ThinkThrice Day1 - ThinC-Who Solutions

Questions Answers
1 Chika - The vodafone pug
2 Everton
3 Leman Brothers
4 Saurav Ganguly
5 Russell Crowe
6 Satyajit Ray
7 Prodrive
8 Veer Zaara
9 Orkut
10 United Breweries
11 Stephen King
12 Winnie the Pooh
13 Park Jee Sung (Manchester United)
14 Makar Dhwaja
15 Adam Gilchrist
16 Alan Stanford
17 Sylvester Stallone
18 Playboy
19 Proctor & Gamble
20 Marshal Josip Broz Tito

ThinkThrice Day2 - ThinKross Solution

ThinkThrice Day3 - ThinKonnect Solution

1. Daniel Pearl :
Logo of Dow Jones Corporation (owner of the Wall Street Journal)
Logo of Stanford University (where Pearl studied)
Aly Khan (played Pearl's killer, Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh in the movie A Mighty Heart)

2. Palestine:
Yasser Arafat (young)
Munich Olympics (where the infamous incident of Palestinian guerrillas happened)
A postage stamp of Palestine

3. Madagascar / Marty:
Flag of Madagascar (changed)
Chris Rock (Voice of Marty the zebra in Madagascar)
Madagascar map

4. Band Aqua:
Play Me (the first album of Aqua as ‘Joyspeed’)
Indiana Jones (called ‘Dr.Jones’ in the movie)
Ruth Handler (creator of Barbie)

5. Taj Mahal Hotel:
Watson’s Hotel (where JRD Tata was denied entry)
Times food guide (co-authored by Sabina Saikia, who was killed in the Nov 26th attack)
Harbour Café (which was completely destroyed in the attack)

6. Princess Diana:
Mohammad-al-Fayed
CCTV footage of Diana’s driver Henri Paul leaving the Ritz Hotel, Paris on the night of their accident
Flag of wales (Diana was princess of Wales)

7. Godrej:
Logo of Godrej Interio
Priety Zinta (brand ambassador of Godrej Electronics)
Adashir Godrej (founder)

8. Ajay Jadeja:
Logo of Sardar Patel Vidayalaya (student)
Jhalak Dikhlaja (participant)
Jaya Jaitley (son in law)

9. Jungle Book:
Nana Patekar (voice of SherKhan)
Gulzar (jangal jangal pata chala hai….)
Rudyard Kipling (writer)

10. Nasser Hussain:
Essex county
Sky Sports (commentator)
Chennai Railway Station (Hussain was born in Chennai)

11. Akshay Kumar:
Paranthe Wali Gali (where he was raised)
Bangkok
Rinky Khanna (sister in law)

12. Coca Cola:
John Pemberton (Creator)
Mascot of ‘Atlanta’ Olympics
Sunata Narain (“pesticide controversy”)

13. Kalpana Chawla:
Jean Pierre Harrison (husband)
University of Texas at Arlington (student)
School Group photograph

14. St. Stephens College:
Saint Stephen
Chandrachur Singh
Zia ul Haq (both students)

15. Kabul:
Rabindranath Tagore (writer of ‘Kabuliwallah’)
Salim Durrani (born in Kabul)
John Abraham in Kabul Express

16. Coimbatore:
Goddess Koiniamman (after whom the city is named)
CK Prahlad (C stands for Coimbatore)
Logo of Manchester Commonwealth Games (Coimbatore is called Manchester of South India)

17. Chelsea FC:
Cheryl Cole (wife of Alex Cole)
Russia (Abrahamovich is the governor of the state in red)
Butcher’s Hook Pub (where the club was founded)

18. Vishal Bharadwaj:
A still from Makdee (director)
Ruskin Bond (writer of Blue Umbrella)
A still from Blood Brothers, an 11 minute short film (Director)

19. Capgemini:
Logo
2007 Rugby WC (Capgemini was leading sponsor)
Serge Kampf (founder)

20. Barck Obama:
Lolo Seoroto (Indonesian stepfather)
Pearl Harbor (he was born in Hawaii)
Joe Bidden (Vice-president elect)

21. The Lord of the Rings:
Ralph Bakshi (director of an animated adaptation)
Kiwi (LOTR was shot in New Zealand)
Andy Serkis (Gollum)

22. Manoj Night Shyamalan:
Philadelphia (he is from Philadelphia and features the state in his movies)
American Express (Shyamalan featured in an ad of Amex)
Haley Joel Osment (star of the movie The Sixth Sense, directed by Shyamalan)

23. Steve Wozniak:
Logo of Wheels of Zeus (founder)
Newton (the guy who made apple famous!!!)
The Silicon Valley Aftershocks, a Segway Polo team (member)

24. Bombay Talkies:
Mahal (last movie produced)
Devika Rani
Himanshu Rai (founders)

25. 20-20:
Kalam’s book (Vision 2020)
ECB (credited for making Twenty20 cricket famous)
Spectacles (In BFP system, 6/6 vision is called 20-20)

Think Thrice Day 3 - ThinKonnect

The final hurdle of ThinkThrice, the obstacle course for the brain is here. And expect nothing less than complete mayhem from this stage, because this is the mother of all online quizzes.

So just don your ThinCing Caps and get ready to face…

ThinKONNECT

Rules and Regulations:
• Simple, just find the connection between the three pictures and punch in your answers in the attached excel sheet.
• Name the excel file in the following format: ThinkThrice_ParticipantName_Collegename_Day3.xls
• Don’t forget to type in your name, college name and contact number in the excel sheet
• Send in your entries before 22:59:59 to imperium08.thinc@gmail.com


Please follow the following links for the game pdf:
http://w18.easy-share.com/1702794262.html
http://www.4shared.com/file/75499151/e93c65c2/ThinKonnect.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/172411968/ThinKonnect.pdf.html

The answer scripts can be found at the following URLs:
http://w18.easy-share.com/1702794275.html
http://www.4shared.com/file/75499157/5fc0f7/Game3.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/172414270/Game3.xls.html

Think Thrice Day 2 - ThinKross

Presenting the second hurdle of Think-Thrice…


Rules and Regulations:
• This is where things get tougher. Just fill up the following crossword using the clues given below it.
• Name the excel file in the following format: ThinkThrice_Participant Name_College name_Day2.xls
• Don’t forget to type in your name, college name and contact number in the excel sheet
• Remember, your entries must reach us tonight before 22:59:59 at imperium08.thinc@gmail.com
• The subject line of the mail should be ThinkThrice_Participant Name_College Name


Please download ThinKross.xls from any of the following links:

http://w15.easy-share.com/1702779057.html
http://www.box.net/shared/ttp3soccb6
http://rapidshare.com/files/172087708/ThinKross.xls.html
http://www.4shared.com/file/75339218/a17f8e22/ThinKross.html

Think Thrice Day 1 - ThinC-Who

The wait is finally over!!!
Presenting the first hurdle of Think-Thrice…


Please download the pdf from any of the following links:

http://w17.easy-share.com/1702764290.html
http://www.4shared.com/file/75186662/6b99d96b/ThinC-Who.html
http://www.box.net/shared/ttp3soccb6
http://rapidshare.com/files/171764776/ThinC-Who.pdf.html

The answer script is available at:

http://www.4shared.com/file/75187709/136faa37/Game1.html
http://w18.easy-share.com/1702764600.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/171772108/Game1.xls.html

Rules and Regulations:
• Simple, just identify the person, place, company or country we are talking about and punch in your answers in the attached excel sheet.
• Name the excel file in the following format: ThinkThrice_Participant Name_College name_Day1.xls
• Don’t forget to type in your name, college name and contact number in the excel sheet
• Remember, your entries must reach us tonight before 22:59:59 at imperium08.thinc@gmail.com

Reuse and Recycling of computers.

Globalization continues to transform forward supply chains. The scope of mining and manufacturing activities has expanded around the globe, accompanied by massive material and monetary flows between nations, which entail profound environmental, economic and social effects. While a degree of consideration has been given to the sustainable management of international forward supply chains, almost no attention has been paid to the globalization of reverse supply chains. A “reverse supply chain” is the network of activities carrying out the reuse, recycling and final disposal of products.
Computers are an important component of the growing volumes of end-of-life electronics, also known as e-waste. Disposal of used computers in the U.S. and other developed countries is increasing. These computers are resold, sent to landfills, recycled domestically or shipped abroad for reuse and recycling6. While precise estimates remain elusive, a significant portion of end-of-life computers go abroad and are recycled by an informal or “backyard” industry. Informal electronics recycling activities have been documented in many parts of the world, including Guiyu and Wenqiao in China, Bangalore, Chennai, Dehli and New Dehli in India, Lagos in Nigeria, and Karachi in Pakistan. These reports indicate serious environmental implications of informal recycling. While computers have valuable recyclable materials they also contain toxic substances of concern. Backyard recycling processes both release these toxics as well as generate new ones. Growth of informal recycling informal reuse/recycling is economically driven because it runs a net profit as opposed to a net cost for recycling in the U.S. Socially, computers are of particular importance vis a vis their enabling role in using Information and Communications Technology (ICT). International used markets help to make inexpensive computers available to lower income people.

Delhi, the best e-governed state in India: survey

Delhi emerged as the best e-governed state in 2007, followed by Goa and Chhattisgarh, even as Karnataka and Gujarat plummeted in e-governance initiatives, a Dataquest-IDC e-Gov survey says.

"Delhi was voted the best e-governed state by its denizens for meeting nine out of 14 parameters set for the survey," Dataquest's chief editor Prasanto K. Roy said in a statement here Friday evening.
"The nation's capital state rose to the top from third position in 2006, while Chhattisgarh jumped to third position from 14, with an impressive record of e-governance performance," said Roy.

Other three best e-governed states are Goa, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab follow them.

"Karnataka, which was the second best e-governed state in 2006, plunged to ninth position last year, indicating that political stability is crucial to the success of e-governance projects in a state," Roy said.

The findings were based on a citizen survey conducted across 20 states by CyberMedia group's leading publication Dataquest in association with technology research firm IDC India.

Similarly, the survey found Gujarat slipping to 19th position from fourth in 2006 and Jharkhand as the worst e-governed state, followed by Haryana and West Bengal. Last year's topper Goa slipped to the second spot. Among the southern state, Andhra Pradesh slipped to eighth position from fifth in 2006, while Tamil Nadu rose to fourth from eighth and Kerala to fifth from 11th rank.

Citizens gave maximum marks to e-initiatives in education, income tax and transport services, while they expressed dissatisfaction with those in employment exchange, police and security and judiciary.
The maximum score achieved on any parameter was Chhattisgarh for its education department. Delhi topped the list in police and security category, while Gujarat's low scores on both police and judiciary indicate the negative legacy of the 2002 riots, the survey noted.

"We are seeing the impact of political and law and order issues on citizen's satisfaction-whether it is Gujarat's massive fall, or Karnataka's or West Bengal's muted slides," Roy asserted.

In north, Himachal Pradesh jumped to seven from 16 and Punjab to 10 from 16, with impressive gains in ranking, as interaction with governments becoming easier, while Haryana declined to 18 from 10. In e-governance services for businesses, Tamil Nadu topped the list with Chhattisgarh close behind followed by Delhi, Maharashtra and Kerala. Interestingly, Tamil Nadu was at 10 in 2006, while businesses ranked Chhattisgarh at 16.

"The survey found businesses in most of the respondent states more satisfied than citizens with e-governance projects, as the former benefitted from e-applications for supplies and provisions, government tenders and contracts and power utility," Roy affirmed.

The overall e-governance scores of Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Haryana also fell as compared to 2006, as citizens and businesses reported low satisfaction levels with government services.

In business-government interface, Karnataka, which was topper in 2006, fell to 11 and Gujarat slipped to 16 from three in the previous year. The survey found Goa was the most e-ready state followed by Delhi and Uttarakhand. E-readiness measures the success of new e-governance projects in each of the 20 participating states.

"The findings show constant and diligent effort is required to keep individuals and businesses satisfied with the progress of e-governance initiatives. High-performing states in previous years have not stayed at the top, which shows continuous retention of service quality and ease of interaction is key to e-governance," Roy added.

With assembly elections due in some states followed by general elections in 2009 across the country, a high chance of disruption of e-governance services in several states cannot be ruled out.

Source: www.ciol.com

Apple’s MacBook Air is the thinnest laptop in the world as Sony VAIO G11 is the lightest

The Sony VAIO G11 is one model that proves to be the challenger with better battery life and storage than the MacBook Air.

MacBook Air is Apple’s pride as VAIO G11 is nothing lesser to Sony. The MacBook Pro’s aluminium shell shrouds the MacBook Air remarkably rendering it a silver shine while it’s curved edges, to a good extent, vindicates it from the industrial looks. Its multi-touch track pad allows the controlling of on-screen actions by conceiving user’s gestures on the track pad. It offers an 80GB hard drive and comes pre-installed with Apple’s MAC OS X version 10.5 (Leopard) though the user has the option of dual –installing Windows OS too.
The model also boasts of an exceptional WiFi support. The VAIO G11 dons an impressive darker finish that tends to withstand a couple of years' rough handling as against the silver touch up of the MacBook Air. This model is arguably the lightest laptop in the world weighing just 1.13kg. The VAIO G11 excels with a 100GB hard drive and an integrated DVD writer. The worthy model from Sony has a battery backup that lasts for almost nine hours compared to Air’s five hours. However, Air outclasses G11 in the processor speed, ergonomics and value for money segments.
A compact portable system has been revealed by Swan Security that converts a PC or laptop into an enhanced surveillance system agile enough to monitor office, home or retail space. The developer of the system who is the global leader in plug and play security has named its latest innovation as USB 2.0 DVR Guardian.

Source: www.free-press-release.com

Effect of IT industry on Carbon Emission

Information and communications technologies will become a major source of greenhouse gas emissions but can abate far more of them.

Greenhouse gas emissions associated with making and powering the world’s computers and telecom networks are growing fast. Despite efforts by technology manufacturers and users to make these tools more energy efficient, rapid growth in demand for computing and Communications—particularly in developing nations—is creating a big carbon footprint.
The good news is that information and communications technologies can reduce far more emissions than they generate.

In the manufacturing sector, smart controls can make motor systems in factories more efficient. The use of information and communications technologies to optimize the energy efficiency of motors in China’s plants, for example, could cut emissions by 200 metric megatons a year, as much as the Netherlands produces today. The annual energy savings would amount to €8 billion, to say nothing of an additional €4 billion in the value of the emissions (at a carbon rate of €20 per metric ton). The value at stake globally in using these technologies to optimize the energy efficiency of such motors would be about €68 billion (€53.7 billion in energy savings and €14 billion in carbon savings). By 2020, seizing this opportunity could reduce emissions by 0.68 metric gigatons annually.

In buildings, more sophisticated technology can monitor lighting, heating, and
Ventilation systems. For the United States alone, that could cut the
Commercial-building sector’s energy bill by nearly 30 percent a year. Globally, smart buildings could cut emissions by 1.68 metric gigatons a year.
Also there is possibility of reducing emissions by “dematerializing” physical goods and processes through telecommuting, video conferencing, Internet shopping, and downloading content rather than using paper, CDs, DVDs, and so on to covey it. These kinds of substitutions cut emissions significantly—by 0.5 metric gigatons a year—but far less than the 7.3 metric gigatons in annual emission reductions from improved energy efficiency in factories, buildings, electricity grids, and truck fleets.
Users and vendors of information and communications technologies alike will need to innovate. If governments introduce a price on carbon emissions or if energy prices rise further (or both), the increased costs of production could be passed on to buyers. This would challenge IT managers and companies that purchase IT and telecom equipment in large quantities to rethink the way they manage the demand for and supply of IT services, as well as their use of IT applications. At the same time, companies that make everything from control devices to computer components, software to networking gear, will have a big incentive to invest in energy-saving products and services and thus help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Increasing demand for information and communications technologies that promote abatement will create attractive growth opportunities for those companies



Source: mckinseyquarterly.com

The ThinC Times (Oct 28 - Nov 10)

SanDisk fends off Samsung advances with $1 billion Toshiba deal

In a $1 billion deal, flash-memory maker SanDisk Corp. is agreed to sell Toshiba Corp 30 per cent of the manufacturing capacity the two maker of memory cards used in cameras, Toshiba is No.2 in flash memory behind Korean rival Samsung. It has been only a month that Milpitas, California-based SanDisk rejected a $5.85 billion buyout offer from Samsung, citing the offer of $26 a share as too low. Under a nonbinding agreement with Japan's Toshiba, SanDisk would sell part of its capacity in their 50-50 flash joint ventures in exchange for cash and reduced leasing costs that would total about $1 billion. The companies, which jointly own two factories in Yokkaichi, western Japan, will split the remaining 70 per cent of the output equally. SanDisk would retain the option to buy some of the chips made by the equipment it sells to Toshiba. The two companies operate three joint ventures and will also continue to jointly invest in the next generation of flash-memory products.
Samsung has a 42.3 per cent share of the NAND flash memory- chip market in the second quarter, compared with Tokyo-based Toshiba's 27.5 per cent and Hynix Semiconductor Inc.'s 13.4 per cent. Flash memory is used in a variety of consumer devices such as wireless phones, MP3 players, mini-computer drives and digital cameras.

Yahoo chopping more than 1,000 jobs

Yahoo, the second biggest search engine company after Google is reportedly cutting more than 1,000 jobs across the board after the first round of 1,000 cuts in January as a cost cutting measure against the backdrop of the declining US economy that has led to reduced spending on online advertising, with analysts predicting a loss of $6.7 billion in online advertising revenue, forcing Yahoo to adopt hard cost-cutting measures. Yahoo currently has a headcount of 14,300 after laying off about 1,100 employees in January. The Sunnyvale Company is expected to announce the job cuts after it releases its third quarter financial results which according to analysts will be disappointing as they expect sales to rise but earnings to fall up to 9 cents per share. Yahoo has forecasted revenue of between $1.78 billion to $1.98 billion for the third quarter and between $7.35 billion and $7.85 billion for the year. In its bid to cut costs, Yahoo had hired consulting firm Bain & Co. in September to review its costs and make structural changes. Some Yahoo managers will be asked to cut operating budgets by about 15 per cent.
Google, however, seems to have bucked the trend, with its third quarter 2008 earnings appearing to be recession-proof; the search engine leader registered a 26 per cent rise in profits to $1.35 billion from quarterly revenues, including commissions to advertisers $5.54 billion, a rise of 31 per cent. Its earnings had grown strongly due to its core online search and advertising businesses. Search engine will thrive despite the slowing economy, because its technology can find customers more cheaply than marketing.
In a bid to boost its revenue by $800 million, yahoo tied up with its arch rival Google, to display ads sold by Google along with its search results. But the launch of this venture, which was slated for the beginning of this month, is in jeopardy as the US Justice Department investigates whether the alliance would diminish competition in the online ad market. Yahoo has been negotiating with Time Warner about a possible acquisition of AOL for a deal which could cost Yahoo between $8 billion to $10 billion and the structure of the deal would see AOL being a part of Yahoo and Time Warner having a minority stake, in a deal that had been considered earlier, as well.

TCS awarded Rs1,000-crore passport automation project

Tata Consultancy Services has a signed a Rs1,000-crore deal with the ministry of external affairs (MEA) for the passport automation project, the largest mission-critical e-governance project floated by the centre. The project would enable it to issue new passports within three working days and under the Tatkal scheme dispatch passports the same day, subject to address and police verifications of the applicants. The passport automation project would digitize passport services and allow online filing of applications. With this project going on-line, applicants have the alternative option of filling the intelligent character recognition (ICR)-enabled form which along with all relevant documents will be scanned and submitted at passport facilitation centers. The project will be implemented under the buy-own-operate-transfer basis with the pilot project to be operational within 19 months. The countrywide roll-out of the passport automation project will take place within six years and the government is expected to open 77 'passport filing centers' across the country in a phased manner. TCS will have end-to-end responsibility of implementing this project. The passport filing centers will be the primary hubs supporting all activities including biometric capture, photograph, payment and verification and issue of passports in the presence of applicants for most cases.

Sun Micro introduces free alternative to Microsoft Office

Microsoft has a new problem on its plate with rival Sun Microsystems unveiling Open Office 3.0, the latest product to compete with its ubiquitous, and high-revenue, Office suite. Moreover, it has been so popular that the site partly crashed due to excessive traffic. The software suite combines word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation tools similar to the Microsoft Office suite. The open source version, however, is free, making it an attractive alternative for people or businesses that need only basic capabilities. The biggest improvement to Open Office 3 is the ability to open Office 2007 files. However, some files, such as .docx, .xisx, and .pptx, can only be read. The second major enhancement is a new version for the Apple Mac. The upgrade installs and runs like a normal OS X application. As the global economic crisis dries up credit and adversely affects IT budgets, corporate chiefs and administrators are going to be more open to a Microsoft Office alternative that is more compatible with Microsoft Office. So, the product may end up eating into Microsoft's revenues considerably, especially as IBM has also expressed support for the open-source software.
OpenOffice.org is a free cross-platform office application suite available for a number of different computer operating systems. It supports the ISO standard Open Document Format (ODF) for data interchange as its default file format, as well as Microsoft Office 97-2003 formats, Microsoft Office 2007 format (ability to "open" documents in version 3), among others.OpenOffice.org was originally derived from StarOffice, an office suite developed by StarDivision and acquired by Sun Microsystems in August 1999. The source code of the suite was released in July 2000 with the aim of reducing the dominant market share of Microsoft Office by providing a free, open and high-quality alternative; later versions of StarOffice are based upon OpenOffice.org with additional proprietary components.

Infosys to provide digital convergence platform for Bharti's DTH TV services

Bharti Airtel Ltd has announced an innovation and technology partnership with Infosys Technologies Limited for its newly launched direct-to-home (DTH) television service. Infosys will provide technology products that will help deliver improved services to the subscribers of Airtel digital TV (its direct-to-home (DTH) TV service), launched on 9 October. Airtel's digital TV technology will use Infosys' digital convergence platform to bring digital lifestyle applications offering interactivity and personalization into the living room. This will include interactive and non-intrusive applications like widgets that can be invoked by the user to view relevant and customized information. Airtel TV viewers will be able to access local city information through interactive applications such as iCity and enables hassle-free internet-like experience on their televisions with iNet, get live and personalized stock quotes, breaking news, horoscopes, cricket scores and shopping deals in the city without interrupting their TV-viewing experience. Airtel digital TV customers will also offer select websites packaged suitably for TV-viewing, in an application called tPortal.

Government clears Rs1, 237 crore funding of state level IT infrastructure

The department of information technology (DIT) has approved the setting up of state data centres (SDC) in 27 states/UTs, involving a total outlay of Rs1, 237 crore. Operations in 15 states are expected to start by June next year. The department will have a share of Rs412 crore in the project, with the remaining Rs825 crore coming through additional central assistance. The project aims to create a common secure IT infrastructure to host state level e-governance applications/data to enable seamless delivery of government-to-government (G2G), government-to-citizen (G2C) and government-to-business (G2B) services. These centers will be supported by wide area network (WAN) and common service centers (CSC) established at the village level, as part of e-governance project. The central government approved the scheme for establishing data centers across 35 states/UTs across the country on 24 January 2008, with a total outlay of Rs1,623.20 crore towards the capital and operational expenses over a period of 5 years. The states/UTs have been categorized in three categories viz: large, medium and small. It is expected that the data centers in about 12-15 states shall be set up and operational by end-June 2009. Data centers in the remaining states/UTs shall be progressively implemented from August 2009 onwards and the entire exercise is expected to be completed by December 2009/March 2010, considering a standard time for implementation of about 10 to 12 months. Once established, state data centers would provide much functionality, including central repository of the state, secure data storage, online delivery of services, citizen information/services portal, state intranet portal, remote management and service integration etc to enable seamless delivery of e-governance services in the states. The progress of implementation of data centre is currently being reviewed by the DIT with the states.

Lenovo introduces futuristic consumer PCs

Lenovo has introduced a complete range of futuristic consumer PCs - seven new notebook PCs with five choices of screen size and a diverse palette of colour, style and design. Futuristic features of the range include expanded facial recognition for simple and convenient log-in, gesture recognition for ease of use, one-key rescue system to recover data with just one touch and high-definition entertainment features.
The new notebooks from Lenovo are based on Intel Centrino 2 processor technology and pave the way to HD entertainment, rich online gaming and faster broadband wireless speeds, pretty much packing all of the features of home entertainment system into a laptop. And on the other hand, the Lenovo S9 and S10 series are based on the Intel Atom.

Google unveils mail application to help prevent drunken gaffes

Google has made a name for itself in the annals of innovation with such gems like Gmail, Picasa, Google Maps and the uncluttered search engine Google itself. Now, the Mountain View, California-based company has come out with an innovative product which is simplicity itself, but at the same time, extremely useful - Gmail Goggles. There have been numerous instances when a user, drunk or otherwise emotionally fragile, has sent forth a missive via email to his boss or girlfriend (or both) at night, only to regret it in the morning when sober.
Now, Google Labs, with its software engineer Jon Perlow, has developed an application that will provide a system of checks and balances before that incriminating email is sent out. The Gmail Goggles program consists of a few mathematics questions that the user has to answer in about one minute. If he passes the test, he can forward the e-mail. If the alcohol keeps him from doing the calculations, Google will briefly tell him: ''Water and bed for you. Or try again''. Of course, it's an optional application that can allow one to avoid it if he really doesn't want it to restrain his e-mail sending options when drunk. It is pre-set activated on Friday and Saturday nights, but the user can encounter the math problems every day if he really wants to. To activate it, one must simply log in to his Google account and activate the option from the Labs menu.

Apple unveils new notebook range, powered by Intel and NVIDIA

Computer maker Apple unveiled seven new notebooks in three form factors on Tuesday, and at the same time showed its affinity towards two emerging technologies - general purpose processing using specialised graphical processing units (GPUs) and solid state drives (SSDs). While the new products didn't actually incorporate the former, the use of NVIDIA's GeForce 9400M motherboard lends credence to the theory. In tapping NVIDIA for integrated graphics in the new MacBooks, Apple may be sending signals that its next operating system release will include some general-purpose GPU (GPGPU) computing capabilities.
NVIDIA's graphics processors, of course, support CUDA, the GPU programming language the company has built for software developers. While central processor performance is still of paramount importance in PCs, NVIDIA and its developer partners have already demonstrated that certain parallel computing tasks can be carried out with much greater efficiency on graphics processors than on CPUs. But for now, all general-purpose processing for these notebooks are being carried out by Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Apple has also embraced SSDs in its new line-up but had kept the option of basic hard disk configurations alive. The two new MacBooks, three MacBook Pros and one of two new MacBook Airs in the latest lineup have 128GB SSD upgrade options from normal hard disk drives. The more expensive of the pair of MacBook Airs, the $2,499, 1.86GHz version, comes with the 128GB SSD in its basic configuration.

IBM opens ILOG tender offer

IBM commenced a $340 million cash tender offer to acquire French software maker ILOG, which the company hopes to leverage to boost its presence in the lucrative business process management (BPM) market. IBM's subsidiary Citloi SAS is offering €10 or $13.70 for each ILOG share in France and its American depositary shares held in the US. Both offers are expected to end on 17 November.
BPM software is used in planning, monitoring and analysis of business processes such as billing, distribution and marketing. It is seen as a way for companies to streamline internal systems and improve customer service. BPM is a great prospect for companies trying to stretch their dollars as the economic downturn tightens tech spending worldwide. In their endeavor to wring as much value as possible out of their existing IT hardware, IT research firm IDC has estimated that the BPM market is growing at around 44 per cent per annum, and could be valued at $5.5 billion by 2011. IBM's ILOG acquisition has been cleared as per the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvement Act of US and authorized by the French Minister of Economy. It is subject to European antitrust regulations and to the condition of expiry of the offers.
BPM enables companies to model, automate, monitor, and redesign business processes, such as opening a bank account, documenting a medical record, or customizing an insurance policy. It enables companies to improve customers' service and increase efficiency, automation and accuracy. Using BPM, companies can examine tasks within an organization, particularly those done manually or involving significant document processing, and apply BPM to automate or streamline them. Such processes are becoming increasingly critical as business operations become more complex and information volumes grow at phenomenal rates. For example, a business rule might be applied to elevate a premier customer to the front of a phone queue as part of a customer service process. ILOG's Business Rule Management System provides users with tools that allow greater control over the criteria that determine how and when to route those premier customers. As such, businesses can accelerate the process of initiating policy changes that may be driven by market trends or competitive activity to ensure customer satisfaction is maintained.

sITters1

Here is the first among the many (yet to come ;) ).  

The blog will carry an archive of sITters and their solutions. 

You have to connect the 3 images in every question. For the grand connect, connect all the 5 answers.

Enjoy the sITters !

Answers given at the end.

Solutions

 1.    i-Flex : Larry Ellison (founder Chairman of Oracle), Rakesh Hukku (CEO of i-Flex), i-Flex centre in Bangalore

2. Torry Harris Business Solutions : Richard Harris (Dumbledore), Torry Harris’ logo, Torry Holt (St. Louis Rams, NFL)

3.  NASSCOM : Som Mittal (President), Dewang Mehta (Former President, Father of software boom in India), India Leadership Forum is the annual conclave organized by NASSCOM

4. Hughes Systique : Logo of Hughes Systique, Aviator (Howard Hughes, founder of the Hughes Group), Aricent (successor of Hughes Software Systems.

5.  Capgemini : Logo, Capgemini was the official sponsor of the Rugby WC 2007, Serge Kampf (Founder Chairman) 

Mega Connect: 

ThinC (Join the first letters of all the answers)

Tata Consultancy Services to acquire Citigroup Global Services for $505 million

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has agreed to acquire all of Citi's interest in Citigroup Global Services Limited (CGSL), the India-based captive business processing outsourcing (BPO) arm of Citi for about $505 million in an all-cash deal. In addition to the sale, Citi has signed an agreement for TCS to provide, through CGSL, process outsourcing services to Citi and its affiliates in an aggregate amount of $2.5 billion over a period of 9-1/2 years. CGSL is one of the largest providers of business processing outsourcing services in the banking and financial services sector, providing end-to-end process management across the BFS spectrum and a broad array of services to Citi's consumer, corporate and global wealth management businesses world wide.It has over 12,000 employees in India and expects to generate revenues of approximately $278 million in 2008.Citi and TCS already have an existing business relationship whereby TCS provides application development, infrastructure support, help desk and other process outsourcing services to Citi.

TCS has provided IT services to Citi since 1992 and is currently one of the largest IT services partners for Citi, delivering IT and business processing outsourcing services to Citi across its operations in North America, Europe, India, Japan, Singapore and the rest of Asia Pacific. The acquisition is subject to relevant regulatory requirements and closing conditions and the parties expect to close the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2008. Merrill Lynch acted as advisors to TCS in this transaction. 

HCL sidelines Infosys in Axon acquisition

After resisiting HCL Technologies' advances for the last two years, British consulting firm Axon Group has agreed to accept a £441 million ($785 million) bid from HCL Technologies, rejecting an earlier offer of £426.1 million ($753.1 million) by Infosys Technologies. HCL offered to buy Axon for 650 pence a share in cash on September 26, topping the Infosys offer of 600 pence. If the deal does go through in HCL's favour, being at a premium of 8 per cent to Infosys bid, then it would be the largest overseas acquisition by an Indian IT company.

India's IT sector is heavily dependent on the US, its largest market, which is at the moment in the midst of the worst financial crisis and many Indian IT companies are now trying to reduce their dependency on the US, by building up their business in Europe and Asia. The acquisition would give to any one of the Indian companies access to the growing market for technology consultancy services in the UK, as well as a large chunk of revenue from Europe.

HCL had said it would take a loan of $735.5 million from international markets at interest rates ranging between 8.5 per cent and 9 per cent per annum and pay the rest in cash for the acquisition. Experts opine that although the deal is expensive and impact the balance sheet of the company in the short term, would benefit greatly in the long run.

Axon provides consultancy services to multinational corporations that have selected SAP as their strategic enterprise platform and HCL has always stated its intention to be a global major in the EAS line of business with its top management saying that the Axon acquisition will place them well in the space. HCL stands to gain Axon's expertise in products developed by SAP AG, the world's biggest maker of business-management software.

Axon was set up in 1994 by Mark Hunter, who will pocket £44 million from any takeover deal. It has about 2,000 employees with offices in Britain, North America, Malaysia and Australia. Its 2007 revenue was £204.5 million pounds ($361 million).

HCL operates in 19 countries, with an expertise in developing software in manufacturing and a fast emergent life sciences business. It got 57.4 per cent of its business from the US market of which two-thirds of the $1.9 billion revenue came from non financial services companies last year.

Keep ThinC'ing :)

Did we ever thinC why thinCing caps are so interesting? 

Is it because they keep us thin'c'ing? 

Is it because they make us more wiser - and can even transform a dud into a dude(ette) ? 

We delve more to find answers to these and many more such questions - and as our interests pertain to the domain of Information Management & Consulting, this thin'c'ing cap gives you a dose of exactly the same!

An initiative from Team ThinC to keep those grey cells charged - and yes - also for those people who got to thin'c' to get info assorted at once place!