Ferrari F1 2008

The Ferrari F2008 is a Formula One motor racing car, which Scuderia Ferrari is using to compete in the 2008 Formula One season.

The car was unveiled to the public on January 6, 2008. It features a new standard Electronic Control Unit (ECU), which is the electronic system that controls all the cars, produced by McLaren Electronic Systems. This was included to comply with the new regulations. The ECU also removes most of the driver aids used in previous seasons, including traction control, engine braking and electronically assisted starting system. It also makes the management of the differential, engine and gearchanges easier.




The car also weighs more than last season's F2007 chassis due to rule changes which includes the gearbox which has to be used for four consecutive races, higher side protection around the drivers helmet etc.




World champion Kimi Räikkönen gave the car its first shakedown at Ferrari's Fiorano test track on January 7, 2008.

Felipe Massa is the other driver this year for ferrari.

Phelps Creates History!!!!!!!!

Michael Fred Phelps (born June 30, 1985) is an American swimmer and 14-time Olympic gold medalist (the most by any Olympian), who currently holds seven world records in swimming.

He holds the record for the most gold medals won at a single Olympics; a total of eight, surpassing Mark Spitz. Overall, Phelps has won 16 Olympic medals: six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. In winning these medals, he has twice equaled Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin's record of eight medals (of any type) at a single Olympics (Dityatin: Moscow 1980; Phelps: Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008), and ranks second in total career Olympic medals, after Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina, who won a total of 18 medals (nine gold) spanning three Olympic Games.



Phelps' international titles, along with his various world records, have resulted in him being awarded the World Swimmer of the Year Award in 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2007 and American Swimmer of the Year Award in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2007. Phelps has won a total of 48 career medals thus far: 40 gold, six silvers and two bronze. This includes all of the Championships in which he has competed: The Olympics, the World Championships, and the Pan Pacific Championships.

Sony Ericsson W960

Sony Ericsson W960 is aptly the big gun in the Sony Ericsson portfolio of music-centered handsets. Gifted with the scorching 8GB of storage space and a large touchscreen TFT display, a 3-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and 3G capabilities, the W960 easily stands out in the Walkman crowd. Powered by the Symbian OS and UIQ user interface, it delivers one-of-a-kind Walkman experience with rich fullscreen visualizations and advanced track filtering. All this is enough to have us drooling over the specs sheet, eager to get our hands on this smarty Walkman and see what it's made of.





Key features:

* Walkman Touch music player
* Symbian OS 9.1 with UIQ 3.0
* 3G support with video calls
* Wi-Fi support
* 3 megapixel camera with autofocus
* 8GB of storage space
* Dedicated touch-sensitive player keys
* 262K color TFT touchscreen display
* FM radio

Main disadvantages:

* Not as impressive in life as in the promotional photos
* Slow interface response as storage gets nearly used up
* Back key location changed
* No memory card slot (yeah, we know it has 8GB of internal memory)
* Music player cannot sort tracks by filename
* No EDGE support

Nokia N95 8GB

About a year ago Nokia released a tech-freak's dream of a handset offering a mouthwatering horde of features in a fairly compact size. The omnipresent N95 spawned a successor and now the question is how much better can it get. Nokia N95 8GB sure has good genes but there still seems to be enough room for improvement. At first glance, Nokia has heeded user complaints with the original and addressed them properly. However, we are yet to see if the enhancements are enough to make the N95 8GB the definitive upgrade from the previous model or is it about laurel-resting mostly.





Key features:

* 2.8" 16M color QVGA display
* 5 megapixel camera with auto focus and Carl Zeiss optics
* Massive storage capacity and increased RAM
* Wi-Fi with UPnP technology
* Built-in GPS receiver and A-GPS functionality
* Nokia maps application covering over 100 countries worldwide
* Dual-slide design with dedicated multimedia keys
* Standard 3.5mm audio jack
* 3G (with HSDPA), EDGE and GPRS support
* Symbian OS 9.2 Series 60 3rd edition Feature Pack 1 user interface
* TV-out functionality
* 1200 mAh battery

Main disadvantages:

* No camera lens protector
* No RDS system for the FM radio
* Below average GPS performance, no 3rd party apps support
* Extra charges for voice assisted navigation
* Cannot edit office documents
* No card slot
* Doesn't charge when connected to USB

Google

Google Inc. is an American public corporation, earning revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, web-based e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking, and video sharing services as well as selling advertising-free versions of the same technologies. Google's headquarters, the Googleplex, is located in Mountain View, California. As of June 30, 2008 the company has 19,604 full-time employees. As of October 31, 2007, it is the largest American company (by market capitalization) that is not part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.




Google was co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were students at Stanford University and the company was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 7, 1998. Google's initial public offering took place on August 19, 2004, raising US$1.67 billion, making it worth US$23 billion. Google has continued its growth through a series of new product developments, acquisitions, and partnerships. Environmentalism, philanthropy, and positive employee relations have been important tenets during Google's growth, the latter resulting in being identified multiple times as Fortune Magazine's #1 Best Place to Work. The company's unofficial slogan is "Don't be evil", although criticism of Google include concerns regarding the privacy of personal information, copyright, censorship, and discontinuation of services.

2008 Summer Olympics

The 2008 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad is a Summer Olympics event, that will be held in Beijing, People's Republic of China from August 8 to August 24, 2008 and followed by the 2008 Summer Paralympics from September 6 to September 17. 10,500 athletes are expected to compete in 302 events in 28 sports, just one event more than was on the schedule of the 2004 games.[1] The 2008 Beijing Olympics will also mark the third time that Olympic events will have been held in the territories of two different National Olympic Committees (NOC): at the 2008 Olympics, equestrian events will be held in Hong Kong, which competes separately from mainland China.




The Olympic games were awarded to Beijing after an exhaustive ballot of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on July 13, 2001. The official logo of the games, titled "Dancing Beijing," features a stylised calligraphic character jīng (京, meaning capital), referencing the host city. The mascots of Beijing 2008 are the five Fuwa, each representing both a colour of the Olympic rings and a symbol of Chinese culture. The Olympic slogan, One World, One Dream, calls upon the world to unite in the Olympic spirit. Several new NOCs have also been recognised by the IOC.

The Chinese government has promoted the games to highlight China's emergence on the world stage and has invested heavily in new facilities and transportation systems. A total of 37 venues will be used to host the events including 12 newly constructed venues. Earlier in 2007, former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch had said that he believes that the Beijing games will be "the best in Olympic history," and despite the controversies that have marred the image of the Chinese Olympics, current president Jacques Rogge asserts that the IOC has "absolutely no regrets" in choosing Beijing to host the 2008 games.

Airbus A380

The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine airliner manufactured by the European corporation Airbus, an EADS subsidiary. The largest passenger airliner in the world, the A380 made its maiden flight on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse, France, and made its first commercial flight on 25 October 2007 from Singapore to Sydney with Singapore Airlines. The aircraft was known as the Airbus A3XX during much of its development phase, but the nickname Superjumbo has since become associated with it.





The A380's upper deck extends along almost the entire length of the fuselage, and its width is equivalent to that of a widebody aircraft. This allows for a cabin with 50% more floor space than the next-largest airliner, the Boeing 747-400, and provides seating for 525 people in standard three-class configuration or up to 853 people in all economy class configuration. The A380 is offered in passenger and freighter versions. The A380-800, the passenger model, is the largest passenger airliner in the world, but has a shorter fuselage than the Airbus A340-600 which is Airbus' next biggest passenger aeroplane. The A380-800F, the freighter model, is offered as one of the largest freight aircraft, with a listed payload capacity exceeded only by the Antonov An-225. The A380-800 has a design range of 15,200 kilometres (8,200 nmi), sufficient to fly from New York to Hong Kong for example, and a cruising speed of Mach 0.85 (about 900 km/h or 560 mph at cruising altitude).






Looks fantastic. I definetely want to fly on that thing. But wait! Those seats look too roomy and the aisles too wide… is this First and Business class? Oh c’mon Airbus, that’s cheating! Show us some pictures of your coach cabin, or as I like to call it, “the hole”. That’s where all of us common folk will be spending countless hours, so you better show us what you are doing to make our lifes less miserable on that Los Angeles - Auckland non-stop flight. I can show you some shots taken in the First Class cabin of an old-ass Varig MD-11 and they look fantastic as well. I want to see coach. Real coach. Packed shoulder-to-shoulder with angry dads, bothered moms and screaming kids. Coach, where drinks cost $5. Coach, where you spend those long hours over the ocean pondering how long would it take for a stray blod clot to go from your cramped legs to your lungs and kill you, and how agonizing would that be. Coach, where you could use your laptop if you wanted too, but you run the risk of either suffocating after 10 minutes of the keyboard squeezing your diaphraghm or having a claustrophobia attack.

Hacking

Hacking is a felony in the United States and most other countries. When it is done by request and under a contract between an ethical hacker and an organization, it's OK. The key difference is that the ethical hacker has authorization to probe the target.

We work with IBM Consulting and its customers to design and execute thorough evaluations of their computer and network security. Depending on the evaluation they request (ranging from Web server probes to all-out attacks), we gather as much information as we can about the target from publicly available sources. As we learn more about the target, its subsidiaries and network connectivity, we begin to probe for weaknesses.


Hacking is unauthorized use of computer and network resources. (The term "hacker" originally meant a very gifted programmer. In recent years though, with easier access to multiple systems, it now has negative implications.)


Examples of weaknesses include poor configuration of Web servers, old or unpatched software, disabled security controls, and poorly chosen or default passwords. As we find and exploit vulnerabilities, we document if and how we gained access, as well as if anyone at the organization noticed. (In nearly all the cases, the Information Syhstems department is not informed of these planned attacks.) Then we work with the customer to address the issues we've discovered.

The number of really gifted hackers in the world is very small, but there are lots of wannabes.... When we do an ethical hack, we could be holding the keys to that company once we gain access. It's too great a risk for our customers to be put in a compromising position. With access to so many systems and so much information, the temptation for a former hacker could be too great -- like a kid in an unattended candy store.

From the interview with Dr. Charles C. Palmer, IBM.

An all-new YZF-R1 for the 2007 model year was announced on 9 October, 2006. Key features include an all-new inline four-cylinder engine; going back to a more conventional 4-valve per cylinder rather than Yamaha's trade mark 5-valve genesis layout. Other new features are the Yamaha Chip Control Intake (YCC-I) electronic variable-length intake funnel system, Yamaha Chip Control Throttle (YCC-T) fly-by-wire throttle system, slipper-type clutch, all-new aluminum Deltabox frame and swingarm, six-piston radial-mount front brake calipers with 310 mm discs, a wider radiator, and M1 styling on the new large ram-air ports in the front fairing. 2008 brought BNG and the ability to buy limited edition Fiat plastics.




The fuel injection is impressively slick, even after coming off the silky-smooth carbs of the Kawasaki. The brakes are a perfect combination of power and feel, while the engine has loads of go. It carries its weight well and it turns quickly too and, in spite of the compact feel, stability isn't a problem as it is with the 2003 FireBlade. At this level all I can do is say, “Oooh, it's gorgeous, I like the silver, I do.” That's it, I'm reduced to talking about colours and shapes. Oh, hang on, the screen is too small and low. Whaddya mean buy an Ermax?
An incredible road bike.







Specification:

• Engine Type 20 valve , DOHC , liquid-cooled
• Cylinder arrangement Forward Inclined Parallel 4-cylinder
• Displacement 998 cc;
• Bore x Stroke 74 x 58 mm;
• Compression Ratio 11.8:1;
• Maximum power 150 bhp (110.3 kW)@ 10000 rpm;
• Maximum Torque 11 kg-m (108.3 Nm) @ 8500 rpm;
• Starting System Electric;
• Lubrication Wet sump;
• Carburation BDSR40;
• Primary Reduction Ratio 63/43 (1.465);
• Secondary Reduction Ratio 43/16 (2,688);
• Clutch type Multiple disc , Wet;
• Transmission Type Constant mesh 6-speed;
• Gear Ratio 1st 39/15 (2,600);
• Gear Ratio 2nd 35/19 (1,842);
• Gear Ratio 3rd 30/20 (1,500);
• Gear Ratio 4th 28/21 (1,333);
• Gear Ratio 5th 30/25 (1,200);
• Gear Ratio 6th 29/26 (1,115);
• Final Transmission Chain;
• Chassis
• Overall Length 2035 mm;
• Overall Width 695 mm;
• Overall Height 1095 mm;
• Seat Height 815 mm;
• Wheelbase 1395 mm;
• Minimum Ground Clearance 140 mm;
• Dry Weight 177 kg (390lbs);
• Frame Type Deltabox II;
• Caster Angle 24°;
• Trail 92 mm;
• Fuel Tank Capacity 18 L;
• Front Suspension Upside down telescopic fork;
• Front Shock Absorber Coil spring / shock absorber;
• Rear Suspension New monocross;
• Rear Shock Absorber Coil spring / Gas-Oil damper;
• Front Wheel 17 x MT3.50, Aluminum;
• Front Wheel Travel 135 mm;
• Rear Wheel 17 x MT6.00;
• Rear Wheel Travel 130 mm;
• Front Brake Dual discs, 298 mm diam;
• Rear Brake Single disc, 245 mm diam;
• Front tire 120/70 ZR17 58W;
• Rear tire 190/50 ZR17 73W

2006 BMW 325i

You won't roar from stoplight to stoplight, getting waves and nods from F-150 drivers smoking Marlboros, and you won't do smoky burnouts waiting in line at a NASCAR race, but the 2006 325i will make those wishes disappear with every click of its seamless six-speed stick and with every graceful move as it dances through the curves of a backcountry ballroom. The 325i's in-line six-cylinder engine seems a bit lackluster on paper; even the ultra-conservative Toyota Camry V-6 has more power than 215 hp and 184 lb-ft of torque. But a car is more than an engine and four wheels, and the refinement and handling balance offered in the 2006 3-series is simply unparalleled.



While the current generation 7- and 5-series sedans offer amazing performance and bodies designed through the use of funhouse mirrors, the 2006 325i proves that Bangle-ism has a bright side. Finally we have a BMW we wouldn't prefer to be hidden under a shroud of darkness. Its lines are flared and aggressive, but less ostentatiousness than the Z4's. Much of the difference is found in light housings, where the wild stretches of the 5-series have been reigned in to appear more evolutionary than revolutionary.



The cabin strikes a similar balance of avant-garde style tempered with familiar ergonomics. Simple, straightforward controls are wrapped in flowing shapes and high-quality materials. You only get iDrive, the spinning joystick control for the complex infotainment system, if you order the satellite navigation: without it, everything is where you'd expect it to be. Ultra-supportive front sport seats with adjustable side bolsters are a must-have option, and come with the $1,600 sport package that also includes stylish split-five spoke 17-inch wheels, a lowered sport suspension, and a leather-wrapped steering wheel. Run-flat tires are now standard equipment on every 325i.




From a safety standpoint, electronic traction and stability control and front, front-side, and full-length head curtain air bags are all standard. But luckily, the nanny-tronics seldom intervene, as the chassis remains amazingly neutral. The bodyshell is claimed to be 25 percent stiffer, and provides a great platform for the front strut and rear multilink suspensions. The BMW cuts through tight twisties as if it were magnetized to the blacktop. Even through off-camber turns and through the pothole-infested roadways of southeast Michigan, the suspension never lacks composure.

Ahmedabad Serial Blasts

The Ahmedabad police on Sunday confirmed 21 explosions in Saturday’s serial blasts in the city. The death toll has crossed 50, while the number of injured is over 200. While the Army conducted flag marches around the city, the police began detaining suspects, checking on the vital leads for the bicycles used in the blasts.

The police are suspecting banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) behind the terror strike. The Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) arrested one Abdul Halim Maulavi from the city’s Danilimda area. He was wanted in a case registered under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, in 2003-04.

Halim is accused of sending 33 youths from Ahmedabad to Pakistan for terrorist training. “Halim was arrested in connection with an old case. But we may get some leads into yesterday’s blast,” said a senior DCB official.

As the city police is busy handling the law and order situation, the investigation of the case has been handed over to the Ahmedabad DCB.

According to DCB officials, mainly bicycles had been used as carriers of the explosive devices. A number of cycle traders in the city are being questioned by the police to find out the details of the culprits.

The places where the 21 blasts occurred include Raipur Police Chowky- one each near Chamunda Jewellers and M Narandas Medical Store, Sarangpur Chakla near the vegetable market, Sarangpur Darwaza, Mayur Hotel in Naroda, Thakkar Nagar Approach in Naroda, Civil Hospital Trauma Centre, Sardar Patel Diamond Market near a tea stall and a dosa centre. The other places include the New Kamdar Post Office and Khodiyar Nagar in Odhav, Hatkeshwar Circle near Archana School and a vegetable lorry, LG Hospital, Jawahar Chowk, Maninagar Cross Roads and Maninagar AMTS Bus Stop in Maninagar, Narol Circle in Danilimda, Govind Vadi in Isanpur and Sangam Theatre in Sarkhej.

Banglore Serial Blasts

Terror hit Bangalore Friday afternoon as nine low intensity blasts ripped through different parts of the IT city. Majority of explosions took place within a span of half an hour, starting at 1:45 pm. The sites that were targetted were Madiwala, Adugodi area, Koramangla, Hosur Road, Nayandahalli and Shivaji Nagar on Mysore Road and Langford Town. There were unconfirmed reports that the last two blasts took place in the evening around 5.30 pm near Gopalan Mall also on Mysore Road and at north Bangalore near a flyover.All the sites are located in the southern part of the city, with some hosting several upmarket malls. These are fairly congested with Madiwala being one of the biggest markets of the city. The blast here took place at the bus stand.

The strech from Brigade Road to the Hosur Road National Highway leading to Chennai bore the brunt in today's attack.

All the wounded have been rushed to nearby hospitals for medical aid. Some have been admitted to St John’s and Mallya hospitals.

Elaborating on the modus operandi, the Police Commissioner said that crude bombs with timer devices were used. Iron bolts had been fixed to them and each explosion had the intensity of 1-2 hand grenades.

The blasts are thought to be of low-intensity using gelatin sticks. Traces of ammonium nitrate has also been found.

One blast took place near tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi’s house. However, barring shattering some window panes, there was no other major damage.

Forensic experts and bomb disposal squads have reached the targetted sites.

The authorities have cordoned off the entire locality and sniffer dogs are being used for further clues. Mobile networks in certain areas have jammed and major artery roads have clogged due people rushing back home.

The pattern and intensity of blasts indicate the explosions were meant to cause panic rather than claim casualties.

Indian government survives no-confidence vote

Amid uproarious scenes, India's government avoided collapse Tuesday when it won a perilously close vote of confidence in parliament. The win means India can now focus on pushing through a much-vaunted, long-delayed nuclear deal with the United States.

Had the government lost the vote, the world's biggest democracy would have faced early elections and the Indo-US nuclear deal would almost certainly have been canned.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress party-led coalition, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) won 275 votes in its favor and 256 against in the confidence motion, the parliamentary speaker Somnath Chatterjee announced late Tuesday. The vote followed a two-day parliamentary debate.

"Parliament has spoken in an unambiguous manner," Mr. Singh told journalists outside parliament. "This augurs well for the country's development and for India's efforts to find its rightful place in the comity of nations. It is a convincing victory."

The vote of confidence, India's first in a decade, was prompted when the government's communist allies withdrew their support over the civilian nuclear deal, arguing that the pact made India a pawn of Washington. Their withdrawal left the government without a clear majority.

So close seemed the vote that four jailed members of parliament (MPs) – serving time for kidnap, murder, and arson – were temporarily released under constitutional provisions guaranteeing their right to vote. Several hospitalized MPs were also brought in, including one wheeled into parliament on a gurney.

J. K. Rowling

Joanne "Jo" Rowling (born 31 July 1965), who writes under the pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British writer and author of the Harry Potter fantasy series, the idea for which was conceived whilst on a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990. The Potter books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, and sold nearly 400 million copies.

Aside from writing the Potter novels, Rowling is equally famous for her "rags to riches" life story, in which she progressed from living on welfare to multi-millionaire status within five years. The 2008 Sunday Times Rich List estimated Rowling's fortune at £560 million ($1.1 billion), ranking her as the 12th richest woman in Britain. Forbes ranked Rowling as the 48th most powerful celebrity of 2007, and Time magazine named her as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fandom. She has become a notable philanthropist, supporting such charities as Comic Relief, One Parent Families and the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain.

Harry Potter series:

1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (26 June 1997)
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2 July 1998)
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (8 July 1999)
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (8 July 2000)
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (21 June 2003)
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (16 July 2005)
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (21 July 2007)

Ajith Kumar

Ajith Kumar ( Tamil: அஜித் குமார்) (born May 1, 1971) is an Indian film actor and car racer, who has acted in manyTamil, Telugu and Hindi movies. Ajith Kumar made his acting debut in his only Telugu-language film-to-date, Prema Pustagam in 1992, which was followed by a Tamil (his mother tongue) film Amaravathi in the following year, his first lead role. After acting in a series of smaller budget films, Ajith was later recognized for his performance an anonymous lover in the award-winning movie Kadhal Kottai. He went on to demonstrate his versatility as an actor by portraying a variety of unique characters.

Ajith received his first Filmfare Best Actor Award for his performance in Vaali in 1999, portraying a double-role. He went on to win two consecutive Filmfare Best Actor Awards — in the 2001 film Citizen, in which he appeared in nine different appearances, and in the 2002 film, Villain, playing twins, one of which had a disability. He was later recognized for his triple role in Varalaru, his biggest grosser to date.He was recognised for his more sensitive character portrayal in Kireedam. Ajith thus established himself as one of the leading actors of contemporary Tamil cinema.

In addition to being an actor, Ajith is a race driver, having driven in Formula Three for a season and an active ambassador for the Green Revolution. He used to be known in the Indian media for publicly speaking his mind and openly expressing his opinions, occasionally surrounding himself with controversy. However, in recent years, he has maintained a silent dignity to avoid problems that come with a controversial image.

Mozilla Firefox 3

Mozilla has released the final version of an overhauled Firefox, the widely used open-source Web browser.

Firefox 3 has improved browsing speed and security over previous version, as well as new features, such as smarter location bar, a new download manager which now includes pause and resume functionality, full zoom option with all the elements of a page’s layout expanding equally, one-click bookmarking, and more.

The browser is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux operating systems.

It can be downloaded now from Mozilla’s website for free.


Features:

Improved Tabbed Browsing

Spell Checking

Search Suggestions

Session Restore

Web Feeds (RSS)

Live Titles

Integrated Search

Live Bookmarks

Pop-up Blocker

Streamlined Interface

Accessibility

Phishing Protection

Automated Update

Indo-US Nuke deal: 123 agreement

The Indo-US nuclear deal is being called the biggest breakthrough in years. The 123 agreement that will make the deal operational, was finally made public earlier on Friday.

This, after months of tough negotiations between Indian and American diplomats that took place, even as the deal battled its way through Parliament in Delhi and the US Congress.

Many have consistently raised concerns that this make-or-break deal might be bad for India but here is a look at more of the fine prints of the deal that has a life span of 40 years.

The 123 agreement is a civil nuclear deal, therefore, it will have no bearing on India's strategic and military programme and India can make a bomb. It is completely out of the ambit of the deal.

In the text of the deal there is a clause that says that the agreement will in no way be a hindrance to India's strategic programme. Therefore, India can continue to make a bomb with its own fuel.

What is clear from the draft of the 123 agreement is that there is no legal binding commitment on India to never test again. India, if it wants to, can choose to conduct a nuclear test.

If India does conduct a nuclear test, it will not be violating any international treaty or agreement because there is no mention of testing or detonation in this bilateral agreement.

Essentially, what the controversy has been over is whether if India conducts a test the Americans under their own laws would have the right to take back all the fuel that they give us.

Right of return

The deal interestingly says that the right of return that the Americans have does not automatically comes into effect. It is something the US administration chooses to do. They would have to stop cooperation with India.

But whether or not they take back fuel is something they would have to choose to do.

Even after the US chooses to do that, there are about seven to eight barriers before the right of return actually comers into play.

What the agreement says that that it will take into account the circumstances in which India conducts a nuclear test.

These include a ''changed security environment'' or action, which could impact national security.

Essentially what it boils down to is that the right of return may not be invoked if Pakistan or China conduct nuclear tests and India responds to that by conducting a test of its own.

In a way, this is the first international agreement, which would justify the circumstances in which a nuclear test is conducted.

So India is not giving up its right to test and right of return of nuclear fuel does not automatically comes into play.

Apart from this there are certain assurances given by US President George W Bush to the Indian side. Those have been verbatim repeated in the text of the agreement.

These assurances are that the US would ensure that there is a lifetime supply of fuel for India's nuclear reactors and that they help India build its strategic fuel reserve.

If the US is unable to fulfill this commitment, it will convene a group of countries like Russia, France and the UK to ensure supply.

Even if, for some reason, they were to take back nuclear fuel, India retains the right to seek alternate sources of fuel for itself. India will have to build strategic reserve so that it does not go out nuclear fuel.

Orkut

Orkut is a social networking service which is run by Google and named after its creator, an employee of Google - Orkut Büyükkökten. The service states that it was designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. Orkut is similar to other social networking sites. Since October 2006, Orkut has permitted users to create accounts without an invitation. Orkut is the most visited website in Brazil and second most visited site in India. The initial target market for Orkut was the United States, but the majority of its users are in India and Brazil. In fact, as of May 2008, 53.86% of Orkut's users are from Brazil, followed by India with 16.97% and 23.4% of the traffic comes from Brazil, followed by India with 18.0%.

History

Orkut was launched in January 2004 by search company Google, as the brainchild of Orkut Büyükkökten, a Turkish software engineer, who developed it as an independent project while working at Google. In late June 2004, Affinity Engines filed suit against Google, claiming that Orkut Büyükkökten and Google based Orkut on inCircle code.

Originally, its membership was by invitation. By April 2008, Orkut's user base numbered at around 120 million, next only to MySpace.

Features

A user first creates a "Profile", in which the user provides "Social", "Professional" and "Personal" details. Users can upload photos into their Orkut profile with a caption. Users can also add videos to their profile from either YouTube or Google Video with the additional option of creating either restricted or unrestricted polls for polling a community of users.

Scrapbook

"Scrapping" is popular among the Orkut community as a form of offline and online communication. In December 2007, the ability to pop up alerts immediately when a scrap is received was added, adding instant messaging-like capabilities to Orkut.

Communities

Another feature of Orkut are "Communities". Anyone with an Orkut account can create a community on anything. One can post topics, inform users about an event, ask them questions or just play games. There are more than one million communities on Orkut with topics ranging from pizza to pasta. The first five communities on Orkut were started within 24 hrs of the site's launch. There were a total of 47,092,584 communities on Orkut as per March 24, 2008 4:25PM IST (+5:30 GMT). With the recent addition of the search topic feature in the communities, some Orkut communities become the de facto source for the website links to movies, e-books etc.

Other miscellaneous features

Members can make groups to join friends according to their wishes. Further, each member can become fans of any of the friends in their list and can also evaluate whether their friend is "Trustworthy", "Cool", "Sexy" on a scale of 1 to 3 (marked by icons) and is aggregated in terms of a percentage. Unlike Facebook, where a member can view profile details of people only on their network, Orkut allows anyone to visit anyone's profile, unless a potential visitor is on your "Ignore List" (This feature has been recently changed so that users can choose between showing their profile to all networks or specified ones). Importantly, each member can also customize their profile preferences and can restrict information that appear on their profile from their friends and/or others (not on the friends list). Another feature is that any member can add any other member on Orkut to his/her "Crush List" and both of them will be informed only when both parties have added each other to their "Crush List".

When a user logs in, they see the people in their friends list in the order of their logging in to the site, the first person being the latest one to do so. Orkut's competitors are other social networking sites including MySpace and Facebook. Ning is a more direct competitor, as they allow creation of Social Networks which are similar to Orkut's communities.

There is a birthday reminder on the homepage of each user, which shows upcoming birthdays of that user's network friends.

Orkut users can decide the countries from which they want to get friends requests from. Or the person sending request has to verify the email address of the another person.

Orkut Redesign

On Friday, August 24, 2007, Orkut announced a redesign. The new UI contains round corners and soft colors including small logotype at upper left corner. The redesign has been announced on the official Orkut Blog.

By Thursday, August 30, 2007, most users on Orkut could see changes on their profile pages as per the new redesign. On the 31st, Orkut announced its new features including improvements to the way you view your friends, 9 rather than 8 of your friends displayed on your homepage and profile page and basic links to your friends' content right under their profile picture as you browse through their different pages. It also announced the initial release of Orkut in 5 new languages: Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu. Profile editing can take place by clicking the settings button under your profile photo (or alternatively, click the blue settings link at the top of any page).

On September 4, 2007, Orkut announced another new feature. You can now see an "Updates from your friends" box on the homepage, where you'll get real-time updates when your friends make changes to their profiles, photos and videos. Moreover, in case you want to keep some things on your profile private, Orkut has added an easy opt-out button on the settings page.

On November 8, 2007, Orkut greeted its Indian users Happy Diwali in a very special way, by allowing them to change their Orkut look to a Diwali-flavored reddish theme.

On April Fools' Day 2008, Orkut temporarily changed its name on its webpage to yogurt, apparently as a prank.

On 2nd June 2008, Orkut has launched its theming engine with a small set of default themes. along with this PHOTO tagging has also finally arrived at orkut.

Orkut Applications

On 16th April, 2008, Orkut began rolling out applications to everyone in India and then in phases to the rest of the world.[8] Currently, the number of applications in the application directory stands at 287 (as of 19 July 2008).

Criticism

Flooders and fake profiles

As with any online social networking community, a number of fake and cloned profiles exist on Orkut. Due to the large number of users, and the deactivation of the jail system, the profiles were often left unremoved or, when removed, recreated easily. These profiles are normally created to troll, to spam, to flood or just for fun. It is not hard to find users owning more than one profile, with some stating they own hundreds.

In 2005 invisible profiles, communities and topics started to appear in Orkut. This could be achieved by using HTML escaping codes and 1x1 pixel photos to fool the engine behind the site.[10] This hole was later fixed, and currently there is a lower limit on profile image dimensions.

In August 2005 a freeware program was made in Delphi called Floodtudo ("tudo" in Portuguese means "everything" - this was developed by a Brazilian) specifically for flooding Orkut. It quickly spread through the users and was easily downloadable (the most common Floodtudo versions were 1.2, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.2). As this program was massively used by thousands of spammers, a big spam wave struck Orkut in September and October 2005.

As the flooding of Orkut was becoming out of control, the developers implemented some features in order to stop this. These features included not allowing two or more verbatim topics or scrapbook entries to be submitted, forcing the user to wait before posting another topic or scrapbook entry, and the usage of captchas, whenever a scrap entry is hyperlinked. They gave more rights to community moderators as well, so that users can be banned outright instead of relying on the developers to remove them.

Hate groups

There has recently been controversy revolving around the use of Orkut by various hate groups. Virulent racists and religious fanatics allegedly have a solid following there. Several hate communities focused on racism, Nazism and white supremacy have been deleted due to guideline violation.

In 2005, various cases of racism were brought to police attention and reported on in the Brazilian media.[citation needed] In 2006, a judicial measure was opened by the Brazil federal justice denouncing a 20-year-old student accused of racism against those of African ancestry and spreading defamatory content on Orkut. Brazilian Federal Justice subpoenaed Google on March 2006 to explain the crimes that had occurred in Orkut.

Anti-religion, anti-national, and anti-ethnic hate groups have also been spotted. Recently an Indian court has issued notices to Google on some of the groups. The Mumbai Police are seeking a ban on Orkut post objections raised by political groups. Groups denigrating various political leaders and celebrities have also emerged. Also in a reported case of 2005, racist groups have been reported. They were anti-Tamil groups. No names have been revealed yet.

State Censorship

Orkut was very popular in Iran, but the website is now blocked by the government. According to official reports, this is due to national security issues, and Islamic ethical issues about dating and match making. To get around this block, sites such as orkutproxy.com (now defunct) were made for Iranian users. Other websites such as Yahoo! Groups and Google Groups have communities dedicated to receiving updates on the newest location of Iran's Orkut proxy. Though it was once possible to bypass governmental blockage of Orkut, the site has closed its HTTPS pages on all anonymous proxies. Now it is almost impossible for ordinary users to visit this site inside Iran.[neutrality disputed] Many other sites have been published in Iran since Orkut's blockage, using the same social-networking model - examples include MyPardis, Cloob and Bahaneh. Of course, these websites run a high risk of being blocked as well, so they have their own censorship policies to meet Iran's unwritten regulations and rules of filtering.

In August 2006, United Arab Emirates followed the footsteps of Iran in blocking the site. This block was subsequently removed in October 2006. On July 3, 2007, Gulf News revisited the issue, publishing complaints from members of the public against Orkut communities like "Dubai Sex", and officially bringing the complaints to the attention of the state telecom monopoly Etisalat [. The ensuing moral panic resulted in a renewed ban of the site by Etisalat by July 4, 2007, still in effect despite Google's promise to negotiate the ban with the UAE . Saudi Arabia is another country that has blocked access to Orkut, while Bahrain's information ministry is also under pressure to follow suit.

Privacy

Earlier in Orkut it was allowed for anybody to view any one's pictures, videos as well as scraps. But this gave promotion to the people who started misusing the photos and videos and placed them on the internet with fake details. Many of them were vulgar, especially pictures of women. Moreover the scraps could be read easily.

Currently privacy covers such features as scraps (separately read and write access), videos, photoalbums, testimonials, applications. The following privacy levels are currently available to users: friends/friends of friends/everyone in the network. The user can limit visibility of her/his profile to a certain region or group of regions (that's what is called "network"); in this case outside of these regions no user information is available.

Initially, the common opinion was that out of the two major countries, only users in India will be interested in privacy on orkut, while Brazil, being a very open society, will not need it. In reality, the percentage of users choosing to hide their data is the same in India and Brazil. The only difference is that in Brazilian sector of there is a community "Quer privacidade? Sai do orkut" ("want privacy? get out of orkut") against other people's privacy.

Security and safety

Hacking accounts and communities with XSS

In 2005 dozens of communities' ownership was hacked. A similar feat was performed using a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability. Eventually, various phishing sites were developed with the intent of stealing other people's accounts and communities.

In December 2007, hundreds of thousands of users accounts were affected, using another XSS vulnerability and a worm. A user's account was affected when the user simply read a particular scrap containing an embed which caused the user to automatically become a part of a community on the site, without approval. The affected user's account was then used to send this scrap to everyone present in the user's friend list thereby creating a sort of a huge wave.

MW.Orc worm

On June 19, 2006 FaceTime Security Labs' security researchers Christopher Boyd and Wayne Porter discovered a worm, dubbed MW.Orc.

The worm steals users' banking details, usernames and passwords by propagating through Orkut. The attack was triggered as users launched an executable file disguised as a JPEG file. The initial executable file that causes the infection installs two additional files on the user's computer. These files then e-mail banking details and passwords to the worm's anonymous creator when infected users click on the "My Computer" icon.

The infection spreads automatically by posting a URL in another user's Orkut Scrapbook, a guestbook where visitors can leave comments visible on the user's page. This link lures visitors with a message in Portuguese, falsely claiming to offer additional photos. The message text that carries an infection link can vary from case to case.

In addition to stealing personal information, the malware can also enable a remote user to control the PC and make it part of a botnet, a network of infected PCs. The botnet in this case uses an infected PC's bandwidth to distribute large, pirated movie files, potentially slowing down an end-user's connection speed.

The initial executable file (Minhasfotos.exe) creates two additional files when activated, winlogon_.jpg and wzip32.exe (located in the System32 Folder). When the user clicks the "My Computer" icon, a mail is sent containing their personal data. In addition, they may be added to an XDCC Botnet (used for file sharing), and the infection link may be sent to other users that they know in the Orkut network. The infection can be spread manually, but also has the ability to send "back dated" infection links to people in the "friends list" of the infected user.

According to statements made by Google, as noted in Facetime's Greynets Blog, the company had implemented a temporary fix for the dangerous worm.

HTTPS Not Obvious

In and around April 17, 2007 users began reporting that secure (https) access to the Orkut login server was no longer available.

In fact, Google had changed the main login page to http delivery to improve efficiency, but the actual login remained secure using https in an iframe. This information had not been well-published by Google, and did not give the users the reassurance of seeing the "secure connection" padlock in the browser. On July 17, 2007, a revised login page, which is delivered via https, addressed these issues.

Session Management and Authentication Issues

On June 22, 2007 Susam Pal and Vipul Agarwal published a security advisory on Orkut vulnerabilities related to authentication issues. The vulnerablities are considered very dangerous in cybercafes, or in the case of man-in-the-middle attack as they can lead to session hijacking and misuse of legitimate accounts. The vulnerabilities are not known to be fixed yet and therefore pose threat to the Orkut users.

A week later, on June 29, 2007 Susam Pal published another security advisory which described how the Orkut authentication issue can be exploited to hijack Google and Gmail sessions and misuse the compromised account of a legitimate user under certain conditions.

Joseph Hick performed an experiment on the basis of the advisories published by Susam Pal, to find out how long a session remains alive even after a user logs out. His experiment confirmed that the sessions remain alive for 14 days after the user has logged out. It implies that a hijacked session can be used for 14 days by the hijacker because logging out does not kill the session.

W32/KutWormer

On December 19, 2007, a worm written in Javascript started to cause havoc. Created by a Brazilian user, it automatically made the user join the virus related community and infect all friends' scrapbooks with copies of itself.

The worm is spreading through Orkut’s recently introduced tool that allows users to write messages that contain HTML code. The ability to add Flash/Javascript content to Orkut scraps was only recently introduced. on March 3, 2008 W32/Scrapkut.worm was found. The worm attempts to spread itself by sending orkut users scraps that contains the link to the worm itself.Aliases Downloader.Banload.ONK (GRISoft) TR/Dldr.Orkut.A (Avira) Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Banload.auf (IKARUS) Trojan.DL.Win32.Banload.dzm (Rising) W32.Scrapkut (Symantec)

Other Attacks

Private Album Hack

In December 2007 a Brazilian hacker with the pseudonym "Rodrigo Lacerda" published a script that allowed users to scrape other people's private photos. The exploit consisted of generating album photo urls, due to their simple structure. See e.g. [1]

Social Engineering

Attacks on orkut using social engineering never stop. Among these the easiest kind is to offer a user to enter a script into the browser's address area, to "improve performance".

Legal Issues

Brazil

On August 22, 2006, Brazilian Federal Judge José Marcos Lunardelli ordered Google to release Orkut user’s information of a list of about two dozen Brazilian nationals, believed to be using Orkut to sell drugs and involved in child pornography by September 28. The judge ordered Google to pay $23,000 per day in fines until the information is turned over to the Brazilian government. The information the government is requesting would also be used to identify individuals that are spreading child pornography[25] and hate speech, according to the Brazilian government. As of September 27, 2006 Google has stated that they will not release the information, on the grounds that the requested information is on Google servers in the U.S. and not Google servers in Brazil, and is therefore not subject to Brazilian laws. In March 2008, the Minister of Justice broke the accounts, and the locked albums became opened only to the advocates. There is a possibility of Orkut erasing the pornographic accounts/profiles.

India

Of late, the number of Indians on Orkut has been increasing rapidly. On October 10, 2006, the Bombay High Court's Aurangabad bench served a notice on Google for allowing a hate campaign against India. This referred to a community on Orkut called 'We Hate India', which initially carried a picture of an Indian flag being burned and some anti-India content.

The High Court order was issued in response to a public-interest petition filed by an Aurangabad advocate. Google had six weeks to respond. Even before the petition was filed, many Orkut users had noticed this community and were mailing or otherwise messaging their contacts on Orkut[citation needed] to report the community as bogus to Google, which could result in its removal. The community continues to exist and had spawned several 'We hate those who hate India' communities.

Prior to the 60th Independence Day of India, orkut's main page was revamped. The section which usually displayed a collage of photos of various people, showed a stylized orkut logo. The word orkut was written in the Devanagiri script and was colored in the Indian national colours. Clicking on the logo redirects to a post by the orkut India Product Manager, Manu Rekhi, on the orkut internal blog. There has also been some media outcry against Orkut after a couple of youngsters were apparently lured by fake profiles on the site and later murdered.

On November 23, Bombay High Court asked the state government to file its reply in connection with a petition demanding a ban on social networking site, Orkut, for hosting an anti-Shivaji Web community.

Recently, the Pune rural police cracked a rave party filled with narcotics. The accused have been charged under anti-narcotic laws, the (Indian) Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropics Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS). Besides the NDPS, according to some media reports, the police were deliberating on the issue of charging the accused under the (Indian) Information Technology Act, 2000 perhaps because Orkut was believed to be one of the mode of communication for these kind of drug abuses.

The Cyber police in India have entered into an agreement with Orkut to have a facility to catch and prosecute those misusing Orkut since the complaints is in a rising stage.

The Dark Knight (2008)

SYNOPSIS:

Batman (Christian Bale) and Lt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman) join forces with Gotham's new District Attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), to take on a psychotic bank robber known as The Joker (Heath Ledger), whilst other forces plot against them, and Joker's crimes grow more and more deadly.





Review:

There’s a sense of daring in this explosive Batman film, in which we constantly feel on edge, aware of impending risks and the fact that there is something to lose. Writer director Christopher Nolan is as firmly in control of this stupendous blockbuster with its massive stunts, well constructed plot, conflicted hero and darkly manic villain as Bruce Wayne in his Lamborghini or Batman in his batmobile. Christian Bale continues to be the perfect Batman but all eyes are on Heath Ledger, whose emotional fragility is magnified as he delivers an astonishing performance as an imposing, seriously disturbed Joker who plays with no rules.

‘You can die a hero or live long enough to be a villain,’ says Ledger’s Joker as he creates chaos in a terrorised Gotham City where copycat Batman clones confuse law and order. Through the chaos comes ‘a decent man in indecent times’: Aaron Eckhart’s District Attorney Harvey Dent, who believes in making his own luck despite the two-sided lucky coin he keeps close at all times. Eckhart is perfect for the role, and while Bale’s Batman respects and understands Gotham needs ‘a hero and with a face’, there is underlying tension: after all they are both in love with the same girl (Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Rachel).
All the performances are top notch and the relationships well formed. It is impossible to watch Ledger’s performance without feeling a sense of poignancy. The strength of his Joker is its complexity and dark humanity: the way Ledger wears the character’s pain is crystal clear beneath the opaque and grotesque clown’s make up, the painted smile, lank, greasy hair, darting eyes and ever-moving tongue. It’s nightmare material. And it’s always a pleasure to see Michael Caine as Bruce Wayne’s ever-faithful butler Alfred and Morgan Freeman as Lucius, who distrusts too much power in one man’s control.

There’s a little bit of everything in this thrilling and often violent superhero fantasy – romance, humour, drama, stunts and loads of tension. The stunts are massive with exploding buildings, somersaulting cars, torpedoing helicopters and a huge truck which Batman lassos. Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard team up to deliver a hummdinger of a musical score which never lets up. It’s overlong, but for the genre, The Dark Knight is about as good as it gets, elevated by Ledger’s memorable final curtain call.

Review by Andrew L. Urban:
A stupendous performance by the late Heath Ledger burns this incarnation of The Joker into our psyche as securely as did Jack Nicholson's. But even more than Nicholson, Ledger plays The Joker for real; unlike the unavoidably cartoonish Batman, The Joker in Ledger's hands is a fierce and fearsome character whose deadly game is profoundly grounded in a perverse sort of pragmatic reality, built on a unredeemably negative view of human weakness. His disarrayed make up and wardrobe, the result of a fanatic's imperfect application, adds to the genuinely scary persona.

Another terrific bonus for the film is the score, using the talents of both Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. It's big and bold and often shouts its presence at high tension moments, of which there are several. I have a serious reservation about the mix, though, which suggests that the sound engineers and the director were so enamoured of the score, they let it all hang out in the mix, often overriding dialogue.

Less successful is the sometimes murky development of the plot, which labours its way to the resolution, in which we get to understand why Batman is referred to as the Dark Knight - as he disappears into the dark night of Gotham City. There is no question that the muscly production strives for audio visual thrills, but it does so at the expense of focused storytelling. Bruce takes Wayne too long to deliver what's expected of him - and the film suffers from the weight of its story and character convulsions - well intentioned though they are.

Christian Bale has matured as an actor since he first slammed the pedal to the metal in the Batmobile - as has the Batmobile. But - with clear logic, I admit - he adopts a throaty, rasping voice when in the Batsuit, which seems cheesy. (The logic being that when he didn't, his voice would be recognisable; something that distracted me last time.) I also did a mental 'phaw' when wardrobe decided to match the disfigured side of Harvey Dent's (Aaron Eckhart) face with his half his jacket. This signals the comic book genesis of the franchise, but there aren't enough of these references to make it work on this occasion.

Gary Oldman, Eckhart and Maggie Gylenhaal (the latter as the woman who once loved Bruce Wayne but now is seeing Dent) all deliver wonderful, credible and heartfelt performances. The stunts are spectacular and the pace relentless, but when the cinematography (otherwise excellent) gets bogged down in undecipherable, chaotic action, and the plot has left the building, boredom sets in for sections of the film that make 152 minutes seem rather long.