Video Game Industry - A Giant in Making

The video game industry (formally referred to as interactive entertainment) is the economic sector involved with the development, marketing and sale of video games. It encompasses dozens of job disciplines and employs thousands of people worldwide.
Modern personal computers owe many advancements and innovations to the gaming industry: sound cards, graphics cards and 3D graphic accelerators, CD ROM and DVD-ROM drives, Unix and CPUs are a few of the more notable improvements. Unix in particular was developed in part so that the programmers could play a space traveling game.
Modern games are among the most demanding of applications on PC resources. Many of the high powered personal computers are purchased by gamers who want the fastest equipment to power the latest cutting-edge games.

Early on, development costs were minimal, and video games could be quite profitable. Games developed by a single programmer, or by a small team of programmers and artists, could sell hundreds of thousands of copies each. Many of these games only took a few months to create, so developers could release several titles each year. Thus, publishers could often be generous with benefits, such as royalties on the games sold. Many early game publishers started from this economic climate, such as Origin Systems, Sierra Entertainment, Capcom, Activision and Electronic Arts.

As computing and graphics power increased, so too did the size of development teams, as larger staffs were needed to address the ever increasing graphical and programming complexities. Now budgets can easily reach millions of dollars, even if middleware and pre-built game engines are used. Most professional games require one to three years to develop, further increasing the strain on budgets.

Some developers are turning to alternative production and distribution methods, such as online distribution, to reduce costs
Video game arcades are still relatively popular in Japan; for every arcade game released in the US, nine are released in Japan. The history of the Japanese arcade is very significant in the story of the decline of the American arcade, and in the shape of game design in general.
Today, the video game industry has a major impact on the economy through the sales of major systems and games such as, Grand Theft Auto IV, which took in over USD$500 million in sales during its opening week.The game's income was more than the opening weekend of Spider-Man 3 and the original title holder for a video game Halo 3.Many individuals have also benefited from the economic success of video games including the former chairman of Nintendo and Japan's richest man: Hiroshi Yamauchi.

GPS/Navigation System

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system made up of a network of 24 satellites placed into orbit by the U.S. Department of Defense. GPS was originally intended for military applications, but in the 1980s, the government made the system available for civilian use. GPS works in any weather conditions, anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. There are no subscription fees or setup charges to use GPS.

How it works
GPS satellites circle the earth twice a day in a very precise orbit and transmit signal information to earth. GPS receivers take this information and use triangulation to calculate the user's exact location. A GPS receiver must be locked on to the signal of at least three satellites to calculate a 2D position (latitude and longitude) and track movement. With four or more satellites in view, the receiver can determine the user's 3D position (latitude, longitude and altitude). Once the user's position has been determined, the GPS unit can calculate other information, such as speed, bearing, track, trip distance, distance to destination, sunrise and sunset time and more.

The GPS satellite system
The 24 satellites that make up the GPS space segment are orbiting the earth about 12,000 miles above us. They are constantly moving, making two complete orbits in less than 24 hours. These satellites are travelling at speeds of roughly 7,000 miles an hour.
GPS satellites are powered by solar energy. They have backup batteries onboard to keep them running in the event of a solar eclipse, when there's no solar power. Small rocket boosters on each satellite keep them flying in the correct path.
Here are some other interesting facts about the GPS satellites (also called NAVSTAR, the official U.S. Department of Defense name for GPS):

• The first GPS satellite was launched in 1978.
• A full constellation of 24 satellites was achieved in 1994.
• Each satellite is built to last about 10 years. Replacements are constantly being built and launched into orbit.
• A GPS satellite weighs approximately 2,000 pounds and is about 17 feet across with the solar panels extended.
• Transmitter power is only 50 watts or less.

GPS satellites transmit two low power radio signals, designated L1 and L2. Civilian GPS uses the L1 frequency of 1575.42 MHz in the UHF band. The signals travel by line of sight, meaning they will pass through clouds, glass and plastic but will not go through most solid objects such as buildings and mountains.

Swine Menace!!!! Be-Ware....

Hey Almighty.... whats this deadly pandaemic - Swine Flu.

It all started from Mexico and now the whole world is showing its signs. WHO is planning to raise the alert level to 6 from 5. This shall be the worrying fact as yet, we do not have any success in creating the vaccine. People are working hard to get this sorted.

I have been keeping a track of this in the United States, A country where the technology is highly advanced than anywhere around. But sorry to hear that we are still fighting to get a vaccine to stop this spread.

Its after all a Flu, however, a deadly one which can spread very fast and difficult to be contained as of now. As of today, the stats on the US CDC website shows - 5123 cases with 5 deaths.

Recent news reported that in the far east , in Japan, Swine flu is confirmed. So this shows how deadly this is spreading. I am more worried for the third world countries as the reporting system and containment for such kind of diseases is very low there.

For India - I heard the government had piled up the stocks for the medicine for this flu for about 2 million doses(not sure if i remember it correctly). but do you think is this enough for the world's second most populous country?

I m clueless what i want to spread the message to my readers. Should I scare them with this flu? or should i make them aware to take precautions and maintain good hygiene?

Remember folks, Health is wealth - so please take care of it and follow the precautionary measures seriously. avoid any kind of contact with the people who are sick and if you fall sick, just dont neglect and visit the doctor.

Hope we get away with this serious issue of the world.