THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The neighbourhood kids in Saji Thomas’s remote Idukki village used to call him ‘potten’ (idiot) and not just because, as children often cruelly do, he was born deaf and mute but because he was also constantly trying to piece together junk into something new. The 45 year-old ‘potten’ has come a long way. Thomas…
If you’ve ever used Facebook, you’ve probably been annoyed by your notifications filled with candy crush requests that you wish you could just flush down the toilet. In his latest meet and greet Townhall Q&A at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was presented with a question that has bugged users…
A four-legged robot built by Chinese researchers just walked 83 miles on a single battery charge, more than doubling the previous record for longest distance covered by a quadruped robot. Xingzhe (or “Walker”) No. 1 resembles the design of the Cornell-built Ranger robot that traveled 41 miles for the record in 2011: two pairs of…
Perhaps the world could do without a new Web browser. Google’s Chrome, despite being a resource and battery hog, manages to get the work done for most, while Windows 10 continues to help Microsoft Edge be the default browser for millions of users. Jon S. von Tetzchner, co-founder and former CEO of Opera, believes that…
Like it or not, Twitter on Tuesday retired its star button that users click to “favorite” a post and replaced it with a heart. The messaging platform said the new system of “likes,” which is also used by Facebook, offers a better way for users to express their views. But it quickly sparked an outcry…
WASHINGTON: Scientists are developing new technologies that will allow computers to recognise non-verbal commands such as gestures, body language and facial expressions. For most people, using a computer is limited to clicking, typing, searching, and, thanks to Siri and similar software, verbal commands. “Compare that with how humans interact with each other, face to face…
BERLIN: A World War II bomb was destroyed in a controlled explosion on Monday at the main international airport in the western German city of Duesseldorf, briefly halting air traffic. Flights at the hub, Germany’s third busiest in terms of passengers, were interrupted for an hour in the morning while the 125-kilogramme bomb was neutralized,…
SANA’A/CAIRO—The numbers vary, but the story they tell is clear: The cyclone in Yemen has destroyed almost everything in its path. And some residents say between the ongoing war and the abject poverty that dominates the nation, they are growing terrified of the future. “All people here are very scared because the situation was already…
Alphabet, parent company of tech giant Google, has announced tie-ups with three major Indonesian telecom operators to expand web connectivity in the country’s remote areas using hundreds of net-beaming balloons. The initiative is part of Project Loon by Google X, Alphabet’s research division, which works on ambitious ideas, including self-driven cars, EFE news reported. …
SHANGHAI: More than 40% of goods sold online in China last year were either counterfeits or of bad quality, the official Xinhua news agency said, illustrating the extent of a problem that has bogged down the fast-growing online sector. According to the report, which was delivered to China’s top lawmakers on Monday, just under 59…
