cJust now, I’m re-reading Aldous Huxley’s ‘Time Must Have A Stop’ by the courtesy of Anita Sood-Mankar who is in India with Armaan and Anika. She got me a paperback copy of it in the Coleman Dowell British Literature Series edition. I remember reading it in the early sixties. In retrospect, I feel I had missed a lot of its subtleties and nuances at that time. This is vintage Huxley, delectable and many-layered. To know more about the novel, visit this website: centerforbookculture.org.

OUTSOURCING TO INDIA. Research, not just call centres.

In ‘Outsourcing Research to India’, Mike Taylor, UK Sales Director for Evalueserve, a global research company with an operations base in Gurgaon housing almost 500 full-time research professionals, shares his pleasant experience of outsourcing research to India where “if you had a research team of 10 people working for you, with no hassles about managing them, making sure they were busy and motivated, worrying about their holidays, boyfriend troubles, hangovers or office politics. They would do what you wanted, by the deadline you'd set.” freepint.com.

INDIANS ARE UP THERE. Now in the top ten fast food junkies.

An ACNielsen online study of 28 markets across the US, Europe and the Asia-Pacific (more than 14,000 consumers) ranked India in the seventh place (37 per cent) trailing Hong Kong (61 per cent of the adult population eating at takeaway restaurants at least once every week), Malaysia (59 per cent), the Philippines (54 per cent), Singapore (50 per cent), Thailand (44 per cent) and China (41 per cent). In the US and Europe only 35 per cent and 11 per cent adults eat from takeaways at least once a week. The takeaways are mostly for dinner. McDonald's was the first choice for takeaway food with 54 per cent of Americans, 75 per cent of Europeans and 64 per cent of Asians. Among the takeaway favourite line-up are McDonald's (84 per cent in Australia), KFC (42 per cent in China) and Pizza Hut (22 per cent in India). In key selection criteria, brand image was ranked the least important (9 - 8 per cent). Cuisine was the prime consideration in Indonesia (75 per cent). Japan opted for price (80 per cent) and Norway for convenient location (61 per cent). Curiously, India topped the list of countries insisting on hygiene (66 per cent). thehindubusinessline.com.

BACK AGAIN, DAVID VERSUS GOLIATH. Alias little blog versus Microsoft.

A recent comment at the Engadget blog engadget.com seems to have drawn the ire of Microsoft. The comment in question at Jason Calacanis' Weblog about computers and consumer electronics related to the company's Windows Mobile technology. A letter from the law firm of Covington & Burling claimed that the posting on Engadget.com violated “Microsoft's intellectual property rights" and threatened charges of trademark infringement and trade secret misappropriation if it was not removed. According to an entry in the blog, Calacanis called the attorney and suggested, "Perhaps someone from Microsoft should just call me and explain what the issue is."

OFFSHORING: IS CHINA A THREAT TO INDIA? Not yet, says report.

In ‘Can China compete in IT services?’ (The McKinsey Quarterly, 2005 Number 1), Giuseppe De Filippo, Jun Hou, and Christopher Ip reveal: “A recent McKinsey study of China's software sector, however, shows that it will be many years before the country poses a threat to its continental rival in this arena. For starters, the Chinese must consolidate their highly fragmented industry to gain the size and expertise needed to capture large international projects. Currently, there is little movement in this direction.” mckinseyquarterly.com.

DREAM IN TECHNICOLOUR. Yahoo! in Hollywood.

“In a bid to become a major player in the entertainment business, Yahoo Inc. has agreed to lease as much as 256,000 square feet of office space, 15 miles southwest of Hollywood,” reports Frank Barnako in ‘Yahoo plans Hollywood beachhead’. The Yahoo Media Group, announced in a recent e-mail to employees, will include gaming, news, sports, finance and movies, as well as the music services Launch and MusicMatch. marketwatch.com. At a conference of the National Association of Television Program Executives, Showtime president Robert Greenblatt said he was close to announcing a content and promotion deal with Yahoo!, reported TV Week magazine.  In answer to a query whether this might call for previewing TV shows via the Internet, he replied, "Much bigger." but offered details.

PHISH! And, go to jail in France.

The first person to be convicted in France for ‘phishing’ fraud – guess who? A student. He got a one-year suspended prison sentence with €8,500 damages and charges from a court in Strasbourg on 2 September 2004. The FDI or le Forum des droits sur l'internet (Internet Rights Forum) informed by the IT Fraud Enquiry Unit, a division of the police linked to the Paris force, revealed this only after the time when the convict could have appealed had expired. silicon.com.

WINDOWS SANS MP PRONTO. Or, else…

The latest development in the EU-Microsoft dispute is serious. The European Commission recently “held out the possibility that Microsoft may be fined up to five per cent of its average daily turnover unless it complies soon with a European Union antitrust decision,” reports Reuters (‘EU threatens Microsoft with $5m fine each day...’). Also: “Microsoft's turnover in the year that ended in June was $36.8bn. Five per cent of that is about $5m a day.” silicon.com. The EU-Microsoft skirmish was last covered in QuiteATake.com (‘SANTA SKIPS MSVILLE. EU rules against US giant.’) hindustantimes.com.

TOTAL TRUST. Does the Net deserve it?

“The internet can be relied upon to route data between any two connected computers, finding its way automatically around any failed or damaged elements; that was, after all, what it was designed to achieve. Unfortunately, that is all it can be relied upon to manage. It provides no intrinsic guarantees of confidentiality, either of the existence or the contents of transmitted packets of data; and equally it provides no intrinsic guarantees of the transactional integrity of the messages it transmits,” argues Neil Barrett in his debut silicon.com column (‘Criminal IT’). Because it is a system built on so many unknowns, you see. silicon.com.

ONE IN A THOUSAND. Catching a spammer.

Stephanie Miller, VP (strategic solutions for e-mail marketing) Return Path returnpath.net said the current industry practice was for Internet service providers to block mailers if 1,000 messages resulted in just 1 complaint. She also revealed that Return Path’s December 2004 survey of 723 consumers found 23 percent were so annoyed by unsolicited e-mail that they didn't hesitate to alert their service provider to a suspected spam mailer.

RIGHT AND ’RONG. According to bloggers.

Reveal biases. Disclose who pays your salary or funds the site's operating costs. Correct mistakes. Don't knowingly publish something false. These are some of the commonsense guidelines to ethical blogging. cyberjournalist.net. Read the CyberJournalist.net’s ‘A Bloggers' (sic!) Code of Ethics’ here: cyberjournalist.net.

THE MOBILE CULTURE. X-rayed in depth.

At mediacenter.org, The Media Centre offers an in-depth analysis of the ‘mobility imperative’ and how wireless technologies are bringing ‘We Media’ to news and information strategies. You can download the report (‘Make way for the Mobiles’) for offline perusal and reference.