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Indian Express A day after the angry relatives of the allegedly murdered youth Feroze Ismail Qureshi blocked Pune-Solapur Road at Bhairoba Nala Chowk over police inaction, the heat was turned on Wanavdi police chowki officials who are now facing the ire of higher-ups for failing to take prompt action in arresting the suspect.

ACP (administration) Ramesh Biwal has prepared a report indicting the Wanawdi police chowki officials for not taking prompt action. Biwal said, “I will submit the report containing the lapses on the part of the police officers who were not prompt enough to investigate the case which led to Qureshi’s relatives blocking the road. There will be an impartial probe and we will soon arrest Sunny Valmiki, (Qureshi’s friend who was with him all through Friday night) and is suspected of involvement in the murder,” Biwal said.

Qureshi’s body was found by the Loni-Kalbhor rural police on Monday in the canal near Phursungi some 20 km from Pune.

Indian Express Primary education minus the school bags, a Nalanda of the 21st century, and a civilization on Mars. All these were the elements of a future perfect picture etched by President APJ Abdul Kalam, whose simplicity and humility won over the hearts of some 200 schoolchildren at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Science Exploratory on Wednesday.
When Sidharth Das asked him why Indian youth went abroad to pursue studies, Kalam said moving to other countries was a global phenomenon. Just as foreigners came to the Nalanda University in Bihar in the ancient times to study, a similar situation was emerging today, wherein students from abroad would come to India to work, study and carry out research.

“There is nothing wrong with moving. Wherever Indians go, they will always remain ‘umbilically’ connected to their country,” he said.
Before arriving at the hall for the interaction, Kalam also visited the Muktangan Exploratory laboratories, where he watched student do experiments, sat with them and quizzed them on their future plans and goals.

For the children, it was an unforgettable day.
“It was really a great moment for us, as he took an interest in what we were doing and asked us what we wanted to become. We feel really lucky,” said Tanmayee Chikate, who conducted some experiments at the mathematics laboratory.

Indian Express  As President A P J Abdul Kalam inaugurated the next wave of innovation at the country’s oldest software research lab - Tata Research Design and Development Centre (TRDDC) - in its silver jubilee year, there was one man among the 100-odd invitees who could not suppress his joy. For, it was a fruition of an idea that germinated 25 years ago in the mind of then chief of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Fakir Chand Kohli, that made this day possible.

“We were very sure (about what we were doing). There was no doubt about it,” Kohli told Pune Newsline.  As President A P J Abdul Kalam inaugurated the next wave of innovation at the country’s oldest software research lab - Tata Research Design and Development Centre (TRDDC) - in its silver jubilee year, there was one man among the 100-odd invitees who could not suppress his joy. For, it was a fruition of an idea that germinated 25 years ago in the mind of then chief of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Fakir Chand Kohli, that made this day possible.

“We were very sure (about what we were doing). There was no doubt about it,” Kohli told Pune Newsline.

Indian Express Perturbed with the import costs of crude oil, President APJ Abdul Kalam redefined the research outlook for the automotive industry on Wednesday. Speaking at the Symposium of International Automotive Technology (SIAT) 2007 at the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI),

President Kalam stressed on developing alternative fuels for automobiles.
He said that the present automobile industry has challenges like concentrating on improved combustion engine, alternate fuels, renewable energy resources and alternate power plants.

He added that the automobile industry is growing at a rate of 17 per cent. However, the problems of its growth are associated with atmospheric pollution, safety of vehicle and passengers.

He said that the industry should focus on overcoming the emissions of nitrogen dioxide and suspended matter from the diesel engines. “Presently, these shortcomings should be filled up by using advanced combustion technologies,” he said. Citing an example of Iceland where buses are run on hydrogen, Kalam said that the automotive engineers need to look for alternate fuels in hydrogen and Carbon NanoTube (CNT) —an allotrope of carbon.

playfuls Yes, I have been testing the application since January 10, and trust me, it’s truly amazing. You’ll have some links inside to convince yourselves, but more will come for sure in the future.

It’s quite extraordinary to just think that I have probably been among the very few people in the world (around 200) who had the chance of testing the Venice Project from the beginning of the beta tests (except for its developers, of course).

The story goes like this: when the first rumors about the Venice Project came out, I immediately visited the previous official site (theveniceproject.com) and filled in the form for a beta-tester account (that was somewhere in October).

After that I have had no news from them until last week. On January 10 I received an e-mail which informed me that my request has been accepted and that I can now log in with the e-mail ID and the password included in the e-mail.

Of course, I immediately downloaded the 9.54 MB application from the site and logged in. Unfortunately, there was a glitch: I could not disclose any information about my experience with the TVP (the name of the application) because of the famous NDA (non disclosure agreement), which you’ll see in one of the pictures posted on flickr.com and in the video I made last night. Just as the e-mail said: “Today, we’re inviting you to take a sneak preview of our work and take part in The Venice Project’s first beta testing phase. This is a private, invitation-only beta test and the software is still in the early stages, but we would greatly value your opinions. We ask that you agree to abide by our terms and conditions and privacy policy as part of your participation in the beta program. So please don’t give the application to anybody else, or even show it to them. It’s very early days for us, and we want to make sure that the right people see the right software, at the right time.”

It was somehow frustrating not to be able to share with anyone the extraordinary experience Joost offers. But the agreement stated clear: “during the period commencing on the date you agree to these terms and ending on the date that the Platform becomes generally available […] you hereby agree to keep confidential and to not disclose to any third party any information or data that you receive, directly or indirectly, related to the Platform or its technology, and/or the business, operations, projects, goods and, services, plans and activities, or the existence of the trial” (damn lawyers…).

Since the Skype founders launched the new site (joost.com) I thought the NDA is no longer in action so I e-mailed them this morning. Fortunately, Kate Larkin, from the veniceproject.com responded in due time, confirming not only their full support for my early review of the TVP, but also begging me to excuse them for the “variety of technical problems with the site” from last night (I haven’t had any problems last night with Joost but had there been any, I would have blamed my ISP rather than their servers)

Ok, that was the introduction that should clear out any legal problems I might have.

forbes The iPhone may be Apple’s future. But investors will listen attentively to its past today as Chief Executive Steve Jobs reveals how well the company’s existing products, notably its iPod and MacBook laptops, have been doing.

Apple will report first-quarter earnings, which include holiday sales, after the market closes. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of 78 cents per share on $6.42 billion of sales, representing a 20% year-over-year earnings increase and 12% year-over-year revenue jump. In October, Apple said it expected to post first-quarter earnings of 70 cents to 73 cents per share on sales between $6 billion and $6.2 billion.

Any slip could cost investors dearly: The company’s shares are trading at $97, near their all-time high, and a $12 increase since Jobs introduced the iPhone (see: “Apple Does It Again”) at the Macworld conference in San Francisco last week.

However, the iPhone won’t show up in consumers’ hands until this summer, and Apple TV, a $300 box that links your iTunes collection to your television, won’t start shipping until next month. So Apple’s earnings will turn on how well its iconic iPod and its Mac desktop and laptop computers sold over the holiday period.

Gene Munster, analyst for Piper Jaffray, projects Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) sold between 15.5 million and 16 million iPods during the quarter, a 14% year-over-year gain, using data from NPD Group, a market research firm. The Zune from Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ), once hailed as Apple’s biggest threat, hasn’t done much yet to hurt iPod sales.
The iPod may be Apple’s flagship product, but its computers still usually account for more revenue. Jobs stripped “Computer” from the company’s official name in his Macworld keynote earlier this month, but analysts expect a big quarter for sales of its MacBook laptops in particular.

itwire My son walked in yesterday and asked me what the fuss was all about with this Joost thing. I told him that it’s a new product from the people who invented Skype that would allow him to watch TV on the Internet. His eyes lit up and he said that could mean the end of TV as we know it. If Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis get their way, he could be right.

The peer-to-peer nature of Joost, where the processing load is shared by the PCs of members, will enable the provision of high quality free global TV broadcasts in the same way that Skype has provided free global Internet telephony.

There is of course the issue of content but already many pundits are saying that content providers will find the prospect of potentially reaching a vast global audience of hundreds of millions irresistible.

What’s more, with products coming on the market that enable streaming of PC-based video to TV sets, it appears that Joost may be an idea whose time has come

Joost has already signed a content deal with US-based Warner Music Group which, as demonstrated by its YouTube alliance, has shown a willingness to embrace Internet content delivery of entertainment. Other content deals are already under way.

Speaking of YouTube, some commentators are postulating that Joost is a threat to popular online video site now owned by Google. This is not necessarily the case, although it depends on what type of social networking features Joost provides.

itwire Microsoft is crowing on its own blog that IE7 has just passed its 100 millionth download. What the blog doesn’t say, according to an Information Week article, is that most of the downloads are upgrades from IE6 and that the Mozilla Firefox browser continues to gain ground.

Tony Chor, IE7 program manager at Microsoft, reported in the company blog that Microsoft passed its milestone on January 8.
“I’m pleased to report that on January 8th, we had the 100 millionth IE7 installation. However, even more important than installations is usage. According to WebSideStory (the company we use to measure browser usage), as of this week, over 25% of all visitors to websites in the  US were using IE7, making IE7 the second most used browser after IE6. We expect these numbers to continue to rise as we complete our final localized versions, scale up AU distribution, and with the consumer availability of Windows Vista on January 30, 2007,” said Chor.

According to analysts surveyed by Information Week, however, the Microsoft blog didn’t paint the entire picture. An analyst at WebSideStory, the firm whose numbers were used by Microsoft, confirmed that IE7 was actually taking market share exclusively from IE6.

Another analyst at web metrics firm Net Applications said that according to the firm’s numbers the combined share in the US of the two Microsoft browsers in December 2006 had dropped 1% from November to 79.6%. Meanwhile, over the same period, Firefox browser share, comprising versions 1.5 and 2.0 had risen from 13.5% to 14%.

CNN Chinese teenagers are getting addicted to the Internet and taking to crime at a younger age than in any other country, state media reported on Wednesday.

Of China’s 18.3 million teen Internet users, more than 2 million were addicts, with “good kids who impress their parents and teachers” the most vulnerable to the affliction, the China Daily said, citing a study by the Communist Youth League.
“Internet addicts in China are as many as 10 years younger than those in the West. They are more susceptible,” the daily quoted Gao Wenbin, a psychology researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a top government think tank, as saying.
Most Internet addicts were male and aged between 15 and 20, Gao said, with as many as 15 percent of those in large cities needing “urgent help”.
Gao blamed a lack of diversions at schools, forcing addicts into often illegal Internet cafes and exposing them to crime and violence.
“They will naturally turn to the virtual world if they cannot find an outlet for their energy either at home or school,” he said.
Last week, another state newspaper said China had seen a 68 percent rise in juvenile crime in five years and that figure was going to rise.
“Earlier development and the culture of violence are to blame for an increase in harmful actions among adolescents under 14,” the Beijing Morning Post said.

CNN Netflix Inc. will start showing movies and TV episodes over the Internet this week, providing its subscribers with more instant gratification as the DVD-by-mail service prepares for a looming technology shift threatening its survival.

The Los Gatos-based company plans to unveil the new “Watch Now” feature Tuesday, but only a small number of its more than 6 million subscribers will get immediate access to the service, which is being offered at no additional charge.

Netflix expects to introduce the instant viewing system to about 250,000 more subscribers each week through June to ensure its computers can cope with the increased demand.

After accepting a computer applet that takes less than a minute to install, subscribers will be able to watch anywhere from six hours to 48 hours of material per month on an Internet streaming service that is supposed to prevent piracy.

The allotted viewing time will be tied to how much customers already pay for their DVD rentals. Under Netflix’s most popular $17.99 monthly package, subscribers will receive 18 hours of Internet viewing time.

The company has budgeted about $40 million this year to expand its data centers and cover the licensing fees for the roughly 1,000 movies and TV shows that will be initially available for online delivery.