MIT has developed a new Quantum Computer with 5 atoms. Yes you read it right, “5 Atoms”. Before venturing to the prophecy of the impending doom due to the obsolesce  of encryption, here is a link that might help you understand what a quantum computer is.
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/quantum-computer.htm

With the concept of “Qubits” which can  simultaneously be both “HIGH” and “LOW”, which greatly reduces the number of  “Clock cycles” or “Time” required for performing an operation like calculating the Prime-Factor which is the basis of all encryption. It typically takes about 12 qubits to factor the number 15, but researchers at MIT and the University of Innsbruck in Austria have found a way to pare that down to five qubits, each represented by a single atom, they said this week.
Construction:
Using laser pulses to keep the quantum system stable by holding the atoms in an ion trap, the new system promises scalability as well, as more atoms and lasers can be added to build a bigger and faster quantum computer able to factor much larger numbers. That, in turn, presents new risks for factorization-based methods such as RSA, used for protecting credit cards, state secrets and other confidential data.
The development is in many ways touted to be an answer to a challenge posed way back in 1994, when MIT professor Peter Shor came up with a quantum algorithm that calculates the prime factors of a large number with much better efficiency than a classical computer. Fifteen is the smallest number that can meaningfully demonstrate Shor’s algorithm. Without any prior knowledge of the answers, the new system returned the correct factors with a confidence better than 99 percent.
From the Researchers:
“We show that Shor’s algorithm, the most complex quantum algorithm known to date, is realizable in a way where, yes, all you have to do is go in the lab, apply more technology, and you should be able to make a bigger quantum computer,” said Isaac Chuang, professor of physics and professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. “It might still cost an enormous amount of money to build — you won’t be building a quantum computer and putting it on your desktop anytime soon — but now it’s much more an engineering effort, and not a basic physics question,” Chuang added.
The results of the new work were published Friday in the journal Science.
This is a really interesting development. Let us await how this progresses.
 

It Seems NASA has reached an important milestone for the next U.S. transportation system that will carry humans into Near-deep space. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced that the system will be based on designs originally planned for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. Those plans now will be used to develop a new spacecraft known as the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV).
“We are committed to human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and look forward to developing the next generation of systems to take us there,” Bolden said.

“The NASA Authorization Act lays out a clear path forward for us by handing off transportation to the International Space Station to our private sector partners, so we can focus on deep space exploration. As we aggressively continue our work on a heavy lift launch vehicle, we are moving forward with an existing contract to keep development of our new crew vehicle on track.”

Lockheed Martin Corp. will continue working to develop the MPCV. The spacecraft will carry four astronauts for 21-day missions and be able to land in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast. The spacecraft will have a pressurized volume of 690 cubic feet, with 316 cubic feet of habitable space.

It is designed to be 10 times safer during ascent and entry than its predecessor, the space shuttle.

“This selection does not indicate a business as usual mentality for NASA programs,” said Douglas Cooke, associate administrator for the agency’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in Washington.

“The Orion government and industry team has shown exceptional creativity in finding ways to keep costs down through management techniques, technical solutions and innovation.”

You may be one of the best IT consultants in town, but if no one knows about you, it’s impossible to ever be successful. So how exactly do you build a reputation?

The obvious (and most simplistic) answer is to do good work. You should also: be honest and responsible; solve actual problems instead of imagined ones; look out for your client’s best interests; and complete each job. Every time you follow these basic tenets of being a good IT consultant, your reputation improves.

As the Billie Holiday song “God Bless The Child” goes, them that’s got shall get — but what if you’re one of them that’s not? Here are six strategies that can give your IT consulting career a leg up.
#1: Word of mouth

Most of my clients learned about me by word of mouth; this is the oldest and, in my opinion, the most effective channel. Think about all the people who know about your abilities: former employers, former coworkers, classmates from college, and current and former clients. Ask some of them if they’ll give you a recommendation, or if they know anyone who is looking for an IT consultant. (Do not cold call or spam people you don’t know, or send uninvited copies of your resume without a recommendation from someone the client already knows. It’s a waste of time.)
#2: Specialize

A number of readers of the TechRepublic IT Consultant blog consider themselves “jacks-of-all-trades,” but the continuation of that saying holds a lot of truth: “master of none.” You may cultivate a reputation for being the go-to guy or gal to fix any problem that comes up, but you can only take that role so far. To really drive up your demand, become an expert in one specific area. You should select a topic/field that you’re passionate about because you need to immerse yourself in it day and night. Ideally, you want to know practically everything you can about the topic and be able to contribute your innovations, while maintaining a good general knowledge of all related fields.
#3: Web site

You must have an Internet presence — you’re in IT for crying out loud. When potential clients search online to find authoritative help, you want them to be able to find you. Web sites that are updated frequently (such as blogs) tend to get a better search engine ranking. Blogs are great for another reason: You can establish a level of authority on a specific topic by researching and frequently writing about it. If people who are considered authorities in your field start linking to you, this enhances your authority.
#4: Conversation

Read blogs and forums that discuss your specialty (and related topics) and comment frequently. Link to them from your blog, and make sure you pingback or trackback so that your thoughts get included in the conversation. The more you think about and discuss your specialty with others in the field, you’ll build a better reputation — and rightly so, because you will have learned a lot in the process.
#5: Free samples

If you really want to convince people of your worth, post examples of your work on your Web site. This doesn’t apply very well to networking or security consultants, but it really works for software. If people learn something from your site, and they use it, like it, and marvel at the simple elegance of its design, they’ll probably want to hire you for related projects in the future.
#6: Insider

The ultimate level of reputation you can achieve is to be the person who helped create the technology the client wants to use. While this may disqualify some potential clients because they can’t afford your price, it’s a nice problem to have. Believe me, there will be plenty of other clients who can’t get enough of you. Insider status used to be extremely difficult to achieve in packaged software — it still is for proprietary software, where you basically have to be an employee or a long-term contractor to gain that experience. If you get involved in an open-source project, you can easily become an insider on one of the products that drive development these days. Pick your product well, though, because you’ll be spending a lot of time working with it.

Well, I was little busy with real world issues and cannot blog for some time now, to add insult to the injury, My hosting company made a terrible mistake and misplaced my domain renewal agreement and as a result the site was offline for more than 5 days!!

I am some pro!

Ok back to the matter at hand, I was mindlessly going thru the cnet RSS feed(or was it atom??) and came across this piece An end to the Google bonus fairytale?

Gosh, I’ve known friends in google India make more than $5000 in annual bonus, now people working in BAy area to get a mobile phone for Bonus…

That will be some day, huh…This surely is an economic meltdown…

The article follows.

For Googlers eagerly awaiting their famous holiday bonuses, be warned: Santa is tightening his belt too.

Google employees, some of whom have reportedly grown used to fairytale-like cash bonuses on the north side of $20,000, apparently got coal in their stockings this year. Certainly that’s the takeaway for gossip blog Valleywag, which in a headline likened this year’s bonus to “dogfood”–a euphemism for in-house testing–because Google would like some feedback.

So how bad was it? Well, Google gave its employees a smartphone. Yep, can you believe it? Man, if I had a nickel for all the years my bosses gave me a smartphone…

But I digress. Back to Google’s gift. Apparently, Valleywag took issue with Google giving its employees an Android–its own phone! Well, actually, the memo that Valleywag reprinted referred to it as a “Dream phone.” It’s basically the T-Mobile G1 that retails for $179.99, but it’s been customized to “work anywhere in the world” on the carrier of their choice. (Google estimates its value at $400.)

The nerve!

Here, in the real world, while many in the tech industry have received pink slips, Google employees are receiving a gift–oh, yeah, it is a gift–that many people would love to find under their trees. What a bummer, man. As far as the dogfooding goes, I am guessing that this company that has a reputation for being astoundingly generous when economic realities were more positive isn’t going to can employees for not sending back the questionnaire.

Now, back to the topic of Santa…

“Two years ago, illegal use of professionally created video was rampant on the Web, particularly on video sharing sites such as YouTube. Among those most visibly undercut were NBC Universal and Viacom, which filed a $1 billion suit against YouTube parent Google to stop illicit publishing of their content.”

Now, a year after YouTube introduced its Video Identification tool to stem misuse, there seems to be a considerable decrease in the illicit videos online.

For more details, head to TechRepublic and see & hear Rick Cotton, the general counsel for NBC, on how automated systems for identifying and protecting professionally produced content are working, particularly at YouTube.

India’s first unmanned moon mission entered lunar space early Tuesday as part of its final journey this week into the moon’s orbit, a top space official said.

The Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was launched with an Indian-built rocket on October 22 from the country’s southeastern coast.

“The operation to put Chandrayaan into lunar space went off very well,” S. Satish, director of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told AFP.

The spacecraft is now 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) from the moon, enabling its terrain-mapping camera to shoot pictures of it.

Scientists are preparing for the next major stage to enable the spacecraft to enter lunar orbit on Saturday and position itself about 100 kilometres from the moon’s surface.

Once the mission is in the lunar orbit, it will stabilise in about a week, after which it will send a probe instrument to the moon’s surface.

Chandrayaan carries 11 payloads — five from India and others from abroad.

During a two-year orbital mission, it will provide a detailed map of the mineral, chemical and topographical characteristics of the moon’s surface.

The mission will cost India 80 million dollars.