After March, 2007, Google again announced the user data retention policy. As per the Google news, now they will anonymize IP addresses on their server logs after 9 months.

“Today, we’re announcing a new logs retention policy: we’ll anonymize IP addresses on our server logs after 9 months. We’re significantly shortening our previous 18-month retention policy to address regulatory concerns and to take another step to improve privacy for our users.”

As European Union has continually forcing Google to reduce the time to keeps user data and in pressure from the EU and privacy advocates, Google announced in March 2007 that it would anonymize its search logs after 18 months.

According to Peter Fleischer:

“Back in March 2007, Google became the first leading search engine to announce a policy to anonymize our search server logs in the interests of privacy. And many others in the industry quickly followed our lead. Although that was good for privacy, it was a difficult decision because the routine server log data we collect has always been a critical ingredient of innovation. We have published a series of blog posts explaining how we use logs data for the benefit of our users: to make improvements to search quality, improve security, fight fraud and reduce spam.

Over the last two years, policymakers and regulators - especially in Europe and the U.S. - have continued to ask us (and others in the industry) to explain and justify this shortened logs retention policy. We responded by open letter to explain how we were trying to strike the right balance between sometimes conflicting factors like privacy, security, and innovation. Some in the community of EU data protection regulators continued to be skeptical of the legitimacy of logs retention and demanded detailed justifications for this retention. Many of these privacy leaders also highlighted the risks of litigants using court-ordered discovery to gain access to logs, as in the recent Viacom suit.

Today, we are filing this response (PDF file) to the EU privacy regulators. Since we announced our original logs anonymization policy, we have had literally hundreds of discussions with data protection officials, government leaders and privacy advocates around the world to explain our privacy practices and to work together to develop ways to improve privacy. When we began anonymizing after 18 months, we knew it meant sacrifices in future innovations in all of these areas. We believed further reducing the period before anonymizing would degrade the utility of the data too much and outweigh the incremental privacy benefit for users.

We didn’t stop working on this computer science problem, though. The problem is difficult to solve because the characteristics of the data that make it useful to prevent fraud, for example, are the very characteristics that also introduce some privacy risk. After months of work our engineers developed methods for preserving more of the data’s utility while also anonymizing IP addresses sooner. We haven’t sorted out all of the implementation details, and we may not be able to use precisely the same methods for anonymizing as we do after 18 months, but we are committed to making it work.

While we’re glad that this will bring some additional improvement in privacy, we’re also concerned about the potential loss of security, quality, and innovation that may result from having less data. As the period prior to anonymization gets shorter, the added privacy benefits are less significant and the utility lost from the data grows. So, it’s difficult to find the perfect equilibrium between privacy on the one hand, and other factors, such as innovation and security, on the other. Technology will certainly evolve, and we will always be working on ways to improve privacy for our users, seeking new innovations, and also finding the right balance between the benefits of data and advancement of privacy.

Source: GoogleBlog

While browsing many news websites and several posts, it looks like Google is getting very busy while others sit and pressing their hands about the economy and the end of the world. Google continue investing and experimenting to make its position stronger.

Now it is getting involved, even though indirectly through investment, in getting internet connectivity to the non-developed areas of the world. The company that is behind the latest effort to help make the internet truly global is 03b Networks which was founded and is run by Greg Wyler who is described in today’s WSJ as a 38 year old telecommunications entrepreneur. The goal of the company is to place 16 satellites that would provide internet service to Africa, the Middle East and parts of Latin America by the end of 2010.

Although this is not the first time this has been tried, the mere fact that Google is investing a portion of the section reserved for the original $ 60 million (the total cost to build it had said $ 65 million), It is quite unique. Do not bore you with details, but the idea is that the signals of local Internet service providers (not individual users) and distribution of signal on cellular networks, or their own networks.

The undertaking, expected to cost about $650 million, has initial backing of about $60 million from investors that include HSBC Holdings PLC, Allen & Company, and Liberty Global Inc., in addition to Google.

While most of the world’s estimated 1.5 billion Internet users reside in developed countries, telecom companies are looking at fast growth in areas like Africa and the Middle East, where the number is jumping by 50% or more each year

While Google has been earmarked to try to manage the recruitment particularly high-powered lawyers that the government manages its fight against the Yahoo! They are behind the scenes to do other things, which will eventually lead to a greater number of Internet users will be able to receive ads. Despite the “between the carriers”, which seems really on the market coverage is a section of the document, as well as a story, chances of prosecution against the USA. Its efforts like this, which are “almost inadvertently, but when a step back and see the world around the impact shows that Google May possibly be bigger and more diversified, then we can imagine. Think about the fact that in some countries, a day when we can maybe just call 888-Google will have access to the Internet, telephone service and access to all goods and services than ever to be desired.

On the contrary, it is well within the realms of possibility. This is the way that the rest of the world will catch up with the advanced countries by leap frogging into the wireless world. Simultaneous developments in computing and making devices cheaper are bound to improve communications and therefore education and therefore prosperity to billions of people now out of the loop. If not Google, some other entity or entities will do it. This is what technology should be doing and the guys behind this proposal have the vision to do it. All good luck to them.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 8, 2008 - Intel Corporation announced today it has begun shipping Intel® X18-M and X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drives (SSDs) based on multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash technology for laptop and desktop computers. The new high-performing data storage devices give computer buyers a new level of system responsiveness in a lightweight, rugged, low-power package that can replace traditional hard disk drives.

Validated for Intel-based computers, the X18-M is a 1.8-inch drive and the X25-M a 2.5-inch drive, offering several advantages over hard drives including faster overall system response, boot and resume times. With no moving parts, SSDs run cooler and quieter and are a more reliable option than hard drives. In addition, SSDs remove input/output (I/O) performance bottlenecks associated with hard disk drives that help maximize the efficiency of Intel processors, such as the company’s Core™ family of products. For example, lab tests show that the Intel X18-M and X25M increase storage system performance nine times over traditional hard disk drive performance.

“Validated by our rigorous testing and OEM customer feedback, we believe that we have developed an SSD that delivers on the promises of SSD computing,” said Randy Wilhelm, Intel vice president and general manager of the NAND Products Group. “By combining our experience in flash memory design with our processor and computing expertise, we have added advances such as our parallel 10-channel architecture, proprietary controller, firmware and memory management algorithms that address write amplification and wear leveling issues to redefine SSD performance and reliability for computing platforms.”

The Intel X18-M and X25-M Mainstream SATA SSDs are available in 80 gigabyte (GB) capacities, with 160GB versions sampling in the fourth quarter of this year. The 80GB drive achieves up to 250MB per second read speeds, up to 70MB per second write speeds and 85-microsecond read latency for fast performance. The 80GB version is priced at $595 for quantities up to 1,000. These SSDs are available now and end-customer products containing the Intel® High-Performance SATA SSDs are expected to begin shipping in the next few weeks.

The company is also expected to introduce a line of single-level cell (SLC) SSDs for the server, storage and enterprise environments within the next 90 days. Called the Intel® X25-E Extreme SATA Solid-State Drive, these products are designed to maximize the Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS), which equates to higher performance and lower enterprise costs. Since SSDs lower energy consumption, maintenance, cooling and space costs, an SSD-based data center will reduce overall infrastructure costs while increasing performance-per-square-foot by as much as 50x.

Source: Intel Introduces Solid-State Drives

TCS Financial Solutions, the strategic business unit of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), has launched TCS BaNCS Core Banking v10.

According to the official press statement, TCS BaNCS Core Banking version 10 has functional enhancements in the areas of lending, deposits, Islamic banking, origination, preferential pricing, securitization, trade finance, and treasury. It also features the business rule-driven TCS BaNCS Origination product.

“With the benefit of advanced SOA, this version can drive any bank’s efforts to transform operations, enhance customer service levels, drive new product development, enable targeted revenue growth and also achieve lower TCO,” said N. Ganapathy Subramaniam, president of TCS Financial Solutions.

Some other features include the ability to support business process orchestration using industry standard middleware products, multiple touch points for consistent user experience across multiple channels such as branch outlet, self service via the web, call center, IVR, and mobile banking, etc.

Can your notebook run 24hours on a single charge? If you will get notebook that will give 24 hours backup then you will get rid of again-n-again charging problems…right. So get ready for this as Hewlett-Packard recently launched a notebook that will run for up to 24 hours on a single charge.

To get extra battery life, HP combined its EliteBook 6930p enterprise notebook model with a solid-state drive add-on and HP’s ultra-life battery. So when you order the notebook these are available as optional accessories

According to the HP, “its new LED display adds some four hours of life over older screens, while the solid-state hard drive gives a seven per cent boost to battery life when compared to a regular disk drive.”

The EliteBook 6930p line price starts at $1,199 currently, but customers have to pay a little more to get the advantage of full battery life, as HP publicize.

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) — Google Inc., facing U.S. Justice Department scrutiny of its advertising partnership with Yahoo! Inc., will proceed with the agreement by early October, Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said.

“We are going to move forward,” Schmidt said today in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Denver. “We are in the process of talking to the government. They’ve not indicated one way or the other how they’re dealing with us.”

Google, the most popular search engine, is trying to pull off the deal amid concerns that it will give the company too much power in the $65 billion online advertising market. Senator Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat, asked last month whether the agreement will reduce Yahoo to “nothing more than the newest satellite in the Google orbit.”

“We always worry a little bit, but we think our arguments are pretty strong,” Schmidt, 53, said today. “Yahoo has made it very, very clear they’re going to take the best parts of their network and ours and combine them.”

The companies said in June that they would give the Justice Department 3 1/2 months to review the partnership, even though they indicated it wasn’t legally necessary.

“We continue to cooperate with regulators,” Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich said in an e-mail after the interview. “Ultimately we have confidence that they’ll be able to conduct their review within that time period and allow us to move forward.”

He declined to say what Google would do if the Justice Department moves to block the deal.

Microsoft Bid

The companies signed the agreement after a six-month long struggle by Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, to acquire Yahoo for as much as $47.5 billion. Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, who said the Google deal may add $800 million a year to sales, is seeking to boost Yahoo’s share price after a tussle with investor Carl Icahn for board seats.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, rose $5.20 to $473.78 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have fallen 31 percent this year. Yahoo, down 16 percent this year, gained 28 cents to $19.65.

Under the agreement Yahoo will show Google ads, which command a higher price, along with promotions it sells on its own. Google will share a percentage of the revenue with Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo.

Google isn’t seeing much of an effect from the slowing U.S. economy because advertisers are devoting more of their budgets to Web-search links, said Schmidt, who was in Denver to attend the Democratic National Convention.

`Slow Period’

“The people who are advertising prefer targeted ads,” he said. “Google is not a good bellwether for how the economy goes as a whole.”

If the economy worsens, Google “could be affected,” he said.

“There’s no question that the U.S. is in a slow period,” Schmidt said. “Whether it’s a recession or not, I don’t really know. We know Europe has some structural problems. Google has a major presence in both.”

Google is curbing its spending growth as it expands, Schmidt said. Expenses for research, marketing and general corporate purposes increased 36 percent last quarter to $1.64 billion, down from 85 percent growth a year earlier, according to Bloomberg data.

“We are going to increase our expenses in a slower way, which I think is just prudent,” Schmidt said. “We’re a large enough company that this is a good time to do it.”

Schmidt, who has advised Barack Obama’s presidential campaign on energy and technology policy, declined to endorse him or his opponent, John McCain.

“Both have pretty strong technology platforms,” Schmidt said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Cook in Washington at pcook6@bloomberg.net; Crayton Harrison in Dallas at tharrison5@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 28, 2008 18:55 EDT

Source: www.bloomberg.com

Mumbai, Sep 02, 2008 1525 hrs IST

Thousand of HDFC customers criticize netbanking services of hdfc bank because many retail and enterprise customers of the bank could not carry out transactions, or operate ATMs due to a technical snag.

The technical snag that started little hours today were not rectified till 3.15 pm, as published the story.

“HDFC Bank’s IT systems, and netbanking interface was down. I have been trying to online railway reservation and have had a hard time as the system was down and got the message from Indian Railway about the HDFC system transaction failure.” Reported by Vishal Gupta (IT Professional) A/C holder of HDFC bank.

The bank posted a message on its website informing people about system inoperation between 4 am and 10.30 am. The website later reported that the system will continue to be unavailable till 2 pm. The bank subsequently extended this to 7 pm.

Neeraj Jha, corporate communications, HDFC Bank said, “We agree it is causing inconvenience to customers. We are working on it and expect the systems to be up by 3.00 pm.”

Generally, banks doing the maintenance work during the night so that customers do not face any inconvenience but it was not really maintenance; it is a technical snag actually. We have tried to ask about the nature of the technical snag, but Mr. Jha and HDFC’s head of technology, Anil Jaggia refused to comment.

2007, India managed IT services market was projected to be $1,170 million with managed network services accounting followed by managed desktop services. This represented 20 per cent of the total India domestic IT services market and 2007 it is crossed $5 billion and Indian Managed IT Services grow at 24.9% which is a good sign for 2008 and coming years.

“The traditional IT outsourcing model is under siege and “Risk and Reward” deals are now becoming popular.” “Today, service providers are launching low-cost, highly flexible service delivery platforms that leverage ‘commoditized technology’ to provide more ‘productized services’ to customers.“

Seepij Gupta, Assistant Manager, Software & Services Research, IDC India

Current market analysis many enterprises implementing and providing infrastructure management services (IMS), as they are looking for proficient partners to manage their increasingly IT infrastructure.

As all small and large size enterprises are taking benefits of outsourcing their IT infrastructure. So new definition of managed services can be defined in one sentence - it is all about “Do it for me” not “Do it yourself”.

“While engaging in outsourcing contracts, management should have a clear vision on long-term organizational goals along with activities that can be outsourced.”

Praveen Sengar, senior manager, Software and Services Research, IDC India