Archive for September, 2009

The First-Year College Experience

September 20th, 2009

01052009128hi friends,

Me and my friends will never forget our freshman year at college. Some of us may like to forget our freshman year, but in general it is a time filled with anticipation, some anxiety, and wonderful discoveries.

College is a lot different than high school. You may decide to commute from

your home to a local campus. Your freshman experience will definitely make an impression on you. Without doubt, though, the most dramatic freshman year is for those living away from home. What can you expect as you head off into the wonderful world of higher education?

The first thing you’ll notice is the workload. It will be heavier and more intense than you ever experienced before. The major challenges of college work are the large volume of reading, the short deadlines, and the writing, writing, writing. A related effect that can be brought on by the workload is doubt, frustration, and possibly loneliness. You’ll be away from the comforts and friendships your home provided for you over the previous years.

On some of those long, seemingly endless nights of studying and writing, it

will be only natural for you to long for the good old days. Hang in there. These down periods will pass. Whatever you do, don’t make major decisions about your major, your courses, or even your roommate during one of these blue periods. Things always look better in the morning.

You’ll be making a lot of new friends. Continue to be yourself. Don’t strike a pose or play the role of someone you’re not. Select your friends with the same care and patience you have always used. Believe it or not, your college

friendships will be among the most satisfying and long-term of your life. It’s always exciting to discover how wonderfully diverse college relationships can be.

You’ll also be on your own, your own boss (more or less) 24 hours a day. Be

careful here. Don’t go flying off the end of the pier. Enjoy your newfound freedom. Stay up until dawn talking about your ideals and ambitions with your dorm’s regular bull session buddies. Sleep in until the afternoon on a light class day. Explore the local town or suburbs with one or two of your new friends. Remember, though, with freedom comes responsibility. Even though your parents won’t be around to follow up on your loose ends, you shouldn’t let things go completely. Just find your own style.

You may even start to think about your future. Be on the lookout for role models. Maybe a certain professor is especially inspiring. Perhaps your school has some ground-breaking research going on. Be sensitive to your own

gravity. If some area of study attracts you, find out all you can about it. It might be the beginning of your self-definition process. Going to college is as much about finding out who you really are as it is about getting that degree.

Versatile robots to clean streets, collect rubbish

September 20th, 2009

London: A robot walking up to you to collect the daily garbage and another one sweeping the street. Soon, this fond dream may turn into reality.This new generation of mobile and autonomous robots is part of the DUSTBOT research project under the VI European Framework Programme.

rbojghyjgftyThese state-of-the-art robots are suitable for the monitoring of large spaces (open and closed), and as guides for people in large shopping areas – indicating to them where a particular shop or product is within a shopping centre.

They are also suitable for accompanying elderly people or those with certain disabilities (both at home and outside), thanks to their functions of orientation, navigation, communications with others or tele-assistance centres, says a DUSTBOT release.

They can also be used as guides in teaching spaces (museums, visitor centres), and for storage and transport, besides the cleaning of both open and closed surfaces which have either difficult or easy access.

This last function is the one which was publicly demonstrated at a railway station in Atxuri, Spain.

The demonstration of two robot models was undertaken: the DustCart and the DustClean. The DustCart robot, measuring 1.45 metres high and 70 kg in

weight, has a humanoid form and is designed to interact with the user and for the collection of low demand waste.The DustClean robot, in the form of a small vehicle and measuring 96 cm high and 250 kg in weight, cleans streets of dirt and dust. Moreover, both control the quality of air in real time.

Know Infosys’ success secret

September 20th, 2009

N-RNarayana-Murthy7171

Bangalore: The three aspects of ensuring success for any entrepreneur was innovation, ability to use innovation to create service and products that Infosys corporate education centre add value to customers and the ability to communicate the value to customers, Infosys Chairman N R Narayana

Murthy said.”Think of innovation and marketing as two most important instruments for creating a wonderful organisation and tremendous brand equity,” Murthy advised entrepreneurs at the launch of a new marketing book, “No Marketing Money” authored by Jessie Paul, a former global brand manager at Infosys.Using Innovative platform that does not cost too much money could help entrepreneurs to create brand equity, he said sharing his

own experience of building Infosys from a little known brand to a globally recognised brand.

He said during a survey conducted in 1992 with prospective employees on the company they would like to join, zero per cent opted for Infosys. This dismal picture drove him to take a vow to change it. “We will be number one in India in five years,” he had told his colleagues then.

His confidence was met with some scepticism by colleagues who wondered how a small company with less resources could hope to compete with richer and bigger companies, he recalled.

“We will do new unusual things,” he had told his colleagues. “We will do what other companies did not do,” he said reminiscing over the transformation of a company to a leading global software firm.

“Think of new ideas and think of platforms that do not cost too much and that will get people to talk about you, magazines to write about you,” he said, adding communicating unusual ideas would attract people.

Paul said the book was a guide for companies especially startups to establish themselves and grow rapidly on a relatively limited budget. It provides actionable insights and advice on how to steer as well as manage brands.

Girish Paranjpe, Joint CEO, IT Business and Member of the Board, Wipro, said “Clear Positioning and Innovative marketing are required if more Indian firms are to play a role on the global stage.”

New language protects home computers

September 20th, 2009

Washington: Scientists have developed a security language to protect home networks from cyber attacks.

Computer-100leadCompanies, banks and other organisations take internet security very seriously, erecting firewalls and IT departments to protect them from attacks. But domestic and small office networks are just as vulnerable to hacking, malicious computer code, worms and viruses.Geon Woo Kim of the Electronics and Telecom Research Institute (ETRI) Korea and colleagues who developed the specific codes said home networks have only a single gateway from the internet.
“Whenever a new access to the home network is found, it should be able to authenticate and authorise it and enforce the security policy based on rules

set by the home administrator,” the team said in an ETRI release.The computer scientists first turned to a computer markup language, eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML). XACML is a general purpose language and so it lacks the notation for security policies and authorisation rules

North Korea’s Ryugyong Hotel: Ugliest Building on Earth?

September 19th, 2009

worst-hotel

It’s a rather dubious honor to be considered the ugliest of just about anything at all, but according to many, the 105-story Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea appears to be the winner of the ugly building contest.The Ryugyong Hotel with its 3,000 rooms has been described as a hideous and distorted version of a fairy-tale castle that dominates the city’s skyline and is so ugly that it is frequently air-brushed out of publicity shots of the city.

Construction began in 1987 (although no one knows why) but stopped in 1992. It is unlikely that it will ever be finished due to the fact that North Korea ran out of money and there is no tourist industry in the region.