The Beast File: Google (HUNGRY BEAST)
Mar 12, 2010 Technology, Videos
Meet Google. The noun that became a verb. The world’s favourite search engine, and the company whose motto is “Don’t be evil…” Graphics by Patrick Clair, written by Elmo Keep and Jon Casimir.
Tags: google, The Beast File
Google Buzz
Feb 19, 2010 Technology, Videos
Start conversations about the things you find interesting. Share updates, photos, videos, and more. http://buzz.google.com
Tags: google, Google Buzz
Iran’s science progress fastest in world: Canadian report
Feb 19, 2010 News & Events, Technology
Press Tv
Fri, 19 Feb 2010
A Canadian firm evaluating the global output of science and technology says scientific advancements in Iran has grown 11 times faster than any other country in the world.
Science-Metrix — a Montreal-based company dedicated to the quantitative and qualitative evaluation and measurement of science, technology and innovation — has released its most recent report on “geopolitical shifts in knowledge creation” since 1980, Newscientist reported on Thursday.
In the report, Science-Metrix says the number of scientific publications listed in the Web of Science database shows that the standard growth in the Middle East, particularly in Iran and Turkey, is nearly four times faster than the world average.
“Iran is showing fastest worldwide growth in science,” said Eric Archambault, who authored the report.
“Asia is catching up even more rapidly than previously thought, Europe is holding its position more than most would expect, and the Middle East is a region to watch,” he added.
According to Archambaut, while Iran’s publications have somewhat emphasized on nuclear chemistry and particle physics, the country has also made significant progress in medical science and agriculture development.
Archambaut said Iran’s technological advancements this year have been to an extent that they may even outshine those of China, whose prominence in world science is known to have been growing.
Despite more than thirty years of Western-imposed sanctions, Iran has made great strides in different sectors, including aerospace, nuclear science, medical development, as well as stem cell and cloning research.
Among the country’s most recent accomplishments, which has garnered international acclaim, was the February 2 launch of Kavoshgar 3 (Explorer 3) satellite carrier into space with living organisms — a rat, two turtles and worms — onboard.
In January 2010, the country became the first Middle Eastern country to produce transgenic animals, such as sheep and goats that express foreign proteins in their milk and are, therefore, considered valuable sources of protein for human therapy.
Also Iran has become one of the few countries that have the technology and the means to clone farm animals, which could lead to advances in medical research, including using cloned animals to produce human antibodies against diseases.
A lamb named ‘Royana’, a kid named ‘Hanna’ and two calves named ‘Bonyana’ and ‘Tamina’ were the first animals successfully cloned in the country.
Tags: iran, Iran's science, Technology
FIA cyber crime wing loses to hackers
Jan 12, 2010 Technology
By Imran Ali Teepu
Saturday, 12 Jan, 2010
ISLAMABAD: The website of Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA’s) cyber crime wing <www.nr3c.gov.pk> meant to register complaints against electronic crime was hacked Thursday night.
A senior FIA official told Dawn on Friday that, “the site has been defaced rather than hacked, and we are conducting an investigation into the cyber breach.”
A hackers’ group, claiming itself as Pakbugs, wrote on the main webpage of the FIA’s cyber crime wing that “I was wondering if someone wanted to report, complain, track, someone? Where shall they go? The FIA or Pakbugs?”
The official of FIA’s cyber crime wing said: “The act is a ‘cyber crime’ and the so-called hackers will be dealt under the bill on electronic crime.”
The crime is punishable with up to 14-year imprisonment, he added. “The website will shortly be uploaded again” he said.
Answering a question, the official said: “If we found out that the website was defaced by the some individual(s) in a foreign country, we would contact the relevant cyber security department as per the laid down procedures.”
Neutral cyber experts monitoring such developments on the internet told this reporter that “the site was hacked,” basing their claim on the argument that the main hacked webpage kept on displaying till Friday evening.
Owner of a software development firm, on condition of anonymity, said: “I am in talks with foreign investors to shift their data centre to Pakistan because of cost-effective broadband, but the question is not about the cost its about the security of the data centre.”
He said: “If such events continue to take place, foreign investors will shy away from shifting their businesses to the country quoting such examples.”
Tags: Bugs, FIA, FIA website, Hackers, Hacking, pakbug, Pakistan, Pakistani hackers
50 things that changed people’s lives in a decade
Dec 23, 2009 Technology
NEW YORK: Was it only a decade ago that a blackberry was a mere warm season fruit? That green was, well, a color, and reality TV was that one show sandwiched between music videos on MTV? There were, of course, huge political and social upheavals that roiled the world in the past decade, but there also were the gradual lifestyle changes that people do not always notice when they are happening; kind of like watching a child grow older. Here is an alphabetical look at 50 things that changed our lives since the beginning of the millennium:
AIRPORTS: Remember when you did not have to take off your shoes before getting on a plane? Remember when you could bring a bottled drink on board? Political terror changed all that.
ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: From acupuncture to herbal supplements to alternative ways of treating cancer, alternative medicine became more mainstream than ever.
APPS: There is an app for that! The phrase comes from Apple iPhone advertising, but could apply to the entire decade’s gadget explosion, from laptops to GPS systems (want your car to give you directions to Mom’s house in Chinese, or by a Frenchwoman named Virginie? There was an app for that.) AARP (American Association for Retired People) cards … for baby boomers! Some prominent Americans turned 50 this decade: the pop singers Madonna and Prince. Comic Ellen DeGeneres. The Smurfs. Michael Jackson, the King of Pop — who also died at 50. And some prominent ‘early boomers’ turned 60: Rocker Bruce Springsteen and actress Meryl Streep, for example.
AGING: Nobody seemed to look their age anymore: Clothes for 50-year-old women started looking more like clothes for 18-year-olds, tweens looked more like teens, long hair was popular for all ages, and in many ways women’s fashion seemed to morph into one single age group.
BLOG: I blog, you blog, he blogs … How did we spend our time before blogging? There are more than 100 million of these Web logs out there in cyberspace.
BLACKBERRIES: Considered essential by corporate CEOs and moms planning playdates. Introduced in 2002, the smartphone version is now used by more than 28 million people, according to its maker, Research In Motion Ltd.
BOOK CLUBS: Thanks in part to TV personality and business mogul Oprah Winfrey, the decade saw not only a profusion in book discussion clubs but a growing reliance on them by publishers.
CABLE: Cable 24-hour news made the evening network news seem quaint, cable dramas reaped Emmys … and at decade’s end, even Oprah was making the move to cable.
CAMERAS: Remember those trips to get film developed? Nope? Even your grandmother has a digital camera, and she is probably e-mailing you photos right now or uploading them to a photo-sharing site.
CELEBRITY CULTURE: Celebrity magazines fed a growing obsession with celebrities and the everyday minutiae of their lives. By decade’s end, Americans still were obsessed, though Britney Spears and Angelina Jolie had ceded many covers to reality stars like Jon and Kate Gosselin. Celebrity Web sites like TMZ took hold mid-decade.
CELL PHONES: Cell phones are now used by more than 85 per cent of the US population and for some have replaced land lines. On the downside, they have made cheating on a spouse more difficult — just ask Tiger Woods.
CHEFS: Chefs are hot! The Food Network, whose viewership tripled this decade, reeled in viewers with high-voltage personalities like Rachael Ray and Bobby Flay, Emeril Lagasse and Giada De Laurentis. Meryl Streep starred in a cinematic pean to the late Julia Child.
CONNECTIVITY: As in, we are all expected to be connected, wirelessly, all the time. Boss e-mails you on a Sunday? Better answer, because unless you are off in Antarctica, you have no excuse.
COUGARS: A new TV series called ‘Cougar Town’ focuses on a phenomenon that gained its name this decade: women dating younger men.
CROCS: Those ubiquitous plastic clogs debuted in 2002 and became the shoes you loved to hate. Kids love ‘em, but there are Web groups dedicated to their destruction. Not to be deterred: First lady Michelle Obama, who wore them on vacation in 2009.
DANCING: Dancing never went out of style, but this decade saw the huge popularity of dancing contests like ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ and ‘Dancing With the Stars.’
DATING: Dating was transformed like everything else by Internet sites, rendering other ways of meeting people obsolete. And it was not just the territory of the relatively young: Seniors found love online, too.
DVRs: Suddenly, DVR-ing is a verb, and what it means is this: There’s no reason to know anymore what channel your program is on, and what time.
EMBARRASSMENT ENTERTAINMENT: Embarrassment has always been part of comedy — you need only think of Don Rickles — but this is the decade of cringe-worthy Larry David in ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm,’ Ricky Gervais, and of course Sacha Baron Cohen, who as Borat and Bruno shamed perhaps the entire country.
FACEBOOK: Can you believe this social networking site was once limited only to Harvard students? Now it is a time-sucking obsession for more than 300 million users globally and a whole new form of social etiquette: Whom to friend on Facebook?
FAT: This was the decade that fat became the enemy of the state. New York City banned trans fats, and Alabama — second in national obesity rankings — introduced a tax on overweight state workers.
FOODIE: It is not just that guy in the White House who liked arugula — this was the decade of the foodie, when we all developed gourmet palates. Even a burger became a gourmet item — as in Daniel Boulud’s truffle burger, stuffed with foie gras and short ribs.
GOING GREEN: From the kind of light bulbs we use to the kind of shopping bags we carry to the cars we drive, ‘going green’ took hold this decade. Now, it is not strange to hear a schoolchild tell a parent to use a cloth grocery bag.
GOOGLE: This was the decade that Google became a part of our brain function. You know that guy who was in that movie — when was it? Just Google it.
GPS: We cannot get lost anymore — or at least it is pretty difficult, with the ubiquitous GPS systems. But you had better type in your location carefully: One couple made a 400-mile mistake this year by typing ‘Carpi’ rather than ‘Capri.’
HELICOPTER PARENTING: Translation: helicopters hover, and so do many parents. After years of obsessive attention to safety and achievement of the youngest children, some said a backlash was under way.
INFORMATION OVERLOAD: An explosion in Internet use led to an overload of information about practically everything. It is at our fingertips, but is it accurate? Some call it part of a larger phenomenon, namely …
INSTANT GRATIFICATION: Otherwise known as being able to get anything you want within an instant. Often referred to as a theme of the decade.
IPODS: An icon of the digital age, it is hard to believe this portable media player was launched in 2001. Six years later the 100 millionth iPod was sold.
LIFE COACHES: In the aughts, there was a coach for everything! So why not life itself? Some say life coaches are merely therapists without the license or regulations.
MUSICALS: They have been around forever, but this decade musicals came back to film, starting with ‘Moulin Rouge’ and ‘Chicago.’ But for kids, it was Disney’s extremely successful ‘High School Musical’ franchise — three movies and counting — that brought back the musical magic.
NETFLIX: The DVD by mail service, established in 1997, announced its two-billionth DVD delivery this year. For many, those discs on top of the TV are just one more thing to procrastinate over.
ORGANIC: Americans rushed to fill their grocery carts with organic food, making it big business — now a $21 billion industry, up from $3.6 billion in 1997. At decade’s end, Michelle Obama planted the first White House organic vegetable garden.
PREGNANCY CHIC: If you’ve got it, flaunt it: That was the new ethos of the pregnancy experience, with chic clothes that emphasized the bulging belly, personal pregnancy photos, and endless coverage of celebrity pregnancies.
REALITY TV: As a nation, we became addicted to reality TV, from the feuding Gosselins of ‘Jon & Kate Plus 8’ to ‘American Idol’ to ‘Project Runway.’ At decade’s end, the Heenes of Balloon Boy fame and the Salahis of gate crashing fame give reality TV some unwanted attention.
RECESSION CHIC: Fashion skewed to more severe styles, and much black, as so-called ‘recession chic’ took hold in the latter part of the decade.
RETRO CHIC: Once you forget the smoking, the racism, the sexism and the homophobia, the early 1960s depicted by the AMC series ‘Mad Men’ sure looked good. The swinging Madison Avenue ad men make neckties cool again.
SEXTING: Combine texting with a cell phone’s camera function and you get this parental nightmare. A survey from Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that 15 per cent of teens ages 12-17 with a cell phone had received sexually suggestive images or videos.
STARBUCKS: It is a cliche that there is one on every block, but sometimes it seemed like it, and millions now consider it normal to spend $4 or so on a coffee drink in the morning, perhaps a venti half-caf half-decaf vanilla latte with an extra shot.
TATTOOS: It started innocently enough — maybe a butterfly on the shoulder or a tribal symbol on the bicep. A few characters from the Chinese alphabet later, it seemed any hipster who really meant it had a full sleeve of tattoos. The trend extended to middle-aged moms and even ‘tween idol Miley Cyrus.
TEXTING: R u still rding this sty? Hope u r. This is the decade we start communicating in the shorthand of text messages. Get used to it: E-mail is so ‘00s.
TV SCREENS: Television screens became bigger and flatter, making some ordinary living rooms and dens the equivalent of big-studio screening rooms. At the same time, though, people were watching movies and videos on the tiniest screens imaginable, their iPods or other mobile devices.
‘TWEEN CULTURE: ‘Tweens, especially girls, became an economic force to be reckoned with, buying everything from clothes to electronic devices to music to concert tickets.
TWITTER: The new social network introduced tweets, retweets, follows and trending topics, as long as the message fit into 140 characters.
UGGS: Not since the Croc (see above) has functional footwear created such a frenzy. The fur-lined snowboots were everywhere, no matter the climate. Los Angelenos insisted on wearing them with shorts.
WII: In a sea of ever-more-sophisticated video games, this simple console became the decade’s breakout hit by appealing to the nongaming masses. Wiis became a center of family gaming, home fitness and even senior socializing.
WIKIPEDIA: A boon to lazy students everywhere, the open-source encyclopedia used the masses to police its entries and keep them (mostly) (sometimes) accurate.
YOGA: Madonna, Gwyneth and other bendy celebrities brought the eastern practice mainstream. By the end of the decade, even Grandma could do downward-facing dogs on her Wii Fit.
YOUTUBE: Let’s end this list and go kill some time by watching … YouTube videos! The video-sharing site was born in 2005. Political candidates in 2008 even had their on YouTube channels. The most popular video yet: ‘Charlie Bit My Finger,’ in which baby Charlie bites the finger of his brother Harry. —AP
Tags: black barry, facebook, Technology, youtube
Man marries a videogame
Nov 25, 2009 News & Events, Technology
I now pronounce you husband and what?!
In another sign that the world is about to collapse, multiple blogs are reporting that a fan of the Nintendo DS dating sim Love Plus (you know, the really creepy one) liked his virtual lady so much that he decided to marry her. For real.
Apparently, a Japanese gamer known as ‘Sal9000′ was officially wed to Nene Anegasaki, one of the game’s three virtual girlfriends, in what must have been the weirdest ceremony in the history of ceremonies. We can only assume that Ms. Pac-Man was the maid of honor.
While the two aren’t planning a honeymoon — after all, one of them is a VIDEO GAME — they did hold a small ‘reception’ in Japan for friends, family and the media, indicating that this is most likely little more than the looniest video game publicity stunt we’ve seen in some time. Check out this video recap by Boing Boing, complete with footage of the happy, er, couple:
Think Before You Post
Oct 25, 2009 Technology
Warning for every one. The information you share on social networking websites is not safe, every one can see it! Do not share your personal numbers, addresses and pictures
Tags: facebook, orkut, Think Before You Post, Twitter
Cell Phone Use Linked to Brain Tumors
Oct 25, 2009 Technology
Daily Express
October 24, 2009
Long-term mobile phone users could face a higher risk of developing cancer in later life, according to a decade-long study.
The report, to be published later this year, has reportedly found that heavy mobile use is linked to brain tumours.
The survey of 12,800 people in 13 countries has been overseen by the World Health Organisation.
Preliminary results of the inquiry, which is looking at whether mobile phone exposure is linked to three types of brain tumour and a tumour of the salivary gland, have been sent to a scientific journal.
Tags: Brain Tumors, Cell Phon, higher risk, tumours, World Health Organisation
Imhalal – a search engine for the Muslims
Oct 6, 2009 Islam, Technology
Imhalal is the most recent entry into the search engine world. ImHalal is a search engine founded by Reza Sardeha and designed by AZS Media Group Ltd. Reza Sardeha is a 20 year old, Amsterdam (Netherland) based student. Imhalal, launched on 1st September, 2009, has got special type of filters to filter out pornography, nudity, and contents like, cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) or anything that is haram (prohibited in Islam). It has a very unique feature of showing “haram” level of the searched content. It shows the haram level upto level 3. Contents, like hard drinks (beer, liquor, wine etc.) lie in level 1 of being haram. Search queries related to sex lie in level 2, while nude or pornographic contents lie in the highest level, the level 3, of being haram. If any searched query lies in level 1 of 2, it doesn’t show the related links for that. Instead, it shows a warning. But gives the option to the user that if the user still feels right to proceed with the search, then s/he can go ahead. But if the searched content lie in haram level 3, then it doesn’t show the related links at all and doesn’t proceed further in its pursuit.
Tags: haram, Imhalal, muslim search engine
