After cheap cars, the race hots up for cheap PCs

Tata Motors’ Nano has inspired many makers of mass goods to consider using India's frugal engineering prowess to rewrite the definition of affordability. Across the nation’s IT hubs there is a massive research underway to produce an ultra cheap computer for the general masses. The question is: Can PC-makers launch a computer as cheap as $100 (Rs 4000)?

Analysts say there is a market for a cheap computer costing around Rs 4,000 in India and companies may gain if they enter into sales pact with educational institutes in particular. Already, the booming mobile-phone business in developing countries like India and China has shown that digital technology can spread at an incredible rate among middle class consumers when pursued on a long term basis.

“There is huge untapped potential in the Indian markets and many PC makers are looking at low-cost options,” says Raj Saraf Chairman and MD, Zenith Computers.

The key to making an ultra cheap computer is to make low cost chips and processors. Giants like Intel, AMD and ST Microelectronics are working on a war footing to design a low cost VLSI (Very-large-scale integration) chip that would make a personal computer more affordable to the common man in emerging markets. Mukesh Kumar a hardware engineer with a major chip maker said, “The race is on to design a small and low-priced VLSI chip.” read full story

Kerala to have IT parks in all districts

In the next five years, there will be IT parks in almost all the districts of Kerala, said the Chief Minister, Mr V.S. Achuthanandan. This is in keeping with the State Government’s commitment to replicating the success of Technopark Thiruvananthapuram, he added.

Inaugurating the second annual conference of the Indian Science and Technology Entrepreneurs’ Parks and Business Incubators’ Association (ISBA) in the city today, he said that the State Government’s effort is to provide direct employment in the IT sector to at least 2 lakh people in five years through these efforts. This goal will be achievable only with the active participation of budding entrepreneurs, he added.

The business incubation facilities at the Technopark Thiruvananthapuram are a role model for the entire nation, the Chief Minister said. Inspired by the success of Technopark’s business incubator, the State Government will encourage the setting up of business incubators in all engineering colleges and polytechnics in the State, he added.

In his address to the gathering, Dr Ajay Kumar, Secretary, IT, Government of Kerala, said that business incubators will be established in all the district IT parks that the State Government plans to set up. Similarly, space for the business incubator in the ITES Habitat Centre in Kochi will be doubled, he added.

Earlier, addressing the gathering, the State Industries Minister, Mr Elamaram Kareem, said that the State needed a culture of entrepreneurship to flourish.

The three-day ISBA conference is being hosted by Technopark Thiruvananthapuram and will focus on the theme ‘creating global enterprises through the incubation route’.

Apple To Double Its Market-share By 2011

Gartner, Inc. has highlighted 10 key predictions of events and developments that will affect IT and business in 2008 and beyond.

The predictions highlight areas where executives and IT professionals need to take action in 2008. The full impact of these trends may not appear this year, but executives need to act now so that they can exploit the trends for their competitive advantage.

1. By 2011, Apple will double its U.S. and Western Europe unit market share in Computers. Apple's gains in computer market share reflect as much on the failures of the rest of the industry as on Apple's success.
2. By 2012, 50 per cent of traveling workers will leave their notebooks at home in favour of other devices. Even though notebooks continue to shrink in size and weight, traveling workers lament the weight and inconvenience of carrying them on their trips.
3. By 2012, 80 per cent of all commercial software will include elements of open-source technology. Many open-source technologies are mature, stable and well supported.
4. By 2012, at least one-third of business application software spending will be as service subscription instead of as product license. With software as service (SaaS), the user organisation pays for software services in proportion to use.
5. By 2011, early technology adopters will forgo capital expenditures and instead purchase 40 per cent of their IT infrastructure as a service. Increased high-speed bandwidth makes it practical to locate infrastructure at other sites and still receive the same response times.
6. By 2009, more than one third of IT organizations will have one or more environmental criteria in their top six buying criteria for IT-related goods.
7. By 2010, 75 per cent of organisations will use full life cycle energy and CO2 footprint as mandatory PC hardware buying criteria. Most technology providers have little or no knowledge of the full life cycle energy and CO2 footprint of their products.
8. By 2011, suppliers to large global enterprises will need to prove their green credentials via an audited process to retain preferred supplier status.
9. By 2010, end-user preferences will decide as much as half of all software, hardware and services acquisitions made by IT.
10. Through 2011, the number of 3-D printers in homes and businesses will grow 100-fold over 2006 levels. The technology lets users send a file of a 3-D design to a printer-like device that will carve the design out of a block of resin. read full story
    

Tata Steel-Corus deal on track

Exactly one year ago India Inc witnessed the biggest ever acquisition. Yes, we are talking about Tata Steel’s acquisition of Corus group. The stock market didn’t respond positively with the apprehension among investors being that the deal may not turn out to investor’s interest. The stock price fell by around 7% in 15 days after Tata Steel won the bid ousting CSN.

But after one year, the sceptics have been proved wrong. Corus’ finances are improving and Tata Steel is now India’s largest private sector company with consolidated net sales of Rs 63,587 crore in the first half of FY08. The stock market has also recognised this. The stock price more than doubled until the stock market crash kicked off on January 10. Tata Steel was, in fact, the best performing company in the Tata Group last year.

Tata Steel has taken many steps to make the best out of this deal. Its acquisition of iron ore and coking coal mines in Mozambique and Ivory Coast can feed the Corus plants for around 10 years and 20 years, respectively. Recently, it took majority control of a limestone mine in Oman. These captive sources of raw material are expected to reduce Corus’ operating cost giving a big boost to Tata Steel’s profits on a consolidated basis. read full story

Tata Chemicals buys US firm for $1 bn

The Tata group on Thursday celebrated the first anniversary of its acquisition of the Anglo-Dutch steel giant Corus, the biggest foreign takeover by any Indian company so far, by announcing that its chemicals outfit, Tata Chemicals (TCL), has entered into a definitive agreement to buy the soda ash business of the US-based General Industrial Products for $1 billion.

Post-acquisition, TCL will become the world’s second-largest soda ash maker with a combined capacity of 5.5 million tonne per annum (mtpa) and 14% share of the global market. Now, Tata Chemicals enjoys 8% share of the global market with capacity of 3 mtpa. Harbinger Capital Partners, majority stakeholder of General Industrial Products, had put its soda ash subsidiary, General Chemical (Soda Ash) Partners, on the block.

Homi R Khusrokhan, managing director, TCL, said: “It’s an auspicious day for the group. Exactly a year ago, the Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata announced the acquisition of Corus. I was sitting in the audience,” he recalled while announcing the deal on Thursday. The $12.9-billion Corus acquisition catapulted Tata Steel to the world’s sixth-largest steel company from its previous ranking of 56. read full story

Top Google executives pledge to work together for 20 years

Google Inc's top three executives had pledged to work together for 20 years in a pact they made shortly before the company's initial public offering in August 2004, Fortune magazine has reported.

Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, together with Chief Executive Eric Schmidt say in a joint interview for Fortune's February 4th issue that the three had agreed to work together for two decades starting one month before the 2004 IPO.

"We agreed the month before we went public that we should work together for 20 years," said Schmidt, who added that he will be 69 years old by that time. Page would be 51 and Brin 50.

A Google spokesman could not immediately be reached to comment.

Schmidt is Google's chairman. Page is president of products and Brin is president of technology. Each is a billionaire.

With a market capitalization now around $170 billion, the world's most valuable Internet company is scheduled to report results for the final quarter of 2007 on Thursday.

Wall Street expects Google to report 2007 revenue around $16.6 billion, an increase of 57 per cent over the prior year.

Firefox share up over 20% in Europe, mostly at expense of IE

French web survey company XiTi Monitor has published Firefox market share statistics for 2007, which indicate that the open-source web browser is continuing to see gains at the expense of Internet Explorer, particularly in Europe.

XiTi's breakdown of monthly Firefox market share gains for the past year show that the browser climbed from about 20 percent two years ago to 23.1 percent in December 2006 to a record 28 percent in December 2007. Firefox market share hit a plateau and hovered around 27.7 percent between June and September before taking a 0.7 percent drop in October, but then recovered prior to reaching 28 percent last month.

XiTi also provides market share statistics for 32 individual European countries. Finland currently has the highest Firefox market share in Europe with 45.4 percent, followed by Slovenia with 44.6 percent and Poland with 42.4 percent.

In December alone, Internet Explorer fell to 66.1 percent in Europe after losing 0.9 percent market share. During the same time period, Firefox gained 0.7 percent. The statistics show that Safari currently has only 2 percent market share in Europe.

read full story

TCS wage cut worries tech workers

Tata Consultancy Services’s decision to pare staff wages has triggered rumblings in the Indian outsourcing landscape with employees beginning to wonder if indeed they are circling the drain before the slowdown in the world’s largest economy drags them into a quagmire.

Even as employees shuffle uneasily in their seats, top officials at Indian outsourcers closed ranks and sought to allay concerns claiming there was no generic parallel that can be drawn from the action of the country’s largest software exporter.

On Tuesday, TCS in an email communique to its 100,000 plus employees said a combination of internal and external factors saw it failing to meet its Economic Value Added target—a financial performance method calculated as the net operating after taxes profit minus a charge for the opportunity cost of capital invested.

Infosys Technologies, the closest Indian rival of TCS, chose not to read anything into the missive. “It is not an industry issue,” said Infosys Chief Financial Officer V Balakrishnan.

On its part, TCS said, though it met its revenues targets, the EVA target forms the basis for the variable pay computation and has been given in advance, each month during Oct-Dec period.

Based on the audited results, the EVA-based variable payout amounts to Rs 293 crore for the quarter. The actual variable payout based on expected EVA given in advance amounts to Rs 376 crore.

Therefore, the advance payment that has to be adjusted amounting to Rs 83 crore, will be recovered during the current quarter from the employees.

The recovery would be reflected in employee wages in the months of February and March 2008.

“I think it is a company specific strategy. And right now, if you look at our own quarter and the way that business, is growing, I think volumes are not an issue at all,” said Ganesh Natarajan, vice-chairman of industry body Nasscom and managing director of Zensar Tech.

Has Microsoft Disavowed Vista?

Technically, Vista is pure misery. It eats system resources like an elephant does peanuts, Windows applications break and its so-called improved security is a joke. I know it. You know it. Even Microsoft's most devoted yes-men know it--although they won't admit it--and perhaps Microsoft knows it as well.

What else can explain why Microsoft is now leaking news about Windows 7, the next version of Windows? Oh, officially Vista SP 1 is still the big upcoming news, although I think most businesses are actually more interested in XP SP 3. The simple truth is that no matter how Microsoft and its partners like CDW spin it, read fulle article

SCWCD 5.0 Released!!!

Finally, Today sun has officially announced SCWCD 5.0 exam. As bert bates posted earlier, there is no new objectives in the new exam.
SCWCD 5.0 Mock Exams

SCJP 1.6 Book [ Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates ] Coming Soon

This book is expected to be released on June 12,2008, It is listed in amazon store.
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Google Continues Search Dominance

It appears Google's competitors in Internet search have an uphill climb. New research shows how the company is putting even more distance between itself and its rivals.

Efficient Frontier, a search-marketing tech provider, examined more than 17 billion impressions and 270 million clicks on search ads running through its system during the fourth quarter of 2007 and the same period a year earlier. The results show the yawning gap Google has opened with its rivals, Microsoft and Yahoo!, because it continues to attract a growing majority of Internet searches.
Google's share of search spending was 77 percent in the latest holiday quarter, up from 71 percent a year earlier. During the same period, Yahoo!'s share dropped by 25 percent, from 24 percent of the market to 17 percent. Microsoft remained a small presence, taking just 6 percent of the market, up from 5 percent in the year-ago period.

The extent of Google's dominance is even clearer in where new search spending goes. Overall search ad spending increased 29 percent from Q4 2006 to Q4 2007. Nearly all of it (97 percent) went to Google.read full story

Offline Google Docs expected to launch

Recent news from the blogosphere indicates that Google is preparing to launch one of its first offline-ready web applications in the form of Google Docs as part of Google Gears.

As of 2008, the only official integration for Gears is Google Reader, although there are rumours of offline functionality for Google Calendar, along with a report on Google Blogoscoped claiming that Google Docs now has partial offline access.

A spokesperson from Google's US headquarters told ZDNet.co.uk sister site CNET News.com that the company is "working on enabling many of our applications to run on Google Gears, but we don't have anything more specific to share at this time". read full story

Yahoo Profits Fall 23%, Cuts 1,000 Jobs

Yahoo on Tuesday said it would cut 1,000 jobs in February, as the Web portal reported that profits fell by 23% in its fiscal fourth quarter.

The company said net income for the quarter ended Dec. 31 fell to $206 million, or 15 cents a share, from $269 million, or 19 cents a share, for the same period a year ago. Contributing to the drop were stock-based compensation and other expenses. Operating income for the quarter plunged 38% to $191 million from $308 million a year ago.

Revenues rose 8% to $1.8 billion from $1.7 billion a year ago. Marketing services, which include online advertising sales, rose by 7% to $1.6 billion from $1.5 billion. Revenues from Yahoo's owned-and-operated sites rose by 23%, while sales on affiliate Web sites increased by 13%.

During a conference call with financial analysts, Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang announced there would be a "realignment" of 1,000 jobs at the company, which had 14,300 employees as of the end of last year. As a result, the company expected to incur a $20 million to $25 million charge. Some employees would be shifted to other jobs, and the company planned to add people in areas deemed as priorities.

Yang told analysts the company was spending money to change its advertising platform and operations, and expected to exit 2008 stronger and more competitive, and return to higher levels of operating cash flow growth next year. "We're not tinkering around the edges," Yang said. "We're making significant and game-changing investments in Yahoo's future." read full story

Apple more aggressive on Mac sales

Apple is more aggressive on selling macs. I come across lots of ads in major sites. Below is the one example:

Acquiring US visa going to be easier

Acquiring a visa for the US is going to be easier from next year when the American missions in the country will have additional facilities in place to cater to the ever-increasing number of aspirants.

The facilities, including additional visa windows, are to be set up in the missions in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai by the next year, Ambassador David C Mulford said here today.

The number of visa windows in the Consulate in Mumbai is going to be doubled, he said.

Besides, US Consulate will be opened in Hyderabad shortly, he told journalists here while briefing on the all-round growing ties between the two countries.

Observing that the traffic of Indians going to the US has been increasing over the years, he said 4,32,000 visas were issued in 2005 and the number last year stood at 2.2 million.

Of the total number of H1-B visas issued by the US, 60 per cent are issued in India alone, he said, adding it speaks about the volume of people moving from India to America.

Earlier, the waiting period for visa appointments in India was 187 days, which was "unacceptable" between two democracies and open societies, Mulford said.

With the backing from Washington, the waiting period was reduced to an average of 10 days. In New Delhi, the waiting period is seven days, in Chennai eight days and in Kolkata four days, he said, adding "the real story is that we kept that under control."

However, in Mumbai the waiting period is still 36 days because of increase in demand. Efforts are underway to reduce it to less than 20 days, the ambassador said.

Interview of Warren Buffet

Warren Buffet

There was a one hour interview on CNBC with Warren Buffet, the second richest man who has donated $31 billion to charity. Here are some very interesting aspects of his life:

1. He bought his first share at age 11 and he now regrets that he started too late!

2. He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.

3. He still lives in the same small 3-bedroom house in mid-town Omaha , that he bought after he got married 50 years ago. He says that he has everything he needs in that house. His house does not have a wall or a fence.

4. He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or security people around him.

5. He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world's largest private jet company.

6. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He writes only one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies, giving them goals for the year. He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular basis. He has given his CEO's only two rules. Rule number 1: do not lose any of your share holder's money. Rule number 2: Do not forget rule number 1.

7. He does not socialize with the high society crowd.. His past time after he gets home is to make himself some pop corn and watch Television.

8. Bill Gates, the world's richest man met him for the first time only 5 years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with Warren Buffet. So he had scheduled his meeting only for half hour. But when Gates met him, the meeting lasted for ten hours and Bill Gates became a devotee of Warren Buffet.

9. Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, nor has a computer on his desk.

His advice to young people : "Stay away from credit cards and invest in yourself and
Remember:

A. Money doesn't create man but it is the man who created money.
B. Live your life as simple as you are.
C. Don't do what others say, just listen to them, but do what makes you feel good.
D. Don't go on brand name; just wear those things in which you feel comfortable.
E. Don't waste your money on unnecessary things; just spend on things that you really need.
F. After all it's your life, then why give others the chance to rule your life."

India's Century: The Age of Entrepreneurship in the World's Biggest Democracy

In a short time, India has proven itself a major economic power, generating billions for its citizens and for the international community. How did India become a global market mover? And just as important, how can the Western world tap into the vast resources of commerce that India has, mine its phenomenal growth potential in a wide array of industries, and create a profitable relationship with the world’s largest democracy?

Few authors are as qualified to answer those questions as Kamal Nath. Known at home and throughout the world as the face of twenty-first century India, as well as a major architect of India’s reform, Mr. Nath has spent his entire professional life within the corridors of power, helping to shape the policies that have catapulted his nation to world prominence.

In India’s Century, Mr. Nath goes beyond the “flatworld” view to reveal the roots of the Indian economic miracle. With a compelling blend of economic analysis, political insight, and cultural observation, he traces his nation’s emergence from colonial rule in 1947 through four decades of planned economies, the gradual liberalization of India’s economy in the 1990s, and finally, the rise of the Indian global giant.

Nath also explores his people’s unique can-do attitude (also known as jugaad) and the ages-old entrepreneurial spirit that is once again free to express itself at every level of Indian society. Along the way Minister Nath provides understanding for businesspeople and world policy makers attemptattempting to formulate strategies for forging a mutually beneficial engagement with India in the twentyfirst century.

India’s Century is must reading for business strategists, public policy makers, and every thoughtful reader who wishes to understand more about the world’s largest, most vibrant democracy and the role it is likely to play on the global stage in the years ahead.

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JBoss Seam: Simplicity and Power Beyond Java EE

JBoss Seam integrates EJB 3.0 and JSF components under a unified framework that simplifies and accelerates Java EE web development. Now, JBoss Seam’s project leader and technology evangelist take you inside this powerful new technology, showing exactly how to put it to work.

Michael Yuan and Thomas Heute show how JBoss Seam enables you to create web applications that would have been difficult or impossible with previous Java frameworks. Through hands-on examples and a complete case study application, you’ll learn how to leverage JBoss Seam’s breakthrough state management capabilities; integrate business processes and rules; use AJAX with Seam; and deploy your application into production, one step at a time. Coverage includes

How JBoss Seam builds on–and goes beyond–the Java EE platform

• Using the “Stateful Framework”: conversations, workspaces, concurrent conversations, and transactions

• Integrating the web and data components: validation, clickable data tables, and bookmarkable web pages

• Creating AJAX and custom UI components, enabling AJAX for existing JSF components, and JavaScript integration via Seam Remoting

• Managing business processes, defining stateful pageflows, and implementing rule-based security

• Testing and optimizing JBoss Seam applications

• Deploying in diverse environments: with Tomcat, with production databases, in clusters, without EJB 3, and more

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Apple Announces Pink iPod nano

The much-requested pink iPod nano is available immediately in an 8GB model for $199. iPod nano features a two-inch display which lets users watch the brand new iTunes(R) Movie Rentals, or TV shows and music videos purchased from the iTunes Store. iPod nano delivers up to 24 hours of audio playback or five hours of video playback on a single charge* and is encased in a beautiful all-metal design made with anodized aluminum and polished stainless steel, which is also available in silver, black, blue, green and a (PRODUCT) RED special edition.
The pink iPod nano is available worldwide immediately, however so far only the apple store has been updated. We have heard that some UK retailers have already received stock.

Bangalore Tiger

Bangalore Tiger

Of all the tech tigers in India, Wipro is one of a handful that stands out from the pack. In the past five years, it has become one of the most accomplished tech services providers in the world, delivering business value through a combination of process excellence, quality frameworks, and service delivery innovation. Totally dedicated to customer satisfaction, Wipro is known to go above and beyond to make customers happy. It’s a move that’s paid off handsomely, with a 24 percent operating profit in its tech services division—more than twice the industry average.

Bangalore Tiger is the story of Wipro’s transformation and its impact on the tech services industry and the rules of global competition. BusinessWeek senior writer Steve Hamm takes you inside the halls of this transnational phenomenon to reveal the true secrets of Wipro’s superior business: its people, principles, and core competencies.

From Wipro’s triumphs to its missteps, Hamm mines a treasure of business lessons, explaining how and, more important, why it is necessary to:

• Expand quickly without stumbling
• Follow the new rules for outsourcers
• Innovate every day—or else
• Be obsessive about customers
• Motivate employees the Wipro way
• Plan three years ahead to prepare for rapid growth

Hamm also gives you a rare glimpse into the mind of Wipro’s charismatic chairman and thought leader, Azim Premji. Guiding Wipro’s growth every step of the way, Premji was one of the first business leaders in India to decree that his company would not pay bribes. You’ll see how his adoption of world-class business processes helped Wipro thrive—and how Wipro is helping to fulfill his dream of a better educated, more prosperous India. Removing the shroud of secrecy around Indian management principles, Hamm provides a real-world blueprint for operating a successful transnational organization, as viewed through the eye of the Bangalore Tiger.

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Steve Jobs: Wizard of Apple Computer

Steve Jobs: Wizard of Apple Computer
From the emergence of Apple Computer in the late 1970s and early 1980s to its current resurgence, charismatic leader Steve Jobs has captivated the public. Both revered and reviled for his dictatorial manner and stunning successes, Jobs has transcended his legend in Silicon Valley to take on some of the heaviest hitters in Hollywood.

This story begins back in 1985 when Jobs was exiled from Apple, and then it goes on to chronicle the rise and fall of his own company, NeXT; the enormous success of Jobs's film animation studio, Pixar; and finally his triumphant return to Apple in the late 1990s, with Jobs taking the title of CEO in January 2000. Displaying an uncanny skill at the negotiation table and an intuitive sense of brilliant design that could capture the public's fascination with products like the iMac, along with a celebrity's ability to command the spotlight, Jobs has been able to catapult himself to the top of the Silicon Valley and Hollywood establishments.

Based on interviews with scores of people--rivals, colleagues, friends--who have worked with Jobs over the years, The Second Coming of Steve Jobs gets under the hood of this extraordinarily complex man: how and why he almost gave up on his career; the details of his negotiations with Disney's Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner, and of the culture clash between Silicon Valley and Hollywood; his methods of leadership, management, creativity, and innovation; his friendship and rivalry with Bill Gates--and much more. In an unsentimental and powerful voice, Deutschman reveals a man who suffered his midlife crisis at thirty, compressing it into just three months; struggled between self-imposed exile and the allure of public life; and became the baby boomer icon who was constantly blurring the lines between businessman, rock star, and beatnik.

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Direct from Dell

At nineteen, Michael Dell started his company as a freshman at the University of Texas with $1,000 and has since built an industry powerhouse. As Dell journeys through his childhood adventures, ups and downs, and mistakes made along the way, he reflects on invaluable lessons learned.

Michael Dell's revolutionary insight has allowed him to persevere against all odds, and Direct from Dell contains valuable information for any business leader. His strategies will show you effective ways to grow your business and will help you save time on costly mistakes by following his direct model for success.

Direct from Dell is organized into two parts. The first recounts the history and the enormous growth of Dell Computer. The second part focuses on Dell's management approach, from developing customer focus to creating alliances with suppliers. The book manages to avoid most of the promotional and self-congratulatory air that seem to plague so many first-person CEO tomes. Anyone who has followed the PC industry or would like insight into Dell Computer's success should enjoy reading this book. Well written and easy to read. Recommended. --Harry C. Edwards

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SOA Approach to Integration [ SOA Books ]

This book for architects and senior developers responsible for setting up Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) for intra-enterprise application integration (EAI) and inter-enterprise (B2B) integration focuses on process-centric SOA to integrate existing (legacy) applications and modern solutions, using new technologies: web services, XML, Enterprise Services Busses (ESBs), and Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). Application integration within and between businesses to make up-to-date information accessible almost anywhere is a difficult task that is growing in importance. This book shows how to best integrate applications developed in different architectures and programming languages on different platforms with modern e-business solutions, develop web services, and process and manage XML documents from the JEE and .NET platforms. It demonstrates how to use ESBs for service integration and BPEL executable business processes for service composition into business processes.

Amazon Reviews

This is a mediocre book that provides basic information but little of the insight that creates knowledge. As the title implies, it doesn't teach SOA in general, just how to approach application integration using SOA. Even in that, its treatment of the topic is reasonably accurate but superficial.

The book's six chapters are a reasonably logical overview of basic SOA and integration topics that finally culminates in the discussion promised by the book title.

The book demonstrates how SOA has risen in just a few years to a practical means of bolting together disparate online systems. Where these might have been coded and run with different languages and operating systems and web servers. Specifically, the book is concerned with the main choices out there these days. Java Enterprise Edition and Microsoft .NET. (Yes, Microsoft appears to be deprecating the ".NET" in some of its recent marketing, but for techies, that's still how we all refer to it.) Oh, it turns out there is a 3rd alternative, as the book is careful to point out. CORBA.

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Naryanamurthy receives highest civilian honour of France

Infosys mentor N R Naryanamurthy was on Saturday conferred with the Officer of the Legion of Honour, the highest civilian distinction of the Government of France.

The French honour for Narayanamurthy comes on a day when he was chosen for Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award of the country.

French Minister of Higher Education and Research Valerie Pecresse bestowed the honour to the "most admired business leader" of India at a glittering function here this evening.

Created in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, the Legion of Honour is the highest civilian distinction that can be conferred in France regardless of the social status or the nationality of the recipients.

Pecresse acknowledged the humble beginnings of Infosys, which was co-founded by Narayanamurthy in 1981 along with six friends and 215 dollars in the pocket.

"Infosys, which employs over 82,000 staff, is a shining example of development in India," she said.

Accepting the distinction, Narayanamurthy said he was extremely greateful to the government of France for honouring him and try and work hard to deserve the confidence you have in me.

Narayanamurthy, who pursued higher studies in France, said it was a country he loves most after India.

"Today is a very important day .. I read in the newspapers this morning that I had been chosen for the Padma Vibhushan award. It was a pleasant surprise," he said.

Small companies in India think big

Much has been written about how the Nano from Tata Motors has changed forever the way India is perceived globally. Now after all the euphoria begins to subside, it’s time to ask some key questions. Is this the visible face of a wave of innovation that’s sweeping across India? And is India poised to become a hub for low-cost innovations for the world?

Ujwal Parghi would agree. As director of Shri Kamadhenu Electronics, the Anand-based company founded by seven young entrepreneurs with less than half a million rupees as seed capital, he’s been part of this wave. His firm has developed Akashganga, an automatic milk collection and accounting system that has made lives of dairy farmers in cooperatives, much easier.

What previously took over five minutes now gets done in just 30 seconds, saving dairy farmers from serpentine queues where they had to worry about their milk getting spoilt by the time it was measured. The machine incorporates a milk analyser that provides data on six parameters of milk simultaneously and helps monitor adulteration. read full story

Google Ad Business Susceptible To Recession

Google, Yahoo and other Internet companies fueled by online ads could well suffer in a recession, analysts say, but they expect the online ad market might hold up better than other media.

Soaring online ad growth has made Google GOOG a business juggernaut, while also adding to the coffers of other Internet companies.

In a recession, spending slows most everywhere, analysts say.

Investors haven't had to be reminded. Google shares have fallen nearly 20% this year and are down nearly 25% since hitting their all-time high in November.

Investors are nervous because Google, Yahoo YHOO and others get a lot of their ad dollars from the financial, real estate and retail sectors, Standard & Poor's (NYSE:MHP) analyst Scott Kessler says.

"Google has been one of the worst performers over the last week because people are concerned," he said. "They don't know how Google is going to fare amid this economic downturn."

Investors will get a better handle on things when Google and Yahoo release fourth-quarter results on Thursday and Tuesday, respectively. Paid search has been a boon for Google. Analysts expect the company to report fourth-quarter revenue of $3.44 billion, minus the traffic acquisition costs it pays partner sites that carry its ads. That would be up 54% from the year-earlier quarter.

Google gets 98% of its revenue from ads tied to its online search service. Paid search is the fastest-growing segment of the multibillion-dollar online ad market. Yahoo also gets most of its revenue from online ads. Yahoo and Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) MSFT MSN have been ramping up their paid search operations, looking for a bigger slice of that pie.

Paid search ads have become especially popular among smaller businesses because advertisers pay only when a consumer clicks on an ad. In a recession, ads from smaller businesses could become an Achilles' heal for Google, says Barry Parr, an analyst for Jupiter Research. full story

Google CEO bullish on mobile Web advertising

The arrival of a truly mobile Web, offering a new generation of location-based advertising, is set to unleash a "huge revolution", Google Inc Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said on Friday.

"It's the recreation of the Internet, it's the recreation of the PC (personal computer) story and it is before us -- and it is very likely it will happen in the next year," he told a panel at the World Economic Forum.

Current estimates for mobile advertising are cautious, with consultancy Forrester predicting revenues of under $1 billion by 2012.

But Schmidt said this figure was too low and failed to take into account the fact the mobile Web was reaching a tipping point.

Google aims to be a prime mover by bidding for coveted airwaves to launch an open U.S. wireless network, pitting it against established telecommunications players. The move will take the Silicon Valley-based company well beyond its core Web search and online advertising franchises.

Some analysts are worried at the high costs involved but Schmidt said he was confident location-based advertising -- which could, for example, direct hungry travelers to nearby restaurants -- would be "a very, very good business".

Content providers, already struggling in the modern world of music and film downloads, are less convinced that mobile Internet is a minefield.

"It is not going to be easy to hang on the price of content," said Howard Stringer, chief executive of Sony Corp.

Google mulls setting up global data centre in Taiwan

The world's largest search engine operator, Google, is considering setting up its global data centre in Taiwan, Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) said on Saturday.

Steve Chen, the economics minister of Taiwan, on Friday confirmed that Google was mulling launching a centre in Taiwan for data storage. The ministry has reserved a piece of land in the Changpin Industrial Park in Changhwa, western Taiwan.

Taiwan will offer incentives, such as a discount on the land tax, to Google and ensure a stable electricity supply, Chen said.

According to CNA, Google has considered 18 locations outside the US, including Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, to build its data storage centre, but is leaning towards Taiwan.

Oracle to buy BEA for $8.5 billion

Oracle, the Redwood City software giant, said today it is buying BEA Systems of San Jose for $8.5 billion, ending a courtship that began last fall with BEA's rejection of a lower offer for the middleware maker.

The announcement before the stock market opened sent BEA's shares sharply up when trading started, up 19 percent to $18.53 a share. Oracle was slightly down at $21.29 a share.

The agreement calls for Oracle to acquire all outstanding shares of BEA for $19.375 - a hefty premium over the $17 a share Oracle originally offered, but less than the $21 a share that BEA's board of directors was demanding.

For that price, Oracle gets the company plus its $1.3 billion cash on hand. Oracle executives expect it to also boost the company's earnings; Safra Catz, Oracle president and chief financial officer, said in a statement released today that Oracle expects the deal to add to Oracle's earnings "by at least one to two cents."

But analysts had noted that Oracle could use much of BEA's middleware technology, which is compatible with Oracle's Fusion software. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said the addition of BEA products and technology "will significantly enhance and extend" Oracle's own suite of middleware products.

Alfred Chuang, BEA's chairman and CEO, said the transaction "is in the best interest of our shareholders. I am confident our innovative products, talented employees and worldwide customer base will be key

contributors to the success of the combined company over the long term. We look forward to working with Oracle toward a successful completion of the transaction."

BEA came under pressure to sell after Wall Street investor Carl Icahn began acquiring shares in the San Jose company last year. He eventually became the largest shareholder, Originally, Icahn had agreed with BEA's rejection of Oracle's $17 a share offer, but later he began agitating for a sale at that price. But Icahn fell silent after signing a non-disclosure agreement and getting a close look at BEA's technology and financials.

"Both companies will do very well," said Trip Chowdry, managing director of Global Equities Research. He said BEA's social computing products will give Oracle an entry into that growing sector. Customers of BEA should be pleased, he said, "because they were wanting BEA to be bought by Oracle as 70 percent of Oracle database customers are also BEA's customers."

The deal is expected to close by the middle of this year, subject to BEA stockholder and regulator approvals.

In morning trading, shares of BEA jumped 19 percent, or $2.96, to $18.54. Oracle investors were less excited, pushing shares of the company up 13 cents, or 0.61 percent, to $21.44.

Sun to buy out MySql for $1 billion

Sun Microsystems will plunk down $1 billion to buy MySQL, the maker of a popular open-source database.
Sun said Wednesday that it will pay about $800 million in cash for MySQL's privately held stock and will assume about $200 million worth of options. MySQL CEO Marten Mickos will join Sun's senior executive team after the transaction closes.

The acquisition is a bold move for Sun, which has embraced open-source software and development practices in an effort to garner more revenue from its software business. Until now, it has sold support services for a competing open-source database, PostgreSQL.

MySQL is one of the most successful open-source companies founded in the past five years. It's part of the popular combination of open-source development products referred to as LAMP , for Linux Apache Web server, MySQL and the PHP development language, which is broadly used on the Internet and within companies.

Mickos had previously said that the company intends to go public rather than be acquired. Its business model is to give away the source code and its database for free and to charge customers an ongoing subscription fee for support and services.

In his blog, Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz said that Sun will begin offering support services to customers of MySQL before the deal closes later this year.


In a conference call, he called the deal the most important acquisition in the history of Sun.

Schwartz also outlined a number of areas of technical integration designed to optimize MySQL's flagship database--as well as MySQL's Falcon storage engine--on Sun's Solaris operating systems and servers.

He said that Sun can provide the sort of support services that large corporations demand.

MySQL is a "part of every Web company's infrastructure, to be sure. And though many of the more traditional companies use MySQL (from auto companies to financial institutions to banks and retailers), many have been waiting for a Fortune 500 vendor willing to step up, to provide mission critical global support," Schwartz said.

The size of the acquisition, at $1 billion, reflects the indelible mark that the open-source business model--in which companies give away source code and charge for services or high-end products--has left on the software business.

JBoss, another successful open-source software company, was acquired for more than $400 million by Red Hat in 2006. And last year, Citrix paid $500 million for XenSource, a virtualization software provider.


"This is a great move for Sun, and answers the question of 'SunDB' that Scott McNealy posed several years ago," said The 451 Group analyst Raven Zachary.

However, the acquisition also comes with some potential difficulties. "This raises a whole bunch of issues concerning Sun's close ties to Oracle, as well as their investment in PostgreSQL," Zachary said.

He believes other potential suitors include Red Hat, Sybase, Hewlett-Packard, and Oracle.

MySQL, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., and Uppsala, Sweden, has about 400 employees. Investors include Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures, IVP, Intel, SAP, Red Hat.

The deal is expected to close near the tail of Sun's fiscal third quarter, which ends in late March, or early in its fourth quarter.

San Francisco Geared Up For Macworld

http://www.macrumors.com/mwsf/

Macworld 2008

Stand in line here for Keynote

2008 There’s something in the air

Appleologists, train your furrowed brows on the first banners up at Macworld 2008. As the work crews set up this morning, Moscone South has the first hint of what is to come.

Read More

Best Buy announced plans to sell more Macs than ever this year

Katie Marshall reports for AppleInsider that Best Buy gave some insight into its plans for the immediate future at the CES 2008 and it’s good news for potential buyers of our favorite computing platform. Best Buy executives commented that the company plans to double the number of stores carrying Macs, a number that is currently pegged in the vicinity of 230-270 retail locations, in the next couple of months.

This means that by the end of February 2008, roughly 500 of the 900 total Best Buy stores will be selling the best computers money can buy (see what I did there?). We’re, of course, glad to hear this latest development: the more Macs you see on store shelves, the better an indication it is of their growing popularity. And that can only be good, right?

Macworld Expo 2008 Keynote Live Coverage: Web, SMS, iPhone

MacWorld at San Francisco is just one week away. There is lot of speculation about the upcoming new products. One amoung in the list is ultra-thin laptop.

mac rumours writes in details here

SCBCD books - Manning Publications (Paul Sanghera)

Manning Publications (Paul Sanghera)

This is a good book to learn the concepts of EJB but for the exam you need the HFEJB book. The details of Context objects (which method of Context object you can use in which method call of the Bean class) are more descriptive in HFEJB If you are planning to sit for the exam this book should be accompanied by HFEJB

Order this book from amazon

SCBCD Books - Head First EJB (Kathy Sierra, Bert Bates)

Head First EJB (Kathy Sierra, Bert Bates)

What do Ford Financial, IBM, and Victoria's Secret have in common? Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB). As the industry standard for platform-independent reusable business components, EJB has just become Sun Microsystem's latest developer certification. Whether you want to be certifiable or just want to learn the technology inside and out, Head First EJB will get you there in the least painful way. And with the greatest understanding. You'll learn not just what the technology *is*, but more importantly, *why* it is, and what it is and isn't good for. You'll learn tricks and tips for EJB development, along with tricks and tips for passing this latest, very challenging Sun Certified Business Component Developer (SCBCD) exam.

Buy this book from Amazon store

SCWCD 1.4 Book - Professional SCWCD Certification (Wrox Publications)

Professional SCWCD Certification (Wrox Publications)

This book is a complete, definitive study guide for gaining a certification pass in the Sun Certified Web Component Developer (SCWCD) exam (310-080). Each chapter is structured around one section of the exam objectives and follows it closely. This helps you to focus on learning what is necessary for the exam without surrounding clutter. By the end of each chapter you will have the knowledge required to answer any question on the subject that could appear in the exam. A revision sheet and exam-standard questions follow each chapter to further reinforce the topics in that chapter.

What's more, the book has been design to be useful beyond the study period. All the objectives are explained using real-world examples so that your can come back to the book for reference. In addition to this, the book contains a large case study that will integrate all the topics and objective you have learned through the rest of the book. Java web applications are more than a disparate collection of topics and as such the case study pulls together all the topics in the book to give some context to the whole technology.

The book provides all that you will need to become a fully certified, professional Java web developer.

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SCWCD 1.4 Book - Hanumant Deshmukh (Manning Publications)

SCWCD 1.4 Book - Hanumant Deshmukh

Aimed at helping Java developers, Servlet/JSP developers, and J2EE developers pass the Sun Certified Web Component Developer Exam (SCWCD 310-081), this study guide covers all aspects of the Servlet and JSP technology that Sun has determined necessary. This new edition adds aspects of servlet/JSP development, such as the Expression language, and updated materials of servlets with a particular focus on using filters to make request processing more efficient. Covering the reliance on the JSP Standard Template Library (JSTL) and its core, this guide allows JSP developers will be able to simplify their development process and remove Java-based scriptlets and expressions from their code. All applications in this book are designed to run on Apache's latest development server, Tomcat 5.0, and instructions on how to install this new edition and execute servlets and JSPs are included.

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SCWCD 1.4 Book - Head First Servlets and JSP (Kathy Sierra,Bert Bates,Bryan Basham)

Head First Servlets and JSP

No problem. Head First Servlets and JSP's brain-friendly approach drives the knowledge straight into your head (without sharp instruments). You'll interact with servlets and JSPs in ways that help you learn quickly and deeply. It may not be The Da Vinci Code, but quickly see why so many reviewers call it "a page turner". Most importantly, this book will help you use what you learn. It won't get you through the exam only to have you forget everything the next day.

Learn to write servlets and JSPs, what makes the Container tick (and what ticks it off), how to use the new JSP Expression Language (EL), what you should NOT write in a JSP, how to write deployment descriptors, secure applications, and even use some server-side design patterns. Can't talk about Struts at a cocktail party? That'll change. You won't just pass the exam, you will truly understand this stuff, and you'll be able to put it to work right away.

This new exam is tough--much tougher than the previous version of the SCWCD. The authors of Head First Servlets and JSP know: they created it. (Not that it EVER occurred to them that if they made the exam really hard you'd have to buy a study guide to pass it.) The least they could do is give you a stimulating, fun way to pass the thing. If you're one of the thousands who used Head First EJB to pass the SCWCD exam, you know what to expect!

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