India to have a "say" in future tech standards

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is trying to rope in large IT services companies including TCS and Wipro to have a say in developing international technology standards. IEEE is the world's largest association of technical professionals with more than 400,000 members in chapters around the world.

The 51-year old institute's first president and CEO outside of North America, J Roberto de Marca, told ET that IEEE will expand its focus to beyond the US and engage with emerging economies such as India, China and Brazil to shape the future of technology.

"I am trying to get participation from emerging economies to make the organisation stronger," Roberto said. "India has one of the largest engineering talents, which can play a big role in shaping the future of technology."

India is the second largest member base for IEEE. Of the 130,000 global members, about 45,000 are based in India. There are also 800 members from India who are part of IEEE's standards association.

Cybersecurity experts warn Windows Server 2003 users

Cybersecurity sleuths have alerted users of 'Windows 2003' in the country to either migrate or apply appropriate security solutions as makers of this popular operating system have announced its 'end of life.'

"Microsoft has announced that the 'End of Life' for Windows Server 2003 is July 14, 2015...security patches and updates will no longer be available after this period for Windows 2003 and older servers will be more vulnerable to malicious attacks. It could amount to be risking both the business data as well as the intellectual property.

"It is recommended that all users and organisations using Windows Server 2003 in their environment should look for software vendors and service providers who offer assistance in migrating from Windows Server-2003 to a supported operating system or a cloud-based service," the Computer Emergency Response Team-India (CERT-In) said in its latest advisory to users.

The CERT-In is the nodal agency to combat hacking, phishing and to fortify security-related defences of the Indian internet domain. "The CERT-In has made an early start in this regard. The agency will keep updating the users of this operating system (OS) over the period of time, till its complete shut arrives in the middle of next year," an Information Technology (IT) expert said.

Indian firms finally open up to startup cloud products

For a long time, Indian startups that offer their software solutions for enterprises on the cloud have had to look overseas to find customers. Not anymore. The need to stay on top of the game and a greater trust on cloud-based products are making reticent Indian firms turn to startups.

Earlier this year, for example, Bengaluru-based EnCloudEn, which provides private cloud infrastructure software developed with open source tools, got biotech major Biocon as its customer.

"People are slowly realizing that it is in their advantage to be taking solution from startups," said Abinash Saikia, 28, who co-founded EnCloudEn in 2012 with his IIT Madras college mate Satya Kishore. The firm targets $1 million in revenue next year. EnCloudEn's deal with Biocon — which Saikia claimed was the largest in the private cloud infrastructure space in the country so far — reflects an increasing trend among Indian companies to go for purpose-built cloud-based enterprise products from startups instead of solutions of large companies.

Experts see this trend of big companies going for cloud-based solutions to speed up in the coming days. "I see it happening much rapidly. The scale is bigger, the pace of migration much faster," said analyst Jayant Kolla of research firm Convergence Catalyst. Sharad Sharma, founding member of software product think-tank iSpirt, said large companies have always resisted cloud-based products, under the premise that their data might be compromised, if hosted on third-party servers. "That resistance is coming down every year," he said. "A lot more proof-of-concepts/demos are happening."

Intel unveils 5th generation vPro Core processors

Companies replacing older PCs are increasingly choosing ones with high-end features aimed at improved security and employee efficiency, according to a senior Intel Corp executive. Intel's "vPro" processors account for a fifth of the chipmaker's corporate PC business and that proportion is growing, Tom Garrison, Intel's vice president and general manager of business client platforms, recently told Reuters. 

With a recovery in the PC industry driven in part by consumers buying cheap, low-end laptops, corporations buying top-tier devices for their workers are an important sweet spot for Intel and manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard and Dell. Shipments of Intel's vPro processors, which are more profitable for the Santa Clara, California, company than many of its other PC chips, are increasing compared with overall demand for desktop and laptop computers, he said.

"We're growing at double digits from 2014 over 2013," Garrison said. "There are 100 million vPros installed in businesses today." Earlier in January, Intel said it expects the overall PC market to be about flat this year and for average prices to decline slightly. 

In its newest vPro offering, based on the company's recently launched 5th generation Core chips and announced on Thursday, Intel is touting features aimed at eliminating time wasted at the start of conference-room meetings.

vPro computers can use Wi-Fi to connect directly to overhead projectors and other large screens without having to fiddle with cables.  The new chips use the similar technology to eliminate the need for docking stations used at office workstations to connect laptops to monitors and keyboards. vPro chips are used for laptops, desktops and convertible devices.

Firefox gets free video chat, and it works with Chrome

As it stands, Google Hangouts and Skype have something of a stranglehold on the video conferencing market. For the most part, those tools work well enough, but the barriers to entry are surprisingly high.

Mozilla is setting out to change that by building video conferencing directly into Firefox, and eliminating the need for accounts or dedicated clients. Even better, it’s built on open standards, so your friends and colleagues don’t have to use Firefox to accept a video call. While Mozilla has been experimenting publicly with the Firefox Hello project for months now, the recent stable release of Firefox 35 brings this feature into the limelight. Smack dab on the menu bar resides a happy little chat icon, and clicking it allows you to start a new video call.

From there, you can sign into your Firefox account to manage your contacts, but that’s an optional step. Without signing up for anything, you can start a chat, and simply send an invitation URL to anyone you’d like. They click the link, and the video conference begins. It’s shockingly easy to use, and that’s the real innovation here. Of course, it’s not a perfect solution just yet. Not every browser supports the WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) standard just yet, and that’s the backbone of Mozilla’s service.

Safari and Internet Explorer do not work with Firefox Hello, but third-party WebRTC plug-ins do exist to fill that gap. More importantly, the only way to initiate a video conference is by using Firefox. Considering that the usage share of Firefox has been steadily declining, that’s a big problem. Unless this service is completely browser agnostic, it’s something of a non-starter. Don’t be discouraged by the current limitations, though. Mozilla is partnering with the Spain-based telecom company Telefónica on this project, and since it’s being so prominently featured in the Firefox user interface, it’s safe to assume that Mozilla has big plans for this feature in the coming months.

Canonical unveils Snappy Ubuntu Core, a lightweight operating system for your home

For the past few years, Canonical, the UK software developer behind the Ubuntu operating system, has been working to extend its traditional desktop operating system into a much broader range of products.

Today, the company launched the alpha version of Snappy Ubuntu Core — an ultra-lightweight Ubuntu distribution designed to interface with large-scale cloud application build outs and power the so-called Internet of Things. Snappy Ubuntu Core is built on the Ubuntu Core project.

As the name implies, Ubuntu Core is a barebones, stripped-down implementation of Ubuntu that’s designed to operate in extremely constrained environments. Its advantage is that its software loadout can still be customized with very specific applications, without the additional overhead typically imposed by the full operating system.

Enabling cross-communication

The point of “Snappy” Ubuntu Core is to drive increased software capability in the emerging Internet of Things ecosystem — the OS will run on a single-core CPU at 600MHz with 128MB of RAM and 4GB of storage (for OS repair and reinstall). The OS itself runs in just 40MB of RAM, with the remainder available to applications.

In theory, Snappy Ubuntu Core should run just fine on devices like the recently announced Intel Curie. In theory, Snappy Ubuntu Core could obviate some of these problems by providing a universal operating system and common backend for application support.

If your smartwatch and your smartfridge are running the same application backed up by the same cloud infrastructure, it drastically simplifies the cross-communication question. The other potential advantage of the Snappy Ubuntu Core model is that it could provide a far safer alternative to manufacturer-specific updates and security patches. We’ve seen just how badly cellular carriers are at providing security updates or new versions of operating systems — and these are companies that actually devote significant resources to software testing and development.

The idea that Samsung, LG, or GE are going to suddenly roll out entirely new validation departments to maintain and update their appliance divisions is farcical at best. If there’s a larger problem with this plan, it’s that the entire use-case for Internet of Things devices is currently dubious at best. Everyone is talking about wearables, smart technology, and a future where microprocessors are embedded into all our hardware — but for all that talk, there’s precious little technology on the market that actually makes a compelling case for mass adoption.

The ability to build ultra-lightweight applications and maintain them through the cloud could be a vital component of an eventual IoT strategy, but only once someone has invented a device that people want to buy. Ubuntu’s ability to penetrate new markets, meanwhile, is a very open question.

The company’s long-term investment in its Unity UI has yet to pay dividends (unless you count Linux Mint’s surging popularity as a plus). The Ubuntu Touch phone OS was delayed into 2015 and no commercial devices have shipped to date.

Scientists use 20 billion fps camera to film a laser in flight

We’ve all been spoiled by the flashy lasers in science fiction to the point that the real thing can seem a little mundane. A laser, by definition, is tightly focused and all but invisible to the human eye. However, a team of physicists at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK have managed to film a laser bouncing off mirrors with a new type of high-speed camera.

It looks like something out of Star Wars, but it actually happened in real life. Filming a laser pulse moving through air is no easy feat, and certainly no conventional camera was up to the task. So the team built their own, as really clever physicists sometimes do.

Visualizing a laser as it moves through the air relies on exploiting the scattering of photons. You can get a feel for what’s going on in the video by shining a regular laser through smoke or water vapor. The light from the laser is scattered by the particulates in the air, which is why you can see it. You’re actually just seeing the photons split off from the focused beam. The system devised by PhD student Genevieve Gariepy and colleagues at Heriot-Watt University is doing the same basic thing, but in air and much, much faster.

Air scatters less light than fog or smoke would, so the camera used to capture the video below needed to be extremely sensitive. It’s composed of a 32×32 pixel grid of single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) detectors. This type of CMOS sensor was chosen because it has high temporal resolution.

That means the image data acquired by them can be accurately correlated with real life. So how accurate is the SPAD camera system? It can has a temporal resolution of 67 picoseconds, or 0.000000000067 seconds. Looking at it another way, it can capture about 20 billion frames per second. That’s good enough to pinpoint a single photon within a few centimeters.

When you’re talking about light, which is literally the fastest thing in the universe, that’s fantastically impressive. The camera is also tied into the laser emitter so it knows the exact time the pulse is produced. The video of the laser bouncing shows a bit of haze around the beam, but that’s a consequence of the method used to capture it. Even though the SPAD camera is extremely sensitive, it still only picks up a few photons scattered from the beam. The video is actually a blending of 2 million pulses fired over the course of 10 minutes.

The team simply had to combine all that image data and subtract the background. The result is the video you see above.

How to install Windows 10 in a virtual machine

After last week’s Windows 10 briefing, a brand new build of the Windows 10 Technical Preview was released publicly.

Anyone can sign-up for the Windows Insider program and get a taste of Windows 10. Of course, pre-release builds should never be used as a primary OS, so today I’ll walk you through how to run the Windows 10 Technical Preview in a virtual machine. Under normal circumstances I would do this walkthrough with Oracle’s VirtualBox. It’s free, open source, and works on just about any operating system. Sadly, the drivers appear to be broken for the time being. I couldn’t get sound or networking to work at all, and the screen resolution is severely limited.

A quick peek at the community forums shows that other people are having the exact same problems, so hold off using VirtualBox for Windows 10 until these major kinks get worked out. Instead, I’ll be using the free VMware Player application. It works like a charm, but it’s only available for Windows and Linux. VMware does offer premium virtualization solutions for OS X, but that’s a large investment just to test a preview build of Windows. I can’t recommend dropping $70 if this is all you’ll be using it for. With all that in mind, let’s jump in.

1. Download the Windows 10 ISO

First off, head over to the Windows Insider site, and sign up. Once you’ve agree to the terms of service, proceed to the download page, and pick which disc image you want to download. For the purposes of this walkthrough, I’m using the 32-bit English ISO, but go with whatever works for your set-up.

2. Create a new virtual machine

Now, you need to install VMware Player. Head to the download page, pick which platform you want, and complete the installation.

Once the application is installed, launch it, and navigate to Player > File > New Virtual Machine to get this party started.

3. Find your Windows 10 ISO

Next, you need to tell VMware Player where to find the Windows 10 ISO. Select the second option labeled “Installer disc image file (ISO),” and then navigate to the Windows 10 ISO you downloaded earlier.

4. Choose your save location

Pick out a name for this virtual machine, and then select where you’d like it to be saved.

5. Configure your virtual hard disk

On this screen, you need to choose how big you want your virtual disk to be. 60GB is the default, but you can increase it as needed. Just make sure you have enough free space on your actual hard disk.

By default, VMware Player will split your virtual disk over multiple files, and I recommend leaving it that way. Unless you have a specific reason to change it, keep it as is.

6. Customize your hardware configuration

Next, click the “Customize Hardware” button before we finish the initial set-up.

7. Allocate RAM

The default here is 1GB, but more would be better. I have 16GB of RAM in my machine, so I decided 4GB was an appropriate allocation for this virtual machine. Follow the guide on the right of the screen, and don’t go above the maximum recommended memory. If you outstrip what’s available, you’ll end up paging to the hard disk, and making everything slow to a crawl.

8. Configure the CPU

Switch over to the CPU tab, and choose how many cores you want to dedicate to this machine. One is the default, and that’s probably a safe starting point. My machine has four cores, so I usually end up bumping it to two cores for virtual machines, but your milage may vary.

Now, take a look at the button labeled “Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI.” If you’re using the 64-bit version of Windows 10, this is mandatory. Of course, your CPU needs to support this functionality, so use this tool from Microsoft to verify that it will work with your processor.

9. Begin the installation

Close out of the hardware configuration, and “Finish” the initial set-up. Now, boot up your virtual machine, and install Windows 10 just like you would normally.

10. Install the VMware tools

Once Windows 10 has finally booted up, navigate to Player > Manage > Install VMware Tools. It will mount a virtual DVD, and pop up a notification in the bottom right. Navigate to the disc in Windows Explorer, launch the appropriate executable, and follow the on-screen instructions.

Note: If you don’t already have the VMware tools on your PC, follow this process to download them.

11. Reboot your virtual machine

When it’s finished installing, reboot your virtual machine.

And you’ve virtualized Windows 10!

Finally, your Windows 10 installation is ready to use — even in fullscreen mode. Poke around, download the OS updates, and enjoy the cutting edge of Windows. And when something inevitably breaks, it won’t matter. This is just a virtual machine, so toss it, and start over.

Robotic glove teaches your hand the basics of drawing:Reports

Whether it was after getting hooked on your first comic, taking a college art class, or even idly doodling on your math book instead of paying attention to your teacher, we’ve all experimented with drawing. Unless you’re one of the people that can actually do it well, you likely gave up and moved on, wondering how other humans can mix lines together to create something both recognizable and aesthetically pleasing. If you’re illustrationally-challenged, your salvation may lie not with humanity, but with robotics.

A new robotic glove teaches you how to draw by becoming training your muscle memory. Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design student Saurabh Datta developed the glove as part of his thesis, initially as a way to learn to play the piano. If his human hands couldn’t learn, maybe some robot hands could teach them — and no, the robot hand doesn’t come from the Robot Devil, despite the startlingly similar way the idea was conceived.

Called Teacher, the glove-like robot straps onto your hand and fingers, and guides you through specific gestures over and over. If you do it enough, your hand will learn how to do it through sheer muscle memory.Obviously, this won’t teach you instinct or how to transfer something from your imagination to paper, but at the very least, the theory is that it’ll teach you basics — how to make aesthetically pleasing lines.

Now, it only took Datta a week to build the rig. It’s not exactly the teacher after which it’s named, but instead represents the way humans and robots can and do interact when working to achieve the same goal. Despite being presented with the potential to learn how to draw, Datta found that most participants didn’t like when the glove controlled the majority of the movement — they’d fight against the haptic feedback, and constantly readjust their hand within the contraption to find a more comfortable position.

To fix the comfort issue, Datta recorded the fidgets made by the testers, and then adjusted the machine’s force feedback to account for them. In turn, this also helped the machine learn about the way humans naturally move.

Spotify to Raise $500 Million; Move Could Delay an IPO

Spotify, the popular streaming music service, has retained Goldman Sachs to raise $500 million (roughly Rs. 3,089 crores) in private investment, a move that would probably delay the possibility of an initial public stock offering in the near future.

As a result of this latest round of investment, Spotify's valuation would increase to at least $6 billion (roughly Rs. 37,078 crores), and possibly $7 billion (roughly Rs. 43,258 crores) or more, according to a person briefed on the company's plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. In its last fundraising round, in late 2013, it took in $250 million (roughly Rs. 1,544 crores) and was valued at more than $4 billion (roughly Rs. 24,719 crores).

News of Spotify's latest round of financing was first reported Thursday by The Wall Street Journal. A Spotify spokesman declined to comment. Spotify, which started in Sweden in 2008 and is now available in 58 countries, is the leading provider of streaming music by subscription.

It offers millions of songs in two versions: free with advertising, and an all-access paid version that in most countries costs about $10 a month. Spotify says it has 60 million users around the world, 15 million of whom pay. On Wednesday, it scored a coup in the digital music market when Sony said it would soon shut Music Unlimited, its failed streaming outlet, and replace it with Spotify.

Microsoft to Invest in Custom Android ROM Maker Cyanogen: Reports

A report claims that Microsoft is looking to invest in Cyanogen, which makes the CyanogenMod custom ROM based on Android. Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the matter reports that the Redmond-based company is planning to be a minority investor in a $70 million (approximately Rs. 432 crore) round of equity financing that is likely to see Cyanogen being valued in the "high hundreds of millions".

One of the people said that Cyanogen's financing round might see more strategic investors that have in the past shown interest in the company. Unfortunately, the report does not reveal names of any other "potential investors" likely to take part in financing.

Both Cyanogen and Microsoft spokespersons declined to comment on the matter. WSJ speculates Microsoft's reason for investing in Cyanogen was to use the company's custom ROMs as points to distribute its own apps and services without being discriminated by Google. Previous reports tipped that Cyanogen's CyanogenMod, a popular forked version of Google's Android operating system, was reportedly being eyed by several major companies including Amazon, Samsung and Yahoo, apart from Microsoft for a partnership or acquisition.

Know:- How to Make Calls, Send and Receive SMS From Your Computer Using an Android Phone

The launch of iOS 8 in September brought a number of very cool features, with Continuity perhaps topping the list of enhancements. It allows you to make and receive phone calls and send and receive text messages using your iPad or Mac, as long as they're connected to the same Wi-Fi network and Apple ID.

This is quite handy if you're working on your Mac and don't want to switch back to the iPhone just to check a text or to receive a call. If you're using a Mac and an iPhone that's a great feature to have, but Android users need not feel left out either. AirDroid gives Android users most of Continuity's features and allows some things that'll make Apple users jealous.

Continuity also has a feature called Handoff, which allows you to pick up where you left off with apps. Whether it's finishing an incomplete message on Mail or a document in Pages, these automatically sync across Apple devices with Handoff.

Third-party apps such as Google Chrome also support this feature, but this is only available if developers choose to add it. AirDroid doesn't have anything like Handoff and doesn't let you receive phone calls. It can mirror your Android device's screen to your computer if your phone is rooted. 

This feature is useful if you want to use your phone's apps on your PC. If your phone is not rooted, you only get notifications for text messages, phone calls, and from other system apps. Airdroid 3 lets you send and receive text messages, make and reject calls, receive notifications and transfer files via your computer. You control the phone using a Web client, so you don't have to install any software, and can use the app simply by visiting a webpage on either your PC or Mac.

1. Download AirDroid on your Android phone.
2. Open the app on your Android phone.
3. The app will ask you to create an account, but it is not needed. Just tap the tinySign in later button at the bottom.
4. Now AirDroid will ask you for permission to show notifications on your computer in real time. Tap Enable.
5. This will take you to the system settings for access to notifications. Tap AirDroid Notification Mirror service.
6. A confirmation pop-up will appear. Tap OK.
7. Now hit the back button on your phone to return to AirDroid. The app will now display a URL - http://web.airdroid.com - on the phone.
8. Open the URL in any Web browser on your computer. You'll see a QR code in the browser window.
9. On AirDroid on your Android phone, tap the QR code image next to the URL. This will open the camera.
10. Point the camera at the QR code in the browser window on your computer. The Android app will vibrate when it has scanned the code.