Tech Blogger Pro

By Chris Crum - Tue, 04/28/2009 - 15:53 for Webpro News

What Are the Chances it Will Become As Widely Adopted?

Microsoft has launched beta testing for a service called Vine, which was originally conceived after Hurricane Katrina. Some are comparing the service to Twitter, but I don't exactly see the connection other than it lets you communicate with your friends, which could pretty much be said of any social network, email service, or telephone.

That said, I'm not sure many people will jump on the Vine bandwagon being how they already are communicating via Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, email, phones, etc. While it can actually work with most of these, the fact that you have to download software to use it and create a new profile is already a strike against it.

--Converting Magazine,09/01/2007

Despite its high cost, new nanoscale developments can provide covert authentication and track-and-trace features for consumer packaged goods.

The key to designing a good brand-protection technology is to make it easy for brand owners and their investigators to identify genuine goods, while making it very difficult for counterfeiters and crooks to know how that is being done. Nanotechnology can provide such a solution. Using nanotechnology, companies can now apply covert information, such as batch information, directly onto products and packaging. They can, for example, encrypt nanoscale codes onto pharmaceutical pills for tracking and tracing. They can also create nano bar codes, which are invisible bar codes that are technologically complex but can be used to easily authenticate products and packaging. Many more significant advances in nanotechnology are on the way, and the possibilities are almost endless.

More >>>

Lanka Walltiles Meepe (Pvt) Ltd is the only wall tiles manufacturer in Sri Lanka who produces and sells wall tiles to the local market as well as to the export market.

Lanka Walltiles Meepe (Pvt) Ltd is a fully owned subsidiary of Lanka Tiles PLC and a sub company of Ceylon Theatres group. This factory is an expansion of the Balangoda walltiles factory.

This factory was started as a project of Board Of Investments – Sri Lanka (BOI) in 1995, with a starting capital of 700 million rupees. The factory is located at 22 acres of land with a beautiful environment.

At the beginning of the meepe factory, the maximum monthly production had been in the region of 60,000 m². However as the factory expanded, due to the management techniques used and with a great fork force, the monthly production now lays in a value higher than 120,000 m² per month.

Vision

To be a leading producer of wall and floor coverings and related products for the local and international markets

Mission

The production and marketing of exceptional quality products at optimum affordability

Mission statement

To manufacture and market quality ceramic products of comfortable living

“Lanka walltiles makes protecting the environment a guiding principle of its business philosophy.

The company is leading the way, delivering a unique vision of dealing with energy and going “green” in production techniques. They are introducing cutting-edge, environmentally friendly technology, to increase the bottom line.”

Production Process - At a Glance

This is a facinating and a latest technology used for prototype manufacturing.

I thought of sharing some info related to this because, most people don't know what this is.

University of Moratuwa has a Rapid Prototyping machine brought from Germany about 8 months ago, with the funds of national Science Foundation and Induastrial Development Authority, and now sharing it with the industry at a conciderable price. It is very usefull tool for designers who want to make prototypes of their designs (like vehicle, new type of phone casing, engine parts, new shape of a computer mouse, etc) before going to the production process. it is quick, low cost and easy. No need of making moulds, struggling with machines, can produce very complex shapes. All aredone through the computer and feeding the data to the machine.

Below are some details I got from the internet.

Rapid prototyping is the automatic construction of physical objects using solid freeform fabrication. The first techniques for rapid prototyping became available in the late 1980s and were used to produce models and prototype parts. Today, they are used for a much wider range of applications and are even used to manufactureproduction quality parts in relatively small numbers. Some sculptors use the technology to produce complex shapes for fine arts exhibitions.

Rapid prototyping takes virtual designs from computer aided design(CAD) or animation modeling software, transforms them into thin, virtual, horizontal cross-sections and then creates each cross-section in physical space, one after the next until the model is finished. It is aWYSIWYG process where the virtual model and the physical model correspond almost identically.

With additive fabrication, the machine reads in data from a CAD drawing and lays down successive layers of liquid, powder, or sheet material, and in this way builds up the model from a series of cross sections. These layers, which correspond to the virtual cross section from the CAD model, are joined together or fused automatically to create the final shape. The primary advantage to additive fabrication is its ability to create almost any shape or geometric feature.

The standard data interface between CAD software and the machines is the STL file format. An STL file approximates the shape of a part or assembly using triangular facets. Smaller facets produce a higher quality surface.

The word "rapid" is relative: construction of a model with contemporary methods can take from several hours to several days, depending on the method used and the size and complexity of the model. Additive systems for rapid prototyping can typically produce models in a few hours, although it can vary widely depending on the type of machine being used and the size and number of models being produced simultaneously.

Some solid freeform fabrication techniques use two materials in the course of constructing parts. The first material is the part material and the second is the support material (to support overhanging features during construction). The support material is later removed by heat or dissolved away with a solvent or water.

Traditional injection molding can be less expensive for manufacturing polymer products in high quantities, but additive fabrication can be faster and less expensive when producing relatively small quantities of parts.

Rapid prototyping is now entering the field of rapid manufacturing and it is believed by many experts that this is a "next level" technology.^{[citation needed]}

(from Wikipedia)

Mainly there are 4 main technologies used for rapid prototyping.

Prototyping technologies	Base materials
Selective laser sintering (SLS)	Thermoplastics, metals powders
Fused deposition modeling (FDM)	Thermoplastics, eutectic metals.
Stereolithography (SLA)	photopolymer
Laminated object manufacturing (LOM)	Paper

But 2 more are there

Electron beam melting (EBM)	Titanium alloys
3D printing (3DP)	Various materials

A youtube video on RP.

Read more on RP, Go to RP home page >>>

from these technologies the RPM in the University of Moratuwa use the Stereolithography technique with the use of a UV reactive photo polymer.

The RPM in University of Moratuwa can produce models with the maximum dimensions of 25,25,25 cm in volume. The machine is in the Engineering Design Center at the University of Moratuwa, and anyone interested or want a job to be done, can call the Design center and ask for shedules and prices.

Thursday, April 23, 2009 - from WebProNews

Now that Google is putting Google Profiles in search results, you might want to consider getting verified. You have to go through a process to do this however.

Editor's Note: This week, Google announced that it was showing Google Profiles in search results for applicable name queries. In other words, if you search for a name and that person has a Google account, their profile will show up at the bottom of the SERP. There is only room for 4 profiles though, so for more common names, there could be some competition. Verification may eventually play a role. Do you intend to verify your Google profile? Let us know.

"Should you get a verified name? Right now, it doesn't influence whether your profile will rank better in profile results," says Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land. "But if you're trying to convince people to trust that the page is really controlled by you, it probably makes sense."

Danny has a great article up looking at the ins and outs of Google Profiles, where he also discusses verification. Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable however puts it into an easier step-by-step format:

1. You must go to Google's Knol site and sign in.
2. Then go to your profile settings.
3. Click on the "Name Verification" tab
4. Then choose to verify by phone or via credit card

(From Timesof India)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/poll/4421214.cms pls vote Prabhakaran as a terrorist and send this to everybody.

If you wake up and find one day that your website isn't showing anymore in Google, you have been a victim of a Google Ban. This is the worst thing that can happen to your website, especially if you are running a business through your site. Several factors can trigger a Google Ban. Here is a list of ways you can keep your website on Google's good side.

1. Make sure your have the best uptime possible for your website. This means you must have reliable web hosting. If Google visits your website and it is not up, you may risk Google banning you site.

2. Do not use spamming techniques to promote your website. This will almost definitely lead to condemnation of your website for at least 6 months. Never use "black hat" methods like doorways, hidden text or cloaking. You are only setting yourself up for disaster.

3. Make sure your content is original and relevant. Websites that duplicate content are punished with lower rankings and even bans. Your content should always be made for human consumption and relate to your website's theme.

4. Linking is a two way street. Not only should the links going out of your website be quality, but be certain that the links that lead to your website are from Google respected locations as well. Avoid link farms and any paid linking service. Also, excessive linking is a red flag for Google. When you add internal links on your own sites, make sure you do it in moderation and with purposeful intent.

5. Be sure your site is Google friendly. Build your website so that Google is able to index every page. Include a sitemap. Be sure all your pages are working and that there are no broken links.

If you follow the Google "Tips for Optimizing" you will be fine. Don't try to fool Google with tricky tactics. The price you will pay is far worse than the effort it takes to do things the right way!

__________________

By Brad Costello

for VodaHost

By Chris Crum - Fri, 04/17/2009 - 08:37

Starts Offering Movies and Shows

YouTube has finally announced after months of talks about deals with major media companies that they are now offering new sections on the site dedicated specifically to movies and television shows.

Partners include Crackle, CBS, MGM, Lionsgate, Starz and many others, which contribute thousands of television show episodes and hundreds of films. They also bring the social element of YouTube along with them because users can still comment, favorite, and share the videos.

"This addition is one of many efforts underway to ensure that we're offering you all the different kinds of video you want to see, from bedroom vlogs and citizen journalism reports to music videos and full-length films and TV shows," says the YouTube team in a blog post.

Obviously this puts YouTube in even more direct competition with Hulu, which specializes in TV shows and movies. Though Hulu has been growing steadily in popularity, YouTube is still ahead by far. This could push the site that much further out in front.

YouTube also announced a wider roll-out of in-stream ads, which they have been testing since October. Hulu users and television watchers are already used to this.

At this point, shows and movies are only available in the US. However, YouTube intends to expand the features into other regions "as soon as possible. They also note that the "subscriptions" tab will be available worldwide within the next several weeks.

By Chris Crum - Thu, 04/16/2009 - 11:04 for WebPro News

That Can't Be Allowed Can it?

CNN has acquired "the services" of the creator of one of the most popular accounts on Twitter, which is "cnnbrk," an account that posts CNN breaking news. Currently, the account has just under a million followers.

Jason Kincaid at TechCrunch spoke with James Cox, the account holder and has confirmation from CNN that the account is now in their possession. But it's not like they just bought "the account"...

CNN has confirmed that it has taken control of the CNNbrk account, though the company isn't viewing it as an "acquisition". Rather, CNN has signed James Cox to a consultant contract agreement, which included the transfer of the account as part of its conditions. Any financial compensation due to Cox is being offered for his services, which happen to include his Twitter account along with teaching social media workshops, among other things (though I suspect he's getting paid substantially more than the market rate for his consulting).

You see, you can't sell Twitter accounts according to Twitter's policy (at least in the form of squatting). But there is nothing in there about buying the people that run them.

"Name squatting and 'user name for sale' accounts will be permanently suspended," Twitter says. "Attempts to sell or extort other forms of payment in exchange for user names will result in account suspension." Twitter lists the following factors as taken into consideration to identify squatters:

- the number of accounts created

- creating accounts for the purpose of preventing others from using those account names

- creating accounts for the purpose of selling those accounts

- using feeds of third-party content to update and maintain accounts under the names of those third parties

We're not sure that any of these factor into the Cox example. Probably not considering CNN is paying him who-knows-what for "his services."

Twitter account "cnn" only has about 64,000 followers, and the latest tweet as if this writing is directing followers to follow "cnnbrk."

Despite Twitter's obvious rules against squatters, something tells me that Twitter squatting is going to become more of a problem after this, even if this wasn't such a case.

By Chris Crum - Fri, 04/17/2009 - 12:09

Users Can Take Precautions, Businesses Will Damage Reputations

Like all popular services, Twitter gets abused too. Who would've thought? Will spam kill Twitter? Well, do you still use email?

Perhaps it's unfair to compare Twitter, which is still pretty much in its infancy to a communication medium that has been around pretty much as long as the web itself, but with the momentum that Twitter popularity is gaining, I can't see it being incredibly threatened real soon.

Have a phone? You get telemarkters. Use email, you get spammers. Use Twitter? You still get spammers. Whatever the next big thing is, I can pretty much guarantee it will be exploited as well.

There have been many complaints lately about Twitter spam. A Bloomberg article looks at this situation.

"Twitter users post 140-character updates about their lives, making the site a potential goldmine for marketers wanting to know what customers are thinking about," says Bloomberg's Joseph Galante. "While Twitter Inc. could make money by charging companies to send 'tweets' to potential customers, the corporate babble may alienate users, threatening to stem the 18-fold growth in visitors in the past year."

It's true that marketers love Twitter. There is a ton of potential for it as a marketing channel. I've certainly championed the idea as much as the next guy. That said, there are ethics involved. Just like with email, there is spam, and there is legitimate email marketing. You opt in for legitimate marketing messages. You also opt in to follow people (or companies) on Twitter.

They can't direct message you unless you follow them back. Yes, they can talk at you with the @username strategy, but looking at those is basically the Twitter equivalent of an ego search on Google. Yes, people often use the @username to talk directly to you instead of going the direct message route, but thats on you and your friends. Direct messages are there for a reason.

New study could lead to more efficient, environmentally friendly batteries

By Solmaz Barazesh

April 25th, 2009; Vol.175 #9 (p. 12)

A computer virus won't help your laptop work — but a biological virus could. Tweaking their genes just so could engineer viruses for making the rechargeable lithium ion batteries that power devices such as laptops, iPods and cell phones, researchers report online April 2 in Science.

In previous research, the same team used viruses to construct the negative electrode, or anode, of the battery. In the new work, the researchers engineered viruses for the positive electrode, or cathode. When the two are put together, the virus batteries should perform better than traditional lithium ion batteries and also be environmentally friendly, the team reports.

More >>

from Eric Bland, Discovery News

Nanotube Made Really Really Light Discovery News Video

March 19, 2009 -- The lightest material on Earth now packs a powerful punch.

Scientists from Texas and around the world have created a material that, by density, is lighter than air yet, when electrified, instantly and powerfully contracts. Their work is detailed in this week's issue of the journal Science.

"These artificial muscles are very lightweight and can do wonderful things," said Ray Baughman, the study author from the University of Texas at Dallas.

While the artificial muscle is unlikely to be used in humans or prosthetic limbs, Baughman says "these sheets of carbon nanotubes ... are of great practical interest for LEDs, solar cells, and other applications."

Aerogels and artificial muscles have been around for decades, but both materials have largely kept to themselves until now. Astronomers have launched spacecraft containing aerogels (so called because 99.8 percent of of the material is air) to gently capture space dust and keep it safe for the return journey to Earth.

Meanwhile, material scientists have created a variety of different artificial muscles, or materials that expand and contract when an electrical charge is applied. Many artificial muscles can only operate within a limited range of temperatures, however, because they contain liquid that will either freeze or evaporate at extreme temperatures.

You can now access Semiconductor International on your favorite mobile device. Keep up with all the latest news and technical features while on the go.
http://mobile.semiconductor.net

Ubuntu 9.04 is coming soon. Release candidate is here.

Download the release candidate from, http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/904overview

About Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a community developed, Linux-based operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. It contains all the applications you need - a web browser, presentation, document and spreadsheet software, instant messaging and much more.

The Ubuntu promise

Ubuntu will always be free of charge, including enterprise releases and security updates.
Ubuntu comes with full commercial support from Canonical and hundreds of companies around the world.
Ubuntu includes the very best translations and accessibility infrastructure that the free software community has to offer.
Ubuntu CDs contain only free software applications; we encourage you to use free and open source software, improve it and pass it on.

UltraSurf is a proxy application. It will Bypass All Internet Blocking Systems. By using this software you can access all the sites blocked by national / corporate firewalls. It is a free application. It brake all the access list. This application is nothing but just searching the proxy list which is fast and available. It will automatically change our IE’s proxy server to local proxy. That means this application will work as a web proxy server. Most of the schools and co-operates are blocking dating sites like orkut , myspace. And some sites like YouTube ( for bandwidth ). Most of them depending web proxys to bypass them. But they won’t get the full feeling of a normal browsing , because the sites are with banners.

More >>

Wish all Sinhalese and Tamils a prosporous new year!

Obata ha paule samata, saamaya sathuta piri subhama subha, siyalu
pathuman ituwana, isuru piri, Subha Nawa Wasarak Wewa!

--
H.Madhawa Ranga
"No one knows what he can do till he tries."

By Chris Crum - Thu, 04/09/2009 - 14:42 to WebPro News

For Search Advertising That Is...

Kara Swisher at Boomtown claims to have a scoop from "many sources with knowledge of the situation" that Google and Microsoft are battling for a search advertising deal with Twitter. Swisher recently dispelled rumors that Google was close to acquiring Twitter, but the "talks" that the two companies were in could have easily been regarding something like this.

Kara Swisher

It makes sense that Microsoft would be involved too. They did get Facebook (in the US). Henry Blodget at Silicon Alley Insider seems to favor Microsoft getting the deal. He writes:

The chosen "partner" will presumably be given the exclusive right to put search ads on Twitter's pages. If Microsoft behaves the way it usually does in these situations, it will pay whatever it takes to "win" the deal. Google, meanwhile, still smarting from getting taken to the cleaners on a disappointing MySpace deal, will probably be gun shy.

So Twitter will do its best to persuade Microsoft that Google is willing to break the bank, and Google probably won't do anything to discourage that spin. And, in the end, Microsoft will probably be the one to break the bank and "win" a big exclusive search deal with bad economics.

Swisher says her sources indicate that Twitter will begin several weeks of "testing" search ads with one of the companies first. Whether such testing could potentially lead to an acquisition remains to be seen, but perhaps the prospect of a search advertising deal will calm down the talk of an all out acquisition for the time being.

BackTrack is the most top rated linux live distribution focused on penetration testing. With no installation whatsoever, the analysis platform is started directly from the CD-Rom and is fully accessible within minutes.

It's evolved from the merge of the two wide spread distributions -Whax and Auditor Security Collection. By joining forces and replacing these distributions, BackTrack has gained massive popularity and was voted in 2006 as the #1 Security Live Distribution by insecure.org. Security professionals as well as new-comers are using BackTrack as their favorite toolset all over the globe.

OMG, it's a Twitter™ buffer!

Twuffer allows the Twitter user to compose a list of future tweets, and schedule their release.

tweet hourly/daily/monthly announcements
appointment/milestone reminders
run a time-based scavenger hunt
notify subscribers about upcoming podcast or video episodes
appear to never sleep

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Monday, April 27, 2009

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Saturday, April 25, 2009

--Converting Magazine,09/01/2007

Friday, April 24, 2009

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Friday, April 17, 2009

About Ubuntu

The Ubuntu promise

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Monday, April 13, 2009

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Friday, April 10, 2009

OMG, it's a Twitter™ buffer!

Twuffer allows the Twitter user to compose a list of future tweets, and schedule their release.