Magnificent Mars !!!

Anthony Wesley captured this glorious telescope image of the planet Mars on March 6. He wrote on his Facebook page:

Some good seeing this morning for the first time in many weeks…. I nearly missed it as the forecast was for cloud and rain, but at 3 a.m. it was clear although I could see lightning off in the distance…

North polar cap at top left, Syrtis Major to the lower left, cloud over the Elysium volcanoes at upper right, still bright blue cloud in Hellas at bottom. A faint band of equatorial cloud is also visible.

When to see Mars in 2014

A few days earlier, he got this awesome shot of Mars’ two moons, Phobos and Deimos.

Anthony Wesley also caught both of Mars' moons - brighter and closer Phobos and fainter, more distant Deimos - on March 2, 2014.

Of the image above, he wrote:

Third time lucky… got both Phobos and Deimos this time. Operating the GS3 camera in 12 bit mode gives me a little more headroom. Once again the diffraction from my 3 vane spider is prominent. 3 minutes @ 10fps, no filter (L channel). 16″ f/4 newtonian @ 6000mm focal length

source::::earth sky news

natarajan

 

Old Tech . Terminology Dies Hard !!!… Here are Few Examples …

 
You probably don’t remember the last time you actually “dialed” a phone number, but you might remember the last time you said you did.

Old terminology dies hard. Though technology changes swiftly from day to day, there are still old-fashioned terms we cling to, using them frequently even though they no longer have a relevant meaning. We “tune in” to the “tube,” all with the aid of the trusty “clicker.”

Unless you’re a Luddite exclusively using obsolete technology, you’ll recognize these nine ancient tech terms as relics of a bygone era.

1. ‘Dial’

 

ro1

 

Plenty of people still say they’re “dialing” a phone number. The term goes back to the beginning of the telephone era, when phones had a rotary dial — a switchboard users needed to swing each number. Rotary phones haven’t been used for decades, but people still say they’re dialing away.

2. ‘Hanging up’

Unless you’re using a pay phone (which isn’t likely), you aren’t “hanging up” anything. That phrase refers to ending a phone call by placing a corded phone back into its holder, which, most often, literally hung on a wall. Ending a call today usually just requires the click of a button or the tap of a smartphone screen.

3. ‘Roll up/down the window’

In ye olden days, cars had a handle that you needed to rotate in order to pull the window up or down. Modern cars aren’t made with a crank anymore — they just have a button or switch that you can click upward or downward to maneuver the window direction.

4. ‘Carbon copy’

 

copy

 

This term originally referred to the days before Xeroxing, when, in order to make copies, you would need to place a sheet of carbon paper behind the original sheet so the ink transferred over.

Now, the term lives on in email (when you CC someone, you send them a “carbon copy” of your email). It’s also popular in everyday conversation, calling two similar items carbon copies of each other.

5. ‘Clicker’

Even if you don’t say this, you know someone who does. Plenty of people comfortably refer to a TV’s remote control as a clicker, because in the early days of television, the control used to make a very loud clicking sound.

6. ‘The tube’

 

colortv

 

Referring to a TV as “the tube” is a sign you aren’t ready for the HD age. TVs as we know them now are flat-panel LCD wonders, whereas their predecessors were made with cathode ray tubes (hence the nickname). Tube television sets have essentially been phased out, but the name persists (and we fondly remember the nickname every time we click over to YouTube).

7. ‘Tuning in’

The phrase was popular with TV announcers when viewers had to adjust frequencies on their sets. Users literally had to ‘tune in’ to enjoy their shows. In the ultra digital age, that’s yesteryear’s problem.

8. ‘Tape’

 

tape1

 

There are several ways people still use the word “tape,” but many use it when talking about recording. Using it interchangeably with the term (or “DVR-ing” or “TiVo-ing”) is a relic leftover from the glory days of actual tapes and VHS.

9. ‘Rewind’

This is essentially the universal term for reversing something to watch it again, whether it’s a YouTube video, a movie streaming on Netflix or even a DVD. However, there’s nothing to wind anymore — to rewind something requires physical tape.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

source::::;Yohana Desta in   mashable.com
natarajan

Flipkart… Answer to US Giant Amazon …Amazing Performance !!!

Flipkart, India’s answer to US online giant Amazon, said Saturday its sales would cross the milestone $1 billion-mark this year, ahead of schedule, in the country’s exploding e-commerce market.

Founded in 2007 by two ex-Amazon.com employees and university friends, Flipkart.com has become India’s biggest shopping portal hit and has drawn backers such as New-York based venture capitalists Tiger Global Management LLC.

“In March 2011 we announced by 2015 we wanted to hit $1 billion” in sales when they stood at just $10 million, said founders Sanchin Bansal and Binny Bansal, who happen to share the same surname but are unrelated.

Now the privately held firm expects to hit $1 billion in sales “one year before our target” which means “we’ve grown 100 times in the last three years,” the pair, who pool operational responsibilities, said in a statement.

The figures reinforce Flipkart’s leadership position in the Indian e-retail market.

The founders, now both 32, said they were “happy and proud” at the progress of Flipkart in which they invested an initial $10,000.

The Bansals are seen as typical of the new risk-ready breed of entrepreneurs that has emerged in India amid years of fast economic growth, relying not on inherited wealth but their own-start up talents to launch businesses.

“E-merchandise retailing sales stood at $1.6 billion in 2013. By 2018, we think they will be $14 billion and in 2023 they will reach $60 billion,” Saloni Nangia, president of leading consultancy Technopak Advisors, told AFP.

While there were already Indian online sellers, Flipkart helped sales take off by allowing customers to pay cash-on-delivery, a move Nangia calls a “game-changer”.

An increasing number of Indians are going online but they are uncomfortable giving credit card details over the Internet. Others do not have a credit card and the Flipkart method allows them to place orders.

“This cash-on-delivery system helped consumers gain trust in online shopping — they saw products arrive,” Nangia said.

Flipkart began selling books but then expanded to mobile phones, televisions, cameras, computers and home appliances.

It has yet to report a profit in the fiercely competitive market with its nearest rival, eBay-backed Snapdeal, targeting $1 billion turnover by mid-decade. The world’s biggest online retailer, Amazon, also entered the market last June.

More retailers are seen going online as real estate is costly “so it makes it hard to have bricks-and-mortar stores”, said Nangia.

India’s vast young population, rapidly embracing the Internet, would “drive the e-tailing story”, she added.

Now, months after putting retail store plans in India on hold, the world’s largest retailer, Walmart, is readying a major e-merchandising push in the country based on the Amazon model, media reports say.

source:::::google news site

natarajan

Walk the Work !!!

Desk jobs are slowly killing us. Perhaps even worse than dying early, our office-potato lives are making us moresusceptible to joint painfatigue, and illness. To fight off these modern diseases, Iuse a treadmill desk, which keeps me in motion all day long. Unfortunately, treadmill desks are pretty pricey, going for around $1,400 on Amazon.

 

Posted by Gregory Ferenstein  in techcrunch.com ..7 march 2014

 

 

Now, a new study has quantified the impacts of treadmill desks on workplace productivity and the results convincingly show why it’s worth it to a company’s bottom dollar to buy walking stations for the entire office.

The researchers conducted a year-long controlled experiment with employees in a financial firm. On average they found that supervisor ratings of employee productivity increased 10% (on a 1-10 scale) and energy expenditure per day shot up 70 calories. This generally confirms other evidence on walking desks, including one that found that doctors are 10% more accurate at diagnosing patients while on a walking workstation (actually, their diagnosis rate went from 88% to near perfect, 99%, while walking).

“The results suggest that the introduction of treadmill workstations, as hypothesized, has a significantly favorable impact on both physical activity and work performance,” the team concludes. “It seems that companies ought to consider making treadmill workstations available to their sedentary employees.”

With any rudimentary back-of-the napkin calculations, outfitting the entire office with walking stations is a penny saver. As long as the new equipment satisfies this the simpleProductivity Increase + Healthcare Savings > Cost of Treadmill Per Employee equation, it makes perfect sense.

A 10% bumb in satisfaction is huge. If the average employee is worth $50K/year, treadmill desks add an extra $5K worth of productivity. Indeed, if the actual productivity spike is anywhere near what other studies have found, it’s likely worth more than the $1,400 price tag. And, it’s not hard to see why treadmill desks are so beneficial: being tired at work causes a massive drain on resources. Being upright helps curb this — and even a slightly perkier workplace is worth a lot of money.

Then, you have to factor in healthcare. Many workplaces offer hundreds of dollars in savings for employee wellness programs, which can save the business itself in insurance costs, sick days, and worker comp. Sick days alone are worth a few hundred dollars per day per employee.

To be sure, office plans that only incentive gym memberships may be insufficient to optimize their employees health: sitting all day long can offset some of the beneficial effects of occasional exercise, which is probably why desk jobs are associated with cardiovascular disease.

I love my treadmill desk, and I walk around five hours a day (and that’s probably more than most will use it). One unit can easily be split by two or more employees. So, the actual cost of a treadmill desk is a maximum of $700 per employee.

In short, so long as the profitable increase in productivity and healthcare savings is more than $700, it’s worth employers to outfit the entire office with treadmill desks.

source:::: techcrunch.com

natarajan

“Airlander”…Hybrid Aircraft !!!

THE world’s largest aircraft has been unveiled in Britain and it’s a real game changer.

The Airlander is part plane, part airship and part helicopter and it’s designed to provide an environmentally friends, easy, safe and revolutionary way to travel.

The 91 metre ship can deliver several tonnes of humanitarian aid and transport heavy freight across the world, but there are plans to create ‘luxury’ hybrids with infinity pools so lucky passengers can take a dip as they float across the African plains.

 

Imagine floating over cities while swimming in an infinity pool.

Imagine floating over cities while swimming in an infinity pool. Source: NewsComAu

 

Mike Durham, Technical Director of Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd (HAV), which created the hybrid craft, says the “Airlander is a product that will change the world”.

And he could be right.

The Airlander can stay airborne for days without the need to refuel and it’s a greener, quieter and more efficient way to fly because it gets 60 per cent of its lift via helium and 40 per cent from the shape of hull.

It’s expected that there could be as many airships as helicopters in the sky in years to come and that they could be made to land on water, desert or ice.

The first passenger flight is scheduled to be in 2016 so start saving now!

 

These airships could land on ice, sea or desert.

These airships could land on ice, sea or desert. Source: NewsComAu

 

 

This could be a familiar sight in a few years time.

This could be a familiar sight in a few years time. Source: NewsComAu

source::::news.com.au

natarajan

” Phones Become Smart and People are Running Mad After Phones ” !!!

Mobiles

Interesting and Very True!!!

Mobile Aya
Camera Khatam

Mobile Aya
Wrist Watch Khatam

Mobile Aya
Torch Khatam

Mobile Aya
Radio Khatam

Mobile Aya
MP3 Khatam

Mobile Aya
Letters Khatam

Mobile Aya
Calculator Khatam

Mobile Aya
Computer Khatam

Mobile Aya
Sakoon Khatam

Aur agar apka
“Mobile” ap ki”Girlfriend/wife/husband” ke haath aya toh
Maa Kasam aap “Khatam.”

Ek dum latest …
Badalti Duniya Ka aisa Asar Hone Laga,
Aadmi pagal Aur Phone Smart Hone Laga

source::::input from a friend of mine

natarajan

Maps That Helps You Understand the World…

 This map shows the world divided into 7 sections (each with a distinct color) with each section containing 1 billion people.

  This map shows (in white) where 98 percent of Australia’s population lives.


 


It may not come as a surprise but more people live inside the circle than outside of it.


Apparently you can’t get Big Macs everywhere. This map shows (in red) the countries that have McDonalds.


 

 This map shows countries (in white) that England has never invaded. There are only 22 of them.


 

This map shows (in red) countries that were all Communist at one point in time.


This map shows (in red) the countries that don’t use the metric system.



This map shows (in blue) places where Google street view is available.

 This map shows (in navy blue) every country that has ever operated an aircraft carrier.

This map highlights the countries (in red and orange) with the most skyscrapers. 

source:::: acm outpost .com

natarajan

 ________________________________________________