How To Access Blocked Websites

This article suggests workarounds to help you unblock access to restricted websites at universities, school and offices.

Blocking access to undesirable Web sites has been a common government tactic but China, Iran, Saudi Arabia are believed to extend greater censorship over the net than any other country in the world.

Most of the blocked or blacklisted sites in Saudi Arabia are about sex, religion, women, health, politics and pop culture. They even block access to websites that sell swimming or bathing suits. In China, websites that talk about sex, Tibet or Democracy are blocked.

Social sites that are often blocked include Google News, Typepad, ebay, Blogger blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Bebo, Myspace, Orkut, MySpace, Pandora, Bebo, Photobucket, Yahoo! Messenger, AOL AIM, Flickr, last.fm, etc.

There are always legitimate reasons to bypass the internet filters and unblock websites. The following tricks will show how to access all websites at school, college, offices or at home.

1: To access blocked website, type the IP number instead of the URL in the browser address bar. However, if your blocking software maps the IP address to the web server (reverse DNS lookup), the website will still remain blocked.

2: Use a URL redirection service like tinyurl.com or snipurl.com. These domain forwarding services sometimes work as the address in the the url box remain the redirect url and do not change to the banned site.

3: Enter the URL in Google or Yahoo search and then visit the cached copy of the page. To retrieve the page more quickly from Google’s cache, click “Cached Text Only” while the browser is loading the page from cache.

4: There are anonymizer websites who will fetch the blocked web page from their servers and display them to you. As far as the service provider is concerned, you are viewing the page on the Anonymizer website and not the blocked site.
Example: www.hidemyass.com, www. myblack.com, www.120yearoldman.com etc

5: You can access blocked or restricted websites by using Yahoo Babelfish or Google Translate language tools as a proxy server. But you just have to invoke the Google translate service with the language pair like English to Hindi or English to some other languages.

6: Browse the internet via proxy server software. Example: Your freedom, ultrasurf

Hackers Concentrating On Mobile Phone Security

Cellular phone gadgets, long seen as safe amongst rising dangers to computer protection, have become a key target for online hackers and an increasing worry for business IT divisions. While the first cellular virus goes to May 2004, dangers from online hackers you will find limited because of the relatively small size of industry place.

But this has changed recently with the rise in the mobile cellphone section, which this year outgrew the PC industry, and the new popularity of Google Operating system application. The appearance of cellular payments, which allows customers simply to swipe their mobile phones at a check out, is whetting the interest of online hackers and information crooks.
"Mobile protection has become a major concern since mobile cellphone dealings are now of much higher value, such as business information accessibility, handling financial circumstances and online buys," said Steven Nathasingh, primary of U.S. analysis company Vaxa Inc. Most customers have not protected their smartphones on the market. Less than 5 % of smartphones on the market and pills are installed with protection application, according to Juniper Research.

The analysis company desires to see a rise in demand with the total yearly industry for cellular protection application growing to $3.6 million by 2016. "With more and more cellular mobile phones being hi-jacked without the person's knowledge, the risk of personality fraud and individual financial loss is developing," said Chris Davin, leader of Cryptzone.
A study by consultant Deloitte this weeks time revealed that companies in the engineering, media and telecommunications segment expect information kept on staff cellular mobile phones to be their biggest protection frustration in 2012. "Employees should be advised that using a individual system to accessibility business information may also have individual effects," said Cryptzone's Davin. "For example if it is missing, thieved or clandestinely taken over, the organization may decide to remove information."
In the United States alone, 113 cellular mobile phones are missing every minute, according to analysis company Gartner. For most attacks thieves would need to set up application on a individuals cellphone. But at a hackers' meeting this weeks time Karsten Nohl, a well-known expert on cellular cellphone protection, proven how to get handheld remote control of a cellphone and sent texts and created calls from mobile phones to which he had no accessibility.

Nohl used a weeknesses in the GSM network engineering -- which is used by huge people in about 80 % of the global cellular industry -- which workers can spot in their systems, but which is not done by most providers.

Train-Switching Technological Innovation Creates Huge Hacking Threat

Prof Stefan Katzenbeisser made the state at the Madness Interaction The legislature in Germany.The lecturer said that the programs which swap teaches from one line to another could be turn down if security important factors went down the incorrect path.He distressed that teaches would not be risk, but there could be waiting.Train-switching programs have typically been handled by amazing analogue programs.

At the end of the last millennium, more than 35 incompatible programs were used for train marketing and sales communications across The european union.A number of companies met to deal with this and determined to swap to a single electronic typical to make sure they could resource alternative components and make different companies' programs interoperable.
They designed GSM-Railway (GSM-R), a more protected edition of the 2G wifi typical used by cellular phone devices.It allows visitors remote controls and practice individuals to discuss to each other, and for information to be given documenting the car's rate and place. The control hub then uses the information to give the practice authorization to get into the next part of the monitor, on paper making trackside alerts needless.
The engineering is already being used in components of The european union, African-american and Japan. Program Track is moving it out in the UK and goals to deal with all The united kingdom's rail collections by the end of 2014.

Prof Katzenbeisser considers the computer is relatively protected from online hackers under typical conditions. However, the computer research professional from Technische Universitat Darmstadt alerts that security important factors, used to secure the marketing and sales communications, could position dangers.

"The main problem I see is a process of modifying... important factors. This will be a big concern later on, how to controls these important factors securely," he informed Reuters information organization at the convention.The information organization said the important factors are downloadable to physical press such as USB stays before being allocated for set up.

It said the possibility would happen if one of them dropped into the incorrect palms. This could allow online hackers to support a refusal of service assault by frustrating the alerts system with visitors, driving it to turn down."Trains could not collision, but services could be disturbed for some time," the lecturer said.However, a spokesperson for Program Track performed down the possibility.

How Many Times Did You Search Facebook?==> Its The Most Searched Phrase IN 2011

Facebook was the phrase most regularly explored for by National Online customers this year, according to a review from Experian Hitwise, aspect of the Experian Promotion Team.

In reality, Facebook completely outclassed Experian's top ten collection, displaying up in four different iterations: "Facebook login" was the third most explored for phrase this season. "Facebook.com" was fifth, and "www.facebook.com" came in 9th.

The complete collection looks like this:

1. facebook

2. Youtube

3. facebook or Myspace login

4. craigslist

5. facebook or myspace.com

6. yahoo

7. ebay

8. www.facebook.com

9. mapquest

10. google.com

This is the third season in a row that "facebook" has lead the collection. Queries for that one-word phrase were up 46% this season from 2010. Multiple-term searches such as "facebook" were up 24% from last season.

"Navigational searches completely outclassed the top google look for as customers searched in conditions compared to writing in the URL in the world wide web browser bar," Simon Bradstock, a gm of Experian Hitwise, said in a review.Single-word searches increased 11% customers came to anticipate that their seo would complete the relax of the conditions for them.

Shortcuts Of Mozilla Firefox Which Helps You A Lot!!!!!!!

Guys how many of you guys use Firefox if so then you guys will have a blast after going through these small tips i have given you.As we know Mozilla Firefox is very popular amongst all the browsers. It has lots of shortcut, so here in this post I am going to show you the shortcuts available in mozilla firefox.

Double-click (On a word) Select the word.
Triple-click Select entire line.
Wheel click Activate the Smooth scrolling
Hold Ctrl + Scroll Wheel forward ==> Increase font size
Hold Ctrl + Scroll Wheel backward ==> Decrease font size
Click one end, hold Shift & click another Create a selection from the two points
F5 ==> Refresh.
F6 ==>Move focus to address bar.
F11 ==>Toggle on/off full-screen mode
Alt + (Left Arrow) ==>Go back on history. Same pas Backspace
Alt + (Right Arrow) ==>Go forward on history.
Ctrl + A ==>Select All.
Ctrl + B ==>Favorites.
Ctrl + C ==>Copy Selected.
Ctrl + D ==>Add the current page to favorite.
Ctrl + E ==>Search panel.
Ctrl + F ==>Find (on page).
Ctrl + H ==>Toggle History panel.
Ctrl + I ==>Toggle Favorites panel.
Ctrl + J ==>Download.
Ctrl + N ==>Open New browser window.
Ctrl + P ==>Print current page / frame.
Ctrl + R ==>Refresh. Same as F5
Ctrl + T ==>New Tab
Esc ==>Stop (while page is loading).
Ctrl + Enter ==>Auto complete a url address
Shift + Enter ==>Complete a .net instead of a .com address.
Ctrl + Shift + Enter ==>Complete a .org address.
Ctrl + Tab ==>Cycle through open tabs.

Women To Fight Sexual Assault Using A Mobile App

A smartphone application to help women fight sexual assault was launched on Wednesday in New Delhi.The "Fight Back" app created by Indian non-profit Whypoll will enable the user in alerting her friends or family at the press of a single key.

An SOS message via text message, email and Facebook is delivered and once the SOS is activated, the recipients are able to track the sender's location via GPS and come to her aid.Sexual assault cases against women are on a rise in New Delhi. The city now tops the list of India's most unsafe cities for women, with 489 reported rape cases in 2010, up from 459 in 2009, according to police statistics.

The Fight Back app is priced at Rs.100 for a year. The application is currently available only in English but it will be soon offered in various other Indian languages also. It will also reach nine more cities by the end of 2012.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/mobile-application-fight-back-women-sexual-assault/1/165251.html

Nokia Symbian Belle To Be Released Early Next Year

Nokia Symbian Belle update will arrive for Symbian Anna devices in the first quarter of 2012.The much anticipated Symbian Belle update for Nokia smartphones can be expected in early 2012, the Finnish handset manufacturer told The Mobile Indian.Nokia has promised that several significant features will be rolled out for Symbian devices with this update. We will have to wait till early 2012 to see what features the next major Symbian update has to offer.

The Nokia India spokesperson said to The Mobile Indian that the update will be rolled out for existing Symbian Anna running smartphones - N8, E7, X7, C6-01, C7, Oro, and E6, in the first quarter of 2012.Back in October, D Sivakumar, Nokia India vice president and managing director had informed The Mobile India that Symbian Belle can be expected by the end of this year — about now. Apparently, that is not going to happen.

Nokia users in the US and Europe might be the first lucky ones to get Symbian Belle. Following that, the update will arrive in India.At this moment, Nokia Symbian Belle is already available on three new handsets — 701, 700 and 603, all of which are focused on Near Field Communication technology.

They Found The "God Particle" ? Did They ?

Scientists had found no conclusive proof of the existence of the particle which, according to prevailing theories of physics, gives everything in the universe its mass. Scientists at the CERN physics research centre said on Tuesday they had found signs of - although not yet conclusively discovered -- the Higgs boson, an elementary particle which is the missing link in the Standard Model of Physics.Meanwhile, a BBC report says the most coveted prize in particle physics may have been glimpsed, quoting researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva.

"Both experiments have the signals pointing in essentially the same direction," said Oliver Buchmueller, senior physicist on CMS. "It seems that both Atlas and us have found the signals are at the same mass level. That is obviously very important." Fabiola Gianotti, the scientist in charge of the ATLAS experiment, said ALTAS had narrowed the search to a signal centred at around 126 GeV (Giga electron volts), which would be compatible with the expected strength of a Standard Model Higgs.












The Higgs boson is, in theory, the particle that gives mass to all other fundamental particles. While its discovery would cement current knowledge about particles such as electrons and photons, results of work at CERN could also prove it does not exist, which would force physicists to rethink the Standard Model. "If the first inklings of the Higgs boson are confirmed, then this is just the start of the adventure to unlock the secrets of the fundamental constituents of the Universe," said Stephen Haywood, Head of the Atlas Group at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

The ATLAS results were followed by explanation of the second experiment, CMS. "We are homing in on the Higgs," said Claire Shepherd-Themistocleus, Head of the CMS Group at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. "We have had hints today of what its mass might be and the excitement of scientists is palpable. Whether this is ultimately confirmed or we finally rule out a low mass Higgs boson, we are on the verge of a major change in our understanding of the fundamental nature of matter."

XBOX TV Takes Microsoft To The Next Level

Microsoft laid out a grand plan to turn your Xbox 360 into an even stronger hub for everthing from television shows and movies to music at E3 this year. That dashboard update launches tomorrow, bringing with it the ability to use your Kinect to search for content across every service you have connected to your system, as well as Microsoft's digital storefronts on Xbox Live and live television.Unfortunately, not all of Microsoft's content partners will be ready for the service's launch tomorrow. HBO Go won't be available until early 2012, nor will Comcast's Xfinity on-demand library.

I’m no gamer. I fall well outside the target audience for an Xbox 360 – or a PS3, or, despite what Nintendo might hope to convince me about “casual” gaming, a Wii – at least until today. And yet, Microsoft’s comprehensive roadmap of content partners (notable for not limiting itself to merely the US audience, too) has me reconsidering. The straightforward Kinect-based control holds no small amount of appeal, too, since anything I buy for home entertainment purposes has to satisfy that all-important spousal-approval factor.

Microsoft isn’t alone in that, mind. Apple’s television intentions are well-rumored, with the latest batch describing a Siri-powered trio of HDTV sets that use the virtual personal assistant technology to streamline navigation through cable, free-to-air, on-demand and recorded content. Google TV, meanwhile, has had the advantage of being on the market, but that’s about the only positive thing you can say so far. Its complex first-gen interface could well have been all the inspiration Microsoft required to push ahead with Kinect-powered speech and gesture control.

A Siri-powered TV isn’t here yet. Google TV v2.0 is yet to convince that it can deliver not only on usability with its pared-down but still technically-focused UI, but on content and access deals with providers that have proved to be wary of the Google-powered free-for-all. An Xbox 360 costs $299.99 with a Kinect thrown in the box, and you can buy one today.

Here are the services that will be available tomorrow, along with which market they will be active:

• EPIX. United States
• ESPN on Xbox LIVE (ESPN). United States
• Hulu. Japan
• Hulu Plus. United States
• LOVEFiLM. United Kingdom
• Netflix. Canada, United States
• Premium Play by (MediaSet). Italy
• Sky Go (SkyDE). Austria, Germany
• Telefónica España - Movistar Imagenio. Spain
• TODAY (MSNBC). United States

The search functionality that allows you to look for content across a variety of outlets and apps is fascinating, as is the ability to control the service by waving your arms if you own a Microsoft Kinect, but the real power of these deals is the emphasis they place on Microsoft's hardware. By bundling all our digital subscriptions and content through the Xbox 360, Microsoft wants to make sure your gaming console is at the heart of your entertainment center. Xbox Live subscribers and subscribers of these digital services won't have access to much in the way of new content, but it will all be centralized in one location.

This is different than the Apple TV's strategy of offering content such as television shows and movies as discrete items and selling or renting them directly to consumers as well as streaming your existing content. Microsoft wants to be the box you turn on when you want to watch anything, whether it's live or streaming, no matter what content delivery service you're going to be enjoying.

Apple Being Questioned About Its Carrier IQ

"We read in the press about the privacy concerns the software may pose and decided to ask Apple about the details," said Thomas Kranig, head of the Bavarian agency. "If Apple decided to cease the use, all the better."

European privacy regulators are asking mobile-phone carriers and makers including Apple Inc to answer questions about privacy issues regarding Carrier IQ Inc's mobile phone usage-tracking software. Germany's Bavarian State Authority for Data Protection contacted Apple today as regulators in the UK, France, Ireland and Italy review whether Carrier IQ is in use in their jurisdictions. Apple said yesterday it will stop supporting the software.

Privacy watchdogs were alerted to the issue after Trevor Eckhart, a Connecticut-based programmer, posted a 17-minute video three days ago on his YouTube.com channel, showing how the data-collecting software logs what people are doing on their phones without their knowledge. Carrier IQ faces allegations that the software logs sensitive phone-user information. US Senator Al Franken yesterday urged the Mountain View, California-based developer to share more information about what the product does and whether it transmits data to other parties.

Carrier IQ's "mobile service intelligence" platform receives data sent from phones for analysis to track "customer behavior and usage patterns," according to the company's website. The company's products allow clients to track both "broad trend data" and "diagnostic data from individual devices," the site says.






Anonymous, encrypted

"We stopped supporting Carrier IQ with iOS5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update," Natalie Harrison, a spokeswoman for Apple, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. "With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information, and if they do, the data is sent in an anonymous and encrypted form and does not include any personal information." Georg Albrecht, a spokesman for Cupertino, California-based Apple in Germany, declined to comment on the Bavarian agency's letter.

Carrier IQ applications "give wireless carriers and handset manufacturers unprecedented insight into their customers' mobile experience," according to the company website. Over 141 million handsets have the software, according to data on its website. The Carrier IQ software doesn't record keystrokes or provide tracking tools, the company said in a November 16 statement.

'Direct from source'

The software works "by automatically providing accurate, real-time data direct from the source - your customers' handsets," according to the website. The data is gathered with "no visible impact" on customers. European privacy regulators said today they are checking with mobile phone operators in their regions to see if Carrier IQ software tracks usage on handsets there.

Italy's Protection of Personal Data Guarantor opened an investigation into how Carrier IQ works and is checking Italian mobile phones to verify where the software is in use, according to a statement by Francesco Pizzetti, president of the Italian watchdog. The UK Information Commissioner's Office "will be contacting mobile phone operators to establish if the Carrier IQ or similar software is on UK customers' handsets and, if so, what steps are being taken to ensure there are no privacy implications," the data protection watchdog said in an e-mailed statement.




Defending use

French privacy regulator CNIL has also begun reviewing Carrier IQ, Elsa Trochet-Mace, a spokeswoman for the regulator, said in an e-mail. Initial finding show the software is not in use in France, she said. Ireland's data-protection agency will contact mobile phone operators as well to see if and how Carrier IQ is used there.

AT&T Inc and Sprint Nextel Corp yesterday defended the use of Carrier IQ software. The Carrier IQ software is a so-called rootkit installed at the carriers' request on mobile phones. The application runs in the background and logs user activity. The software data is used to improve service performance, according to statements from AT&T and Sprint, the second- and third-largest US wireless providers.

RIM's BlackBerry Mobile Fusion To Compete With iPhone & Android

Research In Motion has long touted enterprise-level security and management as a selling point of its BlackBerry devices, a key differentiator from the Apple iPhones and Google Android smartphones flooding both the business and consumer market. Now, it seems, RIM has decided to extend its branded management capabilities to platforms beyond BlackBerry, in what could represent a significant strategy change for the company.

"We are pleased to introduce BlackBerry Mobile Fusion -- RIM's next generation enterprise mobility solution -- to make it easier for our business and government customers to manage the diversity of devices in their operations today," RIM vice-president Alan Panezic said in a statement. "It provides the necessary management capabilities to allow IT departments to confidently oversee the use of both company-owned and employee-owned mobile devices within their organizations," he said.

RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is designed, in the words of the company’s Nov. 29 press release, to “simplify the management of smartphones and tablets running BlackBerry, Google Android, and Apple iOS operating systems.” In other words, IT administrators and CIOs will have the ability to control all those devices via a Web-based console, from instituting security policies to managing applications. For those shops continuing to support BlackBerry devices, RIM will include BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0.3, which offers features such as over-the-air app and software installation.

With BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, RIM has acknowledged the increasingly heterogeneous nature of enterprise mobility, which in turn has threatened the BlackBerry’s longstanding lock on many companies’ IT infrastructure. As the recession slashed corporate budgets for massive smartphone buys, and as the increased popularity of smartphones put more Google Android devices and Apple iPhones in executives’ hands, both small companies and large enterprises saw an influx of personal devices retrofitted for business use.

General availability of the new enterprise server is expected in late March, the company said. RIM's shares climbed 7.5 percent in early trading in Toronto to CAN$18.28 (US$17.76) following the announcement. In addition to BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, RIM is also betting on an upcoming line of “superphones” running its in-development BBX operating system. An exact launch date for those devices has not been publicly declared.

Best 10 Apps For Your iPad

Hey you guys do u want to know which App is the best for your iPad come join me in taking the tour of the 10 best app which revolves around your app world these are the most favorite for almost all the kind of people

1. iMovie

iMovie is for instant video editing. You can shoot 720p video on your iPad 2 camera. With iMovie, editing videos and uploading them to social network sites are brilliantly easier. The app has received a revamped version for iPad 2. The app works smoothly thanks to the tablet’s dual core A5 processor. iMovie is priced at £2.99.

2. GarageBand
It is a comprehensive music app for iPad 2. GarageBand has the digital versions of most of your favorite musical instruments such as guitar, piano, drums, bass and vocals. The app lets you even record the music you produce. There is also the facility to lay down a track and edit it as per your wishes on GarageBand. The app is priced at £2.99 on iTunes.

3. PhotoBooth
PhotoBooth is an app that brings you stupid pictures of yourself. Using the iPad 2’s dual camera, the app can capture images. After taking your own image, you can add silly effects into them to get several distorted images. The app can be downloaded for free of cost and it is now one of hot apps on iTunes.

4. RealRacing 2 HD
Apple iPad 2’s high resolution display is one of the best platforms to play RealRacing 2 HD. You will have an exalted experience to play the title on iPad 2. Great responsiveness of iPad 2’s touchscreen and its brilliant clarity will certainly bring you a matchless experience with RealRacing 2 HD on the device. The game is with a price of £5.99.

5. Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD
Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD car racing is another outstanding game for iPad 2. Thanks to the device’s superbly clear display and highly responsive touchscreen, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD will be your favorite game on iPad 2. Real-time reflections of cars and textures are there on iPad 2. The car racing title is available for grabs at £3.99.

6. Twitter app
Twitter is a leading micro-blogging site. You can install the official client of Twitter to use the platform on iPad 2. Updating and reading status messages will be stunningly simple on the official Twitter app. Don’t forget to download Twitter app on your iPad as soon you get a copy of the device. The app is free.

7. Facebook app
Facebook is the world’s top social networking site with more than 700 million members. You can track most of your friends and relatives on Facebook now. So getting the official Facebook app on iPad 2 is greatly important. The Facebook app has just arrived on iPad. Yet, it is now one of hot iPad 2 apps. You can download Facebook app for free of cost.

8. Yahoo! Messenger
FaceTime video chatting is there on iPad 2. However, for those who use Yahoo! Messenger, its official app will be unavoidable. Yahoo! Messenger supports video, textual and voice chatting on iPad 2. It is one of early Instant Messaging services in the world.

9. QuickPix – 59p
QuickPix is a famous camera application. It can boost up the camera of an iPad 2 with many photo-shooting features. You can augment the clarity and perfection of images using QuickPix – 59. It is also one of hotly downloaded iPad 2 apps from iTunes.

10. Google Earth
Do you love to keep watching of maps? Then, you have the iPad 2-customized version of Google Earth, an outstanding map service. The app can be downloaded for free of cost. On a better Internet connection, you can enjoy maps in several modes quite superbly. Rightly, there is no competitor to Google Earth.

Sum-up
These are ten top iPad 2 apps for you. There are thousands of other apps and games available for iPad 2 on iTunes. The latest version of Apple’s tablet is now doing great with lots of features and, of course, with many valuable apps. Enjoy your iPad 2 at its maximum with all great apps.

Who Said Gaming Is Bad? => It Increases Creativity

Despite all those bad talks about video games which makes you think that playing it is a sin, playing video games may actually boost creativity among boys and girls, independently of their violent or non-violent nature.A study of nearly 500, 12-year-olds found that the more they played video games, the more creative they were in tasks such as drawing pictures and writing stories.

The research out of Michigan State University, published online in the journal Computers in human behavior, suggests that of the 491 12-year-olds studied, the ones who play video games tend to be more creative, regardless of whether those games are violent--and that the more they play, the more creative they are. Linda Jackson, professor of psychology at Michigan State University (MSU) and project leader, said the study appears to be the first evidence-based demonstration of a relationship between technology use and creativity, the journal Computers in Human Behavior reports.About 72 percent of US households play video or computer games, says the Entertainment Software Association, according to a Michigan statement.

The MSU findings should motivate game designers to identify the aspects of video game activity that are responsible for the creative effects, Jackson said."Once they do that, video games can be designed to optimise the development of creativity while retaining their entertainment values such that a new generation of video games will blur the distinction between education and entertainment," Jackson said.

First, there is the issue of how one goes about measuring creativity. Jackson suggests this study provides the first evidence-based demonstration of a relationship between technology use and creativity. Measuring technology use was easy. To measure creativity, her team relied on the "widely-used" Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, which involved having the kids perform various tasks, such as drawing pictures from a curved shape and then naming and writing stories about those pictures.Some of the resulting work was labeled "interesting and exciting," while other work was, well, not. So what does this tell us? That kids who play video games meet one set of criteria for creativity more than kids who don't.

The researchers surveyed 491 middle-school students as part of Michigan's Children and Technology Project. Regardless of gender, race or type of game played by the students, the study found a relation between video game playing and greater creativity.

CompuExpert Wow Keys Uses An iPhone!!!!!!!

Hmmmmm how many of you guys wanted a iPhone docking station inbuilt in your keyboard itself. some of us prefer a conventional computer keyboard, whereas a select few of the modern age technology enthusiasts are now opting for touch screen devices. Well, for those who prefer touch screen, look away now, otherwise keep reading as this may be of interest to you.

CompuExpert have revealed their latest product, a keyboard which holds an iPhone and transforms it from a touch screen display into a more conventional QWERTY style set-up. Named Wow-Keys, the device was exclusively designed to favour the iPhone, which will also act as both a docking device for synchronisation and charging capabilities. Omnio technologies have developed the WOW-Keys product which performs as a nice little multi purpose machine.
The iPhone is an extremely powerful device, especially for its size, and utilising the full power can sometimes be awkward and fiddly. This neat little gadget allows you to hook it up to a monitor and unleash the true multitasking capabilities of the smartphone. Inputting text becomes a lot easier, especially with the extra iPhone hotkeys. The sychronisation with iTunes is a nice touch but it's really all about improving the time it takes to input text and information into the iPhone itself.

The WOW-keys is available for $99.99

Plate Sized Flying Robot To The Rescue

A dinner plate-sized robot capable of self-controlled flight will be the hands and eyes of humans in places too tricky or risky to access, or say you're out repairing fence when, you realize you forgot your box of Gripples back inside the house. Rather than waste time back-tracking, why not just have your flying boomerang-sized robot retrieve them for you?

That's the dream of Queensland University of Technology's Professor Peter Corke, who believes the robot, which weighs about a kilogram, will have a range of practical uses from farming to search and rescue. The robotics team is working on a similar scenario. They're developing small, eco-friendly flying robots that could be used as farmhands and/or sidekicks to help workers cover ground quickly or reach to those hard-to-reach places.

"Anywhere you want to look, where it is too dangerous or difficult to send a person, this kind of technology will be really useful". Creating a robot that is easy to control has been the main challenge for Prof Corke and his assistant, PhD student Inkyu Sa, at the robotics department."If somebody can't just pick it up and use it inside of 10 minutes, then I think we haven't done our job right," he said.

"You'll be able to put your suitcase on the ground, open it up and send the flying robot off to do its job," said Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering professor, Corke added, "These robots could fly around and deliver objects to people inside buildings and inspect things that are too high or difficult for a human to reach easily. Instead of having to lower someone down on a rope to a window on the seventh floor, or raise them up on a cherrypicker, you could send up the flying robot instead."

"I want this thing to be able to be used by anyone". While there are small flying devices already available, none have the ability to perceive and relate information like this one. "We're about the intelligence that sits on the flying machine that makes it possible to do somewhat complex tasks," Prof Corke said. The small four-bladed flying robot would be useful in any disaster situation, for example. "There's a lot of things we want to inspect that are inconveniently high," Prof Corke said.

The research team says they are using cost-effective technology to keep the robots affordable. Within the 2 year, they'd like to attach arms to the robot so it will be able to make repairs.

Alien City Could Be Found Out With Their Street Lights

If you look at the Earth from space, it's pretty clear that there's intelligent life here because you can pick out cities on the night side. Abraham Loeb, of Harvard University and Edwin Turner, from Princeton University, are saying that we might find other civilizations the same way.The reason is that the way we usually listen for aliens -- via radio signals -- may not work that well. One issue is that contrary to popular belief, TV transmissions don't travel all that far.

The proposal comes from Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and Edwin Turner of Princeton uni."Looking for alien cities would be a long shot, but wouldn't require extra resources. And if we succeed, it would change our perception of our place in the universe," says Loeb.

The plan relies on the assumptions that aliens would use artificial lighting when their location on their planet was turned away from their local star, as humans do. This might not be the case for various reasons, but at least some alien races – if there are a decent number out there – would seem likely to have illuminated cities or something like them.

The good thing about this is that, according to Loeb and Turner, exoplanets with such city/hive/beingness-assemblage lighted patches could potentially be picked out from the rest as the variation in total light emitted from it would show a different signature to that from one without lighted areas. Admittedly this would require telescopes more powerful than those now in service, but the pace of development in humanity's telescopes has been rapid in recent times and the wait for such instruments might not be impossibly long."It's very unlikely that there are alien cities on the edge of our solar system, but the principle of science is to find a method to check," says Turner.

City-spotting could be a better means of finding alien civilisations than traditional methods such as listening out for their radio transmissions. This used to be highly favoured, and our own habit of broadcasting radio, TV etc was thought likely to draw visitors to us, too

Nowadays, however, humanity is beginning to emit much less in the way of detectable radio waves as we make much more use of directional signals and cables to carry our comms and content. Unless an alien civilisation were fortunately/unfortunately placed in time and space it might never spot us by these means, and the same goes for us spotting them if the ETs should follow similar paths of development.But our city lights blaze brighter and more numerous every year, so it may well be that future SETI efforts will prefer to search for similar phenomena rather than trying to tune in to broadcast transmissions.

Einstein Proved Wrong In His Speed Of Light Limit

Scientists who recently reported subatomic particles moving faster than light are testing a revised experimental procedure to see if it will generate the same astonishing result as before.In September, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, also known as CERN, announced that an international physics collaboration called OPERA had clocked particles called neutrinos travelling faster than light —something that is impossible according to Einstein's 1905 special theory of relativity, which provides the basis for most of modern physics.

The scientists said they were very surprised by the finding, but were unable to trace it to an error, so they were asking others to scrutinize it carefully and independently verify the measurements. The announcement was greeted by skepticism from many physicists, who said a very high standard of proof is needed for such an extraordinary result, which was more likely the result of an undiscovered error.

However, scientists from the OPERA collaboration announced at a particle physics conference last week in Nagoya that they had recently begun running the experiment slightly differently, reported Matt Strassler, a theoretical physics professor at Rutgers University in Piscataway, N.J., on his blog. Results were expected in a few weeks. Sergio Bertolucci , director of research at CERN, confirmed that information to BBC News late last week.

Originally, the neutrinos were generated from a beam of protons in an experiment at CERN, near Geneva at the border between France and Switzerland, in a pulse lasting 10 millionths of a second — a long time on the scale of the measurements. The beam of neutrinos travelled to Gran Sasso in Italy, 730 kilometres away, where their average arrival time was measured and compared to their average departure time and the distance to calculate their average speed.

The new measurements involve the release of protons in pulses lasting just one or two nanoseconds or 5,000 to 10,000 times shorter, with a long separation between each pulse. That would allow researchers to match each neutrino detection at Gran Sasso with a very precisely timed proton pulse from CERN instead of having to work with averages.

"We are not really repeating the experiment in the strict sense as beams are going all the time to Gran Sasso," said the CERN press office in a statement to CBC News Monday confirming the changes to the experiment. "It is just basically fine tuning.… There is not much more to say."

Strassler explained on his blog that the scientists had been reluctant to make the change to their experiment initially because it greatly reduces the production of neutrinos, which has a negative impact on their other experiments. "But apparently the concerns raised by the community have been strong enough to prompt OPERA to request that the CERN neutrino beam operators send them short pulses," wrote Strassler, who himself had been a critic of the original experiment.

Space Rock Asteriod Comes between Earth & Moon Give Cluse About Formation Earth

The asteroid, which is known as 2005 YU55 and is orbit around the Sun, has not been this close to Earth in 200 years and will come closer to Earth than any of its size in the past 35 years. The giant lump of space rock, which is about the size of an aircraft carrier, will pass between Earth and the Moon on Tuesday, November 8.

The last time a similarly large rock passed by at such a short distance was in 1976 – but it went largely unnoticed because everybody – Nasa included – failed to notice it.Now astronomers who missed that event will have another chance of a close encounter as the enormous rock shoots by at about 11.30pm on Tuesday, November 8.It will not be visible to the naked eye but amateur astronomers stand a good chance of catching a glimpse of it provided they have a telescope at least 6in in diameter.

The scientists worked for the space administration’s Near Earth Object (NEO) programme, a team tasked with identifying comets, asteroids and meteors that potentially pose a threat to Earth. A normal day meant scanning their screens for small white dots in our solar system — the vast majority of which were either too far away to ever be a problem or so small they would burn up in our atmosphere long before they could ever do any serious damage. On that Monday morning, however, Chodas noticed an asteroid about the size of a truck beyond the moon’s orbit. It was on a collision course with Earth.

He called Chesley over. The pair estimated the asteroid to be about 5m (16ft) long and they reckoned they had about 19 hours before it hit.

Nasa scientists, who have officially classified the asteroid as a "near-earth object", will use a radar telescope to analyse exactly what it is made of and get a better idea where it came from. A spokesman said: "We hope to obtain images that should reveal a wealth of detail about the asteroid's surface features, shape, dimensions and other physical properties."

If the Americans like what they see 2005 YU55 could even become the site for another giant leap for mankind on its next fly-by in 2028, with Nasa aiming to put an astronaut on an asteroid within the next 20 years.2005 YU55 is one of 874 near-earth asteroids, and if it were to smash into Earth it would be powerful enough to wipe out a city the size of Bath, the Sunday Times reported. But Dr Emily Baldwin, deputy editor of Astronomy Now magazine, said it posed no threat.

She told the Sunday Times: "It is a great opportunity to make close-up, detailed observations. Studies of asteroids are important not only to learn about the potential threat an impact may have on Earth but also to understand the history of our solar system. "Analysing what the rock is made of could help scientists understand how our planet was formed, she added.