Chinese cheer as astronauts makes first spacewalk

Chinese celebrated their nation's first spacewalk Saturday, gathering at outdoor TV screens to cheer live video of the milestone for a program that has ambitions of building a space station and challenging the U.S. and Russia in offworld exploration.

Stoking national pride one month after the close of the Beijing Olympics, state television's coverage reflected much of the glory onto president and Communist Party leader Hu Jintao, who was present at Thursday's launch and watched the spacewalk at Beijing's ground control center.

"Your success represents a new breakthrough in our manned space program," Hu told the astronauts in a scripted exchange that was also broadcast live.

"The motherland and the people thank you," said Hu, who is chairman of the powerful Communist Party and government military committees that oversee the space program.

The spacewalk was mainly aimed at testing China's mastery of the technology. Mission commander Zhai Zhigang's sole task was to retrieve a rack attached to the outside of the orbital module containing an experiment involving solid lubricants.

Tethered to handles attached to the Shenzhou 7 ship's orbital module, Zhai remained outside for about 13 minutes before climbing back inside through the open hatch.

"Greetings to all the people of the nation and all the people of the world," Zhai said into an external camera he floated halfway out of the open hatch.

Fellow astronaut Liu Boming also emerged briefly from the capsule to hand Zhai a Chinese flag. The third crew member, Jing Haipeng, monitored the ship from inside the re-entry module.

While successful, the spacewalk wasn't without its anxious moments.

Zhai, a 41-year-old fighter pilot, appeared to struggle with the hatch and then a fire alarm was triggered in the orbiter as he began the spacewalk.

Wang Zhaoyao, deputy director of manned space flight, conceded the combined effects of weightlessness and depressurization on the hatch opening operation hadn't been fully anticipated. He blamed a faulty sensor for the fire alarm.

"There were be no impact on the rest of the mission," Wang said.

The spacewalk required astronauts to first depressurize and then repressurize the orbital module and proved the effectiveness of Zhai's Feitian space suit, produced by China at a cost of $4.4 million. Liu wore a nearly identical Russian-made Orlan suit, state media said.

Following the spacewalk, the astronauts released an 88-pound satellite to circle the orbiter and send back images to mission control.

The spacewalk was an opening step for China's plan to assemble a space station from two Shenzhou orbital modules, the next major goal of the manned space program. China is also pursuing lunar exploration and may attempt to land a man on the moon in the next decade - possibly ahead of NASA's 2020 target date for returning to the moon.

China launched its first manned mission, Shenzhou 5, in 2003, becoming only the third country after Russia and the United States to launch a man into space. That was followed by a two-man mission in 2005.

Along with challenging Russia and the U.S., the spacewalk ups the ante in China's competition with Asia's other aspiring space powers, Japan and India. China's advances have spurred space spending by those two nations, partly for bragging rights but also in search of economic benefits such as a bigger slice of the commercial satellite launching business.

In step with its growing list of achievements, China's military-backed space program has grown progressively less secretive and officials have hinted in recent days at a desire for greater cooperation with other nations. China plans to mass produce the next version of the Shenzhou ship to service a future space station and says it may make such missions available to other countries.

Cooperation between China and other nations has so far been limited. The U.S. has refused Chinese involvement in the international space station operated with Russia for fear Beijing could gain technical secrets applicable to its arms industry.

A Chinese space program official said earlier that Russian technicians would assist in Saturday's spacewalk, but it wasn't clear what role they played.

Since blasting off from the Jiuquan launch base in northwestern China, the astronauts had been largely occupied with preparing their suits and adapting to zero gravity. Cameras inside the re-entry vehicle showed them going through checklists and napping.

Meals aboard the craft have followed a typical Chinese menu, featuring versions of kung pao chicken, shrimp and dried fruit, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Quote from here

| Read More | Join My Community | Grab RSS | Stumble it |

US senator urges Justice Department to monitor Google, Yahoo deal

A key senator is urging the Justice Department to keep up its investigation into the antitrust implications of the Internet advertising partnership that Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. plan to launch this month.

In a letter Thursday, Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl, chairman of the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, said his panel concluded that "important competition issues are raised by this transaction." He urged the Justice Department to "continue to monitor the state of competition in this industry."

The Justice Department is already examining the deal to decide whether to intervene, and had no comment Thursday beyond reiterating that the review continues.

Under the partnership, Google will sell some of the ads displayed alongside search results on Yahoo's Web site. Because Google's system for identifying and displaying ads is more lucrative than Yahoo's own approach, Yahoo has embraced this link with its rival as an alternative to a takeover by Microsoft Corp.

But several advertisers have raised concerns about the deal, arguing that it will limit competition, raise prices and reduce choices in the online advertising market. Microsoft also has been lobbying the Justice Department to intervene.

Kohl, who expressed concerns about the partnership when it was first disclosed and held a hearing in July, did not take a formal position Thursday on whether the deal should be blocked. But his letter urged the Justice Department to step in to protect competition if it determines that Google is "gaining a dominant market position" because of the agreement.

He added that even if the department concludes that the partnership does not violate antitrust law, it "must be sure that this deal never in the future crosses the line into an unacceptable, anticompetitive collaboration among competitors which will harm consumers and advertisers."

Google and Yahoo have ramped their own campaign to defend the partnership. They insist the deal will benefit consumers and advertisers by enabling both companies to deliver targeted ads that are more relevant to viewers.

"We believe that this arrangement is good for competition and will benefit advertisers, Web site publishers and consumers," Google said in a statement.

Responding to predictions that the deal will further cement Google's grip on the online advertising marketplace, the two companies have also stressed that it will be up to Yahoo to decide when and whether to show an ad from Google's inventory. And they maintain that by driving additional revenue for Yahoo, the partnership will make it a stronger competitor to both Microsoft and Google.

Kohl is not the first member of Congress to weigh in. Last week, a handful of lawmakers from the San Francisco Bay area, where both Google and Yahoo are based, sent a letter to the Justice Department arguing that its intervention "could detrimentally affect the online advertising market and electronic commerce."

And last week, 10 members of the House Judiciary Committee urged the department to examine the deal closely "to ensure that it promotes, and does not hinder competition."

Shares of Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., fell $21.23, or 5.2 percent, to $390.49 Thursday. Shares of Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., fell $1.38, or 8.1 percent, to $15.58 Thursday.

Qoute from here

| Read More | Join My Community | Grab RSS | Stumble it |

Two sides - GPS Tracking

Last night I was watching serial tv “Prison Break”. In one episode, there is something interesting for me. They use GPS technology to tracking the money. So, there was a guy runs away with the money, but actually he doesn’t get away, because inside the bag has been put a GPS tracking.

What interesting here is GPS tracking was? Do you ever think GPS tracking can be bad and can be good for some conditions? What do you think?

Here some example:
Police place GPS to tracking down the drugs mafia in one drugs deal. They put GPS on the bag, and following them to get the base of the mafia. This is a good of GPS Tracking.

Now, another example again:
Some bad guys plan to rob the bank. And in their plan, they must take a hostage, and the hostages are the family of the duty manager that day. In order to follow him, the bad guy places a GPS to track his address. This is a bad of GPS tracking.

If GPS tracking have two sides, and now how we maximize the useful of GPS Tracking and minimize the bad of GPS tracking? Please place your comments to discuss this GPS tracking. :)

| Read More | Join My Community | Grab RSS | Stumble it |

Simple Manipulation Database with VB Express 2008

Ok. Let's try Linq with database now. Database I use was SQL Express 2005.

Let's begin the lessons:

First, create new project, choose windows application.

Second, choose data connection and data source of database we want to use.

Third, add new item and choose Linq to SQL Classes. The file will create and drag the tables or stored procedure in it.

Fourth, done. Hahaha.

And now, let's use Linq in database case. Here we can see how easy we can manipulate the code and the efficiency of writing code in vb 9.

Dim presen = From absensi In db.Presensi(2008, 4) Select absensi

For
Each Presensi In presen

Debug.Print(Presensi.nama_karyawan, Presensi.Uang_Makan)

Next

Those codes above will connect to presensi where the presensi was stored procedure in my database. Below is an example of dbml (LINQ TO SQL CLASSES). Hope you enjoy it.

| Read More | Join My Community | Grab RSS | Stumble it |