Technology has seeped into every aspect of our lives today. And to keep pace with the latest emerging technology is becoming more and more important in today's scenario. If you are in information technology field , you have have to be aware of the latest trends in technology. To be in the mainstream means to keep an eye on the each and every news related to technology. Whether it is Linux, Solaris or Windows operating system. Or it is a complex technology like virtualization , you have to have a clear understanding of every emerging technology. Articles on new technology and news about latest technology can help one to make his way into the complex maze of new computer technology. Every other day am IT giant releases a new patch of software and every new fortnight a new software is released based on a radically new technology. The latest technology buzz like Microsoft Lucidtouch, Sun Solaris have become must know technology terms.

There is a very good blog which describes the latest technology in a very lucid and easy way making it easier to understand for everyone . I started this blog just to make people aware of the latest and new computer technology in simple terms.

An excerpt from the latest article.

Microsoft has released the latest operating system catering to Microsoft centric networking environment , Windows Server 2008.

This latest server technology operating system from Microsoft is considered as the major upgrade from its predecessor Windows Server 2003. There a heck lot of new features which are introduced in this new operating system from Microsoft.

Tech Tip: It is hard to keep up with all the digital advances like CD to DVD and the upcoming new generation discs and also standard TVs to rear projection and now plasma and LCD and the new High Definition TVs. However we may be moving so fast that even tech companies like Sony and Microsoft can't keep up. Blu-Ray Discs and HD-DVDs were supposed to be fighting a big battle as the successor to DVDs. However with new TVs having hard disk drives like computers, then iPods with iTunes offering both audio and video, Foxtel IQ and ultra fast broadband not far away these type of discs may be unnecessary.

Computer Jargon: The Microbrowser is Also known as a mobile browser is the type of Internet browser you see on your mobile phone or PDA when on the Internet. As the screen size is generally too small to show websites fully like on a normal screen, these browsers are able to convert content to a manageable and readable form for the smaller screens. Spyware is not affecting these browsers yet!

Product: To go back to the future, did you know that in the main, film cameras produce better quality than digital cameras and especially mobile phones? Did you know that LCD screens are only now catching up to overall display quality of the older chunkier CRT monitors? You have probably realised that analogue mobile phones had much better call quality and drop out rates on average than our current digital equivalents. Basically when things are shinier and seem better at face value (i.e. a screen on a digital camera) we think it is automatically better. I guess its true that you can't judge a book by its cover!

Did you Know? The internet, broadband, emails and blackberry have allowed us to work from home but what are we actually doing. A recent US survey has shown that one in eight men don't bother getting dressed at all, just one third wash and shave and one in five take an afternoon nap! From the boss's perspective, women don't fair much better with one in 14 naked at their computer and only half taking a shower. 40% of people us the time to do regular housework but interestingly 75% believe working from home improved their productivity which begs the question what are they wearing and doing at work!!

Major Gripe: Bans on smoking, computer games, alcohol, porn access and mobile phones are in affect to varying degrees in schools around the country. Now in the case of smoking, alcohol and porn there are laws prohibiting minors from these materials but in all of these examples the usage by young people is on a massive increase which is detrimental to society in so many ways. There is now a proposal to ban soft drinks in schools which probably like all bans will not work especially since this is a legal item for minors. Instead of prohibition which has never worked, what about promoting PE, sport and cultural activities and then responsible use of technology like mobile phones which like it or not will be a part of their lives in the future.

For the last couple of decades, the rapid advances in computing technology have given rise to a corresponding problem of computers becoming quickly obsolete. These days, any computer that is more than 3 years old will be noticeably slower in its performance than a computer that has been manufactured in the last few months. It has therefore become a fact of life in the information age that computers need to be updated on a regular basis in order to utilize the latest software and communications applications. This in turn has led to the problem of what one should do with the rapidly growing stockpile of old computers and other electronic equipment. A company or individual really has one of 3 choices: 1. Do nothing; 2 Donate or; 3. Recycle. This article will discuss each of the options in turn.

Before looking closely at the issue of computer equipment recycling, it is worthwhile noting why it so important to do something rather than nothing. Latest studies on the subject have concluded that only around 10-15% of old computer equipment is being recycled. The equipment that isn't being recycled is either being stored, gathering dust on the tops of cupboards or in garages, or even more perniciously is being disposed of in landfills.

Companies that are storing old computing equipment are entertaining a false economy. It is actually more expensive to continue to store old computers than it is to properly dispose of them - when you take into account the cost of storage space, the cost of securing old systems to comply with federal privacy laws and other associated administration costs. There are the also environmental concerns attached to the stockpiling of large quantities of obsolete computers. The systems can break down and leak hazardous materials into the air, soil and groundwater should they catch on fire or be subject to other natural disasters such as a floods.

The larger problem however, lies in disposing of this old computer equipment in a heedless fashion. Computer equipment that isn't taken care of by an authorized computer recycler is most likely to end up in landfills and become toxic computer waste. A computer is made up of plastic, ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals (lead, cadmium, antimony, beryllium, chromium and mercury), electronic boards (gold, palladium, silver and platinum) and glass - in short, materials (many of which are toxic) which don't break down naturally. A standard sized cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor contains more than two kilos of lead - the toxicity of which has been well known for centuries.

The best option when dealing with old computer equipment is to either donate it (computer hardware less than 5 years old can generally be donated) or to recycle it.

Individuals who are looking to recycle one or a few items of computer hardware will find that nearly all of the major computer manufacturers - Apple, Dell, Gateway, IBM, Lexmark, Hewlett Packard, Epson, NEC - are running some type of computer recycling program. These programs tend to involve the company taking back your old computer and disposing of it responsibly, at no extra cost to yourself, whenever you purchase a new computer from them.

For companies who are looking to dispose of large volumes of computer hardware (and other types of e-waste) they should really get in contact with an authorized computer recycler. The hallmark of the computer recycler's business model is that of responsible destruction. They will salvage all useful computer parts before breaking down what's left, safely removing all hazardous materials in the process. There will usually be a fee charged by these recyclers to accept old computer equipment (particularly when it comes to computer monitors) but the cost of disposal will be significantly less than the cost of not disposing of the computer hardware - both in terms of direct business costs and potential costs to the environment.

An enormous change make be lurking in the future for desktop computing. The change is known as desktop virtualization. Desktop virtualization is a situation where the physical personal computer desktop is in a separate location from where the end-user accesses it. The personal computer accessed remotely can be at home, in the office or in a data center while the end-user can be in a different location, such as a hotel room, city, office building or an airport. This is in sharp contrast to the current environment where the end-user directly accesses the personal computer, its operating system and applications and all associated peripherals in a closed and immediate environment.

Desktop virtualization presents many advantages for information technology departments, as management of the desktop is quickly facilitated. One change in a setting in the operating system, for example Windows, can be made once in a central location and all employees receive the change once they access their virtual desktops. Previously, information technology departments either were required to visit each desktop to make this change or push the change down to each desktop from a central server.

Although desktop virtualization may appear as a panacea for information technology departments constantly endeavoring to maintain current with software patches and other updates, the practical options for large-scale adoption are just emerging. Consequently, many information technology departments are not moving so quickly to adopt this technology. Its real viability for computing has not been completely proven for massive scale adoption. Yet many are looking to this technology as a great potential for lower the operating costs of owning and managing personal computers and desktops, which usually are a large percentage of information technology budgets.

As with most innovations, there are risks involved. As the personal computer entity basically resides in the data center, the biggest risk is greater reliance on the uptime of the data center. If the data center goes down, personal computer access then becomes unavailable. In addition, it requires significant investments in up-front costs for servers, storage, network bandwidth, licenses and thin-client hardware. Software as a service may be a less expensive alternative in terms of expense and implementation as the application resides on a server and is accessed by means of a browser through the web.

Two strategies exist for the implementation of desktop virtualization: the "fate image" approach of today and the stateless strategy of the future. With the fat-image approach, the operating system and applications are combined into a single image stored on a data center server and viewed on a simplistic computer by means of various remote access protocols. The advantages to this approach are the centralization of storage and increased security for data. In the stateless approach, every time an end-user turns on their computing device, the data center creates a temporary virtual image from a set of master operating systems images and icons and delivers those to the computer. In this approach, end-users are given only the applications they need based on who they are, their privileges and what they are trying to do.

The disadvantage to the fat image approach is that the operating system and the applications are stored in the data center and if patches have to be applied, someone still has to do the work. Patching is still facilitated as it is done in the data center rather than on individual computers but every virtual desktop still requires the same patching and management as would regular desktops. In a stateless environment, such patching would be done in one place and only those who require the patched application would receive it.

As with all new technologies, adoption is slow, particularly in smaller organizations where desktop virtualization may not be an issue. However, for larger organizations, a wait-and-see approach could quickly turn into a missed opportunity sooner than expected.

Web 2.0 is a term that has been around the computer industry for the past few years but what it actually is seems to still be somewhat illusive in nature. Web 2.0 is not a single technology but a set of technologies used in the design, development, creation and use of web pages that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users.

The technologies encompassed by Web 2.0 include, but are by no means limited to blogs, RSS, Wikis, rich Internet applications using Ajax, and mashups. The philosophy of Web 2.0 focuses on the idea that the people who access the Internet and use the Web should not just be passively involved in what they are doing but rather should be active contributors, helping customize media and technology for their own purposes, as well as those of their organizations.

Short for "Web logs," blogs are online journals created by an individual or an organization and cover topics ranging from human rights to fashion, and everything in between. Blog postings, typically updated on a daily basis, can include images, photos, links, video, audio, or simple text. The postings are archived by date and sometimes by category or by author. Permanent links allow other bloggers and Web site owners to link directly to a specific post on a blog and encourage inter-blog dialog.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds include the delivery of the latest headlines and updates from favorite Web sites to one's desktop without the need to visit the web site, open a browser or check email. It is a tool that is easy to set up with little cost. To start receiving feeds from one's favorite sites, the user downloads an aggregator, the software that delivers the content to the desktop. The RSS can then be customized to search for content on specific keywords or information, as well as content that is tailored to one's individual tastes.

A wiki is a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses them to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language, like HTML. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and run community websites. For example, the encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the best known and popular wikis. Wikis are used in businesses to provide affordable and effective intranets and in education for collaborative student projects and communication.

AJAX, which is an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a set of technologies for writing code for Web pages that is used to create rich Internet web applications. The fundamental characteristic of Ajax that differentiates it from other web programming languages is that it enables the exchange of small amounts of data with the server in the background so that entire web pages do not need to be reloaded every time there is a request to get data from the server. This asynchronous design increases the speed, interactivity, functionality and usability of web pages. Ajax does not change web pages themselves, but rather how programmers present the data to users. Ajax is considered to be a cross-platform technology in that it can be used on different operating systems, computer architectures and web browsers due to its being based on open standards and open source frameworks and libraries.

A mashup is a web application that combines data from many sources into a single integrated web page. A mashup web application consists of three parts: the data source, which can be any provider of information or content; the mashup web site itself which is the application that combines the data; and the web browser which is the end-user interface for the mashup.

Web 2.0 tools are important, but their impact goes much deeper than their novelty might suggest. Individuals and organizations alike are finding new and increasingly effective ways of connecting through Web 2.0 technologies from building movements for social, environmental, economic, and political change to increasing business through sales and marketing exposure.