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     Volume 4 Issue 24 | December 10, 2004 |


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Sci-tech

Google Search Turns Scholarly
Google has now launched a new search engine, Google Scholar which can exclusively search for academic texts and scientific articles, instead of web pages. The free search engine launched at http://scholar.google.com, draws upon newly developed algorithms to list the academic research that appears to be most relevant to a search request. "Google has benefited a lot from scholarly research, so this is one way we are giving back to the scholarly community," Nature quoted Anurag Acharya, a Google engineer who helped develop the new search tools, as saying. The search engine would only return the most relevant seminal papers on the subject searched, rather than the web sites. Google Scholar has a subversive feature, however. Each hit also links to all the free versions of the article it has found saved on other sites, for example on personal home pages, elsewhere on the Internet.

U.S. Files Suit Against Internet 'Spy Ware'
The U.S. government has sued a New Hampshire man in its first attempt to crack down on Internet "spy ware" that seizes control of a user's computer without permission. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission asked a federal court to shut down an operation that it said disables users' computers in an attempt to bully them into buying anti-spy ware products. Internet users unwittingly download the software when they visit Web sites that contain certain banner ads. The software exploits a hole in Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer Web browser to work its way onto computers without users' knowledge, according to the lawsuit. The software hijacks Web browsers, causes CD-ROM trays to mysteriously slide open and slows down computers or causes them to cease working altogether. A torrent of "pop up" messages urges consumers to buy programmes called Spy Wiper or Spy Deleter to clean up the mess. The FTC has taken action against companies that redirect browsers before but has never sued a company for secretly installing software. Spy ware comes in many forms -- from keystroke loggers that can capture passwords, credit-card numbers and other sensitive data to relatively harmless programmes that deliver pop-up ads. Currently there are no national anti-spy ware laws on the books, though several places have them.

Call Centres Get Faster
IT giant IBM is in the process of developing an artificial intelligence system, that will help call centre executives to instantly provide information to their clients without having to browse through their vast data bank, thus saving time. According to NewScientist, using a combination of speech recognition and search engine technology, the system will hunt a call centre's databanks for the information a customer wants and present it to the operator. The system works by listening in to the conversation and identifying keywords spoken by the customer. It then flashes up the most relevant information it can find onto the operator's screen. IBM project leader Johan Schuurmans says an early version of the system allowed calls to be handled about 20 per cent faster than normal. Call centres often take calls for several clients and each operator may have as many as 10,000 pages of product data to choose from. Finding the right page to match a customer's query can be tough, and the caller frequently has to be put on hold while the operator searches for the relevant information. But the new system will do away with these unnecessary delays.

Jamesbond@hotmail.com at E Bay
Now your favourite fictional characters can double up as your e mail addresses like Bridget Jones@ hotmail.com or 'Star Trek's' Princess Leia@ hotmail.com and all you have to do is go on the auction site E Bay and place your bid. The addresses are being offered by a new free hotmail.co.uk service, launched by Microsoft and it has been found that James Bond is the most sought after address as it has attracted the highest bid of 1,500 pounds in two days. While 'Star Trek's' evil Darthvadar leapt to 51 pounds, the princess was worth 61 pounds. Eight women put in a bid for Bridget Jones, making the price reach 27 pounds in less than two days.

A Unique Technique
The women of Periyathazai village, India, have adopted hygienic scientific methods to dehydrate fish for storage. Fish, particularly smaller varieties, were until recently dried on the sandy beach unhygie-nically. Under the impact of strong sea blown winds, the finished products were exposed to lot of dust and sand particles during the five days on average it took to dry fish. During the rainy season, they faced more problems, as maggots started developing in the half-dried fish. Above all, they could not get the right price for their products. Thanks to the efforts made by the local authorities, things have totally changed here after they were exposed to the solar fish-drier, capable of drying 250 kg of fish in just eight hours hygienically. The solar fish dryer converts solar energy into thermal energy and hot air generator dries the fish. The villagers are happy with the innovation. "Usually we suffer losses due to the price fall of fresh fish. At that time the idea of solar drier came to our mind and we went ahead. Today we get a good price for the dried fish because it is completely hygienic, which makes the products fast moving," said Shanti, an employee.

of Drying Fish
The women of Periyathazai village, India, have adopted hygienic scientific methods to dehydrate fish for storage. Fish, particularly smaller varieties, were until recently dried on the sandy beach unhygie-nically. Under the impact of strong sea blown winds, the finished products were exposed to lot of dust and sand particles during the five days on average it took to dry fish. During the rainy season, they faced more problems, as maggots started developing in the half-dried fish. Above all, they could not get the right price for their products. Thanks to the efforts made by the local authorities, things have totally changed here after they were exposed to the solar fish-drier, capable of drying 250 kg of fish in just eight hours hygienically. The solar fish dryer converts solar energy into thermal energy and hot air generator dries the fish. The villagers are happy with the innovation. "Usually we suffer losses due to the price fall of fresh fish. At that time the idea of solar drier came to our mind and we went ahead. Today we get a good price for the dried fish because it is completely hygienic, which makes the products fast moving," said Shanti, an employee.

 

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