Date: 08/24/05     Keywords: no keywords

A new type of cell discovered in umbilical-cord blood promises to overcome the ethical and legal dilemmas surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells. International researchers who discovered the cells - called cord-blood-derived-embryonic-like stem cells, or CBEs - have found a way to mass produce them. Read more on The Stem Cell Blog

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/umbilical-stem-cell-breakthrough/

Date: 08/24/05     Keywords: no keywords

With stem cell research legislation still making its way through Capitol Hill, U.S. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, toured local research facilities yesterday to highlight advances already made as well as the need for further federal funding. If we don’t open up less restrictive policy, places like South Korea and Singapore will run away with this [research],” [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/stem-cell-research-lacking-federal-cash/

Date: 08/24/05     Keywords: no keywords

Wojciech Biela asked in his blog about the steps for preparing for XP process. Here's my take on the issue based on personal experience: First give him a simple Powerpoint presentation explaining the high level details of XP process and benefits. You can start with my XP presentation (dated). This will make him inquisitive and warm [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/how-to-prepare-a-client-for-extreme-programming-xp/

Date: 08/24/05     Keywords: software, html, xml, java

iText is a java software library which contains API to generate documents in the Portable Document Format (PDF), XML, HTML and RTF. It can also parse XML documents and convert them into any of these formats. Pages of existing PDF files can be imported and copied to new PDF documents. In short if you ever thought [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/itext-must-have-document-conversion-library-version-133-released/

Date: 08/24/05     Keywords: linux

Freespire is a new free Linux distribution from Linspire. It is Linspire with all proprietary components and trademarks removed. The distribution has a free repository of over 1,500 packages, available via apt-get and Synaptic. Initial release of Freespire functions as live CD only and serves as a proof of concept. Linspire is known for excellent [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/linspire-goes-freespire/

Date: 08/24/05     Keywords: no keywords

A human fetus is unlikely to feel pain before the third trimester, when consciousness begins to form, researchers from UCSF said on Tuesday in a report that could fuel debate over proposed U.S. abortion legislation. Legislation under consideration by the U.S. Congress and some U.S. states would require doctors to inform women seeking abortions after the [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/study-concludes-fetal-pain-unlikely-before-third-trimester/

Date: 08/23/05     Keywords: no keywords

Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, is all set to reject his executive Boeing Jet in favor of Legacy Executive Jet from Embraer, a Brazillian company. According to a top official in defence ministry (as quoted in Anandabazar Patrika) Legacy Executive Jet is the last word in luxury within Executive Jet category. India is buying five [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/indian-prime-minister-prepares-for-ultimate-luxury-jet-while-common-man-toils-under-his-new-tax-for-cash-withdrawals/

Date: 08/22/05     Keywords: no keywords

I suddenly decided to change this site. It wasn't planned nor very well thought out. It just seemed the right thing to do on the spur of moment. In case you haven't noticed we also completely changed our corporate site. What do you think? Do you like the new design better/worse/same?

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/changed-the-site-on-a-whim/

Date: 08/22/05     Keywords: browser, yahoo, google

When FireFox is used through AnalogX Proxy (a popular free proxy server) a strange error persistently happens if you have too many browser windows open. All of your requests get strangely redirected to the last opened site. For example after opening Google you open another windows for Yahoo. However the second window will display [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/how-to-use-firefox-browser-through-analogx-proxy/

Date: 08/21/05     Keywords: no keywords

Now we have Intelligent Falling Theory which refutes gravity in favor of a God pushing them down. No wonder he looks so muscular. I propose that this be taught to poor Kansas students instead of (or in addition to) Newton's gravitational theory. This will provide coherent education for the students along with "Intelligent Design theory". "Things fall [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/evangelical-scientists-refute-gravity-with-new-intelligent-falling-theory/

Date: 08/20/05     Keywords: no keywords

I observed people outsourcing dubious projects on RentACoder. But this is plain outrageous. I received a broadcast message from a RentACoder Buyer today who registered himself as ReyReyJr from Texas. This is his message in entirety: I will need the development as well as I will need one installation of this on my site and instruction on how [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/outsourcing-development-of-malicious-adware-malware-using-rentacoder/

Date: 08/20/05     Keywords: no keywords

Japanese Overclocker Set Super PI World Record with Prescott 2M at 7.1GHz

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/intel-pentium-4-overclocked-to-71ghz-japanese-sets-world-record/

Date: 08/20/05     Keywords: no keywords

Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing has issued a 250K$ Intelligent Design challenge: We are willing to pay any individual *$250,000 if they can produce empirical evidence which proves that Jesus is not the son of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. You may submit entries here. Jason Kottke of kottke.org and Sean Bonner of metblogs have each offered an additional $250,000 which [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/additional-250000-from-simple-thoughts-for-intelligent-design-contest-prize-offer/

Date: 08/19/05     Keywords: no keywords

Japanese Overclocker Set Super PI World Record with Prescott 2M at 7.1GHz

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/intel%e2%80%99s-pentium-4-overclocked-to-71ghz-japanese-sets-world-record/

Date: 08/19/05     Keywords: no keywords

Asia leads in world in total number of people using the internet. 34.5 % of the world's internet users are Asian. However the percentage of population using internet is low at 8.9 %. North America has 68% of its users on the internet followed by 36.% penetration in Europe. Europe has the second largest number of [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/internet-usage-stats-asia-leads-the-world-in-internet-usage/

Date: 08/18/05     Keywords: no keywords

"Well I am at the tip of the door of a saucer that’s taking me round giving me a chance to take a plunge in to the turbulent sky around. I am sure that plunge will land me at the doorsteps of your company, where I would like to make a mark in that stellar [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/believe-it-or-not-tip-of-the-door-of-a-saucer/

Date: 08/18/05     Keywords: no keywords

Panic gripped Bangladesh following the series of time-bomb explosions in all the district headquarters except Munshiganj that left at least two people killed and more than 300 others injured on Wednesday. Bombers under the letterhead of outlawed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) spread leaflets during serial bombings across the country yesterday with a demand for establishing Islamic [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/terrorists-behind-banladesh-blast-ridicules-democracy-calls-for-islamic-rule-states-bush-is-the-biggest-terrorist-in-the-world-summarization-of-their-leaflet/

Date: 08/18/05     Keywords: no keywords

459 Bombs were blasted throughout Bangladesh within a span of only 20 minutes killing at least 100 people. For years Bangladesh has quietly nurtured Islamist extremists trained by Pakistan's ISI and Taliban-minded clerics. Khaleda Zia's overnment even made them coalition partners. Yesterday the policy backfired. 459 bombs were blasted in a span of only 20 minutes from 11 [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/400-bomb-blasts-in-20-minutes-rattle-bangla-india-seals-border/

Date: 08/17/05     Keywords: no keywords

I am happy to announce that Simple Thoughts Blog is ranked 97 in Feedster's Top 500 List. It feels good to be in the Top 100 list of bloggers. According to Feedster: Each month, Feedster brings you a list of 500 of the most interesting and important blogs. Enjoy browsing to see what people are reading, [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/simple-thoughts-blog-selected-in-top-100-blogs-by-feedster/

Date: 08/17/05     Keywords: technology

C# was a much hyped language not so long back. These days we don't hear about it anymore anywhere. Can it be shelved as a failure, a has-been technology? Calvin Austin from Sun makes compelling argument to show that the party is indeed over. Lets take a hard look at the facts and issues. Note: Calvin's [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/is-c-microsoft-developed-proposed-alternative-to-java-software-platform-a-big-failure/