Monday, 28 March 2011
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OpenIDSaturday, 26 March 2011
Friday, 25 March 2011
10 Best Secret Islands Around The World
1. Ulleungdo – South Korea
Ulleungdo Island is an ideal place when travelling to South Korea. Though it is a simple paradise on earth but it cannot be ideal for those seeking amusement parks or major resort sites. It is a place where you can relax, walk and watch the world going slowly. Ulleungdo is a quiet fishing town with just few hotels and restaurants for the travelers who visit there.
Hiking is a good way to explore Ulleungdo. It is worth seeing for those wanting to relax for a few days after a hectic travelling itinerary in South Korea.
2. Torres Strait Islands -Australia
The Torres Strait Islands are situated off the Cape York Peninsula in Australia. More than 100 islands form the Torres Strait stretching from the peninsula north to the Papua New Guinea border.
Only 3 of the Torres Strait Islands are open for the public where as other islands are only for the Islanders, who originally came from Polynesia and Melanesia. The population of the Torres Strait Islands is now more than 6000. Each of the Torres Strait Islands has unique cultures and languages.
3. Yaeyama Islands – Japan
The Yaeyama Islands are located in both the southernmost and westernmost inhabited islands of Japan. Together with the Miyako and Okinawa Islands they form the three main island chains of Okinawa Prefectures.
With their tropical atmosphere and rural lifestyle, the Yaeyama Islands are considered to be popular getaway destinations for those wishing to escape from the busy bustling life Japan’s metropolises. These paradise islands have beautiful beaches, snorkeling, diving and relaxation.
4. Socotra Island – Yemen
Socorta Island is considered to be the most alien-looking place on earth”. Split from the coast of Gondwanaland by plate tectonics, the four desert islands that form the Socotra group is a treasure-house of biodiversity, with thousands of plants and animals species found nowhere else on earth. Cucumber trees and the dragon’s blood trees are peculiar and ooze blood-red sap. Socorta Island despite being closer to Africa is administered by Yemen – the Arabian Peninsula, which keeps the islands off the tourist for many reasons.
5. Iles du Salut – French Guiana
The Iles du Salut Island, French Guiana group of French Guiana Northeastern in the Atlantic ocean about 11 Kilometers of Northeast Kourou comprises of three main Islands: Royale, Saint-Joseph and Diable, the site of infamous devil’s Island :”Penal colony” from 1862 to 1953. Originally the entire group was called IIes du Diable by their earlier known settlers; a group of colonists from France retreated to the islands in 1760s from the lowlands around Kou. The archipelago served as an out port for ships to large dock at Cayenne, the national capital.
6. Koh Yao Noi Island – Thailand
Koh Yao Noi Island is located in the middle of Phang Nga Bay, not far from Phuket, one of the last bastions of unspoilt wilderness in the area. It is considered to be the simple refuge from the bigger islands which has received the World Legacy Award in 2002 for its eco-friendly home-stay program. The island is privileged for having old villages, many of them remain just as they have been for centuries and dive in the pristine reefs. The island offers some of the world’s finest diving. In 2010, the island’s first luxury resort ‘Six Senses Hideaway’ at Yao Noi opened, but the company promises its commitment to create enriching experiences in a sustainable environment.
7. Sovalye Island – Turkey
Sovalye (pronounced ‘chevalier’ in Turkish) Island is located just 20 minutes by water taxi from the bustling port of Fethiye on Turkey’s Lycian coast. This is a car free island and no car means no roads and just rugged paths that weave through its forests and along beaches to the ruins of Byzantine and Romans, walls and churches. It is so close to the mainland that it gets overlooked by the excursion boats. There is only boutique hotel in the island. The 12-bedroom hotel which sits right on the rocks by the sea is the perfect base for tourists. Double rooms cost from £40 and the hotel remains open from May to October. The cheerful owner Handan Aydin treats his guests like family friends, leaving out snorkeling gear and dispensing picnics, dinghies and canoes.
8. San Blas Archipelago – Panama
The San Blas Archipelago in Panama South America is scattered of small islands of soft white sand dotted with swaying palm trees and gently lapped by clear blue-green waters. If you find yourself in Panama, and want to go off the beaten path, the San Blas Islands are the best. Forget luxury resorts – the only hotels are home stays in village houses and dinner is whatever the fishermen bring home in their canoes each evening.
The exact number of islands in the San Blas archipelago is unclear, but it is believed there are somewhere between 350 and 400, mostly quite small and home to only a few families, or uninhabited altogether. This is an autonomous region of Panama run by the Kuna people.
9. Penghu Islands – Taiwan
The Penghu Islands, also known as Pescadores in the Portuguese, meaning “fishermen” are an archipelago off the western coast of Taiwan. It consists of 90 small islands and islets covering an area of 141 square kilometers.
In sunny days the beaches and windsurfing seem very impressive. The Penghu archipelago islands have a large number of volcanic hills of basalt magma. Frequent erosions over the years have shaped the current magnificent geological landscape. Magnificent coral reefs surround them, and they’ve become a popular destination for divers, fishermen and snorkelers
10. Langara Island – British Columbia
Langara Island is part of the Queen Charlotte Island group, located within one of the world’s most diverse marine eco-systems. It may be on the border of the stormy Pacific Ocean but the island has plenty of protected inlets and coves ideal for sheltered fishing. The best season for visiting this island is from early May to late September, when you can expect to see dolphins, whales, humpback, porpoises and sea lions while bald eagles and falcons swoop overhead. For the perfect wedding and adventure, book into Langara Island Lodge where you can set out into the wilderness to fish and forage during the day.
5 Best and Worst of Laptop Designs
Laptops fever. Technology and concept have made up thousands of laptop designs in history. Some are best, some good, some bad, and some worst too, as per user usage. See the top 5 collection of best and worst laptop designs of history. Starting with number 5 for each.
Worst-5- Velocity Micro NoteMagix L80 (2006)
The Velocity Micro NoteMagix L80 is one of those notebooks that makes you question the sanity of its designers. It’s bad enough the system’s plain, black chassis comes straight out of Generic Notebook Design 101, but what thrusts this notebook into the realm of the visually offensive is the low-end copper strip that lines the keyboard’s perimeter. It makes the NoteMagix L80 look as though it were manufactured about 30 years ago, or that part of the machine was ripped away to expose the copper finish. It’s a shame that the notebook is so unattractive, as it packs some solid muscle under the hood with the included Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 GS graphics card and a speedy 2.1-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, but if you place any value in appearance, it will be hard to appreciate the power.
Best-5- Sony VAIO R505 SuperSlim Pro (1998)
As more people go mobile, slim notebooks are becoming increasingly popular. But when did the slimming phenom start? In 1998, when Sony announced the Sony VAIO R505 JSP SuperSlim Pro. It impressed the mobile tech world with its style and slim, one-inch-thick frame. That tiny frame packed a lot of power: a 30GB hard drive, 850-MHz Pentium III processor, and 256MB of RAM. (Remember: This is 1998.) Alas, Sony had to sacrifice the optical drive to get the system that slim. The R505 also boasted an eye-catching silver-purple lid and a bright purple touchpad and mouse buttons that tech fashionistas drooled over.
Worst-4- Sharp Actius RD3D (2003)
We’re all for pushing technology to the next level–but we have to question Sharp’s motivation for developing the Actius RD3D, other than to prove it could. Although it was the first laptop with a 3D display, the proprietary technology, which used a 15-inch XGA panel and a parallax barrier, didn’t always produce realistic three-dimensional images as much as it generated a lot of vertical banding, ghosting, and eye-strain. Of course, it didn’t help that this notebook weighed ten pounds and didn’t have Wi-Fi. But the death blow for the RD3D was the lack of 3D-optimized applications. You know a 3D notebook is a niche play when one of the included apps is a molecular viewer.
IBM 701C TrackWrite (1995)
Back in the day when we had to endure small, cramped keyboards, IBM thought it would ease the burden on our collective wrists and fingers by coming up with the TrackWrite folding keyboard. Nicknamed the “Butterfly Keyboard,” it was split into triangular-shaped pieces that meshed together like puzzle pieces to form a complete, full-sized keyboard as the notebook was opened; when the lid was being closed, the halves split and slid back into place. With the arrival of wider notebooks with more spacious keyboards, the TrackWrite quickly became obsolete, but it was certainly a winning idea that many still remember fondly.
Worst-3- IBM ThinkPad TransNote (2001)
As notebooks became more mainstream, many people found themselves debating the use of good old paper-and-pen versus the mighty PC. IBM attempted to please both camps with the IBM ThinkPad TransNote. The TransNote came in a folio case that featured the ThinkPad computer on one side and a standard 8.5 x 11-inch paper notepad on the other. The notepad sat atop an electronic digitizer that translated notes taken with a special pen for use in the PC. User notes could be organized into files and folders on the computer side; even searched through using keywords. While it certainly sounded like a good idea, the Tablet PC, which debuted the following year, was more in keeping with technologic evolution. The TransNote was more of a mashup of the new and the old. Plus, the digital pen was rather thick and proved uncomfortable to use with extended use, and the whole contraption had a massive 23 x 12.5-inch footprint.
Best-3- HP Pavilion dv2000 (2006)
There’s a reason why HP has become the top notebook manufacturer in the United States; besides being consistent performers, the systems in the Pavilion line simply look sweet. The company’s design renaissance began with the dv2000′s debut, which featured a stunning piano-black glossy coating and the wavy HP Imprint design. This pattern was the precursor to the recently released Radiance and Dragon patterns. If you doubt the impact of HP’s designs, take a look at what Dell and Gateway have done to move beyond stale pedestrian design for something more slick and eye-catching. Both companies have followed HP’s lead, Dell with more colors and Gateway with an in-mold design of its own.
Worst-2- Dell Inspiron 5150 (2003)
Bad design doesn’t necessarily have to be limited to a product’s exterior. Take the Dell Inspiron 5150, for example: This notebook’s heatsink was improperly designed and resulted in dust being sucked through the vent, which prevented the system from properly cooling. The overheating was so severe and prevalent in these models that in September 2006, a class action was made against Dell on behalf of Inspiron 5150 owners. They saw a settlement that resulted in 100 percent cash reimbursement for repairs.
Best-2- Apple PowerBook 500 series (1994)
Notebook newbies may take the ubiquitous trackpad found on their systems for granted, but those of us who have been tech geeks for more than a decade remember when trackballs were the only way to navigate the desktop. Trackballs went away when Apple designers emerged from their labs with what would go on to become the de facto notebook control method–the trackpad. Without any moving parts, the trackpad was far less likely to fail than the trackball, and the single mouse button used for clicking onscreen objects made the PowerBook 500 notebook the prototype for today’s notebooks.
5 Best and Worst of Laptop Designs
July 9, 2010 3 Comments
Worst-1- Apple iBook (1999)
The first-generation Apple iBook was one of those love-it or hate-it designs–we choose the latter. Featuring translucent colored plastics (Graphite, Tangerine, Blueberry, Indigo, or Key Lime), and a handle built into the hinge, it resembled an overgrown makeup compact. While Apple went on to produce the sweet-looking iBook G4 (in which we can see some of the sexiness of the MacBook), this machine, despite being the first notebook to house an internal wireless connection, gets the thumbs down for design.
Best-1- Acer TravelMate C100 (2000)
Before the Acer TravelMate C100, Tablet PCs looked like, well, tablets. They were flat, one-dimensional systems too clunky to do more than just jot notes, and there wasn’t software to organize your notes. Tablets needed organization, and that came with the debut of the TravelMate C100, the world’s first convertible Tablet PC. (The simultaneously released Windows Tablet Edition OS added the much-needed software component.) By adding a rotating hinge to the laptop’s 10.4-inch display, Acer gave mobile professionals the ability to swivel the display and lay it flat over the keyboard when taking handwritten notes or to use it like a regular notebook by typing on the standard keyboard
Top 10 AircraftIt design
Top 10 dead design Aircraft It has been 107 years, since Wright brothers made you up fly. Since then, man is busy to build up as many designs of airplanes as he can, sometimes creative, some time bogus, but the race of making the efficient design to fly away is not over, lets examine some of the worst or deadly designed
10- Tupolev TU- 144
Tupolev TU-144 was a Russian plane. It was the first supersonic transport and the only commercial plane to exceed Mach 2. The “Concordski” was fast but plagued by bad luck. Three crashes — including a dramatic mid-air breakup during the 1973 Paris Air Show — relegated it largely to a lifetime delivering mail. It was mothballed in 1985 but briefly brought back a few years later as a research plane.
9- B.O.A.C. DE HAVILLAND COMET
The Comet was the creative and jumbo commercial jet airliner and a landmark in British aeronautics when it gave first flight in 1949. Today it’s better known for its atrocious safety record. Of the 114 Comets built, 13 were involved in fatal accidents, most of them attributed to design flaws and metal fatigue.8- HUGHES H-4 HERCULES
The “Spruce Goose” was either a brilliant aircraft years ahead of its time or the biggest government boondoggle ever. Since then, the largest aircraft ever conceived — its wingspan was 319 feet — the Spruce Goose was intended to be a military transport plane. But it wasn’t finished until well after World War II ended, rendering it both obsolete and irrelevance.
7- A-12 AVENGER II
Defense Department projects are famous for cost overruns, and General Dynamic’s flying wing bomber was a doozy. The Flying Dorito was the most troubled of the stealth aircraft projects the Pentagon embraced during the 1980s, experiencing problems with its radar systems and use of composite materials. When the projected cost of each plane ballooned to $165 million, a Secretary of Defense named Dick Cheney killed it in 1991
6- ROYAL AIRCRAFT B.E.2
With its anemic engine, poor maneuverability and gunner blocking the pilot’s view, the British B.E. 2 was doomed from the start. German pilots had no problem shooting them down during the First World War, making it just about useless as a fighter. It had no problems against German Zeppelins, though, so the plane lived out its days attacking them instead
5- BOEING XB 15
The XB 15 was the largest plane ever built in the United States until the Spruce Goose came along. The heavy bomber was so massive it had passageways in the wings and bunks for the crew. But big planes need big engines and no one made one big enough to give the XB any kind of speed for its maiden flight in 1937. The plane maxed out at 200 mph, and the U.S. Army Air Corps killed the project. The only XB ever built saw duty as a cargo plane in the Caribbean during World War II.
4- BEECHCRAFT STARSHIP
With its carbon-composite construction, unique design and rearward-facing turboprop engines, the Starship was a groundbreaking aircraft. But it was slow, difficult to fly and a bear to maintain. It took to the air in 1989, but Beechcraft only sold a few of the 53 it built.
3- LWS-4 ZUBR
The Zubr was as useless as it was ugly. Not only was it incapable of flying with the landing gear retracted, the airframe was so highly stressed the plane could disintegrate without warning. If that wasn’t enough, it couldn’t take off with a payload much heavier than a few cartons of cigarettes. The Polish Air Force had a few in its fleet during World War II, but none of them saw combat.
2- CHRISTMAS BULLET
Cool name, lousy plane. Dr. William Christmas didn’t know the first thing about planes when he designed one for the U.S. Army Signal Corps, and it showed. He didn’t think the plane needed wing struts, so of course the wings fell off during the plane’s maiden flight in 1918
1- HILLER VZ-1
The Hiller VZ-1 hovercraft must have looked good on paper, because it sure didn’t look good in the air. The idea was simple — a fan provides lift and the pilot steers by shifting his weight. The Defense Department loved it until it saw the Pawnee in flight. It was good for just 16 mph and it tended to be uncontrollable. The project was killed in the late 1950s.
20 Worlds greatest unresolved mysteries ever
1. The mighty Incan Empire of South America
The mighty Incan Empire of South America flourished between 1200 and 1535 AD. They developed drainage systems and canals to expand their crops, and built stone cities atop steep mountains — such as Machu Picchu (above) — without ever inventing the wheel. Despite their vast achievements, the Incan Empire with its 40,000 manned army was no match for 180 Spanish conquistadors armed with advanced weapons and smallpox.
2. Ancient Pyramids in Giza, Egypt
Khafre (l.) and Khufu (r.) are two of the three ancient Pyramids in Giza, Egypt. Khufu is the biggest, consisting of more than 2 million stones with some weighing 9 tons. The Pyramids, built as elaborate tombs for divine kings, date back to 2,550 BC. Modern Egyptologists believe that the Pyramids are made from stones dragged from quarries and, despite ancient Greek testimony, were built predominantly by skilled craftsmen rather than slave labor.
3. The Mayan Temple
4. The Legend of El Dorado
The Legend of El Dorado originates from the Muisca, who lived in the modern country of Colombia from 1000 to 1538 AD. In a ritual ceremony for their goddess, the tribal chief would cover himself in gold dust and jump into a lake as an offering. This spawned the legend of a lost golden city, which led Spanish conquistadors on a wild goose chase to nowhere.
5. Easter Island
Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, is remotely located 2,000 miles off the coast of Tahiti. The original settlers of the island were Polynesians who migrated to the far-off land between 400 and 600 BC. They built many shrines and statues, called moai, from stones quarried throughout the island including a volcano site. Researchers still question exactly how the large stones were moved.
6. The Bermuda Triangle
The Bermuda Triangle — located in the Atlantic between Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico — is a thief, stealing planes and boats right out of existence. The area got its name after Sgt. Howell Thompson (l.), along with 27 Navy airmen, vanished from the devilish spot during a routine flight in 1945. Rumors persist on a supernatural explanation, but many specialists blame hurricanes, a heavy Gulf Stream and human error.
7. The Nazca Lines
The Nazca Lines cover more than 190 square miles in the southern deserts of Peru. The mysterious shapes etched into the land rival football fields and predate the Incan Empire. The ‘Las Manos’ figure (above) is 2,000 years old. Little is know about why the Nazca people constructed such vast pieces of sand art, some believe they are extraterrestrial in nature, while others claim they may have carried and pointed to sources of water.
8. Aliens
Area 51, located on Groom Lake in southern Nevada (c.), was founded in 1955 by the U.S. Air Force to develop and test new aircrafts – such as the U-2 Spy Plane, A-12 Blackbird and F-117 Stealth Fighter. The secretive nature of the military base, combined with its classified aircraft research, helped conspiracy theorists imagine an installation filled with time-travel experimentation, UFO coverups and alien autopsies.
9. Sphinx of Giza, Egypt
Another Egyptian wonder, the Sphinx of Giza has the body of a lion and the head of a Pharaoh, believed by most to be that of king Khafre. It was carved from soft limestone, and has been slowly falling apart over the years. A popular theory of the missing nose claims Napoleon’s soldiers shot it off with a cannon in 1798, but early sketches discovered of the Sphinx without a nose predate Napoleon’s rampage.
10. The Loch Ness Monster
According to Scottish folklore, a mystical creature called a water horse lures small children to a watery grave by tricking them to ride on its sticky back. The Loch Ness Monster became an English wonder in 1933, after witness accounts made newspaper headlines. No hard evidence of the creature has ever been recorded with several pictures, including the one above, being proven as hoaxes.
11. The Fountain of Youth
Don Juan Ponce de Leon completed Spain’s claim on America in 1509, and soon after was made governor of Puerto Rico. Six years later, following Indian rumors, he traveled north to the island of Bimini in search of the Fountain of Youth. Bimini turned out to be the peninsula of Florida, and the fountain remained hidden until July 2006, when famed magician David Copperfield claimed the waters on his $50 million Exumas Island (c.) had healing properties.
12. Chupacabra
Phylis Canion holds the head of what she is calling a Chupacabra at her home in Cuero, Tex. The strange-looking animal, first reported in Puerto Rico in 1995, apparently has a taste for chicken and goat blood. Although many pictures like the above might prove its existence, biologists assure none such creature exists.
13. The Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant is described in the Bible as a wooden casket, gold plated, made for carrying the tablets of the Ten Commandments. The casket was carried throughout the desert and remained in the Israelite Temple until its destruction by the hand of the Babylonian Empire. Its whereabouts are still unknown, but Hollywood made its own version for ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark.’
14. The Stonehenge
The Stonehenge landscape of Salisbury Plain, England, has become a tourist hotspot. But before foreigners with windbreakers and cameras showed up, the area may have been a burial ground and ceremonial den dating back 5,000 years.
15. The Iron Pillar of Delhi
The Iron Pillar of Delhi is a 1,600-year-old, 22 feet high pillar located in the Qutb complex in India. The pillar, made from 98% wrought iron, has been astounding scientists by its ability to resist corrosion after all these years.
16. Stone Spheres in Costa Rica
Discovered in the early 1940s in Costa Rica during excavations by the United Fruit Company, these perfectly formed stone spheres date from 600 AD to the 16th century. Their makers and purpose still unconfirmed, many believe them to be some religious effigy made to worship the sun.
17. Mothman
A humanoid with insect wings and crimson eyes, known as the Mothman, terrorized Point Pleasant, W.Va., during the late 1960s. No solid evidence exists of the creature, except for a handful of witness reports documented in paranormal-journalist John A Keel’s ‘Mothman Prophecies’.
18. Jersey Devil
According to legend, 250 years ago a Jersey woman by the name of Mrs. Leeds cried out in despair during her 13th pregnancy, ‘Let it be the Devil!’ After childbirth, the baby was revealed to be a kangaroo-like creature with wings, and flew away to cause all sorts of Jersey Devil mischief. Today the Jersey Devil can be seen getting fans riled up during local hockey games.
19. The Tunguska Explosion of Russia
The Tunguska Explosion in Russia occurred around 7:14 a.m. on June 30, 1908. To this date, the exact cause of the explosion – which leveled 80 million trees over 830 square miles – remains a heated debate. Most believe it to be caused by a meteoroid fragment, others insist either a black hole or UFO origin.
20. The Lost City of Atlantis
The Lost City of Atlantis was introduced to the West 2,400 years ago by Plato, who claimed it to be the island home of an advanced society. Legend says it was sunk by an earthquake, with later interpretations as an underwater kingdom protected by mermaids. Its whereabouts still a mystery, recent underwater evidence suggests it was once apart of a larger landmass in Cyprus off the Mediterranean (c.), but the only true Atlantis exists in the Bahamas as a grand casino and resort hotel.
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