Scribblings

Google Click-to-Call

2007-11-03T12:31:00.001-07:00

Finally...google launched this service :)

Click-to-Call FAQ

Privacy Notice

What is this click-to-call feature? How does it work?

Google is testing a new feature that lets you speak directly over the
phone, for free, to businesses you find on Google search results pages.
When this feature is available for a business, you'll see a green phone
icon in their advertisement or a call link next to their contact information.

Here's how it works: Click the phone icon or call link, and you'll be invited to enter your own phone number into a special field. When you do so and then click Connect for free,
Google will call your number almost immediately. Pick up, and you'll
hear ringing on the other end as Google connects you to the business
you selected. When they answer, you simply talk normally as you would
with any other call.

Who will get my phone number?

When you enter a number, Google uses it just once: to make the
automatic connection between you and the business. Your number is
blocked so that the business can't see it. Google doesn't share your
number with the business, and we won't use the number to make any other
calls to you. In addition, your information will be deleted from our
servers after a period reasonably necessary to operate the service. We
take your privacy very seriously. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

Whose caller ID do I see when connected?

The phone number of the business you selected will appear on your
caller ID when Google connects you. This way, you can save the number
for future call-backs.

Am I charged for the connection?

No.
Google pays the bill for all calls, both local and long-distance.
However, if you give us a mobile phone number, your normal airtime fees
or other fees charged by your provider for the call may apply.

What if someone enters my phone number instead of theirs as a prank call?

Google takes fraud and spamming very seriously. We use technical
methods to prevent future prank calls from the same user within a
reasonable period of time. You won't be charged for any such calls.
Please contact adwords-support@google.com if you believe someone is
entering your phone number without your permission or knowledge.

Making JavaScript Safe with Google Caja

2007-10-14T12:40:00.001-07:00

Douglas Crockford continues to bang the drum for securing JavaScript in his latest post:

It is possible to make secure programming languages. Most language
designers do not consider that possibility. JavaScript’s biggest
weakness is that it is not secure. That puts JavaScript in very good
company, but it puts web developers in an untenable position because
they cannot build secure applications in an insecure language.
JavaScript is currently going through a redesign that is again failing
to consider the security of the language. The new language will be
bigger and more complex, which will make it even harder to reason about
its security. I hope that that redesign will be abandoned.

A
more fruitful approach is to remove insecurity from the language.
JavaScript is most easily improved by removing defective features. I am
aware of two approaches that allow us to build secure applications by
subsetting the insecure language.

The first approach is to use
a verifier. That is how ADsafe works. A verifier statically analyzes a
program, and certifies that the program does not use any of the unsafe
features of the language. This does not guarantee that the program is
safe, but it makes it possible to make programs that are safe. Any
program can compromise its own security. The improvement here is that a
program’s security is not compromised by the language it is written in.

The
second approach is to use a transformer. A transformer verifies, but it
also modifies the program, adding indirection and runtime checks. The
advantage of transformers is that they allow the use of a larger subset
of the language. For example, ADsafe does not allow the use of the this
parameter. A transformer can allow this because it can inject code
around it and its uses to ensure that it is never used unsafely. The
benefit is that it is more likely that existing programs could run in a
safe mode with little or no modification. I think that is a dubious
benefit because programs that are not designed to be safe probably are
not. The downside is that the final program will be bigger and slower,
and debugging on the transformed program will be more difficult.

Both approaches work. But we still need to fix the browser.

A new project, Google Caja, is trying to do source-to-source translation to secure things:

Using Caja, web apps can safely allow scripts in third party content.

The
computer industry has only one significant success enabling documents
to carry active content safely: scripts in web pages. Normal users
regularly browse untrusted sites with Javascript turned on. Modulo
browser bugs and phishing, they mostly remain safe. But even though web
apps build on this success, they fail to provide its power. Web apps
generally remove scripts from third party content, reducing content to
passive data. Examples include webmail, groups, blogs, chat, docs and
spreadsheets, wikis, and more.

Were scripts in an
object-capability language, web apps could provide active content
safely, simply, and flexibly. Surprisingly, this is possible within
existing web standards. Caja represents our discovery that a subset of
Javascript is an object-capability language.

FBJS is also trying to do some of this too. Got some time on Friday to look around some code? Take a look at some Caja.

Steve Jobs' Greatest Presentation

2007-07-09T06:49:00.001-07:00

Our communications coach mines Jobs' introduction of the iPhone to offer five lessons for making an unforgettable pitch

by
Carmine Gallo

After a gorgeous afternoon of golf a few days ago, my nephew seemed
anxious to get home, even skipping out on my invitation to dinner. He's
a graduating high school senior, so I assumed he wanted to hang out
with friends. I was partly correct. He wanted to hang out with friends
in line for the new iPhone.

Leave it to Apple (AAPL) Chief Executive Steve Jobs
to create a frenzy that gripped every gadget fan in the country. The
hype, however, started with what I consider Jobs' best presentation to
date—the introduction of the iPhone at the annual Macworld trade show
in January.

After watching and analyzing the presentation, I thought about five
ways to distill Jobs' speaking techniques to help anyone craft and
deliver a persuasive pitch.

1. Build Tension

A good novelist doesn't lay out the entire plot and conclusion on
the first page of the book. He builds up to it. Jobs begins his
presentation by reviewing the "revolutionary" products Apple has
introduced. According to Jobs, "every once in a while a revolutionary
product comes along that changes everything…Apple has been fortunate to
introduce a few things into the world." Jobs continues by describing
the 1984 launch of the Macintosh as an event that "changed the entire
computer industry." The same goes for the introduction of the first
iPod in 2001, a product that he says "changed the entire music
industry."

After laying the groundwork, Jobs builds up to the new device by
teasing the audience: "Today, we are introducing three revolutionary
products. The first is a wide-screen iPod with touch controls. The
second is a revolutionary new mobile phone. And the third is a
breakthrough Internet communications device." Jobs continues to build
tension. He repeats the three devices several times then says, "Are you
getting it? These are not three separate devices. This is one
device…today Apple is going to reinvent the phone!" The crowd goes
wild.

Jobs conducts a presentation like a symphony, with ebbs and flows,
buildups and climaxes. It leaves his listeners wildly excited. The
takeaway? Build up to something unexpected in your presentations.

Confessions of a Linux Fan: 10 Things You Might Want To Know Before Switching Over To Linux

2007-07-09T06:19:00.001-07:00

Original Post

Linux fans (myself included) love to argue to Windows users how much
better the Linuxes are than Microsoft Windows. Now don't get me wrong,
I am not posting this to disprove that Linuxes, BSD's,
or any of the *nixes are better than Windows, they really are. However
(and there's always a however) we tend to be very selective on what we
tell you when it comes to the minor details. Take this as a confession,
as an admission of those details you might not necessarily like about
Linux.

1. The basic
installation of most mainstream Linux distributions is very easy, but a
first time user might run into trouble when trying to depart from the
defaults.

Some Linux distributions have Live Cd's, others have very user-friendly GUIs.
However you might find that sometimes the Live CD installer, or the
pretty GUI does not work because the installer does not have the right
graphics drivers. In that case, you either need to find an alternate
installation CD,
or change the options at the boot screen. We don't tell you that this
might happen because 90% of the time, the installer will work fine out
of the box.

2. If you want a proper Linux installation, you are going to have to mess around with the partition table.

I
see a partition table, and I know how to read it, for a new user, it
might as well be written in [name exotic language of your choice here].
Yes, there are tutorials out there, but if you miss a step, for example
forget to flag the /boot partition for booting, you might find yourself
with a Linux install that does not want to boot up. We forget to tell
you this because most installers either create a partition table for
you, or just install everything into one partition, and Linux will
still work either way, and chances are you will not be able to tell the
difference.

3. You will have to learn how to use the command line.

Regardless of how GUIfied
Linuxes have become, a lot of operations still require the command
line, so you better be ready to learn how to use it. Besides, in the
strange occurrence of a system crash, chances are it will revert to a
stable command line interface. We don't tell you this because we,
hardcore Linux users, *love* the command line, and the power of the
command line is one of the major appeals of Linux. We truly believe
everyone should love the command line as much as we do.

4. All those pretty effects of wobbly windows and cube desktops require some work from the user.

In most distributions, you will need to install Beryl/Compiz/Compiz Fusion in order to get those effects. Ubuntu Feisty comes with a slightly-watered-down version of Compiz, with wobbly windows, transparencies and a cubed desktop. For burning window plugins, active corners, etc, you will need to install Bery/Compiz Fusion... which will require some command line and some configuration. I believe the next version of Ubuntu (Gutsy Gibbon) will indeed come with Comiz-Fusion.

5. Yes, more hardware works with Linux than with Windows. No, not all hardware works 100% like it's supposed to.

This
is specially true with some mainstream peripheral manufacturers. They
have the bizarre notion that Linux users do not need/use peripherals so
they do not publish drivers for Linux. Luckily we have a huge base of
very capable programmers that are willing to reverse engineer drivers
to make the peripherals work with Linux. Unfortunately, because they
are not the manufacturer's drivers, the hardware might not work 100% as
intended all the time. Infamous for this is Logitech, to name one.

6.
If you need/want to install a package not included in the repositories,
or install from source, you might need to do some research.

Because
Linux is very modular, not all dependencies and libraries are installed
by default. If you install an application from the repositories, the
install application will automatically figure out the dependencies that
need to be met. If you are installing an individual package, or from
source, you might need to do some research or read installation
instructions and READMEs and install the required dependencies prior to installing the application.
7. Most mainstream software manufacturers forget about Linux.

You will not find Photoshop for Linux, you will not find Microsoft Office for Linux, you will not find iTunes for Linux. This is especially true for the gaming industry, which has completely overpassed
Linux. This is a blessing in disguise however. Once again, Linux
developers/knights in shining armor have developed native programs,
most of them open source and free (as in beer and free as in speech),
to substitute their commercial cousins. Once again, some are better, some offer the same functionalities, and others are just mediocre. Luckily, we also have Wine, and its commercial cousins, Cedega
and Crossover Office, which offer a port to a lot of Windows programs.
This solution, however, will require in most instances, some work (read
command line) from the user.

8. Linux is not for the meek of heart.

Linux
is about being free; about having options. There are literally
thousands of options for every single aspect of Linux, beginning with
your distribution of choice. When you've picked out a distribution, you
will want to choose window manager (Gnome, KDE, XFCE, Fluxbox....).
Once you have that, you will want to customize your desktop theme:
wallpaper, icons, window border shape, color and size, panels,
launchers.... Last but not least, you will have tons of options for
every program (for internet browsing for example, you might want Firefox, or SwiftFox, or Opera, or Konqueror, or ie4linux...you
even have command line/text based web browsers). Basically, if you are
an undecided person, you will be overwhelmed with choices.
9. Linux is almost entirely virus/trojan/spyware free, but you will still need some kind of protection.

Protection
for Linux usually means a firewall, either installed in your computer,
or in a router/hardware firewall. This, of course, implies a little bit
more work for the user.

10. Linux assumes that you are an intelligent person.

As
such, it assumes that if you log in as administrator, you know what you
are doing. You can do a lot of damage as administrator. You can
literally screw the whole darn system with a single mistyped command on
the command line. Luckily, for the most part, you will be logged in as a lowly user.
Assuming
that you are intelligent also implies that you can customize
everything, and if you break something while customizing the system to
your needs, you will know how to fix it, or be willing to work hard and
learn how to fix it.

As a final thought, i guess what we, the
Linux fans, do not tell you is that for the most part "Linux is for
power users, and Windows is for n00bs"
(I've seen this posted somewhere). So think about what I've posted, and
if you are not willing to "geek" around a little, Linux is not for you.

WSDL 2.0 approved as an official W3C Recommendation

2007-07-03T02:11:00.001-07:00

Original Link

WSDL 2.0 has finally been approved as an official World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation on June 27 2007. The Web Services Description Working Group
has been working on the standards for more than 6 years. The
recommendation was due on the 31st of December 2006 but has received an
extension to the 30th of June this year.

There has been much debate about whether WSDL 2.0 is the long
awaited and improved successor of WSDL 1.1 (the de facto standard up to
now) or of no relevance at all. Mark Little has written an extensive post on this matter here on InfoQ. The main changes from WSDL 1.1 to 2.0 are:

Changes in the naming of WSDL components, e.g. portType has been renamed to interface
Removal of message constructs
Support of additional Message Exchange Patterns
Support of other type systems than XML Schema
HTTP binding, which supports POX(Plain Old XML)/REST-style services

Fifty (50!) Tools which can help you

2007-06-04T22:58:00.001-07:00

Roy Peter Clark from Poynter Institute has posted up 50 tools that
can help you when you do any kinds of writing. This is a extensive list
of writing tools, but by no mean you need to apply all of them when you
do any writing. There are the Writing Tool links:

… You will become handy with these tools over time.
You will begin to recognize their use in the stories you read. You will
see chances to apply them when you revise your own work. Eventually,
they will become part of your flow, natural and automatic …

Links of 50 Writing Tool

Fifty Writing Tools - Poynter Online

Chasing your dreams

2007-05-19T13:55:00.001-07:00

Its 20th May 2007. The digital clock screams it’s 1.20 AM and what the hell are you doing.. i grinned and told, i am chasing my dreams. Yes i am really doing. Do you believe in dreams ? You have to. At least my 24 year old life has taught this to me. Let me elaborate on this.

What is a dream?

In simple terms, dream is a imaginary cloth woven with the reflection of your thoughts. If that was not so simple, try this. Dream is a complex visual which is everything but real.

When i say everything i really mean it. This doesn’t mean that dreams cannot be real. We have to turn our dream a reality. In our life there are certain limitations which we cannot cross because of our current position / commitment. But in dreams, we have no limitations. We can design our platform, actors, relationships, actions actually Everything.

Since childhood we have had lot of dreams. But How many follow ? To add the punch let me rephrase, How many chase ? When we start to live in our dream, our thoughts, characteristics and eventually our actions will get aligned to our dreams. If we dream for good, in reality we will do good.

Do dreams change ?

Yes it will. In real life, change is the only thing that doesn’t change. This holds good for dreams too. Our dreams change because we change, our thoughts mature and our actions get refined.

How to turn dream a reality ?

I hate the way the word DayDreaming being interpreted. There is nothing wrong dreaming in daytime. Actually its good. It will help us to build our castle dream. But in reality, we need to add actions to our dream to build our castle.

Dreams are the fuel for our life. I strongly feel, if we don’t dream we won’t progress. We need to work hard to turn our dream a reality.

Whatever it takes, chase your dream and do keep in mind that there is no substitute for Hard work.

The digital clock in my bedroom again screams it’s 2.20 AM and what the hell are you doing.. i again grinned and said good night. SWEET DREAMS

Pirates crack Vista at last

2007-05-08T01:33:00.001-07:00

Don't know about the authenticity of this. Here is the Original Post

A genuine crack for Windows Vista has just been released by pirate
group Pantheon, which allows a pirated, non-activated installation of
Vista (Home Basic/Premium and Ultimate) to be properly activated and
made fully-operational.

This version of Vista uses System-Locked Pre-Installation 2.0 (SLP
2.0). It allows the “Royalty OEMs” to embed specific licensing
information into the operating system which Vista can activate without
having to go back to Microsoft for verification. The licensing
components include the OEM’s hardware-embedded BIOS ACPI_SLIC (which
has been signed by Microsoft), an XML certificate file which
corresponds to this ACPI_SLIC and a specific OEM product key.

Read this for more

Another Indian Startup !

2007-05-03T06:53:00.001-07:00

Indians are truly into the next gen softwares...

Read this http://ugenie.com/faqs.jsp to understand how they search.

Menlo Park, California (November 2, 2006) – Ugenie, (www.ugenie.com), a next-generation online shopping engine focusing on true price discovery, announced today that it has raised its first venture capital funding round from BlueRun Ventures and Sierra Ventures. The $5 million investment will be used for product development and global market expansion.

"Ugenie is not just another shopping search engine. Its ability to unlock the hidden savings by taking advantage of price breaks including shipping, taxes, and any coupons available for the product or bundle of products is unique only to them," said Mark Fernandes, Managing Director, Sierra Ventures.

"The Ugenie team has the know-how and market experience to make a breakthrough in online shopping, and we are proud to support their vision", said John Gardner, Partner, BlueRun Ventures.

Ugenie founders are all Amazon veterans. Krishna Motukuri, Founder & CEO, co-founded Amazon India. Harish Abbott, Founder & President was a Sr. Program Manager at Amazon. Bharat Vijay, CTO, founded Yahoo India and the Amazon and A9 (search) development centers.

"This investment will help ugenie bring its patented technology to the masses with a single mission to save consumers real dollars." said Krishna Motukuri, Founder & CEO of ugenie. "In addition, BlueRun Ventures and Sierra Ventures, will bring tremendous business and global experience to help us execute on our strategic business objectives."

To try ugenie's beta release, go to www.ugenie.com.

About ugenie

Ugenie is a next-generation online
shopping engine focusing on true price discovery for single and bundle
of items. Ugenie offers millions of unique new and used items in
categories such as books, music, movies, and games. Our promise to our
customers is "true price search" - we will help you find the cheapest
prices across the web, bottom-line prices that factor in shipping fees,
taxes, coupons, and mail-in rebates. If you wish to buy single or a
bundle of items, we promise we will save you a bundle. For more
information, visit www.ugenie.com.

2007-05-03T05:16:00.000-07:00

Playing with Google Docs....

This is a test blog which got published from googledocs.

Geek To Live: Getting Things Done with Google Notebook

2007-05-03T04:54:00.001-07:00

May 2, 2007 10:30 PM

Show original item

Fans and followers of the Getting Things Done personal productivity system have hacked all sorts of ways to GTD in different applications, from Microsoft Outlook to plain text to Gmail. But one of Google Labs' less-hyped applications, Notebook, is very well-suited to instant capture and easy processing of your GTD lists.

Today I've got the scoop on how to manage your inbox, projects, next actions and someday/maybe lists with Google Notebook.

First things first: if you haven't read Getting Things Done,
you're missing out. The fast read is well worth the 9 bucks, and even
if it doesn't turn you into a full-on disciple of The David, it will at
least install the seeds of some new good habits into your cluttered,
distracted mind. For the reader's digest version, check out the Getting Things Done Wikipedia page.

Second:
why Google Notebook? While there are dozens of online list makers,
Google Notebook is flexible enough (ie, not just a list) for you to
work and tweak your GTD system to your liking. It can capture
information anywhere on the web with a mature browser extension and it
comes with Google's signature killer search capabilities. Plus, using
Notebook's collaboration features, you could allow your spouse or
co-worker drop things into your Inbox for you to process later. Sure,
desktop apps like Thinking Rock and iGTD
are cool, but for people who live in a web browser, Notebook
automatically includes links in notes (including individual Gmail
messages) and its contents are available from any computer where you're
logged into your Google Account.

Set up your GTD Notebooks

Ready to give this a try? Log into your Google Account and head over to Notebook.
To get started you want to create 5 new notebooks, representing the
classic GTD silos: Inbox, Next Actions, Projects, Someday/Maybe and
Reference. I like to prepend "GTD" to the beginning of each notebook
title so that I can sort them alphabetically and separate them from
other notebooks I might have set up.

A quick refresher of the purpose of these buckets for those who've fallen off the GTD wagon:

Inbox.
Here's where unprocessed thoughts - "open loops" as David Allen calls
them - get dropped off for dealing with later. Pop-up thoughts,
half-baked notions and "Oh! I should..." go here.
Next Actions. This is your immediate, actionable to-do list, a few specific items you've decided to carry out in the next few days.
Someday/Maybe. Here's where the things you might like to do someday - but you're not committed to right now - get shuttled.
Projects.
Big jobs that are made up of a collection of subtasks are not next
actions, they're projects. For example, the "Clean out the office" job
is made up of several next actions (ie, "Take out the garbage,"
"Rearrange the book shelves," "Purge filing cabinet.")
Reference.
Research into a topic that you'll need to carry out a next action or
refer back to for a particular project goes here. For example, this is
where you'd store links to the hotel, flight information and maps of a
travel destination.

Once you've got the 5 GTD areas set up,
it's time to move your info in. To add to a notebook (say, "Next
Actions"), click on it and hit the "New Note" button. From there you
can type your item (like "Deposit checks") or add a section header.
Headers are useful for separating information into different categories
in a notebook. For example, in my Next Actions notebook, I separate
items under Context headers (like @Phone, @Desk, @Shopping Center.)

Yep, it is like iTunes for PDFs

2007-05-03T04:30:00.001-07:00

webmaster@oreillynet.com (Bruce Stewart) May 3, 2007 10:46 AM
 - 
Show original item

I just discovered Yep,
which bills itself as “iTunes for PDFs”. And I’m hooked. Like most of
us, as the PDF format has continued to get more widespread acceptance,
I have been accumulating more and more PDF documents on my mac. They’re
scattered all over my system, in my mail attachments, in various
folders, and I often have a bunch sitting on my desktop at any given
time. And far too many of those pesky PDFs that came from some link I
clicked on somewhere come across with meaningless filenames.

With Yep, I’ll no longer waste much time searching for that
particular PDF I need, or wondering what that cryptically-named PDF on
my desktop is. Yep does just what it claims to, it provides a friendly
interface to all of your PDF documents, with expandable thumbnail views
and every possible bit of info and meta-data you could want about them.
The Yep interface is simple but powerful, with features like tagging
and searching across all of your PDFs.

Yep doesn’t copy or move your PDFs like some other similar products,
but rather builds a smart interface on top of Spotlight’s searching
capability. (One potential downside, if Spotlight can’t find a PDF on
your system because you’ve restricted what Spotlight indexes, Yep won’t
see it either).

The real power and convenience of Yep comes from its tagging
features. It automatically tags all of your PDFs with the folder name
they live in, but it also allows for adding more tags to improve your
PDF organization. If you like organizing things by tags and the
simplicity of tag clouds, and have been wishing for better system for
your PDFs, you should definitely give Yep a try.

சோதனை அஞ்சல்

2007-04-07T21:20:00.001-07:00

இனிமேல் தமிழிலும் blogs இருக்கும்

Apple facing several federal lawsuits

2007-01-02T00:16:00.000-08:00

Original Post

Amid the options imbroglio, Apple is also facing several federal lawsuits it disclosed in its delayed regulatory filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Administration, the Associated Press is reporting.

One of those suits targets the copy-protection system we all know and bemoan that keeps iTunes music and video from playing on rival media players and also keeps content purchased elsewhere from being easily playable on iPods, according to a Saturday AP story. The suit alleges the company "created an illegal monopoly by tying" iTunes content to its market-leading iPods, the story said. The suit was filed in July and the court denied Apple's motion for dismissal on December 20, the story said.

Another lawsuit mentioned in the story "alleges that the logic board of Apple's iBook G4 fails at an abnormally high rate." And another filed by PhatRat Technology alleges patent infringement on a Nike-iPod product, the story said.

Microsoft is bribing bloggers !!!

2007-01-02T00:14:00.000-08:00

Original Post

Anyone who hates Microsoft has been lapping up the news that the company sent fancy-schmancy Acer Ferrari laptops preloaded with Windows Vista to about 90 bloggers.

The story began surfacing last week. The controversy has generated thousands of comments across the blogosphere and has yet to show signs of dying out.

The commentary has run the gamut. Many, of course, have focused on Microsoft's motivation and/or lack of foresight in sending out the machines. And many of the recipients have ended up feeling forced to defend themselves. So much for good publicity.

Blog community response:

Since I wasn't sent one of the sweet laptops I can speculate as to what I would do with one...I'd give it to my Grandma. My Grandma has never used a computer...If Vista is really supposed to be so advanced yet simple that anyone can use it, why not send her a laptop and see how she does with it?...

Nothing against (Mike Arrington of Techcrunch and Crunchnotes), but Microsoft doesn't show much creativity by sending him a laptop loaded with Vista. I wonder how many of the laptops were sent to people who had already run beta versions of Vista or who write pro-Microsoft blogs? Come on, Microsoft, think outside the lines and send a laptop to someone who has never used your products before. Then sit back and listen.
--Brett Nordquist

"So, where's the ethics violation? Let me ask you, if someone handed you a $2,000 fancy, cool-looking computer emblazoned with the Ferrari logo, especially considering that's as close to a Ferrari as most of us would ever get, would you say anything bad about them? Even though these bloggers were not required to speak well of the product...not the laptop, the new OS...who's going to cut off their nose in spite of their face by being critical?"
--Strategic Blogging

"Microsoft's approach raises some problematic issues...How many bloggers have received a notebook but have not declared it on their blog? Quite a few I suggest, which highlights the fundamental problem with blogging, which is that bloggers are not trained journalists and not necessarily in tune with the ethical problems that gifts entail...

Finally, sending bribes to bloggers is not a good look for Microsoft, and this is exactly how this initiative will be perceived. Even as they try to defend themselves, Microsoft's PR Gurus, show that they do not understand the blogosphere."
--John Pospisil on Tech.Blorge.com

AJAX Magazine: Ask X, The New Search Engine AJAX Experience

2006-12-28T21:38:00.001-08:00

Ask.com have launched a new AJAX-based edition of its search engine Ask X. The speed is pretty good, except for results that return more advanced details for example is you search for a country for example Tunisia, a preview of the country is displayed in the top page followed by other results, while the right panel will show you images from that country, the forecast, dictionary, current time, and an excerpt from Wikipedia. There is also an advanced search for images videos, news, blogs, shopping, ... etc. The page is overall divided into three sections :

Left Panel : A search control panel that stays with you, complete with Zoom Related Search and Search Suggestions that update as you type.
Middle Panel : Results front and center to provide clutter-free information without having to scroll down the page, and Binoculars to preview results.
Right Panel: A preview of other types of search results, including video, news, images, blogs, shopping, encyclopedia and more.

Original Post

Google Kills SOAP Search API Support For The Profit Of AJAX

2006-12-28T21:33:00.000-08:00

Original Post

As displayed in the Google SOAP Search API homepage, Google is no longer supporting the SOAP Search API since December 5, 2006. They encourage you to use the AJAX search API instead. The service is not going to be shutdown as the documentation will remain available on the website for current users, but there will not be any development in the future of the SOAP service. Google finds the AJAX Search API better suited for search-based web applications and supports additional features like Video, News, Maps, and Blog search results. Someone said that AJAX will be the webservices killer ?

INNOVATION CAN BRING MORE GLOBAL OUTSOURCING TO INDIA

2006-12-20T11:12:00.000-08:00

INNOVATION CAN BRING MORE GLOBAL OUTSOURCING TO INDIA
Hyderabad
The Hindu Business Line Nasscom Chairman, B. Ramalinga Raju, has said that innovation in the IT sector has the potential to help garner a larger chunk of the overall global IT outsourcing pie.

The Nasscom Innovation Forum, Raju said that increasingly even IT services providers like Infosys, Wipro and Satyam are providing innovative services and the accent now is on transforming business processes with tangible business deliverables.

The forum has short-listed companies for their innovative processes. These include Bharti Airtel, IBM India, Maruti Udyog and Capgemini Consulting among 160 companies that filed entries across broad categories of business model, process and product innovation.

Providing an insight into the $1-billion Bharti - IBM multi-year deal, Ashish Kumar, Director of IBM Global Services India, said that the project seeks to outsource the entire technology and business transformation process of Bharti.

While the Bharti IBM deal has been a case study in business model innovation and on-demand services, others in the group include Cranes Software for its acquire, enhance and expand business model, Evalueserve.com for its business intelligence services, HCL Comnet for its business-ready infrastructure model that combines hosted services, and Kale Consultants for its platform-based BPO.

Google Jokes, Sometimes...

2006-12-20T04:56:00.001-08:00

Dec 19, 2006 8:49 PM - Show original item

When you click a Google ad twice, Google may urge you to “give your mouse a break”
They display cheese if you’re at the highest zoom level at Google Moon
During April Fool’s, they say that pigeons determine the ranking of our web sites
Google pretends they’re an airline at parties
You can enter niniane kicks ass into Google Maps to locate the Googleplex headquarter and Google employee Niniane Wang
They display spam cooking recipes in your Gmail spam folder
Their calculator read Douglas Adams’ science fiction book and says 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything
Their employees look like smurfs every now and then
Google offers you Klingon as search interface language
When Larry Page talked about other Google rules than just “Don’t be evil” he said “We allow dogs, for example.”

Online Etiquette and the Culture of a Blog

2006-12-20T04:54:00.000-08:00

Darren Rowse Dec 19, 2006 8:31 PM - Show original item

Michael Moncur has written a thoughtful post asking Whatever happened to online etiquette? which bounces off (and largely rejects) the NYT piece by David Pogue of the same name.

I think Michael makes some worthwhile points - particularly in his third point about Anonymity and fifth point about content inspiring community.

Anonymity - while some do like to hide behind anonymity I find that the majority of attack within blogging circles happens not because people can remain hidden but because it actually gets them attention and they think it will raise their profile. Thankfully the ’snark strategy’ to build a blog’s profile has died away a little over the last 6 months. While it can raise your profile it can also destroy your reputation.

Content Inspiring Community - Michael quotes a comment from Gina Trapani of Lifehacker which is insightful and worth highlighting again:

“Also, netiquette in public forums has a lot to do with the content around which the community is centered. Lifehacker’s posts set out to help folks, so in kind, our readers want to help us and each other back. Digg is a popularity contest of oneupmanship. Gawker is all about making fun of things, so its readers mock each other and it right back in the comments. Karma’s a boomerang.”

My feeling is that sites develop a culture around them. This is often set by the tone and voice of those who set them up and provide the lead (in the case of a blog - the blogger/s).

If your blog is written in a positive, optimistic, helpful and inclusive voice then I find that those commenting generally respond with a similar tone. Write in a snarky, negative, rant dominated tone that makes fun of others and you can expect a very similar vibe in your comments.

In fact I think that this principle extends out of your comments section into the way that other bloggers interact with you from their blogs also.

Of course there are exceptions to this - even the most positive and helpful bloggers get attacked from time to time - but I find that this is more the exception than the rule.

What do you think?

Ajax Cookbook: Helpful JavaScript tips

2006-12-18T21:29:00.000-08:00

Ajax Cookbook: Helpful JavaScript tips: "Bret Taylor is the guy who is responsible for the first Google Maps.

He obvi0usly has a lot of experience, and has recently been on fire with a new blog called the Ajax Cookbook.

The blog focuses on small useful JavaScript snippets that do not assume a particular JavaScript/Ajax library, so they can be generally useful.

Recent examples are:

Cross-Browser Event Handling and Memory Leaks
Canceling and Stopping Browser Events
JavaScript Debug Log
Disabling the Browser Context Menu

A great addition to the space. I am looking forward to see more and more recipes, and real world experience from Bret.
"

Tomcat Vs GlassFish Comparison

2006-12-18T20:49:00.000-08:00

Tomcat Vs GlassFish Comparison: "

Roger (at Ninth Avenue Software) recently compared Tomcat and GlassFish in his blog - I think in part because FigBird runs on GlassFish. Since this is a popular topic, Jason Lee then proposed to push it to a more stable location at the GlassFish Wiki, now open for your contributions.

I suspect that per-area product comparisons may be more manageable, so I created an umbrella page for it and the the WS Stack Comparison; feel free to add other comparisons.

Yet something else to work on in preparation for GlassFish v2 beta. "

Understanding Mobile 2.0

2006-12-13T23:55:00.000-08:00

Understanding Mobile 2.0: "Written by Rudy De Waele of m-trends.org and edited by Richard MacManus. This kicks off a mini-series of posts on the topic of Mobile 2.0, which we will explore on R/WW this week.

On the eve of Le Web 3 in Paris - and one month after the Web 2.0 Summit concluded - it seems like an appropriate time to explore the world of the mobile Web, a.k.a. mobile 2.0. There has been a lot of discussion lately on this topic, a good deal of it inspired by the mobile 2.0 event - a one-day event held on 6 November 2006, organized by Daniel Appelquist and Mike Rowehl.

Carriers and Mobile Operators are taking notice...

In the closing session about carriers and operators at the Under The Radar: Mobility Conference on 16 November 2006, I heard an Executive Director from Verizon Wireless using the term 'Mobile 2.0'. Also Orange (France Telecom) is sponsoring one of the biggest web 2.0 related conferences in Europe, Le Web 3 in Paris. The fact that carriers/operators are now linking their brand name to web 2.0/mobile 2.0 rel"

Search 2.0 - What's Next?

2006-12-13T23:48:00.000-08:00

Search 2.0 - What's Next?: "Written by Emre Sokullu and edited by Richard MacManus

You may feel relatively satisfied with the current search offerings of Google, Yahoo, Ask and MSN. Search today is undoubtedly much better than what it was in the second half of the 1990's. But Internet search is still in its infancy and there's much room for improvement. Moreover, the super high valuation of Google on NASDAQ pushes investors and researchers to find better search solutions - to be The Next Big Thing. And these wannabes are not only working on discovering better indexing techniques, they're exploring new horizons like vertical engines, meaning-based search, intent-driven search, new clustering methods, and much more. In this post, we look into latest trends in the search industry.

We have positioned the latest search trends into 3 main categories:

UI Enhancements
Technology Enhancements
Approach Enhancements (Vertical Engines)

UI Enhancements

Snap

Snap promises a better interface for search, using the latest advancements in browsers and AJAX technology. Although"

Sun picks GPL license for Java code

2006-11-13T00:47:00.000-08:00

Sun picks GPL license for Java code: "After years of requests and debates, Sun is set to release Java source code under a Linux-friendly license."

10 things the Google ethics committee could discuss

2006-09-08T05:17:00.000-07:00

It's reported that Google, whose motto is Do No Evil, has an ethics committee to debate its impact on the world - something that will doubtless grow as the company floats. So what sort of things might it discuss?

Google workers ruminating
1. From being a stripped-down search engine, Google is now a major player in advertising. Its webmail system, Gmail, runs on inserting adverts into people's e-mails. "How far should this go?" asks Danny Sullivan, editor of Internet Search Engine Watch. "Is it ethical to put ads on absolutely everything they do, almost like a supermarket floor?"

2. How much personal data should it collect? The company is going to understand more and more about what people are doing online, says Sullivan. But does that mean our information is fair game?

3. How much permission should it seek when it wants to "mine" public data for new facts, asks Danny O'Brien, co-editor of technology newsletter NTK. "Say Google designed a system that could scan photographs online, and tell you where they'd been taken. Would it be OK to collect all the snapshots uploaded on the net and index them, even when people could find out where you lived from your photo album? Is it OK to use public information to uncover facts that might have been private?"

4. How much should the company intervene in search results? The "ethics committee", which the company says is an informal discussion between interested managers and staff, debates changes to the algorithms which order search results. Spammers who try to skew the results are one target of adjustments, according to software engineer Eran Gabber. But any alteration will change the way people see the web, so should they be undertaken lightly?

5. Does it have a role in taste and decency? Sullivan says the company will remove search results for legal considerations - but what about other cases? What about links that showed, for instance, video of American Nick Berg being beheaded?

6. As a big company, Google has business relationships with lots of other companies - it's no longer a matter of just doing search. And business is business, so what if the company wanted to introduce "favoured status" within its results?

7. Google has become something of a standard bearer for ethics - who, for instance, would know if Yahoo had a similar committee, asks Sullivan. So should Google even be bothered about ethics now, or was that something for when it was a small affair?

8. For many people, Google is the internet. They use it as the front end and trust it to give them what they need - the Google deskbar makes this even more apparent. Does Google have any feeling for how it filters the net, do many of its users even know that they get a filtered view of cyberspace or how much filtering is going on?

9. Google is not a monopoly; there's plenty of competition. But should it strive to become one? What effect might that have?

10. Do they feel lucky? Sitting on billions of dollars, what is the best way to share their luck?

Innovations around us

2006-05-11T07:02:00.000-07:00

Folks,

This is the first blog which i am writing on my own (no ctrlC no ctrlV :) ).
It has been quite some time i started watching the innovations. Before that i had a mind set that innovation happens only in latest technology or at least using latest technologies. First let me tell my view about innovation. Do you think Invention is innovation? i don’t think so. Using the existing thing in a new way is also innovation. Let’s quickly come to the point. Innovation comes from everywhere. You can ask what is 'Everywhere' everywhere is everywhere say it defense or say it a road side shop selling cheap plastic toys, everywhere you can see innovations. There was a time when i believed that balloon is a thing which is spherical or elliptical in shape but now we can see dice shaped, cylindrical shaped and of course heart shaped too.
How do these innovations happen? I have a strong view that innovation is a result of market crunch. Let me explain in detail. You are tending to innovate when there is a deadly need of new things. During the world war when there was a shortage of iron, people used CONCRETE to build SHIPS.
Or take a local example. When the government imposed strict laws to remove Movie Piracy, a new business, Home delivery of Pirated Movies started. And persons who started these were none other than young boys in the streets. Take this example. The other day i was roaming in MG Road. I had read from the news paper that the police are removing the advertisement sign boards (like “Amsavalli----> “- what a mouth watering example) from roads and that road was declared as no tolerance zone also (no one knows what this means J ). While walking on the pavement I saw a sign board that too in the parking lot….later when I looked closer I realized that the sign board was kept on a two wheeler. Yes they have bought an old bike chassis . They park this chassis in the parking lot daily and take away at the EOD.

Thanks to my mobile camera, now i dont need to carry a camera always

This is just another example it didn’t required any doctorate to innovate. Just a thought in fraction of a second. A lot of similar thoughts flashes in our brain / mind but the thing is we don’t take the pain to implement it (hey this correlates to Kalam and Vivekananda words).

Please share such innovations (Yes I believe that this is Innovation) here. Who knows, by seeing these we may also tend to innovate something.

IT COS MUST TRAIN WEAKER SECTIONS

2006-04-25T23:10:00.000-07:00

The issue of reservation in the private sector has raised the ire of the knowledge economy, but Nasscom president Kiran Karnik on Wednesday said something genuine needed to be done for the disadvantage sections of the society.

Karnik said that the IT industry and the government have been holding an informal dialogue to see what best could be done for these people. “We feel that the government and the industry have a responsibility in doing this. The best way of doing this is to give right education and training.”

He said the IT industry has been doing its bit in the social sector by starting educational institutions or participating in tsunami relief work among others.

However, Karnik was critical of the impact of the reservation system on the country. “It is not just giving them scholarships and education as the large part of the disadvantage comes from the environment that they have grown up in. So they need a lot of training in developing soft skills.”

Karnik said that a lot of things have to be delivered through the government mechanism and there is a need for the government and industry to get together on this.

Original Post

Interesting comment on Reservation Quota in Private Sectors

2006-04-24T01:28:00.000-07:00

Donno who is the commenter...just read.

I think we should have job reservations in all the fields. I completely support the PM and all the politicians for promoting this. Let's start the reservation with our cricket team. We should have 30 percent for OBC, SC/ST like that. Cricket rules should be modified accordingly. The boundary circle should be reduced for an SC/ST player. The four hit by an OBC player should be considered as a six and a six hit by a OBC player should be counted as 8 runs. An OBC player scoring 60 runs should be declared as a century. We should influence ICC and make rules so that the pace bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar should not bowl fast balls to our OBC player. Bowlers should bowl maximum speed of 80 kilometer per hour to an OBC player. Any delivery above this speed should be made illegal.

Also we should have reservation in Olympics. In the 100 meters race, an OBC player should be given a gold medal if he runs 80 meters.

There can be reservation in Government jobs also. Let's recruit SC/ST and OBC pilots for aircrafts which are carrying the ministers and politicians (that can really help the country.. )
Ensure that only SC/ST and OBC doctors do the operations for the ministers and other politicians. (Another way of saving the country..)
Let's be creative and think of ways and means to guide INDIA forward...

Let's show the world that INDIA is a GREAT country. Let's be proud of
being an INDIAN..
Paa ji chaa gai tussiii...

EXCLUSIVE NATIONAL WEATHER PORTAL LAUNCHED

2006-04-21T01:17:00.000-07:00

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has set up an exclusive national weather portal that aims not just to inform, but also issue alerts and tutor the uninitiated on weather and related topics.
The Union Minister for Science and Technology, Kapil Sibal, launched the portal, www.indiaweatherwatch.org, in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The technical content loaded on the portal will be based on forecasts given by India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), two major operational agencies under the DST.
Climatological information and research products of the Indian Institute for Tropical Meteorology, Pune, will also be made use of, says Dr Akhilesh Gupta, Director, NCMRWF. The portal has been designed and hosted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in a public-private partnership venture.

Read More....

M&A: THE COMPETITION PERSPECTIVE

2006-04-20T23:57:00.000-07:00

Mergers and acquisitions are a normal feature of a vibrant economy. Firms seek to grow by acquiring others with objectives such as improving efficiency and achieving economies of scale. Sometimes an enterprise facing closure (‘failing firm’) could avoid that fate by merging with a more efficient firm.
Recent well known mergers include, Exxon-Mobil (oil), Bell Altantic-NYNEX (telecom), Daimler-Chrysler (automobiles), Proctor & Gamble-Gillette, Boots Healthcare-Reckitt Benckiser, and Adidas-Reebok. As the Indian economy is becoming freer and more dynamic, the M&A scene in India, too, is hotting up.
Recent months have seen a spate of M&As, small and big, such as Birla-Larsen & Toubro (cement), United Breweries-Shaw Wallace (liquor), and, most recently, Jet-Sahara (aviation).
Some acquisitions have resulted from the government’s privatisation process, such as the acquisition of VSNL by Tatas, IPCL by Reliance, and CMC by Tata Consultancy Service. In banking, Global Trust Bank merged with Oriental Bank of Commerce, and Bank of Punjab with Centurion.
Original Post

The Digital Being !

2006-04-19T04:47:00.000-07:00

What does all the talk about digital convergence mean to the consumer?

We all know that in a matter of years, if not months, there will be a myriad ways of accessing (and delivering) voice, video and data. However, will this change what we watch, listen or read especially in terms of media and entertainment? The answer is yes!

We are already seeing a change. The more affluent societies are spending more time and money on the Internet. What started off as a maverick and largely illegal activity, file sharing or peer-to-peer computing has given birth to one of the fastest growing segments of digital world – music downloads.

It is almost certain that, in a few years, conventional linear TV will give way to on-demand service. There may be different platforms like digital cable, DTH, IPTV, mobile TV and Digital Terrestrial TV – each offering a differentiated version of customisation.

Personal /Network video recorders like TiVo and place shifters like Slingbox will become standard. In 10 years, analogue TV would disappear and almost all broadcast will be in High-defintion mode.

There will be much more interactivity as broadband penetration increases. Going forward there will be multiple variants of programming. Like mobisodes, one will also see fresh programming created for different screen sizes and viewing.

Blogging,Vlogging (video blogging) and personal multimedia services are some of the areas which will redefine media and entertainment in the next decade.

The challenge is to be able to harness the rich tradition of existing media with technology and engage audiences of the new age. The next round of applause will be virtual!

Original Article

Nice quote....

2006-03-05T11:38:00.000-08:00

"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."
-- Margaret Thatcher

Online amateurs crack Nazi codes

2006-03-05T11:22:00.000-08:00

Three German ciphers unsolved since World War II are finally being cracked, helped by thousands of home computers.

The codes resisted the best efforts of the celebrated Allied cryptographers based at Bletchley Park during the war.

Now one has been solved by running code-breaking software on a "grid" of internet-linked home computers.

The complex ciphers were encoded in 1942 by a new
version of the German Enigma machine, and led to regular hits on Allied
vessels by German U-boats.

Allied experts initially failed to deal with the German
adoption in 1942 of a complex new cipher system, brought in at the same
time as a newly upgraded Enigma machine.

The advancement in German encryption techniques led to significant Allied losses in the North Atlantic throughout 1942.

Forced to submerge during attack. Depth charges. I am following the enemy

Kapt Hartwig Looks
25 November 1942

The three unsolved Enigma intercepts were published in a cryptography journal in 1995 and have intrigued enthusiasts ever since.

Although assumed to have little historical significance,
they are thought to be among just a handful of German naval ciphers in
existence still to be decoded.

Exponential growth

The latest attempt to crack the codes was kick-started
by Stefan Krah, a German-born violinist with an interest in
cryptography and open-source software.

Mr Krah told the BBC News website that "basic human
curiosity" had motivated him to crack the codes, but stressed the debt
he owed to veteran codebreaking enthusiasts who have spent years
researching Enigma.

UNSOLVED CIPHER #1

HCEY
ZTCS OPUP PZDI UQRD LWXX FACT TJMB HDVC JJMM ZRPY IKHZ AWGL YXWT MJPQ
UEFS ZBCT VRLA LZXW VXTS LFFF AUDQ FBWR RYAP SBOW JMKL DUYU PFUQ DOWV
HAHC DWAU ARSW TXCF VOYF PUFH VZFD GGPO OVGR MBPX XZCA NKMO NFHX PCKH
JZBU MXJW XKAU OD?Z UCVC XPFT

He wrote a code-breaking program and publicised his project on internet
newsgroups, attracting the interest of about 45 users, who all allowed
their machines to be used for the project.

Mr Krah named the project M4, in honour of the M4 Enigma machine that originally encoded the ciphers.

There are now some 2,500 separate terminals contributing to the project, Mr Krah said.

"The most amazing thing about the project is the
exponential growth of participants. All I did myself was to announce it
in two news groups and on one mailing list."

Nevertheless, in little over a month an apparently
random combination of letters had been decoded into a real wartime
communication.

In its encrypted form the cipher makes no sense at all, reading as follows:

Bletchley Park was thought to cut WWII by two years

"NCZW VUSX PNYM INHZ XMQX SFWX WLKJ AHSH NMCO CCAK UQPM KCSM HKSE INJU
SBLK IOSX CKUB HMLL XCSJ USRR DVKO HULX WCCB GVLI YXEO AHXR HKKF VDRE
WEZL XOBA FGYU JQUK GRTV UKAM EURB VEKS UHHV OYHA BCJW MAKL FKLM YFVN
RIZR VVRT KOFD ANJM OLBG FFLE OPRG TFLV RHOW OPBE KVWM UQFM PWPA RMFH
AGKX IIBG"

Unencrypted and translated into English, the message suddenly comes to life:

"Forced to submerge during attack. Depth charges. Last
enemy position 0830h AJ 9863, [course] 220 degrees, [speed] 8 knots. [I
am] following [the enemy]. [barometer] falls 14 mb, [wind]
nor-nor-east, [force] 4, visibility 10 [nautical miles]."

A check against existing records confirmed that the
message was sent by Kapitanleutnant Hartwig Looks, commander of the
German navy's U264 submarine, on 25 November 1942.

BBC's wildlife archives released

2006-03-05T11:12:00.000-08:00

Content from the BBC's Natural History Unit has been made available free of charge over the internet.

The Open Earth Archive will include previously unseen clips from new wildlife series Planet Earth.

Footage can be viewed, downloaded and edited into personal projects as part of the Creative Archive Licence.

All STD calls in India at Re 1/min from March 1

2006-02-10T00:22:00.000-08:00

In a major bonanza for customers, state-owned
telecom majors -- Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telecom Nigam
Ltd -- on Friday announced a maximum tariff of Re 1 per minute for
calls anywhere in the country under the much-publicised One-India plan,
effective from March 1.

The two
communication companies jointly announced the new telecom packages
under which BSNL would offer a minimum tariff of 40 paise a minute for
its mobile subscribers (post-paid) for calls on its network.

Under
the new tariff package, fixed-line services would have a rental of Rs
299 a month and the local call charges would be Re 1 for 3 minutes.

SOAP vs REST

2006-01-23T03:04:00.000-08:00

SOAP vs REST
Download the powerpoint presentation here

Open-source Vs closed-source

2006-01-22T20:40:00.000-08:00

Bugs are common in all softwares be it open source or closed source, but how fast it is discovered and fixed really matters.
If you discover a bug in some software you use, it's
better not to complain privately to the vendor. Scream loudly about it
in every Web forum you can access because

Last year, Microsoft issued about 55 critical
patches for Windows XP. According to the Washington Post, it reacts
very significantly quicker on public complaints. On average, MS took
134 days to patch privately-reported vulnerabilities whereas it
responded inside 46 days for publicly-reported bugs.

Oracle
(which works off open-source platforms) issued over 80 patches in 2005.
That suggests that, even if open-source has more bugs, those bugs are
also addressed efficiently. Apple has taken much more time than either
Oracle or MS in addressing known issues in the QuickTime player.

MS took just 10 days to patch a very serious flaw in
the Windows Meta File (WMF) that was flagged in late December. That's
commendably quick by corporate standards. But it's glacially slow in
the context of the Web. By the time the official MS patch arrived,
independent security consultants had written "hot-fixes"; the crackers
had written new malware and antivirus vendors had updated signatures to
deal with new malware.

The amazing thing is that WMF flaw has been there
for at least five years. It's embedded in every MS operating system
since Win2000. Several other flaws and vulnerabilities in WMF have been
picked up earlier. Steve Gibson (writer of the popular SpinRite and
Shields up! utilities) suggested that it was a backdoor written into
the system by MS.

Read full article here...

A Presentation on SOAP

2006-01-19T01:51:00.000-08:00

Its superb.
Watch it here

Kalam's 10-point vision for a competitive India

2006-01-18T21:00:00.000-08:00

Inaugurating the
Confederation of Indian Industry's Partnership Summit 2006 in Kolkata
on Tuesday, President APJ Abdul Kalam emphasised the need for
'spiritual connectivity' in the 'dynamics of leadership.'

The
President said that the country's primary challenge was to uplift the
260 million poor in India and remove poverty by 2020. He said that this
could be done through a network of connectivities encompassing a
knowledge grid, a healthcare grid, e-governance grid and the knowledge
grid.

He said the focus should be on integrating the entire country economically as it transforms itself into a knowledge society.

Read Full Article here

Nice One !

2006-01-18T06:14:00.000-08:00

Year 2005

He and She are engaged. Both are working in Bangalore, while their parents are at Chennai. They are going by the same train to Chennai. Incidentally, the first time they are traveling together

Time 10:00 PM

She: Ivlo seekram station vandaachu. Naan usual aa 10.45 train kku, 10.30 kku dhaan varuven!

He: Naan direct aa cantonment la dhaan eruven

She: Hi hi hi. .

He: Seri adha vidu. Water bottle vaangindu varen

She: Seri

He comes back in 2 minutes, catching his breath

She: Yaen ippadi odi vare? Porumaya varalaam la?

He: Illai ma. Nee thaniya irukke illa. Adhaan

She: Ayye. Idhaan first time naan yaar koodayavadhu poren. Usually naan thaniya dhaan varuven

He: Hmmmm

She: Seri train la yeralaam vaa

They get into the train

She: Side upper, side lower aa book panne?

He: Aaamam. So that we can talk for sometime. Matha berth la yerina udane ellarum thoongiduvaanga

She: Adhuvum seri dhaan

Train starts

She: Adutha varusham, idhe neram we will be going to Chennai for our first pongal after marriage

He holds She's hand tightly, and gives her one Cadburys temptation chocolate

She: So sweet.

She splits the chocolate into smaller bits, and feeds him the first bit

He: You know what? Naan nenachi kooda paakale. That I will fall head over heels for someone.

She: Same here da

By this time, almost all passengers are asleep. And someone tells him to talk slowly since he is too loud

He: vaa. Door kitta polaam

He and she are at the door. He opens the door, and they sit at the steps

She: Yappa. Kulurarudhu.

He puts his hand over her shoulder. After some sweet nothings for some 1 hr, they get in and sleep(Ofcourse at their respective berths)

Year 2006.

He and She are married for 9 months by now

He and she get into the train.

She: Endha berth?

He: Rendume upper berth. No disturbance

She: Hmmmm

He: Seri. Thanni bottle kodu

She: Station la vaangikalaam nu kelambachaye sonnen la

He: Munnadiye solla vendiyadhu dhaane! Ippo p! aar train kelamba innum 5 nimisham dhaan irukku

She: masa masa nnu pesinda irundha andha 5 nimisham kooda irukaadhu

He: cha!

He runs and gets the water bottle, just when the train starts

She yawns and says

She: Seri. Naan thoonga poren.

He: Ok

After the TTR checks the tickets, he also gets into his berth and tries to sleep. He is not able to sleep after a while, due to some conversation happening below.

He turns towards the couple in the side-upper and side-lower berth

He: Excuse me. If you don't mind, konjam medhuva pesareengaLa. We all are sleeping here!

The side-upper side lower couple walk towards the door

Its me !

2006-01-18T02:51:00.000-08:00

This is me !

The What, Why and When of Free Software in India

2006-01-14T23:33:00.000-08:00

Free software is not yet as media-visible as its breakaway sibling open source. Consider GNU/Linux, for example, which you hear about much less often than you do Linux. Quietly, however, and away from the glare of publicity, a small group of committed techies in India is using its skills to bring more attention to free software.

Some of the Free Software Foundation India's (FSF-India) accomplishments include helping to fight patent threats in the country and promoting the use of free software in schools, government and other cultural institutions. In mid-2005, FSF-India put together an ambitious four-nation meeting in Kerala, India, which featured representatives from Venezuela, Brazil, Italy and India.

Some of the FSF-India techies have achieved amazing feats, spurred on not only by their skills but also by the underlying ideology of free software. For them, free software isn't only about producing good quality technology. It's also about sharing and ethics, as the group explains on its Web site...

Read Full Article here.....

Interview With Gopal Godse - Brother of the assassin Nathuram Godse

2005-10-19T22:43:00.000-07:00

"His Principle of Peace Was Bogus"
Gopal Godse, co-conspirator in Gandhi's assassination and brother of the assassin, looks back in anger--and without regret

Fifty-two years ago, on Jan. 30, 1948, Mohandas Gandhi was shot dead by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist. Godse believed that the Mahatma, or great soul, was responsible for the 1947 partition of India and the creation of Pakistan. Godse and his friend Narayan Apte were hanged. His brother Gopal and two others were sentenced to life imprisonment for their part in the conspiracy. Gopal Godse remained in jail for 18 years and now, at 80, lives with his wife in a small apartment in Pune. He is still proud of his role in the murder. Although Godse is largely ignored in India and rarely talks to journalists, he agreed to speak with TIME Delhi correspondent Meenakshi Ganguly.

TIME: What happened in January 1948?
Godse: On Jan. 20, Madanlal Pahwa exploded a bomb at Gandhi's prayer meeting in Delhi. It was 50 m away from Gandhi. [The other conspirators] all ran away from the place. Madanlal was caught there. Then there was a tension in our minds that we had to finish the task before the police caught us. Then Nathuram [Gopal's brother] took it on himself to do the thing. We only wanted destiny to help us -- meaning we should not be caught on the spot before he acted.

TIME: Why did you want to kill Gandhi?
Godse: Gandhi was a hypocrite. Even after the massacre of the Hindus by the Muslims, he was happy. The more the massacres of the Hindus, the taller his flag of secularism.

TIME: Did you ever see Gandhi?
Godse: Yes.

TIME: Did you attend his meetings?
Godse: Yes.

TIME: Can you explain how he created his mass following?
Godse: The credit goes to him for maneuvering the media. He captured the press. That was essential. How Gandhi walked, when he smiled, how he waved -- all these minor details that the people did not require were imposed upon them to create an atmosphere around Gandhi. And the more ignorant the masses, the more popular was Gandhi. So they always tried to keep the masses ignorant.

TIME: But surely it takes more than good publicity to create a Gandhi?
Godse: There is another thing. Generally in the Indian masses, people are attracted toward saintism. Gandhi was shrewd to use his saintdom for politics. After his death the government used him. The government knew that he was an enemy of Hindus, but they wanted to show that he was a staunch Hindu. So the first act they did was to put "Hey Ram" into Gandhi's dead mouth.

TIME: You mean that he did not say "Hey Ram" as he died?
Godse: No, he did not say it. You see, it was an automatic pistol. It had a magazine for nine bullets but there were actually seven at that time. And once you pull the trigger, within a second, all the seven bullets had passed. When these bullets pass through crucial points like the heart, consciousness is finished. You have no strength.

When Nathuram saw Gandhi was coming, he took out the pistol and folded his hands with the pistol inside it. There was one girl very close to Gandhi. He feared that he would hurt the girl. So he went forward and with his left hand pushed her aside and shot. It happened within one second. You see, there was a film and some Kingsley fellow had acted as Gandhi. Someone asked me whether Gandhi said, "Hey Ram." I said Kingsley did say it. But Gandhi did not. Because that was not a drama.

TIME: Many people think Gandhi deserved to be nominated TIME's Person of the Century. [He was one of two runners-up, after Albert Einstein.]
Godse: I name him the most cruel person for Hindus in India. The most cruel person! That is how I term him.

TIME: Is that why Gandhi had to die?
Godse: Yes. For months he was advising Hindus that they must never be angry with the Muslims. What sort of ahimsa (non-violence) is this? His principle of peace was bogus. In any free country, a person like him would be shot dead officially because he was encouraging the Muslims to kill Hindus.

TIME: But his philosophy was of turning the other cheek. He felt one person had to stop the cycle of violence...
Godse: The world does not work that way.

TIME: Is there anything that you admire about Gandhi?
Godse: Firstly, the mass awakening that Gandhi did. In our school days Gandhi was our idol. Secondly, he removed the fear of prison. He said it is different to go into prison for a theft and different to go in for satyagraha (civil disobedience). As youngsters, we had our enthusiasm, but we needed some channel. We took Gandhi to be our channel. We don't repent for that.

TIME: Did you not admire his principles of non-violence?
Godse: Non-violence is not a principle at all. He did not follow it. In politics you cannot follow non-violence. You cannot follow honesty. Every moment, you have to give a lie. Every moment you have to take a bullet in hand and kill someone. Why was he proved to be a hypocrite? Because he was in politics with his so-called principles. Is his non-violence followed anywhere? Not in the least. Nowhere.

TIME: What was the most difficult thing about killing Gandhi?
Godse: The greatest hurdle before us was not that of giving up our lives or going to the gallows. It was that we would be condemned both by the government and by the public. Because the public had been kept in the dark about what harm Gandhi had done to the nation. How he had fooled them!

TIME: Did the people condemn you?
Godse: Yes. People in general did. Because they had been kept ignorant.

Intel fires many employees for faking bills

2005-09-21T04:29:00.000-07:00

Allowances Include LTA Crackdown After Probe Bangalore: Faking bills to claim your allowances like conveyance, drivers’ salaries and LTA? That may be commonplace in India Inc, but one company is now taking that malpractice with uncompromising seriousness. Intel Technologies India has sent out scores of employees — some say it could be as high as 250 — over the past few months following an audit and investigation of allowance claims made by employees in recent years. Sources say that under its business practice excellence (BPX) initiative, Intel set up an independent team to investigate claims, which then proceeded to take immediate action against the employees found guilty. “It was like they are working with us one day, and are suddenly not there from the day after,” said one employee. When contacted by The Times of India, Intel sent a written reply stating that “corrective actions have been taken”. “This audit is confidential, so details will not be available. We don’t comment on the specifics of investigations. We can say that we conduct all investigations thoroughly, professionally and in compliance with the law,” the Intel spokesperson said. According to Intel, “the matter relates to code of conduct violation. Intel does expect very high standards of employee conduct and business ethics. Intel does not discuss personnel matters. Suffice to say corrective actions have been taken.” According to another source at Intel, “The checks have been happening. I am also aware that some people have been fired after they were found guilty.” The Intel Development Centre in Bangalore has about 2,700 professionals. It is not clear why Intel chose to suddenly crack down on the malpractice. One story doing the rounds is that when Intel asked for governmental concessions for its proposed chip-testing and assembly plant in India, the government officials brought to Intel’s notice the employee malpractices that led to tax losses to the government. “This may have persuaded Intel to take a serious view of the matter,” a source said.Sources also said it has not been all that bad for those who had been asked to leave.

Bangalore is a national calamity: Azim Premji

2005-09-12T05:13:00.000-07:00

The Financial Express
Posted online: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 at 0423 hours IST
Updated: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 at 1132 hours IST

New Delhi, August 31: Bangalore is a “national calamity” in terms of infrastructure, said Wipro chairman Azim Premji on Tuesday. “When a client is in India, Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai are the three key cities he visits. It gives a very bad impression to the client. I urge the media to please write about it,” he told reporters here.

Wipro BPO chairman T Kurien told FE, “From bad roads and irregular power to mismanaged transport, the infrastructure of Bangalore is crumbling. Ten years ago, if it took twenty minutes to reach a place, now it takes at least an hour. It is putting huge pressure on costs.”

As a result, Wipro is exploring tier II cities like Coimbatore, Goa, Madurai, Vizag, Mohali and Guwahati. “We are exploring Mohali as an attractive option. North India is surely on our radar with places like Noida and Gurgaon. We would also be opening a BPO centre in Guwahati in the near future,” added Mr Kurien.

Mr Premji’s remark comes a day after Nasscom, President Kiran Karnik issued a statement in favour of IT companies who have boycotted to participate in BangaloreIT.net 2005. Mr Karnik said:”Concerns of IT companies are justified. Some of them are very vocal. But, it’s good. Both the government and industry should partner to remove this problem.”

Assembled Car - Tata's New Business Model

2005-09-12T03:44:00.000-07:00

Bharti was able to tap outside expertise to remake its business. The $18 billion Tata Group relies on outside knowhow as well -- but in this case, it's the traditional skills of India's working class. Tata, a conglomerate, has long made sturdy trucks.

But four years ago, Chairman Ratan Tata plunged into the passenger-car business despite much skepticism. The result was India's first indigenously designed, developed, and produced car -- the $6,600 Indica. Tata used all of India's low-cost engineering skills to develop the car, at 60% of the usual cost of launching a new model.

Now he has put his team to work on his dream project: a car that will sell for only $2,200. "I wanted to change the rules of the game," Tata says. "I wanted to change the way business is done."

The "people's car" will use a combination of steel and composite plastic for its body, put together with industrial adhesive along with nuts and bolts. But what's the business changer? Tata will attempt to do away with the traditional model of manufacturing solely in a factory and distributing exclusively through established dealers.

The plan is to make the basic components of the car in Tata plants -- and then to send the car off the company's assembly line much like a bicycle, in a knocked-down kit form. These will be shipped across the country to Tata-trained franchisees. Some of them will be Tata Motors car dealers. But other franchisees may be any of India's thousands of roadside garages.

The mechanics will keep the kits in their garages and assemble them on demand for customers -- then service them as needed.

"It will give an opportunity to young, capable people to create an enterprise," says Tata. But the move will also save an estimated 20% of an auto's production, experts say. "Tata's plan makes the car a commodity," says Kumar Bhattacharyya, director of Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick in Britain.

If Ratan Tata's plan works, he will have stripped away a layer of distribution and manufacturing costs. Other Indian companies are tackling different kinds of distribution costs -- and blowing away traditional assumptions in the process. In the case of ITC, managers are aggressively seeking ways to eliminate the exploitative middlemen who buy, transport, and market Indian farmers' produce.

Kolkata-based ITC is best known as a hotelier and as India's largest producer of cigarettes. But it also sells fertilizer to farmers and buys their grain to make processed foods.

For years, ITC conducted its business with farmers through a maze of intermediaries, from brokers to traders. So ITC's head of international business, S. Sivakumar, thought of using e-commerce as a way to break the unhealthy hold of traders over the supply chain.

In the initial experiment -- begun four years ago in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh -- Sivakumar set up computer kiosks in 20 villages and hired a well-known local farmer to run each kiosk. He and other farmers would access the company's intranet -- dubbed e-chaupal, for electronic "town square" -- twice a day to check ITC's own offer price for produce, as well as prices in the closest village market, in the state capital, in New Delhi, and on the Chicago commodities exchange.

The site relayed daily weather conditions and educated users about new farming techniques worldwide. In the evening, the local children took free lessons on the computer. In return, the farmers would usually give ITC first dibs on their crops, thus eliminating the middlemen.

Are J2EE and .NET integration tools required?

2005-09-07T00:13:00.000-07:00

Not all apps run on J2EE and there are many .NET applications out there, so there's also a need to integrate these two types of applications.

The Gartner Group says Java/.NET interop will gain an ever bigger spotlight over the next 2-3 years, as up to 30% of all new enterprise apps will be Java/.NET “hybrids.

To fulfill this integration need have emerged many products that claim to provide easy integration between .NET and J2EE.

In a recent interview, Ted Dinsmore, president of a consultancy that delivers integrated technology and business solutions said that "[Concerning J2EE integration] I'm not very excited about those products at all. If the developer on J2EE created a Web service, the developer on .NET is able to consume it. So why do I need third-party software to go between the two?"

However are these tools really required or can you just stick to creating standard web services and achieve integration just as easily?

Related:
>> Top 3 Java-to.NET Interoperatability Issues

JBuilder 2006 Launched !

2005-09-07T00:06:00.000-07:00

Borland Launches JBuilder 2006 With Team Features
Next version due in 2006 will use Eclipse framework

As Microsoft preps its first team edition of Visual Studio for .NET developers, ISV partner Borland has shipped a new team edition of JBuilder for Java developers.

JBuilder 2006 is an enhanced Java IDE from the Cupertino, Calif., company that offers new features optimized for teams of developers to collaborate in real time and across geographical boundaries, as well as new support for integrated application lifecycle management.

For instance, JBuilder 2006 offers new peer-to-peer developer collaboration features and integrated application lifecycle support for requirements management, source code management and unit testing, Borland said.

One Borland product manager said customers are increasingly demanding tools that allow distributed development across time zones and version 2006 enables the notion of virtual peer programming.

"As teams become more distributed and roles are dispersed, it highlights the importance to optimize the development process," said Rob Cheng, director of product marketing. "This is a way for developers to design, edit and debug apps remotely in real time, automatically find other JBuilder clients and allows users to invite them into a sessions and share projects, and allow other JBuilder users not only to view them but takes turns and jointly co-edit code."

This is the last standalone version of the Java IDE, which was first launched in 1997.

The next version of JBuilder, code-named "Peloton" and due in the first half of 2006, is the first that will use the Eclipse open source platform as the underlying integration framework.

Two ways to replace your browser

2005-09-06T05:56:00.000-07:00

You may want your users to stop using IE, but removing Microsoft's browser cripples your operating system. We show you two ways round this

Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) has long been a favourite target of hackers, and the frequent discovery of vulnerabilities over the years has only offered more incentive. In fact, Microsoft is currently researching a new, unpatched flaw that could put users at risk of a cyberattack. In addition, the popularity of the Firefox browser has offered computer users a browser alternative — one that millions of users have opted to try, though its market share may be declining. While not immune to its own security issues, the default installation of Firefox is rather secure, and it doesn't support ActiveX controls, a common culprit of security issues.

So if you've had enough of dealing with IE's security flaws, how do you disable or remove Internet Explorer? If you're running Windows 2000 or XP, there's good news and bad news.

The bad news is that you can't remove IE without crippling your operating system. However, the good news is that you can disable IE for your users and move to a different browser.

Several simple, popular methods exist to disable IE. The easiest way to remove users' ability to browse with IE is to add a bogus proxy server to IE's Internet Settings.

Follow these steps:

In IE, go to Tools | Internet Options.
On the Connections tab, click the LAN Settings button.
In the resulting dialog box, select the following check box in the Proxy Server section: Use a Proxy Server For Your LAN (These Settings Will Not Apply To Dial-up Or VPN Connections).
Enter 0.0.0.0 in the Address text box.
Enter 80 in the Port text box, and click OK.

Please note that adding a bogus proxy server...

For more, click here...

Yahoo hosting 'thousands' of phishing sites

2005-09-06T05:46:00.000-07:00

Spamhaus has accused Yahoo of failing in the fight against online fraud, and Microsoft has admitted there is room for improvement. Yahoo is playing host to thousands of phishing sites and doesn't have sufficiently well-trained staff to address the problem of online fraud, according to a leading anti-spam and security organisation on Tuesday. Richard Cox, chief information officer of Spamhaus, told an audience of politicians, security experts and law enforcement officials that Yahoo has just under 5,000 domains hosted and registered with the words 'bank', 'eBay' and 'PayPal' within the domain names. Most of those are used as phishing sites, Cox told the London "eConfidence — Spam and Scams" conference. Cox said that ISPs are failing to train their staff to recognise this as a security issue. "ISPs are treating abuse issues as customer service issues," Cox claimed. In response, Yahoo said it would follow up Cox's claims. "We take security very seriously and will be investigating this issue fully," Nick Hazell, alliance director for Yahoo Europe, told ZDNet UK. It is understood that most of these domains were registered in the US; it may be hard for Yahoo to take action until the domains are used in a phishing attack. Meanwhile Ed Gibson, Microsoft UK's newly appointed chief security advisor, praised Spamhaus for its work. "Hats off to Spamhaus," Gibson told the audience. "We don't do a good job of responding to abuse. Spamhaus is excellent at highlighting areas of deficiency."

UK misses out on Microsoft phishing protection

Yahoo and Cisco put anti-spam standard forward

Chinese mobile firm allies with Skype

2005-09-06T05:43:00.000-07:00

Skype is trying to expand its share of the burgeoning Chinese market with the launch of a new joint venture

Skype has signed a deal with Chinese wireless operator TOM Online to create a joint Internet telephony venture. The venture will be jointly held by the pair, with ownership split 51 percent to 49 percent in the Chinese company's favour. It will work to develop, create and distribute a Chinese-language version of Skype's VoIP software. TOM Online has already been offering a simplified version of Skype software since late last year, which is now used by 3.4 million of the wireless provider's 70 million customers.

China will be top priority for Skype due to its booming use of broadband — despite low penetration rates, China's massive population means it is set to overtake the US for broadband users by 2008, according to analysts.

	Skype to encourage software plug-ins		Skype inks mobile deal
	Intel looks for quality through Skype		Microsoft makes VoIP acquisition
	Intel announces Skype alliance		Skype launches IM developer tools

IBM reports claim Linux savings

2005-09-06T05:36:00.000-07:00

Linux is cheaper to install and run than Windows, says two reports sponsored by IBM

Two IBM-sponsored reports published this week have found that Linux is cheaper to deploy and operate than Windows. One report found Linux was 40 percent cheaper overall than Windows, and 56 percent cheaper than Unix based Solaris. These findings appear to contradict Microsoft's "Get the Facts" campaign, which found Windows to be less expensive than Linux. One report, called TCO For Application Servers: Comparing Linux With Windows And Solaris, calculated the total cost of ownership (TCO) of an application server, including the cost of acquiring, implementing, and running it.

The report compared Linux and Windows x86 servers and Solaris SPARC servers over three years, and found that while Linux cost $40,149, Windows cost $67,559, and Solaris cost $86,478 (£22,450, £37,776 and £48,355 respectively).

Factors taken into consideration when calculating the figures included not only "raw cost", but also administrator skill set transferability, hardware architecture portability and vendor diversity, according to the report.

The research also found other benefits of deploying Linux apart from total cost of ownership reduction. These include "its flexible licensing model, wide range of supported hardware platforms, the choice of support providers, and fast administrator skill set transfer from other Unix platforms."

The second report sponsored by IBM — Beyond TCO — The Unanticipated Second Stage Benefits Of Linux — claims there are "second stage" benefits to deploying Unix. These include attraction and retention of IT staff.

"Linux is enormously popular among IT staff members, many of whom are at the beginning of their careers, as well as with IT educators in universities and technical institutions worldwide. This has resulted in Linux playing a significant role in the recruitment and retention of IT staff and managers," the report claims.

IBM has given strong backing to Linux in recent years. It committed $1bn investment in the operating system back in 2001, and supports the operating system on its xSeries servers.

The TCO of Linux and Windows is a long-running and often controversial battle. Many analyst groups have published reports into the issue, some of which have cast doubt on the claim that Linux costs less to run.

Back in April, the Yankee Group published a study which found that Windows offered equal or better TCO to Linux. However many people disputed the report's findings.

Microsoft recently met with the Open Source Development Lab to discuss the possibility of working together on TCO research — an opportunity the OSDL appears to have declined.

Seven open source business strategies for competitive advantage

2005-09-06T05:25:00.000-07:00

Open source presents a large potential competitive advantage for hardware and software vendors, and vendors of complementary or substitute services. Linux has contributed greatly to the adoption and success of OSS. Companies such as IBM, HP, Red Hat, Oracle, and recently, Novell, have invested in, and legitimized the use of Linux for enterprise applications -- including datacenter operations.

Linux-related services deliver more than $1 billion in annual revenue to both IBM and HP. Oracle strongly promotes and likewise derives revenue from the Linux platform, with the so-called "unbreakable Linux" guarantee. In an attempt to catch the Linux wave, companies such as Computer Associates and Peoplesoft are porting their applications to Linux on ambitious timeframes.

In this article, we examine seven open source strategies that can give your company a competitive advantage. (Editor's note: Each of the following links will take you directly to a particular section of the story.)

The Optimization Strategy
The Dual License Strategy
The Consulting Strategy
The Subscription Strategy
The Patronage Strategy
The Hosted Strategy
The Embedded Strategy

Surprise! Microsoft's WinFS beta arrives

2005-09-01T01:56:00.000-07:00

The surprise beta release of Microsoft's WinFS file system on Monday has attracted intense scrutiny. WinFS was one of the three pillars of Microsoft's next-generation version of Windows announced two years ago, then code-named Longhorn and now morphed and downsized into Vista. All three pillars -- WinFS, the Avalon GUI, and the Indigo Web-services protocol stack -- have been detached from any specific forthcoming release of Windows and will be offered as separate technologies. Microsoft developers were happy to discover that the WinFS beta really does install on Windows XP and includes an array of supporting development tools.

Running on top of, rather than replacing, the Windows NTFS (NT File System), WinFS enables developers to exploit XML interfaces to data previously locked up in desktop applications. This promises users a much more effective means of searching and organizing information. Essentially, it augments the traditional hierarchical file system with an object/relational/XML database of items classified by type.

Michael Herman, president and CTO of collaboration solution provider Parallelspace said that among the most potentially useful tools is Microsoft Rave, an application built over WinFS and WinFS Synchronization. Developers can invite others to synchronize with their folders. Synchronization occurs automatically as data changes.

The beta release of WinFS is a small milestone in a grand experiment on the part of Microsoft: detaching desktop data from its rigid hierarchy and enabling users to create new, more intuitive information relationships. Now that the code has arrived, developers can start prototyping applications for themselves and get a feel for what the new era will bring.

Sun's JSF implementation released under the CDDL

2005-09-01T01:55:00.000-07:00

Roger Kitain has announced in "Open JavaServer Faces" that Sun's implementation of JSF has been released under the OSI-approved CDDL.

Meanwhile, Ed Burns has posted that the proposed final drafts of JSF 1.2 and JSP 2.1 specifications have been published - most changes are related to minor defects, but a few features were added and clarified as well.

New Regulations ~ SEBI

2005-08-31T02:03:00.000-07:00

New regulations announced this week by the country's stock market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India, require Wipro to offer at least 25 per cent shares for public trading. Companies will be given two years to comply with the new rules.

India's richest resident Azim Premji says he intends to cut his 82 per cent stake in Wipro Ltd, the country's third largest software exporter, but the pace and timing of it will be guided by his philanthropic commitments.
Read More

Test Blog

2005-07-08T16:05:00.000-07:00

Just testing this blog site!

Scribblings

Google Click-to-Call

Making JavaScript Safe with Google Caja

Steve Jobs' Greatest Presentation

Our communications coach mines Jobs' introduction of the iPhone to offer five lessons for making an unforgettable pitch

1. Build Tension

Confessions of a Linux Fan: 10 Things You Might Want To Know Before Switching Over To Linux

WSDL 2.0 approved as an official W3C Recommendation

Fifty (50!) Tools which can help you

Chasing your dreams

Pirates crack Vista at last

Another Indian Startup !

Playing with Google Docs....

Geek To Live: Getting Things Done with Google Notebook

Set up your GTD Notebooks

Yep, it is like iTunes for PDFs

சோதனை அஞ்சல்

Apple facing several federal lawsuits

Microsoft is bribing bloggers !!!

AJAX Magazine: Ask X, The New Search Engine AJAX Experience

Google Kills SOAP Search API Support For The Profit Of AJAX

INNOVATION CAN BRING MORE GLOBAL OUTSOURCING TO INDIA

Google Jokes, Sometimes...

Online Etiquette and the Culture of a Blog

Ajax Cookbook: Helpful JavaScript tips

Tomcat Vs GlassFish Comparison

Understanding Mobile 2.0

Search 2.0 - What's Next?

Sun picks GPL license for Java code

10 things the Google ethics committee could discuss

Innovations around us

IT COS MUST TRAIN WEAKER SECTIONS

Interesting comment on Reservation Quota in Private Sectors

EXCLUSIVE NATIONAL WEATHER PORTAL LAUNCHED

M&A: THE COMPETITION PERSPECTIVE

The Digital Being !

Nice quote....

Online amateurs crack Nazi codes

BBC's wildlife archives released

All STD calls in India at Re 1/min from March 1

SOAP vs REST

Open-source Vs closed-source

A Presentation on SOAP

Kalam's 10-point vision for a competitive India

Nice One !

Its me !

The What, Why and When of Free Software in India

Interview With Gopal Godse - Brother of the assassin Nathuram Godse

Intel fires many employees for faking bills

Allowances Include LTA Crackdown After Probe

Bangalore is a national calamity: Azim Premji

Assembled Car - Tata's New Business Model

Are J2EE and .NET integration tools required?

JBuilder 2006 Launched !

Two ways to replace your browser

Yahoo hosting 'thousands' of phishing sites

Chinese mobile firm allies with Skype

IBM reports claim Linux savings

Seven open source business strategies for competitive advantage

Surprise! Microsoft's WinFS beta arrives

Sun's JSF implementation released under the CDDL

New Regulations ~ SEBI

Test Blog