News

EurekaAlert: Penn State researchers have developed a new algorithm which enables cell-phone users to fetch data from music to TV shows as quickly as feasible with minimal channel switches.
With the computing technique, mobile devices can pick up data that may have been “missed” when first broadcast, thereby alleviating the wait for subsequent broadcast cycles. Because it minimizes channel switching, the new algorithm also reduces power use, thereby extending battery life.

TechWeb: The Chinese version of Yahoo Inc.’s search engine was the worst offender in censorship tests that included rivals Google Inc., Microsoft Corp.’s MSN and local competitor Baidu, an international free press advocacy group said.
Yahoo.cn was also found to censor search results as strictly as Baidu.cn, while Google.cn and beta version of MSN.cn let through more information from sources not authorized by Chinese officials, Reporters Without Borders said.

HPCWire: Microsoft Corp. has announced the release to manufacturing of Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, the company’s first software offering designed to run parallel, high-performance computing applications for customers solving complex computations. Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 is designed to accelerate customers’ time to insight by providing a reliable, HPC platform that is simple to deploy, operate, and integrate with existing infrastructure and tools. The product will be generally available to customers in August, and evaluation versions were provided to attendees of the Microsoft TechEd 2006 conference, June 11-16 in Boston.

ItWire.com: Apple has the same sort of dominance in the online music and portable music player business that Microsoft has in the desktop software space. However, Microsoft plans to change that by going head to head with Apple in both the iPod and iTunes markets.

According to a report from Reuters, sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans (which generally means company insiders) have confirmed that the software giant is developing an iPod rival and an online music service to compete with iTunes.

TimesofIindia: In a significant development, the Maharashtra federation of credit co-operatives on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Wipro Infotech for a Rs 100-crore automation project to be implemented during 2006-09.

Speaking to TOI after the meeting with Premji, Gandhi said individual credit co-operatives will make all the investment for the computerisation and automation project.

CNN.com: Microsoft announced Thursday that chairman and co-founder Bill Gates will transition out of a day-to-day role at the company, effective July 2008, to spend more time working on his charitable foundation.

Gates will then work part-time at Microsoft (up $0.19 to $22.07, Charts) as chairman and technical adviser and will work full time for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the organization he founded with his wife, which focuses on global health and education.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announcing Thursday that he is stepping down from his day-to-day role with the company by July 2008. 
 
“I’ve decided that two years from today, I will reorganize my personal priorities,” Gates said during a news conference, adding,”I have one of the best jobs in the world.”

IndianExpress: ON June 22, 2006, when the first assassination of a British officer by Indian freedom fighters, enters its 110th year, a classic film made on the incident which happened in Pune on University Road will complete 25 years.

The year was 1897 and the Chapekar brothers took the unprecedented step of assassinating British official Walter Rand who had handled the plague in Pune badly.

IndianExpress: THE results for the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination held in March 2006 by the Maharashtra State Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education will be announced on June 26 at 11 am. The marksheets will be available on the official website and the schools. This year, there will be no booklet containing details of students who have passed or those who have been disqualified due to malpractices. Instead, the salient features will be released. There will be no felicitation of meritorious students, although a merit list will be put up.

IndianExpress: THE Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI) has won its second Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy (Food). The award was announced on June 15 in London.
ARTI won the 30,000 pound Food Award for “its revolutionary application of biogas technology to an urban environment, transforming food waste into clean household cooking fuel.”

IndianExpress: HAVING walked some 300 km from a small hamlet in Usmanabad 80-year-old Mathura Dhage would be just one of the people who will throng the holy town of Alandi on Monday to walk from Alandi to Pandharpur with Sant Dnyaneshwar Maharaj Palkhi. But three days before the ‘palkhi’ procession, the city still seems to be gearing up for the grand welcome it will offer to the devotees. Scenes of dug up roads and traffic snarls cover the main spots from where palkhi would proceed.