Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Intel Updates Linux-Compatible C++ Library

SupportSoft to Deliver Desktop Support for PCs With Intel vPro(TM) Technology

SupportSoft®, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPRT), a provider of software and services that make technology work, announced today the ability to provide integrated and enhanced remote support solutions for PCs with Intel® vPro(TM) technology, Intel's product that enables proactive security and remote manageability.

SupportSoft's capability allows customers with Intel vPro technology to receive remote support for their PC even if the PC is powered off, when the hard drive is not working or when the operating system is unable to boot. This powerful functionality enhances SupportSoft's remote support solutions, which now allow IT service desk analysts and customer care agents to more easily access technical answers, automate problem solving and speed the time to resolution.

SupportSoft delivers support for Intel vPro technology as a deployable enhancement to SupportSoft's Intelligent Assistance Suite (IAS). All existing IAS tools including Chat, Remote Control, Analyst Tools and the new vPro management tools can be deployed in a single tool kit and provide an integrated problem resolution environment for both OS and non-OS related issues.

"Businesses utilizing Intel's vPro technology can reduce costs by limiting expensive and time-consuming desk side visits through the use of out-of-band support," said Mike Sayer, General Manager of SupportSoft's Enterprise business unit. "We are excited about vPro's advances and the benefits organizations everywhere will reap from these new capabilities."

"Intel vPro technology, working in conjunction with SupportSoft Intelligent Assistance Suite, can help keep a business' computers running with less downtime and fewer costly deskside tech visits," said Gregory Bryant, Vice President and General Manager, Intel Digital Office Platform Division.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Mind games: Computer headset lets brain control action

It's mind over machine: a US high-tech company has created a headset allowing computer game lovers to use their thoughts to move mountains and make objects disappear on screen.

Emotiv, a San Francisco-based startup that marries neuroscience and computer engineering, says its EPOC gaming headset offers only a glimpse of what the technology has to offer.

"There is no natural barrier from what we can see," Emotiv co-founder Tan Le told AFP while demonstrating the headset in the firm's office.

"This is the tip of the iceberg for what is possible for us. There will be a convergence of gesture-based technology and the brain as a new interface - the Holy Grail is the mind."

Gamers will be able to get their hands on the gadget in time for the winter holiday season, the company says.
The EPOC headset features 16 sensors that press against a user's scalp to measure electrical activity in a brain using electroencephalography. A built-in gyro tracks head movement.

The sensors also register users' moods and facial expressions, merging the data in computer software that "learns" to match readings with what people are thinking, according to Le.

"There is a direct correlation between thought and what happens on screen," Le said. "It really fulfills this long fantasy people have had of moving objects just with thought."

A videogame will be included with the headset when the package goes on sale for 299 dollars at the Emotiv website and select shops.

The martial arts fantasy game has a rural Asian setting. An animated "master" leads players through exercises that include lifting mountains with their minds.

A test of the headset showed that after "training" the EPOC system for less than a minute one could spin, push, pull and lift objects onscreen, or make them vanish, by simply thinking about it.

"Gamers are early adopters of technology and thought control is the ultimate fantasy of gamers," Le said.

Emotiv has a software development kit available to videogame makers as well as programmers of "anything that involves a human and a computer" including those involved in virtual worlds, cars and medical care.

The technology could be used to let virtual world characters referred to as "avatars" reflect the real-world expressions and moods of the people they represent online, according to Emotiv engineer Marco Della Torre.

The kit for third-party software savants to weave thought-control into programs has reportedly been downloaded from the Emotiv website more than 1,000 times.

"We have a lot of Fortune 500 companies interested," Le said. Even law enforcement agencies have expressed interest in the headset's ability to read people's minds.

"It certainly could be used as a very accurate polygraph," Le said. "If you have seen something before, there is no hiding it. There is brain recognition."

Medical applications could include giving stroke victims or people in comas new ways to communicate.

People wearing headsets while listening to online music could have tunes automatically tagged based on whether they made them happy, sad, excited, or bored.

Le, an Australian telecommunications entrepreneur named Young Australian of the Year in 1998, said the idea for the headset sprang from a chat about brains and technology during dinner in 2003.

Le and fellow entrepreneur Nam Do founded Emotiv with neuroscientist Allan Snyder and computer chip designer Neil Weste.

Working on a computer? Watch your back

Most of us do it. Some do not pause once, others take breaks. Yes, all of us spend quite a good time on the computer. But have you wondered being glued to the monitor for hours at length could actually be dangerous for your back?

Of course, computers have become a necessity in everyone’s life. With increasing broadband penetration and last mile connectivity on the rise, the number of computer users are expected to grow at a fast rate in the coming years. But mind you, increased number of hours spent in front of the computer also brings with it a number of potential health hazards. People affected by health disorders such as occupational overuse syndrome (OOS) and carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) are on an all-time rise. OOS, also known as repetition strain injury (RSI), is a collective term for a range of conditions, characterised by discomfort or persistent pain in muscles, tendons and other soft tissues, with or without physical manifestations.

CTS occurs when the median nerve, which runs from the forearm into the hand, becomes pressed or squeezed at the wrist. Approximately 3-5% of the population has CST due to repetition of motion needed for computing tasks. It causes numbness, tingling, pain and weakness in the thumb, index, middle and ring fingers.

A wrong posture at work may also cause pain in the neck and back, sleeplessness, irritability and anxiety. The serious problems could include spondylosis and severe back pain. A friend working with a data entry firm recently faced it — and quite seriously. Used to chomping furiously at the keyboard for long hours, he complained of low-back pain the other day and had to see a doctor.

He was diagnosed as suffering from repetitive stress injuries that come from poor posture and typing habits. He was advised rest and educated on how these injuries could be easily avoided.
Here’s a dekko at the severity of the problem: Up to 15-25% of the workforce is affected by posture and back-related problems at any given point in time across the globe. According to a study, over 500 million man hours are lost every year in the US alone due to posture and ergonomics problems.

Clearly, there are huge economic implications which practically get unnoticed in a country like India. Expert say poor awareness among the people and lack of knowledge among doctors about industrial health lead to such problems. Says Dr S K S Marya, director, orthopaedics, Max Healthcare, New Delhi: "Simply put, ergonomics is all about postures and their relationship with health. The science of ergonomics studies how people interact with their environment, and then figures out ways to make these interactions more efficient and safe. That means designing backpacks to put less stress on the back, or arranging computer monitors so that you don’t have to strain to see the monitor."

Experts feel workplaces should pay more attention to chair design and ergonomics so as to avoid complications. “The spine should always have contact with the chair and the angle of head should be neutral. That’s the only way you can get away from problems like cervical spondylosis while doing repetitive work for long hours. In fact, people spend 8-14 hours in front of a computer everyday. If you do something wrong for prolonged hours, complications will arise,” Dr Marya adds.

In fact, ergonomics should be an essential part of any office design as this has a direct bearing on the health of the workers. Doctors say that if you have to do a repetitive work for long hours, like sitting in front of the computer, then you must get up for three-four minutes every hour and stretch your muscles because they can hold the spine for some time only. Centre of gravity is another important factor which ergonomics should look into.

Experts say that practising ergonomists must have a broad understanding of the full scope of the discipline. That is, ergonomics promotes a holistic approach in which considerations of physical, cognitive, social, organisational, environmental and other relevant factors are taken into account. One of the important goals of ergonomics is to design jobs to fit people. This means taking account of differences such as size, strength and ability to handle information for a wide range of users. Well, it’s time to sit up and take note.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

The Secrets of Hard Drive Repair

Hard disk drives are fascinating storage devices, very useful and essential for modern computer systems. They store data or information (files), our programs (applications) and they help the computer in executing functions (commands), you make in a program. They are not, though, without burden or disadvantages.

One frustrating fact about hard drives is that they contain moving parts and they are very prone to failure. There are some situations where you may find that your computer won´t boot, show errors at startup, stuck in boot windows, and BIOS doesn´t work at all. In such situations, the data stored on the hard drive can´t be accessed.

These are the situations where general computer user can´t identify the real problem. He/she thinks that there are some software or hardware problem with the computer like operating system corruption, RAM problems, firmware corruption and mother board problems.

The users don´t think or know about the real problem and send their computer to the hardware engineer. But the main problem is not related to other hardware parts, the problem exists with the computer hard drive. It is a very big mistake to fetch your hard drive to computer hardware shop because if the hardware engineer tries to access data form it, the hard drive can further damaged.

In such situations, you need to fetch your hard drive to data Recovery Company. Data Recovery Company provides special data recovery service for retrieving data from physically damaged hard drives. The data recovery can´t be performed in the general environment, so they use data recovery Clean Rooms.



The hard drive recovery experts replace the damaged parts of the hard drive in Clean Room and make it accessible. The damaged parts generally include hard drive head, spindle motor and head actuator.

The data recovery expert may also use data recovery software if the data can´t be recovered even after repairing or replacing the damaged parts of the drive. The data recovery software are used according to the operating system and file system. The data recovery service is same for all operating systems and their respective file systems.

Stellar Information Systems Ltd is the most advanced and experienced data Recovery Company. Stellar has over 15 years of experience in providing data recovery solutions around 137 countries throughout the world. The data recovery service by Stellar is provided in the Class 100 Clean Rooms.

Company has the best of the industry, data recovery experts who are fully qualified and experienced. The data recovery professionals of Stellar understand the needs and importance of data for a user and recover it in all of the cases.

When it comes to data recovery software, Stellar has the best data recovery software. The data recovery software are provided for all computer operating systems such as Windows, Macintosh, UNIX, Linux and Novell. These data recovery software can recover data from all of the file systems supported by these operating systems.

Microsoft Bids Farewell To Founder Gates

Redmond, WA-No one knew in the early 1970’s what the computer would become, nor the impact that a man from Washington State would have on the face of technology worldwide.

Bill Gates, the founder and creator of Microsoft, and in many ways the father of computers worldwide is leaving the company he created on Friday.

He leaves behind a legacy of creations, including much of the hardware and software innovations that have become as much a part of daily life in many ways as breathing.

The Windows Operating system, and a large amount of the software and hardware creations that we use every day in the modern personal computer can be traced back to the early efforts of Bill Gates and his co horts who created the computer from the ground up.

Microsoft, and the personal computer industry have grown astronomically since the early days of computer hardware and software. Leading the curve, from the first days of the early Disk operating system, or DOS, to the first graphical operating Windows and Windows 3.1 systems, to the current Windows Vista and the next generation of Windows, Microsoft has been at the forefront of innovation, invention and computer operations.

Bill Gates founded the company 33 years ago, and he leaves it in great operating shape. He stepped back a number of years ago to pursue other work, leaving the CEO position to the current chief executive of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer.

Gates has worked mainly with the charity foundation he started with his wife Melinda for the last eight years.

Gates will still be a force but just not in active management at Microsoft. He will be missed.

Microsoft eases hardware terms for XP on low-cost PCs

Microsoft has loosened the hardware restrictions that PC makers must adhere to in order to install Windows XP on ultra-low-cost PCs, according to documents seen by IDG News Service.

While June 30 marked the last day for selling most new Windows XP licenses, Microsoft has made several exceptions for the older operating system, including its use on ultra-low-cost laptops such as the Asus Eee PC, as well as on an emerging class of mini desktops. These devices are sometimes called netbooks and nettops.
Microsoft is offering Windows XP Home Edition to encourage PC makers to use that OS instead of Linux on the low-cost machines, but it places restrictions on the hardware that can be offered.

Under the new terms, outlined in the documents, PC makers must limit screen sizes to 14.1 inches and hard-drive capacity to 160G bytes. ULPCs with touchscreens will also be eligible. Earlier terms set in April did not allow touchscreens at all and limited screen sizes to 10.2 inches and hard-drive capacity to 80G bytes. The processors are still limited to a single-core chip running at no more than 1GHz, and memory is limited to 1G byte of RAM.

ULPCs are an emerging class of products with limited system capabilities in the US$250 to $500 price range. Examples include the Asus Eee PC and MSI's Wind. They are designed for basic tasks like surfing the Internet and sending e-mail, but not for more advanced tasks like video editing.

The updated terms, especially the larger screen size, mean Windows XP can be used on machines that look more like standard low-cost laptops. But ULPCs are not only defined by their size, and they remain a distinct product category due to their limited performance, said Roger Kay, founder and president of Endpoint Technologies Associates. "You can have a low-cost PC that's not small," Kay said.

The goal of the program is apparently to limit the hardware capabilities of ULPCs so that they don't eat into the market for mainstream PCs running Windows Vista, something both Microsoft and PC vendors would want to avoid.

As part of the new terms, Microsoft also added low-cost desktops to the list of products eligible for Windows XP Home, and it added Windows Vista Home Basic as a second OS option.

Microsoft declined to comment on the matter, saying it doesn't speak publicly about the details of its agreements with PC makers.

Low-cost PC vendors may be pushing Microsoft to keep Windows XP available, Kay said. Linux is another option for ULPCs, but is not yet a viable alternative, according to Kay. "I don't think Linux is going anywhere in the low-cost market," he said. "Linux doesn't really cut it when it comes to compatibility."

The documents show that for developed markets, Microsoft charges $32 to install XP Home Edition on standard netbooks, and $47 for netbooks with the larger screens. PC makers who meet certain requirements in Microsoft's Market Development Agreement can get a discount of as much as $10 on those prices, the documents show. There is a similar discount for systems sold in emerging markets, although the starting prices are lower, at $26 and $43.

Dell, Rochester-area group start computer recycling program

You have a new place to take the old, dusty and outdated computer equipment taking up space in the attic.

Computer maker Dell is teaming up with the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired-Goodwill of Greater Rochester to start Reconnect, a free computer recycling program that will create jobs for ABVI workers and keep unwanted computers and other electronic gadgets out of local landfills.

Goodwill retail stores and collection points across the Rochester area are accepting everything from monitors to modems, cables to copiers, and laptops to desktops.

"People use to call us all the time and ask if we could take computers and we had to say 'no,'" said A. Gidget Hopf, president and chief executive officer of ABVI-Goodwill. Now we can say 'yes.'"

The program is expected to take in 300,000 pounds of computer equipment in the first year. The organization has hired two people to handle and sort the incoming electronics at its South Avenue warehouse in Rochester. The workers separate the donations into crates by type of component, including cables.

The items are then picked up by a recycling and recovery company certified by Dell, which will recycle the metal, plastic and other useful materials. The computer company provides free recycling to customers worldwide. It collected 102 million pounds last year, according to Dell.

"This exciting new program is a reflection of our commitment to what we call the triple bottom line — people, profit and planet," Hopf said. "The program will create jobs, add revenue and contribute significantly and positively to our environment."

For Jim Austin, 39, of Greece, who is blind, this is an opportunity to work and learn a new skill.

"I felt very honored to be asked to do this job," he said. "I like to learn to do new things all the time."

The program has been adopted by cities across the country, including Austin, Texas, San Francisco and Pittsburgh. Computer components can contain hazardous materials including lead, cadmium, chromium, mercury and other heavy metals. They also contain valuable metals such as copper and gold, as well as plastics that can be recycled.

There are several companies in the Rochester area that will take unwanted computers for a fee. But much of the area's old electronics still ends up in local landfills.

"Dell wants to make computer recycling easy, convenient and free for any consumer and Reconnect is an important program that helps make that possible," Joe Strathmann, head of product recycling services for Dell, said in a written statement.

ABVI-Goodwill is hoping to expand the program and hire more workers. The organization's mission is to provide jobs, training to people who are blind of vision impaired to help them to become self-sufficient.

Hopf said success will require a little work from the public.

"You can start by cleaning up your basement and bringing in your old computers," she said.

Who Will Die?: Computer Predicts Which Death Row Inmates Will Be Executed

Capital punishment is legal in 36 states, but that does not necessarily mean all of the condemned will be executed. Some will languish behind bars for life and others may actually be exonerated and set free. Now researchers say they have built a computer system that can predict with 92 percent accuracy which death row inmates are most likely to be executed, a development they hope will lead to a fairer appeals process.

According to the system, the death row inmates most likely to be executed are those with the lowest levels of education. The researchers, from Texas A&M University–Texarkana and Loyola University New Orleans, report in the International Journal of Law and Information Technology, that neither the severity of the crime nor race—the latter of which is often cited as a key factor in convictions—are reliable forecasters of a prisoner's fate.

The system consists of 18 computer processors designed to analyze data the way that a human brain does—by studying one set of data and comparing it with another data set to find similarities and differences. In this case, researchers fed the system information about 1,000 death row prisoners, including their sex, age, race, highest year of school completed, the state in which they were incarcerated, and whether they were ultimately executed or spared. Once the system had established patterns (of traits most prevalent among the executed) from this initial pool, the researchers fed it similar information about 300 more prisoners (leaving out whether they had lived or died). The system, using logic it had developed from the first set of data, correctly predicted the outcome for 276 (92 percent) of the prisoners.

The system's success "has serious implications concerning the fairness of the justice system," says Stamos Karamouzis, dean of Regis University's School of Computer and Information Sciences in Denver, who led the 2006–07 study when he was a professor of computer and information sciences at Texas A&M. "People against the death penalty use the results of this work by pointing out that the nature of the crime has nothing to do with whether you're executed or not."

Karamouzis, who was assisted in his research by Loyola sociology and criminal justice professor Dee Wood Harper, acknowledges that the study lacked crucial data—unavailable at the time—such as whether DNA tests were conducted to match an inmate's genetic makeup with crime-scene evidence and whether he or she received competent representation, which is difficult to measure quantitatively.

This research comes at a time when the U.S. Supreme Court is attempting to provide clearer guidelines on when the death penalty should be applied. The high court last week, for instance, ruled that a person convicted of raping a child cannot be executed for the crime.

One legal expert says that it is more important to determine how the death penalty is meted out during the sentencing phase of different cases as opposed to predicting who will be executed once sentenced (which is what Karamouzis and Harper analyzed). Once a person is given the death penalty, "who gets executed is fairly easy to predict," says Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that collects and disseminates information about the death penalty to the public.

The best predictor, he says, is the state in which a person is convicted: There were 42 executions in the U.S. last year, 26 of which took place in Texas. "In states like Texas and Virginia, chances are your (death penalty) case will be upheld, and you'll be executed," Dieter says. "In California, chances are you'll get a reversal during the appeals process or you'll be in jail until you die."

The reason? Although the appeals structure is the same in each state, the people in charge have different political beliefs about the death penalty, Dieter says. "The people elected in (Texas and Virginia) are more strongly committed to the death penalty than they are in, say, California," he says, "where they have the death penalty but the (more even) mix of Republicans (who are more likely to favor capital punishment) and Democrats (who are more likely to oppose it) means they are much less likely to use it."

Dell goes after small, mid-size RP businesses

MANILA, Philippines--Computer maker Dell said it will become more aggressive in the small and medium business (SMB) segment in the Philippines starting this year, executives told reporters here.

Dell defines SMB as companies with fewer than 500 but more than 10 employees--a category that comprises 90 percent of businesses in the country according to government figures.

"In the Philippines, we're very well positioned in the corporate [market] but we're starting to focus on the SMB," said Paul-Henri Ferrand, president of Dell for Asia Pacific and South Asia which includes countries in the Asia Pacific region except for Australia, Japan, South Korea, and China.

Barry Bunyi, Dell Asia Pacific director and country manager for the Philippines, said the computer vendor has appointed local distributors that will help the company penetrate the SMB market.
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Bunyi said Dell controls only about 2 percent of the SMB market in the Philippines.

Dell's presence in the country was beefed up only recently. With the appointment of a country manager, the computer vendor hopes to grow its business locally, as it applies its hybrid strategy of distribution, according to Bunyi.

The hybrid strategy calls for Dell to sell its computers directly or through local distributors in the Philippines.

Growth rates of computers remained strong in the country, the executive said, citing figures from market research firm International Data Corp. (IDC).

Bunyi said the notebook market has seen 45-percent overall growth in terms of units sold in the Philippine market during the first quarter of this year. Desktop computers, on the other hand, still experienced some growth at 10 to 12 percent, he added.

Dell's approach to penetrating the local SMB market involves identifying key partners that will provide the vendor more presence nationwide.

Bunyi said Dell has its sights on selling to SMBs in Metro Manila mostly and several key markets in the rest of the country.

"SMBs lack the resources that would allow them have more choices," Bunyi said.

Your computer as your singing coach

Israeli researchers have developed an electronic ear to coach vibrato technique. Until now, the quality of a vibrato — the pulsating change of pitch in a singer’s voice — could only be judged by voice experts. Now, a Tel Aviv University research team ‘has successfully managed to train a computer to rate vibrato quality, and has created an application based on biofeedback to help singers improve their technique.’ Interestingly, this research could be used for other applications, such as improving automated help centers, where computers could be trained ‘to recognize a range of different emotions, such as anger and nervousness.’ But read more…

The three researchers work at the Department of Communication Disorders of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine of Tel Aviv University. Noam Amir and Ofer Amir are lecturers in this department, while the third scientist, Orit Michaeli, seems to only have a web page on Facebook — but I might be wrong.

Before going further, what is vibrato? It is “a musical effect than can be used when a musician sings or plays an instrument. It adds expression to a song and is created by a steady pulsating change of pitch, characterized by the amount of variation and the speed at which the pitch is varied. TAU’s application can teach singers how to mimic the vibrato qualities most attractive to the human ear.”

And here are some quotes from Noam Amir. “‘Vibrato is just one aspect of a singer’s impact,’ says Amir, an expert in the ways that emotions impact speech. ‘Singers need to arouse an emotional response, and that is a complicated task.’ […] New vocal students usually don’t have good control of their vibrato, explains Amir. ‘Their vibrato is erratic and hard to judge subjectively, and it’s hard to find to a precise measure for this. We wanted to find a way to emulate a human expert in a computer program.’”

So what did Amir and his colleagues do? “Amir’s team input into their computer many recordings by students singing vibrato and had their vibrato judged by human teachers. Using hundreds of vocal students and expert judges, the team was able to use mathematical measurements to correlate vibrato styles to their quality as judged by the teachers. The computer was then able to rate the vibrato quality of new voices on its own, producing ratings similar to those given by the expert vocal teachers. In effect, a machine had ‘learned’ how to judge the quality of an individual singer’s vibrato. The researchers then added a biofeedback loop and a monitor so that singers could see and augment their vibrato in real time.”

According to the American Friends of Tel Aviv University, the researchers demonstrated their electronic ear at the International Cultural and Academic Meeting of Engineering Students (ICAMES) held in May 2008 in Istanbul, Turkey. The news release said the team won a first price there — even if I’m unable to find a confirmation on the ICAMES website.

The original research was published in the journal Biomedical Signal Processing and Control under the title “Acoustic and perceptual assessment of vibrato quality of singing students” (Volume 1, Issue 2, Pages 144-150, April 2006).

Here is the beginning of the abstract. “While most studies that attempted to evaluate vibrato quality examined vocal productions of accomplished singers, very little is known about the characteristics of vibrato among singing students. Therefore, in this study, we performed a preliminary attempt to assess vibrato quality in their production of sustained notes. To that end, the presence and quality of vibrato in 253 sung notes was rated subjectively by five experienced singing teachers. The pitch contour was calculated for each recording, from which we calculated the FFT and the autocorrelation of this contour. Subsequently, a series of features was extracted from these two, and then different statistical methods were applied to examine whether the acoustic features could be used to define predictors that would be in agreement with the perceptual judgments. Given the moderate agreement obtained among judges, these acoustic predictors performed relatively well: vibrato existence was predicted correctly in over 82% of the recordings.”

On a related subject, you also might want to read a paper published by the same three researchers in the Journal of Voice under the title “Evaluating the Influence of Warmup on Singing Voice Quality Using Acoustic Measures” (Volume 19, Issue 2, Pages 252-260, June 2005).

Here is the beginning of the abstract. “Vocal warmup is generally accepted as vital for singing performance. However, only a limited number of studies have evaluated this effect quantitatively. In this study, we evaluated the effect of vocal warmup on voice production, among young female singers, using a set of acoustic parameters. Warmup reduced frequency-perturbation (p < 0.001) and amplitude-perturbation values (p < 0.05). In addition, warmup increased singer's formant amplitude (p < 0.05) and improved noise-to-harmonic ratio (p < 0.05). Tone-matching accuracy, however, was not affected by warmup. The effect of vocal warmup on frequency-perturbation parameters was more evident among mezzo-soprano singers than it was among soprano singers." Interesting observation...

Computer says get a life

Last week hundreds of young people queued overnight to watch Andrew Murray play a game of tennis. Tickets were reportedly changing hands for £2,000. Yet the game could be watched on any television or computer screen, in the comfort of home, pub or work-place. Last year the market clearing price for a ticket to December’s Led Zeppelin reunion was £7,425. Yet every note was available for free on download. What is happening?

Futurology seminars have long been obsessed with one question: what next after the internet? The answer is always the same, a new electronic gizmo. There will be a novel way of downloading into the ear or eye, a new web phenomenon or interactive device. Since the invention of the telegraph and gramophone, innovation is interested only in kit that yields profit. What is becoming plain, even under the strains of recession, is that the futurologist’s answer should lie in the realm not of electronics but of reality. It is in reality television, reality politics, reality entertainment and sport, the immediate, the active, the present, the live.

The phenomenon is near-universal. People do not want to spend their spare time in front of the same screens at which they increasingly work. They want to “go out”. They will use the internet and iPod, MySpace and YouTube, but as a proxy for the real. The popularity of “reality” television lies in being brought closer to truth to life than drama can ever be.

Last year sales of CDs fell by more than 10% and prices plummeted, while attendance at live concerts rose by 13% and prices soared. A million people reportedly tried to get tickets for Led Zeppelin. The Rolling Stones 2005-6 world tour grossed £280m, with single tickets costing more than the price of their entire album output.

At the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss concert in the grim Wembley arena in May, enthusiasts were hanging from the rafters. Tickets for Anna Netrebko at Covent Garden changed hands for four times their face value.

A year ago Prince declared that his CDs would be given away free, in effect as flyers to publicise his 21 concerts at the O2arena, which swiftly sold out. Recorded music became overnight what it had not been since the invention of recording: publicity for live rather than live being publicity for recording. With more than half of internet provider traffic estimated to be illegal downloads, David Bowie’s prediction is true, that “music will soon be like running water”, available at the cost only of transmitting it. A shrewd promoter signs a “360degree” contract with a singer, ensuring revenue from live as well as recorded output.

What is happening is a reversal of history. Artists can no longer sell the products of their genius because the internet supplies it virtually for free. What can be sold is that genius in the flesh. The miserable output of modern abstract art is gradually being supplanted by what amount to live freak shows, such as Tate Britain’s performers running up and down the gallery in trainers.

The boom in recorded music probably peaked in the mid1990s, when album sales hit a record of 3.4 billion worldwide. Last year the comparable figure was 1.9 billion and falling more than 10% a year, with revenue down 8%.

Nor is the “rise of live” confined to high-profile music, art and sport. The fastest growing cultural activity in Britain is literary and music festivals. The number of the latter has risen tenfold over the past two decades to about 450. Festivals such as Edinburgh, Oxford and Hay have become near-industrial in scale and others have spread out to embrace market towns and villages. My favourite festival of the year is at Charleston in East Sussex.

These are not financial extravaganzas and pay their performers little or nothing, but they draw big crowds to socialise and meet, or at least hear, celebrity performers. They generate turnover and employ people. The musicians and writers who are their staple input will soon earn more from live activity than from mass-produced versions of their work.

Wendy Cope, the poet, recently championed her profession by demanding that poetry readings acknowledge copyright. But when a poet’s work can be instantly disseminated on the web, the only real income will in future come from the gift book market and public recitals. The festival and lecture circuit, well exploited by retired politicians, may yet be many a writer’s chief source of income.

Lectures – surely the most archaic form of public entertainment – now cram the London what’s-on schedules. Popular debating series such as IQ2 regularly sell out at the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington.

Even the steady decline in church attendance is not matched by a decline in well promoted religious events. The Dalai Lama packed the Albert Hall in May. The Pope is guaranteed to draw crowds wherever he goes.

Cathedrals are booming thanks to the fame of their architecture and choirs. Half a million people attended concerts last year in Exeter Cathedral. So many people went to Wells over Christmas that an official worried that it “could lose its prayerful atmosphere”. It is not a risk run by many parish churches.

One demonstration of this phenomenon lies in the oldest form of human communication, politics. In the early days of the internet in 1992, Ross Perot, the Texan tycoon, claimed that he would transform democracy by campaigning for the presidency on the web. Bill Clinton responded by campaigning old style, from the back of a train.

Sixteen years later, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were still barnstorming around every key state in their primary election battle. They knew that people would not believe in them unless they were physically and visibly present on their territory.

The difference of the internet to the campaign lay in sending messages and raising money. If it supplanted anything it was other media such as the letter post, radio and television. Obama’s online securing of $270m combined the e-mail with computer banking to sensational effect. As with show business, the internet supports live but is in no way a substitute for it. Clicking a mouse can never beat pumping flesh. The recent London mayoral election saw a dramatic return to the popularity of the old hustings with packed meetings.

The reason why public figures such as Clinton and Tony Blair can command huge sums for “personal appearances” is not that people are eager to hear their wisdom. That is available on the web for free. The reason is that people pay to be in the presence. JPMorgan, the bank, has blown £1m on a Blair “consul-tancy” that appears to involve no more than having him to lunch. That is the price of live.

Futurology has a built-in distortion towards technological novelty, while ignoring the continued appeal of what has gone before. It cannot recognise what the historian David Edgerton of Imperial College has dubbed “the shock of the old”. Our demands rarely change over time, only the way in which the market supplies them.

I find this form of conservatism vastly encouraging. People like people. They crave the immediacy of human contact and congregation. They want to see those who inspire or excite them live, not digitised. And what they want, they will pay for.

Ellis Rich, chairman of the Performing Rights Society, remarked recently that the battered music business, traditionally at the cutting edge of entertainment, “must constantly ask itself, where is the money being made? For that’s where we should be”.

The money is now being made in supplying a public craving not for technology but for human experience. It lies in flesh and blood. Live is live.

Eyestrain and your computer screen: Tips for getting relief

Common signs and symptoms include: Sore, tired, burning or itching eyes, watery eyes, dry eyes, blurred or double vision, headache and sore neck, difficulty shifting focus between monitor and paper documents in your work area, color fringes or afterimages when you look away from the monitor and increased sensitivity to light.

Eyestrain associated with computer use isn't thought to have serious or long-term consequences, but it's disruptive and unpleasant. Though you may not be able to change the nature of your job or all the factors that can cause eyestrain, you can take steps to reduce the strain.

Follow these simple tips to reduce eyestrain:

Take eye breaks. Throughout the day, give your eyes a break by forcing them to focus on something other than on your screen. Try the following exercise: Hold a finger a few inches in front of your face; focus on the finger as you slowly move it away; focus on something far in the distance and then back to the finger; slowly bring the finger back toward your face. Next, shift your focus to something farther than eight feet away and hold your eyes there for a few seconds. Repeat this exercise three times, several times a day.

Change the pace. Try to stand up and move around at least once every hour or so. If possible, lean back and close your eyes for a few moments. At the very least, try to give yourself a five-minute rest every hour. Do other work, such as phone calls, during this time.

Blink often to refresh your eyes. Because many people blink less than normal when working at a computer, dry eyes can result from prolonged computer use. Blinking produces tears that can help moisten and lubricate your eyes. Make a conscious effort to blink more often.

Consider using artificial teardrops. Available over the counter, artificial tears can help relieve dry eyes that result from prolonged sessions at the computer.

Practice relaxation. Ease muscle tension with this relaxation exercise: Place your elbows on your desk, palms facing up; let your weight fall forward and your head fall into your hands; position your head so that your eyebrows rest on the base of your palms, with your fingers extended toward your forehead; close your eyes and take a deep breath through your nose; hold it for four seconds, then exhale. Continue this deep breathing for 15 to 30 seconds. Perform this simple exercise several times a day.

Get appropriate eyewear. If you wear glasses or contacts, make sure the correction is right for computer work. Most lenses are fitted for reading print and may not be optimal for computer work. Glasses or contact lenses designed specifically for computer work may be a worthwhile investment.

Put your workstation in order

Take some of the strain off your eyes by making sure your desk space is set up in an appropriate and eye-friendly way.

Adjust your monitor. Position your monitor directly in front of you about 20 to 28 inches from your eyes. Many people find that putting the screen at arm's length is about right. If you need to get too close to read small type, consider increasing the font size.

Keep the top of your screen at eye level or below so that you look down slightly at your work. If it's too high or too low, it can lead to a sore neck. If you have your monitor on top of your central processing unit (CPU), consider placing the CPU to the side or on the floor. And if you wear bifocals or trifocals, keep in mind that you may have a tendency to tilt your head backwards so that you can see through the lower portion of your glasses. To adjust for this, consider lowering your monitor a few inches or buying glasses designed for computer work.

Position your keyboard properly. Place your keyboard directly in front of your monitor. If you place it at an angle or to the side, your eyes have to focus at different distances from the screen, a tiring activity.

Keep reference materials nearby. Place reading and reference material on a document holder beside your monitor and at the same level, angle and distance from your eyes as the monitor is from your eyes. This way your eyes aren't constantly readjusting.

Check the lighting and reduce glare. Bright lighting and too much glare can make it difficult to see objects on your screen and strain your eyes. To check glare, sit at your computer with the monitor off. This allows you to see the reflected light and images. Note any intense glare. The worst problems are generally from sources above or behind you, including fluorescent lighting and sunlight.

If possible, place your monitor so that the brightest light sources are off to the side, at a right angle to your monitor. Consider turning off some or all of the overhead lights. If you need light for writing or reading, use an adjustable desk lamp. Close blinds and shades and avoid placing your monitor directly in front of a window or white wall. Use a glare-reducing screen to minimize glare from overhead lighting. Finally, adjust the contrast and brightness on the monitor to a level that's comfortable for you, making sure the letters on the screen are easy to read.

Also wipe the dust from your computer screen regularly. Dust on the screen cuts down on contrast and may contribute to glare and reflection problems.

If problems still persist, it could be a sign of a more serious problem. See your doctor if you have:

Prolonged eye discomfort, a noticeable change in vision and double vision.

But if you're like most people, making a few simple adjustments can help keep your eyes rested and ready.

14,000 more schools to log in for Computer-Aided Learning Programme

Enthused by the success of the Computer-Aided Learning Programme (CALP) for the government-run upper primary schools across Gujarat, the Modi government has set a target of covering over 14,000 more schools under the programme this year.

Under the programme, each of the upper primary schools is provided with a lab equipped with six computer sets and furniture. Also, compact discs (CDs) containing specially designed animated pictorial software and other teaching contents related to different subjects like maths, science and geography are provided.

"There are around 22,000 government-run upper primary schools across Gujarat, and we have already set up computer labs in as many as 4,871 schools. For the new target, the government has made a budgetary provision of Rs 84 crore," said Meena Bhatt, state Project Director (District Primary Education Programme).

Bhatt told Newsline on Saturday that the Gujarat Informatics Limited (GIL) – the government's IT arm – will soon invite bids from private firms to supply computers, software and furniture to set up labs in schools. The GIL has been assigned the task of inviting and finalising tenders, and procure hardware and software from the parties.

In the first phase that covered 4,871 schools, the government had engaged three leading private firms – Delhi-based Educom, Chennai-based Teledata and Avronn – for setting up the labs in these schools on the build, operate, own and transfer (BOOT) basis. During the five-year BOOT period, the companies are also facilitating teachers' training.

"We hope to cover all 22,000 upper primary schools across the state in the next two years. Besides, each of these schools is being provided with the satellite-based KU band. This envisages to enable students to have an easy access to even learning/teaching programmes being aired from the Gandhinagar-based Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Application and Geo-Informatics (BAISAG)," said Anita Karwal, Primary Education Secretary.

The government had launched the CALP programme with the objective of making students computer literate, besides enhancing quality learning/teaching in these schools. Besides, the programme aims at encouraging parents to send their wards in government-run schools, particularly in rural and semi-urban areas. The programme has helped reduce the drop-out rate in most of the schools where it is already being implemented, claimed a senior officer.

The CDs containing animated software with interactive features in Gujarati help both the teachers and students in the teaching/learning process, especially while dealing with nagging subjects like science and maths.

"At the computer lab, a science teacher finds it easier while explaining to the students the various functions of heart through an animated 3-dimension pictorial software than teaching the same on the blackboard in a class room. Even students find it easier to learn difficult chapters in science and maths through this unique computer-aided programme," said the officer.