Earth Hour!

On 31 March 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 businesses in Sydney, Australia turned off their lights for one hour (between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m) - Earth Hour. If the greenhouse reduction achieved in the Sydney during Earth Hour was sustained for a year, it would be equivalent to taking 48,616 cars off the road for a year. Sounds big!

It is promoted by World Wide Fund for Nature Australia (WWF), an environmental lobby group, and the Sydney Morning Herald. Last year they focused on one city because of the massive amount of coordination and organisation required to get a city to turn off it’s lights! In 2008, however, Earth Hour will be taking place in over 20 cities around the world, and the list keeps growing. Its due to start at 8PM on 29th March 2009.

With Sydney icons like the Harbour Bridge and Opera House turning their lights off, and unique events such as weddings by candlelight, the world took notice about the last year’s event.

Though there were criticisms saying that this event is not effective, though this happens many miles away from us, it is an excellent endeavor to protect the Globe. Join hands to support the event http://www.earthhour.org/user/HY4g

The Internet Will End in 30 Years!

From another 30 years, the internet will stop working. Apparently, a bug similar to the millennium bug will affect Unix-based systems, like those that run the tubes, in the year 2038. This bug has being dubbed as "Unix Millennium bug", "Y2K38," "Y2K+38," or "Y2.038K" by analogy to the Y2K problem. It arises because Unix-based systems store the time as a signed 32-bit integer, in seconds, from midnight on January 1 1970. And the latest time that can be represented in that format, by the Posix standard, is 3:14 AM on January 19, 2038. After that, times will wrap around and be represented as a negative number. Programs will fail, of course. Since they will see times not as being in 2038 but rather in 1901, erroneous calculations and decisions will occur.

Want More Proof?

• http://www.lugmen.org.ar/pipermail/lug-list/2005-May/035318.html
• http://www.sec.org.il/coverages.php?c=53
• http://unix.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/AIX-L/2004-01/0011.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem
  

By 2038, it's likely that many of the susceptible machines will have been decommissioned before the critical date occurs. However, legacy systems and embedded systems could still be affected. These may include process control computers, space probe computers, embedded systems in traffic light controllers, navigation systems, routers, gas pumps, etc. It may not be possible to upgrade many of these systems, so they will need to be replaced.

But we have years, decades even, to deal with this mass panic. That’s the good point.

The BigDog Quadruped Robot

BigDog is a dynamically stable quadruped robot created in 2005 by Boston Dynamics with Foster-Miller, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Harvard University Concord Field Station

Boston Dynamics keeps working on their BigDog quadruped robot, which will probably grow for the use of the Pentagon. It looks like an actual biological quadruped. But bit freaky to look at.

Seeing it climb through rubble, snow, jumping over obstacles like a wild goat, and saving a near-fall on iced ground at the last second defies belief. This unique robot is even smart enough to balance itself when kicked from the side. It feels so "animal" that we almost feel bad when they hit it to demonstrate how it regains balance on its own.

This new version of the robot can carry 340 pounds, which is almost triple the previous weight.

Most Popular You Tube Video of All Times

Can you guess the most popular video of all time on YouTube? Its Evolution of Dance by comedian Judson Laipply. It was added to YouTube on April 06, 2006 and has since gone on to attract 78.8 Million views. It's had 127,001 comments so far and has been favorited 280,915 times (making it the number 1 Top Favorited video of All Time).



Laipply is a comedian and motivational speaker from Ohio. The video shows him dancing a six-minute routine encompassing 32 songs spanning more than 50 years of music and dance.

Here is the top 10 list

1. Evolution of Dance - Judson Laipply
2. Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend video - 50M views
3. My Chemical Romance's Famous Last Words- 35M views
4. Guitar - 26M views
5. SNL – Digital Short
6. Tuğba Özay ve 250.000ci GarantiArkadas. com Üyesi
7. My Chemical Romance - Teenagers
8. xxx
9. Beyonce ft. Shakira - Beautiful Liar
10. Akon - Don't Matter

20-20 Big Match

For the first time in Sri Lankan school cricket history, a 20-20 big match has organized between Thurstan and Isipathana. The battle has named after a distinguished old Thurstnight Mr. Priya Paranavithana (Who was an ex-Head Prefect and his both sons were ex-Head Prefects) This match for the Priya Paranavithana Trophy will take place at Thurstan Grounds at Bauddaloka Mawatha on 05th April.

Ane Wehepan

Microsoft Sky Drive - 5GB

Microsoft has launched Sky Drive (previously known as Windows Live Folders) on Feb 21st. Basically a file holding/sharing service. Currently offers a 5GB space with a maximum upload size of 50 MB per file. File drag and drop options available within the windows explorer if the separate ‘upload tool’ is installed.

Pavithra’s Plea for MR

Source: http://www.dailymirror.lk