Science CD from atomic lab

A CD that will help students delve early and deep into the world of science has come from a US laboratory that played a key role in putting together the atomic bomb during World War II.

Scientists Pratul K Agarwal, 32, originally from the Indian Institute of technology (IIT) in New Delhi, has put together the 'Vigyan CD', which he calls a 'bio/chemical software workbench. With a doctorate from Pen State University, Agarwal is now with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, famous as an institution which played a key role in putting together of the atom bomb in the 1940s.

On its 1.2 mm thick disc of very pure polycarbonate plastic, at first the contents of Vigyan CD do not seem very impressive from outside. But Agarwal believes the tool would help youngsters have their first brush with a range of hi-tech tasks of a new century-gene sequencing, manipulation, molecular modeling and simulation and computational chemistry.

The CD runs on any reasonably new generation computer, and "comes with ready to use software with quick start instructions and detailed tutorials".

It has some additional tools, like Ghemical to create 3-D coordinates for a small molecule, or PyMOL to create "publication-quality" pictures of biomolecules, and more. Agarwal has put everything in one place and made it accessible in India.

"It has been designed to meet the needs of both beginners and experts", says Agarwal. Since such tools come under Free Software licenses, there is no cost or restrictions for distributing it.

For details Google the topic!

I-Geek blog in Spanish!

Read this i geek blog in Spanish.

Español

Brief about MP3, intenet and Music Downloads

 

Downloading music from the Internet became possible during the 1990s. By the end of the decade Internet users could download music using a variety of software programs available free of charge on the World Wide Web. Many of these programs, such as MP3 (short for Motion Picture Experts Group 1, Audio Layer 3), also made it easy for a user to copy songs from an album on compact disc to a computer’s hard drive. The copied song could then be linked to a Web page, enabling people around the world to make illegal copies. Because the copies are digital, each is of exactly the same quality and fidelity as the original, unlike traditional analogue copies made with cassette tapes. Legal and illegal copies could be played back on home computers or downloaded to portable MP3 playback devices. The maker of one popular player, WinAmp, claims that 15 million copies of its software have been downloaded.

Sales of personal music players were bound up in the battle for supremacy in online music purchases. Apple Computer, Inc., found itself embroiled in a dispute with RealNetworks, Inc., which decided to provide consumers with software for converting downloadable songs from a RealNetworks music service into a format that could be played on Apple's highly successful iPod. The move followed an unsuccessful effort by RealNetworks to license the iPod music format. The apparent motive was to lure customers away from Apple's iTunes online music service, since the iPod could play music only in a format used by iTunes or in the widely available MP3 format. RealNetworks insisted that it was within its rights, but Apple accused the firm of unethical behaviour.

The battle underscored the growing competition in the online music market, which some analysts estimated would generate $270 million in sales in 2004, more than double 2003 sales. In April Apple said its iTunes service had sold more than 70 million songs at 99 cents each during its first year, although that fell somewhat short of the 100 million songs the company had projected it would sell in that period. It surpassed the 100-million-song mark three months later. Apple faced a growing field of online music competitors, including Microsoft's MSN Music, RealNetwork's Rhapsody, Yahoo!'s Musicmatch, Roxio's Napster, and Sony's Connect. Yahoo!, a late entry to the market, had paid $160 million for the Musicmatch online music business.

Some surveys showed that more than 20 million people in the U.S. continued to download free music from the Internet in apparent violation of copyright laws. The music industry's trade association, the Recording Industry Association of America, continued to file copyright-infringement lawsuits against consumers whose computers were found to be sharing copyrighted music. The music was typically downloaded by means of online file-sharing services by which a computer user essentially opened a window into his or her computer and allowed other participants in the service to copy the music files. Although the participants could use false names, their computers could be identified by their IP addresses, which in turn could be traced to individual file sharers through their Internet service providers.

One major effort of the music and motion picture industries had been to stop the Internet file-sharing networks that consumers used to download copyrighted music. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, rebuffed the music and movie industries when it declined to review a lower-court ruling that Internet peer-to-peer networks (which linked individual consumer PCs) were not legally liable if their users exchanged copyrighted music and movies. The 2003 lower-court decision the Supreme Court let stand also said that the music and motion picture industries could not rely on subpoenas alone to force Internet service providers to disclose the names of customers who allegedly shared copyrighted files; a court review would be required first.

The U.S. Congress considered aiding the music industry in its fight against file-sharing networks. The Senate introduced a bill, called the Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act, that would make a person who induced another to violate copyright law legally liable for the violation. The legislation would, in effect, ban the peer-to-peer networks, but some analysts feared that it also could adversely affect some consumer electronics products, such as MP3 -music players, that could potentially be used in violation of copyright.

The success of online music sales piqued Hollywood's interest in online movie rentals. The distribution of online movies was being handled through authorized movie-download services that permitted viewing a rental for a limited period of time. The services generally offered a relatively small selection of titles, but some permitted rental of an unlimited number of the available films for a flat monthly fee. The process of downloading feature films was slow and could take hours. TiVo, the maker of a digital video recorder that copied television programming onto a computer hard disk, planned an alternative service that would enable consumers to download movies and music from the Internet for a fee.

High-speed, or broadband, service for Internet access continued to grow. By some estimates it was being used by slightly more than one-half of U.S. residential users who had some type of Internet access, up from slightly less than 40% one year earlier. Broadband service was offered both by telephone companies, typically through a digital subscriber line (DSL), and by cable TV firms. The number of broadband subscribers worldwide was expected to more than triple between the beginning of 2004 and the end of 2008. In the long run, wireless Internet service and satellite Internet service also were expected to contribute to the spread of broadband. A handful of U.S. cities, including Philadelphia, expressed interest in providing broadband service to their citizens through wireless technology.

Portions from Britannica

How to Mess Up a Job Interview? : I

We've all been interviewed for jobs. And, we've all spent most of those interviews thinking about what not to do. Don't bite your nails. Don't fidget. Don't interrupt. Don't belch. If we did any of the don'ts, we knew we'd disqualify ourselves instantly. But some job applicants go light years beyond this. We surveyed top personnel executives of 100 major American corporations and asked for stories of unusual behavior by job applicants. The lowlights:

- "...stretched out on the floor to fill out the job application."

- "She wore a Walkman and said she could listen to me and the music at the same time."

- "A balding candidate abruptly excused himself. Returned to office a few minutes later, wearing a hairpiece."

- "...asked to see interviewer's resume to see if the personnel executive was qualified to judge the candidate."

- "... announced she hadn't had lunch and proceeded to eat a hamburger and french fries in the interviewer's office - wiping the ketchup on her sleeve."

- "Stated that, if he were hired, he would demonstrate his loyalty by having the corporate logo tattooed on his forearm."

- "Interrupted to phone his therapist for advice on answering specific interview questions."

- "When I asked him about his hobbies, he stood up and started tap dancing around my office."

- "At the end of the interview, while I stood there dumbstruck, went through my purse, took out a brush, brushed his hair, and left."

- "...pulled out a Polaroid camera and snapped a flash picture of me. Said he collected photos of everyone who interviewed him."

How to Mess Up a Job Interview? : II

We've all been interviewed for jobs. And, we've all spent most of those interviews thinking about what not to do. Don't bite your nails. Don't fidget. Don't interrupt. Don't belch. If we did any of the don'ts, we knew we'd disqualify ourselves instantly. But some job applicants go light years beyond this. We surveyed top personnel executives of 100 major American corporations and asked for stories of unusual behavior by job applicants. The lowlights (continued ):

- "Said he wasn't interested because the position paid too much."

- "While I was on a long-distance phone call, the applicant took out a copy of Penthouse, and looked through the photos only, stopping longest at the centerfold."

- "During the interview, an alarm clock went off from the candidate's brief case. He took it out, shut it off, apologized and said he had to leave for another interview."

- "A telephone call came in for the job applicant. It was from his wife. His side of the conversation went like this: 'Which company? When do I start? What's the salary?' I said, 'I assume you're not interested in conducting the interview any further.' He promptly responded, 'I am as long as you'll pay me more.' I didn't hire him, but later found out there was no other job offer. It was a scam to get a higher offer."

- "His attache [case] opened when he picked it up and the contents spilled, revealing ladies' undergarments and assorted makeup and perfume."

- "Candidate said he really didn't want to get a job, but the unemployment office needed proof that he was looking for one."

- "...asked who the lovely babe was, pointing to the picture on my desk. When I said it was my wife, he asked if she was home now and wanted my phone number. I called security."

- "Pointing to a black case he carried into my office, he said that if he was not hired, the bomb would go off. Disbelieving, I began to state why he would never be hired and that I was going to call the police. He then reached down to the case, flipped a switch, and ran. No one was injured, but I did need to get a new desk."

MP 5 integrated amplifier

I find this article very interesting. I regret that I posted it here. Please, refer the weblink here for full info and pictorial representation.

"Hey kid!  Get yer butt in here an' take a listen! Ya, ya, stick that thingie in there (yer music box, kid, not yer… ). Now, take dese headphones or I'll give ya another hole in yer head. Ya, ya, lissen to yer music, you dense er sumpin'?"

"Whadaya think, kid? Ya, ya, I got some opera. Of course I got some opera, why is a little rat like you wanna listen to opera? So whadaya think?"

"Jimmy! I think the kid's died and gone to heaven! No I didn't plug him, all I did was make him plug his little bitty music box in my little Dared integrated amp! Nah, I didn't turn it up, he wuz lisennin' at da correct volume!"

"Jimmy, I can't get dis kid to move. He's talkin' in some kinda gibberish. Keeps sayin' he needs more. What I wanna know is, more what?"

"Oh, I got it figgered, Joe. He wants different music. I'll really torture him! He asked for opera. I'll play some Coltrane!"

I swear that I overheard the above colloquy before I opened the box that FedEx had just brought to my door! Inside, after removing around 26 tons of packing material (no, I'm not exaggerating), is this teensy-tiny, cute-as-a-bug amplifer. At least it looks like it COULD be an amplifier, but can they make them that small? It is part of a family of drop-dead-gorgeous electronics, and pretty as it is, it's the ugly duckling of the Dared line (go to www.daredtube.com to see the others). The pictures in the brochure sent with the amp made my mouth water and my wallet sweat.

My son David connected the little thing up to my CD player and to the planar speakers. "I run that system with a 22-watt amp. Let's see what 13 watts can do," I said to myself. David turned everything on, looked at me, and said, "I think I like this!" He's a man of few words, unlike his Dad.

I had let the amp get to room temperature before asking David to plug it in, but it was freezing cold in my living room. It was in the 20s that week—the only winter weather we'd had until February. My CD player hadn't been used in days, and the Dared was fresh from the box, but the system was pumping out pure beauty, and I do mean pumping, as one of the tubes was boogying to the music! There’s a green tube that glows brighter every time there's a change in loudness. COOL! I was a bit concerned, but a friend assured me that it was part of the circuit design, and not a problem. The magic-eye tube (EM87) will provide a light show every time you listen to music, and you don't even have to pay a lighting effects man. Of course, the two ECC85 tubes glow warmly and lend that tube-glow ambience that is so mesmerizing. For REAL audiophiles, the cage is easily removed with a Philips screwdriver, but the problem is, real audiophiles won't believe that something this inexpensive can sound so good.

As soon as a CD ended, I put another one on. When's the last time you did that with a new addition to your system? Usually it takes time to figure out its sound, but I didn't care about that, for two reasons—one was that the amp needed burned in, and the other was that I was enjoying myself tremendously. As the amp warmed up, so did the sound, but only slightly. My planars are not very revealing speakers, but they do sound very pretty. They're not capable of thunderous lows, nor can they climb into the stratosphere, but they have midrange warmth like a blanket on a cold night, your honey pie snuggling up close and the two of you keeping each other warm. That, in fact, was the MP 5's biggest weakness.  Thunderous lows lend drama to the music, and the amp didn’t have them, but in spite of that, the music was dramatic. Although strings sounded wonderful, I didn't hear that first moment of contact on the string (or the drumhead, or on the bar of the vibes) that I do with my Monarchy amps. Still, the decay was awesome! If it was in the recording, the Dared revealed it beautifully.

I listened to everything I had handy, mostly jazz and rock. Janis Ian's voice on Breaking Silence (Analogue Productions CAPP 027) sounded a bit more powerful than it does when the Scott/Mapleshade amp is in the system. I don't mean that as a criticism. The message of each song was more powerfully wrought. Perhaps "clarity" is the word I should use, but that doesn't fully describe the effect, and remember, this was a brand-new amp! I played a lot of very different music while burning it in, listening to the sound closely as music washed my brain clear of the flotsam and jetsam that had floated through it during the day. "I can't believe this!" was a sentence I used pretty often while the Dared was in the upstairs system. While Andre Previn and the Royal Philharmonic's Planets (Telarc CD-80133) did not have the power I hear downstairs on the big system, it wasn't wishy-washy in any way, and remember, this amp was amp designed to be used as a headphone amp or as a computer-based amp for the small speakers that tend to be used in an office—NOT planars, even ones designed to be used with low-watt tube amps.

I'd always wanted to hear the Infinity speakers with a flea-powered amp, and though the Dared's 13 watts doesn't really qualify it as flea-powered, it IS tubed, and certainly has less power than the 100-watt Monarchy amps. But since getting my son to do anything for his no-healthy-joints-left-in-his-entire-body father is like getting a Republican to stop talking about Clinton's sexual antics, the Dared stayed upstairs for quite awhile. This really didn't bother me, because the sound of the Dared with the Planex speakers was awfully nice, if not the match made in heaven of the system with the Scott/Mapleshade amp. The only time that the Dared showed any real weakness is when I played that Holst CD, and later a Brahms LP. Although the soundstage was wide (the Scott doesn't usually throw a soundstage in that setup), the imaging wasn't three dimensional (though not cardboard-cutout either), and the powerful feel of the orchestra could not be portrayed in that large room by that small amp.

When the Dared finally made its way downstairs via some help from a friend, the efficient (96dB) Infinity speakers did some things that the planars had not been able to do. With the Eastern Electric MiniMax CD player that was here for review, and the silver cables that had waited nearly forever to be listened to, the Dared really strutted its stuff. I've said it before, and say it again, that I am incredibly happy that CDs did not sound like this in the mid 1980s. I would have tossed my LPs and never looked back! Enveloped by warmth, soothed in exactly the way I like to be soothed when I listen to music, the Dared, connected to the MiniMax CD player and those Infinity speakers, made me smile.

Van Morrison's growl was just as gruff as I thought it should be on No Guru, No Method, No Teacher (Mercury CD 830 077-2), and perhaps as clear as I have ever heard it on this recording. On the first cut, "Got to Go Back," I heard something I'd only learned to listen for quite recently (always learning as audiophiles, aren't we?). At a friend's house, I heard Ella Fitzgerald form a "k" on his Soundlab speakers. I actually heard the back of her tongue contacting the soft palate. I never expected to hear the same sort of thing in my home, but on this occasion I heard Morrison forming a "g!" Only then did I realize just how good this little amp can be.

Joni Mitchell's voice was as pure and pretty as anyone could expect on the CD Chalkmark in a Rainstorm (Geffen 1026693). If I find myself lusting for Joni when I hear one of her CDs or LPs, things are just as they should be. When I played Linda Rondstadt's Heart Like a Wheel LP (Capitol ST11358), I got just as choked up on the title cut as I do when I listen with my larger amps. (Okay, now you know what a wimp I am!) As we all know, female voices can reveal things we don't normally notice, such as the garbage needing to be taken out. BUT, those female voices revealed something I hadn't expected—a softening, if not a total absence of sibilance. I don't want to hear Joni spitting across the stage, but some sibilance simply suffices sometimes. When the right amount of it is not there, the reality of the moment suffers. Once I had discovered the absence, I listened for other discrepancies in the sound, but never heard any.

One of the very finest, if not THE very finest sounding CD I own is Music for a Glass Bead Game (John Marks Records JMR15). I keep telling myself to order more of Marks’ recordings, but always succumb to buying vinyl when I have a few extra bucks. The sound of Rosen's cello was wonderful. I did not hear the chest-rumbling sense of power that my Monarchy amps deliver when I play this CD, but the sound was quite good. More than real enough to put a smile on my face!

When I connected the Anthem's phono section to the Dared (using the tape-out RCAs), I got to hear the magic of an all-tube vinyl system. I know that plenty of folks will disagree, but to me, vinyl and tubes are a match made in heaven. As long as I only play CDs, I am enthralled by the sound of a CD-based system. Yes, I've heard SACD, and I am impressed, but the second I begin listening to an LP, I realize just how great analog sound is for my tastes in music and sound. I can listen to CDs and then to LPs, but feel discomfort if I listen to CDs after listening to LPs. As good as CDs can sound, vinyl sounds different, and I prefer vinyl. I'll end this subject by saying that it doesn't matter. Because most new music is only available in the CD format, I listen to CDs and enjoy them.

The Dared is not the greatest sounding amplifier in the world, nor should anyone expect it to be. Its soundstage is not as wide as many would like, nor is the imaging at all close to the three-dimensionality I hear with the Monarchy amps, but it's there! Actually, for $560 I didn't expect to hear ANY imaging, let alone a perceivable soundstage. You will not get tooth-rattling bass with this amp, nor are the highs as sweet and airy as that of many of the amps I've heard, BUT the midrange is true to the music. The Dared envelops me in the warmth and comfort I desire when listening to music. Sure, this little amp can deliver the sonic details that audiophiles crave, but I doubt anyone would buy it for that reason. It's definitely not designed for the audio snob! What audiophile would own an integrated amp with a USB port and only one RCA input? Its headphone jack alone would put the kibosh on a sale to any self-respecting audiophile, but if a good-sounding amp for an obscenely low price is what you are looking for, this may be the one!

The Dared is not overly warm, in fact it is quite a bit less so than my Mapleshade-modded Scott 222C. It actually sounds more like my Monarchy amps. I don’t mean to say that it has the solid-state "lock" on the sound that the Monarchy amps deliver, just that I was impressed that something that costs less than a good easy chair could make me want to listen to music. My system has to sound good to make me listen to record after record, and that's what I did with the Dared, whether I was listening upstairs with the Audio Alchemy ACD-Pro and the Planex panels or downstairs with the Infinity speakers and the MiniMax CD player. I even enjoyed a few hours of listening to the Dared with the Fritz speakers (here for review) before I packed them up and shipped them back. The Fritzes are not very efficient, but the sound was quite satisfactory.

The only time I didn't enjoy the Dared amp was when I connected a pair of headphones for a few minutes. I don't like headphone sound, and never did, which is why my parents complained about Bach all the time! However, a friend of my son who listens exclusively on headphones said, "COOL! I'm hearing stuff I never heard on my CD player at home!" I gave up trying to get him to let me listen to MY music, but he made himself into a piece of furniture and listened to his own for two or three hours. I tried asking him some audio questions later, but made the mistake of feeding him, and he fell asleep with a smile on his face. I don't know if it was the food, the kills he'd made playing games on the X-Box, or the good sound he heard with the Dared.

With the amp hooked up downstairs, I played the soundtrack to 'Round Midnight (Columbia 40464). Although I did not hear the wraparound soundstage that I hear when I listen to this CD with the Monarchy amps, I was not bothered in the least. This amp may not be a champion of dynamic attack, but for lack of an audio-reviewer phrase, it sounded "real." I played the CD again a few days later, and had the same reaction. As always, Dexter Gordon blew my mind. In the liner notes, he says, referring to the movie and his role, "Lady Bertrand, how long will it take for me to get over this movie?" Knowing how inexpensive this amp is, I ask, "How long will it take for me to get over having this amp in my home?"

Listening to the Feats Don't Fail me Now LP, by one of my favorite rock bands, Little Feat, I was impressed the way the Dared amp revealed the differences between my German copy of the record and the original American pressing. The American copy beat the German, but not by much! I'm in a Feats mood of late, so I also played Sailin' Shoes. The MP 5 also loves Little Feat, and it is fast enough to show that tight, tight band at their best. I played so many records while listening to this amp that it's almost embarrassing. Ella Fitzgerald's Let No Man Write my Epitaph is an LP that I pull out often when I evaluate a component. The Dared’s thirteen little watts did not thin out her voice—it was as strong as it is with the 100-watt Monarchy amps. As for classical music, Brahms Concerto in D Major with Von Beinum and the Concertgebouw (Epic LC3552) revealed that even listening to an old mono LP can be a great experience with this amp.

I accidentally found out that the MP 5 is built like a tank. Not only did I inadvertently disconnect interconnects while the amp was on, I did it three times! (Well, I did it once, my son did it once, and Chris did it once.) When David unhooked it from the upstairs system, he disconnected the speaker cables while it was turned on. (I shouldn't have to watch a 21-year-old's every move, should I?) The MP 5 didn't even flinch. I didn't try dropping it from the top of the Empire State Building, but I applied for a permit to do so. As a reviewer, I’d love to be able to tell you whether the MP 5 would stand up to years of use, but I guess disconnecting things while the engine was running will have to suffice.

Is this the perfect amp for everyone? Obviously, it won't make an inefficient pair of speakers sound their best, but matching it with a good pair of efficient speakers will allow even the poorest student to have good sound in his dorm room, or anyone else on a budget. I decided that it would make a great bedroom amp. With a petite but lively pair of speakers and a CD player with a small footprint, the Dared MP 5 will make a bedroom a very romantic place to spend one's time falling asleep (or whatever), so I bought it. Even my wife is impressed. Now to find the right speakers! Mike Peshkin

MP 5 integrated
Retail: $560

Dared Tube
web address: www.daredtube.com

Frequency Cutter Help!

I want to cancel all frequencies available at my room. Is it possible to seize all available frequencies interfering with my gadgets in my periphery?

 

My 7.1 channel has started to receive frequency of mobile operations and local radio stations and everything is fine of the manufacturer. And the only solution I see is to nullify those specific frequencies at my space.

 

Please, help for this Mr No Idea!

Confucius Says

- Man who stand on toilet high on pot.

 

- Crowded elevator smell different to midget.

 

- He who eats too many prunes, sits on potty many moons.

 

- Man who fall in vat of molten glass make spectacle of self.

 

- Man who make love to girl on hill...he not on level.

 

- Honeymoon over when man who whispered sweet nothings before now say nothing sweet.

 

- Man who jumps through screen door likely to strain himself.

 

- Man who drive like hell bound to get there.

ICT can take new information to farmers

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is giving hope to farmers by providing knowledge on latest farm technology, easy credits and market situation. But delivering results is taking longer than anticipated, say specialists in the field.
“ICT enables the delivery of new information, knowledge and skills needed for more empowered, market oriented, informed and sustainable agr-iculture and rural developme-nt,” says Gaurav Mishra of the Indian Association for Information Technology in Agriculture (IAITA). The association has organised three national workshops on ‘ICT in Agriculture and Rural Development’ in December 2003 and others in December 2004 and June this year. The last, on ‘ICT and Agriculture: From Potential to Prosperity in a Global Perspective’, was held at the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DA-IICT) campus.
IAITA, based at DA-IICT, aims to encourage “crossways dialogue between researchers, advisers, commercial developers and user farmers so as to benefit all concerned for effective application of IT in agriculture”.
The organisation says, “IT is sterile unless it is applied to solve real problems in a realistic and cost effective way. IAITA seeks to promote communication and understanding between everyone involved in agriculture.” The association’s founder members are scientists, experts and farmers in different parts of the country and it has its headquarters in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
IAITA adds that it is keen “to bring together interested people from all parts of the country from various fields like cooperatives, industries, farmers, consultants, technology experts, educationalists, sales personnel, IT specialists, market and processing industry research scientists, administrators and political leaders”. Some of its recent focus has been on globalisation and concerns for farm and rural development, apart from ICT for agribusiness at the village level and ICT applications to ‘reduce the distance between farmers and consumers’.
The other themes taken up are utilising domestic resources, ICTs in food safety and trade, geographical information systems (GIS) for development, automation in agriculture, knowledge markets and ICT for market development.

Scientists make water run uphill

This story is available at the BBC’s website.

Physicists have made water run uphill quite literally under its own steam.
The droplets propel themselves over metal sheets scored with a carefully designed array of grooves.


The US scientists did the experiment to demonstrate how the random motion of water molecules in hot steam could be channelled into a directed force.
But the team, writing in Physical Review Letters, believes the effect may be useful in driving coolants through overheating computer microchips.
The physics at work here has been witnessed by all of us in the kitchen.
Leave an empty pan on the stove for too long, and water, when you drip it over the scorching pan bottom, will hover over the surface on a bed of steam.
The effect was described in the 18th Century by a German scientist Johann Gottlob Leidenfrost.
What happens is that the heat is so intense, it boils the underside of the water droplet without any physical contact with the pan.
"We were interested in whether it would be possible to use this phenomenon to move liquids around," said Dr Heiner Linke, the intellectual power behind the self-propelled droplets.

An uphill struggle
The trick seems simple. Instead of using a smooth surface, the team scored it with a series of skewed triangular grooves. This gives it a kind of saw-tooth profile.
Now the water droplets appear to push themselves off the long-slope side of the grooves and rocket across the heated surface - instead of just dancing on the spot as they do in the kitchen pan.

The mechanism is a little more complicated and took a while to work out, Dr Linke told the BBC. "The vapour," he explained, "mostly flows in one direction, and the droplet sits on the flowing vapour, a bit like a boat carried along in a flowing river."
Droplets can also climb over steps, and up inclines of up to 12 degrees. Filmed with high-speed cameras, the droplets appear to take on a life of their own, sliding along like sloppy amoebae.
Although the original intention was to devise an arresting demonstration of how random energy can be rectified into directed motion - the focus of Dr Linke's main work is with molecular motors - the researchers now think there may be a use for the effect in cooling computer microchips.

The electrical currents now passing through microprocessors are so large the heat they generate can limit computing performance.
Many chips have cooling circuits nowadays, but these require pumps to drive the coolant, which in turn generate even more heat.
Suitably micro-patterned channels, argues Dr Linke, would make the coolant flow automatically.
"It would be very neat if we could use the heat from the chip to be the pump, because you would not need any additional power, but also because the pumping only happens when the thing is warm; it would also be a thermostat at the same time. So it would all be in one package."
The Geek Blog: http://www.-i-geek.blogspot.com/



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Tracking Your Visitors

from Travis Reeder

How (and Why) to Read Your Web Statistics and Analytics

Many small business web site owners are not even aware that they have access to a variety of statistics and analytics about their web site. Many more have discovered them, but have no idea what to do with them. This article explains how the general and advanced statistics that web analytics packages generate can contribute to the success of your ebusiness. 

Why Track Your Visitors?

Tracking the visitors to your site is an essential part of any online business. Simply knowing how many visitors you are getting is justification enough to have some kind of statistics tracking capability. But, you will want to know more about your visitors and their behavior, such as the following:

• How many visitors come to your site?
• Where are your visitors coming from?
• What keywords did they search to find your site?
• What pages did they view?
• Did they buy or convert?

A Brief History

Traditionally, the main types of programs used to view web site statistics were log analyzers that processed the information in the web servers' log files which are created by your web server. When your pages are viewed, they along with all of the other files associated with those pages, such as images, are recorded in the log files as hits. Hits are any connections made from a web browser to the web server. Each record, or hit, stores the visitor’s IP address, the page, and the page that referred them, along with various other details. Then, when the log analyzer was run, it processed those log files and created reports from them.

As the Internet progressed and technology improved, a new generation of web site statistics tracking services evolved. Instead of a program that processed your log files, these services track visitors in real time. Generally, a transparent image is placed on each page of your website, and the source of this image is on the service provider’s server. So, when your visitors view your webpages, they will retrieve that image from the statistics service provider who will record the hit.

General Statistics

All web analytics packages have similar basic features that give you a lot of valuable information. These general statistics, which give you insight into your visitors’ behavior/habits, can help you fine-tune your site and help you make smart decisions about advertising. The following are the basic statistics tracked and their function:

• Visitors and Pageviews - Over time - per hour/day/week, etc.
• Page Counts - The number of time a page was viewed
• Entry Pages - Pages that visitors enter your site on
• Exit Pages - The last page a visitor viewed on your site
• Referrers - Where your visitors came from such as Google or any other link
• Search Phrases - Words used on the search engines to find your site
• Other Stats - Browsers used and geographic locations (usually country or continent), etc.

Site Tuning

The page counts, entry page and exit page reports tell you where your visitors are going on your site. By knowing their viewing patterns you can fine tune your site. If, for example, you find that most of your visitors are entering on page x and leaving on the same page, then you can safely assume that page x needs some enhancements to keep the attention of your visitors.

Furthermore, if you are trying to get visitors to go to your "here is where we close the sale" page, but see that many visitors are actually not getting there, you can modify your site to encourage more of your visitors to click to that page.

Referrers and Search Phrases

By looking at the Referrers and Search Phrases, you can see what people are actually looking for when they come across your site. This may be much different that what you expected.

By looking at the Referrers and Search Phrases, you can see what visitors are actually looking for when they come across your site. This may be quite different from what you expected; for example, let’s say that you have a fictional site selling RoboMaid 3000, the robot that can clean your house for you. Now, you might have decided to put a lot of advertising dollars into the search phrase "walking robots," and you also placed your banner ads on robotics sites all over the Internet. But, after checking your stats, you realize that visitors to your site were actually searching for "robotic house cleaner.” By knowing these search preferences, you can change your focus to different keywords and place your banner ads on more targeted sites such as home cleaning sites.

Robot blog of the geek

Click, will You?

Oh! Yes, I am talking about this week’s blockbuster Click. Adam Sadler, the ultimate man to get the omni-stuff remote control. Has it been a children’s picture it would have been marvelous, I think. Anyway, the picturesque review for so called fanatical viewers like most of us, Click is just a more than a mediocre assuming we have understood the tech behind The Matrix Revolution.

Click seems to be intimidating factoids oh! no many facts from the half decade gone movie about the Superposition and hyper acceleration of a boy’s watch controlling everything. Yap, he was able to pause everything we wanted and right now Mr Adam does the same… but a little bit more. By the way, I still can’t remember the name of that picture, could you? The devil wears Prada, another movie released to tackle with Click is already able to do jobs- the later being now no more living.

Anyway, Click has no options but fantasy is not the reality, am I supposed to work on this project or what about the invisibility test.

Till next, Click, will you? blogging matters and do geeks.

Postings are mere informative and may not comply with standards!

Email Program set up for use with AIM

You can use an email program to read and send messages with your AIM account. The email program must be compatible with the IMAP standard and be set up so that it can retrieve and send your messages.

Summary for advanced users:

• Incoming IMAP email server address: imap.aim.com
• IMAP port number: 143
• Outgoing SMTP email server address: smtp.aim.com (requires authentication)
• SMTP port number: 587
  Alternate SMTP port number: 25

Please note the following AIM features are not available on an IMAP email program:

• In the Trash folder, email is marked ready to be deleted in the Inbox or Sent folders and then deleted by the AIM IMAP servers every night. Some applications show deleted email in the original folder with the message flagged for deletion (such as Outlook® or Eudora®), while other applications do not show these emails.
• You will not be able to check the status of a sent message or retrieve an unopened message from AIM/AOL/Netscape/Compuserve members.
• The Report Spam button is not available on IMAP. To report messages as spam, move them to your spam folder.
• AIM IMAP servers do not allow folders to be created or deleted in the root folder.
• You cannot manually add messages to the Inbox or Sent folders. Messages will only be added to these folders when an email is received or sent by the mail servers.

The process applies equally to all of them:

 

Microsoft® Outlook® Express 6

Microsoft Outlook® 2002 or Outlook® 2003

Eudora® version 6.2.1.2 for Windows®

Microsoft® Entourage® 2004 for the Mac®

Apple® Mail version 2.0

 

Do you geek?

wAY oF eXPLORING cUSTOMERS

I wonder why am I suppose to receive mails from 'em who cares for bucks!!!
An excellent example of commercial mailing that sucks!

Bob Joseph <b.joseph@cambridgesoftmail.com> 

Dear colleagues,  Using the experience we have gained from developing innovative desktop software solutions (such as ChemDraw) for the scientific community, we are introducing an entire new collection of software for biological research. We are happy to offer the following products for management, analysis, and visualization of biological data to you FREE for one month. Just simply click on the appropriate product, register, download, and enjoy your complimentary offer.  Over the past two decades, ChemDraw has firmly established itself as the industry standard for drawing accurate, chemically-aware structures, and has developed into a "must-have" in all chemistry laboratories. We sincerely hope our biology products will match our chemistry counterparts, more importantly, your expectation. Please forward these fantastic offerings to your colleagues as well.  Best Regards,  Bob -------------------------------------- Robert Joseph CambridgeSoft Vice President, Global Marketing US Toll-free 1 800 315-7300 EU Toll-free 00 800 875 20000 EU Tel +44 1223 464900 DE Tel +49 69 2222 2280 FR Tel +33 1 70 71 98 80 INT'L Tel 1 617 588-9300 http://by112fd.bay112.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000005&a=c0d155f0f7fe16a910c66d43c6446f653e6e468bbeba55541ca41873ab58af85&mailto=1&to=info@cambridgesoft.com&msg=5874713A-F70C-4EAB-A2C4-7AAACE808B08&start=0&len=4844&src=&type=x --------------------------------------  * BioDraw-Free for one month  BioDraw Ultra provides a drawing tool for biological pathways. It includes common pathway elements (membranes, DNA, enzymes, receptors, etc.) which are built in as well as the ability to import other elements. One of the advantages of BioDraw over alternative pathways drawing tools is the integrated power of ChemDraw’s chemical intelligence.  (Win and Mac)  http://www.cambridgesoft.com/direct/secureindex.cfm?did=3558&serviceid=121&userid=5109989  * BioOffice- Free for one month  BioOffice Ultra is the ultimate suite for management, analysis, and visualization of biological data. Combining the computing and analysis capabilities of BioAssay Ultra, BioViz Ultra, E-Notebook Ultra and Inventory Pro, with the superior drawing and database capabilities of BioDraw Ultra, Bio3D Ultra and ChemINDEX Ultra, BioOffice is the suite for biological computing.  (Win only) http://www.cambridgesoft.com/direct/secureindex.cfm?did=3559&serviceid=121&userid=5109989  * BioAssay- Free for one month  BioAssay Ultra provides the desktop data storage and visualization for both high and low throughput screening biologists. BioAssay Ultra supports the quick set-up of biological models, and a flexible data table structure allows users to define the observables and calculations to model any experiment.  (Win only) http://www.cambridgesoft.com/direct/secureindex.cfm?did=3560&serviceid=121&userid=5109989  * Bio3D- Free for one month  Bio3D provides affordable building, visualization, and computation tools on the desktop. Bio3D can be used to display many types of molecular surfaces and molecular orbitals. For macromolecules, Bio3D can render cartoon depictions of proteins and nucleic acids making it possible to carry out state-of-the-art protein visualization on the desktop.  (Win only) http://www.cambridgesoft.com/direct/secureindex.cfm?did=3561&serviceid=121&userid=5109989  * E-Notebook- Free for one month  E-Notebook Ultra provides an easy-to-use interface designed to replace a paper laboratory notebook. The lab journal maintains detailed records with BioDraw structures, Reaction and Stoichiometry information, Microsoft documents, spectra, images and a variety of other ancillary data. E-Notebook also offers searching capabilities by structure (full or sub-structure), keyword, dates and other types of data.  (Win only) http://www.cambridgesoft.com/direct/secureindex.cfm?did=3562&serviceid=121&userid=5109989   P.S. If you would rather not receive email at from me in the future, please reply to this email with the subject line 'Remove'.  

The code of life

Genes are the basic building blocks of life, and in studying them genetic science is giving us the ability to adapt and alter ourselves fundamentally, providing unprecedented opportunities to improve on nature.

Terminal diseases and chronic disability could be prevented, and even death could be postponed as we learn more about how we are built, and how to fix our inherent physiological weaknesses.

At its heart genetics is all about studying inheritance and how an organism's parents influence its characteristics. But as the science has developed it has become possible to take a gene from one species and put it into an entirely different species in order to manipulate its characteristics and make it more useful to humans.

In the near future the same technology that is currently applied to plants and animals could be applied to humans allowing us to make a whole range of adaptations to both our own bodies and those of our children.

Think about the children

Generation after generation, children have inherited from their parents. Parents give their children culture, values, ideas, philosophies, knowledge, religion, and sometimes even wealth and property.

But most fundamentally, parents pass along their genetic code: The set of instructions that goes to work just after egg and sperm fuse to create an embryo, a baby, a child, and finally an adult.

Life's construction set, DNA, is made up of four key molecules (adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine), strung together in pairs to form an extremely long chain, known as a chromosome.

Human beings normally have 46 chromosomes in 23 matching pairs. We inherit half of our chromosomes from our mothers, half from our fathers. Along each chromosome chain, the adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine molecules are paired off, and unevenly arranged into discrete segments called genes.

And genes, to a large extent, determine who you are. For example, three genes are known to determine the color of your eyes.

Decoding the code

In 1999, science celebrated one of its greatest achievements, when Craig Venter of Celera Genomics and Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute announced that they had independently completed rough drafts of the sequence of the human genome.

Genome is the word used to describe all of the genes in our DNA. Sequencing the human genome meant sifting through the three billion pairs of molecule pairs that make up our chromosomes to find the genes themselves.

And it meant unlocking the road map of our lives: How our bodies form, grow, age, and die. "It's hard to overstate the importance of reading our own instruction book," said Collins at the time.

Genetic sequencing on other life forms, including viruses, is an important tool for medicine. In 2002 when people suddenly began to fall ill with an unknown illness, it was genetics - DNA analysis - that rapidly identified the cause as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Genetics plays an increasing role in efforts to prevent and counter disease.

The next steps

"What we did with sequencing the human genome," Venter says, "is leading to a better understanding of what causes disease."

The ten year race to sequence the genome presented researchers with grand new challenges.

Knowing where the genes that affect us are in our DNA is just the start.

Learning how all of the individual genes interact to influence a trait, such as eye color, is important. Genes provide the instructions for creating proteins. And while there are an estimated 30,000 genes in our DNA, there are 100,000 proteins in our cells. Understanding how those proteins interact is already resulting in medical treatments.

Formulated to specifically target the cause of a disease, the new wave of drugs are more effective than their predecessors. For example, Gleevec, a drug designed to fight one form of leukemia, is proving to be effective. The drug turns off the effect of a protein that causes cancer.

"The drugs that we give in 2020 will for the most part be those that were based on the understanding of the genome," says Collins. "The [drugs] that we use today will be relegated to the dust bin."

Genetic testing

Testing for genetically related conditions was being done on newborns in the 1960s. But in the following decades, scientists learned to examine DNA itself and search chromosomes for indications of abnormalities. In the 1980s, researchers were able to isolate genes responsible for diseases like Cystic Fibrosis and Muscular Dystrophy. In 1991, a gene that can predispose women to breast and ovarian cancer was discovered.

Genetic testing now and in the future will help doctors provide patients with focused, individualized courses of treatment that goes beyond medicine. Knowing someone has a genetic predisposition for a condition or disease gives doctors the chance to prescribe a course of action that could prevent the problem from ever developing.

"If you can identify individuals who are susceptible to developing something," says Lyn Griffiths, head of the Genomics Research Center at Griffith University on Australia's Gold Coast, "you may be able to introduce things like lifestyle counseling, dietary changes, lifestyle changes that may well stop the actual development."

Griffiths, a member of the CNN Future Summit Nominating Committee, is focused on understanding the underlying genetic cause of migraine headaches. "Three times more women suffer from migraine than men do and it's strongly genetic."

Genetic testing isn't perfect. For example, a recent report from a University of Washington cancer researcher indicates that one test to identify genetic risk for breast cancer may be inaccurate in some cases.

The potential for mistakes, in clinical settings or with increasingly popular home testing kits, leads many to worry about decisions people may make based on faulty results.

Genetic engineering

Science has been tinkering with the genetic code of organisms for decades. Replacing one or more genes in the genetic code of an organism alters that life form's function.

Some highlights:

In 1971, Indian-born Ananda Chakrabarty, now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, created a genetically altered form of the pseudomonas bacterium that had the ability to break down crude oil

In 1980, Swiss researchers inserted the gene for a human protein into bacteria, and then cloned the bacteria millions of times. The result was a ready supply of interferon, which is now used to fight certain forms of leukemia and hepatitis-C.

In 1986, the first trials of transgenic crops began world-wide. These are plants that have been genetically altered to be resistant to herbicides, disease or insects. Although hailed as a way to increase food production, they've been the source of controversy because their engineered genes can make their way into unaltered plants.

Looking ahead, the possibilities are mind-boggling.

"In the next couple of years," says Venter, "we'll begin to really understand the principals of biology and be able to harness that tremendous knowledge and see if we can do something about reversing dangerous trends on this planet."

Venter has ambitious plans. "We're switching from being able to read the genetic code for the first time in history to being able to write it." Venter is engineering artificial life forms to create new sources of energy and to fight environmental pollution. "I think that's going to happen over this next decade," he says.

Genetic therapy

Tweaking the genetic code of other life forms to serve our purposes is one thing. Changing our own genetic code is a bit more challenging, and fraught with controversy. But genetic therapy, the ability to alter the genetic code of a living being, has the potential to save lives.

Ashanthi DeSilva was born with a defective gene that prevented her immune system from functioning properly. In 1990, when she was four years old, doctors used her own white blood cells to introduce a corrected version of the gene into her system. It was the first approved use of genetic therapy in the United States. It appeared to work, although to be safe Ashanthi continues to take medications for her condition.

Unfortunately, the potential of genetic therapy has not been realized. In 1999, 18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger died undergoing experimental gene therapy in Pennsylvania. Jesse's death resulted in a major investigation and reevaluation of gene therapy.

Still, the possibilities of gene therapy remain. And patients who suffer from many genetically related diseases and their families hold out hope that otherwise incurable conditions may be candidates for gene therapy in the future.

The future

There are a number of exciting possibilities ahead.

Understanding with precision the function of our genes and interaction of our proteins will allow for the creation of extremely efficient drugs to treat a wide variety of diseases.

Personalized medicine, including individualized lifestyle and diet plans, will help us live longer, healthier lives.

Artificial or engineered life forms, their genetic code written in laboratories, could potentially solve problems from energy to environment.

Cosmetic genetic engineering may alter what it is to be human. These possibilities include everything from altering your metabolism, changing the color of your eyes, restoring hair to a bald head, to changing your appearance and increasing your mental and physical abilities.

Note: This blog entry is adapted from "A CNN Future Summit technology profile" and written By CNN's Michael Bay and Matt Ford. Please, visit cnn.com for details.

Future Summit: Fate of the future!

 Future on the Earth is beyond our imagination. By 2035, we would have enchanting wow! Are we living? There is no doubt that many scientific innovations are already crouching our way of life. Cyborgs are no more human dreams, fantasy will rule our mind. A little brain to think of the earthly phenomenon of decades ahead!

 

One of the ever to be organized assembly on Future Summit is certainly going to procreate advancements we’d have never thought of. Projects that could lead to new sources of energy; cures for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and migraine headaches; machines that will soon fill the world around us, as well as machines we'll implant in ourselves. CNN Future Summit is what this all about.

 

An Englishman in Singapore. An Australian in Boston. An American in Toulouse. One is seeking to create artificial life; others to create artificial intelligence. The committee of ten helping to shape our discussion of the future of science and technology is really immense to talk of.

 

A CNN Future Summit technology profile has details to be explored. I suggest You visit these pages which discuss the following scopes and areas to be expounded.

 

ü       Cybernetics: Merging machine and man

Ever since our ancestors first started making tools, humanity has been trying to go beyond its limitations to improve on the way our bodies interact with nature.

 

ü       Robots: The future is now

Humans have always been fascinated by the idea of robots. Science-fiction, so often the medium through which society explores the potential impact of new technology, has always been obsessed with robots, and some of the most enduring sci-fi characters have been robots, from R2D2 and C3PO, to The Terminator and Data.

 

ü       The promise of stem cell research

Chances are very good you've heard about stem cells. Whether from reports of their almost miraculous ability to cure and restore, or very public controversies over their source or the research itself, stem cells have been a hot topic in the news for years.

 

ü       The code of life

Genes are the basic building blocks of life, and in studying them genetic science is giving us the ability to adapt and alter ourselves fundamentally, providing unprecedented opportunities to improve on nature.

 

 

Some areas to be explored in this summit are from genetic engineering, cyborg, genetic testing, future of humanity, brain signals and their utilizations with recordings, making work on beyond human ability thru human themselves, possibility of stem cell therapy: applications and workings, robots on daily lives, society; and work, humanoid robots to befren, and so many. I could just point out some few over here. You may be delighted to visit these topics in detail, click here.

 

Blog post at the geek blog!

PROTECTING FROM THE SUN

PROTECTING FROM THE SUN

The rising temperature and the rising insurgency, these days, are like peas in a pod. What’s the matter is the Sun getting hotter or is it the Climate? People these days have come across much hotter roads and the Sun rays. However one needs to be protected from the Sun and get known about the same.

E

xposure to sunlight and to the ultraviolet rays has for many years been considered to be a health measure of great importance. Long continued exposure to sunlight has been shown to increase materially cancer of the skin in those exposed to the ultraviolet rays of the spectrum. The outdoor workers are much more frequently the sufferers from superficial skin cancer than indoor workers. The corollary is obvious; too much sunlight may be harmful to the white individual. Negroes are apparently protected by the pigment in their epidermis against the carcinogenic effect of the sun's rays.

The superficial complexion especially of human is determined by pigment melanin. The shade of melanin depends upon racial origin, the quantity of which is greater in Negroes and other dark races. A suntan depends upon the exposure to the sunlight causing cumulative deposition of melanin in outer layers of epidermis. However melanin crop is due to the pituitary and the sun rays exposure to hotter climate. Consequently people living near the equator have darker complexion than those living in the temperate region. In human the graying/whitening of the hairs is caused by the loss of the melanin.

Scientists believe that the sun’s ultraviolet rays damage the DNA of the skin cells, eventually turning them cancerous. Skin cancer develops most commonly on sun-exposed areas, such as the face, hands, arms, and legs. People who have light skin that sunburns easily are at higher risk of skin cancer, as are people who have a history of significant sun exposure, particularly those who regularly sunbathe or those who work outside without protective clothing, such as lifeguards. However, several decades may elapse between sun exposure and the development of skin cancer—someone who was a lifeguard at age 20 may not develop skin cancer until age 50, for example. Moles or other darkly pigmented areas of the skin that change appearance by enlarging, bleeding, or developing irregular borders or coloring may be a sign of cancer. Doctors recommend that people at risk for skin cancer regularly self-examine their body for any skin changes. Whatever their skin tone, people can reduce their risk of developing skin cancer by wearing clothing that covers the body and a hat that shields the face when in the sun and by using a sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 15 or greater.

White dressing is only the solution to reflect maximum sun rays. Pertaining to the fact that canopy or the parasol (black not recommended) become alternatives to those for brief wears. Sunbathing though the cause of carcinoma, regular bathing is ablution to sun rays adherement or stratum cornium shed. Photo chromatic lens or   gogs/specs shield eyes from optic spectra and to absorb UV A and UV B. The body temperature rise rapidly with perspiration and the polyuria are troubleshooting. Intake of excessive fluids may control the perspiration and satisfy appetite.

Greater is the exposure as aforesaid greater is the prospect of carcinoma and darker complexion. Enhanced indoor resting, though not always possible, makes you welcome.  And so you better ensure you are free from the effect and the burn.

Blogging tech at the ultimate geek's weblog, www.i-geek.blogspot.com

 

How to Become a Real Computer Geek ?

Now that many so-called "computer geeks" are becoming extremely wealthy, the age of ostracizing the computer savvy is coming to an end. The road to true computer geekdom is long and arduous, but the payoff is worth the trouble.
	Steps:
1.	Update your computer software and hardware regularly to keep your system state-of-the-art.
2.	Purchase and install several superfluous peripherals for your computer, such as a video camera and a CD burner.
3.	Establish a separate phone line for Internet use or sign up for a direct connection. This will allow you to be online without interruption around the clock.
4.	Attain mastery of a variety of mainstream programming languages, such as C and C++. (Web scripting languages, such as JavaScript, don't count.)
5.	Refuse to use "wimpy" graphical operating systems, such as Windows and the Mac OS: Instead, prefer Unix variants, preferably the free and popular Linux.
6.	Add so many hacks and patches to your system that others are clueless in its wake.
7.	Contribute to GNU or other open-source projects.
8.	Establish a minimum of three separate e-mail addresses.
9.	Build your own Web page using advanced programming techniques.
10.	Subscribe to a variety of computer and computer-related magazines, serials and periodicals to keep up with the latest trends and developments in the computer world.
11.	Get involved in other hobbies that tend to be associated with computer geekdom, such as network gaming, trading card games, and anime (Japanese animation).
12.	Establish a network of fellow computer geeks with whom you can have long conversations about computers and online adventures that non-computer geeks cannot hope to understand.
	Tips:
	Many computer geeks build their computers out of separate components rather than buying a preassembled package.
	If you're serious about computer geekdom, consider earning a degree in computer science from a major college, university or technical school.

 

Contains derived from ehow.com

Windows Live™ Messenger - talk to Yahoo! contacts

What it is

With Windows Live™ Messenger, you can talk to your Yahoo! contacts. Forget needing multiple accounts to talk to all your contacts—you’ll be able to see when they’re online and communicate with them from one place. Try sending and receiving messages while you appear to be offline. And if you really are offline, your contacts can still send you messages—you’ll get them next time you log in.

More about Windows Live Messenger

Windows Live Messenger is the next-generation MSN Messenger. It has everything you already love about Messenger—your contact list, emoticons, and instant access to your contacts via text, voice, and video—plus a lot of cool new stuff like inexpensive PC-to-Phone Calling, Sharing Folders, Windows Live Contacts, and more.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I start sending messages to contacts who use Yahoo! Messenger with Voice?

Once you sign up, you can add Yahoo! Messenger contacts to your contact list in the usual way. Under “Contacts,” click “Add a contact” and enter your contact's Yahoo! e-mail address. That’s it!

Does this work with all my Yahoo! contacts?

Yes. As long as your contacts have the beta version of Yahoo! Messenger with Voice, you’re set. When you add them to your contact list, they’ll get all the information they need to gear up and connect with you.

Jokes that blog

http://bloggingjokes.blogspot.com

How to Fix a Printer That Fails Its Self-Test

If your printer produces nothing but blank pages (or no pages at all) when you run its self-test, then there's something wrong with the printer rather than your computer. You might need to take it in for professional repairs, but try one of these easy fixes first.

Steps:
If you're setting up the printer or changing the toner or ink cartridge for the first time, double-check the instructions to make sure that you installed the cartridge correctly and, for new printers, that you have removed all the pieces of cardboard or plastic packing material.

Check to see whether paper is feeding from the paper tray. If it's not leaving the tray at all, try feeding a page manually (if that's an option) or using a different paper tray. Sometimes a problem with the tray can be traced to a broken spring or a piece of plastic.

If paper is feeding from the tray but jamming in the printer, examine where the jam is occurring and then inspect the printer carefully to see if you can find what is causing the problem. A piece of paper, for instance, might be blocking the paper path.

If paper is feeding through the printer but coming out blank, check to see whether the printer is out of toner or ink. A defective toner or ink cartridge could be the problem.

This how-to guide is part of eHow.com posted in the geek's blog.

Jail Mail

A prisoner in jail receives a letter from his wife: "Dear Husband, I have decided to plant some lettuce in the back garden. When is the best time to plant them?"

The prisoner, knowing that the prison guards read all mail, replied in a letter: "Dear Wife, whatever you do, do not touch the back garden. That is where I hid all the money."

A week or so later, he received another letter from his wife: "Dear Husband, You wouldn't believe what happened, some men came with shovels to the house, and dug up all the back garden."

The prisoner wrote another letter back: "Dear wife, now is the best time to plant the lettuce."

Shredded Similes, Mutilated Metaphors

For your entertainment, more actual similes and metaphors found by high school English teachers from across the country in their student's essays.

- He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

- The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

- The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

- McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

- From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

- Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.


- The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

- The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

- He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

- The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

- It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

- He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

Blog post at the geek blog!

CELEBRATE INTERNATIONAL FRIENDSHIP DAY: AUGUST 6!

International Friendship Day

Wish You all, happy friendship day this August. May it bring all peace and prosperous life.

August 6 is International Friendship Day for 2006, time to recognise friends and their contribution to one's life. Friendship helps to bring peace and positivity to the globe - a great reason to celebrate!

Friendship Day occurs on the first Sunday of August - only once a year - so make the most of it! :) Friends come in many shapes, sizes and guises: school friends, work colleagues, siblings, partners, parents, pets and neighbours. Pull out all the stops and
let your friends know they are truly appreciated!

A friendship poesy for every friends!

A Friend Like You
A friendship poesy

Everyone should have
a friend like you
You are so much fun to be with
And you are such a good person
You crack me up with laughter
And touch my heart with your kindness
You have a wonderful ability
To know when to offer advice
And when to sit in quiet support
Time after time
You've come to my rescue
And brightened so many
Of my routine days
And time after time
I've realized how fortunate
I am that my life includes you
I really do believe that
Everybody should have a friend like you
But so far it looks like
You are one of a kind!

Happy Friendship Day - 2006!

My Friendship means:

"My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me." - Henry Ford

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

"Best friends need not be physically present, each keep the other company in the hearts."

" A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away." - Arabian Proverb

Mad Cow Disease

One day two cows were chatting over the fence between their two fields.

The first cow said, "I'm telling you, this mad cow disease is getting pretty scary! I've heard it's spreading so fast that it's already on Farmer Rubin's land just down the road!"

The second cow replied, "So what? It doesn't affect us chickens!"


http://i-geek.blogspot.com

Jail Mail

A prisoner in jail receives a letter from his wife: "Dear Husband, I have decided to plant some lettuce in the back garden. When is the best time to plant them?"

The prisoner, knowing that the prison guards read all mail, replied in a letter: "Dear Wife, whatever you do, do not touch the back garden. That is where I hid all the money."

A week or so later, he received another letter from his wife: "Dear Husband, You wouldn't believe what happened, some men came with shovels to the house, and dug up all the back garden."

The prisoner wrote another letter back: "Dear wife, now is the best time to plant the lettuce."