Many Web designers are staging a protest against the old version of Microsoft’s browser, the Internet Explorer 6 (IE6). They allege that the ability of the Web to move forward in a more interactive way is getting hampered due to the browser. Microsoft acknowledged it is recommending IE6 users to upgrade to the newer IE8, but again promised it would support the older version till April 2014.

The designers say that the IE6, which was released in 2001 and since been updated twice by Microsoft is ‘crippling’ the Internet’s potential and slowing down the online experience. They also blame IE6 for giving webmasters a tough job, because they have to write special ‘hacks’ into the Web code to accommodate an outmoded browser. An estimated 15-25 percent of people still use IE6 as their portal to the Internet. Microsoft officials insist they simply can’t end support for IE 6, since it shipped as part of Windows XP.

Recently, a campaign has started, sparked by 40 Internet start-ups who want their users to ditch Microsoft’s eight year old web browser. The campaign is spread to the social networking sites as well. Facebook has been prompting IE6 users to swap out their browsers since February 2009. A petition on Twitter collected nearly 10,000 signatures supporting the effort. Even Google’s YouTube and Digg were taking similar steps to stop their users from using the IE6 browser.

Although Microsoft has released two major versions of Internet Explorer in the past couple of years, for many, the face of Internet Explorer is still the IE6. In large part, the reason is because many of Internet Explorer’s users are the ones who tend not to change the browser that comes with their operating system.

IT major Infosys Technologies is looking at acquisitions in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Japan and Australia, a top company official said. “The size of the company should be around $450-500 million,” Infosys chief executive and managing director S. Gopalakrishnan told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The US accounts for around 62 percent and Europe around 26 percent of the company’s total revenues of $4.6 billion. The company is now looking at increasing the revenue share from Europe to 30 percent.

Regarding recruitments, Gopalakrishnan said the company had hired 18,000 people in 2008, adding that it would look into further recruitment next January-February depending on the economic scenario.

Infosys is pursuing contract deals worth $1 billion, he added.

Two months after taking over scam-tainted Satyam Computer Services, Tech Mahindra on June 21, 2009 renamed the IT major as Mahindra Satyam.

The logo will be adopted from the Mahindra Group. “This strategic move paves the way for the emergence of a robust brand, which draws from the core values of the Mahindra group and the inherent strength of the Satyam brand,” said a company statement here June 21, 2009 evening.

“Customer centricity, high standards of corporate governance, unimpeachable ethics form the cornerstones of the Mahindra Group,” said Mahindra Group vice chairman and managing director Anand Mahindra.

“This rebranding exercise symbolizes an amalgamation of the Mahindra Group’s values with Satyam’s fabled expertise, even as it retains that part of Satyam’s identity which signifies commitment, purpose and proficiency of the organization and its people,” the statement said.

Satyam’s executive vice chairman Vineet Nayyar described the move as “a significant milestone towards the recovery of the company”.

Tech Mahindra, owned by the $6.3 billion Mahindra Group, bought the scam-hit IT company in an open auction in April 2009.

The re-branding comes six months after Satyam’s founder and then chairman B. Ramalinga Raju confessed to a Rs.78-billion accounting fraud.

The government launched a probe, superseded the board, and put the company up for sale in open auction.

Ramalinga Raju, his brother Rama Raju, former chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas and five other accused are currently in jail.

Microsoft Corp in a quest to provide complete security to its OS users would soon be launching its own antivirus app Code named-‘Morro’. Microsoft also informed that the early version of the product is currently tested by its employees and would soon make a beta product available online before going for a launch at the end of 2009.

The Anti-Virus Software

Anti-virus app ‘Morro’ would provide full–time protection from several types of malicious software including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans .Although many are terming it as stripped down version of earlier shelved Live OneCare.

This news assumes significance as this antivirus would be completely free and would provide higher level of security due to close knit approach with Windows OS.Microsoft may be able to provide a great solution due to control over anonymous usage statistics of millions of PC’s.

This has sound alarms for commercial Anti-virus companies like Symantec,kaspersky and McAfee, earning majority of their revenues by protecting Windows PCs all these years. These companies also has significant presence in enterprise security market and attracts huge revenues from it.

Today many users are forced to buy paid anti-virus to fight higher level of threats unleashed by malicious programmes and viruses.The availability of anti-virus app by Microsoft itself would avoid the security dilemma faced by OS users and may also increase its legal OS sales in emerging markets.

Microsoft through this initiative is trying to ramp up confidence amongst its customers, at the same time opening up a new revenue stream in future.The move may be late timed but indeed serve great purpose for users craving about better anti-virus integration in windows OS.

Former Team India captain Sourav Ganguly today assured West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee of arranging Rs 50-60 lakh for relief to the Aila-affected people.

Ganguly went to the Writers’ Buildings and called on the Chief Minister to express his sympathy with the cyclone-hit people of the state.

After emerging out of the Chief Minister’s chamber, Ganguly told reporters that he assured him of arranging Rs 50-60 lakh for the cyclone-affected people.

He said he would contribute the money after returning from England.

He informed he would fly to London on June 05, 2009 to witness ICC Twenty20 World Cup. Ganguly had been assigned by the ESPN STAR Sports to give expert comment for two semifinals and the final match.

In reply to a question, he said he had apprised of a disputed matter to the Chief Minister regarding his proposed school at Salt Lake in the city.

The residents of CA and DA blocks of Salt Lake have been opposing construction of an English medium school on a 60-cottah land.

They said already there are two institutions Salt Lake School and Haryana Vidyamandir and the proposed six-storeyed third school- Wiffren International School of Ganguly- would cause environmental hazards and create noise pollution as the area is very congested.

Ganguly hoped the dispute would be resoved amicably.

Ever wonder how Google manages all their information? Imagine Gmail, it has to keep track of the billions of emails that get sent out each day regardless of whether or not it is spam.

A Database?
My first thought was a database. But if you think about it, if e-mails were stored in a single database table, it would have billions of rows added each day. This just isn’t possible nor is it efficient when performing a search. So Google cannot possibly store their data in a database… at least not in the traditional MySQL sense.

After a bit of digging around, I found an interesting document written by some of Google’s main architect that describes their file system in great detail. It turns out Google uses a distributed file system spread over many machines. It offers huge storage (hundreds of terabytes) over thousands of machines and thousands of disks.

The advantage of this type of system is redundancy and low cost. Their servers are not top of the line but clustering many of them together creates a highly cost-effective file system.

It’s what Yahoo Does
The owner of the largest database in the world, Yahoo!, takes on a similar approach: clusters of cheap computers that form a distributed file system. In fact, if a computer breaks down, it’s usually cheaper and faster to throw away the computer and replace it with a new one than it is to repair it.

So if you have a bunch of old computers sitting around at home, don’t throw them out just yet… you could create your own distributed file system!

Courtesy: www.jonlee.ca

With companies keen on maximum utilisation of employees and low tolerance to poor performance in the backdrop of global economic turmoil, nearly 2,100 employees in software firm Infosys have faced the axe.

“Some of these employees have been asked to go while some have left on their own,” V Balakrishnan, CFO of the Bangalore-based company, told PTI on April 11, 2009.

Prior to asking the employees to leave, they were put on a performance improvement course and those who showed no improvement were asked to leave while some others quit, he said.

“Tolerance to poor performance is very low given the current economic scenario,” said Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan.

Usually, the employees who showed poor performance were given some more time to improve themselves, but this time there had been no such consideration, he said.

Both the officials said the sacking was part of annual routine, which usually formed five per cent of the total number of employees but this time it was much lower.

Some of the employees had been “outplaced”, Kris said, which refers to the firm hiring the services of placement agencies to help the employees to get placements in other firms. Infosys has a workforce of 105,000, including trainees.

Indian music maestro AR Rahman won the Oscar for his original score in the highly acclaimed movie Slumdog Millionaire.

The composer was overwhelmed and interspersed his speech with Hindi as well as Tamil on receiving the coveted trophy here Sunday.

“There is a dialogue from an old Hindi film,”Mere paas ma hai” – which means I have nothing but a mother. My mother is here, I have her blessings. I am glad she could be here,” said Rahman.

He ended the acceptance speech by saying “God is great” in Tamil, something he says after winning every award.

It was a dream run at the Oscars for India.

Filmmaker Danny Boyle’s rags-to-riches romance set in India, Slumdog Millionaire, won eight Oscar awards for best feature film, direction, original song, original score, sound mixing, editing, adapted screenplay and cinematography.

An elated Rahman who won the Academy Awards for best original score and song from the film Slumdog Millionaire said, “I want to thank everyone. The essence of the film is optimism and hope. All through my life I had the choice of love and hate…I chose love and I am here.” Read story

Boyle, 52, who had never before been nominated for an Oscar, beat David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon), Gus Van Sant (Milk), and Stephen Daldry (The Reader).

Boyle also becomes the first British winner of best director since Sam Mendes was honored in 2000 for American Beauty.

Resul Pookutty, who won the Oscar for best sound mixing, along with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke said, “I dedicate this award to my country. This is not just an award, it is history.”

Smile Pinki, a 39-minute short film in Hindi and Bhojpuri, directed by Emmy-nominated producer Megan Mylan won the best documentary short subject Oscar. Read story

Spanish actress Penelope Cruz won her first Oscar on 22/02/2009 as best supporting actress for her performance as tempestuous artist Maria Elena in Woody Allen’s romantic comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

“I dedicate this to all the actors from my country,” Cruz said in Spanish as she accepted the award.

Heath Ledger got the best supporting actor award for The Dark Knight. Ledger becomes the second man to win an acting Oscar posthumously.

Movie fans flocked to Hollywood on 22/02/2009(23/02/2009  morning India time) to watch the stars parade up the red carpet for the Oscars, the world’s top film awards.

Suspense at the gala ceremony had shifted to whether host Hugh Jackman and producers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark (Dreamgirls) can recapture a dwindling television audience with a showcase of top stars and films.

Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre where the 81st Academy Awards were held saw actors like Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn, Meryl Streep and scores of other stars.

Many around the world watched on television to see what Jackman would do. He who won a Tony award on Broadway for his work in The Boy From Oz as well as TV’s Emmy award for hosting the stage world’s Tony awards.

He was brought in to the Oscars to help spruce up the show. He, Condon and Mark had been mostly quiet about their plans, but The Los Angeles Times said the pair hired Australian director Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge) to stage one number and comic writer/director Judd Apatow (Knocked Up) for laughs.

Jackman performed a musical introduction and a longer routine in the middle of the more than three-hour show.

Popular films always work

The biggest draw for Oscars has always been having popular movies at the centre of the show and suspense over which films, actors and actresses will win awards.

Slumdog, an often dark but ultimately hopeful tale about a poor Indian boy who competes for love and money on a TV game show, has generated about $150 million in global ticket sales.

It has earned awards from critics and industry groups whose members include actors, directors, producers and writers.

The movie’s key competition came from Milk, starring Penn as gay activist Harvey Milk, as well as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Pitt as a man who ages backward.

The other two nominees were Frost/Nixon, which recounts the historic interviews of disgraced former US President Richard Nixon by British TV host David Frost, and the drama The Reader

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh khan

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh khan’s shoulder surgery ended successfully on February 16, 2009. Earlier in the day Khan was admitted to Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital for the operation.

The actor injured his shoulder while shooting for the film ‘Dulha Mil Gaya’. This is Shah Rukh’s 2nd shoulder surgery. The actor decided to get himself operated in Mumbai to avoid the sort of criticism that came his way after he chose to be operated on by doctors in London for a back problem in 2003, says a friend of the actor.

“When he got his back surgery done in London there was criticism about his lack of faith in Indian doctors. Shah Rukh feels that some of the finest doctors in the world are in Mumbai and so he sees no need to go to the West for treatment,” Khan’s friend said.

Post the surgery Khan will be out of action for at least 2 months. Arriving in Mumbai from London, Shah Rukh spoke to the media about his injury. “I will be fine and get back to work in 2 to 3 months. I believe this is a little price that I have to pay for all the goodness that I have got in life”, the very optimistic actor said.

Despite his painful shoulder, Shah Rukh chose to promote his new film “Billu” vigorously during the Valentine week. “After attending the special screening of “Billu” for hairdressers in Mumbai on Feb 12, 2009, Shah Rukh flew to London with Lara Dutta and Irrfan Khan for the film’s premiere. He came back to Mumbai on Feb 15, 2009 to prepare for Monday’s (Feb 16, 2009) surgery,” the friend said.

Shah Rukh will need to rest for a month after the surgery, which has put on hold the filming of Karan Johar’s “My Name Is Khan” till March 14, 2009. But Johar, a close friend of the superstar, is not worried. “Films will keep happening. Shah Rukh needs to be well,” Johar said.