Cause Life Is Beautiful

PCI Express

2007-04-19T16:46:00.000+07:00

PCI Express, officially abbreviated as PCIe (and sometimes confused with PCI Extended, which is officially abbreviated as PCI-X), is a computer system bus/expansion card interface format. It was designed as a much faster interface to replace PCI, PCI-X, and AGP interfaces for computer expansion cards and graphics cards. The PCI Express (PCIe) physical connection (slot) is completely different to those of the older standard PCI slots or those for PCI Extended (PCI-X).

As with all computing standards, PCIe is a technology which receives further development and improvement. The current standard version in general use at time of writing is PCIe 1.1; however, PCI-SIG announced the availability of the PCI Express Base 2.0 specification on 15 January 2007. PCIe 2.0 doubles the PCIe bus standard throughput or bandwidth from 2.5Gbps to 5Gbps. PCIe 2.0 is still compatible with PCIe 1.1 as a physical interface slot and from within software, so older cards will still be able to work in machines fitted with this new version. Further information on PCIe 2.0 is detailed below.

PCIe is a flexible hybrid serial-parallel interface format. That is, it uses multiple connections each of which individually transmit a single stream of data in parallel to one another. This type of interfacing is sometimes referred to as Channel bonding. PCIe 1.1 transfers data at 250 MB/s in each direction per lane. With a maximum of 32 lanes, PCIe allows for a total combined transfer rate of 8 GB/s in each direction. To put these figures into perspective, a single lane has nearly twice the data rate of normal PCI, a four lane slot has a comparable data rate to the fastest version of PCI-X 1.0, and an eight lane slot has a data rate comparable to the fastest version of AGP.

Unlike preceding PC expansion interface standards, PCIe is both full duplex and point to point. This means that while standard PCI-X (133mhz 64 bit) and PCIe x4 have the same data transfer rate, PCIe x4 will give better performance if multiple device pairs are communicating simultaneously or if communication within a single device pair is bidirectional.

DDR2 vs DDR

2007-04-19T16:42:00.000+07:00

Secara fisik, tidak ada perbedaan yang mencolok antara DDR2 dan DDR. Bahkan letak lekukan penanda (notch) juga sekilas terasa mirip.

184 pin vs 240 pin
Secara fisik yang gampang terlihat adalah jumlah pin-nya. DDR yang selama ni Anda kenal memiliki 184 pin. Sedangkan DDR2 berjumlahkan 240 pin. Lekukan penanda, agar DRAM tidak salah terpasang juga bergeser sedikit. Tidak lebih dari 3 mm. Jadi, hati-hatilah dalam memasangnya, apalagi jika di motherboard tersebut tersedia dua macam slot, baik DDR maupun DDR2. Hal ini masih banyak dijumpai pada beberapa motherboard dengan chipset 915P ataupun 915G yang memang masih mendukung DDR 400/333.

2,5 V vs 1,8 V
Seperti peralihan modul DRAM sebelumnya, terjadi juga perubahan voltage yang digunakan. DDR membutuhkan tegangan sebesar 2,5 Volt. Sedangkan DDR2 membutuhkan tegangan sebesar 1,8 Volt. Secara teori, DDR2 tidak akan menghasilkan panas yang lebih tinggi dibanding DDR. Akhirnya ada juga komponen baru untuk chipset ini yang tidak menyumbang tambahan panas.

DDR2/533 vs DDR400
Untuk sementara, dua kecepatan inilah yang disepakati oleh JEDEC. DDR2/533 jika dioperasikan dengan dual-channel akan dapat menghasilkan bandwidth memory sebesar 8,5 GB/s. Bandingkan dengan dual channel DDR400 yang “hanya” menghasilkan bandwidth maksimal sebesar 6,4 GB/s. Selanjutnya akan hadir DDR2/677 dan DDR2/800 yang semakin membuka ketersediaan memory bandwith.

Pengujian
Yang akan dibandingkan di sini adalah kemampuan DDR dibandingkan penantangnya DDR2. kami memberikan perbandingan antara DDR2 pada chipset 925X, dibandingkan dengan DDR pada chipset 875P. Sebagai pembanding, kami tampilkan juga kinerja DDR dan DDR2 yang terpasang pada motherboard dengan chipset 915P. Karena pada motherboard ini tersedia baik slot DIMM untuk DDR maupun untuk DRAM DDR2.

Kesimpulan
Lagi-lagi ini di luar dugaan kami sebelumnya. Chipset Intel 925X bergabung dengan DDR2 belum jauh lebih baik dibandingkan dengan chipset 875P dengan DDR2. Sedangkan kinerja DDR2 dibanding DDR pada chipset Intel 915P juga tidaklah terlalu menggembirakan.

Akankah ini hanya sebuah blunder, seperti saat Intel memperkenalkan RDRAM dengan chipset Intel 840 (RDRAM PC800 dual channels). Semoga tidak, karena kita sudah mengetahui nasib keduanya (RDRAM dan Intel 840) yang minim peminat di pasaran, karena harganya yang kelewat tinggi jika dibandingkan dengan peningkatan kinerja yang dimiliki.

The Power In You

2007-04-18T14:31:00.000+07:00

Ada kekuatan di dalam cinta,
Orang yang sanggup memberikan cinta adalah orang yang kuat
Karena ia bisa mengalahkan keinginannya
Untuk mementingkan diri sendiri
Ada kekuatan dalam tawa kegembiraan,
Orang tertawa gembira adalah orang yang kuat
Karena ia tidak pernah terlarut dengan tantangan dan cobaan.
Ada kekuatan di dalam kedamaian diri
Orang yang dirinya penuh damai bahagia adalah orang yang kuat
Karena ia tidak pernah tergoyahkan
Dan tidak mudah diombang-ambingkan.
Ada kekuatan di dalam kesabaran,
Orang yang sabar adalah orang yang kuat
Karena ia sanggup menanggung segala sesuatu
Dan ia tidak pernah merasa disakiti.
Ada kekuatan di dalam kemurahan,
Orang yang murah hati adalah orang yang kuat
Karena ia tidak pernah menahan mulut dan tangannya
Untuk melakukan yang baik bagi sesamanya.
Ada kekuatan di dalam kebaikan,
Orang yang baik adalah orang yang kuat
Karena ia bisa selalu mampu melakukan yang baik bagi semua orang .
Ada kekuatan di dalam kesetiaan,
Orang yang setia adalah orang yang kuat
Karena ia bisa mengalahkan nafsu dan keinginan pribadi
Dengan kesetiaannya kepada sesama.
Ada kekuatan di dalam kelemahlembutan,
Orang yang lemah lembut adalah orang yang kuat
Karena ia bisa menahan diri untuk tidak membalas dendam.
Ada kekuatan di dalam penguasaan diri,
Orang yang bisa menguasai diri adalah orang yang kuat
Karena ia bisa mengendalikan segala nafsu keduniawian.
Sadarkah teman bahwa engkau juga memiliki cukup
Kekuatan untuk mengatasi segala permasalahan dalam hidup ini?
Dimanapun, seberat dan serumit apapun juga.
Karena pencobaan tidak akan pernah dibiarkan melebihi kekuatan kita.

Diabetics found more prone to mild memory problems

2007-04-10T17:24:00.000+07:00

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Diabetics are at higher risk of getting a type of mild memory impairment that may later develop into Alzheimer's disease, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Several studies have shown that people with diabetes are at greater risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

A new study, published in the Archives of Neurology, found diabetes was linked to a significantly higher risk of a memory problem known as mild cognitive impairment.

That disorder, marked by greater-than-normal trouble with memory and recognition, may be a transitional step in the development of Alzheimer's disease and serves as yet another reason for preventing diabetes.

Alzheimer's disease affects 28 million people globally, and more than 5 million people in the United States.

About 20.8 million children and U.S. adults have diabetes, which causes about 5 percent of all deaths globally each year.

Most diabetics have type 2, or adult-onset diabetes, in which the body loses its ability to use insulin.

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center studied 918 people over age 65 who had risk factors for heart disease but no dementia or cognitive impairment when they started the study in the early 1990s.

They were examined every 18 months, with physical, neurological and memory tests.

Of those studied, 23.9 percent had diabetes.

They were followed for about six years and 334 developed mild cognitive impairment, including 160 cases of amnestic mild cognitive impairment, which has been linked to Alzheimer's disease.

Those with diabetes had a significantly higher risk of cognitive decline, especially the amnestic type, which involves more memory loss than disorientation and language difficulties.

A prior study by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, suggested that about 12 percent of people over the age of 70 have mild cognitive impairment. These patients are three to four times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease.

"Our results provide further support to the potentially important independent role of diabetes in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease," the Columbia researchers wrote.

enable task manager on my system when it has been disabled by administrator

2007-03-22T20:02:00.000+07:00

=============== start copy here ==================
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"DisableRegistryTools"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"DisableTaskMgr"=dword:00000000
=============== end copy here ==================

copy to notepad, and save with name repair.reg

Google Earth

2007-02-27T17:28:00.000+07:00

Google Earth,
Selidik Wilayah Lain Dengan Satelit Tentu tidak asing mendengar google, search engine ternama yang kiprahnya begitu membantu pengguna internet dalam mencari informasi-informasi sesuai kebutuhan. Google Earth itu sendiri merupakan aplikasi yang mereka kembangkan guna mendapatkan pencitraan satelit terhadap landscape tertentu di seluruh pelosok dunia.
Keberadaan Google Earth begitu fenomenal saat awal pemunculannya, karena ternyata banyak mengundang protessekaligus acungan jempol. Mengapa mendapatkan protes? Salah satunya karena dengan aplikasi ini, masyarakat dunia dapat “mengintip” gudang-gudang persenjataan rahasia dari suatu negara berkonflik yang sangat ditutupi dari masyarakat internasional. Tidak hanya itu saja, Pentagon yang sedemikian memperhatikan keselamatan udara dan angkasa raya, masih bisa terintip meskipun hasil pencitraannya tidak sedemikian nyata.
Uniknya, Google Earth bisa dinikmati oleh semua masyarakat dunia dengan mendownload aplikasi tersebut. Bahkan dengan spesifikasi minimum yang tidak terlalu tinggi, user dapat menikmati “pemandangan” dari satelit ke pelosok dunia yang diinginkannya. Wow.. I can see youuuuu

Tidak hanya menggunakan perangkat khusus, Teknologi VRGIS dapat pula dikombinasikan pada kekuatan world wide web dengan efek virtual reality. Ini tentunya langkah revolusioner pada masyarakat untuk mendapatkan informasi aktual dari berbagai sudut dunia ini, tentunya selama database itu telah tersedia atau dipersiapkan. 3D VRGIS Yang menarik dari sistem pengembangan ini adalah menghadirkan imajinasi nyata dari sebuah pemetaan.
Dengan seperangkat elektronik memungkinkan user untuk melihat dan mendekati dunia nyata. Perangkat elektronik ini disebut FLEX Immersive Virtual Reality System. FLEX berbeda dengan Augmented Reality (AR) yang biasanya dipergunakan pada GIS. Sedangkan sistem FLEX merupakan lebih mengedepankan obyek yang tidak bergerak dan menciptakan seluruh lingkungan virtual. Jadi segala obyek memiliki perbandingan 1:1 dengan aslinya. Dengan FLEX users wear virtual reality glasses, user dapat melihat efek 3D (3 dimensi) terhadap obyek yang sebenarnya pantulan dari proyektor high-tech di suatu ruang tertentu. FLEX menciptakan ilusi dunia 3D dimana user dapat menavigasikan seluruh cyberspace landscape dengan remote control dengan mudah dan informatif. Sample Pemetaan Masih Terbatas Memang, untuk mendapatkan tampilan 3D landscape yang ditampilkan oleh FLEX, dibutuhkan pengambilan dan pengumpulan gambar-gambar di wilayah tertentu, terutama perekaman pada obyek asli yang kemudian akan di-record pada database guna diaplikasikan secara VRGIS. Ini tentunya untuk mendapatkan data lengkap dari obyek map yang kelak dimanfaatkan saat eksekusi terhadap map itu dilakukan. Untuk saat ini, FLEX telah mengumpulkan data yang sebenarnya lumayan memiliki jangkauan luas. Dengan VRGIS ini, user dapat mengunjungi banyak penjuru dunia dari Tokyo hingga Grand Canyon. User dapat saja menentukan titik mana yang ingin dikunjunginya dengan menggunakan geographic reference points atau geoPoints. Sehingga bisa saja saat User menginginkan “terbang” di atas dan berkeliling di jalan Morgantown dan bangunan yang ada di kota tersebut. Atau melakukan touring ke pegunungan dan bukit hingga permukaan Sungai Monongahela, user dapat melihat segala sesuatunya mulai tekstur hingga tingginya pegunungan dan bukit di sekitarnya. Atau jika pemetaan di kota – kota Indonesia telah ada, bisa saja kita berkeliling di atas kota Jakarta. Tapi tampaknya, masyarakat masih akan sedikit menunggu karena FLEX itu sendiri terus dikembangkan hingga perkiraan selesai komplit di May atau Juni 2007. Tunggu saja!

PlayStation 3

2007-02-27T14:13:00.000+07:00

PlayStation 3
Player Game Sejuta Kepuasan
Siapa yang tidak kenal dengan playstation sekarang ini, setelah sukses dengan meluncurkan PS 1 dan PS 2, kali ini Sony sang pengembang game console ini kembali meluncurkan produknya yang terbaru PS3 pada bulan November tahun lalu yang tentunya sudah dilengkapi engan teknologi yang canggih seperti para pendahulunya.
PS3 kini dibekali dengan menggunakan teknologi Bluetooth dan media penyimpanan Blue Ray BD-ROM sebesar 60 Gb dan 20 Gb. Dengan dukungan graphic yang memadai, PS3 mampu menampilkan hasil gambar yang lebih bagus dari pada pendahulunya. PS3 juga dapat memainkan permainan dari PS2 dan juga bisa untuk melihat DVD serta MP3, memang benar – benar sarana multimedia yang memuaskan untuk dimiliki. Hanya saja harganya cukup mahal kecuali mereka yang berkantong tebal.

Spesifikasi :
Graphics Processor: RSX “Reality Synthesizer”
Processor Clock Speed: 3.2GHz
Processor: Cell processor
Video Memory: 256MB
Memory Bandwidth: 25.6GB/s main memory bandwidth, 22.4GB/s video memory bandwidth
Digital Media Formats: Compatible with CR-ROM, CDR+W, DVD, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD+R
I/O Connectors: Ethernet (RJ45), 6 USB 2.0, CF Slot (Type I, II), SD Slot (Regular, Compact),
Port Memory : Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo, 1 x Optical Audio
Controller Ports: Supports up to 7 Bluetooth Controllers
Plug and Play Storage: 2.5in Removable Hard Drive (Unkown Size)
Standard AV Output Connectors: 2 x HDMI, 1 x AV
Integrated Communications: 802.11 B/G Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0
Processor Core Spec: 1 Core, 7 x SPE 3.2GHz (256KB SRAM per SPE), 7 x 128b 128 SIMDPRs

Kamu memanggilnya...

2007-02-23T16:52:00.000+07:00

Waktu kamu berumur 1 tahun, dia menyuapi dan memandikanmu ...
sebagai balasannya ... kau menangis sepanjang malam.
Waktu kamu berumur 2 tahun, dia mengajarimu bagaimana cara berjalan ..
sebagai balasannya ... kamu kabur waktu dia memanggilmu
Waktu kamu berumur 3 tahun, dia memasak semua makananmu dengan kasih sayang ...
sebagai balasannya ... kamu buang piring berisi makananmu ke lantai
Waktu kamu berumur 4 tahun, dia memberimu pensil warna ...
sebagai balasannya ... kamu corat coret tembok rumah dan meja makan
Waktu kamu berumur 5 tahun, dia membelikanmu baju-baju mahal dan indah..
sebagai balasannya ... kamu memakainya bermain di kubangan lumpur
Waktu berumur 6 tahun, dia mengantarmu pergi ke sekolah ...
sebagai balasannya ... kamu berteriak "NGGAK MAU ...!"
Waktu berumur 7 tahun, dia membelikanmu bola ...
sebagai balasannya kamu melemparkan bola ke jendela tetangga
Waktu berumur 8 tahun, dia memberimu es krim ...
sebagai balasanya kamu tumpahkan dan mengotori seluruh bajumu
Waktu kamu berumur 9 tahun, dia membayar mahal untuk kursus-kursusmu...
sebagai balasannya ... kamu sering bolos dan sama sekali nggak mau belajar

Waktu kamu berumur 10 tahun, dia mengantarmu kemana saja, dari kolam renang sampai pesta ulang tahun ...
sebagai balasannya ... kamu melompat keluar mobil tanpa memberi salam
Waktu kamu berumur 11 tahun, dia mengantar kamu dan temen-temen kamu kebioskop ... sebagai balasannya ... kamu minta dia duduk di barisan lain
Waktu kamu berumur 12 tahun, dia melarangmu melihat acara tv khusus untuk orang dewasa ...
sebagai balasannya ... kamu tunggu sampai dia keluar rumah
Waktu kamu berumur 13 tahun, dia menyarankanmu untuk memotong rambut karena sudah waktunya ..
sebagai balasannya.. kamu bilang dia tidak tahu mode
Waktu kamu berumur 14 tahun, dia membayar biaya untuk kemahmu selama liburan ... sebagai balasannya ... kamu nggak pernah menelponnya.
Waktu kamu berumur 15 tahun, pulang kerja dia ingin memelukmu ...
sebagai balasannya ... kamu kunci pintu kamarmu
Waktu kamu berumur 16 tahun, dia mengajari kamu mengemudi mobil ...
sebagai balasannya ... kamu pakai mobilnya setiap ada kesempatan tanpa mempedulikan kepentingannya
Waktu kamu berumur 17 tahun, dia sedang menunggu telpon yang penting ..
sebagai balasannya ... kamu pakai telpon nonstop semalaman,
waktu kamu berumur 18 tahun, dia menangis terharu ketika kamu lulus SMA..
sebagai balasannya ... kamu berpesta dengan teman-temanmu sampai pagi

Waktu kamu berumur 19 tahun, dia membayar semua kuliahmu dan mengantarmu ke kampus pada hari pertana ...
sebagai balasannya ... kamu minta diturunkan jauh dari pintu gerbang biar nggak malu sama temen-temen.

Waktu kamu berumur 20 tahun, dia bertanya "Darimana saja seharian ini?"..
sebagai balasannya ... kamu menjawab "Ah, cerewe t amat sih, pengen tahu urusan orang."
Waktu kamu berumur 21 tahun, dia menyarankanmu satu pekerjaan bagus untuk karier masa depanmu ...
sebagai balasannya ... kamu bilang "Aku nggak mau seperti kamu."
Waktu kamu berumur 22 tahun, dia memelukmu dan haru waktu kamu lulus perguruan tinggi ...
sebagai balasanmu ... kamu nanya kapan kamu bisa main ke luar negeri
Waktu kamu berumur 23 tahun, dia membelikanmu 1 set furniture untuk rumah barumu ... sebagai balasannya ... kamu ceritain ke temanmu betapa jeleknya furniture itu
Waktu kamu berumur 24 tahun, dia bertemu dengan tunanganmu dan bertanya tentang rencana di masa depan ...
sebagai balasannya ... kamu mengeluh "Aduh gimana sih kok bertanya seperti itu."
Waktu kamu berumur 25 tahun, dia membantumu membiayai pernikahanmu ..
sebagai balasannya ... kamu pindah ke kota lain yang jaraknya lebih dari 500 km.
Waktu kamu berumur 30 tahun, dia memberimu nasehat bagaimana merawat bayimu ... sebagai balasannya ... kamu katakan "Sekarang jamannya sudah beda."
Waktu kamu berumur 40 tahun, dia menelponmu untuk memberitahu pesta salah
satu saudara dekatmu ...
sebagai balasannya kamu jawab "Aku sibuk sekali,nggak ada waktu."

Waktu kamu berumur 50 tahun, dia sakit-sakitan sehingga memerlukan perawatanmu ...
sebagai balasannya ... kamu baca tentang pengaruh negatif orang tua yang numpang tinggal di rumah anaknya

dan hingga SUATU HARI, dia meninggal dengan tenang ... dan tiba-tiba kamu teringat semua yang belum pernah kamu lakukan, ... dan itu menghantam HATIMU bagaikan pukulan godam

MAKA ..
JIKA ORANGTUAMU MASIH ADA .. BERIKANLAH KASIH SAYANG DAN PERHATIAN LEBIH DARI YANG PERNAH KAMU BERIKAN SELAMA INI
JIKA ORA NG TUAMU SUDAH TIADA ... INGATLAH KASIH SAYANG DAN CINTANYA YANG TELAH DIBERIKANNYA DENGAN TULUS TANPA SYARAT KEPADAMU

Mobile Phone Emergency Charger

2006-12-25T12:02:00.000+07:00

Mobile Phone Emergency Charger
Saat kita sedang menghubungi seseorang yang sekiranya penting
untuk di bicarakan via handphone dan kita sedang berada
di luar ruangan atau kantor, tiba – tiba hubungan terputus
karena baterai habis. Sungguh mengesalkan bukan? Mobile
quick emergency charger hadir untuk mengatasi masalah anda.
Uniknya produk darurat ini tidak perlu menggunakan koneksi ke
listrik sebagaimana charger umumnya, sebagai sumber power
produk ini hanya memakai baterai 1 buah saja dan bisa untuk
dibawa kemana – mana. Nah mungkin ini yang di cari – cari oleh
anda bagi yang suka bekerja di luar kantor.

Mother's Day

2006-12-22T08:42:00.000+07:00

Mother's Day
Mother's Day is a holiday honouring mothers, celebrated (on various days) in many places around the world. Mothers often receive gifts on this day.

Mother's Day is a strange time of year for mail in many countries. In 1973, mail delivery through the U.S. Postal Service was delayed for eight days because of the amount of mail.[citation needed] Telephone networks are also at their busiest on Mother's Day. Mother's Day is the number one holiday for flowers purchased throughout the year.

History
Different countries celebrate Mother's Day on various days of the year because the day has a number of different origins. One school of thought claims this day emerged from a custom of mother worship in ancient Greece. Mother worship — which kept a festival to Cybele, a great mother of gods, and Rhea, the wife of Cronus — was held around the Vernal Equinox around Asia Minor and eventually in Rome itself from the Ides of March (March 15) to March 18.

In the United States, Mother's Day was originally conceived by social activist Julia Ward Howe during the American Civil War with a call to unite women against war. She wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation. In the British Isles, the day now simply celebrates motherhood and thanking mothers. According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother's Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States.

In most countries, Mother's Day is a new concept copied from western civilization. In many African countries, Mother's Day has its origins in copying the British concept. In most of East Asia, Mother's Day is a heavily marketed and commercialized concept copied straight from Mother's Day in the USA.

Wibree

2006-12-01T11:33:00.000+07:00

Wibree is the first wireless technology to solve the following needs in a single solution.

* Ultra low peak and average power consumption in both active and idle modes
* Ultra low cost & small size for accessories & human interface devices (HID)
* Minimal cost & size addition to mobile phones & PCs
* Global, intuitive & secure multi-vendor interoperability

Wibree device architecture

Wibree specification has been created by having two equally important implementation alternatives in mind, namely dual-mode and stand-alone. In the dual mode implementation the Wibree functionality is an add-on feature inside Bluetooth circuitry sharing a great deal of existing functionality resulting in a minimal cost increase compared to existing products. The dual modes are targeted at mobile phones, multimedia computers and PCs. The stand alone implementations are power and cost optimized designs targeted at, for example, sport, wellness, and human HID product categories.

Wibree radio specification

Wibree radio specification enables dual-mode implementations to reuse Bluetooth RF part but also to guarantee ultra low power consumption for devices with embedded stand-alone implementation of the Wibree specification. Wibree operates in 2.4 GHz ISM band with physical layer bit rate of 1 Mbps and provides link distance of 5-10 meters.
Wibree link layer specification

Wibree link layer provides ultra low power idle mode operation, simple device discovery and reliable point-to-multipoint data transfer with advanced power-save and encryption functionalities. The link layer provides means to schedule Wibree traffic in between Bluetooth transmissions.

Wibree host & profile specifications

In the first phase Wibree provides sensor, HID and watch user interface profiles.

GSM

2006-11-16T17:38:00.000+07:00

Global System for Mobile Communications

The Global System for Mobile Communications, GSM (original acronym: Groupe Spécial Mobile) is the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world. GSM service is used by over 2 billion people across more than 212 countries and territories. The ubiquity of the GSM standard makes international roaming very common between mobile phone operators, enabling subscribers to use their phones in many parts of the world. GSM differs significantly from its predecessors in that both signaling and speech channels are Digital call quality, which means that it is considered a second generation (2G) mobile phone system. This fact has also meant that data communication was built into the system from the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

From the point of view of the consumers, the key advantage of GSM systems has been higher digital voice quality and low cost alternatives to making calls such as text messaging. The advantage for network operators has been the ability to deploy equipment from different vendors because the open standard allows easy inter-operability. Like other cellular standards GSM allows network operators to offer roaming services which mean subscribers can use their phones all over the world.

As the GSM standard continued to develop, it retained backward compatibility with the original GSM phones; for example, packet data capabilities were added in the Release '97 version of the standard, by means of GPRS. Higher speed data transmission has also been introduced with EDGE in the Release '99 version of the standard.

Radio interface

GSM is a cellular network, which means that mobile phones connect to it by searching for cells in the immediate vicinity. GSM networks operate in four different frequency ranges. Most GSM networks operate in the 900 MHz or 1800 MHz bands. Some countries in the Americas (including the United States and Canada) use the 850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands because the 900 and 1800 MHz frequency bands were already allocated.

The rarer 400 and 450 MHz frequency bands are assigned in some countries, notably Scandinavia, where these frequencies were previously used for first-generation systems.

In the 900 MHz band the uplink frequency band is 890-915 MHz, and the downlink frequency band is 935-960 MHz. This 25 MHz bandwidth is subdivided into 124 carrier frequency channels, each spaced 200 kHz apart. Time division multiplexing is used to allow eight full-rate or sixteen half-rate speech channels per radio frequency channel. There are eight radio timeslots (giving eight burst periods) grouped into what is called a TDMA frame. Half rate channels use alternate frames in the same timeslot. The channel data rate is 270.833 kbit/s, and the frame duration is 4.615 ms.

The transmission power in the handset is limited to a maximum of 2 watts in GSM850/900 and 1 watt in GSM1800/1900.

GSM has used a variety of voice codecs to squeeze 3.1kHz audio into between 6 and 13kbps. Originally, two codecs, named after the types of data channel they were allocated, were used, called "Full Rate" (13kbps) and "Half Rate" (6kbps). These used a system based upon linear predictive coding (LPC). In addition to being efficient with bitrates, these codecs also made it easier to identify more important parts of the audio, allowing the air interface layer to prioritize and better protect these parts of the signal.

GSM was further enhanced in the mid-nineties with the GSM-EFR codec, a 12.2kbps codec that uses a full rate channel. Finally, with the development of UMTS, EFR was refactored into a variable-rate codec called AMR-Narrowband, which is high quality and robust against interference when used on full rate channels, and less robust but still relatively high quality when used in good radio conditions on half-rate channels.

There are four different cell sizes in a GSM network - macro, micro, pico and umbrella cells. The coverage area of each cell varies according to the implementation environment. Macro cells can be regarded as cells where the base station antenna is installed on a mast or a building above average roof top level. Micro cells are cells whose antenna height is under average roof top level; they are typically used in urban areas. Picocells are small cells whose diameter is a few dozen meters; they are mainly used indoors. On the other hand, umbrella cells are used to cover shadowed regions of smaller cells and fill in gaps in coverage between those cells.

Cell radius varies depending on antenna height, antenna gain and propagation conditions from a couple of hundred meters to several tens of kilometers. The longest distance the GSM specification supports in practical use is 35 km or 22 miles. There are also several implementations of the concept of an extended cell, where the cell radius could be double or even more, depending on the antenna system, the type of terrain and the timing advance.

Indoor coverage is also supported by GSM and may be achieved by using an indoor picocell base station, or an indoor repeater with distributed indoor antennas fed through power splitters, to deliver the radio signals from an antenna outdoors to the separate indoor distributed antenna system. These are typically deployed when a lot of call capacity is needed indoors, for example in shopping centers or airports. However, this is not a prerequisite, since indoor coverage is also provided by in-building penetration of the radio signals from nearby cells.

The modulation used in GSM is Gaussian minimum shift keying (GMSK), a kind of continuous-phase frequency shift keying. In GMSK, the signal to be modulated onto the carrier is first smoothed with a Gaussian low-pass filter prior to being fed to a frequency modulator, which greatly reduces the interference to neighboring channels (adjacent channel interference).

A nearby GSM handset is usually the source of the "dit dit dit, dit dit dit, dit dit dit" signal that can be heard from time to time on home stereo systems, televisions, computers, and personal music devices. When these audio devices are in the near field of the GSM handset, the radio signal is strong enough that the solid state amplifiers in the audio chain function as a detector. The clicking noise itself represents the power bursts that carry the TDMA signal. This is a form of RFI, and could be mitigated or eliminated by use of additional shielding and/or bypass capacitors in these audio devices, however, the increased cost of doing so is difficult for a designer to justify.

Network structure

The network behind the GSM system seen by the customer is large and complicated in order to provide all of the services which are required. It is divided into a number of sections and these are each covered in separate articles.

the Base Station Subsystem (the base stations and their controllers).
the Network and Switching Subsystem (the part of the network most similar to a fixed network). This is sometimes also just called the core network.
the GPRS Core Network (the optional part which allows packet based Internet connections).
all of the elements in the system combine to produce many GSM services such as voice calls and SMS.

This diagram shows the simplified structure of a GSM network.
It shows that the network is divided into three main sections (although there are others, such as the operations and maintenance network and the intelligent network subsystem).

Subscriber identity module

One of the key features of GSM is the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM), commonly known as a SIM card. The SIM is a detachable smart card containing the user's subscription information and phonebook. This allows the user to retain his or her information after switching handsets. Alternatively, the user can also change operators while retaining the handset simply by changing the SIM. Some operators will block this by allowing the phone to use only a single SIM, or only a SIM issued by them; this practice is known as SIM locking, and is illegal in some countries.

In the United States, Europe and Australia, many operators lock the mobiles they sell. This is done because the price of the mobile phone is typically subsidised with revenue from subscriptions and operators want to try to avoid subsidising competitor's mobiles. A subscriber can usually contact the provider to remove the lock for a fee, utilize private services to remove the lock, or make use of ample software and websites available on the Internet to unlock the handset themselves. While most web sites offer the unlocking for a fee, some do it for free. The locking applies to the handset, identified by its International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, not to the account (which is identified by the SIM card). It is always possible to switch to another (non-locked) handset if such other handset is available

Some providers will unlock the phone for free if the customer has held an account for a certain period. Third party unlocking services exist that are often quicker and lower cost than that of the operator. In most countries removing the lock is legal. Cingular provides free unlock services to its customer after 3 months of subscriptions.

In countries like India, Belgium, etc., all phones are sold unlocked. However, in Belgium, it is unlawful for operators there to offer any form of subsidy on the phone's price. This was also the case in Finland until April 1, 2006, when selling subsidized combinations of handsets and accounts became legal though operators have to unlock phone free of charge after a certain amount of time (at most 24 months).

GSM security
GSM was designed with a moderate level of security. The system was designed to authenticate the subscriber using shared-secret cryptography. Communications between the subscriber and the base station can be encrypted. The development of UMTS introduces an optional USIM, that uses a longer authentication key to give greater security, as well as mutually authenticating the network and the user - whereas GSM only authenticated the user to the network (and not vice versa). The security model therefore offers confidentiality and authentication, but limited authorization capabilities, and no non-repudiation.
GSM uses several cryptographic algorithms for security. The A5/1 and A5/2 stream ciphers are used for ensuring over-the-air voice privacy. A5/1 was developed first and is a stronger algorithm used within Europe and the United States; A5/2 is weaker and used in other countries. A large security advantage of GSM over earlier systems is that the Ki, the crypto variable stored on the SIM card that is the key to any GSM ciphering algorithm, is never sent over the air interface. Serious weaknesses have been found in both algorithms, and it is possible to break A5/2 in real-time in a ciphertext-only attack. The system supports multiple algorithms so operators may replace that cipher with a stronger one.

Halloween

2006-10-30T17:32:00.000+07:00

Halloween is a tradition celebrated on the night of October 31, most notably by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting sweets. It is celebrated in parts of the Western world, though most commonly in the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Puerto Rico, and with increasing popularity in Australia and New Zealand. Halloween originated among the Celts in Ireland, Britain and France as the Pagan Celtic harvest festival, Samhain. Irish, Scots, Calan Gaeaf in Welsh and other immigrants brought versions of the traditions to North America in the 19th century. Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in the late 20th century.

The term Halloween, and its older spelling Hallowe'en, is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the evening before "All Hallows' Day" (also known as "All Saints' Day"). In Ireland, the name was All Hallows' Eve (often shortened to Hallow Eve), and though seldom used today, it is still a well-accepted label. The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions, until Pope Gregory III moved the old Christian feast of All Saints Day to November 1 to give Halloween a Christian interpretation . Halloween is also called Pooky Night in some parts of Ireland, presumably named after the púca, a mischievous spirit.

Halloween is often associated with the occult. Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the liminal times of the year when the spiritual world can make contact with the physical world and when magic is most potent (e.g. Catalan mythology about witches, Irish tales of the Sídhe).

Symbols

The imagery surrounding Hallowe'en is largely an amalgamation of the Hallowe'en season itself, nearly a century of work from American filmmakers and graphic artists, and a rather commercialized take on the dark,diaria and mysterious. This art generally involves death, magic, or mythical monsters. Commonly-associated Hallowe'en characters include ghosts, aliens, ghouls, witches, bats, owls, crows, vultures, haunted houses, pumpkinmen, black cats, spiders, goblins, zombies, mummies, skeletons, werewolves, and demons. Particularly in America, symbolism is inspired by classic film, such as fictional figures like Dracula and Frankenstein's monster in the vein of Boris Karloff and Alfred Hitchcock. Homes are often decorated with these symbols around Hallowe'en.

Black and orange are the traditional colors of Hallowe'en. In modern Hallowe'en images and products, purple, green, and red are also prominent.

The use of these colors is largely a result of advertising for the holiday that dates back for over a century. They tend to be associated with various parts of Hallowe'en's imagery.

Games and other activities

There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween parties. The most common is dooking or bobbing for apples, in which apples float in a tub or a large basin of water; the participants must use their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. A variant involves kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between the teeth and trying to drop the fork into an apple. Another common game involves hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be eaten without using hands while they remain attached to the string, an activity which inevitably leads to a very sticky face.

Some games traditionally played at Halloween are forms of divination. In Puicíní (pronounced "pooch-eeny"), a game played in Ireland, a blindfolded person is seated in front of a table on which several saucers are placed. The saucers are shuffled and the seated person then chooses one by touch. The contents of the saucer determine the person's life for the following year. A saucer containing earth means someone known to the player will die during the next year, a saucer containing water foretells travel, a coin means new wealth, a bean means poverty, etc. In 19th-century Ireland, young women placed slugs in saucers sprinkled with flour. The wriggling of the slugs and the patterns subsequently left behind on the saucers were believed to portray the faces of the women's future spouses.

In North America, unmarried women were frequently told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the face of their future husband would appear in the mirror. However, if they were destined to die before they married, a skull would appear. The custom was widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting cards from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The telling of ghost stories and viewing of horror films are common fixtures of Halloween parties. Television specials with a Halloween theme, usually aimed at children, are commonly aired on or before the holiday while new horror films are often released theatrically before the holiday to take advantage of the atmosphere.

Visiting a haunted house or a dark attraction are other Halloween traditions. Notwithstanding the name, such events are not necessarily held in houses, nor are the edifices themselves necessarily regarded to possess actual ghosts. A variant of this is the haunted trail, where the public encounters supernatural-themed characters or presentations of scenes from horror films while following a trail through a heavily wooded area or field. One of the largest Halloween attractions in the U.S.A. is Knott's Scary Farm in California, which features re-themed amusement park rides and a dozen different walkthrough mazes, plus hundreds of costumed roving performers.

ROBOT

2006-09-15T10:43:00.000+07:00

A robot is an electro-mechanical device that can perform autonomous or preprogrammed tasks. A robot may act under the direct control of a human (eg. the robotic arm of the space shuttle) or autonomously under the control of a programmed computer. Robots may be used to perform tasks that are too dangerous or difficult for humans to implement directly (e.g. nuclear waste clean up) or may be used to automate repetitive tasks that can be performed with more precision by a robot than by the employment of a human (e.g. automobile production.)

Robot can also be used to describe an intelligent mechanical device in the form of a human. This form of robot (commonly referred to as an android) is common in science fiction stories.However, such robots have yet to become commonplace in reality, especially with the difficulties (and expenses) involved in making a bipedal machine balance itself or move in human-like ways without losing balance (see Current Developments below).Internet bots are named after the word robot because they perform mundane, repetitive tasks.

The
word robot is used to refer to a wide range of machines, the common feature of
which is that they are all capable of movement and can be used to perform
physical tasks. Robots take on many different forms, ranging from humanoid,
which mimic the human form and way of moving, to industrial, whose appearance is dictated by the function they are to perform. Robots can be grouped generally as mobile robots (eg. autonomous vehicles), manipulator robots (eg. industrial robots) and Self reconfigurable robots, which can conform themselves to the task at hand. Robots may be controlled directly by a human, such as remotely-controlled bomb-disposal robots, robotic arms, or shuttles, or may act according to their own decision making ability, provided by artificial intelligence. However, the majority of robots fall in-between these extremes, being controlled by pre-programmed computers. Such robots may include feedback loops such that they can interact with their environment, but do not display actual intelligence.

The word "robot" is also used in a general sense to mean any machine which mimics the actions of a human (biomimicry), in the physical sense or in the mental sense. It comes from the Czech and Slovak word robota, labour or work (also used in a sense of a serf). The word robot first appeared in Karel Čapek's science fiction playR.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) in 1921, and was probably invented by the author's brother, painter Josef Čapek. See the article about Karel
Čapek for more detailed

Robots are growing in complexity and their use in industry is becoming more widespread. The main use of robots has so far been in the automation of mass production industries, where the same, definable tasks must be performed repeatedly in exactly the same fashion. Car production is the primary example of the employment of large and complex robots for producing products. Robots are used in that process for the painting, welding and assembly of the cars. Robots are good for such tasks because the tasks can be accurately defined and must be performed the same every time, with little need for feedback to control the exact process being performed. Industrial Robots can be manufactured in a wide range of sizes and so can handle much larger tasks than a human could.

They are also useful in environments which are unpleasant or dangerous for humans to work in, for example bomb disposal, work in space or underwater, in mining, and for the cleaning of toxic waste. Robots are also used for patrolling these toxic areas, robots equipped for this job are e.g. the Robowatch OFRO, and Robowatch MOSRO.

Often this is referred to as the "Three D's: Dull, Dirty and Dangerous" work. Hundreds of bomb disposal robots such as the iRobot Packbot and theFoster-Miller Talon are being used in Iraqand Afghanistan by the U.S. military to defuse roadside bombs, or improvised explosive devices (IED's) in an activity known as Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD). Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) are moveable robots that are used in large facilities such as warehouses hospitals and container ports, for the movement of goods, or even for safety and security patrols. Such vehicles follow wires, markers or laser-guidance to navigate around the location and can be programmed to move between places to deliver goods or patrol a certain area. Top manufacturers include

Transbotics, FMC and Jervis B Webb makes AGV "brains" used in freely moving autonomous vehicles that do not require fixed paths as earlier AGVs have done.

Domestic robots are now available that perform simple tasks such as vacuum cleaning and grass cutting. By the end of 2004 over 1,000,000 vacuum cleaner units had been sold. Examples of these domestic robots are the Scooba and Roomba robots from iRobot Corporation, Friendly Robotics' Robomower, Electrolux's Automower, and Samsung.

Other domestic robots have the aim of providing companionship (social robots) or play partners (ludobots) to people. Examples are Sony's Aibo, a commercially successful robot pet dog, Paro, a robot baby seal intended to soothe nursing home patients, and Wakamaru, a humanoid robot ntended for elderly and disabled people. Other humanoid robots are in development with the aim of being able to provide robotic functions in a form that may be more aesthetically pleasing to customers, thereby increasing the likelihood of them being accepted in society. PLEN has been put up for sale.

Robots perform in arts festivals and at museums with works such as James Seawright's House Plants, 1983, in which an artificial flower opens in response to viewer interaction or Ken Rinaldo's Autotelematic Spider Bots, 2006 where robots that appear like spiders, see like bats and act like ants interact with the public and structure each others behaviors through bluetooth communication. One of the earliest electronic art robots is Jim Pallas' 1976 Blue Wazoo which, using TTL IC devices, responds to sound and light with a repertoire of LED patterns, movements, inflations, deflations, whirs, clicks and jiggles.

For education in schools and high schools and mechatronics training in companies robot kits are becoming more and more popular. On the schools side there exists kits from LEGO, Parallax, Inc or Fischertechnik made of plastics components, Microbric, which uses its mainboard as a chassis & on the more professional side there exists e.g. the qfix robot kit and VexLABS robotics kit made of aluminium parts.

Warfare

The future of modern warfare will be fought by automated weapons systems. The U.S. Military is investing heavily in research and development towards testing and deploying increasingly automated systems. The most prominent system currently in use is the unmanned aerial vehicle (IAI Pioneer & RQ-1 Predator) which can be armed with Air-to-Ground missiles and remotely operated from a command center in reconnaissance roles. DARPA has hosted competitions in 2004 & 2005 to involve private companies and universities to develop unmanned ground vehicles to navigate through rough terrain in the Mojave Desert for a final prize of $2 Million. The field of artillery has also seen some promising research with an experimental weapons system named "Dragon Fire II" which automates the loading and ballistics calculations required for accurate predicted fire, providing a 12 second response time to artillery support requests. However, weapons of warfare have one limitation in becoming fully autonomous: there remain intervention points which requires human input to ensure that targets are not within restricted fire areas as defined by Geneva Conventions for the laws of war.

There have been some developments towards developing autonomous fighter jets and bombers. The use of autonomous fighters and bombers to destroy enemy targets is especially promising because of the lack of training required for robotic pilots, autonomous planes are capable of performing maneuvers which couldn't otherwise be done with human pilots (due to high amount of G-Force), plane designs don't require a life support system, and a loss of a plane doesn't mean a loss of a pilot. However, the largest draw back to robotics is their inability to accommodate for non-standard conditions. The idea of artificial people dates at least as far back as the ancient legend of Cadmus, who sowed dragon teeth that turned into soldiers, and the myth of Pygmalion, whose statue of Galatea came to life. In classical mythology, the deformed god of metalwork (Vulcan or Hephaestus) created mechanical servants, ranging from intelligent, golden handmaidens to more utilitarian three-legged tables that could move about under their own power.
Jewish legend tells of the Golem, a clay statue animated by Kabbalistic magic. Similarly, in the Younger Edda, Norse mythology tells of a clay giant, Mökkurkálfi or Mistcalf, constructed to aid the troll Hrungnir in a duel with Thor, the God of Thunder.

The word robot was introduced by Czech writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) which was written in 1920 (See also Robots in literature for details of the play). However, the verb robotovat, meaning "to work" or "to slave", and the noun robota (meaning corvée) used in the Czech and Slovak languages, has been used since the early 10th
century. It was suggested that the word robot had been coined by Karel Čapek's brother, painter and writer Josef Čapek.

Concepts akin to today's robot can be found as long ago as 450 BC when the Greek mathematician Archytas of Tarentum postulated a mechanical bird he called "The Pigeon" which was propelled by steam. Heron of Alexandria (10AD-70AD) made numerous innovations in the field of automata, including (allegedly) one that could speak.

Al-Jazari (1136-1206) an Ortoqid (Artuk) Turkish inventor designed and constructed automatic machines such as water clocks, kitchen appliances and musical automats powered by water (See one of his works at). One of the first recorded designs of a humanoid robot was wade by Leonardo da Vinci in around 1495. Da Vinci's notebooks, rediscovered in the 1950s, contain detailed drawings of a mechanical knight able to sit up, wave its arms and move its head and jaw. The design is likely to be based on his anatomical research recorded in the Vitruvian Man. It is not known whether he attempted to build the robot

An early automaton was created 1738 byJacques de Vaucanson, who created a mechanical duck that was able to eat grain, flap its wings, and excrete. Many consider the first robot in the modern sense to be a teleoperated boat, similar to a modernROV, devised by Nikola Tesla and demonstrated at an 1898 exhibition in Madison Square Garden. Based on his patents 613,809, 723,188 and 725,605 for "teleautomation", Tesla hoped to develop the "wireless torpedo" into an automated weapon system for the US Navy. (Cheney 1989) Tesla also proposed but did not build remotely operated war planes and ground vehicles. He also predicted these remote controlled machines were merely precursors of "machines possessed of their own intelligence" (Cheney 1989). See also the PBS website article (with photos) :

Tesla - Master of Lightning: Race of Robots
In the thirties, Westinghouse made a humanoid robot known as
Elektro. It was exhibited at the 1939 and 1940 World's Fairs while the first electronic
autonomous robots were created by Grey Walter at Bristol University, England in 1948.

The first human to be killed by a robot was 37 year-old Kenji Urada, a Japanese factory worker, in 1981. According the Economist.com, Urada "climbed over a safety fence at a Kawasaki plant to carry out some maintenance work on a robot. In his haste, he failed to switch the robot off properly. Unable to sense him, the robot's powerful hydraulic arm kept on working and accidentally pushed the engineer into a grinding machine."

Current developments

The development of a robot with a natural human or animal gait is incredibly difficult and requires a large amount of computational power. Now that background technologies of behavior, navigation and path planning have been solved using basic wheeled robots, roboticists are moving on to develop walking robots (eg. SIGMO, QRIO, ASIMO & Hubo). One approach to walk control is Passive dynamics, where the robot's geometry is such that it will almost walk without active control.

Initial work has focused on multi-legged robots (eg. Aibo), such as hexapods, as they are statically stable and so are easier to work with, whereas a bipedal robot must be able to balance. The balancing problem is taken to an extreme by the Robotic unicycle. A problem with the development of robots with natural gaits is that human and animal bodies utilize a very large number of muscles in movement and replicating all of those mechanically is very difficult and expensive. This field of robot research has become known as Biomorphic robotics.

Progress is being made in the field of feedback and tactile sensors which allow a robot to sense their actions and adjust their behavior accordingly. This is vital to enable robots to perform complex physical tasks that require some
active control in response to the situation.

Medical robotics is a growing field and regulatory approval has been granted for the use of robots in minimally invasive procedures. Robots are being used in performing highly delicate, accurate surgery, or to allow a surgeon who is located remotely from their patient to perform a procedure using a robot controlled remotely. More recently, robots can be used autonomously in surgery. Experimental winged robots and other examples exploiting biomimicry are also in early development. So-called "nanomotors" and "smart wires" are expected to drastically simplify motive power, while in-flight stabilization seems likely to be improved by extremely small gyroscopes. A significant driver of this work is military research into spy technologies. Energetically autonomous robots, is a field of study under the category of biologically inspired robotics, which aims to develop artificial agents that can remain self-sustainable in natural environments with minimum human intervention. This field of research spreads further into the fields of alternative energy sources and waste management, as it integrates the

Microbial Fuel Cell technology with robotics, and allows for waste or food waste to be the 'fuel'. This class of robots is at the very early stages of development, however with great impact in applications such as the aforementioned unpleasant or dangerous for humans environments. Two examples of energetically autonomous robots that exist today are EcoBots I and II.

Tactile sensors and artificial skin are close to providing robots with a human-like sense of touch. Technology-friendly South Korea says it will have a robot in every home by 2015-2020.Robot News gives breaking news in robotic developments.

Dangers and fears

Although robots have not developed to the stage where they pose any threat or danger to society, fears and concerns about robots have been repeatedly expressed in a wide range of books and films. The principal theme is the robots' intelligence and ability to act could exceed that of humans, that they could develop a conscience and a motivation to take over or destroy the human race. (See The Terminator) Frankenstein (1818),sometimes called the first science fiction novel, has become synonymous with the theme of a robot or monster advancing beyond its creator. Probably the best known author to work in this area is Isaac Asimov who has placed robots and their interaction with society at the center of many of his works. Of particular interest are Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. Asimov also coined the term "Robotics" as the science or study of the technology associated with robots.

Currently, malicious programming or unsafe use of robots may be the biggest danger. Although industrial robots may be smaller and less powerful than other industrial machines, they are just as capable of inflicting severe injury on humans. However, since a robot can be programmed to move in different trajectories depending on its task, its movement can be unpredictable for a person standing in its reach. Therefore, most industrial robots operate inside a security fence which separates them from human workers. Manuel De Landa has theorized that humans are at a critical and significant juncture where humans have allowed robots, "smart missiles," and autonomous bombs equipped with artificial perception to make decisions about killing us. He believes this represents an important and dangerous trend where humans are transferring more of our cognitive structures into our machines.

Even without malicious programming, a robot, especially a future model moving freely in a human environment, is potentially dangerous because of its large moving masses, powerful actuators and unpredictably complex behavior. A robot falling on someone or just stepping on his foot by mistake could cause much more damage to the victim than a human being of the same size. Designing and programming robots to be intrinsically safe and to exhibit safe behavior in a human environment is one of the great challenges in robotics. Developing a robot with a conscience may be helpful.

Literature

List of fictional robots and androids

Robots have frequently appeared as characters in works of literature and the first use of the word "robot" in literature can be found in Karel Capek's play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), written in 1920. Isaac Asimov has written many volumes of science fiction focusing on robots in numerous forms and guises. Asimov contributed greatly to reducing the Frankenstein complex, which dominated early works of fiction involving robots. His three laws of robotics have become particularly well known for codifying a simple set of behaviors for robots to remain at the service of their human creators.

Numerous words for different types of robots are now used in literature. Robot has come to mean mechanical humans, while android is used for organic artificial humans and cyborg or "bionic man" for a human form that is a mixture of organic and mechanical parts. Organic artificial humans have also been referred to as "constructs" (or "biologicalconstructs").

Robotics

robotics is the science and technology of robots, their design, manufacture, and application. Robotics requires a working knowledge of electronics, mechanics, and software and a person working in the field has become known as a roboticist. The word robotics was first used in print by Isaac Asimov, in his science fiction short story "Runaround" (1941).

Although the appearance and capabilities of robots vary vastly, all robots share the features of a mechanical, movable structure under some form of control. The structure of a robot is usually mostly mechanical and can be called kinematic chain (its functionality being akin to the skeleton of a body). The chain is formed of links (its bones), actuators (its muscles) and joints which can allow one or more degrees of freedom. Most contemporary robots use open serial chains in which each link connects the one before to the one after it. These robots are called serial robots and often resemble the human arm. Some robots, such as the

Stewart platform, use closed parallel kinematic chains. Other structures, such as those that mimic the mechanical structure of humans, various animals and insects, are comparatively rare. However, the development and use of such structures in robots is an active area of research (e.g. biomechanics). Robots used as manipulators have an end effector mounted on the last link. This end effector can be anything from a welding device to a mechanical hand used to manipulate the environment.

The mechanical structure of a robot must be controlled to perform tasks. The control of a robot involves three distinct phases - perception, processing and action (robotic paradigms). Sensors give information about the environment or the robot itself (e.g. the position of its joints or its end effector). Using strategies from the field of control theory, this information is processed to calculate the appropriate signals to the actuators (motors) which move the mechanical structure. The control of a robot involves various aspects such as path planning, pattern recognition, obstacle avoidance, etc. More complex and adaptable control strategies can be referred to as artificial intelligence.

Any task involves the motion of the robot. The study of motion can be divided into kinematics anddynamics. Direct kinematics refers to the calculation of end effector position, orientation, velocity and acceleration when the corresponding joint values are known. Inverse kinematics refers to the opposite case in which required joint values are calculated for given end effector values, as done in path planning. Some special aspects of kinematics include handling of redundancy (different possibilities of performing the same movement), collision avoidance andsingularity avoidance. Once all relevant positions, velocities and accelerations have been calculated using kinematics, methods from the field of dynamics are used to study the effect of forces upon these movements. Direct dynamics refers to the calculation of accelerations in the robot once the applied forces are known. Direct dynamics is used in computer simulations of the robot. Inverse dynamics refers to the calculation of the actuator forces necessary to create a prescribed end effector acceleration. This information can be used to improve the control algorithms of a robot.

In each area mentioned above, researchers strive to develop new concepts and strategies, improve existing ones and improve the interaction between these areas. To do this, criteria for "optimal" performance and ways to optimize design, structure and control of robots must be developed and implemented.

Computer

2006-08-27T16:31:00.000+07:00

A computer is a machine for manipulating data according to a list of instructions known as a program.

Computers are extremely versatile. In fact, they are universal information-processing machines. According to the Church–Turing thesis, a computer with a certain minimum threshold capability is in principle capable of performing the tasks of any other computer. Therefore, computers with capabilities ranging from those of a personal digital assistant to a supercomputer may all perform the same tasks, as long as time and memory capacity are not considerations. Therefore, the same computer designs may be adapted for tasks ranging from processing company payrolls to controlling unmanned spaceflights. Due to technological advancement, modern electronic computers are exponentially more capable than those of preceding generations (a phenomenon partially described by Moore's Law).

Computers take numerous physical forms. Early electronic computers were the size of a large room, while entire modern embedded computers may be smaller than a deck of playing cards. Even today, enormous computing facilities still exist for specialized scientific computation and for the transaction processing requirements of large organizations. Smaller computers designed for individual use are called personal computers. Along with their portable equivalent, the laptop computer and personal computers are ubiquitous information processing and communication tools that are usually what most people think of as "a computer". However, the most common form of computer in use today is the embedded computer. Embedded computers are usually relatively simple and physically small computers used to control another device. They may control machines from fighter aircraft to industrial robots to digital cameras.

History of computing

Originally, the term "computer" referred to a person who performed numerical c alc ulations, often with the aid of a mechanical calculating device or analog computer. Examples of these early devices, the ancestors of the computer, included the abacus and the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient Greek device for calculating the movements of planets which dates from about 87 BC.^[1] The end of the Middle Ages saw a reinvigoration of European mathematics an d engineering, and Wilhelm Schickard's 1623 device was the first of a number of mechanical calculators constructed by European engineers.^[2]

In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard made an improvement to existing loom designs that used a series of punched paper cards as a program to weave intricate patterns. The resulting Jacquard loom is not considered a true computer but it was an important step in the development of modern digital computers.

Charles Babbage was the first to conceptualize and design a fully programmable computer as early as 1820, but due to a combination of the limits of the technology of the time, limited finance, and an inability to resist tinkering with his design, the device was never actually constructed in his lifetime. By the end of the 19th century a number of technologies that would later prove useful in computing had appeared, such as the punch card and the vacuum tube, and large-scale automated data processing using punch cards was performed by tabulating machines designed by Hermann Hollerith.

During the first half of the 20th century, many scientific computing needs were met by increasingly sophisticated special-purpose analog computers, which used a direct mechanical or electrical model of the problem as a basis for computation. These became increasingly rare after the development of the programmable digital computer.
A succession of steadily more powerful and flexible computing devices were constructed in the 1930s and 1940s, gradually adding the key features of modern computers, such as the use of digital electronics (largely invented by Claude Shannon in 1937)^[3] and more flexible programmability.

Defining one point along this road as "the first digital electronic computer" is exceedingly difficult. On 12 May 1941 Konrad Zuse completed his electromechanical Z3, being the first working machine featuring automatic binary arithmetic and feasible programmability (therefore the first digital operational programmable computer, although not electronic); other notable achievements include the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (shown working around Summer 1941), a special-purpose machine that used valve-driven (vacuum tube) computation, binary numbers, and regenerative memory; the secret British Colossus computer (demonstrated in 1943), which had limited programmability but demonstrated that a device using thousands of valves could be both made reliable and reprogrammed electronically; the Harvard Mark I, a large-scale electromechanical computer with limited programmability (shown working around 1944); the decimal-based American ENIAC (1946) — which was the first general purpose electronic computer, but originally had an inflexible architecture that meant reprogramming it essentially required it to be rewired.

The team who developed ENIAC, recognizing its flaws, came up with a far more flexible and elegant design, which has become known as the Von Neumann architecture (or "stored program architecture"). This stored program architecture became the basis for virtually all modern computers. A number of projects to develop computers based on the stored program architecture commenced in the mid to late-1940s; the first of these were completed in Britain. The first to be up and running was the Small-Scale Experimental Machine, but the EDSAC was perhaps the first practical version that was developed.

Valve (tube) driven computer designs were in use throughout the 1950s, but were eventually replaced with transistor-based computers, which were smaller, faster, cheaper, and much more reliable, thus allowing them to be commercially produced, in the 1960s. By the 1970s, the adoption of integrated circuit technology had enabled computers to be produced at a low enough cost to allow individuals to own a personal computer.

How computers work: the stored program architecture

While the technologies used in computers have changed dramatically since the first electronic, general-purpose computers of the 1940s, most still use the stored program architecture (sometimes called the von Neumann architecture). The design made the universal computer a practical reality.

The architecture describes a computer with four main sections: the arithmetic and logic unit (ALU), the control circuitry, the memory, and the input and output devices (collectively termed I/O). These parts are interconnected by bundles of wires (called "buses" when the same bundle supports more than one data path) and are usually driven by a timer or clock (although other events could drive the control circuitry).

Conceptually, a computer's memory can be viewed as a list of cells. Each cell has a numbered "address" and can store a small, fixed amount of information. This information can either be an instruction, telling the computer what to do, or data, the information which the computer is to process using the instructions that have been placed in the memory. In principle, any cell can be used to store either instructions or data.

The ALU is in many senses the heart of the computer. It is capable of performing two classes of basic operations. The first is arithmetic operations; for instance, adding or subtracting two numbers together. The set of arithmetic operations may be very limited; indeed, some designs do not directly support multiplication and division operations (instead, users support multiplication and division through programs that perform multiple additions, subtractions, and other digit manipulations). The second class of ALU operations involves comparison operations: given two numbers, determining if they are equal, or if not equal which is larger.

The I/O systems are the means by which the computer receives information from the outside world, and reports its results back to that world. On a typical personal computer, input devices include objects like the keyboard and mouse, and output devices include computer monitors, printers and the like, but as will be discussed later a huge variety of devices can be connected to a computer and serve as I/O devices.

The control system ties this all together. Its job is to read instructions and data from memory or the I/O devices, decode the instructions, providing the ALU with the correct inputs according to the instructions, "tell" the ALU what operation to perform on those inputs, and send the results back to the memory or to the I/O devices. One key component of the control system is a counter that keeps track of what the address of the current instruction is; typically, this is incremented each time an instruction is executed, unless the instruction itself indicates that the next instruction should be at some other location (allowing the computer to repeatedly execute the same instructions).

Since the 1980s the ALU and control unit (collectively called a central processing unit or CPU) have typically been located on a single integrated circuit called a microprocessor.

The functioning of such a computer is in principle quite straightforward. Typically, on each clock cycle, the computer fetches instructions and data from its memory. The instructions are executed, the results are stored, and the next instruction is fetched. This procedure repeats until a halt instruction is encountered.

The set of instructions interpreted by the control unit, and executed by the ALU, are limited in number, precisely defined, and very simple operations. Broadly, they fit into one or more of four categories: 1) moving data from one location to another (an example might be an instruction that "tells" the CPU to "copy the contents of memory cell 5 and place the copy in cell 10"). 2) executing arithmetic and logical processes on data (for instance, "add the contents of cell 7 to the contents of cell 13 and place the result in cell 20"). 3) testing the condition of data ("if the contents of cell 999 are 0, the next instruction is at cell 30"). 4) altering the sequence of operations (the previous example alters the sequence of operations, but instructions such as "the next instruction is at cell 100" are also standard).

Instructions, like data, are represented within the computer as binary code — a base two system of counting. For example, the code for one kind of "copy" operation in the Intel x86 line of microprocessors is 10110000 ^[4]. The particular instruction set that a specific computer supports is known as that computer's machine language. Using an already-popular machine language makes it much easier to run existing software on a new machine; consequently, in markets where commercial software availability is important suppliers have converged on one or a very small number of distinct machine languages.

More powerful computers such as minicomputers, mainframe computers and servers may differ from the model above by dividing their work between more than one main CPU. Multiprocessor and multicore personal and laptop computers are also beginning to become available.

Supercomputers often have highly unusual architectures significantly different from the basic stored-program architecture, sometimes featuring thousands of CPUs, but such designs tend to be useful only for specialized tasks. At the other end of the size scale, some microcontrollers use the Harvard architecture that ensures that program and data memory are logically separate.

Architecture

2006-08-26T15:55:00.000+07:00

Architecture (from Latin, architectura and ultimately from Greek, αρχιτεκτων, "a master builder", from αρχι- "chief, leader" and τεκτων, "builder, carpenter") is the art and science of designing buildings and Structure.

wider definition would include within its scope the design of the total built environment, from the macrolevel of Structure, urban, and landscape architecture to the microlevel of creating furniture. Architectural design usually must address both feasibility and cost for the builder, as well as function and aesthetics for the user.

In modern usage, architecture is the art and discipline of creating an actual, or inferring an implied or apparent plan of any complex object or system. The term can be used to connote the implied architecture of abstract things such as music or mathematics, the apparent architecture of natural things, such as geological formations or the structure of biological cells, or explicitly planned architectures of human-made things such as software, computers, enterprises, and databases, in addition to buildings. In every usage, an architecture may be seen as a subjective mapping from a human perspective (that of the user in the case of abstract or physical artifacts) to the elements or components of some kind of structure or system, which preserves the relationships among the elements or components.

Planned architecture often manipulates space, volume, texture, light, shadow, or abstract elements in order to achieve pleasing aesthetics. This distinguishes it from applied science or engineering, which usually concentrate more on the functional and feasibility aspects of the design of constructions or structures.

In the field of building architecture, the skills demanded of an architect range from the more complex, such as for a hospital or a stadium, to the apparently simpler, such as planning residential houses. Many architectural works may be seen also as cultural and political symbols, and/or works of art. The role of the architect, though changing, has been central to the successful (and sometimes less than successful) design and implementation of pleasingly built environments in which people live.

Architectural history

Architecture first evolved out of the dynamics between needs (shelter, security, worship, etc.) and means (available building materials and attendant skills). Prehistoric and primitive architecture constitute this early stage. As humans progressed and knowledge began to be formalised through oral traditions and practices, architecture evolved into a craft. Here there is first a process of trial and error, and later improvisation or replication of a successful trial. What is termed Vernacular architecture continues to be produced in many parts of the world. Indeed, vernacular buildings make up most of the built world that people experience every day.

Early human settlements were essentially rural. As surplus of production began to occur, rural societies transformed into urban ones and cities began to evolve. In many ancient civilisations such as the Egyptians' and Mesopotamians' architecture and urbanism reflected the constant engagement with the divine and the supernatural, while in other ancient cultures such as Iran architecture and urban planning was used to exemplify the power of the state.

However, the architecture and urbanism of the Classical civilisations such as the Greek and the Roman evolved from more civic ideas and new building types emerged. Architectural styles developed and texts on architecture began to be written. These became canons to be followed in important works, especially religious architecture. Some examples of canons are the works of Vitruvius, the Kaogongji of ancient China and Vaastu Shastra in ancient India. In Europe in the Classical and Medieval periods, buildings were not attributed to specific individual architects who remained anonymous. Guilds were formed by craftsmen to organise their trade. Over time the complexity of buildings and their types increased. General civil construction such as roads and bridges began to be built. Many new building types such as schools, hospitals, and recreational facilities emerged.

Islamic architecture has a long and complex history beginning in the seventh century CE. Examples can be found throughout the countries that are, or were, Islamic - from Morocco and Spain to Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. Other examples can be found in areas where Muslims are a minority. Islamic architecture includes mosques, madrasas, caravansarais, palaces, and mausolea of this large region.

With the Renaissance and its emphasis on the individual and humanity rather than religion, and with all its attendant progress and achievements, a new chapter began. Buildings were ascribed to specific architects - Michaelangelo, Brunelleschi, Leonardo da Vinci - and the cult of the individual had begun. But there was no dividing line between artist, architect and engineer, or any of the related vocations. At this stage, it was still possible for an artist to design a bridge as the level of structural calculations involved was within the scope of the generalist.

With the consolidation of knowledge in scientific fields such as engineering and the rise of new materials and technology, the architect began to lose ground on the technical aspects of building. He therefore cornered for himself another playing field - that of aesthetics. There was the rise of the "gentleman architect" who usually dealt with wealthy clients and concentrated predominantly on visual qualities derived usually from historical prototypes. In the 19th century Ecole des Beaux Arts in France, the training was toward producing quick sketch schemes involving beautiful drawings without much emphasis on context.

Meanwhile, the Industrial Revolution laid open the door for mass consumption and aesthetics started becoming a criterion even for the middle class as ornamented products, once within the province of expensive craftsmanship, became cheaper under machine production.

The dissatisfaction with such a general situation at the turn of the twentieth century gave rise to many new lines of thought that in architecture served as precursors to Modern Architecture. Notable among these is the Deutscher Werkbund, formed in 1907 to produce better quality machine made objects. The rise of the profession of industrial design is usually placed here. Following this lead, the Bauhaus school, founded in Germany in 1919, consciously rejected history and looked at architecture as a synthesis of art, craft, and technology.

When Modern architecture was first practiced, it was an avant-garde movement with moral, philosophical, and aesthetic underpinnings. Modernist architects sought to reduce buildings to a pure form, removing historical references in favor of purely functional structures. The columns, arches, and gargoyles of Classical architecture were dubbed unnecessary. Buildings that flaunted their construction, exposing steel beams and concrete surfaces instead of hiding them behind traditional forms, were seen as beautiful in their own right. Architects such as Mies van der Rohe worked to reject virtually all that had come before, trading handcrafted details and sentimental historic forms for a machine-driven architectural geometry made possible by the Industrial Revolution.

Many people saw Modernism as dull or even ugly. As the founders of the International Style lost influence, Postmodernism developed as a reaction against the purity of Modernism. Robert Venturi's contention that a "decorated shed" (an ordinary building which is functionally designed inside and embellished on the outside) was better than a "duck" (a building in which the whole form and its function are tied together) gives an idea of this approach.

Another part of the profession, and also some non-architects, responded by going to what they considered the root of the problem. They felt that architecture was not a personal philosophical or aesthetic pursuit by individualists; rather it had to consider everyday needs of people and use technology to give a livable environment. The Design Methodology Movement involving people such as Chris Jones, Christopher Alexander started searching for more people-orientated designs. Extensive studies on areas such as behavioural, environmental, and social sciences were done and started informing the design process.

As many other concerns began to be recognised and complexity of buildings began to increase in terms of aspects such as services, architecture started becoming more multi-disciplinary than ever. Architecture now required a team of professionals in its making, an architect being one among the many, sometimes the leader, sometimes not. This is the state of the profession today. However, individuality is still cherished and sought for in the design of buildings seen as cultural symbols - the museum or fine arts centre has become a showcase for new experiments in style: today one style, tomorrow maybe something else.

Robert Baden-Powell

2006-08-24T13:14:00.000+07:00

AKA Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell

Born:22-Feb-1857
Birthplace:London, England
Died: 8-Jan
Location of death: Nyeri, Kenya
Cause of death: unspecified

Gender: Male
Religion: Anglican/Episcopalian
Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Bisexual
Occupation: Military
Nationality: England
Executive summary: Founder of the Boy Scout movement

Military service: British Army (13th Hussars, India; Boer War; 5th Dragoon Guards India)

Father: Baden Powell (professor of geometry Oxford, reverend, d. 1860)
Mother: Henrietta Grace Smyth
Sister: Agnes Baden-Powell (helped to found Girl Guides movement)
Wife: Olave Soames (m. 30-Oct-1912, one son, two daughters)
Son: Peter
Daughter: Heather
Daughter: Betty Clay (VP Scouting movement, awarded CBE in 1997, d. 24-Apr-2004)
Boyfriend: Kenneth McClaren (there is circumstancial evidence to support this)

High School: Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey, England

Knight of the British Empire 1909
Silver Buffalo

Author of books:
Pig-Sticking Or Hog-Hunting: A Complete Account For Sportsmen - And Others (1889, nonfiction)
The downfall of Prempeh: A diary of life with the native levy in Ashanti 1895-96 (1896, memoir)
My Adventures as a Spy (1915, memoir)
Memories of India: Recollections of Soldiering and Sport (1915, memoir)
The Piper of Pax: The Life-Story of Sir Robert Baden-Powell (1925, memoir)
Life's Snags and How to Meet Them (1927, self help)

Shojin Ryori

2006-08-08T17:14:00.000+07:00

In the 13th century, Zen monks from China popularized a form of vegetarian cuisine in Japan known as shojin ryori. The practice of preparing delicious meals with seasonable vegetables and wild plants from the mountains, served with seaweed, fresh soybean curd (or dehydrated forms), and seeds (such as walnuts, pine nuts and peanuts) is a tradition that is still alive at Zen temples today. Stemming from the Buddhist precept that it is wrong to kill animals, including fish, shojin ryori is completely vegetarian. Buddhism prescribes partaking of a simple diet every day and abstaining from drinking alcohol or eating meat. Such a lifestyle, together with physical training, clears the mind of confusion and leads to understanding.
Even in preparing shojin ryori batter, we do not use unfertilized eggs as a binder; we use yam instead, which works quite well. Shojin ryori cooks also make sure not to waste any of the ingredients. We even sauté the greens and peelings of carrots and daikon radish, then simmer them in a little water, or we add them to soup. If there are any byproducts remaining after this, we mix them with leftover rice to make porridge for the evening. Followers of Zen try to eat all of the food prepared during the day, and throw nothing edible away. This "recycling" is easy if one minimizes seasoning, letting the natural flavor of the ingredients define the taste.
The Zen aversion to waste extends to dishware, too. When Japanese people eat deep-fried tempura, they use extra dishes for the dipping sauce. Followers of Zen, on the other hand, feel that sauces are extravagant to prepare and tend to drip and make a mess anyway, so we forgo using dipping sauces altogether. In fact, sauces are unnecessary with a little salt in the batter, or if one simmers vegetables in miso-flavored water before deep-frying them.
People ask me if I can maintain a balanced diet while eating only vegetables; the answer, of course, is yes. I have been following Buddhist training and eating only vegetarian meals for more than 50 years, yet have never even caught a cold in all that time. Life at a Zen temple is strict and demands much physical labor, but I can take it in stride because I have the power of seasonal vegetables on my side. Of course, shojin ryori is part of the Buddhist temple regimen, yet it is also my way of maintaining a sound mind and body.

Beauty Tips

2006-08-01T15:37:00.000+07:00

For attractive lips,
Speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes,
Seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure,
Share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair,
Let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.

For poise,
Walk with the knowledge that you will never walk alone.
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; Never throw out anybody.

Remember, If you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, The figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, Because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, But true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows. And the beauty of a woman, with passing years, only grows.

Mesothelioma

2006-07-26T18:04:00.000+07:00

Mesothelioma is one of the deadliest diseases known to man; the average life span of an inflicted person from the time of diagnosis until death is less than 24 months. It’s a disease that strikes approximately 3,000 United States citizens each and every year; hard working people who have labored for a lifetime to provide for their families, doing the work that keeps this country running and a great place to live. They worked in factories, at shipyards, in mines, for the US military, as engineers, as pipefitters, as steel workers, as auto mechanics, and in so many other professions. They came home to their loved ones exhausted and covered in dirt and dust; tired, but content that they had a job and were providing for their family. Content that they were putting food on the table and a house over their loved one’s heads. Content that they were working to make a better life for their families in this generation and the next...

But what they didn’t know was that while they were working so hard, they were not only slowly killing themselves, but those that they were working so hard to help; their family, their loved ones.

Mesothelioma is a disease that is almost 100% preventable; the only known cause is via exposure to the deadly mineral Asbestos. It comes from inhaling the particles of dust as the asbestos degrades; eating away at the lining of your lungs and developing into a deadly cancer. Dust that was inhaled in clouds of white powder, dust that was carried home on the clothes of the men who built this country, dust that was cleaned from the clothes by the wives and children who supported their sole provider at home, dust that was packed around the heating systems in houses and offices and schools, dust that carried a deadly price; and dust made a fortune in blood money for the companies that produced it.

Unfortunately, the effects of asbestos on the human body were known to be deadly for years by the companies who employed the ‘greatest generation’ and made hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars off of their backs. But instead of taking simple steps to alleviate the problem and save the lives of thousands of their workers, they choose to do nothing and continue to make a “healthy” profit with a “deadly” product. Many even went so far as to hide the truth from their workers and their families. And because the normal latency period for Mesothelioma (The time from exposure until the patient falls ill) is 20 to 30 years, many got away with this for years. We are only now beginning to see the full effects of the disease, and feel the terrible outcry of the people against those who put profits before human lives to a degree that is simply unfathomable.

MesoLink.org is a site created to provide you with up to date information on the deadly disease Mesothelioma. We strive to provide the most complete overview of the disease and all aspects of it. This includes general information on the disease, breaking news on the search for a cure and perspective legislation designed to limit you as well as all other news on the subject, links to other sites and online resources that can provide important and in-depth Mesothelioma and cancer related information, and a legal guide to help you with the complex legal issues involved with Mesothelioma.

Tuberculosis

2006-07-26T15:52:00.000+07:00

Tuberculosis (commonly abbreviated as TB) is an infection caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system (meningitis), lymphatic system, circulatory system (Miliary tuberculosis), genitourinary system, bones and joints.

Tuberculosis is one of the deadliest and common major infectious diseases today. As of 2004, 14.6 million people have active TB disease with nine million new cases of the disease and nearly two million deaths, [1] mostly in developing countries. However, developing countries are not the only places with tuberculosis. There is a rising number of people in the developed world who contract tuberculosis because they have compromised immune systems, typically as a result of immunosupressive drugs or HIV/AIDS. These people are at particular risk of tuberculosis infection and active tuberculosis disease.

Most of those infected (90%) have asymptomatic latent TB infection (LTBI). There is a 10% lifetime chance that LTBI will progress to TB disease which, if left untreated, will kill more than 50% of its victims. TB is one of the top four infectious killing diseases in the world: TB kills 1.7 million, and malaria kills 2-3 million.

HIV/AIDS, the neglect of TB control programs, and immigration have caused a resurgence of tuberculosis. Multidrug-resistant strains of TB (MDR-TB) and Extreme Drug-Resistance in Tuberculosis (XDR-TB) are emerging. The World Health Organization declared TB a global health emergency in 1993, and the Stop TB Partnership proposed a Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis which aims to save an additional 14 million lives between 2006 and 2015.

The cause of tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), is a slow-growing aerobic bacterium that divides every 16 to 20 hours. This is extremely slow compared to other bacteria (although not the slowest), which tend to have division times measured in minutes (among the fastest growing bacteria is a strain of E. coli that can divide roughly every 20 minutes; by contrast, Mycobacterium leprae divides every 20 days). MTB is not classified as either Gram-positive or Gram-negative because it does not have the chemical characteristics of either. If a Gram stain is performed, it stains very weakly Gram-positive or not at all (ghost cells). It is a small rod-like bacillus which can withstand weak disinfectants and can survive in a dry state for weeks but, spontaneously, can only grow within a host organism (in vitro culture of M. tuberculosis took a long time to be achieved, but is nowadays a routine laboratory procedure).

MTB is identified microscopically by its staining characteristics: it retains certain stains after being treated with acidic solution, and is thus classified as an "acid-fast bacillus" or AFB. In the most common staining technique, the Ziehl-Neelsen stain, AFB are stained a bright red which stands out clearly against a blue background. Acid-fast bacilli can also be visualized by fluorescent microscopy, and by an auramine-rhodamine stain.

The M. tuberculosis complex includes 3 other mycobacteria which can cause tuberculosis: M. bovis, M. africanum and M. microti. The first two are very rare causes of disease and the last one does not cause human disease.

Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are other mycobacteria (besides M. leprae which causes leprosy) which may cause pulmonary disease resembling TB, lymphadenitis, skin disease, or disseminated disease. These include Mycobacterium avium, M. kansasii, and others.

Acid-fast bacilli (AFB) (shown in red) are tubercle bacilli Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Cancer

2006-07-26T09:07:00.000+07:00

Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these cells to invade other tissues, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis. Metastasis is defined as the stage in which cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system. Cancer may affect people at all ages, but risk tends to increase with age. It is one of the leading causes of death in developed countries.

There are many types of cancer. Severity of symptoms depends on the site and character of the malignancy and whether there is metastasis. A definitive diagnosis usually requires the histologic examination of tissue by a pathologist. This tissue is obtained by biopsy or surgery. Most cancers can be treated and some cured, depending on the specific type, location, and stage. Once diagnosed, cancer is usually treated with a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. As research develops, treatments are becoming more specific for the type of cancer pathology. Drugs that target specific cancers already exist for several cancers. If untreated, cancers may eventually cause illness and death, though this is not always the case.

The unregulated growth that characterizes cancer is caused by damage to DNA, resulting in mutations to genes that encode for proteins controlling cell division. Many mutation events may be required to transform a normal cell into a malignant cell. These mutations can be caused by chemicals or physical agents called carcinogens, by close exposure to radioactive materials, or by certain viruses that can insert their DNA into the human genome. Mutations occur spontaneously, or are passed down generations as a result of germ line mutations.

Many forms of cancer are associated with exposure to environmental factors such as tobacco smoke, radiation, alcohol and certain viruses. While some of these can be avoided, there is no known way to entirely avoid the disease, and public health and vaccination programs are also important on a global scale.

When normal cells are damaged beyond repair, they are eliminated by apoptosis. Cancer cells avoid apoptosis and continue to multiply in an unregulated manner.

Active Desktop - Enable/Disable

2006-04-18T12:18:00.000+07:00

Active Desktop - Enable/Disable

The user is normally given the option of disabling Active Desktop through the
display properties. This tweak removes the ability to disable Active Desktop.

Open your registry and find the key below.

Create a new DWORD value named "ForceActiveDesktopOn" and set the value to "1"
to force the use of Active Desktop.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

Value Name: ForceActiveDesktopOn

Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)

Value Data: (0 = default, 1 = enabled)

* This tweak will remove the Active Desktop options from Settings on the
Start Menu.

Open your registry and find the key below.

Create a new DWORD value named "NoSetActiveDesktop", and set the new value to
equal "1" to enable the restriction or "0" to disable the restriction.

Note: This restriction can be used either on a user by user basis by adding it
to HKEY_CURRENT_USER or on a computer wide basis by adding it to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

Value Name: NoSetActiveDesktop

Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)

Value Data: (0 = disable restriction, 1 = enable restriction)

" This tweak allows you to have Active Desktop enabled, but to

restrict any changes to the settings "

Open your registry and find the key below.

Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value called 'NoActiveDesktopChanges'
set the value to equal '1' to enable the restriction.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

Value Name: NoActiveDesktopChanges

Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)

Value Data: (0 = disable restriction, 1 = enable restriction)

" Features of the Windows Active Desktop can be selectively controlled by
modifying options in the Windows registry. Following the instructions in this
tweak "

Open your registry and find the key below.

Create a new DWORD value based on the options below, and set the new value to
equal "1" to enable the restriction or "0" to disable the restriction.

NoChangingWallpaper - Disable the ability to change wallpapers.

NoComponents - Disable components.

NoAddingComponents - Disable the ability to add components.

NoDeletingComponents - Disable the ability to delete components.

NoEditingComponents - Disable the ability to edit components.

NoCloseDragDropBands

NoMovingBands - retrict adjustments to desktop toolbars

NoHTMLWallPaper - only allow bitmaps (BMP) as wallpaper

Note: These restrictions can be used either on a user by user basis by adding it
to HKEY_CURRENT_USER or on a computer wide basis by adding it to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop]

System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop]

Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)

Value Data: (0 = disable restriction, 1 = enable restriction)

Cannot Start Windows XP if the System or Software Hive Is Missing or Damaged

2006-03-15T15:23:00.000+07:00

When you try to start or restart your Windows XP-based computer, you may receive
one of the following error messages:

Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SOFTWARE

To resolve this issue, use one of the following methods.
Use the Recovery Console Tool:

To restore a damaged registry hive, use the Recovery Console to restore the

backup copy of the hive from the Repair folder. The Repair folder contains a
copy of the system's registry hives that were created after the first successful
startup of Windows XP.

WARNING : Although data should not be affected by the following procedure, you
may need to restore changes you previously made to programs or system settings
since the first time you successfully started Windows XP.

To replace the damaged registry hive and restore the backup copy of the hive
from the Repair folder: Start your computer to the Recovery Console.

Determine if the file that is mentioned in the "Symptoms" section of this
article is present, and if it is, rename it:

In Recovery Console, change to the c:\Windows folder.

Type cd system32\config , and then press ENTER.

Type dir system , and then press ENTER.

If you cannot run the preceding command successfully (because the file is
missing), skip to step 3. If you can run the preceding command successfully,
type ren system system.bak , and then press ENTER.

NOTE : If the message that you received referred to the software file, replace
"system" with "software" in the preceding command. For example, you would type
ren software software.bak (instead of ren system system.bak ), and then press
ENTER.

Type copy c:\windows\repair\system , and then press ENTER.

NOTE : If the message that you received referred to the software file, replace
"system" with "software" in the preceding command. For example, you would type
copy c:\windows\repair\software (instead of copy c:\windows\repair\system ), and
then press ENTER.

You should receive a "One file copied" informational message. For additional

information about how to use Recovery Console during startup, click the article
number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q307654 HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console for Windows XP

IMPORTANT : If you encounter problems when you run the preceding commands, you
may need to use the Change Directory command ( cd ) one folder at a time before
you run the preceding commands. For example, type cd system32 , press ENTER,
type cd config , and then press ENTER.

Type exit , and then press ENTER to quit Recovery Console and restart the
computer.

Removing Invalid Entries in the Add/Remove Programs Tool

2006-02-14T09:56:00.000+07:00

Start/Run/Regedit

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

Each program listed in Add/Remove Programs has a subkey listed here. Locate the correct subkey for the program in question and right click it, then select Delete. You may want to choose Export, first, to export the key to a REG file. The REG file can be re-imported if you find you made a mistake.

You may have to contact the manufacturer of the program that you want to remove if you need to clean up the disk and registry entries. The procedure described in this section does not remove all the files and registry entries used by the program; it removes only the reference in the Add/Remove Programs tool.

Note: Other checkpoints to consider when trying to remove a program:

Check to see if the software/program is listed here: Start/Run/Regedit

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

1. Right click the Program's shortcut/Properties to gain the Target Path.

2. Go to Start/Run/Msconfig/Startup and make sure it is not listed or checked there. If so, uncheck it and remove the program listing from here: Start/Run/Regedit

For items that were in the Start menu, Programs, Startup folder:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupfolder. You'll find a subkey for each disabled item.

For items loaded from the Registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupreg. Again, you'll find a subkey for each disabled item.

Clear Disabled Items from Msconfig Startup (Line 148)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

3. Go to Windows Explorer/Tools/Folder Options/File Types. If the program file type is listed, either use Change or Delete.

4. Go to Start/Run/Regedit and navigate to this key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications. If the program is listed, right click, delete.

5. Go to Start/Run/Regedit and navigate to these keys:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE. If the program is listed, right click, delete.

6. Go to Start/Run/Regedit. Edit/Find and under Find What type in the program path gained from step one. From there either use Find next or F3.

7. Removing Invalid Entries in the Add/Remove Programs Tool
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

8. The Windows Installer CleanUp Utility can remove a program's Windows Installer configuration information.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290301

9. Third Party: Displays the entries in the Add/Remove Programs list of Windows Registry, checks if each is valid, and uninstalls the selected program or removes the entry from the list. http://superwin.swmirror.com/adrmpro2.exe

10. You Cannot Reinstall a Program with the Add/Remove Programs Tool

NTLDR is missing, press any key to restart

2006-01-06T19:15:00.000+07:00

The quick test to make sure your OS installation is still good is to create an MBR and NTLDR on a floppy disk and check your partitions, this disk will check many of the partitions for a working windows installation. Here are the instructions to do this:

1. Get a blank floppy (whatever is on it will be erased), and put it into a working computer.

2. Download fixntldr.exe onto a working computer

3. Run the fixntldr.exe file by double clicking it. Click OK to overwrite the blank floppy disc in the working computer, you should see some screens about writing a new floppy disk.

4. Do you remember if the folder you had your Windows installation in was named "Windows"? If you can't remember just keep going.

5. Put the new floppy you have just created into the computer that gets the NTLDR is missing error message, turn the broken computer off.

Using the boot disk in the computer with the "NTLDR is missing" error.

Start back up the broken computer with the floppy in the floppy drive. Once your computer gets past the BIOS screen your computer should try to access the floppy drive and you should see a black screen with white letters that says:

1ST TRY THIS seleccione esto primero
2ND TRY THIS essayez ceci en deuzieme
3RD TRY THIS wahlen Sie diesen Third
4TH TRY THIS selezioni questo fourth
5TH TRY THIS selecione este fifth
6TH TRY THIS seleccione este sexto
7TH TRY THIS essayez ceci en septieme
8TH TRY THIS wahlen Sie dieses achte
9TH TRY THIS selezioni questo nono
10TH TRY THIS selecione este decimo

(I threw in some Spanish / French / German / Italian / Portuguese for international flavor.)

This file is set up to automatically select the "1ST TRY THIS" choice after 30 seconds. Try it first, if it was the wrong selection, you will likely get one of these three errors:

1. Windows could not start because file "\system32\hal.dll was missing or corrupt

2. Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information.

3. I/O Error accessing boot sector file multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)\BOOTSECT.DOS

4. Immediate reboot

If you get the immediate reboot or some other weird error, try pressing F8 at the "1st Try This" selection screen, it will give you a prompt where you can select Safe Mode, and then try the "1st Try This" option again. Safe Mode is a special "minimal" version of Windows that doesn't load certain parts of the operating system that might have caused the problem.

One of the choices should eventually boot you back into Windows. (If you go all the way to option 10 and still get errors on startup, try changing boot.ini to windows.ini, then winnt.ini to boot.ini, and run through all 10 possibilities again.

Use windows to fix the boot files on the hard drive.

Once you get back into windows, try to change back whatever you were last doing and boot normally, it that doesn't work, go to the root of your C:\ drive and rename boot.ini to boot.ini.bak, ntldr to ntldr.bak, and ntdetect.com to ntdetect.com.bak, then copy the files that are on your floppy disk to the root of your C:\ drive (if you used the CD-ROM, download the fixntldriso.zip file and use the boot files from there) so that the files are on the root, like C:\ntldr C:\ntdetect.com C:\boot.ini. If it prompts you to overwrite a file, press "Yes". After they have been copied over, be sure to remove the "Read-Only" attribute from the properties of the files. (Right click on a file, choose properties, and uncheck the Read-Only box). Take the floppy out and reboot the computer (you should see the "1st Try This" menu, make the same selection you did before.

If you get back into Windows again, you can change that "1st Try This" menu by going into Start > Control Panel > System > Advanced tab > Startup and Recovery section, Settings button > System Startup; then change the "Default Operating System:" to the selection that worked for you, and change the box that says "Time to display list of operating systems" to however many seconds you want (usually 1 second). Click OK twice.

Recovery Console in Windows XP

2005-12-18T20:46:00.000+07:00

Recovery Console in Windows XP

Description of the Windows Recovery Console

This section describes the functionality and limitations of the Windows Recovery Console. The Windows Recovery Console is designed to help you recover when your Windows-based computer does not start properly or does not start at all.

When you use the Windows Recovery Console, you can obtain limited access to NTFS, FAT, and FAT32 volumes without starting the Windows graphical interface. In the Windows Recovery Console you can:

Use, copy, rename or replace operating system files and folders, Enable or disable services or devices from starting when you next start your computer, Repair the file system boot sector or the Master Boot Record (MBR), Create and format partitions on drives.

Note that only an administrator can obtain access to the Windows Recovery Console so that unauthorized users cannot use any NTFS volume. More Information.

To install the Recovery Console as a Startup Option

With Windows running, insert the Setup CD into your CD-ROM drive. Start/Run/X:i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons. Follow the instructions on the screen.

Notes:

To run the Recovery Console, restart your computer and select the Recovery Console option from the list of available operating systems.

You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure.

To see the commands available on the Recovery Console, type help at the at the console prompt.

To start the computer and use the Recovery Console

From the Setup CD-ROM

Insert the Setup compact disc (CD) and restart the computer. If prompted, select any options required to boot from the CD.
When the text-based part of Setup begins, follow the prompts; choose the repair or recover option by pressing R. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, choose the installation that you need to access from the Recovery Console. When prompted, type the Administrator password. At the system prompt, type Recovery Console commands; type help for a list of commands, or help commandname for help on a specific command.

To exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer, type exit.

If you have already installed the Recovery Console

During Startup, select Recovery Console from the startup options menu. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, choose the installation that you need to access from the Recovery Console. When prompted, type the Administrator password. At the system prompt, type Recovery Console commands; type help for a list of commands, or help commandname for help on a specific command. To exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer, type exit.

Important Note: Because the Recovery Console is quite powerful, it is recommended for use only by advanced users or administrators.

To Delete the Recovery Console

Open My Computer.
Double-click the hard drive on which you installed the Recovery Console.
On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
Click the View tab.
Click Show hidden files and folders, clear the Hide protected operating system files check box, and then click OK.
At the root directory, delete the \Cmdcons folder.
At the root directory, delete the file Cmldr.
At the root directory, right-click the Boot.ini file and then click Properties.
Clear the Read-only check box, and then click OK.
Open Boot.ini in Notepad, and remove the entry for the Recovery Console. It will look similar to this:
C:\cmdcons\bootsect.dat="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

Save the file and close it.

Modifying the Boot.ini file incorrectly may prevent your computer from restarting. Be sure to delete only the entry for the Recovery Console. Notes:

To open My Computer, double-click the My Computer icon on the desktop.
It is recommended that you change the attribute for the Boot.ini file back to read-only after you complete this procedure. You may also want to hide your system files again.

The commands available when using the Recovery Console are:
Attrib CD Chdir
Chkdsk Cls Copy
Del Delete Dir
Disable Diskpart Enable
Exit Expand Fixboot
Fixmbr Format Help
Listsvc Logon Map
MD Mkdir More
Rd Ren Rename
Rmdir Type Systemroot

Attrib: Changes the attributes of a file or directory.
Batch: Executes the commands specified in the text file.
ChDir (Cd): Displays the name of the current directory or changes the current directory.
Chkdsk: Checks a disk and displays a status report.
Cls: Clears the screen.
Copy: Copies a single file to another location.
Delete (Del): Deletes one or more files.
Dir: Displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory.
Disable: Disables a system service or a device driver.
Diskpart: Manages partitions on your hard drives.
Enable: Starts or enables a system service or a device driver.
Exit: Exits the Recovery Console and restarts your computer.
Expand: Extracts a file from a compressed file.
Fixboot: Writes a new partition boot sector onto the system partition.
Fixmbr: Repairs the master boot record of the partition boot sector.
Format: Formats a disk.
Help: Displays a list of the commands you can use in the Recovery Console.
Listsvc: Lists the services and drivers available on the computer.
Logon: Logs on to a Windows 2000 installation.
Map: Displays the drive letter mappings.
Mkdir (Md): Creates a directory.
More: Displays a text file.
Rename (Ren): Renames a single file.
Rmdir (Rd): Deletes a directory.
Set: Displays and sets environment variables.
Systemroot: Sets the current directory to the systemroot directory of the system you are currently logged on to.
Type: Displays a text file.

This list can be obtained in the Console by typing "help" without the quotes.

A Discussion About the Bootcfg Command and Its Uses

The bootcfg command is a Microsoft Windows XP Recovery Console command that manipulates the Boot.ini file. This command has a function that can scan your hard disks for Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft Windows 2000, and Windows XP installations, and then add them to an existing Boot.ini file or rebuild a new Boot.ini file, if one does not exist. The bootcfg command enables additional Boot.ini file parameters to be added to existing or new entries.

To use the bootcfg command, start the Recovery Console with the Windows XP CD-ROM, and then click Recovery Console. Or, install the Recovery Console locally, and then select the command from the Boot menu. More Information.

How to Boot Windows Preinstall Environment from a Hard Disk

This section describes how to configure the Windows Preinstall Environment (WinPE) to boot from a hard disk.

NOTE: More than likely the supported methods to boot WinPE (by means of a CD-ROM or from a Remote Installation Services (RIS) server) are the most commonly used methods. The method that is described in this article is provided for
informational purposes. More Information.

Access Floppy Drive from Recovery Console

To enable write access to floppies from within the R.C., click Start, Programs, Administrative Tools, Local Security Policy. Under Local Policy, Security Options, double-click "Recovery Console: Allow floppy copy and access to all drives and all folders." Select Enabled, then click OK.

Note: The following steps may also be necessary:

"After you enable the security policy, it must be applied (possibly across the domain) before becoming the effective policy on the local computer. This is necessary before the set command is truly enabled and available for use during a Recovery Console session. You can run the following command to force a refresh of the local computer's policy after performing the policy change listed above: secedit /refreshpolicy machine_policy

After the local policy is refreshed and the enabled Recovery Console security policy is in effect, you should be able to start Recovery Console and use the set command to enable any of the four environment options."

In the Recovery Console, you must then type: set AllowRemovableMedia = TRUE

Accessing Other Folders in Recovery Console

This security policy will also access to files and folders other than the defaults (normally access is restricted to \winnt and \cmdcons). To enable access to other folders, simply boot to the Recovery Console command prompt and type: set AllowAllPaths = true

You will then be able to access other files and folders on your computer. Please keep in mind that this is a potential security problem, and that you should be careful to restrict physical access to computers that are configured in this way.

Windows Update Site Problems

2005-07-15T17:18:00.000+07:00

To protect your computer, you need the proper updates for your operating system. This is Number Two on the list of "Must do" to protect your computer.

Any operating system must be kept up to date. Without the updates, your computer will become increasingly more vulnerable to new threats.
Some of these threats are made possible by weaknesses discovered in Windows after Windows was released. Other weaknesses became apparent as new technology creates a weakness where there was none before.
Windows has made it easy to keep up to date
You can perform Windows Update automatically, prompted or manually.

Windows ME, 2000 & XP:
To set Windows Update on automatic (recommended for most home users)
Right click "My Computer"
Click "Properties"
Click "Automatic Updates"
Place check in "Keep my computer up to date"
Also place a bullet in "Automatically download the updates"
NOTE: Be sure your computer is powered on the day/time you set.
To set Windows Update to prompt for the updates choose one of the other two bullets on that page.
To manually update:
Start/All Programs/Windows Update
Follow the prompts.

Windows 9X:
Double click "My Computer"
Double click "Scheduled Tasks"
Double click "Windows Critical Update Notification"
You can make selections as desired.
If the option is not available install Windows Critical Update Notification:
1. Go here:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
2. Click "Scan for updates"
3. On the left side click "Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition"
4. Click "Add" by "Windows Critical Update Notification recommended update"
5. Click "Review and install updates"
6. Click "Install Now"

You should install ALL Critical Updates.
Install the Recommended Updates that you have determined apply to you.
Get the drivers directly from the manufacturer

If you have not updated in a while, you may have a lot of updates.
Install Service Packs first and by itself
Reboot
Install updates no more than three at a time.
Reboot
Install next three.

Don't forget to check for and install updates for other software such as Microsoft Office.

Repair the Boot Sector

2005-05-14T20:06:00.000+07:00

If XP won't start it may be due to a damaged boot sector or a missing or corrupt ntldr or ntdetect.com files.

To replace damaged ntldr and ntdetect.com you can copy fresh files from the XP CD using the COPY command. Boot with the XP CD and enter the Recovery Console (as above). At the Command Prompt type the following (where "X" is your CD-Rom drive letter) allowing the files to overwrite the old files
COPY X:\i386\NTLDR C:
COPY X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:

To repair a damaged Boot Sector at the command prompt type FIXBOOT and press Enter. Then answer "Y"

How To Create a Boot Disk to Start Windows XP

2005-03-10T18:59:00.000+07:00

Create a Windows startup disk when you first install Windows on the computer. This disk is different from an MS-DOS startup disk. Unlike MS-DOS, the whole Windows operating system cannot fit on one floppy disk. A Windows startup disk contains only the files that you must have to start the operating system with the remainder of the Windows system files installed on the hard disk drive. To create the startup disk, follow these steps:

1.	Insert a blank floppy disk in drive A, and then format the disk by using Windows XP.
2.	From the root folder of the system partition of your hard disk drive (for example, C:\-), copy the following files to the floppy disk: Boot.ini NTLDR Ntdetect.com You may have to remove the hidden, system, and read-only attributes from the files.
3.	Restore the hidden, system, and read-only attributes to the files on your hard disk if you removed these attributes.
4.	If the Bootsect.dos file or the Ntbootdd.sys file resides in the system partition, repeat steps 2 through 4 to copy these files to the boot disk.

How to access Last Known Good Configuration

2005-01-19T18:57:00.000+07:00

Reboot your computer while holding down the F8 Key. At the Advanced Options Menu select Last Known Good Configuration.

picur

2005-01-19T18:51:00.000+07:00

Reboot your computer while holding down the F8 Key. At the Advanced Options Menu select the option for Safe Mode and press Enter.