Experts are developing a flexible surgical robot, known as the i-Snake, which they say could revolutionise keyhole surgery.

It could enable surgeons to do complex procedures previously possible only through more invasive techniques.

A team at Imperial College London has been granted £2.1 million for the work.

They envisage using the i-Snake - a long tube housing special motors, sensors and imaging tools - for heart bypass surgery.

But it could also be used to diagnose problems in the gut and bowel by acting as the surgeon’s hands and eyes in hard to reach places inside the body.

The Imperial College team, which includes health minister and surgeon Lord Ara Darzi, will test the device initially in the laboratory before it is used on patients.

Minimally invasive surgery has obvious advantages - it can mean smaller scars, reduced hospital stays and shorter recovery times.

Surgeons are also looking at ways to avoid skin incisions altogether.

One approach is Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery or Notes. This means operating in the peritoneal space through natural orifices or cavities, such as the bowel.

Lord Darzi said: “The unrivalled imaging and sensing capabilities coupled with the accessibility and sensitivity of i-Snake will enable more complex diagnostic and therapeutic procedures than are currently possible.

“The cost benefits that i-Snake will introduce include earlier, cheaper and less invasive treatment, faster recovery and procedure times and intangible benefits through an increase in patient care and quality of life.”

Dr Ted Bianco, director of technology transfer at the Wellcome Trust, said: “Gone are the days when the surgeon’s knife ruled in the operating theatre. The future of surgery is in smart devices like i-Snake.”

Information Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7155635.stm

URL: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/E-mail/Mail-Utilities/GMail-Drive-shell-extension.shtml
http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm
OS: Windows 2000, Windows XP
File Size: 153 Kb

A Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google GMail account

GMail Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google GMail account, allowing you to use GMail as a storage medium.

GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google GMail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer.

GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag’n'drop files to.GMail Drive shell extension is a tool that creates a virtual filesystem.

Ever since Google started to offer users a GMail e-mail account, which includes storage space of a 1000 megabytes, you have had plenty of storage space but not a lot to fill it up with.

With GMail Drive you can easily copy files to your GMail account and retrieve them again. When you create a new file using GMail Drive, it generates an e-mail and posts it to your account.

The e-mail appears in your normal Inbox folder, and the file is attached as an e-mail attachment. GMail Drive periodically checks your mail account (using the GMail search function) to see if new files have arrived and to rebuild the directory structures.

But basically GMail Drive acts as any other hard-drive installed on your computer.
You can copy files to and from the GMail Drive folder simply by using drag’n'drop like you’re used to with the normal Explorer folders.

Because the GMail files will clutter up your Inbox folder, you may wish to create a filter in GMail to automatically move the files (prefixed with the GMAILFS letters) to your archived mail folder.

Please note that GMail Drive is still an experimental tool. There’s still a number of limitations of the file-system (such as total filename size must be less than 40 characters), and it doesn’t make full use of the secure internet protocols available.

Finally, some happy news to show that not all marriages are crumbling like that of Bill and Jennifer Butler Murray. Take the Hagers, for example!

Anyone who’s planned a wedding knows what a great feeling it is to finally relax afterwards. Especially if you’re the First Daughter!

Jenna Bush (now Jenna Hager) and husband Henry Hager are honeymooning in Maui, where they were snapped Wednesday cuddling on the beach. Prior to their sun-filled PDA, the newlyweds stuck to a hectic schedule.

One week after their May 10 wedding at the Bush family ranch in Crawford, Texas, Jenna, 26, and Henry, 30, traveled to Virginia for another lavish ceremony: his graduation from Virginia’s Darden School of Business!

Later that week, Jenna headed to Los Angeles for a taping of the Ellen DeGeneres Show with her mother, First Lady Laura Bush.

After famously calling off her engagement to Spencer Pratt last year, Heidi Montag has revealed, for the first time, that she’s changed her mind.

That’s right.

The plastic surgery-loving, duck-lipped bimbo is having second thoughts about having second thoughts and plans on marrying slimy Spencer after all.

“I’m ready to marry Spencer,” the 21-year-old star said.

“He’s my soulmate.”

What changed with The Hills couple? Spencer convinced Heidi Montag to plan a wedding again during a secret make-or-break getaway to Mexico.

Guess it went well. Now Heidi and Spencer are ready to walk down the aisle again, after a year of great publicity and ratings for The Hills.

“Heidi read me biblical passages like ‘Honor thy wife,’” says Pratt.

More like ‘honor thy checkbook.’ Jackasses. Hopefully Spencer can afford more than that $300 diamond ring he bought last time.

FREE avast! antivirus 4.x Home Edition, anti-spyware & anti-rootkit for Windows

Software: Avast Antivirus
URL: http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
OS: Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista
Price: Freeware

avast! 4 Home Edition is a full-featured antivirus package designed exclusively for non-commercial home use only. Both of these conditions should be met!

Avast offers the Home Edition free of charge, since, in their opinion, it is possible to avoid global virus spreading by efficient prevention; however, many users are not able to or do not want to pay for antivirus software. This page will show you the most important features of this program.

The latest version of this program is 4.8.

Anti-spyware built-in:

Spyware is software installed on a computer that is designed to collect information about the computer user, often without their knowledge or consent. This can result in so called identity theft, or theft of valuable information (e.g. bank or credit card details) or proprietary business data. Spyware is often developed by organized crime rings rather than lone individuals and may be installed by a virus.

Certified by West Coast Lab’s Checkmark process, avast! has full anti-spyware capabilities built-in, to make your protection even more complete.

Anti-rootkit built-in

Rootkits are programs that install on your computer while keeping themsleves and their activities hidden to remain invisible to the use. They represent a significant security risk on both home computers and company networks and are notoriously difficult to find and remove. Rootkits themsleves are normally installed by a virus or other type of malware infection and it is therefore highly recommended that computer users have up to date antvirus/anti-spyware software installed and running on their computer. One such system is avast! antivirus.

Based on the class-leading GMER technology, avast! can now scan your live system for rootkit infections; no boots disks are required. If a rootkit is discovered, it is initially disabled and then if it can be safely removed without affecting the performance of the computer, it is removed. avast! antivirus includes a virus database which can be automatically updated to provide continuous protection against rootkits.

Strong self-protection

Some viruses may attempt to switch off a computer’s antvirus software. To help keep your protection working, even against the latest threats that may try to disable your security protection, avast! has best-in-class strong self-protection built in, to make sure, no matter what you face, avast! carries on protecting your valuable data and programs. This is based on the multi-award winning avast! antivirus technology and provides an extra layer of security to ensure your data and programs are always protected.

Antivirus kernel

The latest version of avast! antivirus kernel features outstanding detection abilities, together with high performance. You can expect 100% detection of In-the-Wild viruses (viruses already spreading between users) and excellent detection of Trojan horses.

The kernel is certified by ICSA; and frequently takes part in the tests of Virus Bulletin magazine, often yielding the VB100 award.

The avast! engine also features outstanding unpacking support. It can scan inside the following archives: ARJ, ZIP, MIME (+ all associated formats), MAPI (Outlook pst files), DBX (Outlook Express archives), RAR, TAR, GZIP, CAB, BZIP2, ZOO, ACE, ARC, LHA/LHX, TNEF (winmail.dat), CPIO, CHM, RPM, ISO, 7ZIP and SIS. It also supports a number of executable packers (such as PKLite, Diet, UPX, ASPack, PeShield, FSG, MEW etc.).

Last, but not least, it can also scan for viruses hidden in Alternate data streams on NTFS volumes.

Simple User Interface

The Simple User Interface is used to start on-demand scanning, work with the results and change various options. Basic resident protection settings can be modified here.

The Simple User Interface is the main application of avast! 4 Home Edition. You can start additional avast! modules from here, such as the Virus Chest, Updater or Log Viewer.

The appearance of the Simple User Interface is very flexible. It supports so-called skins, allowing users to change the appearance of the application interface. The main package contains three skins, with additional skins available from our web pages.

Standard resident protection

Resident protection (the real-time protection of the operating system), is one of the most important parts of an antivirus program today. avast! features a powerful resident module that is able to detect a virus before it has any chance to infect your computer.

avast! Home Edition contains resident protection of the computer file system and a resident module for e-mails and news.

File system protection ensures that no virus will be started on the computer. It offers a wide range of settings, such as the possibility to specify that files will be scanned during copying, or that the scanning will include files with given set of extensions only.

E-mail/News protection consists of two independent modules; first, there is a generic scanner working on the SMTP/POP3/IMAP4/NNTP protocol level. It is capable of protecting any existing e-mail client that uses these protocols. Second, there is a special plugin for MS Outlook only; the mail scanning is completely transparent, requiring no special settings.

A new feature of version 4 is heuristic analysis of e-mail scanners. This feature can protect against new, unknown viruses and worms that are not possible to detect by the usual means. The heuristic module performs a thorough investigation of every e-mail message and watches for suspicious signs, that might announce virus presence. When the number of those signs exceeds a user-defined level, the message is considered dangerous and the user is warned.

P2P and IM Shields

Avast features a module for the protection of IM (Instant Messaging, “chat”) programs, and a module for the protection of P2P (peer-to-peer) programs. The list of supported IM and P2P programs is extensive with more than 30 programs currently supported.

While chat itself would not impose any serious security risks in terms of viruses, today’s IM applications are far from being just chatting tools: most of them support more or less sophisticated file sharing methods - which may quite easily lead to virus infections, if not properly monitored.

The P2P protection module doesn’t need much explanation - on today’s P2P networks (such as Kazaa) there are thousands of infected files, and an effective protection is a must.

Network Shield

A new resident protection module was added to avast! 4.5: the Network Shield. This module provides protection against known Internet worms/attacks. It analyses all network traffic and scans it for malicious contents. It can be viewed as a lightweight firewall (or more precisely, an IDS (Intrusion Detection System)).

The Network Shield is only available on NT-based systems (Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista).

Web Shield

Web Shield is a unique feature of avast! that enables it to monitor and filter all HTTP traffic coming from the Web sites on the Internet. Since an increasing number of viruses (and other malware, such as adware, spyware and dialers) are being distributed via the World Wide Web, the need for an effective countermeasures has also increased. The Web Shield acts as a transparent HTTP proxy and is compatible with all major web browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, FireFox, Mozilla and Opera.

Unlike most competitive solutions, Web Shield’s impact on browsing speed is almost negligible. This is because of a unique feature called “Intelligent Stream Scan” that lets the Web Shield module scan objects on-the-fly, without the need of caching them locally. Stream scanning is performed in operating memory only (without the necessity to flush the contents to disk), providing maximum possible throughput rates.

Automatic updates

Automatic updates are another need in virus protection. Both the virus database and the program itself can be updated automatically. The updates are incremental, with only new or missing data downloaded: thus reducing the transfer heavily. The typical size of a virus database update are tens of KB; program updates are typically in the hundreds of KB range.

If your Internet connection is persistent, the updates are performed completely automatically at fixed time intervals. If you connect to the Internet only occasionally, avast! watches your connection and tries to perform the update when you are online.

Having an up-to-date virus database and antivirus program is the most certain way to protect your computer.

Virus Chest

The Virus Chest can be thought of as a folder on your disk drive, having special properties that make it a safe, isolated place suitable for storing certain files. You can work with the files in the Chest, though with some security restrictions.

The main properties of the Virus Chest are complete isolation from the rest of the operating system. No outside process, such as a virus, may access the files inside, and the fact that the files inside the Chest may not be run (executable), there is no danger in storing viruses there.

System Integration

avast! antivirus features outstanding integration into your system. A scan can be started directly from Windows Explorer, by clicking a folder or a file with your right mouse button and selecting the corresponding choice from the menu.

A special screen-saver is also provided, that, when running, performs virus scanning. avast! antivirus works together with your favorite screen-saver, so you don’t have to change your personal settings to use it.

A new option with this release is the boot-time scan (Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista 32bit only). This important feature allows a user to instigate scanning before a virus is activated, in the case that a virus is suspected to be active on your computer already.

Integrated avast! Virus Cleaner

Since version 4.1, avast! includes the Virus Cleaner, a tool designed for a complete removal of most common infections from already-infected computers. So now is avast! capable even to reliably heal (not only detect) the most common malware.

The number of viruses/worms supported by the Virus Cleaner is constantly growing. For the most up-to-date information we suggest to visit Cleaner’s own page (for emergency purposes we also offer the Virus Cleaner as a standalone product, capable of running without installed avast).

Support for 64-bit Windows

avast! Home/Professional now fully supports the 64-bit Windows platform. ALWIL Software is anticipating massive take-up of this platform, as Windows XP 64-Bit Edition will support up to 32 GB of RAM and 16 TB of virtual memory, enabling applications to run faster when working with large data sets. Applications can preload substantially more data into virtual memory, allowing rapid access by the 64-bit extensions of the processor. This reduces the time for loading data into virtual memory or seeking, reading, and writing to data storage devices, making applications run faster and more efficiently.

Regular (32-bit) antivirus applications are unable to operate correctly on the 64-bit Windows platform because they rely on 32-bit kernel-mode drivers. The new avast! uses native 64-bit drivers, delivering the same level of protection as in the 32-bit Windows environments. The installation package is the same for 32-bit and 64-bit versions - the setup program automatically detects the operating system it is running on, and installs all necessary files. You may find more information on avast! Antivirus and Windows x64 Edition page.

Internationalization

Commitment to internationalization is one of the key benefits of avast!. During the last 2 years, avast! has been translated to a number of languages and the latest version added additional language modules. Currently the list of supported languages is: English, Bulgarian, Chinese (both Simplified and Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish.

Software: MailWahser Free
URL: http://www.mailwasher.net/
OS: Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows9.x, Windows Me, Windows XP
File size: 7.3MB

MailWasher Free 6.1 now available! New look, great new features and its free!

• Introducing MailWasher, the leader in spam filter software, and the easiest way to check and manage your e-mails before you download them.
• MailWasher is free to use and won’t ever expire. It works with Outlook, Outlook Express and every other email program.
• Use this powerful spam blocker software to effectively stop email spam. Discover the safe way to stop unwanted e-mails before they get to your computer.
• No gimmicks here, it is so easy to set up and use that you’ll be managing your email like a pro in seconds. It can even be used as an effective privacy tool.
• I think you will find this to be the easiest, most effective way to manage your incoming e-mails and stop spam. You will be amazed at how quickly you will like using MailWasher.

Features and benefits

Delete unwanted e-mails before you download to your computer. You’ll be able to see who the email is from, the subject, and the attachment. This will enable you to decide if you want to delete the email or keep it. A great way to stop viruses, large attachments or to just delete unnecessary emails from getting to your computer.

Preview. Easily preview the message in your email to see what the sender has to say before downloading it to your computer. This ensures you won’t download any nasty emails to your computer. Additionally, spam is marked in a red color, and your good email is marked as a green color for quick analysis.

Anti spam tools. Comprehensive anti spam tools ranging from your personal friends list and blacklist, customizable filters, external blacklists, bayesian spam filtering which quickly learns to distinguish your spam and good email and email virus filtering.

• Friends List. Add your friends email addresses to MailWasher and they will always be recognised. You can even hide your friends from the screen so the spam is easy to recognise.
• Bounce back unwanted e-mails so it looks as if your email address is not valid. This will make the sender think your address is no longer active so your name can be removed from their list. This unique feature is great for privacy and it couldn’t be simpler!
• Filtering. Effective filtering to automatically spot spam, plus it uses a customisable list of blacklisted e-mail senders and/or regular expressions to filter out potential spammer addresses and messages.
• Bayesian spam filtering. This clever type of spam filtering learns which of your email is spam and which is not very quickly and accurately.

Recycle bin. If you accidentally delete an email, you can restore it back to your email account.

Fast download of messages, we have clocked speeds of 25 email message per second.

Simplicity. No flashy gimmicks, so easy to use that you won’t feel like you have to learn a whole new program. In fact it has the familiar look and feel of Outlook Express. It’s as easy as 1,2,3. Just check mail, mark for deletion/learning, then process mail.

Tell others. This feature allows you to tell others about MailWasher. It sends a short message to friends you nominate to tell them about MailWasher, its features and where they can download it.

Other features: Check mail at different intervals. Don’t check mail at certain times. Play a sound when an email arrives, or be notified visually. Email log. Comprehensive help documentation on this site.

This program is so simple to use, just leave it going and process your mail when you want to.

Here’s a great app for YouTube addicts: 1-Click YouTube Batch Downloader. Using this app you can download you desired YouTube video at once and the most great feature (in my opinion) is that you can convert those videos in to your desired format during that process. The application supports individual pages, channels, playlists, favorites, users and group pages.

YouTube Batch Downloader has the following limitations:

• It works on pages having more than one video on the page
• Does not support search results
• Download button becomes active only on selected pages
• There is no button/option to pause or stop the downloading file unless to close down the application itself.

You can find your download files in My Documents\My YouTube folder.

1-Click YouTube Batch Downloader, currently have some limitations but we can expect them in future, is a great application for hardcore Youtube fans who also want to download a lot of videos to their computer. All videos are downloaded into the My Documents\My YouTube folder sorted by username.

Buying a cell phone is not an easy task, particularly with myriad cell phone varieties arriving in the market these days. Each one offers its own unique features, yet it is different in some way from the other, through style, design and quality. With the plethora of cell phone varieties, coming out these days it’s easy to get confused. Here are a couple of tips you can use when buying cell phones:

• What is your budget? Look for cell phone models that fit within this budget. There is a cell phone available to suit any budget now-a-days. Low-price does not mean low quality as and they come with stylish features as well.
• Decide what you would like your cell phone to have. Which features do you most require? Do you need a cell phone with Multimedia, MP3, WiFi? If so look for these features in the phone you are considering.
• What size do you require? Do you want one that is small-sized, medium-sized or a large-sized ones? Smaller one will disappear anywhere – you purse your drawer. Large phone cannot be overlooked so if you are the forgetful type a large one would be the best option.
• Do you require a hands free option so that you can talk as you drive? If so check for these features. You can also consider the Bluetooth technology as devices with such technology enable you to talk when starting the car by just touching a button or two.
• Look into the mobile phone’s keypad and find out if it has QWERTY keypads instead of the typical number/letter combination. This works out easier when you need to send text message.
• Voice dialing features enable you to make calls without using your keypad and this is useful when you are multitasking. So, look out for such feature with your mobile.
• Mobile phone also features walkie-talkie-like services that can be used to quickly connect with individuals or call groups. This is very useful when you need to quickly talk to people all at the same time.
• Read reviews about the make and model you are selecting before you purchase. Be sure to ask relevant question on areas of doubt with your dealer before buying.

Looking into the above-mentioned hints will ensure that you have a good deal on your hand when you buy your mobile phone.

There are lot of people still using XP and they still look out for solutions to their problems. So here is the list which can be helpful to you if you are an XP user.

Turning off Unwanted Services:

Many of the unwanted services were turned on by default which in turn uses our resources; For boosting up low end systems, themes services can be turned off thus using the classic version of Windows XP.

Cleaning Temporary files:

Although you organize folders and files in a great way, it is recommended to clean areas like Recycle Bin, Temporary Internet Files, Old System restore data, Prefetch data etc. Since its hard to check out each folder I recommend CCleaner, a powerful utility to remove unwanted files and junks from your computer.

Remove Unwanted Programs:

Managing installed programs is very much important as users do not concentrate on it. Remove unused programs from Control panel regularly, including unused windows components like IIS, Fax, Phone dialer etc. Using software like File Shredder can help in deleting non removable programs.

Security:

Compromising performance for security is like killing yourself for your safety. So try to use a light Anti-virus program which would not degrade the performance of the computer. Some of the good examples are AVAST, AVG and Kaspersky. Regular backups are advisory.

Tweaks and Hacks:

Whether its registry hack or a tweak, TWEAKXP has some good lists of Performance tweaks which will boost up and optimize your system.

Updating Programs and Drivers:

Updating your Anti-virus with latest definitions including updated drivers and patches for windows will prevent security risks and key holes thus keeping you on the safer side.

Use NTFS file system:

It is advisory to use NTFS file system which has various advantages compared to old FAT or FAT 32. NTFS provides increased security, compression including encryption. But if you are using multi-operating systems do not use this file system.

Disabling Error reporting:

One of the annoying features in Windows XP is whenever an error is logged, it will ask you to send to Microsoft. You can turn of this feature by right clicking MY COMPUTER selecting Properties > Advanced Tab and click Error Reporting. Now Disable Error reporting unchecking it.

Managing Startups:

Some softwares install themselves in the startups without user knowledge, opening every time the system is started. These startup programs are the major cause of degrading your performance. To manage system startup programs go to start > Run and type MSCONFIG. Under the Startup tab, uncheck the unwanted programs and reboot. Programs like Real Player, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, Winamp etc can be removed unless you don’t need it there.

Defragmentation of Drives:

Defragmentation helps in physical re-organization of files in drives. Defragmentation not only helps to Run Windows faster but it also helps the lifespan of your hard drive. Hope you like these tips; do encourage me to write more by telling your suggestions or leaving a comment.

Among thousands, 10 programming languages stand out for their job marketability and wide use. If you’re looking to boost your career or learn something new, start here.

Knowing a handful of programming languages is seen by many as a harbor in a job market storm, solid skills that will be marketable as long as the languages are.

Yet, there is beauty in numbers. While there may be developers who have had riches heaped on them by knowing the right programming language at the right time in the right place, most longtime coders will tell you that periodically learning a new language is an essential part of being a good and successful Web developer.

By picking the brains of Web developers and IT recruiters, We selected 10 programming languages that are a bonus for developers to add to their resumes. Even better, theyre great jumping-off points, with loads of job opportunities for younger recruits.

1. PHP
   • What it is: An open-source, interpretive, server-side, cross-platform, HTML scripting language, especially well-suited for Web development as it can be embedded into HTML pages.
   • Why you should learn it: Its particularly widely used. “High-speed scripting with caching, augmented with compiled code plug-ins (such as can be done with Perl and PHP) is where the future is. Building Web apps from scratch using C or COBOL is going the way of the dinosaur,” said Duquaine.
   • Job availabilities: 1,152*
2. C#
   • What it is: A general-purpose, compiled, object-oriented programming language developed by Microsoft as part of its .NET initiative, it evolved from C and C++
   • Why you should learn it: Its an essential part of the .Net framework. “Learning C#, which is just Java with a different name plate, is critical if you heavily use Microsoft,” said Duquaine.
   • Job availabilities: 5,111
3. AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)
   • What it is: Though technically not a programming language, AJAX uses XHTML or HTML, JavaScript and XML to create interactive Web applications.
   • Why you should learn it: Ever since Google Maps put AJAX, well, on the map, the requests for AJAX-knowledgeable pros went through the roof. “The demand for AJAX knowledge is huge because its so damned hard to learn,” said Huckaby. Of note, Microsoft announced recently plans to release a tool named Atlas that will make AJAX easier to implement. “If Microsofts Atlas tool is successful, it would bring the extreme complexity and annoyance of AJAX to the average worker,” said Huckaby.
   • Job availabilities : 1,106
4. JavaScript
   • What it is: Not to be confused with Java, JavaScript is a an object-oriented, scripting programming language that runs in the Web browser on the client side. Its smaller than Java, with a simplified set of commands, easier to code and doesnt have to be compiled.
   • Why you should learn it: Embedded into HTML, its used in millions of Web pages to validate forms, create cookies, detect browsers and improve the design. With its simplicity to learn as well as wide use, its considered a great bang for your educational buck.
   • Job availabilities: 4,406
5. Perl
   • What it is: Perl is an open-source, cross-platform, server-side interpretive programming language used extensively to process text through CGI programs.
   • Why you should learn it: Perls power in processing of piles of text has made it very popular and widely used to write Web server programs for a range of tasks. “Learning some form of scripting language, such as Perl or PHP is critical if you are doing Web apps,” said Duquaine.
   • Job availabilities: 4,810
6. C
   • What it is: A standardized, general-purpose programming language, its one of the most pervasive languages and the basis for several others (such as C++).
   • Why you should learn it: “Learning C is crucial. Once you learn C, making the jump to Java or C# is fairly easy, because a lot of the syntax is common. Also, a lot of C syntax is used in scripting languages,” said Duquaine.
   • Job availabilities: 6,164, including all derivatives
7. Ruby and Ruby on Rails
   • What they are: Ruby is a dynamic, object-oriented, open-source programming language; Ruby on Rails is an open-source Web application framework written in Ruby that closely follows the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture.
   • Why you should learn it: With a focus on simplicity, productivity and letting the computers do the work, in a few years, its usage has spread quickly. As a bonus, many find it easy to learn.
   • Job availabilities : 210 and 54, respectively
8. Java
   • What it is: An object-oriented programming language developed by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s.
   • Why you should learn it: Hailed by many developers as a “beautiful” language, it is central to the non-.Net programming experience. “Learning Java is critical if you are non-Microsoft,” said Duquaine.
   • Job availabilities: 14,408
9. Python
   • What it is: An interpreted, dynamically object-oriented, open-source programming language that utilizes automatic memory management.
   • Why you should learn it: Designed to be a highly readable, minimalist language, many say it has a sense of humor (spam and eggs, rather than foo and bar), Python is used extensively by Google as well as in academia because of its syntactic simplicity.
   • Job availabilities: 811
10. VB.Net (Visual Basic .Net)
    • What it is: An object-oriented language implemented on Microsofts .Net framework.
    • Why you should learn it: Most argue that VB.Net is currently more popular than ever and one of the only “must-learns.” “It is currently dominating in adoption and that is where all the work is,” said Huckaby.
    • Job availabilities: 2,090