Technology news updates

ScienceDaily — Electromobility makes sense only if car batteries are charged using electricity from renewable energy sources. But the supply of green electricity is not always adequate. An intelligent charging station can help, by adapting the recharging times to suit energy supply and network capacity.
Germany aims to have one million electric vehicles -- powered by energy from renewable sources -on the road by 2020. And, within ten years, the German environment ministry expects "green electricity" to make up 30 percent of all power consumed. Arithmetically speaking, it would be possible to achieve CO2-neutral electromobility. But, in reality, it is a difficult goal to attain. As more and more solar and wind energy is incorporated in the power grid, the proportion of electricity that cannot be controlled by simply pressing a button is on the increase. In addition, there is a growing risk that the rising number of electric vehicles will trigger extreme surges in demand during rush hour.

"What we need is a smart grid that carries information in addition to power," says Dominik Noeren of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. The structure of the grid has to change from a push system based on energy demand to a pull system based on production output. In Noeren's opinion, "electric cars are best equipped to meet this challenge." Introduced in large numbers, they have the capacity to store a lot of energy. On average, a car is parked for at least 20 hours out of 24. That is more than enough time to recharge them when the wind picks up or the demand for electricity is low.

Developed by Fraunhofer researchers, the "smart" charging station is a device that enables electric vehicles to recharge when the system load is low and the share of energy from renewable resources is high. In this way, load peaks can be avoided and the contribution of solar and wind power fully exploited. "For us, it is important that end consumers are completely free to decide when they want to recharge. We do not want them to suffer any disadvantages from the controlled recharging of their vehicles' batteries," Noeren emphasizes. That's why he favors electricity rates that adapt to the prevailing situation in the power grid -- ones that are more expensive in periods of peak demand and particularly cheap when there is a surfeit of renewable energy.

The person using the "smart" charging station could then choose between recharging immediately or opting for a cheaper, possibly longer, recharging time. If they go for the second option, all they need to do is enter the time when their vehicle has to be ready to drive again. The charging station takes care of everything else, calculating the costs and controlling the recharging process. Via the display the user can track the progress of recharging and also see the costs incurred and the amount of energy used.

The experts will be presenting their charging device at the Hannover Messe from April 19 through 23.

MUNICH: Web browsers are the key to the internet. Without them the internet is an impenetrable black box.

Browsers may be among the most commonly used applications, but they also offer the greatest number of attack options for dangerous content on the net. To keep viruses, worms and other malware away from your computer when surfing, it's crucial to configure your browser for security.

The firewall on a DSL router is a good first step for protecting the computer during surfing, says Marco Rinne from the computer portal chip.de. But that doesn't hold true if your browser is out of date: “Internet Explorer 6 and 7 or Firefox 2 no longer satisfy current security standards,” he says. For optimal protection, he therefore urges users to keep their browsers updated.

There are numerous security tools already present in Firefox and Internet Explorer. The pop-up blocker, for example, prevents more than just annoying ads. It also throttles other windows that can be used to sneak malicious software onto PCs. Phishing filters protect personal data against theft.

Firefox offers additional configuration options under the Settings item in the Security tab of the Options dialog box: this includes the ability to block risky or forged websites. It's also a good idea to prohibit websites from installing add-ons on their own. Similar settings are possible under Internet Explorer in the Security tab of the Internet Options dialog box, accessible from the Tools menu.

Computer owners should also activate all options for warning against attacks, advises Markus Linnemann, managing director of the Institute for Internet Security (ifis) at the Polytechnic University of Gelsenkirchen in Germany. This applies in particular to warnings about suspicious content to be displayed using ActiveX, Flash, or JavaScript.

Yet the warning mechanism on most browsers alone isn't usually enough, Linnemann says. Those who wish to be especially careful can, for example, use the Firefox add-on 'No Script,' which blocks all active content of a website by default and allows the user to decide which should be permitted. The problem is that most users are unable to determine which content represents a threat to their computer, Rinne msays.

Mumbai: Videocon has unveiled a new range of handsets that include the Qruz V1425, V1424, and V1430. The latest array of handsets takes Videocon's count of mobiles to 25.

The Qruz V1425 is a 100W PMPO Music Output phone. It is a dual SIM phone with extra large boom speaker with back cover Mesh Grill, VGA Camera, Bluetooth, long 1200 mAH battery, MP3 player, high resolution 2 inch TFT screen, expandable memory up to 4GB, 1000 Phonebook/500 SMS memory and LED torch with Mobile Tracker.


The USP of the V1430 is that it is a long battery phone. It is also a dual sim phone and has a VGA Camera with Video Recorder, 1800 mAH battery (up to 600minutes talk/20days standby time), and 1.8 inch TFT screen, MP3 player with dedicated key, Bluetooth and expandable memory up to 4GB.

Completing the range is the V1424, a phone that scores more in the looks area with Gun Metal Linings. This dual SIM phone also comes with VGA Camera, MP3 Player, expandable memory up to 2GB, a 2 inch TFT screen, Bluetooth and Mobile Tracker.

Rahul Goel, COO, Videocon Mobile, said, "Features and functionality desired by customers are our key targets. Long battery life; Music device; and Stylish looks are steps in this direction. With multiple solutions for interconnected life, we are providing customers with device that helps them manage their tasks easily."

Bangalore: Global search engine Yahoo hosted a non-stop 24-hour "hacking" event on Saturday noon in this tech hub where about 300 whiz-kids used its web tools and services to develop new applications, a company official said Friday.

"About 300 developers across India participated in the 24-hour hacking event, which involved using our web tools, services and application programming interfaces (APIs) to innovate new solutions for our global netizens," Yahoo India Research and Development Head Shouvick Mukherjee said.
Being held for the third consecutive year, the "Open Hack Day" aimed at nurturing the open innovation ecosystem in India and drive domain expertise in the internet space.

"Open Hack Days enable talented developers to create better, more relevant and more social experiences on our network. The spirit is to leverage our open APIs and developer tools to create newer applications," Mukherjee said.

Clarifying that the web portal's hacking concept was different from the popular perception of gaining illegal entry into computers and network resources with a malicious intent, Mukherjee said the developers would get a lifetime opportunity to play with Yahoo! Query Language (YQL).

"Our type of hackers will use the YQL to create and use their own table definitions, enabling the language to bind to any data source through the SQL-like syntax and fetch data," Mukherjee noted.

The language platform also enables developers to query, filter, update and combine data across the web.

Developers can also write new applications using the Yahoo Application Platform (YAP) in an open, self service web applications environment.

"Participants allowed to write applications front-end in HTML (hyper text markup language, CSS (cascading styling sheets), Java Script and in the language of their choice," Mukherjee pointed out.

With YAP, a developer can get in front of the largest daily audience on the web.

Yahoo began Hack Days as an internal event 12 years ago to bring its developers together and expanded into regular events in its offices the world over.

The annual event was also held in Sunnyvale in the U.S., London, Brazil and Taiwan during the last decade.

"Bangalore has the distinction of hosting for the third time consecutively," Mukherjee added.

London: A 15-year-old boy managed to dupe Apple by creating an iPhone application that connects to the Internet for free but it is no longer available.

To access the web through the iPhone costs around 13 pounds a month.

Nick Lee designed a application which at first glance appears to allow users to change the colour of their screen. It was charged at less than a dollar to upload from the Apple iTunes online music store.


However, the application contains a hidden code that allows people to use their iPhone as a modem and access the Internet without paying, the Telegraph reported.

The application was removed as soon as news of its true nature appeared online. Those who downloaded it, however, can keep enjoying its benefits.

"I'm going to use this little gem of an application to my heart's content. I'm typing on it now, and I'm going to see just how much data I can use all afternoon. I was able to get download speeds of roughly 2.5 Mbps," an online user who downloaded the application before it was removed said.

ScienceDaily — Researchers have collected venom from octopuses in Antarctica for the first time, significantly advancing our understanding of the properties of venom as a potential resource for drug development.
The study, conducted by an international team of researchers from the University of Melbourne, the Norwegian University of Technology and Science and the University of Hamburg, provides the first insight into the properties of Antarctic octopus venom. It has also revealed the existence of four new species of octopus.

Venom has long been recognised as a potentially valuable resource for drug development. However, scientists have only recently discovered the largely untapped resource cephalopods such as octopuses, cuttlefish and squid, possess in their unique venom properties -- especially the species that live in sub-zero temperatures.

Team Leader, Dr Bryan Fry from the Bio21 Institute says it was a mystery how venomous animals have adapted their venom to have an effect even in sub-zero temperatures, where most venoms would normally lose their function.

"This is the first study that has collected Antarctic octopus venom and confirmed that these creatures have adapted it to work in sub zero temperatures -- the next step is to work out what biochemical tricks they have used," he says.

Dr Fry says the venom analysis revealed that Antarctic octopus venom harbours a range of toxins, two of which had not previously been described.

"We have discovered new small proteins in the venom with very intriguing activities -- these are potentially useful in drug design, but more will be revealed as the study continues," he says.

The study follows from Dr Fry's revelation last year that all octopuses are venomous. The team of scientists then embarked on a huge task to collect and study completely novel venoms to gain a greater understanding of how they work.

"An understanding of the structure and mode of action of venom found in all octopuses may help design drugs for conditions like pain management, allergies and cancer."

Through funding from the Australian Antarctic Division, the team collected 203 octopuses from Antarctic waters. They then genetically profiled each specimen to identify the species and collected venom to analyse in the lab.

"Not only do Antarctic octopuses have the most unique venoms out there, but there is a lot more species than we originally thought."

ScienceDaily — A new article published in the 29 July issue of the journal Nature reveals for the first time that microscopic marine algae known as "phytoplankton" have been declining globally over the 20th century. Phytoplankton forms the basis of the marine food chain and sustains diverse assemblages of species ranging from tiny zooplankton to large marine mammals, seabirds, and fish. Says lead author Daniel Boyce, "Phytoplankton is the fuel on which marine ecosystems run. A decline of phytoplankton affects everything up the food chain, including humans."
Using an unprecedented collection of historical and recent oceanographic data, a team from Canada's Dalhousie University documented phytoplankton declines of about 1% of the global average per year. This trend is particularly well documented in the Northern Hemisphere and after 1950, and would translate into a decline of approximately 40% since 1950. The scientists found that long-term phytoplankton declines were negatively correlated with rising sea surface temperatures and changing oceanographic conditions.

The goal of the three-year analysis was to resolve one of the most pressing issues in oceanography, namely to answer the seemingly simple question of whether the ocean is becoming more (or less) „green' with algae. Previous analyses had been limited to more recent satellite data (consistently available since 1997) and have yielded variable results. To extend the record into the past, the authors analysed a unique compilation of historical measurements of ocean transparency going back to the very beginning of quantitative oceanography in the late 1800s, and combined these with additional samples of phytoplankton pigment (chlorophyll) from ocean-going research vessels. The end result was a database of just under half a million observations which enabled the scientists to estimate phytoplankton trends over the entire globe going back to the year 1899.

The scientists report that most phytoplankton declines occurred in polar and tropical regions and in the open oceans where most phytoplankton production occurs. Rising sea surface temperatures were negatively correlated with phytoplankton growth over most of the globe, especially close to the equator. Phytoplankton need both sunlight and nutrients to grow; warm oceans are strongly stratified, which limits the amount of nutrients that are delivered from deeper waters to the surface ocean. Rising temperatures may contribute to making the tropical oceans even more stratified, leading to increasing nutrient limitation and phytoplankton declines. The scientists also found that large-scale climate fluctuations, such as the El-Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), affect phytoplankton on a year-to-year basis, by changing short-term oceanographic conditions.

The findings contribute to a growing body of scientific evidence indicating that global warming is altering the fundamentals of marine ecosystems. Says co-author Marlon Lewis, "Climate-driven phytoplankton declines are another important dimension of global change in the oceans, which are already stressed by the effects of fishing and pollution. Better observational tools and scientific understanding are needed to enable accurate forecasts of the future health of the ocean." Explains co-author Boris Worm, "Phytoplankton are a critical part of our planetary life support system. They produce half of the oxygen we breathe, draw down surface CO2, and ultimately support all of our fisheries. An ocean with less phytoplankton will function differently, and this has to be accounted for in our management efforts."