Archive for September, 2008

Chardrayaan-1 is the first Indian Mission to the Moon by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) devoted to high-resolution remote sensing of the lunar surface features in visible, near infrared, X-ray and low energy gamma ray regions.

Chandrayaan mission is seen as major step in acknowledging India’s existence in space.

Mission Objectives

• Carry out high resolution mapping of topographic features in 3D, distribution of various minerals and elemental chemical species including radioactive nuclides covering the entire lunar surface using a set of remote sensing payloads. The new set of data would help in unravelling mysteries about the origin and evolution of solar system in general and that of the moon in particular.
• Realize the mission goal of harnessing the science payloads, lunar craft and the launch vehicle with suitable ground support system including DSN station, integration and testing, launching and achieving lunar orbit of ~100 km, in-orbit operation of experiments, communication/telecommand, telemetry data reception, quick look data and archival for scientific utilization by identified group of scientists.

[ ISRO - INDIA ]

Over the years, the world has been witness to many an irresponsible management policy and greed that wreaked havoc on ’super’ companies that folded up. In the process, billions of dollars — both investors’ money and employees’ pension — went down the drain.

Here is the list of Top 10 America’s largest bankruptcies listed in Rediff.com

1. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc - $639 billion [September 15, 2008 ]
2. Worldcom Inc - $103.91 billion [July 21, 2002 ]
3. Enron Corp - $63.39 billion [December 2, 2001 ]
4. Conseco Inc - $61.39 billion [December 18, 2002]
5. Texaco Inc - $35.89 billion [April 12, 1987]
6. Financial Corp of America - $33.86 billion [September 9, 1988 ]
7. Refco Inc - $33.33 billion; [Oct. 17, 2005 ]
8. Global Crossing Ltd - $30.19 billion [ January 28, 2002 ]
9. Pacific Gas and Electric Co - $29.77 billion [April 6, 2001]
10. UAL Corp - $25.2 billion [ December 9, 2002]

[ America’s largest bankruptcies ]

Amazon.com launched a new on-demand TV service that lets customers watch shows and find cast interviews for about 500 TV shows. it is According to the company, launching 500 new stores specifically dedicated to TV shows like Battlestar Galactica, Family Guy, and Supernatural.

The 500 new online stores launched by Amazon.com are each dedicated to a different customer-favorite TV series, providing everything from cast interviews to VOD viewing in one targeted destination.

[ Amazon.com launches new TV store ]

I have been using GIMP for a while now. Since I don’t wanted to pay for photoshop, I was looking for free Image Manipulation software which is comparable to photoshop and foind GIMP.

Basically, GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.

It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.

You can download and use GIMP from http://www.gimp.org/