●๋•●๋•●๋•దేశ భాషలందు తెలుగు లెస్స ●๋•●๋•●๋•

Washington: Google brought changes to its homepage with images from artists to sculptures and now it has dropped the feature after drawing the ire of users clamoring for the normally blank background. The new feature lets users personalize their wallpaper originally were intended to be on display on the Google.com homepages of users around the world for 24 hours. But Google returned to its plain white background prematurely because many users believed the change was permanent.

On Thursday morning visitors were greeted with photos from National Geographic and Yann Arthus-Bertrand and images of the works of Dale Chihuly, Jeff Koons, Tom Otterness, Polly Apfelbaum, Kengo Kuma, Kwon, Ki-soo and Tord Boontje.

Users who wanted to return to the Google white background found that they were unable to do so, however, and in addition were being forced to create a Google account to add a new image. "Remove Google background" was one of the top 10 "hot searches" on Google itself on Thursday, and criticism of the background images was flying fast and furious on Twitter.

Some Twitter users accused Google of copying Microsoft's search engine Bing, which has featured a different background image every day since it launched in June, and the US software giant itself poked fun at its rival.

Google has steadfastly refused offers to put outside advertising on the homepage featuring its search box in a bid to maintain its spare look, and Thursday's move surprised a number of observers of the Internet giant.

Bangalore: Riding on the success of its "Technology That Touches Lives" campaign, HCL has launched the second sequel of its TV commercial today. Having been put up on several social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube and more, the ad is among top 100 YouTube videos in India and so far it has about 1872 clicks.

"With this commercial, we have retained number one - top of mind recall in technology brands and therefore a second sequel is a risk we decided to take. HCL's challenge was to create a TV commercial that would articulate how technology impacts the everyday lives of people, since technology is something that goes behind a product or a service and is often intangible, tenuous and indefinable," said Saurav Adhikari, President and Global Head for HCL's corporate strategy. Also, commenting on the date of release of the commercial, Ahikari told Siliconindia, "With the FIFA World cup kicking off today and a perfect season for recruitments, it's an ideal time for us to come up with this ad."

As claimed by Adhikari, HCL has been creating a global brand campaign and establishing a unique property with the "Technology that Touches Lives" series, which began in April 2005. The HCL TV commercial is among the few advertising campaigns across the globe that uses an employee as its protagonist. Reiterating this commitment, the company launched the commercial to its 64,000 employees across the globe before releasing it to the public.

In the ad, the face of the spunky HCL employee who gets "Mr. Banker" out of several situations, became so popular with HCL employees and viewers alike that it was imperative to continue with the familiar elements, yet with a fresh treatment and narrative. The easy banter and humor between Mr. HCL and the Banker continue to articulate this in a language the end user will understand, this time with the increasingly popular vignette approach. Conceived by leading global ad agency, Draft FCB Ulka, the ad shows how HCL's technology 'comes to the rescue' of its consumers in all walks of life. The commercial explains HCL's strengths expressed through the life experiences of a common individual and how its technology is simplifying his world by providing solutions for education and ICT services, banking, aerospace and homeland security - a increasingly critical realm that needs technology to preempt the threat of terrorism.

Commenting on the ad concept, Sanjeev Bhargava, COO, Draft FCB Ulka said, "Making a sequel for an extremely successful ad is always a creative challenge. Here the challenge was even bigger as we had to package together technology and emotional appeal, yet retaining HCL's hi-tech positioning. Above all, comparisons with previous ads were bound to happen, so we wanted to make it fresh, yet with the emotional and humor quotient that has worked with the audience in the previous ads of the series."

Helsinki: India will stand to significantly gain from a new technology on solar power as it is cheap, green and efficient, says Michael Gratzel, winner of this year's Millennium Technology Prize that is often called the Nobel for innovation.

"I am particularly interested in India. Solar energy is a cheap, abundant resource that is importantly also non-toxic," said the Swiss professor who has developed a solar cell that mimics nature, just as plants produce their own food with photosynthesis.

"Solar cooling will immensely help India as refrigeration is directly related to health issues," Gratzel told IANS here after he received the prize at a grand ceremony presided over by Finnish President Tarja Halonen.

Solar cooling uses energy from sun rays to generate power for refrigeration.

"I had been to Coimbatore in April. In India, petrol is expensive. Solar energy is the best alternative as there is lot of sunshine in your country," the professor said while holding the dye-sensitisised solar cell he has developed that won him the award.

The Millennium Technology Prize is awarded every second year. This year's winner got nearly $1 million for what has come to be called "Gratzel Cells". The previous winners included inventor of the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee in 2004, Shuji Nakamura (blue and white LEDs) in 2006 and Robert Langer in 2008 for invention and development of innovative biomaterials.

Gratzel, director of the laboratory of photonics at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, said: "Solar cells can also provide energy for water purification. Solar panel is now already capable of charging your mobile phone."

Pushing back his tousled hair, the professor went on: "These cells can be useful for charging batteries in hybrid cars. Not only that, in Japan they are developing street lighting that work solely on solar cells. So there is tremendous potential for it."

He said the solar cells developed at his laboratory worked on cloudy day, without a drop in efficiency. "Clearly, the biggest advantage of our technology is: It is clean, cheap and efficient. Now the goal is: subsidy-free, commercially-viable products."

The professor also sounded a word of caution regarding fossil fuels. "We are seeing what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico," he said, referring to the oil spill there, which is wrecking havoc on environment. "It was a risk we can't take. We need solar energy now."

He said the Earth's surface receives solar radiation at an average of 81,000 terawatt. This energy, he added, exceeded the whole global energy demand by a factor of 5,000. He said he was happy to have won the award and promised to continue his research.

Boston: Emerging markets like India and China will see faster wealth creation in the future, says a report according to which global wealth grew a "remarkable" 11.5 percent in 2009 to $111.5 trillion.

Global management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in its 10th annual Global Wealth report estimated that China and India will generate triple the growth of other countries from 2009 end to 2014.

The recovery in wealth, which offset the 10 per cent dip in global assets under management in 2008, was driven by resurgent financial markets and increased savings, it said.

BCG projected that global wealth would grow at an average annual rate of nearly 6 per cent from 2009 year-end through 2014, much slower than the sharp recovery last year but still higher than the 4.8 per cent annual growth rate from 2004 year-end through 2009.

"There's no doubt that wealth will continue to grow faster in emerging markets, fueled by strong economic growth," BCG Partner and Co-Author of the report Tjun Tang said.

Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan, is expected to grow at nearly twice the global rate, raising its share of global wealth from 15 per cent in 2009 to almost 20 per cent in 2014.

However, the rebound in wealth does not mean "a return to business as usual," BCG said, adding that client trust and wealth manager performance are still lower than they were before the global economic crisis.

North America posted the largest absolute gain in wealth at $4.6 trillion (15 per cent), but the largest percentage gain, and the second largest in absolute terms, occurred in Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan), where wealth increased by 22 per cent, or $3.1 trillion.

Europe remained the wealthiest region. Its $37.1 trillion in AUM represented one-third of the world's wealth.

The number of millionaire households across the world rose by about 14 per cent in 2009 to 11.2 million.

The US had by far the most millionaire households (4.7 million) followed by Japan, China, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

HANOI, Vietnam — Google Inc. says new Internet regulations in Vietnam raise disturbing concerns that the government may be working to block access to websites and track user activity.
An entry posted Thursday on Google's online public policy blog said new regulations passed in April require that all retail Internet locations in the capital of Hanoi must install special software on their server computers by 2011.
"The implementation of an application like this one would choke off access to information for many in Hanoi — given how popular Internet cafes are among Internet users in Vietnam," Google policy analyst Dorothy Chou wrote in the blog. "If the regulation spreads beyond Hanoi, it will impose these vague and non-transparent restrictions on users all over the country."
It is not clear what type of software would be installed, but the blog linked to an English translation of the regulations posted by Viet Tan, a pro-democracy group with members inside Vietnam and abroad.
It said the computers must have government-approved "Internet Retailers Management Software" installed on them.
The regulations apply to all Internet retailers and businesses providing Web service, such as hotels and Internet cafes, it said.
The Vietnamese government considers Viet Tan a terrorist group, but the U.S. has said there is no evidence to support that allegation.
Vietnamese officials in Hanoi did not immediately respond to questions about the regulations on Friday. The Communist government does not tolerate any form of dissent or challenge to its one-party rule. Dozens of dissidents have been jailed for using the Internet to promote democracy.
In March, Google said the computers of "potentially tens of thousands" of Vietnamese users had been infected by malicious software that spied on them and also launched Internet attacks on sites criticizing a government-backed bauxite mining project to be built by a Chinese company in Vietnam's Central Highlands. The project has generated heated debate among some Vietnamese who fear it will create environmental problems or lead to Chinese workers flooding into the strategically sensitive region.
The government has intermittently blocked Facebook since late last year, and other social networking sites also have been shut down, including one devoted to the bauxite issue.

NEW DELHI: The infamous Ambani battles appear to be a thing of past as Anil Ambani today welcomed his elder brother Mukesh-led RIL's entry into the telecom space.

And as if not to compete with RIL, which acquired the sole pan-India broadband licensee Infotel, Anil's group firm Reliance Communication exited the 16-day long wireless spectrum auction a week ago.

Even a whiff of coming together of the two brothers has seen share prices of their group companies soaring and the latest gesture by Anil Ambani prompted market watchers to wonder if this was the beginning of the coming together of the two billionaire brothers, who made headlines for the last six years for their bitter fights.

"We welcome the entry of Reliance Industries into the high potential Wireless Broadband space," an Anil Ambani group spokesperson said, within hours of RIL announcing acquisition of Infotel for Rs 4,800 crore.

As a result of the deal, RIL would also have to pay Rs 12,872 crore to the government towards 20 Mhz spectrum.

Incidentally, RCom was a major bidder for 5 Mhz spectrum for 3G telecom services and acquired the most number of circles including the prized Mumbai and Delhi, for over Rs 8,000 crore.

"As leading telecom infrastructure and content service providers, we look forward to offering our services to RIL and other BWA players, even while we compete for customers in the market place through our choice of different technologies," RCom said in a statement.

The statement assumes significance in the wake of a truce signed by both Mukesh and Anil to end the non-compete agreement, which was part of the family settlement to divide Reliance empire in June 2005. Differences had cropped up much before.

"RIL and Reliance ADA group are hopeful and confident that all these steps would create an overall environment of harmony, cooperation and collaboration between the two groups, thereby further enhancing overall shareholder value for shareholders of both the groups," the two Ambani groups had said in identical statements last month.

Dissolving into patches, sheens, tarballs and microdrops, the oil slick spreading from the damaged Deepwater Horizon well is creating a unique mosaic of potential hazards that has marine biologists, health experts and wildlife activists juggling hopes and fears.
It is a spill like no other, taking place a mile or so deep under water, in layers of more shallow water and also on the surface. The oil and the dispersant chemicals used to dissolve it are potent variables in the biochemical equation of life across the Gulf of Mexico, said several marine biologists, oceanographers and wildlife experts, who are scrambling to understand how large or long-lasting the region's problems may become.
"This is a three-dimensional spill," said Columbia University oceanographer Ajit Subramaniam. "The physics, the chemistry and the biology action are very different when you have oil released from below."
The damaged well's location, in an area of extensive marine diversity, has heightened scientists' concern. Around the spill zone, marine researchers have cataloged 1,728 species of plants and animals, such as crabs, shrimp, marine mammals and sea turtles. Of those, 135 are unique to the area and 74 species are endangered, according to a comprehensive marine survey.
"We've thrown a monkey wrench into that ecosystem," said marine oil-spill expert Chris Reddy at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. "There are uncertainties about the long- and short-term impacts."
Under the best-case scenario, the effects of so much oil may taint Gulf fisheries for only a season. But even brief exposures to the oil could further weaken species already listed as threatened or endangered.
"Depending on where the oil spill moves and when, it has the potential to harm five different species of sea turtles, all of which are listed as threatened or endangered," said marine scientist Elizabeth Griffin Wilson at Oceana, an environmental group opposed to offshore drilling.
Ideally, the scientists said, eddy currents may continue to sequester much of the oil offshore, where naturally occurring bacteria can safely break down the toxic petroleum compounds. Life in the Gulf of Mexico evolved in a world of oil: In addition to the 4,000 commercial oil platforms operating in the Gulf, there are 1,500 or so natural seafloor seeps that leak about 15 million gallons of oil every year.
Under the worst-case scenario, however, the oil spill could fundamentally alter the marine chemistry of the Gulf, making it less hospitable to the marine life that makes the region a valuable commercial fishery.
"You could end up changing the ecosystem completely," said Columbia University marine biologist Andrew Juhl, who studies marine pollution. "The things that tend to live in polluted areas are not the sorts of things we like."
The approaching hurricane season is compounding the uncertainty because storms could curtail the effects of the oil spill or worsen them.
"The big jokers in the deck now are hurricanes," said marine ecologist Thomas Shirley at Texas A&M University. Forecasters have predicted as many as 14 major hurricanes in the coming season. Depending on their strength, duration and direction, they may dramatically alter the dynamics of the oil spill in the Gulf.
In the best-case scenario, hurricane winds could whip up waves that would more rapidly dilute and disrupt surface oil slicks so that they could be digested by natural bacteria. In the worst case, however, a hurricane-driven storm surge could drive oily saltwater deep into freshwater marshlands, smothering plants and killing wildlife far from the wellhead.
"If that water is carrying oil as well as salinity, there is a double whammy," said Dr. Shirley.
Until it was partly contained, the well gushed as many as 50,000 barrels a day into the Gulf, according to the newest calculations by government and university experts. All the while, low concentrations of that oil spread on subsea currents in billows of microdroplets as many as 45 miles from the well site.
As of Thursday, crews had sprayed 798,000 gallons of chemicals to disperse the oil at the surface and injected another 346,000 gallons under water to break it up near the seafloor. In 142 controlled fires, crews also burned an estimated 3.62 million gallons of oil on open water. About one-third of the Gulf remains closed to fishing.
"We are not really dealing with a monolithic spill," said national incident commander Admiral Thad Allen earlier this week. "We're dealing with about a 200-mile radius around the well site with thousands—maybe hundreds of thousands—of smaller patches of oil."

REVIEW

Panchakshari
WORST GRAPHICAL FLICK
Plus: Anushka, Background music
Minus: Screenplay, Direction
Review: 4/10

Man discovered COLORS and invented PAINT;
woman discovered PAINT and invented MAKEUP.

Man discovered the WORD and invented CONVERSATION;
woman discovered CONVERSATION and invented GOSSIP.

Man discovered AGRICULTURE and invented FOOD;
woman discovered FOOD and invented DIET.

Man discovered FRIENDSHIP and invented LOVE;
woman discovered LOVE and invented LOVE TRIANGLES.

Man discovered TRADING and invented MONEY;
woman discovered MONEY and invented SHOPPING.

Thats it!!!

Thereafter man has discovered and invented a lot of things... While women are still STUCK with shopping.... .......... . !!!

A professor of chemistry wanted to teach his 5th grade class a lesson about the evils of alcohol, so he produced an experiment that involved a glass of water, a glass of whiskey and two worms. “Now, class. Observe closely the worms,” said the professor putting a worm first into the water. The worm in the water writhed about, happy as a worm in water could be.

The second worm, he put into the whiskey. It writhed painfully, and quickly sank to the bottom, dead as a doornail.

“Now, what lesson can we learn from this experiment?” the professor asked.

Little Johnny, who naturally sits in back, raised his hand and wisely, responded…

“Drink whiskey and you won’t get worms!”

 Bangalore: Samsung has added Facebook and Goolge Maps to its HDTV-based Samsung Apps library. All of its 2010 Blu-ray players, Blu-ray home theater systems, and most Samsung TVs sized at 40 inches and larger have the ability to download and use the apps.

With this users will be able to plan out trips before they leave their living room using Google Maps, and interact with friends on Facebook just like they would on their computers.

Samsung Apps number in the 30s, with services that include Blockbuster, Netflix, Pandora, Twitter, USA Today and Vudu, among others

Bangalore: Microsoft has informed that Windows XP will be dropped from netbooks on October 22.
The policy is a reminder of a move unveiled in April 2008 but will require that all Windows-based netbooks use Windows 7 from the fall onwards. Switching is not expected to be a major issue as about 81 percent of netbooks were already using the much more modern OS by April, according to NPD data.

The switch still represents one of the last steps in Windows XP's lifespan. Regular PCs moved relatively quickly to Windows 7 after dropping Vista and XP, but the lower price and system demands of XP led netbook designers to keep the nearly nine-year-old OS as a standard OS on their least expensive systems.

XP's prolonged existence was mostly sparked by Vista, as its steep system requirements made it impractical to use on netbooks without inflating the performance and cost through extra RAM or advanced graphics. Microsoft also used the age of the OS to justify charging $15 per each notebook where even Vista Starter Edition would have cost at least $30, raising the price and leaving an opening for cheaper Linux netbooks.

Mumbai: Back office firm Intelnet Global Services has bagged the deal for providing outsourced call centre services for UID project, according to a report by N Shivapriya of Economic Times.

This is the second tender to be awarded by the authority led by former Infosys CEO and co-founder, Nandan Nilekani, in a series of contracts totaling $1 billion.

The UID project is being watched globally by governments, service providers and vendors because of the scale and complexity involved in providing a unique, verifiable identity to over a billion Indians.

Companies, both global and Indian, are competing for different parts of this huge project, the largest undertaken by any government. The first tender for software application development was awarded to Mindtree.

Intelenet spokesperson declined to comment when Economic Times contacted. Trading in shares of Sparsh BPO, the domestic arm of Intelenet Global Services, was frozen after there were only buyers at Rs 57.20, the upper end of the 5 percent intra-day circuit filter.

In many ways, this could be one of the most challenging assignments in the UID project as it involves directly interfacing with the citizens. "The vendor will be required to provide services in the official languages of all the states, no matter where the centre is located," said an executive with a BPO firm. The contract is expected to start small from around 100-150 seats and scale up to around 2000 as volumes pick up.

The potential for revenues to scale up as call volumes grow is just one of the upsides of winning the deal. The prestige of being associated with such a project brings along many intangible benefits, said analysts and outsourcing experts.

"There is tremendous upside for the player who wins the deal. Of course, it's an open question how much the revenues will scale up but it will be financially viable because there will be volumes. Indians are people who want answers," said Alok Shende, Principal Analyst with technology research firm, Ascentius Consulting.

"Globally there are not many nations that have opted for such an identity project. For any company to be part of it is prestigious. It will give them credibility to bid for similar projects abroad and other projects in the government. Even if opportunities overseas are not considered, there is enough opportunity within the government here," he added.

The pricing for the contract will be based on number of calls per minute. Earlier Economic Times has reported that the BPO winning the contract would have to operate 8 am to 8 pm, six days a week and on all festivals, delivering customer care through calls, e-mails , pull-and-push SMS, fax and traditional means like letters and postcards.

Bangalore: Wipro has bagged an outsourcing deal for ten years from automobile and parts distribution company TVS. The deal aims at leveraging IT across all business units and functional areas of TVS.

The scope of services includes the suite of IT infrastructure and applications across the enterprise. In the initial transformation phase, Wipro will reengineer the current IT systems to achieve business IT alignment, backed by processes and tools.

The second phase covering operations and maintenance, would involve application and infrastructure support at the Data Center, and facilities management across 82 locations for 10 years. The engagement would be governed by a mix of milestone-based, business outcome-based and operations-based Key Performance Indicators.

Speaking on the occasion R Dinesh of TVS said: "We see Business-IT alignment as the key driver for achieving business transformation. An integrated IT landscape will not only enable seamless information flow but will also help achieve high performance and scalability in our operations. We are delighted to be partnering with Wipro for this engagement."

"It is our privilege to be associated with TVS & Sons in this engagement. We expect this partnership to provide the growth platform for TVS & Sons in the highly competitive automotive distribution business by leveraging IT practices," said Anand Sankaran, Senior Vice President and Business Head, India and Middle East, Wipro.

London: One in four people put their health at risk if they work without a break through the day, a new study has revealed.

Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) has warned that working in the same position for too long and going to work when ill or stressed can damage health.

Long working hours without a break can also lead to back pain, obesity, depression, heart disease and stroke.

"Physiotherapists are concerned that overworking and not taking breaks is actually costing employers and their staff," telegraph.co.uk quoted Phil Gray, chief executive of the CSP as saying.

"Employees pay the price with their health and there is a cost to employers in reduced productivity and performance. Work is good for us and can contribute to physical and mental wellbeing - but not when overworking means people don't have the time or energy to look after their own health or when staff are at work but are not fit for work," Gray added.

Ben Willmott, from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, agreed, saying "These findings should ring alarm bells for employers. A certain level of pressure at work is of course desirable.

"However when the pressure people face regularly exceeds their ability to cope, in other words stress, it is likely to lead to time off work and is linked to conditions such as depression, anxiety and heart disease".