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View1 : Anna Hazare's fast entered third day with normal health. In a statement from government authority, it has been mentioned that "Government will act, if Anna Hazare's health fails" But the question is why government is waiting for Anna Hazare's health to fail. Is government playing game with Team Anna, that Anna Hazare's health deteriorate and then it might debate the strong LokPal Bill for few weeks and then everything will be in air like last time. It might be a bad politics of India that suppose Anna Hazare might get close to end of his life, then only government will start discussion about his demand and the final verdict might be something like this. You will end up loosing Anna Hazare's life and movement will be vanished in air. To show little sympathy, government and politicians might start debating Lokpal Bill and few weeks later when everyone back to their routine. We will be still waiting for another Anna Hazare to start the movement again. Isn't it true?

 Dedicated parking spaces are always useful for city dwellers with cars; there’s nothing worse than coming home after a long day at work only to find that the nearest spot is 10 blocks away. But parking spaces take up, well, space. And for much of the day, they’re left unused. There’s one startup, Parkatmyhouse, that lets people rent out their empty spots. Designer Aaron Cheng has a more creative solution: a structure that looks like a normal parking garage during the day, but turns into a living space at night.

The Parking + Housing project, submitted to this year’s James Dyson Award, asks us to imagine a place where people don’t have many possessions and don’t mind losing access to their homes during the day.

Once evening hits (and presumably all the cars have exited), the parking garage inflates into small studio living spaces that are each divided into two parts: a fixed unit with storage, a bathroom, and a kitchen, and a separate bedroom that inflates and deflates using a pneumatic system. All furniture--and other furnishings--would have to be stuffed into the fixed area during the day.


Sure, there are holes in the design: Where do people park when they get home? And what happens if someone wants to stay home from work? This would only work for someone who needs a place to rest their head at night, and nothing more.

But consider this: Cities around the world are growing rapidly, and will only continue to balloon as the population grows. Already, urban centers are considering creative space-saving ideas. In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg recently launched a contest for developers who want to build a series of 275- to 300-square-foot apartments. Developers in San Francisco are working on similar ideas.

A part-time parking lot, part-time home may not be the logical next step. But it’s something to consider.

Most of the world, including India, was pessimistic about the job market last year with 57 per cent of adults saying it was a bad time to find a job, according to a new Gallup survey.

Only one-third of the people said it was a good time, the leading US opinion poll organisation said on Monday releasing the results of Gallup surveys conducted in 146 countries in 2011.

Indians were only a little more optimistic than the average adult worldwide with 52 percent saying it was a bad time and only 36 percent saying it was a good time. Europeans were the most pessimistic, with 72 percent saying it was a bad time. Optimism was highest in the Americas, where a still dismal 38 per cent said it was a good time.

All of the top 10 countries where residents were most positive about the job market were developing countries, except Singapore.

Oil-rich Middle Eastern nations took four of the top spots; Saudi Arabia and Oman led internationally with 69 per cent of residents saying it was a good time to find a job, despite relatively high unemployment rates.

Six of the 10 countries with the most negative outlooks were EU countries, with Greeks and the Irish nearly universally saying it was a bad time to find a job.

Residents in eight of the world's 10 largest economies did not think it was a good time to find a job in 2011. Brazil and Germany were the two bright spots in an otherwise gloomy outlook on the availability of jobs; about half of residents in each country said it was a good time to find a job.

Results are based on telephone and face-to-face interviews with approximately 1,000 adults per country, aged 15 and older, conducted in 146 countries and areas in 2011, Gallup said.

( Press Trust of India )

Microsoft: Surface And Windows 8 To Arrive October 26

Microsoft has confirmed the release date for its new Microsoft Surface in a recent SEC filing. The device will start shipping on October 26 alongside the Windows 8 operating system. However, Microsoft has yet to reveal a price tag for the device. Lacking an official number, rumor vendors have suggested figures like $599 for the Windows RT model and a $999 price for the Windows 8 Pro version. The fact that a date has been set is good news, but there is this fact to consider: if the Microsoft tablet won't surface until the end of October, there's a chance Apple may have a smaller, cheaper, iPad mini out by then. Apple rumorologists have persistently dropped details that hint at a smaller Apple tablet, and the latest crop of rumors even set a date for the unveiling: September 12. (Apple, of course, is mum.) If the Surface is set to tackle a mini iPad head on, price may become even more of a sticking point. 

Limited Run Alleges 80 Percent Of Its Facebook Ad Clicks Were Bots

Limited Run, a digital distribution outfit specializing in labels, musicians and artists, has decided to take down its Facebook account after discovering through its custom-built "page logger" that 80 percent of the clicks on its ads that Facebook was charging them for came from bots. The company compared the clicks its ads were getting from about 6 name-brand analytics services before building a custom tool to verify the results. "They all lined up," Tom Mango, co-founder, told Fast Company. "Once that happened, we stopped our campaign."

Limited Run (formerly known as Limited Press) posted a message describing its discoveries on its Facebook page, including the following sum-up, which is careful to avoid blame: "Bots were loading pages and driving up our advertising costs. So we tried contacting Facebook about this. Unfortunately, they wouldn't reply. Do we know who the bots belong too? No. Are we accusing Facebook of using bots to drive up advertising revenue. No. Is it strange? Yes."

Limted Run explains that its custom platform recorded the number of page viewers who didn't have JavaScript enabled. According to the company's own analytics tool 80% of the clicks Facebook was charging for came from machines without JavaScript enabled. This confounds analytic software trying to verify the click is genuine, and, more importantly in the company's experience only one to two percent of its human visitors had the feature disabled. The conclusion: Bots in action.

Mango told Fast Company that the trouble started when the company decided to change its name from "Limited Press" to "Limited Run" and started experimenting with advertising campaigns on Facebook. Facebook did not responded to the company about the issues its raised about clicks (and has not responded yet), but an advertising account manager at Facebook did finally call in about the company's requested name change. The company didn't qualify for a name change because, per Facebook policy, a name is locked in for an account with more than 200 Likes the accounts person explained, but if Limited Run spent an extra $2,000 on advertising per month, the name change would be possible. At this point Limited Run balked and decided to shut down their account entirely.

Not before it got its message out, however. "We want to make sure that the people who do follow us on Facebook can see our post and why we're leaving," Mango says. "We'll shut it down in the next couple of weeks."

Peter Jackson Uses Facebook To Reveal Third Hobbit Film

Peter Jackson has been using social media a lot during his production of The Hobbit movie, keeping audiences engaged, informed and excited long before the Winter 2012 debut of the first part of his film adaptation of the famous novel...and today he used Facebook to reveal some incredible news: The Hobbit will be a three-film release, not a twosome as had previously been decided. Quoting J.R.R. Tolkien himself, who noted the story was "a tale that grew in the telling," Jackson explained he couldn't resist taking this unique chance to tell more of the story of hobbits exploring Middle Earth. 

Olympics Attendees Asked To Cool It With The Tweets

Social media, and Twitter in particular, is playing a big role in Olympics activity and coverage this year. Twitter had its designated page set up for curated audience and network presenter tweets via a high-profile deal with NBC, and even a plan to turn the London Eye into a giant mood ring, colored by the tweets of audience members at the events in London. Enthusiastic tweeters have been asked to cool off though, since a volley of tweets and text messages sent during the men's road cycling race clogged networks and cut off television commentators from GPS communication and timing information. (This prompted television viewers to turn to Twitter to tweet their disappointment.) An International Olympic Committee spokesperson said the issue was localized to one network, and the issue was being corrected, Reuters reports. He also asked fans to "take it easy" on the tweets and messages unless it was "urgent."

After South Korea Telecom Hack, 8.7 Million Customers' Details Sold To Telemarketers

South Korea's KT Telecom has suffered a protracted months-long hack attack that has seen hackers gain access to 8.7 million of its customers--about half its entire user base. Names, ID numbers, and phone numbers were taken by the hackers and then sold to telemarketers. Two hackers made around $880,000 in profits from the hack and sale. Both of the hackers and seven individuals who'd bought the data have now been arrested, which is why the event has been revealed to the world in the form of an official apology from KT to the public, and it's not expected that the data was used for more than the telemarketing stunt. But it's significant for being one of the few hack attacks that was used for profit, and also that led to arrests. KT's stock price has fallen in the time since the news was announced.

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The menu of the first dinner served to the first-class passengers of the ill-fated liner Titanic on April 10, 1912 has been sold for 46,000 pounds at an auction.

Hors d'oeuvre, roast duckling, fillet of veal and French ice cream were some of the dishes in the opulent menu of the first dinner served on Titanic at the start of the voyage.

It was among 400 items being auctioned in Wiltshire in South West England as part of the 100th anniversary of the ship's sinking in the Atlantic Ocean, the 'BBC news' reported.

The affluent menu is dated 10 April 1912, three days before the liner hit an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank, killing 1,522 people.

"Menus from the Titanic are among the most sought after memorabilia from the doomed liner," Andrew Aldridge, of Henry Aldridge and Son Auctioneers, said.

The menu itself was the property of Charles Caswell, a first class steward, aged 34, from Southampton.

Caswell sent the menu to his wife Hilda when Titanic stopped at Queenstown, but he later died when the ship sank.

Also featured in the sale was a gold medal awarded to the rescue ship Carpathia's Second Officer James Bisset.

He later became Commodore of the Cunard line.

"After the survivors of the Titanic disaster were picked up by the Carpathia, a committee was formed by a group of surviving First class passengers to reward the crew of the Carpathia and the Captain Sir Arthur Rostron with the silver loving cup and medals for all of the crew," said Aldridge.

"This is only the second gold Carpathia medal to be offered in the last 25 years and is thought to be the most senior officer's medal to ever to go under the auctioneers hammer," Aldridge added.

The medal sold for 41,000 pounds, the report said.

 

Personal guarantee must before loan restructuring: RBI

In cases where the restructuring package could not be implemented due to promoters' non-adherence to terms and conditions, the banks should exercise exit option at the earliest with a view to minimise the
losses

Mumbai: A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) panel has recommended banks should seek personal guarantee from promoters and adopt a "carrot-and-stick policy" while restructuring loans of corporates,
reports PTI.

"As stipulating personal guarantee will ensure promoters' skin in the game or commitment to the restructuring package, obtaining the personal guarantee of promoters be made a mandatory requirement in all cases of restructuring," the panel said in its report, on which it has invited comments of stakeholders by 21 August 2012.

The RBI had in January set up the panel to review the existing prudential guidelines on restructuring of advances by banks and financial institutions and suggest modifications taking into account the best international practices and accounting standards.

The panel, which is headed by RBI executive director B Mahapatra, said corporate guarantee should not be considered as a substitute for the promoters' personal guarantee.

In cases where the restructuring package could not be implemented due to promoters' non-adherence to terms and conditions, the banks should exercise exit option at the earliest with a view to minimise the
losses, the report said.

"The terms and conditions of restructuring should inherently contain the principle of 'carrot and stick', that is while restructuring being an incentive for viable accounts, it should also have disincentives
for non-adherence to the terms of restructuring and under-performance," it said.