Nofollow the link condom

Arstechnica informs about the google's initiative to outsmart tricksters by the introduction of a HTML attribute that will surely affect how page ranks in search engines. rel="nowfollow" tells the search engines that they shouldn't follow a particular link, nor consider the link as factor in their indexing algorithms. But some people are not happy with this as they think this is some type of link condom and others believe that its a great way to limit blog and comment spam. All the major search engines seem to be in agreement to support this

What is a Telethon?

Found about Telethon through CRY Telethon - Homepage

Derived from the words "telephone" and "marathon", telethons are interactive television shows. Since the 1950's they have been phenomenally successful at tapping the reach and power of television to raise money for philanthropic causes. The biggest of them all, the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon, is a 21½-hour, star-studded affair that raised $60.5 million for the Muscular Dystrophy Association last year. It has been broadcast every year, since its debut in 1966. Telethons are also popular in Australia, U.K, and Canada.

Jerry Lewis has been my most favorite actor and comedian and I also admire him for his social work.

neoIT and Managing Offshore announce the Offshore 100

[ Via IndusNexus ] neo-IT Press Release :

neoIT, the leading offshore advisory and management firm, and CMP’s Managing Offshore, the monthly newsletter for global-sourcing managers, announced today the results of the first annual ‘Offshore 100’ joint research project to assess BPO (business process outsourcing) and ITO (information technology outsourcing) service providers from around the world.

The ‘Offshore 100’ project was initiated in September 2004 with surveys issued to global service providers in 13 different countries to assess four primary areas: service provider company information, client data, operational capabilities and human resource policies. Over the ensuing 2 months, neoIT and Managing Offshore collected over 250 different data points from a wide range of service providers located in thirteen countries with strong representation from offshoring destination leaders India, The Philippines, China, Russia, Malaysia and Mexico.

2005 Silicon Valley & mixed estimates

The New York Times writes about a report "2005 Silicon Valley "

The report's authors cautioned against drawing conclusions that were too negative. If comparing present-day Silicon Valley to 2000, things look grim by nearly every measure, as the area has seen a steep decline in everything from jobs to venture capital to funding for the arts and municipal services.

But if the comparison year is 1998, just before the dot-com phenomenon spun out of control, "then we seem to have returned to similar levels of performance, and embarked on a new period of incremental growth," according to the report's authors. The study also found that 40 percent of the regional population is foreign-born, up from 32 percent in 2000.

"I'd say it's not bad news coming out of Silicon Valley, but we have our challenges," Mr. Hancock said. Primary among those concerns is what he called the "Manhattan effect."

"Our worry is that Silicon Valley becomes this world center for people working on innovative enterprises who can afford to live here, but at the same time people who want and need to be here find that ours has turned into an economy that's not robust in terms of the middle," he said. That day hasn't arrived yet, Mr. Hancock said, but the study found that housing is so expensive that "it's difficult to retain young talent, teachers and service professionals."

From CEO to Entrepreneur

IndusNeXus.com reports :

Economic Times reports that India Inc. CEO are getting bitten by the Entrepreneurial Bug and are quitting there high paid jobs to do their own thing. For example, ex-Ranbaxy CEO DS Brar; ex-Britannia CEO Sunil Alagh; ex-SRF CEO Ravi Sinha; ex-Max Healthcare CEO Noni Chawla; ex-Infosys worldwide sales head Phaneesh Murthy, ex-Oberoi Hotels president Ravi Bhoothalingam and so many others who are following the suit.

The reason for this are many :
- Sudden power equation changes inside the company.
- Motivation and challenge of running 'own company'
- Lack of Top Level jobs for a shift
- The 'new factor'
- Money not being the motivation after a certain stage

Plagiarism in the Indian Blogoshphere

IndusNeXus.com reports about Amit Varma's experience with the Plagiarism in the Indian Blogosphere

Entrepreneurs need to be flexible

Simon Paker , professor of economics and entrepreneurship at Durham Business School suggests that too much focus can hinder entrepreneurs

Deep Service: The Missing Link In Broadband

TelecomWeb

Critical Telecom, an investor-backed DSLAM startup with between 40 and 50 employees, advocates that standards-compliant IP service features should be created and reside in network access elements closer to end customers, ostensibly then enabling a more efficient and more reliable delivery of offerings over any combination of wireline, fixed wireless and/or mobile wireless systems. A white paper issued by the privately-held company contrasts this newer concept of architecture and methodology against the current practice of creating broadband services within core service networks and then delivering the services to end users via broadband remote access servers (BRAS) located at the metro/access boundary, the so-called network edge. The white paper, Deep Service: The Missing Link In Broadband, can be found at www.criticaltelecom.com.

Indian Consortium To Offer 2 Mbps At $2.30/month

Slashdot reports about the Indian Consortium which will Offer 2 Mbps At $2.30/month.

The State Govt of Andhra Pradesh in India, has awarded a contract for a fiber-optics based network to a consortium led by Aksh of India that aims to charge just Rs 100 (around US $2.30) a month for a domestic broadband connection. The project will provide services with a minimum bandwidth of 2Mbps. The execution of the project is scheduled to begin in April 2005 and will be completed by December 2006. The strength of the consortium is evident by the participation of top-notch Indian corporations which include Railtel Corporation India Limited, Tata Indicom, VSNL Limited, INcable Network (Andhra) Limited, Spectranet Limited and Nuziveedu Seeds Limited."

IT growth momentum will be sustained in 2005

Computer Reseller News (India) reports that IT growth momentum will be sustained in 2005 as per the IDC's latest report :

The growth momentum attained in 2004 will be sustained in 2005 also and the domestic IT industry will reach another peak with 21.7 percent growth in 2005 over 2004, according to IDC India's recently published research highlights.

"Last year we predicted that companies which would emerge successfully through the structural transformation underway in 2004 would be big winners in the next upturn. And 2005 is going to be the year of execution of choices made in 2004," said Kapil Dev Singh, country manager, IDC (India).

Indian Engineers should learn the Japanese Syntax

Anohar John writes :

Japan today is at the crossroads. It has a great cultural heritage, an economy coming out of the disasters of world war, and prosperous hard working mentality and, is looking up to information technology sector for a shot in the arm, but the Japanese IT industry is acutely short in human resources. It has been estimated that Japan would need half a million IT personnel in the next five years and a report from Japan says that the Government has decided in principle that foreign skilled labour must be used to keep the Japanese economy going and maintain the country's competitiveness in the global IT industry

Fast Company | The 6 Myths Of Creativity

Fast Company | The 6 Myths Of Creativity: Via emergic
1. Creativity Comes From Creative Types
2. Money Is a Creativity Motivator
3. Time Pressure Fuels Creativity
4. Fear Forces Breakthroughs
5. Competition Beats Collaboration
6. A Streamlined Organization Is a Creative Organization