Caoe Canaveral, March 09: Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery prepared on Tuesday to bring NASA’s most-traveled spacecraft back to Earth, wrapping up its 39th and final mission.
Touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is scheduled for 11:57 a.m. EST (1657 GMT) on Wednesday, with a backup landing opportunity available at 1:34 p.m. (1834 GMT)Meteorologists expect the weather will be suitable for landing.
Washington, March 08: A Binghamton University researcher wants computers to understand inputs from humans that go beyond the traditional keyboard and mouse.
Lijun Yin and team have developed ways to provide information to the computer based on where a user is looking as well as through gestures or speech.
Yin says the next step would be enabling the computer to recognize a user’s emotional state.
“Computers only understand zeroes and ones. Everything is about patterns. We want to find out how to recognize each emotion using only the most important features,” said Yin.
Beijing, March 08: China-made supercomputers will stop using foreign microchips in 2011 and start using their own core components by the end of this year, one of the country’s leading scientists has said.
Hu Weiwu, chief developer of the Loongson series of microchips at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), said the “Dawning 6000″ supercomputer, jointly developed by the Institute of Computing Technology of the CAS and the Dawning Information Industry Company (DIIC), will adopt homemade microchips for the first time as its core component.
Washington, March 08: Google upgraded its popular Google Maps today to suggest faster routes to drivers based on real-time traffic conditions.
Google Maps Navigation, released in beta, or test mode, shows various routes along with estimated travel times and uses red, green and yellow colour-coding to show how traffic is moving at any given time.
“Before today, Navigation would choose whichever route was fastest, without taking current traffic conditions into account,” Roy Williams, a software engineer with the Google Maps team, said in a blog post.
Washington, March 08: Top NASA scientists say there is no scientific evidence to support a colleague’s claim that fossils of alien microbes born in outer space had been found in meteorites on Earth.
The US space agency formally distanced itself from the paper by NASA scientist Richard Hoover, whose findings were published on Friday in the peer-reviewed Journal of Cosmology, which is available free online.
“That is a claim that Mr Hoover has been making for some years,” said Carl Pilcher, director of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute.
New Delhi, March 06: Tired of junk messages flooding your cell phone inbox? Try SMSAssassin — a software that segregates spams from regular messages.
Being a cheap option to reach the masses, Short Message Service(SMS) are being widely used by marketeers for offering value added services and advertisement. However, these spam messages is a problem for all mobile users because the inbox gets full with advertising messages or even with infected attachments.
Even the countermeasures offered by the government has failed to stop spam SMSes.
Pune, March 05: With wi-fi (wireless Internet) users not paying heed to the appeals to secure their connections, the cyber crime cell of the city police have now decided to crack the whip. They are planning to issue a notice under section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code to all Wi-Fi users to secure their connections.
It would lodge complaints under section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, against those who fail to adhere to the notice sent by the police.
Mexico City, March 05: Scientists in Mexico are developing a new type of cement that will reduce carbon-dioxide emission by up to 80 percent while the amount of energy consumed in the production process will be lowered by as much as 50 percent.
Scientists at the Research and Advanced Studies Centre – or Cinvestav – have been developing several types of cement alternatives for the past 13 years, including one with greater resistance and durability and with less environmental and economic impact, a statement said.
Bangalore, March 04: Those looking for employment in Karnataka’s rural areas would soon be using their cell phones to hunt for jobs.
The cell phone turning into a job hunting platform will be a reality in two districts of Karnataka first and, depending on the success, the facility would be extended to other parts of the state, an official statement said.
Job providers could also share information on openings available and skills needed.
Seoul, March 04: At least 40 South Korean websites, including that of the presidential office, were hacked Friday morning, a media report said.
The cyber attack began at 10 a.m. Friday, and hit the websites of presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, the ministry of foreign affairs and trade and top lender Kookmin Bank.
The attacks were in the form of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), Xinhua reported citing Yonhap news agency.
AhnLab, South Korea’s top information security company, said additional attacks were expected to come at 6.30 p.m. Friday.
Beijing, March 04: China plans to make a manned moon landing by 2030, but the purpose of exploration of the moon should be seen as “peaceful” rather than a threat, a top scientist has said.
Ye Peijian, chief scientist of deep space exploration at the China Academy of Space Technology, said China’s space technology still lags far behind the US and Russia, according to China Daily.
Cape Canaveral, March 02: Astronauts aboard the International Space Station gently maneuvered the final piece of the U.S. portion of the outpost into place on Tuesday, completing a construction job that began more than 12 years ago.
The final U.S. module is combination storage room and research lab. It previously was used to haul cargo to and from the station, a $100 billion project of 16 nations. The refurbished module, formerly known as Leonardo, was the primary cargo carried into orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery, which blasted off Feb. 24 for its 39th and final mission.
Thiruvananthapuram, March 01: A high level delegation from Kerala IT, the state government’s nodal infotech agency, will participate in the prestigious global infotech and communications fair CeBIT 2011 in Hanover in Germany, a statement said here Tuesday.
The team will comprise Kerala State IT Mission director Ishita Roy, Technopark’s chief executive officer Mervin Alexander and Infopark and Cyberpark’s chief executive officer Binu A. Pazhoor.
Washington, March 01: Evidence is mounting that brain regions can take over functions they were not genetically destined to perform, says a new study.
When your brain registers the aroma of your morning coffee or the sound of a honking car, that input gets shuttled to the appropriate brain region for analysis. The coffee aroma goes to the olfactory cortex, while sounds are processed in the auditory cortex.
That division of labour suggests that the brain’s structure follows a predetermined, genetic blueprint, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports.
Washington, March 01: Tens of thousands of Gmail users found themselves locked out of their accounts on Sunday, a glitch Google engineers were still struggling to fix and fully understand yesterday morning, FoxNews.com reported.
Initial reports suggested as many as half a million accounts were compromised, the years’ worth of emails potentially permanently erased. Google eventually determined that the problem affected just 0.08 per cent of users, or about 150,000 accounts.
Washington, February 28: Two space shuttle Discovery astronauts left the International Space Station Monday for the first spacewalk of their 11-day mission.
Steve Bowen and Alvin Drew will move a failed ammonia cooling pump removed on an earlier mission and install a power extension cable and camera equipment.
The planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk got underway at 1618 GMT.
The Discovery is on its final mission before retirement as NASA works to mothball the shuttle fleet this year. Two more flights are set for later this year of the shuttle Endeavour and Atlantis.
Florida, February 28: Space shuttle Discovery arrived at the International Space Station on Saturday, making its final visit before being parked at a museum.
“What took you guys so long?” asked Scott Kelly, the space station’s commander.
Discovery should have come and gone last November, but it was grounded by fuel tank cracks. It blasted off on Thursday with just two seconds to spare after being held up by a balky ground computer.
“Yeah, I don’t know, we kind of waited until like the last two seconds,” said shuttle commander Steven Lindsey.
Japan, February 27: Robovie-PC won the race by the narrowest of margins, beating Robovie-PC Lite by just a second Continue reading the main story
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Robot marathon kicks off in Japan Japan’s elderly fail to welcome their robot overlords A knee-high humanoid has narrowly won the world’s first full-length marathon for two-legged robots.
Robovie-PC crossed the finish line in the Japanese city of Osaka just a second before its closest rival after more than two days of racing.
The 26-mile (42km) race involved 423 laps of an indoor track at an average speed of 0.77 km/h.
London, February 27: Scientists have created what they claim is the world’s smallest computer system that is just one square millimetre in size and can fit into ones eyeball.
Developed by a team at the University of Michigan, the unnamed tiny device is a pressure monitor that can be implanted in a person’s eye to treat glaucoma. It may be just one square millimetre in size but packs a hefty punch, containing an ultra low-power microprocessor, a pressure sensor, memory and a thin film battery, the Daily Mail reported.
Moscow, February 27: “What took you guys so long?” the commander of the International Space Station (ISS) asked the crew of US space shuttle Discovery, after it successfully docked at the ISS for its 13th and final mission.Discovery Commander Steve Lindsey performed the manoeuvre at 2.14 p.m., while the two spacecraft were orbiting above Australia, the NASA said Saturday.
After this mission, the shuttle will be retired and placed in a museum.
Discovery has flown 38 missions to date – more than any other shuttle – and made more than 5,600 trips around the earth.
Chennai, February 26: After 16 successful launches of its workhorse rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in the last 17 years, the Indian space agency is now testing a key component to re-qualify its on-flight performance parameters to avoid any unpleasant surprises.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is testing the gas motor which is fitted in the second stage/engine powered by liquid fuel for high temperature tolerance levels.
Seoul, February 26: South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Company has launched an ultra-slim notebook, seeking to bolster its presence in the high-end mobile computer segment dominated by Apple.
Samsung, emerging as one of the strongest rivals to challenge Apple in the booming smartphone and tablet computer market, is eyeing the notebook market, in which Apple is seeking to replicate the success of the iPhone and iPad with its MacBook series.
London, February 25: Scientists have invented a tiny computer to track glaucoma — a potentially blinding disease.
A network of such units could one day track pollution, monitor structural integrity, perform surveillance or make virtually any object trackable.
Just a square mm in size, the device can be implanted in a person’s eyeball, packing in a hefty punch.
Powered by an ultra low-power microprocessor, it also has a pressure sensor, memory, a thin film battery, a solar cell and a wireless radio.
Cape Canaveral, February 25: The shuttle Discovery has blasted off on its final mission into orbit, marking the beginning of the end for what has been a central mission of the US space program for three decades.
NASA’s most journeyed shuttle launched at 4:53 pm (2153 GMT) on its way to the International Space Station (ISS). When it returns next month, it will be the first of the three-member fleet to enter retirement.
“Good to be here,” Discovery Commander Steve Lindsey said over the radio once the shuttle disappeared from sight and reached orbit.
Washington, February 25: US space shuttle Discovery has lifted off on its own final scheduled flight from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to deliver a storage room to the International Space Station (ISS).
According to NASA TV, the shuttle blasted off at 4.53 p.m. (2153 GMT) Thursday.
“Good to be here”, Discovery Commander Steve Lindsey radioed soon after the three main engines shut off and the external fuel tank was jettisoned.
After eight-and-a-half-minutes, Discovery reached orbit and was on its way to the station, Xinhua reported.