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theregister Google and Belgian newspaper group Copiepresse have come to an agreement on a minor part of their dispute over copyright, but have not agreed on the major point of difference between them.

Copiepresse members will use an automated system to keep Google from saving its content in its cache, but that is a technical fix that has always been available to the group.

References to the 17 newspapers represented by Copiepresse will return to the normal Google search engine, but their stories will not yet return to the Google News service.

“This decision was made jointly by Google and Copiepresse as part of the constructive dialogue that has resumed between the two organizations,” said the statement. “The Belgian French and German language daily press publishers and Google intend to use a quiet period in the court dispute to continue their efforts to identify tangible ways to collaborate in the long term.”
After the Belgian court’s ruling, Google removed its links to the newspapers’ websites. Those links have now been restored.

In its lawsuit Copiepresse wanted Google to seek permission to use any content but did want members to be able to choose for their content to appear in Google News. Google News does not host entire articles, but sends readers to the newspaper websites themselves.

Google insists that its Google News service is lawful because it publishes so little of each story. It says it removes any material on request from the copyright owner. It is appealing the ruling of the Belgian Court of First Instance.

computerworld Creative is launching a small-capacity MP3 player that has the same capacity but sells for the half price of Apple Inc.’s iPod Shuffle player. Known as the Stone, the new $56 player will be available in six glossy finishes — black, red, pink, blue, green or white — and has a capacity of 1GB.

Coincidentally (or perhaps not), Apple’s updated iPod Shuffle is available in white, pink, blue, green or orange. Its 1GB version costs about $109.

Depending on the bit rate chosen, the Zen Stone will be able to store up to 500 songs in MP3 or WMA formats, though this figure is at the low recording rate of just 64Kbit/sec. Creative says the built-in battery will last for 10 hours between charges. Creative is aiming the player at fitness fans such as those who enjoy a workout at the gym as well as skaters, snowboarders and free runners.

Just a couple of months ago, Creative’s spokespeople said that the company seen as Apple’s biggest rival in the MP3 player market isn’t “really pushing MP3 players at the moment.” Now, it seems, Creative was biding its time before coming back at Apple’s redesigned, tieclip-size Shuffle. The Stone even supports Audible books — something that Apple iTunes site has offered for some time.

indianexpress THE Congress party, which had dominated the city’s politics for the last three decades, is now left without even an office in the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) main building at Shivajinagar. The city Congress leadership has now made a pandal pitched on the lawns of the civic body’s building its makeshift office.
All these years, the party did not need a separate office. Since it was in power, the party always got the mayor’s post and a large office to go with which the corporators also occupied.

However, after its defeat in the February civic polls that left it without an important post in the civic body, the party does not have an office any more — a situation that is making the corporators feel the pinch.
“I have spoken with municipal commissioner Nitin Kareer about making an office for the Congress corporators and we are working out a plan,” said Mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale.

“Citizens wanting to meet Congress corporators can meet us at the pandal,” said Bagul

’We are the trustees’
Ulhas Bagul said the Congress with its 44 candidates were ‘trustees’ of the PMC building. “Hence this ‘office’ is not illegal,” he said. “We will pay the rent for using the lawns,” said Bagul.

indianexpress PUNE will figure prominently in the growth plans of Wipro Technologies as the company has opened its second development centre and the largest outside Bangalore at the Hinjewadi IT SEZ on Tuesday. The centre was inaugurated by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.

Speaking at the function, Wipro Limited chairman, Azim Premji said: “We will invest Rs 375-400 crore over the next 3-5 years to develop this facility as we ramp up our headcount in Pune from 6,300 to 17,000 people.”

“The investment climate is favourable and there is good local talent available, which makes Pune a key location for our growth plans in India,’’ he added.
Wipro currently operates out of a 5.8 lakh sq ft campus at Hinjewadi, which after expansion will go up to 19 lakh sq ft. The Pune facility is primarily focused on delivering solutions in banking, securities and capital markets, insurance, telecom and embedded systems. It also includes BPO operations and remote infrastructure management.

indianexpress WHEN it comes to family planning measures, male sterilisation is yet to take off in a big way in Pune. This is among some glaring facts that the City Family Welfare Bureau hopes to correct.

Consider this: This year’s target from April 2006 to March 2007 was 15,000 sterilisations, but only 174 vasectomies were performed.
To set this right, the City Family Welfare Bureau now plans to have a poster campaign in Pune Municipal Transport (PMT) buses.

Moreover, most of those who undergo the operation are doctors and engineers.
“We will aim at creating awareness among the public about vasectomies. Each person who undergoes a vasectomy will get Rs 501,” said Dr Anjali Sabne, in-charge of the city family welfare bureau.
“We have taken a fresh initiative in generating awareness about the non-scalpel technique for vasectomies. Since June 2004, a total of 17 medical camps were held with 300 men undergoing vasectomies,” she added.

Some facts
* Vasectomy is an effective long-term contraceptive method, and is among the safest options for family planning.
* Contrary to popular belief, vasectomy does not affect sexual life. The procedure only eliminates the man’s ability to father a child.
* In the early 1970s a new procedure known as No scalpel vasectomy was developed in China. In NSV, none of the vessel or duct is removed, but is instead cut and sealed
* Vasectomy is not a protection against sexually transmitted disease (STD).

indianexpress  EDUCATION should bridge the divide between various groups within the working age population, said Wipro Technologies chairman Azim Premji. He was addressing students at the 100th Convocation of the University of Pune on Tuesday.

Speaking about the lessons learned from his own successes and setbacks, Premji suggested to the students an eight-point path to success. He said that while India would be home to a workforce of 829 million by 2015, this also threw up challenges like making this work force globally competent. “It is important that the gains of job growth are spread more pervasively across the working group, to minimise divides. Education is a crucial enabler that can make this possible,” said Premji.

Premji also advised students never to underestimate themselves when it came to success. Other tips included controlling one’s responses to prevent others from controlling them, allowing institutions to play a role in decision-making, developing an inner faith in oneself without being affected by external events, working in teams and focussing on the effort rather than the result.

Giving the customary report on achievements, plans and programmes of the University of Pune, Vice Chancellor Narendra Jadhav said that apart from programmes like Personality Development, Soft Skills and Work on Demand Programme, the University had also undertaken various major projects like the Samartha Bharat Abhiyaan and the Triple Connectivity Project.

University Registrar DD Deshmukh was present at the convocation along with Board of Colleges and University Development (BCUD) Chairman Pandit Vidyasagar, members of the senate and management council, as well as deans of various faculties.

indianexpress DUE to the severe heat wave conditions in Pune, Air India Express (AI Express) flights from Pune to Dubai from April are making an additional halt at Mumbai and will continue till June 15. This exercise is being carried out by AI Express to minimise the risk posed by heat conditions besides optimising its operations.

There has also been a change in the flight schedule. IX-211, which departs from Pune at 1500 hrs will now leave at 1430 hrs. After an additional halt at Mumbai, it is scheduled to reach Dubai at 1705 hrs. On the return leg from Dubai, the flight will operate directly to Pune arriving at 2240 hrs.
The decision was taken as when the temperature exceeds 40 degrees celsius, the density of air reduces, thereby, lessening the load carrying capacity of the aircraft.

indianexpress DISTRICT guardian minister Ajit Pawar has directed the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) to remove all hoardings and banners in the twin township. Pawar, whose party rules the PCMC, has specifically asked NCP leaders and workers to pull down their “birthday” hoardings or they would be stripped of their posts.

Addressing a function in Chinchwad where NCP workers turned out in large numbers, an angry Pawar said, “NCP leaders should not remain under the impression that by putting up banners and hoardings they would get a party post. Those who put up hoardings will not get any party post for next five years.”
Pointing towards his and NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s cutout that adorned the stage, Pawar said this was nothing but “height of stupidity.” He said in Nagpur, the high court had to intervene to stop such cutouts from spoiling the city’s beauty. “I hope NCP leaders will not let this to happen in Pimpri-Chinchwad.” NCP president Sharad Pawar was also present on the occasion.

pcworld Research In Motion is taking its second stab at the high-end consumer market with the new BlackBerry Curve, even while Nokia unveils some of the least expensive handsets in its line-up.

The introduction of the devices from both vendors reflects a trend in the mobile-phone industry to target the very high and very low ends of the market as growth slows in saturated regions.
The Curve is the smallest and lightest BlackBerry yet. It follows the introduction last year of the Pearl, a well-received BlackBerry that was aimed at the consumer smartphone market as well as business users. But unlike the Pearl, the Curve features the full QWERTY keyboard that appears on most other BlackBerry devices.

The Curve has a number of features aimed at mainstream users. It comes with a 2-megapixel camera that has a 5X digital zoom and built-in flash and enables three picture quality and resolution settings.
Users can also listen to music and watch videos on the phone and add more storage using a microSD expansion card slot.

The Curve comes with Roxio Media Manager for BlackBerry, software developed by Sonic Solutions that helps users organize their media files on their computers and then convert photos, music and videos for playback on the Curve.

techtree An industry first, IBM today announced applying a breakthrough self-assembling nanotechnology to conventional chip manufacturing, thus drawing upon nature to build Gen-Next computer chips.

The same pattern-creating process in nature that forms seashells and snowflakes, as also the enamel on teeth, has been harnessed by IBM, to form trillions of holes to create insulating vacuums around the nano-scale wires that are packed one next to the other inside every computer chip.
IBM’s patented self-assembly technique causes an ‘airgap,’ or rather a ‘vacuum’ to form between the copper wires on a computer chip. This allows electrical signals to flow faster, while consuming less power.

Thus, IBM’s process actually facilitates nano-scale patterning to form ‘gaps,’ and nano-scale patterning is considerably smaller, and hence superior compared to what existing lithographic techniques are able to achieve.

This means that IBM has for the first time, moved an essentially nanotechnology manufacturing method to the commercial manufacturing arena, providing the equivalent of two generations of Moore’s Law wiring performance improvements in one master stroke.