STELCO increases electricity prices in Malé region

Haveeru 2009-10-29

The State Electric Company (STELCO) on Wednesday announced that they will increase their electricity fee in Malé, Hulhumalé, Villingilli and Thilafushi beginning on 1 November 2009.

The new tariffs, which are separated into five categories, were announced at a news conference held at TVM. Under the new tariffs, households will be charged Rf2.25 for 0-100 units, Rf2.50 for 101-300 units, Rf 2.95 for 301-500 units, Rf3.55 for 501-600 units and Rf3.85 for all units above 601. A different tariff was announced for businesses, government offices and other places.

STELCO said that they had considered the expenses of the company when formulating the new tariffs. The new tariff for small and medium businesses was formulated in a way that they wouldn’t have to raise prices of their products, STELCO officials said, adding that the Energy Authority was also consulted.

In addition to the increase in electricity fees, STELCO will also introduce a fuel surcharge, effective 1 November 2009. However, the STELCO officials said that the surcharge would only be levied if the price of a litre of diesel in Malé market went higher than Rf8. Rf0.03 per unit of electricity will be charged as a fuel surcharge for every Rf0.10 increased from a diesel litre.

Similar Images feature emerges from Google Labs

Google Labs has been putting together some great new search technology lately. They just introduced Social Search, and now the Similar Images feature has graduated from Labs and become a permanent part of Google Image Search. When you search for an image, you’ll see “find similar images” links below most of the results: clicking it gives you a pretty accurate collection of images of the same subject.

I tested out similar images on some easy stuff (umbrellas) and some tougher stuff (celebrities), and found that it worked really well. Similar Images is good at matching backgrounds, and even manages to find similarly-posed photos if you’re searching for an animal or a person. It obviously doesn’t do as well when the subject is obscure or abstract, or there aren’t a lot of photos of it in the database. In cases like that, it’ll be more likely to match your image’s color scheme than to find a picture of the same person or thing.

Similar Images isn’t made to find identical images hosted on different sites. If you’re trying to determine where an image came from, try putting it into TinEye instead.

How to Stream Your Music Online

You’ve spent a lot of time and money collecting digital music. And by now, you have a pretty sweet library of MP3s and AACs to show for the effort.

But let’s say you want to take that library to go? Before you start carrying around a huge hard drive, you might want to try streaming your tunes online instead. All it takes to start streaming your music over the internet is a playlist, a server with some storage space, and a software player that can open and play an internet stream.

Programs That Can Make Your Computer Run Faster

It’s a common problem among computer users: after a few months, our computers become weighed down by programs and all sorts of other junk, and inevitably become sluggish. For the less tech-savvy users, this may induce thoughts like “Why is my computer so terrible?” or “I guess I could always upgrade this… what-cha-ma-callit RAM thing”.

Regular maintenance is usually required to keep a computer optimized and running at its best. Here are four programs that will make your computer faster, and four trade-offs to help make the best use out of the amount of RAM that’s installed on your computer.

Scientist: Maldives sea level is not rising

The Maldivian cabinet held a meeting underwater to highlight the need for action on climate change

The president of the Maldives captured the media’s attention last week when he held a cabinet meeting underwater claiming that his island-nation faces disaster from rising sea-levels attributed to man-made global warming.  But Nils-Axel Mörner, a sea-level expert from Sweden, wrote to the president explaining that he has nothing to worry about in the following letter:

Solid Alliance’s ‘Crazy Earphones’ Are Just That

A new line of earbuds from Solid Alliance has drawn attention for its, shall we say, less than palatable designs, and as a public service to our readers, we would like to agree with all the haters. Beauty may reside in the eye of the beholder, but so does ugly.

The increasingly derided and aptly named Crazy Earphones line consists of four truly dumbfounding designs: sushi roll, banana, cat paw, and Frankenstein bolt. (And they’re only $22, or ¥2,000, a pair!) The kitty paw and Frankenstein ‘buds may appeal to a certain consumer, but sushi? Ripened bananas? We have a sneaking suspicion that whatever niche market Solid Alliance was attempting to target is nonexistent. Or, at best, still too small to cover production costs.

Google Maps gets a facelift, now easier to read

If nobody told you, you might not even notice it, but the team at Google Maps just introduced some subtle visual improvements that make their maps easier to read. Worldwide changes include narrower roads, better contrast between text and the rest of the map, and colors that don’t conflict with traffic and other overlays. You’ll also start to see road detail at a slightly more distant zoom level. In short, the map view just became more like the hybrid map-satellite view.

350*24 Dive in Maldives

350 dive rally Began at Friday’s night at 00:00 hrs in the capital city of Male’, Maldives and continues 24 hours. The event was held at the lagoon in front of Presidential Office. More than 350 scuba divers took part in this event including local divers and foreign expatriate divers.

How to Moonwalk Like MJ

Step 1

Keep left leg bent with heel planted. Put your weight on that leg.

Step 2

Slide right leg backward by pulling from the hips, keeping that knee locked and that foot flat on the ground. Swing left arm forward at the same time.

Step 3

When right leg is behind you, shift your weight onto it while bending right knee and lifting right heel. Straighten left leg, then pull it backward from the hip. Meanwhile, swing right arm forward.

Step 4

Repeat. Grab crotch (optional). Exclaim: “You’ve been struck by a smooth criminal! Hooo!” (not optional).

Michael Jackson’s new song released

A previously unreleased song by Michael Jackson entitled “This Is It” was unveiled to the world almost four months after the star’s death.

The track was released at the stroke of midnight at http://www.MichaelJackson.com, marking “yet another exciting moment in music history for one of the world’s most revered artists,” Sony Music Entertainment said in a statement.

The recording features backing vocals by Michael’s brothers and will be played during the closing sequence of the forthcoming film “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” and feature on a two-disc CD set of the same name.

A new photo of Jackson taken during rehearsals at the Staples Center in Los Angeles will also be unveiled, the record label said.

The album will go on sale later this month to coincide with the worldwide release of the movie on October 28.

Disc one of the album features some of Jackson’s biggest hits such as “Billie Jean,” “Smooth Criminal,” “Human Nature,” and “Thriller” arranged in the same sequence as they appear in the film.

The disc ends with two versions of “This Is It,” the original and an orchestral one.

Disc two offers fans the early demo versions of classics “She’s Out Of My Life,” “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” and “Beat It.” It also features a recently discovered spoken word poem by Jackson entitled “Planet Earth.”

The film will offers a behind-the-scenes look at the performer as he rehearsed for his sold-out concerts that would have taken place this year in London, Sony said.

Chronicling the months from March through June 2009, the film is drawn from more than one hundred hours of behind-the-scenes footage, featuring Jackson rehearsing a number of his songs for the show.

Jackson died on June 25 at age 50 after taking a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs.

Los Angeles coroners say Jackson’s death is being treated as a homicide, but prosecutors have not filed charges so far.

Diving gears and suits used in World first underwater Cabinet meeting is on eBay

Gears and suits of all cabinet members including President Mohamed Nasheed’s kit. The prize of each kit starts from $2,500. The event held in Maldives to bring Attention to Climate Change was a very successful event.

Diving Gear and suit of President Mohammed Nasheed on eBay

Cockroaches Use Earth’s Magnetic Field to Steer

Just as birds guide their migratory journeys by sensing Earth’s magnetic field, so do cockroaches use geomagnetic detection as they scurry across your kitchen floor.

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To reveal the mechanisms of cockroach navigation, Czech researchers first placed roaches inside an artificial magnetic field. As they rotated the field, the cockroaches followed.

In itself, this wasn’t surprising: Scientists know that cockroaches, like many insects, can detect magnetic fields. But they weren’t sure if cockroaches have “mapping” cells in which minute variations in Earth’s geomagnetic field cause pairs of quantum-entangled electrons to spin in different ways, or “compass” cells in which embedded iron particles respond to geomagnetic tugs.

When the researchers flooded the roaches with radio waves known to disrupt electron-paired compass cells, the cockroaches no longer followed the turning field. They apparently use a map to steer. And as cockroaches have been around for 350 million years, the mapping system could be widespread in the insect world.

“Insects may be equipped with the same magnetoreception as the birds,” wrote the researchers in a paper published Friday in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

As for why cockroaches need such sophisticated magnetoreception, that remains a mystery. But at least one explanation can, unfortunately, be ruled out: They don’t use their map to go south for the winter.

How to access Your Computer Remotely

Afraid you’ll be bored on up coming holidays? Nervous about seven mind-numbing days on Nantucket? Thanks to virtual network computing, you can access your home machine from anywhere.

Step 1. PC users: If you are running WinXP Home, you can use Microsoft’s Remote Desktop software or install a free VNC server like TightVNC. WinXP Pro and Windows Vista or later have Remote Desktop Connection built into it. Simply right-click on “My Computer”, select “Properties” and click on the “Remote” tab. Check the box to enable remote access.
Mac OS X users: Macs have a remote screen sharing program built in. If you want to share your Windows desktop from your Mac, download Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Connection software for Mac OS X.

Step 2. Sign up for a domain name service like DynDNS, which lets you assign an easy-to-remember name (adrienne.is-a-geek .net, for example) to your home connection’s ever-changing IP address. For in-depth instructions, see our article Set Up Dynamic DNS.

Step 3. Configure port forwarding on your home router to allow remote access. Check your router’s user manual for directions, or visit your router’s page on portforward.com for specific instructions. Don’t have a router? Try a web-based app like LogMeIn. Note: the default port for Remote Desktop on Windows XP is 3389.

Step 4. If you don’t want to use the operating system’s remote desktop software (mentioned in Step 1), install a VNC viewer on the remote machine instead. For Macs, try JollysFastVNC. For PCs, TightVNC’s viewer component is good. Now simply enter your home computer’s domain name and you’re in!

Step 5. Remember: VNC isn’t secure. If you’re worried about eavesdroppers, ask someone even geekier than us to help you set up an encrypted SSH tunnel. Doug Bowman has an informative article about setting up SSHTM on a Mac. We recommend running your remote desktop through a non-standard port and pick solid passwords. Beware: there are bots that try common usernames and passwords on public IP addresses.

Using a Linux operating system

If you have a shell account on an internet accessible server somewhere (your web server perhaps), you can make a script to keep your home computer logged in via SSH. Log into the server, run ‘w’ to see logged in users, note your home computers IP address. Now SSH to your home computer and you can share its command line. Alternatively, installing a VNC using the steps above allows you to see your Linux desktop, but could unnecessarily chew bandwidth.

In the Future

Sure Microsoft and Apple are providing software that make it easy to share your desktop over the internet, but the future might make your computer even more portable. Netbooks, tablets, mobile phones, even e-books mean bringing a computer with you.

It may not seem like much at first, but you would be surprised what you can do with a keyboard and a browser. Besides, advances in computing power on small devices are rapidly approaching where we were only a few years ago. And this technology is really just around the corner! Perhaps the future of accessing your computer on-the-go depends less on where your computer is and more on where you want to plug it in. Why hasn’t Intel gotten into the computer building business the chips are great, but I say they should build thier own and drop the middlemen.

This is almost irrelevant with smartphones. You can do just about anything on an iPhone. The only thing computer now do that smartphones don’t are larger picture screens.

Wiki

Raul has night to remember, Barca held

Record-breaking Real Madrid striker Raul helped Los Blancos return to winning ways with a brace in a hard-fought 4-2 victory over Real Valladolid in the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu.

Raul celebrates one of his two goals with team-mate Esteban Granero

Raul had been presented with a trophy by Madrid president Florentino Perez just prior to kick-off for breaking Manuel Sanchis’ club record of official appearances for the Spanish giants, and he marked the occasion with two more goals.

The veteran forward, who is also Madrid’s all-time leading goalscorer, struck twice in the opening 18 minutes and Marcelo added a third before the break after Nauzet Aleman had scored a great freekick for the visitors.

Marquitos put Valladolid back in the game again early in the second half and they grew in confidence until Argentine substitute Gonzalo Higuain lobbed Valladolid goalkeeper Jacobo in a one-on-one 11 minutes from time.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side, who were without injured forward Cristiano Ronaldo, had suffered their first defeat of the campaign away to Sevilla last time out and never really impressed against their 17th-placed opponents.

Barcelona saw their Primera Liga lead cut to a solitary point by Madrid as they were held to a goalless draw by Valencia at the Mestalla – and they will be relieved to have escaped with that result.

Pablo Hernandez went close from his own half and strike partner Juan Mata missed a host of chances, while David Silva was denied by Victor Valdes from the best opportunity of the match.

“Valencia have very good players and a very good coach and caused us a lot of problems,” Barca coach Pep Guardiola told reporters. “We have to be happy with the point.”

Rodriguez Pedrito and Yaya Toure threatened for Barca, but they will be happy to take a share of the spoils and remain a point ahead of arch-rivals Madrid,

Juan Rodriguez’s spectacular strike gave Deportivo Coruna a surprise 1-0 home win over Sevilla.

Manolo Jimenez’s Sevilla had won five matches in a row since losing at Valencia on the opening day and many consider them to be a good outside bet for the title following their impressive 2-1 win over Real Madrid prior to the international break.

But Rodriguez lashed in a shot from well outside the area in the 38th minute, and Deportivo’s well-organised defence kept the visitors at bay to make it 15 points from seven games for the Galicians.

Spooklight Gives Your Bike Wireless Brake Light, Turns Signals

Being that most of us here at Switched are based in New York City, and that we’re all poorly paid bloggers, it should come as no surprise that we often rely on pedal power to get around. Considering that, it goes without saying that we enjoy combining our love of gadgets with our two-wheeled transport.

So we’re jazzed about the Spooklight, a bicycle taillight that, at least on paper, sounds well worth its slightly absurd £55 ($88) asking price. First off, it has blinkers — no more raising your arms to signal that you’re turning, only to have motorists ignore you anyway. Even better, the blinkers are controlled by a wireless, touch-sensitive panel you can attach to your handlebars — no more wires to get in your way or unresponsive buttons to mash. The Spooklight even steals a little mojo from the world of smartphones with an accelerometer that can detect when your momentum slows and accordingly activate a brake light.

We’d be pretty impressed if it stopped there, but wait! There’s more… unlike most other bicycle lights, the Spooklight is powered by a rechargeable Lithium-Ion pack (instead of disposable alkalines). Plus, instead of relying on a bulky AC adapter, it can plug right into your computer’s USB port to charge. Even more amazingly (if you don’t mind shaving time off its supposed 60-hour battery life), you can plug the Spooklight into your gadgets (an iPhone, for instance) to keep them charged.

The package is pretty neat, but there are two problems. First, we’re not willing to pay almost $90 for a bike light. Also, we can’t help but think that drivers and other cyclists aren’t accustomed to looking for blinkers or brake lights on a bike. If those suspicions are right, the Spooklight wouldn’t actually make us any safer, and make us more like those annoying four-wheeled atrocities that hog the road (We mean cars, by the way). [From: Wired and 50cycles]