Users Can Now Talk to the Web, Courtesy: IBM

IBM's Indian research division has developed a new protocol that will help users create "Voice sites" on the Internet, reports.

The protocol, Hyperspeech Transfer Protocol (HSTP), is quite similar to the more common Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and will be used to allow users to talk to the web. The spoken web is a network of voice sites created using mobile phones. The driving force behind this technology is the rather large mobile subscriber base that India boasts of. With 360 million mobile phone users out there (and counting), this is a market no one could dare to ignore - and IBM knows that. The technology targets ordinary mobile phone users, all of whom may not be literate and would be glad to get some technological aid.

According to IBM's India Research Laboratory associate director Manish Gupta, on using the technology, "People will talk to the web and the web will respond." The research technology is analogous to the internet. "Unlike personal computers, it will work on mobile phones where people can simply create their voice sites," he adds.

This technology was featured in IBM's annual Five in Five list featured earlier here on Techtree.

IBM has already tried out the technology in some pilot projects in various states of the country and claim to have received tremendous response.

source : http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Users_Can_Now_Talk_to_the_Web_Courtesy_IBM/551-100064-643.html

10-inch Wi-Fi Enabled Photo Frame Launched

D-Link has announced the future release of a digital photo frame that enables users to manage content displayed using a website or a drag and drop desktop widget.

The D-Link Internet Photo Frame (DSM-210), which has a lustrous satin finish, allows users to view photos easily and conveniently virtually anywhere in the home or over the Internet. It provides a high-resolution 10-inch LCD display connected over a wired or wireless home network.


The DSM-210 can be managed using this website where users can organize photos online for display as well as remotely stream content such as weather, news, trivia and more using popular Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds.


The DSM-210 also gives users the choice to simply drag and drop digital photos into photo frames using a "widget" located on the computer desktop, which then automatically displays the photos as a slideshow on the photo frame.


The DSM-210 features a 16:9 screen and includes an interchangeable black or white frame. It contains slots for USB and common memory cards, and can be networked via an Ethernet connection or Wi-Fi. The digital photo frame is widget compatible and can connect directly to the PC or via Internet options. The frame comes with a rechargeable battery a one-year subscription for basic Internet content.


The D-Link DSM-210 will soon be available through D-Link's network of retail outlets, resellers, solution providers and distributors at a suggested retail price of Rs. 39,900.

source:http://www.techtree.com/India/News/D-Link_Announces_Internet_Photo_Frame/551-99262-615.html

Behind the Cloud Buzz

Imagine scaling up instantly to massive capacities to meet changing needs. Then imagine doing it on the Web, without having to invest in new infrastructure, train new personnel, or license new software. That is cloud computing!

Cloud computing is all about efficiency. It provides a way to deploy and access everything from single systems up to massive amounts of IT resources, on demand, in real time, at an affordable cost. Forward-looking companies of all types are now looking at this model to simultaneously reduce infrastructure costs and increase computational capabilities.

Since the best cloud strategies build on concepts and tools that developers already know, clouds have the potential to redefine the relationship between IT and the developers and business units who depend on it. IT gains new efficiency and points of control while their customers gain access to services with a new level of simplicity and control.

The underlying concept of Cloud Computing dates back to 1960 when John McCarthy opined that "computation may someday be organized as a public utility"; indeed it shares characteristics with service bureaus which date back to the 1960s. The term cloud had already come into commercial use in the early 1990s to refer to large ATM networks. By the turn of the 21st century, the term "cloud computing" had started to appear, although most of the focus at this time was on software-as-a-service.

Amazon.com played a key role in the development of cloud computing by modernizing their data centres after the dot-com bubble and, having found that the new cloud architecture resulted in significant internal efficiency improvements, providing access to their systems by way of Amazon Web Services in 2002 on a utility computing basis.

The year 2007 saw increased activity, technology providers and a number of universities embarking on large scale cloud computing research projects, and it is around this time that the term started gaining popularity in the mainstream press. In August 2008, Gartner observed that "organisations are switching from company-owned hardware and software assets to per-use service-based models" and that the "projected shift to cloud computing will result in dramatic growth in IT products in some areas and in significant reductions in other areas."

Why do Cloud Computing?
One of the obvious reasons is to get better utilization out of the computing resources you have. A key attribute of cloud computing is how it changes economics. You only pay for what you use, and rates are typically lower than the equivalent cost of building and supporting these services internally. Cloud computing is not just about hardware it is also a programming revolution.

Agile, easy-to-access, lightweight Web protocols—coupled with pervasive, horizontally scaled architecture—can accelerate development cycles and time-to-market with new applications and services. Cloud computing can usher in a new era of productivity if developers build on platforms designed to be federated rather than centralized.





Even while IT is being asked to contain or reduce costs, demands from the business continue to rise. Workloads such as streaming content, High-performance computing (HPC) applications, rich customer Web experiences require massive compute and storage resources and also experience sudden surges and spikes in demand — they simply operate at a scale that is beyond the capacity of traditional IT infrastructure. Cloud computing offers a solution.

While cost-cutting moves may dominate the headlines this year, businesses will be focusing on making wise investments that both reduce costs and enable them to better leverage technology.

Here is what Cloud Computing can offer:

Reducing Capital Expenditures
Cloud computing makes it possible for companies to convert IT costs from capital expense to operating expense through technologies such as virtualization.

Cutting the Cost of Running a Datacenter
Cloud computing improves infrastructure utilization rates and streamlines resource management. For example, cloud computing allows for self-service provisioning through APIs, bringing a higher level of automation to the data center and reducing management costs.

Eliminating Over-Provisioning
Cloud computing provides scaling on demand which, when combined with utility pricing, removes the need to over-provision to meet demand. With cloud computing, companies can scale up to massive capacities in an instant - without having to invest in new infrastructure, train new personnel, or license new software.

Increasing Agility
Cloud computing accommodates change like no other model, and can also provide a wider selection of more lightweight and agile development tools, simplifying and speeding up the development process.

Accelerating Cycles
The cloud computing model provides a faster, more efficient way to develop the new generation of applications and services. Faster development and testing cycles means businesses can accomplish in hours what used to take days, weeks, or months.

All cloud computing deployments have a few things in common. At the highest level, they are a means of delivering IT resources as a set of well-defined services. Just as electric utilities gain efficiency by limiting your options for voltage and frequency, clouds gain efficiency by doing a small number of services very well. Of course this means that some applications would not fit a particular cloud, but that is the important trade-off.

for more information log into: http://www.ciol.com/Enterprise/Feature/Behind-the-Cloud-Buzz/17209116164/0/

Microsoft Launches Windows 7 in Hindi

The new initiatives include Language Interface Packs (LIPs) in 12 Indian languages for MS Office and Windows

Microsoft, as a part of its efforts to overcome the language barrier to computing, has showcased a variety of custom made products directed specifically at the vernacular language market - a market that has been largely left untapped till now.

The new initiatives include Language Interface Packs (LIPs) in 12 Indian languages - Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Hindi, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil and Telugu - for MS Office and Windows.

The company has also announced a total of 45 additional virtual keyboards for these languages. Even Windows Live has not been spared the treatment with it being made available in as many as seven Indian languages. These languages are Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu.

There's more in store for developers as well. Directed at vernacular language developers, it has launched the Captions Language Interface Pack (or CLIP) in Hindi, Malayalam, Oriya, and Tamil. CLIP uses a tool tip caption to display translations for user interface items in Visual Studio 2008 making it the first ever instance of Microsoft releasing a tool specifically to help students and beginner developers in India use the product in their own language.

The most talked about part of the sneak peek was a rather cool beta version of Windows 7 in Hindi, one of the eight global languages the Operating System (Beta) was released in recently. We would love to have a go at this one!

source:http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Microsoft_Launches_Windows_7_in_Hindi/551-98498-643.html

Professional videos could come to YouTube via new agreement

San Bruno (CA) - YouTube is close to closing a deal with talent provider William Morris Agency, which would mean that company's clients would star in productions designed specifically for YouTube's format on the web. Production companies could bypass "straight to video," going instead "straight to YouTube."


The Internet is changing; many actors and celebrities are creating their own web content toady. This new YouTube deal would give William Morris clients an ownership stake in the videos they create for the website; it will also give them a chance to increase their level of "celebrity" on the web.

By partnering with a talent agency like this, YouTube is showing that they have a desire to be a landing spot for Hollywood. And making a deal with William Morris would be a significant move in that direction as the agency's clients include such individuals as Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington.

This deal would give YouTube the opportunity to add professionally produced videos to its website, augmenting its library of mainly amateur content and user uploaded videos. The addition of videos of this caliber would give YouTube a greater presence as a true entertainment source, and this might also deliver the monetary answer Google has been seeking - which is how to make money off all the videos it now hosts for free.

Due to privacy and copyright concerns, YouTube doesn't place ads next to most of its user created content. This means the company can only make money off of a small portion of the videos uploaded to the site. YouTube had over 100 million United States viewers in October alone, meaning YouTube's audience is gigantic.

The deal isn't signed yet, so it's too early to get all worked up. But it is something to keep your eye on and watch out for. And, if professional content does come YouTube's way, they may have to change their name to TheyTube - in deference to the production companies now creating the videos instead of regular people.

source:http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/41257/113/

DND: No ceasefire with dissident groups during May14 polls

The Department of National Defense (DND) will not recommend to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo the declaration of a ceasefire with the dissident groups during the May 14 midterm elections in order to avoid unauthorized and unnecessary movements of possible troublesome groups.

"We are not recommending an election truce. Generally, ayaw natin na magkaroon ng unnecessary and unauthorized movements (of the groups who are planning to sabotage the election)," Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. said following the taping of "The Cabinet Speaks," hosted by Press Assistant Secretary Jose Capadocia and Radio Mindanao Network (RMN) reporter Rey Mercaral at the New Executive Building (NEB) Briefing Room this afternoon.

At the same time, Ebdane called on all officials and members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to help and coordinate with the Philippine National Police (PNP) to ensure the peaceful and orderly conduct of the elections on Monday.

"Gawin nating mapayapa ang halalan," Ebdane said as he urged the soldiers to think and always consider the feelings of the Filipino people who want a peaceful, progressive and economically-developed country, as a whole.

He also asked the men and women of the AFP to exercise their right to vote judiciously, thinking of the welfare of the majority of the people and using their conscience in selecting the qualified candidates based on their platform of government and not on popularity.

On the issue of military deployment, Ebdane assured the public that the role of the soldiers will be in compliance with the directives of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to ensure the peaceful conduct of the elections.

He said that the AFP is coordinating with the PNP for the soldiers to assist the police authorities in case there is a threat to sabotage the conduct of the polls.

The AFP, he stressed, is tasked to secure the crowd at all times, especially the voting populace.

Ebdane predicted that overall, the 2007 elections would be peaceful and orderly.

Obama's SEC pick to face reform-minded Congress

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama's choice to lead the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will be grilled Thursday on how she intends to overhaul an agency widely blamed for failing to help prevent the biggest financial crisis in decades.

Members of the Senate Banking Committee are expected to ask veteran regulator Mary Schapiro whether the SEC should be merged with the U.S. futures regulator and for ideas on how to rework rules that failed to prevent Wall Street's meltdown.

Schapiro, currently the chief executive of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, is also expected to face questions about what the broker-dealer watchdog could have done to uncover Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud, something the SEC also missed.

FINRA late Wednesday said it investigated 19 trading complaints about Madoff's broker-dealer firm but they did not relate to the investment advisory issues involved in the alleged fraud.

Further, FINRA said the SEC did not pass on any complaints. "The SEC did not share the tips it received with FINRA," it said in an emailed statement.

The very future of the 74-year-old SEC is in question after a number of regulatory missteps. Under current SEC chairman Christopher Cox, the five largest U.S. investment banks -- which the SEC supervised under a voluntary arrangement -- have since either collapsed or reorganized.

The SEC has also been a punching bag for various lawmakers and Wall Street firms who successfully put pressure on the agency to temporarily stop investors from making bearish bets on financial stocks when markets were in a tailspin in 2008.

Many see Schapiro as someone who will help heal the SEC.

She has spent more than two decades regulating financial markets with a resume that includes chairing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and a stint as an SEC commissioner.

She has been widely praised by both industry and investor groups. Members of the Senate Banking Committee have also lauded her.

Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said Schapiro will inherit a host of issues requiring the SEC's immediate attention, including the Madoff fraud and accounting issues.

"I look forward to (the) hearing and the opportunity to learn more about Schapiro's record as a regulator, her vision for the SEC, and her extensive knowledge of the securities markets and financial services industry," the Democrat from Connecticut said in a statement Wednesday.

Lawmakers are likely to seek Schapiro's views on investment bank regulation. Even though former investment banks like Goldman Sachs have reorganized into bank holding companies and are supervised by the Federal Reserve, Congress will have to figure out how to best regulate the holding companies for broker-dealers.

And shareholder activists and business groups will be listening for anything she says on the issue of proxy access, or giving shareholders another way to advance board nominees.

Questions are also expected on the move toward a global accounting standard and the controversial fair value accounting rule that has been blamed for forcing financial firms to write down billions of dollars in assets.

for more information log onto:http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE50E1ZT20090115