NASA spacecraft spies on Mercury

For the first time, Earth has a regular orbiting eye-in-the-sky spying on the solar system's smallest and strangest planet, Mercury. NASA's spacecraft called Messenger successfully veered into a pinpoint orbit Thursday night after a 6 1/2-year trip and 4.9 billion miles (7.9 billion kilometers) and tricky manoeuvering to fend off the gravitational pull of the sun.

It is the fifth planet in our solar system that NASA has orbited, in addition to the Earth and the moon. "It was right on the money," Messenger's chief engineer, Eric Finnegan, said. Messenger is in orbit that brings it as close as 120 miles (193 kilometers) above the planet's surface.

"This is as close you can possibly get to being perfect."

"Everybody was whooping and hollering; we are elated," Finnegan said. "There's a lot of work left to be done, but we are there." Mercury is not only difficult to get to, but it's has some of the most extremes in the solar system.

Japan, M-E crisis could spell bad news for IT investment: Infy

IT major Infosys today expressed concerns that indirect impact of the Japan nuclear crisis and the unrest in the Middle-East could hit the IT industry .

"Indirect impact is what we all need to think about... demand for oil will increase ...oil prices could go up again. There are concerns over inflation. There are also concerns over disruption of economic activity, a lot of components for the electronic industry, automotive industry all originate from Japan," Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan said.

He further added that the concern is over whether the "economic activity will come down, GDP growth will come down, which means investments will come down, which could have an impact on the IT industry".

The company, however, expects the direct impact of the Japanese crisis to be minimal on its business in the short-term. "The percentage of revenue from Japan operations is less than one per cent or approximately one per cent because of which the direct impact is minimal," he said.

"The situation is still unfolding, it is very difficult at this point to say, but it is possible there could be some indirect impact, but the direct impact could be minimal," he reiterated.

Facebook can help in disasters

An Australian academic Friday praised the increasing use of social media during disasters, saying there had been a "beautiful display of humanity" on Facebook during recent catastrophes.

Communications expert Gwyneth Howell said she had been prompted to research the use of social media following last year's major earthquake in New Zealand's second city Christchurch -- which caused damage but no deaths.

The University of Western Sydney academic could not have known more disasters were to follow -- floods and cyclones in Queensland, bushfires in Western Australia, a deadlier quake in Christchurch and Japan's quake and tsunami.

Howell said that interviews with people who established Facebook sites to help victims of Queensland's devastating floods in January had demonstrated a "sense of real community" existed in the virtual space.

"That was the thing that struck me... this beautiful display of humanity and generosity and a sense of 'I don't know you but I want to be able to help'," she told AFP.

Microsoft helps take down spam e-mail network

Microsoft Corp claimed credit on Thursday for taking down one of the biggest producers of spam e-mail in a joint effort with federal authorities across the United States .

The world's biggest software company said its legal action against the operator of the Rustock 'botnet' or network of infected computers programmed to send spam e-mail led to raids across the country on Thursday which effectively shut the network down.

Tech security bloggers who follow the activities of botnets worldwide noticed earlier on Thursday a sharp dip in spam e-mail coming from the Rustock network, which some estimate is responsible for almost half of the spam appearing in inboxes. However, they warned that total eradication requires long-term efforts.

After getting the go-ahead from federal court in Seattle, where Microsoft had filed a lawsuit against the botnet's operators, the company said it worked with the U.S. Marshals Service to raid hosting providers in seven U.S. cities early on Thursday, including Denver, Dallas, Chicago, Seattle and Columbus.

"With help from the upstream providers, we successfully severed the IP addresses that controlled the botnet, cutting off communication and disabling it," said Richard Boscovich , senior attorney at Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit in a blog post on Microsoft's site.

Not closing office in Japan, business will continue: Infosys

Software major Infosys on Thursday said it has not shut down its office in Japan and assured clients there that it would continue to support them.

"Business will continue. The servicing given to clients will continue because they are very very important," Infosys COO Shibulal told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

"Our model is always onsite, offshore, so we have few people there, lot of people here, few people will move back," he said.

After a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami last week that caused untold damages to life and property, Japan is now facing the threat of a nuclear catastrophe.

"We have capacity all over India, Japan's works happen in many of our developing centres, it could be Mysore, Bangalore, Chandigarh. People are going back to wherever is the base location of the corresponding programme," he said.

Replying to a query on employees based in Japan and shutting of the office, he said, "We have an office, we have people, we have not shut it down. We have given option to some of our people to come back and few have come back and some others will come back."

To a question on whether it would make similar arrangements for Japanese employees if they wish to move out, he said the company was ready to "work out" solutions if the Japanese employees came up with such requests.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

Iran sends first 'life capsule' into orbit

Iran has launched a rocket into space carrying a test capsule designed to house an animal, the official IRNA news agency said on Thursday, amid Western concerns over Tehran's scientific advances.

The Kavoshgar-4 rocket was launched without fanfare on March 15, the report said, citing the President's office.

The capsule, unveiled by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on February 07, is designed to carry a monkey but there were no living creatures on board, IRNA added.

"This important scientific experiment was carried out on Esfand 24 (March 15) by the Iranian Space Agency," IRNA said.

Iran had announced it would conduct the launch before the end of Iranian year on March 21.

The space agency managed to "test the system performance... the launch platform, engine, electronic and telemetry systems and the system of separation" between the rocket and its load, according to IRNA.

Swipe your mobile with saline wipes to keep it bacteria-free

Swiping your pager or cell phone just three times with a simple tissue moistened with saline would help you get rid of most of the bacteria, according to a new study.

But if you only have time for a single swipe of a ''dirty'' phone – you'd be better off reaching for a disinfectant wipe, said the study.

The finding was made by a team of researchers in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta.

For the study, three types of bacteria – Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Enterococci (VRE) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa – were each prepared in a mixture and streaked onto sterile plastic Petri dishes, then allowed to dry.

Numerous bacteria contaminated plates were prepared throughout the summer – all in the same manner – so each type of bacteria could be tested with five different types of wipes and then again with varying amounts of swipes – one swipe, three swipes and five swipes.

Each 10 cm diameter plate was wiped for one second and in a manner that the entire surface was swiped, using a flat baton.

Hadron Collider- world's first time machine?

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest atom smasher that started regular operations last year, could be the first machine capable of causing matter to travel backwards in time.

"Our theory is a long shot," admitted Tom Weiler, physics professor at Vanderbilt University, "but it doesn't violate any laws of physics or experimental constraints".

One of the major goals of the collider is to find the elusive Higgs boson - the particle that physicists invoke to explain why particles like protons, neutrons and electrons have mass.

If the collider succeeds in producing the Higgs boson, some scientists predict that it will create a second particle, called the Higgs singlet, at the same time, according to a Vanderbilt statement.

According to Weiler and Chui Man Ho's theory, these singlets should have the ability to jump into an extra, fifth dimension where they can move either forward or backward in time and reappear in the future or in the past.

MP3 can cost you your car

Scientists have now warned that it's not just your computer that's at risk of malware—dodgy MP3s can now take over your car.

Last year, a team of researchers at the US Center for Automotive Embedded Systems Security revealed how automobile computer systems could be hacked via the On-Board Diagnostics (OBD-II) port, an access point typically used by engineers to download data on the vehicle's health, reports New Scientists.

Through this, they were able to hijack the car, allowing the researchers to disable the brakes, turn the engine on and off, and control electrical systems such as the odometer, lights, climate control, radio and locks.

Building on this, a team of security experts from the University of California, San Diego, and the University of Washington, led by Stefan Savage, have now identified a variety of weak points through which hackers can gain access to a vehicle's computer systems remotely.

In one example, cellphone hardware installed in luxury cars was attacked, allowing the team to inject malicious code into the car's electronic controls.

Credit Suisse starts IT hardware sector on overweight

Credit Suisse initiated coverage on the US IT hardware sector with an "overweight" rating, saying it had more room to grow to accommodate trends like virtualization and cloud computing, and the explosive growth in smart devices.

"The acceleration of virtualization, which drives a move toward the private and public clouds, ... of mobile computing ... will cause unprecedented data growth and increased demand for IT infrastructure," the brokerage said in a note to clients dated March 16.

It expects demand for the $1.2 trillion IT hardware and IT services market to grow 4 percent per annum through 2015.

Smartphone makers will see a 14 percent growth through 2015, compared with a decline of 6 percent in the PC industry, Credit Suisse said.

Credit Suisse rated Apple Inc's stock an "outperform," saying iPhone rivals have not yet gained a competitive edge.

The iPad is looking to dominate a $120 billion addressable market with its "aggressive pricing, time to market advantage and a software edge," it said.

IBM inks 10-yr deal with Caparo India

Technology giant IBM today said it has bagged a 10-year outsourcing deal from Caparo India to provide enterprise resource planning and data centre infrastructure services.

Caparo chose to host the datacentre on IBM's Power Systems in a cloud model over competitor HP systems because the IBM solution will lower its upfront investments up to Rs 1 crore, IBM said in a statement.

The financial details of the deal were, however, not disclosed.

Caparo India offers solutions in designing, developing and manufacturing automotive systems, assemblies, modules and components for Indian automotive original equipment manufacturers.

"This is a first of its kind implementation in North India. Our financing policy helps clients acquire the IT solutions that their business needs in the most cost-effective and strategic way possible.

Customers can choose from a variety of financing options to address their unique solution requirements and help manage the cash flow and assets," Vivek Malhotra, Vice-president, General Business, North and East region, IBM India/South Asia said.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us