Archive for February, 2009

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The Faster Ways To Burn DVD

Friday, February 27th, 2009

The Automatic DVD Duplicators are the latest craze in the market and they are the best possible ways of the media duplication available in today’s world. There are systems which can duplicate upto 30 disks at a time. The capacities of these systems are more than the DVD duplicators in the market which used to be termed as the best. These fully automatic systems can burn around 105 full length disks per hour. The automatic DVD duplicators use the DVD burning software suite and the hard drive can be formatted very easily.

The Automatic DVD Duplicator systems have upto 500 GB of internal storage and no host computers are required to support the system. These systems are fully automatic and the user friendly common interface helps the users of all categories to use the machine with the same level of ease.

Taiyo Yuden DVDs are the best options for the media duplication purpose. The burning capacities of these disks are better than their competitors in the market. The TDVD Yuden have a double coated layer which reduces the number of errors while burning the disks in the Automated DVD Duplicators. If you want to order the DVDs from Taiyo Yuden then you can visit their website and place your order online.

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Aviation GPS Systems

Friday, February 27th, 2009

Garmin 396 is a global position system designed for the aircrafts. This multi feature device is an ideal match for aircraft’s cockpit and also serves as a good navigator for the pilot. Ranked under the category of most reliable GPS systems, it is packed with XM Weather mapping technology, besides, METARs, TFRs, TAFs, satellite imagery and much more. The GPS comes in sunlight-viewable, 256 color TFT screen and incorporated with ultra modern TAWS-style audio terrain alerts. Garmin 396 is full of potential capabilities that give the pilots a wonderful adventure in air through its full Jeppesen aviation database and more than 150 XM Radio stations.

Another GPS model from Garmin is slightly less advanced than the 396 GPS model. The garmin 296 GPS model is featured with “Terrain” mode that gives the pilots with almost TAWS-like warnings, just like advanced 396 GPS model, but truly lacks whopping 150 XM radio stations. Garmin 296 is packed with automotive facility mode that allows the pilot to give accurate directions after landing. The automatic-routing feature similar to the one as seen in the car navigation system also allows the pilot to make the inspection of the land for any crevices or holes. What’s more, the GPS has high-speed 200-Mhz processor that helps in making fast map redraws.

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Computer Based Training

Friday, February 27th, 2009

Every one of us is aware of the importance of the IT. Also the demand for IT professionals is ever increasing ever since it all started. With the demand for IT professionals’ going high there has been neck to neck competition in this field. Meaning you have to be above the rest to keep your job intact. However as you are well aware every now and then there is something new in he computer industry. In order to keep up the pace you need to keep learning the new things. However time is always of major importance and no one can afford wasting time on long courses provided by computer classes.

This is why computer based training was introduced. Earlier this was not everyone’s cup of tea. However we can now afford all this easily, all that you must have a broadband connection and a desktop to learn from. You can now start training yourself with the help of the experts as they provide step by step assistance. The service rendered is of utmost quality and up to date. This means that you can now survive in this cut throat competition world from the comfort of your home. K alliance is a well renowned organization in this business. K alliance has provided assistance to many around the world and continues to.

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Fossils Reveal Truth About Darwin’s Theory

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

With the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin this week, people around the world are celebrating his role as the father of evolutionary theory. Events and press releases are geared, in part, to combat false claims made by some who would discredit the theory.

One frequently cited “hole” in the theory: Creationists claim there are no transitional fossils, aka missing links. Biologists and paleontologists, among others, know this claim is false.

As key evidence for evolution and species’ gradual change over time, transitional creatures should resemble intermediate species, having skeletal and other body features in common with two distinct groups of animals, such as reptiles and mammals, or fish and amphibians.

These animals sound wild, but the fossil record - which is far from complete - is full of them nonetheless, as documented by Occidental College geologist Donald Prothero in his book “Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters” (Columbia University Press, 2007). Prothero discussed those fossils last month at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, along with transitional fossils that were announced since the book was published, including the “fishibian” and the “frogamander.”

At least hundreds, possibly thousands, of transitional fossils have been found so far by researchers. The exact count is unclear because some lineages of organisms are continuously evolving.

Here is a short list of transitional fossils documented by Prothero and that add to the mountain of evidence for Charles Darwin’s theory. A lot of us relate most to fossils of life closely related to humans, so the list focuses on mammals and other vertebrates, including dinosaurs.

Mammals, including us

  • It is now clear that the evolutionary tree for early and modern humans looks more like a bush than the line represented in cartoons. All the hominid fossils found to date form a complex nexus of specimens, Prothero says, but Sahelanthropus tchadensis, found in 2001 and 2002, threw everyone for a loop because it walked upright 7 million years ago on two feet but is quite chimp-like in its skull size, teeth, brow ridges and face. It could be a common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees, but many paleoanthropologists will remain unsure until more fossils are found. Previously, the earliest ancestor of our Homo genus found in the fossil record dated back 6 million years.
  • -Most fossil giraffes have short necks and today’s have long necks, but anatomist Nikos Solounias of the New York Institute of Technology’s New York College of Osteopathic Medicine is preparing a description of a giraffe fossil, Bohlinia, with a neck that is intermediate in length.
  • Manatees, also called sea cows, are marine mammals that have flippers and a down-turned snout for grazing in warm shallow waters. In 2001, scientists discovered the fossil of a “walking manatee,” Pezosiren portelli, which had feet rather than flippers and walked on land during the Eocene epoch (54.8 million years ago to 33.7 million years ago) in what is now Jamaica. Along with skull features like manatees (such as horizontal tooth replacement, like a conveyor belt), it also had heavy ribs for ballast, showing that it also had an aquatic lifestyle, like hippos.
  • Scientists know that mastodons, mammoths and elephants all share a common ancestor, but it gets hard to tell apart some of the earliest members of this group, called proboscideans, going back to fossils from the Oligocene epoch (33.7 million years ago to 23.8 million years ago). The primitive members of this group can be traced back to what Prothero calls “the ultimate transitional fossil,” Moeritherium, from the late Eocene of Egypt. It looked more like a small hippo than an elephant and probably lacked a long trunk, but it had short upper and lower tusks, the teeth of a primitive mastodon and ear features found only in other proboscideans.
  • The Dimetrodon was a big predatory reptile with a tail and a large sail or fin-back. It is often mistaken for a dinosaur, but it’s actually part of our mammalian lineage and more closely related to mammals than reptiles, which is seen in its specialized teeth for stabbing meat and skull features that only mammals and their ancestors had. It probably moved around like a lizard and had a jawbone made of multiple bones, like a reptile.

Dinosaurs and birds

  • The classic fossil of Archaeopteryx, sometimes called the first bird, has a wishbone (fully fused clavicle) which is only found in modern birds and some dinosaurs. But it also shows impressions from feathers on its body, as seen on many of the theropod dinosaurs from which it evolved. Its body, capable of flight or gliding, also had many of dinosaur features - teeth (no birds alive today have teeth), a long bony tail (tails on modern birds are entirely feathers, not bony), long hind legs and toes, and a specialized hand with long bony fingers (unlike modern bird wings in which the fingers are fused into a single element), Prothero said.
  • Sinornis was a bird that also has long bony fingers and teeth, like those seen in dinosaurs and not seen in modern birds.
  • Yinlong is a small bipedal dinosaur which shares features with two groups of dinosaurs known to many kids - ceratopsians, the beaked dinosaurs like Triceratops, and pachycephalosaurs, known for having a thick dome of bone in their skulls protecting their brains. Yinlong has the thick rostral bone that is otherwise unique to ceratopsians dinosaurs, and the thick skull roof found in the pachycephalosaurs.
  • Anchisaurus is a primitive sauropod dinosaur that has a lot of lizard-like features. It was only 8 feet long (the classic sauropods later on could be more than 100-feet long), had a short neck (sauropods are known for their long necks, while lizards are not), and delicate limbs and feet, unlike dinosaurs. Its spine was like that of a sauropod. The early sauropods were bipedal, while the latter were stood on all fours. Anchisaurus was probably capable of both stances, Prothero wrote.

Fish, frogs, turtles

  • Tiktaalik, aka the fishibian or the fishapod, is a large scaled fish that shows a perfect transition between fins and feet, aquatic and land animals. It had fish-like scales, as well as fish-like fin rays and jaw and mouth elements, but it had a shortened skull roof and mobile neck to catch prey, an ear that could hear in both land and water, and a wrist joint that is like those seen in land animals.
  • Last year, scientists announced the discovery of Gerobatrachus hottorni, aka the frogamander. Technically, it’s a toothed amphibian, but it shows the common origins of frogs and salamanders, scientists say, with a wide skull and large ear drum (like frogs) and two fused ankle bones as seen in salamanders.
  • A creature on the way to becoming a turtle, Odontochelys semistestacea, swam around in China’s coastal waters 200 million years ago. It had a belly shell but its back was basically bare of armor. Odontochelys had an elongated, pointed snout. Most modern turtles have short snouts. In addition, the roof of its mouth, along with the upper and lower jaws, was equipped with teeth, which the researchers said is a primitive feature for turtles whose mugs are now tipped with beaks but contain no teeth.

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Scientists use fruit fly to screen for lethal brain cancers

Friday, February 13th, 2009

Researchers have turned the fruit fly into a lab model for an innovative study of gliomas, the commonest of malignant brain tumours, since the insect shares most of the genes with humans.

“Gliomas are a devastating disease but we still know very little about the underlying disease process,” explained John B. Thomas, professor in the molecular neurobiology lab of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and senior co-author of the study.

“We can now use the power of Drosophila genetics to uncover genes that drive these tumours and identify novel therapeutic targets, which will speed up the development of effective drugs.”

Better models for research into human gliomas are urgently needed. Last year alone, about 21,000 people in US were diagnosed with brain and nervous system cancers, Senator Edward M. Kennedy the most famous among them.

About 77 percent of malignant brain tumours are gliomas and their prognosis is usually bleak. While they rarely spread to elsewhere in the body, cancerous glial cells quickly infiltrate the brain and grow rapidly, which renders them largely incurable even with current therapies.

Gliomas originate in brain cells known as “glia” and are categorised into subtypes based on how aggressive they appear, with glioblastoma being the most common and most aggressive form of glioma.

Like most cancers, gliomas arise from changes in a person’s DNA that accumulate over a lifetime. Most, if not all human glioblastomas carry mutations that activate the EGFR-Ras and PI-3K signalling pathways. Such mutations are also thought to play a key role in developing drug resistance.

Salk researchers are now using their fly model to search for genes and drugs that might block EGFR/PI-3K-associated brain tumours, said a Salk Institute release.

The drug tests are being done with co-authors Webster Cavenee, porfessor and associate professor Frank Furnari, both experts in brain tumour biology at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University of California, San Diego.

These findings were published in the current edition of the Public Library of Science Genetics.

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Gameworld: NBA All-Star brings users onto the court

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

Imagine playing around with an NBA videogame and creating a custom jersey for your virtual NBA players to wear on the court.

Now imagine having that virtual jersey worn by some of the biggest names in the NBA on the real hardwoods of the US Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona during the 57th NBA All-Star weekend.

For 18-year-old gamer Tim Ahmed from East Meadow, Long Island, this will become reality when the NBA All-Star Rookie and Sophomore teams take the court February 13 during the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam.

The purple All-Star jerseys donned by the likes of Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant and Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose were created by Ahmed using a videogame and he won the inaugural EA Sports’ NBA Live 09 Jersey Creator Contest.

While creating custom players and jerseys to be worn within sports videogames has been the norm for years, this contest marks the first time that a pro sports league has opened up its uniforms to gamers.

“I’m really excited about the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that has been given to one of our fans, Tim Ahmed, having his NBA Live 09 jersey creation actually worn by the players,” said Jeff Roth, marketing director of basketball, EA Sports.

According to Vicky Picca, senior vice president, Licensing & Business Affairs for the NBA, 85 percent of NBA players are avid videogamers.

This is one reason why the league is one of the few that awards licenses to multiple game makers — something the NFL, PGA TOUR, NASCAR and FIFA do not do.

“Videogames are very popular in the NBA,” said Boston Celtics All-Star Kevin Garnett, who’s on the cover of 2K Sports’ NBA 2K9. “A lot of our young guys play the games, whether it’s at home, on the planes or on the road.”

Game publishers are taking advantage of that popularity by further integrating videogames into the weekend events.

Take-Two Interactive is a sponsor for both the NBA All-Star Balloting and the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game, EA Sports is a sponsor for the new NBA All-Star Block Party and Sony Computer Entertainment sponsors the PlayStation Skills Challenge and the NBA Official Players’ Lounge at the downtown Sheraton Phoenix.

In addition to having NBA 09, NBA Live 09 and NBA 2K9 available for fans to play on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii throughout the NBA Jam Session and the free Block Party, the weekend will also offer three videogame competitions.

Fans who can’t make it out to Phoenix can partake in the NBA All-Star Game virtually while EA Sports is offering soldiers overseas the chance to play NBA Live 09 against Phoenix Suns star Shaquille O’Neal via Xbox Live on Sunday.

Soldiers stationed overseas will be able to see O’Neal through Xbox Live Vision video cameras as they play one-on-one on the virtual court.

The new technology allows real NBA player stats to be regularly updated to the videogames — further blurring the line between the real and virtual worlds.

“When I was growing up in France, videogames were the only way for us to get information on the NBA players,” said Tony Parker, San Antonio Spurs All-Star and cover athlete for EA Sports’ NBA Live 09.

In 2008, NBA videogame sales accounted for $178 million in the U.S. alone, according to The NPD Group, down from $199 million NBA games hauled in 2006.

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Markets close marginally lower

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

Indian equities markets slipped Wednesday, with a key index closing marginally 0.3 percent lower than its previous close.

The sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 9,462.14 points, lost 28.93 points or 0.3 percent to close at 9,618.54 points (provisional).

At the same time, the S&P CNX Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) moved slightly upwards 0.05 percent to close at 2,934.50 points.

The BSE midcap index was up 0.37 percent, while the BSE smallcap index gained 0.25 percent over its previous close.

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How does EFT work?

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

EFT is one of the most modern as well as one of the most convenient payment modes that are available to us these days. The EFT is an amazing way of getting transactions and also paying. This is indeed a very useful as well as convenient way of payments. EFT Payment along with eChecks and ACH Processing are some of the most well known and some of the most sought after payment modes available. In case you have selected the ACH Debit as the payment method then you can utilize the following procedures.

Firstly you have to promptly determine all the fields of data and later you have to report on the various preprinted tax returns exactly for the tax you are needed to pay. This payment however includes the tax type that you have as well as the tax period for which you report.

Secondly you have to very carefully review all the instructions that are shown in the user guide of the particular EFT Debit that you use and also for the type of tax you need to pay.

Using EFT Payment you will be able to get faster verifications of your account status without even needing any kind of a shopping cart that is used to process online checks

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Tests Gauge Alzheimer’s Patients’ Ability to Drive

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

The loss of driving privileges can be a blow to a person’s independence, including people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Now, new cognitive tests may help doctors determine whether people with the illness are fit to drive.

University of Iowa researchers studied 40 drivers with early Alzheimer’s disease and 115 elderly drivers with no diagnosis of dementia. All the participants completed a series of lab tests that measured thinking, movement and visual skills, and they also took a 35-mile driving test in and outside the city. A driving expert reviewed videos of the road tests and noted any driving safety errors.

The drivers with Alzheimer’s committed an average of 42 safety mistakes, 27 percent more than the average of 33 safety errors made by those without Alzheimer’s. Drivers with Alzheimer’s who did better on the cognitive tests made fewer on-road safety mistakes, the team found.

Lane violations were the most frequent mistakes made by all participants. For every five years older the driver was, the number of safety errors increased by about 2.5, whether or not they had Alzheimer’s.

The study is published in the Feb. 10 issue of Neurology.

“The number of people with dementia is increasing as our population ages, and we will face a growing public health problem of elderly drivers with memory loss,” study author Jeffrey Dawson noted in an American Academy of Neurology news release.

“The goal is to prevent crashes while still maximizing patients’ rights and freedom to be mobile. By measuring driver performance through off-road tests of memory, visual and motor abilities, we may be able to develop a standardized assessment of a person’s fitness to drive,” he said.

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Five Reasons the iPhone Trumps the Kindle

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

I’m an e-book fan from way back. Ever since my trusty Pilot 5000 rescued me from terminal boredom on a seemingly endless train ride, I’ve made sure to keep my current pocket companion (be it PDA or smartphone) stocked with a good book or two.

And I’ve never had a better e-book experience than with the iPhone. Sure, my editor Robert Strohmeyer is all pumped up over the new Amazon Kindle, but if he thinks it can beat the iPhone in a head-to-head match, he’s delusional. Much as I’m glad to see Kindle selling like hotcakes (turns out people still like books after all!), the iPhone trumps it at almost every turn. Here’s why:

1. Duh: It’s a phone. The Kindle is a single-purpose device. Make no mistake: It’s great at what it does, or so I’ve been told. (Confession: I’ve never actually used one.) But my iPhone, well, do I really need to list all the things it can do? Last I checked, the Kindle doesn’t offer maps, music, video, games, e-mail, Web browsing, or, gee, a telephone.

2. It fits in my pocket. While the new Kindle 2 is undeniably sexy (unlike its predecessor, which was undeniably butt-ugly), it’s still too big to fit in a pocket. Or ride shotgun on a belt. My iPhone goes where I go, and does so with ease. The Kindle is something extra I have to remember to bring, and, unlike Robert, I don’t routinely carry a purse. Where am I supposed to put the thing?

3. It has a backlit screen. I like to read in bed. ‘Nuff said. 4. It can download books (and more) on the fly. The original Kindle scored well-deserved points for its wireless connectivity: Users can shop Amazon’s bookstore and download new purchases on the fly–no PC required. Well, guess what? iPhone e-book apps like eReader and Stanza can do likewise. You can get commercial titles from the likes of Dan Brown and Stephanie Meyer and thousands of freebies from Project Gutenberg and other sources. Even voracious readers will find an endless supply of material. And need I mention that an iPhone can also download music, podcasts, apps, and more?

5. One day soon, it’ll gain access to the Kindle bookstore. Amazon didn’t announce it today, but I’m guessing it won’t be long before there’s a Kindle app for the iPhone. It’s a no-brainer: iTunes still doesn’t sell e-books, so there’s no competition from Apple. Meanwhile, Amazon can tap a huge installed base of iPhone and iPod Touch users. It’s easy money for them.

So there you have it: five slam-dunk reasons the iPhone wins the e-book challenge. Robert will point to the Kindle’s lower book prices and total cost of ownership ($359 out the door, versus $199/$299 for an iPhone plus $70 monthly…forever), but don’t forget point #1: The iPhone is way more than an e-book viewer. And for $229 you can get an iPod Touch with nearly all the same capabilities, but no monthly fees.

What would it take for me, a longtime lover of e-books, to buy a Kindle? A lower price. A pocket-friendly design. (Does an e-book reader really need a full QWERTY keyboard? Um, no.) A backlit screen. Hmm…sounds a lot like the device I’m already carrying.

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