NFC, or near-field communication, is a variant of RFID, or radio frequency identification. It is an ultra short-range wireless technology that allows communication and data exchange between two devices held in tight proximity - about 4 cm apart.
NFC-enabled smartphones have the potential to replace credit cards. This is because NFC phones pack a smart chip - a complex 80-character code that is really hard to crack. Such a device can safely store confidential credit card details and be handy for purchases on the go.
Frost & Sullivan predicts the technology will revolutionise e-commerce and drive over $150 billion worth of transactions by 2015, bulk of which is expected to be powered by NFC phones.
NFC can be deployed in ticketing services, rural banking, interactive and targeted advertising, healthcare, hospitality, libraries and pharmacies. In fact, an NFC phone could become the single-key to access to your car, home and office.
How NFC works...
Any device, a cellphone, a camera or a watch, can be equipped with an NFC 'initiator', which is simply an antenna that can store data. If the device is an NFC smartphone, the 'initiator' and 'target' (an NFC reader) need to be up close for data exchange to happen.

The 'reader' is attached to a point-of-sale (PoS) terminal or cash-register in a retail store that accepts NFC payments. A simple wave of the phone can pay for a purchase. Alternatively, two NFC phones can be tapped lightly to exchange business cards.
Geeks claim that in standby mode, a well-designed NFC solution does not consume any power. And since transactions happen in seconds, the power drain is not huge.
Globally, NFC adoption is picking up via smartphones. RIM, Nokia, Samsung and HTC have unveiled NFC smartphones. Apple iPhone5 is tipped to support NFC too. Google Wallet - a mobile payments technology that can be downloaded on some US mobile networks - is growing the NFC ecosystem. Payment trials have also begun in Australia, Singapore and China.
NFC in India
The technology is still in its infancy here. As of now, Reserve Bank of India does not recognise NFC mobile payment transactions and PoS terminals accepting NFC payments don't exist. But NFC-enabled phones like Apple's iPhone 4, BlackBerry's Touch Bold 9900 and Curve 9360, Samsung's Nexus S and Galaxy S II and Nokia's C7, 700, 701 and 600 are available. For NFC to take off, RBI has to frame norms and banks, carriers, credit card companies, apps developers and PoS terminal makers have to team up.
But awareness levels are growing and NFC is making some waves in entertainment. Shah Rukh Khan starrer Ra.One was the first movie to be marketed by Nokia using NFC technology. Armed with an NFC phone, you can download the movie content by merely tapping the device on a NFC-tagged movie poster at a Nokia priority outlet or a partner multiplex.
Different from Bluetooth...
Bluetooth is also a short-range high frequency wireless technology but one that allows interaction between communication devices as much as 10 meters apart.

Perhaps the way technology has changed lives, it would have never been anticipated. A few of them have in fact changed the entire shape of the world and many are in the same contention. They are producing completely novel industries and landing up everyone in a situation of pure awe.So, we shall now tell you about some of these out-of-the-world technologies:
The World Wide Web: It is not the internet; though without it it's improbable that you can upload your birthday photos on Facebook. It was invented in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee and in 1992 was released; it actually got popularity a year later, as the first web browser – Mosaic Web was launched. Berners-Lee could perhaps have made huge loads of cash from patenting and licensing his creation, he didn’t keep it with him though.
Napster: It isn’t one of the lot’s music sellers. We’re talking about the unique Napster. The makers of Napster gave all reasons for Broadband to succeed apart from troubling big shot labels. Napster was incredibly simple to use and extremely helpful, and p2p sharing for the very first time came into the scene. It is all thanks to Napster we now have iTunes, Bittorrent and Skype. It is great tech when we know it is made by a student.
Hotmail: The innovative Hotmail was an incredible piece of tech. By carrying desktop software to the internet and eventually turning out to be a grand hit, Hotmail successfully escorted in the web 2.0 world of internet apps – likes of Google Maps, Google Docs, Flickr, etc. have build up onto its success. Currently it is under Microsoft and a part of the Windows Live program.

iPhone: The iPhone is like just another phone or is it? It has email, media, games, internet, Wi-Fi and added facilities yet it is a tour de force. Apple has just done what nobody else can do; it has taught each of its rivals that “This is the way to do it, mate.” Apple has made a lot of companies look dwarf. It has such a great band of developers – they have made something unthinkable. So, players – watch out – Apple’s coming to get you!
Wii: For all the gaming freaks, perhaps I don’t need to tell you about the Nintendo Wii Remote. The console in itself is the daddy of all others. Its guts are absolutely undersized when put against its rivals such as Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. But what makes Wii, Wii is its motion-sensor controller. Wow, you act like punching your opponent in the face and the player in the game actually does it.

Netbook
A notebook computer is designed to provide mobile computing that won't break your back yet still offer all the power the mobile users requires for work and some leisure pursuits.
This portability normally comes at a price.
The level of miniaturization involved comes at a cost and high end notebooks can prove to be quite expensive.
A standard notebook has the following features:
1. Ultralight. Less weight is better.
2. 4 - 5 hour battery life.
3. No internal floppy drive.
4. Minimal graphics subsystem.
5. No internal DVD or CD system.
6. 12" - 14" TFT screen.
7. Low profile (thin).
8. Integrated modem and network connection.
9. Smallest possible keyboard that retains functionality.
10. Low power consumption Celeron/Centrino or Sempron style processor.
Laptop

Now for the laptop computer.
Again look at the name.
A laptop is designed to sit on your lap and you can therefore expect it to be quite large and loaded down with features and power.
The standard laptop computer would have some ,if not all, of the following features:
1. 14" - 17" (widescreen) TFT screen.
2. Nvidia GeForce or ATI Radeon graphics subsystem.
3. Internal DVD-ROM or DVD-RW drive
4. Large full featured keyboard.
5. 3 hour+ battery life.
6. Upgrade able.
7. Integrated modem, network, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities.
8. High quality integrate audio and speaker system.
9. Low power consumption, high performance Intel Centrino style processor.
From reading the above information you'll see that the notebook is the exact opposite of the laptop.
Notebooks offer reasonable power and extreme portability.
Laptops are designed to be capable of replacing an entire desktop PC if necessary whilst still offering desktop performance in a mobile platform.

The waxing obsession with Nibiru, which conspiracy theorists say is a planet swinging in from the outskirts of our solar system that is going to crash into Earth and wipe out humanity in 2012 — or, in some opinions, 2011 — shows that an astonishing number of people "are watching YouTube videos and visiting slick websites with nothing in their skeptical thinking," in the words of David Morrison, a planetary astronomer at NASA Ames Research Center and senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute.
Morrison estimates that there are 2 million websites discussing the impending Nibiru-Earth collision. He receives, on average, five email inquiries about Nibiru every day.
"At least a once a week I get a message from a young person — as young as 11 — who says they are ill and/or contemplating suicide because of the coming doomsday," Morrison told.
What's the origin of this mass panic about Nibiru, which astronomers say doesn't exist?

A suspect origin
The idea that doomsday will result from a planetary collision was first proposed in 1995 by Nancy Lieder, a self-described "contactee." Lieder claims she has the ability to receive messages through an implant in her brain from aliens in the Zeta Reticuli star system. On her website, ZetaTalk, she stated that she was chosen to warn mankind of an impending planetary collision which would wipe out humanity in May 2003. (When no such cataclysmic event occurred, Lieder's followers chose 2012 as the new date for the Nibiru collision, which coincides neatly with other doomsday prophecies focused on the ending of the Mayan calendar.)
Lieder originally called the bringer of doom "Planet X," and later connected it to a planet that was hypothesized to exist by a writer named Zecharia Sitchin in his book "The 12th Planet”. According to Sitchin (1920-2010), the ancient Sumerians wrote about a giant planet called Nibiru — the "twelfth planet" in the solar system, after the other planets (including Pluto), the sun and moon — which has an oblong orbit that swings near Earth every 3,600 years. Humans actually evolved on Nibiru, he said, and colonized this planet during a previous flyby.
Missing planet
he biggest missing link in the doomsday prophecy is Nibiru itself. Because no giant, rogue planet has been found in the outer solar system to play the role of Nibiru, some conspiracy theorists have decided that a small comet called Elenin, which will pass nearest Earth in October 2011, is actually Nibiru. Even then, though, scientists say Elenin will come no closer than 100 times farther than the distance from Earth to the moon.
"The fact is that these folks are constantly changing their story," Morrison said. "For some, Nibiru is no longer the Sumerian god or planet that is supposed to be returning to Earth in late 2012. It has become a catchword for almost any cosmic catastrophe."
Internet rumors about Elenin began spreading earlier this year. Its approach to Earth was blamed for shifting the Earth's axis by 3 degrees in February, precipitating the Chile earthquake, then shifting the pole even more to trigger the Japan quake in March. "Ignoring plate tectonics as the cause of earthquakes, they suggest that the comet exerted strong gravitational or electromagnetic effects on our planet," Morrison said.
Conspiracy theorists began speculating that the comet is Nibiru in disguise — a planet or even an enormous brown dwarf star (A failed star).
In fact, Elenin is a textbook comet; it has visible "coma," or nucleus, and a long tail made of vaporizing ice.
If it were a brown dwarf, "it would not have a coma or tail, because the gas cannot escape from an object with substantial gravity. In addition, if it were massive we would be seeing its gravitational influence on the orbits of the planets, especially Mars and Earth, but there is no change in these orbits," Morrison wrote. "Finally, if it were a brown dwarf it would have been easily detected in various previous astronomical surveys, including the recent WISE infrared mission, even when it was still in the outer solar system," he wrote.
The fact that the comet isn't headed our way is overlooked by most conspiracy theorists, while others say its path is going to change. "Some websites suggest that the comet is accompanied by a giant UFO, which controls its orbit," Morrison said.

Intelligence Agency is an effective instrument of a national power. Aggressive intelligence is its primary weapon to destabilize the target. Indeed, no one knows what the intelligence agencies actually do so figuring out who the best intelligence service is can be difficult. The very nature of intelligence often means that the successes will not be public knowledge for years, whereas failures or controversial operations will be taken to the press. It’s a thankless situation. Still, from what little has emerged, one can have an idea of some of the better intelligence services out there, with the understanding that this is based on incomplete data.10. ASIS – Australia

Formed - 13 May 1952
Headquarters - Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Annual budget - $162.5m AUD (2007)
Minister responsible - The Hon. Stephen Smith MP, Minister for Foreign Affairs
Agency executive - Nick Warner, Director-General
Australian Secret Intelligence Service is the Australian government intelligence agency responsible for collecting foreign intelligence, undertaking counter-intelligence activities and cooperation with other intelligence agencies overseas. For more than twenty years, the existence of the agency was a secret even from its own government. Its primary responsibility is gathering intelligence from mainly Asian and Pacific interests using agents stationed in a wide variety of areas. Its main purpose, as with most agencies, is to protect the country’s political and economic interests while ensuring safety for the people of Australia against national threats.
9. RAW – India

Formed - 21 September 1968
Headquarters - New Delhi, India
Agency executive - K. C. Verma, Secretary (R)
Parent agency - Prime Minister’s Office, GoI
Research and Analysis Wing is India’s external intelligence agency. It was formed in September 1968, after the newly independent Republic of India was faced with 2 consecutive wars, the Sino-Indian war of 1962 and the India-Pakistani war of 1965, as it was evident that a credible intelligence gathering setup was lacking. Its primary function is collection of external intelligence, counter-terrorism and covert operations. In addition, it is responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and persons, in order to advise Indian foreign policymakers. Until the creation of R&AW, the Intelligence Bureau handled both internal and external intelligence.
8. DGSE – France

Formed - April 2, 1982
Preceding agency - External Documentation and Counter-Espionage Service
Minister responsible - Hervé Morin, Minister of Defence
Agency executive - Erard Corbin de Mangoux, Director
Directorate General for External Security is France’s external intelligence agency. Operating under the direction of the French ministry of defence, the agency works alongside the DCRI (the Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence) in providing intelligence and national security, notably by performing paramilitary and counterintelligence operations abroad. The General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) of France has a rather short history compared to other intelligence agencies in the region. It was officially founded in 1982 from a multitude of prior intelligence agencies in the country. Its primary focus is to gather intelligence from foreign sources to assist in military and strategic decisions for the country. The agency employs more than five thousand people.
7. FSB – Russia

Formed - 3 April, 1995
Employees - 350,000
Headquarters - Lubyanka Square
Preceding agency - KGB
The Federal Security Service of Russian Federation (FSD) is the main domestic security agency of the Russian Federation and the main successor agency of the Soviet-era Cheka, NKVD and KGB. The FSB is involved in counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and surveillance. Its headquarters are on Lubyanka Square, downtown Moscow, the same location as the former headquarters of the KGB. All law enforcement and intelligence agencies in Russia work under the guidance of FSB, if needed. For example, the GRU, spetsnaz and Internal Troops detachments of Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs work together with the FSB in Chechnya. The FSB is responsible for internal security of the Russian state, counterespionage, and the fight against organized crime, terrorism, and drug smuggling. The number of FSB personnel and its budget remain state secrets, although the budget was reported to jump nearly 40% in 2006.
6. BND – Germany

Formed - 1 April 1956
Employees - 6,050
Agency executive - Gehlen Organization
Parent agency - Central Intelligence Group
The Bundesnachrichtendienst is the foreign intelligence agency of the German government, under the control of the Chancellor’s Office. The BND acts as an early warning system to alert the German government to threats to German interests from abroad. It depends heavily on wiretapping and electronic surveillance of international communications. It collects and evaluates information on a variety of areas such as international terrorism, WMD proliferation and illegal transfer of technology, organized crime, weapons and drug trafficking, money laundering, illegal migration and information warfare. As Germany’s only overseas intelligence service, the BND gathers both military and civil intelligence.
5. MSS – China

Jurisdiction - People’s Republic of China
Headquarters - Beijing
Agency executive - Geng Huichang, Minister of State Security
Parent agency - State Council
Ministry of State Security is the security agency of the People’s Republic of China. It is also probably the Chinese government’s largest and most active foreign intelligence agency, though it is also involved in domestic security matters. Article 4 of the Criminal Procedure Law gives the MSS the same authority to arrest or detain people as regular police for crimes involving state security with identical supervision by the procuratorates and the courts. It is headquartered near the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing. According to Liu Fuzhi, Secretary-General of the Commission for Politics and Law under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Minister of Public Security, the mission of the MSS is to ensure “the security of the state through effective measures against enemy agents, spies, and counter-revolutionary activities designed to sabotage or overthrow China’s socialist system.” One of the primary missions of the MSS is undoubtedly to gather foreign intelligence from targets in various countries overseas. Many MSS agents are said to have operated in the Greater China region (Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan) and to have integrated themselves into the world’s numerous overseas Chinese communities. At one point, nearly 120 agents who had been operating under non-official cover in the U.S., Canada, Western and Northern Europe, and Japan as businessmen, bankers, scholars, and journalists were recalled to China, a fact that demonstrates the broad geographical scope of MSS agent coverage.
4. CIA – America

Formed - September 18, 1947
Employees - 20,000
Agency executive - Leon Panetta, Director
Parent agency - Central Intelligence Group
CIA is the largest of the intelligence agencies and is responsible for gathering data from other countries that could impact U.S. policy. It is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior United States policymakers. The CIA also engages in covert activities at the request of the President of the United States of America. The CIA’s primary function is to collect information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and to advise public policymakers. The agency conducts covert operations and paramilitary actions, and exerts foreign political influence through its Special Activities Division. It has failed to control terrorism activities including 9/11, Not even a single top level Al-Queda leader captured own its own in the past 9 years – ‘they missed 1 Million’ Soviet troops marching into Afghanistan’. Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction, Have the found them yet? -Number of defectors/ double agents numbers close to a thousand. On 50th anniversary of CIA, President Clinton said ”By necessity, the American people will never know the full story of your courage. Indeed, no one knows that what CIA really does”. Highly funded and technologically most advanced Intelligence set-up in the world.
3. MI-6 – United Kingdom

Formed - 1909 as the Secret Service Bureau
Jurisdiction - Government of the United Kingdom
Headquarters - Vauxhall Cross, London
Minister responsible - The Rt Hon. William Hague MP, Foreign Secretary
Agency executive - Sir John Sawers KCMG, Director General
Parent agency Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The British have had a long public perception of an effective intelligence agency (due to the success of the unrealistic, yet entertaining, James Bond movies). This perception matches reality. MI6, the British equivalent to the CIA, has had two big advantages in staying effective: The British Official Secrets Act and D notices can often prevent leaks (which have been the bane of the CIA’s existence). Some stories have emerged. In the Cold War, MI6 recruited Oleg Penkovsky, who played a key part in the favorable resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Oleg Gordievski, who operated for a decade before MI6 extracted him via Finland. The British were even aware of Norwood’s activities, but made the decision not to tip their hand. MI6 also is rumored to have sabotaged the Tu-144 supersonic airliner program by altering documents and making sure they fell into the hands of the KGB.
2. Mossad – Israel

Formed - December 13, 1949 as the Central Institute for Coordination
Employees - 1,200 (est)
Agency executive - Meir Dagan, Director
Parent agency - Office of the Prime Minister
The Mossad is responsible for intelligence collection and covert operations including paramilitary activities. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with Aman (military intelligence) and Shin Bet (internal security), but its director reports directly to the Prime Minister. The list of its successes is long. Israel’s intelligence agency is most famous for having taken out a number of PLO operatives in retaliation for the attack that killed eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich. However, this agency has other success to its name, including the acquisition of a MiG-21 prior to the Six-Day war of 1967 and the theft of the plans for the Mirage 5 after the deal with France went sour. Mossad also assisted the United States in supporting Solidarity in Poland during the 1980s.
1. ISI – Pakistan

Formed - 1948
Jurisdiction - Government of Pakistan
Headquarters - Islamabad, Pakistan
Agency executive - Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, PA Director General
With the lengthiest track record of success, the best know Intelligence so far on the scale of records is ISI. The Inter-Services Intelligence was created as an independent unit in 1948 in order to strengthen the performance of Pakistan’s Military Intelligence during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. Its success in achieving its goal without leading to a full scale invasion of Pakistan by the Soviets is a feat unmatched by any other through out the intelligence world. KGB, The best of its time, failed to counter ISI and protect Soviet interests in Central Asia. This GOLD MEDAL makes it rank higher than Mossad. It has had 0 double agents or Defectors through out its history, considering that in light of the whole war campaign it carried out from money earned by selling drugs bought from the very people it was bleeding, The Soviets. It has protected its Nuclear Weapons since formed and it has foiled Indian attempts to attain ultimate supremacy in the South-Asian theatres through internal destabilization of India. It is above All laws in its host country Pakistan ‘A State, with in a State’. Its policies are made ‘outside’ of all other institutions with the exception of The Army. Its personnel have never been caught on camera. Its is believed to have the highest number of agents worldwide, close to 10,000. The most striking thing is that its one of the least funded Intelligence agency out of the top 10 and still the strongest.

While some people think all things supernatural are unreal, others truly believe in the existence of ghosts, haunted buildings, and simply creepy existences. All around the world you’ll find creepy places littered with deserted buildings and haunted memories - and you don’t have to wait until Halloween to hunt them down.Here are some of our favorite creepy crawly and simply strange destinations. They’re not meant for the skittish, so be prepared.

To this day you won’t find a boat captain or airplane pilot willing to travel through the Bermuda Triangle. The triangle itself is comprised of a piece of ocean that ranges from Southern Florida, to Bermuda, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and back to Florida again.
Dozens of travelers simply disappeared, presumed dead, while traveling through this eerie spot on the globe. Rumors still circulate regarding their fates - some say it was aliens while others believe there’s some sort of time warp. Regardless of the true reason, no one who enters seems to come back out the other side.

The Tower of London is over 900 years old and served as both a prison and execution hall before it became a tourist attraction. The tower is the location where Henry the VIII had Anne Boleyn’s head chopped off, and several other infamous characters throughout history lost there lives there as well. Many have reported hearing chains and howling winds and seeing ghosts there. It’s up to you to decide if you believe the tower is haunted.

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (not to be confused with Gettysburg, Virginia) was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. Legend has it that the Union soldiers were losing the battle to the Confederates when, out of nowhere, George Washington’s ghost rode up and told them to keep fighting. Locals claim George still visits the area regularly.

Abigail Williams, Betty Parris, and Tituba are to thank for sparking the gruesome Salem Witch Trials back in 1691 and 1692. The hysteria they started by practicing magic in the woods led to the deaths of over 20 presumably innocent women and their ghosts are believed to continuously haunt the town of Salem.
The Winchester Mystery House is truly a mystery. Sarah Winchester started building the house in 1884 and decided that as long as she was alive there would always be some sort of construction happening on the premise.

Why? She believed that constant noise caused by construction workers would somehow make the ghosts of her husband and daughter happy. No one knows what she was thinking when she had doors installed that would open to blank walls or when she decided to construct a set of stairs leading nowhere.

The movies we see are only the end results of the goings on in Hollywood. What we don’t see are the places the rich and famous actors spend their time and, in some cases, die. The next time you’re in the area consider taking one of Tourland’s Haunted Hearse rides. You’ll get to see some of the famous places where the ghosts of some of Hollywood’s most popular stars still hang out.
The Mutter Museum of Medical History itself isn’t as creepy as the things you’ll find inside. If you thought today’s medical advances were off the wall, consider what doctors and scientists were thinking years ago when they started this incredible collection of skulls and pathological oddities.

The regular exhibits are disturbing enough on their own, but the upcoming collections should prove interesting as well. Make sure you stop by if you’re interested in seeing a collection of shrunken heads from South America or the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition collection of temporal ear bones.

No matter where you go in New Orleans you’re bound to bump into some sort of oddity. The city is known for being the home of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, where the famous voodoo queen Marie Laveau is buried. Rumor has it that Laveau had such powerful voodoo strengths she could make your enemies die - for a fee of $1,000 that is. Visitors to the tomb claim to see ghosts dancing at night!

Back in 1947 a local to Roswell, New Mexico found what he believed to be pieces of a UFO. He wasn’t the only one who believed aliens had visited the area, and at the International UFO Museum you’ll find information alleging that the government and town covered up the truth about the occurrence.

One day in 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally murdered. While their daughter, Lizzie, was acquitted, she was ultimately accused of the crime and the majority of historians still believe she was guilty. Today the house they lived in is a Bed and Breakfast and, if you’re daring, you can top off your stay with a reenactment of the exact meal the Borden’s ate the morning they perished.
Some of these places are simply strange while others will send shivers up and down your spine. It’s up to you to determine which ones you find authentic and which you think are a scam, but we have a feeling that a trip to most of these locations will leave you feeling just as creeped out as we were!