A team of European scientists led by Paolo Dario, a professor ofbiomedical robotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, Italy, has unveiled thefirst brain-controlled prosthetic hand. The metal-clad prototype, dubbed the Cyberhand,combines unprecedented mechanical dexterity with a sophisticated computer system designedto harness brain signals from the wearer, allowing him to move and feel the hand as thoughit were his own.

Dario and his team expect to begin testing the Cyberhand on patientsthis year, during which time they aim to perfect its sensory interface. Consisting of amicroprocessor, electrodes and a telemetry system implanted in the wearer's lower arm, theinterface will act as a sort of man-machine interpreter, translating and ferryingelectrical signals back and forth between the hand and the patient's central nervoussystem. To do this, the team has invented electrodes that record electrical data fromnerve cells and stimulate the cells to provide the wearer with sensory feedback. Currentsystems do just half the job, recording electrical signals without sending any data backto the brain.

In addition to its ability to communicate with the body, the Cyberhandfeatures a number of mechanical advances, including five independently moving fingers. ADC motor in each digit gives the robotic hand 16 degrees of freedom, so it can move in avariety of subtle directions (the human hand has 22 degrees of freedom). Each motor pullsa Teflon-sheathed cable that mimics actual tendons and muscle in the fingers, enablingthem to curl around a coffee mug, for instance. With pressure sensors embedded along thesurface of the fingers, the hand can pick up even delicate objects without crushing them.

Quick, how many cables go into the back of a wireless (a.k.a. Wi-Fi or802.11) netcam? That would be one: a power cord. How many cables go into the back of awired netcam, which hooks directly into your ethernet? Also one, if you're using PoE(power over ethernet). PoE takes advantage of the fact that only two of the four twistedpairs of wire (connected to pins 1/2 and 3/6) in a standard Cat5 ethernet cable carrysignals. The other four wires are available to deliver power to your camera or whateverother AC-powered device you have on the network.

At the high end of the professional scale, you can just spend a fewhundred dollars extra and buy a netcam with PoE connections built in, plus a similarlyequipped ethernet router, hub or switch.

If your budget is a little more constrained, consider a POE adapterset, such as D-Link's DWL-P200 for about $45 (plus any adapter that might be neededbetween its plug and yours). And of course, if your widget-acquisition tool of choice is asoldering iron rather than a credit card, you can just build your own.

For quick-and-dirty PoE, just slice open your ethernet cable once nearthe end that will plug into your network hub and once near the netcam end. Depending onhow many holes you're drilling in which walls to run the cable, you may want to do yoursurgery after the cable is in place. Find pairs 4/5 and 7/8 (blue/blue-stripe andbrown/brown-stripe respectively), cut them, and strip a little insulation.

From the Jetsons' Rosie to Richie Rich's Irona to Robby of ForbiddenPlanet, we've been promised digital domestics that look and act a lot like . . . a maid.But that isn't going to happen anytime soon, robot experts say. The problem? Today'smachines are a long way from having the anthropomorphic qualities-above all, sight-foundin human help. The problem once seemed solvable enough: Connect a camera to a computer,and bingo!-robot eye. But true perception is much tougher than it looks. "We'remaking progress," says Sebastian Thrun, director of the Stanford ArtificialIntelligence Laboratory, "but getting machines to replicate our ability to perceiveand manipulate the world remains incredibly hard."

For now, the field of at-home robots isn't even close. Although themarket for personal and service robots has nearly doubled since 2002, your Roomba isn'tgoing to bake you cupcakes or wash your dishes.

Most likely to yield an automated housekeeper is radio-frequencyidentification (RFID), which would allow the robot to converse with inanimate objects.

Media systems have been commercialising and concentrating at alightning speed, threatening to destroy participatory, public-oriented media. Powerfulcommercial lobby groups are drawing up international media laws and regulations, creatinga new system that is even more exclusive and self-serving. Media system in Bangladesh isundergoing a major transformation. Participatory media system is gradually disappeared andpeople's interests are rarely reflected, people do not have also any participation at anylevel in the whole media system. The media is greatly controlled by the business firms;and government has also the controlling mechanism over media, by exercising which it triesto monopolise the whole media system and thus builds up an information underclass - thatis, makes the gap between the information rich and information poor even more wide.

Due to the emergence of a new economy because of the globalisationprocess, the poor people have becoming poorer and are being quite left out of this processand becoming a cultural dumping ground for mass market products made by and for therichest economy.

In this context, community radio is a prior agenda that can help buildup participatory practice in the society, which can lead to people's governance. It canfacilitate people's access and promote their participation in local level decision-makingprocess, which ultimately will result in participatory governance. We can say that thecommunity radio has the dynamism to play the role as a promoter of participatory,accountable and transparent governance system and it can also produce enormousopportunities for growth and poverty reduction.

The economy of the world is gradually concentrated in a fewinstitutions, constituting the rich nations and their institutions. These have taken overthe role of dominance, affecting mainly the life and livelihood of the poor throughcontrol over the world's resources. The process of the dominance has manifoldimplications, e.g. political, social, cultural, religious traditions and knowledge issuesof the society. But to make the economic playground even, which can help in reducingdivisions and discrimination in the society, the need for community radio is indispensableas it can play a democratic role that will give a sound shape to the economy, governance,in the process of transparency, accountability and participatory partnership with amulti-stakeholder approach. The existing divide - social divide, economic divide,education divide, knowledge divide, cultural divide, urban-rural divide, men-women divide,digital divide, North-South divide and even the divide between countries can be reduced,promoting human rights in society.

Rural communities are totally deprived of getting the opportunity ininformation sharing and communications, which is a deprivation of their rights toinformation access. However, steps taken in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India shouldencourage other fellow countries to create a favourable environment in communitybroadcasting use. But in the context of Bangladesh, there is still no communitybroadcasting laws and regulations enacted, though there is a draft broadcasting law lyingon the table for a couple of years.

With a view to come out of the existing domination scenario, people'smedia is an essential need that has to be explored by community people where people willmanage by themselves without any dominance or imposition from any quarter.

Community radio is an alternative media that can counter balance theprofit-motive of the corporate media. What community media emphasises is to facilitateempowerment of people with their active participation in the process not as passiveconsumers or listeners because it has specific objectives to promote people's agenda first- local knowledge, cultures, human rights and social justice, environmental issues andcommunity problems as well as the issues related to development.

Without people's involvement in the process, that is in planning,managing, designing, marketing and ownership pattern' all efforts will be in vain. Thepractices of governance and democracy will only be rhetoric. Community radio for socialdevelopment can promote participatory relationship with the social sector and businesssector, resulting in the promotion of public participation and governance. Community radiocan be used to protest against crime and human rights violation, any oppression, and alsoto promote human rights situation, the practice of democracy and promoting governancesystem through transparent and accountable relation building among citizens and, aboveall, ensure justice in the society to a great extent.

Community radio offers a local counter-balance to face the challengesof global media concentration and the dominance of state owned agenda setting and mediaperformances. It promotes participation, protects human rights, facilitates empowerment,ensure participatory governance upholding people's opinion in a democratic process byallowing active participation of the citizens and for media decentralisation through whichpeople's participation in getting and exchanging information can be better ensured.

Community media radio can have a role in development, if it isestablished in local government institutions, thus people will can get encouragement toparticipate in the activities with more enthusiasm. It can as well contribute a lot indevelopment activities e.g. mitigating disasters and making people aware of events.Establishing radio stations in educational institutions (campus radio) will facilitate thetransparency, accountability and participation of an educational institution.

As experiences in many countries have shown, community radio can beintegrated with the various practices prevalent in community life. They offer concretemeans for public participation and for deepening cultural diversity. The content includespolitical and economic news that facilitates community dialogue and involvement, communityand personal messages (marriage, union-meetings, lost donkeys, musical greetings,educational programmes for development, health, environment, gender), informationprogrammes, and culturally relevant entertainment. Through access to the production andconsumption of relevant communications, these media form a collective platform forcommunity empowerment.

The context of Bangladesh demands CR (community radio), which can helpto promote literacy, human rights, transparency and accountability of respectivecommunity, service delivery mechanism of local government, educational, cultural andsocial activities, etcetera. Besides, through this means the villages will beinterconnected. CR will provide varieties of subjects that can be addressed likereproductive health, agriculture, disaster mitigation, local market, local trade, localcultures, etcetera. It can enhance the social harmony among the communities, it canexercise creativity, cultural diversity, including the disadvantaged, disabled and ethniccommunities as a medium for the people to speak out their views that are left out from allthe development processes.

To facilitate expression and provide access to information for thedisadvantaged groups, coastal people, ethnic groups, rural women, poor communities,etcetera and to uphold the social, economic and cultural aspects and political will ofpeople; community radio can help balance the existing inequalities. They provide the meansfor cultural expression, community discussion, and debate. They supply news andinformation and facilitate political engagement. Radio is the most wide spread electroniccommunications device in the world and community radio is a practical and cost effectivemeans for reaching and connecting the world's poorest communities. To achieve social,economic, cultural and political goals, it helps as a means of reaching communities. Inaddition, the CR opens up a wider space to practice rights, justice, participation anddemocracy.

Community radio can play a vital role in providing awareness,education, and exchange of information to different communities. For free flow ofinformation and promoting people's right there has to be broadcasting policies, So theconcerned authorities will have to come forward and take necessary steps.

Community radio stations and broadcasting need to be approved by theconcerned authorities and so far Bangladesh government is making a progress in this issue,and continuous policy lobbing hopefully can make it a success. In this context ahigh-level advocacy group can be formed which will influence the government in favour ofcommunity radio.

The writer is the Executive Director of VOICE (www.voicebd.org). Thepaper has been presented in a roundtable conference on Community Radio recently.

There are more than 2.5 core unemployed people now in the country andthat are scaling up geometrically mainly due to downward quality of education; want oftechnological know- how, paucity of capital and lack of improved communication facility.In this grave situation, many students of the country are being inclined to careeroriented education. Typically, career oriented education is taking up that subject whichafter education has a great possibility of providing employment. Nowadays, all professionshave become more or less ICT related. Living condition has changed dramatically at thetouch of ICT. Today there has emerged more and more new ICT based occupations. The demandof these professions is growing rapidly. In the 21st century, the unbarred opportunity ofmodem professionalism is said to be possible through the ICT-dependent education. Indeveloped countries, as in ours, students conventionally take decision about career aftertheir SSC and HSC classes (class ten and twelve for developed states). Possibility ofmulti-facet employment and career bound education with the opportunity of professionalismtoday means ICT-dependent education.

Engineering-based career: To be a computer engineer one has to studyabout hardware, software, networking, circuit design, and VLSI (Very Large ScaleIntegration) etcetera. The importance of computer engineer in ICT is the most as theinnovative system design, processor and chip design all are accomplished with the prudentthought and brilliance of engineers. The area of this occupation is open wide. There areseveral aspects of engineering-based career such as System Designer, Robotics Engineer andCAD (Computer Aided Design).

Hardware-based career: A professional, in this case, is to beexperienced to the whole system. Side by side, hardware and software installation,troubleshooting etceteras are also to be known. Careers that fall in this category areCustomer Support Manager, Customer Support Executive etceteras.

Software-based career: Proficiency in various programming languages isa must in this profession. Besides, clear understanding in software design anddevelopment, customer service, demand of clients are also imperative. The areas of thisoccupation are Research lab, Software Company, Bank, Insurance, Design organisation,Multimedia Institute, Educational Institution and so on.

Software-base career includes Programmer or Software Engineer, SoftwareDeveloper, System Analyst, Project Manager, Software Architect etceteras. Demand ofSoftware-base career is worldwide.

Networking-based career: For this profession, one has to beknowledgeable in various subjects like computer engineering, electronics, computertechnology, and telecommunication and so on by completing diploma on these subjects atleast. The demand of this profession is going up day by day as the area of this occupationis open wide. It is said that about one-fourth of the ICT career is networking base.

Web-based career: With the increase of the use of Internet ISP(Internet Service Provider) is also proliferating over the world. For this profession, onehas to be skilled in HTML, Flush, Photoshop, Corel Draw, DHTML, Java, Perl, CGI,Dreamover, ASP, Server, and Network. It is also an occupation that is high in demand andone has the opportunity of working in ISP of Internet related organisations.

Divisions of the Web--based career are Web Programmer, Web Developer,Web Content Developer, Web Engineer, Web Designer, WAP Technologist, Web Master, etcetera.

Multimedia-based career: Multimedia, based career demands morecreativity, sense of beauty, imagination, drawing, and innovative design ideas. One mustbe competent in image scanning, digital image editing, special effect, sound, 2D and 3DStudio Max, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premier and Macromedia for this occupation.The main areas of this profession are print and electronic media, advertise company,animation and film industry etcetera.

Vendor certification: The vendor certification is considered aspassport for ICT professionals. It mainly indicates how much a user is experience to usethe products of a specific company. The certificate is conferred by that company. Thesecertificates have much difference from that of academic ones. For this certification, onehas to sit for through special software by sitting on a computer at home for specifictime. The question is totally objective type. Interestingly, one can get resultimmediately after completing the test. Then the successful candidate receives certificatefrom the specific vendor and is considered as a professional for the product of thatcompany. The companies that offer vendor certification are Microsoft Corporation, OracleCorporation, Sun Micro Systems, CISCO Systems, Computer Technology Industry Association,and Certified Internet Web Master etc.

Besides, there are many other ICT related careers. For example,Industry Specialist Career which includes human development officer, system integration,IT manager, marketing officer and the like, Training and Support based career thatinvolves trainer, help desk, service technician, technical writer etceteras, andMiscellaneous career adds word processor, desktop publisher, online researcher, mobilephone servicing, cyber cafe, digital photography, etecetera.

In conclusion, it is necessary to know that for most of the ICT basedoccupation, proficiency in English language is very imperative. Otherwise, it isimpossible to get much success in this area. But there is nothing to fear, one needsregular practice and seriousness to be good at English. Moreover, nowadays many trainingcentres or institutes have emerged in this regard. So, be competent in English and learnvarious components of ICT easily and clearly. Finally, say 'No' to unemployment and becomea world class ICT professional.

UK net users would strongly back service providers if they trackedvisitors to child porn websites, according to a Mori survey. Eighty-nine per cent in thesurvey of 1,000 said they would support the move.

Last year, BT started a trial to block sites that were on the InternetWatch Foundation's black list. But this can be technically complex and expensive.

When a service provider is made aware of actual illegal material by theInternet Watch Foundation (IWF) or law enforcement agencies, they remove it.

But Ispa (Internet Service Providers' Association) said it was notpossible or practical for a service provider to monitor all the content held on theirservers or other sites.

"It is a very difficult line to tread," explained JimCottrell, Ispa spokesperson. He said BT's trial revealed that some sites were blocked whenthey should not have been.

"Ispa and the IWF have zero tolerance for the actual hosting orproduction of paedophile material. All internet service providers are more than happy towork with law enforcement.

Ninety-nine percent of child abuse sites are not hosted in the UK, butin Eastern Europe and the US according to Ispa, which means service providers cannot takethe material down themselves.

Service providers do not, according to Ispa, consider themselvesauthorised or resourced to decide on the legality of all the material on the net.

It said it was the role of the government to conduct filtering orcensorship processes above the consumer level, but there was also no one size fits alltechnical solution to the problem.

Different service providers have different core technologies governingtheir networks, so a range of approaches was needed, explained Mr Cottrell.

Simon Gawne, from net security firm StreamShield which commissioned thesurvey, said that the research showed the public believed people accessing child pornsites should not be given privacy protection.

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