7:09 PM | Labels: New World

Terrafugia's award-winning MIT-trained engineers have been advancing the state-of-the-art in personal aircraft since 2006. Now you can streamline your flying experience with the revolutionary integration of personal land and air travel made possible by the Transition Roadable Aircraft.

The Transition is flown by licensed pilots in and out of existing local airports in the U.S. Once on the ground, with the wings folded the vehicle can be driven on any road. The Transition is powered by a certified aircraft engine that runs on unleaded automotive gasoline. Perfect for trips between 100 and 400 miles, the Transition is not designed to replace anyone's automobile.


In United States, the Transition can take off or land at any public use general aviation airport with at least 2,500' of runway. This represents the majority of the over 5,000 public airports in the United States. On average, you're within 30 miles or less of one of these fields anywhere in the country. The Aircraft Owners' and Pilots' Association (AOPA) hosts a site that will let you search for airports near where you want to be.


Since it will be certified as a Light Sport Aircraft, the Transition will require a Sport Pilot license or higher to fly. You will also need a valid driver's license for use on the ground.

After landing, the pilot activates the electro-mechanical wing folding mechanism from inside the cockpit. The wings fold, once at the root and once at the mid-span, and are stowed vertically on the sides of the vehicle in less than 30 seconds. Simultaneously, the engine power is directed to the wheels with a continuously variable transmission.


Having ground mobility and the ability to fly integrated into the same vehicle provides new options for travel that are not available with two separate vehicles: If bad weather is encountered en route, the pilot can land and drive without worrying about ground transportation or having to return to pick up his plane. At the destination airport the pilot can fold the wings and drive off the airfield without having to move bags or arrange for additional transportation. Driving and flying can be combined between multiple airports as it is not necessary to take off and land at the same field.




The Transition also reduces the cost of ownership of an airplane by burning automotive gasoline, parking in your garage at home instead of renting a hangar, and nearly eliminating ground transportation costs.

First customer delivery is anticipated to be in Q4 2011. Refundable airframe reservations are currently being accepted to hold a place in production. Over 70 aircraft have been reserved, representing an order backlog of $14 million.


Performance


Cruise 100 kts (115 mph)
Rotate 70 kts (80 mph)
Stall 45 kts (51 mph)
Range 400nm (460 mi)
Takeoff over 50' obstacle 1700'
Fuel burn 5 gph
Fuel tank 20 gallons
Useful Load 430 lbs
On road 30 mpg, highway speeds



Convenience

Front wheel drive on the ground
Automotive-style entry and exit
Two place, side by side
Automated electromechanical folding wing
No trailer or hangar needed
Cargo area holds skis, fishing poles or golf clubs

Safety
Drive in case of inclement weather
Proven 100 hp Rotax 912S engine
Full vehicle parachute available
Modern glass avionics
Automotive crash safety features
Dimensions

Folded:
6' 9" tall
80" wide
18' 9" long

Airplane:
6' 3" tall
19' 2" long
Wingspan:
27' 6"
Cockpit:
51" at the shoulder
Price
Anticipated price: $194,000.

3:03 AM | Labels: Have A Tour

                                                   Ellora Caves





Ellora caves lay in the lap of the Chamadari hills extending over a mile and a quarter in the north-south direction and are situated 18 miles northwest of Aurangabad.Ellora represents some 300 years of great experiments carried out by different faiths with their very different iconography and structural compulsions.
Ellora caves are finest specimens of cave temple architecture. They house elaborate facades and exquisitely adorned interiors. These structures representing the three faiths of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, were carved during 350 AD to 700 AD period. The cave monuments ofEllora were chiefly patronised by the Chalukya - Rashtrakuta rulers (7th - 10th century AD). These cave shrines are memorable for their invaluable contribution to the enormous wealth of Indian heritage. There are 34caves in total. These can be divided into three groups belonging roughly to three periods: Buddhist, Hindu and Jain. Only 12 of the 34caves are Buddhist, but even these caves incorporate the Hindu and Jain theme, demonstrating the gradual decline of Buddhism.
It took over five centuries for the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain monks to chisel out these monasteries, temples, and chapels and decorate them with remarkable imagination and detail.

Sixteen caves are the oldest in the group and were carved in the 5th century. As one enters these caves, one crosses graceful angles and steps in a high ceiling chamber where a 15 feet huge statue of Buddha is sitting in a preaching pose. In thesecaves the artist has tried an element of surprise by giving them an expression of wood. Most of these 16 caves are 'Viharas' but cave number 10 is a 'Chaitya'. The 10th cave has an impression of wooden beams on its ceiling and has a small decorated window, which illuminates the sitting Buddha. Thesecaves are rightly called the "Vishvakarma" caves. This cave is considered to be one of the finest caves in India.
The Buddhists believe that Buddha returns after every five thousand years, thus the 12th cave has seven images of Buddha depicting his seven incarnations.
The Hindu caves exhibit a totally different league from the Jain and Buddhist temples in terms of style, creative vision and execution skills. These temples were built 'top to bottom' and the architecture of thesecaves show, that it required several generations of planning and co-ordination to give it the final shape. Cave 14 was initially a Buddha Vihar but in the 7th century it was turned into a Shiva temple. Here Shiva is depicted as "The Destroyer".


The 16th cave in the group is one of the audacious feats in architecture ever achieved. The idea was to build Kailash from a single stone. Hence it got its name, Kailasnath temple. Mural paintings in Ellora are found in 5 caves, but only in the Kailasa temple are they somewhat preserved.

8:19 PM | Labels: Tech Talk

How a Cell Phone Works

All over the world, people use and communicate with cell phones. Cell phones range in sizes from as small as a thumb, to as large as a regular telephone if needed. Cell phones can flip, fold, compact and store just about anything. But how do they work?

Imagine...A Radio?

In a sense, a cell phone is just like a radio. It picks up signals from towers But if you wonder how the cell phone works and what makes it different from a regular household phone, read below as we go through the basics. Each cell phone has a cellular system. When we say a cellular system, it means a division of a city into small cells. Each cell has a base station that consists of a tower and a small building containing the radio equipment this allows widespread frequency reuse across a city, so that millions of people can use cell phones concurrently. Each cell is typically sized at and covers about a 10 square miles radius.
There is a requirement to have a large number of base stations in a city of any size to make cell phone use function conveniently. A typical large city can have hundreds of towers placed in certain regions to cover most of the areas completely. Central offices called the Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO) handles all of the phone connections to the normal land-based phone system, and controls all of the base stations in the region. Each carrier in each city runs one.

Special Codes - All Cell Phones Have 'Em

All cell phones have special codes related with them. These codes are used to identify the phone's owner, phone, and the service provider that they use. Here is what happens when you use your phone:
When a person first turns on their phone, it listens for a System Identification Code (SID) on the control channel. An SID is a unique 5-digit number that is assigned to each carrier by the FCC. This is a unique frequency that the phone and base station use to send signals to another about things like call set-up and channel changing. If the phone can�t find any control channels to listen to, then it�s out of range and will display on the phone a "no service" message.
When it receives the SID, the phone matches up to the SID programmed into the phone. If the SIDs match, the phone realizes that the cell it is corresponding with is part of its home system.
The phone also transmits a registration request, along with the SID and the MTSO keeps track of your phone's location in a database -- this way it is known what cell you are in when it wants to ring your phone.
The MTSO gets the call that is calling you and it tries to find you by looking in its system to see which cell you are in. The call is sent to you at that time. You are now talking by two-way radio to a friend!
As you travel and move near the end of your cell, your cell's base station sees that your signal strength is diminishing. In the meantime, the base station in the cell you are moving closer to sees your phone's signal strength increasing. The two base stations coordinate with each other through the MTSO, and at some point, your phone gets a signal on a control channel telling it to change frequencies. This hand off switches your phone to the new cell with out interruption to you and your call. As you travel, the signal is passed from cell to cell. And the amazing thing is that all of this happens within seconds!
Small devices, amazing technology. Who would have thought something so small could be so powerful and complex? All of the above is transparent to a customer, which makes a cell phone even more enjoyable!

5:53 PM | Labels: System Tips

Make your own icons


It's shockingly easy to create your own icons in Windows XP. Let's do it: Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, and then click Paint. On the Image menu, click Attributes. Type 32 for both the Width and Height of the document, and make sure that Pixels is selected under Units. Click OK to create a new 32x32-pixel document: the size of an icon.

Now add type, color, or do whatever you'd like to your image. I like to shrink photos (headshots work best) to 32x32 and simply paste them into my Paint document. When you're finished, open the File menu and click Save As. Use the dialog box to choose where you want to save your file, then give it a name followed by ".ico" (without the quotes), and click Save. (The extension ".ico" tells Windows that it's an icon file.) You just created an icon! Now you can change any shortcut or folder to your own icon—just browse to it on your hard drive.

Don't just maximize your windows—go full screen


When you need a really big window, don't just maximize it: go full screen! To view a window full screen, hold down the Ctrl key and double-click the window's title bar—or when the window is active, press the F11 key at the top of your keyboard—to get the biggest window possible.

Change the text in Internet Explorers title bar to anything you want


In regedit navigate to this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMain
change the value of the string "Window Title" to whatever you want on the title bar of Internet Explorer - to have no title except the title of the web pages you are browsing do not enter anything for a value.

Windows Tricks