Launch of Powerlabs, Plus More Powerset Screenshots

Lately there's been a swirl of buzz about Powerset, a stealth natural language processing search engine. Last week they released their first "Query of the week". Today we discovered that Powerset is launching Powerlabs (screenshot below), plus we got our hands on a second query. read full article

Google Takes Over the World by 2050

Davide Casaleggio sent a tip to Read/WriteWeb about a video his company produced exploring the future of media. It is a very cool 6-minute video, which takes some educated (and imaginative) guesses at how the Web and media will evolve over the next 40-50 years. In the short movie, Google, Amazon.com and Second Life are the big winners - with Google buying Microsoft, Amazon buying Yahoo, and Second Life becoming the dominant virtual world.

The core future media concept is the Agav - an Agent-Avatar, which "finds information, people, places in the virtual worlds". Here's where it gets interesting. In 2022 Google launches Prometeus, the Agav standard interface, and Amazon creates 'Place' - a company that replicates reality. Then in 2027 Second Life evolves into 'Spirit', where people can become who they want to, via avatars. And then finally, the 'Google overloads' moment - when Prometeus buys Place and Spirit! By 2050 virtual life is the world's biggest market and Google/Prometeus reigns supreme.Of course it may turn out different, but the video does make you think about where the Web is headed. Check it out...

New Features in Java Server Faces 1.2

This Article provides a summary of new features added in JavaServer faces 1.2 Technology. Alignment with the JSP framework is one of the more important achievements of JavaServer Faces 1.2 technology, developed through JSR 252. In addition to these changes, JavaServer Faces technology contributes a host of other significant ease-of-use features.read full article

Introduction to Java Server Faces(JSF) Core Tags Library

This article introduces about the various Core Tags that are available in JSF. Tags represent some set of Actions that will be executed in the Server. This article assumes the reader to have a fair bit of knowlege in Java Server Faces. If not, then they can visit the Introductory Article in JSF in javabeat. For more information and resources about Java Server Faces, readers can also Jsf Articles Page visit here. This article will start off with the Major Classification of Core JSF Tags and then will explain in depth about the various different types of Tags that are available in each category. Wherever and whenever possible, Code Snippets are given to make the understanding of the Tags much clearer.read full article

Mapping Java Objects and XML Documents using JAXB - Java 6.0

JAXB (Java API for XML Binding) technology which was included as part of JWSDP (Java Web Services Developer Pack) before, is now included with the Mustang Distribution. Simply put, it is a Mapping Technology for Java and XML Documents. Using JAXB, one can Generate XML Documents from Java Objects and also they can Construct Java Objects from one or more XML Documents. In JAXB terms, Marshalling refers to the process of converting a Java Object to a XML Document and Un-Marshalling is the reverse of Marshalling which is simply getting a Java Object from one or more XML Documents. read full article

Streaming API for XML - Java 6.0

Streaming API for XML, simply called StaX, is an API for reading and writing XML Documents. Why need another XML Parsing API when we already have SAX (Simple API for XML Parsing) and DOM (Document Object Model)? Both SAX and DOM parsers have their own advantages and disadvantages and StaX provides a solution for the disadvantages that are found in both SAX and DOM. It is not that StaX replaces SAX and DOM. read full article

Pluggable Annotation Processing API - Java 6.0

Annotations have been there in the Java World from Java 5.0. Java Annotations are a result of the JSR 175 which aimed in providing a Meta-Data Facility to the Java Programming Language. It can be greatly used by the Build-time Tools and Run-time Environments to do a bunch of useful tasks like Code Generation, Validation and other valuable stuffs. Java 6 has introduced a new JSR called JSR 269, which is the Pluggable Annotation Processing API. With this API, now it is possible for the Application Developers to write a Customized Annotation Processor which can be plugged-in to the code to operate on the set of Annotations that appear in a Source File.read full article

Including Ajax Functionality in a Custom JavaServer Faces Component

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) is a technique for making the user interfaces (UI) of web applications more responsive and interactive. Because of its flexible and pluggable UI component model, JavaServer Faces technology is the perfect framework to use when adding Ajax functionality to your applications. With the DOJO JavaScript toolkit, it's even easier for component developers to add this functionality. This tutorial describes how to add the power of Ajax to JavaServer Faces components with some help from the DOJO toolkit.read full article

Ajax support in struts 2.0

Ajax or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML was introduced by Jesse James Garrett in 2005. He is called the “Father of Ajax” .Ajax is a collection of concepts and technologies that allows richer and more interactive user interaction with the web applications. The Ajax engine allows the user’s interaction with the application to happen asynchronously — independent of communication with the server. So the user is never staring at a blank browser window and an hourglass icon, waiting around for the server to do something.read full article

Introduction to Java 6.0 New Features, Part–I

This article covers the various new features of Java 6, also known as Mustang. This article assumes that readers have sufficient knowledge over the concepts and terminologies in Java 5.0. For more information on Java 5.0, readers can vist the resources available in javabeat here. Though there is no significant changes at the Language Level, though Mustang comes with a bunch of enhancements in the other areas like Core, XML and Desktop. Most of the features are applicable both to J2SE and J2EE Platforms.read full article

Struts 2.0 Introduction and Validations using Annotations

This article provides an introduction to Struts 2.0 and its new Validation Features. Since Struts 2.0 is new, the first few sections of the article discusses in brief about the basics of Struts 2.0, its architecture and its various New Features. The rest of the article is dedicated towards explaining about the new Validation Features available. Struts is an Open-Source Web Application Framework that simplifies the creation of a Java Web Application. It is based on the Model-View-Controller 2 (MVC 2) Architecture which was originally found in a language called SmallTalk. The recent version of Struts is Struts 2.0 and it has borrowed most of the concepts in terms of architecture and functionality from two frameworks namely WebWork and XWork.read full article>>

Introduction to Java Server Faces

Java Server Faces (JSF) simplifies the development of User Interfaces in a typical Web application. It provides a Component-based Pluggable Architecture for developing and representing User Interface Components. Also bundled with JSF is a whole set of various new features like Event Handling Mechanism, Page Navigation, Input Validation and Conversion. This article provides an overview about JSF Framework and the various core elements that form the basis for a JSF Framework. It then provides a detailed overview about the various phases in the JSF Request Processing Life-cycle. Explained further is the structure of the JSF Configuration File. And finally the article is concluded by providing a sample application that demonstrates the various new features.read full article

Hibernate Interceptors - An Introduction

This article deals with Hibernate Interceptors. Hibernate is an open-source project that provides ORM solution. Situations may demand to perform some set of pre-requisite/post-requisite operations before/after the core functional logic. In such a case, an interceptor can be used to intercept the existing business functionality to provide extensible or add-on features.read the full article>>

Integrating Struts With Spring

Struts is more established and more stable MVC2 framework at this time so if your application is based on Struts framework you may forget about thinking to move to some other framework. But at the same time you must have heard about the buzz created by Inversion of Control (IOC) design pattern. This design pattern is implemented by Spring framework. Besides there are some more amazing features of Spring like AOP. So if you like to take advantage of these features of Spring you do not have to rebuild the application, but you can integrate your existing Struts application with Spring without much hassle. More about that latter but first we would like to have a look at new features of Spring and how they work.read the full article>>

Introduction to Hibernate

Persistent data can be seen anywhere in an application. Managing persistent data is one of the few challenges that modern technologies/products are facing. A solution called Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) has gained major popularity over the past few years. ORM is a piece of software/product for the representation and conversion of data between the database and the object-oriented programming language. Hibernate is one such ORM solution and it is an open-source project.More>>

Introduction to Java Persistence API(JPA)

Java Persistence API (JPA) provides POJO (Plain Old Java Object) standard and object relational mapping (OR mapping) for data persistence among applications. Persistence, which deals with storing and retrieving of application data, can now be programmed with Java Persistence API starting from EJB 3.0 as a result of JSR 220. This API has borrowed many of the concepts and standards from leading persistence frameworks like Toplink (from Oracle) and Hibernate (from JBoss). One of the great benefits of JPA is that it is an independent API and can nicely integrate with J2EE as well as J2SE applications.More>>

Report Reveals AJAX on the Rise

There are now 3.5 million AJAX developers worldwide, a 50 percent increase over the past year, based on results of a survey that will be released next week.

The survey, conducted by Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Evans Data Corp., will also reveal that nearly four out of five, or 78 percent, of AJAX applications are developed for the Web and nearly 40 percent are for server-centric applications such as databases, ERP, CRM, as well as rich Internet applications.More>>

What is new in Java 6.0 Collections API?

In this article Vidua Sagar will write about the new Collections APIs introduced in Java 6.0. Mustang has few interesting changes in the Collections APIs, one amoung them is the Deque. Deque is used for the Bi-Directional traversal. It has different implementations including BlockingDeque,ArrayDeque,etc. He will talk about the Deque and its various implementation, also few more changes in the Collectiona API in Java 6.0.More>>

The Java 6.0 Compiler API

One of the cool features available in Java 6.0 (Mustang) is the ‘Java Compiler API’. This API is a result of the JSR (Java Specification Request) 199 which proposes that there must be a standard way to compile java source files. The result of the JSR is the new ‘Java Compiler API’ and one can use this new feature to compile java source files from within java files. Previously developers were depending on the low-level issues like starting a process representing the javac.exe. Though this feature is not intended to every one, Editors or IDE (Integrated Development Environment) can make much use of this new feature for compiling Java source files in a better manner.More>>

EJB 3.0 Timer Services - Timer Services API

Starting from EJB 2.1, Timer Services are available for building J2EE Applications that depends on time based services. Time based services are mostly used in scheduling applications. Technically, these scheduling applications are called workflows. A workflow defines a configurable sequence of activities or tasks that will take place at a particular point of time. Before EJB 2.1, one has to manually code for building and deploying time-based workflow systems. But, with the invent of EJB 3.0, thanks to Annotations and Dependency injections, life has become still more easier for creating such applications.More>>

Living the good life at Infosys

The clipped green grounds at Infosys Technologies include a swimming pool, table tennis, pool tables, cafeterias and a mirrored building shaped like one of the pyramids.

 

Golf carts transport employees and visitors around the property of Indian high-tech giant Infosys.

Credit: Michael

 

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and British Prime Minister Tony Blair planted these trees in a garden at Infosys Technologies' campus in Bangalore.

 

Tamil Nadu gets dual-boot Win-Linux desktops

The Indian state of Tamil Nadu has finalized a tender for 40,000 Lenovo desktops which can be installed with both Novell's Suse Linux and Microsoft's Windows XP Starter Edition.

According to C. Umashankar, managing director of Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Elcot), the desktops will be deployed across schools and government departments in the state. Elcot is Tamil Nadu's state-owned IT supplier.

Umashankar said the desktops will be installed with either Suse Linux or dual-boot Windows XP Starter Edition/Suse Linux configurations, depending on the needs of the organization.

For instance, schools will be provided with Suse Linux desktops, while government employees who still require Windows in their work will get dual-boot machines, he told ZDNet Asia.

Dual-boot machines will cost 22,000 rupees (US$497) each, though this was not the initial price point quoted by the vendors, Umakshankar said, adding that Chennai-based IT company Origin Infosys will supply the Lenovo desktops.

He said that Elcot was originally quoted 21,800 rupees (US$492) for each Lenovo system, whether the preloaded OS was Suse Linux or Windows XP Starter Edition. After some negotiation, Elcot secured the final price of 22,000 rupees (US$497) for dual-boot systems, Umashankar said.

Suse Linux is a full-fledged OS with no restrictions on how the platform is used, while Microsoft's Windows XP Starter Edition does not allow users to run more than three software applications at one time.

According to Umashankar, users will be "encouraged" to use Suse Linux as far as possible.

Earlier this year, Tamil Nadu announced plans for all government agencies across the state to switch from Microsoft Windows desktop to Linux and the OpenOffice productivity suite. The move is expected to slash the local government's IT cost by 15 to 25 percent.

Outsourcing giant Infosys believes it is the new model for global businesses

First came orientation at the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame -- name tags for all, a buffet of pasta, sushi and apple pie, the quick rundown on company goals and ethics. Then the recruits prepared to climb aboard three jet airliners for the 30-hour journey to Bangalore, headquarters of their new employer, Infosys Technologies.
``I'm nervous about the flight and I don't know what to expect there -- the weather, the culture, working,'' said Nicole Dun, a 22-year-old San Franciscan embarking on a six-month intensive company training program before being redeployed in the United States. ``Business is global now.''
The summer hiring of 126 young Americans was a validation of sorts for the outsourcing giant, a company that for some in the United States has been synonymous with offshoring and lost jobs.More>>

Andreessen wants to social network

Web browser pioneer Marc Andreessen helped bring the Internet to the masses during the 1990s. Now the Netscape Communications co-founder is trying to help Web surfers build online communities outside the walls of social networking leaders MySpace.com and Facebook.com.

Andreessen's vehicle this time around is Ning Inc., a Palo Alto-based startup that he began in 2005 with former banker Gina Bianchini.

After months of fine-tuning, Ning is finally ready to make its big push with a free toolkit designed to make it easy to launch a social network with a few mouse clicks. Ning's package includes all the social networking staples - videos, photos, music, forums, personal profiles and blogs.

Although both MySpace and Facebook have become smash hits by offering the same features, Andreessen is convinced people dislike the big social networks' one-size-fits-all approach. With Ning's products, even technology neophytes can customize social networks around narrowly shared interests, such as a sports team, church group, hobby or TV show.

"This is the next logical step (for social networks)," said Andreessen, 35, who is Ning's chief technology officer and primary financier. Bianchini, who first met Andreessen while working at another startup, is chief executive.

Ning hopes to make money through a combination of advertising and fees for premium services like extra storage space or bandwidth.

Since he got rich in 1999 when AOL bought Netscape for $10 billion, Andreessen has been scouring for the next big thing with little success so far. He has invested in variety of startups and still serves as chairman of Opsware Inc., a software support provider that has been growing rapidly in recent years but still has accumulated nearly $500 million in losses since its 1999 inception.

Dell to Sell Linux PCs

After collecting some 1,800 new product and service ideas from IT users and customers using an online "suggestion box," Dell Inc. has announced that it's taking the user suggestions seriously and will soon debut and sell a new line of certified, user-ready Linux-loaded desktop and laptop computers.
The Dell IdeaStorm Web site, where customers and other IT enthusiasts can offer recommendations about future Dell products and configurations that they'd want to buy, was started on Feb. 16 by CEO Michael Dell, who is looking for ways to re-energize the company's sales and financial performance after several disappointing quarters.
One post that got a lot of interest was the idea that Dell bring back a reasonably priced laptop computer that runs Linux.More>>

Happy 52nd birthday, Steve Jobs

Happy birthday to you – Steve, this is your day.
On this day for you we’re gonna love you in every way.
This is your day, your day, happy birthday to you, to you, to you.

Happy birthday to you, you’re still young.
Age is just a number, don’t you stop having fun.
This is your day, your day, happy birthday to you.
This day only comes once every year,
Because you’re so wonderful with each and everything you do, hey!

Happy birthday to you, this is your day.
On this day for you were gonna love you in every way.
This is your day, your day, happy birthday to you, to you.
This day is only for you, because you’re so special in every way,
Happy birthday to you and thanks for the Apple iPhone!

Steve Jobs, Business Personality

• Born: 24 February 1955
• Birthplace: San Francisco, California
• Best Known As: The co-founder of Apple Computers

Steve Jobs was a college dropout when he teamed up with Steve Wozniak in 1976 to sell personal computers assembled in Jobs’ garage. That was the beginning of Apple Computers, which revolutionized the computing industry and made Jobs a multimillionaire before he was 30 years old. He was forced out of the company in 1985 and started the NeXT Corporation, but returned to his old company in 1996 when Apple bought NeXT. Jobs soon became Apple’s chief executive officer and sparked a resurgence in the company with products like the colorful iMac computer and the iPod music player. Jobs is also the CEO of Pixar, the animation company responsible for movies like Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. Pixar was purchased by the Walt Disney Company in 2006 for $7.4 billion in stock; the deal made Jobs the largest individual shareholder of Disney stock.

Some sources list Los Altos, California as Jobs’s place of birth. However, in a 1995 oral history interview with The Smithsonian, Jobs said, “I was born in San Francisco, California, USA, planet Earth, February 24, 1955.” Jobs was given up for adoption after birth and raised by his adoptive parents in Silicon Valley… His biological sister is novelist Mona Simpson, author of Anywhere But Here.

Coffee with ET: Premji & Murthy

How often have you seen the chairmen of Wipro and Infosys together? If at all, you can count that on the fingers of one hand. That, too, at very important events or on committees which cannot do without Mr Narayana Murthy and Mr Azim Premji.

How often have you seen the two sit down, either in private or public, for a cup of coffee and chat up. Not once until now. Not until ET got them to do that on a liesurely Sunday morning. The rest, as they say, is history.

We do not want to use adjectives, it was great, or any other devices that English language permits to describe how it went or what they discussed. We bring that extensively for you. If you are impatient to read what they said about the emerging global market place, competition, with others and, certainly, between them, opportunities for the country in many sectors, the admiration and respect they have for each other, you can go straight to the interview .More>>

Top 10 Largest Databases in the World

We all collected things as children. Rocks, baseball cards, Barbies, perhaps even bugs -- we all tried to gather up as much stuff as possible to compile the biggest most interesting collection possible. Some of you may have even been able to amass a collection of items numbering into the hundreds (or thousands).More>>

JavaBeat WebLog

Articles on Java 6.0

I have collected list of articles on Java 6.0.
Resources and Articles for Java 6.0 (Mustang)

Closures in Java 7.0

Java 7.0 Articles
Introduction to Java Module System in Java 7.0

I am just trying in google to know what is in next version of Java. So many blogs writing about the new feature closures in Java 7.0, a functional programming cocept.

An excerpt from sun blogs:

Modern programming languages provide a mixture of primitives for composing programs. C#, Javascript, Ruby, Scala, and Smalltalk (to name just a few) have direct language support for function types and inline function-valued expression, called closures. A proposal for closures is working its way through the C++ standards committees as well. Function types provide a natural way to express some kinds of abstraction that are currently quite awkward to express in Java. For programming in the small, closures allow one to abstract an algorithm over a piece of code; that is, they allow one to more easily extract the common parts of two almost-identical pieces of code. For programming in the large, closures support APIs that express an algorithm abstracted over some computational aspect of the algorithm. We propose to add function types and closures to Java. We anticipate that the additional expressiveness of the language will simplify the use of existing APIs and enable new kinds of APIs that are currently too awkward to express using the best current idiom: interfaces and anonymous classes.

Java 7.0 Articles
Introduction to Java Module System in Java 7.0

Web 3.0 is about creating Semantic Web

The Semantic Web is a web of data. There is lots of data we all use every day, and its not part of the web. I can see my bank statements on the web, and my photographs, and I can see my appointments in a calendar. But can I see my photos in a calendar to see what I was doing when I took them? Can I see bank statement lines in a calendar?

Why not? Because we don't have a web of data. Because data is controlled by applications, and each application keeps it to itself.

The Semantic Web is about two things. It is about common formats for interchange of data, where on the original Web we only had interchange of documents. Also it is about language for recording how the data relates to real world objects. That allows a person, or a machine, to start off in one database, and then move through an unending set of databases which are connected not by wires but by being about the same thing.>>

Minglebox - Web 2.0 company in Bangalore

Minglebox Communications Private Ltd. is a start up in the internet and mobile space, founded by ex IIT/IIM alumni. The founders are marketing and technology professionals with varied experience in consumer goods, internet, telecom, financial services and IT industries across India and the US. The company aims to build internet and mobile consumer products for the next generation of Indian users. This is located in Bangalore.

Minglebox is in the process of setting up a world class technology team to build a set of highly scaleable web 2.0 based applications/platforms. They are looking to getting a couple or more high caliber techies from the Java world with an interest in building web2.0 technology.>>

Linus Torvalds - Godfather of Open Source

Linus Torvalds was just 21 when he changed the world. Working out of his family's apartment in Helsinki in 1991, he wrote the kernel of a new computer operating system called Linux that he posted for free on the Internet — and invited anyone interested to help improve it.

Today, 15 years later, Linux powers everything from supercomputers to mobile phones around the world, and Torvalds has achieved fame as the godfather of the open-source movement, in which software code is shared and developed in a collaborative effort rather than being kept locked up by a single owner.

Some of Torvalds' supporters portray him as a sort of anti-Bill Gates, but the significance of Linux is much bigger than merely a slap at Microsoft. Collaborating on core technologies could lead to a huge reduction in some business costs, freeing up money for more innovative investments elsewhere. Torvalds continues to keep a close eye on Linux's development and has made some money from stock options given to him as a courtesy by two companies that sell commercial applications for it.

But his success isn't just measured in dollars. There's an asteroid named after him, as well as an annual software-geek festival. Torvalds' parents were student radicals in the 1960s and his father, a communist, even spent a year studying in Moscow. But it's their son who has turned out to be the real revolutionary.More>>

Seagate puts a padlock on drive data

The Seagate technology called DriveTrust encrypts all data written to the disk, making it accessible only to users who have the correct password when the computer is hard booted.

The 128-bit encryption technology has been welcomed by notebook users, in the light of a number of recent high profile thefts of notebooks containing sensitive data in the US Government.More>>

Why vivek paul quit Wipro?

On May 5, Wipro vice chairman Vivek Paul walked into the second floor Bangalore offices of Wipro executive vice president (human resources), Pratik Kumar. The meeting was unscheduled.

Paul told Kumar about a certain sense of 'restlessness' that had seized him lately. He disclosed how he 'was evaluating to do something else'. Kumar thought Paul was at a stage 'where he wanted to make a decision'.

After the conversation, Kumar lost no time in speaking to Wipro chairman Azim Premji on what had transpired between him and Paul. Premji seemed to be aware of what was going on in Paul's mind. He simply expressed his quiet disappointment to Kumar.More>>

Wipro Roars

When Premji took over his father's business it was anything but global. It had about 350 employees, mostly in and around Bombay, and just $3 million in revenues. The company was publicly traded, and not long after Premji assumed control he faced shareholders for the first time at the annual meeting. Premji, who was self-conscious about his age, had grown a mustache in an effort to add some gravitas. But restless investors weren't impressed. One stood up to complain about the stock's lousy performance and demanded that Premji sell the company. ``'There's no way a twit like you can run it,''' Premji recalls him saying. ``More than anything else, that made me determined to prove him wrong,'' says Premji.More>>

Leading Infosys 2.0

Leadership in transition is a particularly painful time for companies. But not for Infosys and Nandan Manohar Nilekani. This year's Dataquest IT Man Of The Year continues to take Infosys and the Indian outsourcing story to new heights.More>>

Oracle unveils new apps, Linux support program

Oracle Corp. has unveiled a new version of its Oracle E-Business Suite of business applications and a support program for the Red Hat Linux operating system.

The E-Business Suite 12 software adds features to help worldwide operations more easily consolidate data, said John Wookey, senior vice president of application development at Oracle. The new version was introduced during the company's OpenWorld user conference here this week.

Oracle E-Business Suite 12 offers easier deployment than Version 11i and includes tools to help users more easily execute profitability analysis by channel or product line, Wookey said. The updated E-Business Suite also adds a Web service repository and links to Oracle's Fusion middleware, the company said.

The new release will begin shipping within a year, Oracle said.More>>

Web Browser Faceoff

The last few weeks have been packed with browser action and the two market leaders, Internet Explorer and Firefox, have launched major new versions. So to round out our recent browser coverage, we present the Web Browser Faceoff - looking at how all the main browsers compare with each other in terms of features and innovation. We are basically looking for what is unique, interesting - and missing - in each browser.

Right now Microsoft still holds onto its huge market lead, but Firefox is gaining more ground every month. Probably more importantly, there are other major innovators in the browser space - such as the social browser Flock (a Read/WriteWeb sponsor) and the perennial innovator Opera. The Mac browser Safari of course has many passionate supporters, while new kid Maxthon is one to watch.

Regardless of who will prevail in the 'browser 2.0 wars', the users will win. While fighting each other, the browser makers innovate and simplify. They increase our productivity by integrating into the browser web concepts such as search, RSS, OPML, microformats and more. The core browsers are getting slimmer and faster, while extensions that cover a wide range of services are being developed by external parties.More>>

Sun CEO: Java open source in 30-60 days

Sun Microsystem will announce the open-sourcing of the core Java platform in 30 to 60 days, said Sun President/CEO Jonathan Schwartz at the Oracle OpenWorld conference on Wednesday morning.

Java will be offered via an open source format under an OSI-approved (Open Source Initiative) license similar to the one used for open-sourcing of the Solaris OS, he said during a keynote presentation.

Sun officials have talked about Java being offered via open source in stages later this year and into 2007.

Google zooms past IBM

INTERNET advertising giant Google has surpassed IBM to become the world's third most valuable technology company, trailing only behind software giant Microsoft and network leader Cisco.More>>

The Indian Summer of Linux

In recent weeks attention has focused on rapidly growing markets in the developing world where the relative absence of legacy computing systems, makes the choice more interesting. India is on the radar of dozens of software service providers, waiting and watching, which way large spenders will jump. And the media has caught on to the excitement:

`Linux spreads its wings in India' reported Business Week earlier this month, with Nandini Lakshman reporting that eight state governments here have put their treasury operations on Linux systems, while Maharashtra is fuelling its revamped health care system on Open Source systems.

Pankaj Mishra writes in the September 30 issue of CTO Forum that 18 of 28 Indian states have embraced Linux in some form or are running pilot e-governance schemes.

The `Open Source Symposium' and Red Hat Developer Day on successive days in Bangalore last week, provided another opportunity to assess to what extent the Penguin's Progress across India is the unstoppable march many watchers seem to suggest.More>>

Firefox2 Launched

The Mozilla Corporation has officially released Mozilla Firefox 2 for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Firefox 2 now with a refreshed user interface, anti-phishing protection, improvements to the built-in search feature, tabbed browsing changes, the ability to restore an interrupted session, better support for Web feeds, inline spell-checking, support for microsummaries and a number of other enhancements. Get it now!!

Chicago selects Red Hat to help improve services provided to citizens

The world's leading provider of open source solutions to the enterprise today announced the City of Chicago's successful migration to Red Hat Enterprise Linux for essential government programs including the vehicle registration system online job applications restaurant inspections ethics training and more. The City of Chicago migrated to Red Hat in order to reduce costs and improve support performance and scalability. The city has already saved more than $250 000 and is reducing server hardware maintenance and operating costs as a result of Oracle's certification and support infrastructure on Red Hat.More>>

Coimbatore, India's rising IT powerhouse

When M Karunanidhi, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, handed over the documents for land in Coimbatore to Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro, and unveiled the model IT Park to be built in the city, a new chapter in the development of Tier-2 cities started in the state.

Accepting the documents, TCS CEO S Ramadorai said that a recent study by Indicus Analytics found Coimbatore to be the best city in South India for investment.

He added, "As a matter of fact, I was in Coimbatore recently, where I met with the student community, academia and businessmen. My experience was an eye opener. Engineering students quizzed me on financial markets while businessmen discussed with me at length on strategies of Google and IBM."

"There was a lot of energy and enthusiasm. The point I'm making is that there is a passionate, well informed and ambitious community of people. I saw a potential ecosystem in action," he added.

TCS has opened a software engineering lab in PSG College of Engineering in Coimbatore. TCS also has an Engineering Centre of Excellence especially for SMEs. By collaborating with small and medium enterprises, Ramadorai said, TCS would be unlocking the potential to bring their innovations to the world.More>>

The success stories of TCS

Subramanium Ramadorai, also known as Ram, joined Tata Consultancy Services or TCS in 1972. Instrumental in setting up TCS' operations in New York in 1979, Ramadorai took over as the CEO in 1996 and since then he has played an integral role in building TCS into India's first $1 billion IT services company.More>>

How IITians aim to transform India?

It will be payback time for the country's most talented minds -- the stars from Indian Institutes of Technology -- when they meet for three days in Mumbai in December. PanIIT 2006, an umbrella organisation of IITians, has scheduled the annual alumni conference from December 23 to December 25.

This time a record 5,000 IITians are expected to participate in the convention, many of them from overseas.More>>

Apple iPhone Early Next Year?

Speculation is rife that Apple Computer is going to launch two iPhone models early next year. There are reports doing the rounds that the company has officially filed for the "iPhone" trademark.

The two iPhone models include a smart phone and a slim music phone that will be launched in conjunction with Cingular, a US mobile network operator. One of the models will include wireless (WiFi) connectivity, and a keyboard for messaging.

Reportedly, the Apple trademark filed under a South East Asian trademark on 15 September, includes several categories, such as music player, mobile phone, and video game machine.

According to reports, the smart phone version is under development for over 12 months now, and has been successful in overcoming ample challenges including design, interference, battery life, and other technical glitches.

Wipro Q2 net profit rises 46 p.c.

The net profit of Wipro for the second quarter (July-September) rose by 46 per cent to Rs. 700.20 crore from Rs. 478 crore in the same period a year earlier in a booming global outsourcing market. The consolidated revenues of Wipro for the second quarter went up by 41 per cent to Rs. 3,546.20 crore from Rs. 2,506.80 crore a year ago, as it added 54 new clients that included Global 500 or Fortune 1000 clients.

The third largest software exporter, thus, earned $589 million from global IT services and products during the second quarter, surpassing its own guidance of $577 million.

Wipro Technologies contributed higher to the volume growth in the second quarter by garnering revenues of Rs. 2,720.50 crore, 44 per cent more than a year ago period.

Revenues of Wipro Infotech grew by 36 per cent to Rs. 542.60 crore, while that of Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting rose by 41 per cent to Rs. 202.50 crore.More>>

Apple profits soar on iPod demand

Global demand for the iPod music player and other Apple products helped the technology firm boost profits by 27% to $546m (£292m) in the fourth quarter.
Apple Computer shipped more than eight and half million iPods for sale during the period, up 35% on a year ago.
Combined with strong sales of PCs and laptops, Apple's international sales now account for 40% of its turnover.
Chief executive Steve Jobs said the past year was one of "extraordinary" progress for the company.More>>

India's Telecom Sector Growing Exponentially

The mobile phone industry in India is growing rapidly and has even left China behind by some measures, whereas wireless operators are competing for the available and expanding spectrum. A record 5.9 Million new mobile phone subscribers were drawn by the Telecom sector in India in the month of August 2006, according to the COAI ( Cellular Operators Association of India ).

While India witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of mobile subscription, the number of mobile subscribers in China, for the first time, went below that of India in the month of August 2006, according to COAI.

RNCOS has recently published a report named "Indian Telecom Sector Analysis ( 2006-2007 )". The report provides extensive research and objective analysis of the Telecommunication Sector in India. More>>

HP regains spot as No. 1. Dell dropped to No.2

Hewlett-Packard leapfrogged over Dell to recapture the lead as the No. 1 PC maker worldwide for the first time in almost three years, according to Gartner.

The analyst firm said Wednesday that HP edged out Dell by a mere 110,000 units shipped in the third quarter. Rival PC market trackers at IDC found HP had a larger volume of PCs by 28,000, which that firm called "a statistical tie." More>>

Google Nabs Yahoo India's CTO

Google has hired Yahoo India's chief technology officer, Prasad Bhaarat Ram, and placed him in charge of research and development in Bangalore.The high-profile recruitment comes less than two weeks after Google nabbed AOL's top AIM developer. Google has also proven adept at poaching high-profile employees from Microsoft.More>>

Sony Takes On iPod with Noise-Canceling Tech

Sony has unveiled a digital-music player with a built-in noise-canceling feature, a technology that the company claims is superior to the noise-muffling headphones available with some players.The company believes that by embedding the functionality directly into its NW-S700F Walkman players, it has created a new category of music player and developed a device that has significantly better sound quality than competing players, including Apple's ubiquitous iPod.More>>

IceWeasel - GNU version of the Firefox browser

FireFox isn’t “open source” enough, and thus IceWeasel was born, a separate version of the geek-popular web browser with a different name and logo.More>>

Office 2.0 Conference Showcases the Future of Office Productivity

What is Office 2.0?
Imagine a computer that never crashes, or gets infected by a virus. Imagine a computer onto which you never have to install any application. Imagine a computer that follows you wherever you go, be it at school, at work, abroad, or back home. This computer does not exist today, but it will in the future, and this future might be much closer than you think.More>>

Google, BEA in enterprise portal mashup talks

Google and BEA Systems are in talks about partnering on a new initiative that will let organizations create mashups between enterprise portals and applications such as Google Maps. As part of the partnership, BEA will get access to some of Google's hidden application programming interfaces (APIs), which will allow developers to create mashups using a new technology feature in BEA's WebLogic Portal, called Adrenaline.The Adrenaline technology enables portal applications to run on other Web sites outside the portal framework, using AJAX and iFrames Web development techniques, while still managing it as part of the portal.More>>

Synch your data across the Web

Sharpcast Photos is Web-connected desktop software, but with an online browser-based version too. It allows you to back up your web albums online, keep your photos in sync across multiple PCs, sync comments (called "Photo Chat"), and manage your photos offline. Sharpcast labels all this "continuous multi-way synchronization" - which is a fancy way of saying that it keeps your PC in sync with the web and optionally with your mobile phone.More>>

Firefox gains market share

New browser usage statistics are out for September, and they're showing some interesting changes in browser market share. Internet Explorer, which has been the market share king for many years now, has been falling steadily since the launch of Firefox 1.0 and has now reached its lowest point in over two years at 82.10 percent. Firefox, on the other hand, has been growing steadily, reaching 12.46 percent market share. Safari holds its third place spot, but sees increasing numbers as well at 3.53 percent.More>>

Google integrated Writely and Spreadsheets

Today google has released it integrated version of writely and spreadsheets. Google has updated its user interface to its own style. Previously its using writely.com site to access the documents.More>>

zoho : online office suite

There is so many online office suites available in the market.This week zoho integrated its produtcts into singl-sign-on(SSO). It looks better than google's products writely,google spreadsheets,etc. I am trying zoho sheets, its lot better than google's spread sheets. Will this application get the attention of google guys? what will be their reaction? Also they have included online presentation tool. That is missing in the google's line of products. Links>>