A brave cat's journey back home!

Even though we consider cats to be hardly a symbol of bravery, here is a cat in the US which made more than a 1000 mile journey! The story goes thus:


A tabby cat Charles travelled 1300 miles from his Mexico home to Chicago in a mystery no one could solve! This shows how much cats take care of themselves and remain agile. And now, he is set to return home in a flight alongwith his owner Alex's neighbour named Sims who was coming back from Chicago attending a marriage. Sims arranged everything for the cat's flight like getting a company to donate a cat carrier and to waive off the cat's travel fee from American Airlines.
 
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Enjoy..Anil

Cat's brain inspires superfast bio-computer!

Cats are one of the most agile creatures on earth and so fast at recognising objects that they are 83 times faster than a super computer in face recognition! An excerpt from today's newspaper[courtesy: deccan herald]:

A cat can recognise a face faster and more efficiently than a supercomputer. That’s one reason a feline brain is the model for a biologically-inspired superfast computer project.

University of Michigan (U-M) computer engineer Wei Lu has taken a step toward developing this revolutionary type of machine that could be capable of learning and recognising, as well as making more complex decisions and performing more tasks simultaneously than conventional computers can. Lu previously built a “memristor,” a device that replaces a traditional transistor and acts like a biological synapse, remembering past voltages it was subjected to.  Now, he has demonstrated that this memristor can connect conventional circuits and support a process that is the basis for memory and learning in biological systems. “We are building a computer in the same way that nature builds a brain,” said Lu, an assistant professor in the U-M Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “The idea is to use a completely different paradigm compared to conventional computers. The cat brain sets a realistic goal because it is much simpler than a human brain but still extremely difficult to replicate in complexity and efficiency,” he said. Today’s most sophisticated supercomputer can accomplish certain tasks with the brain functionality of a cat, but it’s a massive machine with more than 140,000 central processing units and a dedicated power supply. And it still performs 83 times slower than a cat’s brain, Lu wrote. In a conventional computer, logic and memory functions are located at different parts of the circuit and each computing unit is only connected to a handful of neighbours in the circuit. As a result, conventional computers execute code in a linear fashion, line by line, Lu said. They are excellent at performing relatively simple tasks with limited variables. But a brain can perform many operations simultaneously, or in parallel. That’s how we can recognise a face in an instant, but even a supercomputer would take much, much longer and consume much more energy in doing so. The next step is to build a larger system, Lu said. His goal is to achieve the sophistication of a supercomputer in a machine the size of a two-litre beverage container. That could be several years away. Lu said an electronic analog of a cat brain would be able to think intelligently at the cat level. For example, if the task were to find the shortest route from the front door to the sofa in a house full of furniture, and the computer knows only the shape of the sofa, a conventional machine could accomplish this. But if you moved the sofa, it wouldn’t realise the adjustment and find a new path. That’s what engineers hope the cat brain computer would be capable of, said a U-M release.

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Enjoy..Anil

Now, a software to catproof your computer!!

When cats walk or climb on your keyboard, they can enter random commands and data, damage your files, and even crash your computer. This can happen whether you are near the computer or have suddenly been called away from it.
"PawSense" is a software[available for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and 7] utility that helps protect your computer from cats. It quickly detects and blocks cat typing, and also helps train your cat to stay off the computer keyboard.

Every time your computer boots up, PawSense will automatically start up in the background to watch over your computer system.

Even while you use your other software, PawSense constantly monitors keyboard activity. PawSense analyzes keypress timings and combinations to distinguish cat typing from human typing. PawSense normally recognizes a cat on the keyboard within one or two pawsteps.

If a cat gets on the keyboard, PawSense makes a sound that annoys cats.

This teaches your cat that getting on the keyboard is bad even if humans aren't watching.

Once a cat has been recognized, PawSense blocks the cat's keyboard input. This keeps the cat from entering lots of commands to your programs or operating system.

If you carefully measure cat paws, you will find that practically all cat paws are significantly larger than a typical keyboard key. When a cat first places its paw down, the cat's weight plus the momentum of the cat's movement exerts pounds of force on the keyboard, primarily through the cat's paw pads. The cat's paw angles and toe positions also undergo complex changes while the paw lands on the keyboard. This forces keys and often key combinations down in a distinctive style of typing which includes unusual timing patterns. Cats' patterns of overall movement in walking or lying down also help make their typing more recognizable.
PawSense also includes a screensaver mode, which features extra-sensitive cat detection, protection, and sonic training and a one-click escape button.




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Enjoy..Anil

Save our Tigers..The BIG CATS..

Tigers being the pride of India and our national animal, its the responsibility of all of us to join hands in support of these beautiful amazing creatures. Stop buying products made from animals.

After all, when buying stops, killing can stop too.

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Best Regards,
Anil [http://anilreddy12001.blogspot.com]