As both my test ground for an upcoming SaaS based product for which I’m heavily considering Yii and as part of my initiative to migrate my existing websites to Web 2.0, I’ve started applying Yii in my existing Matrimonial site for Worldwide Tamilans, Tamil Kalyanam.com.

I’ve currently taken the old site down to implement the full site in Yii and the current version in live is the design I’ve done from scratch and it’s fully based on Yii. The way things are progressing, I’m guessing I’ll be in full blow by end of November and the site will be fully ready for public.

The site is Unicode based multi-lingual site that can be viewed in Tamil / English at any part of the site without having to revisit the URL. So far the site is currently having only Language Changes, Contact Us, Terms and Conditions, and Privacy Policy page implemented.

I’ve also translated all of the Yii Framework Core Messages into Tamil for this website. Anyone interested can download the full copy here.

Please visit the site and let me know your comments/suggestions.

Major Computer Security companies are already waging a war against the new entrant to their enmity named Conficker. It is a malicious program that is right now spreading all over the world through internet connected PCs by using hacked websites as spreaders. The program was found as a small footprint around February and slowly the author(s) seems to be updating the software with versions that strengthens the Worm. So far from what security experts can get from the various versions spread, it seems that the Worm is pre-programmed to listen to an unknown ‘Controller’ on April 1st. Given the nature of the worm’s capabilities so far showcased in disabling famous Anti-Virus softwares and Windows’ security updates, security experts fear that the worst can only be expected of it. It will most likely be a harmful worm than a mere April Fool’s joke. With the power it has already grown up, it is evident the the author(s) were extremely good in latest security technology and are increasing improving the program by releasing updates at a rate that is surprising for any single techie. It could be used to collect important data from all the infected computers or get all the infected computers to work as one forming the largest botnet ever. This botnet can be used very effectively to spam Internet and its beloved users at rates unthinkable. So, far major corporations failing to find a cure to this Worm is only saying so much about it’s power and the technological supremacy of its creator(s). Microsoft has already announced an award of $250,000 to anyone who can help find the authors of this Worm.

Read more about this worm in The New York Times.

Professor V Renugopalakrishnan of the Harvard Medical School in Boston has claimed to have developed a layer of protein made from tiny genetically altered microbe proteins which could store enough data to make computer hard disks almost obsolete.

“What this will do eventually is eliminate the need for hard drive memory completely,” ABC quoted Prof. Renugopalakrishnan, a B.Sc in Chemistry from Madras University and PhD in biophysics from Columbia/State University of New York, Buffalo, New York as saying.

The light-activated protein is found in the membrane of a salt marsh microbe Halo-bacterium salinarum and is also known as bacteriorhodopsin (bR). It captures and stores sunlight to convert it to chemical energy. When light shines on bR, it is converted to a series of intermediate molecules each with a unique shape and color before returning to its ‘ground state’.

Since the intermediates generally only last for hours or days, Prof Renugopalakrishnan and his colleagues modified the DNA that produces bR protein to produce an intermediate that lasts for more than several years. They also engineered the bR protein to make its intermediates more stable at the high temperatures generated by storing terabytes of data.

This, they said, ultimately paved the way for a binary system to store data.

“The ground state could be the zero and any of the intermediates could be the one,” he said.

Prof Renugopalakrishnan now opines that the protein layer could also allow DVDs and other external devices to store terabytes of information.

The new protein-based DVD will have advantages over current optical storage devices such as the Blue-ray as well, because the information is stored in proteins that are only a few nanometers across.

“The protein-based DVDs will be able to store at least 20 times more than the Blue-ray and eventually even up to 50,000 gigabytes (about 50 terabytes) of information. You can pack literally thousands and thousands of those proteins on a media like a DVD, a CD or a film or whatever,” he said.

The high-capacity storage devices will be essential to the defense, medical and entertainment industries.

“You have a compelling need that is not going to be met with the existing magnetic storage technology,” he added.

However, there’s a flip side to it also.

“Science can be used and abused. Making large amounts of information so portable on high-capacity removable storage devices will make it easier for information to fall into the wrong hands. Information can be stolen very quickly. One has to have some safeguards there,” he added.

The findings were presented at the International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Brisbane this week.