[StarTech] TechViews: Tools of advanced warfare (Where is the limit?)

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=95152

Before writing this article, I was having second thoughts as to how relevant this topic would be in the context of Bangladesh. But I was soon brought out of my dilemma by the fact that relevance has nothing to do with people’s interest in a certain subject. So here goes this week’s Lead News on the Star Tech page, on some of the recent advances of warfare tools the world has seen.

Imagine a scenario where, half a mile outside the enemy-held airport that is on the night’s objective, 100 U.S. Special Forces operatives stow their parachutes, regroup into squads, and prepare their attack. In the past, these soldiers wouldn’t have known where the enemy was or whether they were walking into an ambush –until the shooting started. They would have relied on printed maps with information that was likely to be several hours old when they boarded their C-130 for transport to the objective.

But this unit has advanced technology that gives it a decisive edge. Each soldier is equipped with a helmet-mounted GPS navigation receiver, a small wireless intrasquad voice and data comms system, and a wearable computer linked to an intrasquad LAN. From a flip-down display on his helmet, each soldier can scan the darkness with thermal and night-vision sensors mounted on his M-4 rifle. Each soldier navigates his computer through a track pad mounted beneath his uniform on top of his chest. For navigation and situational awareness, a soldier calls up his position on a map that automatically scrolls as he moves in any direction. The relative positions of his squad members are also displayed, as are surrounding buildings and suspected positions of enemy soldiers, updated in nearreal time via radio.

As each soldier and his squad members come within a few hundred meters of the airport buildings, they fan out. The soldiers approach the immediate objective: a structure believed to be, based on the latest intelligence data, the enemy’s sleeping quarters. One soldier takes up a position just outside the main door and swings his rifle into the doorway, surveying the scene via a camera mounted on his M-4 rifle, avoiding exposure to hostile fire.

Although this scenario may sound improbable, all this technology exists, with much of it deployed in parts by the US Defence. The development of smaller, faster, and cheaper computers, interface improvements, networks, database access, and improved software algorithms has put computing power in the hands of U.S. infantrymen and women.

Computers arrived just in time for World War II, and the military quickly adapted the room-size behemoths for ballistics predictions and code breaking. Throughout the Cold War, the U.S. and its allies poured money into IT to improve their weapons. By the time the Berlin Wall came down, radars and other sensors were using computer power to process more target information; missiles relied on embedded processors for guidance and control; and complex algorithms provided fire solutions that let tanks shoot on the move. In fact, computer-controlled avionics (aeronautical electronics) are the only reason the ungainly F-117 stealth fighter can fly.

By the time the Gulf War erupted in 1991, U.S. aircraft, ships, and tanks bristled with technology that boosted the performance of their sensors, communications, fire-control systems, and munitions. Greater processing power let weapons systems fuse their own sensor data with off-board intelligence feeds for greater situational awareness. As a result, U.S. forces could engage more distant targets and detect and defeat guided missiles with jammers that cycled through thousands of jamming techniques in the few seconds it took the missiles to reach their targets.

War vehicles have also recently seen a lot of change, with emphasis on aerodynamics, durability, strength and adaptability. However, interestingly enough, cost has always remained a lower priority with exorbitant price tags to these mighty machines.

One of the latest additions to the armoured vehicle fleet of the British Army will be a category of vehicle called the tactical support vehicle (TSV). In October 2008, 400 TSVs were ordered as part of the $700m protected patrol vehicles package. The new TSVs will be used to accompany patrols, and also to transport supplies such as ammunition and water.

The three types of vehicle include the Wolfhound a heavy armoured support vehicle to support and supply the new Mastiff with heavy mine protection (force protection), the Husky a medium armoured truck to carry out support in less threatened areas and the Coyote a light armoured support vehicle to support the new Jackal 2.

The Wolfhound TSV (heavy) and the Coyote TSV (light) will be produced as one variant, which is a utility flatbed vehicle that will be used to transport combat supplies. The Husky TSV (medium) will be produced as three variants; utility vehicle, ambulance with enhanced protection and command post vehicle.

The Jackal 2 has been designed to a high specification to protect personnel against roadside explosions and mine attack. The vehicle also has a special air-bag suspension system that allows rapid movement of the vehicle across varying terrain.

The vehicle is expected to be used for reconnaissance, rapid assault, fire support and convoy protection. The vehicle will have a range of 800km and will include a 7.62mm general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) and either a .50-calibre heavy machine gun (HMG) or grenade machine gun (GMG) as the main weapon system. The gun ring weapon in this machine has a 360° sweep of fire, much higher coverage than its predecessors.

Although, the key objective of most modern war machines is to minimize the number of personnel casualties by machines doing most of the work, it also means higher precision and hence higher number of people getting killed from the ‘enemy side’. With growing concerns and calls for ‘world peace’ by global leaders, spending on warfare, ironically enough, seems to be on the rise and shows no sign of decline!

Sources: pcmag.com, army-technology.com

Compiled by Mahdin Mahboob

[StarTech] TechViews: Super Fast Processors (How much speed is enough?)

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=94177

Since the inception of the first Personal Computer (PC), scientists and researchers have always strived towards making faster, cheaper and more efficient processors. Of these factors, speed of the CPU (Central Processing Unit) or the clock-rate of the processors was always the key concern of the computer architects.

The Moore’s law, as described by Gordon E Moore, the co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of Intel Corporation describes the trend as: ‘the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit has increased exponentially, doubling approximately every two years.’

In recent times though, some groundbreaking innovations have taken place, which seem to be defying all laws in terms of speed.

On May this year, the Japanese company Fujitsu Ltd announced that it developed the fastest central processing unit in the world. The Tokyo-based company presented a CPU that has the ability to carry out 128 billion calculations per second.

It is for the first time since 1999 that Fujitsu received the title of the world’s fastest CPU developer. Having developed the Venus, the Japanese company managed to surpass some of the largest technology corporations in the world, including Intel Corp. and IBM Corp. in terms of speed of the central processing unit.

It was estimated that Fujitsu’s latest creation runs about 2.5 times than the previous record holder developed by Intel. With the help of miniaturisation technology, the Japanese company was able to include twice as many central circuits onto a chip as there were on previous CPU, thus having eight instead of four circuits. The chip measures 2 sq. cm.

Furthermore, the Venus saves energy, reducing the consumption of electricity by about 30 percent compared to current levels.

There are rumours that the CPU is going to be used in the next-generation supercomputer that will start operating at the end of 2010. The supercomputer will be installed at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Science (Riken) and will feature tens of thousands of such CPUs as the Venus.

Engineers believe that the current CPU will be used to help new technologies develop drugs, predicts earthquakes and design rocket engines.

Another processor worth mentioning is the Intel Core i7 processor, dubbed by Intel as its most advanced desktop processor ever. Released in November 2008, the Core i7 processor is the first member of a new family of Nehalem processor designs and is the most sophisticated ever built, with new technologies that boost performance on demand and maximize data throughput. The Core i7 processor speeds video editing, immersive games and other popular Internet and computer activities by up to 40 percent without increasing power consumption.

Broadly heralded by the computing industry as a technical marvel, the Intel Core i7 processor holds a new world record of 117 for the SPECint_base_rate2006 benchmark test that measures the performance of a processor. This is the first time ever for any single processor to exceed a score of 100 points.

“Intel has delivered the fastest desktop processor on Earth to the most demanding users on Earth, the ones who are using their PCs for video, gaming and music,” said Patrick Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group. “When you couple what is Intel’s biggest leap in chip design with other incredible innovations like Intel’s solid state drives, the Core i7 processor has redefined the computer of tomorrow.”

Tech Web sites have been extremely positive in their product reviews. Anandtech states that “Core i7 continues to fuel Intel’s beacon of performance.” “The Core i7 is everything they promised it would be,” says PC Perspective. “Nehalem is a masterpiece,” says the Lost Circuits website. The Tech Report calls it “one of the most consequential shifts in the industry.”

Intel’s unique Turbo Boost Technology accelerates performance to match a computer user’s needs and workloads. Through a sophisticated on-die power control unit and using new “power gate” transistors based on Intel’s advanced 45 nanometer, high-k metal gate manufacturing process, Turbo Boost automatically adjusts the clock speed of one or more of the four individual processing cores for single- and multi-threaded applications to boost performance, without increasing power consumption. The Core i7 also has the latest Intel power-saving technologies, allowing desktops to go into sleep states formerly reserved for Intel-based notebooks.

The Core i7 processor more than doubles the memory bandwidth of previous Intel “Extreme” platforms, speeding the transfer of computer bits and bites in and out of the processor with Intel Quickpath Technology. Designed with Intel’s Hyper-Threading Technology, the processor also allows multiple computing threads to run simultaneously, effectively enabling it to do two things at once. As a result, the Core i7 quad-core processor delivers 8-threaded performance.

The Intel Core i7 processor also offers unrivalled performance for immersive 3-D games – over 40 percent faster than previous Intel high-performance processors on both the 3DMark Vantage CPU physics and AI tests, popular industry computer benchmarks that measure gaming performance. The Extreme Edition uses 8 threads to run games with advanced artificial intelligence and physics to make games act and feel real.

In January 2009, AMD launched its ‘fastest desktop processors ever’. They announced two new quad-core Phenom II processors at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, USA. The Phenom II processors, pack 8MB of cache and are positioned squarely in the consumer desktop market. They also run at up to 3GHz, though AMD has demonstrated an over-clocked Phenom II processor running up to 4GHz just on air cooling.

Even though the Phenom II processors represent the fastest processors ever released by AMD, they flounder when pitted against Intel’s fastest Core i7. Benchmarks show the Intel processor coming out about 22% faster, though the AMD system delivers better “performance per watt” figures.

Although the majority of PC users around the world are not high end users, who do not require top speed, it is also a matter of prestige of the processor manufacturing companies to be the proud owners of the fastest processors. The war is on!

Information Source: infoniac.com, intel.com, fiercecio.com and wikipedia.

Compiled by Mahdin Mahboob

[StarTech] TechViews: Budget 2009-10 (What’s in for IT, telecom and science?)

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=93173

On June 11, Finance Minister AMA Muhith unveiled the proposed budget for fiscal 2009-2010. In addition to the pressure of having to meet demands of different key sectors with limited resources and great expectations, the minister also had to take into account the demands of the people from ICT industry, and anyone and everyone remotely or directly connected to it.

The promise of a digital Bangladesh by the year 2021 made the expectations even higher from this year’s budget. In this issue of StarTech, we have looked into the pros and cons of the proposed budget and what experts are thinking about it.

The proposed budget for fiscal 2009-10 aims at making technology accessible to all and this was sharply reflected by the allocation of Tk 563 crore in ICT and telecommunication sectors, which is a giant leap from the Tk 265 crore in the revised budget for fiscal 2008-09. The allocation includes Tk 142 crore in Annual Developed Programme for science and ICT ministry, Tk 221 crore for post and telecommunication ministry, a special allocation of Tk 100 crore for ICT development and Tk 200 crore for equity and entrepreneurship fund for ICT promotion.

The finance minister also said that automated system would be introduced in the administration, educational institutions, land and health sectors and tax administration phase by the phase within a few years. If successfully implemented, an automated system would increase transparency and reduce corruption and hence fulfill the government’s pledge of a digital Bangladesh.

The commitment to connect the country with the second submarine cable for providing internet service to more people is likely to give ICT a major boost.

“We have to use information and communication technology extensively for accelerated development. Therefore, we are moving ahead with a dream of establishing digital Bangladesh by 2021. The transition to digitisation process will, on one hand, help accelerate production and on the other hand, facilitate curbing corruption,” said Muhith. The minister was also hopeful that the employment in ICT sector will rank second only to textile sector by 2021.

Mustafa Jabbar, president of Bangladesh Computer Samity, has termed the proposed budget a milestone — a great achievement of Bangladesh for being able to leap from the ‘Agricultural Age’ to the ‘Digital Age’, bypassing the ‘Industrial Age’. He was particularly impressed by the government’s massive plans for power sector, the current state of which many consider to be the single largest obstacle to bringing about digital Bangladesh. The finance minister informed the government’s decision to increase power generation by 950 MW this year and 2810 MW more by 2013 under different public and private initiatives. Jabbar appreciated the decision of withdrawing tax from internet usage at educational institutions but failed to understand why it did not apply for home users. The increased taxes on monitor, printer, toner and refill have also worried him and he suggested that they should immediately be withdrawn.

The proposed tax on mobile handsets and non withdrawal of tax on SIM cards is likely to hinder the growth of the fast growing telecommunications industry in Bangladesh, fear industry people and experts. In the proposed budget, a whopping 25 percent customs duty has been imposed on the import value of each set, scrapping the existing flat import duty of Tk 300 on each set. Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers’ Association (BMPIA) has opposed the new duty structure saying they will have to pay at least Tk 800 for import of each low-priced handset. This decision will make a new handset and connection more expensive and perhaps deter first time buyers availing this service, people who need it the most.

Habibullah N Karim, president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, has welcomed the allocation of Taka 500 crore for ICT development but hoped to see the allocation of more Tk 500 crore in the revised budget.

“We are happy to see that the finance minister has rightfully emphasised the use of indigenous software and IT enabled services for the sustainable development of this sector. We also hope that the government will undertake all possible e-government projects in line with the action plan given in the ICT Policy 2009,” says Karim.

Although highly applauded by ICT people, Prof Haseena Khan of the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the University of Dhaka has described the proposed budget by saying “Our frustration stems from the fact that to our policymakers ICT is the only science and technology worth pursuing” and like to see specific allocations in the biotechnology research sector in the revised budget. She said it was high time to grow this promising technology which could improve the quality of human life by leaps and bounds.

All in all, the proposed budget for fiscal 2009-2010 has had a mixed bag of responses from people related to ICT and other scientific fields and industry. With recommendations and suggested changes from the experts and people the final budget is expected to bring about positive change in the country.

mahdin@thedailystar.net

[StarTech] TechSpotLight: The USB story

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=92258

Many of us have recently seen the Intel’s TV advertisement which shows Ajay Bhatt, the co-inventor of the USB, aptly termed as our rockstars aren’t like your rockstars walking and moving like a celebrity would. Interesting advertisement, to say the least. To those of you are thinking that this article is about Intel or the advertisement industry in general, behold! It’s about neither and is about the Universal Serial Bus or USB in short.

For most of us using personal computers in our day-to-day lives, whether it be for office or college work or simply checking emails and facebooking, the USB port is a common device about which we barely ever think about.

Initially designed to replace the many varieties of serial and parallel ports that were jumbling up our PCs with every new gadget, and thus making the production of standard devices increasingly difficult, it has today become the quintessential bridge to connect computer peripherals like mice, keyboards, PDAs, gamepads and joysticks, scanners, digital cameras, printers, personal media players, flash drives, and external hard drives.

Although it was designed to be used for personal computers, USB has today become commonplace on other devices such as PDAs and video game consoles, and as a power cord between a device and an AC adapter plugged into a wall plug for charging. According to a PC World report published in 2008, there are about 2 billion USB devices sold every year with total about 6 billion sold to date!

The history of the USB dates back to 1994 when the specifications for the first generation of USB or USB 1.0 were introduced. The intention was to replace the multitude of connectors at the back of PCs, as well as to simplify software configuration of communication devices. The original USB 1.0 specification had a data transfer rate of 12 Mbit/s.

The creation of USB was a result of research conducted by a core group of companies that consisted of Intel, Compaq, Microsoft, Digital, IBM, and Northern Telecom. Intel produced the UHCI (Universal Host Controller Interface) host controller and open software stack; Microsoft produced a USB software stack for Windows and co-authored the OHCI host controller specification with National Semiconductor and Compaq; Philips produced early USB-Audio; and TI produced the most widely used hub chips.

Six years later, the USB 2.0 specification was released in April 2000 and was standardized at the end of 2001. Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Lucent Technologies (now Alcatel-Lucent following its merger with Alcatel in 2006), Microsoft, NEC, and Philips jointly led the initiative to develop a higher data transfer rate, 480 Mbit/s, than the 1.0 specification of 12 Mbit/s.

The latest in line, the third generation of USB, or USB 3.0 specification was released on November 17, 2008 by the USB 3.0 Promoter Group. It has a transfer rate of up to 10 times faster than the USB 2.0 version and has been dubbed the SuperSpeed USB.

The benefit of USB is equipment conforming with any version of the standard will also work with devices designed to any previous specification (a property known as backward compatibility).

Every USB system has an asymmetric design, consisting of a host, a multitude of downstream USB ports, and multiple peripheral devices connected in a tiered-star topology. A USB host may have multiple host controllers and each host controller may provide one or more USB ports. Up to 127 devices, including the hub devices may be connected to a single host controller.

USB devices are linked in series through hubs and there always exists one hub known as the root hub, which is built into the host controller. This sharing hubs, as they are popularly know to be, allow multiple computers to access the same peripheral device(s), also exist and work by switching access between PCs, either automatically or manually. They are popular in small-office environments.

A physical USB device may consist of several logical sub-devices that are referred to as device functions. A single device may provide several functions, for example, a webcam (video device function) with a built-in microphone (audio device function).

When a USB device is first connected to a USB host, the USB device enumeration process is started. The enumeration starts by sending a reset signal to the USB device. The speed of the USB device is determined during the reset signaling. After reset, the USB device’s information is read by the host, then the device is assigned a unique 7-bit address. If the device is supported by the host, the device drivers needed for communicating with the device are loaded and the device is set to a configured state. If the USB host is restarted, the enumeration process is repeated for all connected devices.

The host controller directs traffic flow to devices, so no USB device can transfer any data on the bus without an explicit request from the host controller. In USB 2.0, host controller polls the bus for traffic, usually in a round-robin fashion. In SuperSpeed USB, connected devices can request service from host.

Technical jargon aside, the Universal Serial Bus or USB has come as a blessing for PC users all over the world and in the coming days, it is all set to become even more faster and convenient for the users.

Information Source: The Internet.

Spotlight: Earn While You Learn

http://www.thedailystar.net/campus/2009/05/03/camspotlight.htm

Photo: Wasama Doja

Sarah Z H, Tanzina Rahman, Mahdin Mahboob, Tawsif Saleheen, Nazia Ahmed, Tabassum Mokhduma, Fariha Ishrat Khandaker & Ridwan Karim

Part time jobs have always attracted university and college level students for more reasons than one. We have heard from our fathers and grandfathers about lodging-masters, brilliant students who used to stay in the houses of well-off people in big cities and teach their children while pursuing their own studies in colleges and universities. This practice started in this region in the British era and survived through the Pakistani rule and continued after the independence as well. For many of them, choosing to be the full time home tutor was not an option, but a necessity.

Today, in the twenty first century, many other avenues of part time jobs have opened up for the students of colleges and universities. Starting from good old home tuition to teaching in schools and coaching centres, to becoming call centre executives and to the more recent trends of becoming online bloggers and radio jockeys, opportunities seem to be unlimited and ever growing.

Photo: Tanzina Rahman

LOOKING into most popular part-time jobs among the university students, private tuitions have taken its stand to attract significant amount of individuals. To some it is the flexible timing, while to others it’s the notion of the profession that appears to be the most convenient way of earning money.

“It’s easier for a university student to get these tuitions and manage them rather than to get fixed part-time jobs. We arrange the timing with the students according to our timetable. And there are other reasons as well, I feel independent and I can also bear my expenses rather than being a pain for my parents” explained Nazia Sultana, 21, student of Independent University Bangladesh, School of Business.

While Z Z Khan, a 3rd year student at North South University said she has been teaching students of different age groups since the days of her A levels. “Teaching is all about learning how to deal with different kinds of people. By getting a chance to interact with students of different age groups, one can learn about the psychology of students and how they react to certain situations. If someone is interested in taking up teaching as a profession in the future then part time tutoring gives you a great opportunity to guide other people and master a sense of responsibility. One can tutor up to 20 to 30 students in a batch depending on his or her capacity. For much younger kids, one mustn’t try to tutor more than 6 at a time. Khan believes teaching makes her a better person and is a fun job at the end of the day. The amount of money that is earned through part time teaching is fairly decent. The only drawback about this job would be at times it could make you tired and not want to do your own studies!”

Furthermore, female university students tend to take junior level classes at private English medium schools as well. It appears that, for most of them it is a more convenient way of earning money, since the timing of their work is more suited with their university schedules. The pay is not so bad either.

According to the school administration, university students can relate more to the classes they teach. When asked, a bunch of fifth graders seemed pretty excited to have a teacher who was not so old and taught them with more enthusiasm. From the perspective of these part-time teachers, it’s an easy and fun way to make money, gain experience, and add another line on their resume.

Thus, it seems that there is a well-balanced symbiosis.
Teaching Assistantship in universities is another such profession. During the course of their studies, high CGPA holder students secure employment as TAs. The profession enhances their comprehensive reading skills as well as adds value to teaching profession if they consider pursuing in the related field.

After completing his A Levels, Azeezur Rahman Khan joined Chittagong Grammar School, Chittagong (CGS) as an Assistant Physics Trainee Teacher last August, the school from where he completed his A Levels. Now enrolled in Physics in University College London (UCL), he firmly believes that what he learned all these days while teaching actually helped him a lot to increase his knowledge and go in-depth about Physics. He said, “My classes will start within a couple of months and I am happy that because of my job I have learned a lot which will help me in my undergraduate programme. Moreover, because of this job I got both economic independence and experience, which is priceless as this experience will boost my chances of getting scholarships in future”.

Call Centre is another field that is becoming one of the most progressive industries in Bangladesh. It’s also an industry that relies heavily on part timers. Many private Call Centres in Bangladesh are staffed by university students and in some cases fresh A level/ HSC graduates. While it gives the students an exposure to the international market, due to the late working hours in a call centre it also acts as an added stress.

Nur-Us Shams who is associated with Orbit Communications, one of the leading call centres in Bangladesh has talked about the reason why many call centres prefer recruiting part timers.

“One of the major problems faced by the call centre industry of our country is that we don’t have well trained man power. As a result the industry has to depend on part timers. Due to time difference with the western world, students employed in the call centres have to work in the night shift. This might create imbalance in the student’s life. As a result, call centres that employ students as part timers should adopt practices that reduce their work stress,” he said.

Thanks to the steady growth of private television and radio channels in Bangladesh, opportunities are now opening up for students as newscasters and radio jockeys.

Frizea Talukdar is an MBA student who works as a part time newsreader at Bangladesh Television. She said it’s a lot of pressure when she has exams and a news reading schedule at the same time. Her job is otherwise rewarding as she can learn about what is happening around the world and from such a reliable source. She has been working for two years and sometimes had to miss classes because she had schedules set earlier for the day. However, Frizea is not satisfied with the amount of money she earns from her job.

Nafeez Karim studies BBA at Independent University Bangladesh. He said, “I’m working as a part time Radio Jockey for the last six months. After a rigorous 25 days of training from the producers and the more experienced RJs, I joined Radio Aamar as a part time Radio Jockey. I have my own show on air and have to work 2 hours a week. My employers are very understanding if I can’t make it to the office due to exams.”

Sometimes the part timers have a chance to work extra in shifts. Nafeez stresses on the fact that the working environment is worthy. Although they are given a basic guideline on how to make things work the RJs are always encouraged to explore creativity and bring in new ideas to transform the programs into something better. When asked whether he is satisfied with the amount of money he earns from his job, he said the level of his satisfaction waivers somewhere in between.

Omer Nashaad a private university student shared his views on his part time job as a DJ and studying at the same time.

“I started off as a mobile DJ back in Canada at Windsor. When I came back, I continued being a DJ beside my studies. The key is to keep yourself updated on the latest as well as the old music as much as you can. Once you have that rolling, you’re a hit!

“From the financial point of view, being a DJ brings in fast money. As for bridging between studies and the job, frankly, it all depends on how you divide your time. I, for example, chose weekends to do DJ shows, which never clashed with my classes,” he added.

Photo: Tanzina Rahman

Sabhanaz Rashid has been working as a part time photographer for the last 8/9 months. Most of her works are assignment based. She has worked for a popular English teen magazine called Rising Stars and Cotton Bangladesh group. Sometimes she sells her photos, which give her an opening as an aspiring artist. She sells them depending on the usage of the photo and the level of copyright. Photography for her is about exercising a level of creativity with much fun and excitement. She proudly pronounced that her part time job as a photographer hasn’t affected her studies as she carefully kept the two things separate. She likes to call her job surprisingly refreshing and exciting in a very positive way.

Nowadays many of the students go into the field of event management. According to Saif of Game Theory (A new age innovative media solutions company): this particular field is not suitable for students who want to achieve a good grade and graduate in time. This is because of the long hours and tedious workload. It mainly includes organizing events, making sure the banners, caterers, MCs, and decorations are in place to run a successful event.

Meanwhile, many students from Computer Science background, and others from non-technical backgrounds who have trained themselves in different web-developing software are finding web-development projects and making good money out of it. Some students are writing articles and taking pictures for different websites while some students have even gone onto the entrepreneurial level by opening local ISPs (Internet Service Providers) themselves.

Hussain M. Elius has been web designing for sometime now. It started out as a hobby but when he realized that he was growing a very keen interest in the job, he decided to make it his part time source of earning. He is a first year student at a private university in Dhaka and has already worked for One Degree Initiative, The Daily New Age, Business Report and a Norwegian cosmetic company. Hussain thinks web designing is particularly linked with personal development. It requires a certain kind of mental skill and a great deal of patience. It’s true that at times he got carried away by the huge amount of money this job offered him and as a result flunked in his studies; he also became conscious about not overworking himself. He has promised to himself that he will not work on more than one website in a month.

While, Rajiv Ashrafi loves writing and is currently enrolled at a well known private university of the country. He has been working as a part time blogger for the last 2 years. He works for two sites, Digital Battle and Screenhead which regularly offers reviews, news and interviews on games and movies. He believes, it is worth it because you can sit at home and stay connected doing exactly what you’re required to do. This experience will earn him acceptance later in life when he wants to move into something more serious. The only difference is, working for an online magazine or a site doesn’t allow you to meet the people physically. So far it hasn’t affected his studies since he can do it all without having to travel anywhere and the payment he says is quite good. Md. Sarfaraz Khan is a student at the Jahangirnagar University. Since last October he coupled with some of his friends has been working part time as Internet Service Providers in Uttara.Some parts of the outskirts of Uttara had no access to Internet services and Sarfaraz thought it would be great if he could make arrangements by providing broadband Internet services especially to the students who lived in that particular area. So he went on with his plan and now successfully runs Clicknet online services. He has divided his time with his other friends to look after their venture. He mostly works 2 to 3 days a week and enjoys it very much. The amount of money he makes from his job is quite enough to keep him going for the month. He gladly shares that his job has only helped him in his studies as he can learn more about business and other practicalities from his experience.

On a different note, between the past few years, many foreign franchises such as KFC, Pizza Hut and A&W have started their business in Bangladesh. Restaurant business, which is also considered as one of the promising business here, continues to thrive as well. However, working at fast-food chains and restaurants is somewhat a taboo in this country. It is unlikely to find high school or university students working in fast-food chains, which is a usual custom in western countries. During summer vacations and semester breaks, fast-food and restaurants opens temporary employment positions. Since students tend to seek for temporary job placements, these positions stand as the perfect match. “I chose to serve in a restaurant because I knew it was fast money, I can make large amounts of cash tips in a few hours to help pay for bills, tuition and my lifestyle,” said Danielle Renee Jones, 21, a student of paediatrics in Ohio State University (US). “The hours aren’t typically too bad, and I can have a flexible schedule for the most part. I can earn what some people make working 20-40 hours a week, in only three days!” she added. Unlike United States, society here downgrades these jobs plus swingeing unemployment makes it difficult to get into such placements.

Shama Zainab Ali of BRAC University a professor of Architecture said, “In my department I see students working in firms as part timers helping out in making models, drafts and drawings. This not only enhances their capabilities as architecture students but also provokes them to take up responsibility in their own works.

A few days ago I saw an undergrad student of Titumeer college (as she said) selling encyclopaedia at my door. I really appreciated such efforts by these young people who are eager to help their parents support their education. I hope to see that someday this country, like India and other developing countries of the subcontinent cater students to work in bookshops, restaurants, coffee shops and so many other places where we normally expect to see uneducated or middle aged people from underprivileged backgrounds.”

Few students can now deny the self-dependence that comes with being able to earn their own pocket money and not having to take it from their parents. For many, the work experience gained while they are still students make their résumé stand out while applying for jobs at the end of their studies. However, some seem to get indulged in their work a bit too much, which at times result in falling grades at the cost of earning more.

[StarTech] TechSpotlight: eGeneration (Setting new dimension to outsourcing)

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=87289

Software developers busy working at eGeneration’s office. A screenshot of a CRM software developed by the company.

For a country to move forward in this fast changing world there should be a proper balance between its imports and exports. While essential products like crude oil and fruits have to be imported at a high price, this also means that export oriented businesses like the garments sector and the shrimp and tea industry have to earn the foreign currency to compensate that.

Although still a new and growing sector, the IT industry is now chipping in as well, with different locally made high quality software being exported to different countries at very competitive prices.

eGeneration Ltd is one such company, outsourcing its various software products to different countries in the world including USA, Canada, Denmark, Russia and Japan.

Founded in 2005, the company has seen a steady growth rate of above 50 percent in the last three years despite the global economic meltdown since the middle of last year. Specialising in customer management and content management, the company also serves the local market with its CRM (Customer Relations Management) and other software.

The key feature of eGeneration, which gives it an upper edge to many of its counterparts, is its four 4E approach, which includes Efficient, Excellence, Effective and Economic.

The company provides efficient access to information and technologies and by optimising value-based solution to its consumer organisations, it helps achieve and sustain measurable results in a short time frame that is in demand.

The company tries to work in conjunction with its clients to meet the challenges of today’s global market by providing them with the tools that are needed to compete more efficiently by aligning business strategy with technology driven business transformation initiatives.

eGeneration strives to provide excellent infrastructure and technology expertise and with a team of consultants who focus on delivery of excellence to the projects with state-of-the-art hardware and networking infrastructure.

The company provides effective business flow acceleration and implementation services with a complete range of delivered services that leverage business flows built on best practices, and rapid implementation methodologies. These solutions are designed to address the unique complexities of its consumers and automate critical business processes.

The organisation provides services to improve the operating efficiency by re-engineering the business processes and streamlining the workflows. It analyses Value Chain process flow to identify process improvement opportunities, identify changes required, eliminate redundancies and incorporate new process definitions.

The fourth ‘E’ of the company describes its fourth objective, to establish an economic project delivery approach — reduced cost with uncompromising quality. Through its application software, eGeneration enables its customers to reduce their IT costs and mitigate risks while receiving an unparalleled quality of service.

eGeneration is planning to set up its first foreign office in Copenhagen, Denmark soon, says its CEO Shameem Ahsan, an MIS graduate from the University of Central Oklahoma. “The European market, specially the Scandinavian market, is a big one and we are hoping to be able to open our first office in Europe in Copenhagen sometime in 2011. In addition to that, we already have partnerships with companies to promote our sales in UK, USA and Denmark.”

Keld A Christensen, director, Nordsource Global, Denmark, is one of the satisfied customers of the company and has been quoted as saying “eGeneration has constantly demonstrated high levels of business and technical knowledge, creativity and delivery excellence. We remain highly satisfied.”

Working with a core group of 25 employees, the company has already undertaken a number of foreign and local projects. Some of the already-accomplished projects were of significant monetary value, being in the range of $50,000 to $100,000. Currently, eGeneration is working on eight projects, six of which are foreign.

“People, process and technologies are the three areas that we are good at which seem to give us an edge over our competitors. For this, we were awarded the DCCI Business Award for ‘Best Young Entrepreneur’ in 2006, the first IT company to achieve such a feat,” says Ahsan.

The company has recently finished making a FRS (Fertilizer Recommendation Software) for Katalyst and Soil Research Development Agency. Due to start soon as a pilot project in Bangladesh, it will gradually encompass the whole country. The software will try to help decide the optimum amount of fertilizer to be used for a given crop, land size, soil type and weather through telecentres, thus minimizing the wastage of fertilizers, which currently poses a significant problem in our country.

A total of 25 foreign companies have bought software from eGeneration including ELBO Group, a leading publication group in Denmark (Magazine Management System) and Knowing Point, a HR Consultancy company in USA (Partner Relation Management System). For more information about the company and its different projects visit its website at: http://egeneration.com.bd/.

mahdin@thedailystar.net

[StarTech] TechNews: Sixth Sense ready to become a reality!

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=85321

MIT wearable gadget gives you Sixth Sense

The sixth sense, often quoted in novels, books and articles, is about a rare and mystical sense of things happening around you or things which could happen. Now it is set to become a common man’s thing, thanks to MIT Media Lab researchers, who have cooked up Sixth Sense, a wearable computing device that turns any surface into a Web interface, augmenting the five senses we’ve been given naturally.

The researchers at MIT’s Media Lab (Fluid Interfaces Group) have developed a gesture-controlled wearable computing device that feeds you relevant information and turns any surface into an interactive display. Called the Sixth Sense, the gadget relies on certain gestures and on object recognition to call up virtual gadgets and Web-based information, in a way that conjures up the Hollywood movie Minority Report.

The team built the Sixth Sense $350 (approx. BDT 24,500) prototype using off-the-shelf componentsa simple web cam and portable battery-powered projector with a small mirrorthat are fashioned into a pendant-style necklace that communicates with a cell phone.

When might Sixth Sense hit retail shelves? There’s no release date, and MIT Associate Professor and Founder of the school’s Fluid Interfaces Group Pattie Maes calls it “very much a work in progress.” (Perfecting the image recognition, for example, is an ongoing challenge.) Still, the MIT team says it has the potential to be made available today in a limited form.

Developed by Maes and MIT grad student Pranav Mistry (who Maes describes as the genius behind the gadget), along with the help of other MIT students, Sixth Sense aims to more seamlessly integrate online information and tech into everyday life. By making available information needed for decision-making beyond what we have access to with our five senses, it effectively gives users a sixth sense, says Maes.

Things you could do using the Sixth Sense include making a call, calling up a map, taking pictures, create multimedia reading experiences, calling up e-mail, getting flight updates and of course, checking the time!

Information Source: cio.com

Globalisation – The Bangladesh Scenario

http://www.thedailystar.net/campus/2009/04/03/feature_globalisation.htm

JUST the other day, I was browsing through the newspaper and I came across this interesting advertisement for a job in a managerial position in a certain company. One of the requirements was ‘the incumbent must be a foreign national’. Thought-provoking to say the least! Why a foreign national is a must (and not any particular skills) for any job continues to baffle me, but one thing is for sure; globalisation has started to make its presence known in Bangladesh.

Towards the end of last year, US President Barack Obama was speaking about how an American university graduate from Boston today has to compete for a job with someone from Bangalore. Thanks to jobs being outsourced and most finished goods being imported rather than being produced in US, an acute shortage of jobs has been created and this has gradually pulled down the economy. Although this has come as a form of blessing for countries like India or Vietnam (which has benefited most from the outsourcing) and China or Mexico (which has benefited from the overwhelming imports), it still remains to be found where this leaves a country like Bangladesh.

The world wide web, once designed by the American Defence to ensure smooth, uninterrupted and secure communication between US military personnel spread out all over the world has today become the tool of communication for business, news, academics, research and anything and everything between heaven and earth. Using a computer or internet is no longer considered rocket science and from villages like Ta Van in Vietnam or Shagatha in Bangladesh, people are using the easily available information for many different purposes.

Bidding for a book or a musical accessory is now possible over the Internet, no matter where you are or what nationality you belong to. Job hunters in Chittagong are looking for available job opportunities in Dhaka, or elsewhere in the country simply by logging onto their bdjobs or prothom-alo jobs accounts online. No longer do we have to wait for the weekend show on TV for the US or UK movie or music Top 10. Everything, it seems, is just a click away, in the truest sense of the word. Communications and the free flow of information is now no longer a luxury, but a necessity.

The fact that many Bangladeshi students are going to different countries in the world for higher studies are also influencing the global culture that we seem to have today. The USA and UK were always places sought after for university education, but today, you will hear people going for their Bachelors, Masters or PhD to Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, China and even Thailand and South Africa for that matter! Although many opt to stay back after their studies, the majority of these people come back to Bangladesh, and with them, brings back not only their education, but a rich cultural experience.

In addition to the students, there are Non Resident Bangladeshis who keep coming and going in and out of the country are also slowly and decisively shaping the cultural pattern of the country. Although the demand for skilled professionals will always remain high in the developed countries, this has also led to certain individuals taking advantage of the situation and fooling the less privileged and educated classes of the society into complete doom with offers of lucrative dream jobs in Malaysia, UAE and other middle eastern countries. These people, who contribute to the bulk of our foreign currency income, get minimal importance and priority and the government should take stern actions to stop the human traffickers and cheats who rob the common people of all their belongings.

Add to that are all the foreign nationals that reside in this country because of many sorts of different jobs and business in the development field, foreign missions and many other purposes. Dhaka, if not the whole country, has truly become a melting pot of people of all different nationalities and races. This has effected the demand pattern of Bangladeshis as well; demand for different international branded cars, clothes, shoes, lighters and perfumes is thus high paving the way for bulk imports of such products. This comes at the cost of hard earned foreign currency essential to buy important products like powdered milk, fruits, fuel and different other raw materials required for our factories and industries.

Whether we see a glass of water to be half full or half empty depends on our perception and attitude. The effects of globalization can have equally positive and negative impacts. We as a nation should try to make best use of the situation like our neighbouring countries of India and China and not delve into the luxuries that come with globalization.

Spotlight: Pahela Baishakh Festivity

http://www.thedailystar.net/campus/2009/04/02/camspotlight.htm

IF there is any festival that unites all of us Bangalis, it is none other than the Bengali New Year or Pahela Baishakh. This is a time that enables us to forget all the differences and indulge in celebrating our Bangaliana.

Pahela Baishakh also brings in forefront the everlasting folk songs of this region. Folk songs have recently been even more popularised by singers and musicians like Habib, Ornob, Anushesh and Maksud who have made the young generation once again interested in this genre of music. This week’s spotlight is about the revival of folk music in Bangladesh.

Mahdin Mahboob
Star Campus Desk

Photo:
Mustafizur Rahman

[StarTech] TechViews: Artificial Intelligence – The way forward

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=83486

A humanoid robot newly acquired by Imperial College London will lead to a deeper understanding of human intelligence, top, researchers at Cornell adjust a double pendulum, left, and ‘Adam’ at Aberstwyth University at work.

Whenever we hear about Artificial Intelligence (AI), many of us tend to think about a world where Robots would take over the entire world, or at least try to do so, as portrayed by sci-fi novels of Isaac Asimov or Hollywood blockbusters like Terminator-2 or i-Robot! Whether robots can ever be developed to that stage where it/they might plan to ‘take over the world’ is a completely different question, but some recent discoveries in the field of AI, has indeed left us flabbergasted, to say the least!

Imperial College London, UK
The College’s Departments of Computing and Electrical and Electronic Engineering believe that iCub, a humanoid robot the size of a three year old child, will further their research into cognition, the process of knowing that includes awareness, perception, reasoning and judgement.

Researchers want to learn more about how humans use cognition to interact with their world. They believe iCub’s human-like body will help them to understand how this is done.

The iCub has mechanical joints that enable it to move its head, arms, fingers, eyes and legs similarly to the way that humans do. Professor Murray Shanahan, of the Department of Computing, says this is important because cognition is very much tied up with the way we interact with the world.

“Nature developed cognition for us in order to make us better at interacting with the physical and social world,” he explains. “If we want to understand the nature of cognition better then we really need to understand it in the context of something that moves or interacts with objects. That is where iCub can help us.”

The team will test their theories about cognition by creating a computer simulation of a brain, which will replicate how neurons in real brains communicate through short bursts of electrical energy. In people, this process helps us to interact with the physical world. For instance, the electrical signals sent by neurons control muscles that enable people to lift a cup to the mouth to sip on a drink.

The research team at Imperial will also link the computer simulation of a brain to iCub so that it can process information about its environment and send bursts of electrical energy to its motors to allow it to move its arms, head, eyes and fingers to carry out very simple tasks such as lifting a ball and moving it from one place to another.

If the researchers are successful, they will have made an important step in reproducing the way that humans use cognition to interact in their world.

In the long term, they believe their research could help develop a new generation of intelligent factory robots that have much more versatility and do a wider variety of jobs.

Cornell University, USA
If Isaac Newton had had access to a supercomputer, he’d have had it watch apples fall and let it figure out what that meant. But the computer would have needed to run an algorithm developed by Cornell researchers that can derive natural laws from observed data.

The researchers have taught a computer to find regularities in the natural world that represent natural laws — without any prior scientific knowledge on the part of the computer.

The research is described in the April 3 issue of the journal Science by Hod Lipson, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and graduate student Michael Schmidt, a specialist in computational biology.

Their process begins by taking the derivatives of every variable observed with respect to every other — a mathematical way of measuring how one quantity change as another changes. Then the computer creates equations at random using various constants and variables from the data. It tests these against the known derivatives, keeps the equations that come closest to predicting correctly, modifies them at random and tests again, repeating until it literally evolves a set of equations that accurately describe the behaviour of the real system.

Technically, the computer does not output equations, but finds “invariants” — mathematical expressions that remain true all the time, from which human insights can derive equations.

Once the invariants are found, potentially all equations describing the system are available: “All equations regarding a system must fit into and satisfy the invariants,” Schmidt said. “But of course we still need a human interpreter to take this step.”

Computers will not make scientists obsolete, the researchers conclude. Rather, they said, the computer can take over the grunt work, helping scientists focus quickly on the interesting phenomena and interpret their meaning.

Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK
The discovery of 12 new functions for genes in one of the most studied organisms in the world wouldn’t be news, except that scientists didn’t discover them. A robot named Adam designed, carried out and discovered the new gene functions.

“Our goal is to make science more efficient,” said Ross King, a professor of biology and computer science at the University of Wales and author of a new paper in this week’s issue of Science detailing Adam’s work.

“If we had computers designing and carrying out experiments we could get through many more experiments than we currently can,” said King, adding “robots don’t need to take holidays.”

The 10-year-old Adam, which is housed at Aberystwyth University in the U.K., might replace humans eventually, but it doesn’t look like one. From the outside Adam is 45 cubic meters of elongated white plastic instruments. Inside Adam sits a biological library of more than 12,000 chilled petri dishes. Each dish contains a different yeast strain with various genes removed from them. With its various mechanical tools, Adam can grab the petri dishes, remove a sample of yeast, grow it, clean it and analyze the results of the experiment.

Adam actually discovered more than 12 new gene functions. When King and his colleagues compared the functions of all the genes Adam found, they realized that some of them had previously been described. So Adam had independently confirmed those results.

Adam is still a prototype, but King’s team hopes their next robot, Eve, will help boost the search for new drugs to combat diseases such as malaria.

“This system is still a prototype,” explained King. “The first car wasn’t as efficient as a horse.”

Adam and Eve not only have the hardware to physically manipulate objects, they also have advanced artificial intelligence systems that let them make their own decisions and then act on those decisions, without help from their human creators.

Information Source: Imperial College London Website, Cornell Chronicle and Discovery News

Compiled by Mahdin Mahboob