Your computers may soon be having 'rich interaction' with you as a partner

Washington, August 20 (ANI): A computer similar to the Hal 9000 system in the movie '2010', which claims enjoying working with human beings and having stimulating relationships with them, may soon be created, thanks to a new research project.

Oregon State University researchers are pioneering the concept of "rich interaction" that can pave the way for computers that do want to communicate with, learn from and get to know humans better as persons.

The idea behind this "meaningful" interaction is one of the latest advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence, in which a computer doesn't just try to learn from its own experiences, it listens to the user, tries to combine what it "hears" with its internal reasoning, and changes its program as a result.

When ordinary users spot the machine's errors they should be able to step in, and explain directly to the machine the logic it should be using.

"There are limits to what the computer can do just by its own observations and efforts to learn from experiences. It needs to understand not just what it did right or wrong, but why. And for that, it has to continue interacting with human beings and make constant changes in its own programming, based on their feedback," said Margaret Burnett, an associate professor of computer science at OSU.

According to the researchers, for a computer to be of optimal help to its user, it has to customize itself to the end user and get more personal.

"We all have fairly specific life experiences, personal preferences, ways of doing things, different types of jobs. For machine learning to reach its potential the computer and the user have to interact with each other in a fairly meaningful way, the computer really needs to get to know your situations and understand why it made a mistake, so that it can try not to make the same mistake again," Burnett said.

The researchers say that a major part of this challenge is to create interactive systems that are easy enough to operate without one needing a computer programmer's qualification, which they believe may be possible.

Another challenge before the researchers is to ensure that the learning in such systems happens to be a two-way street, as a stubborn human user may insist that the computer "learn" something that is incorrect.

Having recently received a 1million-dollar grant from the National Science Foundation for their research, the OSU researchers now believe that the era of humans as passive observers in the field of artificial intelligence may be coming to a close.

"In the future we believe the computer should be like your partner. You help teach it, it gets to know you, you learn from each other, and it becomes more useful," Burnett said. (ANI)

The top 100 most dangerous websites for your PC enlisted

Melbourne, Aug 20 (ANI): Internet security company Norton Symantec has come up with a list of Top 100 Dirtiest sites, which could infect your computer with malware.

Malware is a software that can damage or compromise a computer system without the owner's consent.

Natalie Connor, spokeswoman of the anti-virus company, said that even visiting any of the named websites could expose a computer to infection and put the personal information into the hands of unwanted people.

"What people don't realise is when you type in a website, you're bringing down information on a page and with it could be malware," News.com.au quoted her as saying.

The list was compiled with the help of global data collected on Norton Safe Web, a site that analysed websites' security risks.

The infected sites had on average 18,000 threats and 40 per cent of the sites had more than 20,000 threats, while 75 per cent of websites on the list were found to be spreading malware for over six months.

According to Connor, most websites in the list had adult content with unprintable names, suggesting they contained hardcore pornography.

Some others sites include those on ice skating, deer hunting, catering and legal services.

Hackers can apparently obtain personal information using keystroke-logging software from both PCs and Mac computers.he reps said that hackers are a force to reckon with as cyber crime is increasing rapidly.

She added: "The last thing we want to do is scare people, we want to educate them so they know how to protect themselves.

"It's not about the fame any more of creating viruses and getting in the media. They're making money."

Norton released a sample of the dirtiest websites:

17ebook.com

aladel.net

bpwhamburgorchardpark.org

clicnews.com

dfwdiesel.net

divineenterprises.net

fantasticfilms.ru

gardensrestaurantandcatering.com

ginedis.com

gncr.org

hdvideoforums.org

hihanin.com

kingfamilyphotoalbum.com

likaraoke.com

mactep.org

magic4you.nu

marbling.pe.kr

nacjalneg.info

pronline.ru

purplehoodie.com

qsng.cn

seksburada.net

sportsmansclub.net

stock888.cn

tathli.com

teamclouds.com

texaswhitetailfever.com

wadefamilytree.org

xnescat.info

yt118.com (ANI)

Infosys bids for over 10 govt deals

Infosys Technologies, India's second-largest IT services exporter, has bid for more than 10 large government projects in India as part of a drive to lower its dependence on the U.S. market, an official said.

Infosys, which gets more than half its business from the United States, plans to generate $1 billion in revenue from the Indian market in 2-3 years versus an insignificant level now, the head of its India business unit said.

"There are large opportunities in India. So we are definitely going to go after these kinds of businesses very aggressively in India," Binod Rangadore told Reuters in an interview. "We have a very healthy pipeline right now."

The market for technology and business outsourcing services in India is expected to expand five-fold by 2020 to $90 billion to $100 billion on the back of a growing economy, according to a recent study by lobby group NASSCOM and consultancy McKinsey.

Outsourcing firms such as Infosys and bigger rival Tata Consultancy Services are tapping new markets such as India, China, Japan and countries in Europe to beat a recession in the United States.

The Indian firms face competition from big global players such as IBM Inc, Hewlett-Packard, and Accenture that have raided their home turf as they look for growth outside their mature markets.

U.S. business software maker CA expects its bookings, an indicator of future business, will rise 50 percent in the year to March 2010 and by 30-40 percent for the following two years on growing technology spending.

Infosys, which set up its India business unit in late 2007 as part of a strategy to diversify its revenue base, has put in bids for IT services contracts from railways and state-run telecoms Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) among others, Rangadore said.

He declined to set a timeframe for the outcome of the bids.

The U.S. market had contributed 63.2 percent of Infosys's 2008/09 revenue of $4.4 billion, with just 1.3 percent coming from India.

Rangadore said the business from IT services in India was very small and bulk of the revenue in India came from Finacle, the banking solutions and services unit of Infosys.

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

Last month, Infosys said it had won a contract to design, develop and support a portal for the ministry of commerce and industry. A government official said the contract was valued at 150 million rupees ($3 million) for three years.

Infosys, which has a market value of $23 billion, has also won a project from the tax authorities for a project to enable electronic filing by taxpayers, Rangadore said.

He said spending on technology by private companies was seeing a slowdown in India due to the economic downturn, but investment by the government remained robust and was likely to increase in the near term.

A host of IT services firms are expected to vie for the government's initiative to provide the country's more than 1 billion people with identity cards, a new project which is being headed by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani.

"The window of opportunity in India is probably in the next one to two years when most of the decisions will be made for large spending in India," Rangadore said.

Shares in Infosys, which counts Goldman Sachs, BT Group, and Philips Electronics among its more than 550 global clients, ended down 1.1 percent at 1,950.70 rupees in the main market that fell 1.5 percent.

The Infosys stock has jumped about 75 percent this year, compared with a 54 percent rise in the main index.

˜ÁT‡° C¥XÖR ÙW›¥ zeÙLy «¼TÛ]:
A‡L Y£UÖ]†‰PÁ ÚYÛXYÖš“
UÖR• ¤.30 B›W• YÛW fÛPeL YÖš“

ÙNÁÛ], BL.19-

ÙW›¥ ŒÛXV• A£f¥ ˜ÁT‡° C¥XÖR ÙW›¥ zeÙLy «¼TÛ] ÛUV• ÙRÖPjf UÖR• JÁ¿eh ¤.30 B›W• YÛW Y£UÖ]• Dy|• YÖš“ E·[‰.

˜ÁT‡° C¥XÖR zeÙLy «¼TÛ] ÛUV•

ÙW›¥ ŒÛXVjL¸¥ ˜ÁT‡° C¥XÖR ÙW›¥ zeÙLy G|TR¼h GÚTÖ‰ÚU PY¡ÛN Œ¼h•. AR]Ö¥ TXÚSWjL¸¥ TV‚L· ÙW›ÛX «y|«|fÁ\]Ÿ. TV‚L¸Á C‹R pWU†ÛRe hÛ\TR¼LÖL ^]NRWÁ zeÙLy “efj ÚNÛY (Ù^.z.‘.GÍ.) GÁ\ “‡V ‡yP†ÛR ÙW›¥ÚY ‰Û\ A½˜L• ÙNšR‰.

C‹R ‡yP†‡ÁTz, ˜ÁT‡° C¥XÖR ÙW›¥ zeÙLy «¼TÛ] ÛUV• ÙRÖPjhYR¼LÖL ˜Û\Tz «Q‘eL ÚY|•. ÙW›¥ÚY ‰Û\eh ¤.1 XyN• ÙPTÖpy LyP ÚY|•. ¤.40 B›W†‡¼LÖ] Yjf E†RWYÖR•, ¤.15 B›W• ŒW‹RW ÛY“† ÙRÖÛL, ¤.20 B›W• ETLWQjL· ÙTÖ£†‰• ÙNX°, ¤.25 B›W• TÖ‰L֐“ ÛY“† ÙRÖÛL BfVY¼½¼LÖL ¤.1 XyN• ÙT\T|f\‰.

GªY[° ÙNX° Bh•?

zeÙLy «¼TÛ] ÛUV• ÙRÖPjhYR¼h ÙW›¥ ŒÛXV†‡Á A£f¥ J£ AÛ\ÛV YÖPÛLeh G|eL ÚY|•. A‹R CP†‡¼LÖ] ˜ÁÛY“† ÙRÖÛL, YÖPÛL, L•ïyPŸ, ÚUÖP•, ‘¡PŸ, ‘.GÍ.GÁ.G¥.§Í ÛXÁ ÚTÖÁ\Y¼½¼h ¤.1 XyN• YÛW ÙNXYÖh•. BL ÙUÖ†R• ¤.2 XyN• ˜R§| ÙNšRÖ¥ ˜ÁT‡° C¥XÖR ÙW›¥ zeÙLy «¼TÛ] ÛUV• ÙRÖPjL AÄU‡ fÛPeh•.

ARÁ‘\h zeÙLy «¼TÛ]eLÖ] ETLWQjLÛ[ ÙTÖ£†‡e ÙLÖ|T‰PÁ ÚRÛYVÖ] T›¼pÛV• ÙW›¥ÚY ŒŸYÖL• A¸eh•. C‹R ÛUV†‡¥, C‹‡VÖ«Á G‹R Th‡›¥ C£‹‰ G‹R CP†‡¼h ÙN¥YR¼h• ˜ÁT‡° C¥XÖR ÙW›¥ zeÙLy ÙT\XÖ•.

C‹R ÛUV†‡Á ™X• UÖR• JÁ¿eh ¤.30 B›W• YÛW Y£UÖ]• DyP ˜z•. R¼ÚTÖ‰ A•T†ŠŸ, AWeÚLÖQ•, ÙNÁÛ] YÖ¥PÖeÍ ÚWÖ|, ÙTW•”Ÿ, ‡£Y·»Ÿ, ‡£YÖ¤Ÿ, ÚLÖ«¥Tyz BfV 7 FŸL¸¥ ˜ÁT‡° C¥XÖR ÙW›¥ zeÙLy «¼TÛ] ÛUVjL· ÙNV¥T|fÁ\].

Y¿ÛU›¥ C£‹‰ —PÖŸ

AWeÚLÖQ†‡¥ CVjh• ÛUV†ÛR LÂÙUÖ³ (YV‰ 36) GÁTYŸ SP†‡ Y£f\ÖŸ. Y¿ÛU›Á ‘z›¥ pef† R«†RÚTÖ‰ C‹R ÛUV†ÛR ÙRÖPjfV LÂÙUÖ³ CÚTÖ‰ S¥X Y£UÖ]• Dyz Y£f\ÖŸ.

h|•T Y¿ÛU LÖWQUÖL 12-• Yh‘¼h ÚU¥ AYWÖ¥ TzeL ˜zV«¥ÛX. AR]Ö¥ AWeÚLÖQ• TÖWR ÍÚPy Yjf A£ÚL { LÛP SP†‡]ÖŸ. ÙW›¥ÚY›¥ HRÖY‰ J£ ÚYÛX›¥ ÚNW ÚY|• GÁTR¼LÖL TXY³L¸¥ ˜V¼p ÙNšRÖŸ. G‹R ÚYÛX• fÛPeL«¥ÛX.

C‹R ŒÛX›¥, Ù^.z.‘.GÍ. ‡yP• T¼½ ÙW›¥ÚY A½«ÛT Tz†‰ AR¼LÖL «Q‘†RÖŸ. LPÁ YÖjf ÙW›¥ÚYeh ¤.1 XyN• ÙN¨†‡]ÖŸ. ÚU¨• J£ XyN• ÙNX° ÙNš‰ LÛP•, L•ïyPŸ E·¸yP ETLWQjLÛ[• YÖjf]ÖŸ. ÙRÖPeL†‡¥ U‹RUÖL C£‹R zeÙLy «¼TÛ] CÚTÖ‰ s|‘z†‰·[‰.

¤.27 B›W• Y£UÖ]•

C‰T¼½ ÙR¼h ÙW›¥ÚY RÛXÛU YŸ†RL ÚUXÖ[Ÿ A]‹RWÖUÁ i¿ÛL›¥, ``AWeÚLÖQ†‡¥ ÙW›¥ zeÙLy «¼TÛ] ÛUVUë SP†‰• LÂÙUÖ³, LP‹R ^ØÛX UÖR• Uy|• 27 B›W†‰ 103 ˜ÁT‡° C¥XÖR zeÙLy «¼TÛ] ÙNš‰·[ÖŸ. CRÁ™X• ÙR¼h ÙW›¥ÚYeh ¤.4 XyN• Y£YÖš fÛP†‰·[‰. LÂÙUÖ³eh ¤.27 B›W• Y£YÖš fÛP†‰·[‰'' GÁ¿ h½‘PëPÖŸ.

SU‰ Œ£T¡P• LÂÙUÖ³ i½VRÖY‰:-

L–cÁ

J£ zeÙLy «¼\Ö¥ J£ ¤TÖš L–cÁ fÛPef\‰. TV‚L· GjL¸P• zeÙLy YÖjh•ÚTÖ‰, zeÙLy LyPQ†‰PÁ J£ ¤TÖš L–cÁ ÚNŸ†‰e ÙLÖ|eL ÚY|•. A‡LÖÛX 5 U‚ ˜R¥ CW° 10 U‚ YÛW ÙW›¥ zeÙLy «¼TÛ] ÛUV• ‡\‹‡£eh•. ‡jLyfZÛU Uy|• B›W• zeÙLy YÛW «¼TÛ]VÖh•. U¼\ SÖyL¸¥ NWÖN¡VÖL 600 zeÙLy|L· «¼TÛ] BfÁ\].

CªYÖ¿ LÂÙUÖ³ i½]ÖŸ.

Popcorn may help keep heart disease, cancer at bay

Eating a bowl of popcorn while watching movies could give your health a boost, according to a new research.

Scientists have found that snack foods like popcorn and many popular breakfast cereals contain ''surprisingly large'' amounts of healthful antioxidant substances called ''polyphenols.''

Polyphenols are a major reason why fruits and vegetables - and foods like chocolate, wine, coffee, and tea - have become famous for their potential role in reducing the risk of heart disease, cancer, and other diseases.

The is the first-of-its kind study to establish that whole grain cereals - regarded as healthful for their fiber content - and snack foods also were a source of polyphenols.

"Early researchers thought the fiber was the active ingredient for these benefits in whole grains, the reason why they may reduce the risk of cancer and coronary heart disease," said Joe Vinson, a chemist at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania and lead author of the study.

IT spend in Asia-Pacific improving: TCS

Bangalore :

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, India's top IT services firm by sales, is seeing an increase in corporate technology spending in Asia Pacific in the current quarter on signs of economic revival, an official said on Monday.

"I think there is a generally positive view that Asian economies are coming back," Girija Pande, Tata Consultancy's head of Asia Pacific operations outside India, said in an interview.

"Both global and local companies are investing back in Asia and the IT spend, therefore, is going up," he said. "I can already see green shoots in many countries in Asia where the growth is starting to come back again."

After posting a scorching pace of growth for years, India's outsourcing sector has been battling a slowdown as top global customers struggled were hit by the global financial crisis and economic downturn.

Indian software services firms such as Tata Consultancy and second-ranked Infosys Technologies are expanding in Europe and elsewhere to cut their dependence on the US market, which accounts for over half the sector's revenues.

Bhuvan, ISRO's new eye in the sky

Overview

ISRO launched the beta version of its web-based 3-D satellite imagery tool, Bhuvan, on August 12, 2009. Bhuvan will offer superior imagery of Indian locations compared to other Virtual Globe software with spatial resolutions ranging from 10 m to 100 m. Locations can be viewed from different perspectives and will allow for the measurement of distances. The Bhuvan portal is designed to run on slow Internet connections. The imagery would steer clear of all sensitive military installations in India for security concerns.^[4]

Bhuvan displays better images of India than the ones relayed by Google Earth along with a number of other interesting features which include weather information and even administrative boundaries of all states and districts, relevant only to the country. Bhuvan is equally capable of offering images of the globe, but the best resolution area includes India at the moment. In the Indian subcontinent, Bhuvan will be able to display a picture from ten meters away that is; a commuter moving on the road can be easily spotted.^[5]

Features

• Bhuvan allows users to access, explore and visualize 2D and 3D image data along with rich thematic information on soil, wasteland, water resources etc in the Indian subcontinent.
• It displays multi-resolution, multi-sensor, multi-temporal image data.
• Users can superpose administrative boundaries of choice on images as required.
• It allows visualization of AWS(Automatic Weather Stations) data in a graphic view and use tabular weather data of user choice .
• Fly to locations (Enables users to fly from the current location directly to the selected location)
• It features a Heads-Up Display(HUD) navigation controls (Tilt slider, north indicator, opacity, compass ring, zoom slider)
• Allows navigation using the 3D view Pop-up menu (Fly-in, Fly out, jump in, jump around, view point)
• 3D Fly through (3D view to fly to locations, objects in the terrain, and navigate freely using the mouse or keyboard)
• Drawing 2D objects (Text labels, polylines, polygons, rectangles, 2D arrows, circles, ellipse)
• Drawing 3D Objects (placing of expressive 3D models, 3D polygons, boxes)
• Snapshot creation (copies the 3D view to a floating window and allows to save to a external file)
• Measurement tools (Horizontal distance, aerial distance, vertical distance, measure area)
• Shadow Analysis (it sets the sun position based on the given time creating shadows and effects the lighting on the terrain)

There would be many more value added functions and facilities which will be added into the package from time to time. Particular interest of ISRO/DOS would be to provide such functionalities to common man so that they can adopt participatory approach with scientists to solve simple problems easily and interactively.

Some of the advanced functionalities to be provided in future versions:

• Urban Design Tools (to build roads, junctions and traffic lights in an urban setting)
• Contour map (Displays a colorized terrain map and contour lines)
• Terrain profile (Displays the terrain elevation profile along a path)
• Draw tools (Creates simple markers, free hand lines, urban designs)
• Navigation map (to jump to and view locations in the 3D India)

National Remote Sensing Agency played an important role in the creation of this product. ISRO has used data provided by satellites including Resourcesat-1, Cartosat-1 and Cartosat-2 to get the best possible imagery for India. ISRO claims that the application can provide imagery of up to 10 metres for major Indian cities compared to 200 meters provided by Google Earth.^[6]

Bhuvan is based on TerraExplorer software a product of Skyline Software Systems

Google Earth	Bhuvan
Zoom levels up to 200 mt	Zoom levels up to 10 mt
Single layer information	Multi-layer information
Images upgraded every 4 years	Images upgraded every year
No alternate viewing options	Options of viewing on different dates
Uses international satellites	Uses Indian satellites

Download

Bhuvan can be downloaded from these links:

• Bhuvan Download (nrsc.gov.in)
• Bhuvan Download (alternate)

Technical Requirements

The Beta version of Bhuvan can run only on windows system and is optimized for Internet Explorer 6. or higher. and turn off internet explorer protected mode.

Hardware and software Minimum Requirements

• Operating System: Windows XP/Vista
• CPU: Pentium 4 2.4GHz+ or AMD 2400xp+
• System Memory (RAM): 512MB
• Hard Disk: 2GB free space
• Network Speed: 256 Kbits/sec
• Graphics Card: 3D-capable with 32MB of VRAM
• Screen: 1280x1024, 32-bit True Color (for best results)
• Framework : .NET Framework 2.0
• Graphics: Directx 9.0
• Other: Requires the Bhuvan software (see external links for download)