As a data storage medium in a large capacity, the invention HDD backdrop of application programs may not stay in one disc. In addition to storage capacity, the ability to be balanced by the speed of HDD access. Improving the performance of HDD, processor speed, memory and storage capacity are important components determining performance of the computer.

Especially for the HDD, the rate of speed as measured from the revolutions per minute (RPM). Now, the HDD is available has a speed of 5400 RPM, 7200 RPM, 10,000 RPM, and 15,000 RPM. RPM HDD with 10 000 and 15 000 are usually not used for personal computer (PC) desktop. Because, the price is still quite high. Its use is more for special purposes such as in servers, as well as graphics and gaming purposes.

But, high-speed HDD is also not immune from problems. First, if you have problems in spindle motor, the damage quickly spread to other parts. Second, the revolution speed improvement on the Bering HDD causing vibration and noise.

He said most major forms of transformation that occurred in the current generation is more and more information is distributed to the public. According to his view, the change needs to share the fact is starting and Facebook tried to serve him.

An important part of what we’re doing is working on what is required of people in the future and provide the means to use it,” said Zuckerberg. He admitted to not worry about the unrest in the millions of people who complained to the privacy settings on Facebook for now.

Several times the privacy settings on Facebook and complain because the frequent changes confusing. Facebook privacy settings are also implemented opt-out, where users have to choose who can not see the display of information rather than more secure approach is an opt-in or for whom the content is divided.

Thousands of people have threatened to walk out and delete her account on Facebook on May 31, 2010 as a form of protest and pressure on Facebook.

“Because of the very high demand in the U.S., we are forced to take a decision to postpone the launch iPad internationally for a month,” the official Apple announcement. iPad has been sold on 3 April 2010 As from then and had been due to other countries later this month, but delayed hingag end of May.

Apple said during the first week, have sold more than 500,000 units iPad. However, total demand is still very much far above estimates. Even far above the predicted existing supply in the next few weeks.

“We will announce the official price to international price and start ordering online starting May 10,” continued the statement Apple. In the U.S. market, Apple sold starting price of 449 dollars.

iPad is Apple’s latest breakthrough product in the form of tablet PC with 8.9 inch touch screen without a physical keyboard. Sistsme operations using the iPhone OS and equipped with a WiFi connection. Version with additional 3G connectivity will be available to follow. iPad is also equipped iBooks application for reading digital books and accessing services iBookstore.

But do not worry about the classified ad will not disrupt the Twitter users. These ads will only appear among the search results only. Classifieds called “Promoted Tweets” will appear between 2-10 percent of the messages that come out of its search service.

“Users will begin to see Tweet campaign that sent the advertisers from the search results a few things that were popular in Twitter.com,” said Sean Garrett, a spokesman for Twitter, Tuesday (13/4/2010) as reported by Reuters. Some companies are already interested to take advantage of this service. Among others, Best Buy, Virgin America, and Starbucks.

Classifieds are likely viewed millions of times. Twitter the new operation is now 2.5 years has been one popular service in the world. But so far Twitter has not even had a commercial partnership with Google and Microsoft to integrate its message to appear in search services.

Camera Genius is a do-it-all app that includes a digital zoom, shutter release and photo timer.

Photogene helps with cropping, sharpening and straightening images.

It’s easy to understand why: not only is the iPhone a universal communications tool, its one-button camera is also stunningly simple to use.

“It really opens your eyes creatively when you have to take a photo with something with such limited functionality,” said Chase Jarvis, a commercial photographer based in Seattle who has been smitten by the iPhone’s camera. “The beauty is in its simplicity. There are no lights or other equipment.”

But you can add creative control and functionality with camera tools from the Apple App Store. Like the iPhone itself, iPhone camera apps are snap-simple to use, according to Mr. Jarvis, who has developed his own app (more on that later), published an iPhone photo book and started an online community for iPhone photo enthusiasts.

Just as the iPhone is a very basic camera, so too are the camera apps. None deliver the functionality of Photoshop CS4, nor will they endow your iPhone with digital S.L.R.-like powers. The best hit the sweet spot where appropriate features and usability meet, although there is no shortage of goofy one-trick gimmicks.

Roughly 2,000 camera apps are available at prices that start at the unbeatable free and typically top out at $2.99. Here are 15 that will help you capture, edit, enhance and share your images.

Snap the Shot

Camera Genius (99 cents): This do-it-all app includes an intuitive digital zoom, a full-screen shutter release that enables you to tap anywhere on the LCD to snap a shot and a photo timer that will automatically capture the action. Also part of the package is a grid that helps you level a photo and an antishake feature that waits until the phone is steady to release the shutter.

Best Camera ($2.99): Mr. Jarvis collaborated with a software developer to design an app to help create, edit and share photos. After snapping the shot, you can apply a range of filters and effects; should you get carried away, you can simply remove the filters you’ve applied. The sharing feature enables one-click uploads to Facebook, Twitter and e-mail accounts. You can also share photos in real time on Mr. Jarvis’s new online community, thebestcamera.com.

Snapture ($1.99): Burst mode is great for sports or action shots, and Snapture gets the ball rolling by snapping three consecutive shots. It includes a leveler, a full-screen shutter release and a 5X digital zoom. Some of its features are curiously hidden, so it’s a good idea to click the info link for an overview.

Camera Zoom 2 (99 cents): The App Store offers a handful of digital zoom tools, but Camera Zoom 2 is the best. It provides a 4X digital zoom that is easily adjustable. It produces slightly sharper images than free apps and also includes a full-screen shutter, an antishake feature and a shutter-release timer.

Night Camera (99 cents): The iPhone flails in low light, but this app can restore a little detail to photos. Night Camera employs the iPhone’s accelerometer to fire the shutter only when the camera is stable. It also includes full-screen shutter release and the ability to save images in black and white or sepia.

Edit and Add Filters

Photogene ($2.99): This capable, easy-to-use app enables you to apply standard fixes like crop, sharpen and straighten. You can correct colors (using a histogram or an auto button) and tweak exposure and contrast. Photogene goes beyond standard editing with the ability to add thought bubbles and other shapes as well as a variety of frame types and effects. It includes multiple undo, so edit with abandon.

Crop for Free (free): Cropping is a must-have utility, and this one is free. Just click the crop icon, grab the red brackets in any corner of the photo and drag to size. Easy as pie.

CameraBag ($1.99): If you buy just one filter app, make it CameraBag. This tool lets you apply vintage camera and film simulations to photos. Helga, for instance, creates a square-format toy camera treatment with washed-out highlights and retro vignettes. Other filters include Magazine (rich tones), Mono (balanced black and white), 1974 (faded and tinted), infrared (black and white inverted), Lolo (hyper-vibrant), Instant (Polaroid), 1962 (high-contrast black and white) and fisheye. You can combine filters to create a custom style. It’s enormously fun and easy.

Cool fx (99 cents): Cool fx, from the camera lens maker Tiffen, packs a whopping 172 preset filters into one 99-cent tool. Cool fx’s five categories — monochrome, color, diffusion, grain and temperature — provide a trove of film and photographic filters that includes 70 black-and-white film filters and 50 diffusion textures, including the esoteric Donkey Fur. You can crop photos, create custom vignettes and adjust brightness. The interface is a bit baffling, so expect to spend a few minutes learning.

ShakeItPhoto (99 cents): If you’ve noticed people cheerfully shaking their iPhones recently, they’re probably using ShakeItPhoto to create a “fauxlaroid” effect. The app is a snap to use: Select an image and click Use, and a Polaroid-like print descends from the top of the screen, complete with sound effects. Shake the iPhone to make the image “develop” faster.

CameraBag lets you apply camera simulations like a fisheye lens to photos.

Cool fx provides 172 preset filters.

PixelPipe makes uploading and sharing photos easier.

iFlashReady (99 cents): iPhones are woefully flash-less, which makes low-light situations highly challenging. The software-based “flash” employed by iFlashReady can help you brighten images after they have been captured. Many apps enable you to adjust brightness, but iFlashReady is based on an algorithm that its maker says intelligently lightens each pixel.

Get Creative

ColorSplash ($1.99): Drama and fun converge in this app, which converts images to black and white and then lets you use your finger to “paint” color back in on certain areas — a stunning effect. You can zoom in for precision finger painting, and customize brush types and sizes. Sharing on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr is built into the app.

TiltShift Generator (99 cents): This app makes it a breeze to simulate the bokeh effect produced by D.S.L.R.’s by selecting a focal point and then blurring the background. TiltShift Generator offers radial or linear blur, the size of which can be easily adjusted. The app also enables you to tweak saturation and brightness as well as create custom vignettes. It features an auto-export feature for Twitter and e-mail accounts. One downside: Images are saved in a noticeably lower resolution.

Sharing the Results

PixelPipe (free): PixelPipe is a fast and easy way to upload photos and videos to all your photo-sharing sites, microblogs, social networks and e-mail accounts — at the same time. The service can upload to as many of the 95 destinations, and it can do so in full resolution or in bandwidth-friendly smaller file sizes. It’s easy to set up new uploads, although it’s best to use the app when connected to Wi-Fi.

Your photo-sharing app (free): Whatever online photo-sharing service you favor, it has an app that enables you to upload and download photos, browse images stored online, create slide shows and e-mail gallery links. Just search the App Store for services like Flickr, Shutterfly, Kodak Gallery, Photobucket, SmugMug and more.  

 By RIK FAIRLIE

The message contained a link to Orkut, a social networking site popular in Brazil. Someone had created a fake profile, using headshots of Mrs. Gwozdz’s 4-year-old daughter.

“They gave her a fake name, Melodie Cuthbert, and a relationship status that said she was interested in making friends and dating men,” Mrs. Gwozdz recalled in a recent telephone interview. Other Orkut members had given the profile a “sexy” rating of two and a half hearts.

The discovery turned out to be little more than a gut-churning prank. According to a Flickr spokeswoman, young teenage girls in Brazil were copying children’s pictures from the photo-sharing site to create “paper doll” profiles, then giving each other “sexy” ratings depending on the quality of their work.

Mrs. Gwozdz contacted Flickr and Orkut, which deleted the profiles. And Mrs. Gwozdz has now taken advantage of Flickr’s privacy settings. But to this day she occasionally gets e-mail messages to her Flickr account from strangers saying things like “family very beautiful” and “I would ask you, let me use the photos of his daughter.”

Such is the stuff of parents’ nightmares in the social networking age, when Facebook is rapidly taking the place of the baby book. Young parents are flooding photo-sharing and social networking sites — Snapfish, Twitter, YouTube, even Match.com — with images of their children dancing, singing and bathing.

Not everyone is sure that all that sharing is such a good idea. Several groups on Facebook rail against people posting children’s photos. On Parenting.com, the editor, Susan Kane, says the debate “is constantly going on.” And on blogs, school listservs and at kitchen tables, the argument flares: should young children’s photos be shared online?

Just consider these recent postings on UrbanBaby.com and Momversation.com, two discussion sites for young mothers:

“You should not have any photos of your children on the Internet at all!”

“They’re 3 years old, it’s not that big a deal.”

“If you want to post pictures of my kids online, you’d better ask me first (so I can say no!)”

“Why were they naked?”

Like other parental debates — whether to spank or when to let children travel alone — the issue tends to divide parents into two familiar camps: the vigilant and the laissez-faire. Some parents want to protect their children from what is unlikely but still tragically possible. Others say children will do best when learning to live with the realities of the Web.

Squashed in the middle are parents who impose their own haphazard rules: Only post on password-protected sites. Leave out names. Yes to Flickr, no to YouTube. And for heaven’s sake, no bathtub photos.

Parents are grappling with what is safe, and what fears are irrational. As with most debates about child safety, the risks are not as severe as many imagine. But neither is posting photos online as safe as many assume.

Elizabeth Hunter, a blogger from Arlington, Mass., frequently posts pictures of her 2-year-old daughter on her site. To her, it’s a matter of living with the reality of the Web.

“Hundreds of kids die in swimming pools every year, but we don’t shut down all the pools,” she said. “We teach kids how to swim.”

“I don’t put up pictures of her completely naked or ones that show her genitalia, obviously, but I have shown pictures of her in the bathtub,” she added. “Sure, people can probably figure out where she is and stalk her, but child abductions from strangers are such strange occurrences, really.”

Rebecca Woolf, a Los Angeles-based writer, uses her children’s real names on her site, and shows their faces. But she said in an interview, “I wouldn’t even post a picture of my son from behind if he were naked.”

It’s not always easy to know what’s the right thing to do. “I feel conflicted about it,” she said. “People have said to me, ‘Oh, you’re exploiting your kids.’ But the medium is so new, none of us know what is going to happen.”

“We tell our children all the time to be careful, don’t reveal your information, don’t give your name, don’t talk to strangers,” said Jodi Garrett, a registered nurse in San Diego, Calif., who does not post pictures of her two children. “To me, a picture posted on the Internet is a big piece of information. I cringe when I see what people post.”

And even strict parents can’t always keep out the rest of the world. Kathryn Murray, a mother from the Upper East Side who asked to use her middle name instead of her first to protect her family’s privacy, said she limits pictures of her son to Picasa, a site that allows for invitation-only access. But she recently had an awkward moment when a friend told her she had posted pictures of her son on Facebook. She was considering how to ask her politely to take it down, when her friend, sensing the tension, beat her to it.

“My facial expression was enough,” she recalled.

Fueling the anxiety of parents like Ms. Murray is a doomsday scenario: a predator finds pictures of a cute child on the Internet, figures out where the child lives or goes to school and snatches him.

“It’s probably not too difficult to go through those pictures and figure out we live on the Upper East Side,” Ms. Murray said. “And then it’s ‘Oh, I’ve been to that park,’ or ‘I know that street,’ What’s to stop a pedophile from putting two and two together?”

Her fears are misplaced, experts on online safety say.

“Research shows that there is virtually no risk of pedophiles coming to get kids because they found them online,” said Stephen Balkam, chief executive of the Family Online Safety Institute. While the debate makes this crime seem common, he said, all the talk is really just “techno-panic.”

Prof. David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, says TV shows like the “Dateline NBC” program “To Catch a Predator” have falsely inflated the danger of the Internet.

“There is this characterization of pedophiles using the Internet as an L. L. Bean catalog, but this is not the way it happens,” he said. Predators are much more likely to look in chat rooms or other sites, he said, where teenagers are suggesting that they may be open to a sexual relationship.

The real danger is that a photo is appropriated and mistreated.

Gretchen White, a blogger from Westminster, Colo., discovered a young woman on MySpace passing off pictures of her baby as her own. “It turns out she had faked a pregnancy online and needed a baby to show for it,” Mrs. White said.

Suspicious friends of the young woman traced the photo back to Mrs. White’s blog and alerted her. “My initial reaction was, I’m never blogging again,” Mrs. White said, but decided instead to brand all her pictures with a watermark of her blog’s URL, an increasingly common tactic for mommy bloggers.

Rachel Sarah, author of the book “Single Mom Seeking,” recently came across a Web site for a group in California that used a picture of her and her daughter as an advertisement. They took it down at her request, but she said the experience was “unsettling.”

The possibility always exists that pedophiles are lifting such pictures, Professor Finkelhor says, but it is not something he has encountered. And, he said, it’s unlikely for a discomfiting reason: actual child pornography is so readily available that pedophiles aren’t likely to waste time cruising social networks looking for less explicit material.

Regardless of what danger may come to your children by posting pictures, there is one hazard whose existence no one can question: other parents. And their wrath could be enough to make anyone think twice before posting photos of little Charlie’s fourth birthday party.

Aaron Baar, a freelance writer from Chicago, posted a video last year of his son’s school holiday concert on YouTube, so his parents could see it.

“I put it up there and I forgot about it,” he said. But he had tagged the video with the name of the school, and one by one students started finding it.

Several months later he received an e-mail message from the mother of the child standing next to his son asking him to take it down. That parent also shared her e-mail message with the class’s other parents, touching off a small avalanche of disapproving posts on a local message board regarding Mr. Baar’s parenting skills.

“To this day I don’t feel comfortable bringing a camera to a school play,” he said.

These markets are expected to reach 70% of worldwide shipments this year.

Rapid expansion of the Chinese and Indian DTH platforms and analogue terrestrial switch-off in the US are pushing sales of FTA satellite equipment and digital-to-analogue (D/A) converter boxes.

One factor has been the delay of plans in the US to switch-over from analogue terrestrial broadcasts which happened in June this year, this extended the uptake period for D/A converter boxes.

It is estimated that the number of active analogue TVs in the US and Canada stands at more than 110 million, indicating the size of the DTT upgrade market.

DTT boxes shipped to the US will account for more than 20% of global STB shipments in 2008 and 2009.

Though demand for DTT STBs in the US will dissipate over the next 18 months, uptake of DTH services in China and India is forecast to increase through at least 2010.

So shrinking demand in the US, due to the switchover, and rapid growth in emerging markets will drop China, India, and the US’s share of worldwide STB shipments to less than 50% in 2013.
Growth of emerging DTV markets, particularly in Asia and Latin America, will account for a large portion of shipments, particularly of DTH and DTT STBs and iDTVs.

by Richard Wilson

Adapted from ElectronicsWeekly.com

“This surface works for vertical and horizontal polarisation. Previously they could only be one or the other,” lead engineer Dr Raymond Dickey told Electronics Weekly.

The devices operate in the 250-360GHz range and are intended for radiometers in weather satellites.

Developed at the University’s Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT), one of the key challenges was that the devices have to be strong enough to withstand space launch as well as selective and low-loss.
The answer was to make the surfaces extremely thin - 10µm.

“They are free-standing, made out of silicon-on-insulator wafers,” said Dickey.

Using deep reactive ion etching 5,000 slots are micromachined into a 30mm diameter active area through the 10µm thick top silicon layer, then the carrier wafer and buried oxide is removed.

Sequential layers of titanium, copper, silver and gold give the mesh suitable electrical properties.

The final device has two if these membranes mounted almost touching (see photo). “Interference between the screens cancels signals at 350GHz,” said Dickey.

The patterns are a series of C-slots (with shorts at the right hand side) and rectangular slots (half visible at the bottom of the photo.

The outer one wavelength C slots work on vertical signals, said Dickie, while the inner half-wavelength slots work on horizontal signals.

In use, the surface passes frequencies that enable the associated radiometer to detect ozone.

“Attenuation is under 0.6dB between 316 and 325GHz, and isolation is greater than 30db between 345 and 358GHz,” said Dickey.

Rejected energy is reflected, enabling it to be passed on to other instruments.

“Beam splitters operating at higher frequency ranges are also being developed,” said the University. “These include one designed to operate at 664GHz which will be the highest frequency dual polarisation FSS ever developed.”

The work is being funded by the UK Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation, the European Space Agency and EADS Astrium.

by Steve Bush

Adapted from ElectronicsWeekly.com

The news item, as reported on TechSpot, stated: ‘Another despised restriction on daily life in Cuba has ended, with the government recently lifting the ban on personal computer sales. . . . . . There’s only one model available and from a cost-benefit point of view it’d seem like a rip-off to most people in the developed world, but it’s a start nonetheless. For just under $800, buyers will get a Celeron processor, 80GB hard drive, 512MB of RAM, Windows XP, CRT monitor, and a DVD drive.’

The SEC letter to Intel stated: “We are aware of a May 2008 news report that PCs in Cuba contain your Celeron processors. Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria are identified by the State Department as state sponsors of terrorism, and are subject to U.S. economic sanctions and export controls.”

The letter continues. “We note that your Form 10-K does not include disclosure regarding contacts with Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria. Please describe to us the nature and extent of any past, current, and anticipated contacts with the referenced countries, whether through distributors, resellers, licensees, or other direct or indirect arrangements.”

The SEC letter adds: “Describe any products or technology you have provided to the referenced countries, directly or indirectly, and any agreements, commercial arrangements, or other contacts you have had with the governments of those countries or entities controlled by those governments.”

Sign up for the weekly Mannerisms blog newsletter, delivered on Tuesdays.Intel’s reply to the SEC letter states: “Intel has no business contacts with the Subject Countries, either directly or indirectly through tacit agreement with its customers. Intel does not provide products or technology to the Subject Countries.”

by David Manners
Adapted from ElectronicsWeekly.com

Downstream systems that you want to connect to can be powered in several ways. In the typical setup, PCs and peripheral devices plug into a connector that has a Vbus supply pin and D+ and D- data pins. The user should expect to see a Vbus voltage, as defined by the USB spec, of nominally 5V (maximum 5.25V). The Vbus pin is usually connected to the supply input pin of a transceiver (sometimes through a low dropout regulator, which has a maximum rating of 6V) and/or the input pin of a charger when the Vbus supply is used for charging a Li-ion battery (maximum rating is 7- to 10V in most cases).

View the PDF document for more information.

Adapted from EETASIA.com