IT Happens : November 2002
Monthly News Notice of IT Happenings
Issue - 17

Technology feature of the Month
Airborne computer mouse unveiled

You must have heard about a rechargeable wireless optical mouse but now another mouse has come up which is air borne. Meaning, like all optical mice, it doesn't need a desktop mouse pad. But it also doesn't need a desk. The $79.95 Ultra Cordless Optical Mouse from Gyration, Inc., of Saratoga, California, uses gyroscopic sensors to control the cursor movement as you move your wrist, arm, whatever through the air. And it will do it from 25 feet away. When it's sitting on a surface, the Ultra Cordless functions like most other opticals, with left-click, scroll and right-click buttons. But when you lift it, the usual red optical glow disappears and the gyroscopes take over when you depress a big button on the underside. The best technique is to move the cursor to where you want to go and then release the underside trigger button. The cursor freezes on screen, and you can then click or whatever. Using it makes you seem like you're trying to catch fruit flies in one-handed slow motion, and will probably draw a few curious stares from family or colleagues. Installation involved popping the receiver into a USB port and giving the mouse a nine-hour charge in the supplied charging pod. Beyond the obvious application for those who willfully lay Power point presentations on their fellow human beings, those whose wrists hurt when they mouse ought to give this a look. With a little experimentation you could easily control the cursor by moving your whole arm, or, with the mouse held in both hands, your whole torso.

                                               (Source: CNN News October 2002)

IT Humour

I was just wondering if Microsoft starts giving their Windows XP operating system in Punjabi language :

Start Shuro Karo Ji  
Shutdown Syapa Kato  
Help Maadat  
My Computer Mera Dibba  
My Network places Aas Paas de dibbey  
Delete Daffa Karo  
Trash Mittie Paao  
Fonts Likhaai  
Properties Jaidaad  
Folders Thailay  
The Email items would be some thing like :  
Sent - Sutto  
Forward Aagey sutto  
Subject Khaas gall  
From Bhejan walaa banda  
Attachment Naal laao  
Inbox Under Da daakhana
Outbox Baar Da daakhana

IT Snippets
Text messaging for the blind

A way to enable sight-impaired or blind people to use text messaging has been developed. BTexact has come up with technology that allows users to send text messages to a handheld computer which in turn reads the message to them. The natural-sounding voice can recognize text-messaging shortcuts. If it does not recognize a word, it will read it out phonetically.

       (Source: BBC News November 2002)

Fridge yields e-mail leaves you cold 

The new Multi-Media refrigerator from LG Electronics is nothing less than a full-service, 20-gigabyte-drive PC with a fridge attached. The most utilitarian thing about this wired fridge is that it actually helps you cook. You can search its database of recipes by meal, ingredient, or country, or use its Web hookup to surf  for new ones at your favorite cooking site. And who can resist a little cultural education? The Korean-made Multi-Media even provides nutritional information for foods popular overseas.  With an $8,000 price tag it keeps food cold   too.

             (Source: CNN News November 2002)


Microsoft takes the tablet

After years of development, Microsoft is unveiling a tablet computer controlled by a pen as well as a traditional mouse and keyboard. The software giant hopes the combination of pen input, handwriting recognition and smart screen, which can be written on like paper, will prove popular. The Tablet PC is likely to be used initially in niche applications, such as healthcare or by field service workers, who need a computer more powerful than a handheld but can do away with a keyboard.

                                              (Source: BBC News November 2002)

IT Quiz

Q1.What is the colour of laser beam used in commonly available CD-Drive.?

Q2. At what bit rate your serial mouse talks to your computer.?

Q3. What is MIME.?

Q4. How many tracks are there on a standard 3 floppy.?

Roll-up TV screens to hit living rooms

The year 2005 would yield the first roll-up computer screens       and TVs by creating organic light emitting diodes (OLED). The
first generation of monochrome OLED displays is used in cell phones and razors. As the technology matures it will be used for full-color screens. Hopes for the technology are high because 
polymers that emit light do not require a backlight used for the current generation of flat screen liquid crystal displays (LCDs). It makes them energy efficient and much thinner -- so thin they can be folded. So OLEDs will start replacing current LCD full-color flat screens, which recently started replacing 70-year old cathode ray tube technology.

(Source: CNN News October 2002)

                           (Source: CNN News October 2002)

 

A library to 

A A library to store digital work is born

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is adding to its

online offerings an electronic library for the already vast and

mounting catalogue of scholarly materials born in digital form.

The digital library, called Dspace will be available on the

World  Wide Web and enable data to be stored not just in text

but in video and other formats. The system runs on "open

source" software that was developed in conjunction with

Hewlett Packard Co. That means other institutions can use or adapt the program royalty-free to create digital libraries of their own that could easily be linked to the DSpace consortium. DSpace -- the "D" stands for durable, digital, documents.

 

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is adding to its

online offerings an electronic library 

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is adding to its


mounting catalogue of 

(Source : CNN News November 2002)

IT Quiz Solutions

1.  Usually Red or Orange lasers are used in CD-Drives. There is a new Blue Laser technology from Philips that may soon allow 30 GB capacity in your CD.

2.   Most mouse used today communicate at 1200 bits per second. However some mouse may allow redefinition of this speed.

3.   MIME stand for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension. This is a family of formats that allow any media type; image, text, audio or video to be transferred as mail attachments.

4.  Standard Floppy diskette of 3 carries 80 tracks when formatted normally. Unusual formatting techniques may format it for more than 80 tracks for storing some security information.