Indian Railways to Provide Internet Service in Kerala

Indian Railways is set to join the bandwagon of Internet providers in Kerala with a special provision for those browsing education sites.

The railways is providing broadband internet connection in the state through the Railtel Corporation of India Ltd. The biggest incentive for those taking the net service of Indian Railways is that they can download education material free.

A. Seshagiri Rao, executive director (southern region) of Railtel, told IANS Railtel would provide the service through cable operators who have connectivity across the state.

"The internet service would become operational in the next two to three months," said Rao, who was in the city.

Railtel, which manages the communication sector of Indian Railways, has laid more than 38,000 km of optical fibre cable across the country, which would be the backbone for providing broadband connectivity in the state.

"Our network is such that every railway station in the country can be turned into a source for education centres. But we have decided to provide broadband connectivity to the people through cable operators. The biggest advantage for those using our connectivity is that they would get unlimited download in matters regarding education," said Rao.

Towards this, Railtel has finalized a tie-up with the seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore where they have ready more than 6,000 hours of lectures by the faculty.

"The biggest advantage of Indian Railways internet is that downloading of education material will be at a speed ranging from 2 mpbs to 30 mpbs," added Rao.

Coreflood Trojan Infects Thousands of Corporate Computers

Joe Stewart, Director of Malware Research with SecureWorks has recently made public the fact that he found a stolen data cache of unprecedented size. AFcore is a Coreflood trojan that has so far been able to avoid detection, using all this time it has been hidden to gather as much private information as possible.
The trojan works by infecting a particular work station and then laying there dormant until the network admin accesses that computer. The trojan remembers all usernames and passwords so, by grabbing the admin's log-in data, it can spread throughout the entire network. SecureWorks has already come up with security solutions for the Afcore trojan and has announced all its collaborators to do the same. Law enforcement agencies have also been briefed about the current situation.

The trojan has so far been able to infect thousands of individual PCs belonging to all kinds of corporations. The purpose of the trojan is to gather the user's personal and bank information and then deliver it to the hacker. Besides user names and passwords, the virus also stores the text content of the web page the user visits, so the hacker can be able to better determine if the info is valuable or not. For example, if an employee goes online to check their bank balance or make an e-payment, the trojan will detect their username, password and all other text info. The hacker can then take a look at said text and determine if it is worth accessing the user's bank account or not. He saves huge amounts of time by accessing only certain accounts and not all of them.

SecureWorks researchers say that getting an exact figure regarding how much money the trojan has access to is a laborious and lengthy task. Keeping in mind that thousands of computers were infected, that amount could easily surpass a few million dollars.

Machine claims to get water out of thin air

With all due respector to inventor extraordinaire Dean Kamen, the notion of his "Slingshot" distillation system--which makes drinkable water from any type of liquid, including bodily fluids--has been met with more than a few squeamish responses. For those seeking a more palatable solution, the "Base 1 AirWater Machine" taps into a very different source: the air.

Its manufacturer, a Greek company called Klimatic, claims that the system can extract 5 gallons of water every 24 hours, according to Dvice, which adds: "It cleans the extracted water with an active carbon filter, runs it through an ultraviolet light chamber to kill bacteria, and then serves it up to you hot or chilled."

The question, however, is what kind of power source is needed to make the system both energy- and cost-effective. If you need something sooner--as in, an emergency--don't forget about the "LifeStraw" and the "Lifesaver" bottle.

Innings of XP is over. Vista is ahead

fter Bill Gates’ exit from Microsoft, it is now the turn of Windows XP to sign out. Windows XP (professional) is officially off the shelves, finally, with effect from June 30. Microsoft has been planning this phase out for a long time now, ever since Windows Vista hit the market in January 2007.

But Vista has so far failed to create the same buzz and hype that the XP had. Analysts attribute this to a melange of things. “Hardware requirements for Vista is higher, you need a 2GB RAM to operate Vista smoothly,” says Gartner’s principal analyst Diptarup Chakraborti. Windows XP requires 256MB to 512MB, which all Mini notebooks and older PCs have.

Microsoft is playing it safe by retaining the Windows XP (home) in the market as it can be used as an operating system (OS) for the mini notebooks. “Intel is pushing these mini notebooks and Microsoft does not want Linux to enter the market, so they have decided to delay the phase out of Windows XP (home) to 2010.” says Mr Chakraborti.

However, the XP (home) has its limitations. It does not encourage management control and restricts a user to log onto any domain.

Since its launch in January 2007, Vista has sold 140 million worldwide till date and 2 million in India. Microsoft claims most enterprises like Infosys, L&T, TCS, Satyam and other enterprises have already migrated a large number of their desktops to Vista. Mr Chakraborti, however, says many enterprises are willing to use XP and not Vista until windows 7, which is to be launched in early 2010, is on the shelves.

“There was a marketing hiccup, where many manufacturers branded their systems as Vista capable, while they could only run the most basic version (Windows Vista Basic). This made users feel cheated, when they bought Vista systems which didn’t really have the power to run Vista in its full glory. For laptop owners, another concern has been battery life. The extra features in Vista tend to drain the battery much faster than almost any other operating system on the same system,” says an analyst who did not want to be named.

“Consumers would prefer to buy Vista as it looks better than XP, but at what cost is the question. Your favourite applications may not run as they do not have drivers for them. Additionally, enterprise system engineers will have to be re-trained and software re-written for Vista,” says Frost and Sullivan Technical (insights) analyst Prithvi Raj.

So, even after it’s done away with XP may stay ahead of Vista as most users look forward to Windows 7.

Now Yoga Lessons on your Mobile

If you don't have time for an exercise regimen and are experiencing guilt pangs because of it (or the lack of), you might want to give this one a shot. Shemaroo has tied up with various mobile operators in India to offer actor Shilpa Shetty's Yoga for download to mobile customers.

Shemaroo says that the videos have been cut and edited such that each video captures one complete Asana. In Yoga, Asanas (postures) are categorized according to the benefits they provide like those for the back, stomach, neck and shoulder, and of course Pranayam (breathing exercises).
Also on offer are detailed write-ups explaining the benefits and description/s of each Asana. Apart from these videos, consumers can download Shilpa Shetty in her Yoga poses as their mobile wall-papers and screen-savers.

Vodafone is offering a pack of Rs 99, wherein the user can download unlimited Shilpa's Yoga videos in one hour. The pack also contains a step-by-step procedure for each Asana. Similarly, Airtel, Tata, Reliance, BPL, and Idea are also offering Shilpa's Yoga content for download as a value-added service (VAS). Additionally, consumers can purchase the complete DVD for Shilpa's Yoga after sampling the videos on their mobile phones. Shilpa's Yoga Mobile downloads are also available at: http://wap.shemaroo.com.

Lost the remote? Use your face

A researcher has discovered a way to use facial expressions to speed and slow video playback.

By using a combination of facial expression recognition software and automated tutoring technology Jacob Whitehill, a computer science Ph.D. student from UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering, is leading the project that ultimately is part of a larger venture to use automated facial expression recognition to make robots more effective teachers.

The researchers recently conducted a pilot test with 8 people that demonstrated information within the facial expressions people make while watching recorded video lectures can be used to predict a person's preferred viewing speed of the video and how difficult a person perceives the lecture at each moment in time.

"If I am a student dealing with a robot teacher and I am completely puzzled and yet the robot keeps presenting new material, that's not going to be very useful to me. If, instead, the robot stops and says, 'Oh, maybe you're confused,' and I say, 'Yes, thank you for stopping,' that's really good," said Whitehill in a release.

Recent advances in the fields of pattern recognition, computer vision, and machine learning have made automatic facial expression recognition in real-time a viable resource for intelligent tutoring systems (ITS), researchers added. As facial expression recognition technology improves in accuracy, the range of its application will grow. One particular application we are currently developing is a \smart video player" which modulates the video speed in real-time based on the user's facial expression so that the rate of lesson presentation is optimal for the current user, researchers said.

In the pilot study, researcher said the facial movements people made when they perceived the lecture to be difficult varied widely from person to person. Most of the 8 test subjects, however, blinked less frequently during difficult parts of the lecture than during easier portions of the lecture, which is supported by findings in psychology.

One of the next steps for this project is to determine what facial movements one person naturally makes when they are exposed to difficult or easy lecture material. From here, researchers could train a user specific model that predicts when a lecture should be sped up or slowed down based on the spontaneous facial expressions a person makes.

The goal of UC San Diego's Machine Perception Laboratory is to gain insights into how the brain works by developing systems that perceive and interact with humans in real time using natural communication channels. Researchers are also developing algorithms for robots that develop and learn to interact with people on their own. Applications include personal robots, perceptive tutoring systems, and system for clinical assessment, monitoring, and intervention.

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