Thursday, December 27, 2007

Computer hardware

Computer hardwareis the physical part of a computer, including the digital circuitry, as distinguished from the computer software that executes within the hardware. The hardware of a computer is infrequently changed, in comparison with software and data, which are "soft" in the sense that they are readily created, modified or erased on the computer. Firmware is a special type of software that rarely, if ever, needs to be changed and so is stored on hardware devices such as read-only memory (ROM) where it is not readily changed (and is, therefore, "firm" rather than just "soft").

Most computer hardware is not seen by normal users. It is in embedded systems in automobiles, microwave ovens, electrocardiograph machines, compact disc players, and other devices. Personal computers, the computer hardware familiar to most people, form only a small minority of computers (about 0.2% of all new computers produced in 2003). See Market statistics.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Western blotting

Antibodies to most proteins can be created by injecting small amounts of the protein into an animal such as a mouse, rabbit, sheep, or donkey (polyclonal antibodies)or produced in cell culture (monoclonal antibodies). These antibodies can be used for a variety of analytical and preparative techniques.

In western blotting, proteins are first separated by size, in a thin gel sandwiched between two glass plates in a technique known as SDS-PAGE (sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis). The proteins in the gel are then transferred to a PVDF, nitrocellulose, nylon or other support membrane. This membrane can then be probed with solutions of antibodies. Antibodies that specifically bind to the protein of interest can then be visualized by a variety of techniques, including coloured products, chemiluminescence, or autoradiography.

Analogous methods to western blotting can also be used to directly stain specific proteins in cells and tissue sections. However, these immunostaining methods are typically more associated with cell biology than molecular biology.

The terms "western" and "northern" are jokes: The first blots were with DNA, and since they were done by Ed Southern, they came to be known as Southerns. Patricia Thomas, inventor of the RNA blot, which became known as a "northern", actually didn't use the term.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Mobile media

Whilst we commonly think of mobile media as being essentially a new, 21st century phenomenon, it is important to note that it is not an entirely new concept. Indeed the mobility and portability of media or as Paul Levinson calls it in his book entitled Cellphone “the media-in-motion business” has been a process in the works ever since the “first time someone thought to write on a tablet that could be lifted and hauled – rather than on a cave wall, a cliff face, a monument that usually was stuck in place, more or less forever”. Levinson’s statement here brings into focus contemporary mobile media devices such as mobile phones and PDA’s which are commonly represented and thought of as not only entirely new and original products of mobility but also the only source of portable media from which we can obtain information and communicate with one another.

While mobile phone and PDA’s independent technologies and functions may be new and innovative (in relation to changes and improvements in media capabilities in respect to their function what they can do when and where and what they look like, in regard to their size and shape) the need and desire to access and use media devices regardless of where we are in the world has been around for centuries. Indeed Paul Levinson remarks in regard to telephonic communication that it was “intelligence and inventiveness applied to our need to communicate regardless of where we may be, led logically and eventually to telephones that we carry in our pockets”. Levinson in his book goes on to state that the book, transistor radio, Kodak camera are also bearers of portable information.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Weapons delivery

Nuclear weapons delivery—the technology and systems used to bring a nuclear weapon to its target—is an important aspect of nuclear weapons relating both to nuclear weapon design and nuclear strategy. Additionally, developing and maintaining delivery options is among the most resource-intensive aspects of nuclear weapons: according to one estimate, deployment of nuclear weapons accounted for 57% of the total financial resources spent by the United States in relation to nuclear weapons since 1940.

Historically the first method of delivery, and the method used in the two nuclear weapons actually used in warfare, is as a gravity bomb, dropped from bomber aircraft. This method is usually the first developed by countries as it does not place many restrictions on the size of the weapon, and weapon miniaturization is something which requires considerable weapons design knowledge. It does, however, limit the range of attack, the response time to an impending attack, and the number of weapons which can be fielded at any given time. Additionally, specialized delivery systems are usually not necessary; especially with the advent of miniaturization, nuclear bombs can be delivered by both strategic bombers and tactical fighter-bombers, allowing an air force to use its current fleet with little or no modification.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

What Is a Socket in Java?

A socket is one end-point of a two-way communication link between the two programs running on the network respectively. Socket classes are used to correspond to the connection between a client program and a server program in java. The java.net package has two classes--Socket and ServerSocket--that implement the client side of the communication link or connection and the server side of the connection, correspondingly.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Physical actions in water cycle

The Physical actions in water cycle is of fives main types. They are evaporation, precipitation, infiltration, runoff, and subsurface flow.

The Evaporation is the transfer of water from the bodies of surface water into the atmosphere. This transfer requires a change in the physical nature of water from liquid to gaseous phases. Along with the evaporation, it can be counted transpiration from plants. Therefore, this transfer is sometimes referred to as evapotranspiration. 90% of atmospheric water comes from evaporation, while the left over 10% is from transpiration.

Precipitation is the atmospheric moisture that has formerly condensed to form clouds (changed from the gas phases to a liquid or solid phase), falling to the surface of the earth. This generally occurs as rainfall, but snow, hail, fog drip, and other forms participate too.

Infiltration into the ground is the transition from the surface water to the groundwater. The infiltration rate will depend upon soil or rock permeability with the other factors. Infiltrated water possibly will reach another compartment called as groundwater (i.e., an aquifer). The Ground waters tend to move slowly, so the water may perhaps return as surface water after storage within an aquifer for a period of time that can amount to thousands of years in few cases. The Water returns to the land surface at lower rise than where it infiltrated, under force of the gravity or the gravity induced pressures.

Runoff includes the variety of ways by which land surface water moves downward slope to the oceans. The Water flowing in streams and rivers can be delayed for a time in lakes. Not all precipitated water goes back to the sea as runoff; much of it evaporates before reaching the ocean or reaching an aquifer.

The Subsurface flow includes movement of water within the earth, either within the vadose zone or aquifers. After infiltrating, subsurface water can return to the surface or finally seep into the ocean.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

The real approach of the Traffic psychology

From its very start, in research and in practice, the traffic psychology has followed an interdisciplinary approach and has shared general topics with additional fields, in exacting medicine (e.g. connected to driving aptitude), engineering (ergonomics of cars with the human factors in traffic planning), and economics (e.g. travel demand management). People as road users are seen as the core of an interactive traffic system as well comprising transportation means, routes, the traffic environment and the regulation. Therefore, mobility, together with its positive and detrimental impacts, originates in people’s desires, decisions and behavior – and these might be influenced. The most important accident causes are human errors and maladaptive behavior, accounting alone or in communication with roadway or vehicle-related causes for above 90% of all traffic accidents. Recognizing the possible impact of psychology in studying and solving transport problems, the traffic and the transportation psychology have emerged speedily since the 1980s.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

A short note on Willamette Valley

The Willamette Valley is the region in northwest Oregon in the United States that contains the Willamette River as it proceeds northward from its emergence from mountains next to Eugene to its meeting with the Columbia River. One of the majority productive agricultural areas of the world, the valley was the destination of option for the emigrants on the Oregon Trail in the 1840s. It has formed the cultural and the political heart of Oregon since the days of the Oregon Territory, and is home to almost 70% of Oregon's population.

The valley may perhaps be defined as the watershed of the Willamette, bounded on the west by the Coast Ranges, and on the east by the Cascade Range. It is bounded on the south by the Calapooya Mountains, which break up the headwaters of the Willamette from the Umpqua River valley. As of the differing cultural and political interests, the Portland metropolitan area, with the Tualatin River valley, is often disinclined in the local use of the term. The Cities always considered part of the Willamette Valley are Eugene, Corvallis, Albany, and the Salem.

The agricultural richness of the valley is considered to be in no small measure an end result of the Missoula Floods, which inundated the valley about forty times between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. The floods were caused by the periodic rupturing of the ice dam of Glacial Lake Missoula, the waters of which swept down the Columbia and are flooded the Willamette Valley as far south as Eugene. The floodwaters passed rich volcanic and glacial soil from Eastern Washington, which was deposited across the valley floor when the waters subsided.

In current decades, the valley has also become a most important wine producer, with multiple American Viticulture Areas (AVAs) of its own. Additionally, with a cooler climate than California, the softly rolling hills surrounding the Willamette are home to some of the great pinot noir in the New World, with a high-quality pinot Gris.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

What do you mean by Water collection pumps?

At times water from the reservoir, separated from the oil, and it is used for the Water Injection. It depends on the oil-water ratio. Sometimes there isn’t sufficient water in the oil so additional water is used. When it is sea water, it is pumped through large pipes which make longer far out into the ocean. It is together in large basins at the Seawater Intake Pumping Station. The seawater is pressurized and it is passed through filters to the de-oxygenation tower.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Short information about Contact lens

A contact lens (as well known as a "contact") is a corrective, cosmetic, or at times protective lens placed on the cornea of the eye.

The Contact lenses are obtainable in a number of varieties, together with hard and soft. Hard contacts are characteristically not disposable, while soft contacts often are. Few soft contacts are as well known as extended wear lenses. The most normally used contact lenses nowadays are of the soft variety, made-up in 1961 by the Czech chemist Otto Wichterle (1913–1998).

The Contact lenses (both soft and hard) are made of a range of types of polymers, the most recent containing some variant of silicone hydrogel. Formerly, hard contact lenses were made of a polymer recognized as PMMA. They have since been replaced by rigid gas-permeable (RGP) contact lenses. Numerous contact lenses are made of hydrophilic (water-absorbing) materials, in that way allowing oxygen to reach the cornea, and make the lens easier to wear. Heavily tinted contacts are tinted to adjust or to alter the color of the iris, and are used for cosmetic reasons. Some ordinary contact lenses are somewhat tinted to make them more noticeable for handling purposes.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

A general view on Mainframe computer

Mainframes (often colloquially known to as big iron) are large and "expensive" computers used largely by government institutions and large companies for mission important applications, typically mass data processing such as censuses, ERP, industry/consumer statistics, and financial transaction processing.

The word originated during the near the beginning 1970s with the introduction of smaller, less difficult computers for example the DEC PDP-8 and PDP-11 series, which became recognized as minicomputers or just minis. The industry/users then coined the word "mainframe" to describe bigger, earlier types (before known simply as "computers").

Mainframes often maintain thousands of simultaneous users who gain right of entry through "dumb" terminals or terminal emulation. Early mainframes either supported this timesharing mode or operated in batch mode where users had no straight access to the computing service, it exclusively providing back office functions. At this time mainframes were so called for the reason that of their very substantial size and requirements for specialized HVAC and electrical power. Nowadays mainframes support right of entry via any user interface, including the Web. Blade servers rather than mainframes are currently increasingly requiring "exotic" cooling technologies.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

The Etymology and usage of God

The initial written form of the Germanic word "god" appears from the 6th century Christian Codex Argenteus. The English word itself descends from the Proto-Germanic *ǥuđan. The most linguists concur that the modernized Proto-Indo-European appearance *ǵhu-tó-m was based on the root *ǵhau(ə)-, which destined either "To call" or to "call upon or invoke".

The capitalized form "God" was first used in Ulfilas' Gothic conversion of the New Testament, to signify the Greek Theos.

In the English language the capitalization continues to symbolize a distinction between monotheistic "God" and the "gods" of polytheism. The given name "God" now characteristically refers to the Abrahamic God of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and the Bahá'í Faith. Though there are considerable cultural divergences that are implied by these different names, "God" remains the common English change for all.

The name may mean any associated or similar monotheistic deities, for example the early monotheism of Akhenaten and Zoroastrianism.

In the context of relative religion, "God" is also often related to concepts of universal holy being in Dharmic religions, despite the historical distinctions which divide monotheism from polytheism — a difference which some, such as Max Müller and Joseph Campbell, have characterised as a bias inside Western culture and theology.

Friday, October 05, 2007

American Beauty

American Beauty is a picture that exposes predetermined ideas about living in suburban America. This movie also becomes an explanation on the human condition while revealing the raw truth of a dysfunctional family. The Burnhams Lester, Carolyn, and Jane establish as the usual middle-class American family. Lester works for a magazine and is not satisfied with his job. He later ends up quit the job and blackmailing his boss for sixty thousand dollars. Carolyn is an actual estate agent, who is eager for success. Their daughter, Jane, is a typical young person, who is unhappy with her life and her parents. The whole termination of their family begins upon the arrival of more than a few new elements that shake up the whole family. This element being their neighbors.
Their next-door neighbors are a gay pair and the Fitts'. Frank Fitts is an aquatic Corps Colonel who suppresses his homosexuality and his relations. He thought of love for Angela because he thinks she is the whole thing that is missing in his life.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Software

Software basically is the distinct image or representation of physical or material position that constitute configuration to or functional identity of a machine, usually a computer. As a substance of memory, software in principle can be changed without the alteration to the static paradigm of the hardware thus without the remanufacturing thereof. generally software is of an algorithmic form which translates into being to a progression of machine instructions. Some software, however, is of a relational form which translate into being the map of a recognition network.

Software is a program that enables a computer to achieve a specific task, as contrasting to the physical components of the system . This include application software such as a word processor, which enables a user to achieve a task, and system software such as an operating system, which enables other software to run suitably, by interfacing with hardware and with other software.

The term "software" was first used in this intellect by John W. Tukey in 1957. In computer science and software engineering, computer software is all computer program. The perception of reading different sequences of instructions into the memory of a apparatus to control computations was invented by Charles Babbage as part of his difference engine. The theory that is the source for most modern software was first projected by Alan Turing in his 1935 essay Computable numbers with an application to the Entscheidungs problem.

Software Types:

Practical computer systems partition software into three major classes: system software, programming software and application software, although the division is subjective, and often blurred.

* System software is one of the major class helps run the computer hardware and computer system. It includes working systems, device drivers, analytical tools, servers, windowing systems, utilities and more. The intention of systems software is to protect the applications programmer as much as possible from the details of theexacting computer complex being use, especially memory and other hardware features, and such accessory procedure as communications, printers, readers, displays, keyboards, etc.

* Programming software usually provide tools to support a programmer in writing computer programs and software with different programming languages in a more suitable way.The tools comprise text editors, compilers, interpreters, linkers, debuggers, and so on, An incorporated development environment merge those tools into a software bundle, and a programmer may not need to type various command for compiling, interpreter, debugging, tracing, and etc., because the IDE typically has an sophisticated graphical user interface, or GUI.

* Application software allows humans to complete one or more explicit tasks. typical applications include manufacturingautomation, business software, educational software, medical software, databases and computer games. Businesses are possibly the biggest users of application software, but approximately every field of human action now uses some form of application software. It is used tocomputerizeall sorts of functions.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Plants

The genus Nelumbo, with two members Indian, Red or Sacred Lotus, a sacred plant of Hinduism and Buddhism and of the Ancient Egyptian civilization, also used in Asian cuisine American Lotus The genus Lotus, in the subfamily Faboideae in the family Fabaceae, common name "Trefoil" The genus Nymphaea, usually called water-lilies, but including many members also referred to as lotus, for example the White European Lotus, White Egyptian Lotus, and Blue Egyptian Lotus.

The lotus eaten by the Lotophagi of the Odyssey is thought to have been Ziziphus lotus, a species of jujube. This could be the Lotus Tree that the mythical Lois was transformed into "Lotus" also occurs in the common, or cultivar, names of numerous unrelated plants, for example the Snow Lotus in the family Asteraceae.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

CPU Socket

The term CPU socket is commonly used to describe the connector linking the motherboard to the CPU in certain types of desktop and server computers, particularly those compatible with the Intel x86 architecture.

Most CPU sockets and processors in use today are built around the pin grid array architecture, in which the pins on the base of the processor are inserted into the socket. To aid installation, zero insertion force sockets are usually used, allowing the processor to be inserted without any confrontation, while gripping the pins firmly once the processor is in place to ensure a reliable contact. In contrast to CPU sockets, slot-based processors and CPUs use a single-edged connection rather than a socket, and slot into the motherboard on their side. Slot architectures are not often used today.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Microscope slide

A microscope slide was initially a 'slider' made of ivory or bone, containing specimens held between disks of apparent mica. These were popular in Victorian England until the Royal Microscopically Society introduced the uniform microscope slide in the form of a thin sheet of glass used to hold objects for examination under a microscope. A standard microscope slide is 75 x 25 mm and about 1.0 mm thick. A range of other sizes is obtainable for various special purposes.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Orange

Orange—specifically, sweet orange—refers to the citrus tree Citrus sinensis and its fruit. The orange is a hybrid of ancient cultivated origin, possibly between pomelo and tangerine. It is a small flowering tree growing to about 10 m tall with evergreen leaves, which are arranged alternately, of ovate shape with crenulated margins and 4–10 cm long. The orange fruit is hesperidia, a type of berry.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Bharatanatyam

Bharatanatyam is a classical dance form originates from Tamil Nadu, a state in Southern India. This well-liked South Indian dance form called Bharatanatyam is a 20th century reconstruction of Cathir, the art of temple dancers. Cathir in turn, is derived from ancient dance forms. The word Bharata, some believe, signifies the author of the famous Sanskrit treatise on stagecraft, called NatyaShastra, and the word Bharatanatyam is sometimes given a folk etymology as follows:Bha for Bhava or abhinaya and expression, Ra for raga or melody, and Ta for tala or rhythm.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Fresh skin-care tips

Select fresh, organically grown fruit and vegetables for the highest benefits. Avoid making more than you require for a single application. Clean and sanitize all countertops and mixing utensils ahead of making any of the recipes. Clean all fruit and vegetables before using as ingredients. Leave all ingredients out of the fridge for up to an hour before integration. Don't let fruit acquire any warmer than room temperature.

Fresh fruit and vegetables are especially high in acids. If you apply anything to your skin and encounter a burning sensation, take out immediately and apply cool water. If you are in the care of a dermatologist and on acne medications, please consult with your physician first.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

traffic light

A traffic light or traffic signal is a signaling device positioned at a road junction or pedestrian crossing to indicate when it is safe to drive, ride or walk, using a universal color code. Traffic lights for usual vehicles or pedestrians always have two main lights, a red one that means stop and a green one that means go. Generally, the red light contains some orange in its hue, and the green light contains some blue, to provide some support for people with red-green color blindness. In most countries there is also a yellow (or amber) light, which when on and not flashing means stop if able to do so securely. In some systems, flashing amber means that a motorist may go in advance with care if the road is clear, giving way to pedestrians and to other road vehicles that may have precedence. A flashing red effectively means the same as a regular stop sign. There may be additional lights (usually a green arrow or "filter") to allow turns (called a lead light in the U.S., because it is usually leading the main green light).

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Abstract art

Abstract art is now usually understood to mean art that does not depict objects in the natural world, but instead uses color and form in a non-representational way. In the very early 20th century, the term was more often used to describe art, such as Cubist and Futurist art, which depicts real forms in a simplified or rather reduced way—keeping only an allusion of the original natural subject. Such paintings were often claimed to capture amazing of the depicted objects' immutable intrinsic qualities rather than its external appearance. The more precise terms, "non-figurative art," "non-objective art," and "non-representational art" avoid any possible ambiguity.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Allan Variance

The Allan variance, named after David W. Allan, is a quantity of stability in clocks and oscillators. It is also identified as the two-sample variance. It is defined as one half of the time average of the squares of the differences between succeed readings of the frequency deviation sampled over the sampling period. The Allan variance depends on the time period used between samples: therefore it is a function of the sample period, as well as the distribution being measured, and is displayed as a graph rather than a single number. A low Allan variance is a characteristic of a clock with good stability over the measured period.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Accumulator

In a computer CPU, an accumulator is a register in which intermediary arithmetic and logic results are stored. Without a register like an accumulator, it would be necessary to write the result of each calculation (addition, multiplication, shift, etc.) to main memory, possibly only to be read right back again for use in the next operation. Access to main memory is slower than access to a register like the accumulator because the technology used for the huge main memory is slower (but cheaper) than that used for a register.

The canonical example for accumulator use is adding a list of numbers. The accumulator is initially set to zero, then each number in spin is added to the value in the accumulator. Only when all numbers have been added is the result seized in the accumulator written to main memory or to another, non-accumulator, CPU register.

Friday, June 29, 2007

Superscalar

A superscalar CPU architecture implements a form of parallelism called Instruction-level parallelism within a solitary processor. It thereby allows faster CPU throughput than would otherwise be possible at the same clock rate. A superscalar architecture executes more than one instruction during a single pipeline stage by pre-fetching several instructions and at the same time dispatching them to redundant functional units on the processor.

History

Seymour Cray's CDC 6600 from 1965 is often mentioned as the first superscalar plan. The Intel i960CA and the AMD 29000-series 29050 microprocessors were the first commercial single-chip superscalar microprocessors. RISC CPUs like these brought the superscalar idea to micro computers because the RISC design results in a simple core, allowing straightforward instruction send off and the inclusion of multiple functional units on a single CPU in the inhibited design rules of the time. This was the reason that RISC designs were faster than CISC designs through the 1980s and into the 1990s.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Swan

Swans are large water birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the intimately related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae.

Swans typically mate for life, though "divorce" does sometimes occur, mainly following nesting failure. The number of eggs in each clutch is between 3–8.
The word is derived from Old English swan, akin to German Schwan, in turn derived from Indo-European root *swen (to sound, to sing), whence Latin derives sonus (sound). Young swans are known as cygnets, from the Latin word for swan, cygnus. An adult male is a cob, from Middle English cobbe; an adult female is a pen .

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Lopping

Lopping, also known as tree lopping and topping, is the practice of cutting trunks and branches of a tree in an effort to contain the tree's size or shape. Lopping is differentiated from other styles of pruning by where the cuts are made. When a tree is lopped, the cuts are made internodally, or not at branch unions and collars at the correct angles, leaving a piece of protruding timber that is called a stub.
Lopping in many cases is careful an inappropriate pruning method for amenity trees. The lopped stubs may regrow adventitious epicormic shoots which are bonded only to the bark. These epicormic shoots can grow dynamically and, unless regularly pruned off, may outgrow the original height and spread of the tree. Further, the ends of the lopped stubs are exposed to pathogens which may enter and infect the tree.
In orchards, fruit trees are often lopped to encourage regrowth and to keep a smaller tree for ease of picking fruit. The pruning regime in orchards is more intended and the productivity of each tree is an important factor. In an orchard, though, the natural longevity of a tree is often compromised in favor of its output in fruiting. Orchard trees are also carefully monitored and treated with fungicides and insecticides to minimise losses.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Genetics

Genetics is the science of heredity and variation in living organisms.Knowledge that desired characteristics were present at birth has been implicitly used since prehistoric times for improving crop plants and animals through selective breeding. However, the modern science of genetics, which seeks to understand the mechanisms of inheritance, only began with the work of Gregor Mendel in the mid-1800s.
Mendel observed that inheritance is basically a discrete process with specific traits that are inherited in an independant manner. These basic units of inheritance is now known as "genes". In the cells of organisms, genes exist actually in the structure of the molecule DNA and the information genes contain is used to create and control the components of cells. Although genetics plays a large role in determining the appearance and behavior of organisms, it is the interaction of genetics with the environment an organism experiences that determines the ultimate outcome. For example, while genes play a role in determining a person's height, the nutrition and health that person experiences in childhood also have a large effect.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Water abstraction

Water abstraction, or water extraction, is the process of taking water from any source, either temporarily or permanently. Most water is used for irrigation or treatment to produce drinking water.Depending on the environmental legislation in the relevant country, controls may be located on abstraction to limit the amount of water that can be removed. Over abstraction can lead to rivers drying up or the level of groundwater aquifers reducing unacceptably.The science of hydrogeology is used to assess safe abstraction levels.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Peripheral Component Interconnect

The Peripheral Component Interconnect or PCI Standard specifies a computer bus for attaching peripheral devices to a computer motherboard. These devices can take any one of the following forms:

An integrated circuit fitted onto the motherboard itself, called a planar device in the PCI specification. The PCI bus is common in modern PCs, where it has displaced ISA and VESA Local Bus as the standard expansion bus, but it also appears in many other computer types. The bus will eventually be succeeded by PCI Express, which is standard in most new computers, and other technologies.

The PCI specification covers the physical size of the bus (including wire spacing), electrical characteristics, bus timing, and protocols. The specification can be purchased from the PCI Special Interest Group (PCISIG).

Monday, May 28, 2007

History of Lipstick

Lipstick is known to have been used around 5000 years ago in very old Mesopotamia, when semi-precious jewels were compressed and applied to the lips and occasionally around the eyes. Women in the ancient Indus Valley Civilization applied lipstick to their lips for face beautification. Its original purpose was for Egyptian prostitutes to make their lips look like a vagina. Ancient Egyptians extracted purplish-red dye from fucus-algin, 0.01% iodine, and some bromine mannite, which resulted in serious illness. Cleopatra had her lipstick made from compressed carmine beetles, which gave a deep red pigment, and ants for a base. Lipsticks with sparkling effects were initially made using a substance found in fish scales called pearlescence. Lipstick started to gain popularity in the 16th century, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who made blood-red lips and stark white faces a fashion statement. By that time, lipstick was made from a blend of beeswax and red stains from plants.

Monday, May 21, 2007

The Extended Industry Standard Architecture

The Extended Industry Standard Architecture is a bus standard for IBM compatible computers. It was announced in late 1988 by PC clone vendors as a counter to IBM's use of its proprietary Micro Channel Architecture in its PS/2 series. EISA extends the ISA bus architecture to 32 bits and allows more than one CPU to share the bus. The bus mastering support is also enhanced to provide access to 4 GB of memory. Unlike MCA, EISA can accept older XT and ISA boards — the lines and slots for EISA are a superset of ISA.

Although somewhat inferior to MCA, EISA was much favored by manufacturers due to the proprietary nature of MCA, and even IBM produced some machines supporting it. It was somewhat expensive to implement, so it never became particularly popular in desktop PCs. However, it was reasonably successful in the server market, as it was better suited to bandwidth-intensive tasks. Most EISA cards produced were either SCSI or network cards. EISA was also available on some non-IBM compatible machines such as the Alpha Server, HP 9000-D, SGI.

Monday, May 14, 2007

MIPS(Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages)

MIPS designs are used in a lot of embedded systems such as the Series2 TiVo, Windows CE devices, Cisco routers, and video game consoles similar to the Nintendo 64 and Sony PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable handheld system. Until late 2006 they were also used in a lot of SGI's computer products.

Near the beginning MIPS architectures were 32-bit implementations, while later versions were 64-bit implementations. Multiple revisions of the MIPS instruction set exist, including MIPS I, MIPS II, MIPS III, MIPS IV, MIPS V, MIPS32, and MIPS64. The current revisions are MIPS32 (for 32-bit implementations) and MIPS64 for (64-bit implementations). MIPS32 and MIPS64 define a control register set as well as the instruction set. Several "add-on" extensions are also available, including MIPS-3D which is a simple set of floating-point SIMD orders dedicated to common 3D tasks, MDMX which is a more extensive integer SIMD instruction set using the 64-bit floating-point registers, MIPS16e which adds density to the instruction stream to make programs take up less room, and the recent addition of MIPS MT, new multithreading additions to the system similar to Hyper Threading in the Intel's Pentium 4 processors.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Key

A key is a device which is used to open a lock. It typically consists of a specially-shaped piece of flat metal, with cut notches , and/or milled grooves which fit the shape of the lock and can open the properly combinated lock by (usually) being turned in the lock housing. This portion of the key is referred to as the blade. The wider grip, referred to as the bow, is establish at the top of the key to facilitate turning. regularly, there are only a small number of keys which can work a certain lock. In some residential locks, all of the keys for a lock are given to the purchaser of the lock. Duplicates of the key can usually be made by anyone with the correct key blank and key machine. Some manufacturers assign an identification number to each lock and key combination. Knowing the identification number of such a lock allows a duplicate key to be made at certain places. Many residential keys are recognized by the key cuts stamped on the key bow.Most people in modern society use keys on a daily basis, to secure their home, their vehicle, or to access their workplace, among other uses. Those that use a number of keys will typically place them on a ring or key chain, often with other items such as key fobs.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Education System

Schooling occurs when group or a society or an individual sets up a curriculum to educate people, usually the young. Schooling can become systematic. Sometimes education systems can be used to promote doctrine or ethics as well as knowledge, and this can lead to abuse of the system.

Life-long or adult education have become extensive in many countries. However, education is still seen by many as something aimed at children, and adult education is often branded as adult learning or ultimate learning.

Adult education takes on several forms, from formal class-based learning to self-directed learning. Lending libraries provide cheap informal access to books and other self-instructional materials. Many adults have also taken advantage of the rise in computer ownership and internet access to further their casual education.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Aerial Archaeology

Aerial archaeology is the study of archaeological leftovers by examining them from elevation. It is one of the oldest prospecting methods. It is very productive and cheap, Aerial archaeology is frequent opinion that an aerial archaeologist is sitting in an aero plane, trying to discover archaeological sites and to take a few good photographs of them. To perform aerial archaeology you can also used satellite images, thermal images or airborne radar images. The advantages of gaining a good aerial vision of the ground had been long appreciated by archaeologists as a high viewpoint permits an enhanced appreciation of excellent details and their relationships within the wider site context. Early investigators attempted to gain bird’s eye views of sites by hot air balloons, scaffolds or cameras attached to kites. Following the invention of the aero plane and Aerial photography helps military during the First and Second World Wars, archaeologists were able to more effectively use the technique to find out and record archaeological sites.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Major ice ages

There have been at least four main ice ages in the Earth's past.

The most basic hypothesized ice age is believed to have occurred around 2.7 to 2.3 billion years ago during the early Proterozoic Age.

Main article: Snowball Earth.
The most basic well-documented ice age, and probably the most severe of the last 1 billion years, occurred from 800 to 600 million years ago and it has been recommended that it produced a Snowball Earth in which permanent sea ice extended to or very near the equator. It has been recommended that the end of this ice age was responsible for the subsequent Cambrian Explosion, though this theory is current and contentious.
A negligible ice age occurred from 460 to 430 million years ago, through the Late Ordovician Period.

Sediment records viewing the changeable sequences of glacials and interglacials during the last several million years. The present ice age began 40 million years ago with the growth of an ice sheet in Antarctica, but intensified during the Pleistocene with the spread of ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere. Since then, the world has seen cycles of glaciations with ice sheets advancing and retreating on 40,000 and 100,000 year time scales. The last glacial period finished about 10,000 years ago.

The timing of ice ages throughout geologic history is in part restricted by the position of the continental plates on the surface of the Earth. Small changes in solar energy can tip the balance between summers in which the winter snow mass totally melts and summers in which the winter snow persists until the following winter. Due to the positions of Greenland, Antarctica, and the northern portions of Europe, Asia, and North America in Polar Regions, the Earth today is considered prone to ice age glaciations.

Proof for ice ages comes in various forms, including rock scouring and scratching, glacial moraines, drumlins, valley cutting, and the statement of till or tallies and glacial erratic. Successive glaciations tend to distort and erase the geological evidence, making it difficult to interpret. It took some time for the current theory to be worked out. Analyses of ice cores and ocean sediment cores unambiguously show the record of glacial and interglacial over the past few million years.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Transistor

The transistor is a solid state semiconductor device which can be used for amplification, switching, voltage stabilization, signal modulation and many other functions. It acts as a variable valve which, based on its input current (BJT) or input voltage (FET), allows a precise amount of current to flow through it from the circuit's voltage supply.In essence, a transistor have three terminals. A current or voltage applied through/across two terminals controls a larger current through the other terminal and the common terminal. In analog circuits, transistors are used in amplifiers. Analog circuits comprise audio amplifiers, stabilised power supplies and radio frequency amplifiers. In digital circuits, transistors function basically as electrical switches. Digital circuits include logic gates, RAM (random access memory) and microprocessors.Transistor was also the common name in the sixties for a transistor radio, a portable radio that used transistors (rather than vacuum tubes) as its active electronic components. This is still one of the dictionary definitions of transistor.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Postage Stamp

A postage stamp is proof of pre-paying a fee for postal services. Usually a small paper rectangle which is attached to an cover, signifying that the person sending the letter or package has paid for delivery, it is the most popular option to using a prepaid-postage envelope.

History

In it he argued that it would be well again for the sender to pay the cost of delivery, rather than the receiver who could refuse the letter if they could not or did not want to pay, as occasionally happened at the time. He also argued for a uniform rate of one penny per letter, no matter where its destination. Accounting costs for the government would thus be cut; postage would no longer be charged according to how far a letter had traveled, which required each letter to have an individual entry in the Royal Mail's accounts. Chalmers' ideas were finally adopted by Parliament in August, 1839 and the General Post Office launched the Penny Post service the next year in 1840 with two prepaid-postage symbolic envelopes or wrappers: one valued at a penny and one valued at two pence.

Three months later on the first prepaid-postage stamp, known as the Penny Black was issued with the profile of Queen Victoria printed on it. Because the United Kingdom issued the first stamps, the Universal Postal Union grants it an exemption from its rule that the recognition of the issuing country must appear on a stamp in Roman script for use in international mails. Before joining the U.P.U. many countries did not do this; there are very few violations of the rule since this time, though one example is the U.S. Pilgrim Tercentenary series, on which the country designation was inadvertently excluded. Because of this the numerous early issues of China and Japan often confound new collectors unfamiliar with Oriental scripts. A stamp must also show a face value in the issuing country's currency. Some countries have issued stamps with a letter of the alphabet or designation such as "First class" for a face value. Because of the U.P.U. rules their use is restricted to domestic mail, but breach of this rule is often tolerated. Exceptions to this are the British "E" stamp and the South African "International Letter Rate" stamp.

Friday, April 06, 2007

Asian Paradise Flycatcher

The Asian Paradise Flycatcher, also known as the Common Paradise Flycatcher, is a medium-sized passerine bird. It was in the past classified with the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae, but the paradise flycatchers, monarch flycatchers and Australasian fantails are now usually grouped with the drongos in the family Dicruridae, which has the majority of its members in Australasia and tropical southern Asia.

The Asian glory Flycatcher breeds from Turkestan to Manchuria. It is wandering, wintering in tropical Asia. There are resident populations further south, for example in southern India and Sri Lanka, so both visiting migrants and the in the vicinity reproduction subspecies take place in these areas in winter.

This species is typically originated in thick forests and other well-wooded habitats. Three or four eggs are laid in a cup shell in a tree.

The adult male Asian Paradise Flycatcher is about 20 cm long, but the long tail streamers double this. It has a black crested head, stale joke upperparts and pale grey underparts.

By their second year, the males of the wandering Indian race T. p. paradisi begin to obtain white feathers. By the third year, the male plumage is totally white, other than the black head. Males of the sedentary Sri Lankan race T. p. ceylonensis are forever stale joke.

The female of all races resembles the stale joke male, but has a grey throat, minor peak and lacks the tail streamers.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Jet Airways

Jet Airways is an airline based in India, helping familial and worldwide routes. The airline operates over 250 flights to 44 destinations athwart the country, with the majority of flights operated from Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai. It presently controls about 40% of India's aviation market.

Background

Jet Airways was recognized on 5 May 1993 with a fleet of 4 Boeing 737-300 aircraft, with 24 daily flights helping 12 destinations.

Operations

Its 44 destinations contain most of the big cities in India. Its international destinations contain Kathmandu, Colombo, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and London's Heathrow Airport. Jet Airways was the first personal airline of India to fly to international destinations. It was later joined by Air Sahara. The daily Delhi-London service started in October of that year.

Jet Airways and Air Sahara are the only personal airlines which survived the Indian business downward spiral of the 1990s. On January 19, 2006 Jet Airways announced that it is buying Air Sahara for $500 million. This is the biggest takeover in India's aviation history and the resulting airline will be the countries biggest.
In 2006 Jet Airways will be raising its way network from Delhi via the north Indian city of Amritsar, as it is to begin Amritsar-London and/or Amritsar-Birmingham.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

History of sport

There are artifacts and structures that propose that the Chinese engaged in sporting activities as early as 4000 BC.Gymnastics appears to have been a well-liked sport in China's ancient past. Monuments to the Pharaohs indicate that a number of sports, with swimming and fishing, were well-developed and regulated several thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt.Other Egyptian sports incorporated javelin throwing, high jump, and wrestling. Ancient Persian sports such as the conventional Iranian martial art of Zourkhaneh had a close connection to the warfare skills.Among other sports that originate in Persia are polo and jousting.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Telegraphy

Telegraphy (from the Greek words tele = far and graphein = write) is the long-distance transmission of written messages without physical transport of letters, initially over wire. Radiotelegraphy or wireless telegraphy transmits messages using radio. This definition includes recent forms of data transmission such as fax, email, and computer networks in general. (A telegraph is a machine for transmitting and receiving messages over long distances, i.e. for telegraphy. The word telegraph alone generally refers to an electrical telegraph.) Wireless telegraphy is also well-known as CW, for continuous wave (a carrier modulated by on-off keying, as opposed to the earlier radio technique using a spark gap).
Telegraphy messages sent by telegraph operators using Morse code were known as telegrams or cablegrams, frequently shortened to a cable or a wire message. Later, telegrams sent by the Telex network, a switched network of teleprinters similar to the telephone network, were identified as telex messages. Before long distance telephone services were willingly available or affordable, telegram services were very popular. Telegrams were frequently used to confirm business dealings and, unlike e-mail, telegrams were usually used to create binding legal documents for business dealings.
Before fax machines came into general use, wire picture or wire photo was a newspaper picture that was sent from a remote location by a facsimile telegraph. This is why many fax machines have a photo option even today.
Optical telegraphs and smoke signals
The first telegraphs were optical telegraphs, with the use of smoke signals and beacons. These have existed since ancient times. A semaphore network invented by Claude Chappe operated in France from 1792 through 1846. It helped Napoleon enough that it was widely imitated in Europe and the U.S. The last commercial semaphore link left operation in 1880.
Semaphores were able to communicate information more precisely than smoke signals and beacons and consumed no fuel. Messages could be sent at much greater speed than post riders and could serve entire regions. However, like beacons and smoke signals, they were dependent on good weather to work. They required operators and towers every 30 km (20 mi), and only send about two words per minute. This was useful to governments, but too expensive for most commercial uses other than commodity price information. Electric telegraphs were to reduce the cost of sending a message thirty-fold compared to semaphore.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Camera

A camera is a device used to take pictures (usually photographs), also singly or in sequence, with or without sound, such as with video cameras. The name is derived from camera obscura, Latin for "dark chamber", an early mechanism for projecting images in which an entire room functioned much as the internal workings of a modern photographic camera, except there was no way at this time to record the image short of physically tracing it. Cameras may work with the visual spectrum or other portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Fog

Fog is a cloud in contact with the ground. Fog differs from other clouds only in that fog touches the surface of the Earth. The similar cloud that is not fog on lower ground may be fog where it contacts higher ground such as hilltops or mountain ridges. Fog is different from mist only in its density. Fog is defined as cloud which reduces visibility to less than 1 km, whereas mist is that which reduces visibility to less than 2 km.
The foggiest place in the world is the Grand Banks off the island of Newfoundland, Canada. Fog is common here as the Grand Banks is the meeting place of the cold Labrador Current from the north and the much warmer Gulf Stream from the south. The foggiest land areas in the world are Point Reyes, California and Argentia, Newfoundland, both with over 200 foggy days a year.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Photographyv

Photography is the method of making pictures by means of capturing light on a light-sensitive medium, such as a sensor or film. Light patterns reflected or emitted from objects are recorded onto a sensitive medium or storage chip through a timed exposure. The process is done through mechanical, chemical or digital devices well-known as cameras.
The word comes from the Greek words phos ("light"), and graphis ("stylus", "paintbrush") or graphê, together meaning "drawing with light" or "representation by means of lines" or "drawing." usually the product of photography has been called a photograph. The term photo is an abbreviation; many people also call them pictures. In digital photography, the term image has begun to replace photograph.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Science and technology in Japan

Japan is a foremost nation in the fields of scientific research, technology, machinery and medical research with the world's third biggest budget for research and development at US$130 billion, and over 677,000 researchers.
Some of Japan's more important technological contributions are found in the fields of electronics, machinery, industrial robotics, optics, chemicals, semiconductors and metals. Japan leads the world in robotics, possessing more than half (402,200 of 742,500) of the world's industrial robots used for manufacturing.It also produced QRIO, ASIMO, and Aibo. Japan is also home to six of the world's 15 biggest automobile manufacturers and seven of the world 20 largest semiconductor sales leaders.
Japan has also made headway into aerospace research and space exploration. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) conducts space and planetary research, aviation research, and growth of rockets and satellites. It also built the Japanese Experiment Module, which is slated to be launched and added to the International Space Station during Space Shuttle assembly flights in 2007 and 2008.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Minerals and rocks

A mineral is a obviously occurring, inorganic solid with a definite chemical composition and a crystalline structure. A rock is an collective of one or more minerals. (A rock may also include organic remains and mineraloids.) Some rocks are mostly composed of just one mineral. For example, limestone is a sedimentary rock composed almost wholly of the mineral calcite. Other rocks have many minerals, and the specific minerals in a rock can vary widely. Some minerals, like quartz, mica or feldspar are general, while others have been found in only one or two locations worldwide. The vast majority of the rocks of the Earth's crust consist of quartz, feldspar, mica, chlorite, kaolin, calcite, epidote, olivine, augite, hornblende, magnetite, hematite, limonite and a few other minerals.Over half of the mineral species identified are so rare that they have only been found in a handful of samples, and many are known from only one or two small grains.
Commercially costly minerals and rocks are referred to as industrial minerals. Rocks from which minerals are mined for economic purposes are referred to as ores (the rocks and minerals that remain, after the desired mineral has been separated from the ore, are referred to as tailings).

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Acid rain

Acid rain occurs when sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are emitted into the atmosphere, undergo chemical transformations and are absorbed by water droplets in clouds. The droplets then fall to earth as rain, snow, mist, dry dust, hail, or sleet. This can add to the acidity of the soil, and affect the element balance of lakes and streams.The term "acid rain" is sometimes used more usually to include all forms of acid deposition - both wet deposition, where acidic gases and particles are removed by rain or other precipitation, and dry deposition removal of gases and particles to the Earth's surface in the absence of precipitation. Acid rain is defined as any type of precipitation with a pH that is abnormally low. Dissolved carbon dioxide dissociates to form weak carbonic acid giving a pH of approximately 5.6 at typical atmospheric concentrations of CO2. Therefore a pH of less than 5.6 has every so often been used as a definition of acid rain. However, natural sources of acidity mean that in remote areas, rain has a pH which is between 4.5 and 5.6 with an average value of 5.0 and so rain with a pH of less than 5 is a more appropriate definition. The US EPA says, "Acid rain is a serious environmental problem that affects large parts of the US and Canada" Acid rain accelerates weathering in carbonate rocks and accelerates building weathering. It also contributes to acidification of rivers, streams, and forest damage at high elevations. When the acid builds up in rivers and streams it can kill fish.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Historiography

Historiography has a number of associated meanings. It can refer to the history of historical learning, its methodology and practices (the history of history). It can also refer to a particular body of historical writing (for example, "medieval historiography during the 1960s" means "medieval history written during the 1960s"). Historiography can also be in use to mean historical theory or the study of past writing and memory. As a meta-level analysis of descriptions of the past, this third conception can relate to the first two in that the analysis usually focuses on the narratives, interpretations, worldview, use of evidence, or method of presentation of other historians.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Gardening

Gardening is the art of growing plants with the aim of crafting a purposeful landscape. Residential gardening most often takes place in or about a residence, in a space referred to as the garden. Although a garden naturally is located on the land near a residence, it may also be located in a roof, in an entrance, on a balcony, in a windowbox, or on a yard.
Gardening also takes place in non-residential green areas, such as parks, public or semi-public gardens (botanical gardens or zoological gardens), pleasure and theme parks, along transportation corridors, and around tourist attractions and hotels. In these situations, a staff of gardeners or groundskeepers maintains the gardens.
Indoor gardening is concerned with the increasing of houseplants within a residence or building, in a conservatory, or in a greenhouse. Indoor gardens are sometimes included as part of air conditioning or heating systems.
Water gardening is concerned with growing plants adapted to pools and ponds. Bog gardens are also considered a type of water garden. These all require extraordinary conditions and considerations. A simple water garden may consist simply of a tub containing the water and plant(s).
Container gardening is concerned with growing plants in any type of container either indoors or outdoors. Common containers are pots, hanging baskets, and planters. Container gardening is usually used in atriums and on balconies, patios, and roof tops.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Public transport

Public transport, public transportation, public travel or mass transit comprises all transport systems in which the passengers do not tour in their own vehicles. While it is generally taken to include rail and bus services, wider definitions would comprise scheduled airline services, ship, taxicab services etc. – any system that transports members of the universal public. A further restriction that is sometimes practical is that it must take place in shared vehicles that would bar taxis that are not shared-ride taxis.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Journalism Basics

Journalism is a concrete, professionally oriented major that involves gathering, interpreting, distilling, and other reporting information to the general audiences through a variety of media means. Journalism majors learn about every possible kind of Journalism (including magazine, newspaper, online journalism, photojournalism, broadcast journalism, and public relations).
That's not all, though. In addition to dedicated training in writing, editing, and reporting, Journalism wants a working knowledge of history, culture, and current events. You'll more than likely be required to take up a broad range of courses that runs the range from statistics to the hard sciences to economics to history. There would also be a lot of haughty talk about professional ethics and civic responsibility too - and you'll be tested on it. To top it all off, you'll perhaps work on the university newspaper or radio station, or possibly complete an internship with a magazine or a mass media conglomerate.