e-Life

Government launches Hindi software

2005-10-09T22:34:00.000-07:00

Hindi went high-tech on Wednesday with the government launching a chip version of a Hindi translation software on mobile phones and the internet.

The MANTRA (Machine assisted Translation Tool) software, which would help translate government documents from English to Hindi, as well as LILA (Learn Indian Languages through Artificial Intelligence) software for learning Hindi on the internet and mobile hand phones was launched at the annual 'Hindi Divas' ceremony at Vigyan Bhavan.

Unveiling the software, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil lauded the effort of the Department of Official Languages, Ministry of Home Affairs, who have developed the chips for easy, effective and fast translation of administrative documents and taking virtual steps to popularise Hindi among the masses.

The LILA series, already available on the web for learning Hindi via media of English, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu would now be available in Bengali, department officials said.

The software, now available in the form of multi-media card on cellular phones, promises to make Hindi learning more high-tech and easy, Patil said.

Mother's Milk

2005-10-05T22:01:00.000-07:00

"The loveliest masterpiece of the heart of god Is the heart of a mother"

Realising the significance of a mother's milk for an infant, a Hospital in Mumbai has set up a "Breast Milk Bank". It provides the much-needed alternative to many women who are not in a position to lactate, or to secrete milk.

Due to various physical conditions or circumstances a mother may not be able to provide her child with the all-important nutrient resulting in the baby's under development and ill health. Considering such desperate situations, the neo-natology department of the Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital in Mumbai started this Milk bank.

Established in 1989, the Mother's Milk Centre was deveoped with the basic idea of providing human milk to babies so as to ensure their healthy development through the early stages.Recipients at the bank usually include premature babies, abandoned babies and babies admitted at the hospitals with various ailments, including babies whose mothers are unwell and unable to feed them.

At least 25 babies receive breast milk from the bank everyday.

Microsoft,partners, step up "smart phone" war with Blackberry

2005-09-26T22:09:00.000-07:00

Microsoft teamed up with mobile computer maker Palm and telecom giant Verizon on a new "smart phone" aiming to grab market share from the popular Blackberry device.

The world's biggest software group and the two partners will combine their marketing clout to take on established "smart phone" devices using the Blackberry platform developed by Canada's Research in Motion.

"Most people carrying a Blackberry today still have a mobile phone," Allen Bush of Palm told AFP. "That idea is just ludicrous to us; that in this day and age, you can't combine that elegantly."

A new "Windows Mobile" telephone that doubles as a hand-held computer with features including being synchronized with popular Microsoft Outlook messaging and scheduling software should be in US stores by early 2006, said Palm's chief executive officer Ed Collie.

Windows XP in nine Indian languages

2005-09-22T22:31:00.000-07:00

The starter edition of Windows XP will soon be available in nine Indian languages. This forms part of the collaborative initiatives with Microsoft Corporation announced by Communications and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran today, which also include a “security co-operation program” to increase cyber security in the country.

“Various steps announced today address issues like IT literacy, taking high-quality and interactive IT education to schools in India, availability of local language computing solutions and e-governance,” said Maran.

Under the e-governance project, Microsoft will adopt 100 schools in six states to provide an interactive learning environment. Microsoft will also offer special package in collaboration with partners to deliver a broadband and PC at affordable EMIs to support India’s broadband strategy.

This will be in partnership with companies like Bharat Sanchar Nagar Limited, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, HCL Corporation and State Bank of India.

India to Produce six 'Scorpene' submarines

2005-09-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

India will build six Scorpene submarines under licence from France and the first one is expected to be commissioned in six years time from the date of signing the contract, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash announced here.

The Naval chief, who was in the city to inaugurate the Indian Society of Aerospace Medicine (ISAM) conference was reacting to questions after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh just signed a deal worth Rs 13,000 crore to buy six highly advanced ‘Scorpene’ submarines during his just concluded visit to France.

Admiral Prakash said these six submarines would be built under licence at the Mazagoan docks in Mumbai.

“After this series, we will design and build our own later.'' Stating that having submarines at sea increased the combat levels of the blue water navy, he said with the induction of these submarines, the force levels would be adequate to meet any threat.

New Step In Technology

2005-09-14T22:35:00.000-07:00

How many times have you cursed whenever an aircraft flew passed your house with that ear-shattering boom?

Well, in a few years all that noise would be a thing of the past, thanks to an initiative involving Britain's Cambridge University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop a 'Silent Plane'

The Cambridge-MIT Institute's 'Silent' Aircraft Initiative was launched in November 2003 with a bold aim: to discover ways to reduce aircraft noise dramatically, to the point where it would be virtually unnoticeable to people outside the airport perimeter.

The work carried out at both institutions has included measuring and recording the noise levels produced by different parts of conventional aircraft, and comparing with models of potential aircraft designs, including the blended wing-body aircraft.

Great Deal

2005-09-13T22:40:00.000-07:00

EBay Inc. has agreed to buy Internet phone-calling phenomenon Skype for up to $4.1 billion, tapping a hot source of growth and putting it into rising competition with rivals from Google to local phone company.

EBay said on Monday it will pay $1.3 billion in cash and $1.3 billion in stock for explosively growing Skype, which will allow eBay to add free Web telephone calls to its online auctions. It will make a further payout of up to $1.5 billion if certain financial targets are met.

First English Mambo Book Published

2005-08-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

This book is a fast paced tutorial to creating a website using Mambo. From installation, to initial set up and content entry and then on to customization for your own look and feel, this book will get you to a stable and working Mambo based web site fast.

This book is published by Packt and written by Hagen Graf this book is available direct with free shipping or from all major online bookstores.

Packt will be donating a percentage royalty to the Mambo project.

You don’t have to be an experienced web developer or designer to get a great looking site with a full set of functions using this book and Mambo. This book will guide you through every step.

This book begins by introducing Mambo and concepts behind content management. Then the installation of Mambo, and its supporting software [Apache/MySQL/PHP] is covered clearly and simply. Once you have the installation up and running, we then take a tour of Mambo as it appears out of the box, to familiarize ourselves with how it works and what is what. As you take the tour, your own ideas for what you need in your new website begin to crystallise around what you can see Mambo is capable of.

Firefox Builds On It's Success

2005-07-31T21:41:00.000-07:00

Firefox, the popular open-source Web browser, is continuing to gain users even as its management structure evolves and it resets its plans for its next update.

The Mozilla Foundation's Firefox recently zoomed past the 75 million-download mark. At this rate, some expect the browser to hit the 100 million-download mark by early october.

According to the French research company XiTi monitor, Firefox has an 11.78 percent share of the browser market in North America, while in Europe, according to XiTi's numbers, Firefox is being adopted at an even quicker pace, with a 14.83 percent market share.

Indeed, in some countries—Finland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Croatia and Poland—more than 20 percent of users have switched the browser they primarily use from Internet Explorer to Firefox.

India Begins Exports By Road To Pakistan

2005-07-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

Direct trade by road resumed Tuesday between India and Pakistan for the first time in 40 years, as trucks laden with garlic from India rolled across the border.

The resumption fulfilled a long-standing demand by traders on both sides, who previously had to transport goods hundreds of miles to the nearest port or train station to get them across the border.

"We are thrilled, and the prospects for trade are immense," Rajdip Uppal, an exporter, said by telephone from the Indian border city of Amritsar.

In a sign of easing tensions between India and Pakistan after decades of hostility, both countries agreed earlier this year to allow exports of livestock and four kinds of vegetables and to meet shortages in Pakistan.

Indian exporters are allowed to send vegetables and livestock to Pakistan. In return, India will import some dry goods.

Trade between the two countries reached $380 million in 2004. But unofficial trade through third-country destinations like Dubai or Singapore totaled more than $1billion, according to Indian industry groups.

Official trade had been by sea or train, both resulting in long delays over customs' clearances. The delays also ruled out trade in perishable goods like fruit and vegetables or livestock.

Despite Tuesday's developments, traders remained dissatisfied with restrictive visa rules under which Pakistani visitors cannot move freely across India.

"We want to invite Pakistani business leaders to India, to take them around and show them the extent of our business. But the existing rules allow a visa to only one or two cities," said Uppal.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over control of the Himalayan region of
Kashmir, since their independence from Britain in 1947. Relations have improved since January last year, when they agreed to hold talks to settle the decades-old Kashmir dispute.

Kashmir remains divided between India and Pakistan, but both countries claim the entire territory.

Japan Plans world's fastest supercomputer

2005-07-25T21:36:00.000-07:00

Japan has plans to start building a supercomputer next year that can operate 73 times faster than the world's fastest supercomputer, the government said Monday.

The American Blue Gene/L system supercomputer developed by International Business Machine Corp. at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, currently holds the title of the world's fastest. That machine is capable of 136.8 teraflops, or 136.8 trillion calculations per second, according to Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Japan wants to develop a supercomputer that can operate at 10 petaflops, or 10 quadrillion calculations per second, which is 73 times faster than the Blue Gene, an official of the ministry said on condition of anonymity.

Kyodo News reported that the total amount for the project is estimated between 80 billion and 100 billion yen ($714 million to $893 million) and the ministry will request 10 billion yen ($89 million) for the next fiscal year's budget.

The ministry official could not confirm the figures, saying it has yet to reach a formal decision on the project, which is expected by the end of August. But he said that if the budget for next year is approved, the ministry hopes to complete the next-generation supercomputer sometime in fiscal 2010, which ends in March 2011.

Japan's Earth Simulator supercomputer, introduced in 2002, had been the world's fastest until 2004, when the IBM's Blue Gene took the title, he said.

Currently, the Earth Simulator, at a speed of 35.9 teraflops, is ranked fourth after the IBM's two Blue Gene systems and NASA's Columbia system, all in the United States, according to the top 500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers, released at the International Supercomputing Conference held in June in Heidelberg, Germany.

The Earth Simulator is used to track global sea temperatures, rainfall and crustal movement to predict natural disasters over the next few centuries.

The ministry wants to use the planned supercomputer for a wider use such as simulating the formation of galaxy and the interactions between a medicine and the human body.

"Killer Exam"

2005-07-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

Swati, 18, was a brilliant pupil but still she feared she had failed her school-leaving exams. She hanged herself hours before the results were released. She had in fact passed.

Aruna, 17, killed herself by drinking pesticide after learning she had flunked

Horrifying stories such as these are regularly published in the Indian media, while studies show more and more teenagers are suffering depression or contemplating suicide.

In New Delhi, an inquiry into 150 educational facilities by mental health group VIMHANS showed that 40 percent of pupils feel overwhelmed by exams.

A separate study by non-governmental organisation Sahyog showed that 57 percent of the 850 teenagers they questioned suffered from depression and nine percent attempted suicide last year.

SugarCRM Marks First Anniversary

2005-07-21T23:01:00.000-07:00

SugarCRM Inc. celebrates the one-year anniversary of the launch of its open source customer relationship management (CRM) application this week with a rapidly expanding community of users that now includes over 300,000 free downloads and 250 paying customers for its professional edition. There are also 575 open source developers contributing new code and enhancements to the system, and nearly 9,500 participants active in multiple forums sponsored by the company.

These numbers mark SugarCRM as the most successful open source enterprise application in the industry. The rapid adoption rate validates the open source model for use in enterprise environments and lays the groundwork for extending the reach of SugarCRM into more and larger organizations.

Some Internet Terms Unfamilier

2005-07-20T22:14:00.000-07:00

Podcasting and RSS feeds may be the latest craze in high-tech circles 
but the general public is largely unfamiliar with the Internet terms.


Seventy percent of Internet users never heard of phishing or aren't  
sure that it refers to e-mail scams that try to trick users into revealing  
sensitive information by masquerading as a legitimate bank or credit 
card issuer.



Eighty-seven percent are unfamiliar with podcasting, which lets  
everyday users distribute audio files over the Internet for playback
any time on computers or digital music players.


And 91 percent do not know about Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, a 
technology chiefly used to pull summaries of new entries on news sites  
and Web journals.

World's smallest PC in India

2005-07-07T04:59:00.000-07:00

IBM recently launched the world's smallest full functional desktop computer in India within weeks of its worldwide launch to increase its share of the commercial PC market.

IBM has priced the Think Centre S50 ultra small between Rs 38,000 and Rs 48,000 which brings it within the reach of small businesses and homes. The cost includes a standard 15 inch monitor and Windows operating system.

The Think Centre S50 ultra small comes with internal speakers that can enable it to be used in homes. The PC comes in a tool-free durable chassis which is 28 centimeters wide, 26 centimeters deep and 8.4 centimeters high.

NRIs In US earn more then natives

2005-07-06T01:02:00.000-07:00

Average per capita income of Indians in the US is $60,093 as per the US census of 2000. The more remarkable fact about this figure is that it stands against the US average of $38,885 in the same census.

This is revealed in a World Bank study on India and its knowledge industry released last week. The study also captures the trends of Indian Diaspora in the United States and elsewhere.

The World Bank report quoting the US census of 2000 says that Indian Americans also have an edge over their American counterparts in the field of education. With more than 62% of them having some college education (compared with just more than 20% for the US population).

While they have spread their wings in virtually all professions including agriculture, biotechnology, business, economics, finance, journalism, management, medicine their presence is highly prominent in the IT industry of the USA: approximately 300,000 Indian-Americans work in Silicon Valley, account for more than 15% of start-ups in the USA, and have an average annual income of about $200,000.

The Indian Diaspora in the US is not only growing wealthy but also rapidly. The Indian American community now boasts of 1.68 million people compared with 0.81 million in 1990-a growth of 106%. Though India, being the source country, cannot stop cribbing about its loss of highly trained personnel and its fiscal costs (as many receive publicly financed education), the remittances it receives coupled with return of migrants with greater international experience bring a mollifying touch to the Indian scenario.

In India, between 1990 and 2000, remittances from abroad grew six fold from $2.1 billion to $12.3 billion. The destination of these remittances shifted significantly from Karalla and Gujarat to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

India is also able to tap capital knowledge and markets via its Diaspora. Especially after its economic reforms in 1991.

For example , in the software industry and IT- enabled services , investments of Diaspora members is quite limited( about 3% of FDI), but their contribution is mostly in the form knowledge linkages , that is, with foreign markets, helping Indian firms to absorb technical and managerial knowledge.

As the world becomes more and more aware of the high quality pool of intellect in India and as India becomes less and less opaque to the world, big MNCs like Microsoft, IBM, and GE are being incessantly drawn towards this 58 year old independent nation accelerating its path of economic growth.

# Only 3 Formula #

2005-06-30T06:24:00.000-07:00

Developing a successful Internet marketing strategy is an essential part of your online success. In order to succeed, you must develop and implement a strategic plan that includes all of the following:

@ A great product
@ A website specifically designed to sell
@ A killer marketing strategy

Each step plays an important role in your overall strategy and must be developed to its fullest potential. If even one step fails, your chances of success will be minimal.

Developing Your Product

Your first step will be to develop a great product. You're probably thinking that's easier said than done, but it's really not. The absolute best product is one that you can develop yourself and deliver over the Internet. With today's technology, there is absolutely no reason why you can't create your own product. The knowledge you have within your own mind is extremely valuable. Everybody is good at something, has a special talent or some specialized knowledge. Use this knowledge to create a product.

The key to developing a great product is exclusiveness. Your product should be unique and not be in competition with hundreds of other similar products. You must give your potential customers exactly what they want. Develop a high-quality product that fills a void to increase your chance of success.

Another consideration of great importance is your target market. Keep in mind, the Internet is a global marketplace. Develop a product with a large geographic target and a wide appeal. A great product will fulfill a need or desire and provide instant gratification.

Here are a few of the top sellers:

@ Software
@ Information
@ Private sites
@ Internet services

Before you develop your product, do some research --

find out exactly what people want and develop your product accordingly.

The most important consideration when developing your product is quality. Your product should not only deliver what you promise, but should go above and beyond the expected and over deliver. Your customers satisfaction is of the utmost importance.

Developing Your Website

Once you've developed a great product, your next step will be to develop a great website. Your website must be specifically designed to sell your product.

Everything within your website should have one purpose getting your visitor to take action. Words are the most powerful marketing tool you have. The right words will turn your visitors into customers. The wrong words will cause them to click away and never return.

Your words are the entire foundation of your business. Your product, your website and your marketing strategies all depend upon your words. Fancy graphics
don't make sales -- words do.

Every word, sentence and headline should have one specific purpose -- to lead your potential customer to your order page. Write your website copy as if you are talking to just one person. Identify a problem and validate that one visitor's need for a solution.
Continue to write and explain why your product is the solution to their problem. Tell them exactly what your product will do for them -- why it will solve their problems and how. Pack your copy with benefits and more benefits. Write to persuade -- that's the bottom line.

Developing Your Marketing strategies

Your marketing strategy is the final process of your plan. Your plan must include both short-term and long-term strategies in order to succeed.

Short term marketing strategies are those that bring you a temporary boost in traffic. Although these techniques are very important to your over-all plan, they are only a temporary traffic source and must not be solely relied upon. Short term marketing strategies include:

@ Purchasing advertising
@ Bulletin Boards
@ Search Engines

Long term marketing strategies are those that bring you a steady stream of targeted traffic over time. These strategies will continue to produce results even years down the road.

By creating and implementing a balanced marketing strategy, using both short-term and long-term strategies, you will drive a steady stream of targeted traffic to your website.

If you use this simple formula when creating your Internet marketing strategy and excel at all three, you can literally guarantee your success.

New Generation Of e-Learning Technology

2005-06-28T23:56:00.000-07:00

Moodle (Modular Object Oriented Learning Environment), the world's leading open source Course Management System, and LAMS (Learning Activity Management System), the world's leading Learning Design system, (LAMS is a revolutionary new tool for designing, managing and delivering online collaborative learning activities. It provides teachers with a highly intuitive visual authoring environment for creating sequences of learning activities. These activities can include a range of individual tasks, small group work and whole class activities based on both content and collaboration. Whether you are a long time user of current e-learning tools, or new to the area, LAMS will release you from administration and propel you and your students to a new level of interaction and satisfaction that has the potential to dramatically increase student learning).

Now they will work together. This means thousands of existing Moodle sites will be able to easily incorporate the revolutionary "digital lesson planning" approach provided by LAMS. The integration will be freely available by the end of July.

Moodle and LAMS make a great complementary package. Moodle users will be drawn towards the fun and powerful design tools that LAMS provides, and LAMS
users will be able to take advantage of Moodle's popular capabilities for managing communities of learners within a dynamic web site.

It demonstrates the powerful benefits of combining a Course Management System like Moodle with a Learning Design system like LAMS to create a new generation of e-learning technology.

* Telemedicine *

2005-06-23T23:04:00.000-07:00

Telemedicine is one of the most evolving technologies in the health care delivery space. India was the first country to deploy telemedicine systems in response to the tsunami crisis, when the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) brought the three hospitals in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands into its network with other super-speciality hospitals.

It has plans to connect all the hospitals in the country over the next three to four years. Telemedicine allows health care professionals to use connected medical devices in the evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of patients in other locations. These devices are enhanced through the use of telecommunications technology, network computing and videoconferencing systems.

Specialized application software, data storage devices, database management software, and medical devices capable of electronic data collection, storage and transmission are all key components of the telemedicine infrastructure.

Telemedicine uses two methods to transmit images, data and sound – either live, real-time transmission where the consulting professional participates in the examination of the patient while diagnostic information is collected and transmitted, or store and forward transmission, where the consulting professional reviews data asynchronous with its collection. Yugal Sharma, country manager, Polycom India, which provides videoconferencing solutions, says,

"Telemedicine can help in combating tropical diseases and illnesses that require monitoring at regular intervals. For countries with limited medical expertise and resources, telecommunications has the potential to provide a solution to some of these problems."

Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, Kolkata, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Bangalore, Hewlett Packard, ISRO and state governments of the seven north-eastern states have sponsored a non-profitable telemedicine project.

Open Source vs. Closed Source

2005-06-22T02:05:00.000-07:00

The open source vs. closed source (alternatively called proprietary development) debate is sometimes heated.

Making money through traditional methods, such as sale of the use of individual copies and patent royalty payment, is more difficult and sometimes impractical with open-source software. Some closed-source advocates see open source software as damaging to the market of commercial software. This complaint is countered by a large number of alternative funding streams such as:

* Giving the software for free and instead charge for installation and support (used by many Linux distributions)

* Make the software available as open-source so that people will be more likely to purchase a related product or service you do sell (e.g. Openoffice.org vs StarOffice)

* Cost avoidance / cost sharing: many developers need a product, so it makes sense to share development costs (this is the genesis of the X Window System and the Apache web server)

Studies about security in open-source software versus closed-source software show that closed-source software have fewer advisories but open-source software usually has less time between flaw discovery and a patch or fix. Advocates of closed source argue that since no one is responsible for open-source software, there is no way to know whether it has been fixed. Open-source advocates argue that since the source code of closed-source software is not available, there is no way to know what bugs that may exist.

e-Life

2005-06-18T05:28:00.000-07:00

Hi I'm Mayank, this is my first blog in blogger.com but today I'm not so excited like other people because this is a part of e-Life because these thing we have performed already in our common life where we share our thought with our parents, friends and others. Oh! I want to express my word specially e-Life because this is different kind of life, so I want to say that when we live our life in society then we can say that we are living a social life but today we are standing on the door of dynamic world where every work performed on the Internet, where we don't know about other people then there is one another effective way through which we can know about others through BLOGGING.

So now I'm posting my first blog here and I hope through this blog some people know about me and now I'm also part of e-Life where everything is hidden. So I can say this is my e-Life.

e-Life

Government launches Hindi software

Mother's Milk

Microsoft,partners, step up "smart phone" war with Blackberry

Windows XP in nine Indian languages

*India to Produce six 'Scorpene' submarines*

*New Step In Technology*

Great Deal

First English Mambo Book Published

Firefox Builds On It's Success

India Begins Exports By Road To Pakistan

Japan Plans world's fastest supercomputer

"Killer Exam"

SugarCRM Marks First Anniversary

Some Internet Terms Unfamilier

World's smallest PC in India

NRIs In US earn more then natives

# Only 3 Formula #

New Generation Of e-Learning Technology

* Telemedicine *

Open Source vs. Closed Source

e-Life

India to Produce six 'Scorpene' submarines

New Step In Technology