Urinal game

Fortunately, U.K.-based Captive Media has combined pee time and play time with urinal games controlled by, you guessed it, your own very personal game-whiz skills.

The system--patented in the U.K., with patents pending overseas--consists of a 12-inch high-definition LCD screen installed at eye level above the urinal.

When not in active use, the system plays a mixture of ads and content from one of six "PTV" channels. When a user approaches, the monitor flips from ad mode to gaming mode, using sensors to detect not only the urinator's presence, but the direction of his stream.

Just move left or right to demonstrate your gaming (and aiming) prowess in titles like On the Piste, in which you speed through the (presumably yellow) snowy mountains on a supercharged snowmobile, and Clever Dick, a wicked pisser of a trivia game. As the Telegraph rightly points out, "Never has Nintendo Wii sounded more apt."

Five of the media urinals are currently enjoying a trial run at The Exhibit bar in South London, with a broader rollout expected across the U.K. early next year. Competitive pee-gamers can even leak their scores to an online leaderboard or Twitter.

"We already had a huge amount of interest in the units from bars, pubs, exhibition centers, and retail outlets across the country and overseas--even though we've been trying to keep a lid on it," said Gordon MacSween, one of two Cambridge engineering graduates who founded Captive Media. A lid...geddit? OK, we'll stop now.

Captive Media informs us that research pegs the "average visit time for a U.K. male at 55 seconds--equivalent to two standard TV ad slots!" (Furthering the British/American divide, informal research by a U.S. colleague today produced a 22-second pee time).

Regardless of stream duration, Captive Media sees a huge opportunity in "turning the minute most men spend at the bowl from a boring interlude into an engaging experience which offers brands pre-game, in-game, and post-game promotional opportunities." The powerful urinal lobby has probably never felt more victorious.

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IITians create device to prevent derailments

The new device is aimed at replacing a bulky, box-like contraption that is currently used by Indian Railways.

"Our device is a supplementary system for monitoring track health, making it simpler to integrate with the existing railway infrastructure," said Kshitij Deo, M.Tech in mechanical engineering, who developed the device with three others from the vibration and dynamics lab of the IIT.

For Railways, safety is important as thousands of trains use around 114,500 km tracks of its network - the world's fourth largest. With regular use, the tracks develop cracks and fissures, including problems linked to loose nuts and bolts at the joints. If the tracks are less firmly anchored on the soil, it could lead to derailment.

All these faults can now be detected in real time and recorded automatically to prevent derailment thanks to the oscillation monitoring system, a cutting-edge device weighing just 100 grams.

The device has been designed and developed by a team of IIT-Kanpur's mechanical engineering graduates, under the guidance of N.S. Vyas, professor and head, mechanical engineering, and the Railways' Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO), Lucknow.

The device, based on micro-electro mechanical system, can monitor track health more comprehensively and enable efficient track maintenance.

"The extremely handy package locates and logs track faults accurately with the help of the GPS (global positioning system), eliminating human errors and making train journeys safer. It has a battery life of 10 hours and can be recharged by USB port on computers," said Deo who developed the device with three others from the vibration and dynamics lab under Vyas.

On the other hand, the existing railway monitoring equipment is bulky and operated manually, with two people being required to feed the location into the bulky device.

It is mounted on a special coach, the oscillation monitoring unit. Since it forms part of a small train, the exercise cannot be undertaken frequently. Track clearances have to be sought and the routes planned and finalised in advance, said Deo.

"The biggest challenge lay in engineering a device that could pinpoint faults with a high degree of precision while simplifying use with a drastically reduced size. We did manage to reduce the number of buttons to one as against 50 required on the keypad of the railway equipment," said Deo.

The device once placed on the floor of a running train's coach measures and records vibrations. Any fault or irregularity on the tracks changes the pattern of vibrations. The device feeds all such data and locational faults into a fingernail-sized data storage card with the help of a GPS receiver.

If the vibrations cross a certain threshold, especially in case of a critical fault, the device alerts engineers with audio-visual signals (beeps and flashing LEDs). Post- journey, the storage card is retrieved from the device and plugged into the computer for reading the track's actual condition and analysis by the railways.

The plan is to install at least three-four such devices on trains running on each route to monitor each track on a regular basis.

The project grew out of a visit by the director of the RDSO to IIT-Kanpur. "We were demonstrating a similar vibration measurement instrument developed by us. In subsequent meetings, the project was finalised and we designed the device in close coordination with RDSO officials," said Deo.

"The project took a year to fructify, involving some 25 field trials on trains, including Shatabdi and Rajdhani Expresses. The RDSO has been optimistic about the project. Many times we actually walked on the track to verify faults as predicted by the device," recalled Deo.

After the successful completion of the first phase, the RDSO is keen on going ahead with the second phase and testing the device on trains in all the railway zones. If its performance is found satisfactory, it would be approved by the Railways.

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Indian-American develops next-generation computer chip

     Indian-American Raj Dutt, an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus, has developed a next-generation energy-efficient computer chip that has caught the attention of the Pentagon, which is testing its application in the ambitious F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

The breakthrough technology by Dutt, Chairman and CEO of privately-held APIC Corp and Photonic Corp, helps computer processors consume up to 90 per cent less energy and run up to 60 per cent faster.

     "The significance of the technology is that information transfer on the semiconductor chip as well as between components, will now be done using light - photons - instead of just electrons (electronics)," California-based Dutt told PTI.

There are many advantages in size, weight and especially power consumed, he explained during his recent trip to Washington, where he met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Photons do not generate heat, thus thy do not need to be cooled. For electronics, cooling is one of the largest cost components.

"Photonic interconnects do not generate heat and use less size than electronic copper interconnects, so more transistors can be put onto a chip. Most significantly, we have figured out how to do this using the same economical process used in manufacturing semiconductor chips today, enabling them to be stamped out by the millions," Dutt said.

Well aware with the potential of the computer chip, the US Department of Defence is fully supporting Dutt and his company. The Pentagon is testing the chip's application in the ambitious F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

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Trap!t: Siri's Sister Technology

   Trapit, a personalized tool for discovering Web articles, opens to the public today. Trapit crawls roughly 100,000 sites, adding more sources every week, to provide users with the most relevant content from deep within the Web, not just the popular or SEO-spammy results. It's built on the same AI technology as Apple's Siri, which means it learns what interests you and gives you better suggestions over time.

You enter a search term for whatever you want, which you can save as a "trap" that will automatically refresh with new content as it's published around the Web. Every time you log in, you'll see new stuff to read, and the suggestions get more personal every day. The Web app launches today at trap.it, but Trapit was developed as a platform, so this is only the first stage. "We expect to power sites and services across the Web," CEO and co-founder Gary Griffiths says.

    When you search on Trapit, the first batch of stories might be pretty good, depending on your query. The interface prompts you to give five stories the thumbs-up or thumbs-down until it's finished personalizing. This isn't an up-vote or down-vote for popularity; it's just whether the article is what you're looking for or not. This is how the AI engine learns what you like and personalizes results for you. After that's done, the results are fine-tuned to your tastes, and the same trap on someone else's profile might look completely different.

Don't think of Trapit as a search tool. You can save traps to your profile, and as the engine finds new stories it thinks will interest you, it delivers them to your traps and gives you a notification. Trapit makes for a great homepage; every time you open your browser, you'll see new stories listed in your activity feed, which you can read now or save to your reading list for later.

While the trendy discovery engines these days are social, trawling your Facebook and Twitter connections and using those to approximate your interests, Trapit goes the other way. It uses only your query, your votes and its machine intelligence. "There's no concept of crowd-sourcing on here," Griffiths says. Trapit shows you featured traps by other users, which you can add as your own, but as soon as you do, they start personalizing for you specifically.

Trapit reminds me of Thoora, an app with a similar mission, but they work rather differently. Thoora's algorithms use certain signals, including popularity but also using smarter semantic data, to pull in content from millions of sources. Trapit scours fewer sources, but it uses different underlying technology with a grasp of natural language.

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Turn your Nokia phone into a WiFi HotSpot

Want to use your Nokia phone as Wi-Fi Hotspot so that you can access internet on different laptops and other portable devices through your mobile phone than tune into this post because we are going to show you how you can make your Nokia Phone into a Wi-Fi Hotspot. JoikuSpot is an awesome application for mobile phone which makes your Nokia Phone into a Wi-Fi Hotspot.Features!!
With the free Edition your phone turns into an open WiFi HotSpot with basic internet protocol support
New simple WiFi Tethering UI connects your laptop or iPad to internet via your phone HotSpot with a click
The Light version is 100% FREE with no time limitations.

Supported Nokia Phone Models
N8, E7, C7, C6-01, 5800 XpressMusic, 5530 XpressMusic, E5, E51, E52, N95 8GB, N97, N78, N79, E71, E72, C5-03, X6, C6, N95, E63, E55, E60, E61, E61i, E65, E66, E73, E75, E90, N80, N81, N81 8GB, N82, N85, N86, N91, N93, N93i, N95 Americas, N95 8GB Americas, N96, N97 Mini, 5630 XpressMusic, 5730 XpressMusic, X5, 6710 Navigator, 8800 Erdos, E6, X7, 702T, T7, Oro, Nokia 500, Nokia 600, Nokia 700, Nokia 701, Nokia 603

DOWNLOAD Light version Click here

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RIM to offer security features for iPhone, Androids

Research In Motion is introducing a software tool giving corporate customers the option of linking employees' personal iPhones to the BlackBerry network without compromising security.

The move, announced on Tuesday, acknowledges the deep inroads made by Apple and Google's Android devices in the global smartphone market, especially among younger users.

It is also a first, tentative step by RIM to offer its network services independently of BlackBerry devices, which have been losing ground to sleeker rivals.

Success with the strategy would likely help RIM defend its turf as the primary handler of mobile devices in the workplace.

"It's not an admission of guilt - it's a necessary evil," Suquehanna analyst Jeff Fidacaro said.

RIM's often-volatile stock jumped more than 8 percent to $17.82 in morning trade on the Nasdaq.

Even so, the shares are still down more than 70 percent this year following a string of delayed or botched product launches and disappointing quarterly results.

RIM's BlackBerry was for years the preferred device for businesses and government agencies, who treasured its encrypted data and distributed the device to millions of workers needing secure, round-the-clock email access.

But many workers now prefer using their own Apple and Android-powered devices to access corporate emails, raising security questions for corporations that RIM hopes to address with the new software.

"While a positive step, the larger challenges remain RIM's need to narrow competitive gaps in its handsets," RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky wrote in a note to clients, pointing out RIM's software deficiencies and limited content and applications available on its devices.

RIM's slice of the lucrative U.S. smartphone market fell to 9 percent in the third quarter, down from 24 percent a year earlier, according to research firm Canalys. Globally, the report placed RIM in fifth place, with 10 percent market share, compared with 15 percent a year earlier.

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After Buzz, Google to discontinue seven more products

Internet search titan Google plans to discontinue seven more products, including ‘Wave’, in a bid to simplify its services further after bringing down the curtains on its ‘Buzz’ social networking, microblogging and messaging tool.

The off-season “spring cleaning” would mark the end of various Google services such as Wave, Knol, Gears, Bookmarks Lists, Friend Connect and Search Timeline, Google Senior Vice-President (Operations) Urs Holzle said in a blogpost.

In addition, Google said it will also shelve its ’renewable energy-cheaper-than-coal initiative, which was touted as an effort to drive down the cost of renewable energy.

This is the third time that Google has announced a whittling down of its products slate after they failed to generate interest among users.

Google said some of the services will stop working from next month and by next year, most of the products will be shut down completely.

“To recap, we’re in the process of shutting a number of products which haven’t had the impact we’d hoped for, integrating others as features into our broader product efforts and ending several which have shown us a different path forward. Overall, our aim is to build a simpler, more intuitive, truly beautiful Google user experience,” Holzle added.

The US-based firm said Google Wave -- which was an attempt to combine email and instant messaging for real-time collaboration -- will turn off completely from April 30, 2012.

In addition, Google Friends Connect service -- which allowed webmasters to add social features to their sites by embedding a snippet of code -- would be retired from March 1, 2012.

Google Gears, which maintains web browser functionality when working offline, will stop working from December 1 and Google Bookmarks List, a service which allowed users to share bookmarks with friends, will end on December 19.

Last month, Google announced that it will shut down its social networking product Google Buzz. In September, Google said it will close as many as 10 products, including Aardvark and Fast Flip, as it streamlines operations and focuses on areas that have “higher impact”.

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Salora Launches 3G Data Card (Factory Unlocked) for Rs. 1650

Salora Zapper 3G Data Card is operator independent (Factory Unlocked) device, means anyone can use any operator’s 3G or 2G SIM in it which will undoubtedly help user to choose best according to him/her rather than bound to operator.

It can also be used for SMS and Media Storage and this product has the capability of expandable memory upto 32 GB.

Salora Zapper 3G Data Card is capable to provide maximum downloading speed up to 3.6 Mbps. The device is compatible with Windows 7, XP, VISTA, SP2+ and Mac OSX (10.5 X Intel based CPU).

As of now Salora Introduces only one data card in the Indian market – Salora Zapper which supports 3.6 mbps HSDPA 3G Data Network along with backward capability to GPRS/EDGE as well. Company also plans to introduce a data card with 7.2 Mbps speed within a month. Salora has a pan-India presence with 30 offices and 300 after-sales service centers to meet ‘customer service’ expectations.

Lets have look on details:


Main Features

* HSDPA/UMTS 2100MHz
* EDGE/GPRS/GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
* NO installation costs, no ISP, no waiting, just plug & play.-Auto Installation
* Automatic Network Selection
* SMS & Phonebook
* HSDPA downlink upto 3.6Mbps
* Fast upload speeds upto 384Kbps
* Micro SD Card slot maximum upto 32 GB
* Receive diversity for best performance
* Multi color status Indicator LED
* Internal Antenna

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Nokia’s Lumia 800: smartphone and saviour?

Nokia and Microsoft are both banking on the new Lumia 800 to provide them with a big comeback in the smartphone market, currently dominated by Android devices and Apple’s iPhone.

The fact that two global market leaders -- Nokia has seen its market lead cut by Android and Apple, while Microsoft operates the world’s premier PC operating system, while failing so far to crack the smartphone market -- have tied up so much hope in one device is reason enough to give it a close look.

Nokia announced in February that it was switching to Windows Phone as the operating system for its smartphones. The Lumia 800 is the first fruit of that partnership.

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iPhone 4S hits Indian stores, starts at Rs.44,500

iPhone 4S

Over a month after its co-founder and tech guru Steve Jobs died, computer technology giant Apple Friday launched iPhone 4S priced between Rs.44,500 and Rs.57,500 in the Indian market.
Customers and enthusiast were seen thronging stores across the country to get a glimpse of the latest offering from Apple's stable.
The phone hit the US market Oct 14.
The smart phone was launched by leading telecom operators Bharti Airtel and Aircel in three variants starting from Rs.44,500 for the 16 GB model, Rs.50,900 for 32 GB, to Rs.57,500 for 64 GB versions.

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Idea launches smartphones to promote 3G service

Leading GSM operator Idea Cellular on Wednesday launched 3G Android smartphones to attract its existing 2G users to its 3G services.

“These smartphones will further drive our existing 3G services. Users will now be able to access the Internet through these devices. We are also studying if we should enter the 3G tablet market. But we have not taken any decision on it,” Idea Cellular MD Himanshu Kapania said.

However, he did not give a time frame by when he expects increased 3G smartphones penetration and also to increase the average revenue per user (Arpu).

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Steve Jobs and Dennis Ritchie – Giants of Technology

Two giants of technology passed away..

we have to think to recreate them.

Now,  i dedicate this blog for them to get inspiration to write about Technology updates..

and trying to enter the Tricks and Tips of Computer and Mobile, both are now popular even in the hands of beggars..

Your Lovingly

MnM™ 

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