Why Open Source in Company ?

4. Your needs, your choiceWhen you're going to begin another organization and you need to make open-source programming the main thrust behind all innovation choices. Outside of it being an unfathomably respectable and good cause, what are the key information guides you require toward completely see before actualizing this technique?

The inquiry may appear to be stacked. Truth be told, each business is diverse, and the driving innovation that helps a business to succeed fluctuates. Indeed, even along these lines, there are a few universals that stand valid over the playing field. Those universals apply to open source and shut source alike. Anyway when you're considering beginning up an organization (or relocating a current organization), what do you have to consider while doing as such with open-source programming?

Lets Try few options......

1. Save Money using Open source .

This civil argument needs to at long last (and authoritatively) be put to rest. Study after study has been done- -some of which are supported studies by contributed gatherings -however the reality of the situation is both beginning and continuous expenses will be lower in the event that you pick open source. A significant number of the old studies indicated one specific thought that is, generally, no more applicable -expense connected with preparing clients. Here's the thing, 90% of what individuals do now is done inside a web program. Let's be honest, most end clients today could get by with a Chromebook and still have the capacity to accomplish their employments. Nobody needs to be prepared on the best way to utilize a web program. Moreover, if your clients must be prepared on the best way to utilize electronic programming, the stage won't make any difference.

When you add to this the huge expense you'll save money on your organization's spine (server stages and programming), the reserve funds truly begin including. Furthermore, on the server side, will be utilizing open source at any rate. You can't escape it now. Anyway, when you know deciding on CentOS or openSUSE as your server stage could spare you a huge number of dollars in authorizing expenses, why might you pick some other course? Ask any director who has worked with Linux servers, and you'll discover those servers require far less upkeep and upkeep than the contender arrangements.

2. Nothing is New ......

Consider this... endeavor level organizations are now relying upon open source. They aren't simply fiddling in different and sundry open-source ventures -they rely on upon an exhibit of open-source programming to keep them useful. We're talking lofty information, and it doesn't get any greater than that. A considerable measure of new companies who consider the open-source way accept they are an island, uncontrolled on an ocean. That couldn't possibly be more off-base. All that you are considering has been done and finished with incredible achievement. Consider organizations like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter- -all of which place the foundation of their business on open-source programming. In the event that they can do it, you can do it. Furthermore, when you're uncertain of how to continue, you just need to take after their cases. Stay aware of Google's open-source blog or Facebook's open-source ventures.

3. Headaches will lessen

At the point when working inside an exclusive biological system, one of the greatest issues that will deplete your financial plan and your profit is framework cleaning. With enough end clients, the IT office can rapidly get to be overpowered with malware and infection cleanup demands. When you utilize open-source stages, (for example, Linux), this won't be the situation. Despite the fact that there are bounty who will contend against the utilization of Linux on the desktop, envision how your main concern would feel if gainfulness was sometimes stopped by malware and infections? I'm not saying that benefit will never be put on respite, yet you'll see an enormous decrease in your stoppage recurrence. Your IT office can then concentrate on what's truly vital, for example, servers, systems, and security.

4. Your Choice, Your Selection

When you're working with restrictive frameworks, you work how you're advised to function. On the off chance that you need Windows or OS X, you utilize their interfaces and hold fast to how they manage. Despite what might be expected, on the off chance that you work with open source, you work your direction. On the off chance that you don't care for the way something acts or looks, you transform it. In the event that you don't care for the default client interface that ships with Ubuntu Linux, utilize an alternate flavor. Concerning customization and open source, there are no constraints. This is your business, and you ought to have the capacity to make the innovation comply with your needs- -not the other route around. With open source, you get that.

5. Very Few Hurdles to Overcome.

It won't be 100% smooth cruising (yet nothing is in the realm of business). In the event that you have end clients that don't work out of a web program, you may end up with document incompatibilities. Say, for instance, you have customers that send you Word or Exceed expectations archives that depend on expanded highlights. You may find that LibreOffice or Google Docs won't "decipher" those highlights with 100% precision. At the point when that happens, what do you do? You may need to make good for an Office 365 permit for that specific client. Then again, what happens in the event that you have a specific bit of exclusive programming your business relies on upon?

Here's the thing... you don't need to jump away from any confining influence source waters and never surface. There's nothing the issue with blending nature. In the event that you can't work with a specific bit of programming, then you need to make a special case. The fortunate thing about open-source programming is that it plays well with special cases. You drop a Windows machine into your system, and nothing will blast or rodent you out to the open-source police. The uplifting news is that a mind-boggling measure of end clients don't exploit the progressed highlights inside Microsoft Office that have a tendency to tear similarity with open-source arrangements.

6. Can easily Try Before You “BUY”

With each possible bit of open-source programming, you can attempt before you put either time or cash into a solitary bit of programming. Indeed, even the working framework itself! You can download an ISO picture of a Linux appropriation and run it without rolling out any improvements to your framework (called a Live Cd or USB). You could download almost every Linux dissemination accessible, attempt all of them out, and settle on your decision in light of that process- -all without needing to introduce a solitary stage. Also, with most open-source online arrangements, (for example, HRM, CRM, and CMS devices), there are demos to attempt or even virtual pictures you can start up in VirtualBox (once more, without needing to introduce said instruments). An awesome spot to discover virtual machines to test is Turnkey Linux. Turnkey permits you to effectively test frameworks, for example, GitLab, Light Stack, SugarCRM, ownCloud, OrangeHRM, and a great deal more.

I anticipate, inside the following five years, there will be a great deal all the more little  to medium-sized organizations deciding on open-source arrangements on both servers and desktops. The scene is not at all like it was five years back. Open source is no more simply a testing or play area for designers or an environment for the PC "l33t." Open source is a suitable alternative for the advanced age. In case you're considering beginning an organization on an open establishment or relocating your current organization over to open-source programming, consider these musings and advance with your arrangement.

About a Website

Web Site details are very important at the time of doing providing your information. Information are in different ways like login details, private information, bank account details, credit card information and many more. . . . .Before you go ahead for providing the details.....verify the web site once using following. . . .

• just-ping.com — Use Just Ping to determine if a particular website or blog is accessible from other countries. Unlike other online ping services that have service in a couple of locations, Just Ping has 30 monitoring stations across the world including Turkey, Egypt and China. If the ping results say 100% Packet Loss, most likely the site is inaccessible from that region.
• who.is — If you like to know the contact address, email and phone number of the website owner, this free whois lookup service will help. This is a universal lookup service meaning it can simultaneously query the whois database of all popular domain registrars.
• whoishostingthis.com — Enter the URL of any website and this online service will show you the name of the company where that website is hosted. This may come handl if you need the contact information of the web hosting provider for writing aDMCA Notice or if you are looking to switch web hosts.
• popuri.us — You can use popuri to estimate the relative popularity of a website on social sites like Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. It also display the Google Pagerank of a website and the Web of Trust matrix.
• chillingeffects.org — When there’s a copyright related complaint against a website, a copy of that letter is archived in the Chilling Effects database. Anyone can query this public database to know about all the copyright infringement complaints against a particular website.
• myip.ms — MyIP.ms offers a comprehensive report of any website or I.P. Address. You get to know about the hosting provider, the physical location of a website, the IP Address change history of a website and the DNS information. Netcraft also offers similar reports.
• ewhois.com — Ewhois, short for enhanced whois lookup, will help you determine other websites of someone. It looks the whois details, the AdSense publisher ID and the Google Analytics code of websites to figure out other web domain that may belong to the same owner. See example.
• builtwith.com — Use BuiltWith to know the technology stack of any website. It helps you figure out the mail service provider of a domain, the advertising partners, the tracking widgets that are installed on a website and whether the site is using any CDN like Amazon S3 or Google Cloud. See example.
• semrush.com — If you wish to analyze your competitor’s website, this is tool to go with. SEMrush will help you figure what organic keywords are people using to find a website, what is the site’s traffic and which are the competing websites. See example.
• whatsmydns.net — When you buy a new domain or switch from one host to another, the DNS records for the domain change and it may take a while to propagate these changes worldwide. WhatsMyDNS check your DNS records from various locations and it can check your domain’s A, CNAME and MX records.
• modern.ie — This online app will help test your website’s compatibility with various web browsers and detects coding errors that might cause problems. The site is integrated with BrowserStack so you can quickly know how your site looks on different devices and browsers.
• developers.google.com — Find the Page Speed score of any website on both desktop and mobile devices. The higher this number, the better. The Google tool also offers suggestion on how the score can be improved.
• ctrlq.org/sandbox — – The AdSense sandbox solves two problems – it shows the various advertisers that are targeting a website and it will also help you figure out if a particular web domain is banned in the AdSense network or not.
• httparchive.org — The HTTP Archive is a repository of all performance related metrics for a website. It keeps a record of the size of pages, their average load time and the number of failed requests (missing resources) over time. See example.

Courtesy : http://www.labnol.org/

Happy Birthday to Apple (Macintosh)

On Jan. 24 Apple Macintosh will turns 30 years old.

Over the years, the popular computer has been molded into many shapes and sizes, constantly in redesign mode. Championed by the revolutionary Steve Jobs, Mac computers have risen to the top of the food chain, one of Apple’s many landmark achievements. These days, most Mac computers are sleek and slender, sporting a crisp display and a variety of different size options.

Let`s see the remarkable evolution of the personal computer.

1. Lisa – In 1983, Apple debuted its first model, the Apple Lisa. The computer took more than three years to make, and around $50 million to develop. Named after Steve Jobs’ daughter, the computer was quite pricey, clicking in at nearly $10,000 (about $25,000 by today’s standards). The high price tag repelled most consumers, and the computer sold poorly.
Though not technically a Mac, the Lisa nonetheless influenced the first Macintosh, which Jobs debuted on Jan. 24, 1984.
2. Macintosh XL – In order to ramp up Lisa sales, Apple redesigned the model in 1985, renamed it the Macintosh XL and lowered the price to $3,495.

3. Macintosh 128K - Introduced in 1984, the 128 model was the first true Macintosh personal computer, and retailed for about $2,495. With its 9-inch screen, 128K of RAM and “easy to use” accessibility, the Mac was off to a robust start.

4. Macintosh 512K - Released right after the 128, the 512 was virtually the same, but had four times more memory.

5. Macintosh Plus - Enter 1986, when the Macintosh Plus emerges into the market. It had 1MB of RAM and cost about $2,599. It also came with an SCSI port, which meant users could install external hard drives.

6. Macintosh Portable - The first battery-powered Mac creation entered the arena in 1989. It was considered fast for its time, operating at 16 MHz. Though it was quick, the Portable sold poorly and weighed nearly 16 pounds.

7. Powerbook – The Powerbook came out a few years later, in 1991, and was Apple’s first true portable computer, thanks to its lightness. The floppy disk drive was a separate, external entity. The line had staying power, continuing until 2006.

8. iMac – The iMac debuted in 1998 and was one of Apple’s first big projects after anointing Steve Jobs its CEO. Translucent and brightly colored, the iMac was a stylish step above its predecessors, and did away with floppy disk drives, opting instead for USB ports.

9. iMac G4 - The iMac G4 marveled tech lovers with its flexibility and flattened shape. Because of its thin neck, the screen could be pulled forward and swiveled around. The 2002 creation literally had audiences gasping during Steve Jobs’ keynote.

10. MacBook - Apple trotted out the new MacBook in 2006, noted for its built in “iSight” webcam, crisp and glossy LCD screen and integrated keyboard.

11. MacBook Air - The holy grail of modern day MacBooks, the Air is Apple’s sleekest invention, touted as the world’s thinnest notebook (due in part to the removal of the CD/DVD drive). Jobs unveiled it in 2008, and the line has continued to pump out redesigned and updated models. The original had an 80GB hard drive and bright LED backlighting.

12. iMac today - Thinner and larger than past models, the modern iMac features a slender screen and a detached keyboard and mouse. The most recent 27-inch version sports a lighting-fast Intel processor and Fusion Drive data storage, which combines a traditional hard drive with Flash storage.

Source: http://mashable.com/

Check the Current Location of Indian Trains on Google Map

The Indian Railways has just launched RailRadar, a useful website that shows the current geographical location of any train on a Google Map.

To get started, you can zoom-in to any location /city on the map to see all the trains which are arriving at the station or have just departed. Or you can use expand the left sidebar to search trains by name, by train number or by the station name.

If you click a particular train, the map will also show the exact route of the train including all the stops and the current location of the train. The train markers highlighted in blue indicate trains that are running on time while the red markers indicate trains that are delayed or behind schedule.

Send SMS From Gmail For Free In India And Internationally

Chat feature in Gmail is capable of doing more than instant messaging or text chat. You probably know about video conferencing and voice calls from Gmail but now it went one step ahead and brought Free SMS in Gmail. You can send message in SMS via Gmail to your contacts from any country even when they are offline.

SMS in Gmail isn’t exactly new feature. I mean some of you may have already enabled it from Labs but used to get an error that mobile carriers is not supported. But now, Gmail welcomes you with “Free SMS in Gmail” pop up giving the list of mobile networks supported in India and 50 other countries.

In India, it supports Aircel, IDEA, Loop Mobile, MTS, Reliance, Tata DoCoMo, Tata Indicom, Vodafone (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Gujarat, A.P, Bihar, W.B. & A & N, Assam, N.E. circles only). I am still wondering why the giants like Airtel and BSNL aren’t in the list.

How To Send SMS From Gmail

There are two ways to send SMS from Gmail:

1. Enter the phone number in the text box which reads “Search, chat..” and Gmail offers an option to send SMS to that number. You may have to assign a contact to that number before sending.
   
2. If phone number is already associated with any contact. This is generally seen in the Google accounts associated with Android phones where contacts have phone numbers. In this case, open the chat window and click on More on upper-right corner of chat box and click “Send SMS”.
   

1. 50 SMS Credits or 50 SMS are free initially in every account. After that, you will have to buy credits.
2. If you send a reply message, your SMS credit is increased by five.
3. Each account has unique phone number.
4. If you receive SMS from someone, you can reply to that number and person will receive that message in conversation.
5. Person from any country can send Free SMS to any country from Gmail. (check the supported mobile operators)
6. If you receive an unwanted SMS message from Gmail Chat, you can block future messages from the sender. Just reply to the message with the word ‘BLOCK’.

SMS From Gmail on Phone

This is how it appears when you receive SMS from Gmail contact. Phone number is different (not related with the user). Email ID of the contact is shown in email followed by the message sent.

As you can notice, the number from which SMS is received is a general/regular number not premium one. So, sending reply to this one will charge normally.

That is indeed a nice move by Gmail but I am waiting for the day when Gmail will introduce Email alerts via SMS. That is more important because Data connection may not be available all the time and some people check mails often.

Top 6 Open Source Disk Cloning and Imaging Softwares

Disk cloning is nothing but the process of copying the contents of one hard disk (or partition) to another disk or to an "image" file. I make backup regularly using rsnapshot tool, but I also clone my hard disk once or twice a month. This option allows me to restore my OS and installed software quickly. Linux comes with various utilities for performing disk cloning. In this post, I'm going to list my favourite open source disk cloning softwares that has saved my butt multiple times.

#1: Old good dd command

The dd command allows you to make the low-level copying and conversion of data in raw format. It copies the standard input to the standard output. It can also be used for backing up the boot sector (MBR) of a hard drive or destroy data using /dev/zero or /dev/random.

Examples

To clone /dev/sdb3 partition to another partition called /dev/sdc3, enter:
# dd if=/dev/sdb3 of=/dev/sdc3 bs=4096 conv=noerror

You can clone a hard disk /dev/sdc to /dev/sdd:
# dd if=/dev/sdc of=/dev/sdd bs=1M conv=noerror

You can duplicate a disk partition called /dev/sda1 as a disk image file called backup.sda1.mm.dd.yy.img file:
# dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/path/to/safe/location/backup.sda1.07.28.12.img bs=4096 conv=noerror

OR
# dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/nfs/backup/images/backup.sda1.07.28.12.img bs=1M conv=noerror

To restore an image, run:
# dd if=/nfs/backup/images/backup.sda1.07.28.12.img of=/dev/sda1 bs=1M conv=noerror

The dd command can make backup of any partition regardless of an operating system. You can use it with FreeBSD / OpenBSD / Mac OS X / MS-Windows and so on:


(Video.01: dd clone hard disk demo)
Say hello to ddrescue

The ddrescue command copies data from one file or block device to another, trying hard to rescue data in case of read errors. The dd command will fail but ddrescue will continue:
# ddrescue /dev/sda /dev/sdb

#2 partimage - Backup partitions into a compressed image file

The partimage command backs up disk partitions into image files and restores them (much like Ghost). You can use the apt-get command under Debian / Ubuntu Linux to install the same:
# apt-get install partimage

If you are using RHEL / Fedora / SL / Red Hat / CentOS Linux, turn on EPEL repo and type the following yum command:
# yum install partimage

Type partimage as follows to see various options:
# partimage

Sample outputs:


Fig.01: partimage in action
You can now follow on screen instructions to backup or restore images.

Examples

Create an image of /dev/sda2 (make sure /dev/sda2 is not mounted):
# partimage -z1 -o -d save /dev/sda2 /nfs/backup/laptop.wks01.sda1.home_07_08_2012.gz

You can restore it as follows:
# partimage restore /dev/sda2 /nfs/backup/laptop.wks01.sda1.home_07_08_2012.gz.000

See how to use this fast software to backup and restore images:


(Video.02: partimage command demo)
Please note that partimage will only copy data from the used portions of the partition. This is done for speed and efficiency, free blocks are not written to the image file. Since the partition is processed on a sequential sector basis disk transfer time is maximized and seek time is minimized.

A note about server software

Partitions can be saved across the network using the partimage network support, or using Samba / NFS (Network File Systems). This provides the ability to perform an hard disk partition recovery after a disk crash. You need to install partimage-server package which provides server daemon for remote imaging, much like Ghost. See documentation for more info.

#3: Clonezilla

If you are looking to replace Norton Ghost Corporate Edition, try Clonezilla. It provides the following features:

Disaster recovery
Disk cloning
Disk imaging
Deployment solution
Free and Open source
This software allows you to do bare metal backup and recovery. Clonezilla works in any one of the following mode:

Clonezilla live - Use this at home or for single machine backup and restore.
Clonezilla server edition - Use this at office or data center for massive deployment, it can clone many (40 plus!) computers simultaneously. Clonezilla saves and restores only used blocks in the harddisk. This increases the clone efficiency.

Fig.02: Clonezilla in action
=> Download clonezilla software.

#4 Mondo rescue

Another good free disaster recovery software that I use frequently. It works with Linux /FreeBSD and supports clone tapes, disks, USB devices, network and CD/DVD as backup media, multiple filesystems, LVM, software and hardware RAID. Restoration may be done from a physical media including OBDR tape support, or CD/DVD/USB media, or from the network through PXE.

This software used by Lockheed-Martin, Nortel Networks, Siemens, HP, IBM, NASA's JPL, the US Dept of Agriculture, dozens of smaller companies, and tens of thousands of users around the world.


Fig.03: Mondo Rescue in action
=> Download Mondo Rescue software.

#5 Redo backup and recovery

Redo backup and recovery is a free backup and disaster recovery software. It runs from a bootable Linux CD image, features a GUI, and is capable of bare-metal backup and recovery of disk partitions. It can use external hard drives and network shares. It is the simplest point and click open source backup and recovery solution available. You can store images on an external drive or network shares such as nfs based shared folders.


Fig.04. Redo backup and recovery software in action
=> Download redo backup and recovery software.

#6 Trinity Rescue Kit

Trinity Rescue Kit or TRK is a free live Linux distribution that aims specifically at recovery and repair operations on MS-Windows systems, but is equally usable for Linux recovery issues such as as rescue, repair, password resets and disk cloning. Some features:

Reset windows passwords with the improved winpass tool.
5 different virusscan products integrated in a single uniform commandline with online update capability.
Full ntfs write support thanks to ntfs-3g
Winclean, a utility that cleans up all sorts of unnecessary temporary files on your computer.
Clone computers over the network via multicast.
Contributed backup utility called "pi", to automate local machine backups
Easy script to find and mount all local filesystems
Recovery and undeletion of files with utilities and procedures
Recovery of lost partitions
Evacuation of dying disks
2 rootkit detection uitilities
And much more

Fig.05Trinity Rescue Kit in action
=> Download trinity rescue kit software.

My favorite software

For bare metal restore I prefer dd command (gziped images) as it includes copy of the boot sector, boot partition and the root partition. The dd command works well for small setup or home users. But, for a large setup and data center, I prefer to use either clonezilla or mondo rescue softwaee due to ease of use and reliability.

Have a favorite open source disk cloning and disaster recovery software? Got an alternative? Let us know your preferred app in the comments below.

You should follow me on twitter here or grab rss feed to keep track of new changes.



{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
6r00k14n August 25, 2012
I have used the Clonezilla Live disc, which is fantastic, but if you are not so certain about what you are doing, try PartedMagic (trust me, you do not want to pick the disc you want to copy as the target).

It is a bootable Linux CD, that includes several disc tools, including Clonezilla, in a terminal window (so that you can use other tools to validate your decisions).

REPLY

FX August 26, 2012
Ha, dd is still the best for quick and easy cloning :)
Once, I even piped dd to netcat to remotely clone a partition, best hack I ever did, and it just took a few seconds!

REPLY

Bubba August 26, 2012
For the longest time, we used PING (http://ping.windowsdream.com/) as a very capable replacement for Symantec Ghost. We even went as far as building a custom boot/recovery CD for use by our remote users to restore a default image from a hidden partition on the hard drive. It worked very well.

REPLY

deepak August 26, 2012
target disk should be equal or more size in clonezilla, this is the drawback i have seen, eg. i have 10G data on 50G disk to clone my target disk should be equal or more that 50G

REPLY

Flo August 26, 2012
Very good article (as usual…)

For more complex network backup, there is also Bacula :
http://www.bacula.org/fr/

Otherwise, I always use Clonezilla / DRBL (http://drbl.sourceforge.net/) since several years without any problem.

REPLY

ilion1250 August 26, 2012
Partimage is my choose, easy, secure and reliable, I have been used it; to clone the system partitions of my PC and laptop and I never had any issue.
To backup the /home partitions I prefer rsync.

REPLY

DontForget August 27, 2012
SystemIMager? http://sourceforge.net/projects/systemimager/ Has a bunch of different features, like torrenting, and “updating” installed images.

REPLY

PNA Prasanna August 27, 2012
I used to run dd command for creating junk files for checking user quota.

But these are very good stuff.

REPLY

Esteban August 27, 2012
I use FOG, is a free, open source computer cloning solution

REPLY

m.ardito August 28, 2012
filesystemarchiver is also a useful tool, as it saves one or more partitions at the filesystem level, in compressed archives. it can then restore them also on smaller disks, if the case. i find it useful, too.

REPLY

Vivek Gite August 28, 2012
Hey all,

Thanks for sharing additional tools :)

REPLY

xandry August 28, 2012
> Fig.01: partimag in action

“partimage”, not “partimag”

> from the used portions

“partition”, not “portion”

> Redobackup in action

Keep space sympols

Gen-X Flying Club.

Do you have DREAM to be a PILOT ? ? ? ? ?
Why can’t You can fly Helicopter ? ? ? ? ?
Have you ever tried Flying Helicopter ? ? ? ? ?
Interested to Check your Skill of becoming a PILOT ? ? ? ? ?
Want to have your own Helicopter ? ? ? ? ?

For answer of all these questions, Stay connected with Gen-X Flying Club.
(For purchasing or training of Helicopter.)
For more details or inquire, Drop Your Mail : genx.heli@gmail.com

http://www.facebook.com/SaurashtraLinuxUserGroup

http://www.facebook.com/SaurashtraLinuxUserGroup

Code of Flag - INDIA

Its an humble request, not to miss use the freedom of Flying Our National Flag. 

Please Follow the Code of Flag. By Following the Code will Salute to Our Nation & National Heros.

Please refer the following for the Code of Flag.

http://mahapolice.gov.in/mahapolice/jsp/temp/html/flag_code_of_india.pdf

Open Source Software

Get some free software used for your day to day work.......

http://www.pdfforge.org (pdf converter)

http://portableapps.com (use to create pen drive, which run your sofware on any computer).

Railway Ticket

Dear Railway officials,

I request all officials of railway and irctc to try booking for tatkal in morning from their residence from internet. if you can book a ticket, i will award you for the same. 

we are not getting connected to server till 20-30 minutes after repeated trying. once we get server does not respond, and by the time we reach the screen where we can select train, tatkal is full with regret.

Tatkal tickets are booked only before 24 hours, if we want to travel to some location which takes more then a day. how we can book tatkal ticket for return ? do you have any answer for this ?

no agents are taking tatkal ticket booking ???????????????????

there are touts who are charging 300/400 per passenger and they stand in queue and book the ticket, is railway journey has become so luxurious. Can any person afford standing in queue in night take the token and stand next day morning in queue with this touts which make their fortune by taking benefit of common man problem. 

railway has started booking 4 months in advance, do you people as a individual citizen(not as railway official) in your personal life ever plan before 4 months to travel. 

it is just become night mare to travel in train, as ticket cannot be booked in any simpler way. 

and for tatkal i will like to tell you this situation is not only for season, its for whole year. and over and above if we cancel tatkal tickets no refund, dont you think this is worst then a dictatorship.

Please forward this mail to following email id's as every one is facing this problem. please help in this initiative

crb@rb.railnet.gov.in

secyrb@rb.railnet.gov.in

gm@wr.railnet.gov.in

drm@bb.railnet.gov.in

psmr@rb.railnet.gov.in

msrm@rb.railnet.gov.in

mr@rb.railnet.gov.in

care@irctc.co.in

gujmid@gmail.com

IT Pays To Be a Linux Expert

The IT industry is expected to hire many more Linux professionals this year, and to take extra measures to retain Linux talent within organisations. LINUX For You digs into their pockets and finds out what this demand means in terms of remuneration.

There is no doubt that the open source industry has been growing at a fast pace. Linux has gained a level of importance that was unheard of a few years ago, and today, Linux is one of the most sought-after skills in the job market. Various studies indicate that Linux professionals garner more full-time positions, and better salaries, bonuses and perks, compared to other IT professionals.

According to a recent survey of more than 2,000 hiring managers, conducted by The Linux Foundation and Dice Holdings, a jobs posting website, 80 per cent of companies that use Linux have made hiring Linux professionals a priority, but find that there’s insufficient talent out there to meet their demand. So yes, as the rules of economics dictate: excess demand + inadequate supply = better remuneration for you. Companies everywhere need trained Linux professionals, and they need them now.

Linux = hot skill

As Linux is increasingly being used in IT, companies that rely on it are increasingly willing to loosen their purse strings and policies to recruit and retain the best Linux talent. “For Linux kernel development, we have seen a change in the remuneration scene over the last two to two-and-a-half-years. The industry now values open source developers a lot,” shares Divyanshu Verma, engineering manager at Dell R&D, India.

Industry stalwarts believe that though people with Linux skills were at par with other IT professionals, it was not considered a hot skill in the past. “It is important to know that a decade ago, open source skills were not part of standard job requirements, and therefore were paid based on the particular need of the project,” reveals Jyothi Bachhe, head, Open Source Practice, MindTree. “Now, these are increasingly being adopted by various segments in the industry, and in some cases, salaries paid for open source skills are much higher than other skills. It is also true that the industry now expects their employees to have more than open source skills — open source integration, open source software governance and community collaboration awareness are some of the priority areas for the industry.”

The Linux Foundation-Dice survey also states that companies are making significant “aggressive” investments to attract talent, and to ensure that they retain and reward top Linux professionals. While the average pay increase for tech professionals was just two per cent in 2011, professionals with Linux skills have seen a five per cent increase in salaries, and a 15 per cent jump in bonus payouts over the same time-frame. Moreover, the hiring managers have also reported an increase of 28 to 38 per cent in perks like flexibility of work schedules, additional training and certification programs, and salary increases above the company norm.

The forecast for 2012

Linux professionals have reason to be optimistic about the future, as Linux is being considered a priority skill this year. Companies are on a major look-out for development and systems administration skills. The survey finds that companies are most aggressively targeting the mid-level professional, with 75 per cent of the respondents in the survey looking for Linux professionals with three to five years of experience. Nearly half of the respondents intend to add more Linux professionals to their firms in the first six months of this year than they did in the previous six months. “86 per cent of the survey respondents from Asian countries feel hiring Linux talent is a priority in the year ahead, citing an increased use of Linux as the primary driver. This is consistent with reports about the increasing use of Linux among consumer electronics makers, largely concentrated in the Asia/Pacific market,” the study states.

How important is the community

Apparently, your involvement with the open source community online has a direct impact on your pay structure. Bachhe discloses, “If an employee is part of an open source community and is contributing to the respective open source software, the depth and knowledge that he would bring in is different from someone who has just acquired the skills by way of adopting the software in a solution, or by way of training. The company’s faith in the use of the particular software in a project increases when those employees implementing the software are active contributors to it. In fact, MindTree pays consultant-level salaries to such employees — who are either authors of open source software, or participate actively in the community.”

Sreehari Seetharamsastry, managing director, India Development Centre (IDC) Attachmate group, agrees, “Most of the time, they are paid at par with the other non-open-source professionals. However, if there are well established open source professionals in the community, they will get a premium. It takes a lot of effort, time and commitment from a good professional to build credibility in the open source community. So many companies would be willing to shell out extra dollars to get an established open source professional, since they will be able to influence the community through these professionals. In terms of remuneration, there is room for corrections since this is still a niche skill. There is also a need to factor in the costs related to traveling since the open source professionals need to travel a lot for attending worldwide conferences, which is a big motivating factor for them.”

In addition to increasing your package, contributing also adds to your credibility from an employer’s perspective. “Contributing to open source projects would be vital in the near future for showcasing the skill-sets. Involvement with the community is regarded as one of the most important aspects of a developer. Sometimes, just hanging around in IRC channels and reading mailing lists gives you an idea of where one can contribute,” opines Muthu Subramanian, an independent consultant who currently consults with Novell/SUSE (LibreOffice).

What you can expect

When asked about the verticals in which employees can expect a higher pay, Naveen Nimmu, senior manager at Broadcom, replied, “Embedded systems and software systems targeted for enterprise and data centre jobs are areas where employees can expect to be compensated well. Linux embedded developers and kernel device driver developers can earn anywhere between Rs 7-30 lakh annually, depending on their experience and skills.”

Sreekandh Balakrishnan, architect at gnuyoga.in, believes that skills in big data, IT infrastructure consolidation/virtualisation and storage will pay well in terms of remuneration. He shares, “Highly experienced Web/PHP developers, Linux embedded developers and kernel device driver developers can expect to earn over Rs 24 lakh annually, while a fresher’s pay would start from Rs 60,000 to Rs 2 lakh annually.” Meanwhile, Verma feels that the areas of growth are algorithms, kernel device driver development and embedded Linux.

Subramanian states, “In the Indian market, an open source professional can start with a minimum of Rs 2-4 lakh annually and the level varies largely across organisations and areas. There seems to be a boom in the mobile industry, especially in Android, and you can expect good growth prospects there. However, in the long run, one vertical is as good as another.”

Top recruiters

Industry stalwarts named Google, Cisco and Broadcom among the top employers of open source professionals, and also named Red Hat, Novell/SUSE, LSI TI, Amazon, Canonical, Wind River, Microsoft, IBM Research and Yahoo in the list.
Well, maybe now is the right time to build up on your Linux skills, and ask your boss for that raise you have been dreaming about!

Virtual Labs by IIT

Virtual Labs Project Launched

 

The  Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Government of India todaylaunched Virtual Labs — a collection of ninety-one virtual laboratories containing hundreds of experiments in nine disciplines of science and engineering. As part of Ministry of Human Resource Development(MHRD)’s National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT), Virtual Labs is part of a comprehensive undertaking to provide easily accessible and high quality education throughout India.

 

Virtual Labs’ primary focus is to provide graduate and undergraduate college and university students with the ability to perform their required laboratory experiments using only the World Wide Web, a standard computer, and an Internet connection. Virtual Labs allow students to practice and better learn the science and engineering behind the experiments that they are required to perform. Virtual Labs also allows the sharing of costly equipment across the country, and in very rural areas, students will be able to perform experiments that they would not otherwise be able to access.

 

Nearly 300 department heads, faculty, and staff representing 152 institutions have been trained across India. Over 20 Nodal Centres have been created, institutions who have expressed their interest to champion Virtual Labs in their organisations and geographical areas.

 

The Pilot Phase of the Virtual Labs project started in April 2009.  During this phase, approximately twenty labs were developed as proof of concept.  The Main Phase began inApril 2010.  So far, over 80 Virtual Labs have been developed, and are undergoing field trials in various parts of the country.

 

Two types of virtual labs have been developed under this project. In the Simulation Based Virtual Labs the experiments are modeled using mathematical equations.  The simulations are carried out remotely at a high-end server, and the results are communicated to the student over the internet.  Simulation based Virtual Labs are scalable and can cater to a large number of simultaneous users.

 

Using the Remote Triggered Virtual Labs the actual experiments are triggered remotely.  The output of the experiment (being conducted remotely) is communicated back to the student over the internet.  This class of Virtual Labs gives the student the output of real-time experiments.  Typically, time-slots are booked before conducting such experiments.

 

All Virtual Labs can be accessed through a common website: www.vlab.co.in. At the user end, a PC and broadband connectivity enables the user to access Virtual Labs.

 

These Virtual Labs will be very useful for Engineering College Students who do not have access to good lab-facilities, High-school students, whose inquisitiveness will be triggered, possibly motivating them to take up higher-studies, Researchers in different institutes who can collaborate / share equipment and engineering colleges, who can benefit from the content and related teaching resources.

Currently 85 Virtual Labs have been developed comprising of 769 experiments. Trainings and workshops have been held all over India to disseminate knowledge of these Virtual Labs. Future efforts will involve development of virtual labs in different subjects and wide dissemination of this knowledge.

 

A Collaborative Platform for Development of Virtual Labs has been created that assists the faculty with authoring and maintaining Virtual Labs. The platform hosts over 825 experiments developed by many of the partner institutions. The Collaborative Platform provides the server side architecture for ensuring that virtual labs run securely, can effectively serve thousands of students simultaneously, and reserve time slots for experiments that require scheduling. The Collaborative Platform also provides tools to help teachers monitor their students’ progress and make changes to the instructional material.

 

Student interest in Virtual Labs has also been enthusiastic. The Virtual Labs site (vlab.co.in) has had 233,570 site visits and 1,034,443 page visits in just the last 6 months. There are over 4500 registered users from 134 countries and handles around 100GB of traffic per month with visitors from India, United States, Malaysia, Philippines, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, Pakistan and so on.

 

With the launch of Virtual Labs Indian students will have easy access to an encyclopedia of science and engineering knowledge presented in a way that is engaging, immersive, and enjoyable. Virtual Labs will allow students to explore, discover, and learn wherever they are and at their convenience.

http://www.vlab.co.in/