In Alls OnE

World-famous heart surgeon Dr Michael DeBakey dies aged 99

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 02:07:00 +0000

World-famous heart surgeon Dr Michael DeBakey, who served as an advisor to US presidents for more than 40 years, died yesterday, aged 99(1908-2008).
DeBakey was the pioneer of bypass surgery and helped develop more than 70 surgical instruments in a career spanning 75 years.

His long list of patients included King Hussein of Jordan and American Presidents Richard Nixon, Lyndon B Johnson and John F Kennedy.

While still a medical student in 1932 he developed the pump which would be used 20 years later to keep blood moving in the body during open heart surgery.

In 1996, aged 87, he flew to Russia to examine President Boris Yeltsin and later oversaw his heart bypass surgery in Moscow and helped save his life. Yeltsin died of heart failure aged 76 last year.

DeBakey also went under the knife himself in 2006 for a damaged aorta, a procedure he developed during his career.

He died on last night in the Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, from "natural causes".

His first wife Diana Cooper DeBakey died of a heart attack in 1972.

He is survived by his second wife German film actress Katrin Fehlhaber, their daughter and two of his four sons from his first marriage. The two others died before their father.

BPO People gets a Social Networking Site - Its Cool

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 01:57:00 +0000

It's the era of social networking groups. When everyone is either joining or starting a social networking group on the net these days, how could the young crowd from the Indian BPO sector be left behind? That's why BPO Voice, a new social networking group for people with a background in the BPO industry, is fast catching up in cyberspace.

Formed a few months ago but opened for membership only last month, the group meant exclusively for BPO employees already has over 200 members. ‘‘The idea took shape when I started using some of the BPO communities on other networking sites,'' says Amit Saxena, the brain behind the latest online community.

"The more I used other networking sites, the more I realised how they could offer much more than what they were currently giving,'' says Saxena. "Most networking groups in Google, Yahoo or even Orkut, offer nothing more than a space for reuniting old friends and making new ones. In fact, most of what they have is either spam or recruitment drives or some mindless activity or games," explains Saxena.

Realising the potential, this former BPO employee saw the need to make use of the collective intelligence of BPO employees and create a platform to share their domain related expertise. Saxena and his band of friends, Ankush Wadhwa and Siddharth Jindal who joined him later, have their job cut out.

Besides improving the overall image of the BPO industry, they plan to create the biggest online resource for BPO professionals. They also want to help these professionals in sharing knowledge and opportunities among themselves on a common platform nationwide. What's more, the site also plans to take up studies and research on lifestyle and career related challenges through various surveys and polls.

While the number of hits and request for membership is increasing by the day, the site is careful to sieve through every request. "We are quite selective about membership. We go through each request and weed out irrelevant members and try our best to remain consistent in our quality in content and membership. There have been occasions when we have asked people to leave simply because their profile did not match our group," says Saxena.

India’s top outsourcing(BPO) companies

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 01:47:00 +0000

The findings of Black Book of Outsourcing 2008 have not been too pleasing for the Indian IT industry. The 2008 list sees several Indian outsourcing companies failing to find their way in the Top 50 list. The list shows how Indian companies are losing their grip over the outsourcing market and also called for better delivery from Indian vendors to improve their act.

Leading Indian companies like Infosys, Hexaware, EXL Service and ICICI Firstsource failed to make the cut this year due to low client approval ratings.

Firstsource (formerly ICICI), a four-year top ranked performer fell the most of any outsourcing company to 1550 of 1690. Indian IT bellwether Infosys too fell out of the Top 50 circle to rank at 59 this year. According to the survey, most of these Indian outsourcers were deficient in their delivery levels.

However, with the losers, the Indian industry also had some winners. These companies with their consistent delivery levels and solid models continued to gratify clients across industry verticals.

Here's meeting the top BPOs of India Inc.

1. Wipro (World 6th)
2. Satyam (World 7th)
3. Tata Consultancy Services(TCS) (World 15th)
4. HCL (World 21st)
5. NIIT (World 36th)
6. Patni (World 45th)

Guided tour to Google Lively

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 01:45:00 +0000

Google gets Second Life. The no. 1 search engine company has launched a 3D virtual space, called Google Lively, that aims to give competition to the popular virtual world hangout Second Life.

The free service which requires no registration and can be accessed through a user's Google account enables people to congregate in fantasy rooms and other computer-manufactured versions of real life.

Lively's users will be able to create an avatar for themselves that can be male, female or even a different species. This avatar can assume a new identity, change clothes or convey emotions with a few clicks of the mouse.

Lively also enables users to create different digital environments to roam, from a child's room to an exotic island.

3G iPhone debut marred by glitches

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 01:42:00 +0000

The launch of Apple Inc's much-anticipated new iPhone turned into an information-technology meltdown on Friday, as customers were unable to get their phones working.

"Its such grief and aggravation," said Frederick Smalls, an insurance broker in Whitman, Mass, after spending two hours on the phone with Apple and AT&T Inc, trying to get his new iPhone to work.

In stores, people waited at counters to get the phones activated, as lines built behind them. Many of the customers had already camped out for several hours in line to become among the first with the new phone, which updates the one launched a year ago by speeding up Internet access and adding a navigation chip.

A spokesman for AT&T, the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the US, said there was a global problem with Apple's iTunes servers that prevented the phones from being fully activated in-store, as had been planned.

Instead, employees are telling buyers to go home and perform the last step by connecting their phones to their own computers, spokesman Michael Coe said.

However, the iTunes servers were equally hard to reach from home, leaving the phones unusable except for emergency calls.

The problem extended to owners of the previous iPhone model. A software update released for that phone on Friday morning required the phone to be reactivated through iTunes.

"It's a mess," said freelance photographer Giovanni Cipriano, who updated his first-generation iPhone only to find it unusable.

Apple shares fell $4.05, or 2.3 per cent, to close Friday at $172.58 amid a general decline in US stocks.

When the first iPhone went on sale a year ago, customers performed the whole activation procedure at home, freeing store employees to focus on sales. But the new model is subsidized by carriers and Apple and AT&T therefore planned to activate all phones in-store to get customers on a contract.

The new phone went on sale in 21 countries on Friday, creating a global burden on the iTunes servers.

The iPhone has been widely lauded for its ease of use and rich features, but Apple is a newcomer to the cell-phone business and it's made some missteps. When it launched the first phone in the US a year ago, it initially priced the phones high, at $499 and $599 and then cut the price by $200 just 10 weeks later, throwing early buyers for a loop.

Rollouts to other countries were slow, as Apple tried to get carriers on board with its unusual pricing scheme, which included monthly fees to Apple. The business model of the new phone follows industry norms, and the price is lower: $199 or $299 in the US.

Hottest Google Earth apps

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 01:39:00 +0000

Google mail might be the most popular application in Google’s software arsenal but when it comes to casual use, perhaps Google Earth takes the cake.

When it was launched, many observers had turned their noses up at it, saying that it was at best an online atlas that allowed you to zoom into specific locations.

Well, those gentlemen (and some ladies) have been consuming vast amounts of humble pie ever since as Google Earth has emerged as one of the most popular online applications of recent years.

And it is not just because it shows a lot of maps and zoomed-in locations and is extremely easy to use -- there is oodles of fun hidden behind Google Earth for those willing to look for it.

And Google keeps adding to the goodies -- from tours to games to developer tools and other little knickknacks, there is plenty to play around with in Google Earth, even if you are not a great fan of maps. Here’s a brief look at just some of them. (Note: All of them might not work with all versions of the software.)

To Relax Your Brain Or Improve Concentration Levels -Here is I Dose

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 01:37:00 +0000

I Dose has a collection of free sounds that, they say, can help relax your stressed brain or make it more alert and improve the concentration level.

These are basically Binaural Beats and used by neurophysiologists to lower the brain frequency to relax the listener or to raise it to help focusing.

I haven’t tried them but there’re a few interesting tones. For instance, i you are addicted to caffeine, try the Coffee Break tone as a replacement for drinking coffee. Then there’s an Inspiration tone for creative artists and writers.

Top 10 Best-Managed Global outsourcing companies

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 12:24:00 +0000

Curtains went up on the Black Book of Outsourcing list. The survey of global service users aims to identify the 50 best-managed global outsourcing vendors through surveying client experience and assessing industry developments.

The 2008 issue of the annual list released by US-based Brown-Wilson Group once again proved the fact that change is the only constant in the dynamic outsourcing industry.

The 2008 list saw last year's leaders Infosys, Hexaware, EXL Service and ICICI Firstsource failing to feature in the Top 50 this year due to low client approval ratings, a fact which clearly shows that Indian BPOs need to work on their delivery levels. IBM Global also lost its position this year. Firstsource (formerly ICICI), a four-year top ranked performer fell the most of any BPO to 1550 of 1690.

The top 50 list this year comprises six Indian companies Wipro, Satyam, TCS, HCL, NIIT and Patni. Interestingly, the survey shows that outsourcing is no longer seen as a refuge of the financially weak or technically-deficient enterprise, nor is it a stick to threaten US workers. It is increasingly being accepted as a strategic tool. As the outsourcing Juggeranaut rolls on, we bring to you the top 10 best BPO vendors globally.

Here are the list of Top 10 Outsourcing Companies

1. Hewlett Packard
2. Perot Systems
3. Computer Sciences Corp
4. Unisys
5. EDS
6. Wipro
7. Satyam
8. Genpact
9. Automatic Data Processing (ADP)
10.Ciber

Life at Googleplex! Enjoyable

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:29:00 +0000

It's hard to figure out, for first time visitors to Googleplex located at 1600, Amphitheatre Parkway, Mount View California, if the campus they are in is a hi-tech hotbed or a play school.

Googleplex is the headquarters of the Internet economy titan, Google. There are red, green, yellow, purple and orange coloured soft toys scattered around on a red couch placed on a distractingly multi-coloured carpet.

A two-seater plane is suspended mid air and a toy T-Rex close by seems to be hunting a toy flamingo. It’s almost unimaginable that the cutting edge technological innovation half the world seems to fear can be born in an atmosphere of such puerility. But then, Google is hard to figure out.

Over the last few years Google has consistently topped several ‘best employer’ surveys globally to the extent that its number one billing is now taken for granted.

The company’s carefully assembled university campus like environment -- lava lamps, massage chairs, free gourmet food courts -- has been the subject of saturation media coverage.

But despite its much-lionised and benign corporate credo ‘Do No Evil’, and a self-projected work culture that would appear to border on bohemian anarchism, Google gives media and technology giants from Redmond to New York to Minato sleepless nights. For the conspiracy theorists, Google’s takeover of the world is imminent.

Google shopfloors are designed to be fluid -- employees work inside makeshift igloo-like cabins. Corridors on the workfloors are lined with red, white, green and yellow sofas on equally colorful carpet blocks.

Even your pets are welcome to the Google experience, provided people around your desk don’t object. But then again, if they do, you can shift your workstation anywhere you like.

Five ways to secure SMS banking

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:28:00 +0000

Often get a feeling of insecurity with SMS banking? Get a feeling that SMS-based transaction may not be hundred per cent fool proof. Here are a few tips to ensure easy and secure SMS banking.

User manual
Never forget to go through the user manual provided on the bank’s site and in branches. This will solve your operational problems and will save you from making wrong transactions.

Origin of the SMS
Always ensure the origin of the SMS before replying. Confirm that the SMS has come from the bank concerned.

Always delete ‘sent’ items
Please don't forget to delete the ‘sent’ items related to SMS banking because they may contain your PIN.

Transaction reference
Every time you do a transaction, don't forget to note the transaction number and always keep it for future reference. This can be used as a proof of the transaction.

Block SMS banking service
In case your phone is lost or misplaced, immediately inform your bank to stop the SMS banking service.

Are u a Professional Blogger ? Do U have all these Qualities ?

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:25:00 +0000

Who would you call a professional blogger ?

A. Someone who blogs in his free time and yet manages to generate some decent income from the blog.

B: An independent full-time blogger who has no day job.

C. Someone who blogs only ‘professional’ stuff and nothing personal / private.

D. A freelancer who writes for another blog network.

I could be wrong here but my assumption was that a professional blogger is a person who has no regular 9-5 job and makes a living from the blog. What’s your opinion?

Anyway, the reason for asking this question is a Seagate contest that begins today. As per rules, only journalists and “professional bloggers” can participate in the contest. Now how would they define one?

Update: The PR team of Seagate has clarified this now - “A professional blogger would be someone who writes blogs on a regular basis.” So I guess most bloggers can enter the contest.

Cool cell phones for GenNow

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:11:00 +0000

The just-concluded Mobile Asia in Delhi was a treat for cell phone freaks. One of the largest consumer exhibition of cell phones, Mobile Asia 2008 saw more than 40 new phones unveiled during the four-day show. Rubbing shoulders with global giants Nokia,Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG and Motorola were iMate, and our very own Intex.

While Nokia, BlackBerry and Motorola displayed their powerful, existing line-up, others, including Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson refreshed their line-up with a slew of new models. Here's a sneak preview of the phones that you can expect to lay hands upon as soon as you finish reading about them here…
1. i-mate Ultimate 9502

2. Motorola MOTO Z10

3. Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1

4. Nokia 6110

5. Samsung i780

6. Samsung SGH-G800

Indian Edition of Orkut with Themes introduced by orkut.co.in Google

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:02:00 +0000

Some updates for Orkut - the most popular social networking site in India.

Aditya informs that Google has officially launched the Indian edition of Orkut while Raj discovers themes inside his Orkut account. You may not see them as Orkut themes are not enabled for everyone yet.

The orkut.com site now redirects you to orkut.co.in if you visit this website from India. Orkut.in however remains a parked domain serving AdSense ads.

Google Search Inspired by Unix Command Shell

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:58:00 +0000

Goosh is brilliant. You can execute Google search commands in the browser just like using the Unix shell and the results get displayed inline. You can even search for feeds with Google just like MSN.

How Windows XP will survive death

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:53:00 +0000

Come June 30, and sun will set on probably one of the most loved operating systems: Windows XP. With just two weeks left to the XP's official "kill" date, it seems fans have not been successful in persuading the Redmond giant to extend the XP deadline.

Here's looking into how XP, which analysts term as the biggest competition for Microsoft's latest OS Vista, can continue to live after its termination.
XP will be available on PCs from smaller computer makers known as "system builders" until January 31, 2009.

Also, the low-end Windows XP Starter Edition will continue to be available in emerging markets until June 30, 2010.

Mail to friend
XP will be available for so-called ultra-low-cost-PCs until June 30, 2010. According to Microsoft documents outlining the programme for PC manufacturers, Windows XP Home will only be available on systems with the following specs:

* A 1GHz or slower single-core processor (with exceptions for the Via C7 and Intel Atom N270)

* Up to 1GB of memory

* Hard drives up to 80GB

* Displays that are 10.2 inches or smaller

* No touch-screen

For companies manufacturing PCs that meet these specs, Windows XP will be available.

50 IT cities in India - Why ?

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:45:00 +0000

The government’s reported move to build over 50 IT cities in the country to retain India's top position in this sector may change the entire landscape of the industry which is now concentrated in big cities.

It could also pave way for even urbanisation of the country.

The move, complementary to the IT investment region scheme cleared by the Cabinet a few weeks ago, does not come as a surprise to companies which are expanding beyond the metros to service their onshore and off-shore clients.

Nasscom, the industry body for IT companies, has been in talks with the centre for developing new IT regions in the country. It has short-listed 50 locations in the country -- other than the top seven cities --for companies to set up shop.

“With the surge in real estate prices, IT and ITes companies are finding it tough to set up operations in traditional locations including Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon and Noida. We expect small cities to anchor the next growth wave in the IT industry,” says Ganesh Natarajan, chairman of Nasscom.

Nasscom has, perhaps, taken a cue from China which has developed small growth regions such as Wuxi and Dalian for industrial development. It reckons that Tier II cities will have the potential to account for at least 40 per cent of the total projected IT/BPO jobs by 2018 provided there is a balanced growth.

Currently, the top seven cities account for over 85 per cent of IT sector employment “The proposed move will help spread development across the country and ease out pressure from big cities, where infrastructure is crumbling. By encouraging locations outside metros, the government could make way for reverse migration,” he said.

Srinivas Vadlamani, CFO, Satyam Computer Services, said the company has already initiated steps to move out of large cities.

“We are planning to move into places like Vizag, Nagpur, Gandhinagar and Madurai and are setting up our own SEZs. This can lower our cost of operations, cut travel time and traffic congestion which our associates face in the Tier I cities,” he said.

He says the government should offer incentives such as salary subsidy, free office space and liberal tax breaks spread over 10-15 years to make this move successful. Some of the Asian governments like China and Malaysia already offer such incentives.

“The state governments, for instance, can support the development of these areas by extension of similar tax benefits that are given to the Software Technology Parks of India (STPIs) and the Special Economic Zones,” said Natarajan.

But it is not clear whether the government plans fiscal incentives -- similar to those enjoyed by companies set up in software technology parks -- in the proposed IT cities. Companies are hoping it would, citing the slow-down in the US economy and its impact on their bottomlines.

According to Sanjay Khendry, vice-president (global business development), Sierra Atlantic, the proposed move to set up new IT cities will also help improve lives of people in small cities.

“It will also provide an opportunity for existing employees to move to their native places. It could lead to improved educational opportunities as new institutes could come up in these cities. For smaller firms, it will be an added advantage as they will be able to get access to a larger talentpool,” he said.

Wat's New in Latest Firefox 3

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:40:00 +0000

The latest version of Mozilla Foundation's popular browser, Firefox is all set for an upgrade. In fact, the Foundation is eyeing Guinness Book of World Records for maximum software downloads in a day for Firefox 3.0 as it goes live today.

Firefox 3.0 promises to add several new features that will enhance the users browsing experience as well as make it for secure. In fact, Mozilla claims that Firefox 3.0 will run twice as fast as the previous version while using less memory.

So, here's a peek into all that is new in Firefox 3.0.
The new version has enhanced malware protection which warns users when they enter a site which can install viruses, spyware, trojans or other malware.

Version 3 also lets users to access Web Forgery Protection page that displays the content suspected of web forgeries.

Also, the new version of Firefox automatically checks new add-ons and plugins and will disable older, insecure versions.
Multiple text selections can be made with Ctrl/Cmd; double-click drag selects in "word-by-word" mode; triple-clicking selects a paragraph.

Another new feature, called activities, allows users to highlight text on a page, click on it, then instantly send it to another site, like a mapping, e-mail or blogging service.
Firefox 3.0 has several developer tools too. Like there are new tools for graphics and font handling.

Best BPOs to work for in India

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:25:00 +0000

Stories abound of India's BPO work culture. High attrition, tiring long nights, deadline pressures, repetitive work....

With these there are also tales about training and academic tie-ups for employee growth, doorstep pick-up-and-drop, luxury environment and food. The two in many ways reflect the state of India's growing BPO industry.

While the former factors to an extent characterise the nature of BPO work, the latter show how companies seek to derive the best from the challenges that are an intrinsic part of their industry.

And the companies who are able to accomplish this form great BPO workplaces. A recent survey by Great Place to Work Institute on Best Work Places across sectors had dominant share of these companies. Here's looking into these best BPOs to work for and what makes them so.

1. Aligent Technologies - One word by which Agilent employees define their workplace is -- freedom. The company is a leading player in the electronics, telecommunications and life sciences test and measurement markets.
2. Azure Knowledge Center - Azure Knowledge center is the largest BPO in western India. Founded in 1991 as an IT/CRM training and Software Development company.
3. Ajuba Solutions - Celebration, fun@work, family like colleagues, good teamwork, approachable management, strong leadership and values makes Ajuba Solutions one of the best BPOs to work for.
4. Aditi Technologies - Founded in 1994, Aditi Technologies is headquartered in Bangalore, with offices in Seattle, Boston, Chicago, Mountain View, New York, and London. The company pioneers in outsourced product development.
5. Intelnet Global Services
6. Infineon Technologies
7. Perot Systems
8. Scope International
9. vCustomer Services
10. Wipro BPO
11. Zycus Infotech

The Best Fonts for Making PowerPoint Presentation Slides

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Tue, 27 May 2008 06:21:00 +0000

The fonts that you use in PowerPoint slides do play some role in making your presentations successful. The typeface should be readable and font size should be large enough so that people at the back have no problem reading the text.

Here’s some expert advice on selecting the right fonts (font family + size) for using in PowerPoint (or Keynote) presentations:

Guy Kawasaki: Guy says that your PowerPoint presentation slides should contain no font smaller than thirty points or just find out the age of the oldest person in your audience and divide it by two. That’s your optimal font size.

"Force yourself to use no font smaller than thirty points. I guarantee it will make your presentations better because it requires you to find the most salient points and to know how to explain them well."

Seth Godin: He recommends picking up a font other than Arial for presentations.

"Hire a pro, get a font you love and stick with it. Don’t change fonts over time (at least not often)… The right font becomes your handwriting."

Scott Hanselman: Scott, a great presenter and geek, recommends Lucida Console font, 14 to 18pt in bold for PowerPoint presentations.

"This [Lucida Console] is the most readable, mono-spaced font out there. Courier of any flavor or Arial (or any other proportionally spaced font) is NOT appropriate for code demonstrations, period, full stop. "

Garr Reynolds: The world’s best know presentation expert says that san-serif fonts are generally best for PowerPoint presentations, but try to avoid the ubiquitous Helvetica.

"Use the same font set throughout your entire slide presentation, and use no more than two complementary fonts (e.g., Arial and Arial Bold). Serif font are said to be easier to read at small point sizes, but for on screen presentations the serifs tend to get lost due to the relatively low resolution of projectors."

Related: PowerPoint Presentations: Avoid Last Minute Surprises

And finally, do watch this excellent presentation by Garr Reynolds that he recently delivered at the Google office.

Download Multiple Web Videos Into a Single Movie or MP3

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Tue, 27 May 2008 04:36:00 +0000

While there are tons of tools that let you download web videos with ease, MovAVI offers one unique feature - it can join multiple videos from YouTube, Metacafe, Break.com, etc. into one single file all by itself that you can later download in any format.

Using Movavi is simple - just add the different video URLs (5 is the limit) and select an output format. You can either request the combined video clip as an MP3 audio file (great for music videos) or in regular formats like iPod MP4, AVI, Flash Video & Quicktime.

Movavi will not join your videos instantly - it sends out an email when the video to ready for download. If you are looking for instant conversion, check this Flash Video Guide. MovAVI can also be used to join video files that reside on your local hard drive.

Most expensive cell phone - Catch the EyE

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Tue, 27 May 2008 04:31:00 +0000

Goldvish Le million made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for being the most expensive phone.

The hand-crafted cell phone made of 18-carat white gold, mounted with 120-carat VVS-1 graded diamonds. The phone comes in platinum or white and yellow solid gold studded with diamonds. The phone has a TFT display and supports 176x220 pixels. The phone has Bluetooth, Java, EDGE, WAP and USB port.

The phone was first introduced in September 2006 in Europe at the Millionaire Fair. There are only 100 of these phones made and it is only available on special request.

GoldVish also make the ‘Illusion’, which comes in 15 different incarnations, encrusted with diamonds. The phone is priced at $1,000,000.

Deadlock for Google,Facebook Continues.....

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Tue, 27 May 2008 04:26:00 +0000

Google Inc's online communities have little traction in the United States, but the search leader continues to seek a spot in the social networking hierarchy.

First, it must contend with Facebook, the No. 2 online hangout behind MySpace.

Days after Google unveiled Friend Connect, which lets the sites of musicians, political campaigns and others incorporate profile data from several social networks, Facebook began to block the programme.

Although Google was taking advantage of the same tools that Facebook made available free to other outside developers, Facebook said Google was violating Facebook's restrictions on data sharing. The two sides remain in a stalemate.

Google, whose Orkut social network has tens of millions of users in Brazil, tried to reach further into social networking with the November unveiling of a consortium called OpenSocial, which lets developers write applications for use on multiple social networks.

News Corp's MySpace has joined, but Facebook hasn't.

This month, Google unveiled Friend Connect, which promises to pool profile data from Facebook, Google Talk, Orkut, LinkedIn, Plaxo and hi5, though not MySpace.

The profile information gets incorporated into other sites -- a political campaign, for instance, can build communities of supporters by tapping existing networks -- with Google serving as the intermediary.

Facebook quickly objected, citing privacy concerns. Normally dealing with other companies one on one, Facebook can block a service it feels violates its rules.

With Google as the intermediary, Facebook lost that leverage, so it decided to block Friend Connect entirely.

In a blog posting, Facebook developer Charlie Cheever said Google's Friend Connect “redistributes user information from Facebook to other developers without users' knowledge, which doesn't respect the privacy standards our users have come to expect.”

Google responded, acknowledging it passes along data. But it said sharing is limited to links for profile photos of users and friends who have expressly consented to sharing with that particular site.

The user's name and numeric ID on Facebook are replaced with Google's own identifiers, Google said in a company blog post.

Google also said it purges Facebook data from its systems every 30 minutes, more frequently than the 24 hours required by Facebook.

Facebook has run into privacy challenges before, most recently when it unveiled a marketing tool called "Beacon" that tracked purchases Facebook members made on other websites and sent alerts to their Facebook friends about the transactions.

But Rachel Happe, research manager at IDC, said the dispute is ultimately about control rather than privacy. She said Google's Friend Connect "starts to eat into other people's value proposition, which is why you saw Facebook object to it."

Buying Smartphones - Here is the Guidelines while Purchasing

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:39:00 +0000

They used to be once considered elite devices that were meant only for those with deep pockets. But recent times have seen enterprise phones come off their ivory tower and become increasingly mainstream. Today, one can even get a decent enterprise device for as little as Rs 10,000. And there’s plenty to choose from as well-- every cell phone manufacturer worth his or her salt has an enterprise device or two up their sleeves.

Some, like Nokia and HTC, have several. While the economists might blather about more choices empowering the consumer, the fact is that more choices also do end up confusing one about just which model to pick up. Well, there are no hard and fast rules in this regard but keeping the following points in mind might just help.

Type Web Addresses Quickly -The Best Keyboard Shortcut in Firefox

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:50:00 +0000

If you haven’t upgrade to Firefox 3 yet, please do so. The new version is far more responsive and stable that its predecessors.

Another reason for loving Firefox 3 is the way it auto-completes web URLs - very intelligent and something you’ll miss in IE. Update: Firefox 2 users share that this works in the previous version as well.

To get started, press Alt+D or Ctrl+L to move the cursor to your Firefox browser address bar and then try some of these combinations:

To open Google Maps website, type "google/maps" in the Firefox address bar (no quotes) and press Ctrl+Enter. And for your Google AdSense page, type "google/adsense" followed by Ctrl+Enter.

Firefox will automatically surround the word(s) that are before the first slash with www. and .com. IE 7 and previous version of Firefox can’t do this.

And this URL auto-complete works even if you have several subdirectories in the URL. For instance, your Google Apps sign-in page will open correctly if you type "google/a/mysite.com" and press Ctrl+Enter.

If you want to open a .org site, you need to use Ctrl+Shift+Enter. Typing labnol/forums followed by Ctrl+Shift+Enter would therefore open our support website at www.labnol.org/forums.

And for .net websites, the shortcut key is Shift+Enter. So you can view the most popular PowerPoint presentations on Slideshare by typing slideshare/popular followed by Shift+Enter.

Is This a Bug? Have People Stopped Using Facebook !

noreply@blogger.com (JoY AdityA) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:47:00 +0000

I have some 868 friends on Facebook but according to the news feed, none of the friends performed any activity on Facebook since yesterday. They didn’t join any new Facebook group nor did anyone upload photos or poke someone on Facebook.

It sounds improbable but Jeremy Wagstaff has made a similar observation with his group of 343 friends - they all have been in dormant state on Facebook since yesterday.

It could well be a bug in Facebook news feeds but you never know because loyalties change too fast on the Internet. Join our Facebook Page.