Virtual Web Symphony:Consulting, Clean Environment and Green Living.

New Ubuntu 10.04 is Here.

Neeta — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:07:27 PST

Ubuntu has traveled a long way. The journey started in 2004 when a handful of developers passionate to give the world an option which was free, fast and can stare Apple and Microsoft right in to their eyes. Six years on, Ubuntu has been a phenomenon. There are scores of people developers, the geeks and now the commoners who are today using Ubuntu. The most popular and used distro of Linux family, Ubuntu is now being used in Notebooks and PCs and the usage is growing day by day.
Ubuntu is an operating system built by a worldwide team of expert developers. It contains all the applications you need: a web browser, office suite, media apps, instant messaging and much more. Ubuntu has just come out with a new 10.04 LTS which is driven by theme “Light”.

The saga 2004-2010 was signifying the human face “Linux for Human Beings”.The focus was on bringing Linux from data centers to human beings.

Year 2010 has brought a paradigm shift to the very existing of meaning of Linux. New version of Linux is inspired by “Light”. The Light signifies better usages of resources, lean computing and software which can be easily molded and shaped based on requirements of geeks, developers and commoners alike.
The concept of Light represents a break away from the proprietary operating systems. Ubuntu 10.04 is expected to save the energy, resources and delight all its users with its efficiency and suppleness.

Linux on Laptops I have switched over to Linux on my Laptop recently....
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Even Americans Think Government Jobs are Better.

Neeta — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:46:35 PST

A report from USA TODAY suggests something which is quite contrary to modern India’s perceptions. Indians believe that private sector and MNC employees generally earn hefty wages compared to their counterpart in Government Sector. But the statistics presented below proves otherwise. Overall a federal worker on an average earned $67,691 in 2008 for occupations that exist both in government and the private sector. While the average worker in private sector earned on an average $60,046 in 2008.

These salary figures do not include the value of health, pension and other benefits, which averaged $40,785 per federal employee in 2008 vs. $9,882 per private worker, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

On closer scrutiny of data it is gathered that for very specialized jobs in technical areas, private sector pays more than the federal sector.

There can be exceptions but overall it appears that an average federal employee is certainly better paid than a private sector employee.

But as they say in India, if one is talented and possess great skills then probably private sector is the right place. The difference is salaries is quite evident in a few specialized key jobs. But certainly one has to weigh oneself. Government jobs are for an average guy who prioritizes safety and security more than wage cheques.

Potential for 1.9 Million Renewable Energy Jobs Three universities of the USA have conducted studies related to...
After India, now Hungarian Government gears up to embrace Open Source. After one of the India’s major opposition party, came out...
Indian Power Sector Scenario – an update Recessionary blues have started hitting India’s Power Sector. Not long...

Transportation and Power Generation are Responsible for Global Warming.

Neeta — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:00:25 PST

A NASA,Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, study has highlighted that on-road transportation is the most significant overall source contributing to global warming. Though Power generation scores quite high on this score but it also produces many other compounds which increases cloud reflectivity.

On road transportation has been the main culprit and contributes heavily towards global warming. No one should mistake the point of this study to indicate that coal burning and other power-generation and industrial processes are benign and therefore do not need to be scaled back. India and China are expected to rely heavily on fossil fuel burning for their power generation in the coming decades. And these are the two countries which are expected to record highest growth in the world. The facts presented here doesn’t support fossil fuel burning for power generation. The developing nations should maintain their focus on finding alternate sources of energy for their growth.

Study looks at all major sector of economy and tries to rate the sectors of economy on the basis of their harmful effects. biomass burning, power generation and industries produces good quantity of cooling aerosols which abets global warming. Biomass burning which occurs due to tropical fires and shrubs burning, is primarily responsible for Carbon Di Oxide emissions.

Find the detailed report here.

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Blogging Tool From Microsoft WORD 2007

Neeta — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:01:33 PST

In addition to Live Writer from Microsoft’s stable, there is another blogging tool hidden behind the solid MS WORD 2007. Frankly speaking I was quite unaware of this treasure till the other day. I was just trying to open up a new file. It was then I saw the blogging option. Right next to Blank document, another option to create “New blog post” was there.

I immediately started exploring the option which lay in front of me. The tool is quite simple and easy to use. You have the option of managing many accounts. By clicking the “Manage Accounts” option, a new sub box opens, which gives out many options like Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress etc. Registration wizard takes you to the whole process of registration and you have the blog set up in about 30 secs. Registration process is similar to Live Writer and the probably this tool is quite simple and handy to use.

The beauty of this tool is that it can be used right from MS WORD. I am using this option to write this post on my blog. The reason why Live Writer has gained tremendous popularity as the blogging tool is due to its simplcity and ease with which many features (Add-Ins) gets integrated.

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How Many Social Networking Sites We Need?

Neeta — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:57:11 PST

There are many social networking sites on which guys are hooked in. Some, rather most of us are hooked on to too many. We all have accounts on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, Wave and now Buzz. However, we may not have updated our statuses on all of them. We may have caught fancy of more than one account but it is difficult to keep updates on almost all the social networking sites on which one has an account.

Time has come for some sort of aggregation. A single platform which can have all the popular social networking sites opening at one place. It will be impractical for these popular networking sites to provide access to each other but there can be a third platform which integrates and aggregates all these networking sites and one can have the status of all popular networking sites on single default page.

There is one such platform which makes our life simpler. With just one account, one can see all your emails (Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail at one place) and status updates of popular networking sites on single page (Twitter and Facebook).

This experience has been made possible by Threadsy. The ever evolving and improving aggregator. I have been using this platform and certainly it has saved lots of time for me.

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Why Corporates Block Social Networking Sites?

Neeta — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 23:47:35 PST

If you are employed with any of the big corporates and have been notified by your systems department about the excessive time you are spending on Twitter and Facebook, then this post if for you and your employer.

Its been common practice. All corporates while trying to save on bandwidth blocks some of these networking sites. And they expect their employees to be focused on their work alone. But is it really possible. A free and uninhibited mind works best. While when restraints are put in day today working, the innovative ideas and creativity suffer. A nine to five routine is sometime quite boring and there are times when doing the routine work day in and day out, you suddenly feel the need to break free and engage yourself in some creative pursuits which invigorates minds. Updating your status and exchanging notes with others in your circle provides you with that elusive spark which brings in creative ideas in to your mind.

In India, Cricket is religion. When all web pages having cricket as the keyword are blocked then guys who are sitting day in and day out in front of PC monitors tend to have some sort of withdrawal symptoms as they are unable to have access to Cricket Scores.

Ideally bandwidth should not be a constraint for the working employees. Organizations should invest in present world’s all important asset. Organizations should ideally keep some margins for future growth. An additional amount spent on getting extra bandwidth wont harm anyone.

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Windows Live Writer 2010 to be Unplugged Soon.

Neeta — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 09:32:26 PST

Do you blog regularly? Do you use Live Writer for blogging on your Wordpress platform? Then this piece of news is for you. Microsoft team has been working on Windows Live Writer and its new 2010 edition is being readied for launch this year. There will be great changes in the new version of Live Writer and it is expected to make blogging all that simple. It is expected that Live Writer will have a user interface which will look all familiar as it will try to weave in MS WORD and its features in to the platform.

More screenshots are available on LiveSino.net and LiveSide.net. Labnol has posted that release of Live Writer 2010 can be expected WordCamp SF* that happens on May 1, 2010.

But blogging has more to do with the content. Even if you employ the latest blogging tool, but if your heart is not there and you are missing on the quality content then even the best blogging software will not be able to save you. So believe in yourself and write quality content.

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Safety Audits of High Rise Buildings.

Neeta — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:24:54 PST

Recent incident at Bangalore has left people wondering about CSR commitments of many of companies of our times. OHSAS 18001:2007 is the standard which governs Occupation Health and Safety of an organization and its employees. When an organization embraces OHSAS 18001 standard, it mandates establishment of a management system. There are many issues which are required to be addressed while an organization is implementing this standard. While Register of Regulations takes care of legal issues, the emergency prepared plan draws specifics about the response to any emergency situations like Fire, earthquake or for that matter any accident.

OHSAS 18001 is presently voluntary for adoption but looking at its importance, it is quite possible it may be readied for mandatory adoption. The draft CEA regualtion on mandatory adoption of OHSAS 18001 for power plants and substations is expected shortly. This will require power stations to have an effective management HSEMS (Health, safety, Environment management system in place.

Bangalore incident should stir the souls of administrators. If all safety norms had been taken care of and regular mock drills as per HSEMS would have been conducted, then incidents like the one which happened may have been avoided.

We may see, people forgetting the incident soon and getting on with their lives but the best tribute to the departed would be if we can do our bit in ensuring that such incidents do not happen in future. A safety checklist is religiously followed and adhered to.

We all need to be change agent. We should look towards others for “doing” and implementation. Everybody amongst can be a change agent.

Let’s promise each other and let the journey begin right now.

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Private Power Producers All Set to End 11th Plan on High.

Neeta — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:21:33 PST

India’s 11th plan is expected to finally end on March 12. Country is expected to add about 64000 MW of generation capacity by end of 11th plan. It may not be very good figure when you see it in light of planned addition in generation capacity which was kept for 11th Plan. 11th plan had about 78000 MW as the planned capacity addition target. But it is expected that about 64000 MW will be added by end of March 2012. And private sector is expected to contribute handsomely to this achievement. In fact in the next plan about 60 percent of planned capacity addition will be from private sector. This is a creditable achievement for the state planners as well as the private sector. Today we can see there are many private players which are filling up the power plant landscape.

Power Plant Project site

Chinese companies are sitting with roughly in the excess of 25000 MW of order of power plants from India. Indian private sector has invested heavily in power generation with Chinese companies dotting the main equipment market. Indian manufacturing sector is also upping the ante and slew of investments in private manufacturing of power equipments have been either in the process of being rolled out or already have been rolled out.

Country needs investments in renewable energy and hydro sector as well. It is well know that thermal sector is going to be the backbone of India’s power sector, but planners may do well to encourage the investments in nuclear,hydro as well renewable energy to have a optimum and balanced mix..

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Was Google Right in Pushing Buzz in Gmail Accounts.

Neeta — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:13:48 PST

Google had every Gmail users a wee bit worried about privacy on their Gmail accounts. Buzz is a welcome addition to Gmail account but probably Google erred in forcing it into Gmail accounts. Later on they backtracked but every alternate Gmail user I came across was eager to know the ways to put if off. Google later on put up a Buzz Off option at the bottom of their Google page and later had the initial Buzz welcome option in Gmail turned off. But the early reaction was enough for people to raise doubts over Buzz invading in to their privacy. Another irritating feature was selection of followers list based on contacts in your Gmail account to whom you heavily mail.Google has been quick to respond and taken prompt action to allay the fears of Gmail users. But the early damage has created some amount of doubts in the mind of Gmail users. No doubt Buzz is a excellent product whose timing has been just right. World may not yet be ready for Google Wave but definitely Googlers can start buzzing right away without any problems.

Download squad has just reported that a class action complaint has been filed in San Jose federal court. Though Google has decided to not to turn on the Buzz feature by default but still if you want to kill the auto-follow feature, click here to read the Buzz turn off feature.

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Links for 2010-01-05 [Digg]

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:00:00 PST

Google Maps, One Application Many Utilities.
Google has offered many free goodies. One such application is Google Maps.

Links for 2009-12-26 [Digg]

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:00:00 PST

"3 Idiots" On YouTube.
Vidhu Vinod Chopra has announced that his latest block buster 3 Idiots will be available for download in 12 weeks time. This is an interesting move from bollywood.

Links for 2009-12-12 [Digg]

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:00:00 PST

Tips to Improve Public Speaking.
Eloquent users are hard to miss. They are always toasts of any gathering. But this is an attribute which very few people have.

Links for 2009-11-22 [Digg]

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

Gmail Labs features worth trying.
What makes Gmail special is probably it is constantly evolving and improving and becoming more than just email for many people.

Links for 2009-10-27 [Digg]

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Indian Power Sector Revs up.
After about a year Indian Power Sector specially the Power Scene dominated by Private Sector has started showing signs of revival.

Links for 2009-10-19 [Digg]

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Top Five Most Effective Wordpress Plugins
Wordpress in itself is quite a strong blogging platform. PHP-MySQL combination makes it very elegant and easy to use blogging tool.

Links for 2009-10-10 [Digg]

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

How ERP Implementation Can Lead to Better Market Share.
There are many organizations who are still skeptical of implementing ERP. Believe me, I am talking about organizations which are big and have very high turnovers.