Written by EDFACTOR
Monday, 22 January 2007
This is pretty awesome. If you don't have the Xbox remote control, you can use a DirecTV Universal Remote to navigate through the Dashboard and to play DVDs and whatnot in 4 easy steps.

1) Switch the DirecTV remote to AV-1. Point the remote away from your receiver. Press and hold the select and mute buttons until the light above the AV-1 switch blinks twice.

2) Press 991, then press 2. Now press Power.

3) Press Ch. Up 35-40 times, pausing between each press. The light above AV-1 should go on every time you press it.

4) When your Xbox 360 turns on, immediately press Select.

Article From : HERE

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It was the worst joke one could have played on her. A 23-year-old airhostess with a private airline was shocked to see her profile posted on Orkut, describing her as a “sex-struck woman”.

The person who got her on Orkut, popularly known as an online community that connects people through a network of trusted friends, also posted her neighbour’s phone number along with her profile. A photograph of the airhostess in her uniform was uploaded with her profile, and she was made a member of online communities soliciting sex. To make sure her friends and colleagues notice her, the person also connected her to communities of airhostesses, both national and international airlines, and multi-national companies.

Within no time, she was flooded with scraps (messages) “very obscene in nature”. Her neighbour, an official at Lok Sabha Secretariat, also started receiving “vulgar” calls. “For three weeks, men have been calling up these numbers asking to get in touch with my client. They have posted more than 250 messages in the scrapbook (on Orkut). The accused has also made her a member of several communities that involved prostitutes and sex workers,” the woman’s lawyer complained in a city court on Monday.

Rest of the story: HERE

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January 22, 2007 After you've heard about Lost Planet selling one million copies since its initial release less than a month ago (only a week if you're outside Japan), you're probably wondering if this figure is more to do with the lack of any Christmas blockbusters for the Xbox 360, or because it's a great game in its own right. Our Games Editor has the lowdown after spending a bit too much quality time with the game.

The Story
In the future, humans decide it's a good idea to colonise a frozen planet infested with nasty, hostile insects ranging in size from big to absolutely massive. In the process, they determine the insects are storing thermal energy (T-ENG) in their bodies, and that this energy source is the key to their survival, and develop Vital Suits (VS) to aid their battle. Think MechWarrior/Virtual On...

There's no question it's a premise with potential, however the progression of the story throughout the game is decidedly B-grade, shoestringing the missions together in a manner that barely justifies the action. Your team (comprising of the is-he-evil-or-not scientist, token cute girl and sickeningly cliched hacker kid) decide to risk your life more than once for the sake of investigating a heat signature, at a stage in the game it's obvious that heat signature is a massive insect. It's pretty painful stuff, and does little for the experience aside from providing two key game mechanics, in that you constantly have to top up on T-ENG to stay alive, and provide fuel to the Vital Suits you'll also be needing to stay alive.

Presentation
The first thing that will sell you on Lost Planet is the amazing graphical detail. Crisp textures, incredibly detailed models, beautiful expansive environments, and realistic explosions and (somewhat overused) smoke effects put Lost Planet on par technically with Gears of War, albeit in a drastically different art style. This is a real testament to the power the 360 has under the bonnet, and Capcom doing a damn fine job harnessing it.

Unlike Capcom's Dead Rising, you'll be able to read in-game text on a Standard Definition TV without a microscope (we at gizmag don't look down on late-adopters of HD technology), but needless to say, everything steps up a notch in beauty when running through a computer monitor or HDTV.

Game Mechanics
This game is arcade shooting done 2007 style. You're constantly outnumbered, and underpowered, and the only way to survive is to kill everything that moves, and collect the T-ENG their dead bodies spew forth to stay alive. An unfortunate thorn in the side of this arcade feel is the relatively slow movement of your character. You will grow accustomed to it, but it detracts greatly from the feel of the game.

This article has been borrowed from and continued at: GIZMAG

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Linux, the free operating system, has gone from an intriguing experiment to a mainstream technology in corporate data centers, helped by the backing of major technology companies like I.B.M., Intel and Hewlett-Packard,

Paul Sakum/Associated Press

Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, with the system’s penguin symbol, will assist the Linux Foundation.

Those same companies have decided that the time has come to consolidate their collaborative support into a new group, the Linux Foundation, which is being announced today. And the mission of the new organization is help Linux, the leading example of the open-source model of software development, to compete more effectively against Microsoft, the world’s largest software company.

“It’s really a two-horse race now, with computing dominated by two operating-system platforms, Linux and Windows,” said James Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. “There are things that Microsoft does well in terms of promoting Windows, providing legal protection and standardizing Windows.”

He added that “the things that Microsoft does well are things we need to do well — to promote, protect and standardize Linux.”

In data centers, both Linux and Microsoft have benefited from the shift to data-serving computers powered by lower-cost microprocessors and other industry-standard hardware using personal computer technology. These machines, running Linux or Windows, have increasingly replaced more costly, proprietary hardware, typically running Unix operating systems.

That shift to industry-standard hardware has helped makers of personal computer chips like Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, and makers of PC-technology machines including Hewlett-Packard, I.B.M., Dell, and Fujitsu.

Traditional rivals of Microsoft in the software business, including Hewlett-Packard, I.B.M., Dell, NEC and Fujitsu. and I.B.M., have championed Linux to undermine an adversary and have tweaked their database and other software programs to run on Linux. Companies like Red Hat and Novell distribute Linux and charge companies for technical support and maintenance.

So while Linux is distributed free, a sizable market has grown up around it. The yearly sales of Linux-related hardware, software and services is more than $14.5 billion, according to estimates by IDC, a research firm.

The new Linux organization is “a clear sign that we are going to continue to work together,” said Daniel D. Frye, vice president for open systems development at I.B.M.

There is vigorous competition among companies in the market for hardware, software and services that work with Linux, Mr. Frye said. But collaboration is also essential to move Linux technology forward, he said, and avoid the kind of splintering of the marketplace that occurred in the 1980s, when different companies supported different versions of the Unix operating system.

The work of two other groups — the Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group — will be folded into the Linux Foundation, and those organizations will no longer exist. Mr. Zemlin had been the head of the Free Standards Group.

Stuart F. Cohen, the chief executive of the Open Source Development Labs, said he was starting a new venture that would use the open-source development model to build software applications tailored for individual industries like financial services.

The Linux Foundation will pay salaries to Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, and a few other key Linux programmers. That support had previously come from the Open Source Development Labs.

In an e-mail message, Mr. Torvalds noted that some of the original reasons for forming the Open Source Development Labs six years ago, like “helping companies come to grips with Linux and open source in general,” had in large part been addressed.

Referring to the new organization, he said, “The technical, legal and standards issues do seem to be part of a bigger whole.”

Mr. Torvalds said his role would not change. “I work on the technology itself, not any of the other issues,” he wrote. “I literally just sit in my basement and do technical management. Nothing else.”

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Screenshots: Two worlds (Xbox)

Source:

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SouthPeak Interactive is looking to make a one-two punch on Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion with their release of Two Worlds, an exciting new RPG that's akin only in genre. The title's release date, when originally announced, was slated as TBA, so a more precise Q1/early Q2 2007 launch date should give followers of Two Worlds some solid confirmation and peace of mind that's it's actually coming. We look forward to getting our hands on a review copy when it ships, so keep it right here for more info.

Press Release:
SouthPeak Interactive, a leading independent videogame publisher, today announced that its massive, open-ended role-playing game, Two Worlds, will be released this spring for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft.
Developed by Las Vegas-based TopWare Interactive and Reality Pump Studios, Two Worlds is an evolution of the role-playing genre. Combining unlimited character development and fierce, spectacular combat, Two Worlds brings a new kind of gameplay experience where players are encouraged to experiment with the world, test the results of good and evil deeds and find the most satisfying way to face challenges. Never before has an RPG given gamers such an unprecedented level of freedom to change the world and shape the story within it – for the first time, choices made in an RPG game are actually meaningful.

Expanding the depth of gameplay even further, Two Worlds online multiplayer action allows up to 8 people to adventure together online via Xbox Live® online entertainment network. Gather with your friends and battle cooperatively, exchange equipment, or simply attack them and see who’s left standing.

“Two Worlds is quickly shaping up to be an experience that sets the benchmark of what a role-playing experience can be,” said Katie Morgan, Executive Vice President of SouthPeak Interactive. “We couldn’t be more excited to be bringing this gargantuan title to both Windows and Xbox 360 gamers.”

Gabe Boker - 01/19/2007

Two Worlds Screen Shots: here

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'Sonic the Hedgehog' for the Xbox 360 lacks spontaneity, excitement

More than a decade ago, "Sonic the Hedgehog" was a video game icon, producing hit after speedy hit for Sega.

Now, Sonic is running at breakneck speeds on the next-generation consoles.

Unfortunately, "Sonic the Hedgehog" for the Xbox 360 is rocketing the franchise in the wrong direction.

In fact, the only thing that this game gets right is Sonic's speed. When racing through the game's large environments, the blue hedgehog zips from place to place just as he always has.

So how did Sonic go so wrong?

The game design is the biggest culprit behind this fiasco. Sonic games should be all about zipping along in a blur and reacting quickly and dynamically to what appears. Instead, the game's coolest moments -- such as when the ground gives way under your feet -- all feel scripted with only one right way to escape.

The insertion of adventure elements -- such as when Sonic walks through city streets talking to people in search of power-ups and the next place to go -- slows the game even more.

It's nice to see all of Sonic's friends -- Tails and Knuckles and so forth -- make cameo appearances, but the townsfolk chitchat seems horribly out of place in a game meant to move along briskly.

The game's auto targeting, used for attacking enemies and finding safe ground to land on, is also horribly spotty.

Throw in some horrendously long loading times, a muddy story line and dialogue that will make you laugh in agony, and you have a train wreck of a video game. Not even fans of Sonic's classic adventures will be able to look past the stench this game leaves in its speed wake.

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Internet fraudsters have stolen around 8m kronor ($1.1m; £576,000) from account holders at Swedish bank Nordea.

The theft, described by Swedish media as the world's biggest online fraud, took place over three months.

The criminals siphoned money from customer's accounts after obtaining login details using a malicious program that claimed to be anti-spam software.

Nordea said it had now refunded the lost money to all 250 customers affected by the scam.

"What is important is that none of our customers will have lost their money," said a bank spokesman.

"We are doing all we can to stop this."

Largest Nordic bank

The attack used a program called a trojan, known as haxdoor.ki, to obtain customers details. Trojans are programs that look benign but contain malicious software.

Victims were duped into downloading the program after receiving an email, purporting to come from the bank, encouraging them to download anti-spam software.

Once installed the trojan monitored the PCs' online activities.

"It listens for key web addresses, in this case the Nordea bank address," said Greg Day, security analyst at McAfee.

When a user navigated to the Nordea bank login page, the trojan would kick into action, saving the customers login details. It then displayed an error message asking them to resend the information.

With two access codes the criminals could transfer money from the customer's accounts.

Trade newspaper Computer Sweden said the police had traced the fraudulent emails first to computer servers in the US and then to Russia.

Nordea added that customers who had been affected often did not have any anti-virus protection on their computers.

The bank, which has 2.2 million customers, is the largest across the four Nordic nations of Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

In August 2005, it was forced to temporarily shut down its online arm due to a sophisticated phishing attack.

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—Gears of War® has gone triple platinum, reaching the three million units sold milestone in just 10 weeks on store shelves, ending 2006 as the top-selling game among all platforms during the month of December.

Expanding upon its reign as the fastest-selling title of 2006 and the fastest-selling original exclusive Xbox 360 ™ game of all time, Gears of War has captivated gamers across the globe with its action-packed single-player campaign, thrilling online modes and recently released multiplayer maps, Raven Down and Old Bones.
"Gears of War is tracking to be one of the best-selling video games of all time." —Jeff Bell, Corporate VP, Microsoft

The free downloadable maps were released less than two weeks ago via Xbox Live® Marketplace and sponsored by the Discovery Channel's "FutureWeapons" series. In that short time, the new maps have garnered an astounding 750,000 downloads. There have been more than 1.5 million total downloads of all Gears of War content currently available via Marketplace, including the maps, themes, and video walkthrough, by gamers who can't get enough of Delta Squad and the Locust Horde.

Another Blockbuster Hit
"Like blockbuster titles from Microsoft's Halo® franchise and the Grand Theft Auto and Zelda franchises, Gears of War is tracking to be one of the best-selling video games of all time and has established itself as the most successful new intellectual property (IP) of the next generation," said Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of Global Marketing, Interactive Entertainment Business Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft Corp.

Gears of War continues to wow consumers and critics alike, garnering more than 20 nominations for Game of the Year. The game is a truly global phenomenon—the prestigious Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu recently gave Gears of War the coveted Platinum award. Gears of War joins Blue Dragon as the second Microsoft Game Studios title in the past two months to receive this high honor.

Not just a gaming sensation, the acclaimed Gears of War Mad World cinematic trailer was featured in Advertising Age's Book of Tens as one of the top creative concepts of 2006. With more than 2.4 million views of the trailer online, the campaign has inspired not only tremendous sales, but also a number of hilarious parody videos currently circulating around the Internet.

Gears of War
Gears of War, rated "M" for Mature, thrusts you into humankind's epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet. Blending the best of tactical action games with the best of survival horror titles, Gears of War features cinematic, beautifully rendered interactive environments with high-definition visuals.

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SAN JOSE: Apple Inc will have plenty of room to eventually reduce the retail price of its upcoming iPhone, according to preliminary gross margin estimates by a market research company.

The iPhone, the combination cell phone-iPod media player that Apple unveiled last week, will yield gross margins of more than 50 percent at the current set of retail prices, iSuppli Corp. said in an analysis of presumed component and manufacturing costs.

The 4-gigabyte version of the iPhone, with a retail price of $499, will cost Apple $245.83 to make, iSuppli estimated. The 8-gigabyte version, priced at $599, will cost Apple $280.83.

"With a 50 percent gross margin, Apple is setting itself up for aggressive price declines going forward," said Jagdish Rebello, a director and principal analyst with iSuppli.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

Since Apple will face stiff competition in the cell phone market, the company may need to cut into its margins to reduce pricing in the future, he said.

The Apple iPhone, which was announced by CEO Steve Jobs last week, will be available starting in June exclusively through AT&T's Cingular Wireless. Apple has said it hopes to sell 10 million units in 2008, or about 1 percent of the market.

That goal "seems attainable," Rebello said.

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A criminal investigation has been launched by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department into the tragic water intoxication death of Jennifer Strange (left, with her family), who died hours after participating in KDND-FM's "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest. This follows the firing of 10 of the radio station's employees, including the three morning DJs, and the cancellation of the morning show.

An article on law enforcement website Officer.com reveals more details on the utter disregard the radio personalities held for the health of their contestants.

Authorities decided to pursue the investigation after listening to a tape of the show, obtained by The Sacramento Bee, during which DJs joked about the possible dangers of consuming too much water, sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Tim Curran said. At one point, the DJs even alluded to a college student who died during a similar stunt in 2005.

The station was also warned by several callers that the contest could be fatal, to which they replied, "Yeah, they signed releases, so we're not responsible. We're OK." OK my ass. I don't care what kind of waiver this poor woman signed...this contest killed her.

As far as I am concerned everyone responsible for the contest, from the promotions department to the on-air talent, had a hand in her death. Sure, the woman should have known better that to follow along with it, but she was trying to do something nice for her now motherless children. That's a fact those children will struggle with for the rest of their lives.

The attorneys of the Strange family plan to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the radio station, and I cannot see how they can possibly lose.

"Oh, my gosh, look at that belly. That's full of water. ... Come on over, Jennifer, you OK?" a male DJ asked. "You going to pass out right now? Too much water?"

It's bad enough to lose a mother, a daughter, a sibling, etc., but to have her death punctuated by some jerk making comments like this in his cheesy radio voice is simply hideous. Michael Fahey

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Xbox Linux project
The Xbox Linux Project, which shows Xbox owners how to install Linux on their game consoles in addition to the stripped-down Windows that runs the console, may have just hit one of its biggest hurdles yet. According to the Xbox Linux Project website, Microsoft has released an automatically downloading patch that plugs the hole in the console's system that allows users to install and run Linux. Apparently, the patch also deletes files off of the hard drive when it is installed, making at least one user lose file he saved on the hard drive via Linux.

The patch is automatically installed when users choose the "Xbox Live" option on the Dashboard--if they have already set up and are connected to an active Internet connection. The update downloads without any prior approval or warning, and can even be activated via an in-game connection to Xbox Live. It is also automatically downloaded and installed even if the user is not signed up for the Live service.

The Xbox may even be transmitting data, including its serial number, to Microsoft whenever an Internet connection is made--again whether or not the user has signed up for Xbox Live.

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GN's U.K. PS2 channel reports that Activision, who acquired RedOctane last year, has registered new music video game names, leading to suggest it plans to take the "Guitar Hero" franchise in a whole new direction.

Activision has registered trademarks with the US Patent and Trademark Office for two potential new games - Guitar Villain and Drum Villain.

Although these patents were filed towards the end of last year, they're not the only ones to suggest the series is branching out in new instrumental directions. In April 2006, Guitar Hero publisher RedOctane placed an applcation to trademark both Drum Hero and Keyboard Hero.

Hopefully we will learn more about RedOctane's plans for the franchise this year.

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Phising

Cyber-criminals use fraudulent email and web sites (known as mirror sites) that resemble online or retail sites. They are designed to fool users into revealing personal information, particularly credit card numbers, account numbers and passwords.
Hardware
n March 2005, the UK police found out that the London office of the Japanese bank Sumitomo has been under attack from a group of hackers for several months. The investigators initially believed that the criminals had used a Trojan to get into the bank's network. However, after several days of investigation, they found a tiny keystroke-recording device inserted at the back of the computer (where keyboard cable connects to the PC).

In fact a quick search on the Internet lists more than a half-dozen companies offering such devices. Some common characteristics of these products are: Can holds up to 2MB in memory; undetectable by software; transparent to the targeted machine's operating system; capable of recovering material on any PC; Price range varies from $20 to $200, depending on the memory; instructions and material available to build the device.

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Advance-fee fraud

Popularly know as 419-fraud, advance-fee fraud is one of the oldest and popular scam. Originating in Nigeria in the 1980s, this fraud, circulating through postal mail and fax, quickly crossed the borders within Africa. The unsuspecting email users receive an email message allegedly from a family member of an African dignitary. The writer explains that following the death of the dignitary, a large sum of money will be blocked somewhere. With the user's help, and using his or her financial backing for the funds transfer, the contact says that it would be possible to release the money. A substantial reward supposedly awaits those who accept the contract.

Also in this category of swindling come the email messages that announce to recipients that they have won lottery after their email addresses came up in a draw.

These scams qualify as identity crimes because they involve collecting personal and bank information from the unsuspecting internet users who are gullible enough to respond to these solicitations.

Internal Revenue Service form

This one involves the W-9095 form, sometimes named the W-8888 form. Attached to an email, the fictitious form is often accompanied by a fax number, to which it must be quickly returned. The message also indicates that users may lose certain tax exemptions if they fail to respond within seven days.

Key loggers and password stealers

These terms refer to malicious programs that find their way onto the computers of their victims. Each program gathers certain keystrokes and can collect the name of the user, passwords, and other personal and confidential information. The malware then sends the data to the attackers, who use it fraudulently.

The Trojan family known as Haxdoor, A311 Death, or Backdoor-BAC are one of the most common advanced malware. On an infected machine, each Trojan captures network information and logins and waits for the user to browse a web site (usually financial) that requires authentication. When this occurs, the keylogger collects transaction data, such as username and password, and then sends the stolen data to a dedicated host that enters the stolen data into incremental log files. The first Backdoor-BAC variant appeared in 2003 and have grown manifolds since, both in number and sophistication. Many also come with rootkit capabilities.

Differentiating among keyloggers, password stealers, and "backdoor" applications is not easy. Many backdoors, which allow hackers to remotely control computers, can also collect information. This is why many data-gathering programs are considered backdoors.

Although intended for worthwhile goals, such as parental control, some commercial utilities are occasionally diverted from their original purpose and are used for malicious crimes. Like malware, they are capable of secretly intercepting any computer activity without the user's consent or knowledge.

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Pharming

Pharming is an advanced form of phising that redirects the connection between an IP address and its target server. This usually happens at the DNS server end -- via cache positioning or social engineering -- or on the local machine with the help of a Trojan that modifies the host file. The link is altered, so that every time users try to connect with an organization's proper site, they are secretly redirected to a mirror site, without ever having typed in the incorrect (fraudulent) address.

Social engineering is especially devious because victims are driven to harmful actions by their own greed of generosity. According to a SANS Institute report, some 1300 companies, including several big names, suffered financial losses in a single cache-poisoning attack.

Hacking, unauthorized access to systems, and database theft

Criminals frequently compromise systems, diverting information directly or with the help of listening devices, such as sniffers and scanners, on the network.

Hackers gain access to a great deal of data, decrypt it (if required), and use the data for exploits elsewhere.

Redirectors

hese are malicious programs that redirect users' network traffic to locations they did not intend to visit. The Anti-Phishing Working Group has witnessed a strong increase in traffic redirectors, as well as in phishing-based keyloggers. They report that the highest volume in traffic occurs with malicious code which simply modifies a DNS server settings or the host file to redirect either some specific DNS lookups or all DNS lookups to a fraudulent DNS server. The fraudulent server replies with 'good' answers for most domains. However, when attackers want to direct a user to a fraudulent site, they simply modify their name-server responses.

This is particularly effective because the attackers can redirect any of the users' requests at any time, and the users would have no idea that this is happening. Several international banks like HSBC Brazil, Banco Itau, Banco Banespa and Bradesco banks witnessed such attacks in December 2005.

NEXT PART: PART 3

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ID threats to watch out for:
A snippet Report
UTI Bank recently joined the long list of banks that have been subjected to online identity thefts and attacks. The bank became a victim of a phising attack. A URL on Geocities that was almost a facsimile of the bank's website homepage (online identity theft), was reported to be circulating amongst email users. The web page not only asked for the account holder's login and passwords, somebody had even wickedly put up a disclaimer and security hazard statement and online identity thefts.

Though the incident is first of its kind this year, it is a good pointer to the increasing menace of online identity theft. The other prominent Indian banks which have been a victim of such attacks include leading names like ICICI bank and Citibank.

According to a new report about online identity theft from the security firm McAfee, the instances of key-logging malware to capture passwords and other private information have increased by 250 percent between January 2004 and May 2006.

Additional findings from the security firm's research show that the number of phishing alerts tracked by the Anti-Phishing Working Group has multiplied 100-fold over the same period of time.

Though the majority of these crimes are carried out for economic gains, they might also be committed by terrorist groups who establish false identities to conceal their activities from the watchful eyes of law enforcement. There are several ways in which online identity theft can be committed. We decided to bring you face to face with these Identity Theft.

Contd: Part 2 Identity Theft

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Complexity of integrations in Enterprise Resource Planning

Most of the customers presently have disparate applications on different technology platforms, built with different tools, and purchased from different vendors, and not working seamlessly. One of the key challenges of the IT managers is to make these Enterprise Resource Planning applications integrated well and work in tandem.
Enterprises have to not only relook process capabilities but also their technology infrastructure that helps them to get real-time information across their supply network.

Enterprise Resource Planning Software vendors have to look into solutions to embrace the concept of demand driven supply network (DDSN) and enable the enterprises to become more demand centric. Analysts indicate that half of all the companies do not have a clear visibility across their supply network, inspite of having IT systems as these systems are not properly integrated due to lack of proper Enterprise Resource Planning.

The major challenge to the ERP vendors is hence to provide seamless integrations between all their extended ERP applications, which can help enterprises become a demand-driven organisation. The next generation of enterprise applications will need to embrace better architectural capabilities to make the integrations more plug and play, rather than being tight point-to-point integrations.

Service-Oriented Architecture in Enterprise Resource Planning:
One of the key market trends is the technology transformation to a service-oriented architecture (SOA) which will have the largest effect on redefining the ERP market. As indicated by analysts, service-oriented architecture will transform Enterprise Resource Planning software from being an inhibitor to an enabler of business change, by 2015. SOA will shift revenue from packaged software to subscription services and from monolithic suites to composite applications.

SOA is an approach to designing, implementing, and deploying information systems via Enterprise Resource Planning such that the system is created from components implementing discrete business functions. These components called “services” can be distributed across geography, across enterprise, and can be reconfigured into new business process as needed.

The services are “loosely coupled” allowing for much more flexibility than older technologies with respect to re-using and re-combining the services to create new business functions both within and across organisation.

The future goal of most of the ERP vendors providing Enterprise Resource Planning
is to provide an enhanced value of the installed systems, by bringing in the real value proposition to the existing customers as well as to the new customer, by enhancing the product with additional features, both functional, technical and ones that are usable.

This article on Enterprise Resource Planning has been taken from the
times of india.
The author is Director, Development, SSA
Global India
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Enterprise Resource Planning,erp software,erp vendor, software,Enterprise Resource Planning.

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Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): Where is it heading

Manufacturers are under constant pressure from customers, shareholders, and suppliers to continuously improve, to make better products faster - and more efficientlyand better Enterprise Resource Planning. They, in effect, need to convert their factories into responsive, demand-driven, profit-making enterprises by optimising manufacturing operations. Their competitive advantage and ultimate survival depends on the use of information systems and technology thus, Enterprise Resource Planning.

Need for ERP systems
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have become synonymous with competitive advantage, especially throughout the 1990s. ERP systems replace isolated information with a single, packaged software solution that integrates all traditional enterprise management functions like financials, human resources, and manufacturing and logistics.

Started with an IT application to handle the inventory problems of enterprise in the 1960s, the ERP systems brought a common information database which helped business functions of the organisation to shift their thinking to an enterprise level from a departmental level. Many companies have implemented Enterprise Resource Planning applications; either developed in-house or off-the-shelf products, to become more responsive to the customer needs and enhance their businesses.

Challenges for future for Enterprise Resource Planning(ERP)
The challenge for many IT managers is to justify the cost of huge IT investment and to show the real return on investment from implementing these applications. Often we hear questions like: “My order process has changed. How long will it take IT to modify the software?” “We have changed our business model to conditionally outsource manufacturing of a sub-assembly. Can our system be modified to control this new process?” “Sometimes it is too late to react to an order cancellation causing loss of revenue. Can we improve our performance through better synchronisation and Enterprise Resource Planning?” “We have customised our ERP system by adding new functionality. Can I reuse this investment?

Can I expose them to my customer portal?” Thus, the demands on ERP vendors serving the market continue to rise. What are the key challenges that they face? ....

...CLICK HERE for the 2ndpart on Enterprise Resource Planning ...
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Enterprise Resource Planning,erp software,erp vendor, software,Enterprise Resource Planning.

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DOWNSLOPE YAHOO..

YAHOO! the world's most-visited website, has just had a year it would rather forget. The firm issued a series of profit warnings, reported a 38% drop in third-quarter profits to $155 million, and watched its share price drop by more than 25%.

Its disappointing performance indicates that the internet services company has somehow lost its way. Providing a raft of products and services from its search offering to email, music, mobile, shopping, health advice and small-business services, not to mention related sites such as Yahoo!

Answers, the brand could be accused of trying to do too much. The year came to an explosive close in December with a shake-up of its organisational structure amid the announcement that chief operating officer Dan Rosenweig and media group head Lloyd Braun were leaving the firm.

The resulting rejig seems to have been influenced by a leaked memo by Brad Garlinghouse, Yahoo!'s senior vice-president, which concluded that the firm lacked a clear vision and needed to cut its workforce by as much as 20%. The restructure is being led by Yahoo! chief executive and chairman Terry Semel and aims to increase accountability and speed up decision-making.

Managers at Yahoo!'s European operations will be hoping that the restructure gives them more freedom to build the brand in their own markets, as US management has kept a tight rein on its operations across the Atlantic. Priorities include the creation of more social media environments and the roll-out of its much-delayed search-advertising system Project Panama, which aims to make its paid-search options more attractive to advertisers.

Search provides one of the most lucrative opportunities on the web, but Google has put Yahoo! in the shade in this area. Google's system, which uses a combination of pay-per-click and rankings based on the price-per-click paid by advertisers, makes up to 40% more ad revenue per search than Yahoo!

While Yahoo!'s social search engine Yahoo! Answers has done well since its 2005 launch, with more than 100 separate services, the brand is in desperate need of streamlining. What can the firm do to bounce back? We asked Nick Blunden, client services director of Profero, which handles online advertising for ask.co.uk, and Nigel Walley, managing director of Decipher and a former marketing director of NTL's internet division.

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RFID EXPO
This is the first time that an EXPO focusing mainly on RFID, is being presented in India – in Bangalore to begin with: later in Mumbai and Chennai.
With the objective of supporting the Indian Industries to adopt the State of the Art technologies to survive in the international arena, Asia Technologies Limited is organizing a massive RFID event called RFID expo ‘Live’ India 2007

BANGALORE Venue : KTPO's International Trade Centre, Whitefield.

Dates : January 19 - 20 - 21
Timings : Daily - 10 am to 6 pm.

The EXPO will feature the latest and the most innovative products and services from top technology solution providers including from the UK, Canada, Finland, Singapore and China.

The unique feature of RFID EXPO is that the RFID technology implementation will be shown ‘Live’ in all the above three Centres, viz. Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai. International Fairs on RFID are being held regularly in different parts of the world but nowhere has a ‘LIVE’ RFID Fair been held yet. RFID EXPO 'LIVE' India 2007 is a ‘Trade Only’ event . Admission is by invitation / registration; each visitor will be provided RFID-encased badge / admission ticket carrying his / her personal details. See how the technology works in practice – experience it from the moment a visitor enters the Expo Hall till he / she leaves.

AIM OF THE EXPO
The aim of the EXPO is to promote and spread awareness in India about the various solutions that use RFID technology, among the end – users in sectors such as Manufacturing (Automotive, Pharmaceuticals / Health-care, Textiles), Retailing, Distribution / Warehousing, Transportation & Logistics, Defence, Libraries, Hotels, Hospitals, Jewelleries, Banks, etc. Worldwide, awareness about this technology is growing; successful implementations are being highlighted; adoption is increasing and technology providers/vendors, end-users all agree that the RFID market is positioned for strong growth. Within India, the market potential is huge and the benefits of adoption of this technology are enormous in terms of a cut in manufacturing and distribution costs and time besides enhancing operational efficiency (resulting from changes in business processes), and improving customer service.
The Expo Website: rfid expo

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