Wednesday, April 30, 2014

How to Eliminate Debt with a Personal Loan

How to Eliminate Debt with a Personal Loan

There are many ways to allocate the funds you obtain under the terms of a personal loan. Among the most popular uses for such loans is to eliminate debt. A personal loan offers a good alternative for individuals who are struggling to have monthly payments on too many accounts. The idea is to fix such debt with
Read more ...

Debt Management for Personal Loans

Debt Management for Personal Loans
Personal loans may offer individuals a way to accept the funds for an array of usages. A few are requirement while other people are for absolute enjoyment. It's important that you look at the financial obligation that attaches to personal loans. Too much, individuals approach money quickly then struggle to pay back it. If you do not have
Read more ...

How to saving money for marriages

How to saving money for marriages

Most newly-married couples are having a hard time adjusting to a different way of life, especially when it concerns financial matters.  As apart individuals, your spending habits will differ. These is why you both require to make certain adjustments to combine
Read more ...

How to take the Best Health Insurance for You

How to take the Best Health Insurance for You

No matter how avidly you take care of your health, there are unexpected conditions that can land you a day or two in the hospital. If you're not prepared and you don't have enough health insurance coverage, this could cut off a good deal with your savings. Therefore, it's really important that you take the best health insurance plan that
Read more ...

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Nokia and Intel to Work Together on Mobile Computing

Nokia and Intel to Work Together on Mobile Computing

Intel and Nokia said Tuesday that they planned to jointly create mobile computing products that would meld the features of phones and computers.

Exactly what Intel and Nokia intend to do together remained unclear. Executives from the companies at a news conference only pledged to produce mobile devices that will have Internet access and run on Intel chips.



“We are exploring new ideas in shapes, sizes, materials and displays,” Kai Oistamo, an executive vice president at Nokia, said during the news conference. In an interview, he added, “We are not committing to any schedules or concrete product plans at this time.”

When asked directly, Mr. Oistamo declined even to confirm that Nokia would make phones using Intel’s Atom processors as a result of the deal.

Talk of merging cellphones and PCs has become commonplace from both personal computer and phone companies. “We are going to see a proliferation of devices, and you can call them whatever you want,” said Rebecca Runkle, the managing director at Research Edge, an equities analysis company. “Some of them are going to fail miserably, and some will be massive home runs that we can’t even envision yet.”

The lack of specific details around the Intel and Nokia announcement left analysts perplexed about the strength of the relationship. “It all sounds great, but without any content or timelines on products, it’s hard to go with just ‘trust us,’ ” said Ms. Runkle.

Intel and Nokia have as much to gain or lose from this new era of products as any other technology companies. Based in Santa Clara, Calif., Intel sells the vast majority of chips that go into PCs and computer servers. Meanwhile, Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland, produces the most cellphones.

Intel has spent the last couple of years pouring money into Atom, a chip that it hopes will secure a prominent place for the company in the cellphone market. The company’s past efforts to crack the cellphone business have failed, and most smartphones today run on a rival chip architecture called ARM. The bet on smartphones is meant to carry Intel into a higher-growth market and keep it at the center of computing.

While Nokia has done well in the smartphone market, it was caught off guard by the success of Apple’s iPhone. In particular, Apple has managed to build intense software developer interest in its phone through the App Store, and the more traditional phone makers are trying to catch up with their own software stores.

Beyond devices, Intel and Nokia plan to develop software for cellphones centered on the open-source Linux operating system. Intel has invested heavily in a version of Linux for phones called Moblin, and this month it paid $884 million to acquire Wind River Systems, which makes versions of Linux that can sit on top of chips inside things like cars and consumer electronics products.


Read more ...

The first definitive evidence of shorelines on Mars

The first definitive evidence of shorelines on Mars

space.com – Thu Jun 18, 9:30 am ET

Several studies in recent years have claimed evidence for shorelines and other features that suggest ancient lakes on Mars. Firm evidence has remained elusive.

Now a University of Colorado at Boulder research team claims "the first definitive evidence of shorelines on Mars" in a statement released today.

The scientists see signs of "a deep, ancient lake," which would have implications for the potential for past life on Mars. Life as we know it requires water, and while Mars is dry now, if there was abundant water in the past -- as many studies have suggested -- then life would have been a possibility. There is, however, no firm evidence that life does or ever did exist on the red planet.


Researchers estimate the lake existed more than 3 billion years ago. It covered as much as 80 square miles and was up to 1,500 feet deep -- roughly the equivalent of Lake Champlain bordering the United States and Canada, said Gaetano Di Achille, who led the study out of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The shoreline evidence, found along a broad delta, included a series of alternating ridges and troughs thought to be surviving remnants of beach deposits.

"This is the first unambiguous evidence of shorelines on the surface of Mars," Di Achille said. "The identification of the shorelines and accompanying geological evidence allows us to calculate the size and volume of the lake, which appears to have formed about 3.4 billion years ago."

The findings have been published online in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

Other studies have claimed evidence for lakes on Mars too, however, including one in Holden Crater announced last year.

And several studies have found evidence -- from possible shorelines to salty deposits indicating the evaporation of water -- for shallow lakes or oceans. Ancient Mars had abundant water, many lines of evidence indicate.

Images used for the study were taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

An analysis of the images indicates water carved a 30-mile-long canyon that opened up into a valley, depositing sediment that formed a large delta, the researchers conclude. This delta and others surrounding the basin imply the existence of a large, long-lived lake, said Hynek, also an assistant professor in CU-Boulder's geological sciences department. The presumed lake bed is located within a much larger valley known as the Shalbatana Vallis.

"Finding shorelines is a Holy Grail of sorts to us," said Brian Hynek, also of CU-Boulder.

In addition, the evidence shows the lake existed during a time when Mars is generally believed to have been cold and dry, which is at odds with current theories proposed by many planetary scientists, he said. "Not only does this research prove there was a long-lived lake system on Mars, but we can see that the lake formed after the warm, wet period is thought to have dissipated."

Further research will be needed to sort out the discrepancies, however.

Planetary scientists think the oldest surfaces on Mars formed during the wet and warm Noachan epoch from about 4.1 billion to 3.7 billion years ago that featured a bombardment of large meteors and extensive flooding. The newly discovered lake is believed to have formed during the Hesperian epoch and postdates the end of the warm and wet period on Mars by 300 million years, according to the study.

The deltas adjacent to the lake are of high interest to planetary scientists because deltas on Earth rapidly bury organic carbon and other biomarkers of life, Hynek said. Most astrobiologists believe any present indications of life on Mars will be discovered in the form of subterranean microorganisms.

But in the past, lakes on Mars would have provided cozy surface habitats rich in nutrients for such microbes, Hynek said.

The retreat of the lake apparently was rapid enough to prevent the formation of additional, lower shorelines, Di Achille said. The lake probably either evaporated or froze over with the ice slowly turning to water vapor and disappearing during a period of abrupt climate change, according to the study.

Di Achille said the newly discovered pristine lake bed and delta deposits would be would be a prime target for a future landing mission to Mars in search of evidence of past life.

"On Earth, deltas and lakes are excellent collectors and preservers of signs of past life," said Di Achille. "If life ever arose on Mars, deltas may be the key to unlocking Mars' biological past."

Read more ...

NTSB: Train in DC crash should have been replaced

WASHINGTON – Crews dismantled the wreckage Tuesday from a subway train collision that killed nine people and injured scores of others in the nation's capital, and a federal investigator revealed an old train involved in the crash should have been replaced because of safety concerns.

The Metrorail transit system kept the old trains running despite warnings in 2006, said Debbie Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board. It wasn't immediately clear what caused the crash and whether age played a role in the rush-hour collision Monday.

The crash sent more than 70 people to hospitals. Metro officials said two men and seven women, all adults, were killed.

Mayor Adrian Fenty said at an earlier news conference that seven people were killed and he hoped the death toll did not climb any higher.

Hersman said investigators expect to recover recorders from a newer train that was stopped along the tracks waiting for another to clear the station ahead. But the old train that barreled down the tracks and triggered the collision was part of aging fleet and not equipped with the devices, which can provide valuable information on the cause of a crash.

Hersman told The Associated Press that the NTSB had warned of safety problems and recommended the old fleet be phased out or retrofitted to make it better withstand a crash. Neither was done, she said, which the NTSB considered "unacceptable."

Metro officials planned to replace the old trains, but were years away from actually having them on the tracks.

It was the worst crash in the history of Metrorail, the pride of the District of Colombia tourism industry that has shuttled tourists and commuters around Washington and to Maryland and Virginia suburbs for more than three decades.

The operator of the train that collided into the stopped cars was identified as Jeanice McMillan, 42, of Springfield, Va., according to Metro officials.

McMillan was hired in March 2007 as a bus driver and was tapped to become a train operator in December, but it wasn't immediately clear whether she had control of the cars.

Metro has a computerized system on most trains during rush hour that is supposed to control braking, speeds and prevent collisions. The system, however, has failed before.

In June 2005, in a tunnel under the Potomac River, a train operator noticed he was getting too close to the train ahead of him even though the system indicated the track was clear. He hit the emergency brake in time, as did the operator of another train behind him.

Metro spokeswoman Candace Smith didn't know the outcome of the investigation into that incident, which she called "highly unusual."

The crash Monday occurred on the red line near the D.C. and Maryland border, in an area where higher train speeds are common because there is a longer distance between stops. Trains can go 55 to 59 miles per hour, though the train's speed at the time of the accident hasn't yet been determined.

One of McMillan's neighbors said she was proud of her job and was a meticulous mother who ironed her Metro uniform every night.

"If she could have stopped the train, she would have done everything in her power," said Joanne Harrison, who lives across the hall from McMillan.

Passenger Maya Maroto, 31, was riding on McMillan's train.

"We were going full speed — I didn't hear any braking. Everything was just going normally. Then there was a very loud impact. We all fell out of our seats. Then the train filled up with smoke. I was coughing," Maroto said.

Maroto, of Burtonsville, Md., said there was confusion after the impact because no announcements were immediately made. She said some passengers wanted to climb out, but others were afraid of being electrocuted by a rail.

Tijuana Cox, 21, was in the train that was hit. She had her sprained arm in a sling Tuesday.

"Everybody just went forward and came back," with people's knees hitting the seats in front of them, said Cox, of Lanham, Md.

The only other fatal crash in the Metro subway system occurred Jan. 13, 1982, when three people died as a result of a derailment. That was a day of disaster in the capital: Shortly before the subway crash, an Air Florida plane slammed into the 14th Street Bridge immediately after takeoff from Washington National Airport. The plane crash, during a severe snowstorm, killed 78 people.

In January 2007, a subway train derailed in downtown Washington, sending 20 people to the hospital and prompting the rescue of 60 others from the tunnel. In November 2006, two Metro track workers were struck and killed by an out-of-service train. An investigation found that the train operator failed to follow safety procedures. Another Metro worker was struck and killed in May 2006.
By BRIAN WITTE, Associated Press Writer Brian Witte, Associated Press Writer





Read more ...