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TechCentral.in : India’s newest technology forum

admin — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:38:35 +0000

Am blogging after a real long time, sort of had lost interest. It was a good thing that my friend asked me to do some publicity for his forum and I thought it is probably a good idea to get back to blogging with that incentive.

The forum I am talking about is at http://www.techcentral.in . It is basically a forum to seek answers about hardware and software, discuss new trends in technology and discuss new digital products on the market. It also has a software downloads section and a videos section which has videos of new products on the market. So take a look and signup at this great forum, which is just taking off.

Mark Zuckerberg in Pune

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:00:59 +0000

Ok, so Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was in Pune this weekend. Attending one of his friend’s wedding and he also visited the Osho ashram and the Jewish Chabad house in Pune. Here is a pic from his visits.

Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook Founder) in Pune, India

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Theora, the open video format

admin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:25:56 +0000

Theora is a royalty-free, open standard, lossy video compression technology being developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation alongside their other open media efforts, most notably the Vorbis audio codec and the Ogg container.

libtheora is a reference implementation of the Theora video compression format being developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation.

Theora is derived from the proprietary VP3 codec, released into the public domain by On2 Technologies. It is broadly comparable firstly in design and bitrate efficiency to MPEG-4 Part 2, early versions of Windows Media Video, and RealVideo, and secondly in open standards philosophy to the BBC’s Dirac codec.

Theora is named for Theora Jones, Edison Carter’s Controller on the Max Headroom television program.

Playback

Embedded by HTML 5

Main article: Use of Ogg formats in HTML5

As originally recommended by HTML 5, these browsers support Theora when embedded by the video element:

Mozilla Firefox 3.5 and later versions
Google Chrome as of version 3.0.182.2
SeaMonkey as of version 2.0
Opera 9.5 experimental video builds and pre-alpha builds of Opera 10.50
Future versions of Konqueror

Browser plugins

Annodex plugin via OggPlay
Cortado, a Java based applet
- Itheora, a PHP wrapper for Cortado
Mv Embed HTML 5 video tag wrapper for numerous plugin types.
VLC media player browser plugin for IE or Firefox

Supporting media frameworks

DirectShow with use of DirectShow filters
GStreamer supported via Theora module, supports GStreamer based applications eg. Totem and Songbird
Phonon
QuickTime with use of Xiph QuickTime Components

Supporting applications

FFmpeg (own implementation)
Helix Player
Miro Media Player (formerly known as Democracy Player)
MPlayer and front-ends
Songbird
VLC (native support)
xine and all libxine-based players like Kaffeine

Soft power for the masses, Media Lab Asia

admin — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:30:45 +0000

With an aim of ‘ Technology for all ‘, IT ministry’s Media Lab Asia has developed softwares and gadgets that can empower students, disabled and the unlettered.

ML Asia has come up with 16 special projects to bring the benefits of technology to the common man. These are for improving healthcare, education, empowerment of disabled and generating livelihood according to CEO and MD Shankar N. Goswami.

Interesting projects,

MLA has developed a software to help cerebral palsy patients to communicate.
MLA has developed a special speech recognition software that will enable visually impaired and unlettered people to use computers and mobile phones.
Create virtual lab set-ups for students of class XI and XII, to carry out life sciences experiments in a virtual environment.
Development of software to help students of class XI and XII to solve complex maths problems.
Developed a van equipped with machines for ultrasound, X-ray, ECG and a mini pathology lab to visit rural areas.
Improving data collection systems for Tuberculosis control, Malaria Control and family health survey.

Read the full Times of India article hosted on the Media Lab Asia website.

Facilitate accessible content for visually impaired students : MLAsia

admin — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:12:57 +0000

Would you like to support Media Lab Asia in facilitating accessible content to visually impaired students. The objectives of the centre is to facilitate books & other study material in E-text, Audio, DAISY & other accessible formats to persons with blindness & low vision.

Media Lab Asia has been promoted by Department of Information technology, MCIT, Govt. of India as a not for profit company. The objective of the company was set to bring the benefits of ICT to the common man.

Media Lab Asia is extending an appeal to support generation of audio & DAISY books on a continuous basis. This noble act with help in education and rehabilitation of visually impaired students.

Conversion of each book costs Rs 4000 /- and is income tax deductible.

Funds received will be recognized at the Media Lab Asia website. The donor’s name will also be acknowledged in forward of the respective book.

For further details, contact gauravtakkar@medialabasia.in

List of books in demand,

1) Books for different competitive examination
2) Books on disability statistics
3) ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’
4) Fluency in English-Part 1, Fluency in English-Part 2, English for the Students of Science, and technical Writing.
5) Book of Jaswant Singh on Jinnah
6) English literature books in e-text form
7) CBSE syllabus books
Notes for MBA entrance
9) Study material for Civil service exam (prelims and mains) for the SOCIAOLOGY subject
10) Haristtatal book
11) (M A) Part 2 for English Literature
12) Soft form on the history of greek literature
13) 12th English notes for Commerce
14) CA books
15) Book on Indian constitution
16) Book–”Greek Political Theory”
17) International relations book
18) Book on data mining
19) Books of political science
20) Book entitled “The Sea” by John Benville
21) Book “The Alcamist” by Paulo Kohalo
22) Book for preparation of U.B.I exam
23) History of Indian writings in English authored by Srinivasa Iyangar
24) Indian English Literature Books
25) “GRID2” written by IAN Foster
26) “Values for life” by Dr. Ignasimuthu
27) Language of medicine book
28) C++ by Sumit Arora for class xii
29) CAT’s preparation material
30) “Business Studies” by Punam Gandhi
31) Book of Economics comprehensive
32) Accounts NCERT part I
33) Accounts NCERT part II
34) English Grammar books
35) Books for the preparation of BBA and BCom entrance exam
36) Book called “Principles of Management”
37) Book for JAIIB examination
38) Book by M. Tyra of quicker mathematics
39) Artificial Intelligence – a modern approach by Russle norvig
40) Book by P.G. Woodehouse namely “Thank you Jeeves and Jeeves in the Offing”
41) “Winners Standing Alone” by “Paulo Coelho”
42) Marketing management by Philip Kotler
43) Technology in business by Laundon and Laundon
44) Business Law by Kuchchal
45) Marketing research by Tull and Hawkins
46) Organizational Behaviour by Stephen Robbins
47) Micro Economics by Salvatore
48) Enterprise Resource Planning by Jaiswal and Vanapalli
49) Manufacturing Resource Planning by Khalid Sheikh
50) Production Planning by Sammual Eilon
51) Income Tax Act
52) Hindi computer tutorials

Media Lab Asia , an intiative of the Union Government of India

admin — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:05:42 +0000

Media Lab Asia is a not for profit research organisation, started with a goal of bringing the benefits of innovation and technology to the masses. It was formed as a result of a collaboration with the Government of India (Ministry of Communications and Information Technology).

It is comprised of a network of research labs on the campuses of the IIT’s at Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kanpur & Kharagpur.

Media Labs Asia also collaborates with not-for-profit organizations to develop and deploy technology that helps the masses. Over 30 research projects are underway with promising results.

There are four key focus areas for research:

Bits For All: Establishing leadership in low-cost rural communication
World Computer: Building low cost computing devices, accessible and affordable to the common man.
Tomorrow’s Tools: Creating language interfaces and low cost sensors
Digital Village: Where the consolidation of the three research topics are embodied in field research across the country, and in delivering value to the masses.

So why is it being called Media Lab Asia and not Media Lab India ?

The collaboration is for the whole of Asia, but as of now the operations have begun only in India. The technologies which will be developed with be adapted by other countries in the developing world.

How is Media Lab Asia funded ?

It is seed-funded by the Government of India with Rs 65 crore (approx. US $14 million)

External Links

Objectives of Media Lab Asia | Brochure

Want to build your own DIY Book Scanner ?

admin — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 09:50:04 +0000

So would you like to take on Google Books by building your own DIY Book scanner for just $300 ? Well one person did just that by using basic carpentry skills, two cameras and a whole load of common sense.

I think it’s a great piece of machine if you want to digitize your own book collection yourself, but it does raise a whole heap of copyright questions such as * Do you own the book in all its formats when you buy it ? and would any manufacturer be willing to take the risk of going into commercial production of a book scanner for personal use. I don’t see a big market for it out there, but I might be wrong. I don’t see any use for myself though. All the stuff I read is already digitized.

DIY Book Scanner , http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/12/diy-book-scanner/

And there are heaps of other DIY book scanning projects around the world. It does look straight out of a science fiction movie and I have to say the robots do look scary. The DIY Book Scanning project, http://diybookscanner.org/

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OpenID : What is it , why use it, who supports it, and how to use it

admin — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 05:26:59 +0000

OpenID is an open, decentralized standard for authenticating users which can be used for access control, allowing users to log on to different services with the same digital identity where these services trust the authentication body. OpenID replaces the common login process that uses a login-name and a password, by allowing a user to log in once and gain access to the resources of multiple software systems. The term OpenID can also refer to an ID used in the standard.

In simpler terms, it is to get rid of having multiple logins and passwords for various websites, by replacing it with just one OpenID

So who uses OpenID ?

Several large websites including AOL, BBC, Google, IBM, Microsoft, MySpace,Orange, PayPal,Verisign,LiveJournal,Yandex,Ustream, and Yahoo!

So how do you get an OpenID ?

You might already have an eligible OpenID if you have account with one of these services. Your Open ID url is

Google : https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id * Note : DO NOT replace the ‘id’ with your google username

Blogger :.blogspot.com

Myspace : www.myspace.com/

LiveJournal : .livejournal.com

Wordpress : .wordpress.com

AOL/AIM : openid.aol.com/

If you do not have an account with any of these services, you can either open an account or sign up for your Open ID at https://www.myopenid.com/

How to use your Open ID ?

1. Select the option of using Open ID on the website you are trying to log in.

2. Enter the url of your open ID, for example https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/

3. You are redirected to Google.com where you provide your Google account password and accept the terms that your details would be used by the original website

4. You are redirected back to the original website where you are logged in.

If you are still confused, here is a video

How to use OpenID

Use Google account as Open ID