Experience speed of up to 24 mbps on BSNL Broadband @ Rs 9,999 a month

Re-define your internet experience with BSNL Broadband services. BSNL has announced India’s most preferred high-speed Internet service at a speed of unmatched 24mbps . BSNL is persistently evolving to meet their consumers need and that’s why promises a step ahead from the rest.

SNLs broadband is available via Digital Subscriber Loop (VDSL) Technology. BSNL will provide 16Mbps speed to subscribers at Rs. 4,999 per month and 24 Mbps speed at Rs 9,999 a month .

But there is still a gap as all the people can’t enjoy such a high speed because 24 Mbps broadband will be available only to customers located at a distance of up to 500 metres from the BSNL exchange, 16 Mbps broadband is available to only those residing up to about 1 km away.

Sachin Tendulkar Scored Record 200* in ODI against SA

Sachin Tendulkar, the Little master, created history when he made the highest one day international score, in the process also making a double century.

While most teams struggle to make 200 odd runs in 50 overs, Sachin Tendulkar showed that he could do it alone, and indeed in a dramatic fashion posted a personal score of 200* not out, helping India to go past the 400 run mark, and consequently win the second ODI against South Africa.

In spite of being in the team for almost 20 years, with this innings Sachin has showed that the desire to be the best and play for the country has not diminished one bit. Read more on Sachin Tendulkar, the Master Blaster.

The first double century in ODIs comes after almost 40 years of ODIs being played, including the 60 overs a side matches that were played in the earlier days. These 60 over matches were naturally a batsman's delight as it provided more opportunities to score runs. In spite of that, no one, not one batsman could reach the elusive and highly coveted double century.

The closest to come to the 200 run mark was Charles Coventry, from Zimbabwe, who scored 194 not out, eclipsing the record of Saeed Anwar, who had also scored 194, but 'Was Out'. Saeed Anwar's record of 194 stood for 12 long years, and while many great batsman came close to breaking it, no one ever managed it.

In fact, the Little Master himself came close once, but ended up being 186 not out. It took a Zimbabwean to break the highest ODI score record, and that came in a match against minnows Bangladesh. Sachin, on the other hand, took the best bowling attack in the world apart, and scored at a phenomenal strike rate of well over hundred. His double ton came in only 147 balls, ensuring that his strike rate was also the 'Best of the Three'.

Sachin Tendulkar. A salute to the best batsman in the game.

Low power cellular stations to connect villages

Cellular base stations that consume less power may be the perfect solution for cellular networks to reach every corner of the country. Telecom firm VNL has developed cellular stations that use only about 50 to 120 watts of power, which is low enough to be powered using solar cells and battery. 

Apart from having low power consumptions, the cellular stations can also be made self contained wireless units, which need not be connected to a grid that will be very useful in remote places, reports Thinkdigit. A single such station would be capable of handling hundreds of users, and needs just two people to set it up. The station can be assembled and mounted on a roof top in the short span of six hours. 

The traditional systems not only need a lot of power to operate with the help of a power grid, but also more investment is required. Using these systems, customers have to spend as much as Rs. 250 to Rs. 300 per month on average to gain revenue, which is tough in rural areas, hence they are reluctant to give coverage in these regions. 

VNL says that its system requires only Rs. 90 to Rs. 100 per month per person on average from their customers to make a profit. Currently nearly 50 such stations have been deployed in villages in Rajasthan and there are plans to introduce the technology in Africa also. 

Mobile data traffic 2.4 times faster than fixed broadband

Router and switches manufacturing company Cisco has indicated that mobile data traffic throughout the world will reach 3.6 exabytes per month or an annual run rate of 40 exabytes by 2014. It means that the amount of data traffic traversing the mobile network by 2014 will be equal to about one billion DVDs.

Aaccording to Cisco's Global Mobile Data Forecast for 2009-2014, the rate at which mobile data traffic is growing today is about 2.4 times faster than fixed broadband data traffic around the world. One of the many driving forces behind this growth in mobile data traffic is increase in number of technologically advanced mobile devices such as the Apple iPhone. It is being expected that in the next few years there could be dozens of such gadgets powered by Google's Android operating system. Cisco's researchers estimate there will be more than five billion personal devices connecting to mobile networks by 2014. 


Doug Webster, Senior Director, Cisco said, "The rapid consumer adoption of smart phones, netbooks, e-readers and web-ready video cameras as well as machine-to-machine applications like eHealth monitoring and asset tracking systems, are continuing to place unprecedented demands on mobile networks."

One more reason seems to be the mobile video. Researchers expect that by 2014, that mobile video traffic will represent 66 percent of all mobile data traffic, increasing 66-fold from 2009 to 2014.

1969 Apollo 11 moon landing site given heritage status

Reports indicate that a California preservation panel has taken the unusual step of naming the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing site as a state historical resource.

According to a report in the Express, the vote by the California State Historical Resources Commission is part of an effort by several states to have Tranquillity Base become a national historic landmark and then a world heritage site.

The designation applies to everything left on the moon by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, not the lunar surface.

State Historic Preservation Officer Milford Wayne Donaldson said that similar moves will be made in Texas, New Mexico, Georgia and Florida - the other states highly involved in the Apollo programme.

The Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle set down on the moon's Sea of Tranquillity on July 20 1969, with Armstrong calling to mission control: "Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed."

"In all, there are more than 100 items that the astronauts had to leave behind," Donaldson said.

They include science instruments, tools, rubbish and the spider-legged descent stage of the lunar landing craft.

The astronauts used the upper half of the craft to return to the command module orbiting the moon, which took them home.

NASA to unlock sun's secrets

US space agency NASA is set to embark on an ambitious mission which will try to discover the causes of extreme solar activity, such as sun spots and solar winds and flares.

Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will be launched in nine days' time, reports The Times. With the project's help, scientists will be able to understand solar phenomena - such as disturbances on the sun - and hope to be able to produce reliable forecasts of "space weather" and provide advance warnings of any threat.

The observatory will orbit the Earth at a distance of 22,300 miles, and will measure fluctuations in the sun's ultraviolet output, map magnetic fields and photograph its surface and atmosphere.

Barbara Thompson, project scientist, said: "It is Nasa's first weather mission and it aims to characterise everything on the sun that can impact on the Earth and near Earth.

"We know things happen on the sun which affect spacecraft, communications and radio signals. If we can understand the underlying causes of what is happening then we can turn this information into forecasts.

"The key thing about the mission is that it is not just pure science for its own sake. There is likely to be a direct and immediate benefit for people."

Solar magnetic storms and space weather disturbances have had a number of dramatic consequences over the years. 

New discovery may help end sleeping sickness

Scientists from Vanderbilt University have found a novel way to end sleeping sickness by making parasite that causes it to self-destruct.

They have identified an enzyme that protects the protozoa that cause sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis, and a compound that appears to obstruct those efforts.

"With human migrations, HIV co-infections and the broadening of the host reservoirs due to climate changes, sleeping sickness and other diseases caused by these protozoan pathogens are now spreading around the world, including within the United States and Europe," said Vanderbilt University scientist Galina Lepesheva.

"It is our hope that the results of our work might be helpful for the development of an effective treatment for such protozoan infections, some of which still remain incurable," Lepesheva added.

Lepesheva and her team have focussed their research on trypanosomatidae family of parasites.

"It has been known for some time that T. brucei, the parasite that causes sleeping sickness, consumes cholesterol in its human host's blood to shore up the cellular membrane, and researchers presumed there was no getting around that," said Lepesheva.

"But we suspected the parasite, like plants and animals, still might need to make its own sterols for growth and development-functional sterols - that could be targeted and inhibited," Lepesheva added.

The team chose to attack the parasite's enzyme known as 14DM, "We tested hundreds of compounds as potential 14DM inhibitors. One of them, VNI, was one of the best in terms of killing the parasites that cause sleeping sickness, Chagas and Leishmaniasis," she said.

The team named the inhibitor VNI, short for Vienna Novartis Inhibitor, because it originally was synthesized at the Novartis Research Institute in Vienna.

It binds with the worker enzyme and blocks the enzyme's ability of causing sleeping sickness.

The study appears in Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Wi-Fi rides to wireless networks' rescue

Good old Wi-Fi could be the fix to an impending explosion of data on wireless networks.

Nearly three years after Apple introduced the game-changing iPhone, wireless operators around the globe are feeling the effects of the wireless data tsunami that is well under way. Even networks that don't support the iPhone are feeling the pinch as a generation of new wireless devices offering bandwidth-hungry Web applications are hitting networks.

The result, as many iPhone users in New York City and San Francisco will tell you, is a network that drops calls and offers wireless Net surfing at the speed of a turtle.

Savvy smartphone subscribers with Wi-Fi-enabled devices have already been seeking out Wi-Fi hotspots for their Internet surfing, music-streaming, and video watching. But as more devices, such as the Apple iPad come online and the forecast for wireless data shoots through the roof, wireless operators are looking at Wi-Fi as a way to offload some data traffic from their overburdened 3G networks. And as wireless data is expected to continue to grow rapidly over the next several years, they're looking at Wi-Fi as a part of their long term wireless strategies as well, even as they build out 4G wireless networks.

"The thirst for bandwidth that new devices and applications on the network create far exceeds what 3G or 4G technology can offer," said Jeff Thompson, CEO of TowerStream, a company that provides fixed wireless access using WiMax. "And you can't put the genie back in the bottle."

Data tsunami
Mobile data traffic is growing unabated, largely due to an onslaught of new devices that provide access to a bevy of Web-based applications. Internet infrastructure equipment maker Cisco Systems predicts that by 2014 there will be more than 5 billion personal devices connecting to mobile networks, as well as billions of machine-to-machine devices also connecting to networks.

Wireless data traffic throughout the world has increased by 160 percent over the past year to 90 petabytes per month, or the equivalent of 23 million DVDs, Cisco said in a recent report. And by 2014, that figure is expected to increase 39-fold to about 3.6 exabytes per month (or 3.6 billion gigabytes).

Already some networks are crumbling under the stress. AT&T, the exclusive carrier in the U.S. for the iPhone,reported recently it has seen wireless packet data on its network increase more than 18 times in the last two and a half years. The extra traffic, particularly in densely populated regions, has caused problems for consumers in the way of dropped calls and slow Net access.

AT&T's chief executive of operations, John Stankey, said during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call that during certain periods in some sections of Manhattan nearly 70 percent of the phones active on AT&T's network are data-intensive devices.

AT&T's problems are a harbinger of what's to come for other operators that are just now getting data-intensive smartphones. AT&T has already said it will boost capital spending on its network in 2010 by $2 billion, bringing the total to between $18 billion to $19 billion. The company didn't break out how it would spend the money, but it mentioned plans to add cell sites, increase backhaul capacity, and upgrade its network to the next generation of HSPA. It will eventually upgrade to 4G wireless using LTE technology.

Wi-Fi as the solution
Even with new 4G networks coming online and more backhaul capacity in the network to help open up the lanes of traffic, there will be so much demand that wireless operators are going to need to use every solution they can to address the problem. And this is why AT&T plans to continue investing in its Wi-Fi hotspot network. Today, the company has 20,000 hotspots around the U.S. in retail locations like Starbucks coffee shops, hotels, and airports.

"Wi-Fi is a very important technology for us," said Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T. "And it will be considered as a factor in our network plans in the future."

AT&T subscribers are already using Wi-Fi to offload some 3G traffic. A recent AT&T survey indicates that in the past month 43 percent of smartphone users said they had connected to an AT&T hotspot at least once, Siegel said. In 2009, AT&T consumers connected to an AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot four times more often than they did in 2008.

Momentum is growing. In the first quarter of 2010, there have already been more than 35 million connections to the Net via an AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot. This is up by 10 million over the fourth quarter of 2008, Siegel said. He also pointed out that the majority of these Wi-Fi connections are being made by smartphones, such as the iPhone, rather than laptops. In fact, 73 percent of Wi-Fi connections in AT&T hotspots came from "integrated devices" in the fourth quarter compared with 61 percent for all of 2009.

One of the biggest benefits of Wi-Fi is the fact that it's already in most devices. Laptops come with Wi-Fi pre-installed, and now most new smartphones also come with Wi-Fi built in.

Advances in Wi-Fi technology over the past couple of years have also made it more useful for mobile operators. The latest version of the technology--802.11n--can transmit over longer distances at faster speeds. Multiple radio technology also helps Wi-Fi signals move around corners and better penetrate walls for more coverage.

For example, at a distance of about 500 meters, 802.11n Wi-Fi device can transmit signals at 15.5 Mbps. This is compared with about 5.2 Mbps using the older 802.11g Wi-Fi standard. Compare this with average speeds of 3G wireless, which is about 400 Kbps to 700 Kbps and it's easy to see why consumers would choose to use Wi-Fi when given the opportunity. Wi-Fi is also faster than WiMax, a 4G wireless technology that offers average downloads around 1 to 2 Mbps.

"The newer 802.11n technology changed the game for Wi-Fi," said Selino Lo, CEO of a Wi-Fi networking company called Ruckus Wireless. "It offers better range and coverage. And it offers the ability to service more simultaneous customers, which allows wireless carriers to use it to build much more scalable networks."

Towerstream, a company that specializes in providing wireless backhaul solutions to wireless carriers and large companies, is exploring using its rooftop rights in densely urban areas to create Wi-Fi hotzones. Since the technology today creates larger Wi-Fi hotspots, Thompson thinks operators could extend their Wi-Fi hotspots beyond a single cafe, covering entire downtown areas.

"You can build an 802.11n hotspot that isn't much smaller than some of these cell sites in densely populated urban areas," Thompson said. "It's still a little early for us, but we're talking to carriers to see if there is an opportunity for us to leverage our rooftop rights to help them build out these networks. It's a lot cheaper and easier to install than setting up a new cell tower and it offers a lot more capacity."

AT&T has been the most vocal U.S. carrier to talk about its use of Wi-Fi to help alleviate capacity issues. In fact, during the company's earnings call, when asked how AT&T expected to handle additional traffic from Apple's iPad, an executive said he expected many consumers to use Wi-Fi.

T-Mobile has also been a big proponent of Wi-Fi. In 2006, the company began offering a service for $10 extra a month that allowed people to make unlimited phone calls using Wi-Fi. The company has since discontinued the service when it introduced an unlimited calling plan for all its cell phones, but it still allows subscribers to seamlessly switch to Wi-Fi for voice and data calls on certain phones.

All of its Wi-Fi-enabled handsets are able to switch to Wi-Fi for data. But company executives say T-Mobile doesn't view Wi-Fi as a technology for offloading data traffic, so much as it sees it as a way to extend the T-Mobile network.

Sprint Nextel is also using Wi-Fi to offload some data traffic and to extend the reach of its network. At CES in January, the company announced the Overdrive, a 3G/4G wireless router that creates a mini-hotspot for up to five Wi-Fi devices.

Verizon Wireless seems to be the least enthusiastic U.S. operator over Wi-Fi. For the past few years, Verizon has downplayed the importance of Wi-Fi. And up until recently, it routinely disabled Wi-Fi on many handsests. The company experimented with deploying its own Wi-Fi hot spots several years ago in New York City, turning old phone booths into wireless hot spots. The service never took off, and Verizon dismantled the hotspots. The company was also a vocal critic of many municipal Wi-Fi projects, including the one in Philadelphia.

But in 2009, the company had a change of heart toward Wi-Fi. It announced that some of its Verizon Fios subscribers would get free access to its own Verizon Wi-Fi hot spots as well as to hotspots offered by Boingo as part of their broadband service.

While Verizon sees the value in extending Wi-Fi to broadband customers, the company still doesn't appear to be embracing it for offloading data traffic. A spokesman for the company was not available to talk about the company's Wi-Fi strategy.

That said, Verizon has been very public about its aggressive plans for deploying its 4G network using LTE. The company will be launching some markets in 2010 with more to follow in 2011.

Even though operators may not be talking publicly about their plans for Wi-Fi, Steven Glapa, director of business development at Ruckus, said they are talking to him about deploying solutions.

"Operators are definitely interested in Wi-Fi for offloading data traffi," he said. "The normal process for a tier 1 carrier may take 12 to 24 months to evaluate, test, and deploy new radio technology, but many of the people I am talking to are telling me they need to make decisions much sooner than that."

He said carriers around the world who have had the iPhone the longest are the most eager to expand their Wi-Fi networks for offloading traffic. Glapa said consumers may start seeing more hotspots and hotzones for offloading data traffic as soon as this year. But he expects many carriers to get these Wi-Fi offload networks up and running in 2011 and 2012.

"When you start seeing CEOs talking about capacity issues, that's when you can expect to see some changes pretty quickly," he said. "So I am sure wireless subscribers will start seeing something by the end of the year."

Source: CNET News (Artist: Marguerite Reardon)

Google plans superfast internet

Google plans to build a fibre optic broadband network that will connect customers to the internet at speeds 100 times faster than most existing broadband connections in the US, the company announced on its corporate blog.

"Our goal is to experiment with new ways to help make internet access better and faster for everyone," two Google product managers, Minnie Ingersoll and James Kelly, wrote in the blog post Wednesday. 

They said that Google plans to build and test the network in trial communities around the country starting later this year and that the tests could encompass as many as 500,000 people. They cited 3-dimensional medical imaging and quick, high-definition film downloads among the applications of such high-speed internet access.

"We'll deliver internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fibre-to-the-home connections," the post said. "We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people."

"We're doing this because we want to make the web better and faster to everyone," said Kelly, who also promised that the network would operate on open access network, in which users could choose various internet providers and which would not give preference to any one kind of content. Kelly appealed to local officials who were interested in having their community participate in the trial to contact the internet giant.

The announcement continued Google's recent initiative to expand into market sectors beyond its core web search speciality. In the last year it has made a splash in the mobile phone market with its Android operating system and Nexus One handset, and Tuesday announced a social networking feature aimed at taking on Facebook and Twitter.

While broadband industry incumbents may fear the entry by Google, Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski welcomed the move, the Washington Post reported.

"Big broadband creates big opportunities," he said in a statement. "This significant trial will provide an American testbed for the next generation of innovative, high-speed internet apps, devices and services."

Excessive Internet Use Is Linked to Depression

People who spend a lot of time browsing the Internet are more likely to show depressive symptoms, according to the first large-scale study of its kind in the West by University of Leeds psychologists.

Researchers found striking evidence that some users have developed a compulsive internet habit, whereby they replace real-life social interaction with online chat rooms and social networking sites. The results suggest that this type of addictive surfing can have a serious impact on mental health.

Lead author Dr Catriona Morrison, from the University of Leeds, said: "The internet now plays a huge part in modern life, but its benefits are accompanied by a darker side.

"While many of us use the internet to pay bills, shop and send emails, there is a small subset of the population who find it hard to control how much time they spend online, to the point where it interferes with their daily activities."

These 'internet addicts' spent proportionately more time browsing sexually gratifying websites, online gaming sites and online communities. They also had a higher incidence of moderate to severe depression than non-addicted users.

"Our research indicates that excessive internet use is associated with depression, but what we don't know is which comes first -- are depressed people drawn to the internet or does the internet cause depression?

"What is clear, is that for a small subset of people, excessive use of the internet could be a warning signal for depressive tendencies."

Incidents such as the spate of suicides among teenagers in the Welsh town of Bridgend in 2008 led many to question the extent to which social networking sites can contribute to depressive thoughts in vulnerable teenagers. In the Leeds study, young people were more likely to be internet addicted than middle-aged users, with the average age of the addicted group standing at 21 years.

"This study reinforces the public speculation that over-engaging in websites that serve to replace normal social function might be linked to psychological disorders like depression and addiction," added Dr Morrison. "We now need to consider the wider societal implications of this relationship and establish clearly the effects of excessive internet use on mental health."

This was the first large-scale study of Western young people to consider the relationship between internet addiction and depression. The internet use and depression levels of 1,319 people aged 16-51 were evaluated for the study, and of these, 1.2% were classed as being internet addicted. While small, this is larger than the incidence of gambling in the UK, which stands at 0.6%. The research will be published in the journal Psychopathology on 10th February.

'Ingredients for Life' Present on Saturn's Moon Enceladus, Say Scientists

ScienceDaily (Feb. 9, 2010) — Some of 'the major ingredients for life' are present on one of Saturn's moons, according to University College London scientists.


Cassini captured this stunning mosaic of Enceladus as the spacecraft sped away from the geologically active moon of Saturn. (Credit: NASA)

A team from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory working on the Cassini-Huygens mission have found negatively charged water ions in the ice plume of Enceladus.

Their analysis of data gathered during the spacecraft's plume fly-throughs in 2008 provide evidence for the presence of liquid water.

The spacecraft's plasma spectrometer, used to gather this data, also found other species of negatively charged ions including hydrocarbons.

MSSL's Professor Andrew Coates, lead author of a paper on the latest discovery, said: "While it's no surprise that there is water there, these short-lived ions are extra evidence for sub-surface water and where there's water, carbon and energy, some of the major ingredients for life are present.

The surprise for us was to look at the mass of these ions. There were several peaks in the spectrum, and when we analysed them we saw the effect of water molecules clustering together one after the other."

Enceladus thus joins Earth, Titan and comets where negatively charged ions are known to exist in the solar system. Negative oxygen ions were discovered in Earth's ionosphere at the dawn of the space age. At Earth's surface, negative water ions are present where liquid water is in motion, such as waterfalls or crashing ocean waves.

The plasma spectrometer measures the density, flow velocity and temperature of ions and electrons that enter the instrument. But since the discovery of Enceladus' water ice plume, the instrument has also successfully captured and analysed samples of material in the jets.

Early in its mission, Cassini-Huygens discovered the plume that fountains water vapour and ice particles above Enceladus. Since then, scientists have found that these water products dominate Saturn's magnetic environment and create Saturn's huge E-ring.

At Titan, the same instrument detected extremely large negative hydrocarbon ions with masses up to 13,800 times that of hydrogen. Dr Coates and his colleagues believe large ions are the source of the smog-like haze that blocks most of Titan's surface from view.

The new findings add to astronomers' growing knowledge of the detailed chemistry of Enceladus' plume and Titan's atmosphere, giving new understanding of environments beyond Earth where prebiotic or life-sustaining environments might exist.

Professor Keith Mason, Chief Executive of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), which funds the UK involvement in Cassini-Huygens, said: "This measurement of water ions in the ice plume of Enceladus is incredibly exciting and provides us with further hope of finding water and maybe even life on this distant icy moon."

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a co-operative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.

Recharging your cell phone, nature's way

A new solar cell that imitates nature's way of converting sunlight to energy is making its debut in a variety of consumer products. The technology uses a photosensitive dye to start its energy production, much the way leaves use chlorophyll to begin photosynthesis.

The dye-sensitised cells will be used to provide power for devices ranging from e-book readers to cell phones and will take some interesting forms. For e-book readers, for example, the cells may be found in thin, flexible panels stitched into the reader's cover. But such panels will also be housed in new lines of backpacks and sports bags, where they can recharge devices like cell phones and music players.

The technology, long in development, will work best in full, direct sunshine, said Dr Michael Graetzel, a chemist and professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland. But the cells will also make good use of dappled and ambient light, including the indoor light of fluorescent bulbs, he said.

Most photovoltaic cells are based on silicon or related inorganic materials, not dyes. Graetzel and an American colleague, Brian O'Regan, first reported on the new type of cell in the journal Nature in 1991, and Graetzel said he and other colleagues had been working since then to refine the technology. Now G24 Innovations, a company in Campbell, California, that has licensed the technology, is using it to make solar panels at its plant in Cardiff, Wales, said John Hartnett, G24's chief executive.

Some of the panels will be placed on covers designed as an accessory for Sony e-book readers, said Tobi Doeringer, the director of global sales at Mascotte Industrial Associates, a Hong Kong company that makes bags to carry cameras, phones, sports equipment, electronic games and other products. Doeringer said the covers, costing about $99, would be available by March. The cover supplies the power via a plug in a cradle along its spine.

The panels will also be installed on tennis bags, backpacks and messenger bags that have battery chargers within, as well as on bicycle, golf, shopping and beach bags. Prices of the bags will typically range from $149 to $249, he said, depending on the materials and size of the bag. Owners can plug their phones and music players into the bag for recharging, using a USB cord. The solar panels have 11 cells each, said Kevin Tabor, director of science and research at G24. Wiring goes from the panel to a battery pack in the bag, he said. It takes about six to eight sunny hours outside for the panel to fuel the recharger, he said, but longer indoors.

The performance of the dye-sensitised cells has improved steadily in the laboratory, Graetzel said. "Our dyes and electrolytes have changed," he said, and the cells have become more efficient at converting sunlight to electricity. Within the solar cell, the dye is painted in a thin layer on a porous titanium dioxide scaffold to collect light and, in a series of steps, create power. The cells draw on many surprising sources of light. "We've even had a case where we generated voltage from moonlight," he said.

India says ready to test new nuclear missile within year

India aims to test a new nuclear-capable missile with a range of more than 5000-km (3,100- miles), a top military scientist said on Wednesday, a move that could complicate security in a volatile region.

"Agni-V is out of the drawing board. We are aiming for a flight trial within a year," V.K. Saraswat, India's chief military scientist told reporters.

India successfully tested the Agni-III missile, which has a 3000-km range, at the weekend and is ready to bring it into the military.

BSNL to launch Wimax in rural India by year end

Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) has announced its plan to roll out Wimax services (wireless broadband) in rural India by year-end despite the Rs 1,000-crore project hitting initial roadblocks. "We expect to roll out Wimax services in the rural areas by the end of this year. We have already given advance purchase order to three companies (for required equipment)," a BSNL official told PTI. 

Four bidders were shortlisted for this project but it hit a road block when BSNL's internal vigilance officer put a stay on passing off the project to any one of the bidders. Chennai-based Gemini Communications, Chinese equipment maker ZTE and the U.S.-based Harris Stratex are the three companies which now need to get a security clearance from the the Department of Telecom. The fourth company, Hyderabad-based Vippalamritha Magnetic Components (VMC), has been put under scanner for alleged evasion of duties by its parent company.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has also issued a show-cause notice to Prithvi Information Solution, the parent company of VMC, for the alleged non-payment of duties. "However, since the investigation in this case is going on, no order has been placed at this juncture with VMC,"

Cisco to launch 120Gbps router?

Cisco may come up with a new carrier core router to outpace Juniper's T1600. But it is rumoured that issues with the supporting application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design may delay the Cisco's telco router rollout by up to a year, reports The Register.

The new MSC120 Cisco router will become heir to Carrier Router System (CRS-1) introduced in 2004, according to a bulletin issued from Oppenheimer analyst Ittai Kidron. It will sport speeds of 120Gb/s per slot, and it's intended to one-up Juniper's 100Gb/s router interface card for the T1600 Core Router.

He reckons that the MSC120 will support 12 to 24 slots with a total throughput exceeding 2Tb/s. Juniper claims the T1600, in conjunction with its JCS1200 control system, provides transport scale up to 25 Tb/s.

The analyst claims that Cisco's plans are to announce the MSC120 over the next month, but he says the company recently uncovered design faults with its three-chipset ASIC switching fabric architecture that threaten to delay those plans. "We believe Cisco has recently discovered issues with the supporting ASIC design, which could require a material redesign of the platform," Kidron said. "This could delay product availability until mid-2011."

Soon, Gmail to allow status updates like Twitter

The rising popularity of status updates on Twitter and Facebook seems to have inspired Google. Google will soon allow users to share their status with other connections, just like on all popular Social Networking sites. Even though the news is not official, but the add-on is expected to be added as soon as this week, according to electronista.

The service will be similar to what Yahoo has done with its Yahoo Mail service in 2009, which, for example, alerted users when their friends have uploaded photos to Flickr.

An unnamed informant says the new Google revisions will also allow users to share their YouTube and Picasa content.

Gmail already lets contacts chat in the browser, set away messages and write short messages as their status.

Indian startup to help copy your brain on computers

Now, Swiss scientists and PIT Solution, a little-heard of IT startup in Technopark in Kerala will be working on the Blue Brain Project, the world's first comprehensive attempt to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain, reports Financial Express.

The $3 billion project is expected to be completed by 2018, said Brain Mind Institute of Swiss Federal Institute Director Henry Markram to Financial Express. The project is billed as an attempt to build a computerized copy of a brain - starting with a rat's brain, and then progressing to a human brain-inside one of the world's most powerful computers. It is an international project, propelled by Swiss Federal Institute, and involves several countries
and ethics monitoring by UN bodies. India is yet to be part of the project.


The immediate purpose is to understand brain function and dysfunction through detailed simulations. "The study of rhodent brain has given us a template to build on. This would help in unraveling human brain," says Markram. "The whole idea is that mental illness, memory and perception triggered by neurons and electric signals could be soon treated with a supercomputer that models all the 1,000,000 million synapses of brain."

The key finding is that irrespective of gender and race, human brains are basically identical. "We will be able to map the differentiations by nuancing the patterns later. The exciting part is not how different we are but how similar we all are," says Markram.