Syria Pulls Plug on Internet Access

Syrian activists say the government is responsible for at least a portion of the Internet blackout that has kicked the nation offline

By Ben Weitzenkorn and TechNewsDaily

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Image: Igor Bogdanovych/Flickr

The entire nation of Syria has gone offline.

"Starting at 10:26 UTC [5:26 a.m. Eastern time], Syria's international Internetconnectivity shut down," wrote Renesys researchers, who monitor the global health of the Internet, on the firm's blog today (Nov. 29). "All 84 of Syria's IP address blocks have become unreachable, effectively removing the country from the Internet."

That finding was later confirmed by Google and Akamai; it means that any incoming or outgoing Internet traffic in Syria is undeliverable.

The move may indicate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's increasing nervousness about how his administration is perceived by the rest of the world, technology siteAllThingsD speculated, or that an especially egregious human-rights violation is on its way and Assad wants to hide it.

The Internet blackout, instantly given the hashtag #SyriaBlackout on Twitter, came as battles between Assad loyalists and rebels forces continued with no sign of abating. The country has seen constant turmoil since a popular uprising broke out in March 2011.

Syria has partially blocked Internet access in the past, but this nationwide shutdown is a first, the Associated Press reported.

Syrian activists told the AP that the government was responsible for cutting Internet and phone service in the Syrian capital of Damascus, where Reuters reported fighting in several areas, including on a road that leads to the airport.

Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi cut Internet access to their respective peoples in early 2011 to stifle the flow of information and make tools used to organize populist movements unavailable.

Mubarak now sits in an Egyptian prison, reportedly in failing health. In October 2011, Gaddafi was dragged from a ditch in his hometown and shot. His corpse was dragged through the streets.

REFERENCE-SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

How many NASA engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?

Casting Light on Astronaut Insomnia: ISS to Get Sleep-Promoting Lightbulbs

NASA plans an $11-million upgrade to help space station crews sleep better in orbit

By Katie Worth

 

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An early prototype of new LED fixtures (Solid State Lighting Module) that could help to prevent astronaut insomnia aboard the International Space Station.Image: Kennedy Space Center

How about if they're changing 85 lightbulbs? What if the bulbs they're replacing are on the International Space Station (ISS)? What if it's rather urgent, because the old bulbs are rapidly burning out? And what if the replacements are a brand-new technology, meant not only to illuminate, but also to help astronauts sleep more?

Those questions are no joke to NASA, which is investing $11.4 million to change out aging fluorescent lights in the ISS's U.S. Orbital Segment. When NASA began considering the replacements, doctors realized they had an opportunity to address an entirely different problem: astronaut insomnia.

Indeed, sleep deprivation is a serious problem in space—severe enough that sleep meds are the second-most common drug taken by astronauts after painkillers, according to NASA medical officer and flight surgeon, Smith Johnston. Although their schedule allows for 8.5 hours of shut-eye a day, astronauts average barely six hours—30 to 60 minutes less than they get on Earth—and that's with the help of pills, relaxation techniques, sleep hygiene education and every other tool Johnston has thought up. Most people can sustain such sleep deprivation for several days, but over the course of months, "it adds up," Johnston says.

There's no single reason why astronauts often go months without a good night's sleep. Johnston says it's a combination of the unearthly sensation of floating in bed, constant noise, variable temperature, poor air circulation, nagging backaches and headaches, frequent shifts between Houston and Moscow time zones, and a new dawn every 90 minutes that confuses surface-accustomed circadian rhythms.

That's a grave concern for NASA: Sleep deprivation makes us fuzzy—an annoyance on Earth, but plain dangerous (and if a mission is botched, plain expensive) in space.

NASA hopes to fix at least part of the problem—the disruption of normal circadian rhythms—with new lamps.

The concept is based on research showing that our bodily clocks are wound by light exposure. About a decade ago scientists discovered a new type of light-sensitive cell in our eyes—an extraordinary find, considering they'd been peering at rods and cones for centuries and never noticed that the nearby retinal ganglion cells were, in a way, peering back. But the cells have no role in vision. Instead, they inform our brain's pacemaker, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, what time it is, which in turn cues thousands of schedule-sensitive bodily processes.

Sleep scientists have found that when these receptors are exposed to a particular wavelength of blue light—incidentally, sky blue—we feel more alert, because the brain suppresses melatonin, a key hormone in regulating sleep. In contrast, red-spectrum light allows the melatonin to flow.

The new lamps aim to exploit this chronobiology. The fixtures, which must fit in the exact footprint of their predecessors, comprise a rainbow of more than 100 LED bulbs cloaked by a diffuser, so they appear to be a single panel of white light, says Debbie Sharp, a senior manager at project contractor Boeing.

REFERENCE-SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES TO KEEP YOU EMPLOYED

If you want to make money in programming what are the best languages to learn?

here i give some programming languages to get employed..my conclusions are only 10 languages!!!!

Java

For the enterprise, Java and Microsoft's .NET rule. However, Java has the edge, as it is No. 1 language in terms of number of developers. According to Evans Data, there are more than 9 million Java developers in the world. That means there are tons of Java applications out there that will have to be supported, updated and maintained. Furthermore, Java is the language of the Android mobile operating system. Android provides the tools and APIs necessary to begin developing applications for the Android OS using the Java programming language. Java ranks No. 1 on the TIOBE Programming Community Index for June 2010 (after a brief stint at No. 2, behind C, in May). The need for Java developers to build new Java applications is not about to wane.

C#

C# is a multiparadigm programming language encompassing imperative, functional, generic, object-oriented and component-oriented programming disciplines. Microsoft developed C# within its .NET initiative and the language was later approved as a standard by Ecma and ISO. C# also is slated by Microsoft to become the primary development language for Windows Phone 7. Like Java, C# is big in the enterprise. However there are considerably fewer C# developers than there are Java developers. But the importance of C# as part of the Microsoft .NET strategy and its support through the Visual Studio tools suite make C# a formidable contender in the programming language race. C# ranked No. 6 on the most-recent TIOBE Index.

C/C++

We know they are not the same language, though C++ builds on C and began as an extension of the C language. Though sometimes viewed as "nichey," C++ is widely used in the software industry. Some of its key application domains include systems software, application software, device drivers, embedded software, high-performance server and client applications, and entertainment software such as video games. C++ has greatly influenced many other popular programming languages, most notably Java. Furthermore, C and C++ ranked No. 2 and 3, respectively, on the most-recent TIOBE Index. 

JavaScript (along with CSS and HTML)

JavaScript is the language of the Web. It powers all of the popular Web browsers and that says it all. JavaScript was ranked No. 11 on the most-recent TIOBE Index.

Visual Basic

Like the BASIC programming language, Visual Basic was designed to be easily learned and used by beginner programmers. The language not only allows programmers to create simple GUI applications, but it can also be used to develop complex applications. Programming in VB is a combination of visually arranging components or controls on a form specifying attributes and actions of those components, and writing additional lines of code for more functionality. With ease of use as a selling point, Visual Basic caught on like wildfire. There is simply too much VB code out there to ignore this language in any list of 10 programming languages. Visual Basic ranked No. 5 on the most-recent TIOBE Index.

PHP

PHP is very popular for corporate applications and for Web design. If you want to be a freelancer it's a good language to know. PHP was designed as a general-purpose scripting language that was originally designed for Web development to produce dynamic Web pages. PHP was ranked No. 4 on the most-recent TIOBE Index.

Objective-C

If you want to make a lot of money, but probably also work on very intense high-pressure projects where risk is often involved—as in a lot can go wrong learn Objective-C. Objective-C borrows from Smalltalk and the C language, and it influenced the creation of Java. Objective-C is used primarily on Apple's Mac OS X and iOS. With the wild popularity of Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, there are simply not enough Objective-C developers out there to meet the needs of users hungry for more apps for these devices. Objective-C ranked No. 9 on the most-recent TIOBE survey, but that is up from being No. 45 in the survey in June of 2009.

Perl

Many say Perl is the new COBOL. Perl is also viewed as "the duct tape of the Internet" and is used to integrate databases and other systems together. While demand for the dynamic or scripting languages such as Perl, Python, PHP and Ruby lags behind that of Java and more mainstream languages, the popularity of these languages is growing and there is a need for programmers in each of those communities. However, according to Indeed.com, the demand for Perl programmers is tracking higher than that for PHP, Python and Ruby developers, in that order. Perl was ranked No. 8 on the most-recent TIOBE Index.

Python

Want to work on the leading edge and build applications for the cloud? Dynamic languages, especially Python, are being used to create Web/cloud applications on frameworks such as Django. Google App Engine is built with Python and originally only supported Python. The advantage of Perl and Python over PHP among the dynamic languages is that while PHP is a Web-only, server-side language, Perl and Python are both general purpose languages with usage in multiple industries, from aerospace and defense to sciences and to financial to hi-tech. Python was ranked No. 7 on the most-recent TIOBE Index.

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming. The popular Ruby on Rails framework has helped to promote the use of Ruby. Since its public release in 1995, Ruby has drawn devoted coders worldwide. In 2006, Ruby achieved mass acceptance. Active user groups have formed in the world's major cities and Ruby-related conferences are filled to capacity. Ruby is used for building Web apps, simulations, 3D modeling, business apps, robotics, networking, telephony and system administration systems among other uses. Companies such as Engine Yard, Heroku and New Relic provide Ruby with cloud hosting and developer tools support. And demand for Ruby developers is strong. As Yehuda Katz, a core Ruby on Rails contributor and an architect at Engine Yard said at RailsConf 2010: "I don't know any Ruby developers who are unemployed."

reference links-http://www.eweek.com

                     -http://www.warriorforum.com

  

iPad Mini ruins Retina chic

iPad Mini First Look: The teeny, tiny iPad-- i read this in cnet news...

Retina iPad (foreground) and recently purchased iPad Mini with 4G/LTE. (Credit: Brooke Crothers/CNET) If the iPad Mini is a Gucci tote bag, the Retina iPad is a Rimowa Topas suitcase.

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IPAD MINI RUINS RETINA CHICImage:

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Retina iPad (foreground) and recently purchased iPad Mini with 4G/LTE.

(Credit: Brooke Crothers/CNET)

If the iPad Mini is a Gucci tote bag, the Retina iPad is a Rimowa Topas suitcase.

Use the iPad Mini for a while, then reach for the Retina iPad. It's a mild shock every time. That extra metal and glass add up.

So, you might ask: wasn't there some way Apple could have made the Retina iPad less like a dense slab of aluminum attached to a great display?

Probably not. The Retina's 2,048x1,536-pixel screen is demanding. The grams begin to pile up quickly when you pack a display assembly supporting 3 million-plus pixels into a 9.7-inch design and then shoehorn in the kind of battery watt-hours necessary.

Related stories

• CNET's iPad 4 review

By comparison, the Mini's low-resolution (very) 1,024x768 display requires a simpler display assembly -- yielding the Mini's ultralight chassis.

And the Mini is no different than any electronic device: more portability means less stuff, i.e., no Retina. Will Apple and its display partners figure out a way to eventually squeeze a high-resolution display into the Mini? Let's hope so.

For now, Retina entails weight. I can only guess what Apple was thinking when they decided to bring out the iPad 4. "Just as stunning, just as heavy!"

It's still gorgeous but the design wrapped around it is anything but chic.

references--(scientific american)

Apple targets Galaxy Note 2, S3 Mini in latest court request

HEY friends this is the important news about APPLE VS SAMSUNG..I read in an article..here is the article

Apple and Samsung continue to hurl gadgets at each other in their seemingly never-ending patent battle. Midweek, Samsung filed a request that the iPad Mini, the fourth-generation iPad, and the fifth-generation iPod Touch be included in a California case set to go to trial in 2014.

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APPLE TARGETS GALAXY NOTE 2, S3 MINI IN LATEST COURT REQUESTImage:

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Apple and Samsung continue to hurl gadgets at each other in their seemingly never-ending patent battle.

Midweek, Samsung filed a request that the iPad Mini, the fourth-generation iPad, and the fifth-generation iPod Touch be included in a California case set to go to trial in 2014. Not to be outdone, Apple responded last night by asking that several more Samsung devices, including the Galaxy Note 2, the Galaxy S3 with Android 4.1, and the Galaxy S3 Mini, be covered by the case.

The last round of tit-for-tat additions to the list of gadgets covered by the case included Apple's iPhone 5, Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1, and the Galaxy Nexus smartphone in conjunction with Google's Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS. The U.S. model of the Galaxy S3 -- which was not yet running Android 4.1 -- was also part of the earlier back-and-forth.

Related stories

• Samsung claims iPad Mini, latest iPod violate its patents
• Judge OKs iPhone 5, newest Galaxy devices for next big trial
• Apple adds Android 4.1, Galaxy Note 10.1 to Samsung lawsuit

Back in August, Apple won an earlier California case, which focused on exterior design issues and not just on what Apple said were similarities to patented software features. This case deals more with software and user interface patents, raising the question of whether Android-maker Google might somehow get pulled directly into the fray.

The case is being overseen by U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal in a federal court in San Jose, Calif.

references-scientific american news(http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=apple-targets-galaxy-note-2-s3-mini-2012)