Exams

Another one done :) one to go

Todays exam was very very hard; really hope i've did enough to pass :(

Exams

One exam down :) two to go :(

Had my first exam today; was hard getting back into the swing of things, but glad I have one out of the way

Google founders have grown up

The guys who founded Google are grown up!

That was the pronouncement on Thursday from Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, who was hired in 2001 to provide mature, traditional business savvy to the Internet search company founded by whiz kids Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

"The boys have grown up," Schmidt told a news conference ahead of the wildly successful company's annual meeting.
Now billionaires, the two who formed the company, which has the motto "Don't Be Evil," were seen as "brilliant young founders," Schmidt said.

"They now function in the company as the senior executives with the kind of
skills and experience --"
"-- We wish he had five years ago,"

Page said, finishing Schmidt's thought.

Page, 35, and Brin, who was born in the Soviet Union 34 years ago, made history in their 20s when they set up the Google search engine.

"Now we don't have to have the same kind of arguments," said Schmidt, who at 53 qualifies as an old man by the standards of the youthful Google campus.

"In fact, they really are running the companies that they founded at the scale and with the insights that you would expect of people who are no longer young founders but are mature business leaders," he offered.

Brin and Page ranked as number 32 and 33 on Forbes' 2008 list of billionaires, with more than $18 billion (9.2 billion pounds) each, but on Thursday they downplayed the effects of overwhelming wealth.

"I don't think at a certain scale it matters, but I do have a pretty good toy budget now," Brin said when asked about how vast wealth had changed his life. "I just got a new monitor."
Page mentioned an even more modest benefit: "I don't have to do laundry."

To which Schmidt, who favours a more traditional coat and tie to the founders' more casual dress, replied: "I think the clothes are pretty much the same."

Brin wore a black pullover shirt. Page wore a black jacket over a gray pullover shirt.

"Those aspects of their personalities have not changed," Schmidt said. "They care a lot about the principles of the company. They don't care a lot about the other things."

NO MORE ALL-NIGHTERS
Both Page and Brin got married over the past year but closely guard their personal lives. At the news conference, both said their work lives had certainly changed.

"One thing is that we have 10 or 20,000 people to help us," Brin said. "Certainly I am not pulling all-nighters all the time like we were when we were in the garage, when we were only three or four people doing everything."

"So now I have vastly more help and I think concern about using our time
efficiently, having good judgment, making good decisions. That's kind of a
welcome change to me."

Page highlighted the responsibilities they now carried. "Our opportunity and responsibility has continued to expand," Page said. "It doesn't feel all that different to me than it did a few years ago".

More Wii Fits coming, says Nintendo

Nintendo Wii is advancing again

Nintendo UK has responded to concerns about the fact Wii Fit appears to have sold out before it's even on shelves - insisting that "many retailers are still accepting pre-orders".

That doesn't include Play, Amazon, GAME, Shopto or Zavvi, however, all of whom have stopped offering the product for pre-order. But there's no need to worry, according to Nintendo. A statement issued to GamesIndustry.biz reads, "All retailers in the UK and Ireland have been aware of their Wii Fit allocations for launch since early March and as such we would see any stopping of pre-orders a sensible precaution on their part to ensure all current orders are met. Many retailers are still accepting pre-orders and we would advise people to shop around to secure their copy.

"As with all our launches, we are working very hard with all our retail partners to be as open and as transparent as possible with further deliveries," the statement continues.

"We're disappointed if even one person can't get hold of one of our products and we are doing everything we can to ensure we have as much stock as possible coming into the UK and Ireland not just at launch, but continually, to try and minimise any potential disappointment as much as possible."

Japan has already gone bonkers for Wii Fit, with 1.4 million sold since it launched there in December. It's out in Europe on April 25th, priced at GBP 69.99 / USD 89.99. Look out for Eurogamer's review very soon.

Visit GamesIndustry.biz, where they spend all day down the factmines to ensure there's always enough news to meet demand.

BBC announces Nintendo Wii deal

The BBC's iPlayer video service will soon be available via the Nintendo Wii

The video download and streaming service that lets people catch up with BBC programmes will soon be a channel on the hugely popular game console.

Early versions of the service will be available from 9 April but more polished software will be released as the service is developed.

The BBC is still at loggerheads with internet service providers (ISPs) over who should pay for extra network costs.

ISPs say the iPlayer is putting strain on their networks, which need to be upgraded to cope. Simon Gunter, from ISP Tiscali, is leading a call for the BBC to help pay for the rising costs.
But Ashley Highfield, head of future media and technology at the corporation, has said he believes the cost of network upgrades should be carried by ISPs.

The news of the Nintendo Wii deal comes as the BBC reveals a steep rise in the numbers of people using the iPlayer.

Fast seller
FROM THE DOT.LIFE BLOG
It would seem that Microsoft and Sony were placing too many demands on the corporation
Darren Waters, BBC technology editor
Read Darren's thoughts in full"The BBC's catch-up TV service can now be accessed on an increasing number of different platforms - from the web and portable devices to gaming consoles," said Erik Huggers, BBC's group controller for Future Media and Technology, announcing the deal in a speech at the MipTV-Milia conference in Cannes.

He added that the iPlayer will also soon be available on television.

The iPlayer on the Wii is currently being tested and the BBC expects to release more test versions in late 2008. An early version of the service is available from 9 April. It is only available in the UK to licence-fee payers.

The iPlayer will be accessible via the internet channel on the Wii console. The BBC said a message would be sent to Wii owners to alert them to its availability.

The news comes as the BBC releases the latest viewing figures for the iPlayer.

In March 2008, more than 17.2 million requests to download or stream BBC programmes were made via the iPlayer. This is up 25% on the previous month and means more than 42 million programmes have been accessed via the iPlayer since its Christmas 2007 launch.
Nintendo's Wii has rapidly become the world's most popular console largely thanks to its innovative motion-sensitive controller.

In the UK it has become the fastest-selling console ever, shifting more than one million units in just 38 weeks after going on sale.

For the BBC to pay for upgrades, does seem abit odd.

Im happy

Lanzarote was brilliant and my work is completed :)

Good news, my holiday was amazing, I just put all my work worries to the back of my head, I knew when I came back, if I put my mind to it, I would get the work done on time, and I did :)

Ready for the other half of my second semester :)

iPhone Users Number One at Mobile Web Surfing

iPhones are the best

Trying to surf the Web on a mobile phone used to be an exercise in futility. Although smart phones have included Web browsing for quite a few years now, it is only recently that mobile Internet speeds and interfaces have improved to the point where accessing the Internet on a mobile phone is practical and enjoyable.

The introduction of the Apple iPhone set a new standard in mobile phone Web browsing, and a new study from M:Metrics reinforces the commonly held assumption that, given a good mobile Internet browser, users will take full advantage of Internet services on their phones.
The study, which followed the phone habits of over 10,000 adults for a period of six months following the iPhone’s release in the US, found that a full 85% of iPhone users access news and other Web content on a regular basis. The study found that users of other smartphones used the mobile Internet considerably less — only 58% surfed the Web regularly from their phone.
The numbers get even worse for users of regular mobile phones, with only 13% regularly surfing the web from their cell phone.

Mobile Internet experts attribute this to the iPhone’s groundbreaking touchscreen interface and intuitive Web browser. And although many new smartphones have attempted to emulate the intuitive iPhone interface, so far none have succeeded in creating a more user-friendly mobile Web surfing experience.

The study by M:Metrics confirms information released by Google in February, indicating that the Google search engine received 50 times as many search requests from Apple iPhones as from any other competing smart phone.

Another contributing factor may be Apple’s partnership with AT&T. The company offers an unlimited data plan, which thousands of iPhone users have taken advantage of. If they’re not paying anything extra for surfing the web heavily on their phone, it stands to reason that users will take advantage of Web content and services more often.

But experts agree that what really separates the iPhone from its competition is the uniqueness of its Web interface, and the simplicity of the phone’s touchscreen. This allows iPhone users to maneuver their way around the web intuitively, and even provides possibilities unheard-of with a desktop PC.

For example, by touching and “pinching” the screen, iPhone users can manipulate web sites in ways a regular desktop or notebook PC cannot. This allows for a slightly different web surfing experience, but one that is not so different that it requires any additional thought. In other words, the iPhone has managed to strike a careful balance between uniqueness and familiarity — something we all want in any new technology.

Nanoparticle Catalyst For More Efficient Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Vehicles

University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Maryland (UM) team has developed a new nanotechnology-driven chemical catalyst that paves the way for more efficient hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.

Writing in this week's Advance Online Publication of Nature Materials, UW-Madison chemical and biological engineering Professor Manos Mavrikakis and UM chemistry and biochemistry Professor Bryan Eichhorn describe a new type of catalyst created by surrounding a nanoparticle of ruthenium (Ru) with one to two layers of platinum (Pt) atoms. The result is a robust room-temperature catalyst that dramatically improves a key hydrogen purification reaction and leaves more hydrogen available to make energy in the fuel cell.

One day, it could be common for fuel cells to create electricity by consuming hydrogen generated from renewable resources. For now, most of the world's hydrogen supply is derived from fossil fuels in a process called reforming.

An important step in this multistage process, called preferential oxidation of CO in the presence of hydrogen (PROX), uses a catalyst to purge hydrogen of carbon monoxide (CO) before it enters the fuel cell. CO presents a major obstacle to the practical application of fuel cells because it poisons the expensive platinum catalyst that runs the fuel cell reaction.

Attractive for transportation applications and as a battery replacement, proton exchange membrane fuel cells generate electricity using porous carbon electrodes containing a platinum catalyst separated by a solid polymer. Hydrogen fuel enters one side of the cell and oxygen enters on the opposite side. Platinum facilitates the production of protons from molecular hydrogen, and these protons cross the membrane to react with oxygen on the other side. The result is electricity with water and heat as byproducts.

A conventionally constructed catalyst combining ruthenium and platinum must be heated to 70 degrees Celsius or 158 degrees Fahrenheit in order to drive the PROX reaction, but the same elements combined as core-shell nanoparticles operate at room temperature. The lower the temperature at which catalyst activates the reactants and makes the products, the more energy is saved.

"We understand why it works," Mavrikakis says. "We know now the reason behind this marvelous behavior. The first reason is the core-cell nanostructure. This polymer-based method developed by my colleagues in Maryland allows the exact amount of an element, in this case platinum, to be placed exactly where you want it to be on specific seeds of ruthenium."

This very specific nano-architecture and composition can sustain significantly less CO on its surface than pure Pt would. Because the binding is weaker, Mavrikakis says fewer sites on the core-cell nanostructure are available to bind with CO than would occur with Pt alone. That leaves empty sites for oxygen to come in and react.

"The second reason is that there is a completely new reaction mechanism that makes this work so well," he says. "We call it hydrogen-assisted CO oxidation. It uses atomic hydrogen to attack molecular oxygen and make a hydroperoxy intermediate, which in turn, easily produces atomic oxygen. Then, atomic oxygen selectively attacks CO to produce CO2, leaving much more molecular hydrogen free to be fed to the fuel cell than pure Pt does."

While the breakthrough is important to the development of fuel-cell technology, the researchers say it's even more significant to catalysis in general.

First, the team, including graduate students Anand Nilekar of UW-Madison and Selim Alayoglu of Maryland, used theory rather than an experimental approach to zero in on ruthenium/platinum as the ideal core shell system.

Second, the nanoscale fabrication of ruthenium and platinum resulted in a different nano-architecture than when ruthenium and platinum are combined in bulk. For the field of catalysis, the pairing of these approaches could bridge the gap between surface science and catalysis opening new paths to novel and more energy-efficient materials discovery for a variety of industrially important chemical processes.

Coursework stress

The week has come for coursework submission...

I'm beginging to feel the stress related to coursework; i'm off for two weeks for mid term break, but it isn't a break at all, so much work to do. Heading to Lanzarote tomorrow, dont think ill be able to enjoy it, knowing ive all this work to do :(

ISPs could face piracy sanctions

Internet service providers must take concrete steps to curb illegal downloads or face legal sanctions, the government has said.

The proposal is aimed at tackling the estimated 6m UK broadband users who download files illegally every year.

The culture secretary said consultation would begin in spring and legislation could be implemented "by April 2009".
Representatives of the recording industry, who blame piracy for a slump in sales, welcomed the proposals.

"ISPs are in a unique position to make a difference and in doing so to reverse a culture of creation-without-reward that has proved so damaging to the whole music community over the last few years," said John Kennedy, head of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

A spokesperson for the Internet Service Provider's Association (ISPA) said that creating appropriate legislation would be very difficult.

"Any scheme has got to be legal, workable and economically sustainable," the spokesperson told BBC News.
He also said that ISPs were already pursuing self-regulation, which was the government's preferred route.

Privacy issue
"The government has no burning desire to legislate," Andy Burnham, culture secretary, told the Financial Times.
However, he said that the proposals signalled "a change of tone from the government".
Its intentions are outlined in a creative industries strategy paper called Creative Britain: New Talents for the New Economy.

The document is a broad ranging paper that sets out government support for the creative industries.

The document commits the government to consulting on anti-piracy legislation this spring "with a view to implementing it by April 2009", according to the FT.
"We're saying we'll consult on legislation, recognising there are practical questions and legitimate issues," Mr Burnham told the paper.

In particular, any legislation would have to take account of the 2002 E-Commerce Regulations that define net firms as "conduits" which are not responsible for the contents of the traffic flowing across their networks.

European laws on online privacy could also create problems for any new legislation.
Earlier this year it was reported that the government was considering a "three strikes" approach to tackling persistent offenders in the report.

But Mr Burnham denied this was the case and told the FT that the strategy had "never been in the paper".

If the government goes ahead, the UK would be one of the first countries to impose sanctions.
"This is a sea-change in attitude and I believe it is now up to governments elsewhere in Europe and further afield to follow their example," said Mr Kennedy.