News

punetimes: After much delay, the ambitious computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD-CAM) unit at the Artificial Limb Centre (ALC) here will be inaugurated on Saturday by director-general, Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS), Lt Gen Yogendra Singh.

Once installed, the CAD-CAM unit will help in accurate and speedier production of artificial limbs at the centre, which caters to about 1,500 soldiers and defence officers, apart from civilians, every year.

Established in 1944, the ALC is the only specialised centre in the country to provide clinical rehabilitation to wounded soldiers, besides civilians. The centre was awarded an ISO 9001-2000 certification in November 2006.

ALC officials said the computer-aided technique will now allow design and manufacture of precise prosthesis required for each individual, besides cutting down on manufacturing delays. Although the proposal for the CAD-CAM was submitted in 2003, the project was delayed because of “procedural reasons”.

Conventional artificial limbs normally take six weeks to two months to be manufactured, whereas the new CAD-CAM unit will equip the ALC to manufacture precise prosthesis within a week.

punetimes:  High drama prevailed during the Pune Tree Authority (PTA) election meeting on Thursday as all the four candidates, jointly recommended by the Congress and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), were defeated by a majority vote.

A Congress delegation, led by Aba Bagul, is now scheduled to rush to Mumbai on Friday, demanding cancellation of the PTA’s election process. The Congress has charged municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi with “high-handedness” and manipulation of the election process to favour the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

In an unofficial tie-up with the BJP and the Shiv Sena, the NCP on Thursday got five party workers elected to PTA. In return, the BJP and the Sena got three seats each. The remaining four seats were actually meant for the Congress and the MNS, but they went to four environmentalists as the 11 NCP and the BJP and the Sena members voted against the Congress-MNS nominees.

The move has left the Congress high and dry as this is for the first time in PTA’s history that not a single Congress nominee has made it to the PTA, though it still has three corporators on the 30-member PTA, which comprises 15 corporators and 15 nominated experts.

punetimes: Shortage and black-marketing of kerosene and unaffordable cost of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is increasingly forcing poor families in the city to go back to rural preoccupations like collecting firewood and lighting chulhas for their daily chores.

This is the finding of a survey done by city-based Tathapi trust — a non-governmental organisation that works for women and child welfare in eight slums — in Pune during January-June 2007.

Significantly, this forced-change is leading to health problems like chest pain, irritation of the eyes and pain in legs among women and girls living in the slums.

It is estimated by the National Sample Survey Organisation that nearly 18% of urban households rely on firewood as fuel.

Since the introduction of the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), kerosene is available only to families holding orange and yellow ration cards, who do not have an LPG connection.

punetimes: A grocery shop owner in Koregaon Park has been given six months’ simple imprisonment and asked to pay a fine of Rs 1,000 for selling adulterated ‘besan’ (gram flour).

Pratapsingh Shivram Chaudhary, owner of Akash supermarket, was handed the punishment by judicial magistrate first class (Pune Municipal Corporation) SA Sinha. The imprisonment would extend by another one-and-a-half months if the fine is not paid.

A case was filed against Chaudhary by Pune Municipal Corporation officials after food inspector Magdum Shankar collected samples of the flour from the shop in January 2002, which revealed the adulteration.

msnbc: Nearly five years after rolling onto the market, the Roomba vacuum cleaner has undergone a ground-up redesign that has endowed the otherwise-brainy robot with the smarts to overcome rug tassels and electrical cords.

The fifth generation of the Roomba also has sturdier moving parts and improved durability that iRobot Corp. hopes will entice cleanliness fanatics who want their floors cleaned daily.

The Burlington, Mass.-based company said Wednesday its Roomba 500 series is designed to scoot around for an hour a day for three to five years. The more fragile early models sometimes met with failed motors or bad bearings after 150 hours of cleaning.

“If you really bought into the idea that this thing is here to clean every day, people ended up killing their robots,” said Colin Angle, iRobot’s chief executive and a company co-founder.

Despite the dinner plate-sized Roomba’s ability to transition smoothly from hard floors or low carpet to rugs, the cleaning brushes on earlier models can get stuck on tassels and cords. That means finding the wayward gadget, untangling its brushes and restarting it.

The new models have more sophisticated robot brains that instruct the brushes to briefly spin in reverse and spit out the cord or tassel. When the tangle has been averted, the brushes resume spinning forward and the cleaner continues on its way.

The Roomba now sports a more sophisticated room-navigation system to slow its approach toward obstacles for a gentler and quieter impact. And new, programmable “Virtual Wall Lighthouses” that come with the top-of-the line 560 model employ radio communications to tell the robot which interior spaces to clean and which to avoid.

msnbc: Once upon a time, people went to libraries to find books instead of surfing the Internet.

Computer giant IBM now wants you to walk into three-dimensional Web worlds to browse virtual libraries.

IBM sales representatives in Singapore, Malaysia and Australia will now staff the company’s virtual Business Center in Second Life, an online world where millions of participants create alter egos called avatars, buy property and interact with one another.

“The real reason why we’re doing this is because we do feel the beginning of a major transformation on how people are going to interact on the Web — going from a flat to an immersive experience,” said Maggie Blayney, director of Global Web Strategy & Innovation for ibm.com.

“It’s not going to replace the two-dimensional Web but it’s going to integrate and complement it,” she told Reuters in a telephone interview.

IBM launched its virtual Business Center in May with staff from North and Latin America and Europe, to provide sales and support services for clients and visitors in Second Life.

msnbc: It’s still beyond the reach of science to predict exactly when an earthquake will strike, but Japan will soon get the next-best thing — televised warnings that come before anyone feels the ground shake.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency and national broadcaster are teaming up to alert the public of earthquakes as much as 30 seconds before they hit, or at least before they can bring their full force down on populated areas.

The system — the first of its kind in the world — does not predict quakes, but officials say it can give people enough time to get away from windows that could shatter, or to turn off ovens and prevent fires from razing homes.

And in one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, every second counts.

“If we can give people enough time to take even a few steps to protect themselves before the shaking starts, it could help reduce injuries and damage,” said agency spokesman Makoto Saito.

The warnings, to begin in October, will be based on data provided by the Meteorological Agency, which maintains a network of sensors deep underground that estimate the intensity of a quake as soon as the ground ruptures.

bbc: PlayStation 3 (PS3) users in Europe will soon be able to record and playback digital TV on their console.
Sony has unveiled a TV tuner which plugs into the PS3 and turns it into a personal video recorder like Sky+.

The company has held a press conference at the Leipzig games show in which it highlighted key multimedia capabilities for the PS3 and handheld PSP.

More than 200,000 gamers are expected at the German show, playing some of the year’s biggest games.

Games on display at the show will include Halo 3, Mass Effect, Super Mario Galaxy, Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, Crysis, Warhammer Online and the new expansion pack for World of Warcraft, The Lich King.

techtree: Microsoft has reportedly launched the SideWinder gaming mouse, which mainly targets hardcore computer video game fans.

In case of this mouse, everything from cable thickness to it’s weight to the way it glides can be customized to suit individual preferences.

The mouse weight can be adjusted anywhere between 5 and 30 grams in 5 gram increments.

Three buttons instantly switch between DPI 400, 800, and 2000, else settings can be customized using special software.

Users can also select from three sets of mouse feet for that perfect ‘glide’ effect.

According to Microsoft, the SideWinder mouse features a 2,000 dpi resolution, 7080 frames per second image processing, 20G max acceleration, 45 inches per second max speed, and an amazing 9 million clicks on each of the main buttons.

The mouse includes a Quick Launch Button; 5 programmable main buttons; advanced gaming software for programming macros and profiles and customizing game settings; a wide metal scroll wheel; and vertical metal side buttons.

Interestingly, the SideWinder comes with the first ever LCD on a mouse to keep track of game functions and settings.