The fastest aircraft ever made

Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle

Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2), the fastest aircraft ever built is designed to fly anywhere in the world in less than 60 minutes, crashed into the Pacific Ocean, although officials said they were able to gather "unique data" that will guide the development effort.

Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2), the fastest aircraft ever built is designed to fly anywhere in the world in less than 60 minutes, crashed into the Pacific Ocean, although officials said they were able to gather "unique data" that will guide the development effort.













Flight one achieved many firsts: Deployed largest number of sea, land, air and space data collection assets in support of hypersonic flight test Maintained Global Positioning System (GPS) signals while traveling 3.6 miles per second; Validated two-way communication with the vehicle; Verified effective use of the Reaction Control System (RCS).









Three technical challenges exist within this HTV-2 flight regime. They are categorized as aerodynamic; aerothermal; and guidance, navigation and control. And each phase of flight introduces unique obstacles within these areas.









DARPA’s Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) program is a multiyear research and development effort to increase the technical knowledge base and advance critical technologies to make long-duration hypersonic flight a reality.Mastery of three key technical challenges stands between the DoD and long-duration hypersonic flight: Aerodynamics; Aerothermal effects; and critical guidance, navigation and control.







Historic first launch puts HTV-2 into suborbital flight.









KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFMCNS) - Artist's drawing of the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-1. (Courtesy photo of Russ Partch)

1. Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2), the fastest aircraft ever built is designed to fly anywhere in the world in less than 60 minutes, crashed into the Pacific Ocean, although officials said they were able to gather "unique data" that will guide the development effort.

2. Flight one achieved many firsts: Deployed largest number of sea, land, air and space data collection assets in support of hypersonic flight test Maintained Global Positioning System (GPS) signals while traveling 3.6 miles per second; Validated two-way communication with the vehicle; Verified effective use of the Reaction Control System (RCS).

3. Three technical challenges exist within this HTV-2 flight regime. They are categorized as aerodynamic; aerothermal; and guidance, navigation and control. And each phase of flight introduces unique obstacles within these areas.

4. DARPA’s Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) program is a multiyear research and development effort to increase the technical knowledge base and advance critical technologies to make long-duration hypersonic flight a reality.Mastery of three key technical challenges stands between the DoD and long-duration hypersonic flight: Aerodynamics; Aerothermal effects; and critical guidance, navigation and control.

5. Historic first launch puts HTV-2 into suborbital flight.

   
   

   

1. Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2), the fastest aircraft ever built is designed to fly anywhere in the world in less than 60 minutes, crashed into the Pacific Ocean, although officials said they were able to gather "unique data" that will guide the development effort.

2. Flight one achieved many firsts: Deployed largest number of sea, land, air and space data collection assets in support of hypersonic flight test Maintained Global Positioning System (GPS) signals while traveling 3.6 miles per second; Validated two-way communication with the vehicle; Verified effective use of the Reaction Control System (RCS).

3. Three technical challenges exist within this HTV-2 flight regime. They are categorized as aerodynamic; aerothermal; and guidance, navigation and control. And each phase of flight introduces unique obstacles within these areas.

4. DARPA’s Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) program is a multiyear research and development effort to increase the technical knowledge base and advance critical technologies to make long-duration hypersonic flight a reality.Mastery of three key technical challenges stands between the DoD and long-duration hypersonic flight: Aerodynamics; Aerothermal effects; and critical guidance, navigation and control.

5. Historic first launch puts HTV-2 into suborbital flight.

   
   

   
   

   
   

Internet Explorer Users Have Lower IQs Than Other Browser Users, Says a Study

Internet Explorer users scored lower than average on the IQ tests conducted by AptiQuant Psychometric Consulting company. Chrome, Firefox and Safari users had just a teeny bit higher than average IQ scores. And users of Camino, Opera and IE with Chrome Frame had exceptionally higher IQ levels.

Internet Explorer has traditionally been considered a pain in the back for web developers. Any IT company involved in web development will acknowledge the fact that millions of man hours are wasted each year to make otherwise perfectly functional websites work in Internet Explorer, because of its lack of compatibility with web standards.

The continuous use of older versions of IE by millions of people around the world has often haunted web developers. This trend not only makes their job tougher, but has also pulled back innovation by at least a decade. But with the results of this study, IT companies worldwide will start to take a new look on the time and money they spend on supporting older browsers.

A Vancouver based AptiQuant, has released a report on a trial it conducted to measure the effects of cognitive ability on the choice of web browser. AptiQuant offered free online IQ tests to over a 100,000 people and then plotted the average IQ scores based on the browser on which the test was taken. And the results are really not that surprising. With just a look at the graphs in the report, it comes out pretty clear that.

Read more at TECK.IN: http://teck.in/internet-explorer-users-have-lower-iqs-than-other-browser-users-says-a-study.html#ixzz1TxY9iwCs

Google Chrome Overtakes Firefox in UK Browser Share‎

Google’s Chrome became the number two browser in the UK during the month of July for the first time, according to StatCounter, the free website analytics company. Chrome took 22.1% of the UK market, up from 3.9% in July 2009 and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer fell significantly from 61% to 46% globally and Firefox dropped slightly from 27% to 22%.

Chrome is also performing particularly well in Ireland where it overtook Firefox in May to become the number two browser. In July it reached 27.7%, ahead of Firefox’s 24.2% but still behind IE at 39.9%.

StatCounter Global Stats are based on aggregate data collected on a sample exceeding 15 billion page views per month (830 million from the UK and Ireland) from the StatCounter network of more than three million websites.

Read more at TECK.IN: http://teck.in/google-chrome-overtakes-firefox-in-uk-browser-share.html#ixzz1TxXvon8F

College student strip-searched. Why?

In shocking incident, a college girl was stripped and searched, just to find a cell phone. This happened at the Prince Venkateshwara College of Arts and Sciences near Selaiyur. The student was taken to rest room and stripped by the physical education teacher. Following the incident 150 students went to the Vice Chancellor of Madras University to file a complaint. A woman’s modesty shaken and a student’s trust breached, all this just to find a concealed cell phone. If we don’t respect college students how can we expect the world to change its attitude towards women? What action should be taken against the college authorities? Share your views.

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Biggest-ever series of cyber attacks uncovered, U.N. hit

• Companies:

  • Citigroup, Inc.
  • EMC Corporation
  • Intel Corporation

Customers use computers at an internet cafe in Sao Paulo March 3, 2011. REUTERS/Nacho Doce/Files

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On Wednesday 3 August 2011, 9:55 AM

By Jim Finkle

BOSTON (Reuters) - Security experts have discovered the biggest series of cyber attacks to date, involving the infiltration of the networks of 72 organizations including the United Nations , governments and companies around the world.

Security company McAfee, which uncovered the intrusions, said it believed there was one "state actor" behind the attacks but declined to name it, though one security expert who has been briefed on the hacking said the evidence points to China.

The long list of victims in the five-year campaign include the governments of the United States, Taiwan, India, South Korea , Vietnam and Canada; the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); the International Olympic Committee (IOC); the World Anti-Doping Agency; and an array of companies, from defense contractors to high-tech enterprises.

In the case of the United Nations , the hackers broke into the computer system of the UN Secretariat in Geneva in 2008, hid there unnoticed for nearly two years, and quietly combed through reams of secret data, according to McAfee.

"Even we were surprised by the enormous diversity of the victim organizations and were taken aback by the audacity of the perpetrators," McAfee's vice president of threat research, Dmitri Alperovitch, wrote in a 14-page report released on Wednesday.

"What is happening to all this data ... is still largely an open question. However, if even a fraction of it is used to build better competing products or beat a competitor at a key negotiation (due to having stolen the other team's playbook), the loss represents a massive economic threat."

McAfee learned of the extent of the hacking campaign in March this year, when its researchers discovered logs of the attacks while reviewing the contents of a "command and control" server that they had discovered in 2009 as part of an investigation into security breaches at defense companies.

It dubbed the attacks "Operation Shady RAT" and said the earliest breaches date back to mid-2006, though there might have been other intrusions as yet undetected. (RAT stands for "remote access tool," a type of software that hackers and security experts use to access computer networks from afar).

Some of the attacks lasted just a month, but the longest -- on the Olympic Committee of an unidentified Asian nation -- went on and off for 28 months, according to McAfee.

"Companies and government agencies are getting raped and pillaged every day. They are losing economic advantage and national secrets to unscrupulous competitors," Alperovitch told Reuters.

"This is the biggest transfer of wealth in terms of intellectual property in history," he said. "The scale at which this is occurring is really, really frightening."

CHINA CONNECTION?

He said that McAfee had notified all the 72 victims of the attacks, which are under investigation by law enforcement agencies around the world. He declined to give more details, such as the names of the companies hacked.

Jim Lewis, a cyber expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was briefed on the discovery by McAfee. He said it was very likely that China was behind the campaign because some of the targets had information that would be of particular interest to Beijing .

The systems of the IOC and several national Olympic Committees were breached in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Games, for example.

And China views Taiwan as a renegade province, and political issues between them remain contentious even as economic ties have strengthened in recent years.

"Everything points to China. It could be the Russians, but there is more that points to China than Russia ," Lewis said.

He added that the U.S. and Britain have capabilities to pull off this kind of campaign, but said, "We wouldn't spy on ourselves and the Brits wouldn't spy on us."

McAfee, which was acquired by Intel Corp this year, would not comment on whether China was responsible. Security researchers who work for large corporations are often reluctant to link governments to cyber attacks out of fear it could hurt their business in those countries.

HACKERS CONFERENCE

The UN said it was aware of the report, and that it has started an investigation to ascertain if there was an intrusion.

"The idea is to look into the entire Geneva network," said Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, adding that it was difficult to quantify the potential damage without knowing exactly what had been attacked.

He declined to be drawn on who might be behind the attacks. When asked what would happen if it turned out to be China, he said: "We'll have to cross that bridge once we find out what happened to our network."

McAfee released the report to coincide with the start of the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday, an annual gathering of security professionals and hackers who use their skills to promote security and fight cyber crime.

In the scorching desert heat, they will meet to talk about a series of recent headline-grabbing hacks, such as on Lockheed Martin Corp, the International Monetary Fund, Citigroup Inc, Sony Corp and EMC Corp's RSA Security.

Experts will disclose security vulnerabilities in commonly used software, computers, services and electronics to help companies and governments combat criminal hackers.

The activist groups Anonymous and Lulz Security have recently grabbed the spotlight for temporarily shutting down some high-profile websites and defacing others.

But attacks like Operation Shady RAT are far more costly and often undisclosed, as victims fear reputational damage or attention from other hackers. McAfee sees Operation Shady RAT as the tip of the iceberg.

"I am convinced that every company in every conceivable industry with significant size and valuable intellectual property and trade secrets has been compromised (or will be shortly), with the great majority of the victims rarely discovering the intrusion or its impact," Alperovitch wrote in the report.

"In fact, I divide the entire set of Fortune Global 2000 firms into two categories: those that know they've been compromised and those that don't yet know."

(Additional reporting from Tom Miles in Geneva, editing by Tiffany Wu, Martin Howell)

How to join Indian Army, Navy, Air Force

All about the National Defence Academy & Naval Academy Exam.

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by Team Careers360 - 01 Aug, 2011

The warriors of the land, guardians of the sea, and air have a common background. Most of these officers have cleared the NDA exam to join the elite forces. The candidates need to first specify the choice of Academy they wish to join: either National Defence Academy or Executive Branch of Naval Academy. The candidate can then indicate his preference as per his interest viz. Army, Navy and Air Force.

The NDA Exam, conducted at 41 centres across the country, is followed by intelligence & personality test by the Services Selection Board (SSB) for the shortlisted candidates.

Eligibility: Apart from nationality, age, sex and marital status; the educational qualifications vary for each wings of the National Defence Academy (refer Table 1).

Fee: Examination fee is Rs. 50 payable to the Commission through a single Central Recruitment Fee Stamp available at Post Offices. Fee is exempted for all candidates belonging to SC and ST category.

Results: The UPSC prepares a list of candidates who get the minimum qualifying marks in the written examination as fixed by the Commission. Based on their preference, the candidates are called for intelligence and personality test (that includes psychological aptitude) by the respective SSB.

Those who are shortlisted for the Air Force wing are assessed in Pilot Aptitude Test. Based on the performance at the SSB, final selection is made in order of merit subject to medical fitness and suitability.

About the Exam
Written Examination: For admission to Army, Navy and Air Force wings of the NDA and the Executive Branch of the Naval Academy, the candidates are tested in Mathematics and General Ability.

Each paper is of 2 hours and thirty minutes duration and carries 300 & 600 marks respectively.

The test papers in all subjects consist of objective type questions in Hindi and English. The UPSC has the discretion to fix qualifying marks in all the subjects in the examination.

Paper-I (Mathematics): The assessment is based on a candidate's understanding of the subject and has questions from Algebra; Matrices and Determinants; Trigonometry; Analytical Geometry of two and three dimensions; Integral Calculus and Differential Equations; Vector Algebra and Statistics & Probability.

Paper-II (General Ability): It is divided into two parts: Part A on English and Part B on General Knowledge (GK). English paper that consists of 200 marks evaluates a candidate's understanding and proficiency of the language and the syllabus covers various aspects on grammar and usage; vocabulary; comprehension and cohesion in extended text. In GK, one is expected to know the current events and knowledge on matters of everyday observation and experience. It has six sections and includes questions on Physics, Chemistry, General Science, History of India and Freedom Movement; Geography and Current Events. The allocation of weightages in these six sections are approximately 25%, 15%, 10%, 20%, 20% and 10% respectively.

Intelligence and Personality Test: This test includes both verbal and non-verbal assessment primarily to evaluate the basic intelligence and mental calibre of a candidate. This also comprises Group tests, group discussions, group planning as also giving individual short presentation or lectures on specified subjects or topics.

NEXT ARTICLE: New format for CAT 2011!

Sony Ericsson launching smartphone with 3D display?

Sony Ericsson is one of the famous mobile phone companies in the world and they are offering a lot of good handsets, and most of their smartphones are Android powered. They launched number of devices earlier this year at MWC and we recently told you that they are working on another Android device, which will be known as Xperia Duo. It seems that Duo isn’t the only device SE is working on as SEMC Blog is reporting that according to a famous Chinese site, SE is working on a 3D phone which will be out next year and it will feature a 4.7 inch display, that’s huge, right? The display will be glasses free like theOptimus 3D and EVO 3D, and it will feature HD resolution of HD resolution 1280×720 pixels. Anyway, it’s just a rumor so let’s take it as one. One can’t doubt it too because all major mobile companies are showing their interest in 3D as HTC and LG are already offering 3D phones, and words are on the street that Samsung will also launch 3D phone this year, so if SE is also working on one, then it’s not a surprise. Well, we don’t know when it’s exactly coming and how much it will cost, also no words on the OS it will run on, but most probably it will be Android powered.