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Total Posts : 281 posts

Biased Google searches – nay bigoted – are a reality!
India

Biased Google searches – nay bigoted – are a reality!

Google searches are the world’s window to knowledge and information.  If that window is tinted in a certain color and prejudice then the world will be judged and seen differently. Khilji example – Biased Google Searches or outright bigotry? I recently wrote an article on Alauddin Khilji [https://www.drishtikone.

17 May 20 4 min read
Influence Operations – How the Liberal Global Media is now fighting the Islamist Propaganda War
Geo-Political

Influence Operations – How the Liberal Global Media is now fighting the Islamist Propaganda War

Rema Rajeshwari and Dr Suneem Khan share an interesting perspective via their post ‘Fake News, the 21st century Insurgency [https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/khaki-dairies/fake-news-the-21st-century-insurgency/] in their Khakhi Diaries blog on the Times of India.  They talk about influence operations.  It is a term for propaganda in the digital

29 Aug 19 4 min read
The Cult of Suicide and the Rampant Media
Technology

The Cult of Suicide and the Rampant Media

Something sinister is in the air these days. And it is targeting our kids. There is a playfulness almost about the demonic ways of the profiteers. They want our kids to pay the price for curiosity with their blood. Games on social media and Netflix series are pushing teenagers to

30 Apr 19 2 min read
Telegram gains 3 million New User in 24 hours when Facebook Properties were down yesterday!
Business

Telegram gains 3 million New User in 24 hours when Facebook Properties were down yesterday!

There was a major outage yesterday in all of the Facebook related/owned properties.  There were significant outages worldwide [https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/13/18264092/facebook-instagram-down-partially-post-messages-profile-loading] in Facebook (and Facebook Messenger), Instagram, and WhatsApp!  In fact the service was not restored until almost this morning US time. #Telegram

14 Mar 19 1 min read
Inspiration

The Ecommerce Raise

Money doesn’t go to the person who has more money.   It goes to the person who knows how to handle money.   Through smart and intelligent management of money, a rupee saved can be a rupee earned.   And if one ties in a good ways to invest savings, earnings can

17 Aug 17 2 min read
Trusting Strangers Can be Rewarding and Enriching!
Relationships

Trusting Strangers Can be Rewarding and Enriching!

Have you opened your heart lately to anyone?  Some stranger at that? So many times, one walks through so many paths where one meets strangers with absolutely no apparent relationship and we strike a chord. Sometimes we open up far more to each other than hearts. We open our lives

22 Nov 16 5 min read
Is the Party Over for Indian IT Companies?
Technology

Is the Party Over for Indian IT Companies?

Indian IT revolution has been the driving force for the Indian economy for last 25 years.  Companies like Infosys, TCS, WIPRO, HCL etc have become really large given the outsourcing of skills and work to India and Indians. Is the Party Over for Indian #IT Companies? @Infosys #WIPRO #Technology [https:

25 Aug 16 3 min read
Environment

When everything fails on Earth…

The planet’s largest companies today are the technology companies.  Everything is based on technology and networks.  From your banks to education to jobs to even basic food being delivered now.  In fact, the Internet of Things is making everything web-based and driven via internet actions.  Everything – and everyone (at

11 Sep 15 3 min read
E-Governance and Modi Government’s Ambitious “Digital India” Program
India

E-Governance and Modi Government’s Ambitious “Digital India” Program

E-governance has often defined as the application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for delivering government services, exchange of information communication transactions, integration of various stand-alone systems and services from the Government to its customers, businesses, other governments, and also management of the entire back office processe and interactions within

23 Mar 15 13 min read
Technology

My Smartphone Journey: From Donut to Lollipop!

Way back late in 2007 I had this excellent Nokia phone – the Nokia Classic 3110.  It was a black phone with the QWERTY keyboard and a nice bright screen.  The two features I loved were – the camera and the music functionality.  In those small cell phones of yonder, these were

17 Mar 15 2 min read
Living Unplugged from the Digital Grid and Social World
Sciences

Living Unplugged from the Digital Grid and Social World

World has grown exponentially for most of us.  Today a person sitting in a remote village of Philippines for example can be in touch with someone from New York.  And the digital technology is deeply embedded into our lives.  Can we disentangle ourselves from it?  Here is the story of

19 Apr 13 2 min read
Is Infosys on the Acquisition block?
Business

Is Infosys on the Acquisition block?

Economic Times suggests in an article [http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/stocks-in-news/infosys-mammoth-cash-pile-may-attract-global-suitors/articleshow/19568541.cms] that Infosys is a very attractive acquisition target right now.  Look at some of the facts: * Infosys has Cash and cash equivalents (Rs 22,000 crore) equal to 17% of the company’s

16 Apr 13 1 min read
Business

Warren Buffett bets big on selling Insurance online in India

As Indian masses come online, Warren Buffett, the master of traditional businesses, is betting big on Indian consumers.  Ironically. He wants to sell insurance online.  Currently, Berkshire India sells motor, travel and health insurance products online at BerkshireInsurance.com.  Now it wants to market life insurance as a corporate agent

14 Apr 13 2 min read
Technology

Half of Instagram’s 100 mn users now use Android!

The power of Android phones vs iPhones (and others) is visible from how Android powered phones have made Instagram so pervasive.  Instagram recently said in its blog post [http://blog.instagram.com/post/47035276788/instagram-for-android-one-year-later-one-year] that half of all the Instagram’s 100 mn users are using Android. > One year

04 Apr 13 2 min read
India

Rise of Social Media Use in India

India’s internet use is undergoing a change as the Smartphone revolution takes over.  Every urban youth is using a smartphone today and with it is coming the access to the social media.  This infographic discusses the various aspects of the use of Social media in India.

25 Mar 13 1 min read
Technology

Posterous goes out; closing on April 30th

Posterous – a blogging platform – when started, was one of the most revolutionary.  It offered a lot of new features.  The best being that you could create a blog for yourself, just by sending a blog by email.  The email to blogging interface was probably best explored by Posterous!  The company

06 Mar 13 2 min read
Technology

Samsung launches a new mobile OS: Tizen

As Firefox enters the market for smartphones OS, there are more entering the fray as well.  Now, Samsung has come out with Tizen.  LG recently bought WebOS from HP as well, albeit purportedly for their TVs. Tizen builds on MeeGo and LiMo to create a new experience OS for Mobile.

28 Feb 13 2 min read
India

India #1 traffic source for Quora ahead of US now!

Quora is a great site for Question and Answers.  People ask interesting questions and there are experts who come out with very details and informative answers.  And it seems that the Argumentative Indians have suddenly taken a lead on this site.  India is now the #1 source of traffic to

27 Feb 13 1 min read
Sciences

Did you know: Can you cry in space?

Do you wonder about this? I was intrigued surely. Read Quote of Robert Frost’s answer to Can you cry in space? [http://www.quora.com/Can-you-cry-in-space/answer/Robert-Frost-1/quote/313829] on Quora [http://www.quora.com] [http://www.zemanta.com/?px]

25 Feb 13 1 min read
Technology

Indian IT companies headed for a rough future

Experts are predicting that the high profit margins experienced by the Indian IT companies will erode in the next 3-5 years.  And would settle at just around the 11-15% mark. > Within the next two years, experts predict that operating margins will fall to below 20% (the average is 25% now

19 Feb 13 1 min read
Business

Google to earn $5 billion from its ads on Tablets!

This confirms what we have been discussing earlier.  How Google works and what its strategy is pointing to in terms of revenue earning. > Google [http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/2013/google]‘s ads are everywhere [http://www.fastcompany.com/1805995/google-goes-after-your-local-small-business] , but new data [http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/

14 Feb 13 2 min read
Technology

US student designs a Drone-Proof City

A law student Asher Kohn, 25 has come up with a futuristic design for a city [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2277618/A-city-designed-foil-drones-U-S-student-creates-stir-concept-community-built-response-UAVs.html] to counter and foil drone attacks.  It uses the sci-fi type of design on Middle Eastern architecture.  It uses a number of ways to confuse

13 Feb 13 3 min read
Technology

Facebook Deactivation Agreement: Dad to pay his Daughter $200 to keep off Facebook for 5 months!

A man in Massachusetts, US, is paying his teenaged daughter [http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/dad-pays-daughter-200-to-quit-facebook/] $200 to keep her off social networking website Facebook. Paul Baier, who is the vice president of an energy firm in Boston, posted on his blog [http://practicalsustainability.blogspot.jp/2013/02/facebook-deactivation-agreement-with-my.html]

07 Feb 13 2 min read
Business

Indian Startup Review: CouponDunia

CouponDunia [http://www.coupondunia.in/] fills an important gap in India’s online retail market – coupons.  I had often wondered what could be the alternative for coupon sites like FatWallet and PromoCodeWatch [https://www.promocodewatch.com] where in India.  Well, CouponDunia is not quite Fatwallet in that it is not

01 Feb 13 1 min read
Technology

History of Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office has largely defined the work-space of the modern workers in the last 25 years.  Everything that we have done in the Corporate world has used MS Office in every way.  The Excel, the power-points the Word, and now even the MS OneNote.  Here is a history of this

01 Feb 13 1 min read
Technology

Android vs iPhone’s iOS is Windows vs Mac OS all over again!

iPhone was the first real smartphone in the world and extremely user friendly.  The Geeks and the tech-lovers have until now been swooning over every new version.  Those who love the breakaway technical excellence know that iPhones have been the winners. But, recently Android has gained 75% market share [http:

23 Jan 13 2 min read
Technology

Does Facebook make you a different person?

A Facebook friend had the following interesting status on her wall: > I’m always curious when I hear people mention, ‘Facebook friends’, Facebook behaviour’, ‘Facebook mannerisms’..are we so different here than what many think of as ‘real life’ ? unless of course you wear different masks for different phases and

23 Jan 13 1 min read
Health & Medicine

India’s permissible Radiation Limits from Cell Phone Towers is 900 times the global safety limits; causes headaches, behavioral problems

This is unacceptable. Just because people are not aware and ignorance is being misused – criminally, I would say – to hurt a population without its knowledge!  In the coming years, the health impact of this on an entire population could be nothing short of devastating. I’m hoping, that people start

08 Jan 13 2 min read
Technology

Damn… Facebook forcibly likes a page for me!

Remember this article I had written sometime back about how even people who are dead long back were “clicking on” Like button on Facebook for some sites peddling products, that while alive they wouldn’t have touched with a 100 ft long pole? (Now even the Dead Can’t Keep

02 Jan 13 1 min read
Technology

Do the Newspaper companies have a future?

Everyone is predicting death of the newspapers in the world of digital news of smartphones and iPads. But is that true? It seems that the newspapers circulation is rising as people are willing to pay for news as well.  The new trend for the paid digital content is actually helping

01 Jan 13 1 min read
Business

Times Internet acquires share in Fab.com

Times of India group has made a major investment in the fast growing e-commerce start-up Fab.com through the group company Times Internet.  The investment is supposed to be in 7 figures.  Personally, I think it is a very smart move by Satyan Ganjwani and probably the first serious attempt

19 Dec 12 1 min read
Business

Instagram wanted to sell your photos?!

First Instagram – which is anyways in a mess due to its Twitter disengagement decision – made another blunder – saying that it can sell your images. > Instagram said [http://blog.instagram.com/post/38143346554/privacy-and-terms-of-service-changes-on-instagram] today that it has the perpetual right to sell users’ photographs without payment or notification, a dramatic

19 Dec 12 1 min read
Business

Impact of Magazines going Digital: “The Last King of Print”

Interesting impact of Magazines going digital – specially Newsweek (now, Daily Beast) > “I don’t actually go to newsstands anymore,” said Tina Brown [http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/192375/tina-brown-i-dont-actually-go-to-newsstands-anymore/] , the editor in chief of Newsweek/The Daily Beast, a few days after she announced last week that Newsweek would

14 Dec 12 1 min read
Technology

Windows real share of Total Computing OS is only 20%!

Thank you!  Thanks, Goldman Sachs for saying something that I have been saying for long.  Computing has to be viewed by including smartphones as well!  Because you know what?Tomorrow’ Computers will be based on Today’s Smartphones and NOT on today’s PC! The sooner the hardware and software

13 Dec 12 3 min read
Humour

Now even the Dead Can’t Keep Away from Facebook!!

In the past few years, I have seen and read about a lot of crazy shit happening on Facebook.  From stalkers to crazy people to love affairs to divorces.  But nothing could have prepared me for this bizarre-ness. It seems some dead people have started hitting like buttons on Facebook

12 Dec 12 3 min read
Sciences

Now your Smartphone can become a High Resolution XRay machine!

This is absolutely amazing!  If this new technology of microchip could be incorporated in a smart phone, then it could become a high resolution X-ray machine! > …thanks to tiny inexpensive silicon microchips developed by a pair of electrical engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The chips generate and

12 Dec 12 3 min read
China

Over 400 Chinese sites hacked by Pakistani hacker

Couple of things for perspective on this news item: * Pakistanis [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Pakistan] cannot tire themselves calling China [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=39.9166666667,116.383333333&spn=10.0,10.0&q=39.9166666667,116.383333333 (China)&t=h] as their all-weather friend.

07 Dec 12 2 min read
India

Bihar Village bans unmarried girls from using Mobiles

The Muslim [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim] dominated Sundarbari panchayat [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchayati_raj] under Kochadhaman [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=26.1319444444,87.8338888889&spn=0.1,0.1&q=26.1319444444,87.8338888889 (Kochadhaman%20%28Vidhan%20Sabha%20constituency%29)&t=h] block in

04 Dec 12 2 min read
India

Nationwide Roaming charges to be eliminated from March’13 in India

Great news for India [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=28.6133333333,77.2083333333&spn=10.0,10.0&q=28.6133333333,77.2083333333 (India)&t=h]‘s cell phone [http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones/] users – roaming nationwide will be eliminated [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/telecom/Free-roaming-likely-from-March-2013/

04 Dec 12 1 min read
Technology

Is Social Media really worth the money for businesses?

JC Kendall makes an interesting point [http://socialmediatoday.com/jc-kendall/1047376/facebook-waste-time-most-advertisers] in his article on the impact of Social Media on sales of the businesses.  He says the impact is negligible. > On this recent 2012 Black Friday, Online Sales grew 20.7% from last year.  Online Sales on Cyber

03 Dec 12 3 min read
Technology

40 Amazing and Insightful Marketing Infographic Charts

Eloqua has created an Infographic series – Modern Marketing Insights [http://www.eloqua.com/resources/marketing-insights/] – which looks closely at the Social media impact on marketing using Big Data Analysis. You can also download a free e-book from here [http://demand.eloqua.com/40-charts?elqoffer=40charts&elqchannel=blog]. * Some of the

30 Nov 12 1 min read
Technology

Microsoft and Amazon going to launch smartphones in summer of 2013

With Google already having Motorola in its pocket and soon to unleash its repertoire of phones soon, now, both Microsoft and Amazon is now getting into the act as well.  They are soon – Summer of 2013 – going to come out with their smartphones [http://www.hindustantimes.com/technology/PersonalTech-Updates/Is-Amazon-planning-a-smartphone/

30 Nov 12 1 min read
Technology

Is Google already testing its Android 5.0 version Key Lime Pie?

Google’s 4.2 version of Android Jelly Beans has just become official, and it is already getting ready to unveil its next version – 5.0 Key Lime Pie. In fact the rumor is that [http://www.androidauthority.com/android-5-0-0-key-lime-pie-running-sony-lt30i-apparently-spotted-nenamark-benchmarks-132570/] one device may be testing it as we speak: Sony

28 Nov 12 1 min read
Technology

Facebook Messenger to be integrated in Firefox 17 Beta Version

Mozilla’s Firefox is updating its interface with Social API to integrate Social Media within the browser via a sidebar in its new Firefox 17 beta.Facebook will be integrated [https://www.facebook.com/about/messenger-for-firefox] such that Facebook chats and updates will be available within the browser itself.  It

21 Nov 12 1 min read
Technology

Are desktops going extinct?

Is the computer – the desktop – that we have known for so many decades, going to go the way of the dodo, and be extinct?  With even Microsoft coming out with an Operating System that is built for touchscreen effects, do we have the technical world shifting its base to the

21 Nov 12 1 min read
Education

How Professors are using Pinterest to engage with students

Whether we like it or not, Social Media is here to stay.  And the creative educationists and teachers are using it well.  Here is an interesting infographic on how professors are using Pinterest to engage with the students.  Pinterest now has over 10 million users. Courtesy: Worldwide Learn [http://www.

21 Nov 12 1 min read
Sciences

Is Facebook addiction impacting our minds? (Infographic)

Even Internet can be an addiction.  And it has its repercussions [http://collective-thoughts.com/2012/11/02/facebook-psychology-infographic/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CollectiveThoughts+%28Collective+Thoughts%29] . > Some people think that internet addiction (IAD) is not a real issue, but in China, Taiwan, and Korea

20 Nov 12 1 min read
Technology

Twitter + SGI Supercomputer = Heat Map of Angriest Tweeters locations

Data Scientists are using Twitter data and Super-computer power to understand [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/19/sgi-twitter-heat-map_n_2138726.html?utm_hp_ref=technology] where positive and negative emotions and responses are being generated. > Silicon Graphics International, or SGI, has partnered with researchers from the University of Illinois

20 Nov 12 1 min read
India

BSNL server vulnerable to hacking; shows a 19 yr old

In a recent incident, Nikhil Thakur – a 19 year old ethical hacker – broke into Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) – and got access to some confidential databases.  By his action he tried to show to the establishment, how vulnerable these websites are and how much risk the customers of this company

12 Nov 12 1 min read
Business

Samsung Galaxy SIII beats iPhone 4S hands down globally!

While the whole world is going gaga over Apple and iPhone, it is Samsung with its Galaxy powerhouse phones which are kicking some serious ass [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/hardware/Samsung-Galaxy-S-III-beats-iPhone-4S-to-become-worlds-no-1-smartphone-Strategy-Analytics/articleshow/17142802.cms] behind the scene. > Strategy Analytics estimated Samsung sold 18 million S III models in

08 Nov 12 1 min read
Technology

Android is the Clear King of the Smartphones Market

Here are two tables [http://marketingland.com/september-smartphone-market-once-again-the-apple-android-show-25778?utm_source=pluspost&utm_medium=plus&utm_campaign=stream] which tell the story of smartphones market share – specially in case of Operating systems.  This assumes importance since Microsoft has come out with its new Operating System called Windows 8.  Many proclaim it

02 Nov 12 1 min read
Business

India is adding 18 mn Internet users every year @ 41% growth rate!

In the coming years, India will become a major market for online products, information and services in every area.  It is one of the world’s fastest growing market [http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/india-among-fastest-growing-internet-markets-study/articleshow/16990524.cms] and has been growing at an astonishing rate of 41% annually.

29 Oct 12 1 min read
India

Police arrest Twitter Users for harassment of a Singer in Chennai

Singer Chinmayi SripadaThis is an interesting case [http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/cops-clip-tweeters-wings-for-harassing-singer/article4023339.ece] from India where the harassment on Social Media by some people culminated in their arrest on complaint from the victim.  So, moral of the story is that you better be careful while passing

23 Oct 12 2 min read
Business

India is running out of mobile numbers!

Mobile penetration is deep in India!With world’s second largest population and a deep penetration of the cell phones already reaching a billion and growing, India has a unique problem at hand.  It is running out [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/India-to-run-out-of-phone-numbers-by-next-year/articleshow/16908983.cms?utm_source=twitter&

22 Oct 12 1 min read
Technology

Red Hat is the first $1 Bn Open Source-based Company

Red Hat is the first company based on Open Source model, which has reached a $1 billion in revenue.  This is a big achievement for the Open Source movement.  It provides enterprise class operating system platforms, middleware, applications, management products, and support, training, and consulting services.  It takes the Open

29 Jun 12 1 min read
India

TCS gets recognized as a Top 10 Global Service Provider in China

Tata Consultancy Services (China) Co. Ltd. just got recognized as “2012 Top 10 Global Service Provider in China”.  The award was presented by China Council for International Investment Promotion (CCIIP) in Nanjing, China. Qiqi Dong, the CEO of TCS China was obviously elated.  He reiterated his company’s commitment to

28 Jun 12 1 min read
Pakistan

Twitter access blocked in parts of Pakistan

A lot of dictators and high strung powerful caricatures in Bollywood movies announce with certain grand standing voice – “Meri Ijazzat ke bina yahan koi parinda bhi nahin aa sakta” (without my permission, not even a bird can enter my area). Well Pakistani Government loves to make that happen in the

20 May 12 1 min read
India

Epic Browser: The amazing Indian Browser

The world of browsers has a new kid on the block – Epic Browser [http://www.epicbrowser.com/].  It is billed as an “Indian Browser”.  It is a product of Hidden Reflex, a software product company in Bangalore.  Hidden Reflex was founded by Alok Bhardwaj. Bhardwaj was a mergers & acquisitions investment

31 Mar 12 2 min read
Business

The Hacking Wars and the coming “March Storm”

The Anonymous HacktivistsUnbeknownst to many, there is a virtual war going on.  Hackers vs the US Government.   Recently, computer hacking group LulzSec has been brought down by the FBI, when they arrested some of the top guys in that group.  They did so by introducing a mole named Hector Xavier

08 Mar 12 2 min read
Technology

Internet could come down on March 8

Internet is off?A malware called DNSchanger Trojan has infected many computers and many are still corrupted.  What does it do? It alters user DNS settings, such that it starts pointing users to malicious DNS in data centers in Estonia, New York, and Chicago. The malicious DNS servers can do

06 Mar 12 2 min read
India

Indian Users Trump US Smartphone Users in Net Access

Interesting finding from a survey conducted by IPSOS and Google about the smartphone usage by customers in US and India.  It seems that when it comes to using the Smartphones to access the internet, more in India are using it and more frequently, than those in the US. 94% Indian

28 Feb 12 1 min read
News

Facebook updates analysis can predict success in Jobs and Academics

Huh!?  Now it is possible to predict your success or failure in academics and job by analyzing your FB profile updates!  Better be careful!! > Your Facebook profile holds more valuable information about you than you might think. Researchers spent about 10 minutes looking at photos, wall posts, comments, education, and

23 Feb 12 1 min read
News

Indian Prime Minister is now on Twitter

The Indian PM is now on Twitter [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/social-media/PMO-joins-Twitter/articleshow/11613921.cms] .  So, if you want to have a close conversation with him, you can tweet him your mind.  GIven his reticent nature he had tweeted only thrice on the first day and garnered 7000

24 Jan 12 1 min read
Technology

Drishtikone transforms from Drupal to WordPress

TransformSince last few months, I have been analyzing the platform I was using for Drishtikone.com with a view to see how it can be made simpler and also more user friendly. All these years, I have been a hard core proponent of Drupal as a great CMS. It is.

09 Jan 12 2 min read
Technology

IBM’s amazing 5 year predictions: Mind Reading and power your home with your own energy

IBM’s future predictions via its 5 in 5 (You can read the complete list here – Five innovations which will alter the tech landscape in 5 years [http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2011/12/the-next-5-in-5-our-forecast-of-five-innovations-that-will-alter-the-landscape-within-five-years.html] ) series this year are mind boggling.   Here they are: 1. Create energy from unexpected sources,

19 Dec 11 3 min read
Technology

Backup your Facebook sharings and data

If you often share some useful information with your facebook friends, you would often wonder how to save all those sharings.. right? So, if you do want to back up every thing that you have shared… here are the steps to go about it: 1. Go to Account Set­tings,

07 Aug 11 3 min read
Technology

Impact of Social Media on Teens and Young Adults

Social Media is useful if its used for the right reasons.  What we are seeing is that kids are glued to Facebook etc in a way that never happened before.  Is that good? A study [http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2011/08/social-kids.aspx] has some startling findings.

07 Aug 11 4 min read
Business

Cognizant is #3: the How and What of it

How did Cognizant become #3 of the Indian IT companies?  That’s an interesting question.  Here are three reason that “First Post” identifies [http://www.firstpost.com/blogs/business-blogs/who-cares-if-cognizant-overtakes-wipro-employees-do-52975.html] : 1. Long-standing emphasis on the quality of its work-force. 2. Wipro, the company it toppled, has been preoccupied with

04 Aug 11 5 min read
Personal

Death on Facebook!

Facebook is an interesting platform for one to keep in touch with friends and family, specifically the extended one.  And since it even suggests people’s birthdays so one can always be on time.  And the person who is wished is happy that s/he is getting greeted from the

13 Jul 11 1 min read
Technology

Browse Facebook at work in Corporate format

These days the professional and personal lives are very closely entangled.  Many companies – like HP – are specifically making products that cater to both people’s personal and work requirements.  One of most common place for people to hang out is the Facebook page.  More and more people are getting their

06 Jul 11 1 min read
India

Why Fall of Indian IT Companies is imminent?

On a typical project done by an Indian IT company, the resources in India are charged at an average of $25-35/hr.  Some years back it used to be $45, but it has steadily fallen.  The other component are the resources from Indian practice working onsite.  These resources are charged

29 May 11 8 min read
Technology

Even the Dead Can’t Get enough of the iPads!

Getting an iPad2 in Asia is no easy feat – specially with long lines and short supplies.  With the earthquake in Japan and the subsequent Tsunami, Apple’s raw material supplies have also been affected.  Well, the living beings on the planet are of course realing under the shortage from probably,

05 Apr 11 1 min read
Technology

Google comes out with a “like” button

As the social media war heats up, Google has come out with its own version of “Like” button, which beckons recommendations from the public for the various web pages, sites, products etc.  What is it?  Per Google: > The +1 button is shorthand for “this is pretty cool” or “you should

31 Mar 11 2 min read
Business

Android versus iPhone – Getting Google right

The future of computing is heavily dependent on the present and near term of the phone world.  And in this space, it seems that Android is the one which is leading the space in terms of how many phones are adapting the operating system.  But is Google really a winner

18 Feb 11 2 min read
Technology

Google shows off Honeycomb OS for Tablets

Google has come out with its Game-Changer Operating System for tablets – Android 3.0 Honeycomb at a gathering at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters. It supports features like – video chat, 3D “carousels” (that helps to scroll through books, music and other content) and multitasking. Google is also opening up

02 Feb 11 1 min read
Technology

Four year old gives important lesson in CRM

Recently, my four year old came up to me all excited with the DVR remote in hand and showed me some product that he wanted me to buy. He had recorded the commercial and he would even pause it for effect. Additionally, my other little one who is going to

27 Jan 11 1 min read
Technology

Linking Email to Social Media

Previous to this post, we discussed how students can be some of your best recruiters due to the influence of social media. Today, we are going to discuss the connection between email and social media tools. The communication framework in CRM software applications is, perhaps, the most robust and powerful

23 Jan 11 2 min read
Business

World without the Toilet Paper tubes

Unless you have severe issues and have been holding back for a long time or are from the sub continent where a healthier way of water is used, chances are you have seen a toilet paper roll.  Remember the tube over which the paper is rolled up on?  Well, now

27 Oct 10 2 min read
Technology

Living in the World of Facebook and Twitter

The world is a reflection of who we have become.  What works in the world is somewhat a manifestation of what we espouse – consciously or unconsciously.  This dawned on me the recently when I was trying to look for something I had written sometime back on Facebook.  Did you ever

25 Oct 10 2 min read
Technology

Cyber Attacks: Biggest Emerging Threat?

Asymmetric attacks on computer networks are amongst the biggest emerging threats to the UK, the government has said in its new National Security Strategy (NSS): “A Strong Britain in An Age of Uncertainty.” There will be an extra GBP 500 million to bolster cyber security, focused on protecting key infrastructure

21 Oct 10 6 min read
Business

Blackberry launches Playbook tablet

As the tablet market heats up, Blackberry is coming out with its own version of its competition to iPad.  As we said in an earlier post [https://www.drishtikone.com/future-world-computing-will-be-defined-smartphones-today-not-laptops] , that future of computing is going to be decided by the mobile computing as opposed to laptops of today.

27 Sep 10 1 min read
Technology

Top 16 Google Apps for a Professional Firm

Thanks to new and innovative technology, managing small businesses has become more efficient. Whether it’s with new accounting automation trends [https://futurefirm.co/accounting-automation/]or inventory databases, technology is making numerous aspects of business much easier to manage and more streamline. For businesses online, there are also more technology

31 Aug 10 5 min read
Technology

Free SMS texting chat style from your laptop

Do you want to SMS a friend in a hurry who is in US or India or Malaysia or Pakistan or maybe even Canada?  All those free SMS sites that you go to bring the untold misery of pop ups and unnecessary registrations.  Right? So, you are on your laptop

30 Jul 10 2 min read
Technology

Google Wave is now for EVERYONE!

GoogleWave [http://wave.google.com] is now available to everyone.  It was earlier rolled out by Google by invites but as of May 18, it was freely available.  Honestly, for all these months – of restrictive roll out – I did not see a whole lot of use for it.  I already

19 May 10 1 min read
Technology

E-readers options for the users

We all know that iPad is the killer for most e-readers, like Kindle.  But the market has lot more e-readers than just the Kindle. Here is a list of most of the e-readers. Amazon Kindle: By far the most popular.  DX: $489, Smaller version is from $259.  It has a

02 May 10 1 min read
Technology

Trust MSFT to run ANY Online business into the ground!

Microsoft has bungled its internet business like no other company.  I personally feel that there should be a federal edict to dis allow Microsoft from doing ANY business online.  Here is a company that bought Hotmail at its peak and screwed it up soooo badly that it just ran not

27 Apr 10 1 min read
Technology

Mobile market battles amongst market disruption

WIth non-traditional companies like Google and Apple becoming big as mobile providers – the traditional companies like Samsung, Nokia, and LG are becoming nervous.  Google and Apple have changed the game!  So, unless the hardware manufacturers have a game plan that includes elements of software AND services, their goose is really

26 Apr 10 1 min read
Technology

What are the CIOs planning in 2010?

According to a Gartner report, as the economy improves, the IT’s functions are going through a change.  From just reducing the IT costs, CIOs will need to think of increasing productivity of the businesses.  Therefore appropriate investment needs to be made. Business Users, of course, have their own expectations

12 Apr 10 1 min read
Technology

The Story of the Internet – Part I

Dot Com Bust: End of an Era On January 3rd, the NASDAQ started the year at 4131. Confidence was unmistakable and hope from the new internet companies running still high. Hope that they will change the way world worked. Millions had been made in IPOs and acquisition deals by companies

15 Feb 10 3 min read
Technology

Questions on iPad you want answered

There are many questions in people’s minds.. so here are some answers: 1. When will it be available? It starts to ship End of March. 2. What will be the price? 1. $499 for a 16GB Wi-Fi model 2. $599 for a 32GB iPad 3. $699 for a 64GB

27 Jan 10 1 min read
Technology

Questions on iPad you want answered

There are many questions in people’s minds.. so here are some answers: 1. When will it be available? It starts to ship End of March. 2. What will be the price? 1. $499 for a 16GB Wi-Fi model 2. $599 for a 32GB iPad 3. $699 for a 64GB

27 Jan 10 1 min read
Technology

iPad is here!

Apple has unveiled its iPAD.  Its a tablet PC with a lot of storage and real thin.  Of course, it has the iPhone/iPod interface. It seems clear that it will hit at a lot of products – Kindle, Smartphones, Netbook, GPS devices, and even regular laptop market.  I would venture

27 Jan 10 1 min read
Technology

iPad is here!

Apple has unveiled its iPAD.  Its a tablet PC with a lot of storage and real thin.  Of course, it has the iPhone/iPod interface. It seems clear that it will hit at a lot of products – Kindle, Smartphones, Netbook, GPS devices, and even regular laptop market.  I would venture

27 Jan 10 1 min read
Motivation and Personal Development

Social Networks and Happiness

As the world grows more commercial and “modern” one thing that gets hit is one’s connections.  I remember that when we were kids, just going with our Mom to her friend’s place where they would reminisce their childhood or gossip about their in-laws and we would simply be

09 Jan 10 2 min read
Motivation and Personal Development

Social Networks and Happiness

As the world grows more commercial and “modern” one thing that gets hit is one’s connections.  I remember that when we were kids, just going with our Mom to her friend’s place where they would reminisce their childhood or gossip about their in-laws and we would simply be

09 Jan 10 2 min read
Technology

Woohoo I Got Google Wave? NOW WHAT??

I had gotten the Google Wave invite quite a few weeks ago.  And I gave it to many others as well via facebook.  I know many on my facebook network had asked me to review the service.  BUT .. although I was excited about the invite and felt great to receive

28 Nov 09 1 min read
Technology

Grappling with a Wireless Router and Support Robbery

For last two days, our Internet has not been working well.  I thought it was because there might be an issue with the Broadband service from Comcast, which does happen sometime.  And when I called them, I faced issues getting the thing resolved from their end.  Well, this morning at

26 Nov 09 3 min read
Technology

Wikipedia and its growth

Wikipedia is an interesting human experiment.  Multitudes of people, totally unrelated, came to gether in an ad-hoc way to create content.  Such content that it became the number one encyclopedia.  Now for anything you either go to Google or to Wikipedia. But the article growth in Wikipedia has been slowing

14 Nov 09 1 min read
Technology

Money is gone.

Do you know what Microsoft is upto? It started bing – as the new search thing.. which I wonder if anyone is using?  i am not.  I still prefer Google.  Its still simpler and much easier on the eye. It recently dumped Encarta – probably killed by the growing Wikipedia.  And now

11 Jun 09 1 min read
Technology

WordPress Offerings coming together

WordPress is also undergoing changes and progressing by leaps and bounds.  It all started with WordPress [http://www.wordpress.org/] and then came bbPress [http://www.bbpress.org/], and then WordPress MU [http://mu.wordpress.org/] (the multi-user) version.. and finally the BuddyPress [http://buddypress.org/] – which are a bunch

02 Jun 09 1 min read
Technology

Free TV channels from around the world via Internet

Do you want to watch TV channels on the internet?  Here is a link to the site [http://freetubetv.net/index.php] where you can check out a lot of channels conveniently categorized under News, Music, Religion, Movies, etc.  I was watching the Dawn News [http://freetubetv.net/index.php?

29 May 09 1 min read
Technology

Twitter Adds Search

Twitter is a world-wide giant IM if you use the right tools – say TweetDeck.  The one thing that it was lacking was search.. although they had it at a special search page [http://search.twitter.com/]. I feel if Google acquired it then Twitter would add a search power which

03 May 09 1 min read
Technology

Geocities to shut down

Do you remember Geocities? It was looong time back!  During the 1990s and the DotCom era, geocities was the first tool that people used to create their first websites.  Most of the souls who are on blogs and social networks right now, tries their hand at creating websites using Geociies.

24 Apr 09 1 min read
Technology

Open Source Apps to install on a new PC

Yesterday, I bought a new laptop as my old one had become really slow given that I had a lot of applications on it.  I really want to test out some business applications in the coming days and so (i) I needed larger memory and (ii) better speeds.  So, I

17 Apr 09 2 min read
Technology

What do teens want in a News Portal/Site

All us bloggers are really in the business of news.  So, one study of the teens done Conducted for the NAA by Northwestern University’s Media Management Center.  The findings are interesting and very intuitive.  Its not that the teens do not want news.  They do.  But some interesting things

14 Apr 09 2 min read
India

Chinese Mobile Handsets are a Security Risk – DON'T USE THEM!

Chinese phones have flooded the Indian market in the recent past.  But they are a security risk!  Around 250 lakh handsets will stop working by April 15. These phones do not have IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) numbers.   This IMEI number gets reflected at cell phone towers with which, if

08 Apr 09 1 min read
Cricketers ka Sauda by Desh
Technology

Cricketers ka Sauda by Desh

There was a time when we friends would do our own trade in cricketers.  Now a different trade happens. It just struck to me that there was an interesting parallel between the trading of the cricketers from around the world, and the little trading that we used to do in

25 Feb 09 1 min read
Technology

Compliance Issues for H-1B Employers in a Bad Economy

Disclaimer: This is just for education and information and is not meant to be any form of legal advise. Please call up your Immigration attorney or Ms. Sunita Kapoor [http://www.sunitakapoor.com] for more information. With the Downturn of IT due to the economy turmoil and critical H-1B investigations

20 Feb 09 1 min read
Technology

Tweet Etiquette

This is an excerpt from the book Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time by Joel Comm with Ken Burge, brought to you specially by Drishtikone.com [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/drishtikone] Every conversation has rules. We know not to interrupt someone when they’

19 Feb 09 7 min read
Technology

Multiple Inboxes now available from Gmail

Google has come out with a new gmail functionality called Multiple Inboxes.  Basically they have made available messages under different labels or types of messages (starred, drafts etc) to be seen on the main screen of your email.  This way you needn’t go back and forth to different labels

10 Feb 09 1 min read
Technology

5 Great ways to Store and Share large files online

Storing and sharing documents is a major issue, isn’t it?  Especially when you have large document or files (audio) that you would love to share with your friends but cannot. I wanted to list some suggestions that I feel are effective and cost-effective, so if you aren’t already

02 Feb 09 4 min read
Technology

Future Technology Trends in Recessionary times

It is a tough climate out there in the corporate world, specially in the IT market.  Currently, ERP market is dominated by the two giants – SAP and Oracle.  These two, between them, really own the majority of the market.  But is that how it is going to be in future?

30 Jan 09 3 min read
Technology

25 Most Useful Twitter Applications

Twitter, as we discussed earlier is a great tool out there and its popularity seems to keep growing all the time.  I have found this 25 apps, that I found most useful.  I have used some and find them great (Trackthis and Xpenser are two of the best for their

29 Jan 09 2 min read
Technology

MS IE8 is out and headache for most bloggers will increase

Ok, the next browser offering from Microsoft is here.  They have released the RC1 version [http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/default.aspx] (Release Candidate 1).  It brings some more added headaches for most of us who own our own blogs – specially the hosted variety! Microsoft had promised that

28 Jan 09 1 min read
Technology

Offline Gmail being rolled out

Gmail has been a great product ever since it was launched.  The only issue with all the online based emails is that you have an issue when you are not connected.  You can of course use the pop based option – like I use Spicebird to circumvent the issue – but now

27 Jan 09 1 min read
Technology

The Facebook Murder!

We all know the benefits of Facebook.  Let’s take a moment to see the negatives it can bring as well. A husband in UK was so enraged when his estranged wife changed her “Marital Status” on FB from Married to Single that he started calling her.  When she did

24 Jan 09 1 min read
India

Patni may gain Satyam Clients and WIPRO slows hiring

Satyam is going down despite the Indian Government’s best attempts.  Already at least two clients may be tapping Patni to make the change over.  All State and GE, where Patni is also big have given feelers to Patni to help augment the team.  All State, apparently, has terminated its

21 Jan 09 2 min read
Technology

Good Alternatives to MS OneNote

Yesterday I had discussed the use of MS OneNote here and how useful it is.  EverNote is an alternative but not quite there.  Today I found two good alternatives that somehow are quite like OneNote. Action Outline First one is ActionOutline [http://www.actionoutline.com].  It comes in 3 versions

21 Jan 09 1 min read
Technology

Free tools to make your life easy and organized

I have been reconfiguring my laptop – really adding software that I can use to better organize my life. One of my main challenges is to keep my self organized. So I decided to find ways that are simple and yet powerful and accessible for organizing. When I am saying organizing,

19 Jan 09 3 min read
Technology

Laptops outsell Desktops for the first time

Laptop has become the way to do computing for most people now.  Specifically with its mobility factor and the, now, ubiquitous wi-fi + broadband facilities in almost every house (most of the homes I visited in India have wi-fi + broadband – in fact MTNL’s broadband router also has a wireless router

30 Dec 08 1 min read
India

Growth of Internet in India and its effects

I have always believed that if the correct infrastructure is brought to the ground, the growth in the technical areas will go up exponentially in India.  India is, for example, a great ground for Internet and web. Now, it is growing even further.74% of all internet connections now in

17 Dec 08 1 min read
Technology

First image on the web was….

Today we have web 2.0 with so much stuff on it.  But there was time when all this began and even images were a novelty.  The story of the first image served on the world-wide-web (WWW) is pretty interesting.  People involved did not realize the significance of what they

11 Nov 08 1 min read
Technology

Now, flipping web sites

Real estate property flipping has been common for some years now. That being said, there are also people that specialize in flipping websites! The modus operandi is pretty simple.  Find a website that shows good potential – content, niche, audience – but lacks a good design/style/platform.  Take the site and

03 Aug 08 2 min read
Technology

Three useful web sites

Today, three more technology sites that I found to be pretty useful. DimDim [http://www.dimdim.com/] : It is an open source web conferencing software and is available as a hosted option as well with different pricing alternatives. I like one feature – no need to install anything to get onto

23 Jul 08 1 min read
India

How big is the Indian IT services market?

This is an interesting interview [http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/jul/14sld1.htm] with Phaneesh Murthy – who left Infosys (I think after a scandal) and joined iGate. He has taken the company from negative 8% to positive 37% profit margins. That’s a big jump. Some of his stats

15 Jul 08 1 min read
Environment

Prius becomes greener

Toyota is planning to make Prius even more energy efficient and green. By next Spring, Toyota will come out with a Prius powered with solar panels [http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/toyota-equip-prius-solar-panels/story.aspx?guid={A5960A1A-E176-4A08-952C-4BC4A0A69284}] . It will help power the AC. > The redesigned Prius will have solar panels

08 Jul 08 1 min read
Technology

What is Google After?

Saw this on Amit Aggarwal’s Digital Inspiration [http://www.labnol.org/internet/video/google-tools-protect-bollywood-movie-stars-india/3562/] blog.  It is about how a company Congregational Security uses Google Apps, Earth, Maps etc to protect dignitaries and celebs in Israel and India (as well as US). So its pretty interesting that some

16 Jun 08 1 min read
Technology

Flying saucer from Earthlings?

So, a flying saucer from the earth is ready and a Bengali has created a prototype for it in the US.  Subrata Roy is a University of Florida mechanical and aerospace engineering associate professor. He has submitted a patent for his flying saucer.  It is a circular, spinning aircraft design

13 Jun 08 1 min read
Technology

NATURAL INSTINCTS VS GADGETS

Three things happened on the same day in three different geographical locations, yet logically connected. 1. A young school-going child from France noticed some changes on the seawater in Phuket, Thailand, where she was vacationing with her parents. She was able to associate what her geography teacher taught and warned

22 May 08 2 min read
Technology

Google a Spam as per Google's guidelines?

This is funny!This guy [http://www.omgenius.com/google-is-a-spam-google-says-so/] says that according to Google’s own Quality Rating Guidelines for what a SPAM is – Google’s site is itself a Spam! Guidelines: > When trying to decide if a page is Spam, it is helpful to ask yourself this question:

16 May 08 1 min read
Technology

Future of IT will bring privacy challenges

These days with social networking, photo uploading, blogs, and twittering, can you imagine what someone with some smarts in IT can gather? The photos are stamped with time and location.  The locations can be mashed with Google Earth and matched to find exact locations. If someone could collect the information

14 May 08 1 min read
Technology

Soon, send scented messages from your cell

Institute of Sensory Analysis and Marketing Consultancy in Göttingen (ISI) and the Oberhausen-based specialist for interactive services Convisual, announced the patent for the smart card-sized chip on Tuesday.  So, now soon, you would be able to send not just SMS but also some scents. The customers would have 100 prefabricated

10 May 08 1 min read
Technology

Turn Cell Phone into a Spy Device

Most of the terrorists in South Asia are using cell phones to carry out their discussions and plan their moves.  Now, in the age of technical expertise, its easy to not only locate where a person is…. but also listen to what is going on around and with that person

08 May 08 2 min read
Technology

Hindi translation from Google

Now Google has added Hindi Translation to its translation functionality.  I think it was long due and now, I am sure other Indian languages will join in as well!  Have you tried this?  Just one thing – this translation functionality assumes that the person knows the devanagiri script – and if that

07 May 08 1 min read
Technology

Now Google Ocean

We have Google Earth, Google Sky… and now its the time for Google Ocean [http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9931412-7.html?tag=bl]!  Google is mapping every nook and crany of this planet and the Universe we live in so it can be indexed and searched upon!  Its not easy,

06 May 08 1 min read
China

China attacks India!

Contrary to all beliefs, India is being attacked by China as we speak! This is not just the age of Nuclear or bomb warfare but intellectual and computer (internet) warfare.  And China is doing all it can to hit India where it can!  Attacks on National Infomatics Center (NIC) – which

05 May 08 1 min read
Technology

Pissed about Microsoft

Geeks love the underdogs and are inherently anti-establishment.  Microsoft has been the most hated kid on the block for years now.  But this guy has taken that hatred to a whole new level!

14 Mar 08 1 min read
Technology

Which open source eCommerce solution is the best?

Which is a better eCommerce option? – Drupal + Uber Cart – osCommerce – Magento Magento is a (pardon my lingo) kick-ass ecommerce package.  It has so many functionalities that its amazing.  It is still evolving though.  Some people, though, have a need to combine a CMS with a cart – so the obvious choice

11 Mar 08 1 min read
Technology

Drupal's file template system: Hierarchy and Priority

Lately, I have been doing some tweaks to Drishtikone which may not have been apparent.  Drupal follows a file system that where the nodes, pages, blocks etc follow a certain hierarchy and priority.  Since I will be using this information, I wanted to lay it down in one place for

11 Mar 08 1 min read
Technology

Blu Ray KO'ed HD DVD

Electronics world has been a fight on formats, where the winner takes the spoils.  Last battle was fought for the Video recording at its inception.VHS [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS] (Video Home System) from JVC vs Betamax of Sony.  VHS beat the Sony version, although the JVC format

21 Feb 08 1 min read
Technology

Easy to move your mail to YahooMail

Do you have an email account with Hotmail or any other service and want to move it to yahoo mail?  There is an official way to do that.  Use Trueswitch to move your addresses, calendars, and mails as well as notify all your contacts.  Try it out.

21 Feb 08 1 min read
Technology

Technical love and passion for our next generation

Falling in love has become technical.  It is no longer about feelings.  It is about the effectiveness and efficiency of the investment one makes in a relationship – both of time and money.  So, if the feelings dont match then it the match is called off! There are web sites that

18 Feb 08 1 min read
Technology

Not liking Windows Vista

We had bought this laptop with Vista recently and my wife is not very happy with it.  We knew it was not a good move from Microsoft.. but THIS bad? courtesy: cnet blog [http://www.cnet.com/8300-13506_1-17.html]

18 Feb 08 1 min read
Careers

Tweets his way out of Yahoo

There are many ways social networks are used.  For dating, friendships and not so legal activities to start with, and then for politics etc.  Twitter – which doesnt do a whole lot for the owners (no revenue model really), but excellent viewership and interaction has been used the most innovatively! The

12 Feb 08 1 min read
Technology

Mystery of the Undersea Cables & Internet future

Given our earlier discussion [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/drishtikone/?q=content/undersea-cable-disruption-it-terrorist-attack] on the cutting of the internet cables earlier, today the news came that a 5th cable [http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/06/1431206&from=rss]was cut off (or powerd off?) and entire

06 Feb 08 2 min read
Technology

Today I saw the future of Technology. Literally!

My friend, Puneet Wahi, today showed me a site – which is unlike ANYTHING I have ever seen!  It is the future.  Today, I really saw the future.  The site is ZCubes [http://home.zcubes.com/]. It is the entire computing world IN a browser on a site.  You can possibly

03 Feb 08 2 min read
Technology

Drupal community but WordPress Blogs

I use Drupal on this site – Drishtikone – and WordPress on Businessmusings.com and BIMusings.com.  One reason why I dread this decision is because drupal puts a lot of load on the server while wordpress is easy on that front.  Plus there are more themes for WP than for Drupal.

03 Feb 08 1 min read
Blogging

Importance of Drupal – the open source CMS

Ever since I have built Drishtikone as a long term blogging/community platform, for me it was important to have at its base something that was flexible, scalable and powerful.  Drupal is and has been the only one that fit the bill!  Fortunately, there are some who share my enthusiasm

29 Jan 08 1 min read
Technology

Indian Oil to implement SAP in Sri Lankan Petroleum sector

Sri Lanka’s downstream petroleum sector is implementing SAP.  Specifically it is the: > Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Ltd (CPSTL), a common user facility running the software with Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and Lanka IOC which own the firm being fee paying clients. .. who are implementing the 350 million Sri Lankan

16 Jan 08 1 min read
Technology

Creator of first computer virus takes on Google search

Stealth is a part of him!  He created the first computer virus and many other things… noteworthy ones.  Now he is taking on Google. [http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/02/the-next-google-search-challenger-blekko/] In search engine technology.  He has already got funding for USD 2 million from Baseline Ventures but is

16 Jan 08 1 min read
Business

Perception of an Indian Brand: Tata's fight

Tata is buying the American luxury car brand Jaguar.  There is expectedly a huge hue and cry.  People believe that association of a luxury brand with an *Indian* company will dilute its appeal.  It is all about perceptions after all.  The Indian brands, this writer [http://ridingtheelephant.blogs.fortune.cnn.

20 Dec 07 2 min read
Business

Perception of an Indian Brand: Tata's fight

Tata is buying the American luxury car brand Jaguar.  There is expectedly a huge hue and cry.  People believe that association of a luxury brand with an *Indian* company will dilute its appeal.  It is all about perceptions after all.  The Indian brands, this writer [http://ridingtheelephant.blogs.fortune.cnn.

20 Dec 07 2 min read
Technology

When Gandhi and Aishwarya came together

Internet searches is one place where you have strange partners!  According to a Google report for India, Gandhi and Aishwarya Rai are the most searched names.  Hmmm.  That is quite an accomplishment for the bare chested old man roaming around in a cotton cloth talking of non-violence and threatening fast-unto-deaths

18 Dec 07 1 min read
Technology

When Gandhi and Aishwarya came together

Internet searches is one place where you have strange partners!  According to a Google report for India, Gandhi and Aishwarya Rai are the most searched names.  Hmmm.  That is quite an accomplishment for the bare chested old man roaming around in a cotton cloth talking of non-violence and threatening fast-unto-deaths

18 Dec 07 1 min read
Technology

New York to Tokyo in 2 hours may be a reality!

Scramjets – planes with Mach 15 speed – may become a reality now!  To put things in perspective, the world’s fastest jet, the Air Force’s SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, set a speed record of Mach 3.3 in 1990 when it flew from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in

13 Dec 07 1 min read
Technology

New York to Tokyo in 2 hours may be a reality!

Scramjets – planes with Mach 15 speed – may become a reality now!  To put things in perspective, the world’s fastest jet, the Air Force’s SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, set a speed record of Mach 3.3 in 1990 when it flew from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in

13 Dec 07 1 min read
Technology

Iran Builds Supercomputer From Banned AMD Parts

The disbelief and the reaction in the US totally baffles me and makes me laugh!  If someone is smart enough to create a supercomputer from chips picked up from black market.. then more power to them!  Ideally AMD should have built one by now… or some pc company.  People with

11 Dec 07 1 min read
Technology

Iran Builds Supercomputer From Banned AMD Parts

The disbelief and the reaction in the US totally baffles me and makes me laugh!  If someone is smart enough to create a supercomputer from chips picked up from black market.. then more power to them!  Ideally AMD should have built one by now… or some pc company.  People with

11 Dec 07 1 min read
Humour

Awesome Animation!

Ok, this is the BESTEST ever animation I have ever seen!  Enjoy! Animator vs. Animation [http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/34244097/] by * alanbecker [http://alanbecker.deviantart.com/] on deviant [http://www.deviantart.com]ART [http://www.deviantart.com] source [http://alanbecker.deviantart.com/art/Animator-vs-Animation-34244097] – sent in by Ruchi.

14 Nov 07 1 min read
Humour

Awesome Animation!

Ok, this is the BESTEST ever animation I have ever seen!  Enjoy! Animator vs. Animation [http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/34244097/] by * alanbecker [http://alanbecker.deviantart.com/] on deviant [http://www.deviantart.com]ART [http://www.deviantart.com] source [http://alanbecker.deviantart.com/art/Animator-vs-Animation-34244097] – sent in by Ruchi.

14 Nov 07 1 min read
Technology

100 years of Helicopter flights

Today, 100 years ago, was the first flight of a helicopter.  But that was not the only thought on the wings.. In China – in 400BC, some prototypes of helicopters were made as well.. > One hundred years ago Frenchman Paul Cornu piloted a twin-rotor helicopter of his own design, and rose

14 Nov 07 1 min read
Technology

100 years of Helicopter flights

Today, 100 years ago, was the first flight of a helicopter.  But that was not the only thought on the wings.. In China – in 400BC, some prototypes of helicopters were made as well.. > One hundred years ago Frenchman Paul Cornu piloted a twin-rotor helicopter of his own design, and rose

14 Nov 07 1 min read
Europe

EU to bring out a "Blue Card" to compete with US green card

The competition for talent is heating up around the world. Now, EU is starting a scheme that mimics US’ green card (permanent residence card) scheme that gives permission to people skilled in areas of high demand. The EU says it needs 20m skilled workers over the next two decades, and

24 Oct 07 1 min read
Business

Shunning Advertising while becoming a household name!

I had talked of investment advice from Phil Fisher, who talked of a superior advertising capability within a company to be a good investment. Well, now the investment gurus would need to go a step further… the best companies are those who become household names without much advertising! Like Google

24 Oct 07 1 min read
Technology

Free world-wide wi-fi?

World-wide free wi-fi anyone? you would need to share some of your wi-fi to get some wi-fi. Wanna trade some [http://www.fon.com/en/]? > FON is the largest WiFi community in the world. FON is a Community of people making WiFi universal and free. Our vision is WiFi everywhere

24 Oct 07 1 min read
India

TCS wins a billion dollar deal

TCS [http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/oct2007/gb20071018_188694.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_global+business] has just won a USD 1.2 billion deal from Nielsen – the Dutch media company. This is the first big ticket win in the billion dollar league. It will be a

19 Oct 07 1 min read
Business

Vodafone Hijacks Airtel's Domain Name!?

There are no ethics in business anymore! Those who thought that MNCs in India would be more ethical are smoking pot! Here is an interesting and a distasteful hijacking of the domain by Vodafone of Airtel’s domain name. Type Airtel.com and you will be directed to www.vodafone.

10 Oct 07 1 min read
Technology

Excel's fuzzy maths!

The entire world uses Microsoft’s Excel to do its maths on computer!  Entire Planning and Forecasting systems of even the largest of the world corporations are built on Excel with all the complex algorithms.  What if that foundation has a bug such that it cannot do a simple math?

29 Sep 07 1 min read
Technology

Is Intel bringing out the next iPhone killer?

While Apple has indeed hit it big with iPod and iPhone.  But the market may be hotting up!  And the lines between different providers may be blurring.  Now, of all the companies – Intel, the chip maker, may be reading with the next iPhone killer product, reports Switched.com [http://www.

23 Sep 07 1 min read
Technology

iPhone is hacked!

First of all, I cannot understand this deal about iPhone and AT&T!  Why should iPhone only be maded to work with AT&T.  Apple is losing so many consumers and buyers in the process.  It is really shooting itself in its foot… because by the time it realizes.. many

25 Aug 07 1 min read
Blogging

The Great Class Divide of the Social Networking World

How we approach our sites and where we "reside" says something about us and who we are.  I did not quite realize that the social networking sites would end up revealing our "class" and our background.  But a new study [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6236628.stm]

09 Aug 07 1 min read
Technology

Drunk Space Drivers – getting "high" to go Higher!

Hmm.. it takes a lot to get up there in space these days!  So, we some going up after getting a little tipsy [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/27/nasas_hard_drinking_explorers/]. > "Interviews with both flight surgeons and astronauts identified some episodes of heavy use of alcohol

28 Jul 07 1 min read
Technology

The Beach of the Future!

This is a new one!  I have seen many thoughts on future.. but this New Jersey town [http://www.physorg.com/news104562985.html] (Ocean City) is taking the current technology to a .. well .. new frontier!  Here is how the "Beach of the Future" will look like: > At the beach of

25 Jul 07 1 min read
India

Height of Innovation of Indian Software Programmers!

There are many legends on how innovative the Indian engineers and software programmers are but this one from Kamat.com’s blog beats all.Vikas Kamat [http://www.kamat.com/vikas/blog.htm] describes how a team in India was trying to debug a piece of software that was to

10 Jul 07 1 min read
Technology

Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD: The final Blow?

Is the Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD war over [http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39091]? > Supermarket giant Wal-Mart has delivered a blow to the Blu-Ray standard by buying more than two million HD-DVD units from Taiwan. > The gear, bought from the electronics outfit Fuh Yuan, will be released in the

27 Jun 07 1 min read
Technology

Yahoo Messenger now comes to the web!

Now Yahoo is here with Messenger on the web [http://webmessenger.yahoo.com/].  So you dot need to download the messenger client.  Just use it from the web.  Also, the history of all your conversations is now carried on the yahoo servers itself.. and not the person’s pc.  Now,

24 Jun 07 1 min read
Technology

Google's another "Office" acquisition

Another acquisition by Google and another step to competing MS Office.  This time on the powerpoint front.  Here is the scoop from GigaOm [http://gigaom.com/2007/06/19/enter-zenter-google-office-is-now-complete/#more-9625] .. > Google has snapped up yet another start-up [http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/more-sharing.html] – Zenter, which is building

20 Jun 07 1 min read
Business

The Email War and Long Term Business Success..

Know of the latest in the email war?Yahoo Mail [http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/tools/tools-08.html] has raised the storage to UNLIMITED!  Now, you need not delete your emails.. pics etc.. just to make space for the new emails.  They have followed Gmail now.

10 Jun 07 1 min read
Business

Google acquires Geotagging site Panoramio

MOre acquisitions for Google… it is in on a spree!! > More geoweb tools for Google. Geo-tagging photo site Panoramio announced on its blog this morning that it will be acquired by Google for an undisclosed sum. Google posted the news on its blog last night. > The company is a one

02 Jun 07 1 min read
India

Infosys hired over 30,000 in FY06!

Although this article talks about just Infosys – bu it is a good indicator of what is going on in the Indian IT companies in general.  The hiring is up; attrition rate is up (Infy, btw, has one of the lowest attrition rates); the salaries are up.  What is the key

07 May 07 1 min read
History

Panini's Ashtdhyayi Rules for Sanskrit and Backus-Naur forms for Functional Programming

VishK [http://vishk.wordpress.com/2007/02/11/backus-naur-form-and-ashtadhyayisanskrit-grammar/] talks about "Functional Programming" – a paradigm in programming. > Functional programming (FP) is of interest to many people because it describes ‘what a programmer is trying to accomplish’ without worrying about ‘how the computer will accomplish it’.   It is a paradigm where

24 Feb 07 1 min read

Hinduism

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