Rome on Google Earth 5.0

We always use to thinnk how people use to live 10,000 years or some thing like that. So this was same thing which came into minds of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Technology .they decided to digitally rebuild the revolutionary city of Rome during the peak of its development (around A.D. 320 - the time of Constantine The Great). Might be they thought this will be the best way to do research on people who use live thousands of years ago.

The very first version of the Rome Reborn product went under construction 10 years ago, and the task was finally finished last year. Included in it were 250 highly detailed structures, and a total of over 7,000 structures in all. They used a 1:250 scale model of Rome that took forty years to create (from 1933 to 1973). This smaller scale Rome was actually constructed out of Plaster of Paris. Using laser scanners they scanned the Plaster of Paris model and created the virtual model. The original use of this model was to be utilized in a theater at UCLA. Since last year the Rome Reborn Project has seen many faces, it’s most recent being Rome Reborn 2.0 which improved the detail significantly. Google then joined in and offered to include Rome Reborn in Google Earth.

so by using Google Earth you can go through Rome . Here gets the oppurtunity to View all the Rome city. Ghosh this is great oppurtunity guys check it out.

Rome On Google Earth

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Gazelle a New Browser by Microsoft

Microsoft Guys are involved in very busy developmet specially researchers. They say that they are developing a browser which has far more better security when compared to Google Chrome or Firefox infact they mentioned it has more security features when compared to their own existing IE.They are building with such an approach that processes has no direct interaction with underlying system and are mediated by system calls supplied by the browser kernel.

Till Now the browser is just a prototype, with features based on IE. They say that due to more security features it is slow but they say with few tweeks it can be made faster.

They Named the Browser as Gazelle and is being developed in C# code called a "Browser Kernel" that helps enforce security Rules to prevent malicious access to PC's Underlying OS.

Gazelle is different from some other browsers in that it considers each part of a Web site -- such as iframes, subframes and plugins -- as separate elements. Some of those elements can pull in malicious content from other Web sites. Google's Chrome runs a Web page and its elements in a single process.

Another interesting feature of Gazelle is aimed at blocking so-called race condition attacks. In that scenario, an attacker creates a Web page aimed at making a user click on an area of the page. But just before the predicted click happens, an overlay is drawn into the page, which could cause a user to be attacked.

Well iam waiting for this release by Microsoft as i wanted to see to what extent it can provide better security.And also there is a news that microsoft is coming up with a better search engine KUMO to compete the internet market of Google,yahoo.

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Keshav Murugesh CEO of Syntel

Syntel, a global IT services and KPO firm has appointed Keshav R. Murugesh as a new CEO.Keshav Murugesh, was Chief financial Officer earlier to this and joined syntel in 2002. Where as Bharat Desai will continue as chairman of the board.

Bharath Desai said "Since joining Syntel, Keshav has consistently demonstrated strong leadership and has been a driving force behind Syntel's success. He has a proven track record of performance and has consistently delivered results in challenging situations,As Keshav assumes the role of CEO, as chairman I will continue to work with Syntel's leadership in driving our market strategy and serving all stakeholders."

"I am honoured to accept this opportunity to lead Syntel," said Keshav Murugesh. "For nearly 30 years, Bharat's leadership has transformed Syntel into a premier provider of IT and KPO services. I look forward to working closely with the board and my team to ensure that Syntel continues to deliver innovative solutions to help our clients win in the marketplace."

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AIG

AIG which stands for American Internation Group was a Insurance Giant in the United states till it was collapsed in last September 2008. An assortment of business that run the complete range from aircraft leasing to Life insurance for Indians to Retirement plans for people, remained profitable which could not offset the loses.Given A.I.G.'s size and the complexity of its deals, federal officials decided that a bailout was preferable to the havoc in international markets that would likely follow bankruptcy.

AIG Insurance is a group of companies known as the American International Group, and is one of the leading service operators in more than 130 countries. AIG was founded in 1967. As per the ratings of 2006, Global Forbes 2000 List, considered AIG as the fourth largest company in the world. AIG is the world's leading international insurance and financial services company. In the U.S., AIG is the largest underwriter of commercial and industrial insurance. AIG concentrates its focus on four distinct markets: life insurance and retirement services, financial services, general insurance and asset management. AIG continues to enhance its financial growth through development of new products, markets and distribution channels. The customer base ranges from commercial, individual and institutional customers. AIG stock is listed in the New York Stock Exchange, and in other stock exchanges such as London, Paris, Switzerland and Tokyo.

The company was bailed out by the Federal Reserve, but even after that $85 billion infusion, losses continued to mount and in November the Treasury announced a new rescue package that brought the total cost to $150 billion.

AIG has four principal business segments

General Insurance

AIG's General Insurance operations include the largest U.S. underwriters
of commercial and industrial insurance, the most extensive international
property-casualty network, a personal lines business with an emphasis
on auto insurance and high-net-worth clients and mortgage guaranty insurance
operations. AIG's leadership is a result of its underwriting skill,
innovative insurance solutions, financial strength, superior service and
responsive claims handling. The AIG claims operation gives clients access
to a vast worldwide network of dedicated experts and top legal firms.

Life Insurance & Retirement Services

Serving millions of customers around the world, AIG's growing global Life
Insurance businesses make up the most extensive network of any life
insurer. Strategies for enhancing growth focus on developing new markets,
expanding distribution channels and broadening product offerings. AIG
has one of the premier Retirement Services businesses in the United
States. It also has an extensive international retirement services network
to meet the growing needs of groups and individuals in countries
worldwide.

Financial Services

AIG's Financial Services businesses specialize in aircraft and equipment
leasing, capital markets, consumer finance and insurance premium finance.
These businesses complement AIG's core insurance operations and achieve
a competitive advantage by capitalizing on opportunities throughout the
AIG global network.

Asset Management

AIG's Asset Management Group businesses include institutional and retail
asset management, broker-dealer services, private banking and spread-based
investment business from the sale of guaranteed investment contracts, as
well as the management of AIG insurance invested assets. Businesses in
the Group leverage AIG's deep knowledge of markets around the world
and expertise in a wide range of asset classes.

Though its name is American, the company is rooted in Asia. According to company lore, its founder, Cornelius Vander Starr, a World War I veteran, traveled to Asia with only 300 Japanese yen (less than $3 today) in his pocket and started the firm in Shanghai in 1919.

With a partner, he sold marine and fire insurance and expanded rapidly throughout the Philippines, Indonesia and China by hiring locals as agents and managers, a business strategy A.I.G. uses today. Nearly half of A.I.G.’s 116,000 direct employees — about 62,000 people — are in Asia.

Mr. Greenberg joined the company in 1960. He focused on making giant commercial deals, increasing its share of the life insurance business and writing what were, decades ago, unusual types of coverage, like insurance against kidnapping and protection from suits against a company’s officers and directors.

A.I.G.’s problems rest in the company’s London-based financial products unit, part of its financial services group, which is exposed to securities tied to the value of home loans — the same kind of securities that forced Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy proceedings the day before A.I.G. was bailed out. The financial products group sold credit-default swaps, complex financial contracts allowing buyers to insure securities backed by mortgages. Many of the buyers were European banks. As home values have fallen, the value of the underlying mortgages has declined, and A.I.G. has had to reduce the value of the securities on its books.

The company's distress came after an unusual period of turmoil at the company.Early in 2005, questions arose about financial transactions that had the effect of making the company’s earnings look better. Mr. Greenberg resigned as chief executive after regulators sent a wave of subpoenas to the company; eventually A.I.G. restated earnings covering a five-year period. His successor tried to restore confidence in the company but his efforts did not meet with investor approval and he was replaced after the company announced that it lost $7.8 billion in 2008's first quarter..

In September the main financial ratings agencies made clear that they would downgrade A.I.G. ratings if the company were not able to raise more capital to back its obligations. A frantic scramble for investors was unsuccessful, leading a reluctant Fed to conclude that a bailout was unavoidable.

The new bailout announced in November included an easing of the terms for the cash infusion and a plan to use $50 billion in government funds to take the most toxic assets off of A.I.G.'s balance sheet.


This was a collective information i got from nytimes.com and www.insuranceusa.com

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Open Innovation Portal by SUN Micro

Well most of you might be aware of open source strategy which is followed by some of the big giants like sun. Well i am a hardcore fan of microsoft rather i would say the concept of open source is an awesome thing which might take the technoology to next level, because it combines the brains of many intelligent chaps accross the world in order to develop the technology.

The Open Source Definition

The Open Source Definition is used by the Open Source Initiative to determine whether or not a software license can be considered open source. The definition was based on the Debian Free Software Guidelines, written and adapted primarily by Bruce Perens

Sun Microsystems has launched what it claims to be the first ever Open Innovation Portal at the Centre for Excellence in E-governance, Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi with JNU and Knowledge Commons as collaborators.

This is place where society can share their ideas towards innovation. And this can help the transition the economy into innovation economy.

In this portal people coming from diversified backgrounds like Scientific community, student community and from all walks of life to publish their innovations with no IPR encumbrances.

According to sources a person called Krishnakant Mane, a visually challenged computer scientist, entered the first idea into the portal last day. He suggested that he want to create a system that can help visually challenged to have better access to print media. Where as Krishankanth used ORCA screen which was introduced by SUN help the differently abled people to access computers

Speaking at the inauguration, Mr. Joe Hartley, VP of Global Education, Government, and Healthcare, Sun Microsystems said, “Sun knows that communities drive innovation. The Innovation Portal therefore allows for collaboration between members of a society to foster innovation. This is in line with Sun’s vision of the Participation Age where Sun believes the world has entered a new era where dramatically lowered barriers to entry, plummeting device prices and near-universal connectivity are driving a new round of network participation.”

I would really suggest you guys please visit that portal and let me know the feedback.

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New marketing tools by yahoo

yahoo was under pressure for nearly a year after the failure of Microsoft deal.Yahoo is preparing for the new approach for the market. It is expected to show the new tools that are helpful for the marketers have better target for online ads.

"Targeting a site with a couple hundred thousand users...I don't call that targeting. I call that wasted effort," Joanne Bradford, Yahoo's senior vice president of U.S. revenue and market development, told the paper. "Size does matter."

they say that their one of the service will target the graphical ads to users based on the search terms in yahoo serach engine.

Bradford and Yahoo senior VP Michael Walrath are expected to discuss the new features at a conference in Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday.

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SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse Announced by Microsoft

Microsoft Corp. today announced SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse, a new set of reference architectures for data warehousing that will help eliminate many of the barriers companies traditionally face while creating data warehouses. For as little as $13,000 per terabyte, SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse gives customers immediate access to pretested, preconfigured industry-standard hardware from partners Bull, Dell and HP that increases Microsoft SQL Server 2008 scalability up to 32 terabytes, and helps reduce the time and effort necessary to deploy mission-critical projects. In addition, Microsoft is partnering with systems integrators Avanade, Cognizant Technology Solutions, HP and Hitachi Consulting Corp. to provide solution templates specially tailored for the new reference architectures.


more information from microsoft

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Microsoft and sify together improve the IT literacy

E-learning this was the booming thing in the market a couple of years ago. when i was out of my graduation i have seen many medium level companies targetting e-learning market. But now again may be mcrosoft has realised the importance of e-learning or it may be planning to advertise their tools using this e-learning.

what they have thought is very good , Currently they are targetting the employed youth who are not good at soft skills,IT skills and also English.

53% of employed youth in India suffer some degree of skill shortage that spans across basic IT skills, soft skills, and English skills, according to a labour report by TeamLease
Microsoft and Sify Technologies together will enhance digital literacy skills across India. The partnership will enable eLearning courses across 2000 cyber cafes in the country.

The e-learning courses will cover digital literacy and Windows & Office Essentials in Sify e-port cyber cafes. The two courses will take about 20 hours and 60 hours to complete respectively and are priced at Rs.299 and Rs.599 respectively.

"eLearning course imparts basic IT skills to enhance one's employability quotient, making it extremely relevant to practically every worker," said Anoop Gupta, VP of Microsoft.
This new approach gonna be started in Delhi as per the news.

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After the 1400 employee layoff Microsoft asks for the Severance Package Refunds

Already there are lots IT employee who have severely got affected due to this recession. But imagine some company have removed a guy and then said to him that it has overpayed him and give me the money back. Damn that would pathetic thing you would ever imagine.


But this is done by micorosft the Huge software giant. Microsoft has layed off 1400 employees .They said It’s unclear how many of the 1,400 employees laid off last month were affected but they said that some employess might have under paid as well. But they are calling back the employees to the campus and asking them to let know the details.

here is photographic evidence which was mentioned at techcrunch.

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Saving Costs with Virtualization

VIRTUALIZATION this is buzz word which is with many companies accross the IT industry. At the present scenario considering the economic downturn, many companies are looking forward to implement virtualization. Understanding the importance of virtualization even redhat and microsoft are implementing interoperability in virtualizations. But one questions to mind for many of them is what is virtualization . how is it evolved and what are the advantages????

Say for example we want to create a file server; of course we will need to have lots of storage space, but accessing this data will not put much strain on the processor or processor cores on this machine. To better utilize the resources on this machine, we decide to add other services onto this computer. Even though we are now using the computer resources more efficiently, we are also opening up the computer to a wider range of possible attacks. This is where virtualization comes in. We can utilize the resources of the computer much more efficiently and still keep our systems optimized and secure for the type of role that they play in our overall IT environment.

i will explain an example how the concept of virtualizastion is useful practically. If you currently have 24 servers in your datacenter; with virtualization you can reduce that number to 3. With fewer servers to purchase and maintain the savings can add up pretty quickly. Also because you are using fewer servers to do the same amount of work as before, you will also see a savings on electricity and cooling in your data centers.

Virtualization allows us to periodically take snapshots of our computers so that in case of an unforeseen shutdown, we can restore the snapshot and have our machines up and running much faster than having to go through a normal system restore from backup.

The economic downturn has prompted more businesses to deploy green IT practices, some of which are reaching energy savings of up to 80 per cent, a claim suggests.


These are the fews things which i got from http://www.bladewatch.com here it explains the advantages of virtualization
Reducing hardware support costs - particularly if you consolidate from different server types to fewer - the less range in your hardware support cost, and the younger your servers, typically the lower the cost. For example 16 types of Compaq Proliant to two types of HP/IBM blade?

Energy efficiency - you should be able to consolidate many physical servers to one physical server, fewer servers providing the infrastructure, coupled with ideally things like SAN boot, energy efficient processors and power supplies.
Business empowerment - possibly the most important one, being able to deploy and roll back more on demand in line with the business need - that we can provision/reconfigure servers more quickly, a memory upgrade need not be a three week process.
Disaster recovery opportunities - could your disaster recovery data center be consolidated to require less data center power and space? Do I need all those rack servers, or a batch of blades?

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Virtualisation Interoperability Pact by Microsoft and RedHat

Well the two Giants, Microsoft and Red Hat who were strong contenders who compete with each other and who were totally against to each other strategies , Now they are providing solutions by supporting each other????? Sounds Interesting so here is the story...

Red Hat and Microsoft customers will now have the ability to run Microsoft Windows Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtual servers on either host environment with configurations that will be tested and supported by both virtualisation and operating system companies.

Actully this will happen by each company will accept virtualization validation/certiication programme and will gonna provide tech support for their combined server or mutual server virtualisation customers. These companies said that The reciprocal validations will allow customers to deploy heterogeneous, virtualised Red Hat and Microsoft solutions with confidence.

“The world of IT today is a mixture of virtualised and non-virtualised environments. Red Hat is looking to help our customers extend more rapidly into virtualised environments, including mixed Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Windows Server environments,” said Mike Evans, vice president, corporate development, Red Hat. “Red Hat listened when our customers asked us to provide interoperability between our respective guest and host virtualisation solutions. We are excited to announce these agreements today as the result of our collaboration with Microsoft.”

There are some key things which need to be considered given by redhat

Red Hat will validate Windows Server guests to be supported on Red Hat Enterprise virtualisation technologies;
Microsoft will validate Red Hat Enterprise Linux server guests to be supported on Windows Server Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server; and once each company completes testing, customers with valid support agreements will receive coordinated technical support for running Windows Server operating system virtualised on Red Hat Enterprise virtualisation and for running Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtualised on Windows Server Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server.

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Yahoo Mobile Portal for iPhone

At the recent Mobile World Congress which was held in Barcelona , Yahoo showed off its Yahoo Mobile application which simplifies the connectivities to various mobile web applications on iphone. Well this sounds interesting but we need to wait till march to see this in live. This application provides access to voice search, Maps, News,Social Networking and also instant messaging.

You can check the Beta version of yahoo application on iphone here http://mobile.yahoo.com/

"We believe the new Yahoo Mobile will transform the way millions of mobile users around the world will interact with the Internet," said Marco Boerries, Yahoo's executive vice president, in a statement. "Yahoo Mobile will enable users to create their own Internet starting point on their mobile device so they can better discover, connect to, and stay informed about the people and things that are important to them."

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Reasons why we use OUTLOOK at the Office

In most of the companies they use Outlook for their official mailing purpose. But have you ever imagined why they stick to Outlook rather than swithcing to any other mail system??????
Here are some reasons specified by Computerworld.com why we use Outlook for Official Mailing in the Offices
1. Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Play Well Together
Users need to know absolutely nothing to connect. They just fire up Outlook, enter their e-mail address, and it and Exchange commune. Transparently. That cuts down on IT involvement in client configuration and allows users to switch computers easily
2. Outlook Plays Well With Active Directory.
Active Directory's authentication extends to Exchange. That means that a user can simply log on to a computer, start Outlook, and her Active Directory credentials are passed to the Exchange server-no typing or separate logon required.
3. Outlook Integrates with Many Devices and Applications
If you're possessed by any sort of PDA or smartphone, there's a way to synch it with OutlookEven third party add-on applications for devices like BlackBerry or various Windows Mobile models manage to talk to Outlook.
4. Outlook Makes it Easy to Organize Your Assets
Most e-mail clients offer some sort of rules for sorting and managing e-mail, but Outlook 2007 (in conjunction with Exchange 2007) really raises the bar. Sure, you can sort messages into folders, or forward or redirect them according to selected criteria. However, you also have the option to send different automatic Out of Office (OOO) messages to internal and external addresses.
5. Outlook Plays Nicely With SharePoint
Microsoft's SharePoint is a collaborative platform offering tools for building and managing websites, intranets and workspaces.Simple-Outlook users can opt to receive notifications of new or changed content by e-mail, then click through to the SharePoint site. They can also add content to a shared workspace or participate in forum discussions by e-mail, thanks to integration with Outlook and Exchange.
6. Outlook Expedites Workflow
Outlook's messaging isn't limited to mere e-mail. Companies can set up workflows for functions such as online voting. For example, if a group wants to decide on a location for a festive lunch, the coordinator can send a message offering several options. Recipients simply click a voting button within the e-mail message to send their responses.
7. Outlook's User Interface is Familiar
Since Microsoft Office is the market leader in productivity software, the Outlook user interface is familiar to users, cutting down on the learning curve. Sure, there's a ton of functionality to discover, but the basics are relatively intuitive to someone who's used to Microsoft Office.
8. Outlook Offers Integrated Calendar, Tasks, etc
Outlook includes an address book, calendar, task list and virtual sticky notes. All pieces are integrated; dragging and dropping an e-mail message can create an appointment or a task or a note.
9. Believe It or Not, Outlook Has Pretty Good Security
Yes, I know Microsoft has a bad reputation on the security front. But Outlook 2007, in particular, has good junk mail filtering (as long as you keep it up-to-date), blocks external content such as web bugs and downloaded images and data from foreign sites, disallows executable attachments and prevents the execution of ActiveX applets, by default. You can bypass the security if you like, but it has to be a conscious decision.
10. Outlook Offers One-Stop E-mail
You're not limited to a single account in Outlook. Several accounts using different protocols (including POP3 and IMAP) can feed into the same set of folders, and be managed with one set of rules. Or, if you prefer, they can be sorted into separate folders by account. You choose.

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Samsungs Blue Earth from Recycled water Bottles

Samsung's Blue earth is the phone which made be pretty impressed with this handset. The phone is an environmental champion, made from recycled water bottles and powered by a solar panel on the back.

The solor panel can be utilised for the charging and keep up the mobile running for you. It also has a distinctly gimmicky pedometer, which measures how far you have walked and then tells you how much CO2 you haved saved by not driving.

The phone has an energy saving mode which will lower the backlight levels and switchoff the bluetooth. Ghosh this is damn interesting mobile which uses the natural resources which is a good step to the future usage of mobile phones.

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World's Second Googlephone by Vodafone

Now HTC and Vodafone made a joint annoucement regarding their coming release odf Android Based Magic. which was earlier named as G2.There are few interesting things that can be noted about this handset likeLook and feel is lot better when compared to G1 from T-Mobile. This is Exclusively for Vodafone only.

And this is coming with out any Keyboard as Magic is totally touch screen only. This phone has a 3.2 Mega pixel Cam and wi-fi and GPS. This is also supported with Video recording and playback.

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Samsung 'Beats' Dead Horse with Gimmicky DJ Phones

In the recent Mobile world Congress there are two music mixing handsets called Beat. The M6710 is more of a compromise, the kind of phone a web designer might use when he DJs part time at the weekends -- it has just one wheel with which to scratch tunes, but has a rather useful slide-out number pad.
The hardcore Beat is the M7600 (above) which has the same 2.6" screen, 3MP camera and stereo speakers as its brother, but adds fake surround sound, GPS and an extra "wheel" for music control.
Well i dont have much idea about its performance but i heard that touch sense is good for this handset and if any gadget freek here check out this handset once.

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Microsoft signs patent licensing agreement with 123map - Quick Facts

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT: News ) announced a patent licensing agreement with 123map GmbH & Co. KG that will enhance 123map's ability to bring digital point-of-interest mapping technology to its customers.The German-based company will use licensed patented technology to providefaster, low-cost vector-based maps to their customers.

The intellectual property licensing agreement with Microsoft will enable 123map to use Microsoft's patented innovation to overlay information on a map image corresponding to a place of interest, enriching the geographical information on the maps.

Over the past few years, Microsoft has entered into IP licensing agreements related to mapping and navigation technologies, including a licensing agreement with Inrix Inc., a Seattle-based startup that has grown into a leading provider of predictive traffic information in North America and Europe. Microsoft has also recently entered into patent cross-licensing agreements for car navigation technologies with major consumer electronics companies, including Alpine Electronics of America Inc., Kenwood Corp. and Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc.

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Microsoft's Unclucky Breaks

Well i hope there will be no one who doesn't know microsoft in this world of technolgy. Microsoft has seen many up and downs in its journey. Well one can say that it is the hardwork of billgates the tech savy who brought microsoft to this level . Microsoft has got many Lucky breaks in its early stages of growth. Like deal from IBM or Apple or any other deal getting succeded was a lucky break for them

But i found an interesting article in "macdailynews" which says about 10 unlucky breaks for microsoft.

. World Wide Web: Microsoft can't put the Internet genie back in its bottle. Too alluring is the promise of anytime, anywhere informational access on any device, with no Windows required... Microsoft can't succeed. The mobile phone and Web browser is the killer combination that will eventually undo Microsoft's desktop hegemony. What bad luck.

2. The United States vs. Microsoft: The May 1998 antitrust case left deep scars on Microsoft, and forever damaged the company's image. Microsoft carries the stigma of convicted monopolist. The U.S. antitrust case led to more than 100 other lawsuits, most of which Microsoft settled. Dissatisfaction with the outcome here spurred on competitors and antitrust investigators in Europe. In March 2004, the European Union's Competition Commission found that Microsoft violated local antitrust laws. An appeals court would later agree. Since the ruling, the European Competition has fined Microsoft and launched two other antitrust investigations. The damage to Microsoft is simply incalculable.

3. September 2008 economic crisis: Global economic gloom is bad luck for pretty much everybody. But Microsoft has unique exposure... Microsoft is in a unique position of misery. Among various companies, cutbacks here, layoffs there, bankruptcies elsewhere will have limited impact on technology and other suppliers. Microsoft's products are used *everywhere*, so the potential sales harm is greater.

4. The Google economy: Google succeeded at the search advertising business pioneered by Overture. Finally, somebody figured out how to generate real revenue from the Web.

5. Windows Vista: No Microsoft competitor could have launched an anti-marketing campaign as effective as Windows Vista. The operating system damaged Microsoft's brand and the company's credibility with customers, particularly businesses.

6. Apple's May and October surprises: In 2001, three seemingly small Apple events kicked off pebbles that later set off an avalanche. In March, Apple released Mac OS X and again in September with the 10.1 upgrade. In May, the first two Apple retail stores opened in California and Virginia. In October, the first iPod shipped. Folklore has it that bad luck comes in threes.

7. Linus Torvalds develops Linux: Consistently causes sales problems for Microsoft.

8. Passing on YouTube: In October 2006, Google announced the acquisition of YouTube for $1.6 billion. Six months earlier, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer passed on buying the video startup for about $500 million. If ComScore ranked YouTube as a search engine, the video sharing site would be No. 2, ahead of Yahoo.

9. Stock doldrums: Microsoft's share price peaked at around $58 in December 1999, and it has not gone much of anywhere since.

10. Windows XP launch: Subdued due to Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

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Online Desktop From Airtel

Here is one more mile stone achieved by Airtel that is they have launched worlds first ever online Desktop system. The concept is simple you can access your desktop from any computer which has an internet access. this thought which comes to our mind every now and then is finally fullfilled by this Onlike Desktop System. Bharti Airtel has launched what it claims to be the world's first Windows based Online Desktop -- powered by Microsoft and Nivio, giving access to a personal virtual desktop from any computer connected to the Internet for Airtel broadband customers.According to Atul Bindal, President telemedia services Bharithi Airtel , he hopes to increase the computer and Broadband usage by making it easy and affordable at low costs.

Here are the specifications about this Online Desktop systems

1) 5 GB space to store documents, photos, music, presentations, software at a central place

2) Anti-Virus protection which makes stored data safe and secure

3) original and latest software on a rental basis - pay as you go

4) reduced IT infrastructure cost with no cost of CPU and unified billing with service usage included in monthly Airtel broadband bill

The pay package is as follows

For Rs 99 per month, customers get 5 GB of online storage space. At Rs 199 per month for the Retail Pack, customers get 5 GB of online storage space, free Anti Virus protection, Windows-based operating system, automatic backup -- accessible from anywhere in the world. Specially-tailored Professional and Business Packs at Rs 399 and Rs 699 per month,respectively, provide a Windows-based operating system and MS Office.
They are also Providing 24x7 Cust care service
When asked with microsoft, Rajan replied this could bring them closer to their vision.
Well this is another milestone in the achievements of advancement of technology and i think this is pretty good step taken by airtel.

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HP to reduce Base Pay???????

Today, HP announced first quarter results amid one of most difficult economic downturns that any of us has ever faced.They have decided to further variablize thier cost structure by reducing base pay and some benefits across HP. My base pay will be reduced by 20 percent. The base pay of Executive Council members will be reduced by 15 percent. The base pay of other executives will be reduced by 10 percent. The base pay of all other exempt employees will be reduced by 5 percent. For non-exempt employees, base pay will be reduced by two-and-a-half percent. Additional efficiencies, including changes to the US 401(k) plan and the share ownership plan, will also be implemented. Of course, the implementation of all of these actions is subject to compliance with local laws and regulations. Follow-up communications will detail the timing and the plans in your location. They said they increase the pay if they do the outstanding performance in the future.

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Universal Charger For Mobile Phones

We all need to buy a charger with every new mobile phone। What if it is possible to charge a phone from any available charger? This would not only make life easier for mobile phone consumers, but would be good for the environment too। The GSMA and 17 leading mobile operators and manufacturers said at the Mobile World Congress that they are committed to implementing a cross-industry standard for a universal charger for new mobile phones. The aim of the initiative, led by the GSMA, is to ensure that the mobile industry adopts a common format for mobile phone charger connections and energy-efficient chargers resulting in an estimated 50 per cent reduction in standby energy consumption; old chargers currently generate more than 51,000 tons of waste a year.

The initial group of companies who have joined the GSMA's UCS initiative include 3 Group, AT&T, KTF, LG, mobilkom austria, Motorola, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor, Telstra, T-Mobile and Vodafone – some of the world's largest mobile operators and manufacturers who together are committed to making a universal charging solution a reality up to 2012 and beyond।The group has set an ambitious target that by 2012 a universal charging solution (UCS) will be widely available in the market worldwide and will use Micro-USB as the common universal charging interface. The group agreed that by 1 January 2012, the majority of all new mobile phone models available will support a universal charging connector and the majority of chargers shipped will meet the high efficiency targets set out by the OMTP (Open Mobile Terminal Platform), the industry body who developed the technical requirements behind UCS."The mobile industry has a pivotal role to play in tackling environmental issues, and this programme is an important step that could lead to huge savings in resources, not to mention convenience for consumers," said Rob Conway, CEO and member of the board, GSMA. "There is enormous potential in mobile to help people live and work in an eco-friendly way and with the backing of some or the biggest names in the industry, this initiative will lead the way."A universal charger will also make life much simpler for the consumer, who will be able to use the same charger for future handsets, as well as being able to charge their mobile phone anywhere from any available charger. UCS chargers will also include a 4-star or higher efficiency rating, which is up to three times more energy-efficient than an unrated charger. Furthermore, with potentially 50 per cent less chargers being manufactured each year, the industry can expect to reduce greenhouse gases in manufacturing and transporting replacement chargers by 13.6 to 21.8 million tonnes a year. "3 welcomes this initiative to reduce the environmental impact of the mobile industry. By working together, the mobile industry can make a significant difference to the number of chargers produced, shipped and lying around our homes and offices along with the amount of energy consumed whilst charging. It can only make the whole process of charging up a mobile much more consumer friendly and 3 will work with our handset partners to target 75 per cent of our handset range to be UCS compliant by the end of 2012," said Nigel Field, general manager, devices and applications, 3 Group."This initiative is in line with our overall environmental programme as the universal chargers will be highly energy efficient and will therefore reduce the carbon waste. We estimate that by 2012, the majority of new mobile phones will be universal charging solution compliant," said Terry Kramer, group strategy and business improvement director, Vodafone.

This is the News according to Efytimes.com

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Qualcomm and Nokia team up

As recently announced Qualcomm and Nokia are teaming up to develop new mobile phone chipsets. Just last year Qualcomm and Nokia were eyeing each-other from across the court room and now they are partners.

The partnership points out that the two are working together to produce a new third generation 3G mobile phone. The deal could also help Qualcomm survive through the expected downturn of the mobile market as well as hurt its opponents, Broadcomm and Texas Instruments.

"We view the announcement as a positive for Qualcomm as it further solidifies the companies' leadership in 3G technologies and presents an opportunity for growing its addressable market," UBS analyst Maynard Um said.

No word has been announced on what exactly their new product will be, but we'll be sure to let people know once it's announced.

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Adobe, Nokia Create $10 Million Open Screen Project Fund

Well there is lot of buzz around this "Open screen project".
According to David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president, platform business unit, Adobe he said "We are excited about the Open Screen Project fund and the possibilities it offers to designers and developers worldwide"
The new fund is a result of the Open Screen Project, an industry-wide initiative of more than 20 industry leaders set to enable a consistent experience for Web browsing and standalone applications. Additional Open Screen Project partners are expected to join the fund in the future.

"The Open Screen Project fund encourages the use of Adobe tools and existing developer skills to create exciting and unique Flash applications for millions of Nokia devices," said Tero Ojanpera, executive vice president, Nokia Services. "With more than 300 million Flash enabled Nokia devices in market, we will support these developers through the Forum Nokia developer community while providing a more targeted distribution channel to consumers with Nokia's Ovi Store."

Developers are invited to submit concepts for applications that are based on the Adobe Flash Platform, will run on Nokia devices and will work on multiple screens, including mobile, desktop and consumer electronics devices.

Applications will be reviewed for how innovative and compelling the user experience is, how robust the application or planned implementation is, and how well it exploits the capabilities and features of Nokia devices, Adobe Flash and Adobe AIR, which enables developers to use proven Web technologies to build applications that extend outside the browser.

The projects submitted will be screened by a group of multi-screen application
and services experts from Open Screen Project partners including Adobe and Nokia. Focus areas include: entertainment, social networking, productivity, gaming, news and information. Developers retain all rights to their applications while Adobe and Nokia have the right to evaluate, test and promote the content.

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CSC wins contract from US Army's PEO STRI

CSC, a provider of technology-enabled services, has won a contract from the US Army's Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation, or PEO STRI, to provide a range of engineering and training services under the Omnibus Contract II.

CSC is one of 118 companies in the Full and Open Lot 1 group of contractors awarded the indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, which has a three-year base period, two two-year options and one three-year option. The total combined maximum ceiling value of the 10-year competitively awarded contract for all firms is $17.5 billion.

Under the terms of the new contract, CSC will compete for task orders to provide services that address the training and testing requirements of PEO STRI's customers. Among the services to be provided are front-end analysis, design, development, fielding and sustainment for instrumentation, systems and simulators used by the military.

James Sheaffer, president of North American public sector line of business at CSC, said: "For nearly 20 years, CSC has provided a full spectrum of training support to PEO STRI to enhance the proficiency and readiness of our military. This contract allows us to continue drawing upon our proven and innovative engineering, technical and management solutions to provide our war fighters with the tools they need for individual, crew and collective training in real and virtual environments."

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Best wiki engines of linux

I just want to share this information for all the users who wants to know about best free wiki engines of open source.
A Wiki engine is a type of collaborative software that runs a wiki system. This facilitates web pages being created and edited using a web browser. This type of software is usually implemented as an application server that runs on one or more web servers.

the content is stored in a file system, and changes to the content are typically stored in a relational database management system (such as MySQL), although some simple wiki engines use text files instead.

Here is the list of wiki engines

MediaWiki Collaborative editing software that runs Wikipedia
DokuWiki Targeted at developer teams, workgroups and small companies
MoinMoin Advanced, easy to use and extensible wiki engine implemented in Python
PmWiki Offers a simple-to-install system
PhpWiki Wiki engine written in PHP
Zwiki Powerful, innovative engine based on the Zope web application server
XWiki Enterprise wiki written in Java
MindTouch Deki Web-based enterprise collaboration, wiki software and mashup platform
Foswiki Supports the embedding of active and passive macros
JSPWiki Built around the standard J2EE components of Java, servlets and JSP
WackoWiki Small, lightweight, handy, expandable, multilingual written in PHP
Triki-Wiki Simple, robust, flat-file XHTML-Wiki in PHP
WikkaWiki Flexible, lightweight, standards-compliant wiki engine
TWiki Easy to use enterprise wiki and collaboration platform

Got this information from linuxlinks.com

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Helio Ocean 2 : Debut on Feb 12

This will be the one of the Good looking mobiles for the start of this year. I dont have any idea is getting released in India or not. Shortly after officially confirming the upcoming release of Helio Ocean 2, Virgin Mobile USA has now unveiled the handset’s launch date, price and features.

This mobiles cost around 149 $ in red and Black. Its comes medium range mobiles with very gook and features are listed below

* 2.6 inch TFT display with 240 x 320 pixels
* 3G connectivity
* GPS with Google Maps
* Easy access to Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr
* Stereo Bluetooth
* Media player with background mode playback
* 3.5mm headset jack
* Opera Mini
* Mail for Microsoft Exchange
* File Viewer with document editing capabilities
* 3D gaming
* 2MP camera with location tagging and video recording
* 512MB MicroSD card included in the package

Just keep waiting for the launch of this mobile .

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Mimo sevens : Mini USB

Gossshhhhhh look at these cute Displays . These are rocking. Look at the variation in the technology for the past few years. These 7 inch usb monitors from Mimo look

There are two models, both with the same 800x480 pixel resolution -- the $200 740 which has a touchscreen, a webcam, a mic and audio in/out connections and the 710, cheaper at $130 but lacking all those extra features. Both can be used as portrait or lanscape mode

If you say why should we buy this , only thing i can say that is "its just an another cool gadget at my desk" They're also ideal for all the crufty little notification windows you have on your standard desktop.

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Sony Security Searches for a Vein : ' Morfia '

We have seen high-fi Gadgets for authentication which were visualised in some hollywood movies like Mission Impossible and Minority report or Total Recall. In these movies we seen some gadget authenticating Eye-Retina or scanning whole body .

But now Sony is making it reality.

This is very advanced authentication system as far as my knowledge concerned. Now Sony has announced it has developed a compact, finger vein authentication technology that it says will be available in laptops and mobile phones later this year.

This authentication has an interesting name "Morfia" which is expected to have higher accuracy when compared to other authentication systems.

Sony's rival Hitachi has had its finger vein authentication products available since last year, while Fujitsu offers a palm scan technology for both computers and general building access systems. That said, most users are probably still entering passwords to unlock their computers, even if biometric scanners are available on their machines. Why?
It shows that the existing are still unreliable and not compact.
But Morfia from sony is fast in response and accurate too which can be mounted even into mobile devices. It uses the CMOS sensor that digitally captures scattered light inside the finger veins.

Sony claims false rejection rate for the technology is less than 0.1 percent and processing time for identification takes only about 0.015 seconds using a personal computer CPU and about 0.25 seconds using a mobile phone CPU.

Well we need to have a keen look at the future as these technology makers are bringing it to reality which were fictuos before 5 years or 10 years. Hope technology wont take over the Human Race as shown in the movies. Ha ha ha ........

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Google Earth 5.0

Google has come up with some advanced features of Google Earth 5.0. Here it embeded an options like Google Ocean,Historical Maps and trip around mars which sounds interesting.

Well we might be desired to go deep into the ocean to see how it looks

like which can be seen in a discovery channel or any geographical channel but the difference here is you navigate yourself inside the ocean on the internet , Damn sounds cool but need to see how useful it is????

It produces the 3D videos,Images and eco-facts from the ocean lift throen in for good measure. If this is not the things which makes you satisfied with google earth than here comes one more feature called " virtual time travel", which gives the chance to view past satellite photography which can guide you in knowing how an area has changed and can have a space tourism.

Lot more to see but i suggest you to upgrade the google earth to 5.0 and feel the experience.

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Rs 500 laptop by Indian Government

Hello my dear gadget freeks of india. There is some hot news for you guys here. As of now you might have seen exceptional laptops with some awesome features and jazzy looks but even the price looks jazzy ha??????
Now in India, can any one guess it , you will be getting a laptop for just 500 bucks man this is cool but we need to wait n see what's all the features encorporated with that laptop.

According to my information, The Indian Government is all set to display the Rs 500 laptop on 3 February 2009 in Tirupati, at the launch of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology.
This was developed by students of Vellore Insiture of Technology,scientists at Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, IIT Madras and Semiconductor Complex, a public sector undertaking.

Well when you look at the memory it is lesser than a memory which is alloted with mobiles now, it is only 2GB and has wifi, fixed ehternet, expandable memory but to what extent they haven't mentioned. and The most interesting thing about this laptop is " consumes only 2 watts for power".

Way back in 2005 at the world summit on the Information Society held in Tunis, Massachussets Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Nicholas Negroponte, unveiled a $100 laptop computer but this was desinged for Students in the developing world. But india strikes back with the new laptop which can turn around the market of laptops.
Many companies were struggling to break the sub-$100 notebook but India is ready to showcase a notebook that costs only 10$. sounds good to us but threatening for the laptop makers like sony,dell etc.

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Google: "This Site May Harm Your Computer "

Google shocked its users.There was a strange thing happened on internet on last Saturday. Our favorite search engine Google was shocking the world with a strange message. When ever you hit Google there was message thrown saying that

" This site may Harm your Computer. "

This last for an hour and disappeared after that. when inquired, Google said " this was clearly an error and we are very sorry for the inconvenience caused for our users."


Actually Google uses this message for warning the users if the site is known to install malicious software in the background. They maintain list of such sites and pop up the message when needed.

"Google periodically update that list and released one such update to the site that morning. Unfortunately (and here's the human error), the URL of '/' was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and '/' expands to all URLs. Fortunately, thier on-call site reliability team found the problem quickly and reverted the file. Since they push these updates in a staggered and rolling fashion, the errors began appearing between 6:27 a.m. PST and 6:40 a.m. PST and began disappearing between 7:10 PST and 7:25 a.m. PST , so the duration of the problem for any particular user was approximately 40 minutes".

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