But this study is sure to create an impact in the minds of more and more people, and ultimately drive Microsoft to their worst nightmare of Open Source taking over the corporate word (at least). But let’s talk about Government Initiative in the Open Source… Now there’s a catch!

WARNING: In the following section, I might sound Frankenstein running after NIC’s to rip it’s neck of it’s body.

IBPS Site may damage your PC

Does government actually support FOSS Initiatives ? I don’t know if you are looking at th small line at the bottom of most of the Government websites, where it says – “Please use Internet Explorer 5.5 or above” or “Best viewed on Internet Explorer 5.5 or above” or something analogous. Does it

SBI site is on ASP (Microsoft Active Server Pages) meaning NOT FOSS, they are using Microsoft Technologies and are actually not leveraging the benefits of FOSS where they can be best achieved – WEB and SERVER Technologies. If you anytime in your life have applied for any of the Country’s bank exams be it PO, Managerial or Clerk, you have to visit the site of Institute of Banking Peronnel Selection (IBPS). You would notice that it won’t open on Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari or Google Chrome – it’s is simply loyal to Microsoft Technology – Internet Explorer.

Let’s visualize a simple example, where a person who loves linux or cannot afford Microsoft Window Operating System and want’s to make every move chaste, without the pains of proprietary software involved – Is demoralize, demotivated, his faith shattered to dust with a website popping up saying I need INTERNET EXPLORER! That wasn’t the idea of Tim Berner’s lee when he proposed Internet.

Does Government really support FOSS?

If the government really want’s to take initiatives, it should have made all the websites on NON-Microsoft Technologies, it would have saved them Millions actually Billions. Today NIC has 90% of their websites being maintained on proprietary – age old technologies, that are in no way match for today’s glossy looking, superbly interactive, and Intelligent websites. Are they ? They don’t even look like Corporate/Identity websites for Company information. Even if NOW!, after going through the Prof. Rahul De reports they think of moving from proprietary to FOSS Tech’s – who the hell be accountable for the earlier un-informed baseless decisions ?

The only one of the few website I’ve seen is the NIC’s Indigov. Its’ one of the best website, and based around php. Now what new I see is a Quality certificate being attached to the website by SQTC. Does that make a difference? What is then W3C for? CDAC, NOIDA has been one of the biggest contributor and promoter of W3C in Indian Government sector. However, now NIC & SQTC comes out with their Certificate attached to the website, ignoring all the work done so far in the field by W3C and unnecessarily putting  their precious efforts into standards that have been pre-established. No doubt the website is accessible, but that accounts to just 0.1% of the websites NIC is hosting/developing/maintaining (I would rather say lingering on with). Most of the disabled people are ignored in the country (I know low floor buses just landed in Delhi, but that’s just Delhi -not India right!) and Information Technology is the last seen area where you could consider disabled people to be preferred – in INDIA.

The author is not Anti-Microsoft, he just want the web to be independent, free from the boundaries just like a free bird.  As Internet / Web was essentially created to be platform-independent so that we could; and today as we are able to browse websites over Mobile Phone, Browser’s across operating systems like – Windows, Mac and Linux. And they look same everywhere.

17th Sept, 2009 – HCL Technologies Ltd. (HCL), a leading global IT services provider, entered into a five year Transformational IT Infrastructure Management engagement with Oncor to seamlessly connect and support Oncor corporate functions, grid management operations and numerous community- based field service centers located throughout Oncor’s service area.

Oncor operates the largest electric distribution and transmission system in Texas, delivering power to more than 3 million homes and businesses through approximately 117,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines. “With this new contract, HCL will be investing in both the utilities sector and in Texas, through the development of a worldwide Utilities Center of Expertise in Dallas.

The Center will research and develop technologies to help transform the way energy is generated, marketed and delivered to customers around the world, which fits Oncor’s leadership in advanced Smart Grid technology deployment,” said R Srikrishna, Senior Vice President and Head – Global Sales, HCL Infrastructure Services Division (HCL ISD).

HCL’s scope of work (SoW) will cover end user computing (service desk, desk-side services) for approximately 3,600 employees; datacenter and network Services, business continuity /disaster recovery and consulting services supporting Oncor’s IT infrastructure architecture and platform modernization projects. “Our client services delivery model utilizes local personnel for on-site support, which contributes to local job base stability,” said Todd Crandall, Senior Vice President and Global Head, Energy and Utilities Sector, HCL Axon. “This engagement clearly underlines our commitment and dedicated focus in Texas.”

Now this is interesting they are also utilizing local personnel and following the govt. guidelines as the part of Obama’s initiative to save jobs and reducing the loss of jobs due to off-shoring – great going. I believe it is necessary – Everything can’t be remote!

The company now has 60 stores in 27 cities in the country and plans to take the number up to 100 by December this year. It has signed up with 81 franchises already. The company runs over 1,700 stores globally across 51 countries. US, one of its mature markets, with around 600 stores has also shown a year-on-year growth of 15 per cent last fiscal banking on the same phenomenon.

“The recession has actually been good for us. It made larger corporates ready to try our product”, Rakhecha said adding that India is one of the fastest growing markets for Cartridge World. It,however, currently contributes a mere 4-5 per cent of the global turnover of the company that is pegged at around $450 million.

Rakehcha informed that the company was all set to get into agreements with hypermarkets, electronic superstores and other leading retail outlets to have shop-in-shop formats. “We are very close to inking a deal and will announce the first tie-up within a month, and a couple of others will follow”, he added. It will also increase the existing product line that its stores offer to include allied products like stamps, office supplies besides printer repair services.

The printer cartridge industry in India is estimated around Rs 3,000 crore which is largely dominated by original equipment manufacturers. Around 20 per cent lies with the re-filling industry and of that a large section again belongs to the unorganised sector players. Organised re-filling is still quite nascent in India. Cartridge World currently enjoys a more than 50 per cent market share in the space.

Source:  Business Standard

Gaming is not new to UTV. The company used the acquisition route to enter the segment in 2007, when it acquired online and mobile gaming firm, Indiagames. It simultaneously acquired the UK-based console gaming firm, Ignition. And finally in 2008, it acquired US-based True Games, an online gaming firm.The strategy has worked so far. For fiscal 2009, the gaming content segment revenue (comprising online, console and mobile games) almost doubled to Rs 110.5 crore. By FY10, the company expects the gaming segment to contribute 32 per cent to its total revenue (18 per cent in FY09).

Taking its gaming plans forward, UTV Media recently showcased three games — War Devil (a third-person player game), Reich (a first-person player game) and El Shadai (an action and adventure game) — at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) gaming conference, one of the biggest events for the console gaming industry. The company has invested Rs 280 crore in the development of these three console games alone.

“I was taken by surprise and awe. Surprise, as we have had a first look of not one or two – but three high-end games. Normally game companies track each other well – so they are all surprised as to where and how long we have been working. And awe, as the quality and the game play, as well as the diversity, of the three games has really created an impact,” Screwvala told Business Standard.

These games are being develped from its studios in Japan, London and Florida (US). The company, though, is yet to work out the additional investment that will go towards marketing and distribution of these games.

The focus of its console gaming segment is clearly the international market. “Our three markets are international and there is nothing Indian about them. Our market in India for these games, too, is insignificant. Besides, in many cases we are creating our own patented technology for the games,” added Screwvala.

While he did not share the revenue estimates these new console games will contribute, he explained that “The upside for even a moderately successful game is huge. We know our cost for creation is very competitive and lower than most in the industry. The gross margins on games can be anywhere between 40 and 300 per cent and if they are even a moderate success, they go into sequels and the margin increases.”

In the online segment, UTV’s True Games unit will be launching its own massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORG) by the second quarter of FY10 in the US and emerging markets like Turkey, Brazil, etc. This unit is also working on additional intellectual properties (IPs).

Indiagames, on its part, is focused on the mobile segment and has grown 120 per cent in FY09, with 60 per cent of market share in India, according to UTV. The company expects this will continue to have a growth rate of 50 per cent year-on-year for some more years.

Source: Business Standard

But the point to be noted here your honor is

• People do the search,
• Google pays money for the ads clicked on the searched results

For all the .GOV.IN and .NIC.IN government websites, who takes the money ? I just want to know who’s the person? Is it the government using its own code to place search engines and getting all the money or is it some one else? We’ve got 2 options to find it out..

• Keep Thinking – You’ll never know!
• File an RTI – Let’s see If I’m able to do so!

Till then keep thinking!

All Open Source people would be glad to know that India Today’s Online network of websites are powered by Joomla!  Its good to see so many corporates using Open Source technology, but simultaneously its very hard to see the choice of platform is not reciprocated, anyways what are we for? So, Go! Joomla! Open Source Go!

India Today’s websites including a Hindi version of aajtak is also being hosted on Joomla!, MoneyToday and Business Today are successfully integrated using the platform. We’d be updating you on the Open Source, anywhere we see it.

“The Google Earth is providing high resolution data in the order of less than a metre. But the data is two to three years old. It cannot be of much use for any real-time exercise. But Bhuvan will provide the relevant data for any real-time exercise,” S K Pathan, Head, Geo Informatics Data Division, ISRO, said.

Bhuvan, to be launched by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), will be a better alternative to Google Earth in terms of quality of data, he said.

“Bhuvan, which means earth, will get the images from the satellites and provide high resolution imagery data of the order of five metre. This can be of use for real-time exercises like disaster management and military operations,” he said.

For real-time exercises, the latest data is a guiding force, he said. It can show the topography, altitude, depth and other features of any specific location.

“This information will be required when you are undertaking a massive exercise like flood management or post-cyclone disaster mitigation,” he said.

The data could be of use to manage public services, internal security, town planning and infrastructure development activities.

Courtesy: The Hindu

Santabanta ads on Guruji's Ad Network

Well, yes Guruji is out with their own version of Adsense.

Now Guruji’s entrance in Advertisement is good, but it needs to be aggressive with the marketing strategy with Big fishes already in the market – Google & Yahoo! with their large client base will be a big competition to beat.I know publisher’s like me, must be eagerly waiting to get their hands on Guruji advertisement system. Well the bad news is Guruji’s Ad System is not open to everyone, you need to submit your website and then they will decide weather to give it to you or not!

Guruji’s is being considered as the “Google search for India”. Guruji’s USP in the market has been its target audience – the Indian market and It’s Music Search, that let’s its users listen to songs directly from various specific indexed websites.

If that’s not  enough digest this: 34% employees at Microsoft, 28% at IBM, 17% at Intel and 13% at Xerox are Indians.

And the House of Elders also heard some startling facts about a country that’s still stuck with a Third World tag — 20% of gold in the world is used by Indians and nine out of 10 diamonds used in the world are made in India.

• You just need have a mobile phone with an operator from India (AirTel, Idea!, Vodafone, etc), and you can receive alerts throughout the day.
• You can also restrict on how many messages you want to receive within a day, so that you are not bugged also.
• What more… well you can set the time frame during which you want to receive alerts too.
• The best part is you can have Google SMS Channels work for you Google Groups also, Let’s say you have a group with high activity and you want every group member to receive alerts about the messages posted.. with Google SMS Channels you can make sure they do notice about the messages.

So what are you waiting for dive in and SMS.

News has been about how laptops will be manufactured is what BRICK is all about. Some sources suggests Apple will build the notebook out of a single piece of carved-out aluminum—a brick.

If you’re working with one single unit of metal, you’re reducing a lot of the materials costs and also a lot of labor time on assembly,

Keller, an Analyst at market research firm iSuppli

• Using a single piece of metal would also provide the opportunity for the kind of design flourishes that distinguish Apple and its chief executive, Steve Jobs.

• Screws might be minimized or eliminated entirely. Seams joining different pieces of metal would disappear. In short, these notebooks would be unlike anything else on the market in appearance and design.

But coring out a block of aluminum, while fairly common in some products, such as types of wireless telecom gear. It is a slow process. The issue for Apple, which would presumably be doing it millions of times, would be speed. It’s very time-intensive. Presumably, Apple could bring innovation aimed at streamlining the manufacturing process.

Keller

In May 2007, it filed for a patent on a design for “enclosure parts that are structurally bonded together to form a singular composite structure…. That is particularly useful in portable computing devices such as laptop computers.”

So, if all the points are to be taken into consideration laptops MacBooks could be cheap. But I won’t expect Apple to be selling them at a the same price they would be selling in other countries (iPhone was launched in India priced thrice the price of iPhone in US).