INNOVATION

Who Invented the Internet ?….

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The Invention of the Internet

internetWhile the World Wide Web was initially invented by one person (see: What was the First Website?), the genesis of the internet itself was a group effort by numerous individuals, sometimes working in concert, and other times independently.  Its birth takes us back to the extremely competitive technological contest between the US and the USSR during the Cold War.

The Soviet Union sent the satellite Sputnik 1 into space on October 4, 1957. Partially in response, the American government created in 1958 the Advanced Research Project Agency, known today as DARPA—Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The agency’s specific mission was to

“…prevent technological surprises like the launch of Sputnik, which signaled that the Soviets had beaten the U.S. into space. The mission statement has evolved over time. Today, DARPA’s mission is still to prevent technological surprise to the US, but also to create technological surprise for our enemies.”

To coordinate such efforts, a rapid way to exchange data between various universities and laboratories was needed. This bring us to J. C. R. Licklider who is largely responsible for the theoretical basis of the Internet, an “Intergalactic Computer Network.” His idea was to create a network where many different computer systems would be interconnected to one another to quickly exchange data, rather than have individual systems setup, each one connecting to some other individual system.

He thought up the idea after having to deal with three separate systems connecting to computers in Santa Monica, the University of California, Berkeley, and a system at MIT:

“For each of these three terminals, I had three different sets of user commands. So if I was talking online with someone at S.D.C. and I wanted to talk to someone I knew at Berkeley or M.I.T. about this, I had to get up from the S.D.C. terminal, go over and log into the other terminal and get in touch with them…. I said, oh man, it’s obvious what to do: If you have these three terminals, there ought to be one terminal that goes anywhere you want to go where you have interactive computing. That idea is the ARPAnet.”

So, yes, the idea for the internet as we know it partially came about because of the seemingly universal human desire to not have to get up and move to another location.

With the threat of a nuclear war, it was necessary to decentralize such a system, so that even if one node was destroyed, there would still be communication between all the other computers. The American engineer Paul Baran provided the solution to this issue; he designed a decentralized network that also used packet switching as a means for sending and receiving data.

Many others also contributed to the development of an efficient packet switching system, including Leonard Kleinrock and Donald Davies. If you’re not familiar, “packet switching” is basically just a method of breaking down all transmitted data—regardless of content, type, or structure—into suitably sized blocks, called packets. So, for instance, if you wanted to access a large file from another system, when you attempted to download it, rather than the entire file being sent in one stream, which would require a constant connection for the duration of the download, it would get broken down into small packets of data, with each packet being individually sent, perhaps taking different paths through the network.  The system that downloads the file would then re-assemble the packets back into the original full file.

The platform mentioned above by Licklider, ARPANET was based on these ideas and was the principle precursor to the Internet as we think of it today. It was installed and operated for the first time in 1969 with four nodes, which were located at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of California at Los Angeles, SRI at Stanford University, and the University of Utah.

The first use of this network took place on October 29, 1969 at 10:30 pm and was a communication between UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute. As recounted by the aforementioned Leonard Kleinrock, this momentous communiqué went like this:

“We set up a telephone connection between us and the guys at SRI… We typed the L and we asked on the phone,

“Do you see the L?”
“Yes, we see the L,” came the response.

We typed the O, and we asked, “Do you see the O.”
“Yes, we see the O.”

Then we typed the G, and the system crashed… Yet a revolution had begun.”

By 1972, the number of computers that were connected to ARPANET had reached twenty-three and it was at this time that the term electronic mail (email) was first used, when a computer scientist named Ray Tomlinson implemented an email system in ARPANET using the “@” symbol to differentiate the sender’s name and network name in the email address.

Alongside these developments, engineers created more networks, which used different protocols such as X.25 and UUCP. The original protocol for communication used by the ARPANET was the NCP (Network Control Protocol). The need for a protocol that would unite all the many networks was needed.

In 1974, after many failed attempts, a paper published by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, also known as “the fathers of the Internet,” resulted in the protocol TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), which by 1978 would become TCP/IP (with the IP standing for Internet Protocol). At a high level, TCP/IP is essentially just a relatively efficient system for making sure the packets of data are sent and ultimately received where they need to go, and in turn assembled in the proper order so that the downloaded data mirrors the original file.  So, for instance, if a packet is lost in transmission, TCP is the system that detects this and makes sure the missing packet(s) get re-sent and are successfully received.  Developers of applications can then use this system without having to worry about exactly how the underlying network communication works.

On January 1, 1983, “flag day,” TCP/IP would become the exclusive communication protocol for ARPANET.

Also in 1983, Paul Mockapetris proposed a distributed database of internet name and address pairs, now known as the Domain Name System (DNS).  This is essentially a distributed “phone book” linking a domain’s name to its IP address, allowing you to type in something like todayifoundout.com, instead of the IP address of the website.  The distributed version of this system allowed for a decentralized approach to this “phone book.” Previous to this, a central HOSTS.TXT file was maintained at Stanford Research Institute that then could be downloaded and used by other systems.  Of course, even by 1983, this was becoming a problem to maintain and there was a growing need for a decentralized approach.

This brings us to 1989 when Tim Berners-Lee of CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) developed a system for distributing information on the Internet and named it the World Wide Web.

What made this system unique from existing systems of the day was the marriage of the hypertext system (linked pages) with the internet; particularly the marriage of one directional links that didn’t require any action by the owner of the destination page to make it work as with bi-directional hypertext systems of the day.  It also provided for relatively simple implementations of web servers and web browsers and was a completely open platform making it so anyone could contribute and develop their own such systems without paying any royalties.  In the process of doing all this, Berners-Lee developed the URL format, hypertext markup language (HTML), and the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

Around this same time, one of the most popular alternatives to the web, the Gopher system, announced it would no longer be free to use, effectively killing it with many switching to the World Wide Web. Today, the web is so popular that many people often think of it as the internet, even though this isn’t the case at all.

Also around the time the World Wide Web was being created, the restrictions on commercial use of the internet were gradually being removed, which was another key element in the ultimate success of this network.

Next up, in 1993, Marc Andreessen led a team that developed a browser for the World Wide Web, named Mosaic.  This was a graphical browser developed via funding through a U.S. government initiative, specifically the “High Performance Computing and Communications Act of 1991.″

This act was partially what Al Gore was referring to when he said he “took the initiative in creating the Internet.”  All political rhetoric aside (and there was much on both sides concerning this statement), as one of the “fathers of the internet,” Vincent Cerf said, “The Internet would not be where it is in the United States without the strong support given to it and related research areas by the Vice President [Al Gore] in his current role and in his earlier role as Senator… As far back as the 1970s, Congressman Gore promoted the idea of high speed telecommunications as an engine for both economic growth and the improvement of our educational system. He was the first elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader impact than just improving the conduct of science and scholarship…  His initiatives led directly to the commercialization of the Internet. So he really does deserve credit.” (For more on this controversy, see: Did Al Gore Really Say He Invented the Internet?)

As for Mosaic, it was not the first web browser, as you’ll sometimes read, simply one of the most successful until Netscape came around (which was developed by many of those who previously worked on Mosaic).  The first ever web browser, called WorldWideWeb, was created by Berners-Lee.  This browser had a nice graphical user interface; allowed for multiple fonts and font sizes; allowed for downloading and displaying images, sounds, animations, movies, etc.; and had the ability to let users edit the web pages being viewed in order to promote collaboration of information.  However, this browser only ran on NeXT Step’s OS, which most people didn’t have because of the extreme high cost of these systems. (This company was owned by Steve Jobs, so you can imagine the cost bloat… ;-))

In order to provide a browser anyone could use, the next browser Berners-Lee developed was much simpler and, thus, versions of it could be quickly developed to be able to run on just about any computer, for the most part regardless of processing power or operating system.  It was a bare-bones inline browser (command line / text only), which didn’t have most of the features of his original browser.

Mosaic essentially reintroduced some of the nicer features found in Berners-Lee’s original browser, giving people a graphic interface to work with. It also included the ability to view web pages with inline images (instead of in separate windows as other browsers at the time).  What really distinguished it from other such graphical browsers, though, was that it was easy for everyday users to install and use.  The creators also offered 24 hour phone support to help people get it setup and working on their respective systems.

And the rest, as they say, is history…

 

Source:::: Today i foundout.com

Natarajan

Mangalyaan Reaches MARS On FIRST Attempt…

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India put a satellite into Mars orbit early Wednesday, the only nation to have done so on a maiden voyage and the first in Asia to reach the red planet.

As the country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi looked on, space scientists at mission control in Bangalore, India’s tech capital, announced that the Mangalyaan orbiter had entered Mars orbit after a 10-month voyage from Earth.

Mangalyaan, Hindi for Mars craft, cost $74 million to send into space, making it by far the cheapest of recent missions to Mars. The U.S. spent $671 million getting its Maven satellite to Mars orbit, where it arrived late Sunday.

Mr. Modi boasted in June that India had spent less than Hollywood had on producing the film “Gravity” to reach the red planet. On Wednesday, Mr. Modi, wearing a bright red jacket, hugged  Koppillil Radhakrishnan chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, before addressing ISRO scientists in Hindi and English. “History has been created today, we have dared to reach out into the unknown and have achieved the near impossible,” Mr. Modi said.  ”I congratulate all ISRO scientists as well as all my fellow Indians on this historic occasion.”

“We have gone beyond the boundaries of human enterprise and imagination. We have navigated our spacecraft through a route known to very few,” the prime minister added.

A father and son looked at a scale model of India’s Mars Orbiter spacecraft at the Nehru Planetarium as a special preview on the Mars Orbiter Mission, in Bangalore on Sept. 23, 2014.
Manjunath Kiran/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

India now joins a small club of nations — the U.S., Russia and those in the European Space Agency – to have mastered interplanetary travel, giving it bragging rights over Asian rivals China and Japan whose attempts to get to Mars failed.

“Domestically this will boost the morale of the people that India has gained tremendous economic and technical development and is on the way pretty fast to becoming a developed country,” said Ram Jakhu, a professor at the Institute of Air and Space Law at McGill University in Canada. “Externally, India will have its head held high to say that it is capable of such a complex task.”

More In Mars

The mission, which took just four years from feasibility study to arrival at Mars orbit, will now study the surface of the planet to establish the presence of methane, among other tasks using the five instruments in its 15-kilogram payload.

The primary aim of the mission was to see if India had the technological capability to get to Mars. Now that it’s done so, the next step will be to complete a moon landing before possibly attempting manned missions, Mr. Radhakrishnan of ISRO told India’s NDTV on Tuesday.

Critics of the mission have questioned whether India, where 40% of children are malnourished, should have a space program at all. But advocates argue that development in space in turn drives innovation on Earth.

“India’s space program has a socio-economic basis for purposes like remote sensing and medical advancement. From that perspective, none of the money has gone in an extravagant way where it isn’t used for the benefit of the common man,” said Ajey Lele, author of “Mission Mars: India’s Quest for the Red Planet.”

To hold costs down, India relied on technologies it has used before and saved on fuel by using a smaller rocket to put its spacecraft into Earth orbit first to gain enough momentum to slingshot it toward Mars. India spends $1.2 billion a year on its space program: a dollar for every member of its population. On Wednesday, for many Indians cheering their country’s achievement, that looked like a bargain.

SOURCE:::: http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2014/09/24/indias-mangalyaan-enters-mars-orbit/

Natarajanb

India Makes History…”MANGALYAAN” enters Mars Orbit !!!

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India makes history, Mars orbiter enters red planet’s orbit

 

India has triumphed in its first interplanetary attempt by successfully putting a satellite into orbit around Mars.

India’s ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) entered a crucial phase Wednesday with the country’s space scientists steering the spacecraft to the red planet’s orbit.

After rotating the Orbiter towards Mars, the main engine was fired 24 minutes from Mars to enter the Martian orbit, which will be about 500 km from its surface and 215 million km away from the Earth in radio distance.

The spacecraft will consume about 250 kg of liquid fuel with oxidiser.

India has triumphed in its first interplanetary attempt by successfully putting a satellite into orbit around Mars.

Scientists broke into wild cheers Wednesday morning as the orbiter’s engines completed 24 minutes of burn time and maneuvered into its designated place around the red planet.

The success of India’s Mars Orbiter Mission, affectionately nicknamed MOM, brings India into an elite club of Martian explorers that includes United States, the European Space Agency and the former Soviet Union.

The Indian Space and Research Organisation described the mission as flawless.

SOURCE:::::YAHOO India.com

Natarajan

All You Need to Know About MoM …Mars Orbiter Mission …MANGALYAAN

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” இணைய சாம்ராஜ்யத்தின் தமிழ் புயல் …. SUNDAR PICHAI …

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‘இது கூடத் தெரியாதா உனக்கு? போய் கூகுள் பண்ணுப்பா’ என்று அறிவுறுத்துகிற புதிய வழக்கு உருவாகிவிட்டது. தேடுதல் என்ற வார்த்தைக்குச் சமமாக இன்று கூகுள் என்ற இணையத் தேடுபொறி மாறிவிட்டது. 2006 -ம் ஆண்டு ஆக்ஸ்போர்டு டிக் ஷனரியிலும் அந்தச் சொல் சேர்ந்து விட்டது.

கூகுள் சாம்ராஜ்யம்

எந்த ஒரு விசயத்தைப் பற்றி நாம் கேட்டாலும் அதனை கோடிக்கணக்கான இணையதளங்கள் செயல்படுகிற கணினிகளில் இருந்து தேடி எடுக்கிறது கூகுள். நல்லது,கெட்டது,சரி,தவறு எல்லாவற்றையும் நம்முன் படைக்கிறது. அதிலிருந்து அன்னப்பறவை போல உங்களுக்கு தேவையானதை எடுத்துக்கொள்ள வேண்டும்.

இன்றைய இணைய உலகில் கூகுள் ஒரு அசைக்க முடியாத நிறுவனமாக மாறிவிட்டது. உலகம் முழுவதும் பத்து லட்சத்துக்கும் அதிகமான ஆதார தகவல் மையங்களை அது வைத்துள்ளது. அமெரிக்காவை மையமாகக் கொண்டு உலகின் பல நாடுகளில் கூகுள் செயல்படுகிறது. 52 ஆயிரம் பேருக்கும் மேலாக தற்போது இந்த கம்பெனியில் பணியாற்றுகின்றனர்.

அத்தகையப் பெரும் இணைய சாம்ராஜ்யத்தின் முதுநிலை துணைத்தலைவராகத் தமிழகத்தை சேர்ந்த சுந்தர் பிச்சை செயல்பட்டு வருகிறார். ‘ஆண்ட்ராய்ட் ஒன்’ என்பதைப் புதிதாக கூகுள் அறிவித்த போது அவர் பிரபலமடைந்தார்.

ஆலமரமாய்…

சுந்தர் பிச்சை 2004-ம் ஆண்டு கூகுளில் இணைந்துள்ளார். 2011- ல் கூகுள் குரோம் ப்ரவுசர் ,

ஜிமெயில், ஆப்ஸ் உள்ளிட்ட பிரிவுகளுக்கான உலகளாவிய பொறுப்பாளராக அவர் நியமிக்கப்பட்டார்.

2013 முதல் ஆண்ட்ராய்ட் மென்பொருளுக்கான பொறுப்பாளராகவும் அவர் நியமிக்கப் பட்டுள்ளார்.

1998- ல் லாரி பேஜ் மற்றும் சேர்ஜி பிரின் எனும் இரண்டு நண்பர்களால் இந்த கூகுள் நிறுவனம் தொடங்கப்பட்டது. உலகிலுள்ள தகவல்களை ஒருங்கிணைப்பதே கூகுளின் நோக்கமாகும்.

ஒரு நாளில் 100 கோடிக்கும் மேலான தகவல்கள் கூகுளில் தேடப்படுகின்றன. அதி விரைவாக கூகுள் வளர்ச்சியடைந்துள்ளது.பல புதிய மென்பொருள் சேவைகளும் அதனால் வெளியிடப்பட்டுள்ளன.

ஜிமெயில் எனப்படும் கூகுள் மெயில், கூகுள் டாக்குமெண்டுகள், கூகுள் பிளஸ், கூகுள் டாக், கூகுள் மேப்ஸ், கூகுள் நியூஸ், பிளாக்கர், யூ ட்யூப் போன்ற பல்வேறு கிளைகளை பரப்பி பிரம்மாண்டமான ஆலமரமாய் அது வளர்ந்துள்ளது.ஆண்டுதோறும் லட்சக்கணக்கான கோடிகள் ரூபாய் மதிப்பில் அதன் வியாபாரம் விரிந்துள்ளது.

விரியும் ஆதிக்கம்

சமீபத்தில் குரோம் ப்ரவுசர் என்னும் இணைய உலவியையும் கூகுள் வெளியிட்டது. அது தற்போது இணைய ப்ரவுசர்களின் மார்க்கெட்டில் 32 சதவீதத்தை கைப்பற்றி உள்ளது.

ஆண்ட்ராய்டு என்னும் செல்போனை இயக்கும் மென்பொருள்தளத்தையும் அது வெளியிட்டது. அதனால் செல்போன்களின் துறையில் பெரும்தாக்கம் ஏற்பட்டுள்ளது.

உங்கள் கைகளில் விளையாடும் டச் ஸ்கிரீன் செல்போன்களில் ஏற்பட்டுள்ள புதுமைகளுக்கு எல்லாம் ஆண்ட்ராய்ட் இயங்குதளம் எனும் மென்பொருளும் ஒரு காரணம். தற்போது செல்போன் உள்ளிட்ட 120 கோடி கருவிகளில் ஆண்ட்ராய்ட் மென்பொருள் பயன்படுகிறது.

சென்னையின் புதல்வர்

சுந்தர் பிச்சை சென்னையில் பிறந்தவர். மேல்படிப்புக்காக மேற்குவங்கத்தை சேர்ந்த கரக்பூரில் உள்ள ஐஐடியில் சேர்ந்து படித்தாவர். அமெரிக்காவின் ஸ்டான்ஃபோர்டு பல்கலைக்கழகத்தில்

எம்.எஸ் பட்டமும், பென்சில்வேனியாவில் இருக்கும் வார்டன் கல்லூரியில் எம்.பி.ஏ.

பட்டமும் பெற்றவர். கூகுள் நிறுவனத்தில் சேருவதற்கு முன்பு மெக்கென்சி நிறுவனத்தின் சாஃப்ட்வேர் நிறுவனங்களுக்கு கன்சல்டன்டாக இருந்திருக்கிறார்.

சுந்தர் பிச்சையைப் பற்றி கூகுள் நிறுவனத்தின் தலைவரான லாரி பேஜ் “அவர் ஆழமான தொழில்நுட்ப அனுபவம், உற்பத்தி மீதான சிறப்பான கண்காணிப்பு, தொழில் முனைப்புத் திறமை ஆகியவற்றின் அரிய ஒருங்கிணைப்பாக இருக்கிறார்” எனப் பாராட்டுகிறார்.

சுந்தர் பிச்சையின் அப்பா சென்னையில் உள்ள பிரிட்டிஷ் பன்னாட்டு கம்பெனியான ஜிஇசியில் எலக்ட்ரிகல் இன்ஜினீயராக இருந்துள்ளார். சுந்தர் பிச்சைக்கு 11வயதில் ஒரு மகள் இருக்கிறார்.

அடுத்த பாய்ச்சல்

கூகுள் நிறுவனம் ஆண்ட்ராய்ட் மென்பொருள் மூலம் தனது அடுத்த தயாரிப்புகளைத் திட்டமிட்டு வருகிறது. அவற்றில் தானே வழி அறிந்து செல்லும் கார், ஆண்ட்ராய்ட் டிவி மிக முக்கியமானவை கூகுள் திட்டமிடுகிற கார் தெருக்களில் ஒரு போது, இனி நீங்கள் உங்கள் காரில் எந்த இடத்துக்கு போக வேண்டும் எனக் குறிப்பிட்டு விட்டால் போதும்.

செயற்கைக்கோள்கள் மூலமாக உருவான வரைபடங்கள் மூலம் இயங்கும் கூகுள் மேப்ஸ் துணையோடு, உங்கள் கார் உலகின் எந்த மூலைக்கும் தரைவழியாகத் தானே வழிகளை அறிந்து செல்லும்.

ஆண்ட்ராய்ட் இயங்குதளத்தை அடிப்படையாகக் கொண்ட டிவிகளை உருவாக்கும் முயற்சியில் தற்போது கூகுள் ஈடுபட்டுள்ளது. அப்படிப்பட்ட டிவிகள் வந்தால் அவை தற்போதைய தொழில்நுட்பங்களில் இயங்கும் டிவிகளை காலாவதி ஆக்கும். அவை புதிய தலைமுறை டிவிகளாக இருக்கும். உங்கள் குரல்களை அடையாளம் கண்டு அதற்கேற்ப செயல்படக்கூடியவையாக இந்த டிவிக்கள் இருக்கும்.

கூகுள் கண்ணாடி எனும் கருவியை மாட்டிக்கொண்டாலே போதும் நம்மால் இணையத்தைப் பார்க்க முடியும் என அண்மையில் கூகுள் அறிவித்தது நினைவிருக்கலாம். அத்தகைய கருவிகள் இன்னமும் முழுமையாக மார்க்கெட்டுக்கு வரவில்லை. அவை எல்லாம் மனித வாழ்வில் பெரிய தாக்கத்தை ஏற்படுத்த உள்ளன.

அத்தகைய திட்டங்களில் முக்கிய பங்காற்றுபவராக சுந்தர் பிச்சை உருவாகி உள்ளார். ஆண்ட்ராய்ட் ஜீனியஸ் என அவர் அழைக்கப்படுகிறார்.

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இளைஞர்|சாதனைகள்|

SOURCE:::: த.நீதிராஜன் in THE HINDU…TAMIL
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Autonomous People Movers Heathrow Airport Terminal ….

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Matthew Phenix  in BBC .com

The autonomous Ultra pods of London's Heathrow airport

These autonomous people-movers run along a closed course between Heathrow’s Terminal 5 and the Business Car Park, 2.4 miles away. (Matthew Phenix)

Tucked in a corner of Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow airport, the future of urban mobility is quietly unfolding.

Since 2011, on a closed course between the terminal and the Business Car Park, 2.4 miles away, a fleet of 21 diminutive passenger pods have ferried as many as 1,000 passengers each day, quietly logging well more than 1m autonomous miles in the process. It’s a small-scale experiment, commissioned by Heathrow Airport Holdings Limited and built by UK-based Ultra Global PRT (for Personal Rapid Transit), but its success – measured by cost savings, environmental impact and user-friendliness – may help define locomotion in the city of tomorrow.

This is no miniature railway; Ultra pods are real cars, with rubber tires and untethered, battery-driven powertrains. Although they OFFER space for as many as six people and their luggage, they are compact, measuring 12ft long, 5ft wide and 6ft tall; and lightweight, tipping the scales at just 1,870lbs, including a 141lb battery pack. At its 25mph top speed, the pod draws only 2kW of electricity and hums along at 35dB (quieter than a refrigerator). Pods self-monitor battery level, occasionally excusing themselves at station stops for “opportunity charging”.

Pods wait in the station at Heathrow’s Terminal 5. (Matthew Phenix) 

More than a novelty, the Heathrow pod network boasts some impressive environmental claims. The system already meets Kyoto Protocol 2050 projections, delivering a 50% reduction in per-passenger carbon emissions compared with diesel-powered buses and 70% compared with cars. By Heathrow’s estimate, the pods replace some 70,000 bus journeys each year. And unlike a shuttle bus, the average wait time for a pod is less than 10 seconds (80% of passengers have no wait at all).

Operation is splendidly simple. In the station, touch-screens allow riders to select their destination (Heathrow’s system OFFERS only two outbound options). The doors open and a mellifluous recorded voice welcomes the rider and begins narrating the experience. After the passenger presses the “Close doors” and “Start” buttons, the pod autonomously backs out of its parking spot and hums away from the station.

Pods accommodate as many as six passengers and their luggage; controls couldn’t be simpler. (Matthew Phenix) 

It’s a five-minute ride from end to end, and the experience is altogether delightful. Crossing over seven roads and two rivers, a journey by Heathrow pod is more like a theme-park ride than a car-park transfer.

Of course, building a closed-course autonomous vehicle is decidedly easier than building one for the open road, à la the Google self-driving car, which must negotiate such obstacles as complex roadway interchanges, pedestrians and non-autonomous vehicles. But simplicity has its advantages. The pods themselves, which use mostly off-the-shelf automotive hardware, have proven highly reliable, and the system’s lightweight infrastructure – slender, easily installed trackways and flyovers – is, says Ultra, between six and 10 times more resource-efficient than typical road or rail systems.

Pods self-monitor battery status, occasionally excusing themselves at station stops for “opportunity charging”. (Matthew Phenix) 

And Ultra has big plans for its little pods. Working with investors in India, the company intends to build a 4.8-mile elevated circuit in the city of Amritsar, about 285 miles north of New Delhi. This network will include seven stations and more than 200 pods capable of transporting some 50,000 passengers a day. And in November 2013, Ultra Global PRT and Taiwan-based China Engineering Consultants completed a feasibility study for the implementation of a sprawling PRT system New Taipei City, population 6.9m.

While it is not difficult to imagine specific pod applications – within city centres, for example, or between cities and airports – an all-pod future is a decidedly loftier proposition. A pod network like Heathrow’s works because riders can grab any pod, at any time, with no waiting. And while the service is personal, it isn’t private. The question is, will future drivers be willing relinquish the privilege of owning the cars of their choice – and the freedom of driving those cars themselves – for the convenience of a hands-off motoring future?

  

Source::::bbc.com

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Dubai’s AL Maktoum International Airport …Will be the World’s Biggest Airport…

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Dubai announced this week that the emirate’sAl Maktoum International Airport is about to get a massive $32 billion expansion.

Since opening in 2010, the four year-old airport has been mainly used for cargo operations. Passenger service commenced last year.

With this announcement, the seaside emirate will have a second major international airport, in addition to the already palatial Dubai International – home to Emirates Airlines.

The Al Maktoum Airport will serve as the focal point for Dubai World Central, a purpose-built “airport city” located 23 miles outside of Dubai. The 54 square mile airport metropolis will feature everything from commercial, residential, and leisure developments to state-of-the art cargo and air passenger facilities.

Dubai Airports expects Al Maktoum to be able to handle more than 120 million passengers a year, making it the busiest airport in the world. The expansion, which is expected to take six to eight years to complete, will enable the facility to accomodate up to 100 Airbus A380 Superjumbos simultaneously.

If that’s not enough, Al Maktoum International Airport can be further expanded to handle up to 200 million passengers per year. By 2020, the airport is expected to support more than 322,000 jobs and account for as much as 28% of Dubai’s GDP.

According to Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports:

Our future lies at Dubai World Central (DWC). The announcement of this $32 billion development of DWC is both timely and a strong endorsement of Dubai’s aviation industry. With limited options for further growth at Dubai International, we are taking that next step to securing our future by building a brand new airport that will not only create the capacity we will need in the coming decades but also provide state of the art facilities that revolutionize the airport experience on an unprecedented scale.

SOURCE:::: BENJAMIN ZHANG  in Business Insider India

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The Man We Should Thank for Hi Speed WiFi and 4 G…

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Meet Joseph Paulraj, a pioneer of MIMO wireless communications, a technology breakthrough that has revolutionised high speed wireless delivery of multimedia services for billions of people across the globe.

 “Though I initiated this concept, there are thousands of engineers and researchers all over the world who have made research advances and developed products that we all use. I was just a small spark that lit a pretty big fire,” says Joseph Paulraj on his achievement.

It has been an incredible journey for Arogyaswami Joseph Paulraj, Professor (Emeritus), Stanford University, California who started his career in the Indian Navy.

Winner of the prestigious $100,000 Marconi Prize for 2014, considered the Nobel Prize of Information Technology, Joseph Paulraj has done India proud with this award.

The Marconi Society, founded 50 years ago by Gioia Marconi Braga, annually recognises one or more scientists who — like her father, radio inventor Guglielmo Marconi — pursue advances in communications and IT for the social, economic and cultural development of all humanity.

Dr Paulraj is known as the father of MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) — the idea of using multiple antennas at both the transmitting and receiving stations that is at the heart of high-speed WiFi and 4G mobile systems — and has revolutionised high speed wireless delivery of multimedia services for billions of people across the globe.

The big value of MIMO is that it multiplies radio spectrum, a precious and a limited resource.

‘Every WiFi router and 4G phone today uses the MIMO technology pioneered by him,’ Professor Sir David Payne, chairman, Marconi Society, and director, Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, said in a press statement.

‘MIMO will soon be pervasive in all wireless devices. Moreover, Paulraj’s work has provided fertile ground for thousands of researchers to explore and advance MIMO’s potential to enhance wireless spectrum efficiency.’

N R Narayana Murthy, executive chairman, Infosys, said in statement that Professor Paulraj ‘revolutionised wireless technology, bringing a lasting benefit to mankind.’

Paulraj joins the elite group of IT pioneers like Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web; Vint Cerf, considered one of the fathers of the Internet; Larry Page, co-founder, Google; and Marty Hellman, inventor of Public Key Cryptography.

“I feel truly honoured. I was fortunate to come up with the idea,” Paulraj told Rediff.com. “Though I initiated this concept, there are now ten of thousands of engineers and researchers all over the world that have made research advances and developed products that we all use. I was just a small spark that lit a pretty big fire.”

But to get the small spark required to light a big fire, he had to deal with a lot of push back and skepticism before getting his technology to the point where now there are about 14,000 research papers surrounding it of which he and students have written only about 300.

“It has been a lot of work, but it has all been worthwhile because MIMO is a very important technology,” he said. Paulraj not only invented and developed MIMO, he also gave India a world-class sonar technology.

Advanced Panoramic Sonar Hull mounted (APSOH), which his team developed, remains one of India’s truly world-class achievements in electronics. The ship-borne sonar system, which performs active ranging, passive listening, auto tracking of targets and classification, is used by the Indian Navy, where Paulraj began his career.

Paulraj said he always worked on research and development assignments during his 25-year Navy stint.

As part of the electrical engineering branch, his training focused on practical skills for maintaining weapons systems, but he wanted more and taught himself subjects like control theory, information theory and signal processing, said the Marconi Society.

Impressed, the Navy sent him to the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, for an MS programme in 1969.

Paulraj performed so well at IIT that he caught the eye of an influential professor of electrical engineering who convinced the Navy to allow Paulraj to switch to the PhD programme.

Paulraj had just two years to wrap up his research for the doctoral programme, but that opportunity changed his life.

It was there that he met Thomas Kailath, the man whose book, Linear Systems, is considered one of the most referenced books on the subject. The Pune-born Hitachi America Professor of Engineering, Emeritus, Stanford University, visited IIT-Delhi to deliver a few lectures.

Inspired by those lectures, Paulraj went on to make fundamental advances in non-linear estimation theory using tools from Ito calculus and stochastic diffusion theory. He earned his PhD for his work on non-linear estimation theory.

He returned to the Navy where he was eventually asked to lead the sonar development project that resulted in APSOH.

As a reward for his work on this, Paulraj was given a two-year sabbatical to explore new areas, and he earned a visiting scientist slot in a group working with Kailath, despite, he said, some initial scepticism from the latter.

At Stanford, Dr Paulraj worked on a multiple signals directions of arrival estimation problem that had a long history of advancements using a spectrum approach. He discovered a new method called ESPRIT (Estimation of Signal Parameters via Rotational Invariance Techniques).

“This work became very well known and led to a mini-revolution in the field,” Paulraj said. “Coming to Stanford was one of the most fortunate breaks in my life, I am very grateful to Professor Kailath for the huge opportunity.”

After two years, in 1986, Dr Paulraj returned to India where the Navy assigned him to serve as founding director for three major labs — Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics; Center for Development of Advanced Computing, Bengaluru Center; and Central Research Labs of Bharat Electronics.

But by 1991, the bureaucratic difficulties of operating in government labs had begun to take their toll on Paulraj. With the Navy’s consent, he took early retirement and returned to Stanford.

Kailath told Rediff.com, “I have known Paul since his IIT-Delhi days and brought him to Stanford and after a struggle got him a Professor (Research) appointment. He is a remarkable individual — strong in theory (not unusual for academics), but also very capable in practical technology.”

‘At Stanford, while awaiting a faculty appointment, Paulraj worked on signal separation experiments for airborne reconnaissance,’ the Marconi Society said in its announcement.

‘He noticed something surprising: In the presence of scattering, co-channel wireless signals from closely spaced transmit sources were often separable by an adaptive receiver antenna array.’

‘A few days later, sitting in a barber shop, he had an idea for increasing throughput in wireless systems using multiple transmit and receive antennas (MIMO). Paul applied for a US patent titled ‘Distributed Transmit — Directional Receive DTDR’ (with his then supervisor Prof Kailath as co-inventor) in February 1992 and the patent was granted in September 1994.’

John Cioffi, a Stanford colleague and the inventor of DSL technology, called Dr Paulraj’s capability ‘almost unparalleled in the world.’

‘But what impresses me most,’ he said in a statement, ‘is how Paul endured the tremendous, pressure, turmoil and stress of people saying his ideas weren’t going to work, and persevered until he found success.’

He remembers the scepticism Paulraj faced about MIMO’s practical feasibility, and his belief in the technology.

Paulraj took leave from Stanford in 1998 to found Gigabit Wireless, now known as Iospan Wireless Inc, and built a MIMO-based commercial system. He used his savings to build the MIMO radio, which finally made venture capital firms take notice.

Within three years he had proven MIMO’s worth in typical cellular applications and in another two years Intel Corp had acquired Iospan’s technology.

With Intel, Dr Paulraj worked on the development of WiMAX mobile standards. He continued this work with the co-founding of Beceem Communications, which became a world leader in WIMAX semiconductors before being acquired by Broadcom Corp.

Dr Paulraj told Rediff.com, “The best thing that happened to me was Stanford. It was a huge opportunity for me, but it was a loss for India. I was successful within the Indian R&D system and could have contributed much more if I had persevered there.”

Paulraj, who today straddles an academic and industry role, lives on the Stanford campus with his wife, but remains a frequent visitor to India. And when he goes back he sees the burning need for the country to build its own telecommunications technology industry.

“India imports almost all of its commercial high technology from commercial jets, to laptop and cell phones to MRI equipment and we are paying a big price for doing so,” he said. “Not only is our import bill huge (approximately $200 billion) in 2014, and probably unsustainable in the long  term, such total reliance on technology imports is a national security vulnerability since telecom networks underlie many systems — transportation, power grid, and banking/ finance.”

“Moreover the country has so much talent that could be used to build a high-tech industry. India needs somebody with great vision and determination to make us a leader in high technology. China and Korea have done it. We can do it.”

He said he hoped to find more ways to contribute personally to that goal.

Dr Paulraj, who received the IEEE Alexandre Graham Bell Medal in 2011, will receive the Marconi Prize at a ceremony in Washington, DC in fall, becoming the only India-born scientist to receive the two top global IT awards.

The Marconi Prize will include a $100,000 prize that he plans to gift back to the Marconi Society.

Source::::Rediff.com

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Vertical Run…@ Beiging”s Tallest Building !!!

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Around six hundred vertical marathon runners take on Beijing’s tallest building, clambering up 82 floors and a total of 2,041 steps

 

The second edition of the China World Summit Wing HOTEL Vertical Run took place on Sunday morning in Beijing.

Around one thousand competitors, including 24 elite runners from around the world joined the race which is an official stop on the 2014 Vertical World Circuit (VWC) – the world’s first and only skyscraper racing circuit uniting some of the world’s most iconic skyscraper races, including the Empire State Building Run-Up in New York City.

Runners participating in the VWC are assigned points based on their results and the male and female competitors with the total highest scores at the end of the year will be declared world champions.

The challenging course took place in the staircase of THE HOTEL.

Starting from the ground floor lobby, runners climbed 82 floors and 2041 steps to a height of 330 meters and finish at the rooftop of the building.

Piotr Lobodzinski from Poland appeared at the finish line first in 10 minutes 1.4 seconds to take the trophy and a US$1,500 (£900) cheque.

In the women’s elite race, defending champion Suzy Walsham from Australia won the title again with a time of 11 minutes 50.3 seconds.

Local runners also had good performances on Sunday. Gan Xue, a university student from Beijing finished in second in the women’s elite category in 13 minutes 37.6 seconds.

Source:::: You Tube and http://www.telegraph.co.uk

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” Inflight Fight over Reclining Seats …” Is there a Solution ?

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Another week, another flight divertedbecause passengers were fighting over a reclining seat.

It’s the great airborne travel question of our age: To recline, or not to recline?

Of course, the core of the problem is the coach airline seat itself. While there’s been, it seems, near constant innovation for first- and business-class seats, the stalwart coach seat has suffered with the same design since the 1960s, according to AirGo Design, a Singapore-based startup that wants to reinvent the genre.

“AirGo is the only aircraft seat in the world which is designed based on actual 3D scanning data of human body and therefore, is ergonomically superior,” the company’s co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Alireza Yaghoubi, recently told BizDaily in a Q&A. (The company was founded in 2013).

As you can see from this screenshot of AirGo’s Orion seating system, reclining isn’t an issue: The seat behind and the seat in front are designed to prevent one passenger’s actions from interfering with another passenger’s space.

AirGo-Recline-Screenshot

Screenshot via AirGo Design

Plus, the entertainment screen pulls down from above, so a repositioned front seat doesn’t affect your viewing experience in the same way it does with seatback screens.

AirGo-Screens-Screenshot

Screenshot via AirGo Design

Christopher Elliott of USA Today interviewed Yaghoubi earlier this year for a story about seating issues and the airlines. Elliott noted Yaghoubi’s view that“technology exists to offer everyone on the plane ample legroom and space to move in coach class. But it would require a significant INVESTMENT, and…airlines prefer to sink that money into first-class passengers, who are deemed more valuable.”

Consequently, the first-class seat becomes progressively more sophisticated, while the coach seat – at least of late – encourages passenger conflict, inspires controversial anti-reclining gadgets, and is probably starting to annoy pilots as they worry about diverted landings to hand over combative economy travelers to the authorities.

SOURCE:::::: BUSINESSINSIDER.IN

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