Blind People Can Read SMS: Courtesy Nokia

Nokia's new Braille Reader application allows blind and visually impaired people to read a discreet SMS using phone vibration. 

Nokia has introduced an interesting piece of software, called Nokia Braille Reader. The new application allows blind people to read a discreet SMS using phone vibration. The Nokia Braille Reader application gives SMS for the blind and visually impaired and captures received SMS messages and brings them to the foreground for reading using Braille and tactile feedback. Developed at Nokia Beta Labs, the application has been developed in a joint project between Nokia, Tampere University and the Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired.


The Nokia Braille Reader application is an application developed specially for blind people using Nokia mobile phones. The application uses Braille and also a tactile feedback to enable blind people to read SMS messages. Each text message is fed into the application and the characters are converted into braille. Then each character is read out to the user using the vibrating facility of the phone. As braille is a series of raised dots each character can be communicated by changing the vibration to depict raised or not with a whole sequence allowing the user to figure out which character it is, explains Geek.com.

The Nokia Braille Reader application is absolutely free to download and use and is compatible with Nokia devices based on S60 5th Edition, including Nokia N97, 5800 XpressMusic and the newly released N97 mini, 5530, 5230 and X6.

Download the Nokia Braille Reader - http://betalabs.nokia.com/apps/nokia-braille-reader. 

Mobile Users Can Switch Operators From 31 Dec: TRAI

The Mobile Number Portability, which allows subscribers to retain their mobile telephone number while discarding one service provider for another, shall be implemented from 31 December 2009 in metros and category 'A' service areas and by 20 March 2010 in rest of the country.

 The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has announced that Mobile Number Portability (MNP), which allows subscribers to retain their mobile telephone number while discarding one service provider for another, shall be implemented from 31 December 2009 in metros and category 'A' service areas and by 20 March 2010 in rest of the country. MNP facility shall be available only within a given licenced service area.

According to the TRAI notification, a subscriber holding a mobile number is eligible to make a porting request only after 90 days of the date of activation of his mobile connection. If a number is already ported once, the number can again be ported only after 90 days from the date of the previous porting. The subscriber who wishes to port his mobile number should approach the Recipient operator (the operator to whom the subscriber wants to port his number). The subscriber may be required to pay porting charges, if any, to the Recipient Operator.

The subscriber making the porting request is required to have cleared all the bills issued prior to the date of porting request. He shall give an undertaking that he has already paid all billed dues to the 'Donor Operator' as on the date of the request for porting and that he shall pay dues to the Donor Operator pertaining to the mobile number till its eventual porting and that he understands and agrees that in event of non-payment of any such dues to the Donor Operator, the ported mobile number shall be liable to be disconnected by the Recipient Operator.

A subscriber may withdraw his porting request within 24 hours of its submission to the Recipient Operator. However, the porting charges shall not be refundable.

The regulation envisage a maximum time period of four days for the completion of porting process in all licenced service areas except in the case of J&K, Assam and North East licenced service areas where the maximum time allowed is 12 days. However, efforts will be made to further reduce the porting period. Access providers are required to implement 'All Call Query' method. The originating operator shall be responsible to route the call to correct terminating network.

Chandrayaan-1 Not A Failure, Finds Water On Moon!

India's first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 has reportedly found evidence of large quantities of water on the lunar surface, before the project was terminated by ISRO.

 India's first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 was not a failure indeed. Despite of premature end, Chandrayaan-1 has reportedly found water on the lunar surface -- one of the main mission of the spacecraft. According to The Times newspaper, India's first lunar mission has found evidence of large quantities of water on its surface, before the project was called off.


"It's very satisfying," the newspaper quoted Mylswamy Annadurai, the mission's project director at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bengaluru, as saying.

This discovery is credited to the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), an imaging spectrometer, was one of the 11 instruments on board Chandrayaan-I. M3 was aimed at providing the first mineral map of the entire lunar surface.

Both ISRO and NASA, as of now, have refused to reveal anything on this. A spokesman for Brown University had also declined to comment, saying there was an embargo. "It will be a major announcement of a major discovery and is something great for Chandrayaan. It will mark a major leap for India's space programme," he told The Times Of India.

Lunar scientists have for decades contended with the possibility of water repositories. They are now increasingly confident that the decades-long debate is over, says a recent report published by Nature News. "The moon, in fact, has water in all sorts of places; not just locked up in minerals, but scattered throughout the broken-up surface, and, potentially, in blocks or sheets of ice at depth." The results from the NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter are also "offering a wide array of watery signals."

The breakthrough is expected to be announced by NASA on 24 September 2009. According to NASA website, "NASA will hold a media briefing at 14:00 p.m EDT on Thursday, September 24, to discuss new science data from the moon collected during national and international space missions."

Chandrayaan-1 was India's first unmanned lunar probe which was launched by ISRO on 22 October 2008. After suffering from several technical issues including failure of the star sensors and poor thermal shielding, Chandrayaan stopped sending radio signals on 29 August 2009 shortly after which, the ISRO officially declared the mission over. Chandrayaan operated for 312 days as opposed to the intended two years but the mission achieved 95 per cent of its planned objectives.

Have a heart: 20-40 age group is at high risk

When it comes to heart diseases, the thirties, it seems, are the new fifties. If the typical heart patient until five years back was in his five years back was in his mid-fifties, doctors say this no longer holds true. Now, the man with blockages in his heart is most probably in the 30-39 age group and with another health complication such as diabetes or hypertension.

The Saffolalife Study 2009, covering 8,469 people, found that 49.1% Indians were at high risk for developing heart diseases. On the eve of World Heart Day, the multi-city survey found that this bunch’s vital heart statistic — the ratio of total cholesterol and good cholesterol (called HDL) — is too high at 4.5 to be termed healthy. The American Heart Association holds the ideal ratio between total cholesterol and HDL is 3.3. The survey also found most men in the 30-39 age group fell in the high risk category.
Men from Mumbai and Chennai were worst off (with a high risk ratio of 49.6% and 53.8% respectively) as compared to men in Kolkata and Delhi (32% and 29.7% respectively). The survey attributed the difference in the risk rates for Mumbai’s men to longer commuting time, long working hours, unhealthy eating habits, lack of physical activity and erratic eating schedules. Others had better lifestyle habits.
According to Dr Shashank Joshi, endocrinologist with Lilavati Hospital in Bandra, who was associated with the survey, “The survey only underlines what we are seeing now — abnormal cholesteral and trigylcerides in the younger age group. In fact, the 20-40 age group is the new vulnerable group as far as heart disease goes.’’ He blames the high levels of stress and disrupted sleep patterns for the development.
Dr N O Bansal, who heads the cardiology department of J J Hospital in Byculla, says, “There is no more denying the fact that as compared to a Caucasian youngster, the Indian youngster is more prone to heart diseases.’’ It is a combination of genetic and lifestyle factors, he says. Stating that the “younger phase’’ of heart diseases was apparent about five years back, he says his department — a referral center for the entire state — gets men under 30 as well.
Cardiologist Dr Manjeet Juneja, who consults at Wockhardt Hospital, Mulund, says heart diseases are happening 15 years too early for most people because of “preventable causes’’. He recalls a 23-year-old brought to the hospital from Nashik. “The boy was tense about admission to an MBA course and smoked a cigarette 30 minutes before collapsing,’’ says Dr Juneja. He was managed with medicines alone.

Stone Cold Steve Austin

          Stone Cold Steve Austin (3:16)

Steve Austin (born Steven Anderson on December 18, 1964, later Steven Williams),better known by his ring name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is an American film and television actor and retired professional wrestler. Austin wrestled for several well-known wrestling promotions such as World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and most famously, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), which later became World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2002. In the late 1990s, Austin gained significant mainstream popularity in the WWF as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, a disrespectful, beer-drinking antihero who routinely defied his boss, Vince McMahon. This defiance was often shown by Austin flipping McMahon off and incapacitating him with the Stone Cold Stunner, his finishing move.

Austin had his first starring film role as Jack Conrad in the 2007 thriller The Condemned. He will next star as "Dan Paine" in "The Expendables" for director/star Sylvester Stallone. Austin recently wrapped production on "Damage," a hard-edged, bare-knuckles fight film that focuses on the tough choices people make in times of recession. The film is the first in a multi-picture deal between Austin, Nasser Entertainment, and Caliber Media. Austin also recently signed a television development deal with Original Media and Caliber Media.
Austin has won the WWF Championship six times, the 1996 King of the Ring, and the 1997, 1998 and 2001 Royal Rumbles, and is the only man in WWE history to win the Royal Rumble three times. He is widely regarded as the biggest star in the history of professional wrestling, and has been described as such by prominent industry figures such as Vince McMahon, Paul Heyman and Ric Flair.

ICC Champions Trophy 2009 Match Schedule

ICC Champions Trophy 2009 Match Schedule

Group A                    Group B


1 Australia                 2 South Africa

4 India                       3 New Zealand

5 Pakistan                  6 Sri Lanka

8 West Indies             7 England


Day Date The Wanderers Centurion

1 Tue 22 Sept SA v SL D/N

2 Wed 23 Sep Pakistan v WI D/N

3 Thu 24 Sept SA v NZ D

4 Fri 25 Sept SL v England D/N

5 Sat 26 Sept WI v Australia D India v Pakistan D/N

6 Sun 27 Sept NZ v SL D SA v England D/N

7 Mon 28 Sept Australia v India D/N

8 Tue 29 Sept England v NZ D/N

9 Wed 30 Sept India v WI D/N Australia v Pakistan D

10 Thu 1 Oct

11 Fri 2 Oct A1 V B2 D/N

12 Sat 3 Oct B1 v A2 D/N

13 Sun 4 Oct

14 Mon 5 Oct Final D/N



Day games start at 0930

Day/Night games start at 1430

'Facebook makes you sharper but Twitter makes you thicker'

Twitter and texting affect memory capacity

Sudoku, games and Facebook 'better for memory'
 
FACEBOOK makes you sharper but Twitter makes you thicker, a psychologist has said.

The social networking site boosts a part of intelligence that is vital to success in life, while tweeting away may have the opposite effect.
Keeping up to date with Facebook may have the same effect as playing video war games and solving Sudoku, said Dr Tracy Alloway of Scotland's University of Stirling.
It hones the ability to remember information and to use it, known as "working memory".
At a job interview, a candidate will use working memory to match answers to questions in the best way.
Dr Alloway has studied working memory and believes it to be far more important to success and happiness than IQ.
Video games that involved planning and strategy, such as those from the Total War series, might also train working memory, Dr Alloway told the UK's Daily Telegraph.
"I'm not saying they're good for your socialisation skills, but they do make you use your working memory," she said.
"You're keeping track of past actions and mapping the actions you're going to take."

Sudoku also stretched the working memory, as did keeping up with friends on Facebook, she said.
But text messaging, micro-blogging on Twitter and watching YouTube were likely to weaken "working memory".
"On Twitter you receive an endless stream of information, but it's also very succinct," Dr Alloway said.
"You don't have to process that information. Your attention span is being reduced and you're not engaging your brain and improving nerve connections."
She said there was evidence linking TV viewing with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, while extensive texting was associated with lower IQ scores.