The worldwide IT spending is on pace to decline 5.2 percent this year. However, the IT industry will return to growth in 2010, with IT spending forecast to total $3.3 trillion, a 3.3 percent increase from 2009, according to research firm Gartner. In Asia Pacific, IT spending is expected to grow by five percent to reach $515.6 billion in 2010.
Peter Sondergaard, Senior Vice President at Gartner and Global Head of Research, said that this represented a fast V-shaped recovery for IT spending in the region. Emerging regions will resume strong growth, he said. By 2012, the accelerated IT spending and culturally different approach to IT in Asia will directly influence product features, service structures and the overall IT industry.
However, growth varies considerably by country, vertical market and IT sector. Sondergaard said that while software would post the strongest growth in Asia Pacific, telecommunications still represented the largest area of IT investment.
In Australia, the five-year outlook for enterprise IT spending is a compound annual growth rate of 1.3 percent, with total IT spending by Australian businesses to reach Australian dollar 56.4 billion by 2013. The vertical sectors with the highest IT spending growth would be communications (3.2 percent), healthcare (2.6 percent) and utilities (2.3 percent). While IT spending will increase next year, Gartner cautioned IT leaders not to be overly optimistic.
"While the IT industry will return to growth in 2010, the market will not recover to 2008 revenue levels before 2012," said Sondergaard. 2010 is about balancing the focus on cost, risk, and growth. For more than 50 percent of Chief Information Officers the IT budget will be zero percent or less in growth terms. It will only slowly improve in 2011, he added.
Sondergaard said that the three most-searched terms by Gartner clients on gartner.com provide some clues as to the priorities of IT leaders around the world. Cost remained the most-searched term during 2009, although it peaked in May, followed by cloud computing. "Next year will be the year when cloud computing moves from the discovery phase to small pilots, as part of organizations' desire to move from owned to shared IT," he said.
The third most-searched terms on gartner.com were business applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM). "We believe that 2010 will see increased focus on optimization of business processes linked to software applications, what we call application overhaul. That is what will drive growth in the software segment," Sondergaard said.
Agencies
Showing posts with label applications. Show all posts
Showing posts with label applications. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Google enters mobile advertising space with AdMob acquisition
In a push to expand its digital advertising empire to cellphones, Google has agreed to acquire AdMob, a fast-growing mobile advertising start-up, for $750 million in stock, the companies said.
AdMob is one of the top sellers of banner ads on iPhone applications and Web pages that can be retrieved from mobile phones. The acquisition could help establish Google as an early leader in the small but rapidly expanding mobile phone advertising business.
The deal shows that Google is serious about becoming a major player in the mobile advertising ecosystem, said Neil Strother, an analyst with Forrester Research. It puts Google in the front-runner position.Strother and other analysts said that position could prove tenuous. The mobile advertising business, which has long been hailed as the next big thing, remains embryonic.
Agencies
AdMob is one of the top sellers of banner ads on iPhone applications and Web pages that can be retrieved from mobile phones. The acquisition could help establish Google as an early leader in the small but rapidly expanding mobile phone advertising business.
The deal shows that Google is serious about becoming a major player in the mobile advertising ecosystem, said Neil Strother, an analyst with Forrester Research. It puts Google in the front-runner position.Strother and other analysts said that position could prove tenuous. The mobile advertising business, which has long been hailed as the next big thing, remains embryonic.
Agencies
Friday, November 6, 2009
JavaScript programming tools now from Google
With a project called Closure Tools, Google plans to start helping developers who aspire to match the company's proficiency in creating Web sites and Web applications. Google is a strong proponent of using JavaScript to write Web-based programs, which is a part of its Web-centric ethos, reports CNET News.
Indeed, the company has pushed the language to its limits with services such as Gmail and Google Docs, and it developed its Chrome browser in part to enable JavaScript programs to run faster. But writing, debugging, and optimizing heavy-duty JavaScript can be difficult - in part because a given JavaScript program sometimes works differently on different browsers. Google's open-source Closure Tools project is an attempt to help with some of these challenges.
The first in the suite of tools is the Closure Compiler, a software package designed to boil down a JavaScript program so it's smaller and runs faster. Along with the compiler come some extra tools that run in the Firefox browser. One, Closure Inspector, is an extension for Firefox's Firebug add-on designed to help programmers understand and debug the rewritten JavaScript. Another add-on for the Google Page Speed extension lets programmers see how much the compiler helped.
Google also plans to make the compiler available as a Web application hosted on its Google App Engine service. The second element is called the Closure Library, a collection of pre-built JavaScript codes that lets programmers handle relatively sophisticated technology - arrays and string manipulation, for example. Last are Closure Templates, more pre-written codes to ease creation of JavaScript and HTML user interfaces.
In an earlier era, programming tools were expensive packages bought by a select few, but open-source software, new marketing strategies, and new business methods have made that approach the exception rather than the rule these days. Now programming tools are often a means to another end - encouraging programmers to produce the software that will make Windows or the Palm Pre useful and therefore popular.
Agencies
Indeed, the company has pushed the language to its limits with services such as Gmail and Google Docs, and it developed its Chrome browser in part to enable JavaScript programs to run faster. But writing, debugging, and optimizing heavy-duty JavaScript can be difficult - in part because a given JavaScript program sometimes works differently on different browsers. Google's open-source Closure Tools project is an attempt to help with some of these challenges.
The first in the suite of tools is the Closure Compiler, a software package designed to boil down a JavaScript program so it's smaller and runs faster. Along with the compiler come some extra tools that run in the Firefox browser. One, Closure Inspector, is an extension for Firefox's Firebug add-on designed to help programmers understand and debug the rewritten JavaScript. Another add-on for the Google Page Speed extension lets programmers see how much the compiler helped.
Google also plans to make the compiler available as a Web application hosted on its Google App Engine service. The second element is called the Closure Library, a collection of pre-built JavaScript codes that lets programmers handle relatively sophisticated technology - arrays and string manipulation, for example. Last are Closure Templates, more pre-written codes to ease creation of JavaScript and HTML user interfaces.
In an earlier era, programming tools were expensive packages bought by a select few, but open-source software, new marketing strategies, and new business methods have made that approach the exception rather than the rule these days. Now programming tools are often a means to another end - encouraging programmers to produce the software that will make Windows or the Palm Pre useful and therefore popular.
Agencies
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
ManTech bags cyber security order for US Dept of Agriculture
ManTech International Corporation, is one of six companies awarded a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide cyber security support. The BPA has a one-year base period, four one-year options and an initial ceiling value of $30 million for all six firms.
ManTech was also recently awarded its first two task orders under this BPA, a press release adds. The first, to provide a vulnerability assessment of several USDA applications, is valued at $41,000. The second is a four-year contract to provide computer forensic support to the Agriculture Security Operations Center valued at $1.3 million.
It will continue to compete to assist the USDA in implementing new cyber security measures to ensure the proactive protection and security of its networks, applications and hardware. These measures will include identifying security vulnerabilities, responding to attacks against agency resources and implementing corrective action accordingly.
"ManTech has been providing cyber security solutions to the Intelligence Community, DOD and other federal agencies for more than 17 years," said Larry Prior, President and COO, ManTech International Corporation.
Agencies
ManTech was also recently awarded its first two task orders under this BPA, a press release adds. The first, to provide a vulnerability assessment of several USDA applications, is valued at $41,000. The second is a four-year contract to provide computer forensic support to the Agriculture Security Operations Center valued at $1.3 million.
It will continue to compete to assist the USDA in implementing new cyber security measures to ensure the proactive protection and security of its networks, applications and hardware. These measures will include identifying security vulnerabilities, responding to attacks against agency resources and implementing corrective action accordingly.
"ManTech has been providing cyber security solutions to the Intelligence Community, DOD and other federal agencies for more than 17 years," said Larry Prior, President and COO, ManTech International Corporation.
Agencies
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Is Intel set to acquire two software firms?
Intel has quietly snapped up two software companies in the last 30 days with aim of boosting development of applications that take better advantage of chips with more than one processing core.
In a company blog, the chipmaker indicated the acquisition of Cilk at the end of last month and then Rapidmind earlier this week. Both are small companies that employ under than 50 people. The acquisitions follow the purchase of software company Wind River Systems in June.
"Over the last few years, there has been a gradual emergence of multicore microprocessors. It's put parallelism in more and more machines," James Reinders, chief evangelist and director of marketing and sales at Intel, said in a phone interview Friday, explaining why Intel bought the two firms.
"If you look at traditional applications, ones that we use everyday, it's fair to say that most are not exploiting parallelism--at least not to the full extent," Reinders said.
A multicore processor is defined as any chip with more than one processing core. Today, almost all Intel chips that go into laptops, desktops, and servers have at least two cores. The challenge for Intel is to make sure that applications take advantage of all the cores--so-called parallelism. This has historically presented a challenge for software programmers.
"The operating system does stuff for applications in parallel," Reinders said, referring to operating systems such as Windows. "But considering that we can produce more and more cores every year, to truly get the benefit of what the future holds, applications need to change. And most applications haven't changed," he said.
The goal is to facilitate the development of parallel programming. "How do we help software developers tackle parallel programming? Both companies had teams of experts that had been focused on this problem. So, they're kindred spirits," he said.
Writing about Cilk in a blog, Reinders said Intel sees "great opportunities for Cilk to integrate with our parallel tools...including Intel Parallel Studio." The firm's technology enables "mainstream programmers to develop multithreaded (or parallel) applications...Providing a smooth path to multicore for legacy (older) applications that otherwise cannot easily leverage the performance capabilities of multicore processors," according to Cilk's Web site. Original Cilk research was done at MIT.
Rapidmind was founded five years ago as Serious Hack and grew out of work at the University of Waterloo. It boasts advanced technology for helping software developers with data parallel programming for multicore processors and accelerators.
The cost of the two acquisitions was not disclosed.
CNET.com
In a company blog, the chipmaker indicated the acquisition of Cilk at the end of last month and then Rapidmind earlier this week. Both are small companies that employ under than 50 people. The acquisitions follow the purchase of software company Wind River Systems in June.
"Over the last few years, there has been a gradual emergence of multicore microprocessors. It's put parallelism in more and more machines," James Reinders, chief evangelist and director of marketing and sales at Intel, said in a phone interview Friday, explaining why Intel bought the two firms.
"If you look at traditional applications, ones that we use everyday, it's fair to say that most are not exploiting parallelism--at least not to the full extent," Reinders said.
A multicore processor is defined as any chip with more than one processing core. Today, almost all Intel chips that go into laptops, desktops, and servers have at least two cores. The challenge for Intel is to make sure that applications take advantage of all the cores--so-called parallelism. This has historically presented a challenge for software programmers.
"The operating system does stuff for applications in parallel," Reinders said, referring to operating systems such as Windows. "But considering that we can produce more and more cores every year, to truly get the benefit of what the future holds, applications need to change. And most applications haven't changed," he said.
The goal is to facilitate the development of parallel programming. "How do we help software developers tackle parallel programming? Both companies had teams of experts that had been focused on this problem. So, they're kindred spirits," he said.
Writing about Cilk in a blog, Reinders said Intel sees "great opportunities for Cilk to integrate with our parallel tools...including Intel Parallel Studio." The firm's technology enables "mainstream programmers to develop multithreaded (or parallel) applications...Providing a smooth path to multicore for legacy (older) applications that otherwise cannot easily leverage the performance capabilities of multicore processors," according to Cilk's Web site. Original Cilk research was done at MIT.
Rapidmind was founded five years ago as Serious Hack and grew out of work at the University of Waterloo. It boasts advanced technology for helping software developers with data parallel programming for multicore processors and accelerators.
The cost of the two acquisitions was not disclosed.
CNET.com
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Desi version of Google Earth launched by ISRO
Bhuvan gives you an easy way to experience, explore and visualize IRS images over Indian region.
ISRO is well known amongst space faring nations for its world-leading reputation in developing new, indigenous and innovative service oriented applications using remote sensing technology.
Over the past 2 decades, ISRO has mastered the art of developing these unique applications using various spectral, spatial and temporal resolutions offered by the versatile IRS satellites and these have been successfully institutionalized in many important areas of policy making, natural resources management, disaster support, and enhancing the quality of life across all sections of the society.
Bhuvan, an ambitious project of ISRO
Bhuvan is an initiative to showcase this distinctiveness of Indian imaging capabilities including the thematic information derived from such imagery which could be of vital importance to common man with a focus on Indian region. Bhuvan, an ambitious project of ISRO to take Indian images and thematic information in multiple spatial resolutions to people through a web portal through easy access to information on basic natural resources in the geospatial domain.
Bhuvan showcases Indian images by the superimposition of these IRS satellite imageries on 3D globe. It displays satellite images of varying resolution of India’s surface, allowing users to visually see things like cities and important places of interest looking perpendicularly down or at an oblique angle, with different perspectives and can navigate through 3D viewing environment.
The degree of resolution showcased is based on the points of interest and popularity, but most of the Indian terrain is covered upto at least 5.8 meters of resolution with the least spatial resolution being 55 meters from AWifs Sensor. With such rich content, Bhuvan opens the door to graphic visualisation of digital geospatial India allowing individuals to experience the fully interactive terrain viewing capabilities.
Bhuvan brings a whole lot of uniqueness
Multi-resolution images from multi-sensor IRS satellites of India is seamlessly depicted through the Bhuvan web portal by enabling a common man to zoom into specific area of interest at high resolution. Bhuvan brings a whole lot of uniqueness in understanding our own natural resources whilst presenting beautiful images and thematic vectors generated from varieties of geospatial information.
Bhuvan will also attempt to bring out the importance of multi-temporal data and to highlight the changes taking place to our natural resources, which will serve as a general awareness on our changing planet.
There are lot more special value added services which will be enabled onto the web portal in due course of time and each one of those services are going to be unique to preserving and conserving our precious natural resources through public participation. We are sure the common man will get rich benefits from these Indian geospatial data services in days to come.
Basic features of Bhuvan
Access, explore and visualise 2D and 3D image data along with rich thematic information on Soil, wasteland, water resources etc.
Visualise multi-resolution, multi-sensor, multi-temporal image data
Superpose administrative boundaries of choice on images as required
Visualisation of AWS ( Automatic Weather Stations) data/information in a graphic view and use tabular weather data of user choice
Fly to locations ( Flies from the current location directly to the selected location)
Heads-Up Display ( HUD) naviation controls ( Tilt slider, north indicator, opacity, compass ring, zoom slider)
Navigation using the 3D view Pop-up menu (Fly-in, Fly out, jump in, jump around, view point)
3D Fly through (3D view to fly to locations, objects in the terrain, and navigate freely using the mouse or keyboard)
Drawing 2D objects (Text labels, polylines, polygons, rectangles, 2D arrows, circles, ellipse)
Drawing 3D Objects (placing of expressive 3D models, 3D polygons, boxes)
Snapshot creation (copies the 3D view to a floating window and allows to save to a external file)
Measurement tools (Horizontal distance, aerial distance, vertical distance, measure area)
Shadow Analysis (it sets the sun position based on the given time creating shadows and effects the lighting on the terrain)
There would be many more value added functions and facilities which will be added into the package from time to time.
Particular interest of ISRO/DOS would be to provide such functionalities to common man so that he/she adopts participatory approach with scientists to solve simple problems easily and interactively.
Urban Design Tools (to build roads, junctions and traffic lights in an urban setting)
Contour map ( Displays a colorized terrain map and contour lines)
Terrain profile ( Displays the terrain elevation profile along a path)
Draw tools (Creates simples markers, free hand lines, urban designs)
Navigation map (to jump to and view locations in the 3D India)
Courtesy: http://www.bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/index.html
Agencies
ISRO is well known amongst space faring nations for its world-leading reputation in developing new, indigenous and innovative service oriented applications using remote sensing technology.
Over the past 2 decades, ISRO has mastered the art of developing these unique applications using various spectral, spatial and temporal resolutions offered by the versatile IRS satellites and these have been successfully institutionalized in many important areas of policy making, natural resources management, disaster support, and enhancing the quality of life across all sections of the society.
Bhuvan, an ambitious project of ISRO
Bhuvan is an initiative to showcase this distinctiveness of Indian imaging capabilities including the thematic information derived from such imagery which could be of vital importance to common man with a focus on Indian region. Bhuvan, an ambitious project of ISRO to take Indian images and thematic information in multiple spatial resolutions to people through a web portal through easy access to information on basic natural resources in the geospatial domain.
Bhuvan showcases Indian images by the superimposition of these IRS satellite imageries on 3D globe. It displays satellite images of varying resolution of India’s surface, allowing users to visually see things like cities and important places of interest looking perpendicularly down or at an oblique angle, with different perspectives and can navigate through 3D viewing environment.
The degree of resolution showcased is based on the points of interest and popularity, but most of the Indian terrain is covered upto at least 5.8 meters of resolution with the least spatial resolution being 55 meters from AWifs Sensor. With such rich content, Bhuvan opens the door to graphic visualisation of digital geospatial India allowing individuals to experience the fully interactive terrain viewing capabilities.
Bhuvan brings a whole lot of uniqueness
Multi-resolution images from multi-sensor IRS satellites of India is seamlessly depicted through the Bhuvan web portal by enabling a common man to zoom into specific area of interest at high resolution. Bhuvan brings a whole lot of uniqueness in understanding our own natural resources whilst presenting beautiful images and thematic vectors generated from varieties of geospatial information.
Bhuvan will also attempt to bring out the importance of multi-temporal data and to highlight the changes taking place to our natural resources, which will serve as a general awareness on our changing planet.
There are lot more special value added services which will be enabled onto the web portal in due course of time and each one of those services are going to be unique to preserving and conserving our precious natural resources through public participation. We are sure the common man will get rich benefits from these Indian geospatial data services in days to come.
Basic features of Bhuvan
Access, explore and visualise 2D and 3D image data along with rich thematic information on Soil, wasteland, water resources etc.
Visualise multi-resolution, multi-sensor, multi-temporal image data
Superpose administrative boundaries of choice on images as required
Visualisation of AWS ( Automatic Weather Stations) data/information in a graphic view and use tabular weather data of user choice
Fly to locations ( Flies from the current location directly to the selected location)
Heads-Up Display ( HUD) naviation controls ( Tilt slider, north indicator, opacity, compass ring, zoom slider)
Navigation using the 3D view Pop-up menu (Fly-in, Fly out, jump in, jump around, view point)
3D Fly through (3D view to fly to locations, objects in the terrain, and navigate freely using the mouse or keyboard)
Drawing 2D objects (Text labels, polylines, polygons, rectangles, 2D arrows, circles, ellipse)
Drawing 3D Objects (placing of expressive 3D models, 3D polygons, boxes)
Snapshot creation (copies the 3D view to a floating window and allows to save to a external file)
Measurement tools (Horizontal distance, aerial distance, vertical distance, measure area)
Shadow Analysis (it sets the sun position based on the given time creating shadows and effects the lighting on the terrain)
There would be many more value added functions and facilities which will be added into the package from time to time.
Particular interest of ISRO/DOS would be to provide such functionalities to common man so that he/she adopts participatory approach with scientists to solve simple problems easily and interactively.
Urban Design Tools (to build roads, junctions and traffic lights in an urban setting)
Contour map ( Displays a colorized terrain map and contour lines)
Terrain profile ( Displays the terrain elevation profile along a path)
Draw tools (Creates simples markers, free hand lines, urban designs)
Navigation map (to jump to and view locations in the 3D India)
Courtesy: http://www.bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/index.html
Agencies
Monday, August 3, 2009
Indian teams among finalists of Cisco Developer Contest 2009
Cisco has announced the 10 shortlisted teams from Phase 1 of Cisco’s global Developer Contest - ‘Think Inside the Box’ - which includes two Indian teams. The shortlist of teams for the final phase was from nearly 110 teams and 900 registrants from 75 countries. These ten teams will vie for 3 winning positions at the end of the final phase. This global developer contest gives developers an opportunity to build exciting Linux-based applications on the Cisco Application Extension Platform (AXP), and win a share of the $100,000 prize pool.
Suresh Kumar, Gopinath Bailur and Gokila Sudarshan, members of Team Ideate, and among the 10, have created an Application Suite for IP Telephony (ASIT). This suite is designed to bring savings to organizations by blocking unauthorized voice calls and reducing network operational costs by automating the telephony installation and verification processes.
Rajesh Kotagiri of team Enhancers designed a local Advertising Mesh Networks which is a proposal to create a platform for local advertising management using the Google AdSense network. This platform aims to create a distributed advertisement-serving platform hosted on the AXP, which will help retail stores use their existing infrastructure to display advertisements on LCD screens. The solution also enables a new revenue stream for businesses, as these advertisements would be carried over existing networking infrastructure.
The global contest ‘Think Inside the Box’ began in October 2008, and was an open challenge for engineers to stretch their imagination and create innovative prototypes with the Cisco Integrated Services Router Application Extension Platform, an open network platform. This application developer contest conducted by Cisco promotes the concept of the network as a platform, and aims to recognize outstanding implementation ideas for application development.
A maximum of three members in each team were allowed to participate and the phase 1 closed on February 27, 2009 culminating into the announcement of the 10 finalists. The entries submitted to this contest are judged by a panel of industry experts and academicians for innovation, technical complexity and overall usefulness of the product.
Finalists will develop their proposed applications on the Cisco AXP platform, and will have remote access to a Simulation Lab hosted by Cisco for developing their applications. The finalists will also present their implementations to a panel of experts comprising senior-level Cisco executives along with other industry luminaries. Three winners will be selected based on weighted judging criteria, and they will receive $50,000, $30,000, and $20,000 respectively.
Suresh Kumar, Gopinath Bailur and Gokila Sudarshan, members of Team Ideate, and among the 10, have created an Application Suite for IP Telephony (ASIT). This suite is designed to bring savings to organizations by blocking unauthorized voice calls and reducing network operational costs by automating the telephony installation and verification processes.
Rajesh Kotagiri of team Enhancers designed a local Advertising Mesh Networks which is a proposal to create a platform for local advertising management using the Google AdSense network. This platform aims to create a distributed advertisement-serving platform hosted on the AXP, which will help retail stores use their existing infrastructure to display advertisements on LCD screens. The solution also enables a new revenue stream for businesses, as these advertisements would be carried over existing networking infrastructure.
The global contest ‘Think Inside the Box’ began in October 2008, and was an open challenge for engineers to stretch their imagination and create innovative prototypes with the Cisco Integrated Services Router Application Extension Platform, an open network platform. This application developer contest conducted by Cisco promotes the concept of the network as a platform, and aims to recognize outstanding implementation ideas for application development.
A maximum of three members in each team were allowed to participate and the phase 1 closed on February 27, 2009 culminating into the announcement of the 10 finalists. The entries submitted to this contest are judged by a panel of industry experts and academicians for innovation, technical complexity and overall usefulness of the product.
Finalists will develop their proposed applications on the Cisco AXP platform, and will have remote access to a Simulation Lab hosted by Cisco for developing their applications. The finalists will also present their implementations to a panel of experts comprising senior-level Cisco executives along with other industry luminaries. Three winners will be selected based on weighted judging criteria, and they will receive $50,000, $30,000, and $20,000 respectively.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Can messaging technology attracts rural mobile users?
India has emerged as the most favorable market for telecom players with the rate of mobile users growing at over 10 million per month. By end of 2008, there were 340 million active mobile users in the country. After focusing the needs of the enterprises, urban users and the youth, the spotlight is now on the rural users with most players looking at avenues to expand in the rural markets. Even though mobile phones have reached the rural areas, simple applications such as messaging is still a foreign mode of communication; the most common reason being unfamiliarity to English.
Realizing the needs of rural people, Noida based Luna Ergonomics, a texting technology company has come up with a software, which will help people send text messages in 11 major Indian languages by using only 'ek angootha' (one thumb). One just needs to upload the company's Panini software in his/her mobile phone and start using the texting facilities. But this technology can only be used only in mobiles that have java applications pre-installed.
The company has made available four versions of the software - Panini Basic, Panini Clever, Panini Premium, and Panini Touch. Specifications have been done according to the usage of every version. Panini Premium would offer a superior version of CleverTexting and different modes of Ergonomic typing on the phone than Panini Basic and Panini Clever. Major Abhijeet Bhattacharjee, Founder, Luna Ergonomics says, "Panini software also offers SMS compression, first of its kind in the world, increasing the payload of an SMS in an Indian language by over 300 percent. Once a message is compressed, it is sent in encrypted form."
"Other than mobile phones, this software can also be used in other devices like remote and set-top-box," he explains.
"To make this facility available to large number of people, we are in talks with phone handset companies to pre-embed the application on the phone. We are also trying to negotiate with well known retails," says, Bhattacharjee. This technology could be very useful for mobile marketing services, he adds. In the beta version of the launch, the company has witnessed over 50,000 downloads from all across India and world.
With an aim of providing better technology to connect all through regional languages in the country, Bhattacharjee, a retired army officer founded Luna Ergonomics in 2008. Prior to founding the company, he had worked in organization like Gurus Media, Monster.com in different posts. Under the umbrella of Luna Ergonomics, five employees currently work on the development of this technology.
The company plans to unveil its latest product in the siliconindia Start-up City event to be held on June 06 in Bangalore.
SiliconIndia
Realizing the needs of rural people, Noida based Luna Ergonomics, a texting technology company has come up with a software, which will help people send text messages in 11 major Indian languages by using only 'ek angootha' (one thumb). One just needs to upload the company's Panini software in his/her mobile phone and start using the texting facilities. But this technology can only be used only in mobiles that have java applications pre-installed.
The company has made available four versions of the software - Panini Basic, Panini Clever, Panini Premium, and Panini Touch. Specifications have been done according to the usage of every version. Panini Premium would offer a superior version of CleverTexting and different modes of Ergonomic typing on the phone than Panini Basic and Panini Clever. Major Abhijeet Bhattacharjee, Founder, Luna Ergonomics says, "Panini software also offers SMS compression, first of its kind in the world, increasing the payload of an SMS in an Indian language by over 300 percent. Once a message is compressed, it is sent in encrypted form."
"Other than mobile phones, this software can also be used in other devices like remote and set-top-box," he explains.
"To make this facility available to large number of people, we are in talks with phone handset companies to pre-embed the application on the phone. We are also trying to negotiate with well known retails," says, Bhattacharjee. This technology could be very useful for mobile marketing services, he adds. In the beta version of the launch, the company has witnessed over 50,000 downloads from all across India and world.
With an aim of providing better technology to connect all through regional languages in the country, Bhattacharjee, a retired army officer founded Luna Ergonomics in 2008. Prior to founding the company, he had worked in organization like Gurus Media, Monster.com in different posts. Under the umbrella of Luna Ergonomics, five employees currently work on the development of this technology.
The company plans to unveil its latest product in the siliconindia Start-up City event to be held on June 06 in Bangalore.
SiliconIndia
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Is McAfee set to acquire Solidcore systems?
McAfee, one of the world's largest security technology companies, is set to take over Solidcore Systems, a provider of dynamic whitelisting technology.
Both the companies have entered into an agreement with McAfee paying $33 million in cash up front and an earn-out of up to an additional $14 million if certain performances targets are met. Following the agreement, McAfee expects to couple Solidcore's dynamic application whitelisting with McAfee blacklisting or graylisting capabilities to give customers a single security platform for dynamic application control across the enterprise. Solidcore uses dynamic whitelisting technology to protect against vulnerable or malicious applications and ensure that only pre-authorized software and code can run on servers, endpoints, fixed function devices and mobile devices.
This acquisition will provide McAfee with an added heft to tackle various security challenges and help users to safely connect to the internet, browse and shop the web more securely. Solidcore's strong foot hold in market will also help McAfee to extend its reach to ATMs, Point of sale (POS) systems, Multifunction Printers (MFPs), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, mobile and other embedded devices.
Post-acquisition, the Solidcore team will be incorporated into the McAfee Risk and Compliance business unit, headed by George Kurtz, SVP and GM of McAfee.
The acquisition, which is expected to close in the second quarter of this year, is McAfee's third major buy-out since it took over Secure Computing for $500 million in August 2008.
Agencies
Both the companies have entered into an agreement with McAfee paying $33 million in cash up front and an earn-out of up to an additional $14 million if certain performances targets are met. Following the agreement, McAfee expects to couple Solidcore's dynamic application whitelisting with McAfee blacklisting or graylisting capabilities to give customers a single security platform for dynamic application control across the enterprise. Solidcore uses dynamic whitelisting technology to protect against vulnerable or malicious applications and ensure that only pre-authorized software and code can run on servers, endpoints, fixed function devices and mobile devices.
This acquisition will provide McAfee with an added heft to tackle various security challenges and help users to safely connect to the internet, browse and shop the web more securely. Solidcore's strong foot hold in market will also help McAfee to extend its reach to ATMs, Point of sale (POS) systems, Multifunction Printers (MFPs), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, mobile and other embedded devices.
Post-acquisition, the Solidcore team will be incorporated into the McAfee Risk and Compliance business unit, headed by George Kurtz, SVP and GM of McAfee.
The acquisition, which is expected to close in the second quarter of this year, is McAfee's third major buy-out since it took over Secure Computing for $500 million in August 2008.
Agencies
Friday, May 8, 2009
Will Internet die by 2010?
Video killed the radio star. But could it also kill the Internet? New research from American analyst firm Nemertes Research Group says that by 2010, increasing Internet traffic, particularly video applications like YouTube and Hulu, will fatally clog the tubes.
This isn’t the first such prediction that has been made in the recent past: Brett Swanson of the Discovery Institute, a think tank, warned in 2007 of a coming surge of data that “today’s networks are not remotely prepared to handle”. So are the increasingly dire predictions of the demise of the Internet on the mark, or have rumours of the Net’s death been grossly exaggerated?
It is true that with the advent of Web 2.0, Internet usage has shifted to bandwidth-heavy applications like YouTube and Skype. The amount of traffic generated by YouTube in 2006 was more than that of the entire Internet in 2000. At 50-60 percent a year, the current growth of Internet traffic is enormous. However, several experts believe that the Internet is in no danger of collapsing under the weight of its own success.
Andrew Odlyzko, a computer scientist at the University of Minnesota who specialises in analysing historical trends in networking, believes that global Internet traffic is and will remain manageable with modest capacity updates.
There is some evidence to support that conclusion. For one, telecom companies in both Britain and America are already investing significant amounts in order to upgrade Internet infrastructure, including the last mile cable, to increase capacity. Secondly, the Internet was originally developed to withstand all kinds of catastrophes and has proven to be remarkably robust. It has coped with massive growth over the past 15 years. There’s no reason to suppose this can’t continue.
Anyway, engineers are preparing for the worst by working to replace the Internet with a superfast ‘grid’. So, even if capacity updates fail to keep pace with demand, an alternative will be in place. No one is suggesting that the Internet wouldn’t face operational difficulties if it was left just as it is.
The debate is over whether the rate of investment in capacity upgradation is fast enough to cope with rising demand. Studies like this can provide an impetus for telecom majors to invest in infrastructure. As of now, though, it’s safe to assume that the Net will be with us for a while more.
TNN
This isn’t the first such prediction that has been made in the recent past: Brett Swanson of the Discovery Institute, a think tank, warned in 2007 of a coming surge of data that “today’s networks are not remotely prepared to handle”. So are the increasingly dire predictions of the demise of the Internet on the mark, or have rumours of the Net’s death been grossly exaggerated?
It is true that with the advent of Web 2.0, Internet usage has shifted to bandwidth-heavy applications like YouTube and Skype. The amount of traffic generated by YouTube in 2006 was more than that of the entire Internet in 2000. At 50-60 percent a year, the current growth of Internet traffic is enormous. However, several experts believe that the Internet is in no danger of collapsing under the weight of its own success.
Andrew Odlyzko, a computer scientist at the University of Minnesota who specialises in analysing historical trends in networking, believes that global Internet traffic is and will remain manageable with modest capacity updates.
There is some evidence to support that conclusion. For one, telecom companies in both Britain and America are already investing significant amounts in order to upgrade Internet infrastructure, including the last mile cable, to increase capacity. Secondly, the Internet was originally developed to withstand all kinds of catastrophes and has proven to be remarkably robust. It has coped with massive growth over the past 15 years. There’s no reason to suppose this can’t continue.
Anyway, engineers are preparing for the worst by working to replace the Internet with a superfast ‘grid’. So, even if capacity updates fail to keep pace with demand, an alternative will be in place. No one is suggesting that the Internet wouldn’t face operational difficulties if it was left just as it is.
The debate is over whether the rate of investment in capacity upgradation is fast enough to cope with rising demand. Studies like this can provide an impetus for telecom majors to invest in infrastructure. As of now, though, it’s safe to assume that the Net will be with us for a while more.
TNN
Thursday, April 16, 2009
New email server for Microsoft
Microsoft Corp said it will launch a test version of its Exchange Server, marking the latest development in the technology used by 65 percent of businesses worldwide to run their email systems.
The public beta test version of Exchange Server 2010, as the product is called, is the first of a wave of upgrades to Microsoft programs as the software giant gears up for the next release of its highly successful and profitable Office suite of applications.
Microsoft, which is gradually moving toward Internet distribution for some of its products to counter threats from Google Inc and other new competitors, said the latest Exchange Server can work entirely as an online service, which may attract customers looking to save money on hardware and support for their email and messaging systems.
For users, the new Exchange Server offers a few innovations, including the ability to "mute" streams of email, or opt out of conversations of limited interest to the recipient.
The new system also offers a range of tips to avoid embarrassment or wasting time, by warning users before they send mail to large distribution groups, to out-of-office recipients or to people outside the organization, which Microsoft hopes will protect against information leaks and reduce unnecessary e-mail messages.
It also has a function to transcribe voice messages sent to the computer. The full public roll-out of Exchange Server 2010 is scheduled for the second half of 2009 while Microsoft's Office 2010 is expected to be available in the first half of 2010.
Agencies
The public beta test version of Exchange Server 2010, as the product is called, is the first of a wave of upgrades to Microsoft programs as the software giant gears up for the next release of its highly successful and profitable Office suite of applications.
Microsoft, which is gradually moving toward Internet distribution for some of its products to counter threats from Google Inc and other new competitors, said the latest Exchange Server can work entirely as an online service, which may attract customers looking to save money on hardware and support for their email and messaging systems.
For users, the new Exchange Server offers a few innovations, including the ability to "mute" streams of email, or opt out of conversations of limited interest to the recipient.
The new system also offers a range of tips to avoid embarrassment or wasting time, by warning users before they send mail to large distribution groups, to out-of-office recipients or to people outside the organization, which Microsoft hopes will protect against information leaks and reduce unnecessary e-mail messages.
It also has a function to transcribe voice messages sent to the computer. The full public roll-out of Exchange Server 2010 is scheduled for the second half of 2009 while Microsoft's Office 2010 is expected to be available in the first half of 2010.
Agencies
Friday, January 30, 2009
Is Wipro set to hire 8,000 freshers?
Is the country's third-largest IT company bucking the hiring trend? Yes, so says the website ITexaminer.
According to a report on the site, Wipro is making around 8,000 campus offers this fiscal year. In an email sent to all freshers seeking jobs in areas such as technical support and offshoring, the IT major has invited applications for 15,000 seats, says the report.
In the mail, the company's corporate vice president for human resources, says that nearly 14,000 offers were made last year, with the students expected to join by the end of this fiscal. He emphasised that there has been no delay in new recruits joining the company, and that those who received offers this year are expected to join the firm within the next fiscal year.
Incidentally, for the first time ever, Wipro in its Q3 report, showed a drop in its employee headcount in the IT services business by about 1,100 as compared to the earlier quarter.
The company went down by 1,092 software engineers and 226 BPO employees during the quarter. Wipro had 96,965 employees as of December 31, 2008, which includes 75,385 employees in IT business unit and 21,578 employees in the BPO unit.
In the JAS quarter, the company had 97,552 employees as of September 30, 2008. Though volumes have grown year-on-year (y-o-y), the number of employees has remained stagnant at year-ago levels.
Indiatimes.com
According to a report on the site, Wipro is making around 8,000 campus offers this fiscal year. In an email sent to all freshers seeking jobs in areas such as technical support and offshoring, the IT major has invited applications for 15,000 seats, says the report.
In the mail, the company's corporate vice president for human resources, says that nearly 14,000 offers were made last year, with the students expected to join by the end of this fiscal. He emphasised that there has been no delay in new recruits joining the company, and that those who received offers this year are expected to join the firm within the next fiscal year.
Incidentally, for the first time ever, Wipro in its Q3 report, showed a drop in its employee headcount in the IT services business by about 1,100 as compared to the earlier quarter.
The company went down by 1,092 software engineers and 226 BPO employees during the quarter. Wipro had 96,965 employees as of December 31, 2008, which includes 75,385 employees in IT business unit and 21,578 employees in the BPO unit.
In the JAS quarter, the company had 97,552 employees as of September 30, 2008. Though volumes have grown year-on-year (y-o-y), the number of employees has remained stagnant at year-ago levels.
Indiatimes.com
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Top Web-based operating systems
Want to see what lies ahead in the world of operating systems? Head to the Web. That's where you'll find some workable examples of operating systems that move everything- applications, files, and communications- from the confines of your desktop to the more widely accessible Internet.
And mind you, Web-based operating systems are more than just a collection of applications that run within a browser. They're self-contained environments in which you can create and store documents, copy files from one folder or drive to another, and conduct communications.
In short, almost everything you can do from Windows or the Mac OS should be able to be accomplished within a Web OS. All you need is a Web browser to get there. Here's looking into some options.
Google Chrome
While the major players in the software industry are not yet among those with Web-based operating system (OS) prototypes, it's clear that the big names are paying attention- and making plans.
Google's Chrome, with its Spartan interface- largely devoid of visible menus, button bars, and status panels, easily reminds one of the basis of an operating system when it's expanded to full screen.
And Microsoft, although deriving a large portion of its revenue from the lucrative desktop applications business, has just announced that it will create Web-based versions of its Microsoft Office applications- and make them available for free.
eyeOS
A good place to start in your discovery of Web-based operating systems is eyeOS (http://eyeos.org), which is free, open source, and very easy to sign up for. There's no need to install anything to use eyeOS.
Simply sign up with a user name and password to create an account, and from that point forward, you have an operating system on the Web, accessible from any browser. eyeOS creates space on its servers to store your operating system settings and any files you create.
eyeOS resembles contemporary desktop-bound operating systems.
There's a workspace area- or desktop- along with icons on the left that represent shortcuts to applications, including a word processor, calendar, contact manager, RSS feed, and a trash bin.
Fire up the eyeOS word processor and you'll find yourself in a serviceable document creation tool, replete with toolbar buttons for most of the formatting tasks that users require today.
Documents you save are stored on eyeOS's servers by default, so there's no local storage involved. You can, if you choose, download the files you create to your own PC and upload files to your eyeOS environment.
The beauty of a Web-based environment, however, is that you can shut down your browser -- and thus your eyeOS operating system -- on one machine, launch a browser on another machine in another location, and then launch your eyeOS desktop again.
eyeOS even remembers all of the applications and documents you were last working on, so the workspace you see is exactly the one you left off with.
A green eyeOS button at the bottom middle of the screen is analogous to the Windows Vista Start button.
It contains shortcuts to system settings, applications, and a few other commands, including Close Session. Enter System Preferences, and you'll see some impressive customisation options, including the ability to change the theme, or look, of eyeOS to resemble Vista, Ubuntu, Gnome, or other operating systems. The one glaring omission from eyeOS is an e-mail client. Apparently you're expected to bring your own e-mail.
G.ho.st
G.ho.st (http://g.ho.st/) is in some ways even more full-featured and certainly more colourful- than eyeOS. After you sign up, for free, G.ho.st carves out an impressive 5 gigabytes of file storage on its servers for you, and it creates your very own G.ho.st Mail e-mail account, with 3 gigabytes of storage.
Like eyeOS, there's nothing to install. Once you sign up, you'll receive a confirmation e-mail message. Click the activation link inside, and you're ready to go.
The first time you launch G.ho.st, your browser will switch to full-screen mode so that you can see all there is that G.ho.st has to offer. There's a full-featured word processor, spreadsheet, e-mail, your personal G.ho.st drive for file storage, instant messaging, and even a few games.
There's also plenty of hand-holding in G.ho.st, as well, with icons that offer to take you on a tour of G.ho.st, help you set up your e-mail, create and edit documents, and upload files from your desktop computer to your G.ho.st environment.
A Go button in the lower left-hand corner of the G.ho.st screen mimics Vista's Start button; it provides handy access to all of the operating system's features and programs.
G.ho.st is full of glitz and color, and it is consequently more demanding of your hardware and somewhat more sluggish than eyeOS, which is streamlined by comparison. Still, many will likely find that G.ho.st's friendliness will make any performance hit worthwhile.
Desktop Two
Desktop Two (http://desktoptwo.com) is a java-based Web operating system that's the quickest of all to set up and get going.
After a brief sign-up routine, the desktop loads, and you're ready to start exploring.
Desktop Two offers more applications that allow users to create their own presence on the Web than the other major Web operating systems. Along with a word processor and e-mail program, Desktop Two provides a Web site editor and a blogging programme.
The blogging application, in particular, is impressive, providing a two-click entry into the world of setting up and maintaining your own blog.
Once you create your first blog entry, the programme provides you with the Web address that you can distribute to the world so that others can visit your blog on the Internet.
Desktop Two's conventional applications are less impressive, however, in part because the operating system was not always able to save documents to Desktop Two's online storage system.
Why Web-based OS
One could argue that a Web-based operating system is redundant, since one needs a computer, operating system, and Web browser to access an online operating system.
While that's true, the point of an online operating system is complete environment portability.
That means being able to log on to any computer that has an Internet connection and, in the time it takes to launch your Web OS, having all of your applications and documents ready for you to resume work.
Although you could cobble together many of the elements of a Web OS by using, say, Google Docs, Yahoo Mail, and other online applications, doing so would require you to make several stops around the Internet.
There's no doubt that today's Web-based operating systems are far from feature-laden, and they probably will not tempt many to abandon their current routine that combines desktop and Web-based software.
But given the push that the major players in the industry are making toward a completely Web-based future, there's also little doubt that Web-based operating systems, or some form thereof, are in our collective future.
Source: Agencies
And mind you, Web-based operating systems are more than just a collection of applications that run within a browser. They're self-contained environments in which you can create and store documents, copy files from one folder or drive to another, and conduct communications.
In short, almost everything you can do from Windows or the Mac OS should be able to be accomplished within a Web OS. All you need is a Web browser to get there. Here's looking into some options.
Google Chrome
While the major players in the software industry are not yet among those with Web-based operating system (OS) prototypes, it's clear that the big names are paying attention- and making plans.
Google's Chrome, with its Spartan interface- largely devoid of visible menus, button bars, and status panels, easily reminds one of the basis of an operating system when it's expanded to full screen.
And Microsoft, although deriving a large portion of its revenue from the lucrative desktop applications business, has just announced that it will create Web-based versions of its Microsoft Office applications- and make them available for free.
eyeOS
A good place to start in your discovery of Web-based operating systems is eyeOS (http://eyeos.org), which is free, open source, and very easy to sign up for. There's no need to install anything to use eyeOS.
Simply sign up with a user name and password to create an account, and from that point forward, you have an operating system on the Web, accessible from any browser. eyeOS creates space on its servers to store your operating system settings and any files you create.
eyeOS resembles contemporary desktop-bound operating systems.
There's a workspace area- or desktop- along with icons on the left that represent shortcuts to applications, including a word processor, calendar, contact manager, RSS feed, and a trash bin.
Fire up the eyeOS word processor and you'll find yourself in a serviceable document creation tool, replete with toolbar buttons for most of the formatting tasks that users require today.
Documents you save are stored on eyeOS's servers by default, so there's no local storage involved. You can, if you choose, download the files you create to your own PC and upload files to your eyeOS environment.
The beauty of a Web-based environment, however, is that you can shut down your browser -- and thus your eyeOS operating system -- on one machine, launch a browser on another machine in another location, and then launch your eyeOS desktop again.
eyeOS even remembers all of the applications and documents you were last working on, so the workspace you see is exactly the one you left off with.
A green eyeOS button at the bottom middle of the screen is analogous to the Windows Vista Start button.
It contains shortcuts to system settings, applications, and a few other commands, including Close Session. Enter System Preferences, and you'll see some impressive customisation options, including the ability to change the theme, or look, of eyeOS to resemble Vista, Ubuntu, Gnome, or other operating systems. The one glaring omission from eyeOS is an e-mail client. Apparently you're expected to bring your own e-mail.
G.ho.st
G.ho.st (http://g.ho.st/) is in some ways even more full-featured and certainly more colourful- than eyeOS. After you sign up, for free, G.ho.st carves out an impressive 5 gigabytes of file storage on its servers for you, and it creates your very own G.ho.st Mail e-mail account, with 3 gigabytes of storage.
Like eyeOS, there's nothing to install. Once you sign up, you'll receive a confirmation e-mail message. Click the activation link inside, and you're ready to go.
The first time you launch G.ho.st, your browser will switch to full-screen mode so that you can see all there is that G.ho.st has to offer. There's a full-featured word processor, spreadsheet, e-mail, your personal G.ho.st drive for file storage, instant messaging, and even a few games.
There's also plenty of hand-holding in G.ho.st, as well, with icons that offer to take you on a tour of G.ho.st, help you set up your e-mail, create and edit documents, and upload files from your desktop computer to your G.ho.st environment.
A Go button in the lower left-hand corner of the G.ho.st screen mimics Vista's Start button; it provides handy access to all of the operating system's features and programs.
G.ho.st is full of glitz and color, and it is consequently more demanding of your hardware and somewhat more sluggish than eyeOS, which is streamlined by comparison. Still, many will likely find that G.ho.st's friendliness will make any performance hit worthwhile.
Desktop Two
Desktop Two (http://desktoptwo.com) is a java-based Web operating system that's the quickest of all to set up and get going.
After a brief sign-up routine, the desktop loads, and you're ready to start exploring.
Desktop Two offers more applications that allow users to create their own presence on the Web than the other major Web operating systems. Along with a word processor and e-mail program, Desktop Two provides a Web site editor and a blogging programme.
The blogging application, in particular, is impressive, providing a two-click entry into the world of setting up and maintaining your own blog.
Once you create your first blog entry, the programme provides you with the Web address that you can distribute to the world so that others can visit your blog on the Internet.
Desktop Two's conventional applications are less impressive, however, in part because the operating system was not always able to save documents to Desktop Two's online storage system.
Why Web-based OS
One could argue that a Web-based operating system is redundant, since one needs a computer, operating system, and Web browser to access an online operating system.
While that's true, the point of an online operating system is complete environment portability.
That means being able to log on to any computer that has an Internet connection and, in the time it takes to launch your Web OS, having all of your applications and documents ready for you to resume work.
Although you could cobble together many of the elements of a Web OS by using, say, Google Docs, Yahoo Mail, and other online applications, doing so would require you to make several stops around the Internet.
There's no doubt that today's Web-based operating systems are far from feature-laden, and they probably will not tempt many to abandon their current routine that combines desktop and Web-based software.
But given the push that the major players in the industry are making toward a completely Web-based future, there's also little doubt that Web-based operating systems, or some form thereof, are in our collective future.
Source: Agencies
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