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TORONTO, CANADA: Tired of the same old Internet dating sites? If you're an ultra-smart singleton and good at taking tests, a new website could be the answer.
The social networking site directed towards highly intelligent people with a knack for deciphering complex visual patterns, which started in Denmark, has now expanded to Canada and the United States.
Potential candidates have to pass an online test to prove they have an IQ of 115 or higher. The score places them in the top 15 percent of the population for intelligence, said Copenhagen-based Trine Jensen, the founder of IntelligentPeople.com.
"I believe that intelligent people communicate better with other intelligent people and, of course, love happens more easily if you communicate well," she said in an interview.
"I started it because I thought it was missing from the dating scene and the social networking scene," the 29-year-old corporate lawyer explained.
The test to join the site is based on one used by Mensa -- an international society founded in England for people with an IQ in the top two percent of the population. It is designed to be "culture fair", so it tests intelligence while minimizing cultural and educational biases, Jensen said.
People can take the test twice, Jensen added, admitting that in some ways it could be viewed as discriminatory.
"But there are other sites that discriminate on the basis of other criteria," she said.
The new site, which has about 700 members, has attracted engineers, lawyers, students, Web developers and teachers, Jensen said, adding that it's too early to say how successful the site has been at "hooking people up".
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7effects Headline Animator
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Mobile TV broadcast roll-out slow: Nokia
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HELSINKI, FINLAND: Nokia said on Friday its push to promote mobile television broadcasting has not succeeded as the world's top cellphone maker had hoped.
Nokia has been for years promoting television broadcasts to cellphones and its digital video broadcasting handheld (DVB-H) technology won EU support earlier this year, but only a few operators in Europe have opened any TV broadcasting services.
"It's a bit in a turmoil," Niklas Savander, head of Nokia's Internet services, told a conference in Helsinki.
Most people who watch TV programmes on their cellphones use third-generation (3G) mobile networks, bringing in long-awaited data transmission fees to operators, but these limit picture quality and user numbers.
"We have seen that there are multiple segments who are not interested in the broadcasting, but rather in downloads. Roll out is slower than also we anticipated a couple of years ago," Savander said.
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HELSINKI, FINLAND: Nokia said on Friday its push to promote mobile television broadcasting has not succeeded as the world's top cellphone maker had hoped.
Nokia has been for years promoting television broadcasts to cellphones and its digital video broadcasting handheld (DVB-H) technology won EU support earlier this year, but only a few operators in Europe have opened any TV broadcasting services.
"It's a bit in a turmoil," Niklas Savander, head of Nokia's Internet services, told a conference in Helsinki.
Most people who watch TV programmes on their cellphones use third-generation (3G) mobile networks, bringing in long-awaited data transmission fees to operators, but these limit picture quality and user numbers.
"We have seen that there are multiple segments who are not interested in the broadcasting, but rather in downloads. Roll out is slower than also we anticipated a couple of years ago," Savander said.
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Nokia intros three new S60-based applications
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BANGALORE, INDIA: Finland-based mobile handset maker Nokia today announced the availability of three new applications built on the S60 software platform for mobile phones: Quickoffice Version 4.1, Web Server and WaveSecure.
The Quickoffice Version 4.1 application for Nokia E90 phones makes users PC-independent to create and edit Microsoft Office documents – including Word, Excel and PowerPoint files – from the phone itself.
However, Quickoffice currently does not support open source documents.
Existing E90 users can download Quickoffice Version 4.1 on to their phones, Mahmood Kalantar, director, Mobile Software Sales and Marketing, APAC, Nokia, said at a press conference here.
The Web Server application remotely gives the user a complete access to the phone via the Internet. The user can access data stored on the phone, access the call logs section of the phone via the Internet to know the details of received and missed calls.
Additionally, the user can access photo gallery, send messages and click photographs remotely.
The Mobile Web Server is currently in beta and is provided free of charge. The user should create a log in ID to avail this application.
The Web Server application even doubles the phone as surveillance equipment. The camera can be clicked remotely via the Internet, and the clicked photo can be accessed on the computer monitor for remote surveillance.
According to Gautam Dhingra, marketing manager, Mobile Software Sales and Marketing, the Web Server application does not currently support videos.
He said such capability could be built on the S60 platform.
Using the WebSecure application – developed by Tencube – a user can track a missing phone via the Internet, create backup for the data stored and even delete the data.
The data retrieved can then be stored on to any S60 phone using a restore option.
Nokia termed WebSecure as the "ultimate security application" for the mobile phone.
S60 on Symbian OS is one of the three platforms Nokia uses to develop applications. S60 is the only one licensed to developers.
The other two platforms – Series 40 and Series 80 – are strictly for in-house development of applications.
Kalantar said that the S60 was "partially made in India."
He, however, lamented that only eight per cent of Indian developers work on developing mobile applications. "Indian developers put most of their professional time on developing Web applications."
Kalantar added that the combined power of the Internet and S60 could change the economics of development.
"S60 is open to all developers with the widest range of runtime environment and open channels to market," Kalantar added.
Nokia has built a large developer ecosystem around S60, which supports Symbian C++, Open C, Open C++, Java, Python, Web run-time and Flash, among others.
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BANGALORE, INDIA: Finland-based mobile handset maker Nokia today announced the availability of three new applications built on the S60 software platform for mobile phones: Quickoffice Version 4.1, Web Server and WaveSecure.
The Quickoffice Version 4.1 application for Nokia E90 phones makes users PC-independent to create and edit Microsoft Office documents – including Word, Excel and PowerPoint files – from the phone itself.
However, Quickoffice currently does not support open source documents.
Existing E90 users can download Quickoffice Version 4.1 on to their phones, Mahmood Kalantar, director, Mobile Software Sales and Marketing, APAC, Nokia, said at a press conference here.
The Web Server application remotely gives the user a complete access to the phone via the Internet. The user can access data stored on the phone, access the call logs section of the phone via the Internet to know the details of received and missed calls.
Additionally, the user can access photo gallery, send messages and click photographs remotely.
The Mobile Web Server is currently in beta and is provided free of charge. The user should create a log in ID to avail this application.
The Web Server application even doubles the phone as surveillance equipment. The camera can be clicked remotely via the Internet, and the clicked photo can be accessed on the computer monitor for remote surveillance.
According to Gautam Dhingra, marketing manager, Mobile Software Sales and Marketing, the Web Server application does not currently support videos.
He said such capability could be built on the S60 platform.
Using the WebSecure application – developed by Tencube – a user can track a missing phone via the Internet, create backup for the data stored and even delete the data.
The data retrieved can then be stored on to any S60 phone using a restore option.
Nokia termed WebSecure as the "ultimate security application" for the mobile phone.
S60 on Symbian OS is one of the three platforms Nokia uses to develop applications. S60 is the only one licensed to developers.
The other two platforms – Series 40 and Series 80 – are strictly for in-house development of applications.
Kalantar said that the S60 was "partially made in India."
He, however, lamented that only eight per cent of Indian developers work on developing mobile applications. "Indian developers put most of their professional time on developing Web applications."
Kalantar added that the combined power of the Internet and S60 could change the economics of development.
"S60 is open to all developers with the widest range of runtime environment and open channels to market," Kalantar added.
Nokia has built a large developer ecosystem around S60, which supports Symbian C++, Open C, Open C++, Java, Python, Web run-time and Flash, among others.
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Heineken, Nokia and advanced sensor technology
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BANGALORE, INDIA: Even as Indian liquor baron and Member of Parliament, Vijay Mallya reportedly raised a toast to Heineken, Nokia said cheers with the same brand of beer, as it showcased its phone with advanced sensor technology.
The Finland-based mobile phone handset-maker had last year said it was developing a mobile phone with advanced sensor technology.
At a press conference here today, Gautam Dhingra, marketing manager, Mobile Software Sales and Marketing, passed "a round of drinks" to scribes.
The mobile phones passed around had beer bubbling on their screens and as the reporters "drank", the beer level gradually decreased before "emptying the mobile phone".
This, of course, was just to showcase the technology Nokia introduced in its phone. The mobile phone sensed its position – whether it was held upright or slanted or upside down – and the image of golden beer responded accordingly, as if it was in a pitcher.
The phone even sensed the collective lungpower of journalists.
Dhingra selected a game on his phone, a game in which one has to scream to make a building collapse without harming the passers-by, and thereby collect points. The collective scream of Bangalore journalists could garner only 97 points.
They were later told that the highest was over 110 points.
Flip Silent and Shake Lock
Later, during a post-press conference conversation, Dhingra explained more. Nokia has developed more applications, viz., the Flip Silent and Shake Lock.
A ringing phone could be made silent or even the call could be disconnected by flipping it over. The Flip Silent was developed on the S60 platform and partially has used Python.
"Shake Lock was also developed on the S60 platform and has used Python," Dhingra told CyberMedia News.
With this application, a user can shake the phone to lock the keypad. This application would be more useful to countries like India, where a significant number of users go for low-end or mid-segment phones which need to be locked.
Dhingra, however, did not reveal when Nokia would start shipping this phone with sensor technology.
The Finnish handset-maker is learnt to be developing more sensor technology-based applications before it would launch the phone.
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BANGALORE, INDIA: Even as Indian liquor baron and Member of Parliament, Vijay Mallya reportedly raised a toast to Heineken, Nokia said cheers with the same brand of beer, as it showcased its phone with advanced sensor technology.
The Finland-based mobile phone handset-maker had last year said it was developing a mobile phone with advanced sensor technology.
At a press conference here today, Gautam Dhingra, marketing manager, Mobile Software Sales and Marketing, passed "a round of drinks" to scribes.
The mobile phones passed around had beer bubbling on their screens and as the reporters "drank", the beer level gradually decreased before "emptying the mobile phone".
This, of course, was just to showcase the technology Nokia introduced in its phone. The mobile phone sensed its position – whether it was held upright or slanted or upside down – and the image of golden beer responded accordingly, as if it was in a pitcher.
The phone even sensed the collective lungpower of journalists.
Dhingra selected a game on his phone, a game in which one has to scream to make a building collapse without harming the passers-by, and thereby collect points. The collective scream of Bangalore journalists could garner only 97 points.
They were later told that the highest was over 110 points.
Flip Silent and Shake Lock
Later, during a post-press conference conversation, Dhingra explained more. Nokia has developed more applications, viz., the Flip Silent and Shake Lock.
A ringing phone could be made silent or even the call could be disconnected by flipping it over. The Flip Silent was developed on the S60 platform and partially has used Python.
"Shake Lock was also developed on the S60 platform and has used Python," Dhingra told CyberMedia News.
With this application, a user can shake the phone to lock the keypad. This application would be more useful to countries like India, where a significant number of users go for low-end or mid-segment phones which need to be locked.
Dhingra, however, did not reveal when Nokia would start shipping this phone with sensor technology.
The Finnish handset-maker is learnt to be developing more sensor technology-based applications before it would launch the phone.
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IBM launches 'green energy' tools for data centers
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SAN FRANCISCO, USA: International Business Machines Corp on Wednesday launched tools to reduce computer energy consumption as IBM hopes to boost its business of selling power-saving technologies.
The products, announced at an IBM business-partner conference in Los Angeles, are designed to measure power consumption and reduction across energy-hungry computer data centers that run corporate networks and Web sites.
The world's largest technology services company is offering software that tracks and caps data-center energy consumption, including power for air conditioning to cool server computers.
IBM is also extending to 27 more countries a program begun in seven countries last year that lets companies earn and trade certificates awarded for verified energy savings.
"Energy efficiency has become a critical business metric, like product reliability and customer satisfaction," William Zeitler, head of IBM's systems and technology group, said in an interview with Reuters.
IBM is expanding in so-called green data centers as it looks for new growth areas in developed regions such as Western Europe as well as in developing countries that are spending heavily on new technology infrastructure.
"The opportunity for us is to go to clients -- there are an enormous number who are either transforming their data centers or will have to transform them," Zeitler said. "This is a critically important problem in the industry."
IBM's green data center initiative has already begun to pay off a year after it was launched. It generated nearly $200 million of technology-services contract signings in the first quarter and about $300 million in the fourth, chief financial officer Mark Loughridge said in recent earnings presentations.
Many of the countries added to the certificate program are in emerging markets in Asia and the Middle East, where Armonk, New York-based IBM has been generating double-digit percentage revenue growth from building technology infrastructure in telecoms, transportation and energy, among other areas.
Growth is also strong in North America and Western Europe, where banks, for example, are trying to rein in energy costs from running massive volumes of financial transactions on their computers. Banks are among IBM's biggest customers.
"It's really taken off in North America in particular and Western Europe," said Joe Clabby, president and industry research analyst at Clabby Analytics. "Countries that are not energy self-sufficient are jumping on this initiative."
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SAN FRANCISCO, USA: International Business Machines Corp on Wednesday launched tools to reduce computer energy consumption as IBM hopes to boost its business of selling power-saving technologies.
The products, announced at an IBM business-partner conference in Los Angeles, are designed to measure power consumption and reduction across energy-hungry computer data centers that run corporate networks and Web sites.
The world's largest technology services company is offering software that tracks and caps data-center energy consumption, including power for air conditioning to cool server computers.
IBM is also extending to 27 more countries a program begun in seven countries last year that lets companies earn and trade certificates awarded for verified energy savings.
"Energy efficiency has become a critical business metric, like product reliability and customer satisfaction," William Zeitler, head of IBM's systems and technology group, said in an interview with Reuters.
IBM is expanding in so-called green data centers as it looks for new growth areas in developed regions such as Western Europe as well as in developing countries that are spending heavily on new technology infrastructure.
"The opportunity for us is to go to clients -- there are an enormous number who are either transforming their data centers or will have to transform them," Zeitler said. "This is a critically important problem in the industry."
IBM's green data center initiative has already begun to pay off a year after it was launched. It generated nearly $200 million of technology-services contract signings in the first quarter and about $300 million in the fourth, chief financial officer Mark Loughridge said in recent earnings presentations.
Many of the countries added to the certificate program are in emerging markets in Asia and the Middle East, where Armonk, New York-based IBM has been generating double-digit percentage revenue growth from building technology infrastructure in telecoms, transportation and energy, among other areas.
Growth is also strong in North America and Western Europe, where banks, for example, are trying to rein in energy costs from running massive volumes of financial transactions on their computers. Banks are among IBM's biggest customers.
"It's really taken off in North America in particular and Western Europe," said Joe Clabby, president and industry research analyst at Clabby Analytics. "Countries that are not energy self-sufficient are jumping on this initiative."
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Microsoft's board fails to decide on Yahoo: WSJ
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SEATTLE, USA: Microsoft Corp's board met on Wednesday to discuss its stand-off with Yahoo Inc over its $41.8 billion takeover bid, but failed to reach a decision on what to do next, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Microsoft's board of directors is still weighing whether to adopt a hostile approach and nominate a proxy slate of directors to replace Yahoo's board, sweeten its cash-and-stock offer for Yahoo, or possibly walk away from the deal, the Journal said.
A Microsoft spokesman was not available for comment.
A Microsoft-imposed deadline for Yahoo to start talks on a final deal or face a proxy battle passed last Saturday. An announcement from Microsoft is expected later this week, the report said.
Microsoft, according to the report, has indicated it would be willing to raise its bid to as much as $33 per share but such an offer may still fall short of the $35 to $37 per share that Yahoo's major shareholders are looking for.
Meanwhile, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, who is also a member of the board, has appeared ready in recent days to abandon the offer since Yahoo and its major shareholders want significantly more money, according to the Journal.
Ballmer had said last week that Microsoft was considering walking away from the deal. But most Wall Street analysts dismiss this as a hardball negotiating tactic rather than a real threat to end its two-year-long pursuit of a deal.
The value of Microsoft's offer, originally valued at $44.6 billion at $31 a share, has fallen to $29.06 a share due to a drop in the value of Microsoft's stock
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SEATTLE, USA: Microsoft Corp's board met on Wednesday to discuss its stand-off with Yahoo Inc over its $41.8 billion takeover bid, but failed to reach a decision on what to do next, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Microsoft's board of directors is still weighing whether to adopt a hostile approach and nominate a proxy slate of directors to replace Yahoo's board, sweeten its cash-and-stock offer for Yahoo, or possibly walk away from the deal, the Journal said.
A Microsoft spokesman was not available for comment.
A Microsoft-imposed deadline for Yahoo to start talks on a final deal or face a proxy battle passed last Saturday. An announcement from Microsoft is expected later this week, the report said.
Microsoft, according to the report, has indicated it would be willing to raise its bid to as much as $33 per share but such an offer may still fall short of the $35 to $37 per share that Yahoo's major shareholders are looking for.
Meanwhile, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, who is also a member of the board, has appeared ready in recent days to abandon the offer since Yahoo and its major shareholders want significantly more money, according to the Journal.
Ballmer had said last week that Microsoft was considering walking away from the deal. But most Wall Street analysts dismiss this as a hardball negotiating tactic rather than a real threat to end its two-year-long pursuit of a deal.
The value of Microsoft's offer, originally valued at $44.6 billion at $31 a share, has fallen to $29.06 a share due to a drop in the value of Microsoft's stock
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Scientists develop new type of memory circuit
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CHICAGO, USA: It took about 40 years to find it, but scientists at Hewlett-Packard said that they discovered a fourth basic type of electrical circuit that could lead to a computer you never have to boot up.
The finding proves what until now had only been theory -- but could save millions from the tedium of waiting for a computer to find its "place," the researchers said on Wednesday.
Basic electronics theory teaches that there are three fundamental elements of a passive circuit -- resistors, capacitors and inductors.
But in the 1970s, Leon Chua of the University of California at Berkeley, theorized there should be a fourth called a memory resistor, or memristor, for short, and he worked out the mathematical equations to prove it.
Now, a team at Hewlett-Packard led by Stanley Williams has proven that 'memristance' exists. They developed a mathematical model and a physical example of a memristor, which they describe in the journal Nature.
"It's very different from any other electrical device," Williams said of his memristor in a telephone interview. "No combination of resistor, capacitor or inductor will give you that property."
Williams likens the property to water flowing through a garden hose. In a regular circuit, the water flows from more than one direction.
But in a memory resistor, the hose remembers what direction the water (or current) is flowing from, and it expands in that direction to improve the flow. If water or current flows from the other direction, the hose shrinks.
"It remembers both the direction and the amount of charge that flows through it. ... That is the memory," Williams said.
The discovery is more than an academic pursuit for Williams, who said the finding could lead a new kind of computer memory that would never need booting up.
Conventional computers use dynamic random access memory or DRAM, which is lost when the power is turned off, and must be accessed from the hard drive when the computer goes back on.
But a computer that incorporates this new kind of memory circuit would never lose it place, even when the power is turned off.
"If you turn on your computer it will come up instantly where it was when you turned it off. That is a very interesting potential application, and one that is very realistic," Williams said.
But he said understanding this new circuit element could be critical as companies attempt to build ever smaller devices.
"It's essential that people understand this to be able to go further into the world of nanoelectronics," referring to electronics on the nano scale -- objects tens of thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair.
"It turns out that memristance, this property, gets more important as the device gets smaller. That is another major reason it took so long to find," Williams said.
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CHICAGO, USA: It took about 40 years to find it, but scientists at Hewlett-Packard said that they discovered a fourth basic type of electrical circuit that could lead to a computer you never have to boot up.
The finding proves what until now had only been theory -- but could save millions from the tedium of waiting for a computer to find its "place," the researchers said on Wednesday.
Basic electronics theory teaches that there are three fundamental elements of a passive circuit -- resistors, capacitors and inductors.
But in the 1970s, Leon Chua of the University of California at Berkeley, theorized there should be a fourth called a memory resistor, or memristor, for short, and he worked out the mathematical equations to prove it.
Now, a team at Hewlett-Packard led by Stanley Williams has proven that 'memristance' exists. They developed a mathematical model and a physical example of a memristor, which they describe in the journal Nature.
"It's very different from any other electrical device," Williams said of his memristor in a telephone interview. "No combination of resistor, capacitor or inductor will give you that property."
Williams likens the property to water flowing through a garden hose. In a regular circuit, the water flows from more than one direction.
But in a memory resistor, the hose remembers what direction the water (or current) is flowing from, and it expands in that direction to improve the flow. If water or current flows from the other direction, the hose shrinks.
"It remembers both the direction and the amount of charge that flows through it. ... That is the memory," Williams said.
The discovery is more than an academic pursuit for Williams, who said the finding could lead a new kind of computer memory that would never need booting up.
Conventional computers use dynamic random access memory or DRAM, which is lost when the power is turned off, and must be accessed from the hard drive when the computer goes back on.
But a computer that incorporates this new kind of memory circuit would never lose it place, even when the power is turned off.
"If you turn on your computer it will come up instantly where it was when you turned it off. That is a very interesting potential application, and one that is very realistic," Williams said.
But he said understanding this new circuit element could be critical as companies attempt to build ever smaller devices.
"It's essential that people understand this to be able to go further into the world of nanoelectronics," referring to electronics on the nano scale -- objects tens of thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair.
"It turns out that memristance, this property, gets more important as the device gets smaller. That is another major reason it took so long to find," Williams said.
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