LAPTOP Face Recognition falls FLAT!!!!

1. Now this is one interesting thing to read.All those claims by Saif Ali Khan in his ad promoting one company for face recognition feature introduction had made its way out of the IT World.....well....so it seems!!!!read ON.........

2. Experts from Bkis Internet Security in Vietnam have proven how easy it is to defeat this.In front of technology experts, authors and press representatives from different countries participating in an internet security conference, Bkis experts demonstrated the vulnerabilities in Face recognition function on Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba laptops. Even when set at the highest security level, the laptop could not prevent Bkis expert Mr Nguyen Minh Duc from breaking into the system. With some technical tricks, Duc in turn logged onto Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba computer at the amazement and continuous applause from the audience. Everyone was really surprised to see how a famous and trusted security technique could be broken so easily.A Pic is shown below from actual demo loc.In some cases,even the owners of Facebook profile photo could be printed and used.

3. What the researchers found is that the technology just isn't that hard to fool. Even photographs that have previously been digitized and distributed, like those on Web pages or transmitted through videophone conversations, will do the job.The model exploits the flaw in image processing. In other words, it uses a photo of a person instead of his/her real face. It works because the algorithms will process in effect digital information.Provided those conditions, an attacker might take some photos of one user within the system, perform some image editing, regenerate “special pictures” and penetrate into the system.

4. Now the worry point is that Biometric data, including facial recognition, is increasingly being built into passports, drivers licenses and other forms of ID. Australia and Germany both use facial recognition to control access and determine identity at border crossings, and the U.S. and other countries are moving in that direction. So....ab kya hogaaaa?

5. Thanks http://www.examiner.com,http://www.bkis.com and Chip magazine.

Green Dam Youth Escort : What's that?

1. The title suggests that it has got something to do with college unions doing thier bit contribution in saving some water or fighting over some water dam issue.But its nothing like that.It is the name of a firewall which is a first of its kind official government imposed content-control software developed in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under a directive from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) , it is mandatory to have either the software, or its setup files accompanied on a compact disc or pre-installed on all new personal computers sold in mainland China, including those imported from abroad. 

2. The firewall software is to be made a mandatory pre-requisite for new computers sold in the country, as a meaure to help stamp out pornography and other vile elements on the Web. The move thus has been widely criticised by industry groups and officials as rash, politically intrusive, technically ineffective and commercially unfair.Few of the features of the software are enumerated below :

• Designed to work with Microsoft Windows operating systems,the software is specifically aimed at restricting online pornography but could be used for other purposes.
• Green Dam Youth Escort automatically downloads the latest updates of a list of prohibited sites from an online database, and also collects private user data. 
• Green Dam recognizes pornographic images by analyzing skin-coloured regions, complemented by human face recognition. The software is incapable of recognizing pictures of nudity featuring black- or red-skinned characters but sensitive enough to images with large patches of yellow that it censors promotional images of the film Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties. 
• The software's misrecognition of "inappropriate contents" in applications including Microsoft Word can lead it to forcefully close those applications without notifying the user, and so cause data losses.
• The software runs only on Microsoft Windows x86, so Microsoft Windows x86-64, Mac and Linux users are ignored. Even on Microsoft Windows, the software is known to interfere with Internet Explorer and Google Chrome, and is incompatible with Mozilla Firefox.
• Some computers sold in China already come with parental-control software, but it isn't government-mandated.
  

3. The latest good news for the chinese people is that for the time being the compulory shipping and installation by the user has been put on hold.

4. Thanks http://www.circleid.com and off course wiki like always!!!!

D-ROLL : No end to imagination

The tashan of modern gadgets which apart from being fashionable are getting smaller, slimmer ,sleaker and smarter day by day . And the latest creation to catch eye is “D-roll” or “digital roll,” the new device works like a regular laptop, but rolls up to be a side bag or even a backpack for easy transportation. Designed like an artist’s tube, the D-roll Laptop features a roll up OLED screen and a slide out keyboard, together with a mouse and a detachable webcam that can be worn on your wrist when not attached to the system. The mouse and web camera can also be used as the end caps for the laptop case, while the straps double as ports to plug in your USB devices. 

RDM : Rival for BLU RAY?

1. Even before Blu ray product's have been able to reach the consumer,a new rival by the name of RDM(...in short for Royal Digital Media) has come out with HD VMD(Versatile Multilayer Disc) and CH-DVD(China Blue High-definition Disc) -- all set to tittupp into town to challange BLU Ray. Royal Digital Media has introduced its bona fide Blu-ray rival... while casually forgetting to name it. These "high-definition discs" will be able to store up to 100GB and will boast military-grade encryption. RDM's format "will transform perceptions of high-definition," as it is able to "display the next generation of high-definition: 1920p."

 

2. DreamStream is the first company to implement a 2,048-bit encryption in consumer media. AES encryption, used in Sony's Blu-ray discs, relies on only a 128-bit system. 

3. For consumers, RDM's increase in storage capacity allows for a single disc to hold approximately four hours of video content at 1920p resolution. 

4. Because RDM's system is based on inexpensive red laser technology, their players are expected to sell for much less than Sony's, which routinely sell for hundreds of dollars. The retail prices for RDM's players and discs are expected to "equal those of the traditional DVD format, greatly undercutting Blu-ray," .

5. RDM's technology can be implemented into existing DVD production processes through the integration of a proprietary software and firmware system. The only potential hardware modification is, "at most, the simple replacement of a single chip," said Levich. As such, existing DVD manufacturers will be able to integrate RDM's technology with only minor modifications to their production processes. 

6. RDM's players are backwards compatible and able to read traditional CDs and DVDs. Moreover, an innovation in data processing enables RDM's players to "drastically enhance the playback quality of regular DVD content," said Diebel. 

7. The incorporation of DreamStream's encryption into RDM's system will thwart the piracy of digital content. The content of RDM's discs will only be able to be read by RDM's players. Thus, ensuring that the content cannot be copied and illegally distributed. Will it really?....so many claims till date on such issues have been found cracked a day after launch…well for now ALL THE BEST for the new BLU ray rival.

8. Thanks http://dreamstream.info

KINDLE : WELCOME TO INDIA

1. Kindle has finally reached the shores of Hindustan.For those of you,who are puzzled of what KINDLE is all about  what be able to judge a fair idea from the pics below.An e book storage and reading device. 

2. Capable of  wirelessly downloading  books, magazines, newspapers and personal documents ,the Kindle screen has no backlight, so it doesn't give out the glare a normal screen would. The navigation is fairly simple and all the text content is custom formatted.  

3. The device features a 2,50,000 word dictionary that can be accessed independently to look up a word, or from within text. It can also play MP3 but the quality of sound takes rating  this on the back foot.The  battery life that comes due to the electronic ink display. On a single charge it can last up to two weeks without the wireless network on. And 2-4 days with wireless! 

 4. Indian users can avail of a catalogue of 2,80,000 books, each downloaded in about a minute over 3G GSM or EDGE. There are no data charges for downloading a book, the service for which is provided globally by AT&T and its international partners.  

5. Kindle is weighs around 290 grams, almost the weight of advanced mobile phones. The display specifications include 6″ diagonal E-Ink® electronic paper display, 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi, 16-level gray scale. The Kindle offers  2Gb of Memory Storage though 1.4Gb would be available to the user and they dont have to connect it to a PC if they need to transfer ebooks because it has inbuilt 3G connectivity & Wi-Fi connectivity. 

6. However, the Kindle does not have any sort of content filtration or rating system, so there is the risk of mature content being easily accessible to minors. So, will the Kindle tinkle in India? Well a few things go against it. First is the price tag …sources put it at about Rs 20,000/-.

7. Thanks www.thinkdigit.com and www.amitbhawani.com for info.

1 MBPS BROAD BAND CONNECTION : HUMAN RIGHT IN FINLAND

1. If there was any further proof needed of how much the Internet is affecting human lives and can help enrich it, just look towards Finland. The country has become the first in the world to make broadband Internet access a human right, making us consider whether we should move there or not.

2. The Ministry of Transport and Communications has stated that starting next July, every person in Finland will have the right to a one-megabit broadband connection. That’s right, 1Mbps. And here in India, we start jumping around when the same is offered for upwards of Rs. 1,500.

3. The biggest kicker, though, is that in another six years, the Finnish government wants to make 100Mbps speeds the mandatory minimum for all its 5.5 million citizens. Granted, that’s a small population, but it still throws a poor light on almost all other governments across the world.

4. And yes, some variations of the above will be allowed if connectivity can be managed on mobile phone networks.

5. It’s unfair to compare India to Finland, given the gross discrepancies, but doesn’t this make your blood boil? There’s hardly any broadband penetration in India, Internet speeds are a joke and let’s not even get started on 3G.

6. Thanks Indiatimes.com for the info

NIKON S1000PJ : DIGITAL CAMERA WITH INBUILT PROJECTOR

1. The thing that was till now thought of as futuristic has finally arrived...and that too at a reasonable and worthy price....the title says it all...DIGITAL CAMERA with a inbuilt PROJECTOR.

2. The first one to attempt this and allowing the consumers to exploit this is NIKON...vide model NIKON S1000PJ as shown in pic and video below.

MY WINDOWS 7 HOUSE PARTY PACK : THANK YOU MICROSOFT

1. Two months back I had registered to host a house party on the occasion of launch of WINDOWS 7( :-)...the secret known to beta testers) ...the next generation windows OS after answering a few FAQs on Windows 7 without realising that I would end up as a winner of the signature edition of the house party pack including the original Windows 7.I got the confirmation from microsoft two weeks back......still then I had thought of it being some spam mail....till I got the tracker ID from DHL....so since last two weeks have been waiting to get that pack of Windows 7....and finally today I got the pack today......and it looks like this .......grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr8...thanks Microsoft for the dabba.....so happy to use a genuine edition of a Windows OS for the first time!!!!!ha ha ha!!!!that to on my name direct from the US of A.

...thanks Microsoft again....and lets meet u guys at the webinar day after!!!!

RADIATION EFFECTS & UR MOBILE - QUANTIFIED

1. We all hear about how the radiations emitted from our mobiles keep effecting us on the wrong side……but what are the specifications laid down for quantification of these effecting variables? What are these variables ?How much do they effect us? Do separate mobile handsets effect us in different ways?Are their any safe limits in these? What are the available standards?

2. The first and the most significant variable is the Specific absorption rate (SAR) , a measure of the rate at which energy is absorbed by the body when exposed to a radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic field. It is defined as the power absorbed per mass of tissue and has units of watts per kilogram. SAR is usually averaged either over the whole body, or over a small sample volume (typically 1 g or 10 g of tissue). The value cited is then the maximum level measured in the body part studied over the stated volume or mass.

3. SAR is used to measure exposure to fields between 100 kHz and 10 GHz. It is commonly used to measure power absorbed from mobile phones and during MRI scans. Few specifications of good and bad mobiles as found rated from TOI site at their INFOTECH tab are shown below with details :

SAMSUNG IMPRESSION : GOOD

Maximum radiation: 0.35 Watts per kilogram (W/kg) (based on reported radiation level when held up to your ear)

SAR when held at the ear: 0.35 W/kg

SAR when worn on the body: 0.83 W/kg

MOTOROLA RAZR V8 : GOOD

Maximum radiation: 0.36 W/kg

SAR when held at the ear: 0.36 W/kg

SAR when worn on the body: 0.86 W/kg

SAMSUNG SGH-T229 : GOOD

Maximum radiation: 0.38 W/kg

SAR when held at the ear: 0.38 W/kg

SAR when worn on the body: 0.69 W/kg

MOTOROLA MOTO VU204 : WORST

Maximum radiation: 1.55 W/kg

SAR when held at the ear: 1.55 W/kg

SAR when worn on the body: 0.58 W/kg

BLACKBERRY CURVE 8330 : WORST

Maximum radiation: 1.54 W/kg

SAR when held at the ear 1.54 W/kg

SAR when worn on the body 0.99 W/kg

4. United States: The FCC requires that phones sold have a SAR level at or below 1.6 watts per kilogram (W/kg) taken over a volume of 10 gram of tissue while European Union specify SAR limits within 2 Watts/kg taken over a volume of 10 gram

5. So next times some one asks you or even mentions about radiation effect of mobiles on health….just make the aspect more clear of weather of not his/her mobiles in meeting the S.A.R norms or not?

6. Thanks Wiki,Tech gadgets and TOI.

THE FUTURE OF OSs : MICROSOFT VERSION

1. Microsoft's involvement in playing a key role in the field of future operating systems can be gauged from the fact deciphered below in successive paragraphs.

2. So when Microsoft tries working on the futuristic versions of operating systems...the surprise is that windows does not come in the discussion....windows is out...yessss!!!it is terms like MIDORI,SINGULARITY,BARRELFISH,HELEOS.....the names must be sounding french to people like me....just read ahead!!!

MIDORI

3. Midori based on their Singularity operating system research project is an experimental operating system, in which all code, even device drivers, and the kernel itself are written in managed code, making the operating system much safer. The operating system also has a large focus on concurrency.Midori is in incubation, which means it is a little closer to market than most Microsoft Research projects, but not yet close enough to be available in any kind of early preview form to users.

BARRELFISH

4. Barrelfish, an OS written specifically for multicore environments. It hopes to improve the performance of boxes with such chips by creating a network bus and calls itself a multi-kernel operating system. Its focus is on leveraging the increasing number of cores in desktop processors. The mainstream operating systems today, Windows, and Linux, have both been designed for single-core computers, with multi-processing support added on later. 

5. The Barrelfish project instead tries to redefine the entire operating system keeping in mind that multi-core is here is stay. Today we have dual-core, quad-core, and even hexa-core, but given a decade, we may be looking at hecto-, kilo-, or even mega-core computers! These will require a rethinking of the very organization of the operating system.

6. Barrlefish does just that. It treats the multi-core processor environment as a collection of networked processor cores, and applies the concepts used with distributed computing to manage the execution of the computer's processes. This has the effect of making the system much more scalable. An interesting part of this approach is also 

that the processor cores need not be homogeneous! The multiple kernels could all be running on processors of different architectures, one kernel might be executing on an ARM, while another on a x86, and a third on a GPU!

HELEOS

7. Heleos, another research OS in MS labs and their latest revelation, takes the concept of heterogeneous multiprocessing further, and introduces "satellite kernels".It explains that current operating systems are designed with a homogeneous running environments in mind. For this reason, an operating system is written for either an IA64, or an x86, or a PPC, or an ARM platform, however it cannot leverage all of them. Our computers however are no longer homogeneous. We have CPUs and GPUs of different architectures, each with multiple cores. The GPU is highly optimized for a vector processing, and has an architecture which vastly differs from that of the CPU, with a completely different instruction set and performance characteristics. 

8. The Helios project introduces satellite kernels, which essentially presents the developers with a "single,uniform set of OS abstractions across CPUs of disparate architectures and performance characteristics." This satellite kernel is a micro-kernel, and runs all other services and drivers in individual processes.

9. With Singularity and Barrelfish both available as open source releases, it seems Microsoft might just be headed for a more open future. 

10. Thanks DIGIT and Microsoft for the updates.

DUAL SCREEN CAMERA : SAMSUNG ST 550 & ST 500

1. Earlier I had discussed about one dual screen laptop....then we all know about big touch screens on mobiles in so many versions,shapes and sizes.Ever wondered what purpose would a dual screen serve in a typical digital camera.Just scroll down and see the pics to get the concept...i am sure u will appreciate it!!!!

2. Delivering an unrivalled user experience, the 1.5 inch LCD screen located on the front of the camera now allows consumers to take first-rate photos by themselves in addition to the one who is busy clicking.

3. Thanks http://www.samsung.com/sg/news/newsPreviewRead.do?news_seq=14419

SECURITY ESSENTIALS : NO MORE "MORRO"

1. So it has been launched finally after a long wait...a few debates...a few hues and a not so lots of publicity....the microsoft antivirus "SECURITY ESSENTIALS". I downloaded it today and saw thats it is veri light at least as on date and has been able to capture the regular worms and malwares that were present in my desktop.

2. One problem for most of the Hindustani's......it only works on genuine microsoft windows....since prior to installation it checks if you have a genuine windows...if NOT ..then it comes out in between installation without procedding ahead....