today special:-Claude Shannon b day

9:18:00 PM

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claude shannon:-

Three things you'll wish you owned that Claude Shannon invented

As well as inventing microcomputers, and developing theories that led to the digital revolution, this American mathematician also had a frivolous side, building a machine that could solve a Rubik's Cube

Shannon with his magnetic mouse that could find its way around a maze GETTY

In its time the Google Doodle has celebrated mathematicians such as John Venn, George Boole and Hertha Marks Ayrton - as well codebreaker Alan Turing, the 100th anniversary of whose birth was 23 June 2012.

Now it is the turn of Claude Shannon, who worked with Turing on Allied codebreaking during the Second World War - not at Bletchley Park, but in Washington, where Turing had been seconded in 1943 to bring the US up to speed with British cryptanalytic developments. Shannon was four years younger, 26 to Turing's 30.

Although Shannon's war-time work was crucial to the Allied effort, he did devote some of his energies to more frivolous projects.

Juggling robot

In the 1070s, Shannon built the world's first juggling robot, using an Erector Set (the equivalent of a Mecanno set). The robot, which was built to look like the Vaudevillian and film comedian WC Fields, was able to juggle three balls at one time - but bounced and caught them, rather than throwing them in the air and catching them.

Ultimate Machine

Shannon built what he called the Ultimate Machine, which he kept on his desk. It was a simple box with a single switch on it that, when you pressed, opened the box's lid to reveal a mechanical hand that reached out, flipped off the switch, and then pulled itself back inside its box, rather like a reclusive Jack-in-the-box. Sci-fi writer Arthur C Clarke saw Shannon's machine and wrote: "There is something unspeakably sinister about a machine that does nothing - absolutely nothing - except switch itself off."

posted by :-krishnakumar

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flipkart challenge

9:04:00 PM

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Krishnakumar

Flipkart challenges Gujarat entry tax on online sale in High Court

Gujarat High Court Thursday issued a notice to the state Government on a petition filed by the online retail major Flipkart against the entry tax in the state on the goods bought through the e-commerce portals. The division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi scheduled the next hearing for June 9. Flipkart has claimed the tax is discriminatory, because no such tax is imposed on the goods brought into Gujarat thorough other modes of sale.

It moved the HC after the Gujarat Government amended the law to levy entry tax on goods purchased through e-commerce portals, apparently to provide a level-playing field to the traders and retailers in the state. The Gujarat Tax on Entry of Specified Goods into Local Areas (Amendment) Bill, 2016, was passed on March 31. Now 15 percent entry tax is levied on the online purchases.

Flipkart's contention is it does not sell any product itself but only provides an online platform to manufacturers/traders, so the tax is unjustified.

The new law amends the word "importer" to cover those who "bring or facilitate to bring any specified goods for consumption, use or sale in Gujarat from any part of the country using online platforms."

posted by krishnakumar

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