Stratford youth had inside look at last shuttle launch.

He looked first at the jet-black sky and then peered through the telescope's eyepiece, seeing the image of our nearest planetary neighbor some 49 million miles away. The 16-inch Cassegrain telescope with the 4-inch refractor showed the reddish colors and some of the details of Mars. Stratford's Elliot Severn was hooked.

Severn was just 10 years old when his parents took him to the observatory at Boothe Park in the summer of 2001 to see noted astronomer John Dobson host one of his famous "sidewalk astronomy" lectures. And after Dobson's talk, Severn lined up, with dozens of others, to look through the park's telescope. Not only did he see Mars, but he also looked at the moon, with all its incredible craters, massive mountains and grayish hues.

He hasn't stopped looking since.

Severn is 19 now, a junior to be at Alfred University in Alfred, N.Y. His love of space hasn't ever changed. Severn -- aka, astroholic007 (his Twitter name) -- was one of 150 people to be selected by NASA to Tweet a behind-the-scenes perspective of the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis. It was the 135th -- and last -- launch of the space shuttle program, which roared off pad 39A Friday morning at 11:29 a.m.

Severn was one of 5,500 people who originally signed up for the Tweet-up opportunity back in June and is tweeting for NASA's 1.5 million followers.

"I had forgotten about it, to be honest," Severn said of the sign-up. "I had been trying to get some tickets to view the launch and when it didn't work out, I was kind of bummed. But that same day when I found out I wasn't getting the tickets I got the email from NASA."

At the crack of dawn last Wednesday, Severn flew to Orlando and made his way to the Kennedy Space Center to begin a whirlwind period that had him visit the Space X facilities (and see the Dragon capsule that orbited the Earth last December), speak with NASA associate administrator for space operations, Bill Gerstenmaier, and interview shuttle astronaut Mike Massimino.

Severn got his first telescope when he was nine. It was a 10-inch Dobsonian and he still has it, along with another that he's built. He's seen the moons of Jupiter and the planet's clockwise and counterclockwise swirling cloud bands. He's seen sun spots, the rings of Saturn, the Martian ice caps. He's looked at galaxies, seen stars forming and stars dying.

He will never stop looking at the night sky.

And, yes, he's had the dream, as have so many others, of being an astronaut. And while NASA moves through this transition phase from the end of the shuttle era to a new future, highlighted potentially with a landing on an asteroid or Mars by the late 2020s, Severn feels his best chance to making it to space one day might come from another route -- Space X, for one.

"I know it's unlikely to be chosen to be an astronaut, but with commercial space travel? Who knows?" Severn said. "I'd love to go into space."


Tags: shuttle launch, Stratford youth, 

Maniak Game Dangers In Children

Video games have become addictive because they can entertain someone, no exception for children. But the children who too often play the game would endanger the physical and psychological.

A study ever conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation on 2032 children with ages between 3 years to 12 years about how often kids are playing video games or computer games. It turned out that 73 percent found boys aged 8 years to 10 years on average an hour of game play per day and nearly 68 percent of children age 12 to 14 years of playing games for ages 17 and over.

As quoted from PsychiatricTime, Friday (16/10/2009), the reason for children to play games is like to try something new and to eliminate the stress of school assignments or due to a problem.
But too often bet the game will affect the personality of the child itself, because at the age
of 4 years to 17 years children tend to absorb and imitate everything he sees thus affecting the development of the body.

Especially at this time too many games played by children contain violence, the impact of this game
can mold a child into a rebel, great curiosity towards everything that is forbidden, and has a behavior that is sometimes difficult to accept the community.

One health problem Y is most common in children who like to play the game is a stooped posture or bent, this happens due to irregular seating position in front of the television or computer screen. Besides playing games every day with a long time can cause damage to the joints or skin irritation.

Other problems can also arise such as damage child's vision, this is because of playing too long with the distance of the eyes and the monitor is too close or it could be because the room is dark and the picture is changing rapidly.
And can cause a child to be obese due to lack of activity outside and just sit before the screen only. In addition to physical problems in children, playing games can also cause psychological problems, especially if the child who played violent games.
It could be kids imitating what he saw in real life, so do not be surprised if a lot of violence that occur in children of primary school. Violence in the game more dangerous, since children are involved in these interactions.

Heroes who commit violence in the game was never convicted and tend to be appreciated, so that it can be argued that child abuse is something that is true.
Scientific research proves that children often play violent games tend to be more aggressive.

A child may only play the game, as long as time is limited and the most important thing is the selection of games appropriate for children. And parents should be firm in determining the time playing the game for his son.

Facebook Hacker Hire Reliable

Amazing! Facebook hiring a hacker who managed to penetrate the security system and PlayStation iPhone.

George Hotz (21) has been a software engineer at Facebook since 9 May. He (George) said last week on a Facebook page, "Facebook is a wonderful place to work ... first hackathon is over."

Just a few months ago, Sony won a restraining order herself.
 
A California court ordered Hotz or more familiarly called GeoHotz to no longer publish the secret code Sony. Secret code that is used to protect the Sony PS3.

He (George) was also given ten days to deliver computer equipment to Sony.

Then, Sony announced its intention to seek damages after claiming the incident affect the sales level hacker PlayStation games.

In 2008, Hotz managed to break into the iPhone and post a how-to hack on a blog.

The Daily Mail reported that the success that made George famous is to reveal 'sign in' secret Sony for the PS3 earlier this year.

Amit Hackers Translucent Networks U.S. Senate

One group of ghost-hacker who was behind a series of cyber attacks recently, on Monday (13 / 6), claimed to have been stolen from the internal data network of the U.S. Senate.

The hacker group, which uses the name "Lulz Security", published the details of the document which is said to have been taken from Senate.com, on the Internet at the address lulzsecurity.com.

"This is a small launch that was just the beginning of some internal data from Senate.com - this is a war action, gentlemen!" Lulz Security said in a statement quoted by the AFP - who monitored ANTARA here on Tuesday.

Lulz Security has been claimed to have launched a series of cyber attacks in recent weeks.

The goal includes the operations "online" (in network) Sony, networking FBI partner, networking video game developer Bethesda Softworks and U.S. non-profit networking organization, the Public Broadcasting Service.

There has been no response from the manager of AFP Senate.gov when asked for confirmation regarding the statement Lulz Security. (C003/A011/K004)

Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, Most Expensive Car?

Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, probably the most expensive cars on the planet, with prices reaching £ 1.77 million, equivalent to almost Rp.25 billion but unfortunately the car was not allowed to drive on the streets.

Equipped with a capacity of 5.2 liter V10 engine, Sesto Elemento can reach speeds of 62 miles per hour in just 2.5 seconds. Superpremium car that can also reach a maximum speed of 200 miles per hour.

Unfortunately, with a body made ​​of carbon fiber, the car was considered too light for driving on public streets. As a result, according to The Sun, the Italian manufacturer's cars can only be used in circuit race.

The plan is only 20 units Sesto Elemento manufactured by Lamborghini. Super luxury car that will be available in the market in October.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on Google+ confirmed?

In a rare move, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems to have confirmed that he is, indeed, a member of Google's new social network Google+.

In a report on technology blog TechCrunch, the young social network mogul appears to have confirmed to technology blogger Robert Scoble that the profile bearing his name on Google+ plus apparently belongs to him.

More interesting, however, is Zuckerberg's retort to users' reactions regarding his profile at a rival social networking site.

"Why are people so surprised that I'd have a Google account?" Zuckerberg told Scoble through a text message, calling out social media users who have apparently grown accustomed to tech executives shying away from their competitors' online services.

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the report noted, have chosen not to participate on Facebook as themselves.

Zuckerberg, on the other hand, also has an account on Twitter, another one of its rival social networking sites. But his page was last updated in 2009.

To date, Zuckerberg has 39 people in his "Circles" composed mostly of Facebook employees, such as its chief technology officer Bret Taylor.

Zuckerberg also has on one of his circles Michael Arrington, founder of technology blog TechCrunch, which reported heavily on the smear drive involving Facebook and Google, regarding one of its tools called Social Circles. [See: Facebook caught redhanded in anti-Google smear drive]

Surprisingly, Facebook's CEO has eclipsed Vic Gundotra, the man behind Google+, and founders Page and Brin in terms of the number of people who have them on their own Circles.

As of posting time, more than 21,000 people have added Zuckerberg to their own circles, while Gundotra, Page and Brin have about 13,000, 14,000 and 11,000 users who have added them in their respective circles.

source: www.gmanews.tv

China is trying to buy Facebook

On Thursday, Business Insider reported that China is trying to buy “a huge chunk” of Facebook.

According to the business news website, Beijing approached a fund that buys stock from former Facebook employees to see if it could assemble a stake large enough “to matter.”  Moreover, Citibank is rumored to be trying to acquire as much as $1.2 billion of stock for two sovereign wealth funds, one from the Middle East and the other Chinese.  Business Insider reports a third source, from a “very influential” Silicon Valley investment bank, confirms that Citi is representing China.

Should Beijing be allowed to buy a part of Mark Zuckerberg’s site?  Business Insider tells us there is “little need” for concern about Chinese censors looking at the photos and postings of the 700 million people who trust Facebook with their personal online activity.

First, China’s position won’t be large.  A billion-dollar investment does not buy much influence in a site expected to be worth a hundred times that when it goes public.  Second, Beijing will be acquiring nonvoting stock.  Third, shareholders don’t get the right to look at what’s on the site.  All of these arguments from Business Insider ring true.

Yet they are all beside the point—and there are other reasons to be concerned.  The business site says that “sovereign wealth funds are pretty distinct from their governments.”

Perhaps Norway’s fund is, but not China’s.  The Communist Party, despite three decades of economic reform, insists on its monopoly of political power.  And to maintain that monopoly, it tightly controls its own instrumentalities.  That’s especially true at this moment because the Party is in the midst of the most comprehensive crackdown on society since the 1989 Beijing Spring.  Chinese leaders clearly view social media as a threat to their rule, especially after seeing its force-multiplying effect in the ongoing Arab Spring protests that have toppled governments.

In short, China’s sovereign wealth fund, which is no more independent of the Communist Party than the Beijing municipal government, wants to buy a stake in the world’s most prominent social networking site because Chinese leaders want to control social media.  And they hope to do that as part of their comprehensive campaign to dominate the conversation about China—not just inside the country but around the world as well.

Beijing, during the last decade, announced initiatives to change discourse on foreign university campuses with its Confucius Institutes—now 322 of them—and Confucius Classrooms in elementary and high schools—369 of those.  Moreover, its “go global” initiative is trying to affect news coverage of China by opening bureaus outside the country to internationalize state media, especially Xinhua News Agency, China Central Television, and People’s Daily.

And this is where the Facebook founder is giving Beijing an opening.  Zuckerberg visited China in December and is scheduled to return, perhaps in September, in his bid to access the world’s largest online community, 457 million at last count.

“One big reason American firms stumble in China is that the government tends to favor locals when it comes to regulation,” Business Insider points out.  “One way to make sure that doesn’t happen is to allow the government to own a stake.”

Beijing wants to own stakes in foreign firms because it is trying to control them.  Its ambitions may at the moment look unrealistic to us, but that does not mean swaggering—and strategic-thinking—Communist Party officials do not hold them.

The cocky Chinese are not the only parties deluding themselves.  Zuckerberg, in the words of one reporter, “believes that Facebook can be an agent of change in China, as it has been in countries such as Egypt and Tunisia.”  After the disastrous China experiences of Yahoo and Google and the troubled history of Microsoft there—not to mention Beijing’s recent tirade against foreign social media—the Facebook founder appears both arrogant and naïve.

Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is reportedly “wary about the compromises Facebook would have to make to do business there.”  If she loses her argument with Zuckerberg and Facebook enters China, the company will eventually be subject to demands to censor its sites, those both inside and outside China.  That’s apparently why the Chinese want to own a big stake in Facebook.  They are, in short, looking for control in the long run.  No other explanation is consistent with the Party’s other media and “educational” initiatives.

Of course, a Beijing-influenced Facebook will be hit by even more bad publicity—and inevitably defections.  Other social networking sites will spring up to capture fleeing users.  The genius of America is that its open and broad market eventually punishes the arrogant and the naïve by allowing choice.

So who says MySpace is dead?  Perhaps Rupert Murdoch sold it too soon.

source: http://blogs.forbes.com/gordonchang/2011/07/03/china-wants-to-buy-facebook/

Here are some reasons why Google+ may have what it takes to overthrow Facebook.

1) +Circles: More Privacy Control

Instead of Friends' list on Facebook, Google+ groups a user's friends through +Circles. Google+ users have more control about which groups of friends see a photo or status update, which could give Google+ an edge in privacy control.

"This is really important to us. On Google+, you should be in control of who sees your posts," says Kelly Ellis, a Google engineer, on her Google+ page.

Google+ users can drag their friends into social "circles" they create. They are designed to ensure that the information shared within the group remains private. For example, users can designate circles by "Acquaintances," "Co-workers," and "Family."

2) +Hangouts: Group Video Chat For Up to 10 People

The fact that Facebook currently has no video chat feature has already cause techies to point out where Google+ is ahead of the social networking game. In Google+, up to 10 people can video chat through +Hangouts.

"Whether it's inside a pub or on a front porch, human beings have always enjoyed hanging out. By combining the casual meetup with live multi-person video, Hangouts lets you stop by when you're free, and spend time with your Circles," Google said.

PCWorld has said the built-in group video chat is a feature that Google+ will give Facebook "serious competition" over. It is rumored by TechCrunch that Facebook will beat back the "Hangout" feature by launching a Skype-powered video chat on Wednesday.

3) +Sparks: Decide Who to Share Topics/News With
+Sparks "looks for videos and articles it thinks you’ll like, so when you’re free, there’s always something to watch, read, and share." A Google+ user may see a topic or news that they might only want to share with certain Circles in their social network. Through Sparks, interesting topics can be shared with one person, one Circle or every connection on Google+.

Sparks is basically a re-packaging of the news powerhouse Google News into a Facebook-like and Twitter-like layout.

source: www.christianpost.com

Google Plus threat to Facebook and Twitter

And thus, with Plus, Google owns us whole.

That is, of course, only one way of looking at Google's labour of over one year, when the team guys sat writing codes, eager to make as big an impact in the social media sector as in the mail, search, photo and document storage domains.

This time, they were also hoping to do one better than Orkut, which was literally steamrollered by Facebook in popularity and functionality, and certainly better than its disastrous Wave. The idea, one supposes, was to create a product that would make a mash of its prime competitors Facebook and Twitter and wipe them out. Will Google + do that?

Google + is still in its snooty, exclusive, I-will-call-you-don't-call-me phase, but let us remember that was Mark Zuckerberg's strategy initially as well. Facebook was the privy of exclusive Ivy League schools in the U.S. and the U.K. until the blitz happened. So, invitations are still scarce to come by, not all those in the Plus can extend invitations to friends who are still nonplussed. However, for sure, there are many more being added to my circles every night, nearly thrice the number than I started off with.

But when you are in, you may not notice this; it automatically signs you in on a secure (https) server, significant if you consider the recent controversies over Facebook taking liberties with users' privacy. So far, so good.

Even if you missed that, there is no way you cannot pause at the nearly spartan, neat, user interface. As yet uncluttered in comparison to FB, and only four silos (Home, Photos, Profile, Circles) to click on. Yeah, no games, and thankfully, no Farmville! On the face of it, it is simple; yet, it takes some initially to figure out the Google +. The ‘Stream' is the equivalent of FB's scroll newsfeed, and there are similar options — to share, edit, host photos and videos, and delete them. You can also ‘mute' those annoying conversations on your Stream. Phew! There is also the ‘Sparks' component, which according to Plus, “…looks for videos and articles that it thinks you'll like, so that when you're free, there's always something to watch, read and share.” Your grandpa will approve, it adds, but who is looking for Grandpa's approval rating on social media?

What is utterly out of the box for social media is the ‘Circle' concept. Literally, you can create your own social spheres, including friends, acquaintances, colleagues and contacts in different circles that are more than faintly reminiscent of school-level Set Theory. You can choose who you want to share specific information with, hiving off various groups that may be in conflict with each other: a boss versus someone to whom you are bitching about him.

A thumb tack aids you to transfer multiple persons on to the circles; and every circle you delete merrily jigs away out of the screen. Will subsets of intersecting Venn diagrams soon come to play, where diagrammatic impressions mapping friends who belong to more than one circle? It certainly will jazz Plus up. ‘Hangout' is Google's version of ‘teleportation,' a.k.a. ‘video chat' and is certainly cool thus far.

Mobile Google Plus is adapted finely for Apple's iOS and is functional on the Android platform (tried on HTC phones), but does not deign to work on the Symbian platform (tried on two of Nokia's E-series). Snooty again? Because even as the migration to Android or iOS gathers steam, there are still millions of users on Symbian, and everyone knows the link between Twitter's phenomenal growth and the facility of mobile phones.

Even if you are in, there is the fact that Plus is about a week old. 

tags: google plus, google +, google

source: www.thehindu.com

Samsung Will Preceding Nokia in Segment Smartphones?

Nokia's leadership as the vendors that dominate the world of smart phones over the last 14 years, probably going to end. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., smartphone vendors from South Korea, is expected to replace Nokia's position in the second quarter of 2011.

It said an analysis of Nomura on Monday (13 / 6). In the next quarter to see Apple Inc. Nomura will also shift the Nokia from the third rank.

"In 1996, Nokia launched the Communicator that marked his leadership in the smart phone market. After ruling for 14 years, Nokia will likely release the smartphone crown," said Nomura analyst in a research note.

Nokia has lost the smart phone market segment of Apple's iPhone and Google Android devices Inc., and the low-end segment, Nokia faced a new problem with the proliferation of mobile phones is rapidly growing Asia.

Overall, Nokia is still more to make the phone from the Samsung mobile phones as Nokia has a strong foundation and a more extensive distribution networks in developing countries.

The company (Nokia) switched to software from Microsoft Corp. Symbian platform itself as part of an overhaul of the business set out Nokia's new CEO Stephen Elop in February.

On May 31, Nokia postpone the meeting to discuss the target achievement of only a few weeks after the set, and led to speculation whether the new boss can prove to his promise, as quoted by Reuters.

Toilets at The Same Time Watering

Eddie Gandelman create a urinary channel that accommodates and human urine to plants.

Animal biological wastes, such as feces and urine, actually has a beneficial mineral content. Not surprisingly, both are used for fertilizer plant fertilizer.

There are also scientists who advise us to drink our first urine in the morning. He says, minerals can make the body alive and healthy.

Urine is beneficial. Eddie Gandelman agreed to it. That's why he created "When Nature Calls", ie the channel urinary human urine to plants.
Urine is a lot of phosphorus-containing substances that are beneficial to plants. Through the creation of urinary Gandelman, plants need not always be doused with water, because the urine has been providing mineral water and fertilizer for plants.

Urinary This is best used as public toilets. How it works consist of three steps, hold, filter, and distribute. The way this work has been approved by the professor of toxicology. The results of that process is a clean urine, non-toxic, and odorless, so it does not pollute the environment.

With this urinary, in the future, human biological waste is expected not merely useless, but can also be used so it is more beneficial to the natural environment around us.

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Long-lasting batteries for Android phone

Batteries become a weak point - if you could say that - for mobile phone operating system Android. Because the robot Ijo it must be connected constantly to the Internet for maximal performance. Well, so the batteries do not quickly run out, there are a few tricks such as disclosed Tabloid Kontan.



First, close unused applications with back key.

Second, turn off autosync is in the phone settings. Autosync this will automatically check all the applications we choose to run autosync mode. For example the email that we can set to always download each time. If it is not necessary, just turn off.


Third, turn off the Wifi and Bluetooth when not needed. Both of these services include wasteful power.

Fourth, ensure the application is closed. Even though you've closed an application, not infrequently these applications are still running on "behind the scenes". To check, go to settings> applications> running services.

Fifth, turn off the widgets if you do not need a fantastic view. How, go to Settings> Sound & display and then remove the check on the orientation and set a Animations no Animations.

Sixth, speed up time timeout screen and your phone's screen lighting levels.

Seventh, install the application "battery saver" like Juice Defender.

Mobile phones Play Station Ready This Month Supply

Play smart phone Xperia Sony Ericsson today officially introduced. Play Station phone was ready to be released to the market on 13 February.

According to the joint venture company that, through Facebook page and a number of its ads, Xperia Play will adopt Google's Android as the operating system. This smartphone is also the first smart phone that meets the standard PlayStation Certified.

By this standard, as reported by Sony Ericsson, Xperia Play users can use to order and play PlayStation games for mobile phones as well as for tablet PCs.

Besides memiliiki specification level with the Sony PSP, Xperia Play equipped with multi-touch LCD screen is 4-inches with a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels plus Qualcomm MSM8655 chipset.

Play also marks the launch of Xperia cooperation between Sony Ericsson and Sony PlayStation group holding company for the first time in the field of product development.

Here's a short video Play Sony Ericsson Xperia:

The features and specifications of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play are as follows:

Cellular Network	GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Dimensions and weight	-
LED	LED-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16 juta warna
Screen size	4,2 inci, 480 x 854 piksel - kontrol game dengan sentuhan sensitif - tombol-tombol yang persis dengan Sony PSP - sensor accelerometer untuk rotasi otomatis - sensor proximity untuk mematikan layar secara otomatis
Memory	380MB (RAM) 315MB (storage) memory card up to 32GB
Connectivity	HSDPA ; HSUPA Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA Bluetooth 2.1 A2DP microUSB v2.0
Camera	5 MP, 2592 x 1944 piksel, autofocus, flash LED
Video	Ada, WVGA
OS	Android OS 2.3 Gingerbread
CPU	1 GHz processor
Radio	-
Browser	WAP 2.0 /xHTML/HTML
GPS	Ada, A-GPS support
Fitur	- Java (aplikasi pihak ketiga) - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - Kompas digital - MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player - MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV player - Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk - Integrasi Facebook and Twitter - Voice memo - Predictive text input
Battery	1500 mAh
Price	-

Photobucket users can Fanatic Chance Win IPAD 2

If you include user photo video sharing site, Photokbucet, then be happy. The reason, Photobucket gives users a chance to win every iPad 2. So the official release from Photobucket, Wednesday (06/01/2011).

This is one way of promoting Photobucket unlimited storage to users. Previously, each user who has the freeaccount has only allotted 10 GB per month for bandwidth. Now, it is no longer valid.

Way too easy. Simply promoting it through Facebook, Twitter, and also email. Log into Photobucket accounts and there is an announcement that states now Photobucket provides unlimited access to storage each month. Click on Facebook, Twitter, and email column. Win a chance to have new iPad 2.