Coffee protects brain?

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The easy way to neutralise cholesterol?

Coffee may cut the risk of dementia by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on the body, research suggests.

The drink has already been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer's Disease, and a study by a US team for the Journal of Neuroinflammation may explain why.

A vital barrier between the brain and the main blood supply of rabbits fed a fat-rich diet was protected in those given a caffeine supplement.

UK experts said it was the "best evidence yet" of coffee's benefits.

Caffeine is a safe and readily available drug and its ability to stabilise the blood brain barrier means it could have an important part to play in therapies against neurological disorders Dr Jonathan Geiger University of North Dakota

The "blood brain barrier" is a filter which protects the central nervous system from potentially harmful chemicals carried around in the rest of the bloodstream.

Other studies have shown that high levels of cholesterol in the blood can make this barrier "leaky".

Alzheimer's researchers suggest this makes the brain vulnerable to damage which can trigger or contribute to the condition.

The University of North Dakota study used the equivalent to just one daily cup of coffee in their experiments on rabbits.

After 12 weeks of a high-cholesterol diet, the blood brain barrier in those given caffeine was far more intact than in those given no caffeine.

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The death of the silicon computer chip

www.youthsprouts.blogspot.com The reign of the silicon chip is over, according to physicists who predict that the conventional silicon chip has no longer than four years left to run. Meeting at the Institute of Physics’ Condensed Matter and Material Physics conference this week, researchers speculate that the silicon chip will be unable to sustain the same pace of increase in computing power and speed as it has in previous years. Just as Gordon Moore predicted in 2005, physical limitations of the miniaturised electronic devices of today will eventually lead to silicon chips that are saturated with transistors and incapable of holding any more digital information. Scientists are now investigating alternative components that may pave the way to faster, more powerful computers of the future and potentially extend Moore’s Law of technological advancement. One team of researchers at the Leeds University in the UK have proposed to replace silicon chips with carbon nanotubes, which are electrically-conducive tubes of pure carbon that are tens of times thinner than a human hair. __

HOW VOIP WORKS? AN EASY WAY

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1.) Get a good, fast and reliable Internet connection To use VoIP, you need at least broadband Internet connection, sad to say that dial-up will just frustrate you. There are lots of Internet Service Providers (ISP) today who offer high speed Internet connection via broadband (DSL) or dedicated Internet (ISDN) connection.

2.) Make VoIP calls The next step is to decide what type of VoIP calls you would like to use, there are couple of scenarios about this below:

a.) Computer to Computer VoIP call

This is the “basic VoIP connection”, the caller and the called party’s computers must be online, must have headsets attached to the computers’ sound cards. The computers must be connected to the Internet and must be running VoIP software. Most VoIP softwares available today are free and allow you to connect to any computer running the same software. Skype is the best example of this free software. There is no charge for this type of call and calls can be made to anywhere in the world if you are aware of the IP address (other VoIP softwares use phone number) of the computer you would like to call.

b.) Computer to Phone VoIP call

For this type of VoIP connection to work, one party must be online, running VoIP software and has subscribed to a VoIP provider who offers PC to Phone VoIP calls and vice versa while the other party is using a phone that is not connected to the Internet (regular or mobile phone). Let say for example the caller is the one on the computer with VoIP software and the called party is the one who has a traditional phone. The caller dials the number from the VoIP software running in the computer. The call is then routed through the Internet and was received by the VoIP provider, the VoIP provider with an interconnection to Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) then routes the VoIP call to the called party’s regular or mobile phone.

c.) Phone to Phone VoIP call

You can make/receive VoIP calls using an ordinary telephone or an IP Phone. If you would like to use an analog phone, you must have an Analog Terminal Adapter (ATA). ATA is a device that allows you to use a regular phone unit to make VoIP calls. An ATA must have a valid IP address and must be connected to the Internet. If you would like to use an IP Phone (sometimes called SIP Phone or VoIP Phone), you don’t need an ATA at all, the IP Phone is connected directly to your Ethernet Hub which is connected to your ISP’s baseband or DSL modem.

d.) Analog or mobile phone to another analog or mobile phone VoIP call

“YES, there is such a VoIP call folks”, you won’t notice it but majority of the telephone companies today are starting to migrate their interconnection to other carriers to VoIP. This is pretty simple, you use your regular analog line to call another analog line, your telephone provider then routes the call over a VoIP interconnection to the destination telephone provider (assuming they have VoIP interconnection) using a special commercial-type VoIP equipment (e.g. Quintum or Cisco). You are actually connected to the called party but you are unaware that the conversation is passing through VoIP channels.

NOTE: This type of VoIP call is for telephone companies only, an SMB with a remote office can also use this to dial a number from the remote corporate PBX using their local corporate PBX to save money from long distance calls.

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SKYPE FOR FREE--ALL NEW JAVA SCRIPT

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SippySkype is a FREE Java software (Skype/SIP Bridge/Gateway/Proxy) which allows you to make and receive calls using your SIP/VoIP adapter.

Here are some features of the software:

• Call Skype Users using speed dial or use Skype out.
• SIP to Skype authentication/denial mappings via SIP caller ID and IP blocks - 1.1 or higher
• Skype to SIP authentication/denial mappings via incoming Skype User ID - 1.1 or higher
• Support RFC2833 touchtone decoding (DTMF) - 2.0beta or higher
• Could be used as an endpoint with Asterisk
• Auto play pre-recorded file(s) to SIP callers - 2.0beta or higher
• Incoming SIP Pin number authentication and dialing - 2.0beta or higher
• Open Source - You can modify/fix it if you like.

System requirements:

• Skype Client
• Working Java 1.6.0 or better runtime
• mjsip/mjua 1.6 http://www.mjsip.org/ - Use those included with SippySkype as some bugs have been fixed.
• Skype4Java 1.0 https://developer.skype.com/wiki/Java_API - Unmodified
• SIP/VOIP adapter such as a spa-3102 to make and receive Skype calls or register with a provider or Asterisk.
• Should work where Skype4Java works (windows/linux/osx). (I’m using it on Windows XP)

Download SippySkype 2.0 beta2

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Bill Gates Last Day At Office

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In a brief address to thousands of attendees at the Consumer Electronics Show 2008 in Las Vegas, Gates confirmed that this will also be his last year kicking off the annual high-tech extravaganza as he steps down from day-to-day involvement at Microsoft. Bill Gates has proven to have the same sense of humor, as he ended his tech reign with a a spoof home video, and by challenging Robbie Bach, the head of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, to a match of Guitar Hero, a video music game which is supposed to mimic the sensation of being a rock star. The two corporate heavyweights were joined on stage by real life guitar rockers Slash and Kelly "Tipper Queen" Law-Yone, who played a set. The spoof home video showed how Bill Gates is trying to pursue a new career. Gates want to be a rap star, but Jay Z turns him down. After he tries to pursue a rock star career but U2’s Bono is very clear: "I can't replace Edge because you got a high score on Guitar Hero, Bill" Also the film industry is no place to start a new career as a former software tycoon. Gates calls Steven Spielberg about an audition reel showing Gates as a horror film figure. Spielberg in turn calls George Clooney about a Bill Gates movie. "I can't play Bill Gates. I just can't ... ask Russell Crowe," says Clooney. The Daily Show's Jon Stewart turns Gates down as a co-anchor after showing a clip of Gates running off the Daily Show set. As Microsoft colleagues comment that it may not be a coincidence that Gates is leaving in an election year, we see him turned down as running mate in separate phone conversations with both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. __

Astrobotic Technology Google Lunar X-Prize -- $30 million

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Ten teams aligned for Google’s Lunar X Prize competition and are ready to fight for the $30 million Google has put on display. All participants, from five different countries, have one mission: to land a robotic rover on the moon by 2014.

The winner will get the $20 million Google had promised in September, while the second place will get $5 million. There will be also $5 million in bonuses for reaching certain places or discovering something new. This Thursday, Space Florida also announced a $2 million bonus to the winning team if they take off from Cape Canaveral.

“Florida’s long been recognized as a preeminent leader in any activity that involves our exploration of the moon,” said Steve Kohler, Space Florida president, MSNBC reports. “Part of our effort as a state and as an organization is to continue that legacy. We believe (this competition) will allow the state to become a future hub for commercial projects).”

The ten teams that will be competing in Google’s Lunar X Prize are: Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association (ARCA) with the “European Space Explorer”, Astrobotic with “Artemis Lander” and “Red Rover”, Chandah with “Shehrezade”, Frednet, LunaTrex with “Tumbleweed”, Micro-Space with “Human Lunar Lander”, Odyssey Moon with “MoonOne (M-1), Quantum3 with “Moondancer”, Southern California Selene Group with “Spirit of Southern California” and Team Italia.

“The idea of seeing these rovers on the moon and returning after 40 years…faster than the national programs is really exciting to me,” said Sergey Brin, Google co-founder. “We love entrepreneurship here – it’s worked well for us. So we’re looking forward to the launches in the coming years.”

Google’s initiative is set to beat NASA’s plans to return to the moon by at least 6 years…at least in terms of actually reaching the moon. NASA said it will send astronauts to the moon by 2020. Even without a human crew, the ten teams will need to prepare their robotic missions for temperatures of 250 degrees below zero.

On Sept. 13, 2007, Dr. William L. “Red” Whittaker, Astrobotic’s Chief Technology Officer and Lunar Mission Commander declared his intention to pursue the recently announced Google Lunar X Prize. Astrobotic Technology, Inc. is the commercial organization through which Dr. Whittaker plans to carry out the lunar mission as well as engage in potential commercial orbital transfer services and potential cis-lunar services that may be best enabled by leading-edge robotics.

Raytheon has undertaken initial design and planning activities on the project.

Possible roles for Raytheon include engineering management, lander design, and high bandwidth telecommunications. A common goal is for Raytheon to develop key technologies for advanced thrust controlled descent, ascent and movement, including automated topographic scene matching.

Astrobotic is planning for Raytheon to begin work on a contract basis with the scope of Raytheon’s work to be expanded upon completion of certain financing goals by Astrobotic. It is anticipated that 15 or more professional engineers from Raytheon will be devoted to the Astrobotic lunar program.

Dr. Whittaker is the Fredkin Professor of Robotics, Director of the Field Robotics Center, and founder of the National Robotics Engineering Consortium, all at Carnegie Mellon University. He is a world-famous scientist and engineer, renowned for managing the research, development, operation, and scientific discoveries associated with several dozen exploratory robots. Most recently, Dr. Whittaker led CMU’s “Tartan Racing Team” to victory in the November 2007 Urban Challenge sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Raytheon has a legacy of experience in space missions that dates back to the Apollo era, when Raytheon provided solutions for the Saturn launch vehicle, lunar modules, and space suits. Raytheon has deployed more than 100 unique control systems for military and commercial satellites as well as 75 GPS systems for the Department of Defense, civil, commercial and national markets ranging in scope from navigation, transportation, surveying and rescue operations.

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