Bhuvan - Google Earth the Indian Way.

Considering the fact that Indian talent is spreading around the globe like wildfire, it came no more a surprise when Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) recently launched ‘Bhuvan’, which is India’s answer to Google Earth. (Bhuvan in Sanskrit means ‘Earth’)

Bhuvan is web-based tool much similar to Google Earth which promises to give much better 3-D imagery of India compared to what is being offered by Google Earth. It will also include a number of other services like weather forecast and have administrative boundaries of all the states and districts in the country.
Users will be able to browse the content like any other website. It will also allow users to zoom in from space to street, grab, spin and narrow down to anyplace they want. However for safety purposes it will block the sensitive locations such as military and nuclear plants. Bhuvan currently has the best resolution over the entire subcontinent of India and is also very user-friendly and will run even on low bandwiths.

Bhuvan will be able to produce very local information which will be very much specific to India. Also it will enable us to address problems like floods, famines, education, Research and Development and Infrastructure.

Now owing to the recent goof-up Google Earth made by showing some parts of Arunachal Pradesh as Chinese Territory, the launch of Bhuvan will definitely get Google Earth on guard.

Wanna be a MSP!!! Check This out.

Selection Process

The Selection process for Microsoft Student Partners, India is now open. You are suggested to register and complete the formalities right away to avoid last minute rush and miss on very important announcements, which shall be made to registered candidates from time to time.

Here are the steps required to register successfully for the MSP Program.


· Register for Imagine Cup 2010 in any of the categories ( www.imaginecup.com). Please enter “MSP Selection” as referral code.

· Record a 120 second Video on any technical topic and upload it at www.youtube.com/indiamsp (This is not mandatory as of now. However, candidates who post their video will have an advantage). Suggested topics are:-

o Introduction to the .Net Framework

o Introduction to Microsoft Silverlight

o Microsoft Windows 7

o Microsoft Windows Vista

o Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server

o Any other Microsoft technology.


· Register at the link provided and provide all relevant details.Please copy paste the below URL in your Browser Window.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=5IBYVECYqVCrTEKuhPRPcQ_3d_3d


Important- This year, we shall be carrying out on the spot MSP Interviews in a few cities as well. This will be in conjunction to any Microsoft events happening in your city. Announcements will be made on this page from time to time with event details like time, venue etc. All candidates who fall in that region and can attend the event are requested to do so. This will ensure speedy processing of your application. However, only pre-registered candidates will be given a chance.

In case you are not able to attend these in-person events, you can still become a Microsoft Student Partner. Just submit your video and fill the registration form and you shall get an interview call if we find you a suitable candidate!



Please note- Microsoft will not bear any travel expenses that you may incur in order to attend any such events. Only those events will have MSP selection in parallel which are announced on this website. Please check this space from time to time.



Vedant Arora
Microsoft Student Partner
Amity School of Engineering & Technology ;)

Nokia Office : The Office just got bigger

Microsoft, proprietor of its own Windows Mobile smartphone operating system, is partnering up with Nokia to offer mobile Office applications on the Finnish company's Symbian-loaded handsets. The move could come as a blow to third-party app providers who sell solutions to achieve document sharing between platforms, but how will it affect Microsoft's commitment to its own OS?

Nokia  and Microsoft  on Wednesday announced they are teaming up to create and offer mobile enterprise applications in a bid to tap the fast-growing mobile apps market.

Apps could constitute the next gold rush for the mobile industry, and carriers and smartphone vendors are both battling for a share of what could be a very lucrative market.
However, the Microsoft-Nokia deal could be stymied by a court ruling on Tuesday that bars Redmond from selling its Word application in the United States.

Slipping on the Mobile Dance Floor?


Unless and until an appeals court hands down a new ruling, however, the ban could stymie the agreement between Microsoft and Nokia.
This deal will see the two jointly design, develop and market apps that bring Microsoft Office Mobile and Microsoft business communications, collaboration and device management software to Nokia smartphones running its Symbian operating system.
Nokia's business-optimized E-series smartphones will get these apps first.
Next year, Nokia will begin shipping Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile on its smartphones.
Other apps to follow will include those that let users view, edit, create and share Office documents, as well as Microsoft Communicator Mobile apps for enterprise instant messaging, enterprise presence, conferencing and collaboration.
Users will also get mobile access to Microsoft SharePoint Server and enterprise device management capabilities through Microsoft System Center.
Microsoft and Nokia will also market the apps to businesses, carriers and individuals.

What About Windows Mobile?


The Microsoft-Nokia deal will not change Redmond's commitment to its own Windows Mobile platform, according to Microsoft.
"Mobility is one of Microsoft's top investment areas, and we are 100 percent committed to Windows phones now and in the future," Scott Rockfield, director of Windows Mobile communications business
"Microsoft is fighting a rearguard action until its Windows app store and [the next version of] Windows Mobile come out," Carl Howe, director of anywhere consumer research at the Yankee Group
Buyers may want to hold off buying either Nokia or Windows Mobile smartphones for a while, he advised. "Don't even bother with the Nokia and Windows Mobile platforms until the next releases, because those are the ones they're betting on," Howe said.

myTouch 3G : The Kid Next Door

The nights for Android competitors were never the same after the Google OS was announced. The brand name and the publicity gave android the much needed hype and did set the stage for myTouch G1(the first in the Android Series) .Coupled with the smart marketing strategies of HTC and the name Google of course the Smartphone made record breaking sales. The G1 cashed on the crowd’s curiosity and love for Google and gave hints of something better in the pipeline.

Less than a year after the release of G1, the news of the myTouch 3G was confirmed. The myTouch 3G strikes as a hammer on hot metal and without the release started molding the public in their favor. Although it comes with a price tag of around 200$ (a little more than its predecessor) , it has made the world wanting for more. The release of videos of myTouch 3G intensified the craving for the 2nd android phone and gave its competitors a warning to prepare themselves, for an era which is all set to begin.
The myTouch 3G does not consist of a Keyboard (as its predecessor) and comes with an impressively interactive touch interface. The quality and the response of the next gen touch interface have already affected the markets for the sleek and trendy iPhone, especially when the myTouch 3G has much more to offer.
myTouch 3G comes equipped with an eye-widening 3.2 MP camera with an impeccable picture quality. A 3.2 mm touch screen makes it hard for the user to get his fingers off screen. myTouch 3G also takes cares of users with huge fingers. To make it easy for them, the concept of trackball has been reintroduced just to explore those heavily crowded web pages till the extent.
It’s quite obvious that it comes bundled with our favorite Google Maps for navigation, also comes along an interesting application Sherpa which remembers your favorite restaurants, and coffee houses and other eatable joints and helps you find them the next time you search for them.

What makes myTouch 3G stands out is the range of accessories its comes along with, which gives the phone owner a handful of chances to make his phone unique and different from others

With features like Navigation Pane, Search by Voice, One Touch Share and many more indeed makes the competitor really work hard to stay in the league and make the my Touch 3G stand out

FriendFeed : Facbook's warning sign for Google & Twitter

Facebook has bought itself a social media aggregation site, FriendFeed, that could help it compete better against Google and Twitter. It's a sweet deal for Facebook, according to Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang, but whether FriendFeed made the right decision is open to debate. Though relatively small, FriendFeed is popular with "uber social geeks," he said, and it could've been a contender.

In a continuing bid to make itself ever more relevant to advertisers and open its doors to the broader Internet, Facebook has acquired social media aggregator FriendFeed.

Terms were not disclosed, but The Wall Street Journal -- citing anonymous sources -- valued the deal at US$50 million in cash and stock.
The move comes as Facebook has begun to open itself up to the broader Internet, giving users vanity URLs for their profiles and making them more searchable on the Web.

FriendFeed Background

Founded in 2007 by four former Google developers, the FriendFeed service allows users to build customized feeds based on information they find and activities they engage in on the Web and other social media sites, including YouTube and Twitter . Users' friends can then see those feeds in real-time.
FriendFeed is a relatively minor phenomenon among mainstream Web users, but it is highly popular with early technology and social media adopters, Jeremiah Owyang, a social media analyst for Forrester, told TechNewsWorld. The site gets about 1 million unique visitors a month, a paltry sum compared to Facebook's 250 million visitors, Owyang said.

"These are the uber social geeks," he said.

Integrating the Services

Integrating the services opens up new avenues for Facebook to appeal to advertisers, and it also gives the company a competitive edge against Twitter, because tweets will be viewable directly on Facebook's platform once the integration is complete.
FriendFeed's services, while simpler to use than Facebook's, can be more daunting to set up, said Owyang, who is active in the FriendFeed community.
Facebook developers will likely make FriendFeed's services more easily configurable, he said, while retaining the ease of day-to-day use to encourage adoption among the site's millions of mainstream users.

Source : ECT News Network

Microsoft & Yahoo : And they Lived happily ever after!!!

What does Microsoft hope to pump from Yahoo in their newly forged search agreement? Search data. Once the two combine powers, search queries that users send to Yahoo will be handled by Microsoft, which will also find out what users end up clicking after a search. More data means Microsoft can better sharpen its search power. However, will even that be enough to catch Google?

Microsoft is hoping that a long-term partnership with rival Yahoo will give it the size and insight it needs to bring in more traffic, more advertisers and ultimately more revenue.

By handling Yahoo's searches along with its own, Microsoft can learn more quickly what works and what doesn't. A smarter search engine might draw more Internet users, and more advertisers could follow, driving up prices.
Size, though, may wind up being far from the magic bullet that Microsoft is counting on in forging a 10-year partnership to power all Yahoo searches.
Search leader Google has had a head start in technical development, and Microsoft already has had plenty of search queries to analyze -- yet it remains stuck at No. 3. Adding more data might not make a difference.

Viewing More Querries


The software maker's stockholders so far have been guardedly positive about the deal, perhaps because it did not require a US$9 billion upfront payment to Yahoo, a condition of a similar deal proposed last year. If Microsoft can't use this partnership to improve its search finances, though, they will eventually run out of patience.
Microsoft expects to spend up to $700 million to get the arrangement up and running, something that could take two years to fully deploy worldwide. It may spend up to $200 million within the next 12 months alone.
But the company believes it's worth it.
With the partnership, Microsoft will funnel Yahoo's nearly 3 billion monthly Web searches. Add that to the 1 billion Microsoft gets on its own, and the software maker will quadruple the queries it processes, allowing its search engine to gain even more insight into how to improve the experience.
Every move a search user makes is fed back into the system, so when the next person comes along with a similar problem, the search engine is a little bit smarter about solving it. For example, if five people in a row click on the fifth link on the results page for "Seattle Space Needle," the search engine -- a sophisticated computer program -- might try moving that link up to the top.

Other Battles


Ultimately, the Redmond, Wash.-based software maker may have to settle for something less tangible.
Google has been making incursions onto Microsoft's home turf, the software that makes computers run and helps people get their work done. By stepping up its game in search, Microsoft may ultimately force Google to focus on its core search engine rather than its fledgling software business, including a recently announced Chrome operating system that could challenge Windows.

Microsoft may be able to claim victory even if it cannot turn size into dramatic search revenue growth.

Source : ECT News Network

Hackers at it once again,this time its Twitter & Facebook

It appears that the outage suffered by Twitter and technical problems affecting other social networks were the result of a denial of service attack targeting a single blogger, an activist who intended to commemorate the anniversary of last year's battle between Russia and Georgia. The sites have mostly recovered, but the attack underscores the ability of hackers to clog communication channels, given the proper resources.

If you were unable to log on to Twitter or Facebook Thursday morning, you can consider yourself collateral damage in the ongoing conflict between Russia and Georgia.

Facebook has confirmed that a pro-Georgia blogger was the target of a widespread distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that hit the top social networks and other Web sites. Facebook was able to fend off the attack, but Twitter was down for most of Thursday morning, and a company blog post indicates the popular microblogging service was still dealing with DDoS' after-effects Friday.
Media reports point to a blogger, known as "Cyxymu," who has named himself after a city in Georgia. Friday marks the first anniversary of the war between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia, and the attacks may have been timed to silence Cyxymu's use of his social media accounts to commemorate the date.
"Yesterday's attack appears to be directed at an individual who has a presence on a number of sites, rather than the sites themselves," as told by Facebook Spokesperson "Specifically, the person is an activist blogger, and a botnet was directed to request his pages at such a rate that it impacted service for other users. We've isolated the issue, and almost all of our users are able to enjoy the normal Facebook experience."

Defense Options for US-Based Social Networks


A post on the Twitter Status Web site mid-morning Friday indicated the social network was still parrying attacks. "Due to defensive measures we've taken against the ongoing denial-of-service attack, some Twitter clients are unable to communicate with our API (application programming interface) and many users are unable to tweet via SMS (short message service)," the post said. "We are working as quickly as possible to restore our full service."

Twitter's rapid user growth over the past year may have outpaced its ability to protect its infrastructure from DDoS attacks. Facebook and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) are larger, fully developed companies and have more backup ability when it comes to server issues. Still, Burton said Thursday's attacks show just how much botnet power Russia and other countries may have at their disposal.

"To be blunt, our options are very limited," he explained. 'When a multinational corporation or publicly held company is going against the resources of a hostile foreign intelligence agency, they're greatly undermanned from a technology perspective. They simply don't have the bandwidth to do battle with a foreign intelligence service.

Source : ECT News Network

No More Social Netwoking For Nations Heroes

The Department of Defense will conduct an overall review of the security implications of allowing members of the military to interact with social networks. In the meantime, rules are inconsistent. Marines have been banned from using military networks to access the sites, while the Army gets to tweet at will.

The U.S. Marine Corps has banned service members from using military computers to access social networking sites, and the Department of Defense is reviewing the services to see if they pose too great a security threat to allow.

Such sites are popular with young service members who want to keep in touch with friends and family at home, but the Marine Corps' chief information officer, Brig. Gen. George J. Allen, said in a memo issuing the ban Tuesday that such sites create "a larger attack and exploitation window" and increase the risk that service members will share information that should be kept under wraps.
The order, which expires in one year unless renewed or supplanted by other guidance, involves all social networking sites, including Facebook , MySpace and Twitter . It carves out room for exceptions to the policy based on operational needs, but calls for an extensive review process before such authorization would be granted. The policy does not ban Marines from using the services on personal computers.
The DoD review will address the security risks of social networking sites, as well as the value they provide in helping the agency communicate, according to statements posted to the agency's Web site. A new policy could be approved by October.

Source : ECT News Network