Egg donor compensation is to triple under new HFEA guidelines

The UK's fertility watchdog has agreed to triple the compensation given to women who donate eggs to help infertile couples to have a child.

Donors currently have their expenses paid and up to £250 to cover lost earnings.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has decided to pay a one-off fee of £750 per course of donation.

Experts believe this will encourage more women to donate, but critics warn it may create financial incentives.

Under EU rules a donor cannot be "paid", however, they can be "compensated".

Juliet Tizzard, head of policy at the HFEA, said the current rules did not work and "some donors are out of pocket and they do feel undervalued at times".

The decision to move to a one-off payment was made at a public meeting of the fertility watchdog on Wednesday. The idea was to balance fairly compensating donors with the risk of encouraging people to donate merely for financial gain.

The head of the HFEA, Prof Lisa Jardine said: "I believe it is fair.

"I find it very hard to see £750 as an inducement, I see it as fair reflection of the effort, the time and the pain."

However she said the figure was "a very highly educated guess at what will feel to people like compensation".

Invasive process
There are currently long waits in the UK - sometimes five years or more - for couples seeking donor eggs.

In a significant number of cases they travel abroad for treatment, often to Spain or the United States, where payments are higher and more women volunteer.

But there can be risks involved with having treatment in countries where regulations are less stringent.

Egg donation is an invasive process, which involves daily hormone injections, scans every couple of days, and day surgery to recover the eggs.

Side-effects range from mood swings, bloating and pain, to rare but severe over-reactions to the hormones.

ARM chip promises cheaper smartphones

UK chip designer ARM has unveiled a new processor, which should allow manufacturers to make cheaper smartphones.

The company hopes the Cortex A7 will enable a mobile computing revolution in developing countries where current technologies are often unaffordable.

Consumers in developed countries should also see a benefit.

The ultra-efficient chip can be paired with more powerful processors in a "hybrid" model to reduce power use.

ARM's designs are used in approximately 95% of the world's smartphones.

A range of big name manufacturers have already signed-up to use the A7 processor along with the company's "big.LITTLE" architecture.

Samsung, LG, NVidia and Texas Instruments were among those to throw their weight behind the technology.

Apple is also known to make use of ARM-designed chips in its mobile devices, although it has historically been reluctant to say so publicly.

Smaller and cheaper
Used as the sole processor in a smartphone, the A7 is said to offer comparable power to current chips at a fraction of the price, while consuming much less battery power.

Its silicon core is only one-fifth of the size of existing technologies, allowing a reduced production price, according to ARM chief executive Warren East.

"You typically make chips on a silicon wafer and it costs roughly the same amount of money for each wafer. If you can get 2,000 devices on a wafer or 1,000 devices on a wafer it makes a huge difference to the cost per device," he told BBC News.

"We can see the developed world moving on and mobile being the nexus for all sort of consumer electronics. In the Bric countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) we are seeing catch-up.

"As we look forward these smartphones are going to be totally ubiquitous and in the much less developed areas, such as Africa, you will see smartphones becoming tools that people use to make their lives easier."

Mr East said that the trend would happen regardless of intervention, but cheaper devices would greatly accelerate that, enabling smartphones to be produced for under $100 (£60) by 2013 or 2014.

Little and large
In countries where price is less of an issue, the Cortex A7 may be combined with high end mobile processors to offer a powerful, yet energy-efficient package, ARM said.

For less demanding tasks such as checking in the background for email and social networking updates, the A7 processor would handle the work.

Using a technology known as big.LITTLE, the phone would instantly switch over to chips such as the Cortex-A15 when more horsepower was needed.

"It's not just trying to solve the issue of doing yet another CPU with higher performance," said Avner Goren, general manager of Omap strategy at Texas Instruments, one of ARM's clients.

"I don't need massive processing all the time, I need it only some of the time, and for the rest I can use A7. This allows me now to continue the path to more and more powerful devices but without sacrificing battery life."

Although ARM currently enjoys a dominant position in the smartphone and tablet markets, the Cambridge-based firm is facing the prospect of stiff competition from Intel, which has recently entered the mobile processor business.

Its Sandy Bridge and forthcoming Ivy Bridge processors are also aimed at the smartphone and tablet markets.

Mobile phone brain cancer link rejected

Further research has been published suggesting there is no link between mobile phones and an brain cancer.

The risk mobiles present has been much debated over the past 20 years as use of the phones has soared.

The latest study led by the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Denmark looked at more than 350,000 people with mobile phones over an 18-year period.

Researchers concluded users were at no greater risk than anyone else of developing brain cancer.

The findings, published on the British Medical Journal website, come after a series of studies have come to similar conclusions.

'Reassuring'
But there has also been some research casting doubt on mobile phone safety, prompting the World Health Organization to warn that they could still be carcinogenic.

In doing so, the WHO put mobile phones in the same category as coffee, meaning a link could not be ruled out but could not be proved either.

The Department of Health continue to advise that anyone under the age of 16 should use mobile phones only for essential purposes and keep all calls short.

The Danish study, which built on previous research that has already been published by carrying out a longer follow-up, found there was no significant difference in rates of brain or central nervous system cancers among those who had mobiles and those that did not.

Of the 358,403 mobile phone owners looked at, 356 gliomas (a type of brain cancer) and 846 cancers of the central nervous system were seen - both in line with incidence rates among those who did not own a mobile.

Even among those who had had mobiles the longest - 13 years or more - the risk was no higher, the researchers concluded.

But they still said mobile phone use warranted continued follow up to ensure cancers were not developing over the longer term, and to see what the effect was in children.

Hazel Nunn, head of evidence and health information at Cancer Research UK, said: "These results are the strongest evidence yet that using a mobile phone does not seem to increase the risk of cancers of the brain or central nervous system in adults."

Prof Anders Ahlbom, from Sweden's Karolinska Institute, praised the way the study was conducted, adding the findings were "reassuring".

Prof David Spiegelhalter, an expert specialising in the understanding of risk who is based at the University of Cambridge, said: "The mobile phone records only go up to 1995 and so the comparison is mainly between early and late adopters, but the lack of any effect on brain tumours is still very important evidence."

And Prof Malcolm Sperrin, director of medical physics at Royal Berkshire Hospital, said: "The findings clearly reveal that there is no additional overall risk of developing a cancer in the brain although there does seem to be some minor, and not statistically significant, variations in the type of cancer."

But the researchers themselves do accept there were some limitations to the study, including the exclusion of "corporate subscriptions", thereby excluding people who used their phones for business purposes, who could be among the heaviest users.

Glasgow surgeon using ultrasound to treat fractures

Doctors in the Scottish city which pioneered the use of ultrasound to scan the body are now using it to heal broken bones.

Orthopaedic surgeon Angus MacLean has been using the technology at Glasgow's Royal Infirmary's fracture clinic.

It has been shown to speed up recovery times for patients with severe fractures by more than a third.

Ultrasound was first developed as a diagnostic tool in Glasgow in the 1950s.

Mr MacLean said: "We use it for difficult fractures, the ones with problems with healing, and it's a very simple, painless treatment that we can give.

"It's a very interesting scientific development and there's good evidence that it just vibrates the cells a little which then stimulates healing and regeneration in the bone."

A team of specialists, led by Professor Ian Donald, produced the first images of the body using a technology adapted from sonar at Glasgow's Western Infirmary.

It has become one of the most common medical technologies in the world.

But it is only now, 50 years later, that its potential for aiding the healing process is being unlocked.

Apprentice engineer Gary Denham was offered ultrasound treatment after he fell 20ft (6m) from a water tank and broke his ankle into eight pieces.

"It's got a wee strap and that goes round where the break was," he explained.

"I put some gel on the probe and then I just put the probe inside the strap and then just basically leave it for 20 minutes. There's no sensation at all, it's completely painless."

Mr Denham's injury was so severe that there was a chance it would never heal and might eventually have to be amputated.

After ultrasound treatment, he was back on his feet within months.

He added: "I'd never heard of it before, but my leg healed after four months and I'm looking to go back to work within eight months."

Because of the costs involved - around £1,000 per patient - ultrasound is only being used on complex fractures at Glasgow Royal Infirmary but Mr Denham's doctor, Mr MacLean, is very happy with the results.

Orthopaedic surgeon Angus MacLean is leading the use of the technology at Glasgow Royal Infirmary

"Before we used ultrasound I would expect to see this kind of injury healing with some difficulty, and some of them don't heal at all," he said.

"Even if they do heal, it can take between six and 12 months and patients have ongoing pain during that time.

"The evidence suggests that ultrasound speeds things up by about 40%, but the main interest for me is to use it to make sure the bone heals rather than the bone not 'knitting' together which then leads to serious problems."

The technology is similar to that used on pregnant women.

Ultrasound waves are used at a slightly different frequency and a slightly different pulse. Research suggests this encourages cells to remove bacteria, stimulates the production of new bone cells and encourages those cells to mature more rapidly.

It is expected the cost of using ultrasound to treat fractures will reduce over time, making it a cheap way to speed up the healing of common fractures as well as complex ones.

Getting personal with penguins in Antarctica

Penguins are the number one attraction for many visitors to Antarctica. If you go on a ship that is allowed to make shore landings, you are pretty much guaranteed to see them up close. But to get personal with penguins, you have to be smart.
Related article: Planning your dream Antarctic vacation
First of all, keep in mind that Antarctica’s visitor regulations require that you remain at least five meters away from the penguins in order to not disturb them. You could easily become responsible for the death of a penguin chick or the destruction of an egg if your too-close presence should distract a penguin parent. Predators like skuas and giant petrels are only too ready to seize any opportunity to feed themselves and their own offspring.
If a penguin is trying to move away from you, you must stop what you are doing and back off (even if you are farther than five meters away). However, the rules do not preclude a curious penguin from approaching within five meters of you – as long as the bird makes the move, not you.
Penguin chicks, in particular, are quite curious. I’ve seen several lucky tourists who were astonished to find that chicks came right up to them — one chick even climbed onto a woman’s lap. If a penguin comes extremely close to you, however, remember: you are not allowed to touch or hold them.
Tips for getting close to the penguins:
1. Ignore the smell. A penguin rookery is filled with guano (feces) and the ammoniacal smell takes some getting used to. Think of a rookery as a polar barnyard.
2. Be quiet. Loud noises make penguins nervous.
3. Slow down. Fast or sudden movements signal predators to penguins, and they react accordingly.
4. Stay low or sit down. You can use your life jacket as a cushion on the rocky ground.
5. Be patient. It may take half an hour or more before the penguins get used to you.
6. Find a place of your own. There is no need to hike to the far edge of a rookery, but get away from the crowd of people who may or may not be as good as you are at being quiet, slow, low, patient, etc.
7. Put away your camera. Too often people are so focused on getting the “money shot” that they forget to look with their own eyes. It is a different way of observing when you are not looking through a viewfinder. Most of my most memorable experiences in Antarctica are imprinted in my mind, not on a memory chip or roll of film.
8. Finally, go down to the beach at your landing site and wade out in the shallow water a bit – without letting the water overtop your boots, of course! If you wait a few minutes, you may well be rewarded with a close view of penguins swimming close by in the clear waters.
As they rocket past, you will see for yourself how penguins really can fly.

Blackberry problems spread to US

Problems with the Blackberry smartphone system appear have to spread to the United States.

Users began to report loss of services on Wednesday, with many turning to Twitter to complain about their lack of email.

The latest development follows two days of sporadic blackouts across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Blackberry's owner, RIM, blamed the latest outages on a backlog of emails to Europe from Asia and the Americas.

"It is a backlog issue," RIM software vice president David Yach told a press conference in Ottawa, Canada.

"Clearly we have a backlog in Europe... as you can imagine, with the global reach of Blackberry and people using it to contact others around the world, there's a lot of messages to Europe from Asia and the Americas.

"Over time that backlog has built up and affected our other systems."

As news of the failure in the US spread, one user tweeted: "What is the status here in the USA? I am in New York and there seems to be no email service."

Another, who lives in Texas, wrote: "My #blackberry is not working! I can dial out that's it. What's up?".

'Data backlog'
Blackberry had earlier declared services to be "operating normally", only to be contradicted by frustrated users.

Many called on the phone firm to "sort out" the problems and get the network running again.

RIM acknowledged that it was still experiencing problems and apologised for the inconvenience.

"The messaging and browsing delays... in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Brazil, Chile and Argentina were caused by a core switch failure within RIM's infrastructure," a company statement said.


"Although the system is designed to failover to a back-up switch, the failover did not function as previously tested.

"As a result, a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service as quickly as possible."

The blackouts have left millions of users without email, web browsing and Blackberry Messaging (BBM) services.

The cause is believed to be due to server problems at RIM's UK data centre in Slough.

Blackberry users around the world began reporting problems with their handsets mid-morning on 10 October and at 14:42 BST, Blackberry UK sent out a tweet which said: "Some users in EMEA are experiencing issues."

The "issues" left many Blackberry owners only able to text and make calls.

'Harsh criticism'
Many corporate customers said they had not lost service, suggesting that the problem was with Blackberry's BIS consumer systems, rather than its BES enterprise systems.


BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones: "Blackberry has so many high profile users who are complaining about the crash"
"Blackberry runs two infrastructures," explained Simon Butler, a Microsoft Exchange consultant at Sembee.

"The understanding I have is that the BIS service has crashed.

"The business side runs on a different set of servers, although enterprise Blackberrys can still use messenger and the consumer services, so they are also affected," said Mr Butler.

Such a major failure will still come as unwelcome news to Blackberry's owner RIM, which has been losing market share to smartphone rivals - in particular Apple's iPhone.

Many corporate clients have switched to the device after Apple made a concerted effort to improve its support for secure business email systems.

Malik Saadi, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, said RIM would have to resolve the problem quickly.

"The current situation with the Blackberry outages couldn't come at a worse time for RIM, following some harsh criticism in recent months," he said.

Such crashes may lead RIM and others to "re-evaluate their reliance on centralised servers and instead look to investing in more corporately controlled servers", he added.

But he thinks customers will stick with the firm despite current frustrations.

"It will take more than just a couple of collapses to persuade loyal consumers of Blackberry services to look for alternatives," he said.

Many of those complaining about the crash said on Twitter that they could not live without access to BBM.

Tablets turned into Braille keyboard by US researchers

A team of US researchers has devised a way for people with impaired vision to use the touchscreen of a tablet such as an iPad as a Braille keyboard.

It turns some previously fundamental thinking about how to make technology accessible to blind people on its head.

Instead of using a keyboard or mechanical writer, users type directly onto the flat glass.

The inventors used a novel design for the keyboard to overcome the lack of tactile features.

Smart keyboard
"Instead of having fingers that find the buttons, we built buttons that find the fingers," said Stanford's Sohan Dharmaraja, one of the researchers on the project.

The software creates a smart keyboard for users

Users place eight fingers on the screen and the keyboard appears. Shaking the device activates a menu, and further interaction is achieved by regular touch gestures.

Mr Dharmaraja, alongside team-mates Adam Duran - an undergraduate from New Mexico University - and assistant professor Adrian Lew, came up with the idea during a boffin's X-Factor-style contest.

The competition, organised each year by Stanford University, challenges students to come up with some innovative future computing ideas over their summer break.

In demonstrations Mr Duran typed out a complicated mathematical formula and the chemical equation for photosynthesis.

But it also offers a solution for more basic problems.

"Imagine being blind in the classroom, how would you take notes? What if you were on the street and needed to copy down a phone number? These are real challenges the blind grapple with every day," said Prof Lew.

There are some obvious benefits to using touchscreen technology over traditional Braille writers.

"Current physical note takers are big and clunky and range from $3,000 (£2,000) to $6,000 (£4,000). Tablet PCs are available at a fraction of the cost and do so much more," said Mr Dharmaraja.

Promising development
As part of the project, the students had to learn Braille. The system, originally developed for the French military, is made up of six dots arranged in various patterns. They are read by people's fingertips.

But the system can seem outdated in a modern era where touchscreens are ubiquitous.

Accessible touch screen devices such as the iPad offer a huge range of possibilities for developers and for blind and partially sighted people," said Robin Spinks, the Royal National Institute for Blind People's manager of digital accessibility.

"This prototype Braille keyboard for touch screen devices represents a very promising development, and RNIB look forward to being able to test it with our members in the future," he added.

It may be some while until the Stanford project is turned into a commercial reality but the team are determined.

"Who knows what we will get because of this device. It is opening a door that wasn't open before," said Mr Dharmaraja.

Windows 8 Uses Less RAM Than Windows 7

Back in the day, nearly 2 years ago, Windows 7 was being praised for having such low system requirements. It was able to run on machines without any problems that couldn’t run Windows Vista, and it brought life back into older systems with low specs. We didn’t think that Windows could be any more memory efficient, but now it looks like Windows 8 is even more efficient again.

Early tests with the developer preview edition Windows 8 show that it uses a lot less memory than Windows 7. Microsoft demonstrated Windows 8 and Windows 7 SP1 on a low powered netbook with just 1GB of RAM. The results? Well Windows 7 used 404 MB of memory, while Windows 8 used just 281 MB, CPU usage was 5% and 1% respectively.

Microsoft really have been working hard to improve memory usage in Windows 8. They’ve employed a rake of new intelligent features for managing memory. You can read more about it all over at Windows 8 News

Webcam set on Everest to help study climate changes

A webcam has been installed at the world's highest point to get live view of Mt. Everest to study more accurately the effects of climate change on the tallest peak.

The scientists have installed the webcam at Kalapatthar, near the base camp of Mt. Everest, at an altitude of 5,675 metres to study the effects of climate change more accurately.

The solar powered camera installed by the scientists will withstand temperatures as low as minus 30°C and operate during the daytime.

Now the image and data of the 8,848 metres peak can accessed directly through Internet.

The German surveillance firm Mobotix, the pioneer in network camera technology, developed device has been installed at an altitude more than 1-km higher than the earlier record for a high-altitude webcam set by a 4,389 metres altitude camera on the Mount Aconcagua in Argentina.

"We spent months developing the perfect set-up for the installation and invested a lot of time testing and verifying the system," said Giampietro Kohl of Ev-K2-CNR, the mountain research group, that installed the camera.

"It inspired us on to set a record: operating the highest webcam in the world," he pointed out.

The image taken by the camera is updated every five minutes. The camera also allows climatologists to track the movement of the clouds around the mountain's peak.

"Researchers selected Kala Patthar as the camera location because it offers an excellent view of the western side of Mount Everest, including the north and southwest faces of the mountain and the West Ridge," Mobotix spokesperson said in a statement.

SlimDrivers for Windows

Windows functionality and stability depends a lot on the software drivers that integrate the hardware components with the operating system. Manufacturers release updated drivers for their components on a regular basis, however it is not easy to keep a track of them. SlimDrivers takes care of this tedious task for you.

The application first scans your computer's hardware and then checks online for available updated drivers. If updated drivers are available, it asks you to select which ones you want and then downloads the setup files.

The application can also backup all existing drivers on your system to an external drive - for easy re-installation and rollback in case the system crashes. You can schedule the app to download updates on a specific day and time as per your convenience.

What Steve Jobs did in India 35 years ago

Today, India woke up to a world without Steve Jobs. His company, Apple, has sometimes treated its India customers with disdain, launching products here months after the international release. Yet, India mourns with the rest of the world. But the truth is that Steve Jobs had a short lived fling with our country in the '70s, before he founded Apple, and like many flings it was a bitter experience.

Then an employee of video game company Atari, the young Jobs came to India with his friend Dan Kottke. Just when they were here and how long they stayed is a matter of some speculation. What is certain is that Jobs and Kottke were here between 1974 and 1976, and spent between one and three months travelling around North India. He was mystified by eastern philosophies; he was on a quest for higher learning, to solve the unanswered questions of science.

According to unofficial Steve Jobs autobiography iCon, Kottke states "He was totally determined to go to India". Kottke goes on to say, "He felt some kind of unresolved pain over being adopted. That was the same period that he hired a private investigator to try and track down his mother. He was obsessed with it for a while."

In New Delhi, Steve chose to don a lungi and roam around barefoot.In the flower child fashion of the era, he embraced Indian culture. Or thought he had. But India, he discovered, came bundled with beggars on the streets and the reality of poverty, far removed from the hippy-ish existence Jobs had led till then.

There was worse in store for him. He met a holy man in Kainchi near Nainital, who shaved his head on a mountaintop and claimed to know the whereabouts the elusive and much sought Neem Karoli Baba. Many versions of this story exist. In one such,this man turned out to be a fraud, and when Jobs' finally made it to the Baba's ashram he was found to have had passed away. Jobs later said "We weren't going to find a place where we could go for a month to be enlightened. It was one of the first times that I started to realize that maybe Thomas Edison did a lot more to improve the world than Karl Marx and Neem Karoli Baba put together."

By now Jobs' spiritual quest lay in tatters as did his notions of the world. To his emotional turmoil was added a measure of physical discomfort. Both Jobs and Kottke were struck down with diarrhea and fatigue in the unforgiving Indian summer. Kottke describes this time: "Out there in the dry creek bed, in the middle of India, completely disoriented, all our rhythms and beliefs shattered, where we were sure a flash flood would come through any moment, the two of us praying to any god that could here us; Dear God, if I ever get through this, ill be a good person, I promise."

Finally, Kottke's traveller's cheques were stolen and the companions had to cancel a planned trip to the cooler climes of Manali.

India both traumatised Steve Jobs and changed his life. He returned to Atari a Buddhist, and a more focused and hardened individual. Did he find in India the steel that was to allow him to survive an ouster from the company he founded and then to return and rise to unexpected heights?

After returning to Atari, Jobs' rekindled his friendship with high school mate Steve Wozniak who was working at Hewlett-Packard then. Together, the two Steves launched a startup called Apple Computer from Jobs' garage in Palo Alto, California.

It's hard to say if India's less than favoured status with Apple can be attributed to Steve Jobs' early experience with the country. But it is definitely true that it was then that the foundations were laid for the titanic, perfection-obsessed, often ruthless personality he was to become later.

Steve Jobs helped me in my fight: Anna

Anna Hazare, who followed the crucial debate on Lokpal in Parliament on his iPad during his fast, has paid rich tributes to the gadget's creator Steve Jobs, saying his innovations have helped him in his fight for Jan Lokpal Bill.

"Steve Jobs will always be remembered for his unparallelled contribution to the world of technology. The news of his death is saddening," Hazare said in his latest blog posting.

Jobs, the co-founder of Apple which developed the iPad, died in New York on October 6 after fighting pancreatic cancer for years.

Hazare remembered Jobs as one of those who "sculpted the history of technology by bringing about a revolutionary change" that brought the world together.

"He enabled a line of direct inter-personal communication between people staying in different places at different levels. His contribution will be remembered forever. Jobs used his imagination and futuristic viewpoint as he worked on his research hence his revolutionary thoughts will always hold an important place in modern history," he said.

Acknowledging that technology has been helpful in organising people to fight against injustice and corruption, he said Jobs' innovations have brought about a revolutionary change.

"I have personally experienced this during my fight for Jan Lokpal Bill. Without any doubt, we will need it at every step of our life," he said.

"Though he is not present physically, his work has immortalised him forever. Here, I will quote Samarth Ramdas, a saint from Maharashtra, marave pari kirti rupi uraave (When a person is no more, he should be remembered for his work)," he said.

Hazare had on August 27, the 12th day of his fast in Ramlila Maidan demanding a strong Lokpal Bill, followed the crucial debate in Parliament over Lokpal Bill on his iPad.

"Bahut achaa hai (it is very good)," the 74-year-old Gandhian had then remarked as he watched the proceedings in his makeshift room at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi.

Japan quake: Fukushima children receive thyroid tests

Japanese health workers have begun checking more than 300,000 children living near the Fukushima nuclear plant for thyroid abnormalities.

Parents have expressed concern about a link between thyroid abnormalities and radiation, citing reports of a rise after Chernobyl in 1986.

The Fukushima plant was crippled by the earthquake and tsunami in March which killed 20,000 people.

Concerns remain high over the possible effects of any lingering contamination.

The tests began after an unofficial survey which found that 10 out of 130 children evacuated from Fukushima had hormonal and other irregularities in the thyroid glands, according to AFP news agency.

But those who conducted the survey said they could not establish a link between the irregularities and Japan's nuclear crisis.

Chernobyl
Health officials hope to test some 360,000 people who were under 18 years old when the nuclear crisis began in March, and provide regular follow-up tests.

More than 100 children, whose thyroid glands are more susceptible to radioactive iodine than adults, were checked on Sunday.

Their results will not be made public, but they will receive treatment for any abnormalities.

Japanese authorities say there should be no risk to children if they keep out of the 20km evacuation area.

But residents remain worried, drawing parallels to Chernobyl disaster in 1986, which appears to show a link between thyroid cancer and radiation.

More than 6,000 cases of thyroid cancer have been detected in people who were children or adolescents when exposed to the radioactive fallout after Chernobyl.

Japan's government says the recovery and decontamination effort could take years.

Cyber attack tests for Olympic Games computer systems

Simulated cyber attacks will be carried out on the computer systems running London's 2012 Olympic Games.

A series of worst-case scenarios are to be played out in March and May, just months ahead of the Games' opening.

They include a massive denial of service attack on the official website, and a virus getting onto organisers' computers.

Despite the extensive planning, Olympic bosses say they are unaware of any specific threat.

The computer networks used to record scores and feed information to the public and media have been in development for years.

A control centre, where operations will be co-ordinated from, was opened on Monday in Canary Wharf.

Its permanent staff of 180 workers are already doing dry runs of sporting events, as they try to identify and fix problems.

But one of the biggest fears around the Olympics is not a crashed server or power outage, but a deliberate attack by cyber criminals.

During the period of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China was subject to about 12 million online attacks per day.

The UK has learned lessons from its predecessor, said Gerry Pennell, chief information officer for London 2012.

"The approach of the website is a distributed one. That minimises the DDoS attack route," he explained.

"Another key principle is to keep mission-critical games systems quite isolated from anything web-facing. So very much partitioned and separated, thus making it hard for an external attack to succeed."

Security testing on the system will be carried out in a specially isolated version of the Olympic network, using an in-house team of pretend hackers.

"We simulate past competitions and we have a shadow team of about 100 people coming and creating problems - injecting viruses, disconnecting PC servers," said Patrick Adiba from Atos, the company managing the games' IT systems.

"We are using a simulation system so it doesn't really matter if we corrupt the data. We simulate the effect and see how people react."

Mr Adiba said that his company was constantly looking for information on potential threats to the Olympic Games.

"We have our own system within Atos to see the evolution of cyber crimes, and we have contact with relevant authorities to share knowledge and information about what may happen."

Emerging threat
Since the last Olympic Games, the nature and scope of cyber threats has changed substantially.

A series of hacks and website takedowns - orchestrated by Anonymous and LulzSec - has hit organisations including Sony, HB Gary, and the UK and US governments.

More complex attacks, such as the Stuxnet worm, which targeted Iran's nuclear industry, highlighted the sophistication of politically motivated hackers.

Such threats have been taken into account by designers working on the Olympic systems, according to Gerry Pennell.

"Our architecture was largely decided before [those things] happened," said Mr Pennell.

"Having said that, [those sort of attack] were well understood before those very high-profile incidents."

In April, former Home Secretary David Blunkett warned that the Olympics could be hit by "devastating" cyber attacks if more was not done to boost the country's IT defences.

Since becoming prime minister, David Cameron has repeatedly stressed his commitment to protecting the country from cyber attacks.

The UK is due to host a global summit to discuss the problem, beginning 1 November.

Napster founders return with Airtime start-up

The two founders of the original Napster music-sharing service are teaming up for another start-up.

Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker have teamed up again to raise money to get a venture called Airtime off the ground.

The pair first got to know each other while creating and running peer-to-peer music pioneer Napster.

Details are scant but Airtime is reported to be a random video-chatting service akin to Chatroulette but that has a social network attached.

The pair have raised $8m (£5m) to get the service started. Investors include movie star Ashton Kutcher, Justin Bieber's agent Scott Braun and musician will.i.am. Airtime is expected to launch by the end of 2011.

Speaking to the TechCrunch news site, Mr Parker said Airtime was being built to capitalise on what has happened in the past 10 years in social networks and media.

Airtime would try to help people escape the "rigid and constraining" structure of the social networks they create on sites such as Facebook.

This is thought to be a reference to the random element of Airtime which is expected to draw on people's interests to introduce them to others who share the same passions but that they do not yet know.

Mr Fanning said the service should be "a universal host, that is introducing people, smashing people together".

As with Chatroulette, users are expected to interact via webcam.

Since their involvement in Napster ended, both Mr Fanning and Mr Parker have been involved in a series of hi-tech start ups. So far, Mr Parker has enjoyed the greater success by backing firms such as Plaxo and Facebook.

Fresher’s – Guidelines for career growth

Landing in job is not end; it is a beginning which you need to plan your carrier journey. You should not fly that you achieved something in life (although getting job is achievement, treat it as small), your actual life started only when you join the first job. Once you join you still need to continue studying to become better in your job.

Type of job: Do not expect the job to be interesting; most of the time it may not be so. If you are happy with the current type of work you are doing, by knowing your limitations, then focus on learning more in the same area. If you think you have more knowledge compared to the current work, you need to ask for a change in a project. If you don’t get it, just change the company. You need to remember that you should learn more, explore more to contribute to the growth of the company in the future. If you limit yourself by doing a job which doesn’t satisfy your hunger for knowledge, it is sin. Go for a change.

Interact with colleagues: Once you join a company, do not sit in a corner and think that all the people in the company are intelligent. You should interact with people around you and know them. As you interact more with them, you will have the idea how much a person knows about technology. If someone is good in technology, study more and discuss more with them. More you discuss technology with colleagues, more you will learn. Prepare a list of intelligent and dumb people around you and keep better relationship only if they are good at what they are doing.

Do not treat someone as superior: Do not treat any of your colleagues as superior to you. They are playing their role as an experienced person, and you are playing the role as a fresher. After sometime, you will be in that person’s level. Have respect for each person for playing their respective role and learn from each person.

Speak: If you think that just knowing technology will help you to grow, forget it. Once you have knowledge, you should also know how to express it to people. That’s where people will know your value. Anything you do, try to explain to people about what you have done with examples to convince them. Thinking people will respect silence, you are utterly wrong. At the same time, if you speak more than what you know, you will end up in going in wrong path and land in problems.

Have more plans for further learning: Once you join a job, you have to continue studying about technologies based on your interests. If you didn’t have an inclination towards study during college time it is due to bad lecturer, not because you hated subject. To increase your interests, you just need to search like-minded people who like to study similar subjects and team up with them and spend more of your free time in reading and experimenting in computer. Cultivating reading habit is mandatory and it is not choice for anyone. Initially you might find it difficult since you are changing your habit but once you have more people to discuss about the subject you can change the habit to read more. Doesn’t matter in which team you are in; if you want to grow successful, you must study and experiment. If you stop studying and experimentation, prepare for lots of problems in your career life. Identifying that you are stagnant take few years, but it will be too late to correct the mistakes.

Show interests to learn always and don’t be only after money: As a fresher, you must concentrate on increasing your technical skills. If you are just behind money, you cannot earn more than your pocket money. But, as you increase your knowledge and as you contribute to the company’s growth, you are going to get money automatically. Even after doing good work in a company, if you think you are not getting enough money, just ask the boss. If that doesn’t work and if you think you have more capability, you can change the job but don’t be underpaid at any cost. If you are underpaid, you will be always thinking of money and not knowledge and you will also learn to crib (borrow/cheat). Instead ask for money whatever you think it is worth and just concentrate on knowledge further. Goal is to think more about learning not money. Expect money to follow you and you follow the knowledge.

Take initiative: With fresh energy, you have to take more initiatives in learning more about the subject you like and try to build a technical network inside the company, as well as outside the company. This will help in increasing your knowledge and confidence. Do not restrict yourself to be known within the company for your knowledge. If you want to keep yourself updated about the industry, you need to interact with outside people who are in your own domain (interests).

Share knowledge: Whatever you learn, you must have an inclination towards sharing. If you don’t share, never ever expect yourself to learn more in future. You will become another dumb. The More you share, the more your knowledge multiplies. It will help you to understand the topic better. More questions you answer to people, you will have the advantage in knowing the subject better. Take initiative to help others. Don’t wait for your boss to say it to you. If you wait, you are the looser and you will realize this only later.

Designation is not important: Designation is not important, do not value it personally. What kind of role you play in the company is most important. If you have knowledge, you can get any designation you want in the future. The Designation is used just to show off outside the company and this doesn’t add much value to your growth. Avoid show off, unless you are really capable in playing that role. Unfortunately most of the company says, designation is not important but when it comes to showing off power among colleagues, they use it. But, this mind-set doesn’t work for long, it is only temporary. Use your skills as a tool to grow. The desired designation, you can get either in the current company or in the next company.

Don’t worry about politics: People worry about this most of the time as they grow. As long as you have knowledge to do the job, you don’t need to worry. No politics will work against you. Even if it works, it is only temporary. Ultimate win is yours. If you don’t get justice for the work you do due to politics, try to talk to people in the current company OR change the job.

Work for a company not for Manager: Most % of the people leave the job because of bad manager, but they still like company. This happens due to the hidden games played by the manager due to their ignorance. Best option is, “work for the company”. If you think, what you know is best in the interests of company, justify it to your manager and to the people around you and try to implement it. Each and every person in the company is learning including your manager. So try to speak out openly and try to know what he thinks about particular topic. The More feedback you give, the better it is for you, your manager and your company. If nobody gives any feedback to the company, you can assume that company is losing time. After trying several times to convince your manager, if you think nothing is being implemented, change the team if you think there is another manager in the company who is more open or change the company.

Manage your fears: Each and every one who is working has fears about their job. As you get more experience you have to reduce this fear by increasing knowledge (No other way), even if you make more money, fear does not go. Nobody can steal your knowledge, but people can steal your money. Talk fearlessly with people around you, there are no reasons to have fear if you are doing your job properly. If you have more fear even after working for many years either you didn’t acquire knowledge or you mind is lying to you.

Don’t doubt yourself: Verifying yourself what you know is always good. But, you should not blindly doubt yourself. Be confident and try to think carefully what mistakes you have made. If you have really done a mistake, try to correct it or just ignore if it is not a mistake.

Fresher’s – Guidelines to search job

One of the major difficulties for most fresh graduates is that, they will not have much idea about the IT industry and this will create lot of confusion in the mind of candidate.

Think positive: After wasting lot of time in college life without much study, you might start thinking that you are not talented and you might feel that you will not get a job. This is wrong way of thinking without knowing your own potential. You just need to do some homework. You may not get a job instantly but, you will get at least after few months of preparation.

Know your strengths and weaknesses: You need to sit down and assess what technology you know and what you don’t know. This analysis is very much required. Once you have more clarity on this, you can plan further to search the job. Note down everything you know on Paper.

Preparing for interview: After assessing yourself, there might be some technology which you are not familiar with. You need to start studying all the topics you listed and have more discussions with friends and with people who are working in companies. Use more newsgroups, mail lists for all kinds of technical discussions. This will enhance your confidence about technology.

Know your profile: Whatever you mention in your profile (or resume), you must know everything. Spend some time at home to know it, since most of the interviewers will ask questions based on the project(s) you have done. If you think you cannot handle some subject, just remove it from your resume. After preparation of profile, you have to re-read it just to make sure you have expressed everything properly. This profile preparation is most important to get interview calls. Use decent fonts to write it, don’t make it colorful, but ensure that the content is clearly expressed.

Know some subjects: Amongst whatever you studied in college, you have to pick what subjects you like and you need to re-read and try to understand them, so that you can claim that you are good in some subjects during the interview. Try to have more discussion with likeminded people in all these subjects.

Start applying for job: After preparation you have to start applying for job through friends, jobs website, consultants (most of the consultants do not prefer freshers though). Remember, just because some of your friends are applying for a job without preparations doesn’t mean you need to do same. It is not how many calls you get from companies, it is how many interviews you have the capability to pass. Even if you get a few calls, you should aim to pass the interview and not fail. You have to spend more time in preparations (say 75% of your time) and only say, 25% time in job search.

Continue preparation: Once you apply for a job, continue preparations, check mails, talk to friends or people who work in a company in related jobs. Involve more in technical newsgroups and try to answer queries over there, you will learn more. Each and every topic you learn in books, try to discuss with friends to understand it better.

If you fail in an interview: Each time you fail in an interview, think that u need to prepare more and you should continue with the same confidence you had earlier. You need to sit and think what mistakes you did, you also need to discuss what happened with good friends, and they might identify what mistake you did it. Rectify it before the next interview. I have failed lot of interviews. Failure just indicates that you have not learnt enough to get a job; it doesn’t indicate that you will not get a job in your life.

Interact with good people: During the whole process always keep your morale high and keep your positive feelings elevated. If something negative happens during an interview that you cannot take it, speak to experienced people regarding this and they will put more confidence in you. You must search for this kind of people who inspire you during this whole process. Even if they are not known, may be they are far-friends, it doesn’t matter. If they are good, they are going to give good moral support to you. If you don’t get good people to give moral support for you, you must be very strong mentally to get back your confidence as it goes down with time due to circumstances. Have firm faith and Search it, you will get it.

Fear: Do not have any fear while talking in an interview, treat the other person as a friend and make sure you speak whatever you know; Fear is useless and it is false. Once you do the preparation, you just need to speak what you know, if you don’t know, accept it and you can continue. Some experienced people will show up by asking questions about what they know instead of keeping in mind that they are interviewing a fresher. you don’t need to care for that, if you fail in this type of interview, nothing to worry about just think that this person doesn’t know to interview fresher’s and try again in next company.

Search roommates for study: If you are staying in room or house, search for the people who like to study and like to have discussion of technical subjects. If you think your roommates are not studying, best option is to change the room itself. Unless you clear up the mess of the environment, it might disturb you when you want to study repeatedly. If you have a roommate who is mentally weak, again change the room for good. This is most important to keep up your josh. Although you can give a try by bringing them to a certain level by motivating them initially and if that doesn’t work, just move on. Either play a role in changing environment for the better, which is good all of your roommates OR you move out from that environment.

Flight into space is not easy as it appears, says Weber

For a generation which has seen quite a number of satellite launches, entering space may appear simple – boarding a shuttle that moves at speeds that enable the launch vehicle to escape the gravitational pull of the earth and an appropriate health regimen that gives physical fitness to withstand the hardships during the flight.

But, a flight into the space is not that easy as it appears, according to Mary Ellen Weber, an astronaut from the United States. While physical training is one aspect, mental training to impart a thorough knowledge about each and every operating system on the flight for making split second decisions forms an integral part of the preparation.

“Most people don't quite understand how we get into space. The vehicle should travel at speeds several times faster than sound and we need a huge engine to get anything going that fast,” she said. The most risky time during the flight is during its launch when the astronauts manning the shuttle should monitor all the systems shaking and shuddering.

A veteran of two space flights (STS-70 and STS-101), Ms. Weber who was here on Saturday in connection with a programme arranged by the US Consulate General in association with the B.M. Birla Science Centre explained in vivid detail the various aspects involved in space flight. “Once into the space, most of the time is spent on looking out for things that float away due to zero gravity. This can be quite annoying,” she said.

Ms. Weber, a chemical engineer, explained how her passion for skydiving changed her life forever opening eyes for a whole new world of aviation. She advised the young minds to keep their eyes open for different opportunities claiming humanity was at the dawn of travelling from planet to planet an solar system to solar system. “It is going to be an international effort where great minds from different backgrounds will come together to make this dream come true,” she said adding the India could also get international partners in taking up its space programmes.

Recalling her experience in the International Space Station, she said the most breathtaking view from the ISS was of Himalayan Mountains that were still crashing into the Asian plate. “Once you are in space, there are no boundaries or borders. All that you can see is the water and land mass.”

Good Jobs, bad Jobs

An era in technology came to an end on October 5 when Apple founder and former CEO Steve Jobs passed away. His demise caused an outpouring of grief that went beyond tech circles - consumers crowded Apple Stores, politicians uttered platitudes, and fans built shrines and besieged social networks. No one was really surprised by the turnout, both in cyberspace and in the real world. Jobs had, after all, transformed entire product segments, and with it our lives, with his breakthrough innovations. He might not always have been the first one to get a particular idea (heck, portable media players and tablets existed well before the iPod and iPad) but he ensured that Apple's implementation was unmatched, with a sharp focus on design and user experience. However, not everything that Jobs touched turned to gold and changed our world. The man was human and made his share of bloopers. Fortunately for both him and Apple, he learnt from them too. Nimish Dubey takes a look at some of his products that were thundering successes and a few that were drop-dead duds.

Hit | Apple II (1977) Computers were supposed to be big, unmanageable and strictly geek territory. That changed with the Apple II as it packed in a monitor, a display, and a couple of disk drives. More importantly, it seemed as much at home in a household as in a high-tech laboratory. And it did not cost a bomb either. Easy to use and easy on the eye, this is considered by many people to have been the first mainstream personal computer, and the first step towards making a computer a part of our homes. Impact | The computer was yanked out of labs and brought into our rooms.

Miss | Apple III (1980) Far from replicating the success of the legendary Apple II, the Apple III is still considered to be one of the biggest engineering disasters of its era. Bugs and engineering defects undermined the computer, and the fact that one had to pick it up and drop it to settle the chips on it still makes people laugh.

Hit | Macintosh (1984) First publicised through a Ridley Scott "1984" commercial that many consider to be one of the greatest ever, the Macintosh poked fun at IBM and stunned users with a graphical user interface and a mouse. Working on a computer suddenly became a whole lot easier. And thanks to pre-installed applications like MacWrite and MacPaint, a whole lot of fun as well. Of course, it looked funky as hell -you could actually carry it around in a bag. Impact | Made the mouse and graphic user interface a part of computing.

Miss | Lisa (1983) Although Jobs is believed to have been moved out of the Lisa team in 1982, there are many who feel he was an important influence on the computer. Yes, it had great specs for its time and a graphical user interface, but at almost $10,000, it did not find many takers.

Hit | iMac (1998) When Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, the company had been written off as a hasbeen with a golden past and a bankrupt future. It needed a magical device. Jobs' answer was the iMac - a computer that blended the monitor with the CPU in one unit. It killed off the tangle of wires that were the trademark of desktop computers, and in best Apple tradition, it came in some incredibly classy colours. Critics complained about the specs and price, but users lined up to buy it as all they needed to do was plug one cable into the power socket to get it going. Impact | Paved the way for the all-in-ones that we see in the market today; spelt doom for bulky CPU towers.

Miss | Puck Mouse (1998) Jobs had a penchant for computer accessories that looked very different from the competition, as can be seen from the recent Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad. However, the ice hockey puck shaped Puck Mouse that accompanied the iMac was not just oddly shaped but difficult to use. Its translucent body was beautiful but its penchant to roll oddly sent it to an early grave.

Hit | iPod (2001) Portable media players that could store and play music off small hard drives had existed before 2001, but Apple's iPod made them uber cool. The iPod was pint sized and yet could store hundreds of songs. It had excellent battery life and, significantly, looked so much cooler than many of the portable music options in the market - not least because of the snow white e a r bu d s which accompanied it. Control was simple - you just had one button to press and a scroll wheel was u s e d t o ch a n g e tracks and volume. Critics said it had no chance against the Walkman and Diskman, and users would not waste time transferring music to computers and then to a device. Oh, how wrong they were. The iPod now supports video and images, too, but it will always be known as the player that made music really portable.

Impact | Gave birth to the portable music player, which put thousands of songs in your pocket. Killed portable cassette and CD players.

Miss | Power Mac G4 Cube (2000) Has a computer ever looked more beautiful? The Power Mac G4 Cube was 8 inches in all dimensions, and was suspended in an acrylic enclosure. It packed in a decent processor, an optical drive, transparent speakers and just needed to be hooked to a display to get going. It was beautiful enough for the New York Museum of Modern Art to display, but consumers were not too impressed by the $1,799 price tag and the cracks that appeared in some of the outer casings.

Hit | iPhone (2007) Rumour had been rife that Apple would be coming out with a phone of its own after burning its fingers badly with the original ROKR. And it did just that with a total touchscreen device in 2007. The specs were not great but the experience was - you could zoom in and out by just pinching your fingers on the surface, boring menus were replaced with snazzy icons, and Web browsing was awesome. The competition sneered and then watched in disbelief as users picked it up for its looks and ease of use. And when it got an App Store a year later, a phenomenon had been bor n. Touchscreens were mainstream. Impact | Made touchscreen phones easier to use and made the touchscreen interface popular. More or less buried styluses in smaller devices.

Miss | Motorola ROKR (2005) This collaboration between Apple and Motorola was supposed to be the ultimate music phone. It turned out to be startlingly disappointing in terms of design, especially coming from two companies that were known for sleek gadgetry. It wasn't much fun to use either and was rejected by the market. The silver lining: Apple decided to go it alone in phones and gave the world the iPhone.

The Big Hit iPad (2010) The last ubergadget from Steve Jobs, the iPad built on the platfor m of the iPhone and the iPod touch, bringing the same smooth and intuitive interface to a larger display. Jobs called it the "third screen" which would fit somewhere between notebooks and desktops. Being easy to carry, it made accessing the Internet on the move a much more wholesome experience. Of course, the App Stores' wide variety of apps made it possible for one to do just about everything possible - from video editing to word processing to playing games and films - on it. A number of techies called it a gadget that was impractical and had no real value. And went ahead and bought one. Tablets had finally arrived - even the Indian government thought them the ideal means to popularise computing.

Impact | Made tablets a popular platform for accessing information and entertainment on the move. Perhaps tolled the bell for the demise of netbooks.

Meanwhile, the other gadgets that became chartbusters...

Nintendo Wii (2006) Gaming was supposed to be the job of hardcore gamers clustered in dark rooms around massive computers and consoles. Nintendo yanked it right into the living room with its Wii gaming console where users could control characters by waving their arms, rather than hitting buttons. A new, more accessible era in gaming had arrived - one that Microsoft would take to the next level with its Xbox 360 Kinect.

Amazon Kindle (2007) For all the benefits of digitial devices, most people preferred doing their "serious reading" on paper. Until Amazon upset the applecart with its Kindle e-book. A device that had very few takers initially as the number of e-books available were limited and those that existed, were expensive. However, as their number grew, so did the sales, and today more e-books are downloaded from Amazon than paper ones sold.

Oracle not eyeing acquisitions in cloud space

Oracle Corp, the world's second- largest software maker, aims to eschew big acquisitions and promote growth from within, relying on hardware sales and a new cloud-computing service to broaden use of its products.

After gobbling up more than 70 companies in a $40 billion buying spree, any additional large deals would have to clear an "enormous hurdle," Oracle co-President Safra Catz said yesterday at a meeting with analysts in San Francisco.

The company instead will focus on what it already has, including the Sun Microsystems server business it purchased last year for $7.4 billion. Oracle is packaging its database and business applications into customized computers to entice customers. The company also is touting its new Fusion business applications and a service called the Oracle Public Cloud, which delivers software online via cloud computing.

"People realize M&A is a big part of the Oracle growth story -- on the other hand, no one wants to see a big, dilutive acquisition," said Bill Whyman, an analyst who covers the technology industry at ISI Group Inc.

Large deals would create distractions for management, Oracle co-President Mark Hurd said at yesterday's event. The company will focus on "organic" growth from existing products during the current fiscal year, he said.

Strong year

"We think we're going to have a really strong year," said Hurd, who joined Oracle in 2010 after serving as Hewlett-Packard Co's chief executive officer.

Oracle, based in Redwood City, California, embarked on its run of acquisitions in 2005 when it bought the human-resources software maker PeopleSoft Inc. The company has relied on deals to boost sales to $35.6 billion in the fiscal year ended in May. This year, revenue is projected to rise 8 per cent to $38.6 billion, according to analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

The company combined the features it acquired from PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and Siebel Systems into the Fusion apps, which Oracle made available this week at its OpenWorld conference, following six years of development. Fusion software handles business tasks such as sales, human resources, finance and inventory management.

Customers will be able to run the more than 100 Fusion applications on their own computers or in Oracle's data centers, through the Oracle Public Cloud. The cloud service will be available within weeks, the company said.

Social network

Users can navigate the Fusion programs through the Oracle Social Network, which spotlights tasks that need completing and lets people share documents, CEO Larry Ellison said earlier this week during a demonstration of the software. The approach mimics some of the features of Salesforce.com Inc's Chatter, a social- networking service for businesses.

A feud between Oracle and Salesforce escalated this week after Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was scrubbed from a scheduled appearance at the OpenWorld show. Benioff said it was because he criticized Ellison for selling expensive computers instead of just promoting online services.

"I pissed Larry off so badly that he canceled my keynote," Benioff said at a press conference this week.

Oracle, which ranks second to Microsoft Corp in worldwide software sales, has seen its stock climb 9 per cent over the past 12 months. The shares fell 10 cents to $29.91 today on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Oracle also is introducing new hardware that it developed with Sun technology. Earlier this week, the company unveiled two computer systems, one with faster data-analysis capabilities and another for organizing information from the Web, as it aims to win market share from Hewlett-Packard, International Business Machines Corp and SAP AG.

No confusion

Shifting into the cloud helps Oracle keep pace with those rivals, which are delivering more software via the Internet. It also steps up Oracle's competition with cloud pioneers, including Salesforce.

"This is a really clear sign that they're in the cloud now -- there's no confusion," said Brent Thill, an analyst at UBS AG in San Francisco. He recommends buying Oracle's shares. While the company already had the technical capability to run applications and databases in its data centers, it hasn't delivered that message to customers until now, Thill said.

"They needed to close more of a marketing gap than a functionality gap," Thill said.

Fusion apps mainly compete with software from Salesforce and SAP. Customers will be able to visit an Oracle website and sign up to run their apps and database software as an online service through a browser. Oracle plans to keep companies' data separate from others' information to bolster security.

The shift to a cloud-based subscription model won't hurt profits or rankle buyers, Oracle said.

The cloud service is built on industry-standard technology that customers understand, Ellison said this week at OpenWorld. He didn't speak at yesterday's analyst meeting, following the death of Steve Jobs, a personal friend.

"Just because you go to the cloud doesn't mean you forget everything you learned about information technology over the last 20 years," Ellison said.

iPods get no revamp, only price cuts

Along with the iPhone 4S launch, Apple also made another significant announcement which got buried in the hype and hoopla about what was new in the latest iPhone.

It was the shakeup in the iPod category. First of all, the iPod touch and iPod nano have been made a tad affordable, and more featured added to lure new buyers.

iPod touch will be available in new black and white models starting at Rs 13,500 including VAT. Why should one prefer it over the still available iPhone 3GS (priced at about Rs 19,000)?

Sure it can't make calls, but new iPod touch will have the new iOS 5 and iCloud services, besides Retina display and better camera which got added during last makeover.

The new iPod nano will now be available starting at Rs 8,900 including VAT, which still does seem high for what it offers. The new features include a redesigned user interface, 16 new digital clock faces and improved built-in fitness features, but still not enough to justify the lowered price tag.

The new iPod touch will also support iMessage as part of iOS 5 which will bring the hugely missed functionality of iPhone messaging to iPod touch. So a user can send text messages, photos, videos and contact information to another iMessage user or group on other iOS 5 devices, using WiFi. It also allows you to maintain one conversation across all your iOS devices-for free-with notifications, read receipts and typing indication.

Game Center enhancements include the ability to add photos to your profile, purchase new games from within the Game Center app, and even easier ways to find friends and new games.

iPod touch also supports iCloud, including iTunes in the Cloud, Photo Stream and Documents in the Cloud, that work seamlessly across iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content and push it to your devices. When content changes on one device, all your other devices are updated automatically and wirelessly.

iPod nano now features larger icons for even easier navigation of its Multi-Touch user interface. The 16 new digital clock faces range from classic analog looks to your favorite Disney characters including Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse.

The best news: iPod nano can now track your runs and walks right out of the box with no accessory required, making it even easier to get your fitness programme up and running. iPod nano can track the time, pace and distance of your run, the calories you burn, and the number of steps you walk.

"iPod nano even encourages the user with motivational real-time voice feedback during your run, available in seven languages, while listening to your favorite music or FM radio station. You can also easily upload workouts to the Nike+ website to set goals, track your progress and challenge friends," claimed Apple.

iPod nano will be available in seven colours, including silver, graphite, blue, green, orange, pink and red.

The lowest, iPod shuffle is available for Rs 3,200 including VAT whereas iPod classic in a 160GB model will still sell for Rs 15,200 including VAT.

Moving on, minus its genius

Heard of Apple TV? A lot of people have not. That is because even though Steven Jobs helped upend so many businesses with a string of groundbreaking products in music, mobile phones, games and tablet computers, he barely made a dent in television.

Under Jobs, Apple dipped its toe only slightly into the television business with Apple TV, a set-top box for accessing Internet video. That product has been one of the rare disappointments in its lineup, especially when compared with smashes like the iPhone and iPad. But many in the tech industry contend that television is ripe for technological makeover , and that the next big challenge for Apple, after the death of Jobs, is likely to be in that area . "It's the big area they haven't colonized," said James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research.

"It's the thing we spend more of our time on than sleep." In the meantime, companies like Microsoft have started to take a stronger leadership role in helping to push the technology of television forward, as Apple did in areas like music and mobile phones. TV is such a tantalizing target in part because people spend so many hours watching it, but also because the industry over all has been slow to innovate except perhaps in making screens larger.

In particular, the consuming public is still waiting for television content - everything that people watch - to be delivered over the Internet in a convenient, affordable package on all the devices people are now using. One big reason for Apple's failure to gain traction in television is that Apple TV has not had a compelling source of TV and movie content that allows the product to stand out. Although its iTunes store is stocked with many popular shows like "Glee" and "Sons of Anarchy," network and movie studio executives have hesitated to make all of their content widely available at attractive prices, in large part over concerns about angering cable companies , a big source of their revenue , and their pipeline into living rooms.

Microsoft's Skype acquisition gets EU nod

Microsoft secured EU approval to purchase internet voice and video service Skype for $8.5 billion, its biggest ever acquisition.

The European Commission said that its investigation of the takeover showed that the firms' activities mainly overlapped for video communications, where Microsoft is active through its Windows Live Messenger.

"However, the Commission considers that there are no competition concerns in this growing market where numerous players, including Google, are present," it said in a statement.

The deal is expected to lead to new customers for Microsoft's Windows and Office software.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission cleared the deal in June.

Vestiges of historical Dubai

The Dubai that graces guidebook covers is easy to find. From its skyscraping towers to its bustling malls, the city can feel like a westernized, futuristic introduction to the Middle East. European imports pop up as plentifully as construction cranes, and 80% of the population is comprised of expatriates from more than 150 nations. But as the city focuses on sustaining growth, it has made preserving its historical sites a priority. Vestiges of pre-1970s Dubai, then an unassuming port of call famous for its pearls, can still be found, hidden amid the modern towers and flashing lights. This juxtaposition of the ancient and hyper-new creates a window into how modern Dubai has taken shape and provides an opportunity to learn about Arabic cultures in one of the region’s most open environments.
Related article: Beyond the boardroom in Dubai
Bastakiya, an old-city neighbourhood on the west side of the creek that divides the city into Diera on the east and Bur Dubai on the west, paints a picturesque if somewhat sterile snapshot of Dubai's past. Originally home to Iranian merchants in the late 19th Century, much of the neighbourhood was razed in the 1980s to make space for a new office complex for the emirate's ruler at the time. Bastakiya gained status as a heritage site in 1988, preventing a second wave of demolition, and since then the city has focused on restoring the neighbourhood, both physically and culturally. Few people live in Bastakiya today, but nearby souks (markets) spark foot traffic that enlivens the labyrinth of alley ways.
The Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding is one of the last places in the city that serves traditional Emirati meals. Luqaimat pastries with date syrup, sweet khobs khameer flatbread with fennel seed and saffron, and strong, cardamom- and cinnamon-scented Arabic coffee preface morning discussions of Emirati culture, every Monday and Wednesday at 10 am.
For visitors, many of whom come to Dubai for work, it would be easy to stick to familiar stores, familiar foods or familiar languages. The Mohammed centre, which also offers Arabic classes, promotes the heritage that makes Dubai unique. The morning question-and-answer sessions have a "freedom to ask" policy, administrator Amy Smith said. "The topics of discussion are set by our guests and can range from arranged marriages to UAE national dress to religion and everything in between."
Bastakiya's art and architecture provide another window into Dubai's past. Wind towers, an iconic architectural feature of the neighbourhood's oldest homes, populate the roofline. To learn first-hand how these towers cool indoor spaces, duck into the Majlis Gallery, a 70-year-old home-turned-exhibition space whose wind tower, barasti ceiling made of panels of palm fronds, teak doors, shuttered windows and serene central courtyard have been carefully restored.
Majlis means "meeting place" or "common ground" in Arabic, and artists often linger in the gallery's intimate exhibit rooms to discuss their work, like watercolours and glass sculpture evocative of life in the desert.
"I didn't set out with this in mind," said Alison Collins, the gallery's co-partner and an expat who worked to save it from demolition in the 1980s. "It just grew from an innate love of the way of life the area offers, the excitement of being part of such a dynamic city at the same time as giving life to the past."
The nearby textile souks retain the flavor of the spice and gold stalls in Diera across the creek, but are less crowded, especially in the morning. Vendors here sell handmade rugs, clothing and glittering embroidered slippers.
For lunch overlooking the water, head to the Bur Dubai abra (water taxi stop) where the Arabic restaurant Bayt Al Wakeel has served mint tea and falafel since 1935. The outdoor cafe hugs the creekside with a look of slight disrepair that lends it authenticity. Visitors can have lunch while watching boats criss-cross the creek as they have done for hundreds of years.
Contemporary Dubai is all of these things: wind towers and opulent hotels, cars James Bond would envy and courtyards for unhurried conversation. As the city embraces its importance as a trade centre, it is taking steps to preserve its Arabic traditions. Wherever travellers look, they are sure to see evidence of both.