Aspire Systems, a technology services firm with a strong focus on
independent software vendors and the retail, distribution and consumer
goods vertical, today announced the completion of its acquisition of
Versant Technologies.
Versant is a Hyderabad-based technology company with experience and
specialization in Oracle retail and electronic data interchange [EDI]
implementation.
According to a press release, Aspire’s global presence in the US, UK and
India combined with Versant’s strong presence in Saudi Arabia will
cater to the needs of retailers across the world.
Gowri Shankar Subramanian, Chairman and CEO, Aspire Systems, said,“This
acquisition is extremely strategic and important to us. Retail is one of
the fastest growing industries across the globe and is heavily impacted
by the increasing influence of social media, mobility and analytics.
Our comprehensive service offerings for the retail sector combined with
Oracle’s leadership position among the world’s top 20 retailers
positions us well to capitalize on the $6 billion IT services export
market in the vertical.”
Naidu Darapaneni, Founder, Versant Technologies, added, “With our
combined scale and bandwidth, we have all the capabilities required to
win and execute larger implementation projects across the globe. I am
certain this relationship will add more value to our customers as well
as our employees.”
Dell has launched enterprise game—Destination Mars for its India partners, on Facebook.
The initiative is aimed at enabling a better understanding of Dell’s
enterprise products and solutions amongst partners in a fun and engaging
manner. The game will roll out in the form of a contest which will run
from December 16, 2013 to December 31, 2013.
Dell said that with over 2,000 partners in the India market, and further
growth anticipated, impaction methods of communication have become
imperative. The company hopes to leverage the popularity of gaming and
social media to achieve its target of generating further interest
amongst existing and prospective partners.
Ajay Kaul, Director & General Manager, Global Commercial Channel,
Dell India, said, “Destination Mars is a fun and entertaining way for
partners to get acquainted with our enterprise offerings. It is also a
non-intrusive and engaging way for us to strengthen our relationships
with existing and prospective partners. We are very excited about the
launch of this game and hope that our partner community enjoys and
benefits from it. The game provides an option to connect with a Dell
solutions expert for more training modules and we are expecting a good
response.”
The participants can share their achievements and scores on Facebook.
Although the contest is only open for Dell registered commercial channel
partners, IT Enterprise solution providers, (server, storage or
networking), resellers and distributors, the players can also invite
friends to play and earn more power (points) through referrals. The
winners of the game will be decided through a combination of high game
score & social referrals or interactions. Every player of the game
will be conferred a space title corresponding to their game score, Dell
said.
Aim to educate yourself.
Keep in mind an education isn't the junk you are forced to do in school
for diplomas and degrees; it's an understanding of the world around
you. People who are naturally curious for some reason begin to stop
asking questions the moment they hit school. The truly brilliant mind
however, always questions their world and tries to make sense of it.
That is the secret to "genius".
Work on your vocabulary. Use a few definitions from the dictionary
each day, or subscribe to a "word-of-the-day" service online. You can
also take the vocabulary tests in Readers Digest or buy a book on
increasing your working vocabulary. Read the dictionary one letter at a
time. This will take you at least a year but you will grow
intellectually.
3
Read a variety of books.
Reading a lot is often described as the secret to intelligence. The
smartest people in the world tend to read every single day. You may not
always enjoy it, but reading will open up your mind to a variety of new
ideas and experiences. Keep your reading diverse by reading books of all
genres including non-fiction.
4
Educate yourself about the world around you.
Cultivate an interest in subjects like current events, interesting
facts, funny and inspiring quotations, good books and movies, scientific
studies and interesting inventions. Educational television, like PBS,
is a great way to learn. Learning to think critically about the world
around you by being aware of cause and effect in events will make you
much smarter.
If you can read much faster than you can speak, it is much more
efficient to read a book, or better yet a non-linear electronic document
like a wiki than to watch a show for all but the most intellectually
demanding or video-dependent learning. Commercial television is
particularly bad because its ultimate purpose is to do just enough to
keep you at the TV and its ads, not satisfy you so you can do something
else.
5
Make connections. Find
uses for information, rather than just collecting useless trivia.
Burying information somewhere deep in your brain is not useful; you have
to be able to access it in real-world situations. Think of real-world
situations in which a piece of information will make sense. Then share it and watch it grow!
Learn a new language.
Apart from being a linguistic exercise, it may bring you into contact
with new people and ideas. You may feel less of a stranger when you
visit a place and you know some of the language. Also, at some point you
will realize that there are some phrases or concepts in other languages
that have no direct translation in English! This can be a challenging
and fun exercise for the mind. (Note, try to be patient and positive
when studying a language as it may take time to reach the level you
desire.)
2
Visit new places as much as you can.
If possible, try to visit other countries too. Visiting cities in your
country or in a different one gives you a open mind and teaches you
about the world we live in. You will be able to understand other
cultures (how people live in a different place, how they behave with
each other, how they live and so on). You will also be able to
understand that the planet earth is huge and there is so much to see and
do. You will be fascinated on how there are so many different people
and cultures in the world. That will make you smart and interesting.
3
Be open-minded and willing to learn new things. Just because you're great at one thing doesn't mean you have to stick to it! Find ways to step out of your comfort zone. This is where the learning happens.
Always ask questions.
Asking questions and questioning everything around us constantly is what
makes us smarter. There's nothing wrong with not knowing the whys or
the hows! Everybody has something that they don't know. But by
developing a healthy habit about asking when you don't know something,
you'll find yourself getting smarter and smarter.
2
Set goals
once a week. Ask yourself during each goal-setting session, how many of
last week's goals did I achieve? Why didn't I accomplish some of my
goals and what can I do to give myself a greater chance of success?
Constantly work hard to achieve each of your goals. Without goals,
you would have nothing to hope for. Reward yourself after accomplishing
your goal.
Be organized.
You don't need to be a total neat freak, but wasting time is not smart.
Of course, there are many geniuses who are completely disorganized
(think of the absent-minded professor) but if you're making an active
effort to be smart, taking a conscious approach to how you spend your
time is a big step in the right direction.
3
Devote time to education.
Educating yourself takes time, and if you want to get smarter it is
going to require effort. Don’t expect it to happen overnight. You need
to spend a lot of time actively thinking and learning if you want to
really be smart.
4
Always learn. There are
many sources of information out there. For example: books,
documentaries, and the internet. School is just one source of
information. If you have straight A's, that doesn't mean that you are
smart. Exercising an open mind will make you more intelligent and
constantly learning will help you get there.
Work on puzzles like the Rubik's cube.
Doing puzzles like these will keep your brain working and increase your
mental capabilities. Your brain is like a muscle: you have to exercise
it!
Sudoku is a great puzzle to try to solve and it expands your
thinking. These can be purchased in books, are often printed in
newspapers, and are easily found for free online.
2
Do artistic activities.
Drawing, sculpting, painting and other arts unleash your creative side
and expand your problem solving skills. A creative brain can think
outside the box to find ways to get things done better and faster.
3
Do math. Learn how to do mental sums or speed math.
The hard thinking that is required for math will make your brain work
hard and help develop the connections that will help you think better
and faster.
4
Write stories or poetry.
Creative writing forces your brain to work on inventing situations and
dialogue, characters and environments. This will make you a better
thinker and help you process information. Using language like this will
also improve your vocabulary and speech. Writing is also a fantastic way
of expressing yourself and your thoughts.
Simplify. Talking about
things that no one else can understand does not make you smart. Genius
is the ability to translate the complex into the simple. Practice
explaining concepts to others. See just how simple and clear you can
make your explanations. If someone doesn't understand you, it is not
their fault for being ignorant, it is your fault for being inarticulate.
2
Learn to listen carefully to others' opinions about controversial things, or things they know about and you do not.
You do not have to agree with them but remember everybody has something
to teach you. Asking questions may allow you to re-evaluate your own
beliefs, or point out the flaws in theirs. Keep an open mind. The more
intelligent you are the more questions you will ask of the people around
you.
3
Be nice to people.
Practicing kindness in the face of challenges is a sign of maturity,
class and intelligence. Remember that you also have a lot to learn from
other people. Being kind to them will allow you access to their lives
and experience. Who knows what you might learn?
Giving someone a digital gift used to be the last refuge of procrastinators and people who didn’t glance at a calendar until December 23 or so. The shelves at the local megamall have been picked clean, the clerk manning the UPS desk won’t stop laughing at you, and only your sense of pride is stopping you from scrawling “IOU: One present” on a scrap of paper—that’s when it’s time to print out the ol’ iTunes gift certificate.
That’s no longer the case. In this day and age, when entire TV series can be had with the click of a Download button instead of cluttering up your shelves with discs, cases, and other items that could just as easily live in the cloud, digital gifts are no longer the present of last resort. These days, a downloadable movie, album, or TV show—or a virtual gift card that allows your family and friends to pick out their own present—may be at the top of your gift-giving list.
But just because digital content has become more ubiquitous and sought-after doesn’t mean it’s always intuitive what you can and can’t give and when that gift will find its way into the waiting arms of your recipient. Whether you’re wrapping up your holiday shopping now or waiting until the very last second to settle on presents, here’s a rundown of what to expect when you stroll down the virtual aisles of online stores to pick up a digital item or two.
iTunes Gifts from Apple
The Quick Links section on the iTunes Store front page gives you a direct way to send iTunes gifts electronically. (Click to enlarge.)
This may be the product of more than a decade’s worth of chronicling Apple’s assorted comings and goings, but for my money, the iTunes Store provides one of the better experiences if you prefer giving digital gifts. For one thing, there’s the extensive selection—Apple lets you gift specific movies, TV shows, music, and apps in addition to sending gift cards for a wide range of amounts. And you don’t have to search all that hard to give the gift of downloads: There’s a Send iTunes Gifts link prominently displayed in the Quick Links section on the right side of the iTunes Store’s home page.
Click that link, and you get right down to business, with a pop-up window that lets you pick a recipient, set a value (from $10 to $100, with an Other option available), and write a message containing as much sentiment as 200 characters can allow. More important, you can set when the recipient receives your gift—your options are immediately or at a date of your choosing. (Apple doesn’t let you set the time, so if you’re like me, and hand out gifts to your family at night on Christmas Eve, you had best keep loved ones away from their email account during the day.) You then choose a gift card design, confirm your purchase, and revel in the fact that it’s more blessed to give than receive. Apple’s gift-giving page will also helpfully warn you that you can only give digital gift cards to people who live in the same country, so I’d better come up with alternative plans for all those Canadians on my shopping list.
Not only can you set the amount of gift cards ordered through the iTunes Store, you can also schedule when they’re delivered.
If you have a more specific gift in mind—say that HD copy of The World’s End or the previous season of Downton Abbey—just click the triangle next to the Buy link; that will bring a gift option where, again, you can select exactly when that digital download appears in your recipient’s inbox. Alas, while movies, TV shows, apps, and music are all fair gift-giving game, you can’t give specific books from iTunes.
If you think it’s a tad impersonal to direct someone to their inbox to find their holiday present from you, you may be out of luck. Apple used to give you the option of printing out a gift certificate you bought online, but that option has disappeared from the iTunes Store.
Is there a specific movie, TV show, album, song, or app you want to give to someone? Click the triangle next to the Buy button in iTunes to see the gift options.
It’s also worth noting that the Mac App Store doesn’t share the giving spirit you’ll find in iTunes. There’s no way to gift a Mac app in that store, and you can’t purchase any sort of electronic gift card. For that, you’ll need to head back to iTunes, buy an iTunes gift card, and hope that your lucky recipient redeems it on Mac apps instead of blowing it all on the new Britney Spears LP.
If iTunes isn’t your jam, you can also buy gift cards from Apple’s online store.
Android gift-giving: It ain’t easy
For a mobile platform that makes a big deal about how open it is, Android is decidedly less accommodating when it comes to your gift purchases. Unlike your iOS-using friends, you cannot give away specific apps, songs, movies, or TV shows. Google Play will let you buy gift cards, but not directly from the storefront: Instead, your first option is to type in a city or zip code to see if someone sells gift cards near you. This is hardly the way to beat holiday crowds. Scroll a little farther down that gift card page, though, and you’ll find an option for buying online; again, you’ll have to leave the confines of the Google Play store for the Target, Walmart, and Sam’s Club online stores to make your purchase.
You can track down where Google Play gift cards are available, but sending them electronically is a little trickier.
Amazon to the rescue
So where can you turn if the recipients on your list don’t own iOS devices or Macs and if Google Play’s limitations are dampening your holiday spirit? Try Amazon, which follows Apple’s lead by making it very easy to track down gift cards. (The gift card link is prominently displayed at the top of Amazon’s home page.) Amazon offers several options for delivery, including email, a printout, or a Facebook post. Order the gift card in advance of the holiday, and you can even get a physical version of the card mailed to your recipient. If you go with an electronic version of the card, Amazon lets you set your delivery date.
Personalize your Amazon gift card by uploading one of your own photos.
Amazon offers its own gift card designs, but you can also add a touch of personalization if you prefer. You can upload your own photo, which is a definite improvement over the pre-canned look-and-feel of a digital gift certificate. You can also create a JibJab style video—your head superimposed on a picture singing a fairly ridiculous song—but be warned that the templates aren’t really holiday-themed. Also, the production values will not exactly invite comparisons to Pixar.
Amazon doesn’t let you give specific electronic items as gifts, but it gives you the option of strongly suggesting what your recipient should spend their gift card on.
You can’t gift electronic versions of specific items from Amazon the way you can in Apple’s store. But you can give your recipient a pretty good hint as to what you hope they’ll download on your dime. The retailer’s eGift an Item feature lets you select a picture of the gift you had in mind, whether it’s a digital download or a physical item. The recipient is under no obligation to download that particular item, but until the flying Amazon gift drones can deliver your present in person, it’s probably the closest you’ll come to imposing your digital will on someone else.
Other options
If someone in your circle of family and friends owns a Nook tablet, you’ve got some electronic gift-giving options. Barnes & Noble allows you to gift both books and apps for its tablet; just click on the “Buy As Gift” option next to the Buy Now button. Barnes & Noble also lets you send digital gift cards, though there doesn’t seem to be a way to pick a delivery date.
As with iTunes, you can gift specific apps for the Nook tablet.
Options are decidedly more limited for the Windows 8 device user in your life. You can buy a Windows Store gift card from Microsoft’s store, but the cards are sent to a physical address, not delivered electronically. Some good news: In addition to offering Windows Store cards, Microsoft also sells Xbox gift cards in case you’ve got a gamer in need of a gift in your life.
Subscription services also provide a gift-giving opportunity. Popular streaming music services Pandora, Rdio, and Spotify all offer gift card options, while ebook subscription service Scribd recently unveiled customizable gift subscriptions. Poke around the site of the subscription service of your choice, and there’s likely to be a way to give that service as a gift.
With its long airport lines, endless string of hotel rooms, and fat-saturated meals, work travel is hardly glamorous. So why not give the road warrior in your life something to ease the many miles they'll rack up in 2014. Here are a few ideas to help you out if you need some inspiration.
1. Timbuk2 Hudson Laptop Briefcase
This bag is functional and durable, made of water-resistant waxed canvas with leather trim. It has a rugged, distressed look that gives it some character. One side opens fully, like a briefcase, and has padded pockets for a laptop and/or tablet.
This laptop bag combines the best of a messenger bag and a briefcase.
The HalfPack RT also has a rugged outback appeal and offers a little more versatility because it can function as a backpack as well as a briefcase or messenger bag. A zippered pouch provides easy accessibility to a laptop and/or tablet during TSA security screening. The bag also has pockets and pouches sized to hold everything from pens and USB thumb drives to your laptop power cord and sunglasses.
The HalfPack RT from Urban Xplorer is versatile and has plenty of pockets and pouches.
Your road warrior is probably carrying an external USB hard drive or two with them already, so why would they want a WD MyCloud drive? Well, because the WD MyCloud creates a personal cloud enabling them to store 2TB, 3TB, or even 4TB of data without the security concerns or ongoing expense of a cloud storage service.
This NAS connects to the Internet enabling you to access photos, music, and other data on the drive from virtually anywhere. There are apps for Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, and Android, and the WD MyCloud mobile app can also transfer files to and from cloud services such as Dropbox.
Access your own personal cloud from virtually anywhere with this external drive.
4. Logitech p710e Mobile Speakerphone
One thing you can't escape when you leave town are the meetings. No matter where you may be, there are still conference calls and video conferencing sessions to join, which generally means using a smartphone or tablet while sitting in a hotel room somewhere.
The P710e lets you take enterprise-class conferencing on the road.
The Logitech p710e Mobile Speakerphone is an ideal gift idea for the road warrior who has to participate frequently in such meetings. It is compact and rechargeable, and it has a slot designed to comfortably and securely hold virtually any smartphone or tablet.
The unit can be paired with more than one mobile device, and it connects almost instantly when a paired Bluetooth device is within range. The sound quality -- both inbound and outbound—is very good. It also fills in quite nicely for playing music from your smartphone, or watching a Netflix movie on your tablet while you’re on the road.
No matter how much mobile device vendors continue to squeeze more battery life into gadgets, your devices always seem to run out of power when you need them most. The Super Magicstick is small enough to fit in a pocket or purse, and it weighs a mere 80 grams. It has a USB port that can be used to attach a charging cable for virtually any mobile device to refuel on the go, and it comes in an array of colors.
Powerocks Super Magicsticks keep your mobile devices charged wherever you go.
At 3.32pm local time on Thursday, Sachin Tendulkar trotted down the steps of the Mumbai Cricket Association Pavilion, breathed in a scene of near-bedlam, and embarked on the most eagerly awaited innings in the history of cricket.
Forty years old and playing his 200th Test, there is little left to surprise him. But this was something else — a wall of sound, a West Indian guard of honour and a sense of expectation that few sporting events can have witnessed.
For once, the cliche about shouldering the hopes of a billion people sounded like an understatement. The Australian all-rounder Keith Miller declared that pressure was a ‘Messerschmitt up your a***’. Had he been alive to witness this, he might have been tempted to add a caveat.
Waiting in line: A huge number of fans turn up for Sachin Tendulkar final Test match
Show of support: Fans and supporters of Indian cricketer Tendulkar queue to witness his last test match
The Daily Mail is not using live pictures from India’s Test matches because of a dispute with the Board of Control for Cricket in India. We have commissioned a series of drawings by legendary master of movement Paul Trevillion to mark Sachin Tendulkar’s final Test.
Ever since the first Test at Kolkata finished with a three-day victory for India and one innings from Tendulkar that produced just 10 runs, a famously religious nation has been joined in prayer.
It’s not always been clear what exactly they have been praying for. Some of the crueller observations about Tendulkar’s recent run in Test cricket suggested it might have been for a miracle.
But by smearing the third delivery he faced for a leg-side single, he at least avoided the fate of Don Bradman, whose last Test, at The Oval in 1948, produced a second-ball duck. Tendulkar finished the day on 38.Whether this proves to be his final innings remains to be seen.
After being put in to bat by MS Dhoni, West Indies folded hopelessly to 182, like party guests determined not to offend their hosts. And with India closing the first day of this second Test on 157 for two, they could easily replicate their innings win at Eden Gardens.
Sand star: Tendulkar is immortalised in a sand sculpture with two hundred cricket bats with a message 'The God of Cricket'
Building their tribute: Indian students of Allahabad University and make the sand sculpture of Tendulkar
Super fan: One of Tendulkar's many fans holds up a placard he made of the cricket legend
The thought that this really could be Tendulkar’s 329th and final Test knock hardly dared breathe its name. Yet there it was, the Indian elephant in the room.
The mood had intensified all day. Spectators lucky enough to bag a ticket had queued from early morning. One or two had lit a flame and looked to the heavens. Most settled for donning Sachin-related paraphernalia, complete with puns about God. No one minded the blasphemy.
That Tendulkar eventually emerged in front of his home crowd with bat in hand felt like an unexpected bonus after West Indies had advanced to 140 for three. Until then, excitement had centred on his occasional appearances on the fine-leg fence in front of the stand bearing his name.
But a hopeless collapse meant India’s openers were walking out after tea. And when Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay fell in the same over to off-spinner Shane Shillingford, the scene was set.
One of the giant screens at the Wankhede flashed: ‘Don’t even blink!!’ Was it aimed at Tendulkar or a crowd that was swelling towards 30,000? It was hard to say.
Tendulkar’s first task was to negotiate a guard of honour, which he accepted with a mixture of grace and sheepishness, nodding shyly at the West Indian players.
Message of support: An Indian cricket fan signs a giant picture of Tendulkar
Flying the flag: Supporters stand and fly a national flag in front of a huge board with a picture of Tendulkar
Their captain, Darren Sammy, offered an old-fashioned shake of the hand; his batting partner, Cheteshwar Pujara, a more contemporary punch of the glove. Not for the first time, he seemed to be straddling eras.
Then it was down to business. He nervously defended his first two deliveries, from Shillingford, then swept him with a hint of desperation for a single, the 15,848th run of his Test career.
As empty seats began to fill, he raised the biggest cheer of the day by cutting a Shillingford long hop for four to reach seven. ‘Ninety-three to go,’ muttered a local journalist.
Final time: The match will be the last since Tendulkar's debut against Pakistan in 1989
Fast bowler Shannon Gabriel was dispatched through the covers and the off-spin of Marlon Samuels cut and glanced for fours. But the shot of the day was an on-drive off Sammy that could have been played at any stage of Tendulkar’s 24-year Test career.
Frankly, he could have inside-edged his way to 38 and still been greeted like the demigod so many believe him to be. It spared everyone embarrassment that he was treating some friendly offerings with appropriate contempt.
The one and only: Tendulkar will say retire after his 200th and final Test
The great entertainer: Tendulkar has been a prominent figure for India and for cricket for over two decades
There was more ear-splitting mayhem as members of his family appeared on the giant screen: his mother Rajni, attending her first Test, and his wife Anjali, whom he first bumped into at Mumbai airport in 1990. Here was a family affair of the most public kind.
Walking off to relieved roars after playing out the last few balls of the evening, Tendulkar stumbled briefly on the pavilion steps. Mercifully, it was the only foot he put wrong all day.
Hero: Tendulkar celebrates his double century against Australia in 2010
Time to say goodbye: Tendulkar waves to the crowd in 2011 and will say goodbye to cricket for the final time this week
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