measurement of time

The generally accepted units of time, by SI System, go down from a second to millisecond (1e-3) to microsecond (1e-6) to nanosecond (1e-9) to picosecond (1e-12) to femtosecond (1e-15) to attosecond (1e-18) and so on. Whereas in higher units, a second goes up to a minute, hour, day, year, decade, century, millennium and further. This "second" which we are referring right now, is actually the International Second, defined here as, "The second is the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom." This is the generally accepted definition today in global context. However, some cultures have developed unique time measurement systems of their own. Here is one such system used wholly in Nepalese culture before SI System was adopted in their daily schedule:

The day begins when the tiles on the roof of a house can be counted, or when the hair on the back of a man’s hand can be discerned against the sky.
A copper vessel with a small hole in the bottom is so constructed that, when put on the surface of water in a tub, it fills sixty times a day; and each time it fills and sinks, the ghari is struck. The ghari, which is a flat metal plate or gong, is struck regularly in progressive numbers from morning to noon; one, two, three, etc. If the day is twenty-four gharis in length, the striking of the ghari will give the number of gharis from morning till noon; after that, the first ghari struck will indicate the number of gharis which remain of the day till sunset. The same holds good for the night. That is to say from sunset to midnight the gharis are struck, one, two, three, etc., and from midnight the striking indicates the number of gharis still to elapse before dawn.

Here is a quick conversion:
60 bipalas = 1 pala
60 palas = 1 ghari = 24 minutes
60 gharis = 1 day of 24 hours

imagini - visual dna

Surfing through the pages I landed on this site. It is a personality test site, like the ones you have encountered here and there. This site, however provides you a unique and engaging way of learning more about yourself - well, at least in terms of fun! All you have to do is select a photo on each page, which gives in to another page of photos where you pick yet another picture and so on. At the end of the test it reveals your personality. Does not sound any appealing at all - I felt the same at first, but well, why not see for yourself how boring or engaging it can get. And yes, do not forget to check out the WISHES section.

see these strange creatures

These creatures, these creatures and these creatures were made using Photoshop. Yet, these creatures were also created using Photoshop. It is amazing what one can do with Photoshop these days! However, keep in mind that these creatures are real ones.

tricks to save battery power in laptops

We were wating for a team of investors to arrive at the meeting desk. "I'm out of juice", said one of the presenters candidly. The comment was remarked upon by several participants with a series of facial expressions and laughter. Everyone of us knew what she meant - battery power in her laptop had drained out, and as if it weren't already enough, she admitted that she was not used to carrying its power adapter. This might have happened of some of us; and many of us do not carry along the power adapter. What should be done in order to avoid such unpleasant surprises? Here are a few tips - tested and tried - and found to prolong your laptop battery-life a bit longer. Much longer, in fact.

• Power down all non-essential components when not in use, such as wireless card, ROM drives, USB devices and external mouse.
• It is not advisable to watch movie in your DVD-ROM while on the road or during flight, because the spinning DVD-ROM takes up the majority or all of the juice.
• Operate your laptop in room temperature whenever possible, because Lithium-Ion battery doesn't like extreme temperatures.
• Carry a spare battery-pack, just in case...
• Fully recharge and discharge your battery-pack from time to time, especially when going on a journey.
• Minimize the brightness of your LCD screen, the major juice drainer. That should provide you around 45 minutes to one hour of extra usage time.
• Defragment your hard drives once in six months and increase your RAM capacity.
• Cut off the programs running in the background or sitting idly on your taskbar. They tend to use up more processing power. Stop those unnecessary services running in the background if you're an Xp user.
• Clean your battery contacts periodically.
• Do not run many programs at once. Word processing programs use up lesser battery power than a spreadsheet or a graphics program. Keep that in mind.
• Lower the graphics and audio use - such as displaying an animated slideshow or listening to MP3.

Apart from the list above, the real effective one is to create a hardware profile in Xp for situations when you are not jacked in. I'm sure that you can create a hardware profile quite easily, but for folks who need a shortcut - just hit Run from the Start Menu, enter sysdm.cpl, go to Hardware tab and click Hardware Profiles.

the world's largest disk drive

A Canadian group researching advanced networking technology says it is about to test "the world's largest disk drive" - data storage within the light waves of a 5,000-mile fiber-optic loop. Labeled the Wavelength Disk Drive (WDD), the concept promises to provide lightening-fast access to shared data at the same time that it offers a new use for excess bandwidth in optical networks. Bill St. Arnaud, senior director for advanced networks at CANARIE, an Internet research outfit funded in part by the federal government, told that an initial test of a WDD would create several gigabytes of storage within the nationwide fiber backbone known as CA*net 3.

"Today, we use optical networks for point-to-point communication," St. Arnaud said. "You send a (data) packet across and it goes off the end into a computer. What we're doing is putting a packet onto the network and letting it circle continuously around the network. It can got from Vancouver to St. John's (Newfoundland), back to Vancouver ... going around and around the network. With a WDD, he said, "the wavelengths are like tracks on a disk drive, and the routers are like read/write heads." By developing special drivers at the router level, hundreds - even thousands - of computers could access the same data simultaneously without the kind of bottleneck generated when data is served up from a single point on a network. VIA

eyedentification system 7.5

EyeDentification System is an application to perform your retinal scan and identify you. Released by EyeDentify, Inc - the first popular company to research the possibilities of retinal identification. As listed in this page, there are other such companies who are working on not only retinal-scan technologies but also on the topic of Biometrics as a whole.

As described here, biometrics is the the science of using biological properties to identify individuals; for example, fingerprints, retina scan and voice recognition.

brush up your wireless glossary

Is your Wi-Fi's WEP turned on? What's the difference between bluejacking and bluesnarfing? Do you know your SSID? Here are the details behind the acronyms and jargon that is wireless technology with this Wi-Fi glossary from CNN:

ACCESS POINT An access point is the connection that ties wireless communication devices into a network. Also known as a base station, the access point is usually connected to a wired network. Most Wi-Fi networks have a range of up to 150 feet but the access point range can be extended through the use of repeaters, which can amplify the network's radio signal.

BLUEJACKING Bluejacking is a practice of sending anonymous text messages to mobile users using Bluetooth. Phones that are Bluetooth-enabled can be tweaked to search for other handsets using it that will accept messages sent to them. However, a user can avoid these messages by setting their device to "invisible" or turn off Bluetooth when not using it. Bluetooth is a protocol that allows devices such as mobile phones and laptops to send data to other devices, without wires, over distances of about 30 feet.

BLUESNARFING A security flaw in Bluetooth that could allow an attacker to access and copy information stored on a mobile phone without the user's knowledge has been dubbed "bluesnarfing." Any information stored on a phone -- like contact lists or e-mail and text messages -- are at risk in a bluesnarfing attack.

HOTSPOT A hot spot is another name for a Wi-Fi access point or an area where there is an open wireless network. Typically, a hot spot has free wireless Internet access but it also applies to areas with paid access, such as coffee shops or airports.

MAC ADDRESS A MAC address, short for Media Access Control address, is a unique code assigned to most forms of networking hardware. The address is permanently assigned to the hardware, so limiting a wireless network's access to hardware -- such as wireless cards -- is a security feature employed by closed wireless networks. But an experienced hacker -- armed with the proper tools -- can still figure out an authorized MAC address, masquerade as a legitimate address and access a closed network.

SSID SSID is an acronym for Service Set Identifier. The SSID is a sequence of up to 32 letters or numbers that is the ID, or name, of a wireless local area network. The SSID is set by a network administrator and for open wireless networks, the SSID is broadcast to all wireless devices within range of the network access point. A closed wireless network does not broadcast the SSID, requiring users to know the SSID to access the network. Most wireless base stations come with a default SSID that is easily found on the Internet and security experts recommend changing the default SSID to protect your network.

STUMBLER A software program that looks for wireless networks and determines whether the network is open or closed. A well-known example is NetStumbler.

WARDRIVING Wardriving is the term for finding and marking the locations and status of wireless networks. Wardrivers typically use software to determine whether the network is open or closed and a Global Position System device to record the location. A wardriver marks the spot either by using a symbol written in chalk on a building near the spot -- known as warchalking -- or mapping the locations and posting it on the Internet.

WARCHALKING Warchalking is the name given to the practice of drawing symbols in public places to alert others to the location of a Wi-Fi wireless network. The symbols, typically drawn in chalk on a building, indicate whether the network is open, closed or whether it uses encryption.

WEP WEP is short for Wired Equivalency Privacy and it is a security protocol for Wi-Fi networks. Many base stations have WEP turned off by default but users can change that setting. WEP, however, has known flaws that skilled hackers can exploit.

WI-FI Wi-Fi is short for "Wireless Fidelity" and is a set of standards for wireless local area networks based on the specifications known as 802.11. It was originally developed for use by wireless devices and local networks but it is now used for Internet access as well. If you access the Internet wirelessly from your computer or personal digital assistant, chances are you are using a flavor of Wi-Fi.

build a pen-cap submarine

Submarines go up or down based on their buoyancy. That is when they weigh less than the water they displace they go up. When they weigh more they go down. If they weigh exactly the same they float right where they are. Submarines vary their weight by adjusting the amount of air in the ballast tanks. You can use a pen cap and a bit of modeling clay to build a submarine that goes up or down as the amount of air in it's ballast tank shrinks and enlarges.

You need a pen cap, modeling clay, a plastic bottle with a mouth large enough to get your "submarine" through and the bottle cap. (The cap must close air tight on the bottle so that when you squeeze the bottle the water won't come out the top).

1. Make your submarine by putting a ball of clay on the stem of the pen cap. The opening to the hollow portion of the pen cap should be facing down. The hollow portion is your sub's ballast tank.
2. Put the "submarine" in water (clay down so the air is trapped in the hollow portion of the cap) and then add or subtract clay until the "submarine" floats just below the surface of the water. It now has neutral buoyancy.
3. Fill the bottle with water and put the "submarine" into it. The sub should float just below the neck of the bottle. If it falls to the bottom or floats on the surface adjust the amount of clay.
4. Make sure the bottle is full and put the bottle cap on tightly.
5. Squeeze the bottle. This will cause the pressure inside to go up and any gas trapped inside the bottle (like the air inside the pen cap) will shrink. This will change the buoyancy on your "submarine" from neutral to negative and it will sink to the bottom. When you release the pressure the air will expand and the sub will rise.