DigitFreak

Author: Swadesh Parasher

  • SSD solar panels doesn’t leak, which makes it a best alternate source

    Today, the whole world started to notice the “natural resource” crisis and there has been no perfect solution to get rid of it. There are some traditional and dominating technology – which may prove to be useful if utilised at a massive rate.

    Solar energy, wind energy, nanotech and some unexpected scientific method to generate electricity from virus – can really make the world green — if utilised properly.

    All of the Alternate source of energy have some limitation and benefits, which defines their usability. Solar energy has been widely used since a very long time and a few major companies have adapted it to feed their power-hungry machines. It is a clean and unlimited source of energy which can minimize the pollution at a huge scale. The main disadvantage of using solar energy is – its liquid fuel. Solar panels tends to leak over a small period of time, which makes it less cost efficient.

    Researchers at Northwestern University have found one way to stop the leak — get rid of the liquid used in solar panels. A new variation on the Gratzel Solar cell replaces a short-lived organic dye with a solid alternative.

    The molecular dye the solid substance replaces was corrosive, at risk of leaking and only lasted about 18-months — by replacing it, researchers plan to pave the way for a more affordable (and less toxic) alternative.

    Northwestern’s new design flaunts a 10.2-percent conversion efficiency, the highest ever recorded in a solid-state solar cell of its type — but that’s still only half of what traditional sun collectors can do. Researchers hope to improve conversion in the long run, but expect that the cost reduction alone will be enough to get the party going.

    It may not be the greenest solar technology we’ve ever seen, but who are we to judge?

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  • Most common blackberry issues, errors, glitches and solutions [How to]

    Most common blackberry issues, errors, glitches and solutions [How to]

    It is obvious that thousands of people like blackberry phones, just because it has some unique features which are nowhere to be found. The mobile phone industry is at its peak and people are now seeking the generalised and simple — hassle-free device which can fulfill their basic needs.

    Although blackberry is popular enough to keep it’s fan base happy, it is not untouched from the mighty glitches, which makes it’s users frustrated. Blackberry has faced many up’s and down’s which somehow restricted its growth cycle over other companies in the industry.

    The most Blackberry problems can be solved by simply pulling out the battery (for 30-60 seconds) or freeing up some space on temporary memory. You should often (once a week) pull out the battery of your device and also free up space by deleting sample media files and internet cache. This is something most of us would not like to do often. It makes your experience with the device bitter.

    Sometimes when mobile devices hit the market and are used by a wide variety of consumers, glitches start to occur frequently. Sometimes these problems can have quick fixes that come out in an update to the software while other remedies are not so simple.

    One of the top smartphone makers, BlackBerry, has faced these issues – as do most companies making phones. Sometimes the problem can actually be caused by multiple smaller issues, which vary between phones and users.
    One common problem occurs when downloading and then installing a BlackBerry theme onto your BlackBerry.The problem is that even though you’ve paid for it and downloaded it, it doesn’t show up on your phone; therefore you are unable to activate the download and use it.

    There are several possible reasons for this: sometimes during the download process, the theme file becomes corrupted. This will lead to problems where the download doesn’t show up. If this is the reason, then you have to remove the battery and then reinstall it. When the BlackBerry starts up again, then you can download and install the theme file again.

    Another possible reason you are unable to install a theme is that the download is for another version. This happens more often when downloading from third party websites than it does from BlackBerry’s App World. If your BlackBerry device is a refurbished model or a pre-owned device, then this could be part of the problem.

    These BlackBerry devices are often restrictive in regards to their ability to download and use third-party themes.
    The issue can also sometimes stem from the fact that there could be a corruption of mismatched data within the BlackBerry’s given information. You can see the theme on your app list but cannot use it. If this is the problem, then again pulling your battery and restarting the device is best.

     

    Here are some other common issues blackberry users come along regularly:

     

    Problem: Your Blackberry gets hot or warm

    Solution: Your Blackberry may get hot/ warm and temperature of the phone may rise. The Blackberry Torch 9800 users are facing this problem more than others. This is most probably because of the reason that you have several applications running on your phone which you may not know.

    Another reason is that if you have constantly data connection open (like streaming music, an app that uses GPS, weather apps, Loopt), your phone will get hot and loose battery fast.

    To see what apps are running, go to Options > Device Application

    Management (you can also hold the Menu key on left of your trackpad/ back wheel, which brings up everything that is running).

    Close the unwanted apps by opening the app, click the menu and select close at the end.

    Problem: The Blackberry screen frozen

    Solution: This is a problem that can happen to any Blackberry device where the device gets stuck and the screen is frozen. There are two ways to fix this problem. You can soft reset your Blackberry by pressing Alt+Cap+Delete keys together.

    If this technique does not solve the problem, you can perform a hard reset. Find the Reset button on back the device (which can be near the bottom, under the battery cover) and press the button with a pin etc. You do not lose any data using any of these methods.

    Problem: Blackberry call logs and messages get deleted

    If you find out that suddenly your Blackberry’s call logs and saved messaged are deleted and disappeared without any reason, here is the solution to the problem. This happens if you have a large amount of images, ringtones, games etc and your memory is at or near its capacity. The phone will start deleting oldest call logs and text messages (SMS) entries to free up some space.

    To determine the free memory, go to Options, then Status, which will show you free memory. You can increase free space by deleting some stored stuff on your phone.

    Problem: Blackberry does not send/ receive emails

    Solution: Blackberry email problem can be due to GPRS services.

    GPRS is what allows your device to access data. The first thing to do is to perform soft reset and if that does not work perform hard reset (see methods above).

    After that check your wireless antenna signal strength. The antenna should show GPRS. If you can call and browse the web that means your GSM service is available.

    Problem: Blackberry Bluetooth problem

    If you are trying to send some files, music, photos etc from another device (i.e Nokia, Sony Ericsson etc) to your Blackberry and cannot do so via Bluetooth, it is because there is a special way to send stuff from another company device to Blackberry.

    •To transfer the files (MP3, video etc) from another device to BB, follow these steps.

    •Pair your Blackberry and your other device Blackberry

    •Choose the music files or other media that you want to transfer to your BB from another device

    •On your Blackberry, open ‘Media’ folder and press menu ‘BB

    Logos’ and you will see an option ‘receive using Bluetooth’

    •From your other phone, send the files to your BB.

    Already connected, your Blackberry will ask you to accept or refuse transfer

    •Accept the data transfer and you are done

    Problem: Blackberry Sync problem

    If you have Blackberry sync problem when you try to sync with Microsoft Outlook or calendar/contact sync, follow these steps to get rid of this problem.

    •Click on ‘Reset settings’ in Organiser

    •This will reset your phone’s Calendar, Address Book, Memo Pad and Task to default

    •You now have to configure Calendar, Address Book, Memo Pad by clicking ‘Configure Setting’

    •After completing, you should be able to sync your Blackberry with Outlook or any other medium.

    Problem: Blackberry trackpad stopped working?

    This problem is in Blackberry 8520 and other similar devices where trackpad stops working without any reason. To resolve the trackpad problem, you should start from updating your firmware to latest version.

    Another thing that worked for many users with this problem is a battery pull. Remember your device should be ON when you pull out the battery, wait for 30-60 seconds before you replace the battery. This should solve the problem.

    Problem: Blackberry synchronising problem

    Another Blackberry synchronizing problem is when after synchronising, email messages deleted from Blackberry are still there or messages deleted from Outlook are not deleted. The Same thing can happen with email messages. Blackberry website has a complete guide to solve this problem.

    Problem: Trackball stopped working

    This happens mostly with old devices. If your phone’s trackball stopped working, that is probably because of dust. You can clean the ball by turning the phone upside down and rolling it on a clean sheet of paper. Alternatively, you can change the damaged trackball with a new one.

    Register any other problem in the comment and we will try to get the solution for you. If you want you can get the solution for the problem yourself for other to read. !

  • Generate electricity from virus!

    Generate electricity from virus!

    Now viruses will generate electricity using piezoelectric effect. Yes! The future of electricity generation is here when you can charge your cell while walking , just because you have got a paper-thin generator embedded in the sole of your shoes. According to the scientists at U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, it is not possible to generate power using harmless viruses that can convert mechanical energy into electrical energy.

    This new theory was brought into practical use the first time when the scientists created a generator small enough to create the energy required to run a small liquid crystal display. The required mechanical work was done by tapping the finger on a postage stamp- sized electrode  coated with specially engineered viruses, which was then converted to electricity by the same viruses.

    This new method of producing electricity is the first of its kind to have used piezoelectric properties of a biological material to produce electricity. Piezoelectricity is the accumulation of charge in a solid in response to mechanical stress. It’s kind of a breakthrough in the field of electricity generation. When looked closely one can clearly see all the uses of this new technology or better say biotechnology. A person does not need to be a rocket scientist to understand that we see many other sources of vibration and stress in our daily lives like shutting doors, climbing stairs etc. , and if harnessed correctly then we can produce electricity anywhere we want.

    Aside from its easy used ability to produce electricity it has another property which is surely going to make our lives much easier. In the field of nanotechnology, self-assembly is one the most important features sought after in making of any device and since these viruses arrange themselves into an orderly film, they are priceless. Now this opens a door to the new era where making of micro and nano-electric devices wouldn’t be too hard.

    In the own words of scientists, as they published it in an online journal named “nature nanotechnology”—

    “More research is needed, but our work is a promising first step toward the development of personal power generators, actuators for use in nano-devices, and other devices based on viral electronics,” says Seung-Wuk Lee, a faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Physical Biosciences Division and a UC Berkeley associate professor of bioengineering.

    He conducted the research with a team that includes Ramamoorthy Ramesh, a scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division and a professor of materials sciences, engineering, and physics at UC Berkeley; and Byung Yang Lee of Berkeley Lab’s Physical Biosciences Division.

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    When talked about the mechanism on which it works, piezoelectric effects are prize-holders. This effect was first discovered in 1880 and has since been found in materials like crystals, ceramics, bone, proteins and DNA. The examples of other applications of piezoelectric effects are Electric cigarette lighters and Scanning Probe microscopes. The only limitation that we face in this area is that the materials we are talking about are toxic and thus are very difficult to work with. The groundbreaking idea came in the minds of lee and his colleagues whether a virus which is fortunately studied in labs worldwide could offer something more to this field, and thus started the mission of them to create something that the world hasn’t ever seen. The name of the bacteria is “M13 bacteriophage” which by chance only attacks bacteria and is harmless to human beings. As it is a virus, it replicates itself by millions and millions is just a few hours, so they don’t need to be cultured specifically. Easily engineered genetically is also one of the features why this process can really turn the way things are going around the world these days. As told before, these rod-shaped viruses even in large numbers naturally orient themselves into ordered layers, just the way chopsticks align themselves in a box.

    This virus contains all the basic traits that scientists look for in a nano building block. But the researchers had to first determine whether the virus was really piezoelectric or not. This job was given to Ramesh who is an expert in studying the electrical properties of thin films at nano scale. An application of electric field to a film of M13 viruses revealed what they were looking for. The helical proteins that coat the viruses twisted and turned in response to  the electrical field applied, demonstrating piezoelectric effects at work. But the piezoelectric strength of the virus was very small and thusin order to amplify the working capacity of the virus, it was cultivated again but this time using some biotechnology. The scientists had to add four negatively charged amino acid residues to one end of the helical proteins that coat the virus , and thus increasing the charge difference between the proteins +ve and -ve ends, which in turn boosts the voltage across the virus.The scientists further enhanced the system by stacking films composed of single layers of the virus on top of each other. They found that a stack about 20 layers thick exhibited the strongest piezoelectric effect

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    The last important step in this discovery was a demonstration test of this virus and technique to generate electricity. So the scientists then fabricated a virus -based small scale piezoelectric generator. The genetically engineered virus was then applied over a small area of one square centimeter under the conditions required for the virus to spontaneously arrange itself into a multilayered film. This film was then sandwiched between two gold-plated electrodes which were connected by wires to a small liquid crystal display. When pressure was finally applied on the generator, it successfully produces up to six nano amperes of current and 400 mV of potential, enough to flash the number “1” on the display.

    “We’re now working on ways to improve on this proof-of-principle demonstration,” says Lee. “Because the tools of biotechnology enable large-scale production of genetically modified viruses, piezoelectric materials based on viruses could offer a simple route to novel microelectronics in the future.”

    After all that these scientists have invented, there seems to be some hope that one day we don’t have to worry about power crisis in future. The next step in this research should be further amplification of the piezoelectric power of the virus and the large-scale production capacity of this new type of generator. Till then the scientists should implement these new technologies into action like electricity-generating shoes and piezoelectric  keyboards..etc.

    Courtesy – ScienceDaily

  • Get a Superhero vision, just by using contact lens

    Get a Superhero vision, just by using contact lens

    Contact lens wearers can now get the superhuman natural power to get into their surrounding even better than the humans. The new technology makes it possible to focus at multiple distances at the same time, without interrupting the interaction of human eye to it’s projected image.

    Naturally human eyes can only focus on the object at the singular distance and neglects the background or foreground objects — depending on the subject which is on focus. But the new technology makes it possible for the contact lens user (with new technology of course) to keep an eye on a projected image while their surrounding scenery can also be looked at — resulting in superhuman vision.

    The contact lenses, however, will let two images be viewed at the same time. The projected image goes through the retina display, while the background image is still visible.

    terminatorWhile we are all waiting for the Google to launch their “Google glasses” this year, Pentagon is planning something different. Pentagon has ordered a pile of contacts, called iOptik. It recently ordered a supply from Innovega, the company that makes them. The Pentagon will reportedly use the technology to develop display screens akin to what Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character wore in the movie Terminator.

    In addition to contact lenses, the company also makes glasses with projection images in the lenses, which it showed off at CES 2012. With this technology, the company said, glasses and lens wearers could view content from their mobile devices while still looking at the scenery around them. The technology will be available to the public in 2014.

    Futurist tech has been used to address a number of health concerns, as well as expand on the human body’s natural capabilities.

  • Is it really necessary to play ME1 and ME2 before playing Mass Effect 3?

    Mass effect 3 is out now and it will be available in most of the countries till 11th March 2012, if it is not already available (however most of the gamers can get access to it online *you know where it is*).

    It is the 3rd game in the series and is most popularily famous among the pro gamers. Most of us are playing the game after being slaughtered in ME1 & 2. We actually loved the gameplay and the new possibilities it introduced us in the virtual environment.

    We personally believe that you can’t enjoy the 3rd part of the series without completing the first two. However, we are aware that not everyone can afford the time it takes to play two games and complete the levels without suppressing your urge to try ME3 for much longer.

    Most of the pro Gamers takes only a day or two at maximum to complete the Mass effect series. Many of them are already reviewing the games and how you can complete the levels on their blogs or forum.

    After spending well over 8 hours with the game, We can say that there is certainly a far greater balance between complex RPG mechanics and simple third-person action and adventure, of which perhaps hasn’t been implemented to such an extent in the series before.

    Initially the experience is very welcoming, but don’t let that fool you: Mass Effect 3 can still be a very demanding and intimidating experience. We sincerely do hope that doesn’t turn away certain people, because it’s a game that definitely deserves the attention of every gamer, if not for its story, than for its way of engaging the player with the galactic warfare that’s currently plaguing mankind and its allies.

    From that perspective, We think the game does a fantastic job of screaming out to newcomers, “Hey, come on in!”, while making dedicated fans like myself think, “OK, can I just return to the Normandy now? I know how to shoot and take cover.”

    The introduction of the game is quite pleasing and will make you stuck with your chair while playing the game and you won’t be able to get up without making it up to the bed.

    It doesn’t really touch on Commander Shepard’s history with Cerebus, or who exactly The Illusive Man is and why he’s important, but the game’s imagery and pacing certainly provide enough time to fill in the pieces, especially considering the at-times over-informative dialogue between characters that refers to past occurrences.

    If you just play me3 by itself, it’s just like oh yeah same old bad guys invade good guys save the world. But the first two games like a massive buildup to 3, and actually made us fear the reapers. We are still wondering how the hell shepards gonna beat them. Also, it’s through the first two games that you really develop bonds with characters, e.g. How much garrus has your back, or what lengths liara would go to help you.

    What do you think? Should a newbie directly play Mass Effect 3 to enjoy the game at the fullest?