TOP NEWS

Yahoo - Microsoft deal in next 24 hours

Bangalore: Yahoo and Microsoft have agreed to an online search and advertising partnership, in an attempt to stand against the web search engine Google. The deal will be announced within the next 24 hours.

Under the term of the deal, Microsoft, which made a failed takeover bid of $47.5 billion for Yahoo last year, will have access to the volume of search queries that run through Yahoo's search engine. Yahoo has agreed to use Microsoft's new Bing search engine on its own sites. Also, Yahoo will handle the advertising sales, using Microsoft technology. Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz said, "I think Bing is actually a good product and Microsoft deserves kudos for Bing."

The deal would give Bing a boost in competing with Google's search engine. Google's search engine dominates the marketplace with 65 percent of the U.S. Internet searches, according to the figures provided by research firm ComScore. It is followed by Yahoo with 19.6 percent and Microsoft with 8.4 percent.

According to a technology blog, All Things Digital, the deal is "less sweeping than originally conceived" and does not involve upfront payments by Microsoft to Yahoo. "This makes the deal much smaller than ones previously envisioned, which included Microsoft taking over both Yahoo's search and its text-based search advertising businesses, in exchange for large payments and guaranteed revenue."

However, the deal may also face privacy issues, said Colin Gillis, an Analyst at Brigantine Advisors. "Any agreement where Microsoft powers search and shares the search data to Yahoo! is open to scrutiny from the U.S. and EU justice departments," he added. It can trigger the federal regulation limiting the ability of companies like Yahoo to collect data from users' searches and share it with partners, which would remove a key advantage of the partnership, said Gillis. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An engineer kills himself over lost 4G iPhone

Bangalore: A Chinese engineer killed himself after a fourth-generation iPhone prototype he was responsible for disappeared. Sun Danyong, 25, was a recent graduate in engineering who worked in product communications at Foxconn Technology Group. Foxconn is a Taiwanese firm that makes many Apple products at a massive factory in the southern city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong.
The Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper reported that his property had been seized and was held in solitary confinement, where he faced "unbearable interrogation techniques" for having lost one of 16 "4G" prototypes.

Apple issued a statement this afternoon in response to a report by CNET. An Apple spokeswoman said, "The Silicon Valley firm is saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death. We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect."

AppleInsider notes that it's the second piece of bad news for the company recently. Last week an investigation found that 45 of the 83 factories that built iPhones and iPods in 2008 weren't paying valid overtime rates, and that 23 weren't even paying some of their workers China's minimum wage.

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PC companies to install Windows 7 in few weeks

Bangalore: Microsoft sent the final code for Windows 7, its next computer operating system to manufacturers on Wednesday and said it's still on track for October 22 launch.

Mike Angiulo, General Manager, Windows group said, "Getting up and running on a Windows computer will be "a lot smoother" than it was when Windows Vista launched in 2007." Microsoft said that windows 7 should be an easier launch, as the new version is a lot like Vista. If a company updated a product to work with Vista in the last few years, it will also work with Windows 7.

Windows 7 has also progressed in an orderly way, which means outside companies have had more time to make sure their products will work. Vista was plagued by changes to Microsoft's plans, leaving partner companies scrambling to keep up.

The new operating system is likely to launch into a much tougher climate than Vista did. PC shipments are expected to fall this year for the first time since 2001, as the economic crisis has forced businesses to slash technology spending. Microsoft built in a way for companies to run older, Windows XP programs in Windows 7, in an attempt to avoid losing those corporate customers that skipped Vista altogether because critical software wasn't compatible.

Microsoft said, "The Companies that have long-term agreements to buy Microsoft software in bulk will be able to download and start installing Windows 7." From Oct. 22, Windows 7 will come on new PCs, and will be available for people to buy separately and install on their existing machines.
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Technology

'Chinese hack into Australian film festival website'

London: The website of Australia's biggest film festival was hacked into after a Chinese diplomat called to complain about the screening of a film about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, the BBC reported Sunday.

Melbourne International Film Festival head Richard Moore told BBC radio that the website was hacked into just after a Chinese consular official called to demand the withdrawal of a documentary film about Kadeer, who belongs to the predominantly-Muslim Uighur minority.

Content on the website was briefly replaced with the Chinese flag and anti-Kadeer slogans Saturday, he said, adding Beijing has withdrawn five films from the festival in protest.

The Chinese government accuses Kadeer, the subject of "Ten Conditions of Love" by Australian filmmaker Jeff Daniels, of inciting riots between Uighurs and Han settlers that swept Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province, earlier this month.

Kadeer, who lives in the US after spending six years in a Chinese jail, denies the charge.

Moore said the attacks on the festival website began about 10 days ago.

"We've been subjected to a number of these attacks and we can see behind the scenes on our website that there are hundreds, well, if not thousands, of people from outside of Australia trying to get into our website and trying to damage us," Moore told the BBC.

"This has been going on since obviously the call from a Chinese consular official who told me in no uncertain terms that I was urged to withdraw this particular documentary from the film festival and that I had to justify my actions in including the film in our programme," he added.
He said police were investigating the website attacks, which appear to come from a Chinese internet address.

India starts to develop its heaviest satellite

Bangalore: India will soon design and develop its heaviest communications satellite GSAT-11 to provide advanced telecom services from 2011-12, a senior official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said here Friday. At 4.5 tonnes, it will weigh more than twice as much as the biggest Indian satellite in orbit now.

"Activities to design and develop GSAT-11 will start immediately, as the project has been cleared by the government at a cost of Rs.5-billion (Rs.500 crore)," ISRO Director S. Satish said.
The advanced communications technology satellite will be launched in mid-2011 on board the Geo-Synchronus Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-Mark III) from ISRO's spaceport at Sriharikota, about 80 km north-east of Chennai.

"The satellite will be designed at our satellite centre in Bangalore, payloads consisting of 40 transponders in Ku/Ka band will be built at the space applications centre in Ahmedabad and the 630-tonne rocket (GSLV-Mark III) will be rolled out from the liquid propulsion systems centre in Thiruvananthapuram," Satish told IANS.

The indigenously developed GSAT series of satellites are aimed at revolutionising communications, spanning digital audio, data and video broadcasting. The earlier versions of GSAT such as GSAT-1 and GSAT-2 were designed with two S-band and three C-band transponders.

"With 16 high capacity multi-beams in Ku/Ka band, GSAT-11 will provide much faster uplinks for a host of communications and broadcasting services, including direct-to-home (DTH television). With a dry mass of 2.1 tonne, the spacecraft will provide 10 GHz of bandwidth, which will be equivalent to about 220 transponders of 36 MHz," Satish pointed out.

The advanced satellite will employ a new 1-4K Bus (computer network). It will be configured with two-sided large solar array panels generating 11 KW of power.

In the run-up to GSAT-11, the space agency is scheduling the launch of other communications satellites in the GSAT series over the next two years.

"The two-tonne GSAT-4, slated for launch by this year on board GSLV-Mark II, will have a communication payload comprising multi-beam Ka-band pipe and regenerative transponder and navigation payload in C, L1 and L5 bands," Satish said.

GSAT-4 will also carry a scientific payload, Tauvex, consisting of three ultra violet (UV) band telescopes developed by Tel Aviv University and Israel space agency for surveying a large part of the sky in the 1,400-3,200 ngstrom wavelengths.

Propulsion with four stationary plasma thrusters, Bus Management Unit (BMU), miniaturised dynamically tuned gyros, 36 AH Lithium ion battery, 70 V bus for Ka-band and on board structural dynamic vibration beam accelerometer are some of the new technologies developed for GSAT-4.

"GSAT-4 spacecraft will a power generation capability of 2,500 watts and will be positioned at 82 degrees east longitude in a geo-stationary orbit, about 36,000 km above the earth," the official said.

'India survived slowdown because of banks nationalisation'

Kolkata: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Sunday ruled out privatisation of state-run banks and said market economy was not the solution to the nation's economic problems.

Recalling that the late prime minister Indira Gandhi had nationalised banks 40 years ago in 1969, Mukherjee said, "We survived the economic meltdown because of this step. In the world's leading countries, the finance sectors have crashed but we are still surviving because we nationalised our banking sector."

Rather than privatising banks, he said, the government policy was to strengthen the state-run banks.

"The government will always have at least 51 percent stake in them," Mukherjee said while inaugurating the 28th conference of the West Bengal unit of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC).

He said economic reforms were needed, but the stress would be on fulfilling the needs of the "aam admi" (common man).

"Market economy cannot be the only end of economic reforms. Unbridled market economy is not the right thing. It cannot be the panacea for our economic problems," he said.

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was trying to frame policies that will bring about an economic uplift and safeguard the interests of organised workers and farmers, besides those in the unorganised sectors.

"Sonia Gandhi has asked me to discuss the matter with the INTUC. I shall do so," he added.

Unless the purchasing power of the working class is raised, the country cannot prosper, Mukherjee said.

"So our main aim is to eradicate poverty. We have the National Rural employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). We will introduce similar schemes to raise the purchasing power of the poor people so that companies' productions are unaffected by lack of demand".

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About NIIT

Overview

NIIT is a leading Global Talent Development Corporation, building a skilled manpower pool for global industry requirements. The company which was set up in 1981, to help the nascent IT industry overcome its human resource challenges, has today grown to rank among the world’s leading talent development organisations offering learning solutions to Individuals, Enterprises and Institutions across 40 countries.
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NIIT Institute of Finance Banking & Insurance (IFBI), set up by NIIT with equity participation from ICICI Bank, offers programmes for individuals and corporates in the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance segments.NIIT Institute of Finance Banking & Insurance (IFBI), set up by NIIT with equity participation from ICICI Bank, offers programmes for individuals and corporates in the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance segments.
NIIT Uniqua, Centre for Process Excellence, addresses the increasing demand for skilled workers in the business and technology services industry by providing training programmes in relevant areas. This initiative is a part of the NIIT Institute of Process Excellence, a NIIT-Genpact joint venture.NIIT’s School Learning Solutions offer turnkey IT integration programmes for schools and has provided computer-based learning to nearly 7.8 million students in over 9,500 Government and private schools.
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