spam email

Just thinking about my email in-box makes me sad. This month alone, I received over 6,000 emails. That doesn't include spam, notifications or daily deals, either. With all those messages, I have no desire to respond to even a fraction of them. I can just picture my tombstone: Here lies Nick Bilton, who responded to thousands of emails a month. May he rest in peace. It's not that I'm so popular. Last year, Royal Pingdom, which monitors Internet usage, said that in 2010, 107 trillion emails were sent. A report this year from the Radicati Group, a market research firm, found that in 2011, there were 3.1 billion active email accounts in the world. The report noted that, on average, corporate employees sent and received 105 emails a day. Sure, some of those emails are important. But 105 a day? All of this has led me to believe that something is terribly wrong with email. What's more, I don't believe it can be fixed. I've tried everything. Priority mail, filters, more filters, filters within filters, away messages, third-party email tools. None of these supposed solutions work. Last year, I decided to try to reach In-box Zero, the Zen-like state of a consistently empty in-box. I spent countless hours one evening replying to neglected messages. I woke up the next morning to find that most of my replies had received replies, and so, once again, my in-box was brimming. It all felt like one big practical joke.

 

Meanwhile, all of this email could be increasing our stress. A research report issued this year by the University of California, Irvine, found that people who did not look at email regularly at work were less stressed and more productive than others. Gloria Mark, an informatics professor who studies the effects of email and multitasking in the workplace and is a co-author of the study, said, "One person in our email study told us after: I let the sound of the bell and pop-ups rule my life." Mark says one of the main problems with email is that there isn't an off switch. "Email is an asynchronous technology, so you don't need to be on it to receive a message," she said. "Synchronous technologies, like instant messenger, depend on people being present."Although some people allow their instant messenger services to save offline messages, most cannot receive messages if they are not logged on. With email, it is different. If you go away, emails pile up waiting for your return. Avoiding new messages is as impossible as trying to play a game of hide-and-seek in an empty New York City studio apartment. There is nowhere to hide.

 

I recently sent an email to a teenage cousin who responded with a text message. I responded again through email, and this time she answered with Facebook Messenger. She was obviously seeing the emails but kept choosing a more concise way to reply. Our conversation moved to Twitter's direct messages, where it was ended quickly by the 140-character limit. Later, we talked about the exchanges, and she explained that she saw email as something for "old people." It's too slow for her, and the messages too long. Sometimes, she said, as with a Facebook status update, you don't even need to respond at all. Since technology hasn't solved the problem it has created with email, it looks as if some younger people might come up with their own answer - not to use email at all. So I'm taking a cue from them. I'll look at my email as it comes in. Maybe I'll respond with a text, Google Chat, Twitter or Facebook message. But chances are, as with many messages sent via Facebook or Twitter, I won't need to respond at all.

 

Source: The Economic Times

Maree Moscati, chief executive of the Sarasota - Florida based company

Financial adviser Craig Larsen always prides himself on remembering small details about his clients' lives. Lately he's gotten even better, easily recalling things like the name of a parent's nursing home or the status of a relative's career. His secret? After meetings with clients or prospects, Larsen, president of the St. Charles, Illinois-based AHC Advisors Inc., makes a quick call to a transcription service and dictates into a recorded line what he wants to remember. In a few hours, he gets a transcript, which he later uses to refresh his memory. Larsen is one of the many advisers embracing new technologies that make it easy to capture their thoughts and to-do lists after each meeting. Not only can this impress clients and prospects, the thorough notes make compliance officers happy. Some advisers haven't been won over. They cite the cost of these services and a discomfort with talking about client information with an outside party. But converts say these tools pay for themselves in the time they save, and they're comforted by the extensive measures the companies take to keep information secure.

 

TRANSCRIPTION SERVICES

Copytalk, founded 12 years ago, has established itself as a leading transcription service for advisers, who make up about 11,000 of the company's 13,000 customers. The number of advisers using the service has doubled in the last five years, said Maree Moscati, chief executive of the Sarasota, Florida-based company. AHC Advisors' Larsen said he was initially concerned about the cost of Copytalk - about $79.95 a month - when he started using the service about six months ago, but was won over after it cut down his workload by five to 10 hours a month. Competitors to Copytalk are entering the fray. Charlotte, North Carolina-based United Transcription, a company that handles medical transcriptions, is branching out with a new service called Vocal Genius in the next few weeks. The service targets an array of sectors including advisers, and works similarly to Copytalk, where customers can call a recorded line and give a dictation that is later transcribed by staff. It costs $60 a month for about 60 minutes of dictation, and $1.50 a minute after that. Another alternative is Austin, Texas-based SpeakWrite, which costs 1.25 cents a word and is a good option for advisers who don't want a subscription service. SpeakWrite's main clients are government agencies and lawyers, but about a quarter of their business comes from financial services firms, the company said.

 

SECURITY

Lance Hocutt, a financial adviser with Ameriprise Financial based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, is among the hold outs who don't want outside parties hearing their client information. "Any time I can keep it in house I prefer to do it that way," he said. But Hocutt's fears may be misplaced. For one thing, advisers don't have to use their clients' names or account information in their dictations - those can be quickly plugged in after the adviser gets the transcription. Also, transcriptionists aren't told who they're listening to. Copytalk takes security a step further, making staff leave their personal items outside the transcription room. If all that doesn't alleviate an adviser's hesitations, there's another good alternative. Dragon Speech Recognition Software from Nuance Communications Inc. does transcriptions live as the user speaks into a microphone connected to their computer. The software is sold for $100 to $600 in retail stores like Amazon or Best Buy. You may see online reviewers who have complained about the quality of the Dragon transcriptions. But Peter Mahoney, Nuance's chief marketing officer, said sometimes people don't give the software a chance to get familiar with their way of speaking. Another important step is to add words you commonly use to the software's dictionary, he said. Tucker Watkins, an Ameriprise Financial private wealth adviser based in Irvine, California, said he recently purchased Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Version 11 for $600, and he's been really happy with it, especially compared to an earlier version he was using. "It's finally ready for prime time," he said.

 

OTHER TECHNOLOGY

Transcription services aren't the only new tools that can improve advisers' record keeping. Ameriprise's Hocutt says he loves taking notes on his iPad during client meetings. Afterward those notes get copied into a Microsoft Word file, which he cleans up and turns into a follow-up letter for the client. He also has a big-screen television in his conference room that allows him to display the clients' account information and create print outs if necessary. Watkins, also of Ameriprise, says he loves his electronic whiteboard, which allows him to print out copies of the diagrams and charts he creates for clients during their meetings. No matter what tools you use, the bottom line is that details matter, said AHC Advisors' Larsen. "The more I'm able to connect with people about things that are important to them, the deeper the relationship gets," he said.

 

Source: The Economic Times

Indian mobile handset market saw a drop of five per cent

The Indian mobile handset market saw a drop of five per cent in revenues during 2011-12 to Rs 31,215 crore from Rs 33,031 crore a year ago, according to an annual survey. The survey by the journal Voice & Data attributes this drop to de-growth in the feature phones sales as well as lower average selling values (ASVs). It surveyed over 30 mobile handset firms both multi-national and Indian selling feature phones, multimedia phones, enterprise phones and smartphones in India. Nokia remained the number one player in the handset business in 2011-12 with revenue of Rs 11,925 crore, despite an eight per cent drop over Rs 12,929 crore revenues posted in the previous financial year. The Finnish company lost market share in smartphones and multi-media segment to Samsung, HTC and Apple, among others. Nokia that caters to all mobile segments saw its absence in the Android ecosystem dent its performance, it said. Nokia however, made a headway in the dual SIM phones category but lost out in the smartphone market. Nokia ended 2011-12 with a market share of 38.2 per cent. South Korean giant Samsung saw its revenues grow by 38 per cent to Rs 7,891 crore and be in the number two spot with a market share of 25.3 per cent, thanks to its rich product portfolio based on Windows, Android and Bada operating systems.

 

Source: The Economic Times

Mumbai based Zenith Infotech's cloud computing business at Rs 194 crore

Accounting firm Ernst & Young has re-valued Mumbai-based Zenith Infotech's cloud-computing business at Rs 194 crore, about 67% lower than the previous assessment done by the firm. The Bombay High Court had last month asked Ernst & Young to carry out a fresh valuation of the company's cloud-computing business taking into account the March and the June quarter financials. This was done to factor in the developments since a dispute between the company and bondholders arose last year. The audit firm had first valued Zenith Infotech's cloud-computing business at Rs 598 crore, while Grant Thornton, the valuer hired by bondholders, said it might be worth about Rs 200 crore. On Monday, a representative of offshore lender Bank of New York Mellon Trustees told the court that Zenith's cloud-computing business was worth between Rs 151 crore and Rs 211 crore. Shares of Zenith Infotech gained 4.80% to close at Rs 37.10 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday, a day when the exchange's benchmark index, the Sensex, lost 0.74%.

 

Source: The Economic Times

Shortage of projects from Europe and US

The top players of the $100 billion IT industry have developed an unhealthy bench strength and the bulge is expected to grow from next quarter. Shortage of projects from Europe and US has left engineers with little work for more than 6 months and utilisation rates of the top four IT firms will dip further this year, say industry watchers. "Projects have slowed down in the last few years barring few quarters. While earlier clients would have been ready to pay for the number of employees required plus for 20% more, now they are not, leading to an inflated bench," said Amitabh Das, CEO of recruitment firm Vati Consulting. There is an uncertainty in the markets and could lead to retrenching, he added. A bench, in the IT industry, is defined as the mass of employees kept aside for emergency use in future projects. At any given point, an IT company keeps about 15% or higher workforce on bench, which is kept trained and ready for projects. Most large companies have a bench strength exceeding 20% of the workforce. A comparison of the utilisation rates across quarters shows a steep decline in last six months. With new recruits from campuses joining this month onwards, coming quarters are expected to see a new low.

"The economic environment, pricing pressure and decreased employee utilisation rate could negatively impact our revenue and operating results," stated the Infosys annual report for FY 12. Brokerage firm Angel Broking's IT analyst Ankita Somani said that in the first quarter TCS, Wipro and HCL may have their utilsation rates inch a bit because their campus hires will be joining them from July, but Infosys will see a further dip as their new recruits have already joined them from June. However second quarter on, almost all the IT firms may see dip in their utilisation because the thousands hired will enter their training period and can not be billed. Utilisation rates are indirectly proportional to bench strength. IT services firms have been saddled with a large chunk of employees especially because of the slump in the rollout of projects from companies in the telecom sector such as British Telecom, Nokia Siemens Networks, AT&T, and Alcatel Lucent. An employee working with a telecom project in a Bangalore based tier-I IT major said that he had seen some of his peers on bench being pressured to quit. "Software projects for telecom networking companies are hard to come by since the global financial market is reeling under pressure, squeezing liquidity needed for telecom rollouts."

Noida-based HCL Tech has also scaled down its business from British Telecom, and re-allocated resources. It has let go off people in Ireland, too, in the past few months. "A bench can be helpful till a certain level but if the utilisation is below 75% it should be a cause for worry," said the leader of human capital advisory to one of the top four IT companies. But with a low forecast even from IT representatives like Nasscom (11-14 %), IT firms have to work hard to reduce their flab. Domestic units of Indian IT companies have also been hit with the impact of 2G licence cancellations. Tech Mahindra suffered a 2% drop in its revenues from the December quarter due to the shutdown of operations of its two Indian telecom clients Etisalat DB and S-Tel , as their 2G licences were cancelled by the Supreme Court. The company counts Alcatel Lucent , British Telecom and Motorola as its clients. In comparison to top-tier IT companies , mid caps such as NIIT Technologies, Hexaware and MindTree are running slimmer operations, and with almost negligible bench strengths. "We have bench strenghths only because of the freshers we hire and keep in training periods," said a senior executive from a Delhi-based midcap IT firm. The expanding bench is also to prevent cost structures from going haywire. "Right after the last downturn, when IT firms got projects, they did not have sufficient numbers on the bench and so they started to hire laterals that added to costs," said Somani. This time they do not want to make the same mistake when the pipeline opens up, she added. But the risk taken could backfire if the pipeline of projects remains weak.


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Drupal is SEO Friendly CMS

Drupal is the best for the task of building search engine friendly content-based Web sites. It is getting more popularity because all the small, medium and large businesses have chosen the Drupal CMS as a platform for their website.

Windows RT

Samsung will be among the first to launch a Windows tablet running on Arm-based processors rather than Intel, reports claim. Samsung tablets running the existing Windows 7 software have long been Microsoft’s favoured way of demonstrating its operating system’s touch interface. For the release of Windows 8, however, new tablets will also be released using Arm’s lower-powered chips, upon which the iPad is ultimately based. The new tablets will run a version of Windows 8 called Widnows RT that is optimised for touchscreens and only offers the ‘Metro’ browsing interface that is similar to that used on Windows Phone. The Samsung tablets will be released when Windows 8 itself is unveiled in October, Bloomberg reported. They will boost Microsoft’s continuing bid to get into a tablet market that is dominated by Apple’s iPad, which shipped more than half the entire market in the last quarter. The 11.8 million iPads shipped represented a 58% share, according to researcher IHS ISuppli Inc.

 

Samsung was second, with 11%, thanks to a mix of Windows 7 and Google Android devices, while Amazon’s Kindle Fire took 5.8%. HP has confirmed that it will not, however, be backing Windows RT initially, instead sticking with traditional, Intel-based Windows. Bloomberg added that Samsung’s Windows RT tablet will feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor. In an indication of how important Microsoft considers the tablet market to be, it also recently announced that it is to make its own tablet, called the Surface. Although the device was apparently impressive, reviewers were not able to use it extensively, and manufacturing partners have suggested that Microsoft’s decision to make its own devices could compromise the existing relationships. Intel has announced that it had secured first refusal on touchscreen orders with four manufacturers. Spokesmen for Microsoft, Samsung, Qualcomm and Arm declined to comment.

 

Source: DNA Money

Bangalore based IT Company Ignis Technology to invest Rs 48 cr in Bhubaneswar campus

Bangalore-based small-sized IT firm Ignis Technology Solutions has shown interest to start a campus in Bhubaneswar with Rs 48 crore investment, which will employ about 700 IT professionals within a span of three years. “We have been allotted seven acres in the Chandaka Industrial Estate (Infocity 1) and have already got four acres of it. We will soon get the rest of the land after price finalization by Idco (Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Odisha),” Nihar Ranjan Samantara, founder and managing director of the company said. Ignis will build its Bhubaneswar campus within two years after getting the entire land, he added. The company has several small campuses in Bangalore, with total employee strength of 300 and has a small office in the United States. It provides IT solutions for media, entertainment and aerospace industry and energy companies. Besides, it offers IT services in health care, mobile application, data management such as cloud computing and financial services.

 

The company expects Rs 45 crore revenue in the current fiscal as against Rs 37 crore earnings last year. However, it expects to minimise its cost of operation by planning a bigger branch at Bhubaneswar, Samantara said. “These days almost all IT companies face the challenge of minimising their cost of operation. We hope to do so by setting up a campus in Bhubaneswar, where land and other costs are cheaper than the metros,” he said. Besides writing codes for its overseas clients, Ignis Technology also plans to partner with state government in creating software for e-governance projects. It has offered to create a web portal for patients treated at Capital Hospital, which can provide access to doctors anywhere in the world to see the medical history of a patient. “We are planning to do it on a pilot mode for free of cost. If we get success, then we plan to do the project for all medicals in the state,” said Samantara. Besides, Ignis will also plan to enter into e-governance project in tourism, fisheries and other areas in the state.

 

Source: Business Standard

DNS Changer becomes active today to disrupt Internet services india

As the devastating malware DNS Changer becomes active today to disrupt Internet services and computing devices globally, Indian Internet service providers (ISPs) are geared up to protect IT infrastructure, networks, devices and safeguard customers. For instance, Mumbai-based Tikona Digital Networks (TDN) has been closely observing the malware for the past six months since it was first reported by FBI last November. According to Mr.Tarun Kumar, Tikona's  company CTO, from January onwards the company's technical team has been thoroughly scanning and monitoring all internal IT infrastructure, networks as well as devices supplied to customers such as modems, routers and Wi-Fi routers. “So far we haven't found or detected any infection from the malware on our devices and networks. In case, if there's any infected device, our system will automatically stop Internet service to that device and henceforth it will restrict malware spared to other computing devices,” Kumar says. “Besides, we have given free anti-virus to all our subscribers to effectively encounter the malware attack but so far there are no complaints or reports from users on the impact of DNS Changer. And our technical teams are closely monitoring our networks and equipment round the clock,” Kumar adds. While Chennai-based Mural Venkatesan, Sify's product specialist – Security, points out that most enterprises and service providers in India follow a very stringent enterprise security procedures.

 

“We are following all security procedures and deployed security solutions such as anti-malware, anti-spam and others protection tools. Besides, we are monitoring 24x7 our networks for malware infections and DDoS but there are no reports for DNS Changer infecting our customers,” Venkatesan says. Interestingly, Venkatesan stresses that besides the IT, ITeS and BPO industry, which are well-equipped with IT security solutions and procedures, even the end-users of computers and Internet today have the basic knowledge and understanding of virus and malware in India.  “Depending on basic knowledge and understanding, to an extent users are using security products such free anti-virus to protect against malware attacks,” Venkatesan adds. Similarly, Mumbai-based Broadband Pacenet India Pvt Ltd, a part of DigiCable, has also strengthened its Internet security against the DNS Changer malware. Mukundan Raghavan, Broadband Pacenet's general manager – Technical, said that the main DNS security threats include Foot-printing, Redirection, Data Modification and Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS). “To curb such threats we have incorporated DNS security into our DNS namespace design, reviewed the default DNS Server service security settings and applied Active Directory security features on the DNS Server service which is running on a domain controller,” says Raghavan.

 

“We also reviewed the default DNS zone security settings, applied secure dynamic updates and Active Directory security features, along with the DNS resource records,” explains Raghavan. Further, Raghavan adds that their technical team is constantly monitoring the networks and Internet gateways and the company has sent SMSes to customers asking to use anti-virus or security products. Given the well-preparedness, most ISPs believe the impact of DNS Changer malware will be less in India compared to the US and other developed countries.  “We don't see immediate impact of the malware directing the users to rouge DNS and are not pressing the panic button as we haven't seen or heard such complaints from users. But will have to wait for next 2 or 3 days to see if there was any impact,” says Venkatesan. Even Kumar, confidently says, “We don't see any impact today or tomorrow or in coming days as we are monitoring the situation regularly.” However, Prashant Mali, advocate and cyber security expert observers, “Corporates which have web centric business would be the most to be impacted along with portals related to information, government and e-commerce websites would be affected and can cause problems to Indian IT users.”  Given the time zone difference between India and the US, the actual aftermath of DNS Changer malware will be known known in coming days and the next 24 to 48 hours are going to be very crucial for the ISPs and the Internet ecosystem, including its vast population of Internet users world over.

Source: CIOL Bureau

What is Domain Name System DNSChanger Malware ?

Monday the FBI will shut down servers associated with the DNSChanger malware. As a result, computers still infected with this threat will likely no longer be able to access the  Internet. With the number of computers still infected with DNSChanger at least 300,000, this situation could be a challenge for many computer users, especially SMBs. As with companies of all sizes, SMBs rely heavily on the Internet for everything from day to day tasks to their ecommerce operations; this means an Internet “blackout” is a significant problem. Combined with the knowledge that SMBs often lack dedicated IT staffs, the DNSChanger situation could be a recipe for disaster unless the proper steps are taken.  Symantec has responses by experts that can give useful insights:

Q: Why is the DNSChanger making news?

It is malware that changes the Domain Name System (DNS) settings on the compromised computer, hence the name.

Q: What are these DNS settings and how do they affect me?

DNS is an Internet service that converts user-friendly domain names into the numerical Internet protocol (IP) addresses that computers use to talk to each other. When you enter a domain name into your Web browser address bar, your computer contacts DNS servers to determine the IP address for the website. Your computer then uses this IP address to locate and connect to the website. DNS servers are operated by your Internet service provider (ISP) and are included in your computer’s network configuration.

Q: So what does DNSChanger do then?

By changing a computer’s DNS settings, malware authors can control what websites a computer connects to on the Internet and can force a compromised computer to connect to a fraudulent website or redirect the computer away from an intended website. To do that, a malware author needs to compromise a computer with malicious code, which in this case is DNSChanger. Once the computer is compromised, the malware modifies the DNS settings from the ISP’s legitimate DNS server’s address to the rogue DNS server’s address.

Q: If the FBI caught the international ring, why is there still a potential threat?

The FBI, through the court order, asked the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) to deploy and maintain clean DNS servers in place of the rogue ones operated by the bad guys, to give users with compromised computers enough time to remove the threat. This is only a temporary solution however, and the servers operated by ISC under the court order will go offline on July 9, 2012. Once that happens, computers that are still compromised will lose access to the Internet, causing a "blackout". Latest statistics show that there are at least 300,000 computers still being redirected to the rogue DNS servers now being controlled by the FBI.

Q: Will the computers compromised by this threat only lose access to some sites?

No, all sites. Connectivity will be lost to the Internet. If your computer is still using DNS entries that are pointing to the FBI servers on July 9, you will lose total access to the Internet.

Q: How can I find out if my computer is compromised by DNSChanger?

A task force has been created, called the DNSChanger Working Group (DCWG) to help people determine if their computers have been compromised by this threat, and to also help them remove the threat. Users can go to the DNS Changer Check-Up page, maintained by the DCWG, to determine whether their computer is compromised or not. There are other pages in various languages maintained by other organizations listed on the DCWG’s Detect page. Various organizations are proactively informing users that their computers are compromised by DNSChanger. The FBI has also put together instructions on how to determine manually if a computer has been compromised or not. In addition to detecting the malicious component, Symantec customers whose computer has been compromised by DNSChanger are notified through our endpoint products with a detection called SecurityRisk.FlushDNS. Our write-up contains more information and includes manual removal instructions. If a user is in doubt about how to change their DNS settings, they should contact their ISP or network administrator.

Source: CIOL Bureau

Server virtualisation is well established and will continue

Server virtualisation is well established and will continue to supersede most (but not all) use of non-virtualised technologies in the next two to five years, increasing density and modularity of servers. In 2015, Gartner estimates that 20 %of servers shipped will be running virtualisation, supporting 84 %of workloads. Jennifer Wu is research vice president for Gartner, leading the global and Asia Pacific server market forecast programIt is obvious that the greatest opportunity for revenue growth for server providers is in virtualised environments. This is due not only to hardware configurations, but also to the attachment of associated software revenue, which may drive additional direct or indirect revenue. In a non-virtualised server, the hardware is the main cost component of the server and operational server software stack. The adoption of server virtualisation has caused the spending balance to shift away from the hardware to the software, but the largest hardware growth opportunity is in virtualised environments, reflected by changes in system designs. A rapidly growing number of midmarket enterprises are virtualising for the first time, and have several strong alternatives from which to choose. Virtual machine (VM) and operating system (OS) software container technologies are being used as the foundational elements for infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud computing offerings and for private cloud deployments. x86 server virtualisation infrastructure is not a commodity market.

While migration from one technology to another is certainly possible, the earlier that choice is made, the better, in terms of cost, skills and processes. Although virtualisation can offer an immediate and tactical return on investment (ROI), virtualisation is an extremely strategic foundation for infrastructure modernisation, improving the speed and quality of IT services, and migrating to hybrid and public cloud computing. For infrastructure modernisation, virtualisation is being used to improve resource utilisation, the speed of resource delivery and encapsulate workload images in a way that enables automation. Virtualisation is also being used as a basis for cloud computing — both private and public. Towards the end of last year Gartner conducted a large enterprise survey, which showed that more than 40% of respondents give high priority to server virtualisation. We expect that the adoption rate will double over the next two years. Server virtualisation continues to provide current levels of demand for mid-level to high-end x86 servers (four sockets or more), while lowering the demand for low-end servers, such as one-socket or two-socket servers, for server workloads that lend themselves to consolidation. Virtualisation using x86 servers is now a mature technology and widely adopted by enterprises.

Although virtualisation deployment enhances demand for midlevel to high-end x86 servers, it does have a negative effect on overall volume demand. By increasing server CPU utilisation rates, it lowers the need for low-end servers for certain individual server workloads that can be consolidated using virtualisation. Server virtualisation has also driven up average selling prices (ASPs) for servers used for consolidation because it is typically configured with greater amounts of memory to support greater numbers of virtual machines. Despite growth in server ASPs for virtualised environments, virtualisation will still be attractive to end-user organisations as the total average cost of a virtualised server running 13 virtual servers in 2015 will be 24% of the total average cost of the equivalent 13 physical servers. Server software and hardware vendors must continue to adapt in this rapidly evolving market, particularly due to the effects of x86 virtualisation adoption in the server market and technology transition in the software market. Server software providers will focus on IT operations management, while server hardware providers will focus on richer revenue via packaged, bundled and software-optimised systems and services. Jennifer Wu is research vice president for Gartner, leading the global and Asia Pacific server market forecast program.

USB keyboard for your computer

It is an innovation that brings together an old-time machine and latest cutting-edge technological marvels. The U S B Typewriter offers a line of antique typewriters that can double as computer keyboards for PC, Mac, and even the iPad, among other devices. Its Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Kit helps one convert any manual typewriter to USB. In an exclusive interview with CIOL, its innovator Jack Zylkin talks about his product and what potential it holds out.

How did you get this innovative idea, especially at a time when typewriters have become absolutely obsolete?

I don't agree that typewriters are obsolete. Even though these machines are 100 years old, they still perform the task they were designed for beautifully. Often, it is better to work with the directness and simplicity of a typewriter, without dealing with the distractions and eye strain of a computer. The problem is that it is difficult to integrate these analog machines into a digital lifestyle, and so my invention bridges that gap. The U S B Typewriter lets the user have the rewarding and elegant experience of typing with ink onto paper, while saving a digital copy of the work to edit, format, spellcheck, email, and so on. Hopefully, the U S B Typewriter will do for typewriters what the Kindle has done for books – digitize them, while preserving the beauty and simplicity of the printed page.

Is the mechanism the same as in archaic typewriters?

Each U S B Typewriter is simply a modification of an actual working antique typewriter.  It has all the functions of a regular typewriter, such as typing on paper, except that it also has the ability to work like a USB keyboard for your computer.  Because the original typewriter mechanisms are unchanged, each key has a snappy, satisfying feel that cannot be found on other modern keyboards.

Are you planning to make it compatible with more devices?

The U S B Typewriter is compatible with all computers, a great many tablets, and a few Android smartphones.  Basically, any device that supports USB keyboards will work.

If one is interested in getting this U S B Typewriter Keyboard, how can s/he place an order or purchase one?

If you want a USB Typewriter, you can buy my DIY conversion kit for $74 USD and make their own.  They can also buy a professionally made U S B Typewriter from me for $599-$799 USD.  You can find both options at http://www.usbtypewriter.com/ , or on my Etsy store: usbtypewriter.etsy.com.  They can also e-mail me at jack@usbtypewriter.com.

In which countries is this product available?

It is available in all countries.












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Drupal CMS is very powerful and can be used for building large, complex websites. Drupal CMS is an open source platform maintained and developed by thousands of users and developers with Drupal Community. Drupal became one of the largest developer communities in today's arena.

U.S. based publication on scientific issues

Hollywood 'Top Gun' Tom Cruise's marital conflict has brought back under the scanner, among his personal life and many other things, Scientology, a cult that he follows religiously. The speculated reason? His wife, Katie Holmes might have filed for divorce, fearing that their daughter, Suri, might be made to embrace Scientology. It throws up a question on what the sect is all about and whether it has got something to do with science at all. All the more, to those who got to know about Scientology only becaus of Tom Cruise's and John Travolta's adherence to it. It, basically, is a organized unit of beliefs and related practices, as formulated by Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, famously L. Ron Hubbard, an American pulp fiction author. Scientology teaches that people are immortal beings who have forgotten their true nature. There is also a belief propagated that souls, called thetans (named after the Greek letter Theta), reincarnate and have lived on other planets before coming into existence on planet Earth. Based on their history, around 75 million years ago, Xenu, the ruler of a Galactic Confederation of 76 planets, transported billions of his charges in spaceships similar to DC-8 jets to Earth. Among Scientology circles, Earth is known as Teegeeack. A Scientology legend has it that they were placed near volcanoes and killed by exploding hydrogen bombs, after which their souls remained on Earth, which would later inhabit the bodies of future earthlings.

 

It is believed that it is causing humans today great spiritual harm and unhappiness, which could be remedied through special techniques, involving an Electropsychometer (in short, E-meter) in a process called auditing, a self-devised method of spiritual rehabilitation is a type of counseling. It passes low electric current through a user. Among the Scientologist convictions are: In the primordial past, thetans brought the material universe into being largely for their own pleasure. The universe has no independent reality, but derives its apparent reality from the fact that most thetans agree it exists. Followers also condemn practice of psychiatry, with a belief that it is destructive and abusive, and must be abolished. They view psychiatrists as corrupt and abusive, and has a strict policy against the use of psychoactive drugs. In a U.S.-based publication on scientific issues, Scientific American, columnist Michael Shermer writes in an article, titled The Real Science behind Scientology: It's not what you think, "The real science behind Scientology seems to be an understanding of the very human need, as social animals, to be part of a supportive group – and the willingness of people to pay handsomely for it." "So did its founder, writer L. Ron Hubbard, just make it all up – as legend has it – to create a religion that was more lucrative than producing science fiction?" It's best left to an individual to decide whether to believe and follow it or not.

Nokia Lumia phone Price @ Rs 12,999

Aiming a larger share in the country's smartphone market, Finnish handset maker Nokia phone today launched its Windows-based phone 'Nokia Lumia  610' at Rs 12,999, the cheapest device in the series. The company has two other devices in the category Nokia Lumia  710 priced at about Rs 15,000 and Nokia Lumia  800 at about Rs 24,000. "The Nokia phone Nokia Lumia  610 will introduce Windows Phone to a new generation of smartphone users ... It is designed to appeal to a more youthful audience purchasing their first smartphone," Nokia phone India Director (Smart Devices) MR.Vipul Mehrotra told reporters here. This is an offering that competes strongly on quality against other smartphones at its price point and provides access to one lakh applications, Xbox Live, Nokia phone Music, Nokia phone Drive and Nokia phone Maps, he added. "It showcases our commitment to creating a robust line up of devices on the Windows Phone platform that caters to all," Mehrotra said. Nokia phone and Microsoft had announced their partnership last year to help fight stiff competition from rivals Apple and Samsung in the smartphone market. The Nokia Lumia  series, the first one from the alliance, was introduced in globally in October last year.

 

Nokia phone Nokia Lumia  610 comes with features like Mix Radio (a free mobile music-streaming and offline listening app) and Nokia phone Transport (tracks public transportation directly on a mobile device in more than 430 cities worldwide, including bus and train routes for 45 cities globally). It runs on the latest version of Windows Phone 7.5 and has a touchscreen, 8 GB internal storage, 5MP camera and runs on a 800 MHz processor. Besides, Nokia phone has also partnered with Warner Bros for their upcoming movie 'The Dark Knight Rises'. As part of the alliance,  the company has launched the limited edition TDKR Nokia Lumia  800, priced at Rs 24,999. "Starting mid-July, 200 units of a special edition of Nokia Lumia  800 with smartphones with laser etched Batman logo and an exclusive for Nokia Lumia  DKR App will be available exclusively for consumers in India," Mehrotra said. Also, Nokia phone Nokia Lumia  users will get access to exclusive content from the movie, including exclusive trailers, movie information, ringtones and games. "A global initiative, the Nokia phone Nokia Lumia  Dark Knight Rises campaign is an exciting initiative for Nokia Lumia  consumers, that will recreate the movie's experience, right on the consumer's devices. The initiative will be supported by a full 360 degree marketing campaign," Mehrotra said.

Jira - Liferay Table Column

Q:

I have a requirement for changing one of the liferay table's column from varchar(75) to longtext.

I tried this using ext-model-hints.xml, after required changes if i try to re-build the service it is overriding the changes i made in ext-model-hints.xml

By default in liferay, portal-model-hints.xml it is some thing like this

    <model name="com.liferay.portlet.journal.model.JournalFeed">
        <field name="type" type="String" />
    </model>

I changed it as below in ext-model-hints.xml

    <model name="com.liferay.portlet.journal.model.JournalFeed">
        <field name="type" type="String">
            <hint-collection name="TEXTAREA" />
        </field>
    </model>

I have seen some relevant issue in JIRA @ LEP-7406

Please guide me how can i achieve the required functionality

Thanks in advance

---------------------------

have you created a custom model-hints.xml file outlined in my previous post? you need to make your changes there and not in ext-model-hints.xml directly.

OR

as Minhchau pointed out in a separate thread, if you make the changes in the "classes" folder instead of the "src" folder, your changes should persist

Hi,

Thank you very much for the prompt reply.

If we go with classes way of approach every time we do ant clean operation at ext/ext-impl level we have to do build & rebuild (ant compile build-services) services. Every time we need to change the *.model-hints.xml file manually? I think without this change it may not be possible to do.

so have you tried adding your own model-hints.xml file in the src and place the name of your file into the portal-ext.properties outlined in my first post? Or did that not work?

Even in this case also if we do ant clean it will be same right?

not if your file is in "src" and also your portal-ext.properties ... you only lose generated files when doing a clean ... and ext-model-hints.xml is generated.

Hi!
So, I edited my ext-model-hists.xml and added <hint name="show-time"> false</hint>  there.

But, problem is - every time, I run ServiceBuilder for all services in project (we have it in our build file to refresh DB & SQL scripts) - that hints file regenereated - and my changes lost.

Are there any way to set hints in service.xml (for example), so every time I generate service with ServiceBuilder - they will go into model-hints file?

Thank you for any advice!

Hi,

we had the same problem.

After a lot of debugging I found out the problem is that it doesn't read the "modified" ext-model-hints.xml file in the Ext environment.

The proposed solution to add a new file to the model.hints.configs isn't suitable for me, mainly for two reason:

1. it doesn't work for automatically creating database scripts (if you don't want allow schema creation at runtime)
2. you had to keep updated the new file if you modify a service.xml which you have added some hint.


The solution is to simply add this to the app.server.ext.properties (I think it could also work with build.ext.properties):

classpath.ext=${project.dir}/ext-impl/src;${project.dir}/ext-service/src

then modify your hints directly in your ext environment at ext-impl/src/META-INF/ext-model-hints.xml and re-launch the service builder.
The hints will be kept and you can later execute the sql build-db target to create database scripts according to your hints.

I'm a little disappointed of the lack of reply from Liferay here.