To compete with Facebook Google acquires Metaweb.

Google today made the competition even tougher for the social networking site Facebook the search engine has announced that it has acquired Metabeb that works on packaging information on the Internet.

Metaweb is a company that keeps an open database of the events and happenings of the world. Now Google wants to make the search even richer by adding more and more information to the web search page so that it is more meaningful for the users. By acquiring the company, Google has thus challenged Facebook which works on the same principal of dealing in the information.
Now if you type any word for instance barak obama birthday in the search box, you will see the answer right at the top of the page and specific events and dates will also appear. Earlier, Facebook had announced its Open Graph initiative to make the Web more meaningful.

Making melting pots: NITs asked to draw foreign students

HRD ministry officials feel there might be something, after all, to the ‘melting pot’ — the metaphor used by colleges in the US to describe diversity on campus. Now, they want a similar thing in India. In a March 4, 2010, circular to the National Institutes of Technology (formerly Regional Engineering Colleges), the ministry has asked them to go all out to attract foreign students. Not just non-resident Indians or people of Indian origin (PIO), but students from the US, UK and Australia as well. As officials see it, building diversity on campus is just a step away from preparing students to subsequently deal with increasing diversity at the workplace.

“Our curriculum is at par with international levels. What we lack is branding, and this will happen only when more foreign students apply to India,” says MHRD deputy advisor N Mohan Das. In the letter, the MHRD entrusts the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) with the responsibility to “evolve a framework for publicising schemes” by creating “a web-portal for application, submissions and the entire admissions process”.



The reason for roping in NITs is that while these institutes are second-rung in India after the IITs, they are not recognised abroad. At the same time, the meltdown has made students look at relatively cheaper options in Asian countries, for both study and work, making it the right time to go international. Currently, the 15% quota reserved for foreign students is filled by NRIs and PIOs from the Gulf. “We do not get quality students due to a lack of information,” says Prof Sunil Sarangi, director of NIT Rourkela, Orissa. “Most people look at the US or UK, unaware of the facilities available here.” In its first year, the programme will focus on publicising Indian tech institutions in places with a substantial Indian population, like Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. Later, the aim will be to target students from countries known to provide quality education, like the US, UK, France and Australia. NIT alumnus, home on vacation and teachers on official visits abroad, are expected to organise popularisation drives.



Even though the institutes are wooing foreign students, they are quite clear there will be strict norms for admissions. While the MHRD wants to make the admissions process under the direct admission of studies abroad scheme more user-friendly, Indian institutions say they will only accept “quality” students. “We are modelling the system along the lines of those in the UK and US,” says Prof Sandeep Sancheti of NITK Surathkal, mentor-director of NIT Goa. Entrance to foreign students from this year will be based on their scores from international admissions tests like the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) unlike earlier, when their school-leaving marksheets would suffice.



That doesn’t deter people like Catherine Nalubega of Ukraine, who is currently doing her second year civil engineering at NITK and plans to live on in India. Nalubega picked NITK over options in Russia and China, and feels the Indian government’s scholarship schemes, if promoted better, will attract more foreign students. Having more foreign students will also bring in foreign exchange; especially when the recession has made people look at value-for-money, cost-effective education options. It’s a win-win for everyone.

New NITs in India

New IIT announcements and news coverage overshadowed the new NITs announced in India. These NITs are not included this year AIEEE ranking as I exclusively ranked then based on GATE cutoffs and AIEEE scores. Probably I will add them to next year list because we will official data for them too.

Now the question is to join New NITs are not? If you read my earlier post regarding New IITs or old NITs and state universities, you may know my stand. If I am a student I definitely prefer Govt. run institute over private or deemed universities. The simple reason is Govt. run institutes offer same or better learning facilities on much lower cost. New NITs will participate in central counseling for this year B.Tech admissions.
New NITs and their mentors

Sl No.	NIT with Location	Mentor NIT
1	National Institute of Technology Arunachal Pradesh	NIT Durgapur
2	National Institute of Technology Delhi	NIT Warangal
3	National Institute of Technology Goa	NIT Surathkal
4	National Institute of Technology Manipur	NIT Agartala
5	National Institute of Technology Meghalaya	SVNIT Surat
6	National Institute of Technology Mizoram	VNIT Nagpur
7	National Institute of Technology Nagaland	NIT Silchar
8	National Institute of Technology Pondicherry	NIT Trichy
9	National Institute of Technology Sikkim	NIT Calicut
10	National Institute of Technology Uttarakhand	NIT Kurukshetra

Right from the beginning NIT Delhi, Goa, Pondicherry and Uttarakhand will share their place with Top NITs in India leaving behind old and private universities. Apart from geographical advantage they also have top mentoring institutes.
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Nintendo 3DS in the flesh and hands-on!

That Nintendo announced the 3DS was not a surprise -- that they had a couple-dozen of these things to try out, that was. We elbowed our way to the front of the line to try one out, and the effect is actually not bad. It's not great, but the 3.5-inch screen on top certainly gives a firm illusion of depth without resorting to glasses -- or eye crossing. The feel is definitely reminiscent of those 3D cereal box prints, and as soon as you turn the device from left to right to try to look around anything the effect is immediately lost. You need to stare at the screen for a moment for your eyes to adjust and then not move around too much. If you do you'll need to adjust again. But, stay reasonably still and it's a compelling effect.

The new analog slider on the left feels a lot like the PSP's analog nub, but larger and without the texture. It's a bit easier on the fingers, and comfortable. Overall the device feels just like a current DS or DSi, though we couldn't get a good feel for the weight thanks to a bulky tether attached on one end to the device, and on the other end to the row of ladies who were surely told to not let the gadgets out of their hands or face certain doom. The only thing we could do here is rotate along a still frame -- Pikmin in a field, for example -- and play with the 3D slider. It is a pretty convincing effect, but it's hard to tell at this point if it's at all compelling -- it wasn't anything more than novelty in this demo, and we still don't know how it stands up to fast-moving footage. Actual games were promised to us for the show floor, so we'll hit that up later today. We snagged a few pics before getting elbowed out of the way, so check 'em out!

Microsoft Kinect gets official, Video Chat announced

You knew it was coming, right? Hot on the heels of getting leaked a wee bit early Microsoft has made official the rebadging of a device desperately seeking a new name: "Project Natal" is no more, replaced by Microsoft Kinect. At a circus- and celebrity-filled affair, MS wrapped everyone in high-tech panchos (pictured after the break courtesy of Joystiq) and then took the wraps off of the new title. Quite a few game demos were shown, ranging from Star Wars to tiger petting, the Kinect interface to the Dashboard was shown (said by some to be Minority Report-like), and a video chat app called, wait for it, Video Chat. Through here you can naturally talk to friends (up to four total people at once was "shown"), and also share photos.

Sadly, no hands-on time was given nor did MS reveal the two crucial bits of information we're waiting for: price and date. Naturally a holiday release is expected, to give the Xbox 360 a nice sales boost, but we're hearing price rumors as high as $150. These choice bits of intel will surely be unveiled at Microsoft's event tomorrow -- if someone doesn't beat 'em to it. The hardware is still looking exactly like the early picture above, shattering hopes of a slimmer design to match new Slim Xbox 360.

Update: We've got official photos now, though solid textual info is still scarce. Stand by!

Update 2: So we're out of the wild, cult-like experience that was Microsoft's Kinect unveiling. Microsoft still has a lot of details to reveal, but there are a few things we gleaned from watching the demos:

• Almost everything was one person at a time, particularly in the Kinect Sports games. Even a game like beach volleyball or soccer was boiled down to individual "moments" of interaction that get strung together into some sort of competition. Even the running in place games were one at a time, though the river rafting and mining cart games (both with a similar mechanic of jumping and ducking through an obstacle course while picking up tokens) could be played with two people at a time. You can at least play games like volleyball simultaneously with someone else over Xbox Live.
• An interesting mechanic we saw was a second player "jumping in" to a game. In the mining cart scenario, when the second player jumped in it immediately went split screen, while in soccer different players took turns by just jumping into position. Sure, some of this stuff was edited for our benefit, but it seems Microsoft is working to make the introduction of a second player or the switching between players something less button-heavy.
• The Star Wars game was pretty badass-looking -- you play a Jedi, rushing down stormtroopers and deflecting laser bolts left and right, wielding a few Force powers, and confronting a certain deep-voiced Sith Lord for a one-on-one duel. Based on the gestures and action we saw, though, it was a pretty heavily scripted experience. Still, there's no scripting a two-handed light saber grip, and that particular action looked like everything we've ever wanted in a Star Wars game.
• The yoga game is actually a pretty smart use of the infrared and joint detection software we espied previously. Positions were "checked" by points on the joint -- making it certainly harder to fake the moves on Wii Fit -- and it seemed to have a tai chi element to it. Your avatar glowed a more intense red based on your three-dimensional approximation -- bright red for hands stretched forward, for example.
• Next up: Kinectimals, a baby tiger pet simulator. You can scratch its ears, snuggle, and teach the little guy to jump and play dead. Adorable? Dangerously so. No one can tell us the developer, but based on the lighting effects, art style, and similarities to the previously-shown Milo, we'd wager a guess that it was Lionhead Studios.
• The Kinect menu interface is about as simple as could be. You wave your hand to control a glowing cursor of sorts, and you push forward to "click" on the element you want. Of course, there's also a very simplified version of the Dashboard to go along with this control mechanism, so it's unclear if you'll be able to do everything via subtle hand waves, but the Twitter, Facebook, Zune and Netflix icons were clearly present.
• The MTV Games-developed Dance Central has some on staff divided -- only Ross will actually admit to being interested in playing it. A series of dance moves are presented, including elbow jabs, swinging leg, guitar, "rocking out" (with your hand in the air). The art style is akin to Rock Band / Guitar Hero, and to be fair, this is probably one of those games that can't be done as well on any other console.

US firm bribed Indian PSUs

Washington: Officials of Indian PSUs like BHEL and NTPC appear to be beneficiaries of bribes that were doled out by a California-based valve company to bag lucrative contracts, mostly for tools used in the construction of power plants.

Prominent among these Indian companies are Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, Maharashtra State Electricity Board, Haryana State Electricity Board, National Thermal Power Corporation and Bhilai Electric, according to documents submitted by the US Department of Justice before a US court.

It is possible that the details of the beneficiaries are listed in the sealed court documents, but no names were immediately known.
California-based Control Component Inc (CCI) on June 31, 2009, pleaded guilty before the US court to having committing bribery in 36 countries from 2003 to 2007.
India, besides China, the UAE and Qatar, are some of the major countries where Control Component Inc indulged in unfair practices to bag contracts.
According to court documents, the payments related to India were made between 2004 and 2007.

Topping the list is the Sipat coal-fired power plant of NTPC, for which CCI paid a bribe of $163,449 in two instalments to an official of a Moscow-based company, who has been identified as Vladimir Batenko in the documents submitted by the Department of Justice before the court.
On Tuesday, the Department of Justice announced that it has extradited Flavio Ricotti, a former executive of CCI on charges of bribing foreign companies. An Italian national, Ricotti, was arrested on February 14 in Frankfurt, and arrived in the United States on July 2.
The alleged bribe for the Sipat thermal power plant was paid in two instalments. The first payment of $26,865 was made on November 29, 2005 from the company's Handelsbanken Bank account in Sweden to an account at Dresdner Bank in New York for the purpose of securing the contract for the Sipat thermal power plant.

The second payment of $136,584.98 was made in October, 2006 from the same Handelsbanken Bank account in Sweden to an account at the Baltic International bank in Latvia, the FBI alleges, for the purpose of making a corrupt payment to a Company 3 employee with regard to the Sipat thermal power plant in India, the DOJ said.

According to court documents, the CCI -- in two instalments on November 6, 2006 and January 9, 2009 -- made a total payment of $69,012 to BHEL and MSEB. BHEL officials are reported to be the beneficiaries in several other instances, but most of the amounts are less than $5,000.



In 2007, officials of the Bhilai Electricals are believed to have received $8,600, while those of HSEB received $15,802 through a transaction on July 7, 2007. In addition, Spin Industries, J Mehta & Co and MSEB were the beneficiaries of another bribery transaction of $15,000 made by CCI on March 3, 2004.
However, the court papers are not clear how many of these contracts were bagged by CCI and what was the value of the contracts it won.
The Department of Justice said CCI has admitted that from 2003 through 2007 it made approximately 236 corrupt payments in more than 30 countries, which resulted in net profits to the company of approximately $46.5 million from sales related to these corrupt payments.



Source: PTI

Sucessful night-flight of Solar plane makes

This is one 'fly-by-night' operator we are sure happy about. A giant glider-like aircraft has completed the first night flight propelled only by solar energy. Solar Impulse, whose wingspan is the same as an Airbus A340, flew 26 hours and 9 minutes, powered only by solar energy stored during the day. It was also the longest and highest flight in the history of solar aviation, organizers said.


The Solar Impulse, a solar-powered HB-SIA prototype airplane, is prepared for its first night flight attempt at Payerne airport, Switzerland on July 7, 2010.

The aircraft took off July 7 at 06:51 am and reached an altitude of 28,543 feet by the end of the day. It then slowly descent to 4,921 feet and flew through the night on the batteries, charged during the day by 12,000 solar cells, which powered the four electric motors. The aircraft landed on July 8 at 09.00 am.