Techno Shark

Sunday 27 July 2014

Have gadgets 'killed' the mighty pen forever?

Rumors of the pen’s demise have been around for almost two decades.

The pen is dead. It was murdered by the finger.

I first realized this last week when my girlfriend asked to borrow a pen to sign the back of one of those paper check things.

"Sure," I replied, picking up my laptop bag to rummage inside. I pulled out a succession of rectangular-shaped gadgets, but there was no pen to be found.

"Hmm, maybe we have one upstairs," I said as we both began a detective-like search for anything that resembled a vessel for ink. We scoured the home office, kitchen drawers, bedrooms, even looking through our cars. But again, no pen.

After backtracking to figure out when I last saw a pen in the house, I realized it had been more than two months.

READ ALSO: This device may 'kill' computer mouse

While my home is filled with multiple laptops, smartphones, tablets and other internet-connected devices, there isn't a single pen to be found. No ballpoint, fountain or rollerball. No highlighter, marker or even an itty bitty nub of a pencil.

for more visit times of india

PM Narendra Modi launches new website 'MyGov' for citizens

PTI | Jul 26, 2014, 02.35 PM IST

The prime minister today launched a website MyGov that aims to help citizens contribute in governance by giving their opinions and views on important issues.

NEW DELHI: Prime minister Narendra Modi today launched a website MyGov that aims to help citizens contribute in governance by giving their opinions and views on important issues like clean Ganga or skill development.

The inauguration of the people-centric platform also marks the completion of 60 days of the new government.

The prime minister said in the past 60 days, the experience of his government was that there were many people who wanted to contribute towards nation-building and devote their time and energy, an official statement said.

Modi said MyGov (mygov.nic.in) is a technology-driven medium that will provide citizens an opportunity to contribute towards good governance, the statement added.

"The platform would bridge gap gulf between people and government. Democracy cannot succeed without people's participation in government and this participation should not be limited only during elections," the Prime Minister said.

Besides Modi, communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, cabinet secretary Ajit Seth, DEITY secretary R S Sharma were also present at the launch of the portal.

Saturday 26 July 2014

Europe debates how far to push 'right to be forgotten'

European regulators have not yet decided whether to try to force search engines to scrub results globally when people invoke their "right to be forgotten" in the region.

Google hit by 70,000 'right to be forgotten' requests
Right to be forgotten: How far will Google go?
Right to be forgotten: Google gets 12,000 requests on first day
European Court rules against Google, permitting right to be forgotten...
Google starts removing search results in EU

PARIS/BRUSSELS: European regulators have not yet decided whether to try to force search engines such as Google and Microsoft's Bing to scrub results globally when people invoke their "right to be forgotten" in the region.

Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin — who heads France's privacy watchdog and the WP29 group of EU national data protection authorities — said in an interview on Friday that no consensus had yet been reached on what she called a "complicated issue".

The European Union's top court ruled in May that search engines must take down certain results shown under a search of a person's name if the information was "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant".

Although the "right to be forgotten" existed as a concept in European law, the ruling marked the first time companies like Google have been asked to field such requests from the public.

This thrust web companies into the uncomfortable position of making judgment calls on individual cases, balancing rights to personal privacy against the freedom of information.

Google's approach to date has been to remove links only from European versions of its website, such as Google.de in Germany or Google.co.uk in Britain, meaning they would still appear on Google.com.

Microsoft and Yahoo have not yet said how they will handle the issue.

Scientists warn of Earth's sixth mass extinction event

WASHINGTON: The loss and decline of animals is contributing to what appears to be the early days of the planet's sixth mass biological extinction event, scientists warn.

Since 1500, more than 320 terrestrial vertebrates have become extinct. Populations of the remaining species show a 25 per cent average decline in abundance. The situation is similarly dire for invertebrate animal life, researchers said.

While previous extinctions have been driven by natural planetary transformations or catastrophic asteroid strikes, the current die-off can be associated to human activity, a situation that the lead author Rodolfo Dirzo, a professor of biology at Stanford University, designates an era of "Anthropocene defaunation."

Across vertebrates, 16 to 33 per cent of all species are estimated to be globally threatened or endangered.

Large animals - described as megafauna and including elephants, rhinoceroses, polar bears and countless other species worldwide - face the highest rate of decline, a trend that matches previous extinction events.

Larger animals tend to have lower population growth rates and produce fewer offspring. They need larger habitat areas to maintain viable populations.

Although these species represent a relatively low percentage of the animals at risk, their loss would have trickle-down effects that could shake the stability of other species and, in some cases, even human health.

For instance, previous experiments conducted in Kenya have isolated patches of land from megafauna such as zebras, giraffes and elephants, and observed how an ecosystem reacts to the removal of its largest species.

Rather quickly, these areas become overwhelmed with rodents. Grass and shrubs increase and the rate of soil compaction decreases. Seeds and shelter become more easily available, and the risk of predation drops.

Consequently, the number of rodents doubles - and so does the abundance of the disease-carrying ectoparasites that they harbour.

"Where human density is high, you get high rates of defaunation, high incidence of rodents, and thus high levels of pathogens, which increases the risks of disease transmission," said Dirzo, who is also a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

"Who would have thought that just defaunation would have all these dramatic consequences? But it can be a vicious circle," he said.

The scientists also detailed a troubling trend in invertebrate defaunation. Human population has doubled in the past 35 years; in the same period, the number of invertebrate animals - such as beetles, butterflies, spiders and worms - has decreased by 45 per cent.

As with larger animals, the loss is driven primarily by loss of habitat and global climate disruption, and could have trickle-up effects in our everyday lives.

The work is published in the journal Science. click hear to read more

Official Gmail Blog: Free calling within the US and Canada through 2013

click this link and get set all free =>
Official Gmail Blog: Free calling within the US and Canada through 2013

Google

Get An iPhone 5S For Free From Mobile Phone's Direct

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First of all you are able to get a 16 GB full metallic iPhone 5S for free if you buy a international and local calling plan from Mobile Phone's Direct website, through this offer. In this plan you will get lots of benefits and we will discuss about the plan and the offer below in detail.

Hello Friends so sorry because we are out for so many days, but now we are back again with all new great offers and exciting tips and tricks on how you able to make cheap and free international calls for long period of time..!!!This time we try to post more reliable and accurate offers through which you should able to make free international calls from your PC to PC and from PC to Mobiles, today we comes up with the 5 new and best ways through which you should able to make free international calls to all around the world from your pc to pc and from your pc to phone.

Hey Friend are you studying abroad..or you lives abroad far from your family and friends, and do you want to talk with them regularly but your pocket doesn't allows you because of higher calling rates of international calls..!!! If so then you lands on the right page today we are going to tell you how you are able to make free local and international calls direct from your mobile phone so that you could able to talk with your loved and dear ones regularly and unlimited.

Rebtel one of the leading VoIP service provider always launch great offer's for our readers but this is not a promotional offer or anything its a trick which is 100% legal and offered by Rebtel only.

Viber is the most favorite application for all the users who love VoIP calling because of its calling quality and services.After coming in the market Viber make lots of ripples in VoIP sea, no one can able to match up the quality and services of Viber, but the major problem is Viber is only available for Smartphone's only and don't have any app for its PC users.If a person have a PC not a Smartphone will not able to use Viber on its PC.But now he/she will be able to use Viber For PC "Viber Dev Team Thinks" because they launched the Viber for PC app but they clubbed that app with your Smartphone app, means if you don't have a Smartphone and Viber installed in it then you will not able to use the Viber on your PC.

But today i came up with my new experiment through which you should able to use Viber for pc app on your all PC and Laptop's and able to enjoy the best calling experience with your friends and relatives.

Communication is a necessary in our human being species.Without communication a human being will not able to survive and this is the only reason why we have developed languages for removing the communication gaps between us.Now in this age of technology the communication becomes very easy.In fact, you can now call and send free text messages to any of your friend any where in the world.Below i listed the top 5 apps who reduces your communication gaps by offering your free international calls and free text messages to all around the world.

I didn't sorted these apps based on platform.I just ranked these apps for what they do and what they offer.So before started checking the app check its compatibility with your smartphone.