What is Focus-A Programme TM

Focus A is an e-learning programme which has been developed by a team of qualified teachers together with the integration of Internet and according to the education system in Malaysia. It is a total solution for the difficulties encountered by the students and parents. The students can gauge their effectiveness and capabilities in the Focus A Programme. After pursuing the programme, the students will be able to attempt the examinations with confidence and obtain excellent results.

By enrolling into the Focus A Programme there will be complete interaction between parent and child, with Focus A Programme the parents can keep track of their child’s progress through the access of our Web Report Card & SMS feature 24 hours a day, 365 days in a year anytime, anywhere.

The key to accomplish good grades are both Input and Output Learning – the ability to absorb, retrieve and apply what the students have studied and learned. To excel, your children needs to do both Input and Output Learning. Input learning are the process of effective reading, studying, memorizing & listening. Output learning is applying what has been learned.

We have invested millions in developing this ultimate tool in our e-learning programme that has been specially designed by IT Experts to be in line with the local school curriculum approved by the Ministry of Education.

We will help and guide your children to – BE EXAM READY & EXCEL the impossible to gear them to be examination orientated. “Practice makes perfect”. The will to succeed is important but what’s even more important is the positiveness in oneself.

Our programme will benefit your children with our learning methology consisting of Input, Output, Voice over explanation by teachers, Online Live Teaching & Forum sessions for the students. When comes the examination day, your children will sail through the challenge with full of confidence and be able to obtain straight A+.

Apple's iBook 2: Textbooks that come alive...!!

Apple’s announcement on Thursday that it would be introducing a new iPad textbook experience and iBooks authoring tool presents huge opportunities for technology in classrooms.

The company is selling textbooks from McGraw-Hill, Pearson and Houghton Mifflin at a price comparable to print versions, and it’s presented an unprecedented opportunity for teachers to compile their own materials.

But Apple has a long way to go — and logistical hurdles to clear in tens of thousands of schools — before it dominates K-12 classrooms the way it has done the music industry.

Instructional Technology Resource Teacher Jenny Grabiec recently purchased iPads for two of the ESL classrooms in her 160-school district using federal funds allocated for students with limited English proficiency.

Getting approval for the actual purchase was fairly easy. She sent a written request to the district CIO, and he approved it. But it took five months to get the iPads up and running after they arrived.

In order to download new apps, she needed to get the Apple volume purchase program approved as a vendor by the budget group. But who would explain to the budget committee the process of paying with an Apple ID? Who would be responsible for downloading the volume-purchased apps? Could the students use them outside of their hour-long ESL class? The list of logistical issues went on.

“Because nobody in our district had done it before, it took a long time,” Grabiec says.

---

Becoming The Next Big Thing

---

By Apple’s count, 1.5 million iPads are being used by schools. But there are 55.5 million students enrolled in more than 130,000 U.S. schools. No matter how you slice it, the iPad is not a mainstream phenomenon in K-12.

Nor is there any guarantee it will become so. One-to-one initiatives for laptops have been pushing forward for years without mainstream adoption. Maine, for instance, gave 33,000 middle school students and 3,000 teachers personal laptops as early as 2002.

But in 2009, a survey by the National Center for Education Statistics found that while 99% of public school teachers have some access to computers, just 29% of public school teachers use them during instructional time “often.” Just 3% of schools in a 2010 survey by the FCC said they have a one-to-one computer ratio.

iPads do have a couple of advantages over one-to-one laptop initiatives. Grabiec points out that the iPads’ batteries last longer than the laptops she oversees in other classrooms. They also have been less expensive to maintain than the computers — not a single one has been damaged — and don’t work as stand-ins for desktop computers, but as cameras, GPS devices and video cameras.

“With a laptop you were stuck with consuming content,” says Timothy Smith, who works as an Instructional Technology Specialist in the same district as Grabiec. “But with the iPad you’re taking videos and looking at ideas in a new way.”

---

Textbook Availability

---

Even though Apple’s first iPad textbooks will sell for $15 or less, they won’t be any less expensive for schools than paper books. Vineet Madan, head McGraw-Hill Higher Education eLabs, tells Mashable that iBooks will be sold to schools rather than directly to students, but that schools will grant students access to those books through their personal IDs.

In other words, even if a school reuses iPads, it won’t be able to reuse books. The books will be kept on individual students’ iTunes accounts.

Schools reuse the same paper book for about five years, and those books usually cost about $75. Because a new book will be purchased every year, the iBook version still costs $75 for five years.

Relying on iBooks as textbooks isn’t a feasible option for most public schools at the moment because Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson have each dedicated just a small number of titles each. Madan puts the typical cycle for textbook approval in most states at about five years.

Unless the school happens to be using one of the selected titles, it can’t use iBooks yet. Most other options for digital textbooks that can be read on an iPad –including Coursesmart, Kno, Chegg and Inkling — focus on books for higher education.

Unless major publishers decide to add more of their titles to iBooks, it won’t be a feasible default reader in most schools. Madan says that McGraw has already committed to adding five additional titles before September, but it will commit to additional titles based on uptake.

In a FTC 2010 survey of the schools in its program for discounted telecommunications, almost 80% said their Internet connections don’t fully meet their current needs.

“It’s not atypical to see one classroom of students on connected devices bring down a network,” Madan says.

Before schools introduce connected devices, many of them will need to introduce better Internet connections. And that’s just one logistical issue. Schools and districts will likely have a longer list specific to their circumstances. Consider the situation that Smith, who recently helped put an iPad in the hands of every administrator in his district, faces when he thinks about introducing iPads district-wide:

Some types of funding, like the one used to buy iPads for the ESL classrooms, can’t be used for anything already being paid for by the school district. If the district bought iPads for some students, in other words, it would be cutting off other sources of funding. It’s a puzzle.

---

Bringing iPads to the Mainstream

---

Many schools already use iPads in their courses. Policies that allow students to bring their own devices to school might make make this more common.

According to a 2011 Pearson Foundation survey, 70% percent of college students and college-bound high school seniors are interested in owning a tablet device, and 20% expect to purchase a tablet within the next six months.

The inevitable price decline on the iPad could also make iPads a more mainstream conduit for educational material.

“This is a change in how school districts think,” Smith says, “and in a larger school district, that can take some time."

source: Mashable

e-learning in malaysia

E-Learning in Malaysia

View more presentations from University of Malaya

Space station to drop into ocean in 2020

NEWS

Russia and its partners plan to let the International Space Station fall into the ocean when it reaches the end of its lifecycle in 2020, according to a new report.

The International Space Station will be pulled out of its orbit and allowed to fall into the sea when it ends its lifespan in 2020. Photo credit: Nasa

Agence France-Presse reports that the Russian space agency's reason is simple: left alone, the ISS poses great risk as an enormous bundle of space junk.

Read this

Space station marks 10 years in service

Read more

"After it completes its existence, we will be forced to sink the ISS. It cannot be left in orbit, it's too complex, too heavy an object, it can leave behind lots of rubbish," deputy head of Roskosmos space agency Vitaly Davydov reportedly said.

The ISS, home to scientific experiments since its launch in 1998, orbits 220 miles above Earth's surface and hosts researchers hailing from Russia, the US, Europe, Japan and Canada. It was originally planned to operate through 2013, but its service was officially extended last year through 2020.

However, it is still unclear whether a final decision has been made to junk the space station. CBS News space analyst William Harwood noted that the ISS would need more funding if it goes beyond its 2020 end date. It is unclear whether the partner nations are of a mind to invest more money, given shrinking budgets and other pressing domestic priorities.

But whenever funding runs out, they will, in fact, crash it into the atmosphere so the debris falls in the Pacific, well away from populated areas. That is standard procedure for something like this, according to Harwood.

"They can't just leave it up on its own; everything in low Earth orbit will eventually fall back to Earth," Harwood noted. "With something as large as the station, they'll do a targeted re-entry to make sure it doesn't rain down on, say, New York."

With something as large as the station, they'll do a targeted re-entry to make sure it doesn't rain down on, say, New York.

– William Harwood, space analyst

Whenever its final plunge arrives, the ISS will follow in the footsteps of its predecessor, Russia's Mir, which was sunk into the Pacific Ocean in 2001.

At one point in its history, the ISS was talked about as a possible staging base for future missions to the Moon and Mars. But those plans fell by the wayside as the US shifted its plans for space exploration toward the use of unmanned probes. Last week, Nasa marked the return of its final space shuttle Atlantis from a trip to the ISS.

With one of its main customers calling it quits, the concept of an orbiting space station — not to mention the concomitant expense to maintain the base — has lost much of its allure. The news about the future of the space station comes on the heels of China's announcement that it isreadying its first space station module for launch.

CBS staff contributed to this story.

For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see International Space Station to fall into ocean in 2020 on SmartPlanet.

Intel showcases technology with "Cloud-In-A-Box"

 

Intel Cloud In A Box

Billing it as “the world’s smallest datacenter” Intel’s cloud technology demonstrator is basically two 1U servers in a package that fits into a common rolling suitcase. Designed to show that Intel is already powering the cloud with its Xeon processors, the technology demonstration is also meant to highlight Intel’s other efforts to bring their Cloud 2015 vision to reality.

The servers are used to demonstrate a variety of Intel technologies, starting with the latest advances in the Xeon processor family, including support for hardware-based encryption and Intel’s Trusted Execution Technology, which focuses on security at the hypervisor level and below. Since we are talking about demonstrating cloud technologies, Intel’s hardware Virtualization Technology is also heavily featured.

Multiple boxes in the demonstrator mean that they can demonstrate the Intelligent Power Node Manager which allows administrators to set power budgets for managed devices. Beyond the hardware level, Intel’s single-sign on software technologies, Expressway Access 360 and the Expressway Gateway Service are part of the basic demonstration capabilities.

This is clearly designed as a portable technology demonstration tool and it doesn’t seem that Intel is looking to actively sell this device to customers at this time. But there is definitely a market for this cloud-in-a-box, or at least a commercial version with additional bells and whistles for organizations that need to be able to deploy secure services in remote locations, vendors looking to do on-site demonstrations of their products for the private cloud, and even for IT departments looking to develop operational practices in a test network, rather than a live production environment.

The hardware package also fits well into the concept of a distributed computing environment with micro-datacenters scattered throughout a geographically dispersed area, that are all components of a larger, virtual, computing effort.  It’s an interesting little device, and may have more potential than just as a technology demonstration.

Apple's corporate iPhone, iPad app strength bad news for rivals

 

Apple appears to be extending its lead in the enterprise with the tag team of the iPhone and iPad. Meanwhile, some corporate customers are developing custom iOS apps for their employees.

On Apple’s third quarter conference call—following blowout earnings—CFO Peter Oppenheimer noted some serious enterprise strength. Here’s what he said about the iPhone.

iPhone continues to be adopted as a standard across the enterprise, with 91% of the Fortune 500 deployed or testing the device, up from 88% last quarter. We are also seeing great growth in scale worldwide. Today 57% of Global 500 companies are testing or deploying iPhone, fueled by strong employee demand and opportunities for custom app development.

The key element there is “opportunities for custom app development.” If corporations start developing iOS corporate apps, the chances of them suddenly dropping Apple are slim. After all, corporations developed applications for Microsoft’s IE 6 and still have them even though the browser is antique and the software giant is begging them to ditch its ancient version of Explorer.

Also:

10 iPad 2 apps for business

Oppenheimer also cited global strength for corporate iPhone adoption. He cited Axa, Credit Agriole, Nestle and Dow Chemical as companies officially supporting the iPhone.

The pull of the iPhone is also rubbing off on the iPad. This point is also quite relevant to Apple table rivals, which are largely aiming at the enterprise.

On the iPhone front, Oppenheimer said:

Today 86% of the Fortune 500 are deploying or testing iPad within their enterprises, up from 75% last quarter. We are also seeing strong adoption internationally with 47% of Global 500 companies testing or deploying iPad. In the 15 months since iPad has shipped, we have seen iPad used in the enterprise in ways we could have never imagined.

Oppenheimer cited iPad wins at Boston Scientific, Xerox and Salesforce.com. He also cited hospital wins, which illustrates some vertical strength. He added:

General Electric, SAP and Standard Charter have developed internal apps for training, currency tracking and business process management to help make employees even more productive. Alaska Airlines and American Airlines are using the iPad in cockpits to replace paper-based navigational and reference information pilots carry with them on every flight. We continue to be delighted by the diverse and sometimes unexpected use cases we see around iPads.

Again, the key theme here is corporate apps. If enterprises develop on iOS they aren’t going to budge for years.

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Transformers 3 releasing one day earlier…..

 

“Transformers: Dark of the Moon” will open one day prior in 3-D and IMAX-equipped theatres across the United States.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ will be debuted in 3-D and IMAX-equipped theatres on June 28, while the movie will open wide across the United States on June 29, 2011. While the approaching flick is scheduled to open wide Stateside on June 29, movie fans can watch the film prior in those selected cinemas on June 28, starting 9 P.M. local time.

The Paramount’s Vice Chairman, Rob Moore apparently stated that this sci-fi film will ‘undoubtedly be among the most entertaining film going experiences’ during this season. He further detailed, providing movie fans an opportunity to see it early in 3-D is a great way to kick off the movie’s opening, a sources said.

On June 17, a new video from the ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ sequel has landed online. With Linkin Park’s “Iridescent” helping as the background music, the sneak-peek offers new footage, including when Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Shia LaBeouf have to save their lives by hiding behind a wall, barely seen by a robot.

“Transformers: Dark of the Moon” turns around a risky space race between the United States and Russia, which involves the Decepticons and Autobots.

As the disarray blow up human Sam Witwicky has to come to the help of his robot friends once again. Shia reprises his role as Sam, with Rosie playing Carly, Sam’s new love interest.

Other supporting movie actors include Ken Jeong, Patrick Dempsey, Tyrese Gibson and Josh Duhamel.

UniMAP: Institut Nanoelektronik

KUALA LUMPUR, 15 Jun – Institut Kecemerlangan Nano Elektronik Universiti Malaysia Perlis (INEE UniMAP) yang ditubuhkan pada tahun 2008 hari ini diiktiraf sebagai salah sebuah Pusat Kecemerlangan Nano Malaysia oleh Kementerian Sains Teknologi dan Inovasi Malaysia.

Menterinya, Datuk Seri Dr. Maximus Johnity Ongkily dalam ucapannya berharap kelima-lima Pusat Kecemerlangan yang dipilih ini akan terus menyumbang kepada pembangunan penyelidikan dalam bidang Nano Teknologi.

Ujar beliau, di peringkat awal sebanyak 17 Pusat Penyelidikan Nano Teknologi telah disenarai pendek tetapi buat masa sekarang, hanya 5 yang terpilih sebagai Pusat Kecemerlangan atas kecemerlangan penemuan dan penyelidikan dalam bidang Nano Teknologi.

``Pemilihan kelima-lima Pusat Kecemerlangan ini dibuat oleh satu panel khas dan harus saya akui proses pemilihan adalah sangat sukar memandangkan kesemua 17 pusat penyelidikan Nano Teknologi di Malaysia mempamerkan prestasi yang sangat membanggakan.

``Selepas beberapa tapisan, kita bersetuju dengan pemilihan lima Pusat Kecemerlangan ini (buat masa sekarang) dan tidak menolak kemungkinan akan ada penambahan di masa akan datang. Kesemua lima Pusat Kecemerlangan ini akan memfokuskan kepada bidang kepakaran masing-masing dengan pemantauan berterusan daripada Kementerian dan juga Direktorat Nano Teknologi Kebangsaan (NND),” katanya.

Beliau berkata demikian pada sidang media selepas Majlis Perasmian Nano Malaysia Summit And Expo 2011 serta Penyampaian Pengiktirafan Pusat Kecemerlangan Nano Malaysia di PWTC di sini hari ini.
Pada majlis tersebut, UniMAP diwakili oleh Naib Canselornya, Brig. Jen. Dato Profesor Dr. Kamarudin Hussin dan Pengarah INEE, Prof. Dr. Uda Hashim.

Selain INEE UniMAP, turut terpilih sebagai Pusat Kecemerlangan Nano Malaysia ialah, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia dan SIRIM Malaysia Bhd.
Dr. Maximus seterusnya berkata, pihaknya juga akan menjadi perantara dalam mewujudkan kolaborasi pintar antara kelima-lima Pusat Kecemerlangan ini dengan agensi swasta dalam usaha pengkomersialan produk Nano Teknologi.

Beliau bagaimanapun berkata, setiap Pusat Kecemerlangan ini telah memiliki Unit Pengkomersialan masing-masing tetapi, Kementerian dan NND akan membuka lebih banyak peluang terutama di peringkat antarabangsa selain turut membimbing kesemua Pusat Kecemerlangan ini dalam bidang pembangunan tenaga kerja dan kepakaran serta koordinasi program.

Ditanya mengenai dana yang bakal diberikan kepada Pusat Kecemerlangan yang dipilih ini beliau berkata :
``Buat masa sekarang, jumlah dana tidak akan dimaklumkan, tetapi saya memberi jaminan bahawa kelima-lima Pusat Kecemerlangan ini akan diberi keutamaan dalam pemberian dana.”

( 15/6/2011 )

INSTITUT KEJURUTERAAN NANO ELEKTRONIK UniMAP DIIKTIRAF SEBAGAI PUSAT KECEMERLANGAN NANO MALAYSIA

The Universe

The standard package

The theories and discoveries of thousands of physicists over the past century have resulted in a remarkable insight into the fundamental structure of matter: everything in the Universe is found to be made from twelve basic building blocks called fundamental particles, governed by four fundamental forces. Our best understanding of how these twelve particles and three of the forces are related to each other is encapsulated in the Standard Model of particles and forces. Developed in the early 1970s, it has successfully explained a host of experimental results and precisely predicted a wide variety of phenomena. Over time and through many experiments by many physicists, the Standard Model has become established as a well-tested physics theory.

Matter particles

Everything around us is made of matter particles.These occur in two basic types called quarks and leptons.

Each group consists of six particles, which are related in pairs, or ‘generations’. The lightest and most stable particles make up the first generation, whereas the heavier and less stable particles belong to the second and third generations. All stable matter in the Universe is made from particles that belong to the first generation; any heavier particles quickly decay to the next most stable level.

The six quarks are paired in the three generations – the 'up quark' and the 'down quark' form the first generation, followed by the 'charm quark' and 'strange quark', then the 'top quark' and 'bottom quark'. The six leptons are similarly arranged in three generations – the 'electron' and the 'electron-neutrino', the 'muon' and the 'muon-neutrino', and the 'tau' and the 'tau-neutrino'. The electron, the muon and the tau all have an electric charge and a mass, whereas the neutrinos are electrically neutral with very little mass.

Forces and carrier particles

There are four fundamental forces at work in the Universe: the strong force, the weak force, the electromagnetic force, and the gravitational force. They work over different ranges and have different strengths. Gravity is the weakest but it has an infinite range. The electromagnetic force also has infinite range but it is many times stronger than gravity. The weak and strong forces are effective only over a very short range and dominate only at the level of subatomic particles. Despite its name, the weak force is much stronger than gravity but it is indeed the weakest of the other three. The strong force is, as the name says, the strongest among all the four fundamental interactions.

We know that three of the fundamental forces result from the exchange of force carrier particles, which belong to a broader group called ‘bosons’. Matter particles transfer discrete amounts of energy by exchanging bosons with each other. Each fundamental force has its own corresponding boson particle – the strong force is carried by the ‘gluon’, the electromagnetic force is carried by the ‘photon’, and the ‘W and Z bosons’ are responsible for the weak force. Although not yet found, the ‘graviton’ should be the corresponding force-carrying particle of gravity.

The Standard Model includes the electromagnetic, strong and weak forces and all their carrier particles, and explains extremely well how these forces act on all the matter particles. However, the most familiar force in our everyday lives, gravity, is not part of the Standard Model. In fact, fitting gravity comfortably into the framework has proved to be a difficult challenge. The quantum theory used to describe the micro world, and the general theory of relativity used to describe the macro world, are like two children who refuse to play nicely together. No one has managed to make the two mathematically compatible in the context of the Standard Model. But luckily for particle physics, when it comes to the minuscule scale of particles, the effect of gravity is so weak as to be negligible. Only when we have matter in bulk, such as in ourselves or in planets, does the effect of gravity dominate. So the Standard Model still works well despite its reluctant exclusion of one of the fundamental forces.

So far so good, but...

...it is not time for physicists to call it a day just yet. Even though the Standard Model is currently the best description we have of the subatomic world, it does not explain the complete picture. The theory incorporates only three out of the four fundamental forces, omitting gravity. Alas, Newton would be turning in his grave! There are also important questions it cannot answer, such as what is dark matter, what happened to the missing antimatter, and more.

Last but not least, an essential ingredient of the Standard Model, a particle called the Higgs boson, has yet to be found in an experiment. The race is on to hunt for the Higgs – the key to the origin of particle mass. Finding it would be a big step for particle physics, although its discovery would not write the final ending to the story.

So despite the Standard Model's effectiveness at describing the phenomena within its domain, it is nevertheless incomplete. Perhaps it is only a part of a bigger picture that includes new physics that has so far been hidden deep in the subatomic world or in the dark recesses of the Universe. New information from experiments at the Large Hadron Colliderare sure to help us find more of these missing pieces.

what’s the dark matter…do GOD would reveal his image?

Recipe for a Universe

Take a massive explosion to create plenty of stardust and a raging heat. Simmer for an eternity in a background of cosmic microwaves. Let the ingredients congeal and leave to cool and serve cold with cultures of tiny organisms 13.7 billion years later.

To understand the basic ingredients and the ‘cooking conditions’ of the cosmos, from the beginning of time to the present day, particle physicists have to try and reverse-engineer the ‘dish’ of the Universe. Within the complex concoction, cryptic clues hide the instructions for the cosmic recipe.

Slowly simmer

Space, time, matter... everything originated in the Big Bang, an incommensurably huge explosion that happened 13.7 billion years ago. The Universe was then incredibly hot and dense but only a few moments after, as it started to cool down, the conditions were just right to give rise to the building blocks of matter – in particular, the quarks and electrons of which we are all made. A few millionths of a second later, quarks aggregated to produce protons and neutrons, which in turn were bundled into nuclei three minutes later.

Then, as the Universe continued to expand and cool, things began to happen more slowly. It took 380,000 years for the electrons to be trapped in orbits around nuclei, forming the first atoms. These were mainly helium and hydrogen, which are still by far the most abundant elements in the Universe.

Another 1.6 million years later, gravity began to take control as clouds of gas began to form stars and galaxies. Since then heavier atoms, such as carbon, oxygen and iron, of which we are all made, have been continuously ‘cooked’ in the hearts of the stars and stirred in with the rest of the Universe each time a star comes to a spectacular end as a supernova.

The mystery ingredient

So far so good but there is one small detail left out: cosmological and astrophysical observations have now shown that all of the above accounts for only a tiny 4% of the entire Universe. In a way, it is not so much the visible things, such as planets and galaxies, that define the Universe, but rather the void around them!

Most of the Universe is made up of invisible substances known as 'dark matter' (26%) and 'dark energy' (70%). These do not emit electromagnetic radiation, and we detect them only through their gravitational effects. What they are and what role they played in the evolution of the Universe are a mystery, but within this darkness lie intriguing possibilities of hitherto undiscovered physics beyond the established Standard Model.

Amit Sood: Building a museum of museums on the web

yet again Indians creating history, get your jaw-dropped after watching this video....