Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
I
IN SEPTEMBER 2005, a news item appeared on the
Net about a study conducted by Dr Bryan Rauden-
bush of the Wheeling Jesuit University in the US,
indicating that video games can be used effectively
to distract from pain, if not actually relieve it. Rau-
denbush’s study, called Effects of Video Game Play on
Pain Threshold and Tolerance, examined the psycho-
logical effect of games on pain sufferers. Six genres
of games—action, puzzle, arcade, fighting, sport, and
boxing—were used in the study, where participants
played games of each type for five minutes for prac-
tice, then a longer session for 10 minutes. Rauden-
bush concluded that playing games increased
players’ pulses, as well as their tolerance for pain.
Some of us might have read that news bit and rub-
bished it as yet another piece of quirky research—by,
possibly, a gaming evangelist—or even as an industry-
sponsored study determined to project the positive
effects of gaming. So much has been written about the
Deepak Ajwani Associate Editor
ill-effects—the negative psychological and physiolog-
ical impact of games — on kids, that we look with sus-
picion upon any positive news on this front. “A study highlights the use of video
But it turns out that a piece of news from Reuters
corroborates Dr Raudenbush’s study. It highlights the games to help sick children manage
use of video games to help sick children manage pain pain and anxiety during hospital stays”
and anxiety during hospital stays. Nine-year-old Ethan
Myers was declared brain dead as a result of a car acci- video games to combat obesity and have made it part
dent in 2002. Doctors had said at the time that Ethan of their curriculum.
would never again eat on his own, walk or talk. All this research, I’m sure, has brought cheer to
Now, due to neuro-feedback training on the Cyber- gaming enthusiasts—and also the gaming industry.
Learning Technology LLC system, often used to play car Young gamers will now cite this research to their par-
racing video games, Myers has caught up with his peers ents and justify their never-ending gaming sessions and
in school, and can even read out a speech to a large the endless hours spent in front of the computer or
group of students. He has also re-learnt to walk, and his gaming consoles. Sceptics, however, still question the
memory now allows him to remember peoples’ names. efficacy and cost rationale behind this treatment.
More importantly, Myers can now also fully open his Despite the demonstrated benefits of neuro-feedback,
right hand, which paralysis had curled closed. “In the paediatrics demand better-designed studies to help par-
last year, we’ve seen the Ethan we knew before the acci- ents of children with ADHD make informed decisions.
dent,” says Howard Myers, the teenager’s happy father. It all does seem intuitive, though. Laughter is the
CyberLearning’s SMART BrainGames system, best medicine because it’s a stress buster—it’s a momen-
which was used by Myers, targets symptoms arising tary burst of release, so to speak. The gaming experi-
from brain injuries, attention-deficit hyperactivity ence is similar: it’s a brief period of escapism, of total
disorder (ADHD) and learning disabilities. release from the shackles of the world; it’s “re-creation”
Neuro-feedback treatment has been around for in the true sense. And that is, naturally, good for you.
decades, but its use of video games is a new develop-
ment that tries to capitalise on the younger genera-
tion’s fascination with animation and electronics to
sweeten often frightening, lengthy and tedious med-
ical treatments. Some schools in the US are even using editor@thinkdigit.com
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Looks as
though soon,
nothing tech
will be secure— 29 Renovating The Office
it’s been Sure you’ve already guessed Office 12 (or
proved that Office 2007) is going to be much prettier and
RFID tags can user-friendly and all. But here, we take an in-
get infected by
viruses depth look to discover whether and why you
...and
should upgrade—when it’s out
24 you call yourself
Google has 40 …And You Call Yourself a Gamer? a
released their You’re looking to buy a console. You’re
much-awaited
OS! A brief look
hunting for must-have games for your PC.
Whatever it is, here’s a compilation of the
best games ever. IOHO, of course
Contents Magazine
Digital Tools 56 Flat Out!
Many of you are probably contemplating
51 Fandom Of The Opera (finally!) making the switch to LCD. There’s a
Many of you have heard the following: “Opera is reasonably wide variety of models to choose
the best browser out there.” Is that true? If so, from, and price is always an
why and how? We get into how using Opera can important factor.
significantly enhance your browsing experience Hence this
comparison test
April 2006
Digital Leisure 126 Is Piracy Good? Escape
No, we’re not telling you that cracking
123 Bridging The Gap
WinZip is good! We’re taking a broad
A kiosk-based information system for
view of the piracy phenomenon, and
villagers in Andhra Pradesh has seen
who benefits from it
tremendous response
139
Did Konrad Zuse
“invent the
computer”?
Apparently
138
It’s probably
etched in your
152 Tabloid tech mind that Macs
The iPod has found its way to the are safe, unlike
130 Game On Vatican. And you can now talk to Wintels. Here’s
Win money with TrackMania Nations, blow Penelope Cruz—and other celebrities—via news that could
friends up in Crashday and cower in fear with Skype, if a certain eBay auctioneer is entirely dispute
that supposition
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth telling the truth
Three Incredibly Useful Sites ..........18 Tips & Tricks ....................................81 Whatever Happened To ..................138
REGULARS
The Digital World ............................18 Q&A ................................................90 Bluff Your Way Through ................140
Beat That ........................................20 Trend ..............................................118 Digit Diary ....................................140
Gender Benders ..............................22 Tech Quiz........................................128 Blogwatch ......................................141
Buzzword Of The Month ..................22 Mediawise ......................................136 Inbox..............................................150
Macromedia Fireworks 8
Fireworks 8 lets you
balance maximum n 3i Asset Information Management 1
image quality with n ResiGo 4.1.2250
minimum compression n Adobe Acrobat 7.0
This special version features a brand size as you create, edit Professional
new environment, the Stadium, and a and optimize images n BillQuick Lite 6.0.124
revolutionary new gameplay designed for the web with n MDaemon 8.1.4
for Nadéo's own custom cars precise control n Microsoft OneNote 2003 n Iggle Pop
n Big Money
GAME MULTIMEDIA PORTABLE SOFTWARE n Alchemy Deluxe
Knights of the Temple II n ACID Music Studio 6.0 n Portable Firefox 1.5
n Audio Cleaning Lab 10 MOBILE GAMES
LINUX n Movie Edit Pro 10 n PopCap Game Pack 1 - Palm, Pocket
n Byzantine OS n ULead DVD Movie PC and Windows Mobile
n Gentoo 2006.0 Factory
n Puppy Linux 1.0.8r1 VIDEOS
n Epiphany INTERNET n ATL
n Evolution n AceFTP 3.72 n Crazy Browser
n Galeon 2.0.1 n BitComet Acceleration Patch 3.5 n Essential PIM 1.7
n GNOME Baker n DSL Web Hosting 2.5 n Miranda v 0.4.0.3
n XFCE4 n Fastream NETFile FTP/Web Server 8.1.5 n MPUI
n Ubuntu 5.10 n ICQ 5.04 n Portable AbiWord 2.4.2
n MSN Messenger 7.5 n Portable Thunderbird 1.7 Beta
n SmartFTP Client 2.0.995.10
n Yahoo! Messenger with Voice 7.5 (Beta)
MAC n Ice Age 2 - The Meltdown
n Audacity X 1.3.0b PC-cillin Internet Security n She's The Man
n Christmas Super Frog 1.7 2006
n JAlbum 6.2 Trend Micro PC-cillin
n LimeWire 4.10.5 Internet Security 2006 n PStart
n LiveQuartz Image Editor 1.5 combines award-winning n Portable OpenOffice.org 2.0.1
n Opera Browser 8.51 antivirus security and a
n Poisoned 0.519 personal firewall—for
n Transmit 3.2.1 comprehensive protection
n VLC Media Player 0.8.4a against viruses, worms, Trojans,
n Data Rescue II 1.0.1 and hackers
n Readerware 2.97
SYSTEM MOBILE APPS
DEV TOOLS n NVIDIA Forceware Drivers v81.98 n Calc98 (Windows CE) 5.3
n Aurora XAML Designer for WinFX 8.3 (WinXP) (February 2006 release) n Nokia PC Suite Version 6.7 release 22 n Stay Alive
beta n ObjectDock 1.2 n Photogather for Palm 7.0.3
n JDDM (Drop Down Menu) 2.1 n Style XP 3.16 n Handy Tools
n NetBeans IDE 5 n Download Acronis Disk Director Suite 2005 for Sony
n Navicat 7.1.12 10.0 Ericsson 1
n NetBeans IDE 5.0 + Application Server n Virtual CD 7.1 n MAGIX
n 8.2 Bundle Installer n WindowBlinds 5 Ringtone Maker
n PocketPC Sport
A Test Build of the Digit Software Archive was accidentally included on the March CD in Games Pack 1.1
NOTE
Digital_Tools\Essentials. If you've installed it, please stop using it - the interface is far n Mobiledit Lite
from what it's intended to be, and the database included is an inaccurate collection of 1.99
junk we used when testing the archive. We apologise for this error. You will find the
newest version of the Digit Software Archive on this month's CD.
Digit Software Archive: If you’ve installed the Digit Software Archive 2006 Beta from our February 2006 CD, you can download
10 DIGIT APRIL 2006 its update by clicking the Update button in the Digit Software Archive from the 1st of April.
Contents Interactive
CD
DIGITAL PASSION DIGITAL TOOLS DIGITAL BUSINESS DIGITAL LEISURE
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If the subject is not mentioned, your mail might not reach the right person.
Online
Due to technical errors the February poll results published in March 2006 issue were illegible. Here are the results:
Q. Where do you primarly get your news from? Television 44% Newspapers 44% I don't follow the news 4% Visiting Websites 5%
Feeds and e-mail newsletters 3% Total votes 3,483
taste technology at
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There’s something for everyone on the Digit Forum www.thinkdigit.com/forum
Gates Mocks $100 Laptop Wire-Free And Free
Bill Gates has mocked Nicholas Negroponte’s $100 Linux-based, Skype is going wireless! Netgear plans to soon introduce a
wind-up powered laptop: “Geez, get a decent computer where Wi-Fi phone that can handle Skype calls from any wireless
you can actually read the text, and you’re not sitting there hotspot. Developers for Skype are also working on new
cranking the thing while you’re trying to type.” Gates says cell versions of their software that can work on the OSes of
phones are what will popularise computing in developing nations. regular cell phones.
Enter
HOPPING ON THE BANDWAGON
Shahrukh Khan
Actor
C
hipmaker Intel will Windows CE. The idea was around for a long while
How much do you surf? soon pitch a very low- to bring Internet access to now—too long, actually: it’s
I’m not a “casual surfer”—I cost PC at the much of the third world. always waiting to take off.
don’t surf for the sake developing world. The There are suppliers in Other flopped attempts
of surfing. At the proposed machine will be several countries for the have been made in the past,
point where it just priced at “meaningfully PIC, but the PIC hasn’t been as well, to bring “low-cost
started out, when lower” than $300, and an too much in the news after computing to the masses,”—
we had telephone announcement should its launch. the much-bandied phrase.
lines and the follow in some weeks, Better known than the But will Intel go where no
strange sounds— according to William Siu, PIC is, of course, Nicholas company has gone before?
that was the time I Vice President and General Negroponte’s $100 laptop. “The purpose of owning
was excited about Manager of the Channel The One Laptop Per Child a PC is to be able to access
surfing. Now I just use it for Platforms Group at Intel. (OLPC) organisation hopes content and to utilise the
research. In an interview with to have it out late this year software available out
What are your favourite CRN (Channel REseller or early next year. It has had there,” said Siu. “So giving
gadgets? News), Siu said the more than its fair share of me a product that is under-
I always roam around with a proposed system would criticism, and we’ll have to served does not address the
couple of laptops, and I always provide full PC wait to see if the project reason why you want to
have a digital camera—stuff functionality to “take does deliver even a laptop even own the product…
which I normally use. The advantage of all the per 10 children. what I’ve described is a full-
whole idea of gadgets, I think, software and content” on Then, of course, we have function PC that can take
has been demystified by the the Internet. Past attempts our home-grown Simputer, advantage of all the
laptop—you just need to have to develop a $100 PC which has been software and
one and everything is at your have “missed the content.”
beck and call. point,” In the
according to rural Indian
Do you tinker with video
Siu: he said context,
editing?
they’re too $100 (Rs
I do edit my home videos, but
limited and 4,500) and,
very, very slowly. I won’t get a
that they can’t say, $250 (Rs
job as an editor, but I do know
be loaded with 11,000) are
my way around Final Cut Pro
extra software. significantly far
and use it quite often.
Siu claimed apart. We’re not
Do you think it’s time for they’re more like talking about a
movies to be shot in the PDAs than PCs. direct
Digital Video (DV) format? Remember competition
No, I really don’t. I think we still AMD’s PIC—the between the $100
need the grainy quality that Personal Internet PC and Intel’s
film cameras give us. I’m not Communicator? It proposed offering,
questioning movies like The was launched but it comes to
Phantom Menace—I think it’s back in 2004, content, what
outstanding—but as a film and the specs our villages
viewer, I wouldn’t want to went AMD need is basic
watch something that’s so… Geode GX500 connectivity,
bland. CPU, 128 MB not streaming
Gaming? of memory, a multimedia.
I play games with my kids, 10 GB hard And when it
hardly on my own. We have a disk and an comes to
PS2 and an Xbox, and we are inbuilt software, are
waiting for the PS3 to release. modem— people who haven’t ever
running Illustrations Harsho Mohan Chattoraj
seen a computer likely to
One Silly Question “What would you exchange your computer for?”
“Definitely de
signer clothes
” “Nothing short of the
Tanvi Amba Sony
llery” ?”
wishes
vi “A nice sports bike.”
of jewe Ericsson w800i”
“Three
Madan Bangale “Loads h Asim Narsinh il
ch
Parek Ravee
na U
Shruti
NIGERIA
Africa is turning into a
digital dump. Recycled
computers have the
potential to help bridge
the digital divide. African
countries are a robust AUSTRALIA
market for such
Australian Internet users are crawling along
equipment. But experts
the Internet compared with other developed
in Lagos say as much as
nations. Per head of population, Australia's
75 per cent are “junk,”
broadband Internet speed was just over 1
which is accumulated or
Mbps. This compares to Britain (13 Mbps),
burnt in dump sites
France (8.4 Mbps), Germany (6.85 Mbps)
Canada (6.8 Mbps) and the US (3.3 Mbps)
Digit Caption
“Microsoft download
centre?”
Last Month’s Winner!
Om Awasthy, Deeptinagar,
Bhagalpur, Bihar
“Gramophone XP”
We Came
across this
amusing
pointer at the E-mail your caption with the
recently held subject ‘Beat That’, and your
postal address, to
CeBIT 2006 in beatthat@thinkdigit.com
Hannover, and win
Germany Computer Security
by Ditter Gollmann
r,
h something funnie Published by
a photo. Come up wit 15th of this month.
month , Digit will carry a caption for accepted by the
Each e! Entries
Photograph Deepak Ajwani m at their own gam
and beat the Digit tea
spokeswoman for Google’s Corporations will have to Also, as Om Malik, well- memory cache to the
Writely team. pay a licensing fee to access known blogger and the system itself—is
As of now, Google plans the service. analyst who first reported materialising.
to offer individual access to “This is an interesting on Google’s purchase of The chipmaker is set to
Writely for free, but the addition to Google’s Upstartle said, “Convincing launch an industry-wide
company will probably roll collection of productivity the masses that their initiative to encourage the
out extra features that tools,” said Melissa Webster, documents will be safe, use of NAND Flash in
require a paid subscription. program director with the especially with all that has computers in a bid to boost
Content been going on lately, may be boot times and enable
Technologies quite challenging, even if improved power savings.
research it’s free.” There are several types of
group at Flash memory, but NAND
IDC, a FLASH-BASED BOOTUPS Flash forms the core of
premier removable USB drives.
global
provider of
Intel Rumours of the Intel-
developed technology code-
market
intelligence.
Confirms named Robson have been in
the air for some time, but
“They already
offer e-mail,
“Robson” Intel confirmed the
technology in mid-April.
calendar Sean Maloney, Executive
options, and
photo services,
so it makes
C urrent hard disk access
times mean we often
have to sit staring at an
Vice President and General
Manager of the Intel
Mobility Group, has
sense for them LED waiting for a game to described Robson as a
to add word start up or for a system to “NAND Flash-based
processing for boot up. And when it platform accelerator.”
creating and comes to notebooks, Robson provides a
managing spinning hard disks mean standard module ready to
Web content.” power consumption. Both slot onto a motherboard. The
The these issues could be OS startup data is loaded
drawback, of resolved if, as Microsoft has onto the on-board Flash
course, is proposed, hard disks had chips to reduce boot times:
that more Flash memory inbuilt. But after the first boot, the only
content has to that means increased disk time the system would start
be stored on prices, of course. Intel’s up from the hard drive is
Google’s servers. idea—of adding a Flash when the startup code or
AM2
Sfor ocket AM2 is an upcoming platform that supports
new 940-pin Athlons, the highlight being support
DDR2 running at 667 MHz and 800 MHz. This
platform supports 940 pins, it is incompatible with
older 940-pin Opterons. AMD is expected to launch two
dual-core CPUs for Socket AM2 on June 6, 2006: the
platform breaks the limitations that socket 754/939 Athlon 64 X2 5000+ and Athlon 64 FX-62. AM2
had, and supports more than 4 GB DDR DIMMS. technology with the supported processors is expected
AM2 promises to increase working memory to reduce power consumption and also heat
frequency and bandwidth, which in turn will enhance dissipation, which AMD has been aiming to achieve for
overall system performance. Though the socket AM2 some time now.
Enter The
Cell
part from the very cool product
A name, IBM’s Cell promises to leave
current processors coughing dust in the
near future. They’ve crammed about
234 million transistors in the teeny
space of 221 square millimetres, timedia applications.
clocked it at 4 GHz, and taken it to a Just to show offits capabilities, IBM
peak performance of 256 Gigaflops. had it render a realistic human heart
Compare that to the AMD X2, which can that visitors could view with 3D glasses
only manage 25 Gigaflops, and you’ll and rotate it interactively.They could
understand what the fuss is about! even make cross-sections of the heart
How does it do this? The Cell has - as they pleased. All this ~without even
hold your breath - nine processor cores! using a graphics card~!
One 64-bit PowerPC, helped along by Bet Apple’s feeling pretty silly for
eight Synergistic Processing Elements ditching IBM now! Welcome back ~Big
(SPEs), makes The Cell the ultimate Blue~, we’ve missed you!
processor for intensive gaming and mul-
Think it Type it
but at least the promise is there.
fter countless sci-fi movies about The researchers hope that this
A them, thought-controlled devices
are now more of a reality than ever.
device will eventually help the dis-
abled - even the completely paralysed
The brains at the Fraunhofer Institute - communicate with the world around
for Computer Architecture and them. And after this noble cause has
Software Technology have come up been accomplished, the device will
with the Brain Computer Interface - facilitate the descent of the lazy into a
the name is suggestive enough. The self-induced paralysis.
device uses 128 scalp electrodes to
analyse brainwaves and translate
them into cursor movements on a
screen. In its current stage, it will still
take you about ten minutes to think
out a sentence,
Digt Special l CeBIT Launchpad
NVIDIA s SLI
Notebook -
W ith big, obvious buttons, this mobile
The next step
phone is perfect for the elderly
in mobile gam-
ing
Is it a mouse? Is it an aquarium?
Digital
34 Tech Transcends
Tongues 40 Must-have
Games 46 Nokia E61
Passion
Fuelling the pursuit of technology knowledge
In Sight
H
ow many of us have used Microsoft that this article is based on Beta software; as
Word beyond the most basic of its fea- such, things are likely to change.
tures? Mail Merge, Citations,
Watermarks, Themes, Cross-references,
Hyperlinks, and Cover Pages—do you know Working In Tasks
what your favourite Word processor can do? Over the past few years, Microsoft has been
The first version of Microsoft’s seminal Word experimenting with task-based interfaces.
processor shipped with 100 features; These are most visible under Windows XP’s
Microsoft Office Word 2003 has a total of Explorer: browsing the My Pictures folder, for
1,500. One thousand and five hundred com- example, will allow you to do Picture Tasks and
mands hidden behind a jungle of File and Folder Tasks. You can do tasks pertain-
menus—it is very easy to miss the ing to an image—such as printing, e-mailing, or
leaves for the forest. Indeed, by setting a photo as a desktop background. Such
Microsoft’s own admission, users an approach allows you to print a photograph
consistently ask the software compa- without the need to know which application
ny to add features that are already pres-
ent in the suite—just invisible to us
common folks.
If there ever was a product that was
guilty of feature overload to the detriment
of productivity, it would be the current ver-
sion of Microsoft Office. A look at the
screenshot on next page—The current ver-
sion of Word with all toolbars enabled—high-
lights this in a striking manner. And this is
just the toolbars; let’s not forget the layers
upon layers of menus.
The solution isn’t a pruning of features,
but rather a smarter presentation of every-
thing that Office can already do. Microsoft is
aware of this, and has implemented, in
Office 12, what it hopes is something that
will expose the capabilities of its Office suite
A Mini Toolbar triggered via a selection. Note the font A view of the Ribbon with the tabs. A new Tab called View seems to
tools offered have been added
storing data and brings with it flexibility, data and workflow features to leverage all the data.
robustness, and of course, file compression, Outlook can now mail calendars as HTML files
thanks to the ZIP format. such that non-Exchange users can be kept in the
Data recovery is also improved under such a loop. The new OneNote 12 applies OCR to
scheme: say an embedded image gets corrupted collected data such as images, thus enhancing the
while the file is transferred over wires—you ability to scan for and collate data. The new suite
would still be able to recover the remaining data. also brings in tighter integration—among the
The modular approach also offers an organisa- constituent programs (such as Outlook, OneNote
tion flexibility, since elements can be added or and InfoPath) as also between the PC and
dropped according to requirements. Finally, XML connected devices, such as cell phones and PDAs.
is data-driven. A workplace can thus leverage this
document structure to enable content gathering Old Wine In A New Bottle?
from disparate sources, create documents based On the whole, what we took away from the Office
on the varied content, put up the document for 12 Beta was that it offers a new chassis on what is
data mining, and also reuse content. essentially the same engine. The new interface is
Apart from this overarching change in Office very good, and will be a huge boon to those of us
2007, there are minor additions made to each not very familiar with the inner plumbing of the
element of the suite. Outlook, for example, adds current Office suite. To a power user, however,
a To-Do Bar, which lists pending tasks and adds Office 12 offers little more than a prettier
a calendar view. Creating tasks from an e-mail is way to do things.
now a right-click away: a created task is auto- While on this point, the new interface
matically added to the To-Do Bar. Also present is leverages new hardware, particularly
an improved Calendar view, RSS feed integration, graphics accelerators. The interface worked
and a better search tool. almost flawlessly on an integrated nVidia
Most of the feature additions are meant for platform, powered by a GeForce 6150
large businesses. The Microsoft Enterprise onboard chip. Almost, because it did
Content Management offering in Microsoft Office display the occasional graphical glitch…
SharePoint Server 2007, for example, offers Web Notably, while Word, Excel and PowerPoint
content management, record management and ran nice and stable, Outlook was a bit
document management. It also includes search jittery and was prone to crashing.
But it’s beta software; stability is bound to
improve, system requirements apt to fall. As for
feature additions, we don’t think anything more
will be added to the Office gene pool, and quite
frankly, little needs to be. As it stands, Office
2003 is a very comprehensive package in terms of
features. So would you be willing to invest the
money and the relearning required to upgrade
from the 2003 suite to the 2007 version? Should
you even consider such an upgrade? We will
answer these questions when we review the
retail version of Microsoft Office 2007. For now,
we can only report that the new interface is
indeed an elegant solution, which ably exposes
the expansive capabilities of the Office suite. Our
congratulations to the Office team at Microsoft
for delivering that.
Outlook 12’s interface adds a new To-Do bar, support for RSS subscriptions, and search readersletters@thinkdigit.com
Tech Transcends Tongues meant “rich” and not “realm”? More impor-
Machine Ram Mohan Rao tantly, we gather from the context, and from our
Translation world knowledge, that “rich in rays” can mean
“D
ata-oriented translation,” “Example- “radiant.” How on earth would the software
remains a tough based and context-based process- know that there is even any such thing as radi-
problem for ing,” “Syntactic parsing,” “Japanese ance in the world, given only the words “realm,”
morphological analysis,” and such is the stuff “rich,” and “rays”?
Artificial of machine translation (MT) research. But An analysis of some ambiguous text shows
Intelligence. Can that’s exactly not what we’re going to talk just how much a program needs to know in
we expect more about here, or even translate for you into order to be able to faithfully render a piece.
English! Here, we take a gentle look at the Consider three sentences -
accurate potential of MT, and what we expect from it in “I like the cat, I can drink milk.”
systems in the the near future. Will you be able to shoot off an “I, like the cat, can drink milk.”
e-mail to a Spanish friend with it being trans- “I, cat-like, can drink milk.”
future? lated in transit? “I can drink milk like the cat.”
Your first brush with translation has proba- Even supplied with all three meanings of
bly been in the context of reverse translation “like,” a machine would find it really hard to
using online translators such as Google’s and translate all four sentences properly! Then take
AltaVista’s. We’re talking about the forwards the example of “The shirt is in the trunk.” The
that go round saying something like “Translate storage trunk? An elephant’s trunk? A tree-
the following to Spanish on Google and then trunk? We know that it’s the first one; why?
translate it back into English! Have fun!” Because an elephant’s trunk is too small to
Reverse translation may be fun, but it’s unfair. shove a shirt into, and because a tree-trunk is a
Unfair, because it’s stressing the system too highly unlikely place to stash away a shirt in!
much, as it were. And who is to take on the job of feeding all
But what about simple, one-way translation? world-knowledge into a translating machine?
We have the all-time classic of hilarious MT in Then there’s idioms: “Woe is me” will, in all
the apocryphal story of a 1950s system that likeness, get translated as “I am sadness” into
translated “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is other languages.
weak” into Russian as “The vodka is strong, but
the meat is rotten.” Now that might be a joke, or We’re Tough Customers
what, we don’t know, but let’s take a look at the As things around us develop at the proverbial
state of the art: at www.systransoft.com, when mind-numbing pace, we’ve become impatient.
you translate the German “Du Strahlenreiche” We want IMs that translate, so you can type in
(You radiant one) into English, out comes “You English and your friend somewhere reads your
jet realms.” And “Gleichnis” (likeness, or reflec- text in Hebrew. We want a button on Web pages
tion) becomes “equalsneeze”! where we choose the language to view the page
in. We want automatic speech translators, so we
Rays To Riches can speak in Hindi with our speech coming out
That’s a sad state of affairs, but a good starting in English through a mouthpiece.
point for an analysis. “Strahlen” means rays or Turns out something like that has already
beams—hence “jet.” And “reich” means “rich,” been developed, but more on that later. For now,
but “Reich” can also mean “rule,” or “domain” — have you realised how fortunate you are to be
hence “realm.” Now, “Du Strahlenreiche,” for us, able to read this copy of Digit? You have access to
is a combination of “rays” and “rich,” making for more Web pages than most other people! Figures
a literal translation of “You who are rich in rays,” vary from source to source, but apart from the
which we understand as “You radiant one.” But fact that Chinese is competing fast and hard,
how is the poor software to understand that we English is still by and far the most prevalent
But when? MT hasn’t really seen any major lGenerate the output in the target language
breakthroughs since its beginnings in the 50s. This is a step ahead from the “direct” method
In AI, promises have all too often been made and of translation, which just takes a language pair,
not delivered upon; MT is no exception. Some inputs dictionaries of both, and tries to generate
people say, “It’s all there: the hardware (fast translations without paying attention to context
machines), the software (neural networks and and other nuances. The intermediate-represen-
fuzzy logic), and it’s just a matter of time before tation approach also has the advantage that once
we get good automated translations…” Problem the intermediate “understanding” is generated,
is, it’s turning out to be a really long time. you could translate that into any language, not
Some people have noted, though, that other just one.
industries that do AI research—robotics, for A third approach is called the “transfer
example—could come up with insights and approach,” consisting again of three steps. Here,
methods that would further the field. Then, the first stage converts the source language to
there’s the possibility that since one of the an abstract representation; the second maps
biggest problems in AI is infusing common sense these representations to representations in the
into systems, MT would benefit as bodies of target language; and the third stage generates
common sense become bigger and better and the translation. Note that the system doesn’t
can be easily “plugged in” to existing systems. exactly try and “understand” what’s going on in
Common sense apart, there’s the problem of the source language; there are abstract repre-
knowledge, as noted before. Unlike systems such sentations involved for both languages, which
as chat-bots that require a little knowledge and incorporate such things as context and real-
a lot of common sense, and unlike systems such world knowledge.
as chess-playing programs that work on lots of But what seems really promising now is the
knowledge and heuristics and not too much statistical approach, which we’ll soon talk about.
35
Digital Passion l Tomorrow
from IBM and from various universities. In the languages, could “format” text for the best
test, Google scored the highest amongst all Translation is a results. Pre-editing is increasingly being seen as
competing software in Arabic-to-English and hard AI endeav- an important step. One can come up with several
Chinese-to-English translation tests; these were our, and it’s examples where pre-editing would be required
conducted by the NIST (National Institute of unlikely we’ll see —slang would need to be toned down, casual
Science and Technology). Each test comprised the a good utterances would need to be formalised, missing
task of translating a hundred articles from Agence words such as “that” (as in “I know that I’m
France Presse and the Chinese Xinhua News automated wrong”) would be inserted, and so on.
Agency from December 2004 to January 2005. translator soon
How? Experts In Their Field
The answer lies in statistical analysis. It now The second thing we need to look at in the
seems increasingly likely that rather than have context of not ever getting good machine trans-
a system try to understand a piece of text, or lators is that of domain-specific translation.
formulate abstract representations taking “Domain,” here, refers to fields such as weather
context and other things into account, the most forecasting, physics, and so on. Why we mention
promising method of translation involves look- weather in particular is that in Canada, the
ing at ready translations. How this works is, the Météo system has been used to translate weather
system would look at existing translations, and reports from English to French. It has worked
be trained on those. For example, if the German well for decades now, and is still being used
“reich” is often seen as being translated as without anyone even noticing or complaining!
“rich” in the context of money, the system would How come? Simply because the system has been
pick it up. And “Reich” gets translated as tailor-made for the field, and because the
“realm” or “rule” in the appropriate context—as terminology rarely changes. There’s no slang;
in “Die dritte Reich” (remember “The Rise and the words always have a fixed meaning—for
Fall of the Third Reich”?)—and the distinction example, a “cold front” is always in the weather
would be made. sense of the phrase.
This means that the more the number of Thus, instead of aiming at general-purpose
documents in the source and target languages translation systems, we could set our sights
available, the better the system would get at lower and think of developing several domain-
translating. And, of course, Google has a very specific systems. Thankfully, a lot of the mate-
large store of documents in various languages. rial on the Internet that needs to be translated is
domain-specific.
Humans To The Rescue
Chess is an example of an AI endeavour that has Helping Hands
succeeded remarkably well. Most others don’t. As a third point, we gather that in the face of the
Translation, like we said, is a hard AI endeavour, problem being hard for AI, the future might well
and it’s unlikely we’ll see a good automated see the machine translator working as an aid in
translator soon. But there are three things to the translation process. In the case of the latter,
consider here. First off, to aid a machine in its we can envisage someone with less-than-perfect
job, the source text may have to be pre-edited, or knowledge of the target language being able to
“normalised,” to make it suitable for translation, translate reasonably well with the help of a
as in the following: machine: the machine would do a lot of the
I know I’m wrong. dictionary searching and basic grammar construc-
I know, I’m wrong. tion, while the human would do the dirty work of
The two in English are similar, but the trans- supplying context, and re-consulting the machine
lations into German by free online translators in the case of an ambiguity. However, it all boils
result in two very different things! Someone who down to money: critics of this approach say it
(a) knows the idiosyncrasies of the translation would be just as expensive as human translation,
system, and (b) has a good knowledge of both but proponents say it would be less expensive on
account of the number of man-hours spent.
One other approach being seen as the future of
Some Online Translation Sites translation is that human translators would proof-
read machine translations. This, as in the former
Site Comments case, has the advantage of reducing the man-hours
www.systransoft.com Reasonably good; one of the oldest spent in the translation process. It has the added
existing tools advantage of the final output having been read
www.google.com/language_tools Probably the best one out there and verified by a human.
http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr Quirky. Sometimes OK, sometimes
pathetic Is This The Future?
http://trans.voila.fr/voila Site is in French; works better for We’ve painted a somewhat anaemic picture so
French translations far—that of MT not being up to speed, and fully
www.linguatec.net/online/ptwebt Has an excellent feature: subject area automated translation not being possible in the
ext/index_en.shtml selection for more accurate translation. near future. But here’s an excerpt from post-
Works better for German translations gazette.com, dated 28 October 2005:
http://translation2.paralink.com/ Poor, even at German translation, “Stan Jou’s lips were moving, but no sound was
which is the site’s speciality coming out. Mr Jou, a graduate student in language
www.reverso.net/text_translation. Very bad, even though the site seems technologies at Carnegie Mellon University, was simply
asp to have won several awards mouthing words in his native Mandarin Chinese. But
11 electrodes attached to his face and neck detected his
LAST MONTH’S CHALLENGE How would you hide one or more drives of your computer
from appearing in your Windows Explorer?
There are two ways to hide drive letters
beautiful-woman-armed-to-the-teeth-with-
Ahmed Shaikh guns, and one sibling rivalry straight from
Not unless your Bollywood. Much ass-kicking follows, with
A
true gamer doesn’t need an introduction various firearms and melée weapons. Dante’s
eyes have bled to a gaming article. After years of stalk- Awakening also throws in some wild fighting
in joy, and your ing its love across message boards, the styles to the mix. As a Gunslinger, for exam-
fingers callused true gamer will tear off its beloved’s shrink- ple, you can use two sawed-off shotguns as
wrap, throw away its manual, ignore its EULA nunchuks, air-juggle a hellspawn, teleport to
under the pleas, download its no-CD crack, skip its cut- the other side of the room, use a downed
exuberant toil of scenes, and proceed to have an ultimately- baddie as a surfboard, and do nasty things to
doomed carpal relationship, with veins demon biology with oversized swords. The
playing these a-throbbing! Does such a mortal need an intro- combat unleashed by this game is relentless
gems. PC or duction? Perish the thought! and requires split-second timing to avoid
console, we call Suffice to say, we shall reveal counterattacks, and to chain deadly combos.
games worthy of such deli- This game will destroy your fingers, and its
out the greatest cious hyperbole that even boss battles, your soul. But play it you must.
titles ever to grammar will fail us! Nurse!
have graced More exclamation points! Stat! God Of War
If Quentin Tarantino were a game designer,
gaming. Ever! SONY PLAYSTATION 2 Kratos would be his Samuel L Jackson, except
We begin with Sony’s answer to with blades of chaos chained to his arms; so
organised religion—the much more effective than a purple lightsaber
PlayStation 2, aka the PS2. The con-
sole has sold more than 100 million
units worldwide. Not owning one
will bring shame to your family. Buy
one, play these:
Katamari Damacy
Imagine yourself as a tiny green thing with
an unfortunate head. Now imagine yourself
holding a small ball that resembles a reject
set-piece from Johnny Sokko and the Giant
Robot. Imagine rolling that ball over a paper
clip, then over an eraser, then a pencil, then a
ruler, then a book, then a kitten, and so on,
until you’re rolling over the table, then the
house, then the trees, the cars, some unfortu-
nate onlookers—and you keep rolling and
rolling and rolling… like a dung-beetle
making an unfortunate statement on
consumerism! You roll your Damacy over
everyday objects in order to create balls of
certain diameters, which can then be used to
order to restore the stars and galaxies. Yeah.
across silence and a barren landscape until you The game works because it is fun and has
encounter these wonderfully-designed beasts. plenty of charm and personality. With an
You then need to kill what is most alive in this excellent presentation, a funky soundtrack,
strange, dead world. Each colossus is a behe- simple play mechanics, and challenging
moth—huge and threatening, with unique levels—Katamari Damacy is the hallmark of a
weaknesses and attack patterns. good, fun game. It is also an ideal vehicle to
The game explains little of motive or back- bring that girl you fancy to your gaming frat
story, and you can’t help feel a little depraved house—chicks dig Katamari.
for the killing. Shadow of the Colossus is truly
a unique experience. Metal Gear Solid 3:
Subsistence
Guitar Hero Metal Gear Solid 3 is difficult to pin down in
This game is a gift from rock-n-roll. It is an axe 200 words or less. It is a stealth game, yes. It
from heaven to cleave asunder the mediocrity has you playing as a super-secret spy called
that passes for music today. Ahem! With Snake; stalking baddies through jungles, to
Guitar Hero, you can play tracks from Black stop suitably diabolical plans. Fairly typical
Sabbath, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Queen, fare on the surface, but the game is a master-
ALSO ON The Sony PlayStation 2 out with fear as yet another boss battle
l Amplitude ensues, and you will dance in visceral joy at
l Virtua Fighter 4 your victories. With a deep, satisfying, and
l Tekken 5 varied combat system, an unforgiving range
l WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain of battles and plenty of replay elements,
l Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed Ninja Gaiden Black is the reason to own an
King Xbox. Yes, it is that good. Why are you still
l Gran Turismo 4 here, you ninja dog! Go scurry forth and buy
l And many, many, many more this game, and then the console. Hyaaaaayah!
MICROSOFT XBOX
It is difficult to recommend a game for the
Xbox. Except for Ninja Gaiden, which is reason
enough to own the console. The Xbox has few
exclusive games, and fewer worth playing.
Today, all the good titles on the Xbox are also
available on the PC. So here’s the deal: if you
don’t have a computer worthy of running
current-generation games, buy an Xbox. Most of pacing of the action is impeccable—its tempo
the multi-platform titles also look best on this rises and falls: one moment you are all
console. Plus you can enjoy the few exclusives… stealth, the next you are Rambo let loose. The
game also mixes guns, jungle traps, special
Ninja Gaiden Black animal traits, and vehicles. You can control
This game lets you play as a Ninja! Nay, as The jet skis, hovercrafts, hand gliders and
Ninja—Ryu Hayabusa, who kicks derrières Humvees, for some drive-by shooting and for
and takes names, and may or may not chew traversing the enormous levels that the game
bubblegum while doing it. Ninja Gaiden Black throws at you. Great levels, dual-wielding of
is a game of such epic coolness that your weapons, varied enemies, vehicles, beautiful
fingers will numb to its manic button-dance, graphics, well-paced action—Instinct delivers!
your tongue will wallow limply as you
execute its savory combos, your eyes will pop Forza Motorsport
Forza is Microsoft’s answer to the Gran
Turismo series on the PS2. These are not the
arcade driving games aimed at wimps, but
are simulators of everything on four wheels.
Forza, for instance, lets you drive more than
200 cars from 60 manufacturers. The game
throws in a varied mix of tracks as well—from
real-world racing tracks to tight street races
to fictional courses. Though it’s a simulator,
the game balances skill well, and is accessi-
ble to both newcomers as well as veterans of
car mechanics. Perhaps the best feature of
the game is the level of customisation it
allows on your ride through paint jobs, vinyls
and decals. The game also features visible car
damage, reflected in the performance of the
vehicle. Finally, not only does the game look
good, as any Xbox exclusive does, but also
sounds great: the roar of your opponent’s
A business smart-
phone this may be, T he E61 is the first QWERTY business
smartphone from Nokia, and has been
touted as the Blackberry killer. It’s optimised
The Nokia E61 comes with attachment
viewers and editors for features of MS Word,
Excel and PowerPoint. Then there’s MS
but it’s cool enough
for any of us to drool for e-mail, and has special features for e-mail Outlook contacts and calendar. It also
over such as an Inbox shortcut key, an indicator supports Adobe Reader and Zip manager, as
for incoming mail, and so on. With the E61, well as several third-party e-mail clients
Nokia has departed from their notebook including Blackberry Connect.
designs to an elegant, executive one. The phone plays MP3 and AAC, and can
The brilliant 320 x 240 active matrix stream 3GPP and RealMedia content. The
display lends the phone a Palm-ish feel. Its connectivity spectrum spans Bluetooth, Pop-
screen supports 16 million colours. There is Port and IR.
the 75 MB of onboard memory, which can be There’s no
expanded via the miniSD card slot. Expect camera inbuilt,
Nokia to bundle at least a 64 MB card with but this can be
the phone—that’s a goodish bit of memory a virtue since
for a business phone! many corporate
The phone not only supports quad-band, offices ban the
but is also WCDMA-enabled—and so can be use of camera
used anywhere in the world. phones.
Nokia E61
Imaging Sivalal S
A PDA-Phone
Sanket Naik
Imaging Sivala
l S Ph otograph Jiten
Gandhi
Digital Tools l Jumpstart
Digital
Enhance
O
ver the past year or so, the online com- din of Mozilla vs. Microsoft, the world seemed to
munity has hit the reload button on The have forgotten—or worse, ignored—a little gem
Browser Wars. 2005 witnessed the rise of from Norway called Opera. Historically, this was
Mozilla Firefox after years of sulking in because Opera wasn’t free as in beer. The unreg-
Netscape’s shadow. Today, the open source istered version was marred by text and banner
Firefox is a force to be reckoned ads, and if there is one ill the open source
with, drawing in a healthy movement has fanned, it is our expecta-
sum of money for the tion that any software—no matter how
Mozilla Founda- complex—be completely free.
tion. For a free Thank you!
browser, that’s Late last year, after cele-
quite a feat. It brating Opera’s 10th
has also cap- anniversary, the
tured a good
chunk of
the market
share,
forcing
Microsoft
to rev up
its Internet
Explorer
team and
51
Digital Tools l Enhance
Norway-based Opera Software decided to remove
the hurdles of banner ads, waived the licensing The upcoming
fee, and thus freed the browser. Which is where release of Opera
this article comes in: there is little reason for you adds BitTorrent
not to be using this browser. Opera is as compre- support, widg-
hensive a package as you’d want to take you ets, a content
online. Much more than just a Web browser,
Opera comes with an e-mail client, a contacts blocker, thumb-
manager, an IRC chat client, an RSS feed reader, a nail preview of
download manager, and a pop-up blocker; it offers tabs, and follows
tabbed browsing, visual themes, mouse gestures, only Konqueror
keyboard navigation, smooth zooming of both to pass the Acid2
fonts and images, a trash can that holds all the
pages you’ve closed, a session feature that lets you Web compatibil-
resume browsing from where you left off in the ity test
event of a crash and much, much more. All in a
free, 4 MB package. You can launch a bunch of bookmarks by typing one
The upcoming release (which you can down- nickname in the address bar
load as a technology preview) adds BitTorrent
support, widgets, a content blocker, thumbnail in Opera using a single keyword. To do this, go to
preview of tabs, and follows only Konqueror to Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks, right-click on
pass the Acid2 Web compatibility test—which the Math folder, click on Properties, and then type
essentially tells a Web designer whether the in an appropriate nickname—we choose “maths”
browser is compatible with W3C standards. here, and typing in “maths” in the address bar
So let’s take a look at what this Web platform will launch the three bookmarked Web sites.
can do for you, starting with some good old-fash- Opera offers spatial browsing, which in
ioned browsing. essence enables traversing a Web site solely via
the keyboard. For example, hitting the arrow
Web Browsing 2.0 keys while keeping [Shift] pressed will ask Opera
Each time you fire up Opera, you start what is to cycle through all the links on a page, and any
called a session. You can launch a separate session form elements:
by pressing [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [N]. Since Opera supports Navigate links [Shift] + [Arrow keys]
tabbed browsing, each session can have multiple and form elements
tabs. Two features emerge from the concept of ses- Cycle through headers [S] and [W]
sions: you can save a session and launch it with Cycle through elements [D] and [E]
Opera, and you can resume a session in the event Cycle through frames [3] and [Shift] + [3]
of a system crash. Saving a session is a great way
around having to bookmark all the sites you’re Opera lets you search for text or links within
a page, displaying results live as you type. Trigger
a text search via the full-stop key—[.]. Similarly,
you can search for any links in a Web page via the
comma [,].
One of the most useful features of Opera is its
integration with the Answers.com online service.
No longer do you have to wonder about the
meaning of a word—whether it’s pertaining to
simple usage or something technical, the service
tells you everything you’d need to know, and
even suggests correct pronunciation via audio.
To trigger this, just double-click on the word in
question and click on Dictionary. Opera will take
you to the relevant Answers.com page, which col-
lates information from a variety of sources
including dictionaries, thesaurus, encyclopae-
You can load a saved session when Opera loads or you can dias, translations, and real-time data such as
ask Opera to auto-load the session every time it starts weather reports, currency converters and stock
tickers. The selection need not be limited to just
browsing. To do this, open up the sites in new a word—phrases, too, can be selected in this
tabs—[Ctrl] + [N] opens a new tab—then go to File > manner. A very useful feature, especially if you
Session > Save this session. Note that you can are a researcher or student.
choose to auto-launch your selection of sites when While using this feature, you might have
Opera launches. On a related note, to change the noticed the Translate option on the right-click
launch behaviour, go to Tools > Preferences and menu. As the name suggests, the feature uses dif-
choose an option from the Startup drop-down list. ferent engines to translate a block of text in a
You can also launch a group of bookmarks variety of language pairs including French to Eng-
from the address bar for similar functionality. In lish, German to English, Italian to English and
our example, we have a bookmark folder called Japanese to English. It beats having to separately
Math, which contains three Web sites pertaining visit Babelfish or the Google online translator.
to mathematics. Say we want to launch the three Another nifty feature for the data collectors
Concept Mapping
Translating selected text into various languages is just Opera's Start Bar lists the Top 10 Web sites you visit
a click away most frequently
1/4 th pg AD
This widget lets you view the latest Slashdot posts. Note
that the widget is visible even if the browser is
minimised
Issues 2.0
Opera’s Web rendering engine is second to none.
It’s fast and accurate, and is especially great in
a low-memory, dial-up setup. It’s not all rosy in
the Opera camp though. Although the browser
strives to be 100 per cent W3C compliant, Web
developers are far from getting there. Every now
Digital Tools l Test Centre
W
ith their sleek to the appearance of trails, or same colour is known as the
lines, thin profile, what is known as “ghosting” of pixel pitch of the monitor. A
light weight and images. Ghosting is generally white pixel is made up of three
flat screens, LCD visible as trails behind fast- sub-pixels—one red, one green
monitors have always caught moving objects. It is a some- and one blue. All the categories
one’s fancy. Their high costs lim- what subjective effect—some saw pixel pitches of 0.29mm and
ited them to niche segments, people can see it, others cannot. 0.26mm. Pixel pitch varies with
though, but due to several fac- It is thus a good idea to try out monitor size, and is generally
tors, prices of LCD screens are a movie or a game on an LCD fixed across a size category.
plummeting. The smaller ones panel before purchasing it. Needless to say, the individual
have now come within the reach We must tell you that LCD size of each sub-pixel is smaller
of home users, and LCDs seem monitors aren’t yet perfect for than the pixel pitch.
poised to replace CRTs for good. movies or games. Thankfully, at
There is a variant in the LCD least one issue seems to be Native Resolution And
space which must be talked resolved: buyers were often told Screen Aspect Ratio
about here. Regular CRT moni- to beware of dead pixels before LCD monitors have what is
tors and LCD panels come in picking an LCD screen. (A dead called a “native resolution,” and
what is termed the 4:3 aspect pixel is one that is either always cannot display crisp images at a
ratio. Your television set, for on or off, and is thus useless in resolution other than this reso-
example, has a 4:3 display general, everyday use.) With lution—unlike CRT monitors. If
screen. Some displays, however, better quality control, however, you change an LCD’s native res-
come in a 16:9 screen ratio, dead pixels are rarely seen on olution, you will see a badly
which means the width of the LCD panels today. focused image, and hard-to-read
screen is significantly more Here, we compare a range of fonts with blurred edges.
than its height. Such a display is available LCD monitors. We The 15-inch and 17-inch
called a “widescreen,” and received a total of 33 monitors models we received had native
makes for a better movie- for this test. Of these, the resolutions of 1024 x 768 and
watching experience. 15-inch category consisted of 1280 x 1024 respectively. The
While the widescreen aspect seven units from seven brands, 19-inch monitors had a native
is another positive on the LCD’s the 17-inchers consisted of 15 resolution of 1280 x 1024 when
side, viewing angles have been a from 12 brands, while there the aspect ratio was 4:3,
problem: an LCD tends to were 11 19-inch monitors from whereas it was 1440 x 900 when
appear darker and discoloured nine brands. NEC sent in the the aspect ratio was widescreen,
when viewed beyond a certain highest number of LCDs at at 16:9.
angle. This is undesirable when seven. Our effort here has been The widescreen aspect ratio
the screen is being viewed by not to help you make a well- was only seen in the 19-inch cat-
number of people seated at dif- informed purchase decision. egory. The monitors with a wide
ferent positions—as would be aspect ratio were the Acer
the case if they were watching a A Look At Features AL1916W, Asus PW191 and the
movie. Some displays today Let us first take a look at CMV CT-937A. A wide screen is
apply a special coat to their LCD some of the key features to especially good when you’re
panels, which goes a long way in look at before you zero in on viewing wide-screen movies.
increasing the viewing angle an LCD. These are by no means
and the image contrast ratio the only features there are, Luminance
(more on contrast ratio later). but are certainly the most Luminance and contrast ratio
Before you pick an LCD mon- important aspects of such a are very important factors in any
itor, we must point out another display unit. monitor, and they are even more
How We Tested
Looks Matter
power rating of the LCD you plan Sharpness And tinge at the edge of a pixel dot. We
to purchase, and note whether Resolution found the Samsung SyncMaster
there is a substantial power We checked for the sharpness of 740N in the 17-inch category the
saving to be had with a different images using the Point Shape and best in this test.
model. This might not make Visibility screen in DisplayMate. In the video bandwidth test, a
much of a difference to a home This test displays fine white dots fine white line is drawn on a black
user, but in an office where a lot against a black background. We background. This test is used to see
of monitors are deployed, the observed the screen for pixel how accurately the lines are
power costs will add up and most bleeding, and found that most drawn, and whether there are any
certainly make a difference. monitors had some amount of discrepancies in their geometry or
In the 15-inch category, the bleeding at the edge. Bleeding characteristics.
NEC, NU and Samsung had a results in a red, green or blue In the 15-inch category, the
power consumption rating of Gigabyte GD-1503B displayed blue
25 W each—the lowest in this tinges running across the length
group. The Philips 170S had the of the line at the edge. This was
lowest power consumption in the also the case with the NEC Accu-
17-inch category. Even amongst Sync LCD72V under the 17-inch
the 19-inchers, the Philips 190V category and the NU L921G and
boasted of the lowest power con- the NEC MultiSync LCD1970NXp
sumption—34W—closely followed in the 19-inch category. This test is
by the ViewSonic VX922, at 35W. important for people who use
imaging software, where accurate
A Look At Performance reproduction of finer elements is
The monitors were tested using of prime importance.
display benchmark utilities—Dis- The Samsung SyncMaster 540N
playMate Video Edition and the in the 15-inch category, the Sam-
Passmark monitor test utility, sung SyncMaster 740N in the 17-
along with several real-world tests. inch category and the BenQ FP91V
These included the viewing angle in the 19-inch category were found
BenQ FP72V
test and looking for the ghosting to be the best in their class. We
effect under movies. must stress that we did not find
Text-Colour Combination
Here, we checked for how the
monitors reproduced coloured
Philips 170S
fonts on backgrounds of different
colours. LCDs have red, green and
Digital Tools l Test Centre
Good viewing
Low price Good performance Low price angles Good build quality Low price
Low viewing angles None in particular Below-average Average Expensive Below-average
performance performer build quality
Low price High luminance, Above average Good performance, Low price
None in particular contrast ratio image quality and features and looks Higher power con
Expensive performance Expensive sumption
None in particular
4 4 4 3.75 4 4
3.5 3.75 3.75 3.75 4 3.75
3.25 4 4 3.75 4 3.75
4 3.5 4 4 4 4
4 3.75 4 3.75 4 4
3.75 3.5 4 3.75 4 4
4.5 4.5 4.5 2 4.5 4.5
3.25 2.5 3.25 3.25 3.5 3.75
3.5 4 5 5 5 5
3.5 3.25 3.5 3.75 3.5 3.25
3.5 3.25 3.5 3.75 3.75 3.25
3.5 3.25 3.5 3.75 3.75 3.5
3.25 3.75 3.5 4 4 3.75
None in particular Low power Good performance Low power Good performance Good performance
Below average build consumption Slow response time consumption Expensive Expensive
quality, above average Expensivequality, Above average price
price above average price
Very low price Good performance, Sharp image quality Good performance
Below-average build low power consumption None in particular Pricey
quality None in particular
APRIL 2006
Scoreboard 19-Inch LCD Monitors
BRAND Acer Asus BenQ CMV LG
MODEL AL1916W PW191 FP91V CT-937A FLATRON L1950SQ
Features 15.01 19.74 14.40 16.26 14.32
Pixel Size (mm) 0.294 0.285 0.264 0.285 0.294
Luminance (cd/m2) 300 300 270 330 250
Contrast Ratio 700:1 600:1 550:1 600:1 500:1
Maximum Resolution (H. Pixels x V. Pixels) 1440 x 900 1440 x 900 1280 x 1024 1440 x 900 1280 x 1024
Screen Aspect Ratio (Normal/Wide) Wide Wide Normal Wide Normal
Response Time (ms) 8 8 12 8 8
W x H x D (mm) 422 x 433 x 176 520 x 490 x 280 410.8 x 419.3 x 215.4 469 x 368 x 189 420 x 412 x 230
Weight (kg) 5 8.5 6 4.7 5.7
USB Hub (Y/N) / Number Of Ports 6 6 6 6 6
Inbuilt Speakers (Y/N) / Watts 6 4 4 4 6
VESA Wall Mount 4 4 4 4 4
Swivel Base Vertical / Horizontal Axis (Y/N) 4/6 4/4 4/6 4/6 4/4
Height Adjustment (Y/N) 6 4 6 6 6
Portrait Mode (Y/N) 6 4 6 6 6
Power Consumption (Watts) 60 48 60 43 43
Input Interfaces D-Sub D-Sub, DVI-D D-Sub, DVI-D D-Sub D-Sub, DVI-D
Extra Features If Any (Web Cam Etc.) None Feather-Touch Controls None None None
Performance 46.98 46.80 46.05 45.26 47.28
Displaymate Video Edition (So5)
Sharpness And Resolution
Point Shape And Visibility 4 4 4 2 3.75
Video Bandwidth Test 4.25 3.75 4 2 4
Colour And Greyscale
Streaking And Ghosting 3.75 3.75 3.75 3 3.75
Bar Streaking 3.5 3.75 3.75 2.75 3.75
Colour Streaking 3.75 3.75 3.5 3 4
Mid-Range Streaking 4 3.75 3.75 3 3.75
White-Level Shift 4 4 4 3.5 4
Black-Level Shift 4 3.75 3.75 3.5 3.75
RGB Purity 4 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5
Text Colour Combination 3.5 3.25 3 3.5 3.75
16-Intensities Levels 5 5 5 4.25 5
64-Intensity For Primary Colours 4 3.75 3.5 3.75 3.75
64-Intensity For Secondary Colours 4.25 4 3.75 3.75 3.75
256-Intensities Level 3.5 4 3.75 3.25 3.5
Colour Scales 4.25 4 4 3.5 3.5
Miscellaneous Tests
Reverse Video Contrast 3.75 3.5 3.5 4.25 3.75
Screen Uniformity 3.75 4 4 4.25 4.25
Passmark Monitor Test
Pixel Persistance Test (So5) 2.25 2 2 2.5 2
Miscellaneous Tests
Viewable Angle Test (Text) (Degrees) 150 150 160 160 160
Viewable Angle Test (Movie) (Degrees) 120 125 130 135 130
OSD Usability Test (So5) 3.75 3 3.75 4.5 3.75
Price Index 13.50 9.31 11.25 13.50 12.27
Price (Rs) 19,999 29,000 24,000 20,000 22,000
Overall Score 75.49 75.85 71.71 75.02 73.88
Wide-screen, good Stylish looks, portrait Sharp image quality Wide-screen Good performance
performance mode Expensive Below-average build None in particular
None in particular Expensive quality
APRIL 2006
2 2 2 2 2.25 2.25
because of its overall better image 5.3 kg, scored good points under In Conclusion
quality. It was priced at Rs 14,000, Features. It also fared well as far as We’d like to confess that we had
which is just below the average performance was concerned. The initially planned to carry out two
price of a 17-inch monitor. The low price tag of Rs 18,000 was the separate shootouts of both LCD
Philips 170S was awarded the Digit deciding factor in adjudging the monitors and CRTs, but we were
Best Buy Silver. NU L921G the winner of the Digit surprised at the very low turnout
Best Buy Gold in the 19-inch LCD of CRTs. Manufacturers told us
19-INCH LCD MONITORS monitor category. they are pushing for sales of LCDs
We found the NEC monitors to be The Asus PW191 was in a class over CRTs, hence the low turnout.
a world apart from the others, due of its own with its wide-screen The wisdom behind this deci-
to their better features and quality. aspect ratio and unique looks. It sion is debatable. If you recall our
But they were also priced exorbi- scored the highest points in Fea- last LCD shootout, you would
tantly high, and remain beyond tures. We also found it to be a realise that the prices have not
the reach of most. good performer. But with its plummeted as much as we had
The NU L921G had high bright- heavy price tag of Rs 29,000, it hoped they would, and India is a
ness and contrast ratios, and a low had to settle for the Digit Best price-sensitive market. People will
response time, while weighing just Buy Silver. still want to buy CRTs.
If you have noticed, there were
Contact Sheet LCD Monitors many more 17- and 19-inch moni-
Brand Company Phone E-mail Web Site tors than 15-inch ones. To us, it
Acer Acer India Pvt Ltd 080-25213520 rajesh_aiyar@acer.co.in www.acer.co.in seems like manufacturers are bent
Asus ASUSTek Computer Inc 022-40058923 mamta_bhatia@asus.com.tw in.asus.com on dictating purchasing terms.
BenQ BenQ India Pvt Ltd 022-25705230 kamlesh.salunke@benq.com www.benq.co.in We can only hope for a signifi-
CMV Cee Vision Technologies P Ltd 022-26733353 mumbai@chemoplast.com www.cmv.com.tw cant drop in LCD prices the next
Gigabyte Gigabyte Technology (I) Ltd 022-2652669 sales@gigabyte.in www.gigabyte.in
info@intextechnologies.com www.intextechnologies.com
time round. Better technology
Intex Intex Technology (I) Ltd 011-41610224
LG LG Electronics India P Ltd 0120-2560900 response@lgezbuy.com www.lgezbuy.com should also bring in better
NEC Shiba Comp P Ltd 011-26413437 shiba@del2.vsnl.net.in www.nec.com response times. The transition
NU Shiba Comp P Ltd 011-26413437 shiba@del2.vsnl.net.in www.nu-global.com from CRTs to LCDs would then be
Philips Philips Electronics India Ltd 022-56912000 pcp.india.info@philips.com www.india.philips.com more likely.
Samsung Samsung India Electronics P Ltd 011-41511234 vineet.kanaujia@samsung.com www.samsungindia.com
jayesh_limaye@thinkdigit.com
ViewSonic Roop Technology Pvt Ltd 022-26681921 roop@vsnl.com www.viewsonic.com
anup_nair@thinkdigit.com
Adobe Acrobat
“There’s more to Acrobat than the Reader,” the tagline went. Acrobat’s features are indeed endless
ly like the original, while still New ment, and of when they respond-
Ram Mohan Rao being searchable. Remember,
using either of these formats,
features in ed with their comments.
A new feature in Acrobat 7 is
version 7
E
veryone has encountered you’ll be building a searchable that if you’re conducting your
PDF files, and in all probabil- document collection—in Acrobat, include the review over the Web, the Tracker
ity, you have Adobe Reader you can search for all occurrences option to acts as an RSS reader!
installed. Reader often urges you, of a word in an entire folder. import
on the top right of the screen, to
get the full version of Acrobat. So Modifying Content e-mails from Web And E-mail
Acrobat is truly Web-ready. Using
what can you do with Acrobat After you’ve converted documents MS Outlook the Advanced Editing options, you
apart from just converting docu- to PDF—whether by OCRing them and sort can add links and annotations,
ments to PDF? Actually, there’s so or by converting them from other them within forms and security options, and
much you can, it would require a formats—there’s plenty more to a PDF even video and sound to your PDFs.
tome to tell you. Here, we’re just do. You can add headers, footers, document Acrobat can be used as a cross-
giving you a flavour for the variety and watermarks, all under the platform image viewer. Using a
of functions Acrobat is capable of. Documents menu. If a particular plug-in, you can convert images in
part of a document needs special different formats to PDF files.
Capturing Content attention, you can copy that sec- A PDF file can act as a contain-
Combining elements from differ- tion as an image using the er for files of almost any type—you
ent sources to create organised, Snapshot Tool on the the standard could attach the original Word
searchable documents is one thing toolbar. You can add list boxes, document from which the PDF
Acrobat can do for you, but that combo boxes, and more, all from was created, so the reader can
doesn’t even scratch the surface. the Advanced Editing Toolbar, compare and figure out what
A first example of how you under “Advanced.” changes were made. Besides, since
can use Acrobat is Web capture. You can, of course, take pages you can attach a range of docu-
When you convert a Web page to off one document and add them ment types, the PDF format can be
PDF—simply by going to Create to another and so on, building up used as a medium for secure deliv-
PDF > From Web Page—you your document collection exactly ery of any sensitive content!
supply the Web page address, as you want it. And you can export You can edit any part
and specify various parameters, all images in a document to a of a document before
including how deep (in terms of folder, by simply going to you publish it—the
levels) you want to go. Acrobat Advanced > Export All Images. As Touch Up tools (under
will faithfully create a PDF of the another example of Acrobat’s ver- Advanced Editing) can
site, with all images and links satility, you can even do things be used to edit text
intact and in place. What’s really like using a radio button to access including fonts and
cool is that each page header gets part of another document! sizes, move graphics
a convenient bookmark. And you Restricting access is well around, and so on.
can nest the bookmarks accord- implemented in Acrobat. You can
ing to your convenience. password-protect documents so New Features And More
Want to move towards an they can’t be opened, or altered, New features in version 7 include
office that uses less paper? OCR or printed. These features are the option to import e-mails from
all your documents by going to under Document > Security. And MS Outlook and sort them within
Create PDF > From Scanner, and from the Document > Digital a PDF document. The new
build up a collection of search- Signatures menu, you can digital- Organizer makes it much easier
able documents. The OCR is rea- ly sign a document before send- to, well, organise documents: for
sonably accurate, and suspect ing them so the receiver knows example, with the History feature,
words can be incorporated as it’s you who’s sent it. you can see which PDFs you
bitmaps without being OCRed! Explore the Comments menu: opened when, with thumbnails!
And there are plenty of options once a document has been sent Probably the best thing about
under “Image Settings,” which out for review, you can collate all all this is that in the end, regard-
let you tailor the capture accord- the comments from all reviewers less of what system and platform
ing to the type and quality of doc- and merge them into a single PDF and applications you used to
uments being OCRed. document. Comments can be create your PDFs, your documents
You can capture in two managed using the sorting and fil- look exactly the way you created
modes—”searchable image” and tering tools. They can even be them—to anyone, on any platform,
“formatted text in graphics.” The exported to Word! Besides, using using the free Adobe Reader!
former is an image file of the doc- the Tracker tool, again under the Help in Acrobat is extensive,
ument that retains searchability Comments menu, you can track and we’d advise you to go through
by cleverly keeping the OCRed the progress of the document the full help file to get a real feel
characters in a layer “beneath” the review process: the Tracker keeps for what you can do with this do-
document. This format is useful if track of the reviewers you’ve invit- it-all software.
you want your PDFs looking exact- ed to take a look at your docu- ram_mohan@thinkdigit.com
The most daunting task—hunting down a good One simple Google search is all it takes, and I have
1
book. After reading loads of reviews online, I short- everything I need right in front of me. It did take me
listed a few books that would probably suit my some time to wade through sites to decide which one
needs. Next step: running around the city in the seemed the best, but I could do it in the comfort of
sweltering heat to find them in bookstores. my chair and without having to pay anything, too. I
The books start at about Rs 300, but some of them settled on W3Schools.org.
actually come for around Rs 1,500. Ouch!
I settled for XSLT: Working with XML and HTML by
Khun Yee Fung, which was quite pocket-friendly at
Rs 500.
Twenty per cent of any book effectively covers over It’s all free, so there’s no guilt about wasted
2
eighty percent of the XSLT I’m ever going to use, so investments on books that are bigger than I’ll ever
a goodish number of those pages are probably need.
wasted on me. Still, it’s heartening to know they’re Of course, the time I spend in the train will be
there—I can browse through them on the train wasted twiddling my thumbs.
journey to work.
On to learning. Reading is quite convenient—after The site is organised quite like a book itself, and I
all, it is a book—easy on the eyes and what-have-you. need to just click on the link for the chapters I’m
3
It’s also expectedly well-organised and cross- interested in, without having to think about the
referenced, so finding the information I need isn’t others. What’s more, I can keep cross-referenced
much of a hassle. items open in different windows, so when I read
I find the bundled sample code a tad limiting something like “refer this,” the “this” is just an [Alt] +
though—there just isn’t enough to satisfy random [Tab] away.
curiosity, so I need to go online to check if my weird
ideas are actually feasible.
My first XSLT! Pity it doesn’t work properly. This is the There are millions of online forums and help sites
ne needs to realise that this is a programming need to do plenty of dirty work before you can begin
And
The O language we’re talking about and all the information
available couldn’t fill just one book—getting connected is
learning. If you are just a hobbyist, online is the way to go.
Whether you do so before or after you invest in a book
Winner the fastest way to expand your knowledge. Finding depends on whether you feel you’d learn better from a
Is... information you can digest is a task in itself, though—you’ll book.
www.digg.com
The next time you see a piece of tech news you want to share, don't bother passing the word
around. Just Digg it!
crop, by clicking on “Submit a New
Jyotsna Rege Story”. You submit the URL of the
news site from where you chose the
A
technology news site this is, story, then the site conducts a search
but, well, a tech news site with for it. Once your story has been con-
a difference. The content here firmed, you give it a title, submit a
is not managed by an editorial body brief introduction, and specify the cat-
but by you—as a registered user, of egory under which you would like your
course. Although users can post arti- story listed. The final bit is where the
cles on the site after registration, the site searches if the same (or a similar)
content retained is largely determined story has already been submitted, and
by what readers like to read. Each time if it has, the site requests you to not
someone likes an article, he “diggs” submit your story! The story is then
it—a word borrowed from the Amer- posted to the “Digg Area Queue.” Sto-
ican slang for “preference.” An article ries are held here until (and if!) they
has to be relatively new and has to are promoted to the home page. Pro-
have a sufficient number of diggs motion, as we’ve mentioned, is based
before it is posted on the home page. on the number of diggs it receives.
The articles you see here are not The third link—”Digg Spy”—is
authored by users, but are interesting interesting. Clicking on this gives you
reads they’ve come across in their Net a “real-time view” of the site—all sto-
wanderings. This, therefore, isn’t an ries on the site get streamed, and you Clicking on a title on “Digg Spy” shows the comments the
original news site—it’s a community can pause a story if you want to. article received
bulletin board of sorts. Besides simultaneously checking friends. Links on the home page take
out who wrote what, how many diggs you to the top stories and show the top
At A Glance a story received and whether it made diggers. Besides, the site also has a
This is a very pretty, well-designed, it to the home page (or got “buried”), podcast feed, and a link called
XP-esque site. The home page is dom- you can also sort them according to “odeo”—which takes you to the Web
inated by links to stories that have your preference with the help of the pages of Diggnation, a weekly
made it here. A box on the left of the little buttons. tech/Web culture show based on the
title mentions the number of time the In this view, clicking on a story title top digg.com news stories.
story has been “dugg.” In addition, a does not take you to the article link,
tiny link below the number box allows but to the comments the story has Why Digg?
the reader to digg the story. Once you received and the diggers who com- The news posted on the site, though
do so, the number on the yellow mented. You can then take a peek at largely controlled by its readers, is
number tab increases immediately to the profile of the digger and also look also monitored for content. The site
accommodate your “digg,” or at the all the articles he has dugg. also requests and instructs readers
approval. Links that allow the user to to prevent inappropriate or irrele-
read and add comments, blog and e- …And Do More vant content from residing on the
mail the article are arranged below It’s not all about spending geeky hours pages by reporting this on the
the story title and introduction. looking up and reading stories and “problem” link that accompanies
Just so you don’t feel lost, there’s articles about technology. As a regis- each article. And, of course, you can
a search bar, and also a list of cate- tered member, you have a profile via digg a site only once.
gories you can click on—such as which you can create a circle of It’s true that there are an awful
“robots,” “hardware,” “apple,” and so lot of “front pages”—1,097 at the time
on. You don’t need to register to read of writing! While this may seem too
articles, but if you want to do anything much to surf through, you can always
more, you have to. refine your choices.
We can think of four reasons for
Let’s Start Digging! being a regular Digger: first, you get
One gets started using three links on the most popular tech news on the
the top right—“Digg for Stories,” home page, without needing to
“Submit a New Story,” and “Digg wade through tens of other sites.
Spy.” With the first link, you get a Second, you can actively partici-
look at the stories that are up for pate in several ways in what’s going on.
reading and being rated, either in Third, everything on the site is
“story view”—where you see a set so neatly organised and arranged!
number of stories on the page—or And fourth, the site embodies a
“cloud view,” wherein all “queued” sound democracy.
stories are clustered together. Trust us, if you’re a tech buff,
As a registered user, you can you’ll get hooked on your first visit!
invite others to read your pick of the “Digg” your favorite site on the home page jyotsna_rege@thinkdigit.com
Code Effect
2 Runlevel 2, Textmode only
base Skip myDSL and only load the base system
desktop= Choose your window manager. Options:
fluxbox, jwm
dma Turn on DMA acceleration for all drives
host=web123 Set hostname
lang={us/cs/da/de/e Choose Language/Keyboard
s/fr/nl/it/pl/ru/sk...}
[F4] To create a playlist. Name the file with a .lst extension MTU:1500 Metric:1
[C] To clear the playlist RX packets:375613 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
[F3] To load a playlist TX packets:2467 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
[F6] Toggle repeat collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
[F7] Toggle shuffle RX bytes:26276079 (25.0 MiB) TX bytes:494497
[F] Toggle file or screen display (482.9 KiB) Interrupt:11 Base address:0xaf00
Playback (Numeric keypad keys)
[4] Previous track
[5] Play/pause eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:00:00:00:00:00
[6] Next track inet addr:128.128.255.51 Bcast:128.128.255.255
[1] Rewind a track Mask:255.255.0.0 inet6 addr: fe80::20c:76ff:fe52:e6f5/64
[2] Stop a track Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST
[3] Forward a track
Table 2
MTU:1500 Metric:1
Sound mixer settings RX packets:375613 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0
[T] Toggle mixer: Volume, PCM, IGain, Spkr, Line-in, etc. frame:0 TX packets:2467 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0
[>] Increase the level of a mixer setting, for example, carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
Volume RX bytes:26276079 (23.5 MiB) TX bytes:494497
[<] Decrease the level of a mixer setting, for example, (477.2 KiB) Interrupt:11 Base address:0xaf00
volume
When an XP-based computer goes into The kind of sound you’re talking about
Hibernate mode, it creates a file called generally indicates that the media—the
hiberfil.sys in the root directory. The size of disk platter—has suffered physical damage. In
this file is, of course, equal to that of the your case, since at least some data is accessible,
system RAM, because XP stores the contents of it seems the partition table of your drive has
the RAM in this file. become corrupt. Many disk utilities such as
In your case, because of the low disk space, Disk Scan and Norton Disk Doctor can attempt
there is not enough space to create this file, so to repair such errors, but there is no guarantee
that the data will be recovered. Hence, before
running such utilities, it is better to run data
recovery utilities such as OnTrack Easy
Recovery Professional, or one of the utilities
from R-Studio, to maximise the chances of
recovering data.
If your data is recovered, back it up and
then run the disk scanning utilities to repair
the errors in the partition table. You should be
able to use the drive. But even then, the sound
from your drive is not something that can be
ignored—you’ll likely need to replace it.
H
ere, we look at the basics of you play the track, you can hear
audio mixing using Audacity, the sound from both tracks. You
a very powerful free and open can repeatedly paste your mix-
source software. You can download ing selection to create a loop
Audacity from http://audacity.source- effect or even paste them at dif-
forge.net/download/windows. To ferent points.
save your tracks as MP3s, you need If your mixing appears at
the LAME MP3 Encoder, which is the beginning of the track, you
available under ‘Optional Downloads’ may want to Fade In your selec-
at the same site. tion (increase the amplitude
6 Do not start your selection from this point gradually) or conversely, Fade
Opening Tracks 4 Selection can start from here Out if it appears at the end of
Once you start Audacity, you the track. These options can be
can open the songs you want music of a number at the end of the found under the Effects menu.
to work with by selecting Import song, extending the track by pasting
Audio from the Project menu. File > another song at the end. The possibili- Deleting Parts Of
Open will open the file in a different ties are limited only by your creativity! A Track
window. The song(s) will open in dif- Deleting is perhaps the sim-
ferent tracks in the same window as Normalising The Tracks plest thing you can do—just highlight
waveforms. When you have two songs (select) the portion to delete and
A waveform is a graphical repre- open, you will immediately press [Delete]. You may select a whole
sentation of the audio file. It shows see that the average levels (the Y-axis stanza or beat sequence to delete if
the amplitude (or volume) of the levels) of the two are different (in you want to shorten the song. Erasing
track at every instant of time. You can most cases). Before you do any mix- at random will make the track sound
play from any position on the track ing, you need to bring them to the bad, to say the least!
by simply clicking on the waveform same level by a process called nor-
at the desired point (timeline) and malising. Press [Ctrl] + [A] to select all Save The New File!
pressing the spacebar or the Play but- tracks, and go to Effect > Normalise Once you’re satisfied with
ton. To select a portion of the wave- and apply the change. the way your mixed track
form, just click and drag your mouse sounds, you can save it as an MP3 by
cursor and you will see the waveform Mixing The Tracks going to File > Export as MP3. Your
being highlighted. Open the Alice Deejay track in output file will contain the “mix” of
a new window and here, cre- both the tracks.
Making A Selection ate a new blank track by going to Pro- Mixing two tracks is just one of
Let’s say you want to mix the ject > New Stereo Track. the basic operations that can be per-
music from Darude with the Choose the point(s) in Alice Deejay formed on audio files using Audacity.
track of Alice Deejay. Open these files where you want to mix your selection. Audacity offers a lot more editing and
in separate windows. Note that you Now, in the blank track that appears manipulation options. Try different
cannot copy just any part of Darude options under the Effects menu
and mix it at any point in Alice Deejay. on parts of the file. The hitherto
First, you must take care to begin dormant Music Director in you
your selection (in this case, Darude) at might just be unleashed!
a point on the waveform where the kailas_shastry@thinkdigit.com
amplitude is zero. Zoom in to the
waveform to pin-point a position Zooming Into The Waveform
where the Y-axis (hence amplitude) is By default, the waveform is 'fitted'
zero. Similarly, end the selection at a onto your screen’s maximum
zero amplitude point. width. For finer detail, you can
When you play the tracks, ensure zoom into it using the zoom
that the mix sounds good. You may controls. As the waveform is
need to spend some time on it before unfolded before you, you will find
you get the proper hang of mixing at it easier to make an accurate
the correct points. You can try differ- selection.
ent combinations like mixing the intro The main and mixing tracks
I
’ve taken up photography as a full-fledged If your budget centres around Rs 10,000, you
hobby, so to speak, and clicking away is all the can get a decent point-and-shoot camera. The
more enjoyable when you’re travelling. And Sony CyberShot S90 retails at around Rs 10,500.
yes—the summer holidays are here! Time for me If you stretch your budget a little, Nikon’s
to chalk out an itinerary of worthy places to visit, Coolpix 5600 is available for around Rs 11,000.
but before that, I’ve got to get myself a good—and It’s a 5.1-megapixel camera, with 3x optical
I mean good—camera. zoom and great optics. If you are considering a
My Nikon FM-10 manual SLR may only be mid-range camera, the Nikon Coolpix 5600
three years old, but being film-based, it’s expen- would make a good buy. In the same price range
sive to run. I therefore decided on a new digital is the Sony CyberShot W5, which has a large
camera for this summer. Mind you, when it LCD display and boasts of terrific performance
comes to buying a digital camera, a lot of things (we’ve tested it). The W5 is quite compact, offers
need to be considered, the most important being a 5-megapixel sensor, nearly 3x optical zoom,
the megapixel count, optical zoom, optics qual- and a good lens.
ity, and type of memory supported. Canon’s PowerShot A540 is a 6-megapixel
“The higher the megapixel count, the better camera with 4x optical zoom, and cramps in
the camera.” That’s what most folks believe. It’s many easy-to-use features. Priced at Rs 15,000,
partly true, but one also needs to pay attention the A540 is attractive, and should be considered
to the quality of optics—Carl Zeiss, Schneider- if you’re looking for a compact digicam.
Kreuznach, and Nikkor lenses, amongst others, That apart, Sony’s P200 is one great camera
are considered good. My advice would be to not to look out for. This model comes with a 7-
pay too much attention to the megapixel count; megapixel sensor, a Carl-Zeiss lens, 3x optical
it is not the yardstick. zoom, and offers wonderful performance. At Rs
There are many cheap digicams out there 13,500, the P200 is hard
that claim high megapixel counts, and which to miss, and is probably
cost around Rs 5,000. Avoid such cameras, since the camera you should
they use low megapixel count sensors and digi- be buying if you’re
tally bump up the resolution. This results in interested in a compact
loss of quality. point-and- shoot camera.
The best place to check out The entry-level digi-
digital cameras in Mumbai are tal SLR market is quite
Heera Panna shopping centre “hot” right now as they
and Alfa. Other great places say, and anyone aspiring to
are the lanes near the Fort go beyond the amateur stage
area. For other cities, should opt for one of these.
make sure you go with What you should be looking at
some references! are the Nikon D50 and D70. They
A year ago, a basic retail at around Rs 35,000 and 48,000
digital camera from a respectively—that’s the cost for the body and
known company would one removable lens. Later on, you can go for
cost around Rs 10,000; the additional lens such as wide-angle, close-up,
price has now slipped to an average of and more. As for Canon, think about the 350D,
Rs 7,000. The feature sets offered are good which is a direct competitor to the Nikon D70.
enough for casual shutterbugs. One can expect Retailing at between Rs 38,000 and 42,000, the
a 3-megapixel camera with an optical zoom of 350D, too, is a good entry-level digital SLR.
around 2X and memory storage on an SD/MMC Since I already have an SLR, I thought I
card for this price. Canon’s PowerShot A410 is should get myself a point-and-shoot thingy. And
the cheapest camera I could locate; it retails at that’s what I did—the Sony P200, at Rs 13,000,
around Rs 7,000 and comes with a good feature was simply too good to be ignored.
bundle. It’s rugged, and it’s definitely a good
point-and-shoot camera for the price. Of
course, you’ll need to bear in mind that these Want more of Agent 001? Turn over to read his
are grey market prices; the official prices will answers to your buying questions
be a little higher.
Illustration Pradip Ingale
You need to remember that these software are still not perfect, and chances
are that some cleverly disguised adult content might get through.
However, what’s more likely is that a lot of innocent content might get
blocked. For example, Web pages that talk about “breast cancer” might be
blocked because of the word “breast”; sites that offer “sex education” will
definitely be blocked
Thankfully, most parental control software allow you to administer the
browsing habits of your children, so not only can you see what sites they were
trying to visit (even by accident), you can also approve any sites that were
inappropriately blocked! The pros outweigh the cons a million to one in this
case, and if you have Net-savvy kids, we really recommend that you install a
parental control software
Digital
Case Study
system changed from MS-DOS to Windows NT, but n Two Epson Printers
matrix filled in for the printing tasks. n A 100 Mbps LAN switch
The 1996 upgrade had took care of the require- n A CAT-5 cable
lets one carry one’s data and applications along The Demands
with them. This is all very well for big corporates Finding the best portable application for your
who can afford it, but what of the common busi- needs is all about balancing size and features.
nessman? In a SoHo or Small Business, you can’t Your first consideration is that the application
really be expected to buy a company laptop for should not write any settings to the host com-
everyone who needs it and not feel the pinch, puter—you don’t really want to leave your mark
can you? anywhere. The next priority is size—you’d rather
The ultimate solution to this problem will be have several small programs rather than one that
on-demand computing—when we’d sit in front hogs all the space. After all, even 512 MB USB
of any PC, anywhere, and with the digital equiv- drives can get full alarmingly quickly, and the
alent of yelling “Gimme!”, have all our applica- more room you have for our data, the better.
tions and data at our beck and call. Of course, Smaller applications do tend to have fewer fea-
there’s still a few years to go before that. tures, but let’s admit it—few of us use all the bells
But strangely enough, most of us don’t even and whistles in most software anyway.
realise that we don’t need to wait for the advent So it’s decided: you go out and buy a 512 MB
of on-demand computing—we’ve got the solution USB drive (this will cost you about Rs 1,650). You
to these woes in our hands already! Many people should remember, however, that all the applica-
carry their data around on a USB stick—presen- tions need to be crammed into 200 MB of space—
tations, documents, spreadsheets, you name it— the remaining 300-odd should be kept free for
why not carry programs too? Portable data. Small size is a priority, but as far as pos-
Applications are built for the sole purpose of sible, you don’t want to compromise on features.
being run off a USB stick—no installation, no You also have to take into consideration the
Some Homework
Packing It All In
Once you’ve decided on what you’re going to
put in your drive, installation is usually simple
enough. Most of these applications come as ZIP
archives, so all you need to do is extract them
to the drive.
For the ones that come with installers, you
could either install them directly to the drive,
or install them to your Windows drive and copy
the program folder from “C:\Program Files”
(or wherever you installed the application) to
the drive.
A
picture speaks a thousand words, and it Centre have put these projectors through a com-
is imperative to have a projector that says pletely revised test process to bring forth the true
all the right things about your sales picture—warts and all.
pitch. People make the common mistake
of believing that you can get away with a business Understanding The Features
projector of average quality and less-than- perfect A proper understanding of a projector’s features
rendition; after all, PowerPoint presentations and and their relevance to your requirements is vital.
Excel sheets do not need the precision com- It is imperative to not be swayed by specmanship,
manded by the more expensive Home Theatre gimmicks and features that look good only on
projectors. That is a grave misconception. Just like paper, but do not justify the extra cost they entail.
a hypnotist needs total silence to get into the
psyche of his subject, your projector, too, should Aesthetics
be free of any imperfections and artefacts that First impressions count. It makes a difference
can break the spell and reflect badly on your when you whip out a well-sculpted projector, as
presentation. opposed to something with the aesthetic appeal
Fortunately for us, the ongoing war between of a brick.
the DLP and LCD projection systems translate into
better and more advanced projectors at reduced Resolutions
prices. What was high-end a couple of years ago Featured in this projector shootout were SVGA
has now trickled down to the budget segment. (800x600) and XGA (1024x768) resolutions.
Projectors today are based on the DLP, LCD, Choosing the optimum resolution is depen-
LCoS and CRT technologies. With the LCoS and dant upon the kind of tasks you’ll be using the
CRT projection systems out of the scope of this test projector for. SVGA is the way to go if you’ll pri-
due to their astronomical costs, choosing a busi- marily be using the projector for graphs, movies,
ness projector boils down to a binary choice pictures and presentations without intricate
between the DLP and LCD systems. detailing. However, if your projection needs
Current-generation DLP and LCD projectors include fine text, computer desktop projection
have benefited from refinements of key technolo- and large spreadsheets, it would be prudent to
gies, giving them better colour accuracy, bright- opt for the more expensive XGA projectors.
How We Tested
The Test Bed were made to rectify tracking or phase streaking, black and white levels, blooming,
The test bed had an Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz errors, if any. We avoided using the default ghosting, flicker, etc. This gives a definitive
processor, an MSI 875P NEO motherboard, 1 projector settings and instead calibrated idea of the resolution accuracy and colour
GB DDR 400 SDRAM and an ATi X850-based each projector to give the best fidelity rendition, and also uncovers serious flaws
video card. Windows XP Professional with possible. A white projection screen 90x72 which could easily be missed otherwise.
Service Pack 2 and 32-bit colour depth was inches large was used for the tests.
used, with the Windows and ATi-based Picture Quality
graphics enhancements and presets Features Here we used our reference high resolution
turned off. Here we focused on key features such as bitmaps and Adobe Photoshop PSD files to
brightness, contrast ratio, optical zoom ratio, gauge the colour rendition and the detail
Evaluation Pre-Setup keystone, preset modes, fine picture and levels. The test images consisted of a variety
The tests were carried out in absolute colour temperature control etc. Interconnect of real photographs and flat-shaded ones with
darkness with zero ambient light. In order availability such as DVI, D-SUB, and S-Video, less colour complexity. Each image had a
to keep the evaluation process fair, we was also considered. characteristic feature which formed the basis
maintained a uniform size of the projected Another key feature is the weight and for benchmarking. These were instrumental in
image. Having a fixed distance would have dimensions of the projector, as business gauging grille effect, colour gradation
been unfair, since projectors have different applications need to consider portability discrepancies, impurity and most importantly,
throw distances in accordance to the room due to need for constant mobility. Special the black level detail of the projector.
size specifications they are built for. Zoom features such as USB control port, an
was set to zero, and great pains were taken inbuilt mouse, and remotes with Laser Presentation Test
to do away with keystone correction pointers were given additional points. This test included a PowerPoint presentation
altogether, unless unavoidable, because with pictures, graphs, and text of varying font
doing that reduces image quality. DVI The Tests sizes and colours. Our main focus was the
interconnects were given precedence over DisplayMate Video Edition readability of normal and inverted text, with
D-SUB wherever available. We gave the DisplayMate is a leading video evaluation tool, the graph and photo quality coming second.
projector lamp 15 minutes more than its which employs accurate proprietary test
rated warm-up time to ensure pure colour patterns to evaluate image quality, as also to Animation Test
rendition, after which the pre-test reveal defects in video displays. We tested the For the animation test, we used professional
calibration was executed. All projectors projectors using 26 relevant parameters such reference grade, imported DVDs of Shrek and
were tested at their native resolutions with as contrast, brightness, focussing, resolution, Spirit. Shrek was used to test the intensity,
a default refresh rate of 75 Hz. Attempts moiré, colour gradation accuracy, purity, colour-scaling, and the ability of the projector
to reproduce intricate details and and its wide array of muted colours
coloured lighting effects. The Spirit DVD stress any video system when it comes
had a flat-shaded animation that helped to accuracy of fine colour gradation.
us to focus on a projector’s absolute Both of them have certain key areas
colour accuracy. Any colour where the colour wheel effect of DLPs
imperfections and gradation problems can be easily apparent, if present.
were conspicuous with this DVD. Another DVD used to test the projectors
was Corrs Unplugged, which has close
Movie Test camera angles of the performers. We
A movie test is significant because it used it to check the skin tone accuracy of
transcends the major differentiating the projector. Its muted colours with
factor of resolution, because movies great black scaling are instrumental in
themselves have a fixed lower resolution. loading the DLP projection system
This allows us to evaluate the absolute enough to show their inherent flaws. This
image quality irrespective of the native also has a high dynamic range of lighting
resolution of a projector creating a level- in each frame, which amplifies any colour
ground across all segments. noise and intensity scaling problems.
No professional video test can be However, the most significant was
complete without the Saving Private the Corrs Live in London DVD, which
Ryan and Gladiator DVDs. We had has the most amazing colour
extremely rare, limited signature complexity you’ll ever find, with a
editions of the same, which feature rainbow spectrum of volumetric
phenomenal mastering quality, absent lighting, lens flares, halos and an
on the regular prints. Gladiator can onstage back panel with ultra-bright
pretty much bring any display system to psychedelic lighting effects. There are
its knees with the amount of resolution passages where the screen goes into
detail it holds, and features very hard- extreme intensity of colours replete
to-render scenes with great colour with a staggering array of colour
complexity. Saving Private Ryan is the blending. In fact, just one projector was
industry standard benchmark when it able to give acceptable levels of colour
comes to gauging the black-level detail, accuracy with this DVD!
Infocus LP-600
SVGA
Since these are the cheapest projectors available
in the market, they are built that way too, with
the level of engineering precision not being up to
the mark. These projectors show optical issues
such as phase, tracking problems, vertical
banding, gradation, colour impurity and the char-
acteristic artefacts associated with the DLP and
LCD projection technologies. However, the overall
quality levels are still better than what you could
buy in the same segment just a year ago. To our
collective surprise, though, the Sharp projector
defied all pricing logic and put forth a perform-
ance that caught us unaware.
The Presentation Test
DisplayMate Video Edition
Most of the projectors here had issues rendering
blacks, and hence messed up the greyscale. The
Picture Quality
The combination of brilliant colour reproduc-
tion paired with pin-point resolution made the
Sharp the clear winner in this segment. Its
ability to resolve the tiniest detail along with a
staggering range of colours was a delight when
watching images. Next was the Hitachi LCD pro-
jector, which was found lacking only in the res-
olution aspect, which is very crucial for images.
Epson fared dismally due to its issues with
phase and colour accuracy. The Acer and BenQ,
too, gave a very blocky effect with brighter parts
of images.
Epson EMP-S3
Good features; Commendable Low power Good performance Brilliant Light and compact
portable performance consumption Low Contrast performance Could do with a
Average Average build Poor Ratio Bulky better remote
performance quality performance
Digital Business l Business Test
XGA Projectors
Infocus Sharp
LP-600 XR-10X
24.29 24.30
DLP DLP
1024 x 768 1024 x 768
2000 2000
1000:1 2000:1
4:3 / 16:9 4:3 / 16:9
4 4
1.24:1 1.15:1
33 - 268 40 - 300
1.5 - 10 1.4 - 12.1
200 275
2000 / NA 2000 / 3000
4 4
31 - 85 15 - 70
50 - 85 45 - 85
4/4/4 4/4/4
6/4 4/4
Mono, 3 Mono, 2
4 6
2.4 3.9
260 330
37 33
3.75 4.5
4 4
4 4
4 4
4 4
23.87 43.87
11.00 27.84
1.13 4.50
2.75 4.50
2.00 4.50
2.13 4.50
2.00 4.50
1.63 4.50
0.50 4.50
1.05 1.80
13.88 26.30
1.25 4.50
1.50 4.50
2.38 4.50
3.50 4.50
3.00 4.50
2.38 4.50
3.50 4.50
3.25 4.50
2.28 6.30
1.50 4.50
2.25 4.50
1.25 4.50
1.38 4.50
19.55 25.5
3.25 4.50
3.25 4.50
3.38 4.50
3.38 4.50
3.13 4.50
89,000 95,000
14.83 13.89
63.00 82.07
Compact Brilliant
Average performance
performance Bulky
T
he IT industry is highly knowledge- and
competency-driven and therefore, technology
requirements change every three years. Given
this backdrop, there is a constant demand from
customers for new skills. This means that
companies like TCS recognise the importance of
new certifications and continuously invest to
develop the competencies of its associates.
A strong academic record forms an important
eligibility criterion in our selection process,
especially for fresh entrants. While recruiting
experienced professionals, certain skill-specific
certifications can help give a person an edge over
S Padmanabhan competitors for the job.
Executive vice president Normally, not many freshers obtain high-end
Global head of human certifications typically covered by our certification
resource development policy. Those who do have some certifications have
Tata Consultancy Services an edge over other applicants. Certifications
(TCS) reflect the initiative of a candidate and his urge to
keep learning. This edge is important, given the
kind of competition that exists to get a job with a
preferred employer like TCS.
ARE CERTIFICATION
When it comes to recruitment, different companies treat certifications—such as MCSE or
CCNE—differently. Some say it is important; some say it might make a difference; some
attach no weightage to such courses. Here's what five HR officials have to say
C
ertifications are relevant for certain types
of jobs because they bridge the gap
between conventional education and
specific skill requirements. If you looked at
specialised professions like medical, legal,
insurance etc., certifications have been pretty
much the norm. Specific to the IT industry, we
see some commonly preferred certifications like
PMP for Project Managers, Cisco and Microsoft
certifications. Networking, database, Unix/Linux,
information security, and technologies like ERP,
data warehousing, storage, and supply-chain are
the common areas.
A certification does tell me that this
Eli Ramon candidate is interested enough and serious
HR director, South Asia enough about the profession to put in extra
Intel effort. But that’s just a foot in the door. The
hiring decision is eventually based on
demonstrated knowledge and the quality of
experience they have gained.
When we assess recent college graduates, we
focus on basics. For us, the key factors are
aptitude, verbal ability, reasoning, value system,
and technical knowledge related to what they
learnt in their stream of education.
Certifications may help them improve scores on
those, but cannot make all the difference.
A degree can be valuable, certification can
Imaging Pravin Warhokar
COURSES A VALUE-ADD?
C
ertification does not play a primary role in the recruitment process,
especially in the case of freshers. Infotech recruits only graduates
who have secured first class, that is, above 65 per cent aggregate.
Such candidates are then put through an entrance exam, a group
discussion, and two levels of interviews. Apart from this, their final year
project is of importance. Even if it’s a dummy project, what the candidate
has learnt from it is important. Following all these considerations are soft
skills such as communication and team dynamics.
It’s only after these criteria that certification comes into consideration.
Other parameters being the same, a certified candidate will probably stand
a better chance. However, in the case of freshers, our in-house training is
good enough to impart the necessary job skills.
Some clients do mention a preference for a particular number of
certified candidates in a project, but there are often experienced members
Ashok Reddy in the team with the required profile.
Executive vice president Of the 300 freshers we recruited in 2006, very few possess any
HR and corporate affairs
certification.
Infotech Enterprises Ltd
A
graduation in engineering provides the necessary background for a
fresher. Gaps in specific skills are bridged by on-the-job and internal
training. In the case of experienced candidates, yes, a certification
could be an added advantage—for example, an MCSE or CCNE for a systems
position, or an OCP for a database position. But we certainly don’t consider
these a substitute for relevant experience.
For a fresher, certification can perhaps guarantee an interview, but not
a job. His concepts as proved by his academics and performance in the
interview are more relevant. Let’s say we’re recruiting a Java resource; once
basic proficiency is established, the candidate’s attitude and willingness to
learn is perhaps more important than a Java certification. If he doesn’t
have one, our internal training process will more than make up for it.
Certification is probably the last thing one would consider in the
process of recruiting a fresher, and it’s definitely not a make-good for
Nitya Nivali average or poor academics. However, after three to four years of experience,
Senior manager - HR an employee can consider certifications such as PMP (Project Management
Progress Software Professional) to move into a Project Manager post.
As told to Philip Malayil (philip_malayil@thinkdigit.com)
Life @ 24 FPS
work for three-dimensional animation films.
The animation Philip Malayil Rates in the US and European markets are in the
$17,000 to $25,000 (Rs 7.7 to 11.25 lakh) range.
industry is hen Garfield wakes up to press the Analysts estimate that Indian companies
associated with
much glamour
W snooze button—or closer home, when
Fido Dido checks out the beach scene—
have won some $50 million to $100 million (Rs
225 to 450 crore) in business, a small slice of the
much labour has been expended to add life to, or $10 billion (Rs 45,000 crore) global animation
and more money. animate, those 24 frames that move in front of industry. But that could change, as major US stu-
But what is the your eyes in a second. Animation is traditionally dios such as Disney, Warner Bros Studios and
associated with big Hollywood studios, but Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who previously have
scene really like according to a NASSCOM report released in Jan- done much of their animation in-house, try to
for a doodling uary 2006, India’s animation industry is cut costs. Companies such as UTV Software Com-
career? expected to reach revenues of Rs 4,223 crore by munications (UTV), Toonz Animation and Crest
2009, from the 2005 figure of Rs 1,270 crore. Communications are leading the way.
For those looking out for careers, these fig-
Why India? ures offer comfort. But let not the moolah drive
Wage levels for animators in offshore countries you where talent does not! If you’ve spent your
are attractive to production companies and school days doodling cartoons of the maths
movie studios looking to save a penny. Billing teacher rather than listen to his ramblings on
rates last year for animation work in India trigonometry, and your classmates have cheered
ranged from $2,000 (Rs 90,000) to $5,250 (Rs 2.35 not when you got caught but at the canny like-
lakh) per minute for two-dimen- ness of your toons, animation might just be the
sional animation, and between field for you.
$4,500 (Rs 2 lakh) and $7,000
(Rs 3.15 lakh) per minute of
Illustration Pradip Ingale
Mr. Pai advises aspirants to the field, “One “3D is where the action is, and aspirants
would like to dispel the common misconception should consider this avenue. Growth is only lim-
that getting into the animation or gaming ited by one’s creativity. From a starting salary of
industry requires one to learn or gain expertise Rs 8,000 per month for a trainee, three years can
in the latest versions of imaging software. The see one taking home Rs 75,000 per month as a
fact is, the various software are just tools. Team Lead,” informs Turakhia.
Anyone can learn to use these tools. The essence Turakhia’s advice to young aspirants: “Ani-
is to have the inherent creative talent to be able mation, the universal language, can form the
to use those tools to create works of art. That is skill set for a serious career. Apart from enter-
what students should concentrate on. tainment, opportunities exist in sectors such as
“Technology professionals should also education and architecture. Considering
widen their horizons and look at the wonderful the potential of the industry, a well-thought-
opportunities that this industry provides, out decision should be taken by parents and
rather than following the herd into staid youngsters.”
careers in programming with software giants. Micheal Laxman, member of the technical
As the industry grows, their careers will grow team at MAAC says, “This is the field for those
proportionately.” who are fascinated with visual effects.” Though
Rajesh Turakhia, CEO of Mumbai-based proficiency in drawing or sketching is a welcome
Maya Entertainment Ltd (MEL), which also has a pre-requisite for the one-year course the academy
training division, the Maya Academy Of runs, they have a month’s foundation course for
Advanced Cinematics (MAAC), says, “Out- those lacking the basics. The Maya course covers
sourcing projects for TV and film typically areas of 3D animation, visual effects and editing
extend over a period of two to three years. for film and TV.
During this period new projects keep coming in, According to Laxman, of the 300-odd stu-
which require more manpower. According to dents who pass out of the institute, 12 have been
Turakhia, when 2D ruled the roost it was Korea, placed with MEL. Towards the end of the year,
China and the Philippines which were locations this figure is set to go up to 100.
of choice. “But India, though a late entrant, has
managed to gain ground in 3D. Also, we appre- Hotting Up
ciate the American sense of humour and timing The animation industry is getting ready for more
better,” adds Turakhia. projects and revenues. Avenues for the display of
talent are coming up. 24FPS—an animation film
Institutes festival organized by MAAC—is scheduled for
April, and invites entries from across the
lNID, Ahmedabad lNational Multimedia country. In a creative field, the need for recog-
lAptech-Arena Resource Centre - nition is high, and these are avenues for hidden
lZee Institute Of CDAC Pune talents to make themselves known.
Creative Arts: 3-year lToonz Animation The message seems to be to look beyond
diploma in Animation Academy, Trivandrum the glamour and fancy salaries and take a leap
lIndustrial Design lToonz Webel into the field only when one is convinced
Centre (IIT Mumbai, Animation Academy, about talent and the ability to use the medium
IIT Guwahati) Kolkata to communicate.
philip_malayil@thinkdigit.com
Digital
126 IsGood?
Piracy
130 The
Call
Terrible
152 Skyping
Penelope Cruz
Leisure
Technology Beyond Work
Touched By Tech
Bridging The Gap demand, via a network, to villages we considered its purposeful
At some Jyotsna Rege in the state of Andhra Pradesh. implementation and integration
with Project Shakti. Thus was born
villages in Where It All Began
M
uch of rural India lives in Project i-Shakti. We decided to
Andhra what can be termed Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) begin the venture in AP as the
Pradesh, “Media Darkness”—where began a programme for rural state had already initiated an e-
people do not have access to facil- empowerment called Project Seva programme, and we tied up
illiteracy is ities like television or radio, and in Shakti. Project Shakti aims at with them to launch the services
no more an some places, there’s no access to creating entrepreneurial opportu- we had conceived under i-Shakti,”
newspapers either. Lack of access nities in villages all over India so says Rohit Harirajan, head of
impediment to information has been one of the they do not need to rely on agri- the project.
in the quest impediments to development, and culture alone for their livelihood.
for inform- lack of development, in turn, Most of the individuals who have What Is iShakti?
further alienates the rural sector. registered with the programme The i-Shakti venture seems simple
ation In a bid to breach this vicious are women, and are called the enough when stated out aloud: it
circle, an initiative called Project Shakti entrepreneurs. is a kiosk-based interactive
i-Shakti has used technology to “When Unilever developed an dialogue system that contains a
provide information based on interactive dialogue technology, computer terminal and offers free
Digital Leisure l Lead Feature
informational services aimed at on a computer rather than register and guides them when
education and community devel- employ a kiosk owner as the they use the system. The central
opment in rural India. The aim of interface between the technology server communicates to thou-
the project is to create an IT-based and the user. Hence, the project sands of such kiosks through a
rural information service so that emphasised on using a voice- and specially-developed Compressed
the population has access to criti- video-based system, and uses Data Synchronization-based
cal information via the Internet, “rich media”—software designed Dialogue Technology, which
such as updates on farming prac- using Macromedia Flash—besides allows the kiosks to work in
tices and hygiene. In view of the being database-driven, so that all offline mode. This reduces the
fact that Andhra Pradesh (AP) has the intelligence can be built on it. Making such cost of operations to the kiosk
a total of 7,500 predominantly A voice system would elimi- a project owner, and at the same time, he
agriculture-based villages, the nate the necessity for the user to work in far- can connect to the Central Server
task at hand was monumental. read off the screen, hence making flung villages, every day for two-way data
YonEarth interactive, a it easier for an illiterate user. It under condi- updates. Technical support
Mumbai based IT- was also important to have a tions such as teams, which have been set up all
enabled marketing system that would allow the sporadic over AP, also monitor and solve
solutions company, central servers to connect to these power supply any problems on the kiosks
was hired to design, kiosks through the barriers of and poor within the state. For every forty
develop and poor Internet connectivity, and Internet con- kiosks, there is a technical
manage the venture. enable large volumes of rich- nectivity manager who tackles any prob-
“Every one knew media files and information to go would indeed lems that the kiosks face.
it was an extremely back and forth between the be a chal- Currently, every one of the
uphill task,” says Vivek Marolli, Mumbai office and thousands of lenge i-Shakti kiosks in AP has various
Director, YonEarth Interactive. “It such kiosks on an everyday basis. Vivek Marolli channels of interactive rich-
was completely untreaded terri- Finally, the users had to be taught Director media information created by
tory. Making such an ambitious to use and understand what they YonEarth culling various sources such as
project work in far-flung villages stood to gain by using the system, Interactive opinions of agriculture experts,
across rural India, under difficult besides being trained to use the the Internet, and government
conditions such as sporadic power mouse and keyboard. agencies, on topics such as
supply, heat, dust, poor computer Each i-Shakti kiosk is owned health, agriculture, animal
literacy and almost non-existent by an individual, and it comprises husbandry, education, employ-
or very slow Internet connectivity, a desktop PC system that operates ment, women’s issues, and enter-
would indeed be a challenge. We independently of all other kiosks tainment. As a registered user,
had to design a system that would on the network, but is connected one can visit the i-Shakti kiosk in
beat all these barriers and work in to the central server to which it his village six days a week and
ways that were never thought can synchronise data through a access information and
possible before.” dial-up connection. The i-Shakti services. Since there are
After a study of the require- software needs to be installed on experts who are a part of
ments for the project, and a year PCs with suitable configurations. the project—some on a
spent on designing and building Once deployed on the PC, it payroll and some volun-
the software, the system was acts as a kiosk, and the owner of tary—the villagers can
ready to be launched. While the kiosk is expected to synchro- also post questions on a
building the ICT—the Integrated nise the data and transfer it to query mailing system.
Circuit Technology—the aim was the central server once a day. The
to have a villagers get their hands kiosk owner also helps new users Why i-Shakti?
How is such information critical
to the villagers? Well, most
villages are isolated and inde-
pendently-functioning entities,
and they rely on their existing
means of information and
resources to aid their everyday
activities. This implies that in
case of an illness, they have access
only to a local doctor, and possi-
bly no chance at a second opin-
ion. With i-Shakti, the villager has
access to information that comes
to him from a recognised govern-
ment source, and is an authorised
voice—most of the experts on the
panel of i-Shakti are people
employed with various agencies
all over AP. For example, the
expert on wheat might be an agri-
cultural scientist at the University
of Vijaywada. Besides, the infor-
mation is free, and one can gain
This easy to use interface has ‘talking’ icons insights in any developments in
Is Piracy Good?
simplest thing on earth—just go “Never mind, I found the key
And we’re Agent 001 to a download site such as myself… thanks for nothing!
www.download.com, download
not talking You’re Breaking The Law
W
e’ve seen quite about the software, and then hit
about the enough news on soft- Google or Yahoo! Search, look- It’s important to realise that by
end-user; ware pirates being ing for a crack. downloading a crack for a soft-
tried. If it’s not a 10-year-old kid You’ll almost always find ware, or using someone else’s
we mean being sued by the RIAA (Record- what you’re looking for (you licence key to unlock a software,
for ing Industry Association of know what I mean…) in a flash; is illegal. Laws across the globe
America), it’s lawsuits against download the crack, and you vary, but generally, the punish-
software the developers of P2P networks instantly become one of the ment could be a hefty fine and/or
vendors and Web sites. millions of software “pirates” jail time.
Although I buy all my soft- across the globe. A lot of us don’t
ware, or just use freeware, I don’t even know it’s wrong! Oh Shush, You Little ****
think you can completely stop Take for example of the e- Activist! Piracy is Good
people from pirating software— mails I get every day: at least two That is what was said to me
considering that many software of them per day are from read- when I recently chided a
products cost more than the ers asking me to provide them female friend who called me
average PC today! There will with a serial key or download to ask for a “free” version of a
always be two types of software link to a “patch” for some well- very popular (and expensive)
programmers: the creators and known software or the other! image editing software! The
the crackers! There will also When I politely reply to these verbal abuse did not ruffle
always be two types of end-users: people informing them that this me—I’m used to that—but her
the haves and the have-nots, or is against the law, and if they statement, “Piracy is good,”
more appropriately, the will- really like the software that left me speechless.
nots. Rather than get into the much —if it is that useful to A lot of muttering and
undecidable ethical debate them—then perhaps they should stammering and hurled abuses
about “to crack or not to crack,” consider buying it, here’s a taste later, things calmed down a bit
let’s stick to software piracy and of what I get as responses… and I got down to asking her
the effects it has on the industry. “… my system assembler can how exactly piracy was good,
give it to me for free, but he is and for whom.
It’s Easy, It’s Fun, It’s out of town so I asked you…” “Not unless you buy me
Illegal! “It’s illegal? But my friend coffee and get me that software,”
Most of us in India have a lot of has it… it came with his she teased. Long story short, I
pirated software on our com- computer; and his computer took her out for coffee, but made
puters, and part of the reason is itself costs less than that soft- sure she got someone else to do
that we really cannot afford to ware… if he didn’t pay why her piracy work.
pay for even software that’s should I?”
cheap by American standards— “Do you seriously expect me Here’s what transpired:
$10 is Rs 450! Obtaining work- to believe that you do not Me: So how can piracy be good?
ing software has become the pirate yourself?” Good for you, yes, but not good
H
. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu has a cult following investigating the disappearance of a young store
among readers of horror fiction, and any game manager. His simple investigation turns ugly as he finds
that aims to recreate the chilling, macabre feel of himself fighting for his life against dark forces beyond
Lovecraft’s books could only fall flat on its face. his comprehension.
Or so we thought. The game is loosely based on Lovecraft’s short story
The atmosphere in Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of The Shadow over Innsmouth, which tells of unnamed
The Earth (DCoTE) is—dare I say it?—perfect. It delivers a horrors that befell the little port. Once you’ve been
potent dose of creepiness and horror that will leave you introduced to its initial chapters, it’s an ordeal to wrench
gasping for breath at the end. yourself away from the game. Colours are dark and
The game starts with police detective Jack Walters subdued, and the cutscenes are presented in an old-film
(you) investigating a disturbance caused by a cult called grainy style, and fit in seamlessly with the game itself.
the Fellowship of Yith in a dilapidated old house in DCoTE is a mix of adventure and first-person
Massachusetts. Unfortunately, the horrors he shooter, though the bias is clearly on the adventure
experiences in the house that day land him right into side—gather clues, speak to people, and solve puzzles.
the Arkham Asylum, blabbering incoherently. Thankfully, the puzzles involve some cranial activity
It is six years later now, and Jack Walters, a shadow rather than just running around picking up stuff to fit
of his former self, cannot remember what happened to it here and there—the phrase “good old detective work”
him during his time in the asylum. As he tries to piece comes to mind. Just when the adventure part starts to
together the last few years of his life, a mysterious get tedious and boring, you’re thrown into an
phone call finds him in the port of Innsmouth, adrenaline-draining situation that will instantly
Rating: 9/10
Minimum System Requirements: PIII 800, 32 MB Direct3D
compatible graphics card, 128 MB RAM
Developer: HeadFirst Productions
Publisher: Ubisoft
Distributor: E-Xpress Interactive
Contact: 022-22850245
Price: To Be Announced
CRASHDAY
Finally, a fun multiplayer game that isn't an FPS...
All Alone
C
rashday is a simple game. some of the craziest driving
There are cars, there are In its single player mode, stunts (à la Carmageddon), and
guns, and there is some Crashday offers you many game some simple, straightforward
wanton destruction—three gaming options—you can run around an racing.
ideas that have steadfastly braved open arena destroying other cars And then there’s the Career
the test of time. Though, rarely (and getting destroyed yourself) in mode, where you have to do all
have all three been found in the a Wrecking Match, play a game of the aforementioned to get ahead
same game. “Pass the Bomb”—like passing the in the Crashday circuit. More
If you are confused about what parcel, only here the loser goes than enough, you’d think, to keep
to do with these three, note this: boom in the end—or a game of the solitary player happy...
the cars are to be driven, the guns “Hold the Flag”, where you need to
(oh, and missiles as well) are capture the flag and keep it for as ...For About A Day
to be used to inflict said long as you can. There’s also the All the game modes are a lot of fun,
wanton destruction on any Speed-like Bomb Run, where you but they tend to get boring after
other unfortunate car that comes get blown to bits for falling below the first few times. The cars are
your way. a speed limit, the Stunt Show awfully tough to control, but the AI
which gives you points for trying bots don’t seem to have a problem
with them, so while you’re floundering supports up to eight players per event—
about trying to discern your Londons from quite respectable, and more than you’ll
your Tokyos, someone has already come probably ever need for a good blow-up
upon you from nowhere and turned you session anyway.
into scrap metal, or stolen your flag, or
passed you the bomb—as the case may be. Pretty
The Career Mode is just a pathetic Moon Byte Studios’ attention to the
excuse to get you to play all the game multiplayer mode is also apparent in the
modes—there’s even a voice narrative graphics of the game—they’re quite
before each mission to fool you into impressive, but still remain light enough
believing there’s an actual story, but it to run on most half-decent graphics cards.
takes a lot more than that awful The damage modelling is also quite well
German/American accented voice to done, making all the crashes, booms and
convince you. bangs very entertaining.
However, the Mini Games, notably the Every time you use the nitro boost
Long Jumps and Blast Jumps (jump the when driving, the camera changes to wide-
farthest you can before your car blows up), angle mode, and comes back to normal
are tremendous fun, especially if you’re mode when you release it—giving the
competing with someone for the longest experience a weird rubber-band feel.
distance record.
Insecta
Party! Fun though it is, Crashday is still quite
To turn around all the gripes with buggy—it would randomly crash on our
Crashday’s single player mode, you’ll need ATI cards, but seemed to be happier on
to switch to multiplayer. Human stupidity NVIDIAs. It’s also riddled with graphics
is much more entertaining than artificial bugs: there were numerous instances
intelligence—your opponents are faced where the cars would go straight into the
with the same difficulties as you are, so the ground—with two wheels below the
chances of your winning an event are more ground surface, I mean. It gets even more
realistic. The Wrecking Match is the most bizarre in online play—I’ve even seen cars
fun here—especially for venting moving around the map with only their
frustrations, caused mainly due to losing roofs showing over the ground.
pathetically in Mini Games, on bald-headed Overall, unless you get addicted to
colleagues (see Digit Diary)—we were breaking Mini Game records like some of
playing it in the office till 1 AM two days us here have, you’re not going to get much
in a row! out of the game if you don’t intend to play
You will now notice that all the game it online or over a LAN. But once you do
modes that Crashday offers are geared get into multiplayer, it’s hard to get out.
more towards insanely fun LAN parties and
online play than the single player. It nimish_chandiramani@thinkdigit.com
T
he next time your parents or friends tell you to stop you can play it over a LAN, or on the Internet against
gaming and “get a life,” “take more interest in your people anywhere in the world.
studies,” or “get off your butt and get a job,” show I played the game on my AMD Athlon 64 3200+,
them this game review! Trackmania Nations ESWC (TmN) MSI RS480 motherboard with an onboard ATI
is a game that can earn you Rs 1.8 crore—provided you’re Radeon Xpress 200 graphics chip and 1 GB of DDR
the best player in the world! 400 Transcend RAM. At the highest settings, it
Besides being the official game of the e-SWC (e- murdered my graphics chip! People with an NVIDIA
Sports World Cup), and having the potential to make 6600 (or equivalent) and above will have no problems
you a crorepati, TmN is also one of the best free games running this game at the highest settings—like I said
to have been released in a long, long time! Yes, you read earlier, it’s light!
that right—it’s FREE!
Unlike other games in this genre (Arcade Racers), TmN World War III
comes bundled in a tiny package—just 265 MB. And you With 60 countries participating in the e-SWC, and
don’t even have to download it—just pop this month’s millions of individuals vying for the $400,000 (Rs 1.8
Digit DVD into your drive and start your engines! crore) cash prize, I cannot find any other way to
The game has some really amazing graphics, describe the game’s popularity except to say that World
especially when you consider how light the installer is. War III is here! Trackmania Nations is affectionately
It has both a single as well as a multi-player option, and called by gamers “The Crashday Killer” (see the Crashday
Rating: 8/10
Minimum System Requirements:
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, Pentium II
450Mhz, 64MB RAM, DX9 compatible 3D
video card with 16MB RAM
Publisher: Deep Silver
Developer: Nadeo
Price: FREE!
Online
Since the game is light, I expected the Internet
gaming experience to be a little better than
most other games; I was wrong—the Internet
experience is quite amazing! Fast local servers
also make sure that you don’t wait too long,
and lag is non-existent. The game is
tremendous fun over a LAN as well. Pity the
maps don’t have more descriptive names
though, because it’s really irritating to try and
find that map you like: “Was it G-1 or I-1?
Maybe it was H-7?”
Track Mania…
…is what the level and map developers were
thinking when they designed these levels—the
tracks have the most amazing hurdles, but this
also makes it a nightmare to play: loop-de-
loops, spins, jumps and crashes. What else
could you want?
Drive-Throughs
One thing that will seem weird is the whole
“you can drive through your opponents” thing.
Yes, race with people and you can’t fight with
them, Need For Speed style! It’s like racing
ghosts; you compete with the track, not with
your opponents!
Customising
For a full free game, the level of customisation is
OK - but it’s not even remotely as cool as the
Need For Speed series, and you can’t change your
cars or your engines—or anything except the
colour of your ride, actually. But like I said, since
it’s a free game and is light on resources, I’m
pretty happy.
First
Escape
HACKED IN HALF AN HOUR
Whatever
Macs Easier To Exploit? Happened To…
The Simputer?
I F
n what turned out to be know, but the fact is that out their skills on a Mac box. ive years ago, we all were
an exercise in how to the Mac OS box was This is what makes the news regaled by the wonderful
insert foot in mouth, a compromised in a matter of of the hack even worse for story of the Simple,
Swedish Mac fan set up a hours after the challenge Apple! If hardly any hackers Inexpensive, Multilingual
Mac Mini as a Web server was thrown out. are training to hack Macs, People’s Computer—the
and challenged the hackers Considering that Mac OS and the Mac Mini was still Simputer. Developed in India,
of the world to “try and gain has one of the smallest hacked so quickly, not much it was the sure recipe to bring
root control.” Less than six subscriber bases around, not can be said for security on affordable computing to the
hours later, the box was too many hackers are Apple’s OS. masses—yes, even the rural
compromised, and the site it interested in even trying Many believe that even masses. “Illiteracy is no longer
was serving defaced with a Windows box could a barrier to handling a
the message “This sucks. have held out longer! computer,” the Simputer Trust
Six hours later this poor So is the Mac going to claimed, and the rest of us
little Mac was owned and become the new went, “Ooooooh!”
this page got defaced.” Windows? Well, not Constructed like a PDA—
The hacker, who goes unless it can match with a touchscreen and stylus
by the nickname Windows in terms of and everything—the Simputer
“Gwerdna,” later told sales as well, which is a runs on Linux (of course—
ZDNet that he achieved tall order. affordable, you know), has an
the hack in less than 30 Another thing we Intel StrongARM 206 MHz
minutes. He claims to were left wondering processor, 64 MB of RAM, 32
have first looked for some about is that if the Mac MB of Flash memory, and can
obvious flaws, after OS is based on the read smartcards. The simple
which he proceeded to FreeBSD OS, which is interface based on graphics
attack the box through considered one of the and audio was to make it
an undocumented most secure operating illiteracy-proof. All this at only
exploit that Apple has systems around, what Rs 9,000 if bought in bulk.
no patch for yet! exactly have Apple And five years ago, this
Whether or not this is changed, and more seemed foolproof.
just hot air we don’t really Illustrations: Harsho Mohan Chattoraj importantly, why? Though it’s been out of the
limelight, the Simputer still
exists and is used minimally.
My Desktop All is not well, though. There’s
No Winner This Month! Of the many more to a great product than a
entries that we received, only a few great concept, and thanks to
followed the new rules—and there some less-than-optimal
was no winner among them, either! marketing, the Simputer sold
We’ve seen you make great desktops, only a little over 4,000 units
so why not tell your fellow readers after its release. The sad story
about them? is that with other forms of
portable computing getting
cheaper, the Simputer is
We want to know exactly how the
already fighting a losing
desktop was created. As usual, no
theme packs, please! Using a shell battle, though it might still
enhancement is all right, as long as stand a chance in the villages.
you’ve customised it yourself. What happens now? Are
Remember, if we can’t recreate we witnessing the slow demise
your desktop the way you describe it, Send your desktop with description of how you made of the Simputer, or is it lurking
the entry will be rejected, so please it to mydesktop@thinkdigit.com with the subject in the background waiting to
be clear! ‘My Desktop’ and tell us your postal address, too. take us by storm?
Y
es, perhaps that’s The technology could country such as Britain or
what we should call advance, going beyond the US during the War,
Japanese company having to attach a headset— instead of in Germany. Or if
Nippon Telegraph and GVS opens up a whole range there had been no War at all.
Telephone (better of possibilities. It’s the Zuse suggested, as a
known as NTT), because beginnings of mind control. scientific philosophy, that the
they’ve come up with a One shudders to think about universe is running on a grid
way to make you do the possibilities were GVS of computers. After he
things you don’t really technology to become retired, he concentrated on
want to! Though not as mainstream: imagine police painting, a long-time hobby.
easily as the Jedi do in the using it to quickly disperse He died in 1995.
Star Wars saga (with a wave crowds, or teens being forced In the words of his son
of the hand), NTT has to return directly home from Prof Horst Zuse, “Many
made a headset that can school. Is this how we want reference works state that the
force a wearer to move to end up? Controlled by the first large-scale automatic
against his or her will! people who can afford the digital computer was the
The commands are passed technology? Let’s hope there Harvard Mark 1... However,
via a pair of remote- a specified direction when are enough upholders of the Z3 pre-dated the Harvard
controlled joysticks. walking, the device also human rights and ethics to Mark I. Today, Konrad Zuse is
The device uses “galvanic simulates the feeling of cry foul when attempts to acclaimed... as being the
vestibular stimulation” turning, even if the subject is commercialise such most admired and respected
(GVS); it basically controls motionless—sort of like technology finally crop up. computer pioneer.” Visit
the wearer’s balance via virtual reality. Thus, the Some technologies are better www.epemag.com/zuse for a
their ears. The headset, device can even trick the left undiscovered! biography of Zuse by his son.
M
ore plans to Control on good ol’ Bill!
Really, though, a nanoacre can dominate the world: 5. Create clean fuel
cost as much as an acre of land if you thought the 6. Make the Google “IPODS CAUSE HEARING LOSS!”
if you factor in all the expenses. earlier story about Japanese Football Club
Foundry n. : The company
that does the fabbing. Few
company NTT making
devices to control human
7. Develop Google OS
8. Provide the world with
Pump Down
chip design companies have
their own foundries—these
movement was a step
forward towards world
100 per cent accurate
weather forecasts
The Volume
facilities eat up billions of
dollars just by existing. dominance, think again! As 9. Make robots that have AI
T
Wafer n. : What results of now only two companies and can repair broken here’s news, then
when you cut up a silicon show promise in the “taking- computers there’s stupid news.
crystal into thin slices. Chips over-the-world” category: the and finally, We’ve already learnt to
are built on wafers. Note: current world rulers 10. (Our interpretation) Rule trust Americans grab by the
These wafers are inedible, and Microsoft, and the younger the world! b***s any opportunity to sue,
perhaps even toxic. challengers called Sergey Sounds simple enough! and recently, Apple was sued
Doping v. : The process of Brin and Larry Page. Since Well, since we’re not by a US man who says his
adding silicon to make it Microsoft’s dominance is old even sure that this has iPod can cause loss of
conduct electrons better—in its and boring, let’s look at how
pure form, silicon is about as Google plans to overthrow
useful as the sand it’s made the Redmond-based giant…
from. So if you hear someone The Register
talking about “doping silicon,” (www.theregister.co.uk)
the connotation isn’t as recently published an article
negative as it might seem. based on a photograph (see
And now, the best way to
image alongside) of plans on a
explain away a chip
malfunction:
whiteboard in “Building 43”
Magic Smoke n. : A which, as The Register claims,
supposedly magical blue is the “cyber-equivalent of
smoke that is present inside Area 51”! Though a little
all chips and keeps them from jumbled and messy, the
going “poof!”. E.g. “It failed? poorly-constructed plans on
All right, WHO let out the the whiteboard actually
magic smoke?” seem to be a plan to establish
Joe Dustin
http://snipurl.com/aprilblog1 http://snipurl.com/aprilblog3
(http://techdirt.com/articles/20060306/086230.shtml (http://origamiproject.com/blogs/team_blog/archive/2
#comments) 006/03/09/19.aspx)
Don’t Be Hurt, Internet, Some People Just Don’t What’s the Hubbub?
Care About You O.K., if you are reading this blog chances are you’ve in
Some people think Believe it or not, some people just aren’t interested in one way or another heard about the “Microsoft
Google Mars isn’t the Internet. In recent years, the growth rate for mystery” project named Origami. You probably also
such a great idea. Internet adoption has slowed dramatically, while those know by now that Origami was the Microsoft code name
Then, there are saying the Internet doesn’t interest them outnumber for the Ultra-Mobile PC project. We liked the code name
people who think the those who can’t afford to get online. What matters is so much we decided to use it for our community site,
Internet too isn’t a whether individuals use their time productively and origamiproject.com.
great idea... And no- pleasurably, not whether that time is spent online… So, what was that teaser all about? Well, since I was a
primary driver of the buzz campaign, I thought I’d set
one’s sure if Origami
Ouriel the record straight by using a timeline to illustrate how
is a great idea, but events unfolded….
http://snipurl.com/aprilblog2
you can check out the (http://ouriel.typepad.com/myblog/2006/03/google_ma
timeline of its rs_thi.html) Jeff Jarvis
development. And www.buzzmachine.com
finally, is blogging a Google mars: this is what happens when you
good idea? have too much money... Lesson No.1
Google just released mars.google.com. When my Georgina Henry, an accomplished newspaper editor,
colleague told me so I thought it was a joke. But I makes the switch to blogging, heading up The
checked further and I indeed find it. Doing Google Guardian’s week-old Comment is Free, and she takes
earth was a smart idea. Copied by everyone since then. away the most important lesson: “the randomness, that
But Mars? What the hell are they going to do there? sense of never quite knowing who’s going to post when
Locate the nearest pizzeria? and what, is both the joy of the new site and slightly
Come on guys. Make us a better down to earth scary. It's the lack of control you feel you have at times -
search engine and invest your money in something that and control, I realise, is the one of the hardest things
makes sense! for editors to cede.”
150
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Dear Abhinav, Dear Gaurav,
We’re aware that a large proportion of our The fact is that we did consider a Fast Track
A Laundry List
Hi Ed, Letter
readership is in your age range. We are indeed on something Mac-related. We’ve also done of the
trying to include more DIY kind of stuff in our a couple of Mac-related features, such as The A-List is a quick reference
Month
magazine—keep reading Digit, you might soon one 30 Days With. However, the fact also is for us. Please try and expand it—
find something that gives your itchy hands that few of our readers own Macs! Yes, a for example, mid and low-range
a break! Mac holds aspirational value, but when you graphics cards are not given, only the
— Associate Editor think of our mainstream readership, high-range cards are mentioned. Also
everyone uses Windows. It’s sad but true. try and devote pages in the A-List for
Nevertheless, we have devoted an entire software; this is absolutely essential!
Suggestions, suggestions Fast Track to Linux this month, so that Two software each for paid as well as
First of all, accept my sincere thanks for should give an alternative OS option to free should be given which you think
your Fast Track on Troubleshooting. It people like you. are the best. It could be updated each
was really a boon for me. Now I solve any — Associate Editor month too as you find good software.
problem regarding my PC myself. Your The sections could include word
article on Vista was also remarkable, but processing, spreadsheets, 3D
the CD and DVD contents were not up to Fast Track soft copy? modelling, morphers, video editing,
mark. I have some suggestions: Dear Sir, audio editing, image editing, etc.
‘ Please bring out a Fast Track on image As a Digit subscriber, I receive a Also include games in the A-List—
editing software such as Photoshop, booklet in addition to two CDs each for example, different genres such as
Corel Photopaint, etc. month with a copy of the magazine. RTS, Action, Adventure, Puzzle, FPS,
‘ If possible, bring out the Fast Track in These booklets titled Fast Track contain Racing, RPG, etc. It should contain the
colour even if you have to increase very valuable information. But of late, names of two games that you think
the price. due to poor eyesight I am finding it are currently the best.
‘ Increase the number of software increasingly difficult to read them. It Also, how about including the best
reviews. would be of much help if you could Web sites, classified according to
Akshit Gaur make these available as e-books with genres—news, games, software, tech?
contents as either Word or HTML In the Digit Archive, I put in
Dear Akshit, documents. If need be, I am prepared “karaoke” in the “search by
We’ve been receiving several requests for a to make a nominal payment for this description,” and the Feb 06 CD came
Fast Track on image editing software, and it’s facility being made available. Kindly up with two software; both were
very likely that we’ll bring out one soon. We give this request careful thought. shareware, and in those versions, the
also know we should get heavier on the H Subramanian karaoke feature had been not
software reviews, and that will be included. This means that in the
implemented soon as well. As for bringing out Dear Mr Subramanian, entire history of Digit, you haven't
Fast Track in colour, the fact is, the price will We do give out the Fast Track in PDF format included a single karaoke player! Do
indeed have to be increased - which not too once every few months on the CD or DVD. something about this. I would like to
many readers will appreciate! The last time we did so was in January see a headphone shootout - wireless,
— Associate Editor 2006—it was on the DVD; you probably wired, over the head earphones,
missed it. Do look out for the Fast Track PDF behind the head, etc.
Bored Of Windows! on future Digit CDs or DVDs. Please run articles on:
Dear Sir, — Associate Editor ' Displays affecting the eyes, that
I think your magazine is the best is, which is the most eye-friendly
computer magazine around. I’d highly Money Saved… display, and which display (LCD, TFT,
recommend it to anyone, and I myself The March 06 Fast Track to CRT, plasma) an eye-conscious person
buy ever issue—can’t wait till the next Troubleshooting was a brilliant effort by should go for.
issue is out! I have an Acer laptop Team Digit. It covered almost all the ' Home Internet plans; which is the
running Windows XP. I am thinking of topics. The article on BIOS and sound best—cable, DSL, or wireless?
moving to an Apple iBook. Could you helped me a lot. I thank you for not Ken Thompson
do a full review on the transition only solving my problem, but for
problems, pros and cons, and saving my money as well (which Dear Ken,
compatibility issues? vendors charge for doing no work!). We're planning on doing a feature on
I would love for your magazine to Atul Sharma, Ludhiana broadband shortly—as well as a headphone
start reviewing more alternative OS- shootout, though that might be a few
based computers. I think a lot of Dear Atul, months away.
readers would appreciate it. It will give We know that a lot of hardware vendors and Featuring games on the A-List wouldn't be
us a perspective on what’s out there, computer repair shops charge a lot for correct, since gaming experiences are
other than MS Windows! I hope you problems that require just a bit of subjective. However, expanding the A-List in
would take heed of an avid reader’s knowledge and no hard work—and we’re general, and putting in more software, are good
request, and have a complete Mac glad our Fast Track helped you! Thanks for ideas, and we might very well implement these.
review in your next issue. writing in! Thanks for the suggestions.
Gaurav Vadehra — Associate Editor — Associate Editor
I
will be the distinctive white n the US, it’s your right to alcohol breath analysis
last piece in earphones. A face your accuser in court. machine—which was the
this space about the spokesman for the Of course, but things get all police’s main evidence against
connection between tabloid The Sun said: topsy-turvy when that accuser him. The company, of course,
The Faithful and the “He is very pleased is a piece of code. did not want to hand over the
iPod. But here’s the with the iPod. The Proving that American code—and Muldowny’s case was
latest: Pope Benedict Holy Father likes to lawyers can uphold just about chucked! Ever since then, DUI
XVI unwinds by unwind listening to it any case, they are now getting suspects in various parts of the
listening to music on and is of the opinion drunk drivers off charges by US have had their cases thrown
his iPod: he was gifted an iPod that this sort of technology is demanding to see the source out or reduced to lesser
Nano by staff at Vatican Radio. the future.” code of the software used in offences.
Officials have, of course, Here’s an open letter to alcohol breath tests. And they Lawmakers are now
loaded it with religious music, the Pope: Holy Father, we’d have a valid precedent: Timothy considering bringing in new
but there’s also pieces by like to remind you the Muldowny had been driving laws that will mean source code
Beethoven, Mozart and Walkman has been around for drunk, and his will not have to be produced for
Chopin. Religious decades—you could have lawyers asked DUI defendants, but it’s
compositions such as the unwound just as easily using to see the going to be an uphill
Missa Solemnis, we presume. one of those! Please do tell us source code task—will open
The Pope has been spotted what this thing is about the to the source come to
around the Vatican using his iPod and The Faithful! Intoxilyzer the rescue?
152
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