10 Online Safety Rules for Kids

With Internet becoming more and more a ubiquitous commodity in Indian households, more and more children are adopting to them and the amazing world that it opens all in just a few mouse clicks. 3-4 of my nephews and nieces insist that they have there own e-mail id and be allowed to surf the net and none of them is a older than 6 years. Internet can be a great tool for gathering information and learning though at times children need to be guided by adults on what safety rules they need to follow while online. SafeKids has come out with a 10 point Internet safety guideline devised for kids worldwide to incorporate into their internet surfing habits. Here below is a gist of the suggested 10 online safety rules. I will not give out personal information I will tell my parents right away if I come across any information that makes me feel uncomfortable. I will never agree to get together with someone I "meet" online without my parents permission. I will never send a person my picture online. I will not respond to any messages that are mean or in any way make me feel uncomfortable. I will talk with my parents so that we can set up rules for going online. I will not give out my Internet password to anyone (even my best friends) other than my parents. I will check with my parents before downloading or installing software. I will be a good online citizen I will help my parents understand how to have fun and learn things online and teach them things about the Internet, computers and other technology. BBC too has come out with an article titled "The rise of the cyber-children". The article goes to lengths while discussing what age would be right for a child to go online. Startling revelations like By the age of four, 45% of children have used a mouse to point and click, 27% have used a computer on their own at home Children as young as 18 months are on the courses of computer classes A four year old child being taught basics of Excel spreadsheet. are sure to make your mind go numb. While parental and peer pressure, sure are drivers and any amount of hoarse crying by educationists making minimalist difference, the best option would be to educate children about the need to stick to certain ground rules to ensure they have a safe and sound Internet and computer experience. This day in Indian IT - Click for details Technorati Tags: India, internet, kids, child, children, safety, online, rules, surf, safe surfing, concern

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India IT News Capsule - July 2006, Issue 5

DOT orders Indian ISPs to block errant sites only: Facing the heat from the blogosphere for issuing website block orders following the Mumbai blasts, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has put the ball in the ISPs court by clarifying that it wanted only the specified web sites to be blocked by the ISPs and not the parent domains as eventually it happened. DoT came under a lot of fire from the international as well as national community following a blanket clampdown on blogging services in India by the ISPs ICSA receives patents for pipeline and AMR services: ICSA, Mumbai has received two patents on pipeline monitoring services and an Automatic Meter Reading service that it offers. ICSA is a software services company that caters to the power industry. R-System to buy out US firm: R Systems International Ltd. said on Wednesday it plans to buy U.S.-based technical support firm WebConverse for up to $10.7 million. NIIT buys out UK based Element K: NIIT, India's leading computer trainer has bought out UK based Element K for $ 40 million mainly to boost its presence in developed communities. NIIT and Element K together would have more than 3,000 employees, about $250 million in revenues and a presence in 32 countries to offer comprehensive learning solutions Satyam plans BPO branch in Hungary: Satyam's BPO arm Nipuna plans to open up a BPO setup in Hungary, making it the third overseas branch following branches in US and UK. Some of Nipuna’s largest clients include BellSouth, Merrill Lynch, Bear Sterns & Co, Caterpillar Corp and Glaxo-SmithKline. Previous News Capsule Technorati Tags: DoT, India, IT, News, ISP, Satyam, R-System, NIIT, Element K, ICSA, BPO

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Mankind's epoch journey via Internet

A few days back a MBA classmate of mine was enquiring about my hometown. I not only told them about it, but also showed her my home via Google Earth. Today another batch mate was reminding himself of having to download an alarm clock into his system to make up for the lack of an alarm clock in his room. This my friend is the digital age we all live in. You don't buy an alarm clock, rather you download it and turn your PC into a live alarm clock. You don't just describe to your friend how your house is located at the U-bend of a river, rather you show them from the sky, the actual spot. You no more have to go searching for a phone to call up your folks home. you just call them up from your PC. You also do not ask the route to the nearest restaurant, rather you Google for it. You don't lug around all your MP3 songs around...You just tune into your favorite Internet radio station. You don't miss your local newspaper while on that lightning trip to the European Union. You just scan the e-version of the newspaper. Chatting on the net too is passé. You just chat like next door neighbours using VOIP. Neither do you wait for that yearly trip of your cousins to your place to show them the snaps of your latest trekking expedition or your new born baby...you just e-mail them or even better upload them to Flickr for them to see. Once a friend...you never lose track of him/her ...courtesy online social networks like Orkut, MySpace, etc. All this was not there 150 years ago, neither was it present a 100 years ago. 50 years ago....30 years ago...20 years ago...Nah....Just 15 years to be precise And what a transformation the world has undergone. Dramatic would be a understatement, coz you might have seen your own seniors in the family struggling to grapple with such a monstrous change that is turning yesterday's fiction into today's reality. Sometimes, I myself feel overwhelmed to keep abreast with the kind of changes happening and I am at a dilemma as to what to present to my readers. Sometimes when I think of it all, the whole fantastic fabric of this digital age has been carved by the simplest language man has invented. The binary system with just its '0' and '1' forms the basic building block of all that we do online today. This unique journey that mankind has embarked on and that we have all been fortunate to be a part of was touched upon by CNN in a beautiful manner. It is must read for all you guys out there. This day in Indian IT - Click for details Technorati Tags: IT, Internet, WWW, virtual space, journey, mankind, digital, digitization, revolutionary, age, era

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Digitizing the power sector in India

The latest copy of the Engineering & Technology magazine carries an article on how Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) in Sweden has proved to be big business. Stockholm based Nacka Energi power supply company has tied up with Vodafone, Sweden and power meter manufacturer Actaris to provide a unique AMR service to the customers. This service involves installation of 25,000 meters in Swedish homes that will be capable of communicating with the Vodafone based GSM mobile phones and transmit the meter readings via the cellular network to the Nacka Energi servers which would then use the data to transmit bills to the customers. The existence of such a direct communications link between the energy provider and the customer also opens up the possibility of using 'smart' meters that can display the price of the energy consumed and accommodate variable tariffs that favor off-peak consumption. Mobile phone companies too are eyeing the AMR as a major business opportunity especially as the data can be collected at night when there is much less traffic on the networks, The technology also provides a platform for energy companies to offer additional services such as burglar and fire alarms. Closer home, New Delhi Power Limited has developed a homegrown solution that restructures its billing system and has the potential to impact 8.5 lakh people across Delhi. The billing and metering system deploys an Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) function. AMR is a remote controlled device that collects the meter reading and uploads it into the company billing servers automatically. This prevents manipulation of data, even at the stage of reading the meter. NDPL also has a spot billing facility. Meaning that with the use of a spot billing machine, the bill can be generated instantly after the meter reading. Hence, the customers see the bill generation process and can make the payment from home itself. The logical extension for a pre-existing AMR system like the one in Delhi would be to go the Swedish way and offer customers the option of hooking up their meters to their mobile networks. That would surely be a revolution of sorts because that would mean lower costs of billing, less pilferage, more customer oriented services, incentives of saving by moving consumption to non-peak hours. Privatisation of the power sector in the country was a big success. It is now up to the private regimes to grab the latest that IT has to offer to push the Indian power industry into the digital age. This day in Indian IT - Click for details Technorati Tags: India, IT, digital, power, meter, AMR, automatic, cellular, GSM, mobile, phone, Delhi

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US relinquishes hold on Internet

Yesterday happened to be a Red letter day in the history of Internet, thought I must say that it failed to impress the general public of the significance of the event. The event in focus was the announcement by the United States of America that it can no longer expect to maintain its position as the ultimate authority over the internet. Having been the internet's instigator and, since 1998, its voluntary taskmaster, the US government finally agreed to transition its control over not-for-profit internet overseeing organization ICANN, making the organization a more international body. The Register though reports that the US made it clear that it intends to keep control over the net's root zone file, at least for the medium term during which the transition of power to ICANN to make changes to the authoritative root takes place. The event assumes significance coz it clearly means two things. Countries could breathe a lot freely now that they can be sure that the US would not attempt an Internet shutdown in the country which exercises power in a way that may not please the US too much, thereby crippling these countries to a large extent. Governments would be encouraged to embrace e-governance much more faster than before. What it also means is that the Internet would evolve much faster now that contributions towards its improvement might be accepted from all quarters of the world. These both would go a long way in helping Internet become a ubiquitous medium of communication in countries across the globe and that would mean an accelerated path of growth for developing countries like India. Hail the US decision. This day in Indian IT - Click for details Technorati Tags: Internet, US, USA, ICANN, India, IT, e-governance, free, relinquish, control

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Ears and Eyes go Mobile Now

If all goes as planned cellular-residents of Delhi might be in for a visual cum auditory feast. Radio Mirchi FM station and Hutch cellular provider in Delhi have unveiled plans to roll out something called Visual Radio. The concept though simple has been contrived only now and envisages beaming out cellular content related to programs currently being broadcast over the FM stations. It could be things as simple as the ringtone for the current song doing the airwaves or something handy like the route map to the nearest bookstore that might be housing the book being reviewed over air or even something for the film crazy Indian public-say the ability to download trivia on Big B Amitabh Bachchan while his songs are being aired. The service though requires a phone with multimedia and GPRS facilities like the Nokia N series. Having a inbuilt FM tuner is a definite help. The service charges that Hutch's proposing to impose on users is quite nominal at Rs 3-4 for every hour of service. Downloads would be charged extra. Airtel is sure to follow suit soon. It is just a matter of time before Mumbaites, Kolkatans, Hyderabadis, Chennaites and Bangloreans get to taste the new service. If you are technology freak then Delhi is the place to be in right now. This day in Indian IT - Click for details Technorati Tags: India, Delhi, cellular, mobile, FM, radio, visual radio, Radio Mirchi, Hitch, Airtel

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India IT News Capsule - July 2006, Issue 4

Satyam ties up with GigaSpaces: Satyam, the Indian IT biggie has tied up with GigaSpaces Technologies to provide end-to-end solutions for service-oriented architecture and grid environments. Software would be GigaSpaces provided while Satyam would be involved in the implementation of the software. Wipro sets up e-waste disposal services: Following the urging from GreenPeace, Wipro has announced e-waste disposal services to its customers. Green Peace had urged the IT major to come up with a clear roadmap on phasing out toxic chemicals from its products. This would mean that customers could avail the free e-waste services for nominal freight charges. Govt. to allow mobile companies to offer internet services: The government has passed the bill that sought to allow mobile telecom companies to offer Internet services to their customers. This would mean that a lot of companies could come out with clubbed plans of mobile and internet services and even free mobile internet access when they are within the home base. Wipro partners with Motorola: Wipro Technologies, the global IT services arm of Wipro Ltd., has entered into a a join venture with Motorola to set up the company WMNetServ. Wipro, which provides IT solutions and services like system integration and software application development and maintenance, would set up a dedicated centre in Bangalore as part of the joint venture agreement. The company would focus on delivering outsourced telecom services. Sasken buys out Finnish firm: Sasken Communication Technologies, India has bought the Finnish firm wireless technology developer Botnia Hightech Oy for EUR 35.50 million in cash. Sasken would be able to strengthen ties with global wireless product makers with this acquisition. "Botnia's European presence combined with Sasken's India-based development centers will enable us to offer a compelling portfolio of value added solution," Sasken's Chief Executive Officer Rajiv Mody said in a statement. Previous News Capsule Technorati Tags: IT, news, India, Sasken, Motorola, Wipro, telecom, mobile, cellular

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