Sunday, July 22, 2007

Time server

A time server is a server computer that reads the actual time from a orientation clock and distributes this information to its clients using a computer network. The time server may be a local network time server or an internet time server. The majority important and widely-used protocol for distributing and synchronizing time is the Network Time Protocol, though other less-popular or outdated time protocols continue in use. The time reference used by a time server could be another time server on the network or the Internet, a connected radio clock or an atomic clock. The most common true time source is a GPS or GPS master clock. Time servers are sometimes multi-purpose network servers, dedicated network servers, or dedicated devices. All a dedicated time server does is provide accurate time.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Cookie

In the United States and Canada, a cookie is a tiny, round, flat cake. In most English-speaking countries outer North America, the most common word for this is biscuit; in many regions both terms are used, while in others the two words have diverse meanings—a cookie is a bun in Scotland, while in the United States a biscuit is a kind of quick bread not unlike a scone.

Cookies can be baked until crisp or just long enough that they stay soft. Depending on the kind of cookie, some cookies are not cooked at all. Cookies are made in a broad variety of styles, using an array of ingredients including sugars, spices, chocolate, butter, peanut butter, nuts or dried fruits. The smoothness of the cookie may depend on how long it is baked.

Prevention

In medicine, prevention is any action which reduces the burden of mortality or morbidity from disease. This takes place at primary, secondary and tertiary prevention levels.Primary prevention avoids the development of a disease. Most population-based health support activities are primary preventive measures.Secondary prevention activities are aimed at early disease detection, thereby increasing opportunities for interventions to prevent progression of the disease and emergence of symptoms.Tertiary prevention reduces the negative impact of an already recognized disease by restoring function and reducing disease-related complications.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Blue rose

Since roses lack a gene to create delphinidin, the primary plant pigment that produces true blue flowers, blue roses were usually created by dyeing white roses. So-called "blue roses" have been breed by conventional hybridization methods, but the results, such as "Blue Moon" are more precisely described as lilac in color. However, after 13 years of joint research by an Australian company Florigene, and Japanese company Suntory, a blue rose was formed in 2004 by genetic engineering. The delphinidin gene was cloned from the petunia and inserted into a mauve-blend rose, the Old Garden Rose 'Cardinal de Richelieu.' (a Rosa gallica) However, since the pigment cyanidin was still present, the rose was more dark burgundy than true blue. Further work on the rose using RNAi technology to depress the production of cyanidin produced a very dark mauve plant, with only trace amounts of cyanidin.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Topiary

Topiary is the art of creating sculptures using clipped trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs. The word derives from the Latin word for an ornamental landscape gardener, topiarius, creator of topia or "places", a Greek word that Romans applied also to fictive indoor landscapes executed in fresco. No doubt the use of a Greek word betokens the art's origins in the Hellenistic world that was influenced by Persia, for neither Classical Greece nor Republican Rome developed any complicated tradition of artful pleasure grounds.
The plants used in topiary are evergreen, have small leaves or needles, produce dense foliage, and have compact and/or columnar growth habits. Common plants used in topiary comprise cultivars of box, arborvitae, bay laurel, holly, myrtle, yew, and privet. Shaped wire cages are sometimes working in modern topiary to guide untutored shears, but traditional topiary depends on patience and a steady hand; small-leaved ivy can be used to cover a cage and provide the look of topiary in a few months.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

RISC (reduced instruction set computer)

In the mid-1980s to early-1990s, a crop of new high-performance RISC microprocessors appeared, which were initially used in special purpose machines and UNIX workstations, but have since become almost universal in all roles except the Intel-standard desktop.

The first commercial design was released by MIPS Technologies, the 32-bit R2000. The R3000 made the design truly practical, and the R4000 introduced the world's first 64-bit design. Opposing projects would result in the IBM POWER and Sun SPARC systems, respectively. Soon every major vendor was releasing a RISC design, including the AT&T CRISP, AMD 29000, Intel i860 and Intel i960, Motorola 88000, DEC Alpha and the HP-PA.

Market forces have "weeded out" many of these designs, leaving the PowerPC as the main desktop RISC processor, with the SPARC being used in Sun designs only. MIPS continue to supply some SGI systems, but are first and foremost used as an embedded design, notably in Cisco routers. The rest of the original crop of designs have either disappeared, or are about to. Other companies have attacked niches in the market, notably ARM, originally intended for home computer use but since focused at the embedded processor market. Today RISC designs based on the MIPS, ARM or PowerPC core are the vast majority of computing devices.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Canoe

A canoe is a small narrow boat, classically human-powered, but also commonly sailed. Canoes usually are pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be covered.
In its human-powered form, the canoe is propelled by the use of paddles, with the number of paddlers depending on the size of the canoe. Paddlers face in the direction of travel, either seated on supports in the hull, or kneeling directly upon the hull. In this way paddling a canoe can be contrasted with rowing, where the rowers face away from the direction of travel. Paddles may be single-bladed or double-bladed.
Sailing canoes are propelled by means of a variety of sailing rigs. Common classes of modern sailing canoes include the 5m² and the International 10m² Sailing canoes. The latter is otherwise known as the International Canoe, and is one of the fastest and oldest competitively sailed boat classes in the western world. The log canoe of the Chesapeake Bay is in the modern sense not a canoe at all, though it evolved through the enlargement of dugout canoes.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Sandwich

A sandwich is a food item typically consisting of two pieces of leavened bread between which are laid one or more layers of meat, vegetable, cheese or jam, together with optional or traditionally provided condiments, sauces, and other accompaniments. The bread can be used as is, lightly buttered, or covered in a flavored oil to enhance flavor and texture. It is named after the 4th Earl of Sandwich.
Sandwiches are commonly carried to work or school in lunchboxes or brown paper bags to be eaten as the midday meal, taken on picnics, hiking trips, or other outings. In some parts of the world, they are also served in many restaurants as entrées, and are sometimes eaten at home, either as a quick meal or as part of a larger meal. When eaten as part of a full meal sandwiches are traditionally accompanied with such side dishes as a serving of soup (soup-and-sandwich), a salad (salad-and-sandwich), french fries/chips, potato chips/crisps and a pickle or coleslaw. A new trend appearing is making sandwiches into wraps, in which a tortilla is substituted for the bread. According to a recent court ruling in the United States, a sandwich must have two slices of bread and not one tortilla.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Tourism

Tourism is travel for predominantly leisure or relaxation purposes, and also refers to the prerequisite of services in support of this act. Tourists are people who ,travel to and stay in places outside their common environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to work out of an activity remunerated from within the place visited.
Tourism has become an enormously popular, global activity. As a service industry, tourism has frequent tangible and intangible elements. Major tangible elements include transportation, accommodation, and other apparatus of a hospitality industry. Major intangible elements relate to the purpose or inspiration for becoming a tourist, such as rest, relaxation, the opportunity to meet new people and experience other cultures, or simply to do something different and have an adventure.
Tourism is crucial for many countries, due to the income generated by the expenditure of goods and services by tourists, the taxes levied on businesses in the tourism industry, and the prospect for employment and economic advancement by working in the industry.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

HyperTransport

HyperTransport, formerly known as Lightning Data Transport, is a bidirectional serial/parallel high-bandwidth, low-latency point to point link that was introduced on April 2, 2001.The HyperTransport Consortium is in charge of promoting and developing HyperTransport technology. The technology is used by AMD and Transmeta in x86 processors, PMC-Sierra, Broadcom, and Raza Microelectronics in MIPS microprocessors, AMD, NVIDIA, VIA, SiS, and HP in PC chipsets, HP, Sun Microsystems, IBM, and IWill in servers, Cray, Newisys, and QLogic in high performance computing, Microsoft in its Xbox game console, and Cisco Systems in routers. Notably missing from this list is semiconductor giant Intel, which continues to use a shared bus architecture.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Dress and casual shoes

Casual shoes, made of leather Dress shoes are categorized by smooth and supple leather uppers, leather soles, and narrow sleek shape. Casual shoes are characterized by sturdy leather uppers, non-leather outsoles, and wide profile. Some designs of dress shoes can be worn by either gender. The majority of dress shoes have an upper covering, commonly made of leather, enclosing most of the lower foot, but not covering the ankles. This upper part of the shoe is often made without apertures or openings, but may also be made with openings or even itself consist of a series of straps, e.g. an open toe featured in women's shoes. Shoes with uppers made high to cover the ankles are also available; a shoe with the upper rising above the ankle is usually considered a boot but certain styles may be referred to as high-topped shoes or high-tops. Usually, a high-topped shoe is secured by laces or zippers; although some styles have elastic inserts to ease slipping the shoe on.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Universal Serial Bus

Universal Serial Bus is a serial bus standard to interface devices. A major part in the legacy-free PC, USB was designed to allow peripherals to be connected using a single standardized interface socket, to improve plug-and-play capabilities by allowing devices to be connected and disconnected without rebooting the computer, and to allow specific classes of hardware to be used without requiring individual device drivers to be installed.

USB is intended to help retire all legacy serial and parallel ports. USB can connect computer peripherals such as mouse devices, keyboards, PDAs, game pads and joysticks, scanners, digital cameras and printers. For many devices such as scanners and digital cameras, USB has become the standard connection method. USB is also used extensively to connect non-networked printers; USB simplifies connecting several printers to one computer. USB was originally designed for personal computers, but it has become commonplace on other devices such as PDAs and video game consoles. In 2004, there were about 1 billion USB devices in the world.

The design of USB is standardized by the USB Implementers Forum, an industry standards body incorporating leading companies from the computer and electronics industries. Notable members have included Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, NEC, Microsoft, Intel, and Agere.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Biotechnology

Biological technology is technology based on biology, particularly when used in agriculture, food science, and medicine. Biotechnology means any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to construct or change products or processes for specific use.

Biotechnology combines disciplines like genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, embryology and cell biology, which are in turn allied to practical disciplines like chemical engineering, information technology, and robotics.Biotechnology can also be defined as the exploitation of organisms to do practical things and to provide useful products.

One characteristic of biotechnology is the directed use of organisms for the manufacture of organic products. For another example, naturally present bacteria are utilized by the mining industry in bioleaching. Biotechnology is also used to recycle, treat waste, clean up sites infected by industrial activities, and produce biological weapons.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Chain

A broad metal chain made of torus-shaped links. A metal chain with diamond fashioned link pins. Roller chains, a chain is a sequence of connected links, usually made of metal.
Chains are typically made in one of two styles, according to their intended use: Those designed for lifting, such as when used with a hoist, or for securing, such as with a bicycle lock, have links that are torus shaped, which makes the chain flexible in two dimensions. Those designed for transferring power in machines have links designed to mesh with the teeth of the gears of the machine, and are flexible in only one dimension. They are known as Roller chains. Chains can also be ornamental as jeweler.

Uses for chain
Exact uses for chain include: Bicycle chain, chain that transfers power from the wheel to the
drive-wheel of a bicycle thus propelling it Chain drive, the main feature which differentiated the safety bicycle Chain gun, type of machine gun that utilizes a chain, driven by an external power source, to actuate the mechanism rather than using recoil Chain pumps, type of water pump where an endless chain has positioned on it circular discs Chain-linked Lewis, lifting device made from two curved steel legs Chainsaw, portable mechanical, motorized saw Curb chain, used on curb bits when riding a horse Keychain, a small chain that connects a small item to a key ring Lead shank, used on difficult horses that are misbehaving O-ring chain, a specialized type of roller chain Roller chain, the type of chain most commonly used for transmission of mechanical power on bicycles, motorcycles, and in industrial and agricultural .machinery Snow chains, used to improve traction in snow Timing chain, used to regulate the valve and ignition timing on an internal combustion engine Ball and chain, phrase that can refer to either the actual restraint device that was used to slow down prisoners, or a derogatory description of a person's significant other Bicycle lock, lockable chain.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

History of Bonneville Dam

100 Bonneville Lock and Dam consists of a number of dam structures that together complete a span of the Columbia River between the US states of Oregon and Washington at River Mile 146.1. The dam is situated 40 miles east of Portland, Oregon, in what is now the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. The key functions of Bonneville Lock and Dam are those of electrical power creation and river navigation. The dam was built and is managed by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Electrical power generated at Bonneville is dispersed by the Bonneville Power Administration. Bonneville Lock and Dam are named for Army Capt. Benjamin Bonneville, an early explorer credited with charting much of the Oregon Trail. The name is pronounced BAH-nee-vill.


The original structures: a lock and powerhouse constructed on the south side of Bradford Island and a spillway on the north side were built by the Army Corps of Engineers during the New Deal—started in 1933 and finished in 1937. Prior to this damming of the river, a set of curls that were opened in 1896 moved ships around Cascades Rapids, situated several miles upstream of Bonneville. Both the cascades and the old lock structure were submerged by Lake Bonneville, the reservoir that formed behind the dam. The original navigation lock at Bonneville was opened in 1938 and was, at that time, the largest single-lift lock in the world.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Information Technology

Information technology (IT) is the study, design, development, implementation, support or administration of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware. In short, IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to transfer, store, protect, process, transmit and get back information, securely.

In this definition, the term "information" can frequently be replaced by "data" without loss of meaning. Recently it has become popular to widen the term to explicitly consist of the field of electronic communication so that people tend to use the abbreviation ICT (Information and Communication Technology). Strictly speaking, this name contains some redundancy.

Today, the term Information Technology has distended to encompass many aspects of computing and technology, and the term is more identifiable than ever before. The Information Technology umbrella can be quite large, covering many fields. IT professionals achieve a variety of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and information databases.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Imperial Airways

Imperial Airways was an early on British saleable air transport company, in service from 1924 to 1939.

Created subsequent the advice of the government Humbling Committee in 1923 — that the main existing aircraft companies should be merged to create a company which would be physically powerful enough to develop Britain's external air services — and offered a £1m subsidy over ten years if they merged. Imperial Airways Limited was formed in March 1924 from the British Marine Air Navigation Company Ltd, the Daimler Airway, Handley-Page Transport Ltd and the Intone Air Line Ltd. The land operations were based at Corydon Airport.

The first commercial flight was in April 1924, when a daily London-Paris examines was opened. Additional services to other European destinations were started all through the summer. The first new airliner was specially made by Imperial Airways in November 1924. In the first year of operation the company carried 11,395 passengers and 212,380 letters.

The porch of service to the British Empire was not begun until 1927 when, with the addition of six new aircraft, a service was instituted from Cairo to Basra. But the first service from London for Karachi did not start until 1929 using newly purchased Short S.8 Calcutta flying boats; even then the passengers were transported by train from Paris to the Mediterranean where the Short flying boats were. In February 1931 a weekly service between London and Tanganyika was started as part of the proposed route to Cape Town and in April an investigational London-Australia air mail flight took place; the mail was transferred at the Netherlands East Indies, and took 26 days in total to reach Sydney. The purchase of the 8 Handley Page 42 four-engine airliners boosted the series of services; in 1932 the service to Africa was extensive to Cape Town.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Camera phone

A camera phone is a cellphone which has a camera built in. The world's first camera phone was the J-SH04 made by Sharp Corporation and put on market from J-Phone (Vodafone) in Japan in November 2000. The cameras characteristically use CMOS image sensors. This is due mainly to reduced power consumption compared to CCD type cameras, which are also used. The lower power consumption prevents the camera from quickly depleting the phone's battery. Major manufacturers include Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, and LG Electronics. As of 2004, the resolution in Japan is classically in the megapixel range such as 2 megapixels, while in North America and Europe 0.3 megapixels (VGA) is most common. In 2004, 60% percent of mobile phones in Japan have built-in cameras, and this is predictable to rise in 2005. Previously, the highest resolution available was 7 megapixels on the Samsung SCH-V770. This has since been replaced as Samsung Electronics unveiled the world's first 8.0 megapixel camera phone, the WCDMA SPH-V8200.As a network-connected device, megapixel camera phones are initial to play significant roles such as crime prevention, journalism and business applications as well as individual uses. On the other hand, they are prone to abuse such as voyeurism and invasion of privacy.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Monday, April 02, 2007

Light

Light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength that is able to be seen to the eye or, in a technical or scientific setting, electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength. The three basic dimensions of are:

Intensity (or brilliance or amplitude, professed by humans as the glow of the light),
Frequency (or wavelength, apparent by humans as the color of the light), and
Polarization (or angle of shaking and not audible by humans under ordinary circumstances)
Due to wave-particle duality, light at the same time exhibits properties of both waves and particles. The exact nature of light is one of the key questions of modern physics.

Visible electromagnetic radiation

Visible light is the piece of the electromagnetic spectrum between the frequencies of 380 THz and 750 THz. The speed, frequency, and wavelength of a wave obey the relation:

Because the speed of light in a vacuum is fixed, able to be seen light can also be characterized by its wavelength of between 400 nanometers and 800 nm.

Speed of light
Main article: velocity of light
Even though some people express of the "velocity of light", the word velocity should be kept back for vector quantities, that is, those with both magnitude and way. The speed of light is a scalar quantity, having only magnitude and no direction, and therefore speed is the correct term.

The speed of light has been measured many times, by many physicists. The best early measurement is Ole Rømer's, in 1676. By observing the motions of Jupiter and one of its moons, Io, with a get smaller, and noting discrepancies in the apparent period of Io's orbit, Rømer calculated a speed of 227,000 kilometers per second.