Http VS https

The main difference between http:// and https:// is, It's all about keeping you secure

HTTP stands for HyperText Transport Protocol, which is just a fancy way of saying it's a protocol (a language, in a manner of speaking) for information to be passed back and forth between web servers and clients.

The important thing is the letter S which makes the difference between HTTP and HTTPS.

The S (big surprise) stands for "Secure".
If you visit a website or webpage, and look at the address in the web browser, it will likely begin with the following: http://.

This means that the website is talking to your browser using the regular 'unsecure' language.

In other words, it is possible for someone to "eavesdrop" on your computer's conversation with the website.

If you fill out a form on the website, someone might see the information you send to that site.

This is why you never ever ever enter your credit card number in an http website!

But if the web address begins with https://, that basically means your computer is talking to the website in a secure code that no one can eavesdrop on.

You understand why this is so important, right?

If a website ever asks you to enter your credit card information, you should automatically look to see if the web address begins with https://.

If it doesn't, there's no way you're going to enter sensitive information like a credit card number!

Who’s afraid of 2°C?

(By Sunita Narain)

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The latest fuss about the 2°C global temperature target India apparently acceded to at the Major Economies Forum in L’Aquila, Italy, is important to unravel. The declaration by the world’s 20 biggest and most powerful countries recognized the scientific view that the increase in global average temperature above pre-industrial levels should not exceed 2°C. The statement was widely criticized in India as a sign we had ‘given in’ to pressure to take commitments, to cap our emissions. But it was not quite clear why something as obtuse as 2°C equalled a target, so confusion followed. It seemed we were against capping temperature increase at 2°C; we wanted emissions to grow; that temperature increase was bad for us and for the world. The Western media tom - tommed it as another proof India was the renegade in climate negotiations.

Let’s sort this issue. It is widely accepted keeping global temperature rise below 2°C, measured from pre-industrial levels (1850), is the threshold that will leash climate change from being ‘dangerous’ to becoming ‘catastrophic’. To put this number into context, consider current average global temperature increase is 0.8°C; add on the fact that another 0.8°C is inevitable, because of the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) already pumped into the atmosphere. So, we are already close to the threshold.

Now, let’s understand the politics. Once the world accepts the need to cap temperature, it also accepts the need to cap emissions. The 2°C target is possible only if the world limits GHG concentration at 450 ppm CO2-e, taking together the stock and current emissions. It gets complicated here. Think of the atmosphere as a cup of water, filled to the brim. More water can only be filled if the cup is emptied to create space. But since there are many claimants on the water that needs to be filled in the cup, the space will have to be apportioned - budgeted - so that the earlier occupiers vacate and the new claimants fill in, in some proportion of equity.

In other words, the emission budget of 450 ppm CO2-e has to be apportioned, based on equity, between nations. The problem with the L’Aquila declaration is not that it caps the increase in temperature, but that it does not make explicit this limit will require sharing the budget equally between nations who have already used up their common atmospheric space and new entrants to economic growth. Without budget-sharing the temperature cap becomes a virtual cap on the emissions of the developing world, for we are told we will also have to peak in the midterm and take meaningful deviations from our carbon-growth trajectory.

Let us be clear: the space is very limited. We know concentration of all GHG emissions is already close to 430 ppm. But with some ‘cooling’ allowance, because of aerosols, it comes to 390 - 400 ppm. In sum, not much space remains to be distributed and shared in our intensely unequal world.

But this is not all that confounds the science. The fact is greenhouse gases have a very long life in the atmosphere. Gases released, say, since the late 1800s when the Western world was beginning to industrialize, are still up there. This is the natural debt that needs to be repaid, like the financial debt of nations.

It was for this reason the Kyoto Protocol, agreed in 1997, set emission limits on industrialized countries - they had to reduce so that the developing world could increase. It is a matter of record the emissions of these countries continued to rise. As a result, today there is even less atmospheric space for the developing world to occupy. It is also evident the industrial world did nothing; it knew it needed to fill the space as quickly as possible. Now we have just crumbs to fight over.

It is also no surprise, then, that Western academics are now calling upon the developing world to take on emission reduction targets: there is no space left for them to grow. The logic is simple, though twisted and ingenious. No space left to grow. Ergo, “you cannot ask for the right to pollute,” they tell the developing world.

This is unacceptable. We know emissions of carbon dioxide are linked to economic growth, therefore, capping emissions without equal apportionment will mean freezing inequity in this world.

Unacceptable.

We know also that this apportionment is an intensely political decision, for it will determine the way the world will share both the common space and economic growth. It is only when we agree on the formula for sharing that we can agree on how much the already - industrialized countries have to cut and by when, and how much the rest (India included) have to cut and by when.

Instead, what we have is a pincer movement. The already - industrialized do not want to set interim targets to reduce their emissions drastically. They want to change the base - year from when emission reduction will be counted - 2005 or 2007, instead of 1990. This means two things. One, they want to continue to grow (occupy space) in the coming years.

Two, the space they have already occupied - as their emissions vastly increased between 1990 and 2007 - should be forgiven. All this when we know meeting the 450 ppm target requires space to be vacated fast - they must peak within the next few years and then reduce drastically by at least 40 per cent by 2020 over 1990 levels. But why do this, when you can muscle your way into space?

So how will the world share the carbon budget? The only answer is it will have to be based on equity. We will discuss these issues, even as the climate clock ticks.

Courtesy: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=1

Microwaved water - a MUST read

A 26-year old decided to have a cup of coffee. He took a cup of water and put it in the microwave to heat it up (something that he had done numerous times before).
I am not sure how long he set the timer for, but he told me he wanted to bring the water to a boil..

When the timer shut the oven off, he removed the cup from the oven. As he looked into the cup, he noted that the water was not boiling, but instantly the water in the cup 'blew up' into his face. The cup remained intact until he threw it out of his hand but all the water had flown out into his face due to the build up of energy.

His whole face is blistered and he has 1st and 2nd degree burns to his face, which may leave scarring. He also may have lost partial sight inhis left eye.

While at the hospital, the doctor who was attending to him stated that this is fairly common occurrence and water (alone) should never be heated in a microwave oven.. If water is heated in this manner, something should be placed in the cup to
diffuse the energy such as: a wooden stir stick, tea bag, etc. It is however a much safer choice to boil the water in a tea kettle.

General Electric's (GE) response:

Thanks for contacting us. I will be happy to assist you.

The e-mail thatyou received is correct. Microwaved water and other liquids do not always bubble when they reach the boiling point. They can actually get superheated and not bubble at all.

The superheated liquid will bubble up out of the cup when it is moved or when somethinglike a spoon or tea bag is put into it.

To prevent this from happening and causing injury,
do not heat any liquid for more than two minutes per cup.

After heating, let the cup stand in the microwave for thirty seconds before moving it or adding anything into it.

If you pass this on, you could very well save someone from a lot of pain and suffering.

(This post actually a mail sent to me by a friend ASHOK PANIGRAHI from ALL INDIA RADIO, CUTTACK with a request to forward it to as many persons as possible...so I published it here.)

GUESS, WHAT IS THIS?

CAN YOU GUESS,
WHAT IS THIS?







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Its a hard disk in 1956....



The Volume and Size of 5MB memory storage in 1956.



In September 1956 IBM launched the 305 RAMAC, the first computer with a hard disk drive (HDD). The HDD weighed over a ton and stored 5MB of data.

Fun Time for Engineers,mathematicians and Scientists

A mechanical engineer, an electrical engineer and a software engineer are travelling in an old Fiat 500 when all of the sudden the car backfires and comes to a halt.

The mechanical engineer says "Ah! It's probably a problem with the valves, or the piston!".

The electrical engineer says "Nonsense! It's most probably a problem with the spark plugs or the battery!".

The software engineer says "How about we all get out of the car, and get back in again, It might work...".





Here’s a few of Engineer’s favorite pickup lines:-----


1.My love for you is like a concave up function… always increasing

2.I find you more fascinating than the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus









Short jokes & quotes loved by engineers and scientists-----


A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems.


Before I die, I hope that someone will explain quantum mechanics to me. After I die, I hope that God will explain turbulence to me. (W. Heisenberg)

Philosophy is a game with objectives and no rules. Mathematics is a game with rules and no objectives.

The speed of time is one second per second.

Life is complex. It has real and imaginary components.

God made the natural integers numbers. The others were man-made. (Weierstrass)

Maths is like love -- a simple idea but it can get complicated.


Black holes are where God is dividing by zero.


Absolute zero is *cool*.

Gravitation can not be held responsible for people falling in love. (Albert Einstein)

Life is a sexually transmitted disease.

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." (Einstein)

Pain Killers or Silent Killers ?

No words to express what wonder a small pill shows in combating and excruciating pains in the body. The pain killers are so amazing that almost each of us loves to take them to get the relief.
Analgesic or the pain killers are the drugs used to relieve pain, a drug that suppresses inflammation in a manner similar to steroids, but without the side effects of steroids.
Pain killers work in different ways. Some have the ability to calm nerves or alleviate pains, others can temporarily get rid of them but all the pain killers are not safe to use. They may have side effects that can pose greater danger to our body than the pains themselves.
Not all of us know that our own body has a way of confronting pain. In fact, the body produces endorphins during a stressful activity such as exercise. This chemical has endogenous opioid, which is present in morphine, methadone and even heroin. It is also an ingredient of the strongest painkillers in the market – the one that relieves cancer pain. Endorphin is actually known as the body's natural painkiller.
However, painkillers have created a kind of addiction epidemic among users. Although legally suggested by doctors, patients could eventually become dependent. In fact, prescription painkiller addiction is one of the biggest unnoticed drug abuse problems. Unlike illegal drugs, painkillers are given with medical consent. Studies show that they are far more dangerous because of their nature.
In some cases, the body gets used to painkillers. It will not respond anymore with its presence, especially when taken for a long time. This is called drug tolerance.
However, many people are developing dependence or addiction rather than mere tolerance.
When painkillers are suddenly stopped, withdrawal symptoms will soon follow.
The most commonly abused prescription painkillers are benzodiazepines and opioids. Benzodiazepines are also known as tranquilizers, which doctors give to people to manage or overcome anxiety attacks. Opiods are one of the strongest painkillers, and are mostly given to reduce cancer pain and other chronic pains.


Side Effects of the Pain Killers


There are actually different ways by which each person responds to painkillers. Although most painkillers are available over the counter, it is advisable to see the doctor just to be sure about the side effects that a certain drug may have.

Painkillers that are anti-depressants have several side effects. Most of them dry the mouth, cause changes in sleeping patterns, cause drowsiness, and increase or decrease appetite.

Other steroid painkillers can result in a bigger appetite, more energy, and indigestion and altered sleeping patterns. If you have difficulty sleeping, take steroids during the day. More serious side effects of steroids include increased infection risks, higher blood sugar levels, higher blood pressure, and the presence of sugar in urine.

Anti-inflammatory drugs that are also painkillers, such as aspirin, can undoubtedly irritate the stomach and the entire digestive system. In extreme cases, ulceration or bleeding can occur. It is important to eat before taking such medications. Also, these drugs can slow blood clotting.


Remember to see your doctor if you notice these side effects, or it may lead to more serious repercussions.

How technology changed us........

IT Heights... ( Humor )

HEIGHT OF ISOLATION:
Two persons sitting side by side using emails to communicate with each other.

HEIGHT OF COWARDICE:
Two persons fighting through emails.

HEIGHT OF HELPLESSNESS:
Receiving no emails for a week.

HEIGHT OF FRUSTRATION:
The email server being down.

HEIGHT OF CARELESSNESS:
Writing a love mail and doing a 'Send All.'

HEIGHT OF TIMEPASS:
A person sending email to himself

HEIGHT OF EXPECTATION:
Sending Indian cricket team an e-mail, wishing them to win a match

HEIGHT OF REPETITION:
Forwarding an email to someone and receiving the same email forwarded back to you By some one in the receiving chain.

HEIGHT OF BROWSING:
U r swimming in the water tank and shout 'F1 F1 F1 ' instead of shouting 'HELP' when u are unable to swim...

laser

Laser [acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation] , device for the creation, amplification, and transmission of a narrow, intense beam of coherent light, visible electromagnetic radiation.
Of the entire electromagnetic spectrum, the human eye is sensitive to only a tiny part, the part that is called light.
The coherent light produced by a laser differs from ordinary light in a way that it is made up of waves all of the same wavelength and all in phase; ordinary light contains many different wavelengths and phase relations.
The laser can be explained on the basis of the quantum theory.
The electromagnetic energy is transmitted in discrete amounts (i.e., in units or packets) called quanta.
A quantum of electromagnetic energy is called a photon, the particle composing light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation, sometimes called light quantum.
The energy carried by each photon is proportional to its frequency.
An atom or molecule of a substance usually does not emit energy; it is then said to be in a low-energy or ground state. When an atom or molecule in the ground state absorbs a photon, it is raised to a higher energy state, and is said to be excited.
The substance spontaneously returns to a lower energy state by emitting a photon with a frequency proportional to the energy difference between the excited state and the lower state.
In the simplest case, the substance will return directly to the ground state, emitting a single photon with the same frequency as the absorbed photon.
In a laser, the atoms or molecules are excited so that more of them are at higher energy levels than are at lower energy levels, a condition known as an inverted population.

If a photon whose frequency corresponds to the energy difference between the excited state and the ground state strikes an excited atom, the atom is stimulated to emit a second photon of the same frequency, in phase with and in the same direction as the bombarding photon.
The bombarding photon and the emitted photon may then each strike other excited atoms, stimulating further emissions of photons, all of the same frequency and all in phase.
This produces a sudden burst of coherent radiation as all the atoms discharge in a rapid chain reaction.
Often the laser is constructed so that the emitted light is reflected between opposite ends of a resonant cavity; an intense, highly focused light beam passes out through one end, which is only partially reflecting.
If the atoms are pumped back to an excited state as soon as they are discharged, a steady beam of coherent light is produced.

Characteristics of Lasers

The physical size of a laser depends on the materials used for light emission, on its power output, and on whether the light is emitted in pulses or as a steady beam.
In some lasers, a gas or liquid is used as the emitting medium.

Applications of Lasers

When lasers were invented in 1960, they were called "a solution looking for a problem".

In every section of modern society, including consumer electronics, information technology, science, medicine, industry, law enforcement, entertainment, and the military.

The first application of lasers visible in the daily lives of the general population was the supermarket barcode scanner, introduced in 1974.

The laserdisc player, introduced in 1978, was the first successful consumer product to include a laser, but the compact disc player was the first laser-equipped device to become truly common in consumers' homes, beginning in 1982, followed shortly by laser printers.

Some of the other applications include:

Medicine: Bloodless surgery, laser healing, surgical treatment, kidney stone treatment, eye treatment, dentistry
Industry: Cutting, welding, material heat treatment, marking parts
Defense: Marking targets, guiding munitions, missile defence, electro-optical countermeasures (EOCM), alternative to radar
Research: Spectroscopy, laser ablation, Laser annealing, laser scattering, laser interferometry, LIDAR, Laser capture micro dissection
Product development/commercial: laser printers, CDs, barcode scanners, thermometers, laser pointers, holograms, bubble grams.
Laser lighting displays: Laser light shows
Laser skin procedures such as acne treatment, cellulite reduction, and hair removal.

Digital signature

The digital signature is an electronic signature that can be used to authenticate the identity of the sender of a message or the signer of a document, and possibly to ensure that the original content of the message or document that has been sent is unchanged.

The digital signature is a digital guarantee that information has not been modified, as if it were protected by a tamper-proof seal that is broken if the content were altered.

The two major applications of digital signatures are for setting up a secure connection to a Web site and verifying the integrity of files transmitted.

Digital signatures are easily transportable, cannot be imitated by someone else, and can be automatically time-stamped.

The ability to ensure that the original signed message arrived means that the sender cannot easily repudiate it later.

A digital signature can be used with any kind of message, whether it is encrypted or not, simply so that the receiver can be sure of the sender's identity and that the message arrived intact.


A digital certificate contains the digital signature of the certificate-issuing authority so that anyone can verify that the certificate is real.


In cryptography, digital signatures are a method of authenticating digital information often is analogous to a physical signature on paper. Whilst there are analogies, there are also differences which can be important. The term electronic signature, although used for the same thing, has a distinct meaning: it refers to any of several, not necessarily cryptographic, mechanisms for identifying the originator of an electronic message. Commonly such electronic signatures have included cable and Telex addresses, as well as FAX transmission of handwritten signatures on a paper document.


How It Works


Assume you were going to send the draft of a contract to your lawyer in another town. You want to give your lawyer the assurance that it was unchanged from what you sent and that it is really from you.

You copy and paste the contract into an e-mail note.

Using special software, you obtain a message hash of the contract.

You then use a private key that you have previously obtained from a public-private key authority to encrypt the hash.

The encrypted hash becomes your digital signature of the message. At the other end, your lawyer receives the message.

To make sure it's intact and from you, your lawyer makes a hash of the received message.

Your lawyer then uses your public key to decrypt the message hash or summary.
If the hashes match, the received message is valid

Orthomolecular medicine

Orthomolecular is a term that comes from ortho, which is Greek for "correct" or "right," and "molecule," which is the simplest structure that displays the characteristics of a compound. So it literally means the "right molecule."


Two-time Nobel Prize winner, and molecular biologist, Linus Pauling, Ph.D.,coined the term "Orthomolecular" in his 1968 .


An orthomolecular substance is something that provides the body with the "right molecules" it needs for health. It might be called "optimal nutrition".


Orthomolecular medicine is defined as the practice of preventing and treating disease by providing the body with optimal amounts of substances which are natural to the body.


Orthomolecular medicine believes that the basis for health is good nutrition. It uses nutrients and normal (''ortho'') building blocks of the body in optimal amounts as the basis of treatment. The objective is to use the amounts that lead to the best health and greatest decrease in disease. It is the most effective prevention in the treatment of disease.


Orthomolecular intervention can help in the regaining of health. It can be used to therapeutically treat diseases such as cancer and AIDS, or to help prevent the progression of degenerative disease and aging. Orthomolecular medicine is occasionally referred to as megavitamin therapy.


"Orthomolecular treatment does not lend itself to rapid drug-like control of symptoms, but patients get well to a degree not seen by tranquilizer therapists who believe orthomolecular therapists are prone to exaggeration. Those who've seen the results are astonished.


Orthomolecular medicine might be considered when Down syndrome is present.


Orthomolecular treatment for alcoholism involves using the nutrients necessary to overcome nutritional diseases caused by alcoholism.