Love in the Time of Email

- Parting Note -

As I think of love letters, the first thought that crosses my mind is an incident narrated to me by a friend. As a kid, in the 3rd standard in school, he was truly, madly, deeply in love with the Head Girl of our school. So when his friends challenged him that he could not go up to her and profess his love for her, he picked up an old greeting card from home, the ones with the pictures of gods and goddesses on them, and wrote,

Dear Pooja Didi,

I Love You.

From, Rahul

I cannot help but wonder what Pooja Didi’s reaction would have been at receiving such a love letter. But as unusual as it might sound, it still, was a love letter, nonetheless. A love letter is not necessarily a Shakespearean sonnet or a Lord Byron poem. It need not be written on scented stationery in a fine calligraphic hand. A simple ‘I Love You’ scribbled on a post-it can be a love letter too! And it can be a text message or an e-mail or an instant message on Gtalk. Technology today has revolutionized the way we communicate and express ourselves.

Sending a love e-mail does not by any chance suggest that it is less romantic or sincere. Adding face to our emotions are the options provided by e-mails alone like emoticons, backgrounds, fonts, colors, etc. Now, the perfect stationery and calligraphy are just a click away. Thanks to the convenience of e-mails, we no longer have to carry around a pile of letters wrapped in a ribbon if we want to access them anytime, anywhere. But the die-hard romantic would argue that a love e-mail can never beat the anticipation of waiting for a hand-written letter from one’s beloved, the joy of seeing that familiar handwriting scribbled on the envelope, discovering the petals he put into the folds of the letter and the joy of rediscovering those time-worn envelopes, years later, while you are cleaning your cup board. There is a certain romance in longing and waiting, and emails rob the very essence of it.

I have never received a love letter: neither hand-written nor online. But every time I go home after a long break, I dig down into my drawers for that worn out red envelope which holds all the greeting cards I have received ever since I was a kid. And I do not have words to explain the joy I experience when I see them; the writing of long forgotten friends, the faded ink, the musty smell of the paper. I have received numerous e-greetings, but, with due respect for the sender’s emotions, I have never felt the urge to search my inbox and open them again. Which makes me think that maybe I am a diehard romantic. Maybe I feel that hand written letters are more tangible. Or maybe I am just longing to receive that much awaited letter from my beloved. ‘Knock.. Knock.. Knock..’ Maybe it’s my roommate back from shopping. Or maybe……….. It’s the postman carrying a lovely red envelope.. Maybe…………..

Ipsita is an engineer from Manipal University. After serving a microscopic stint at Infosys, Mysore (basically a “life of luxury”), she moved on to pursue her MBA from IIFT-K. Her life is not short of any interesting chick-lit. She is a big foodie without managing to look like one. Relative grading makes her life easier so she can sing, eat, shop and roam around the streets of Kolkata without giving a second thought to grades. Name a character from any movie, book or TV series and she mimics them at ease. Try me, she asks.

Tech-Maze Answers

1. The first recorded instance of spam
2. Zynga: The world’s largest social games company
3. Pagalguy.com
4. Ubuntu
5. Geek

Tech-Maze

1. The earliest documented example of this was a message advertising the availability of a new model of Digital Equipment Corporation computers sent to 393 recipients on ARPANET in 1978, by Gary Thuerk. What am I talking about here?

2. Which brand would you associate with Facebook’s three popular games: Farmville, Cafe World and Mafia Wars?

3. This dot-com, founded in 2002, has the tag-line ‘Insanely Different’. Its office is headquartered at Mumbai and is named ‘Inzane Labs’. Its logo is Monsieur Green. Identify.

4. A person with ______is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed. What product takes it name from the above philosophy???

5. Originally the term referred to a carnival performer who would bite the head of animals, most commonly a chicken. It comes from “_____”, an old British term for “fool” which stems from a German word of the same spelling; another derivative is the Dutch “___” (a crazy person). The most likely explanation for its modern usage comes from the idea that somebody who bit off animal heads in a carnival probably wasn’t at the center of mainstream society.

Social Networking at Workplace

We live in a world where staying connected with people at all times has become a part of life. Even businesses have not been left untouched by this growing bug of social networking. The issue becomes all the more relevant when social networking takes away those minutes or hours of our daily life when we are supposed to create value for our organisations. The growth of social networking platforms has been phenomenal. Millions of people around the world with access to the Internet are members of one or more social networks. They have a permanent online presence where they create profiles, share photos and thoughts with friends and spend hours catching up with them.

A little bit of maths can reveal why most employers are hesitant to provide access to social networking sites at the workplace. If every employee in a 100-strong workforce spent 30 minutes on a social networking site every day, that would work out to a loss of 13000 hours of productivity in one year! A 50 hour of non productive work per day can be a cause of great concern for any management. Especially, when workers are paid on an hourly basis and companies taking cost cutting measures; it is difficult for management to provide the luxury of social networks to their employees. At the same time social networks can be a major consideration for keeping up the employee demands.

Also, social networks have evolved as a means of communication preferred by today’s employees. For managers it is important to think of a strategy for generating value through these social networks to justify the opportunity cost involved in embracing these networks. The possibilities for leveraging social media tools are enormous. Companies can utilize these social networks for widening there reach at a little cost. Social networks are emerging as an upcoming marketing and advertising channel. Social networks can be evaluated from the standpoint of corporate communications where Intranet is being updated by adding social features to existing processes. It can be used as a new approach to human resources strategy by bridging internal and external communications and tackle pressing recruitment and retention concerns.

Companies can use the idea of social networking in promoting informal employee networks or communities. They can be an inexpensive and efficient way of sharing knowledge and ideas. These informal networks can serve a two way purpose: first, it will curb the urge of social networking in the employees while they are at the workplace; second, it will lead to a better knowledge management and make the organization more learning oriented.

It is vital to strike a balance between allowing useful social networking to take place while restricting loss of man-hours. That can be done by permitting a restricted access to the sites, educating and training the staff about the security issues for the organization, and laying down proper security and usage policy for accessing the social networking sites.

Himanshu is a chemical engineer but more than chemistry, he has a passion for adventure. A cool guy who has a “funda” of his own for everything that exists, ranging from why he wears such short shorts (probably because they are called shorts!) to why a thrill is so thrilling. He has a significant amount of work experience with Bechtel Corporation. He is also known as The Balli with the dazzling smile. Basically a cool guy from IIFT Delhi who smartly agreed to write for Techtonix.

GOOGLE LABs!!

One of the most innovative companies in terms of the web based products/applications – Google encourages its employees to devote some of their working time to personal research and innovation. To make available, various applications generated under the umbrella of this idea, Google introduced Google Labs. Many of us who are not tech savvy are not aware of these features but they are quite interesting, high utility applications, save bandwidth umpteen times and make our life easier.

Let’s get down with the major ones:

Offline

One of the most impressive ones. You can actually localize your Gmail account and can read, create drafts and delete mails without internet connection. This feature saves all your mails on your hard drive, so it is recommended that it should be used on personal computers. Very useful tool for those who were used to outlook and stored their important content in PST files.

Undo Mail

Sometimes you click on send and then you realise that you could have edited the mail a bit more or you missed some detail or forgot to add an attachment etc. This option allows you to undo the mail you have send i.e. the mail hangs on for few seconds on Google server and you can see and option UNDO on the top of mail for few seconds after the mail was sent. Good attempt to match the “Recall” feature of Outlook but not that great if compared utility wise.

Mouse Gestures

This one is interesting. Once you enable the feature, just right click and move your mouse right or left to see next or previous mail respectively..... Quite a fun working this way.

Got the wrong Bob?

Good one...actually very useful for those who mail frequently (within minutes). Imagine sending ‘Miss u swthrt!’ mail to your boss sharing the same name with your girlfriend! It can be easily taken care of by this feature - Gmail crosschecks if you’re mailing to the right person or not depending on your frequency to mail to that person and then gives you an option to rectify your mailing list. Saves you from sending your personal information to wrong guys.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Just enable this feature; assign keys for frequently used actions like compose, reply, reply to all etc. and use Gmail faster.

Some less important but interesting ones -

Shared Folders

With this feature you can share a group of docs with your friends, co-workers or family, by sharing an entire folder with them

Creating a document

See...it is a different thing from Google Docs in the sense that you are actually converting your email conversation or a important information in email directly into a document.

Inserting Images

Want to embed images instead of sending them as attachments? Enable it!

P.S.: To view these features – got to Gmail->Settings- >Labs. Most of these features work best with Google Chrome.

P.P.S: Using ‘Utility’ word has become a habit after joining B skool so please bear with it!

Recommended link -
http://www.google.com/google-d-s/whatsnew.html

Gaurav is a student at IIFT, Kolkata. He has worked with Accenture as a software engineer. With his networking abilities he was able to squeeze a “work-(fun)-tour” for some time. He is also the Placement Coordinator at IIFT. He is cool, sanguine, gregarious and agnostic amongst various other brilliant adjectives. His hobbies include meeting new people, reading fiction, day-dreaming and smiling! (Oh and how could we forget his most favourite - Giving Gyaan!)

MBA @ Google

Ever since Larry Page and Sergey Brin met at Stanford in 1995 and co-founded Google Inc. in 1998, the world has undergone a revolution in the arena of information search. Learning about anything under the sun and even about anything in the universe not under the sun was never so easy! Google ensures a plethora of hyperlinks taking you to almost any topic you can conjure up in your mind. Any basic research that once required one to spend hours or even days looking up into stacks of library books or bulky encyclopedias’ can be done in minutes on Google. The company has declared that its mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” In the 21st century, that indeed seems a very noble mission to fulfill! One would really stop to think how MBA was done in the days when there was no Google. For MBA students today, who always have their plates full with ‘too much to learn in too little time’, Google is godsend. Google has become so indispensable that it has practically become a ‘verb’ in the student community. “I’m googling on hedge funds.” “Did you google on the company profile for our project?” “Oh! Hurry up, just google it!” As one of our professors famously advised, “Before you ask the teacher, ask Google!” Add to Google Web Search a huge basket of products including Gmail, Gtalk, Youtube, Blogger, Orkut, Picasa, Docs, Chrome and we realise Google Inc. practically runs our lives.

However, the human race is always under the risk of becoming a slave to machines, and our own creations come to torment our lives. As Nicholas Carr states in his famous article ‘Is Google Making Us Stupid?’, “Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, and begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.” And in student life, where reading is indispensable and the quantum to be read is infinite, we have become a restless generation with the concentration span of a butterfly, hopping from page to page. Technology invariably has its limitations and that is where the human mind gifted with incredible power comes into action. But with a mind that is plugged into Google, it’s hard to see the bigger picture without unplugging it first.

The information on Google is not always academically rich or even correct. It’s ironical how easily we mistake telltale facts on internet for the truth. Moreover, Google, on its part, cannot answer everything. How many times have we spent long frustrating hours on the internet, entering all thinkable keywords on our adorable search engine, only to get hopeless links page after page? A lot of unnecessary information makes the entire activity tedious; add to it the distractions galore from our own tendencies to have multiple windows open at the same time, ‘buzzing’ with activities like unnecessary gossip on instant messengers and social networking sites, just to satiate our bored minds with empty entertainment. It’s as if our generation has run out of time – to create, to reflect, to inspire, to experience the joy that comes from creative satisfaction.

We no longer have the patience to prepare high quality (read ‘original instead of plagiarized’) work, to verify the online information we blindly trust, to do anything other than quickly ‘Google it up’. No wonder B-Schools today are churning out corporate employees, not entrepreneurs! Today, the “copy- paste culture” is taking its toll on the MBA student community. It’s as if we are a conduit between ‘gyaan available on Google’ and the assignments/ papers/ reports/ projects/ presentations to be submitted. Our creative inputs are bare minimum and revolve around putting the information together in a readable/ presentable format. How many times have we sat down to reflect over the subject and look at it from a new perspective, one that Google doesn’t remotely convey?

Are we really focused on learning? The students simply create a rehash of the information, opinions, judgments, beliefs and predictions available on the internet and begin to believe “this is how it is”. It’s as if everything is external – what had to be said/ discovered/ invented has been said/ discovered/ invented – and internal insights don’t matter anymore – not of an MBA student at least. Sadly, in this pursuit of fast information at the click of a mouse, fresh viewpoints are not generated, intuitive understanding is weakened, learning takes a backseat and most importantly, creativity is lost. While it’s smart to embrace the new trends, it’s imperative to retain the old-world charm as well. The good old days when one sat with a pen and notebook, contemplating deeply for long hours, drawing interferences and analogies, fostering new ideas and letting creative insights flow out seem a reverie of wisdom. Life is not always about shortcuts and “quickly getting over with everything we do”.

It’s about enjoying the journey and making a difference with our intellectual contributions, and not getting so bogged down by the sea of information that we are always in a rat race to catch up with the world. While Google connects us to the world, it mustn’t disconnect us from our own selves. After all, as we come to rely more and more on Google for our understanding of the world, it’s our own intelligence that fades into the background.

Mehak in two words is an efficient multi-tasker. Doing her Maths (Hons) from D.U. has made her quick with numbers as well. The best Class Representative that IIFT Kolkata could ever get, this girl is forever ready to take on more responsibilities, CICT to be one of them. Her good communication skills have won the hearts of all kinds of audiences, be it for an informal skit or for class presentations. When she gets time off from her CR-ness, she is asked to write articles for various kinds of magazines.

The Ugly Music

Daily Deal was a clever scheme launched by Amazon which allowed music lovers to purchase music online at a reduced price one day before it was officially released (read iTunes). Amazon aggressively marketed the Daily Deal thus making it a very attractive proposition for the music labels. In the worldwide online digital music industry Apple rules almost 70% of the total market share. The other players like Amazon and Wal-Mart having some 12% each come a distant second. This move by Amazon would have been the death knell for Apple and would have eroded its monopoly.

On 24th February, 2010 iTunes Store, an online digital media store of Apple, sold its 10 billionth song. Within just seven years of opening the store Apple achieved this significant landmark through clever strategies and pricing models. It is no hidden fact that Apple’s moves have been widely criticized by its competitors. By 2010 it had four antitrust lawsuits filed against it. One of its greatly criticized strategies was use of FairPlay. For digital rights management (DRM) the company used FairPlay a technology originally created by Veridisc. Any form of media purchased from iTunes store used to be encrypted with FairPlay which prevented the user to play the music in unauthorized computers.

Apple had to face quite a few lawsuits against Fair- Play. In 2005 an antitrust case was filed saying that FairPlay forced out competitors as the music sold by iTunes Store could be played in only Apple’s own music player. Most of the complaints have been dropped, but one antitrust lawsuit is still going on. As time passed Apple shifted to selling DRM free music under the name of Apple iTunes Plus. Apple has a history of aggressive moves which usually tends to leave competitors cold. Its steep ascendancy has always alarmed the Justice Department. The regulators are now investigating possible antitrust issues rooted in Apple allegedly using its clout to squash smaller competitors.

The suspicion stems from a recent report by Bill-Board magazine which alleges that Apple has forbidden record label’s to participate in Amazon’s “Daily Deal”. For music labels not finding a spot on the iTune’s page is equivalent to premature death. Commanding almost 27% of all the music sales in U.S. Apple can easily dictate terms to the music companies. Now, the question is are these allegations true? Did Apple really abuse its power of being a monopoly? Interestingly another question also creeps into this discussion. Do the music labels really want to break free of Apple’s hold? They are the ones who decided to lock their songs with DRM thus forcing users to choose between Apple’s iTunes/iPod platforms or the lousy one by Microsoft. That leaves the users with no choice but to flock to Apple. They could have rather licensed their stuff to cheap subscription service. The music could have thus been sold at a cheap rate hence attracting the users. iTunes then would have never achieved the monopoly it now enjoys. It seems the music labels prefer Apple’s dominance rather than risk any such new strategy.

Sayani is a graceful damsel by heart and a finance-crazy girl by head. She claims to have about 5 girls as her roommates in the hostel. She loves reading whether they’re textbooks or fiction novels. She is usually seen studying at wee hours of the morning. With a great sense of humour to add to her good charm, she is balanced with the right mix of seriousness and fun. This is the best that can ever be written about an author in this magazine. Sayani, you’re a lucky girl!

Will the Change Happen: 3G in Rural India

Many of us must have seen Deepika Padhukone’s advertisement by BSNL where she is shown assisting a delivery using a 3G service. This advertisement is a typical example of how 3G can be beneficial in remote rural India and how it can be used to bridge the gap between the urban and rural sector.

3G offers endless possibilities to India, but to reap them specifically in rural parts would be a road full of challenges. With the spectrum now available even to the private players, the services are bound to get better and more penetrative. This article would tell you how 3G can be beneficial for the rural India, what are the major challenges that can confront its penetration and what can be the solution for the same.

Benefits

Technology is yet to knock on the doors of the rural people. Also, affordable and easy to use technological applications have always been scarcely available to them. 3G can play a revolutionary role in changing the traditional practices in rural India. High internet speeds would allow faster access of photos and videos on mobile by farmers. Very few farmers can speak and understand English which limits their access to urban markets, but using these videos and pictures would help overcome this language barrier. Farmers can also view the latest trends in the ‘Mandi rates’ across various places and take informed decisions. Farmers can get tips using videos, Live weather information, Live consultations etc over internet regarding their crop. Using these applications and features, Agriculture would gain a lot. Similarly, if we talk about Healthcare, even basic medical provisions have been difficult to reach isolated and remote areas, technology can prove to be the much needed shot in the arm. Using the 3G network, Live and interactive checkups and reporting is possible which would help improve the much beleaguered rural healthcare sector. In this way, even the rural people can access services from the top notch doctors of India as well as abroad remotely and without their physical presence.

Education levels in the rural sector have always been on the problematic levels. It needs a thrust to get it rolling and help India increase her education levels. 3G can also help in this regard by providing possibilities of Live interactive education classes as well as monitoring of students from a remote location. This technological advancement could change the face of Indian rural education where there is a lack of reputed teachers and most of the schools are located at far away distances. Also, Online government applications would be possible using the 3G network through which the villagers could save themselves from the government bureaucracy. Also, the villagers could have access to government initiatives online. This can add the dimension of e-governance for the rural people.

Challenges

The major challenge according to me would be the reluctance of the rural people to ‘change’ from their age old methods and adopt the change. Most important parameter to overcome this would be to gain their confidence, make them friendly to the change, and most importantly make them understand the need for this. The rural people are not the kind of people who are techno savvy and would definitely face problems to accept this methodology and technology dependence. The income levels of people would also be a dithering factor for the reach as people would be reluctant to buy new resources like an expensive mobile phone which is 3G enabled and invest in these 3G services. Moreover, if we see the other side it provides an opportunity as mobile 3G services can make Internet services more easily accessible compared to using a PC, which needs steady electricity supplies, maintenance, broadband services and other infrastructure which are missing in large swathes of rural India. It’s just a matter of making the rural people understand the need for the change.

It would be equally tricky for the telecom service providers to propel 3G in rural areas. The service providers would need to make some expensive advancement in their present mobile network setups. Eg. They have to add an extra base station infrastructure (like Node- B) and make similar changes in the Mobile switching systems. Despite of this, they would be definitely skeptical about the Average Revenue per User (ARPU) generated from rural India. Due to this many service providers would definitely face a dilemma of launching 3G services in rural areas.

What I suggest

To overcome the above said challenges and for the service providers to reap benefits faster and constantly, they should assist the change in the rural India in a well co-ordinated and planned manner. A Government/NGO assisted ‘Experience Centre’ should be opened in each village. This centre should have the vision to make the rural people aware of the benefits they can draw from 3G services and then make them realize the importance of this change in their lives. The centre should educate the rural people about the various services and how can they utilize and use them in their mundane works. Also, some medical camps should be held using the technology involving doctors of high repute which could actually instill a great confidence in the rural people minds. Children should be offered educational classes and make them feel a part of some distant class by Live interaction with the teachers and students. Initiatives like these can make a mark in the rural market and the reluctance to change factor could be overcome. Let us hope that 3G is able to actually “bell the rural India”.

Naveen is a fresher from Kurukshetra University. Music is one of his passions and sports come as close second. The telecom industry has always gained an important place in his heart, which prompted us to get him to write on 3G. A short spell of Amsterdam did oodles of good to his already ‘accented’ accent. Though his presence was greatly missed by one and all at IIFT Kolkata, he is back to spread joy and entertainment in and around classes.

War With 1s and 0s

While invention of computers is definitely a boon, terrorism is a curse on humanity. Computer and Terrorism have given rise to cyber terrorism in which terrorists make extensive use of computers to carry on with their dreadful activities. Terrorists are even coming up with personalized terrorist sites. In fact cyber terrorism is a new form of international terrorism. Computer, along with its internet connection has the capability of exploring the universe and can gather valuable information. This is one of the primary reasons why computers are increasingly being used by terrorists.

Terrorists increasingly are using the Internet as a means of communication both with each other and the rest of the world. By now, nearly everyone has seen at least some images from propaganda videos published on terrorist sites and rebroadcasted on the world’s news networks. Western governments have intensified surveillance of such sites but their prosecution of site operators is hampered by concerns over civil liberties, the internet’s inherent anonymity and other factors.

Definition of Cyber Terrorism:

The FBI defined cyber terrorism as “The premeditated, politically motivated attack against information, computer systems, computer programs, and data which result in violence against noncombatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents”.

The greatest advantage of the internet is stealth. Terrorists have developed sophisticated encryption tools and creative techniques that make the internet an efficient and relatively secure means of correspondence. These include steganography, a technique used to hide messages in graphic files and “dead dropping”: transmitting information through saved email drafts in an online email account accessible to anyone with the password. The Internet also provides a global pool of potential recruits and donors. Online terrorist fundraising has become so commonplace that some organizations are able to accept donations via the popular online payment service PayPal.

Are there any prominent online terrorists?

Among the most infamous figures to emerge from the world of online terrorism in recent years is “Irhaby 007” (“Terrorist 007”). As a SITE Institute profile explains, Irhaby 007 was celebrated by other online terrorists for his hacking prowess and his ability to securely distribute information. With his assistance, terrorist organizations around the globe were able to expand the reach of their message. Irhaby 007 passed this knowledge along to other online Jihadis through web postings such as his “Seminar for Hacking Websites,” creating a network of techno-savvy terrorist disciples. In October 2005, Scotland Yard officers in West London arrested 22-year-old Younis Tsouli, whom they later identified as Irhaby 007. Tsouli is awaiting trial on charges that include conspiracy to murder and terrorist undraising.

Another prominent online terrorist is Abu Maysarah al-Iraqi, who has served as the media representative for al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Zarqawi. Al-Iraqi goes online to claim responsibility for acts of terrorism, post propaganda videos, and issue statements on behalf of Zarqawi, though experts say it is unclear whether Al- Iraqi is just one person or several using the same name. There is some debate within the counterterrorism community about how to combat terrorist sites. “The kneejerk reaction is if you see a terrorist site you shut it down, but doing so can cause investigators to miss out on a wealth of valuable information.”You can see who’s posting what and who’s paying for it” .For instance, German officials monitoring online chatter issued early warnings prior to the Madrid train bombings in March 2004.

Unfortunately, one cannot learn how to fight this very unconventional warfare from someone who hasn’t been there, nor from someone whose experience is in the old ways and old technologies. The old data processing, auditing, and computer security models in use today are obsolete. On this battlefield, against this weapon, the terrorist is already far ahead. The building of a counter-Cyber Terrorist team must be real-time and dynamic, as the weapons will continually change, to morph, in an attempt to beat you, your systems, and your people. There is no re-machining, and unlike other terrorists, if the Cyber Terrorist loses today, he does not die - he learns what did not work, and will use that information against you tomorrow.

Ankit is a B. Tech (IT) graduate from JIIT Noida. He is a tech wiz by heart but gets little time to pursue such interests because now he is either looking after un-important IMF activities or winning random bets with fellow IIFT-K students. In between such busy moments, he finds time to write a couple of articles for Techtonix.

Editor Speaks

Dear Readers,

Greetings from Techtonix!

Technology has always been at the crossroads, promising prosperity and good life to mankind as well as threatening it with apocalyptic disasters. After all, technology is what humans make of it. The bomb and the bread both are products of technology.

With the summers behind and rain splashing us all over, Techtonix presents you the Summer Special Issue that brings together a trinity of technology, terrorism and love. Added are the doses of trivia and some not so known truths about Google trained MBAs which makes the issue a real treat for its readers.

India saw a lot of activity in the IT domain with the 3G auctions promising to bring in much cheer to the consumers. But do the benefits flows only to those who are already served by technology or can it make a meaningful impact on the hitherto uncared part of India sometimes called as Bharat?

Terrorists are increasingly turning more and more sophisticated in their use of technology. The increasing power and ubiquity of internet is all the more reason to prevent it from going into the hands of those misguided zealots. The confrontation between the governments and terrorists has already moved to the virtual domain.

Love in the Time of Cholera saw Florentino Ariza writing a bundle of letters to Fermina Daza. What does today’s Ariza do to express their Love in the Time of E-mail?

Team Techtonix welcomes all the students who will be starting off their MBA journeys this year with their Summer Special Issue. We hope to continue to bring little drops of joy in your lives with our take on technology and business.

MJ

Editor : Mritunjay
Associate Editors : Ashish, Shubham and Shveta

Summer Special 2010 Vol. 1 | Issue 2

Techtonix Summer Special Edition (Magazine version)

A Parting Note

Sometimes I think when technology will become too much technology. Do we really need all these gizmos and gadgets being churned out like nuts and bolts? I try and go back to the Socratic question. Why do we need technology? Was it not supposed to free the human race from the drudgeries of labour. And if it was has it fulfilled its mission? Are we not tied up with work more than any of our previous generations?

The ubiquitous web around us has really caught us up in its tentacles. We have hundreds and thousands of friends on social networking sites but hardly have we met up with most of them. Leave them apart we hardly care to know about our next door neighbors. Are we not busy with our professional obligation almost all the time? People say technology has enabled us to continue working even when travelling. How many times we were disturbed by the ringing of the cell phone when having an intimate conversation or just trying to be with oneself? Do we not have a right to few peaceful moments for ourselves? Do we need to keep on slogging at all times?

Sometimes I think of children and the amount of technology they are exposed to. Earlier we feared children turning into couch potatoes. Now we have another demon in the form of internet and game consoles. Violent games from an early age could severely impact the mental conditioning of children. Danger lurks at many corners in the virtual domain called internet. The question becomes paramount as to when and in what ways should the children be exposed to technology. Gone are the joys of seeing a little plant grow or playing in the gardens. Now we sit for hours in front of machines.

Sometimes I also think have we not become machines ourselves. We still may be the masters when the control over machines is concerned. But I am spooked by the thought of the day when technology goes bust. Today we are becoming so much dependent on machines that their failure could wreak havoc on our lives. Our memories are shrinking. We no longer remember phone numbers or email ids or birthdays of friends. Everything is stored in devices. The day may come when we will entrust the machines with remembering our own selves. That does sound spooky to me. Suppose the machine went bust and we will not be able to remember who we were.

My concerns may seem exaggerated but not totally out of order. We definitely need to decide how much technology is too much technology; lest we cede control to robots and all those Hollywood fiction about machines becoming masters may become realities sooner than later.

Hasta La Vista !!

Answers:

1) Facebook
2) Jaiku
3) Sony Corporation
4) Polaroid Photography
5) YAHOO
6) Bing
7) Intel
8) David Bradley – one of the engineers at IBM-PC
9) Baazee.com, acquired by ebay.com as www.ebay.co.in
10)CHAT

TECH-MAZE

An attempt to check how technologically logical you are. I have no idea what the level of difficulty is for this one! How about going through the questions and checking it out for yourself?
Happy Answering!!

Ok... Here goes nothing…

1. I celebrated my 6th birthday this year and 400 million guests were invited for the celebrations. Palo Alto in California was the venue. (You could have been one of the guests)
Who AM I ??

2. I have a tragic story to tell! I was born in 2006 in Finland. Google adopted me in 2007 but after two years, they left the entire world in charge of me. (Think Twitter!!) Who am I??

3. In 1946, 20 people met in a burned-out store to form the Tokyo Telecommunication Engineering Corporation. One of its founders wanted to create a product that would be useful to the general public. Now I am known as something else. Who am I??

4. I was created by a father for his daughter because she wanted instant and snappy results. (Think of the fastest Kodak moment!!) Who am I??

5. My first name is Yet Another and my last name is Officious Oracle. And my middle name is Hierarchical. Who am I?

7. I was born in 1968. After a lot of choices for a good name for me, like, Calex, Elcal, Calecom, Elcom, Calcomp, Digicom, Tronicom, Comptek, Computek, Esscotek or Ectek. An entirely different name was chosen for me in the end.
Who AM I ??

8. Although I invented CTRL-ALT-DELETE, I like to joke that Microsoft made it famous.

9. I was born to an Indian family in 2000. After 4 years, a U.S. family adopted me and rechristened me with their family name.
Who AM I ??

10. My name is Conversational Hypertext across Technology. But everyone uses a shorter, simpler word for me. Who AM I ??

Who are we?
We are a mix of innocence and wickedness. Partners in all kinds of crimes. We follow a policy of Be Evil. Do Evil. Stay Evil. We share many avatars; The latest one being the blades of a scissor. Snip snip snip! - Minal and Shveta

The Facebook Moves...

Here we are talking about a company which has more than 400 million users, supporting more than 70 languages, has more than one million developers and entrepreneurs from more than 180 countries ,with more than 3.5 million events created each month and has more than 5.3 million fans. Yes you guessed it right we are talking about Facebook. It is the company which challenged the might of Google in the internet industry. Orkut traffic reduced by 7.7% last year while facebook traffic increased by 69.5%.

Here I would like to discuss a few initiatives which Facebook has taken to improve its customer satisfaction.

Firstly Facebook has inked the deal with Paypal this year. The basic objective behind this deal is to increase credit reliability. The new partnership actually encompasses a few areas of Facebook’s payments. Along with Facebook Credits, you’ll be able to use PayPal to purchase Facebook Ads. This is big news for both companies. PayPal has been trying to establish a greater presence in micropayments and on Facebook itself. And Face-book will now make it easier for PayPal’s 81 million users to quickly stock up on ads and buy its credits, which are only going to become more important on the site going forward. Other payment options for Facebook include standard credit cards and mobile phones (using Zong).

One other reason why this is interesting: given Facebook’s interest in extending itself beyond Facebook.com through services like Facebook Connect, it wouldn’t be surprising if it started prompting people to start “Paying with Facebook” on external sites, which would make it competitive with PayPal. Given how nascent Facebook payments are this would likely be a long ways off (if it’s even coming).

Secondly Facebook recently acquired a firm in Malaysia named Octazen. They are claiming that this is a talent acquisition. Octazen has a slightly different story on their home page, saying Facebook acquired “most of the company’s assets and to employ those assets in a different direction.”Either way, it’s leaving people scratching their heads. What exactly has Octazen been up to?

The company is mostly about above-board contact importing from one service to another – signing in to Gmail from Facebook, for example, to import your contacts there and add them as Facebook friends. Much of this is done via OAuth and APIs, but Octazen is known to dive much deeper for data. One example – Octazen will sometimes collects and store user credentials directly, and sign into large social networks and other sites as if they were the user, say multiple sources. Then they’ll download the address book and social graph. A percentage of your friends on that service might be users of the service (now Facebook) paying Octazen, and you’ll be asked to friend them. But there’s a big question about what happens to the rest of the data as well, and if Octazen is storing a shadow social network in violation of terms of service to recommend user connections down the road. And they may look deeper at data than they should – at email header information, for example, to get a better understanding of who you communicate with the most. Thirdly Last month, Facebook announced a conversion tracker tool to help marketers determine the value of their efforts on the world’s most popular social network. The tool would help marketers track conversions (obviously) and deter-mine the value of brand fans.

At the end, I would like to discuss about a decision which Facebook took and it is affecting our environment. Facebook recently announced a plan to build a massive data center in Prineville, Oregon. Unfortunately, while Facebook plans to build a highly energy-efficient data center, which saves it money in lower energy costs, the company has taken the cheap and easy -- not to mention dirty -- way out in choosing coal as the source of electricity that will power your Facebook profile. Yes, coal -- that 19th century technology, which happens to be the dirtiest source of energy and biggest contributor to global warming -- will be burned in ever greater amounts with each photo shared and status update posted, unless Facebook changes its plans. It doesn't have to be this way. Yahoo, for instance, built a date center near Buffalo, New York, that is powered by hydroelectric power, decreasing the data center's carbon foot-print. Unfortunately, Facebook has chosen instead to go with PacifiCorp, a power company that generates the majority of its electricity from coal-fired power stations. May better sense prevail on the company which claims to make friends with people.

Ankit is a tech whiz by heart and takes a keen interest in articles related to IT/technical developments in and around the world. That can be the reason/cause of his doing a B. Tech (IT) from JIIT Noida. He has no prior work ex though he was selected in 4 companies during his placements. That just goes to show how technically sound this person is. He is currently doing MBA from IIFT.

Green and Bear IT!

The buzzword nowadays which is making the round of corporate offices, government legislations, academia and equipment manufacturers alike is “GREEN‟. Quite some time back, Green IT in particular, was identified as a major issue facing managers. The rapidly growing carbon foot-print has shown little sign of abating although a host of green measures have been implemented to tackle this serious menace. The IT industry is reportedly responsible for almost 2% of global CO2 output. Rapidly growing information and communications technologies, including laptops and PCs, data centres and computing networks, mobile phones, and telecommunications networks, all are slated to be among the biggest greenhouse gas emitters by 2020.

Most organizations understand the need to respond positively to the environmental and commercial uncertainty brought about by climate change and a changing global landscape. However, these steps or measures have varied in speed, scope and intent. However, with public pressure mounting, increasingly focused negative publicity is being directed at perceived offenders, resulting in companies running for cover and trying to reduce or justify their carbon footprint. Increasingly tough legislation like the WEEE in Europe has made green measures mandatory.

Data Centres are the most energy intensive part of an IT organization. So use of energy-efficient servers in data centers, promotion of “3R‟ – Reduce, Re-use, Refuse policy, use of been instrumental in improving the telecommunication networks resulting in reduction in air travel, power management, virtualization are just few of the methods being used to reduce the emission of environment damaging substances. CSR has been promoting implementation of Green IT in a big way and has image of companies as “environmentally responsible”.

However, not all is hunky-dory on the green front. Many companies view the implementation of green measures as laws enforced on them and comply with them only to remain socially and politically acceptable.

The toughest challenge is the age-old battle of ethics versus money. It takes integrity and sense of purpose to see these projects through. The management needs to show to the company the connection of implementing green measures directly to the business model. The program should not seem like an 'add on', rather it should be a part of the strategy to reach the organization's established goals. The focus should be on aligning green measures with the core business model, and integrating the various steps into day-to-day operations. The employees need to be actively engaged and empowered to take eco-friendly decisions.

The supply chains of most industries are where there is huge scope for going green. However, shared sub-component suppliers, specialized manufacturing environments and sophisticated MRP systems mean that product often travels around the world before it reaches the final assembly plant or data centre floor. But companies contend that changing manufacturing processes or building facilities to reduce travel will cause more environmental damage. Also it is neither commercially viable to have in-house manufacturing sites in all major markets.

Lack of metrics to measure the full lifecycle impact of products on the environment is cited as another reason which reduces the motivation for green measures implementation. Also hardware companies are notorious in reporting outdated resource usage data with little drilldown available. Up gradation to greener server and storage devices is difficult because of lack of guidance was the opinion expressed by many companies.

All businesses, however, should understand that pursuing green IT will result in long term benefits, such as cost-efficiency and improved work-place practices. A shared approach is necessary to ensure both green IT and business objectives can be pursued simultaneously and for mutual benefit.

Shilpa is an IT engineer from Mumbai University. Required to sleep less yet can't do without her usual quota, she spends her days managing between classes, teachers and companies all at the same time. In between all this, she manages to squeeze in a little bit of blogging (non-existent for now) as well. She probably learnt this juggling act from her 3-year stint at TCS. Her latest feat has been to continue the juggle with one foot in Delhi and one in Kolkata!

Link Up

http://www.bit.ly
The tagline says it all - Shorten, share and track your links. Better than tiny-url.com as it also allows to track how many hits you got for the particular link apart from shortening the length

http://www.dontclick.it/
The name says it all and that to with a .it extension for domain name. People do get tired of doing the same things. So here is a site where you don't have to click at all. Just hover the mouse and "why don't you see it your-self".

http://www.neave.com/
Human creativity has no bounds or should we say the penchant for doing useless stuff which other people find so interesting that they can't stop bragging that they were the ones who saw it first. In this case even if you don't like it is me. I can't write about this site. That would amount to blasphemy. It is too beautiful and too distractive. At least check the bounce ball where the ball bounces according to the music you play or the kind of sounds you make in your mike.

http://www.pixlr.com/editor/
Online Photoshop Editor. You don't have to install those hard drive eating softwares and crack them with cumbersome cracks. Pardon me for assuming that you also use pirated software more often like me. The only thing you need to have is a broadband connection.

http://talesofmereexistence.com/wp/
You can check this link for a bit of fun and lots of fundas (pun intended) .A bit of warning in the beginning - It can be addictive. But personally I feel you will learn more about strategy and streets smartness watching these short videos rather than doing the two hour sessions we have on the subject.

Jagadish is a walking-talking argument. Instead of concentrating on Elec&TComm Engg in ITER Bhubaneswar, he spent time uncomplicating thoughts from his demented mind by writing a number of blogs. Meanwhile, Satyam took him under his wing till he started his MBA from IIFT in the hope of a frustration-free life ahead.

The Dragon Vs. Google

At the start of this year, Google created a flutter by announcing that it was no longer interested in working with the Chinese government to censor search results, and by threatening to cease operations in the communist country. Google, the world’s most popular search engine, said it may pull out of the world’s biggest Internet market by users.

This controversy came to light on Google’s blog on January 12, when David Drummond, Google’s SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, posted:
“We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”

An example of a filtered search result is the Image search for "Tiananmen Square" on Google's new Chinese plat-form yields very different results from the same search on Google.com. Searches on Google.com yields pictures of a man blocking a column of tanks-the iconic image of the 1989 student protests calling for democracy which led to the violent crackdown in which the Chinese army gunned down several hundred civilians. On the other hand, Google.cn features soldiers raising the national flag and tourists taking snap-shots.

Internet censors in China are hard at work these days, shutting down blogs the government doesn't like and filtering Web sites and e-mail messages for banned words and phrases like "democracy" and "free Tibet." All these are the part of an effort by China's government to tighten control over what it calls "propaganda."

American search-engine companies operating in China have engaged in all of the following activities except selling China's government equipment that aids in restricting access to Web sites, providing information about their users' e-mail accounts, shutting down a blog that offended Chinese authorities and helping to decide which Web sites are offensive. Critics say China censors certain types of information because much of the information in question is false or misleading, comes from foreign sources and might undermine the Communist Party's power and as a consequence may of-fend Chinese cultural and moral values.

Google has had major impact throughout China’s information technology sector since it entered the market in 2005. Google’s share of the Chinese market has risen to 35.6% and it is second behind Baidu which has 58.4% market share.

In mid-December 2009, Google, Adobe Systems, and a host of other Silicon Valley companies were targeted by attacks originating in China. The attacks involved malicious PDF files in e-mail attachments, and some were targeted to Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists according to Google. In addition, accounts of dozens of Gmail users in the U.S., China, and Europe who advocate human rights were accessed routinely via phishing or malware according to Google. According to a statement Google released in a blog post conveys that the attacks and the surveillance that has been uncovered-combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web have led them to conclude that they should review the feasibility of their business operations in China. Google has decided that they are no longer willing to continue censoring their results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which they could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. This may well mean having to shut down Google.cn and potentially their offices in China.

Sukrit is currently doing an MBA from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. Prior to this, he was working in Wipro Technologies where he learnt to keep chocolate and all its sinful variations at bay. He completed his engineering from SIT Kolkata and is still as clueless about Kolkata roads as some of us are in a Fin class.

Agile Methodology: The New Way Forward?

Traditionally Indian IT firms have been focused on providing business solutions to their customers. It is all about first understanding the issues the client is facing, the solution he is looking for and then developing an application tailored to fit his needs. These solutions are varied in scope be it developing a website , creating the intranet for the firms or developing web applications which auto-mate and make their customer’s business process, smoother, faster and more efficient. The one thing that has remained more or less common amongst these firms is the software development life cycle or software developing process which they followed while developing the software. I would, in this article, be taking you briefly through the various models which have been used and then introducing you to Agile Methodology.

The main activities involved while developing any software are as follows:

Planning: Involves requirement gathering, analysis, feasibility study and all the initial groundwork to understand the problem and try to find a solution to it.

Implementation: Involves documenting the process, doing the actual coding and testing the application.

Deployment and Maintenance: Starts after the software is ready and has been approved of. Software training and support is provided to train the staff of the organization for whom the application has been developed and also maintenance work is done for new problems which creep up.

While these three have formed the core of all software development methodologies, the way they have been approached has been different in all cases.

Waterfall Method
The diagram illustrates how the water-fall method has approached software development. There were 5 main steps in this namely requirement gathering, de-sign, implementation, verification and maintenance. In this case each step follows the other till the entire application is developed and deployed.

Spiral Method
The above diagram depicts software development using spiral methodology. The significant points of differentiation here is that it allows scope for risk management at every step of the development cycle.

Iterative and Incremental Process
In the case of iterative processes small portions of the software are developed and tested for faults. These are particularly helpful when you are developing software for clients who are not clear about their requirements.

In all the models described so far, the client interaction took place mostly during the requirement gathering process. Once that was done the flow of work proceeded based on the understanding gathered in that period. They were basically plan driven methodologies. But most software projects take long periods of time to complete and it is very much possible that the business process of the customer may have changed during this period. Apart from that there is also the possibility that something was overlooked or misunderstood during the requirements stage and hence the application does not fully meet the expectations and rework is required. This tends to happen because of lack of communication between the software development team and the client. It is necessary for the client to be consulted and shown what progress is being made and whether it is matching his requirements and expectations. This is where agile methodology creeps in. Agile methodology is similar to iterative methodology; however it relies on constant feedback of the customer. It takes a more people centric approach to soft-ware development than the other methods in the sense that the client and his needs are always kept in mind and they are constantly being updated about the progress of the software and asked for any updates or reworks required.

So what exactly is the Agile Manifesto?
“We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
4. Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.” (Source: http://agilemanifesto.org/ )

Basically the main drawbacks of conventional software development process were identified and a process called agile was developed. Some of the principles behind the Agile Manifesto[6] are as follows:
1. Customer satisfaction by rapid, continuous delivery of useful software
2. Working software is delivered frequently (weeks rather than months)
3. Working software is the principal measure of progress
4. Even late changes in requirements are welcomed
5. Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers
6. Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-location)
7. Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted
8. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
9. Simplicity
10. Self-organizing teams
11. Regular adaptation to changing circumstances
(source: http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html )

Agile methodology tries to be adaptive rather than predictive. What this means is that while other methodologies planned the whole process in the start, agile methodology welcomes change. Agile promotes disciplined project management, frequent inspection and adaptation, teamwork, self-organization and accountability and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals.

Agile believes in breaking down the task into small increments which last typically from 1 to 4 weeks. At the end of each iteration a working product is de-livered to the stakeholder (client). The client is free to give any modifications or changes he requires at this stage. These changes are then incorporated into the software and displayed to the client after the next iteration with that iteration’s portion too. This iterative period is called a sprint. Typically a team is called a scrum. The team size is kept small deliberately to facilitate better communication in the team. It consists of a scrum master who acts similar to a project manager, the product owner (the clients) and the team who do the analysis, design, implementation, testing and deployment. Typically a scrum master will only facilitate in the scrum meetings which happen every day. The tasks for every sprint are known as sprint backlog and are frozen for the period of the sprint i.e. this set of requirements cannot be changed till the sprint is complete. Once the deliverable for that sprint is done we can show it to the client and he will judge whether any changes are to be made in it. The deliverable at the end of every sprint is a working and potentially shippable product increment.

There are five types of meeting which take place in a scrum which act as keys to facilitating further development.

Daily Scrum Meeting: This generally happens every day at the same time. The agenda is a discussion of what the scrum members have done throughout the day and what they plan to undertake the next day. The problems being faced by the members are also discussed and analyzed. The duration is typically 15 minutes.

Scrum of scrums: This allows the different scrums within the project to discuss what the team has done since the previous day.
A chosen candidate attends this meeting on behalf of his/her scrum. The topics are the tasks which are handled by each scrum, their progress and problems. Also any issue with other teams is discussed here too.

Sprint Planning Meeting: This happens at the start of every sprint. It is approximately an 8 hour meeting where the activities for the sprint are decided. The sprint backlog once prepared, the deliverables and the time taken to develop them are decided upon too.

Sprint Review Meeting: The work done in the sprint is reviewed and displayed to the client. It lasts for approximately 4 hours. Feedback from the client is taken and changes are incorporated in the next sprint.

Sprint Retrospective: The team members dwell on the previous sprint and come up with what went wrong and what went right. They try to find ways to improve upon their work.
As is clear from the above description, agile methodology is all about ensuring high quality products, tailor made to fit the client’s needs in a very efficient and timely manner. Unlike all the previous models, the high level of interaction al-lowed in agile ensures the product meets all the clients‟ expectations. Also it allows a great degree of flexibility.

And as there is no specific hierarchy in the team every member of the scrum feels a sense of responsibility and ownership for his product. This helps bring out the best in them. It’s little wonder then that many firms are switching to this methodology and its clearly emerging as the way to go in the future.

Kshitija is currently busy with an MBA from IIFT. Prior to this, she was working in Patni CS for a good 3 years in Mumbai. She did her B.E in Electronics and Tele-communications from Mumbai University. Basically, Mumbai is the keyword here. Her unrequited love for Mumbai may be injurious for her future endeavors in other parts of the country.

Adam’s Big Bite!

When was the last time you used a desktop PC? Or spoke over a landline phone? Need-less to say we are now transcending to-wards gadgets that are compact, with more-than-ever functionalities packed within smaller-than-ever devices. When IBM introduced the first laptop prototype in 1973, the immense popularity it would garner was barely fore-seen. Now, with laptop sales having surpassed the sales of desktop PCs, the question was “What next? ‟

Enter: Apple iPad!

Apple’s Steve Jobs launched “iPad” on 27th January, 2010 in his usual flamboyant manner. iPad is a tablet PC, which is a hybrid between an iPhone and a notebook. This little dynamite weighs 1.5 pounds and is 0.5 inch thin! Yea, unbelievably sleek! So, what features does iPad boast of?

To begin with, it is powered by a 1 GHz Apple A4 processor, and shares the same Operating System as iPhone, that is, iPhone OS 3.2. It offers a smooth web browsing experience plays videos and handles a variety of games without any hassles. All the models are enabled with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a few of them are provided with 3G connectivity as well. Besides this, all the iPhone applications can be run on iPad directly.

The output is via a 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS display with a remarkably precise Multi-Touch screen. Moving the windows around and scrolling the pages with a swipe of your hand is a novel experience. iPad also serves as a decent e-book reader. However, it cannot be com-pared to the proficiency of Amazon Kindle, which was specially designed for the purpose. Another point favoring the iPad is its price. Experts had estimated the cost of the low-end models to be around US $1000, but the start price of $499 surprised everyone.

iPad has earned more negative reactions from the users than it anticipated. A lot of them feel that it is a redundant product - it neither fits into Smartphone’s category, nor can it be grouped with the laptops. The features provided by iPad are collectively offered by a laptop and a Smartphone, but it cannot be a replacement for both of them. In addition to this, multitasking, Flash support, camera and USB connection are most conspicuously absent.

Within a month of iPad launch, it has a staunch competitor in Notion Ink’s tablet PC, ‘Adam’. “Adam” is loaded with all the features that are missing from iPad like USB port, supporting Flash, 3 megapixel cam-era, along with a larger 10.1-inch touch screen, An-droid OS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HSDPA, longer battery life, storage ports for memory card and flash drive combo. At $300, it is even priced lower than iPad! Adam is lined up for a release in June 2010.

All in all, iPad is a good product, but it stands a strong chance of being over-shadowed by Adam and other similar tablets that would soon hit the market. However, considering Apple’s knack of bringing out revolutionary products, it would be little too soon to write off iPad. It would be wiser to wait and watch the fight for market share and customer attention between iPad and Adam (including other tab-lets) before we dismiss iPad with R.I.P.

Minal is a Computer Engineer from Mumbai University. After that, she gave technology one more shot by working at Accenture for a year. However, she gave up the technical side once and for all and decided to do some soul-searching. Meanwhile she started her MBA from IIFT. She currently lives in Kolkata with five room-mates, an over-used laptop and a constantly buzzing cell-phone. And the soul-searching is still under construction.

Humming the Buzz

It had hardly been a month that people stopped asking for Google Wave invites on Facebook when I hear the first buzz about Buzz!! I’m no tech freak but give me a chance to check out a new social networking tool - I’m on it and how! Curious and excited, I log on to Gmail and there it is. The cute little colorful icon tucked in nicely between the Inbox and Sent Mail tabs! The Google wizards smartly integrated this within Gmail – people who don’t really network online would get the chance to try it out without actually doing more than clicking on the icon. Clever in-deed!

Apart from the convenience provided (thanks to its strategically placed position), Buzz helps in adding friends to follow (thanks to the massive installed user base already in place). Not only that, it even connects to Flickr, Picasa and Youtube (I don’t know what to thank here). Twitter tweets also find themselves integrated in between buzzes. Unlike the limited texting space that Twitter constrained us with, Buzz gives us unlimited space to text, post and share. This information was more than enough for me to click that icon.

But, a BIG but, clicking on it was a bad idea. All I saw was Google giving me options to choose who I want to follow! “FOLLOW” - Now where have I heard that before?? Twitter of course! Then I see Buzz explaining itself with a “Post pictures, videos or any link you want to”! And that was all for me to make my first entry.

There it was - Mistake #2!! Consequences of this mistake – my Inbox being flooded with Buzz news! Apparently I’m already following a few of my Gmail contacts. That was still ok. What bugged me most was getting random ads from some Mrs. X about why I should take a vacation in Maldives with colorful exciting pictures as justification tools and a certain Mr. Y asking me to check out random video songs on YouTube!! Why are THEY telling me what to do on MY buzz?? Why is Google invading my privacy like this? I might mail a certain number of people regularly but that in no way means I want to connect with them socially.

Who gives Google the right to make innocent people like us follow such random ads? Certainly not their exclusive search filter. Google techies might wear a lot of hats but stupid isn’t one of them!

I must confess though that Facebook being my eternal love, biasness could creep in my observations. Three years back Buzz would have been a success but now people already have Facebook and Twitter.

I wonder, however, is Buzz simply a step towards Wave (Remember the royal ignore we gave to Wave after we finally got its invites?) Or are they just caving in to their Attention Deficiency Syndrome? Let’s see what buzz Buzz creates for the buzzers in us!

Shveta is a student at IIFT Kolkata. Prior to this, she spent her last four years "trying" to study Computer Science from NIT Kurukshetra. Now she writes IT-related articles to help the common man understand what she should understand. But never could. Other than this, she spends most of her time on Facebook when the other primitive tasks like sleeping and eating have been over-worked on.

The Editor Speaks...

Dear Readers,

¡Hola!

The world is a rapidly changing place and technology is the prime en-abler of such a change. Internet has been recognized as the most impactful technology of our times. The previous decade saw a phenomenal in-crease in power and reach of Internet. Today it raises issues of geopolitical importance as well which was much evident in the case of Google vs. the Chinese government. Social networking is another area which has seen much activity of late. Concerns regarding environment have be-come all the more important for IT firms as they face increasing levels of scrutiny. New product launches have become more and more common owing to faster obsolescence of technology.

It is with such a background that Systemix Club at IIFT presents the first issue of TECHTONIX. This is an effort to foster discussion on issues related to technology and business particularly Information Technology.

The cover story by Kshitija tracks down the models of software development and finds Agile Methodology to be the in thing. Shveta hums about the buzz surrounding the Google Buzz. Minal delves into the iPad launch and response of other competitors. Ankit discusses the recent initiatives of Facebook to have a better connect with its customers. Shilpa takes the spotlight on the importance of going green in IT. Sukrit talks about the Google-China standoff. Tech-Maze section hopes to rack the brains of tech buffs. The ‘Parting Note’ is a column trying to see things from a not-so-geek-like perspective.

We at TECHTONIX will love to hear from you. Please send us your comments, suggestions, criticism and flowers at techtonix@iift.ac.in

Hope you enjoy the issue.

Special thanks to Abhishek, Arun, Leena and Neha!

MJ

Editor : Mritunjay

Associate Editors : Ashish, Shubham and Shveta

March 2010 Vol. 1 | Issue 1

Techtonix March Edition (Magazine Version)

Smartphones May Soon Replace Credit Cards

AT&T and Verizon Wireless are readying a mobile payment system that could render plastic obsolete

By Peter Eichenbaum and Margaret Collins

Smartphones may soon displace some of the estimated 1 billion credit and debit cards in American wallets. AT&T (T), Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile are planning a venture to develop a mobile payment system that works with smartphones, posing a new threat to Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA), three people with direct knowledge of the plan say. The partners aim to test the system at stores in Atlanta and three other U.S. cities, the people say, though they didn't provide a timetable. The trial would be the carriers' biggest effort to spur mobile payments in the U.S. "This is definitely a game changer," says industry consultant Richard K. Crone. Mobile carriers "are the biggest recurring billers in every market. They are experts at processing payments."

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_33/b4191037299913.htm