When any human being is in loss, he or she undergoes the following phases in the order mentioned below:

- Denial
- Protest
- Despair
- Detachment
- Reorganization

Listening helps to know others and yourself.

Following is the formula one can apply to be good listener :

S - Sit in front
O - Open yourself
L - Lean forward
E - Eye Contact
R - Relax

'Face' phone helps hearing impaired

Synface software has been created to help hearing impaired people make use of widely used media of communication - telephone.

The software will make use of automatic speech recognition technology and will display an animated head "speaking" the words being said over the telephone. It "listens" to what is being said then displays it in real-time in a "virtual face" on a laptop screen. This way the software enables the listener to lip-read what was being said, just as they would in face-to-face conversation.

Research into the concept began three and a half years ago and the initiative is a joint effort between University College London (UCL) and research groups in The Netherlands, Sweden and the UK, including the charity the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID).

For more detail news on this, please visit http://www.khattam.com/enews/




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Indo-Nepal rail link to be active by 2004

On November 7th, 2003, India and Nepal agreed to run trains on a 5.3-km (3.3-mile) track between Sirsiya, a dry port in Nepal and the Indian town of Raxaul, from where trains can travel to Kolkata. The $10 million dry port was built with the help of World Bank three years ago at Sirsiya, near the business hub of Birjung, close to the border with India.

The rough estimation by Nepal's commerce ministry states that the trains will complete the 800-km (500-mile) journey in 36 hours against six days by road and reduce transport costs by $16.2 million a year. Apparently the agreement will not only save time but also greatly reduce transit problems and boost the trade in Nepal.

The first train would roll into Nepal by March 2004 after a private India-Nepal joint venture company takes over the management of the dry port, Purushottam Ojha, joint secretary in Nepal's commerce ministry, said.

For more detail news on this, please visit http://www.khattam.com/enews/

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Honda cars to offer pre-crash radar braking

Honda Motor Co. has developed a new computerized radar system that warns drivers of an impending crash with slight braking and a tweaking of the seat belt.

Honda's system works even before the driver responds unlike Toyota's system where the system would not go on until the driver first steps on the brakes.

In Honda, the radar is placed in the front of the car stashed behind the "H" logo which detects vehicles within a range of about 100 meters (300 feet) ahead. The system initially pulls on the seat belt and brakes slightly to warn the driver. A buzzer also goes off and a small light flashes on the dashboard.

If the driver steps on the brakes, another system kicks in to strengthen the power of the brakes. If the driver fails to respond, the car brakes more and tightens the seat belt further to soften the blow of the crash.


This intelligent and beautiful "collision mitigation brake system'' will be offered on the most expensive model of the new Inspire sedan that goes on sale for 3.5 million yen (US$30,000) in Japan Thursday, Honda officials said Wednesday.



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Broadband through power lines soon

Pals, Tech guys are working hard to get you Broadband through power lines. After struggling for years, companies have overcome technical hurdles such as interference on the power lines and getting around electrical transformers that block broadband signals. Using fibre-optic line, the internet signal will be injected into power line after it has left power station. The signal then moves to neighborhoods, using equipment on power poles to leapfrog transformers and flow into homes. The technology will use the existing eletrical wiring at home (The wiring in the test home is more than 40 years old). The only extra equipment a consumer needs is a modem that plugs into an electric outlet and connects to a computer or Internet gadget. This equipments sizes not bigger than a deck of card and costs less than $70.



The testing of the technology is being conducted by Current Technologies, a company based in Germantown, Maryland in association with Potomac Electric Power Co.. The test covers about 70 homes in Maryland. Recently Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell visited the test house to get a preview of the technology. He loved the same and preferred to have the service in his home also. The only concern of FCC is that Internet transmissions carried over power lines could emit signals inside and outside the home that cause interference.



The tech is on the card for near future. Just keep the fingers crossed for this possibly cheap and better way of getting access to NET.




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Yahoo! preparing to compete its business partner Google

Yahoo! has announced the improvements in its search engine in attempt to compete against the most popular search engine on the web - Google - leaving the world with speculation that Yahoo! will want to end its nearly three years relationship with Google. Yahoo! played a vital role in the success of Google. Not only it encouraged Google to create its search engine but also provided boost in later's profile by licensing Google's software to run the searches on its popular online portal. Today, Yahoo!'s searches are powered by Google technology. However, with its tremendous success, Google has intered in the area of other services like news and shopping pages, that traverse Yahoo's turf. As the first step towards the preparation for the competition, Yahoo! acquired Google rival Inktomi last month for $279.5 million and it has a plan to implement the later's tool in its search engine this year end.



Great start by Yahoo! ,however; its not going to be easy task to topple Google that has become synonymous with online searching in every part of this world.




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