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 suit was filed on 7th April  in U.S. District Court in San Francisco,

“We couldn’t find a common viewpoint with Apple, so we decided we had to take action,” Dennis Liu, an Elan spokesman, said  adding that the companies had been in licensing talks for about two years.

Apple is based in Cupertino, California.

The lawsuit alleges that Apple products — including its MacBook computer, iPhone and iPod Touch — use technology that infringes on two of Elan’s patents, Elan said.

It was not immediately clear what penalties or remedial action Elan was seeking in the suit.

In January, Apple reported fourth quarter earnings that were stronger than expected in part because of robust sales for the iPhone, MacBook and iPod.

Touch screen technology allows users to zoom in and out, flip images around and perform other tasks using two or more fingers pressed to the screen.

Touch screens are increasingly popular in a wide array of electronic devices and appliances. The market consulting company iSuppli last year forecast that the worldwide market for all touch screen modules would nearly double, from $3.4 billion in 2008 to $6.4 billion by 2013.

Elan said it won a preliminary court injunction against a U.S.-based rival, Synaptics, in a dispute over one of the patents mentioned in the Apple lawsuit, after a suit was filed in 2006 by a unit that was a subsidiary at the time. Synaptics countersued.

Both actions were dismissed last year after the two companies reached a cross-licensing agreement, according to a statement on Elan’s Web site.

For the first time in this Space -Age , two satellites have collided in orbit. Early on Wednesday morning, Sydney time, a Russian communications satellite and an American Iridium mobile phone spacecraft smashed into each other, 790 kilometres above Siberia.

This left both the satellites unusable . US Air Force Brigadier General Michael Carey, of US Strategic Command, said at least 600 pieces of wreckage had been observed circling the world.

“We knew this was going to happen eventually,” said Mark Matney, of NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office.

Orbital traffic control had been impossible because the position of most satellites, until now, could only be plotted to an accuracy of four of five kilometres.

Yesterday, NASA was trying to determine whether the wreckage posed a danger to other satellites. Initial findings showed the risk to the International Space Station was “very, very small”.

The 900 kilogram Russian satellite, Cosmos 2251, was launched in 1991 and ended its working life 10 years ago. The 670 kilogram American vehicle was one of 66 operational Iridium spacecraft relaying satellite-telephone communications.

NASA says about 17,000 objects bigger than 10 centimetres, mostly debris from satellites and rockets, circle Earth.

This is high time now to take a look at the space debris also.Otherwise it may cause serious damage to our future palns of space flightsor telecommunication plans…

Taking the concern of the Global warming and the ecological problems, Google is coming with PowerMeter that can give real time data

One place the company is looking is into people’s homes.  Google is  working on Google PowerMeter, prototype software that will allow users to receive energy usage data from compatible “smart meters” and use that information to optimize their energy use.

The company made the announcement in a blog post that explains its broader effort to encourage the development of a “smart grid,” a next-generation electrical distribution system that supports bidirectional energy and revenue flow.

“Google’s mission is to ‘organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,’ and we believe consumers have a right to detailed information about their home electricity use,” said Google engineer Ed Lu. “We’re tackling the challenge on several fronts, from policy advocacy to developing consumer tools, and even investing in smart grid companies. We’ve been participating in the dialogue in Washington, D.C., and with public agencies in the U.S. and other parts of the world, to advocate for investment in the building of a ‘smart grid,’ to bring our 1950s-era electricity grid into the digital age.”

Smart meters, a key component in a smart grid, differ from standard power meters in that they can provide real-time energy-use data and price data to utility customers.

At present, there are about 40 million of the devices in use worldwide, with an additional 100 million planned over the next few years, according to Google. The Obama administration’s recovery plan calls for 40 million smart meters to be deployed in the United States over the next three years.

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