Android to capture 49 pc of market by 2012

Google's Android will become the most popular smartphone operating system and will account for 49 per cent of the market by 2012, a research firm has said.

According to projections by information-technology firm Gartner, worldwide smartphone sales will reach 468 million units in 2011, a 57.7 per cent increase from 2010, Xinhua reported.

The company predicts that Apple's iOS will remain the second biggest platform worldwide through 2014 although its share will decrease slightly after 2011.

Microsoft's Windows, driven by its partnership with Nokia, is expected to become the third largest in the worldwide ranking by 2013.

Courtesy : Manorama Online

Do not broadcast your travel plans

Booked that dream holiday? It might be wise to keep boasting to a minimum; the monitoring of social media sites is becoming a standard practice for burglars. AA Home Insurance has revealed that 10% of respondents in its latest poll admitted to sharing their travel plans via a social media site. A further 8% of those surveyed by AA Home Insurance said someone else within their household had naively told the world via social media that the family home was about to be unoccupied for a spell.

The findings of the AA Home Insurance poll also suggest that women are more likely to share their whereabouts on social network sites than men. (No offence to women, just presenting facts). 13.9% women compared with 7.1% of men surveyed confessed to publishing such information.

Couple of things you could do :

• Don’t accept friend requests from people you don’t know.
• Review your security setting, to restrict access to your personal profile information.
• Use private DM or inbox facilities to communicate private or potentially sensitive messages.
• Never post your mobile number or home address on social media sites.
• Remove wall postings from friends that may allude to your travel plans.
• Remember that when you join a social media group, thousands of people could potentially have access to your profile unless you adjust your security settings.
• Don’t boast about the expensive new flat screen TV you’ve just bought online

Courtesy : The AA Blog

Maine pyar Kyun Kiya

I have written once before that pictures are some times more powerful than words. The following pictures would tell you what I mean.

                 

The makers of ‘Just go With It’ give credit to Cactus Flower – the Original 1969 movie for the story line. As for the Indian version, it’s the usual story.

History of the World’s Largest Software Company–In a picture

Some times a picture could say it all :

I have been thinking about making a post on Microsoft for a while now. This one is a start. I will be posting more on MS Soon. Some refer to Microsoft as the Evil Giant. I wouldn’t agree to it. They have been perhaps a bit aggressive in their business strategies. Wasn’t Reliance in India, the same? I would leave that decision to my readers. Make your own decision

British Engineer Designs Own Heart Valve Implant, Saves Own Life

In 2000, Tal Golesworthy, a British engineer, was told that he suffers from Marfan syndrome, a disorder of the connective tissue that often causes rupturing of the aorta. The only solution then available was the pairing of a mechanical valve and a highly risky blood thinner. To an engineer like Golesworthy, that just wasn't good enough. So he constructed his own implant that does the job better than the existing solution--and became the first patient to try it.

The existing fix, called the Bentall surgery, requires a five-hour invasive slice-and-dice and a heart-lung bypass, after which the damaged part of the aorta is cut out and replaced with a graft and mechanical valve. But Golesworthy saw an opportunity instead of despair: Nobody had thought to use more modern technologies, namely combining MRI tests with computer-aided design tools and new rapid prototyping techniques. Golesworthy saw a chance to create an implant that would support itself and reduce the chance of blood clots, thus eliminating the need to take that dangerous blood thinner.

In two years of work, Golesworthy discovered that the hardest part of creating this new implant wasn't the actual design or construction--it was securing reliable measurements. The movement of the heart and other organs made it so different perspectives yielded totally different measurements. Luckily, the team figured out that a scan at one specific point in the cardiac cycle gave them the dimensions they needed.

The final product is constructed of polyethylene terephthalate, a standard medical plastic, and weighs less than 5g. It can be sutured directly into place by a surgeon at relatively low cost. The results speak for themselves: Golesworthy was the first recipient of his own creation, and since then, 23 others have taken the plunge, with more on the waiting list. Golesworthy sees this as not just a victory for Marfan sufferers, but a message to the medical community: "They are all biologists and medics, and they need process engineers," he said. Golesworthy wants a greater collaboration amongst the medical community and engineers, who could see solutions the doctors and biologists can't. Hopefully the medical community is listening--he's his own proof, after all.