzymes, in bacteria. These enzymes cut the DNA strands of any organism at precise points. In 1973 American geneticist Stanley Cohen and American biochemist Herbert Boyer removed a specific gene from one bacterium and inserted it into another using restriction enzymes. This event marked the beginning of recombinant DNA technology, commonly called genetic engineering. In 1977 genes from other organisms were transferred to bacteria. This achievement eventually led to the first transfer of a human gene, which coded for a hormone, to Escherichia coli bacteria. Although the transgenic bacteria (bacteria to which a gene from a different species has been transferred) could not use the human hormone, they produced it along with their own normal chemical compounds.

In the 1960s an important project used hybridization followed by selective breeding to increase food production and quality of wheat and rice crops. American agriculturalist Norman Borlaug, who spearheaded the program, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 in recognition of the important contribution that increasing the world's food supply makes to the cause of peace.

Modern trends:

Today biotechnology is applied in various fields. In waste management, for example, biotechnology is used to create new biodegradable materials. One such material is made from the lactic acid produced during the bacterial fermentation of discarded corn stalks. When individual lactic acid molecules are joined chemically, they form a material that has the properties of plastics but is biodegradable. Widespread production of plastic from this material is expected to become more economically viable in the future

Biotechnology also has applications in the mining industry. In its natural state, copper is found combined with other elements in the mineral chalcopyrite. The bacterium Thiobacillus ferrooxidans can use the molecules of copper found in chalcopyrite to form the compound copper sulfate (CuSO4), which, in turn, can be treated chemically to obtain pure copper. This microbiological mining process is used only with low-grade ores and currently accounts for about 10 percent of copper production in the United States. The percentage will rise, however, as conventionally mined high-grade deposits are exhausted. Procedures have also been developed for the use of bacteria in the mining of zinc, lead, and other metals.

The field of medicine employs some of the most dramatic applications in biotechnology. One advance came in 1986 with the first significant laboratory production of factor VIII, a blood-clotting protein that is not produced, or has greatly reduced activity, in people who have hemophilia. As a result of this condition, hemophiliacs are at risk of bleeding to death after suffering minor cuts or bruises. In this biotechnological procedure, the human gene that codes for the blood-clotting protein is transferred to hamster cells grown in tissue culture, which then produce factor VIII for use by hemophiliacs. Factor VIII was approved for commercial production in 1992.

Controversies:

Some people, including scientists, object to any procedure that changes the genetic composition of an organism. Critics are concerned that some of the genetically altered forms will eliminate existing species, thereby upsetting the natural balance of organisms. There are also fears that recombinant DNA experiments with pathogenic microorganisms may result in the formation of extremely virulent forms which, if accidentally released from the laboratory, will cause worldwide epidemics. Some critics cite ethical dilemmas associated with the production of transgenic organisms.

In 1976, in response to fears of disastrous consequences of unregulated genetic engineering procedures, the National Institutes of Health created a body of rules governing the handling of microorganisms in recombinant DNA experiments. Although many of the rules have been relaxed over time, certain restrictions are still imposed on those working with pathogenic microorganisms.

You may also browse some sites related to biotech:

Postings are mere informative and may not comply with standards!

Monday, March 06, 2006

Antivirus n Emails!

Help protect your computer with safer e-mail practices

Sending and reading e-mail over the Internet is one of today's most popular activities. The widespread use of this technology makes it a primary way for computer viruses to spread. You can help protect your computer against viruses that spread by e-mail, and when you do so, you also help protect people who receive e-mail from you.

Specific actions you can take:

Use virus scanning software and keep it up to date with regular updates from the provider. Updates are very important because new viruses are created regularly.
Don't open attachments from senders you don't know. Even if you know and trust the source of the e-mail you should still be cautious. Carefully read the e-mail's subject line. Does the message on the subject line make sense coming from the sender? Does the subject line refer to something this person would want to send you a message about? If the subject line is just gibberish or does not make sense, you should not open the attachment.
Read your messages in plain text. Much of the e-mail you receive is created using a simple computer language called HTML. HTML makes it possible to use pictures, fancy backgrounds, icons, and different kinds of text in e-mail. But HTML can also allow hackers to hide viruses in e-mail. When you read your e-mail in plain text, you prevent the viruses from being transmitted to your computer.
Use your e-mail program's security features. See your e-mail program's Help topics for information about the options available to you. Many programs now include options for filtering images, handling attachments, and blocking unwanted messages. Features like these work together to help protect your computer and anyone you correspond with.
Be very cautious about opening links that you receive in e-mail. You never really know what a link is connected to. Internet Explorer 6 contains features that will help protect you in this situation.

How to decide if you can trust an e-mail message

E-mail is one way that viruses spread across the Internet. When you open an infected e-mail message, the virus can be transmitted to your computer, and then you, in turn, can infect people to whom you send e-mail. If you use e-mail, you can get dozens of messages every day that come from people you've never heard of. With so much e-mail coming in, how do you know which messages you can trust?

Think about these four things:

Do you know the person who sent you this e-mail message? Is this a person, organization, or business you know and trust? If you get mail from someone you've never heard of before or a source you never subscribed to, you should be cautious.
Have you received legitimate e-mail from this source before? Do you receive e-mail from this person regularly or occasionally? If you get e-mail from someone you know, but you've never received e-mail from them before, ask yourself if there is any reason you're getting this message now. If the answer is no, think twice before opening it.
Do you have any reason to expect e-mail from this person? Are you surprised to see this e-mail? Does it seem unusual or strange to be getting e-mail from this person? If the answer is yes, be cautious about opening the message.
Does the message on the subject line make sense coming from the sender? Does the subject line refer to something this person would want to send you a message about? If the subject line is just gibberish or doesn't make sense, the message might be junk mail that uses nonsense titles to get past spam filters that look for certain words.

If you are not sure that the e-mail you received is trustworthy, don't open it or even bother to reply. It's much easier to check before you open the message than it is to clean some viruses off of your computer.

One essential action to take:

Before you open any e-mail that has an attachment, make sure that your antivirus program is up to date and that it is turned on. This allows the antivirus program to scan attachments with the highest chance of protection.

Making sure your antivirus software is as effective as it can be

While it is important to install antivirus software on your computer, that alone is not enough. You need to be sure that your antivirus software is actively scanning the files on your computer as you use them (sometimes this is called "real-time scanning"), and that your program is up to date with the latest virus definition files. If you're using an antivirus program that Windows detects, the Security Center will keep track of it for you and normally will alert you if the program is out of date or is not running.

Find out which antivirus program you're using

To find out which antivirus program you are using in Windows XP, click Start, and then point to All Programs (or point to Programs if you're using the classic Start menu). In the list of programs, look for the name of your antivirus program or the software provider.

Turn on Real-time Scanning

When you install your antivirus software, you will be offered various options. Make sure you select the option that sets the program to run when your computer is on and to automatically scan all files as you use them. This option can be called "background scanning," "real-time monitoring," or "real-time scanning."

If you have already installed your software, start the program and find the options or settings area. Make sure that ongoing, real-time, or background virus scanning is turned on.

Keep antivirus software up to date

Antivirus programs must update themselves regularly to stay effective against new viruses. Most of these updates are free, but some providers charge a small fee for the updates. If you are using an older version of a program, you might also have to pay to upgrade to a more recent version in order to continue to receive the updates.

Most antivirus programs are designed to update themselves automatically, but you can also update your program manually. To do so, go to your antivirus software provider's Web site and go to the downloads section. Find the update for your version of the program and your operating system.