The new Acer Chromebook

   Creating a better, simpler computer and making it available for everyone is at the core of the Chromebook vision. It’s exciting to see people using Chromebooks as the perfect additional computer in the home, and we continue to work with our partners to make them easy-to-use and more affordable. Today, we’re delighted that our partner Acer is introducing a new addition to the Chromebook family: the new Acer C7 Chromebook.

The new Acer C7 Chromebook delivers a hassle-free computing experience with speed, built-in security and the simplicity of automatic updates. It features a full-size keyboard, fully clickable trackpad, an extra bright 11.6-inch display and over 3.5 hours of battery life. Powered by an Intel Core processor, the Acer Chromebook is fast—boots up in 18 seconds, resumes instantly and high-definition videos play smoothly (yes, videos like Gangnam Style in 1080p, in case you’re one of the few left who hasn’t seen it). You can easily store your stuff on the Chromebook or in the cloud, with a 320GB hard drive and 100GB of free storage on Google Drive.*

As you’d expect from a Chromebook, it’s easy to share with others around the home. Moms, dads, siblings or even your roommate can all have separate accounts and simply log in to get things done. And because Chromebooks bring you the best of Google, if you use products like Gmail, Drive, Maps, YouTube and Google+, your stuff is always available and everything just works.

Starting tomorrow, the Acer Chromebook will be available for $199 in the U.S. on Google Play, BestBuy.com and rolling out this week in select Best Buy stores. In the U.K., it’s available on Google Play, Amazon UK, PC World and Currys. We’re working hard to bring it to more countries soon.

Together with Acer, it’s great to welcome the newest addition to the Chromebook family. We hope it will make a great additional computer for your family, too. New Chromebooks, for everyone.

(Posted by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Chrome & Apps)

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Get The New YouTube Design With This Google Chrome Extension

  If you can’t wait for YouTube to roll-out their latest redesign, there’s a hack to get the new version now.
OMG!Chrome! found a Google extension that can be installed in your browser in under 30 seconds and will update the site’s entire design.
The site’s upgrade will feature a Google search bar at the top of each page, a video counter for subscriptions along the lefthand column, and profile pictures next to users’ comments.

  Check out the video above for the full instructions on how to install the extension.
And if you see any glitches with the site after the hack, OMG!Chrome! says using this alternate code is a good fix:
document.cookie=”VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=jZNC3DCddAk; path=/; domain=.youtube.com”;window.location.reload();
Do you like YouTube new look? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Modem vs Router

   When subscribing to an ISP, they would usually provide you with a box that connects to your phone line and to your computer. This box is usually both a router and a modem. A modem is a device that negotiates the connection with your ISP through your telephone line while a router is a device that is used to connect two networks together, in this case your network to your modem.

  Traditionally modems were stand alone devices that can be connected straight to your computer or to a router. It connects to the router via the standard RJ45 and with the telephone line via the smaller RJ11. Its job is simply to translate data from one protocol to another since telephone lines do not use the same signaling and transmission methods that are used in computer networks. Because of this, data isn’t being screened by the modem and any potential threat would still go through to your network.

  Routers only use RJ45 since it is understood that it would only connect to computer networks. Its job is to examine a data packet and determine where it should go; it chooses the route the data should take, thus the name router. It is in a router where firewalls are implemented in order to screen out potential attacks or threats that might try to gain access to your network.

  You should know that modems are the means to connect to the internet and without modems the internet would not exist. Routers on the other hand, are not really essential for internet communication. It is still possible to connect to the internet without routers just like in the old days with internal PCI modems. But you should remember that the main job of the router is to protect you from possible threats and malware, and this shouldn’t be taken very lightly.
 

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Do you Know the Difference Between Tablet and Smartphone..

                          
Smartphones and tablets are the hottest gadgets nowadays. Even though tablets and smartphones look pretty much the same, there are still major differences between them. The main difference between tablets and smartphones is obviously the size. Tablets are much bigger than smartphones, and the screen size is typically the basis of measurement. Tablets range from models with 7 inch screens, with models around 10 inches being the most popular, and there also models that have even larger screen sizes. Smartphones are much smaller with most models sporting 4 inch screens. It is important for smartphones to be small since majority of people carry them in their pockets, especially men.
  There is also a difference when it comes to the applications that you are able to run. Tablets and smartphones typically share the same operating; Android tablets and smartphones, as well as the iPad and the iPhone. But there are applications that only run in tablets and not in smartphones. This is not because of limitations in the processor but usually because of the impracticality of small screens with the app.
    When it comes to network connectivity, smartphones trump tablets. Virtually all smartphones have WiFi and 3G connectivity, the latter is basically a given since connecting to a cellular network is a must for smartphones. Tablets have WiFi at the very least for connectivity, but only high-end and pricier models feature 3G connectivity.

  Despite having a wide array of uses, the primary function of smartphones is still for communication. Tablets on the other hand are not intended as phone replacements. Although some tablets have the ability to send SMS or do calls, many do not. You can immediately rule out tablets that do not have 3G as the hardware is necessary for this functionality. And even if your tablet allows you to make calls, you would probably have to purchase a Bluetooth headset as it is rather awkward to hold a large tablet to your face.
   Smartphones can do the job of a tablet and more. If you are usually on the go, a smartphone is the better choice as you can quickly pull it out or store it when the need arises.

Read:http://justforknowledg.blogspot.com/

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Story:Pencil and Eraser

Pencil: I'm sorry

Eraser: For what? You didn't do anything wrong.

Pencil: I'm sorry because you get hurt because of me. Whenever I made a mistake, you're always there to erase it. But as you make my mistakes vanish, you lose a part of yourself. You get smaller and smaller each time.

Eraser: That's true. But I don't really mind. You see, I was made to do this. I was made to help you whenever you do something wrong. Even though one day, I know I'll be gone and you'll replace me with a new one, I'm actually happy with my job. So please, stop worrying. I hate seeing you sad.

   I found this conversation between the pencil and the eraser very inspirational. Parents are like the eraser whereas their children are the pencil. They're always there for their children, cleaning up their mistakes. Sometimes along the way, they get hurt, and become smaller / older, and eventually pass on. Though their children will eventually find someone new (spouse), but parents are still happy with what they do for their children, and will always hate seeing their precious ones worrying, or sad. All my life, I've been the pencil. And it pains me to see the eraser that is my parents getting smaller and smaller each day. For I know that one day, all that I'm left with would be eraser shavings and memories of what I used to have.

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10 must-have Google Chrome add-ons

   Depending on which Web metrics firm you believe, Google Chrome either surpassed Mozilla
 Firefox in worldwide browser market share in late  2012, picking up the number two spot behind Microsoft's IE. Either way, it's clear that Chrome's star is rising.Here are 10 more essential add-ons, many exclusive to Chrome, that will please everyone from procrastinators to productivity buffs.

StayFocusd

When it comes to productivity, you are often your own worst enemy. StayFocusd can help. It lets you set a daily time limit for browsing time-wasting websites of your choosing; once your allotted time is up, the sites are blocked until the following day. You may be able to slip Facebook sessions past your boss, but StayFocusd's all-seeing eye can be disabled only by uninstalling the add-on, making this a nearly foolproof way to remain on task

Aviary

Revisionists, rejoice! The Aviary add-on lets you edit images right in your browser without being rerouted to another site or program.

When you're browsing, just right-click an image and choose Edit Image in Aviary from the context menu. Up pops the image in a simple widget that lets you adjust colors, crop, rotate, eliminate red-eye, add silly "stickers" and more, then save it to your desktop.

Session Manager

Never worry about finding websites from a previous browsing session again. Session Manager saves entire browser sessions in their current state, allowing you to revisit a series of websites accessed on a previous date, exactly as they were when you first clicked on them

Chrome to iPhone or Google Chrome to Phone

Running out the door is a lot less stressful when you pair your Android smartphone with Google's Chrome to Phone or your iPhone with myPhoneDesktop's Chrome to iPhone (shown at left). Both send links, images, phone numbers and other important information right to your smartphone when you click on an in-browser button. With push notifications, the ability to set default actions for different data types and multiple handset support, they help streamline your digital life.

Taskforce

Taskforce turns your Gmail inbox into a productivity nerve center for your digital life. The add-on converts emails into tasks, schedules those tasks and shares them with others, even if they don't use Taskforce. And it does all of that without forcing you to leave your inbox

Things to Do

Productivity tools with oodles of features work well for advanced taskmasters. But the rest of us may be better served by simple add-ons that actually encourage us to get things done

AddThis

AddThis is your one-stop shop for all things sharing. Click the in-browser AddThis button and you'll be able to broadcast content to over 300 different Web services. That simple browser button lets you tweet, share or email links without the hassle of switching between pages

FastestChrome

FastestChrome, a Chrome version of the popular FastestFox Firefox extension, is like steroids for your browser. Although it doesn't actually load pages faster, the add-on's numerous features make browsing faster overall. For instance, it automatically loads the next page of a website for minimal interruption while reading, and when you highlight a word or phrase on the page, its definition appears in a pop-up

SpeakIt!

Multitaskers, meet your new best friend. Install SpeakIt!, highlight on-screen text on a non-encrypted Web page and click the SpeakIt! toolbar button to hear the text read aloud to you while you get work done. It's the perfect way to listen to the latest celebrity updates from TMZ while, you know, doing important things. It's also a great add-on for eye-strained Web users in need of relief

Up

Good things come in small packages. With one click, the Up add-on sends users up one level in the currently loaded URL. It'll also display the path list back to the original website, making navigation among multiple URL levels quick and easy.

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The Earth on Your Desktop in Real Time!

 Desktop Earth is a wallpaper generator for Windows. It runs whenever you're logged on and updates your wallpaper with an accurate representation of the Earth as it would be seen from space at that precise moment.

Day and night is accurately represented depending on the Sun's overhead position (which depends on both the time of day and the day of the year) and both the snow cover and the foliage changes with the seasons.

Images are created from high-resolution textures (2560x1280) so it's perfect for that QSXGA display.

An image is generated every month to accurately depict snow and foliage changes, and the night view is simply stunning.

If you just want to stick with one view of the earth, there is a huge stash of wallpapers in the install directory that can be used permanently without being connected to the internet or having Desktop Earth installed.

INSTRUCTIONS

After installation DesktopEarth will start automatically and display the following configuration dialog:


This should be pretty self-explanatory, but here are some pointers: 

• Image Options control basic image parameters such as what the wallpaper is centered on and how to deal with an image that does not match the aspect ratio of the source: add black bars or crop. You can also choose to add clouds to the image - more on this topic a bit later.
• Display Options allows you to select between wallpaper styles. The Regular Wallpaper setting should work well for everyone, even in multi-monitor environments. When your destkop's size or shape changes the Earth wallpaper will change with it in a few moments. 

Desktop Earth will start automatically every time you log in to Windows. There's a system tray icon that you can use to bring up the configuration dialog again: 



This brings us to the final point: clouds. The cloud image bundled with Deskop Earth is (obviously) static, but selecting "Cloud Updates" from the systray menu and enabling automatic updates will retrieve a semi-realtime cloud image from the Internet. Since cloud formations big enough to show up on these images move very slowly, it does not really matter that the images are a few hours out of date. 

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Dont hope..

  While waiting to pick up a friend at the airport in Portland, Oregon, I had one of those life-changing experiences that you hear other people talk about — the kind that sneaks up on you unexpectedly. This one occurred a mere two feet away from me.

Straining to locate my friend among the passengers deplaning through the jet way, I noticed a man coming toward me carrying two light bags. He stopped right next to me to greet his family.

First he motioned to his youngest son (maybe six years old) as he laid down his bags. They gave each other a long, loving hug. As they separated enough to look in each other’s face, I heard the father say, “It’s so good to see you, son. I missed you so much!” His son smiled somewhat shyly, averted his eyes and replied softly, “Me, too, Dad!”

Then the man stood up, gazed in the eyes of his oldest son (maybe nine or ten) and while cupping his son’s face in his hands said, “You’re already quite the young man. I love you very much, Zach!” They too hugged a most loving, tender hug.

While this was happening, a baby girl (perhaps one or one-and-a-half) was squirming excitedly in her mother’s arms, never once taking her little eyes off the wonderful sight of her returning father. The man said, “Hi, baby girl!” as he gently took the child from her mother. He quickly kissed her face all over and then held her close to his chest while rocking her from side to side. The little girl instantly relaxed and simply laid her head on his shoulder, motionless in pure contentment.

After several moments, he handed his daughter to his oldest son and declared, “I’ve saved the best for last!” and proceeded to give his wife the longest, most passionate kiss I ever remember seeing. He gazed into her eyes for several seconds and then silently mouthed. “I love you so much!” They stared at each other’s eyes, beaming big smiles at one another, while holding both hands.

For an instant they reminded me of newlyweds, but I knew by the age of their kids that they couldn’t possibly be. I puzzled about it for a moment then realized how totally engrossed I was in the wonderful display of unconditional love not more than an arm’s length away from me. I suddenly felt uncomfortable, as if I was invading something sacred, but was amazed to hear my own voice nervously ask, “Wow! How long have you two been married?

“Been together fourteen years total, married twelve of those.” he replied, without breaking his gaze from his lovely wife’s face. “Well then, how long have you been away?” I asked. The man finally turned and looked at me, still beaming his joyous smile. “Two whole days!”

Two days? I was stunned. By the intensity of the greeting, I had assumed he’d been gone for at least several weeks – if not months. I know my expression betrayed me.

I said almost offhandedly, hoping to end my intrusion with some semblance of grace (and to get back to searching for my friend), “I hope my marriage is still that passionate after twelve years!”

The man suddenly stopped smiling.

He looked me straight in the eye, and with forcefulness that burned right into my soul, he told me something that left me a different person. He told me, “Don’t hope, friend… decide!” Then he flashed me his wonderful smile again, shook my hand and said, “God bless!”

- By Michael D. Hargrove and Bottom Line Underwriters, Inc.
Copyright 1997

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Knowledge Base: SLPL තරඟ කාල සටහන

Knowledge Base: SLPL තරඟ කාල සටහන: Date and Time Match Weather  Sat Aug 11             10:30 GMT | 16:00 local 16:00 IST Nagenahira Nagas v Ruhuna Royals R Premadasa St...

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Intel sets timeline to develop world's first conflict-free processor

  Intel is preparing to produce the world’s first conflict-free processor by the end of 2013. The revelation comes as part of the company’s recently-released Corporate Responsibility Report 2011 that outlines a number of green efforts though 2020.
Conflict materials are those that are mined in regions that contain armed conflicts or human rights issues – a good example of this is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, money earned from the export of minerals from conflict regions is a solid source of funding for armed groups. As you can imagine, this isn’t exactly good PR for tech companies.

  Intel has declared intentions to become conflict-free across four key minerals: gold, tantalum, tin and tungsten by the end of 2013. In fact, the company plans to achieve the tantalum goal by the end of this year. This essentially means that next-generation microarchitecture Haswell processors could be the first ever to contain conflict-free materials.
Other environmental goals include a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and water use per processor manufactured as well as increasing the efficiency of data centers and notebook computers by 25 times through 2020.
There are also plans to build new facilities in Arizona, Costa Rica, China, Israel and Malaysia that would meet LEED Silver Certification in addition to an energy-saving plan that would reduce power consumption by 1.4 billion kWh through 2015. Chipzilla hopes to achieve zero chemical waste to landfill by 2020.

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World's third largest spam botnet 'Grum' taken down

  Security researchers announced they’ve dismantled the world's third-largest botnet, known as Grum, which is believed to have been responsible for 18% of the world's spam.
The shutdown was a joint effort between California security firm FireEye, the British-based Spamhaus Project, and the Russian-based Computer Security Incident Response Team known as CERT-GIB who worked together and convinced the companies that hosted Grum’s command and control servers to pull the plug on the operation.
Grum relies on two types of control servers: one to push configuration updates to the infected computers that are part of the botnet and another to tell the botnet what spam emails to send.
Initially researchers from FireEye were able to take down two command and control (CnC) servers hosted in the Netherlands of the second kind.
While this crippled the botnet’s operation, remaining CnC servers hosted in Russia, Panama, and a few in Ukraine that cropped up at the last minute in response to the previous shutdowns could still be used to update the botnet and direct it to new spam template servers.
Fortunately, that didn’t happen and yesterday Grum was dealt its final blow as folks in the worldwide security industry collaborated to apply pressure to local ISPs and domain registrars to shut down the remaining servers.
The researchers said the botnet had been using as many as 120,000 infected "zombie" computers to send out spam each day. More than 20,000 computers are apparently still spewing out junk email, but without the active CnCs they will soon be rendered ineffective.
By Jose Vilches

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Google acquires Sparrow

   Email startup Sparrow has been acquired by Google. The company’s CEO Dom Leca announced the news on the company's site and Twitter account, saying that the team behind the popular iOS and Mac email client will be joining the Gmail team to “accomplish a bigger vision”.
  Exactly what that new vision entails is unclear. So far the company been entirely Apple-centric, launching in February 2011 as it sought to capitalize on the rather poor Gmail experience offered to iOS users at the time -- an official app didn’t arrive for Apple’s mobile platform until November last year and the spartan email client that ships with the iPhone and iPad left much to be desired for Gmail users. Sparrow became the top paid and top grossing app in less than one day.
According to a statement sent to 9to5Mac, the team behind Sparrow will continue to make their existing apps available and provide support as well as critical updates to our users, but no new features will be added going forward. Apparently they will be busy with new projects at Google instead, which could mean the focus will shift solely to Android, or simply that the Sparrow email client is no more.
Either way it’s bad news for existing users of Sparrow. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

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If you've been in an airport, coffee shop, library or hotel recently, chances are you've been right in the middle of a wireless network. Many people also use wireless networking, also called WiFi or 802.11 networking, to connect their computers at home, and some cities are trying to use the technology to provide free or low-cost Internet access to residents. In the near future, wireless networking may become so widespread that you can access the Internet just about anywhere at any time, without using wires.

WiFi has a lot of advantages. Wireless networks are easy to set up and inexpensive. They're also unobtrusive -- unless you're on the lookout for a place to use your laptop, you may not even notice when you're in a hotspot. First, let's go over a few WiFi basics.

What Is WiFi?

A wireless network uses radio waves, just like cell phones, televisions and radios do. In fact, communication across a wireless network is a lot like two-way radio communication. Here's what happens:

1. A computer's wireless adapter translates data into a radio signal and transmits it using an antenna.
2. A wireless router receives the signal and decodes it. The router sends the information to the Internet using a physical, wired Ethernet connection.

The process also works in reverse, with the router receiving information from the Internet, translating it into a radio signal and sending it to the computer's wireless adapter.

The radios used for WiFi communication are very similar to the radios used for walkie-talkies, cell phones and other devices. They can transmit and receive radio waves, and they can convert 1s and 0s into radio waves and convert the radio waves back into 1s and 0s. But WiFi radios have a few notable differences from other radios:

• They transmit at frequencies of 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz. This frequency is considerably higher than the frequencies used for cell phones, walkie-talkies and televisions. The higher frequency allows the signal to carry more data.
• They use 802.11 networking standards, which come in several flavors: 802.11a transmits at 5 GHz and can move up to 54 megabits of data per second. It also uses orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), a more efficient coding technique that splits that radio signal into several sub-signals before they reach a receiver.
• WiFi radios can transmit on any of three frequency bands. Or, they can "frequency hop" rapidly between the different bands.

WiFi Hotspots

If you want to take advantage of public WiFi hotspots or start a wireless network in your home, the first thing you'll need to do is make sure your computer has the right gear. Most new laptops and many new desktop computers come with built-in wireless transmitters. If your laptop doesn't, you can buy awireless adapter that plugs into the PC card slot or USB port. Desktop computers can use USB adapters, or you can buy an adapter that plugs into the PCI slot inside the computer's case. Many of these adapters can use more than one 802.11 standard.

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Mobile broadband..

         "Mobile broadband" is a wireless carrier marketing term for Internet access. Bit rates of broadband support voice and video as well as other data access. Devices that provide mobile broadband to mobile computers include: PC cards also known as PC data card or Connect cards, USB modems, USB sticks often called "dongles", and portable devices with built-in support for mobile broadband (like notebooks, netbooks and Mobile Internet Devices). Notebooks with built-in mobile broadband modules are offered by many laptop manufacturers.
  In 2002, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) established a Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) working group. They developed the IEEE 802.20 standard in 2008, with amendments in 2010. Another working group, IEEE 802.16, produced standards adopted in products using the WiMAX trademark.
  The global Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) family of standards - which includes GSM, EDGE, WCDMA, HSPA and LTE – is the most widespread way to deliver mobile broadband. 3GPP standards are serving about 90 percent of the world’s mobile subscribers.

After mobile broadband subscribers hit 500 million in 2010, at the end of 2011 Ericsson predicted it will be doubled to a billion. 
   In the United Kingdom, a steering group known as Digital Britain was set up, with the aim of promoting digital telecommunications in October 2008. The conclusion of the steering group was a recommendation that the government took up, namely to have 100% broadband coverage, with a minimum speed of 2Mbps in the United Kingdom by the year 2012. Mobile "broadband" using 3G is now not expected to be able to ensure 2Mbit/s broadband coverage to the more remote areas of the UK as coverage is too poor and contention too high. Another suggestion is Ka Satellite for Rural areas, which may be very cheap by the end of 2010 if Eutelsat's KA-SAT is successfully launched. There is also a smaller Ka Sat in 2010 from Avanti. However Satellite latency is about 790ms.

Generations

Second generation (2G) from 1991: first mobile data services GSM CSD (2G): 9.6 kbit/s GSM GPRS (2.5G): 56 to 115 kbit/s GSM EDGE (2.75G): up to 237 kbit/s

Third generation (3G)  from  2001: UMTS W-CDMA: 0.4 Mbit/s down and up UMTS HSPA: 14.4 Mbit/s down; 5.8 Mbit/s up UMTS TDD: 16 Mbit/s down and up CDMA2000 1xRTT: 0.3 Mbit/s down; 0.15 Mbit/s up CDMA2000 EV-DO: 2.5 to 4.9 Mbit/s down; 0.15 to 1.8 up GSM EDGE-Evolution: 1.6 Mbit/s down; 0.5 Mbit/s up

Fourth generation (4G) from 2006: HSPA+: 21 to 672 Mbit/s down; 5.8 to 168 Mbit/s up Mobile WiMAX (802.16): 37 to 365 Mbit/s down; 17 to 376 Mbit/s up LTE: 100 to 300 Mbit/s down; 50 to 75 Mbit/s up LTE-Advanced: 100 Mbit/s moving at higher speeds to 1 Gbit/s not moving or moving at low speeds MBWA: (802.20): 80 Mbit/s

 

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