National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has conducted a survey on Household Social Consumption: Education as part of 75th round of National Sample Survey (NSS). Prior to this, surveys on the same subject were carried out during 64th round (July 2007- June 2008) and 71st round …
THE mantra which turned a two-man shoestring-budget operation called Microsoft Corporation into a l7,000- employee-strong global giant, whose sales touch US $6 billion a year, is all there for you to lap kip in The Road Ahead written by the guru himself - Bill Gates. The book is about Gates, …
The first mobile telephones in the us were so cheap that they were being distributed free with every purchase of petrol. Now, the purchase of a Burger King whopper earns one a CD-ROM for free. The fast food chain is handing out Disney titles such as The Lion King and …
"THE living. and breathing realm of nature offers a huge)ibrary of design metaphors," says John Riles, president of Thinking Tools, a California-based concern which specialises in developing software based on natural analogies. The human immune system offers a .wide range of possibilities to ward off a virus of an altogether …
Made for each other Sun Microsystems Incorporated have developed new microprocessor chips compatible with their newly launched Java software. The chips bearing price tags that range from US $25 to $100 could eventually replace the current desktops and enable the user to hook directly onto the Internet. All one would …
ON JANUARY 1, AD 2000, New Year revellers all over the world would wake up too dazed and bleary eyed to comprehend the unprecedented technological fallout that would occur at the turn of this century. That day, countless computers will go haywire, as the date configuration in them would be …
Disgruntled with the apathy of manufacturers towards their complaints, a group of frustrated PC users have taken a "PC maker, Leading Edge Products Inc of Westborough, Massachussets, to court. They have filed a case of fraud and breach of warranty contracts in the State Supreme Court, New York, contending that …
Wired books Small-time publishers have come up with a novel way of reaching an enormous readership: netting out the material. Aptly titled E-zines, the electronic magazines number more than 750, ranging from the Abraxus Reader to the Zzone's Zmagazine. Categories include everything c('nceivable from paranoia and punk Marxism to classical …
VIRTUAL reality (VR) is a concept which allows people to experience an :s if world. In other words, computer programmes and imaging hardware create a three-dimensional world with which actual interaction is possible. A report released by a committee of the National Research Council, an operating agency of the National …
No more illusions A new survey conducted by the New York based market research concern, Find/SVP, estimates that the number of Internet users in the US is only 9.5 million. The survey suggests that two- thirds of the Internees users log on to the worldwide computer network only once a …
A WORLD where your computer's mouse is rendered redundant and the keyboard relegated to the dustbin of history may sound like an H G Wells fantasia. But researchers from Tubingen University in south Germany could soon be turning this fiction into fact. "Most people can learn to control computers by …
TABLA enthusiasts, desirous of learning the art, now have a choice of guru. They could avail of the opportunity of learning from a non-human teacher who, in addition to having the immense patience needed to coach any amateur can give the student more personalised attention and time. Called the 'tabla …
Netting in moolah Restaurants in Japan have embarked on a novel method to boost their sales. To engage their visitors as they wait for tables to clear, many have installed a personal computer connected to the Internet. The guests have a choice between browsing through the restaurant's home page and …
IN AN embarrassing confession, the US- based Intel Corp, one of the world's giants in microprocessor technology, has admitted that a snag in the software used to measure the speed of Pentium microchips, caused it to exaggerate the chips' processing speed by an estimated 10 per cent. The error was …
Surgeons perpetually fear risking the life of the patient they keep under anaesthesia. Deciding on the exact dosages of the drugs required bothers many of them. The problem has been resolved by a team of scientists in the UK (New Scientist, Vol 148, No 2005). Researchers at the Royal Adelaide …
Electronic immobilisers have been highly successful in cutting down car thefts. But security experts fear that skilled thieves could 'crack' an immobiliser if the code sent to the engine control were intercepted by a hidden receiver. Siemens in Germany is using cryptography to make immobilisers even more secure. A microchip …
RICH HARVEST: The Minneapolis-based Cargill Inc, the biggest private firm in the US is eyeing the rapidly growing Asian food market. It plans to invest US $1.5 billion over 10 years, mainly in the grains and oilseeds sector. India, China and Indonesia are expected to attract a major share of …
THE microelectronic revolution that we've witnessed during the past decade has simultaneously aimed at miniaturising the components of a circuit as well as enhancing its performance. For instance, the Intel Pentium microprocessor is about twice as powerful as the now vintage Intel 80386 processor, while their sizes remain roughly the …
THE National Param Super Computer Centre in Pune is developing one of the world's largest computers which will become operational by 1998, according to Vijay P Bhatkar, executive director, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). The computer, costing between Rs 50 to 70 crore, would first be commercially installed …
SUN microsysterns has just released a new range of computers designed for multimedia applications on Internet and corporate networks. 'Ultra compmCTS' would provide access to three-dimensional (3-1)) 'virtual worlds', music jnd video at just half the price of today's 3-1) workstations. "Ultra computers will let you cruise the information super-highway …
AT LEAST partial eyesight to the blind may be restored, say researchers in the us in a recent study. An artificial vision system with tiny TV cameras in eyeglasses sending invisible laser-borne messages to a computer inside the eye would perform this magic. The computer, about the size of the …
