Green machine: Bringing a forest to the desert

It may sound like an environmentalist's pipe dream, but giant greenhouses could soon be popping up in some of the world's deserts, producing fresh drinking water, food and fuel.
The Sahara Forest Project, which aims to create green oases in desert areas. With funding from the Norwegian government, the team plans to begin building the pilot plant on a 200,000 square metre site in 2012.
If all goes to plan, the plant will consist of a saltwater greenhouse to grow vegetables and algae for fuel. Water piped from the Red Sea will cool air flowing into the greenhouse, providing good growing conditions for the crops. The air will then be passed over pipes containing seawater heated by the sun. The resulting hot, humid air will finally meet a series of vertical pipes containing cold seawater, causing fresh water to condense and run down the pipes to collectors below.
This fresh water will be heated by a Concentrating Solar Power Plant to provide steam to drive a turbine, generating electricity. In turn, the electricity will be used to power the greenhouse's pumps and fans. The water will also be used to grow crops around the greenhouse.
Finally, excess heat generated by the solar power plant will be used to produce drinking water through desalination.

WiLDNet ?

Wireless networking has become common in many parts of the globe thanks to Wi-Fi technology. Too bad that Wi-Fi only works over distances of a few hundred feet or meters.

Researchers at the University of California have developed a different wireless system capable of spanning many miles or kilometers. Called WiLDNet (Wireless Long Distance Network), the project offers free software that works with standard Wi-Fi hardware. It has the admirable goal to bring wireless to rural and less-developed areas of the world that Wi-Fi cannot reach. So far, WiLDNet has had some success in initial pilots. It was tested in the high hills of venezuala and in the hills of kerala.

It uses a standard industrial grade router board with flash drive (2 GB which has a operating sys in it) and then another 512MB card for the software which will run the router.

This is a really a fantastic technology for the country like Nepal. This technology will be very helpful for connecting rural and remote villages of Nepal instead of geographical hinders.  

4G Mobile technology

1. The mobile communications comprise two steps: access to the mobile network, and access to the mobile services. Traditionally, these two steps are all controlled by one operator in a closed and proprietary way. In the 4G mobile era, the access to the mobile services will be evolved to an open Mobile Cloud so that it is fully open to any developers and providers.
2. The mobile device system architecture will be open in order to converge multiple RTTs (radio transmission technologies) in one same device. Same as laptop computer, the future Smartphone will be based on open wireless architecture (OWA) technology which means, when you change the wireless standards, you do not need to change phone
3. Any portable consumer electronics device can be a mobile phone by inserting the OWA-powered mobile RTT(s) card. This approach is truly converging the mobile wireless technology with the computer technology.
4. More breakthrough technologies are being developed for efficient utilization of wireless spectrum, and the dynamic and open spectrum management.
5. Power efficiency is another critical issue for mobile device. The system architecture must be open to enable removable of unused modules, and the processing architecture must be optimized to the lowest possible in terms of the whole system performance. Meanwhile, the RF radio modules should be narrowed to the minimal meeting the basic requirements of necessary RTTs.

Physical Storage Vs. Digital Storage

Technologies That Will Change Everything

The Next Big thing? The memristor, a microscopic component that can "remember" electrical states even when turned off. It's expected to be far cheaper and faster than flash storage. A theoretical concept since 1971, it has now been built in labs and is already starting to revolutionize everything we know about computing, possibly making flash memory, RAM, and even hard drives obsolete within a decade. 

The memristor is just one of the incredible technological advances sending shock waves through the world of computing. Other innovations in the works are more down-to-earth, but they also carry watershed significance. From the technologies that finally make paperless offices a reality to those that deliver wireless power, these advances should make your humble PC a far different beast come the turn of the decade.

Memristor circuits lead to ultrasmall PCs. Intel and AMD unleash massively multicore CPUs. Samsung TVs respond to your every gesture. These and other developing technologies will fundamentally change the way you think about--and use--technology.

How You Can Get the Most out of Flickr

Flickr is a popular online photo-sharing community that allows anyone to share and organize their digital photos with friends, family, colleagues, and the rest of the world. While many people use Flickr recreationally, it can also be a powerful tool for organizations, including nonprofits.

How to Use Flickr

While Flickr is user-friendly and intuitive, knowing key tips and tricks will ensure that your experience on the site is as fruitful as possible. Below, we'll show you guidelines for setting up an account and uploading, tagging, organizing, and sharing your images.

1. Respect Flickr's Community Guidelines.

2. Set up your account as an individual, but use group features as an organizational hub.

3. Pick the uploading method that best matches your needs.

4. Use tags, titles, and descriptions to make your photos easier to find.

5. Use sets, collections, and archives to keep your photos organized.

6. Use the Mapping feature to show where your photos were taken and to find photos of places near you.

7. Use Creative Commons licensing to extend the distribution of your photos.

8. Use the privacy settings and filters to share appropriate photos with other users.

9. Use Groups to share your photos with others.

10. Make things.

M Health: a new dimension of health

First, mobile phones took a stab at replacing radios, television sets and computers. Now, they’ll get a shot at playing doctor, too.

In a program to be launched by the Gurgaon-based mobile gaming company ZMQ Software Systems, women in the rural areas will be able to get prenatal advice via text message. The new offering builds on both efforts to tap into the nearly 300 million mobile phone users in India—growing by almost 10 million per month—and parallel attempts to use technology to get basic health care into areas that don’t have it.

Under ZMQ’s new service, once a woman registers with her date of pregnancy, she will receive weekly tips on what to eat, what vaccines to get, and when to get check-ups. Since men usually carry the phone, the company is tying up with network providers such as Reliance Communications Ltd to reward the user with one free phone call each time an expectant mother logs in.