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Rumours that Google PageRank is not useful anymore is about to take a new turn.

Just as Silicon Valley insiders are calling for a qualified scuttling of Google’s PageRank algorithm in sussing out Web page relevance, U.K. researchers are turning to Google’s golden formula to combat the spread of treatment-resistent infections in hospitals.

According to a report in New Scientist, a Bradford University research group headed by Clive Beggs believes that PageRank could provide the key to understanding how superbugs, such as staph infections, are transmitted through the wards.

Viewing transmission routes — by hand, through the air, or otherwise — as what amount to “infectious networks,” Beggs and associates are attempting to build a matrix similar to Google’s page-relevancy tool to rank infection paths.

Simon Shepherd, a mathematician on board with the endeavor, believes that by observing normal daily activity in a hospital, a matrix of interactions among people and objects can be expressed and then analyzed to better understand where “nodes in the network” maximize the transmission of infections.

“Obviously nurses move among patients and that can spread infection, but they also touch light switches and lots of other surfaces too,” Shepherd told New Scientist. “We sussed out in one ward that the chief node was a light switch. It could potentially distribute infection to the rest of the ward very quickly.”

With such knowledge in hand, hospital administrators could then put policies in place or make alterations to hospital infrastructure to disrupt the infection network, targeting those nodes that the BugRank algorithm identifies as the most problematic.

Did you hear ? Wordpress 2.4 is cancelled ! Or skipped actually

Welcome Wordpress 2.5 !!!

In light of the big changes happening in the codebase and admin section,
we're going to push back the next release to be aimed for early March.

This is the timeframe when 2.5 was originally schedule for, so we're
treating the originally planned 2.4 in December as a skipped release, as
a result of both the holidays and the large changes which we weren't
able to start on until late October.

There's some good stuff in the oven, and we don't want to rush it.

The new release shall be called 2.5. Various official docs and roadmaps
will be updated in due course.

--
Matt Mullenweg

Hey everyone,

Microsoft Hotmail has finally woken up to the land of Sabeer Bhatia (creator of hotmail) and Windows Live now offers personalized email addresses with an Indian ring to it.

Check out the list :

Whether you call Bombay your home, or Bangalore, get cool e-mail IDs as proof of residence!	Hrithik, SRK, Dravid, Sachin, Ash, Surya. Who is your favourite star? Exclusive e-mail IDs created for the top icons!	Are you hot? Or would you rather call yourself cool? Find an e-mail ID that describes your personality right here!	Sport, food, drink and lots of fun! IDs for all occasions. How many of these funky e-mail IDs have you got?	You’re in a class of your own, individuality is your key. It’s all about being you, in your own space. It’s about your e-mail ID!

You can get email addresses ending with any of the following :
Where I Live (Indian cities that rock) :

bangalorerocks.in
chennairocks.in
delhirocks.com
punerocks.in
punerocks.com
mumbairocks.in
mumbaimail.in
kolkatarocks.in
iliveinmalabarhill.in
iliveingoa.com
hyderabadrocks.in
goarocks.in
goarocks.com
goaisbliss.com
goagoagoa.com
emailmumbai.com
delhirocks.in
metroonmove.in
delhi4u.in
delhiden.mobi
delhifevers.in
unwinddelhi.in
delhihaatrocks.in
salaamdelhi.in
dillidilwaloki.co.in
dillimanch.co.in
saddidillibindas.mobi

Who I Like (Bollywood Actors and Actresses, Cricketers) :

clubaamir.com
clubabhishek.com
clubabhishek.in
clubaishwarya.com
clubaishwarya.in
clubamitabh.com
clubamitabh.in
clubasin.com
clubasin.in
clubdhoni.com
clubdhoni.in
clubdravid.com
clubdravid.in
clubhrithik.com
clubhrithik.in
clubjyothika.com
clubjyothika.in
clubkajol.com
clubkajol.in
clubkamal.com
clubkamal.in
clubkareena.com
clubkareena.in
clubpreity.com
clubpreity.in
clubrajni.com
clubrajni.in
clubrani.com
clubrani.in
clubsachin.com
clubsachin.in
clubsehwag.com
clubsehwag.in
clubsimran.com
clubsimran.in
clubsrk.com
clubsrk.in
clubsurya.com
clubsurya.in
clubsushmita.com
clubsushmita.in
clubvikram.com
clubvikram.in

Who I Am (good, hot, Guitar Guru) :

iamgood.in
iamhot.in
iammarried.in
iamsingle.in
iamsizzling.com
iamsizzling.in
iamcold.in
iambald.in
iambad.in
martinian.in
boscoite.com
globallyunique.in
dangerouslyhigh.in
bungeejumper.in
goballistic.in
imjustadreamer.in
slipperysadhu.in
trancemusiclovers.in
lover4life.co.in
jinxed4ever.net
partyanimals.co.in
ndanuts.co.in
ministryofsoundlovers.mobi
Underpaid.co.in
Overworked.co.in
Bornleader.co.in
Peoplesperson.co.in
Read more…

Here’s an interesting article I found from ecoIron

Take at look at Google, who gets about 200 million queries a day. Let’s assume each query is displayed for about 10 seconds; that means Google is running for about 550,000 hours every day on some desktop. Assuming that users run Google in full screen mode, the shift to a black background [on a CRT monitor! mjo] will save a total of 15 (74-59) watts. That turns into a global savings of 8.3 Megawatt-hours per day, or about 3000 Megawatt-hours a year. Now take into account that about 25 percent of the monitors in the world are CRTs, and at 10 cents a kilowatt-hour, that’s $75,000, a goodly amount of energy and dollars for changing a few color codes.

You’ll find a lot of pages out there that claim “many studies have shown … that dark text on light background is easier to read”. I have always suspected that this is due to the historical accident that physical writing works best with dark ink on light paper-ish stuff. I wonder how many of “those studies” studied populations that grew up unbiased — i.e., grew up and learned to read without the historical accident of paper-based (dark on light) reading.

Only CRT displays use more energy to display brighter things. For everything else, it is completely false that a black display uses less energy than a white page. The backlight on an LCD is on for the entire LCD regardless of what is being shown. The black pixels are only black because the LCD blocks out light. Same with projectors, etc. You’re article is thoughtful, but invalid.

Something to consider: If Google were to change the color scheme to all black, Google would loose AT LEAST 50% of its user base (dare I say 80%?). The “tech Elite” could find work arounds such as using Firefox extensions (Stylish or Greasemonkey), but the vast majority would just switch REGARDLESS of the fact that functionality remained the same.

All the money Google would be saving people (assuming the accuracy of this article) would be guzzled in the end by Google’s competition: Yahoo And Microsoft have lots of white on their search pages.

Fact is, this entire idea of Google saving energy by switching to “black” would lose GOOGLE money, and not be much better energy wise at then end. Not only will it never happened, but even if it did no good would come of it (for anyone).

India decides to lift tsunami alert

Tsunami alert was sounded in Andaman & Nicobar -  Marina beach wears deserted look

The Marina beach in Chennai, one of the longest in the world, wore a deserted look this evening as police asked people who came there to leave, following the tsunami alert issued by the Centre.

Though the state has not issued any official warning, it had asked police to be on alert along the coastal areas and evacuate people, if the need arose.

Official sources said that police are watching the sea to see if there was any ‘unusual wave patterns’.

“We are going to withdraw the alert, we are sending the message,” the official at the home ministry’s National Disaster Management Authority told Reuters. “The technical advice is only to keep a watch until 10:30 p.m. at some places.”

A powerful earthquake measuring 8.2 has struck Indonesia’s Sumatra region, triggering tsunami warnings in the Indian Ocean and sparking panic in coastal areas across south-east Asia.

About two hours after the quake hit, Indonesia’s meteorological agency lifted its tsunami warning and said via a telephone text message that there had been no tsunami.

But Malaysian authorities have reported a tsunami measuring one to three metres in height and heading away from the epicentre of the quake.

The United States Geological Survey increased the quakes magnitude to 8.2 after an earlier measurement of 7.9.

Earthquakes of over 8.0 magnitude are the most violent on the scale.

Indonesia’s Global TV reports several buildings in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra, have collapsed, while Metro TV reports some buildings have caught fire.

A Reuters witness says residents of Padang, north of the earthquake’s epicentre, have fled for higher ground.

“The city is in complete chaos. Everyone is heading to higher ground, I saw one house collapsed to the ground. I’m trying to save my family,” the witness said.

An aide to Padang Mayor Fauzi Bahar says there have been no initial reports of casualties.

“Some buildings suffered from broken glass but we have not heard of any major damage,” he said.

Indonesia’s Meteorological agency said via an SMS alert the quake’s epicentre was 159 kilometres south-west of Bengkulu, which is in south Sumatra.

Aust islands among areas warned

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued an Indian Ocean tsunami warning after the huge quake struck at 6:10 pm (9:10pm AEST).

Authorities from Malaysia and Sri Lanka issued independent warnings, as did India for the Andaman and Nicobar islands, and Australia for Christmas and Cocos Islands.

Police on Christmas Island have reported no increase in water levels since the alert was issued, despite the expected time of any tsunami coinciding with a high tide.

They say they tidal measuring instruments have not shown any fluctuations an hour after the predicted time for any wave caused by the earthquake.

Some residents of Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand felt the quake and some buildings were evacuated.

Malaysian warning stands

In Malaysia, Mohd Rosaidi Cheabas, director of the Meteorology Department’s seismological division, says it is not following Indonesia in lifting the tsunami warning.

“Right now, the tsunami is already detected over Padang, Indonesia, at a height of one to three metres,” he said.

“We are not following Indonesia. We are still monitoring the movement of the tsunami wave to our region.”

He said the tsunami had been detected by a tide gauge and was not clear on the direction of the wave.

The division estimated that if the tsunami was headed for Malaysia, it could reach the north-western shores of the Malaysian peninsula after midnight AEST.

Malaysian authorities issued a tsunami warning for citizens to stay away from beaches.

Police on the resort island of Penang, hit in the 2004 tsunami, have been mobilised to evacuate people from beach-side hotels and other dwellings, a local government official said.

A huge earthquake struck the region on December 26, 2004, causing a massive tsunami and more than 230,000 deaths.

Indonesia suffers frequent quakes, lying on an active seismic belt on part of the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire”.

- Reuters