Satellite newspaper kiosk in Chennai

International tourists and frequent business travellers who seek the familiarity of reading their hometown newspapers in print can now do so right in Chennai.

A satellite newspaper kiosk is a fully automated unit that receives the latest editions via satellite transmission. A copy is printed on demand. Some of the newspapers in the network include USA Today (US), The Observer (UK), Die Welt (Germany), Sports Nippon (Japan), Le Monde (France) etc.,

The price is about $5 a copy. The vending machine prints the copy within 3 mins. The technology is offered by a Dutch firm. Once the idea becomes popular, the vending machine is installed in malls, airports and other public places in Chennai.

Work place of the future - cube less office

Can you imagine working on a cube-less floor? Its not just cube-less floor, but no assigned seat. Just like in college, anybody can sit anywhere in the office. Can you think of working in that kind of environment?

But, many silicon valley companies including Cisco, Sun and Intel are casting aside the cubicle culture to save the money. Also these companies are thinking that "open office" culture improves the interaction and productivity. These companies found and analyzed that 60% of the company's cubes are empty because employees are visiting customers, telecommuting, vacationing or in meetings. Employees on average spend 20% of their work hours telecommuting.


Thank god, this culture didn't come to India yet. Otherwise, our tables will be completely occupied by laptops, water bottles, coffee cups lined up on the floor, wires/cables all over the floor and always there is somebody peeping into your monitor through your shoulder!!!

There are disadvantages of both fully walled rooms (less space efficient, like old US R&D centers) and low walled cubicles (more noise, like in many Indian companies). There should be considerably high walled cubicles which enable interaction and privacy to certain extent.

Courtesy: mercurynews.com

IndLinux - A computer for Indians

Most of the Indians (especially in rural areas) get basic education in their local language (non-English). Not all people who study English in India have a high command of the language. Many times language barrier becomes a bottleneck in bringing and sharing a lot of opportunities. With more than a billion people and lack of good infrastructure, the localized software will help India to reach rural areas.

India needs localized software to move to the next decade!

There are many companies that are providing proprietary software solutions for Indian languages (including Microsoft). But IndLinux is a project started by Prakash Advani and Venkatesh Hariharan in Dec 1999, that localizes tools used for Linux and other free software environments into Indian languages.

Currently there are teams for Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriaya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu. The task of localization involves writing I/O modules, development of fonts, kernel enablement, word translation etc., The project always looks for volunteers to help them. Are you one of them? then go here.

For more details on IndLinux project visit: http://indlinux.org/