Tech 2008: A platter full of hi-tech gadgets

It is party time for all the tech buffs as there are a heap of things that one can look forward to this New Year.
We live in a scientific age, an age that leads to a future of advanced technology. However, as the year ends, let us speculate on some of the many new technologies the future holds, especially, the year 2008.
Necessity is the mother of invention. And for 2008, Tata's Rs one lakh car might be the innovation in transport. Despite the simplistic design and minimal features, Tata's brainchild zooms ahead with its competitive pricing and economic engine, even as 40 more models get set to enter the market.
Besides a small car revolution, one might just be able to pay for ones car with a wireless telephone, which will be called a mobile phone in the future.
The year 2008 will see the convergence of another technology. Gone are the days when your credit card could be stolen or skimmed. Your cell phone can now make your credit transactions safe and risk free.
As on the cell phone front, Apple’s iphone and the google phone get set to land on Indian shores, the cell phone wars will escalate to announce one clear winner for 2008, which is the customer.
While online social networks plan to interlink, allowing you to jump from one community to another, individuals and large companies spend an increasing part of their days on virtual worlds, like second life.
As the common man looks to a virtual world, the country's scientists look to the skies, as they prepare to launch the moon rover Chandrayaan - 1, the first Indian spacecraft to land on the moon.
Little wonder then that the technology of the future, is history in the making.

Nature names Pachauri Newsmaker of the Year

International climate change campaigner R K Pachauri of India figures on the cover page of Nature, and the highly regarded science magazine has named him as its 'Newsmaker of the Year'.
The magazine, published from Britain, in its latest issue said: "Nature is pleased to name Rajendra Pachauri, the Indian engineer and economist, and chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as our inaugural Newsmaker of the Year."
In its editorial, the magazine wrote that science, like history, is forged by individuals - even though both are forged on the back of a past whose inhabitants may have faded into anonymity.
"But the contribution of this year's winner to scientific affairs can be celebrated without reservation. Rajendra Pachauri's great strength is in building and organizing institutions in the fields he understands best - engineering and economics as they apply to issues of development.
"In that area, he has enjoyed a success that reflects his calm, yet fiercely driven personality. Over two decades he has built TERI, the Delhi-based energy and resources institute that he runs, into an organization with offices around the world and several hundred staff. And in the past five years, he has chaired the great collaboration that is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)," the authoritative science magazine of the world elaborated.

The weekly science magazine underlined the successful stint of Pachauri as IPCC chief and thus giving IPCC a best reward - Nobel Peace Prize of the year.
The magazine said protecting the vulnerable from the threat of climate change is about changing what we all do, and that requires political action as well as changes in personal behaviour.
"But collective action has a positive and uplifting side, too. The IPCC is a case in point. Its members have sacrificed time that they would rather have spent on new research to do something for the world at large. Their endless meetings and discussions, their intellectual clashes and warm mutual understandings, have produced an unparalleled catalogue of reliable knowledge - and authoritative assessments of remaining ignorance - on a scientific matter of utmost public concern.
"To produce something that the hundreds of authors can be proud of, and in which the nations of the world have all, to some extent, invested their trust, is no mean thing. The IPCC's collective efforts span decades. But the person sitting in the chair at its hour of greatest achievement so far is Rajendra Pachauri, and we salute him," it declared.

Amitabh Bachchan's mother Teji passes away

Actor Amitabh Bachchan's 93-year-old mother Teji Bachchan passed away on Friday due to ill-health.
She had been in and out of Lilavati Hospital over the past one year for various ailments.
On November 7, Teji Bachchan was shifted to the intensive care unit of Lilavati Hospital. Her condition was reported to be critical and a spokesperson for the hospital said her health had suddenly worsened.
Amitabh Bachchan's son Abhishek's high-profile wedding to actor and former beauty queen Aishwarya Rai in February this year had been kept low key due to Teji Bachchan's

ICICI to implement SSL certificates for data protection

India’s largest private sector banks ICICI Bank on Thursday selected NASDAQ-listed Entrust Inc to provide standard SSL certificates.
This would enable protection of customer data when conducting transactions on the institution's website.
As part of the agreement, ICICI Bank standardised on SSL certificates for a five-year contract period, Entrust Inc said in a release.
"ICICI Bank understands the value of providing a trusted environment that helps protect against online fraud schemes," PTI quoted Entrust Chairman Bill Conner.
Implementation of cost-effective SSL certificates would help the bank to address fraud and better serve the needs of their overall security approach, he added.

Based on their current purchase, they have the ability to upgrade to extended validation SSL certificates when the time is right, he added.
Acting as a centrally-managed, self-service system, the Certificate Management Service reduces administrative hassles and lessens the risk of inadvertent certificate expiration by allowing customers to synchronise and control the timing of SSL certificate expiration, it added.
ICICI Bank which has a total assets of $92 billion offers a wide range of banking products and financial services to corporate and retail customers through a variety of delivery channels.
It has a network of about 950 branches and 3,300 ATMs in India and presence in 17 countries.

Al-Qaida email threatens terror at Delhi HC, Taj

The Delhi High Court on Thursday said it received a threatening email from terrorist outfit al-Qaida a few days after the serial blasts in Uttar Pradesh district courts last month.
According to court sources, the email was forwarded to the Home Ministry following which the security in the High Court was beefed up.
Delhi Police, which has taken the threat seriously and intensified security, has launched an investigation to trace the culprits and check the authenticity of the email.
According to court sources, the Delhi High Court's security department received the email about 10 days ago.
Refusing to disclose the contents of the email, the sources said it had issued threats to the High Court, Parliament and the Taj Mahal in Agra.

Denying the receipt of any fresh threat mail, they said a meeting of the Delhi Police officers as well as court officials has been convened on Thursday.
Delhi Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Karnal Singh and senior police officials reviewed security arrangements at both the courts.
Staff in the court complexes was asked to remain in uniform and wear identity cards. Directions were issued to allow nobody inside the premises without the necessary passes and a mandatory security check-up. Metal detectors were also put in place.
"We have taken unprecedented security measures and are fully prepared. Bomb disposal squads and dog squads have been put on high alert. Additional police personnel have been deployed around the Supreme Court and high court premises," a police official told IANS on the condition of anonymity.

Cops offer $5k for credible info on LSU murders

US Police have offered a USD 5,000 reward for credible information about the killers of two Indian doctoral students at Louisiana State University, as tips poured in after the release of sketches of two suspects.
Earlier on Thursday, the police had released the sketches of two men wanted for questioning in the murder of two Indian students in the university campus, after meeting the Indian diplomats.
The sketches were made from descriptions given by witnesses who saw two people around the apartment.
They were seen hurriedly leaving the apartment complex in a car with one or two other people, police said, adding the sketches were available for download at http://www.lsu.edu/pa/photos.
According to the police, "All indications so far are that the suspects were looking for someone to rob when they killed the two victims".

One of the men, believed to have been the driver of the car, was a black male estimated to be in his 20's, they said.
"His hair was done in twists in rows. He was wearing a white hooded sweatshirt," police said.
The second man, wearing a white long sleeve shirt with a high collar and dark jeans, is also allegedly a black male in his 20's, possibly even over 30, 5'8"-5'10" tall, with a muscular build and a receding hairline, they said.
They are believed to have left in an older model, light-coloured Oldsmobile Alero.
It is believed that one of the victims was spotted arriving at the apartment complex and was followed to the other victim's apartment, where both men were killed.
Police have not yet released the descriptions of other two men involved in the crime.
The suspects were seen on the complex property at 9:00 pm on the night of December 13th, and may have been in the general area or on property even earlier.
Kiran Kumar Allam (33) and Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma (31), both resident of Andhra Pradesh, were shot dead on Thursday last at the Edward Gay Apartments on the edge of the LSU campus. They were pursuing doctoral degrees at LSU and the apartment belonged to Allam.

Zoo tigress attacks visitor, severs hand

A man's excursion to the zoo here along with his family turned into a tragedy when he was killed by a tigress after crossing the barrier and went near the animal's enclosure this afternoon to take photographs.
Zoo divisional forest officer Narayan Mahanta said 50-year-old Jai Prakash Bezbarua, who had gone to the zoo with his family, had crossed the line outside the enclosure for tigers from where visitors see the animals at Assam State Zoo.
He gave a slip to the guards on duty, who had stopped him from venturing near the barrier, and crossed to reach the last level from where the iron grills start to take photographs of tigers basking in the sun, he said.
As soon as the man put his hand inside the iron grill with his camera, the tigress, named 'Divya', caught it and was immediately joined by another tiger 'Gobardhan'.
Together, they severed Bezbarua's hand from his shoulder within a few seconds. Bezbaruah was rushed to Guwahati Medical College Hospital