LONDON: Google is all set to extend its domination over cyberspace to the high seas, with the launch of its own “computer navy” – a set of supercomputers necessary to operate its Internet search engines on barges anchored up to 11km offshore.
The “water-based data centres” would use wave energy to power and cool the computers.
Their offshore status would also mean the company would no longer have to pay property taxes on its data centres sited across the world.
In the patent, Google writes: “Computing centres are located on a ship or ships, anchored in a water body from which energy from natural motion of the water may be captured, and turned into electricity and/or pumping power for cooling pumps to carry heat away.”
The increasing number of data centres necessary to cope with the massive information flows generated on the Web has made companies look at radical ideas to reduce their running costs.
The supercomputers housed in data centres, which can be the size of football pitches, use massive amounts of electricity to ensure they do not overheat. As a result, the Internet is not very green. In fact, data centres consumed 1 per cent of the world’s electricity in 2005.
To address the problem, Microsoft has investigated building a data centre in the cold climes of Siberia; while in Japan, Sun Microsystems plans to send its computers down an abandoned coal mine, using water from the ground as a coolant.
Sun said it could save $9 million of electricity costs a year and use half the power the data centre would have required if it was at ground level.
Technology experts said Google’s “computer navy” was an unexpected but clever solution.
“It’s really innovative, outside-the-box thinking,” said Rich Miller, the author of the datacentreknowledge.com blog.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Scattered paper
Once upon a time an old man spread rumors that his neighbor was a thief. As a result, the young man was arrested. Days later the young man was proven innocent. After been released he sued the old man for wrongly accusing him.
In court the old man told the Judge: "They were just comments, didn't harm anyone."
The judge, before passing sentence on the case, told the old man: "Write all the things you said about him in a piece of paper. Cut them up and on the way home, throw the pieces of paper out. Tomorrow, come back to hear the sentence."
Next day, the judge told the old man: "Before receiving the sentence, you will have to go out and gather all the pieces of paper that you threw out yesterday."
The old man said: "I can't do that! The wind spread them and I won't know where to find them."
The judge then replied: "The same way, simple comments may destroy the honor of a man to such an extent that one is not able to fix it. If you can't speak well of someone, rather don't say anything.
"Let's all be masters of our mouths, so that we won't be slaves of our words. "
Unforgiveness is the poison you drink every day hoping that the other person will die.
In court the old man told the Judge: "They were just comments, didn't harm anyone."
The judge, before passing sentence on the case, told the old man: "Write all the things you said about him in a piece of paper. Cut them up and on the way home, throw the pieces of paper out. Tomorrow, come back to hear the sentence."
Next day, the judge told the old man: "Before receiving the sentence, you will have to go out and gather all the pieces of paper that you threw out yesterday."
The old man said: "I can't do that! The wind spread them and I won't know where to find them."
The judge then replied: "The same way, simple comments may destroy the honor of a man to such an extent that one is not able to fix it. If you can't speak well of someone, rather don't say anything.
"Let's all be masters of our mouths, so that we won't be slaves of our words. "
Unforgiveness is the poison you drink every day hoping that the other person will die.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
More cos now allow flexi hours
The difference between 9 am and 10 am may be only sixty minutes, but for Savita Shishupal it has been life-changing.
The 33-year-old secretary and mother of twins lives in Badlapur and works at the Godrej office in Vikhroli. Ever since Godrej’s introduced its enlightened HR policy of staggered work shifts, allowing employees to come in by 10 am if they made up for the lost time during the week, her mornings have been less manic. Earlier, a day’s salary was docked for three late marks.
In a city where crammed trains and exhausting distances are a daily nightmare, meeting the tyranny of the nine o’clock deadline has pushed many an employee to breaking point.
The private sector is waking up to this reality, and while unwilling to completely relax timings and shift to flexitime (where you work hours of your choosing) the staggered work shift is slowly catching on. This has significantly impacted the lives of those like mid-level corporate executive Bakul Dave, 55, who spent so long commuting from his Powai residence to his Bandra office that he began to wonder what he was working so hard for if he couldn’t spend “the prime time of my life’’ with family.
In some cases, the human resource department took the decision because of the impossible rush-traffic hour. In other cases it was to help employees have a more healthy work-life balance. For corporates like HUL (Hindustan Unilever Ltd) which introduced its flexi-time policy at the end of 2007, both were key concerns. “Giving employees the choice of managing their travel to avoid peak hour traffic was one of the factors we considered,’’ says an HUL spokesperson. Companies see flexi hours as a ‘wellness’ initiative
Bakul Dave, who used to find peak-hour commuting between his Powai home and his Bandra office a big ordeal, now starts his workday at 7 am and saves up to two hours of travel time (and fuel) everyday. But by far the best perk is that he can actually spare time to catch a movie or join his wife in time for an evening phonecall to their kids abroad.
“Earlier, life was about work and more work. Even if I left office by 6.30 pm, the traffic snarls on my way home meant that I would reach home only to have dinner and sleep.
I tried all possible routes and bylanes but it still took an average of 2.5 hours to get home,’’ he recalls. Now that he leaves office at 4 pm, he’s home in 50 minutes flat.
Flexi hours, which nudged out the time-worn muster from some offices as far back as ten years ago, is seeing more takers today. Adi Godrej, chairman of the Godrej group, says theirs was one of the first companies to make the shift.
“We felt it would be good for our female employees who have children, but now a lot of our male staffers have been opting for it too,’’ he says.
Other firms are following in their footsteps. “Our staggered-hours concept came about due to the traffic congestion in the city,’’ says senior HR manager Rajendra Walekar from DHL-Lemuir Logistics, Marol.
Now, DHL-Lemuir has a policy of core working hours from 11 am to 4 pm during which everyone has to be present, but employees are allowed a twohour flexibility window in the morning provided they make up for it in the evening.
Procter and Gamble (P&G) India, which took the plunge and introduced flexitime about five years ago, sees it as a “wellness initiative’’.
Sonali Roychowdhury, head of HR at P&G says the arrangement “works on the principle of trust and ownership’’ and that though employees need to work certain fixed number of hours, they no longer clock employees timings.
Recently, P&G went several steps further and introduced a work-fromhome arrangement. “It couldn’t have come at a more apt time for me,’’ says Bandra resident Shweta Shukla, 33,who is on maternity leave after delivering her second son. “The arrangement will allow me to work out of home once a week in addition to my weekend off.
Just the thought that my kids will see me around thrice a week is comforting,’’ says Shukla, who feels that such initiatives make her “feel like returning to work’’ besides making her more productive.
Public sector utilities such as the BMC, which is one of the largest employers in the city, have stayed away from staggered shifts. “We made a bid for flexi hours several years ago, but found it wasn’t practical. We realised that in a service sector that is connected to thousands of people, such options aren’t feasible,’’ says Sharad Rao of the Municipal Mazdoor Union.
At ICICI Prudential, the HR chief says work is outcome driven. “We don’t believe in clocking timings and allow employees to work as per their convenience,’’ he says. It helps that with the communication gadget boom—cellphones, laptops and the Blackberry—reaching people at their homes is not a problem anymore.
Occupational health experts view the relaxation of the rigid 9-to-5 shift as a positive step. “While it isn’t possible for all sectors we find that such options better a person’s work-life balance and thus their outlook and commitment towards work too improves,’’ says Dr Shyam Pingle, vicepresident of the Indian Association of Occupation Health (IAOH), a voluntary organisation that lobbies to make offices healthy and safe.
“Colleagues say that an extra hour in the morning makes a world of difference. For some it is enough to drop their children to school, others can even go to the gym.’’
A 2007 study by the University of Minnesota on flexitime and well-being corroborates this. The researchers tracked employees in a retail firm and found that flexibility at the workplace allowed for “greater organisation commitment and more job satisfaction’’.
On the personal front, too, such employees had fewer fights at home, slept better and even exercised more frequently.
The 33-year-old secretary and mother of twins lives in Badlapur and works at the Godrej office in Vikhroli. Ever since Godrej’s introduced its enlightened HR policy of staggered work shifts, allowing employees to come in by 10 am if they made up for the lost time during the week, her mornings have been less manic. Earlier, a day’s salary was docked for three late marks.
In a city where crammed trains and exhausting distances are a daily nightmare, meeting the tyranny of the nine o’clock deadline has pushed many an employee to breaking point.
The private sector is waking up to this reality, and while unwilling to completely relax timings and shift to flexitime (where you work hours of your choosing) the staggered work shift is slowly catching on. This has significantly impacted the lives of those like mid-level corporate executive Bakul Dave, 55, who spent so long commuting from his Powai residence to his Bandra office that he began to wonder what he was working so hard for if he couldn’t spend “the prime time of my life’’ with family.
In some cases, the human resource department took the decision because of the impossible rush-traffic hour. In other cases it was to help employees have a more healthy work-life balance. For corporates like HUL (Hindustan Unilever Ltd) which introduced its flexi-time policy at the end of 2007, both were key concerns. “Giving employees the choice of managing their travel to avoid peak hour traffic was one of the factors we considered,’’ says an HUL spokesperson. Companies see flexi hours as a ‘wellness’ initiative
Bakul Dave, who used to find peak-hour commuting between his Powai home and his Bandra office a big ordeal, now starts his workday at 7 am and saves up to two hours of travel time (and fuel) everyday. But by far the best perk is that he can actually spare time to catch a movie or join his wife in time for an evening phonecall to their kids abroad.
“Earlier, life was about work and more work. Even if I left office by 6.30 pm, the traffic snarls on my way home meant that I would reach home only to have dinner and sleep.
I tried all possible routes and bylanes but it still took an average of 2.5 hours to get home,’’ he recalls. Now that he leaves office at 4 pm, he’s home in 50 minutes flat.
Flexi hours, which nudged out the time-worn muster from some offices as far back as ten years ago, is seeing more takers today. Adi Godrej, chairman of the Godrej group, says theirs was one of the first companies to make the shift.
“We felt it would be good for our female employees who have children, but now a lot of our male staffers have been opting for it too,’’ he says.
Other firms are following in their footsteps. “Our staggered-hours concept came about due to the traffic congestion in the city,’’ says senior HR manager Rajendra Walekar from DHL-Lemuir Logistics, Marol.
Now, DHL-Lemuir has a policy of core working hours from 11 am to 4 pm during which everyone has to be present, but employees are allowed a twohour flexibility window in the morning provided they make up for it in the evening.
Procter and Gamble (P&G) India, which took the plunge and introduced flexitime about five years ago, sees it as a “wellness initiative’’.
Sonali Roychowdhury, head of HR at P&G says the arrangement “works on the principle of trust and ownership’’ and that though employees need to work certain fixed number of hours, they no longer clock employees timings.
Recently, P&G went several steps further and introduced a work-fromhome arrangement. “It couldn’t have come at a more apt time for me,’’ says Bandra resident Shweta Shukla, 33,who is on maternity leave after delivering her second son. “The arrangement will allow me to work out of home once a week in addition to my weekend off.
Just the thought that my kids will see me around thrice a week is comforting,’’ says Shukla, who feels that such initiatives make her “feel like returning to work’’ besides making her more productive.
Public sector utilities such as the BMC, which is one of the largest employers in the city, have stayed away from staggered shifts. “We made a bid for flexi hours several years ago, but found it wasn’t practical. We realised that in a service sector that is connected to thousands of people, such options aren’t feasible,’’ says Sharad Rao of the Municipal Mazdoor Union.
At ICICI Prudential, the HR chief says work is outcome driven. “We don’t believe in clocking timings and allow employees to work as per their convenience,’’ he says. It helps that with the communication gadget boom—cellphones, laptops and the Blackberry—reaching people at their homes is not a problem anymore.
Occupational health experts view the relaxation of the rigid 9-to-5 shift as a positive step. “While it isn’t possible for all sectors we find that such options better a person’s work-life balance and thus their outlook and commitment towards work too improves,’’ says Dr Shyam Pingle, vicepresident of the Indian Association of Occupation Health (IAOH), a voluntary organisation that lobbies to make offices healthy and safe.
“Colleagues say that an extra hour in the morning makes a world of difference. For some it is enough to drop their children to school, others can even go to the gym.’’
A 2007 study by the University of Minnesota on flexitime and well-being corroborates this. The researchers tracked employees in a retail firm and found that flexibility at the workplace allowed for “greater organisation commitment and more job satisfaction’’.
On the personal front, too, such employees had fewer fights at home, slept better and even exercised more frequently.
MeeMum-BIKER
The rains are on their way out and a new fitness fad is on its way in. Here’s how to bike your way to a better body...
Its time to cycle your way to good health. Forget fancy gym memberships, cycling is both a cool and a cost-effective way to achieve sporty fitness. What's more, it's been a craze with celebs too. While Madonna has been a famous cyclist, Courteney Cox has spent 6,000 pounds on a bike for best friend Jennifer Aniston after Jen said she wanted to start cycling.
And while we mere mortals might have to make do with a bog-standard pushbike, the body benefits are universal. So before you wave a final goodbye to the rains, it's time to dust off your old bicycle and hit the road.
PERFECT FAT-BURNER
If you want to drop a dress size, then cycling is one of the best ways you can do it. Biking provides a great overall workout, burning calories and reducing body fat. Plus, it can't be beaten when it comes to getting great thighs and a perfectly pert bottom.
GETTING STARTED
You don't have to spend a fortune on a top-of-the-range new bike. Chances are, the one you may have got tucked away at the back of your building is just fine.
Remember, if your feet fully touch the ground when you're in the saddle, the bike is either too small or the seat needs raising.
Other safety essentials, (which most people do not adhere to) recommended are: a helmet, padlock, bicycle pump, plus lights and reflective gear if you plan to cycle at night.
YOUR BIKING PLAN:
Begin with three 30-minute bike rides for the first week, building up to longer sessions each week. Start on flat terrain, then introduce a few hills to challenge yourself. By week three, you should aim for four 35-minute sessions. By week five and six you should be aiming for four 45-minute bike sessions per week to really see a difference.
SIX MORE REASONS TO GET ON THE SADDLE
1 Cycling keeps your knees and hips flexible. Plus, because you have to rise out of the saddle with any bumps in the road, it also strengthens your lower back and stomach muscles.
2 Regular aerobic exercise such as cycling has been shown to be more effective than Prozac in beating mild depression, as it releases "feel good" chemicals in the brain.
3 Studies show that people who regularly cycle have the fitness level and body age of someone 10 years younger.
4 Cycling is the perfect exercise if you're overweight because your body weight is carried by the bike, not you, so excess pounds don't put pressure on your joints.
5 As part of a healthy lifestyle, regular cycling can reduce your risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease by around 50 per cent.
6 Cycling is credit-crunch friendly as it requires no gym membership fees, and saves money on petrol or public transport. It's also pollutionfree and better for the environment. HEAD OUT!
The SV road adjacent to your building – with its moon-like surface – isn't quite the ideal place to walk on, forget cycling. But that doesn't mean you take it up as an excuse and never cycle. Hardcore cyclists from town will agree that there are quite a few cycling havens within our concrete jungle, and they're worth cycling to even if you spend most of your energy just reaching there. Here's a lowdown on some...
MALAD — DAHISAR:
Residents of the northern suburbs can cycle their way to probably the ideal place to cycle in the city, the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Already a preferred hub for many morning walkers, the calm surroundings of the vast sanctuary can rejuvenate you before you take the Churchgate Fast to work.
ANDHERI — GOREGAON:
The Aarey milk colony, with its wide roads and open spaces provides a good cycling playground for those interested. Residents on the eastern side of the suburbs can even head to the Vihar lake vicinity of Powai for a dose of their morning cycling.
VILE PARLE — CENTRAL MUMBAI:
Mumbaikars of the central region of town would already know that Bandra Reclamation has already evolved into a cool destination for cyclists. Head here for a smooth, smooth ride, and you even irk the cops who're generally on the lookout for bikers of the other kind. If bored, you can also head to the good old Band Stand, Carter Road and the hills of old Bandra.
CENTRAL MUMBAI — COLABA:
While the ultimate paradise for any fitness freak would be the Marine Drive, many walkers and cyclists have also been spotted doing their thing in and around Priyadarshini Park and in the vicinity of Nepeansea road.You can also head to Pedder Road, but be sure to pedal back home before the rush hour.
If you're looking to connect with fellow cycling enthus, we hope you know there's an exclusive social network only for cyclists!
Log on to www.cyclists.in and share your stories, meet up and go for outdoor cycling treks
Its time to cycle your way to good health. Forget fancy gym memberships, cycling is both a cool and a cost-effective way to achieve sporty fitness. What's more, it's been a craze with celebs too. While Madonna has been a famous cyclist, Courteney Cox has spent 6,000 pounds on a bike for best friend Jennifer Aniston after Jen said she wanted to start cycling.
And while we mere mortals might have to make do with a bog-standard pushbike, the body benefits are universal. So before you wave a final goodbye to the rains, it's time to dust off your old bicycle and hit the road.
PERFECT FAT-BURNER
If you want to drop a dress size, then cycling is one of the best ways you can do it. Biking provides a great overall workout, burning calories and reducing body fat. Plus, it can't be beaten when it comes to getting great thighs and a perfectly pert bottom.
GETTING STARTED
You don't have to spend a fortune on a top-of-the-range new bike. Chances are, the one you may have got tucked away at the back of your building is just fine.
Remember, if your feet fully touch the ground when you're in the saddle, the bike is either too small or the seat needs raising.
Other safety essentials, (which most people do not adhere to) recommended are: a helmet, padlock, bicycle pump, plus lights and reflective gear if you plan to cycle at night.
YOUR BIKING PLAN:
Begin with three 30-minute bike rides for the first week, building up to longer sessions each week. Start on flat terrain, then introduce a few hills to challenge yourself. By week three, you should aim for four 35-minute sessions. By week five and six you should be aiming for four 45-minute bike sessions per week to really see a difference.
SIX MORE REASONS TO GET ON THE SADDLE
1 Cycling keeps your knees and hips flexible. Plus, because you have to rise out of the saddle with any bumps in the road, it also strengthens your lower back and stomach muscles.
2 Regular aerobic exercise such as cycling has been shown to be more effective than Prozac in beating mild depression, as it releases "feel good" chemicals in the brain.
3 Studies show that people who regularly cycle have the fitness level and body age of someone 10 years younger.
4 Cycling is the perfect exercise if you're overweight because your body weight is carried by the bike, not you, so excess pounds don't put pressure on your joints.
5 As part of a healthy lifestyle, regular cycling can reduce your risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease by around 50 per cent.
6 Cycling is credit-crunch friendly as it requires no gym membership fees, and saves money on petrol or public transport. It's also pollutionfree and better for the environment. HEAD OUT!
The SV road adjacent to your building – with its moon-like surface – isn't quite the ideal place to walk on, forget cycling. But that doesn't mean you take it up as an excuse and never cycle. Hardcore cyclists from town will agree that there are quite a few cycling havens within our concrete jungle, and they're worth cycling to even if you spend most of your energy just reaching there. Here's a lowdown on some...
MALAD — DAHISAR:
Residents of the northern suburbs can cycle their way to probably the ideal place to cycle in the city, the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Already a preferred hub for many morning walkers, the calm surroundings of the vast sanctuary can rejuvenate you before you take the Churchgate Fast to work.
ANDHERI — GOREGAON:
The Aarey milk colony, with its wide roads and open spaces provides a good cycling playground for those interested. Residents on the eastern side of the suburbs can even head to the Vihar lake vicinity of Powai for a dose of their morning cycling.
VILE PARLE — CENTRAL MUMBAI:
Mumbaikars of the central region of town would already know that Bandra Reclamation has already evolved into a cool destination for cyclists. Head here for a smooth, smooth ride, and you even irk the cops who're generally on the lookout for bikers of the other kind. If bored, you can also head to the good old Band Stand, Carter Road and the hills of old Bandra.
CENTRAL MUMBAI — COLABA:
While the ultimate paradise for any fitness freak would be the Marine Drive, many walkers and cyclists have also been spotted doing their thing in and around Priyadarshini Park and in the vicinity of Nepeansea road.You can also head to Pedder Road, but be sure to pedal back home before the rush hour.
If you're looking to connect with fellow cycling enthus, we hope you know there's an exclusive social network only for cyclists!
Log on to www.cyclists.in and share your stories, meet up and go for outdoor cycling treks
State to set up 11,000 ‘eSeva’ kiosks
MUMBAI MIRROR BUREAU
MUMBAI: The state government will sign Master Service Agreements with private firms for a new IT-enabled public service christened as ‘Maha e-Seva’ in presence of Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Union Minister of State for IT Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday.
The agreements envisage setting up of 11,000 IT kiosks across the state that will offer a slew of services to citizens, such as filing of Income Tax returns, payment of Motor Vehicle Taxes, procurement of various licenses, availing caste or domicile certificates and checking land records.
At least four companies – Spanco, Infotech, CMS and Reliance Communications – have been selected by the state government through a bidding process. The kiosks, which are actually a part of the National eGovernance Plan, will be operated by these companies by levying certain charges for the services.
Government sources pointed out that this new process is aimed at reducing the interference of middlemen in the current system at various government departments.
The kiosks will also prove helpful for those who cannot afford to make rounds of various government offices for getting the desired work done.
It is also hoped that people residing in villages and who cannot afford to travel regularly to their taluka or district-level offices will especially make use of this new service.
According to IT secretary K Shivaji, the state is aiming for operationalising one such kiosk for every four villages, along with the usual urban centres.
Ultimately, 1,336 urban ‘Maha eSeva Kendras’ and 10,483 rural ones will come up by August 2009.
MUMBAI: The state government will sign Master Service Agreements with private firms for a new IT-enabled public service christened as ‘Maha e-Seva’ in presence of Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Union Minister of State for IT Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday.
The agreements envisage setting up of 11,000 IT kiosks across the state that will offer a slew of services to citizens, such as filing of Income Tax returns, payment of Motor Vehicle Taxes, procurement of various licenses, availing caste or domicile certificates and checking land records.
At least four companies – Spanco, Infotech, CMS and Reliance Communications – have been selected by the state government through a bidding process. The kiosks, which are actually a part of the National eGovernance Plan, will be operated by these companies by levying certain charges for the services.
Government sources pointed out that this new process is aimed at reducing the interference of middlemen in the current system at various government departments.
The kiosks will also prove helpful for those who cannot afford to make rounds of various government offices for getting the desired work done.
It is also hoped that people residing in villages and who cannot afford to travel regularly to their taluka or district-level offices will especially make use of this new service.
According to IT secretary K Shivaji, the state is aiming for operationalising one such kiosk for every four villages, along with the usual urban centres.
Ultimately, 1,336 urban ‘Maha eSeva Kendras’ and 10,483 rural ones will come up by August 2009.
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