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Scientists Discover Nearby ‘Diamond Planet’

Scientists at Yale University have discovered a nearby super-Earth that is a “diamond planet” — a planet that has a mantle made of graphite and diamond.

The planet, called 55 Cancri e, is just 40 light years from Earth and orbits the binary star 55 Cancri, which is located in the constellation of Cancer. When the planet was first observed last year, it was originally thought to be a water planet, similar to Earth, but new information has allowed the scientists to infer that the planet is much more likely to be a diamond planet.

55 Cancri e (which desperately needs a nickname) is referred to as a super-Earth because it is larger than Earth, but not as large as the Solar System’s gas giants. That’s where 55 Cancri e’s similarities to Earth end, though. 55 Cancri e has twice the radius of Earth, eight times the mass — and because it’s the innermost planet in the 55 Cancri system, the planet has a surface temperature of 3,900 degrees Fahrenheit (2,150 Celsius), and its year lasts just 18 hours (as opposed to Earth’s 365 days). 



But why is 55 Cancri e made out of diamonds? Because the star system itself is primarily made up of carbon, iron, and silicon — and over millions of years of pressure and heat, the planet’s carbon mantle has slowly turned into diamond. The Yale scientists estimate that as much as one third of 55 Cancri e’s mass is made up of diamond — the same as three Earth masses, or roughly 18×10²⁴kg. This is a few trillion times more diamond than has ever been mined on Earth.

Suffice it to say, the identification of just a single diamond-rich planet is massive news. In recent years we have identified hundreds of rocky, Earth-like planets — and until now, we had assumed they had similar make-ups. It is now fairly safe to assume that there are millions of diamond planets in the universe. There could be other planets out there with different chemistries, too — water planets, gold planets, uranium planets — and each are likely to have very different atmospheres, biologies, and geological/tectonic characteristics.

The idea of mining other planets and asteroids for valuable resources doesn’t seem quite so crazy now, eh?

Nintendo tears down Wii U to show off single-chip IBM/AMD CPU + GPU

One of the most interesting aspects to new console design is only indirectly related to the device’s game performance. Internal design — how components are laid out, integrated, and cooled — is vital to building a reliable machine. Until quite recently, this aspect of design only attracted consumer interest if something went wrong. Each generation of consoles has had issues, but the Xbox 360′s famous Red Ring of Death catapulted design problems into mainstream discussion. The surging popularity of websites like iFixit, meanwhile, has shone a spotlight on design decisions that were previously hidden under plastic shells. 

Nintendo has chosen to one-up such popular sites by releasing its own data on how the Wii U’s components were designed. The new information, released through an “Iwata Asks” explainer, sheds light on the difficulties of designing a system as compact as the Wii U, which isn’t much larger than the Wii, while substantially increasing its overall performance. Nintendo remains tight-lipped on many details, but we know that the CPU inside the system is a multi-core, POWER-based IBM design. Nintendo went with IBM for the combined module, as shown below:  

Without any sort of scale, the only thing we can conclude from the image is that the second on-die package is much smaller than the first. Nintendo offers a few additional hints with the following: 

This is rather odd. Rumors around the Wii U’s GPU initially pointed to an RV770-derived (HD 4000-series) chip with DX10.1 support, while later statements claimed the AMD component as actually a Radeon 6770. The Radeon 6770 was itself a re-badged Radeon 5770, and at 170mm² on TSMC’s 40nm process, it wasn’t all that small. Toss in the 32MB of eDRAM we know the Wii U has on-package, and that’d be an awfully large piece of silicon. If the smaller die is actually the CPU, it means that Nintendo, for all its praise of AMD and IBM’s knowledge of CPU+GPU integration, chose to keep the two packages separate. There’s no APU to be seen here, alas.

It also implies that the Wii U is a fundamentally a GPU with a CPU hanging off the side.

Here’s the Wii’s heatsink in comparison to the Wii U’s. Iwata says the new console generates 3x more heat than the old one did, which necessitated a larger fan and more fins. The heatsink design is still technically passive; the system uses a single fan to intake and exhaust air over the heatsink. Again, while we don’t have absolute scales, Iwata’s demonstrations put some hard thermal limits on what sort of GPU could be inside the system. Under load, the Wii drew ~16W as measured at the wall; Iwata’s comments imply that the Wii U will draw between 40-60W.

A 5770 dissipated 108W and measured 63.5mm tall, 165mm wide, and 267mm long. It’s true that this referred to total board power and that AMD doubtlessly refined its base GPU to Nintendo’s specifications, but a 50% reduction in active power seems unlikely.

Nintendo offers a few additional hints when it writes that “An MCM [multi-chip module] is where the aforementioned Multi-core CPU chip and the GPU chip are built into a single component. The GPU itself also contains quite a large on-chip memory.” There are, in short, plenty of reasons to think that an integrated CPU+GPU with on-package cache would serve Nintendo better than a GPU with on-die eDRAM + on-package CPU. The company’s phrasing points towards the former, but image labeling states the latter.
What can we tell from this new data? The “Juniper” GPU at the heart of the 5770 was almost certainly too large and too hot for Nintendo’s targets. Redwood, the GPU inside the Radeon 5670, is a much better bet. Not only is it smaller, at 104mm² on 40nm, it also shipped in a 39W flavor. Additional optimizations and tweaks could easily squeeze a GPU of that caliber into the 40W-60W dissipation window we previously mentioned.

Nintendo’s reveal also supports developer statements that while the Wii U’s GPU is significantly more advanced than anything the Xbox 360 or PS3 can offer, the CPU is on-par or slightly less powerful than the Xbox 360 or PS3′s. Nintendo may have gone for a POWER-derived architecture this time around, but the smaller package in the image above implies three lean cores without much muscle.

The Wii U’s unusual controller and secondary screen means that a great deal may be riding on how many CPU cycles are dedicated to controller synchronization and processing. In theory, it might be possible to offload certain tasks to the system’s GPU, but that depends on which core Nintendo used. Both the RV770 and the Evergreen (HD 5000) GPUs supported OpenCL, but RV770 was limited to OpenCL 1.0, whereas the HD 5000 family supported OpenCL 1.1.

It goes without saying that Nintendo has dedicated a great deal of effort to building a small system that would retain the quiet operation and comparatively low power draw that made the Wii stand out in the 2005-2006 product cycle. Will lightning strike twice? That’s a good deal murkier. Nintendo is moving first this time around, but Sony and Microsoft are both planning their own next-gen consoles at much lower price points than the Xbox 360 and PS3 debuted at.

HTC DLX incoming to challenge Samsung Galaxy Note 2

HTC is readying a phablet for release, as the phone-maker bets on a half-tablet, half-smartphone hybrid to help turn around its freefalling profits.

According to HTC modding maven Football, the device will be dubbed the HTC DLX and will pack a five-inch screen and an impressive sounding 12 megapixel camera.

And adding to what’s shaping up to be one of HTC’s most lavishly specc’d devices ever is a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 16GB of internal storage and a 2,500mAH battery, claims the mono-monikered source.

Perhaps surprisingly, the handset purportedly won’t run the latest 4.2 version of Android out of the box, but will instead pack the still-pretty-up-to-the-minute Jelly Bean iteration, AKA Android 4.1.

News of HTC’s product pipeline comes as it recently announced a 79 per cent slide in third-quarter profits, amid slow sales for its One range of phones and an increasingly strong showing from its Android rival Samsung.

Samsung Galaxy S4 landing at Mobile World Congress in Feb 2013?

Samsung Electronics plans to unveil the latest in its Galaxy line, the S4, at a European technology exhibition in February 2013, according to company officials and local parts suppliers for the technology giant.

The timetable was released just three days after rival Apple introduced the iPhone 5, which has received a mixed response from industry experts and consumers as it is seemingly lacking in innovative features.

``Samsung is ready to unveil the next Galaxy smartphone _ the Galaxy S4 _ at early next year’s mobile world congress (MWC) in the Spanish city of Barcelona,’’ said an official from the firm asking not to be identified, Sunday. The new device is expected to hit shelves globally in March at the latest.

MWC is the biggest exhibition in the world for telecom companies and Samsung, will exhibit the new Galaxy at its booth.

The new Galaxy, expected to be the firm’s most powerful handset yet in terms of hardware specifications and software advancement, will help the Suwon-based outfit further cement its leadership in the global smartphone market.

The official said that the smartphone, due out nine months after the May debut of the Galaxy S3, will be more than enough to curb Apple’s latest iPhone, compatible with long-term evolution (LTE) networks.

In Europe, Samsung is gaining a bigger share of the smartphone market. The Korean company was involved in patent disputes with Apple in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. A recent ruling in the U.K. said Samsung didn’t infringe on Apple’s design patents.

Executives from Samsung’s local parts suppliers said the company’s new flagship smartphone will ``definitely use’’ LTE networks. It will also sport its in-house Exynos-branded application processors and quad-core chips. The S3 is using both Samsung’s Exynos and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors depending on the country.

``Samsung is asking Apple to pay more to use its mobile application processors produced at its plant in Austin, Texas. The release of the S4 means more market share for Samsung as it is the only firm that can guarantee on-time delivery, output commitment and better pricing for mobile application processors,’’ said one executive.

The screen size of the S4 is expected to reach 5-inch from the the current 4.8 screen size of the S3, while it will use Google’s Android software and sport an OLED display, said the officials.

But Samsung has yet to decide whether it will use flexible display technology for the upcoming Galaxy due to production problems encountered by Samsung Display.

 

Samsung Display officials declined to comment on the new Samsung smartphone project.

``Samsung wants to keep its one-year product schedule and the Galaxy S4 will be the first to match that strategy. The S4 will see some external changes but retain its popular rectangular shape with rounded corner concept,’’ said an official from one of Samsung’s local partners.

Samsung is currently in talks with major American carriers to apply modified phone designs.

Market analysts and experts view the S4 as a ``clear message’’ to Apple. ``Samsung’s edges in manufacturing will further shine after the patent disputes go further on. In markets, Samsung is confident to widen its lead over Apple, though the legal fight is a totally separate issue,’’ said an industry executive who is familiar with the matter.

Samsung expects sales of the S3 to pass 30 million by the end of the year. It has already sold 20 million in just over three months.

The S4 will help Samsung take on Apple in the United States, according to officials. Market research firm IDC shows Samsung has a 30 percent share, globally, while Apple has 16 percent. But NPD’s recent data shows Apple controls 31 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, followed by Samsung on 24 percent.

The S4 plans come amid escalating patent disputes between the two technology giants in 50 different cases on four continents. Apple won a victory last month after a United States jury found the Korean firm copied key features of the iPhone and awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages.

Best Way to Keep Your Company Computers Safe

For years, antivirus software was the gold standard for securing your IT. But the cloud has changed the nature of the game.

Run a quick Google search for "Internet security protection" and you'll come across plenty of antivirus software solutions claiming to protect your company's devices against the multitude of nasty infections out there on the Web. Historically, antivirus software has been the foremost choice of protection for CIOs against these threats.


These days, as companies and consumers increasingly conduct their business in the cloud, securing virtual identities, browsing activity, and personal data arguably has become more important than securing physical devices. Now that we've added mobile to the mix--especially in the case of Apple's iPhone, a device that's fairly secure by default--the need to protect the device has been overshadowed by the increasing need to secure our online interactions.

So, should you still include antivirus software in your IT budget?


How the Cloud Is Changing Security

Until recently, I've been a big believer in the idea of securing both your device and your browsing activities. The general consensus amongst CIOs was to protect their teams with both an antivirus to secure their computers and mobile devices and a personal VPN to protect employees against online threats. However, I had coffee a couple weeks back with Monish Bhatia, a security expert over at MacNN who's been writing about these issues for years; he posed an interesting question that made me think twice about the need for antivirus: "Do we really need antivirus if we're using a personal VPN and thus securing all browsing, passwords, websites visited and our personal privacy in the cloud?"

To understand the answer to this question, we have to think about how viruses infect our devices. In the old days it was through installing floppy disks or thumb drives. Now that those are long gone, most viruses infect your device through the Web or via email exchanges. But if both the Web and your email are protected by cloud security, it's highly unlikely that viruses will ever make it as far as your device. If this is the case, will the need for antivirus software be less important in the future?


Think Beyond the Device

As more and more businesses and consumers entrust reams of precious, and highly confidential, data to the cloud, direct threats to devices become less relevant than the threat of compromising our identities or personal data--via Google docs, Dropbox files, passwords, search activities, or sites visited--online. Every week, stories of massive hacks, stolen data, and compromised security pepper the headlines. From Google and LinkedIn to Lockheed Martin and Citibank, giants in the tech, banking, and defense sectors--just to name a few--have been hacked in recent months. But it's not usually their devices that come under direct attack; it's a weakness in their security systems that make them vulnerable to hackers. (Identity theft affected 10 millions Americans last year, and your identity is a lot more likely to be stolen online than anywhere else.)


Enter cloud security players that protect the Web, rather than the device, and the role of antivirus companies is greatly diminished. When my company launched Hotspot Shield, an app that encrypts all pages visited and enables users to stay completely private when browsing the Web, we weren't sure how big the demand for secure browsing and identity protection online would be. But with the move to the cloud, we've experienced firsthand the need to secure not only the device, but all online interactions and browsing.


I'm certainly not encouraging businesses to scrap their antivirus protection, but it's essential that companies pay more attention to securing their online activities. By doing so, you'll eliminate many of the threats that antivirus companies try to solve, before these threats ever make it near your devices. Just the way a good highway patrolman secures the highways to protect the cities, properly securing your business in the cloud will keep your data and, in turn, your devices out of hackers' reach, before it's too late.

Neil Armstrong Dead At 82

REUTERS - Sunday, August 26, 2012

(Reuters) - U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong, who took a giant leap for mankind when he became the first person to walk on the moon, has died at the age of 82, his family said on Saturday.

Armstrong died following complications from heart-bypass surgery he underwent earlier this month, the family said in a statement, just two days after his birthday on August 5.

As commander of the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969. As he stepped on the dusty surface, Armstrong said: "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."

Those words endure as one of the best known quotes in the English language.

The Apollo 11 astronauts' euphoric moonwalk provided Americans with a sense of achievement in the space race with Cold War foe the Soviet Union and while Washington was engaged in a bloody war with the communists in Vietnam.

Neil Alden Armstrong was 38 years old at the time and even though he had fulfilled one of mankind's age-old quests that placed him at the pinnacle of human achievement, he did not revel in his accomplishment. He even seemed frustrated by the acclaim it brought.

"I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks but for the ledger of our daily work," Armstrong said in an interview on CBS's "60 Minutes" program in 2005.

He once was asked how he felt knowing his footprints would likely stay on the moon's surface for thousands of years. "I kind of hope that somebody goes up there one of these days and cleans them up," he said.

A VERY PRIVATE MAN

James Hansen, author of "First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong," told CBS: "All of the attention that ... the public put on stepping down that ladder onto the surface itself, Neil never could really understand why there was so much focus on that."

The Apollo 11 moon mission turned out to be Armstrong's last space flight. The next year he was appointed to a desk job, being named NASA's deputy associate administrator for aeronautics in the office of advanced research and technology.

Armstrong's post-NASA life was a very private one. He took no major role in ceremonies marking the 25th anniversary of the moon landing. "He's a recluse's recluse," said Dave Garrett, a former NASA spokesman.

Hansen said stories of Armstrong dreaming of space exploration as a boy were apocryphal, although he was long dedicated to flight. "His life was about flying. His life was about piloting," Hansen said.

Born August 5, 1930, in Wapakoneta, Ohio, Armstrong was the first of three children of Stephen and Viola Armstrong. He married his college sweetheart, Janet Shearon, in 1956. They were divorced in 1994, when he married Carol Knight.

Armstrong had his first joyride in a plane at age 6. Growing up in Ohio, he began making model planes and by his early teens had amassed an extensive aviation library. With money earned from odd jobs, he took flying lessons and obtained his pilot's license even before he got a car license.

In high school he excelled in science and mathematics and won a U.S. Navy scholarship to Purdue University in Indiana, enrolling in 1947. He left after two years to become a Navy pilot, flying combat missions in the Korean War and winning three medals.

FLYING TEST PLANES

After the war he returned to Purdue and graduated in 1955 with an aeronautical engineering degree. He joined the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA), which became NASA in 1958.

Armstrong spent seven years at NACA's high-speed flight station at Edwards Air Force Base in California, becoming one of the world's best test pilots. He flew the X-15 rocket plane to the edge of space - 200,000 feet up (61,000 meters) at 4,000 mph (6,435 kph).

In September 1962, Armstrong was selected by NASA to be an astronaut. He was command pilot for the Gemini 8 mission and backup command pilot for the Gemini 11 mission, both in 1966.

On the Gemini 8 mission, Armstrong and fellow astronaut David Scott performed the first successful docking of a manned spacecraft with another space vehicle.

Armstrong put his piloting skills to good use on the moon landing, overriding the automatic pilot so he and fellow astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin would not have to land their module in a big rocky crater.

Yet the landing was not without danger. The lander had only about 30 seconds of fuel left when Armstrong put it down in an area known as the Sea of Tranquility and calmly radioed back to Mission Control on Earth, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

Aldrin, who along with Armstrong and Michael Collins formed the Apollo 11 crew, told BBC radio that he would remember Armstrong as "a very capable commander and leader of an achievement that will be recognized until man sets foot on the planet Mars."

Armstrong left the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) a year after Apollo 11 to become a professor of engineering at the University of Cincinnati.

DECLINES OFFERS TO RUN FOR OFFICE

After his aeronautical career, Armstrong was approached by political groups, but unlike former astronauts John Glenn and Harrison Schmitt who became U.S. senators, he declined all offers.

In 1986, he served on a presidential commission that investigated the explosion that destroyed the space shuttle Challenger, killing its crew of seven shortly after launch from Cape Canaveral in January of that year.

Armstrong made a rare public appearance several years ago when he testified to a congressional hearing against President Barack Obama administration's plans to buy rides from other countries and corporations to ferry U.S. astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

Armstrong also said that returning humans to the moon was not only desirable, but necessary for future exploration -- even though NASA says it is no longer a priority.

He lived in the Cincinnati area with his wife, Carol.

"We are heartbroken to share the news that Neil Armstrong has passed away," the family said in their statement. "Neil was our loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend."

His family expressed hope that young people around the world would be inspired by Armstrong's feat to push boundaries and serve a cause greater than themselves.

"The next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink," the family said.

Obama said that Armstrong "was among the greatest of American heroes - not just of his time, but of all time. ...

"Today, Neil's spirit of discovery lives on in all the men and women who have devoted their lives to exploring the unknown - including those who are ensuring that we reach higher and go further in space. That legacy will endure - sparked by a man who taught us the enormous power of one small step."

Glenn, an original NASA astronaut with Armstrong, spoke of his colleague's humble nature. "He was willing to dare greatly for his country and he was proud to do that and yet remained the same humble person he'd always been," he told CNN on Saturday.

The space agency sent out a brief statement in the wake of the news, saying it "offers its condolences on today's passing of Neil Armstrong, former test pilot, astronaut and the first man on the moon."

Armstrong is survived by his two sons, a stepson and stepdaughter, 10 grandchildren, a brother and a sister, NASA said.

Some controversy still surrounds his famous quote. The live broadcast did not have the "a" in "one small step for a man ..." He and NASA insisted static had obscured the "a," but after repeated playbacks, he admitted he may have dropped the letter and expressed a preference that quotations include the "a" in parentheses.

Asked to describe what it was like to stand on the moon, he told CBS:

"It's an interesting place to be. I recommend it."

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A durable, sweat-resistant design means your earphones stay looking and sounding good.

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Email Doesn't Have to Suck

There's a better way to manage your inbox--let SaneBox do most of the work for you.

Email is a pain. There are simply too many messages to handle—and I'm not even talking about spam from marketers (I use a separate address to collect those emails). The headache is the increasing number of legitimate business messages—it's a humongous time-suck that only seems to be getting worse.
Two years ago I answered nearly every message. A year ago I downgraded to at least trying to read them all. Last winter I started scanning the sender subject fields concentrating on the ones coming from people I knew or looked like they might contain information I needed. And lately, I've been considering closing my account and starting over with a private address reserved for only work colleagues and select sources.
Until, that is, I tried SaneBox.

It's like Gmail's Priority Inbox feature in that it looks at your messages and prior history engaging with those senders and decides which emails you're likely to deem most important.

When you turn on the Priority Inbox feature in Gmail, Google separates your email into three categories: Important and unread, Starred, and Everything Else; all the mail is still in your inbox, but the important messages are up top.

SaneBox is a bit different in that it removes less important messages from your inbox completely, moving them to an @SaneLater folder that you can peruse whenever you want. If SaneBox puts an important message into that folder you can move it to your inbox and it remembers the action so the next time you receive a message from that person, it will go to your inbox.

Priority Inbox is trainable in this way, as well; the more you move stuff around, the better it gets at categorization. But I prefer SaneBox.

SaneBox vs. Gmail's Priority Inbox

SaneBox gives you a custom dashboard including a timeline that graphs how many important and less important emails you get every day. My current average, according to SaneBox, is 81 a day. If I took a minute to read, digest, and respond to each one of them, that's nearly an hour and a half a day going through email. If you figure there's at least 250 work days in a year, I'm spending 375 hours annually on email. That's not acceptable.

In addition to the @SaneLater folder that stores non-essential messages, you can also enable folders such as @SaneNews for newsletters and @SaneBlackHole for those messages you want to send straight to your Trash. (Ha! Finally I'm getting revenge on a certain five-letter-titled fitness magazine that has not let me unsubscribe to its newsletters for two full years!)

Automated nagging!

And it also has a nifty feature that lets you CC or BCC a message to @SaneBox.com to remind you if someone doesn't respond.

So let's say you need an answer from your boss about a project and you need it no later than two days from now. In the CC field just include the address 2days@SaneBox.com and in two days SaneBox will put the message back in the top of your inbox if she never replied to it. This way you remember to bug her again.
SaneBox also creates an @SaneRemindMe folder that lets you keep track of all the messages to which you still need replies. Use oneweek@SaneBox.com, June5@SaneBox.com or 5minutes@SaneBox.com; it doesn't matter, SaneBox will figure out the time frame you need.

The service is $5 a month and works with email clients such as Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, iPhone, and Android and as well most email services like Microsoft Exchange, Yahoo, AOL, and Gmail.  The only service it doesn't currently support is Hotmail.

 Source: Inc.com

3 Cloud Services That Make Work Easier

Protect yourself against data loss, security blunders, and--that real productivity killer--inefficiency.

 

Bring up the cloud and you're likely to find people who either love it or don't trust it—no matter how secure and reliable you tell them it is.

It's easy to see it both ways.

For small businesses, cloud storage is affordable and frees you up from maintaining expensive physical servers that need upkeep. And it also makes accessing, updating, and sharing files—usually from any device—simple and fast.

Yet it's not without risk. High-profile outage incidents have shown that no entity is completely immune from hackers or downtime, regardless of what cloud service providers would have you believe.
If you're willing to give it a try, here are three services worth checking out:

File Backup: CrashPlan

Unlike other cloud storage providers that swear secondary backup isn't necessary, Minneapolis-based Code 42 Software advocates backing up important data to more than one place and makes it simple to do so as a complement to its cloud storage.

"Our Midwest ethos here is that you shouldn't really trust either method 100% and that's why we make it really easy to use more than one," says Code 42 CMO Mike Evangelist. "If you don't care about being able to get your data back of course just put all those eggs in one basket."

And unlike Dropbox or SugarSync that back up only the files you tell them to, Code 42's CrashPlan software automatically backs up everything on your hard drive—as much as once a minute—and encrypts it all before it leaves your computer. It also lets you back up to other computers and attached external hard drives as well as access, update, and share your files from mobile devices.

Another useful feature is that CrashPlan keeps copies of all versions of your files and even those you have deleted.  This means, for example, that you can go back and retrieve a version of a PowerPoint presentation you were using last year if you decide you liked it better than a more recent one.  And if you've ever accidentally deleted or lost a file you know how aggravating and time-consuming it is to recreate it. That's not a worry with CrashPlan.

Cost: Unlimited online storage for a single computer is just $7.49 a month. Alternately, you can buy a certain amount of online storage and share it across computers—plans range from 50GB for $17.49 a month all the way up to 4 terabytes for $999 a month. A 1 terabyte plan is probably enough for 30-40 computers. You can also check out CrashPlan's calculator widget which can give you a more precise estimate.

Online Collaboration: Mindjet Connect

Many cloud storage services claim to offer online collaboration features but Mindjet Connect is different because helping people get work done together regardless of their locations is its forte, not some add-on function.

While Mindjet Connect lets you share files, communicate with business partners, and manage projects, it also helps teams do research, collect ideas and thoughts in a collaborative fashion, brainstorm issues and alternative paths, set goals, establish a plan, and coordinate team actions.

What's missing from some solutions that tout collaborative features is a method for encouraging and capturing ideas and collective thinking. That type of brainstorming in the traditional setting typically involves a conference room with a white board, possibly a video conference component, as well as people taking notes and that, according to Mindjet CEO Scott Raskin, doesn't exist in most other cloud solutions.

"With our product you can create an information map and lay out in a visual format all your ideas and thoughts [about the project], someone else can interact with that in real time and add comments the two of you can see. It's almost like you're working on the same white board but the whiteboard has structure," Raskin says.

Cost: Mindjet Connect is free for individual users. Business plans start at $12.75 per user per month (with volume discounts ).

Sync Devices: Huddle Sync

IT administrators aren't big fans of employees using for work some of the most popular cloud storage and syncing solutions. Why not? If one of your company's documents ends up in Google's index or on some peer-to-peer file sharing site they're the ones who have to do damage control.

Huddle Sync, Huddle's enterprise file synchronization platform, is different from consumer sync tools because it was built to meet enterprise security and compliance requirements and uses learning algorithms and predictive technology to fully sync only certain files. Not only that but it keeps track of where company data is stored and who has synced what files, as well as provides full audit trails for every single file.
Another interesting feature involves remote wiping of data. While plenty of tools are able to do this when a device is lost, stolen, or when an employee leaves a company, Huddle Sync is different because it can remove only business data and leave personal stuff intact. This is a great feature considering many people use their own devices for work.

Huddle Sync is currently in private beta but you can register at the site if you want to try it out.

Cost: Free when it's part of a Huddle subscription, which begins at $20 per user per month.

Fake Intel Core i7 CPU

Fake Intel Core i7 CPU – Perfectly Normal?From the outside the box looks perfectly normal… right?

Kerja Kursus ICT

KERJA KURSUS ICT

Assessment LA1.S01.1 & LA1.S01.2  

Objective(s):
Upon completion of this assessments, you should be able to : 

i)  identify security threats 

ii) know what measurements should be taken to overcome the threats

Assessment: LA1.S01.1 - Using Anti Virus     
 
Assessment: LA1.S01.2 - Using Anti-Spyware
Apply Correct Security Procedures Using Anti-Spyware
Jika tiada perisian antispyware maka anda boleh download portable antispyware secara percuma di SINI

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Assessment LA1.S02.1

Locate and present information on impact of ICT on society

1.     Copyright and Piracy from Moral and Legal Standpoints. Pautan 1  Pautan 2  Pautan 3

2.   Lack of Security and its Effects on Industry/Economy/ Government Pautan 

3.   Malaysian Cyber Law, Electronic Government Law. Pautan 1  Pautan 2  Pautan 3  
4.    Phishing Pautan 1 Pautan 2

5.   Virus (Trojan Horse, Salami Attack) Pautan 1  Pautan 2  Pautan 3   Pautan 4  Pautan 5 
6.   Hacking Pautan 1  Pautan 2   
7.   Security Measures (Biometrics, Authentication) Pautan 1  Pautan 2 

 

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LA2.S05.1

Explain the latest open source software available and the latest development in ICT

1.0       Introduction - Pautan -KLIK (1)  KLIK (2)

2.0        The Latest Open Source Operating System (OS)
        2.1        Meaning of open source operating system - Pautan KLIK (1) KLIK (2) 

                         Murid2 perlu memberi definisi open source diikuti definisi operating system 
                                 dan gabungkan makna kedua2 tadi  menjadi  satu definsi untuk 2.1              2.2        Example of open source operating system:- Pautan KLIK 

3.0              The Latest Open Source Application Software

3.1                 Meaning of open source application software - Pautan KLIK (1)  KLIK (2)

3.2         Example of open source application software - Pautan KLIK (1)  KLIK (2)   

           KLIK    (3)KLIK (4)

4.0       The Latest Development in ICT (Comparison)

            4.1         Hardware  - Pautan - KLIK

            4.2         Software - Pautan - KLIK (1)   KLIK (2)  KLIK (3)  
5.0       Pervasive Computing - Muat Naik SINI

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LA4.S09.1 

Gather Examples Of Immersive Multimedia In Education, Business or Entertainment

(***Buat yang mudah - Entertainment)

Immersive Multimedia In Entertainment

The history of Immersive Multimedia began with the concept of Virtual Reality. In the late 1960s, the desire of computer scientists and artists was to create, digitally-made ‘near-to-reality’ experiences through Interactive Multimedia. This became known as Virtual Reality. Virtual Reality, today, is a computer-created environment that a user can experience through the senses of sight, hearing and touch. Immersive Multimedia is a combination of multimedia elements and interactivity in Virtual Reality. Immersive refer to computer generated simulation of reality with physical, spatial and visual dimension. This interactive technology is used by architechs, science and engineering research and the arts, entertainment, and video games industry. Virtual Reality system can simulate everythings from walk through of a building prior to construction to simulations of aircraft flight and three dimension computer games. Immersive technologies and virtual reality are powerful and compelling computer application by which humans can interact

Sejarah Immersive Multimedia bermula dengan konsep Virtual Reality. Pada akhir 1960-an, keinginan saintis komputer dan seniman adalah untuk mencipta dunia digital yang memberimmpengalaman hampir kepada 'realiti' melalui   Multimedia Interaktif. Ini dikenali sebagai Virtual Reality. Virtual Reality, hari ini, adalah mencipta persekitaran komputer yang dapat memberi pengalaman kepada manusia melalui deria penglihatan, pendengaran dan sentuhan. Immersive Multimedia adalah kombinasi dari unsur-unsur multimedia dalam VirtualReality. Immersive merujuk kepada komputer yang menghasilkan simulasi realiti dengan dimensi fizikal,kejuruteraan dan visual. Teknologi interaktif kini digunakan dalam bidang arkitek, sains, kejuruteraan , seni , hiburan dan industri permainan video . Melalui Virtual Reality, ia dapat mensimulasikan pelbagai keadaan seperti berjalan melalui sebuah bangunan sebelum pembinaan, juga untuk simulasi penerbangan pesawat dan permainan komputer tiga dimensi . Teknologi Immersive dan virtual reality dapat membolehkan aplikasi komputer dan manusia berinteraksi.

Contoh  

1. Permainan - Bola Sepak (SINI)

2. Permainan - Street Fighters (SINI)

3. Permainan - Kapal Terbang (SINI)

4. Permainan  - Counter Strike (SINI)

5. Permainan - FI Racing (SINI)

6. Permainan - Golf  (SINI)

LA5.S10.1

Apply Program Development Phases To Develop A Problem-Solving Program

Soalan-Soalan Visual Basic Untuk Kerja Kursus

*** soalan-soalan yang mudah untuk dibuat beserta formula

       KLIK SINI

Modul-modul VB for Assessment

      Circle

      Triangle

      Average 3 Number

LA5.S11.1

Find Out The Latest Programming Language

Pautan Artikel (klik SINI)

LA6.S13.1 

Find Out Current Developments In Computer Information Systems

Definition of web-based application (klik SINI)