Everytime When I Get Home A VANILLA Ice Cream, My Car Do Not Start !!!

          This is a real story that happened between the customer of car company 'X' and its customer-care executive. A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of the company 'X':

Every time when I get home a Vanilla flavored ice cream, my car do not start !!! And I don't know why ???

          "This is the second time I have written to you, and I don't blame you for not answering me, because I sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of ice cream for dessert after dinner each night. But the kind of ice cream varies, so every night, after we've eaten the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it."

          It's also a fact that I recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem. You see, every time I buy a vanilla ice cream, when I start back from the store my car won't start. 

If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine.
I want you to know I'm serious about this question, no matter how silly it sounds: "What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not start when I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?"

          The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical about the letter, but sent an engineer to check it out anyway. The latter was surprised to be greeted by a successful, obviously well educated man in a fine neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinnertime, so the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn't start.
          
          The engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, they got chocolate. The car started. The second night, he got strawberry. The car started. The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start.

          Now the engineer, being a logical man, refused to believe that this man's car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged, therefore, to continue his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem. And towards this end he began to take notes, he jotted down all sorts of data: time of day, type of gas used, time to drive back and forth etc.
 
          In a short time, he had a clue: the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other flavor. Why? The answer was in the layout of the store. Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup. All the other flavors were kept in the back of the store at a different counter where it took considerably longer to check out the flavor. Now, the question for the engineer was why the car wouldn't start when it took less time. Once time became the problem and not the vanilla ice-cream, the engineer quickly came up with the answer: "Vapor lock". It was happening every night; but the extra time taken to get the other flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. When the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapor lock to dissipate. And this gave rise to the study on the Flash point property of the fuel used and ways to standardize and control it.

Indian Made 3G Data Card For Rs. 1300

The 3G device market seems to be hotting up with the latest and cheapest offer from iWEBLEAF, a city based company launched by two young Oriyas, who just completed B.Tech from the Techno School under Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) this year.

They are all set to offer 3G data card (USB modem) at an unbelievable price tag of Rs. 1300 at least for the time being.

Chandrasekhar Panda and Saswat Swain have designed the first ever 3G technology-based data card that provides high speed internet at a very low cost. The Wi-Fi and 3G enabled data card is designed to work on the spectrum of any telecom operator providing high speed internet service all the time.

This invention is expected to be a major breakthrough in providing mobile broadband connectivity as the biggest challenge in the country to-day is to provide broadband in rural villages and remote areas of the country.

"Our goal is to drive a 'highway' of high-speed internet uniting 410 rural regions, where private telecom companies do not develop broadband internet infrastructure due to low demand.

By using only 3 to 4 data cards, an entire village with around 150 families can be provided internet connectivity with a net spending of just Rs 900 per month. Similarly, an urban user will get high speed internet at just Rs 99 per month," Saswat on Thursday told "The ET" while giving a demo of the new data card.

Interestingly, by using this data card, a person can get to view more than 150 television channels, free of cost without using any television tuner or additional gadgets. "The user can also switch to different networks within two days," he added.

The twin inventor's problem is that their innovation is yet to be recognized by the state government. "We are unable to go for commercial production of the device as it requires at least Rs two crores, which we just can't dream of. Currently we are talking with Future Group.

Several network operators have shown interest in buying the technology. But we want to bring this service for the common public for which we need the intervention of the state government. This project will create direct as well as indirect employment opportunity in the state. If the volume of this product is increased we can drastically reduce the product price to Rs. 900."

These young entrepreneurs have already written letters to the President, Prime Minister, Chief Minister but they are yet to get any positive response from the state apparatus.

Compared to market's average price of 3G data card Rs. 2500, iWEBLEAF's 3G data card which comes at half of that certainly will draw attention and lure more users to try high-speed wireless internet services on 3G network.

"Our iWEBLEAF 3G HSDPA Data Card can offer up to 7.2Mbps download speed (HSDPA) and 384kbps upload speed. It also supports 2G network – GPRS/EDGE. It comes with genuine IMEI number and a SIM card slot, to use with any GSM operator", Saswat added saying that it also has a microSD card slot to double the device as 4GB pen drive.

Currently it is supporting data/sms/call function with USB 2.0 interface and can be used on any Windows (200/XP/Vista/7), Mac and Linux system.

The device will autoinstall all required drivers and softwares, which includes a mobile TV application which offers 150+ channels, including three Odia channels, including the OTV, ETV and Naxatra TV free of cost without using any TV Tuner or any additional gadgets.

Evan Williams, On Listening To Twitter Users !!!

         Evan Williams, the Co-Founder of Twitter Inc, on TED. His views after listening to a lot of Twitter users. He explains how twitter had its origin and how Twitter helps an user answering the question "What are you doing right now???!!!" to millions and millions of followers in a single second."I Kicked Mommy at 08:43PM on Thu, Dec 18!" 
- A tweet by a baby

In the year leading up to this talk, the web tool Twitter exploded in size (up 10x during 2008 alone). Co-founder Evan Williams reveals that many of the ideas driving that growth came from unexpected uses invented by the users themselves.

A Dad-Son's Attempt To Send An iPhone With HD Camera Into Space !!!

Some fathers and sons spend their weekends flying kites in the park.

When some dads and sons spend weekends by flying kites, Luke and Max thought differently !!!

Luke Geissbuhler and his 7-year-old son Max thought it might be more fun to send an iPhone and an HD camera into space.

The purpose was simple: to film some of that stuff that is beyond us. So they thought they'd attach their equipment to a weather balloon. Once it's up there, they figured, the dearth of atmospheric pressure would ultimately burst it and send it back to Earth.

It all seemed very clever but not exactly foolproof.

As Geissbuhler and son say in their video: "It would have to survive 100 mph winds, temperatures of 60 degrees below zero, speeds of over a 150 mph, and the high risk of a water landing."




Still, the Wright brothers wouldn't have been put off by such uncertainty, and they never had an iPhone with which they could track the route of their flying craft. So father and son did a little low-altitude testing and then wandered off to the spacecraft-launching mecca that is Newburgh, N.Y., and sent their balloon into the sky.

The camera and the iPhone had been placed inside some handwarmers and, on the appointed day, father and son were their own two-man (with help) Mission Control in the park, as they watched their balloon sail off into the vast above.

Here is the YouTube version of the attempt.



The balloon burst after around 70 minutes. But it managed to record 100 minutes of footage. As if it knew its own way home, it came back to Earth 30 miles from where it had launched, which Geissbuhler attributed to "a quick ascent and two differing wind patterns."

This is a truly committed father and son partnership, so they searched for their flying machine until they found it "in the dead of night." Yes, it was 50 feet up a tree, but the iPhone's GPS and the camera's external LED light led them to it.

One can only wonder what their self-styled "Brooklyn Space Program" might attempt next. Perhaps a manned (and boyyed) space flight?

Courtesy: cnet.com

Bit.ly URL Shortening Service Introduces QR Codes

The above one is called the QR code. And now Bit.ly url shortening service introduces this feature. It is not a big task for users to create this code.

• Go to bit.ly
• Copy your long URL and paste in the Shorten with bit.ly text box and click shorten.
• And now copy the shortened URL and paste that url in another browser and add '.qr' at the end of the short url and press enter to get the QR code for your website.

And now you can save them and post them in your blog or send them to your friend's mobile. And To scan the code, you’ll need an app like QR Scanner (iTunes link) for the iPhone and iPod touch, or ShopSavvy for Android devices. 

What is Windows Azure ???

        One of the most popular latest technologies that will be having a good scope in future is Windows Azure. It will be a better idea to start it now. When i was searching the internet to understand the Windows Azure better, i found the following...

     Windows Azure™ is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Windows Azure platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage web applications on the internet through Microsoft® datacenters.

      Windows Azure is a flexible platform that supports multiple languages and integrates with your existing on-premises environment. To build applications and services on Windows Azure, developers can use their existing Microsoft Visual Studio® expertise. In addition, Windows Azure supports popular standards, protocols and languages including SOAP, REST, XML, Java, PHP and Ruby. Windows Azure is now commercially available in 40 countries.

I surfed YouTube for a video related to this Azure and i found the below one,

This video gave me some clear idea about Windows Azure.... And I am interested in developing myself in this technology and friends, if you people have them or find them across the web, just share with me...

A Headset That Reads Your Brainwaves - Tan Le

         Tan Le's astonishing new computer interface reads its user's brainwaves, making it possible to control virtual objects, and even physical electronics, with mere thoughts (and a little concentration). She demos the headset, and talks about its far-reaching applications.


 Tan Le's Demonstration!

Controling objects just by dreaming.

Technology is going great and man is becoming lazier ...... No physical works...Only mental works....

Man is growing brilliant and brilliant in technology and mentally. But his physic is ZERO

World's 1st Arabic Speaking Robot, UAE University

Imagine A Robot Speaking In Arabic !!! World is going somewhere!!!

       The UAE University in Abu Dhabi has built the world's first fully automated Arabic-speaking robot that can have intelligent conversations with humans - based on information gathered via the internet and through social networking sites.

However, making the leap from lab project to commercial application remains difficult - largely because of funding.

In Dubai, a series of networking events have been launched in an effort to bring together investors and entrepreneurs.

Ben Thompson went along to see if the meetings can spark a wave of innovation for the region.

Courtesy: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

Animated Flash Tag Cloud For Blogger !!!

       Make your readers immovable with a cool widget that helps viewers/readers trace their content they needed. Can't get what i am saying ???!!!. It is nothing but, 'Labels'... Search using clouds. But this is a widget that every Blogger user have.... What is special in that.

Imagine a widget which is animated or flash that actually rotates and revolves when you mouse hover it. All your Blog's LABELs revolve round in the flash widget. And i think now you can get that...

Animated Tag Clouds !!!

The below are the websites with such widget...

• http://blog.vivekanandan.in (Off course it is my blog or the blog which you stay in ....Look at the sidebar for the widget)
• http://tedxchennai.com/blog/ The Official Blog of TEDxChennai. You will find in the right hand side bar. Last widget....

Now login to your blogger dashboard and then go to your blog's DESIGN and after that EDIT HTML....

And now do not forget to check the EXPAND WIDGETs option. After that, use your browser's FIND feature and find the below one line code in your blog's html.... If you find it, then just copy the HTML code in RED and paste after the line that is found....If you didn't find the below code, then use your browser's FIND feature and search for id='sidebar' and after that line paste the HTML code in RED....

<b:section class='sidebar' id='sidebar' preferred='yes'>

Below is the HTML code that you are going to insert into your blog's HTML code:

<b:widget id='Label99' locked='false' title='Labels' type='Label'>

<b:includable id='main'>

<b:if cond='data:title'>

<h2><data:title/></h2>

</b:if>

<div class='widget-content'>

<script src='https://sites.google.com/site/infivivek/vivsoft-tutorials/tutorials-blogger/blogger-tools-resources/swfobject.js' type='text/javascript'/>

<div id='flashcontent'>Animated Flash Cloud by <a href='http://blog.vivekanandan.in/2010/09/animated-flash-tag-cloud-for-blogger.html/'>Vivekanandan Manokaran. Credits: Roy Tanck & Blogger Buster & Blogger Stop</a></div>

<script type='text/javascript'>

var so = new SWFObject(&quot;https://sites.google.com/site/infivivek/vivsoft-tutorials/tutorials-blogger/blogger-tools-resources/tagcloud.swf&quot;, &quot;tagcloud&quot;, &quot;240&quot;, &quot;300&quot;, &quot;7&quot;, &quot;#ffffff&quot;);

// uncomment next line to enable transparency

//so.addParam(&quot;wmode&quot;, &quot;transparent&quot;);

so.addVariable(&quot;tcolor&quot;, &quot;0x333333&quot;);

so.addVariable(&quot;mode&quot;, &quot;tags&quot;);

so.addVariable(&quot;distr&quot;, &quot;true&quot;);

so.addVariable(&quot;tspeed&quot;, &quot;100&quot;);

so.addVariable(&quot;tagcloud&quot;, &quot;<tags><b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'><a expr:href='data:label.url' style='12'><data:label.name/></a></b:loop></tags>&quot;);

so.addParam(&quot;allowScriptAccess&quot;, &quot;always&quot;);

so.write(&quot;flashcontent&quot;);

</script>

<b:include name='quickedit'/>

</div>

</b:includable>

</b:widget>

 Alter the Width and Heigth:

      var so = new SWFObject("https://sites.google.com/site/infivivek/vivsoft-tutorials/tutorials-blogger/blogger-tools-resources/tagcloud.swf", "tagcloud", "240", "300", "7", "#ffffff");

  The numbers indicated in blue color are the pixels of width and height.. You can alter this by changing the pixel size there. Do not alter anything other than this, widget will not work.

Changing the Background Color:

var so = new SWFObject("https://sites.google.com/site/infivivek/vivsoft-tutorials/tutorials-blogger/blogger-tools-resources/swfobject.js", "tagcloud", "240", "300", "7", "#ffffff");

 Now it is the time for us to alter the Background color of the widget. You can do so by changing the html code of a background color. For example, here the specified color is #ffffff ... And you can alter to the color you wanted to. If you are confused in choosing the color, just go to your TEMPLATE DESIGNER and then find the recommended color for your theme and then copy the HTML code of that particular color and alter in the widget's html code.

Altering the TEXT Color:

so.addVariable("tcolor", "0x333333");

         Now you have guessed that the above snippet determines the color of your widget. And you can edit it too. In the above code, tcolor refers to the text color and the value for that tcolor is by default 333333. Now you can change the text color by the same way you did for changing the background color.
One thing is very important, when altering the color of the text, you must specify the color of the html code in hexa. And what you have to do is, simply ignore the # and just copy and paste the rest of the six digits.

Interesting & Secret Facts About Windows 8 !!!

        The Windows 8 release date has been shrouded in a cloud of rumors. Most experts expect a late 2011 early 2012 release of the operating system. A recently leaked Windows 8 product cycle chart provides the answers needed to determine the release date of the next Windows OS by Microsoft.

          Click here to get a enlarged view of the image. The chart lists the planning, development and readiness product cycle of Windows 8 and related Microsoft products such as Internet Explorer 8, Windows Live

Wave 4, Windows Live Wave 5 and Windows 7. It also lists major events.
Some events and products have already been held / released and it is possible to pinpoint the release date of Windows 8 by making the remaining calculations.

           Here is what we know. Forum I and Forum II have been major events, the former held in December 2009, the latter in April 2010. The listing lists four additional event, Forum III to Forum VI. The next two events fall into the development phase of Windows 8, the remaining two into the readiness phase.
Internet Explorer 9 and Windows Live Wave 4 have either been announced with final dates (at least for the beta) or released already.

           Forum II was held 4-5 months after Forum I. If we take this approach we can calculate the approximate month of the other four forums. This would mean between 16 to 20 months from April 2010 on which coincides perfectly with the projected late 2011 release date.

           The Windows 8 beta should be released around June 2011 and the final release might even hit the stores at the same time that Windows 7 was released, which was October. The Internet Explorer 9 product cycle confirms the findings. Microsoft has announced a beta release of Internet Explorer 9 for August 2010. This would be the same time that Forum III will be held, which is exactly four months after Forum II.
        
           The chart may be a bit off since Windows Live Wave 4 was released in June. It could be that Microsoft has projected the Forum III conference for June / July instead. Could also be that the chart is not 100% accurate and it can happen that development cycles need to be shifted, especially if major issues are encountered during development. Still, we are pretty sure that Microsoft will release the beta of Windows 8 in or around June 2011 and the final release of the operating system in or around October 2011.

Two Indian Personalities in MIT's Technology Review List !!!

Indrani Medhi & Rikin B Gandhiare the two Indians figure in Massachusetts Institute of Technology's prestigious Technology Review's 2010 TR35 list for their outstanding contribution in the fields of energy, biomedicine, communications, information technology, transportation and the web.


Cool !!!! Two Indians @ MIT's prestigious Technology Review's 2010 TR35 list

Indrani Medhi, based at Microsoft Research India's Bangalore lab, was named for her field research to design text-free interfaces that could help illiterate people find jobs, get medical information and use cell-phone based banking services.

Rikin B Gandhi, founder of the non-profit organisation Digital Green, was recognised for her extraordinary contribution in the field of farmer education.

Google To Allow Phone Calls From GMail !!!

Google Inc said users of Gmail will now be able to call telephones directly from their email, putting it in direct competition with Web calling service Skype and more traditional operators such as AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications. 

Google To Allow Phone Calls From GMail !!!While Google had already offered computer-to-computer voice and video chat services, it said that starting on Wednesday it will now allow calls to home phones and mobile phones directly from Gmail for the first time.

Google promised free calls to US and Canadian phones from Gmail for the rest of this year and said it would charge low rates for calls made to other countries. For example it said calls to Britain, France, Germany, China and Japan would be as low as 2 cents per minute.

Analysts said the service would likely be a bigger competitive threat to services like Skype's than to traditional phone companies, which have already been cutting their call prices in recent years in response to stiff competition.

"This is a risk to Skype. It's a competitor with a pretty good brand name," said Hudson Square analyst Todd Rethemeier.
Skype became popular by first offering free computer-to-computer voice and video services.

Like Skype, Rethemeier said the Google service will likely be much more popular among US consumers making international calls, than among people calling friends inside the country.

"Calling is so cheap already that I don't think it will attract a huge amount of domestic calling. It could take some of the international market," he said.

Another analyst, Steve Clement from Pacific Crest, said that anybody who is tempted by Internet calling services has likely already disconnected their home phone. "The type of person who would use a service like that isn't the type of customer who still has a landline," Clement said.

Google said making a call through its service works like a normal phone in that a user could click on the "call phone" option in their chat buddy list in Gmail and type in the number or enter a contact's name.

Calls that cost money will be charged from an online account that users can top up with a credit card, Google said. The service will not be available for making outgoing calls on cell phones because other Google apps already cater to that market, the company added.

Are IT Sector Jobs Going Down ???!!!

             After trimming payroll and tightening perks to cope with the economic slowdown last year, software companies are finding that a rising number of engineering and management graduates are transferring their affections to vocations such as manufacturing and banking -- a shift that could force tech firms to scramble harder than ever before for talented employees.

For years, college graduates and professionals working in India's $50 billion (2.3 lakh crore) outsourcing sector moved from one tech firm to another, often getting 20-30 % higher salaries in the bargain. Now, recruitment experts and industry officials say the churn of experienced staff from IT to other sectors has increased by 15-20 % over the past year.

The main reasons, they say, are the perceived job security in the core sector and rising salary levels in manufacturing and telecom companies. Among those who made the switch is Amit Bhargava, 29, who quit his job as business analyst at one of India's top tech firms last month to join a multinational bank's technology centre in Pune.
The technology sector has not really lost its sheen, he says, but he wants to build specialist banking skills. "And it is not as prone to export risks," he adds, referring to his new vocation. Another reason for the shift away from IT companies is that they are now visiting college campuses for recruitment only during the eighth semester of the course, giving an opportunity to firms from other sectors to attract the best talent before them.

Software industry grouping Nasscom asked its members last year to recruit graduating students during their final, eighth semester and not disrupt academic sessions. Until two years ago, top Indian software firms competed aggressively with each other to hire engineering graduates. With the halo around working for a tech company beginning to fade, the competition is getting fiercer.

Infosys Technologies alone plans to hire 36,000 employees in the fiscal to March and its chief executive S Gopalakrishnan has listed the competition for talent as the industry's top challenge. 

TEDxChennai on 10th, October, IIT Madras.

      Here is another cool thing for the TED Talk fans. TEDxChennai is organizing a TED talk in IIT,Madras on 10.10.10, (i.e) 10th of October,2010. TEDxChennai was created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading." The program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences. The talks are meant to spark deep conversation and connections. TEDxChennai is fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community volunteer basis. The tickets for TEDxChennai are now available at various sources.

Speaker's Profiles:
If you are interested to know the profiles of the speakers who are all going make the TEDxChennai event a informative one, go here.

TEDxChennai Team:
The team which is hardly working for the TEDx event is  http://tedxchennai.com/team.php.

TEDxChennai Ticket:
Tickets just costs Rs. 3000 /- Don't get panic, since the event is worthy for lakhs and crores.


Get your tickets in any of the following ways,
1) Pay 3000 through Credit Card
2) Pay 3000 via PayPal
3) Online Money Transfer
4) Pay via Cheque

5) Buy in Person    Buy Tickets Here

 


You can buy your tickets from the following personalities also,

Kiruba Shankar, C Block, 1 Floor, Raj Paris Apartments 74, Kamaraj Salai,Virugambakkam Chennai-92. Mobile: +91 0 98412 82266 Email: kiruba@kiruba.com	Sandeep Varma, 3c Neelkanth Apartments, 17/1, Lock Street, 3c Kotturpuram, Chennai-85 Mobile: +91 0 9884046847, Email: sandeepvarma78@gmail.com
Samuel Eddy, Room No: 109, YMCA, Royapettah, Chennai. Mobile: +91 9790725130 Email: samueleddy05@yahoo.com	Pravin Shekar, 11C, Parameswari Nagar, 2nd Street, Adyar, Chennai-20. Mobile: +91 9 9840035590. Email: pravin.shekar@gmail.com

TEDxChennai Venue:
IC&SR Auditorium
IIT Madras,Chennai

It is sure that this Rs.3000 is going to be a great investment, and so let us join and experience the TEDx event @ Chennai.

Apple's Transparent Laptop !!!

One of the reasons why OLED technology is cool is the fact that you can create a semi-transparent OLED screen. We’re not quite sure how useful this technology really is, except for looking through your laptop when everyone thinks you’re looking at it, but imagining a future with a bunch of semi-transparent gadgetry around us somehow fills us with glee.

Samsung has decided to take a step into the future, creating a 14-inch notebook prototype with a semi-transparent screen. When the device is off, the panel is up to 40 percent transparent; the screen casing is made out of transparent plastic, which makes the experience even more seamless.

                             

Paul Allen Sues Google, Facebook, Apple, YouTube, ...

A firm owned by billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen sued Apple, Facebook, Google, YouTube, and seven other companies, charging them with infringing patents filed more than a decade ago.

Google and Facebook blasted the lawsuit as "unfortunate" and "without merit."

The complaint, filed Friday morning in a Seattle federal court, named AOL, Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo and Google's YouTube.

AOL, Apple, Google and Yahoo were each charged with four claims of patent infringement, while Facebook was hit with one. The other eight companies were charged with two claims each.

The suit does not name Microsoft, which Allen co-founded with Bill Gates in 1975 but left in 1983 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. Microsoft did not reply to a request asking whether it had licensed some or all of the applicable patents from Allen's firm.

Allen's lawsuit claimed that the 11 companies violated patents developed by Internal Research, a Silicon Valley research lab he funded in 1992, but which shut its doors in 2000. David Liddle, who worked at the Xerox's influential Palo Alto Research Center ( Xerox PARC) in the 1970s, was Interval's CEO.

Those patents were later transferred to Interval Licensing, a company owned by Allen.

The two patents that make up the bulk of the claims are 6,263,507, "Browserfor Use in Navigating a Body of Information, With Particular Application to Browsing Information Represented By Audiovisual Data," and 6,757,682, "Alerting Users to Items of Current Interest." Allen's lawsuit alleges that all but Facebook violated the '507 patent, and all 11 companies infringed the '682 patent.

Interval filed applications for the four patents between March 1996 and September 2000, and was awarded the patents between March 2000 and September 2004.

The '507 patent refers to a possible application in a "news browser" that could be used to "review news stories acquired during one day from several television news programs, as well as from text news sources." The '682 patent, meanwhile, describes technology for alerting users of Web content related to what they're currently viewing, or of others' activities that might interest them.

The '682 patent is the only one that Allen's company claimed was violated by Facebook, the popular social networking site.

The remaining two patents spell out an "attention manager" that would flash advertisements, stock quotes and other information in front of a user.

The 15-page complaint singled out Google for special treatment, saying that Interval Research provided both funding and assistance to the then-fledgling search firm in 1998, the year founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin incorporated the company.

Included with the complaint was a 1998 screenshot of Google's "About" page that showed Interval Research credited as one of four sources of research funding, and one of two outside collaborators.

In a statement Friday, Google called Allen's lawsuit "unfortunate."

"This lawsuit against some of America's most innovative companies reflects an unfortunate trend of people trying to compete in the courtroom instead of the marketplace," said Google. "Innovation -- not litigation -- is the way to bring to market the kinds of products and services that benefit millions of people around the world."

Facebook's take was more blunt. "We believe this suit is completely without merit and we will fight it vigorously," said company spokesman Andrew Noyes in an e-mail.

Other Firms contacted by Computerworld, including Apple and Yahoo, did not immediately reply to requests for comment on the lawsuit.

Allen's suit seeks unspecified damages, as well as injunctions that would block the accused companies from continuing to use the patented technologies.

Earlier this year Forbes put Allen, 57, in the No. 37 spot on its world's richest list, and estimated his net worth at $13.5 billion.