A worldwide group of Web hacking activists, working under the banner of ‘Anonymous’, will hold protests across major cities in India, including here, against what they claim as ‘growing censorship of internet’.
The protest in India is being spearheaded by ‘Save Your Voice’ and would take place today at various historic monuments in 16 cities, including at Jantar Mantar here.
Scientists claim to have discovered a methane-rich tropical lake and several ponds near the equator of Saturn’s largest moon Titan.
Lakes were previously spied near Titan’s polar regions. It was long thought that bodies of liquid could not exist near the tropics because they would evaporate.
“This discovery was completely unexpected because lakes are not stable at tropical latitudes,” said planetary scientist Caitlin Griffith of the University of Arizona, who led the discovery team.
Mobile phones could soon be used at ATMs to withdraw cash. A new application has been developed in Britain that will allow people to take out 100 pounds a time from the cash machines with a few taps of their smartphone.
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has created a new Getcash app which will be available to its 18 million customers who will be able to withdraw from any one of the 8,000 RBS, Natwest and Tesco stores, across the country, Daily Mail reported Wednesday.
A worldwide group of Web hacking activists, working under the banner of ‘Anonymous’, will hold protests across major cities in India, including here, against what they claim as ‘growing censorship of internet’.
The protest in India is being spearheaded by ‘Save Your Voice’ and would take place today at various historic monuments in 16 cities, including at Jantar Mantar here.
Global warming is diminishing the Chhota Shigri glacier in the Pir Panjal ranges of Himachal Pradesh at 0.67 metres a year, report French and Indian researchers.
The study, jointly supported by the Department of Science and Technology, India’s space agency ISRO and the Indo-French Centre for Promotion of Advanced Research, concluded that the glacier mass was thinning more rapidly this century.
Google, on Wednesday, unveiled its new digital mapping service in order to be more convenient and convincing for the users.
In a live event , Google demonstrated 3D models of individual buildings and entire cities. The new features were shown off to members of the press on an Apple iPad, rather than an Android-based tablet.
Besides providing 26 million miles of driving directions, Google’s maps will now include imagery of most of the world’s neighborhoods.
Finnish telecom giant Nokia, considered among the most trusted brands in India, is going through a bad patch with its shares at an all-time low, triggering speculation that it may be acquired by Microsoft.
Once the most valuable companies in Europe, the mobile telecom equipment firm has seen its share prices fall to 2.20 euros in recent days — the lowest since the mid-1990s.
The weekly Helsinki Times in its latest edition said the Nokia stocks were now below book value — a situation described as “worth more dead than alive” rhetorically.
India today successfully test fired its indigenously developed surface-to-air Akash missile of Air Force version from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur near Balasore, the fifth trial of the anti-aircraft system in the last fortnight.
“The Air Force version of Akash missile was test-fired from the ITR. The trial was successful and met all the mission objectives,” a senior defence official said.
The anti-aircraft missile, with a strike range of 25 km and capable of carrying warhead of 60 kg, was test fired from a mobile launcher at launch complex-III of the ITR.
Google Tuesday announced that it has acquired mobile office software company Quickoffice.
“Quickoffice has an established track record of enabling seamless interoperability with popular file formats, and we’ll be working on bringing their powerful technology to our Apps product suite,” said Google in its official blog.
Details of the acquisition were not disclosed, Xinhua reported.
Dry weather and soaring mercury have caused several forest fires in Himalayan region of Garhwal and hills near Kotdwara.
“This exceptionally dry weather has accelerated the incidence of fire,” Range officer J P Kukreti said here today.
He said the problem has been compounded by villagers starting some fires with the belief that they will get a richer fodder crop yield.
In today’s ‘touch’ technology simple games aided by a sophisticated mechanics has altered significantly the manner in which children play, turning video games into one of the most popular segment among kids.
“The future (of gaming) is touch games or even games that do not need any physical interaction such as the Microsoft Kinetic which uses motion capture cameras to bring affordable advanced technology to the masses,” says Anshu Mor of Microsoft India. Mor was participating in a panel discussion during the recently concluded World Children Expo here.
You might not be safe from asteroid hits even if state-of-the-art NASA tracking systems are in place, because the ‘Yarkovsky effect’ can force these objects out of their orbits and into ours, says a study.
A prime example is an asteroid 1999 RQ36, nearly half a kilometre across, expected to zoom past the Earth in 2135, which has already drifted nearly 100 miles out of its path in the last 12 years, thanks to the ‘Yarkovksy effect’.
After offering new age IT solutions to the world, Microsoft founder Bill Gates has now set his eyes on achieving his ‘ultimate’ dream – low cost toilets.
Come August and he will host the world’s best scientists and engineers in Seattle, US, to see if they can design cheap, dry toilets which don’t hitherto exist.
This public health innovation, says the co-chair of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is his “ultimate dream” though it is “not the only one”.
Virgin Galactic is to make its first rocket-powered test flights for its commercials passenger spaceship later this year after being granted clearance.
Virgin Galactic is to make its first rocket-powered test flights for its commercials passenger 7:17AM BST 31 May 2012Comment Scaled Composites, Virgin Galactic’s spaceship design partner, was granted an experimental permit from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) – a move that will allow it to proceed with powered flights.
Space Exploration Technologies’ Dragon spaceship began its journey back to Earth on Thursday after the first test flight by a private company to the International Space Station.
Dragon became the first privately owned vehicle to reach the $100 billion research complex, a project of 15 countries, on Friday when astronauts used the station’s robot arm to pluck it from orbit and latch it onto a berthing port as the spacecraft sailed about 250 miles above the planet.
In a move signalling the advent of a new era, the Internet Society will shift from the current IPv4 regime to IPv6 on June 6.
The ‘World IPv6 Launch’ will see a number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), hardware makers and websites, including a few from India, running the new generation of Internet Protocols.
IPv6 will make not much difference to most users because they will most probably continue to use IPv4 by default, as the switch to IPv6 is possible only when their computers, the networks and the content and service providers are ready for it.
The Breakthrough Society, which has been working towards popularising science, conducted an awareness programme at Marina Beach in Chennai on Sunday on the rare occurrence of the transit of Venus, scheduled to take place on June 6.
Members of the society distributed solar filters and carried out an awareness campaign on viewing the transit of Venus on June 6.
The society has also set up telescopes to let people view the craters on the moon and planets like Saturn and Mars.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has launched an electronic visa system in Argentina to facilitate issuance of entry permits for visitors in the country.
The e-service was launched by UAE ambassador to Argentina Mohammed Isa Al Za’abi.
According to UAE ambassador to Argentina Mohammed Isa Al Za’abi, who launched the e-service, this system is more accurate and advanced.
“The new e-visa system is in line with sound directives and wise policy of UAE leadership for serving national interest,” he added.
IANS
SpaceX’s unmanned Dragon space capsule completed its first test before its scheduled docking at the International Space Station, NASA said Wednesday.
The test flight was launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket which blasted off before dawn Tuesday from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. With its successful launch, SpaceX, owned by the billionaire Internet entrepreneur, Elon Musk has completely dispelled doubts about commercial space travel.
President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia will spend 2.5 percent of its GDP to boost scientific research, a plan which will see scientists contributing to the modernisation of the country’s military, RIA Novosti reported.
Speaking at a meeting at the Russian Academy of Sciences here Tuesday, Putin said the research could “increase Russia’s defence capabilities”.
“We intend to actively involve research organisations and universities… in our plans to modernise the military,” said the Russian president without giving any time frame for when the funding is expected to increase.
90 million houses around the world will have some form of home automation system in place by 2017, a study revealed.
According to the study released May 16 by global technology trend forecasters ABI Research, home automation systems allow users to control aspects of their home, such as lighting or temperature, and monitor elements such as energy usage either remotely or from a central control panel.
The May 16 report by ABI Research estimates that by 2017 the demand for home automation systems will have grown by 60 percent, a newspaper reported.
New fossil material found in Patagonia has shed light on the evolution of dinosaurs in the Jurassic age.
When Tyrannosaurus and its relatives roamed North America and Asia, the abelisaurids occupied a similar niche in Patagonia and other areas of Gondwanaland.
They were the dominant predators in the Southern hemisphere and resembled the tyrannosaurids in their general appearance, but their unusually short and high skulls were unique.
This characteristic form suggests that the animals could muster an extremely powerful bite.
American Multinational Corporation, Microsoft has launched its own social network So.cl (pronounced as ‘social’) specifically meant for students. The company however clarifies that the social network in no way competition to Facebook. The project is meant to complement Microsoft’s competitors.
The California-based Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, better known as SpaceX, is all set to make a fresh bid to become the private company to send its own craft Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station on Tuesday after fixing an engine problem that grounded its earlier attempt.
The Dragon capsule atop the Falcon 9 rocket is filled with 1,000 pounds of food and other provisions and is scheduled for a second launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida, on a mission to carry supplies to the orbiting research outpost.
Social networks have become the preferred platform for many people to take revenge on someone, according to a new UK survey.
The increasing popularity of Twitter and Facebook has made it easier and quicker to settle scores and seven in 10 (69percent) people polled said online tools are responsible for people’s thirst for payback.
More than half (52percent) said they were currently thinking about getting their own back on someone while almost four in 10 (38 percent) confessed they had already sought revenge out of anger, jealousy or spite.