Page 375 - Technology Internet
Facebook introduces key updates in Stories, beginning from India
Facebook has rolled out new updates in its Stories feature that are available for the users in India first and will reach the global users later.
Facebook ranks Kerala Tourism Page as the Best FB page in 2017
Kerala Tourism's Facebook page has garnered 1.5 million likes to emerge on top among the states in the country in 2017. The God's Own Country, bestowed with enchanting backwaters, virgin beaches and high ranges, pushed Jammu and Kashmir and Gujarat Tourism's Facebook pages to the second and third place respectively, an official press release said here today. The ranking was done by Facebook based on total engagement with tourists that included reactions, shares and comments on the page between the January 1 and December 31, 2017. The Kerala Tourism Facebook page had garnered 1.5 million likes to emerge as the top, the release said. Facebook recently released the data on the top-ranked Facebook pages of government bodies, ministries and political parties in the country. Kerala Tourism Director P Bala Kiran received an award in this connection at the Facebook office in New Delhi from the social media site's Public Policy Manager (India, South and Central Asia) Nitin ...
'New device may increase smartphone battery life 100 times'
A team led by an Indian-origin scientist has developed a novel device that could increase the battery life of electronic devices, such as smartphones and laptops, by more than a hundred-fold. Researchers from the University of Missouri in the US developed a magnetic material that employs a unique structure - a "honeycomb" lattice that exhibits distinctive electronic properties. "Semiconductor diodes and amplifiers, which often are made of silicon or germanium, are key elements in modern electronic devices," said Deepak K Singh, an associate professor at the University of Missouri. His team developed a two-dimensional, nanostructured material created by depositing a magnetic alloy, or permalloy, on the honeycomb structured template of a silicon surface. The new material conducts unidirectional current, or currents that only flow one way. The material also has significantly less dissipative power compared to a semiconducting diode, which is normally included in electronic devices, ...
NASA astronauts successfully complete 6-hour spacewalk
Two NASA astronauts have successfully completed the fifth spacewalk of this year aboard the International Space Station, spending 6 hours, 31 minutes to undertake maintenance operations on the orbital outpost. Expedition 55 Flight Engineers Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold of NASA moved the Pump Flow Control Subassembly (PFCS) from a spare parts platform on the station's truss to the Dextre robotic arm. The PFCS drives and controls the flow of ammonia through the exterior portions of the station's cooling system. The team then removed and replaced a camera group and a degraded Space to Ground Transmitter Receiver Controller, and was also able to complete several get-ahead tasks. Spacewalkers have now spent a total of 54 days, 16 hours and 40 minutes working outside the station in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory.
IISER develops device to detect and remove arsenic from water
The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in collaboration with a private company has developed a new device which can be used to detect and remove arsenic content from water and make it safe and usable by households. The device - 'Arsenic Sensor and Removal Media - is an effective system with low production cost, IISER Director Sourav Pal told a press meet here yesterday. An IISER research team, led by Dr Raja Shunmugam, developed the arsenic sensor in the laboratory of a leading manufacturer of chemicals. The arsenic sensor would show an immediate change in colour in arsenic contaminated water, he said. The Shantiswarup Bhatnagar award recipient Dr T Ramasami, who was present said, "primarily the general public is aware about arsenic presence in water. But whether that is beyond threshold - unsafe or safe levels - they do not know." Ramasami said, "the arsenic sensing methodology has very simple and household detection principle. But knowing ...
Bitcoin to use 0.5 per cent of world's electricity by year end
The Bitcoin network - one of the most popular cryptocurrencies - currently uses almost as much power as Ireland does, and could be consuming about 0.5 per cent of the world's total electricity by the end of this year, a study has found. Bitcoin's burgeoning electricity demands have attracted almost as much attention as the cryptocurrency's wildly fluctuating value. However, estimating exactly how much electricity the Bitcoin network uses, necessary for understanding its impact and implementing policy, remains a challenge. "We've seen a lot of back-of-the-envelope calculations, but we need more scientific discussion on where this network is headed. Right now, the information available is pretty poor quality overall, so I'm hoping that people will use this paper as a foundation for more research," said economist and blockchain specialist Alex de Vries, who works at PwC in the Netherlands. The estimates, based in economics, put the minimum current usage of the Bitcoin network at 2.55 ...
First stars formed 250 million years after Big Bang: Study
The earliest stars may have been forged just 250 million years after the Big Bang, say scientists who observed a galaxy at a record-setting distance of 13.28 billion light-years from Earth. Scientists using the the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) found faint, telltale signature of oxygen coming from the galaxy - which is seen as it appeared when the universe was only 500 million years old. For such a young galaxy, known as MACS1149-JD1, to contain detectable traces of oxygen, it must have begun forging stars even earlier - a scant 250 million years after the Big Bang. This is exceptionally early in the history of the universe and suggests that rich chemical environments evolved quickly, according to the study published in the journal Nature "This extremely distant, extremely young galaxy has a remarkable chemical maturity to it," said Wei Zheng, an astronomer at Johns Hopkins University in the US, who led the discovery of this galaxy with the Hubble Space ...
First stars that formed after Big Bang identified
Japanese scientists have identified some of the first stars to form in the Universe just 250 million years after the Big Bang, according to a study published in Nature magazine.
Social media should not be misused: Mamata Banerjee
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today cautioned people over the misuse of social media. The social media should not be used to spread negativity or fake news, Banerjee said on the occasion of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day today. "Today is World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. In this day and age, we must not use social media and the internet to spread negativity or to malign others or spread fake news," Banerjee tweeted this morning. The World Telecommunication and Information Society Day marks the anniversary of the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention and the creation of the International Telecommunication Union. The day is observed annually to help raise awareness about the advantages that the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies can bring to societies and economies and ways to bridge the digital divide.
Facebook founder Zuckerberg to meet European parl over data breach
Social media networking site Facebook confirms meeting with European parliament to discuss the growing online data-privacy concerns.As reported by the New York Times, the meeting is scheduled to take place sometime next week where Facebook founder-CEO Mark Zuckerberg will discuss the issue of the data breach by data analytics company Cambridge Analytica.It is touted be a closed-door meeting to be attended by leaders of the various political groups.Leaders of the European Parliament's various blocs and the head of the body's civil liberties committee which is holding hearings on the ongoing Facebook data breach case will be the part of the meeting.Further, Zuckerberg is scheduled to have lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss a range of issues.Zuckerberg had been earlier questioned in the joint hearing of the members of the US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee at the Capitol Hill over the issue of the data breach. There he admitted multiple ...
Two astronauts complete six-hour spacewalk
Two flight engineers of the US space agency NASA completed the fifth spacewalk of this year out of the International Space Station on Wednesday.
TPDDL launches system for smart power distribution, management of outages
Power distribution company TPDDL has launched a system enabling smart distribution and management of faults and outages in north and north west Delhi. The newly launched Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) will aid the Tata Power-DDL (TPDDL) to enhance the "reliability, safety and efficiency" of the network spread across 510 square km in north and north-west Delhi by facilitating advanced monitoring, analytics, and better control and planning, said a statement from the discom. The system has been installed in collaboration with GE T&D India Ltd, it said. The ADMS will enable us to further improve on our services and help us in reaching our objective of supplying world-class quality power to our consumers," said Sanjay Banga, CEO of TPDDL. The Advanced Distribution Management System also looks at network performance optimisation on a single platform by integrating SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition), DMS (distribution management system) and OMS (outage ...
Centre gives electronic access to police on missing children
The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) on Wednesday told the Delhi High Court that it has shared electronic access to data on missing children with the Delhi Police.
Cambridge Analytica shared data with Russia: Whistleblower
Political consulting group Cambridge Analytica used Russian researchers and shared data with companies linked to Russian intelligence, a whistleblower told a congressional hearing on interference in the 2016 US election tpday. Christopher Wylie, who leaked information on the British-based firm's hijacking of data on millions of Facebook users, told a Senate panel he believes Russian intelligence services had access to data harvested by the consultancy. Wylie told the panel that Russian-American researcher Aleksandr Kogan, who created an application to harvest Facebook user profile data, was working at the same time on Russian-funded projects, including "behavioral research." "This means that in addition to Facebook data being accessed in Russia, there are reasonable grounds to suspect that CA may have been an intelligence target of Russian security services...(and) that Russian security services may have been notified of the existence of CA's Facebook data," Wylie said in his written .
Ness Digital opens new facility in Hyderabad
Ness Digital Engineering, a digital transformation and custom software engineering services provider, opened a facility here today. S&P Global, a company rating agency, would support the new facility for technology, data operations and core business process talent, a company press release said. The new 1,00,000-sq ft centre provides top talent with a world-class work environment for evolving products and platforms of S&P Global across its varied business segments,it said. The facility has state-of-the-art technology labs to exclusively focus on artificial intelligence, internet of things, machine-learning and develops innovation and solutions,the release added.
Google search for 'Pappu' leads to Rahul Gandhi
Google may have been confused last month over who the first Prime Minister of India was, but now a simple search for the name "Pappu" leads to results related to Rahul Gandhi.
Centre gives electronic access to Delhi Police on missing children data, HC told
The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) today told the Delhi High Court that it has given electronic access to the Delhi Police on data concerning missing children. A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta listed the matter for May 31 when the Delhi Police would inform it about the progress in the process of tracing missing children through the electronic mode. During the hearing, central government standing counsel Anil Soni, appearing for MWCD, informed the bench that they have shared the electronic access with the Delhi Police. The court had on May 9 granted a week's time to the ministry to undertake the entire exercise of transfer of data after the MWCD had sought time "for providing arrangement/design module for enabling Delhi Police ZIPNET application to electronically search 'found children' data on the link from the www.trackthemissingchild.gov.in." The ministry had sought a month's time to complete the process but the court had granted it only a week. The ...
Govt nearly doubles defence communications network budget to Rs 24K
The government today nearly doubled the budget to Rs 24,664 crore for NFS project which entails rolling out an advanced communications network for defence services in lieu of their vacating spectrum for mobile telephony. The budget for the Network For Spectrum (NFS) project has been raised by Rs 11,330 crore, an official statement said. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, "has given its approval for enhancement of budget by Rs 11,330 crore for NFS project for laying of alternate communication network for Defence Services for release of spectrum over and above Rs 13,334 crore already approved by Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure in July, 2012", it said. The defence ministry and the Department of Telecom had signed a pact in 2009-10 under which the former had agreed to vacate 25 MHz of 3G spectrum and 20 MHz in the 2G band in phases. In return, DoT had committed to set up an exclusive defence network for its communication ...
US releases new cyber security strategy
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released a new cyber security strategy, citing evolving threats from cyberspace that the country is facing.
Microsoft introduces 'Surface Hub 2' for modern workplaces
Microsoft has unveiled its next-gen workplace "Surface Hub 2" that will help people collaborate and work together irrespective of their locations.