Students manufacture Aero-dynamic car!

Around five months of extensive labour, collective team efforts, Rs.350,000 collection on a self-help basis resulted in the emergence of a blue aerodynamic environment-friendly one-seated small car.

The car was jointly manufactured by students and faculty members of the Mechanical Engineering Department (MED) of a public sector university COMSATS, Sahiwal campus.

This car has been selected to represent Pakistan in the upcoming Manila International Auto Show 2015 starting from April 9 in the Philippines.

The self-manufactured car, called RUSH, was the project of final year students of the Mechanical Engineering department. The team of students has used 70CC engine and light weight fiberglass for developing all its exterior and interior. The designer of the car says "the car has nine-feet length, around four-feet height and width and will cover about 60km in one liter."

At present, the car has 200kg weight and having one person seating capacity which in future can be expanded with design.

HeartBleed Bug.

The Heartbleed Bug is a serious vulnerability in the popular OpenSSL cryptographic software library. This weakness allows stealing the information protected, under normal conditions, by the SSL/TLS encryption used to secure the Internet. SSL/TLS provides communication security and privacy over the Internet for applications such as web, email, instant messaging (IM) and some virtual private networks (VPNs).

The Heartbleed bug allows anyone on the Internet to read the memory of the systems protected by the vulnerable versions of the OpenSSL software. This compromises the secret keys used to identify the service providers and to encrypt the traffic, the names and passwords of the users and the actual content. This allows attackers to eavesdrop on communications, steal data directly from the services and users and to impersonate services and users.

As long as the vulnerable version of OpenSSL is in use it can be abused. Fixed OpenSSL has been released and now it has to be deployed. Operating system vendors and distribution, appliance vendors, independent software vendors have to adopt the fix and notify their users. Service providers and users have to install the fix as it becomes available for the operating systems, networked appliances and software they use.

PLAN 9: Where ideas take Flight!

Plan 9 is a platform for the early stage tech starters to grow in the field of technology by presenting their ideas in a supportive and cooperative environment. A great initiative taken by the Government Of Pakistan. 

Housed on the 9th floor of the Arfa Software Technology Park, Plan9 inducts teams bi-annually, making each incubation cycle of 6 months. Services such as free office space, legal advisory, marketing and monthly stipends are funded by the Government of the Punjab.

The incubation model adopted by Plan9 is one of a kind, a tailor-designed process that is aimed at fostering our startups alone. Unlike other incubators, they take absolutely no equity.They accept teams that are well integrated and working on a tech based product. Young, fresh and inventive entrepreneurs fall back in developing the right connections, industrial know-how and gaining attention. At Plan9, an environment conducive to the success of a startup that resolves all afore-mentioned predicaments is provided.

The incubated teams are placed at Level 9 of ASTP where besides developing their products, they are rigorously engaged in trainings, mentoring and product review sessions. The exposure to the industry and opportunity to create a professional network is uncommon and second to none within the country. Plan 9 guides in the following areas:

• Product Development
• Business Development
• Financial Planning
• Pitch Training
• Marketing and PR
• Corporate Communication
• Customer Acquisition
• Internal Operations
• Legal Concerns

The incubation process is as follows:

http://plan9.pitb.gov.pk/

https://www.facebook.com/Plan9Incubator

KINECT FOR THE BLIND!

Kinect for the Blind is Imagine Cup 2011 Software Design project of Tactile Viewers team, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. 2-nd place at Russian Finals.

It was designed to help visually impaired people (including completely blind) orient on streets. Particularly, with othis device person can 'feel' direction, distance and overall dimensions of obstacles at a distances greater than the length of a white cane. Second, this device allows track obstacles on all directions simultaneously (left, right, up, down), while cane is tracking only one direction at a time.

The project uses Kinect for Xbox 360 sensor, which is capable of viewing depth directly and not by reconstructing it from stereo images.

Here is an example how Kinect sees outer world. Depth scene on the right corresponds to the image on the left. Note that the image is not used to produce depth map as Kinect 'sees' distances directly by using infrared flash and receiver that measures per-pixel light delay.

Android vs Windows Phones!

Five reasons to avoid Windows phone:

1. The application ecosystem is currently Microsoft’s biggest downfall. Many popular applications including Snapchat, Tinder, WatchESPN, SoundCloud, Square, Secret and many more, are still missing. In recent months, we have seen the popular arrival of applications such as Tumblr and Pinterest. Games are a similar story, while we have a collection of great games, many of the top quality games we see on other platforms take months to get to Windows Phone. 
2. Windows Phone support issues don’t end with applications, there is also an issue with hardware devices. Third party smartwatches are just the beginning of devices that don’t work with Windows Phone; among Pebble, MetaWatch, and Galaxy Gear – none work with Windows Phone. There are also various fitness devices and even car integration systems that don’t work properly with Windows Phone. A car is unable to do anything more than send and receive calls with a Lumia 1520, add a Galaxy S5 with Android, and the car can do much more, including sending text messages and allowing one to access their inbox.
3. You can rearrange your Live Tiles, select your new favorite color, and maybe even add a background – that is where customizing Windows Phone’s start screen and operating system stops. If you don’t like an aspect of the phone, say the keyboard, there are no options to swap it out for another. Microsoft has made sure that core system components can’t be changed, and while this may not be an issue for some, many of us have become accustomed to swapping in our favorite keyboard, dialer, or SMS app.
4. Microsoft introduced multitasking with its Windows Phone 7 ‘Mango’ launch. But Windows Phone has placed a limit on the number of applications you can run in the background. Other operating systems, such as Android and iOS, don’t have such a shallow limit. You might find that while using Windows Phone, apps get pushed out of the background, which can be an issue if it was something you sincerely needed. A Samsung Galaxy user can easily ‘snap’ two apps side by side, and I find that it does come in useful while answering emails and trying to jot down notes at the same time.
5. Recent market studies show that Microsoft’s mobile operating system is gaining traction, but at tortoise speed. Slow adoption of an operating system may not seem immediately important, but it does infect consumer experience.Due to the fact that Windows Phone isn’t as popular as its competitors (and isn’t looking like it will be) makes developers more cautious when developing applications or providing device support. Development costs money and placing a team on an unpopular operating system just doesn’t make much sense. We may love Windows Phone, but until the rest of the world starts showing some love, companies aren’t going to be rushing their latest ideas to the platform.

Amazon - Prime Air!

Prime Air is a new project of Amazon which focuses on their delivery service. The goal of this new delivery system is to get packages into customers' hands in 30 minutes or less using unmanned aerial vehicles.The FAA is actively working on rules and an approach for unmanned aerial vehicles that will prioritize public safety.

The US company announced with considerable fanfare late last year that it was considering using drones as a way of dramatically reducing the time it takes to deliver orders to customers. At the time there was speculation that the move was little more than a publicity stunt. But Amazon said in July that it had sought permission from the US Federal Aviation Administration to test drones that could fly as fast as 50 miles per hour for up to 30 minutes at a time to deliver packages weighing up to 2.3kg (5lb).

Amazon claims to have developed sense-and-avoid sensors and algorithms that will allow the Prime Air drones to see obstacles and automatically avoid collisions.  The battery powered drones are a rotor based system capable of flying at 50mph, and can carry a five pound payload — which is sufficient to deliver 86% of the products in Amazon’s inventory