IBM, Sun Microsystems Deal Could Create High Tech Juggernaut

With a reported $6.5 billion cash offer on the table for Sun Microsytems, IBM would be well positioned to snag significant market share in enterprise server hardware and software, particularly in Linux and Java software for Web application development. The deal would also give IBM a leg up in the data storage, government systems and telecommunications markets.

Learn more here.

Obama swearing-in: First Web2.0 Inauguration

As the United States made history with the swearing-in of Barack Obama, some less significant, but still remarkable, things happened in the tech world.

Web 2.0 technologies offered plenty of new experiences and communications tools for those witnessing the historic event.

Social networking sites helped coordinate in-person meetings in the nation’s capital and throughout the country. The iPhone offered a UStream application for viewing live coverage of the inauguration and information about the events taking place.

YouTube offered downloadable video. Twitter members traded tidbits of information, allowing for a broader perspective than in years past. Bloggers and citizen journalists expanded perspective even further through new media sites, as well as traditional media Web sites, while video-sharing sites like Flickr certainly enhanced perspective from a visual standpoint.

The virtual inaugural events come as little surprise after U.S. President Barack Obama’s transition team held community discussions on health care in Second Life as a way to provide easier access to people with disabilities who wanted to voice their views.

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Keynote Test Perspective: Quick points on Load Testing

Guys, just jotting the quick points from the presentation on load testing, sitting at conference room(will continue on Monday.)

• Load testing is end to end performance test under anticipated production load
• load testing is critical for any website that serves high density of traffic.
• load testing validates the justification of website infrastructure changes which organization makes time to time

best practices

• do not be assured of the previous site performance
• do not hesitate to test from multiple locations
• do not assume the user type, there are both type of users- patience packed and patience un-packed

Google Chrome Beta- Rock On

With the surprise launch of the beta of Google Chrome, the Web and search giant has already changed the current browser landscape and is poised to potentially change the future of the Web.

And before I go any further I just want to clarify that I’ve only had a short few hours with the new Google Web browser, and subsequent and sustained use may reveal issues that would change my view of the browser.

But right now, based on this short amount of testing, Google Chrome may just be the most impressive new Web browser that I have ever seen. While there are still a few beta hiccups, much of the experience of using Google Chrome just feels like the way that a browser should work.

Of course, a lot of the credit for the solid features and capabilities of the Google Chrome beta should go to its competitors, including Firefox, Opera, Safari and, yes, even Internet Explorer. That’s because there isn’t much in Google Chrome that is completely new. Most of the features, from tabs to private browsing modes, are already found in competing browsers.

But the way that Google Chrome implements these features is done very well in most cases, resulting in a browser with excellent usability and core capabilities.

When launching Google Chrome, which currently is only available for Windows systems, the browser walks users through some of the interface features, such as the integrated search and address bar (the default search engine is Google but users can change it to competing search sites) and the new tab features, which are pretty much lifted completely from Opera’s speed dial feature.

As one surfs using Google Chrome, more of the features start to take shape. Clicking a new tab shows thumbnails of frequently visited sites and links to bookmarks. I liked this feature although I would have preferred if it let users customize the thumbnailed sites rather than only using the most visited sites.

Like Internet Explorer 8, Chrome has a private browsing mode, which is called incognito mode. A new window can be launched in this mode or you can choose to launch a window from a link directly into incognito mode. In this mode no traces of a Web surfing session (such as cookies) are saved, and users know when they are in incognito mode by the spy figure shown in the upper left-hand corner of the browser.

The address bar in Chrome combines both search and standard URL entry. This took a little getting used to but once I got the hang of it I liked this single-box method of using a browser address bar.

Another interesting feature of Google Chrome is its integrated use of Google Gears. Called application shortcuts in the browser, this feature lets users take any Web application and save it as a desktop-based Web application, with its own launch icons in the Start menu, Quick Launch and desktop.

Like other browsers, Google Chrome will warn users when they go to a secure site where the certificate doesn’t match the address entered. Also, in one of the only areas that I’ve found so far where the browser integrated with Google Search, when a Web site failed to launch, the error page displayed by Chrome gave the option of launching the site from Google Cache.

During my short amount of testing I never ran into any unstable sites or applications so I was unable to test the new feature where every tab in Google Chrome runs as a separate process, which should keep a single site or application from bringing down the entire browser.

Google Chrome is based on the WebKit engine, which has excellent standards support. In my short amount of testing I have yet to run into a site that didn’t work in Chrome, though I am sure they are out there.

All in all, the beta of Google Chrome is an exciting and impressive new entry into the Web browser field. As I continue to test this beta and subsequent releases I’ll keep you updated on any new discoveries or possible issues with the browser.

Those wanting to try out the Google Chrome beta can find it at www.google.com/chrome.

Exctracts from eWeek.

Ex Google Staffers Launch Cuil Search

Former Google search experts have revealed what they hope will be a threat to their previous employer’s dominant search service. The new engine is named Cuil, after the Gaelic word for “wisdom.” It’s perhaps not the catchiest name ever, but neither was Google, before it became a household name. The people at Cuil claim the new search engine uses far fewer servers than the search leader, yet indexes a much larger chunk of the Web. It also purports to produce more relevant search results, because the information it returns in response to queries is based on organization of ideas rather than link popularity. A final—and important—differentiator from Google is that Cuil, according to the company, doesn’t collect information on its users’ search histories or IP addresses. Of course, that last advantage is significant only if the product is worth using.

 

Why terrorists attack soft targets?

We have had three waves of anger among the Indian Muslim youth — the first was after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and the second after the Gujarat riots of 2002. These waves have since dissipated. Since last year, one has been noticing a fresh wave of anger after the convictions of a number of Muslims by a Mumbai court in the Mumbai blasts of March, 1993. A common theme in all their Internet chatter is what they see as the inherent unfairness of the Indian criminal justice system towards Muslims.

While taking strong action against the terrorists, whoever they are, it is important to address this perception that our criminal justice system is unfair to Muslims.

July 25 @ Bangalore- The BLAST-ing day

The eight blasts that rocked Bengaluru on July 25 points to high orchestration, but low intensity. The blasts reportedly took place within about 12 minutes at around 1-30 pm, that is after the Friday’s mid-day namaz in the local mosques.

The high orchestration used in timing five to six blasts, with some precision, resembled the serial blasts in Jaipur in May last year and in three towns of Uttar Pradesh in November.

While timers were used to activate the improvised explosive devices, the explosive material used does not appear to have been of a sophisticated kind. Ammonium nitrate, mixed with a booster, was the preferred explosive in previous terrorist incidents, but one does not know whether ammonium nitrate was used in the Bengaluru blasts too.

Some TV reports speak of the possible use of gelatin sticks. If so, these blasts would resemble, from the point of view of the composition of the IEDs, the serial blasts in Coimbatore carried out by Al Ummah, a Muslim extremist organisation of South India, in February 1998 to protest against the alleged police excesses against Muslim youth after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Investigation into the Coimbatore blasts showed that Muslim youth had fabricated the IEDs with the help of explosive material stolen from the quarries of south India.

From preliminary reports, one could make the following surmise: firstly, the terrorists did not want to cause mass casualties; secondly, Bengaluru has the largest concentration of foreign businessmen and experts, but they did not want to target them; thirdly, they did not want to target the foreign tourists either.

Is Twitter down?

What Twitter did when I tried to log in?

Serial bomb blast @ Bangalore; not scared da

Today five serial bomb blasts tried to scatter the unity of various culture and people of Bangalore later in the noon. Then said, the anti-social activities won’t be able to shake the spirit of Bangalore macha…

A nice one :)

Bill Gates met God, and God said, “Well, Bill, I’m really confused on this one. I’m not sure whether to send you to Heaven or to Hell. After all, you enormously helped society by putting a computer in almost every home in the world, and yet you created that ghastly Windows. I’m going to do something I’ve never done before. I’m going to let you decide where you want to go.”

Bill Gates said, “What’s the difference between the two?”

God said, “It might help you decide if you took a peek at both places. Shall we look at Hell first?”

Bill was amazed. He saw a clean, white sandy beach with clear waters. There were thousands of beautiful men and women running around, playing in the water, laughing and frolicking about. The sun was shining and the temperature was perfect. “This is great!” said Bill. “If this is Hell, I can’t wait to see Heaven.”

God said, “Let’s go!” and off they went to Heaven.

Bill saw puffy white clouds in a beautiful blue sky, with angels drifting about playing harps and singing. It was nice, but surely not as enticing as Hell. Bill thought for only a brief moment and rendered his decision. “God, I do believe I would prefer to go to Hell.”

“As you wish,” said God.

Two weeks later, God decided to check up on the late billionaire to see how things were going. He found Bill shackled to a wall, screaming amidst the hot flames in a dark cave. He was being tortured by demons with pitchforks. “How ya doin’, Bill?” asked God.

Bill responded with anguish and despair, “This is awful! This is not what I expected at all! What happened to the beach and the beautiful women playing in the water?”

“Oh, that,” said God. “That was the screen saver.”