Pakistani Students Win Top Honors In Global Thinkquest

Pakistani Students Win Top Honors In Global Thinkquest.

Pakistani students took top honors in the 2009 global ThinkQuest competition online out of 955 teams of 83 countries including Australia, China, India, Pakistan, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States. ThinkQuest, sponsored by the Oracle Education Foundation (OEF) is a protected, online learning platform that enables teachers to integrate learning projects into their classroom curriculum and students to develop 21st century skills.

The competition includes a Website Competition that challenges student teams

to develop educational websites on topics of their choosing and a Narrative Competition that challenges student teams to publish their ideas on topics of global importance using OEF’s ThinkQuest Projects platform.

Muhammad, Muznah and Rida of Generation’s School collaborated with students in Singapore to create a website called “Portable Partners—Friends or Foes”, which examined common mobile devices used by young people.

“The Oracle Education Foundation is pleased to recognize the outstanding achievements of all the students who participated in the ThinkQuest Competitions,” said Clare Dolan, Vice President, Oracle Corporate Citizenship.

“These students developed skills that are critical for success in the 21st century while producing outstanding educational resources that will benefit their peers globally.”

“ThinkQuest was a challenging yet enjoyable experience for me.

It was an honor for me not only to compete on an international platform, but also to represent Pakistan,” said Muhammad, a student team member from Generation’s School. “My teammates and I gave it our best shot to make our website a worthy contestant in ThinkQuest. The news about our victory was a complete surprise and I would like to acknowledge my teammates and coaches for their hard work and guidance.”

Prizes for winning teams include laptop computers, digital cameras, school grants, and a trip to the awards event in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Intel Releases Moblin 2.0 Netbook OS and New Pineview Atom Processor.

Last week Intel was fined record $1.45bn by the EU, but this didn’t stop the company from moving on, and it has released a new Atom processor and an operating system specially designed for netbooks. The new Intel Atom processor is called Pineview and it features the memory and the graphics controller on the same tiny piece of silicon. This processor technology is called Pine Trail, and it should become available in Q4 of 2009.

On the other hand, Intel’s netbook operating system is called Moblin, and many have said that it cannot compete against Windows XP or some Linux distros as the netbook OS market share is already taken by those 2. However, Intel released Moblin 2.0 which is a Linux distro therefore it’s available for free. Intel Moblin v2.0 was built to work with Atom processors on netbooks and nettops (or mini desktops).

Intel Pineview platform is based on only two chips, not three like before, and this will lower the manufacturing costs hence the costs of netbooks will lower, and the power consumption will go down too. Even if Pineview already features an integrated graphics card, users can always choose a NVIDIA Ion graphics card.

Intel Moblin will also lower the costs for a netbook, and the OS features a new user interface called M-zone (My Zone) which comes packed with e-mail tools, IM (instant messaging), social networking, and a media player. For now Moblin is used by only a very small share of netbook users, and all Linux distros represent 4.5% of the OS on netbooks. This means that it will be very hard for Moblin to resist and be used, but Intel says that Moblin v2.0 can be modified by computer manufacturers so that they can add their own brand, looks, and touches.

If you own a netbook and you have Moblin installed, then you might want to let us know how it works. I hope that you are very satisfied with it, and that you will enjoy Moblin 2.0 in the future.

Microsoft Confirms Windows 7 Is Done

Microsoft Confirms Windows 7 Is Done.

Microsoft officially signed off on Windows Vista SE 7 and released the code of the software to manufacturing. The RTM code will be available for select customers and developers beginning on August 6, while the general public will have to wait until October 22. Windows Server 2008 R2 reached the RTM phase as well and will be “available on or before that date.”

Windows 7 is likely to be the most important operating system Microsoft has ever released, as the software will have to repair the reputation and perception Windows Vista has damaged and defend Microsoft against rivals such as Apple’s Mac OS X and some Linux distributions, which gained market share during Vista’s time. With Windows 7 at RTM, Microsoft sees the light at the end of the tunnel and can prepare to get rid of the current desktop Windows operating system and its broken brand.

Hardware and software vendors will use Windows 7 RTM (build 7600) to finalize their products that will adapt the operating system. As previously reported, Microsoft will begin selling the software on October 22, just in time for the Christmas season. However, developers and certain customers, including Technet subscribers, will be able to download the operating system as early as August 6.

Intel Touts Solid State Drive Breakthrough.

Intel Touts Solid State Drive Breakthrough.

Technology gaint Intel has claimed that a breakthrough in the design of solid state drives (SSDs) will allow prices to fall to as low as 60 per cent of the current cost.

The drop is down to the use of new 34nm Nand Flash memory chips in place of the older 50nm chips. The smaller die size allows for lower production costs, making the drives more efficient and cheaper to manufacture.

Intel will price the first of the new drives to system builders at $225 (£137) per unit. The 80GB X25-M model will replace a drive of the same size which currently costs $595 (£363).

"Our goal was to be the first to achieve 34nm Nand Flash memory lithography, and to do so with the same or better performance than our 50nm version," said Randy Wilhelm, vice president and general manager for Intel's Nand solutions group.

"We made quite an impact with our breakthrough SSDs last year and, by delivering the same or even better performance with today's new products, our customers, both consumers and manufacturers, can now enjoy them at a fraction of the cost."

Intel hopes that the lower costs could widen the potential market for SSD hardware. SSDs are faster and more efficient than disc-based drives, but the high cost of manufacturing has limited the technology to high-end and specialised systems.

Apple Can't Meet iPhone Demand Amid Record Profits

Apple Can't Meet iPhone Demand Amid Record Profits.

Global recession? Not for Apple, whose Wall St. financials are blissfully unaware of Main St. reality. Apple's sadness? They can't keep up with demand.

First the supply side: If you want to purchase an iPhone 3GS right now, especially a white one, be sure to check Apple'siPhone availability toolbefore heading to the mall. Some models--color and memory combinations--are locally scarce, though the situation can change hourly.

Speaking on a Tuesday conference call for financial analysts, Apple execs said they are working on solving supply issues and still plan to introduce the 3GS in China later this year.

Some MacBook models are also supply-constrained, the company said. That is expected to resolve itself over the next few weeks.

But, don't cry for Apple over missed sales. The company also announced its best non-holiday quarter ever, reporting a profit of $1.23 billion on revenue of $8.34 billion during its third quarter.

Now, the demand side: "We're making our most innovative products ever and our customers are responding," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs, in a statement. "We're thrilled to have sold over 5.2 million iPhones during the quarter and users have downloaded more than 1.5 billion applications from our App Store in its first year."

Strange! Humans Glow in Visible Light

Strange! Humans Glow in Visible Light.

The human body literally glows, emitting a visible light in extremely small quantities at levels that rise and fall with the day, scientists now reveal.

Past research has shown that the body emits visible light, 1,000 times less intense than the levels to which our naked eyes are sensitive. In fact, virtually all living creatures emit very weak light, which is thought to be a byproduct of biochemical reactions involving free radicals.

(This visible light differs from the infrared radiation — an invisible form of light — that comes from body heat.)

To learn more about this faint visible light, scientists in Japan employed extraordinarily sensitive cameras capable of detecting single photons. Five healthy male volunteers in their 20s were placed bare-chested in front of the cameras in complete darkness in light-tight rooms for 20 minutes every three hours from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. for three days.

The researchers found the body glow rose and fell over the day, with its lowest point at 10 a.m. and its peak at 4 p.m., dropping gradually after that. These findings suggest there is light emission linked to our body clocks, most likely due to how our metabolic rhythms fluctuate over the course of the day.

Faces glowed more than the rest of the body. This might be because faces are more tanned than the rest of the body, since they get more exposure to sunlight — the pigment behind skin color, melanin, has fluorescent components that could enhance the body's miniscule light production.

Since this faint light is linked with the body's metabolism, this finding suggests cameras that can spot the weak emissions could help spot medical conditions, said researcher Hitoshi Okamura, a circadian biologist at Kyoto University in Japan.

"If you can see the glimmer from the body's surface, you could see the whole body condition," said researcher Masaki Kobayashi, a biomedical photonics specialist at the Tohoku Institute of Technology in Sendai, Japan.

Kingston Unveils World's First 256GB USB Flash Drive

Kingston Unveils World's First 256GB USB Flash Drive.

The Kingston DataTraveler300 is ideal for netbook users who want to extend the limited capacity of their machines. It can also be used by business consumers who work with large databases, or even designers who need to transfer large graphic files from one place to another.

“The DataTraveler 300 will enable users to carry huge volumes of data with them everywhere they go - up to 365 CDs for example. That’s one album for every day of the year, and it demonstrates how far flash technology has developed,” said Kirsty Miller, Product Marketing Manager - Consumer, Kingston Technology Europe. “Business users and consumers can also safeguard their data by initializing the Password Traveler software which will allowthem to password protect their data in a privacy zone without the need of administrator rights.”

The Kingston DataTraveler 300 features a sleek cap-less design that will protect the USB connector when it is not in use and is enhanced for Windows Readyboost. The Kingston DataTraveler 300 is available only in 256GB and is backed by a five-year warranty. The Kingston DataTraveler is built to order only; customers who wish to purchase the drive can place an order with many reseller and e-tailers.

DataTraveler 300 Product Features and Specifications:

Capacity — 256 GB
Speed — Data transfer rates of up to 20 MB/sec. read and 10 MB/sec. write
Safeguarded — includes Password Traveler security software for Windows
Convenient — does not require Administrator rights to access the Privacy Zone
Dimensions — 2.78” x 0.67” x 0.87” (70.68 mm x 16.90 mm x 21.99 mm)
Operating Temperature — 32° to 140° F (0° to 60° C)
Storage Temperature — -4° to 185° F (-20° to 85° C)

Enhanced — for Windows ReadyBoost on Vista-based systems

Source: Kingston

Yahoo Reveals Its Most Significant Redesign Ever

Yahoo Reveals Its Most Significant Redesign Ever.

Yahoo unveiled a redesigned Yahoo.com front page on Tuesday, billing it as the Web portal's most significant redesign ever. Taking a cue from Google's iGoogle, the new page is gives users a way to personalize Yahoo.com so they can check in with other sites, such as Facebook or Gmail using a brand-new "My Favorites" section. Yahoo has built Web widgets that link to more than 65 other sites. These can all be added with a simple point and click, but users can add their own Web sites too and edit the layout of the front page.

The redesigned front page is leaner and more contemporary looking, featuring less advertising than its predecessor. For example, Yahoo has scrapped its "Marketplace" section, which featured links to advertising.