Hyderabad may become India's first fully Wi-Fi-enabled city

NEW DELHI: In a bid to make Hyderabad the first fully Wi-Fi-enabled metro in the country, Telangana government is holding talks with various telecom service providers to offer the services. 

The state's information technology minister KT Rama Rao told reporters here that steps are being taken to offer Wi-Fi services across greater Hyderabad metropolitan area.

"We are taking a leaf out of cities like Mountain View and Houston for offering Wi-Fi services. We are speaking to service providers," he said, adding that they are also looking at Ahmedabad and Bangalore where Wi-Fi services are available on a limited basis. 

Asked whether any time line has been set for it, Rao said they are working to have it at the earliest but no deadline has been fixed as yet. 

Hyderabad city, which has a population 12 million, is one of the major IT hubs in the country. "We want to offer Wi-Fi services to enable more citizen services," he said.

NSA has a secret Google-like search engine

WASHINGTON: A top US intelligence agency has built its own secret "Google-like" search engine for about two dozen government agencies to search information through more than 850 billion communications records, including phone calls, emails and internet chats, a media report has said.

Reported by 'The Intercept' — a recently launched website — from the classified documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, the Google type secret search engine is considered to be key to searching information from over 850 billion records that the US government collects over multiple agencies.

It was a mastermind of the recently retired National Security Agency director general Keith Alexander.

Christened 'ICREACH' the search engine REACH contains information on the private communications of foreigners and, it appears, millions of records on American citizens who have not been accused of any wrongdoing, said The Intercept.

Citing various classified documents under its possession, it said the search tool was designed to be the largest system for internally sharing secret surveillance records in the US, capable of handling two to five billion new records every day, including more than 30 different kinds of metadata on emails, phone calls, faxes, internet chats, and text messages, as well as location information collected from cellphones.

A US official familiar with the system is quoted as saying by The Intercept that while "it enables the sharing of certain foreign intelligence metadata," ICREACH is "not a repository (and) does not store events or records."

The Director of National Intelligence acknowledged the existence of such a search engine, noting that sharing information had become "a pillar of the post-9/11 intelligence community" as part of an effort to prevent valuable intelligence from being "stove-piped in any single office or agency."

According to a 2010 memo outlining the sharing tool, more than 1,000 analysts from 23 government agencies had access to the NSA's trove of records about emails, phone calls, Web chats and cellphone location information collected without a warrant.

HTC teases its first 64-bit Android phone

HTC has outed the HTC Desire 820 early, publishing an image that tells us it'll be the first HTC Android phone to use a 64-bit processor.

Having come from the HTC Weibo account and written in Chinese, we weren't able to translate the leaked advert for the HTC Desire 820 ourselves, but we're told it says the 820 is the "world's first octa-core 64-bit phone," by GSMarena.

The teaser also says we'll know more about the phone on 4 September, which lands just as IFA 2014 kicks off. You don't need to be a tech super sleuth to conclude this means we'll see the phone officially announced during or just before the tech show.

This leak does not tell us exactly what processor the HTC Desire 820 will use, but a little bit of deduction suggests it's the Qualcomm Snapdragon 615. Snapdragon goes 64-bit

The Snapdragon 615 is an eight-core 64-bit processor intended for mid-range phones, sitting below the Snapdragon 808/810 and above the Snapdragon 410. It fits the bill perfectly, and given all of HTC's recent mid-range Desire phones use Snapdragon CPUs rather than — for example — Mediatek ones, it's the only likely candidate.

64-bit phones are likely to be one of IFA 2014's big themes, as Android L will soon bring native 64-bit support to the system.

There have been Android devices that use 64-bit compatible processors to date, using Intel Atom CPUs. But these use a special kernel that lets them work, rather than really unlocking all that 64-bit goodness.

This is one Apple got there first on — the iPhone 5S and iOS 7 are already 64-bit. But 64-bit Android will let phones make use of even more RAM, for more serious data crunching.

We'll have to wait to see whether it'll just be used to shame us into upgrading, or whether there'll be some truly worthwhile applications for ordinary folk.

8 Things IPhones Can’t Do That Android, WP Phones Can

1.We'd like to be able to extend our device's storage capability beyond the 64GB maximum.
 History suggests that external SD card support isn't going to be in a mobile Apple device any time soon. 
Or ever.

2.Instead of building NFC into the iPhone, Apple would rather have you use its Passbook system, which lets
 users store tickets, gift cards, boarding passes, and the like. It can handle some (but definitely not all) of the
 tasks that you might use NFC for. NFC also lets you beam content between devices just by tapping them
 together.

3.Swype is something of a mainstay on Android phones. Instead of tapping out your texts letter by letter, you can
 drag your finger over them without lifting it. The end result is that you get your message out much more quickly.
 Let's implement speedier texting on iPhone!

Some good news: Apple's new iPhone software, iOS 8, will let users install third-party keyboards like Swype.
It's coming this fall.

4.The iPod Classic offers users 160GB of music and video capacity. Many people had no problem filling it right up. 
Now that the iPhone is an easy replacement for your old iPod, we'd love to be able to carry the same amount of 
content around with us without having to pick and choose what stays at home.

5.We've never understood why our iPhones can't use a standard USB port and a standard USB cable to sync. 
You need Apple's proprietary Lightning cables to sync your phone.

6.Once again, if you want to get video off of your phone, it requires the use of a special adapter (unless you 
buy a $99 Apple TV). Several Android phones use a micro-HDMI port, letting you run a cable straight from your 
tablet to the television.

This makes it easier, better, and more affordable for the user.

7.The battery life on the iPhone is pretty "meh," but for the power users who are glued to their phones all day,
it won't simply unacceptable.

We'd love to be able to carry an additional fully-charged iPhone battery that we could pop in whenever the first 
one bites the dust.

8.The iPhone has a bigger battery than it's had in the past, but because the physical size of the iPhone is smaller 
than competing devices, Apple has some space constraints. Hopefully the rumoured bigger-screen iPhone will 
have a bigger battery too

A marathon span: China opens world's longest bridge over water

With a price tag of at least $1.5 billion, the Jiaozhou Bay bridge is 2.5 miles longer than Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain Causeway

The Jiaozhou Bay bridge is 26.4 miles long, according to Guinness World Records. It links China's eastern port city of Qingdao to Huangdao island.

State-run CCTV said the 110-foot-wide bridge cost more than 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion). However, the Xinhua news agency put the cost at $2.3 billion and Britain's Telegraph newspaper reported its price tag totalled more than $8.8 billion.

CCTV said it passed construction appraisals on Monday. The bridge and an associated undersea tunnel opened to traffic on Thursday.

The bridge, which is supported by more than 5,000 pillars, took more than four years to build.

Story: World’s greatest bridges

According to the Guinness World Records, the previous longest bridge over water was the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana. The Chinese bridge is more than 2.5 miles longer.

"The earthquake- and typhoon-proof bridge ... is designed to withstand the impact of a 300,000-ton vessel," Guinness said.

Xinhua said the bridge would shorten the journey between Qingdao and Huangdao by about 18 miles, cutting travel time from 40 minutes to 20 minutes.

According to the Telegraph, the bridge was expected to carry more than 30,000 cars a day.

It reported that at least 10,000 people worked in two teams around the clock on the span's construction.

India needs 4 million civil engineers by 2020: Report

Despite a projected demand of 95 billion sq ft in real estate and construction by 2020, the sector faces a likely manpower crisis. A research report 'Real Estate and Construction Professionals in India by 2020' byRICS ( Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) indicates a probable demand-supply gap of 44 million core professionals comprising civil engineers, architects and planners, by 2020.

The research has highlighted that as of 2011, the supply of professionals in built environment comprises nearly 50 million people, of which only 2 million are professionally qualified (across core and non core professionals). The remaining are mainly unskilled workers.

Built environment, comprising construction and real estate related activities, is one of the major contributors to the Indian economy, accounting for approximately 17.7% of GDP in 200910.

There is a demand-supply gap in the range of 82-86% in the core professions group comprising civil engineers, architects and planners. To deliver potential real estate space and planned infrastructure, India needs nearly 4 million civil engineers, 396,000 architects and 119,000 planners on an average, over the next decade. However the corresponding average supply available would only be 642,000 civil engineers, 65,000 architects and 18,000 planners.

A sustained period of shortfall in annual supply, coupled with an increasing year on year demand, could result in a cumulative demand of nearly 45 million core professionals, over 2010-20, with a cumulative demand-supply gap of approximately 44 million core professionals over the same period.

The estimated supply of non core professionals in the built environment sector is nearly 3 times the supply of core professionals. However without sector specific training, they fall short of the desired skill sets and need training.

The shortages are likely to lead to recruitment difficulties, increased cost of human resources, inability to complete tasks timely, skill gaps in domestic manpower and sub-standard quality of construction.

The report recommends that all stakeholders across government, academia and industry formulate remedial measures that help increase new supply and up-skilling of the existing workforce. The key action areas recommended for the government are improvement in regulatory framework and enabling policies, strengthening skill development effort and allocation of funds and incentivising skill development in critical areas.

The research has highlighted that as of 2011, the supply of professionals in built environment comprises nearly 50 million people, of which only 2 million are professionally qualified (across core and non core professionals). The remaining are mainly unskilled workers.

Built environment, comprising construction and real estate related activities, is one of the major contributors to the Indian economy, accounting for approximately 17.7% of GDP in 200910.

There is a demand-supply gap in the range of 82-86% in the core professions group comprising civil engineers, architects and planners. To deliver potential real estate space and planned infrastructure, India needs nearly 4 million civil engineers, 396,000 architects and 119,000 planners on an average, over the next decade. However the corresponding average supply available would only be 642,000 civil engineers, 65,000 architects and 18,000 planners.

A sustained period of shortfall in annual supply, coupled with an increasing year on year demand, could result in a cumulative demand of nearly 45 million core professionals, over 2010-20, with a cumulative demand-supply gap of approximately 44 million core professionals over the same period.

The estimated supply of non core professionals in the built environment sector is nearly 3 times the supply of core professionals. However without sector specific training, they fall short of the desired skill sets and need training.The shortages are likely to lead to recruitment difficulties, increased cost of human resources, inability to complete tasks timely, skill gaps in domestic manpower and sub-standard quality of construction.The report recommends that all stakeholders across government, academia and industry formulate remedial measures that help increase new supply and up-skilling of the existing workforce. The key action areas recommended for the government are improvement in regulatory framework and enabling policies, strengthening skill development effort and allocation of funds and incentivising skill development in critical areas.

Development of Engineering

Until the Industrial Revolution there were only two kinds of engineers. The military engineer built such things as fortifications, catapults, and, later, cannons. The civil engineer built bridges, harbors, aqueducts, buildings, and other structures. During the early 19th cent. in England mechanical engineering developed as a separate field to provide manufacturing machines and the engines to power them. The first British professional society of civil engineers was formed in 1818; that for mechanical engineers followed in 1847. In the United States, the order of growth of the different branches of engineering, measured by the date a professional society was formed, is civil engineering (1852), mining and metallurgical engineering (1871), mechanical engineering (1880), electrical engineering (1884), and chemical engineering (1908). Aeronautical engineering, industrial engineering, and genetic engineering are more modern developments.

The first schools in the United States to offer an engineering education were the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 1817, an institution now known as Norwich Univ. in 1819, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1825. An engineering education is based on a strong foundation in mathematics and science; this is followed by courses emphasizing the application of this knowledge to a specific field and studies in the social sciences and humanities to give the engineer a broader education.

Read more: engineering: Development of Engineering | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/science/engineering-development-engineering.html#ixzz3ApyQdTqG