Rihanna Refrains From Wearing River Island To Her Fave Restaurant

Despite wearing her new River Island collection everywhere, Rihanna apparently didn't think her G4Life gear was appropriate for her favorite restaurant!
Princess RiRi took a break from her endless fashion promotions to enjoy a nice dinner at Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica on Wednesday night.
Rather than wearing something she designed, the singer opted for a pale pink Givenchy blazer paired with a white blouse buttoned all the way to the top, J Brand jeans, and seXXXy black Manolo Blahnik sandals.
Rihanna also carried a Goyard clutch, probably to hold some new MAC products, and accessorized her pinky finger with a diamond spider ring by Lynn Ban.
Ve-Rih chic! Ha!

Via : Perezhilton.com

Captured @ the Right Moment

Job openings at Madhyamam - Walk in interview -31-8-13

Post : Receptionist (Male/Female)
Malappuram (Kerala)
Qualification :Graduate/Post graduate
Desirable :Candidate must have excellent oral and written communication skill with computer knowledge
Age:Should be below 35 years
Interested candidate may walk in for interview on  31th August 2013 - Saturday 9:30 -am to 1 pm
at Madhyamam PB No:96 Pooppalam, Valambur, Perinthalmanna ,Malappuram 679332 contact: 9645006938 
Please bring all testimonials in original(SSLC onwards) with a set of copies and a recent photograph Manager-HR
Madhyamam Daily 28-8-13

New Brain Scanning Technique ‘Can Read Minds’

Scientists have discovered a new brain scanning technique which can bring the old mind-reading party trick closer to reality. With the help of a high resolution MRI and a mathematical model, Dutch researchers were able to convert brain activity into an actual image.
The Radboud University’s team tested the technology on several subjects which had been shown various letters. The scanning technique helped researchers reconstruct an image of the brain in the process of recognizing the letters.

The original image seen by the subjects is at the top, with the fMRI reconstructions below.

Scientists used a functional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging machine) to identify the parts of the brain that are active when someone is looking at a letter. The fMRI practically detects brain activity by identifying what parts of the brain have more blood flowing to them, a sign that that particular area is responding to stimuli.
Basically the fMRI scanned the occipital lobe of subjects who were shown the letters B, R, A, I, N and S. The scan created a speckled image that was then interpreted and translated into an image of the letters, with the help of a specifically designed computational model.
More specifically, the model was provided with previous knowledge of what the letters looked like and was therefore able to translate what seemed like a random fuzzy image as created by the MRI scan into a clear letter pattern.

This brain scanning technique may seem like just another trick, but Radboud scientists insist that the research is actually aimed at finding ways to model what our brains are experiencing, not just at reading our mind. The models obtained could be applied to subjective experiences such as dreams or even to working memories, researchers said.
The next step in the experiment is of course using a more powerful magnetic resonance imaging machine. The fMRI used in the research was able to scan at a resolution of 1,200 voxels but the team hopes to increase that to 15,000 voxels. And instead of letters, scientists will attempt to reconstruct images of faces shown to the subjects.
Even though it has a long way to go until developing into full mind reading capabilities, this brain scanning technology is nonetheless exciting. And scary at the same time. What do you think?

[Images via Wired]

Time to Say Goodbye to Windows XP

We’ve all been Windows users at some point. Even many hardcore Mac users today probably have a strong history with the much maligned operating system. One thing that everyone will probably agree with is this: Windows XP is one of the best operating systems that Microsoft has served us consumers. And now, it is time to say goodbye to Windows XP.

It’s official. Support for Windows XP is ending on the 8th of August 2014. As is the norm with these things, users are given ample time to make the switch if necessary. For individual users, this should be an easy fix. The chances are you’re using Windows 8 already anyway.
For businesses, though, especially the small to medium sized ones, the one-year breathing space might be more than necessary. After all, it’s not only about changing operating systems. Hardware upgrades and new purchases may also be called for. Then there’s the learning curve to get used to the changes.
Of course, one may opt to stick with Windows XP till their device dies on them. Microsoft is not stopping anyone from doing that, but without support for the software, it’s very much akin to having a car for which you can’t buy parts anymore.  At the end of the day, you might as well make it easier on you then, by saying goodbye to Windows XP.
It is worth noting, though, that Microsoft has not scrimped on its efforts to convince people to stop using XP. In fact, they released an infographic wishing XP a happy retirement, urging people to upgrade to Windows 8. Considering the fact that 37.7 percent of PCs in the world are still running on Windows XP, Microsoft’s efforts are justified.
Take a look for yourself, in case you’re one of those who need some convincing.



[Images via Les Numeriques and Microsoft]

Facebook Wants to Give Internet to 5 Billion People

Mark Zuckerberg has a dream. And if we’ve learned anything from the ‘Social Network’ is that what the Facebook founder wants, the Facebook founder gets.

This time, Zuckerberg wants to give Internet to 5 billion people. Just imagine how many new Facebook users that means.

Joking aside, and trying to ignore the profit such an enterprise could bring, Facebook has actually teamed up with several tech giants to set up Internet.org, an organization whose main target is to bring the WWW to those parts of the world that still don’t have access to it. Other founding members include Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm and Samsung, among others.


The organization names three major lines of action to reach their goals of offering widespread Internet access as a means to boost social, economic and political development and contribute to humankind progress, according to a UN Human Rights Council quote posted on the Internet.org website.

The first step is to make Internet access more affordable, possibly by using high quality, yet lower cost smartphones. The second step is to use data in a more efficient manner; more specifically, to reduce the amount of data most Internet applications require, and one way to achieve this is by improving the infrastructure.  And the third step would be to bring in businesses that would support the project by offering them incentives.

One can’t ignore that this is quite an ambitious plan, even if it is far from being an altruistic one. All the companies involved, Facebook included, would benefit from bringing Internet to 5 billion people. According to the group, only a little over one third of the world’s population, 2.7 billion people have Internet access at the moment.

In an interview with CNN, Zuckerberg insisted that connectivity is a human right and would offer people access to things such as healthcare and information about their country’s state of affairs, ultimately helping them decide what sort of government they want.
Which is truly admirable, but it will take a lot of time until the plan can become reality, according to analysts. One of the major issues that the Internet.org initiative will have to overcome is the lack of a constant electricity supply in most developing countries that the program is targeting. Other problems include the lack of proper infrastructure, poverty and illiteracy.
In other words, all those billions of new Facebook users won’t be able to share much and tag themselves in photos if they can’t read or only have enough electricity to check their feed only a couple of times per week.

So overall, the Internet.org plan to bring Internet to 5 billion people is a good idea, but unlikely to happen any time soon. What do you think of the initiative? Should the tech giants behind it focus on other priority issues for the developing world before going ahead with the connectivity idea?

[Image via under30ceo]

An iPhone Camera Periscope Makes Stalking a Breeze

Whether you're documenting something bizarre you saw on the subway, or secretly capturing images of your crush, this rotating spy lens from Photojojo makes it incredibly easy to covertly capture images on your iPhone. Think of it as a tiny periscope for your smartphone, but instead of torpedoing frigates, you can use it to sink reputations, or just collect some useful blackmail material.

For $20 you get the lens and an adhesive magnetic ring that sits flush on the back of your iPhone 4 or 5 making it easy to attach and remove the accessory. And if paired with one of the countless apps that disguise the fact you're taking a photo, most people will be none the wiser of your covert photography. Sure, it's good for plenty of practical uses—Instagramming a meal, shooting at extreme angles—but what's the fun in that next to some good ol' fashioned creeping? [Photojojo Store]

New Software Makes Skype Chats Way Less Awkward

Everybody who's ever done a video chat has felt the frustration. You call your pal using Skype or whatever so that you can see their face and they can see yours, but whoops, you're not even looking at each other. You're looking at the screen so your eyes are slightly off-center. Annoying! But maybe not for long.

As a team of Swiss researchers have just taught us, this isn't a problem that some smart software can't fix. Facial recognition experts from the the Computer Graphics Laboratory ETH in Zurich are perfecting a program that does away with the awkward off-center eyes problem by spotting the face in the frame and rotating it slightly so that the person appears to be looking directly at the camera. Essentially, the software cuts the face out of the frame and adjusts it in real time so smoothly the person on the other end of the call won't even notice. Check out this video of the software in action.

These Swiss whizzes are hardly the first to think of this idea, but they're the first to do it with conventional equipment. Other methods require different software, multiple cameras and even mirrors. But the team from ETH says they're working on making their solution so simple that it'll even work on smartphones. So that means we could be looking at a new and improved FaceTime. Maybe people will actually use it then.

A Visual Tour of the Research Base At the End of the World

It's not hard to make the arctic beautiful. But the observatories, abandoned factories, and shipwrecks scattered across its white expanse? That's tougher. For Reuben Wu, a landscape photographer who's shot everywhere from Svalbard to the Atacama Desert, that was exactly the allure.

Wu is a musician by trade-he's one third of electro trio Ladytron and a DJ the rest of the time-and his success with music is part of what's enabled his career as a photographer to blossom. Traveling the world on tour, he's been able to visit an incredible wealth of unusual places-and shoot them, usually using his beloved Polaroid. "On my travels I've been spoilt by the amount of stuff I've been able to see," he tells Gizmodo. "And over the years I have become more and more attracted to the dark and hidden things which most people have forgotten about, yet have their own aura of history and identity."
Among those "dark and hidden things?" The long-abandoned Sea Forts in the English channel, built during World War II to monitor Nazi aircraft. Decaying "sound mirrors," an early, low-tech concrete structure that concentrated sound waves to detect radar. Wu sums up his motives succinctly, saying, "basically, I'm a weird rebel tourist."

Abandoned WWII-era Sea Forts, in the middle of the English Channel.
In 2011, Wu traveled to Svalbard, the collection of remote islands in the far north of Norway. Though it's been host to dozens of temporary human settlements over the centuries, it remains a largely uninhabited place. The main permanent settlement-Longyearbyen-supports a few hundred scientists, serving as a base camp for research going on elsewhere in the arctic. But Wu, in his own words, wanted to explore "all the hidden things that normally go unnoticed by tourists." He visited sites like the Svalbard Seed Vault, an ice-encrusted bunker where scientists are amassing thousands of seed samples in case of a catastrophe, and Barentsburg, an abandoned Russian settlement that still boasts huge statues of Lenin and Social Realist artwork.
Below, see a few of the highlights from the trip. And if you want a creepily appropriate audio accompaniment, check them out while listening to Jonny Cash read the classic 1907 poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee, which tells the story of an arctic miner's ghost.

The observatory in the Atacama Desert, on the edge of the Andes in South America.