Baldwin Street - world's steepest street

Baldwin Street - world's steepest street

Windows SEVEN

Formerly known as Blackcomb and Vienna is the successor of Windows Vista. Windows 7 is expected to be released sometime in 2010

Beautiful Concept cars

Mercedes SLR McLaren: It is powered by a Mercedes-AMG V8 powerplant. With its 5.5-litre displacement and screw-type compressor, the engine develops a peak output of 460 kW/626 hp and delivers its maximum torque of 780 Nm from 3250 rpm. It goes from 0 to 62.5 mph in 3.8 seconds. It boasts of water-type charge-air cooling, three valves per cylinder, dry sump lubrication and four metal catalytic converters. This makes the SLR the world's first series-produced car to have a front crash structure made entirely from carbon fibre. The passenger cell of the high-performance sports car is also made entirely from this high-tech material. In a head-on, side-on or rear-end collision, it offers the passengers an extremely rigid, safe survival zone. Its other features include Sensotronic Brake Control, electronic stability program, automatic tyre pressure monitoring, 18-inch wheels and aluminium suspension.

Mitsubishi 'i': Mitsubishi's 'i' is a compact-size concept test car which will serve as a model for the next generation of small cars, says the company. The 'i' successfully meets Euro-4 emissions and 90-grams-per-kilometer three-litre car fuel economy standards with an average fuel consumption of 3.8 liters/100 kilometers and with carbon dioxide emissions of 89 grams per kilometer. Also, it is the first car to be awarded the highest 5-star ratings in both categories of fuel consumption and emissions testing. And, yes, it comes packed with great, futuristic features.

Suzuki's Mobile Terrace: The Mobile Terrace uses General Motor's Hy-Wire platform allowing maximum flexibility and interchangeability while at the same time using fuel-cell technology to power the vehicle. * The fuel cell and motor are placed under the floor, in the Mobile Terrace. It is a six-passenger vehicle using three rows of seats. * Its technology- and gadgets-packed instrument panel can also change into a table. There's also a 22-inch touchscreen monitor for vehicle information as well as sliding side doors for easier access to the interior.

Renault concept car Wind: The Renault Wind has a streamlined design and lively performance combines. The car's interior is elegantly designed in accordance with the 'Touch Design' concept and boasts of a cabin that is cloaked in leather. The futuristic, high-tech controls put emphasis on ergonomics and simplicity, making the car a perfect blend of utility and aesthetics.

Honda IMAS: Honda's gas/electric Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) system is a highly fuel-efficient vehicle. Honda estimates its fuel economy at 40 kilometers per litre. * Built mostly with carbon fiber and aluminum, the IMAS weighs in at approximately 1,542 pounds. The car's electronically controlled throttle works with a shaftless variable gear steering system to produce precise throttle response and handling. * Inside the two-person cockpit, the instrument panel and the navigation screen mounted on top of the dash are made of transparent material. The steering wheel assumes an aeronautical design, rather than the usual doughnut.

Honda Kiwami: The Honda Kiwami concept car complements the world's first fuel cell powered production car launched at Tokyo, the Honda FCX. The Kiwami has its roots in a Japanese design aesthetic with simple linear surfaces and a monochrome interior being the clearest signifiers. The four-door, four-seat premium Kiwami has a very low floor giving it a very low center of gravity. Advanced packaging technology that makes possible the lower floor ensures a roomy interior despite the vehicle's low roofline. The interior design reflects the Japanese sense of a luxurious atmosphere and advanced features such as an exterior information display and panel-touch shifting.

Maserati MC12: The Maserati MC12 can go at about 330 km/h at full throttle, sprinting from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.8 seconds. The Maserati MC12 is a two-seater, long-tail coupe-spider with a long wheel base (2800 mm). It has a sporty set-up with a removable hard top. It is also powered by an impressive 630 hp six-litre mid-rear V12 engine. The MC12 benefits from all of the Ferrari Maserati group's most advanced technologies. It boasts of a powerful 12-cylinder V engine that displaces 5998 cc.

Audi RSQ: The futuristic car Audi RSQ was especially designed for the motion picture I, ROBOT, starring Will Smith, a homicide detective in the year 2035. The Audi RSQ sport coupe is a visionary statement. It is packed with special features suggested by movie director Alex Proyas. The mid-engined sports car races along not on wheels, but on spheres. Its two doors are rear-hinged to the C-posts of the body and open according to the butterfly principle.

Mercedes Benz F400 Carving: The Mercedes Benz F400 Carving is a new concept roadster. The car's sharp edges and futuristic lines are much like Batman's Batmobile. The car's steering and braking systems are governed by computer-generated impulses and it has an active hydropneumatic suspension. The F400 Carving is powered by a Mercedes 3.2-liter V6 engine. Its Formula One-style steering wheel-mounted button shifters govern its gearbox. It is made to take turns at high speed. The technology-laden car is an absolute eye-popper.

Chrysler ME4-12: The Chrysler ME4-12 super car is, well, super! The quad-turbo, V-12 powered Chrysler ME 4-12 is soon likely to establish performance records. Its engine is from AMG and delivers 850 bhp at 5750 rpm. ME stands for 'mid-engined.' The ME 4-12 goes from 0-60 mph in 2.9 seconds, 0-100 mph in 6.2 seconds. It has an estimated top speed of 248 mph (400 km/h). The car's carbon fiber bodywork is mated to a carbon fibre and aluminum honeycomb monocoque tub. Its suspension comprises double wishbones, aluminum control arms, horizontally-opposed coil-over dampers with electronically controlled compression and rebound tuning. The car is 44.9 inches tall, 78.7 inches wide and 178.8-inches long.

The Truth Interesting Comparison :The Rise in Price of Food

Look At The Food They Bought For One Week And The Number Of Persons In The Family

And Mr. George Bush- The So Called President of America is Crying That The Rise in Price of Food is Because of Indians. Coz, They are Consuming More and More Food Day By Day

CHAD: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp3 adults, 3 kids Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23

BHUTAN: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village - 7 adults, 6 kids Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03





ECUADOR: The Ayme family of Tingo - 4 adults, 5 teenagers Food expenditure for one week: $31.55





POLAND: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna - 4 adults, 1 teenager Food expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27





MEXICO: The Casales family of Cuernavaca - 2 adults, 3 kids Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189..09





ITALY: The Manzo family of Sicily - 2 adults, 3 kids Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260..11






UNITED STATES: The Revis family of North Carolina - 2 adults, 2 teenagers Food expenditure for one week: $341.98




GERMANY: The Melander family of Bargteheide - 2 adults, 2 teenagers Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07



JAPAN:
The Ukita family of Kodaira City - 2 adults, 2 teenagers
Food expenditure for one week: 37,699 Yen or $317.25
EGYPT:
The Ahmed family of Cairo - 7 adults, 5 kids
Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53

Excellent Advertisements

Dell Vows To Boost Energy Efficiency In Products

Dell on Wednesday said it would reduce energy consumption of its notebooks and desktops by up to 25% in two years.
The reduction would be in comparison to Dell's current systems, the computer maker said. Dell claims to have improved energy efficiency of its OptiPlex desktops nearly 50% since 2005. Power usage of its Latitude notebooks has dropped 16% since 2006.
Energy efficiency has become a battle cry among computer makers as customers seek products that help ease soaring power costs. In addition, using less energy helps reduce carbon dioxide emissions in power generation. The gas is a major contributor to global warming.
Albert Esser, VP of power and infrastructure solutions at Dell, that pursuing an aggressive strategy of energy efficiency is the "right thing for our business, our customers, and shared environment."
Dell expects to achieve environmentally friendly goals through more energy-efficient circuit designs and fans and more effective power-management features. The company also is working with suppliers in developing lower power components, such as chipsets, power supplies, and memory.
Dell currently offers software that maintains power-management configurations across client PCs and 80 Plus-certified power supplies. The electric utility-funded provides incentives for manufacturers to adopt power supplies certified by the organization. The group has certified more than 550 power supplies to date.
Dell also offers consumers a free recycling program and asset-recovery services for businesses. Dell has describing its energy and environmental initiatives.
Dell is in the middle of a turnaround effort to reverse the mistakes that led to the company ceding the title of world's largest computer maker to Hewlett-Packard. While financial analysts believe Dell has made progress in reversing its market decline, some believe it's going to take some time, perhaps as long as two years by one estimate, to complete the turnaround.

Banks turn to mobile access as the next big thing

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Now that online banking has been around for more than a decade, and widely accepted by customers, banks are turning their attention to taking the show on the road.
A survey released earlier in the week by financial services firm Aite Group found 23 of the 80 largest U.S. financial institutions expect online and mobile banking will be top priorities for product development in the next two years. The survey, conducted in the first quarter of 2008, covered 22 banks and one credit union, and 11 of the top 15 banks in the U.S.
The survey found that in the next two years, banks are intending to invest heavily in new fee-based payment services, mobile banking innovations and online marketing efforts. It is a service that multi-tasking consumers are demanding, banks say.
"People are very keen on using the phone to do mobile banking in a couple of ways, including checking accounts, balances and direct deposits and to help them find banking centers," said Bank of America's Doug Brown, senior vice president of product development for e-commerce.
Banks have specific targets for mobile advancements, as well: 65% of respondents to the survey said they will focus on expedited bill payment as a main priority in the next 24 months. That number was nearly matched by the 61% of respondents who said they will make pre-approved, special offers to online customers a priority.
Bank of America says it has more than one million users currently using mobile banking and expects that number to jump in the next 24 months as it rolls out more features. Other mobile banking proponents include Citigroup , which rolled out its Citi Mobile banking service in April 2007, and Wells Fargo , which debuted Wells Fargo Mobile last July.
All of these mobile programs attempt to bring banking services to customers via phone- or browser-based technology.
Still, most banks are trying to find a way to take the mobile banking experience to the next level, some analysts said, which is a task that presents multiple challenges.
"At the moment, mobile banking is online banking 'lite', bringing many of the basic information-related services such as balance checking to the mobile domain," said Nick Holland, a senior analyst for financial analysis company Aite Group LLC that has been covering mobile banking for eight years.
"One of the challenges for mobile banking today is the lack of interoperability among these technologies. Some telephone carriers support only one technology. Some phones support only text messaging, not Internet access," Rhodes said. "Interoperability, security and scalability are all challenges that have to be addressed not only by banks, but by telephone carriers and handset manufacturers, as well."
That may change as sophisticated handhelds, like the Apple iPhone and third generation BlackBerry devices are now flooding the market, and the new capabilities are sure to drive new services, said Holland and others.
"You'll start to see some more mobile-only features such as 'panic' bill pay over mobile in the next couple of years, as well as services that leverage the uniquely mobile attributes of 'always on, always have'," Holland said. "Like location-based, opt-in information, where the device notifies you of sales and promotions that are happening in the vicinity."
Holland said banks may have to wait for that capability for at least three to five years.
But the market may be moving too fast for many new initiatives, the survey indicated. More than 70% of respondents said that the number one barrier to growing online banking and bill payment adoption is their difficulty to roll out new functionalities fast enough.
That can be a major hindrance to banks and other large financial institutions looking to roll out fast, simple customer outreaches, only to find those programs and interfaces are already passé.
Bank of America's Brown disputes that assertion, saying that although only certain forms of mobile banking have caught on in other parts of the world, he remains convinced that there is a significant market need for it in the United States.
"The North American market is moving ahead and has some differences that make up the infrastructure, which is why iPhone was launched here first. That will drive some differences," Brown said. "But we are bullish that mobile banking resonates with most customers, so we are just racing ahead to deliver those steps."

Losing Horses Are Put Down

For thoroughbred racehorses in Puerto Rico, success can be a matter of life and death. Many losers don’t make it off the racetrack grounds alive. More than 400 horses, many in perfect health, are killed each year by lethal injection at a clinic tucked behind the Hipodromo Camarero racetrack, chief veterinarian Jose Garcia said after checking clinic log books going back seven years. Unlike on the US mainland, where many former racehorses are retrained for riding or sent to special refuges, the animals have few options in this US Caribbean territory. Owners say caring for and feeding a losing racehorse is too expensive. “If it doesn’t produce, after a while I give it away or I kill it,” said Arnoldo Maldonado, 60, a businessman who races about five horses a year. “It bothers me, but it has to be done because there is no money to pay for them ... I’m not going to keep losing.” The killings also bother veterinarians who carry them out. While many horses are unsuitable for adoption because of injuries or bad tempers, far more could be rescued than the current few dozen a year, Garcia said. The veterinarians at the racetrack clinic have an informal system of contacting farms and breeders when a healthy horse comes in to die. But so far there are no programs such as the US-based Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, which rescues and advocates for horses coming off the track. The killing of so many racehorses in Puerto Rico isn’t happening because they have suffered a serious injury, like Eight Belles, the filly euthanized after breaking both front ankles racing in the Kentucky Derby on May 3. Here, even when a second home is available, veterinarians say that some owners want losing horses executed anyway—some to save money, others to have revenge. “You’ll get a few owners who get so upset, they just want the horse dead,” said veterinarian Shakyra Rosario. Lionel Muller, senior vice president at Hipodromo Camarero, Puerto Rico’s only racetrack, said owners generally have the horses killed only as a last resort when they cannot find a suitable second home. “Most of the horse owners really love the horses.”

Gmail in Different Languages

https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?ctx=%67mail&hl=en&answer=17091

The Gmail interface is now available in many different language settings. Pick from the following:
Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, UK English, US English, Ukrainian, or Vietnamese.
To change the language view in Gmail:
Log in to Gmail.
Click Settings at the top of any Gmail page.
Select a language from the Gmail display language: drop-down menu in the Language: section.
Click Save Changes.
The Gmail interface will appear in the language of your choice after you click Save Changes. Remember, your Gmail's display language doesn't affect the language in which your messages are sent and received.
Some of the features available in the English setting may not be available when you select another language setting. We're working hard to make all of Gmail's features available in every language setting, so thanks for your patience.

Bush Daughter's Wedding Pics

Buffalo Theory

Vettel gets first taste of new Toro Rosso

While the rest of the teams' new cars already have five Grands Prix under their belts, Toro Rosso have yet to run their 2008 machine under race conditions. But on Wednesday the Italian squad came one step closer to realising that dream following Sebastian Vettel’s positive first test in the STR03 at Paul Ricard.Toro Rosso, who started the season with an interim version of last year's car, had scheduled to race the STR03 at last weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix. However, the squad were forced to shelve those plans back in April when Sebastien Bourdais crashed the car heavily during the its first public outing at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya. The STR03 is now due to make its race debut at the Monaco Grand Prix later this month and so Wednesday’s test at the French circuit was Vettel’s first chance to experience the new car.With Paul Ricard set up to simulate the twists and turns of Monte-Carlo, the young German was understandably keen to carry out plenty of running in his new charge and over the course of the day he managed to cover 99 laps.Although there were a few teething problems, most notably a faulty timing transponder, the new car performed admirably, and the 20 year-old eventually clocked a best time of 1m 06.372 seconds to take fifth place in the timesheets - just three-hundredths of a second adrift of stablemate Mark Webber in Red Bull’s RB4.

US man jailed for 20 years for eco-bombing plot

A California man described by prosecutors as an "eco-terrorist" was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison on Thursday for plotting to blow up a federal forestry site, telephone towers and other targets.
Eric McDavid, 29, was convicted by a federal jury in March after two co-conspirators, Zachary Jenson and Lauren Weiner, pleaded guilty and cooperated with the government.
Weiner is due to be sentenced on May 15 and Jenson on Aug. 7. McDavid's sentence of 235 months in a federal prison "should serve as a cautionary tale to those who would conspire to commit life-threatening acts in the name of their extremist views," US Attorney McGregor Scott said in a statement issued in Sacramento, California.
Federal prosecutors said the three defendants planned to attack targets including the US Forest Service Institute of Forest Genetics, the Nimbus Dam and Fish Hatchery, cellular telephone towers and electric power stations. As part of the plot, Weiner ordered a book called "Poor Man's James Bond" with recipes and instructions for creating explosive devices, they said.
McDavid, Jenson and Weiner were arrested in January 2006 outside a store in Auburn, California, after buying items to create the explosives, prosecutors said.

Do birds see better and brighter than us?

Why do the most brightly plumaged male birds attract more females in the mating game? It is a question that has spawned countless studies.
Now a new Swedish study claims that it may actually boil down to something as basic as sight. Scientists have hitherto assumed that birds see what we see. But apparently they do not - human sight might not be as good as that of birds.
"The results mean that many studies on sexual selection may need to be re-evaluated," said Anders Odeen of Uppsala University, who led the study. The significance of birds' plumage, both in terms of richness of colour and particular signals, has been shown to be a major factor in birds' choice of partner. In order to assess the colours of birds, everything from binoculars to RGB image analyses are used. However, most studies are based on the hypothesis that human colour vision can be used to assess what birds see.
"It's a bit like a colour blind person describing the colours of clothes - it's often quite accurate but sometimes it can go badly wrong."
This problem has been discussed in the research arena, but so far no study has been able to show its extent. The Uppsala researchers used a mathematical model to investigate how bird and human retina work. Using the model combined with information on differences in the colour-sensitive cones of the eye, they have been able to figure out how colour contrasts are perceived. Greater colour contrast can be translated as more "brightly coloured".
The differences were partly due to the fact that human vision cannot perceive ultraviolet light, while avian vision can. There are several differences between human and avian perception of colour, which show that certain shades that can be seen clearly by birds are not perceived at all by humans.
Through evolution, our colour vision has developed from a more primitive version. This means that we have gone from having two types of colour sensitive cones in our eyes to having three. Birds have four.

Psychological stress linked to overeating

A new study on female rhesus macaques has shown that psychological stress is closely linked to overeating and weight gain.
Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, found that socially subordinate female rhesus macaques over consumed calorie-rich foods at a significantly higher level than do dominant females.
The study is a critical step in understanding the psychological basis for the sharp increase in obesity across all age groups since the mid-1970s.
The study also is the first to show how food intake can be reliably and automatically measured, thus identifying the optimal animal model and setting for future obesity studies.
Because the relationship between diet, psychological stress and social and environmental factors is complex, Mark Wilson, PhD, chief of the Division of Psychobiology at Yerkes, and his research team set out to determine whether individuals chronically exposed to psychologically stressful environments over consume calorie-rich foods.
To do this, they studied the feeding patterns of socially housed female rhesus macaques, which are organised by a dominance hierarchy that maintains group stability through continual harassment and threat of aggression. Such structure is a constant psychological stress to subordinates.
During the study, female macaques were given access to a sweet but low-fat diet and a high-fat diet for 21 days each. For a 21-day period between each test diet, the group was able to access standard monkey chow only.
To track feeding patterns, automated feeders dispensed a pellet of either the low-fat or high-fat chow when activated by a microchip implanted in each female's wrist.
Researchers found socially subordinate females consumed significantly more of both the low-fat diet and the high-fat diet throughout a 24-hour period, while socially dominant females ate significantly less than subordinate animals and restricted their feedings to daytime hours. This difference in feeding behaviour resulted in accelerated weight gain and an increase in fat-derived hormones in subordinate females.

'Beijing yet to meet air quality standards'

A new study has determined that in spite of the 2008 Olympic Games in sight, Beijing has not yet met the expected national air quality standards. Professor Wang Wen-Xing and his team from the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences in Beijing carried out the study. The purpose of their study was to inform measures to improve the air quality of the capital, in anticipation of the Olympic Games. Wen-Xing and colleagues measured the concentrations of well-known air pollutants in Beijing in August and September 2007, the same summer period the Olympic Games will be taking place this year, in order to get a picture of the likely air quality during the games. They compared their results against The National Ambient Air Quality Standard.

The researchers found that average daily concentrations of sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide were lower than the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for China. Nitrogen dioxide levels met the Standard, whereas concentrations of ozone and inhalable particles were higher than the Standard. The concentrations of air pollutants were also higher at night than during the day. According to the researchers, the main causes of this air pollution are vehicle emissions. Since the 1980s, the rapid industrial development, urbanisation and increase in traffic have resulted in severe air pollution in Beijing. In recent years, the number of cars in Beijing has increased sharply at a rate of 10-20% a year.

Study pinpoints changes from climate warming

Human-generated climate change made flowers bloom sooner and autumn leaves fall later, turned some polar bears into cannibals and some birds into early breeders, a vast global study reported on Wednesday. Hundreds of previous studies have noted these specific changes and most suggested a link to so-called anthropogenic global warming, but a new analysis published in the journal Nature correlated these earlier studies with changes in temperature, the study's lead author said. There was a close relationship between temperature shifts between 1970 and 2004 and changes in plants, animals and the physical world, such as the retreat of glaciers and the water level in desert lakes, the study found.

Building on research done to support findings reported in 2007 by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rosenzweig and her co-authors brought together nearly 30,000 sets of data about biological and physical changes around the world, and then matched that up with a detailed database of global temperature change.

PENGUINS, POLAR BEARS AND POLLEN

* NORTH AMERICA: Earlier plant flowering of 89 species from American holly to sassafras; intraspecific predation, cannibalism and declining population of polar bears; earlier breeding and arrival dates of birds including robins and Canada geese.

* EUROPE: Glacier melting in the Alps; changes in 19 countries of leaf-unfolding and flowering of such plants as hazel, lilac, apple, linden and birch; early pollen release in the Netherlands; long-term changes in fish communities in Upper Rhone River.

* ASIA: Greater growth of Siberian pines in Mongolia; earlier break-up and thinning of river and lake ice in Mongolia; change in freeze depth of permafrost in Russia; earlier flowering of gingko in Japan.

* SOUTH AMERICA: Glacier wastage in Peru; melting Patagonia ice fields contributing to sea-level rise.

* AFRICA: Decreasing aquatic ecosystem productivity of Lake Tanganyika.

* AUSTRALIA: Early arrival of migratory birds including flycatchers and fantails; declining water levels in Western Victoria.

* ANTARCTICA: 50 per cent decline in population of emperor penguins on Antarctic Peninsula; retreating glaciers.

Icahn to launch proxy battle for Yahoo

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn plans to launch a proxy battle this week to gain power on Yahoo's board, aiming to push it back into takeover talks with Microsoft, the Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday.
After amassing a huge stake in the embattled Internet giant, Icahn will nominate ten new directors to replace Yahoo's current board before the Thursday nominations deadline and seek shareholder approval for his slate, the Journal said on its website, citing sources close to the matter.
Icahn plans to nominate among them Viacom's chief executive, Frank Biondi, who has helped the billionaire corporate raider in other proxy fights, the Journal said.
Icahn has bought up some 50 million shares of Yahoo since Microsoft gave up its unsolicited bid, originally valued at 44.6 billion dollars, for the company on May 3.
But the Journal's sources said that Microsoft has yet to reply to Icahn's queries on whether it is willing to make another stab at buying Yahoo.
Icahn decided to move anyway, the Journal said, "because he views a deal with Microsoft as beneficial to both companies, and one that executives would come to embrace."

India to play key role in HP strategy

The combined entity of HP and EDS in India will have over Rs 15,000 crore in revenues and over 56,000 employees, taking it a notch closer to IBM’s very significant presence in the sub-continent. In terms of offshore presence, the two together will overtake the other significant player in the services space, Accenture , that plans to take its headcount to 50,000 in about a year’s time.
In India, HP is structured across three major divisions, personal systems group, technology solutions group and the imaging and printing group, while MphasiS is mainly present in the IT services and BPO. The combined entity will see very diverse set of IT business ranging from hardware, software, services, BPO and R&D , says industry observers.
But given that the key driver for the acquisition is to beef up the service portfolio and pose a credible challenge to IBM, India may play a much more central role in the future strategy of the combined entity . “Customers will now have a very clear choice between three large vendors — IBM, HP-EDS and Accenture. IBM will still be significantly ahead in terms of its offshore strategy — it has made significant investments in India. The combination of HP and EDS doesn’t immediately solve that problem,” said Gartner vice-president (research), Ben Pring.
Mr Pring said that while there may be some redundancies because of overlap of functions, there may not be a substantial number because ‘HP is clearly buying EDS for its people’ . However, a few former MphasiS employees expressed the view said that there would be overlapping of some roles especially in the area of IT services and BPO as HP also has strong presence in these segments.
HP also has a very strong presence in the Indian market with both its hardware and system integration capabilities leveraging the services delivery for the domestic market. It has already got certain marquee clients such as Bank of Baroda, Britannia and has stated its intention of enlarging the scale. On the other hand, MphasiS provides BPO services to domestic clients such as Bharti Airtel.

Gemstone wins deals from 3 top-10 Wall Street banks

Gemstone Systems, provider of distributed data management and virtualisation solutions, on Wednesday said three of the top 10 Wall Street Banks have selected its GemStone Systems as their single provider of distributed data management technology for the last 90 days.
Each is a seven-figure enterprise licence deal with a multi-year commitment to deploy GemFire, GemStone's Enterprise Data Fabric product, on 1000s of nodes, running hundreds of applications, managing terabytes of data across geographically dispersed data centre, a release issued.
These customer wins showcase a cultural shift by top financial firms toward selecting and standardising on a single vendor who provides proven solutions, enterprise deployment support expertise and agile technology to meet the usage demands and wider-scale adoption of data fabric technology in capital markets, the release said.

Pictures of the Moment

An elephant just came out of water..


The shortest city name in the world is in Norway with one letter (A)


A real fight

Wonderful fountain performing a boat shape

Smallest horse in the world 40 cm tall, American farm.

A bird drying his body.