Kiss and Yell

The idea of announcing a Relationship Status itself is fairly new in our society. But suddenly we are surrounded by places where this is done with ample display of affection. I-am-in-a-relationship is a buzzy place to be in these days especially if you are in the cricket stadia. At least that’s what the celebs are doing.

For pointers, watch the extra innings between Liz Hurley and Shane Warne. Hurley, currently enjoying her Indian holiday with beau Warne — who captains Rajasthan Royals — is clearly enjoying herself. Warne and the 45-year-old Hollywood actor are joined at the hip, arriving at hotels and travelling together in the team bus. In the stadium, Hurley, who recently admitted she “wasn’t into cricket before” hasn’t shied away from her very public display of affection (PDA). The two even went to seal The Royals win in Jaipur over Kochi Tuskers with a celebratory kiss. “She has eyes only for Warne. They surely seem to be making the most of their time together and are not at all conscious of shutterbugs or the fact that Warne’s children Jackson, Brooke and Summer along with Hurley’s nine-year-old son Damien are always around,” remarked a source from the Rajasthan Royals camp during the team’s outing in Chandigarh. Warne and Hurley were booked in Hotel Mountview in Chandigarh with their families in rooms signed in as ‘Warne family 1&2’. Hurley, it seems, has a history of PDA. Samantha Brett, a columnist with The Sydney Morning Herald remarked in her recent column how Hurley is “little too lovey-dovey...publicly, that is”.

Sealing cricketing wins with a kiss seems to be the done thing this IPL season. The Deepika Padukone-Siddhartha Mallya hug-and-kiss routine has been viewed on YouTube over 84,000 times in the last five days overshadowing Chris Gayle’s bludgeoning knock at the Kolkata Knight Riders vs Royal Challengers match. The fans are loving every bit of the action off the field as well. “This IPL, there’s so much non-cricket action in the stands, it makes for a good game. It’s good to see Deepika come out in the open,” says Chandigarh-based model Sonia Dhiman, who has bought box tickets for Kings XI Punjab’s next match in Dharamsala with a purpose. “That’s the best place to get noticed,” she quips.

Box seats at stadia are perhaps the most coveted places and not without reason. Apart from the loud cheering and the opportunity to rub shoulders with the celebrities, one’s privy to a lot of PDA moments, dutifully recorded by cameras who know where to focus. For the blockbuster India-Pakistan World Cup match at Mohali last month, Aamir Khan flew in with wife Kiran Rao. The two cheered the team together and those who shared space in the box recall Rao holding on to her hubby each time the ball crossed the fence. “She kept calling Aamir ‘My Love’ and the two would whisper into each other’s ears as the cameras zoomed in. The young crowd below the stands kept looking up and taking pictures,” says a journalist who was present for the match.

Celebrities in stands aren’t new to Indian cricket, their PDA is. “Times have changed both on and off the field. I see nothing wrong so long as the players aren’t doing it on the field,” feels veteran cricketer Kapil Dev, who says in the same breath, “Cricket and cricketers are now seen as glamourous, so women want to be associated with them. Also the media likes to highlight such opportunities, which were earlier rare.”

Referring to recent PDA news splashes, Punjab’s well-known psychologist Rajshree Sarda makes a point. “Indians are no longer as prudish. Celebrities are conscious of their acts. If somebody lesser-known was hugging a non-celebrity, there would not be much talk about it,” says Sarda, who agrees that it’s the upper crust that is more comfortable with displaying relationship intimacy. “In the pre-IPL era, cricket stadia never boasted of so much glamour. Also, the adrenaline rush seems to be making people express lot physically,” she says. We aren’t complaining. (With inputs from Shalini Gupta)

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'Raavan' was a stepping stone for me in B-town: Nikhil

Actor Nikhil Dwivedi, who is looking forward to his upcoming movie 'Shor in the City' feels it is filmmaker Mani Ratnam's 'Raavan' that opened doors for him in Bollywood.

Despite the debacle of 'Raavan' Nikhil seems to have benefitted the most from the film. "'Raavan' was a stepping stone for me in Bollywod..It opened the doors more for me in the film industry. Now filmmakers are willing to invest in me. I feel they consider me as a bankable star. The journey has begun," said Nikhil in an interview.

Nikhil debuted with Shah Rukh Khan Production's 'My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves' in 2008, but it was 'Raavan' starring Abhishek Bachchan, Vikram and Aishwarya that got him noticed. "After 'Raavan' I wanted to raise the bar. Doing a small film with a meaty role is much important than doing a big film with a small role. This is just the beginning and it feels great," the 29-year-old actor said.

Nikhil started off playing the lover boy in 'My Name.. ', then moved on to very strict Inspector Hemant in 'Raavan'. Now he will be seen in a new avatar in 'Shor..'. "I am open to anything be it small or a big banner. Whether its a substantial role or a small role...the size of the role doesn't matter to me as long as the script and character is good. I am ready for supporting roles," he said.

In 'Shor...'Nikhil will be seen alongside Tusshar Kapoor, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Pitobash Tripathi, Preeti Desai and Radhika Apte among others.

About his character, Nikhil said, "I play the role of Ramesh who is a rowdy and petty criminal who wants to make quick money. The movie is a gritty satirical drama set in the midst of a metropolitan city."

Directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, the film releasing on April 29, revolves around three stories in the Mumbai noise. Nikhil will be seen next in the contemporary remake of Sunny Deol-starrer hit film, 'Arjun'.

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Q&A on Playstation Network security breach

Q: What is the PlayStation Network, and what happened to it?

A: The PlayStation Network (PSN) is a proprietary network for owners of Sony's PlayStation 3 consoles to play online games with others. PSN also offers movies and TV episodes for rent or purchase, as well as downloadable games and game demos. "The idea is you create a profile and put your credit card number in and information about yourself, so when you want to get online it verifies your identity," says Chet Wisniewski, senior security adviser at network security firm Sophos. "If you decide to buy or rent anything, they have your credit card on record and can automatically bill you."

Sony shut down PSN on April 20 after discovering that sometime April 17 to 19, an illegal breach occurred. On Tuesday, Sony announced that users' personal data was compromised, including possible credit card information.

Q: How many people are affected?

A: Sony has sold about 50 million PS3 systems and has said that it has 77 million registered accounts in 59 countries. Customers don't have to enter credit card information; they can use prepaid PSN cards sold at retail.

Q: What can users now do to protect themselves?

A: Users should replace any credit card that was on file with PSN, change passwords on any other accounts that used the same password as PSN and subscribe to an identity theft monitoring service, says Paul Judge, chief research officer for security firm Barracuda Networks.

Q: Was Sony quick enough to inform users about the theft of their data?

Sony has not managed this crisis appropriately so far, by not taking immediate and full responsibility for the problem, says Susan Fournier, an associate professor of marketing at Boston University's School of Management. "Their statements to the press actually seek to deflect blame and indicate no ownership of what has happened."

Q: What price might Sony pay in lost trust and lost customers? Should it compensate users?

Still to be seen is whether Sony "has stored enough trust reserves to get it through this crisis," Fournier says. "It is hard to come out of this and feel that the company cares about me."

The PSN relationship with users is not a simple one. "I think Sony has what we would call a communal relationship based in trust and reciprocity," she says. "The 'appropriate compensation' here is more likely attention, caring, empathy (and) specific actions that fix the problem and prevent it from happening again."

In real world costs, Sony could be on the hook for millions. According to the Ponemon Institute, the average cost of a data breach in 2010 increased to $7.2 million, with an average cost of $214 per compromised record.

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Windows 7 helps Microsoft boost OS share to 78.6 percent

Microsoft's Windows accounted for 78.6% of worldwide operating system revenue in 2010, up nearly a full percentage point, despite growth in Linux servers and Mac desktops, according to Gartner.

Gartner's new analysis adds up the revenue for both server and desktop operating systems worldwide, comparing Microsoft to IBM, HP, Oracle, Red Hat and Apple.

Windows has long dominated the desktop market, but has had a tougher fight on the server side. Adding the two segments together shows Windows grabbing $23.8 billion in 2010 revenue, up from 2009 when Windows accounted for $21.9 billion and 77.9% of the market by revenue share.

IBM, maker of Unix and mainframe operating systems, came in second place in 2010 with $2.3 billion revenue and 7.5% market share. Although Red Hat, the top Linux vendor, accounted for only 2% of share and Apple's Mac OS 1.7%, Gartner said Linux servers and Mac desktops are on the rise.

"Linux (server) and Mac OS were the fastest-growing subsegments in the server and client OS segments, respectively, while Microsoft maintained its leading position in the overall OS market," Gartner said.

Microsoft growth was "driven by positive Windows 7 adoption and [the] PC refreshment cycle."

Windows desktops accounted for $17.7 billion of OS revenue, and 96.6% of worldwide desktop share, followed by Mac OS at 2.8% and Linux at 0.6%.

Counting by revenue, rather than unit share, seems to help Microsoft's cause. Usage tracker Net Applications gives Windows 89.6% of share by number of users, while StatCounter gives Windows 91.6% of users with the rest going mostly to Mac and Linux.

On the server side, Windows earned $6.2 billion in revenue, for just over 51% of the market. HP's Unix systems took in 8.6%, IBM's Unix 8.5%, Linux on the whole took 8.4% and IBM's mainframe, 7.8%.

The small cost of servers running open source Linux naturally results in a revenue share that is much lower than its unit share.

An ongoing survey of the top million websites by W3Techs gives Linux and other Unix-like systems 64.1% of Web server operating system unit share, compared to 35.9% for Windows and nearly zero for Mac OS. Numbers like these have led people like Linux Foundation chief Jim Zemlin to brag that Linux powers the majority of Internet traffic despite its small revenue share.

The overall operating system market grew 7.8% to 30.4 billion in revenue in 2010, according to Gartner, with desktop systems leading the way.

One category Gartner did not include in its analysis is the mobile operating system. Usage of Android and Apple's iOS still account for a small portion of total OS use, but it is growing quickly due to proliferation of smartphones and tablets.

Net Applications, which lumps desktop and mobile operating systems together, found that Apple's iOS rose from 0.81% to 1.87% in the past year, while Windows dropped from 91.3% to 89.6%.

Windows 7 seems to be on fire, selling 350 million licenses and becoming the fastest selling operating system in history, according to Microsoft. A PC World analysis, while not definitive, suggests that the 350 million licenses may actually be a step back for Microsoft, representing only about two-thirds of total PC sales, much lower than Microsoft's typical desktop share.

However, current usage patterns as tracked by Net Applications shows Windows share dropping only slightly, and that is largely due to gains made by mobile operating systems.  

iOS, which powers iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches, is actually more widely used than Linux desktops, according to Net Applications. IOS share is nearly double that of desktop Linux and more than three times higher than Android's.

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Apple denies iPhone tracking claims

Apple has admitted that a bug in its software has allowed iPhones and iPads to collect data related to their location even when users turn off permission to collect it – but says it will soon remedy this oversight.

The admission follows a storm of controversy after the Guardian's exclusive revelation last week that the devices stored a file containing details from which a user's movements could be reconstructed.

In a statement on its website, the company says that: "Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans ever to do so."

It says that the file discovered by researchers and described in the Guardian is not used for tracking of the phone or its owner. "The location data that researchers are seeing on the iPhone is not the past or present location of the iPhone, but rather the locations of Wi-Fi hotspots and [mobile network] cell towers surrounding the iPhone's location, which can be more than 100 miles away from the iPhone." It adds: "We plan to cease backing up this cache in a software update coming soon."

That will cut the amount of data stored from as much as a year's worth of location information to just seven days, the company says. That is likely to be roughly comparable with the store used on Android phones, which record the past 50 cell towers and 200 Wi-Fi networks that the phone has "seen".

That data is uploaded to Apple in an "encrypted and anonymous" form, it says.

It admits that a software fault means that if users turn off Location Services – which should prevent the upload – the data is still sent. "It shouldn't. This is a bug, which we plan to fix shortly," the company says.

Future versions of the file will be encrypted on the phone. That will allay fears that law enforcement and security services could copy the file and analyse it without a valid warrant.

Apple accepts some of the blame for the concern over the revelations, which have seen it threatened with lawsuits and put under focus from US lawmakers and potentially by European governments. "Providing mobile users with fast and accurate location information while preserving their security and privacy has raised some very complex technical issues which are hard to communicate in a soundbite. Users are confused, partly because the creators of this new technology (including Apple) have not provided enough education about these issues to date," the company says in its statement.

The data is stored because it helps the iPhone to calculate its location, Apple says. "Calculating a phone's location using just GPS satellite data can take up to several minutes. iPhone can reduce this time to just a few seconds by using Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data to quickly find GPS satellites, and even triangulate its location using just Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data when GPS is not available (such as indoors or in basements). These calculations are performed live on the iPhone using a crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data that is generated by tens of millions of iPhones sending the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple."

Apple also insists that it cannot identify individuals from the data because the data about networks and Wi-Fi – which is reported to the company's servers – is anonymised and encrypted.

The Guardian approached Apple ahead of publication last week of its article detailing the findings by the researchers, but the company declined to comment at the time. Repeated requests for comment received no response until now.

Since then Apple has found itself under fire, with the US Democratic senator Al Franken writing directly to Apple chief executive Steve Jobs demanding to know why the phones retained the data, and attempts to file a class action lawsuit against the company.

Jobs himself was curtly emphatic in an email earlier this week in which he insisted "we don't track anyone" and that "the info circulating around is false".

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Food inflation rises marginally to 8.76%

Food inflation inched up marginally to 8.76 per cent for the week ended April 16 on the back of rising prices of fruits, protein-based items and onions.

Food inflation stood at 8.74 per cent in the previous week. This is the second consecutive week when the rate of price rise of food items has gone up after a period of moderation in February and March.

The latest rise, although marginal, will put more pressure on the government, which has described inflation as one of the major challenges facing the economy.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had expressed concern about rising prices, especially of food items, and said the country needs to do more for ensuring the food security of its citizens.

During the week under review, fruits became dearer by 28.43 per cent year-on-year, while egg, meat and fish prices went up 12.14 per cent.

Onions became more expensive by 10.96 per cent on an annual basis. Milk also became dearer by 5.10 per cent. Similarly, cereal prices went up 4.49 per cent, while rice and wheat became dearer by 2.08 per cent and 0.48 per cent, respectively.

However, pulses bucked the trend and witnessed a decline of 6.49 per cent in their wholesale prices. Overall, vegetable prices were down 0.21 per cent and potatoes by 1.61 per cent.

Meanwhile, during the week under review, prices of non-food articles were up 26.48 per cent year-on-year. Fuel and power became dearer by 13.53 per cent, while petrol was up 21.81 per cent.

Food inflation stayed in high numbers for most of 2010 and early 2011 and was the major contributor to headline inflation, which has been above 8 per cent since February 2010.

Headline inflation stood at 8.98 per cent in March, way above the government's projection of 8 per cent.

The government and the Reserve Bank of India have exuded confidence that with a record harvest of wheat and pulses, the trend of increase in prices of food items would be reversed.

However, after the slight moderation of February and March, food inflation numbers have again started moving upward and experts say this could be a major issue for the government at a time when non-food core inflation has also shown signs of going up.

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Mahindra Satyam to hire 18,000 employees

IT firm Mahindra Satyam on Thursday said it plans to hire about 18,000 people during this fiscal.

"We have plans of hiring about 18,000 people this year (FY'12). Over 5,000 are from campuses and the rest are from lateral hiring or recruitment of experienced hands," Mahindra Satyam Head Recruitment and Media Sridhar Maturi said.

At the end of the third quarter (October-December period), Mahindra Satyam's headcount stood at 28,832, an increase of 764 personnel from 28,068 employees on September 30, 2010.

Maturi further added, "The campus hiring will be predominantly in India and the lateral hiring is from across the world."

The company has its development and delivery centres in the US, Canada, Brazil, the UK, Hungary, Egypt, UAE, India, China, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia by which the company serves numerous clients, including several Fortune 500 companies.

Mahindra Satyam, formerly Satyam Computer Services, in September last year had announced its first audited financial results for 2009-10 after its founder B Ramalinga Raju admitted to multi-crore accounting fraud in January 2009.

In November 2010, it announced its first quarterly result for the April-June quarter, the first time after disclosure of its July-September 2008 quarter earnings.

The company's former chairman and founder Ramalinga Raju had in January 2009 confessed to the about Rs 14,000 crore scam wherein the company's profits were overstated and its assets falsified.

Tech Mahindra bought Satyam in April 2009, which since then is operating as an independent company.

Shares of Mahindra Satyam today closed at Rs 74.20 on the BSE, up 1.44 per cent from the previous close.

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