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!