“The Awesome Green Route” Trek itinerary from Donigal to Yedukumari railway tracks…

Last वीकएंड we went for trekking the abandoned railway line between ‘Donigal‘ to ‘Yadakumari‘. Donigal is a small station near by Sakleshpur (a town on the Bangalore-Mangalore highway). We were a group of seven people, all my college friends. We left from majestic bus stop ,Bangalore around 11pm on Friday night and reached Sakleshpur in the early morning 4 am. After taking some refreshment we went to Donigal station and our trekking started from there. The initial part was good and easy then we came across series of bridges and tunnels. There are total 19 tunnels and some 25 bridges on the way. Some of the bridges are as high as 250 ft. the best part was that you walk and eat in between and the whole route is so green and calm that you will feel like staying there for hours. You may feel tired in between so, do carry some glucose, juicy fruits and lots of water. Ya having a torch is also a must bcoz without it you can’t get out of tunnels. There are some of tunnels which are as long as 500 meter. We walked whole day on an off and finally reached Yedukumari railway station by 3pm in the afternoon. Yadakumari is just a small railway station in the middle of the forest. All you get there is some accommodation to sleep in and off course natural chill water all time.Our plan was to take a short cut route from Yadakumari and reach the near by highway by evening and get back to Sakleshpur bus stop to catch the night bus forBangalore.But there started the real twist in the story, we started for the shortcut highway route and unfortunately got into a wrong direction and had to return back to Yadakumari station by sunset. Then we planed to stay back at Yadakumari station for the whole night and that was the worst part of the trek. The night was really chill and we had not planed for night stay there. Anyway somehow the darkness of night got over and in the morning we started again to reach highway but this time we had few other groups with us .The route to the highway is some 4 km from Yadakumari station. 1 km you skid down the forest shortcut and walk the other 3 KM on Jeep track. At the end of the road to the highway is a big river. Crossing the river was again the great fun though it is not a deep river but do not try this out at night. You can have a bath and some refreshment to feel charged again. After crossing the river we saw the Mangalore-Bangalore highway and got a bus for Bangalore in few minutes and by evening we reached Bangalore.Hey I forgot to mention about leeches near by water streams or marshy areas. Please watch out for them bcoz they are really gonna suck your blood if you ignore them.

Do take:
· Food for everyone for a whole day Water, glucose, fruits.
· A torch for everyone, candle, match box.
· Warm clothes - a good jacket will do.
· Good pair of shoes.
· A Digital Camera is must to capture the so much of beautiful surroundings.
· Salt to get rid of leeches.

Don’t take:
Heavy baggage.

बेस्ट टिम तो विसित:
You can go round the year, but I suggest don’t go in rainy season.

Some thought provoking Books for Entrepreneurs

I got this list of books from ZeroToMillion.com and the list looked exhaustive and hence wanted to share this with all who are taking time to visit my blog:

Personal Development
* Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
* The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven R. Covey
* Succeed and Grow Rich Through Persuasion by Napoleon Hill
* How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
* The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons by Napoleon Hill
* The Student Success Manifesto by Michael Simmons
* Secrets of the Young & Successful Jennifer Kushnell
* Soul of Money by Lynne Twist
* Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins
* The Millionaire Mind by Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D

Entrepreneurship
* Zero to One Million by Ryan P. M. Allis
* Zero to IPO by David Smith
* Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
* Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing by Robert Kiyosaki
* New Venture Creation by Jeffrey Timmons
* Good to Great by Jim Collins
* The E-Myth by Michael Gerber
* The Young Entrepreneurs’Edge by Jennifer Kushnell
* The Young Entrepreneur’s Guide to Starting and Running a Business by Steve Mariotti
* The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship by William D. Bygrave
* Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker
* Good to Great by Jim Collins
* At Work with Thomas Edison by Blain McCormick
* Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G. Allen
* On Entrepreneurship by Harvard Business Review
* Entrepreneurship.com by Tim Burns
* The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki
* Fire in the Belly - an exploration of the entrepreneurial spirit by Yanky Fachler

Globalization & Economics
* The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas L. Friedman
* The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
* The Commanding Heights by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw
* Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal by Ball and Dagger
* The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L Heilbroner
* Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets by John McMillan
* The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto
* Economics by Stanley and Brue
* Macroeconomics by N. Gregory Mankiw
* Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy by Joseph A. Schumpeter
* International Business by Charles W. H. Hill
* Against the Dead Hand by Brink Lindsey

Marketing
* The Anatomy of Buzz by Emanuel Rosen
* The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
* Obtaining a #1 Ranking in the Search Engines by Ryan Allis
* What Clients Love by Harry Beckwith
* Building Thousands of Links to Your Site by Ryan Allis
* Net Results 2 by Rick E. Bruner
* Protégé Training Program by Jay Abraham
* Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
* Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
* Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson
* Principles of Marketing by Kotler and Armstrong

It was a great fun and experience at BarCamp, Bangalore 2.0 .. For details read on..

It was really a nice experience at BarCamp,Bangalore 2.0 . sessions were really good and informative and all arrangement was proper.I really enjoyed each and every moment of organizing this event along with my other friends. i would also like to thank ThoughtWorks for their keen interest in supporting and sponsoring this event.
Some interesting sessions I attended
Fixed Price, Off-shore and Agile Software Development: (How) does that work? - Marco Jansen ThoughtWorks.
DIY HackDay - Logistics and Lessons [Jay Fichialos]
Card Walls v/s Competitive Dancing - [Deven Tolia]
Web 2.0 Business Models [Sowmya Karmali]
How Innovators Connect - Sharing Experiences of Leading Silicon Valley Innovators (Rohit Agarwal )
Building Ajax web applications using GWT
Commute Easy - Car Pooling in Bangalore (http://www.commuteeasy.com/ )
SlideShare - Jon, CTO, SlideShare (http://www.slideshare.com/ )
Activ by Sidu ,TW (http://www.inactiv.com/ )
OneBigWeb by Harish (http://www.onebigweb.com/ )
Stockhive by Yogi ,TW (http://www.stockhive.com/ )
BTW, here are all the pictures of the event at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/barcampbangalore2

BarCamp,Bangalore is back again in Action ,live and exclusive only @ ThoughtWorks on 2nd and 3rd Dec.

Yes guys Barcamp Bangalore 2 is next weekend that is 2nd and 3rd Dec at Thoughtworks, on Airport road. Register quickly if you haven’t already.You can also get the glimpses of the first BarCamp,Bangalore which happened in April, when around 150 people gathered into Yahoo’s office for a day for the various discussions.

Venue details:
ThoughtWorks Technologies (India) Pvt Ltd

2nd Floor, Tower C, Corporate Block,

Diamond District,Airport Road,Bangalore - 560 008,

India91 80 2508 9572,3,491 80 2508 9584

Some Great Tips for Google Adsense

This article will show you in a very easy way how to earn maximum money through Google Adsense programme. It is assumed that you have read google adsense programme terms and conditions. You have already visted the google adsense tips .In adsense programme advertisers pay when users click on ads and google will give you a portion of amount paid for clicks on google ads on your site. Google is as interested as you to perform better. I think you have already visited some sites about adsense tips but you are puzzled what to do exactly. Here you will get the summary of Adsense tips. I will mention here what is to be done point wise in a very few words. OK. Let us start earning through adsense quick tour.

1.Try to increase targeted traffic to your site by following the search engine optimization tips. More traffic means more income. Promote your blog in right way.
2. Write unique and relevant articles. Content should not be too small or too large.
3. Don’t modify google HTML code or don’t ask any body to click on it. Google may disable your adsense account.
4. First few lines are important to determine what type of ads will be advertised in your site. So concentrate on the first few lines very carefully.
5. Add google search box in the right hand upper corner. Generally people prefer to have the search box in their right hand side.
6. Use 336X280 large rectangle and 160X600 wide skyscraper ads(in the sidebar). Large rectangle is the best paying ad.
7. Prefer text ads. Text ads do better than image ads.
8. Use relevant color palettes. Colors which tend to blend into your content do better.
9. Place the ads just above the content or middle of the content. Because these are the prominent place and viewers use to navigate.
10. Always make sure that first ad unit is displayed in the best location.
11. In general older websites do better in search engine. Continue your site for long time.
12. Use channels to know what advertisements are making money and what ad position is the most profitable. Analyse it and do accordingly.
13. Block low paying advertisements with filter. If you see that an ad is not performing better for a week, replace it by other well paying ads.
14. Don’t reload your pages frequently.
15. Don’t place more than three ad units and one link unit.
16. Don’t place ads on an empty page.
17. Last but not the least test, test always, keep on testing, you yourself can find the best way how to optimize google adsense.
18. Join adsense discussion group for more help.

Hope it will earn you some more $$$$

Entrepreneurs and Techies must visit BarCamps

Hi people.
If you are new to BarCamps then read here first and join the mailing list for the discussions. Currently I am staying@Bangalore, the silicon valley of India. The first BarCamp@Bangalore was organized in the month of April, 06. But unfortunately I was not there at the gathering. After the event one of my friends told me about the Geeks gathering sponsored by Yahoo and Riya.It sound very interesting to me and I thought to attend it next time and from there my quest started with BarCamps. Now I am one of Crew member of BarCamp,Bangalore-2 and we are working for the execution of next BarCamp in Bangalore on 2nd and 3rd Dec.
I must say it’s a great platform to express your ideas /innovation and at the same time you can get many new and great ideas from other participants as well. You can get to know lot of new technology insight around by the end of the event. It’s also a great place for many of starters to discuss and promote their latest business venture. BarCamps are simply for the geeks, by the geeks and from the geeks.
Official Linkshttp://barcamp.org/
http://www.barcampbangalore.org/http://Barcamp.org/BarCampBangalore http://Barcamp.org/BarCampBangalore-2

Interesting links
Dummies guide for organizing a BarCamp in your city
Look this space for more updates ….
Happy Camping!!!!!

i-flex ranked No. 12 in Forbes’ Asia’s best under billion list

India has emerged as the fourth biggest home to the best small companies in Asia with as many as 23 domestic firms finding place in a list of ‘200 best under-billion companies’ prepared by the Forbes magazine.In a development that marks growing recognition for India Inc — including small companies and not just the corporate giants and IT majors, India has been ranked ahead of countries like Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.Three Indian firms — Great Eastern Shipping, Cipla and Sesa Goa have also managed to make to the top-25 of the “Asia’s 200 Best Under Billion” list published in the latest Asia edition of the business magazine.
Taiwan leads the tally with as many as 31 companies, followed by China with 30 entries and Australia with 27 companies on the list. The list include 11 companies each from Hong Kong, South Korea and Thailand, five from Indonesia, 19 each from Japan and Singapore, eight from Malaysia, three from Pakistan and one each from New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
Domestic shipping firm, GE Shipping has been ranked as the third most profitable entity on the list with a net income of 193 million dollars, followed by pharma major Cipla at 9th position with net income of 136 million dollars in the overall Asia list.
Sesa Goa has been ranked at 20th position with net income of 108 million dollar. Hong Kong-based China Merchants Holdings tops the list with a profit of 305 million dollar, followed by Australia’s Oil Search at second position with profit of 193 million dollars.
In terms of sales, Bharat Forge and Asian paints have been ranked at 12th and 13th position, followed by Cipla at the 14th rank across Asia.
Cipla also finds place in the magazine’s top-ten market value companies among all 200 firms mentioned in the list. It has been ranked at fourth position in this league with a market-value of 4.37 billion dollar, followed by i-flex solutions at 12th rank with a market value of 2.42 billion dollar, Bharat Forge and Dabur India at 24th and 25th positions respectively.
All the 23 Indian companies on the list include: Asian Paints, Bajaj Hindustan, Balkrishna Industries, Balrampur Chini Mills, Bharat Forge, Cadila Healthcare, Carborundum Universal, Cipla, Dabur India, Essel Propack, FDC India, GE Shipping, Grindwell Norton India, i-flex solutions, JB Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals India, Kirloskar Oil Engines, Maharashtra Seamless, Mastek, Pantaloon Retail, Punjab Tractors, Rolta India, Sesa Goa and Thermax.
The magazine said not all companies in Asia were feeding the region’s export machine with many in Japan and India selling products to their domestic markets.
Forbes cited the example of Mumbai-based retailer Pantaloon, which sells everything from cell phones to saris.
The list is considerably dominated by manufacturing companies. With Asian factories churning out so much of the world’s clothing, furniture and electronics, it’s no surprise that manufacturers have a strong presence on the list, the magazine said.

Top Paying Key words for Google AdSense.

Here I am providing you the list of top paying key words for AdSense which i got from net. It is absolutely free. How much you will earn from Google Adsense depends upon your choosing of key words for your site. You may achieve top rank in the Google or Yahoo. But you are disheartened since nobody visits your site. Why you are not getting traffic for your site in spite of to high ranking for a particular key words? It is very much simple, you have not selected the right key words or phrase that maximum people search for. Secondly you have selected right key words and you are getting sufficient traffic. But your earning from adsense is not upto the mark. What is the reason? The reason is that you have selected popular key words but the key words are not top paying key words or phrase. So you have to choose not only right key words but also the top paying key words for which advertisers pay good amount.Google AdSense delivers text and image ads that are targeted, relevant to the content of your site. Whenever a visitor clicks on adsense ads, the advertiser pays Google, and Google splits the revenue with you.Advertisers bid against each other to receive better placement in the results, and the bidding price for each keyword differs. As for example the key word “health” pay on 6 cents while keywords such as “mortgage” pay $6 or more per click. What ad will be display on your site is totally depends upon the title and first few lines of your page. So let us see the top/high paying key words.

Key words that bid more than $25
Structured settlement,Vioxx attorney,auto insurance quote ,college loan consolidation ,car insurance quote ,austin dwi ,austin dwi attorney ,san diego dui attorney ,houston criminal attorney ,san diego dui ,dwi texas ,dui attorneys ,dwi attorney ,dui attorney ,dui attorney,dui attorney ,dui lawyer ,lawyer dui ,dui lawyers, federal criminal attorney, car accident lawyer ,dwi attorney,criminal lawyers ,new york criminal attorney ,auto accident attorney, auto accident lawyer,dwi lawyer,dwi lawyer ,texas dwi law ,car accident attorney ,car accident attorney ,federal loan consolidation ,online car insurance ,term life insurance quote, cheap car insurance,student loan consolidation,auto insurance quotes ,online insurance quotes ,student loan information ,equity loan rates ,nj auto insurance ,student loan consolidation center ,debt consildation ,chase credit cards ,student loan refinancing ,discount car insurance ,life insurance quote.

Key words that bid $20 to $25
motorcycle accident attorney ,washington dui ,lemon law attorney ,lemon law ,help attorney ,injury lawyers ,dallas dwi ,wrongful death attorney,mesothelioma attorney ,personal injury lawyer ,san diego personal injury attorney ,accident lawyer ,personal injury attorney,personal injury attorney ,tax attorney,tax attorney ,alaska lawyer ,minnesota dwi laws ,federal lawyer ,dallas personal injury attorney ,lawyer injury ,death lawyer ,cosmetic surgery michigan ,plastic surgery la jolla ,plastic surgery la jolla ,accutane lawsuit ,mesothelioma attorney ,mesothelioma treatments ,plastic surgery cincinnati ,pro active acne treatment ,accutane lawsuits ,auto accident attorney ,michigan auto accident ,san antonio auto ,new york auto insurance ,austin auto ,auto insurance ,mercury insurance auto ,auto nation ,auto refinance ,auto refinance loans ,prequalify loan ,loans com ,business credit report ,whole life insurance quotes ,new york auto insurance ,online mortgages ,student loan ,cheap house insurance ,low cost life insurance ,school loan consolidation ,citi credit ,manhattan mortgages ,school loans ,term insurance ,second mortgage ,credit report com ,auto ins ,consolidation ,line of credit ,landlords insurance ,low mortgage ,commercial vehicle insurance ,credit consolidation ,bad credit mortgages ,bad credit mortgages ,discount life insurance ,domain check ,buy a domain name ,Contract management software,Car accident lawyer.

Key words that bid $1,5 to $20
domain search ,dedicated server managed dedicated servers ,,domain name registrations,eu domain registration ,Donate a car,Note buyers,Cord blood,Home equity loans,Criminal attorney,Cerebral palsy,Help desk.

Key words that bid $5 to $15
small business software ,inventory management software ,pestpatrol ,optimization software ,webroot spy sweeper ,payroll software ,spam software ,webroot spy ,spy sweeper download ,software mirroring ,fundraising software ,software configuration management ,great plains software ,software distribution ,denver auto ,auto accident ,auto comparison ,auto loan rate ,auto ,auto glass ,auto loan ,auto loans online ,auto loans ,auto rental ,new jersey auto ,auto warranty ,gambling on line ,wynn casino ,hold everything ,online casino ,tropicana casino ,monte carlo resort and casino ,monte casino ,dedicated windows hosting ,mohaa dedicated server ,inexpensive domain ,domain name ,dedicated server web hosting ,Domain ,domain name registration search ,uk dedicated hosting server ,unix dedicated server ,cheap domain register ,dedicated sql server ,conference calling,factoring,oregon mortgage,answering service,debt consolidation,mailing lists,software escrow,tax attorney,web hosting,medical malpractice lawyer,seo optimization,debt management,data recovery,document scanning,forex,private jet,affiliate program,brochure printing,cash advance,credit report,domain name,forex,hosting,incorporate,refinance mortgage,tape data recovery,website hosting,wisconsin mortgage.

Key words that bid $3 to $5
accounting software,acne,art school,asic design,canada fishing,cash drawer,casino,,charity,charter yacht,computer chair,contact lenses,degree,diet,dna testing,drivers education,drug test,golf business,hair loss,hardwood floor,HGH,home insurance,military school,MLM,pay per click,people pc,projector lamp,radar detector,reverse mortgage,satellite phone,seo,steel building,voip .

You can check your top search phrases report in WebTrends for a list of the key words that people searched for to find each page of your site.

Merger of Capgemini & Kanbay: 23000 jobs in India

It could soon be raining jobs in India’s booming information technology sector, with the merger of French IT consultant, Capgemini and Kanbay International set to create over 23,000 new jobs in the next four years.
The deal to buy out Kanbay, an IT services company that is listed in the US but operates mostly out of India, would be unlike regular mergers and acquisitions as far as job layoffs are concerned.
In fact, Capgemini which has 6,000 employees at present hopes that the proposed merger would create a multinational behemoth with a workforce of about 35,000 employees in India by 2010.
The India head count of Capgemini, which on Thursday signed an agreement to acquire Nasdaq-listed Kanbay for about $1.25 billion, would increase from 6,000 to about 12,000 by the end of this year.
Currently, Kanbay has a workforce of over 5,000 in India, which represents a large chunk of its worldwide headcount of 6,900 employees.
No layoffs are expected following the merger, as the US as well as Indian operations of the two companies are spread across different cities. Moreover, Kanbay is more focused on financial services segment as compared to Capgemini, industry experts said.
The deal would also make Capgemini the largest MNC in the Indian IT services space in terms of Indian head count percentage ahead of giants like IBM, Accenture and Electronic Data Systems.
The company would become the third largest in terms of the total number of employees in the country after IBM (20,000) and Accenture (12,500), while excluding the employees in their BPO operations.

Great future for Banking customers of i-flex, IBM, Oracle from their alliance

This collaboration will combine IBM’s business & IT architectural leadership, Oracle’s banking-specific application solutions, and core banking and risk solutions from i-flex.


i-flex Solutions on Wednesday said that IBM, Oracle and the company will collaborate to provide joint banking customers with infrastructure, services, and support for enterprise applications, core banking, and risk management.The banking collaboration will combine the business and IT architectural leadership of IBM in banks, banking-specific application solutions from Oracle, and core banking and risk solutions from i-flex. This combination can help banks today, using proven, market-leading solutions in CRM, Core Transaction Processing, Risk, Analytics and Corporate Operations to translate a bank’s business strategies into execution in a timely and effective manner.The companies also announced the launch of Company’s powerful retail banking product, FLEXCUBE, on the IBM System z mainframe platform, delivering world-class performance, reliability and security banks require. Under the companies’ banking alliance, IBM plans to expand its services with Oracle and the Company to help ensure unparalleled integration and support for IBM platforms.”The collaboration represents a unique combination of leading companies to provide a comprehensive and total solution for top tier banks to migrate to the integrated banking applications and platforms of the future,” said R Ravisankar, CEO, International Operations and Business Development, of the Company. “IBM’s proven ability to manage complex systems integration, their experience i-flex applications and phased and evolutionary migration will ensure minimal disruption risk.”

Microsoft to launch new office software by year end

Global IT giant Microsoft Monday previewed its latest office business software, called the 2007 Office System, and said a formal launch of this new set of applications would take place by the end of this year.An improved combination of applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and other programmes, the 2007 Office System is now available in Beta 2 (preliminary) version that was launched in May this year.“The Beta 2 version of 2007 Office System has been the most popular beta version of Office until now, with over three million downloads worldwide,” said Chris Capossela, corporate vice president of Microsoft.Out of 250 applications developed for the software, 25 have been in partnership with Indian tech firms such as Tata Consultancy Service, Wipro and Sonata, officials with the global software major said.
For example, solutions for product development in association with Sonata help customers in managing the entire process involved in launching a new product - from market research to its final introduction.
The solution designed by Tata Consultancy Services helps in financial reporting, while Wipro’s offerings automate claims management for firms in businesses like insurance, keeping in mind the needs of the mobile workforce, the officials said.
According to Doug Hauger, chief operating officer of Microsoft India, more than 300,000 Beta 2 CDs have been accessed in India. The software will be initially available for Rs.7,000 in the country, officials added.

Google acquires YouTube for $1.65 billion

YouTube went live in December 2005. Today, Google announced it bought the company for $1.65 billion in stock.
The deal, assembled at top speed, will be a stock-for-stock transaction. Following the acquisition, YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community.
YouTube will continue to be based in San Bruno, Calif., and all its employees will remain with the company. Closely-held YouTube claims more than 100 million videos are viewed daily on its site, making it the No. 2 video site on the Internet behind MySpace.
Word of the pending deal first surfaced late last week and was promptly lambasted by that shrinking violet Mark Cuban, who called the idea “crazy.”
Google CEO Eric Schmidt told a conference call that “what tipped us over was not the great business success but the vision they had for delivering content to users. It was the same vision in serving their users as Larry and David had in founding Google.”
Google expects to monetize the YouTube content through ad placement, but the details are still being worked out. Schmidt emphasized that Google’s answer to YouTube, Google Video, wasn’t going anywhere.
“Google Video doesn’t go away, ever. Google Video is a valuable part of the Google experience and will become even more integrated with Google in the future,” he said.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Google General Counsel David Drummond said the purchase was all-stock instead of the usual cash deal to make it a tax-free transaction.
Analyst reaction was cautious.
“I find myself agreeing with Mark Cuban, but for different reasons,” said Joseph Laszlo, research director with JupiterKagan. “While YouTube has a large audience, they don’t have anything in their technology that’s unique.
Laszlo added, “Google has never bought audiences in the past, so buying YouTube would be a big break for them acting not like a tech company but a media company.”
Google paid an incredibly high price for a property that has yet to generate any appreciable profit, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst with The Enderle Group.
“Google often does things that appear insane and then makes them look brilliant in hindsight. This acquisition certainly hits on the insane part of that formula.”
The day had already started out on an upbeat note for YouTube, having signed deals with CBS, Universal Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment. Google just signed a similar deal of its own to distribute music videos from Warner Music Group.
This comes on top of YouTube’s recent deal with NBC, which is helping avert a problem with copyright concerns.
YouTube lets its users upload pretty much anything and often has to deal with the issue of content after the material has been online.
It helps that the movie and television studios aren’t being as reactionary as the record labels, even though the majority share the same corporate parents.
“The three deals today shows YouTube is trying very hard to prove to media companies that it can be an asset, a helpful thing to them,” Laszlo said.
While music labels sued Napster, LimeWire and Kazaa out of existence, “the folks on the video side maybe sees more opportunity,” Laszlo added.
CBS will have a CBS channel on YouTube’s site, offering news, sports, Showtime and prime-time programming, starting this month. Universal will give YouTube viewers access to thousands of music videos, as will Sony. Sony will also let some songs be used in amateur video uploads on YouTube.

India is “No.1 Developer nation”, says Sadagopan (IIIT Professor,Bangalore)

The Professor urged developers to build programs that last long and admires that we are the number one developer nation
Never mind the argument whether India is a developing nation or a developed nation, the fact is that we are the number one developer nation, said Professor S Sadagopan of the International Institute of Information Technology here amidst rousing cheers from code-crunchers.
He was addressing around 700 software developers at the IBM Rational conference in Bangalore.
The theme of the conference this year is Software in Concert, and quite fittingly speakers at the conference were ushered on to the stage to the sound of rock guitar riffs.
Sadagopan urged developers to build programs that last long. Tracing the changes in the industry from old programming languages from Fortran and Pascal, to todays frameworks, he said that software has to evolve according to the changes in the IT world.

We are moving from products to productized services and from computers to appliances. The ability to program software for a gamut of devices has not happened yet, he said.
The Rational user conference also saw the launch of the latest version of the software in India. Developers got a sneak peek at what they could expect from the new release- support for global distributed development; SoA governance and regulatory and internal compliance features. Version 7 allows for componentization which means you can install optional installable features and specific components for targeted users, said Martin Nally, CTO, Rational Software.
He also gave a small preview of the features of the next release, which promises to offer a collaborative platform. As a precursor to Version 8, the company has announced what it calls its Jazz initiative, a collaborative platform that would leverage on Internet based technologies such as blogs, Wikis, RSS feeds and blogs, thus enabling real-time development platforms.
Rational plans to throw open core components of the work on Jazz to the developer community.

Flock : A New Web Browser

Few days back guys at Flock released a public beta of their much awaited Browser . It was an exciting news for me for two reasons. One i happen to meet with Chris at barcampBangalore and attended his presentation on Micro formats . it was awesome . he was till very recent past associated with this project . Now he is a freelancer doing consulting work .
secondly this project was making a very different and somewhat dramatic bet on the future of browsing as we know it . Since the inception of browsing technology ( Mosaic Onward ) the approach to developing a browser is pretty much standard . browser was more of a gateway. it was done in a more and more generalised fashion . there was no optimization for any application specific or domain specific usage pattern . there was support for ActiveX,XML,Frames but they were not aimed at any particular user base . that means there was no application level optimization there was no specific browser for E-Commerce or for Usenet or blogs or for video . there was a business sense in doing that .of course if you optimize your browser for one user group you run the risk of alienating with the rest of Internet users . since no single user base was big enough to make this kind of effort commercially viable so it was in the best interest of developer to make it as Horizontal as possible .
folck is the first browser with this application layer optimization . they have positioned themselves as a browser for web 2.0 crowd who are neck deep in to social networking and tagging and other such stuff . their tag line says “Browser for You and Your Friends”. with its feature for Blogging, Feed reader and photo sharing it surely have some appeal to this user base . i am hooked on it right now and plan to do so in future but i really wonder how long i can keep up with the inconvenience of using multiple browsers . Maintaining History , Book Marks ,feeds,passwords at two places is too much of work .
its really an interesting experiment . do we really need a separate browser for every kind of browsing we do ? can we all the features of folck be pushed in to FireFox by some extension or some plug gin . is it just an heck an experiment or this is a start of a new trend .well time ahead will be the judge of it . but right now i am captivated by the sleek interface and new features of folck . Kudos to the team .good luck …may the force be with you .

All about Blu-ray

1.1 What is Blu-ray?

Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD) is the name of a next-generation optical disc format. The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. For more general information about Blu-ray, please see our What is Blu-ray? section.

1.2 Why the name Blu-ray?

The name Blu-ray is derived from the underlying technology, which utilizes a blue-violet laser to read and write data. The name is a combination of "Blue" (blue-violet laser) and "Ray" (optical ray). According to the Blu-ray Disc Association the spelling of "Blu-ray" is not a mistake, the character "e" was intentionally left out so the term could be registered as a trademark.

The correct full name is Blu-ray Disc, not Blu-ray Disk (incorrect spelling)
The correct shortened name is Blu-ray, not Blu-Ray (incorrect capitalization) or Blue-ray (incorrect spelling)
The correct abbreviation is BD, not BR or BRD (wrong abbreviation)

1.3 Who developed Blu-ray?

The Blu-ray Disc format was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers, with more than 170 member companies from all over the world. The Board of Directors currently consists of:

Apple Computer, Inc.
Dell Inc.
Hewlett Packard Company
Hitachi, Ltd.
LG Electronics Inc.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Pioneer Corporation
Royal Philips Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Sharp Corporation
Sony Corporation
TDK Corporation
Thomson Multimedia
Twentieth Century Fox
Walt Disney Pictures
Warner Bros. Entertainment

1.4 What Blu-ray formats are planned?

As with conventional CDs and DVDs, Blu-ray plans to provide a wide range of formats including ROM/R/RW. The following formats are part of the Blu-ray Disc specification:

BD-ROM - read-only format for distribution of HD movies, games, software, etc.
BD-R - recordable format for HD video recording and PC data storage.
BD-RE - rewritable format for HD video recording and PC data storage.

There's also plans for a BD/DVD hybrid format, which combines Blu-ray and DVD on the same disc so that it can be played in both Blu-ray players and DVD players.

1.5 How much data can you fit on a Blu-ray disc?

A single-layer disc can hold 25GB.
A dual-layer disc can hold 50GB.

To ensure that the Blu-ray Disc format is easily extendable (future-proof) it also includes support for multi-layer discs, which should allow the storage capacity to be increased to 100GB-200GB (25GB per layer) in the future simply by adding more layers to the discs.

1.6 How much video can you fit on a Blu-ray disc?

Over 9 hours of high-definition (HD) video on a 50GB disc.
About 23 hours of standard-definition (SD) video on a 50GB disc.


1.7 How fast can you read/write data on a Blu-ray disc?

According to the Blu-ray Disc specification, 1x speed is defined as 36Mbps. However, as BD-ROM movies will require a 54Mbps data transfer rate the minimum speed we're expecting to see is 2x (72Mbps). Blu-ray also has the potential for much higher speeds, as a result of the larger numerical aperture (NA) adopted by Blu-ray Disc. The large NA value effectively means that Blu-ray will require less recording power and lower disc rotation speed than DVD and HD-DVD to achieve the same data transfer rate. While the media itself limited the recording speed in the past, the only limiting factor for Blu-ray is the capacity of the hardware. If we assume a maximum disc rotation speed of 10,000 RPM, then 12x at the outer diameter should be possible (about 400Mbps). This is why the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) already has plans to raise the speed to 8x (288Mbps) or more in the future.

1.8 What video codecs will Blu-ray support?

MPEG-2 - enhanced for HD, also used for playback of DVDs and HDTV recordings.
MPEG-4 AVC - part of the MPEG-4 standard also known as H.264 (High Profile and Main Profile).
SMPTE VC-1 - standard based on Microsoft's Windows Media Video (WMV) technology.

Please note that this simply means that all Blu-ray players and recorders will have to support playback of these video codecs, it will still be up to the movie studios to decide which video codec(s) they use for their releases.

1.9 What audio codecs will Blu-ray support?

Linear PCM (LPCM) - offers up to 8 channels of uncompressed audio.
Dolby Digital (DD) - format used for DVDs also known as AC3, offers 5.1-channel surround sound.
Dolby Digital Plus (DD+) - extension of DD, offers increased bitrates and 7.1-channel surround sound.
Dolby TrueHD - extension of MLP Lossless, offers lossless encoding of up to 8 channels of audio.
DTS Digital Surround - format used for DVDs, offers 5.1-channel surround sound.
DTS-HD - extension of DTS, offers increased bitrates and up to 8 channels of audio.

Please note that this simply means that all Blu-ray players and recorders will have to support playback of these audio codecs, it will still be up to the movie studios to decide which audio codec(s) they use for their releases.

1.10 Will Blu-ray discs require a cartridge?

No, the development of new low cost hard-coating technologies has made the cartridge obsolete. Blu-ray will instead rely on hard-coating for protection, which when applied will make the discs even more resistant to scratches and fingerprints than today's DVDs, while still preserving the same look and feel. Blu-ray also adopts a new error correction system which is more robust and efficient than the one used for DVDs.

1.11 Will Blu-ray require an Internet connection?

No, you will not need an Internet connection for basic playback of Blu-ray movies. The Internet connection will only be needed for value-added features such as downloading new extras, watching recent movie trailers, web browsing, etc. It will also be required to authorize managed copies of Blu-ray movies that can be transferred over a home network.

1.12 Will Blu-ray down-convert analog outputs?

No, Blu-ray players will not down-convert the analog output signal unless the video contains something called an Image Constraint Token (ICT). This feature is not part of the Blu-ray Disc spec, but of the AACS copy-protection system also adopted by HD-DVD. In the end it will be up to each movie studio to decide if they want to use this "feature" on their releases or not. The good news is that Sony, Disney, Fox, Paramount, MGM and Universal have already stated that they have no intention of using this feature. The other studios, which have yet to announce their plans, will most likely follow suit to avoid getting bad publicity. If any of the studios still decide to use ICT they will have to state this on the cover of their movies, so you should have no problem avoiding these titles.

1.13 Will Blu-ray support mandatory managed copy?

Yes, mandatory managed copy (MMC) will be part of the Blu-ray format. This feature will enable consumers to make legal copies of their Blu-ray movies that can be transferred over a home network. Please note that "mandatory" refers to the movies having to offer this capability, while it will be up to each hardware manufacturer to decide if they want to support this feature.

1.14 When will I be able to buy Blu-ray products?

If you live in the US, you will most likely have to wait until June 25, 2006 when Samsung will introduce their Blu-ray player (was recently pushed back from May 23, 2006). Pioneer and Sony plan to introduce their respective Blu-ray players in July. While we've heard very little about the launch plans for the European market, we expect it to follow shortly after the US (some products might launch earlier).

1.15 What will Blu-ray products cost?

As with any new technology the first generation of products will likely be quite expensive due to low production volumes. However, this shouldn't be a problem for long as there is a wide range of Blu-ray related products ( players, recorders, drives, writers, media, etc) planned, which should help drive up production volumes and lower overall production costs. Once mass production of components for Blu-ray products begins the prices are expected to fall quickly.

According to the Blu-ray Disc Association, the overall cost of manufacturing Blu-ray Disc media will in the end be no more expensive than producing a DVD. The reduced injection molding costs (one molding machine instead of two, no birefringence problems) offset the additional cost of applying the cover layer and low cost hard-coat, while the techniques used for applying the recording layer remain the same. As production volumes increase the production costs should fall and eventually be comparable to DVDs.

The Future is “Open Source” in Enterprise Application Arena

In a world where Microsoft increasingly threatens to dominate computing and the Internet, the strongest potential rival to its dominance is no longer its traditional commercial rivals but, surprisingly, a seemingly motley collection of free software tools and operating systems collectively dubbed “open source” software. Unlike most commercial software, the core code of such software can be easily studied by other programmers and improved upon–the only proviso being that such improvements must also be revealed publicly and distributed freely in a process that encourages continual innovation.
Most software that you buy or download only comes in the compiled ready-to-run version. Compiled means that the actual program code that the developer created, known as the source code, has run through a special program called a compiler that translates the source code into a form that the computer can understand. It is extremely difficult to modify the compiled version of most applications and nearly impossible to see exactly how the developer created different parts of the program. Most commercial software manufacturers see this as an advantage that keeps other companies from copying their code and using it in a competing product. It also gives them control over the quality and features found in a particular product.
Open source software is at the opposite end of the spectrum. The source code is included with the compiled version and modification or customization is actually encouraged. The software developers who support the open source concept believe that by allowing anyone who’s interested to modify the source code, the application will be more useful and error-free over the long term.
To be considered as open source software by the software development industry, certain criteria must be met:
The program must be freely distributed (It can be part of a package that is sold though, such as Red Hat has done with Linux).
Source code must be included.
Anyone must be allowed to modify the source code.
Modified versions can be redistributed.
The license must not require the exclusion of other software or interfere with the operation of other software.
Let’s take a look at a real world example of open source software. In 1991, Linus Torvalds, a student at theUniversity ofHelsinki inFinland, developed a new operating system based on Minix, a derivative of Unix, which he dubbed Linux. Torvalds released version 0.02 of Linux under the GNU General Public License, which provides a good legal definition of open source software. A lot of people around the world downloaded Linux and began working with it. Many of these users were programmers in their own right and made modifications to the source code that Torvalds had included. Over the next three years, Torvalds received these modified versions from the other programmers and incorporated many of the changes into the baseline version and released Linux version 1.0 in 1994.
A common concern for end-users who wish to use open source software is the lack of a warranty and technical support. Because the software’s license encourages modification and customization, it is nearly impossible to support. This is why Red Hat Software, founded in 1994, created the “Official Red Hat Linux” and is able to sell this normally “free” software. The main value that Red Hat adds to the package is a warranty and technical support. For most businesses, the assurance of technical support has been a key factor in the decision to buy Linux instead of simply downloading it for free. In addition to Red Hat, there are several other companies that have packaged Linux, usually with additional software, for resale.
Besides Linux, Mozilla (Netscape browser core), Apache (Web server), PERL (Web scripting language) and PNG (graphics file format) are all examples of very popular software that is based on open source.
So finally what is open source?
A revolutionary movement based on the belief that programmers should be able to read, redistribute and modify the source code of a piece of software. Enabling programmers to freely improve existing code design, adapt it, and fix bugs leads to astonishing speed in software evolution, code maturity and quality. In addition, this paradigm lowers the cost of software and in many cases, provides software at no cost at all. Some examples of popular open source software include Linux, Apache, MySQL, Php (collectively called the LAMP stack), Tomcat, JBoss, Firefox and CVS.
Open source in the enterprise
In recent times, there has been an increasing adoption of open source software in the enterprise world. According to Gartner Research, by 2008, open source will compete with closed source in every infrastructure market. Gartner also reports that by 2010, 75f mainstream IT shops will have a formal open source acquisition policy in place and mainstream IT shops will consider open source for 80 f their infrastructure software needs and 25f their business software needs. These numbers attest the benefits that open source software brings to an enterprise. In addition to allowing for huge cost savings by replacing expensive, proprietary counterparts, open source is superior in quality in many cases. other benefits of open source include access to the source code , ability to adapt to custom needs of the enterprise , and avoiding vendor lock-in. particularly in the Indian context ,open source has propelled �affordable computing� via initiatives such as local language applications and e-governance initiatives that take IT to the grassroots.
What does open source mean to you?
By being part of this software movement today, you will get an opportunity to be ahead of the curve and enrich your resume with skills that are sure to be in high demand tomorrow. Besides you will have access to millions of lines of great code to learn from and leverage to build applications that solve real world problems. You will also have an opportunity to become part of the amazing, innovative, technical community of open source programmers where you can contribute to the code base and define the direction of the open source software. Further, you can even create new open source software and create your mark in the software world through it! Finally, for the entrepreneur in you, there are several opportunities for establishing a profitable business based on value-adds and support services on open source software.