Intel's offer to lower operational costs

Intel Corp has launched a new processor technology to help small and medium businesses to reduce their operational costs.

The company's Indian subsidiary has developed a new processor - vPRO - and an upgraded version of Centrino pro-processor for managing the services of small and mid-size businesses.

'Infotech firms such as Wipro, 3i and Zenith are building application and services on the vPRO platform to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) reduce operational costs and consume less power,' Intel South Asia director Narendra Bhandari said at an industry-media conclave here over the weekend.

'The new processors will transform the business client platform and manage the IT infrastructure remotely.'

Google offers to remove content from Orkut

Google Inc. and the Federal Prosecution Office of Brazil's northeast Ceara state have signed an agreement to remove offensive and illegal contents from the social network website Orkut.

According to the agreement, signed Tuesday, the prosecution office will be able to access an exclusive web page that will help it request the removal of contents regarded as offensive or illegal.

The service will also allow the entity to preserve any kind of information that can be useful to investigation of illegal activities.

Google, which runs Orkut, is committed to drafting a team of employees specialised in fulfilling the office's demands within a day.

In 2006, the Federal Prosecution Office charged Google with not cooperating with police investigations and refusing to provide information on users' profiles and communities hosted by Orkut, almost forcing the US group to close down its office in Brazil.

Google argued that all the data displayed on the website were stored in the company's servers in the US, and was not available to its branch in the country.

Google has signed agreements with prosecution offices in several Brazilian states to facilitate the settlement of problems with the judicial system.

The settlement originally depended on a series of court decisions.

Excessive Mobile Phone Use Makes You Mad

Now the scientists have discovered that cell phone damages the cells in brain and makes the person suffer from the brain related ailments ranging from small time memory loss to fatal Alzheimer's. To prove this they have shown the result practically.

Two cell phones are placed in opposite direction. They were connected to different tape recorders and left for sometime. The sounds recorded on tape are now emitting out from the cell phones. An egg was placed between the two. After 65 minutes to the surprise of all the egg was fried and started emitting little smoke. This is an illustration for Radio Activity and Radio emitted by cell phones. Scientists say that brain cells damage easily with cell phone usage. They say, "First it affects on emotional channels of brain. Person becomes blunt to emotions slowly and he or she will not find any sexual arousal eventually by speaking for longer hours on cell phone. Slowly the damage increases and it may even lead to madness".

Here are a few remedies to overcome this:

"Never put the cell phone near your ears if you are going to speak for more than 2 minutes. Use ear phones. Even then restrict your talk to 6-7 minutes", says a scientist.

Idea Cellular ties up with Yahoo!

India's leading mobile service operator Idea Cellular Wednesday entered into a strategic tie-up with global Internet brand Yahoo! to provide mobile search services.

Yahoo!oneSearch, launched in Asia in May, gives access to news, web images, financial information, weather conditions and navigating other websites.

'Yahoo!oneSearch provides Idea with a competitive advantage by offering a reliable and easy-to-use mobile search offer to consumers in India,' Pradeep Shrivastava, chief marketing officer, Idea, said in a statement.

'Our subscribers are increasingly looking for the quickest way to access services on the open Internet and the mobile device has now become a tool to get instant answers,' Shrivastava added.

Based on the tie-up, Yahoo! intends to become a key player in mobile services and establish a strong leadership position in mobile search services, the Internet giant said a statement.

'Our partnership with Idea Cellular is helping to extend Yahoo!'s clear leadership in search for mobile users in India,' said David Ko, vice president, Yahoo!.

'Yahoo! is committed to innovation that provides value to operators and consumers and our mobile partnership strategy will continue to evolve and add value to our respective customers,' Ko added.

Idea Cellular, which is a part of the $12 billion Aditya Birla Group, operates in over 18 countries, employing about 88,000 people.

Please Make your Vote Count on Taj Mahal for 7 Wonders

About Taj Mahal :

Taj Mahal is a mausoleum located in Agra, India. The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned it as a mausoleum for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Construction began in 1632 and was completed in approximately 1648. Some dispute surrounds the question of who designed the Taj Mahal; it is clear a team of designers and craftsmen were responsible for the design, with Ustad Ahmad Lahauri considered the most likely candidate as the principal designer.[1]

The Taj Mahal (sometimes called "the Taj") is generally considered the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements of Persian, Turkish, Indian, and Islamic architectural styles. While the white domed marble mausoleum is the most familiar part of the monument, the Taj Mahal is actually an integrated complex of structures. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 when it was described as a "universally admired masterpiece of the world's heritage. More on Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal is one of the nominee of Seven Wonders. And Please vote for Taj Mahal along with your other favorites. After you voted you will get a certificate that you had voted for Taj Mahal, for that certificate log on to : http://taj.indiainfo.com and give your name, mobile number, email address and after all the required details are given then they will give you a certificate that you had voted for Taj Mahal. And Please start vote now and Keep the Love's Master Piece as one of your Seven wonders

Here is the Certificate :


To vote:

SMS TAJ to 4567
*Note: Type spacespacespacespace
Dial '1255545' (From all BSNL mobiles/landlines & MTNL Mobiles)
Dial '12555' (From MTNL landlines in Delhi)
Dial '127777' (From MTNL landlines in Mumbai)

Out side India please vote online :
http://www.new7wonders.com

http://taj.indiainfo.com

Airtel, HCL joins hands to provide broadband

India's largest mobile telecom service provider Bharti Airtel has tied up with computer maker HCL Infosystems in order to scale up its broadband service in the country.

As per the agreement, Airtel would offer a bundled broadband connection with every HCL computer.

'With 2007 the declared Year of Broadband, Airtel Broadband & Telephone Services is looking at innovative and exciting ways to encourage the growth and adoption of broadband in India and importantly, to bring the benefits of broadband closer to more and more customers,' Atul Bindal, president, Airtel Broadband and Telephone Services, said in a statement Tuesday.

'Our tie up with HCL Infosystems is yet another innovative step towards this effort... There will be more to come in the future,' Bindal added.

Airtel and HCL Infosystems would also be offering special prices on four HCL desktop and notebook computers such as, HCL Ezeebee XP-4659, HCL Ezeebee XP-Z949 and Celeron Laptop and Dual Core Laptop.

'Our tie-up with broadband industry leader Airtel, to offer HCL PCs bundled with Airtel broadband connection at discounted prices, is part of our initiatives to boost the PC adoption in our country,' said Rajendra Kumar, executive vice president, HCL Infosystems.

Source

Google urges US govt to raise number of H-1B visas

Internet search giant Google on Thursday urged the US government to raise the number of H-1B visas by highlighting the contributions of its co-founder Sergey Brin and the company's principal scientist Krishna Bharat, both foreign-origin workers.

In Congressional testimony, Google Vice President of people operations Laszlo Bock cited the emigration of the parents of company co-founder Sergey Brin from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1979 as evidence that admitting foreign workers into the country benefits the U.S. economy.

"We opened our doors to Sergey's parents -- a mathematician and an economist," said Bock.

"Our educational system served Sergey well -- he attended the University of Maryland and Stanford University.

Our free market economy supported Sergey and Larry's entrepreneurship and rewarded it when they proved that they could turn their idea into a successful business."

Bock said people were Google's most vital competitive asset and without these talented employees and others, the company and high-tech industry as whole would not be the success it is today.

Krishna Bharat, a native of India joined Google in 1999 through H-1B visa, and was one one of the chief creators of Google News and is now its principal scientist.

Bock said without Krishna and many other employees Google "will not be able to offer innovating and useful new products to our users."

Each day Google finds itself unable to pursue highly qualified candidates because there are not enough H-1B visas, he said adding it will encourage Congress to significantly increase the annual cap of 65,000 H-1B visas to "reflect the growth rate of our technology driven-economy."

Bock said Google is not the only Silicon Valley company to benefit from immigration. "In fact, Google is just the most recent story for immigrants in Silicon Valley. Intel, eBay, Yahoo, Sun Microsystems, and many other companies were all founded by immigrants who were welcomed by America".

Over the last 15 years, foreign nationals have started 25 per cent of US venture-backed public companies, accounting for more than $500 billion in market capitalization and adding significant value to our economy, he noted.

"Hiring and retaining the most talented employees regardless of national origin essential to US ability to compete globally. Companies like Google will benefit from improving our policies towards non-US workers including in the area of H-1B so that we can continue innovating and growing."

Bock said some 8 percent of Google's U.S. employees are in this country on a six-year H-1B visa because the company's "need to find the specialized skills required to run our business successfully requires us to look at candidates from around the globe -- many of whom are already in the U.S. studying at one of our great universities."

"We are not the only ones recruiting talented engineers, scientists and mathematicians. We are in a fierce worldwide competition for top talent unlike ever before. As companies in India, China and other countries step up efforts to attract highly skilled employees, the US must continue to focus on attracting and retaining these great minds," he said.

In the knowledge-based economy companies depend primarily on their employees for their success. "America's edge depends on the ability of US companies abilities to innovate...and that ability to innovate and create, in turn, depends on having the best and brightest workers," he added.

The H1B visa programme allows foreign scientists, technologist and engineers to work in the US for six years.

Microsoft releases Forza Motorsport™ 2

Forza Motorsport™ 2, the sequel to Microsoft Game Studios' award-winning, fully-customizable driving simulator Forza Motorsport™, speeds its way onto Xbox 360™. Buckle up for authentic simulation physics, bone-jarring damage, and photo-realistic graphics, as well as licensed tuning and customization options.

Loaded with over 300 of the world’s hottest cars for you to collect, personalize, and race, Forza Motorsport 2 gives you the complete racing experience. Read more

Joost ( The new way of watching TV )

Joost : Joost is the new name for “The Venice Project.” It aims at bringing in a new distribution method of watching TV content via the Internet.

Who are behind Joost?
It is being developed by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the duo behind KaZaA and Skype.
What does one need to view Joost content?

Any Windows XP computer with good Internet connectivity—specifically, ability to download at least 220 MB per hour of viewing, which translates to a 500 Kbps pipe.

What makes Joost different?
Joost allows one to chat with others watching the same show. It is free of subscription schemes, allowing one to view all the channels Joost hosts, regardless of what country one is in. Joost is not YouTube, where one watches individual video clips; it’s more like TV, with a continuous stream of video and the ability to switch channels. It works on P2P technology, so more computers on the network only translates to more bandwidth to play with.

Where is it headed?
Joost is roping in networks and producers from the world over to provide content. Advertising revenue is also being considered to keep the channels free.

How can one access Joost right now?
Joost is in beta as of now, and one needs to be a beta tester to access it. Signing up (at http://www.joost.com/) just allows you to be considered as a prospective tester. However, like in Gmail, an invite from another tester gets you instant access.

Google rises at Yahoo's expense

The contrast between the financial results announced last week for the two top search engine companies couldn't have been more stark.

Yahoo's first-quarter revenue was $1.67 billion, less than half Google's $3.66 billion. Google, once again, blew away Wall Street expectations, while financial analysts openly wondered how long Yahoo CEO Terry Semel would stay in the Internet company's corner office.

Contrast those divergent fortunes with two years ago: The companies were pulling in about the same amount of revenue; they looked primed to battle for Internet domination; and the jury was still out on whether Google's largely unproven management had the chops to take on a seasoned pro like Semel, a longtime entertainment executive whose hand prints are on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

Now few would argue the answer to that management question was, in fact, a resounding "yes."

"Google has a racecar. Yahoo has a Honda," said Stephen Arnold, author of The Google Legacy. "It goes back to the (search) algorithm, the engineering team and this constant improvement the Google people do. And I don't see any way to close the gap quickly."

So what happened? While a wide range of factors from personnel decisions to luck played a role, most pundits think it came down to this: A smart bet on advertising and technology inside the Googleplex and a bad bet on an online media empire, built from scratch, that would be run out of a Yahoo office in Santa Monica, Calif., about 400 miles away from the company's Silicon Valley headquarters but close to the entertainment industry.

"Yahoo did not execute in a couple of key areas for a number of years," said John Battelle, author of The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture and publisher of Searchblog. "They didn't revise, update, and leverage Overture (search advertising technology)," and they failed to improve the search experience and quality for consumers and advertisers, he said.

"They would acknowledge it was a mistake," Battelle added, "and it's proving to be a costly one."

Google, on the other hand, recognized the potential for pay-per-click ads early and has steadily improved its search and advertising technology. And search, of course, is a big deal. Americans conducted 6.9 billion searches online in February and nearly half of those were on Google, according to researchers at ComScore. Google has 48.3 percent search market share in the U.S. compared with Yahoo's 27.5 percent, ComScore said. Nielsen/NetRatings has the gap even wider, with Google at 55.8 percent share and Yahoo at 20.7 percent.

Google's share is rising at the expense of Yahoo and Microsoft. While Google's share rose 6.1 percentage points last year, Yahoo's fell 0.6 percentage points and Microsoft's dropped 1.1 percentage point, ComScore numbers show. Readmore

Nasa releases 3D images of Sun

NASA released the first three-dimensional images of the sun yesterday, saying the photos taken from twin spacecraft may lead to better predictions of solar eruptions that can affect communications and power lines on Earth.

The images from the STEREO spacecraft (for Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) are available on the Internet and at museums and science centers nationwide.

The twin spacecraft, launched in October, are orbiting the Sun, one slightly ahead of the Earth and one behind. The separation, just like the distance between our two eyes, provides the depth perception that allows the 3D images to be obtained.

Google Logo Looks cool

Google celebrate Earth day with the cool logo

Earth day : Earth Day is a name used by two different observances held annually in the (northern) spring, both intended to inspire awareness of and appreciation for the planet's fragile environment. And it was celebrated on 22nd April every year.

Sanjaya to dine with George Bush

Indian-American teen Sanjaya Malakar, whose dream run in the American Idol talent hunt has just come to an end, will now be a guest at a White House correspondents' dinner, also expected to be attended by President George W Bush.

The 17-year-old who survived several rounds in the show despite numerous questions being raised about his singing prowess, has been invited to the glittery event by the People magazine.

'The most gushed-over guests at Saturday's White House Correspondents' Association Dinner will be eclipsed by the one-name sensation just added to the list: Sanjaya,' the Washington Post reports.

'People magazine cleverly snagged the latest American Idol evictee -- the weak-voiced, shaggy-maned teen sensation (with the camera-happy smile) who survived so many eliminations to become the most controversial love-him-or-hate-him contestant in the show's history.'

Sanjaya was voted out by the viewers of the Fox Television show on Wednesday, and the paper said, 'People's celebrity wranglers nailed his RSVP within hours of his boot.' The much-talked about Idol contestant, who had grabbed the media attention more for his wacky hairstyles, will also brush shoulders with US film and television actress Valerie Bertinelli and Robert F Kennedy Jr.

The report said Sanjaya will be at the dinner at Washington Hilton with his mother and is expected to make the scene at Bloomberg's glitzy after-party.

Source : Rediff

Web 2.0 wave starts to take hold

The move to put more and more of those familiar programs on to the web has been happening for a while but its latest incarnation has won the name of Web 2.0.

What is it - the definition is imprecise at best, but it loosely describes a category of websites that are known for interactivity, collaboration and community.

Developments in underlying web technology make this all possible and mean that what the sites can do is very new. Simplicity is often the key. Often it is an online application that does one thing and does it well.

CNET.com's Caroline McCarthy has a few favourites: "I have just started using a new site called Remember The Milk, which is a task manager. It's incredibly simple, a very easy to use list of things you have to do, places you have to go, things you have to buy, that sort of thing.

"Clipmarks is a site where you can just share clips or portions of a website rather than the entire bookmark, so it's good for quotations.

"Tumblr is basically a blogging platform for people who don't want to use a blogging platform. If you look at things like Wordpress and Blogger, which a lot of people use to create blogs, they're very functional. Tumblr is very simple." Read more...

Source : BBC

MySpace challenge news aggregation sites

Social-networking site MySpace is venturing into the increasingly crowded news aggregation business. The swelling ranks already include Digg, Yahoo News and Slashdot.

A test version of MySpace News is expected to launch on Thursday and will debut with some of the same features offered by the top aggregation sites.

The way it works is that users decide which stories are most relevant and determine which ones appear on the front of the homepage. MySpace first organizes the news reports into 25 main categories, including sports, politics and technology.

Users then act as editors by rating the stories. The top rated get the best placement on the site.

Digg became famous for turning over much of the site's editorial control to users. But unlike Digg, MySpace News won't accept user-submitted stories--at least not initially, executives from MySpace said Wednesday.

The new service is being spearheaded by the founders of search engine Newroo, acquired by News Corp. last year. MySpace moving into news is a natural if one considers that the online hangout is owned by News Corp.

The world's third-largest media conglomerate, News Corp. owns newspapers and magazines, as well as cable and satellite companies.

But don't look for the site to be saturated with stories from News Corp. properties, said Dan Strauss, vice president of Fox Interactive Media, which oversees MySpace operations.

"There's no preferential treatment," Strauss said. "We're just looking for the quality content contributors. We're all about providing users with what they are most interested in."

Source : cnet

MySpace Blocks Some Photobucket Content

The popular online hangout MySpace has blocked parts of the Web hosting service Photobucket, complaining that it has been encouraging users to incorporate an ad-supported slideshow into their MySpace personal profile pages.

MySpace says it has blocked video and slideshows, though Photobucket says the block affects video only. Both companies say still images are not affected by the blockage, which MySpace, owned by News Corporation, described as a response to violations of its policies banning unauthorized commercial activities.

MySpace users often embed third-party photos, video and other material in their profile pages, and sites like Photobucket and YouTube make that easy by providing the programming code to cut and paste into the MySpace pages.

The practice has made Photobucket one of the leading sites on the Internet, even though relatively few users access content directly through its home page.

The block, which began Tuesday, led the Photobucket chief executive, Alex Welch, to accuse MySpace of limiting free expression and treating users as a commodity.

“They’ve always been about self-expression, and now they are cutting users off from doing that,” Mr. Welch said.

In a statement, MySpace said it encouraged users to embed third-party materials as long as they complied with the site’s terms of service.

Although MySpace’s complaint is over a slideshow promoting the upcoming “Spider-Man” movie, the company could identify and block the Web address only for all video and slideshows, including those that comply with the MySpace policies.

MySpace has blocked third-party content from time to time, leading to complaints that the site was trying to inhibit potential competitors as it begins to offer its own services like video. But MySpace usually cites a policy violation, a technical glitch or a security issue in justifying the block.

Google tries to turn a page

Before Google ran into trouble with TV companies over YouTube and with authors and publishers over Google Print, there was Google News.

Its aggregation of links to newspaper content and wire agency copy is now five years old, but two years ago the Agence France-Presse news agency sought damages of $17.5m from Google in a breach of copyright lawsuit.

AFP held a minority view among Google’s 4,500 news sources that the thumbnail photos and paragraph excerpts that linked to its content on the web were bad for business.

Nearly everyone else appeared to see a benefit to the biggest site on the internet linking to their content, driving traffic to their sites and earning them money from the ads they were able to display alongside their stories.

Google itself has yet to directly profit from the service – there are still no ads on the Google News pages.

AFP announced today it had settled with Google and would allow its content to be used, but the news came only hours after a new challenge emerged.

Speaking at Stanford University on Thursday night, Sam Zell, the new owner of the Tribune media conglomerate, said:

"If all the newspapers in America did not allow Google to steal their content for nothing, what would Google do? We have a situation today where effectively the content is being paid for by the newspapers and stolen by Google, etcetera. That can last for a short time, but it can’t last forever. I think Google and the boys understand that. We’re going to see new deals and new formulas in the media space that reflect the reality of cost benefit.”

Mr Zell is a billionaire from real estate who has been in newspapers for less than a week. His comments may seem naïve but they may also hint at radical moves to come.

Already fighting on two media fronts, Google could face a third being opened anew.