Five Best DSLR Cameras!!

If you’re ready to graduate from a point-and-shoot to take advantage of all the features of a more advanced camera, you’ll need a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera. What’s the best choice when you want to make that switch? Here’s a look at five of the most popular DSLR models, based on reader nominations.

Shopping around is essential when buying cameras — prices vary widely (and you can often do better buying from overseas sites). With a DSLR, you’ll need to buy both the body and any required lenses, though many stores offer beginner bundles combining the two which can offer considerable savings. Lens mounts typically remain consistent for a given manufacturer, so if you upgrade the camera body later on you can continue to use your lens collection.

Nikon D800

Nikon’s high-end D800 includes a stack of features and options, and offers unparalleled photo and video quality in a relatively compact and portable frame. It’s a 36.3 megapixel model, can shoot photos at four frames per second, and can capture full 1080p video at up to 30 frames per second (fps). It utilises Nikon’s F mount so you can use it with a massive array of lenses, and supports both SD and Compact Flash storage options.

Canon EOS 5D

The Canon EOS 5D series of cameras premiered in 2005. While we’ve linked to the year-old Mk III model above, many of you may be more familiar with the older 5D Mk II, which has been around since 2008. The Mk II has a 21.1 megapixel camera, shoots photos at 3.9 frames per second, and can capture full 1080p video. It supports CompactFlash for storage, and uses Canon’s EF lens mount. The MK III is a 22.3 megapixel model, shoots at up to 6 frames per second, captures 1080p full HD video, and supports SD or CompactFlash storage. It also uses the EF lens mount. Check out Gizmodo’s review of the Mk III.

Canon EOS 600D

The 600D was designed as a more affordable alternative to some of Canon’s higher-end models. It packs an 18 megapixel CMOS sensor, offers continuous shooting at 3.2 frames per second, shoots full HD video at 1080p, supports SD storage, and leverages Canon’s widely used EF lens mount so you have access to a huge library of compatible lenses. Many of you nominated it as an incredible bang-for-the-buck model, especially for a budding photographer who shouldn’t spend thousands of dollars on a camera before they develop their skills.

Nikon D600

The Nikon D600 is a step down from the D800. It sports a 24.3 megapixel CMOS sensor, offers continuous shooting at 5.5 frames per second, captures full 1080p HD video at 30fps, and uses SD cards for storage. It uses Nikon’s F mount, so any lenses you may have for other Nikon cameras should work just fine. Many of you nominated it for cramming a number of the D800′s better features into a smaller, slimmer body with a considerably lower price tag.

Canon EOS 6D

The EOS 6D is a recent addition to the market, having launched late last year. It’s a 20.2 megapixel model with a CMOS sensor, and is the first Canon EOS model to support built-in Wi-Fi and GPS, which let you auto-tag your photos and videos with location and instantly upload them. It supports SD storage, uses Canon’s standard EF lens mount, offers continuous shooting at 4.5 frames per second, and records full 1080p HD video.

The power of one wrong tweet

The power of one wrong tweet

Misinformation can spread quickly on Twitter, each retweet exposing it to wider audiences and even resulting in real world impacts.
On Tuesday, hackers took over the Associated Press Twitter account and falsely claimed that there had been explosions at the White House and that the president was hurt. The tweet was up for a few minutes and retweeted more than 3,000 times before Twitter took the account offline.
The AP immediately confirmed the news was not true, but the tweet was up long enough to send a shudder through the stock market, which plunged 143 points before recovering.
Real tweets have the power to end careers, cause diplomatic tensions, fuel a revolution and find a kidney. Fake tweets can have the same ripple effects, and damage control is difficult. There is no way to edit or append a correction to a tweet, and once it has been retweeted, those 140 characters take on a life of their own. A follow-up tweet with the correct information might not be seen by the same people.
"You want to respond as quickly as possible. Deleting the tweet is a good approach, but even if you delete it it's obviously already out there," said social media expert Krista Neher.
The AP incident is not the first time a tweet has influenced markets. In August 2012, an Italian journalist set up a fake Twitter account for a member of Russia's government and tweeted that the president of Syria had been killed, causing brief fluctuations in the oil markets. The journalist was an experienced Twitter hoaxer, having previously posted fake tweets about the death of the pope and Fidel Castro and established a number fake accounts for world leaders. He claimed he did it to prove how unreliable social media is for getting accurate news.
A tweet doesn't just trigger financial panic, it can also strain diplomatic relations, as the U.S. Embassy in Cairo found out in April when the official Twitter account posted a link to a Daily Show segment critical of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi.
In March, someone posing as the U.S. ambassador to Moscow tweeted a criticism of the Russian presidential election process, which was picked up by the news media in Russia before it was revealed as a hoax. The U.S. government responded with official statements in both incidents.
"The speed at which information spreads is so much quicker than it used to be, and Twitter is such a big part of that," said Neher.
That was painfully evident late Thursday night during the manuhunt in Boston. A tweet mistakenly named a missing Brown University student as one of the suspects. Twitter latched on to the name and many users assumed it was true even though it hadn't been confirmed by authorities.
A faulty tweet also can have a negative impact on community or a family. Late last year a New Jersey teenager posted a plea for help on Twitter saying there was an intruder in her house and asking people to call 911. The tweet went viral as friends and strangers expressed genuine concern for her safety (though no one on Twitter actually called 911).
But it was quickly discovered that there was no home invasion. The teen had run away from home and was later spotted on security cameras buying a train ticket to New York City.
The fast-moving, viral nature of Twitter has its perils, but it can also be used for good. Twitter highlights the impact of single tweets in its Twitter Stories series, tracking Tweets that go viral and result in positive impacts and happy endings.

Federal Robotics Initiative Gives $1 Million to Make Brain-Controlled Exoskeletons

Robots that can read and respond to brain waves will eventually 
help stroke patients regain movement, using new neural interfaces that can re-train damaged motor pathways. Neuroscientists have made great strides in brain-machine interfaces that can respond to a person's thoughts -- a new generation will drive a non-invasive robotic orthotic, retraining the patient’s own body.

Patients who have suffered a stroke or other injury can lose the active use of their limbs, rendering them unable to simply think about moving an arm or hand and then do it. Sometimes it’s possible to re-establish the lost connection, with time and repetitive physical therapy. Researchers at Rice University are using a robotic exoskeleton and a neural interface to improve matters.

Unlike other neural interfaces implanted in the brain, this system uses an electroencephalograph (EEG), which monitors waves of activity in the brain. It will work by first recording the brain activity of healthy patients, and turning those signals into a control output that an exoskeleton can understand. Then the system will be further trained with stroke patients who have some ability to initiate movements. The goal is to develop control patterns that can work on any patient, even those with no ability to initiate willful movements — the robot will interpret any person’s brain activity and translate it into the right motion, performing the movements over and over again to retrain the patient’s motor pathways.

“With a lot of robotics, if you want to engage the patient, the robot has to know what the patient is doing,” said principal investigator Marcia O’Malley, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Rice. “If the patient tries to move, the robot has to anticipate that and help. But without sophisticated sensing, the patient has to physically move – or initiate some movement.”

The project has already successfully reconstructed three-dimensional hand and walking movements from brain signals, according to a Rice news release. Now a $1.17 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and the president’s National Robotics Initiative will test it on 40 patients over the next two years.

The Top Ten Tech Companies in the World

The Top Ten Tech Companies in the World

It was not too long ago that tech companies were tagged as the companies of the future. Well, the future has arrived, and these companies are some of the most admired in the world. Tech companies are companies whose activities are connected either directly or indirectly to the information technology industry. These activities may include those that deal with computer hardware, software, semiconductor, electronics, the Internet, telecommunication, and other computer services.

Here is a list of the top ten tech companies in the world, based on annual revenues reported.

1. Apple, Inc., United States – $156.5 billion

Who else would be on top but Apple? The company is based in Cupertino in California and is known for its groundbreaking designs and cutting edge gadgets. Everyone has encountered at least one of its items, be it the Mac computers, notebooks, iPad tablets, iPhones, or the iPod mp3 music player. Its software includes the OS X and iOS operating systems, iTunes, iLife, iWork and the Safari web browser. It has more than 70,000 staff that are employed on a full-time and permanent basis, aside from 3,300 temporary employees. Its annual revenue has more than doubled from 2010 when it only earned $65 billion. And you can expect this number to keep going up, as Apple’s product launches are events that the whole world waits for.

2. Samsung Electronics, South Korea – $149 billion

Samsung is a multinational electronics company based in Suwon in South Korea. It employs almost 221,000 people and has production and assembly plants and sales networks in 61 countries around the world. It is the largest maker of mobile phones in the world, the largest television manufacturer in the world, the largest LCD panel maker in the world, largest seller of memory chips in the world, and largest vendor of smart phones in the world. It is also the second largest semiconductor chip-maker in the world. It is currently involved in a legal tussle with Apple regarding copyright issues.

3. Hewlett Packard, United States – $120.35 billion

Hewlett Packard Company, or HP, is an American multinational company based in Palo Alto in California. It was the largest manufacturer of personal computers until 2012 when the Chinese giant Lenovo overtook it. The company is a provider of products, technologies, software, services and solutions to its customers. Its customers range from simple consumers to giant enterprises.  It also has clients in the education, government and health sectors.

4. Foxconn, Taiwan – $117.51 billion

Its full name is the Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd, but it trades by the name of Foxconn. The electronics manufacturing company is based in Tucheng in New Taipei in Taiwan. It is considered to be the largest maker of electronic components in the world. It is involved in the production of such products as Apple’s iPad, iPod and iPhone, as well as Amazon’s Kindle, Sony’s PlayStation 3, Nintendo’s Wii U, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

5. IBM, United States – $106.91 billion

The International Business Machines Corporation is based in Armonk in New York. It produces and markets computer hardware and software. It also offers consulting, hosting and infrastructure services in fields ranging from nanotechnology and mainframe computers. It has the record for most patents by a company, which it has held for 19 straight years. The company is also credited for inventing the ATM, the floppy disk, the hard disk drive, the magnetic stripe, the Universal Product Code and the SABRE airline reservation system.

6. Panasonic, Japan – $99.65 billion

The company was formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. It is based in Osaka in Japan. Konosuke Matsushita founded the company in 1918, and it originally sold only duplex lamp sockets. It has since grown to become the fifth largest manufacturer of televisions in the world and one of the 20 largest vendors of semiconductors in the world. It changed its name to Panasonic Corporation in 2008 to align it with its global brand name.

7. Toshiba, Japan – $74.39 billion

Toshiba is a Japanese engineering and electronics company based in Tokyo in Japan. It manufactures and markets electrical products for information and communications equipment and systems, internet-based solutions, power systems, household appliances, electronic components and industrial infrastructure systems. It is one of the largest vendors of semiconductors and personal computers in the world.

8. Microsoft, United States – $73.72 billion

It is considered to be one of the most valuable companies in the world. It is also the largest software maker in the world based on revenues. The company was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, and has its headquarters in Redmond in Washington State. It dominated the personal computer operating system market from the mid 80s to the 2000s, even though there were frequent complaints on the system being buggy and vulnerable. It also held a practical stranglehold on the productivity suite market with its Microsoft Office brand of documents, spreadsheets and presentations. It has since diversified, and it now owns Skype Technologies. It also has a strong foothold in the video game market through its Microsoft Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles.

9. Sony, Japan – $67.4 billion

Sony is a multinational corporation based in Tokyo in Japan. It has interests in various tech sectors, like electronics, games, entertainment and financial services. It is the third largest manufacturer of televisions in the world and is one of the 20 largest vendors of semiconductors in the world. Consumers may also be familiar with Sony because of the Ericsson brand of mobile phones, as well as the video game consoles of PlayStation and PSP. The company also has interests in music, publishing and the movies.

10. Dell, United States – $62.07 billion

Dell is a computer technology firm based in Round Rock in Texas. It creates, develops, markets, sells, repairs and supports computers and its related products and services. It also sells data storage devices, network switches and other peripherals. It is considered to be one of the largest personal computer vendors in the world.