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indianexpress:  In the wake of a series of attacks on senior citizens, Pune Police Commissioner Jayant Umranikar has said all steps would be taken to protect them. He also outlined what they could expect from the police.

As the first step, Umranikar urged senior citizens to register their names at the nearest police station so that help could reach them during emergencies. “The senior citizens’ helpline will become operational from June 1,” he said, while addressing mediapersons during the Vision Pune talk at Patrakar Bhavan on Sunday.
 
Umranikar said policemen would visit the elderly once a week and discuss their problems. “The police will also provide life-saving drugs to senior citizens if the situation demands,” he said.

He also dwelt on the concept of planned policing initiated from 2006 in which the Ministry of Finance had said law and order was an integrated part of development. An efficient public transport system, decongestion of crowded places and diversion of heavy traffic from the city would go a long way in streamlining the woeful traffic scenario in the city, he felt.

Coming down heavily on traffic indiscipline in Puneites, the police chief stressed the need to educate the public to obey traffic rules. “Puneites are careless about traffic rules and have a tendency to jump signals. Self-discipline needs to be cultivated as enforcement alone cannot solve the problem,” he said.

The networking of all medico-legal vans would be completed along with a dedicated cell and trauma centre, he added.

Umranikar also spoke about the registration of complaints at police station. “There is a tendency of not registering cognisable crimes at police stations and dismissing them as non-cognisable. It is the foremost responsibility of the police to register cognisable offences, “ he said, advising policemen to patiently hear public grievances.

indianexpress: The new State Transport buses are red, shiny and elegant but a ride may steal the pleasure the exterior offers.

Senior officials of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) have themselves admitted that the new buses are not up to the mark. “The changes are a mere eyewash,” a senior MSRTC official from Pune region said. “According to the prototype prepared, these buses were to have polyurethane foam seats instead of rexine ones. However, the new buses have the same rexine seats,’’ he added.

The official said the new ST buses are being plied on long routes to Aurangabad, Beed, Pandharpur and other destinations. “For such long journeys, passengers should have comfort. The very idea of the makeover was to attract more passengers by providing them comfort. Instead, rexine seats will make them go to private operators,’’ he said.

The State Transport Central Workshop at Dapodi had received orders for 80 buses. “With such a large order, we needed more manpower but the employees agreed to put in extra effort. However, we did not receive the foam on time,’’ said workshop works manager S P Jadhav. The workshop has procured 76 chassis, of which 14 are yet to be completed.

However, all is not lost. Jadhav promises to change the rexine seats in the new ST buses that are presently on the roads once the foam seats are ready.

The prototype — designed at a cost of Rs 4.3 lakh — had modifications like polyurethane foam seats instead of rexine ones, low floor to make boarding comfortable, a separate luggage boot at the rear, rubber bedding for windows to avoid rattling of panes, ventilation for the driver, ivory paint for the interior instead of green, a single windshield instead of two and polyurethane paint instead of enamel.

indianexpress: The Central government on Sunday sanctioned grants worth Rs 70 crore to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for the road network development ahead of the Commonwealth Youth Games 2008. The PMC will utilise the funds for strengthening the internal road network in the city.

Earlier, the PMC had received funds worth Rs 85 crores in October 2006 for the youth games. PMC officials said fresh allotment of funds would be utilised for road development in Baner, Vimannagar, Sancheti hospital area, Agriculture College and Swargate.

In the annual budget the PMC had proposed to undertake road works utilising funds worth Rs 268 crore allotted for the games. The formation of a standing technical advisory committee is proposed to ensure good quality roads.

Last week, it came to light that 25 per cent of the funds received from the central and state governments for the JNNURM projects will be in the form of loans and the rest will be grants. PMC officials and Congress leaders who took credit of bringing funds for the road development preferred to keep mum on this mater. The civic body has received funds to the tune of Rs 85 crore till date, out of which Rs 18.47 crore is in the form of loans.

indianexpress: Having learnt a lesson or two from the landslides last year, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) is working hard to provide a hassle-free ride to commuters on Pune-Mumbai expressway this monsoon.

Last year, the expressway had witnessed two landslides near the Khandala tunnel. MSRDC officials said this year they have spent Rs 1.92 crore for removing loose boulders and installing drains. The work at nine potentially dangerous points on the e-way have been completed. “We are planning to finish the work by May-end. We estimate the smaller landslides to be reduced by 50 to 60 per cent this year,’’ said MSRDC executive engineer Vidyadhar Sardeshmukh.
 
Earlier, the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI)’s report had identified 12 spots on the 92-km stretch of the expressway, with four supersensitive and eight sensitive locations. MSRDC had sanctioned Rs 4 crore for correction of landslide-prone spots in 2005. Of this, the MSRDC spent Rs 1.51 crore for correcting kms 46 and 48 last year.

The corporation has made a separate allocation of Rs 4.5 crore for the critical stretch covering Duke’s Nose and Khandala tunnel. “The work of wire-netting the 1-km stretch from Nilkantheshwar temple to Khandala ghat is underway. The people at Duke’s Nose had reservations about the work. However, after the landslide, they agreed to help us,’’ Sardeshmukh said.

The work at Duke’s Nose is estimated to get over by the first week of July, coinciding with the time when the landslides, which cut off the Pune-Mumbai corridors, occurred last year. “We were ready with the wire-netting plans designed by experts since November. However, the steel wires were delayed,’’ Sardeshmukh added.

But the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) system at Adoshi at the 40-km point is yet to see the light of the day due to the financial crunch being faced by the corporation. Adoshi was to receive a GPR system for detecting the path of water to help in taking corrective steps

indianexpress: Even as the farmers’ issue is boiling, filmmaker Nandoo Madhav in his own little way tried to look for a reason — by giving it cinematic expression. And it was nothing short of a surprise to Madhav when his film was screened in the short films category at Cannes Film Festival.

Set against the backdrop of a small village in Marathwada, Shwet Angar , the only Marathi entry among the 17 short Indian films that were sent to the fest, tells of the trials and tribulations of the cotton farmers. The poetic title, explains Madhav, is suggestive of the immense unrest and rebellion brewing under the seemingly-pristine surface of cotton.
 
“A closer look, and an entirely different scenario greets you,” he said. “Cotton farmers almost never get the help they need at the right time. And the government, which is apparently very supportive, is actually not, because when push comes to shove, it forces the farmers to sell the cotton at a lower rate. The film exposes the disparity between what seems and what is,” he elaborates.

Madhav and the rest of the crew decided not to have any names for the characters. “Because this is a universal story of human oppression. One that is recognisable across barriers of culture, time and language. For instance, in a scene where the face-off between the farmer who is taking his cotton to the market in a bullock cart and an ST driver along a narrow road, is symbolic of the bitter truth that when confronted by the awesome might of the government, the farmers have no choice but to back off,” narrates Madhav.

“In fact, when the driver arrogantly asks the farmer if he imagines the land is his property, the latter retorts with scathing sarcasm that indeed it is, but since the driver is the one paying the tax, he has no choice but to give him the right of way,” he says.

Nonetheless, Madhav himself was quite oblivious to its selection. It was a film maker friend settled in France who informed him. Though none of the cast and crew could make it to Cannes because of the expense involved, Madhav says they are all happy for the contribution they have made to Marathi cinema.

indianexpress: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has equipped 14 ward offices with utility vans for filling up potholes and road repairs during the monsoon. Special staff is being appointed to address road complaints.

The PMC has also appealed to citizens to give suggestions for road repairs. Citizens from Sangamwadi, Dhole-Patil Road and Kasba Peth ward office can contact Ganpat Salunkhe on 9823380993. For Yerawada, Hadapsar and Bhawani Peth ward offices, Nandkumar Jagtap can be contacted on 9823190977. S G Khandve will be in charge of Aundh, Ghole Road and Karve Road, Warje-Karvenagar ward offices and is available on 9823167773. RV Raut, in-charge of Vishrambagwada, Tilak Road, Sahakarnagar and Bibvewadi is available on 9923101371.

Till date, the PMC has completed tarring 94 km roads including Nagar Road, Mundhwa Bridge, Shankarsheth Road, Pune Station area, Jaikar, Baner, Ganeshkhind, Kondhwa main road, Bibwewadi main road, Shivneri Road, BT Kawade Road, Handewadi, Prabhat Road, Muhammadwadi and Bhandarkar Road. Laying of interlocking blocks in city chowks measures up to 1,300 square metres. These chowks include RTO, Katraj dairy, Ahilyadevi and Gururaj society chowk. The PMC has also cleaned 88 km storm water drainage.

Officials said work on Karve Road would be completed within the next 10 days. Municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi said that the civic body is making efforts to ensure that the quality of the road work is maintained and roads are able to sustain heavy rains.

techtree: Buffalo Technology, a manufacturer of wired and wireless solutions, has announced its LinkStation Live and TeraStation Live consumer NAS devices.

The products are designed for easy storage and distribution of multimedia files such as music, media back-ups, family videos, and photos.

According to the company, the two devices have one new thing in common, namely, iTunes 7 software can access music stored on them. Besides, they can store photos and videos directly from a digital camera, and instantly access, backup, store, and share multimedia/other files from PCs.

Morikazu Sano, Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing at Buffalo Technology, said, “As with all of our consumer-driven products, we designed the LinkStation Live and TeraStation Live with the needs of the digital home in mind. We want to make it easy and affordable for consumers to have access to all of their digital content throughout their home, and today, we’re making that possible.”

The LinkStation Live and TeraStation Live include Mediabolic’s Media Server software that makes music, photo, and video files available over a network for streamed playback on connected entertainment devices.

Both new devices feature a high performance Marvell Media Vault Processor (while the LinkStation Live uses a 400MHz CPU, the TeraStation Live uses a 500MHz CPU); and DDR-II Ram and SATA hard drives for ultra fast transfer rates of up to 35MB/s. For even better performance, they include an Auto-MDIX10/100/1000 Base-T Gigabit Ethernet port and Gigabit Jumbo Frame support.

The two NAS devices are Windows and Mac compatible, and have two USB 2.0 ports each. The products feature Memeo AutoBackup multi-language backup software for Windows, which runs in the background and automatically backs up files from PCs

technewsworld: A Carnegie Mellon University project is using CAPTCHA — or Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart — tests to digitize books. Three hundred Web sites have already signed up to use the technology. About 60 million CAPTCHA tests are solved every day.

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Web surfers all too familiar with the distorted-letter tests that accompany so many site registration forms today can now take heart — the time they spend on those tests is being put to good use.

Thanks to a project at Carnegie Mellon University, a new version of those pesky CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) tests makes the technology work double-duty: Not only does it continue to distinguish between legitimate human users and malevolent spam  programs, it also uses the results to aid in the digitization of books for the Internet Archive.

A Carnegie Mellon team led by Luis von Ahn, an assistant professor of computer science and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation genius grant, developed the new tests, dubbed “reCAPTCHAs,” which were launched on Wednesday.

Helping OCR
Optical character recognition (OCR) technology used to digitize printed text is often confounded by underlined text, scribbles and fuzzy or otherwise poorly printed letters.

ReCAPTCHA tests work by asking users to type in one distorted but known word along with one that has stumped an optical character recognition (OCR) system working on a digitization project. If the user inputs the known word correctly, then the system has greater confidence that he or she has deciphered the problematic word correctly too.

technewsworld: Christensen, Sonopia’s founder and CEO. With consumers increasingly demanding media customization, from ring tones to YouTube video, he says it was only a matter of time before “micro-segmentation” found its way to wireless.

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Read the free whitepaper from Plixer International and find out how using our NetFlow & sFlow Analyzer can help you achieve the full value of your Cisco equipment.

If you’re tired of dealing with big cell phone companies, here’s an idea: Start your own.

That’s what Rod Farthing did. A part-time college professor in Toledo, Ohio, Farthing launched “Farthing Mobile” a few weeks ago. His service has eight subscribers, all family members and close friends, “but anybody can join.”

Farthing says he decided to start his network — a so-called MVNO or mobile virtual network operator, which transmits calls on one of the existing wireless  networks — because he was tired of hassling with the big carriers. “I’m unhappy with them all.”

Do-It-Yourself Wireless
Farthing is a leader in what could become a revolution in wireless: do-it-yourself cell phone networks.

At least that’s the hope of Sonopia, the company that enables Farthing Mobile and about 1,000 other new MVNOs, including: Yoga Phone, Obama for President Mobile and Peterman Mobile (dedicated to cat-lovers, it is named for the founder’s 17-pound Maine Coone).

The company recently began offering individuals and groups the ability to set up a personalized wireless service free by going to its Web site — www.sonopia.com.