Data from Hubble cheaper than (SMS)texting

A British space scientist has worked out that sending texts via mobile phones works out to be far more expensive than downloading data from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Calculations made by the University of Leicester's expert Nigel Bannister, who worked out the cost of obtaining a megabyte of data from Hubble and compared that with the five pence cost of sending a text, were used for the Channel 4 Dispatches programme 'The Mobile Phone Rip-Off'.

Bannister said: "The bottom line is texting is at least four times more expensive than transmitting data from Hubble, and is likely to be substantially more than that.

The maximum size for a text message is 160 characters, which takes 140 bytes because there are only seven bits per character in the text messaging system, and we assume the average price for a text message is 5 pence."

"There are 1,048,576 bytes in a megabyte, so that's one million/140 = 7490 text messages to transmit one megabyte. At 5 pence each, that's £374.49 per MB or about 4.4 times more expensive than the 'most pessimistic' estimate for Hubble Space Telescope (HST) transmission costs."


He said it had been difficult to work out exactly how much Hubble data transmission costs. So, he contacted Nasa who gave him a firm figure of £8.85 per megabyte (MB) for the transmission of data from HST to the Earth.


"This doesn't include the cost of the ground stations and the time of the personnel along the way, but it is an unambiguous number for that part of the process."

A PRE-SCHOOL TEST FOR YOU

A PRE-SCHOOL TEST FOR YOU

Which way is the bus below travelling?
To the left or to the right?

Can't make up your mind?Look carefully at the picture again.

Still don't know?

. . . . . . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Primary school children were shown this picture and asked the same question.

90% of them gave this answer:
"The bus is travelling to the right.."

When asked, "Why do you think the bus is travelling to the right?"
They answered:"Because you can't see the door to get on the bus."

How do you feel now???

An Interview with Bjarne Stroustrup

C++ creator Bjarne Stroustrup discusses the evolving C++0x standard, the education of programmers, and the future of programming.
Very Interesting article, check it out....

195 Free Online Programming Books TechToolBlog

In Case you, like I , always keep on looking for tech books .... better if FREE

Virtual Sticky Notes for a Neat Desktop

It’s paperless!

Well, if you happen to be one of those who love a neat desktop or the environment, then you could have a go at trying virtual sticky notes.

These are software applications that allow you to put a note on your display just as you would a Word document or presentation---no paper, no gum, and you can get rid of them by just hitting the ‘delete’ button.

There are a number of options (paid and free) available, but one of the most popular is Zhorn Software’s Stickies. It is a mere 950 KB download (from http:// http://%20www.zhornsoftware.co.u%20k/stickies/download.html ), installs smoothly on all versions of Windows, and is free.

Once installed, Stickies parks itself in the QuickLaunch bar. If you want to put a new Stickie, just double click on the Stickies icon and start typing your message on the Sticky that pops up. If you want to look at older ones or tweak configurations, go for a right click.

You can have all kinds of fonts and skins from the traditional yellow to shocking pink, if such is your inclination. Also tweak able is just how opaque you want the Stickies to be and whether you want them to always be visible or disappear the moment you click outside them.

And of course, unlike traditional sticky notes which restrict you to a pitiful scrap of paper, here you can make the Sticky as large as you wish!

It's more than just sticky business

These Stickies also do stuff that the normal paper ones cannot. For instance, you can tag them to a particular document or file, so that they show up only when that particular document of file is opened. You can also send them across to other people over the local area network or by using email.

You can even use them as alarms, asking them to pop up at a certain time say, as a reminder for an appointment. You can even transfer Stickies to handheld devices, provided they run Pocket PC and Palm OS. What’s more, Stickies is supposed to be a relatively safe piece of software.