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Tuesday, February 8, 2011

This X-Ray Is a Billion Times Brighter Than Any Before It. Can It Reveal the Secrets of Viruses?

While conducting research, scientists have never been able to capture accurate image of a virus' insides without freezing or slicing it open. With the introduction of the Linac Coherent Light Source, an X-ray free-electron laser which is a billion times brighter than any previous X-ray source, that all changes. Now they can look at viruses while they're in action, opening up all sorts of possibilities for future research.
According to Gizmag, the LCLS, which is powerful enough to blast through steel, only emits a beam for a "few millionths of a billionth" of a second, and destroys whatever it is imaging in the process of capturing said image. But it's allowing researchers to see things they've never seen before in the process.
Scientists sprayed live mimivirus particles in non-crystalized form into the LCLSbeam, and got two images showing the external shell of the viruses, along with their insides, which a team of Stanford researchers are trying to determine if the virus core contains genetic material or not. They believe this breakthrough will help them acquire video of moving viruses and microbes, and "revolutionize the study of life."

How Long It Takes Hackers to Crack Your Password

BusinessWeek says a 6 character password (just letters) can be cracked in just 10 minutes while a 9 character password complete with letters, uppercase, numbers and symbols will take 44,530 years to crack. Take a look at the image to see other comparisons, the first column describes your password, the other columns show you how long the hackers need to hack your password.
There’s a reason some sites ask for, or require, a password that contains both letters and numbers. The first column describes passwords. The other columns tell you how long it takes a hacker to figure them out. Don’t make it easy for someone to figure yours out.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Canon Rebel T3i / EOS 600D

Inch by inch, model by model, Canon is slowly dragging the DSLR toward its destiny: a full-fledged photo-video hybrid camera. We're not there yet, but the $800 T3i brings shooters a bit closer with a video-centric swivel out screen.
Canon Rebel T3i / EOS 600D – key features:

18-megapixel CMOS sensor
Scene Intelligent Auto mode
Full-HD EOS Movie
On-screen Feature Guide
3.7fps continuous shooting
Wide-area 9-point AF
1,040k-dot vari-angle 7.7cm (3.0”) screen
Basic+ and Creative Filters
Built-in wireless flash control

Capture stunning detail with EOS movie
Capture your memories in superb clarity with Full HD (1080p) movie mode, while a dedicated movie shooting mode means you can switch between stills and HD video instantly. You can also reach distant subjects using new Movie Digital Zoom function, which crops the centre of the sensor from 3x to 10x while still maintaining Full HD quality – great for capturing wildlife on a safari holiday.

Enabling you to capture more engaging videos, Video Snapshot mode shoots video in two, four, or eight second segments, creating clips that are short, easy to edit and of similar lengths to clips used in most TV programmes. As they are recorded, the clips are saved to a Video Snapshot Album and combined into one movie. A soundtrack can be added by choosing from tracks uploaded to the camera and the result viewed on the camera’s LCD, or on an HDTV via the built-in mini HDMI connection.

Great for shooting pets, children or wildlife, the EOS 600D allows high-speed shooting at 3.7 frames per second (fps), enabling you to capture fast-moving action. Each shot will be captured in sharp detail thanks to the 9-point Auto Focus system, which can track subjects using the auto focus points across the frame.Visit for full review
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canoneos600d/