SlashIndia - IT

Net2Phone sues Skype

Mon, 05 Jun 2006 10:49:52 -0500

Net2Phone, one of the oldest players in the online telephony services industry, filed a lawsuit against another giant, Skype — the Global Telephony Company and its parent, ebay. Skype was alleged for violating the VOIP patent owned by Net2phone for last 6 years.

The lawsuit filed by Net2Phone on Thursday at New Jersey, claims the infringement of Net2Phone's patent number '704 by skype. The peer-to-peer protocol, used by Skype for its telephony services is considered to be the culprit for these allegations on Skype.

Further news can be read from ZDNet's Website

Google releases Web Toolkit to simplify AJAX

Wed, 17 May 2006 02:39:17 -0500

Google has just released a Web Toolkit to simplify development of cross browser AJAX applications.

The Google Web Toolkit takes a very different approach for simplifying development of AJAX applications as compared to other similar initiatives like Prototype.

For one thing, the real development happens in Java and the toolkit provides a compiler which converts that into JavaScript for deployment. The toolkit also includes a hosted web browser where you can directly test your Java code before compiling to JavaScript.

Cynapse launches NeoBinaries.com

Thu, 11 May 2006 00:09:27 -0500

Cynapse - the inventor of SyncNotes and Flickr Gadget has recently launched their new invention NeoBinaries a web2.0 community powered by users, industry experts, application creators and team Cynapse, designed to help users decide upon the perfect web based application for their wide ranging requirements.

NeoBinaries makes it easy for you to find the web based application that works best for your usage. At NeoBinaries you can find the newest & most popular Web 2.0 applications, compare details, read reviews and comments from people like you. You can subscribe to the RSS feeds and keep yourself updated with the latest news from the world of Web 2.0.

indian bookmarking website

Mon, 08 May 2006 23:16:50 -0500

IndiaMarks.Com seems like an India specific del.icio.us. It claims to be a social bookmarking service for the global indian community.

From the site:

Here you can save your bookmarks, organize all your online research, share your bookmarks with friends & family and find useful and interesting sites saved by the global indian community.

Surviving in an IT job

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 23:23:21 -0500

How easy or difficult it is to survive the life of an IT engineer in India? Looks like most companies are exploiting its employees. Harshad Oak's musings on Staying Alive In A Software Job.

Most of these youngsters are well aware of this gap and so work under an impression that they are being paid an unreasonable amount of money. They naturally equate unreasonable money with unreasonable amount of work. It's unbelievable how hard he works. When I come to office early, I see him working, when I leave office late, I still see him working".. These sort of comments can kill the morale of every employee trying to do good work in an 8hr day.

How IT is changing rural India

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 00:29:39 -0500

Rediff is running an engaging article detailing the economics and logistics of deploying IT in rural areas.

The success of ITC's 6000 odd e-choupals covering over 35000 villages, has made many believe that this model can be made viable. Big boys are jumping onto the bandwagon - ranging from top IT companies, NGOs, technology providers and the government.

Not only are these initiatives helping to build the digital divide, but efforts to make such projects economicaly sustainable has met with much success.

A printer and software for desktop publishing ensures that you can publish marriage or invitation cards or even a CV for a nominal Rs 10 to Rs 12 a piece.

And as PCs our loaded with Windows Media Player - many local kiosks owners have converted themselves into mini movie halls - offering movie shows at a nominal Rs 2-3 a show... says Ranjivjit Singh, group director, consumer business, Microsoft.

Read the entire piece here.

E-Tutoring - the next big thing.

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 12:51:05 -0500

Outlook India has an interesting piece on how online tutorial is becoming the next big thing for the Indian KPO industry.

According to market estimates, online tutoring companies in India earned around $10 million last year and 80 per cent of the earnings were from the US.

At present, there are four main Indian e-tuition providers: Educomp (Delhi), TutorVista (Bangalore), Growing Stars (Kerala) and Career Launcher (Delhi).

Since Indian tutors charge less ($20-$30 per hour) than Americans ($60-$100 per hour) and because Indians are known for their proficiency in maths and science, business is booming for the handful of e-tutoring firms in India.

Get the entire piece here.

Look in the mirror

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 14:07:39 -0500

The truth about Indian graduates is what everyone in India knows about and yet no-one refutes when another "Indian millennium is on it's way" headline hits the day. Everyone calmly believes in the classic fashion of the ostrich that if you have your head firmly in the sand, then no-one can see you. Even the few articles that see the day of the truth are just wanting to sound different from the rest of the media.

Like this one.

Estimated at 14 million, India's supply of young professionals is 1.5 times the size of China's, almost twice that of the U.S., and topped up by 2.5 million new graduates every year.But our HR professionals judged that only between 10% and 25% of the country's graduates would be hired by multinationals, with the proportion varying by field of study.

Workings of a Botmaster

Sat, 18 Feb 2006 11:18:24 -0600

Washingtonpost is running an amazing piece on the mechanics and economics of operating botnets:

Hackers are hijacking thousands of PCs to spy on users, shake down online businesses, steal identities and send millions of pieces of spam. If you think your computer is safe, think again

Also included is an interview of a botnet operator, known as 0x80 (X-eighty) :

In the six hours between crashing into bed and rolling out of it, the 21-year-old hacker has broken into nearly 2,000 personal computers around the globe. He slept while software he wrote scoured the Internet for vulnerable computers and infected them with viruses that turned them into slaves.

Changing face of India IT

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 00:38:34 -0600

S. Mitra Kalita writes an interesting article on the Washington Post citing the changing face of IT outsourcing to India over the last couple of years.

"Before he supervised teams, wooed American clients over dinner or sat in a Northern Virginia boardroom alongside U.S. executives, Constancio Fernandes wrote computer code for a living.

That's how it started in the late 1990s - American businesses ordered up software applications, and Indian programmers such as Fernandes dutifully delivered. But somewhere along the way, Fernandes became more confident and outspoken. He began questioning the Americans and suggesting cheaper, faster ways to run their businesses. They listened."

Read the entire piece here.

Quota might dampen the new India story.

Tue, 03 Jan 2006 02:56:24 -0600

Continuing in its campaign of populist, pseudo-development and so-called reforms-with-a-human-face measures, the Congress it seems is bent upon imposing quota's in the private sectors.

Flashing the law ministry’s stand that the Centre can extend job quotas to the private sector even without amending the Constitution, the ministry of social justice has started pushing reluctant corporates to act on their own to ward off state intervention.

The point is learnt to have been conveyed by social justice minister Meira Kumar to Infosys chief NR Narayana Murthy and Thermax boss Anu Agha.

IndiaTimes reports.

What do you want most as an Indian for the new Year.

Sat, 31 Dec 2005 08:57:32 -0600

Big M (Narayana Murthy) joining Politics.

35% (39 votes)

New and bigger airports, and fast.

19% (21 votes)

Faster progress on Vajpayee's road development program.

21% (24 votes)

Metro in your city.

17% (19 votes)

Sania Mirza climbing up in the rankings.

9% (10 votes)

Total votes: 113

Engineering Gap: US vs India/China

Thu, 29 Dec 2005 00:47:57 -0600

Business week is running a story citing a Duke university study which rubbishes the claim that the U.S. will soon loose its high-tech edge due to a higher number of engineering graduates coming out of India and China.

researchers at Duke University have determined that some of the most cited statistics on engineering graduates are inaccurate. Statistics that say the U.S. is producing 70,000 engineers a year vs. 350,000 from India and 600,000 from China aren't valid

However, a recent study by NASSCOM clearly mentions 350,000 engineering graduates.

Terror strikes India Tech.

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 14:17:19 -0600

Repeated intelligence warnings about terror striking India's tech havens have finally come true.

Suspected terrorists opened fire at a gathering of scientists at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Munish Chandra Puri, professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi died immidiately and four others were injured. The injured includes Professor Vijay Chandru who was involved in developing the Simputer, the low cost Linux-based handheld.