My Scrapbook

Steve Jobs: How to live before you die | Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

2011-03-26T21:52:00.000-07:00

SAP HANA - An Inner Look

2011-03-20T06:43:00.000-07:00

SAP HANA is a new product from SAP. The current use is expected in Analytic Reporting.

SAP HANA can deliver real-time Analytic Report. The average simple reaction time for an observer to form a simple response to the presence of a stimulus is 220 ms and The average recognition reaction time has been measured to be 384 ms, but this can change as per the situation. Now if you can make a report with this keeping in mind, you get a real-time Report.

This is made possible by the use high processing power and the In-Memory Processing Technology. Before moving on to what In-Memory Technique is , lets find why do we need that?

The enterprise data resides in RDBMS or Relational DBMS. This uses the concept of transaction. A transaction is a fixed sequence of actions with a well-defined beginning and a well-defined ending. But for anaytical reports, you need cross-transactional data. RDBMS is a not good choice for this and so we use OLAP.

Here came the headache, we need to transfer all the needed data from RDBMS to OLAP system. This is a time consuming process which could take hours or even days. So, if you need this transfer of data, real-time reporting is a distant dream.

See what Vishal Sikka (CTO SAP and Executive Board Member) have to say about the feasibility and ability of this technology.

The main memory means-silicon based memory(RAM and Flash Memory). If the current fails the data is lost, but all the Enterprise have a very reliable power source. So a database in RAM, with a Coloum Oriented Architecture is used. This have existed since the 1980s, but it is only recently that Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) has become inexpensive enough to make these systems a viable option for large enterprise systems. The ability of the database layer in an enterprise application to process large volumes of data quickly is fundamental to our aim of removing the need for a separate analytics systems.

On another horizon, much innovation was happening – the Microprocessor Industry. The Intel co-founder Moore predicted that the number of transistors in sigle chip doubles every 2 years.

But Industry is fast moving than Moore predicted. The highlight include

The number of transistors in single chip in every
20 months on average.
The processing speed(or clock speed) of these transistor have increased considerably.
Now we know the single core processor is an antique thing in market.
Another main innovation in Chip industry is the increase of efficiency in power management.
The new innovations in VLSI(technology of making chips) lower the cost of production.

This all makes the buying and maintanence cost to the lowest. That means the cost of expenditure is reduced.

With advanced transport technologies(like NUMA) between processor and main memory real-time reports are made.

By all these facilities the STO is reduced.

Charles Limb: Your brain on improve with music

2011-01-22T05:50:00.000-08:00

This is what I feel as a start .... for perfect analysis.

For Beginners - On Chromium Of Google

2010-12-12T08:42:00.000-08:00

There is a lot to write , and I dont know how :). The first thing I like you to know is , this article is for a beginner.

Chromium project is the backbone of producing the products Chrome OS and Chrome Browser. Chrominum is an open source project. This project produces the Chromium browser also. Google takes a snap or image of the latest codes from this project, give some security checks and also add a Google logo to produce the Google Browser. So in short the fully open source browser from the Chromium project is called Chromium Browser and partially open source one is Google Chrome Browser.

The licensing of Chromium Browser is BSD which means the browser is fully open. The licensing of Google Chrome Browser is MIT license, LGPL licence , Ms-PL and MPL/GPL/LGPL trilicense.

But what ever be the difference between licence, for an average user there is no much difference between the two browsers.

Now there is an upgrade for the JavaScript Engine for the two browsers by the project. This makes both the browsers a lot faster. The special codes converts the JavaScript to native codes of the processor. This makes things done a lot faster. The cleaver factor that they have added now is, the frequent codes used are optimized. This makes they say a 12 percent improvement in performance. For those who like to get more, there is a good article about this in the chromium blog.

Now when it comes to Chrome OS , the first thing that you may ask is – What is the OS??

Well, that is the linux. Really inteigent linux OS which rebuild itself when someone boots.

Next question of you would be , How can I install it??

This OS is what you call a Cloud OS. The sad news is , you cannot download it .

But you always have the option to compile from the source and use. The instruction for doing this is long and hectice. But if you are interested, you may use this link.

The article on wikipedia about Chrome OS is really magnificant so for persons who like to read get more insite about this amazing google product, I suggest to read wikipedia first and then go throught the link on Chrominum site.

Windows 8 Plans Leaked

2010-06-29T00:39:00.000-07:00

Windows 7 is new ... and now we have the details of windows 8 :) .

What a pathetic scenario. People have just bought and started using the OS, may be a six months back. Who likes to spend Rs5000 every six months for an OS. I think, it is high time that Microsoft seriously about OS as a Service. After all, as far as Microsoft is concerned OS is just a platform to spend more money to buy various softwares that we need for work :) .

Lets hope that Microsoft would change by giving some nice software for free with it. Here is the link that I got.

Windows 8 Plans Leaked: Numerous Details Revealed | Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Office 15 |

What I think of resolution and its relation with mega pixels in c

2010-02-06T23:12:00.001-08:00

What I think of resolution and its relation with mega pixels in camera

Mega pixels – if we have more mega pixels then as the camera represent each details of the scenery in pixel by pixel way the result is the need to have more pixels or in other words more resolution..

Now we have a picture with a lot of resolution, but the pixels in our monitors are 1440*900 or 1280*800 etc only. The problem now before the software is to convert the large pixel file at its input and a very low resolution (in other words low number of pixels) in the monitor….the software want to make the picture available in the monitor….so the monitor discard a lot of information from the file of the picture to make it perfect for the monitor to display.

Our 19” monitor has only – 1440*900 pixels

The laptop has a maximum pixels of – 1280*800

The pixels in HD LCD screens is also somewhere in the 1000-2000 range.

But the pixels in our usual digital camera file is 2611*1958

Mobile Number Transportability And Roaming In India

2010-01-16T20:00:00.000-08:00

I have any interesting link for you : http://www.dot.gov.in/as/MNP/MNPindex.htm

The link to the pdf published by DoT about the dates of number tranportability in India : http://www.dot.gov.in/as/MNP/press%20release%20for%20MNP.pdf

Make a note of the dates specified by the DoT and see today's date on your calender. :) .

A lot of people like to change there Mobile Network provider. I have another good link to show you guys the statistics : http://www.pluggd.in/mobile-number-portability-in-india-operator-switch-survey-297/

Many of Indian like to get this feature including me. For me the aim is to get lower standard call rate. That means reasonable call rates at no new recharges for tariff reduction. There are a lot of recharge vouchers available for just the tariff reduction so it isn't easy to keep track of it so that I get the best tariff. That is why I like to have a standard call rate.

Another feature that I really like to have is 'No roaming rates across India'. Or 'no roaming rates across south India' - for south Indian customers and 'no roaming rates in north India' - for north Indian customers. The roaming rates have been dropped sufficiently but, no roaming rates for incoming call is a very good feature for common man like me. If incoming call rate in roaming can never be erased, say a recharge voucher for Rs:100/- and no roaming rates for one year is also an affordable and convenient way.

I got these details from Wikipedia , the processes taking place when a cell phone is in roaming :

The details of the roaming process differ among types of cellular networks, but in general, the process resembles the following:

When the mobile device is turned on or is transferred via a handover to the network, this new "visited" network sees the device, notices that it is not registered with its own system, and attempts to identify its home network. If there is no roaming agreement between the two networks, maintenance of service is impossible, and service is denied by the visited network.
The visited network contacts the home network and requests service information (including whether or not the mobile should be allowed to roam) about the roaming device using theIMSI number.
If successful, the visited network begins to maintain a temporary subscriber record for the device. Likewise, the home network updates its information to indicate that the mobile is on the host network so that any information sent to that device can be correctly routed.

I wonder 'why do we have a home network and temporary subscriber record?'

A company like BSNL is having its own network across India. Why are they using a temporary record for the device in roaming when they can use the device's home network record.

All India Goverment Link

2010-01-09T08:35:00.000-08:00

Obtain:

Apply for:

Register:

Check/Track:

Book/File/Lodge:

Contribute to:

Prime Minister's Relief Fund

Recently Added Online Services

Tamil Nadu: Online application of marriage certificate for persons having registered their marriages
Tamil Nadu: Online District wise soil Details of Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu: View Water shed Atlas of Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu: E-Pension District Treasury Tirunelveli
Andhra Pradesh: Online Motor Driving School Information

Need Of Students

2009-11-11T19:04:00.000-08:00

I got this article from The Hindu newspaper - it is written by The former President of India, A P J Abdul Kalam. I think it is worthwhile to share.

Abdul Kalam says - Our children should go to primary school only at the age of six. Till then, we have to promote creativity of the children with great teachers and an innovative classroom environment.

Yesterday, when I was reading the book Spiritual Intelligence, The Ultimate Intelligence by Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, I came across the poem, “The Student’s prayer.”

“The young son of a Chilean biologist, Umberto Maturana, became unhappy at school because he felt his teachers were making it impossible for him to learn. They wanted to teach him what they knew, rather than drawing out what he needed to learn. As a result Maturana wrote “The Student’s Prayer”, of which this translation is an abridged version. It perfectly expresses the spiritually intelligent individual’s response to the conforming pressures of parents, teachers, bosses or the crowd.

The Student’s Prayer

Don’t impose on me what you know,

I want to explore the unknown

And be the source of my own discoveries.

Let the known be my liberation, not my slavery.

The world of your truth can be my limitation;

Your wisdom my negation.

Don’t instruct me; let’s walk together.

Let my richness begin where yours ends.

Show me so that I can stand

On your shoulders.

Reveal yourself so that I can be

Something different.

You believe that every human being

Can love and create.

I understand, then, your fear

When I ask you to live according to your wisdom.

You will not know who I am

By listening to yourself.

Don’t instruct me; let me be.

Your failure is that I be identical to you.”

What Can We Do To The Mobile Network Congestion

2009-11-03T19:46:00.000-08:00

I think the solution is to combine use of landlines and wireless potential and also use the concept of LAN and WAN in a major way.

Whenever we have an office the mobile operator has to provide connection to 1000's of people in that small area. So the network becomes a lot congested.

I have a plan to reduce this congestion in mobile network:

Wherever we have a group of offices we must route the call/data transfer to the landline facility. The calls can be given to employees through air for convenience of use remember i used the word 'can' - it is always better to give the call to land phone at the employee end. For that we may need a wi-fi or wi-max network. The benefit of using wi-fi/wi-max is that it offers high data speed for download. Also the range of these networks are small, so the problems due to interference would not occur.

Now how do we know the mobiles are in the wi-fi area?

Whenever a mobile reaches to it network, the mobile should be initialized at the router responsible for the transfer of call.

Google Wave

2009-10-28T10:01:00.000-07:00

Just see the first 20 minutes to know what this revolutionary thing is :

An Idea I like

2009-10-05T01:10:00.000-07:00

hai i was wondering why the browser needs a window!! . why don't it integrates to the system, like you don't feel you are using an application.

i am a windows user and i like the browser to be

1. accessable everywhere

2. easy to navigate from from other applications

then i had an idea - here is it -

why don't be the naviagation bar be in the task bar and the bookmark bar just above it and in the setting of browser you have the option to set whether both the bars be shown all the time - because some guys are very sensitive about the screen usage area.

well by this i feel you can do all the things that you do now and more.

the browser is accessable everywhere - whether i am doing something in MS Word or looking of a file in a folder window.

i feel the browser should integrate to system in such a way that it is present everywhere.

Benifits of Mac OS

2009-07-16T22:35:00.000-07:00

I got some wonderful videos from YouTube and i like to share that with you all ..... the link is about the difference in operating system of our computer -- to be exact it is showing the benefit of the new Mac OS called Snow leopard.

I went through the new tab feature of the popular Windows 7 and fount it really good, I thought it would be a really new concept. But when I learned about Mac Snow Leopard it was there in it. Also some other new cool stuffs. I think Mac is a fine Operating System.

here are the videos of the launch :

Mac vs Pc:Snow Leopard Part 1 :

I would try to get new stuffs to the article as I get time, so log on to the blog as per you convenience.

Simple But Effective Ways To Recover Your Damaged Data

2008-10-06T02:40:00.000-07:00

Hard drives can crash. Memory cards can be formatted accidentally. CDs or DVDs having important files stored can become scratched and unreadable. But there are steps you can try to retrieve damaged data.

If the scratches aren't deep try this - Just mix up a solution of water and window cleaner or other gentle detergent, such as baby shampoo. Then use this solution to dampen a soft, lint-free cloth.

For more stubborn smudges and superficial scratches, another homemade remedy works wonders. First, locate the scratches under a bright light. Then place a small bit of toothpaste, which contains a gentle abrasive, on a cotton swab. Use the cotton swab to gently scrub the disk in the area where it's scratched. After a few seconds of scrubbing, rinse the disk off with water and then dry it with a soft cloth.

If your hard drive starts making noticeable clicking noises or you begin to experience random data loss or have very slow drive performance, a drive failure may be imminent. It's best to begin copying all-important data off of the drive immediately. Run drive diagnostic software that can be freely downloaded from the manufacturer's Web site. These can run exhaustive diagnostic tests to determine the health of a hard drive.

Use PhotoRescue to recover photos on damaged flash memory cards, and it can even recover photos from a flash card that has been formatted. There are versions available for Windows and Mac, and you can try it before you buy it. A license is a reasonable $29.

Source : MSN Technology

Age Determining Software

2008-09-29T02:45:00.000-07:00

Thomas S. Huang

A Computer software can fairly and accurately estimate a person's age just by examining the person's face!!!

This age determining software is developed by the University of Illinois. This software has three parts/modules--

face detection

discriminative manifold learning and

multiple linear regression.

This software can estimate ages from 1 year to 93 years. Its accuracy ranges from about 50% when it estimate ages to within 5 years and more than 80% when it estimats ages to within 10 years, said Thomas S. Huang, the William L. Everitt distinguished professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Illinois.

In addition to performing tasks such as security control and surveillance monitoring, age-estimation software also could be used for electronic customer relationship management or to target specific audiences with advertising, said Thomas S. Huang.

Source : Techtree,News Bureau of University of Illinois

Cybercriminals Use Celebrity Names For Traping

2008-09-19T05:20:00.000-07:00

Looking for information about Brad Pitt or Beyonce on theweb could be risky!!!
This information is put forward by California-based McAfee Inc.

McAfee's most dangerous list include singers Mariah Carey, Rihanna and Fergie and film stars Angelina Jolie, Jessica Alba, Cameron Diaz and George Clooney and Brad Pitt or Beyonce. Celebrity gossip could be leading you to these threads. According to McAfee, fans of these popular peoples - searching for information like gossips, pictures, or downloads, wallpaper and screen savers, have an 18% chance of having their PCs infected with a virus, spyware, spam, phishing and adware. Pitt and singer Justin Timberlake are the most dangerous men to search for on the Internet, while Beyonce and Heidi Montag, the star of the reality television show "The Hills", top the list for women.

Malware includes viruses, worms and spyware, which are computer programs that report back to a third party a user's activity and Web-surfing habits. The reasons for planting spyware range from simple marketing purposes to more serious things like stealing files or passwords of personal finance details.

Web surfers looking for celebrity gossip, screen savers and ringtones are often directed to fake Internet sites which pose a risk to the security of their computers.

Source : Reuters

Could bin Ladens Be Using This...

2008-09-17T10:01:00.000-07:00

Could bin Ladens be gathering in a virtual world to plan a real-life attack. In social games, players from many part of world can come together in a virtual place and can play the game. The play can be anything like a small group of snipers attacking a petrolium factory or any other high sensitive area. Could this be using by the terror hands...A Pentogon resercher has laid out how such terror plot might unfold. If terroriest cannot use this in a place like America, it can well be used in devoloping and congested cities like in India. Read the article to get the seriousness. Click here to read the article

An Insite Into The Big Bang Experiment

2008-09-10T07:09:00.000-07:00

What's the benefit of this experiment?

There are fundamental gaps in our basic understanding of physics and how the universe works. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will recreate conditions just after the Big Bang (the theory that a massive explosion created the universe) and may help to fill in missing knowledge. Physicists hope the experiment will help them understand what the universe is made of, what propels its expansion and predict its future.

How does it work?

Inside the accelerator, two beams of particles will travel in opposite directions at close to the speed of light. Thousands of magnets of different varieties and sizes will direct the beams around the accelerator. Because the particles are so small, another type of magnet is used to squeeze them closer together to encourage them to collide.

Scientists hope previously unseen particles will be discovered in the debris when beams smash together. The new particles are expected to provide new leads for physicists and may confirm existing theories

Who all are involved in this?

The new particle accelerator might be buried along the Swiss-French border but it has attracted researchers from 80 countries. The £2.4bn project has mostly been financed by 20 European member states but the US and Japan are major contributors with observer status. Ten thousand scientists from 500 different institutions have been involved in developing the LHC

The Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland is the venue for this magneficant experment.

Watch the experiment principle in a simple and small video which gives you good insite to it. Click here to watch it

Software By Subscription -- Microsoft

2008-07-04T08:10:00.000-07:00

Microsoft will begin selling its Office programs to consumers on a subscription basis starting mid-July, in a bid to reach thrifty personal computer buyers who would otherwise pass on productivity software.

The move may set the stage for Microsoft to offer its consumer-oriented programs as “services” over the Web. THIS SHOWS THE SECOND STAGE OF INTERNET ERA, THE NEXT STAGE AS PER THE Emerging Technologies conference in Santa Clara IS THE ONLINE OPERATING SYSTEM.THIS EVOLUTION IS EXPLAINED IN THE POST "On The Way To Online Operating System".

The software bundle, which includes Microsoft’s Live OneCare computer security software, will be sold at nearly 700 Circuit City stores for $70 per year. The bundle will be available at other retailers and on PCs sold by the likes of Dell in future.

Subscription pricing for software has become commonplace in businesses but is a relatively new concept for consumers. The Microsoft Equipt bundle — formerly code-named “Albany” — includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, plus OneCare and a handful of existing free Windows Live applications. Buying those programs the traditional way would cost about $200, and then consumers who wanted to replace the software with the next version, Office 14, would have to pay the full price.

On The Way To Online Operating System

2008-07-02T00:12:00.000-07:00

The operating system( like windows XP, windows Vista....) is the one that supports the other applications like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel etc. Now the new operating system is online!!. You may be given an account and you just log on to the account just like you log on to you mail account.... and you do the works there!. The facilities is being pioneered by thousands of individual hackers and entrepreneurs will, without question, be integrated into a standardized platform that enables a next generation of applications. This was the theme of the Emerging Technologies conference in Santa Clara May 13-16, "Building the Internet Operating System."
Both Microsoft and Sun have made it clear that they consider network computing the next great competitive battleground. These network operating systems are designed to make it easier for mainstream developers to use functions that the pioneers had to build from scratch.

The large vendors are struggling with how to make money from this next generation of computing, and so they are moving forward slowly. So the new operating system will belong to the upstarts, who don't have anything to lose, and the risk-takers among the big companies, who are willing to bet more heavily on the future than they do on the past. Let's take Web services as an example. Microsoft recently announced they hadn't figured out a business model for Web services. Meanwhile, the hackers, who don't worry too much about business models and are building "unauthorized" Web services like Spiders.

Spiders (programs which download pages automatically for purposes ranging from general search engines to specialized shopping comparison services to market research) are really a first-generation Web service. Spiders have been around since the early days of the Web, but what's getting interesting is that as the data resources out on the Net get richer, programmers are building more specialized spiders. They are increasingly combining data from one site with data from another.Hackers interested in the stock market have built their own tools for tracking pricing trends and program trading.

Right now, these services are mostly built using a technique referred to as "screen scraping." Screen Scraping means a program that masks a Web page as a Web browser downloads , uses pattern matching to find the data it wants, keeps that, and throws the rest away. And the operation is repeated, perhaps thousands of times a minute, until all the desired data is in hand.
For example, every three hours, amaBooks, a publishing market research spider, downloads information about thousands of computer books from Amazon. The first time a new book is discovered , amaBooks wants its title, author, publisher, page count, publication date, price, rank, number of reader reviews, and average value of reader reviews. For later visits it needs even less information: the latest rank, the latest number of reviews, and any change to pricing.
Eventually, these inefficient spiders, built that way will give way to true Web services. The sites like Amazon or Google wll be willing partners. These sites will offer XML-based API(application programming interface) that allow remote programmers to request only the data they need, and to re-use it in creative new ways.

Bit by bit, the transformation of the Web services wilders. The first stage, the pioneer stage, is marked by screen scraping and "unauthorized" special purpose interfaces to database-backed Web sites. In the second stage, the Web sites themselves will offer more efficient, XML-based APIs. (This is starting to happen now.) In the third stage, the hodgepodge of individual services will be integrated into a true operating system layer, in which a single vendor can provide a comprehensive set of APIs that turns the Internet into a huge collection of program-callable components, and integrates those components into applications that are used every day by non-technical people.

Today Windows XP Will Get The Death Sentence

2008-06-29T19:30:00.000-07:00

Monday marks the ‘expiry’ date for Windows XP; but many users still prefer it to the anointed successor, Vista

When it was launched in October 2001, the new version of Microsoft’s operating system for personal computers, Windows XP was so named for the new eXPerience it provided.

Today, june 30 Microsoft will stop selling the XP version to retailers and PC manufacturers. There is a small exception made for low cost platforms, which will be able to continue loading the stripped down ‘home’ version of XP for another 6 months.

Microsoft seems to be saying: “We gave you a bigger, better version called Vista, more than 18 months ago. So start learning to love it”. But lay users as well as corporate customers say: “We don’t care for Vista: it is bloated and sluggish; it irritates us with a hundred promptings; it doesn’t work with most of our peripheral printers, scanners, CD/DVD drives; and it takes so long to start or stop,it is driving us crazy.” As PCs become smaller, lighter, less power-hungry, what people want is a smaller, quicker PC software that lets you get on the Web which today houses a lot of tools and files. Analysts Forrester found in April that only half the enterprise world has planned an upgrade to Vista. The entire Intel organisation (a key Microsoft partner) has decided to stick with XP.

Microsoft already announced that the next iteration after Vista will be Windows 7 (possibly in 2009). If we want to continue using XP on our machines, no one can really stop us. The canny Indian reseller and assembler community will find ways to support us, with or without Microsoft help. We can continue doing our computing, the XP way, till we see what Windows 7 offers, leapfrogging over Vista in the process.

Hackers In Wireless Networks

2008-06-28T01:26:00.000-07:00

The hackers are often a few years ahead of their time. They see the potential in existing technology, and push the envelope to get more out of it than its original creators intended. They are comfortable with new tools, and good at combining them to get unexpected results.

In the Community 802.11b networks (just a standardize wireless network) which are springing up everywhere as hackers realize they can share the high-speed, high-cost Internet connections, turning them into high-speed, no cost connections for a larger group of people. Companies like Apple are building 802.11b into their new hardware, but that's just a convenient springboard.

The hackers are extending the range of their networks with homemade antennas with Pringles cans, coffee cans, tomato juice cans and things like that. These homemade antennas match the wireless wavelengths of the original network. This represents hacker’s ingenuity. But wireless community networks are only the tip of the iceberg.

If you watch the hackers, you notice that they are already living in a future made up of ubiquitous wireless connectivity, not just for their PCs, but for a variety of computing devices. The furthest-out of them are into wearable computing, with access to the Net as much a part of what they put on each morning as a clean pair of socks.

Five things you should always tell your boss

2008-06-22T19:30:00.000-07:00

As an IT professional, you know the basic rules of office politics, the simple do's and don'ts that govern life at work. If you really want to advance, though, you need to know which types of information your boss relies on you to provide.When asked a group of Computerworld's 2008 Premier 100 IT Leaders to talk about the kinds of messages they need to hear loud and clear from their staffers.

Here's what they said you should always tell your boss.

1. The real thing: "Sugarcoating problems, holding back information, overpromising and consistently underdelivering are all reasons why IT has a bad reputation. We do this so well, we don't even realize there is a problem," says Robert Strickland, senior vice president and CIO of T-Mobile USA Inc. in Bellevue, Wash. "To lead effectively, I need the complete picture, as do our customers and our suppliers. When information is withheld, you are protecting no one."

2. Your ideas: "Bring me ideas to improve the business, even if they're outside of IT," says Kumud Kalia, CIO and executive vice president of customer operations for Toronto-based Direct Energy, an integrated energy company and part of Centrica PLC. Sounds simple enough, but Kalia says workers are often reluctant to do this, thinking they have to go through established chains of command. But that's not necessarily the case. Bringing ideas straight to the top can help get initiatives going.

3. What you want: Ted Maulucci, CIO at Tridel Corp., a condominium developer in Toronto, tries to shift his workers into the jobs that they enjoy most. It helps with employee retention, office morale and productivity. He points to one employee who loves working on hardware so much; he'll come in at 3 a.m. to tackle a new project.

4. No: It takes courage to tell the boss that you don't agree, but it's better for all involved when you say no to suggested projects, timelines, budgets or technologies that just aren't going to work, says Michael F. Williams, executive director of IT for the Immune Tolerance Network of the Diabetes Center at the University of California, San Francisco, and CIO for the Department of Neurology's Epilepsy Phenome/Genome Project.

Building a workplace that communicates well

When it comes to talking with the boss, knowing what to say, when to say it and how to put it can be tricky for some people. Here are some ways that the person in charge can encourage the right conversations in the office.

Lead by example.
Run a transparent organization.
Accept failures gracefully and learn from them.
Remind your team of what is appropriate and what is not.
Do not communicate things in anger or frustration.
Tailor your communication method -- from face-to-face to IM -- to the message and the situation.

5. Your successes: No one wants to spend each day hearing only about project setbacks, failed servers and unexpected downtime. Good news is welcome too. Yet IT workers seem reluctant to promote the positive, Kalia says. "The thought process doesn't take place in their heads, or maybe they think that what they're doing isn't that special," he says.Whatever the cause of such reticence, Kalia says IT pros should change their mind-sets. He wants to hear about accomplishments so he can recognize them and offer pointers to do even better next time."But it's not only about learning what you've done so we can apply best practices," he adds. "It's about celebrating success so everyone can share in that."

The Free And Open Productivity Suite - OpenOffice.org

2008-06-22T02:24:00.000-07:00

Advantages Of The Suite

OpenOffice.org is more than a collection of five superb tools.

Unlike some competitors, this suite was not created from a collection of separate pieces of software. From the start, it was designed as one complete office package.

All the packages have a similar 'look and feel' making them very easy to use, with common 'learn once use everywhere' tools like the Styles and Formatting. OpenOffice.org takes its 'look and feel' from your computer - if you change your desktop, OpenOffice.org will change to match.
The same tools are used consistently across the suite - for example, the tools you use to work with graphics within Writer are also found in Impress and Draw.
You don't need to know which application was used to create a particular file - you can 'File Open' any OpenOffice.org file from anywhere and the correct application will be launched.
All the packages share a common spell-checker, etc.; and if you change an 'Option' in one package, it's changed in them all.
Information can be transferred easily between all the packages.
All the components save in OpenDocument format, the new international standard for office documents. This XML based format offers substantial disk savings compared to common competitors' formats. It also means you can access your data from any OpenDocument compliant software.
All the packages are installed in one single operation, using the installation process you are used to on your computer.
All the packages are released under the same open licensing model - there are no hidden charges now or in the future.

Get it from: http://download.openoffice.org/index.html

Five things you should never tell your boss

2008-06-21T19:30:00.000-07:00

Though full disclosure and transparency are buzzwords today, that doesn't mean your boss wants to hear about everything going on in the office. We asked a group of Computerworld's 2008 Premier 100 IT Leaders to talk about the kinds of messages they never want to hear from their staffers.

Here's what they said:

1. All about technology and nothing about business: "Never tell me you don't know what the business wants but you'll build it when they decide," says James E. Schinski, CIO and vice president of Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator in Carmel, Ind.
Joseph J. Tufano,vice president and CIO at St. John's University in New York, agrees, saying IT workers need to tell him how technology can help the organization and its staff do their jobs better. "You bring so much more credibility to the discussion when you're presenting technology in the context of business," he says.

2. There's only one solution. "People can sometimes develop a fondness for a certain technology or programming language or manufacturer into almost a religion, but it's never the case that one type of solution is the proper one for all situations," says Neal Puff, CIO for Arizona's Yuma County. "And when you develop an attitude like this, you're viewed as an obstacle or a roadblock. People will assume you're just going to like it this way and you're not going to like it any other way."

3. Bad opinions about your colleagues. It's a simple rule that can get overlooked when your team is struggling with a missed deadline or a failing project, but think before you point a finger, because bosses generally don't want to hear about it especially if you haven't tried to work it out on your own.
"I want a team that works together and not one that's political, and if I see it happening, then I think people are trying to score points," says Kumud Kalia, CIO and executive vice president of customer operations for Toronto-based Direct Energy, an integrated energy company and part of Centrica PLC.

4. There's no way. Robert Strickland, senior vice president and CIO of T-Mobile USA Inc. in Bellevue, Wash., makes his position very clear: Everything is possible:
"It may be impossible to deliver the exact goal, or it may be impossible to deliver the goal in the way it has been outlined, but before you say it is impossible, tell me some of the challenges you may face, and we can have a conversation about overcoming those challenges," he says. "You may be surprised by what you can accomplish if you let go of your biases."

5. A surprise: CIOs almost universally say they don't like surprises particularly unpleasant ones. Ian S. Patterson, CIO at Scottrade Inc., a St. Louis-based online brokerage firm, says he always prefers to hear news both good and bad directly from his workers. So when someone comes by and starts with "I want to give you a heads up," it really catches his attention.
Moreover, it's a good bet that your boss prefers to hear that news sooner rather than later, says Gregory B. Morrison, CIO of Cox Enterprises Inc., an Atlanta-based media company and provider of automotive services. "Getting help early could help keep a small problem from turning into a disaster," he says.

Mobile Linux Is On The Way And Moved A Step Forward

2008-06-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

MontaVista Software, Inc., the leader in embedded Linux commercialization, on 18th June, announced that MontaVista Mobilinux 5.0 which has been optimized to develop low-cost, low-power consumer products on the Freescale i.MX31 processor (just a processor). Designed for wireless devices running computationally intensive multimedia applications such as portable media players and an array of mobile devices. The i.MX31 applications processor and MontaVista Mobilinux offer power-saving capabilities, as well as impressive performance. This benefits users of an array of mobile devices, such as smartphones, digital video recorders, digital cameras and mobile gaming consoles, with the ability to keep several applications running at once.

Jim Ready, founder and CTO of MontaVista said they are excited to provide Mobilinux to software developers looking to unlock more capabilities built into the i.MX31 processor. He also said "Our customers are looking for ways to bring their products to market faster and to incorporate the power management strategies needed for the complex devices they produce. The i.MX31 applications processor from Freescale addresses these low-power needs while running at a fast 532 MHz speed, so developers can meet power management demands while also delivering optimum performance."

MontaVista Mobilinux is an optimized Linux operating system including specialized features such as dynamic power management for designing wireless handsets and other mobile devices such as MIDs (mobile Internet devices), GPS devices, portable medical products and automotive infotainment. According to a research report published earlier this year by the Mobile Consumer Lab of the International University of Japan, MontaVista Mobilinux currently dominates the Linux market for wireless devices, having implemented over 90 percent of Linux-based smartphones shipped in 2007.

The Freescale i.MX31 multimedia applications processor was designed to simultaneously provide low power consumption and high performance. By supporting the Freescale i.MX31 applications processor, MontaVista can supplement the success of Linux applications built by developers with both power management and performance in mind.

The availability of MontaVista Mobilinux on the i.MX31 platform is another example of Freescale and MontaVista's collaborative efforts to drive increased product control and shorter time-to-market for embedded design teams. In addition to the i.MX31 platform, MontaVista also supports the Freescale i.MX27 processor and eight other Freescale processors. MontaVista Mobilinux 5.0 for the Freescale i.MX31 multimedia applications processor is available now.

Devices Interested Using These Technologies

2008-06-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

Two-in-one: This ultrasound machine from GE is both voice-activated and touch sensitive.

The biomedical instruments industry has been an early user of combined voice and touch sensitive interfaces. GEHealthcare has a range of hospital diagnostic equipment, the Logiq series of ultrasound machines is just one example where touch screens complement voice-activated commands, leaving nurse or technician to do other things with their hands.

Such combinations may soon be the rule rather than the exception in mass consumer products like handheld wireless Internet tools. A study in Canada at the Ecole Polytech de Montreal, found that operator response was 33 per cent better with voice commands compared to touch screens.

Military users have already caught the potential of sound interfaces in reducing the margin of error in mission-critical situations. But in some military environments the cockpit of a fighter aircraft or the operations room of a submarine or frigate there will be situations where entering strings of code is faster, more reliable, using touch rather than voice.

The conclusion is that a combination of touch and sound technologies a works best.

Latest Ubuntu 8.04 Desktop Is Launched And Can Be Run From DVD Drive

2008-06-17T23:10:00.000-07:00

The switch to an Open Source operating system has become just a bit easier, with the recent availability of the latest version - 8.04 - of the Linux distribution, Ubuntu. A free download from Canonical, U.K., Ubuntu has become one of the most popular Linux flavours - and the latest version can be saved on a DVD and will run directly from that drive without disturbing whatever operating system one may be running. It can be downloaded from www.ubuntu.com/download but since the full software takes almost 4 GB, readers may prefer to use one of the free DVDs being offered with the June 2008 issues of the computer monthlies Digit and Chip in India. In a test try I opened Ubuntu in trial mode on a Windows Vista PC, allowing sampling of all its features, including the OpenOffice suite and the Open Source graphics software GIMP, which are bundled. At the end of the trial the DVD can be removed and the PC returned to the Vista desktop, without hassle.

The Latest Version Of Firefox Is Available For Free Download From Today

2008-06-17T10:28:00.000-07:00

One of the most used web browsers by lay users have unveiled their latest avatars and chances are they will attract millions of first-time users. Today, the third edition of Firefox is available for free download. Such is the build-up and hype for this Open Source web browser that 1.6 million users had pre-registered to get the software on Download Day, June 17 and as of Saturday, 21,300 of them are based in India. Mozilla, which promotes Firefox, hopes to create a Guinness World Record for the highest number of downloads on a single day. For those who download from my blog will get updated to the latest version of Firefox when you launch it for the first time.

Firefox has a reputation for blocking viruses and other malware more effectively than many competing offerings, and many users who’s PCs or laptops run on proprietary systems still choose to browse with Firefox. The browser has ironed out almost all its minor glitches during months as a beta and what is offered now is a robust version. Firefox 3 will be available in the Punjabi and Gujarati versions also.

Tools And Resources Aiding Personal Learning Environment

2008-06-17T09:46:00.000-07:00

Here I describes tools/resources aiding individual research/learning and introduces the concept of personal learning environment (PLE), an idea gaining ground among academicians. Educational materials from prestigious institutions are no longer restricted to their four walls.

Besides the much discussed MIT open courseware (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm), several institutions have hosted their teaching materials and video lectures for free download. Fullbright School’s OpenCourseware (http://ocw.fetp.edu.vn/home.cfm), Carnegie Mellon University’s Open Learning Initiative ( http://www.cmu.edu/oli/), NPTEL (http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/home.php), a joint project of seven IITs and IISc., are a few among them.

Tools like OpenCourseware Finder (http://ocwfinder.com/) and Lecture archives (http://www.lecturesarchive.com/4466.html) can be used to locate these resources. According to learning requirements one can also exploit the services of content dissemination applications like blogs. You may try out the recently launched communication product OovOO (http://www.oovoo.com/) that facilitates text/audio/video conversations in real-time. One advantage of this product is the built-in facility to record the conversation.

An important dimension of any learning process is the facility to store the collected materials with the relevant comments. This means, a tool that enables us to store bookmarks and comment on a web page would greatly ease the learning process. The online social annotation service, Diigo (http://www.diigo.com/) could come in handy on this count. You can make the stored resources either private/public/limit it to a selected few. To use the service, create an account with it and download Diigo toolbar from its site.

The set of tools you choose for online learning constitutes what is otherwise referred to as personal learning environment. As these tools are scattered across the Web, there is a risk of forgetting them. If you can keep all these tools in one place, your learning becomes easier. A web based infrastructure, for assembling all the relevant tools pertaining to a specific learning objective, would certainly make the learning endeavor efficient. For this, personal home page creation services such as Netvibes and Pageflakes could come in handy. Pageflakes (http://www.pageflakes.com/) allows you to generate a page with all your favorite services (social book marking, e-mail and news sites) embedded on it. If a service is not available on its built-in service toolbox (called ‘Flake’), Pageflakes provides the facility to create your own widget for integrating that service. Netvibes (http://www.netvibes.com/), with its latest version Ginger, lets you create several home pages separated on tabs. This means if you have different learning requirements, you can create separate pages for each of them.

Tool To Obtain Most Cited Articles

2008-06-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

The number of times an article gets cited by other authors is a measure of its academic value/ relevance. Naturally, a researcher would be keen to obtain the most cited articles on his area of concern. Those of you looking for such information may find the application Topcited, from Scopus (http://info.scopus.com/overview/what/), provider of abstract/database of research literature, useful.

The Web's First Online Exhibition Portal

2008-06-12T04:28:00.000-07:00

A Chennai-based media solutions team at PixelKraft has just created what is arguably the web's first online exhibition portal where Indian brands get to display their wares using audio visual tools.

Buzzar.tv has reached across to lay consumers by providing a one-stop cyber shop where they can search for information across multiple brand names and consumer product categories or even services such as airlines and hotels. It is called Buzzar (www.buzzar.tv).Soon, viewers can expect to find full product catalogues, special offers, a store locator and useful downloads. Buzzar.tv has attracted over 1,000 Indian brands

Converging On Fourth Generation In Mobile Phone Arena

2008-06-10T05:08:00.000-07:00

High-speed handsets: Mobile phones will soon attain 4G broadband speeds

In India we are still to get what is called 3G or third generation services: the coming together of voice, data and video on mobile hand-held cellular telephony devices at broadband speed that usually means 1 mega bits per second (MBPS) or faster. At the Mobile World Congress in February, a handful of telecom players showcased services at zippy speeds that made 3G look like a lazy laggard: the technology is being called Long Term Evolution (LTE). They expected the asking data rates of between 50 and 100 MBPS.

In Barcelona, Samsung unveiled a handset, the Soul, implementing what was arguably the fastest broadband access speeds on a mobile phone that one could actually buy: with 7.2 MBPS High Speed Downlink Packet Access or HSDPA connection. Still in the realms of trials though, was an even faster solution at LTE speeds: 60 MBPS in downlink and 40 MBPS in the uplink.

In A Demo

In a demo an LTE handset from LG was used at a base station from Nortel and a video streaming application from Alcatel-Lucent that downloaded a full length 700 MB movie in 90 seconds. Ericsson had its own LTE demo at Barcelona and Nokia-Siemens even had a commercial LTE product on display. In Delhi in India last week at the Convergence India show echoes of LTE could be discerned, though demonstrations were not to be had.

The Mobile Network May Converge To LTE

Beyond today’s 3G GSM networks, the next advance would be HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) with typical downlink speeds of 14 MBPS and uplinks of 5-6 MBPS. CDMA operators would need to implement EVDO: Evolution Data Optimized (or Data Only) to provide comparable speeds.

Both competing technologies can graduate to LTE (Long Term Evolution) without needing to ditch their existing network hardware. In other words the LTE (Long Term Evolution) is the natural evolutionary path for both streams. Operators may call it by different names but the twain shall meet. Given this roadmap, some players are already busy smoothing the pains of eventual convergence.

The upstart in this pretty picture of togetherness is WiMAX the ‘other’ broadband mobile technology that already offers downlink speeds of over 20 MBPS and uplinks of around 5 MBPS. It has its own roadmap to match LTE.

Cellular operators might find it more rational to upgrade their networks from 3G to 4G regime of LTE. So everyone from Alcatel to Ericsson to the dozens of handset makers and back haul providers are hedging their bets by putting a bit of technology money on both options. Some like Nokia are using LTE to bookend their more futuristic hand set ideas nanotechnology-driven ‘flexible’ phones like the ‘Morph’ that one can wear around the wrist like a woman’s bracelet. The wearer of such a device will not be bothered about what fuels her broadband dreams as long as IT works to enhance her lifestyle.

Television On The Go

2008-06-10T04:30:00.000-07:00

Joint effort: Nokia has joined hands with Doordarshan to launch mobile TV trials in India.

A majority of mobile phone users about 84%, in India are interested in trying out mobile TV. In fact, TV-on-the-go could attract something like 5 to 6 per cent of the total mobile subscriber base in India (that means some 12 million customers) in the very first year of such an offering in India, says a recent report from Springboard Research.

The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) the government-run telecom provider in Mumbai and Delhi, has already launched mobile TV services — albeit on a low key experimental basis; the offering is free to those who already subscribe to MTNL’s unlimited Rs. 349 per month plan and includes 7 channels. Come April, MTNL is widely expected to formally launch the service across its telecom footprint, effectively taking India into the mobile television era.

Recommendations By TRAI

Meanwhile the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) placed on its website, http://www.trai.gov.in/, a draft of its recommendations on how mobile TV services in India might be deployed.It moots a new class of mobile TV licence to use broadcast delivery methods that are digital and also satisfy the standards laid down by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Two delivery options are suggested: the ultra high frequency or UHF band (585 MHz to 806 MHz) for terrestrial delivery or the S-band for delivery via satellite.

For mobile TV via the terrestrial route, two technologies compete: Digital Broadcast Video-Handheld (DV-H), an extension of DVB-T (for terrestrial) which is being used to feed digital TV to desktop receivers and small semi portable sets and Media Forward Link Only (MediaFLO). DVB is a consortium headquartered in Switzerland.

Technology And Devices For TV On The Go

MediaFLO is a technology developed by Qualcomm to broadcast video and data to portable devices and it is being deployed mainly in the U.S. by Verizon, with AT&T expected to follow.

Prasar Bharti joined hands with Nokia in 2007, to conduct the pilots of mobile television broadcasts in India, using the DVB-H technology. The company has already launched here, two handsets that can receive such broadcasts: the N77 and the N92. At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month, Nokia unveiled yet another mobile TV compatible phone, the N96 as well as an interesting ‘bridging’ product: the SU33W Mobile TV receiver. This is an external Bluetooth ‘dongle’ with a built-in DVB-H antenna. It will extend the ability to receive TV to phones.

In Barcelona, Alcatel-Lucent, with handset maker Sagem and satellite operator Eutelsat, demonstrated the world’s first-ever transmission of satellite mobile TV in the S Band, using the Digital Video Broadcast DVB-SH standard. Channels like CNBC, Nickleodeon and Canal 300 could be seen, via satellite, on a hand-held phone. This is still nascent technology but consider: we are already accustomed to satellite based direct-to-home television services. So it should not surprise us if it is extended to the mobile platform.

But TV on mobile devices is clearly here and the ability to receive it may make the mobile phone the third screen for televised content after the large home screen and the desktop computer monitor.

Reliance Money Unveils Mobile Financial portal In India

Airtel’s Mobile Payment Services Has Been Launched In India

A Visual Search Engine ….Quintura

2008-06-08T00:42:00.000-07:00

This is a recently released visual search engine. Here, in addition to displaying the search output, Quintura analyses the search string and presents a cloud of terms related to it. For instance, if you invoke a search on ‘Economics’, along with the output, you will get a cloud of words pertaining to economics. By clicking on the appropriate word, you can easily refine the search output and zoom on to relevant links. When you point to a word on the cloud the search output gets automatically updated by integrating the selected word also in the query. For Quintura go to: http://www.quintura.com/

The Future Of Music Recording And Playback

2008-06-07T23:31:00.000-07:00

Humans can manipulate their tongue, breath, and fingers only so fast, so in theory recorders shouldn’t really have to measure the music many thousands of times a second like it is done now. As a result, researchers may have found the absolute least amount of data needed to reproduce a piece of music. The researchers at the University of Rochester have digitally reproduced music in a file nearly 1,000 times smaller than a regular MP3 file.

This Is Made Possible By Two innovations

The music, a 20-second clarinet solo, is encoded in less than a single kilobyte, and is made possible by two innovations: recreating in a computer both the real-world physics of a clarinet and the physics of a clarinet player.

In replaying the music, a computer literally reproduces the original performance based on everything it knows about clarinets and clarinet playing. A computer model of the clarinet is built, and the result is a virtual instrument built entirely from the real-world acoustical measurements. The team then set about creating a virtual player for the virtual clarinet. They modeled how a clarinet player interacts with the instrument including the fingerings, the force of breath, and the pressure of the player’s lips to determine how they would affect the response of the virtual clarinet.
The computer “listens” to a real clarinet performance and record the various actions required to create a specific sound. The original sound is then reproduced by feeding the record of the player’s actions back into the computer model. So it’s difficult to tell the synthesized sound from the original. At present the results are a very close, though not yet a perfect, representation of the original sound. The current method handles only a single instrument at a time. However in another work a team has produced a method of separating multiple instruments in a mix so the two methods can be combined to produce a very compact recording.

Currency Converter Tools And Reviews...

2008-06-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

Converting currency of a country to that of another is an important need in today’s globalized context. Since the dawn of the internet as we know it there have been currency conversion websites. Fuelled by the need of foreign exchange traders to be able to access other countries currency rates, the information super highway offered exchange rates long before internet banking was even conceived. Since its early origins, little has changed in the way online currency conversion basically works: select your currency, select the currency you wish to change it to and then click ‘go’ for the results. However, the sites which have lasted the long haul are the ones which offered the easiest interface and calculated the results, not only quickly, but accurately.In this regard, take a look at the ‘Currency conversion tools’ site (http://www.currencyconverter.co.uk/index.html) that hosts currency related updates.

Easy Text Related Tools....

2008-06-07T21:42:00.000-07:00

Text manipulation tools

It is likely that you come across a situation, where you need to get a few text lines sorted in alphabetical order. No need to hunt for a program to do this. Access the service Alphabetizer (http://alphabetizer.flap.tv/index.php), paste the text, click on the ‘Alphabetize’ button and obtain the sorted text.

If you are looking for a more versatile text manipulation tool, try out Textopus (http://textop.us/). Apart from getting lines alphabetized, Textopus offers a variety of text manipulation tools. For instance, if you wish to ‘clean’ a text written without proper spacing, and capitalisation, the ‘Clean Text’ option of Textopus could do the job.Apart from the said features, Textopus toolbox contains tools for reversing lines, shuffling letters, adding line numbers, and deleting duplicate lines. This service can also be used to convert text into numbers in formats such as hexadecimal, binary and ASCII.

Text Translation Tool

If you want to translate a sentence directly from a web page using Google Translate, install the Firefox extens ion Gtranslate (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/918). Once the extension is installed, any text selected from your web page can be translated into any other language by just right-clicking and selecting the ‘Translate’ option. Of course, the translation can only be done into the languages supported by Google’s translation service.

Free Web-Based Conferencing Service… Dimdim

2008-06-07T04:33:00.000-07:00

It is a collaboration tool worth test for free web-based conferencing service ‘dimdim’ (http://dimdim.com/). Recently, ‘dimdim’ has made its service public. Besides offering the hosted service for free, ‘dimdim’ has made its software open-source/freely downloadable, for enabling enthusiasts to host their own ‘dimdim’ based e-meeting service.

Here you can start a meeting and invite others via e-mail, directly from the browser. Apart from offering collaboration tools such as whiteboard, chat (text/audio/video) common to e-meeting services, ‘dimdim’ has some additional unique features.An advantage of ‘dimdim’ is the desktop sharing facility by the presenter to share her desktop with the attendees.

Once the presenter shares her desktop (using the ‘Screen’ option), the desktop screen will immediately be visible to all the participants. This could be useful in product demonstration and co-browsing. If the presenter’s computer has a TV tuner card, she can even share the TV show running on her machine with the attendees. Another feature of ‘dimdim’ worth a mention is the facility to make live presentations with PowerPoint and PDF files.

Flash The Way For Future

2008-06-06T09:47:00.000-07:00

Flash storage as a replacement for the hard drive in portable PC’s may hit 128 GB

Flash can be found inside digital cameras, pocket PCs, hand held MP3 players or games consoles and increasingly in mobile phones. 2008 is shaping up as the year of ultra mobile personal computing (UMPC). Intel’s Classmate PC is now on offer in the avatar of the HCL MiLeapX. Allied Computers has launched the Ethos UMPC, while Asus has brought its EeePC. All these using Flash memory.

As a Good Storage medium

The hard disk drive as a storage medium for a much more rugged, solid state drive based on reusable, non volatile (that is it retains the data even when power is switched off) Flash memory. By year-end he expected SanDisk to be offering 128 GB versions. Admittedly, this comes at a stiffer price compared to hard disk drives.

Enhancement In System boot Speed

PC manufacturers who would like to give their customers the best of both worlds, ScanDisk recently launched the Vaulter disk, a flash-based module that speeds up system boot up, application load-up and retrieval of files while it works in conjunction with a hard drive that performs other storage functions. The two drives operate in parallel, increasing the overall speed and efficiency of the PC or laptop. By 2011, expect to see the smallest of these — the kind that go into mobile phone slots available in sizes of 128 GB or more
It is possible to squeeze so much data into a thumb-nail sized device because companies like SanDisk, Samsung or Toshiba have gone double or triple deck stacking the memory cells so that each of them stores 2 or 3 bits of information. This is called a multi level cell or MLC.
It will use what is known as NAND Flash architecture — this means the cells are connected in series, resembling a NAND gate. The vast majority of commercial Flash storage modules are NAND devices — as against NOR Flash where the cells are connected in parallel like NOR logic gates.

Consumer choice

This is acceptable for the type of applications to which Flash memory is put today and the advantage of being able to stack more NAND Flash cells into a given space has made it the mass consumer choice. But NOR Flash is not about to roll over and die. There are many applications where memory has to be written only rarely, but read very often and very fast — like the BIOS settings in a PC.

Long time partner For Future

Intel finally hived off all its technology in (mostly) NOR Flash, and joined hands with long time partner ST Microelectronics and created a new company called Numonyx, headquartered in Switzerland. The new entity will harness the fruits of their joint innovation in creating memory by an entirely new process that is already exciting semiconductor material scientists: It is called PCM or Phase Change Memory and might well be the first big breakthrough in NOR Flash for almost 30 years.

Size Does Matter...

So it seems the innovations in NAND Flash and PCM will continue a pace for some more time to come, shrinking the manufacturing tolerance to 45 nanometres and beyond, squeezing more and more cells on every square cm. of substrate till a gigabyte will reduce to a dot, invisible to the naked eye. Players like Intel and SanDisk are harnessing the efforts of their India-based engineers in this quest. Flash is clearly the way memory is going these.

Spams are 30 years old!!!

2008-06-06T09:18:00.000-07:00

Spammers have succeeded in cracking CAPTCHA

Spams are 30 years old. It is 30 years since the first ‘spam’ message — unsolicited e-mail — was sent over the Internet.

The starting...

On May 3, 1978, Gary Thuerka, salesperson for the Digital Equipment Corporation, sent a mail to 393 users of what was then Arpanet, the precursor to Internet, inviting them to a demonstration of DEC’s latest computer “Digital will be giving a product presentation of the newest members of the decsystem-20 family….we invite you to come see the 2020 and hear about the decsystem-20 family at the two product presentations we will be giving in California this month…”Arpnet’s military administrator sent a strongly worded message to all the addressees of the original mail: “…this was a flagrant violation of the use of arpanet as the network is to be used for official U.S. Government business only. Appropriate action is being taken to preclude its occurrence again… Major Raymond Czahor”

It Seems Unstoppable

Today, spam seems unstoppable.About 100 billion spasm are sent off everyday. While leading Net security providers like Symantec, TrendMicro or McAfee, as well as all the main e-mail providers, try and filter out as much spam, as they can recognize.Last week, Web security services provider, MessageLabs, released its Intelligence Report for 2008, where it finds that spammers increasingly use sophisticated new tools like botnets — robot programmes that aim to ‘capture’ PC.

Bots lurk in the background of the captured computer, without destroying files or disrupting the computer’s operation. You may be ignorant of the ‘dirty work’ afoot, and might only notice slightly sluggish performance of your PC.

The semi-annual Symantec Internet Threat Security Report, just released, says, there has been an increasing use of Gmail, Yahoo! and Hotmail, and other webmail services by spammers. They have even succeeded in cracking CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) the technique used by web e-mail services to prevent wholesale automated account signups by spammers. Typically, CAPTCHA requires humans to decipher a string of letters that are distorted to prevent automated reading.

A Try to Avoid Spam...

According to ‘The Spam Report,’ Another spam technique is Backscatter: “The sender simply places the target recipient in the ‘from:’ header, and then a random email address in the ‘to:’ header, so the spam fails to reach its target and bounces straight back to the sender. If you want to keep spam-laden ‘bots’ away from your PC, there is a useful list of hints posted by the IT department of the University of Wisconsinat Madison

Common driver /Universal print driver (UPD)....For Printers

2008-06-06T07:12:00.000-07:00

It was supposed to allow different printers to be installed using a common driver software. The UPD has long been on the wish list of those whose job entails enabling the printing of documents from computers, in environments where there are heterogeneous printers connected to multiple PCs. Typically, this would be a networked office situation: even in fairly small or medium enterprises, it is not unusual to find half a dozen printers, a mix of colour and monochrome, single function and multifunction (print-copy-scan), laser and inkjet... even some impact dot matrix machines.

Unless such enterprises have a dedicated team to run such networks, keeping track of different printer models; upgrading their driver software, assigning printing rights to different users can become an administrative nightmare. Also,every time you reinstall the operating system (OS) on your PC you have to do the same. Vista demands a new generation of drivers

Own Range By companies

Printer makers have been sensitive to this customer wish and in recent years most manufacturers have tried to create a single driver which works across their own range. Xerox came up with a Walk-Up Printing Driver, designed for individuals who travel between offices and use different printers.

The driver stores information for about 15 printers. Ricoh offered the PostScript Driver for mobile printing. Lexmark called its solution the Universal Driver and Hewlett Packard released its Universal Print Driver.

There have been some third party solutions, mostly aimed at network managers rather than individual users: UniPrint from Ingenica, was a software-based printing solution for server-based computing environments.

Citrixhad its own printer control software which came bundled with its MetaFrame server solution. The most ambitious of the downloadable free-to-use UPD offerings is arguably the one launched by HP which is available in its latest version

Two Standards

It covers the two standards, PostScript as well as PCL and because HP has such a wide range of offerings the number of printer models covered, is also large: nearly 100.

The list almost covers the full current catalogue of laser printers, both single and multi function, but on the inkjet side, the driver covers only the enterprise end — mostly the Officejet brand.

HP claims its driver can add some functionality — like retrofitting double sided or duplex printing (with the right attachment) or holding back printing on a networked printer till the initiator is ready to collect the prints — something they call Private Printing.

This is where a truly universal printer driver would have helped. And this is precisely where it is not available Right now, what they are giving-work in progress, slow lurches in the direction of a universal software to drive all makes of printer, and painfully slow at that.

Tata Comm. To Set Up WiMAX network In India

2008-05-29T10:09:00.000-07:00

Tata Communications selected U.S.-based Telsima Corporation for providing WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) solutions for its broadband wireless network in India. Tata Communications, formerly known as VSNL, will invest $500 million by 2010 for setting up the WiMAX network in India to offer high-speed Internet.

In the initial phase, the WiMAX network of Tata Communications will offer broadband Internet access and content services to enterprise and residential customers in major cities. Telsima would provide WiMAX infrastructure and subscriber equipment solutions to deploy the commercial WiMAX network. It is setting up 3,000 base stations, which will enable customers to access video, education, music and business services

Things Good to Know On Internet

2008-05-29T07:16:00.000-07:00

Keeping Up With The Developments In Internet

Keeping up with the developments in the virtual world is not that easy. However, if we use appropriate tools/services, we can overcome this to a large extent. Some such services/tools are discussed here.
Naturally, a service that updates the latest web based applications would certainly be useful. In this regard, you may find the new on-line applications directory service AppAppeal (http://www.appappeal.com/) worthwhile. This service reviews new web based applications and classifies them under various categories like Blogging, Presentation, Social bookmarking and Spreadsheets. To follow popular trends being discussed on the blogosphere, try out the service TrendPedia (http://www.trendpedia.com/). You can track past/ present popularity of a theme/subject/product as well. In addition, this service lets you compare trends in different topics/subjects.
If you use newsfeeds extensively to track content, try out Brief (http: //brief.mozdev. org/), a feed reading extension for Firefox. The advantage of this extension is that it lets you enjoy the benefits of a desktop feed reader without having to install one. If you are a Bloglines user, you may like Brief’s interface, which is similar to that of Bloglines. Also, if you already use a feed reader, you can transfer all the feeds from that reader to Brief, using its OPML file import facility.

To Read Later Tools

It is likely that you come across an interesting web article but too busy to read the same instantly. One solution is to use a FF extension like ‘read it later’ (http: //www. ideashower.com/ideas/active /read-it-later/) that helps you create a reading list of ‘to read’ pages. However, this solution fails when you switch over to another machine. Readeroo (http://www.monsur.com/projects/readeroo/), the Firefox extension mentioned in this column sometime back, could come in handy on such situations. However, to use this service you need an account with ‘del.icio.us’.

A Good File Recovery Tool

A good file recovery tool that un-deletes an erased file is obviously an essential utility for the smooth running of one’s digital life. The free software, Recuva ( http://www.recuva.com/) is a good un-erase utility worth a try.

For Those Who Are Using Several Communication Channels

Those of you using several communication channels (like gTalk, Yahoo and MSN) and social networking sites like Facebook, may find the generic client tool Digsby quite useful (http://www. digsby.com/). Digsby lets you access your email accounts, IM networks and social networking accounts directly from it. Along with popular IM networks (like AIM, MSN and gTalk) and popular email services (like gmail, hotmail and yahoomail), you can access social networking services like twitter/facebook. When you receive a mail or twitter message, Digsby immediately alerts you.

To Play Audio/Video Content of Different Formats

Audio/Video content from different sources come in a variety of formats such as avi, 3gp, wmv, ogg., and mp3. Instead of using separate players to play each of the formats, a generic player, capable of playing all formats could certainly be useful. The free software, KMPlayer (http://www.kmplayer.com/forums/index.php) that can play a wide variety of audio/video formats, is a great product in this genre.

Picking on Blackberry, Leaving out Web Based Emails

2008-05-29T06:55:00.000-07:00

Latest model: Blackberry Pearl

This was not just the combo of email plus phone that made the Blackberry what it is today: From the very beginning the company, through the mobile service providers in different geographies, offered a level of secure communications that hitherto was obtainable only if corporates created their own private networks.

It was not enough to own a Blackberry: you had to subscribe to a service (typically costing about Rs.1000 per month) which assured you state-of-the-art communication security using encryption standards like the Data Encryption Standard (DES) algorithm and more recently an even more secure Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), which used what is known as Symmetric Key cryptography. These were technologies first created for national security agencies. Today common people have access to this level of encryption where the keys are 256 bits long.

Blackberry users are assured that the servers which house and handle their mail — they are hosted by RIM — will provide them the comfort level that their own company network could give. And for the money they pay to their service providers be it Airtel or Vodafone or Reliance or whoever — Blackberry customers are able to keep on the cusp of technology: Last week RSA, the security specialists, created for Blackberry, a new 2-factor secure identification system known as SecureID token.

Blackberry can switch to a WiFi hotspot to send and receive your mails rather than use the costlier cellular service. The RSA tool ensures that by going wireless rather than cellular, the user does not degrade the security of his communication.

Blackberry and Government’s Approach in India

2008-05-29T06:53:00.000-07:00

In recent weeks, there has been a lot of media coverage about the efforts of the Indian government to obtain access to the email traffic that flows between customers using the Blackberry device for their communications. It is not clear why government picked on Blackberry’s enterprise users in the first place because in most respects they are no different from lakhs of Indian users of Web based email services provided by international Web players.

If Government wants complete security and control on information, it needs to ban email, and thus Internet access. With a BlackBerry or similar services, the mail follows a clear route. It goes through an Indian Telco’s server before it’s pushed out. The mail can be captured; the origins established. It may not be easy or even possible to decrypt the mail, but that is the aspect government people can focus on, rather than questioning the service itself.
Many company mailservers used by Indians, are based in the U.S which is outside India’s jurisdiction: they cannot legally access a mailbox on a server outside India. But because of use the BlackBerry service, the mail actually gets routed locally through Airtel.

The real challenge for governments is not getting access to mail servers.But recognizing patterns in the millions of mails that flow through to identify a threat. In any case there are hundreds of ‘anonymizers’ — sites which cloak the origin of your mail — and that is just another hurdle that law enforcements agencies have to address. At the end of the day, technology will continue to empower the world’s people — and that will include the good, the bad and the ugly among them. Governments will need the humility to apreciate this — and the skills to work with it or around it, for the general good

Reliance Money Unveils Mobile Financial portal In India

2008-05-27T23:00:00.000-07:00

Sudip Bandyopadhyay (left), Director and CEO, Reliance Money, and Beerud Sheth, Co-founder and President, Webaroo, at a press conference

Reliance Money, the financial services and products distribution company of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, is the first financial intermediary to introduce financial market information across mobile platforms in India. It has tied up with Webaroo for the initiative.
The company unveiled its “Mobile Financial Portal”, the first-of-its-kind portal offering a range of financial services and information to its investors, across all telecom operators. With this initiative, the company will now be tapping around 200 million telecom user base in India, which adds over five million customers every month, with its services. Webaroo is the creator of fast, free, and ‘always-on’ web content.

This unique initiative will provide mobile users an opportunity to stay connected with financial markets while on the move, irrespective of the status of their network. Most importantly, this service is being offered by Reliance Money free of charge to all, across networks and mobile technologies. The portal, with its rich contents and advance graphics, is cached on the user’s mobile handsets for facilitating quick and seamless experience irrespective of network connectivity.

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