When it first came out, few people were familiar with the small, white box known as the Nintendo Wii. While Sony’s Playstation and Microsoft’s Xbox were batting for market share, the Ninetendo Wii was quietly making its way up the ladder. Soon, the Wii’s low prices and wider appeal made it one of the most popular and widely used gaming consoles in the world.

Nintendo pumped the latest technology and integrated sophisticated features into the Wii.One such feature in the Nintendo Wii platform is the Wii Remote’s embedded infrared camera.

The Wiimote

The Wii Remote, commonly known as the Wiimote among enthusiasts, is capable of high-resolution motion sensing. It also includes a Bluetooth interface that allows it to connect wirelessly with any Bluetooth enabled device such as mobile phones, laptops, etc. it is mainly these two features that allow Wiimote to be used in various ways, and for the purpose of this articles, as a sensor that allows users to employ multiple infrared emitters as a source of input for computer systems.

The infrared emitter can act as a stylus that can interact with the software displayed on a computer monitor as though it has touchscreen capabilities . This method is based on a project to create a low-cost interactive whiteboard that was first carried out and documented by Johnny Chung Lee, then a PhD student in human computer interaction (HCI) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Lee, who is now a researcher in the Applied Science group at Microsoft, conceived several alternative applications of the Nintendo Wii Remote for which he released the technique and support software on his websites and blog.

Ingredients:

In order to give your system touchscreen capabilities, there are a few items you will have to get. You will need a Nintendo Wii Remote, a Bluetooth- enabled laptop or computer, software – mentioned later in this article- and an infrared pen. You can buy such a pen from a local market or construct ans IR pen from instructions from the URL in the sites. Constructing your own IF LED pen simply requires a high-intensity infrared LED, a pencil cell (also called AAA size battery) and a small switch. Assemble them together in a pen such that the LED forms the tip of the pen and wire the remaining components together.

Bluetooth is required to allow the PC and the Wii Remote to communicate with each other wirelessly. Most laptops usually have internal Bluetooth adaptors. However, if your laptop or computer does not come with a Bluetooth device, you can purchase a Bluetooth USB dongle. Simply plug the adapter into an available USB slot and install the driver software if required.

How It Works.

The first step toward building your “touch screen” is to install the software required to make it work. The free WillmoteConnect is a popular driver and controller interface for the Wii Remote that will create a communications channel between the Wii Remote and your PC. Wiimote Connect is just 137KB in size and can be downloaded from the URL provided at the end of the article.

WiimoteConnect requires users to have Microsoft’s.NET Framework 2.0 installed on their systems. For users with Windows Vista or XP SP2, the.NET 2.0 Framework comes pre-installed. Apple Mac and Linux users can install and run DarwiinRemote (for Mac) and Mono (for Linux). WMD and libiwiimote are other Linux-based drivers for the Wii Remote.

Once you have got the basic software, you are going to have to install one other piece of software called Wiimote Whiteboard. This will allow you to calibrate your LCD monitor with the Wii Remote.Now that you have got the basic components together, you can reproduce the project with your own PC. An essential first step in this phase is the proper placement of your Wii Remote controller. Its placement and orientation is vital to the accuracy of the results. The Wii Remote should not be very close to the screen nor should it be too far away. The ideal distance is between one and five meters. Start the WiimoteConnect application and simultaneously press and hold down the Wii Remote buttoms ‘1’ and ‘2’. Once the buttons have been pressed, four blue lights on the WiiRomte will start blinking. Hold down the buttons until you see a WiimoteConnect message to “stop pressing”. You may not be able to successfully establish a connection between the wiimote and the computer on the first attempt. In that case, repeat this step until a connection has been successfully established. You can also established a connection with the PC by removing the battery cover on the Wiimote and pressing the red sync button as shown in the illustration on the left.

When a connection has been established between the Wiimote and the PC, click the “Connect” button on the WiimoteConnect Interface. If everything goes well, after some time, the message “Wiimote successfully connected” will appear on the screen. You might encounter the “New Hardware Found” wizard during this step.

At this point, being the Wiimote Whiteboard application and select the “Calibrate Location [Wiimote A]” option. Now you will see a red cross displayed on a white background. Tap the tip of the IR pen in the centre of the cross. The cross will then reappear at another corner. Repeat this procedure a couple more times. This will calibrate your screen and the IR stylus with the Wiimote. Once the calibration is completed, then white screen will disappear and your desktop will become available. At this point, you will be able to touch control applications on your LCD screen.

In Lee’s project, the digital whiteboard is an extension of this procedure. Instead of an LCD screen, the display can be projected onto a wall pr other surface. Recalibrating the Wiimote to the projection on the wall will allow you to directly manipulate the software by tapping the wall with the IR stylus.

Try playing around with Microsoft’s Paint to acclimatize yourself to this form of input. Lee’s project site also includes a list of applications that work well with this project. These applications are varied and include mapping, sketching, handwriting recognition, etc. Furthermore, the successor to windows Vista, Microsoft Windows 7, brings to the average user a lot of features which are ordinary limited to only touchscreen computing devices. Ad the Wii Remote can accept up to four concurrent IR inputs, this project can be adapted to create a multitouch input system.

Since the Lee made his projects public, they have garnered a lot of interest online and began a lot of development and collaboration between DIY and technology enthusiasts. Lee is developing an application of the Wiimote and Wii sensor bars for 3D head tracking. Even locally, students of a accredited computer science institute have reportedly developed a circular whiteboard using the Wii Remote.

Windows

• It is impossible to create a folder called ‘Con’(without the quotes) in any directory
• Paint –if you click to the right of the smallest square paintbrush, you can make dotted strokes or paint in “invisible ink’.
• Calculator- you can browse the internet from calculator’s Help window by clicking Help> Help Topics, then right-click the window title bar and click “Jump to URL” and type in the address of the site you want to visit.
• Word 2003- Hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys and press +to change the cursor.
• Solitaire –win any time by pressing the Keys Shift +Alt +2.
• Pinball-You can promote your rank by typing “rmax” at thestart of a new game. Similarly, you can type “gmex” at the start of a game to activate the gravity well and “hidden test” to launch a hidden mode and drag the ball around with the mouse cursor.
• Win Media Player-If you miss the simple old media player that wasn’t such a pain, press WinKey +R and enter “mplay32” or the really old one or “mplayer2” for the pre-WMP7 version.
• Character creator – Create your own fonts and characters by typing “eudceit” in the Run command box.

Applications:

• Fire fox 3- Type “about:robots” in the address bar and press Enter for a page with funny robot stuff. Then click the “Try Again” button.
• WinRAR- if you open the About WinRAR box listed in the Help menu and click on the logo beside the text, the logo falls down.
• Chrome- there are number of secret pages in Google’s Chrome Web browser. Just enter these into the address bar:

About:internets

About:memory

About:stats

About:network

About:histograms

About:dns

About:cache

About:crash

About:plugins

About:version

View:cache:[URL]

Google:

• Google on funny language- enter the URL www.google.com/intl/xx-hacker to see Google.com translated in leetspeak. Replace “hacker” with “elmer”, “bork”, “piglatin”, even “pirate” and “klingon”.
• Google Chrome – in the address bar, type “about:internets” and press Enter. Ir will shoe Windows Pipes screensavers in the browser window.
• KFC guy – browse to maps.google.com in your browser and click on “Get direction”. Enter “37.646362,-115.751004” in the start addresses and “37.646566,-115.750982” in the end address and view KFC’s Colonel Sanders in satellite mode.
• Firefox crop circle – To see the FireFox logo in a field, visit
• Maps.google.com/?ie-UTF8&om=1&z=16&||=45.123785,-123.113962&

spn=0.012112,0.024097&t=h

• Interesting Google pages – Visit the following:

mail.google.com/mail/help/customtime/index.html

www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html

www.google.com/Easter/feature_easter.html

www.google.com/googlegulp

www.google.com/romance

www.google.com/microsoft

www.google.com/linux

www.google.com/bsd

www.google.com/tisp

• Adam Douglas tribute – Type “answer to life, the universe, and everything” in the search field and press Enter
• In the iPhone Google app, tap the Settings button then swipe upwards a few times for hidden items.
• Facebook chat – other than the usual smiley faces, Facebook’s got a few interesting chat icons. Try the following

:v

]

utnam:

:3

3:)

:-*

<3

-_-

O.o

>:o

Amazon:

• Amazon.com – click on “Shope All Departments” and scroll to the bottom. Beneath the copyright notice, move your mouse under the “1996-2009” and click on invisible link. The will take you to a farewell note from JeffBezos to David Risher.

Did you know about these facts..?Any of my reader can add more facts ..write for me or share through comments..

IP delivery, most commonly know referred to as cloaking, is probably the most controversial, yet effective, search engine strategy used. In my opinion, much of the controversy stems from lack of understanding although I agree there does exist a measureable degree of abuse of what is otherwise a very fine tool.

First of all, let’s examine what cloaking is and how its works. Then I shall discuss the use and abuse and delve a little bit into the pros and cons.

How it works??

When a “visitor” come calling to your site, they announce their arrival using an Internet Protocol number – an IP number. IP numbers are unique and all but impossible to spoof. If you use a dial- up service, then you are using an IP number that belongs to your ISP and is temporarily assigned to your connection. On the other hand, if you have dedicated line then your computer may have a dedicated IP number that remains constant and identifies your machine every time you venture forth onto the internet.

Likewise, search engine spiders also have IP number. The difference between a search engine ‘spider’ and a real site visitor is in the purpose of the visit. The spider is there to index the page’s source code while the person is there to view the web page. Some search engine optimizers (SEOs) have gone to great lengths to collect ALL of search engine spider’s IP addresses (numbers). They have done this in order to be able to distinguish when the visitor is a real person and when the visitor is an SE spider.

Here’s where the fun begins. Professional SEOs realize that building a page that is search engine friendly poses a dilemma based on the following facts:

• Search engine tend to favor straight-forward, text oriented, non frame, non-tables, non-graphics-intensive, non-JaveScript, non shockwave sites. Search engines love pages that most consumers would agree are non-professional, “but-ugly” pages. But SE spiders tends to score ugly pages highest because they are looking primarily fuses the SE spider and makes it want to go away.
• SEOs also know that competitors can view their source code and steal their success. SEOs understandably object to the fact that, as soon as they build a successful high-ranking page, someone else can view-source and clearly see their optimization elements. Many times this source code is stolen outright, copyrights, trademarks and all- especially in high-competitive keyword markets.

Well, IP delivery solves both of these problems and does so in dynamic fashion. Here is how:

All of these search engines’ IP numbers are programmed into a script and the site’s server is set to identify the difference between an SE spider and a real site visitor. That allows the SEO to build two pages – an ugly but highly optimized page for the spider and an attractive consumer-oriented page for all the real people (consumers) that come visiting.

Whenever a “visitor” come calling, IP number in hand, script looks at that IP number and compares it to a list. If it finds the number on its search engine spider list, it‘ll decide which search engine is calling and feed that search engine a page that is optimized specifically for that engine. (That is why this is some times also referred to as the ‘food’ technique.)

On the other hand, if the IP number is NOT on the list, the script will assume the visitor is real person and deliver the page that is optimized for the consumer. Not only does this system help the site score higher on the engines (when done properly), it also dramatically increases consumer response AND makes it impossible for the real person (your competitor) to view the source code of the actual (ugly) page that is scoring high in the engines.

IP delivery gives the SEO the best of all worlds – high relevancy scores, cloaked source code, And potentially a better consumer response because the sales page can be built without search engine optimization being a governing factor.

Now, the controversy – there are a few idiots out there who have yet to learn that serving up irrelevant results does not increase sales and only serves to make people angry. I liken their offensive behavior to drunk behind the wheel of a car. Drunks don’t make cares dangerous. It’s the drunk that us dangerous- the car is simply a tool we use for going places and, like most tools, it can be used and /abused. But, no one (yet) has proposed that we ban cars to get the drunks off the road!

I see IP delivery in the same light. It is an effective and legitimate tool in spite of the fact that some unethical people abuse it. In my opinion, SEOs have legitimate right to protect their (frequently copyright protected) source code. Even more important, they want to design consumer friendly, sometimes interactive and intuitive websites with frames, tables, shockwave, JaveScript, etc., without being penalized by the search engines for adding the fancy bells and whistles. In my opinion, both are legitimate desires and worthless endeavors.

However, I also feel that anyone who hides behind cloaking in order to conceal the act they are using irrelevant keywords, or stealing copyrighted material, or illegally making use of a competitor’s trademark, should be banned from the engine(s) and possibly prosecuted for fraud – similar to the drunk who should be removed from behind the wheel. In such cases, its unscrupulous SEO who is scoundrel – not the strategy itself.

I can’t believe something like this could ever happen to me. How could I be denied the honour when so many insignificant beings in this land can lay claims to them in multiples? Why should I be denied a doctorate on such flimsy grounds? I ‘ve survived all these years without any smart sounding abbreviations tagged to my name and have still made it as Web diva. However, its enraging to think that I can’t be PHD too.

As you know, diary, there has been no looking back for me since that fateful day. I discovered the internet 7 years ago. I never once contemplated going back to college. Although my online activities won me multiple accolades and brought immeasurable fortune and fame my way, a lack of appropriate and accredited testimonials to my skills is a constant thorn in my website. Increasingly, I m repulsed by website displaying discrimination on the basis of education.

Since the Web is my life, I can’t, for the life of me, lie about my credentials. So I find myself clicking on “unfinished high school” in the education tabs every where. Needless to say, categorizing oneself in such a manner seriously impairs one’s overall browsing experience.

I don’t really understand this fascination with degrees. Look at me, I can beat the collective work of lvy League PHD students in any discipline but does that lend the necessary credence to my name? No! Now, if I were to affix a string of alphabets after my name, my cachet would rocket even if they were all made –up ones. So why didn’t I? Blame my righteousness. I wanted a genuine, real paper, monogrammed, signed and stamped degree or two, for all my academic toil. I could not settle for just a high school diploma or a bachelor’s degree for all my e-learning. A doctorate was the least qualification that would be done justice of my 7 years of knowledge, and that is exactly what I sought. I was hoping that in recognition of uber savvy Net know- how, some blue-blooded university would award me a doctorate. They would seek me out, invite me over for their graduation ceremony as a chief guest and honor me with a degree. I had this dream, where the world’s top universities where clamoring and beseeching, so that they could claim yours truly as one of their alumni.

Come to think of it, there are many universities enticing one to enroll in one of their life-changing programs. But, of course , I could not with just any university and run-of –the-mill qualification, especially when all the life’s change ‘ld ever aspired for was already flickering in front of me. Although a return to school was nowhere in my New Year’s resolutions, I craved for my diplomas, wishing they would come in my inbox and follow the antiquated postal routine some days later. Harvard and Yale, Oxford and Cambridge, Caltech, MIT and Princeton-little do these universities know what theu have missed out on by denying me entry.

I was willing, in my quest, to stoop something as low as giving a test. How could anyone doubt my prowess, education, knowledge and researching experience? I m certain I took the right route by sending out e-mails to the VC’s and registers of the top 50 universities, and giving details of my considerable education and skills. I even briefed them about my world-altering projects and invited them to visit my webpage for more details. I had 659 reference listed with non other than Barack Obama topping the list. In addition, numerous mentions in research papers and publication, e-testimonials and thank-you messages were all honestly recorded on my website.

My online life was available for their astute assessment and all I wanted in return for all this wading was a piece of paper saying that Webunissa was awarded a bachelor’s, masters and then a doctorate for all the extensive work she has done for the advancement of technology and promotion of New Media.

Can you imagine where I hit a snag? At the most basic level, all of them replied back (no one ignores an e-mail from my desk) with great regrets, saying that since I lacked a high school diploma, I could not be considered for further qualification. Their eloquent language expressed how sorry they were to be of no service to me and for turning away such a well-intentioned application. However, the only words that mattered most to me were “we are sorry to inform you”.

Gone to waste were those individually- written letters and countless hours I clocked to make an A-list Web presence. The setback kept me low for three whole days. By the third day, I was so deep in despair at my lack of proper qualifications that I thought of giving online/distance education a shot.

For now, I am shuddering at the thought of going back to my old high school and seeing what can be done re-sit me exams. Once I have that underway, I‘ll send out the world’s top universities is proud to award me a degree. For now, I need to go and do some actual, old-fashioned cramming. Wish me luck & pray my pens don’t run out of link and that my examiner’s brains don’t bleed out while reading my tests.

Note:

This dairy is a work of fiction. All names characters, places and incidents mentioned in it are product of my imagination.

If you have been drooling over Windows Vista’s attractive interface and impressive set of side bar gadgets for a while now, but are hesitant to take the plunge due to the negative buzz around it, all is not lost.

Though Microsoft Windows Vista may have failed to win the hearts & mind of a lot of users with its massive system requirements, it has not deterred a burgeoning community of software developers and customization enthusiasts from creating the same great interface for its predecessor, Windows XP.

Unsurprisingly, there are several downloads available on the Web that claim to replicate the Windows Vista look on Windows XP. The most notable ones include the free VistaMizer; Stardock’s commercial WindowBlinds and the free Vista Transformation Pack. However, most of these packages fall short in some way or the other.

For instance, while VistaMizer incorporate quite a few Vista-like changes and creates a restore point for reverting them, it ends up modifying approximately 400 system files in the process-a move that is sure to send shivers downs the spine of even the bravest of users. Another comprehensive package is the Vista Transformation Pack which, although it offers a wealth of features, proves difficult to uninstall and hogs up a substantial amount of memory at runtime as well. Then there is WindowsBlinds; which lets you personalize your desktop (at a fee, of course ) with custom- designed skins, but is plagued by a boatload of bugs that will bring even the most hardened systems to a crawl.

Getting Started:

To proceed with giving XP an extreme makeover, this is a list of all the files you will need to download. The links to these files are provided in The Sites. The best part is that even after installing these, you will not encounter any major slowdowns, nor will they destabilize your system in any way. The following software is needed.

• Replacer
• Uxtheme patch
• Vista VG Ultimate theme
• Vista Drive Icon
• Vista Rainbar
• Shock Aero3D

Procedure:

By default Windows XP prevents users from installing third-party themes that are no digitally signed by Microsoft. In order to use custom themes and visual styles on your system, you will first need to patch the uxheme.dll file, located at

‘X:\Windows\System 32’

(Where X is the drive were you have Windows installed), that control this behavior. Before proceeding, be sure to back up your system. Alternatively, you can create a new restore point using the System Restore feature in Windows XP

1^st Step:

As a 1^st step, find out what version of Windows XP you have installed on your system. To do so click on your ‘Start’, right click on ‘My Computer’ and select ‘Properties’. In the dialog box that appears, the version of Windows and the Services Pack that you are currently using will be listed under ‘System’ (on the ‘General tab’).

Assuming you are using Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, download the appropriate uxtheme patch file (the file is called ‘6.0.2900.5512_EN.rar’ in this case) from which is provided at the end of this article.

Please be advised: The following step may change original operating system files or replace them with those provided by a third party that may or may not include privacy/security assurances. Proceed at your own discretion.

2^nd Step:

Next, extract the contents of the Replacer, as the name suggests, is a handy utility that safety in Windows XP. Double click on the labeled ‘Replacer.cmd’ and follow the instructions provided in the command prompt windows that appears. The tech-recipe website provides mini-tutorial and detailed information on this procedure.

3^rd Step:

Once the files have been swapped, extract the contents of the ‘VistaVG Ultimate’ theme into a new folder called ‘Skin’. Now, copy all the contents of the ‘Theme’ folder (located within this directory) and paste them at

‘X:\Windows\Resources\Theme’.

Next, navigate to the folder labeled ‘Fonts’ (within the Skin directory) and copy and paste its contents at ‘X:\Windows\Fonts’.

4^th Step:

To set the new theme, right-click the desktop and select ‘Properties. Click the ‘Appearance’ tab and, under the section labeled ‘Windows and buttons’, select ‘VistaVG’ from the drop-down menu and click ‘Apply’. You can also choose from a list different color schemes, including the default Aero, Basic and black, moreover, if you wish to hide the extra bits of text that appear at the bottom right when you click the Start menu, run the file labeled ‘LSPatch.exe’ (within the ‘Skin directory’) to make them disappear.

5^th Step:

Is is not quite the Vista look without the famed Windows Sidebar. While you can certainly use a free program such as Google Desktop to create a very functional poor man’s sidebar, putting off that Vista look requires something different. This is where the ‘Vista Rainbar’ comes into play. Upon installation, you ‘ll get the same sleek, highly- customizable vertical panel which hosts an array of nifty desktop gadgets, including clocks, weather monitors, calendars, calculators, RSS displays, etc

6^th Step:

One of the most sought after Windows Vista innovations has been the much- acclaimed Windows Flip 3D feature, by means of which all open windows can easily be viewed in a three-dimensional stack, using the Windows key + Tab keyboard shortcut. The same effect can easily be mimicked using the Shock Aero3D application. Usage is very straightforward. After extracting, simply copy the ‘hock Aero3D’ folder to any drive of your choice and run the application.

Finally, to get the fancy Vista drive icons which show the amount of free space with a solid colored horizontal bar in ‘My Computer’, install the ‘Vista Drive Icons’ application. While there certainly are programs that mimic several other Vista-only features such as live taskbar thumbnail previews, the Vista Picture Viewer as well as the Snipping Tool, to name a few, most offer a fraction of the functionality that is offered by Windows Vista itself.

It is essential to note, however, that most of these applications require a substantial amount of memory, so it is best to upgrade your machine’s physical memory “(to one gigabyte or more) in order to make your system look and feel more like Vista, but without detrimentally effecting its performance in the process.

Even though it’s next to impossible to recreate the exact same interface for Window XP with Microsoft has adorned Vista, these implements will let you bask in the visual glamour of Windows Vista on the more familiar Windows XP.

The popularity of free, libre, and Open Source software is largely due to the speed of its development and the reliability, portability and scalability of the resulting software product combined with availability at low or no cost. These factors are often attributed to two factors: that developers are also users of the software and the open availability of source code.

Most free/libre/Open Source software is developers that contribute from around the world. These teams coordinate their activities primarily by means of computer-mediated communications (CMC) and seldom meet face-to-face if alt all. Many programmers, though not all, contribute to projects as volunteers, without working for a common organization or being paid. This heavy reliance on self-organization sets FLOSS teams apart from most other distributed teams.

The process of FLOSS development spans the traditional boundaries of place and ownership. While popular notion emphasizes the difficulties of distributed software development in the case of FLOSS development an intriguing counter- example has been fostered that proves the effective function of distributed and collaborative development. The most surprising aspect of the FLOSS process, perhaps, is that it appears to eschew traditional project coordination mechanisms such as formal planning, system-level design, schedules and defined development processes.

Eric Raymond’s The Cathedral and the Bazaar discusses the most well- known model of the FLOSS process. While the bazaar metaphor has proven popular, anecdotal evidence of the FLOSS process suggests that teams rely on a variety of social control mechanisms rather than simple on trust. FLOSS development teams tend to have a hierarchical or onion-like structure. At its center are core developers who contribute most of the code and oversee the design and evolution of the project. The core is usually small and exhibits a high level of interaction, which would be difficult to maintain if the core groups were large. Core developers usually have a deep understanding of the software and the development processes.

Surrounding the core are the co-developers. These individuals contribute sporadically by reviewing or modifying code or by contributing bug fixes. The co-developers group can be much larger than the core since the required level if interaction is much lower. Surrounding the developers are the active users- a subset of users who test the latest releases and contributing bug reports or features requests but don’t themselves write code. Still further from the core are the passive users which are vast and varied and try the software and offer feedback. As their involvement with a project changes, participants may and sometimes tend to move from role to role.

It is often believed that software development nudges the hardware industry on to introduce new products compatible with their latest software upgrades. Let me discus with you whether this notion is correct.

For an average computer user, upgrading is equivalent to breathing new life into an old system. It is necessary for running up-to-data software ranging from operating systems to games. It is only natural for an average user to believe that more resources-demanding software results in the hardware evolving faster to catch up. In reality, however, this flow of evolution is a two-way street.

In the case of average user computing, especially personal computers (PCs), hardware manufactures tend to take existing design and continue to ramp up performance on an almost as a motivational factor, hardware capabilities are made to grow at an exponential rate in order to give software companies the scalability and headroom to add to existing software and to be able to innovate and improve on it. While all current day processors now carry a 6-bit architecture, there are few mainstream 64-bit programs that take full advantage of the feature. Although why this is so is an entirely separate matter, the fact is mainstream proliferation of capable hardware is not solely influenced by software capabilities.

One could argue that games are the harbinger of computing power requirements. Consider popular first-person shooter, Crysis, which refuses to run at its highest possible settings on even the most powerful consumer level PC. As all the features used by Crysis are accounted for in both graphics processing units (GPUs) as well as central processing units (CPUs), the title primarily innovates on an existing palette while attempting to force hardware developers to instill new capabilities in their products. As far as the frame rate is concerned, it is highly likely a product of the how tightly wrapped the actual coding is, as well as the vision of the programmers, who were programming the title many years before the release of the processing hardware of the processing hardware of today, and hence made a lot of their programming decisions based on forecast of new hardware.

An example of hardware leading the way for software development is that of the DirectX APU combo with graphics cards, which almost always supersedes game development by at least nine months since release versions. When the Radeon ATi 9700 PRO was release by most critics. However, given its rampant success, as well as the adaptability of game developers, DirectX 9.0 capable games started trickling in and within a year of that, all titles came with a DirectX 9.0 requirement.

These cases by no means suggest that the latest technology is the most future-proof. A good example of option for the “don’t upgrade” path was during the Blu-ray and HD DVD tussle over a year back. The rivalry between the two optical media standards had a lot consumers holding back on the purchase of either until a de facto winner was declared. Since the victory of the Blu-ray standard, consumer confidence has returned and now software developers as well as hardware manufactures take the standard a lot more seriously than they did upon its release. Metal Gear Solid 4, for one, took full advantage of Blu-ray capabilities.

So did software make users upgrade, and not new hardware? Such a condensed view as this is not far from the truth. It is eventually software that will force consumers to spend money on new hardware. It is when must – have software reaches the shores of regular customers that it begins to generate the need for improved hardware. Software giants such as Microsoft work closely with chip manufactures such as AMD and Intel and other hardware vendors to design and produce software that is highly evolved on the basis of computing power projected for the future. Hence, when existing users try to run the latest versions of the most demanding software on their systems, they choose to pursue upgrade options that make the software run smoothly.

Games are another motivational factors in upgrades of both PCs as well as consoles. No one bothered to upgrade to an Xbox 360 upon its release. However, killer titles such as Halo 3 and Gears of War, which could not possible run on the hardware of its predecessor, eventually led to a dramatic upswing in console sales.

A chicken or the egg analogy can be drawn here. Software evolution will slow down dramatically only if hardware evolution slows down- as the expectation of lower performance down the road will results in lower risks being taken when it comes to the design phase.

Similarly, lower levels of enhancements in software will results in lower sales for better hardware as consumers will not need to upgrade to be able to run their favorite software versions well.

Which chipmarks showing off 80-core processors in concept and 16-core solutions to slowly bring into the fold of the mainstream, it will not be too long before ordinary consumers are going to be able to render videos in real time and run photorealistic gaming titles at 60 frames per second with all effects turned on. In an economically challenged situation, it makes sense to not opt for upgrades of either software or hardware. However, such stagnation will stop the phenomenal leaps in both hardware and software technology that the world has seen.

Markers of both will lose the incentive to push the envelope to the point where computing power becomes virtually limitless. This cycle is a necessity on all levels.

A Wikipedia entry on Non-English based programming languages carries a list of various programming languages that are derived from the lexicon of specific regional languages.

These include programming languages in

• French
• Spanish
• German
• Chinese
• Korean
• Bangla
• Hindi
• Gujarati
• Russian
• Arabic
• Farsi
• & Icelandic among many others.