DAILY TECH- 22 July 2012

DAILY TECH- 22 JULY 2012

Today’s Latest News

Preview: 2013 BMW 328i Touring

Google and NIIT launch Google Web Academy in India

NEW DELHI: Google, in collaboration with NIIT, has introduced a training initiative for young professionals in India, to be called Google Web Academy.

Microsoft logs in first quarterly loss in 26 years

Renault comes up with Scala; launch slated before Diwali

Android 4.0 based Funtab Fit launched at Rs 5,999

New Delhi: Delhi-based Company Go Tech has launched Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich-based tablet PC called Funtab Fit.

Video of the Day:

Red Hat Linux 5.0 Step By Step Installation.

Must See Tricks 4 Computer(Click on Image)

Preview: 2013 BMW 328i Touring

From the signature kidney grille to the C-pillar it mirrors, the new 3 Series will include the adoption of BMW’s new 2.0-litre turbocharged four and eight-speed automatic transmission, which promises to reduce fuel consumption by up to 20% versus the outgoing in-line six.

Sadly, there are no plans to bring the diesel derivatives to Canada … yet.

In somewhat of a rare but welcome move, the rear window now opens independent of the tailgate. The liftgate itself is powered and comes with a neat trick — waving one’s foot below the bumper sees the liftgate open automatically.

As for capacity, there is plenty. The wheelbase has been stretched by 50 millimetres to 2,810, while the overall length is up 97 mm to 4,624 compared with the previous model. The expanded dimensions bring 17.5 cubic feet with the 40/20/40-split rear seat upright and 53 cu. ft. when folded flat.

Pricing and equipment have yet to be announced, but it should not stray too far from the current Touring’s price of $45,700 and it should reflect the trim levels offered in the recently introduced 328i sedan.

Featured Technology Talk

Yahoo to Pay Mayer $100 Million Over Five Years

Ms. Mayer will receive up to $100 million in compensation, stock, bonus and retention awards over the next five years, according to a Thursday regulatory filing by the Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet company.

Ms. Mayer is expected to receive around $5.4 million from Yahoo for the remainder of this year and around $20 million a year after that, though some of that amount is tied to performance targets set by the board.

While it is hard to make a direct comparison, Ms. Mayer's predecessors, Scott Thompson and Carol Bartz, received compensation packages worth $27 million and $44.6 million, respectively, over several years. Both CEOs departed prematurely. Mr. Thompson resigned in May after a five-month stint, while Ms. Bartz was fired last fall after more than 2½ years at Yahoo.

Ms. Mayer, 37 years old, joined Yahoo as CEO on Tuesday after a 13-year career at rival Google Inc., GOOG +2.99% where most recently she was a vice president of local, maps and location services.

Google and NIIT launch Google Web Academy in India

NEW DELHI: Google, in collaboration with NIIT, has introduced a training initiative for young professionals in India, to be called Google Web Academy.

It aims to bridge the digital skill gap in the country and help students and professionals capitalise on the emerging job markfor the online industry.

Under the initiative, NIIT will offer specialised courses through its centres across the country.

Google will provide NIIT with its training curricula and certification standards to offer advanced training programs that are specially designed to create a pool of highly qualified professionals and help young professionals to gain useful skills required in the job market for the online space.

The program will be initially offered in India, and subsequently launched in other parts of the emerging world.

"As the Indian internet market continues to show robust growth, we believe a capacity building program to help young professionals gear up for the opportunity is the need of the hour, Rajan Anandan, VP & Managing Director Google India, said. "Google Web Academy is part of our initiative for emerging Internet economies," he added.

Vijay Thadani, chief executive officer, NIIT said the courses offered by NIIT under the Google Web Academy program will include certification programs for online professionals covering topics like search engine marketing, optimising online presence with web analytics and enhance business productivity with Google products and technologies.

The program will also offers technical courses for IT professionals and developers covering topics like building new web and mobile applications using Google technologies, integration across Google products, web optimisation and introduction to cloud computing, among others.

Microsoft logs in first quarterly loss in 26 years

NEW YORK: Slipping into the red for the first time in nearly three decades, Microsoft has reported a loss of $492 million in the June quarter due to a non-cash writedown of $6.2 billion related to non-performance of online advertising business.

The staggering charge is due to non-performance of its internet services division - aQuantive - which Microsoft had snapped up five years ago. This is for the first time since 1986 - when it went public - that Microsoft has clocked a quarterly loss. In the three months ended June 2011, the company had a net income of $5.87 billion.

"The financial results reflect the previously announced non-cash, non-tax-deductible income statement charge of $6.19 billion for the impairment of goodwill and the deferral of $540 million of revenue related to Windows upgrade offer," the company said in a statement.

Nevertheless, Microsoft's 2012 June quarter revenues climbed 4% to $18.05 billion. The revenue stood at $17.36 billion in the same period a year ago.

Apart from the 12.6% decline in revenue of the Windows division due to the deferral of Windows upgrade, the company recorded 12.5% growth in revenue from its server tool business. Business division too saw a growth of 7%. "The combination of solid revenue growth and rigorous cost discipline drove double-digit operating income growth for the quarter, adjusting for the goodwill impairment and deferred revenue," Microsoft CFO Peter Klein said.

The company is betting big on Windows 8 operating system, which is to be launched later this year. The upgraded version would work on tablet computers and smartphones, the devices that are increasingly replacing personal computers."We delivered record fourth quarter and annual revenue, and we're fast approaching the most exciting launch season in Microsoft history," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said.

According to him, over the coming year, Microsoft release the next versions of Windows, Office, Windows Server, Windows Phone and many other products and services. "(These) will drive our business forward and provide unprecedented opportunity to our customers and partners," he noted.

TECHNOLOGY

"There is a chasm of carbon and silicon the software can't bridge."

No room for error in Facebook’s debut quarter

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc faces immense pressure to beat Wall Street’s financial targets when its delivers its inaugural quarterly earnings report next week, hoping to wash away the bad taste left with investors from a soured IPO.

The No. 1 social networking company’s second-quarter report on July 26 will be scrutinized by investors looking for clues on the health of its business, which is experiencing a sharp slowdown in revenue growth and mounting questions about its advertising sales.

With a rich multiple that gave Facebook the distinction of being the first U.S. company to go public with a valuation of more than $100 billion, the company headed by 28-year-old Mark Zuckerberg has little room for error.

“If they miss, it would be catastrophic for the stock,” said Michael Binger, a portfolio manager with Gradient Investments.

“This is a very important earnings quarter for them. It will establish in people’s minds how they think of the company,” said Binger, whose firm does have a position in Facebook.

Famous Scientist

Ernst Boris Chain

Sir Ernst Boris Chain FRS (19 June 1906 – 12 August 1979) was a German-born British biochemist, and a 1945 co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work on penicillin.

Chain was born in Berlin to a Russian father who moved from his birthland to study chemistry abroad, and a German Berliner mother. In 1930, he received his degree in chemistry from Friedrich Wilhelm University. After the Nazis came to power, Chain knew that he, being Jewish, would no longer be safe in Germany. He left Germany in 1933 and moved to England.

He began working on phospholipids at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University under the direction of Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins. In 1935, he accepted a job at Oxford University as a lecturer in pathology. During this time he worked on a range of research topics, including snake venoms, tumour metabolism, lysozymes, and biochemistry techniques.

In 1939, he joined Howard Florey to investigate natural antibacterial agents produced by microorganisms. This led him and Florey to revisit the work of Alexander Fleming, who had described penicillin nine years earlier. Chain and Florey went on to discover penicillin's therapeutic action and its chemical composition. He also theorized the structure of penicillin, which was confirmed by X-ray crystallography done by Dorothy Hodgkin. For this research, Chain, Florey, and Fleming received the Nobel Prize in 1945.

Towards the end of World War II, Chain learned his mother and sister had perished in the war. After World War II, Chain moved to Rome, to work at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Superior Institute of Health). He returned to Britain in 1964 as head of the biochemistry department at Imperial College London.

He was a life long friend of Professor Albert Neuberger, whom he met in Berlin in the 1930s.Chain was knighted in 1969. After his retirement, he moved to Mulranny near Castlebar in the west of Ireland. He died at the Mayo General Hospital in 1979. A road in Castlebar has been named after him.

Renault comes up with Scala; launch slated before Diwali

KOLKATA: The Indian subsidiary of French carmaker Renault will launch entry-level saloon Scala before Diwali, fulfilling its promise of a five-product portfolio in 18 months since it ventured into India with premium saloon Fluence in May 2011. Though the car maker will thereafter engage in consolidation, an entry-level quality hatch is also in the offing sometime within the next couple of years.

Launching the stylish off-roader Duster, its fourth product in India and the most ambitious one, a company official said the Scala would sport 1.5 litre diesel power train delivering 84.8bhp, the same as its year old cousin Nissan Sunny. The company may introduce the 1.5 litre petrol option at a later date. The Renault Pulse that is a rebadged Nissan Micra with cosmetic changes in headlamp and tail-light, is currently available with only a diesel engine.

The new saloon to is expected to sport minor modifications in headlamp, tail-light, bumper and grille. "The Renault design centre in Mumbai has worked on the product and it will look distinctly Renault unlike the Pulse that resembles Micra very closely," he said.

The Scala, to be launched early November, will be priced slightly higher than Sunny that sells in the Rs 6-8 lakh range. "Renault has a premium image that we want to retain. When the Pulse was launched, we introduced the top two variants only because our attempt is not to gain volumes but establish the brand as a maker of quality cars," the official explained.

Its premium SUV Koleos is also a sibling of Nissan X-Trail. However, the new mini-SUV - Duster - that Renault launched over the weekend has no look-alike in India. Though the B0 platform is borrowed from group company Nissan, Duster was launched in global markets by Romanian group company Dacia as the first crossover SUV in 2009. Last year, 300,000 units of Duster were sold globally.

"This will be the big game changer in India as it straddles all three segments - premium hatch, sedan and SUV. Given the attractive package that it offers - eight variants and three power trains - and the unbeatable pricing of Rs Rs 7.31 lakh to 11.49 lakh, it will be on the shopping list of all car buyers. We believe Duster will be a segment breaker and ring in the volumes for Renault," the official said.

From the mere 1,500 cars that the company sold last year, it expects to grow to 30,000 cars this year, of which nearly half the volume is expected to be contributed by the Duster. Nissan is expecting sales to touch 50,000 in 2013 and 100,000 units in 2014. With sales in Europe declining and half of Renault's sales now generated from overseas markets outside the Continent, India, along with China and Brazil, will be among Renault's top 10 markets worldwide. And Duster will be key to pitchfork India into the top league.

"Till now, we have been gearing up for this product and by year-end, we will be in operation full swing with a complete porfolio of products and a dealership network that covers the geographies," he said. The dealership count will go up from 55 to 100 by this year end, covering the top 80 cities in the country.

Android 4.0 based Funtab Fit launched at Rs 5,999

New Delhi: Delhi-based Company Go Tech has launched Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich-based tablet PC called Funtab Fit.

Funtab Fit—health-oriented device, priced at Rs 5,999, boasts of various health-related applications.

Funtab Fit has a health application feature called Guide My Treatment which according to Go Tech, will help you to get timely attention to your health problems in a simple and hassle free manner.

The tab is also pre-loaded with educational content. Students have access to more than 1500 books and 7500 educational videos.

Interesting Features

7inch display with 800 X 480 pixels resolution

Powered by a 1GHz processor

512 MB of RAM (4GB internal storage capacity, expandable up to 32GB via microSD card)

0.3MP camera for video chats

3,600 mAh battery (4 hours of movie playback and 8 hours of music playback)

Wi-Fi, 3G, and USB 2.0

Has over 20 games and applications like Angry Bird, Tic Tac Toe, Solitaire, Minesweeper et all

Tips to make your browser secure

MUNICH: Web browsers are the key to the internet. Without them the internet is an impenetrable black box.

Browsers may be among the most commonly used applications, but they also offer the greatest number of attack options for dangerous content on the net.To keep viruses, worms and other malware away from your computer when surfing,it's crucial to configure your browser for security.

The firewall on a DSL router is a good first step for protecting the computer during surfing, says Marco Rinne from the computer portal chip.de. But that doesn't hold true if your browser is out of date: “Internet Explorer 6 and 7 or Firefox 2 no longer satisfy current security standards,” he says. For optimal protection, he therefore urgesusers to keep theirbrowsers updated.

There are numeroussecurity tools already present in Firefox and Internet Explorer. The pop-up blocker,for example, prevents more than justannoying ads. It alsothrottles other windows that can be used to sneak malicious software onto PCs. Phishing filters protect personal dataagainst theft.

Firefox offers additional configurationoptions underthe Settings item in the Security tab of the Options dialog box: thisincludes the ability to block risky or forgedwebsites.It's also a good idea to prohibit websites from installing add-ons on their own. Similar settings are possible under Internet Explorer in the Security tab of the Internet Options dialog box, accessible from the Tools menu.

Computer owners should also activate all options for warning against attacks, advises Markus Linnemann, managing director of the Institute for Internet Security (ifis) at the Polytechnic University of Gelsenkirchen in Germany. This applies in particular to warnings about suspicious content to be displayed using ActiveX, Flash, or JavaScript.

Yet the warning mechanism on most browsers alone isn't usually enough, Linnemann says. Those who wish to be especially careful can, for example, use the Firefox add-on 'No Script,' which blocks all active content of a website by default and allows the user to decide which should be permitted. The problem is that most users are unable to determine which content represents a threat to their computer, Rinne msays.

Earth is the only planet not named after a god

Cartoon of Technology

Nokia's Bad Call on Smartphones

Frank Nuovo, the former chief designer at Nokia Corp., gave presentations more than a decade ago to wireless carriers and investors that divined the future of the mobile Internet.

More than seven years before Apple Inc. rolled out the iPhone, the Nokia team showed a phone with a color touch screen set above a single button. The device was shown locating a restaurant, playing a racing game and ordering lipstick. In the late 1990s, Nokia secretly developed another alluring product: a tablet computer with a wireless connection and touch screen—all features today of the hot-selling Apple iPad.

“Need and struggle are what excite and inspire us; our hour of triumph is what brings the void. "