S
MLA APA Chicago
Delft University of Technology. "Better control of
building blocks for quantum computer."
ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 23 December 2010.
<www.sciencedaily.com/
releases/2010/12/101223083759.htm>.
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Scanning electron image of the nanowire device
with gate electrodes used to electrically control
qubits, and source and drain electrodes used to
probe qubit states.
cientists from the Kavli Institute of
Nanoscience at Delft University of
Technology and Eindhoven University of
Technology have succeeded in controlling
the building blocks of a future super-fast
quantum computer. They are now able to
manipulate these building blocks (qubits) with
electrical rather than magnetic fields, as has been
the common practice up till now. They have also
been able to embed these qubits into
semiconductor nanowires.
The scientists' findings have been published in
the current issue of the journal Nature (Dec. 23).
A qubit is the building block of a possible, future
quantum computer, which would far outstrip
current computers in terms of speed. One way to
make a qubit is to trap a single electron in
semiconductor material. A qubit can, just like a
normal computer bit, adopt the states '0' and '1'.
This is achieved by using the spin of an electron,
which is generated by spinning the electron on its
axis. The electron can spin in two directions
(representing the '0' state and the '1' state).
Until now, the spin of an electron has been
controlled by magnetic fields. However, these field
are extremely difficult to generate on a chip. The
electron spin in the qubits that are currently being
generated by the Dutch scientists can be
controlled by a charge or an electric field, rather
than by magnetic fields. This form of control has
major advantages, as Leo Kouwenhoven, scientist
at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at TU Delft,
points out. "These spin-orbit qubits combine the
best of both worlds. They employ the advantages
of both electronic control and information storage
in the electron spin," he says.
There is another important new development in
the Dutch research: the scientists have been able
to embed the qubits (two) into nanowires made
of a semiconductor material (indium arsenide).
These wires are of the order of nanometres in
diameter and micrometres in length. "These
nanowires are being increasingly used as
convenient building blocks in nanoelectronics.
Nanowires are an excellent platform for quantum
information processing, among other
applications," says Kouwenhoven.
10/08/2014 12:37:00 PM
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the
application of the field of computer graphics (or
more specifically, 3D computer graphics) to
special effects.
CGI is used in films, television programs and
commercials, and in printed media.
Video games most often use real-time computer
graphics (rarely referred to as CGI), but may also
include pre-rendered "cut scenes" and intro
movies that would be typical CGI applications.
CGI is used for visual effects because the quality
is often higher and effects are more controllable
than other more physically based processes, such
as constructing miniatures for effects shots or
hiring extras for crowd scenes, and because it
allows the creation of images that would not be
feasible using any other technology.
It can [.....]
10/08/2014 11:35:00 AM
10 Web Design Trends for 2013
What will be those key trends?
1. CONTENT FIRST
2. SIMPLICITY OF DESIGN
INTERACTION AND CONTENT
3. UX CENTERED DESIGN
4. APP STYLE INTERFACES
5. THE UNIFICATION OF DESKTOP
AND MOBILE INTO A SINGLE
VERSION
6. SVG AND RESPONSIVE
TECHNIQUES
7. FLAT COLORS AND NO MORE
SKEUOMORPHISM
8. TECHNOLOGY AGNOSTIC
9. EXPERIMENTATION AND
INNOVATION IN DEVICE SENSORS
AND INTERACTION
10. THE INTERNET OF THINGS
It’s no easy task putting together a
short summary of all the interviews,
but as far as we’re concerned, there
are a few memorable statements in
the book which nicely encapsulate
the conclusions we’ve come to: [.....]
10/08/2014 10:27:00 AM
சந்திர கிரகணம்... என்ன விசேஷம்?
ச ந்திர கிரகணத்தைப் புண்ணிய
கால மாகக் கொண்டாடச்
சொல்கிறது தர்ம சாஸ்திரம்.
முறையாகத்
தனது கிரணத்தை (கதிர்களை)
வாரி இறைக்கும் சந்திரனுக்கு,
மறைவு ஏற்படுகிறது. அவனது கட
மைக்கு இடையூறு. கண்ணில்
திமிரம் (சதைப் பட லம்) மறைப்பதால்,
பார்வை தடைப்படும்.
வந்து கொண்டிருந்த கிரணம்
திடீரென்று நின்று விடுவதால்,
அங்கு அசாதாரணமான சூழல்
உருவாகும். அதன்
விளைவு விபரீதமாகவும்
மாறலாம். நல்ல கோடையில் திடீர்
மழையும், நல்ல மழைக் காலத்தில்
திடீர் வெப்பமும், எதிர்
விளைவுக்குக் காரணமாகலாம்.
அந்த வேளையில், மற்ற
செயல்பாடுகளிலிருந்து விடுபட்ட
வழியில் திருப்பி விட்டால், எந்த
இடையூறும் நம்மை பாதிக்காது.
‘மனதுக்கும் சந்திரனுக்கும் சம்பந்தம்
உண்டு’ என்று வேதம் கூறும்.
‘விராட புருஷனின்
மனதிலிருந்து சந்திரன்
தோன்றினான்’ என்ற தகவல்
வேதத்தில்
இருக்கிறது (சந்திரமா மனஸோ ஜா
ஜோதிட நூல்க ளும், மனதுக்கும்
சந்திரனுக்கும்
தொடர்பு இருப்பதை ஊர்ஜிதம்
செய்கின்றன.
சந்திரன்
தனது கலைகளை இழந்து சூரியன
வேளையில்-
அதாவது அமாவாசை காலத்தில்
மனநோய்
வலுப்பெறுவது கண்கூடு. தர்ச
(அமாவாசை) காலத்தில் ஆன்மிக
விஷயங்களைச்
செயல்படுத்தும்படி தர்ம சாஸ்திரம்
வற்புறுத்தும்.
[.....]
Step 1: Define Success
If you're aiming for a successful mobile app
launch, you need to define what success
looks like. Set some measurable goals around
your launch. I recommend measuring success
around your active install rate -- this tells
you retention rate, or the number of people
who install your app and then don't uninstall
it -- the number of ratings you receive, your
average rating in the app marketplace, and if
you're selling your app, revenue generated
from your app. To help you set some
benchmarks, most free mobile apps have a
higher active install rate during the first
month, usually around 50%, after which it
levels off around 30% . The average app store
rating is a 3 (out of 5), for which you should
certainly strive much higher to maintain a
healthy active install rate.
Step 2: Claim Your Social
Media Accounts
Pre-launch, claim your accounts in social
media, and use them actively to generate
interest like Android Photobooth did on
Twitter. You can use your social media
accounts to showcase the app while it's in
development and solicit feedback and ideas
from your future users. When your app
launches, though, be sure to change the link
in your Twitter bio to direct to the app store.
Remember, your goal isn't site traffic; you
want to drive downloads.
And don't discount newer social networks
like Pinterest for launching your mobile app
-- the highly visual social network is the
ideal place to show other mobile app
developers your product in its final stages
who may have some great suggestions for
UI/UX improvements. Unless, of course,
you're trying to beat a competitor to market!
Finally, if you're a HubSpot customer, you
can leverage another app -- the Facebook
Welcome app in HubSpot's app marketplace
-- to help with your mobile app launch on
Facebook. Generate some pre-release buzz
by customizing a page that lets people sign
up for an alert when the app launches. We'll
get into some fun pre-launch deals that will
generate buzz around your app that you can
associate with this email alert in Step 11.
Step 3: Create Content
Spend time creating content that clearly
explains how to use your mobile app. This
content should include blog posts, press
releases, social media content, website copy,
and email marketing copy. You can pre-
schedule all of this to go live on your launch
day, though you should check in periodically
on social media during launch week to
provide real-time updates that pertain to
support issues, reviews, and respond to user
recommendations.
Step 4: Record a Demo
Create a video that shows how to use your
mobile app -- you can easily do this with a
user-friendly program like Camtasia that
allows screen capture and voiceover
recording. Clearly explain what the app does
and why it is useful in real-life scenarios in
this video. Again, there are so many mobile
apps out there, that differentiating yours will
come down to clear communication in all of
your marketing materials. A short video demo
is one of the easiest ways to display the
value of your mobile app. For an example of
a fantastic mobile app demo, see Salesforce
Chatter's mobile app demo video , which
shows how the app works on the iPhone,
iPad, and BlackBerry.
Step 5: Launch a Dedicated
Site or Page
You can launch either a dedicated website for
your app -- more appropriate if your mobile
app is a business in its own right -- or
simply create a page for your mobile app on
your website. The latter is what most
companies who launch a mobile app choose
to do. To complement your social media
efforts, you should launch these pages even if
your app hasn't yet hit the market. Direct
users to this page of your site, let them view
your demo video, and encourage them to
sign up for a download alert email once your
mobile app goes to market.
Step 6: Choose an App
Store
Mashable recommends choosing just one app
store in which to launch your mobile app at
first. This should help you get the highest
concentration of users and ratings possible.
Additionally, you'll be making lots of changes
and improvements to your app during those
first few weeks after launch, and having your
app in just one store will help you streamline
those updates as they roll out. Once your
app is more established, feel free to expand it
to more app stores.
The most common app stores are the
Android Market and the Apple App Store ,
though there are many other app stores out
there (even HubSpot has its own App
Marketplace !).
Step 7: Network With Other
App Developers
Reach out to other app developers that have
created an app that could be complementary
to yours, and whose users might also like to
use your app. You could set up a mutually
beneficial co-marketing opportunity that
helps you both increase your install rates.
Just be sure to select developers who have
great ratings in the app store; you don't want
to associate your app with a bad product.
Step 8: Pitch Your App
Pitch your story to tech, mobile, and industry
journalists and bloggers. Be armed with the
video demo you recorded, and be prepared to
give them a free download of your app so
they can get to know the interface and your
app's capabilities. Make yourself readily
available to them to answer any of their
questions, and consider them another test
group who can find bugs and make UX/UI
recommendations.
You should start pitching at least a few
weeks in advance so they have time to
experiment with your app and write a
compelling story without being rushed. Plus,
the more time they have, the more likely they
can fit you into their editorial calendar.
Step 9: Tap Your Network
for Buzz
Reach out to your business network and ask
them to share your content about the app's
impending release socially. Send your
network a sneak preview email with a link to
your demo video so they can see how your
app works, and include social sharing
buttons to make sharing your content simply.
This is also a great recourse for bloggers and
journalists you've contacted who aren't
willing to publish long-form content about
your app; you can ask them if they'd be
willing to tweet a blog post you've written
about your app instead.
Step 10: Set Up Paid
Advertising
Because of the Google algorithm's freshness
update , you might gain some organic search
tractions at your mobile app launch.
Complement that search presence with some
paid advertising during launch week. You can
also set up paid, targeted ads on Facebook
to drive users to your Facebook fan page,
where they'll be greeted with your welcome
screen encouraging them to sign up for your
mobile app (see Step 2).
Step 11: Launch an Invite-
Only Beta
Before you take your mobile app live to the
public, consider an invite-only beta launch.
Websites Spotify, Google+, and Pinterest have
used this tactic with great success. It not
only creates an air of exclusivity that
generates buzz around your product, but it
also lets you get feedback from a trusted
network so you can fix bugs and UX/UI
problems before rolling your app out full
scale.
You can use the email list referenced in Step
2 as your pre-launch beta test group, and
supplement it with an email marketing send
to a segment of your current customer list
that would benefit from using your mobile
app. You can position the launch as free,
exclusive access to your mobile app before it
launches, and even ask them to write a
review of your app in exchange for that free,
exclusive access.
Step 12: Put Download
Links Everywhere
This step is for when you're ready to go live
to the public. Put links to download your
mobile app on your blog, your website's
home page, in your marketing emails, and on
your social media accounts -- you can even
add a mobile tab to your Facebook page .
Take a look at Zappos' mobile app page
below, which includes three calls-to-action
on just one page, all of which are to
download its mobile app.
Step 13: Monitor Feedback
and Encourage Reviews
Finally, monitor peoples' feedback about your
app, and strongly encourage users to post
reviews. It's not just that the apps with the
best reviews get the most visibility and
downloads; this process helps you identify
bugs you wouldn't otherwise know about and
make quick changes to improve the user
experience and make your app stickier. Keep
users updated on your progress as you make
it so they know you're listening and
responding to their feedback.
For two examples of mobile apps taking the
feedback and review process seriously, take a
look at Zappos and Salesforce. Salesforce
includes user reviews not only in the app
store, but also on its website. This review
shows a real-life application of its mobile app
helping a customer.
Zappos takes encouraging feedback seriously
-- the copy on the mobile app page of its
website asks people to tweet at them on
their mobile-dedicated Twitter account with
recommendations to improve the app. Plus,
Zappos' tagline says it all: "Try it. Rate it.
We Love You."
As Android platform continues its incredible
growth, more and more developers start working
on Android apps. If you are beginning Android
development in 2013, you are a lucky person, as
the platform has greatly matured in the last few
years. While the number of available
developer resources may seem overwhelming, this
post points to the most important ones.
This post may be useful for both beginners and
moderately experienced Android developers, as a
single place where most useful resources are
listed.
BOOKS
You may think that starting to learn a
new development platform in 2013 by reading a
book is old-fashioned and you may be right. But
you should still do it: see Programmers Don’t
Read Books – But You Should by Jeff Atwood.
I recommend these 2 books:
The Busy Coder’s Guide to Android
Development by Mark Murphy. What makes this
book special is not only its depth of coverage
(2000+ pages), but its frequent updates (~every 2
months). This is by far the best model for books
on such rapidly evolving topic as Android SDK.
Mark Murphy also regularly holds office hours,
where subscribers can ask questions. Book
samples are hosted on
github. Highly recommended.
Smashing UI by Juhani Lehtimaki . An excellent
book for any Android developer who cares about
great UI design.
DEVELOPER.ANDROID.COM
Before starting to write your first Android
application, read and learn Android Design site by
heart. Specifically, these articles:
Devices and Displays
Touch Feedback
Metrics and Grids
Iconography
Also check out the Downloads section, which
contains stencils, source files for icons and
controls, styled and unstyled Action Bar icons.
Ready to start coding? Sorry, keep reading:
Best Practices for User Experience & UI (a must
read)
Best Practices for Performance
Displaying Bitmaps Efficiently
Adding Animations (also see NineOldAndroids
library)
Tools help
SDK Samples
STACKOVERFLOW
A number of Android core framework
engineers, developer advocates and expert
Android developers regularly answer questions on
stackoverflow.com. Here’s a list of top
stackoverflow Android users. I’m subscribed to
RSS answers’ feeds of many SO users; some of
them are: CommonsWare (Mark Murphy), Dianne
Hackborn , Romain Guy , Reto Meier , Trevor
Johns, Roman Nurik , Adam
Powell (thanks, @remdroid !).
BLOGS
Many blogs provide great up to date information
about Android development:
Android Dev Weekly by Gyuri Grell. An excellent
weekly newsletter with the latest Android
development news. Highly recommended.
Official Android developers blog. It’s worth
browsing through this blog’s archives, as some of
the posts are meaty, e.g.: Avoiding memory
leaks, Memory Analysis for Android Applications .
Romain Guy . An excellent blog by key Android
framework engineer. Once you are comfortable
with Android development, make sure to
read Android Performance Case Study post. Off-
topic: Romain is also a great photographer .
Codependent by Chet Haase, creator of Android
animation framework.
The CommonsBlog by Mark Murphy.
Cyril Mottier’s Android dev blog. A fantastic
resource with posts of great depth. Some of the
latest posts: ListView Tips & Tricks #5: Enlarged
Touchable Areas , Tweeted Android Development
Tips, The Google Maps Android API V2
Utopia , Android App Launching Made
Gorgeous, “Pull-to-refresh”: An Anti UI Pattern on
Android.
Styling Android by Mark Allison.
Coding Thoughts by Daniel Lew - great tips from
one of the developers behind excellent Expedia’s
Hotels and Flights app (formely: Mobiata).
GOOGLE+
While Google+ has not become the social
network, it is an invaluable source of information
about Android development. Some of the Google+
profiles you may consider to follow are: Tor
Norbye (ADT), Dianne Hackborn , Romain
Guy , Chris Banes, Roman Nurik , Nick
Butcher, Adam Powell , Rich Hyndman , Cyril
Mottier, Paul Burke , Jeff Gilfelt.
Make sure to follow Jake Wharton , the author of
ActionBarSherlock, ViewPageIndicator,
NineOldAndroid, and many other open source
Android libraries.
Also consider joining few of the Google+
communities:
Official Android dev community
Android designer community
OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS
Reading source code of well designed apps is
always a good idea:
Google I/O Android app. If you like to copy/paste
code, this is the place to copy from.
Photup by Chris Banes.
Android Protips: A Deep Dive Into Location by
Reto Meier. Demonstrates use of location
detection, fragments, and BackupManager. Use
with care, as this code has not been updated for
some time.
And, of course, the ultimate source: Android
source code .
OPEN SOURCE LIBRARIES
Some of the most useful open source libraries:
ActionBarSherlock by Jake Wharton. Library for
implementing the action bar design pattern using
the native action bar on Android 4.0+ and a
custom implementation on pre-4.0 through a
single API and theme.
ViewPagerIndicator by Jake Wharton. Paging
indicator widgets compatible with the ViewPager
from the Android Support Library and
ActionBarSherlock. Originally based on Patrik
Åkerfeldt’s ViewFlow.
NineOldAndroids by Jake Wharton. Android library
for using the Honeycomb animation API on all
versions of the platform back to 1.0.
Universal-Image-Loader by Sergey
Tarasevich. Powerful and flexible instrument for
asynchronous image loading, caching and
displaying.
UrlImageViewHelper by Koushik
Dutta. UrlImageViewHelper fills an ImageView
with an image that is found at a URL and
automatically downloads, saves, and caches all
the bitmaps.
Android-BitmapCache by Chris Banes.
A specialised cache, for use with Android Bitmap
objects.
DiskLruCache by Jake Wharton. Java
implementation of a Disk-based LRU cache which
specifically targets Android compatibility.
Search github for [android] projects to find more.
Also, DevAppsDirect app is a great collection of
available open source custom views, widgets and
libraries.
GOOGLE I/O TALKS
While it has become virtually impossible to get a
Google I/O ticket , all Google I/O talks are
available online, usually with slides. Links to
Google I/O Android sessions over the years:
2012 , 2011 , 2010 , 2009 .
Some of my favorite talks:
Advanced Design for Engineers by Alex Faaborg
and Christian Robertson (2012)
For Butter or Worse: Smoothing Out Performance
in Android UIs by Chet Haase, Romain Guy (2012)
Navigation in Android by Adam Powell, Richard
Fulcher (2012). If you happen to think that fixing
Android back/up buttons issues is easy , watch
this humbling talk.
So You’ve Read the Design Guide; Now
What? by Daniel Lehmann, Tor Norbye, Richard
Ngo (2012)
What’s New in Android? by Chet Haase, Romain
Guy, Daniel Sandler (2012)
What’s New in Android Developers’ Tools
by Xavier Ducrohet, Tor Norbye (2012)
Memory management for Android Apps by Patrick
Dubroy (2011)
Writing zippy Android apps by Brad
Fitzpatrick (2010)
Developing Android REST client applications
by Virgil Dobjanschi (2010)
PLEASE STOP, YOU’RE SCARING ME
If this post looks a bit overwhelming, don’t
despair. Some of the links above are useful only
for beginners, while others are useful for more
advanced developers.
Few tips on how to efficiently consume this
content:
First, read the books. Did I mention you should
read the books? This will lay the proper
foundation of your Android knowledge.
Subscribe to blogs and stackoverflow answer
feeds via RSS.
Set up an android-dev circle in Google+.
ANDROID SUPERSTARS
As Android developer ecosystem continues to
flourish with contributions from many
exceptionally talented developers, special
mentions should be reserved for two people who
have been instrumental in making lives of Android
developers easier. They are: Mark
Murphy and Jake Wharton.
Mark and Jake have earned an unlimited beer for
life for making some of the most useful
contributions to Android open source. If you ever
meet them, make sure to buy them a drink of
their choice. [correction : based on the comments
below, Mark's beer should instead be directed to
Chris Bane. And if you read that far, you know
that the best way to thank Mark would be a
CommonsWare subscription.]
Obviously, a lot of Android framework developers
and designers at Google did a great job with
Android. A number of them is referenced in this
post.
THE END, FINALLY
That’s it, folks. You now have all the information
and tools to write some kick ass Android apps!
Well, not really: you still need a great Android UI
designer, but that is a topic for another post. But
you should definitely be ready to write your first
Android app.
If I’ve missed any great resources, please let me
know in the comments, as I plan to occasionally
update this post.
Happy coding!
10/08/2014 10:02:00 AM
Android game engines for game developers
Here is the ever expanding list of game
engines I have collected information about.
The list includes some features and details
about each engine and an example game
on Google Play if I could find one. Project Anarchy by Havok - http://
www.projectanarchy.com/
FREE Cross-Platform Engine and
Toolkit for Mobile Game
Developers
Develop and release titles on iOS,
Android and Tizen for free.
Extendible C++ plugin based
architecture
Includes Havok’s Vision Engine
together with Havok’s leading
Physics, Animation Studio and AI
tools
Available now GameMaker by YoYo Games - http://
www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/
studio
2D Cross platform game engine
with support for iOS, Android,
HTML5, Mac OS, Windows 8,
Ubuntu and Windows Phone 8
Integrated Development
Environment that manages fonts,
[.....]
மணலிக்கீரை:
மணலிக்கீரையின் இலை, தண்டு, வேர் ஆகிய
அனைத்துமே மருத்துவக்குணம் வாய்ந்தது. மலச்சிக்கல் குணமாக: மணலிக்கீரையை பாசிபருப்புடன்
சேர்த்து கூட்டு தயார்
செய்து சாப்பிட்டு வந்தால் மலச்சிக்கல்
பிரச்சனை குணமாகும். ஞாபக சக்தி பெருக: ஞாபக மறதிக்கு முக்கிய காரணம் பித்த
அதிகரிப்பே காரணம் ஆகும். மேலும்
மூளைக்குத் தேவையான சத்து குறைவதாலும்
இப்பிரச்சனை ஏற்படுகிறது.
இப்பிரச்சனை தீருவதற்கு மணலிக்கீரையை மசியல்
செய்து சாப்பிட வேண்டும். குடலில் உள்ள தட்டைப்புழுக்கள் குறைய: மணலிக்கீரையின் வேர், இலைகளை நீர்
விட்டு நன்கு அரைத்து அதில் 70 கிராம்
அளவு எடுத்து நீரில்
கலக்கி அதிகாலையில் வெறும் வயிற்றில்
பருகினால் குடலில் உள்ள தட்டைப்புழுக்கள்
குறையும். மார்புசளி வயிற்றுப்புண்
குணமாகும். மூளை நரம்புகள் பலம்பெற: மணலிக்கீரை வதக்கி சாப்பிட்டால்
மூளை நரம்புகள் பலப்படும். ஈரல் பலம்பெற: மணலிக்கீரையை கஷாயம் செய்து குடித்தால்
ஈரல் பலப்படும். [.....]
Chemotherapy is the use of medication
(chemicals) to treat disease. More specifically,
chemotherapy typically refers to the destruction
of cancer cells. However, chemotherapy may also
include the use of antibiotics or other
medications to treat any illness or infection.
This article concentrates on chemotherapy for
cancer treatment. Cytotoxic medication prevents
cancer cells from dividing and growing. When
health care professionals talk about chemotherapy
today, they generally tend to refer more to
cytotoxic medication than others.
How did chemotherapy start ?
After a military operation in World War II some
sailors were accidentally exposed to mustard gas.
They were later found to have very low white
blood cell counts. White blood cells usually grow
very quickly - cancer cells [.....]
