// March 2015 ~ EDUCATION & TECHNOLOGY

Tuesday 31 March 2015

[How To] Download Files To Dropbox, Google Drive, Box or Microsoft OneDrive Directly

Cloud storage is becoming increasingly popular nowadays and as most of you might have already known, Google drive is now offering 15GB of free cloud storage space to everyone. Apart from the ones who are aware of these, most other users never make any use of this free storage. So lets know more about an interesting way to make the best use of this free cloud storage.








You can make very efficient use of this free storage by uploading all your important files from your PC to any of the cloud storage listed above, Or you can even use these free storages to download and save files directly from the Internet. This method can be very useful when you are browsing the internet from a device which has very limited storage space.

So by downloading files directly from the internet to your Cloud storage, you would be transferring files within the cloud, which will help you save the bandwidth that would otherwise be wasted by downloading it.

Developed by well-known Indian Blogger Amit Agarwal (that's not me BTW :p), Save Web Files is a very useful web tool that can help you with downloading files directly to Google drive or other services like dropbox, Skydrive or Box. Using the service is very simple, simply head over to the site and enter the download link of any file in the input box provided.Next you need to click on any of the web services to which which you need to download the file and follow the instructions.


This web app works flawlessly on both PC’s, smartphones and other hand held devices as well. So, just head over to Save Web Files and enjoy! ;)

                                                                                                                    -Ammy Agarwal

Monday 23 March 2015

FIFA is "more influential"

US Virgin Islands grab spotlight as CONCACAF gets underway





The long road to the 2018 FIFA World Cup™ in the CONCACAF region has commenced with a single match in Bridgetown, Barbados and an impressive result for US Virgin Islands on Sunday.
The visitors, who had only won two previous World Cup qualifiers – both against British Virgin Islands – triumphed thanks to a lone first-half goal from Jamie Brown.
Having now ended a six-match losing streak in the World Cup, the US Virgin Islands are now well placed for Thursday’s return leg on home soil in Charlotte Amalie.
Barbados, for their part, will be without Jomo Harris who was sent off after receiving two cautions.
The winner of the two-leg tie will meet Aruba in the second stage in June.
First-round action will continue on Monday with Nicaragua hosting Anguilla, while St. Kitts and Nevis meet Turks and Caicos Islands, with four further first-leg ties over the coming week.

Trio make history as Chinese Taipei recover



Bhutan, Cambodia and Timor-Leste reached the second round of Asian qualifying for the FIFA World Cup™ for the first time, while Chinese Taipei won 2-0 in Brunei Darussalam to reverse a first-leg loss and join them.

Elsewhere, a goalless draw in Nepal sent India through 2-0 on aggregate, and the Pakistan-Yemen clash was postponed for security reasons. FIFA.com reviews the first round, second-leg action.

The match
Bhutan 2-1 Sri Lanka
Thimphu 
Chencho Gyeltshen, 5, 90; Zohar Zarwan, 34
Buriram United forward Gyeltshen struck in each half as Bhutan downed Sri Lanka 2-1 at home to progress 3-1 on aggregate. It was a fairytale result for the side positioned bottom of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, eliminating a side 35 places above them and to whom they had lost their previous five encounters. The visitors entered the return match desperate to reverse their first-leg defeat, but it was the hosts that again caught their strongly favoured rivals off guard, Gyeltshen opening the scoring inside five minutes. Zohar Zarwan drew Sri Lanka level 11 minutes before the break. However, the islanders' hopes were shattered when Gyeltshen scored his second in the last minute.
The other attractionsThe matchday’s early game saw Fabio Joaquim's Timor-Leste become the first team to advance, following up their 4-1 home victory with a 1-0 away win. The team accustomed to the balmy south-east Asian weather had to overcome freezing conditions in Ulaan Baatar and determined hosts, but 22-year-old midfielder Fabiano, plying his trade with Kuwait's Kazma, scored the only goal early on.

Stephen Constantine enjoyed a positive return to Nepal, where he began his coaching career at the turn of the century. India looked comfortable throughout and eased through thanks to a 0-0 draw.
Cambodia also cruised through with a stalemate in Macau. Having won the first leg 3-0, Thierry Bin broke the deadlock on 28 minutes to put the outcome of the tie beyond doubt. Leong Ka Hang did equalise for Macau on the stroke of the hour, but it proved a mere consolation.
Elsewhere, a determined Chinese Taipei put their opening defeat behind them by knocking out the ambitious Brunei. In what proved the matchday’s tightest contest, defender Wang Ruei opened the scoring eight minutes before the break to draw the aggregate score level. With so much at stake, forward Chu En-Le scored shortly after the restart to round off the visitors’ comeback victory.
The playerBhutan stunning the continent was indebted to Gyeltshen. One of the national team's few professionals, the Thailand-based striker showcased his predatory talents by steering the team through, living up to his nickname as ‘The Bhutanese Cristiano Ronaldo’.
The stat
4
 – A quartet of forwards finished the first round atop of the scoring chart on two goals apiece.
What they saidStephen Constantine, India coach: "We came here to win but they put us under pressure. The hosts gave everything they had and that speaks of the character of the Nepali people. It is nice to leave with a happy result. In football the outcome always matters and we achieved what we intended.”

First round, second legs
Nepal 0-0 India
Mongolia 0-1 Timor-Leste 
Macau 1-1 Cambodia
Brunei Darussalam 0-2 Chinese Taipei
Bhutan 2-1 Sri Lanka
Yemen-Pa
kistan (postponed)

Thursday 19 March 2015

Be Ready for flying car, in year 2017

Aeromobil (The Slovakain company)  has already proven that its flying car can slip the bounds of gravity with several functioning prototypes. At SXSW, CEO Juraj Vaculik laid out the business' next milestones, which includes having a production version on sale in 2017. Two years isn't very long, and to really work as a flying car, the Aeromobil needs to pass all of the regulatory conditions not just in the air, but on the road too, including crash tests. According to Engadget, the company is still working on a mix of materials that keeps the vehicle light enough to get airborne but strong enough to be safe.

Despite its visually interesting design and power folding wings, the Aeromobil is still trapped by some of the inherent problems of a flying car. For example, you would need a pilot's license to operate one in the air, and there's the drive to a runway to consider. Also, planes don't usually come cheap, especially not ones with carbon-fiber bodies. Prices in Europe are likely to be several hundred thousand euros, according to Engadget.

Vaculik isn't letting these problems stop him from dreaming even further into the future, though. He imagines a network of grass runways near highways to pull off and take flight from. Assuming the Aerofoil proves to be a success, the company someday wants to create a four-passenger model with a hybrid drive train that would double the current version's 430-mile range. It would also be capable of fully autonomous flight with no pilot at the controls, which sounds like a seriously lofty goal.  








Tuesday 17 March 2015

NASA finds evidence of ancient ocean covering 20 percent of Mars



Mars

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The Mars we know today is dry, dusty, and thoroughly inhospitable. It wasn't always like that, though. Evidence is mounting that Mars was a much wetter, more temperate planet a few billion years ago. NASA scientists have just published a paper that explores how much water Mars had and what happened to all of it. According to this analysis, Mars had a gigantic ancient ocean that once covered one-fifth of the planet.
To get a better handle on Mars’ watery past, researchers used the Keck II telescope and NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii, as well as the ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. They took readings of the Martian atmosphere over six years and analyzed the composition of water in the ice caps. While all water is composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, the specific form of hydrogen can change its properties.
In this case, Mars was found to have a high concentration of so-called “heavy water,” which contains a hydrogen atom with an extra neutron known as deuterium. This makes up a very small proportion of naturally occurring water, so the high ratio of deuterium to regular hydrogen on Mars is very telling.
The Mars of 4.5 billion years ago had an atmosphere, but as the solar wind stripped the envelope of gas away, most of its water would have evaporated into space. However, water with deuterium remains on the surface, and we know the natural ratio of deuterium water to regular water. This allowed the NASA team to estimate how much water Mars had all those eons ago. The findings indicate that only 13 percent of an ancient ocean remains on Mars, mostly in the ice caps.
The original volume of water on Mars would have been enough to cover the entire surface to a depth of 137 meters. Water depth wouldn’t have been the same across the entire planet, of course, but the team did take a look at the topology to see where the water would likely have pooled. It turns out the northern hemisphere of the planet has vast planes that are lower in elevation than the rest of the planet, and the team believes that’s where Mars’ ocean was. This sea probably existed for millions of years and covered 20 percent of the total planet with a maximum depth of nearly one mile.
As we learn more about the evolution of Mars, its habitable phase seems to only get longer. This new data indicates Mars would have been wet for more than a billion years until it finally became the frigid dust ball we know today. That would have been enough time for life to come into being on the Red Planet. Now, we just have to find evidence of it. Curiosity has detected methane in the Martian atmosphere, which might point to ancient biological activity, but could have other explanations as well. The European Space Agency plans to send a mission to Mars in 2018 with the ability to search for the chemical signature of life.

Thursday 12 March 2015

NASA: Test the private air traffic control system for drones.

Drone
Air Traffic Control drone
  The FAA announced its long-awaited rules for the commercial use of drone aircraft a few weeks ago, and they were much less restrictive than many feared. However, there’s one big catch for anyone who wants to make use of drones — the operator needs to have line of sight to the drone at all times. Drones don’t become truly useful until they can be operated remotely, but what would such a system look like? NASA is partnering with a company called Exelis to test a new air traffic control system called Symphony Range Vue for drone aircraft.
The rules laid out by the FAA are actually rather reasonable, when you look at the state of drone aircraft. There isn’t currently any system for managing swarms of drones, which can be quite hazardous if they start colliding in high-traffic areas of the sky. The FAA’s solution is to essentially ban remote operation for commercial use, but maybe Symphony RangeVue could offer an alternative.
In order for Symphony RangeVue to work, a region would need to have a network of small Exelis towers that receive signals from nearby drone aircraft. Of course, that means drones have to actually emit an ADS-B  tracking signal like manned aircraft, which they currently do not. That’s something drone manufacturers would need to start doing. It would mean increased power usage, but that might be a small price to pay. There’s also an infrastructure cost in getting these non-FAA tracking stations set up.
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The data from the towers would be combined with radar and surveillance data, and shipped off to the cloud-based Symphony RangeVue system. From there, it can be disseminated to users on computers or tablets, allowing them to keep tabs on the busy state of drone traffic. The location information could be overlaid on maps with terrain, restricted areas, and flight paths. This same data feed could also be routed to the FAA in order to make sure drone pilots are following the rules laid out — with the exception of line-of-sight, which would need to be altered for this system to be feasible.
There’s no timeline for deployment of this system, but having the backing of NASA is a good sign. This is exactly the kind of system companies like Amazon could take advantage of to get drone delivery services up and running. The FAA’s drone rules are still a draft, though, so there’s time to get the kinks worked out and still convince the regulators drones can be tracked safely.