Archive for March, 2008

How to install Wordpress on your server.

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

This is a quick dummy’s guide to install Wordpress on his/her server. I don’t want to give much introduction, so will finish off things in easy and understandable steps.

There are two different methods to install Wordpress on your server. One is Automated installation using Fantastico, and the other is by uploading files manually.

First let me begin with the easy method, by installing it using Fantastico,

If you have opted for a cPanel Hosting, then you can a find a scripts installer called “Fantastico”, in your cPanel.

Here goes the steps…

1. Login to your cPanel.

2. Open “Fantastico De Luxe”. 

3. Under “Blogs”, click on Wordpress.

4. Click on “New Installation”.

5. Fill the details, and click on “Install Wordpress”.

Now your Wordpress is ready to swing the world.

And now the hassle way. You have to follow this, if you don’t opt for a cPanel hosting unfortunately.

Here are the steps.

1. Download the latest version of Wordpress by clicking on this link.
2. Extract the file.
3. Create a new SQL Database and note down the DB name, username and password.
4. Open up wp-config-sample.php with a text editor like WordPad or similar and fill in your database connection details.Save the file as “wp-config.php”
5. Now open your FTP and login to the server.
6. Copy those extracted files and upload to the server to the folder of your desire or in the home (root) using the FTP.
7. Now affix /wp-admin/install.php to the URL where you installed. For example.. www.yoursitename.com/wp-admin/install.php or www.yoursitename.com/foldername/wp-admin/install.php
8. If everything is done properly, then you will continued with the Installation, if not recheck the wp-config.php file and give the correct details.
9. Follow few simple steps in the installation, note down the generated password and use it to login to your wp-admin panel.

Now start blogging!

Avalanches on Mars surprise NASA astronomers

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

NASA HiRISE camera, onboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, was looking for frost when it snapped a first-time ever photograph of active avalanches near the north pole of the planet Mars. 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Candice Hansen, deputy principal investigator for the HiRISE mission stated, “We were checking for springtime changes in the carbon-dioxide frost covering a northern dune field, and finding the avalanches was completely serendipitous.” [NASA: "Avalanches on Mars"]

The images of active avalanches at the Martian north pole are the first ever taken by scientists. Released on March 3, 2008, they were taken by the camera High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE), which is orbiting Mars onboard the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

An image of the avalanche is found on the NASA website “Avalanches on Mars.”

Please take a look at the “full-sized version” of the image in order to see the active avalanche under much more details.

(more…)

Microsoft’s telescope centers on Windows

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

 REDMOND, Wash.–When Microsoft releases its WorldWide Telescope this spring, the program will be a Windows-only download.

Much of the astronomical community, however, uses Macs and other Unix-based hardware. So, when principal developer Jonathan Fay shows off the program, he often uses a MacBook Pro. The telescope program itself, though, is running in Windows using the Mac’s dual-boot Boot Camp software.

Other Mac users will have to use similar technology. The program can theoretically run using virtualization programs, such as VMware’s Fusion or Parallels, but 3D applications often throw those programs for a loop.

Principal researcher Curtis Wong used a WinTel laptop running Vista on Monday night to demonstrate the program to journalists at a reception kicking off TechFest, Microsoft’s internal science fair. Microsoft first demoed an early version of the software at last year’s TechFest, while its current incarnation was shown last week at the TED conference in Monterey, Calif.

Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope software offers several different ways to look at the heavens, including the Hydrogen Alpha view.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com)

Given his penchant for Cupertino-designed hardware, I wondered why Fay was less than enthusiastic about prospects for a native Mac version. He said the type of programming needed to make the software a reality can be done vastly faster using Microsoft’s .Net and C# programming tools.

To make it truly cross-platform, he said, “I’d basically be looking at three to four years of development.” Plus, he quipped, “It doesn’t hurt if a few people buy Windows.”

Although Wong and Fay have done the actual software development largely over the last 18 months, the genesis of the project goes back to conversations Wong had years ago with now-missing Microsoft researcher Jim Gray, to whom Wong paid tribute.

“It’s dedicated to Jim,” he said, noting that Microsoft is making the software available free via a not-for-profit Web site.

Wong demonstrated a number of different ways to view the universe, including X-ray, hydrogen alpha and traditional imaging. The different views offer starkly different looks at the universe.

The images, as previously noted, are stitched together from a variety of sources including the Hubble and other Earth and space-based telescopes. Think of it as a “terapixel panorama,” Fay and Wong said of the finished product.

Contrary to some reports, however, the program does not use Microsoft’s PhotoSynth technology, but rather a different stitching technology and an internally developed projection method known as Toast.

Source

Apple’s new curved iMac Concept!

Monday, March 3rd, 2008

You don’t have to venture very far to dig up unofficial concepts for Apple products of all sorts, but this one from designer Nuno Teixeira is certainly more attention grabbing than most, even if it isn’t any more realistic. Dubbed the “iMac iView,” the main distinguishing feature here is obviously the curved screen, which isn’t actually all that far out there, but still a ways from becoming anywhere near commonplace. As if that wasn’t enough, the concept also boasts a second screen on the rear (pictured after the break), and webcams on both the front and back, which would finally let you have impersonal conversations with the person sitting right across from you. Hit up the read link below for a couple more pics.

(more…)

Total Lunar Eclipse – February 20, 2008

Monday, March 3rd, 2008

A timelapse of the total lunar eclipse on February 20th, 2008. Recorded with still images. Thanks for the feature! peteherron.com

The image shakes because the moon moves during the night, obviously. It’s hard to keep the moon in the exact same spot of the frame while it’s constantly moving. The sound was from video that I recorded for the purpose of giving the timelapse a more real-time feel to it.

(more…)