Bajinder Pal Singh

No, this is not about things that you could do to your mobile (like
smashing it on someone's head), but these are things that your mobile
could do for you.
Earlier mobiles used only to strike a conversation. But as the ad asks
you, ``Is it a mobile or your wallet?" Yes, the mobile is all set to
fast replace your wallet as well.
Consider this. When you reach the metro railway station you can book
your ticket with your mobile. Dial a specified number, enter the
destinations and your ticket is booked. The handset can be used as
e-money, credit card, ticket, or even house or office key. Walk into
your office, and instead of the swipe card, use your mobile to dial a
number and enter the office. This could be cumbersome in case you
change mobiles a bit too often.
At office, dial a coke and a pizza, and you need not pay the delivery
boy. It is automatically credited into your mobile account. Use your
mobile to send multi media messages while working.
On your way back, the mobile becomes a music player. Download the
latest music or just let the handset play some stored music for you.
Browse through the news headlines at your favourite websites, now
specially tailormade for mobile phones. In the meantime, switch on
your AC or house warmer with your mobile so that your home is ready to
receive you when you reach back.
Back home, use the mobile for unlocking your house, and then switch on
the microwave and television as well. In case you forgot something,
use the word processor on your mobile to compase a document and email
it to office. Amidst booking a table in a posh restaurant or tickets
in the cinema hall, do not forget to set the mobile alarm for waking
you up next morning.
All said and done, do expect an inflated bill by the month end. By the
way, this column was written while travelling from office to home on a
mobile handset and was emailed to office.

You ask, and you answer. Here is the entire world for you, answering your questions for free.
Or do you need some help with your homework? Try asking questions and get answers from Yahoo. This is the new beta service from Yahoo and it is called '`answers''. Launched last week, it draws upon the collective knowledge base of surfers.
The procedure is simple. Just login at http://answers.yahoo.com and post your question. The question could be ``What is the tallest structure in the world'' to How to poach an egg in the microwave? Wait for fellow surfers to chance upon your question and let them reply. You do get to evaluate the answers and see if the question has been resolved. Better still, why not answer a few questions yourself.
Within hours of its launch, the cyber community was abuzz and trying out the service. Some questions can be outright simple, and the answers, amazingly correct. In other cases, opinions rule the roost.
Check on this. Ques: When we eat eggs are we actually eating the embryo of a chicken? Ans: Not generally. Most egg laying chickens are not kept with males, and so are never fertilized. Much like a woman, however, the egg still comes out, but it's not been fertilized. So, like with humans, you wouldn't call the egg an embryo.
In another case, a patient at a hospital wants to know how to keep annoying people from finding his room number. Another wanted to know about the tallest structure in the world.
Is Yahoo Answers an answer to Google answers. Maybe, except that Google charges for your response. While Google claims that more than 500 carefully screened researchers answer a question for as little as $2.50 -- usually within 24 hours, Yahoo goes about it differently. It does not charge and there are no select researchers, but people like you and me who seek to enlarge the social networking circuit.
But there are some funny answers as well. Someone wants to know what is the greatest scapegoat ever. And pat comes the response: George Bush.

It may have triggerred a natiowide debate on security issues, but online maps are now providing succour to happless victims of natural disasters. Be it Hurricane Katrina or the Pakistan earthquake, online maps have emerged as handy tools in the hands of both the amateur as well as the expert.
With many governments continuing to restrict publication of detailed maps, private individuals have effectively utilised satellite imagery from providers like Google to identify spots that require help. Scores of individuals all across the world have uploaded relevant maps of quake-hit areas on the web, with details like location of rehabilitation centers as well as access paths and routes. Today relief agencies are looking towards online maps for directions rather than governmental help.
Blogs are full of maps of earthquake hit areas with minute details like locations of relief teams and informing others of locations where help has not reached.
In India, Google maps did create a furore when the President AP J Abdul Kalam raised the issue of security of developing countries after he saw details of many important installations on the Google website. This arms the terrorist with information about vital installations and could seriously breach our security, he reasoned. Kalam, who was a pioneer in India's missile development program, remarked that current laws on spatial observation were not adequate.
While Google did respond to security issues stating that the images provided are not real time, and that they are willing to discuss the issue with governments, the help provided by their maps in facilitating relief operations has opened a new vista in spatial observation.
Competing with Google maps is the service, Visual earth, by Microsoft where you are able to view even your car parked outside your garage, since you can view pictures at a 45 degree angle as well. Other services include MapQuest and Yahoo Maps, Most have API (Application Programming Interface), which helps you browse the map with ease.
So next time you plan to visit Survey of India to seek permission for a detailed map of your city, think again.

He is the creator of the World Wide Web, and he too is taken aback by the way it has developed. The web has now become a publishing medium, and the creator thinks that he too should join the pack. So finally, on the 15 th anniversary of his creation, the inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee has started a blog of his own.
In 1989 one of the main objectives of the WWW was to be a space for sharing information. It seemed evident that thershould be a space in which anyone could be creative, to which anyone could contribute, he says.
``Strangely enough, the web took off very much as a publishing medium, in which people edited offline''. And in 2005, with blogs and wikis running riot, Lee remarks, ``the fact that they are so popular makes me feel I wasn't crazy to think people needed a creative space''. His blog prompted many a reactions, with people asking him whether he had envisaged the course that the web has adopted.
Someone teasingly asks, ``Now let's see how you'll interact with all the junk coming from social blogs, social networks, social software''. Another quips, ``With YOUR WWW we have got messengers, Internet games,webmails, free videos, P2P and wiki(pedias or not) and now blogs and IPPhones''.
The first web browser - or browser-editor rather - was called WorldWideWeb which allowed one to edit any page, and save it back to the web if one had access rights. Then came the trend of editing offline and later uploading the stuff on the net. There were others at mit, where his blog is hosted, who thought that they would not be able to cope with Tim's blog.
``First, is our machine ready to handle the load of a bunch of blogs and technorati and Slashdot and digg and everybody else linking to him all at once?'', asked one. But Tim began his lates sujourn very simply, ``So I have a blog'', he said. It is called ``timbl's blog'' and can be accessed at http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/blog/4 , wherit goes under the name of breadcrumbs.
By the time, this column was written, over 450 comments had been posted and an fair number of other blogs were abuzz about timbl's. Berners-Lee first proposed the Web in 1989 while developing ways to control computers remotely at CERN CERN, the Geneva-based European Organization for Nuclear Research. He never got the project formally approved, but quietly tinkered with it anyway, making the first browser available at CERN by Christmas Day 1990.

So it was the year of the iPod craze? Not just you, but even the Queen thinks on similar lines. No wonder, the chief designer of iPod, has been named in the Queen's Honours List. The 38 year old Janathan Ive, who is incidently London born ,has been awarded the title of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth.

If one Galileo shook the world in the sixteenth century, this one promises to shake the skies. The first of a series of 30 satellites, Giove A has been put into orbit, and it promises to be accurate to within one metre. This is significant since traditional GPS systems are accurate within 30 metres for civilian applications. With Galileo, it would be even easier to track mobile locations. And more important it is designed to work inside buildings and congested areas as well.


2005 continued to be a spammer's delight. The American giant AOL stated that it stopped an average of 1.5 billion spam messages daily and by the end of the year blocked 500 billion e-mails during 2005. Spam, according to the company accounts for 80 per cent of the email sent to its servers.

Moving to online shopping. A report from Goldman Sachs, Nielsen and other reveals that Oct. 29 and Dec 23, i.e the shopping season, retail shoppers in the U.S. spent $30.1 billion on online purchases. People spent 3 billion $ on books, 5.3 billion $ on clothes and 4.8 billion $ on computer harware and peripherals.

But if online shopping was going up, RSS and podcasting was not really up to that mark. A recent research conducted by Yahoo! and Ipsos reveals that while 12% of surveyed Yahoo users know what RSS is, while only 4% of use it. Regarding podcasting, 2% of surveyed people use it.
Computers are entering diverse fields and wine making seems to be the latest. A scientist from Carnegie Melon University is now trying to deduce a model of the behaviour of yeast, so that the fermentation process could be controlled to produce better designer wines.

here's to more merrymaking

January is the time when many swanky gadgets make their apperance at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and this year in no exception. Techtalker takes a look at a few of them.

This is the world's smallest headset. The Motorola H5 Mini Bluetooth Headset fits inside (yes, inside) your ear, with no one even realizing that you are sporting one. The grand gizmo has the ability to pick up your voice through the ear canal. You may feel that you are working for the secret service when you wear this. But then, being such a small gadget, you could easily lose it as well.

For astronomy enthusiasts, Celestron has a telecope called the NexStar, which makes gazing more easy. It has launched a SLT series, where SLT stands for Star Locating Telescope. It does away with countless hours trying to locate stars. You can just type the ID number of the 4000 odd heaveny bodies and the computerized telescope locate it for you. It can even track the star as it moves across the night sky.

Plasma TVs are getting bigger. And at the CES, a Panasonic Plasma TV hung on the wall proudly claimed that it measured 103 inches diagonally. Also competing there was Samsung with 102 inches.

The Treo 700 model has also been unveiled. More than the cult phone, are two interesting packages that are an optional buy. ``Traffic for Treo'' smartphones lets you avoid unnecessary delays with up-to-date traffic information for many major US cities. Not only does it show you where jams occur, you can easily tap the screen for details on each incident. It also gives you a four-month subscription for mobile TV. You get minute to minute news, sports, weather, and more and this application has won a technical Emmy award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

It was one of the most successful stories of 2005. A college student
dreams of a website and makes a million dolalrs to pay his college
frees. No big firms, just a webpage and an idea that was worth a
million dollars.
But suddenly, his webpage is under attack. Just like the real estate
owner who had to pay up for some protection money, he too was asked to
pay or face the consequences. According to his blog, he refused to pay
up and for six days, his site faced an attack. The site is now back
and the FBI is reportedly probing the case.
Read on the amazing story.
21 year old Alex has been admitted to a business management course and
he did not wish to grow up as a passout with huge debts. So he decided
that he should launch a webpage which makes money. So he created a
huge webpage, with one million pixels, and offered to sell advertising
space with each pixel costing one dollar each. Each slot was divided
into a block of 100 pixels, since anything shorter would not be
visible. When you buy the space, you can display your logo or
advertisement at the space, which you have purchased.
In the first month alone, Alex sold three lakh pixels. It began a huge
success with many picking up the idea and starting their own clones.
Alex says that he always had a lnack for making money. As a schoolkid,
he used to draw cartoons, make comics, photocopy them and sell them
for 30p.
But if Alex was happy, some others were not. According to his blog, he
was asked to pay money or be faced to prepare the consequences. The
consequences were another new media technique. He was bombarded with a
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, which made it very
difficult for the site to load or became completely unavailable.
A few days later, the site is again up and booming, with the last
pixel having been sold. But as his blog says, the attackers seem to
have helped him gain publicity and the site now has more visitors than
ever.

This is straight from sci-fi.
It took seven years and a journey of 2.88 billion miles to get this
material. NASA's Stardust sample-return mission returned safely to
Earth when the capsule carrying cometary and interstellar particles
successfully tuched down the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training
Range.
The sample return capsule's science canister and its cargo of comet
and interstellar dust particles will be stowed inside a special
aluminum carrying case to await transfer to the Johnson Space Center,
Houston, where it will be opened. NASA's Stardust mission traveled
2.88 billion miles during its seven-year round-trip odyssey.
Scientists believe these precious samples will help provide answers to
fundamental questions about comets and the origins of the solar
system.
NASA scientists said it required ten years of planning and seven years
of flight operations to successfully achieve this mission.
The reason why was eagerly awaited was that it was the first U.S.
space mission dedicated solely to the exploration of a comet, and the
first robotic mission designed to return extraterrestrial material
from outside the orbit of the Moon.
It was launched in February 1999, from Cape Canaveral Air Station,
Florida, with the primary aim of collecting dust and carbon-based
samples during its closest encounter with Comet Wild 2, something that
was scheduled for January 2004, after nearly four years of space
travel.
Additionally, the Stardust spacecraft brought back samples of
interstellar dust, including recently discovered dust streaming into
our Solar System from the direction of Sagittarius. These materials
are believed to consist of ancient pre-solar interstellar grains and
nebular that includes remnants from the formation of the Solar System.
Analysis of such fascinating celestial specks is expected to yield
important insights into the evolution of the Sun its planets and
possibly even the origin of life itself.
In order to meet up with comet Wild 2, the spacecraft made three loops
around the Sun. On the second loop, its trajectory intersected the
comet. During the meeting, Stardust performed a variety of tasks
including reporting counts of comet particles encountered by the
spacecraft.
Using a substance called aerogel, Stardust captured these samples and
stored them for safe keep on its long journey back to Earth.
So what next, Bringing aliens from space. Keep watching

Get ready to pay for your email

Ever since Sabeer Bhatia began the free email phenomenon with Hotmail,
email has always been considered as free. There have been paid
services, where larger mail boxes would come at a price.
Now, one of the biggest email providers in the world has started a new
service, where you would have to pay for an email. Yahoo and AOL have
decided that users have the option of paid email as well. Here the
user pays a certain amount to ensure that his message is specially
marked or flagged as certified. This would help grab the attention of
the viewer.
The company feels that this should help people identify legitimate
mail and differentiate it with spam.
Such paid email will bypass the spam filters and would land directly
into the recipients inbox. On the other hand, for non paid users, the
mail would have to be routed through the spam filters.
In the next two months, AOL will start accepting e-mail processed by
the US-based Goodmail Systems. Unpaid e-mails will be routed through
the spam filtering process. Similarly, Yahoo too shall start trying
out Goodmail's system in the coming months but has not yet decided how
paid e-mail will be differentiated from unpaid.
Hence, if you pay, your emails will get priority and preference from
these senders.
The rate could range from quarter of a cent to one cent per email, sources said.
Earlier, Goodmail had stated that America Online, Inc. and Yahoo! Inc.
will deploy the Goodmail CertifiedEmail service as part of their
strategy to protect their users from email scams. The Goodmail
CertifiedEmail service identifies e-mail from accredited senders,
marks messages with a trust symbol indicating that they are safe to
open and assures delivery to the inboxes of intended recipients, it
added.
As news spread, there were diverse reactions as well. Like a post at
Slashdot where there is a remedy as well. ``You could always put them
back in the mail box marker "Return to Sender" and make them pay for
the postage again'', someone quips
But the unofficial Yahoo blog has a comment which states that will
this system is intended to target banks, online retailers and other
groups that send large amounts of e-mail.

Have a book to sell? Or want to purchase a new CD? Better still wish to make friends, post a resume or even get married? Here is the new online classified that hosts your items for free.

Time for craiglist and ebay and the Indian bazee (now purchased by ebay) to watch out. Search engine major, Google has now launched Google base, that is hosting all such items for free.

The beta service, which was launched last week promised to be another application that would shake the online market. You can create an account and start uploading items that would be searchable. It is not just about items, it could be articles, coupons, information about functions and even referral services.

Examples of what is already available on Google base includes description of your party planning service, a journalist writing articles on current events from your website, listing of your used car for sale and even a database of protein structures. As the google blog says, you could browse job listings to learn that Ernst and Young has 62 job openings in San Francisco and 147 openings in New York, or that there are more results for Chinese chicken recipes than there are Greek ones.

You can attach attributes to all items that you uploaded so that searching becomes easier.

Initially, Google base has been flooded with personal pages, with youngsters from all over advertising themselves .

It seems to be a service right from blogosphere, but it could start using the tags and attributes to create a huge searchable database that becomes a boon for advertisers. In 2000, Yahoo has launched a Pay Direct feature, an online payment system, which was later shut down. However till date Google has not stated whether it wishes to launch such a payment system.

For starters, you can go to http://base.google.com/ and create your own account.Click on post your own item and start your own classified service.

We take a break from gadgetry and other resources to check why we go online
everyday. What is the Internet used for?
No it is not e-mailing and work alone.
Some 30% of Internet users go online on any given day for no
particular reason, just for fun or to pass the time, says the latest
Pew Internet and American Life Project study. The report which was
released last week, says that hanging out online is emerging as a
popular activity indicating that the online environment is
increasingly popular as a place for people to spend their free time.
Taking a cue from the Pew report, we take a look at the phenomenon
called social networking. Social networking sites like www.myspace.com
are such a craze that within two years of its launch, it was getting
more page views than Google (says the Businessweek), and growing at
the rate of two million members a month, it has emerged as one of the
net's most important portals.
So what do these sites do. They allow you to join for free, blog, rank
music, create your profiles, upload your pics and most important meet
people from similar or diverse interests.

The phenomenon began with Six Degrees, that lasted between 1997 and
2001, and achieved stardom with Friendster and Meetup.com.


So popular are these sites, that Google launched Orkut, and even the
just launched Google base, which allows uploading personal profiles is
fast becoming a place to hang out looking for like minded people.
Interestingly, Google named the social networking service as orkut,
named after Orkut Buyukkokten, a Google software engineer who
developed the project during personal time allowed to him by Google.
All employees at Google are allowed to spend twenty percent of their
time working on personal interests, a policy Google has to encourage
creativity.

Tapping on the success of MySpace, News Corp., which bought the site
last year for $580 million. And last week, Helio, a Korean company has
announced that it would launch mobile handsets that enable you to
connect directly to MySpace. So use your mobile to click pictures and
upload them online as well as keeping track of which of your friends
is online at MySpace,.