Star Trek Quadrants

Finally, a complete picture of Star Trek quadrants. Makes following Voyager and Deep Space Nine that much easier!

Wireless Routers with a BSNL DataOne Connection

Connecting a router to a BSNL Data One connection and getting it to work can be challenging especially if the router is from USA or Europe and you are not aware of some specific facts about your BSNL connection.

You must have the DSL modem and the router running in different modes for you to be able to establish a connection between them. The 2 different modes are bridged and PPOe and you can have the router and modem in either of these modes--only take care to see they are both not in the same mode.

Your wireless connection can be static or dynamic. In either case the modem settings should match that of the router. In case of a static connection, you can have only one device connected to the wireless network at a time. With a dynamic connection, you can have several devices on the same network. As for example, if you wanted to connect your computer, your phone and your ebook reader to the same network you should use dynamic or DHCP settings.

Here are the steps to configure your router and modem so that they can work together.

1. Go to the Huawei SmartAX MT882 configuration page at 192.168.1.1. Make sure you know your BSNL username and password which you can obtain by calling your nearest BSNL office.


2. Go to the WAN Settings section and configure your connection to be in either RFC2684Bridged or PPP mode. If you set the modem to be in PPP mode choose PPoE as the connection type. You will need your BSNL username and password for this. Make sure DNS is enabled.


3. Now if you want the connection to be dynamic go to DHCP and enable it. If your connection is going to be static, skip this step.


4. Go to your router configuration page. Set the connection type to be Bridged if your modem is in PPP and vice versa.


5. If your connection is based on a static IP you have to set it in your router WAN Settings for the router. If you are using DHCP then you do not have to set anything else up.


6. You should now be good to go with your modem and router!

PDFs on the Nook

I noticed since the past month that PDF files saved directly from HTML using the Print as a PDF command, whether on a Windows or Macintosh machine lose content while getting formatted on a Nook. The reason for this is the encryption used by the built-in PDF support which includes all HTML tags present in the original document including the location tags. So when you take this PDF along with the tags and feed it to your Nook which ‘reflows’ your PDF file or word wraps it to match its screen. In addition, it also appears to do a 1:1 page mapping of the PDF to itself which does not work out if you have printed it directly from the HTML format. So how do we get around this? A couple of options:

1. If you want to preserve the PDF format, you can copy the HTML to a Microsoft Word document which repaginates everything to a document print format instead of a webpage and adjusts the margins accordingly. Then simply use the built-in virtual printing option to print your Word document as a PDF.


2. Convert the HTML to an ePub document which is the general choice for ebook formats. You can do this using Calibre on any platform. To download Calibre, simply visit this link:

Download Calibre

Exoplanets

Recently there has been a lot of news about exoplanets. There was an article today in BBC reporting an exoplanet spotted 1500 light-years away from the Earth and similar to the ones in our solar system.
Exoplanet spotted like ones in our solar system

A month ago there was a report on a new ground-based method for detecting gases on planet surfaces outside our solar system. This particular report was on the detection of methane which would indicate the presence of carbon-based matter on the planet.
Exoplanet gas spotted above Earth

Our planet is no doubt sustained by an nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere but if we think outside this realm and from an astro-biological perspective ours may not be the only form of sustainable life. There may be biological entities on other planets that might depend on other carbon-based compounds for sustenance such as methane. The fact that this method is ground-based provides a great advantage in the fact that it is transferable to other ground-based telescopes. Considering these two reports together we come to the incredible conclusion that we now have means for not only spotting exoplanets but also detecting what substances they have on their surfaces. This is finally going towards the beginning that Carl Sagan had envisioned--of finding intelligent life on extraterrestrial surfaces.

Two really good books on exoplanets and their biology that I have personally enjoyed a great deal are:

The Life of the Cosmos by Lee Smolin

Buy it on Amazon

Exoplanets-Detection, Formation, Properties, Habitability Edited by John.W. Mason

Buy it on Amazon