Geocities India is closing!

Yes, you heard it right. The free website creating service is being shut-down by the company in some countries so as to promote its new venture Yahoo! Small Business.

The annouced date of closure is 26th October,2009.

On October 26, 2009, your GeoCities site will no longer appear on the Web,
and you will no longer be able to access your GeoCities account and files.

If you're no longer using your web site, you don't need to do a thing,but if you'd
like to move your web site, or save the images and other files you've posted
online, you need to act now by downloading your files to your own computer.


To quickly download your published files and images, visit your GeoCities web site,

right-click on each page, and choose Save Page As... from the menu that appears.

Choose a location on your computer to save your files, then click OK or Save

to save the HTML and images associated with your page.


Learn more about downloading your files.


After 26th October, your websites will become irrecoverable!.


So act now!

Reading Bar-codes

Found this article on my computer. I don't know who the author is nevertheless,
its not my original work.


Most bar codes in the US are 12-digit UPC (Universal Product Code) barcodes, with ten

digits at the bottom of the code and one small number to each side.



Impress your friends by asking them to select a random item from the kitchen

with a removable label and cut the numbers off of the UPC barcode; you can

then proceed to read the numbers encoded in the lines.

Steps

• Note that barcodes are made up of both black and white lines. The white spaces in between the black lines are part of the code.

• Understand that there are four different thicknesses to the lines. Henceforth, the skinniest line will be referred to as "1," the medium-sized line as "2," the next largest line as "3." and the thickest is "4."

• Each UPC barcode begins and ends with 101 (thin black, thin white, thin black). In the very middle of the barcode, you will notice two thin black lines sticking down between the numbers. The thin white between them, as well as the thin whites to either side, make up a 01010. Each UPC barcode has 01010 in the middle.

• Recognize that each digit, including the small numbers that begin and end the barcode, has its own unique four-line set. 0 = 3211, 1 = 2221, 2 = 2122, 3 = 1411, 4 = 1132, 5 = 1231, 6 = 1114, 7 = 1312, 8 = 1213, 9 = 3112. (Note that the sum of bar widths numbers is 7 for all codes because each code is 7 units wide.)

• So, the barcode above whose first two digits are 03 would start out "10132111411". Broken down this is "101-3211-1411" where 101 marks the beginning of the bar code and 3211 marks the digit 0 .

Tips

• Barcodes from soda cans, books, video store rentals, and all the rest which are fewer than 12 digits only use the white/black/white/black scheme.

• Memorizing the thickness of each line size takes some time (as does memorizing each digit's line sequence), but it becomes easier with practice.

• Notice that the line colors are reversed after the center-line: The lines of the digits to the left are white/black/white/black whilst to the right they are black/white/black/white. This provides some error checking and allows the reader to know the direction in which it is scanning a code. It is also crucial so that the barcode ends with a bar rather than a space. So, actually, each digit has two codes.

• Recognize that each digit is made up of seven equally spaced lines. So you can see from the image above that the digit 4 is made up of the 7 black and white lines in the order of 1011100 where 1 is black and 0 is white. These seven small lines become 1132 in the simplified thick or thin line system.

• The first code is the manufacturer of the product. Many times the "Brand-X" is made by the same manufacturer (e.g., Prestone antifreeze and the Advanced Autoparts generic, 3M "Post-its" and the generic sold at OfficeMax). While there's no guarantee the quality is the same, it's probably just the same item with different coloration in a different package.

• When the numbers that the barcode represents are printed below the bars, the first and last digits are often printed outside of the bars. While the first number is part of the company number, the last number is a check digit (known as a Mod 10 check digit). This number is calculated based on the other digits in the number.

• You can use the check digit yourself, to ensure that you've figured out the other digits correctly. Add together all the digits in odd-numbered positions (there will be 6, from the 1st to the 11th) and multiply that sum by 3. Then add each digit in an even-numbered position (of which there are 5) to that sum. The check digit will be whatever number you need to add to that end result sum to make it a multiple of 10 (i.e., (-sum) mod 10).
  In the above example, you get 3*(0+6+0+2+1+5) + (3+0+0+9+4) = 42 + 16 = 58. So you would need to add a 2 to 58 to get a multiple of ten.

• Note- the reason the scheme is rather complex is to allow scanning machines to detect all single-digit errors, as well as almost all swaps of two adjacent digits.

• Formerly, printed books contained a human-readable 10-digit ISBN and a 13-digit EAN on the outside and sometimes a UPC inside. Mass market paperbacks had the reverse: a UPC on the outside (to facilitate scanning in drug stores, etc.) and an EAN on the inside front cover. That is no longer the case. Books now have a human readable 10-digit and 13-digit ISBN on the outside along with a bar code that represents the 13-digit ISBN and sometimes a price extension and since this follows the 13-digit EAN standard, it has an EAN symbol. ISBNs are now only issued as 13-digits. To convert an "old" ISBN to an EAN, you add 978 (Bookland) to the front, the first 9-digits of the ISBN and recalculate the check digit. In the future, the 979 prefix will also be used.

India's manned space probe

The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), a unit of the country's premier Indian space research programme, plans to send two humans into space by 2015.

The project is awaiting a final clearance from the central government. "The pre-project approval of Rs.95 crore ($19 million) has already come and the approval of the main project is being awaited. The human spaceflight program is to develop and launch an orbital vehicle to carry a two-member crew to the earth's lower orbit. The estimate is that it should happen by 2015. The director also confirmed reports that space suits for the project will be manufactured at organisation's unit here. This is just one of the many things which the organisation would be doing here as part of the major programme.

Mars' interaction with water

The edge of a solar panel on NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander, in a trench on the Martian surface, where a sample of soil was taken, is seen. This event again raised the old topic of presence of water on Mars.


The spacecraft discovered two minerals that suggest past interaction with water. Still some clarifications has to be made. Scientists are excited with this latest achievement and now they are focusing on their future projects related to Mars.

Quantum Computers, an another step.

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have overcome a hurdle in quantum computer development, having devised a viable way to manipulate a single “bit” in a quantum processor without disturbing the information stored in its neighbours. The approach, which makes novel use of polarized light to create “effective” magnetic fields, could bring the long-sought computers a step closer to reality.


A great challenge in creating a working quantum computer is maintaining control over the carriers of information, the “switches” in a quantum processor while isolating them from the environment. These quantum bits, or “qubits,” have the uncanny ability to exist in both “on” and “off” positions simultaneously, giving quantum computers the power to solve problems conventional computers find intractable — such as breaking complex cryptographic codes.
One approach to quantum computer development aims to use a single isolated rubidium atom as a qubit. Each such rubidium atom can take on any of eight different energy states, so the design goal is to choose two of these energy states to represent the on and off positions.
Ideally, these two states should be completely insensitive to stray magnetic fields that can destroy the qubit’s ability to be simultaneously on and off, ruining calculations. However, choosing such “field-insensitive” states also makes the qubits less sensitive to those magnetic fields used intentionally to select and manipulate them.


To solve this problem, the NIST team used two pairs of energy states within the same atom. Each pair is best suited to a different task: One pair is used as a ‘memory’ qubit for storing information, while the second ‘working’ pair comprises a qubit to be used for computation. While each pair of states is field-insensitive, transitions between the memory and working states are sensitive, and amenable to field control. When a memory qubit needs to perform a computation, a magnetic field can make it change hats. And it can do this without disturbing nearby memory qubits.


The NIST team demonstrated this approach in an array of atoms grouped into pairs, using the technique to address one member of each pair individually. Grouping the atoms into pairs, Lundblad says, allows the team to simplify the problem from selecting one qubit out of many to selecting one out of two — which can be done by creating an effective magnetic field with a beam of polarized light.


The polarized-light technique, which the NIST team developed, can be extended to select specific qubits out of a large groupwithout affecting those nearby. Their work was published in Nature Physics and appreciated by the readers. It is considered as a big step in this new generation of computers.

Lightning on MARS

For the first time, direct evidence of lightning has been detected on Mars, say University of Michigan researchers who found signs of electrical discharges during dust storms on the Red Planet.




What was saw on Mars was a series of huge and sudden electrical discharges caused by a large dust storm. Clearly, there was no rain associated with the electrical discharges on Mars. However, the implied possibilities are exciting. According to the researchers, electric activity in Martian dust storms has important implications for Mars science.




It affects atmospheric chemistry, habitability and preparations for human exploration. It might even have implications for the origin of life, as suggested by experiments in the 1950s.
The findings are based on observations made using an innovative microwave detector developed at the U-M Space Physics Research Laboratory. The kurtosis detector, which is capable of differentiating between thermal and non-thermal radiation, took measurements of microwave emissions from Mars for approximately five hours a day for 12 days between May 22 and June 16, 2006.




On June 8, 2006 both an unusual pattern of non-thermal radiation and an intense Martian dust storm occurred, the only time that non-thermal radiation was detected. Non-thermal radiation would suggest the presence of lightning.




The researchers reviewed the data to determine the strength, duration and frequency of the non-thermal activity, as well as the possibility of other sources. But each test led to the conclusion that the dust storm likely caused dry lightning.




This work confirms soil measurements from the Viking landers 30 years ago, and it challenges 2006 experiments that suggested otherwise.




Data from the Viking landers raised the possibility that Martian dust storms might be electrically active like Earth's thunderstorms and thus, might be a source of reactive chemistry. But the hypothesis was untestable. In 2006, using theoretical modeling, laboratory experiments and field studies on Earth, a group of planetary scientists suggested that there was no direct evidence that lightning occurred on Mars. This new research refutes those findings.



Mars continues to amaze us. Every new look at the planet gives us new insights.

Vacuum Bomb, the next big BOMB

Russia has tested the world's most powerful vacuum bomb, which unleashes a destructive shockwave with the power of a nuclear blast, dubbing it the "father of all bombs".
However this testing was done in the end of year 2007 but it raised the concern of other countries due to its better destructive efficiencies than the neculear. According to the sources it can reach the levels of nucler bomb in case of distruction, but unlike nuclear bomb its effects does not have long lasting effects.
The bomb is the latest in a series of new Russian weapons and policy moves as President Vladimir Putin tries to reassert Moscow's role on the international stage.
Test results of the new airborne weapon have shown that its efficiency and power is commensurate with a nuclear weapon.The defense ministry stresses this military invention does not contradict a single international treaty and Russia is not unleashing a new arms race.
Such devices generally detonate in two stages. First a small blast disperses a main load of explosive material into a cloud, which then either spontaneously ignites in air or is set off by a second charge.
This explosion generates a pressure wave that reaches much further than that from a conventional explosive. The consumption of gases in the blast also generates a partial vacuum that can compound damage and injuries caused by the explosion itself. The main destruction is inflicted by an ultrasonic shockwave and an incredibly high temperature and all that is alive merely evaporates.At the same time, the action of this weapon does not contaminate the environment, in contrast to a nuclear one, or simply we can say it is environment destructive but also environment friendly.
"FATHER OF ALL BOMBS"
The Tu-160 supersonic bomber that dropped the bomb, widely known under its NATO nickname of "Blackjack", is the heaviest combat aircraft ever built.
Putin, who has overseen the roll-out of new tactical and anti-aircraft missiles and combat aircraft, has ordered "Blackjacks" and the Tu-95 "Bear" bombers to patrol around the world.
The new bomb was much stronger than the U.S.-built Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb -- MOAB, also known under its name "Mother of All Bombs". So, Russian designers called the new weapon 'Father of All Bombs'.
Showing the orange-painted U.S. prototype, the Russian bomb was four times more powerful -- 44 metric tons of TNT equivalent -- and the temperature at the epicenter of its blast was two times higher.
In 1999 Russian generals threatened to use vacuum bombs to wipe out rebels from the mountains during the "anti-terrorist operation" in its restive Chechnya province.
New York-based Human Rights Watch then appealed to Putin to refrain from using fuel-air explosives. It remains unclear if weapons of this type were used during the Chechen war.
U.S. forces have used a "thermobaric" bomb, which works on similar principles, in their campaign against al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan.
It (the bomb) will allow us to safeguard our state's security and fight international terrorism in any circumstances and in any part of the world.

Theory of Relativity proven

Perhaps one of the most famous equations in the world, in all scientific fields, is Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, E=mc2. This means that the energy is equal to the mass multiplied by the square speed of light. Recently, an international team whose members come from Germany, France and Hungary, led by Laurent Lellouch from the Center for Theoretical Physics in France, managed to prove that the theory is actually right from a subatomic perspective.
The group used a lot of computational power provided by some of the mightiest supercomputers out there in order to prove that results based on proton and neutron (the particles that make up the atomic nuclei) behavior concur with the relativity theory. Practically, the standard model of quantum physics states that neutrons and protons are themselves made up of even smaller particles, called quarks, which are bound together by particles named gluons (glue-on, pretty logical).

it took lots of effort to reach this results. Still some work has to be done on it. The scientists are excited with this latest development and hoping that it will help to explore new things in vast field of science.