Electronic Reusable Paper

I "Stumbled" upon this article and found it interesting enough to paste it over here.
Go through it slowly, the future lies here.

Electronic reusable paper is a display material that has many of the properties of paper. It stores an image, is viewed in reflective light, has a wide viewing angle, is flexible, and is relatively inexpensive. Unlike conventional paper, however, it is electrically writeable and erasable. Although projected to cost somewhat more than a normal piece of paper, a sheet of electronic reusable paper could be re-used 1000s of times. This material has many potential applications in the field of information display including digital books, low-power portable displays, wall-sized displays, and fold-up displays.

Electronic reusable paper utilizes a display technology, invented at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), called "Gyricon." A Gyricon sheet is a thin layer of transparent plastic in which millions of small beads, somewhat like toner particles, are randomly dispersed. The beads, each contained in an oil-filled cavity, are free to rotate within those cavities. The beads are "bichromal," with hemispheres of two contrasting colors (e.g. black and white, red and white), and charged so they exhibit an electrical dipole. When voltage is applied to the surface of the sheet, the beads rotate to present one colored side to the viewer. Voltages can be applied to the surface to create images such as text and pictures. The image will persist until new voltage patterns are applied.

There are many ways an image can be created in electronic reusable paper. For example, sheets can be fed into printer-like devices that will erase old images and create new images. Printer-like devices can be made so compact and inexpensive that you can imagine carrying one in a purse or briefcase at all times. One envisioned device, called a wand, could be pulled by hand across a sheet of electronic reusable paper to create an image. With a built-in input scanner, this wand becomes a hand-operated multi-function device -- a printer, copier, fax, and scanner, all in one.

For applications requiring more rapid and direct electronic update, the Gyricon material might be packaged with a simple electrode structure on the surface and used more like a traditional display. An electronic reusable paper display could be very thin and flexible. A collection of these displays could be bound into an electronic book. With the appropriate electronics stored in the spine of the book, pages could be updated at will to display different content.

For portable applications, an active matrix array may be used to rapidly update a partial- or full-page display, much like what is used in today's portable devices. Gyricon displays don't require backlighting or constant refreshing, and are brighter than today's reflective displays. These attributes will lead to Gyricon's utilization in lightweight and lower-power applications.

Research into electronic reusable paper and its applications is continuing at Xerox PARC. Xerox is also pursing commercialization opportunities through the Xerox Venture Laboratory.

Already thinking about Windows Vista........Go through this !

I got this article on the Web(www.news.yahoo.com) and have reproduced it without any changes. So all the views expressed over here are solely that of the author.

Michael Desmond writes about technology from his home in Colchester, Vermont. He writes :

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few months, you probably know that the latest version of Windows--called Vista--is due to hit store shelves later this year (in time for the holidays, Microsoft tells us). The successor to
Windows XP offers a little something for everyone, from eye-catching graphics and new bundled applications to more-rigorous security. In fact, there is so much in the new operating system that it can be tough to get a handle on it all.
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I've been noodling around with a recent beta version of Windows Vista (Build 5270) and had a chance to make some observations. While the sleek new look and polished interface caught my eye, it's what's under the covers that impressed me most. Microsoft's done a great job of improving security across the board. Things like Windows and spyware library updates are streamlined, and I definitely appreciate the more robust Backup software.

Still, there's plenty of unfinished work left to do. Internet Explorer 7 struggled to properly render some Web pages, and I found local network connectivity to be a hit-or-miss affair. And then there's the stuff that isn't even in there yet--like the intriguing Windows Sidebar, which will put real-time weather info, stock quotes, system status, RSS feeds, and other information on the display.

So during my time with Windows Vista, I kept an eye out for the reasons I--and you--might ultimately want to lay my hands on the new OS when it's available. And frankly, if you buy a new Windows-based PC at the end of this year or any time in, say, the next five years, you'll probably end up with Vista by default.

Keep in mind, this is based solely on my experience with prerelease software (and a whole new beta could be out by the time you read this). Features get tweaked, they come and go, but from what we can tell, Vista is now starting to harden into the product that will be running many, many desktops for the foreseeable future. And by and large, that's a good thing.

Here's what to be excited about:

1. Security, security, security: Windows XP Service Pack 2 patched a lot of holes, but Vista takes security to the next level. There are literally too many changes to list here, from the bidirectional software firewall that monitors inbound and outbound traffic to Windows Services Hardening, which prevents obscure background processes from being hijacked and changing your system. There's also full-disk encryption, which prevents thieves from accessing your data, even if they steal the PC out from under your nose.

Perhaps most crucial (and least sexy) is the long-overdue User Account Protection, which invokes administrator privileges as needed, such as during driver updates or software installations. UAP makes it much more convenient for users to operate Vista with limited rights (meaning the system won't let them do certain things, like load software, without clearance from an administrator). This in turn limits the ability of malware to hose your system.

2. Internet Explorer 7: IE gets a much-needed, Firefox-inspired makeover, complete with tabbed pages and better privacy management. There's also the color-coded Address Bar that lets you know if a page is secured by a digital key, or, thanks to new antiphishing features, if it's a phony Web site just looking to steal information about you.

These features will all be available for Windows XP users who download IE7. But Vista users get an important extra level of protection: IE7 on Vista will run in what Microsoft calls "protected mode"--a limited-rights mode that prevents third-party code from reaching your system. It's about darn time.

3. Righteous eye candy: For the first time, Microsoft is building high-end graphics effects into Windows. The touted Aero Glass interface features visually engaging 3D rendering, animation, and transparencies. Translucent icons, program windows, and other elements not only look cool, they add depth and context to the interface. For example, hover your cursor over minimized programs that rest on the taskbar and you'll be able to see real-time previews of what's running in each window without opening them full-screen. Now you can see what's going on behind the scenes, albeit at a cost: You need powerful graphics hardware and a robust system to manage all the effects.

4. Desktop search: Microsoft has been getting its lunch handed to it by Google and Yahoo on the desktop, but Vista could change all that. The new OS tightly integrates instant desktop search, doing away with the glacially slow and inadequate search function in XP. Powerful indexing and user-assignable metadata make searching for all kinds of data--including files, e-mails, and Web content--a lot easier. And if you're running Vista on a Windows Longhorn network, you can perform searches across the network to other PCs.

5. Better updates: Vista does away with using Internet Explorer to access Windows Update, instead utilizing a new application to handle the chore of keeping your system patched and up-to-date. The result is quicker response and a more tightly streamlined process. The update-tracking mechanism, for instance, is much quicker to display information about your installation. And now key components, such as the Windows Defender antispyware module, get their updates through this central point. Like other housekeeping features, a better Windows Update isn't a gee-whiz upgrade, but it should make it easier--and more pleasant--to keep your PC secure.

6. More media: Over the years, one of the key reasons to upgrade versions of Windows has been the free stuff Gates and Company toss into the new OS, and Vista is no exception. Windows Media Player (perhaps my least favorite application of all time) gets a welcome update that turns the once-bloated player into an effective MP3 library. The Windows Photo Gallery finally adds competent photo-library-management functionality to Windows, so you can organize photos; apply metatags, titles, and ratings; and do things like light editing and printing. The DVD Maker application, which was still very rough when I looked at it, promises to add moviemaking capabilities--along the lines of Movie Maker--to the operating system. There are even some nice new games tucked into the bundle.

7. Parental controls: Families, schools, and libraries will appreciate the tuned-up parental controls, which let you limit access in a variety of ways. Web filtering can block specific sites, screen out objectionable content by selected type, and lock out file downloads. You can also restrict each account's access by time of day or day of the week. As a dad, I can tell you this will be great for keeping kids off the PC while you're at work, for instance. You can even block access to games based on their Entertainment Software Rating Board ratings.

8. Better backups: When Windows 95 first came out, the typical hard disk was, maybe, 300MB in size. Today, desktops routinely ship with 300GB or 400GB hard drives. And yet, the built-in data-backup software in Windows has changed little in the past decade. Windows Vista boasts a much-improved backup program that should help users avoid wholesale digital meltdowns. Microsoft also tweaked the useful System Restore feature--which takes snapshots of your system state so you can recover from a nasty infection or botched software installation.

9. Peer-to-peer collaboration: The Windows Collaboration module uses peer-to-peer technology to let Vista users work together in a shared workspace. You can form ad hoc workgroups and then jointly work on documents, present applications, and pass messages. You can even post "handouts" for others to review.

10. Quick setup: Beta code alert: There are some Vista features I hope dearly for even though they haven't been built yet. This is one of them. Jim Allchin, Microsoft's co-president, says that Windows Vista boasts a re-engineered install routine, which will slash setup times from about an hour to as little as 15 minutes. Hurray! The new code wasn't in the beta version of Vista that Microsoft sent to me--my aging rig took well over an hour to set up--so I'll believe it when I see it. Still, any improvement in this area is welcome.
Five Things That Will Give You Pause

All this is not to say that Vista is a slam-dunk and everyone should be running out to buy it as soon as Microsoft takes the wraps off. Heck, Windows XP has developed into a fairly stable, increasingly secure OS. Why mess with that?

Yes, during my time with Vista, I've found more than enough features to get excited about--features that will make a sizable chunk of Windows users want to upgrade. So why would anyone in their right mind stick with what they've got? Here are a few reasons:

Pay that piper: Vista is an operating system. It's the stuff your applications run on. But it'll cost $100 or more to make the switch. Unless you're buying a new PC and starting from scratch, you may be better off saving the money for something else.

Where's my antivirus?: For all the hype about security in Windows Vista, users may be disappointed to learn that antivirus software will not be part of the package. There's every indication that an online subscription service--possibly under the OneCare rubric--will offer antivirus protection to Vista users down the road. But for the time being, you'll need to turn to third-party companies like Symantec, McAfee, Grisoft, and others for virus protection.

Watch that hourglass: Vista is a power hog. Unless you have a top-end PC with high-end graphics hardware, for instance, you won't see one of the coolest parts of the new OS--the Aero Glass interface. Microsoft did the smart thing by offering Aero Basic and Windows Classic looks as well, which will let older and slower PCs run Vista. It just won't look as pretty.

Curse the learning curve: Microsoft has already ditched some aggressive ideas--such as the whole "virtual folders" thing--because the concepts proved too confusing for users. Even so, you'll find that the new Windows changes a lot of old tricks, and not always for the better. Heck, it took me almost five minutes to find the Run command, which used to show up right in the Start menu. And many users may struggle with the new power scheme, which defaults to putting the PC into hibernation rather than shutting down. I know it frustrated me the first time I wanted to power down the system to swap out a disk drive.

Meet the old boss, same as the new boss: Microsoft has added lots of new stuff to Vista, but some features are just warmed-over fare. Windows Mail is nothing more than a rebranded Outlook Express, and Windows Defender is simply an updated version of Microsoft AntiSpyware.

So keep your eyes peeled for future previews of Vista. It may not be perfect (what software is?), but in a lot of ways, it's a giant leap forward.

My turn: Hope this helps you!

Google unites IM with E-mail

Google Inc. will unite its instant messaging and e-mail services in the same Web browser, the company announced late Monday.

Google users will be able to conduct instant message chats from a Google Web browser window, alongside their e-mails, instead of requiring a separate application.

Google, known for its simple and powerful Web searching, hopes that by embedding new instant messaging software it calls "Gmail Chat" into its existing e-mail service, it can differentiate itself in a crowded market it was late to join.

Gmail Chat requires no special software download. It is available to any registered user of Gmail e-mail. Existing contacts within the more advanced Google Talk program automatically show up in Google Chat, the company said.

The new feature will begin to show up in some Gmail accounts today and should reach all users within the next few weeks, said Salar Kamangar, a Google product manager.

"We didn't think it made sense for there to be this artificial separation that currently exists between e-mailing and chatting," he said. "People don't want to have to have two separate contact lists for e-mail and instant messaging."

Windows XP performance enhancements

For all of you who are disappointed with your windows xp performance or in other words would like to sharpen your windows xp feel , this web page is just right for all you people. click on the following link,
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1494&page=1

I did try a few of them out and they are pretty useful.

KamaSutra Worm may attack on 3rd February, 2006

The new computer worm, named Kama Sutra, is scheduled to attack infected systems Friday, 3 February. The worm, also known as Blackworm, Nyxem-D and W32.blackmal.e , is aimed at Windows-based computers and spreads by copying itself to shared network locations and mass emailing itself to email addresses on these systems.

The virus, also known as Grew.A or MyWife, tricks users by appearing as an e-mail attachment with subject lines such as "Hot Movie," "give me a kiss" and "Miss Lebanon 2006." Some variations refer to the ancient Kama Sutra guide to elaborate sexual positions in order to attract attention and convince victims to open.

It is estimated that the worm -- which spreads by e-mailing itself to addresses in an infected computer's mailbox -- may already have slipped onto 275,000 to 500,000 machines and is now simply waiting to obliterate files on Friday.

The virus causes a keyboard and mouse to freeze up and then disables anti-virus programs when the computer is restarted, leaving a machine vulnerable, said Ken Dunham, rapid response director at VeriSign Corp.'s security unit iDefense. The attack is scheduled to begin at midnight on February 3.

It is scheduled to attack files of Microsoft corp, adobe inc and zip files. It has gained the attention of the anti-virus community because of its ability to deceive Windows through phony digital signatures, and seems to have been created for the sole purpose of doing damage and not for commercial gain.

But the good news is that firms are claiming to have already come up with defendants.

But don't ask me friends, for my machine has already been infected once on the 17th of january, 2006 and i had to format my machine to get rid of the devil. Symantec client had stopped working and the registry entries had got infected too. I still wonder why did i click on those absurd zip files which had been created randomly on my hdd. So beware!!!

IE 7 Beta 2 available for public download

The beta version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 is now available to the general public. It was released on 31st January, 2006.

Microsoft hasn't changed much in this version of the browser since PC Worldcompared the first IE 7 beta to Mozilla's Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate 1 and Opera 9 Preview 1. But version 7 is a different beast entirely than the IE you are probably using today.

This new iteration of the world's dominant browser adds a number of features long since taken for granted by alternative-browser users, such as tabbed browsing, a toolbar-integrated search box, and limited RSS support. Version 7 also has a much more compact and streamlined interface than its predecessor, with a strong emphasis on dedicating as much of the window as possible to the displayed Web site. Also included are a number of security upgrades, like a new antiphishing filter.

Note that this beta of the browser is compatible only with Windows XP Service Pack 2. And keep in mind that, like any still-in-development version, this beta 2 release has bugs and rough edges. Some pages don't display properly, for instance, and the browser will crash more than you'd like.

You'll notice IE 7's interface changes right away. A mere two slim toolbars reside up top, with navigation buttons like Back, Forward, Refresh, and Home split up to make the best use of space.

Preview your open browser tabs with the Quick Tabs feature in the new, streamlined Internet Explorer 7.Tabs, also new to version 7, show up on the second toolbar. You can't move the tabs around, but you'll find a nice new feature called Quick Tabs. Click a gridlike icon next to the tabs, and you'll see a thumbnail-page display of all your currently open tabs. Firefox can mimic this feature with an add-on, but neither it nor Opera has it built in.

New security features in IE 7 include an antiphishing filter that warns you if you happen across a known phishing site, better ActiveX management that disables potentially vulnerable controls by default, and programming changes that try to reduce the number of avenues for attack.

The browser also has a thorough flush feature that clears the browser history, cache, cookies, and other personal browsing data with one selection from the Tools menu.

IE 7 lets you easily find and bookmark an RSS feed on any given Web page. But once you're subscribed, you have no way to get a quick preview of that feed's headlines--as you can with Firefox's Live Bookmarks--so you lose a significant part of RSS's usefulness.

It remains to be seen how the new IE will stack up against its increasingly popular competitors. But its release presents no downside: IE finally gets an upgrade, and the newly revived browser wars spur competition that hopefully will make all our browsers better.

Ms Windows code names

Microsoft has announced a new codename for the Windows OS that will follow the yet-to-ship Vista: "Vienna."

The previous codename for the operating system, Blackcomb, was taken from a Canadian ski resort, but has now been dropped in favor of a name inspired by the altogether grander capital of Austria.

The tradition of using place names is long-established at Microsoft. Previous operating systems stretching back to the late 1980s have used the development monikers Sparta (Windows for Workgroups 3.1), Daytona (Windows NT 3.5), Cairo (Windows NT 4.0), Chicago (Windows 95), and Memphis ( Windows 98).

More recently, the company briefly broke with the grand-city tradition when it used the Whistler ski resort in Canada as its codename for Windows XP, following this with Longhorn--a nearby ski bar--for what became Vista.

Every product now has a place name code at Microsoft, most of which are never used by anyone outside the software community. Curiously, Vienna is also listed by some Microsoft-watching websites as the codename of Office Live Communication Server 2005.

There is no confirmed timescale for the release of Blackcomb/Vienna, but at least the world knows what to call it until it does arrive.

Paul Allen continued........

contd........

With Bill Gates, he co-founded Microsoft (initially "Micro-Soft") in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1975, and began selling the BASIC interpreter. Apple commissioned Microsoft to supply a version of its BASIC for the hot-selling Apple II. Allen spearheaded a deal for Microsoft to buy an operating system called QDOS for $50,000. Microsoft won a contract to supply it for use as the operating system of IBM's new PC. This became a foundation of Microsoft's remarkable growth. Allen resigned from Microsoft in 1983 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease which was successfully treated by several months of radiation therapy and a bone marrow transplant.

In 1984 he founded Asymetrix, a software development company based in Belleuve, Washington, to make application development tools that nonprogrammers can use. Asymetrix later went on to become Click2learn.com and yet later merged with Docent to become Sum Total System (2004). In the 1990's the company began to specialize in software for developing and delivering computer-based learning.

1992 Allen started Starwave, a producer of online content sites. Starwave did such great work for ESPN SportsZone and ABCNews.com that Disney (NYSE: DIS) bought it for a total of $350 million last year.

1998 In April Allen buys Marcus Cable, the nation's 10th largest cable company, for $2.8 billion--his biggest investment to date. Also this year Allen grabbed a stake of the Internet video-sales market with his purchase of Hollywood Entertainment. And he took another software group public. This time it's Asymetrix Learning Systems, maker of products for online classes.

On September 28, 2000 - Microsoft Corp. announced that Paul Allen is assuming a new role as senior strategy adviser to top Microsoft executives. The company also announced that Allen and Richard Hackborn have decided not to seek re-election to Microsoft's board of directors at the company's November shareholder meeting. In November 2000, Allen resigned from his position on the Microsoft board.

In September 2003, Allen founded the Allen Institute of Brain Science pledging $100 million in seed money to the Seattle-based organization. Its inaugural project is the Allen Brain Atlas, a map of the human brain which will be made publicly accessible. The Brain Atlas is a component of the loosely formed Human Cognome Project.

Starting in 2003, Vulcan Ventures began funding Project Halo, an attempt to apply Artificial Intelligence techniques to the problem of producing a digital Aristotle that might serve as a
mentor, providing comprehensive access to the world's knowledge.


In December 2003 he announced that he was the sponsor behind the SpaceShipOne private rocket plane venture from Scaled Composites, as part of the ANSARI X PRIZE competition. In June 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first successful commercial spacecraft when it passed the 100 kilometre threshold of space.

Allen is a major contributor to the SETI, or Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence project.
He is also the founder of the Experience Music Project, originally inspired by his interest in a museum to house his considerable collection of Jimi Hendrix memorabilia.

Allen runs a venture capital firm, Vulcan Ventures, and has created the Experience Music Project, a museum of music history, in Seattle, Washington.

He owns (through Rose City Radio Corporation) some Portland radio stations. When he heard Seattle's Cinerama movie theatre was about to shut down, he bought, restored, and updated it into a showplace for movies of all formats. He is also one of the principal financiers behind the SETI project, having stepping in to rescue the project when NASA stopped funding it in the 1990s. Allen owns the Flying Heritage Collection.

Currently Allen is the owner of the Portland Trail Blazers (an NBA basketball team) and the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League. He also owns Rose Garden Arena, the home court of the NBA Blazers team. Due to declining attendance in 2002 and 2003, as well as difficulties renegotiating the terms of a 1993 loan, the Rose Garden Corporation filed for bankruptcy on February 27, 2004.

In June of 2004, Allen opened the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, located at the
Experience Music Project.

He is also the winner of many awards, notable amongst them are Life-Time Achievement Award by PC Magazine and was inducted into the Computer Museum Hall of Fame.
All of the above scrap has got some genuine source over the web. But still there may be discrepancies which I assure are non-intentional. Anyone pointing out corrections or adding more info about this wonder-guy is whole-heartedly welcome.

Paul Allen ........Who?

Paul Allen is a personality who is not so much hyped about , I know many of you out there would disagree. But still I would like to present a little overview of his early life in this blog.

Paul Gardner Allen was born on January 21, 1953 at Mercer Island, Seattle, Washington, to Kenneth S. Allen, an associate director of the University of Washington libraries and Faye G. Allen. I found his middle name given as Gertrude in another web source.

Allen attended Lakeside School, a prestigious private school in Seattle and befriended Bill Gates, two years his junior but who shared a common enthusiasm for computers. Lakeside School then had only a single computer. Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and a few other Lakeside students (many of whom were the first programmers hired at Microsoft) immediately became inseparable from the computer and used up all the computer hours in no time. They would stay in the computer room all day and night, writing programs, reading computer literature and anything else they could to learn about computing. Soon Gates and the others started running into problems with the faculty. Their homework was being turned in late (if at all), they were skipping classes to be in the computer room and worst of all, they had used up all of the schools computer time in just a few weeks. Paul was then 14 years old while Bill was 12.

Allen and Gates and a small group of other Lakeside students began programming in BASIC, using a teletype terminal. In the fall of 1968, Computer Center Corporation opened for business in Seattle. It was offering computing time at good rates, and one of the chief programmers working for the corporation had a child attending Lakeside. A deal was struck between Lakeside Prep School and the Computer Center Corporation that allowed the school to continue providing it's students with computer time.Gates and his comrades immediately began exploring the contents of this new machine. It was not long before the young hackers started causing problems. They caused the system to crash several times and broke the computers security system. They even altered the files that recorded the amount of computer time they were using. They were caught and the Computer Center Corporation banned them from the system for several weeks.

Bill Gates, Paul Allen and, two other hackers from Lakeside formed the Lakeside Programmers Group in late 1968. They were determined to find a way to apply their computer skills in the real world. The first opportunity to do this was a direct result of their mischievous activity with the school's computer time. The Computer Center Corporation's business was beginning to suffer due to the systems weak security and the frequency that it crashed. Impressed with Gates and the other Lakeside computer addicts' previous assaults on their computer, the Computer Center Corporation decided to hire the students to find bugs and expose weaknesses in the computer system. In return for the Lakeside Programming Group's help, the Computer Center Corporation would give them unlimited computer time. The boys could not refuse. Gates was quoted as saying "It was when we got free time at C-cubed (Computer Center Corporation) that we really got into computers. I mean, then I became hardcore. It was day and night". Although the group was hired just to find bugs, they also read any computer related material that the day shift had left behind. The young hackers would even pick employees for new information. It was here that Gates and Allen really began to develop the talents that would lead to the formation of Microsoft seven years later.

After graduation, Allen attended Washington State University, though he dropped out after two years to pursue his dream of writing software commercially for the new "personal computers". Allen and Gates bought an Intel 8008 chip for $360 and build a computer to measure traffic. They launched their first company, Traf-O-Data. They produced a small computer which was used to help measure traffic flow. From the project they grossed around $20,000. The Traf-O-Data company lasted until Gates left for college. Meanwhile Allen was also hired as a programmer by Honeywell in Boston. He later convinced Bill Gates to drop out of Harvard College and together they found Microsoft.

In December of 1974, Allen was on his way to visit Gates when along the way he stopped to browse the current magazines. What he saw changed his and Bill Gates's lives forever. On the cover of Popular Electronics was a picture of the Altair 8080 and the headline "World's First Microcomputer Kit to Rival Commercial Models." He bought the issue and rushed over to Gates' dorm room. They both recognized this as their big opportunity. The two knew that the home computer market was about to explode and that someone would need to make software for the new machines. Within a few days, Gates had called MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), the makers of the Altair. He told the company that he and Allen had developed a BASIC that could be used on the Altair. This was a lie. They had not even written a line of code. They had neither an Altair nor the chip that ran the computer. The MITS company did not know this and was very interested in seeing their BASIC. So, Gates and Allen began working feverishly on the BASIC they had promised. The code for the program was left mostly up to Bill Gates while Paul Allen began working on a way to simulate the Altair with the schools PDP-10. Eight weeks later, the two felt their program was ready. Allen was to fly to MITS and show off their creation. The day after Allen arrived at MITS, it was time to test their BASIC. Entering the program into the company's Altair was the first time Allen had ever touched one. If the Altair simulation he designed or any of Gates' code was faulty, the demonstration would most likely have ended in failure. This was not the case, and the program worked perfectly the first time. MITS arranged a deal with Gates and Allen to buy the rights to their BASIC. Gates was convinced that the software market had been born. Within a year, Bill Gates had dropped out of Harvard and Micro-Soft was formed.

This post has already become too voluminous. So the rest will be in the next post.

Paul G. Allen Launches Web Site Dedicated to Early Computers

Investor, philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft Paul G. Allen unveiled a new Web site, www.PDPplanet.com, as a resource for computer history fans and those interested in Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) systems and XKL systems. From a PDP-8/S to a DECSYSTEM-20 to a Toad 1, Allen's collection of systems from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s preserves the significant software created on these early computers.

Via the new Web site, registered users from around the world can telnet into a working DECsystem-10 or an XKL Toad-1, create or upload programs, and run them -- essentially stepping back in time to access an "antique" mainframe. Demonstrating how computing was conducted before the convenience of today's powerful desktop, laptop and palm devices, PDP Planet will give users an appreciation of how it felt to be an early programmer.

Years before there were the pervasive PCs and Macs that are everywhere in today's homes and businesses, PDPs were important mainframe and mini computers, providing fertile ground for the researchers, programmers and hackers of the era. MIT students came up with the first video game (called "Spacewar!") on the PDP-1, which helped show the potential for computing applications beyond the traditional number-crunching activities of the day. From there, it was just a matter of time until room-size mainframes evolved into third-generation minicomputers (beginning with the PDP-8, which sold for about $16,000 but had less computing power than a 21st century calculator). It was made possible with the use of transistor and core memory technology, so some of these machines including the PDP-8 could even fit on a (large) desktop. Although still a far-cry from the laptops and small form-factor machines we all use in our everyday lives, the computing revolution had begun and there was no turning back.

"PDP Planet fulfills my dream to find a way to preserve the achievements of early computer engineers," said Allen. "With running versions of these machines via the Web site, we now have a place that recognizes the efforts of those creative engineers who made some of the early breakthroughs in interactive computing that changed the world." Along with the forthcoming Microcomputer Gallery being created by Allen at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque (opening late this year), and the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, PDP Planet provides an important exploration of the early technology that launched a revolution.

Google Dance..tra ...la...laaa...

Many of us often hear referals to the Google Dance and what it can do to search engine rankings. It can be a frustrating time for search engine optimization experts as well as their clients. So, what exactly is the Google Dance and what does it mean for our Web site?

As we know, Google's spiders are constantly crawling the Web looking for new information on millions of Web pages. Roughly once a month, Google updates their index by recalculating the page rankings of each of the Web pages they have crawled. Search engine optimization experts commonly refer to this update period as the Google Dance.

To ensure complete accuracy, these calculations must be performed multiple times. Additionally, because Google's index is enormous, the calculations will take several days -- or even months, as we recently witnessed -- to complete. During this time, PageRank and ranking will fluctuate, and sometimes wildly. With the blink of an eye, you can go from a ranking of three to a ranking of six. Consequently, the name Google Dance emerged, denoting these fluctuations. This crazy dance usually occurs towards the end of the month.

Granted, you may see mild fluctuations in your search engine ranking at other times of the month, but they are merely a result of Google's daily crawl, known as "fresh crawl". The fresh crawl occurs almost continuously to locate frequently updated sites already in the Google index and then add the new content to the Google database.

For anyone interested in seeing the dance in action, it is fairly easy.

Google has two other searchable servers (www2.google.com and www3.google.com) in addition to their main server (www.google.com). Typically, the results on all three servers are the same. However, during the Google Dance, the search engine ranking results will be different. Once the Dance is over, your new ranking will be visible on all three servers.

During the Dance, if you go to either of the two servers mentioned above, you can see the new rankings that will eventually appear on Google's main server once the Dance is over. Do not focus too sharply on watching the Google Dance take place. It can be extremely frustrating, especially if your site accidentally gets dropped from the index altogether. Yes, this has been known to happen.

So, tread lightly where the Google Dance is concerned. My advice: Leave the worrying to the search engine optimization experts, sit back, and enjoy your new-found ranking.

Some interesting facts about Google!!!

What does "Google" mean?

The name "Google" is a play on the word "googol," which was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner. A googol refers to the number represented by a 1 followed by 100 zeros. A googol is a very large number. There isn't a googol of anything in the universe -- not stars, not dust particles, not atoms. Google's use of the term reflects our mission to organize the world's immense (and seemingly infinite) amount of information and make it universally accessible and useful.

I hope all of you know how Googol came to be known as Google and that was by sheer accident. Leave out all of that word-play stuff for the truth is always more interesting. A cheque was issued in the initial stages but then-known Googol was misspelled as Google. So it has stood since then. So where does the word-play come in?

When is Google's birthday?

Google opened its doors in September 1998. The exact date when we celebrate our birthday has moved around over the years, depending on when people feel like having cake.

How is "Google" pronounced?

"Google" is pronounced "goo-gull" (like "noodle," but replace the "n" and "d" with a hard "g"). The double "o" makes the same sound it makes in "moo" and "kangaroo."

Why does the Google logo sometimes change?

From time to time we modify the Google logo in honor of holidays celebrated by our users around the world. These special logos – we call them doodles -- usually run for 24 hours. You can find an archive of our more popular logo variations at http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html. If this piques your interest, check out our Oodles of Doodles entry on the Google Blog at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2004/06/oodles-of-doodles.html

For the complete history of Google and its various milestones , just visit the following link
http://www.google.com/corporate/history.html

Google Introduces Software Starter Kit

Due credit should go to Purna Chandra Mandal for he forwarded this link to me and Amitesh Hati.

Google Inc. is distributing a free software startup kit designed to make computing safer and easier — a generous gesture driven by the company's desire to steer technology offline as well as online.

The software bundle, unveiled Friday in Las Vegas during a speech by Google co-founder Larry Page, represents the Internet search engine leader's latest jab at industry kingpin Microsoft Corp.

The suite of programs is designed to make it easier to install and maintain basic applications that have helped turn the PC into a hub of information, entertainment and communications.

With the initiative, Google is setting out to prove that it is better positioned to help people get the most out of their computers than more-established software makers, particularly Microsoft — the maker of the pervasive Windows operating system.

"We thought, 'Why can't using a computer be more fun, simple and empowering?'" said Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience.

Six of the programs in the package are owned by Google, which had previously offered all but one on a piecemeal basis. A screensaver that automatically displays pictures stored on a personal computer is being introduced for the first time as part of the "Google Pack."

With the exception of a Norton antivirus program that is being offered in a free six-month trial, the seven other applications in the Google Pack are already available for free on the Internet.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google has simply negotiated agreements to create a one-stop shop for all the applications, supplemented with tools to simplify the process for installing and updating the programs.

Neither Google nor the other participants in the Google Pack are paying each other any money, Mayer said.

Although cobbling together a bunch of free software isn't revolutionary, the move could foreshadow bigger things to come as Google's maneuvers to gain more influence over the products people install on their PCs while diminishing Microsoft's power.

If the Google Pack proves popular among PC owners, more software makers are likely to be lining up to be included in future versions — a phenomenon that would give Google even more leverage in its slugfest with Microsoft, said Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li.

"This has the potential of giving Google more control over the software supply chain," Li said. "They in effect could become the arbiters of software taste, determining what's good and bad."

For now, Google is primarily interested in making personal computers easier and more enjoyable to use, Mayer said.

If people spend more time on their computers, Google believes it will receive more Internet search requests — an activity that generates the highly profitable ads that has catapulted its stock and spawned more than $100 billion in shareholder wealth during the past 18 months.

Google's shares surged $14.42 Friday to close at $465.66 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock price reached a new high of $470.50 earlier in the session.

Hoping to stunt Google's rapid growth, Microsoft has invested heavily to expand its presence in Internet search during the past year. So far, though, Google has been able to win even more market share, emboldening the company to embark on far-flung expansion that has increasingly put it on a collision course with Microsoft.

Toward that end, Google plans to distribute even more software as it builds upon the loyalty fostered by its popular search engine.

"I can imagine an operating system that some day does a better job storing your data, using (a) network," Mayer said in a barb clearly aimed at Microsoft.

The Google Pack includes Adobe Systems Inc.'s Acrobat Reader, RealNetworks Inc.'s media player, Mozilla's Firefox Web browser and Cerulean Studios' Trillian instant messaging program.

Notably missing are word processing and spreadsheet programs, though Google pledged in October to work with Sun Microsystems Inc. to promote an open-source version of those applications.

Mayer couldn't explain why the free OpenOffice suite, which includes word-processing and spreadsheet applications, wasn't included in the Google Pack.

Li believes the programs were excluded because Google didn't want to risk including anything that might be difficult to install or interfere with other applications, such as Microsoft's competing Office suite.

Gonna be rich people any time from now on....

All of you must google atleast 35% of the total surfing time. Are you being paid to use these search engines? Or just that you find a particular one captivating and more productive or user-friendly? How about an incentive of money? Hmm....sounds interesting.

Some time ago, while in a visit to India, Microsoft's Chairman Bill Gates floated the idea of paying MSN's search engine users a share of the advertising revenue brought in by MSN Search.

Yeah it is true and already amazon.com has set the ball rolling. Well, wait no more. Amazon.com is sending out mails promoting their A9.com search site, and although they are not exactly sending a cheque to users, they will be providing Amazon.com discounts to users. In short, regular users can receive 1.57% off purchases on Amazon.com.

The page http://a9.com/-/company/instantRewards.jsp? src=amz_pi_ema_info explains how it works, but it will depend on how much you search on A9.com before you can get the discounts. And like other programs, there's no information on how much is enough. And some conditions apply of course. And why 1.57%? Because they are sharing their pi(e) (3.1415926 / 2)...

Althouhg the program seems to be running for more than a year, it looks like they are actively promoting it now.

Now we have to sit back and relax, waiting for the next move from the other web search players such as Google, MSN, Yahoo, and Altavista... . And maybe then you will spend 65% of your surfing time googling or amazoning.

BackRub!

Now come on , do you know what BackRub originally stood for?

Don't complain about your persistent backache and name some pain-releiving spray, come on now, do tickle your brain!!!

Okay I will reveal it....

When Google was a Stanford research project, it was nicknamed BackRub because the technology checks backlinks to determine a site's importance.

New Virkel.F IM Worm Pretends to be MSN Messenger 8 Leak

There is a MSN Messenger 8 Beta running around but you can only get into the beta if you receive an invitation via email. It is not yet in the public beta phase.

There is a so-called security risk in MSN Messenger 8 beta. If you use MSN Messenger 8 beta and receive an IM with a link to a leaked "MSN Messenger 8 Beta" from a friend in your list; then don't open it!

Security firm F-Secure is warning about this new worm that spreads from a fake website, where the author pretends to have a copy of MSN Messenger 8 beta.

The download BETA8WEBINSTALL.EXE from that fake site actually installs a worm that will by turn send instant messages to everyone on the user's MSN list with links to download their "beta". The malware also connects to a bot network.

Sober worm may attack PCs again on 5th January, 2006

The next big Sober worm attack is expected to take place on 5th January, 2006 according to sources at Vancouver-based VeriSign iDefense, a security intelligence firm. They detected a date found embedded in recent variants of the virus that attacked computers worldwide with German right-wing spam.

The date, probably picked because it will be the 87th anniversary of the founding of a precursor to the Nazi Party, provides a clue as to the timing of the next planned attack, according to InformationWeek.

"We did reverse engineering on the variants, and found this date in the code," said Ken Dunham, senior engineer with Reston. "The way this works is that at a pre-determined time, computers already infected with Sober will connect with specified servers and download a new payload, which will likely be spammed out in the millions, as was the last version."

Embedded dates for spreading new malware aren't new. SoBig used it to dramatic effect in 2003, when new versions were pumped out regularly, as old ones were automatically deactivated on set schedules. It is also not the first time a Sober date has been sniffed out, said Dunham.

Like on Nov 14, the police in the southern German state of Bavaria warned of a Sober attack the next day, and the prediction proved on the mark.

Sober, which boasts more than 30 variants, debuted more than two years ago, and is characterised by bilingual messages (English or German) that are mass-mailed in huge quantities but don't carry a destructive payload.

The worm's creator doesn't appear to be motivated by money. Instead, he (or she) - who is assumed to be German - has a political agenda, said Ramses Martinez, iDefense's director of malicious code operations. "There hasn't been one variant that did anything but send out right-wing German spam."

Early versions of Sober were more upfront about the political agenda of the author, with messages directing recipients to neo-Nazi sites hosted in Germany, but for several months the messages have been politics-free.

Recent editions of the worm, however, have been timed to coincide with German political events. The release of Sober.z on Nov 22, for instance, matched the inauguration of Germany's first female chancellor, Angela Merkel.

"Sobers have always had a right-wing slant," said Dunham, who also noted that the next day, Jan 6, 2006, is the date of a major German political convention.

The practice of combining malicious code with political causes is often dubbed "hacktivism" and while it doesn't pose the same kind of risk as do worms, Trojans and spyware that are after money or identities, it can bring networks to their knees.

I am not sure whether the prediction will turn out to be true!!! Till then just wait and watch.

Intro to Remailers

How often have you thought of having anonymity in the emails that you send? It would have been really great to have that power, something like The Invisible Man. But what if someone told you that it is really possible to send emails without your identity being disclosed? The only criterion that people should practice is a bit of discretion while using such services. For with power comes responsibility. This article won’t tell you where you will get such services nor the setup procedure. If you are really interested do your own little scouting. I am just going to elaborate a bit on remailers; yes these anonymous services are coined as remailers.

A remailer is a service that provides anonymity to the sender of an email or newsgroup post by acting as an intermediary between the sender and receiver. The sender’s message goes first to the remailer, which strips away the headers associated with the sender, replacing them with its own. It then forwards the mail to its final destination. The receiver cannot deduce the origin of the mail or post by looking at its headers –- only the remailer’s headers will appear.

There are a myriad of practical reasons to use a remailer. For example, remailers can provide anonymous participation in USENET support groups to keep employers, or even children and spouses from Googling personal posts. Remailers provide people of every country the opportunity for free speech (do take it with a grain of salt, free speech without harming anyone), even where local governments forbid it. They also protect the sender when the nature of the message might cause personal repercussions, as in the case of a whistleblower.

For the average Internaut, a remailer can be a useful tool for keeping your personal email address private. If you want to send feedback to a favourite website or blogger, using a remailer will ensure that they receive your message without receiving your email address. This applies to USENET messages as well. Participation in controversial debate-based newsgroups can become contentious, but a remailer will ensure you won’t have stalkers following you back to your mailbox.

Along with the freedom that a remailer provides comes responsibility. Using a remailer to harass, threaten, taunt or engage in flame wars is considered abuse of the remailer. In the headers of any remailed email or post, there is an address the receiver can email to complain of abuses. These may or may not be acted upon, depending on the owner of the remailer and the nature of the posts. Don’t accuse me later that I didn’t warn you guys earlier!!!

Though using one remailer is sufficient for casual purposes, several remailers can be used in a “chain” to make the message harder to track and provide even greater security. In this case, the first remailer in the chain strips away your headers and sends the mail to another remailer. That remailer does the same, stripping away the previous remailer’s headers and sending the message to the next remailer in line, until finally the message is delivered. At the end point, tracing the origin of the message only gets as far as the last remailer in the chain. If there are still server records available, the message might be able to be tracked back one more step, but the sleuth would run into the same problem at that juncture. Remailers, as a matter of security, allege to delete all messages off their servers daily, precisely to eliminate having to turn over server records to authorities.

Anyone with skill can run a remailer. It is widely believed among the remailing community that some remailers are probably run by government agencies. Even a nobody like “Swarnendu” can run an unscrupulous remailer, reading messages that pass through his server. For this reason, most people who use a remailer encrypt their messages with PGP (Pretty Good Privacy). The message is only unencrypted at the end of the chain. Without using PGP, your message may be anonymous to the receiver, but it will be available to all of the remailers in between. Now this is not what you want, or does it not bother you?

Many freeware programs are designed to deliver email and newsgroup posts via remailers. Purists contend that using remailers manually with these programs is safest, though will be a learning curve involved. There are also remailing services on the Web that automate the process and are probably sufficient for most of our purposes (nothing except playing pranks). But on a serious note, purists reject Web services because there is no real guarantee that the service itself does not employ a “back door.”

RSS stands for ....you decide!!!

In the early years of the Web, most sites were not concerned about sharing data with other sites. Today, the trend is that sites are increasingly interdependent and many rely upon integrating content that originates somewhere else. Sharing content among sites is most often called syndication. Providing content from one source for distribution in many different channels is what a syndicate does, and it usually requires an established business relationship.

RSS or Really Simple Syndication (Rich Site Summaries) is a useful tool for keeping updated on your favorite websites. RSS makes use of an XML code that constantly scans the content of a website for updates and then broadcasts those updates to all subscribers through a feed. RSS is a better way to share data than more common approaches, such as fetching and parsing HTML, or using proprietary APIs, database dumps, and cobranding.

RSS originated at UserLand Software in 1997 and was initially used by Netscape to populate Netscape's My Netscape portal with external newsfeeds ("channels"). Netscape no longer seems to be leading the RSS effort, but others, such as Dave Winer of Userland Software, have picked it up. More importantly, content providers like Slashdot, the Motley Fool, Wired News, and Linux Today have been adopting RSS as a means of circulating headlines and links to new stories on their sites.

Under the RSS model, each site publishes a file describing the contents of its "channel." Other sites can subscribe to that channel and grab its contents. The RSS file could be converted to HTML and displayed directly on a subscriber site, or it might be edited first to select only those items that are appropriate for the site's audience. The nice thing about RSS, of course, is that once you've built the system to subscribe to one RSS channel, you can subscribe to thousands of them.

RSS feeds are typically used with news sites or blogs, although any website can use them to disseminate information. When an update is sent out, it includes a headline and a small amount of text, either a summary or the lead-in to the larger story. You will need to click a link to read more.

In order to receive RSS feeds, you must have an aggregator, a feed reader. There are a number of aggregators online, many of them free. In addition to being available on your computer, RSS feeds can also be read on PDAs and cell phones.

When you come across a website you would like to add to your aggregator, you can do so in one of two ways. Most sites that offer an RSS feed have an “RSS” or “XML” button on their homepage that you can click on and it will instantly add that feed to your aggregator. Depending on your aggregator, you may instead need to copy and paste the URL of the feed into the program.

By either method, the feed will be available as soon as you’ve added it, and your next update could arrive in seconds. If you ever decide that you don’t want to receive updates anymore, you simply delete the feed or URL from your aggregator.

Perhaps you already receive information on website updates through some sort of e-mail newsletter. RSS feeds are preferable to newsletter updates because they are instantaneous; you don’t have to wait until a designated day of the week to receive your summary. They will also never be held up by a spam filter.

RSS feeds are used daily by people who realize the convenience of up-to-the-minute news and reports and the time they can save reading only those updates that interest them, and they look to become even more popular in the future.

Alternatives to e-mail

There has been a recent speculation on the dismissal of e-mail as an effective form of communication causing real alarm. So here we are to discuss two alternatives to email.
More often than not emails can be grouped under two broad categories, one containing personal information and the other containing info on products and technology the particular user is interested in. So any alternatives to e-mail must effectively communicate on both of these planes and realistically it needs to be more effective than e-mail is today.

The first of these technologies is RSS. Really Simple Syndication is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. The good thing about RSS is that it is a pull mechanism and not a push. We can select the information we want and we pull it down on a schedule. We don’t have to fight our way through spam and it’s easy to add and remove subscriptions if we don’t like what we see. RSS delivers only the information we want and its ready to read when we want to read it.

But the problem with RSS fulfilling this role is threefold.

Firstly the websites that have RSS feeds are limited - very few if any product companies have RSS feeds available that you can subscribe to. This means that it is generally impossible to use RSS to keep up with product information at the source of the product.

The second problem is that the sites that do have RSS subscriptions available see RSS as either a nuisance or a potential revenue stream which means that in the long term the RSS feeds on these sites will probably be less accessible at best - more likely they will disappear entirely. Typically the sites with RSS are news sites or blogs, both of which are useful for aggregating news to a single source.

The third problem with RSS is that unless the site has multiple feeds available, you will get every scrap of news that is published.

The technology that could replace e-mail in a personal sense is instant messaging or IM. IM already has huge popularity, and is better than e-mail on a personal level because it can convey emotions better and allows the parties to clear up any misunderstanding before it becomes a problem.

IM also allows file transfer between parties as well as a number of other features that e-mail does not have. In addition IM is real time, it can be taken mobile (e.g. With a Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone) and all conversations can be recorded.

The biggest drawback to IM is the adoption. While IM has widespread adoption today, corporate adoption has been slow. But I expect this to change though as companies start to look for more effective ways to communicate without the noise of spam.

Another improvement would be to see a bigger uptake of always connected mobile devices. Fortunately, as phones and PDAs continue to merge, this will only get better. Users of devices like the XDA II and HTC Falcon can today be connected via a usable version of MSN Messenger wherever they are. This means they can communicate, send and receive files, and even open them without having to return to their desk. And all this without e-mail.

There is also the problem of disparity. As it stands today, the IM world is a group of varying systems that generally don’t interoperate well (if at all) with each other. If one person is a user of Yahoo Messenger and someone else is a user of MSN Messenger, the two cannot talk unless one of the parties crosses over to the others side and downloads and signs up with the other parties’ messenger system.

Finally the IM world has already started to receive unsolicited messages from outside parties. How far this gets remains to be seen! I've had problems with this myself, and I'd hate to see another communications method go the way of e-mail.

Therefore, while we conclude we can see that the two probable alternatives are not potent enough to replace email as an effective way of communication. Maybe with a bit more of insight, nurturing and development might we consider these other forms of communication to be a viable alternative.