Navtej Kohli IT updates Blog - News in IT

Yahoo! Launched Web Analytics

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:10:00 -0500

Navtej kohli
had said before that now Yahoo working hard to get its previous
position in search engine and Internet Marketing. Yet there are many
rivals are in the market which had affected yahoo market position very
badly. For making dominancy over the market and be in the news Yahoo
introducing new feature and tools to the user.

While the Search engine giant Google had already packed up many feature
and tools Yahoo also makes its policies to provide more feature.
Launching of Yahoo analytics is a major milestone to make advertiser ,
merchant and the webmaster to analysis more about product related
searches and other things. With the Yahoo analytics now website owner
to know more about visitor like where and how they come from , spends
time and visions no which converted into customer . Enabling user to
know more about which be best perform to divert traffic like ads,
campaigns, keywords or other referrals. Making user to analysis more
about website performance while content, pages and products are
concerns then he knows in real what be visitors and customer good or
even bad experience to take your website and how can attract more and
more visitors to converts into customer .Its be best tool for from
senior executives and marketing professionals, to advertising teams,
content developers and individual site owners.
Yahoo! Web Analytics has many feature into its which makes its different from others specially from Google Analytics

1) The Value of Real-time Data: Other web
analytics provide statically data after 24-48 hours but Yahoo index
tool will provide real time data to analysis with in 1 minute and
reflects changes immediately . User now able to

• See how new ad campaigns are performing in order to quickly make changes and optimize your budget

• Identify usability issues if top performing pages suddenly see a dip in key performance metrics, or new pages under-perform

• Quickly assess performance of new website content or products to maximize your yield

2) The Power of Raw Data:
Before that available tool containing only aggregate data can make user
only to make pre structured report. But with the help of Yahoo
Analytics now user can get non-aggregated raw form which be able to
give answer of various question and generate new customizes reports
Yahoo! Web Analytics is not a simple aggregated data reporting tool, it
is a powerful data analysis tool.

3) Ease-of-Use and Flexibility:
Now user can able to get data easily like drag and drop features for
making quick report , ad hoc scenarios for answering more question
which may be profitable.

Yahoo! Web Analytics is easy to implement. For instance, once you have
added our JavaScript code to your web pages, you can create new funnels
or change how products or actions are referenced in your reporting
through the user interface rather than with cumbersome changes to the
tracking code.

Yahoo officials told that it will available to use near about end of
2008 or even start of 2009 to customers, partners, developers and
advertisers in stages. Currently it be available only for those
customer who host host e-commerce sites with Yahoo!, as well as to
advertisers who work with Yahoo! Custom Solutions and Yahoo! Buzz
Marketing. Existing customer of Merchant Solutions Standard or
Professional, or a Y! Store merchant automatically get access this new
feature. Yahoo soon provide its analytics solution to small business
and also planed to provide its to developer community .

Basically Yahoo web analytics is just a upgraded service of index tool which now will be provided by Yahoo .
Navtej Kohli
welcoming healthy completion in the search engine marketing. Last year
Yahoo officials announced downfall in the Yahoo business then many
offered came to Yahoo . But Yahoo made its mind to again gain the power
over the market with new incumbent products which able to gain and
attract customer across the world. The tie up between Google and Yahoo
for sponsored listing was a great steps towards global understanding .
But this step definitely gain the access of the existing customer and
will attract more and more customer to buy or sale their products
across the world .
Yahoo! Web Analytics

Navtej Kohli on Firefox Download Record

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:57:00 -0500

Mozilla has officially made history with a new Guinness world record
for the largest number of software downloads in a 24-hour period. Navtej Kohli IT Blog features the latest updates:

The final record breaking 8,002,530 downloads for web browser Firefox 3.0 took place in June.

"The enthusiasm and creativity of Firefox fans was key to making this happen," said marketing head Paul Kim.

Gareth Deaves of Guinness World Records called it "an extremely impressive accomplishment".

The official figure was confirmed after logs from download servers were
audited and checked to ensure duplicate and unfinished downloads were
not counted.

Mr Kim told the BBC News: "The notion of going for a world record,
as... nutty as it may have sounded, was a really sticky idea.

"It was an idea that translated really well across national borders and to all different kinds of people around the world."

Marketing manager Mary Colvig said no party was planned to celebrate
the record until the actual certificate was presented by Guinness World
Records in London next week.

"Here at Mozilla headquarters (in Mountain View) I think most of us are
just going to try and get to bed early now that we have the
confirmation. We are all tired."

Another boost for the open source browser comes with the announcement
that it has increased its market share to more than 19% making it the
second most popular browser after Microsoft's Internet Explorer

Sony Previews 'Life with PlayStation'

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:02:00 -0500

Navtej Kohli has a Good news for all PS3 users. Sony's PS3 run-game service release is just around the corner.

Sony is preparing a non-game service for its PlayStation 3 console that
at first glance is similar to one available on Nintendo's Wii.

Called "Life with PlayStation," the service will launch with news and
weather information channels but is set to be considerably expanded in
the future, said Kaz Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment.

The basic interface was a globe of the Earth that could be spun to
reveal the different regions of the world. Major cities were marked on
the globe along with the current weather conditions and news headlines
pertaining to the city were listed in the corner of the screen. As you
browse, background music from the hard-disk in the PlayStation 3 can be
played either as a user-defined playlist or one chosen by the console.

The interface is similar to the news and weather channels on the
Nintendo Wii, which are navigated through a globe and offer similar
news and weather information.

It is different from the news and weather channels on the Nintendo Wii
in terms of graphics - the PlayStation 3 graphics have higher
resolution and the globe isn't a simple map of the world but a weather
satellite image showing the cloud patterns above the planet.

The news and weather channels are just some initial features, later
many other state-of-the-art features will be added to it. Plans are to
build a system that can visually present stored photos and movies
according to their recorded time and place, allowing users with their
friends and family to enjoy the visuals in chronological order," said
Hirai.

Release date is not yet fixed and will be announced soon anytime later.

Navtej Kohli - MS's Bluetooth patch Failed on XP

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:19:00 -0500

Microsoft has reissued a critical Windows security patch, saying that
the fix didn't initially work on the most recent versions of Windows
XP. Navtej Kohli IT Blog features the complete report under its News in IT Section.

Microsoft spokesman wrote in a blog posting. "Our investigation found
that while the other security updates were providing protections for
the issues discussed in the bulletin, the Windows XP SP2 and SP3
updates were not"

The aforesaid patch fixes a flaw in the way Windows uses the Bluetooth
networking protocol, used to connect peripheral devices like headsets
to the PC. An attacker who got close enough to the Windows system to
make a Bluetooth connection could theoretically send malicious packets
to the PC and take complete control of a victim's computer.

According to security experts that as Bluetooth devices need to be
within a few yards of a computer to connect, the flaw wouldn't be used
in a widespread attack. However, this doesn’t decrease its potential
threat.

Microsoft is now pushing out a new, working version of the patch through its automatic update mechanisms.

Motorola to halve research labs - Navtej Kohli

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 01:24:00 -0500

For more news on IT industry, keep reading Navtej Kohli IT blog.

Motorola Inc, the No. 3 mobile phone maker, said it would roughly halve
the size of its research labs to about 300 people as it plans to halt
some projects and move at least 180 people to other units.

The loss-making company, which is planning to spin off its cell phone
business amid huge market share losses and sharp criticism of its phone
designs, said 180 research labs workers would be moved to its three
business units, effective July 1.

Motorola has a network equipment and set top boxes unit and a
government and public safety business as well as its mobile phone
business, which ceded its No. 2 global ranking to Samsung Electronics
Co last year.

To reduce costs, another 150 Motorola research positions will be cut
worldwide as Motorola stops some research projects, according to
spokeswoman Maya Komadina, who did not disclose which projects would
end or in which countries.

She said Motorola, which had 66,000 employees at the end of 2007, was
looking for opportunities in other parts of the company for eligible
workers affected by the cutbacks.

The spokeswoman said that moving researchers to the business groups
they support would help focus research investment on projects that
deliver the greatest value.

The remaining research organization's roughly will be renamed the
Applied Research & Technology Center and focus on longer-term
technologies. Its roughly 300 workers will be under Dan Moloney, head
of Motorola's networks and set-top box unit.

Motorola, which has been losing ground in the cell phone market after
failing to come up with a strong successor to its once-lauded Razr
phone, is expected to spin off its mobile devices business in 2009.

Data Centers go green - Navtej Kohli

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:30:00 -0500

Navtej Kohli suggests some tips to IT data centers for efficient use of
energy. As IT sector is spreading its fangs far and wide, time is they
should take some responsibility towards society and ecosystem at large.

Navtej Kohli gives a few eco-friendly tips:

With Global warming threat looming over our heads, it’s high time for
us to get environmentally conscious. If we don’t put brakes on
pollution now, we may end up putting breaks on our lives.

This calls for some well thought out policies in place that will help
protect environment. To begin with technology, the booming IT sector is
actively partaking in efforts to protect mother earth. Data centers are
going the green way.

By switching to low power consuming servers, alternate fuels and energy
efficient cooling techniques, data centers can be run more efficiently.

We are now running out of time to save the earth. The increase in
global warming is so apparent today. The ever-continuous climate change
has resulted in the sea level rising and the extinction of animals.
There is no one to blame but us "human beings".

Most data centers around the world have started becoming more energy
efficient and what's more, they're even reaping business benefits out
of it. It will not be long before one starts seeing a similar trend in
India as well. There's enough buzz and concern in the market around
energy consumption to drive it through. It therefore makes sense to
start planning for it, immediately, rather than lagging behind.

Energy-efficient system design for data centers:

1. Airflow and cooling systems: It is important to control the airflow
in a data center. It is not the problem of generating the cold air but
to make sure it is directed to where it is needed.

2. Consolidation: Can be termed as the integration of the different
devices to be managed and reducing the ways to managing them.

A start can be the consolidation of processing power using server
virtualization and ensuring maximum utilization of server resources.
Replacing traditional servers with blade servers, utilizing low-voltage
processors in a data center. Migrating from two single-core servers or
one dual-processor-based server to a two-way server or a dual-core
server and also replacing a four-way server with a two-way dual-core
server.

3. Power supply: Inefficient power supplies waste a lot of energy.
Every unit of heat energy wasted requires another unit of cooling
energy to compensate for it.

4. Optimum Utilization: Power consumption in a data center also depends
upon how well are the resources being utilized. Nowadays, as servers
are increasingly becoming multi-core, it's important that the
applications utilize all the cores. The average utilization of a server
can be anywhere from 7 to 40 percent, but hardly 100 percent or
anywhere near that. The energy consumption however, remains the same
irrespective of utilization. The solution therefore is quite
clear-virtualization. Run more operating systems and applications per
server to utilize servers better. There is a trend towards using server
virtualization in the data center.

5. Get the management involved: Organizations can have the upper level
management involved with the ideas of an eco friendly environment in
the organization. A small step can start with the infrastructure of the
organization itself. Beginning with, implementation of eco friendly
products such as low emission carpet or paint, recycling of waste and
using eco friendly vehicles for transport. These small steps will
significantly help the environment.

Action Packed Adobe Acrobat - Navtej Kohli

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:33:00 -0500

Navtej Kohli has good news for those weary of gratingly slow and prosaic online PDF readers.

Adobe introduces an online community with a word processor; file
storage and sharing; and deep tie-ins to a newly Flash-enabled Acrobat
9.

The online push for Acrobat is a bold move for a brand perhaps best
associated with the free and nearly ubiquitous Acrobat Reader, which
opens print-ready Portable Document Format, or PDF, files. Now, PDFs
will play movies.

The announcement comes in advance of the release of Acrobat 9
document-creation software, which adds dynamic features such as
integration of animation, dynamic maps, 256-bit encryption, and
improved forms.

The free Acrobat.com beta includes the Buzzword word processor. Its
ConnectNow Web conferencing and desktop sharing tool enables chatting
via text, video, and voice. The hosted services invite file storage and
sharing with the capability to convert up to five documents to PDF.

Buzzword and companion tools would provide interactivity lacking in leading online word processors such as Google Docs.

Users can store files on Acrobat.com and join each other in virtual
meeting rooms to share identical document views in real time. The site
also can host data from forms created in Acrobat software.

Acrobat users can convert MOV and WMV files to Flash content that can
be embedded within PDFs alongside audio content and even 3D models.

The new PDF Portfolios feature in Acrobat 9 lets users drag and drop
content into a portfolio, then choose from myriad layout and
presentation options.

Mapping features only in Acrobat Pro Extended 9 preserve geospatial
coordinates and enable users to mark locations and measure distances.

The next Acrobat will take snapshots of Web pages and convert entire
pages or chunks of them to a PDF that preserves links and animation.

Developers can tweak layouts with Flex Builder 3 or Flash CS3.

For creating online forms, Acrobat 9 adds intelligence to recognize
content for conversion to fillable fields. And a forms tracking
dashboard will show, for instance, the status of responses to a mass
party invitation e-mail and let a user send reminders to guests.
Responses can be sorted, filtered, and exported to spreadsheets.

Acrobat 9's security enhancements enable users to add 256-bit encryption, used by banks online, to PDFs.

Business users could opt to access documents at Acrobat online or via SharePoint workspaces, network folders or WebDAV.

Acrobat 9 comes in three flavors, set for stores in the coming weeks:
Standard at $299 or $99 to upgrade, Pro for $449 or $159 to upgrade,
and Pro Extended for $699 or $229 to upgrade. Pro Extended also comes
with Adobe Presenter, which plugs into Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 for
adding interactivity to presentations.

SO, what do you think, are these new tools going to make life easier for PDF users. Well I think the time will tell.

Microsoft hones mobile search - Navtej Kohli

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Mon, 19 May 2008 22:13:00 -0500

Now you can search for anything, even when you're on the move. Navtej Kohli shares the news.

Microsoft introduced several new and updated features in connection
with an updated version of Live Search for Windows Mobile, continuing
its efforts to strengthen its hand in the mobile device game.

The update provides a new way of organizing local information and
Internet searches, dubbed "Collections." The feature is designed to
aggregate frequent searches, making their results easier to access
while on the road - for instance, enabling a user to always look up
nearby events.

In addition, the update also provides deeper integration with Windows
Mobile phones, user generated PC content, and Web search, and offers
weather forecasts.

Microsoft's release of Live Search for Windows Mobile marks the
company's second major announcement on the mobile device front.
Microsoft also revealed that it would supply Windows Live services to
one of its fiercest competitors in the smartphone arena -- Research in
Motion (RIM).

Microsoft will now provide a version of its Windows Live services to
run on BlackBerry devices. Services for BlackBerry devices are
scheduled for summer release.

The efforts come as an indication of the burgeoning importance of
mobile search and services. A recent report from Juniper Research found
that by 2013, about 30 percent of the expected 4.2 billion owners of
wireless devices will depend on mobile device searches to find and
locate local digital information.

Live Search for Windows Mobile also adds a "map a contact" feature that
displays a map and directions to any contacts in the user's contacts
list. Enhancements to Web search include the ability to launch searches
directly from the client, according to the spokesperson. Additionally,
a new weather report feature includes four-day forecasts.

HP looking at EDS for a possible buy out - Navtej Kohli

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:57:00 -0500

Navtej Kohli IT blog is the repository of latest developments in IT
industry. HP now wants to buy EDS to take on IBM.

After gobbling up Compaq for $25 billion in 2001, IT giant
Hewlett-Packard is looking at Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Corp for a
possible buy-out.

Media reports puts the deal size could be in the range of $12 billion to $13 billion.

HP and EDS confirmed that they are engaged in advanced discussions on a
possible business combination involving the two companies.

"There can be no assurances that an agreement will be reached or that a
transaction will be consummated. HP does not intend to comment further
until an agreement is reached or discussions are terminated," HP said
in a statement.

Buying Plano, Texas-based $22.1 billion EDS would give HP more tools to
compete against IBM in the lucrative field of technology consulting and
customer support.

Navtej Kohli on Wikipedia's on-again, off-again availability in China

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:51:00 -0500

Wikipedia is blocked in China yet again. Navtej kohli IT blog brings the latest scoop!

After being accessible for over two months, Wikipedia’s English website
is blocked again in china. This irregular availability of the site has
been a constant phenomenon since last eight months.

However, the site was available till recently when users in Beijing and
Shanghai confirmed that they were no longer able to access the website.

China regularly blocks access to websites that it finds objectionable,
including those dealing with politically sensitive subjects such as the
Falun Gong religious cult and independence for Taiwan and Tibet, along
with some pornographic sites. The Chinese government does not announce
or comment on when a site is blocked or made available.

Because the version of events or political views expressed on Wikipedia
are not necessarily in line with those of the Chinese government, the
government may be blocking access to the site.

The current blocking may be related to the upcoming Communist Party
Congress, which begins Oct. 15 in Beijing. Held once every five years,
the meeting is the Chinese government's most important political
gathering, used to create five-year plans, which are the bedrock of
China's centrally-planned economy. It is also often used to reshuffle
government positions or for leaders to consolidate their power.

While Wikipedia's English site is occasionally available, its
Chinese-language sites are almost permanently blocked, although access
is sometimes permitted for one or two days at a time.

Intel & Cray strike a deal- Navtej Kohli

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:49:00 -0500

Navtej Kohli IT blog keeps a constant track of the latest happenings in the IT industry. This time it is the Intel-Cray tie up.

Navtej Kohli shares a report he stumbled upon over web.

Microprocessor giant Intel Corp is in a tie-up with supercomputer maker
Cray Inc to bolster Intel's market share for the highest of high-end
computers, executives said.

Cray and Intel announced a multiyear deal to build the next generation
of high-performance computers capable of processing petaflops --
quadrillions of machine instructions a second -- or twice the power of
the world's top existing supercomputer.

While Intel supplies a wide range of supercomputer makers, working with
Cray helps ensure Intel will be inside more of the world's top 10
most-powerful computers, where boasting rights to having the fastest
machines are in constant flux.

"Cray enjoys a pretty unique position in the top 10, and fills a gap in
the range of Intel systems," said Richard Dracott, general manager of
Intel's High Performance Computing division.

More than 70 per cent of the top 500 supercomputers are Intel-based, up
from about half two years ago, he said, citing industry data. Its main
rivals in that segment of the chip market are IBM with its Power
processors and perennial rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Cray, a supercomputer pioneer which supplies three of the world's 10
most powerful machines, plans to switch to Intel processors in future
installations. It had previously relied on AMD and custom-built chips.

Cray aims to deliver its first petaflop-scale machine later in 2008 at
Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The Intel tie-up will help Cray fulfill
its product technology roadmap code-named "Cascade," which the company
plans to deliver by 2011 or 2012, according to Ian Miller, Cray's head
of sales and marketing.

Cray and Intel said their collaboration would lead to the development
of systems that could help solve some of the most complicated
scientific, engineering and humanitarian issues.

Intel, which has a commanding lead in the mass market for
microprocessors in PCs, has expanded in recent years to focus on chips
that can handle the most arduous computing tasks.

Partnering with Cray helps Intel fill gaps in its historic ambition to
capture this elite segment of the market. Intel chips already power
three of the top five supercomputers.

"The partnership is really about scale (and) moving much larger amounts
of data," Dracott said. "No one wants to take a machine that does jobs
that take weeks or months to complete and have them fall over half way
through the job."

A year-and-a-half ago, Santa Clara, California-based Intel formed a new
business division to target the high performance computer market, one
of the fastest-growing segments in the computer server industry.

The HPC market will grow to $18 billion by 2012 from $10 billion in
2006, executives from the companies said, citing data from market
research firm IDC.

The Intel and Cray executives said they will explore future component
designs such as multi-core processing and advanced interconnects --
technologies that should allow supercomputers to eventually handle
multiple petaflops of data per second.

Courtesy: Reuters

Google Shares Its Security Secrets

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:28:00 -0500

The most secretive Google is now is offering security professionals a look into its security systems..

Scott Petry, director of Google's Enterprise and founder of security
firm Postini, explained to attendees at the RSA conference how the
company handles constant pressure and scrutiny from attackers.

"Google is a very very high-value target," Petry noted.

"If you have bad intentions and want to get a reputation, hacking Google is the best way to get credibility on the streets."

In order to keep its products safe, Google has adopted a philosophy of
'security as a cultural value' where it promotes security awareness.
The programme includes mandatory security training for developers, a
set of in-house security libraries, and code reviews both by Google
developers and outside security researchers.

Google believes that educating people is about security is very
important and Google has a professional security team to handle this
task.

Petry contended that in an age where both users and companies are
increasingly relying on outside services and applications, it is
becoming nearly impossible to fully lock-down a company.

"IT is largely fighting yesterday's battle," he said, in reference to the policy of trying to restrict all user access.

"Start saying okay, if these things are going to happen, do an assessment to try and bound the risk."

Petry noted that in addition to educating its employees, the company
also implements software 'guard rails', which warn users when
potentially risky actions are taken and later logs them for
administrators to archive.

For software developers, Petry also suggested taking a 'neighbourhood
watch', approach to vulnerability disclosure. For Google, this means
sharing more information with researchers and trusting them to do the
right thing with their discoveries.

That philosophy, combined with a policy of crediting all researchers
who report flaws, has been very successful for Google, said Petry.

Navtej Kohli- AZERBAIJAN RANKS 67th IN GLOBAL IT REPORT 2007-2008

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:34:00 -0500

A Navtej Kohli report on latest updates in IT sector.

Azerbaijan ranked 67th among 127 countries in the World Economic
Forum`s Global Information Technology Report 2007-2008, Azerbaijan
Ministry of Communication and Information Technologies said.

The World Economic Forum`s 2006-2007 report placed Azerbaijan the 71st among 122 countries.

Azerbaijan moved ahead of such countries as Bulgaria, Ukraine,
Kazakhstan, Russia, Vietnam, Argentina, Philippines, Pakistan, Moldova,
as well as Armenia (106th) and Georgia (91st), to become a leader among
CIS countries.

Top ten countries include Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, USA, Singapore, Finland, Netherlands, Iceland, Korea and Norway.

News source: tradingmarkets.com

Yahoo v/s Microsoft- a follow up by Navtej kohli

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:56:00 -0500

The most talked about controversy on which the future of IT is hinged
on got horrendous when Yahoo announced to use Google Ads
as defense against Microsoft. As Microsoft is tightening its grip over
yahoo, by strictly fixing a three week time limit, sources disclosed
that yahoo is still in talks with Time Warner's AOL about a potential
tie-up. Eager for a higher offer, yahoo said it would test using Web
search advertising from Google in a move that pressures Microsoft to
raise its bid for the company.

According to a news report, the two-week test with Web search leader
Google would involve Yahoo targeting Google Web search advertisements
at 3 percent of the users of Yahoo's own search services. Brokerage
Sanford C. Bernstein has estimated that by turning over all search ads
to Google, Yahoo could boost revenue by 10 percent.

Microsoft fired back saying that a deal between Yahoo and Google would
make the market for Web search less competitive -- turning the tables
on Google, which has charged Microsoft with anti-competitive practices
in the past. Microsoft itself would face tough regulatory scrutiny if
it buys Yahoo.

Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said “Yahoo and Google would
consolidate more than 90 percent of the search ad market in Google's
hands”. Herb Kohl, the Democratic head of the U.S. Senate antitrust
subcommittee, chimed in to say he was watching Yahoo's deal closely to
"ensure it does not harm competition."

Investors barely reacted to what was seen as Yahoo's latest effort to
force Microsoft to raise its cash-and-stock bid, now valued at US$42
billion. Yahoo shares rose 7 cents to US$27.77, Microsoft added 14
cents to US$28.89, and Google fell 0.8 percent to US$464.19.

"This doesn't put an end to the negotiations, but it perhaps balances
things out," Cowen and Co analyst Jim Friedland said. "It looked like
Microsoft had all the cards. Yahoo is at least now able to use this for
leverage to get Microsoft to pay more."

Microsoft Yahoo playing tug of war- a Navtej Kohli report

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:45:00 -0500

Navtej
Kohli sums up a recent report throwing light on the controversial
Microsoft-Yahoo merger on his very own Navtej Kohli IT blog.

Microsoft’s dream of acquiring Yahoo Inc. seems not an iota close to
reality. No one knows what would be the upshot of this red-hot slinging
match going on between these two technology giants. It all began when
the Microsoft Corp proposed to take over Yahoo Inc. for paying $31 per
share, when the things spilled out of control.

Industry analysts are casting optimistic speculations that the two
conglomerates will settle down on a mutually agreed price, obviously
higher than the pre-offered $31/ share.

"This is natural brinksmanship - you get to the brink and then you cut
a deal," said Kevin Landis, chief investment officer with San Jose's
Firsthand Funds who were in possession of 460,000 shares of Yahoo as
per the recent statistics available.

The recent turning point in the two-month merger drama was seen on 5th
april,08, when Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer sent a letter to
Yahoo's board that expressed his annoyance dilly-dallied approach of
Yahoo. He also warned to unseat Yahoo's board by nominating a more
merger-friendly slate of directors, if the deal gets stretched beyond
three weeks time.

A day later, Yahoo responded by standing by its opposition to
Microsoft's merger proposal, pronouncing that the Redmond, Wash., giant
undervalues the Sunnyvale Web portal, but added that it is open to a
sweetened offer.

In a sharp rejoinder, Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy
Bostock stated "We are not opposed to a transaction with Microsoft if
it is in the best interests of our stockholders. Our position is simply
that any transaction must be at a value that fully reflects the value
of Yahoo, including any strategic benefits to Microsoft, and on terms
that provide certainty to our stockholders."

At the outset, Microsoft offered $44.6 billion for Yahoo, a 62 percent
premium on the value of the company's shares at the time. But the offer
has since dropped to around $42 billion because of a decline in
Microsoft's share price, to which the value of the deal is partly
plummeted.

Ballmer also warned that he would cut the price some more if forced to
make a hostile bid, referring to sluggishness in the U.S. economy, a
stumbling stock market and a recession in Yahoo's business. Hoping to
sustain the pressure on Yahoo board members, he threatened to overthrow
them via proxy contest.

But in its letter Monday, Yahoo seemed immovable from its decision Feb.
11 to reject the bid, saying that Microsoft has put too small a price
on the company. It quashed all the rumors that Yahoo's business is in
trouble and asserted that it has the support of stockholders
controlling a significant portion of its outstanding shares.

"We consider your threat to commence an unsolicited offer and proxy
contest to displace our independent board members to be
counterproductive and inconsistent with your stated objective of a
friendly transaction," Yahoo's letter said.

The two companies have met at least twice since Microsoft made its
merger proposal on Jan. 31. The Yahoo letter disputed an account by
Ballmer that the talks have involved no meaningful negotiations, saying
that the two sides, in fact, "have had constructive conversations
together regarding a variety of topics, including integration and
regulatory issues."

"Moreover, Steve, you personally attended two of these meetings and
could have advanced discussions in any way you saw fit," Yahoo wrote.

The effect of the takeover conflict could rest on Yahoo's first-quarter
earnings, which it will report four days before Microsoft's negotiating
deadline. So, if the yahoo bungles then the company's claim of being
more deserving than $31 per share is significantly weakened.

"If the earnings come out and disappoint Wall Street, the $31 a share
is going to look better and better," said Brian Bolan, an analyst with
Jackson Securities.

Whatever the case, many analysts and investors say that ultimately
Microsoft will be forced to raise its offer to around $50 billion to
get Yahoo's approval or offer to make the entire payment in cash.

Navtej Kohli on paucity of IT labor in the Philippines

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:05:00 -0500

Navtej Kohli encapsulates a recent study conducted by global think tank
XMG Inc., highlighting disparity in demand and supply of IT workforce
in the Philippines. Read the post Navtej Kohli IT blog below.

As IT sector is on a roll in the Philippines, the consequent shortage
of skilled IT manpower is expected to inflict a major blow on the
country’s potential economic growth. Industry soothsayers speculate a
substantial 35% annual growth in the Philippines’ Information
technology sector, which may create a wide chasm between the demand and
corresponding supply of IT workers.

A recent study unveiled some alarming facts, a few are enlisted below:

• Regardless of a stable 10% growth rate in the skilled IT labor, over
last five years, demand of workers is continually falling short of
supply.

• On one hand, where IT sector in Philippines is anticipated to grow by
whooping 35% in few years from now, the IT population is likely to grow
by meager 3%.

• Some key areas where demand for technical labor falls short of supply
are XML, VBScript, Python, VB.net, Perl and other programming languages
which virtually sustain the entire IT industry.

Though this disequilibrium is here to stay but the threat can be
abridged if the strategies are placed right and workforce needs are
gauged well in advance. Today, the need is to create a huge pool of
highly-educated and technically sound workers. The report also suggests
some corrective measures to the stakeholders so as the intensity of
risk can de reduced. Some of the key suggestions are:

• Schools and companies shall work in close coordination with each
other and the curriculum shall be lined up with the prevailing industry
needs.

• Comprehensive and frequent training to the existing workforce and
conceptualizing better ways to increase employee retention rate.

• Formulating comprehensive degree courses, vocational courses and more
training institutions, so as to reinforce the flagging technical labor
force.

Perhaps, in near future the situation can spill out of control, but the
study has elucidated some critical facts, that necessitate immediate
fortification of IT labor pool in the Philippines.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer

Navtej Kohli’s Review on Phishing

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:02:00 -0500

Very recently our Senior Editor Navtej Kohli came across a “Phishing” mail propped with “IP Spoofing”. Navtej Kohli than directed us to research such websites & resources & write a post on Navtej Kohli Blog IT dot com.

“Phishing” is the act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming
to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the
user into surrendering private information that will be used for
identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a “Spoof” website
where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords
and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers that the
legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus
and set up only to steal the user’s information.

Term “Spoof” (v) means “To Fool”. In networking, the term is used to
describe a variety of ways in which hardware and software can be
fooled. IP spoofing, for example, involves trickery that makes a
message appear as if it came from an authorized IP address.

“Email Spoofing” refers to forging an e-mail header to make it appear
as if it came from somewhere or someone other than the actual source.

The main protocol that is used when sending e-mail -- SMTP -- does not
include a way to authenticate. There is an SMTP service extension (RFC
2554) that allows an SMTP client to negotiate a security level with a
mail server. But if this precaution is not taken anyone with the
know-how can connect to the server and use it to send spoofed messages
by altering the header information.

Now Phishing fraudsters are using a pair of DNS exploits to help give
them the illusion of credible domains, the latest ploy to dupe people
into handing over their sensitive information.

Phishers have begun to use wildcard DNS records to help trick
unsuspecting users into giving up information about their identity.
Wildcard DNS help users arrive at their intended Web destination by
redirecting mistyped and/or errant addresses. But wildcard DNS has been
used against Barclays Banks in the U.K with e-mail using an additional
sequence of characters that ultimately leads the user to a phisher's
site.

A similar type of attack vector specific to Microsoft Internet Explorer
was reported by security researcher Bitlance Winter. In that attack, an
identifiable URL also has a string of characters or additional domain
information added that directs a user to a different address than the
one they see in the visible toolbar.

The technique, known as "DNS cache poisoning", is also being utilized
by phishers in an attack know known as "pharming" where a poisoned DNS
server redirects users to the phisher's Web site. The "poison" is
essentially false DNS information that is injected into a vulnerable
DNS server.

Navtej Kohli – Search Database for People

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 11:55:00 -0600

If you know someone’s name for example mine is Navtej Kohli,
you can find addresses of a no. of persons named Navtej Kohli, not only
that you can find Navtej Kohli’s phone number, email addresses etc. on
a click of your mouse button. You will be thinking of how I would be
able to know all the information for a person may be Navtej Kohli or
someone else.

The answer to your query is Search Databases like Anywho, BigFoot, Infospace, IAF.net, Whowhere, Switchboard etc.

These are among the only few such white page and yellow page
directories that I know and have used to find information about a no.
of persons, you will find plenty of avenues that caters all the
information about a person on a simple press of search button. The main
mode of revenue for such platforms is advertising, though some of them
charge a nominal fee for information processing.

Mixed Reactions For Budget from IT industry

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:09:00 -0600

Navtej Kohli traces the reactions from the IT industry about the Budget.

For some it was a balanced budget, while for others it was a lackluster
budget. There is only one section of the society who is happy with the
budget and that is the farmers.

Most people feel the budget lays big focus on agriculture but there are others who feel that the budget will stimulate economy.

As regards direct benefits to the IT sector, the provision relating to
service tax indirectly helps – because it offers an avenue for setoffs
for the service tax paid by the IT companies.

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PC gaming honchos unite to form Alliance

nospam@example.com (Navtej Kohli) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 08:28:00 -0600

Key players in the global PC gaming industry have formed the PC Gaming
Alliance (PCGA), a not-for-profit organisation comprising hardware and
software vendors, game developers and publishers, with foundation
members at the very top of the PC industry pecking order.

The foundation members of PCGA are Acer/Gateway, Activision Publishing,
AMD, Dell/Alienware, Epic Games, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA and Razer USA.

While the big three games console platforms get much of the publicity
in the games space, the PC gaming market is a multi-billion dollar
industry with hundreds of millions of gamers worldwide which is
expected to grow more than 80% over the next five years, according to
PCGA.

PCGA intends to focus on driving coordinated marketing and promotion of
PC gaming, consistent and accurate reporting of PC gaming market sizing
and research, and creating forums for member companies to cooperate on
solutions to challenges facing the PC gaming industry, such as hardware
requirements, anti-piracy, and more.

Navtej Kohli

Navtej Kohli PrWeb | Navtej Kohli Emedia | Navtej Kohli Yahoo News! Navtej Kohli Word Press | Navtej Kohli Careers | Navtej Kohli SeoMoz | Navtej Kohli Livejournal | Navtej Kohli BlogSpot |