TechKnow: Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) for F1 cars

Yesterday during the Australian Grand Prix, many would say history was made as the Brawn GP team finished 1-2 on the podium. Yes, what a moment and everyone knows that. But there were some F1 cars which were using something people were calling the KERS. So, let us know on what this KERS thing is exactly.

KERS, when expanded known as the Kinetic Energy Recovery System is a very unique and a debated addition to F1 racing. As most people watching F1 have already known that it's sort of a speed boost and gives a increase in the speed for a few moments. It gives a speed boost of exactly 6.6 seconds giving a total of 82hp during that period. So where is the energy to give the boost coming from?

 

 A flywheel KERS

It is coming from the Kinetic Energy lost during the braking of an F1 car. The wasted Kinetic Energy is transferred from the rear end of the wheel to a battery or supercapacitor and when fully charged, can be used for that speed boost.

The KERS is exemplified in complex high end systems such as the Zytek, Flybrid, Torotrak and Xtrac used in F1. The concept of transferring the vehicle’s kinetic energy using Flywheel energy storage was postulated by physicist Richard Feynman in the 1950s. The Xtrac & Flybrid are both licensees of Torotrak's technologies, which employ a small and sophisticated ancillary gearbox incorporating a continuously variable transmission (CVT). The FIA has defined the amount of energy recovery for the 2009 season as 400kJ per lap which translates to 6.6 seconds of 82hp speed boost. The transfer of power to a battery is the electronic KERS system. There is a mechanical KERS system also which uses a flywheel to store the wasted kinetic energy instead of a battery.

The KERS system was tested for the first time during yesterday's Australian Grand Prix in Albert Park, Melbourne. The KERS system is quite heavy and expensive as a result of which many teams have opted out of it. Among the ones which are using are Ferrari, McLaren, Renault and BMW Sauber. The KERS system does not have much impact in the qualifying times as demonstrated by the poor qualifying times by the above teams but during yesterday's race, overtaking and stopping another from overtaking proved to be quite useful with the KERS and the extra boost was helping quite a lot. This is only the beginning for this new technology but some experts suggest that this might be a safety hazard for drivers using it. It remains to be seen on how the KERS works as the season progresses but whatever it is, it makes the current season of F1 a little bit more interesting after the Rear Diffuser controversy which I will also discuss right here in this blog very soon.

Windows 7 Release Candidate coming in May

OOPS! Microsoft spills it all over again. Now another premature download page for the Windows 7 RC just like what happened for Windows 7 Beta and it confirms that Microsoft are going to release the RC on May rather than April as previously rumored. Seems like not everything is going pretty quiet for Microsoft during the whole development of Windows 7. With a series of leaks even before and after the Beta was released and still continuing, Microsoft should look to take a cue from Apple on keeping things a big secret, even within their own departments. So, the page comes up and people see it. Where is it? See the screenshot below. The page appeared on TechNet.

 

Screenshot of the future Windows 7 RC download page

Well, I can see Microsoft banging their heads against their tables. After all, they had worked very hard to keep this is a complete rumor. All busted. Never mind. Good for us that we know when it's coming.

Meanwhile, here's what you need to know from the above image regarding the RC-

This is pre-release software, so please read the following to get an idea of the risks and key things you need to know before you try the RC.

• You don't need to rush to get Windows 7 RC. The RC release will be available at least through June 2009 and we're not limiting the number of product keys, so you have plenty of time.
• Watch the calendar. Windows 7 RC will expire on June 1, 2010. So if you install the RC release you'll either need to upgrade to the final version of Windows 7 before that date, or install a prior version of Windows. (For more about installing Windows, see installation instructions.
• Protect your PC and data. Be sure to back up your data and please don’t test Windows 7 RC on your primary home or business PC.
• Technical details/updates: before installing the RC please read the Release Notes, and Things to Know for important information about the release.
• Keep up with the news. You can keep up with general technical information and news by following the Springboard Series blog or Windows team blog. Want technical guidance, tips, and tools? Visit the Springboard Series on TechNet. And, you can get non-technical news, tips, and offers on the Springboard Series on TechNet
• Keep your PC updated: Be sure turn on automatic updates in Windows Update in case we publish updates for the RC.
• Microsoft Partners: Learn more about Windows 7 on the Microsoft Partner Portal. 

Here's what you need to have:

• Internet access (to download Windows 7 RC and get updates)
• A PC with these minimum recommended specifications:
• 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor or higher
• 1 GB of system memory or more
• 16 GB of available disk space
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (to enable the Aero theme)
• DVD-R/W Drive 

This part is the same as the Beta. The rest is what you should get. Download links and general information. Surely, interesting stuff from Microsoft to let us know. The TechNet page now takes you to the beta site again. So, users eagerly awaiting for the next release of Windows 7 will have to wait till May while testers might get a new build next month.

Windows 7 RC download page goes up early
Discuss on what you expect next in Windows 7 RC

Do you have the 'cool' tag to own Microsoft?

This is it folks, the moment we've been waiting for. PC users have suffered the taunting and teasing of Apple's "Get a Mac" ads for years now and it seems Microsoft has finally decided to fight fire with fire, valiantly.

Microsoft's latest addition to their "Life Without Walls" campaign is a new series of videos entitled "Laptop Hunters". In the premier video, we find Lauren who is in search for a brand new 17" laptop for under $1000. Lo and behold; Lauren's first stop - The Apple Store. Can you see where this is going? I think you can.

Oh, but after everything Apple has pulled over the years, do you think Microsoft would stop there? Nuh-uh. Head on over to The Wall Street Journal to be greeted with yet another surprise. Yes, it's a Mac vs. PC slot machine banner! (pictured above) Give it a spin to compare your affordable PC choice with a hilariously weak Mac offering.

Well done Microsoft, we knew you could do it. Superb twist to what you call a classic payback.

Laptop Hunters - Lauren
Laptop Hunters Home

Steve Clayton's Geek in Disguise

iPhone OS 3.0 released to developers

After the arrival of iPhone, things in the world of technology have been completely reshaped and modified. What was thought difficult was made easy by the man, Steve Jobs. The iPhone came and it was no less a wonder boasting of features like a Multi-touch screen, a complete multimedia device akin to the iPods, full Mac OS ported to the iPhone. But then with all the goodies comes all the drawbacks. So, Apple soon went to the drawing board once again and came up with the new Apple iPhone 3G. With more features and functionalities, people were getting increasingly happy. But again basic features like Copy/Paste functions and Forwading SMSes were omitted and Apple received huge criticisms for it.

Scott Forstall, senior vice president for iPhone software discussing the new cut, copy and paste feature

This time they have made sure we don't get much to crib out. Apple have released the iPhone OS 3.0 officially to developers and will be available to general public in June when Steve Jobs will be making his heroic comeback from his medical leave. Rather than talking too much garbage, let us delve into what the iPhone OS 3.0 has new to offer us. Here are some the key benefits out of 100-

• Cut, Copy and Paste across all applications. This announcement was greeted with thunderous applause prompting cynics to ask why people were clapping for a feature which every mobile phone already has.
• Forwading SMSes and the ability to delete multiple messages at one go.
• MMS. Not necessary but with QR codes, it can be used to sell tickets.
• Spotlight, OS X Leopard's search function will now be available making task work to be finished in a jiffy. Earlier, a lot of scrolling used to be the only thing.
• Turn by turn GPS navigation. If your city isn't mapped properly by Google Maps, you can use third-party maps to guide you.
• Support for Bluetooth stereo headphones.
• Exchange files and contacts over Bluetooth. Songs will be excluded.
• Instantly hook up with another Bluetooth phone and start playing games. No pairing is required.
• Typing e-mails in Landscape mode. You can type faster and gives you more space between keys.
• Parental Controls so that they can ban the sites and videos that they do not their children to watch.
• Better streaming of videos. iPhone will adjust playback depending on the Internet speed.
• Tethering. You can use your iPhone as a modem to get onto the Internet.
• Voice Memo. You can record your letters and mail them and even attach Contacts.
• Sending Contacts to others.
• Attach multiple photos in an e-mail. Currently you can attach only one picture.
• Search your e-mails. If it is not found on the phone, it will search the server too.
• Subscriptions. This will allow you to buy new levels of games and magazines, newspapers through the Kindle 2 app.
• Push. Instead of running applications simultaneously, draining battery life, audio and text alerts will be pushed into the closed app.
• Medical Apps will allow you to measure your blood sugar levels through an adaptor and even track your blood pressure.

With the freedom available to developers, the iPhone can be used as a control panel for practically any electronics available. You can pair iPhone with a set of speakers and use it as a digital equaliser or shake your phone to just shuffle your songs. The possibilities are endless.

iPhone 3.0 Feature list
Discuss about the iPhone OS 3.0

Microsoft officially releases Internet Explorer 8

Microsoft has announced the availability of Windows Internet Explorer 8, the new Web browser that offers the "best solution for how people use the Web today". It can be downloaded in 25 languages at the link given below starting at noon EDT on March 19. Internet Explorer 8 is easier to use, faster and offers leading-edge security features in direct response to people's increasing concerns about online safety. With this, Microsoft has moved a step further after IE7 was introduced to officially take on the likes of the giant Firefox and Opera.

"Customers have made clear what they want in a Web browser - safety, speed and greater ease of use," said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. "With Internet Explorer 8, we are delivering a browser that gets people to the information they need, fast, and provides protection that no other browser can match."

In response to extensive customer research and input from tens of millions of customer sessions, Microsoft developed Internet Explorer 8 to focus on what matters most to people. The security enhancements offer protection against existing and emerging security threats online. It blocks two to four times more malware attacks than other browsers; cuts down on the time it takes to complete common tasks on the Web such as searching, mapping and sharing, including navigating 15 of the 20 top worldwide sites; and blurs the lines between the services they use daily and the browser used to access the Internet.

With IE8, the browser market now becomes more competitive and enjoyable with Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Apple Safari and Google Chrome still battling it out. This competition has now become even more enjoyable. I will be publishing a review in a few days from now on.

Internet Explorer 8 Download Location
Discuss about Internet Explorer 8
News Source

ASUS P320 - The ideal business phone

ASUS, the brand well known for its EEE PC, motherboards and graphics cards which have won accolades all around the world have now come up with another stunning winner - The ASUS P320. ASUS have earlier launched quite a few number of PDAs but none of them didn't really work out and most notable among them is the M930 which tries to mimic the Nokia Communicator series but fails badly at that. But with the P320, ASUS has made no mistakes whatsoever.

The PDA is powered by a 2.6 inch screen with a resolution of 240x320 pixels, which is quite low a screen size for a business phone and that too with a touchscreen. It doesn't have a QWERTY keypad thus making typing on the touchscreen a bit difficult but it is fine once it is used a few times. It has got dimensions of 95x55x13 mm and has a weight of 105 g which makes it both light and sleek for a business PDA.Although there is no 3G in this device but lack of 3G wont really affect the Indian users of this product. This might be an issue in countries where 3G has arrived. It has GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity thus making it a powerhouse in the connectivity department. The PDA sports a 2-megapixel camera with autofocus and video recording. It also has the standard USB 2.0 port. It has SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email and MSN connectivity services thus making it a powerful all round device. GPS is a very nifty add-on for this phone which makes it even more functional.

The phone is powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional making it a heavyweight in terms of applications features and usability. Document editing is supported in the P320 and Excel, Word, PowerPoint, OneNote and other documents can be edited with ease. The performance is a bit on the slower side due to a slow processor but that doesn't deter it from testing it's limits.

The battery provides a standard talktime of up to 4 hours and a standby time of up to 400 hours. The battery is a Li-ion 1100 mAh which can provide enough juice to a feature rich phone as this one.

The price? Only Rs. 12,800 Indian Rupee and that is just the MRP. At such a price, this is simply a bargain. So why wait? You can't get such a full featured PDA at a price like this and with features like GPS and full office productivity suites, this baby is hard to miss. Excellent investment for anyone looking for the best value for money.


Final Verdict: Excellent phone. Deserves 4.5 stars out of 5. Great work by ASUS and let us hope they keep 'em coming.

Sound Reception:
Ease of Use:
Features:
Reliability & Durability:
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Gaming using Microsoft Silverlight

With the advent of latest technology, new new updates coming which are dynamic and totally unseen. And with days going by, each and every department of the technology is seeing heated up competition whether you call it software or the hardware arena. And, since Microsoft has a habit of leading from the front, why would they choose to stay behind when it comes to one of the world's most popular format - Flash. Introduced quite recently and unheard of for many, Silverlight has been introduced to the mainstream market and has already generated a huge fan following already. Many sites have already adopted it and quite a lot of online games have already arrived. Let's see what Silverlight has for us to offer.

A direct competitor of Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Flash, Silverlight provides a retained mode graphics system similar to Windows Presentation Foundation, and integrates multimedia, graphics, animations and interactivity into a single runtime environment. It has been designed in such a way that it will work in conjunction with XAML which can be used for marking up the vector graphics and animations and will be scriptable with Javascript.

Silverlight supports the playback of WMV, WMA and MP3 media content across all supported browsers which include Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Opera and Seamonkey without requiring Windows Media Player, the Windows Media Player ActiveX control or Windows Media browser plugins. Silverlight makes it possible to dynamically load XML content that can be manipulated through a DOM interface, a technique that is consistent with conventional Ajax techniques. These properties help it to make dynamic websites and for online Silverlight games.

The gaming market is slowly moving towards Silverlight and fast. On the right is a screenshot of a Silverlight game, Zombomatic. Silverlight games of these sorts are coming up very fast on the internet. And one of the sites which will soon be offering a huge number of Silverlight games in one place is the Silverlight Club. The site is working with various Silverlight game developers to bring the netizens 100s of Silverlight games to this one platform. Online gaming sure has a bright future and with sites like these coming up, you are made sure that you ain't going to have a boring experience sitting on the net. So if you are the one who is getting bored and sitting idle in front of your computer, then go and play Silverlight games online and make sure that your time doesn't go pulling your hair. Have fun gaming till then!