Live IT Mar09

IT magazine for the contemporary woman

M A R C H 2 0 0 9 � R S . 5 0

CAMPUS LIFE ATSECOND LIFE

HOTS & LEARNINGTECHNOLOGIES

COURSES WITHOUTPRICE TAGS

ONLINE DEGREESACCREDITED?

THE INTERNETCOOKBOOK

E-LEARNING GAMES TO

TEACH KIDS

DIGITAL AGELEARNING

feature24 Learning in Digital Age32 Courses without Price Tags38 Play while You Learn42 Role of e-Learning in Imparting HOTS54 The Food Blog57 Online Degrees - Are they Accredited?72 What’s your e-Avatar?

tech tip60 Fill in PDF Forms Online with PDFescape61 Translate Text Online with Translators62 Store Just About Anything Online with Hordit63 Watch Regional Moviews Online for Free64 Change the Default Browser Quickly Using Browser Tray Switch

tech tip65 Listen to Music Online66 Watermark Photos and Images Using

Windows Live Writer67 Create a Free Avatar

with DoppelMe68 Joongel - Internet Search

Portal for News and Media 69 Open Internet Explorer

in Full Screen Kiosk Mode70 Maximise your Home

Theatre System

76e-Learning - Make it your

Business

102102Tech CareerTech Career

Active, Interactive and Reflective e-Learning28

71Double your

Fun with Dual Monitors

Vol. 1 Issue 6

contentsmarch 2009

45Style IT

how to85 Make Money through Blogs

86 Data Security in Laptop

88 Deleting Google Search

89 Share your iTunes Library on the Web

90 Get the Best out of Google Chrome

92 Free Mouse Cursors

93 Cleaning your Computer

96 Change Default Program to

Open File With

spice IT13 Buzz Byte

15 Care IT

22 Chatroom

34 Snapshot

regulars6 Letter from the Editor

8 Tech News

12 Did You Know?

17 Letter to the Editor

79 Tech Cartoon

104 Interview - Eric Tong

106 Profile - Pankaj Patel

114 Shopper’s Guide

115 Q&A

116 Glossary

peek & pick108 Casio EXILIM Zoom

109 Washable Mouse

110 Longines Watches

111 PC Guardian Ezolution Combo

Lock & Sony VRD-MC10

112 Transcend JetFlash V33 &

SmartOffice PL2546

113 LG KU990 Camera Phone

Founder V ishwa Nath (1917-2002)

Editor, Publisher & Printer Paresh Nath

Editorial OfficeE-3, Jhandewalan Estate,Rani Jhansi Road, New Delhi-110055Phones: 41398888, 23529557E-mail: [email protected]

Advertisement DepartmentE-3, Jhandewalan Estate,Rani Jhansi Road, New Delhi-110055Phones: 41398888, 23529557E-mail: [email protected]

Classifieds DepartmentM-12, Connaught Circus, New Delhi-110001, Phone: 23416313

Regional OfficesAhmedabad: 503, Narayan Chambers,Asharam Road, Ahmedabad - 380009,Phone: 26577845

Bangalore: G3, HVS Court, 21 CunninghamRoad, Bangalore - 560052, Phone:26577845

Bhopal: 12-B, Maharana Pratap Nagar, Zone No. 1, Bhopal - 462011, Phone:2573057

Chennai: 14, First Floor, Cison’s Complex, Montieth Road, Chennai - 600008, Phone: 28554448

Jaipur: Geetanjali Tower, Shop No. 114, Opp. Vyas Hospital, Ajmer Road, Jaipur - 302006, Phone: 3296580

Kochi: G7- Pioneer Towers, 1 Marine Drive,Kochi - 682031, Phone: 2371537

Kolkata: Poddar Point, 3rd Floor, 113 ParkStreet, Kolkata - 700016, Phone: 22298981

Lucknow: B-G/3, Sapru Marg, Lucknow - 226001, Phone: 2618856

Mumbai: A 4, Shriram Industrial Estate,Wadala - 400031, Phones: 65766302, 65766303

Patna: 111, Ashiana Towers, ExhibitionRoad, Patna - 800001, Phone: 2685286

Secunderabad: 122, Chenoy Trade Centre, 116, Park Lane, Secunderabad - 500003, Phone: 27841596

Printed and published at Delhi Press SamacharPatra Pte Ltd., A-36, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad andDelhi Press, E-3, Jhandewalan Estate,Rani Jhansi Road, New Delhi - 110055.

No part of this publication may be reproduced inany manner without the written permission ofthe publishers.

This copy is sold on the condition thatjurisdiction for disputes from sale, subscriptionand the published matter will be handled atcourts/forums/tribunals at Delhi.

Title Live IT is registered with Government ofIndia as trademark.

2008 © D elhi Press Patra Prakashan Pte Ltd., New Delhi - 110055, India.

Kidnapped by aVideo Game

80

18Live IT or Leave IT

94Make the Best ofCamera Phone

108Transcend

PF810 DigitalPhoto Frame

Letter

From Editor’s Deske-Learning

For more than a decade now, we have been hearing that e-learning revolution is around the corner, or that thenext big advancement that could happen in the field of education, will in the form of e-learning.

When it first started out in the early 90s, the IT industry in America and Europe was abuzz with the opportunitiesonline learning could possibly bring along with it – how it would save cost, make learning more flexible and smashdown the barriers to learning across borders, time zones, languages, as also revolutionize the field of educationby bringing under its fold more people than was possible ever before. The corporate sector, more than anyoneelse, was heavily counting on e-learning as a panacea for the training needs of their employees, something thatwould save the heavy costs of classroom learning in terms of both time and money.

However, to the utter disappointment of most e-learning companies (and their clients), online learning has failedto live up to the expectations the field generated when it initially took off. It dawned upon many companies thatwhen it comes to developing the skills of its employees, e-learning lagged far behind as an effective mediumwhen compared to traditional classroom coaching. Similarly, in case of distance learning programs offered byvarious educational institutes, it has often been found that online learning is less effective as a means ofdeveloping skills.

The reasons for the ineffectiveness are quite straightforward. e-Learning relies too heavily on self-study wherein thestudent must be extremely disciplined and motivated to learn from the program. However, in actuality that’s notthe case. Also, more often than not, online learning lacks the benefit of customized teaching, something thathappens spontaneously in classroom coaching where the instructor moderates his program on the bases ofverbal and visual cues from the students.

This does not, however, mean the end of the road for e-learning. The clues to the development of e-learning lie inthe two problems stated above. The advent of Web 2.0 has given genesis to e-learning 2.0. As against an‘instructional-only’ system, e-learning can now evolve into a system of ‘collaborative learning.’ Virtual classroombuilt on the platforms supported by Web 2.0 can make learning over the Internet much more interactive andcustomized than ever before.

A case in point is Second Life (read article on page 72) that allows for a more personal and interactive teachingprocess. Second Life has made its presence felt as an important platform for education by many institutes usingthe benefits of Web 2.0.

With all the new developments in Web 2.0, e-learning is bound to be a better, useful and effective medium toteach and train people who are separated by distances in time. We explore the many facets of this evolving fieldin this issue of Live IT.

There is one caveat attached however. Even with all the technological benefits of Web 2.0 (or any othertechnology that might come up in future), the most effective medium of learning will always be one that relies ondirect interaction between a teacher and the student. E-learning’s success will lay in it being viewed as a support,rather than as an alternative to traditional classroom teaching.

Anant NathManaging Editor

EU SIGNS PACT WITH SOCIALNETWORKING SITESThe European Union has signed a pact with 17 social networking sites,including Facebook, Google, etc., in an effort to improve safeguards againstthe bullying of teenagers online. According to the European SpokespersonMartin Selamyr, this step has been taken to protect young users fromabusive behaviour on the sites or web. The companies who have agreed tosign the pact would provide an easy to use ‘report abuse’ button on theirsites to notify of the inappropriate conducts of those under 18 and ensurethat those under 13 years of age are able to register for profiles.

News

NEW GOOGLE EARTH 5.0The new and updated Google Earth is probably the biggest library of knowledge (and fun) any free software has ever

been able to offer. Yes, indeed there is now a Google Earth Pro that costs 400 bucks, but that is hardly necessary

considering the amount of information and fun factor you can already get from the free version. Google Earth 5’s

biggest new features include the other final frontier, the 20th century, and the Red Planet: Mars. You can now go

back in time, look at shipwrecks, and even track tagged marine animals.

liveit.in March ‘098

IBM UNVEILSCLOUDCOMPUTINGSTRATEGYIBM is now planning to expand its business by payingmore attention towards cloud computing. This technologywould store and run an application for the users over theInternet. It would, on the other hand, also allow the users

to switch some of the work they are doing at the PC toIBM’s data centre. With this move, IBM has become thefirst technology company to offer a service that letscustomers buy the equivalent of overdraft protection fordata centres.

NOKIA TO LAUNCHNEW FLIP PHONE Nokia’s latest offering is a stylish flip phone or clamshell

handset called the 3640 fold. This GSM handset is equipped

with an internal display of 2 inches with 256K colors and it

also has an external 1.36-inch display that also features 265k

colors. It features a large analog clock as a screensaver. The

3640 fold comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera and 30 MB of

internal memory with microSD card support. The estimated

price of the phone is INR 7910.

INTEL TO INVEST $7BILLION IN U.S.MANUFACTURINGPLANTSSanta Clara computer chip giant Intel plans to

invest $7 billion over the next two years on state-

of-the-art chip manufacturing in the United

States. The outlay will revamp existing Intel

plants in Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico so

they can make 32-nanometer chips. Using that

technology, the chip's transistors would be so

small that more than 4 million of them would fit

in the period at the end of this sentence.

Currently, 45-nanometer chips are the smallest

semiconductors on the market.

liveit.inMarch ‘09 9

CELEBRATES ITS FIFTH BIRTHDAYThe predominant social networking site, Facebook is celebrating its fifth birthday. On this occasion, Facebook is giving out its

150 million users a mystery virtual gift. The gift shop’s presents usually range from cuddly bears to a pint of beer and from

champagne to a four-leaf clover. These gifts according to Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the Facebook, would be used as a

thanksgiving to the people connected on Facebook.

SONY ERICSSON BRINGS FORTH NOVELGAMING HANDSET F305Sony Ericsson, one of the major brand names in the worldwide mobile handsetindustry, introduced its innovative gaming handset ‘F305’ in India. There’s alsonews that Sony Ericsson joined handswith Zapak.com and MicrosoftXBOX 360 to observe February 12 asthe ‘World Gaming Day.’ Thegaming handset ‘F305’ is priced atRs. 8,995 and is learnt to include themotion sensor technology. Thehandset has three pre-loaded motiongames along with 50 additionalgames and is equipped with a two-megapixel camera.

GOOGLE UNVEILS SOFTWARE TO

CUT HOUSEHOLD ENERGY WASTEHoping to reduce household

energy waste, Google plans

to unveil a free software to

provide consumers with real-

time data on electricity use.

The software has been

specially designed to provide

real-time information about household energy consumption. According to

an energy program manager with Google.org, Michael Terrell, the home-

energy-use information changes behaviour and would save 5 to 15 per

cent of electricity.

AMAZON’S NEW,SLIMMER KINDLETO BE LAUNCHEDAmazom.com is ready to launch a slimmerversion of its Kindle electronic readingdevice. The new version would cost the sameas its previous one and rather than loweringthe price, Amazon touted several upgradesto the e-bookreader and anovel fromStephen Kingthat will beavailableexclusively forthe device.According toAmazon CEOand founderJeff Bezos,“There was noway to lowerthe price given the upgraded components inthe Kindle 2, which is a bit more than one-third of an inch thick — about half thethickness of the first Kindle. Its 6-inch screencan display 16 shades of gray, comparedwith the previous Kindle's four shades. It willbe able to read text aloud from two smallspeakers on the back, and it can store 1,500books, instead of 200.”

News


APPLE ANNOUNCESPUBLIC BETA OF SAFARI 4 Apple announced the launch of the public beta version of Safari 4 webbrowser for Macs and PCs last month. Apple has come out with thisinnovative andnovel initiative tobring speed andopen standards backto the web browser.The new Safari 4includes HTMLsupport for offlinetechnologies so thatit can work withoutan Internetconnection. It is alsothe first browser tosupport advancedCSS effects.

CALL STD ON MOBILEFOR 50 PAISE/MINUTE Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, BSNL plans to launch ‘IndiaGolden 50' scheme in Chennai. This will take Indian mobile telephonyinto the sub-one rupee tariff structure. The scheme will let mobile

phone usersmake STD orlong distancecall at 50 paiseper minute. Thescheme will belaunched forpre-paid mobileservices thismonth. Thecharges forIndia Golden50' will be Rs.375 plusapplicable taxeswith free talk

value of Rs. 50. Besides, customers can make local and STD calls toselected BSNL numbers at a very low rate of 20 paise and 30 paise perminute, respectively. Each SMS will be charged at 50 paise.

WIPROUNVEILSAFFORDABLELAPTOPS Wipro Infotech unveiled the ‘e.go’, a premium rangeof laptops at an unbelievable price starting below Rs.20,000 in Bengaluru. The range was launched in thethird week of February last month. AnandSankaran, chief executive officer of Wipro Infotech,said on the occasion, “The company is hopeful thatits new range of affordable laptops would make goodbusiness especially in times of global financial crisis.We wanted to break the rupees 20,000 price barrier.So, this laptop is launched at sub- (rupees) 20,000and it basically is for the consumers. It’s for homeuse. So, we wanted to ensure that we get it at a pricepoint which is affordable to the consumers in timeslike this.”

The e.go range comes in three models – 7F3800,EM471X series and BM2700 series. It also comeswith 12 inch and 14 inch screens. With batterybackup capacity for three hours, the laptops arefully loaded. �

(News compiled by Rishali Yadav.)


If you reply to the same piece of spam e-mailmore than 100 times, it would on one hand

overwhelm the sender’s system and on the otherhand, it would also interfere with their ability tosend any more spam as well.

In Advance Fee Fraud Scam, you get an e-mailfrom someone overseas who supposedly has a lot

of money and needs your help to transfer it. If youhelp him in this transaction by sending a small feeor give him your bank account information, hepromises to send you all the money for routing andyou get to keep a small but good chunk of it.However, once you send him the fee or give himyour bank account information, you will never getto hear from him. You will also be ripped off yourmoney and your personal finance information.

For the television to reach its 50 million users, ittook approximately 13 years but, on the

contrary, Internet took even lessthan 4 years.

If you are a seller, beware of Money OrderScam. Here the buyer pays you through a

money order for the goods you have already sold.The money order is usually more than the valueof goods sold. By the time the bank notifies youthat the money order is fake, the cheat is nowhereto be found.

By the end of year 2002, the total number ofspam which an Internet user receives rose from

an average of 3.7 to 6.2 spams per day. And in theyear 2007, it reached 830 messages per day.

Small, low-cost micro computers whichindividuals and small businessman could afford

were eventually developed by the microprocessor.But, unexpectedly, by the 1990s the micro computeror Personal Computer became a commonhousehold appliance and became more widespreadwith the advent of the Internet.

Google per day receives about 200 millionsearch queries. And more than half of it

comes from the United States. More than 2000queries are answered every second even during theheaviest traffic.

Do you know that the founders of Google didnot know HTML? They just wanted the quick

interface and that’s the main reason for so manyhome pages to be so bare.

In phishing scam, hackers send you an e-mailposing as someone important (credit card agency,

a bank agent) and tell you that they need someconfidential information such as your bankaccount number, user ID, pinnumber or your

credit card details toprocess a request. You follow the

link to a website that looks strikingly realwith the logo et al. and you give all your informationthat goes directly to the phisher’s account. He cannow commit fraud, make purchases on your name,and launder money with your stolen identity.

Do you know that the Internet’s complexorganism Yahoo! is as complex as its name?

Yahoo! is short for ‘Yet Another HierarchicalOfficious Oracle’. And this complicated name wascoined by PhD candidates at Stanford University:David Filo and Jerry Yang.

The credit of inventing the Internet actuallygoes to Al Gore because he did most of any

elected official to promote the Internet. In 1969,when the APRANET was formed, he was noteven the member of Congress. Not even thenwhen the Internet came into use. Gore was firstelected in 1976.

When you see error 403 and 404 using theInternet, there is some meaning to it. The

error 403 means site access is forbidden orpassword protected. On the other hand, the error404 means site not found in HTTP. �

did Uknow?

Did You Know


Learning in the digital age has undergone a tremendous change. It has turned more flexible,thereby allowing us to enroll in more courses than one besides giving us the privilege oftaking the courses from home or work via the Internet. In online courses, contents are

broken down into bite-sized chunks allowing us to learn at our own pace, and at times mostsuited to us. So, is online learning for you? Take this simple quiz to find out.

Buzz Byte

Buzz Byte

Check out the next page tosee how well you scored!

A. Learn it a couple of times

B. Think it through

C. Try it out myself

If I am to know about a new subject, I would prefer to

get it in

A. Simple written notes or verbal information.

B.A picturesque presentation with graphs and charts.

C.An interactive course plan.

Q


I’m considering taking an online course because

A. I’m just curious about online classes.

B. I’ve heard from my friends and want to

enjoy the experience.

C. I need an additional graduation for a job

and I can’t fit it into my regular schedule.

Q

When I need help in a topic:

A. I feel comfortable asking for help

from the instructor

B. Simply browse through the

Internet to gather information.

C. I log into my social network to

discuss the same with my friends.

Q

When I am learning something online, I

A. Find it difficult to follow the course material.

B. Don’t take much time to understand.

C. Try to research more on it.

Q

To understand something better, I usually

A. I get very nervous around technology and

would rather not try it.

B. I get nervous around new technologies, but I

like to learn.

C. I welcome opportunities to learn new things

and master innovative technologies.

When it comes to learning:

My critical thinking skills are:

A. Poor. Analyzing material is not something I do well while learning.

B. Fair. I can sometimes analyze and form opinions.

C.Good. I can analyze and formulate opinions on what I’ve learned.

Q

Q

Q

Buzz Byte

Between 11 and 20:You are comfortable with online activities but need a bit of push atintervals to do the right thing. You can understand the concept but

need tutoring to get them concretized for practicalapplication. You could look for a blended course wherean online program is supplemented with a physicalclassroom support.

Between 21 and 30:

The anytime anywhere learning is just tailor-made for you! You are self-

driven, techno-savvy and adventurous to make the most of the interactive

online educational offerings. So, enroll for the program that you always

wanted to learn and get the fullest out of the virtual space.

If your score is:

Congratulations!You finished the quiz! Now, calculate your score. A carries 1, B carries 2, and C carries 3 points. Did you check mostly A, B, or C?

Less than 10:

You are a novice with self-learning tools and online education is

simply not your cup of tea. Not yet! You need to be hand-held while

learning and a conventional teacher-student learning course is what

you should head for.


Svetlana was working at her desk as usual, when suddenlyshe felt heady. She almost drooped on her desk and hercolleagues were frantic. They tried to revive her in vain.One of them got her some water with glucose, some

sprinkled water over her face. Someone even called for a doctor.After a few minutes when she came about, she couldn’t feelnormal. She still felt quite giddy, and was unable to sit up. Worriedabout her health condition, she was laid inan empty cabin where she was made torest. She was inundated with variousquestions right from acidity symptoms topregnancy, but no one could figure out theexact reason why she had fainted.Meanwhile, one of her colleagues, Antara,looked up the Internet to see if she couldsuggest any medication while the doctorarrived. She was a health freak, alwaysdoctoring others from low-fat diets to how

to prevent stomach cancer. She could make someone sufferingfrom common cold feel like he or she will die of pneumonia. Infact, people did not know that she was a hypochondriac – aperson who self-diagnoses a simple symptom and imagines it to bea major illness. And after joining this organization, her usage ofthe Internet was invested in looking up information on health-related matters for minimum an hour to two per day. She suffered

from what is commonly known asCyberchondria or Internet Printout Fever.This is a state in which a person looks upthe Internet for health-related matters andbased on the symptoms, assumes the illnessin a magnified condition.

To give an example, Antara downloadedpages of information based on Svetlana’ssymptoms of fainting and giddiness. “Itcould be a tumour!” she deduced. “See,this website has information on how brain

CyberchondriaIt’s a cold, it’s pneumonia, it’s Cyberchondria!

Care IT


Payal Shah Karwa

This is a state inwhich a person looks

up the Internet for health-related matters and basedon the symptoms, assumesthe illness in amagnified condition.

“ “

Care IT

tumour attacks initially. If you have hadbreakfast or if you are not expecting, thishas to be something more serious,” shetold Svetlana, much to the shock of thepeople present around at that time.However, when Svetlana was taken to thedoctor, he inspected her, got some X-raysdone and by evening the reports clearlysaid that she was a patient of cervical spondylitis. The continuoussitting in the same position had caused this problem, and she wasgiven a week’s dose of medication and some exercises. Within acouple of weeks, she was fit and fine as earlier.

However, since Svetlana was not hyperchondriac, thisassumption of a tumour did not affect her much, but patients ofHyperchondria converted to Cyberchondrics – like Antara – aresusceptible to extreme reactions and can get into a state ofdepression. These people are over anxious about their healthand assume the worst of illnesses based on certain symptoms,without consulting an expert doctor. It has been found thatabout 3 to 4 % of Internet users look for health information inthis plethora of cyberspace. Also, a study revealed by Microsoftresearchers says that individuals, when rely on the Internet fordiagnosing a health problem about themselves, causes them tobelieve in the worst of results. It could be a temporaryphenomenon or even an acute case of hypochondria. Thesepeople start believing in the information made available throughthese search engines as though they were doctors and experts.

This state of easy availability of information seamlessly andwithout any censorship can be quite a dangerous situationthough. Especially for those who are already suffering fromHypochondria. Apparently, when the person gets anxious over

this assumed or imagined sickness, he orshe could suffer a downward spiral ofelongated depression tendency for aminimum of six months. Not just that buta study conducted by the NHS also revealsthat more than 15 lakh surfers are womenwho are looking for health information fortheir families.

Apparently, Cyberchondria has been considered as apsychological disorder. These surfers have no qualms ofrevealing personal confidential facts as well to get the requiredinformation – that is the level of desperation and insecurity theypossess. So, more than anyone else, it’s your doctor who’s themost worried of all. It’s the patient who is at most risk as he orshe might delve into some wrong medication based on a wrongdiagnosis. Due to the availability of various OTC medicines,there is a huge risk of unwanted results lying in wait to occur.The only way to deal with such a situation is to spread themessage to surfers, through the Internet itself that they shouldnot reach a conclusion without seeing their doctor and that theinformation provided on that particular site is only for reference.It should be made mandatory, like a clause in any financialpolicy is made mandatory, that any content hosted in cyberspaceshould include this point. This will help the reader, who is apotential Cyberchondriac, to use the information moreresponsibly without damaging one’s own health condition andnot providing others with wrong information either.

Though in India, due to low usage of the Internet amongstcommon people unlike i n the USA, this phenomenon ofCyberchondria has not manifested itself much. It is a potentialproblem, which should be dealt with right away. �

Cyberchondrics aresusceptible to

extreme reactions and canget into a state ofdepression.

“ “

Letters to the Editor

Inbox


F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 9 � R S . 5 0

THE YOUTH WEB

CONCEPTION TO PARENTING

ON NET

KNOW THEDIGITAL

STORYTELLER

YMEX: JOIN,CONVERSE,

ENJOY

FEAST ON WEB FEEDS

EXPLORE THEINTERACTIVEINTERFACE

Hello!‘Live IT’ has been reallyhelpful to me to acquirebasic as well as professionalworking knowledge of thecomputer. The featurespresented are well laid andquite impressive by way ofcontent and designing. Hopeto get a similar input everytime I buy the issue.

G. Sreenivasarao,Hyderabad

Dear Editor,You team is doing a greatjob, and I would like tocongratulate you for taking allthe efforts to make sure goodinformation gets printed onthe pages. This is for the veryfirst time that I saw an ITmagazine just for the women.It is amazingly designed andvery well written. The teameffort is really praiseworthy.

Manpreet Kaur,Patiala

Please mail your comments/opinion to us at [email protected] or write to us at: E-3, Jhandewalan Estate, Rani Jhansi Road, New Delhi - 110055

A cool, alternative way to light up your own little space. The SunJar is a highly efficient lighting concept, which lights up your

room with the help of a solar cell. Just place the jar under sunlightfor a few hours to charge its battery. When it gets dark or lights

are turned off, this energy powers the three natural-coloured LEDlamps inside the jar. The frosted glass of the jar then diffuses the

light, giving the appearance of trapped sunlight.

The Bellysonic Speaker Pouch is perfect for expectantmothers as it delivers relaxation and enjoyment to both momand womb. Utilizing the sound splitter provided in thepouch, both parties can listen to the recorded music on aMP3 player or CD player. The pouch is worn loosely aroundthe belly allowing for easy movement. Another nice touch isthe material that the pouch is made of. It is organic, whichholds the included digital speakers in place.

Taking bath in colour phasing shower light soundssomething amazing and unrealistic at the sametime. And that’s not all, it also tells whether the

water is cold or hot with different spotlight colours.Its colour changes from green to red as the

temperature rises. It works without any battery as it is incompatible for piped-in-showers.

Sun Jar

Colour Phasing Shower Light

Bellysonic Speaker Pouch

Live IT or Leave IT


These Glow Graffiti cans are filled with glow-in-the-darkpaint and there’s a bright LED light placed near the nozzle,which discharges the paint. They come powered with UVlight. Now you can write, stencil and draw amazingpictures to create your very own glowing light show.

Bring home the world’s first 3D webcam. TheMinoru 3D webcam is capable of creating amind-blowing stereoscopic effect – noses, ears,fingers and anything else you care to thrust forthare given genuine depth and incredible reach-out-and-touch realism. You can even use it totake 3D photos and shoot 3D videos, which youcan upload to You Tube later.

This one’s been specially designed for thesafe transport and storage of bananas,

letting you enjoy perfect bananas anytime,anywhere. It has multiple small

perforations to facilitate ventilation that inturn would prevent the bananas from

ripping. The Banana Guard is alsodishwasher safe for easy cleaning.

Banana Guard

Glow Graffiti

Minoru 3D Webcam


This cute little Elvis is not only a rubber duck but this adorable duckcan float right by your side in the pool. The best thing is that it also

throws out a sequence of relaxing ambient coloured lights, designedespecially to entertain you. It doesn’t revolve quickly and repeatedly

around one’s own axis but would definitely shake you up.

The Bubble Wrap Keychain features eight rubbery ‘bubble’buttons that activate a realistic popping sound when pressed. Andguess what? Every 100th pop is not a pop but a random sound: aboing, a bark, a rude noise, a yell, whatever. The keychaindefinitely makes one addictive and one obviously remains hookedon to it for the next daft sound it produces.

Surprise your family and friends at parties,birthdays, weddings, etc. with these sky lanterns.

They can be used at parties as an addition oralternative to fire works or lights, especially atnight. The sky lanterns come fuelled with wax

paper wick and are fully bio-degradable. Lightingthis sky lantern would truly lend a magical effect

to your gatherings.

Trying to catch those beautiful moments without the fuss and bother of aheavy-duty model? Then bring home the Flip Digital Video Cameras.They’re a pair of simple digital video cameras that are taking the massesby storm. Both the flagship Flip Ultra camera and its tiny brother, the FlipMino, are so simple to use that anyone can become a miniature director.

Sky Lanterns

Flip Digital Video Camera

Elvis Duck

Bubble Wrap Keychain

Live IT or Leave IT

Bring home this fabulously compact, fuss-freeDesktop Coffee Maker, which lets you make yourown delicious filter coffee from the comfort of yourown desk. All you need to do is plug the little gadgetin and make a cup of invigorating filter coffeewithout leaving the comfort of your chair.

Here is a nifty device that brings your music to life with amesmerizing, out-of-the-world light show that dances acrosswalls and ceilings. This ingenious gizmo actually syncs withthe tunes it ‘hears’ and pulses and reacts to the beat. Simply

plug in your MP3 player, your PC, your electric guitar orvirtually any other music source and prepare to be visually

assaulted by a kaleidoscope of dancing light.

Desktop Coffee Maker

Light Cast

Rado has now combined brilliance, fluidity and refinement in itsnew Chronograph range of luxury ceramic watches. Available infour versions, it’s the best money can buy. The Ceramica ChronoXL Jubilee version has its dial studded with black diamonds to forma wave of ebony light. The watches in this range are exceptionallylight, absorb the body’s heat and are not allergic to the skin.

Rado CeramicaChronograph Range

This is a pocket-sized device that sniffs out the presence of Wi-Fiwherever you may roam. And that’s not all. It can also helpdetect a signal and indicate its strength in a matter of seconds,

Besides, this ingenious box of tricks also displays essentialnetwork info, including network ID (SSID), encryption status

(WEP and WPA) and channel.

Digital WiFi Detector


DamyantiAssistant Manager, ICICI BankIn the past few years, e-learning has grownconsiderably and, in myopinion, it is bound to be animportant traditionalqualification measures inthe future. It would be greathelp for those who do nothave time to attendclassroom sessions,especially in someprofessional courses. Withthe help of e-learning, onecan study as and whenrequired as perconvenience. Out of thetight job schedule, not onlyfor me but for everybody Ithink, e-learning is ablessing.

Chatroom

Ankita SharmaAccount Assistant, DMRCE-learning, though good forsome, doesn’t appeal to me asthe best mode of education andlearning. If you ask me, I thinkwhat a student can learn in theclassroom with the help of ateacher, cannot be achievedthrough e-learning. Discussionand explanations make thingseasy to understand and that ismissing in e-learning. It evenreduces social and culturalinteraction, because it wouldkeep a student occupied withcomputers all the time.

chatroomHere’s what the girls have to say on e-learning! to Rishali Yadav, Correspondent

Andleev KaurStudent, Law FacultyIn a country where a significantnumber of the population is stillilliterate, e-learning has madegreat contribution towardsspreading awareness amongst thegeneral people. Various mediumof e-learning like Internet,television, radio, etc. haverevolutionized channels of masscommunication and have alsoassured easy access of informationby one and all. E-learning issurely a boon for the society.

e-Learning is a

great help for those

who do not have

time to attend

classroom sessions

“ “


We invite you to share your experience on arriving at a fun solution for a serious problem with the helpof technology. Send us your entries, with your photograph, to [email protected]

Alpana JenaMSC Student, London Universitye-Learning is a good medium forstudy and its standards areconstantly evolving. We just needto gear up to educate ourselvesresponsibly. I think the coursesare easily accessible and do notrequire you to physically move toany location for attendance. Itwould also enhance thecomputer skill which is a must foreverybody these days.

Kanika MittalStudent, IP CollegeE-learning is an expensivemethod of learning, becausedespite technologyadvancement, there are manypeople who cannot afford thefacility of e-learning. Incomparison, college fee in theuniversity is remarkably lessand even then there arepeople who cannot afford tostudy in colleges. As it is, onerequires facilities like acomputer with decentInternet connection; and noteveryone can afford to spendthat much.

e-Learning via Internet

can be explored anywhere

in the world“ “

Mansi KohliStudent, ICFPPursuing studies via the Internet is agood opportunity for those who arebusy in other fields of work. This waythey can continue with their studiesbesides being engaged in other work.E-learning via Internet can beexplored anywhere in the world. It isalso convenient for college anduniversities to upload various courseswith forms so that students do not faceany problem.


Feature

Learning in the Digital Age

up in the new avatar called ‘Learning 2.0’. Times change …technologies change … students change … and the system ofeducation changes too!

It is quite common nowadays for students to browse throughwebsites like YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, Scribd,Wikipedia, etc. for their research work. Pervasive wirelessnetworks are redefining the ways in which schools anduniversities interact with their students. Ample storage space andomnipresence of cloud computing are having a seminal effect intheir own way. A teacher may still appear in a classroom toaddress a group of students, but instead of reading from a book,he may use an LCD screen connected to the World Wide Web.

Ateacher walking into the classroom to deliver lecture toa group of students – that is the vision of educationthat most of us like to harbor in our minds. But thetruth remains that in the Web 2.0 era, education is not

simply confined to the boundaries of a brick-and-mortarclassroom. Computers and other Internet enabled devices havemanaged to break through the walls of places of learning, givingstudents greater opportunities to individualize their educationalneeds and aspirations. They can, using these resources, accessdistant resources, learn in myriad new ways, and also findexposure to unique concepts and ideologies. It is safe to assumethat what was earlier simply ‘Learning’ has now come dressed


Anoop Verma

And when they are submitting their homework, the studentsmay end up creating files in the university’s server and share itwith not just their teacher, but also with their classmates. If theteachers and students need to alert each other about anydevelopment, the Twitter comes in very useful.

Learning 2.0The Web 2.0 generation of students can hardly imagine life sansinformation and communications technology. The Internet issomething akin to oxygen to them. They can’t comprehend of areal world that is not linked to the cyberspace, where they preferto meet, play, date, and learn. It’s an integral part of their sociallife. And that is precisely why Learning 2.0 is expanding at sucha furious pace. Students today tend to be more ready recipientsto online information than they are to the world of books andpapers. They would rather Google for information than turn thepages of a physical volume of Britannica Encyclopedia.

Net-savvy students are capable of expediting their learningprocess as they surf through the resources available online. Infact, the speed with which students in many developed countrieshave imbibed the net culture has made it difficult for topmostuniversities of the world to catch up. Till a few years ago,websites like YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, Scribd andWikipedia did not even exist, but today they are a popular andintegral part of the popular youth culture. Many of the world’sleading universities, including those in India, have finally realizedthat in order to create a better bonding with their students, theyhave to evolve out of the traditional set-up by coming up withnew web-based learning techniques that can augment, but notreplace, the brick and mortar infrastructure already in place.

The idea of conventional universities, as deliveringinformation to comparatively passive learners, has now becomeoutdated. The scope of Learning 2.0 is turning out to bemassive in scope, in the sense that the teachers and theuniversity infrastructure can no longer claim to have the solemonopoly on information; students can collect information onany subject through various avenues available online. Thenthere is the facet of online collaboration. Thanks tocloud computing and softwares like WindowsLive Office, it is possible for students topost their essays online where theirteachers as well as other students can seethem. All this leads to collaboration on awider level. A student in the U.S. Universitymay find himself collaborating with a student inChina or in Bengaluru.

Online universitiesJust type in the words ‘OnlineUniversities’ in the search boxand Google it. It is true thatmajority of these search resultsmight not accurately reflectsomeone’s educational needs, but

at least few of them will. The fact remains that the concept of ‘Distance Education’ has acquired a whole new meaning in theWeb 2.0 era. There was a time when distance education used toentail, and it still does in many cases, packets of reading material arriving by post on a regular basis. But that method isextremely inefficient because text typed on paper does not allowany room for feedback from students. So the flow of information becomes a one-way street, where the teachers keepsending papers to isolated students, who are expected to read itquietly at their home without having the privilege of generatingdiscussion or feedback.

Online universities, on the other hand, have found a uniqueway to deal with this problem. They manage to generatefeedback and discussion by creating new learning environmentsthat can use the unique capabilities of the Web. Many of thepopular online universities are equipped with in-house forums,blogs and digital bulletin boards. In order to communicate withteachers or other classmates, a student can simply login and posthis comments. One student’s comments many inspire manyother students to post their own ideas resulting in a situationwhere the digital space takes the shape of a brick and mortarclassroom. Moreover, if the content is being supplied to thestudents in a digital format, it is easier to update it with newinformation that may have just arrived.

New age technologies like Second Life are helping also onlineuniversities reach out to their students in their own way. Let’simagine a situation where a class of ancient Egyptian history isgoing on. A brick and mortar university might sponsor itsstudents for a trip to Egypt so that they can get a direct feel ofthe pyramids and other ancient Egyptian artefacts. But an onlineuniversity can offer similar experience by taking a student to avirtual tour in a format similar to one in Second Life. In fact,many educational researchers are of the view that in the days tocome such virtual tours are going to become part and parcel ofonline education. Students and their teachers can log into avirtual classroom and they can directly interact with each other,

hold discussions and set out on virtual learningtours of all different kinds of exotic andmodern landscapes.

New developmentsThere is simply no dearth of ways by which

online learning can allow participants tocollapse time and space. An Internet-baseddelivery method allows for flexibility ofaccess, from anywhere and usually anytime.But the best thing is that the technologies

that go into online learning are still evolving.That means, in near future we can expect

more efficient, and web–based, ways tofacilitate interaction betweenstudents and teachers. Here is ashort list of few of the emergingtrends in online education:


Feature

Growing up with search enginesFor the present generation, the computer is the nucleus of theirworkplace. Browsing online is the best form of searching option.Multi-tasking is a way of life for them. State of the art emergingtechnologies allow them to connect to more than one person atthe same time. The popular image of a teen engaged in fivechores at the same time – yapping on his cell phone, surfing thenet, playing a video game, listening to music on a MP3 player,and exercising on his treadmill – might turn out to be based onfact rather than on a parody. Even the popular cell phone islosing out on its significance owing to the simple fact that peoplejust don’t need to call someone when they chat with up to eightpeople at the same time using IM.

In the coming months and years, the transition between thereal and the digital avatars is bound to get more seamless.Students will spend more time in virtual worlds and gamingcommunities. Social networking sites, such as MySpace,Facebook and Bebo, could evolve further so that they can delivereducational material to the students. An innovative multi-playervirtual environment, built on the lines of Second Life, might beused for organizing virtual tours and seminars open to allstudents. Rather than relying on words and symbols, learnerswill get to experience the real thing in a virtual world –participating in a mission to Mars, travelling through the humanbody. Twitter already does the job of constantly updating onactivities, feelings and observations to friends and followers. Andfinally Google is already on its way to turning into a virtualencyclopedia. Need a question answered – just ask Google!

Gizmos that foster learningThe rise in the number of smaller, faster, and wireless technologyenabled gadgets, coupled with constant improvement in wirelessnetworks, is allowing students to easily access information on theircourse material. When students of the Web 2.0 era venture out oftheir house, they prefer to take the tools of web access such asmobile phones, media players and other wireless devices withthem. The ability of being connected to the rest of the world andbeing able receive information customized to one’s life is nowtaken for granted. The Internet-based services are maturing at anamazing rate and they are effectively knitting together Web 2.0with the mobile platform to create a new system that is geared to

provide opportunities for learning. Due to the sheer fact of beingubiquitous, the hand-held net access devices also fostercollaboration and networking on a far wider scale.

Start gaming to get educatedOne of the most promising aspects of online learning is that itmight offer new hope to those for whom learning from books, orin conventional classroom settings, is difficult. While learninghistory lessons, students might be taken on guided virtual toursof historical landscapes. They might even have to play videogames, based on the political or cultural movements of anygiven era about which they are being taught. Students mighteven role-play characters from history to get a real feel of thebygone era. Learners could also become virtual tourists visitingmuseums a thousand miles away. In classes on astronomy, theymight play video games based on trips to Mars or to the furthestreaches of the solar system. A whole range of games andsimulations can be developed to offer educational content in away that is easier for the students to grasp.

Next generation interfacesIn times to come, the interaction that students have withcomputers and web- based content is bound to become moreintuitive and that is because of the evolution of a whole rangeof more natural and human centred interfaces. In fact, thedevelopers at Microsoft are already envisaging a situationwhere the bulk of computing would move from the desktops tobe embedded in objects, devices and locations around us. Inother words, our desktop and data will cease to be devicedependent and will follow us across multiple platforms andlocations. In the realm of education, the proliferation in thenumber of interfaces can only lead to a better understandingof complex content and enhance the opportunities forcollaboration online.

A newly launched gizmo called Microsoft Surface is a goodexample of a new generation interface. The system of theinterface is based on optical tracking set up, which can track upto 40 simultaneous touches at the same time. It is possible that intimes to come the desks in the universities might not be madeout of traditional wood; instead, they might consist of a systemlike Microsoft Surface. While talking of desks, we can also take

note of the fact that even paper isturning interactive these days. Thereare digital pens available as well thatare capable of capturing everythingthat you write.

Pitfalls to avoidThe myriad advances in web-baseddigital technologies are mostly goingto have a salubrious effect on theeducational needs of society. Butthere are some potential bottlenecksthat have to be addressed in order


to derive maximum advantage from online learning. Althoughwe may rightly assume students are technologically savvy, theystill might not have the sense to fully comprehend the scope ofthe Internet.

Here are some of the issues that need focus:1. In an online environment where plagiarism is so easy to

execute, whose responsibility is it to ensure that studentsdevelop respect for intellectual property and the ethical useof information?

2. It is true that a wealth of information is available on theInternet, but not all of it is authenticated. So how can it beensured that students only get to access the genuine websites

and they keep away from those withdoubtful authenticity?

3. Due to proliferation ofinformation outlets, at timesstudents develop low attention span.How can students be taught thevalue of following the longerargument or narrative?

4. Collaboration is becoming thebuzzword in universities these days.But when students collaborate tocreate a project, who gets credit forit? More importantly, how does thecommunity judge the quality of itscollective output? After all, thepurpose of education is to preparestudents as responsible citizens,but outside the university campus,such collaboration may or may notbe possible.

5. There is also the issue ofonline safety and privacy. Whenyou are storing your personalprofile and information online, yougive up something to get something.That something you give up is yourprivacy and your control over thecontent that you have created.There is also the issue ofownership. Who owns the data? Isit the creator or the owner of thewebsite? The students have to betaught to verify such simple factsbefore they start using any web-based service.

6. When it comes to onlineuniversities, there are still no clearnorms about how to rate them.Often times, students end up payingfees to websites promoted by fly-by-night operators, whose onlyintention is to make a quick buck,

rather than impart education. There is no doubt that the futureof education may ultimately rest with online universities, whichcan use the latest web-based tools most efficiently, but a clear setof norms is a must.

7. There is no doubt that the Internet is full of information ona whole range of issues and subjects. But not all the informationis good or moral. There are sites that deal with pornography,with violence and with fraud. It would definitely be a bad idea totry to censor the Internet; it is best to let it remain the bastion offree speech. But at the same time, the students have to be taughtthe difference between content that is legal and one that isillegal. So, what are the best ways of doing this? �


Active, Interactive andReflective Learning!Active, Interactive andReflective Learning!Suneetha B.


Feature

Most ideas about teaching are not new, but not everyone knows theold ideas.

– Euclid, c. 300 BC

“P edagogy empowered by digitaltechnology,” says a definition of e-learning.Sounds terrible? Hey, wait! This is only apompous way of describing ‘learning

through the medium of the computer’. In other words, we cansay that e-learning is all about technology-enabled learning.

We have always associated learning with physical classrooms,teachers, fixed hours of group or individual instructions and, ofcourse, the printed form of the word, or the ubiquitous texts andnotes. E-learning takes away all this paraphernalia andconcentrates on the learner and ‘how’ he/she learns. In fact,even ‘what’ the learner learns lags a fraction of a second behind.

The ‘method of learning’ claims the same level of importancewith the ‘content learned’, in the context of e-learning. To put itin simpler words, what is considered most important is gettingthe learner to learn without getting bored and also retaininghis/her interest. You might even see a methodology in e-learning classes where the student is asked to click on specificoptions and also asked to react in a given situation rather thantelling him/her what/how to do.

You may wonder whether e-learning is an IT tool or aneducational one. Well, you are not the only one to be thinkingso. This is a debate that is yet to see the last argument. But it hasbeen agreed upon without doubt that e-learning is a way toimprove people-performance in a positive and concrete way.

E-learning is applicable in a wide array of contexts. While acompany uses e-learning to impart training and perk upemployee potentials (and cutting costs while on the job), auniversity uses it to facilitate more students to attendclassrooms online without having to shift their geographicalpositions to attend a course. In general, we come back to thegeneral definition we used initially, “learning that occurs atthe computer.”

e-Learning is not confined to converting pages of printedmaterial to lessons displayed on a browser or sitting at yourcomputer listening to pre-recorded lectures alone. Thepossibilities of interactive sessions in e-learning have beenexploited to a large extent, but it is by no means exhausted.

Advantages of e-learningCost savings is perhaps the primary advantage available to usersopting for e-learning method. There is definitely more to gainfrom e-learning than this lone reason.

PaceA user learns at his pace in these virtual classrooms. There is noslow learner here who lags in courses here, but a learner who isreached out to and who learns what he prefers to learn at aspeed most comfortable to him. In fact, he can take as manyrepetitions of the same class as he likes.

Short shotsA short burst of teaching is what does the trick in e-learning.A ten or fifteen minute lesson on a particular topic makes

sure that the learner gets the most out of thelearning session. This ensures that thelearner is not inundated with ideas at anypoint and hence finds it difficult toassimilate a lesson.

EnvironmentThe impact of environment is reducedconsiderably when one is in a virtualclassroom. External disturbances can belimited to a large extent. The impact onenvironment is also reduced to aconsiderable extent. One can get rid ofpaper work, which certainly is a boon to theplanet if not to the student.

E-learning toolsThe tools of e-learning can be as basic asthe Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPointor as sophisticated as specially developedsoftware and games that facilitate intricatepatterns of learning. It can also bemultimedia content like DVDs, CD-ROMs,Internet, satellite broadcasts, interactiveTV, etc. Other than the tools described


here, the methods of e-learning can be active, interactiveand reflective as well. The learning factor here does notmerely adhere to education; it takes into purviewentertainment factor as well, making the effort anendeavour in edutainment.

CD-ROMs and DVDsA decade ago, the Encyclopedia Britannica was almost a synonymfor bulk. Remember those seemingly endless rows of hardbound editions in the public library? No longer so! TheBritannica is a handy pack of CD-ROMs now. In fact, it is notthe only source offering edutainment. Any aspect ofknowledge is now available in the form of a CD-ROM as anaid to e-learning.

World Wide WebThe term WWW is known by the pseudonym of the Internetand it has almost become the last word in edutainment as wellas e-learning. There is no limit to the possibilities of theInternet today. The very Britannica, which you purchased as aCD-ROM last week would be updated again by now andavailable on the web at the click of the mouse, once you havemade the payment.

But web encyclopedias are not the only things on the net for e-learners. Here is a non-exhaustive list of tools of e-learning forthe basic learner.

Communications toolsE-mails, blogs, chat, online groups and discussion/bulletinboards have made their presence felt in the e-learning arena.Yahoo! and Google groups have become the mainstay of e-learning groups these days. For example, creative writing courseshosted on the web are almost always held together by onlinegroups. Here the groups use group boards to post lessons andfeedback. This remains accessible for the members at any pointfacilitating learning at the required pace.

Tools for manipulating text and dataWriting with a pen is a skill of the past, and the convenience ofthe ‘cut and paste’ option is something one cannot imaginebeing without. Microsoft Word, Excel and Access initiated therevolution in manipulating text and data and now the parallelapplications in open software have joined the bandwagon.Arranging data in the order required, mathematical operationsat the touch of a finger and the click of a mouse have allreduced the stress of the e-learner and helped him focus on theprimary issue of acquiring knowledge. The spell-checker andgrammar monitoring devices make sure that there are zeroerrors in the documents.

Presentation and dissemination toolsThe tools that made the change here include PowerPoint andAdobe; and the final glossy presentation is all a matter of somepatience and knowing how to manipulate a few keys. The

emergence of the PDF file ensured that data won’t be tamperedwith since it cannot be edited.

Data analysis toolsTools like SPSS have become a literal blessing to the researchstudent. Laborious calculations and simulation exercises are athing of bygone days and hypotheses are formulated in secondswith research data. The researcher can now work on the analysispart of his work rather than routine mathematical applicationsall the time worrying about their accuracy.

Information gathering toolsSearch engines are the right hand associates of anyone whospends time on the web, and for the e-learner. Gatheringinformation is now child’s play if one knows the rules ofsearching. Google, Yahoo!, Lycos, Jeeves … there are anynumbers of search engines being used. Google Earth providesimages of geographic locations from geo-stationary satellitesmonitoring the planet skies. Google Maps provide maps of notjust countries but specific locations too.

Information storage and management toolsJournals and databases are valuable tools here. Spreadsheetsoften store and share data online, giving easy access to multipleusers. Folders to store information and databases from whichinformation can be easily retrieved are the tools that aid storageas well as management.

Personal management toolsMost e-mails have reminders, address masters and task masters,which can manage the e-learner’s social and academic calendar toa good extent. Messenger applications like Skype, Gtalk, YahooIM, etc. facilitate instant communication between users, whichreduces virtual distances between various learners and the faculty.

Tools for brainstorming, mind mapping,visualization and project managementAdobe Photoshop is an example of a visualization tool that can manage your images from digital photography to theprecision required. Microsoft Projects is an excellent software forproject management.

Tools for movie making endeavoursWindows Media Player, Movie Maker, YouTube, etc. all aid thee-learner with the various aspects of film format. Media Frameis an open source streaming media platform allowing web usersto view your audio/video content without having to rely onexternal player applications.

Tools for videoconferencing/WebinarsPolycom video conferencing is one such facility used mainly indistance education. In India, the Indira Gandhi National OpenUniversity, which hosts a number of distance learning courses,uses video conferencing facilities quite extensively.


Feature

Seminars, today, no longer put a stop to regular work orrequire a person to move geographically to another location.Webinars, short for web seminars, have changed the concept ofdistances in seminars.

Are these tools effective?The emergence of technology has eased the burden of thescholar in general and the e-learner in particular. But, notall the tools are fool-proof and there is plenty of room for improvement.

For example, the very popular MS Word is often used bythe layman without full knowledge of its entire set ofapplications; they use just the relevant feature that is of mostuse to them at the point, resulting in just a fraction of thedeveloped software being made use of. The trade-off isbetween the time required to master the software and its useto the learner.

Again, a finished appearance of a document does notreally signify that the content is perfect. Often the contentmay have a lot of imperfections like typos, which are

acceptable to the dictionary of the document but whichmakes no sense in general.

The easy reach of mathematical operations has also led to thewide speculation that general mathematical skills are on thedecline among young students who have never had a chance touse the concept of brain-math.

A tool like Movie Maker is compatible only with WindowsXP, so sharing is highly limited. As a result, researchcommunities now swear by the e-prints. But does that mean theend of traditional journals?

Future of e-learning toolsE-learning is constantly evolving. We are now established on thethreshold of M-learning, or mobile learning, which combines theadvantages of e-learning onto any portable communication devicelike the mobile. There are no restrictions of time and space, andthe user gets access at his fingertips to just about anything. In fact,information literacy is donning a new avatar here. The explosionof information is going places. It is now left to us how we harnessthe energy in the information highway to suit our purposes. �


Online Courseswithout the

Price Tag

To acquire knowledge is the prerogative of one and all.The Internet has tremendous source of information, yet,browsing through the scores of pages involves a lot oftime since the pages are presented in a random fashion,

thereby throwing up info in a scattered manner. It is morestrenuous if you have a busy schedule and cannot afford time to

browse through the different sites. Online courses are in plenty,but then it could be that you are not willing to shell out thoseextra bucks for learning. So, here’s a list of places from whereyou can take free online courses. Some of them have discussionboards or classrooms and yet others offer courses via e-mail, orin the form of e-book.

Resmi Jaimon

Price$0.00

Feature


HP Learning Center(http://h30187.www3.hp.com) A reliable and informative course provider, HP Learning Centerhas dozens of courses on offer. Registration is free and so isenrollment. Most of the courses offered have chapters puttogether as a pdf file, quiz and assignments as well as adiscussion board.

For example, the course ‘virus protection best practices,’ a 42-page pdf file, is available for download. It has four lessons, whichinclude an introduction to malware, implementing layeredsecurity strategies, exploring security tools and techniques as wellas understanding proactive and reactive protection strategies.Besides, at the end of each lesson, a quiz is provided to evaluateyour understanding of the topic. Plus, there’s an assignment youhave to cover.

An interesting topic for schools and family is ‘Internet safety forstudents and schools.’ The course is designed to help students,parents as well as school. Also, there’s a message board for eachcourse, where you can discuss the topics or clarify your doubts.

Additionally, HP Learning Center offers video sessions of 10-20 minute duration. There are also two minutes’ videos such ason how to create a pivot table in Microsoft Excel 2007, using thedisc clean-up feature in Microsoft® Windows Vista and similarsimple yet must-know topics.

Free-ed.net (http://www.free-ed.net)Here, you can browse by the name of the course or see the list ofavailable courses by topic and subject. There are plenty ofcourses like Visual Studio.NET (Fundamentals), Pre-algebra,Child psychology, Principles of modern marketing, etc.

About U (http://u.about.com)About U lists a range of courses categorized under arts &literature, business, computing & technology, electronic &gadgets, hobbies, jobs & careers, etc. These courses can bereceived via e-mail daily or weekly, depending on the course.Find courses such as a ‘9-Day Make a greeting card’ class for thebeginner or non-designer, ‘Starting your career in advertising,’‘how to promote a show,’ ‘learn yoga to ease your back pain,’‘bead stringing for beginners,’ etc.

MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm) MIT Opencourse ware offers course materials for bothundergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT. The coursematerial is available for download in zip format. Clubbed undervarious categories including aeronautics and astronautics,architecture, biology, chemical engineering, economics, foreignlanguages and literatures, history, music and theater arts, nuclearscience and engineering, political science, urban studies andplanning, writing and humanistic studies, physics, etc., this site isworth paying a visit.

Emasters(http://www.emasters.info/ecourses.html) Courses such as Jinger Jarrett’s ‘How to really start your businessin 30 days,’ ‘7 steps to killer ad copy’ and ‘Hackers, fraud andtrust online: the netpreneur’s quick & easy guide to cyber-crime

prevention’ are some interesting courses. For more free courses,visit their website.

These are resources you can take a look at to get started. Thereare many more such interesting free online courses or ‘ecourses,’which you can do at your leisure, for the sake of gaining moreinformation and knowledge, and saying goodbye to examinations. �


Snapshots

Wi-Fi in Palace on WheelsEverybody fancies royalty and luxury. Jaipur stands as

the symbol for a unique combination of these with technology.A city making way for itself down the tech path has nowintegrated tech suaveness with its most acclaimed royalty – thePalace on Wheels. Each and every cabin of the Palace onWheels is being designed to be equipped with modernamenities like Wi-Fi, LCD television and DVDs with sixsatellite channels inside it. The facility will be provided to helppassengers in the train to stay in touch with the world outsidethrough wireless connectivity.

BSNL IPTV launched in JaipurBharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, world’s seventh

largest telecom providing company, along with Aksh, one ofIndia’s leading optical fiber cable maker, have for the first timein the state of Rajasthan launched an Internet Protocoltelevision. The service has been provided under the brandname ‘iControl.’ iControl, through Internet broadbandconnection, would make it possible to watch more than 120channels as per the viewer’s choice. The company has furtherplanned to extend the service to more cities in North India,namely, Punjab, Haryana, UP, etc.

New technology to recycle wasteJaipur Municipal Corporation along with RUIDP and

JDA is all set to become the first municipality in the country touse ultra filtration and reverse osmosis technologies forremoving contaminants present in water. This would be usefulfor using all the sewage water for industrial and agriculturalpurposes like boilers and other industrial processes afterrecycling. The process of reuse and recycle mechanism wouldgo under various STPs. The municipality is working on fivesewage treatment, environment-friendly plants and would getremittance of over Rs. 35 lakhs per annum. A great steptowards social welfare through technology!

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Jaipur, a distinct city with richcultural, historical, and architecturalheritage is fast developing and evenset to surpass larger cities in India byembracing latest technologies.

Rishali Yadav


Limb technologyAny kind of work done towards social cause

is considered a marvelous achievement, and Jaipur isnot far behind in this respect. The city’s remarkableorganization named Bhagwan Mahavir ViklangSahayata Samiti, which is famed for making artificialfoot and limb for people, is now in association withthe ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization), apremier scientific body of India, to produce thelimbs and foot with Polyurethane. It is used byscientists to make rockets and satellites. Thistechnology would make artificial foot and limblighter and of better quality. Therefore, this wouldbe a major breakthrough in limb making technologyall over the world.

E-MitraJaipur is a name where every step taken is only

for the benefit and development of the society as awhole. And E-Mitra is an example of the same. Just todeploy IT for the benefit of society, the government ofRajasthan has come up with citizen-friendly projectscalled LokMitra and JanMitra. LokMitra helps in thepayment of all kinds of bills like electricity, water, andlandline bills; it can even take care of fee payments.Likewise, JanMitra is mainly for any kind of online worklike online submission of any applications, gatheringinformation on mandi rates and agriculture, or for publicgrievances redressal, etc. This technology has surelymade life hi-tech and easy for the people of Jaipur. �

Intel unveils Jaipur technology initiativeINTL and BSNL have come together with a

technological initiative to bridge the IT gap in rural areasof Jaipur. This joint initiative of public and privatepartnership has been done to provide support to bothteachers and students for training in IT. Providing help inthe field of technology is indeed a good step towardsadvancement of Jaipur city. It would also work for theadvancement of broadband to enhance the connectivity.Thus, it will help bridge the digital divide by increasing ITadoption in rural areas.

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The students of Mrs. Johnson’s fourth grade math class fidget in their seats as they count theremaining seconds before the bell rings. So far, nohomework has been assigned and they hope the

teacher will forget. But they’re too late – Mrs. Johnson swiftlydictates a homework assignment to supplement today’s lesson onlong division. Surprisingly, this homework doesn’t involvecracking open a textbook. The students are told they must goonline and play a game.

The ways in which children learn are changing. While youmay fondly remember the essential learning tools in primaryschool as pencils and papers, and blackboards and chalk, todaychildren are reaping the benefits of technology and learningtheir ‘three Rs’ (reading, ’riting (writing), and ’rithmetic(arithmetic)) through a computer and keyboard. They playelectronic learning games, or ‘e-learning games,’ to reinforce orsupplement the material they are taught in school.

E-learning games for children usually take a simple learningconcept, such as memorizing multiplication tables, practicingspelling, or learning historical facts. They add graphics, music,sound, and immediate feedback by rewarding correct answersand penalizing incorrect answers. These games give context tolearning by adding story and setting to give the players clearobjectives and goals to achieve.

For example, to brush up on their spelling a student mayplay a computer game called Bookworm Adventures. Theprinciple idea behind the game is similar to the classic word-forming game of Scrabble, but the electronic version of itallows for the potential of many more bells and whistles.Players take on the role of Lex the worm as he battlescreatures and advances on his quest. But unlike a traditional

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PlayYouwhileLearn


David Welch

game where the player might battle by using arms or magic,Lex defeats his foes by forming words from a grid of availableletters. The longer the word formed, the more powerfulLex’s attack. So, players who push their spellingvocabulary to the limit are rewarded in the game.The learning experience in Bookworm Adventure isheightened by colourful graphics, music, andengaging gameplay.

Another e-learning game, Speare has the playerblasting through space and zapping enemy spaceshipswhile – at the same time – learning about Shakespeare’sRomeo and Juliet. Players help recover the stolen texts of thebard’s play by memorizing lines, learning facts aboutShakespeare’s life, and devising synonyms and homonyms forparts of the text.

Not all e-learning games are that advanced. Many can be assimple as a variation of ‘hangman’ and still be fun for the player.E-learning games are becoming an accepted part of thecurriculum, and there are many benefits from using games aslearning tools.


There are no cumbersome materials to find and set up. Allyou need is a keyboard, computer, and a decent Internetconnection. It’s easy to find great e-learning games with a searchengine, and most are usually free.

The immediate feedback afforded by a program keeps thestudent engaged in the activity. They do not have to check iftheir answers are correct or not because the game will tell them.Games provide clear goals and coherent objectives which keepstudents from being distracted.

Computer games simultaneously teach children about using agraphical user interface. We often marvel at how young childrenlearn to use a computer, but it’s absolutely essential for kidstoday to be prepared to use technology in the digital age. E-

Math Man, an obvious homage to Pac-Man, has the chomping downpellets and numbers. The twist is that when you eat a power pellet,

you can only eat the ghosts whose numbers solve the equation.

Links to learning games:http://www.learninggamesforkids.com

http://www.funbrain.com

http://www.primarygames.com

http://www.pbskids.org

http://www.dimenxion.com

learning games teach kids how to use and navigate a menu andinteract with a computer.

Most of all, these games are a fun way for kids to learn. Agame provides a challenge that begs to be mastered by theplayer. Games add a fun context to learning by giving the playercreative objectives in the game-world, such as eliminating ghostsor saving the princess. By immersing the player in a game andgetting them to care about the experience, games can succeed inmaking learning fun.

While many teachers have embraced games as effectivelearning tools, some are still skeptical of this non-traditional formof education and feel games may trivialize learning. TabulaDigita, the makers of the DimensionM games, has conductedresearch to demonstrate the effectiveness of their games.DimensionM teaches students about algebra by having themembark on exciting missions in a video game world where theycan compete against other students. The research comparedstudents in a Washington, DC high school. The group thatworked with Tabula Digita’s Dimenxion Algebra curriculumshowed a 10% improvement over those students that did not.

Edutainment and e-learning games is still a relatively new ideaand many are still researching and exploring the application ofsuch games as learning tools. There are plentiful books andstudies on the subject. The Serious Games Initiative is amovement focused on using games to explore management andleadership challenges facing the public sector. The Serious GamesInitiative intends to find productive links between the electronicgaming and education, training, health, and public policy.

The union between educational learning and gaming is anatural one and it’s easy to see how the two are linked. Whenyou play any game, whether it is educational or not, you learnthe rules, objectives, and various strategies. Players must acquireand adapt a wealth of information in order to succeed in thegame. And in games, the player is then rewarded for theiracquisition of knowledge and skill development. But with mostcommercial games, even though players are learning, it isn’talways useful information that can be applied to theirschoolwork or real-life activities.

The difference here e-learning games apply is to learnsomething that can help students with their education. Theresult is that games are a great way for kids to learn. Andwhen learning becomes fun for kids, then they emerge as thereal winners. �

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Kids practice their keyboarding in The Typing of the Ghosts. Theplayer must eliminate the ghosts by typing the words on them before

they take away a life.

Role of e-Learningin Imparting HOTSSripriya R.

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When Benjamin Bloom proposed thetaxonomy of educational objectivesin 1956, a gradual change wasobserved in the education standards.

The advocates of reforms in the education systemwanted higher order thinking skills (more popular asHOTS) to become an essential part of teaching,learning and testing learning outcomes. Though it hasalways invited criticism from the conventionalists whowant to emphasise on the basic skills, HOTS have,nonetheless, become popular with the reformists.

Benjamin Bloom categorized educational objectivesinto three domains: Affective, Psychomotor andCognitive. While the other two domains deal withbehaviour, attitude and physical skills, the cognitivedomain focuses on knowledge, understanding andthinking. It was the levels proposed in the cognitivedomain that brought about the major change in educationalreforms. This domain lays emphasis on thinking as a skill.

Higher order thinking essentially includes the following:� Critical thinking� Analytical thinking� Decision making� Inference making� Problem solving

These skills are not about learning by rote. Rather, they gobeyond learning facts and concepts. They focus on tacklingsituations that go beyond the text book.

Arizona State University, on its website, describes higher orderthinking as “a complex level of thinking that entails analyzingand classifying or organizing perceived qualities or relationships,meaningfully combining concepts and principles verbally or inthe production of art works or performances, and thensynthesizing ideas into supportable, encompassing thoughts orgeneralizations that hold true for many situations.”

So, how can HOTS be taught or learnt? Or, can they be evertaught at all? Instructional designers and e-learning enthusiastsare of the view that e-learning can promote HOTS effectively.The basis of this connection is Bloom’s taxonomy of educationalobjectives in the cognitive domain. Bloom classified cognitiveobjectives into six levels of hierarchy: Knowledge,Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation.

The Knowledge level of Bloom’s taxonomy deals withrecalling and remembering facts and concepts. Example of aknowledge-level learning objective: Name the first five primeministers of India.

The Comprehension level deals with understanding a piece ofknowledge. A comprehension-level learning objectives asks thelearner to identify, describe and compare elements. Example:Describe the process of photosynthesis.

The Application level asks the learner to apply his/herknowledge and understanding to perform a given task. Example:Given the radius of a circle, find the area and the circumferenceof the circle.

The Analysis level of Bloom’s taxonomy requires the learnerto analyze a concept, differentiate between two elements, ormake an inference. Example: Differentiate between the foodhabits of Bengal and Kerala.

The Synthesis level asks the learner to make a plan ordesign a product. This level deals with constructingsomething using one’s existing knowledge. Example: Create aflowchart for categorizing a number into the followingcategories: Prime Number, Composite Number, NegativeInteger and Positive Integer.

The Evaluation level of Bloom’s taxonomy triggers the highestorder of thinking in an individual. It asks the learner to assessand evaluate a concept, situation, opinion, etc. Example: Assessthe situation of moral policing in India.

Typically, HOTS fall into the Analysis, Synthesis, andEvaluation levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. It is obvious that higherorder thinking skills cannot be taught using conventionalteaching methods alone. Can HOTS training be imparted onan e-learning platform? What is e-learning and how can itpromote HOTS?

Simply put, e-learning is training delivered via electronicmedia. Web and computer-based trainings impart e-learning.Teaching HOTS sounds absurd, irrespective of the platform it isbeing taught on. This is where e-learning makes a difference.Unlike conventional teaching, e-learning focuses on learning.Instructional design, which forms the basis of e-learning, focuseson making the training learner-oriented and goal-oriented, notjust content-oriented. Since the focus in instructional design ison the expected outcome and the way the learner learns, theresultant training created on an e-learning platform is moreeffective than conventional training. e-Learning is betterstructured because of the underlying instructional design, whichis usually absent in conventional training mediums.

The most important thing to understand when promotingHOTS is that they cannot be ‘taught’; they can only befacilitated and triggered. The first step towards facilitatingHOTS is to understand the learning behaviour of adults. While


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some adults are visual and some auditory, others arekinaesthetic. Visual learners learn better by seeing things; theyrespond well when presented with visual educational media likecharts, presentations and diagrams. Auditory learners learn bylistening; they respond well to lectures, audio presentations anddiscussions. Kinaesthetic learners, on the other hand, learn bydoing things; they do well in a lab or when they use simulations.One cannot impart learning effectively without understandingthe learner. A thorough audience-analysis paves way tosuccessful e-learning.

Scenarios, simulations and games are integral to promotinghigher order thinking. They offer the learner opportunities toexplore and judge that are otherwise missing in a conventionallearning environment. Learners also get to interact with otherlearners, triggering discussions and debates. These help elicitresponses and opinions from all learners, making them thinkbetter and harder. With 3-D virtual environments likeSecondLife, learners can do more thinking than they need to doin their real environments.

Online group discussions, live chats, livemulti-participant simulations, and multi-playergames are some of the ways e-learningpromotes higher order thinking. Apart frombeing convenient, e-learning offers several otherbenefits to the learner.� e-Learning is not intimidating. The learner isno longer overshadowed by brighter students orintimidated by a strict trainer. � It helps learners shun their inhibitions. Eventhe most shy and introvert learners find it easyto express themselves and voice their opinions indiscussions, forums and chats. � The instructional design strategies present thecontent in a smarter way, making the trainingfriendly for the learners. � e-Learning is not bound by time. The learnercan learn at his/her own time and pace.

� The learner has the flexibility to skip concepts that he isalready aware of. e-Learning trainings are learner-driven.

e-Learning has enhanced drastically over time. Now, the focusis no longer on giving Computer-Based Instruction (CBI) orComputer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) but on Computer-Enhanced Instruction (CEI). It is the CEI that promotes higherorder thinking.

e-Learning, however, will not work just because it iselectronically delivered. It may completely fail to benefit learnersif it is not created properly. Learning theories and instructionalstrategies are the foundational stones that make e-learningbeneficial. e-Learning is, in fact, a structured adaptation of whatlearning theories and strategies preach. Higher order thinkingcannot be initiated without understanding the learner and thelearning theories.

The best way to reap the benefits of e-learning is to introducelearners to a blended learning environment. Learners can beinitiated to ‘think through’ only if they learn in an openenvironment that embraces all learning styles and platforms. �

Saras Salil Editor Elected New ILNA PresidentParesh Nath of Saras Salil, a publication of Delhi Press, was elected President of the Indian LanguagesNewspapers Association (ILNA) at its 67th Annual General Meeting held in New Delhi on 14 January 2009. He succeeds Sunil Dang.

Mr. Nath is associated with many organizations in various capacities. He is Deputy President of IndianNewspapers Society. Founder President Association of Indian Magazines.

Other office bearers elected are VK Chopra (Gavakari), Dinesh Shakti Trikha (Kavita Express) as VicePresidents and Anil Agarwal (Amravati Mandal) as General Secretary (Headquarters). Krishna Shewdikar(Shramik Ek Joot) and Ravi Kumar Bishnoi (Kesar Khushbu Times) will be other General Secretaries,Chandrakant Bhave (Dauk) is the Treasurer, Members of the Executive Committe of ILNA are Govind Lal Vohra, Girish KumarAggarwal, Pushpa Sharma, Rajeev Vashishth, Sandip Kulshreshtha, Sanjay Gupta, Satya Prakash Aseem, Sunil Dang, UttamChand Sharma and V.G. Wani.

New Co-opted members of the Executive Committee are Ankit Bishnoi, Chaitnaya Kashyap, Gaurav Chopra, Jai PrakashPandey, Prakash Aggrawal, Vipin Mohan Sharma, Yashpal Singh, and R.C. Tanwar.

The Indian newspaper & magazine industry has two major organizations working in their interest, ILNA, being one of them.One-third of its executive members are elected every year.


Apple is making waves in the PC space so

much so that it has compelled Microsoft to

re-look at their entire model of product

development and marketing. It is not very

uncommon these days to see a Macintosh

replacing the Windows driven PC and in huge

numbers. The company that set the personal

computer revolution rolling way back in 1970 is

today regaining its glory of being the market

leader and a trendsetter. It is the uniqueness of

its products that lies at the heart of its position of

eminence. Be it OS X, iLife or digital products

like iPod, iPhone, video players or the iTunes

online store, it’s all about innovation, trendy

design and great marketing ideas. These

technologies offer the best that is in the field of

entertainment, and also enhance personal

productivity and creativity in an easy, complete,

and connected way. You can store, share, and

enjoy all of your photos, all of your music and

even all of your video in the most sleek and

simplified space.

Live IT features Apple’s foray into the modern

technology based entertainment market with its

revolutionary products. A large platform is now

set for exciting advances in mobile

entertainment technology.

style itIdea,Innovation &Creativity with Apple

Model: Mansi Tambade

Concept & Photography:Hemant Kedar

Makeup: Amit Sawant

Hair Stylist: Sharda

Apple Gadgets: RSG

Macbook AirThis is the most handy, stylishand stirring machine ever.Made of a just a singlepiece of aluminum, theMacbook Air weighs just 3pounds. So, you can carry itanywhere and everywhereat any time. In simple words,it is more than portable. Ithas a glossy 13.3-inch widescreen, which is just of thesame viewable size as ofother Macbooks. It givesvibrant images and richcolour. To add to its beauty,it has backlit keypads, whichmakes it easy to use in lowor dim light settings.

Style IT

iPod Classic 120 GBThe cool and sleek iPod

Classic with 120 GBmemory can store up to30,000 songs, 150 hours

of video, and a hugecollection from your

photo album as well. Inother words, it ’s a musical

treat. Isn’t amazing, onesize fits for everything.

Available in black andsilver, the Classic 120 GBis truly beautiful, durable

and sleek.

iPod Shuffle 2GBThis one’s for hard coremusic lovers. Thissurprisingly small iPodcan carry up to 500songs of your choice tokeep you entertainedon the go. Clip it onanything and rock withthe music you love.Choose from four newcolours – vibrant blue,envious green, prettypink, and ravishing red.Available in 1 GB and 2GB capacity.

Style IT

Wireless Keyboardand Mouse The Apple wireless keyboardfeatures a low-profileanodized frame thatcomplements any Mac. Justconnect this beautifullydesigned ultra thin keyboardto the USB port of your MACto enjoy its functions. Then,to experience the ultimate inflexibility, pair it with Apple’swireless Mighty Mouse.

iPhone 3GGet fast 3G wireless

technology, GPSmapping, a

widescreen iPod, abreakthrough Internetdevice with rich HTML

e-mail and a desktop-class web

browser. The appleiPhone 3G definitely

redefines what amobile phone can

do – yet again.

Style IT

Airport ExpressA simplified and

compact, which allows upto ten network users and

includes a new featurecalled AirTunes. With the

blazing 802.11n, theaffordable AirPort Express ispowerful enough to run a

home Wi-Fi network. It iscompatible with both Mac

and PC. Its small design andlight weight makes it

extremely portable andstylish as well.

Apple TVNow redefine whatyour TV can do withApple’s stylish highdefinition TV. Watchhigh definition movies,listen to your favouriteiTunes, watchpodcasts, and evenshow off yourcherished photos. TheApple TV evenconnects you to theInternet so you canstay in touch with theworld outside.

Style IT

iMac 20”This smart, sleek, ultra thinApple iMac (20”) desktopoffers more performanceand features than many

Windows-based PCs;robust iLife ‘08 digital

media suite. It is just foreverything and anything

you want to pack in for a computer.

TheFoodBlogsRitu Goyal Harish

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“Recipes are like poems; they keep what kept us. Andgood cooks are like poets; they know how to count.”

– Henri Coulette

It was a revolution that began indistinctively and right out ofthe blue. Slowly but steadily like a fire that rages, catching upin intensity and spread, suddenly having a blog becamefashionable and having a ‘voice’ became the latest craze.

Rising from amongst the popular blogs talking of politics, media,technology and personal experiences were the ‘Food Blogs’.

As Kate Hopkins, a popular food blogger says, “There wasnever any conspiracy to forward the discussion about food. Itjust happened.”

Blogging about food became a culture for many, and a dailydose of their connection with the virtual world. Blogs arepopular also because they are inexpensive, have easy accessibilityand allow freedom of expression.

“Nothing great in the world has been accomplishedwithout passion.” – Georg Wilhelm

For almost all bloggers, it is passion thatdrove them to develop and maintain afood blog.

Arundhati Raghavan, avid food blogger,singer and HR professional, has alwaysbeen passionate about food. “I was 10when I started baking. So, effectively I have been interested infood for 20 years,” she says with a smile. For her, the blog wasinitially and essentially “to keep my recipes in one place.”

Blogging since May 2007, Arundhati has a repertoire of over400 recipes on her blog, some of which include cherishedrecipes passed down by her mother. “I wanted to safeguard therecipes from my mother, which include Tamil and Konkanidishes for posterity,” she says emphatically.

For Anita Tikoo, a Landscape Architect by profession and aregular food blogger for the past two-and-a-half years, food wasalways a passion. “I started searching for homely food on the

Internet, especially South Indian. Books usually have very exoticrecipes but blogs gave me several options where I could browsethrough very simple everyday recipes. My own interest incooking fuelled the beginning of my own food blog.”

Suganya, another regular food blogger since April 2007, saysdeterminately, “It is definitely a passion and purely a means forme to improve my skills with cooking and photography.”

While most bloggers try to be as regular as possible, “it isdifficult to post everyday” admits Arundhati. Most of them arebusy professionals and find it tough to post recipes everyday.However, they also agree that,

“What we’re all striving for is authenticity, a spirit-to-spirit connection.” – Oprah Winfrey

It is no longer a secret that the Internet has brought the worldcloser and blogging, in particular, has made people-to-peopleinteractions at a human level a possibility. Food bloggers agreethat blogs have a deeper and perhaps a more personalconnection with the reader because of their very nature.

“The ability to interact with the creator of the recipe allows thereaders to understand the exact procedures of preparation. Thisnot just helps increase the probability of replicating the recipe, butalso provides a creative forum to improve the recipe further andcreate multiple variations of the same dish,” says Suganya.

“There is great amount of interaction on the Internet. Thereis a sense of intimacy and readers know that the person postingthe blog is real. It also helps to know that the recipe has been

tried by them, making thechances of success thatmuch higher,” addsArundhati.

Anita also believes thatblogs are very interactive.“Readers on my blog canask me questions related tothe recipes I post and Irespond to them, makingthis a two-way interaction.”

Feedback is anothercrucial element to blogging.Everyone thrives oncompliments, and most

bloggers welcome constructive criticism to their recipes.“Many times, the recipes from cook books don’t work. And

there is no one you can turn to for assistance. But on my blog,visitors can leave their comments about the recipe, or a suggestionto improvise on it. Some of the comments are very honest andhelp me devise a variation to the original,” says Arundhati.

“Blogs also offer a social environment to exchangeconstructive feedback that in turn contributes to personaldevelopment,” feels Suganya.

Notwithstanding, the bloggers in unison agree that food blogsmay never actually replace books. “Books have their own



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romance. I still read a cook book page to page although I maynot cook the recipe immediately,” admits Anita.

“A blogger, I myself refer to books all the time. Books willalways be around as they provide a valuable perspective and apoint of reference,” feels Suganya.

Arundhati also echoes the sentiment. “There is a certaincharm in cook books and a joy in flipping through the recipes. Imay be buying fewer books than I used to, but I certainly referto them all the time.”

“Books may well be the only true magic”– Alice Hoffman Publilius Syrus quotes

(Roman author, 1st century BC)

Food blogs are one of the greatest places for a variety ofrecipes on the Internet. From simple home cooked Indianrecipes, to complicated Kebabs, Biryanis; world cuisine such asItalian, Mexican, Chinese, Greek, Continental, Japanese, Malayor even Egyptian; desserts, breads, pastries, cakes, puddings, pies– you just name it and you have it on blogs.

“On food blogs you can find recipes from the exotic to theregular; simple to complicated,” says Arundhati.

On most food blogs, as in books, the pictures convey a lot.Some blogs thrive on presentation, while others simply depictthe dish ‘as it is’.

While some bloggers consider pictures to be as important asthe recipe, some don’t. “Photographs are essential but I think aslong as they are not ‘dressed up,’ they connect with the reader,”feels Arundhati.

“I did buy a better camera but nothing more than that,”admits Anita.

“Each friend represents a world in us, a worldpossibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by thismeeting that a new world is born” – Anais Nin

For a lot of bloggers, their personal spaces on the web havebeen a great way to make new friends and foster long-lastingrelationships. “I have made some great friends through my

blog,” beams Anita. “We haven’t met until yet but we chat on adaily basis. There is certainly a connection.”

“Initially a lot of them were just acquaintances. With time andrepeated exchange of comments with these interestingindividuals, I have made several friends across the globe whoshare common interests, values and principles as me. A few ofthem have gone on to become extremely close friends. I have notmet a lot them in person yet, but have learnt a great deal fromthem,” adds Suganya.

And this deep connection brings bloggers and readerstogether, across cultural and geographical boundaries.

“Blogs help us to break boundaries of country, culture andlanguage quite easily. In my opinion, this is one of thefundamental strengths of blogs,” says Suganya.

However, most bloggers are not at ease revealing theiridentities on the Internet and are quite comfortable with theanonymity. “Although people close to me know that I have ablog, professionally no one knows,” admits Anita.

On the other hand, to Arundhati the anonymity is of littleimportance. “I have 200 followers on my blog and even mynephew visits often. Most of them are random visitors but manyare friends,” she smiles.

“A new recipe for success”“I am happy that I have managed to attract many visitors.

What started as a personal space to post my collection of recipeshas now become a great place to exchange notes and try outnew stuff,” says Arundhati.

“The biggest high I get is that on my blog I am the writer,editor and publisher,” laughs Anita. “To my family, my passionfor food was well known. But that I could write well was also asurprise,” she adds.

As for readers, says Mayanka who refers to food blogs whenshe needs to whip up something special for a guest or party, “Ilike food blogs for their simplicity. The recipe soundsuncomplicated. They give the feel as if anyone can make thedish, even a novice in the kitchen.”

If you are a writer with a passion for food, or a cook who likesto write and share recipes, a kitchen novice or expert, or acompulsive recipe browser, peep into the extraordinarilyscrumptious world of food bloggers, and you will be pleasantlysurprised at the bounty available! �

Popular food blogs:http://chefatwork.blogspot.com

http://tastypalettes.blogspot.com

http://madteaparty.wordpress.com

http://indianfoodrocks.blogspot.com

http://onehotstove.blogspot.com

http://elaichietcetera.wordpress.com

http://saffrontrail.blogspot.com


Online Degrees – Are they Accredited?Roli Gupta

So, you are this busy executive who wants to add valueto her resume with a management degree. Or, maybe ahomemaker venturing into a home business but requiresome entrepreneurial skills to get started. Or, a grad-

uate student who wishes to enhance her work profile with apost-graduate degree while continuing to work. Maybe youwould like to make a career switch, but need to first get acertain skill set in the new industry. Well, whatever it is that youare desirous of doing, the best answer to all your constraints oftime and effort made at travelling down to the educationalinstitute seems to be one of the many popular online coursesavailable on the net. In fact, you have even selected the rightcourse which provides you with the proper skill-enhancement

that you require. But, even as you get ready to part with somehard-earned money in the hope of forwarding your career,certain niggling doubts always remain.

Beginning with what exactly is it that you can expect froman online course? How do online courses differ from distanceeducation courses? What sort of a qualification can youexpect at the end of the course? What are its pros and cons?How necessary is accreditation? How do you know whetherthe course is accredited? Who accredits online courses? Whatis the difference between accreditation and approval? Whatsort of industry standing does an online course have? Well,these are questions that arise in the minds of every personplanning to enroll in an online course.

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For the beginner, an online course is simply a course of studywhich aims to provide the student with a certain skill set usingthe Internet as the primary medium of instruction. Use of theInternet, in this case, typically involves downloadable self-studymaterial, lectures through webcasts or interactive webinars,online chats with professors to resolve doubts and online tests,which are graded online and a final assessment of the student’sproficiency. In that sense, online courses differ greatly fromdistance education courses, the latter usually is a blend ofstudies using the Internet and a contact program, whichrequires that the student go to a designated study centre for afew lectures, laboratory experiments or project work. Theexams are held in a conventional setting at their examinationcentres. Within online courses also, there is a clear bifurcationbased on the type of qualifications that they claim to provide –at the end of some courses, the student would get a properqualification – say a Bachelor’s or a Master’s degree. The othertype of online course is simply a skill enhancement course, forexample those offering proficiency in OOAD (object-orientedanalysis and design) concepts. These courses do not provide anyqualification per se, but are intended only as study modules forgaining knowledge. Institutions like NIIT (www.netvarsity.com)and Aptech (www.onlinevarsity.com) offer similar coursesonline, which include a plethora of subjects in a variety of fields– Crystal Reports, RDBMS Concepts, Client Server Concepts,SQL Server, Word, Excel, Access, time management, Linuxand so on. Many of these study courses are industry-recognized; the Sun certified Java program is a good examplehere (http://www.sun.com/training/certification/java/index.xml). The study material is available online exclusivelythrough e-learning modules and doubts can be resolved by e-mail; the test is also administered online. To this end, Sun Microsystems also provides a list of authorized training centres.

As far as the pros and cons go, online courses are advantageousin that they offer great flexibility of study hours and also savetime and cost, especially that of travelling. The primarydisadvantage would be that you would have to deal with thefeeling of being on your own and be disciplined enough to setaside proper time for study, because procrastination can be a realproblem with self-study. While there are clear answers to most ofthe queries related to online courses, answers pertaining toaccreditation are still a little hazy. By definition, accreditation iseasy enough to understand – it means a minimum guarantee orthe act of granting credit or recognition (especially with respectto educational institutions) that maintains suitable standards. But,determining whether or not a course is accredited is muchtougher. For a course to be accredited, there has to be agovernment authorized organization providing the accreditation.

The problem lies in the fact that in India, there is no clearrule on which organization provides accreditation to onlinecourses. In the U.S., for example, The U.S. Department ofEducation (USDE) approves certain organizations to be incharge of approving schools with providing online accredited

college credit courses. ‘The Distance Education & TrainingCouncil’ (DETC) and ‘The Accrediting Council forIndependent Colleges & Schools’ focus specifically onaccrediting online degree schools. In India, the ‘DistanceEducation Council’ (http://www.dec.ac.in/) is theauthorized organization to provide approval andaccreditation to distance education. So, logically, courses byany university, which is recognized by the DEC, would beaccredited. Online courses offered by Indira GandhiNational Open University (IGNOU)(http://www.ignou.ac.in/) come under the purview of theDistance Education Council. Similarly, courses provided bythe Yeshvantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University(http://www.ycmou.com) are recognized by the UniversityGrants Commission (http://www.ugc.ac.in/). This meansthat degrees offered by such universities, duly recognized bythe government, must be accredited; unfortunately, there is

no clear, written rule about this. So, if an online courseclaims to be accredited, first check with the DistanceEducation Council or the UGC.

The next big issue is whether these courses are recognizedby the industry and whether it is important to enroll for anindustry-recognized course only. Jyoti Jagasia, AssistantProfessor at S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Researchopines: “I did my Masters in Information Technology fromBITS Pilani, which was a distance education course,recognized by the UGC. This course was a work-integratedlearning program, completely off-campus with the projectviva at Pilani. So, this is very close to being an online course.Getting a qualification like this was a huge boost to myprofile. Being an electronics engineering graduate, this coursenot only helped me getting a foothold into the IT industry,but also got me into the academics field and an option ofpursuing doctoral programs anywhere in the world.Obviously, securing a job after the completion of a courseactually depends on previous work experience and theindustry recognition that the course has. Several courses are


actually helped me get more work in freelance writing wasthe rigorous training and constructive criticism in writing thatI got through the assignments that I completed.”

The verdict is clear – online courses are good, but theymust be accredited and industry-recognized. A simple searchon the Internet will throw up a confusing array of onlinecourses, which may seem right for you. We selected some ofthe popular courses, not necessarily offered by Indianeducational institutions, but approved by governmentorganizations (See Box below). So, go ahead, take that courseand get those skills which would catapult you up the ladder ofsuccess. But remember, whichever course you do decide tostudy, it is important to spend some time ascertainingwhether it will give the value that you want from it. �

well accepted, while some others may not be. It’s importantto talk to people from the industry and find out what coursesare accepted. All in all, online courses are a great option forskill enhancement and value addition to your profile – butthey must be accredited.”

Batul Hafiji, Project Manager with a leading software firmadds, “We do consider online courses as a positive indicationof the candidate’s skill set, but job experience in thetechnology or a certification from Microsoft or SunMicrosystems would have far greater value than a regularonline course that does not have industry recognition. Ofcourse, we would prefer a candidate who has done an onlinecourse to acquire certain skills, for example, OOAD concepts,as against someone who is just a graduate.”

Preeti Mishra is a freelance writer who did acorrespondence course to augment her writing skills. Shesays, “Though all the study material came in through post,my assignments were submitted through e-mail. At the end ofthe course, I received a certificate of completion, which didnot help much because employers do not accept this sort of acourse as guaranteeing a minimum competency. What

Some important links:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools:Commission on Higher Educationhttp://www.msche.org/

New England Association of Schools and Colleges:Commission on Institutions of Higher Learninghttp://www.neasc.org/cihe/cihe.htm

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools: TheHigher Learning Commissionhttp://www.ncahigherlearningcommission.org/

Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universitieshttp://www.nwccu.org/

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools: Commissionon Collegeshttp://www.sacscoc.org/

Western Association of Schools and Colleges: AccreditingCommission for Junior and Community Collegeshttp://www.wascweb.org/

Western Association of Schools and Colleges: AccreditingCommission for Senior Colleges and Universitieshttp://www.wascweb.org/

The International TEFL Corporationhttp://www.teflcorp.com/ol-home.htm

Kaplan Open Learninghttp://www.kaplanopenlearning.org.uk/

MIT Sloan School of Managementhttp://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/

Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts, Indiahttp://www.iutripura.edu.in/

Amity Institutehttp://www.amity.edu/ http://amityelearning.com/

Tech Tip

Tech Tips by: Anoop Verma


Fill in PDF Forms Onlinewith PDFescape

It is a common misconception that PDF files cannot bechanged once they have been created. About time youmade a visit to the website www.pdfescape.com. There isnothing to download or install as the application runs on

the web itself and enables you to make changes in any PDFdocument, fill up PDF forms and save them onto yoursystem. In addition to text, you can also use PDFescape to

and fill in your e-mail ID. But PDFescape does attach a logomark to the documents that you export from the site. If youwant to remove the logo mark, you will have to purchasepremium credits.

To use PDFescape, go to the website www.pdfescape.com andclick the icon that says ‘Start Now.’ You can either use theapplication as an unregistered user or as a registered user. It is

better to get registered before using theapplication, because as an unregistered user,you cannot avail of a bulk of the featuresthat are accessible there. Click on the iconthat says, ‘Register Now Free.’ Out here youwill have to fill in your name, e-mail addressand also create a unique login ID with apassword. Click on the option ‘CreateAccount’ and it will take you directly to thesite where you can launch the PDFescapeapplication. Here you will have the option to

open a PDF file from thecomputer or from the Internet.

Make a selection and afterthe file opens, you can eitherfill a form or make changes inthe PDF file itself. There willbe a menu bar at the top, withdrop-down menus under theheading File, Edit, Tools andHelp. The features of each tabare somewhat similar to whatyou may find in a normalWord document. Once youhave finished working on thefile, you can save it onPDFescape’s online server. Thefile will remain in the serverand you can access it bylogging into your accountanytime. You also have theoption of e-mailing the PDF

documents in which you have made changes. You have to givePDFescape a try, in order to find out how easy it can be to fillPDF forms and to make changes in a PDF document. �

throw in custom images, shapes, and links into the document.The best part about the website is that the service iscompletely free. You are only required to register yourself


The Internet in the Web 2.0 era is breaking boundaries between different cultures and countries in more ways thanwe can imagine. Now there are web-based applications that allow you to translate text from one lan-

guage to another with the click of a mouse. Most of the time,these applications are available for free. It is only in case of somelanguages that you are required to pay some fee. You can checkout www.freetranslation.com. This site offers free translation fromEnglish to a host of European languages, as well as Japanese andRussian languages. For availing of free translation, you have to se-lect the language combination that you require from a drop-downlist. Once the selection is made, click on the box that says, ‘Typeof Paste text here.’ Once the text has been inserted, just click onthe link that says, ‘Free translation.’ The translated text will appear in the same box instantly.

In any case, the computer translation remains far from perfect.You have to keep your sentences very short, or the computer mightnot be able to analyze and it might give absurd results. All sentencesshould end with a full stop so that the computer system can recog-

nize where the sentence ends. At one time, you can have 750 wordstranslated. But if you need text from English or any other languagetranslated to most other Asian or African languages, then the service does not remain free. The going rate for having about 250words in English translated to Hindi turns out to be $50. And if youwant to have the translation proofread as well, then you have to pay$10 extra. Now, that is really costly. But as the technology improves, itis possible that the translation costs might actually come down to zero.

Another website www.online-translator.com offers similar service.At this site there are two boxes in one of which you can paste thetext that you need to have translated. After that you choose the language combinations from a drop-down list and when you clickthe translate icon, the translated text will appear in the second box. www.worldlingo.com offers translations into Chinese, Arabicand Korean languages along with all the European ones. Thenthere is the site http://babelfish.yahoo.com/, which proves quite efficient in translating English to a host of European languages aswell as many variants of Chinese. The application at http://www.reverso.net/text_translation.asp is confined to Euro-pean languages only. IBM, too, has made a modest foray into thetranslation bandwagon with its WebSphere software. But the scopeof this software is quite limited as of now.

However, if you are looking for free English to Hindi translationand vice- versa, then you will face some amount of problem. Itseems an efficient translation application is yet to come up that

can take care of desi languages. As of now, for your translations involving Hindi language, you still have to rely on human trans-lators or pay hefty fees to online portals. �

Translate Text Onlinewith Free Online Translators

Tech Tip


Store Just about AnythingOnline with Hordit

If you are tired of tugging along heavy files in acumbersome laptop or even a portable flash drive, then youmight as well take a look at the new website on the block,called Hordit. Billed as a place where you can store and

backup any amount of data, Hordit allows users to store docs,photos, spreadsheets, PDF documents, notes, contacts,YouTube links, scanned images, etc. in an online space. Youare no longer tied to a computer or a flash drive as Horditallows you to access your data from anywhere by simplylogging into your account. The best thing about this site is thatthere really is no limit to the size of files that you can store. Beit 100 GB file or 1 TB file; at Hordit, size simply doesn’tmatter. And all this is available for free.

To start using this site, you have to log on to www.hordit.com.First, you must sign up, the process for which is remarkablyhassle free. Just provide your first name, last name, and an e-mailaddress. However, you need to pick up a login ID and apassword. Once you have finished with the sigh-up process,Hordit will send you an e-mail with a link, which you have to

click in order to verifyyourself. That’s it, nodownloads, no sign-upfees, your accountbecomes operational andyou are free to startuploading on yourunlimited Hordit space.On the Hordit interface,you will find a range ofpre-created folders thatyou can use to categorizethe documents or thelinks that you upload. Ifnone of the foldersmatch the profile of yourdocuments, you cancreate new folders easily.

Hordit also has abuilt-in tracking featurethat enables it toremember the links thatyou have browsedduring any session. Andif you are prone to

working from different computers, you can simply import allyour bookmarks into your Hordit space and use thisinformation to go to your favorite sites from any computerwith an Internet connection. Currently, Hordit acceptsimports from Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox browsers.But the best feature of Hordit lies in its ability to makenetworking possible between different users with similartastes. If you click on the People tab at the top, it will takeyou to the list of current users. It is for a user to decide if hewants to make his profile public or not. If you opt to make itpublic, then other users can check you out.

By clicking on the Groups tab, you reach the groups menu atHordit, which turns out to be quite extensive. You may wish tojoin any particular group according to the dictates of yourideology and tastes. It is also possible to share documents withother users, or make it completely public. The application is stillin the beta stage. Therefore, you might come across someglitches, but even in its present avatar Hordit is capable ofproviding great service to its users. �


So you find it difficult to believe that movies can beavailable online for free! Nevertheless, it is true. Thereare a number of websites that promise to deliver onlinemovie experience for free. Check out

www.bharatmovies.com, which has a massive collection of filmsin Indian languages. When you open the website, you will find abar on the top that lists most of the major Indian languages –Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali andMarathi. Just click on the tab of the language in which you wantto watch the movie and you will be taken to a page thatincorporates the list of movies available in that language.

When I checked this site, a number of good Hindi films wereavailable for viewing – Akele Hum Akele Tum, Raaz, Daag, etc. Thelist of films keeps changing on a day to day basis. The film that isavailable today might not be there tomorrow, its place might gettaken by some other film. To watch any given movie of yourchoice, you just have to download a Veoh Player on your laptopor PC. The software is available for free on the Bharat Movieswebsite itself. Once you have downloaded and installed theplayer, you can start downloading the film. But that turns out tobe a job of patience. Even if you have a high-speed broadbandconnection, the downloading process takes lots of time.

Another good website for movie viewing is www.rajshri.com.As of now, this website has a library of more than 500 Hindifilms and a sizeable number of Tamil and Marathi films as well.It also has TV shows, documentaries, trailers, short films, kids’movies, etc. Here you are not allowed to download the movie;

you have to watch it on the website itself on a YouTube kind ofa window. Then there is www.apnaview.com, which turns out tobe full of great movie resources. Last time I checked, this portalhad latest blockbuster films like Ghajini and Chandni Chowk toChina listed for viewing. But in order to watch movies, you haveto download and install a software called Zango.

In fact, if you make a simple Google search for free Hindimovies, you are going to get an amazing amount of response. Fora somewhat complete list of such websites, you can gowww.indiaholic.com. But not every website listed onwww.indiaholic.com is capable of offering original print. Mostly,it is camera copy prints or badly burned DVD prints that areavailable. So the quality of the movie downloads that you get forfree, might not be as prefect as what you get to see in any theatre,but as it is free, you can still use it for pastime. It is far better touse these websites to download music videos, as the file size inthat case is much smaller and so it does not take too much time. �

WatchRegionalMoviesOnline forFree

Tech Tip


Change Default WebBrowser Quickly usingBrowser Tray Switch

With a number of browsers like Internet Explorer,Firefox, Google Chrome, etc. available for free, itis now becoming increasingly common for mostcomputers users to have more than one browser

installed in their systems. There are Internet users who maywant to use one browser while they are checking their e-mailsand another for searching for a piece ofinformation on the Internet. And ifsomeone is a web-developer, he may haveall the major browsers installed in hissystem to check out his website in IE,Firefox, Chrome and Safari. But, whileswitching from one browser to another,you have to copy and paste the link. Thatcan turn out to be a cumbersome process.A way out is a software called BrowserTray Switch.

It’s a software available for free andtakes up as little space on your system as90 KB. And, to top it all, it is going tomake the process of switching from onebrowser to another remarkably simple. Justvisit the websitehttp://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/browsertray/index.html and download the software.The installation process takes less than aminute. Once the installation is complete,every time you have to change your

default browser, all you need to do is right click, and all theselected files and URLs will open in the selected browser. Alongwith helping to shift between browsers quickly, the software alsohelps in making the system more secure. This it does bypreventing malicious programs from connecting through theInternet by launching the default browser. �

Firefox


Now you don’t even have to go through the rigmarole ofdownloading pirated music. You can actually listen toyour favourite music online for free. There are anynumbers of websites that are currently offering this

facility. Blame it on quirk of fate, or a quirk of nomenclature,because of which all of them end up having names that startwith the letter ‘S’. But it is also possible that that the names startwith ‘S’ because each website owes its leitmotif to songs. Justvisit the websites of Songerize, Songza, SingsBOX or Seeqpodand have a tryst with the music of your choice.

Songerize is located at http://songerize.com. The home page isquite stark, but the music that you can hear out here turns out to beabsolutely riveting. You will find two boxes on the home page – onecarries the heading ‘Song Name’ and the other says ‘Artist’. Belowthese two boxes, there is the ‘Play Song’ button. Well, you don’t needto be an Einstein to figure out how the system works. An enthrallingmusical experience is only a click of the mouse away. Try it today itself.

Located at http://songza.com Songza is geared to let you listen toany band or song of your choice. It has a Google type search boxand a search button beside it. All you have to do is fill the title of themusic of your choice in the search box and then leave it to Songza tofind it and start playing it for you. Out here you have the facility toregister yourself. In fact, it would be a good idea to get registered

because then you become eligible for creating your own playlist andstoring it online. During any subsequent visit to the website, all youhave to do is access your playlist to start playing your favourite songs.

SingsBOX is spreading its musical joy athttp://www.singsbox.com. The starkly bare home page has only onerather long search box in the middle of the screen and beside it liesthe Search button. In fact, the website looks somewhat like Google,but it does have a banner advertisement at the top. SingsBOX provesitself to be really efficient in finding songs from all genres. Otherthan giving you the chance of listening to your favourite songs, thiswebsite also allows you an option to store the songs on your playlistor embed them on your website or blog.

Then there is Seeqpod, located at http://www.seeqpod.com. Therole that Seeqpod plays goes far beyond music, in the sense that thisis a search and recommendation engine for indexing and findingplayable search results including audio, video, podcasts andWikipedia articles. The site is currently indexing more than 13million tracks and files. Powered by the GenoPharm algorithm,Seeqpod solves search queries by linking relevant informationautomatically from each analyzed source of information, creatingconnections similar to that in the human brain. In that sense, itsworking is somewhat different from that of traditional search enginesthat rely on keyword associations. �

Listen to Music Online

Tech Tip


These days everybody is publishing blogs with lots ofamateur pictures in them. But there is always thechance that your pictures might end up as plagiarizedpictures on someone else’s blog. That is just the sort of

eventuality that you can avoid by using the freely availableWindows Live Writer. The latest 2009 edition of the software hasnow become available at http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com. Just log on to this website, and click on thedownload button. The minimum operating system required torun this software is Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 Beta. Thereare other requirements regarding the browser, RAM, graphicscard and processor, but these are nothing exceptional and mostPCs running on XP or Vista should have these systems in place.

The download and installation process will be over in fewminutes depending on the speed of your connection.

Watermarking an image by using this software is absurdlysimple. First of all, you have to insert the image into the blogthat you are writing. After that, click on the image to select it.On top of the Windows Live Writer window you will find threetabs – Picture, Advanced and Effects. Click on the tab that saysAdvanced and from there choose the Watermark tab, whichappears at the bottom of the drop-down list. A watermarkingform will open in front of you. You can type in the text that youwant to have as watermark. You can also choose the font type,the size of the letters and the exact positioning of the text.

While Windows Live Writer proves to be a niftywatermarking tool, it can also be put to many other uses.You can crop, tilt or create a border around your picture.You can also use it to insert multiple pictures using asIndividual Thumbnails or as Windows Live Photo Album.There is no dearth of album styles through which you get todisplay your pictures. For example, you can use the ‘ScatterStyle’, by which you can make your pictures appearscattered all over your blog. You can even use the WindowsLive Writer to insert a video from your computer and haveit automatically published to either YouTube or Soapboxwhen you publish your blog.

Then there are the various add-ons that you can chooseto have with this software. You can download and installadd-on softwares like Flickr Upload, Digg This, andTwitter Notify. For those avid bloggers out there, thissoftware is certainly a must have. It makes blogging look soeasy and enjoyable.�

Watermark Photosand Images Using WindowsLive Writer


Create a Free Avatarwith DoppelMe

These days in most Internet chats, forums or blogs, apersonal avatar has become somewhat de rigueur. Yousimply can’t express yourself properly online unless youhave an avatar that is in sync with your real personality. A

visual identity has the effect of putting a friendly face to yourInternet presence and the best thing is that you can quicklyupdate it to reflect your mood at any point of time. Stillwondering? Well, you don’t have to be a graphics expert in orderto create an avatar. Leave it to web-based applications such asDoppelMe to create one for you; and it takes just a couple ofminutes to get it done. Take a peek at the sitehttp://doppelme.com whose homepage seems so starkly bare,and yet it hides an innovative system that is capable of dishingout an array of delightful avatars.

It is not necessary for you to register yourself on this website,but if you choose to register then you will have the option ofsaving in this site’s server your very own DoppelMe avatar,which you can access any time by simply logging into youraccount. However, even if you do not register you can still accessthe application and save the avatar that you create on your ownsystem. At the top of the website there are four tabs – Home,Create, Sign In and FAQ. In order to create an avatar, just clickon the Create tab. A toy-like figure will appear on one side ofthe screen. You have the option of choosing the gender, skincolour and eye colour of your avatar. The changes you make willreflect on the toy-like figure. Once done, click on the next icon.

The new page has a small screen on which myriad smiley kindof images are set in a row. Simply click on the smiley that bestreflects your mood and then click on the button that says, “I amdone.” On the new page you fill in some of your personal detailsand reveal your e-mail address. Within a few minutes you willreceive an e-mail link with step-by-step instructions on how tomake more changes to your avatar. There is no end to the funny orrather serious looking avatars that you can come up with. You cangive it a look from the figure of the iconic movie called Star Wars, oryou can have an avatar that is like any normal boy or girl. You canchange hairstyle, facial expression, hats, tops, bottoms, shoes,accessories, background and extras in so many different ways.

By default, the avatars carry a GIF format, but you can alsorequest for a PNG format. To do that all you have to do isreplace GIF with PNG while saving your avatar. Once the avataris ready, you can put it in blogs, forums, instant messenger andanywhere on the Internet. Go ahead, try it out! �

Tech Tip


When you think of asearch engine, you thinkof Google. Sure Googleis currently the Goliath

amongst all search engines in the market,but newer search engines are new breedsearch engines are emerging all the time likeso many bubbles in the vast Internet pond.

Have you heard of Lemmefind? This isa search engine, with its home pagelocated at www.lemmefind.us. Thehome page is somewhat bare, but not asstarkly bare as it is in Google. There is adrop -down list at top, where you canchoose if you want to make a country-wise search or an international search.There is as search box followed by asearch button that is quite similar to thatin Google. But the difference lies in thearray of buttons that occur on the top ofthe search box. By clicking on any oneof the buttons, you can narrow downyour search and target results that aremore in line with what you want. Forexample, if you click on the ‘buttonImages’ button, then only the searchresults that have to do with an image ofsome kind will be generated. Similarly,you can opt for video, audio, MySpace,Wikipedia, and much elsemany more.Every search result can be instantlyshared by using the e-mail link at thebottom of each page. This search engineis still in beta stage as it was launched only in November last year.

Another search engine that is generating interest is Joongel. Itssearching method is based on the geographic location of the userand traffic ranking analysis from Google, Hitwise, Compete,Comscore, Nielsen, Netratings, Quantcast and few other systems. Ifanything, the home page of Joongel at www.joongel.com isabsolutely cluttered with buttons and tabs and that is probably why ittakes some amount of time to load. On the main body of the homepage you will find buttons that lead to every popular search engine,blog and much else. Then there are the buttons occurring on the

side bar, by using which you can narrow down your search. Thesearch box is located at the top of the screen. Instead of one searchbutton, there are two of them. The first button is meant for choosingthe category of your search and you need to click on the second toget the search process going. Joongel is probably derived from theworld ‘jungle’. The idea is that Internet is like a jungle and you needa search engine like Joongel to find the information that you seek outthere. Currently, the website is running in its beta phase and thiscould be the reason why itthat might be the reason why it is so slowto respond. �

Joongel and Lemmefind– Internet Search Portals


Open Intern t Explorer inFull ScreenKiosk Mode

There can be umpteen numbers ofoccasions when you may want tomaximize the viewing area inyour browser. This can be

achieved by turning on the full screenkiosk mode, which gets rid of the toolbarsat the top, status bar at the bottom, andthe scroll bars, leaving the entire space onthe screen free for the web page that youmay be surfing through. To switch on thefull kiosk mode in your Internet Explorerbrowser, go to Start and click on ‘Run’. In the box that opens,type the following command: ‘iexplore –k page’. The ‘page’ inthe command stands for the URL of the web page that youwish to go to. When you click OK, Internet Explorer willopen in full kiosk mode.

For example, to start IE in the kiosk mode with theMicrosoft website, type ‘iexplore -k www.microsoft.com’ in thebox. You can also use this method to open any website savedin your system in the kiosk mode. For this also you have toclick Start, point at Run and in the open box you have to type:iexplore -k ‘c:\my documents\name.htm’. As the forward andback keys and the taskbar are not visible in kiosk mode, youhave to use keyboard shortcuts in order to operate IE. Forclosing IE, use CTRL + W or Alt + F4. A full list of thekeyboard shortcuts that you can use to operate IE in kioskmode is available at windows website:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/154780.

And if you tend to use this type of browsing too often, thenit would turn out to be a good idea to keep on your desktop a

shortcut that can launch IE in kiosk mode instantly. To createsuch a shortcut, right click on the blank area of your desktop.On the menu that appears, just point at ‘New’ and then go to‘Shortcut.’ Into the open box of the Create Shortcut wizardthat appears, type the following instruction: C:\ProgramFiles\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE –k. After that,click on the option ‘Next’ and in the new window, you canchoose an appropriate name for this new version of IE. Clickon ‘Finish.’ Whenever you click on this link, IE will open inkiosk mode on the home page.

It is fun to browse on the full screen mode, and if you havenot tried it already, it is about time you did. �

Tech Tip


In an era where electronic gadgets are becoming more and moreeconomical, it is but natural for you to settle for one yourself.Only a few years ago, it would set you down by half a lakh tobuy the cheapest home theatre system. But today, you could buy

one for as low as 10K. And if you have a great budget, there arehome theatre systems that cost Rs. 10 lakhs, too. However, nomatter what your budget, there are certain things you need to lookat after you bring home the stars into your drawing room.

The beauty of a home theatre system lies in its sound qualityabove all. The clearer and booming it is, the more realistic feelyou get of a movie hall. After all, you are turning your drawingroom into a theatre. However, if you don’t take care of a fewimportant things, your movie-watching could be no less anightmare. Here are a few tips that could go a long way inensuring good quality music to your ears.

Happy listening!1. Positioning the speakers is important: gear surround

speakers high up on the walls, tilted down towards your listeningposition, or use tall stands instead. Place your centre speaker atthe same height as the main left and right speakers, under thescreen if possible. Try to align its tweeter with those on the otherfront speakers in your system.

2. Specify to the dealer before he offers choices to you. Forexample, if you want a system that could meet both your hi-fiand home theatre needs, say so early on. Also, specify the sizeand shape of your room because it’s important from anacoustic perspective.

3. If you have money to spare, get your room sound-proofedand acoustically perfect. It could set you back Rs. 1 lakh, but it’sworth it. If you don’t have the money, even curtains will makedo as they absorb sound. But don’t use glass walls as they reflectsound. And for better acoustics, buy two sub-woofers (onepassive and one active).

4. There’s no point having 6.1 speaker systems if your intent isto enhance the acoustics in the room, as most movies exceptGladiator and a few others are made for 5.1. Go for 6.1 only ifyou have a wider room or a 7.1 if it’s a lengthier room. Forexample, a 15 × 20 feet room should be perfect for a 5.1whereas a 25 × 30 feet room requires a 7.1.

5. Go for a projector instead of an LCD or plasma screen ifyou have a very dark room. Most people use plasmas forcommercial purposes. The biggest advantage of an LCD isthat it can be mounted on the wall and also enhances yourstyle statement. Flatscreen TVs take a lot more space and arepretty old fashioned. �

How toMaximise yourHome TheatreSystem


Double your Funwith Dual Monitors

Asecond monitor on your system has great potential todouble your fun, especially if you happen to be avideogame aficionado. Looking beyond videogames,two or even multiple monitors can be helpful when

you want to get extra productive by working on more than oneoffice program at the same time. Especially when working on areally large spreadsheet, you can have different parts of it openon different monitors.

While chatting with friends, you can have many more IM chatwindows open. But the best thing about a double monitor is thatit is easy to install and comes very cheap; in most cases all youneed is an extra monitor.

Most laptops these days come with an external VGA port, soyou just have to plug your second monitor into this port andswitch it on. This is usually done with the help of the functionkey – ‘turn on one, or both monitors’. Once this bis done, you

have to set it up under your display settings in the computer’soperating system. But if you are planning to set up a secondmonitor on your desktop system, first make sure your CPU has adedicated video card. Many of these cards come with two videoports that can support two different monitors, but if your cardhas a DVI type port, then you will have to get for yourself a DVIto VGA adapter. Use this adapter to plug in your secondmonitor and you are ready to double your fun.

However, if your CPU has the video built into itsmotherboard and lacks a second video port, then installing asecond monitor is not that easy. In this case, you will have nooption but to add a video card to your desktop computer.However, you must also ensure that the new video card has twovideo ports. Running two different monitors can pose as anincredibly vibrant computing experience; if you have not tried ityet, then it is time that you did. �

Feature


What’s yourE-Avatar?Campus of the Future – Second Life ExperiencePayal Shah Karwa

Imagine a typical day in your campus life, just a couple ofyears down the line. You wake up early morning, finishyour daily ablutions and get ready for another excitingday in college. Instead of putting on your satchel and

shoes, you simply switch on your PC, the broadbandconnection and log on to your 3-D classroom, based out ofthe USA. You greet your classmates online, engage in a chatsession, and when the professor walks in, you start your class.This is no cyber-fiction story, but a future reality, the realityof virtual 3-D campuses.

It’s about time we start taking seriously the role oftechnology in our daily lives and realize the potential it has tothe maximum. For instance, the Internet has opened upincredible opportunities in all fields, including education.

Starting from distancelearning, or e-learning as itis popularly known, theInternet has usedmultimedia to disseminateknowledge seamlessly,crossing geographical anddemographic boundaries.Probably one of the onlylesser points of distancelearning courses would bethe lack of physical presenceor interaction with thefaculty or peers. But thisissue can be addressed withthe use of the latestinnovation in cyberspace –www.secondlife.com.

Secondlife, or SL, is a Net-based 3D virtual world,which thrives on user-generated content. Peoplecan login as a resident with anew avatar (onlinepersonality) and teleportthemselves into any such in-world … they can attend liveconcerts to contests, visitmuseums or a green parkusing the SLurl or build aworld of their own.Similarly, there exist severaleducation campuses createdby educators around theworld, which you canexplore and enroll yourselffor. SL offers educators tocreate a campus of their ownby virtually lending them anisland. These educators also

have a choice to permanently buy off or rent the island on SLto continue their classroom activities. What’s good aboutSecondLife campus is the fact that just as a student, you canhave a basic account for free. You just need to sign up for a SLaccount and locate the SLurl of the campus you would like tovisit. A SLurl is the exact location in terms of co-ordinates.So, once you have the exact url or address you are directlytaken to the island wherein you are asked whether you wouldlike to teleport.

Currently, the universities of Stanford, Harvard, and NewYork have their own campus on SL wherein students fromany part of the world can attend the sessions created byeducators and interact with each other. One can even visitthe library of the respective university, explore the campusand its facilities, etc. Similarly, INSEAD is the world’s firstvirtual campus. Launched in 2006, INSEAD offers MBAand Executive MBA programs. Once you have created youravatar at SL, you can participate in the virtual event on theircampus. For instance, try logging on the SLurl of INSEAD(http://slurl.com/secondlife/INSEAD/176/214/31) toexperience this. You only need to ensure that your PC isequipped with the requisite hardware and softwarerequirements. The INSEAD program, for instance, has videostreaming and IM tools so you need to have the requisitebroadband connection and programs.


course, which would help her automate her planning processand help create 3D structure designs. But the advanced coursewas turning up to be too expensive for her family to afford.However, her career plans did not go futile. One of her friendsresiding in the USA informed her about e-learning courses in a3D environment of the virtual world, called secondlife.com.Today she has created an island using her own ideas anddeveloping the content and sharing with fellow learners online.Her designs too have been well appreciated.

The diversity that a virtual campus brings along with it isalso commendable. It brings together people and educatorsfrom across the globe who share their experiences to enrichother residents’ knowledge base. Currently, cyberspace hasover 250 such educators, thus enabling thousands oflearners to learn creatively through virtual campuses on SL.Fields like gaming, architecture, medical, media, businessmanagement, etc. can adopt the help of SL to build avirtual campus. Also, the educators have the flexibility tobuild the learning ambience as per their choice and whatthey think would be liked by students. From amphitheatres to

open gardens to box classrooms,there exists an interesting varietyof campuses online.

The courses conducted hereare as good as a normal studycourse, i.e., they have semesterschedules, examinations, projects,assignments and the works. Thediversity also stems from the factthat educators have a choice tocreate content. This way they candevelop their teaching courses byadding new objects and materialas and when required.

Experts foresee virtual campusescreated on SL as the future trendowing to the flexibility anddissolution of geographicalboundaries and physical distances.The growth of SL has nurturedthe growth of the use of e-learning through in-world as well.From a user base of almost 4million in mid-2007, the numberhas leaped to about 11 million.Though the concept is still new incyberspace, it is gaining groundslowly. With broadbandconnections and acceptance ofdistance learning making inroadsinto the Indian psyche, the use ofvirtual campuses might be aregular feature in a student’s life.Have a happy second life. �

Feature

SecondLife offers a powerful and effective learning facilityto students in the virtual environment. They can enter intothe existing virtual campuses and interact with each otherusing their new avatar. This allows them to maintain somelevel of anonymity and at the same time a great platform toexpress themselves. So, one can even consider theenvironment relatively safer to operate in. The platformgives the student to experiment reality in virtual space andlearn from mistakes.

Another benefit of virtual campuses on SecondLife is thedepth of opportunity it offers for students to learn. For instance,they can do research, meet potential employers, innovate andshare through distributed learning. In other words, they cangenerate their own content, share with fellow classmates and inturn learn better. Virtual campuses also get rid of travel andother costs involved in attending a full-time course. For

instance, Mayeka’s family was financiallychallenged. Having completed her

Bachelors’ Degree in Architecture,she desired to take up an advanced

Second Life is a free online virtual world

imagined and created by its ‘Residents.’

You’ll surely discover a fast-growing digital

world filled with people, entertainment,

experiences and opportunity.


Feature

E-Learning: Makeit your BusinessSudarshan Purohit

All around us, in every part of our life today, e-learningis making a difference. Whether it is tiny tots learningtheir alphabets from multimedia CDs, homemakerslearning new dishes from Sanjeev Kapoor CDs, or

software professionals learning Java on the job from Internet-based videos, we cannot avoid being affected.

Supporting this rising demand is a new wave of entrepreneurscreating the content and tools that go into e-learning programs.Given the right tools and the right approach, this is one businessthat has huge potential for growth – and you could be one ofthose riding the wave!

So how does one go about creating an e-learning product? Tounderstand this, we need to break apart the typical ingredientsof popular e-learning products, and see what makes them tick.The three broad areas that we need to explore are the content,that is, the actual pieces – text, sound, video, that make up theproduct, the platform used to integrate all these pieces, andfinally the delivery method, that is, how we get the completedproduct to the user.

ContentContent, as they say, is King. The real core of any e-learningproduct is the knowledge it provides and how it is presented.Modern multimedia-based e-learning products make full use oftext, music, voice narration, images, and video to convey thepoint.

Each of these components has its own strengths, and the toolsand skills required to create them are different. Often, specialistsare required in each area to create these parts. An ambitiousproject may have specific teams for each department, and adifferent person or set of people to put it together. The low-budget or quick solution does exist, though: use free images andmusic from the Internet and open source software to put ittogether.

In addition to the technological skills required to create thecontent, as described below, pay close attention to the subjectitself. Are all the relevant areas covered? Does it provide enoughdepth on the topics? If you are not confident of these, or if thetopic is very technical, it will be a good idea to consult a subjectmatter expert while creating the content.

1. TextWe have studied from books all our lives. Even when learningfrom a screen, we need the reassurance of familiar textexplaining or confirming the information we have learned. Forexample, Sanjeev Kapoor, though he may demonstrate theentire recipe in video, still recaps everything in a traditional,written recipe format.

The content writer for the product has one of the mostimportant roles to play – the text must flow well and should beeasy to read. Some or all of the text may also be read out by anarrator – this part needs to sound natural and engaging.

MS Word or Notepad is all you need to create the text.Writing good text for e-learning products requires good writing

skills. If you have a passion for the written word or are a regularcontributor at blog spots, possessing good experience in the fieldof journalism, you’ll be a a good fit, else find a professionaltechnical writer.

2. Images and videoSimilar to music, there are several resources available on the netfor free images and video. Care must be taken not to violatecopyright since ‘free’ usually refers to ‘free for personal use’, andnot in commercial products. There are a number of websites thatoffer royalty-free images and clipart – these are the safest bet.

Software tools such as Photoshop, CorelDraw or even MSPaint are very useful to have in order to create images and thenturn them into the right sizes, resolutions, and colour schemesfor your e-learning product.

Video, until recently, was considered a high-budget option,since the cost of cameras, editing and transferring to computerswas very high. But new webcams are fairly powerful, andcamcorders, too, now come within an affordable range. Some e-learning sites (such as those for the popular programmingplatform Ruby on Rails) offer tutorials shot entirely as a videofile. Webcasts, as they are called, are regular sessions on specificsubjects, shot on a low budget, and offered as a series on ahosting site. They make an ideal format for creating e-learningmodules on rapidly evolving or changing subjects.

3. Voice and musicFor very simple or low budget products, a simple microphoneand a voice recording software like Audacity is good enough torecord spoken text.

More sophisticated recording may require employing aprofessional voice artist, and using a recording studio to get anoise-free voice track.

Music is a trickier business. Whether or not your productrequires music depends on the target market. If you are aimingfor casual users or children, music adds to the appeal of theproduct. For technical-oriented products, such as programminglanguage tutorials, or school/college subject guides, you may doaway with this requirement.



Larger companies get original music created by composers, orelse license existing soundtracks. Software such as RealAudioServer or Shockwave can be used to mix and compose. On asmall budget, you can look up free music and sounds on theInternet (two good sites are www.royaltyfreemusic.com andwww.mymusicinc.com), and download these as required.

The most common audio formats include WAV, AU, MPEG,MPEG2, MIDI, and RA. All these can be played using audioplayers that are usually bundled along with operating systems.

Putting it all togetherNow you have all the text, video, and photos you need to createyour product. Time too get ready for the second stage:combining them all into a single compelling product. This canbe a long, demanding process.

Fortunately, there are several tools that help you take invarious media and combine them into a package. There areseveral companies and professionals available on hire for thispurpose but they are not too difficult to learn, especially if youare familiar with computers.

1. FlashThis is probably the most popular format for standalone e-learning products. Flash, owned by Adobe, offers tools like FlashProfessional to create applications quickly.

There are other tools like Adobe’s Flex and Articulate, whichgive you a different environment to create your product, andfinally create the result in Flash. These may be used dependingon availability and pricing.

2. HTMLThe good old HTML, staple of web pages, can be quite apowerful tool to create training and tutorials. It embeds all kindsof media, allows for easy linking between pages, along withJavascript and Ajax, and also gives a rich experience similar to adesktop product. Best of all, there are hundreds of books andstudy material available to show you how to use it and solveproblems. And finding professionals to create pages in HTML,too, is an easy task.

Tools such as Microsoft’s FrontPage and Adobe’sDreamweaver are popularly used to create HTML pages. Butthey’re not strictly necessary, since HTML is a plain text format,and in a pinch can be created and edited using Word andNotepad as well.

Delivery methodsSo now you’ve put together a package in Flash or HTML andare ready to sell it. How do you get it to customers?

The most common method of distributing e-learning productsis on CDs, especially those targeted at casual users. Children’slearning, cook books, foreign language tutorials, exampreparation aids, all use packaged CDs as the delivery medium.If you’d prefer to use this method, you will need to work ondesigning and printing the packaging for the CDs – the CD

cover, perhaps a box,along with manualsand set-up instructions.

Selling the product asa boxed package willalso require tie-upswith bookstores, electronics stores and distributors to allow it tobe displayed and sold.

Using the Internet to sell your product avoids all of this. TheInternet has turned into a viable delivery mechanism in recenttimes – especially with broadband connections becoming morecommon. The infrastructure required to host a website, too, hasbecome cheaper. All you need, basically, is a registered URL,and space on a hosting server (GoDaddy and RackSpace arepopular international companies that can provide these facilities,while BSNL has a good service of its own in India). The amountof space you buy on it depends on the size of your product.Make sure your account also has enough bandwidth, sincecustomers will be downloading multimedia files as part of thelearning.

The Internet as delivery method is especially useful when yourtarget market is already a heavy net user – professionals, collegestudents, and IT workers, for example. Many softwarecompanies offer training on their products only through the net.It allows them to reach a market that is scattered worldwide, andthe infrastructure required is much less. Another advantage isthat the content can be updated quickly. The users can benotified using e-mail whenever new modules are added, anderrors only need to be fixed in a single location – the web serverwhere the e-learning product is hosted.

So, is it for you?e-Learning is a large industry that has the potential to be muchlarger. Whatever your skills are, there is a space for you. As asubject matter expert, you could work on content. As an artist,writer or photographer, you could work on creating the text,images, and sound that create a compelling multimediaexperience. As a software engineer or web designer, you couldwork on integrating media and text into a complete product. Asa marketing executive, you could work on creating access to yourproduct for customers. And as a businessman or investor, youcould oversee the operation and make sure the final product isthe best possible.

Whatever role you decide to take up, you will find yourself ina career that is much in demand. E-learning is here to stay, andis the biggest invention in teaching since the blackboard. �

Feature

Tech Cartoon

liveit.inMarch ‘09 79Illustrations by: Tanmaya Tyagi

Thirdly, they are supposed to help you solve a problem but half the time ‘they’ are the ones who are the problem itself.

First, in order to get their attention, you have to turn them on. Second reason being, although they have a lot of data,

The teacher then proudly declared that computers belonged to the

A language instructorwas explaining thatFrench nouns are

grammatically desig-nated as masculine

or feminine.

Puzzled, Harryraised his hand andasked, “What genderis a computer.”

And, lastly, as soon as you are committed to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you might have had a better model.

masculine gender.

they are always clueless.


AD 2050

Four Pre-Crime cops burst into the cubicle and stared ather with accusing eyes. “What do you want?” Rachnaejaculated sharply, frightened out of her wits at thesudden intrusion.

Without batting an eyelid, one of the cops declared, “We arehere to arrest you on charges of murdering your husband a yearfrom today.”

“Murder my husband!” Rachna screamed. “What are you saying?I don’t even have a husband, I am unmarried. I am just 23.”

“We know that you are not married. But, according to a latestprediction made by the Pre-Crime computer system, twomonths from today you will be married and thereafter you willgo through many upheavals. You will murder him after anothernine months.”

“That’s nonsense,” Rachna cried. “Your Pre-Crime computersystem has made an incorrect prediction. You can’t arrest me onbasis of such flimsy prediction made by a mere computersystem. I already told you I don’t have any husband, so there isno question of my murdering anyone.”

“Hold on miss,” said the Pre-Crime cop firmly, “the last thingwe need is you getting hysterical and creating a scene out here. Ican assure you that all the necessary legal procedures have beenfollowed in your case. As per law, we have to take you intocustody to prevent a future murder from happening.”

Rachna realized that her pleas and arguments woulddefinitely not yield any result. So, she allowed herself to be

escorted out of the cubicle by the Pre-Crime cops. The roboticreceptionist and few shoppers, present in the lobby, castdisdainful looks in her direction. “My God,” Rachna thoughtsadly, “everyone is already taking me to be a criminal.”

She wanted to plead not guilty but felt too traumatized toarticulate a single word. A dark and sinister looking vehicle,with the Pre-Crime logo emblazoned across its sides, wasparked outside the building. The cops made her sit down in thevehicle, which then drove away. Sitting in the vehicle Rachnaruminated quietly about how happy she had been only fewminutes ago, when she left her home to come to the mall anddo some shopping.

*****After emerging from her home, Rachna stood on the sidewalk

and looked at the gaudy hoarding on the other side of the road.It had the caption in bold letters saying, “In a city guarded byPre-Crime Computer System, everyone can feel safe.” Rachnasmiled at the hoarding before marching ahead. When it was firstintroduced ten years ago many people, including Rachna, hadmisconceptions about Pre-Crime. But there were many otherswho insisted that such a system was needed in order to rid thesociety from the scourge of murderers. Now, ten years later, alldebate about the good and bad side of Pre-Crime had beensquelched. The system had worked so perfectly in making thecountry safer that most skeptics, like Rachna and others, werewon over completely.

Pre- rime–The Pl tResolved

Fiction

Anoop Verma


For the last ten years there hadn’t been a single case ofmurder in the country. How could there be, when theperpetrator of every future murder got detected andapprehended up to a year before he could even conceive ofkilling anyone. The system functioned by keeping a tab on themovements and on the minds of every human being living in thecountry. A network of spy satellites, surveillance cameras andmicrophones, covered every inch of the public area in thecountry, and kept a firm eye on the body language and facialexpressions of every single person. Every e-mail, chat message,blog post and telephone conversation was also routed throughthe Pre-Crime computer system, whose state-of-the-art softwarewas capable of analyzing voluminous amounts of data and drawup an accurate profile of each and every individual.

Rachna reached the shopping mall where she planned to doher shopping. The year was 2050 and no one went shopping forgoods physically. You could either do it from home using onlinenetworks, or you could come to the shopping malls where youcould lounge on a comfortable massage chair, while your braingot logged on the shopping mall’s computer system. After thatyour physical body would hibernate on the chair while its digital

avatar walked around and browsed at different shops. It was thekind of ‘out of the body experience’ entailed in this kind ofshopping that Rachna especially enjoyed. She entered into theplush lobby of the mall, where the robotic receptionistwelcomed her with the usual frozen smile on her face.

A robotic shopping assistant appeared in the lobby to escortRachna into an empty cubicle, where a sofa with its correspondingheadgear was arranged. Rachna ensconced herself on the sofa andthe robot assisted her in wearing the headgear.

“I wish you a very happy shopping experience,” said therobot cheerfully.

“Thank you so much,” replied Rachna happily. The headgear latched itself firmly with her head like any

helmet covering her entire face. She could not see, hear or evenspeak except through the mind’s eye, which in this case meant adigital rendition of her own body. Soon she found herselfgetting up from her seat, but her body remained behind in aninert state. It was only her sense of consciousness that had nowgot transported into the digital space, which moved out of herbody. She walked out of the cubicle through the digital door andentered the glitzy world of fashionable stores: a world that was


full of many other digitally generated people, some of themmanning the various shops, but majority of them simply outthere shopping like her.

At a coolly designed music shop there were many youngpeople browsing for music or just hanging out. Rachna’s digitalavatar walked into the music store. A digitally created shoppingassistant came forward to offer help, but Rachna declined andinstead expressed her desire to browse for music herself. In notime she had found what she wanted and she had the musicdownloaded into her online cloud space. The payment for themusic got automatically debited to her credit card account. Nexton her agenda was the bookshop, where she browsed for thelatest in fiction, but none of the digital books on display caughther fancy and she dropped the idea. However, the scenario atthe boutique turned out to be quite appetizing and Rachnamanaged to select a dress, which would be couriered to herhome address automatically.

Shopping in a state of art digitally carved mall was such apleasurable exercise that every time Rachna came here, shewas struck by the feeling that she should spend the rest ofher life hanging out in this cool ambience. Today also, thesheer beauty of digital space mesmerized her. Buttechnology had still not advanced to the degree wherepeople could lead their entire life in the digital space; theyhad to return back to the normal world in order to carry outother chores. Rachna left the mall and started making herway back to the cubicle where her physical body was stored.Outside her cubicle she saw four Pre-Crime cops, whoseemed to be looking at her intently.

Rachna was somewhat unnerved by the intense stare that shewas getting. “Why are they staring at me?” the annoyingquestion popped up in her mind. She did think of asking thecops if they had come here to arrest a Pre-Crime suspect, buttheir relentless stare was giving her creeps and she preferred tovanish into her cubicle. Inside her cubicle, she touched the bodythat was lying on the sofa. Immediately her digital avatar fadedaway and conscious returned to her body. Her hands reached atthe headgear, which she promptly and came back on her feet. Itwas precisely at that moment that the Pre-Crime agents burstinto the cubicle.

*****Through the tinted windows, Rachna saw the vehicle enter

the foyer of a large building. Having seen this building manytimes from the outside, she knew that she had been brought tothe Pre-Crime Headquarter in the city. The vehicle stopped justin front of the building’s large portal. The cops opened the doorand jumped out. Rachna quietly left the vehicle to follow them.As she was escorted inside the forbidding entrance of thebuilding, she shivered with fright. Tears welled up in her eyes.But the cops didn’t seem to care about her feelings. She wastaken to a large chamber whose walls, floor and roof were madeout of some kind of laminated white-coloured material. Therewas a large computer screen fitted to one of the walls. In front ofthe screen there was a single ergonomically designed chair.

The cops made Rachna sit down on the chair and face thecomputer screen, which suddenly came to life and the face of anelderly but genial looking man materialized on its surface.

“Ah, you must be Rachna,” said the face on the screen. “I am thecomputer- generated interface of the Pre-Crime computer system. Iam going to be the judge for your case. Please take a seat.”

Rachna sat down on an empty chair facing the judge.“I guess you already know why you have been brought here,”

said the computer-generated judge.“The charge against me is completely baseless,” Rachna cried

vehemently. “I am not even married, so how can I murder myhusband.”

Her plea failed to have an effect on the implacable judge onthe computer screen. He said, “According to my prediction youare going to be married in two months and in another ninemonths you will kill your husband.”

“That’s such nonsense. Can you at least tell me who my so-called future husband is, the one I am predicted to kill?”

“According to my data, the name of the gentleman who ispredicted to be your husband in two months is Mahesh Gulati.”

“God!” Rachna screamed. “I hope you are not talking aboutthe Mahesh Gulati who works in my office.”

“I am talking about the same gentleman who works inyour office.”

“Then I am sure that your predictions are totally incorrect,”said Rachna firmly. “There is no way I will ever marry someonelike Mahesh Gulati. I mean that guy is an absolute retard. He isalso a thief. About a month ago, I found evidence that he waspilfering money from the office fund that the company hasentrusted him to manage. I had reported the matter to myseniors and departmental inquiry is currently on against MaheshGulati. He is likely to be arrested in few days’ time.”

“Miss Rachna, the Pre-Crime system is not concerned withmatters relating to financial fraud. We are only concerned withcases of murder. So, even if you have evidence of financial fraudagainst Mahesh Gulati, there is nothing we can do about it.”

“There is no way I can ever marry a man who I know is a thief.”“But my computer system says that you are all set to marry

Mahesh Gulati in two months and in nine months you are goingto kill him.”

“I would not marry Mahesh Gulati even if he were the lastman alive on earth.”

“I don’t care about your personal opinions,” said the digitally-generated judge firmly. “I will only go by the predictions that mycomputer system has made. In order to prevent you from takingMahesh Gulati’s life, I have to sentence you for a nine-monthpreventive detention at the Pre-Crime facility.”

“But this is so unfair. You can’t lock me up for nine monthswhen I have not committed any crime.”

“The purpose of Pre-Crime is to prevent future murders fromhappening. That’s the reason why we have to hold you back. Ifyou stay with us for nine months, you won’t be able to marryMahesh Gulati and, thus, you won’t be able to kill him. I hopeyou enjoy your nine month long stay at the Pre-Crime facility.”

Fiction


The face on the screen started to fade away. “Wait!” Rachna screamed. “You can’t do this to me. I am

innocent. There is no way I would ever marry Mahesh Gulati,so there is no question of my killing him.”

But the image of the digital judge had already disappearedand she realized that she was protesting ineffectually in front ofa blank screen. The cops held her hand and made her rise fromher seat. Rachna screamed again and again that she wasinnocent, but the cops reminded her that they were only doingtheir duty. She was led to her quarters at the back of thebuilding where she was presented before a female warden.

“Hi, you must be Rachna,” said the female warden breakinginto a smile.

“I am innocent,” Rachna said ruefully. “I am sure it is some kindof computer glitch because of which I have been brought here.”

“As you have not committed any murder yet, technically youare innocent,” replied the warden. “But according to the laws ofthe land, we have to hold you back in order to prevent you fromcommitting a murder at a future date. It is for your own good.”

Rachna collapsed on a nearby chair and placed her headbetween her hands.

“I know what you are going through,” said the wardensympathetically. “But by allowing yourself to be overcome withsorrow, you are only aggravating your problems. You have toaccept the truth that for the next nine months this facility isgoing to be your home. This place is not as bad as you may befearing it to be. You will have your own personal room, where you

can enjoy complete privacy and live in comfort. When you want tohave food or snacks, you can place your order via room service oryou can walk up to the canteen. We also have a very goodgymnasium, a club and an outdoor garden where you can walk.”

The warden escorted Rachna to her room, which wasequipped with a bed, a closet, a TV and a computer. There wasan attached bathroom as well. “Is that computer connected tothe Internet?” Rachna demanded.

“Of course. Every computer in the Pre-Crime facility is in theonline mode. The inmates at this facility, most of whom arepeople like you, have not committed any actual murder; you aremerely being detained to prevent a future murder fromhappening. That is why we have no problem if you use theInternet to communicate with the rest of the world or to do anyother kind of work.”

“The computer will prove handy during my stay here,”Rachna said with a sigh of relief.

Few minutes later, the warden walked out of the room.Rachna remained seated on the bed, with her head in herhands. The same nagging question kept hammering into hermind, “How could something like this happen to me?” It wascertainly unbelievable that the computer system at Pre-Crimehad predicted that she would get married to someone likeMahesh Gulati. How far-fetched that idea was, of her marryingthat inveterate thief who was pilfering from the funds that hisoffice had entrusted him. But what if a master hacker hadtricked the computer system at Pre-Crime? The idea jumped

How To


into her mind all of a sudden. She knew quite well that MaheshGulati was good with computers and all kinds of software.

The thought energized her and the very next moment she wasin front of her computer, with her office website open. Thereshe found the names of various employees. She logged into herown account and started looking for any activity that she couldconstrue as suspect. She checked the time for her last log in;there did not seem to be any discrepancy in it – the same bunchof mails in her inbox, in the draft folder and the sent folder. Sheclicked on icon of special folders that she had created fewmonths ago to store mails and files that she thought she mightneed at a later date. Here too she could detect nothingextraordinary. There was absolutely nothing in this mail accountthat could help her prove her innocence. Maybe there was noevidence to be found out here. She felt depressed.

She was about to log out when her eyes fell on the bar at the topof the web page. The bar indicated that her mail account wasusing about 12.82 GB of space. In fact, her mail account had beenindicating a usage level of above 10 GB since last 15 or 20 days.She didn’t store any heavy files in her account, so why should herusage level be 12.82 GB? She did a check on the size of all theindividual folders and the total came to 7.6 GB. But that failed toexplain about 5.22 GB of extra bulk. It could only mean one thing– she had a hidden folder in her mail account, about which sheknew nothing. The evidence of her innocence might exist in thishidden folder. She frantically searched down the network for anytrace, but they all came up negative.

She knew that the system used an integrated protocol to verifyr/w rights. She decided to run a check on the mail account’sadministrative system to detect any kind of security breach. Toher immense surprise, the server rebuffed her by sending themessage, “You have no right to make changes in theadministrative section. Please contact the Master-Administratorto gain more rights.”

“Hey, this is my mail account and I am the Master-Administrator out here,” Rachna shouted at the screen. But nowit had become apparent to her beyond doubt that her mailaccount had been hacked. “I am a victim of a conspiracyhatched by Mahesh Gulati,” she gathered. She went on a searchfor integrated system security, anything that could be capable ofgenerating feedback. There were plenty of feedback generators,but none integrated and she had to bypass each one of them onentry. She opened another window and started searchingthrough the main system on which the accounts of all theemployees at her office were maintained. Suddenly it hit her.Buried under a few thousand lines of code, sat a Trojanprogram designed to play the role of a Master-Administrator toher account. She took control of the Trojan and used it tochange the administrator settings of her account.

The secret folder in her email account now became visible.There were copies of a bulk of mails supposedly written by herto Mahesh Gulati. Most of them were mushy kind of loveletters. There were her replies to his e-mails that reiterated theirdesire to get married within the next two months. She was

breathless with fury as she read some of the e-mails, but shehardly had the stomach to go through the vast majority of them.Her priority was to trace the router that Mahesh Gulati hadused to plant those incriminating e-mails in her account. Aftersome digging, she managed to trace the complete log of hisactivities that proved beyond doubt that he had been plantingfalse evidence in her account. She e-mailed this log to the Pre-Crime Computer system, hoping that the system would be ableto draw the correct inference.

The response was much quicker than what Rachna hadexpected. In less than five minutes, the door to her room openedand the female warden peeped in. “The judge wants to see you,”said the warden.

“About time,” said Rachna and she got up from the chair.She was taken to the same chamber where she had met the

digitally created interface of the judge earlier in the day. Shewaited expectantly to hear the new verdict.

“The Pre-Crime Computer System seems to have made aterrible mistake,” the judge began. “Now it has come to lightthat it was Mahesh Gulati who planted files in your account inorder to create a false profile for you and get you arrested by thePre-Crime System. He wanted to take revenge against youbecause he was frustrated by your act of reporting his corruptactivities to the seniors. The false profile has now been removedfrom your account and that has led the Pre-Crime ComputerSystem to predict that there is no chance of your murderinganyone during the next one year. You are free to go now. ThePre-Crime Computer System wishes you a safe and happy life.”

“I always had a feeling that the Pre-Crime Computer System isnot infallible,” said Rachna. “It is prone to misuse by any hacker.”

“Instances of misuse are extremely rare,” said the judge complacently.

“Will you arrest Mahesh Gulati now? That man tried to wreckmy life. I want him to be punished.”

“Pre-Crime System is not concerned with any crime otherthan murder. But the new evidence has been passed on to thecops who are engaged in normal police duty and according tomy latest data he has already been taken into custody.”

“I am relieved to hear that.”When Rachna walked out of the chamber, she did not go

back to her home. After her short tryst with incarceration, shewanted to enjoy her freedom in the digital universe. She walkedback to the same mall from where she had been arrested. Therobotic receptionist seemed surprised to see her back so soon.“Oh, I thought you had been arrested by Pre-Crime cops,” saidthe robotic receptionist.

“You know,” said Rachna quietly, “it is difficult even for thedraconian Pre-Crime system to incarcerate someone like me,who is well versed in the techniques of hacking. I managed toconvince them that they must let me go.”

“I am so glad to know that you are versed in the techniques ofhacking. Maybe you can hack into the mind of the robotic janitorwho works in the mall and make him fall in love with me.”

“Why not!” said Rachna and broke into a dense laughter.�

Fiction

Sure the headline is instant eye-grab material, andyou must be salivating to read the next few sentenceson how to monetise your blog. I have read tons ofstuff on how to monetise your blog and here is what

I have found out …1. First and foremost, get your own domain name.

Many affiliate marketing firms and even text link adsdon’t work on platforms like WordPress. (I amsoon going to start my own blog where I own thedomain name.)

2. Write content that’s genuine, honest,insightful and original. In the beginning,however, just keep at gaining a steadyreadership through your content.

3. Once you gain a critical mass of readers(both through RSS feed subscribers and sitevisitors), that’s when you should begin tomonetise your blog.

4. Many sites like reviewme.com andkontera.com will not even accept you ifyour traffic rank is below 500,000 hitsa month. Therefore, it’s importantto get there with great content.

5. Promote your blog onsocial networking sites, e-mails, messengers, chatstatus messages, andthrough other blogsand websites … itcould even be stufflike leaving aninsightful comment onother blog posts.

6. Linking to otherpopular blogs and askingthem to reciprocate thegesture works wonders.

7. Make the most of linkfestivals like April Fools Day tomake unrealistic announcementsthat you made an ‘X’ amount ofmoney through your blog and so on.This will let many people forward

your blog post and you will attract plenty of new visitors toyour site. After that, it all depends on whether your site hasenough engaging content to keep them hooked and they don’tmind the con game.

8. Read. Study. Assimilate from the success stories ofother bloggers, most notably John Chow dot Com.

Last heard, this guy made a cool $31,000 fromhis blog in just one month. This is how he made

his moolah …� Private Ad Sales: $15,230.00; � Affiliate Commissions: $7,729.37� ReviewMe: $5,000.00� Text Link Ads: $2,031.90� Kontera: $1,000.00

� TTZ Media: $384.24� FeedBurner: $45.73� Subscription: $20.00� Grand Total: $31,441.24 (that’s

around Rs 15 lakh)By any measure, 2008 was a good

year for John Chow dot Com. Heaccomplished many of the goals he set

for himself and saw some amazing growth from theblog. At the start of the year, the blog had just broken14,000 RSS readers. He finished 2008 with nearly45,000 RSS readers and over $400,000 in income.That’s more than double the income from 2007 and

more than triple the RSS readership. It’s really hardto believe that all this happened in just three years,

but it did happen. Which is why, I highly recommend his blog.

Not only do his reports inspire you, butsubscribing to his blog posts should give you

enough dope on how to go about makingyour blog more profitable. �

How to Make MoneyThrough Blogs Zahid H. Javali

How To


How To

Why would one want to secure data on a laptop thathas been stolen? To make sure that confidential andimportant data does not lie in the wrong hands.While it’s certainly disheartening to lose even the

tiniest of possessions, imagine the despair at losing a laptop withmonths or years of data. However, even after losing the laptop,one can prevent the data from landing into malicious hands.The service that helps in this seemingly impossible task is knownas LaptopLock.

Here’s what the service does:

� The LaptopLock team deletes the important files when alaptop is reported missing.

� The service team can also encrypt all the data stored onthe stolen laptop so that no important informationfalls into wrong hands.

� If the stolen laptop is connected to theInternet, the service can track the ISPnumber, which in turn will help the policeto track the thieves.

The awareness of this service will deter thieves from stealinglaptops in the first place.

The following steps provide instructions to set up theLaptopLock service for your laptop.

1. Open the LaptopLock website by typinghttp://www.thelaptoplock.com in your web browser.

2. Register with the LaptopLock service. You will need a valide-mail address and a password to register on the website. Theregistration at this website is free.

3. Once the registration process is complete, log in to theLaptopLock website. A new page will appear with a box titled‘MONITORED COMPUTERS’.

4. Enter a name for the laptop in the given field.5. Click the Add Computer button. The message, ‘The new

computer has been added to the database.Remember to download and set up the

LaptopLock agent’ will appear on thescreen.

6. After closing the message box, clickthe Download here link available onthe right-hand side of the screen.

7. Install the downloadedLaptopLock agent.

Data Security ina Stolen LaptopZahid H. Javali


8. After installation, you need to configure theLaptopLock agent with information about your computer.The following information needs to be entered to completethe configuration:

- Account e-mail: This is the e-mail ID that was used toregister on the LaptopLock website.

- Computer ID: The LaptopLock service generates a uniqueID for each computer/laptop you add on the website. Enter thisID in the given field during configuration.

Once the information entered is verified, you will get aconfirmation message.

9. Next, enter a password to access the LaptopLock agent.Ideally, you should enter a password different from the one youused to register on the LaptopLock website. This password iscritical for accessing the LaptopLock agent later.

After configuring the computer with the LaptopLock software,you can begin instructing the LaptopLock agent to act in acertain way if the computer/laptop goes missing. Here are thesteps to specify what the LaptopLock agent should do if youreport a laptop missing:

1. Start the LaptopLock application on your computer.2. Select the Security/Manage Security Plan option. This

is where you start giving instructions to the LaptopLock agent.Now you can specify if a particular folder or file should be

deleted from your computer when you report it as stolen.3. Click the File Security tab. There are various options that

you can select here for ensuring that your important dataremains untouched.

- Add Folder: Using this option, you can secure the data in thefolders of your choice.

- Add File: Using this option, you can secure the importantfiles that you want no one else to access.

The LaptopLock agent provides a feature called the securedata wiping method. This essentially refers to physical deletionof a file from the hard drive of the computer.

Some people prefer to encrypt their data instead of choosingto delete it. This essentially comes from the feeling that if thelaptop is recovered, the data can also be recovered. A certainencryption function is applied to turn the data into gibberish.After the laptop’s recovery, the corresponding decryptionfunction can be applied to recover the original data.

4. Click the Notification Options tab.In this tab, you can set up messages that the person using the

stolen laptop will receive. For starters, you can set up a message

that will pop up as soon as the person switches on your laptop.Some people set up a threatening message while others put apolite message requesting the laptop to be returned. You canadd your contact to the message so that you let the person inpossession of your laptop get a chance to return it.

Apart from the ‘welcome’ message, you can choose a soundthat will play when the computer is tuned on. The sound can beselected from the ones that you have stored on your computer.

5. Save all your chosen settings. There are several other optionsavailable in the LaptopLock software that you can activate.

Here’s how the LaptopLock service works: Every time the registered computer is turned on and connectedto the network, the LaptopLock agent checks on its website ifthe computer has been reported as stolen. The owner of thecomputer is the one who updates the status of the computer onthe website if the computer has been stolen. If the status of thecomputer is found to be stolen, it follows all the instructions thatyou had earlier specified in the LaptopLock software. All thoseinstructions work as commands now. Thus, as the laptop thiefturns on the computer, he/she will be welcomed by yourmessages while the data being turned into gibberish!

The first and foremost thing to do if you realize that yourcomputer has been stolen is notify the LaptopLock service of it.You should do this even before you report to the police. Here arethe steps to notify the LaptopLock service of a missing laptop:

1. Open the LaptopLock website in a web browser.2. Click the Report Computer Missing button next to the

computer that has been stolen.

You will get the following message:“Are you sure you want to flag this computer as stolen? When thecomputer connects to the Internet all pre-determined actions, includingfile removal and encryption will occur. Some of the actions could beunrecoverable. Are you sure you are missing your computer?”

3. Click the OK button if you are absolutely sure that yourlaptop is missing. Otherwise, you may experience a nightmarewith all your commands being executed on you instead of a thief.

If you get your laptop recovered, follow the steps given below:1. Start the LaptopLock agent on your computer.2. Enter the password.3. Click the Recovery Options tab. 4. Choose to decrypt the files you had asked to be encrypted

in case of the theft of the laptop. Remember, you will not be able to recover the files that you

had chosen to be deleted. Check the LaptopLock website to learn how your private data

is secured and protected. You can go through the answers to thefrequently asked questions available on the website tounderstand the way the service works.

In case of the theft of your laptop, you no longer need tohave sleepless nights wondering about the plight of yourconfidential data. �

How To


Whenever you try to type something into thesearch box on Google homepage, youimmediately see query suggestions both fromyour own previous searches on a particular

topic and other relevant suggestions as well. The latter set ofqueries is powered by Google Suggest. If you do not wantGoogle Suggest to display possible queries, there is an option todisable it. However, your previous searches are stored in yoursearch history on your browser and not on Google Homepage.Fortunately, deleting your past searches can be done easily.Here’s how you can delete all your past searches, in one go.

In Internet Explorer� Go to the ‘Tools’ menu. � Select ‘Internet Options.’ � Select the ‘Content’ tab. � Under the ‘Personal Information’

field, select ‘AutoComplete.’ � In IE 7, AutoComplete is seen

within the Content tab itself.� To clear the current history, click

on ‘Clear Forms.’ � To disable this feature entirely,

uncheck the ‘Forms’ box. Else, click on the General tab on

Internet Options window. Click onDelete under Browsing history item.From the new window that opens, you can clear the previouslytyped entries in forms along with cookies and temporaryInternet files. You can also delete individual entries from yoursearch history by using the down arrow key to highlight aprevious search and then pressing the Delete key.

In Firefox: http://www.googletutor.com/wow/cs-pic1.htmJust as you did with Internet Explorer, you can also clear thesearch history or disable the feature in Firefox.

� Go to the ‘Tools’ menu. � Select ‘Options.’ � Select the ‘Privacy’ tab.

Within the ‘Saved Form Information’ area, to clear thecurrent history, click on ‘Clear’ and to disable this feature

entirely, uncheck the ‘Save information I enter in web pageforms and the search bar’ option.

Another way to quickly clear the search history is to placeyour cursor on the search box, right-click and select ‘clear searchhistory.’ This is a quick way to delete the stored data.

Deleting search history from Google ToolbarIf you are using Google Toolbar, you would have seen thatGoogle Toolbar also retains the search history if you allow it tostore them. Clearing the current search history or disabling thefeature in the browser, as explained in the above paragraphs,

does not affect theGoogle Toolbarcontents. You have to doit in the Toolbarseparately. To completely

disable your Toolbar’s search history, follow these simple stepsgiven below.

Select the ‘Options’ button on the Toolbar, generally notifiedas a spanner icon on the toolbar. From the window that opens,uncheck the box next to ‘Drop-down search history.’

To simply clear the current search history, click the Googlelogo to access the drop-down menu; select the ‘Clear SearchHistory’ option. Your past entries are deleted and would notappear again. �

Clearing Search Historyfrom Google SearchUma Narayanan


If you are a big time iTunes user and happily flaunt youriPod or iPhone, you might sometimes want to share thesongs in your library with friends across the globe or wouldlike to download your friend’s iTunes library who owns an

enviable collection of music. This way, you could avoid wastingtime on making searches on the Internet for music and cansimply browse and download them to your library at ease.Mojo is a cool application for both Windows and Macs

that allows you to share any song from your iTunes libraryand download any song from your friend’s library.

Download Mojo and create an account to continueworking with it. After you create an account with Mojo, youwill be able to start adding buddies to your buddy list on theleft hand side panel. Remember, in order to share youriTunes library with your friends, it is required that yourfriends also need to download, install, and create an accountwith Mojo.

Once you add a friend and they accept to get added to yourfriend’s list, you will have full access to their iTunes library. Nowto start browsing their music collection and downloading songs,simply double-click on a buddy’s name. A window will pop up

with a list of all their songs, playlists, movies, TV shows,podcasts, audio books, etc.

To download a song of your choice to your iTunes library,click on the small down arrow located next to each song or videoor just click on the Download button at the bottom right. Mojowill also create a new playlist with all of the songs that youdownload from a particular friend’s library.

If you do not wish to download a particular song or a videobut would like to listen to it or watch it from his library folder,double-click on it to listen to it or play it. Another coolfeature about the program is that it can automatically detectwhether a song in a friend’s library is already in your libraryand would highlight those files in grey, so you would notdownload it again.

The Mojo free version has some limitations that it permitsaccess for only three people, which means you can have only 2buddies to share your iTunes library with. But for a reasonableone-time payment, you can have unlimited number of friendsaccessing your library and vice versa and also allowssubscription to playlists in your friend’s library. Enjoy! �

Uma Narayanan

Share your iTunesLibrary on the Web

How ToHow To


How toGet the BestOut of Google Chrome:Tips, Tricks & Shortcuts

Priyanka Dey

Google Chrome is surely pulling crowd, thanks to thevarious functions that it has in offer. But do youreally know all that Chrome can do for you? Hereare some tricks, tips and shortcuts that can come in

handy while you are at it. 1. You can create desktop and Start menu shortcuts to web

applications, such as Gmail. Just go to www.gmail.com andselect Create application shortcuts ... from the Page Controlmenu (located in the top-right corner of your browser; themenu is similar in appearance to a page with the cornerfolded over). Next, decide where you want the shortcut to beplaced. You can also create similar shortcuts for other Googleapps such as Calendar and Documents, and other servicessuch as Windows Live Hotmail.

2. Do you want to view sites and hide them from yourHistory list? Simple, just press Control + Shift + N. This willopen an 'incognito' window. The websites you view in thiswindow won't appear in your history and cookies served bysites in this window will be deleted when the window is closed.

3. In case you want to open a link in the incognito window,you can just right-click on the link and select the option Openlink in incognito window.

4. To make Google Chrome your default browser, click on theTools button (in the right-hand corner of the browser windowwith a spanner icon), select Options, then click the Basics taband finally select the Make Google Chrome my default browserbutton. Now, every time you open the browser, Chrome willshow up as your default page.

5. To run through open tabs in order, press Control + Tab.6. Pressing Control + Shift + Tab cycles through your tabs in

the opposite order.7. You can also jump to different open tabs using Control + 1,

Control + 2, Control + 3, an so on. For example, Control + 9takes you to the last tab in the browser.

8. Right-clicking or holding down the back button will bringyou a drop-down list of sites to go back through. Show FullHistory, located at the bottom of the list, opens a new tab withyour full browser history.

9. If you wish to load your Google Chrome homepage, withthumbnails of your most visited sites shown in the active tabbedwindow, press Alt + Home.

10. To open a new tab, press Control + T. You can drag tabsaround to change their order or drag a tab out of the windowinto its own window.

11. Control + Shift + T opens your most recently closed tab.To open the tab closed prior to the last closed tab, press the keycombination again. Google Chrome lets you open up to the lastten tabs you've closed.

12. To clear data such as the Google Chrome browsing historyand cache, click on the Tools icon and select Clear browsing data ...

13. To clear the list of most frequently visited websites thatappear on your Google Chrome start page, you can clear thebrowsing history using the same method given above. Clearingyour Google Chrome browser history will also stop matchesfrom previously browsed sites appearing as suggestions in youraddress bar.

14. To bookmark a website, click on the star sign located onthe left of the address bar and then select a folder to add it to.

15. To quickly bring up the History page, just press Control + H. 16. As with Firefox 3, you can drag a link onto a tab to open

it in that tab, or drop it between two tabs to open a new tab inthat position.


17. Control +B hides the Google Chrome bookmarks bar. PressControl + B to bring it back again.

18. You can delete history for chosen days by scrolling tothe day you want to delete andclicking Delete history for thisday on the right-hand side of thewindow.

19. If you wish to see yourDownloads page, just press thecombination Control + J.

20. In order to clear an itemfrom your Downloads page, right-click on the entry you want todelete and select Remove.

21. Press Control + K orControl + E to search from theaddress bar. Once pressed, you’llget a ? symbol in the address bar.Here you can simply enter yoursearch query and then hit Return.

22. Right-click the top of thebrowser window and select Taskmanager to see how much memorydifferent tabs and plug-ins areusing. You can highlight one andclick End process to stop it running.

23. Shift + Escape is a quickerway to bring up the GoogleChrome task manager.

24. To see what plug-ins areinstalled, type about:plugins into theaddress window of Google Chrome.

25. To delete cookies, go toTools→ Options→Under theHood. Now, scroll down to theSecurity section and click on theoption Show cookies. Now youcan click on the option Removeall or choose to removeindividual cookies. �

Want to add new cursors to your same old Windows?It’s definitely worth a try if you are tired of thesame cursor you have been using for years. The an-swer lies in the shape of CursorFX, which gives

you some really cool options to replace your mouse pointer with.Now, you must be wondering what could be so special, or new,about this. Well, the cursors readily available for download fromthe web could be great source but did you know that most ofthem carry malware or spyware. I am sure you wouldn’t like tohave any of it. If that sounds interesting, then read on!

CursorFX comes across as a reliable source for safe downloadof cool pointer options. And, it manages to rule as the best cur-sor manager without the nasty spyware or malware. To down-load the free version, just visit www.download.com

Once the download is complete, run the software to install it.Now, open the program to see the control panel. On the panel

that opens up, click on the option My Cursors to bring up thelist of available cursors.

Next, choose a cursor you like and then click on Apply to acti-vate the cursor.

You will get a number of cursors for the theme you have cho-sen. This will show you the different modes of the cursor onceyou start using it.

You can also add effects to it like ripple animation for a typeof mouse action.

You also have the option of adding trails to the effect. Justclick on the option Trails and apply the type of trail you want.

The free version will only take you this far. For more actionsand options, like adding sound effects and for more cursor de-signs, you can get a paid version at www.wincustomize.com

So, what’s holding you back? Go ahead and add some fun andaction to your work environment. �

How To


DownloadFreeMouseCursorsPriyanka Dey


To clean the computer case, first unplug your system powerfrom the electrical outlet. Remove all cables and connectors

from the backside of your computer. The computer will requirethe fans to be cleaned also. Some PCs have multiple fansencased in them – one on the processor and one or two on thepower supply. Hit them all. Blow air around all the hardwarecomponents and keeping away your blower nozzle 4 to 5 inchesaway from main board components. You can use compressed airto clean a system.

Another good alternative to compressed air is to use aportable battery- powered vacuum that can effectively

remove dust, dirt, and hair from the motherboard completelyand also prevent it from getting trapped within the case.However, do not use a standard electricity powered vacuum as itcan cause a lot of static electricity that can damage the computer.When using the vacuum, it is vital that you stay a couple inchesaway from the motherboard and all other components to helpprevent contact as well as to prevent anything from being suckedinto the vacuum. Ensure that you do not dislocate any smallcomponents with the vacuum such as jumpers.

To clean your keyboard, pick up a can of compressed air fromany supply store. These cans can be used to clean out dust

and debris on your keyboard without disturbing the configurationof components inside it. Be careful not to blow dust into your harddrive as this may damage your machine. It's a good idea to turn thekeyboard upside-down and shake it properly to remove the keys.Next, soaking in a solution of ammonia and water can clean theset of keys. Be careful while you try to pop off the keys as not allkeys come off easily; if you struggle to get them off, quit the idea.

If you feel the need to test fate, you can pull the memory andother cards and gently rub a pencil eraser on the contacts

before putting them back in. However, don't pull any cards outunless you're having problems reaching certain areas.

Astitch in time saves nine. This adage works brilliantly for your computers, too. Notonly will keeping your computer clean help you save on maintenance cost, it willalso keep you stress-free, so you can focus on your work and not fret and fumeabout trivial issues. So, why is cleaning important? A lot of dust and debris get

collected in your system resulting in the heating up of your machine. This further leads tomajor faults as fatal as hardware failure.Here are a few simple tips that could help you keep your system clean. Read on…

Remember, never open a CRT (cathode-ray tube) monitor.Even when unplugged, they retain enough current to harm you.

When cleaning the inside of your computer (motherboard,etc.), make sure your computer is not plugged on to the electric

socket. And never place your computer on the ground; always use acomputer table or shelf for this purpose.

Use only an air duster/canned air to remove dust from yourcomponents. Do so outside so it doesn’t end up all over

your house.

When cleaning the monitor, make sure you do so with a cleanrag and use cleaning agents that are designed for

electronic products.

Use lightly dampened cloth or spray any cleaning fluids on thecomputer case and use a paper towel to dry it. Gently wipe

clean the casing, using Q-tips to clean smaller areas like vent holesand floppy disk drive openings.

Never clean components inside the computer or circuit boardswith damp or wet cloth.

To clean the mouse, wipe the outside of it with a slightly dampcloth. Next, unscrew the scroll ring from the bottom of your

mouse and remove the ball. Dust off the ball with a soft cloth.Next, clean the cavity of the mouse where mostly all the dust getsaccumulated. This dust clings to the rollers that move the ball andyou can just scrape them out with a Q-tip or your fingernail andreplace the ball and ring. An optical mouse requires littlemaintenance, but a ball mouse can be disassembled with muchease. Clean the ball itself as well as the X- and Y-axis rollers.

To keep your computer looking clean for a longer time,purchase an inexpensive plastic covering for your equipment! �

Few simple tips on cleaning yourcomputer

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2.

3.

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Zahid H. Javali

How To


With most cell phones equipped with cameras,everyone has become a walking, talkingphotographer. To make your photo jaunt evenmore eye-opening, here are a few simple tips that

could take your photography to an altogether different level. Allyou need is an instruction manual. Follow the instructionsadroitly, and all should be well. Just one thing to be kept inmind: Though some phones equipped with 3.2 megapixelcameras look good when printed, most phones with a lowerpixel count are largely good to capture Kodak moments whenyou don’t have a conventional camera handy. And these picturesare great for circulating through e-mail or posting on theInternet like blogs, websites and so on.

It’s a numbers gameThe more pictures you take, the better you will get in the art oftaking good shots. Remember the ‘use and disuse’ theory?Practice, practice, practice!

Get up, close and personalSince most camera phones don’t have a terrific zoom feature, itis best to move closer to your subject to take the photograph.Even if your camera phone has a zoom feature, try to avoidusing it as most pictures get foggy when clicked with the zoomfeature on.

Look in the eyeOne of the first and foremost tools of photography is to makesure that you shoot the subject at his eye level, not yours. Be it achild or a stone bench, the picture seems more real and tangiblewhen you get down to its level. So if you are taking a picture ofa dog at your eye level, the picture won’t have the impact unlessyou shoot at its eye level. The dog will look morefriendly/unfriendly as the case maybe and you would havecaptured it at its very best angle.

Focus on the lightingLighting plays a key role in any form of photography,particularly in the use of a camera phone because of its limitedcamera functions. Though some cameras come with the flashfeature, it is best used in dark surroundings. Just make sure you

don’t have a bright light behind your subject while taking apicture. Always get the light fall on the subject, and not on thelens, for a clearer picture.

Plain white backgrounds are bestIf you are using portraits, it is best to take pictures with a whitebackground or any plain light-coloured background. Just makesure, the subject isn’t wearing white and the background is alsowhite. This will just merge the subject with the backgroundcolour. Choose backgrounds that contrast the subject, and notmerge him or her into the background. If the subject is wearingwhite, use black for best results and vice versa.

Go for unique anglesSince you have a digital camera phone that allows you to see thepicture as soon as you take it, you have the flexibility to shoot thesame subject and setting in different angles – low angle, highangle, close-up, wide angle, etc. Try any or all the angles you canthink of and then choose the one that best compliments themood and setting.

Look for unique camera phone functionsDo a lot of trial and error using your camera phone. You couldread the manual and experiment or you could just experimentwith all the features in the camera phone by instinct. Remember,every camera phone comes with its own value additions. It isimportant to know all the functions of your camera phoneproperly to make full use of it. It could be the ‘macro feature’that allows you to take pictures from an extreme close-up angle.

Take people’s permission before shootingDon’t just go on taking pictures of people and places withouttaking relevant permission. Sometimes, it is best to ask thepeople you are photographing for their permission. When takingcandid shots, you could take their permission after thephotography is done. Try to avoid any legal trouble while youare at it.

Keep your regular camera on standbyWhile taking pictures on your camera phone, don’t forget to carryyour regular camera along. While camera phones are used to take

How to Make the Bestof your Camera PhoneZahid H. Javali


casual, not so important but primarily functional pictures (liketaking the picture of a new dress at the shop window to show yourmom at home), if it is proper photography, be it portraits,landscapes or wildlife, it is best to use your regular camera.

Share your photographic exploitsAll the pictures you have shot are best enjoyed if stored andshared. You could download your pictures on your computer andMMS or e-mail your pictures to your friends and relatives. Youcould also join an online photo sharing site like Flickr.com and letthe whole world see what you are up to.

Don’t shake the cameraTry to lean your camera phone/hand againsta solid object (like a tree, wall, ledge)when taking shots. This is particularlyuseful in low-light conditions when thecamera is prone to use longer shutterspeeds, which means it is a longerexposure and demands that you stayput for at least a few seconds afterpressing the shutter.

Don’t immediately delete the picturesIt is best to keep all the photos you have takenfrom your camera phone for a while and revisitthem when you have more time to spare. What youinitially thought to be bad photos because of theirblurry, out-of-focus images, could be quite useable in anabstract way. What’s more, they could even be used to create apainting kind of effect with Photoshop. Also, remember thatthe photo might appear bad on someone’s computer, but notyours. So, if possible, hang onto your shots until you can getthem on your PC.

Go for multiple images ofthe same subject andexperiment a lotBecause they are mobile and tiny,camera phones are quite handy inallowing us to not only take as many shots aswe want to (there are 8 GB memory cards), but alsohelp us in experimenting with different angles. Shooting fromdifferent angles, like down low, up high, close-up, etc. could getyou interesting and cool shots. You can always discard what youdon’t like later and not pay a penny for your indulgence, oneof the many benefits of being digital.

Break the rules of the gameBefore you actually break the rules, you need to know the rulesof composition. For example, the ‘Rule of Thirds’ mandates thatyou place your subject a third of the way into the frame and notbang in the middle. But who stops you if you fill up your frame

with your subject leaving no room on either side or placing yoursubject right at the corner of the frame. Or better still, take onlyhalf of the subject’s face to show off your creativity. Once youknow the rules, the new rule should be: anything goes.

Lens cleaning is a mustFingerprints are a common problem on camera lenses,especially if your phone doesn’t have a lens cover. Treat the lensof your camera phones the way you would treat your sunglasses.In fact, use the very same cloth to wipe the lenses every time youuse it for shoots. Since the phones remain largely outside andsome don’t even have dust covers, it is important to clean thelens before starting the shoots.

Keep an eye on thecamera resolutionMake sure you set the

resolution of your cameraphone every time you areusing it. If it’s justshooting pictures thatyou don’t really feel theuse for, set it to lowresolution. But if it’s animportant shoot whosepictures you want tokeep for posterity, makesure you have set it to thehighest resolution. Alsoremember that thehigher the resolution, themore the memory ituses. So, it is advisable touse at least a 2 GBmemory card. Thisshould allow you to takeat least 800 pictures atthe highest resolution.

Happy shooting! �

How ToHow To


All the while, we are used to open, view and editfiles with the default applications that come alongwith the Windows package. But, with a plethora ofcommendable open source programs available

these days, it is pretty normal for anyone to use a thirdparty text editor, photo editor, media player, etc. instead ofthe default programs.

When you double click on the TXT file, it always opens up inNotepad. Now you can open a TXT file with Notepad++, anawesome text/code editor with plenty of additional features. Ifyou have installed Notepad++ on your machine andexperienced it, you would rather have all your text files openwith Notepad++ instead of Windows Notepad.

Here is how to change the default setting for opening aparticular type of file.

Method 1 – Use Open with DialogThe easiest way to change the default launching program for afile type is to right-click on the file, click on the option Open

With and then select Choose Program.Now choose the program that you want to use to open files of

a particular type. If it is not in the list, you can click the Browsebutton, go to the Program Files folder and click on the EXE file.

Once you choose the program, make sure to check the Alwaysuse the selected program to open this file box. Here, inour example, check this option on Notepad++. Then click OK.

Voila! Now, whenever you click on a TXT file, it will openusing the program you’ve chosen, i.e., Notepad++ in theOpen With dialog.

Method 2 – File Types DialogThe second method is to open My Computer, go to Tools, andclick on Folder Options.

Now click on the File Types tab and scroll down to the filetype extension you want to change, in this case TXT.

Click on the Change button and the same dialog box pops up,prompting you to ChooseProgram from the OpenWith menu. Go aheadand pick the programfrom the list and click OK.

You can do this forany file type on yourcomputer, includingpictures, sounds, videos,PDF formats, etc. So,wht are you waiting for?Go ahead and enjoy theadvantages of OpenSource programs! �

Changing theDefault Program to Open a File With

Uma Narayanan

Content

Lesson plan

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Tech Career


Imagine your kids coming back from school and headingstraight for the TV or computer, only this time to catch upon their favourite program on Biology or Chemistry. That’sright, there’s a new innovation appearing in classrooms

throughout the country that still uses the traditional way ofengaging teachers for imparting lessons,the only uniqueness being that they do sofrom thousands of miles away. TopperLearning, working on similar lines, hasdeveloped its own visual learningcurriculum that doubles up as a televisionchannel, Topper TV. Instead of having topen down formulas on paper, students canactually watch what happens when twosubstances mix.

“The television set is largely restricted toentertainment and news,” says SunilKhanna, co-founder of Topper Learning.“With the existing infrastructure issues in

India, where the quality of education is by far quite inconsistent,we knew that TV was the only medium that could really bridgethat gap.”

Out of the 300 million students who enroll in schools, thereare only 2 million who manage to secure seats in universities and

just about 700,000 odd ones who are ableto grab professional courses. With the oddsso tough, students need every techniquethey can learn to qualify for the best and,more importantly, to make learning moreenjoyable.

Programs offered by Topper, for anominal annual fee of 1100 rupee, aredesigned for classes 9 through 12. Thecurriculum that Toppers follows isconsistent with CBSE syllabus that’sfollowed by most state government schools.Thus, whatever students learn online orthrough electronic media can compliment

Top It Up with

Topper’se-LearningRishali Yadav

The first step atTopper’s was toassemble a team ofbrilliant educatorsto host theirbroadcasts.

“

“


what they learned in the classroom earlier that day. The facultyat Toppers develops real-world experiments to make theexamples clear.

In an effort to reach out to as many students as possible,Toppers has partnered with Educomp Solutions to impartcomputer training and provide software to schools in 13 states.While Educomp takes care of installing the computers andtelevisions in schools as well as training the teachers on how touse the same, Topper has taken the key responsibility ofteaching the children how to use it as well.

“[The Internet] has been a passive medium where themaximum one can download is the written stuff. Qualityeducational videos were never available for the benefit ofstudents,” sighs Khanna.

When the organization was first formed, one of the first stepswas to assemble a team of brilliant educators to host theirbroadcasts. One guarantee Toppers does make is that all theirteachers, called Experts, are highly qualified and hold Master’sdegrees or PHDs.

Khanna says, “We have an internal faculty who developsthe lesson; there are script writers to take a call on how thingsare to be presented on TV, and finally our faculty goes

through lesson modules before they are shot, edited, and putup on the television.

People from various skill sets come in for the training.There are programmers, content developers, people engagedin packaging, etc. So, the training modules are obliviouslyspecific to each person’s functional area. The story boardchooses the topics to be covered, which are then convertedinto programming scripts. Lastly, animations are added tothe script.

We don’t give live lectures online. Instead, we showcase videosso they can be accessed any time, anywhere. Then, there’s anoption where students can submit curriculum questions, oranything they didn’t understand, to the ‘Ask Expert’ section.Thereafter, we provide a personalized response from the bestexperts in the faculty.”

Students can also take tests online that are gradedimmediately to let you assess the areas you are strongest in andthose where you need to work hard.

However, Khanna isn’t hoping to replace the teachers in theclassrooms; he simply aims at complimenting their curriculumwith the materials and information that can’t be provided byblackboards and textbooks. �

Interview

In Conversation with

Eric Tong, Vic e President,Belkin Asia Pacific Limited

Q.Tell us a little aboutyourself, your foray into

the business world and your firsttaste of success here. I have been based out of theorganization’s Hong Kong office, theheadquarters for the APAC region. Myfifteen years of exciting experience insales, marketing and operationalactivities and a vision to make an enduser’s life easier are the reasons that getme going.

I started at Belkin in 1993 in productmanagement, for Belkin’s productdesign, development, and positioning.My first taste of success was heading thelaunch of a range of successful Belkin’sproducts like iPod(TM) accessories,


Priyanka Dey

Walking through the lifestyleconcept of Belkin “@ home, @ work, in the car, on the go,”Eric Tong, Belkin’s VicePresident discusses the journeyand thought process behindthe company’s electronicaccessories designed speciallyfor demanding consumers.Tong shares that an importantstep that Belkin has adopted isto simplify technology to workon a solution-driven approachin gadget development.

networking products, and an innovativeaudio-video accessories line-up. Anotherachievement was the development of anaward-winning, in-house product designstudio, R&D group, and marketing team.

Q.How was Belkin Inc. formed?What is the diverse range of

products Belkin seeks to offer?And who are most likely tobenefit from it? A privately held company founded way backin 1983, Belkin started off from a smallgarage in Hawthorne, California, with justtwo employees and sales of $100,000 for thefirst year. We have come a long way since thenand have employed over 2000 employees, over10,000 product SKU’s and have sales revenuein excess of US$ 1.2 billion.

Today, Belkin offers a diverse range of networking andconnectivity solutions across three screens of your life –television, mobile phone and laptops/computers. Apart fromthat, we also offer some very stylish and innovative accessories

for MP3 gadgets,computers and gamingdevices.

Belkin has and willalways be a mass brand. Webelieve every individualwith a digital lifestyleaspiration or a gadget issomehow a Belkincustomer. And we arecommitted to providingsupporting accessories toevery imaginable digitallifestyle gadget orapplication @home,@work, in-car or on-the-go.

Q.Research and development is a major issuefor a product to be successful in the market.

Do you believe so? If yes, then what do you do inthat respect? What does the process involve andhow do you go about it?Yes, definitely. In fact, every Belkin product available on theretail shelves today is the result of many man years of involvedmapping of ever-changing consumer applications and digitallifestyle aspirations.

We believe strong research, innovative design and involvedproduct development is integral to the success of any digitallifestyle product. Naturally, Belkin invests a significant amountof its resources in its strong product design studio, R&D group,and marketing team.

Q.Many well-establishedcompanies are already

more or less settled in India,then why should Belkin beaccepted here?

Belkin products are available across130 countries around the world and wecompete successfully against wellestablished players in each thesecompetitive markets. Our productofferings in India, divided across fourapplication categories – @ work,@home, in-car and on-the-go – deliverexciting digital lifestyle innovations thatmake life easy and comfortable.

We are here because we areconfident that our Indian consumerswill embrace our innovative, stylish,user-friendly and reliable products

wholeheartedly and in a big way.

Q.India has a very talented pool of workmenand they are providing their services to

many of the International companies. Do youhave any such plan to take them into yourorganizational activities?Yes definitely, India has a large talent pool indeed. So we wouldlike to have more of talented Indians as a part of ourorganizational activities.

Q.Sustainability in a market is a million-dollarquestion for a new product to settle in. What

do you think in that respect? I think sustainability in a market for a new product to settle in,depends on how well you cater to the everyday need of an enduser. We design products specifically for a consumer-drivenmarket, helping them to have a smoother and morecomfortable life.

Q.I see, in view of your business commitment,you travel a lot within and outside your

country. In that case, how do you manage todevote quality time to the personal front? My professional commitments constantly keep me away frommy beloved country and my family. My hectic schedulenotwithstanding, I still take care to stay connected with myfamily, of course with help from various Belkin innovations, andby doing socially relevant community service projects.

Q.One last question. The secret mantra to yoursuccess?

I think, one should have a strong passion for excellence withplain hard work to be successful. There is nothing calledimpossible; you just need to have conviction in what you do. �


We offer a diverse

range of networking

and connectivity

solutions across

three screens of life

– television, mobile

phone and

laptops/computers.


In the last years, the financial systemcreated a fog so thick that even itscaptains could not navigate it. Like therest of us, they fell for a kind of pseudo-

objectivity. But not Pankaj Patel. The CEOof Carazoo.com, India’s first and onlyautomobile portal with interactiveanimations, is a hands-on manager whobrought with him unique strengths inconceptualisation, creativity and designthat were instrumental in successfullyredesigning and re-enginee ringCarazoo.com from a mere car website to afull-fledged portal, which won PC World’s‘best designed website’ award for 2008 inthe automotive sector.

In the age of Barack Obama, a silent butfateful struggle for the soul of capitalism isbeing waged. Can the market system bemade to serve us? Or will we serve it?According to Patel, it works both ways.“Net is the biggest leveller,” he says in histrademark style of eschewing wisdom.“Whether you are big or small, you haveaccess to the best news, views andapplications. Similarly, you are given anequal chance to take a shot at success. Withan investment of Rs 5 crore, we intend tobreak even by 2010,” he says with business-like precision. “Our revenue last year wasRs 1.5 crore and target for 2009-2010 is Rs3-4 crore. Last year, I met 92% of mytarget. This year, I will exceed it.”

And how much does luck play a part inthis ambitious revenue drive? “Being aLibran, I have two views on this,” he saysafter attending to an urgent business call.“There is no such thing as luck. If you can’tachieve something, you blame it on luck. Ihave rarely seen people saying, ‘I got thisorder because of luck’. Luck is nothing butrecognising the opportunity, seizing it, andconverting it to business.”

Obsession can be genuinely agonisingand disruptive. It can also be highly valuedin an artist, a lover, or a businessman. Inthe 25 years of doing commerce, Patel’sobsession has always bore fruit. Beingsmart does not entail being able to makethe right decisions. Rational behaviour,getting on in life, can be beyond those evenwith the highest IQs. Patel has a few gemsof wisdom to share here. Says he: “If youdon’t have common sense, you are bound

to fail and repeat mistakes. Hard work isimportant, but doing more of smart work isthe need of the times. When I joinedCarazoo, I knew zilch about cars.Now, Ican hold fort on them.”

As we all seek more connectivity, we loseour sense of a private self. We no longerhear the still, small voice that speaks only insilence. However, Patel does and that isprecisely what keeps him going in goodtimes and bad. “Every day is a new day;every day brings good and bad news; I don’tlet stress affect me,” he reveals. “Ifsomething is going wrong, I will think ofwhat is it that I can do to stop it and theoptions available to me. If it has alreadyhappened, I will think of ways to minimisethe impact and if I can’t do that either, I willjust say to myself ‘I can’t do anything aboutit now, can I’ and let it not affect me.”

If religion and television are the opiumof the masses, education can be a greatdetox. Take Patel. The 47-year-old hasforever been a student and loving every bitof it. “I always wanted to be a doctor but itnever happened even though I did mybachelor’s degree in science,” he recalls.Instead, he did a certificate course in CyberLaws and a Post Graduate Diploma in TaxManagement covering Income Tax, SalesTax, Wealth Tax & Excise Tax. He also got

a degree in law from the Government LawCollege, Mumbai University and a PostGraduate Diploma in BusinessManagement from KC College ofManagement Studies, Mumbai.

And this is helping Patel cut costs in hisbusiness. “Whatever I have learnt in lawand management is helping me in my dailylife,” he says. “I draft my own legalagreements and save my company a lot oflegal fees. It is fairly easy to draft legaldocuments on your own. It is more aboutthe meeting of minds. Therefore, it is moreabout the intent behind the agreement andnot on how bad or good the business is.”

If you think facts do not solve problemsand actually feel they are core of an anti-intellectual curriculum, it’s time to thinkagain. “Don’t bother to tell your potentialcustomer about the different features ofyour product,” says Patel. “Rather, tell himhow he will benefit from it. The bottomlineis important, more so in India.”

He has mastered the art of the ElevatorPitch. It is nothing but a concise, carefullyplanned, and well-practiced descriptionabout your company or product. “It’s anAmerican concept that basically tells you tosell your idea between the time it takes youto go from the ground floor to the topfloor,” explains Patel. “In that time, you

PANKAJ PATEL, CEO, Carazoo.Com, speaks to ZAHID H.JAVALI on how he turned a staid car website into India’sfirst automobile portal to have interactive animations!

Cars by Web!

Profile


need to say one or two quick benefits to aprospective customer which will get hisattention. And then, he gives you five moreminutes for you to explain further and 10more minutes and so on.”

That is how he sealed the deal with a cardealer. “I was told that the owner of thiscar dealership in Bangalore was very busy,”he explains. “It was my third attempt tomeet him and I had got the same answer.If he kept on saying that, I wouldn’t get achance to make my elevator pitch.”

This demanded some shrewdmachinations. Patel found out the time thecar dealer exited his office on a normal dayand took a chance on one such workingday and strategically placed himself. “Assoon as he walked out, I bypassedeverybody and gave my visiting card,” heexplains. “The dealer asked, ‘What can Ido for you?’ and I gave my one-sentencespiel. Since he was hurrying for anotherappointment and also interested in what Ihad to offer, I asked him if he wouldn’tmind me doing the rest of the pitch in hiscar. He said ‘yes’ and I got half an hour inthe car, which gave me enough time to saywhat I had to. It got him interested enoughto get a meeting confirmed with his GMand other people for a full-fledged demo.Today, he’s one of my biggest customers.”

Carazoo is part of Logix MicrosystemsLimited, the world’s largest supplier ofAutomotive Animations. And Patel joinedthis firm in October 2006 to oversee theirIndia operations. It is not only listed on theBSE and NSE but is also ranked amongstthe ET 500 companies. And recently, Logixwas the recipient of Asia’s Fastest Growing500 Companies from Deloitte Fast 500.Which is why Carazoo has no competitionas it is a division of a company which haspioneered automobile animations. If youlog on to Carazoo, you can interact withthe site by taking a 360-degree tour of theinteriors of the car and even paint the carto the colour of your choice, to see how itlooks. Not just that. You can even attachaccessories that you are going to buy, likealloy wheels, and see how it will eventuallylook before you buy them.

Started in August 2007, it was on a testrun (beta) for almost eight months beforegoing completely live. However, changes

are a part of the portal. “We do a little bitof design changes every 1-2 months andoverhaul the entire site every 12-16months,” says Patel who believes incontinuous improvement. “Content is king.And then comes the useability and howeasily can you navigate on the site. Forexample, if you are looking for a HondaCity, how many clicks does it take you to goto your desired page – it shouldn’t takemore than three clicks to do so. When thathappens, the person will spend more timeon the site, but if he has to click one toomany, he may lose interest and move on tosome other site. Similarly, the design shouldbe great and inspiring, so the person staysaround longer.”

Patel’s target group is anybody betweenthe age of 24 and 36 in any of the Indianmetros who is planning to buy a new or

second-hand car. With cellphonesoutnumbering computers, Carazoo is goingto have a mobile-friendly version by May2009 as well.

Until then, Patel is happy to report thatthe number of visitors to his portal haveexceeded 2 lakhs every month among whom1.4 lakh are unique visitors and nearly60,000 repeat visitors. The hits have grownby 50% from last year and he is happy theway it’s going. “We get 3 million views and18,000 enquiries per month,” he beams.

The slowdown hasn’t affected him asmuch. It has only raised his stature on theweb. “Internet is the only medium that isless costly than the traditional media likeTV, radio, print and hoardings and it is alsothe only medium where you can monitorand track on what’s happening with youradvertisements,” says Patel, matter-of-factly.“Once the advertiser understands that, therecession will only help us. The last two

months have been a record month for us interms of revenue and the number of users.”

Patel has his own guesstimates to back uphis revenue model. “According to mypersonal estimate, 45% of Indians in themetros go on the Internet before buyingnew or old cars unlike 92% in the US,” hesays. “It is here that a user can take a car,spin it around, paint it, compare it, read thereview, download car brochures and evenorder a test drive online. The test drive isarranged through a dealer. These featuresdraw consumers to our website andeventually lead them to a car showroom.”

An avid reader, Patel’s other interestsinclude online marketing, alternativemedicine and ozone technologies. In fact,he was one of the first guys to create anapplication using Ozone gas for continuousfumigation and disinfection. “You coulduse it in the ICU,” he says. “I sold a few topharmaceutical companies and hospitals.But that meant a whole lot of conceptselling rather than product selling. I was tooahead of my time, so I gave up.”

However, never ask him about hispastimes, because he doesn’t have any. “Idon’t remember when I am not working; mywife and kids stay in Mumbai; I work out ofBangalore, so I have all the time in the worldto remain a workaholic,” says Patel, whoworks anywhere between 16 and 18 hourson any given day. “I don’t rememberworking less than 14 hours, but I try not towork on Saturday and Sunday.”

Prior to joining Logix Microsystems,Patel was a Director with AdvanceComputer Services Limited (ACS), a Tier 1vendor of IBM in USA and India. At ACS,he successfully created a business plan forcontract staffing and offshore developmentbusiness. He successfully developed a panIndia presence and built revenues up to Rs50 million and a total staff of 150 +engineers in three years. Some of Patel’sother key engagements and assignmentswere with NetBusiness Solutions IndiaLimited as Chief Operating Officer, SurgerExim Inc. as President and ChiefExecutive Officer and Circuitron PrivateLimited as Director.

With 25 years of work behind him, no wonder Patel is the poster boy of e-commerce. �

“Whether you arebig or small, youhave access to thebest news, viewsand applications.”

Peek & Pick


Twenty three ‘best shot’ modes, face detection technologythat allows you to take clear pictures of at least threefaces in a group photo, anti-shake feature that reducesblurring of photos due to shaky hands or movingsubjects, ‘Easy Mode’ option that allows you to set yourcamera with just three easy menus for quicker shots – ifall these features don’t get you, there’s something more: anew, improved 8.1 megapixel of image resolution, and a2.6-inch wide LCD display. And if you are a colour freak,this model is available in pink, black, silver and orange.

Price: Rs. 6500Availability: www.my.casio.com

Casio EXILIMZoom EX-Z9

Combining a lustrous gloss-black finish with elegant inlaidrhinestones and an intuitive LED touch-sensitive menuinterface, Transcend’s PF810 is the perfect addition to anyroom or office. Its bright new 8-inch 800 x 600 (4:3) colourTFT LCD panel and 2 GB of built-in flash memorymakes sure users can easily display the entire photocollection in great clarity and detail. The photo frame isalso equipped with advanced NaturaTone intelligent skincolour processing that analyzes the makeup of each imageand enhances colours for a more natural, life-likeappearance. It is a true multimedia device fully equippedto play back movies and videos as well. Besides, the PF810functions as a full-featured MP3 player and an FM radio.The digital frame comes with a two-year warranty.

Price: Rs. 9500Website: www.shopping.rediff.comAvailability: Supertron Electronics LimitedTel: 033-22131221-23Mediaman Infotech Pvt LtdTel: 91-22-2382-3100/3200

TranscendPF810 DigitalPhoto Frame


It’s a specially designed washable mouse fromBelkin. The product is water-resistant, so itendures spills and stays clean. Its versatile ScrollPad lets you scroll vertically and horizontally withone easy touch. Designed to work on a variety ofhousehold surfaces including upholstery andwood, the product features optical technologywith 1200 dpi and is powered via USB cable.

Price: Rs. 1500Availability: www.in.com

WashableMousefrom Belkin

Peek & Pick


Longineswatches

If style and sport get you going, then this collected by the Swisswatchmaker could do the trick for you. The range is ‘Faster’(inspired by the world of automobiles and motor-sports),‘Further’ (for elegance of performance on treks), and ‘Higher’(influenced by aviation) and ‘Deeper’ (unveiling the ocean’ssecrets). Sporting fluid lines, aerodynamic curves, energy-filledtypography and tachymeter, it boasts of an automatic self-winding mechanical movement and offers a power reserve of46 hours. The watches are equipped with triple securitydeployment buckles that are water-resistant up to 300 metres.Lateral protection for the crown and double security foldingclasp with integrated diving extension-piece.

Price: Rs. 28,500-1 lakh+Availability: ITC Park, Sheraton Hotel, ChennaiAmarson Watch Co., C-10, Connaught Place, New Delhi.


Carrying your laptop is akin to carrying youroffice with you. So it’s most important to lock itaway when you are not using it. Here is wherethe PC Guardian Ezolution Resettable ComboLock (Rs. 1200-1600) is ideal for users who preferthe convenience of keyless security and the abilityto choose their own combinations. However, ifyou are worrying about keys and lostcombinations, the PC Guardian Master CodedCombo Lock (Rs. 2000) should help. A pushbutton head offers keyless locking for press-and-go convenience. The locking mechanism securesvirtually any device equipped with a security slot.

Price: Rs. 1200-2000Website: www.pcguardian.com

PC GuardianEzolutionCombo Lock

Sony VRD-MC10Play and record video footage from handycamcamcorders and other sources directly onto a DVDwithout using a computer. That’s what Sony’sVRD-MC10 DVD recorder allows you to do.Equipped with a Compact Flash, Memory Stick(regular and Duo), and SD/xD, this gadget has anarray of input ports for analog R/L audio-in,video-in, S-Video-in, DV-in, and USB. It istherefore the most versatile PC-agnostic DVDrecorder on the market. It supports all hi-defformats, including 1080p. Only one downside: itdoesn’t support Blu-ray Disc. If you find this a tadexpensive, you can go for the previous model, theVRD-MC5, for Rs. 9000.

Price: Rs. 18,000Availability: Avit Digital, 62, Janpath, New DelhiVivek Ltd., 36/1, Elephant Rock Road,3rd Block, Jaynagar, Bengaluru

Peek & Pick

Transcend JetFlash V33Transcend’s JetFlash V33 has a curved, ultra-compactbody (60 mm x 16.5 mm x 8.1 mm) and is ultra-light atjust 7 gram. The USB drive comes in purewhite with a splash of colour around its cap.With a storage capacity of up to 16 GB,JetFlash V33 supports Windows Me/2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS 9.0/OS X andLinux Kernel 2.4.2 or later. The versatilerflash drive is also available in 1 GB, 2 GB, 4GB, and 8 GB capacities, and is backed by a3-year warranty.

Price: 1 GB - Rs. 400/-; 2 GB - Rs. 500/-; 4 GB - Rs. 800/-; 8 GB - Rs. 1300/-; 16 GB - Rs. 2300/-Availability: Redington: 91-9381924185,91-44-32467705; Supertron: 91-33-2213-1221/23; Mediaman: 91-22-23823100/3200;Bharti Teletech: 91-9871115703

SmartOffice PL2546This is a versatile scanner that offersfeatures like document scanning, editing,digital filing and archive management;basically it’s a machine that’s beenspecially designed to help offices gopaperless. Users can scan documents andconvert them into searchable PDF formatbefore sending them to the repository.Plustek PL2546 has an automaticdocument feeder (ADF) that can take 50sheets at a time and has a heavy dutycycle of up to 1500 sheets per day. It canscan 25 pages per minute (or 46 imagesper minute) in colour, duplex mode. Theauto detector function of this scanner alsoallows an auto preview of the scan.

Price: Rs. 60,000Availability: Fortune Marketing andIntra Tech Computers Pvt. Ltd.



LG KU990Camera Phone

This is undeniably a slinky number from LG. This is a camerayou can ring people on and at the same time, watch TV, browsethe web and listen to music. The 5-megapixel camera with atouchpad screen and dedicated camera buttons on the sideallows movie shooting and playback. Viewing your pictures isalmost as good as having your prints in your hand, especiallywhen using the landscape setting. Images can be viewed either asstandard thumbnail or scattered around the screen giving it asnazzy look. Bonus: music player and FM radio.

Price: Rs. 21,000Availability: www.gadgetsguru.com

The surf shopNews (pages 8-11)Nokia 3640Price: Rs. 7,910.00Coming soon

Kindle 2Buy online: www.amazon.comPrice: 359.00 USD

Sony Ericsson GamingHandset F305

Retail: Shop no D1-31, Lotus Communication, Kamla Nagar, New Delhi

Salore, Shop No. 56, KhannaMarket, New DelhiPrice: 139.99 USD

Live IT or Leave IT(pages 18-21)Bellysonic Speaker PouchBuy online:https://www.amazon.comPrice: 80.00 USD

Sun JarBuy online: www.amazon.comPrice: 44.99 USD

Glow GraffitiBuy online:http://cgi.ebay.com/ Price: 42.95 USD

Color Phasing Shower LightBuy online:https://www.thinkgeek.com.Price: 49.99 USD

Minoru 3D WebcamBuy online:http://www.firebox.com/product/2274/Minoru-3D-WebcamPrice: 49.95 Euros

Desktop Coffee MakerBuy online:http://www.firebox.com.Price: 19.95 Euros

Elvis DuckBuy online: www.firebox.com.Price: 5.95 Euros

Banana GuardBuy online:http://www.bananaguard.com/Price: 6.99 USD

Flip Digital Video CameraBuy online: www.firebox.comPrice: 119.95 Euros

Sky LanternsBuy online: www.firebox.comPrice: 24.95 Euros

Light CastBuy online: www.firebox.comPrice: 49.95 Euros

Digital Camera MaskBuy online: www.firebox.comPrice: 89.95 Euros

Digital Wi-Fi DetectorBuy online: www.firebox.comPrice: 39.95 Euros

Bubbles Wrap KeychainBuy online: www.firebox.comPrice: 6.95 Euros

Style IT (pages 45-53)Apple TVBuy online: www.apple.comPrice: 229.00 USD

Airport ExpressBuy online: www.apple.comPrice: 99.00 USD

Wireless Keyboard Buy online: www.apple.comPrice: 49.00 USD

Macbook AirBuy online: www.apple.comPrice: 1,799.00 USD

iPod ShuffleBuy online: www.apple.comPrice: 69.00 USD

iPod Classic 120 GBBuy online: www.apple.comPrice: 249.00 USD

iPhone 3GBuy online: www.apple.comPrice: 199.00 USD

iMac 20Buy online: www.apple.comPrice: 1199.00 USD

(Note: Prices may vary or discounts maybe available on some products.) �

Live IT provides you the following shopping guide which shouldhelp to get you started on a fabulous online shopping spree. Callit an easy finder or a quick search, the list compiles all the gadgetsand gizmos featured in this issue with appropriate links of thebest possible places for you to shop wisely and browse coolly!

Shopper’s Guide


Cover Model: Yuvika ChoudhuryPhotographer: Niloy Kumar De

Live IT Mar09

Documents

Transcript of Live IT Mar09