India over takes US as Nokia’s Second Largest Market

World’s largest cellphone manufacture, Nokia, has revealed that India has overtaken United States as the second largest handset market after China.

Nokia had expected India to overtake US as second largest market after China by 2010, but thanks to falling call rates which further boosted handset sales and made this milestone arrive by 2007. Out of 185 million mobile phone users in India, 85 million use Nokia phones.

When Nokia started its operation here in India, they just had 250 employees. And now the number has grown over 9000. 18 months back, they launched a manufacturing unit in Chennai which shipped more than 60 million handsets to over 58 countries. Impressive achievement by Nokia!

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Listening to: Gaurav Raina, Medival Punditz & Tapan Raj - Hockey Remix
via FoxyTunes

New orkut Interface

orkut's blog promises a new interface for Google's ugly social network. "The one comment we always hear is how orkut's simplicity keeps long-time users coming back and new people signing up. So as we work away planning improvements to the site, we always keep this in mind."

orkut has recently changed the homepage and will launch a revamped interface in the weeks to come. "The change isn't live yet, but starting soon, we will start rolling-out the new look. To start, we will roll it out to a small group of users randomly selected, and will continue to do so until everyone is on the new site."

If you don't see the new interface yet, here's how it looks like:




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Listening to: Hans Zimmer - He's A Pirate (Tiesto Remix) (Bonus)
via FoxyTunes

1TB CD disks are coming

AN ISRAELI storage technology outfit is nearly ready to bring the next big thing in optical storage disk into the shops.

Mempile's schematic two photon system is called TeraDisc and is designed to shove 1TB on a single disk.

According to TFOT.com, here, the disk overcomes all the limitations of existing formats.

Each disk is built from polymethyl methacrylate which is almost entirely transparent to the specific wavelength of the laser used by its recorder.

Dr Beth Erez, Mempile’s Chief Marketing Officer thinks that its ePMMA, disks can create a media with about 200 virtual layers five microns apart which each hold 5GB of data.

The current prototypes can store 600–800GB per disk which is a lot of data. However Mempile boffins think that they can get this to a 1TB per 1.2mm thick disk soon.

Erez says her disks can last 50 years and should be very reliable. The first prototype is 18 months away and will be in the shops about a year afterwards.

Initially it will use red laser technology. Mempile want to move to blue lasers later and create 5TB of data per disk.

Erez thinks that a drive will set you back $3,000 while the 600GB disk will cost $30-50. Still 600 GB should just about cover all those snaps Mrs Farrell took when going to the sea coast this year (It would have taken two disks but it rained)

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Listening to: A.R. Rahman - Pray For Me Brother (Instrumental)
via FoxyTunes

30 Essential Pieces Of Free (and Open) Software for Windows

1. Firefox
http://www.getfirefox.com/
Replaces Internet Explorer
If you haven’t switched to Firefox for your web browsing needs, do it now. It stops annoying popups and it has tons of amazing plugins that can make surfing the web even better. I could evangelize all day about Firefox, but one thing’s for sure: the first thing I do on any new Windows machine is run Internet Explorer just long enough to download Firefox.

2. Thunderbird
http://www.mozilla.org/thunderbird/
Replaces Microsoft Outlook or Eudora
Thunderbird is an email client that has five big things going for it: it’s free, it’s full featured, it’s lightweight and runs quick, it has an unparalleled spam filter, and it protects you from those ridiculous phishing attacks by clearly indicating which emails send you to a bogus website. If you’re not already using a web-based email solution, Thunderbird should be your client.

3. Sunbird
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/
Replaces Microsoft Outlook’s calendaring functions
Might as well get the Mozilla trifecta out of the way by mentioning Sunbird, which is the Mozilla Foundation’s calendaring program. It’s extremely easy to use (I figured out everything I needed in a minute or two) and easy to share your calendar with others. I consider a calendaring tool to be essential if you’re using a laptop, and this is no different.

4. Abiword
http://www.abisource.com/
Replaces Microsoft Word
Want a good word processor but find Microsoft Word too expensive? AbiWord is my favorite replacement for Word. It’s lightweight (meaning it runs quickly) and includes pretty much every feature that I use regularly in a word processor, plus it can save files in formats that you can exchange with Word and WordPerfect users, plus open any of their files, too.

5. OpenOffice
http://www.openoffice.org/
Replaces Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint
If you want to replace the rest of the Office suite, your best bet is OpenOffice. It includes very nice replacements for Excel and PowerPoint (and workable replacements for Access and other Office elements). In fact, I actually prefer their Excel and PowerPoint replacements to the real thing.

6. ClamWin
http://www.clamwin.com/
Replaces Norton AntiVirus or McAfee
ClamWin is a slick anti-virus software that’s quite easy to manage and is unobtrusive while keep your system free of viruses. That’s pretty much all I want from a package, so why pay money for McAfee to keep bugging me all the time?

7. Gaim
http://gaim.sourceforge.net/
Replaces AIM, Windows Messenger, etc.
This is a very clean instant messaging program that allows you to be on AOL Instant Messenger, Windows (MSN) Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger simultaneously with one program. There are other free packages that do this, but Gaim is stable and clean and simple.

8. BitTorrent
http://www.bittorrent.com/
Original but essential
From their website, “BitTorrent is a peer-assisted, digital content delivery platform that provides the fastest, most efficient means of distributing, discovering, and consuming large, high-quality files on the Web. Our mission is simple: to deliver the content that entertains and informs the digital world.” In other words, BitTorrent allows you to download large media files and also use your bandwidth to help others download these files. Search for media files you want and download ‘em.

9. GIMPShop
http://www.gimpshop.net/
Replaces Adobe Photoshop
This is a version of the GNU Image Manipulation Program that does a pretty solid job of imitating Adobe Photoshop - a regular user of Photoshop (like me) can adapt to it quite quickly. It’s very richly featured and runs quite well - in fact, I see no reason to ever go back, even if Photoshop were free.

10. Gnucleus
http://www.gnucleus.com/Gnucleus/
Replaces LimeWire, BearShare, etc.
Sure, LimeWire and BearShare are free, but why not just get the same basic software without all of the spyware? Gnucleus is pretty much identical to those software packages - but without all that extra junk that slows down your computer.

11. VLC Media Player
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Replaces Windows Media Player, Quicktime, RealPlayer, etc.
If you get tired of having tons of media players on your computer, get this package that runs pretty much every media type you’ll run across without breaking a sweat.

12. Juice
http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/
Unique but essential
Juice lets you effortlessly subscribe to podcasts, organize them, and listen to them at your convenience. In conjunction with PodNova, I find it easier to use Juice to organize podcasts than using iTunes itself.

13. Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Unique but essential (for some)
If you’re interested in recording your own podcast (or just want to make your own voice recordings for whatever reason), Audacity and a microphone are pretty much all you need to get the job done. I’m not much for podcasting (let’s just say I don’t have a radio voice), but I use Audacity for other voice recording purposes.

14. RSSOwl
http://www.rssowl.org/
Unique but essential
RSSOwl is one of many open source RSS readers. In other words, it enables you to use one program to keep track of the content of a lot of different blogs; if you read a lot of blogs, it’s the only way to keep tabs on all of them without devoting hours jumping from site to site. If you have a laptop, it’s preferable to using sites like Bloglines, but if you’re on a desktop, a web-based feed manager might be better.

15. Filezilla
http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/
Replaces WinFTP
Many people occasionally have a need to FTP files to other computers; if you ever have the need to transfer files in such a fashion, FileZilla will do the job slickly and quickly.

16. Keynote
http://www.tranglos.com/free/keynote.html
Unique but essential
Keynote is basically designed specifically for the task of taking notes on a laptop. If you ever find yourself in a meeting or a presentation with your laptop open and want to jot down notes and organize them just a bit, Keynote is unquestionably the program for you. It’s not good at quality word processing, but that’s not the point. In my professional work, I find myself using Keynote almost as often as any other utility.

17. MusikCube
http://www.musikcube.com/
Replaces iTunes
If you’re not already committed to downloaded music from the iTunes Music Store, then MusikCube is the best choice available for a music organizer and player. It organizes your mp3s, makes it really easy and really fast to find them, and allows you to make some incredibly clever smart playlists.

18. Handbrake
http://handbrake.m0k.org/
Unique but essential
Handbrake enables you to stick a DVD in your DVD drive and have the contents of that film stored to your hard drive in a form that can be read by pretty much any media player. I often use it to put a few movies on my laptop for travel purposes, so I don’t have to worry about keeping track of DVDs while on the road.

19. X-Chat 2
http://www.silverex.org/
Replaces mIRC
X-Chat is a free IRC client. For those unfamiliar with IRC, it’s a place for technical people (and, as my wife loves to point out, nerds) to meet and discuss topics in an open environment. I often find it very useful when piecing through difficult technical issues.

20. KeePass
http://keepass.sourceforge.net/
Unique but essential
KeePass is a program that securely stores and manages the abundance of passwords we all use on a daily basis. I have literally hundreds of usernames and passwords spread out all over the place; KeePass keeps them all for me and keeps them safe.

21. TrueCrypt
http://www.truecrypt.org/
Unique but essential
TrueCrypt enables you to convert a memory stick into a strongly encrypted data storage device, meaning that you can store personal data on it without worrying about losing it and having personal information get out and about. I use it to keep some of my most personal data off of my laptop and strongly secured, just in case.

22. PDFCreator
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
Replaces Adobe Acrobat
PDFCreator creates a virtual printer on your computer that, if you print a document to it from any program, creates a PDF of that document that can be read on any computer with Acrobat Reader on it. After installing PDFCreator, all you have to do is print like normal and out comes a PDF!

23. Freemind
http://freemind.sourceforge.net/
Unique but Essential
Freemind is a “mind mapping” software program. In essence, it enables you to brainstorm and link together ideas quickly, creating “maps” of concepts similar to what you might do on a whiteboard. I find it incredibly useful when putting together ideas for new posts or planning small projects or assembling the backbone of a writing project.

24. NASA Worldwind
http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/
Replaces Google Earth
WorldWind is very similar to Google Earth in that it allows you to browse the globe. While it isn’t strong for creating maps (but why not just use Google Maps for that?), it is utterly incredible for viewing three-dimensional landscapes of any place on earth.

25. Notepad2
http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html
Replaces Notepad
Notepad2 is a replacement for the traditional Windows Notepad that just adds a few sweet little features: multiple documents; line, word, and character counts; and some highlighting of tags. In fact, I’m using Notepad2 as I draft this post (after using Freemind to organize it).

26. HealthMonitor
http://healthmonitor.zucchetti.com/
Unique but useful
HealthMonitor enables you to keep an eye on the health of your computer. It identifies slowdowns and other system issues quickly and lets you know (for example, it gives a popup if your system memory gets to a certain percentage of fullness, or if your hard drive has only 10 GB free). This can keep you out of trouble and also give you clues to problems your machine might be having.

27. Workrave
http://www.workrave.org/
Unique but useful
Sometimes late into a writing session, my wrists get sore from too much repetitive movement. Workrave basically jumps in before this happens and locks down the computer for a while, preventing me from working too much and causing repetitive stress injury. Since I’ve started using it, it hasn’t significantly hurt my productivity at all and my wrists are thanking me!

28. GanttPV
http://www.pureviolet.net/ganttpv/
Replaces Microsoft Project
If you do any project management (or have a need to dip your toes in the water), GanttPV does a brilliant job of managing the task quickly, easily, and freely. If you need to move to MS Project later, you can export from GanttPV to Project, but once you start digging into GanttPV, you’ll likely have no reason to use Project.

29. GnuCash
http://www.gnucash.org/
Replaces Microsoft Money or Quicken
GnuCash is a slimmed-down version of the bloated Microsoft Money and Quicken packages, but it contains all of the features I want for managing my money. The interfaces are incredibly simple - it functions much like a checkbook ledger on your computer - but there’s a lot of meat hidden throughout the software.

30. True Combat: Elite
http://www.truecombatelite.net/
Replaces Quake IV, Halo, etc.
After all this downloading, you’re going to need to blow off a little steam, and I’ve yet to find a more enjoyable free game than this one. It’s basically a third person combat game, but the graphics are spectacular and the game is quite engrossing.

Ultimate GMail Collection: over 80 Tools and Tips

Firefox EXTENSIONS

Gmail Manager - manage multiple Gmail accounts, receive new mail notifications, view unread messages right from your browser statusbar. “…The Gmail Manager Firefox add-on obviates the need to keep your Gmail open in a tab all the time by displaying your email info in a statusbar pop-up…” [via LifeHacker]

GmailThis - excellent browser bookmarklet that lets you quickly forward highlighted text on any webpage via Gmail.

Better Gmail - integrates features of 10 Greasemonkey scripts into one firefox addon. These include: Google Reader integration, Mac-like skin, GCal integration, Fixed font and more.

GmailSkinz - powerful firefox addon with lots of cool features: change Inbox color , Add Google IG modules, insert images from Picasa albums, insert smileys, make navigation menu horizontal, hide unnecessary page elements, and more. (Note: some users reported having problems with this addon).

CustomizeGoogle - removes ads, switches you from http to https, hides the spam counter, quick contacts box, invite box and forces fixed font

Gspace - multi-platform firefox addon that turns your Gmail account into powerful online storage tool.

Gmail Search - search your Gmail account directly from the firefox search bar.

GcalQuickTab - toggle between Gmail and Google Calendar with keyboard shortcuts.

GTDInbox - turns your account into flexible and feature-loaded ToDo-management service (GTD = Getting Things Done)

DragDropUpload - this handy extension lets you quickly attach one or more files to your emails by dragging them over the “Attach a file” link.

Google Toolbar - official Google toolbar featuring one-click Gmail messages search.

FireGPG - integrates contextual menu with some useful functions: encrypt, decrypt, sign, etc. Read more on how to use it here.
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GreaseMonkey SCRIPTS (What is Greaseamonkey?)

(click to enlarge)

Gmail Super Clean - clean and distraction-free Gmail. Looks great, check it out here

Gmail Spam-count Hide - hides spam count link.

Google Reader Folders - adds a little box that lists the folders on Google Reader along with the number of unread items in each one.

Google Reader Integration - complete integration of GReader into Gmail. Excellent! (view). Jump to Google Reader Tools and Tips.

Google Calendar Integration - integrates GCal agenda into Gmail (view). Jump to Google Calendar Tools and Tips.

Conversation Preview - lets you quickly preview message contents right from the main inbox window (view).

Saved Searches - create ’saved searches’ (aka smart folders) and display them in the separate box in the navigation menu. Clicking on a search executes the saved query (view).

Folders4Gmail - allows you to create nested labels (i.e. labels and sub-labels) [via LifeHacker].

Gmail Date Search - adds a ‘Search by Date’ button to Gmail’s search form.

Label Colors - color menu labels to make them stand out better (view).

GMail Attachment Icons - adds attachment icons to emails, letting you see what kind of attachment an email has (HTML ,JPG, PDF….). Note: ‘Attachment icons’ isn’t a standard Greasemonkey script, it’s an addon for a similar Firefox extension known as Stylish. However it should work with Geasemonkey as well.

GmailTo - forces all ‘mailto’ links to open in GMail.

Fixed Font Toggle - adds a font toggle button so that messages can be viewed in a fixed-width font. Read more …

Gmail Macros - adds extra keyboard shortcuts to Gmail (i.e. “t” for move to trash, “r” for mark as read, “p” for mark as read and add to archive…etc). Read more…

Gmail Encrypt - encrypts your messages to prevent unwanted people from reading it. Just in case someone intercepts it while it’s on the way.

SSLGoogle - forces Gmail, Google Docs and GCale pages and their intra-links to open via secure connection (HTTPS).

Signature Float - moves your email signature to the top of the message rather than the bottom.

Attachment reminder - reminds you to attach a file to your Gmail, based on whether you have the word attach (ed, ment, etc) in the body.

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Desktop Programs and Web Apps

GmailDrive (Win) - adds a new virtual drive (’Gmail Drive’) to ‘My Computer‘ folder. Drag’n drop files on top it to store them in your Gmail account.

gDisk (Mac) - Mac alternative for the above mentioned GmailDrive.

Gmail ToDo - handy desktop application that allows you to quickly add and save todo’s in a ‘ToDo’ label in your Gmail account.

FlipMail - free service for forwarding some/all of your emails to your mobile (US Only).

Gmail Loader - cross-platform (Win, Mac, Linux) tool to help you load all your old message archives from other email accounts into Gmail. [via LifeHacker].

Icon Generator - minimize spam exposure by getting an image for your email address and safely publish it wherever needed.

Blogsigs - lets you auto-include the title of your latest blog post in your email signature. Works with Gmail.

GMail Mobile - access Gmail from your mobile.

Google Talk - Google’s IM service which is fully integrable with GMail.

You’ve Got Gmail - Gmail plugin for Trillian (IM client)

Unbl0ck - web-based proxy for accessing Gmail from places where it’s blocked (work, school,…)

iPhoto2Gmail (Mac) - allows you to instantly email images from within iPhoto. Send either original or optimized (resized) image versions.

MailPlane - “…A full fledged mail client for Google Mail and Mac OS X “. Mail client combining best of Gmail with Mac’s simplicity anduser interface. It’s still in beta though, but you can request invite from here.

GmailFS - mountable Linux filesystem which uses Gmail as its storage medium

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GMail Notifiers

- for Windows: GMail Notifier (official), GTray, Notifier2
- for Mac: GMail Notifier (official), GCount, Gmail+Growl 2.0
- for Linux: KCheckGmail
- for Firefox: E-Mail Notifier Toolbar, Gmail Notifier

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GMail HowTo’s (over 20 all purpose HowTo guides)

HowTo: Build advanced Gmail filters and persistent searches.
HowTo: Import your archived emails into Gmail.
HowTo: Access Gmail account of someone who dies.
HowTo: Force Gmail notifier to use SSL (instead of HTTP).
HowTo: Import contacts from Hotmail to Gmail.
HowTo: Redownload Gmail messages into outlook.
HowTo: Backup your Gmail messages using Google Groups.
HowTo: Create Google Calendar events from Gmai.
HowTo: Set Gmail as default mail client in Ubuntu (without any additional software).
HowTo: Sync. Google Calendar and Gmail contacts to your desktop.
HowTo: Use rich HTML email signatures straight from Gmail (req. Better Gmail extension).
HowTo: Manage all your email account with Gmail. (Excellent guide for folks with several emails.)
HowTo: Back up Gmail with Fetchmail (Windows).
HowTo: Configure and access Gmail on Mozilla Thunderbird.
HowTo: Use Gmail over IMAP and tag your mail, too.
HowTo: Sync. Micr. Outlook, GCal, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone.
HowTo: Encrypt and sign Gmail messages using FireGPG extension (see above).
HowTo: Work with Gmail Attachments like a PRO.
HowTo: Attach and send blocked file types, i.e. ‘*.exe’.
HowTo: Find that ’someone’ who gives away your email address to spammers.
HowTo: Gmail on Home Linux Box using Postfix and Fetchmail.

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Gmail Shortcuts

- Secret keyboard shortcut for deleting messages [labnol.blogspot.com]
- Shortcuts for Special Gmail Labels [googlesystem.blogspot.com] - for ultra quick navigation
- Gmail Shortcut List: handy, printable list of keyboard shortcuts for the Gmail [comp.nus.edu.sg]

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Tips

- Three solid Gmail productivity tips [mattcutts.com]
- What to do if your Gmail is nearly full [bnura.blogspot.com]
- Jim’sTips: huge collection of basic gmail tips [g04.com]

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Listening to: Vijay Yesudass, Gomathi Sree & Chorus - Sahara
via FoxyTunes

Crop your Profile Picture in orkut

Croping a DP is soo easy

It's super easy: just select the file, click upload and you'll see a cropping window on the next page. Drag the window with your mouse to select the part of the photo you'd like to be your picture. You can also change the size and the shape of the window by dragging the corners to include or exclude as much of the backdrop as you'd like. When you're done, click the "crop photo" button, and, voila, you will have a new profile photo. Or, if you think the original photo is good enough, click "use original" and the whole, uncropped image will become your profile photo. If you would like to experiment further with photo options, just click "cancel" and upload another photo.

Google Pack Adds StarOffice

Google Pack, the collection of applications recommended by Google, includes a new software: StarOffice, an office suite developed by Sun. In 2000 Sun released StarOffice's source code, which became the foundation of OpenOffice.org, an open source project sponsored by Sun.


StarOffice 8 is a full-featured office suite that contains a word processor, a spreadsheet tool, applications for presentations, databases, math formulas and drawing. It has support for most Microsoft Office formats (except for the formats introduced in Office 2007), but it can also export documents as PDF out of the box. The software normally costs $70, but it's available for free in Google Pack. It's worth noting that StarOffice has a huge installer (more than 140 MB), so you should download it only if you have a fast Internet connection.

It will be interesting to see why Google didn't choose to include OpenOffice.org, the primary difference between StarOffice and OpenOffice.org being that StarOffice includes some proprietary components like clip-art graphics, fonts, templates and tools for Microsoft Office migration.

The next step would probably be the addition of a plug-in that lets you synchronize local documents with Google Docs & Spreadsheets, so you can have the best of the both worlds: edit complicated documents offline, collaborate and store files securely online. For now, StarOffice is integrated with Google Search and Google Desktop.

Intel intros 3GHz quad core processor

CHIP FIRM Intel said it has introduced two quad core server chips ahead of schedule and set pricing to drive the market. [Surely drive AMD mad? Ed.]

The Xeon X5365 is a 3GHz quad core chip which runs at 120 watts, and has a front side bus speed of 1333MHz. The L5335 is a 2GHz chip which runs at 50 watts.

Intel claims that a Fujitsu Siemens Primergy RX300 S3 server using the 5365 scored 98.9 using the SPECint_rate-base 2006 benchmark.

The chips include Intel's virtualisation tech and the firm said the chips have additional extensions for better interrupt handling using Windows 32-bit OSes.

The chip firm is pricing the X5365 at $1,172 and the L5335 at $380.

As we reported in June, chip rival AMD will introduce two "Barcelona" quad core chips on September 10th

Orkut now allows Multimedia Content inside Scrapbook

Google has finally made it possible to send rich-content scraps to your friends. You’ll be able to insert images, audio, video and embeddable objects into the scrap. They are rolling this feature on a profile-by-profile basis, so it might take few days to appear on your profile.

Here’s how you can send rich content scraps:

• Add images:
  Copy and paste urls ending in .jpg, .gif, .png or .bmp and the image will appear in the scrap.
  for example, http://example.com/example.jpg
• Add videos from YouTube and Google Video:
  Copy and paste the url and the video will appear in the scrap.
  for example, http://youtube.com/watch?v=videoid
• Add podcast/audio:
  Copy and paste the url of an audio file and an audio player will appear in the scrap.
  for example, http://example.com/example.mp3
• Add html-embeddable objects:
  Create or upload your content at sites such as photobucket.com, imageshack.com, rockyou.com or slide.com. Copy and paste the html embed code to share it with your friends.

I think it’s pretty cool to watch videos or images without having to leave the scrap page. In order to prevent spammers from misusing this feature, Google asks you to fill the word verification, if you’ve got embed, link or image in your scrap. Additionally, rich content scraps can only be sent to friends, which mean if you are not connected to someone, you can’t send a rich content scrap to that person.

Nowadays, Google is trying it integrate more and more service with Orkut. They did it with Google Talk, then YouTube / Google Videos and now Picasa Web Albums. I think they are taking a step in the right direction by adding new features to Orkut, but they should seriously consider re-designing the user interface. I’m quite sick of the ugly blue-pink color scheme. Is it just me or you too feel the same?

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Listening to: Vijay Yesudass, Gomathi Sree & Chorus - Sahara
via FoxyTunes

Einstein's Refrigerator

t's noiseless, inexpensive and durable. But reinventing the great genius' invention may not be the answer to one of today's environmental problems. Then again, it may be

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By Gary Goettling

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Georgia Tech graduate student's research into Albert Einstein's work has produced some chilling results. An idea-potentially even a great idea-gathering dust for almost 70 years has been unearthed and built by mechanical engineering doctoral candidate Andy Delano. He calls it "Einstein's refrigerator." "It's basically an absorption-type refrigerator that uses ammonia, water and butane to create a chemical phenomenon that allows you to run the whole thing at a constant pressure, so you don't need moving parts like a pump or a compressor," Delano explains. "It provides cooling with only heat as an input. Literally, you heat one end and the other end gets cold."

The device is based on a 1930 patent issued to Einstein and Leo Szilard, who would become a distinguished theoretical physicist in his own right and the first to conceive the neutron chain reaction. Beginning in 1926 and continuing for the next seven years, the men collaborated on ways to improve home refrigeration units, eventually accruing 45 patents in their names for three different models.

They were motivated by newspaper accounts of a Berlin family that had died when a seal in their refrigerator ruptured, leaking toxic fumes throughout their home. Theorizing that a device without moving parts would eliminate the potential for seal failure, Einstein and Szilard explored practical applications for different refrigeration cycles.

At the time, Einstein was already world famous for his theory of relativity, and Szilard was a graduate assistant at the University of Berlin.

Delano has a "gut feeling" that most of the inventing was done by Szilard, with Einstein providing consultation and help with the paperwork since he had once worked as a patent examiner. Naturally, the association with Einstein also imbued the research with considerable prestige and credibility-enough, Szilard hoped, to attract financial backing.

The most promising patents, including those followed by Delano, were quickly bought by the Swedish company AB Electrolux to protect its refrigeration technology from competition. A few demonstration units were constructed from the other patents, but to Delano's knowledge, the particular model he constructed has never before been built or tested.

The refrigerator represents the culmination of Delano's master's and doctoral thesis work on the novel cooling cycle employed by Einstein and Szilard.

"I was researching the refrigeration cycle analytically, modeling it on a computer," he says. "There was no funding to build such a unit, so I pulled together my resources and built it myself with my own money."

Those resources included his former roommate, Rob Bush, CE '93, who helped weld the refrigerator together, and his brother, Robert Delano, an industrial design senior at Tech who developed an animated rendition of the original patent diagram showing the movement and interaction of fluids in the device's cooling cycle.

Dr. Sam Shelton, Delano's faculty adviser, secured equipment to build the refrigerator.

"Since it was going to take three or four months to build, I wasn't too encouraging of Andy to take the extra time," laughs Shelton, who worked with Delano three years ago to design the Olympic torch. "But he showed remarkable perseverance in seeing the project through to the end-and it worked the first time he tried it."

Einstein and Szilard's push for new refrigeration technology was cooled off by the Depression and the invention in 1930 of Freon, which fixed the vapor-compression process as the refrigeration standard. But concerns over Freon's ozone-depleting nature may warrant a new look at the Einstein-Szilard invention, which is also noiseless, inexpensive to produce and durable, according to Delano.

"Because it has no moving parts, you could make one that would last a hundred years without any kind of maintenance," he says.

While Delano's prototype is outfitted with electricresistance heaters for convenience, perhaps the most marketable quality of "Einstein's refrigerator" is that it does not require electricity to operate.

"Since all you need is a heat source, models could be designed that use a small gas burner or even solar energy," he says. Thus the refrigerator could be useful in remote or underdeveloped areas and for camping and recreationalvehicle applications.

So Einstein's refrigerator is cool, but can it freeze?

"When I first put the chemicals in it, I got ice," says Delano. "Then I fiddled with the various chemicals, and now it just gets pretty cold. So with a few modifications, I think a refrigerator-freezer combination could be developed."

Delano may patent some of his improvements, but says he harbors no illusions about the refrigerator's future.

"It's neat; it's quite interesting, but it's not going to revolutionize anything. I will probably do some more research on my own, but I'll still be looking for a job when I get out of school."

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Listening to: 13 - Don't Turn Around
via FoxyTunes

Nearly 80 percent of India lives on half dollar a day

Seventy-seven percent of Indians -- about 836 million people -- live on less than half a dollar a day in one of the world's hottest economies, a government report said.

The state-run National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS) said most of those living on below 20 rupees (50 US cents) per day were from the informal labor sector with no job or social security, living in abject poverty.

"For most of them, conditions of work are utterly deplorable and livelihood options extremely few," said the report, entitled "Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihoods in the Unorganized Sector", seen by Reuters on Friday.

"Such a sordid picture co-exists uneasily with a shining India that has successfully confronted the challenge of globalization powered by economic competition both within the country and across the world."

Around 26 percent of India's population lives below the poverty line, which is defined as 12 rupees per day, said officials.

Economic liberalization since the early 1990s has created a 300 million-strong middle class and led to an average annual economic growth of 8.6 percent over the last four years, but millions of the country's poor remain untouched by the boom.

According to the report, based on data from 2004-2005, 92 percent of India's total workforce of 457 million were employed as agricultural laborers and farmers, or in jobs such as working in quarries, brick kilns or as street vendors.

The report said the majority of those working and living under "miserable conditions" were lower castes, tribal people and Muslims and the most disadvantaged of these were women, migrant workers and children.

"This is the other world which can be characterized as the India of the Common People, constituting more than three-fourths of the population and consisting of all those whom the growth has, by and large, bypassed," said the report.

The NCEUS report, which was presented to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday, recommends the government provide social security benefits such as maternity and medical expenses as well as pensions to people working in the Unorganized sector.

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Listening to: 12 - Thank Abba For The Music
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Awesome song

This song is jus awesome

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Listening to: 11 - Lady
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Google Custom Search Blog Hacked?

Google's automatic detection gear detected google blog as spam and deleted all its post lol.

Google Custom Search Blog Hacked?

The official Google Custom Search blog (as linked from the Google Blog) has a very strange post up today:

Google Custom Search, is the wonderful product from Google which many webmasters have been looking and dream for. It allows webmasters to create their own custom search engines to search only the sites he/she wants.

Also Google Custom Search is integrated with Ad-sense, which means make money while keeping users on your site for longer time with custom search engine.

I’ll cover up more on this powerful tool very soon in my next blog.

Good Luck for all the Custom Search customers(??).

Cheers,
Srikanth

Apart from grammar problems and misspellings of Google Products (like “Ad-sense”), the whole posts seems skewed in a funny, non-official direction. “Also,” as Ionut Alex. Chitu of Google Operating System who sent this in remarks, “all the posts from this blog were deleted.”

It wouldn’t be the first time an official Google Blog was hacked, or kidnapped due to a misconfiguration by a Google employee, as these two posts illustrate.

and this is wat google replid

"Whoops! We accidentally classified ourselves as spam, and our ever-perceptive Blogger settings caught us. The Custom Search Blog has since been restored, and we’re taking steps to ensure this doesn’t happen with other Google blogs in the future. Other Blogger users can make sure this doesn’t happen to them by reporting any problems to the Blogger support team via the Blogger Help Center at http://www.blogger.com/problem.g. We can then investigate."

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Listening to: DJ Tiesto - in my memory
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Dual Music Player That Plays Your MP3 Collection & Your CDs

You want to enjoy your audio CDs while traveling but you also have a huge MP3 collection at home that you want to take with you. The ideal solution? DMP, a portable music player that supports CD and MP3 files. Use the MP3 player as you normally would, hang it around your neck, clip it on your jeans or place it in your pocket. Otherwise open both sides and insert your favorite CD and you got yourself a CD player my friend. Now that’s music to my ears.

Designer: Yong-Seong Kim

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Listening to: John Powell - Faces Without Names
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IBM seeks to build world's fastest supercomputer

BIG BLUE will cobble together what is expected to be the fastest supercomputer in the world for the US National Science Foundation, it was revealed by mistake last week on a government web site.

The speed target for this machine will be one petaflop, which is a thousand trillion floating-point calculations per second. The Top 500 Supercomputer Sites list shows the currently fastest supercomputer as IBM's Blue Gene/L, containing over 131,000 processors and capable of a sustained speed of just over 280 trillion operations per second (teraflops), or about one quarter of this projected future system's performance.

Even allowing for the increased speed of the future version of IBM's Power CPU likely to be used in this machine, it will probably require on the order of 250,000 processors. Add in the memory and storage devices that will be associated with this machine and it's easy to predict that another multi-megawatt power plant will be needed somewhere in the US midwest to support it. And when it's running in the wintertime, Chicago might even see a slight reduction in lake-effect snowfall due to the additional heat pumped into the region by this machine.

The machine will be built for use by the DoD's Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) and installed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign just outside Chicago. It will focus on a few Grand Challenge science problems, such as global weather modeling (along with whatever else DARPA wants, of course).

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Listening to: artist - ERIMALAI NAANE
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52 Influential Photographs

Today I share with you 52 of the photographs that shaped a technology, an art form, and the world.

Nicéphore Niépce - View from the Window at Le Gras (1827)

The earliest surviving photograph, with an exposure time between 8 and 20 hours!

Louis Daguerre - Boulevard du Temple (1838)

First photograph of a person.

James Clerk Maxwell - Tartan Ribbon (1861)

The very first color photograph.

Mathew Brady - Federal Dead on the Field of Battle of First Day (1863)

Brady’s photograph but the brutality of the U.S. Civil War to those at home.

Thomas Annan - Glasgow, Close No. 80, High Street (1868)

Annan’s shoot in Glasgow, commissioned by the Glasgow’s City Improvement Trust, was perhaps the first to document the urban poor.

The Daily Graphic - Steinway Hall (1873)

The first printed photo appeared in New York’s The Daily Graphic, depicting Manhattan’s Steinway Hall. Newspaper photos went on to win Pulitzer Prize journalism awards alongisde reportage.

Eadweard Muybridge - The Horse in Motion (1878)

Muybridge shot a horse in fast motion using 50 cameras, demonstrating that a horse’s hooves do all leave the ground while galloping, and more importantly laying the groundwork for motion pictures.

Unknown - First Flight (1903)

The Wright brothers realize the ancient human dream of flight.

Edward Steichen - The Pond - Moonlight (1904)

Among the first to use a new color process, autochrome. And haunting.

Edward S. Curtis - Red Hawk at an Oasis in the Badlands (1905)

The immigrating Europeans’ contemptuous view of Native Americans was met with the obvious dignity of this Oglala Sioux chief.

Lewis W. Hine - Breaker Boys (1910)

The National Child Labor Committe hired Hine to depict children working in mines, mills, and streets. His photographs swayed public opinion as statistics could not.

Eric Enstrom - Grace (1918)

This religious scene can be found in the homes of millions of Christians, reminding them of ritual prayer and simplicity.

Man Ray - Soralization (1929)

The dadaist and surrealist painter also experimented extensively with his camera.

Unknown - LynchingA racist mob took these men from a jail and hung them. The photo was as effective in disgusting many as bolstering white supremacy.

Christian Spurling - Loch Ness Monster (1934)

London’s Daily Mail hired M.A. Wetherell to shoot the famed monster. Finding nothing, he conspired with Spurling to concoct this famous image.

Unknown - The Nuremberg Rally (1934)

Propoganda photos like these certainly helped change the world, for the worse.

Dorothea Lange - Migrant Mother (1936)

A famous portrait of the Great Depression.

Robert Capa - Death of a Loyalist Soldier (1936)

This famous photograph, probably staged but supposedly depicting the death of a solider during the Spanish civil war, served to de-romance the notion of war.

Murray Becker - Hindenburg (1937)

Photos like this of the Hindenburg disaster shattered faith in Zeppelin travel.

20th Century Fox - Betty Grable (1942)

Grable’s million-dollar legs were the subject of the most-seen pinup sent to ease the suffering of American troups during World War II.

Ansel Adams - The Tetons - Snake River (1942)

Adams turned photography into an art, and inspired the preservation of natural wonders in the process.

Robert Capa - Omaha Beach (1944)

Taken alongside the first infantry during the Normany invasion. Later, the raw look of Capa’s photographs were explicity imitated by Speilberg in Saving Private Ryan.

Joe Rosenthal - Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima (1945)

This iconic image of U.S.A. combat rainvigorated waning support to finish out the war.

Alfred Eisenstaedt - The Kiss (1945)

Pure joy as World War II ends.

Margaret Bourke-White - Gandhi at his Spinning Wheel (1946)

This portrait of a hero is now an icon for humility and nonviolence.

Philippe Halsman - Dalí Atomicus (1948)

Halsman’s famous photograph of a really surreal world.

Alberto Korda - Che Guevara (1960)

This iconic portrait of the Latin American revolutionary spread like wildfire as the quintessential poster.

Charles Moore - Birmingham (1963)

Moore’s photos of the open hostility against Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent demonstrators rallied support for the blacks.

Abraham Zapruder - JFK Assassination (1963)

Frame 313 of the only footage of John F. Kennedy’s assassination shows the president’s head exploding.

Malcolm W. Browne - Burning Monk (1963)

Thich Quang Duc burned himself to death at a busy intersection in Saigon to protest the South Vietnamese president’s opression of Buddhism.

Lennart Nilsson - How Life Begins (1965)

An endoscope capture of a fetus that was reprinted widely by pro-life activists.

Eddie Adams - Execution of a Viet Cong Guerrilla (1968)

Adams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph turned public opinion against the Vietnam war.

William Anders - Earthrise (1968)

Perhaps the most famous photograph ever taken: earth from behind the moon.

Neil Armstrong - Apollo 11 Moon Landing (1969)

Finally, a man walked on the moon, and another was in the reflection of his visor.

Don McCullin - Biafra (1969)

When war photographer Don McCullin saw the children of Biafra dying of hunger and the muscle-wasting disease kwashiorkor, he stopped photographing soldiers and convinced the world community to intervene with photos of children.

Duncan Cameron - Canadian Seal Hunt (1969)

Photos liked this one sparked public outrage. Many stopped buying fur and “seal-clubbing” became a metaphor for heartless evil.

Huynh Cong Ut - Napalm Strike (1972)

“Nick” Ut captured these South Vietnamese children being burned by Napalm. After taking the photo, Nick doused the naked Kim Phuc with water and took her to the hospital.

W. Eugene Smith - Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath (1972)

A Japanese girl suffers from mercury poisoning. The Chisso company was dumping waste into the water, and this photograph led to the company’s allocating funds for victims.

Unknown - Lenna (1972)

A cropped cover of Playboy became perhaps the most popular image used for testing image processing algorithims.

Stanley J. Forman - Fire on Marlborough Street (1975)

Forman climbed on a fire truck and cought these two falling from the burning building seconds before a fireman could reach them. The photo pushed states to require better fire safety codes.

Mike Wells - Uganda (1980)

A priest holds the hand of a starving child. Photos like this one moved the United Nations and others to send food to the starving Horn of Africa.

Steve McCurry - Afghan Girl (1984)

Sharbat Gula’s piercing gaze on the cover of National Geographic came to symbolize the plight of refugees around the world. Her identity was unknown until she was found again in 2002.

Stuart Franklin - Tiananmen Square (1989)

As millions demanded reform, a single young man refused to move in the face of the People’s Republic’s tanks.

German Press Agency - Oil-Contaminated Bird at the Coast of Alaska (1989)

When oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground Prince William Sound, crude oil killed millions of animals and destroyed natural habitats, and public outcry demanded new laws and billions in payment from Exxon.

Charles Porter - Oklahoma City (1995)

A fireman carries one victim from the wreckage of the federal building in Oklahoma City after the terrorist bomb killed 168 people.

NASA - Pillars of Creation (1995)

The Hubble Space Telescope’s most famous photo shows the Eagle Nebula and captivated a planet of stargazers.

Various - 2001 Terrorist Attacks (2001)

Terrorists attack the World Trade Center and other sites with airplanes, launching the recognition of a new kind of war on earth.

Andreas Gursky - 99 Cent II Diptychon (2001)

Perhaps surprisingly, this dense photograph of a supermarket is the most expensive photo ever sold, for $3,346,456 in a February 2007 Sotheby’s auction.

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Listening to: John Powell - Waterloo
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