Tata buys Jaguar Land Rover for $2.3 billion

Ford has issued a press release confirming that it has sold both Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors for an approximate price of $2.3 billion, which comes under some numbers as high as $2.65 billion that were being tossed around yesterday. The rumor that Ford will contribute to pension funds associated with the brands is also true, as it confirmed that $600 million will be dropped into the retirement coffers of the brands once the deal closes. It is, of course, subject to regulatory approval in a number of countries, but the automaker expects the deal to be done by the end of the following quarter. As part of the deal, Ford will continue to supply powertrains, stampings and other unnamed vehicle components to Tata for "differing periods", as well as R&D research, environmental and platform technologies, and even accounting services, among others. Clearly the ties that bind Jaguar Land Rover to Ford are strong and will take some time to undo. Judging from the press release, it seems all parties involved, including the employees of Jaguar Land Rover, are pleased with how the deal went down, and for the time being both brands will be run business as usual during the transition period.
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10 Tips and Tricks for Private BitTorrent Sites

The first thing to notice when you join a private BitTorrent site is the eye-popping quality of the torrents. Each one is carefully culled, hand-picked through a strict moderation process. However, before you start hammering away on that download link - here are a few things you need to know.

On private torrent sites, everything revolves around ratios. A 1:1 ratio (or 1.0) means that you’ve downloaded exactly the same amount of data as you’ve uploaded. Thus a 0.80 ratio indicates that you’ve uploaded less than you’ve downloaded, which is hurtful to the health of the torrent. Inversely, a 3.0 ratio means you’ve uploaded 3 times more data than you’ve downloaded. Strive to achieve at least a 1.0 ratio - each site will have specific consequences for members who maintain a ratio of less than this. Attain a ratio over 1.0 and the rewards shall follow you into the P2P afterlife.

If you’re brand-new to a private site, it will be difficult in the beginning to acquire a 1.0 ratio. Luckily, users are given a ‘grace’ period to achieve this. Since there are so many more seeds than leechers (a total flip-flop from public BT sites), it becomes harder to upload to others - due to the fact that there are fewer people to share with.

So why go through all the trouble to keep an honest ratio? Because deep down, you’re an upstanding denizen of file-sharing society! Aside from that shameless pat-on-the-back, good ratios offer many perks, including an upgraded account on the tracker (i.e. VIP status), higher download speeds, free “invites” for your friends, and no waiting periods associated with accounts in arrears.

Here are Ten Tips to get your ratio in top-shape as fast as possible:

1. Start out with Smaller Files

Initially, opt for smaller (i.e. under 1 GB) files for downloading. This gives you a greater chance of someone coming along after you and downloading the same torrent (and you’ll be able to upload to them). Obviously a 700MB movie file will be more appealing to other site members than a 30GB ‘Blu-Ray’ rip.

2. Jump on the ‘Newly Released’ torrents

This is a great tip for increasing your ratio in a hurry. Camp out in your favorite private BT site, and refresh the torrent listings frequently. Newly added entries will have many more leechers than seeds, so you’ll be able to share (upload) more data. To maximize this tip, select smaller files - the “TV Episode” category works great for this.

3. Select Files that have a High ‘L’ or upload number

This is important. When selecting torrents, base your initial selections on a high number of leechers (the more, the better). This will ensure you have many avenues to upload to during (and after) the transfer. When starting out on a new private BT site, we would even go so far as to say that you should download torrents that you don’t want - just start grabbing torrents that have lots of leechers. Once your ratio get over the 1:1 (1.0) mark, delete them.

TIP: If one of your seeding torrents remains popular, leave it running in µtorrent permanently. This will always help to boost your upload ratio.

4. Avoid ‘Zero-Leech’ torrents

When you’re new to a private site, steer clear of the ‘zero-leech’ torrents - it is impossible to increase your share ratio when there are no other downloaders. When viewing a list of torrents, look for the “Leecher” column (or just “L”) and avoid anything that has a zero ( “0″ ) in it. After your account ratio has become relatively stable, now is the time to snag whatever you want.

5. Leave some tasks running in uTorrent

After the completed download of a torrent, leave the task running (as a seed) in µtorrent to increase your upload statistics. Don’t delete (or move) the files of a running task! You can, however, extract (unRAR) the files, or copy the files from one place to the next. In the event of a movie/video file - you’ll be able to “burn” or “extract” the *.avi file (or even play it on the PC) without affecting the seeding torrent.

TIP: Always keep a few things running as ’seeds’ in your BT client. If you notice that they aren’t uploading, replace them with newer ones.

6. Go for the ‘Freebie’ downloads

Many private sites will offer “free” torrents that won’t count against your download statistics (thus, your ratio will remain unchanged). Grab these freebies - especially when searching for torrents on a new account.

7. Use ‘Credits’ to purchase…

A popular feature among superior private BitTorrent sites is the addition of a ‘credits’ feature for account holders. Credits can be used to ‘purchase’ VIP status, increased sharing ratios and other perks. Not all sites are the same, but some credits can be acquired just from staying active in their IRC channel, or from just having the torrents available for download in your BT client.

8. Do NOT try to ‘cheat’ the Private Trackers

There are a variety of ratio cheating tips available out there, but don’t be tempted. Trackers are fairly sophisticated and ever-evolving. If you get caught cheating, you won’t even be warned - it’s a permanent ban for you and bye-bye for good.

9. Set a proper Upload Limit

Setting a proper upload limit in the BT client makes all the difference! You’ll want to supply a high enough limit to maximize uploading, but not have it eat into your download bandwidth. The general rule is to set it at 80 - 85% of your upload limit. To figure this out, visit www.speedtest.net and conduct the simple test. Results are shown in kilobits, so divide the result by 1/8 and then multiply that by 0.85. This will give you the proper number in KB/s (KiloBytes).

In µtorrent, go to OPTIONS > Preferences… > Connection and enter your upload rate. Click “Apply” and then “OK” to save the changes. While your in that same ’settings’ page, make sure to use a port number from the good list (e.g. 49152 - 65535).

10. And if all else fails…donate

Most sites allow for monetary contributions to keep up with the server costs. If you enjoy a particular site immensely but cannot seem to be able to approach a decent sharing ratio (due to turning off your computer at night, going to work, or sharing your computer with your kids, wife, husband or siblings), think about donating. In most cases even a not-so-generous gratuity will robustly affect your account status - plus you’ll feel good about helping out the BitTorrent community.

Other Tips - Follow ‘The Rules’

Yeah, we know: you hate rules! That’s why you probably moved out of your parents’ basement. Rules are probably why some turned to P2P.

Nevertheless, rules are an important aspect to private BT sites - they ensure healthy torrents and blazing-fast download speeds for all. Each site will have their “rules” posted - the link is usually not hard to find. Below are some general rules / tips that pertain to any private BitTorrent site:

Use an ‘Accepted’ BitTorrent client

Not all private trackers are the same - and each one has different rules in regards to which BitTorrent client is on the “allowable” list. Most sites recommend µtorrent, but only specific versions (or builds) of it. If you stick with v1.6.1 or the latest version v1.7.7 (recommended), you can’t go wrong with ANY private site (avoid any versions in between these numbers). And do not use BitComet on private trackers.

Proper BitTorrent client configuration:

Many trackers recommend that you disable DHT and Peer Exchange (PEX) in your BT client’s settings. To do this in µtorrent, go to OPTIONS > Preferences… > and select the BitTorrent tab. Remove the three checkmarks that pertain to DHT and PEX (see image below):

Do not ‘Hit & Run’ a Private BT site:

A ‘Hit & Run’ (or H&R) is when someone joins a private tracker, and downloads as much as they can before making off without uploading to a proper ratio. While this practice is frowned upon even on public sites such as mininova.org, it is deplorable to private sites. This can (and sometimes will) lead to your IP address being banned from the site - forever.

Stick within these guidelines for HAPPY Torrenting!

Set Up Dynamic DNS

If you have a home broadband connection, odds are you have a dynamic IP address -- one that changes every so often. This is fine until you feel the need to connect to your home computer from somewhere outside your house. Without a constant, static, never-changing IP address, you don't have a reliable way to find your home computer on the internet.

Why would you want to do such a thing? There are many possibilities. Maybe you want to make a Remote Desktop connection to your grandma's computer to help her find a document she lost. Or maybe you want to stream music from your home media server to your office across town. Using Dynamic DNS, you can do anything that would normally require a static IP address without paying the extra monthly fees your broadband provider would usually charge for such a service.

A Little Explanation

In order to communicate with a server on the Internet, you can either memorize its IP address or use a convenient domain name, like Wired.com. The Domain Name System (DNS) maintains a constantly updated database of which names correspond to which numeric addresses. Any query to Wired.com checks first with a DNS server to find out Wired.com's IP address.

That works well for servers that keep the same IP address forever, but it's a problem for servers hosted on a home broadband connection, which typically get new "dynamic" IP addresses frequently -- some as often as once per hour, but most get a new address at least once per day. That makes your home server a moving target and messes up the normal one-to-one mapping between domain names and IP addresses. If Wired.com's IP address changed like that, the site would disappear from the web after every change, since the central DNS database would not be informed about the new IP address.

The solution to that is dynamic DNS, a setup whereby your server itself keeps an eye on what its current IP address is, and notifies the DNS provider when it changes.

Dynamic DNS

Dynamic DNS is a service offered by a variety of third-party providers. The provider keeps track of its clients' frequently-changing IP addresses, and updates their central DNS records for them whenever necessary. A small piece of software on the user's computer checks at regular intervals whether the computer's dynamic IP address has changed, and if it has, gives the new address to the dynamic DNS provider, which updates its status.

To avail yourself of this, you'll need to register with a free provider of dynamic DNS, such as DynDNS. There are many other dynamic DNS providers, and a list is maintained at http://www.technopagan.org/dynamic/.

How To Set It Up

1. Create an account with a provider. Go to DynDNS.com, create a username and password, wait for the authentication email, and log in.

2. From DynDNS's Account Services page, select Add Host Services, then Add Dynamic DNS Host.

3. DynDNS gives you a choice from several dozen domain names, like homedns.org and is-a-geek.net. Pick one of these, and then come up with your own subdomain, so you have a unique hostname like bobby.is-a-geek.net or nowive.gotdns.com. This will be the hostname that the world will know you by. You can leave the IP address field blank, since it'll be filled in automatically later.

Tip: If you select Wildcard, then any arbitrary prefix -- i.dont.agree.that.bobby.is-a-geek.net, for instance -- will point to your server as well.

4. A tool running on your server will keep DynDNS apprised of its IP address. Download and install one that's appropriate to your server's operating system from https://www.dyndns.com/support/clients. You'll have to configure it with the name of your server and a method of checking for changes to the IP address. Keep it running in the background, and you'll always have access to your computer's services.

Virginia Tech students create "smart" brake lights for cars

Virginia Tech students create "smart" brake lights for cars

It's only taken about a million years, but someone has finally decided that improvements are possible in automobile braking lights. Students from Virginia Tech have developed a new system that can show not just whether you're stopping, but if you're slowing down, when you're about to stop, and how quickly you're pressing the pedal. The concept uses an array of horizontally arranged LED lights -- when you begin to slow, lights in the center glow orange, after a certain threshold side lights turn to red, and if you're slamming on the brake, they'll all flash red. The team, led by mechanical engineering Professor Mehdi Ahmadian, has plans for the system beyond the lab, though they speculate that it will be easier to add them as additional indicators on commercial vehicles at first. If this pans out, someday soon we may all be tailgating a totally psychedelic light show.

Continue reading here.

AMD announces tri-core, tweaked quad-core Phenoms CPUs

AMD has formally unwrapped its three-core Phenom X3 8000 series, along with new versions of its existing quad-core Phenom X4 processors, now known as the 9050 line.

The three-core Phenom X3s, first announced back in September 2007 just ahead of AMD arch-rival Intel's bi-annual Developer Forum, are detailed just before the next IDF is due to kick off in Shanghai.

The initial line comprises the 2.1GHz 8400 and the 2.3GHz 8600, but AMD's launch presentation also detailed their successors: the 2.1GHz 8450, the 2.3GHz 8650 and the 2.4GHz 8750.
AMD said the 8450 and 8650 will be priced at, respectively, $160 and $180 when sold in batches of 1000 CPUs - pretty much what the 8400 and 8600 chips cost. The processors have 1.5MB of L2, 512KB per core, and 2MB of shared L3 cache.

Interestingly, AMD's benchmarks show the 8650 forecast to outperform the current, 2.3GHz X4 9600 by a couple of percentage points and the 2.3GHz 8600 by just over nine per cent. The 2.3GHz 9650 is eight per cent faster than the 9600.

That's the the improved 'B3' core stepping, a feature of the 9x50 and 8x50 CPUs, coming into play. The B3 X3s are expected in May, so there's arguably little point jumping straight to the 8400 and the 8600. AMD insisted the older core was "perfectly fine".

AMD also took the wraps off the 2.2GHz 9550, the 2.3GHz 9650, the 2.4GHz 9750 and the 2.5GHz 9850. Like the X3s, these X4s consume up to 95W of power and almost all of them sit on a 3.6GHz HyperTransport bus. The exception is the 9850, which has a bus clocked at 4GHz. It's also a 'Black Edition' part, aimed at gamers and unlocked for overclocking.

AMD announced the 9100e, a 1.8GHz four-core part that consumes 65W. Like the other new X4s, it has 2MB of L2 - again, 512KB per core - and 2MB of shared L3 cache. It runs on a 3.6GHz HT bus.

The part's pitched at media centre systems, and AMD claimed it was the "only 65W TDP quad-core processor on the market"

The 9550 will cost $199, the 9750 $240 and the 9850 $260, AMD said.

The chip maker also mentioned the existing 3GHz dual-core Athlon X2 6000+, which was handy because the old processor manages to out-perform the 8650 and 8450 in certain AMD-run benchmarks, including MPEG 2 to MPEG 4 video transcoding, and generating a slideshow movie from a stack of JPEG photos.
Actually, AMD's presentation slide covering the latter test doesn't mention the three-core part at all - presumably because the comparison with the 6000+ is not flattering. The video test has the 6000+ down as three per cent faster than the 8650.

To be fair, the 8650 is 27 per cent faster than the 6000+ at converting an "HD video file" to a mobile screen-sized MPEG 4 file.

Where did viruses come from?

Ed Rybicki, a virologist at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, answers:

Tracing the origins of viruses is difficult because they don't leave fossils and because of the tricks they use to make copies of themselves within the cells they've invaded. Some viruses even have the ability to stitch their own genes into those of the cells they infect, which means studying their ancestry requires untangling it from the history of their hosts and other organisms. What makes the process even more complicated is that viruses don't just infect humans; they can infect basically any organism—from bacteria to horses; seaweed to people.

Still, scientists have been able to piece together some viral histories, based on the fact that the genes of many viruses—such as those that cause herpes and mono—seem to share some properties with cells' own genes. This could suggest that they started as big bits of cellular DNA and then became independent—or that these viruses came along very early in evolution, and some of their DNA stuck around in cells' genomes. The fact that some viruses that infect humans share structural features with viruses that infect bacteria could mean that all of these viruses have a common origin, dating back several billion years. This highlights another problem with tracing virus origins: most modern viruses seem to be a patchwork of bits that come from different sources—a sort of "mix and match" approach to building an organism.

The fact that viruses like the deadly Ebola and Marburg viruses, as well as the distantly related viruses that cause measles and rabies, are only found in a limited number of species suggests that those viruses are relatively new—after all, those organisms came along somewhat recently in evolutionary time. Many of these "new" viruses likely originated in insects many million years ago and at some point in evolution developed the ability to infect other species—probably as insects interacted with or fed from them.

HIV, which is thought to have first emerged in humans in the 1930s, is another kind of virus, known as a retrovirus. These simple viruses are akin to elements found in normal cells that have the ability to copy and insert themselves throughout the genome. There are a number of viruses that have a similar way of copying themselves—a process that reverses the normal flow of information in cells, which is where the term "retro" comes from—and their central machinery for replication may be a bridge from the original life-forms on this planet to what we know as life today. In fact, we carry among our genes many "fossilized" retroviruses—left over from the infection of distant ancestors—which can help us trace our evolution as a species.

Then there are the viruses whose genomes are so large that scientists can't quite figure out what part of the cell they would have come from. Take, for instance, the largest-ever virus so far discovered, mimivirus: its genome is some 50 times larger than that of HIV and is larger than that of some bacteria. Some of the largest known viruses infect simple organisms such as amoebas and simple marine algae. This indicates that they may have an ancient origin, possibly as parasitic life-forms that then adapted to the "virus lifestyle." In fact, viruses may be responsible for significant episodes of evolutionary change, especially in more complex types of organisms.

At the end of the day, however, despite all of their common features and unique abilities to copy and spread their genomes, the origins of most viruses may remain forever obscure.

11 Button Multimedia mouse does more than just click

How many buttons does your mouse have? Many people would say three, while plenty of others might say five. However, if you were using this next mouse, you’d proudly answer with 11. I can understand using a few extra buttons when gaming, or even for multimedia purposes, however, this 11 Button Multimedia Mouse just seems like overkill.

It looks like there are buttons for volume, play/pause, page forward, page backward, internet and even double-click. I’ve really never found it all that difficult to click on the Firefox icon, but I guess it would save you around a second or so of hard work. However, I can’t possibly understand why someone would need a button to double click for them. You’d think it would take more time and effort to train yourself to press the double click button than just click the left mouse button twice. If you need more buttons on your mouse than your keyboard, you can pick this one up for just $14.99.

Which one u have ? -leave comments

How to Get Free Support and Help from Microsoft for Installing Windows Vista SP1 Problems

Facing problems and errors while installing Windows Vista SP1? Well, help is on the way. Microsoft will provides free support and technical help for all problems and issues when installing Windows Vista SP1. The unlimited installation and compatibility support is available at no charge until March 18, 2009.
Normally, only customers who bought the retail product at higher price are eligible for free technical support and help from Microsoft. For the purpose of Windows Vista SP1 installation, all users of Windows Vista who wants to install the service pack and faces problems or errors, including users who get their copy of Windows Vista due to buying computer product from original equipment manufacturer (OEM), can get help directly from Microsoft.

The move to offer free support signifies the many errors that Windows Vista users face since the release of Windows Vista, and more recently, causing infinite and endless reboot loop on Windows Vista computer when attempts to roll out a pre-requisite update for Windows Vista SP1 via Windows Update. Not to mention more annoying application compatibility issue after upgrading to SP1.

More helps on Windows Vista SP1 can be found on Windows Vista Solution Center. All support requests on installing Windows Vista SP1 and its compatibility issues can be sent via email or online chat on Microsoft Help and Support site. E-mail support will be answered within response time of 24 hours, while individual online chat support, which only available from 5am to midnight Pacific Time on weekdays, and 6am to 6pm Pacific Time on weekends, has a waiting time of about 40 minutes.

For customers on Software Assurance Agreement, Professional Contract, TechNet Subscription, MSDN Subscription and Microsoft Partner Program (MSPP) licensing arrangement can also call (866) 234-6020 or (800) 892-5234 (TTY/TDD help requests with cost involves) from 5am to 9pm Pacific Time on weekdays and 6am to 3pm Pacific Time on weekends to get free unlimited support requests.

Microsoft said support will be handled on a case-by-case basis, and the user will always be advised if costs are involved, and whether enterprise customers will also receive support without cost will depend on their agreement.

NVIDIA drivers responsible for nearly 30% of Vista crashes in 2007

That huge bundle of damning emails and documents Microsoft produced as part of the Vista-capable lawsuit is full of fascinating information about how the company developed, planned, and launched Vista, but the latest juicy nugget to come out if it suggests that a lot of problems faced by the troubled operating system are actually NVIDIA's fault -- nearly 30% of logged Vista crashes were due to NVIDIA driver problems, according to Microsoft data included in the bundle. That's some 479,326 hung systems, if you're keeping score at home, and it's in first place by a large margin -- Microsoft clocks in at number two at 17.9 percent, and ATI is fourth with 9.3 percent. Now, the chart doesn't contain a ton of additional information that would help put it in context -- a specific time period in 2007 would be nice, as would and driver and OS versions -- but we've been hearing about NVIDIA issues with Vista from the start, and this seems to confirm it. So that's pressure by Intel to support incompatible chipsets, outrage by Dell and Wal-Mart that the Vista Capable program was confusing customers, Microsoft executives saying they had been "personally burnt" by Vista, and now what looks like a huge NVIDIA driver problem -- who knows what else is going to come out of this lawsuit? At this point we're half expecting a photo of Gates signing a Save XP petition.

Where to find great ideas and arresting images (for free)

If you need photos for a presentation or website or brochure, try Flickr.

Go to advanced search, choose Creative Commons Commercial license and search away. The breadth is extraordinary, but what will amaze you is the quality. And the license is a generous gift from the photographer to you.

Another tip: when you are trying to brainstorm, Flickr is a great place to find connections between ideas that hadn't occurred to you. Even if you don't use the picture, the ideas are priceless. Do a search on lobster or clouds or crowds or quality and see what comes up.

Two last thoughts: be sure to check out the HDR images, and don't forget to sort by "Most Interesting."