Here's how Indian techies are minting a fortune in bitcoins

BENGALURU: When 32-year-old Harshad Gawde first invested in bitcoins in 2013, he couldn't have expected the returns from it to sponsor an all-India tour, beginning with a six-month trip through Roopkund hills in Uttarakhand. He will be living off $15 daily payouts from that investment.

"I invested in bitcoin when one coin was worth Rs 28,000, one-tenth of what it is today," the Mumbai-based Gawde said. On August 30, one bitcoin was worth Rs 2,91,822—its value skyrocketing since Donald Trump's election as the US president in November and spawning an industry of auxiliary services for people rushing in to find gold in the virtual currency.

Bitcoin is a decentralised, paperless cryptocurrency invented by Satoshi Nakamoto, an alias for an anonymous programmer in 2009.
Unlike traditional currencies, crypto coins are not produced by a central authority like a bank or a consortium. It is a mathematical formula. These coins are produced by massively souped-up computers, called 'mining rigs', that solve complex math problems to obtain these virtual currencies. A ledger records all the transactions.
Bitcoins saw explosive growth in India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi recalled high-denomination banknotes in November. Indian bitcoin exchanges have received a lot of traction in the past few months with more than 1 million active crypto-currency users.

"We recently crossed 100,000 active users on our platform, and are adding 10,000-20,000 users a month," said Hesham Rehman, chief executive of bitcoin exchange Bitxoxo.

High-tech electronics can be made from fallen tree leaves:

BEIJING: Researchers in China have discovered a new method to convert fallen tree leaves into a porous carbon material that can be used to produce high-tech electronics.

In a study published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, the researchers described the process to convert tree leaves into a form that could be incorporated into electrodes as active materials.

The dried leaves were first ground into a powder, then heated to 220 degrees Celsius for 12 hours. This produced a powder composed of tiny carbon microsphere.


These microspheres were then treated with a solution of potassium hydroxide and heated by increasing the temperature in a series of jumps from 450 to 800 degrees Celsius.
The chemical treatment corrodes the surface of the carbon microspheres, making them extremely porous.

The final product, a black carbon powder, has a very high surface area due to the presence of many tiny pores that have been chemically etched on the surface of the microspheres.

The high surface area gives the final product its extraordinary electrical properties.

The investigators, led by Hongfang Ma of Qilu University of technology in Shandong, ran a series of standard electrochemical tests on the porous microspheres to quantify their potential for use in electronic devices.
The current-voltage curves for these materials indicated that the substance could make an excellent capacitor.

Further tests showed that the materials were, in fact, supercapicitor with specific capacitances of 367 Farads/gram, which are over three times higher than values seen in some graphene supercapacitors.

A capacitor is a widely used electrical component that stores energy by holding a charge on two conductors, separated from each other by an insulator.

Supercapacitors can typically store 10-100 times as much energy as an ordinary capacitor, and can accept and deliver charges much faster than a typical rechargeable battery.

For these reasons, supercapacitive materials hold great promise for a wide variety of energy storage needs, particularly in computer technology and hybrid or electric vehicles.

Google accidentally broke the internet throughout Japan

Last week, nearly half of Japan briefly lost access to the internet because of an error made by Google. The mistake was noticed and corrected within just a few minutes, but its effects led to hours of slowed internet connections. The impact was so large that Japan's Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry initiated an investigation into the issue.

The problem occurred around noon on Friday. A mistake on Google's end made it appear as if a large chunk of IP addresses were available for internet traffic to be routed through Google. However, those IP addressesactually belonged to Japanese internet service providers. So a large amount of traffic that was meant for Japan was suddenly sent towards Google by major internet service providers like Verizon. But Google isn't a service provider and isn't meant to route traffic, so all of that traffic destined for Japan was basically just sent nowhere.

Connectivity was restored within the hour, but persistently slow connection speeds resulting from the mistake affected industries like finance, where online trading was halted, and transportation -- East Japan Railway Co. riders weren't able to buy tickets or board trains. The internet service providers impacted the most were KDDI Corp. and NTT Communications, the latter of which provides service to well over seven million people.

A Google spokesperson told Asahi Shimbun, "We set wrong information for the network and, as a result, problems occurred. We modified the information to the correct one within eight minutes. We apologize for causing inconvenience and anxieties (among Internet users )

Google Celebrates James Wong Howe's 118th Birthday With A Doodle

 Today google marked the 118th birthday of James Wong Howe with a doodle.

He is a Chinese American cinematographer who rose to fame for his innovative filming techniques despite racial adversity.

He was born in Guangzhou, China, Howe immigrated to the US when he was five years old and grew up in Washington. He boxed professionally in his teens, worked odd jobs, and then finally started in the industry by delivering films and picking up scraps from a studio's cutting room floor.

Throughout his career, he used lighting, framing, and minimal camera movement to express emotion. He accidentally discovered how to use dark backdrops to create color nuances in black-and-white film.

He pioneered using wide-angle lenses, low key lighting, and color lighting. Howe also made early use of the crab dolly, a camera dolly with four wheels and a movable arm supporting the camera.

In contrast to the success of his work life, James faced racial discrimination in his private life: he became a US citizen only after the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act; due to anti-miscegenation laws, his marriage was not be legally recognized in the US until 1948.

Despite the barriers he faced, James retired with two Oscar awards as one of the most celebrated cinematographers of his time. He won the academy awards for cinematography twice for "The Rose Tattoo" and the "Hud".

James was judged to be one of history's ten most influential cinematographers in a survey of the members of the International Cinematographers Guild.

Will Anybody Actually Use Tesla’s Electric Semi Truck?

Elon Musk announced on Thursday his company's plan to unveil an electric semi truck in September. Musk said the truck, which would be an environmentally friendly alternative to diesel-powered trucks, is "seriously next level." But will trucking companies actually use them?

It's not yet clear how much Tesla will charge for the truck, but it may be a tough sell for companies who have fewer trucks compared to giants like UPS and FedEx. Roughly 97% of an estimated 1.3 million trucking companies operate 20 or fewer trucks, according to a 2015 report from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Nearly 91% of companies operate with six or fewer.

To Craig Holt, a Staunton, Va.-based driver for transport company Shenandoah, it's going to be a long time before an electric truck looks attractive to smaller companies. For one thing, industry experts predict the Tesla semi-truck will only be able to travel for 200 to 300 miles before needing to recharge, according to Forbes. And Holt's freightliner typically needs 300 gallons of diesel fuel to travel 1,400 miles before refueling.

"The whole point is to travel long distances as quickly and effortlessly as possible," Holt said.

Keenan Owens, a Fort Worth, Texas-based driver for food and beverage distributor Ben E. Keith, echoed Holt's sentiments, adding that a number of drivers nationwide are paid by cents per mile. "If my truck only works for a few hours, you'd have to do extra loads to compete," he said, adding that frequent breaks at Tesla charging stations would subtract pay for drivers who get paid by the mile.

These added stops would also increase congestion and overall trip time, said Mike Hewitt, associate professor of information systems and supply chain management at Loyola University in Chicago. Hewitt doesn't see how the wide-spread adoption of Tesla trucks could be done without the government paying for more charging stations—and President Donald Trump's plan for infrastructure is still a work in progress.

Given members of Trump's administration have spoken out against climate change, it's unclear what the future of electric vehicles in particular looks like—even with Musk serving on the president's economic advisory council.

Large shipping companies like UPS tend to make public commitments to sustainability, but with less visibility, Hewitt is skeptical small companies would be inclined to get behind Tesla's truck

Audi electric cars

Audi electric cars will come with solar roofs

Audi has inked a deal with solar panel expert Alta Devices to fit the energy-generating panels to the roofs of its future cars.

Alta Devices, based in California, is renowned for its highly efficient solar panels. It will work with Audi to develop thin, lightweight solar cells that can be integrated into the panoramic glass roofs commonly found on cars. The first prototype should be ready in late 2017. Later, the two firms will develop solar cells that will be able to line a car’s entire roof surface.

Audi will initially fit the solar roofs to its electric cars. The generated energy won’t be able to add range directly, however. Audi says the energy will only be used to power ancillaries like the air conditioner or seat heaters, thus saving that little bit of extra energy to increase range.

Eventually, though, the solar roofs will be able to directly charge the main battery, Audi promises. Such a system features on the Fisker Karma and its rebranded successor, the Karma Revero. We’re not talking much range. Given the limited space, a couple of miles of range will likely require at least a week of maximum sunshine.

Audi’s first volume electric car will be the e-tron SUV due in 2018. It will be joined shortly after by the coupe-like e-tron Sportback. Both models will be built at a plant in Belgium and offer a range of at least 250 miles. Audi will add one additional electric car by 2020, believed to be a city car targeting the BMW i3 and to a lesser extent Chevrolet’s Bolt EV.

Verify Your Phone Number, email ID of Aadhar Card on UIDAI

How to Verify Your Phone Number, email ID of Aadhar Card on UIDAI Website

People are bit confused while providing their contact information with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for your Aadhaar Card. Many times people come into dilemma whether the information given while applying to Aadhar Card is correct or not. 

Techiyogiz here comes up useful information on how to verify Phone Number of your Aadhar Card by heading to UIDAI official website. Aadhar Card is the mosit important identification of a person which is being taken into consideration by Government of India and also made mandatory.

Linking Aadhar Card with PAN Card is also mandatory for filling income tax returns and the important of it has been increased all these years. Here is the online tool of UIDAI to instantly verify contact information of the person or check whether it is right or wrong. 

People should go to home page of UIDAI official website to verify once Aadhaar Card's contact number. 

1. Go to Verify Email/Mobile Number under Aadhaar Services tab

2. New Tab opens - Enter details like your Aadhaar Number, email Address, Mobile Number

3. Type Security Code to head further

Verify Contact Number on UIDAI Website :- 

1. Enter Mobile Number Verify Email/Mobile Number tab

2. You will receive an OTP on the registered Mobile Number

3. Verify It

4. Congratulations! The Mobile Number matches with our records!

Verify email address on UIDAI Website :- 

1. On UIDAI platform enter Aadhaar number, email address, and a security code

2. You will receive an OTP to the email address

3. Verify it

4. Congratulations! The Email ID matches with our records!

Final Note:- 

Every piece of information provided by you at the time of Aadhar Card verification to UIDAI should be authentic and any wrong details might proceed to problems at very important times. Every detail should be right in terms of Aadhar Card as it is  most important proof of identification.

IPHONE 8

The headline feature of the next iPhone will be its ability to unlock without even touching it, according to numerous reports.

The phone will be able to use facial recognition technology to see its owner in just a few hundred miliseconds, according to new leaks from both The Korea Herald and Bloomberg. That feature will be the iPhone's "crown jewel" that will serve as its most innovative feature, the latter reported.

Rumours about Apple's facial recognition have swirled for months, and seemed to be confirmed by leaked iPhone code that made its way onto the internet. But it wasn't clear how it would actually work, and bad experiences with similar technology led some to worry that the feature could be a failure.

The new reports claim that the feature will be incredibly fast, as well as being more secure and accurate. It will also include a range of features never before seen, like infrared cameras that will allow it to see in the dark and processors that will let it see people's faces even if the phone is flat on a table, for instance.

Together, the improvements to those facial recognition features mean they will probably be among the top ways of selling the phones at their launch next month. Apple is also likely to focus on its brand new design and other updates like improved screen technology

As well as allowing the phone to unlock from afar and without any effort, the feature is also required because of the design of the phone. The fact that it has now bezel or chin at the bottom of the handset means that there's no place for the TouchID fingerprint sensor that currently unlocks it, meaning that another solution is required.

Other companies including Samsung have brought face and eye recognition to their phones in the past. But they have been blighted by an inability to recognise very quickly, or with enough certainty to make the feature a dependable security mechanism.

It's hard to say how Apple will sell the next iPhone, especially since its launch will be so different to any that came before it. Such rumours also suffer from the same problem as people trying to work out how Apple will name the product – the company probably hasn't decided yet, and even if it has could change its mind before the phone is actually released.

Android Oreo

Android O is officially called Android Oreo

The latest version of Android is officially here, and it’s called Android Oreo, as most people suspected. Google made the interesting decision to reveal the final name and consumer launch details of Android 8.0 coincidentally with the arrival of the solar eclipse over NYC, which is where it held its launch live stream today.

Google has traditionally used sweet treats for the names of its major Android releases, dating back to Android 1.5, aka “Cupcake.” KitKat (4.4) was the last branded release, with Google typically sticking to generic dessert names wherever possible. Oreo is pretty much the only choice for an “O” dessert that’s broadly and instantly recognizable, however, so it seems like it was almost inevitable.

Here’s what Oreo contains: The foundational cookie sandwich pieces are likely the boot speed and memory improvements Google made by changing the way the operating system works at a basic level to boost Pixel smartphone start times by up to 100 percent, and to improve the efficiency of use of system resources among apps and background tasks.

For the creamy filling, we have picture-in-picture, which allows you to run video apps on top of other tasks, on both phones and tablets. There’s also now Android Instant Apps, which provide access to apps instantly without requiring a download for limited interactivity; notification dots, which tell you when there’s activity within a specific app with a dot in the corner; and autofill for apps, which is like the feature on the web but for individual Android applications.

Android O also ships with more security features, including remote location, locking and wiping with Find My Device, and Google Play Protect, which scans for, detects and automatically deletes malicious apps on a daily basis.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A

          Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A smartphone was launched in August 2017. The phone comes with a 5.50-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 720 pixels by 1280 pixels.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A is powered by quad-core Snapdragon 425 processor and it comes with 2GB of RAM. The phone packs 16GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 128GB via a microSD card. As far as the cameras are concerned, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A packs a 13-megapixel primary camera on the rear and a 5-megapixel front shooter for selfies.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A runs Android 7.0 and is powered by a 3080mAh non removable battery. It measures 153.00 x 76.20 x 7.50 (height x width x thickness) and weigh 150.00 grams.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A is a dual SIM (GSM + CDMA and GSM + CDMA) smartphone that accepts Nano-SIM and Nano-SIM. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and 4G. Sensors on the phone include Compass Magnetometer, Proximity sensor, Accelerometer and Ambient light sensor

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A detailed specifications

GENERAL

Release date	August 2017
Form factor	Touchscreen
Dimensions (mm)	153.00 x 76.20 x 7.50
Weight (g)	150.00
Battery capacity (mAh)	3080
Removable battery	No
SAR value	NA

DISPLAY

Screen size (inches)	5.50
Touchscreen	Yes
Resolution	720x1280 pixels

HARDWARE

Processor	quad-core
Processor make	Snapdragon 425
RAM	2GB
Internal storage	16GB
Expandable storage	Yes
Expandable storage type	microSD
Expandable storage up to (GB)	128

CAMERA

Rear camera	13-megapixel
Flash	Yes
Front camera	5-megapixel

SOFTWARE

Operating System	Android 7.0
Skin	MIUI 9

CONNECTIVITY

Wi-Fi	Yes
Wi-Fi standards supported	802.11 b/g/n
GPS	Yes
Bluetooth	Yes, v 4.20
NFC	No
Infrared	No
USB OTG	No
Headphones	3.5mm
FM	No
Number of SIMs	2
SIM 1
SIM Type	Nano-SIM
GSM/CDMA	GSM + CDMA
3G	No
4G/ LTE	Yes
Supports 4G in India (Band 40)	No
SIM 2
SIM Type	Nano-SIM
GSM/CDMA	GSM + CDMA
3G	No
4G/ LTE	Yes
Supports 4G in India (Band 40)	No

SENSORS

Compass/ Magnetometer	Yes
Proximity sensor	Yes
Accelerometer	Yes
Ambient light sensor	Yes
Gyroscope	No
Barometer	No
Temperature sensor	No

An eye for an eye

                     Eye for an eye

"Only one eye for one eye"^[1], also known as "An eye for an eye", or the law of retaliation, is the principle that a person who has injured another person is to be penalized to a similar degree, or in softer interpretations, the victim receives the [estimated] value of the injury in compensation.^[2] The intent behind the principle was to restrict compensation to the value of the loss.^[1]

The principle is sometimes referred using the Latin term lex talionis or the law of talion. The English word talion (from the Latin talio^[1]) means a retaliation authorized by law, in which the punishment corresponds in kind and degree to the injury

The term lex talionis does not always and only refer to literal eye-for-an-eye codes of justice (see rather mirror punishment) but applies to the broader class of legal systems that specify formulate penalties for specific crimes, which are thought to be fitting in their severity. Some propose that this was at least in part intended to prevent excessive punishment at the hands of either an avenging private party or the state.^[3] The most common expression of lex talionis is "an eye for an eye", but other interpretations have been given as well. Legal codes following the principle of lex talionis have one thing in common: prescribed 'fitting' counter punishment for a felony. In the famous legal code written by Hammurabi, the principle of exact reciprocity is very clearly used. For example, if a person caused the death of another person, the killer would be put to death.^[4]

Under the right conditions, such as the ability for all actors to participate in an iterative fashion, the "eye for an eye" punishment system has a mathematical basis in the tit for tat game theory strategy.

The simplest example is the "eye for an eye" principle. In that case, the rule was that punishment must be exactly equal to the crime. Conversely, the twelve tables of Rome merely prescribed particular penalties for particular crimes. The Anglo-Saxon legal code substituted payment of wergild for direct retribution: a particular person's life had a fixed value, derived from his social position; any homicide was compensated by paying the appropriate wergild, regardless of intent. Under the British Common Law, successful plaintiffs were entitled to repayment equal to their loss (in monetary terms). In the modern tort law system, this has been extended to translate non-economic losses into money as well. The meaning of the principle Eye for an Eye is that a person who has been injured by another person returns the offending action to the originator in compensation, or that an authority does so on behalf of the injured person. The exact Latin (lex talionis) to English translation of this phrase is actually "The law of retaliation." The root principle of this law is to provide equitable retribution