Microsoft Live Maps gets close up

It looks like Microsoft has gone and added 3.8 terabytes worth of image data to its Google Maps-like Live Maps system. It's a bit creepy exactly how close up you can get with some locations.



Above are screenshots of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. In both cases, we zoomed in as far as we could using Microsoft Live Maps or Google Maps. Not only is the aerial imagery zoomed in a bit tighter with Microsoft Live Maps, but the picture is a lot sharper. Google Maps still seems to load a bit smoother as you scroll throughout the map. But the upgrade makes Live Maps a bit more fun to play around with.

And of course, since the picture is at an angle, it's much easier to identify landmarks, which is one of the only real practical uses of an aerial view when you're looking for directions.

Men's Restroom [Funny - Rated(G)]

I was barely sitting down when I heard a voice from the
other stall saying: "Hi, how are you?"

I'm not the type to start a conversation in the men's
restroom but I don't know what got into me, so I answered,
somewhat embarrassed, "Doin' just fine!"

And the other guy says: "So what are you up to?"

What kind of question is that? At that point, I'm thinking
this is too bizarre so I say: "Uhhh, I'm like you, just
traveling!"

At this point I am just trying to get out as fast as I can
when I hear another question. "Can I come over?"

Ok, this question is just too weird for me but I figured I
could just be polite and end the conversation. I tell him,
"No........I' m a little busy right now!!!"

Then I hear the guy say nervously...

"Listen, I'll have to call you back. There's an idiot in
the other stall who keeps answering all my questions!!! "

Same Job, Different Pay

A mechanic was removing a cylinder-head from the motor of
a Harley motorcycle when he spotted a well-known
cardiologist in his shop. The cardiologist was there waiting for
the service manager to come take a look at his bike when
the mechanic shouted across the garage " Hey Doc, want to
take a look at this?"

The cardiologist, a bit surprised, walked over to where
the mechanic was working on the motorcycle. The mechanic
straightened up, wiped his hands on a rag and asked, "So
Doc, look at this engine. I open its heart, take the
valves out, repair any damage, and then put them back in,
and when I finish, it works just like new. So how come I
make $39,675 a year (a pretty small salary) and you get the
really big bucks ($1,695,759) when you and I are doing
basically the same work?"

The cardiologist paused, smiled and leaned over, then
whispered to the mechanic.... ......... ......... ......... .

"Try doing it with the engine running."

IIT Bombay - Good One

One night 4 students were playing till late night and didn't study for the test which was scheduled for the next day. In the morning they thought of a plan. They made themselves look as dirty and weird as they could with grease and dirt. They then went up to the dean and said that they had gone out to a wedding last night and on their return the tire of their car burst and they had to push the car all the way back and that they were in no condition to appear for the test. So the dean said they can have the retest after 3 days. They said they will be ready by that time. On the third day they appeared before the dean. The dean said that this was a special condition test. All four were required to sit in separate classrooms for the test. They all agreed as they had prepared well in the last three days.
The test consisted of 2 questions with total of 100 marks.
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..

..


..


..


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..

..
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Q.1. Your Name ............ ......... .... ( 2 marks )
Q.2. Which tyre burst ............ .... ( 98 marks )


a) front left
b) front right
c) back left
d) back right

True story of IIT Bombay ...Batch 1992-96

Hospital Friends

Very Very Touching story...Could cause Tears...

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end.They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.

Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up,he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.

The man in the other bed began to live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats.
Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene. One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by.
Although the other man couldn’t hear the band - he could see it. In his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words. Days and weeks passed. One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the
hospital attendants to take the body away. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window.

The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone. Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window.

The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall. She said, “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.”

world's densest memory circuit !!!

Scientists from the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) said that they have created the world's densest memory circuit, one that's about 100 times denser than today's (28Jan2007) standard memory circuits, while remaining as small as a human white blood cell.

The circuit has 160,000 bits of capacity, compared with previous generations of molecular circuits that were demonstrated at 64 bits. But researchers point to the circuit's density as the real breakthrough: 100 billion bits per square centimeter, which the researchers said is about 100 times more tightly packed than current memory circuits.

I was amazed when I came to know that technology is advancing more quickly than Moore's Law, the 1965 observation by Intel Corp. co-founder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors on a chip doubles about every two years. I remember, during my undergrad years, when my prof (A.Madhiazhagan [A.M. for short]) said that Moore's Law will be broken someday...& YES...Today is the day!

The researchers described the 160,000 memory bits as being arranged like a large tic-tac-toe board, with 400 silicon wires crossed by 400 titanium wires and a layer of molecular switches in between. Each bit is just 15 nanometers wide, compared with the most dense memory devices currently available that measure 140 nanometers in width. FYI - A nanometer is a billionth of a meter.

The latest development shows development progressing from research into something manufacturable. It's the sort of device that a semiconductor company like Intel Corp. would contemplate making in 2020.

"This shows it is possible to manufacture really high-fidelity circuits at a density that is more molecular in scale than the way things have been done traditionally," Caltech chemistry professor James Heath said. "That's what we were really after. The memory is just a demonstration of that."

I love u technology...



Courtesy: CNN

Eight technologies to save the world...

Well as the name of the topic indicates...
check this link out

Smart Homes

Bill Gates's 'smart home' cost $113M. Now you can have the same kind of remote control over your dwelling for as little as $10 a month.

Bill and Melinda Gates's "smart home" in Medina, Wash., cost an estimated $113 million to build - but that's pennies compared with what consumers are starting to spend every year on making their homes smarter.

Thanks to a host of new, lower-cost home automation technologies, cable operators and telecoms are targeting the average homeowner with cheap bundled subscription services, often controlled from their cell phones.

Some of the "Genius" home's spectacular features:

Analysts have high hopes for the burgeoning smart home market: Now an estimated $1.3 billion, it's expected to balloon to nearly $10 billion worldwide by 2010, according to research firm Frost & Sullivan.

Of course, some of this stuff has been around since the 1970s in the form of X10, the industry standard for TV remote controls. But new wireless standards (like Insteon, ZigBee, and Z-Wave) and cheaper chipsets have enabled two-way, low-cost communication between devices.

Some firms like Control4, Cortexa Technology, and Exceptional Innovation are targeting real estate developers. The aim is to make an automation system - set-top box, central touchscreen, wireless cameras, and sensors - standard in new homes.

Partnering with communications companies
New York City-based Xanboo, whose technology powers AT&T's new service, also got $20 million in funding from strategic investors including Motorola (Charts). In 2005, Motorola partnered with Xanboo on a product called Homesite, which cost $220 and let users monitor their homes on cell phones.

Now, with AT&T's service, users buy Xanboo's starter kit - including IP camera and wireless door or window sensor - for $200. Xanboo president Bill Diamond says the company is in talks with about 20 other mobile operators in Europe and North America.

Conclusion
Before the average homeowner opts for such a service, however, he'll need a little convincing. "It all still seems kind of Star Trek to most people," says an SmartHome Analyst. "But is home automation going to grow and become more mainstream? Yes on both counts."

What do think folks???

Columnist Art Buchwald dead at 81

Art Buchwald, who took humorous jabs at Washington politicians in syndicated columns for decades, died on Jan-18-2007.















About Mr.Buchwald
Buchwald launched his career as a columnist in 1949 in Paris, where he wrote about the light side of Paris nightlife in the European edition of the New York Herald Tribune. He returned to the United States around 1962 and moved to Washington, where he began writing columns filled with political satire for The Washington Post.

Some of Buchwald's Achievements/observations:
0)Buchwald won a Pulitzer Prize for outstanding commentary in 1982, and in 1986 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

1)During the Watergate scandal, Buchwald explained that the sound in the 18 1/2-minute gap in the White House tapes actually was Nixon humming.

2)"Just when you think there's nothing to write about, Nixon says, 'I am not a crook.' Jimmy Carter says, 'I have lusted after women in my heart.' President Reagan says, 'I have just taken a urinalysis test, and I am not on dope.'"

3)"Have you ever seen a candidate talking to a rich person on television?"

4)"Every time you think television has hit its lowest ebb, a new program comes along to make you wonder where you thought the ebb was."

....
Mr.Buchwald has always been humble and accessible. He's listed in the phone directory and always has been. People see his name and can't believe it's the real Art Buchwald

Dumbest Moment for Kazakhstan

Amid efforts by Kazakhstan to prove it's not the backward land portrayed in the movie Borat, the nation's central bank misspells the Kazakh word for "bank" on its 2,000- and 5,000-tenge notes.

Courtesy: CNN

Domino Effect...

You folks might have been aware of Coke & Mentos videos...
BUT NOT THIS ONE!!! Check it out:

Is it time to fire Steve Jobs ???

Investors expressed concern today regarding the latest reports about options grants made to Apple Computer's enigmatic chief executive officer Steve Jobs. New reports about Apple's options backdating have investors concerned about how much CEO Steve Jobs knew. But analysts doubt Jobs will have to step down. The Financial Times reported that Apple's board gave Jobs 7.5 million stock options in 2001 without the approval of the company's board, and said the company later falsified documents that purportedly showed a full meeting of the board had taken place to approve the options grant. The newspaper also reported that Jobs later surrendered the options without exercising them.

Shares of Apple (Charts) fell about 1.1 percent Thursday afternoon on the news after sliding as much as 2.3 percent earlier. NOTE: This comes a day after an online legal publication.


Steve-Apple Story
Apple, more so than many other companies, is a firm that is widely associated in investors' minds with its CEO. Jobs, who co-founded Apple, left the company in the mid-1980s and Apple hit a rough patch shortly thereafter. Jobs returned in 1996 and took over as interim CEO a year later. Since then, he has been widely credited with making the company relevant again with products such as its iMac computer and the ubiquitous iPod media player and iTunes online store.

My Intuition
Despite the fact that Jobs' name has surfaced more prominently in the most recent accounts of Apple's options problems, Wall Street analysts largely shrugged off the news and said that it's highly unlikely that Jobs would be forced to leave Apple.

"Any time a CEO is at risk of being, for lack of a better word, forcibly removed, then investors should be concerned. But do I believe that Steve Jobs' job is at risk? That's an unequivocal no," says Jonathan Hoopes who is an analyst with ThinkEquity Partners.

To that end, Apple said in a press release in October that "in a few instances, Apple CEO Steve Jobs was aware that favorable grant dates had been selected, but he did not receive or otherwise benefit from these grants and was unaware of the accounting implications" and added that independent investigators "found no misconduct by any member of Apple's current management team."

So ... Steve survives [for now ;-)]

World’s first keychain phone

The concept of the V-Phone is that it's a small portable device that you can take anywhere and your phone number will follow you, as well as the added benefit of inexpensive VoIP minutes.



Price
Calling plans for the V-Phone are identical to their traditional service offerings. It costs $15 per month for 500 minutes, $25 for unlimited residential service and $35 for business use. The V-Phone isn't a replacement for a traditional Vonage phone line. In fact, if you are currently a Vonage customer with an existing Vonage number, you have to order a separate Vonage phone number for the V-Phone. Vonage doesn't offer the ability to have a single phone number married to both. This would actually be a nice feature - simply take the V-Phone when on the road and your home phone calls are automatically routed to your laptop/PC when you plug in the device.

Conclusion
Though arguably a cellphone can do the same exact thing (carry your phone number). You could argue that the V-Phone lets you make calls using inexpensive VoIP minutes instead of expensive cell minutes. However, many cellphone service providers offer a large bucket of minutes or even unlimited plans for a fixed price, which negates VoIP's advantage over cellphones. With this in mind, you have to wonder why a person would even need the Vonage V-Phone !!! I will say V-Phone could come in handy if you make a lot of international phone calls since cell phone calls to international destinations are still outrageously expensive.
Click Here for more information

Gaint Squid Filmed For The First Time

A Japanese research team has succeeded in filming a giant squid live -- possibly for the first time -- and says the elusive creatures may be more plentiful than previously believed.

The research team, led by Tsunemi Kubodera, videotaped the giant squid at the surface as they captured it off the Ogasawara Islands south of Tokyo earlier this month. The squid, which measured about 24-feet long, died while it was being caught.

"We believe this is the first time anyone has successfully filmed a giant squid that was alive," said Kubodera, a researcher with Japan's National Science Museum. "Now that we know where to find them, we think we can be more successful at studying them in the future."

Giant squid, formally called Architeuthis, are the world's largest invertebrates. Because they live in the depths of the ocean, they have long been wrapped in mystery and embellished in the folklore of sea monsters, appearing in ancient Greek myths or attacking the submarine in Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."

The squid, a female, was not fully grown and was relatively small by giant squid standards. The longest one on record is 60 feet.

Kubodera and his team had been conducting expeditions in the area for about three years before they succeeded in making their first contact two years ago. Last year, the team succeeded in taking a series of still photos of one of the animals in its natural habitat -- also believed to have been a first.

Until the team's successes, most scientific study of the creatures had to rely on partial specimens that had washed ashore dead or dying or had been found in the digestive systems of whales or very large sharks.

Kubodera said whales led his team to the squid. By finding an area where whales fed, he believed he could find the animals. He also said that, judging by the number of whales that feed on them, there may be many more giant squid than previously thought.

"Sperm whales need from 500 to 1,000 kilograms (1,100-2,200 pounds) of food every day," he said. "There are believed to be 200,000 or so of them, and that would suggest there are quite a few squid for them to be feeding on. I don't think they are in danger of extinction at all."

Courtesy: AOL Click Here!

MySpace tops Yahoo for first time

HighLights
• MySpace recorded 38.7 billion U.S. page views in November
• Yahoo recorded 38.1 billion U.S. page views in November
• A one-month change could represent an aberration
• Yahoo: Page views diminished by new tools that enhance use

The online hangout MySpace got even more popular in November, beating Yahoo in Web traffic for the first time, a research company said 13Dec2006. News Corp.'s MySpace recorded 38.7 billion U.S. page views last month, compared with 38.1 billion for Yahoo Inc., according to comScore Media Metrix. MySpace's growth was 2 percent over October and triple the 12.5 billion recorded in November 2005.

ComScore warned, however, that a one-month change could represent an aberration. Furthermore, Yahoo's page views could be diminished by the company's growing use of Ajax technology for maps, e-mail and other services. Ajax is a set of tools that speeds up Web applications by summoning snippets of data as needed instead of pulling entire Web pages over and over.

Fox Interactive Media ranked sixth at 73.8 million, including 57.2 million for MySpace. Unique audience is a measure of how many people visit in any given month; page views reflect how often they come back and how long they stay.

Including other Fox properties such as IGN Entertainment Inc., comScore said Fox had 39.5 billion page views in November. In a statement, Peter Levinsohn, president of Fox Interactive Media, credited strong traffic at game site IGN.com due to the release of Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Co.'s Wii video game consoles.

Does Microsoft Own RSS?

If you've added headlines from a news site to My Yahoo, or subscribe to blogs on a site like Bloglines, you've used RSS, a technology that's growing increasingly popular for distributing headlines and articles from blogs, news websites, and more. But now, two recently published patent applications reveal, Microsoft (MSFT) is claiming it invented RSS.

Microsoft executive Don Dodge, while not involved in the patent applications, says he suspects the filings were made to defend the company against "patent trolls". (The filings were made shortly before Microsoft announced plans to build RSS technology into its upcoming Vista operating system.) Still, if granted, the patents would give Microsoft a legal cudgel to wield against other companies using RSS.

That's a long shot, however: "Prior art," the patent-law term for earlier examples of the technology in use, should be easy to show, since RSS has been around for years. The most likely outcome will be that Microsoft's patent is rejected - and no one else will be able to patent RSS, either, keeping the technology free for everyone to use.

I DID IT !!!

Folks...finally I tasted the MCSD soup...
YEssssss... I passed the final Microsoft Certification in the MCSD series...
[stands for Microsoft Certified Solution Developer]
And My CEO, CTO congratulated me !
And My parents are here... :-)
This feels like WOW!!!!!!!! [I feel like the guy with the Victory Sword...Click on the image for a BIGGER pic...]

Thank You GOD!

ps: The SOUP tasted damn gud!

Nintendo - a new approach towards GAMES!

By now, you probably know the Wii's big hook: the controller. Instead of having to struggle with dual thumbsticks and a myriad of buttons, the Wii controls games with a simple device that resembles a remote control. The wireless unit, using internal sensors, translates your wrist and hand movements into onscreen actions.

Nintendo Wii

For example, if you're playing a baseball game, you'll swing the control like a bat. Tennis? Wave it like a racket. A shooter? Aim it at the onscreen target and pull the trigger. (A sensor bar subtly sits atop or below your TV to capture your movements.)

Click Here for more info!

Courtesy: Kiran

2 ZUNE and not 2 IPOD ?

Microsoft is opening up its arms to the music industry as it launches its new portable music player against rival Apple's iPod.


Microsoft's new Zune media player, which goes on sale today, is aimed directly at Apple's wildly successful, music industry-changing iPod. But what is gonna make it shine in the MARKET???

"Company breaks from Apple with promise to pay music producers a royalty for each music player sold."

"Under the terms of the deal, first reported by The New York Times, Microsoft will pay Universal a flat fee for each $250 Zune it sells. "

The revenue shortfall has made music executives anxious to find new ways to increase their slice of the digital music pie. Microsoft too is eyeing the market with the launch of Zune and its online music service Zune Marketplace. Although this isn't Microsoft's first foray into digital song downloads, this is the first time that it's rolled out an MP3 player meant to compete directly with the iPod. But Microsoft faces a tough battle. Apple has a lock on 75 percent of the market for portable music players, according to market research firm NPD Group.

BUT ... there are a couple of problems... one being: One of the reasons why YouTube is so popular is because anyone can post a video and share it with everyone immediately. In contrast, before a Zune user can share music, they have to find a friend who also owns a Zune player.

"That's going to be a slow transition," said Shawny Chen, a research analyst for Current Analysis.

She expects Zune to win over some consumers but doesn't expect it to attract a huge following this season, partly because of the sharing feature, but also because Microsoft is targeting a narrower audience.

Whereas Apple offers a range of music players - from its $79 shuffle to its higher-end video iPod - there's only one Zune option, and it's aimed mainly at college-aged buyers, she said.



To be sure, the iPod isn't flawless. Some consumers have been frustrated by its battery life while others have complained that some screens scratch too easily.

And while Apple dominates the market for portable music players, a survey conducted by technology firm ABI Research early this month suggests iPod users could be won over by rival products.

Fifty-eight percent of iPod users planning to purchase a MP3 player said they would consider buying Zune, according to the survey of 1,725 respondents.

As the battle plays out, one thing's for sure: Microsoft is in the digital music business for the long haul.

More more information check this link out.

4 down ... one more to go... :-)

Ok... itz blog time ...

Having achieved an MCAD (Microsoft Certified Applications Developer) which requires THREE MS certifications), today I passed the 4rth test...
I am heading towards the fifth, after which I achieve the MCSD (Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer) status... Hopefully I make it...