“The headcount reductions have begun and will continue into 2009… the company also plans to forgo 2009 salary increases in most of the company’s markets,” Unisys Corporation said in a statement.

Unisys said that it is exploring a wide range of cost-reduction options and that actions currently underway are expected to reduce its annual cost structure by more than USD 225 million.

The cost-reduction actions –led by new Unisys Chairman and CEO Ed Coleman — are part of an overall programme to simplify the company’s business structure, concentrate its resources more effectively and drive improved market success and profitability, Unisys added.

The initial cost-reduction actions are focused on reducing selling, general and administrative (SGandA) expenses and controlling or reducing labor costs across the board.

“The company plans to reduce its spending on third-party expenses, facility consolidations, head-count reductions and a suspension of company matching contributions to the US 401(k) plan, which had been costing about USD 50 million annually,” the statement added.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/241/20081223/1265/tbs-unisys-to-axe-1-300-jobs-suspends-sa.html

With 35.5 percent votes, Wi-Fi has beaten Sky+, Sat Navs, iPods and Blackberries to win the poll conducted by a leading gadget magazine.

In the survey by ‘Stuff’ magazine, the readers were asked to choose the greatest technological innovation of the past ten years.

More than a third voted for Wireless Internet.

SKY+, the personal video recorders (PVR) by Sky, at the second place, has emerged as the best known and best loved PVR.

“It really has given power to the consumer to allow them to watch what they want when they want,” the Telegraph quoted Fevzi Turkalp, who runs the Gadget Detective website, as saying.

Sat Nav, provided in almost every car now, stood at the third place, while energy-efficient Hybrid Cars have marked fourth place in the list.

Apple’s iPod has taken the fifth place in the list.

Simon Osborne-Walker, the publisher of Stuff magazine, said that he was confident readers had managed to sum up the best of the last decade.

“It’s been an amazing ten years for technology. Gadgets have gone from being big black boxes under the television to lightweight, portable devices,” he said.

Stuff’s list of the best technological innovation of last decade:

1. Wireless Internet – 35.5 percent

2. Sky+ – 16.9 percent

3. Sat Nav – 16.6 percent

4. Hybrid Cars – 8.9 percent

5. iPod – 5.6 percent

6. Chip and Pin – 5.6 percent

7. Nintendo Wii – 3.9 percent

8. Skype – 1.7 percent

9. Oyster Card – 1.5 percent

10. Blackberry – 1.1 percent

Other – 2.6 percent

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20081223/393/ttc-wifi-tops-best-technological-innovat.html

The penalties will also be applicable to those who offer software or tools for hacking to any intruder.

The existing law offers punishment only for intruding into networks of governments, national defence or leading science sectors; or altering the functions of personal computer systems.

However, the amended law will be the first legal tool to curb increasing data theft from civil-use computers in China.

According to Zhou Guangquan, a member of the NPC’s law committee and a professor in criminal law at Tsinghua University, the proposed penalties also apply to Chinese hackers, who steal information from foreign computers.

The proposed draft states that either the crime or its consequence occurs in China, it shall be subject to Chinese law, reports the China Daily.

“Even if the crime has nothing to do with China, but the criminal is a Chinese citizen, it also falls under the law’s jurisdiction,” Zhou said.

Li Shishi, deputy director of the NPC law committee, said that the latest changes were made at the request of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

“The ministry said many unscrupulous people have been found hacking computers to steal account numbers and passwords, or to remotely control them,” he said.

“These actions are a big threat to online security, and we consider it necessary to define them as crimes,” he added.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20081223/854/ttc-chinese-hackers-may-be-jailed-for-7y.html

‘New 2G spectrum will be allocated as and when it is available. Currently 2G is saturated and we hardly have any spectrum available, so successful 3G bidders will have to wait in queue to avail of 2G spectrum,’ said R. Ashok, member, finance, Telecom Commission, on the eve of bidding for 3G spectrum.

The member’s statement helped dispel rumours that 3G operators would only be allowed to function in the 3G domain.

According to Department of Telcom (DoT) officials who requested anonymity, Chennai and Tamil Nadu that were earlier two separate circles, will now be considered as one circle and licence-holders for each will now be able to bid for the new combined circle.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20081223/870/ttc-telecom-services-3g-players-will-be.html

The Swedish manufacturer will unveil Volvo S60 with automatic brakes at the next month’s Detroit motor show. It will go on the market in 2010.

“This technology helps us take an important step towards our long-term vision of designing cars that should not crash,” the Telegraph quoted Thomas Broberg, the company’s safety specialist as saying.

“Our aim for 2020 is that no one should be killed or injured in a Volvo car,” he added.

The car can stop itself upon sensing that a collision is about to happen either a car or a pedestrian, even when travelling at low speeds.

It will feature a sophisticated cruise control system designed to automatically maintain a safe distance from the car in front.

It works with the help of a radar unit fitted in the car’s grille, which not only detects what is in front of the vehicle, but how fast it is moving.

When the car believes that there is an imminent threat of a collision, a light flashes on a windscreen display in front of the driver at the same time along with an audible warning, the brakes are applied automatically.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20081223/393/ttc-volvo-to-unveil-world-s-first-accide.html

A Woman was out golfing one day when she hit the
ball into the woods.
She went into the woods to look for it and found a frog
in a trap.

The frog said to her, ‘If you release me from this trap, I
will grant you three wishes.’
The woman freed the frog, and the frog said,
‘Thank you, but I failed to mention that there was a condition to your wishes.

Whatever you wish for, your husband will get ten times of it!’ The woman
said, ‘That’s okay.’

For her first wish, she wanted to be the most
beautiful woman in the world.
The frog warned her, ‘You do realize that this
wish will also make your husband the most handsome man in the world, an Adonis
whom women will flock to’.
The woman replied, ‘That’s okay, because I will
be the most beautiful woman and he will have eyes only for me.’
So, KAZAM-
she’s the most beautiful Woman in the world!

For her second wish, she
wanted to be the richest woman in the world.
The frog said, ‘That will make
your husband the richest man in the world. And he will be ten times richer than
you. ‘
The woman said, ‘That’s okay, because what’s mine is his and what’s
his is mine.’
So, KAZAM- she’s the richest woman in the world!

The
frog then inquired about her third wish, and she answered, ‘I’d like to have a
mild heart attack.’

Moral of the story: Women are clever. Don’t
mess with them.

Attention
female readers:
This is the end of the joke for you. Stop here and continue
feeling good!

Male
readers: Please scroll down.

The man had a heart attack ten times
‘milder’ than his wife!!!

Moral of the story : Women are really dumb but think they’re really smart .

Let them continue to think that way and just enjoy the show

PS: If you are a woman and are still reading this; it only goes to show that women never listen!!!

You can forward this to all the guys for a good laugh, and to all the ladies who have a good sense of humour

ENJOY……. ……… ….

http://karan-diwan.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/12/brillant-joke-life-is-short-enjoy-laugh.htm

1) There would be 10 times as many people on the ship
2) There would be a song with Kate Winslet in a white saree and of
course singing in the rain
3) The movie would be called “Pyar Kiya To Marna Kya”
4) Hero and Heroine would float in cold water for days and still
survive, but the villian would die on the first dip
5) The iceberg would be sent by the heroine’s father to teach the hero
a lesson
6) None of the women would float due to heavy designer sarees.
7) Himesh Reshammiya could not use his nose to sing as his nose would
be running due to the cold weather condition.

And last but not least
More Than 50% of the rescue boats would be reserved for SC/ST/OBC

http://karan-diwan.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/12/what-if-titanic-was-built-in-india.htm

The research determined that Earth’s magnetic field, which shields our planet from particles streaming outward from the Sun, often develops two holes that allow the largest leaks.

According to Vassilis Angelopoulos of the University of California, Los Angeles, Principal Investigator for NASA’s THEMIS mission (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms), “The discovery overturns a long-standing belief about how and when most of the solar particles penetrate Earth’s magnetic field, and could be used to predict when solar storms will be severe.”

“Based on these results, we expect more severe storms during the upcoming solar cycle,” he added.

THEMIS was used to discover the size of the leak.

Earth’s magnetic field acts as a shield against the bombardment of particles continuously streaming from the sun. Because the solar particles (ions and electrons) are electrically charged, they feel magnetic forces and most are deflected by our planet’s magnetic field.

However, our magnetic field is a leaky shield and the number of particles breaching this shield depends on the orientation of the sun’s magnetic field.

It had been thought that when the sun’s magnetic field is aligned with that of the Earth, the door is shut and that few if any solar particles enter Earth’s magnetic shield.

The door was thought to open up when the solar magnetic field direction points opposite to Earth’s field, leading to more solar particles inside the shield.

Surprisingly, recent observations by the THEMIS spacecraft fleet demonstrate that the opposite is true.

“Twenty times more solar particles cross the Earth’s leaky magnetic shield when the sun’s magnetic field is aligned with that of the Earth compared to when the two magnetic fields are oppositely directed,” said Marit Oieroset of the University of California, Berkeley, lead author of one of two papers on this research.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20081217/981/tsc-scientists-discover-biggest-breach-o.html

The study, conducted by researchers at Queen’s University and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment in Canada, reports that striking changes are now occurring in many temperate lakes similar to those previously observed in the rapidly warming Arctic, although typically many decades later.

“Our findings suggest that ecologically important changes are already under way in temperate lakes,” said Queen’s Biology research scientist, Dr. Kathleen Ruhland, from the university’s Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Lab (PEARL) and lead author of the study.

The scientists studied changes over the last few decades in the species composition of small, microscopic algae preserved in sediments from more than 200 lake systems in the northern hemisphere.

These algae dominate the plankton that float at or near the surface of lakes, and serve as food for other larger organisms.

Striking ecosystem changes were recorded from a large suite of lakes from Arctic, alpine and temperate ecozones in North America and western Europe.

Aquatic ecosystem changes across the circumpolar Arctic were found to occur in the late-19th and early 20th centuries.

These were similar to shifts in algal communities, indicating decreased ice cover and related changes, over the last few decades in the temperate lakes.

“As expected, these changes occurred earlier – by about 100 years – in highly sensitive Arctic lakes, compared with temperate regions,” said Dr. Smol, recipient of the 2004 Herzberg Gold Medal as Canada’s top scientist.

In a detailed study from Whitefish Bay, Lake of the Woods, located in northwestern Ontario, strong relationships were found between changes in the lake algae and long-term changes in air temperature and ice-out records.

The authors believe that, although the study was focused on algae preserved in lake sediments, changes to other parts of the aquatic ecosystem are also likely.

“The widespread occurrence of these trends is particularly troubling as they suggest that climatically-induced ecological thresholds have already been crossed, even with temperature increases that are below projected future warming scenarios for these regions,” said Dr. Paterson.

The authors warn that if the rate and magnitude of temperature increases continue, it is likely that new ecological thresholds will be surpassed, many of which may be unexpected.

“We are entering unchartered territory, the effects of which can cascade throughout the entire ecosystem,” concluded Dr. Smol.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20081217/981/tsc-climate-warming-causing-ecosystem-ch.html

According to a report in The Times, the ancient remains discovered in Morocco, belong to a giant flying pterosaur and plant-eating sauropod.

Initial examinations suggest that both specimens are unknown to science.

They were unearthed during a month-long quest during which the research team braved floods and storms to reach the dig site and then preserve the fossils.

The scientists even feared that they would never get the bones out of the desert because they were so heavy that their Land Rover became stuck in sand.

“There was a point when we wondered if we would make it out of the desert with the (sauropod) bone, but we had worked so hard to find it there was no way I was leaving it behind. It took us five days to get the bone out of the ground and down the mountain,” said Nizar Ibrahim, of University College Dublin, a leader of the project.

The first fossil is the beak of a pterosaur, a giant flying reptile that lived about 100 million years ago.

Such discoveries are unusual because pterosaur bones were light and fragile, to be adapted to flight, and few fossilised well.

“Most pterosaur discoveries are just fragments of teeth and bone so it was thrilling to find a large part of a beak and this was enough to tell us we probably have a new species,” said Ibrahim, a doctoral student.

The second significant discovery was a leg bone more than a meter long that belonged to an unknown species of sauropod – the group of long-necked plant-eaters that includes the diplodocus.

The animal would have been almost 20m (65ft) long.

“Plant eaters are uncommon in this deposit, extremely rare in this region and to find one this large is very exciting. It’s a major discovery,” Dr Martill said.

“Finding two specimens in one expedition is remarkable, especially as both might well represent completely new species,” Ibrahim said.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20081217/981/tsc-fossil-hunters-discover-two-new-dino.html