Monday, September 22, 2008

Recreation of Big Bang (What gonna Happen)

Scientists have hailed a successful switch-on for an enormous experiment which will recreate the conditions a few moments after the Big Bang.

They have now fired two beams of particles called protons around the 27km-long tunnel which houses the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The £5bn machine on the Swiss-French border is designed to smash protons together with cataclysmic force.

Scientists hope it will shed light on fundamental questions in physics.

The first - clockwise - beam completed its first circuit of the underground tunnel at just before 0930 BST. The second - anti-clockwise - beam successfully circled the ring after 1400 BST.


CMS (Cern/M. Hoch)
The LHC has been in construction for some 13 years
So far, all the beams have been stopped, or "dumped", after just a few circuits.

On Thursday, engineers hoped to inject clockwise and anti-clockwise protons again, but this time they plan to "close the orbit", letting the beams run continuously for a few seconds each.

The BBC understands that low-energy collisions could happen in the next few days. This will allow engineers to calibrate instruments, but will not produce data of scientific interest.

"There it is," project leader Lyn Evans said when the beam completed its lap. There were cheers in the control room when engineers heard of the successful test.


He added later: "We had a very smooth start-up."

The LHC is arguably the most complicated and ambitious experiment ever built; the project has been hit by cost overruns, equipment trouble and construction problems. The switch-on itself is two years late.

The collider is operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research - better known by its French acronym Cern.

The vast circular tunnel - or "ring" - which runs under the French-Swiss border contains more than 1,000 cylindrical magnets arranged end-to-end.

The magnets are there to steer the beam around this vast circuit.

Eventually, two proton beams will be steered in opposite directions around the LHC at close to the speed of light, completing about 11,000 laps each second.

At allotted points around the tunnel, the beams will cross paths, smashing together near four massive "detectors" that monitor the collisions for interesting events.

Scientists are hoping that new sub-atomic particles will emerge, revealing fundamental insights into the nature of the cosmos.

Major effort

"We will be able to see deeper into matter than ever before," said Dr Tara Shears, a particle physicist at the University of Liverpool.

"We will be looking at what the Universe was made of billionths of a second after the Big Bang. That is amazing, that really is fantastic."

The LHC should answer one very simple question: What is mass?

"We know the answer will be found at the LHC," said Jim Virdee, a particle physicist at Imperial College London.

The favoured model involves a particle called the Higgs boson - dubbed the "God Particle". According to the theory, particles acquire their mass through interactions with an all-pervading field carried by the Higgs.

The latest astronomical observations suggest ordinary matter - such as the galaxies, gas, stars and planets - makes up just 4% of the Universe.

The rest is dark matter (23%) and dark energy (73%). Physicists think the LHC could provide clues about the nature of this mysterious "stuff".

But Professor Virdee told BBC News: "Nature can surprise us... we have to be ready to detect anything it throws at us."

Full beam ahead

Engineers injected the first low-intensity proton beams into the LHC in August. But they did not go all the way around the ring.

Technicians had to be on the lookout for potential problems.

Steve Myers, head of the accelerator and beam department, said: "There are on the order of 2,000 magnetic circuits in the machine. This means there are 2,000 power supplies which generate the current which flows in the coils of the magnets."

If there was a fault with any of these, he said, it would have stopped the beams. They were also wary of obstacles in the beam pipe which could prevent the protons from completing their first circuit.

Superconducting magnet (Cern/M. Brice)
Superconducting magnets are cooled down using liquid helium

Mr Myers has experience of the latter problem. While working on the LHC's predecessor, a machine called the Large-Electron Positron Collider, engineers found two beer bottles wedged into the beam pipe - a deliberate, one-off act of sabotage.

The culprits - who were drinking a particular brand that advertising once claimed would "refresh the parts other beers cannot reach" - were never found.

In order to get both beams to circulate continuously, engineers will "close the orbit". The beams themselves are made up of several "packets" - each about a metre long - containing billions of protons.

The protons would disperse if left to their own devices, so engineers use electrical forces to "grab" them, keeping the particles tightly huddled in packets.

Once the beams are captured, the same system of electrical forces is used to give the particles an energetic kick, accelerating them to greater and greater speeds.

Long haul

The idea of the Large Hadron Collider emerged in the early 1980s. The project was eventually approved in 1996 at a cost of 2.6bn Swiss Francs, which amounts to about £1.3bn at present exchange rates.

However, Cern underestimated equipment and engineering costs when it set out its original budget, plunging the lab into a cash crisis.

Cern had to borrow hundreds of millions of euros in bank loans to get the LHC completed. The current price is nearly four times that originally envisaged.

During winter, the LHC will be shut down, allowing equipment to be fine-tuned for collisions at full energy.

"What's so exciting is that we haven't had a large new facility starting up for years," explained Dr Shears.

"Our experiments are so huge, so complex and so expensive that they don't come along very often. When they do, we get all the physics out of them that we can."

Engineers celebrated the success with champagne, but a certain brand of beer was not on the menu.


Sunday, September 7, 2008

How to remove Trojan downloader utility with all its sins

SmitFraudFix is a tool created to remove various desktop hijackers, adware and malware installed by Zlob family of trojans.


Operating System:
Windows 2000/XP

License:
Freeware

Download Here:
SmitFraudFix v2.250

Removal Procedure:

Important: Please print this procedure or download and print the PDF version as we have to close open windows during the process later.

1. Download SmitFraudFix by SiRi and save to your Desktop

2. Reboot your computer in SafeMode.

  • Restart your computer
  • Just before the computer begins to startup and before loading Windows press F8
  • A selection menu should appear
  • Select the line that says “Safe Mode”
  • At logon prompt, log in as the usual user.
  • During Windows Start process it will prompt you if you would like to continue running in SafeMode, press Yes
  • You should now see your Desktop but in a low resolution mode only.
  • Make sure no other application or windows is open.

3. Double-click on the Smitfraudfix.exe file which you downloaded earlier on your desktop. Press any key when the credit screen displays to proceed to removal procedure.

4. A selection menu will be displayed as shown in image below.

5. Press 2 on your keyboard, then Enter, to execute the selection - Clean (SafeMode Recommended)
6. It will begin to scan and clean your system thoroughly.
7. After that process, it will then run a Disk Cleanup tool to remove any unwanted files on your computer. It may take some time to complete this process.

8. After Disc Cleanup, it will show another prompt:

Do you want to clean the registry? (y/n). Press the Y button and then press the Enter to begin cleaning your registry.

9. This tool will also check if your wininet.dll is infected and will prompt:
Replace infected file? Press Y and then Enter to replace you wininet.dll with the clean version.

10. A reboot may be needed to complete the process. It will reboot your computer automatically, if not please restart your computer manually.

11. It will generate the report that can be found at the root of the system drive, usually at C:\rapport.txt. Keep this log file for your future reference.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Nokia Morph

Nokia has launched a mobile device called "MORPH" which is actually working on "Nanotechnology" by which nokia is able to make a mobile device stretchable and flexible, allowing the user to transform their mobile device into radically different shapes.

By "Nanotechnology" they are able to transform 10,000 transistors on a single fly's hair.

So have a look....

Nokia and University of Cambridge launch the Morph - a nanotechnology concept device
February 25, 2008

New York, US and Espoo, Finland - Morph, a joint nanotechnology concept, developed by Nokia Research Center (NRC) and the University of Cambridge (UK) - was launched today alongside the "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition, on view from February 24 to May 12, 2008, at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Morph features in both the exhibition catalog and on MoMA's official website.

Morph is a concept that demonstrates how future mobile devices might be stretchable and flexible, allowing the user to transform their mobile device into radically different shapes. It demonstrates the ultimate functionality that nanotechnology might be capable of delivering: flexible materials, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces. Dr. Bob Iannucci, Chief Technology Officer, Nokia, commented: "Nokia Research Center is looking at ways to reinvent the form and function of mobile devices; the Morph concept shows what might be possible".
For further information, please visit the websites www.moma.org/elasticmind and http://www.nokia.com/A4126514
Photos are available on www.nokia.com/press -> Photos -> Corporate - Research and Development.
About Nokia Research Center
Nokia Research Center (NRC) looks beyond Nokia's existing business and product development to challenge current strategies and to stimulate renewal in the company's direction. Working closely with all Nokia business units, NRC's research explores new frontiers in digital services, physical-digital connections, human interaction, data and content technologies, device architecture, and access and connectivity. NRC promotes open innovation by working on research projects in collaboration with universities and research institutes around the world. For more information, see our website: http://research.nokia.com

Future shaping with Morph by Nokia

If you have accidentally felt that you may be riding the tech wave with your super latest high tech gadget, Nokia might just be able to prove you wrong. Nokia Research Center and the University of Cambridge (UK) have put a lot of effort into creating the Morph.

Nokia Morph Nokia Morph
Nokia Morph open

The Morph is mobile handset indeed, but there's more to it. It's a nanotechnology-driven concept device, which is on display at the New York Museum of Modern Art for a taster of the time when today's super gadgets will be museum exhibits of prehistoric knowledge.

The Morph is a concept that shows what nanotechnology can bring to mobile devices: flexible materials, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces. Stretchable and foldable, transformable to any shape a user can think of, Morph is the ultimate transformers gadget changing its shape according to the user's wishes. One day you have a bracelet, the next - you are up with a QWERTY device for messaging.

Nokia Morph Nokia Morph
Nokia Morph

With Morph the door is just ajar and it will be years before some of the innovations it explores will start to appear in actual high-end handsets

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Backup of Bookmarks in Firefox

Bookmark Backup is a simple extension that helps to keep your bookmarks (and optionally other Firefox settings) safe. Each time Firefox is closed, a copy of your bookmarks file will be made to a backup location. If Firefox's bookmarks become corrupted or lost, find the most recent uncorrupted backup and copy it into your profile folder. By default the backups can be found in the Backups folder inside Firefox's profile folder, though this location can be changed in Bookmark Backup's Options dialog.

Note: Firefox 1.5 (and later) makes its own backup of your bookmarks.

  1. Close Firefox.
  2. Find the Backups folder in your profile folder (or in your custom backup location, if configured).
  3. Go into the sub-folder from yesterday (don't use today's backup, it will be corrupted). Copy whichever files you wish to restore into your profile folder.
  4. Restart Firefox.

If you have any problem with this and don't know how to perform any of these steps please feel free to e-mail me and I'll try to walk you through them.


Google trying to step a head

Google_Chrome_Logo-350.jpg

For those eager to download the beta version of Google's Chrome Web browser the best they can do for now is ponder the official screenshots of the browser. The availability of the beta Google Chrome browser is expected later today.

If the screenshots aren't enough for you there is also the Google Chrome comic book that explains what Google Chrome is and why it was developed.

As of this writing the Google comic book on Chrome appears to be overwhelmed and is not accessible. For an alternate browse of the Google Comic book check out this reprint at Google Books.

For background on Google Chrome check out earlier Today@PCWorld coverage.

Here are some of the screenshots taken from Google's official Google Chrome Web page (which appears to be inactive right now).


chrome_screen_01-small.jpg

Here are the screenshots as they appeared on the Google Chrome site's front page. Note the site is not accessible right now with many speculating the official download will be available to the public at 2pm ET.

google_chrome_screen_03.jpg
Screenshot shows Google Calendar and a pop-up window asking if you if you'd like to "Create shortcuts in the following locations." This seems to reinforce Google's drive to blur the line between Web-based applications and desktop applications.

google_chrome_screen_04.jpg
Here is a close up of browser tabs utilized in Google Chrome. It appears that Chrome will create thumbnails of "most visited" Web sites visited and display them within a tab for easy access.

google_chrome_screen_05.jpg
Google has spent a lot of time tackling memory issues related to its Chrome browser. Here is a screenshot that shows the Google Chrome Task Manager where you can manage processes running inside the browser such Java applications. Shutdown a browser "task" and Google Chrome will perform better.

google_chrome_screen_06.jpg
This screenshot shows a feature called "Google incognito" that offers you the ability to browse the Net with a level of privacy and anonymity.

google_chrome_screen_07.jpg
Google will incorporate an auto-complete function when typing in URLs directly into the browser. No word on whether this auto-completion feature will be related to "suggestion" feature added to Google search or something more similar to Firefox 3's Awesome Bar.

google_chrome_screen_08.jpg
Bookmarking a website with Google Chrome appears to be identical to bookmarking a site with Firefox 3. Just click the star next the Web address and bingo it's saved. The real test will be how Google Chrome allows you to manage bookmarks.

google_chrome_screen_09.jpg

Bookmarks along with other Chrome browser settings can be saved and retrieved in the Google cloud. This allows for anytime and anywhere access to your personal settings be it privacy, bookmarks, and history.

google_chrome_screen_10.jpg
Far from its most exciting Google Chrome feature is this download status indicator. Google describes it as a way to "see your download's status at the bottom of your current window."

Comments

I like the way that Google rethinks common problems and issues (selling ads vs selling software, email, web browsing, etc) using current knowledge and high level goals to create new and simply elegant tools.

I remember when I first saw Gmail. My response was "that's it?", but then the simplified interface hid the power of it's new paradigm...exactly what new users need to make it easier to adopt.

Of course it's easy to introduce a completely new browser platform when you've got cash rolling in the way they do. Microsoft did the same thing when it had it's chance.

Michael Adams
www.chromevoice.com