Technology – Page 2 – Adnan's Den

Success of a Bangladeshi Scientist

A year after opening Coppin State University’s first nano technology research center, a Bangladeshi scientist and his research team are making history for simulating the most efficient solar energy cells in the world. Dr. Jamal Uddin, a Bangladeshi scientist, who is also a professor at Coppin State University, have modeled nearly four percent more efficient solar cells than Spectrolab, with his five undergraduate student researchers. Before his innovation, Spectrolab held the title for most cells simulated since 2006.

Dr. Jamal Uddin, Coppin State University

Coppin’s research includes creating cells that act as rechargeable batteries for night vision goggles used by soldiers at war. As of today, Coppin’s group has simulated 43.4 percent of solar cells for reusable energy. Dr. Uddin mentioned that his team utilized the metaphysics software COMSOL and the online software program PC1D to break the world record. He also said,

It is really fantastic and encouraging for our university to achieve such exciting results. It was a surprising discovery and now we are excited to proceed with further research in nanotechnology

Dr. Jamal Uddin and five additional student researchers will continue nanotech simulation with the hope of manipulating 50 percent of solar cells by December 2010. The university’s one-year-old Nanotechnology Research Center is a product of the $89,000 Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) grant the school received July 2009. On Tuesday, October 26, 2010, the Coppin research team will present their findings to renowned nanotech scientists, scholars and visitors in the army research lab at Fort Detrick, Maryland.

Dr. Jamal Uddin completed his M.Sc. in Chemistry from Dhaka University, Bangladesh and achieved his Ph.D from Osaka University, Japan.

The above information is taken from the press release of Coppin State University.
Official website of Dr. Jamal Uddin.

Lucid Lynx: Mockup

Well… Everybody in the Ubuntu world is pretty much excited about the new design of upcoming Lucid Lynx. Lots of discussion is going on. Some says the new design is pretty Macish, some are in opposition of putting the maximize-minimize-close buttons in the left corner, some says the button chronology should be in a way so that the close button should be in the either corners, and so on. Lots of propositions are taking places. So why shouldn’t I propose something? Who knows, may be Canonical will find something important from my design! (If they dare to choose mine 😀 )

Here goes my (insane!) proposal. Look at the following window of newly designed Lucid Lynx.

I’ve just put the maximize-minimize-close buttons at the bottom! Well, Mac has their button at the upper left and Windows has in the upper right. So by following on of the architecture implies that Ubuntu doesn’t have anything of its own! Here goes the identity of Ubuntu. Again in case of usability, when we scroll the window, it is always in the direction of top to bottom. So When we reach at the bottom, we move our cursor again to the top to close (or maximize or minimize) the window. Isn’t it be easier to perform those tasks by not moving the cursor to a 180 degree opposite direction? I think so. And it would be a pretty easy method to perform those tasks. Though it needs some practice.

At the upper left corner a logo of the program can be placed, and the title can be placed at the centre of title bar. May be a click on the logo will show a text menu of maximize-minimize-close-move-etc.

So what do you think? Don’t hesitate to tell me, How insane is this design! 😉

Are you an open source user? Then you are a pirate!

I’ve just read an interesting article in the Guardian, which states that a US lobby group is trying to get the US government to consider open source as the equivalent to piracy. That means, to that well suited “moron” group, the open source free community is actually a large group of pirates!

Countries like Indonesia, Brazil and India is asked to be considered for the “Special 301 watchlist” by International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), because they use open source software. So what on earth is “Special 301“? According to Guardian’s Bobbie Johnson it is:

a report that examines the ‘adequacy and effectiveness of intellectual property rights’ around the planet – effectively the list of countries that the US government considers enemies of capitalism. It often gets wheeled out as a form of trading pressure – often around pharmaceuticals and counterfeited goods – to try and force governments to change their behaviours.

Continue reading Are you an open source user? Then you are a pirate!

Avro is in Linux!

Probably the most popular Bangla writing software Avro Phonetic is now available for Ubntu. For a long time, many linux users of Bangladesh were expecting this great news. Though there is a semi-phonetic writing tool in Ubuntu named Probhat, but still that is not considered as complete replacement of Avro.

Scim-avro, the open source edition of Avro Phonetic typing system in Linux, works as an IMEngine (plug-in) of scim (Smart Common Input Method). Scim is delivered now a day with most of the major Linux distributions, so the installation is really simple. Upto now the binary package only for Ubuntu 9.04 (32 bit) desktop edition is released. Within a very short time the source code will be available, so that you can compile it in any Linux distribution you are using.

The installation is really simple. And right now I am using it in my laptop. And it works fine except some minor bugs. But keep in mind that it is still in beta. So the final edition will be error free.

For more information please visit here.

Introducing "BD Bloggerz"

I’ve recently develop a site where all the blogs from Bangladeshi bloggers will be listed. Mainly for last few days I’ve searched the web for a blog directory where all the Bangladeshi blogs but I didnot find any. Actually I found one in 3rd World’s View. I wanted to make a complete directory where any one can find any Bangladeshi blog in a simple and easy way. And here comes BD Bloggerz.

I’ve listed as many blogs as I could, but for listing all the blogs I need the help of all the Bangladeshi bloggers. It is a open request to all – please make post in your blog about this site and please inform others by any means, it may be by email or forum posts.

Save the Google Page Creator

It is really a shocking news that Google is going to collapse it’s Google Page Creator (GPC). Instead of GPC they are introducing Google Sites (GS). I’ve noticed it recently. I couldn’t resist my surprise at this news. GPC is a simple way to create web pages without knowing HTML. GPC’s rich text editor is now included in many other Google services, but Google decided to focus on the more powerful GS. Google doesn’t allow new users to sign up for GPC. While current users are still able to use the services of GPC, new users are being directed to its sister site, Google Sites. Google is expected to move all Page Creator content to Google Pages later in the year.

Google Sites is almost similar to GPC. I said ‘almost’ because it doesn’t allow users to upload any HTML file. Which means users have to pick the websites’ look from GS’s default template; users don’t have any privilege to set their own HTML pages. It is a bad news for me, because all of my GPC sites are using their own HTML files not GPC’s default one. Though Google said that they will shift all the files, images and web pages stored in GPC to Google Sites later this year, this may be a concern for some as it will lead to broken links because GS and GPC follows a different URL structure. More over as GS doesn’t support any uploaded HTML pages, the transition may permanently delete all of those unsupported files. To me, GPC is far far better than GS.

I actually have no idea why Google is closing their one of the most popular web services. Google Sites is nothing more than a wiki. Do the people need a website or a wiki for their personal or business homepage? Google is saying that GS is more powerful than GPC as GS uses the contents management. Well… this is the only thing the GPC is lacking of. Wouldn’t it be better if the feature is added in GPC? Wiki is obviously an important feature in today’s internet, but people will not like it as their home page. So, what if both GPC and GS are staying side by side? I don’t any necessity of closing either one for surviving the other.

Users of GPC is already depressed hearing this news. They still believe that GPC will not be closed at all some how. They have also taken an initiative to save the GPC by a petition. The same debate is going on Google Page Creator Discussion Group. I recommend every GPC user to sign the petition. And above all I still believe that the world really still needs Google Page Creator. So a request to Google, “Can’t you please save the Google Page Creator from it’s termination!“

Aabjaab: My New (Bangla) Blog

I’ve just created another blog. It’s another personal blog of mine. I’ve already have one, why the hell I created another one? Actually it is more likely a memory storage than a blog. I’ve a very simple life (who knows me will agree in this point). But when I saw them back they seem to be the golden days of my tiny life. So why don’t I share them with others? Memories are sweet. They are sweeter when they are reminisced. Bur they are even sweetest when they are shared with others. And this thought allured me to create this blog.

This time I’ve chosen Blogspot for publishing it. Why Blogspot? First – unlike WordPress it allows any templates for using in blog. Secondly (the most important) – I need a URL containing my favorite nick “maqtanim”. This blog is written in Bangla. Because I find it more comfortable to write my past memories in Bangla. No language favors me so much like Bangla to express my exact feelings.

I always prefer WordPress for blogging as it is easy to use and it has some really breathtaking premium themes. Personally I liked ~~Brian Gardner~~‘s template. But as WordPress doesn’t allow editing CSS layout (in free of cost) in their DOT COM version, I had no chance to use Brian’s marvelous themes in my WordPress blog. Recently I got the XML code of the Revolution Theme (one of the Brian’s Finest creation for wordpress) for Blogger and it took me thinking why I am not using this theme in Blogspot? I’ve polished the CSS layout as my requirements. And… well … I did what I’ve thought. And now the site is up!

I was puzzled to give it a proper name. Then I named it as “Aabjaab”. I saw this word in a book written by Ahsan Habib. Ahsan Habib is a leading cartoonist and the editor of Unmad, the only satire magazine of Bangladesh. What does Aabjaab means? It means totally scrap or trash! I don’t think my life is that much interesting that I can write it in a literary way like the famous writers (actually I am not a writer, not in a slightest chance 😀 ). Which means all my stuffs are just no more than junk!

Enough talking. Now just go to my new blog and give me your feed back. I am eagerly waiting for the first comment in my new blog.

Bangladeshi Blog Aggregator: β version launched

UPDATE: Now we’ve a new Bangladeshi Blog Aggregator named BDBloggerz. All Bangladeshi bloggers are requested to submit their own blogs there.

For the last few weeks who have read and commented my post about Bangladeshi Blog Aggregator, they will be happy to know that Russell has kept his promise. He has launched the Beta version of the Bangladeshi Blog Aggregator. At last it has done. It is just the beginning. This site needs more polishing and needs an enormous way to go. But it can’t go that long without our support. As a Bangladeshi Blogger it is our duty to make a smooth way for this site. Previously some site has been lunched for the same purpose, but they failed to sustain. We hope that this time it will be a successful project.

By setting up the site, Russell did a tremendous job for all of us. We the Bangladeshi Bloggers at last got our own Blog Aggregator. We hope it will not only be a Blog Aggregator but also be a Bloggers Community for Bangladesh. Therefore I am inviting all the bloggers of Bangladeshi origins to join this aggregator.

As the site is in testing mode I have some suggestions (though I’ve mention some key features in my previous post).

As a blog aggregator I think the site needs a 3 columns theme. As a personal site a 2 column site is more suitable than a blog aggregator. Cause it has to show more thing but in less space. User may not have that much patience to scroll through the whole site. 3 sidebars instead of 3 make this job easier.
In the first page the posts are displayed in full length. A full length post does not fit in a blog aggregator. It would be more decorous if only a few lines (as excerpts) for the post (under the post heading) is displayed.
Any one have any design sense so that we’ll have a gorgeous logo and some blog badges for this newly introduced aggregator? So that we can put on them in our own blogs.

As the days go by, we hope more suggestions will come from the bloggers to develop the site.