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Watch NASA's Perseverance Rover Land on Mars!



Watch an epic journey unfold on Thursday, Feb. 18 as our Perseverance rover lands on Mars. To reach the surface of the Red Planet, the rover has to survive the harrowing final phase known as Entry, Descent, and Landing.


Only then can the rover – the biggest, heaviest, cleanest, and most sophisticated six-wheeled robot ever launched into space – search Jezero Crater for signs of ancient life and collect samples that will eventually be returned to Earth.


Tune in to a live video feed of key landing activities and commentary from Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.


https://youtu.be/gm0b_ijaYMQ

Hi Friends,

Happy Pongal to all!!!

Nokia Asha 311

[smg id=8833 type=full]


GENERAL   2G Network   GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network   HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
Announced   2012, June
Status   Available. Released 2012, August
BODY   Dimensions   106 x 52 x 12.9 mm, 92 cc
Weight   95
DISPLAY   Type   TFT capacitive touchscreen, 56K colors
Size   240 x 400 pixels, 3.0 inches (~155 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch   Yes
Protection   Corning Gorilla Glass
SOUND   Alert types   Vibration, Polyphonic(64), WAV, MP3 ringtones
Loudspeaker   Yes
3.5mm jack   Yes
MEMORY   Card slot   microSD, up to 32 GB
Phonebook   Yes, Photocall
Call records   Yes
Internal   140 MB, 256 MB ROM, 128 MB RAM
DATA   GPRS   Yes
EDGE   Yes
Speed   HSDPA, 14.4 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps
WLAN   Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth   Yes, v2.1 with EDR
USB   Yes, microUSB v2.0, USB On-the-go support
CAMERA   Primary   3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels
Video   Yes, VGA@25fps
Secondary   No
FEATURES   CPU   1 GHz
Sensors   Accelerometer, proximity
Messaging   SMS, MMS, Email, IM
Browser   WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
Radio   Stereo FM radio with RDS
Games   Yes + downloadable
GPS   No
Java   Yes
Colors   Dark Grey, Rose Red, Blue, Brown, Sand White
   - SNS integration
- MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player
- MP3/WAV/WMA/AAC player
- Organizer
- Voice memo
- Predictive text input
BATTERY       Standard battery, Li-Ion 1110 mAh (BL-4U)
Stand-by   Up to 696 h (2G) / Up to 768 h (3G)
Talk time   Up to 14 h (2G) / Up to 6 h (3G)
Music play   Up to 40 h
MISC   SAR US    1.09 W/kg (head)     0.79 W/kg (body)   
SAR EU    1.37 W/kg (head)   
Price group   

Nokia 5030 XpressRadio

[smg id=8831 type=full]

GENERAL   2G Network   GSM 900 / 1800
   GSM 850 / 1900
Announced   2009, March
Status   Available. Released 2009, June
BODY   Dimensions   108 x 45 x 15 mm, 62 cc
Weight   82 g
   - Flashlight
DISPLAY   Type   TFT, 65K colors
Size   128 x 160 pixels, 1.8 inches (~114 ppi pixel density)
SOUND   Alert types   Vibration, MP3
Loudspeaker   Yes
3.5mm jack   No
   - Dedicated radio keys
- 2.5 mm audio jack
MEMORY   Card slot   No
Phonebook   500 entries
Call records   20 dialed, 20 received, 20 missed calls
Internal   8 MB
DATA   GPRS   No
EDGE   No
WLAN   No
Bluetooth   No
USB   No
CAMERA       No
FEATURES   Messaging   SMS
Browser   No
Radio   FM radio; built-in antenna
Games   Yes
GPS   No
Java   No
Colors   Red, Graphite
   - Predictive text input
BATTERY       Standard battery, Li-Ion 1020 mAh (BL-5C)
Stand-by   Up to 525 h
Talk time   Up to 10 h
   Li-Ion 700 mAh (BL-5CA) (for China)
Stand-by   
Talk time   
MISC   SAR US    1.10 W/kg (head)     0.47 W/kg (body)   
SAR EU    0.78 W/kg (head)   
Price group   

Nokia 5330 XpressMusic

[smg id=8829 type=full] [smg id=8830 type=full]

GENERAL   2G Network   GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network   UMTS 850 / 1900 / 2100
   UMTS 900 / 1700 / 2100
Announced   2009, March
Status   Available. Released 2010, May
BODY   Dimensions   101 x 48 x 14 mm
Weight   113 g
DISPLAY   Type   TFT, 16M colors
Size   240 x 320 pixels, 2.4 inches (~167 ppi pixel density)
SOUND   Alert types   Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, MP3 ringtones
Loudspeaker   Yes
3.5mm jack   Yes
   - Dedicated touch music keys
MEMORY   Card slot   microSD, up to 16GB, 2GB included
Phonebook   2000 entries, Photocall
Call records   20 dialed, 20 received, 20 missed calls
Internal   70 MB
DATA   GPRS   Class 32
EDGE   Class 32, 296 / 178.8 kbits
Speed   Yes, 384 kbps
WLAN   No
Bluetooth   Yes, v2.1 with A2DP
USB   Yes, microUSB
CAMERA   Primary   3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, enhanced fixed focus
Features   Videocalling
Video   Yes
Secondary   No
FEATURES   Messaging   SMS, MMS, Email
Browser   WAP 2.0/xHTML
Radio   Stereo FM radio with RDS
Games   Yes + downloadable
GPS   Yes, with A-GPS support; Nokia Maps
Java   Yes
Colors   Black/Red, Silver/Blue
   - MP3/MP4/eAAC+/WMA player
- Voice memo
- Predictive text input
BATTERY       Standard battery, Li-Ion 1000 mAh (BL-4U)
Stand-by   Up to 350 h
Talk time   Up to 7 h 42 min
Music play   Up to 26 h
MISC   SAR US    0.88 W/kg (head)     1.07 W/kg (body)   
SAR EU    1.15 W/kg (head)   

Samsung Galaxy S Duos S7562

[smg id=8710 type=full]

GENERAL   2G Network   GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2
3G Network   HSDPA 900 / 2100
Announced   2012, July
Status   Coming soon
BODY   Dimensions   121.5 x 63.1 x 10.5 mm
Weight   120 g
   - Touch-sensitive controls
DISPLAY   Type   TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size   480 x 800 pixels, 4.0 inches (~233 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch   Yes
SOUND   Alert types   Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones
Loudspeaker   Yes
3.5mm jack   Yes
MEMORY   Card slot   microSD, up to 32 GB
Internal   4 GB storage, 512 MB RAM
DATA   GPRS   Yes
EDGE   Yes
Speed   HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps
WLAN   Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
Bluetooth   Yes, v3.0 with A2DP
USB   Yes, microUSB v2.0
CAMERA   Primary   5 MP, 2592х1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
Features   Geo-tagging
Video   Yes, FWVGA@30fps
Secondary   Yes, VGA
FEATURES   OS   Android OS, v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
Chipset   Qualcomm MSM7227A Snapdragon
CPU   1 GHz Cortex-A5
GPU   Adreno 200
Sensors   Accelerometer, proximity, compass
Messaging   SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email
Browser   HTML, Adobe Flash Lite
Radio   Stereo FM radio with RDS
GPS   Yes, with A-GPS support
Java   Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
Colors   White
   - Dual SIM (dual stand-by)
- SNS integration
- MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player
- MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV player
- Organizer
- Document viewer
- Voice memo/dial
- Predictive text input
BATTERY       Standard battery, Li-Ion 1500 mAh
Stand-by   
Talk time   
MISC   SAR US    0.27 W/kg (head)     0.65 W/kg (body)   
SAR EU    0.47 W/kg (head)   

Nice and Useful Videos.

The most dangerous animal in the world is human

Thanks for sharing our beautiful moments

Internet body approves new web suffixes

The internet is set for one of its most significant changes in years, after the global governing body for domain names approved a major expansion.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) on Monday approved the expansion of domain names beyond ".com" to ".anything".

Top-level domains, which include .com, .net and .org, will be expanded to include new brand, generic and geographic domain name extensions - such as .shop, .sydney, .apple, .bhp or .nab, for example.

Source : oneindia

Many More Happy returns of the day to rajoe

Hi,

Many More Happy Returns of the day.

Congrats For Gingly.

Thanks For Administrators, marketing people, users for their support.

Please keep your support to achieve more.

Nice information bala.

Its really nice plugin in google search engine and very useful

Hi Rajoe,

The_Big_S is correct.

I Think Your Mobile Unicode or Charcode is Changed.

Did you change any settings in your mobile or rested recently?

Hi,

You can get the group widget code in groupprofile page.

Group owner and members can get the widget code for that particular group.

For Example Group Widget Code :

Friends Group Widget Code : http://gingly.com/groupwidget.php?width=425&grp=1&authcode=1120091114081000

Cricket Group Widget Code : http://gingly.com/groupwidget.php?width=425&grp=7&authcode=7120091115033822

Group Widget concept finished.

Its in Debugging mode within two days it will be launched public.

Group members can get the particular group widget and paste it in their websites.

Initially we release in default theme only. Customization themes will be releasing after a month

We introduced the yapping widgets.

You can copy the code and paste in your website.

When you yapping in gingly. Automatically updates in your sites also.

I updated in my blog also . For Example : See My Blog

Gingly is an real time SMS Networking where we have introduced new plugin "YAP"

YAP - You can share and discover what's happening now!!!

As simple you have an option to following and followers hundreds of People to get the update of your every sec post through sms and web.

To Mobile Start - sms YAP Your MESSAGE to 9566295662

To Web: Log on to www.gingly.com

Hi Friendz,

Today, We release the Gingly theme page.

You can go to theme page from welcome page and profile page.

You can see the preview of your selected theme and set the theme to your profile.

If any one see your profile then your profile will display with your selected theme.

Direct URL : www.gingly.com/theme.php

Sample Theme Set In Profile : Profile Page

The feeling of nationalism had started growing in the minds of Indians as early as the middle of the nineteenth century but it grew more with the formation of the Indian national Congress in 1885. Though the Congress started on a moderate platform but with the passage of time and apathetic attitude of the British government, the national movement began to shape well. Even the very moderate demands set by the Congress were not met by the British government. This attitude of the British government made people and freedom fighters more restless and attacks against the British Raj increased.

By the first decade of the 20th century the Indian National Congress grew more skeptic of the British government. This was mainly due to increase of extremist tendencies among many Congress members. These extremists criticized the moderate policies of the early Congress members. This resulted into more attacks on the British power. The British government on its part continued its "damn care" attitude. To divide the National movement, the British even played the divide and rule card, which led to the rise of Muslim League. With Muslim league on their side the British always tried to stall all the demands of the Indian National Congress. Though the Congress and the League came together in 1916 AD but the truce was short lived. By the 1920s the mood of the national movement had become more aggressive. With Mahatma Gandhi at the helm of affairs the Congress launched many movements against the British rule.

The first of a series of national movements was the Non-cooperation movement (1920-1922AD). It was followed by the civil disobedience movement, after a lull. Though the Congress was in the forefront of the freedom struggle but there were many other organizations and individuals who also played important role. The struggle for independence continued in the 1930s but the real momentum came with the Second World War. The Indian National Congress began to cooperate with the British government in their war efforts. The Congress thought that after the war the British might leave India, but the real intentions of the British became obvious very soon. The Congress, under the leadership of Gandhi began to prepare for the "Quit India Movement" in 1942. With the pace of developments all over the world (after the Second World War), the British came to realize that it was not possible to rule India any more and they decided to quit.

On the other hand the Muslim League had vowed for a separate nation, Pakistan. The league was concerned that a united independent India would be dominated by Hindus. In the winter of 1945-46 Mohammed Ali Jinnah's Muslim League members won all thirty seats reserved for Muslims in the Central Legislative Assembly and most of the reserved provincial seats as well. In an effort to resolve deadlock between the Congress and the Muslim League and in order to transfer power "to a single Indian administration", a three-man Cabinet Mission formed in 1946 which drafted plans for a "three-tier federation for India."

According to the plan, the region would be divided into three groups of provinces, with Group A including the Hindu-populated provinces that would eventually comprise the majority of the independent India. Groups B and C were comprised of largely Muslim-populated provinces. Each group would be governed separately with a great degree of autonomy except for the handling of "foreign affairs, communications, defense, and only those finances required for such nationwide matters."

The plan, however, did not take into account the fate of a large Sikh population living in Punjab, part of the B-group of provinces. Although they did not make up more than two per cent of the Indian population, the Sikhs had been moving for a separate Punjab of their own, and by 1946 they were demanding a free Sikh nation-state. As leader of the Muslim League, Jinnah accepted the Cabinet Mission's proposal. However, when Nehru announced at his first press conference as the reelected president of Congress that "no constituent assembly could be bound by any prearranged constitutional formula," Jinnah retraced his steps and the Muslim League's Working Committee withdrew its consent and called upon the Muslims to launch direct action in mid-August 1946. This was followed by a frenzy of rioting between Hindus and Muslims.

In the March of 1947 Lord Mountbatten came to India and recommended a partition of Punjab and Bengal in the face of civil war. Gandhi was very opposed to the idea of partition and urged Mountbatten to offer Jinnah leadership of a united India instead of the creation of a separate Muslim state. But this arrangement was not acceptable to many nationalist leaders, including Nehru. In July Britain's Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act. According to it August 14 and 15 were set for partition of India. Thus came into existence two independent entities- Indian and Pakistan.


source : culturalindia

Hi Thilaga,

Wish You Many More Happy Returns Of The Day - 25 July 2010

Quote from: ganeshbala on Apr 03, 2010, 08:39 PM
Search Options are Awsome... its very usefull to me...
its like a google search .. list of messages are downloading while searching.


And in start and stop feature.. is there any option to start and stop a single or a  particular group to follow this service...
then it will be good.

Hi Ganeshbala,

Thanks For your suggestions.

Now you can stop or start particular group using following commands

Stop Service From Particular Group :

STOP groupcode

Ex: STOP FRI

The above example is used to stop service from friends group. From now onwards, you didn't receive message from friends group.

Start Particular Group :

START groupcode

Ex: START FRI

The above example is used to start service from friends group. From now onwards, you will receive message from friends group.

Bangalore: Recently, Google said that it will take a page from Mozilla's security playbook and block outdated plug-ins from launching in its Chrome browser, part of a new effort to keep users safer.

Chromium is the name of the open-source development project that feeds into the Chrome browser. Google did not spell out when the blocking of outdated plug-ins would be added to Chrome, saying only that it would happen in the medium-term. Nor did the Google engineers specify which plug-ins would be blocked. Chrome will assist users in updating old plug-ins, they said.
Chrome will also display a warning when a site calls on an infrequently-used plug-in, said Chris Evans, Julien Tinnes and Michal Zalewski of Google's security team. "Some plug-ins are widely installed but typically not required for today's Internet experience. For most users, any attempt to instantiate such a plug-in is suspicious and Google Chrome will warn on this condition."

Google did not reply to requests for clarification and more information on the timeline of the impending changes to Chrome. By making this move with Chrome, Google is following in the footsteps of Mozilla, which has already equipped its Firefox browser with the ability to block outdated plug-ins.

Both Mozilla and Google have said the new features represent a response to the rapid increase in the number of attacks against vulnerable plug-ins, especially Adobe's Flash Player and estimates, attacks against browser plug-ins, particularly Adobe's popular Reader PDF viewer, are quickly climbing. In the first quarter of 2010, PDF exploits accounted for 28 percent of all malware-bearing attack code, antivirus vendor McAfee said in April.

In other security arenas, Chrome is already ahead of Firefox. For example, Google's browser now automatically updates Adobe's Flash Player behind the scenes. And two weeks ago, Google added an integrated PDF viewer to the "developer" build of Chrome for Windows and Mac.


Source : http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Google_to_take_security_page_from_Mozillas_Firefox-nid-69252.html

Tokyo: Sony recently said that about 535,000 units of its "Vaio" brand personal computers globally may be in danger of overheating and that it has provided software on its website to eliminate the problem.

The company said in a statement that there have been 39 overheating cases in total, all reported outside Japan. Some of these have resulted in damage to computer bodies, but no burn injuries have been reported.

Some of Sony's F and C series Vaio PCs made in January this year and some custom-made models from the same series have been affected, the firm said. A Sony spokeswoman said the company has not estimated possible costs stemming from the problem.


Source : http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/535000_Sony_Vaio_PCs_may_overheat-nid-69239.html

Toronto: The world's first flying car, which was caught in a legal snarl in the U.S., has finally been given the green signal.
Being developed by Boston-based Terrafugia Transition since 2006, the dual-purpose car-cum-plane vehicle called 'the flying car' has got the waiver on its weight from the American Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).


Under FAA rules, the flying car - categorised as a 'light sport' aircraft - was required to be strictly under 1,320 pounds in weight. But with the addition of car safety features such as airbags, crumple zones and a safety cage, the vehicle overshot the weight-limit.
With the FAA now relaxing the rules for its weight, the decks have been cleared for the flying car - a two-seater named Transition - to take-off next year.

"Our schedule calls for the first delivery to be made prior to the end of 2011. We currently have in excess of 70 orders, which is about a two-year backlog," Richard Gersh, vice president for Terrafugia, told IANS.
Asked whether it was big corporates or individuals who have placed orders, Gersh said, "They are generally pilots who either own planes or have owned planes in the past."
About about their plans to raise production, he said: "Low volume production will take place in the Boston area. No decisions have been made for other production plans."

Costing about $200,000, the flying car will travel up to 725 km in the air at a speed of more than 115 km per hour.
Fuelled by gasoline, it will have front-wheel drive on the road and a propeller for flight. With its wings folded, it can be parked in an ordinary car garage. The company claims the flying car has been successfully test-flown many times.
It says tests have shown that the vehicle can drive, fly and switch from being a plane to a car in just 30 seconds.

Source : http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Worlds_first_flying_car_gets_green_signal_to_takeoff-nid-69265.html

Bangalore: Many of the great ideas gets stuck in labs just because the scientists don't have access to the right kind of supports. Now the Indian investors have started lending their hands to the budding inventors by providing enough funds to explore their innovative ideas. Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, an MIT entity funded by two Indians investors, Jaishree Deshpande and her husband Gururaj, is lending a hand to the budding inventors to realize their dreams.

Douglas P Hart, a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has won a support of $50,000 to convert his dream to reality. The Professor's new startup, Lantos Technologies, which developed a 3-D scanner that hopes to update the current generation of earphones and hearing aids by precisely fitting them to the dimensions of the ear canal, is set to lock up $1.5 million in funding. "We're hoping people will be able to walk in the store and have their ears scanned like people got their ears pierced today," said Hart, who sold his last startup for $95 million. "I wouldn't have known the first thing about doing all of this, if the people from the Deshpande Center led me through," recalls enthused Hart.

The Deshpande Center was established at the MIT School of Engineering in 2002 to increase the impact of MIT technologies in the marketplace. Since its inception the Center has funded more than 80 projects with over $9 Million in grants.

By providing academics like Professor Hart a bridge to the business world, MIT is in the forefront of a movement involving a handful of universities nationwide that work closely with investors to ensure that promising ideas are nurtured and turned into successful start-ups.

At first glance, the centers look like academic versions of business incubators. But universities are getting involved now at a much earlier stage than incubators typically do, reports Bob Tedeschi from New York Times. Rather than offering seed money to businesses that already have a product and a staff, as incubators usually do, the universities are harvesting great ideas and then trying to find investors and businesspeople interested in developing them further and exploring their commercial viability.


Source : http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Indian_investors_help_MIT_professor_to_make_his_dream_real-nid-69196.html

New Delhi: In an effort to expand their presence in India, Lemon Mobiles, a handset vendor promoted by Fast Track Communications, is planning to invest $100 million over the next three years. The company, which claims that it is already among the top 10 handset manufacturers in India, will soon launch 3G, Android and GPS devices in the Indian market. The Noida-based handset manufacturer aims to be amongst the top five within the next two years.

The company will offer 3G handsets starting at about Rs. 4,500. It is also currently working on Lemon E1, which will be the first Android device from the company and the first dual SIM Android device in the market. Lemon E1 will be launched shortly.

Lemon Mobiles has showcased its application suite Lemon Twist, which is currently available on iQ 505 and will later be bundled with other handsets as well. The company has tied up with content providers such as Opera, Atom technologies, Map my India, Nimbuzz and Affle for this suite. The handset manufacturer also intends to launch its own java based app store. The company also plans to expand its presence in South Asian countries, followed by Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.


Source : http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Lemon_Mobiles_plans_100_Million_investment_in_India-nid-69220-cid-3.html

Bangalore: Japanese technology major, Toshiba has unveiled its new light weight Portege R700 laptops which come with 13.3 inch screen. The laptop has 'Airflow cooling Technology' which will help getting the external air into the laptop and circulate it. The technology co-developed with Intel. The laptop runs with Intel Core i3 and Core i5 processors.

The Portege comes with up to 8GB of RAM and Toshiba claims that the laptop can run up to eight hours on a single battery charge. The Toshiba also has a built-in optical drive and has a "Hard Drive Impact Sensor" that protects the hard drive from shocks and rough usage. The laptop is estimated to cost around Rs. 65,000 - Rs. 75,000 depending on the system specifications.

Shirtmaker N, Toshiba's General Manager for the PC division in India said that "Our engineers have given a best model with all features including high performance ability. We have enhanced the laptop in three areas heat management, memory chip deployment and chassis construction."

Source : http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Toshiba_unveils_Portege_R700_Laptops_in_India-nid-69180-cid--sid-.html

Bangalore: The newest smartphone by Apple, iPhone 4, is finally launched. The price of the iphone 4 is $199 in U.S with the contract with operators. The internet reports suggest the unlocked iPhone 4 will be available at $800. The iPhone 4 is expected to hit Indian markets by September 2010. The 16GB version will be available for Rs. 35,500 and the price tag for the 32GB version will be Rs. 41,500.

The device uses the advanced LG LCD Display technology namely In-Plane Switching technology (IPS). The phone boasts of being the thinnest smartphone at 9.3mm and has built-in 5MP camera.

The new model also comes with the upgraded operating system iOS 4.0 and a new feature of high definition display called Retina,that gives resolution four times better than iPhone 3G.The battery is 40 percent more efficient.

Steve Jobs, Chief Executive Officer, Apple said, "The new iPhone has the IPS technology, an advanced LCD technology which is better than OLED technology. IPS is a premium display technology which results in incredibly sharp text, images and video."

The other regular features include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, video recording, photo and video geotagging, and support for display of multiple languages.

With this smartphone, Apple will hope to contend with other companies like HTC known to bring out similar devices. How the market takes on to the device remains to be seen.


Source : Siliconindia

Quote from: sajiv on Apr 03, 2010, 10:31 AM

Hi how can a person remember his group code, if he /she has more than 20 gruops ,suppose if he want to send msg to a particular group.he forgets the group code by chance.
For ez:life group ,how can he retrive the code  

Hi Sajiv & Gingly Users,

Your Query has been solved.

Thank For your interest in finding bugs in gingly.com

If you forgot, your group code. Simply type MYGROUPS or MYGROUP from your registered mobile and send to 9566295662. You will get response, it contains the group name and group code of your groups.

And also now you can edit your group code.

We not suggest to change the group, bcz if you change the group code, but your group members not known your modified code.

Dear Mr. Dhilip Kumar,

In Behalf Of All Our IT Acumens Team members, I Wish You To Celebrate Your Birthday On This Day.

I Wish You To Get All Success In Your Life.

Wish You Many More Happy Returns of the Day

Hi,

Dim x,sum,i,j as integer
x=5
sum=1
for (j=x; j>=1; j--)
{
for (i=j; i>=1; i--)
{
sum=sum * i;
}
}

Output : 34560

(5*4*3*2*1) * (4*3*2*1) * (3*2*1) * (2*1) * 1



if you want only 5! means


Dim x,sum,i as integer
x=5
sum=1
for (i=x; i>=1; i--)
{
sum=sum * i;
}


Output : 120

(5*4*3*2*1)

Hi Sajiv,

Many more happy returns of the day. May god bless you.

[smg id=7461 type=full]

surya singam trailer [official trailer]

Surya in Rakta Charitra Trailer HQ - Tamil

Even i had tried for several times to get it connected on linux server. But so far i have not done it.

But same works perfectly on windows server and localhost.

Quote from: cliff606 on Apr 27, 2010, 03:11 AM
I'm working on a project where I have to query an SQL database (Microsoft SQL 2000) with PHP. The SQL database is on an external server.

I have all the connect info and am told the server's enabled in the firewall.

I've googled this several times and am quite confused with the response. Was wondering if anyone could point me to a reliable ODBC driver that's preferably free or open source.

-or-

If there's a better way for PHP to link up to the SQL database I'm open to suggestions.

My server is a Linux box with Apache2 running php 5.

Thanks in advance for any assistance/guidance you can provide.

Hosana with Rama Rajan

Madharasapattinam Trailer (2010)

வணக்கம்,

தமிழ் புத்தாண்டு வாழ்த்துக்கள்...............

[smg id=7410 type=full]

நன்றியுடன்,

[smg id=7411 type=normal]

GADD <groupcode> <mobileno>,<mobileno>,<mobileno>...

Add is we already used in global add for gingly.

And for groups, we maintain a keyword 'G'. So GADD is very suitable.

GINVITE  <groupcode> <mobileno>,<mobileno>,<mobileno>...

Invite is we already used in global invite for gingly.

And for groups, we maintain a keyword 'G'. So GINVITE is very suitable.

Hi Friendz,

My Preferable Code :

G <space>GroupCode<space> Message
0r
G[GroupCode] <space> Message


Group Number options => Its too difficult to have memory for all group numbers. If its code means, we receive the group sms with group code only.

GroupCode Message => Its very complicated. Because, if your inbox message may be start with the groupcode also.
For Example :
You Have A Groupcode as Mobile,Bus ....
Your Inbox may be starts with mobile,Bus also.

For Avoiding this cases only, we have the G keyword for all groups commands.
GADD -> For Adding
GInvite -> For Inviting

CREATE <space> GroupName <space> Group Code

ADD <mobileNumber>,<mobileNumber>,<mobileNumber>...

Invite <mobileNumbers>,<mobileNumbers>,<mobileNumbers>....

Hi Friendz,

UNSUB <groupcode> to 9566295662

It's preferable, bcz Remove or stop is not suitable in programmer view.

Remove is not good sound word to unsubscribe the group.

Stop <groupcode> is good. but we want to maintain the separate table for stop services for every group.

Nowadays, its easy. But in future, we have more than 1000 groups means we want to maintain 1000 tables. Think how the data flow is?

So Only I Preferable For UNSUB.

Dear Team,

Any Forward Message is easy to register.

If you mention any keyword for register is similar to forward message only.

Hi Gingly Users,

Today we came up with yet another features like 'START' and 'STOP'.


How to START the sms service from Gingly?

By Default You will be in a START Service only.

send START to 9566295662 from your mobile.

This will allow messaging service from gingly.


How to STOP the sms service from Gingly?

send STOP to 9566295662 from your mobile.

This will suspend messaging service from gingly until you activate the start service.

Quote from: Thilaga on Mar 26, 2010, 12:16 PM

Waaa  Search options seems to be good and wud be so helpful in case of offline scenarios.

And I could not find these commands guide in Gingly. Are these commands available at Gingly.com ?

Hi Thilaga,

Thanks For your valuable comments.

Surely we will list out all the commands with examples in gingly within this weekend.

Hi Gingly Users,

Today We Are Going Release A New Keyword For Search and Download A Particular SMS.

SEARCH Keyword :

For Specific Search :

Ex : SEARCH hi how are you
This command reply what ever the sms should only "hi how are you"

For Guess Search :

Ex : SEARCH hi how*
This command reply what ever the sms should start with "hi how"

Ex : SEARCH *how*
This command reply what ever the sms have word "how"

DOWNLOAD Keyword :

DOWNLOAD MSGID
Ex : DOWNLOAD 12
This command, send the sms to you what's in the message id 12.

Dear Kalyan,

Wish you Many More Happy Returns of the Day - 25 March 2010.

24th Birthday Celebration


-  Wish you Many More Happy Returns of the Day - IT Acumens & Team

Nalam Vazha Ennalum - Marupadijum HQ Video Song

Hi ganeshbala,

Thanks for your comment and suggestion.

From user end -> For Unscribe from the particular group, he / she want to send SMS UNSUB grpcode to 9566295662.
Ex : UNSUB che to 9566295662

From Admin End -> when he / she joined the group means, u will receive the sms with his / her group member is. In SMS U receive like GACT 123.
Here 123 is the group member id.

If You want to remove the particular member from your group. u should send the sms GREJ <grpmember id> to 9566295662.
Ex : GREJ 123 to 9566295662

Hi Gingly Users,

Small Changes in Above listed Commands.

For Group Module :

To Invite for any Groups :  use GINVITE
Ex : GINVITE Che 9003190031,9840498404

To Add Your Friends in Your Group  : use GADD
Ex: GADD che 9003190031,9840498404

Hi ganeshbala, i accept ur comments.

India is Best Team in the World nowdays.

Similarly South Africa is Best Team But they don't have luck.

Hi Rajoe,

Wish You Many More Happy Returns of the day.

[smg id=7338 type=full]

Hi Friendz,

Thanks For Your Wishes and Gifts.

[smg id=7331 type=full]

Congrats for successful server migration.

We hope, our down time will reduce compare to last few month.

All the best for future.

Thank you Thilaga.

Your collection is so nice. Now only i see his childhood photos.

Hi The Big S,

Wish you many more happy returns of the day.

Every year on your Birthday, you get a chance to start new.

[smg id=7287 type=full]

Love Life - Worst Life

Enthiran UnOfficial Trailler

Rajini Enthiran UnOfficial Trailer

RCOM intros Push e-mail service on SMS

Reliance Communications ("RCOM"), India's largest integrated communication services provider and iseemedia Inc., a leading provider of messaging and content handling technology, today announced the launch of a ground-breaking SMS-based email service across Reliance  GSM and CDMA wireless network in India, serving more than 92 million subscribers.

This Email on SMS service effectively empowers RCOM subscribers to have their mobile phones to behave like smartphones and receive all their desktop email via SMS.  The Email-to-SMS technology is provided by Canada's iseemedia, a leading provider of low cost wireless email services to operators in the country.

In India where mobile phones have become an important part of everyone's livelihood the country is adding more mobile phone subscribes each month than any other. According to Informa Telecom & Media; India had 125 million new mobile phone subscribers for the year ending March 2009.

Text-based information services have become particularly popular in agriculture, healthcare and other sectors in India. The challenge for operators has been to deliver more sophisticated services using existing handsets that don't have access to the Internet. iseemedia's technology meets that challenge with the possibility to deliver next generation messaging without the cost of having to replace handsets.

Krishna Durbha, Head – VAS, Reliance Communications said, "iseemedia provides the ideal platform to deliver our next generation service to drive more email usage among our existing subscribers." We believe our push email service can deliver substantial revenue upside over the years to RCOM."

RCOM is leveraging iseemedia's multi-platform email solution known as iseemail to enable every mobile handset in India to act as a smartphone and enable users to check, download and retrieve email messages using the SMS interface. iseemail supports all types of email messaging systems in India through standard POP3 & IMAP4.  It also offers access to consumer messaging from Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo.co.in, Indiatimes emails and more.

Anthony DeCristofaro, President and CEO of iseemedia said, "Mobile connectivity has become more important in everyday lives in India. With Reliance we have the opportunity to promote mobile email to its 92 million subscribers and as a mass market solution to provide full email functionality on nearly 100 per cent of devices used in India. This will allow RCOM to increase its customer base as well as drive the adoption of mobile email usage through new value-added services."

RCOM is offering iseemedia's email service on its pre-paid as well as post-paid platforms as a subscription service charged at Rs.30 and a usage tariff of 0.50 paise per SMS sent. iseemedia receives a percentage of revenue from every user transaction.

Source : ciol

Dear Acumens,

Here I Posted What I Received Through E-Mail.

If you have come across any bright students coming from poor financial background who have finished their 10th standard this year (April 2009) and scored more than 80%, please ask them to contact the NGO-Prerana (supported by Infosys foundation). The NGO is conducting a written test and those who clear the test will be eligible for financial help for their further studies.


Please ask the students to contact the people mentioned below to get the form:

#580,Shubhakar,
44th cross, 1st A main road, jayanagar 7th block,
Bangalore



Contact numbers-

1.       Saraswati - 9900906338

2.       Mr. Shivkumar - 9986630301 - (Hanumanthnagar office)

3.       Ms. Bindu- 9964534667 (Yeshwantpur office)


Even if you don't know anyone, please pass on this info, someone might be in need of this help desperately.

Clash Of Titans

Clash of the Titans - Official Trailer 2 [HD]

Give Your Connection String.

Solution :

Mostly Save the database in access 2000 format. (.mdb ) and then try it

Hi Friendz,

As the new year blossoms, may the journey of your life be fragrant with new opportunities, your days be bright with new hopes and your heart be happy with love! Happy New Year!

Great The big s.

Tamil is sweet and powerful language

Hi Rajoe,

All Animations are excellent.

I Really like the bad  egg animation concepts and moral and designs.


Keep Rocking like this

Doubts created by a true lover

ஒரு காதலர்களிடையே கேட்க நினைக்குற, ஆனா கேட்க முடியாம மனசுக்குள்ளேயே புதைச்சு வெச்சுக்குற சில கேள்விகளை பார்க்கலாம்..

1. நாங்கதான் உங்களுக்கு ரீ-சார்ஜ் பண்ணி அனுப்புறோம். ஆனாலும் நீங்க எதுக்கு மிஸ்டு கால் கொடுத்தே எங்க உயிரை வாங்குறீங்க? உங்ககிட்ட ஃபோன்ல பேசின காசையெல்லாம் சேர்த்து வெச்சிருந்தா, நான் லோன் போட்டு பைக் வாங்கி இருக்க வேண்டிய அவசியமே இருந்திருக்காது.

2. ஒரு பொண்ணு கொடுக்குற மிஸ்டு காலை மட்டும் யாராலும் அட்டெண்ட் பண்ணவே முடியாது. அவ்ளோ ஷார்ப்பா கட் பண்ணுவாங்க. இப்படி மிஸ்டுகால் கொடுக்க நீங்க எந்த யுனிவர்சிட்டியில ட்ரெயினிங் எடுத்துகிட்டிங்க?

3. அது ஏன் எப்போ பார்த்தாலும், எது கேட்டாலும் ஹி.. ஹி'ன்னு சிரிச்சுகிட்டே இருக்கீங்க? ஒரு மணி நேரம் உங்ககிட்ட ஃபோன்ல பேசினா அதுல நாற்பது நிமிஷம் கேனத்தனமா சிரிச்சுகிட்டேதான் இருக்கீங்க. ஏன் நீங்க ஏதாவது பேஸ்ட் விளம்பரத்துல நடிக்கிறதுக்கு எங்ககிட்ட ட்ரெயினிங் எடுக்கிறீங்களா?

4. ஃபோன்ல நாங்களேதான் பேசிகிட்டு இருக்கோம். எதைக்கேட்டாலும் "நீங்க சொல்லுங்க, நீங்க சொல்லுங்க'ன்னா" நாங்க என்னத்தை சொல்லி தொலைக்குறது? உங்களுக்கு எதையுமே பேச தெரியாது போலன்னு நினைச்சு நாங்க பாட்டுக்கு எதையாவது சொல்லி தொலைச்சுடுவோம். அதையே மனசுல வெச்சுகிட்டு, கல்யாணத்துக்கு அப்புறம் வாங்கி கட்டிக்கிறது எங்களுக்கு மட்டும்தான் தெரியும். அது எப்படி பேசவே தெரியாத மாதிரி சீன் போடுறீங்க?

5. மெசேஜ்'ல மட்டும் ரொம்ப ரொமாண்டிக்கா SMS அனுப்பி எங்க தூக்கத்தை கெடுக்குறீங்க. ஆனா அதையே நேர்ல சொல்ல சொன்னா மட்டும் வெட்கத்தையே என்னமோ நீங்கதான் குத்தகைக்கு எடுத்த மாதிரி வெட்கப்படுறீங்க? இது எப்படி உங்களால மட்டும் முடியுது? மெசேஜ் அனுப்பும் போதெல்லாம் உங்க வெட்கத்தை என்ன ஃப்ரிட்ஜ்'க்கு உள்ளே ஒளிச்சி வெச்சிடுவீங்களா?

6. ஹேய்... உனக்கு எப்படி அது தெரியும்? அப்படிங்கிற கேள்வியை மட்டும் கேட்டுட்டா போதும். உடனே "நான் உங்க இதயத்துல தானே இருக்கேன். இது கூட எனக்கு தெரியாதான்னு" உடனே ஒரு டயலாக் விடுவீங்க. இந்த மாதிரி எல்லாம் டயலாக் விட டைரக்டர் கதிர்கிட்ட கத்துகிட்டீங்களா என்ன?


7. அப்புறம் அப்புறம்'ங்கிற மொக்கையவே அரை மணி நேரமா போடுறீங்க. சரி வெச்சுடுறேன்னு நாங்க ஃபோனை கட் பண்ண போகும்போதுதான் "என் கூட பேசறது உங்களுக்கு போரடிக்குதா"ன்னு ஒரு சென்டிமென்ட் சீன் ஓபன் பண்ண வேண்டியது. உங்களுக்கு ஏன் இந்த கொலைவெறி?

8. நீங்க கிஃப்ட் கொடுத்தா மட்டும் விலையைப் பார்க்க கூடாது. அதுல உங்க அன்பைத்தான் பார்க்கணும். ஏன்னா நிச்சயமா அந்த கிஃப்ட் கீ-செயினாவோ, கர்ச்சீஃபாவோ, இல்லை அதிகபட்சமா மணிபர்ஸாவோதான் இருக்கும். ஏன்னா அதுங்கதான் ஐம்பது ரூபாய்க்கு கிடைக்கும். ஆனா இதே நாங்க கிஃப்ட் கொடுக்கும் போது மட்டும் சுடிதாரோ, செல்ஃபோனோ, தங்க செயினோ, வெள்ளி கொலுசோ, குறைஞ்சது 3,000/- ரூபாய்க்கு செலவு பண்ணாதான் நாங்க உங்க மேல உண்மையான அன்பு வெச்சிருக்கிறதா அர்த்தம். என்ன கரெக்ட்டா? உங்க அன்போட அளவுகோலுக்கு எல்லையே கிடையாதா?

9. "உன் நியாபகமாவே இருந்துச்சு. ராத்திரி எல்லாம் தூக்கமே வரலை"ன்னு மனசாட்சி இல்லாம பொய் சொல்றீங்களே.. என் நியாபகமாவே இருந்துச்சினா என் கூட பேச வேண்டியது தானே. இந்தக் கேள்வியை நாங்க கேட்டுடக் கூடாதுனு அர்த்த ராத்திரியில பேய் முழிச்சுகிட்டு இருக்கிற நேரத்துல, ஒரு மிஸ்டுகால் கொடுத்துட்டு, மறுநாள் காலையில உனக்கு என் நியாபகமே இல்லைன்னே சண்டை போட வேண்டியது. இந்த விஷயத்துல சத்தியமா உங்களை அடிச்சுக்க ஆளே கிடையாது.

10. நீங்க யூஸ் பண்ணி தூக்கி போட்ட பொருளை எல்லாம் நாங்க சேர்த்து வெச்சிருக்கணும்னு எதிர்பார்க்குறீங்களே, நாங்க என்ன நீங்க தூக்கி போடுறதை எல்லாம் சேர்த்து வெக்கிற குப்பை தொட்டியா?

நண்பர்களே இந்தக் கேள்விகளை எல்லாம் படிக்கிறதோட நிறுத்திக்குங்க. தப்பித்தவறி கூட இந்தக் கேள்விகளை நீங்க உங்க காதலிகிட்டயோ  இல்ல காதலன்கிட்டயோ கேட்டீங்கன்னு வெச்சுக்குங்களேன்........அவ்வளவுதான் ஜோலி முடிஞ்சுது.

கடவுச்சொல்லை  - Password

ilthakasaiya - Friends Movie Dialogue

There was a time when we expected nothing of our children but obedience, as opposed to the present, when we expect everything of them but obedience.

UCSD fake-out

28,000 students were turned away from UC San Diego in one of the toughest college entrance seasons on record after a particularly cruel twist in the perils of instant communications.

All 46,000 students in the entire freshman applicant pool received the same misfired message of acceptance, which could have led to the largest freshman class at any university globally.

The 18,000 students who were actually accepted breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, the rest of the applicant pool had to march on in the grueling college application process.

Tax terror

Britain's tax authority, HM Revenue & Customs, issued a warning about a rash of scam emails that used convincing (but fake) government email address in an attempt to lure recipients into divulging their personal information to receive a tax refund.

The scam messages claimed that recipients were entitled to a tax refund and asked for bank or credit card details, so that the fictitious refund could be paid out.

Like most legitimate businesses and government organizations, the HMRC stressed that it would not inform citizens of a tax rebate via email, nor would it invite them to complete an online form to receive a tax rebate.

Payroll panic

Payroll processor PayChoice was the victim of a website breach in which customers received targeted emails purporting to be from the company, but were designed to trick people into downloading malware.

Workers received emails that directed them to download a browser plug-in or visit a website to continue accessing the onlineemployer.com PayChoice portal.

Clients were notified within hours and the site was shut down. It was later learned that the emails were sent from a Yahoo! email account and the links were hosted from servers in Poland.

Judge orders gmail account deactivated

In August, Wyoming-based Rocky Mountain Bank mistakenly sent names, addresses, social security numbers and loan information of more than 1,300 customers to a Gmail address.

When the bank realized the problem, it sent a message to that same address asking the recipient to contact the bank and destroy the file without opening it.

No one responded, so the bank contacted Google to ask for information about the account holder. US District Court Judge James Ware in the northern district of California ordered Google to deactivate the email account and also disclose the Gmail account holder's identity and contact information.

The Gmail user hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing, but someone at the bank should be a little more careful when typing in the TO: field in an email.

Start-up suicide

Back in September, social media advertising and applications start-up RockYou, sent out a mass email to their customers and associates announcing their new site redesign, but instead of using BCC, they displayed the entire mailing list of over 200 email addresses in the CC: field. Not surprisingly, many of those addresses ended up on a spammer's list.

Two months later, the start-up sent out another mass email using a mailing list. Unfortunately, the email asked contractors to provide information for their W9 tax forms. This resulted in people inadvertently sending personal information to the entire mailing list.

Hotmail phishing

Most recently, more than 10,000 Hotmail accounts were compromised in October and passwords were posted on several websites where developers typically share programming code.

News site Neowin reported it had seen part of the list, which has since been removed, and notified Microsoft of the issue.

In this phishing scam, hackers sent out legitimate-looking emails under the letterhead of banks, eBay and other institutions, telling consumers they needed to reset online passwords to their Web sites for security purposes.

It seems that many of the affected account holders could have used a password reset. Security researchers with copies of the exposed passwords reported that "123456" was the most commonly used among them.

FBI forgery

The wife of FBI Director Robert Mueller banned him from online banking after he nearly fell for a phishing scam. Mueller received a seemingly legitimate email from what he thought was his bank, which prompted him to verify some information.

He even went as far as filling out some of his personal information before realizing it might not be a great idea.

He said he barely caught himself in time before falling victim to the scam. As a result, he changed his passwords and tried to pass the incident off to his wife as a "teachable moment."

However, that did not stop Mrs. Mueller from sanctioning Mr. Mueller's online activities.

Trojan Horse empties bank accounts

In September, it was reported that a banking Trojan horse, dubbed URLZone, had thwarted fraud detection systems, to enable software to actually steal money while users are logged in to their accounts and display a fake balance.

Victims' computers were infected either by clicking on a malicious link in an email or visiting a website that has been compromised with hidden malware.

The Trojan also kept a log of the victim's bank account login credentials, took screenshots, and snooped on the user's other Web accounts, such as PayPal, Facebook, and Gmail.

10 Biggest email blunders of 2009

Remember the time when you sent that gossip mail to your boss accidentally? Thought an email blunder couln't get bigger than this! Take heart you are not the only one, there are people and organisations who can empathise with your sorrow/embarrassment/bewilderment!

Email solutions company Proofpoint recently put together some of the "scariest" email-related blunders, mishaps and threats from this year.

In no particular order, Proofpoint highlights some of 2009's biggest email mishaps.

source : indiatimes

Nokia unveils 5 low-end phones

Nokia unveiled five new low-end phone models, aiming to improve its offering in the emerging markets.

The world's top cellphone maker is a dominant player in many key emerging markets with market shares of 60-70 percent, but it is under strong pressure as rivals such as ZTE are try to improve their position in the low-end of the market.

Nokia's new models are priced from 20 euros ($29.26) to 54 euros, excluding operator subsidies and local taxes. "The long battery life, with up to 22 days of standby time, is vital for people in areas where access to electricity is limited," Nokia said in a statement.

Most expensive new models, the Nokia 2220 slide and the Nokia 2690, priced at 45 euros and 54 euros, also support e-mail on the device through Nokia's Ovi Mail.

Nokia said it will open its Life Tools service -- which offers agricultural, education and information services to cellphones -- in Indonesia from early December 2009. It has offered the service so far in India.

source : indiatimes

Know if your Nokia charger is faulty

The mobile giant Nokia has started a charger exchange programme in which consumers owning certain Nokia-branded chargers manufactured by a third-party supplier are recommended to exchange these chargers for free replacements. The company recommends consumers with chargers within the scope of this exchange programme to stop using the charger and exchange it for a free replacement at the earliest.

In India, this charger exchange programme is limited to charger model AC-3E only (manufactured between June 15–August 9, 2009) for a single Nokia model, Nokia 7210.

Identifying chargers to be exchanged
Consumers can identify whether their chargers are a part of the Charger exchange programme in three ways:

* The first is a three-step SMS solution. Every charger has a 27 digit code printed on it. Consumers are requested to key in (CHG) SPACE (the 27 digit in the serial number of the charger). Example CHG 4956279274091613752;0675370

Users are requested to send in this number to to 55555. Consumers will then get a reply from Nokia `via sms' that will inform them whether their charger is included in this exchange programme. This easy three-step process will take a few minutes.

* Starting November 10, 2009, consumers can also walk into any Nokia Care Center or any Nokia Priority Dealership store (NPDs) across the country and check if their chargers are a part of this exchange programme.

* Consumers can also log into to http://chargerexchange.nokia.com and fill in their charger details and verify if the charger is part of the exchange program.

Exchanging identified chargers
For exchanging their chargers, consumers have the following two options:

* Visit the nearest Nokia Care Centre: Replacement chargers are available at the 700+ exclusive Nokia Care Centers only across the country starting November 10, 2009.

For more information on Nokia Care Centers, consumers can call 30303838 with the Local STD code of the city that he/ she is dialing from.

* Consumers can also fill in their address and contact details online on http://chargerexchange.nokia.com. Replacement chargers would then be couriered to the consumers.

Source : indiatimes

Nokia to replace 14 mn chargers

Nokia will replace 14 million cellphone chargers made by China's BYD Co Ltd as chargers could fall apart and expose consumers to risk of electrical shock.

"We are undertaking this exchange programme as a proactive, precautionary measure. We are not aware of any incidents or injuries relating to these three (models of) chargers," said Nokia spokesman Doug Dawson.

The world's largest cellphone maker Nokia said BYD would cover all costs from replacement. An average charger sales price to phone manufacturers is around $1.

"The plastic covers of the affected chargers could come loose and separate, exposing the charger's internal components and potentially posing an electrical shock hazard if certain internal components are touched while the charger is plugged into a live socket," the Finnish firm said.

BYD spokeswoman Jasmine Huang said the company would issue statement later on the replacement.

"During internal tests, we found the chargers could have some problems," Huang told news agency.

Nokia said BYD chargers AC-3E and AC-3U, manufactured between June 15 and August 9, and AC-4U, manufactured between April 13 and October 25 would be replaced.

Nokia said it recommends consumers with chargers within the scope of this exchange programme to stop using the charger and exchange it for a free replacement.

source : indiatimes

Google launching free videoconferencing

Google is all set to strengthen its voice and video chat capabilities. The voice and video chat feature in the company's the email service, Gmail, is currently limited to one-to-one communication, however, Google wants to broaden this capability to more than two participants.

The Google Apps product manager Rishi Chandra told SFGate that Google is set to roll out its first update in a long line of updates that will include multi-user video conferencing.

Chandra told the web site, "This (current Gmail capability) is the first step in a much broader set of features we hope to roll out over the next six to 12 months around video (and voice) chat capabilities." He added, "It's a great opportunity for us to push that space along."

Google acquired Web and video conferencing software in 2007 from Swedish company Marratech.

Source : indiatimes

Accenture to hire 8,000 in India

Global technology and consultancy giant Accenture on Monday said it is going to add around 8,000 people in India by the end of next year taking its total employee base in the country to 50,000.

"We are 42,000 right now and we imagine we will be about 50,000 by the end of 2010," Accenture Chairman and Chief Executive Officer William D Green said on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit.

Indicating a recovery from the global downturn, Green said the company will continue to focus in India, especially in the areas of analytics.

Accenture's focus in India is going to be the analytics space, which will help the clients convert information into insights for better yields.

Green added, "We believe that analytics is going to be an important trend that our customers are going to demand from us. We think India is going to be a great place for us. We have some core centres of excellence in the analytics space in the country."

Accenture, which has annual revenue of $21.58 billion for fiscal 2009, will strengthen its focus on clients in pharmaceutical, telecommunications and energy in the country.

Source : indiatimes

Infosys BPO to hire 2000 by FY10

Infosys BPO, the back-office unit of IT firm Infosys Technologies, today said it would hire 1,500-2,000 people by the end of the current fiscal.

"We plan to hire 2000 people in the next four-five months or by the end of this fiscal. Currently, we are 16,000 people in India," Infosys BPO CEO Amitabh Chaudhry told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.

The 300-million Infosys subsidiary recently signed an agreement with the Andhra Pradesh government to set up rural BPO centres in 22 districts of the state.

Infosys BPO gets significant part of its business from North America and Europe.

To bag more clients, it is said to be looking at aligning with Finacle, the banking solution business of its parent. Infosys BPO is also reportedly planning to set up a new delivery centre in the United States before the end of this financial year.

The back-office services wing of Infosys has eight delivery centres across the globe, including in Mexico, but it did not have a centre in the US so far.

Infosys BPO registered revenues of $71.3 million with a net profit of $16.3 million for the September quarter.

source : indiatimes

EXL Service

At no. 10 is New York headquartered EXL Service, slipping five positions from last its previous year's ranking.

According to the survey, the drastic fall in the company's ranking can be accrued to low marks it received on parameters like, transparency in appraisal system, salary hikes and compensation structure. The company also saw its headcount decline during the FY 2008-09 from 9,464 in 2008 to 7,869 currently.

However, the company managed to get positive good marks on employee training and exciting growth opportunities. Other key areas where company earned good scores are multi-faceted job exposure, cross-learning environment, and job contentment.

Intelenet Global

At no. 9 is Mumbai-based Intelnet Global. What made company to the top 10 entries is employee training and growth opportunities. The company's employee development programme got good response. Intelenet Global scores high on employee communication and interaction.

The company introduced a training programme called Get Ready for Opportunity at Work (GROW). However, the company scored low on its unfriendly salary structure and also on salary hikes

HCL BPO

At no. 8 is HCL BPO. The BPO operations of HCL saw the biggest fall in its ranking this year, falling to no. 8 from its previous year's position at no. 3.

Employee training, salary, gender inclusivity remained big issues at HCL BPO. The company also got poor marks on work environment, perks and benefits. Seems the company increasing its working hours from 8 hrs to 9 didn't go well with employees. The company also went into the cost control mode cutting on transportation, food and other benefits.

The company, however, scores high on fair and transparency of appraisal system.

Aegis

Aegis BPO is at No 7 on the top BPO employers list, scaling one position up from its last year's ranking.

According to the report, the company focuses on six major drivers including work activities, career opportunities, rewards and recognitions, company policies and HR practices, work-life balance and senior leader relationships.

The company gets high marks on providing exciting growth opportunities, salary hikes and benefits. The company gave almost 8% hike to its employees. However, the company's pain areas are training, open and transparent policies.

Hero ITeS

Next on the list at No 6 is BPO arm of Hero Group, Hero ITeS, jumping three positions from its last year's ranking. The company gets top marks on salary hikes, perks and benefits. Other parameters where the company received good marks include employee feedback, communication with employees and cross functional training.

However, the company scored low on employee training and work culture.

IBM Daksh

At No. 5 is the BPO arm of IBM, slipping three spots from last year. The company scores high on parameters like salary hikes, perks and benefits. The survey also sees IBM Daksh retain its position as the "No 1 Dream Company" for the third consecutive year.

According to the survey, the company saw no job cuts or announced any salary cuts during the downturn. The company also earns high marks on gender fairness.

However, the company scores low on parameters like fair and transparent appraisal system, job contentment. According to the survey, employees expressed reservations about the appraisal parameters.

Genpact

The BPO unit of GE which manages business processes for companies around the globe is at No 4. The company has managed to retain its previous year's position.

According to the survey results, this year Genpact failed to match industry standards on salary, hikes, compensation, perks and benefits. The company also got low marks on job contentment and employee training. Employees seem to be dissatisfied on cost cutting and the hikes they received during the last fiscal.

However, on the brighter side, the company scored decent on openness to new ideas and also on recognising special initiatives during appraisal parameter.

Wipro BPO

The BPO arm of India's third largest software services provider Wipro is at No. 3. The company scores high on employee training, work culture, transparent appraisal system and recognition of special initiatives during appraisals.

The company is also known to provide flexible working hours, transport benefits and allowance to pregnant women. According to the report, Wipro BPO is among the few companies who saw no layoffs during the recession.

However, employees seem unsatisfied with salary hikes, perks and benefits. The survey saw Wipro BPO scoring low on `salary structure being at par with the industry standards' parameter.

Allsec Technologies

At No 2 on the Top BPO employers list is Allsec Technologies, jumping two spots from its previous year. The company provides services across industries such as banking and financial services, telecom, retail, healthcare, technology, automotive and gaming.

What makes it part of best employers is compensation model, perks and benefits. The company scored a perfect 100 on compensation front, according to the survey. However, employee training seems to be a major issue at Allsec Technologies. According to the company HR head, the company did not invest in training this year due to ongoing downturn. Another area where the company received low marks is infrastructure.

However, during the year, the company reportedly worked on areas like appraisal system, employee integration and hiring.

vCustomer

Topping the list for three consecutive years is vCustomer. The company provides multi-channel customer support services to customers in the retail, technology, communications, media, travel and hospitality industries.

vCustomer scores perfect 100 on the fairness of appraisal system and tax-efficient salary structure. According to the survey, the company received a good score on work culture, job content, training, salary, appraisal and gender inclusivity.

However, the company was not rated too highly on employee training.

Top 10 BPO employers of 2009

Fiscal year 2008-09 has not been the best of time for companies across the globe. It has been no different for IT and BPO industry in the country. With unemployment spiralling up globally, the rhetoric against outsourcing only got shriller in both Europe and USA. The backlash hit Indian IT companies already struggling against recession and turmoil in their core BFSI market.

Faced with adverse economic climate, Indian BPOs went on to reinvent their strategies, diversifying both vertically and geographically. But what about employees? Did the hallowed HR policies of BPOs also became a causality on the way? Could the BPOs in the country hold to their so-called HR best practices during these tough times? Or the bar came down?

Annual DQ-IDC BPO survey ranks the top BPO employers of the country. Here's looking into who all could save their ranking this year, and who fell in face of adversity.

Source : indiatimes

Mobile applications

By year-end 2010, 1.2 billion people will carry handsets capable of rich, mobile commerce providing a rich environment for the convergence of mobility and the Web.

There are already many thousands of applications for platforms such as the Apple iPhone, in spite of the limited market and need for unique coding.

It may take a newer version that is designed to flexibly operate on both full PC and miniature systems, but if the operating system interface and processor architecture were identical, that enabling factor would create a huge turn upwards in mobile application availability.

Virtualization for availability

Virtualization has been on the list of top strategic technologies in previous years. It is on the list this year because Gartner emphases new elements such as live migration for availability that have longer term implications. Live migration is the movement of a running virtual machine (VM), while its operating system and other software continue to execute as if they remained on the original physical server. This takes place by replicating the state of physical memory between the source and destination VMs, then, at some instant in time, one instruction finishes execution on the source machine and the next instruction begins on the destination machine.

However, if replication of memory continues indefinitely, but execution of instructions remains on the source VM, and then the source VM fails the next instruction would now place on the destination machine. If the destination VM were to fail, just pick a new destination to start the indefinite migration, thus making very high availability possible.

The key value proposition is to displace a variety of separate mechanisms with a single "dial" that can be set to any level of availability from baseline to fault tolerance, all using a common mechanism and permitting the settings to be changed rapidly as needed. Expensive high-reliability hardware, with fail-over cluster software and perhaps even fault-tolerant hardware could be dispensed with, but still meet availability needs. This is key to cutting costs, lowering complexity, as well as increasing agility as needs shift.

Flash memory

Flash memory is not new, but it is moving up to a new tier in the storage echelon. Flash memory is a semiconductor memory device, familiar from its use in USB memory sticks and digital camera cards.

It is much faster than rotating disk, but considerably more expensive, however this differential is shrinking. At the rate of price declines, the technology will enjoy more than a 100 percent compound annual growth rate during the new few years and become strategic in many IT areas including consumer devices, entertainment equipment and other embedded IT systems.

In addition, it offers a new layer of the storage hierarchy in servers and client computers that has key advantages including space, heat, performance and ruggedness.

Security - activity monitoring

Traditionally, security has focused on putting up a perimeter fence to keep others out, but it has evolved to monitoring activities and identifying patterns that would have been missed before.

Information security professionals face the challenge of detecting malicious activity in a constant stream of discrete events that are usually associated with an authorized user and are generated from multiple network, system and application sources.

At the same time, security departments are facing increasing demands for ever-greater log analysis and reporting to support audit requirements.

A variety of complimentary (and sometimes overlapping) monitoring and analysis tools help enterprises better detect and investigate suspicious activity – often with real-time alerting or transaction intervention.

By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of these tools, enterprises can better understand how to use them to defend the enterprise and meet audit requirements.

Social computing

Workers do not want two distinct environments to support their work – one for their own work products (whether personal or group) and another for accessing "external" information.

Enterprises must focus both on use of social software and social media in the enterprise and participation and integration with externally facing enterprise-sponsored and public communities.

Do not ignore the role of the social profile to bring communities together.

Reshaping the data center

In the past, design principles for data centers were simple: Figure out what you have, estimate growth for 15 to 20 years, then build to suit.

Newly-built data centers often opened with huge areas of white floor space, fully powered and backed by a uninterruptible power supply (UPS), water-and air-cooled and mostly empty.

However, costs are actually lower if enterprises adopt a pod-based approach to data center construction and expansion. If 9,000 square feet is expected to be needed during the life of a data center, then design the site to support it, but only build what's needed for five to seven years.

Cutting operating expenses, which are a nontrivial part of the overall IT spend for most clients, frees up money to apply to other projects or investments either in IT or in the business itself.

IT for green

IT can enable many green initiatives. The use of IT, particularly among the white collar staff, can greatly enhance an enterprise's green credentials.

Common green initiatives include the use of e-documents, reducing travel and teleworking. IT can also provide the analytic tools that others in the enterprise may use to reduce energy consumption in the transportation of goods or other carbon management activities.

Client Computing

Virtualization is bringing new ways of packaging client computing applications and capabilities. As a result, the choice of a particular PC hardware platform, and eventually the OS platform, becomes less critical.

Enterprises should proactively build a five to eight year strategic client computing roadmap outlining an approach to device standards, ownership and support; operating system and application selection, deployment and update; and management and security plans to manage diversity.

Advanced analytics

Optimization and simulation is using analytical tools and models to maximize business process and decision effectiveness by examining alternative outcomes and scenarios, before, during and after process implementation and execution.

This can be viewed as a third step in supporting operational business decisions. Fixed rules and prepared policies gave way to more informed decisions powered by the right information delivered at the right time, whether through customer relationship management (CRM) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) or other applications.

The new step is to provide simulation, prediction, optimization and other analytics, not simply information, to empower even more decision flexibility at the time and place of every business process action. The new step looks into the future, predicting what can or will happen.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a style of computing that characterizes a model in which providers deliver a variety of IT-enabled capabilities to consumers.

Cloud-based services can be exploited in a variety of ways to develop an application or a solution.

Using cloud resources does not eliminate the costs of IT solutions, but does re-arrange some and reduce others.

In addition, consuming cloud services enterprises will increasingly act as cloud providers and deliver application, information or business process services to customers and business partners.

Top 10 strategic technologies for 2010

Ever wondered which would be the strategic technologies that have the potential to significantly impact an organisation's growth in the next three years? The technologies that would be at the forefront of an organisation's long-term plans, programmes and initiatives.

Research firm Gartner has listed top 10 strategic technologies that will help organisations transform and grow.

However, according to David Cearley, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, "This does not necessarily mean adoption and investment in all of the technologies. They should determine which technologies will help and transform their individual business initiatives."

Here's over to the top 10 strategic technologies for 2010

Source : indiatimes

Accenture

At No. 20 on the list is global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company Accenture.

According to company website, Accenture offers flexi-work timings, maternity returners programmes and women's mentoring programmes.

Earlier this month, Accenture reported a fall in quarterly profit and gave a weaker-than-expected outlook for the fiscal year that began in September.

NOKIA

World's top cellphone maker Nokia figures at the 19th spot on the list of Best employers.

The mobile numero uno has been facing tough competition from companies like Apple in the smartphone market.

The company promises equal opportunities and openness towards all. Nokia is also said to host a variety of training activities through global network of Learning Centers.

Nokia also provides health-care services including medical check-ups, counselling and insurance programmes.

CISCO

Networking major Cisco bags the 13th spot on the list. The company has been one of the most aggressive companies on the technology M&A front.

Founded in 1984 by a small group of computer scientists from Stanford University, Cisco's hardware, software, and service offerings are used to create Internet solutions.

With more than 67,647 employees worldwide, the company's mantra is to motivate employees for innovation.

Hewlett-Packard

World's largest personal-computer maker, Hewlett-Packard is at No 12 on the list of most attractive employers for engineering grads.

At HP, global virtual teams share resources and pool their brain power to solve business issues and meet personal goals. The company has special employee volunteering programmes where they can serve the community for various causes. The company has special focus on employee development and training.

However, facing global economic slowdown blues, HP announced a slash in employee compensation and benefits cross globe. The company said that the move will save up to 20,000 jobs.

SIEMENS

At no 8 is Siemens. Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global powerhouse in electronics and electrical engineering, operating in the industry, energy and healthcare sectors. The company has around 420,000 employees (in continuing operations) working to develop and manufacture products, design and install complex systems and projects, and tailor a wide range of solutions for individual requirements.

The company claims to be investing heavily in training employees, upgrading their professional qualifications and safeguarding their health.

SONY

Sony figures at No. 7 on the list of Best employer for engineering grads. The Japanese electronics and entertainment giant has been battered by the global slowdown, sliding prices of gadgets and its failure to produce new blockbuster consumer products.

In January this year Tokyo-based Sony Corp announced 8,000 job cuts, or 5 per cent of its global workforce. The layoffs are intended to cut costs by $1.1 billion a year.

The company's extensive cost-cutting efforts are helping offset continued weak consumer demand and a strong yen, leading to a smaller-than-expected loss for its fiscal second quarter and an improved outlook for its fiscal year.

INTEL

At No. 5 on the overall list is the world's largest chipmaker Intel. Earlier last month, Intel reaffirmed its outlook of flat to slightly higher PC sales growth in 2009.

Four out of every five PCs sold the worldover are powered by an Intel microprocessor.

The company is known to place strong emphasis on family, extra-curricular activities and volunteerism.

IBM

Next most attractive employer for IT pros is business and technology solutions provider IBM at No. 3. The company has over 4 lakh employees worldwide.

Headquartered in Armonk, USA, the company offers IT infrastructure and BPO services, such as strategic outsourcing, business transformation outsourcing, integrated technology and maintenance.

The company recently announced a slew of layoffs in a bid to rein in expenses. According to employee group Alliance@IBM, IBM layoffs may touch 16,000 by the year end.

Microsoft

At No. 2 on the list is world's top software giant Microsoft. The software giant reigns on more than 90% of the world's desktops through its popular Windows operating system.

The company recently introduced a new OS Windows 7. Windows 7 succeeds Microsoft's not-so-popular OS Vista.

Like all its IT peers the company too faced slowdown pangs. In a major restructuring, earlier this year Microsoft announced approximately 5000 job cuts.

Google

Topping the list of World's 'Most attractive employers' is Internet search giant Google. Started by Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1997, Google continues to attract over 777,000 applicants a year.

One of the worst recession since Great Depression didn't leave Google too untouched. The tough times made the company take a harder line on managing expenses. It pulled the plug on as many as nine of its new products, cut many jobs, and also some of its famous perks, including free food and drinks on the campus. The company has been known for its flexible timings and other perks.

10 Most attractive IT workplaces for grads

Ever wondered which are the most coveted IT workplaces for graduates worldwide? The organisations they aspire to be a part of.

Employer branding company Universum recently listed the world's Top 50 most attractive employers. The global rankings are based on the employer preferences of students from US, Japan, China, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, Spain, Canada and India. Some 120,000 students from the world's top academic institutions were part of the survey to choose their ideal workplace.

Here's over to the 10 most 'attractive' IT workplaces for engineering grads


Source : indiatimes

Excellent Opportunity for Voice candidates with TCS BPO

Job Description   

Opening in US inbound customer service process

Desired Profile   

Eligibility Criteria:

- Should have Excellent communication skills.

- 0 to 4 yrs of work experience.

- Any graduate or non graduate. Min XIIth Pass or Xth + 3yrs Diploma can also apply

- Very Good Communication Skill. Grammatically correct usage of English

- Willing to learn, stay and grow

- Comfortable in using computers

- Ok with working in night shifts.

- Any two Consecutive off's.

- Only Immediate Joiner's

Criteria for applying to TCS

If your profile matches any of the above requirements, please Walkin to our Spencers Plaza Office Venue details given below:

Contact Person: Rachna Cherian / Mahesh Sharma

Venue:

TCS eServe Ltd.
Spencers Plaza, 9th Floor,
III Phase, 769 Anna Salai
Chennai – 600 002

Day : Monday - Friday

Walk – IN Time:

3:30 PM to 5 PM.

Note:

Candidates who have attended the selection process with TCS BPO in the last 6 months (either selected-not-joined or rejected) will not be eligible

Experience   0 - 4 Years

Industry Type   BPO/ITES

Functional Area    ITES/BPO/KPO, Customer Service, Ops.

Education   UG - Any Graduate - Any Specialization,Graduation Not Required

PG - Post Graduation Not Required

Location   Chennai

A) Voice Process

Designation: Process Executives for Voice process

Experience :  0-2 years

Job Location :   Pune

Job Requirements:

Excellent Communication Skills.

Minimum qualification - Graduation/Post Graduation/Diploma (10+2+3) – 2009 Awaiting results would also be eligible.

Should be willing to work in shifts (24/7 environment)

Should be willing to relocate to Bangalore or Pune

Should be willing to work in a voice process.

Should sign service agreement of 1 year at the time of Joining.

B) Finance and accounts process

Designation: Process Executives for Finance & Accounts Process (F&A)

Work Location :   Pune

Experience :   6  months to 36 months

Job Requirements:

Candidate should have good communications skill

Only Graduates and Post Graduates from commerce background are eligible for this (BComs & M.Coms).

They should be open to work in shifts.

They should sign a service agreement of one year.

Interview date:Monday to Friday

Timings: Any time between 10:00 AM to 5:00PM

Venue:

INFOSYS-BPO,
REGUS CONNAUGHT PLACE, PUNE
Level 2, Connaught Place,
Bund Garden Road,
Pune – 411 001
Contact person Sneha Mahajan OR Kirti Sinha

Notes:

1) Please mention HRO in Source column of application form as its mandatory(Also Carry printout of this and attach with your updated CV)

2) Documents needed

Originals + Photocopy of 10th, 12th, Graduation/Diploma with marks card.

1 passport size photograph.

Any valid photo id (Eg: College id, DL, Passport,PAN Card)

3)If you have already attended Please refer your friends and give them an opportunity to become part of Infosys-BPO ask them to Please mention HRO in Source column of application form  as its mandatory(Also Carry print out of this and attach with your updated CV)

A) Finance& Accounts  process

Designation: Process Executives for Finance& Accounts  process

Experience :  0-3 years

Job Location : Pune

Job Requirements:

Excellent Communication Skills.

Minimum qualification – Only commerce Graduates and Commerce Post Graduates
Should be willing to work in shifts (24/7 environment)

Should sign service agreement of 1 year at the time of Joining.

B) Voice process

Designation: Process Executives for Voice process

Experience :  0-2 years

Job Location : Bangalore/Pune

Job Requirements:

Excellent Communication Skills.

Minimum qualification - Graduation/Post Graduation/Diploma (10+2+3) – 2009 Awaiting results would also be eligible.

Should be willing to work in shifts (24/7 environment)

Should sign service agreement of 1 year at the time of Joining.

Date of Interview: Monday to Friday

Time: we have 2 slots 1) 10:30AM 2) 2:30 PM

Venue:

INFOSYS-BPO
Temple Steps, 7th Floor
Phase 2, Block 1, 184-187
Anna Salai,
Saidapet
Chennai-600 015

Contact person: Parthasarathy


Notes:

1) Please mention HRO in Source column of application form as its mandatory(Also Carry printout of this and attach with your updated CV)

2) Documents needed

Originals + Photocopy of 10th, 12th, Graduation/Diploma with marks card.

1 passport size photograph.

Any valid photo id (Eg: College id, DL, Passport,PAN Card)

3)If you have already attended Please refer your friends and give them an opportunity to become part of Infosys-BPO ask them to Please mention HRO in Source column of application form  as its mandatory(Also Carry print out of this and attach with your updated CV)

PROCESS EXECUTIVES FOR VOICE AND F&A PROCESS(Regular)

Job Description

Designation: Process Executive(For Voice Process)

Experience :  0-2 years

Job Location : Bangalore/Pune

Job Requirements:

Excellent Communication Skills.

Minimum qualification - Graduation/Post Graduation/Diploma (10+2+3) – 2009 Awaiting

results would also be eligible.

Should be willing to work in shifts (24/7 environment)

Should be willing to work in a voice process.

Should sign service agreement of 1 year at the time of Joining

Date : Monday to Friday

Time Slots : 1) 10:30 AM 2)12:00 PM 3)2:00PM 4) 4:30 PM

Venue:

Infosys BPO,
#27,SJR towers, ,Towers 3
J.P.Nagar 3rd Phase,Bannerghatta Road
Bangalore
(Landmark :Near Jayadeva Heart Hospital )


Notes:

1) Please mention HRO in Source column of application form as its mandatory(Also Carry printout of this and attach with your updated CV)

2) Documents needed

Originals + Photocopy of 10th, 12th, Graduation/Diploma with marks card.

1 passport size photograph.

Any valid photo id (Eg: College id, DL, Passport,PAN Card)

3)If you have already attended Please refer your friends and give them an opportunity to become part of Infosys-BPO ask them to Please mention HRO in Source column of application form  as its mandatory(Also Carry print out of this and attach with your updated CV)

Georgia Institute of Technology

At No. 86 on the world's Top 100 universities list is US-based Georgia Institute of Technology scaling three spots down from last year. Georgia Institute of Technology scored 70 points on a scale of 100. The university's campus occupies 400 acres in the heart of the city of Atlanta. With over 16,000 undergraduate and graduate students, Georgia Tech endeavours to provide one of the best infrastructure for technology education.

The university consistently ranks among US News & World Report's top 10 Public Universities in the United States.Georgia Institute offers a range of courses including Architecture, Biological Sciences, Computing/Information Technology, Earth Sciences and Economics.

Delft University of Technology, Netherlands

Next on the Top 100 technology universities is Netherlands-based Delft University of Technology at no 83. The university figured at the 78th spot last year.

Scoring 70.5 points, the university is country's largest technical university with over 15,000 students, 2,700 scientists including 200 professors.

The university offers programmes in Biological Sciences, Computing/Information Technology, Electronic/Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Physical Sciences and others.

Technical University of Munich (TUM)

Sharing laurels with Tokyo Institute of Technology is Technical University of Munich scoring 76.3 points at no 55. Last year the university stood at No. 78. Germany-based TUM offers wide range of studies in engineering, natural sciences, life and medical sciences and economics.

The course programme contains about 130 courses of study, 95% with bachelor and master degrees. The university has double diploma agreements with more than 20 universities and partnerships with around 140 universities worldwide.

Founded in 1868, the university has over 23,000 students, 420 professors and 6,500 staff members. Since its inception, TUM has six nobel prizes to its credit.

Tokyo Institute of Technology

At No. 55 is Tokyo Institute of Technology scoring 76.3 points. The university jumped 6 ranks to stand at No. 55, from last year's 61 position. Specialising in science and technology, the university offers programmes in Computing/Information Technology, Electronic/Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Civil/Structural Engineering and Physical Sciences.

The university has been actively engaged in research in new fields and interdisciplinary areas of science and technology. Founded in 1881 as Tokyo Vocational School, it got the status of university in 1929.

The university houses Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, the Faculty of Bioscience and Biotechnology, the Graduate School of Information Science and Engineering, and the Graduate School of Decision Science and Technology.

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

At No. 35 on the list of world's 100 Top universities is Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The university improved its standing in the global tally by four ranks, jumping to No. 35 from last year's 39th position.

The university scored 83.3 points on a scale of 100. Having over 8,000 students and 400 faculty member, the university offers programmes in Biological Sciences, Business/Management, Computing/Information Technology, Chemical Engineering, Civil/Structural Engineering, Communications/Media, Economics, Mathematics and more.

Founded in 1991, the university was founded by Dr Hon Sze-Yuen Chung, and the then Governor Sir Edward Youde. The university ranked at No. 26 in this year's World's Top 100 Universities in Engineering and IT. It stood at No. 4 on the World's Top 200 Asian Universities (2009).

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

At no 10 on the list of Top 100 universities is California Institute of Technology. This year the university slipped 5 positions from its last year's ranking.

Scoring 95.9 on a scale of 100, California Institute of Technology offers programmes in Chemical Engineering, Chemical Physics, Applied and Computational Mathematics, Applied Physics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Graduate Studies.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Topping the list of technology universities is US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at number 9, maintaining its last year's position.

With the mission to "advance knowledge in science and technology", the university scores 96.1 on a scale of 100 in the survey.

Located on 168 acres along the Cambridge side of the Charles River Basin, MIT has five schools and one college that houses 34 academic departments, divisions, degree-granting programmes as well centers and laboratories.

Along with Computer Science, the university offers courses in Biological Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Engineering in Materials Sciences and Nuclear Science Engineering.

World's top tech universities

A recent study from Times Higher Education and QS Top Universities ranked the world's top 100 universities. The study ranked universities based on an international survey of 9,000 academics who assessed institutions' research facilities, teaching quality, and their ability to recruit staff and admit students.

Though the ranking shows the advance of academia in Asia, sadly none of the Indian universities could make it to the Top 100. The list is dominated by North America, which has as many as 36 universities in the list, this is, however, down from last year's 42.

The list also has many technology universities. Here's looking into the top technology institutes in the Top 100 universities list.

source : indiatimes

DTH

If you have been planning to get a Direct to Home (DTH) installed, timing can't get better. The DTH market is exploding with hot offers. Market leader Tata Sky has announced a special festive offer on purchase of Tata Sky Plus. As part of the offer, subscribers can buy Tata Sky Plus at a price of Rs 4,999. Post Diwali, the service with be back to Rs 8,999. The company has also slashed the installation charges from Rs 1,000 to Rs 500 for Diwali.

Reliance Big TV has announced a host of new offerings. For Rs 1,690, the company is offering three months' subscription of its Silver Pack. It has added 22 new channels to its platform. On monthly subscription packs, users can avail of new top-up packs for longer duration at affordable prices.

The latest player in the DTH market, Sun Direct is offering special offers this Diwali. The company has launched Sun Direct HD pack which includes HD set-top box and accessories, HD installation, HD activation and HD content at Rs 14,799 for a year. Dish TV too has announced attractive channel pricing to bring in new customers.

Laptops And Pcs

Laptops too seem to be a good buy this Diwali. Acer is out with a special Diwali cash back offer where customers can avail a discount of Rs 1,000 on all Aspire series of Notebooks. The offer is valid till 20th October 2009.

PC maker Zenith is also offering special Diwali offers on the its range of PCs and laptops. Lenovo too is giving out special festive offers. On purchase of any Lenovo notebook, users will get a Reliance Broadband, data card with 1-month subscription worth Rs 4,599 for Rs 999.

Camera

For those wanting to capture Diwali celebrations, there are some exciting offers on cameras too. Sony is offering a free 4GB memory stick and carrying case with 12 megapixel Cybershot DSC-W210. On handycams too, Sony is giving out free carrying case with DCR-SR47E priced at Rs 23,990.

Fujifilm is also offering free accessories with Finepix digital cameras like 2GB memory card, camera pouch and battery charger. The company has also slashed the prices of its Finepix camera range. 10 megapixel Finepix A100 is available for Rs 5,999, earlier priced at Rs 6,999.

Kodak is also out with a special offer on its 12 megapixel C190 priced at Rs 7,999. The company is offering it with 2GB memory card, battery charger and AV cable. Nikon too has special offers on its Coolpix series.

Samsung too is offering free Diwali gifts on its camera range. On purchase of Samsung 2View, dual LCD camera, the company is giving out free Reebok sunglasses, 4GB memory card and a camera pouch. Canon is giving out scratch coupons giving a chance to win Philips digital photo frame worth Rs 4,990.

Phones

Top cellphone maker Nokia is out with a special festive offer giving users a chance to win up to Rs 10 lakh as cash back on purchase of any Nokia handset.

Samsung is offering special Diwali offers on its CDMA music and multimedia range. The company is offering Best buy prices and free 2GB and 1GB micro SD card on purchase of CDMA range.

The popular Mobile Store is offering a scratch card offering 55% money back on purchase of any mobile phone. The store has also free mobile cleaning and checkup.

LCD TV

Have been planning to buy an LCD for long? This may be just the right time. The LCD TV market is flooded with offers ranging from free gifts to discounts.

Korean giant Samsung is giving away a 22-inch LCD television free on purchase of an LED television of 40-inch and above screen sizes. The company is also offering a free DVD player with a 32-inch LCD TV. Panasonic is offering a chance to act with Ranbir Kapoor on purchase of an LCD TV. The company is also giving free assured gifts like a pack of DVDs worth Rs 4,999, Lumix digital camera worth Rs 6,990 and Benetton watch.

Sony too has bundle of offers especially on Bravia theatre. On purchase of any Bravia LCD TV with Sony Home theatre systems, users can save up to Rs 5,000.

LG is offering a combo of 50 movie pack plus DVD player worth Rs 15,890 free on purchase of LCD and Plasma TVs. Philips is also offering gifts like LCD TV and home theatre system.

Hot gadget offers this Diwali


It's Diwali time! A time to celebrate and splurge. And after last year's lull, when the recession ate most of the so-very-regular Diwali offers, it's raining attractive discounts and schemes once again this year.

Buy any almost gadget, and you are sure to get either a good discount or a fee gift. Here's bringing to you some of the attractive offers being offered by the leading technology vendors this Diwali.

Source : indiatimes

Dell loses no. 2 spot to Acer


Dell Inc, once the world's top seller of personal computers, fell from second to third place in the global PC market last quarter after Acer Inc surged past the company.

Dell was the only top-five PC maker to see its shipments drop in the third quarter from a year earlier, market research firms IDC and Gartner Inc said today in separate reports. Hewlett-Packard Co, which took the lead from Dell in 2006, retained its top ranking.

Dell has struggled to reach consumer laptop shoppers -- the industry's biggest source of growth right now, said Loren Loverde, an analyst for IDC. Acer's shipments surged 25.6 percent last quarter, the fastest growth among the top PC makers, buoyed by sales of low-cost netbooks. Dell gets about 80 percent of its sales from business customers, with 20 percent coming from consumers.

"They're dropping for the same reason that they have been having trouble over the last couple of years: They're more focused on U.S. commercial desktops than all their competitors," Loverde said. "Where the market has been growing is in retail with portables. That's proven to be a challenge for Dell."

Source : indiatimes

IBM raises full-year outlook


IBM raised its full-year outlook and reported higher-than-expected quarterly profit as its growing focus on higher-margin software and services helped it cope with weak technology spending.

International Business Machines Corp still failed to satisfy investors, whose expectations had risen along with a 24 percent rise in the shares over the past three months. A drop in service contract numbers, an indication of future sales, also worried Wall Street.

"I think people had expected a bigger upside," said Kim Caughey, an analyst with Fort Pitt Capital. "If you are someone who follows technology closely, the third quarter isn't a strong quarter -- so that they beat at all, I'm happy."

Indeed, IBM reported third-quarter net profit rose to $3.2 billion, or $2.40 a share, from $2.8 billion, or $2.04 a share, a year earlier. Analysts on average expected a profit of $2.38 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue fell 7 percent from a year earlier to $23.6 billion, but it rose 1 percent from the previous quarter and was better than Wall Street's forecast of $23.4 billion. IBM forecast a return to revenue growth in the fourth quarter and said it was ahead of pace to achieve its target earnings of $10 to $11 per share in 2010.

Total gross profit margin rose to 45.1 percent from 43.3 percent a year earlier.

Source : indiatimes

HCL Info bags $114 mn Rajasthan govt deal


IT hardware firm HCL Infosystems has been awarded a Rs 529 crore ($114 million) IT project for Rajasthan's power distribution utilities, a top official of the utilities said.

"We have awarded the order to HCL Infosystems," R G Gupta, chairman of Jaipur, Jodhpur and Ajmer Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Ltd, said from Jaipur.

The project involves applying technology to identify power losses across all cities and villages of Rajasthan and has to be completed in 18 months, he said.

A company spokesman declined to comment but said HCL Infosystems had bid for several R-APDRP (Re-structured Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme) IT projects including the one in Rajasthan.

Source : indiatimes

TCS wins $63 mn deal from MP govt


Tata Consultancy Services, India's top software firm, has been selected as the lowest bidder for a Rs 2.93 billion ($63 million) project in the state of Madhya Pradesh, an official with the state power utility said.

"For the IT implementation work, Tata Consultancy Services has been selected as the L-1 (lowest bidder)," S A Ansari, Chief Engineer (IT) of the MP.

Madhya Kshetra Vidyut Vitran Company Ltd, told Reuters over telephone from the city of Bhopal.

The project will be formally awarded after approval from the board of directors of the state's distribution utilities, and will be completed in 18 months, he said.

A spokesman for TCS confirmed the company had bid for a project in the state, but declined to give further details.

The project is part of a central government-funded power reforms programme to use information technology to cap electricity distribution losses in the country.

Source : indiatimes

TCS to be fined for passport project delay


India's top IT services firm by sales, Tata Consultancy Services, has been reportedly asked by the government to pay penalty for missing the second deadline in implementing Passport Seva Project.

TCS was to set up seven pilot Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) in Chandigarh and Bangalore by October 1.

According to a report, the government has sent a notice to the company asking it to pay Rs 2 lakh as penalty for every week of delay in project.

The ministry of external affairs' (MEA) Passport Seva Project is estimated to cost over Rs 100 crore. But even after a year since the government signed an agreement with TCS to issue passports within three days, the project is yet to take off.

After missing its first deadline in June, TCS had announced that the pilot project in Bangalore and Chandigarh would start in October.

However, recent reports revealed that the main reason for delay is that TCS had not got its software ready. There have been too many errors in the software which is currently in testing phase.

Source : indiatimes

Oracle CEO challenges IBM


Larry Ellison ratcheted up his rhetoric against IBM Corp, challenging Oracle Corp's longtime partner and rival to "make our day" in a battle over business software performance.

Ellison, Oracle's billionaire CEO, shook up the technology world in April by outbidding IBM and snatching up struggling server and software maker Sun Microsystems Inc. for $7.4 billion. The deal, which still needs approval from European antitrust authorities, would make Oracle more of a one-stop technology shop, like IBM. It led to a feeding frenzy on Sun's customers, with IBM and Hewlett-Packard Co. playing on fears about Oracle's plans for Sun's technology to steal business from Sun.

Ellison fought back Wednesday in a speech in San Francisco, promoting a $10 million prize Oracle is offering to any organization that finds Oracle's database software doesn't run at least twice as fast on Sun servers as it does on IBM's fastest computers.
"IBM, you are more than welcome to enter," he said, to laughs from a crowd of Oracle customers at the company's OpenWorld conference. "If you'd like to take us on, make our day."

IBM spokesman Tim Breuer said the heightened rancor may be fueled by the "large amounts of share" Sun has been losing to IBM. Market research firm IDC's latest numbers show Sun, the fourth-biggest server maker, losing more than a percentage point of market share in the past year, while IBM has widened its lead as the world's No. 1 server seller.

Breuer said the number of contracts IBM has stolen away from Sun more than doubled from the first to second quarter this year after the Oracle-Sun tie-up was announced. He declined to comment specifically about Ellison's challenge.

Source : indiatimes

Wipro to hire US workers

Wipro Ltd, India's third-largest software-services provider, plans to hire more workers in the US to take advantage of a rebounding technology market.

"We are seeing signs of stability, signs of decision making coming back," Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Azim Premji, 64, said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York yesterday. "So overall positive, but still cautious."

Premji is betting that US employees will help the Bangalore-based company win local orders, including contracts with the federal government, as the world's largest economy starts to recover from the worst recession since the 1930s. Wipro gets about half its revenue from the US.

The company plans to hire about 500 local employees for a new services center by June, he said. He declined to name possible locations, saying he is talking to different state governments. The company already has a center in Atlanta.

"Everybody wants employment," said Premji, who attended Stanford University. "That's the trump card today."

Larger rival Infosys Technologies Ltd. reported second- quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates last week after winning more business from current customers.

Wipro designs and builds software programs, maintains computers, and provides product-engineering services and back- office support to General Electric Co, Cisco Systems Inc, Citigroup Inc and other customers. It will report results on Oct. 27 for the three months ended Sept. 30.

Wipro rose 1.4 percent to 581.70 rupees yesterday in Mumbai trading. The stock has more than doubled this year, compared with a 79 percent increase for the benchmark Sensitive Index on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

U.S. Universities

The company has been working with schools such as the Georgia Institute of Technology to help bolster engineering education,
which is subpar in the U.S., Premji said. U.S. graduates have become more affordable in the recession, he said.

Premji said he was worried about President Barack Obama limiting H-1B visas in a bid to fight unemployment. The visas allow
foreign workers to come to the U.S.

Source : indiatimes

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Project LCROSS - NASA will bomb the moon

Google Wave can be `dangerous'

Websense Security Labs has detected that Google searches on terms related to Google Wave return results that lead to a rogue antivirus.

Google Wave is the much talked-about, latest API whuch has just hit the collaboration scene. There's a lot of hype about the launch of Google Wave, not only because of the 'new' things it offers but also because Google invited only 100,000 lucky users to test the service. With that said, it's no surprise that users are enticed to this new application.

According to InformationWeek, cyber criminals have rolled out a blackhat SEO poisoning campaign to turn interest in Wave into a computer infection. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) aims to optimize Web sites to appear prominently in search results when relevant keywords are searched.

Writes Thomas Claburn, "Blackhat SEO tries to do the same thing while flouting search engine guidelines about acceptable practices, such as prohibitions on the deceptive use of text or page elements. Blackhat SEO may also try a parasitic approach, by embedding malicious code in someone else's well-ranked Web page and redirecting the visitor without notice or permission."

According to him, search terms such as "google wave demo video" and "google wave invitation" have recently produced lists of search results which include malicious Web sites that have gamed Google's PageRank system to appear prominently.

source : indiatimes

Google's new `trouble', IBM

IBM Corp. is trying to stymie Google Inc.'s expansion into the business software market.

IBM is now selling a bare-bones e-mail service to companies for $36 annually per worker, undercutting a more comprehensive package of software applications that Google sells for $50 per user annually.

For that slightly higher price, Google is offering 25 times more storage: 25 gigabytes per account compared to IBM's 1 gigabyte per mailbox. Google also throws in word processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications, as well as a video channel. None of those features are included in IBM's package.

Even so, IBM believes its service, called LotusLive iNotes, can beat Google because it has a much larger sales force and relationships with corporate customers going back long before Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were even born in 1973.

"This is trouble for Google," said Gartner Inc analyst Matthew Cain.

IBM is responding to the increasing corporate demand for inexpensive e-mail that's run on computers owned by an external supplier instead of the company relying on the service. This approach has become trendy enough to get its own catch phrase -- "cloud computing."

Google has emerged as one of cloud computing's chief boosters as it tries to generate more revenue from sources besides its dominant Internet search engine, which serves as the hub of the Web's most profitable advertising network.

After finding little initial success when it began peddling corporate e-mail in early 2007, Google's sales pitch has been resonating with more companies looking for ways to save money.

Other e-mail providers also are making inroads with similar discount services, so much so that the technology research firm Gartner Inc predicts about 20 percent of US companies will run at least some of their e-mail through Web browsers by 2012.

Without providing specifics, Google says its corporate users now number in the ``hundreds of thousands.'' Some companies, including Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc, switched from IBM's premium e-mail service that costs substantially more than Web-based e-mail.

Now, IBM is counter-punching. IBM thinks the timing for its e-mail alternative is ideal, given that Google's service suffered a highly publicized outage that locked out corporate customers for nearly two hours last month.

"Candidly, Google has shown itself to be weak" in some areas of e-mail, said Sean Poulley, an IBM executive overseeing the company's e-mail service. "There is a world of difference between supporting a consumer-grade service and a business-grade service."

Dave Girouard, who oversees Google's e-mail and other services tailored for companies, responded that Google will learn the ins and outs of selling software to businesses more quickly than IBM will adapt to cloud computing. He said Google isn't planning to lower its prices.

What's more, IBM probably will face some of the same financial conflicts confronting any long-established vendor trying to cater to a new, less expensive niche in its market. IBM and other rivals, such as Microsoft Corp, stand to make more money selling more sophisticated e-mail services and software applications that are installed in the computers maintained by the customers.

That means IBM runs the risk of making less money if most of its customers switch to the newer approach, with e-mail hosted off their premises. But by keeping the storage limits relatively low and skimping on other e-mail features, IBM has narrowed the field of businesses likely to buy the service. IBM expects the customers to include small and medium-sized businesses, or larger companies whose employees who aren't tethered to an office desk.

Source : indiatimes

Nortel to sell GSM business

Nortel Networks Corp has said that it plans to sell its global GSM business, as the bankrupt telecom equipment maker continues to auction off its assets.

GSM -- which stands for Global System for Mobile communications -- is the most popular wireless technology standard for mobile phones in the world, Nortel said. It will also be selling its GSM-R business, a technology used by railways.

The company has filed a motion with U.S. and Canadian courts to establish a sale procedure for the GSM/GSM-R business.

Bidders will be required to submit offers by November 5, followed by an open auction November 9.

Once Canada's most valuable company, Nortel saw its stock tumble after the technology bubble burst in 2000. It then suffered a series of accounting Removed and lawsuits.

Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection in January. It later elected to sell off its assets rather than try to restructure.

Earlier this month, US and Canadian judges approved the sale of Nortel's enterprise business to US-based Avaya Inc for about $900 million.

Source : indiatimes

Wipro to open development centre in Australia

Global software major Wipro Ltd will boost its presence in Australia by opening a 150-seat software development centre at Melbourne this December, the IT bellwether said on Wednesday.

Announcing the decision on the occasion of Victoria premier John Brumby's visit to the company's corporate headquarters in this tech hub, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji said the Victorian operations would strengthen the company's Australia delivery capabilities and boost its presence in the country.

"Victoria accounts for about 50 per cent of our business in Australia, with some of our large clients based there. We have a close working relationship with the Victorian government," Premji told Brumby on the occasion.

Wipro has about 800 employees working for Australian clients. The IT giant recently launched the Australian scholarship programme, as part of the graduate recruitment programme in collaboration with the Australian Computer Society (ACS) Foundation.

"Victoria also offers many world-class universities and large numbers of highly skilled ICT graduates. Such a combination of support and talent is what we look for in a strategic business location," Premji noted.

Welcoming Wipro to his province, Brumby said the IT bellwether was in talks with some Victorian universities for internships, skill development and joint projects.

"Wipro's Melbourne operations will play an integral role in its expansion in Australia. The decision to base one of its centres in Melbourne is testament to our government's focus on innovation and the information and communications technology (ICT) sector," Brumby said.

The company plans to hire about 100 local engineers for the centre in the next 12 months to provide integrated business, technology and process solutions to clients there.

"Victoria accounts for a third of Australia's ICT enrolments to create skills required by global firms like Wipro," Brumby added.

With the second largest population (five million) in Australia, Victoria is one of the world's greatest migration success stories. About 70 per cent of Victorians live in the state's capital Melbourne. The province contributes about 25 per cent to the country's economy.

Wipro's leading rival Infosys Technologies Ltd also operates a subsidiary in Australia.

Earlier, interacting with members of the Association of Biotechnology-led Enterprise (ABLE) and the National Association of Software and Services Company (Nasscom) here, Brumby said his province was an attractive destination for trade and investment.

"Indian firms should invest in Victoria taking advantage of innovation, biotechnology and ICT," the premier added.

source : indiatimes

Fidelity (FIS)

At no 10 on the Best pay masters list is Fidelity (FIS), another new entrant. It is the only company on the list who hands out 20% fixed component to employees with less than two years of experience. The variable for the same is as high as 80%.

For employees having more than 15 years of experience, fixed salary is 88% while the variable is 12%. For those with experience between 10-15 years, fixed pay is 88.41% while the variable amounts to 11.59%.

Rolta India

At no 9 is Rolta India, jumping from 14th spot from last year. The company offers engineering design and geospatial information services (GIS) to clients in the infrastructure, oil & gas, power and defence sectors.

According to the report, Rolta India offers higher fixed salary component as compared to the variable pay. The company's fixed salary portion for employees with more than 15 years experience is 87.65% and variable is mere 12.35%.

For employees with less than 2 years of experience, fixed pay packet is 95% while the variable is 5%. Employees who have 5-10 years of experience have 93.53% fixed salary component. The variable for them is 6.47%.

Ingram Mico India

Fourth new entry on the Best pay masters list is Ingram Mico India at no 8. The Indian arm of the world's largest technology distributor figures at No 11 on DQ Top20 Best Employers survey.

Despite severe impact on its business during slowdown, the company managed to provide ideal launch pad to freshers with best salaries. According to the report, the company even scored high in handing out best pay packages to experienced employees.

The company's fixed salary portion for employees with more than 15 years of experience forms 71.55%. The variable part for the same category is 28.45%.

For those with less than two years of experience, the company offers 80% fixed and 20% variable pay. The company hands out 77.25% of fixed and 22.75% variable to those with 5-10 years of experience.

The company scores high on overall work environment and the defined employee goal. On the employee satisfaction scale, the company earned a score of 63.9.

Tavant Technologies

IT's 7th Best pay master is Tavant Technologies, jumping three spots from last year. The company figures among those who paid more to the experienced staff than to the fresh talent.

However, the company's fixed salary component is 60% for those holding more than 15 years of experience. The variable for the same is as high as 40%.

For those holding less than two years of experience, the fixed salary is 65% while the variable portion is 35%. Employees with experience between 2 to 15 years, fixed salary ranges from 76.22% to 78.13%.

Nagarro

Ranked at no 6 is Nagarro, which jumped from the 19th spot from the last year. The company which provides outsourced software development services is among those who invest more in experienced talent than the freshers.

According to the report, the company's fixed salary component constitutes 88.75% for those with experience between 10-15 years. The variable part for the same is 11.25%.

For those with experience ranging between 2-10 years the fixed component ranges from 87.12% to 89.29%. The variable part is 12.88% for 2-5 years and 10.71% for 5-10 years.

Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company has offices in New York, Chicago, India, Sweden and Germany.

Perot Systems

Dell's newly acquired information technology services company Perot Systems' India subsidiary ranks at no 5 on the list of Best pay masters. The company is the third new entry on the list.

Perot Systems offers a whopping 90.35% of fixed salary component to employees with 5-10 years of experience. The variable pay for the same category constitutes 9.65%. For employees with more than 15 years of experience, fixed component is 75% while the variable part is 25%.

For those with experience between 2-5 years, fixed component is 82.73% and the variable is 17.27%.

Novell

At no 4 on the Best pay masters list is Novell, another new entry in the survey. The company figures at the 19th spot on the DQ Top20 Employers.

According to the survey, Novell paid more attention in investing in mature talent than the fresh recruits. The company's fixed pay packet constitutes 80% for employees with more than 15 years of experience and 86% for those with experience between 10-15 years.

As for the variable pay, the company gives out 20% for those with more than 15 years of experience. The variable pay ranges between 20.33% to 14% for those with 2 to 15 years of experience.

According to the DQ report, the company not only managed to stay away from even a single lay off, but also paid a huge bonus to its employees in December 2008. The company scored 59.8 on employee satisfaction scale.

Sify Technologies

Next on the DQ 20 Best pay masters list is India's integrated information communications technology company Sify Technologies. A first timer on the list, the company also figures in the DQ Top20 Best Employers list.

According to the DQ report, Sify offers higher fixed salary component as compared to the variable pay which is flexible and depends on company and individual performance.

The fiscal 2008-09 was a tough one for the company, with it recording a flat revenue growth. On the employee satisfaction scale, the company scored 62.2 in DQ's Top 20 Best Employees survey.

Datacraft

At no 2 on the list is Datacraft, a leading IT services and solutions provider. The company which scored high on investing in fresh talent jumped four positions from last year. According to the report, the company hands out one of the industry's best salary packages especially to freshers.

Datacraft also earned high scores in rewarding employees with more than 15 years of experience. As for the fixed component, the company offers 79% to employees with more than 15 years of experience and 80% to those with less than 2 years of experience. The variable component ranges between 24.29% to 28.54% for employees with experience between 2 to 15 years.

SAS Institute India

Topping the list in DQ Top 20 Best pay masters is SAS India. The Indian subsidiary of the US-based company jumped seven positions to grab the coveted top spot. The company ranked seventh in last year's survey. According to the report, SAS India improved its salary structure across all experience levels.

As compared to an industry average of Rs 8-10 lakh annual package for employees with less than two years of experience, SAS gives a package of Rs 16 lakh per annum.

The company's fixed salary component is 75% for employees with more than 15 years of experience and 70% for employees with less than 2 years experience. The variable component constitutes 25% for employees with more than 15 years of experience and 30% for employees with less than 2 years of experience. It ranges between 26% to 29% for those with 2 to 15 years of experience.

The report also says that SAS offers lower fixed salaries as compared to the variable pay. The variable pay depends on company as well as individual performance.

IT's 10 Best pay masters

IT industry has been known for its sky-rocketing salaries. So much so that employee cost has traditionally been the biggest expense of IT companies in India.

However, the year 2008-09 was different. With global recession squeezing IT companies' biggest clients, it was time for layoffs and salary cuts. In fact, there were few IT companies which did not witness a salary cut last year.

The DataQuest survey on Top 20 pay masters reveal that from an average industry salary growth of 17% recorded in the previous year, the salary growth plunged to 1% in 2008-09. Also, for the first time in the history of Indian IT industry, salaries were reduced by up to 10%.

During such a time, it is little surprising that the leading IT companies shied away from DQ's annual survey. Country's leading IT giants: Infosys, TCS and Wipro didn't participate in this year's survey. So did the global IT giants including Microsoft, Intel, Sun Micro and EMC.

With the biggies out, it was the time for medium-sized companies to show their mettle. So, here's over to the Biggest IT pay masters of India as per DQ Top 20.

Source : indiatimes

Worst: TMobile myTouch 3G

Maximum radiation: 1.55 W/kg

Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)

SAR when held at the ear: 1.55 W/kg

SAR when worn on the body: 1.43 W/kg

Worst: Kyocera Jax S1300

Maximum radiation: 1.55 W/kg

Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)

SAR when held at the ear: 1.55 W/kg

SAR when worn on the body: 1.18 W/kg

Worst: Motorola W385

Maximum radiation: 1.54 W/kg

Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)

SAR when held at the ear: 1.54 W/kg

SAR when worn on the body: 1.13 W/kg

Worst: Blackberry Curve 8330

Maximum radiation: 1.54 W/kg

Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)

SAR when held at the ear 1.54 W/kg

SAR when worn on the body 0.99 W/kg

Worst: Motorola MOTO VU204

Maximum radiation: 1.55 W/kg

Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)

SAR when held at the ear: 1.55 W/kg

SAR when worn on the body: 0.58 W/kg

Best: Samsung Propel Pro (SGH-I627)

Maximum radiation: 0.47 W/kg

Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)

SAR when held at the ear: 0.47 W/kg

SAR when worn on the body: 0.68 W/kg

Best: Samsung Rugby (SGH-A837)

Maximum radiation: 0.46 W/kg

Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)

SAR when held at the ear: 0.46 W/kg

SAR when worn on the body: 0.57 W/kg

Best: Samsung SGH-T229

Maximum radiation: 0.38 W/kg

Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)

SAR when held at the ear: 0.38 W/kg

SAR when worn on the body: 0.69 W/kg

Best: Motorola RAZR V8

Maximum radiation: 0.36 W/kg

Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)

SAR when held at the ear: 0.36 W/kg

SAR when worn on the body: 0.86 W/kg

Best: Samsung Impression

Maximum radiation: 0.35 Watts per kilogram (W/kg) (based on reported radiation level when held up to your ear)

Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)

SAR when held at the ear: 0.35 W/kg

SAR when worn on the body: 0.83 W/kg

5 Best and Worst phones

Researchers have been divided over the effects of cellphone radiation on human beings. While some studies suggest a link between long-term (10 years or more) cellphone use and cancer, many maintain that there is not conclusive or demonstrated evidence that cell phones cause adverse health effects in humans.

US-based Environmental Working Group (EWG) is among the organisations who believe that there is compelling evidence to prove the link between cancer and cellphone radiation. The group recently came out with five safest and five worst mobile phones in terms of cellphone radiation.

The study is based on SAR or Specific Absorption Rate. SAR according to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association is "a way of measuring the quantity of radio frequency (RF) energy that is absorbed by the body." For a mobile phone to get FCC certification in the United States, the maximum SAR level must be less than 1.6 watts per kilogram. In Europe, the level is capped at 2 watts per kilogram while Canada allows a maximum of 1.6 watts per kilogram.

Here's looking into the EWG's 5 Best and Worst mobile devices for radiation.

Source : indiatimes

Nano Ram

Nano-RAM, is a proprietary computer memory technology from the company Nantero and NANOMOTOR is invented by University of bologna and California nano systems.NRAM is a type of nonvolatile random access memory based on the mechanical position of carbon nanotubes deposited on a chip-like substrate. In theory the small size of the nanotubes allows for very high density memories.

Nantero also refers to it as NRAM in short, but this acronym is also commonly used as a synonym for the more common NVRAM, which refers to all nonvolatile RAM memories.Nanomotor is a molecular motor which works continuously without the consumption of fuels. It is powered by sunlight. The research are federally funded by national science foundation and national academy of science.

Carbon Nanotubes Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are a recently discovered allotrope of carbon.They take the form of cylindrical carbon molecules and have novel properties that make them potentially useful in a wide variety of applications in nanotechnology, electronics, optics, and other fields of materials science.

They exhibit extraordinary strength and unique electrical properties, and are efficient conductors of heat. Inorganic nanotubes have also been synthesized. A nanotube is a member of the fullerene structural family, which also includes buckyballs. Whereas buckyballs are spherical in shape, a nanotube is cylindrical, with at least one end typically capped with a hemisphere of the buckyball structure.

Their name is derived from their size, since the diameter of a nanotube is on the order of a few nanometers (approximately 50,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair), while they can be up to several millimeters in length. There are two main types of nanotubes: single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) and multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs).

Manufacturing a nanotube is dependent on applied quantum chemistry, specifically, orbital hybridization. Nanotubes are composed entirely of sp2 bonds, similar to those of graphite.

This bonding structure, stronger than the sp3 bonds found in diamond, provides the molecules with their unique strength. Nanotubes naturally align themselves into "ropes" held together by Van der Waals forces. Under high pressure, nanotubes can merge together, trading some sp2 bonds for sp3 bonds, giving great possibility for producing strong, unlimited-length wires through high-pressure nanotube linking.

Fabrication Of NRAM This nano electromechanical memory, called NRAM, is a memory with actual moving parts, with dimensions measured in nanometers. Its carbon nanotube based technology makes advantage of vaanderwaals force to create basic on off junctions of a bit. Vaanderwaals forces interaction between atoms that enable noncovalant binding.

They rely on electron attractions that arise only at nano scale levels as a force to be reckoned with. The company is using this property in its design to integrate nanoscale material property with established cmos fabrication technique.

Storage In NRAM NRAM works by balancing the on ridges of silicon. Under differing electric charges, the tubes can be physically swung into one or two positions representing one and zeros.

Because the tubes are very small-under a thousands of time-this movement is very fast and needs very little power, and because the tubes are a thousand times conductive as copper it is very to sense to read back the data. Once in position the tubes stay there until a signal resets them. The bit itself is not stored in the nano tubes, but rather is stored as the position of the nanotube. Up is bit 0 and down is bit 1.Bits are switched between the states by the application of the electric field.

The technology work by changing the charge placed on a latticework of crossed nanotube. By altering the charges, engineers can cause the tubes to bind together or separate, creating ones and zeros that form the basis of computer memory.

If we have two nano tubes perpendicular to each other one is positive and other negative, they will bend together and touch. If we have two similar charges they will repel. These two positions are used to store one and zero.

The chip will stay in the same state until you make another change in the electric field. So when you turn the computer off, it doesn't erase the memory .We can keep all the data in the NRAM and gives your computer an instant boot.

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Novell

The last new entrant on the DQ Top20 Employers list is Novell. The company not only managed to stay away from even a single lay off, but also paid a huge bonus to its employees in December 2008. The company scored 59.8 on employee satisfaction scale.

Ranked at no 19 on the on the over all list, Novell's retention rate at 87.8% stood way up its attrition rate of 41%.

However, the company did see a six-month delay in salary hikes, appraisals were put on hold and a hiring freeze. The company also scores poor on overseas opportunities and salary and work recognition.

Unisys India

Next company on the list is Indian subsidiary of Unisys India which ranks at no. 18 on the over all list. The company offers expertise in security, data center transformation and outsourcing, end user outsourcing and support services.

In the year 2008, Unisys India saw attrition rate at 71.2% and retention rate at 76.9%. The company figured at 28th spot on the HR ranking and got an employee satisfaction score of 61.3.

Infogain India

Noida-based Infogain, a provider of CRM, ERP, integration and business intelligence solutions & services, is the next new entrant in DQ Top20 Employers list. The company which ranks at no. 17 on the over all list had failed to make it to the second round of survey last year. Incidentally the company also figures among the 15 emerging companies in IT-BPO space.

The company scores fair on non-hierarchical environment, work culture and commitment to employee empowerment. According to the survey, Infogain is among the companies who nurture specialised talent and build cross functional skills. The company got a score of 62 on employee satisfaction scale.

The company saw one of the lowest attrition rates during 2008-09, 26.1%. The retention rate at the company stands at a whopping 93.2%. The company scores low on salary packages and perks offered.

Sify Technologies

The fourth new entrant in DQ Top20 Employers list is India's integrated information communications technology company Sify Technologies. The company ranks at no 13 on the overall list.

Though the fiscal 2008-09 was a tough one for company which recorded flat revenue growth, its HR tried to avoid knee jerk reactions. The company scored high for its transparent appraisal system. On the employee satisfaction scale, the company got a score of 62.2.

The company, however, got poor scores on training and its relevance to work. Attrition rate at the company stood at 80% during the year, more than its retention rate of 75.7%.

Ingram Micro India

Next first timer on the list is Ingram Micro, the Indian arm of the world's largest technology distributor.

Ranked at No 11 by DQ Top20 Best Employers survey, the company scores high on overall work environment and the defined employee goal. On the employee satisfaction scale, the company earned a score of 63.9.

However, the company saw an alarming attrition rate of 100% during the fiscal, while the retention rate stood at 66.8%. The company was ranked low on employee stress.

Perot Systems

Next new comer on the list is Perot Systems, an information technology services provider based in Plano, Texas.

Ranked at No 7, on the overall list of 20 Best IT Employers, Perot Systems is the first IT distribution company to have made it to the Best Employers list.

With a strong focus on India, the company increased its headcount to 8000 in the last fiscal, which is about 30 per cent of the company's global headcount. Perot scored 64.5 on employee satisfaction scale.

The company has a holistic employee engagement programme called REACH, which aims to get effective feedback and create an action plan to gain transparency through effective communication.

However, the company's attrition rate at 82.3% is higher than its rate of retention which stands at 72.3%. The company also got low ratings on professional and personal accomplishments and also on exciting growth opportunities.

R Systems

At the top position in new entrants is R Systems International. Ranked at no. 6 on the over all list, the company is a leading provider of outsourced product development, technical and customer support services.

The company scores high on the retention rate at 87.9% and scores 65.6 marks on the overall employee satisfaction scale. The company won appreciation for employee-friendly policies. Attrition rate at the company stands at 44.2%.

The company, according to the survey, has a well-defined appraisal system. The company has various employee engagement programmes which focus on employee training, mentoring and competency development.

However, according to the survey the company scored low on training initiatives as well as on encouraging new and innovative ideas.

IT's 7 new Best employers

Fiscal 2008-09 was certainly not the best for IT companies on HR front. The companies known for their employee-pampering HR policies were suddenly in the news for layoffs, salary cuts and recruitment freeze. The list included who's who of the Indian IT and global MNCs known to be the harbingers of good HR policies in the country.

The companies who spoke from rooftops about their HR policies suddenly went incommunicado on anything remotely HR. So much so that the top IT MNCs (Microsoft, Intel and Sun) and Indian IT's top four companies (Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies, Wipro and HCL Technologies) refused to participate in the annual Dataquest-IDC Best Employers Survey.

The result, survey saw many fresh faces. The emerging companies which despite adversity showed exemplary HR policies during the fiscal. Here's over to these seven new companies in Dataquest-IDC Best Employers Survey list.

Note: Dataquest-IDC Best Employers Survey list out IT's Best Employers based on company culture, job growth, salary & compensation, healthy work-life balance, job security and mature HR policies.

Source : indiatimes

Clearing recycle bin deletes data forever

Well many may relax when they delete their trash files.

However, this is no reason to cheer. In fact, Windows just marks the area of the disk occupied by such files as empty, but does not delete the data.

There are many file recovery software available such as TOKIWA DataRecovery that enables you to undelete files, even if they have been removed from the recycle bin. Such programmes can track the deleted files in the hard disk.

Recovery of the deleted files is possible as long as the disk area is not overwritten by any new disk.

CD/DVD Media last forever

If you are among those who think that your CD/DVD Media has a shelf life of over 100 years, time to get the notion corrected. Yes your CD/DVD media can last this long, but that can be true only under certain ideal conditions.

CDs and DVDs if stored completely away from dust and sunlight can have this long lifeline. Most CDs if not used say around five years, may not work. So, it is important to take back up of your CDs regularly, unless you are prepared to let go off your data.

Never switch off before Shut Down

Many believe that turning power off without shutting down PC physically damages its hard drive. However, this is an age-old myth and has no grounding.

However, users do lose their data if they were working and have not saved before switching off the power.

Also, many users believe that one should shut down PC every couple of hour so that it can rest. The thought may be nice, but shutting down your PC every few hours may actually be harmful to your PC.

Components in the PC are most stressed when they have to either boot or shut down. Doing that every few hours will keep it under constant stress. However, this doesn't mean you must keep your computer on forever. Operating systems do need a shut down once in a while, because even the best operating systems crash if not given a rest.

Wireless Networks are unsafe

WiFi has traditionally been an `open' system. There have also been several incidents where users wifi accounts have been hacked for terror and other criminal activities.

However, this no where that Wireless Networks are unsafe and can be hacked easily, of course until a user leaves his doors open.

Using a strong encryption for your wifi account can keep hackers away. All wireless devices these days support the common encryption protocols like WPA, WPA2 and WEP. Of these, WPA2 is the most secure and enable it to make your wireless network safe.

`Stop' a USB device before unplugging

This applies only in a few cases. This is said to ensure that the USB device is not unplugged while data is being read from or written to it

. Doing so would corrupt the file being transferred or maybe damage the USB drive. However, when the USB is in an idle mode it can be unplugged without going through the entire process of 'Safely Remove hardware'.

For devices like keyboard, mouse, printers and scanners, you can just unplug them when not in use.

Cookies track every move

Cookies do track your activities on a website. But they are simple things which will make sure that your next visit to the site is simple and hassle free.

Cookies are basically small text files that help the browser remember specific information like your ID and password, preferences, shopping cart information etc. Plus, they are usually deleted when you shut down your browser.

To delete cookies in IE, go to Tools, click Internet Options, click the Privacy tab, and click Advanced to override automatic cookie handling.

PC monitor radiation causes cancer

No! It won't. Radiation from your cell phone might give you a brain tumour, but a monitor is harmless.

The radiation from your monitor is too weak and also at a different frequency, so rest assure you are totally safe.

In fact, according to several studies the amount of ultra violet radiation produced by a computer monitor is only a small fraction of that produced by florescent lighting.

Anti-virus is fool-proof

An anti-virus is a complete must for any PC. However, having an anti-virus does not mean that your PC is now completely secure from any kind of virus, malware or hacker attack.

It is not critical to just have an anti-virus solution, but also to keep it continuously updated. Also, no single anti-virus programme can completely safeguard you against virus, trojan, malware and spyware attacks. There may be chances that the anti-virus programme loaded in your PC is not effective against spyware or other kinds of malware not classified as viruses. Also, in case of a bigger attack, a security vendor may take long time to issue a security update.

Even if you have an anti-virus installed in your PC, it is important to follow basic security guidelines like not opening a mail from an unknown user or click on an unidentified link.

In camera only megapixels matter

If you think that it is only the number of megapixels that ensure picture quality in a digital camera, its time to get your fundas right.

Features like image sensor size and type, lenses and image stabilisation are as important, if not more, as the megapixel count in a digital camera.

The fact is cramming more megapixels into a smaller image sensor can even lead to reduced picture quality. For high-quality prints sized 8"x 10" or more, you need a camera with at least 3 megapixel resolution.

No magnets near my PC 

This would have been true in the case of a floppy drive, however, hard drives and laptops are immune to magnetic radiation as they are free from magnetic composition.

And like this, thumbdrives, memory cards and CDs too are, so don't get hyper and go crazy with those fridge magnets.

Most of the storage devices, like SD cards are immune to magnetic fields.

E-mail requires password, so it is safe

Using a strong password for your email does not mean that it is hack-proof. Despite using a strong password, your account can be compromised.

According to a report in PC world, the webpage into which users put their username and password is SSL encrypted. This means that it enables encryption of sensitive information. However, the same does not apply when a user sends the e-mail text.

While sending data, a hacker in the user's network can 'read' the text that is 'traveling' between your PC and the e-mail server. 

11 biggest technology myths  

Ever wondered what is common between the Lochness monster, Yeti and radiation from PC monitor causing cancer? Well, they all are myths!

Like these there are several other notions about technology and its products that many of us nurture. Like some people still believe (most till some time back) that switching off the power without shutting down your PC can cause harm to it. Similarly, many believe that megapixel count is the ultimate factor to consider while buying a digital camera. However, in reality these beliefs are nothing but myths with no grounding that many people harbour.

Other than these there are many such myths that haunt the tech world. Here's over to some of the most common technology myths. 

Source : indiatimes

GOLDEN GLORY FOR TAMIL CINEMA AFTER 18 YRS
Prakash Raj Pips SRK, Aamir For Best Actor

Chennai: While Tamil cinema has seen a spate of small budget films scoring with movie-goers, it is a director known more for potboilers such as 'Hera Pheri' and 'Malamal Weekly' who has pulled off a coup at the National Film Awards. Director Priyadarshan's 'Kanchivaram', which fetched Tamil cinema its first Swarna Kamal after an 18-year gap, is a small film with a huge heart.
   
The film also got Prakash Raj his first national award as best actor, although he had won a special jury award for his role in Iruvar. "The awards prove that Tamil cinema is a rich talent pool," said director K Balachander. "Kamal Haasan has won the national award four times and, like him, Prakash Raj is also one actor who straddles the chasm between real and exaggerated cinema effortlessly," he added. In 1982, Kamal won the best actor award for his role as a guileless school teacher in 'Moonram Pirai', in 1987 as Velu Nayakar in 'Nayakan', in 1996 as a tout in Indian; Kamal had also won the best child artist award in 1960 in his debut film, 'Kalathur Kannamma'.
   
"This is Tamil cinema's finest hour and every producer and filmmaker is proud to be in the industry," said Rama Narayanan, president Tamil Film Producers Council. Other winners this year include 'Sivaji the Boss' for special effects and Inimey Naangathan, which won the Golden Lotus for best animated film. Gnana Rajashekaran's 'Periyar' has been nominated the best regional Tamil film.
   
Set in pre-Independence India, Kanchivaram is the heart-rending story of a silk weaver yoked to a feudal system. Weaving grandiose silk sarees, but forbidden access to a single strand of the silk thread for personal use, he squirrels away silk threads and clandestinely tries to weave a saree for his daughter's wedding. It is the classic case of a man caught between his fledgling communist ideology and personal ambition.
   
"This film is not the standard dream machine stuff, but we have always shown that pure cinema is very much a part of our celluloid fabric," said K Balachander. The veteran director made a number of 'different' movies, including 'Achchamillai Achchamillai' and 'Thaneer Thanner', while director Bharatiraja made 'Karuthamma', among others, and Santhosh Sivan made 'Navarasa'.
   
"Priyadarshan is not the first director to venture away from the comforting world of escapist cinema, but the award has broken the myth that only commercial films will win," said director Gnana Rajashekaran, whose bio-pic, 'Bharati' (2000), bagged four national awards.

Source : timesofindia

A SCHOOL THAT HOUSES A SLUM
LACK OF VIGILANCE TURNS CITY'S CORPORATION SCHOOLS INTO DENS OF VICE AFTER DARK

At the entrance of the school, a notice board advising students on the dos and don'ts to ward off H1N1 infection slants against the wall. As you step into corporation middle school on T Nagar's South Boag Road, you might be in doubt whether to call it a school within a slum or the other way.
   
A well-settled slum has eaten up major portion of the school's land. Around 80 families on the embankment of the Mambalam canal have crammed their shanties on the school's land. And there is no boundary wall to close out the slum from the school.
   
A teacher in the school says, "The slum has contributed to the dwindling numbers of students. Many parents have withdrawn their children from the school and got them admitted in private schools nearby. The strength has now plummeted to 115 ."
   
After the go-home bell tolls in the school, the entire space resonates with household chores. A resident of South Boag Road says, "After school hours, the slum dwellers get on with bathing, washing and drying of clothes. Children from the slum defecate on the school premises and adjoining pavements."
   
Even students from the school prefer to wet the walls and defecate in the open. After residents repeatedly played back the complaints to the authorities, the school put an end to it. But how did they do it, residents don't know because a toilet built under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan remains locked for months.
   
At night, the school metamorphoses into a large open bar. "Many outsiders come here and enjoy their drinks. They instruct us not to ask any questions," says Mahalakshmi, a resident in the area. Even the stipulated government rule of maintaining a 500-metre distance between schools and TASMAC shops has been flouted. The nearby TNHSB complex houses a wine shop, which is within the 500m firewall.

"There have been attempts in the past to evacuate the dwellers. Now we plan to conduct an enumeration exercise (a prerequisite for rehabilitation), and also expand the school with additional classrooms," said V Christy, ward councillor. At least six classrooms would be constructed from deputy chief minister MK Stalin's MLA local area development fund, he said.

Source : timesofindia

Shortlived bonanza for govt employees

It was an unexpected windfall for some employees of the state public department when they went to ATMs to draw their salaries for August. But the joy turned out to be short-lived.
   
They found that their accounts had been credited with sums much higher than their salaries. Even as they were making elaborate shopping plans, news arrived to dampen their spirits — the treasuries and accounts department wanted the money back! Inflated salaries were credited to their accounts due to an error that occurred while the figure was being revised based on the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.

Realising the mistake, officials of the public department and the pay and account office (PAO) scurried to recover the money, asking the employees to remit the excess amount by cash, but some staff were not amused. Error in pay bill given to public dept

Chennai: Some government employees reportedly wanted the excess amount to be collected in instalments as they had already splurged with it. The authorities have begun moves to recover money through official proceedings.
   
Principal finance secretary KGnanadesikan dismissed the issue as "trivial", stating that salary was being disbursed to nearly 10 lakh employees every month and that such glitches were bound to happen while switching over to a new pay scale. Around 50 employees of the public department had received inflated salaries, which totalled about Rs 7 lakh, official sources said.
   
Mohan Pyare, commissioner, treasuries and accounts, said the mistake took place due to an error in the pay bills presented by the public department. Stating it to be a mistake both on the part of the public department and the PAO as the latter should have crosschecked the figures, he said steps had been taken to rectify it. An official in the treasuries department said the public department submitted pay bills in bulk and that too at the eleventh hour. There was very little time to cross-check the figures, the official said and claimed that all but around Rs 20,000 had been recovered. According to sources in the public department, an explanation had been sought from the employees who prepared the bills.

Source : timesofindia

Southern spice is flavour of 55th National Awards

It was southern spice all the way at the 55th National Awards announced on Monday. The iconic Khans of Bollywood, Shah Rukh and Aamir, were swept aside by Prakash Raj, the Tulu-speaking, Karnataka-born actor, who won the best actor award for his role of Vengadam, a humble silk weaver in feudal Tamil Nadu, in 'Kanchivaram'.
   
The film fetched Prakash Raj his first bona fide best actor award. He had earlier won the special jury award in 2003 and the best supporting actor in 1997 for Mani Ratnam's 'Iruvar'. "As an actor, this award is very special since 'Kanchivaram' is a complete film and takes one on the journey of a man's life," said Prakash Raj.
   
The Priyadarshan-directed 'Kanchivaram' also won the Swarn Kamal for the best feature film, an honour that Tamil cinema last enjoyed in 1991, when KS Sethumadhavan's 'Marupakkam' came up trumps.

GOLD RUSH:
Prakash Raj (best actor), Adoor Gopalakrishnan (director) and Umashri (actress)

Source : timesofindia

West Bengal scraps IT township project

Within a year of Tata Motors pulling out of Singur and DLF from Dankuni, there is a shocker on the IT front in West Bengal.

The Kolkata IT Links project has been scrapped, ending prospects of a cumulative investment of Rs 1,000 crore and 10,000 jobs and dealing another body blow to the state's image.

The IT township was supposed to facilitate IT major Infosys' entry in Bengal and Wipro's expansion plans.

The Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government had to scrap the project as Raj Modi, the MD of the private company that is scouting for land is in jail following complaints from villagers that their land was forcibly occupied.

The government agency, Webel, had floated a joint venture company with private developers to arrange land for the IT giants after they were refused land in Rajarhat New Town.

In a release posted on its website on Monday, the state IT department confirmed that the death sentence had been passed on the IT township project. "The managing director (Raj Modi) of the private partner has been arrested. The government doesn't want to be involved in any illegal activity. Already, some departments have opined to scrap the project. It is also impossible for the IT department to proceed with the project if any of the six (other) departments refuse to facilitate. Thus, the IT department can't proceed,'' the statement reads.

"Under the circumstances, we are unable to stick to our assurances of providing land to Wipro and Infosys and thereby constrained to inform them about the government's inability."

Last year, Infosys and Wipro had said they proposed to invest Rs 500 crore each at the Kolkata IT links site, and together employ over 10,000 professionals. Infosys said it called off talks with the Buddhadeb government. The message was delivered without any reference to the ongoing controversy surrounding the infotech township venture within which the company was supposed to be given 90 acres.

"We are not in discussion with the government of West Bengal,'' Infosys MD & CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan said.

"We are currently assessing the government's announcement on the non-availability of land for the IT facility and we are awaiting a formal confirmation on that. We do expect and hope that the government is able to allocate suitable land to build the facility," Wipro chief information officer Laxman Badiga said.

Central Bank of India, one of the primary funding agencies for the project, refused to comment.

The scrapping of the project, though, has raised a question mark on the bank's ability to recover the money already spent on land acquisition since the bank can't attach agricultural land if it has not been converted for industrial use by the Kolkata IT Links authorities.

Source : indiatimes

Apple approves Commodore 64 Emulator

About two months back, Manomio had submitted Commodore 64 emulator for approval to Apple for its App Store. The Commodore 64 Emulator will allow playing vintage Commodore 64 titles on iPhone or iPod Touch in an emulated manner. According to TouchArcade, Apple rejected Manomio's C64 app earlier even though Manomio had the emulator fully licensed and legal.


Apple has approved a C64 app version that has Commodore BASIC 2.0 interpreter disabled. Compared to that, the earlier version of C64, which was rejected, had BASIC running in it. As per the clause in iPhone OS 2.0 SDK, Apple won't allow the apps that come with their own executable runtimes. With this restriction, Apple basically intends to keep its Cocoa Touch platform intact by not letting any sub-platform such as Flash, Java or Silverlight to take a center-stage.

This will give a hint to other developers who wish to bring vintage games via some legal emulator to the iPhone platform. The C64 emulator, costing $4.99, brings five games - Dragons Den, Le Mans, Jupiter Lander, Arctic Shipwreck and Jack Attack.

Source : techtree

Apple iPhone 3G



A list of top multimedia phones can hardly be complete without the mention of the Apple iPhone.  Sure the iPhone 3G may not have a really high resolution camera or a powerful set of loudspeakers. However, it does have a brilliant, large touchscreen display, which makes your photos, videos or album art come to life. The phone has the best audio quality and the music player interface, especially the Cover Flow is a joy to use.

The integrated iTunes store lets you download content such as podcasts, etc. directly to your device. The YouTube app lets you watch your favourite videos online by streaming them on to your iPhone. These things make up for what the iPhone might lack in other areas making it one of the best multimedia phones that you can buy today. The Apple iPhone 3G is priced at Rs. 31,000.

Nokia N97


The Nokia N97 comes armed with a bevy of multimedia features. For starters it has a huge 3.5", 360 x 640 resolution touchscreen display. Then it has a 5 Megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, auto-focus and flash. There is even a 3.5mm headphone jack with TCV-Out facility.

And on top of all of that it has a massive 32 GB of built-in memory and if that was not enough it has memory card slot for additional 16 GB of storage. The N97 offers awesome multimedia performance that is worthy of the premium price tag (Rs. 31,000) that the phone commands.

Sony Ericsson W995


An 8 Megapixel camera in a Walkman phone! Not something you see too often, but Sony Ericsson has made it happen in the new W995. The phone also has a 3.5mm headphone jack, a first on any Walkman phone, along with stereo speakers and dedicated music keys.

Sony Ericsson is even kind enough to give you a set of snap-on portable speakers and an 8 GB memory card for all your music. Along with this the phone has a large 2.6" display and a kickstand at the back for watching all your videos. The audio quality is great, the display is brilliant and overall the Sony Ericsson W995 is a superb all-round multimedia device for Rs. 24,000.

Nokia N86 8MP


The N86's spec sheet speaks for itself about its multimedia capabilities. However, what is more impressive is that its performance manages to stay true to the promises that the spec sheet makes. Easily one of the best all-round phones that you can get today, the multimedia performance of this phone is also nothing short of being impressive.

Whether it is the 8 Megapixel camera, the superb display quality, the excellent music playback - thanks to the 3.5mm headphone jack, dedicated music keys and wide audio format support, 8 GB built-in memory or the N-Gage gaming support.

Add to it the fact that it is a smartphone, which means you can install video players for playing more formats than what the phone supports and you have a winner in your hands. And one more thing; there is a little stand at the back to prop up the phone on a table, so you can enjoy your videos at a nice angle. All this for about Rs. 24,000.

BlackBerry Curve 8900


Now I know some of you might be wondering what a business phone is doing in a list of top multimedia phones. But don't let the BlackBerry moniker fool you. This is not just any business phone aimed at the suits but a complete all-round handset with enough multimedia prowess to put the Nokias and Sony Ericssons to shame (of course, not the ones in this article!).

The phone has a brilliant 2.4" 480 x 360 resolution display that can make anything from a boring email to an exciting video of you vacation look great. The phone also comes armed with a 3.5mm headphone jack, so you are no longer restricted to the supplied earphones. What's more, the phone has support for DivX/XviD formats; just drag and drop your DVD rips on this phone and we can assure you they will play back wonderfully. Overall a great phone for both business and pleasure.

Samsung Jet


We recently got our hands on the Samsung Jet and were immensely happy with the way it performed. It has a blistering fast 800 MHz processor, a brilliant 3.1", 480 x 800 pixel OLED display, a 3.5mm headphone jack, DivX/XviD playback and excellent audio quality. You couldn't possible ask for anymore in a multimedia phone.

The phone is also priced well at Rs. 21,000, which is great considering the features and performance on offer. Little doubt that it won our Editor's choice award.

Nokia N79



The Nokia N79 was a brilliant multimedia phone to begin with, but after the recent price drop, it makes it excellent value as well. The superb 5 Megapixel camera with autofocus and flash is also capable of recording videos in VGA resolution at 30 FPS.

Music playback with 3.5mm headphone jack and good audio quality, N-Gage support for high quality games all make it a great buy for multimedia phone buyers, especially at the current price of Rs. 15,000.

Sony Ericsson W595


The Sony Ericsson Walkman has one unique feature. It comes with a dual headphone jack that allows you to plug it into two headphones at a time. Plus it comes with a powerful set of stereo speakers, which means this phone has been designed for sharing your music with others.

The audio quality through the headphones is up to the mark but what I really enjoyed was the powerful loudspeaker sound. The phone also has a large 2.2" QVGA display for viewing your images and videos and has a 3.2 Megapixel camera for clicking pictures.

There is also a built-in accelerometer for playing motion controlled games. The Sony Ericsson W595 is a very good all-round multimedia phone for Rs. 12,000.

Sony Ericsson C510


Part of the Cyber-shot range of camera phones from Sony Ericsson, the C510 comes armed with a 3.2 Megapixel camera with autofocus. Assisting the camera is an LED flash and an active lens cover to protect it from dust and scratches. The camera software is also up to scratch with features such as Face detection.

The camera quality is definitely up to the standard we expect from Cyber-shot phones and the best that you can get at that price range. What's more, the C510 is not just a good camera phone but is also fairly proficient at other multimedia activities such as playing back music and videos. Overall, a very good buy for about Rs. 10,000.

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic


The younger brother of the bestselling Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, The Nokia 5130 incorporates nearly all facets of its older brother, save the slim design. It has a QVGA display, which is a rarity in this segment. A 3.5mm headphone jack and dedicated music key makes it crystal clear that when it comes to playing music this phone means business.

The superb audio quality just confirms it. This is basically the best music phone that you can buy for as little as Rs. 5,000 and one that will finally rid you of having to carry around your iPod.

Top 10 Multimedia Phones

Multimedia phones have become a rage these days. People aren't thrilled with the idea of carrying multiple devices but prefer one device that can do the job of all these separate devices.

Phone manufacturers know this better than anyone else and have flooded the market with all sorts of multimedia phones that cater to a wide range of people and their choices.

However, it is important to sort the wheat from the chaff and buy the best that you can get, instead of just plonking for whatever the salesman thinks is best for you.

This is where Techtree comes in, as we list out the top 10 multimedia phones that you can buy today. As a bonus we have also thrown in a small list of phones that you should be looking out for in the weeks to come.

Source : TechTree

Dell and MTNL to Offer 3G Netbooks

In order to offer 'Computing on the Go' solution to customers, Dell and MTNL have announced a partnership to offer 3G wireless mobility solution on Dell's select range of laptops and netbooks.

These connected-by-MTNL products would be available through Dell's distribution channels in Mumbai and Delhi; when exactly - they don't say.

The solution includes an embedded 3G Ericsson module with GPS, and MTNL SIM on Dell's select range of laptops and netbooks, plus a 3G pre-paid mobile broadband data package with national roaming facility from MTNL. 

This solution eliminates the need to use an additional USB modem (or dongle) to connect to the web, and by having an embedded modem, customers will experience a seamless 'always-on' experience with greater stability and data speeds on the network. 

This bundle starts from an estimated price point of Rs. 30,000 and will be offered on Dell's Inspiron Mini 10 netbook, with other models available soon.

Source : techtree

MTNL Helps You Find Your Location

Subscribers of MTNL Dolphin and Trump can now enjoy the Location Based Services (LBA) being offered by the state-owned telecom operator.

With this service, users can 'find' a lot of information when on the go - for example, if you're lost, you can find your own location, find a friend's location (who uses MTNL),  a bank close by, etc.

Cost

The service is being offered free for a week between September 5th and September 11, 2009. Post this, users will be charged Re. 1 for per query answered via SMS.

Get Started

After you've registered for the service via the MTNL toll-free helpline (1503), and visited the website, you can start off with the following list of facilities on offer:

   1. Find Me: To know the location of self.

Type 'FDM'
Send it to 50123

   2. Find Friend: To know the location of friend.

Type 'FDF' followed by 91xxxxxx* (91 followed by the 10 digit MTNL number of your friend followed by an asterisk sign), send this to 50123.

Your friend would receive a message asking for his or her permission to share their location with you. On confirmation, you will receive their location information.

   3. Find POI: To find nearest locations like airport, bank, hotel etc.

For example, if you want to find a hospital's location near you (you can look up for a place within 5000m of distance), type 'FDP hospital' and send it to 50123.

   4. Find navigation: To find tourist destinations of city.

For example, type 'NAVPT bank' and send it to 50123.

   5. City site seeing: To find nearest location like park, temple etc.

For example, type 'CSS temple' and send it to 50123.

For detailed explanation of the text codes, click here.

Conclusion

We tried out this service, both on mobile as well as on the website. Even though this is a value added service that offers a little something extra to MTNL subscribers, we found it to be overall inefficient.

Non-GPS users are likely to find this service exciting, while those unaware of the glories of Google Maps may get lured by the slow, cluttered map when trying the service on a computer connected to the internet.

Even though LBA service offers each round of information for Re. 1, it is unlikely that users addicted to 'JustDial' services available in the metro cities would consider shifting to MTNL's location based services.

Source : techtree

N97 vs N97 mini

So how is N97 mini different from its elder sibling N97? Though there are no drastic changes, N97 mini is marginally smaller than its predecessor. Another notable difference is in memory capacity. N97 mini comes with lesser memory capacity.

Camera & battery

N97 mini features a 5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and video light. There is a 4 digital zoom. The camera packs Carl Zeiss Tessar lens. Mini's elder brother N97 too packs a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash.

N97 Mini supports up to 12 days standby time and up to 28 hours music playback. It supports video playback up to 210 minutes.

Connectivity options include WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g, microUSB connector, Hi-Speed USB 2.0, 3.5mm stereo headphone plug and TV-out support (PAL/NTSC). The phone has Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP stereo audio, enhanced data rates (EDR) GPS receiver with support for assisted GPS (A-GPS).

Memory

N97 mini will pack 8GB of storage. The 8GB of on board memory can be expanded to 24GB with the addition of a 16GB microSD card. The mini will run the Symbian S60 OS like just its predecessor.

N97 offers a powerful 32GB memory with microSD for adding 16GB more (making it a staggering 48GB).

Price and availability

Nokia's India Managing Director D Shivakumar said that the new version of N97 will be available by October in the Indian market. N97 mini is expected to be priced below Rs 30,000. Nokia N97 is currently available for Rs 31,000

Features

Nokia N97 mini will be Nokia's first device to feature Lifecasting with Ovi -- a new partnership with the world's most popular social network, Facebook. Lifecasting enables users to update their Facebook status directly from the phone's homescreen.

Lifecasting with Ovi will be available for Nokia N97 as well via Nokia Beta Labs.

N97 mini supports Ovi Store where users can add new applications, widgets, ringtones and other content to the phone. It also packs Ovi Maps and comes with integrated A-GPS and compass along with voice navigation for driving or walking.

Looks

Nokia's smaller version of N97 features a 3.2-inch touchscreen and full QWERTY keyboard built into its 14.2mm thin frame. It measures 113 x 52.5 x 14.2mm.

Nokia N97 also sports a 3.5-inch touchscreen with a QWERTY keyboard in a bigger frame measuring 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm. The slide-out QWERTY keyboard is a full 3-row.

Just like N97, mini too has a tilting touchscreen display and a customisable home screen that can be personalised with widgets. The phone is touted as a smaller mobile computer with stainless steel cues.

First look: Nokia N97 mini


All those planning to buy Nokia's recently -launched high-end smartphone N97, will soon have an option.

The world's top cellphone maker Nokia is all set to launch a smaller version of N97 called N97 mini. Touted as a smaller mobile computer, the phone has a few changes vis-a-vis its predecessor N97.

Here's looking into how the new Nokia N97 mini will look, features offered and expected pricing.

Source : indiatimes

Tri-series rivals set sights on Champions Trophy

India, Sri Lanka and New Zealand hope to put in impressive performances in a tri-series starting here on Tuesday to boost confidence ahead of the Champions Trophy.Mahendra Singh Dhoni's India side start as favourites despite missing injured opener Virender Sehwag and paceman Zaheer Khan, having beaten both New Zealand and Sri Lanka in their own backyards in their last one-day series.

India are seeking a hat-trick of wins in Sri Lanka after clinching a pair of bilateral five-match series in August 2008 and in February this year.

Each team will play two league matches before the top two qualify for the final on September 14. The hosts clash with New Zealand in Tuesday's opening game.

Sri Lanka's record-breaking Muttiah Muralitharan believes the series will help the teams prepare for the eight-nation Champions Trophy which opens in South Africa on September 22.

"The tri-series will be good preparation for the upcoming Champions Trophy," said the off-spinner who is the world's leading wicket-taker in Tests (783) and one-day internationals (511).

"New Zealand have shown in the past few days how much more dangerous they are in the shorter version, winning both Twenty20 matches, and India have happy memories of Sri Lanka after two series wins here in the last 13 months.

"It will be a great test for the Sri Lankan team."

Daniel Vettori's New Zealanders salvaged some of their reputation when they stunned the hosts in two Twenty20 internationals last week after being whitewashed in the preceding two-Test series.

"The guys will take a lot of confidence from that," Vettori said after his team's Twenty20 success.

"They can take that into the one-dayers. For us, to make the final will be a great stepping stone for the Champions Trophy."

Focus will be on Indian batsman Rahul Dravid and New Zealand paceman Shane Bond, returning to one-day sides after playing their last match in 2007.

Bond, 34, became eligible to play after severing links with the unauthorised Indian Cricket League, while Dravid, 36, was recalled ahead of India's busy international schedule for his wealth of experience.

Vettori was impressed with Bond's form in the Twenty20 matches in Colombo where the fast bowler bagged three crucial wickets.

"It's great for him to start the way he has and I think he'll get better and better," said Vettori.

"He looks confident and when Shane is confident, he's really a good bowler. I think we'll see more of that as the one-day series goes on."

Dravid got the selectors' nod after a couple of younger batsmen failed to cope with short-pitched deliveries in the World Twenty20 in England in June.

He is only the second Indian after Sachin Tendulkar in the current team to have completed 10,000 one-day runs.

India's South African coach Gary Kirsten welcomed Dravid's return.

"It's good to have him back," Kirsten said recently. "He is a very experienced player and adds massive value to the team. He is a natural performer."

India will play New Zealand on Friday and take on Sri Lanka on Saturday in back-to-back matches.

Source : nirvana

Champions League tickets on sale

The lowest denomination tickets in the preliminary phase of the inaugural Airtel Champions League Twenty20 Tournament, starting at Bangalore on October 8, would cost Rs 100 and the highest priced tickets would cost Rs 3000.

Surprisingly tickets for the first semi final at Delhi are priced higher than the final on October 23 at Hyderabad.

To witness the Delhi match, on October 21, the fans would have to shell out between Rs 400 and 1500 for the lower denomination tickets and Rs 6000 for the premium ones, a media release said.

At Hyderabad, the entry fee for the second semi final (October 22) and final will range from Rs 250 and 2000 for the lower end tickets and Rs 3000 for the premium ones.

Cost of tickets for the opening day at Bangalore, that includes the opening ceremony and the lung opener between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Cape Cobras of South Africa, would range between Rs 200 and 750.

Champions League chairman Lalit Modi expressed confidence that the price of tickets would boost their sales and enable fans to come and see "some of the finest cricketing talents in the world display their prowess on the field.

Tickets for the 12-team USD six million prize money tournament can be purchased online on www.clt20.com, the league's official website, or visit www.clt20tickets.com, the release added.

Apart from RCB, the tournament also includes two other Indian teams - Indian Premier League reigning champions Deccan Chargers and Delhi Daredevils.

There would also be special hospitality packages for corporates at all the three venues that would range from USD 15,300 to 51,000 for the entire tournament at Bangalore, USD 25,700 to 39,183 at Delhi and USD 20,408 to 40,816 at Hyderabad.

Apart from the three Indian franchise outfits, the tournament includes two domestic teams each from the other two founding members, Australia and South Africa, and England while one team each would be from Sri Lanka, New Zealand and the West Indies.

Source : nirvana

Ponting hangs T-20 boots

It's almost become a trend for aging and injured cricketers. First Andrew Flintoff bid adieu to Test cricket to extend his career and now it is Australian captain Ricky Ponting.

However, Ponting has chosen to do it differently. The 34-year-old batsman has decided to quit international Twenty20 cricket to focus on Test and ODI. The skipper announced his retirement from T-20 cricket to have "set periods of rest" in order to prolong his Test and one-day career. Interestingly, he has kept his option of playing in the lucrative IPL open.

"After much thought and careful consideration I have advised Cricket Australia (CA) of my decision to retire from international Twenty20 cricket," said Ponting in a statement released by the CA on Monday.

"I have also spoken to Andrew Hilditch (chief selector), Tim Nielsen (coach) and Michael Clarke (vice captain) and I feel this decision provides me the opportunity to prolong my Australian Test and One-day career, an opportunity I am extremely determined about.

"As I said after the fifth Test in London, I am hoping to continue playing Test cricket for as long as possible and retiring from the Twenty20 format gives me the best chance of doing this."

Elaborating on his decision of quitting international T-20 cricket, Ponting said, "The last 10 or 12 days for me have been a lot about reflection, looking back to the Ashes and looking forward to my playing future," Ponting said. "The decision I've made is all to do with my longevity in the game."

source : nirvana

Dhoni world's top earning cricketer: Forbes

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has topped the list of world's 10 top earning cricketers compiled by Forbes, which also features four other players from the sub-continent - Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly.

Raking in $10 million, Dhoni is at the top of the chart followed by Tendulkar at the second spot with earnings worth $8 million in the list of 'The World's Top-Earning Cricketers'.

While Singh and Dravid are at the third and fourth spot, respectively, Ganguly and Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting share the sixth place.

"Paycheck figures include club and national team salaries and commercial endorsement income over the last 12 months," Forbes said.

According to the magazine, Singh earned $5.5 million while Dravid and Ganguly raked in $5 million and $3.5 million, respectively. Ponting also earned $3.5 million.

"With its deep-pocketed owners and global appeal, nine of the 10 highest-paid cricket players call the Indian Premier League (IPL) home, the publication added.

At the fifth spot is England's Andrew Flintoff with earnings of $4 million followed by Australia's Brett Lee and English cricketer Kevin Pietersen - both at eighth place - and Australian Michael Clarke is ranked tenth.

While Lee and Pietersen raked in $3 million each, Clarke earned $2.5 million.

"Take Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who plays for the Chennai Super Kings and tops our list as cricket's first $10 million-a-year man (that's $5,426 for each run scored).

"His $8 million in endorsements, from the likes of Reebok, General Electric and Pepsi, is 45 per cent more than any other player.

"Among all Indian athletes and entertainers, Dhoni's 17 corporate sponsors is second to only Bollywood star and co- owner of the Knight Riders, Shah Rukh Khan," Forbes said.

About Tendulkar, the magazine said the holder of numerous offensive records, is considered among the greatest batsman in cricket history.

"... he's one of five IPL players who have been bestowed 'icon' status, meaning he automatically receives a paycheck 15 per cent larger than his highest paid teammate.

"Tendulkar's $ 1.1 million salary from the Mumbai Indians helped push his total earnings to $8 million over the last 12 months," it added.

Source : nirvana

TCS may go for multiple COOs

For TCS, India's largest software services provider by sales, deciding who will fit into CEO S Ramadorai's shoes after he retires in October was quite easy.

It had to be crown prince N Chandrasekaran, who is COO now. But, finding the person to fit into Chandrasekaran's shoes is proving to be more difficult.

So much so that TCS is actually looking at two or more people for the role. Top executives such as Ravi Viswanathan, NG Subramaniam , AS Lakshminarayanan and Abid Ali Neemuchwala are believed to be in the race.

"There is an organisation transition to a new CEO. Therefore, it is too premature to comment on any restructuring or other organisational initiatives," said a TCS spokesperson in response to a mail.

However, multiple employees in senior positions and ex-employees in the know said that a multiple power-sharing formula was being discussed within the organisation, and it has only intensified in the last month or so, as TCS prepares to welcome on board its new CEO next month. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

There are three main reasons why TCS will most probably opt for this structure. TCS is now a $6-billion entity with a headcount of 1.4 lakh. So, huge management bandwidth will be required to carry out functions across different verticals, geographies and service lines.

Secondly, N Chandrasekaran had too many people reporting into him, which may not be the case going forward. COO duties will be divided up among multiple executives.

Thirdly, IT companies are increasingly trying to split duties among various levels in the company.

"N Chandrasekaran has quite a wide span of control- all the heads of geographies, verticals and service lines report to him. He has a lot of pull with customers and generally maintains a tight control. But, the next COO will not be able to single-handedly execute N Chandra's role. Responsibilities will be divided among two or more people based on various areas," said a senior industry executive, familiar with the development.

A senior TCS employee added, "This multiple role-sharing structure has been contemplated for some months now, but the TCS board will have to take a final call. A formal announcement is expected in the next three weeks."

Top IT firms which have tested the power sharing model include India's third largest software exporter Wipro and Nasdaq-listed Cognizant. Sometime after Vivek Paul's exit as CEO of Wipro a few years back, the company opted for a joint CEO structure for its IT business- headed by Suresh Vaswani and Girish Paranjpe.

Cognizant has a two-in-a-box model, where two global leads (one onsite and another offshore) are jointly responsible for key result areas at a business level such as such as customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, revenue and profitability.

In the case of TCS, it's not clear if the senior executives in the fray will have a COO designation or if they will become senior-vice presidents in charge of various areas. While Ravi Viswanathan is presently the company's global telecom head, NG Subramaniam is president of TCS Financial Solutions, AS Lakshminarayanan is the country head for UK & Ireland and Abid Ali Neemuchwala is the global head of TCS BPO.

Of these, Ravi Viswanathan is seen as a front-runner. NG Subramaniam is the elder brother of future CEO N Chandrasekaran, but industry executives ruled out a conflict of interest because both brothers have been in the TCS system for decades now and have risen up the ranks based on merit.

Another industry official said the COO post at TCS was created only a couple of years back, so it isn't incumbent on the company to immediately fill the role.

Source : indiatimes

Tech Mahindra bags Rs 2K cr Etisalat deal

Etisalat's India mobile telecoms unit will outsource its information technology applications to India's Tech Mahindra in a deal valued at $400 million spread over 10 years, the telecoms firm said on Monday.

Etisalat DB Telecom, which plans to start mobile services in 15 Indian telecoms zones later this year, said the outsourcing deal would include implementation of its end-to-end IT applications & infrastructure, system integration and managed services.

The prime IT applications stack for Etisalat DB involves components in the BSS (Business Support System) and OSS (Operating Support System) domain.

Etisalat's official spokesperson said, "Tech Mahindra has the required domain and process expertise with a proven track record as part of Etisalat's launch of operations in Egypt. We are confident that Tech Mahindra's exhaustive pool of IT skills and innovative delivery models will assist us in the forthcoming roll-out of service in India and delivering the best services & customer experience in the market."

Etisalat DB and its subsidiary have the Unified Services Access License in 15 circles, comprising Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West), Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.

Source : indiatimes

Antitrust agency to probe Google

Italy's antitrust agency said on Friday it was broadening its investigation into allegations that Google's Italian news website coerced Italian newspapers into posting their stories to include U.S. parent Google Inc.

The competition authority launched the probe this week after the Italian Federation of Newspaper Editors alleged that any publication refusing to appear on the Google News Italia (news.google.it) website was excluded from Google's search engine.

"Considering that, from the assembled documents, it appears that Google News Italia is managed by the company Google Inc ... it is deemed necessary to broaden the ongoing investigation to the company Google Inc.," the competition watchdog said in a statement on its website (www.agcm.it/).

It said the company had 30 days in which to present its case to competition authorities.

A spokeswoman for Google in Italy was not immediately available for comment.

The newspapers have alleged that Google's use of their online material on its Italian website hurt their ability to attract readers and advertisers to their home pages but if they did not allow them to appear on the site they were barred from its search engine.

The antitrust body, which opened the probe under EU law governing the abuse of dominant market position, said it was investigating whether Google was distorting the online advertising market.

Google and its competitor Yahoo face complaints from news providers in the United States and elsewhere that their search engines make money from news generated by others.

Google has argued that it helps newspaper websites make money through online advertising and does not misappropriate content.

source : indiatimes

Google back in China after porn row

Google is again fully up and running in China after a row in which authorities accused the US Internet giant of illegally spreading pornographic content, the firm's outgoing regional chief said on Monday.

Kai-fu Lee, who has stepped down as Google Greater China president, said his resignation had nothing to do with the row, adding he had delayed his departure for two months to handle the crisis, which he said was now "over".

The government "recognised Google's positive attitude" and "very good work" to eliminate pornographic content, and "therefore permitted (Google) to restore all of the services," he told reporters.

China had accused Google of illegally spreading pornographic content as part of a wider crackdown on what authorities say is unhealthy Internet content. Google's sites have been intermittently blocked in recent months.

Lee, 47, had launched a new company aimed at helping young Chinese entrepreneurs develop Internet and mobile computing technology. He has so far raised 115 million dollars.

"We do provide funding opportunities, we do provide coaching... we do provide back-end services like an incubator, we do provide project selection activity and we also run like a company," he told reporters. "We are all of the above."

The company, Innovation Works, was funded by a group of investors including YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, Taiwan's electronics maker Foxconn Technology Group and Legend Group, parent of computer giant Lenovo.

"Our commitment is to mentoring and supporting the next generation of Chinese entrepreneurs so that they can focus on building great products without distraction," Lee said.

He added that the company planned to develop 50 companies over 10 years and train 500 people.

"Certainly my hope is there will be a company in this 50 that becomes a world-class company and world-class brand," he said.

Source : indiatimes

LG to unveil Windows mobile phones

LG Electronics Inc, the world's third-largest mobile phone maker, said that it would launch three new smartphones in the next few weeks that run on Windows software.

They will be the first LG phones to feature the new Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system from Microsoft Corp, which LG said should make it easier for users to navigate the Web.

LG signed a deal with Microsoft in February under which Windows Mobile will become the South Korean company's primary smartphone platform. Including the latest additions, LG plans to launch a total of 13 new Windows phones globally by end-2010.

Microsoft is hoping its Windows Mobile operating system can continue to challenge Symbian, a platform backed by the world's top mobile phone maker Nokia and used in two-thirds of smartphones -- mobile handsets with computer-like capabilities.

LG is also a member of the Symbian Foundation and is developing models based on Google's Android software.

Source : indiatimes

Walkman outsells iPod after years!

Sony Corp's Walkman digital music player outsold Apple Inc.'s iPod in Japan last week for the first time in more than 4 years, according to researcher BCN Inc.

The Japanese company's share of the portable-player market by volume sold climbed to 43 percent in the week ended Aug. 30, exceeding Apple's 42.1 percent, the Tokyo-based researcher said in a release yesterday. Cupertino, California-based Apple had maintained the biggest share since January 2005, it said.

The introduction of the iPhone, which also functions as a music player, in Japan in July 2008 has diverted some customers from the iPod, according to the report. Tokyo-based Sony also bolstered its market share by expanding its lineup, it said.

Apple may introduce new iPod models at its "rock and roll" event on Sept. 9, helping the company regain its share, the researcher said.

Sony fell 0.4 percent to 2,445 yen as of 1:30 p.m. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, matching the decline by the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average. Apple closed 0.1 percent lower at $165.18 on the Nasdaq Stock Market yesterday.

Source : indiatimes

Motorola debuts i856 slider phone

Motorola has launched Debut i856 slider phone, a push-to-talk slider phone. The new mobile phone is being bundled by wireless service provider Sprint's division Boost Mobile.

Motorola's Debut comes with a 1.3-megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth, GPS, e-mail, a microSD card slot with support of up to 8GB, and a 3.5mm headset jack. The phone supports both MMS and text messaging. The phone is priced at $169 (Rs 8,000 approximately).

"Motorola Debut enhances the walkie-talkie experience further by incorporating the favorite traits among feature phones," said Richard Gadd, vice president, Motorola Mobile Devices. "Now Boost Mobile customers can continue to stay in constant contact with the added control of a slider and the fun of camera and music features."

Debut i856 Specifications
* Size: 2.0 x 4.19 x 0.59 in
* Main display size: 2.2 in., 176 x 220 pixels
* Weight: 85g (3.0oz)
* Battery type: Li Ion
* Estimated talk time: 3.5 hours
* Estimated standby: 95 hours
* Camera: 1.3 megapixel
* Video: Record/Playback
* Messaging: SMS/MMS
* Email: POP3
* Bluetooth: Yes with A2DP stereo
* Memory: 128 MB of Flash/64 MB DDRAM
* Extendable memory: 8GB

Source : indiatimes

Nokia N97 to hit Indian mkt by Diwali

To cash in on the festivity, the world's largest handset maker, Nokia, today said it will launch new version of its flagship Nokia N97 smartphone N97 in the Indian market by Diwali or middle of October this year.

Nokia launched two music devices and a new version of N97, called the N97 Mini, during the Nokia World event here.

"Though the music devices will be available in India by Q4 (2009-10), we plan to bring the N97 Mini by October in the Indian market," Nokia India Managing Director D Shivakumar said.

Despite critics claiming that Nokia is not doing well in the high-end segment, Shivkumar said the company is not only doing well, the performance is beyond company's expectation in the smartphone segment.

Globally, Nokia has sold about two million units of the original N97 within months of its launch. The launch of N97 was announced in the last Nokia World event and it hit the market only in June this year.

Nokia has been maintaining a market share of about 40 per cent world wide and is a leader in the Indian market with handsets in low to high range in the market.

Priced at about Rs 31,000 (450 euros), the N97 Mini features a tilting 3.2" touch display, QWERTY keyboard and fully customisable homescreen.

Though N97 Mini has less in-built memory than its big brother, but the selling point of the new version is Lifecasting.

The Finnish company has partnered with social networking site Facebook and people could update their location and status or Lifecast as called by Nokia, on the website through the device.

During Diwali, consumer spending is high in India. Most of the handset makers come out with new launches during the festival to cash in on the festive season.

Source : indiatimes

Wipro, Infy Bengal plans stalled

The Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government has stalled mutation of land purchased from farmers by the promoters of the proposed IT township besides Vedic Village.

His move seems to be aimed at sending out a clear signal that the administration isn't comfortable about carrying out deals with Raj Modi, the main partner of the Vedic Diamond IT Links.

The project is close to the chief minister's heart as he has promised to give 90 acres each to Infosys and Wipro from this township area.

The order comes in the wake of Modi being arrested for murder and links with alleged land-grab kingpin Gaffar Mollah, and a cache of firearms tumbling out of Vedic Village. Home secretary Ardhendu Sen had given away the CM's stern views the very day after the arson, saying: "Land for the IT township is being purchased at gunpoint."

The government has come to know that the land mafia in the area has purchased acres of land and is waiting for mutation. A look at the brochure prepared by the Diamond Group, whose chairman A N Shroff is very much into the realty business, reveals that the group already has 368.7 acres near Vedic Village, with an estimated market value of Rs 446.13 crore.

A senior Writers' Buildings official said on Tuesday: "The CM is doing his bit as home minister by booking Modi and his officials. Now, he has taken stern action regarding his pet IT township project, taking cognizance of the forced land transfer."

The government order came on the day land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah demanded that the IT township project be scrapped immediately. The minister is in the thick of controversies for an earlier out-of-court settlement with Modi, thus returning land vested by the government to Vedic Village at a throwaway price.

Also, Gautam Deb, housing minister and chairman of Hidco, which controls the adjoining Rajarhat township, will explain his position over allegations of "forcible land purchase" at Rajarhat.

As his Cabinet colleagues make an effort to come out clean, the CM has preferred to address the two core issues: booking criminals and suspending land-buying by Modi & Co for the IT township. Prodded by Writers', a officials had visited Bhangar this week to probe land procurement for the IT township.

Source : indiatimes

TCS plans to hire 25,000 this year

TCS has said that it would hire 25,000 people this year, a move that is likely to give a fillip to the country's IT recruitment scen
e which is seeing a slowdown since the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September.

"We have an employee strength of 1.45 lakh people and we want to add 25,000 more people this year," TCS vice-president (head global government industry group) Tanmoy Chakrabarty said.

Announcing its first quarter results TCS has said that it remained on track for graduate hiring programme in 2009-10.
Analysts said promising hiring plans of TCS comes after a big, long dull in the segment and it would boost IT recruitment scene. Domestic IT companies had applied brakes on fresh recruitment after their biggest market US slipped into recession following global financial turmoil.

Source : indiatimes

I hate to wake up early

Seems the number of people disagreeing with the phrase: `Early to bed early to rise makes a men healthy wealthy and wise' is high at least among Orkut members. As shows the social network's 10th most popular community: I hate to wake up early. The community meant for all those who hate getting up early in the morning.

"I hate to wake up early" community has as many as 70,000 members. Created in 2007, the community describes itself as the perfect destination for all those who despise waking up early in the morning.

Tamil Cinema

You thought nothing beats Bollywood in terms of popularity? You got it wrong. Tamil cinema beats Bollywood hands on, at least on Orkut. The community on Tamil Cinema ranks at no. 9 with over 10,000 members.

The community has a set of rules laid for all its members, this which includes, participating and encouraging meaningful discussions; not reacting to trolls, respect TC artists, fellow members and their views, don't harass, abuse, impersonate, or intimidate others.

The community has forum and polls running on topics like best comedian in TC, favourite mass film, the cutest actress among the newcomers and so.

India Stock Market (BSE /NSE)

With bulls seem to be raging back into the market, the India Stock Market (BSE /NSE) community is climbing popularity charts. The community presently ranks at no. 8 on Orkut's most popular communities' list.

The community with over 1,15000 members, runs discussions on various market-related issues, hot stocks and so. The Satyam fraud continues to be one of the most widely discussed topic on the site.

Not surprisingly the community runs a disclaimer: The content in the community is for educational purpose. It is not by any expert. Author, Moderators and Owner is not responsible for any type of Damage or loss.

Boys VS Girls (Who Is d Best?)

The battle of sexes is here too. A community based on Mars Vs Venus ranks at No. 7. Called Boys VS Girls (Who Is d Best?), the community mirrors the eternal superiority battle between the two sexes.

With over 26,000 members, the community runs discussions on love, marriage, friendship, relationships, family and hosts fun games and activities.

Tom and Jerry - Cartoon

Orkut also has Tom and Jerry cartoon lovers in high numbers. The world's one of the most adorable cartoon series, Tom and Jerry, ranks at No. 6 on Orkut list.

With over 65,000 members, the community talks about the funny activities of both characters. The members have also posted some of there favourite episodes of Tom and Jerry series.

TCS 2009 Batch..........!!!!!

A community formed around India's numero uno IT company TCS too ranks high on popularity. TCS 2009 Batch makes its way at no 5 in the Orkut's top 10 communities list. With over 8,000 members, the community is flooded with polls and forums on issues like recession, pinkslips, joining dates and so.

The community also discusses issues like career growth, training sessions, salary packages and company's best departments.

MTV & still more MTV!

MTV may not have any show in the top 10 best watched TV shows. But the channel ranks high on Orkut. A community named on the channel ranks at No. 4 in popularity.

MTV is among the biggest hit especially among the youth in the entertainment category with over 31,000 members. The community runs updates on MTV shows. Formed in 2006, the community hosts MTV's popular games like Roadies, Splitsvilla and MTV Battleground.

Chocolate

Seems the high calorie content of Chocolates has not dented its fan following. The number of chocoholics still rules high. As the Orkut's third most community, called Chocolate, shows. The community aims to provide just the perfect platform to talk and know about all those exotic mouth watering flavours of chocolates around the world. Orkut's Chocolate community has over 55,000 members.

The community runs discussions on topics like homemade chocolates, how to lose fat, yummie chocolates, history of chocolates and so.

India

Patriotism too scores high on Orkut, as the social network's second most popular community shows. Orkut's no 2 community is India with close to 9 lakh members.

The community is a hotbed of discuss on issues like politics, festivals, society, historical places and so on. Created in 2004, the community also runs polls and forums on national issues.

StYlisH PeOpLe

Leading Orkut's communities in style is 'StYlisH PeOpLe,' which boasts of over 843,314 members. The community mirrors the Indians desire to be in tune with the latest style trends.

The community formed in year 2007 describes itself as "the one and only platform for all fashionable creatures on Orkut and who love their style." Created on July 20, 2007, the community is open to non-members also.

Orkut India's top 10 communities

Orkut reigns as the country's no. 1 social network. Incidentally, Google's social network is also the country's most visited site.

The social network is a hotbed of various communities, you name a subject, topic or even a like or dislike and you are very likely to find a community on it on Orkut. From `I hate to wake up early' to `procrastinator's club' to 'The Art of Kissing', it's all there.

But ever wondered which are the most popular among these communities? Google recently released a list of its Orkut's top 10 communities. The company claimed that it looked at millions of communities and usage trends to finally arrive at the ten most popular communities. The trends are based on an anonymised and aggregated study of the behaviour of Indian users.

Read on to find out Orkut India's top 10 communities.

Source : indiatimes

ஆந்திர முதல்வர் ராஜசேகர ரெட்டி மரணம்: 5 பேர் உடல்கள் மீட்பு : காங்கிரஸ் மேலிடம் தகவல்

ஹெலிகாப்டரில் சென்ற ஆந்திர முதல்வர் ராஜசேகர ரெட்டி மரணமடைந்தார். அவருடன் இருந்த 5 பேர் உடல்கள் கண்டுபிடிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. மீட்கப்படும் உடல்கள் கர்னூலுக்கு கொண்டு வரப்படுகின்றன. முதல்வர் மரணத்தை பிரதமர் அலுவலகம் உறுதி செய்துள்ளது. காங்கிரஸ் மேலிடமும் உறுதி செய்துள்ளது. மாயமான ஹெலிகாப்டர் கர்னூல் மலை உச்சி பகுதியில் கண்டுபிடிக்கப்பட்டதாக ராணுவ விமானபடை அதிகாரி கூறியுள்ளார். இதனையடுத்து ஆந்திராவில் ஏற்பட்டுள்ள நிலைமை குறித்து ஆலோசிக்க பிரதமர் மன்மோகன்சிங் தலைமையில் அவசர உயர்மட்டக்குழு கூட்டம் நடக்கவுள்ளது.


நேற்று காலை 8.30 மணிக்கு கிளம்பிய ஹெலிகாப்டர், 9.30 மணிக்கு ரேடியோ தொடர்பை இழந்தது. நல்லமலா வனப்பகுதியில் பறந்து கொண்டிருந்த போதுதான் மாயாமாகி விட்டது. ஹெலிகாப்டரில் பயணித்த அதிகாரிகள் யாரிடமும் செயற்கைகோள் போன் இல்லை. இதுவும் நிர்வாகத்தினருக்கு ஹெலிகாப்டரை தேடுவதில் சிக்கலை ஏற்படுத்தியது.


தற்போது கர்னூலுக்கு கிழக்கே 40 நாட்டிகல் மைல் தூரத்தில் உள்ள இப்பகுதியை முதலில் ராணுவ ஹெலிகாப்டர்கள் கண்டுபிடித்தது. கண்டுபிடிக்கப்பட்ட உடன்  ஹெலிகாப்டர் எந்த நிலையில் இருந்தது விமானம் விபத்தில் சிக்கியதா என்ற கேள்விக்கு விமான அதிகாரி முதலில் உறுதியான தகவல் ஏதும் கூற மறுத்து விட்டனர்.


துணை ராணுவ கமாண்டோக்கள்:  ராஜசேகர ரெட்டி சென்ற ஹெலிகாப்டர் கிடக்கும் பகுதிக்கு துணை ராணுவ கமாண்டோக்கள் விரைந்தனர். அவர்கள் ஹெலிகாப்டர் இருக்கும் பகுதியில் இறக்கி விடப்பட்டனர்.  உடல்கள் கர்னூலுக்கு கிழக்கே ருத்ரகொண்டா - ரோலபெண்டா இடையே உள்ள அடந்த வனப்பகுதியில் இருக்கிறது.


பிரதமர் அவசர ஆலோசனை: ஆந்திர முதல்வர் ராஜசேகர ரெட்டி மரணத்தை அடுத்து எடுக்கப்பட வேண்டிய நடவடிக்கைகள் குறித்து பிரதமர் மன்மோகன்சிங் உயர் மட்ட அதிகாரிகளுடன் அவசர ஆலோசனையில் ஈடுபட்டுள்ளனர்.சோனியாவும் பங்கேற்கிறார்.


இஸ்ரோ எடுத்த புகைப்படத்தில் எதுவும் சிக்கவில்லை: தேடுதல் பணியில்ஈடுபட்டுள்ள இஸ்ரோ 41 புகைப்படங்களை எடுத்துள்ளது. ஆனால் இதில் ராஜசேகரரெட்டி சென்ற ஹெலிகாப்டர் குறித்து எவ்வித அடையாளமும் சிக்கவில்லை. இது மேலும் கவலையை அதிகரித்தது.

source : தினமலர்

Netizens cross a billion mark

2006: World Internet population surpasses 1 billion.

2007: Apple Inc. releases iPhone, introducing millions more to wireless Internet access.

2008: World Internet population surpasses 1.5 billion. China's Internet population reaches 250 million, surpassing the United States as the world's largest. Netscape's developers pull the plug on the pioneer browser, though an offshoot, Firefox, remains strong. Major airlines intensify deployment of Internet service on flights.

2009: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer becomes the first major daily newspaper to move entirely online. Google announces development of a free computer operating system designed for a user experience that primarily takes place on the Web.

Dotcoms: Boom goes bust

2000: The dotcom boom of the 1990s becomes a bust as technology companies slide. Amazon.com, eBay and other sites are crippled in one of the first widespread uses of the denial-of-service attack, which floods a site with so much bogus traffic that legitimate users cannot visit.

2002: World Internet population surpasses 500 million.

2004: Mark Zuckerberg starts Facebook as a sophomore at Harvard University.

2005: Launch of YouTube video-sharing site.

Microsoft's browser monopoly challenged

1998: Google Inc forms out of a project that began in Stanford dorm rooms. US government delegates oversight of domain name policies to Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. Justice Department and 20 states sue Microsoft, accusing the maker of the ubiquitous Windows operating system of abusing its market power to thwart competition from Netscape and others.

1999: Napster popularizes music file-sharing and spawns successors that have permanently changed the recording industry. World Internet population surpasses 250 million.

Tim Berners-Lee creates WWW

1990: Tim Berners-Lee creates the World Wide Web while developing ways to control computers remotely at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

1993: Marc Andreessen and colleagues at University of Illinois create Mosaic, the first Web browser to combine graphics and text on a single page, opening the Web to the world with software that is easy to use.

1994: Andreessen and others on the Mosaic team form a company to develop the first commercial Web browser, Netscape, piquing the interest of Microsoft Corp and other developers who would tap the Web's commerce potential. Two immigration lawyers introduce the world to spam, advertising their green card lottery services.

1995: Amazon.com Inc opens its virtual doors.

1996: Passage of US law curbing pornography online. Although key provisions are later struck down as unconstitutional, one that remains protects online services from liability for their users' conduct, allowing information - and misinformation - to thrive.

Enter .Com, crawls first worm

1983: Domain name system is proposed. Creation of suffixes such as ".com," ".gov" and ".edu" comes a year later.

1988: One of the first Internet worms, Morris, cripples thousands of computers.

1989: Quantum Computer Services, now AOL, introduces America Online service for Macintosh and Apple II computers, beginning an expansion that would connect nearly 27 million Americans online by 2002.

Welcome Arpanet

1969: On September 2, two computers at University of California, Los Angeles, exchange meaningless data in first test of Arpanet, an experimental military network. The first connection between two sites - UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California - takes place on October 29, though the network crashes after the first two letters of the word "logon." UC Santa Barbara and University of Utah later join.

1970: Arpanet gets first East Coast node, at Bolt, Beranek and Newman in Cambridge.

1972: Ray Tomlinson brings e-mail to the network, choosing "at" symbol as way to specify e-mail addresses belonging to other systems.

1973: Arpanet gets first international nodes, in England and Norway.

1974: Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn develop communications technique called TCP, allowing multiple networks to understand one another, creating a true Internet. Concept later splits into TCP/IP before formal adoption on January 1, 1983.

Internet over the last 40 years

Goofy videos weren't on the minds of Len Kleinrock and his team at UCLA when they began tests 40 years ago on what would become the Internet. Neither was social networking, for that matter, nor were most of the other easy-to-use applications that have drawn more than a billion people online.

Instead the researchers sought to create an open network for freely exchanging information, an openness that ultimately spurred the innovation that would later spawn the likes of YouTube, Facebook and the World Wide Web.

Key milestones in the development and growth of the Internet:

Source : indiatimes

HCL Technologies (Headcount goes up)

India's fifth largest software services exporter HCL Technologies Ltd which follows a July-June financial year, said that the employee headcount stood at 54,216 and made the net addition of 3,475 employees in the fourth quarter ended June 30.

The Noida-based HCL said that the employee headcount stood at 54,026 and in the third quarter ended March 2009. It had made 2,298 gross additions then.

The company was recently ranked No. 1 Employer in India and Best Employer in Asia by Hewitt 2009 Study.

Tech Mahindra (Headcount goes up)

The new owner of the fraud-hit Satyam, Tech Mahindra consolidated headcount increased by 510 employees to 25,482 at the end of June. The figure is excluding the headcount at Satyam.

In April this year, the company won an open bid to acquire 31% stake in Satyam for Rs 1,757 crore ($351.4 million).

The company's employee strength stood at 24,972 as of March 2009 compared to 25,429 in December 2008. The company ended the March quarter with 457 fewer people on its rolls.

Wipro (Headcount goes up)

During the first quarter of current fiscal, India's third largest software services exporter Wipro Technologies recruited 711 employees. The company had 98,521 people on its rolls as on June 30, 2009. The company had 97,810 employees as of March 31, 2009, which included 74,986 employees in IT services business and 22,824 employees in BPO business. This presented a net addition of 845 employees comprising a decline of 401 employees in IT Services business and an addition of 1,246 people in BPO business for the quarter.

HR Head Pratik Kumar said, "We have started bringing people in certain niche areas and delivery centres." This year, Wipro plans to hire more local workers in its top export markets of US and Europe in order to serve the customers better and also globalise its workforce.

In order to gain more business from large, complex customer accounts, Wipro also plans to hire more experienced sales professionals. For the quarter ended June 30, 2009, Wipro Technologies reported an attrition rate of 8.4%, which was marginally higher than 7.9% registered in the sequential quarter. However, the company's involuntary attrition rate dipped to 1.9% as against 2.6% in the sequential quarter.

The company also reiterated that it would be honouring all the campus offers made for the current fiscal, though it would be done in staggered manner. Wipro had made offers to around 7,500 fresh engineering graduates.

Patni (Headcount remains static)

The Pune-based Patni Computer Systems saw its employee strength at 14,500 as on the end of July 2009. The company had earlier said that its had 14,540 employees as on March 2009, down 354 from the previous quarter. As of December 2008, the company had 14,894 employees.

Jeya Kumar, chief executive officer, Patni, said, "While growth visibility is shallow in short run, we are working aggressively to realign our overall operations and leverage the changing times to build sustainable competitive advantage in our business. We will continue to invest ahead to create growth beachheads and diversify our business portfolio."

Polaris Software (Headcount drops)

Chennai-based Polaris Software saw headcount at 9,192 for the April-June quarter (Q1 FY'10), down 46 from 9,238 employees as of March 2009.

The company had 9,238 as of March 2009, down 649 or 6.5 per cent from the previous quarter. As of December 2008, the company's employee strength stood at 9,887.

Earlier company's Chairman and CEO, Arun Jain, said that Polaris Software Lab would be hiring at least 150-200 every quarter depending on the business need. Opting for just-in-time hiring, he said, Polaris does not recruit so many people.

For the quarter ended 30 June 2009, profit after tax grew by 18% to Rs 31.84 crore from Rs 27.01 crore compared to the same quarter last year. Income grew by 3% to Rs 325.53 crore from Rs 316.98 crore.

Mastek (Headcount drops)

Mumbai-based Mastek saw employee count at 3,759 as on June 30 2009, down 264 as compared to 4,023 on March 2009.

The company in its April-June quarterly report said that it had put 351 on virtual bench which was created in February 2009. The company's employee base stood at 4,023 as of March 2009, down 220 from the previous quarter. The company had 4,243 employees as of December 2008.

Earlier the company had introduced the concept of a virtual bench where the employees on the bench would receive only a percentage of the salary and receive training on various technologies during that period.

Hexaware Technologies (Headcount drops)

The provider of IT and BPO services, Hexaware Technologies for the quarter ended June 30, 2009 saw employee strength at 5,041, down 255 as compared to 5,296 for the quarter ended March 2009. The company said that attrition reduced to 16.9% on an annual basis.

The company for the quarter ended March 2009 saw employee strength at 5,296 as compared to 5622 in quarter ended December 2008. This means that the company saw net reduction of 326 employees, down 5.8 per cent from the previous quarter. Hexaware had earlier implemented a virtual bench programme for 250 of its employees as well as salary cuts for all senior and mid-level employees.

MindTree (Headcount drops)

Bangalore-based global IT firm MindTree saw total employee headcount at 7,693 as on 30 June 2009, down 173 from 7,866 on March 31, 2009. The company saw gross addition of 92 and net addition (decline) of 173 employees. During the quarter software professionals went down to 7,073 from 7,281 in the previous quarter.

The attrition on a trailing 12-month period reduced to 11.4% from 13.7 % in Q4 and 16.3% in Q1 of 2008-09. As of December 2008, the company had 5,826 employees. The company had earlier said that it plans to add 250 by October this year.

Infosys (Headcount drops)

Employee headcount also fell at the country's second-largest software services exporter. IT major Infosys Technologies said the number of its employees declined by 945 in the first quarter of this fiscal.

The company hired close to 3,538 employees in the June quarter, but after taking into account attrition and other factors its total strength has actually lowered.

"During the quarter, Infosys and its subsidiaries added 3,538 employees (gross). The net decline during the quarter was 945," the company said in a statement. As on June 30, 2009, Infosys and its subsidiaries have a total of 1,03,905 employees on board.

In the fourth quarter last year, the company had seen net additions of 1,772 employees, while in the first quarter of previous fiscal there were net additions of 94,379 employees.

The company witnessed an attrition of 11.1 per cent in the first quarter of this fiscal against 13.6 per cent in the corresponding period in previous fiscal. Besides, in the entire financial year ended March 31, 2009, the company had hired 28,231 employees, but the net additions for the year were just 13,663.

TCS (Headcount drops)

The headcount at India's largest software exporter TCS went down for the first time in the first quarter ended June 30, as the company put a near-freeze on hiring. It reported a net addition decline (in headcount) of 2,119.

Ajoy Mukherjee, Vice-President, Head (Global Human Resources), said "Our attrition level has remained similar to what it was in the previous sequential quarter. However, since we have controlled gross additions, the overall headcount has come down."

The Tata group company reported total employee strength of 141,642 during its first quarter earnings of fiscal 2009-10.

Foreign nationals formed 8.3 per cent of the total employee base and 30 per cent were women. The attrition rate in Q1 was 11.5 per cent. At the end of FY2008-09, TCS had 143,761 employees on its rolls, after an addition of 13,418 employees during the fourth quarter (Q4) ending March 2009.

This year company hopes to add a net employee count of 16,000-17,000. This is about half of the total number it hired during the previous year.

Indian IT Q4: Headcount report card

The fiscal year 2008-09 has been one of the toughest for most IT companies globally. With revenues taking a hit, most companies also restructured their manpower, many going for pinkslips.

While few surveys are pointing towards first signs of revival, the year doesn't seem to be promising on the hiring front. IT companies last quarter figures too show no upward trend in hiring.

The total number of employees actually declined in as many as six companies among the top 10 Indian IT companies. With Indian IT numero uno TCS for the first time registering a negative headcount growth in Q1.

Here's looking into the employee headcount ups and downs at the Indian IT companies.

Source : indiatimes

Vic Hayes, Wi-fi

Vic Hayes is credited for developing IEEE 802.11 Standards.

The Dutch-born electrical engineer, Hayes co-established and chaired the IEEE 802.11 Standards Working Group for Wireless Local Area Networks.

For his work on Wi-Fi, Hayes received the Innovation Award 2004 from "The Economist", the Dutch Vosko Trophy, Wi-Fi Alliance Leadership Awards, The IEEE Standards Medallion, the IEEE Leadership Award, the IEEE Hans Karlsson Award and the IEEE Steinmetz Award.

Currently, he is a senior research fellow at the Delft University of Technology.

John Backus, Fortran

John Backus is the inventor of the world's first widely-used high-level computer programming language, FORTRAN. The development of Fortran programming language in the 1950s changed the way how people interact with computers and paved the way for modern software.

Prior to Fortran, computers had to be meticulously "hand-coded" -- programmed in the raw strings of digits that triggered actions inside the machine.

The breakthrough earned Backus the 1977 Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery, one of the industry's highest accolades.

Backus' early work at IBM included computing lunar positions on the balky, bulky computers that were state of the art in the 1950s. He also invented Backus-Naur Form (BNF), a standard notation used to describe the sytanx of a computer language. Backus died in 2007 at the age of 82.

James Gosling, Java

James Gosling is the father of the popular programming language Java. A PhD in Computer Science, Gosling created the original design of Java in 1991 while working at Sun Microsystems. The language was originally named Oak and was developed as a part of the Green project at Sun.

Canada-born Gosling has also made several contributions to other software systems such as NeWS and Gosling Emacs. He is credited for building satellite data acquisition systems, a multiprocessor version of Unix, several compilers, mail systems and window managers.

John Cioffi, DSL

John Cioffi gave the world internet broadband. Widely regarded as the father of DSL (digital subscriber line), Cioffi has published over 400 papers and holds over 100 patents.

Cioffi's interest in DSL began in 1979, and he explored the field at Stanford and then at Amati Communications Corp, a San Jose company that specialised in digital modem technology.

He also worked with Bell Laboratories as a modem designer that gave Cioffi his first taste of sending digital signals over analog telephone connections. In 1984, Cioffi joined IBM as a read-channel researcher on magnetic hard-disk drives.

The media shy Cioffi is currently Hitachi America Professor of Engineering at Stanford University.

Gary Thuerk, spam

Wonder who started the spam that perennially clogs your inbox? Gary Thuerk, is widely considered as the world's first email spammer.

In 1978, Thuerk, a marketing manager for Digital Equipment Corp, sent out the first spam over the network of government and university computers known as the ARPAnet. His idea was to publicise open houses in Los Angeles and San Mateo.

Doug Engelbart, mouse

Doug Engelbart is the inventor of computer mouse, the small device that changed the way computers work. The invention of mouse goes a long way in the transition of computer from a machine used by scientists to a productivity and entertainment box used by common people.

In 1964, the first prototype computer mouse was made to use with a graphical user interface (GUI), 'windows'. Engelbart received a patent for the wooden shell with two metal wheels in 1970.

A pioneer of human-computer interaction, his team developed hypertext, networked computers, and precursors to GUIs. Presently, he heads the Bootstrap Institute.

Jack Nilles, telecommuting

Do you know who first professed the idea of work at home? Jack Nilles coined the term telecommuting and telework in the early 1970s while working at the University of Southern California. During this time Nilles was working on projects aimed at eliminating rush-hour drives by letting employees work closer to home -- or at home -- via telecommunications links.

Currently, Nilles is the head of JALA International, a management consulting firm he founded to promote the use of telework.

Nilles has also designed space vehicles and communications systems for the US Air Force and NASA. Nilles is the author of five books, including The Telecommunications-Transportation Tradeoff.

Tony Fadell, iPod

In late nineties Tony Fadell envisioned the idea of building a compact digital music player that were to sport a quarter-sized hard drives which offered 5GB of storage space. Fadell also thought that the new player could link on the internet with a media service where users can buy music that could be legally downloaded onto the player.

However, his idea was rejected by RealNetworks, on the ground that it was a difficult to justify the creation of a separate personal music device when the player they were selling was successful. Disappointed, Fadell approached Phillips. His idea was turned off at Philips too.

Faddel then took his idea to Apple. The company lapped it up and gave the world iPod. In 2001, the first iPod was released and came with a 5GB Toshiba hard drive, ARM processors, an operating system from Pixo, a lithium polymer battery for added battery life.

Faddel is now the senior vice president of the iPod Division.

Mike Lazaridis, BlackBerry

Turkey-born Mike Lazaridis is the founder and co-CEO of Canada-based Blackberry smartphone maker Research In Motion (RIM). The creator of BlackBerry handheld devices, Lazaridis put the wireless email on the map with the Blackberry in 1999.

At a time when the business world was busy sending memos by telex, Lazaridis, a student of the University of Waterloo, Canada, got immersed in networks and email. In 1984, Lazaridis bagged a GM contract worth $500,000 to develop a network computer control display system. Soon after, he dropped out of university to launch RIM.

At an age of 12, he won a prize at the Windsor Public Library for reading every science book in the library.

Marty Cooper, mobile phone

It's a common knowledge that Alexander Graham Bell invented telephone, but ever wondered who invented the mobile phone without which most of us can't imagine our lives today.

It is Marty Cooper. In 1973, while working at Motorola, lead engineer Marty Cooper introduced the world to mobile phone. Cooper is said to have made the world's first-ever mobile phone call on April 3, 1973 to a rival engineer at AT&T's Bell Labs. In October of the same year, Cooper filed a patent for the "Radio telephone system."

Currently, Cooper is CEO and founder of ArrayComm, a company that works on researching smart antenna technology and improving wireless networks.

Popular Star Trek's Captain Kirk's communicator device is said to be Cooper's inspiration.

10 'unsung heroes' of technology

Most of us have heard about inventors like Abraham Bell, Thomas Alva Edison, Tim Berners Lee and our very own Hotmail man Sabeer Bhatia.

But there are many other technology leaders who through their inventions have changed the very way we work, communicate and entertain ourselves.

While some inventions of these unsung heroes have changed the very face of technology and brought it nearer to the common man rather than just being a tool for scientists in labs, others have made it affordable.

Here's over to the little-known heroes of technology

Source : indiatimes

No. 10 IIT Guwahati

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG) is an autonomous engineering and technology-oriented institute of higher education established by the Government of India.

IITG was established in 1994 by an Act of Parliament and its academic programme commenced in 1995. IITG admitted its first batch of students into its Bachelor of Technology programme in 1995.

Institute offer BTech, BDes, MTech, PhD and MSc programmes. The institute is the first IIT to introduce design as one of the disciplines at undergraduate level.

No. 9 Anna University

Anna University was established in September 1978 as a unitary type of University. It offers higher education in Engineering, Technology and allied Sciences.

The University was formed by bringing together and integrating well-known technical institutions in the city of Madras: College of Engineering, Guindy (1794); Madras Institute of Technology, Chrompet (1949); and three Technological Departments of the University of Madras.

Over the years, the university has brought into its fold about 25 self-financing Engineering Colleges, six government colleges and three government-aided engineering colleges located in various parts of Tamil Nadu state.

No. 8 IIT Roorkee

The Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) is located in Roorkee, a township in Uttarakhand. Instituted as Thomson college of Civil Engineering in year 1847 by the British, it was renamed as University of Roorkee in 1949. Prior to independence, it awarded the degrees of the University of Calcutta and the Allahabad University. Then institute was restructured in 1948 as the University of Roorkee, the first engineering university of modern India.

The Institute offers Bachelor's Degree courses in 10 disciplines of Engineering and Architecture and Postgraduate's Degree in 55 disciplines of Engineering, Applied Science, Architecture and planning. The Institute has facility for doctoral work in all Departments and Research Centres.

The Institute admits students to BTech and BArch courses through the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) conducted at various centres all over India.

No. 7 IIT Madras

In 1956, the German Government offered technical assistance for establishing an institute of higher education in engineering in India. The first Indo-German agreement in Bonn, West Germany, for the establishment of the Indian Institute of Technology at Madras was signed in 1959.

IIT Madras offers undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees across 15 disciplines in Engineering, Sciences, Humanities and Management. About 360 faculty members belonging to various science and engineering departments and centres of the Institute are engaged in teaching, research and industrial consultancy.

No. 6 Jadavpur University

The Government of West Bengal, with the concurrence of the Govt of India, enacted a legislation to establish the Jadavpur University in December 1955.

The academic departments in JU are organised under three faculties, viz, Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Engineering and Technology and Faculty of Science. Each faculty is headed by a Dean.

The university specialises in Electronics and Telecommunication, Computer Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Oceanography and other streams. It is also claimed to be one of the only few institutions in eastern India to offer courses and undertakes research in Architecture and Planning.

The university has a number of departments recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC) as Centres for Advanced Study in their disciplines, notably English, Comparative Literature and Philosophy.

No. 5 IIT Delhi

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi was established as College of Engineering in 1961. The institute was later declared an Institution of National Importance under the "Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Act, 1963" and was renamed "Indian Institute of Technology Delhi". It was then accorded the status of a deemed university with powers to decide its own academic policy, to conduct its own examinations, and to award its own degrees.

HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, laid the foundation stone of the institute in January 1959. The institute was inaugurated by Prof Humayun Kabir, the then Union Minister for Scientific Research and Cultural Affairs in August 1961. The institute's buildings were formally opened by Dr Zakir Hussain, the then President of India, on March 2, 1968.

No 4. IIT Kharagpur

The first Indian Institute of Technology was established in May 1950 in Hijli, Kharagpur. Initially the IIT started functioning from 5, Esplanade East, Calcutta and very soon shifted to Hijli in September 1950. The present name 'Indian Institute of Technology' was adopted before the formal inauguration of the institute on August 18, 1951, by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

From its modest start in 1950, IIT Kharagpur today has about 18 academic departments and five centres of excellence. The vast tree-laden campus, spreading over 2100 acres has a self contained township of over 15,000 inhabitants. Currently, the institute has about 450-strong faculty, 2200 employees and 2700 students on the campus.

No. 3 IIT Bombay

IIT Bombay, set up by an Act of Parliament, was established in 1958, at Powai, a northern suburb of Mumbai. The institute was set up with the cooperation of UNESCO, and funding from the erstwhile Soviet Union. By an act of the Indian Parliament in 1961, the institute was declared an institution of national importance and was accorded the status of a university with power to award its own degrees and diplomas.

The institute on an average admits 500 candidates for the undergraduate programme through Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), 100 candidates for M Sc programmes, 550 candidates for different postgraduate programmes and 110 for Ph D programmes every year.

No. 2 IIT Kanpur

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur began functioning in the borrowed building of Harcourt Butler Technological Institute in 1959 with 100 students and a small faculty. The institute's campus is located on the Grand Trunk Road, 15 km west of Kanpur city and measures close to 420 hectares. This land was gifted by the Government of Uttar Pradesh in 1960 and by March 1963 the institute had moved to its current location.

The institute today has its own sprawling residential campus, which provides residential accommodation to about 350 faculty members, about 700 support staff members, and about 4000 students.

No. 1 IISc Bangalore

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) was conceived as a 'Research Institute' or 'University of Research' by Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, in the twilight years of the 19th century. A long period of almost thirteen years was to elapse from the initial conception in 1896 to the birth of the Institute on May 27, 1909.

The institute began with only two departments: General and Applied Chemistry and Electro-Technology. Over the past one hundred years, the evolution of the Institute has mirrored the development of science and technology in India. The Institute's departments in fields ranging from Biochemistry to Aerospace Engineering have served to nucleate research and development in both the public and private sectors.

Many of India's most distinguished scientists have been associated with the Institute as students or faculty. Notable among them are G N Ramachandran, Harish Chandra, S Ramaseshan, Brahm Prakash, A Ramachandran, C N R Rao and R Narasimha.

India's top 10 technical institutes

Indian technical institutes are globally respected for the quality of their education. Recently, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lauded the country's technical education system terming it enviable.

But, ever wondered which are the very best among these best institutes. A recent study published in the Current Science ranks the top 10 technical institutes of the country. The ranking has been done by scholars Gangan Prathap and B M Gupta of the National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources and National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, New Delhi.

The ranking has been done on basis of publications and citations and research record available between 1999 and 2008 in the Scopus International multi-disciplinary, bibliographical database.

Here's over to India's top 10 technical institutes.

Source : indiatimes

Sun Micro reports $147 mn loss

Sun Microsystems Inc, the server-computer maker selling itself to Oracle Corp, reported a $147 million loss in the fiscal fourth quarter.

The loss of 20 cents a share compared with a profit of $88 million, or 11 cents, a year earlier, Santa Clara, California-based Sun said today in a regulatory filing. Revenue dropped 31 percent to $2.63 billion in the period ended June 30.

In July, Sun shareholders approved Oracle's $7.4 billion takeover of the company. Oracle, the world's second-largest software maker, announced the plan in April. In addition to Sun's server business, Oracle will get the Java programming language and Solaris operating system. The bid valued Sun at $9.50 a share.

Excluding some items, Sun had a loss of 3 cents a share, beating the average 9-cent loss estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Analysts had projected sales of $2.69 billion.

Sun was little changed in extended trading after closing unchanged at $9.34 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has more than doubled this year.

The company's gross margin narrowed in the quarter to 40.5 percent from 44.3 percent. Sun had $1.88 billion in cash and $981 million in marketable securities as of June 30, according to the statement.

The company cut operating expenses overall by 20 percent in the period. It also reported long-term debt of $695 million, about half the total of a year earlier.

source : indiatimes

TCS may go for multiple COOs

For TCS, India's largest software services provider by sales, deciding who will fit into CEO S Ramadorai's shoes after he retires in October was quite easy.

It had to be crown prince N Chandrasekaran, who is COO now. But, finding the person to fit into Chandrasekaran's shoes is proving to be more difficult.

So much so that TCS is actually looking at two or more people for the role. Top executives such as Ravi Viswanathan, NG Subramaniam , AS Lakshminarayanan and Abid Ali Neemuchwala are believed to be in the race.

"There is an organisation transition to a new CEO. Therefore, it is too premature to comment on any restructuring or other organisational initiatives," said a TCS spokesperson in response to a mail.

However, multiple employees in senior positions and ex-employees in the know said that a multiple power-sharing formula was being discussed within the organisation, and it has only intensified in the last month or so, as TCS prepares to welcome on board its new CEO next month. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

There are three main reasons why TCS will most probably opt for this structure. TCS is now a $6-billion entity with a headcount of 1.4 lakh. So, huge management bandwidth will be required to carry out functions across different verticals, geographies and service lines.

Secondly, N Chandrasekaran had too many people reporting into him, which may not be the case going forward. COO duties will be divided up among multiple executives.

Thirdly, IT companies are increasingly trying to split duties among various levels in the company.

"N Chandrasekaran has quite a wide span of control- all the heads of geographies, verticals and service lines report to him. He has a lot of pull with customers and generally maintains a tight control. But, the next COO will not be able to single-handedly execute N Chandra's role. Responsibilities will be divided among two or more people based on various areas," said a senior industry executive, familiar with the development.

A senior TCS employee added, "This multiple role-sharing structure has been contemplated for some months now, but the TCS board will have to take a final call. A formal announcement is expected in the next three weeks."

Top IT firms which have tested the power sharing model include India's third largest software exporter Wipro and Nasdaq-listed Cognizant. Sometime after Vivek Paul's exit as CEO of Wipro a few years back, the company opted for a joint CEO structure for its IT business- headed by Suresh Vaswani and Girish Paranjpe.

Cognizant has a two-in-a-box model, where two global leads (one onsite and another offshore) are jointly responsible for key result areas at a business level such as such as customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, revenue and profitability.

In the case of TCS, it's not clear if the senior executives in the fray will have a COO designation or if they will become senior-vice presidents in charge of various areas. While Ravi Viswanathan is presently the company's global telecom head, NG Subramaniam is president of TCS Financial Solutions, AS Lakshminarayanan is the country head for UK & Ireland and Abid Ali Neemuchwala is the global head of TCS BPO.

Of these, Ravi Viswanathan is seen as a front-runner. NG Subramaniam is the elder brother of future CEO N Chandrasekaran, but industry executives ruled out a conflict of interest because both brothers have been in the TCS system for decades now and have risen up the ranks based on merit.

Another industry official said the COO post at TCS was created only a couple of years back, so it isn't incumbent on the company to immediately fill the role.


Source : indiatimes

Google's Gmail crashes again

Google Inc's Gmail service was knocked offline on Tuesday in an outage that the company said affected a "majority" of its millions of email users, including consumers who get Gmail for free and businesses that pay for a version for their employees.

The disruption, which lasted under two hours, was a reminder of the growing dependence on Google's technology. The free version of Gmail is the world's third most-popular e-mail programme with some 149 million users worldwide in June, ranking behind the free e-mail services offered by Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc, according to data from comScore Inc.

Tuesday's disruption led tens of millions of Gmail users to get an "Unable to reach Gmail" error message as their computers tried repeatedly to reconnect to the service. Google said it had taken some of Gmail's servers offline for routine maintenance, and underestimated the load that would place on other computers responsible for directing traffic to the appropriate Gmail servers.

Google said it was alerted to the failures within seconds. It said it has added capacity and made other changes to prevent similar incidents in the future. A separate outage on Monday had wiped out e-mail to a "small subset" of users.

Though occasional disruptions are common, widespread outages involving Google's services are rare. They are becoming a bigger threat to Google as it tries to sell more of its services to businesses.

Businesses are increasingly leaning on Google's services because they are delivered over the Internet instead of being managed in-house. That can save companies money and buy them more storage than they could otherwise afford. But many corporations are skeptical about outsourcing such critical tasks.

Google argues that Web-based services are more reliable than those handled in-house, but big outages like Tuesday's add another challenge to selling to reluctant businesses.

Google says more than 1.75 million businesses use Gmail as part of Google Apps, which is Google's answer to business software from Microsoft Corp. It's a key part of Google's strategy to inject its brand deeper into corporations. Google Apps costs $50 per user per year.

As usually happens with hiccups in popular Web-based services, the Gmail glitch touched off a flurry of posts to social-networking Web sites from frustrated Gmail users wondering if others were having the same problem.

"Omg thank God I was at work!!! I wouldve gone mad!'' one Twitter user wrote. Some favored snark. "Minute 30 of Gmail outage. The cities are in flames and people eating pets to survive. To future generations: we meant well,'' another user tweeted.

The last major outage at Google happened in May, when millions of people were cut off from Google's search engine, e-mail and other online services after too much traffic was routed through computers in Asia.
About 14 per cent of Google's users encountered problems with the Internet's No. 1 search engine. Those outages lasted about an hour.

Source : indiatimes

Yahoo India shuts down social network SpotM

Yahoo is shutting down SpotM, the social networking service it began testing in India a year ago. Among its features: Users could keep certain friends secret from others and also correspond via text message without revealing their phone numbers.

On the SpotM website, Yahoo says it was "experimenting" with SpotM and says the site will no longer be accessible as of Tuesday.

It's at least the third social network that Yahoo will have shut down, although the company has nevertheless said it is looking to make a buy in the social networking space. It shut down Yahoo 360 in July—and closed down Yahoo Mash last summer.
Yahoo has been steadily cutting non-core products under CEO Carol Bartz.

However, according to media reports, Yahoo India has not completely shelved its idea of having an India-specific social network. SpotM is likely to be succeeded by `Guru'.

source : indiatimes

DU to make all colleges Smoke Free

After a successful two-year Smoke Free Campaign that started with 10 colleges and 48 departments in the North Campus of the varsity, Delhi University (DU) has now extended the initiative to all its 83 colleges.

DU Vice Chancellor, Prof. Deepak Pental, on Monday, announced that all colleges operating under the University will be turned into Tobacco-Free Zones.

"We are interested in the health and welfare of students. Even the teaching fraternity should be motivated to join the campaign", Prof Pental said.

The Tobacco Free campaign was launched by DU in collaboration with the World Lung Foundation - South Asia (WLF-SA).

source : indiaedunews

7,000 private Engg seats to be filled up by Government

The Government of Karnataka is holding talks with the management of private engineering colleges to fill up the 7,000 vacant seats through Common Entrance Test (CET) rankings in these colleges.

Addressing the media on Monday, Aravind Limbavali, Minister for Higher Education said, "The representatives of the COMED-K (Consortium of private medical and engineering colleges) had requested the government for help to fill up the 7,000 vacant seats in private engineering colleges for the current academic session. The engineering college managements have emphatically been told that the government would only step in if the fee structure matches with the Government quota of seats in private colleges."

Under the Government quota, a student has to pay Rs. 25,000 a year and for students belonging to the lower economic sections, it is fixed at Rs.15,000 a year.

As per the agreement between the Government and the private engineering colleges, the Governments share of seats in the private colleges are 45 seats for every 100 seats while in the previous year it was 50:50.

Now, private colleges are going to surrender 7,000 seats to the Government pool, the latter will enjoy a near equal share with private management.

source : indiaedunews

Transcend JetFlash V70

Transcend has launched an anti-shock USB Flash Drive, JetFlash V70.

/photo.cms?msid=4928653 Made from eco-friendly rubber, the drive is said to be highly resistant to survive shock, splashes and dust.

JetFlash V70 is equipped with a tethered cap holder that prevents it from getting lost when removed from the drive during file transfer.

Currently available in 16GB (Red), 8GB (Orange) and 4GB (Purple) capacities, JetFlash V70 comes with a lifetime warranty.

Austin Huang, Regional Head --- Sales, SAARC & APAC, Transcend, said, "Combining durability with performance, stylish sporty design, and environment friendliness, Transcend's JetFlash V70 USB Flash Drive allows users to take their important files wherever they go."

JetFlash V70 also meets US military drop-test standards (MIL-STD-810F 516.5Transit Drop).

TechM wins $500 mn Swan deal

Tech Mahindra has won around $500 million outsourcing contract from new telecom entrant Swan Telecom.

Swan's outsourcing contract, which witnessed aggressive bidding from IBM, Wipro and Tech Mahindra, comes at a time when Tech Mahindra is attempting to establish itself in the domestic market, as part of its long term strategy to derisk its revenues from BT.

A letter of Intent (LoI) was issued to Tech Mahindra around two weeks ago, a person involved with the contract said on conditions of anonymity. "The contract is to be delivered over ten years and it is a total IT outsourcing," he added. He requested anonymity because he is not authorised to speak about this contract.

Officials from Emirates Telecommunications, or Etisalat also participated in the decision making, the person added. Etisalat had acquired 45% stake in Swan for $900 million last year.

"Etisalat has adopted this strategy of bundling IT with network equipment contract in most of its greenfield projects, and India is no exception," another person familiar with Etisalat's outsourcing strategy said on conditions of anonymity.

For instance, outsourcing contract for Etisalat's greenfield project in Egypt, Nigeria and Tanzania were structured in a similar fashion. In fact, Tech Mahindra alongwith Ericsson won Etisalat's Egypt contract in February last year.

Wipro, which won Rs 2500 crore outsourcing contract from another new entrant Unitech Wireless few months ago, was also in the shortlist, but Swan decided to opt for bundling its IT and network management, equipment contract in order to avoid additional upfront costs.

source : indiatimes

All is not well at Honeywell, Accenture

Green shoots? Honeywell and Accenture don't appear to be seeing any.

The former has announced that its employees will have to take a mandatory ten days off in December-January without pay. And the latter has just issued a statement that it will lay-off 7% of its senior executive workforce.

Honeywell employees in India said that Krishna Mikkilineni, president of Honeywell Technology Solutions, conveyed the decision at a public gathering in Bangalore recently. When contacted by TOI, a Honeywell spokesperson declined to go into specifics, but issued the following statement: "Even as Honeywell continues to grow its businesses in India, our employees have agreed to participate in a voluntary and temporary reduced work schedule, in consonance with their colleagues elsewhere."

In the case of Accenture, the company's global CEO William Green said in a company release on Thursday: "We are acting boldly to position Accenture better for both short-term and long-term economic improvement growth and profitability." The 7% workforce reduction would mean over 300 senior executives would be laid-off. The company globally has about 177,000 employees, of which 4,800 are senior-executive employees. The Accenture release said it will also reduce excess office space globally.

Till the time of releasing this story, Accenture had not replied to a mail from TOI asking about the extent to which its Indian operations would be affected by this recent move.
The technology sector in general is still some way from a recovery. Most companies around the world have tightened their tech budgets.

Honeywell, which makes products like aviation electronics, car turbochargers and temperature control systems for buildings, has been hit badly by the global recession in all of the key businesses it supports — aviation, auto, and property. In the second quarter ended June 30, its profit plunged 38% and revenue dropped 22%.

source : indiatimes

HCL Tech FY'09 net up 25%

Software exporter HCL Technologies today reported a standalone net profit of Rs 192.94 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2009, while it had a net loss of Rs 13.54 crore in the corresponding period previous fiscal.

The total income during the quarter rose to Rs 1,145.54 crore from Rs 1,107.75 crore in the June quarter of the previous fiscal, HCL Tech said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

For the financial year ended June 30, 2009, HCL Tech posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,319.63 crore, a growth rate of 25.51 per cent over the same period a year ago.

The software firm's total income rose to Rs 10,229.41 crore at the end of FY'09 from Rs 7,562.78 crore in FY'08.

"We accelerated our investments in growth in enterprise application services, emerging geographies and new verticals. The early indicators of these investments are showing in our diversified business portfolio...and most importantly in employee satisfaction," HCL Tech CEO Vineet Nayar said.

The board has declared a dividend of 50 per cent at the rate of Rs one per share for the fiscal year ended June 2009.

"With our robust financial position, we are well positioned for growth through these difficult times," HCL Tech Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer Shiv Nadar said.

source : indiatimes

Open Text dumps search

Microsoft Bing may take time to catch up with Google (if it can), however, there was a search engine that is said to have perfected the art of searching as well as Google, Open Text. But, this was till the company decided to abandon the search market!

In the mid-1990s, the hottest search engine technology was the Open Text Web Index. Open Text was reportedly lauded for its speed, accuracy, and comprehensiveness. The company in fact claimed to have indexed every word on the roughly 5 million documents that constituted the Web at that time.

In 1995, Yahoo too incorporated Open Text's search technology into its directory. However, two years after its partnership with Yahoo, Open Text abandoned search and moved into enterprise content management. Just another year, and Google made its entry and riding on the success of its search went on to become Internet's numero uno.

Compuserve fails to dominate web

What led to Compuserve, the first major commercial online service in the United States, failing to become today's Web giant?

Founded in 1969, the company offered limited dial-in services in the mid-1970s. CompuServe dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by AOL.

In the year 1979, it offered online services and by mid-1980s CompuServe became one of the largest information and networking services companies. Compuserve was also the largest consumer information service in the world at one point in time.

However, with the rise of the World Wide Web in 1994, the company's core business started fading. The company also made an attempt to offer users internet access with CompuServe services, an experiment that failed miserably.

In comparison to Compuserve, AOL offered flat-rate "unlimited" pricing (versus CompuServe's hourly charges) and a simpler interface. The company also launched a massive CD marketing campaign. According to experts, what led to the company's downfall was the lack of the will to invest in converting its advantages into a sustainable lead.

In 1997, CompuServe was acquired by AOL and the CompuServe Information Service began operating as an online service provider and an Internet service provider. The original CompuServe Information Service, later rebranded as CompuServe Classic, was finally shut down on July 1, 2009.

Music industry sues Napster

This is how the music industry lost its golden chance to control the digital music market.

Napster was an online music file sharing service. The technology allowed people to easily share their MP3 files among each other, bypassing the established market for such songs. Shawn Fanning's creation soon became a rage among most music lovers. With people making their own compilation albums on recordable CDs with songs downloaded from Napsters.

However, the record companies sued Napster for copyright infringement. The then-Napster CEO Hank Barry called for the music industry to adopt a radio-style licensing agreement that paid royalties to artists for music distributed via Internet. However, the music industry didn't agree.

Napster fans moved on to other peer-to-peer file-sharing networks such as Gnutella and Grokster. In 2000 MP3.com, launched a service that allowed users to upload songs from their own private CD collection and stream them to any PC. However, it was also sued for copyright infringement.

Result is today music-subscription businesses and streaming services dominate digital music. Had the record companies listened to Napster CEO and found a middle path rather than suing these file sharing networks, they might actually be controlling the digital music landscape.

Xerox dumps Alto

Even before World got Macintosh and Windows-based PCs, Xerox build Alto, the world's first personal computer developed at Xerox PARC in 1973. Alto was the first computer to use the desktop metaphor and graphical user interface (GUI).

Alto was a small minicomputer, but it could be considered a personal computer in contrast with the mainframes and other minicomputers of the era.

However, in 1973, there was no market for personal computers, this made Xerox wonder what to do with Alto. The company donated a few thousand units to various universities.

In fact, it is believed that in 1979 Steve Jobs visited Xerox PARC and saw Alto. He is said to have incorporated many of Alto's features into Apple's Lisa and Mac computers. Alto is also said to have influenced the first Sun workstations.

Later, Xerox is said to have realized its folly and began marketing Xerox Star, a graphical workstation based on technology developed for Alto. However, it was perhaps too late.

Digital Research loss, Microsoft's gain

Not many know that Microsoft was not IBM's first choice when the latter was looking for a disc operating software. In fact, reportedly Bill Gates himself suggested IBM to approach Gary Kildall of Digital Research, the author of the CP/M operating system.

Kildall who is said to be busy with another customer order, is said to have asked his wife Dorothy Kildall to negotiate with IBM. Kildall not happy with the deal IBM was proposing sent the IBM execs packing.

After this, IBM is said to have approached Bill Gates, who with Paul Allen came up with MS-DOS. Rest is history. Incidentally, MS-DOS was based on Tim Paterson's QDOS (the Quick and Dirty Operating System), which was itself based on CP/M OS. MS-DOS 1.0 was released with IBM PC in 1982.

Later, IBM ended up offering both Microsoft's DOS (for $60) and a version of CP/M ($240) to buyers of the original IBM PC.

Real Networks finds iPod difficult

In late nineties when digital music players were still not a reality, Tony Fadell envisioned the idea of building a compact digital music player that were to sport a quarter-sized hard drives which offered 5GB of storage space.

Fadell also thought that the new player could link on the internet with a media service where users can buy music that could be legally downloaded onto the player.

However, his idea was rejected by RealNetworks, on the ground that it was a difficult to justify the creation of a separate personal music device when the player they were selling was successful. Disappointed, Fadell approached Phillips. His idea was turned off at Philips too.

Faddel then took his idea to Apple. The company lapped it up and gave the world iPod. In 2001, the first iPod was released and came with a 5GB Toshiba hard drive, ARM processors, an operating system from Pixo, a lithium polymer battery for added battery life.

According to reports Apple currently controls 80% of the digital music market. In the second quarter ended March 2009, Apple sold 11.01 million iPods during the quarter, representing 3% unit growth over the year-ago quarter. In contrast to Apple, reports reveal Real Networks' revenues are a fraction of what Apple makes from iTunes alone.

Microsoft rescues Apple

Few people know of Apple's saviour in late nineties. The time Mac sales were dwindling and the company was running low on cash.

This was the time when Apple received a much-needed cash aid of $150 million from a seemingly unlikely quarter: Microsoft. The company also promised to continue developing its Mac Office suite. The deal was brokered by then Apple consultant Steve Jobs.

Had Microsoft let Apple wither, it would have at least one rival less to content with.

8 biggest tech blunders

The last two decades have seen mindboggling growth in technology space. There have been numerous innovations and many unknown companies have risen to take their position on the technology map. Alongwith these successes, there also have been numerous failures and cases of missed opportunities.

PC World recently came out with a list of Stupidest Tech Company Blunders. Here's over to them.

Yahoo fails to buy Facebook

Yes Yahoo was on the verge of buying today's biggest social networking site Facebook in 2006. In 2006, the media was abuzz with two-year-old Facebook being in serious talks to sell itself to Internet media company Yahoo for an amount that could approach $1 billion.

Yahoo $1 billion cash offer for Facebook is reportedly twice the amount that Rupert Murdoch had spent for MySpace in 2005. Both are said to have verbally agreed to enter the deal.

However, according to media reports Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and the board decided to turn down the offer in lieu of building out the company.

In their estimates, Facebook was likely worth closer to $8 billion.

Source : indiatimes

Virginia Rometty, sr VP, IBM

At no. 69 on the World's 100 Most Powerful Women list is Virginia Rometty. Rometty leads IBM's sales force in 170 markets around the world. Rometty spearheaded the integration of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting -- IBM's largest acquisition in professional services history.

She previously ran global business services, managing 100,000 employees and $19.6 billion in 2008 revenues. Prior to this, she was general manager of IBM Global Services, Americas, where she led a team of more than 75,000, and was responsible for strategic leadership, operations and client relationships. Rometty has also served as the general manager of strategy, marketing and sales operations for IBM Global Services worldwide.

Before joining IBM's services business, Rometty was general manager of IBM's Global Insurance and Financial Services Sector, where she led the company's business strategy for the worldwide insurance marketplace, with responsibility for marketing, sales and consulting. She also supervised the operations of IBM's Insurance Research Centers in New York, Switzerland and Japan, and was in charge of IBM's insurance solutions development worldwide.

Cathie Lesjak, Ex VP and CFO, Hewlett-Packard

At no. 32 on the World's 100 Most Powerful Women list is another HPian Cathie Lesjak. Lesjak is executive vice president and chief financial officer of HP, where she is responsible for the company's overall financial activities and leads several departments, including business unit finance, treasury, tax and controllership.

Lesjak has been key to CEO Mark Hurd's financially disciplined turnaround. A veteran of the company for more than two decades, Lesjak previously was senior vice president and treasurer, responsible for managing the company's worldwide cash, debt, foreign exchange, capital structure, risk management and benefits plan administration.

Lesjak has a bachelor's degree in biology from Stanford University and a master of business degree in finance from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ann Livermore, Ex VP, Hewlett-Packard

At no. 31 on the World's 100 Most Powerful Women list is the head of Hewlett-Packard's $45 billion division, Ann Livermore. Among the 25 highest-paid women in the world, her group sells servers, storage devices, software and services and brings in more than a third of HP's annual sales. Livermore also played a crucial role in HP's $13.9 billion acquisition of EDS.

Livermore rose through the ranks in sales, marketing and research and development. She was on the short list of possible HP chiefs to replace Carly Fiorina. She was elected a corporate vice president in 1995 after holding a variety of management positions in marketing, sales, research and development, and business management. She joined the company in 1982.

Livermore holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master's degree in business administration from Stanford University. In 1997, she was elected to the board of directors of United Parcel Service.

Safra Catz, President, Oracle

Co-President of Oracle Corporation, Safra A Catz ranks at no. 16 on the World's 100 Most Powerful Women list. An Oracle veteran, she served as an Executive Vice President from November 1999 to January 2004, and as Senior Vice President from April 1999 to October 1999.

Safra A Catz has served as a President since January 2004, as Chief Financial Officer since November 2005, and as a Director since October 2001.

In May 2008, Ms. Catz was also appointed to a three-year term as member of the board of directors for HSBC Holdings plc, one of the world's largest banking and financial services organizations.

An Israeli, Catz held a key role in $10.3 billion takeover of software rival PeopleSoft. Prior to Oracle, Catz was at Donaldson and Lufkin & Jenrette, global investment banks. Catz holds a bachelor's degree from Wharton School and a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1986.

Anne Mulcahy, Chairman, Xerox Corp

At no. 15 on the World's 100 Most Powerful Women list is another woman from Xerox Corp. This year Mulcahy handed over the reins to her longtime colleague Ursula Burns keeping the chairman's job for herself.

Mulcahy became CEO of Xerox in August 2001, and chairman on January 1, 2002. She is credited of having pulled Xerox out of a near-fatal slump in 2002. Her ideas include colour printing, eco-friendly technologies and lucrative consulting services. To compete with rivals like Canon and Hewlett-Packard, Mulcahy doubled Xerox's software R&D budget to $1.5 billion.

She began her Xerox career as a field sales representative in 1976 and assumed increasingly responsible sales and senior management positions. From 1992-1995, Mulcahy was vice president for human resources, responsible for compensation, benefits, human resource strategy, labor relations, management development and employee training.

Mulcahy earned a bachelor of arts degree in English/journalism from Marymount College in Tarrytown, NY. In addition to the Xerox board, she is a board director of Catalyst, Citigroup Inc, Fuji Xerox Company, Ltd, Target Corporation, The Washington Post Company, and is the chairman of the corporate governance task force of the Business Roundtable.

Ursula Burns, CEO, Xerox Corp

At no. 14 on the World's 100 Most Powerful Women list is Xerox Corp's Ursula Burns. With her nomination to head Xerox Corporation in May, Burns became the first black woman to head a major public company in the US. Burns is also the first to succeed another woman, Anne Mulcahy, credited with turning the struggling company around.

Burns joined Xerox in 1980 as a mechanical engineering summer intern. She since held several positions in engineering including product development and planning. In June 1991, she became the executive assistant to Paul A Allaire, then Xerox chairman and chief executive officer.

From 1992 to 2000, Burns led several business teams including the office colour and fax business, office network copying business, and the departmental business unit. In May 2000, she was named senior vice president, Corporate Strategic Services, and two years later assumed the role of president, Business Group Operations.

She serves on professional and community boards, including American Express Corp, Boston Scientific Corp and CASA - The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

Carol Bartz, CEO and President, Yahoo

At no. 12 on World's 100 Most Powerful Women list is Carol Bartz who took the helm at Yahoo in January 2009. Ms Bartz has served as Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors since January 2009 and as President since April 2009.

The tough-talking Bartz recently brokered a partnership with Microsoft to develop new search platform. A deal for which she has received both bouquets and brickbats.

Prior to joining Yahoo!, Bartz spent 14 years as CEO at Autodesk. Bartz previously held positions at Sun Microsystems, most recently serving as vice president of worldwide field operations and an executive officer of the company. Before joining Sun, she held product line and sales management positions at Digital Equipment Corporation and 3M Corporation.

Bartz holds an honors degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin.

Tech's 7 Most Powerful Women

All those who think that technology industry's most powerful faces are all men, need to correct themselves.

The global IT industry may be largely led by men, but it has its share of fairer sex. Women, who by their grit, substance and vision have emerged among the most powerful people in the global business world.

Forbes recently released its annual list of World's 100 Most Powerful Women for 2009. While assembling the list, Forbes looked for women who run countries, big companies or influential non-profits. Their rankings are said to be a combination of two scores: visibility - by press mentions - and the size of the organization or country these women lead.

The list has as many as seven women from the IT industry. Meet the shining stars of the tech world.

Source : indiatimes

LiveOps

Established in 2000, LiveOps operates call centers in the cloud, connecting them with than 20,000 people who work at home as private contractors.

Chief Executive Maynard Webb came to LiveOps after being chief operating officer of eBay. He said the company's revenues are accelerating in double digits this year, despite the recession, and its revenues are above $100 million for the third year running.

Webb said he will take the company public but only when it hits internal benchmarks, because his company has no need for money beyond what it generates.

Guidewire

Founded in 2002, Guidewire writes the core software for property and casualty insurance companies, replacing decades-old installations that used the old COBOL language.

Guidewire does in insurance what Oracle and SAP do for enterprise software. Guidewire's applications run on the Web, both as an intranet for internal company use and as an Internet for consumers and claims adjusters. It is designed to handle underwriting, claims and billing.

"We've just had our best year ever by far," said CEO John Raguin. He said the company, whose 70 customers include Geico, AAA and Tokio Marine Nichido Fire, grew by over 40% in the latest fiscal year.

Zynga

Established in 2007, Zynga in less than two years has grown to be the largest casual online gaming company in the world with 76 million users a month.

It was profitable almost from the beginning, advertising on Facebook and MySpace to tell users about how it works. Games are played between friends and there is no charge to play.

"We think this is going to be a major industry," said Chief Executive Mark Pincus. But he said he is "being careful" and "not rushing for the door" to sell the company.

Silver Spring

Founded in 2002, Silver Spring is a clean tech company that provisions "smart grid" utilities networks, Silver Spring sells smart electric and gas meters and software to conserve energy, minimize interruptions and cut carbon emissions.

The utilities that are the company's clients represent more than 20% of the US population, and its staff of 300 employees is growing.

"We've added well over 100 people this year and are projected to add well over that," said CEO Scott Lang. The company sees opportunities for growth in plug-in electric vehicles, which could create problems on the grid if they become widely used. It is also looking at acquisitions. Lang said a deal could come in less than two months.

Silicon Valley's 6 hottest startups

The Silicon Valley Six, made up of the hottest privately held companies with annual revenue of more than $100 million, were chosen based on informal polling by Reuters of venture capitalists and others. Here are the six companies on the list.

LinkedIn

Founded in 2003, LinkedIn is the most popular social networking site for professionals. It was valued by its investors last year at $1 billion and has annual revenue beyond $100 million. Subscribers provide their professional background on line as a way of meeting others in their field and as a way for companies to help hire.

The company has 43 million members, half outside the United States, and adds 1.5 to 2 million monthly. It turned profitable in 2008.

Solyndra

Founded in 2005, Solyndra is a clean tech company which makes solar electric installations for commercial rooftops. It has a unique system using tubes that make it more efficient than standard photovoltaic systems and cheaper to install.

The company's latest round of growth capital came from the US Department of Energy, which gave it a $535 million loan guarantee in March. It will use the money to increase its annual production capacity to 610 megawatts (MW) from 110 MW.

source : indiatimes

6 disappointments in Desi Google Earth

India recently got its own version of Google Earth, courtesy Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Called Bhuvan, the Desi version of Google Earth goes a step ahead. The mapping application allows users to zoom far closer than the aerial view from a chopper.

Though dubbed as a Google Earth killer by many analysts, the application does have a few disappointments. Here's looking into all that is missing in Bhuvan.

Works within browser

While Google Earth works on a downloadable client, Bhuvan works within the browser (only supports Windows and IE 6 and above). Unlike Google Earth which is a desktop app, Bhuvan runs using a browser plug-in.

Users need to create an account and download a plug-in.

Stability issues

The site was inaccessible for the better part of the last weekend (it was launched on 13th August) and even now, it gives up or hangs the browser every once in a while. When a layer (state, district, taluk, etc.) is turned on, it renders unevenly and sometimes fails to render at all. The navigation panel failed to load routinely and it felt like a rare sighting when we could actually use the panel.

No high resolution images

But these are relatively minor quibbles compared with the biggest disappointment. The promise of high resolution images has not been kept. While the service promises zoom upto 10 metres from the ground level (this is contrasted with apparently 200 metres for Google Earth), we didn't encounter a single image with nearly as much detailing.

In fact, comparative results for a marquee location such as New Delhi's Connaught Place, shows why we won't be uninstalling out Google Earth software anytime soon.

Search not working

The navigation tools are similar to Google Earth. The search doesn't work if a query returns multiple results. A pop up window is supposed to give the multiple results from which the user is supposed to be able to choose. During two days of sporadic testing, we found the result only once. The rest of the time, the window would pop up, but nothing would be displayed. When the search is accurate, the software 'flies in' to the exact location, the same way as Google Earth.

Basic info

Bhuvan packs a lot of data on weather, waterbodies and population details of various administrative units. We were unable to access weather data. On clicking the icon of administrative units, one could see basic information such as the population. For specialist users, Bhuvan might hold some attraction.

For instance, there is a drought map which can be used to compare drought situation across years and there is a flood map that shows Bihar during the Kosi flood and after. With Isro backing, Bhuvan would be able to provide such relevant data from time to time, but the application needs major improvements in terms of usability before it will be of interest to the ordinary user.

Cannot edit, tag locations

Users can also not edit any data or tag locations. We hope Bhuvan is able to fix the bugs soon. But even then, to be a credible alternative to existing mapping services, and even to get new users to try it, it must provide much higher resolution images. User interest will be piqued only when they can see their house or school or local street in high resolution. With ISRO data, this is easily doable.

source : indiatimes

Nice Posts. Thanks For Your Information

Download Paths Not Working For Following Browsers

   Amaya

   Maxthon Browser

Hi,

If You Want To Learn About The C++, Search For Tutorials and Study. By Reading The Tutorials You Can't Get Knowledge in C++ language.

Try To Do Practice in C++. And Do Some Programs in it.


The Following Tutorials you Will Get The Basics.

Tutorial

OpenC++ is a software tool to parse and analyze C++ source code. It uses a metaobject protocol (MOP) to provide services for language extensions.

Proud To Be Indian

India is full of talent, intelligence and creativity. There have been many stars in the galaxy of India, contributing a lot to this universe. Here is the glimpse of ancient India, which surely make every Indian proud for his motherland. These set of facts inspires every Indian to work hard with honesty and sincerity towards the goal and help the country to regain its shinning position

    * India never invaded any country in her last 1000 years of history.

    * India invented the Number system. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.

    * The world's first University was established in Takshila in 700BC.More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4 th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.

    * According to the Forbes magazine, Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software.

    * Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans.

          o Although western media portray modern images of India as poverty striken and underdeveloped through political corruption, India was once the richest empire on earth.
          o The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 5000 years ago. The very word 'Navigation' is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH.
          o The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is now k! nown as the Pythagorean Theorem. British scholars have last year (1999) officially published that Budhayan's works dates to the 6 th Century which is long before the European mathematicians.

    * Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11 th Century; the largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Indians used numbers as big as 10 53.

    * According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds to the world.

    * USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion amongst academics that the pioneer of wireless communication was Professor Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.

    * The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.

    * Chess was invented in India.

    * Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted surgeries like cesareans, cataract, fractures and urinary stones. Usage of anaesthesia was well known in ancient India.

    * When many cultures in the world were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilisation).

    * The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.

Song Game

A User Types A Song Title And The Song's Artist. The Next User Has To Use One Word From That Song Title. Or, Duplicate The Song Artist Instead, And Have No Word In Common In The Song Title.

Example:

User 1: Uriye En Uryie Ennamo Nadakuruthey - Simbu, Gopika

User 2: En Uriye En Uriye En Aruryie - Sharukhan, Manisha Korulila
or
User 2: Kathal Valarthen Kathal Valarthen - Simbu, Sindhu Thulani

Old proverb:
Yelayin siripil iraivanai kaanalaam...

Modern proverb:
Figure'in siripil yemanai kaanalaam.


By SUBRAMANIYA PURAM paarthu usaranaor sangam

SAP India

With revenues of Rs 4,320 crore, SAp India is the 15th largest IT company. The company grew by an impressive 33% in the fiscal 2008-09, with India becoming the seventh largest subsidiary for SAP globally, beating China.

The company got large revenues from Business Intelligence, adding almost 500 clients to its kitty. The company also managed to win back the Vodafone deal from Oracle.

On the weakness front, the company still has low traction in the real estate and retail space.

Accenture India

The 14th largest IT company in the country is Accenture. The company witnessed a growth of 16% to record revenues of Rs 4,400 crore during the fiscal year 2008-09.

The company failed to meet its much-publicised target of 50,000 people in India by August (company's financial year end).

The slowdown pangs made the company introduce an Indian component to most of its deals. The company failed to bag any major deals in the Indian market, making it rework its India strategy of chasing only a select few deals. The company also restructured its India business along global lines.

Intel India

At no. 13 is Intel India. The slowdown in the PC market affected the company's business in the country. The fiscal year 2008-09 saw the company growing by a mere 9% to record revenues of Rs 4,698 crore.

The notebook market and the growing consumer market were the only saviours for the company during the torrid year. The company's over dependence on the enterprise market hit it badly.

The year saw the company launch its Connected India drive, which is an industry-wide partnership aimed at increasing connectivity in India. On the products side, it launched Core 2 Quad mobile processors and Mobile 4 Series Express Chipsets for use in 45 nm Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Core 2 Quad mobile processors.

Other launches include Intel Core i7 processor and Quad Core Xeon processors.

Oracle India

The fiscal year 2008-09 saw Oracle record revenues of Rs 5,962 crore to emerge as the 12th biggest IT company in the country. The Indian subsidiary of the US-based IT behemoth grew by a mere 3% during the year. However, Oracle Financial Services, which bough iFlex Solutions, grew by a healthy 23% to gross revenues of Rs 2,213 crore.

The company's database business continued to grow, contributing most to the revenue pie. The company enjoyed 63% marketshare in the RDBMS space, also three times of its nearest competitor.

The year saw several top-level executives leaving the company. The company also continues to lag behind SAP in the business apps space.

Cisco Systems

At no. 11 is Cisco Systems. In its 14-year history in the country, for the first time Cisco recorded single-digit growth. The company grew by mere 4% to record revenues of Rs 6,084 crore.

During the year, the company increased focus on the SMB market by launching 0% finance schemes. It also entered into an agreement with EMC and RSA to build security solutions. The company also signed a deal with TCS to help customers build next-gen data centres.

The company which claimed to have added some 850 people during the fiscal made India the launch pad for its Global talent Acceleration Program in Asia Pacific.

Redington India

The tenth largest IT company in India is Redington. Slowdown hit the company badly during the fiscal 2008-09, with growth slipping to 5% from 25% in the previous year.

The company's revenues during the year stood at Rs 6,576 crore. Peripheral and systems were the biggest spoilers for the company during the year, with both businesses shrinking.

On the positive side, the company added nine new vendors including some niche principals like Philips LCD and Belkin accessories. Focusing on large deals and guarding it cash reserves helped the company.

HCL Infosystems

The ninth largest Indian IT company is HCL Infosystems. With Rs 8,089 crore revenues, the company grew by almost 60% during the fiscal 2008-09 largely riding on its services business.

BFSI segment showed the most activity, with the company acquiring a cooperative banking software vendor NTPL. The company bagged orders from BSNL in the telecom space.

The company ventured into physical security space launching Safe State to offer security and surveillance solutions. Some big launches of the year include mobile POS solutions and high-speed Infiniti challenger series workstations.

However, the company's marketshare in the PC/laptop market continues to lag at a lowly 11-13%.

HCL Technologies

At no. 8 is HCL Technologies. The company grew by 41% to clock revenues of Rs 8,764 crore. The biggest highlight of the fiscal 2008-09 for the company was its acquisition of UK-based Axon for which it pipped rival Infosys technologies.

The $658 million Axon buy was the biggest acquisition in the history of Indian IT. The company said that the acquisition was the part of its Blue Ocean strategy, which aims to expand in high-potential areas with low competition.

The year saw the company expanding its footprint in the APAC market. Some big deals included, UTI, MTV Networks, Misys and Serena Software.

The company's two major clients were among the worst hit BFSI companies.

Ingram Micro

IT distributor Ingram Micro is the seventh biggest IT company in the country. The year saw slowdown straining the company's revenues. The worst hit was the company's non-IT business, which includes mobiles and consumer electronics.

Incidentally, the company witnessed healthy growth in the first half of fiscal 2008-09, however, the poor showing in the second half wiped out the gains of the first half.

Computing systems including, notebooks, servers and desktops continue to be the biggest revenue generator for the company. In the computing segment, Ingram got maximum revenue from HP products followed by Acer. Lenovo's declining fortunes continue to trouble Ingram.

While printers and other peripherals did show slowdown pangs, the company's component business did well showing impressive performance from Intel.

Cognizant Technology Services

The sixth largest IT company in India is Cognizant Technology Services. Surprisingly, the company which gets four-fifth of its revenues from the US and half of this from the BFSI sector grew by almost 49% during the fiscal year 2008-09. With this the company recorded highest growth among all IT companies in the country for the third year in a row.

At a time when almost all companies announced layoffs, Cognizant claimed to have added 10% to its workforce between April '08 to March '09.

Cognizant also increased its penetration in the non-US markets, growing by over 71% in Europe and 142% in APAC. The company also made some inroads into the German market. The year also marked Cognizant's entry into the domestic market.

IBM India

At no. 5 is IBM India. With revenues of Rs 12,048 crore, the company grew by a decent 36% during the fiscal 2008-09 (excluding BPO business). The FY '09 saw the share of domestic revenue in the overall pie increase to 48%, from the previous year's 42%.

The company's big wins included SAP implementation deals from Torrent Pharma and Star India. It also won some key deals from Bharti Retail, Bharat Bijlee, LANCO Infratech, Cavincare, HDFC Bank, Max NewYork Life and Sun Direct.

The company was hit by its aggressive focus on the retail and real estate segments, as the two sectors are among the worst hit sectors.

The company's image as a hire and fire employer too is said to be there due to the layoffs it announced early last year.

HP India

The fourth largest IT company is Hewlett Packard India. Slowdown seems to have hurt the company badly, which grew by mere 2% in the fiscal 2008-09.

However, the company's slow growth was not company wide. While TSG grew by a good 33%, largely led by services and enterprise software, the PSG and IPG divisions saw a big hit in their numbers due to the general hit in the consumer sentiment.

Parent company's acquisition of EDS helped solidify HP's services business in the Indian market, with 18% of the revenues coming from the domestic segment.

The company bagged several new clients including Indian Railways, Tata Motors, Durgapur Steel and Raymonds. HP India continued to be the no. 1 vendor in notebooks and desktops across all four quarters according to IDC.

Infosys

The third biggest IT company in India is Infosys with 2008-09 revenues of Rs 20,392 crore. The company closed the year with a 31% growth, with Europe and the US contributing 90% of the total revenues.

The turmoil in the US economy hit the company which had little focus on the domestic market. Only 1% of the company's revenues came from the domestic market.

However, the recession in the US seems to have wisened the company who is now focusing aggressively on the domestic market. Bharti Airtel and SBI were two of its big wins in the domestic market during the year.

Geographically, the company also expanded in Central Europe, Latin America and South America. The company also opened a new development centre in Mexico.

Last quarter saw the company laying off almost 1500 people on the grounds of non-performance.

Wipro

At no. 2 is Bangalore-based Wipro. The company beat its larger rivals TCS and Infosys to post a revenue growth of 41% (excluding BPO). The company recorded revenues of Rs 23,882 crore during the fiscal 2008-09 which saw its two divisions Wipro Technologies and Wipro Infotech synergies better for total outsourcing deals.

The company fought the likes of IBM and HP on the domestic turf to wrestle Aircel, Wnitech Wireless and ESIC deals. The company's Middles East operations grew by over 280%.

The restructuring at the top level was followed by the departure of several senior executives of the company. The company was also hit by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and General Motors. The news that it Wipro has been barred by World Bank also created a small flutter.

Tata Consultancy Services

Tata group-owned Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is the country's no. 1 IT company. During the year 2008-09, the company clocked Rs 25,894 crore in revenues.

Like all its peers the company too was hit by slowdown pangs. The turmoil in the BFSI sector in the US hurt the company which has a huge exposure to the segment. It also had to write off some dues of Lehman Brothers and was hit by the bankruptcy of auto major General Motors and telecom giant Nortel.

However, the company made impressible gains in other sectors like manufacturing, healthcare and engineering services to grow by 22% year on year. Geographically, the company continued its expansion in Latin America, setting up its third delivery centre in Mexico. On acquisitions front, the company bought Citibank's BPO unit for $505 million.

The company which got 8% of its revenues from the domestic segment expanded its focus beyond government. It provided backend connectivity to Rajathan Royal's team during IPL season 2.

India's 15 biggest IT companies

The fiscal year 2008-09 has been a tough year for IT companies globally. The turmoil in the BFSI sector and US the biggest market for IT companies has hit them hard. For the first time in many years some companies in the DQ Top 20 club witnessed single-digit growth.

While many though could sustain double-digit growth, the slowdown pangs were clearly visible in their growth chart and guidance. The biggest lesson of the slowdown has been not to put all eggs in one basket. The spending squeeze in the global markets has suddenly awakened IT companies to the potential of the domestic market. Today, all IT companies in India are aggressively looking at the Indian market to insulate their growth.

Here's looking into the biggest 15 IT companies in India as per their year 2008-09 revenues.

Source : indiatimes

Kasu illana ethuvum vaanga mudiyathunu solranga

Aana kasu illana kadan vaangalam, ithu yarukum puriyala, Itha souna moka message nu solranga!

Ena Koduma ithu...

Hi Rajoe,

Thanks For Your Information. This Topics is So Nice.

The Way Of Presentation is nice..

Worthy mentions

Other than these top 10 some other important events that shaped the computing industry are birth of ARPANet, popularly called the father of modern-day Internet; Intel's Pentium M on which most following Intel chips were based; Y2K which brought Indian IT giants on the global business map and sowed the first seed of outsourcing; and the dotcom bust of 1999-2000 which though wiped out the frenzy related to Internet-based businesses, also established the fact that Internet economy is here to stay.

   

SCO sues IBM

In 2003, SCO Group, led by new CEO Darl McBride, claimed ownership of key portions of the Linux kernel. SCO Group alleged that its license agreements with IBM means that source code that IBM wrote and donated to be incorporated into Linux was added in violation of SCO's contractual rights. Members of the Linux community disagreed with SCO's claims.

SCO sued IBM for $1 billion, claiming that IBM transferred SCO trade secrets to Linux. That amount later rose to $3 billion, and then again to $5 billion.

Seems SCO failed to estimate Linux's importance to both enterprise and IBM. Writes ComputerWorld, "As the lawsuits lumbered on, McBride and company were ridiculed, then bankrupted. Meanwhile, the Linux business boomed. With allies such as Computer Associates, IBM, Novell, and Red Hat willing to take up its defense, the open source OS was clearly here to stay. Ironically, the lawsuit that was meant to be the death blow for Linux may have succeeded only in ushering in its golden age."