Tuesday, 30 August 2011

Here is the different between iPad and iPad 2


Specifications

IPad

iPad 2

 

 

 

 

 

Size and weight

Height: 242.8 mm (9.56 inches)
Width: 189.7 mm (7.47 inches)
Depth: 13.4 mm (0.5 inch)
Weight
0.68 kg (1.5 pounds) Wi-Fi model;
0.73 kg (1.6 pounds) Wi-Fi + 3G model
Height: 9.50 inches (241.2 mm)
Width: 7.31 inches (185.7 mm)
Depth: 0.34 inch (8.8 mm)
Weight
1.33 pounds (601 g)
1.35 pounds (613 g) (Wi-Fi + 3G model)
1.34 pounds (607 g) (Wi-Fi + 3G for Verizon model)

Storage

16GB, 32GB or 64GB16GB, 32GB or 64GB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wireless and Cellular

Wi-Fi model
Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology
Wi-Fi + 3G model
UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
Data only
Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology
Wi-Fi + 3G model
Wi-Fi + 3G model: UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900,2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
Wi-Fi + 3G for Verizon model: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz)
Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

 

 

 

 

 

Display

9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously
9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

 

 

 

 

 

Power and Battery

Built-in 25-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video or listening to music
Up to 9 hours of surfing the web using 3G data network
Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system
Built-in 25-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video or listening to music
Up to 9 hours of surfing the web using 3G data network
Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system

 

Chip

1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip1GHz dual-core Apple A5 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip

 

 

 

Input/Output

Dock connector port
3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
Built-in speaker
Microphone
Micro SIM card tray (Wi-Fi + 3G model only)
30-pin dock connector port
3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack
Built-in speaker
Micro-SIM card tray (Wi-Fi + 3G model)
Microphone

Operating system

iOS 4.2.1iOS 4.3


After reading the above table you can easily figure out that no much improvement has been done to the iPad 2, just 2 Cameras (rear and front) and a 1GHz dual core with A5 can be counted as the different between the version 2 and the original. But how many of us are going to use the iPad camera for taking pictures and recording videos.

Friday, 26 August 2011

Can Apple be Apple without jobs

Wednesday evening's announcement from Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) that CEO Steve Jobs was resigning could hardly be called a surprise, but it will certainly accelerate a transition process that has been ongoing in fits and starts for a number of years.

Wednesday, 24 August 2011

An Introduction To The Balance Sheet

Can The U.S. Regain Its AAA Rating?

Is U.S. credit permanently tarnished by the recent downgrade of its debt by Standard & Poor's? Can the U.S. ever regain its once perfect AAA rating? If history is any guide, the answer to the first question is no. And the answer to the second question is yes.
TUTORIAL: Bond Basics
Many of the world's nations once enjoyed AAA ratings, then lost that rating because of domestic economic problems, but eventually regained it. There's no reason to prevent the U.S. from repeating what these other nations have accomplished. Much has to be done, however, before S&P might be inclined to re-evaluate its opinion of U.S. debt.
The two other major ratings services, Moody's Investor Services and Fitch, have yet to downgrade U.S. debt from AAA. But both firms have warned that a downgrade may occur in the future, depending on economic conditions and how the U.S. government handles its staggering debt. (For related reading, see What Is A Corporate Credit Rating?)
Nations That Recaptured the AAA Rating
  • Australia lost AAA rating in 1986, regained it in 2003
  • Canada lost AAA rating in 1992, regained it in 2002
  • Denmark lost AAA rating in 1983, regained it in 2001
  • Finland lost AAA rating in 1992, regained it in 2002
  • Sweden lost AAA rating in 1993, regained it in 2004
Countries That Lost the AAA
  • Ireland lost AAA rating in 2009
  • Japan lost AAA rating in 2001
  • New Zealand lost AAA rating in 1983
  • Spain lost AAA rating in 2009
  • Venezuela lost AAA rating in 1982
How to Regain the AAA
In almost every instance in which a nation recovered its AAA rating, economic problems were solved by cutting entitlement programs and benefits, and by raising taxes.
Canada reduced government spending by imposing wage freezes, cutting government and civil service programs, and reassigning certain national government expenses to provincial governments  
About half of Denmark's deficit was reduced through increasing revenue taxes.
Finland added a value added tax to reduce its deficit and devalued its currency to help it compete in global markets.
Besides cutting social benefits, Sweden also increased income and payroll taxes. A favorable exchange rate also helped increase exports.
Australia similarly consolidated its debt, and both cut expenses and raised revenues.
The American Plan
Members of the U.S. Congress are now debating the methods in a 12-member so-called bipartisan Super Committee by which its debt can be reduced and its AAA rating restored. The committee's mission is to suggest at least $1.2 trillion in budget cuts by this coming Thanksgiving, November 24. The most likely committee scenario, according to many veteran print and broadcast media reporters, is a list of recommendations split along political lines.
Despite the downgrade of American. debt, investors individual, institutional and sovereign nation have continued to buy U.S. Treasuries although fed chairman Ben Bernanke has promised there'll be no increase in yields for the next two years. So America continues to borrow as the national debt climbs relentlessly. (For more on Ben Bernanke, see Ben Bernanke: Background And Philosophy.)
The Bottom Line
When the Fed chairman's moratorium on interest increases expires in 2013, America's economy may be on a major upswing, the country's national debt may be stabilized, under control and being reduced as government spending is cut and revenues increase. Under those circumstances, S&P may restore the nation's AAA rating as it has to the countries mentioned above. But as S&P has done in the past, it can also lower the nation's debt rating even further.

A3 Tablet BookL: The future of tablet computing








Monday, 22 August 2011

The Software Crisis

The headlines have been screaming about the Y2K Software Crisis for years now. Lurking behind the Y2K crisis is the real root of the problem: The Software Crisis. After five decades of progress, software development has remained a craft and has yet to emerge into a science.

What is the Chronic Software Crisis?

Is there a crisis at all? As you stroll through the aisles of neatly packaged software in your favorite computer discount store, it wouldn’t occur to you that there’s a problem. You may be surprised to learn that those familiar aisles of software represent only a small share of the software market--of the $90 Billion software market, a mere 10% of software products are "shrink wrapped" packages for personal computers. The remaining 90% of the market is comprised of large software products developed to specific customer specifications.
By today’s definition, a "large" software system is a system that contains more than 50,000 lines of high-level language code. It’s those large systems that bring the software crisis to light. If you’re familiar with large software development projects, you know that the work is done in teams consisting of project managers, requirements analysts, software engineers, documentation experts, and programmers. With so many professionals collaborating in an organized manner on a project, what’s the problem? Why is it that the team produces fewer than 10 lines of code per day over the average lifetime of the project? And why are sixty errors found per every thousand lines of code? Why is one of every three large projects scrapped before ever being completed? And why is only 1 in 8 finished software projects considered "successful?"
But wait–there’s more!
  • The cost of owning and maintaining software in the 1980’s was twice as expensive as developing the software.
  • During the 1990’s, the cost of ownership and maintenance increased by 30% over the 1980’s.
  • In 1995, statistics showed that half of surveyed development projects were operational, but were not considered successful.
  • The average software project overshoots its schedule by half.
  • Three quarters of all large software products delivered to the customer are failures that are either not used at all, or do not meet the customer’s requirements.
Software projects are notoriously behind schedule and over budget. Over the last twenty years many different paradigms have been created in attempt to make software development more predictable and controllable. While there is no single solution to the crisis, much has been learned that can directly benefit today's software projects. It appears that the Software Crisis can be boiled down to two basic sources:
  • Software development is seen as a craft, rather than an engineering discipline.
  • The approach to education taken by most higher education institutions encourages that "craft" mentality.

Software Development: Craft, or Science?

Software development today is more of a craft than a science. Developers are certainly talented and skilled, but work like craftsmen, relying on their talents and skills and using techniques that cannot be measured or reproduced. On the other hand, software engineers place emphasis on reproducible, quantifiable techniques–the marks of science. The software industry is still many years away from becoming a mature engineering discipline. Formal software engineering processes exist, but their use is not widespread. A crisis similar to the software crisis is not seen in the hardware industry, where well documented, formal processes are tried and true, and ad hoc hardware development is unheard of.
To make matters worse, software technology is constrained by hardware technology. Since hardware develops at a much faster pace than software, software developers are constantly trying to catch up and take advantage of hardware improvements. Management often encourages ad hoc software development in an attempt to get products out on time for the new hardware architectures. Design, documentation, and evaluation are of secondary importance and are omitted or completed after the fact. However, as the statistics show, the ad hoc approach just doesn’t work. Software developers have classically accepted a certain number of errors in their work as inevitable and part of the job. That mindset becomes increasingly unacceptable as software becomes embedded in more and more consumer electronics. Sixty errors per thousand lines of code is unacceptable when the code is embedded in a toaster, automobile, ATM machine or razor (let your imagination run free for a moment).

Computer Science and the Product Orientation

Software developers pick up the ad hoc approach to software development early in their computer science education, where they are taught a "product orientation" approach to software development. In the many undergraduate computer science courses I took, the existence of software engineering processes was never even mentioned. Computer science education does not provide students with the necessary skills to become effective software engineers. They are taught in a way that encourages them to be concerned only with the final outcome of their assignments–whether or not the program runs, or whether or not it runs efficiently, or whether or not they used the best possible algorithm. Those concerns in themselves are not bad. But on the other hand, they should not be the focus of a project. The focus should be on the complete process from beginning to end and beyond. Product orientation also leads to problems when the student enters the work force–not having seen how processes affect the final outcome, individual programmers tend to think their work from day to day is too "small" to warrant the application of formal methods. To become effective software engineers, students must be taught how the process and product interact. They need to see how a good process repeatedly results in a good product. Software process engineering, is, unfortunately, not taught until very late in a computer science student’s academic career (usually in graduate school), or in company sponsored classes on the job.

Mature Software

As we have seen, most software projects do not follow a formal process. The result is a product that is poorly designed and documented. Maintenance becomes problematic because without a design and documentation, it’s difficult or impossible to predict what sort of effect a simple change might have on other parts of the system.
Fortunately there is an awareness of the software crisis, and it has inspired a worldwide movement towards process improvement. Software industry leaders are beginning to see that following a formal software process consistently leads to better quality products, more efficient teams and individuals, reduced costs, and better morale.
The SEI (Software Engineering Institute: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/) uses a Capability Maturity Model (CMM) to assess the state of an organization’s development process. Such models are nothing new–they’ve been routinely applied to industrial engineering disciplines. What’s new is the application to software development. The SEI Software CMM has become a de facto standard for assessing and improving software processes. Ratings range from Maturity Level 1, which is characterized by ad hoc development and lack of a formal software development process, up to Maturity Level 5, at which an organization not only has a formal process, but also continually refines and improves it. Each maturity level is further broken down into key process areas that indicate the areas an organization should focus on to improve its software process (e.g. requirement analysis, defect prevention, or change control).
Level 5 is very difficult to attain. In early 1995, only two projects, one at Motorola and another at Loral (the on-board space shuttle software project), had earned Maturity Level 5. Another study showed that only 2% of reviewed projects rated in the top two Maturity Levels, in spite of many of those projects placing an extreme emphasis on software process improvement. Customers contracting large projects will naturally seek organizations with high CMM ratings, and that has prompted increasingly more organizations to investigate software process improvement.
Mature software is also reusable software. Artisans are not concerned with producing standardized products, and that is a reason why there is so little interchangeability in software components. Ideally, software would be standardized to such an extent that it could be marketed as a "part", with its own part number and revision, just as though it were a hardware part. The software component interface would be compatible with any other software system. Though it would seem that nothing less than a software development revolution could make that happen, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) founded the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), one purpose of which was to encourage the development of standardized software components. Information on the NIST Advanced Technology Program can be found at http://www.atp.nist.gov/atp/overview.htm.

Engineering: In; Hacking: Out

The consensus seems to be that software has become too darned big to treat as a craft: talent and late-night hacking are out. The artisan approach is charming but breaks down when the system is too large for one person to comprehend on his own. And while it may not be necessary to apply formal software processes to daily programming tasks, it is important in the larger scheme of things, in that it encourages developers to think like engineers.
Further reading on Formal Methods can be found on the Formal Methods WWW site: http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/formal-methods.html.

Monday, 8 August 2011

Friendship for lifetime

It's that time of year again, when schoolgirl wrists are lined with colourful bands, often all the way up to their elbows, to represent the circle of friends that encompass schoolgirl worlds.
But it's not a tradition we carry with us into adulthood, and perhaps in the scheme of things, dropping it into the basket of 'leave behind' allows us to pick up other shiny objects from the basket for grown-ups.
But grown-ups have a lot of things on their minds — careers and house loans, laundry chores and grocery errands, babies and education funds. And friends often don't make the list. Friends must take a backseat to the grind of daily routine.
It's a loss that we learn to live with, and don't really miss. But what are we really losing out on? Does friendship merely represent an ear to hear our stories? Is it just someone to be silly with, to regress over memories of simpler times?  Not to belittle these things at all, but friendships can be so much more; more than sharing stories, and cups of tea. They can be about sharing lives, about shaping destinies, and drawing the path to who we eventually become.
Many of history's most exceptional individuals would not have accomplished the things they did, without their circle of friends. Ernest Hemingway's friendship with the writer and poet, Gertrude Stein, and the many hours they spent together in her galleries in Paris, discussing art and her experiments with writing, is said to have influenced him tremendously. Much of his technique and style is the result of their friendship, and  critics say she is present in his novels, long after their friendship dissolved.
Abraham Lincoln's friendship with Joshua Speed is one that was instrumental in the formation of Lincoln's politics. They met when Lincoln was 27 years old, and remained friends until his death in 1865. And it was with Joshua Speed that he first shared his thoughts on slavery. Policy, administration and emancipation were subjects they discussed extensively in their letters to each other, and while they were not always in agreement on many issues, it is without doubt that these conversations were pivotal in the creation of Lincoln's legacy.
Another duo whose friendship left a lasting impression on each other's lifeworks, were C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Their friendship has spawned much analysis on the influence of each writer on the other. Both shared a common love of language and storytelling, poetry, myth, religion, and long walks. Their personal relationship developed slowly, and as their friendship grew, they became each other's first readers.  While their friendship eventually turned into rivalry, neither Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, nor Tolkien's Lord of the Rings would be what they are today, without the other writer's stimulus, through both criticism and praise.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American poet and philosopher, whose insights have always struck a chord, observed that it takes a long time to grow an old friend. And while one of the blessings of old friends is that you can afford to be stupid with them, he also pointed out that a friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature.
Amen to that.
Good friends are hard to come by, so hold on to them with both hands.

Wednesday, 3 August 2011

குறுகிய லட்சியங்கள் குற்றங்களே: கலாம்


ஆல்பம்
பதிவு செய்த நாள் : ஆகஸ்ட் 01,2011,23:36 IST
மாற்றம் செய்த நாள் : ஆகஸ்ட் 03,2011,02:33 IST

கோவை:""தமக்கென்று ஒரு தனித்துவத்தை வகுத்து கொண்டு இயங்குவோர் மட்டுமே வெற்றி பெறுகின்றனர்; வரலாறும் கூட அவர்களைத்தான் நினைவு கூர்கின்றது. குறுகிய லட்சியங்கள் குற்றமாகவே கருதப்படும்,'' என, முன்னாள் ஜனாதிபதி அப்துல் கலாம் பேசினார்.
"யூத் மீட் - 2011' விழா, கோவை நவக்கரையிலுள்ள .ஜே.கே., கல்லூரி வளாகத்தில் நேற்று நடந்தது.

விழாவில், முன்னாள் ஜனாதிபதி அப்துல்கலாம் பேசியதாவது:ஓயாய அறிவுத் தேடல் ஒன்றே மாணவர்களை வெற்றியை நோக்கி அழைத்துச் செல்லும். "நான் அனைத்துக்கும் தகுதியுள்ளவனாகப் பிறந்தேன். நல்லெண்ணங்களோடும், நம்பிக்கையோடும் பிறந்தேன். கனவுகளோடும் சிந்திக்கும் திறனோடும் பிறந்தேன். எனக்கு சிறகுகள் உள்ளன. நான் பறப்பேன், பறப்பேன், பறப்பேன்' என்று உங்களுக்குள் திரும்பத் திரும்ப கூறிக் கொள்ளுங்கள். இந்த புவியில், இளைஞர்களின் ஆற்றல்தான் பெரிய ஆற்றல். இந்தியாவின் சமூக பொருளாதார நிலையை மாற்றும் சக்தி மாணவர்களின் செழுமையான சிந்தனைக்கு மட்டுமே உண்டு. 2020ம் ஆண்டுக்குள் முழுமையான வளர்ச்சியை எட்ட வேண்டும் என்கிற வல்லரசுக் கனவு, இந்தியாவுக்கு உண்டு.

இந்த லட்சியத்தை எட்ட, தனித்துவம், படைப்பாற்றல், புதுமை மற்றும் சுதந்திர சிந்தனைகள் நிறைந்தவர்களாக மாணவர்கள் மாற வேண்டும். பல்பையும், வெளிச்சத்தையும் பார்க்கும்போது தாமஸ் ஆல்வா எடிசனும், விமானங்களைப் பார்க்கும்போது ரைட் சகோதரர்களும், கணிதம் என்றதும் சீனிவாச ராமானுஜமும், "பிளாக் ஹோல்' என்றதும் சுப்ரமணியன் சந்திரசேகரும் நினைவுக்கு வருகின்றனர். இவர்கள் அனைவரும் தனித்துவத்துடன் இயங்கியவர்கள்; தமக்கென்று ஒரு தனித்துவத்தை வகுத்து கொண்டு இயங்குவோர்தான் வெற்றி பெறுகின்றனர்; வரலாறும் கூட அவர்களைத்தான் நினைவு கூர்கின்றது, இதை மாணவர்கள் மறந்துவிடக் கூடாது.

பெரிய பெரிய லட்சியங்கள், அறிவுத் தேடல், கடின உழைப்பு, விடா முயற்சி போன்றவை மாணவர்களுக்கு அவசியம். குறுகிய லட்சியங்கள் குற்றமாகவே கருதப்படும். ஒவ்வொருவருக்கும் கனவுகள் வேண்டும்; கனவுகள் படைப்புத்திறனை நோக்கி அழைத்துச் செல்லும். படைப்புத் திறன், சிந்தனையாற்றலை வளர்க்கும். சிந்தனையாற்றல் அறிவை வளர்க்கும்; அறிவுதான் உங்களை உயர்ந்த மனிதர்களாக்கும். எனவே, கனவுகளை வளர்த்துக் கொள்ளுங்கள்.இவ்வாறு, அப்துல் கலாம் பேசினார்.

.ஜே.கே., கல்வி நிறுவனங்களின் நிர்வாக அறங்காவலர் அஜித் குமார் அறிமுக உரையாற்றினார். பாரதியார் பல்கலை துணைவேந்தர் சுவாமிநாதன், கோவை அண்ணா தொழில்நுட்ப பல்கலை துணைவேந்தர் கருணாகரன், கொச்சி அறிவியல் மற்றும் தொழில்நுட்ப பல்கலை துணைவேந்தர் ராமச்சந்திரன் தெக்கேடத், அவினாசிலிங்கம் பல்கலை துணை வேந்தர் ஷீலா உள்ளிட்டோர் பங்கேற்றனர்.

"அணு ஆயுதங்கள் தேவையே':கல்வி நிறுவனங்களுக்கு கலாம் வருகிறார் என்றால், கேள்வி - பதில் அமர்வு கட்டாயம் இருக்கும். விமானத்துக்கு தாமதமாகிவிடும் என்று தெரிந்தும், மாணவர்களை ஏமாற்ற விரும்பாத கலாம், "மூன்று கேள்விகளுக்கு பதில் அளிக்கிறேன். மீதி கேள்விகளை -மெயில் செய்யுங்கள்; 24 மணி நேரத்துக்குள் பதில் வரும்' என்று கூறினார். "இந்தியாவை வல்லரசாக்குவதில் எம்மைப் போன்ற மாணவர்களின் பங்கு என்ன' என்று கேட்ட மாணவியிடம், "உங்கள் லட்சியம் என்ன' என்று கேட்டார் கலாம். "வக்கீல் அல்லது ..எஸ்., ஆகி மக்களுக்கு நன்மை செய்வேன்; அநீதிகளுக்கு எதிராக போராடுவேன்' என்றார் மாணவி. உடனே ""இந்த நம்பிக்கைதான் உங்களின் செயல். என்னால் முடியும், நம்மால் முடியும் என்னும் எண்ணம் இந்தியாவால் முடியும் என்பதாக மாறும் என்றார். "பெண்கள் மீதான பாலியல் அத்துமீறல்களை எப்படி எதிர்கொள்வது' என்று கேட்ட மற்றொரு மாணவிக்கு, ""இந்த மனோநிலையை மாற்றும்படியான நன்னெறி கல்விதான் தீர்வு,'' என்றார். "அணு ஆயுதங்கள் தேவையா' எனக் கேட்ட மாணவனிடம், ""நம்மைச் சுற்றி அனைவரும் ஆயுதங்களோடு இருப்பதால்தான் அணு ஆயுதங்களின் தேவை உருவாகிறது,'' என, ரத்தினச் சுருக்கமாக பதிலளித்து, புறப்பட்டார்.