Shak's Blog » Shakeel Tariq http://www.shakeeltariq.com Technology bites Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:17:05 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Zedonk – Nothing about technology though but interesting http://www.shakeeltariq.com/zedonk http://www.shakeeltariq.com/zedonk#comments Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:56:07 +0000 Shakeel Tariq http://www.shakeeltariq.com/?p=415

A four-day-old Zedonk, a rare cross between a zebra and a donkey, stands next to her mother at the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve in Lumpkin County, Ga. on Monday. The director of the preserve says it is the first time in 40 years that a zedonk has been born there.

Tom Reed/The Times/AP

]]> http://www.shakeeltariq.com/zedonk/feed/ 0 How the flying car works http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2010/07/01/how-the-flying-car-works/ http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2010/07/01/how-the-flying-car-works/#comments Thu, 01 Jul 2010 07:52:07 +0000 Shakeel Tariq http://www.shakeeltariq.com/?p=412 The wings fold when in it is in car mode and the car can travel at speeds of up to 90 mph. The wings then unfold for flight mode in which it can cruise at a speed of 115 mph for up to 500 miles on a tank of unleaded gasoline.

The “roadable aircraft” is powered by the same 100-bhp engine whether it is on the ground or in the air.

via Terrafugia Transition: How the flying car works – Telegraph.

]]> http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2010/07/01/how-the-flying-car-works/feed/ 0 IT labs in 3,000 middle schools next fiscal http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2010/05/18/it-labs-in-3000-middle-schools-next-fiscal/ http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2010/05/18/it-labs-in-3000-middle-schools-next-fiscal/#comments Tue, 18 May 2010 01:44:17 +0000 Shakeel Tariq http://www.shakeeltariq.com/?p=408 After setting up computer labs in almost all high schools of the province, the Punjab government is set to establish similar computer labs in 3,000 of its 8,000 middle schools in the first phase in next fiscal year.The News has learnt that the provincial government is going to earmark Rs3 billion in the upcoming budget to set up computer labs on the pattern of high schools. The remaining 5,000 schools would then be provided the computer labs in next two years, enabling the Punjab government comply with the Federal governmentís directive to ensure computer education in all schools, from middle level upwards.“We have added 3.4 million new internet users in one go by establishing computer labs in high schools,” said Punjab Information Technology Board CEO Judat Ayaz, who oversaw the high school computer lab project. He said if funds were made available next year, there would be no problem in equipping middle schools with similar labs. The provision of computer labs to 3,000 middle schools would bring the province another 2.4 million young internet users, he added.He said branded global manufacturers had provided software and hardware with three-year guarantee of performance, repair and maintenance. The PTCL had provided broad band high speed internet connections in most of the labs, guaranteeing uninterrupted services for next three years. Even the enterprise supplying 4,285 air conditioners had guaranteed repair and maintenance for three years, he added. He said the government had made the availability of computer labs of global quality on very cheap rates. Originally, he said, the high school computer labs project was estimated to cost Rs6 billion as they were going for 15 branded desktop computers. However, afterwards, it was found that only three desktop computers would be needed if the latest N-Computing device was used. The decision saved the government Rs1.5 billion from the original estimates, he added. This turned out to be a green projects as monitors used as virtual desktops consume only 10 watt of electricity against CBU of desktop computer that used 100 watt. He said the step would help save a lot of energy every year.Judat said the labs of 500 high schools would be upgraded in accordance with the new project. ‘At least 400 high schools could not get computer labs because they did not have access to electricity. This year, they too would get labs as arrangements had been made to electrify the schools through solar panels,’ he added.

via IT labs in 3,000 middle schools next fiscal.

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]]> http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2010/05/18/it-labs-in-3000-middle-schools-next-fiscal/feed/ 0 Google Confirms Employees Have ‘Google Phone’ http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/12/13/google-confirms-employees-have-google-phone/ http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/12/13/google-confirms-employees-have-google-phone/#comments Sun, 13 Dec 2009 11:47:11 +0000 Shakeel Tariq http://www.shakeeltariq.com/?p=401 Google confirmed Saturday that their internal developers are using an unreleased Android based phone, as contradictory rumors about a “Google Phone” flew back and forth across the Internet.On an official Google blog, vice president of product management Mario Queroz said that Google employees are using “a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android,” but that this phone is “exclusively for Google employees,” not for consumers.

Several blogs have pegged the phone as the “HTC Passion,” a slab-style device very similar to the HTC HD2 that some bloggers have said will be coming to T-Mobile USA.

That doesn’t make the Passion any more a “Google phone” than other “With Google” or “Google Experience” Android phones, such as the Motorola Droid or T-Mobile G1.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported that an upcoming Android phone from HTC will be called “Nexus One” and that “Google designed virtually the entire software experience behind the phone.”

But that’s also true of the unlocked version of the T-Mobile G1, released last year as the Android Dev Phone 1. This May, our own Mark Hachman (as well as many Android developers) was given a version of the HTC Magic phone that was called the “Google Ion” at the time – also unlocked, also direct from Google.

More intriguingly, the Journal says that Google intends to sell the phone en masse to consumers unlocked, not through a wireless carrier.

While that’s a common business model in most of the world, and the Dev Phone 1 is available unlocked, typically unlocked phones haven’t sold many units here in the US.

TechCrunch says that a new phone “will be called the Google Phone” and will be sold directly by Google, independently of any wireless carrier.

Engadget claims it will run on AT&T, while blogger John Gruber says its 3G radio will only work with T-Mobile, and AT&T customers would be stuck in 2G mode.

I don’t have any exclusive information about new devices. But I’d bet that this phone is just T-Mobile’s new flagship Android phone, the way the Droid was for Verizon. Remember, Google works with preferred hardware partners to showcase new versions of Android. Google was intensely involved in the design of the original G1. Motorola and Verizon got the first shot at Android 2.0; perhaps now it’s time for Google to show love to HTC and T-Mobile again.

As for it being sold unlocked, remember that T-Mobile has their new Even More Plus plans which are designed to be used with unsubsidized, unlocked phones.

Via PCMag

]]> http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/12/13/google-confirms-employees-have-google-phone/feed/ 0 Electric Contact Lense by Opto-electronic | Technology Bytes | Emagzine.Org http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/12/01/electric-contact-lense-by-opto-electronic-technology-bytes-emagzine-org/ http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/12/01/electric-contact-lense-by-opto-electronic-technology-bytes-emagzine-org/#comments Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:16:09 +0000 Shakeel Tariq http://www.shakeeltariq.com/?p=397

Now we can have a tiny computer display in our eye through the ongoing work with opto-electronic contact lenses taking place at the University of Washington in Seattle.The lab there has been showing off the latest prototype, the handiwork of Dr. Babak Parviz: a semi-transparent array – including an LED – embedded into a contact lens that receives 330 microwatts of power wirelessly from a nearby RF transmitter. Parviz has been using the prototypes to display biosensor feedback about the wearer’s vital signs, but they’ll eventually serve as a heads-up display for displaying other data.The wireless power is picked up by a loop antenna built into the lens, and future iterations of the hardware are expected to integrate the transmitter into a cellphone. There’ll also be far many more LEDs involved, so that the resolution is high enough to be useful.

via Electric Contact Lense by Opto-electronic | Technology Bytes | Emagzine.Org.

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]]> http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/12/01/electric-contact-lense-by-opto-electronic-technology-bytes-emagzine-org/feed/ 0 Twitter Now Asks “What’s Happening” http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/11/20/twitter-now-asks-whats-happening/ http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/11/20/twitter-now-asks-whats-happening/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:44:38 +0000 Shakeel Tariq http://www.shakeeltariq.com/?p=390 twitter-logo(3)Twitter has implemented a small change today, which by comparison to Retweets and UI redesigns isn’t such a huge deal but it’s definitely worth mention. Twitter’s prompting question above the box from which you Tweet from has been “What are you doing” since the microblogging platform launched. Today, it’s been changed to “What’s Happening.”

It’s a wise move because “What are you doing” seemed too narrow for the platform. Broadening the question to match all the things people use twitter for was necessary. Considering that Twitter is now used for breaking news, that term doesn’t really cover it.

via washingtonpost.com.

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]]> http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/11/20/twitter-now-asks-whats-happening/feed/ 0 IBM Researchers Go Way Beyond AI With Cat-Like Cognitive Computing http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/11/20/ibm-researchers-go-way-beyond-ai-with-cat-like-cognitive-computing/ http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/11/20/ibm-researchers-go-way-beyond-ai-with-cat-like-cognitive-computing/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:34:57 +0000 Shakeel Tariq http://www.shakeeltariq.com/?p=382 IBM researchers have developed a cognitive computer simulation that mimics the way a cat brain processes thought, and they expect to be able to mimic human thought processes within a decade. “A cognitive computer could quickly and accurately put together the disparate pieces of any complex data puzzle and help people make good decisions rapidly,” said Daniel Kantor, medical director of Neurologique.

Read full article @ Technology News: Med Tech: IBM Researchers Go Way Beyond AI With Cat-Like Cognitive Computing.

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]]> http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/11/20/ibm-researchers-go-way-beyond-ai-with-cat-like-cognitive-computing/feed/ 0 Google Releases Chrome OS Code http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/11/20/google-releases-chrome-os-code/ http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/11/20/google-releases-chrome-os-code/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:32:17 +0000 Shakeel Tariq http://www.shakeeltariq.com/?p=371
google chromium
google chromium

Google on Thursday released the code for its upcoming Chrome OS, and plans to have a netbook running the operating system available for sale before the 2010 holiday season.Chrome OS has now been open-sourced as part of the Chromium OS project and is open and free to the development community. It includes the current code base, user interface experiments, and some initial designs for ongoing development.When Chrome OS makes it to the market by the end of next year, all activity will be stored in the cloud, Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management at Google, said during a technical preview at the company's Mountain View headquarters. Therefore, if you lose your Chrome OS-based netbook and buy another one, all of your information will be recovered as soon as you log into the new machine.Pichai did not reveal pricing information, but said that it would “be in the range of what people expect today” for a netbook.Google does, however, plan to introduce a slightly larger than usual netbook to accommodate more comfortable typing and viewing, and it is, therefore, “hard to predict” what type of prices to expect a year from now. Google has not specified a price target that it wishes its partners to hit, he said.Google will initially focus on netbooks, but plans to eventually expand that to laptops and desktops. That will not happen in the 2010 timeframe, however, Pichai said.Specific hardware partners will be unveiled in mid-2010. “The goal is to run it as a very open project and we'll be working with a full variety of partners,” Pichai said.He said that Chrome OS currently works on an x86 processor, but there is “work underway” for it to function on ARM as well.”We don't want to go into all the technical details, but we'll make sure that you can run native-based apps on x86 and ARM,” said Matt Papakipos, engineering director on Chrome OS.A Google Chrome OS device is “primarily intended for connectivity” through Wi-Fi as a “fundamentally different model of computing,” Pichai said.That said, there will be instances where users can cache programs locally and use them offline, like listening to music or reading books. As part of HTML 5 capabilities Google is also looking at offline capabilities, with access to local storage.Wi-Fi efforts are primarily focused on 802.11n, Papakipos said.Pichai was not concerned that the OS is too tightly integrated with the browser, which has earned Microsoft some antitrust scrutiny.”We dont have 95 percent market share in the OS market,” he said. “What we are doing is open source. If a competitor wants to bring a competing product to market under a different name, they can.”Google has not had conversations with regulators, he said.Co-founder Sergey Brin said Google does not think about Microsoft. “We think about how we save end users,” he said. “We take data and try to make sure how we make sense of it.”There will be no charge for the Google OS itself, Brin said. If a partner wants to call it a Google machine, then they can, but there will also be a business negotiation that follows to pay Google a fee.

via Google Releases Chrome OS Code – Reviews by PC Magazine.

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]]> http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/11/20/google-releases-chrome-os-code/feed/ 4 ‘Big Bang’ experiment to re-start http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/11/20/big-bang-experiment-to-re-start/ http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/11/20/big-bang-experiment-to-re-start/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:28:37 +0000 Shakeel Tariq http://www.shakeeltariq.com/?p=373 Large Hardon Collider

Large Hardon Collider

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment could be re-started on Saturday morning at the earliest, officials have said.

Engineers are preparing to send a beam of sub-atomic particles all the way round the 27km-long circular tunnel which houses the LHC.

The £6bn machine on the French-Swiss border is designed to shed light on fundamental questions about the cosmos.

The LHC has been shut down for repairs since an accident in September 2008.

Operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), the LHC will create similar conditions to those which were present moments after the Big Bang.

There are some 1,200 “superconducting” magnets arranged end-to-end in the underground tunnel.

These magnets bend proton beams in opposite directions around the main “ring” at close to the speed of light.

At allotted points around the tunnel, the proton beams cross paths, smashing into one another. Physicists hope to see new sub-atomic particles in the debris of these collisions.

“There won't be any circulating beam before Saturday morning,” James Gillies, director of communications at Cern, told BBC News.

“They are scheduled to start putting particles in the LHC (on Friday) evening. We have done that already several times this year.”

The vast physics lab has now been handed over from the hardware commissioning team to the operations team, which takes place every time a particle beam is injected into the LHC “ring”.

The LHC has been shut off since 19 September 2008, when a magnet problem called a “quench” caused a tonne of liquid helium to leak into the tunnel.

Liquid helium is used to cool the LHC to an operating temperature of 1.9 kelvin (-271C; -456F). After the accident, the particle accelerator had to be warmed up so that repairs could take place.

Some 40m Swiss Francs (£24m) were spent on repairs following the accident.

via BBC News – ‘Big Bang’ experiment to re-start.

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]]> http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/11/20/big-bang-experiment-to-re-start/feed/ 0 It’s Google’s World And Handset Makers Just Live In It http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/11/15/its-googles-world-and-handset-makers-just-live-in-it/ http://www.shakeeltariq.com/2009/11/15/its-googles-world-and-handset-makers-just-live-in-it/#comments Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:48:13 +0000 Shakeel Tariq http://www.shakeeltariq.com/?p=368 When the Motorola Droid launched this month everyone was amazed that a company so down on its luck was able to put together a well-designed phone running a powerful, “brand new” OS. The whole package – hardware, software, and marketing – seemed flawless. In fact, phones running Android 1.5 now look hopelessly outdated and with 2.0′s gesture, CDMA, and search support you’d wonder why handset manufacturers like HTC, LG, Kyocera, and Samsung are using 1.5 at all.The reasons have more to do with Google than any decision on the carriers’ part. In fact, according to a source close to the handset business, Google’s Android team directly assisted Motorola and Verizon in building the Droid’s software from the ground up and is currently assisting another, unknown, handset maker in Korea to create a finely-tuned hardware and software combination. Most important, however, is that this is sort of assistance most manufacturers do not receive and, in the end, they are dinged for running an “older” version of Android.

via Washingtonpost.com.

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