IT Masala

eShare lets you do 24/7 non-stop sharing while freeing up your computer for other purposes. You can utilize the latest P2P technology “Bit-Torrent” to download and share your favourite multimedia files.

Why waste your computer resource when a dedicated box can do the work for you. Use this Procare e|Share ES-8068, a dedicated BitTorrent client that you can be set up using a Web browser. Without using your PC at all, it will connect directly to the Internet using Ethernet, storing files in a USB 2.0 hard drive. isn't this a cool feature..

Very light, this box can be bought for $85 plus shipping.

Note : Its Patent Pending.

Product page [Procare via PC Watch]

No link of where to buy. But interested people could contact them at their office here. 

It would be good if it had some features like , a small lcd screen, and bad thing is it supports only fat 32 file system. 

No doubt Googl's look was elegant enough..but not so impressive, but now with the new feature of skins added you could make your google homepage look better. With around 7 themes to change you could change the looks of Google homepage.

The Google Personalized Home Page, which is almost two years old now, is among Google's most practical features, especially now that you can customize your home page with thousands of useful gadgets from Google and third parties. Like i have Orkut birthdays,How to of the day,india news and calendar attached to the page. You could add hundreds of gadgets and third party addons too. This will certainly make the page look better.

How to change the theme :

- Login to Google Account

- Goto  Google Personalized Home Page

- Click on Select theme , you will see a windows below saying "Select a Theme For Your Homepage". Click on any of the themes and save the changes to have an awesome looking Google homepage.

Here are some screenshots :

Google is highly user concerned. These new features added regularly shows its concerns for its users. Long Live Google ! Thank You Google !

• YouTube competitor in the works from News Corp. and NBC [techspot]
  News Corp. and NBC would like to believe as they today announced the upcoming launch of an online video service
• Skype Hampered by New Trojan Horse [ pcworld ]
  Internet phone network afflicted for second time.
• White Computer Setup [Elegant Technology]
  An almost-perfect pearly-white setup, including polystyrene cup and white, doily-like mouspad. But sir, that desk is brown.
• Why Faked Sentience in Hindering AI [The Guardian]
  Because we want it to be like us, we won't let it be like itself.
• Organic electroluminescents get brighter [The Inquirer]
  New technologies aim to put life into your LCD monitor: literally.
• Google News thinks "Zune" Is a Typo [Yahoo!]
  Did you mean "Zone?" asks the news-focused face of the world's most successful search engine. Is this the first Google antibomb, where instead of going elsewhere, you end up going nowhere?
• AMD and Intel haven't got a clue [The Inquirer]
  Bad headline, great point: at the end of the day, we don't care about the drill, we care about the hole. Sane consumers don't read benchmarks, they play games. So why is so much tech PR aimed at a tiny market of specification whores?
• US company offers Wi-Fi-proof paint [The Register]
  Tinfoil not included.

NIH Director Elias Zerhouni wants to pay you upto $1.5 million in direct costs over five years for your innovative mind !

What do you have to do? Submit an innovative idea that could have an exceptional impact on biomedical or behavioral science.

Who is eligible?

Applicant PD/PI’s must hold an independent research position at a domestic (U.S.) institution as of September 20, 2007 and must have received their most recent doctoral degree (e.g., Ph.D., M.D., D.D.S., D.V.M., or equivalent) or completed their medical internship and residency in 1997 or later.

“We want proposals in a broad range of scientific areas relevant to the NIH mission and from a diverse pool of applicants,” Zerhouni said

Application : 

Those who have an urge to do something for Science and also win the prize , download and submit the application, they could apply @ NIH. Click to read more information on the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award.

Deadline : Applications will be accepted from April 25 through May 22, 2007.

NIH Director Launches Program for Innovative New Investigators [NIH News]

Google Inc. said its engineers are developing software for hand-held devices, and the company has no plans to build mobile phones.

"We're not doing a mobile phone," Alan Eustace, senior vice president of engineering and research, said in an interview Thursday at Google's office in Atlanta. During an event earlier in the day, Eustace said, "I'd like to find something that is broader, rather than do yet another mobile device."

The remarks contradict reports on Web logs and online news sites this month that Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, the most-used Internet search engine, is working with a handset manufacturer to develop a phone.

Google, Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are racing to develop mobile products such as e-mail, online maps and search engines to tap consumers that want to surf the Web on the move. Mobile devices outsold personal computers by more than four to one in 2006, according to market research firm Gartner Inc.

 “We believe Google is working with, not against Apple in the mobile world,'' Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst Gene Munster wrote yesterday in a note. Google is probably building mobile applications that will work with the iPhone and other devices, he said.

Engineers at Google's Atlanta office work on projects including the Google Earth mapping program and a software tool kit for writing Internet applications. Employees also work on programs to place and track ads on radio, print and television, said Scott Blum, an engineer in the office.

via [ bloomberg ] 

Harvard University's most famous dropout is to get a degree from the university. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who dropped out of the university in his junior year, will be awarded an honorary degree in June this year when he will speak at the university's commencement ceremony.

Gates, who left the university to start Microsoft and create history, would have been part of the Class of 1977, which is to celebrate its 30th year. Gates came to Harvard as a freshman in 1973. He had already tried his hand on programming and software and had written codes for computers. It was at Harvard that he helped develop a version of BASIC for the first microcomputer, the MITS Altair.

He soon quit the studies and started working full time for the company he and his childhood friend Paul Allen had founded when the duo were in their early teens.

Today, Gates is the richest man in the world and has also decided to step down from the day-to-day chores at the company he founded to devote full time for the philanthropic organization he and his wife established, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

via [ earthtimes ] 

Google always caters the needs of its users. So here's a chance for you to help Google to help you better… "Report Bug" link has been added to Gmail .It will appear near the top right on your Gmail Inbox page besides the " Settings" and "Logout" links. 

I was surprised , it did not appear when i login , i tried many times to get it ..logged in and out several times.. but in vain. But when my friend logged on he got a link [ screenshot attached ]. Maybe Google doesn't like me using Gmail ?? or it doesn't want me to send " Bug Reports "  or maybe it appears only for non-frequent Gmail users ..

So if you face some problems in using Gmail then :

- First - Check troubleshooting guide to find a solution to your problem, it might be already be available.

- Second - Check out Help Center - it has answers to most frequently asked questions. 

- If you could not get a solution to your problem then - Use this Bug Reporting form to make sure that Gmail knows about technical issues. 

Note : While filling this Bug Report form don't forget to mention about your browser and OS information.This will help Google to handle problems reported, quickly and effectively. And give proper valid Email address- response will be sent to the id you give here..so.

PS : Google might not respond to every message they receive. 

Bug Report Form looks like this :

[ Report Bug ] via [ Gmail ]

IEEE Spectrum asked 14 leading technologists to name the novel that influenced them the most. You'll be surprised at how often they agreed.

- Vinton Cerf ,Chief Internet Evangelist, Google , Founding father of the Internet, helped develop TCP/IP standards

Novel: The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien (3 volumes, 1954–1955)

- Donald Christiansen,Former editor, IEEE Spectrum; President of Informatica

Novel: War and Remembrance, Herman Wouk (1978)

-  David Mindell ,Frances and David Dibner Associate Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing, MIT

Novel: Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon (1973) 

- James Isaak ,Assistant professor of information technology, Southern New Hampshire University, in Manchester

Novel: Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner (1968)

- Samuel C. Florman,Principal and owner, Kreisler Borg Florman General Construction Co., Scarsdale, N.Y.

Novel: A Single Pebble, John Hersey (1956) 

- Vernor Vinge,Retired professor of computer science, San Diego State University

Novel: Between Planets, Robert A. Heinlein (1957) 

- Danny Hillis,Cochairman, Applied Minds, Glendale, Calif. Cofounded Thinking Machines, pioneer of massively parallel computer architectures

Novel: Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, Robert A. Heinlein (1958) 

- Barrett Hazeltine,Professor of engineering emeritus, Brown University, Providence, R.I.

Novel: The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) 

- Nick Tredennick , Editor, the Gilder Technology Report, Great Barrington, Mass.

Novel: Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand (1957) 

-  Steven W. Squyres, Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy, CornellUniversity, Ithaca, N.Y.

Novel: Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon (1973) 

- Jaron Lanier,Artist, composer, and Fellow, International Computer Science Institute, BerkeleyComposer, artist, inventor;

Novel: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), James Joyce 

- Henry Petroski,Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University, Durham, N.C.

Novel: A Single Pebble, John Hersey (1956) 

- Jon Rubinstein, Key developer of Apple’s iPod, now chairman, Immersion Corp., San Jose

Novel: The Mad Scientists’ Club, Bertrand R. Brinley (1965)

- Owen K. Garriott,Engineer and former astronaut

Novel: Rocket Boys: A Memoir, Homer A. Hickam Jr. (1998) 

[ Read full article @ IEEE ] 

Wanted: Power-systems engineer with experience in high-power (5–100-kW) motor-­controller design. Must be U.S. citizen and have valid ISO1443-compatible access-control RFID implant.

Sound farfetched? Today, yes. A decade from now, maybe not.!

With the proliferation of radio-frequency identification technology and the recent, but increasing, use of implantable RFID chips in humans, we may already be on a path that would make such an ad commonplace in a 2017 issue of IEEE Spectrum.

Benefits : 

An implantable RFID chip, which is durable and about the size of a grain of rice, can hold or link to information about the identity, physiological characteristics, health, nationality, and security clearances of the person it’s embedded in. The proximity of your hand could start your car or unlock your front door or let an emergency room physician know you are a diabetic even if you are unconscious. Once implanted, the chip and the information it contains are always with you—you’d never lose your keys again.

Darker Side : 

Namely the erosion of our privacy and our right to bodily integrity. After all, do you really want to be required to have a foreign object implanted in your arm just to get or keep a job? And once you have it, do you really want your employer to know whenever you leave the office? And do you want every RFID reader–equipped supermarket checkout counter to note your presence and your purchases?

via [ Spectrum ] 

If this becomes a reality i would love to be a Cyborg or something like that.! ….waiting for it eagerly..

Indian-born Srinivasa S R Varadhan was Thursday named winner of the Norwegian Abel Prize, known as the "Nobel Prize for mathematics".

His contribution :

Varadhan’s theory of large deviations provides a unifying and efficient method for clarifying a rich variety of phenomena arising in complex stochastic systems, in fields as diverse as quantum field theory, statistical physics, population dynamics, econometrics and finance, and traffic engineering. It has also greatly expanded our ability to use computers to simulate and analyze the occurrence of rare events. Over the last four decades, the theory of large deviations has become a cornerstone of modern probability, both pure and applied.

“Varadhan’s work has great conceptual strength and ageless beauty. His ideas have been hugely influential and will continue to stimulate further research for a long time”, to quote the Abel Committee.

Award : 

He is expected to receive the Abel Prize from His Majesty, King Harald V of Norway, in Oslo on May 22nd. The honour is accompanied by a prize of $850,000.

This is the second time in three years that an NYU mathematician has been the recipient of the Abel Prize: in 2005, Professor Peter Lax of the Courant Institute was awarded the Abel.

About Prof Srinivasa S.R. Varadhan  :

Srinivasa S. R. Varadhan is currently Professor of Mathematics and Frank J. Gould Professor of Science at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University.

Prof. Varadhan - a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society and the Third World Academy of Sciences - has been the recipient of many awards and honours, including the Birkhoff Prize (1994), the Margaret and Herman Sokol Award of NYU's Faculty of Arts and Science (1995), and the American Mathematical Society's Leroy Steele Prize (1996), an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the Indian Academy of Sciences. He received his B.Sc. Honours degree and M.A. from Madras University, and his Ph.D. from the Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta.  

Biography via [ The Abel Prize ]