ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS IBM’S NEW MANTRA

Software major IBM on Friday announced launch of innovations such as artificial intelligence in vehicles and traffic management systems, voice recognition technology and traffic-related information transfer through cell phones. By introducing these revolutionary transport innovations, IBM believes these could revolutionize the transport system. The innovations would make travelling by planes, trains or automobiles a more convenient and hassle free experience within the next few years, a company release said.

It would also curtail fuel wastage and incidence of accidents. "Researchers and strategists at IBM think that the cure for transportation problems is not building more roads or adding flight," IBM India Research Laboratory director Daniel Dias said. The emerging technologies especially in communication will make travel safer, more streamlined and able to accommodate ever-increasing growth demands, he said.

Under the driver-assist technologies, automobiles would behave as if they have reflexes. They could sense other cars and avoid hazards. They would also be able to exchange information with each other, take corrective action where it was appropriate and provide essential feedback to drivers. The voice recognition systems in vehicles would al. low drivers to get real-time flight updates, respond to e. mails and get directions through simple voice commands, the company said.

Inside India: Indians view their automotive future

By 2035, India could have the world’s third largest economy,¹ and India's booming automotive industry will be a crucial driver of that economic growth. But the Indian automotive industry must overcome significant challenges to sustain its own growth, according to a joint study between IBM’s Institute for Business Value and the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute. The study authors interviewed industry executives and experts, academics, and government officials to understand how India views the actual future state of its automotive industry, focusing on three areas: India’s automotive market, India’s production capabilities, and challenges external to the automotive industry.India is expected by 2015 to be one of the top 10 countries in terms of vehicle sales. The number of four-wheelers sold in the 2006-2007 season was about 1.4 million. But industry executives interviewed for the study expect sales to double to 2.8 million by 2010 and triple to 4.2 million by 2015. The interviewed executives also expect an increase from 7 to 17 million two-wheelers from 2005 to 2015.¹

A key element of future success is an even stronger partnership between industry and government. That’s because India faces hurdles in the areas of transportation infrastructure, product quality, skilled workers, and labor and tax regulations — significant issues that require both public sector and private sector collaboration.

"The Indian government will certainly play an integral role in shaping the automotive industry and its future. Their Automotive Mission Plan could be construed as a step in the right direction as it outlines development goals till 2016, including the role of the government in improving infrastructure, tax and labor law revisions," said Bruce M. Belzowski, assistant research scientist and associate director, University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, Automotive Analysis Division. "Most of the interviewed industry experts are optimistic about government's support for the growth of the industry."

India’s automotive market: Is the small car India’s destiny?

• Steady economic growth should lead to success in the domestic market, but India must overcome significant challenges to succeed in the global market
• The small car and the low-cost “1 lakh car” (about US$2,500) announced by Tata Group are key growth strategies
• Attracting untapped buyers in India is a matter of understanding them, including the role of “status” in Indian buying patterns
• The impact of infrastructure on both domestic and export markets is significant
• India’s financial system provides an important building block for a developing industry
• Improving dealer performance may confer a competitive brand advantage in the future

India’s production capabilities

• India needs to strengthen its own R&D capability
• The supplier base needs to get stronger
• Costs need to be contained
• Labor skills, especially engineers and senior management, could be an unexpected constraint

Challenges impacting India's automotive industry

• Most Indian automotive executives agree that infrastructure is the most urgent challenge to its industry for roads, ports, and power.
• Combating air quality, oil dependency, and congestion issues should be a coordinated effort between government and industry.
• The Indian government has a crucial role to play to build growth capabilities by streamlining national and state government regulations and interactions between the two.

Road to success

"IBM has taken the lead in identifying the challenges of India's automotive industry," said Sanjay Rishi, global automotive industry leader, IBM Global Business Services. "India's automotive market has come a long way in a short period, growing more than 15 percent compounded annually since 2001. Based on the study, we have developed the next steps for them to become successful industry players as well as a key market while maintaining double-digit growth in the future."

Some of the next steps for India are:

• Unlocking India’s market potential and improve product quality, especially in the supplier base
• Building the infrastructure (roads, ports) that will enable the Indian automobile industry to catch fire. Only the government is in a position to do so.
• Focusing on education/training and R&D capability. Both industry and government need to support this effort.

Infosys Wins $250M Contract From Philips

Indian software services giant Infosys on Wednesday said it had bagged a $250 million outsourcing deal from Royal Philips Electronics and would acquire three of its service centers for $29 million.

It is among the largest finance and accounting business-process outsourcing contracts won by an Indian company, Infosys said in a statement. Through the deal, Bangalore-based Infosys (nasdaq: INFY - news - people ) will take over Philips back-office centers in India, Poland and Thailand with 1,400 employees.

India’s second-largest software company has trailed the other two biggies, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro (nyse: WIT - news - people ), when it comes to acquisitions. This is its first since 2003, when it bought Australia’s Expert Systems for $23 million. But Infosys management has consistently said they’re looking to grow in foreign markets through acquisitions. At the end of June, the company had cash and cash equivalent reserves of $1.6 billion.

“Looking at the history of acquisitions [in India], a majority of them do not deliver value. You need to be very careful when you consider acquisitions, and they’re not something we’ll be doing every day,” Infosys CEO S. Gopalakrishnan told Forbes.com from Bangalore. However, he added that the company was open to making acquisitions in Japan, Australia, China, Europe and India.

“The Philips deal is not that significant in terms of size, but strategically, it will enhance our capability in the finance and accounting arena and give us a center in Poland that we can leverage as we reach out to new clients,” said Gopalakrishnan. Infosys’ business-process outsourcing revenues were $49.75 million in the June quarter, up 75% from the corresponding quarter last year.

“While absorbing 1,400 employees with valuable language and domain skills may have its merits, this could also set a new precedent in what Infosys deems acceptable by way of upfront margin dilution,” said Ashish Thadani, senior vice president, research, at Gilford Securities.

As with most Indian software concerns, the U.S. accounts for a majority of Infosys’ revenues. But with the rupee appreciating nearly 7% in the quarter that ended in June, their profits took a hit. Infosys has revised its annual guidance downward. (See: “ Investors Bail Out Of Infosys On Forex Headwinds”)

Gopalakrishnan, who took over as CEO last quarter, said the company’s immediate challenge was to address the impact of rupee appreciation by balancing out the company’s sources of revenue geographically, diversifying its services and increasing revenues per employee. With the fight for talent intensifying, Infosys had an attrition rate of 13.7% last quarter, losing about 2,000 employees.

Infosys shares gained 0.7% to close at 1,989.95 rupees ($49.50) Wednesday on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The deal was announced after the Indian markets closed.

Web video -- Joost

Joost could potentially change the way people watch television. The technology enables the broadcast of TV-quality video over the Internet, and allows people to stream real TV programs from networks like MTV and National Geographic. It also features search, chat and instant messaging, built right into the interface. Much like TiVo, Joost does not restrict you to schedules, allowing you to watch what you want whenever you want. But unlike TiVo, Joost is completely free, and works with most PCs and Intel Mac-based computers with a broadband connection. So far the invitation-only, ad-supported service has more than 800,000 registered users.

CEO: Mike Volpi

Location: London, England

URL: joost.com

Launch: Mid-2006

Funding: $45 million (Index ventures, Sequoia Capital, Li Ka Shing Foundation, CBS Corporation, Viacom)

-Via: CNN Money

Apple's first computer's first ad!!!!

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Printing for Tips!

File Formats
referred file formats are (in order of preference):

• Corel Draw 8,9,10 or 11
• Freehand 8, 9 or 10
• For Business Cards and other small items you may alternatively send a TIFF, BMP or Photoshop file at 300dpi scaled to the exact size of your finished item, with an additional 3mm all the way around if bleed is required.
  

Setting of Colours and Image Sizes
If you are supplying artwork to be printed in Full Colour (CMYK), please ensure that ALL images, text and other design elements have colours set to CMYK palette and do not contain RGB or Pantone colours.

Similarly, if you are providing artwork to be printed using Pantone Colours (i.e. any other product not printed Full Colour), please choose the Pantone colours you require and set all text and other design elements to those specific colours. There should be no part of your artwork file still set to CMYK or RGB. Please ensure that there are only as many Pantone colours used in the document as you are paying for. (Normally either one or two). We will print your job in the Pantone colours specified in your document unless you advise differently.

All non-vector images (e.g. photos) should be converted to bitmaps at 100% scaling and 300dpi resolution. This means a photo you want to appear on your finished printing at 10cm x 6cm must be set to the exact same size inside your Corel Draw or Freehand document - and have a resolution of 300dpi.

Fonts and Text
Please convert all text to curves / paths.

Layout and Bleed
Please set the page size of your document to the exact correct size as follows:

Business cards should be 85mm x 55mm
Compliments slips should be 99mm x 210mm
A4 leaflets, A4 NCR sets and A4 letterheads should be 210mm x 297mm
A5 leaflets and A5 NCR sets should be 148.5mm x 210mm
Compliments slips should be 99mm x 210mm

If you require the print to run right off the edge of the paper (known as bleeding), you must make sure all design elements which touch the edges of the page are extended by 3mm (i.e. hanging 3mm of the edges of the paper) to allow for slight movement when printing.

Acceptable Artwork Programmes

In the following file types:

• Corel Draw 11 or earlier
• EPS File
• Photoshop CS or earlier (Mac or PC - please "Flatten Image")
• Freehand 10 or earlier (Mac or PC)
• Adobe Illustrator CS or earlier (Mac or PC)
• QuarkXpress 6 or earlier (Mac or PC)
• PageMaker 6.5 or earlier (PC)
• Microsoft Word (PC - all versions)
• Microsoft Publisher 2003 or earlier (PC)
• Serif Page Plus 9 or earlier (PC)
• Serif Draw Plus 7 or earlier (PC)
• Adobe Acrobat PDF (Mac or PC)

Where possible please also include a PDF version of your artwork

More Information: If your program allows it, please convert all text to curves, paths or outlines.

IBM Launches The World's Fastest Supercomputer

Date: July 16, 07

IBM has launched the world's fastest commercial supercomputer Blue Gene/P. Blue Gene/P is three times more potent than the current fastest machine, BlueGene/L, also built by IBM. The latest number cruncher is capable of operating at so called "petaflop" speeds - the equivalent of 1,000 trillion calculations per second.

Currently the most powerful machine is Blue Gene/L, housed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Used to ensure that the US nuclear weapons stockpile remains safe and reliable, it has achieved 280.6 teraflops or trillions of calculations per second. The machine packs 1,31,072 processors and is theoretically capable of reaching 367 teraflops.

The standard one petaflop Blue Gene/P comes with 2,94,912-processors connected by a high-speed, optical network but it can be expanded to pack 8,84,736 processors. Codenamed Roadrunner, it will be able to crunch through 1.6 thousand trillion calculations per second.

The computer will contain 16,000 standard processors working alongside 16,000 "cell" processors, designed for the PlayStation 3 (PS3). Each cell chip consists of eight processors controlled by a master unit that can assign tasks to each member of the processing team. Each cell is capable of 256 billion calculations per second.

Another contender for top supercomputer has been unveiled by Sun. Its Constellation machine will be able to run at a maximum speed of 1.7 petaflops. The first Constellation machine called Ranger, is being put together for the University of Texas at Austin and will run at 500 teraflops.