One more Google acquisition

Google, after its recent acquisitions of Orkut, On2 etc completed one more. The latest deal is Slide Inc. which makes games for social networks . According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt "The opportunities are there, We can afford it. We're in a mode of investment for the long term." But at the same time people say that the kind of fast acquisitions from Google is due to failures in some of their internal projects. ReadMore

Epic - A Desi Browser is Up now

Which internet browser you like most ? IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari,Netscape ? Whatever you might be using it doesn't matter. Now its time to change in to a real Indian made browser. Epic Browser - a browser built on top of Mozilla's Firefox Engine by an Indian start up christened Hidden reflex, has got stunning features and blazing speed. Some of the features include - support for 12 Indian regional languages, built-in anti-virus scanner, one click private browsing and lot more. Why don't give a try ?? Read More

Google Code Jam 2010

Registration opened for Code Jam 2010 Read More

ROBOTC2.0

Carnegie Mellon University's Robotic research academy has come up with a new programming language for robotics. If you ask me whats so fascinating in this, the answer is its cross-platform capable and much easier to work with and can be easily used in many different platforms like LEGO Mindstorms RCX and NXT systems, Innovation First VEX and Cortex systems etc.
Also The language comes with its own Visual Studio-inspired development environment, including real-time debugging over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, in addition to the normal text and project editing development environment functionality. One language for many platforms! i think this will definitely help to bring more innovation in robotics as they reduce time for learning different languages and brings more professional development. Read More

InCTF - India's First National Level CTF Style Ethical Hacking contest

You are aware of the exponential rate of growth of cyber crimes and huge number of websites getting defaced (statistics in http://www.cert-in.org.in/)

Here is a recent article

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/india-not-ready-for-cyberwar/384506/
http://business.rediff.com/report/2010/feb/04/tech-india-not-ready-for-cyberwar.htm

One of the main problems is that security and secure coding practices are not taught in the undergraduate curriculum. As a result when students start to code they don't even think of security. With this in mind we are conducting India's first National Level CTF sytle Ethical Hacking contest where students will learn about secure coding practices.There are ethical hacking contests conducted in India but most of them require exorbitant amount of money to take part and travel to one of the metros.

InCTF is mainly targeted for students who don't know anything about security. Prerequisite is knowledge of any programming language.

InCTF is being organized by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University.
This is opened only for Students and the details are as follows:

(a) Form a team (max five members from your college)
(b) Approach a faculty/mentor and request him/her to mentor your team
(c) Register online at http://inctf.amrita.ac.in/register.php
(d) Send a demand draft for and amount of Rs. 150/- per team to the address mentioned.
ReadMore

Google I/O 2010 Registration Opened

To get more check out http://code.google.com/events/io/2010/register.html

"China, Don't Be Evil" Says Google !

Internet giant Google took a pretty big risk this week when it decided to take on the Chinese government, following its discovery of a targeted cyber attack on its corporate infrastructure that originated in China. Not only was the company no longer going to play by the censorship rules of the most populated nation in the world but it also said it would be willing to shutter its site and close its offices in China because of it.[1]

In 1998 when China starter the "Golden Shield Project" Google was also a partner [2] where they compromised in filtering search results and even omitting certain results from Google search or even from subsidiary companies like YouTube in order to comply with Chines government censorship laws.

But the recent issues made Google to rethink, and in a way they are setting a pretty high moral bar for other corporates also to review their policies for conducting business in china.The "Don't be Evil" motto of Google is coming in practice now. Lets wait and see!

Nexus1 - The Google Phone

That also happened !! Google has released its Android based smart phone in collaboration with HTC. Its powered with Android 2.1,the latest mobile OS from Google, and has almost all features that a smart phone has. May be even more i believe. Google has told that Nexus is more faster in terms of Searching and Internet browsing compared to any other phones. Although the hardware is from HTC, rumors suggest that Google has dictated every last detail of the hardware specifications and is customizing the Android experience to be uniquely Google. They are expected to market the Nexus One directly rather through any wireless carrier partnership. No doubt, its a potential threat to Apple iPhone by all means. The complete Spec can be found here