Cloud computing made it possible for small scale businesses to enjoy benefits like mail servers, storage systems etc., without any physical infrastructure. According to wikipedia cloud computing is defined as follows:
“Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort”.
On demand availability of resources, flexibility, scalability, efficiency, economical are few characteristics of cloud computing services. Cloud computing services are provided according to different service models.
Software as a Service(SaaS):
In this model, users gain access to a specific application or service. Users access this application only when needed and pay as per use. The software is installed by the cloud providers. Cloud users access the software from cloud clients. This makes it convenient for the users to use the application.
Platform as a Service(PaaS):
This model provides users an environment to develop and run applications without any software and hardware constraints. Both hardware and software resources are allocated automatically.
Infrastructure as a Service(IaaS):
This model provides users virtual machines along with many other resources like servers, storage, load balancer etc., for installing operating systems and deploying applications in the cloud infrastructure. Users are charged depending upon the resources allocated and consumed.
Hope this information helps you in choosing the right service model depending upon your requirement. Now, need not buy physical infrastructure for short term projects, instead you can choose from the above and pay only for the amount of resources utilized.
The need for alternative energy sources which do not produce more carbon is increasing. This is because there is increase in energy demands and a decrease in energy producing resources. Following are few alternatives for producing energy:
Solar power in space:
Wireless electricity can be transferred to Earth’s surface from the solar panels which are to be placed on a layer above the planet. The main limitations for implementing this alternate source of energy involves cost for wireless electricity transmission, protecting the panels from longer periods of radiation, cost for setting up the equipment in the orbit etc.
Solar Wind:
There are enormous number of charged particles in the solar wind produced by sun at very high speeds which can be used to generate electricity. This requires huge solar sail and charged wire. Electricity is generated when wind passes along it. The amount of electricity generated is dependent on the size of the solar sail deployed.
Dance Floor:
Applying compression force on certain kind of particles produces piezoelectricity. Piezoelectric crystals are attached to surfaces which are moving and smaller amounts of energy is generated. Piezoelectric harvesting technologies can be found in places like underground stations, nightclubs, gyms etc. Kinetic energy generated in this places is converted into piezoelectricity.
Harvesting the heat produced by body:
Huge amounts of heat is trapped in metro systems. There is a lot of temperature differential created by travellers who are sealed in insulated environment of the metro. Heat produced can be converted into electricity for local homes, apartments and businesses.
Speed bumps:
Electro-kinetic road ramps can be installed. Every ramp should have metal plates which are compressed when a vehicle passes and should turn on an internal generator. The amount of energy produced will depend on the weight of passing vehicle.
Sugar:
The metabolic burden on all microbes is evenly distributed as every microbe has unique functions and responsibilities. This helps in increasing the transmission efficiency and generates more electricity. Microbes live on organic substances. This concept motivated a team of Chinese students for developing an electricity generation platform which produces the same electricity output as lithium battery. This has more battery life, cost efficient and doesn’t emit any harmful substances.
References:
According to an article on Fortune magazine published on November 13th 2014 and few other resources on the internet (refer to references section for more information on the resources), following are the updates on few most ambitious projects of Google X:
- Project Self- Driving Car: This is one of the most amazing project which Google X is working on. The cars are programmed in such a way that, they can even handle the worst situations on roads. Cars are equipped with sensors and software for sensing objects and driving safely. Objects like pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles etc., are detected by the sensors based on their shape, size and movement pattern. The software can predict the next action taken by all the surrounding objects and chooses a safe speed and trajectory for the car. Currently, this car is self-driven over 1 million miles and are looking for feedback from the community for further improvements.
- High – Tech Balloons: Project Loon is Google’s idea to provide internet connectivity to remote and rural areas. Connectivity is not interrupted even after disasters. These balloons are present in the stratosphere layer. Cellular spectrum is shared by partnering with telecommunications companies and now people are able to connect to the balloon directly. This project was first tested by Poject Loon pioneers in New Zealand followed by California’s Central Valley and Northeast Brazil for enhancing this technology.
- Nanoparticles: This project aims at monitoring state of health from inside either by injecting magnetic nanoparticles or by creating a capsule of magnetic particles which after consumption circulated through the bloodstream. Any suspicious proteins, sugars etc., will be binded to these magnetic nanoparticles and a magnetically-active wristband will receive signals.
- Robots: This project is a collaborative effort of Google and Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon subsidiary. They aim at creating robotic surgery systems where the doctors will use a console for looking at a high definition image which is by show by robot’s camera. Doctors operate these robotic surgery systems using hand controls. Few operations need levels of precision which is where these robotic systems perform effectively. This will help in creating smaller scars and reduce bleeding.
References:
There is rapid progress on Hoccleve Archive Project. The following is a brief overview of the project. Input files were in the format of .CAT and .WIN files. Obtaining XML equivalent of these input files was a major challenge in this project.
Information is extracted from these XML files and is displayed on the website. Finally, we have a website (currently running on a local server) which displays Thomas Hoccleve’s Holograph Manuscripts. These can be searched either by EETS Facsimile Edition Title or by Manuscript. Following are a few screenshots of information extracted from the XML files:
What is AngularJS?
According to Wikipedia, “ AngularJS, is an open-source web application framework maintained by Google and a community of individual developers and corporations to address many of the challenges encountered in developing single-page applications. Angular provides a framework for client-side model–view–controller (MVC) architecture for simplifying development and testing of single-page applications. Angular is a Javascript library with embedded custom tag attributes. ngApp, ngBind, ngModel etc., are few examples of custom tag attributes in AngularJS.”
Few reasons why developers need to explore AngularJS are:
- Angular handles the MVC components of an app.
- User interface of apps in AngularJS is built using HTML.
- We can implement a pure parallel workflow between different components.
- In Angular, markup for the UI and the underlying logic that fetches and processes data have a parallel workflow between them.
- Angular allows us to load Javascript dynamically whenever needed using RequireJS.
- Angular has filters which are standalone functions separated from the app and are used for performing data transformations.
- Angular allows us to implement complex applications with less code.
- Angular supports single-page applications.
Debugging is quite complicated in AngularJS. This is the main drawback of AngularJS. When compared to the advantages of Angular, this drawback is negotiable. Hope this post gave a brief introduction about this emerging technology.
References:
Hello everyone!!!
I wanted to share one of my experience while working on Hoccleve Archive project. This project invloves recovery of computer generated lexicographical files created in the early 1980’s on a now-lost piece of custom built software. We discovered how to open the files and wrote a custom script that transformed them into both simple .txt and XML files. The XML version were extensively tagged for grammatical information useful to literary scholars of middle English.
In the process of extracting information from XML and displaying it on the browser we were struck at one point because of some silly technical error. The error was because of XML escape sequences.
The XML Specification has 5 predefined entities representing special characters. Any word which has to be displayed as it is which contains these special characters should perform some preprocessing.
Character XML Entity Replacement XML Numeric Replacement
” " "
< < <
> > >
& & &
‘ ' '
For example, for displaying “v&a” on browser we have to perform preprocessing on it. It should be written as “v&a” in the XML document for displaying “v&a” on the browser. Hope, this post is informative for people working with XML documents.
References:
My life started turning awesome after I began working as a Student Innovation Fellow. This gave me an opportunity to work in a dynamic environment. The best part of this program for me is that I am able to enhance my skills in various technologies. I am currently working on live projects like Deliberation Mapping, Hoccleve Archive and Almanac Archive. These projects are helping me in gaining hands-on experience in the latest technologies. I would like to become a successful web developer.
I started my career as a Microsoft Student Partner in 2012. This program helped me build leadership qualities and provided me with an opportunity to acquire knowledge on the latest Microsoft technologies. In my position I became a Microsoft Certified Specialist in Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3 Specialist. I also worked as an intern at Advanced Systems Laboratory, Hyderabad and at CMC Limited- Gachibowli, Hyderabad. And, I developed apps for the Windows Store and the Windows phone store (Publisher name: Vuppala Sruthi).
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/apps-windows-store-tutorial
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/cat/Windows-Phone/categoryID.62685000
I won Nokia Asha 310 in the Nokia Asha Premium Developer Challenge. I was appreciated as a Community Contributor for mentoring a group of 75 students at Microsoft India Appfest 2013 and participated in Microsoft Bootcamp 2013. Outside my technical work, I raised funds for the welfare of blind children at “Sunetra school for the blind.” I would like to become a better individual rather than simply being an individual, and I always believe :
“Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value.”
~ by Albert Einstein
References:
http://www.fresherschoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/20121016_949919_2.jpg
http://www.kingmoney.net/sites/default/files/windows-storeQ-4-359932-3.jpg
http://news.softpedia.com/images/news2/Microsoft-Launches-Windows-Phone-Store-in-42-New-Markets-2.jpg
It’s really exciting for me to start my career as a Student Innovation Fellow. This program provides an opportunity to explore and gain hands on experience in latest technologies. The game starts from here……….
I’m really excited to start this journey.
Stay tuned for more updates.
