Disc-Shaped Balloon Could Transport Whole Buildings To Remote Areas

Australian aeronautical firm Skylifter has come up with a better way to transport heavy equipment to remote areas that are beyond the reach of railways, roads and runways – a flying saucer.

This 150 meter-wide disc shaped balloon would be capable of carrying 150 tons, an increase of 700 percent from the maximum 20 tons able to be lifted by existing heavy transport helicopters. Its design provides for more stability – with its flatter profile, it acts less like a sail, making it less susceptible to winds during flights of up to 1240 miles. The disc also behaves as a parachute during descent, ensuring a gentle landing, while the low-hanging control pod keeps it from being too top-heavy.
Skylifter has already built a miniature remote-control version of the disc, named Betty. At three meters across, Betty is capable of carrying slightly more than half a kilo, but her primary function is to show how the design functions. The firm plans to build a full-sized prototype of the balloon over the next three years. If all goes well, before long, Skylifter’s flying saucer could be delivering whole buildings to remote locations, or just acting as a flying hotel.

Surprise- Avaya Joins the War of Tablets

A new Surprise competitor joins the War of Tablets & iPads...Its Avaya this time..Yes, its Avaya..the same phone company thats manufactures your office phones.

Avaya's not a name you generally hear when circling the consumer electronics water cooler, and even though it just introduced a new tablet, you still won't ever see this guy in Target, Best Buy or Walmart. Expected to cost between $1,500 and $2,000, this 11.5-inch enterprise tablet is designed primarily to be used at a cubicle, doubling as a SIP phone and tripling as an office collaboration tool. Dubbed a 'Polycom killer' more than an iPad killer, this unit relies on Aura 6.0 and the newly designed Flare user interface (detailed in the video past the break), which enables touchscreen operation and supports multi-user video calling, email, web browsing and support for Android applications. Specs wise, it's 'slightly thicker than an iPad,' has a trio of USB 2.0 ports, inbuilt WiFi, 3G / 4G WWAN support and an integrated battery for those days when you simply have to clock in from the comfort of Venice Beach. Hit that More Coverage link for a live report at the device's unveiling, and feel free to start hassling your manager to order up a few dozen of these. Or use that money for office-wide raises -- whatever floats your boat.

Avaya intros business-oriented A175 tablet, shows off Flare user interface originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Sep 2010 03:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Video: Military's New Water Guns Can Rip Through Steel, Disabling IEDs

Need to disarm an IED? Make sure you’ve got your Super Soaker handy. Sorry, make that your “Fluid Blade Disablement Tool.”

The Stingray, the military’s newest bomb-fighting tech, is a small water gun developed by Sandia National Laboratories and a firm called TEAM Technologies. Far from dousing roadside bombs with water, it uses an ultra-high-pressure water beam to slice through steel, ripping bombs open before they can harm troops. Watch below as a propane tank meets an untimely end.

The Stingray involves a clear plastic water tank, about the size of a coffee pot, attached to an explosive charge. The detonation creates a shock wave that propels water toward a concave opening in the reservoir, which shapes the water into a blade. The device works at short range and over long distances, according to Sandia Labs.

Its plastic legs can be attached in various configurations so it can be placed almost anywhere to disable bombs. Paul Reynolds, TEAM Technologies’ program manager, said it is simple enough for robots to set up.

Sandia first built the Stingray in 2009 and licensed the technology to Albuquerque-based TEAM Technologies for mass production. Perhaps appropriately, the water gun’s inventors include retired Navy personnel, including a sailor with IED experience and a former Navy SEAL explosives expert.

The water acceleration happens too quickly to be observed by the human eye, so researchers had to use computer simulation and high-speed flash X-rays to fine-tune their design. Active-duty troops visited New Mexico to test the Stingray, according to Sandia Labs.

TEAM Technologies sent its first shipment of about 3,000 Stingrays to Afghanistan this summer.

Shaadi.com Indian Matrimonials

Dell's Inspiron Duo Is a 10" Netbook/Tablet Transformer [Dell]

Boy, did Dell show just off the craziest device on stage at Intel's IDF 2010 day two keynote.

What, pray tell, is this? It's Dell's new Inspiron Duo, a 10' tablet that opens up and twirls its screen to transform itself into a netbook. Craziest of all? They're saying it'll be available before the end of the year.

Dell showed off the crazy little guy, which runs Windows 7 Premium and packs a dual-core Atom N550 processor, at the second day keynote of Intel's IDF conference—you can catch a video of its transformation in action over at Engadget. There's no word if they've made any concessions to make its version of Windows 7 more tablet friendly, but this Inspiron gets kudos for audacity alone. [Engadget]

Why India wants Blackberry to be Banned?

Why? The coding and encryptions used in the email and messenger service in a blackberry is impossible to crack and has become the primary mode of communication for terrorists and high value money lenders.

Details:
Indian threatens to ban Blackberry for security reasons. There are legitimate reasons why the Indian Governments has asked for a ban. 
 The main danger lies in the Email and Messenger services available on a blackberry. Blackberry uses a extremely high level of encryption and coding methods through servers located in Canada and are merely impossible to crack. This high level security has become a concern for Indian Intelligence agencies who believes it has become the primary mode of communication for terrorists and high value money lenders.

On 30th Aug'10 blackberry gets a breather- Indian government has extended its ban for two more months.

Along with india UAE suspects Blackberry to be a spy tool and have plans to ban it by October.

RIM averts BlackBerry ban in India... for now

It was facing an August 31st deadline before India banned BlackBerry service in the country, but it looks like RIM has now managed to avoid that scenario -- at least for a little while. According to India's Ministry of Home Affairs, 'RIM have made certain proposals for lawful access by law enforcement agencies and these would be operationalized immediately,' and that 'the feasibility of the solutions offered would be assessed thereafter.' Details are still a bit light beyond that, but India's assessment will apparently come after 60 days, and there's still no guarantee that we won't end up back at square one at that point. Interestingly, India is also still raising complaints about Gmail and Skype, with it now saying that it wants Google and Skype to set up servers in the country that would give it greater monitoring capabilities.

Future of Screen Technology

Man watches his home being burglarized Live via his iPhone

The Associated Press is reporting the story of a Dallas man who went out of town to visit relatives 1400 miles away in Hartford, Conn. While he was there he got an alert from his iCam app running on his iPhone that motion had been detected in the house -- which turned out to be two intruders trying to get in, and eventually throwing a brick through a glass door to gain access.

He called 911 and the next motion alert he received was the arrival of police officers with guns drawn. It isn't clear from the story if the burglars got away with any loot, but certainly iCam did work and relayed the message to the owner of the house.

We've reviewed iCam before. I use it to keep an eye on the house and pets when I'm away, and for the cost of US $4.99 plus a couple of webcams it really is a great low-cost security system. The software can be set to take a rapid series of still photos when motion is detected, so the police should get some shots of the burglars to help make a case when and if they nab them.


[via the Dallas Morning News]

Facebook Job Postings this Week: Recruiting in India and Seattle, Legal and Online Operations

Facebook has been expanding its business and customer service operations, judging by our review of Facebook’s Career Page and our review of its listings since our story last week. And it has also been featuring its new Seattle engineering office at the top of the Page.

Positions that have been taken down since our post last week include some in the areas of corporate communications, data analytics, recruiting, IT (in India and Palo Alto), an account executive position in Singapore.

Jobs pertaining to online/platform operations are also no longer listed on the Careers Page, a fraud investigator positions was gone and several marketing positions were also absent from the list this week.

Also, the company no longer lists its Director of Global Facilities and Real Estate Management position this week.

It is most likely that these positions have been filled, although it’s possible they were renamed or not filled.

A few new listings this week: Communication designer, content strategist, data analyst-platform, product marketing communications manager-ads, operations managers, sales account managers, build engineer and quantitative business analyst.

Facebook seems to be gearing up for hiring in India, as several new positions for recruiters have been listed in the company’s Hyderabad offices: Lead recruiter, recruiter-contractor and recruiting coordinator-contractor. Facebook is also seeking a contracted recruiting coordinator at its Palo Alto offices.

An administrative assistant position has also been listed in India and a physical security manager position has appeared, which may be because people and equipment are beginning to fill the office.

Online operations positions are opening in Europe and Palo Alto, most of them directed at user and platform operations, and fraud analysis.

New Facebook Photo Album Layout Launching for Everyone, Showing Up to 200 Photos Per Page

Facebook has long said that it is prioritizing engagement over pageviews, and the latest evidence of that has arrived, in the form of its new photo album layout. You can now view up to 200 photos on a single page, ten times the previous 20 photos per page you could see in the previous layout. You don’t need to click through consecutive pages of an album this way, you can just keep scrolling down the page.

The company officially announced the change today (although we and many others have been seeing the change for weeks) and noted a couple other benefits to the new design. One is that additional photos on the page only load as you scroll down, so the change won’t slow down your browser; another is that the thumbnails are slightly larger, making the page easier to browse.

Photos have already been getting some upgrades lately, including the tag-a-friend option and larger sizes, and we expect more to come.