Google Maps offers driving direction in India

Google has collected good landmark data through user-created "Points of Interest" in Google Map Maker


Google India announces the launch of landmarks in driving directions for users of Google Maps. Users can now navigate around locations using Google Maps on their desktops and mobile phones using landmarks like petrol stations, banks, schools, railway stations, bus stops, local businesses and traffic circles and signals. India is the first country globally to get this feature on Google Maps.
Indians are more comfortable finding way on the streets using landmarks. Typically many roads in India are not marked with road signs and even if they are, the signs are not visible. In some cases people do not even know the road names. For instance, a friend asks you for directions to your house for a new year party, or to that nice picnic spot you recommended to celebrate a new year's eve, you scribble some lines on a piece of paper or explain that they should take a turn from a petrol pump or a bus stop or a grocery shop! Google today enables this activity online and share with friends and family.
In India, Google has collected good landmark data through user-created "Points of Interest" in Google Map Maker. Google's new algorithm determines which of these landmarks are most useful for navigation, based on importance, and closeness to the turns that the user is making and other available signals. With this launch, Google will now combine landmark data, counted turns ("the 2nd right"), intersection names, and road names, and try to use whatever information is most relevant and useful.
Google is providing two kinds of landmarks - to identify where users need to turn, and to provide confirmation that they're on the right track. Google also encourages users to help make directions even better for millions of users in India by enriching landmarks data via Google Map Maker.

Develop embedded apps with ease

 The MS .NET framework integrates with Visual Studio, making it extremely easy to build applications for small, resource constrained devices
Embedded application development has come a long way from writing code in error prone assembly language. Earlier writing code for a device needed high level programming skills, but a lot has changed now. If you know how to write code in C# you can still write code for smaller devices.

On top of this, embedded development has been further boosted with the availability of IDE?(integrated development environment) support. One example of this is .NET Micro Framework which contains a subset of .NET libraries for building embedded applications for resource constrained devices.

The high point of this framework is its integration with Visual Studio that provides embedded developers a good ecosystem for writing applications. Besides providing ability for writing code, the .NET Micro Framework also provides  a hardware emulator for rapid prototyping and debugging.

These emulators can also be extended for different hardware. This framework can run on small 32-bit processors and there is no requirement for a memory management unit in the processor. Instead of using a full version of an operating system, the .NET Micro Framework uses a scaled version of Common Language Runtime that sits directly on hardware with very low memory (RAM) requirements. Now the question arises why should one use this framework when there are other Microsoft embedded technologies available like Windows CE and Windows XP Embedded?

The answer is that the .NET Micro Framework uses the lowest resources as compared to the other two. This framework provides an abstraction that allows the application to be separated from the hardware platform. The code specific to the hardware platform is fed into a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) so that the .NET Micro Framework and applications can be moved to new platforms without any difficulty.

Sun Microsystems unveils advanced cloud security tools

 Delivers Open Source Cloud Security Tools for public, private and hybrid clouds

As part of its overall strategy to help customers and partners build public and private clouds that are open and interoperable, Sun Microsystems, Inc. on Thursday unveiled innovative open source cloud security capabilities and announced support for the latest Security Guidance from the Cloud Security Alliance.
 
Sun is steadfast in its commitment to providing best practices and technologies that help users safeguard their critical data in the enterprise and in the cloud. The introduction of Sun's Cloud Security architectural building blocks will help deliver enterprise-grade cloud services that are highly secure, available and easily manageable when used in public, private or hybrid cloud environments. Leveraging the built-in security capabilities of Sun's Solaris Operating Systems, including Solaris ZFS and Solaris Containers, the security tools help in securing data in transit, data at rest, and data in use in the cloud, and work with cloud offerings from leading vendors including Amazon and Eucalyptus.
Along with introducing new security tools today, Sun also announced support for the Cloud Security Alliance's "Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing – Version 2.1." Sun privacy and security experts have been instrumental in the industry-wide effort to develop the security guidance and have been active participants in the Cloud Security Alliance since its inception. The new framework provides more concise and actionable guidance for secure adoption of cloud computing, and encompasses knowledge gained from real world deployments.
"Sun's technologies, best practices and work with leading industry organizations like the Cloud Security Alliance help provide our customers and partners with a framework for securing data in cloud environments," said Lew Tucker, CTO, Cloud Computing, Sun Microsystems.
Sun also published a new white paper, "Building Customer Trust in Cloud Computing with Transparent Security," that provides an overview of transparent security and the ways in which intelligent disclosure of security design, practices and procedures can help improve customer confidence while protecting critical security features and data, improving overall governance.
"Security remains one of the major concerns for enterprise customers moving to the cloud," said Glenn Brunette, Distinguished Engineer and Chief Security Architect, Sun Microsystems. "Sun's new security tools will help address several of these fundamental issues and enable customers to realize the benefits of cloud computing while also managing risk and safeguarding critical assets."
Sun today announced availability for several open source Cloud Security tools including:
-- OpenSolaris VPC Gateway: Provides customers with greater choice and flexibility when connecting their systems to the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud. The OpenSolaris VPC Gateway software enables customers to quickly and easily create a redundant, secure communications channel to a Virtual Private Cloud without the need for proprietary networking equipment.
-- Immutable Service Containers (ISC): Delivers architectural patterns with associated deployment strategies that collectively define a highly secure foundation for service delivery. Incorporating many of the security features of the OpenSolaris Operating System, including Solaris ZFS, Solaris Containers, and Solaris IP Filter and Auditing, the ISC architecture leverages service compartmentalization and improved integration techniques to create virtual machines with significantly improved security protection and monitoring capabilities.
-- Security Enhanced Virtual Machine Images (VMIs): Using many of the techniques developed for the Immutable Service Container project, Sun created several security-enhanced VMIs for the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). These virtual machines leverage industry accepted recommended practices including non-executable stacks, encrypted swap and auditing enabled by default. Beyond simple OpenSolaris images, Sun has also published integrated software stacks such as Solaris AMP and Drupal built on these security-enhanced images.
 
-- Cloud Safety Box: Simplifies managing encrypted content in the Cloud. Using a simple Amazon S3-like interface, the Cloud Safety Box automates the compression, encryption and splitting of content being stored in the cloud on any supported operating system including Solaris, OpenSolaris, Linux and Mac OS X. Sun is working with its customers and partners worldwide to build and deploy public and private clouds that are open and interoperable. The Sun Open Cloud Platform, powered by Sun's industry-leading software, hardware and storage, delivers cost-effective, scalable cloud infrastructure.

Building cloud applications for Windows Azure

Azure development will become a part of Visual Studio 2010 to be released soon. Until then, you can download Azure SDK and Azure tools & use them in Visual Studio. Here we will create and deploy a Cloud application on Win Azure
 
Windows Azure platform is created to help developers write, distribute and manage Web application and Web services on the Internet. Azure provides on-demand computation and storage services that allows Web applications to scale them on Internet simply by changing the configuration parameters. Azure is an operating system for the cloud, using which developers can host and manage their applications as services on Windows Azure platform.

Windows Azure supports both Microsoft and non-Microsoft languages and environments  -developers can use Ruby, PHP, and Python to develop Azure Services. Azure supports a seamless development experience and is well integrated with Visual Studio.

Setting up  development environment in Visual StudioYou can download the Azure SDK and Azure tools and use them in Visual Studio. In order to create an Azure application, the pre-requisite operating systems are Windows Vista with SP1, Windows Server 2008 or Windows 7. You would also need .NET framework 3.5 with SP1 installed. Additionally, the development machine should be configured with IIS 7 (with ASP.NET and WCF HTTP Activation). Also it requires Microsoft SQL Server (or express) 2005 or 2008.

To develop Windows Azure application you would need either of the following: MS Visual Studio 2008 SP1, MS Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 or MS Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition with SP1.

Once you have the required IDE, you will need Azure SDK and Azure tools for Visual Studio to  start developing your first Azure application.

Apple issues security updates for Mac OS X

The new Java version fixes at least 14 vulnerabilities in the version designed for OS X 10.6 systems
Apple last week pushed an update for Leopard and Snow Leopard systems that plugs a large number of security holes in Apple's version of Java, a package installed by default on those Mac OS X systems that enables a number of multimedia Web applications.
The new Java version fixes at least 14 vulnerabilities in the version designed for OS X 10.6 systems; the package put together for 10.5 Macs corrects more than two dozen security flaws. Mac users can grab the patches via Software Update or from Apple Downloads.
The patch fun continues into Tuesday of next week, when both Microsoft and Adobe are scheduled to issue updates to plug security vulnerabilities of their own. Microsoft said Thursday that it plans to issue at least six security patches (each patch fixes at least one -- but often multiple -- security flaws). Half of those updates will carry a "critical" rating, Redmond's most dire.
Adobe said it plans to issue software updates to nix security flaws in its Flash Player and Adobe AIR applications. The company also confirmed the existence of a flaw in Adobe Illustrator on Windows and Mac systems, amid reports that instructions showing attackers how to exploit the flaw to break into vulnerable systems was circulating online. Adobe said it expects to publish a security advisory on Monday with further information on the Illustrator flaw -- including a schedule for an update to resolve the issue.

Security issues rain on cloud computing

This is a big challenge, and companies are wrestling with it

As more data reside in distant computers connected via the Internet — or the cloud — just where in fact does the data reside, who controls and has access to it, and who is responsible for any legal or other problems that arise?
Answers are in the process of being ironed out in legal settings, corporate boardrooms and the court of public opinion.
"This is a big challenge, and companies are wrestling with it," said John Magee, vice president of product marketing for security software leader Symantec (SYMC).
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Recent case in point: Mobile carrier T-Mobile's service for the Danger Sidekick phone was disrupted in October when systems failed in a cloud computing data center hosted by Microsoft (MSFT). The outage resulted in the loss of contacts, photos and messages for thousands of T-Mobile customers.
Microsoft, which traced the problem to third-party technology providers, said it recovered most and maybe all of the lost data. And T-Mobile sent $100 gift cards to affected customers.
But the Danger episode raised red flags about the dangers of cloud computing.
Can Be Cost-Saving Approach
Cloud computing uses remote data centers for data processing and storage. Companies can cut their tech costs by using cloud computing. Consumers use cloud-type services all the time for things like e-mail and photo-sharing services. Users simply access data and software over the Web.
Companies, though, remain mostly in the dark about how regulatory compliance will play out in the cloud, tech observers say. Problems will start to grow as more corporate data get distributed across the cloud, predicts Symantec's Magee.
"There is an issue here and it's having an impact on a lot of customers I talk to," Magee said. "People are wrestling with these legal points. This is not just about technology."

Teen Internet addicts more likely to self harm

According to a study, 10 per cent of the students surveyed were moderately addicted to the Internet, while less than one percent were severely addicted
Teenagers who are addicted to the Internet are more likely to engage in self-harm behavior, according to an Australian-Chinese study.
Researchers surveyed 1,618 adolescents aged 13 to 18 from China's Guangdong Province about behavior such as hitting themselves, pulling their own hair, or pinching or burning themselves, and gave them a test to gauge Internet addiction.
Internet addiction has been classified as a mental health problem since the mid-1990s with symptoms similar to other addictions.
The test found that about 10 per cent of the students surveyed were moderately addicted to the Internet, while less than one percent were severely addicted.
The students ranked as moderately addicted to the Internet were 2.4 times more likely to have self-injured one to five times in the past 6 months than students without an addiction, said Dr. Lawrence Lam from the University of Notre Dame Australia.
The moderately-to-severely addicted students were almost five times more likely than non-addicted students to have self-injured six or more times in the past 6 months, Lam and his colleagues from Guangzhou's Sun Yat-Sen University reported.
"In recent years, with the greater availability of the Internet in most Asian countries, Internet addiction has become an increasing mental problem among adolescents," the researchers said in their study published in the journal Injury Prevention.
"Many studies have reported associations between Internet addiction, psychiatric symptoms and depression among adolescents."
They said their results suggested a "strong and significant" association between Internet addiction and self-injury in adolescence even after accounting for other variables previously associated with the behavior, including depression, family dissatisfaction, or stressful life events.
They said this suggested that Internet addiction is an independent risk factor for self-injurious behavior.
Experts interpret Internet addiction, among other things, as feelings of depression, nervousness, moodiness when not online, which only go away when the addict gets back online.
Fantasizing or being preoccupied about being online are other signs of Internet addiction.
"All these behaviors may be rooted in some common ... factors that require further exploration," they said.