Mozilla to develop a hassle free PDF experience over the web

Viewing online PDF files has always been an awkward experience for user because of the wait as the software gets loaded, followed by an alien interface, framed within the browser window, that meant actions like searching and printing were different. Though the loading time has been diminished these days with the latest Adobe Viewer but still PDFs don't feel like native Web documents.

Since PDFs are international standards, companies are putting their best to make it a hassle-free task to view PDFs over the web. Google has already developed its online PDF engine which renders almost all PDFs and now Mozilla has begun a project of its own called pdf.js, a PDF reader that uses Web technology, not native software, to render PDFs in the browser. On one end Google is working on native code PDF capabilities and on the other end Mozilla is working on an approach that uses the browser's engine.

The project uses JavaScript, the programming language of Web pages and Web applications, to interpret the PDF coding. It involves improved Firefox's JavaScript execution speed and HTML5 Canvas technology for two-dimensional drawing.

Though there are some drawbacks in the present model, for example browser technology is by no means immune to security problems and the low level interface doesn't easily allow people select text and high quality printing. But Mozilla is working to get around these drawbacks and it may even use PDF renderer using another Web technology, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) to render a quick version using Canvas.

The project pdf.js will not only improve user's experience with PDFs but it will ultimately phase out the technology.

Apple to launch its next iPhone in september

As per the latest report, Apple is expected to release its next model iPhone in September with a faster chip, more advanced camera and high speed processor. Here are some of the key features expected in the new release :

• 8 mega-pixel high end camera (currently 5 mega pixel in iPhone 4)
• high-speed dual core A5 processor as in iPad 2
• iOS5 (announced earlier this month) as operating system

The release date of the new iPhone has been a big question mark, with various reports and rumors claiming a range of time frames, anywhere from August to early next year. But Apple reportedly pushed back the launch of its next iPhone to September in order to coincide with the debut of iOS 5.

The new iPhone would closely resemble the iPhone 4 and the new iPhone would be more of an iPhone 4S or an iPhone 4 plus, a model with some improvements but no major changes from the current edition.

Another good news is that Apple is reportedly working on a cheaper model geared toward developing countries.

Firefox 5 released - First rapid release version from Mozilla

With the release of Firefox 5 on 21st June, Mozilla also kept its promise to complete the new browser just a few months after its predecessor. Mozilla, once the leading challenger to Microsoft's IE, faces new challenges from Google's Chrome, with new version released every six weeks. Adopting a similar philosophy, Firefox now works on a three-month cycle, and today Mozilla met its first deadline. The concept behind quick release is to innovate faster as the world wide web is evolving at lightening speed.

New features in Firefox 5 include the following:

• Support for CSS animations, a technology that lets Web page elements move around the screen. That's useful for more dynamic Web pages and Web apps.

• Firefox's new Add-on SDK, formerly called Jetpack. This foundation lets programmers build extensions out of Web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript rather than the older XUL technology. The expected advantages: extensions will be easier to write and won't break when new browser versions arrive.

• In beta testing is the Add-on Builder, a Web-based tool designed to make writing extensions easier.

• Firefox's do-not-track technology, which lets people tell Web sites they don't want to be tracked for advertising or other purposes, now works on Android phones as well.

• Canvas, which adds two-dimensional graphics technology to browsers, runs faster now, and adheres better to the official specification.

• Mozilla worked on performance in various other areas, including JavaScript and launch time.

• On Android, Firefox 5 now supports the Web Open Font Format for downloadable typefaces to embellish Web pages.

• Also on Android, panning around a Web page should be smoother.

After huge success for Firefox 4(more than 200 millions downloads), the new version is not expected to dramatically different from earlier release because of faster release cycle. But with this release Mozilla Team has earned two vital reasons to celebrate.

K Computer : The world's fastest super computer from Japan

Top 500 supercomputers list is revised every year in June and November by researchers at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and the University of Mannheim in Germany. Supercomputers which are enlisted in this category are used for an array of tasks such as weather forecasting, high-speed stock trading, and simulating weapons tests because of their massive processing power.

This June, the top 5 super computers are :

• K Computer      (Japan)
• Tianhe-1A         (China)
• Jaguar               (USA)
• Pleiades             (USA)
• Tera-100            (France)

6 months back, Tinahe-1A (presently at no. 2) was the fastest computer but K Computer from Japan has become the new no. 1 in world's top supercomputers. This advanced supercomputer is three times faster than the second fastest supercomputer and more powerful than the next five supercomputers on the list combined.

The K computer, built by Fujitsu, has 68,544 central processing units, each with eight cores. That's twice as many as any other supercomputer on the Top 500. The name K computer comes from the Japanese word "KEI" which means ten quadrillions and this amazing supercomputer is capable of performing more than 8 quadrillion calculations per second.

The K Computer comprises of more than 800 computer racks and it is used at the Riken Institute for Physical and Chemical Research in Kobe, Japan. This is the first time since 2004 that Japan had held the top supercomputer on the list.

New domain naming rules to be set very soon

In last few years, there had been numerous requests for most popular domain names like .kids for kids websites, .shop for e-commerce portals, .xxx for porn sites and similarly lot others. The conventional domain names like .com, .net, .org, .in and others are already flooded with so many domain registrations and people are looking for some other domain names which may suit their business or personal need in the best possible way.

Ever since the inception of World Wide Web, the number of domain registrations are getting increased with high cerelity. Today the scenario is very frustrating, you may hardly get a name which you are actually looking for and finally you get settled down with some compromises and pick one among the few suggestions provided by your hosting provider. The upcoming new naming rules will help a lot with this with almost any name available as it will allow domain names using any combination of letters and numbers, including non-Latin characters.

ICANN, the non-profit organization established in 1998 in order to regulate the Internet has always been maintaining the integrity of the Web's domain name system. With the high demand for various new domain categories like .kids, .shop, .xxx and others ICANN has approved the new naming system and it is supposed to be in action by the end of January 2012. So get ready with all domain names you dreamed of and could not get because of unavailability.

Falling facebook growth rate in north america

Facebook, the sensational social networking giant is streaming towards 700 million users but it seems that it has tapped out its potential in North America. As per the data from Inside Facebook, site has lost more than 7 million active users in the United States and Canada last month.

On the other hand, the origin of Facebook - Mexico added about 1 million users last month but the falling growth rate in North America supports the news of Facebook losing users in some of the regions. This can be a vital question on overall growth rate of Facebook.

This June, Facebook reached 687 million users at the beginning but the growth rate seems to be falling from 20 million per month last year to 11.8 million this year. The United Kingdom, Norway and Russia are other countries where Facebook was adapted relatively early in its existence, each dropped by about 100,000 active users in May. Still, expansion continues as Facebook focuses globally. Major population centers like Brazil, India and Argentina all saw growth of more than 5 percent in May, with Brazil leading the way, jumping from about 17 million users to about 19 million.

As stated by Facebook, once the user count reaches around half of the country population, growth rate generally slows to a halt and there are some seasonal changes as well which may affect its popularity.

Whatever be the case, Facebook has always been managing its stalls and loses with heavy gains in heavily-populated developing countries like Mexico, Brazil, India and Indonesia. Apart from these, moving into China will be one clear way to insure its goal of reaching 1 billion active users.

Gayle may not be a part of West Indies cricket team anymore

Chris Gayle, the explosive batsman from West Indies, who amazed everyone with his knocks in IPL 2011 was already out of the team playing T20 and ODI matches against India. And Gayle is highly unlikely to play even in the test series.

As we know, due to the offensive comment against the WICB on a radio interview in April, he was not included in the team playing against India. But now, after a heated meeting yesterday night with the West Indies Cricket Board, Gayle's cricket future itself is in doubt. The meeting is said to be ended in a stalemate as the board was in no mood to compromise, refusing to negotiate unless Gayle retracted statements he made. On the other hand, Gayle who was present at the three-hour meeting along with board members was also not ready to retract from his sayings. Gayle camp's said this prediction made by the board was an indication that the WICB wanted to end the international career of this former West Indies captain.

Board said that if Gayle retracts his statements, they would likely view the incident as a minor indiscretion, penalize him accordingly, and select him for the upcoming matches. But as per the player's camp, they are not willing to let him play anymore and they are all set to end up his career. Board just want him to beg and apologize even after Gayle is willing to bury the past and move on.

Its likely that the career of this amazing player, excellent with both bat and ball, may go down the same road as that of Andrew Symonds, who now plies his trade only as a freelance player in domestic Twenty20 events across the world and does not play for Australia.

Sonia's visit to a school in a remote village of India

Once Sonia Gandhi went to a school in a remote village of India to interact with the children there.

After a brief talk she asked if anyone had any questions.

One boy raised his hand.

Sonia: "What's your name"?
Boy : "RAHIM"
Sonia: "What are your questions"?
Rahim: "I've 3 questions...

1.Why did you attack & kidnap Baba Ramdev without approval of Court?
2.Why there is no punishment to KASAB as yet? 

3.Why does Manmohan singh & the Congress party not support Baba against corruption?

Sonia: "You are an intelligent student, Rahim."

Just then the recess bell rang.

Sonia: "Oh students, we will continue after the recess is over".

After the recess...

Sonia: "Ok children where were we? So, anybody wants to ask a question"?

RAM raises his hand.

Sonia: "What's your name"?
Ram: "I'm Ram and I've 5 questions...

1. Why did you attack Baba without approval of the court?
2. Why no punishment to Kasab as yet?
3. Why does Manmohan Singh not support the fight against corruption?
4. Why did the recess bell ring 20 mins before the time?
5. Where is Rahim?

Difference between Android 2.2 (Froyo) and Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)

At present, Android is one of the top selling smartphone OS and has almost dominated this domain. The latest release of Android(2.3) called Gingerbread is a upgrade of Froyo, the most popular Android 2.2 which is now on the most common Android in the smartphones release in market.

With the release of Gingerbread, most Android users are willing to upgrade their existing android to the latest one. If you are an Android user you may also be looking forward for the upgrade. But before this you must know the extra features and benefits you may get with the latest release and know the difference between 2.2 and 2.3.

Here are the key differences between the two releases :

Kernel:

• Android 2.2 – Linux Kernel 2.6.32
• Android 2.3 – Linux Kernel 2.6.35

Networking:
Android 2.2 supports Bluetooth as well as Wi-Fi. On top of these, Android 2.2 supports Wi-Fi hotspot functionality that can connect 6 devices. In the sense, you can use Android 2.2 phone as a wireless broadband router.

Android 2.3(Gingerbread), in addition to all existing features, supports for NFC (Near Field Communication) which is a high speed data communication mechanism operates in high frequency within a short range (10 cm).

Communication:
In addition to standard voice calling, Android 2.3 supports for SIP audio and video calling. If you have a good 3G or Wi-Fi connection and a SIP account you can make internet calling. It breaks the boundary of regionalist concept and flies in the global domain.

Power Management:
Power Management is one the critical tasks in these kind of Mobile operating systems.  Even if you have all these fancy features, if the battery life of the device is couple of hours, then there is no use in the added features. Android 2.3 handles it in a better way than Android 2.2. Here in 2.3 the OS manages the applications and daemon application which are running at the background and closes the unnecessary applications.

Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) supports the following important features in addition to 2.2:

•     Integration of Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine into the Browser application
•     Advanced Microsoft Exchange support
•     Wi-Fi hotspot functionality
•     USB Tethering
•     Voice dialling and contact sharing over Bluetooth
•     Support for file upload fields in the Browser application
•     Animated GIFs supported in browser.
•     Adobe Flash 10.1 supported
•     Support for extra high DPI screens

Twitter turning out to be the biggest competitor of Facebook

Throwing the image of being just an Information Network out of the window, twitter is now entrenched in serious competition with Facebook for the much grander social networking crown.

After the announcement of native photo and video sharing to twitter, it won its biggest product win when Apple announced that iOS 5 would include deep Twitter integration. Which means that more than 200 millions people using iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices or at least those who will upgrade it to iOS 5 will have the ability to do things like post photos, videos and links to Twitter with a single tap. Application developers will also be able to add this type of functionality to their iOS applications, further accelerating the impact of their partnership.

Though, application developers can still build Facebook integration into their iOS apps, but by making Twitter the default in apps like Camera, Safari and YouTube, Apple has dictated where millions of pieces of content will invariably flow. On the other hand, with the native photo and video sharing Twitter is positioned like never before to capitalize on that content and keep people on its site, and in turn challenge Facebook where it dominates like no other.

It seems that twitter is changing its image into a social network and the iOS 5 tie-up gives it a upper hand. Though facebook could also tie up with Apple in this roll-out but for time being, Twitter's iOS win is a symbolic victory over Facebook that signals the company's growing ambitions as a social network.

Google wading deeper into clean energy domain

Google has already been active in the area of clean energy technologies and now it seems to take another step forward as there are five renewable-energy engineer job openings listed on Google's job site, including a top manager post. The job for these openings will be to develop disruptive new technologies that dramatically lower the cost of renewable electricity with the goal of making renewable energy cheaper than coal within a few years.

The other job openings specify skills in designing and prototyping utility-scale renewable-energy systems. Google is seeking people able to assess and create different renewable-energy technologies with the potential to be cheaper than coal-generated electricity, including solar, wind, enhanced geothermal, and other breakthrough technologies. There are other jobs for making Google's operations more sustainable with efforts like reducing its energy use and achieving the corporate goal of carbon neutrality.

If we look at the past, Google had launched its renewable energy cheaper than coal initiative in 2007 and Google also invested in some start-ups working in this domain. In April, its Google Energy subsidiary invested directly in a wind farm in Oklahoma located near a planned Google data center. Altogether, Google has also invested more than $400 million in renewable energy, including a large wind farm in Oregon and a large solar project in California earlier this year. Through its philanthropy Google.org, Google invested in start-ups, including high-wind company Makani Power, enhanced geothermal companies, and solar company BrightSource Energy, which filed to go public earlier this year. The company also developed PowerMeter, a home energy monitoring Web application, the only energy-related product Google has released. In 2010, Google's green-energy czar Bill Weihl said that engineers had built a prototype of a sun-tracking mirror called a heliostat which could lower the cost of solar energy.

By expanding its hands towards innovative technologies in renewable energy domain, Google shows its bigger idea beneath.

Let's play your tune on Google's Les Paul Doodle

Yesterday, the search engine's home page logo was converted into a slightly odd-shaped, but fully working virtual guitar to commemorate the 96th birthday of guitar legend Les Paul, who died in 2009. With this Google's Doodle you can play your own tune and even record them. You can also share your finished masterpiece with others just by sending them the link.

Unfortunately the record and playback function doesn't work in all countries but you can still play songs in real time, which is much easier if you use the hidden keyboard controls. Just click the button, whether it looks like a record button or a keyboard, and start typing. It can be a livening stuff to bring you out from the office boredom and you would love to try some of the tunes which may come out by typing your name or your friend's name or even for more fun you can try typing your employer's mission statement and listen to the tune that comes out.

Ever worried why does Google do things like this on each such occasion? Partly because it's fun. And partly because it's excellent marketing. Millions of people will encounter this today, and start messing with it instead of doing their actual work. That's a cool marketing strategy, isn't it?

And if you find this an interesting stuff from Google, click here to check out the history of Google Doodle's.

A facebook lover who has 152 facebook friends on her arm

There is a enormous crowd of people who like facebook and out of them there are some people who are so devoted to their circle that they find some pretty extravagant ways to show it. Same is the case with this woman from Netherlands who has literally armed herself with the power of Facebook - in the form of a tattoo sleeve of her friends on Facebook.

Let's get the obligatory jokes out of the way: "What if someone unfriends her?" "Can I dislike this entire idea?" "I hope she saved the rest of her money for laser removal when she starts not to like these people." "Forget the new facial recognition technology Facebook just announced – she can look at her arm."

But this woman – who is gaining quite a bit of fame by posting a video last week on her "susyj87" YouTube account showing the process and her final tattoo of her 152 closest friends – said the tat wasn't about making a splash. "My tattoo is not about up-to-date profile pics or fame (as you can see I want to stay anonymous)," she said to critics on her YouTube page. "These are the people closest to me (not all my facebook friends). It's a personal expression of who I am right now in this part of my life and the media world we live in. And of course I love the way it looks. I understand if you wouldn't do this, I respect that. But to me it does have a lot of meaning."

Personally, we hope she really, really, really likes these friends. Or she's going to have a heck of a time getting those off – with a trip to have one laser-removed any time she has a really bad spat with a friend. She says the ink was a way to embody, literally, the social media world we are immersed in.

Twitter gets a YES in classroom

Cellphones, ipads and laptops have found important place in a teenager's life. And they don't skip taping their smartphones or ipads even in their classrooms.

In general when you are caught tapping your smartphone in the classroom, you may directly end up to the Principal's cabin and sometimes even with parents. But Legaspi, a teacher for eight years and a technology enthusiast has found it useful and he continuously encourages this as long as you use twitter on your devices.

As per him, teachers are trying to implement twitter into classrooms since long but the site adoption is still very limited. Only 2% of educational institutions are using micro-blogging sites like twitter and others. While talking about its effect on students, Legaspiwas very energized to state that using twitter like sites provide them a global exposure and to think beyond the limits.

Legaspi is very hopeful about the application of twitter in classroom as this will not only raise the competition in between students but it will also rapid up the learning process.

For the demonstration, Legaspi stood in front of a projected screen discussing the death toll from World War I. When he asked the classroom how many people died in that conflict, several tweets started showing up on his screen with various answers.

Even students and their parents have praised the process and they find it a great way to make other notice you and it helped kids find their voice. Specially for those students who are not that active in classrooms and don't share what lies in their mind are opening up themselves on twitter.

Tata Manza clocks an incredible mileage of 46.33 kmpl

The Tata Manza (Quadrajet Aura ABS) has clocked an incredible mileage of 46.33 km per litre. This feat has been achieved by Narayanan Menon, a resident of Coimbatore who has zoomed into the Limca Book of Records. 

Narayanan R Menon, Managing Director of Aromen Engineering Company and a proud owner of the Tata Manza has been certified for the remarkable drive on the Coimbatore- Avinashi by-pass on 25th of May 2011. Menon’s Tata Manza covered a long stretch of 72.3 kilometers on road by consuming only 1.58 liters of diesel, which translates to an incredible mileage of 46.33 km per litre.

A mechanical engineer, Menon himself does not credit an amazing mileage to a ‘magic foot’ rather a combination of good driving and car maintenance. For a country where fuel efficiency is a significant factor for automobile ownership and with fuel prices increasing, the feat certainly bodes well for the mileage conscious customer.

Top 10 blunders of world wide web

Internet is a very important part of our life today. A kid studying in his primary schools to the eldest member of the family, everybody is habituated to internet today. I would say its the most useful technology ever related to computer.

Here are the top ten blunders that belongs to the amazing internet :

1. Forward slashes after http in http://

 

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the British computer scientist credited with creating the World Wide Web in 1989, doesn't seem like a man who has many regrets. But he admitted earlier this month at a symposium in Washington that his decision to include those annoying forward slashes in http addresses was made on a whim. If he could change one thing about the Internet now, he says, he would slash the slashes, which are completely unnecessary.

2. Wrong person at the wrong place at BBC

The BBC is undoubtedly one of the best broadcasters in the world, with a proud history and popular website. But even then it isn't immune to screwing up once in a while. Consider the case of its "Internet expert" Guy Goma, who participated in a studio discussion in 2006 regarding music downloads and Apple Computer's victory at the London High Court against Apple Corps, the record label for the Beatles. None of the producers noticed anything funny about Goma until he responded to one of the questions by saying, "I don't know. I'm not at all sure what I'm doing here." Turns out that Goma thought he was going to be interviewed for an IT job at the BBC, not interviewed on air.

3. Mistake at an Apple premiere

 

Four years ago, Apple posted for sale on iTunes what it thought was the season premiere of the sci-fi TV show Stargate Atlantis. The episode happened to be the show's fourth installment, however, which hadn't yet aired. The accidental leak occurred because of a mix-up over the episode's production and broadcast numbers. Apple removed the episode 24 hours later, but by that point, peer-to-peer networks were offering it to their users for free. To make amends, Apple gave customers who mistakenly bought the episode an iTunes credit of $2.

4. Most popular web giant Google getting spammed

 

Google's spam-fighting system is apparently too good. A couple of years ago, Google accidentally mistook the company's own Custom Search Blog as spam. The Google blogging team in charge of updating the website didn't notice the warning messages indicating that the blog would be deleted if the user didn't clarify that it wasn't spam. When the blog was automatically deleted, another Web user took over the domain name for the site. The Google bloggers initially suspected an external hack job, but then they realized what had gone wrong. They got the domain name back — and then presumably blogged about the whole ordeal.

5. Thriller beyond the thriller game

The box for Capcom's Killer7 video game said it all: "Action-packed thriller." Anyone who went to the game's official website, listed on the box as www.killer7.com, would have found a totally different kind of thriller, though. That URL belonged to a hard-core-porn site. The game's site should have been listed as www.killer-7.com and they made it a blunder by mentioning it without a dash which means the site for a most popular game became an hard-core porn site.

6. When Viacom becomes via-comedy

 

The media behemoth Viacom has engaged in numerous battles with YouTube over copyright infringement over the years. But two years ago, Viacom ended up in the embarrassing position of mistakenly bringing to light the fact that it had committed some copyright infringement of its own. When Viacom demanded that YouTube remove a clip of a North Carolina politician's campaign commercial from a VH1 program called Web Junk 2.0, it emerged that VH1 hadn't obtained permission to use the clip in the first place. The politician, Christopher Knight, was clearly miffed, summing up the situation thusly: "Folks, this is, as we say down here in the South, 'bass-ackwards.' " Thankfully for Knight, Viacom backed down, and YouTube reinstated the video.

7. When AOL offered more than a mail

In 2006, AOL voluntarily released the search data of 650,000 of its users over a three-month period, some 20 million Web queries in total. Although the AOL user name had been changed to a random ID number, one could analyze all the searches done by a single user and deduce who the person was. Understandably, the online community was outraged, and AOL acted swiftly, removing the data and issuing apologetic press releases.

8. Doing a worm by mistake

 

On Nov. 2, 1988, Robert Morris, a Cornell computer-science graduate student, wrote an experimental program that he injected into the Internet. It became the computer world's first "worm." Although the student's intentions were not necessarily nefarious — he was testing how large the Internet actually was — the worm wreaked havoc online, rendering about 600,000 computers unusable. Morris was convicted of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and sentenced to three years of probation, 400 hours of community service and $10,000 fine. He now works for MIT.

9. Sweden in dark

 

In 2009, about a million Swedish Internet sites went down for an hour when routine maintenance caused disruption to every single .se address (the country's domain). The problem was caused by an "incorrectly configured script" in an update of the .se domain. Imagine if this would have happened to the .com domain, taking down tens of millions of websites around the planet. It probably wouldn't have stopped the world from turning on its axis, but it may have come pretty close.

10.  Don't user your name as password

Choosing a strong password is a challenge for many of us. Who out there hasn't used (or thought about using) password or 1234 at one point in their life? A staffer working for the state of Nevada proved abysmally bad at selecting a user name and password two years ago when step-by-step instructions were accidentally posted on the state's official website giving instructions on how aides should send out the governor's weekly e-mail updates. In the instructions, the Outlook user name was given as governor and the password as kennyc. The former governor's name? Kenny C. Guinn.

World's largest solar powered yacht breaks two world records

Turanor, the 31 meter yacht resembling the Starship Enterprise has completed almost 250 days at sea, making half way around the globe to the shores of Brisbane, Australia, propelled by nothing but rays from the sun. It is the world's largest solar powered boat and the first fully solar-powered vessel to circumnavigate the world.

This 60-ton vessel, which is dotted with over 536 square meters of photovoltaic panels, can sail for up to five nights without direct sunlight, supported by reserves stored in the world's largest rechargeable lithium battery. In the entire tour battery never dipped down 20% and the crew is very happy with the performance of the boat.

The $16 million vessel is a catamaran, a type of craft with two hulls, which saves energy by slicing rather than riding the waves. But despite its streamline design, the shark-shaped ship travels at an average speed of just 7.5 knots about that of a large ocean liner.

Talking about the experience they had on the trip, the crew constantly monitored weather forecasts to keep in line with the sun, plotting our route, examining wind, wave and current predictions, communicating with other vessels on the satellite phone, updating our blog and logging our positions.

The name Turanor has been taken from J.R.R. Tolkein's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy which means "power of the sun". The yacht has already broken two world records. One being the fastest ever crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by a solar boat and the longest distance ever covered by a solar electric vehicle.