Google's Founders didn't know HTML!

1. The prime reason the Google home page is so bare is due to the fact that the founders didn't know HTML and just wanted a quick interface. Infact it was noted that the submit button was a long time coming and hitting the RETURN key was the only way to burst Google into life.
2. Due to the sparseness of the homepage, in early user tests they noted people just sitting looking at the screen. After a minute of nothingness, the tester intervened and asked 'Whats up?' to which they replied "We are waiting for the rest of it". To solve that particular problem the Google Copyright message was inserted to act as a crude end of page marker.
3. One of the biggest leap in search usage came about when they introduced their much improved spell checker giving birth to the "Did you mean..." feature. This instantly doubled their traffic, but they had some interesting discussions on how best to place that information, as most people simply tuned that out. But they discovered the placement at the bottom of the results was the most effective area.
4. The infamous "I feel lucky" is nearly never used. However, in trials it was found that removing it would somehow reduce the Google experience. Users wanted it kept. It was a comfort button.
5. Orkut is very popular in Brazil. Orkut was the brainchild of a very intelligent Google engineer who was pretty much given free reign to run with it, without having to go through the normal Google UI procedures, hence the reason it doesn't look or feel like a Google application. They are looking at improving Orkut to cope with the loads it places on the system.
6. Google makes changes small-and-often. They will sometimes trial a particular feature with a set of users from a given network subnet; for example Excite@Home users often get to see new features. They aren't told of this, just presented with the new UI and observed how they use it.
7. Google has the largest network of translators in the world
8. They use the 20% / 5% rules. If at least 20% of people use a feature, then it will be included. At least 5% of people need to use a particular search preference before it will make it into the 'Advanced Preferences'.
9. They have found in user testing, that a small number of people are very typical of the larger user base. They run labs continually and always monitoring how people use a page of results.
10. The name 'Google' was an accident. A spelling mistake made by the original founders who thought they were going for 'Googol'
11. Gmail was used internally for nearly 2years prior to launch to the public. They discovered there was approximately 6 types of email users, and Gmail has been designed to accommodate these 6.
12. They listen to feedback actively. Emailing Google isn't emailing a blackhole.
13. Employees are encouraged to use 20% of their time working on their own projects. Google News, Orkut are both examples of projects that grew from this working model.

Computer Tips in filmy estyle....

Army orders 24 new sentry-bots, Judgment Day moved up two months

Sure, you laughed yesterday when you heard professor Noel Sharkey warn against the impending, apocalyptic man vs. machine battle that was to come, but this news may have you singing a different tune. A pilot program in Nevada which employed robotic sentries to patrol Hawthorne Army Depot is getting an upgrade: 24 brand new drones called MDARS, or "Mobile Detection and Assessment and Response System." The $40 million purchase will nab the Army diesel-powered robots which operate at speeds up to 20 MPH, use RFID tags to keep track of locks and barriers, and can run for 16 hours without refueling. Though the bots have been tested with automatic weapons, these new versions will be equipped with non-lethal armaments, thus making them considerably less deadly when Skynet goes online.

World's greatest Brand names

World's greatest Brand names.Where do they come from?

Adobe - came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind thehouse of founder John Warnock.

Apache - It got its name because its founders got started by applying patchesto code written for NCSA's httpd daemon. The result was 'A PAtCHy'server -- thus, the name Apache
Apple Computers - favorite fruit of founder Steve Jobs. He was three monthslate in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company AppleComputers if the other colleagues didn't suggest a better name by 5 o'clock.

CISCO - its not an acronym but the short for San Francisco.

Google - the name started as a jokey boast about the amount of informationthe search-engine would be able to search. It was originally named 'Googol',a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. After founders,Stanford grad students Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented their project toan angel investor, they received a cheque made out to 'Google'

Hotmail - Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the webfrom a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up withthe business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in'mail' and finally settled for hotmail as it included the letters "html" - theprogramming language used to write web pages. It was initially referred toas HoTMaiL with selective upper casing.

HP - Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether thecompany they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.
Intel - Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company'Moore Noyce' but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain, so theyhad to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics.

Lotus (Notes) - Mitch Kapor got the name for his company from 'The LotusPosition' or 'Padmasana'. Kapor used to be a teacher of TranscendentalMeditation (by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi).

Microsoft - coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted toMICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' wasremoved later on.

Motorola - Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his companystarted manufacturing radios for cars. The popular radio company at the timewas called Victrola.

ORACLE - Larry Ellison and Bob Oats were working on a consulting projectfor the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). The code name for the project wascalled Oracle

Red Hat - Company founder Marc Ewing was given the Cornell lacrosse teamcap (with red and white stripes) while at college by his grandfather. He lost it andhad to search for it desperately. The manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linuxhad an appeal to readers to return his Red Hat if found by anyone !

SAP - "Systems, Applications, Products in Data Processing", formed by 4 ex-IBMemployees who used to work in the 'Systems/Applications/Projects"

SUN - founded by 4 Stanford University buddies, SUN is the acronym for StanfordUniversity Network.

Xerox - The inventor, Chestor Carlson, named his product trying to say 'dry' (asit was dry copying, markedly different from the then prevailing wet copying).The Greek root 'xer' means dry.

Yahoo! - the word was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book 'Gulliver'sTravels'. It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance and action and isbarely human. Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang and David Filo selected the namebecause they considered themselves yahoos.

Intel`s eeePC’s

My buddy works for a US Based OEM, and showed me a sample of one of the products that will be hitting US shores soon. This thing is sweet, super portable. I estimate it weighs less than three pounds, and has a carrying handle. He told me it was designed by Intel and is for education. I got on it to check my email and it was running XP Pro like a champ. When he got up for a minute, I snuck some pics of it and checked out the specs. It has a 900Mhz Celeron, 512 Ram, 40GB HD, 9 Inch screen, wifi, and Ethernet. It seems to be about 7” x 9”x 1.5”. I asked him how much it was going to cost, and he said he didn’t know but would probably be around 400 bucks. Said it should be available in the US by June. At 400 bucks, should kick the eeePC’s ass.

Yes now its possible with simple trick. It most of companies and Institution Browser are uninstall from the computers so that their staff cannot browse any website. But now you can surf any website on that PC without any Browser.

Just follow these steps-

1. Open a notepad or Calculator or Paint anyone application in you pc.
2. Go to the Help section and Click Help Topics.
3. After the New Window Comes, Left Click on the icon in the top left corner.
4. Click on the Jump Url and write the web add of your fav site ( Full add with http:// ) there.

No blu-ray for sony xbox microsoft

ended up turning into outright commitments with Microsoft Microsoft, Sony, the Xbox 360, and Blu-ray. This topic has generated a lot of coverage, particularly since the demise of HD DVD. What originally began with just talks about the futureconfirming support for Blu-ray. That's a big step for Microsoft in and of itself, due to the investment they had in HD DVD. It's been speculated by many that Microsoft was in talks regarding Blu-ray integration into their baby, the 360.



That's not the case, with Microsoft denying they are actually crafting plans to do such. They have stated they are not dealing with Sony or any other Blu-ray Association member regarding this. This means, for the moment, that their support for Blu-ray will be entirely focused on Windows. Why not on the 360, however? It seems like an inevitable step forward they would have to take, and something that can benefit them. With the Wii having incredible sales and the PlayStation 3 picking up slack after such a long incubation period, you'd think they would take every advantage they can in making the console more attractive.

AMD just latest step in Abu Dhabi's tech plans

What does Abu Dhabi want out of Advanced Micro Devices? A way to make money that doesn't involve an oil well.

On Friday, Abu Dhabi's Mubdala Development announced it was buying an 8.1 percent stake in chipmaker AMD for around $700 million. Mubdala is a separate organization but its funded by the government. The emirate, part of the United Arab Emirates, is awash with money thanks to escalating oil prices so it needs to put the money somewhere. But there is also more going on in the deal.

Abu Dhabi, like nearby Dubai and Qatar, has been rapidly increasing its investments in the technology industry as a way to diversify its economic base. Oil is still gushing out of the ground in Abu Dhabi but leaders have acknowledged that fossil fuel supplies will inevitably dwindle. So rather than squander they money on cars and luxury goods, the government (and the investment trusts it owns) is effectively trying to create a version of the white collar economy that exists in North America, Europe and Japan.

The amazing part is the speed with which the emirate is acting. Last year, it set up Masdar, a $250 million clean tech VC fund. It has already invested heavily in HelioVolt, which wants to make copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) solar cells, as well as Texas LED manufacturer AgiLight.

MIT is getting involved too. America's storied technology university has agreed to help Masdar build an alternative energy graduate school in Abu Dhabi. The school hopes to start admitting students in 2009.

The graduate school in turn will then encourage students and professors to incubate start-ups in the country. Abu Dhabi has a tiny population. Like Qatar, which has set up a university and incubator complex with help of institutions like Cornell and Rolls Royce, Abu Dhabi will likely recruit students and professors from across North Africa and Central Asia as well as from the immigrant communities in the U.S. and Europe.

The large investment in AMD will give investment managers and others in the country a way to study the high tech industry up-close. The country may not go out and build fabs after this one, but clearly there will be people in the country better educated on how things work in Silicon Valley. One of the major complaints among business people and even government officials in the Middle East is that many of the college graduates who come from these countries don't have much practical experience.

Will it work? It's hard to say. Dubai, which has created an Internet business park and opened its doors to chip makers, has only made a small dent in high tech. But like China, these countries aren't exactly democracies, so they can conduct long range planning. And the money is going to continue to flow there for the next several decades.

Chinese LionKing800 cellphone claims 1-year standby

We have no way to confirm the claim, nevertheless the LionKing800 boasts a remarkable 365 days standby or 3-5 days talk. The source of that power is a 16,800mAh lithium battery -- that's about 10x the juice of a standard cellphone battery. Take that Philips! As to the rest of the specs, the GSM900 / DCS1800 dual-SIM phone costs $145 and packs a 3.5-inch, 320 x 240 pixel display, 256MB of microSD memory, Bluetooth 2.0, and a pair of rear and front-facing cameras into a 120 x 65 x 20-mm shell. Picture of the battery after the break.

Guitar Hero goes Mini with Guitar Hero Caribiner

I guess if you wait around long enough, all technology shrinks. Even things that probably shouldn’t be shrunk get shrank.

Take Guitar Hero, for example. I’ve recently purchased this game for the Wii and it has quickly become my newest addiction. There is something about strumming and hitting those frets while those streaming spots go by that make me feel like a legit rock star.

A company known as Basic Fun has created a portable version of this fun with the Guitar Hero Caribiner, a Guitar Hero that fits in your pocket. It is only 3 x 7.5 inches in measurement, and the chord buttons or “frets” are not located on the neck of this contraption, but the body itself.

Beyond that, the gameplay is the same the regular version as the LCD screen displays the notes the player needs to play. There is even a miniature version of the whammy bar, and some of the more popular songs from Guitar Hero I and II are included.

I guess if you wait around long enough, all technology shrinks. Even things that probably shouldn’t be shrunk get shrank.

Take Guitar Hero, for example. I’ve recently purchased this game for the Wii and it has quickly become my newest addiction. There is something about strumming and hitting those frets while those streaming spots go by that make me feel like a legit rock star.

A company known as Basic Fun has created a portable version of this fun with the Guitar Hero Caribiner, a Guitar Hero that fits in your pocket. It is only 3 x 7.5 inches in measurement, and the chord buttons or “frets” are not located on the neck of this contraption, but the body itself.

Beyond that, the gameplay is the same the regular version as the LCD screen displays the notes the player needs to play. There is even a miniature version of the whammy bar, and some of the more popular songs from Guitar Hero I and II are included.

Macbook air-World`s most thinnest notebook

Apple unveiled the world's thinnest notebook, MacBook Air, in India on Wednesday.

Angeline Tan, product marketing manager of Apple, introduced the notebook here, which measures 4 mm at its thinnest point.

The MacBook Air was first launched at the MacWorld expo in San Francisco on January 15.

In India, it will ship in two weeks through Apple authorised resellers and authorised dealers for a suggested retail price of Rs.96,100 ($2,421).

The features of the MacBook Air include a 13.3-inch liquid crystal display, a full-size backlit keyboard and a built-in video camera.

MacBook Air delivers up to five hours of battery life and includes Wi-Fi networking.

With an Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 1.6 or 1.8 GHz of processing power, Apple's standard model contains a 1.8-inch hard drive offering 80 GB of storage.

http://infotech.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2778499.cms

Radar car collision system

So far three of the car industry’s most hyped collision prevention technologies have been put to the test by British Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre Thatcham, and I am happy to say that the trio were successful when it came to mitigating and preventing low speed collisions. These new technologies are the Volvo City Safety, Mercedes Distronic Plus, and Honda CMBS that utilize radar systems when it comes to performing their functions. They’ll be extremely important where saving lives are concerned since statistics show that 75% of all motor accidents are low speed collisions.

Phone watches banned from Thai exams

I had my good share of ways to cheat on exams when needed to, but it didn’t include any kind of “top-notch” technology, like it happened in Thailand. According to someone on the Ministry of Education, a student was caught cheating during an exam by using his phone watch - can you blame him?

The cheating system while using this kind of gadgets is pretty simple: take a discrete photo of the exam questions, send it via MMS to a friend that has the knowledge or knows how to look for the answers, and wait for a SMS with all the goodies.

The only problem is being discrete, and in this case, the student was caught while receiving/reading the text messages that were displayed on the watch. Thanks to this student, all normal watches are banned from exams, and the next step is to take a look at wall clocks.