The edge of the solar system; New Horizon finally reaches Pluto

   After a long, anxious wait the probe. New Horizon has finally travelled through the solar system finally reaching the outer most visible body; Pluto. This is an amazing feat to the space exploration industry as new questions will be answered about Pluto and it's moon, Charon and the outer-workings of the solar system we live in. New facts have been sent from the probe about the characteristics of the dwarf planet. Measurements on the probe's instruments indicate that the celestial body must be two-thirds the size of Earth's moon. Ice may also be present deep inside the dwarf planet. This flyby is an exceptional way of learning about Pluto since it is very far for ground telescopes to see precisely.

The dwarf planet, Pluto

   Cliffs, canyons and chasms pave the planet's surface with exotic beauty. At the north pole there is an ice cap with signatures of chemicals such as methane and nitrogen. Revealing a new world is just another step in space exploration however this amazing accomplishment could not have been achieved by just pure luck. Dangers lurk in any corner of the space realm; small dust particles the size of a grain could easily obliterate the spacecraft to nothing. Along with its cargo and instruments the probe also carries the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh. He is famous for discovering Pluto but he thought that he had discovered another planet however after the probe was launched in 2006 the astronomers at the International Astronomical Union decided to downgrade the icy body to a dwarf planet.

An artist's impression of Pluto's surface.

   The probe has travelled 4.8 billion kilometres on its 9 year journey to Pluto and the edge of our solar system. Images will be taken several times of the dwarf planet as well as its moons, Charon(the main one), Hydra, Nix, Styx and Kerberos. New evidence of the icy world may even surprise scientists that life could exist anywhere in the solar system because life is very adaptable to its climate.


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A virtual new era of gaming - Oculus Rift

    The new era of gaming has arrived, The Oculus Rift. Its the next generation virtual reality. But what is the Oculus Rift? The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality head-mounted display developed by Oculus VR. It was initially in a Kickstarter campaign during which the Oculus VR company raised US$2.4 million for further development of the product. When its going to be released is sometime next year in 2016, the Rift will be the first consumer-targeted virtual reality headsets. Imagine playing horror games with this!

The original Oculus Rift.

Features

    The features consists of two eye sights with 1080x1200 pixels per eye (2160x1200 for both eyes) and has full 6 degree of freedom rotational and positional tracking while having a refresh rate of 90Hz. Unfortunately the Rift is currently for Windows platforms however new platforms will be added soon within the next couple of years. While the original version is on the market for developers, a consumer version is on the way to making shelves across the world.
    Increased sensitivity of head and position tracking and a high resolution will mean a better and more realistic experience. In addition the headphones on the Rift will use HRTF audio which users can hear sounds better in three-dimensional space. Wireless operation is another consideration for the consumer version as it will also provide free movement of the head and comfort of the device. As said above the consumer version is on shelves next year.

The development kit 2 in action.

Other Devices that go with the Oculus Rift

   The constellation is part of the Oculus Rift when brought. It controls systems such as the position of the user's head and made up of an external infrared camera. The Rift contains, built inside, a set of perfectly positioned infrared LEDs that blink in certain patterns and with this blinking the constellation can precisely pinpoint the position of the object being tracked to the millimetre accuracy. 

   In addition The Oculus Touch is a set of controllers designed to be the moving controller of the kit. These are motion controllers that have a joystick, buttons and two triggers; much like the Playstation or Xbox controllers. Amazingly, the Oculus Touch gives a sense that the user's hands are in the game because once again it is tracked by the constellation so the user sees them in virtual reality. Also amazingly, it will be added with a new system for finger detecting gestures when the user holds the device. So in the virtual world you can communicate with your fingers or hands gestures and you can see it!

A set of Oculus Touch controllers in use.

Supported Games

   The number of supported games of the Oculus Rift are about 24 however this number is set to rise next year. A game that is fully-funded is called the Insomniac's Edge of Nowhere while Oculus VR is also funding third-party games and their own projects as well.

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Is Grand Theft Auto going to be banned forever by the Australian Government?

    Imagine the popular Grand Theft Auto V was banned. The Australian Government has banned 220 video game titles over an estimated time period of 4 months. These games have been refused classification because of intense and horrific scenes of violence and sexual behaviour. Grand Theft Auto V has sparked a lot of arguments considering its content by parents and adults especially women.

Grand Theft Auto sparked a lot of arguments and has lead to begin banned from
Target and Kmart shelves.

    In the case of GTA late last year in December Target and Kmart have banned GTA V from their shelves as a result of an encouraging urge to commit sexual violence and kill women. However GTA still manages to reach its major popularity with its gamers after passing the one billion dollar sales within three days of releasing the GTA V. The past history of the GTA series is not at all appealing as well. Many of its releases saw them banned in many countries, including Thailand as the country witnessed a game style murder of a taxi driver by a 18 year-old in 2008. Other games such as Douchebag Beach Club, Drunk Driver and HoboSimulator were banned in Australia because of the content it contained.
    As this may be a lose for avid gamers waiting for the games to be released it is a big win for protesters opposing gory violence and prostitutes in video games as it may affect a gamer's mind as shown in 2008 in Thailand. Young gamers; below the age limit of most games, are allowed to play these types of games because their parents let them. Again, content in these games will affect and influence the child's potential and mind resulting in more violent acts around the world. However it is not to say that all games that received a MA 15+ rating should be reviewed again because content in these games are fairly mild compared to the banned games.

Declassified Secrets of Windows 7

    Ever wondered what secrets lay in the depths of your operating system? Maybe a new shortcut to find a file? A software to delete every file you command the program to do? Well this blog will count down the top 5 declassified secrets of Windows 7. Try it out for yourself. You will be surprised.

1. Customize the shut down button

   The 'Shut Down' button in the start menu shuts down your computer in default. But what if you could change that? Yes, you can! Simply right-click on the 'Shut Down' button and click on 'Properties' and select an action from the drop-down menu.

Customizing the shut down button in the properties dialogue box.

2. Get a power efficiency report

   Getting frustrated with how your laptop keeps dying? Maybe one of the most secretive yet useful tools in Windows 7 it includes a built-in tool that will scan your laptop's energy and make recommendations on how to improve it. 

• Run command prompt as an administrator. Type 'cmd' in start menu and when it appears right-click and select 'Run as administrator'.
• Type the following in the command line: 

                   powercfg -energy -output \<i>Folder</i>\Energy_Report.html

                   where \Folder represents the folder where you want the report to be placed.

• Windows will now scan your system and and create a report in .html format in the folder you specified above. Open it and follow the recommendations to improve your system's power efficiency. 

A typical power efficiency report in .html format. 

3. Pin Folders to the Taskbar

    For easy manoeuvrability and access you can pin a specific folder to the taskbar therefore you can click on it at any time. Simply drag a folder to the taskbar and once you see 'Pin to Windows Explorer' let go. An icon of that folder will now be accessible from the taskbar at anytime for easier finding.

Pin your folders to the taskbar.

4. 'God Mode'

   Everyone wants to have power and become like God. But what if you could? This tool in Windows 7 also known as 'God Mode', because it actually makes you like God, is a tool to place hundreds of settings from all around the operating system in one folder.

   To turn 'God Mode' on make a folder on your desktop and name it GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}. Don't add the final period. The folder will have 270 items each representing a virtually configurable option in Windows 7.

'God Mode' as how it should look like in the folder that contains all 270 configurable options

5. Improved Calculator

   Trouble with with calculating mortgage? Want to know how much your rented vehicle is? Can't seem to work out the time difference between two dates? Well this improved calculator that Windows 7 has is an amazing tool to calculate and answer the above questions. 

   To calculate mortgage open your calculator and at the top right corner of the calculator screen click 'View'. Scroll down to worksheets and hover your cursor over it. Another dialogue should appear and there should be 'Mortgage' at the top of the list. There are countless other calculations in the Windows 7 calculator. Explore them all!

The best way to calculate your mortgage is the Windows 7 calculator.

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iOS vs Android

     Ever since Apple had the brilliant idea of designing a touch control phone other companies such as Samsung replicated the design of the Apple phone. Although it did spark some arguments and a lot of court cases a new operating system for phones was invented. Android was born. But the debate still continues, which is better in terms of features and design?

     Both the phone's operating systems have changed a lot since they were introduced nearly a decade ago. Of course it also depends on what your taste in phones is as well. However below are some key pointers and the disadvantages of both the operating systems.

Physical and Virtual Design  

    The design of both operating systems are great and beautiful in their own ways. iOS was always built on sharp and clean edges for the app icons while Android seems to have more curvature in its design. This may feel better to some people as the smooth, straight edges in iOS seem to reflect the physical design of the phone itself as the corners of the phone aren't as curved as the typical Android phone. But of course in the end it comes down to what your taste in phones are like.

The smooth, straight edges of the iOS phones(far left) seem to reflect its physical design while the Android phones have more curvature in them.

 
    Furthermore Android phones are a bit bulky and large, but they have a larger screen size which may act as a sort of multitasking, mini computer while iOS phones have a smaller display size. Because of this small screen size the resolution of iOS phones are smaller than the Android phones. The virtual side of the two operating systems seems to have enough tools for you to work with. But in the case of using Facetime and iMessage in iOS they are more polished because of its simplicity than the Android's version of Facetime and iMessage. 

    Navigation of the app stores of both systems are also fairly simple although there is a biased side towards iOS devices having up-to-date apps. Permissions from iOS devices differs a lot from Androids devices as there are always precautions in downloading an app from the App Store than Google Play. In short terms this may be better for Google Play as downloading an app is easy and simple while in long terms iOS takes more precautions in asking the user questions like enabling location and camera to stop the app from using them.

Performance and Security

   The performance of both systems are great in terms of crash rates. The crash rate for iOS devices is 2.26% on iOS 8.0 and have risen slightly although not much. Android takes the trophy with a crash rate of 2.2% on Android 5.0 according to Crittercism. Although these systems have been tested thoroughly for bugs and crash-related incidents they are still prone to some faulty errors in their lifetimes.
   As for security iOS takes the lead with the big winner, Touch ID. Touch ID is Apple's biometric fingerprint authentication technology. This technology has helped iOS users to less fraud and stealing. Android Lollipop does give you the opportunity to 'trust' networks and devices however it does come down to the fact that the user controls the phone with their unique identifier; their fingerprints.

Apples's Touch ID in use.

Android's Lollipop in use.

                     
 

    In the end iOS devices protect you more in the case of security and malware however Android devices have more personalization opinions and flexibility to suit your needs.

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A Gadget for Spies - 'Dot', the smallest Bluetooth headset in the world

     A secret spy gadget? No. 'Dot' is the world smallest Bluetooth headset in the world. It is so small and light that it only weighs 3.5 grams, 0.54 inches wide and 0.83 inches long. Its features are also ridiculous as it has the ability to connect to your mobile or device while still being able to call for 9 hours and listen to 6 hours of wireless music. Battery life is also efficient as it has 80 hours of battery life. Wow! Amazing!

Size comparison between 'Dot' and a quarter.

      After being on KickStarter to raise money for the project it has become an internet spectacular because of its incredible ability to pack so much into a compact, light-weight yet powerful device that could revolutionize this century. Its money goal was $30 000 and that was goal was exceed within days of it going viral coming to a handsome value of $272 126 with 2884 backers.

      However this type of technology was invented long before 'Dot' but what makes 'Dot' unique? Its because of its lightweight and its ability to do more things. Other examples are Earin and Dash but these small Bluetooth device can't compare to 'Dot'. Its ability to do so much in a small, very lightweight earplug astounds me and I wonder what the next amazing invention will bring.

Link to go to 'Dot' on YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIuwBujSOGY

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The Top Secrets to How Chrome Became Successful

       What is your favourite web browser? Is it Internet Explorer? Or maybe Firefox? Maybe Chrome? Why does anyone use Google Chrome? What makes them different to the other web browsers?Firefox has never taken over Internet Explorer in the 9 years the web browser has been active. On the other hand business is booming for Google Chrome. They have bypassed both Firefox and Internet Explorer within an estimated 4 years of operating.

The Google Chrome icon.

       I myself am a Google Chrome user. In basic and simple terms what is the most famous search engine? Google. What is the most popular video-sharing website? YouTube. What do you need to have to make a YouTube Account or a Blogger account? Gmail Account.
       Now this may surprise some of you but all of the names I have mentioned are owned by Google and of course there are many more. All of this just comes down plainly to advertising and distribution. Its pretty much a chain reaction meaning Google can make a lot more money out of shares. As mentioned earlier the most popular search engine is Google. On the homepage of the search engine there is a dialogue box in the top right corner that advertises Google Chrome. Not only am I talking about the search engine but also all of the names above and anything else owned by Google.

Advertising on the most popular web browser is great way to sell products.

    Looking at the picture above gives you and me the idea that this is free advertising and also an amazing and awesome way to sell or recommend products. In addition Internet Explorer has slowly declined because of its low usage and shares as shown in the graph below:

The time period from 2011 to 2012 when Google Chrome started to grow in popularity.

     The graph just represents a portion of the time period from when Google Chrome was released. The graph also indicates how Google Chrome managed to steadily pass Firefox and Internet Explorer as the top web browser from the time period of 2011 to 2012. And there you guys have it. Plain and simple; Google Chrome become popular because of free advertising on various of its product.

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