Bill Gates signals end of computer mouse era
Friday, 30 May , 2008, 17:50
London: Microsoft is developing a system that could spell an end to the use of computer mouse, Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft, said.
"The way you interact with the system will change dramatically," the billionaire said at a conference in Canada, according to a report in The Daily Telegraph today.
He said that computer users of the future would control their machines by voice and pen as well as touch. Users of Windows - 7 will issue commands by touching the screen rather than by the traditional keyboard and mouse combination that has dominated since the 1970s.
Windows - 7 is due to be released in 2010 and is Microsoft's attempt to catch up with Apple, whose touch screen iPhone has proved popular.
Touch screens are appearing on a host of other devices, including satellite navigation (sat-navs), mobile phones and remote controls. A touch screen BlackBerry is also expected shortly.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
History of Gulf Oil discovery
May 26, 1908: Mideast Oil Discovered — There Will Be Blood
By Randy Alfred Email 05.26.08 | 12:00 AM
1908: A British company strikes oil in Persia (now Iran). It's the first big petroleum find in the Middle East, and it sets off a wave of exploration, extraction and exploitation that will change the region's -- and the world's -- history.
Englishman William D'Arcy had obtained a license to explore for oil in Persia in 1901. He sent explorer George Reynolds, who searched fruitlessly for seven years.
Fresh investment from the Burmah Oil Co. had rescued the expedition financially in 1904, but with no results and D'Arcy's personal fortune completely run out, he risked losing his two country houses and his London mansion. In Persia, staff was already being dismissed. Reynolds received orders from London for his last-chance well: Drill to 1,600 feet and then stop.
Why all the fuss? The automobile was in its infancy, and few people could foresee its future. How did an investor expect to get rich off an oil strike? Well -- and we really do mean well -- you could run an electric-power plant with oil, you could run factory machinery on oil and, perhaps most importantly, the world's powerful navies were converting their ships from coal to oil. Almost anything that had run on coal -- especially coal that heated water to create steam -- could run on oil.
Exactly 100 years ago today, the smell of sulfur hovered in the air at Masjid-i-Suleiman. That was a good sign for an experienced oil hand like Reynolds. At 4 in the morning, the drill reached 1,180 feet below the desert and struck oil. A huge gusher shot 75 feet into the air.
The site was so remote that it took five days before D'Arcy got word by telegram in England. "If this is true," he replied, "all our troubles are over." It was indeed true, and more wells hit oil elsewhere in Persia, including a huge one in September.
D'Arcy and Burmah reorganized their holdings in 1909 as the Anglo-Persian Oil Co. (which became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. in 1935, British Petroleum in 1954 and BP in 2000.) Its initial public offering of stock shares sold out in 30 minutes in London. People stood five deep around the tellers' cages to buy shares in Glasgow. The race for oil accelerated throughout the Middle East.
At the instigation of First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, the British government became a majority (and at-first secret) shareholder of Anglo-Persian during World War I. Britain soon became a dominant power in Persian and later Iranian politics. British and American political operations in that nation shaped the developments that led to the Iranian revolution in 1979 and the current Middle Eastern power situation.
Source: Various
By Randy Alfred Email 05.26.08 | 12:00 AM
1908: A British company strikes oil in Persia (now Iran). It's the first big petroleum find in the Middle East, and it sets off a wave of exploration, extraction and exploitation that will change the region's -- and the world's -- history.
Englishman William D'Arcy had obtained a license to explore for oil in Persia in 1901. He sent explorer George Reynolds, who searched fruitlessly for seven years.
Fresh investment from the Burmah Oil Co. had rescued the expedition financially in 1904, but with no results and D'Arcy's personal fortune completely run out, he risked losing his two country houses and his London mansion. In Persia, staff was already being dismissed. Reynolds received orders from London for his last-chance well: Drill to 1,600 feet and then stop.
Why all the fuss? The automobile was in its infancy, and few people could foresee its future. How did an investor expect to get rich off an oil strike? Well -- and we really do mean well -- you could run an electric-power plant with oil, you could run factory machinery on oil and, perhaps most importantly, the world's powerful navies were converting their ships from coal to oil. Almost anything that had run on coal -- especially coal that heated water to create steam -- could run on oil.
Exactly 100 years ago today, the smell of sulfur hovered in the air at Masjid-i-Suleiman. That was a good sign for an experienced oil hand like Reynolds. At 4 in the morning, the drill reached 1,180 feet below the desert and struck oil. A huge gusher shot 75 feet into the air.
The site was so remote that it took five days before D'Arcy got word by telegram in England. "If this is true," he replied, "all our troubles are over." It was indeed true, and more wells hit oil elsewhere in Persia, including a huge one in September.
D'Arcy and Burmah reorganized their holdings in 1909 as the Anglo-Persian Oil Co. (which became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. in 1935, British Petroleum in 1954 and BP in 2000.) Its initial public offering of stock shares sold out in 30 minutes in London. People stood five deep around the tellers' cages to buy shares in Glasgow. The race for oil accelerated throughout the Middle East.
At the instigation of First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, the British government became a majority (and at-first secret) shareholder of Anglo-Persian during World War I. Britain soon became a dominant power in Persian and later Iranian politics. British and American political operations in that nation shaped the developments that led to the Iranian revolution in 1979 and the current Middle Eastern power situation.
Source: Various
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Airlines to pay for denying boarding
Airlines to pay for denying boarding
25 May 2008, 0000 hrs IST,Saurabh Sinha,TNN
NEW DELHI: Shoddy treatment of fliers will soon cost airlines dear.
Within days of issuing strict refund rules, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation is finalising a new policy under which airlines will have to compensate passengers denied boarding on overbooked flights.
Fliers will also be given the option of asking for a refund or a later flight if the one they were booked on is delayed by more than a certain number of hours.
Titled 'Facilities to be provided to passengers by airlines’, the policy will cover a gamut of issues that concern passengers ranging from denied boarding to those who reach airports in the stipulated reporting time, cancellations and long delays.
"When an airline has overbooked and needs to deny boarding to some passengers, it will have to call for volunteers. Those who volunteer will have to be given an option of refund or a later connection. If that flight happens to be next day, the airline will also provide accommodation," said sources.
Airlines frequently sell more seats than are available, betting that some travellers won’t show up. In case an airline forcibly denies boarding to unwilling passengers, the latter shall be entitled to a hefty compensation along with refund from the carrier. There could be slabs for such compensation based on the duration of flight and whether it’s domestic or international.
Realising that the economic model of low cost carriers (LCC) may not be able to sustain these extra costs, the rules are expected to work as a deterrent against rampant overbooking. The DGCA keeps getting complaints of passengers being stranded due to forcible denied boardings. One LCC was particularly notorious for such a practice.
Similarly, when a flight is cancelled the airline will have to give the option of refund or a later connection along with meals and accommodation if required. The ministry is also considering if passengers of such flights should be entitled to some compensation.
"Our idea is not to put a financial burden on airlines but to ensure that strict rules act as disincentive against taking passengers for granted. If there are delays or cancellations, airlines should inform passengers in time and avoid penalty for them and inconvenience for others. But that is not happening as there are so many airlines now and each one of them is under pressure to cut costs. The passenger’s interest has to be protected," said an official.
The new policy could follow international norms and exempt airlines from such liabilities "when an event has been caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures were taken".
This would include delays or cancellations caused by "political instability, weather conditions, security risks, unexpected flight safety or strikes." Despite this safeguard, the new rules are likely to face stiff opposition from airlines.
But the fact that government means business is clear from the fact that in past month itself, the DGCA has announced two consumer-friendly decisions. First, it issued a rule that physically challenged travellers will neither be denied travel wrongly nor disallowed to take guide dogs with them on aircraft.
On Thursday, it made it mandatory for domestic airlines to give refunds in time and also not force people to travel with them within a certain time if they cancel their booking.
saurabh.sinha@timesgroup.com
25 May 2008, 0000 hrs IST,Saurabh Sinha,TNN
NEW DELHI: Shoddy treatment of fliers will soon cost airlines dear.
Within days of issuing strict refund rules, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation is finalising a new policy under which airlines will have to compensate passengers denied boarding on overbooked flights.
Fliers will also be given the option of asking for a refund or a later flight if the one they were booked on is delayed by more than a certain number of hours.
Titled 'Facilities to be provided to passengers by airlines’, the policy will cover a gamut of issues that concern passengers ranging from denied boarding to those who reach airports in the stipulated reporting time, cancellations and long delays.
"When an airline has overbooked and needs to deny boarding to some passengers, it will have to call for volunteers. Those who volunteer will have to be given an option of refund or a later connection. If that flight happens to be next day, the airline will also provide accommodation," said sources.
Airlines frequently sell more seats than are available, betting that some travellers won’t show up. In case an airline forcibly denies boarding to unwilling passengers, the latter shall be entitled to a hefty compensation along with refund from the carrier. There could be slabs for such compensation based on the duration of flight and whether it’s domestic or international.
Realising that the economic model of low cost carriers (LCC) may not be able to sustain these extra costs, the rules are expected to work as a deterrent against rampant overbooking. The DGCA keeps getting complaints of passengers being stranded due to forcible denied boardings. One LCC was particularly notorious for such a practice.
Similarly, when a flight is cancelled the airline will have to give the option of refund or a later connection along with meals and accommodation if required. The ministry is also considering if passengers of such flights should be entitled to some compensation.
"Our idea is not to put a financial burden on airlines but to ensure that strict rules act as disincentive against taking passengers for granted. If there are delays or cancellations, airlines should inform passengers in time and avoid penalty for them and inconvenience for others. But that is not happening as there are so many airlines now and each one of them is under pressure to cut costs. The passenger’s interest has to be protected," said an official.
The new policy could follow international norms and exempt airlines from such liabilities "when an event has been caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures were taken".
This would include delays or cancellations caused by "political instability, weather conditions, security risks, unexpected flight safety or strikes." Despite this safeguard, the new rules are likely to face stiff opposition from airlines.
But the fact that government means business is clear from the fact that in past month itself, the DGCA has announced two consumer-friendly decisions. First, it issued a rule that physically challenged travellers will neither be denied travel wrongly nor disallowed to take guide dogs with them on aircraft.
On Thursday, it made it mandatory for domestic airlines to give refunds in time and also not force people to travel with them within a certain time if they cancel their booking.
saurabh.sinha@timesgroup.com
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