Engine on Chip (EoC)

Researchers at MIT have come up with a unique solution to make mobile and laptop batteries last longer - engine on a chip - ENGINE!!!

BBC Reports:

Gas-turbine engines more normally power whole cities but MIT's Professor Alan Epstein was determined that miniscule versions could be used to "power a person".

Ten years on from having the brainwave, Professor Epstein believes the microengine could give batteries a run for their money, offering 10 times the power of a battery of the same weight at the same price point.

The engine isn't manufactured in conventional way with compressor, combustion chamber. Etched silicon was used to make a micro-engine (micro-engine is not a word in english as of today lol). The silicon wafers were piled on top of each other and then bounded together and produces 10 watts of power - 10 WATTS - that's quite a lot!

The crossover of conventional technology and new technology is interesting. This will save people a lot of money when they won't have to replace batteries every 2-3 years.

However, the question is, will this be commercially available in the future, or will it just be a pure research project with no industry buyers?

Funny ad (Naukri.com)

Hindi movies to watch this year

Oz wrote about movies coming up this year and listed them by month. While not all movies are worth watching, here's the list of movies that I will watch for sure:

• Shiva (Sept. 15 '06) : A Ram Gopal Verma about corrupt law and order and how a person wants to change all this himself and defeat the criminals. "When the police itself is infested with criminals / The very purpose of it is defeated / Is it right to be wrong? Or is it Wrong to be Right?"
  
• Pyar ke Side Effects : Reason to watch - Rahul Bose and Mallika Sherawat!!! What a combination... Beauty & brain combo - definitely watching this one
• Khosla ka Ghosla : Saw the trailer and looks good one - Boman Irani and Anupam Kher
• DON : Shahrukh Khan will be the Don in this remake by Farhan 'DCH' Akhtar of 1976 Don movie. Though I am not expecting great acting by Shahrukh Khan, but I really want to see how the remake is. Also the movie's starring Priyanka Chopra and Isha Koppikar :)
• Umrao Jaan : Again a remake, but this one won't be as exciting and there aren't a lot of reason to watch this movie except for Aishwarya Rai ;)
• Kabul Express : Another movie that looks really good in trailers - John Abraham and Arshad Warsi going to Kabul and Pakistan - should be good
• Eklavya : Earlier named Yagna, this movie's teaser really looks good and the story sounds interesting. It's starring Amitabh Bachhan, Sanjay Dutt and Saif Ali Khan and directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra (maker of Munnabhai movies)
• Dhoom 2 : Definitely watching this one : Sequel to movie Dhoom which was a decent Action/Thriller movie, and this one just continues from therewith Abhishek Bachhan and now there's Aishwarya Rai (that too with a Bikini scene!), Bipasha Basu and Hrithik Roshan. Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai are the thief/villains now and Abhishek Bachhan and Bipasha are the cops.

So, 8 movies that I am definitely going to watch. Definitely a good year for Bollywood.

WikiBribes?

Govindraj Ethiraj talks about how WikiMapia and other Wikie services (apart of Wikipedia ofcourse) have been so innovative and helpful, and encourages people to come up with other ideas. One idea he has is to have a WikiBribe where you would know how much bribe a department asks for what work and under what circumstances etc:

It strikes me that we should look to create more Wiki concepts like Wikimapia. Except that it could be dedicated to India or specific, information-starved areas within India. For instance, a Wiki project on government departments that accept or demand bribes with details of who, when and in what circumstances.

Now this is cool - you need a driving license - just check online how much bribe you will have to pay. This might help to put down on corruption a little bit theoretically. Really good idea though... I am off to think of more Wiki ideas

NRI scientist wins top US award

Times of India is reporting that an Indian American scientist whose research helped US Defence Contractor company Lockheed Martin has been named the Scientist of the Year:

An Indian American scientist, who led a breakthrough research that helped Lockheed Martin win a key role in the US Army's Future Combat System, has been named '2006 Scientist of the Year' by the Minorities in Research Science (MIRS) organization.

A quick googling of this NRI tells me that he is Principle Research Engineer at Lockheed Martin:

ABHIJIT MAHALANOBIS is a Principal Research Engineer at Lockheed Martin, Orlando, and is currently the technical lead for the Automatic Target Recognition programs in the Research and Technology Group. He is a fellow of the SPIE and is responsible for over 100 journal and conference publications.

This means, that he must be a US citizen having lived most of his life in USA. This leads me to my next conclusion that he is NRI, but not "Non Resident Indian" but "Nahin Raha Indian" or "Never Returning Indian". So why does Times of India care about some American winning some award who just happens to be of Indian origin - he's a US citizen now living in USA and working in USA and not working in Department of Defence or ISRO in India.