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NASA Scientists to try and 'Shake' up the Phoenix mission

Tue, 10/06/2008 - 20:42 by Parni Ray

NASA’s Phoenix lander scooped up a sample of the red Martian soil and dumped it into the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, like it was required to, last Sunday. But, in a frustrating twist of fate the coveted red soil turned out to be far more cohesive than expected and could hence not even pass through the miniscule opening of the miniature oven! Outwitted and perturbed the NASA scientists devoted to the Phoenix mission have now finally come up with a way to get the lumpy red soil to get in. A good strong ‘shake’, they say, ought to do the job.

TB Impedes Progress In AIDS

Tue, 10/06/2008 - 16:50 by Nisha Bhatia

The deadly permutation of multi drug-resistant TB and HIV is fuelling the growth of TB epidemic across the globe subsequently slowing the progress in countering this highly contagious epidemic.

US Law to Force Essential Food Food Allergy Guidelines on all Schools

Mon, 09/06/2008 - 23:06 by Parni Ray

Thanks to the efforts of Jennifer Davis and her daughter Danielle parents of children allergic to food items might finally breath a sigh of relief soon. The mother daughter duo from Charleston have collaborated with the Alexandria based non-profit organization Food Allergies and Anaphylaxis Network to push forward a landmark Federal Law to ensure every school in the US follows a specially created guideline to help protect their students from food allergy.

Programmers await APPLE's 2008 WWDC with bated breath

Sat, 07/06/2008 - 23:43 by Parni Ray

Programmers all over the world are waiting for Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference with bated breath. Industry insiders claim that developers consider the WWDC as crucially important to the market as the release of MAC OS X.

Gmail Labs : A New Testing Zone Of Google

Sat, 07/06/2008 - 16:06 by Nisha Bhatia

On 5 June, 2008 the techno master Google launched a new feature called Gmail Labs. It is an attempt to make the network between the provider and the user become more interactive. No more a proprietary service this application/feature now provides a platform to write and deploy modules for the e-mail and chat program. Set within the regular gmail interface, new programs and extensions can also be posted for users to try and put in their feedback. That is why perhaps gmail labs is called a testing area.

Phoenix lander becomes incommunicado again, Mars soil digging postponed

Thu, 05/06/2008 - 18:14 by Parni Ray

A frustrating ‘communication glitch’ kept the Phoenix lander from finally taking its first real dig on the Martian soil. Carefully planned practice sessions had ensured that the lander’s first plunge into the gravel didn’t come as a ‘shock’ for the Pheonix. In the past few weeks it has been made to effectively dirty its ‘hands’ shoveling out and dumping up clumps and clumps of loose soil. During such sessions the lander arm also managed to scoop out gravel from over intriguing white bits of material. What this white matter is has had the entire scientific community speculating.

The opening dig on Wednesday was eagerly awaited especially due to the possible clues it could lead to regarding the identity of the white substance. The delay in the dig ensures that conjectures about the white material being salt or ice or some other ‘exotic’ substance will keep flying.

The next attempt at excavation will be on Thursday, June 05, 2008.

Scientists at NASA claimed that the malfunction that prevented the Wednesday excavation was caused by a ‘communication glitch’ on the spacecraft that carries forth commands forwarded from the Earth center to the Phoenix lander. This orbiting satellite, called the ‘Odyssey’, was said to have gone into a ‘safe mode’ due to which all it’s non-essential’ programs were automatically shut down.

South Korean Regulator Fines Intel

Thu, 05/06/2008 - 15:02 by Reepika Chopra

Intel, the world's largest maker of semi-conductors, has been fined $25 million by South Korea's competition regulator for breach of antitrust rules. The Korean regulator said Intel must stop offering rebates to South Korean firms to encourage them not to use computers powered by chips made by rival AMD.

Intel said that it was "disappointed" and disagreed with the findings where as Advanced Micro Devices Inc. welcomed the ruling calling the Korean commission a ``premier antitrust body in exposing Intel's anticompetitive practices.''

On Thursday, the Korean Fair Trade Commission said in a statement that it was issuing the order because the semiconductor giant has abused its market position by providing rebates to Samsung Electronics Co. and other South Korean computer makers who agreed to use Intel microprocessors over those manufactured by Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD, Intel's main competitor. Samsung Electronics Co. did not comment on the issue.

New 4 Series Chipsets Unveiled By Intel

Wed, 04/06/2008 - 18:59 by Reepika Chopra

In this information era, people have an innate desire to be connected all the time and this need has yielded the Intel 4 series chipsets which are designed to work with Core 2 Duo and the Core 2 Quad processors. On Tuesday, Sean Maloney, the Executive Vice President of Intel, made the announcement during a keynote address at the Computex Show.

The Intel 4 Series chip sets are designed to power mobile Internet devices (MID), as well as ultra-small PCs, called Netbooks and Nettops. The chipsets that include the G45, G43, P45 and P43 will be used with the 45 nanometer Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Core 2 Quad processors. A chip set is a group of integrated chips or circuits that are designed to work together. Often sold as a single product, chip sets are designed to work with a main processor.

Maloney noted that people increasingly are looking to be able to store all of their high-definition videos, photographs, music and games in one place and be able to access that from small mobile Internet devices while they're on the go. “The Internet is going high-def, Desktop PCs with these new chipsets let you enjoy, share and protect your digital life. They have the processing power and graphics to deliver stutter-free HD video playback, improved 3-D performance and leading storage capabilities," Maloney said during his keynote.

Microsoft Urges Windows Users to Restrict Use of Safari

Tue, 03/06/2008 - 16:22 by Reepika Chopra

Microsoft has warned the users of Windows to restrict the use of Apple Inc.'s Safari as a Web browser until an appropriate update is available from Microsoft and/or Apple. Both the Safari and IE bugs are moderate vulnerabilities that combine, produce a critical flaw which allows remote code execution.

The Safari bug Microsoft referred to is the same one disclosed two weeks ago by researcher Nitesh Dhanjani which allows attackers to litter a victim's desktop with executable files. Such a form of attack, known as "carpet bombing", is possible because Safari lacks an option to require a user's permission to download a file.

The Apple’s refusal to treat the Safari Bug as a security issue illustrates the different approaches to security of the two rivals. Apple told Dhanjani that it might fix the problem in a future Safari update as it did not consider it a security issue. And for that position, it has been criticized by the anti-malware group Stopbadware.org. On May 19, the group issued a statement saying “We encourage Apple to reconsider its stance and treat this as the security issue that it is."

Paulson Sees No Short Term Solution to Soaring Oil Prices

Mon, 02/06/2008 - 16:17 by Reepika Chopra

DOHA, Qatar- On his trip to Middle East, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that there is "no quick fix" to high oil prices because it is an issue of supply and demand. The production capacity has not seen any new development whereas the global demand is increasing day- by-day due to the burgeoning population and increasing needs of the growing economies.

"I don't see a lot of short-term answers," he said. He also said that he would like to see "increased investment throughout the world in oil and gas and alternative sources of energy."

The purpose of the visit is to deliver a message to officials of Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing nations that soaring oil prices are putting a burden on the global economy and there is a need to open up oil markets to investment that can boost yields, exploration and production.

He also acknowledged the fact that U.S. economy was experiencing a "downturn" while reiterating that a strong dollar was in the interest of the U.S.

Hurricane Season Of The Atlantic Starts With Arthur

Mon, 02/06/2008 - 00:43 by Dhananjay sood

Tropical storm Arthur became the first hurricane of the season to hit the Latin American coast. The storm just touched the Yucatan peninsula in the small nation Belize. According to weather agencies the point of origination of the storm was 125 km northwest of Belize City and was moving northwest at the rate of 11km/hour.

Boeing Co. locks horns with the Air Force

Tue, 11/03/2008 - 19:46 by Ishpreet Bindra

Boeing Co. has announced on Monday, that it will formally protest the $35 billion Air Force contract awarded to European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp.

The award to replace 179 air-to-air refueling tankers is the first of the three major Air Force contracts to replace its entire fleet of nearly 600 aging tankers and could be worth $100 billion over the next 30 years.

The Boeing Company has never taken such a harsh step in the last three decades. According to sources at the company office the protest is against the change in evaluation procedures of the planes by the Air Force. As a result of which a bigger plane could compete when originally a medium sized plane was called for by the air force.

The air force officials have also indicated that the larger size of the tanker offered by the EADS/Northrop team was what tipped the balance in their favor.