C# to VB.net and vice versa

Here i am posting a link where you can convert code written in C# to VB.net and VB.net to C#,as some people are better at writing code in C# and some are in VB.net but if you need a code of C# in VB.net or VB.net in C#,then dont worry this link will do it for you :P.I hope that it will help you :)

CLICK HERE

Search is going to get smarter

Google IO Conference was held this week in which its co-founder Sergrey Brin said that search is going to get smarter. He said that size of the web isn't the problem for Google,as we all know that the internet had grown rapidly when it was started and still it is growing swiftly. He said the reason behind Google success is that how Google retrieves a lot of information from the web. The problem is kind of questions user want answered, and he said that Google is now adding intelligence to its search and Google is planning to start new service which will be similar to WolframAlpha. In this they will combine information from thousands of pages and will put in a table, and it will be better than WolframAlpha hopefully :P. I guess now the war has just begin between search engines that how they attract users by making more intelligent search engines and more functionality and I have very high expectations with Google that they will come up with good ideas and techniques as in the past. Because now the world has changed people’s expectations of search engines have increased and they want the search to be intelligent. And search should be intelligent as the questions are more complex, and people don’t want a link or a page to look for information in it, they want to the point answers and quick results. Microsoft is also launching its “Decision Engine” on Wednesday and will challenge Google. Many people are looking forward to it as it will set new standards for all search companies, lets wait and see what Microsoft can do with “Bing” (Bing.com), but I doubt that it will be a breakthrough in search industry as was claimed by WolframAlpha, but its premature to say anything about it.

How to enable Task Manager

It sometimes happens that task manager is disabled by virus or other reasons which causes problems.So i am writing here that how to enable it.It's easy just follow the steps.

• Go to Start > Run
• Type gpedit.msc and then press Enter.
• In the Group Policy window, go to the path, User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Ctrl + Alt + Del Option
• Double click on the Remove Task Manager which is in the right hand of the Group Policy window
• In the Remove Task Manager Properties, select Disabled and then click Ok.

And you are done and you can see your task manager again :P

How to lock a folder in WinXP without any software

It's very simple just follow the steps.

1.Make new folder and name it.I am naming it "folder" as an example.

2.Now open Notepad and copy paste this code in it ren folder folder.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} and now in Notepad Menu File->"save as".and give it name "lock.bat:".bat is extension.If you have used another name of your folder than in the code above write name of your folder in place of "folder" and "folder".for example if it is abc then above code will be ren abc abc.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}.

3.Now again open Notepad and copy paste this code ren folder.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} folder.and save it as "key.bat".If your folder name is different then replace "folder" and "folder" with your folder name.For example if your folder name is abc then above code will be ren abc.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} abc

4.Now double click the "lock.bat" and it will lock your folder and your folder cannot be accessed by anyone.If you double click on the folder it will take you to control panel.To access the folder double click "key.bat".Now you can hide "key.bat" anywhere on the hard disk and whenever you want to unlock the folder place "key.bat" where the folder is located.

Champions league final

Today was champions league final between Barcelona and Manchester United,i saw this match.I was supporting ManU but unfortunately they didnt played better than Barca.Barca played very well and there moves were really great,and they started building the pressure from start of the match.Opening goal was scored by Eto'o within first 10 minutes.It was a good goal.After the goal Barca made many moves but didnt succeed.ManU also played good but not upto the standards which they are capable of.Then Messi extended Barca's lead over ManU with a nice header in 70th minute.Van der sar did very good goalkeeping and saved many shots on target.Barca defended really well throughout the match and it was delight seeing this match.ManU fans were hoping till the last minute that they will come back but they didnt and champions league final was won by Barca 2-0 ManU and Barca won European Cup for the third time.I must say that I've never seen such a pathetic performance and effort by ManU.Whereas Barca have been sublime,smooth and with a purpose.

.NET and java

Microsoft and SunMicrosytems were rivals of each other after bitter split up over Java in late 1990s.But now relations between both are getting friendly,they have good relations after they settled a lawsuit over Microsoft's use of Java in 2004.Microsoft after it started attending annual conference JavaOne by Java.But now they are coming with a big surprise at this years JavaOne conference in June that SunMicrosystems Java will be interoperatable Microsft's .net environment,which is a good and positive step for programmers and it will be of great help.When both will be interoperatable then programmers will more easily code applications and platform independent issues will be resolved as .net is not platform independent.I think Microsoft is working hard to shed its image as a monopolist after it realized that this world is greatly dominated by internet companies such as Google.

Can robots replace humans?

We are living in a world where new technologies come quickly, and more new ones replace them more quickly,it gives us alot of options to choose from.This has change our lifestyles than our ancestors used to have.Everyone wants to spend a comfortable life.As i was getting bored so i choose to do some readings on robots,so i read some articles and now i am going to share my views here.There are different types of robots presently available which are meant for different tasks.Some robots pick stuff from one place and put it to its destination, some robots are meant for doing maid's work and there are many more.But they are not generic,means they are only meant for only one or more tasks.They cannot behave like humans,but research is going on in which scientists are trying to make robots which will behave like humans and there will be no difference between a robot and human being.Those robots will be able to do every task that a human being can perform.Then i also want to mention another research which is carried by pentagon that they want to replace soldiers with robots and they had made some prototypes of it and 90% work is completed,it will take them another 10-15 years to make full equipped soldier robots that can perform tasks of human soldiers and will not be costly.Where the world is heading?why would they want to replace humans with robots?if robots are replaced by humans then what will humans do?if robots replace humans is there a possibility that robots will take over humans and a war between robots and humans can be fought(like in terminator movie & eagle eye :P)?.These are some of the quesions that the researchers should consider before going with the idea to replace humans with robots.

Animoto.com

www.animoto.com is a very good website for making movie,you just have to give your pictures and music and it will automatically generate a good movie for you without any cost :P.You can also give your own pictures by uploading from your pc or getting pictures from anyother website or you can also use pictures provided by animoto.com.For full length movie you have to pay but half length movies are free of cost, so try it and have fun :P

Open Source

Nowadays there is alot of discussion going on open source softwares,OS etc.So i decide to share my thoughts here.Before going to describe the advantages and disadvantages of open source first i am going to tell you that what open sorce means.As most of the people think that open source implies no cost but infact open source means availability of source code and it has nothing to do with cost.Softwares that are free are said "freeware" not open source.Now i guess your thoughts are clear about open source now i will discuss some advantages of open source.Developers don't have to create code from scratch.Developers can gain experience by working on open source projects and most of the companies encourage development of open source projects.The useful and interesting feature of open source softwares is that they are mostly free of cost which encourages user's to try it.Open source projects are responsive with users's.Open source is more secure and bug free than closed source softwares.In open source you can implement your features and can share with anybody.Now coming towards its disadvantages claimed by its opponents,but in my view open source softwares are more reliable and more efficient.Opponents say that in open source projects developer lose's control of the project.Others can change code and can create a competiting product and they say that as source code is available to everyone so the world can openly see the flaws in the product or software.But i must say that everything has some advantages as well as disadvantages and if advantages are greater than disadvantages than you must go for it,open source products should be more encouraged as they create a competitive environment and more reliable and safe products for its users.

Pictures...Are they really removed?

I came across an article and i am not much amazed while reading it as i already have some hint about it.A new research has been carried out by cambridge university in which they had studied different social networking sites such as Facebook,MySpace and others,the main thing pointed out in the research is that when you delete your picture or pictures from social networking sites,infact they are not deleted and remains on the servers without your knowledge, unfortunately Facebook is also one of them.It was also pointed out that the webpage and photos resides on different servers, and whenever you delete a picture it only deletes it from webpage and pictures are not deleted from servers.But facebook claims that whenever a picture is deleted it is also removed from its servers. Dont knw what they want to do with alot of pictures?:P.Anyways dont upload the pictures that you dont want the world to see even after they are deleted..

Google Chrome 2.0

Google Chrome 2.0 is released.There were some problems and bugs with previous versions of Google Chrome which have been fixed in 2.0.According to tests Google Chrome is the fastest browser , but it does not provide more functionality than other browsers.But Google had tried to put new functionality in Chrome 2.0 which were not in previous versions,One such functionality is full screen,press F11 to invoke it.I dont know whats the use of full screen mode but Google says that it is for viewing videos and presentation on full screen,but the video and presentation players provide full screen functionality.While you are in full screen mode all the browser controls disappear,and also you cant enter new address to visit.Cant figure out why they added this control?But i hope Google will provide more functionality in versions to come,but still Google Chrome is worlds fastest browser :P

Pakistan Army is writing history!!!

While Pakistan is at war with taliban in swat,Pakistan Army is writing history and setting examples that are never set before..at this time the morale of Pakistan army is at its peak and alot of soldiers and officers had laid down their lives while protecting Pakistan and its people..i think that most of the people dont know, as i also came to know about it yesterday that DG SSG Maj Gen Muhammad Haroon Aslam has also been airdropped with his young officers and soldiers and he himself lead the operation and fought with his soldiers on battlefield,although he is a General officer but he went himself and lead his soldiers,this would have boosted the morale of the troops as their commander is also fighting with them in the battlefield..I think this is one of the great example set by him it shows that how much motivated is our army not only jawans but officers also and that whenever they get a chance they prove themselves that they love this country very much and will not hesitate to make a sacrifice for it.Taliban are well equipped and have more advanced weapons than Pakistan Army,but Pakistan Army has the will power,inspiration and desire to get shaahadat and they dont hesitate to lay down their lives for Allah.We should all support Pakistan Army as they are giving every sacrifice to protect us and this country...So we should all pray for the martyrs and their families,and also for Pakistan Army and successful completion of this operation...Pakistan Army Zindabad!!

Microsoft launching its search engine

I was reading an article relating to search engines,there i got this news that Microsoft is now going to launch its search engine "Kumo".Microsoft claims that its search engine will produce more effective and better results than google,yahoo and others, but in my opinion main concern for them is google, they are of the view that there search engine will produce good and useful results than google and people will switch to "Kumo".But in my view its premature to say that,as somedays back same hype was created for WolframAlpha which was not upto expectations, in my opinion it is not easy to compete google as they are adding more and more functionality and they also are coming up with new search techniques.Microsoft would like to form a partnership with Yahoo,so that they both can challenge Google.In my opinion google has done a pretty good job and "Kumo" will be another drop in the ocean..there are alot of search engines today,but in my opinion people get more than adequate information form google and other search engines, it is not a good idea to come up with more and more search engines.. google is the product on which everyone relies and there is very less probability that people are going to switch to another product..

USB background

if u want to add background picture or image to your usb device,then this is a simple tutorial to add

background image

1.open notepad and copy and paste the following code

[.ShellClassInfo]
IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll
IconIndex=127
ConfirmFileOp=0

[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]
Attributes=1
IconArea_Image=”your_picture.jpg”
IconArea_Text=”0xFFFFFF”
VeBRA sources - don’t delete the tag above, it’s there for XXXXX purposes -
[ExtShellFolderViews]
{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}={BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}
{5984FFE0-28D4-11CF-AE66-08002B2E1262}={5984FFE0-28D4-11CF-AE66-08002B2E1262}

[{5984FFE0-28D4-11CF-AE66-08002B2E1262}]
PersistMoniker=Folder.htt
PersistMonikerPreview=%WebDir%\folder.bmp

2.save it as "desktop.ini" .ini is file extension

3.then copy this "desktop.ini" file and image that you want as background in usb drive and name picture as "your_picture.jpg"

4.Refresh or re-insert usb drive and you will see the picture as your device background image.

try this :P

Pakistani PM before and present!!

i saw this program on tv and i liked the way he portrayed beautifully the difference between Pakistan at the time of creation, its people and its leaders,and present Pakistan. people of Pakistan and the leaders of Pakistan should get some lesson by this..hope you will find it interesting !!

Linux on virtual machine

I am writing this tutorial to let you know that how to install linux on virtual machine as alot of people face problems.so its easy and simple..
1.open virtual machine and select "New virtual machine"

2.select "typical"

3.select"installer disc image file" and press browse and give it a path of .iso file that you want to load(if you dont have .iso file you can make one by magiciso or poweriso).
then select next.
4.then select the version of your linux

5.then give name to the virtual machine you are creating and also give it location where you want it to be installed.
6.then after clicking next you will get option of selecting maximum disk size for this virtual machine,so specify disk size according to your space
7.then click next and another window comes,telling you about options you selected,then press next and installation begins.
8.A screen will appear with multiple options select "install or upgrade existing system" press enter.
9.now the setup begins and will ask you some question like time etc,so select options according to your choice.
10.then it will start installing the files(it will take sometime)

11.After installation is finished it will ask for reboot,reboot it and you are done .

Translation of Holy Quran

My humble request to all, i am uploading the translation of the Holy Quran please read it on daily basis it will be good for you and your family, you will know what Islam says?and are you going in right direction.Do not over exhaust yourself,initially you can start with one verse daily and believe me you will love it and you will want to read it more,it is just about making a habit once you will able to make it a habit it will be very easy and when you read this translation your mind will be clear and by the will of Allah you will be on the right path, the problem with us is that we only read arabic text of Quran and do not know its meaning, and if we dont know the meaning we can not know it and cant spend our lives according to Quran..this translation is by Yusuf Ali...may Allah guide us all to the right path..ameen Download Translation

Benefits of wudu

i had read a very good e-book that describes the benefits of wudu and how it is beneficial and how it is useful in curing diseases..so i am sharing this link so if you have sometime plz download it and read it,it is really informative and good!! Download Book

Intelligent LCD

This is not a normal LCD,this LCD stares back at you :P ..i came across this gadget during my search and and it's really cool..this 23 inch high definition LCD known as "Eizo Nanao FlexScan monitor" uses an infrared "human presence sensor" to determine whether anyone is sitting infront of it or not..if no one is sitting in front of it then after 40 seconds the screen automatically powers down to conserve energy..it can also detect motion of objects and distinguish between moving and stationary objects..The 1920 by 1080 resolution monitor consumes just 18 watts at full power and 0.7 watts in standby mode, and it weighs 40 percent less than previous models, making it both lean and green.Isn't it a cool thing?

Remarks against Quaid

In today's newspaper i came across a very unfortunate and heartening incident, on sunday at ulema and mashaikh convention, one of the speaker has used harsh and derogatory words against the Quaid(father of the nation), i dont know why would some Pakistani will use such type of words against a man who has sacrificed his whole life for the well being of muslims and had fought with whole of the world so that muslims can live in peace ..especially from any intellectual this kind of behaviour is not acceptable...the speaker was Pir Mohammad Chisti from NWFP who said "British brought forth Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah to create Pakistan and during the process also used Ahle Sunnat."at this some of the participants got angry and pulled down the speaker from the stage...thnx God we still have some people who have respect for the father of the nation,otherwise picture of Quaid-i-Azam has been replaced with Benazir Bhutto by this present government..i hope someone will also drag down zardari and gillani...

simple login page in ASP.net

i am sharing an easy way to make simple login page, its easy and simple just follow the steps.
1.open visual studio
2.file->new->website.
3.from options select ASP.net website and give name to the website and press ok.
4.Now in solution explorer rename Default.aspx to login.aspx
5.Or if you want you can add a new page.
6.Now from options above select Website and then select ASP.Net configuration.

7.you will get above window.Now select Security from it.

8.you will get above window.now you can define roles of the user by pressing "enable roles" and you can create roles.
9.then you can add users by clicking "select authentication type",when you click it you will get a window as below

10.then select "from the internet" and you will go back to security page ,from there select "create user" and you will go to a form where you have to fill user details such as username,password etc.You can assign roles to the users that you had defined before.
11.when you are done then close your browser,and return to visual studio,now in "toolbox" under "Login" select "Login" and drop it on the page.(as shown below)

12.just run it and you are done
13.or you can add extra things such as whenever there is successful login you go to a specific page,for this you have to select "DestinationpageUrl" in "properties" and give the address of a page where you want to go.
14.Then you can add that when you signIn page shows username,for this drag "LoginName" in the tool box to the page,and it will show you the username that is currently signedIn
i hope that this will be useful for you ppl :)..

world fastest processor

Today,while searching the internet i came across this article that Japan build a new supercomputer processor which has beaten the previous records and is the worlds fastest processor.It is Fujitsu's eight-core SPARC64 VIIIfx Venus CPU which clocked at 128 billion computations per second(wow :)), which destroyed the previous Intel-held record by a factor of 2.5.New processor is smaller and energy efficient than its predecessors,128 gigaflops chip is based on 45nm circuitry,compared to Intel's 90nm that previously was the fastest...

Zardari is a traitor

Pakistan is at war in Swat valley with taliban,while the president of the country was on a world tour in which he visited USA,UK 2 times,France and other countries.I think donations they are getting for misplaced people is used in this long trip, but the thing that is more of a concern is that during his visit to France zardari and foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said France is going to help Pakistan in nuclear technology...but the real story is that France is helping Pakistan in protecting nuclear installations, and protection means that France has to know that where are the installations so that they can protect it!!!what is this government really wanna do with Pakistan?they already had sold respect and dignity of Pakistan,now they want someone else to protect nuclear installations of Pakistan so that they can easily neutralize Pakistan?this is pathetic government with shameless people who are working against Pakistan instead of working for it..zardari and his government is traitor to Pakistan and are misleading Pakistani people..

WolframAlpha!!waste of time....

WolframAlpha(www.wolframalpha.com)has started its operation...There was a hype before its release that it is going to beat google,wikipedia and others...even me and my friend were talking about it before its release and he was also of the same view that the bad times for other search engines will be started by the release of WolframAlpha, but i didn't agreed with him and i said to him lets see what it will do...now as it has been launched so i tried it with differnt searches and unfortunately results are very poor..i guess not upto anyone's expectations as we all were expecting alot....i had searched it with random questions and sometimes it failed to produce results and sometimes it produced results that even a 1st grade student would know better than this computational knowledge engine :( for example i typed in "color of water" and after about 20 seconds it showed no results...then i typed "Richard Nixon" it gave me information that i am not looking for,nowhere in the result it was written that he was the 37th president of the USA...only the thing that is good in it is its mathematical calculations...it only does good calculation and gives correct results...why not buy a calculator?i found WolframAlpha as irrelevant and not upto the standards,although it is a good concept but they failed to deliver....google and wikipedia are far more better than WolframAlpha in every manner..so why not go to google or wikipedia and get lots and lots of information instead of getting two lines of result which is irrelevant and useless.it is only a waste of time to use WolframAlpha...lets hope google will come up with good search techniques as they have announced that they are going to add different search techniques, which will be very useful.

Google fails?

One of the wrong results generated by Google,as u can see it is highlighted with a red rectangle in the above picture...the result should be 1 but it gives 0!!!(click on the image to enlarge it)

Dual screen

i am going to tell you that how to setup dual screen on your laptop without installing any extra software.it is simple just follow these steps.
1.plug in your monitor with your laptop
2.right click on your desktop and click properties
3.from tabs above select settings.
4.you will see two monitor icons marked as 1 and 2.
5.now check the box "extend my windows desktop onto this monitor".
6.and you are done, you can change the resolutions of both the monitors according to your need.

its very helpful to use two monitors as u can browse internet or stuff on one,and can do work on the other,especially for coders as you can open visual studio on one monitor and can search internet on the other one...i hope it will help you...

Facebook virus

As the number of users of facebook are growing day by day...in a recent article i was studying,it states that around 600,000 users join facebook every day,so facebook is becoming a target for all kinds of internet filth..i came across an article so i decided to share it with u guys,it may be a rumor but why to take risks :P....if any one of ur friend or anyone urges you to check out ponbon.im, 121.im or 151.im,then do not!!!!...because this virus will steal ur facebook account and will send a similar message to ur friends....

ASUS Eee Keyboard

The dream of owning a keyboard embedded with a full-blown PC running XP on an Atom N270 processor and 5-inch, 800 x 480 pixel touchscreen display/trackpad is nearly upon us. A dream, quite honestly, nobody had prior to seeing the reveal of the 2-pound Eee Keyboard prototype at CES in January. Engadget Chinese has it on authority that this oddball all-in-one will ship in June with specs that should include a 32GB SSD, 802.11n, Bluetooth, HDMI-out, stereo speakers and mic as we saw during our hands-on with the Eee Keyboard back in March. With any luck, ASUS will also be embedding some form of ultra-wideband HDMI as promised in January alongside one of those UWB monitor prototypes they had on display at CeBIT. One thing's for sure: all will be revealed at Computex in Taipei in just a few weeks.
This keyboard will be launched by the end of june...but i cant see any use of this keyboard!!!

Dell launches "Della"

Dell launched a website "Della" for attracting women..i think the PC sales has gone down very badly for Dell,as the world's second largest computer manufacturer is now making websites for women :)...wts next?"Dello" for guys?lol....i must suggest this to HP no.1 PC maker to follow the trend set by dell...and they can give names such as "Hewlett packardo" for women and "Hewlett packarda" for men :)...."Della" is a silly website with a silly idea,,they are presenting laptops as fashion statements...and sites "tech tip" includes that "seven unexpected ways a notebook can change ur life"....and this is not all..you can also search recipes....what a concept by Dell....gud luck Dell:)

Is Pakistan dignified?

Is Pakistan a sovereign, dignified country?.It may be to a patriotic Pakistani but according to the present government(PPP) Pakistan is a poor,weak and the base of terrorists. present government has crossed all the limits and bounds and had sold dignity and sovereignity of the country.They are portraying Pakistan as a country which only relies on foreign aids and donations by other countries...recently the act by the government i.e president zardari (i should not use vulgar language here) by begging in front of the whole world had crossed all the limits and barriers and had portrayed Pakistan as a beggar country :( ..he said "we want the world to help us" this is a shameful act and humiliating for Pakistan...i dont know why this act is not criticised in the media or by intellectuals and so called leaders etc...but the fact is the people had also not done anything,,if people can come on streets for the independence of judiciary,why not for the dignity of Pakistan?...but the fact is we are not a nation,we r just a bunch of people living together we have our own concerns and interests,we only do what we think is good for our individual interests not for the whole nation ,why would we take strong actions against such kind of leaders or politicians or anyone who humiliates Pakistan and are working against the interests of this nation..? if they are humiliating Pakistan then we are also doing the same by not taking any notice and actions against it,or we are doing greater bad for Pakistan by not defending our great country...i dont think that Quaid e Azam has dreamed about this type of Pakistan....so think about it!!! i pray that Allah please show us all the right path and guide us all..ameen

Apple's upcoming iphone

Apple's upcoming will likely have the following features,the shape and the screen dimension of iphone will be similar as 3G. These specs are not given by Apple or official, it is just a guess,lets see to what extent it is a correct guess.

• 32 GB of storage - A solid increase from the current max of 16 GB.
• An upgraded 600 Mhz processor - More speed! The current iPhone 3G clocks out at 400 Mhz.
• 256 MB of RAM - The current iPhone has 128 MB of RAM. So far this is looking pretty good.
• A 3.2 Megapixel camera with autofocus
• A digital compass
• An FM radio
  

EU will use brain scanning to catch terrorists

i had been recently studying an article in which it is mentioned that EU(European Union) has been testing new ways to catch terrorist..it was a long list,but one important thing mentioned there was brain scanning...it will be developed via the Humabio (Human Monitoring and Authentication using Biodynamic Indicators and Behaviourial Analysis) , the scans would search for distinctive brain patterns as people pass through checks.According to them they would install these devices on key locations such as airports and borders,so that it can help in catching people who have forged documents.The time that the scan would take was not given...so my suggestion to all of u that dont think about bombs when u travel to EU countries :P

Daydreaming helps solve problems

In a recent study conducted at the University of British Columbia, in western Canada, the scientists found out that "default network" inside human brain becomes more active during daydreaming.According to them when the brain wanders it is working even harder to solve problems...Scientists scanned brains of people by MRI(magnetic resonance imaging),and the scans showed that the "default network" deep inside the human brain becomes more active during day dreaming...so the scientists say that this would change the attitude towards day dreamers,and towards ourselves as we become harsh with ourselves when we catch that we are mind wandering...the scientists said that this is the first study to use MRI to study brain activities as uptill now self-reports were used that were not always reliable...

Google unveils new search features

WASHINGTON: Google rolled out new Web search features on Tuesday and an update to its ‘Sky Map’ that can allow users of its mobile phones to figure out which constellations they are looking at in the night sky.

Google’s new ‘Search Options’ lets users ‘slice and dice’ search results, narrowing them down in time to results from the past 24 hours, the past week or the past year, for example.

‘Search Options’ also allows users to confine their search results to videos, product reviews and forum posts on a particular topic.

Search results can also be viewed on a timeline displaying their popularity over time.

'We want to help our users find more useful information, and do more useful things with it,' Marissa Mayer, a Google vice president said in a blog posting about the new features unveiled at Google's California headquarters.

She described ‘Search Options’ as ‘a collection of tools that let you slice and dice your results and generate different views to find what you need faster and easier.’ Google also previewed a new tool called ‘Google Squared’ which is to become available later this month.

‘Unlike a normal search engine, Google Squared doesn't find webpages about your topic — instead, it automatically fetches and organizes facts from across the Internet,’ Google said.

Google also showed off an update to ‘Sky Map,’ an application for the T-Mobile G1 phone which uses Google's Android software.

The application uses global positioning system and compass data and the date and time to figure out what celestial objects the device is facing at a given moment.

‘If it is pointed towards Venus, for example, users will see a labeled map of the sky with Venus and the objects surrounding it on their screens,’ Google said.

‘As users move their phones, the map displayed on the screen adjusts accordingly, enabling them to point their phones at the sky and discover what they are seeing (or could be seeing), wherever they may be.’

Chip rival AMD welcomes EU fine on Intel

US computer chip-maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) on Wednesday welcomed the decision by EU antitrust regulators to fine rival Intel a record 1.06 billion euros (1.45 billion dollars).

‘Today’s ruling is an important step toward establishing a truly competitive market,’ AMD president and chief executive Dirk Meyer said in a statement.

‘AMD has consistently been a technology innovation leader and we are looking forward to the move from a world in which Intel ruled, to one which is ruled by customers.’ ‘After an exhaustive investigation, the EU came to one conclusion — Intel broke the law and consumers were hurt,’ added Tom McCoy, AMD's executive vice president for legal affairs.

‘With this ruling, the industry will benefit from an end to Intel’s monopoly-inflated pricing and European consumers will enjoy greater choice, value and innovation,’ McCoy said.

The US Chamber of Commerce meanwhile expressed concern that the EU move against Intel, which follows similar actions against US software giant Microsoft, was ‘part of a larger, troubling pattern.’ ‘Fines by the commission have escalated in size in recent years, raising serious concerns about due process and the method for determining these huge fines,’ said Myron Brilliant, senior vice president for international affairs.

‘Huge fines demand greater due process protections,’ he said. ‘The current EU guidelines for determining fine amounts are too vague.’ The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) said the ruling against Intel was ‘not a great surprise since it follows similar decisions by Japanese and Korean competition authorities in recent years.’

The CCIA added that the Intel decision in Europe ‘has many in Washington wondering whether US action may soon follow,’ especially after the Obama administration this week pledged to step up antitrust enforcement.

‘A convincing picture has emerged revealing that Intel's actions were unquestionably strategically premeditated to be anti-competitive and willfully illegal,’ said CCIA president Ed Black.

‘A vigorous US investigation focused on the evidence in the case leaves us believing Intel will have its day of reckoning in the US as well,’ he added.

The European Commission, Europe's top competition watchdog, accused Intel of using illegal loyalty rebates to squeeze rivals out of the market for computer processing units — the brains inside personal computers.

The Santa Clara, California-based company dominates the 22-billion-euro (30-billion-dollar) market for so-called x86 CPUs with a 70-percent share during the more than five years it was accused of breaking EU antitrust rules.

‘Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years,’ EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said. ‘Such a serious and sustained violation of the EU’s antitrust rules cannot be tolerated.’ The commission said that Intel had used wholly or partially hidden rebates to get PC makers such as Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC to buy all or almost all their CPU supply from Intel instead of AMD.
Intel rejected the charges and said it will appeal the EU ruling.

Pakistani high-school students build hovercraft

ISLAMABAD: Mohammad Naeem Khan, Zaki Hussain and Mohammad Qasim, second-year students from Sir Syed Science College, Rawalpindi, have developed Pakistan’s first ever hovercraft.

The project was sponsored by Intel under its ‘Intel ISEF Awards,’ and led to the team designing a machine capable of lifting up to 350 kg.

The team told APP that they ‘feel pride to win laurels for our country and becoming forerunner in this field,’ and that they looked forward to the second phase of the competition, which would see them travel to the US to present their project at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).

The ISEF is a global science competition for students in grades 9-12, and this year will include 1,557 high school students from 51 countries presenting 1,241 projects. The finalists are chosen from the two top-ranked individual entries, and the highest ranked group project from 550 associated fairs around the world.

CNIC to be a multi-purpose smart card by year-end

LAHORE: The computerised national identity card (CNIC) is being converted into a multi-purpose smart card by the end of this year.

The new card will also have details of national identity, driving licence, immigration and health information.

‘The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) is introducing the plan with a view to meeting the financial and social needs of Pakistanis. The multi-purpose card project is a flagship application of the authority designed to accelerate country’s entry into the information age,’ Nadra deputy chairman Tariq Malik told Dawn.

Mr Malik said: ‘The card will have an embedded chip or microprocessor that can perform a variety of functions. It will be used to pay for highway tolls, parking and public transportation and ATM transactions.’

With its digital signature feature, he said the card would enable its holder to secure e-commerce transactions. ‘It will be used as an e-purse for small purchases up to Rs10,000,’ he added.

He said Nadra had to face two major challenges when it embarked on this project. The first was technology and the other was changing the mindset of the people to accept the new card.

‘To address the technology challenge the authority evaluated leading technologies and chose the best one. The authority also benefited from the latest chip and biometric technology available with it to ensure the data on the card are accurate and secure,’ he said.

Mr Malik said now with a thumbprint image, photograph and surface information, Nadra could verify the cardholder’s identity with a card acceptance device (CAD).

‘This helps prevent forgery and misuse of cards,’ he added.

SimMan 3G Patient Simulator

The SimMan 3G is a robot that can cry, bleed, convulse, go into cardiac arrest and do any number of other things that humans do when their bodies are malfunctioning. Also, it's super creepy looking.

This is one crazy robot. Here's just a partial list of features:

Quality CPR Feedback Laerdal's Q-CPR technology measures the quality of CPR providing real time feedback on compression rate, depth, release, and hands-off time as well as generating palpable pulses , blood pressure wave forms and ECG artefacts.

Convulsions
Degrees of seizures and convulsions can be created from minor effect through to a full convulsion through the Instructor Mode.

Bleeding and Wounds
Wound models can be connected to an internal blood reservoir which will bleed both from arterial and venous vessels. Connected to the simulator's physiological modeling, SimMan 3G will react appropriately according to treatment.

Wireless Monitor
Part of the complete wireless simulation solution, the wireless monitor enables you to observe the patient simulator's vital signs while moving around freely during training.

Secretions
The new eye secretions feature has multiple scenario applications such as responsive reactions to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear agents.

Drug & Event Recognition
The new and advanced Drug Recognition System allows students to administer drugs simultaneously. It registers the amount, speed and type of drug automatically and applies the appropriate physiological responses, saving the instructor time and improving the overall intelligent debrief.

Eye Signs
Include pupillary responses to light, blinks at slow, normal and fast rates, winks and open, partially open and closed reactions.

Vascular Access
In addition to the standard vascular access in the right arm, the new intraosseous access via the tibia and sternum allows for procedure accuracy

Chest Decompression & Chest Drain
Students can now perform a needle Thoracentesis and insert a chest drain bi-laterally.

It's not quite as good as practicing medicine on a hobo that you hunted and caught yourself, but I guess that's not always an option.

Microsoft keeps tabs in a crisis

Microsoft has launched a trial product to connect users to the people and places they care about especially when crisis hits.

The company said the main inspiration for Vine came from Hurricane Katrina.

The product is designed to keep family and friends in touch when other communications fail or falter.

The Seattle Times has described this hyper local, personalised message and alert system as "Twitter + Facebook on steroids".

In a slick video, Microsoft demonstrates a number of ways the service could be used.

In one example, "Doug" is planning a trip to the mountains but a constant deluge of rain means schools in his local area are forced to close and the community is put on high alert.

Using Vine, Doug keeps in touch with friends and family and with what is going on locally to make sure everyone stays safe.

Another example includes "Dave" whose wife goes into early labour and uses Vine to make sure the neighbours keep an eye on his house, take the dog out for a walk and cancel baseball practice.

Microsoft said the aim is to keep people connected. Brier Dudley of the Seattle Times said the critical audience are those involved in emergencies.

"Microsoft's main emphasis now is providing Vine to emergency management officials, who are intrigued by a new tool that could be used to broadcast and receive information during a disaster or other major event."

"Superhero software"

Vine works by downloading a "dashboard" application using Windows Live ID. Users say where they live or where they are at any given moment and information from 20,000 local and national news sources links to that location.

Information is also provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.

Users can also view and post alerts in a variety of forms from quick messages to longer reports.

"Microsoft Vine aims to create an inclusive network so that ultimately anyone can participate, though a social networking application such as Twitter or Facebook or using e-mail, any computer connected to the internet, or a mobile phone, kitchen phone or special needs device," said the software giant.

Initial reaction to the service, which has been described as "societal networking" has been positive.

CNET's Caroline McCarthy has dubbed it "superhero software".

But she said "all joking aside, the web's biggest players are gunning for a way to appropriately harness social media for emergency preparedness.

"Google's non profit Google.org arm has launched a project called Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disaster (inSTEDD) with similar goals, and Google has invested $5 million in it."

The service is currently in beta which means Microsoft is looking for people to sign up to try it out and give feedback.

The company, which is testing Vine initially in Seattle, is hoping to recruit 10,000 people to put it through its paces.

US bombing a sovereign country: US lawmaker

‘We are bombing a sovereign country. Where do we get the authority to do that? Did the Pakistani government give us written permission? Did the Congress give us written permission to expand the war and start bombing in Pakistan?’

WASHINGTON: The House Foreign Affairs Committee of the US Congress heard an unusual speech from a Republican lawmaker who described US drone attacks as the bombing of a sovereign country and questioned America’s right to do so.

US special envoy Richard Holbrooke disagreed with this description of America’s military operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan and reminded Congressman Ronald Ernest Paul that US troops were there because people living in that region had invaded their homeland on Sept. 11, 2001.

But the explanation came only after Rep. Paul had completed his speech, urging policy makers in Washington to review the US foreign policies which were causing worldwide resentments against the United States.

‘We are bombing a sovereign country. Where do we get the authority to do that? Did the Pakistani government give us written permission? Did the Congress give us written permission to expand the war and start bombing in Pakistan?’ asked the US lawmaker.

‘Why do we as a Congress and as a people and as our representatives within the executive branch just so casually and carelessly expand the war and say, ‘Well, today we have to do this; we’ll worry about tomorrow.’

Mr Paul is an American physician and Republican Congressman from Texas, who gained widespread attention during his unsuccessful bid for the 2008 Republican Party presidential nomination. During the campaign he attracted an enthusiastic following which made use of the Internet and social networking to establish a grassroots campaign despite lack of traditional organization or media attention.

Rep. Paul wasted little time in formalities when the committee’s chairman, Congressman Howard Berman, invited him to speak.

After thanking the chairman and welcoming Ambassador Holbrooke, the lawmaker went straight to the question that seemed to be bothering him.

‘The main concern I have is I was hoping to see maybe a change in our foreign policy from the last administration, but, of course, we see just more of the same — more nation-building, more policing of the world, more involvement,’ he said.

‘And it just seems like we never learn from our past mistakes. We don’t learn from what kind of trouble the Soviets got into, and yet we continue to do the same thing.’

Referring to Mr Holbrooke’s earlier statement before the committee, Rep. Paul reminded him that he too had set ‘a grandiose goal.’

‘We want to work for a vibrant, modern democracy. Wow, what a dream. But think of how we’re doing this. I mean, we label everybody that opposes what we’re doing, we call them Taliban,’ he said.

While the US fought this war, ‘all of a sudden … many, many thousands of Pashtuns that are right smack in the middle, getting killed by our bombs, and then we wonder why they object to our policies over there.’

The bombing of this area, Mr Paul said, made him believe that the US was there for the long haul. ‘It’s going to cost a lot of money and it’s going to cost a lot of lives.’

The US lawmaker said that if the members of Congress had ever realized what Iraq would end up costing America in the number of deaths, in the number of dollars, ‘now trillion dollars,’ they would have been a little more hesitant to approve it.

‘They admit that now – ‘Well, maybe we shouldn’t have.’ But who knows what this is going to end up costing in terms of lives?’ he asked, reminding other lawmakers that the odds of the US policy for Afghanistan and Pakistan working were very slim. ‘This is what my great concern is,’ he added.

Congressman Paul then explained Pakistan’s recent history to other lawmakers, recalling that in 1999 the country had an elected prime minister who was toppled by the military. ‘And (Gen.) Musharraf comes in and we support him.’

Mr Paul then accused the US administration of trying to engineer yet another change in Pakistan, a charge Mr Holbrooke vehemently denied.

‘So now it’s said that we have relationships with Sharif, which everybody knows exactly what that means. It means that we’re involved in their elections. That’s the way that we’ve done it for so many years,’ said the congressman.

‘But, you know, the Pakistani papers report it as ‘US taps Sharif to be the next Pakistani prime minister.’ Now, whether or not we literally can do that — I think we can have a lot of influence — that’s what they believe in.’

He then asked: ‘How do you win the hearts and minds of these people if we’re seen as invaders and occupiers? And here we are, just doing nothing more than expanding our role in Pakistan and in Afghanistan. I don’t see any end to it.’

Addressing Mr Holbrooke, the US lawmaker said he had several specific concerns about the current situation in Pakistan.

‘It has to do with Pashtuns that have been killed by our bombs. What about our national debt? We have $1.8 trillion debt facing us.’

He said that while the administration was currently seeking $3.5 billion to support its efforts in Pakistan, ‘it will turn out to be tens of billions of dollars after this.

‘So I’d like to know where you stand on this, the innocent killing of Pashtuns. Are they all Taliban, or are there some innocent people being killed?’

As Congressman Paul finished, a Pakistani in the audience commented: ‘This American lawmaker has defended Pakistan more eloquently than our ambassador ever has.’

Obviously displeased with the questions the congressman raised, Ambassador Holbrooke said he did not say exactly what Mr Paul imputed to him, but he had thought a long time about the issues raise.

‘And you mentioned Iraq. Afghanistan-Pakistan is not Iraq. The reason we are in this area, notwithstanding its immense difficulties, is because the people in this area attacked our country on September 11th, 2001, and have stated flatly they intend to do it again.’

The militants, he said, not only killed Americans on 9/11 but also killed hundreds of Pakistanis and Afghans and committed gross human rights violations.

‘And therefore, it is not Iraq and it’s not Vietnam, despite the fact that many people say it is. It’s about defending our country,’ he said,

Ambassador Holbrooke said he agreed with the lawmaker that the fight against the extremists was not easy and it was not cheap either.

‘And having seen wars on three continents, having been shot at for my country, I sure don’t feel comfortable in a situation where you ask brave young American men and women to risk their lives and sometimes pay the ultimate sacrifice,’ the ambassador said.

‘However, the president of the United States reviewed everything in regard to this and came to the conclusion … that our goal has to be to defeat al Qaeda. We cannot let them take over an even larger terrain, move into other parts of the world, and then plan what they’re planning,’ he concluded.

A hard drive sold on the online auctioning website eBay reportedly contains highly sensitive details of a US missile air defense system.

The UK state telecommunications operator, BT, had discovered the information on one of the hard drives purchased by its Security Research Centre, The Daily Mail reported on Thursday.

The drive reportedly contained the test launch procedures for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, known as THAAD.

The ground to air missile defense system, which uses a hit-to-kill approach to shoot down short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, was last tested in March.

The US-made THAAD and the advanced Aegis combat system are scheduled to be deployed in Israel for Tel Aviv's largest military exercise in history.

Israel has announced that it is set to mobilize its army to hold the large scale exercise on June 2.

The hard disk, which came from an unspecified location, also contained security policies, blueprints and employee data from Lockheed Martin -- the company responsible for THAAD.

A spokesman for the company told the daily that "Lockheed Martin is not aware of any compromise of data related to the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence program."

"Until Lockheed Martin can evaluate the hard drive in question, it is not possible to comment further on its potential contents or source," he added.

THAAD intercepts ballistic missiles in the high stratosphere but has the capability to intercept targets both in and coming from the outer reaches of space.

The United Arab Emirates, which accounts for the largest weapons purchases in the Middle East, has decided to spend a reported $7 billion on the American missile defense system.

The reported information leak comes at a time when Tel Aviv has been heading steadily toward a confrontation with Tehran over its nuclear activities, citing fears that a "nuclear Iran" is the prime existential threat to its security.

Earlier in March, hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the alarm and spoke of a major military conflict in the upcoming months.

A new way to find data online?

There’s been lots of buzz in the tech community about a site called Wolfram|Alpha, which is set to launch in about a week — likely on May 18, according to a spokesman.


On first glance, Wolfram|Alpha looks like a search engine: it has a box where you type in a question or query terms. That’s about where the similarities end, though, because, unlike Google or Ask, Wolfram|Alpha is kind of like an enormous calculator. It takes your question and crunches out an entirely new answer, even if the answer isn’t something that’s been posted on the Web before.

Confused? You’re not alone. An example should help.

Say you’re an investor and you want to see how two companies are faring against each other on the market. You could type in “IBM versus Apple” and Wolfram|Alpha will generate graphs and tables to compare the stocks over time. It also give you the Web-based sources used to generate the data, so you know where the numbers are coming from.

The site also solves equations and shows the steps it took to do so, which will be of interest to high school students and math majors. Not into number crunching? If you live near the coast, you could type in “tides in ____” and find charts of tidal and lunar information. You could also graph that against other cities, which would be cool if you’re a surfer.

The site is also interesting for academic queries. Type in “Internet users in Africa” and you’ll get the total number of Web users there — 51 million — as well as lists of the number of users by country plus graphs of this information. If you’re in the fisheries business, or if you’re an environmentalist, you could type in “fish produced in Italy versus France” to get an idea of how that sector is faring. The answer includes specifics, like how much of the fish crop was farmed versus what was captured. Such data could be used to argue policy points or to debate whether or not certain industries are sustainable.

Sound magical? Many people seem to think so. CNET and the New York Times have informative posts about the site and what it means for the way we generate and digest information in the Internet age.

But it’s worth noting that all of the above searches were pulled out as examples in a press video released by the site’s founder, Stephen Wolfram, who also was the creator of Mathematica. CNN obtained a test version of the site before its official release, and other searches that seem like they would work often didn’t when I tried them.

I recently wrote a story about people who travel to dangerous parts of the world, so I searched for “countries with highest crime rates” and got no answer from the site. I tried a few variations and nothing seemed to work. “Country homicide rates” provided me to a link for the definition of a homicide, but that was about it.

CNET, a CNN partner site, experienced similar troubles when it tested Wolfram|Alpha. In a video, CNET says about two-thirds of its test searches didn’t turn up useful information.

A writer for Harvardbusiness.org says Google is easier to use and Wikipedia is more powerful in the sense that it allows users to improve upon the site:

Think of Google as the Sears Roebuck of search — there are many “specialty” stores yet to be launched to meet different tastes and needs. But I don’t think that Wolfram Alpha will be as widely used as Google is because it does not tap into a well-distributed, universal meme or structure as Google did; nor has the brilliant scientist figured out the architecture of participation — an easy to understand method for anyone with the desire and skill to help make Wolfram Alpha a better tool and knowledge base. If I want to help build Wolfram Alpha, I don’t know how to begin; I do with Wikipedia.

In a recent blog post, Google also says it has added a public-data search function.

Still, it sounds like people are mostly excited about Wolfram|Alpha — in part because the project’s aim is just so lofty. In a press-release video, Wolfram says the site aims to “compute whatever can be computed about the world.”

Muslim Demographics

Urban Concept vehicles

This sleek 150-kilogramme ‘urban concept’ vehicle has been desgined and built by students of the GIKI.

Pakistan is hardly known for its engineering expertise or environmentally friendly policies. But students from two leading universities are trying to change that perception. Four Pakistani student teams have taken up the challenge of building eco-friendly cars as part of a competition featuring 196 other teams from across the world. They are tasked with building ‘urban concept’ vehicles, which are designed for everyday use by consumers, and ‘prototypes’ – unique, experimental vehicles that may seem impractical today, but might inform the design of cars in the future.

Two teams from the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Science and Technology (GIKI) and two teams from the Pakistan Navy College of Engineering (NUST) are headed to Germany on May 7 to participate in the Shell Eco-Marathon. The competition will reward the vehicle that goes the farthest distance using the least amount of fuel.

‘This is the first time that teams from Pakistan will be participating in the event,’ says Khurram Aziz, a third-year GIKI student. His team has designed a sleek 150-kilogramme ‘urban concept’ vehicle capable of clocking 80 kilometres per litre. ‘It took us around five and a half months to build our single-seater car, which is equipped with a 70cc engine,’ he says proudly.

Another GIKI vehicle, which will be competing in the prototype class of cars, gives 500 kilometres per litre mileage without a load and 350 kilometres with a driver. ‘Apart from the futuristic look,’ says Hammad, another GIKI student, ‘special care has been taken in the aerodynamics and car safety section.’

While the GIKI vehicles are rather sleek in appearance, the entries from NUST look awkward. A vehicle designed by student Ali Khan’s team resembles an egg shell on wheels. But Khan shows off the vehicle’s aluminum chassis and fiber glass body, which he insists make for a reliable automobile. ‘There are even air ducts installed to keep the driver cool in hot weather,’ boasts the 21-year-old. Satisfied with the vehicle’s functionality, Khan admits that his team did not have ample time to work on aesthetics – they completed and executed the design in just four weeks.

The young teams from Pakistan will not have an easy time competing with the best in the world. The record for a combustion engine entry was set by a French team in 2004 – the vehicle travelled 3,410 kilometres on just one litre of fuel. None of the Pakistani students’ vehicles even approach that mileage.

But GIKI’s Hammad, is not easily discouraged. ‘Our purpose is not to break the record, but to show the world that we too in Pakistan can make something brilliant. Even if we don’t win this time, we will get a chance to learn from other foreign teams. This way, we can improve our design and compete better in the next races.’

NTFS or FAT?

To NTFS or not to NTFS—that is the question. But unlike the deeper questions of life, this one isn't really all that hard to answer. For most users running Windows XP, NTFS is the obvious choice. It's more powerful and offers security advantages not found in the other file systems. But let's go over the differences among the files systems so we're all clear about the choice. There are essentially three different file systems available in Windows XP: FAT16, short for File Allocation Table, FAT32, and NTFS, short for NT File System.


FAT16
The FAT16 file system was introduced way back with MS–DOS in 1981, and it's showing its age. It was designed originally to handle files on a floppy drive, and has had minor modifications over the years so it can handle hard disks, and even file names longer than the original limitation of 8.3 characters, but it's still the lowest common denominator. The biggest advantage of FAT16 is that it is compatible across a wide variety of operating systems, including Windows 95/98/Me, OS/2, Linux, and some versions of UNIX. The biggest problem of FAT16 is that it has a fixed maximum number of clusters per partition, so as hard disks get bigger and bigger, the size of each cluster has to get larger. In a 2–GB partition, each cluster is 32 kilobytes, meaning that even the smallest file on the partition will take up 32 KB of space. FAT16 also doesn't support compression, encryption, or advanced security using access control lists.

FAT32
The FAT32 file system, originally introduced in Windows 95 Service Pack 2, is really just an extension of the original FAT16 file system that provides for a much larger number of clusters per partition. As such, it greatly improves the overall disk utilization when compared to a FAT16 file system. However, FAT32 shares all of the other limitations of FAT16, and adds an important additional limitation—many operating systems that can recognize FAT16 will not work with FAT32—most notably Windows NT, but also Linux and UNIX as well. Now this isn't a problem if you're running FAT32 on a Windows XP computer and sharing your drive out to other computers on your network—they don't need to know (and generally don't really care) what your underlying file system is.

The Advantages of NTFS
The NTFS file system, introduced with first version of Windows NT, is a completely different file system from FAT. It provides for greatly increased security, file–by–file compression, quotas, and even encryption. It is the default file system for new installations of Windows XP, and if you're doing an upgrade from a previous version of Windows, you'll be asked if you want to convert your existing file systems to NTFS. Don't worry. If you've already upgraded to Windows XP and didn't do the conversion then, it's not a problem. You can convert FAT16 or FAT32 volumes to NTFS at any point. Just remember that you can't easily go back to FAT or FAT32 (without reformatting the drive or partition), not that I think you'll want to.

The NTFS file system is generally not compatible with other operating systems installed on the same computer, nor is it available when you've booted a computer from a floppy disk. For this reason, many system administrators, myself included, used to recommend that users format at least a small partition at the beginning of their main hard disk as FAT. This partition provided a place to store emergency recovery tools or special drivers needed for reinstallation, and was a mechanism for digging yourself out of the hole you'd just dug into. But with the enhanced recovery abilities built into Windows XP (more on that in a future column), I don't think it's necessary or desirable to create that initial FAT partition.

When to Use FAT or FAT32
If you're running more than one operating system on a single computer (see Dual booting in Guides), you will definitely need to format some of your volumes as FAT. Any programs or data that need to be accessed by more than one operating system on that computer should be stored on a FAT16 or possibly FAT32 volume. But keep in mind that you have no security for data on a FAT16 or FAT32 volume—any one with access to the computer can read, change, or even delete any file that is stored on a FAT16 or FAT32 partition. In many cases, this is even possible over a network. So do not store sensitive files on drives or partitions formatted with FAT file systems.

mughal rocketry

Pakistan may face exceptional climate change

KARACHI: A UK-based climate change expert has said that there will be an exceptional change in the temperatures in Pakistan as a whole in the coming years, but that the province of Sindh will be less affected as compared to the other parts of the country.
 
Speaking to senior officials and heads of various departments of the City District Government Karachi on the second day of a training workshop on climate change, environmentalist Matthew Savage added that the temperature increase in Pakistan as a whole would be higher than the expected global average increase. Climate change projections up to the year 2080 were discussed at the workshop.
 
The projected temperature increase in the north is somewhat higher than in the south of Pakistan, Mr Savage said, adding that the projected temperature increase in winter is more than that in summer.

Discussing the impact of climate change in the future, the scientist said that there were chances of decline in irrigated wheat yield in the semi-arid areas of Pakistan in the range of nine to 30 per cent for a temperature increase of one degree centigrade to four degrees centigrade.

About 80 per cent of the nation’s food and fibre needs are met by irrigated agriculture, with the canal irrigation network mainly dependent on glaciers of the Hindu Kush and Himalayas, which are believed to be receding. He said that climate change is expected to result in changes in land and water resources that will subsequently affect agriculture productivity.
 
Speaking about the monsoon season, Mr Savage said that climate change could influence monsoon dynamics and cause summer precipitation levels to drop, as well delays in the start of the monsoon season. There may also be longer breaks between rainy periods, he said.

According to him, Karachi may however face the threat of rising sea levels by the year 2100, and therefore better monitoring and data collection is required to calibrate models correctly. More saline-tolerant species of mangroves should be planted, and there should be a strict control on the removal of mangrove trees. Further, there needs to be community involvement, as well as a topographical survey of coastal and mangrove areas, he said.
 
He regretted that climate change research was ‘essentially neglected’ in Pakistan until recently.

The local administration is the first line of response to climate change and as  such they should acquaint themselves with the changes of climate and should know more about the impact of drought, water shortages, wild fires, flooding, rising sea levels and infrastructure disruption, he asserted.
 
The visiting expert also shared his views on the issue of adaptation and responses, and called for promoting and facilitating new development and infrastructure that was located, designed and constructed for the climate it will experience over its design life.
 
During the session on Monday, the environmentalist stated that deforestation, along with a substantial increase in the number of motor vehicles and industrial zones, had contributed significantly to the rapid changes in the global climate.

With the melting of huge glaciers, the sea surface is expected to rise by two metres, which would result in the sinking of many islands and a further increase in the populations of many already overburdened cities, he said.

While updating the EDOs and senior officers of the CDGK, Mr Savage had remarked that human beings around the world should bring about changes in their behavior, as climate change was a problem faced not by a single country, but by the entire world, and it could only be dealt with by coordinated efforts. 
We should also use natural resources with great care, so that the next generation should not suffer from their scarcity, he added.

Hinting about the availability of funds for undertaking research and development of mitigation mechanisms, the British expert said that Pakistan had never asked for assistance in this sector, while other developing countries had been getting help from the world community. Pakistan should also get this assistance from the developed world, he suggested.

The two-day workshop was held on the directives of City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal with the collaboration of the British Deputy High Commission in Karachi to update the government EDOs and senior officers on global climate changes and its effects on coastal cities.

chelsea v barca

chelsea should have got two penalties.chelsea played really well and deserved a win but they get robbed.thats not fair !

World gets to put Windows 7 software to the test

San Francisco - A nearly-final version of Windows 7 made its world debut on Tuesday, giving people a chance to tell Microsoft what they love or hate about the new-generation operating system.

Microsoft is making a Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) available as the global software giant puts finishing touches on an operating system that it hopes will escape criticism heaped on its predecessor Vista.

‘It appears that they are on target,’ said analyst Michael Cherry of private firm Directions on Microsoft, which specializes in tracking the US software giant.

‘I think we need to be cautious though. Windows 7 is still in development.

While Microsoft is certainly moving on to the next logical milestone, this is still a test version of the operating system.’ People are invited to download the software from Microsoft's official website and install it on computers in a public test of the operating system's capabilities.

‘You put it on your PC, and then do what you'd normally do,’ Microsoft said in a message on the download page.

‘Your PC will automatically and anonymously send our engineers the information they need to verify the fixes and changes they made based on the Windows 7 Beta tests.’ Microsoft's website gives Windows 7 installation instructions and tells visitors that the RC ‘expires’ on June 1, 2010. The RC will begin warning users in March of next year by shutting down their machines every two hours.

‘Based on feedback we've received from beta testers and early adopters, we think Windows 7 is on track to be the most well-planned, highest quality Windows release ever,’ Microsoft said Tuesday.

‘The Release Candidate of Windows 7 reflects extensive beta tester feedback, and is ready for IT professionals and tech enthusiasts to evaluate.’ Copies of the RC were made available to developers last week and early reviews have praised the operating system for its stability and for avoiding problems that marred Vista's image.

Complaints about Vista included that it was not compatible with some software designed for the previous-generation Windows XP operating system and that it was too much for notebooks or older computers to handle.

‘Windows 7 is everything that Vista should have been,’ said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.
‘It's less annoying and it's a fraction of the size. The only thing working against them is the economy; people without money aren't going to buy no matter how good the product.’ Enthusiastic early reviews of Windows 7 are stoking speculation that Microsoft will release a final version of the new operating system in time for the year-end holiday shopping season.

‘It makes sense that Microsoft should have it pre-Christmas,’ Cherry said of Windows 7.
‘I think you need to keep in mind that if something comes up in testing they are going to take the delay and get it right. Microsoft doesn't need a problem on their hands.’ - AFP