Facebook will destroy your children's brains

Facebook users face a future of rolling around on the floor, dribbling incoherently as they demand approval from passers-by.

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have left a generation of young adults vulnerable to degeneration of the brain, we can exclusively reveal for about the fifth time. Symptoms include self-obsession, short attention spans and a childlike desire for constant feedback, according to a 'top scientist' with no record of published research on the issue.

Repeated exposure to the internet leaves people with an 'identity crisis', wanting attention in the manner of a toddler saying, 'Look at me, Mummy,' or a scientist touting their latest brain-fart in the national press.

The scientist believes that use of the internet – and computer games – could 'rewire' the brain, causing neurons to establish new connections and pathways. "Rewiring itself is something that the brain does naturally all the time," the professor said, "but the phrase 'rewiring the brain' sounds really dramatic and chilling, so I like to use it to make it seem like I'm talking about a profound and unnatural change, even though it isn't."

This rewiring can result in reduced concentration, a need for instant gratification, poor non-verbal skills, and the habit of talking really loudly like Alistair Stewart, according to research that hasn't yet been performed.

"I think it's really important that people aren't frightened by scare stories about new technology, and I've been a big supporter of brain-training software in the past," the scientist said, "but people's brains are literally melting inside their heads from all the MyFace waves being absorbed."

In a controversial move, popular science journal The Daily Mail published the academic's findings before they had actually been found. "In academia I've faced a great deal of prejudice from peers," she explained, "They say 'oh you haven't done the research, you've not got any evidence,' but really they're just jealous of my fashion sense. Publishing in the Mail lets me rise above all the petty politics and fact-checking in science, and just say 'this is the truth, bitches'."

Responding to criticism from the Guardian's Ben Goldacre, she said "he thinks his hair's better than mine. It isn't. I don't even think it's real. Who is he anyway? Is he a 'top scientist'? No."

The scientist, who doesn't actually use Twitter, said: "What concerns me is the banality of so much that goes out there. Why should someone be interested in what someone else has had for breakfast? My friend told me what they were having for dinner the other day, and I told them to 'fuck off' before slamming the phone down."

The high-profile academic, who frequently uses the media as a platform to push her theories to the public, suggested that some Facebook users feel the need to become 'mini celebrities' who are watched and admired by others on a daily basis. "They do things that are 'media worthy' because the only way they can define themselves is by 'people knowing about them'", she told a tabloid journalist.

Following her successful move from peer-reviewed journals to the Mail, the Professor will take the next logical step of publishing her future research through the medium of romantic fiction.

(The following is actually, seriously, true.)

She is currently working on her first novel, based on her interest in technology's impact on man and the idea that young adults are turning into zombie like 'cyber people' before our very eyes.

"Cyber people aren't robots," she explained to the Evening Standard, "It's just that they spend all their time interfacing with technology so they're uncomfortable with relationships. So there's bound to be a backlash. We should be the masters of technology, not the servants."

The protagonist is a 22nd-century neuroscientist with three women in his life, loosely based on Winston Smith in George Orwell's 1984. Really. Source: Click here

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HP ready to launch Pre 3, seeks apps from developers

HP spills beans regarding the launch of Pre 3, asks developers to submit apps for the new smartphone

It all started with a official email in which HP asked its developers to submit exciting webOS apps for its smartphone. The smartphone in question is HP's latest offering - Pre 3. 

The official email indicated that the developers with webOS apps should check the compatibility with the Pre 3 using the emulator which will be released this week. 

The developers targeted here belong to HP’s Early Access Program. However the forum is open to newbie's as well. To join the program all developers have to do is send an email to  PDC@palm.com to register. 

Pre 3 is touted as one of the powerful smartphone coming out of the HP stable. A smartphone that caters to both personal professional usage, comes equipped with a 1.4 GHz processor and sports a 3.58’’ touch screen. A QWERTY keypad with a slide out feature, makes texting easy. 

The streamlined design and sturdy structure, make the phone quite ideal for business users. If you are particular about the safety of your data, with HP Pre 3, your privacy and security will be maintained. 

Integrated with a GPS navigation system, Office Suite for Word, Excel and Powerpoint presentations coupled with Google Docs and Box.net, this smartphone is your office on wheels. 

The smartphone comes with a 5 mega-pixel autofocus camera with LED flash snapper and with a additional fixed focus camera, your door to two way calling will be smooth and seamless. 

Offering a video recording up to 720p, Pre 3 packs in plenty of space for all your pictures, videos, documents and more. With push mail and other such facilities, Pre 3 stands to score high among the top players in the business phone market.

Pre 3's launch in India is not yet known, but it is rumoured to be launched soon at price point of approximately  Rs. 25000. Source: Click here

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Acer ICONIA A100 Coming to US this Month

Now that the new Android 3.2 Gingerbread is out, Acer is all set to launch its ICONIA A100 Honeycomb tablet which supposed to launch back in July. Engadget, reports that Acer has sent out mails to their retail partners, saying that the device will start shipping in the early weeks of August.

The ICONIA A100 is a 7-inch Android tablet which is powered by the same processor as the 10-inch ICONIA A500. While this launch seems specific to the US market, the device may soon arrive in UK and India, probably by the end of the next month.

Sporting the 1GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor along with 512MB of RAM this would run Android Honeycomb version 3.2.  The same update with make it to the ICONIA A500 sometime in the month of September. Source: Click here

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Microsoft's IE9 OS Gamble Paying Off?

Microsoft's Internet Explorer retained its browser dominance in July, followed by Mozilla's Firefox, but both saw a slight decline in the last month while Google's Chrome enjoyed a slight, incremental boost, according to data from Net Applications.

Nonetheless, Microsoft touted the gains the latest version of its browser, IE9, has made in the business sector and on its latest OS, Windows 7.

Overall, Internet Explorer had 52.81 percent of the global browser market last month (down 0.87 percent), followed by Firefox with 21.48 percent (down 0.19 percent), and Chrome at 13.45 percent, up from 13.11 percent last month. Safari also dropped slightly to 7.48 percent, while Opera bit off about 1.73 percent of the browser share.

Broken down by browser version, IE8 was the most popular at 29.3 percent, though that was a drop from June's 30.07 percent. Chrome 12, meanwhile, captured 11.16 percent, up from 7.32 percent in June. Microsoft's push to abolish IE6 appears to be working; IE6 global share was down to 9.24 percent from 10.18 percent the month before.

IE9's worldwide share crept up to 6.77 percent, from 5.63 percent. But Net Applications said that Microsoft's strategy of releasing IE9 only for Vista and Windows 7 appears to have paid off.

"In July on Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9 hit 18.5 percent share worldwide and 24.8 percent in the United States. There are indications that this strategy is working. Although Internet Explorer lost usage share on XP, on Windows 7, Microsoft increased global usage share, going from 54.6 percent in June to 54.8 percent in July. And in the U.S., Internet Explorer share on Windows 7 grew 0.6 percent to 68.1 percent," Net Applications said.

In a blog post, Microsoft's Roger Capriotti said the numbers are "a good leading indicator of the value companies are seeing in moving to Internet Explorer 9 with Windows 7."

On all operating systems, IE9 had 11 percent share in the United States, Net Apps found.

In other browser news, a report emerged this weekend that suggested Internet Explorer users are not as smart as their Firefox- and Chrome-using counterparts. Across the board, the average IQ scores presented for users of Internet Explorer versions 6 through 9 were all lower than the IQ scores recorded for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Camino, and Opera users, according to online psychometric testing company AptiQuant.

Source: Click here

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Indian Origin Scientist Designs Nanosized Batteries

Pulickel M. Ajayan, an Indian origin scientist  who had been researching from years in the field of nanowire devices has finally emerged successful as he has packaged lithium ion batteries, which power mobiles and smartphones, into a single nanowire. To say possibly, the world at large runs on lithium ion batteries and such a great advancement in this field is a matter of deep appreciation.

The schematic shows nanoscale battery/supercapacitor devices in an array, as constructed at Rice University. The devices show promise for powering nanoscale electronics and as a research tool for understanding electrochemical phenomenon at the nanoscale. (Credit: Ajayan Lab)

Giving technical details of the device the researchers said that the two versions of their battery had the first one as a sandwich with nickel/tin anode, polyethylene oxide (PEO) electrolyte and polyaniline cathode layersin which lithium ions would move efficiently through the anode to the electrolyte and then to the supercapacitor-like cathode, which would store the ions in bulk and give the device the ability to charge and discharge quickly.

“The idea here is to fabricate nanowire energy storage devices with ultrathin separation between the electrodes,” said Arava Leela Mohana Reddy, study co-author and research scientist, according to a university statement.

The Rice University had invented one such device last December but it had the drawback that the cathode had to be attached from outside but the new device tucks the cathode inside the nanowires. That’s great, isn’t it? After having a hand at almost all the materials for devicing a suitable cathode, finally the scientists settled on the synthesized polymer known as polyaniline (PANI). Drop-coating the widened alumina pores with PEO coats the insides, encases the anodes and leaves tubes at the top into which PANI cathodes could also be drop-coated. An aluminum current collector placed on top of the array completes the circuit.

These new devices are about 50 micron tall and have a diameter of about the size of human hair, almost invisible when viewed on the edge! Truly speaking there is nothing impossible with these devices – they can even be scaled to greater distances as per the requirements of the application.

“There’s a lot to be done to optimize the devices in terms of performance,” said the paper’s lead author, Sanketh Gowda, a chemical engineering graduate student at Rice. “Optimization of the polymer separator and its thickness and an exploration of different electrode systems could lead to improvements.” source: click here

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Google Chrome becomes UK's second most popular web browser

Internet browser passes Firefox, with speed and a nationwide advertising campaign credited for the rise in popularity

Google Chrome has overtaken Firefox to become the UK's second most popular web browser. Photograph: Walter Bieri/AP
Google's Chrome is Britain's second most popular browser, a sign of the internet giant's increasing grip on the UK search market.


Three years after launch, Chrome last month captured 22% of UK users and marginally overtook Mozilla's Firefox browser, according to the web metrics firm Statcounter. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is losing market share to Chrome but remains the most popular browser for UK users with 45% – although it has a head start by being pre-installed on almost all computers sold in Britain. Apple's Safari is UK number four, with a 9% share.


Google's rise in the browser market is in part down to nationwide advertising – Chrome is the first Google product advertised on British TV – but is largely attributed to its speed.


Lars Bak, the Google engineer responsible for Chrome, said the goal had never been to attract a huge user base, but to energise a dormant browser market: "Speed is a fundamental part of it, but it's also about the minimal design and the way it handles security. If you as a user try [to load] a webpage and it feels snappy, it's really hard to go back [to another browser]. It has shown that people spend more time interacting with the web."


Unlike most of Google's talent based at its Mountain View headquarters in California, Bak works from a converted farmhouse in the Danish countryside two hours from Copenhagen. He has become obsessed with speed, and despite numerous tests that show Chrome outstrips all rivals, he thinks it could be much faster. "You should never be happy with [existing] speed," he said. "Of course it gets harder to make substantial gains, but it's all healthy competition. From the beginning we wanted everybody to be fast, and now all browsers are fast. I'm absolutely flabbergasted [by the improvements made by rival browsers]."


Chrome is the number three worldwide, with a 20.65% market share according to Statcounter. But analysts expect it to edge ahead of Firefox, which has dipped steadily since January. Microsoft's Internet Explorer has also fallen heavily, to 43%, with warnings about security vulnerabilities.


Google last month announced its Chromebook laptop, based on its browser and seen as another ambitious attack on Microsoft; it will be made by Samsung and Acer, companies that previously made computers running Microsoft's software.


Unlike most computers, the Chromebook has almost no capacity to store and hosts most data online in a "cloud". Bak said: "The Chromebook is really important because it tries to simplify the machine – it is basically no maintenance, which means you can cut the price. If all you are doing is using a browser it's a fantastic tool." source: click here

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Apple Halts Samsung Galaxy Tab Launch in Australia

As part of the ongoing lawsuit between Samsung and Apple, the launch of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been delayed in Australia. A court injunction has been won by Apple which will prevent Samsung from selling the tablet “until [Samsung] wins court approval or the lawsuit is resolved,” according to a report by Bloomberg.

The lawsuit started in the US in April, and has Apple accusing Samsung of ripping of the iPhone and the iPad in look and feel. The evidence is hard to contradict. Show one of Samsung’s recent touch-screen handsets to a layperson and they’ll probably mistake it for an iPhone.

Not only has Apple successfully halted the launch of the Tab 10.1, but Samsung has agreed to supply Apple with three examples of the tablet at least a week before any future launch date. This is necessary as the Australian Tab 10.1 will differ from the U.S model. Unless it looks like an Etch-a-Sketch, though, it’s pretty hard to imagine that Apple will give it the go-ahead.

By the time this spat finally works its way through the courts, it’s likely we will have forgotten about it. But what seems clear right now is that Apple is currently winning, likely thanks to the obviousness of Samsung’s rip-offs. If the Korean tech giant is to move forward with its Android phones and tablets, it’s going to have to invent some of its own.source : click here

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The Profits of Stock Market Trading Courses

The trading industry is a difficult field that involves numbers, charts and requires analysis in order to make good and wise trading judgments. High quality and reliable stock market trading courses is the key of being successful in trading. There are a number of benefits that can be resulting from engaging in stock market trading classes. Here are some of the benefits of the program:

•     It allows you to know what kind of trader you wanted to be. You will be involved in a initial trader assessment to determine your potential, strengths and weaknesses in order to fully understand what type of trader you will be good at such as a day trader or a swing trader. It is important to determine what type of trader you are to help you focus on the effective trading techniques, especially if you are just new to online trading.
•         Your personal coach will be able to review your trading log and focus sheet in order to point out your possible mistakes in trading and to offer suggestions on what should be done to straighten out these mistakes. Stock market trading beginners need to know what they're doing wrong while taking stock market trading classes so that they won't repeat these when they are actually trading.
•          There is also weekly coaching call that aims to assess the progress of the aspiring day trader as well as to discuss possible corrections to make you succeed in the trading business.
•          Part of the program is the live trading sessions with the coach. This live trading sessions allows you to consult the coach on some of your queries. Moreover, you will have the chance to ask questions to the coach about your trading strategies and how to further improve them in order to succeed. Online trading does not have to be as complicated as how new traders assume it to be.

Winning yourself with a personal coaching program is beneficial to an in-the-process trader such as yourself because it allows you to further hone your skills and potential to become a successful person in the trading business in the future. These benefits are for you as an addition to your online trading education. A personal coaching program under stock market trading courses enables you to have guidance and reasonable advices from the experts and professional traders that can impart great knowledge to you. Conquer and be an expert in stock market trading by signing up for stock market trading classes.

For more information about advanced technical analysis courses and Stock market courses online in Delhi then visit www.winthemarkets.com

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Technical Analysis Course in Delhi

I want to say this article is about the things that you want to see out for when you are looking at a technical analysis course online in Delhi NCR. Trading from a technical view is becoming more popular in trading and therefore so has the indeed for courses.

First of all we will look at the website and then we will go on to looking at the detail of technical analysis course online. There are a lot of essentials that I think you should learn as part of the website. It is important that you will find out the courses detail online before you joining.

You first need to understand the basics of technical analysis so you need to learn about the why this type of analysis works. You also want to learn how the famous Jaswant Aditya teaching used it to his advantage. Then to complete the basics you need to understand the different types of charts.

A beneficial method that people use is trending. You will see how using moving averages WintheMarkets help you 

For more information about advanced technical analysis courses and Stock market courses online in Delhi then visit www.winthemarkets.com

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Stock Market Courses Online in Delhi At WinTheMarkets

Stock market is considered a very difficult thing to understand. It is really tough for people to know what is happening in this market and it´s also difficult to learn it. But with the online stock market courses things has become more easy for people who wants to learn it. Everyone can register with no troubles to a stock exchange course and learn everything in order to know all the concepts of stock exchange. These kind of courses are taught in a way which would be the most useful for people who are beginners. With these online courses you will become an expert easily. The stock market trading education informs people about the easiest methods that are used to improve your skills and knowledge by providing them with total training classes. They also provide you with tools which help you to get the maximum benefits in order to learn these new concepts.

The online stock trading courses for beginners has become very common for people because they use a simple language to teach and the terms they use are really simple to understand. Persons do not have to obtain support from any kind of additional supply because these types of lessons and classes will be sufficient in order to explain to you everything in relation to the stock trade market and its trends. The online stock market courses for beginners it is very easy and you would certainly like knowing about this specific topic because you actually will have no problems in being able to access this training and classes. Everyone can easily enroll to them and obtain your own sign in name as well as the password of your online courses. Then you will easily find all the information of the online stock market courses in your sign in and will be able to use it from any place of the world where you have accessibility to Internet.

Knowing about finance it´s no so easy and oftently you will get bored and tired of it. But with the online Stock Market Courses things will be easier to you and you´ll become an expert really quickly. With these courses people can easily understand about finance and also can become a skilled in this area.

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Amazon Unveils Newest Video Streaming Deal

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com unveiled its latest video streaming deal on Thursday as the world's largest Internet retailer adds more digital content ahead of the expected launch of a new tablet computer later this year.

Amazon said it agreed to license roughly 1,000 Universal Pictures movies from NBCUniversal, which is 51 percent owned by Comcast and 49 percent owned by General Electric.

The films, which include "Elizabeth", "Being John Malkovich" and "Billy Elliott" will be available to Amazon Prime members, who get free shipping and video streaming for a $79 annual membership, the company added.

Last week, Amazon signed a similar deal with CBS Corp that cost more than $100 million, according to Barclays Capital analyst Anthony DiClemente. That deal added about 2,000 videos to Amazon's Prime streaming offering, bringing it to more than 8,000 movies and TV shows.

The NBC agreement will lift the total to more than 9,000 this summer, Amazon said on Thursday.

The deals increase competition among Amazon and video-streaming leader Netflix, as well as Apple and Hulu.

Netflix shares were down $1.81, or about .62 percent, to $267.78 in morning trading, while Amazon stock edged up 0.7 percent to $223.94. Apple shares were up slightly at $394.72.

Amazon is a leader in digital books through its Kindle e-reader and online bookstore. But the company is branching out into more digital content, including apps and games, as well as video.

The company is expected to launch a tablet computer later this year, giving it another platform from which to sell a wider range of digital content.

Netflix, the top movie rental service with 23 million subscribers, offers more than 20,000 titles through its streaming service. The company could have more than 30 million subscribers by the end of 2011, according to Barclays Capital analysts.

Amazon ended the second quarter with 144 million active users. Prime members account for less than 10 percent of active users, according to Barclays Capital estimates from earlier this year. Source: yahoo.com

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U.S. Senate panel schedules Google antitrust hearing

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate's antitrust panel has scheduled its hearing on Google Inc's use of its considerable market clout for mid-September, the Senate Judiciary Committee said in a brief statement on Thursday.
The Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee will meet on Sept. 21 for a hearing titled: "The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition?"
The only known witness at this point is Google Chairman Eric Schmidt. Schmidt had been Google's chief executive officer but vacated the post to company co-founder Larry Page in April. He now oversees government affairs.
Google, a global leader in search engine advertising, is in the midst of an antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission following accusations that it abused its market dominance.
The FTC is expected to look into complaints from Google's rivals that its search results favor the company's own services, among other concerns.
Google, which has been making many acquisitions, is also talking to the other U.S. antitrust regulator, the Justice Department, about its proposed acquisition of online advertising company AdMeld.
Schmidt has said that Google would cooperate fully with U.S. antitrust regulators.
Some analysts and investors believe Google will strike a settlement with the FTC to avoid the distraction and business risk that would come with a prolonged fight.
Google controls more than two-thirds of the global search market. But new Web technologies, such as social networking, smartphone applications and location-based services, offer new ways for people to find information online -- putting pressure on Google to find new ways to stay on top.

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Skyfire unveils app for Flash videos on iPhone

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Private-equity backed video technology firm Skyfire, best known for its mobile browser, has unveiled an application for watching Flash videos on Apple's iPhones.
Apple has been a strong opponent of Adobe's Flash technology, criticising its power management, among other things, and it has embraced a newer set of tools for building web applications known as HTML 5.
Many Internet pages running applications using Flash technology have had to create special versions for Apple devices.
Users of Skyfire's new VideoQ application can send links to videos from their browsers to watch them in the app, which Skyfire hopes to build into a video entertainment hub.
VideoQ will at first be available in North America only, but Skyfire plans to expand its reach later.
California-based Skyfire, whose investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Matrix Partners and Trinity Ventures, said its mobile browser has been downloaded 8 million times so far.

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Shopping for fake 'profit', 'loss' to get tough from Aug 1

Santosh Nair

Moneycontrol.com

High networth individuals who 'buy' loss/profit from friendly brokers to either suppress taxable income or convert black money into white, will find it difficult to do so, from August 1. This follows the new rules on modification of client codes (the client’s trading account number), effective from Monday. Under the new SEBI rule, brokers will be penalized 2% of the turnover value of the non-institutional trades done in the wrong account, if the turnover value of such trades exceeds 5% of the total monthly turnover value. For errors up to 5% of the total turnover value, the penalty is 1%.
Till now, if a broker had executed a trade in the wrong client’s account, he could rectify that error at the end of the day by shifting the shares. But the regulator and the stock exchanges soon found out that a quite a few brokerages were shifting trades from one account to the other to help clients either evade tax or launder unaccounted money.
There are many brokerages who thrive by charging 5-6% commission by providing fake profits/losses to their clients. It is not a bad deal for tax evaders who can still save 25% after paying the commission. For brokerages, this is a far more lucrative business than plain vanilla broking service, which earns just 0.01-0.25% per trade.
From Monday, if brokers change client codes after the trade is executed, it will cost them serious money. More importantly, the new rule will distort the economics of profit/loss shopping.
Here is how the freedom to change client codes was being abused by brokers.
Broker X is a proprietary trader who makes money through day trading—buying and selling shares for small spreads sometimes as low as 5-10 paise. Everyday the broker will punch in a few hundred buy trades and equal number of sell trades on his trading terminal. Suppose two clients, A and B, approach him with opposite requirements. Client A needs to show a loss of Rs 50,000 so that he can offset that much against the profit he has made during the year. Client B wants to show a profit of Rs 50,000 so that he can show that much unaccounted money as income from trading.
X shifts some buy transactions and some sell transactions into an account created for client A in such a way that it shows a trading loss of Rs 50,000. He will charge between Rs 2500-3000 as commission for this ‘loss’. Client A will hand over a cheque of Rs 50,000 to the broker, who will deduct the commission and return the remaining amount in cash. Similarly another set of transactions showing a profit of Rs 50,000 will be shifted into an account for client B. The broker will give a cheque of Rs 50,000 to B, who will then return the amount in cash, plus the commission.
To generate a profit/loss of Rs 50,000 on very low spreads, the broker will have to do trades worth at least a few lakh of rupees, and that too in highly liquid stocks. (Losses/profits in illiquid stocks quickly arouse the I-T department’s suspicion) Assume the turnover value of such trades is Rs 10 lakh. From Monday, if the broker shifts these trades into another account, he will have to shell out Rs 10,000 as penalty. This money will have to be recovered from the client, for whom now the cost of evading tax will be 25-26% and the cost of paying tax, 30%. If the total turnover value runs into crores, or even just Rs 1 crore, the whole operation becomes unviable. A penalty of Rs 1 lakh to buy a profit/loss of Rs 50,000 does not make any sense.
The new rule could benefit many individual investors, who were otherwise being shortchanged by unscrupulous relationship managers. Many high networth individuals who subscribe to portfolio management services of broking firms, give the power of attorney to brokers to trade in their accounts and generate profits. The relationship manager, in connivance with the branch head, can shift some of profitable trades into another account, and under-declare the profits to their clients.
Some brokers are worried that the SEBI has given too much discretionary powers to the stock exchanges in implementing this rule, and that the penalty is too stiff.
 Here is what the SEBI circular on the new client code modification rules says:
“If a Stock Exchange wishes to allow trading members to modify client codes of non-institutional trades, it shall lay down strict objective criteria, with the approval of its Governing Board, for identification of genuine errors in client codes which may be modified, and disclose the same to market in advance.”
 And the penalty will really hurt. Consider this: On Rs 1 lakh of turnover, a broking firm will earn around Rs 15-20 as commission if it is a derivative (futures and option) trade, and between Rs 200-250 if it is a cash market trade. But if the same trade is entered in the wrong account, the broker will have to shell out Rs 1000 as penalty. That is the equivalent of commission earned on Rs 50 lakh of F&O trade or Rs 4-5 lakh of cash market trade.
 “If a broker is not careful, even a couple of mistakes could wipe out a significant portion of his income at a time when trading volumes are shrinking by the day,” said a broker, suggesting that the penalty should be linked to the commission earned on that trade.
Most errors relating to client codes happen on the derivative contracts expiry day, when there is a huge surge in volumes.
But the quantum of penalty suggests that the regulator is convinced that the brokers are changing client codes for the wrong reasons, and is determined to make the entire practice of tax evasion/money laundering unviable.
And the punishment does not stop at the monetary fine. Stock exchanges have to ensure that modification of client codes is covered in the internal audit of trading. That means serial offenders will be closely watched, even if they come up with ways to beat the system.

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SEBI raises threshold for mandatory takeover offer

Mumbai: India raised the ownership trigger for a mandatory takeover offer in a company to 25 per cent from 15 per cent now, a move that could draw more private equity and other investors into listed companies.

The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) also said the new rules will require such investors to offer to buy at least 26 per cent more of the company, from the 20 per cent minimum currently.

"Raising the open offer trigger to 25 per cent is a pragmatic step that will provide growth capital to companies to expand their businesses without forcing the investor to make an open offer for more stake," said Sourav Mallik, executive director of M&A at India's Kotak Mahindra Capital.

Earlier, a panel had recommended that a mandatory offer be made for 100 per cent of the shares in a company once the minimum threshold was met, which many analysts had said would raise the cost of acquisitions for local firms and deter consolidation.
The regulator also scrapped the non-compete fee the acquirer pays to a target company as part of the takeover rules, SEBI Chairman UK Sinha said.
Most Indian companies are controlled by a majority owner, known as the promoter, who owns at least 50 per cent of their companies.
"This is an M&A gamechanger," said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, equity head at SMC Capital in Delhi.
"Impact will be seen in companies where promoter holding is below 50 per cent and external shareholding is higher," he said.
Analysts said investors could raise stakes above 15 per cent in firms such as EIH Hotels , in which ITC and Reliance Industries each own 14.9 per cent.
Under current regulations, if an investor buys more than 15 per cent in another company, it has to make a mandatory open offer for a further 20 per cent stake.
Raising the takeover trigger to 25 per cent is expected to result in increased private equity activity in the country, which is already on the rise due to sluggish capital markets.
Many private equity firms prefer to keep their holdings in listed companies below 15 per cent to avoid making an open offer.
For example, Apax Partners owns 12.97 per cent in Apollo Hospitals , while General Atlantic has a 14.72 per cent stake in technology firm Infotech Enterprises , according to Thomson Reuters data.
Insurer and hospital firm Max India , in which private equity firm Warburg Pincus holds 14.7 per cent, and supply chain manager Redington India, more than 10 per cent held by Standard Chartered Private Equity, could see their private equity investors lift their stakes, analysts said.
"Now, small foreign investors or PE or even an individual can raise their stake in companies to more than 15 per cent without triggering the open offer. This will help volumes and even prices of those stocks," said Hitash Dang, vice president of institutional sales at Jaypee Capital Services.

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IITs' PhD jinx: BTechs command higher pay

MUMBAI: Foreign universities that would come scouting for young teachers to the Indian Institutes of Technology were conspicuously missing this recruitment season. But a range of private and deemed Indian universities from across the country did land up offering hardly attractive pay scales defined under the Sixth Pay Commission.

When they were pitted against the big guns-the consulting and finance offers-the IITs realized that the PhD jinx continues to haunt them. Every tech school recorded a higher average salary figure for their BTechs as compared to their PhD fellows, most of who joined research labs or signed up for teaching positions.

"It's a trend that continues. The average salary on campus is Rs 7 lakh, but the average salary for PhD candidates is less than that of the BTechs," said an IIT Bombay official. The scenario is same on every campus. The slump in the average salary for PhDs also aggravated as universities from West Asia that came shopping for faculty did not turn up this year.

In the last two years, Alfaisal University, Saudi Arabia (which offered an annual compensation to the tune of Rs 19 lakh apart from housing and other facilities), Texas A&M University, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, were among the education providers that visited IITs and paid salaries comparable to industry. This year, most IITs saw a desi crowd as institutes like ICFAI, SRM University, Tamil Nadu; Saroj Education Group, Lovely Professional University, Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge, Vigyan University, K L University and Manipal University took a handful of students.

Every IIT saw a fall in students signing up for teaching posts. At IIT-Kanpur, 45 students joined educational institutes last year; this time around the number stood at 32, said Ramkumar Janakarajan, placement head. Annual compensation remained almost the same as last year. Most of the universities offered between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 6 lakh a year.

IIT-Kharagpur's placement head S K Srivastava said 67 master's students and 15 PhD candidates took up teaching jobs this year. "The number was higher last year when more educational institutes had visited the campus." But several research firms, Srivastava added, had offered better salaries to PhD students this year.

IIT-Delhi's placement head Kushal Sen said it probably wasn't correct to compare the salaries of BTechs, MTechs and PhDs as they all took up varied job profiles.

"The salary that an MTech student gets from a core engineering firm cannot match the package that a consulting firm would offer a BTech."

Sure, but the placements again drove home the point that the BTechs at IITs managed to grab the best deals. In 2005-06, Rangan Banerjee and Vinayak Muley, in their report on engineering education in India had mentioned this irony that exists only on Indian campuses.

"The average MTech and PhD salary is lower than the average BTech salary in India. But the ratio of average starting salary of graduates to masters and doctorates for MIT, USA and University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, USA shows that the average masters' salary is 22-26% higher than the bachelors'; the doctorates' salary is 45-58% higher than the bachelors'."

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Facebook Staff On Google+: How They’re Using It

There has been a great deal of talk about whether Facebook should be scared of Google+, whether Google+ is the next Facebook, etc. etc. etc. Facebook has in fact shown some signs of concern, though Google+ is far from replacing Facebook for the majority of users, at least at this early point in the service’s existence.

Still, it is interesting that hundreds of Facebook users have Google+ accounts. Are they simply checking out the competition? Just seeing what all the fuss is about? Do they really like it and use it frequently? It probably just depends on the user.

It’s not exactly unheard of for staffers of one web service to use a competing web service. We’ve seen plenty of Facebookers on Twitter, plenty of Twitterers on Facebook, Googlers on both, etc. Most of them are probably on LinkedIn as well. Is it a big deal that Facebook people are using Google+? Even Mark Zuckerberg himself has a profile. No it’s not that big a deal.

It is, however, interesting to observe how the people running the world’s largest social network are interacting with the new kid on the block from an existing and very large competitor.

Despite having nearly 400,000 followers, Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t shared a single message (publicly anyway).

anyway).

That hasn’t stopped many of his employees from sharing, however.

Some are using it as a promotional tool. For example, Facebook Journalist Program Manager Vadim Lavrusik posted, “As an educator and Facebook’s Journalist Program Manager, I’ve been thinking about how Facebook as a reporting tool fits into the journalism curricula. So I’ve put together a document titled “Facebook + Journalism 101″ that other professors can use to integrate into their syllabi.”

He then links to the document.

Facebook’s Blake Ross has used Google+ to encourage others to add a colleague to their circles. This was shared by Pedram Keyani, who also used Google+ to link to an article about how Google+ handles your data (“outing the fox in the henhouse” apparently), and note that Tom Anderson (of your-first-friend-on-MySpace fame) is blowing up his stream. “If Google isn’t paying him yet, they should,” he said, adding a smiley face.

Facebook’s Nathan Borror used Google Check-ins through Google+ to check into Facebook Offices. Inanother update, he simply wrote, “Poke.”

One person responded, “That’s the good thing about Google+, no poking.”

Facebook’s Rohit Dhawan used Google+ to post some family video.

Facebook’s Rob Goodlatte used it to ask about tourist attractions in the Bay area.

Facebook’s Sam Lessin used it to say that he was with Sergey Brin. Now that’s interesting. No follow up details unfortunately.

Facebook’s Ankur Pansari wrote, “Dear creepy Google Plus followers, please identify yourselves! How did you find my profile?”

Facebook’s Cameron Marlow wrote, “I just unlinked my Facebook account from G+ since I was seeing an increase in random friend requests. I guess this is a sign that these two worlds don’t really mix well.”

Facebook’s Nick Schrock wrote, “I’ve been debating what to do with all my google+ peeps who have me in circles. I think y’all should fan the Brogramming page on facebook. If you want to know what you are getting into read this quora answer: http://b.qr.ae/o1i7ss

It’s clear that Google+ is just getting started, and while unique visitors and time spent on site were down(at least in the U.S.), it still shows a great deal of promise as a legitimate entry into the social media space. It will be interesting to see if a significant number of Facebook employees sticks around for the long haul. source: webpronews.com

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Google+ Can Drive Traffic To Your Site

Google+ is still very young, but it’s already becoming a significant traffic source for some sites.
Are you seeing any traffic to your site from Google+? Let us know.



“I was quite surprised to find how strong Google+ was as a social media traffic source driver,” Larry Kim, Founder and CTO of WordStream, told WebProNews. “Google+ beat-out LinkedIn, and was even closing in [on] Twitter and Facebook!”
He put together a case study looking at this a little bit. “Like any case study, I can only speak for my company’s own experiences, but nevertheless, I found the results of my case study to be quite surprising.”
For the case study, Kim compiled web analytics data for WordStream’s blog for the week of July 18 – July 24, which he says was an unusually high traffic week for the firm. He analyzed which social networks drove the most referral traffic, and Facebook took first place, accounting for 47% of visitors. Twitter was second at 27.51% and Google+ came in third at 15.42% of visitors. LinkedIn trailed with 9.81%.
As we’ve discussed before, LinkedIn can be a solid traffic source, but the fact that Google+ has been around for so little time, and is capable of driving a significant amount of traffic, before the product is even open to the public, is remarkable.


Here’s an infographic representing Kim’s findings:




Kim’s not the only one to see Google+ making a contribution to referrals. We’ve seen some first-hand as well. Ryan Spoon wrote at BusinessInsider the other day, that Google+ had already become the #3 referring site to his site.


“Of course this has real implications for marketers & brands and how they should think about leveraging / interacting on Google Plus,” he wrote. “Furthermore, it is a powerful position for Google (should the trend continue) because they can begin connecting the properties (SEO, SEM, Plus, .com)… which in turn will cause marketers (and their budgets) to dedicate themselves further to Google.”


“Google+, despite only being around for 1 month – and even then, being released in a limited ‘field testing’ mode, drove more traffic to our blog than LinkedIn – it was roughly a third of our Facebook traffic and over half of our Twitter traffic,” said Kim. “This was a huge surprise given how many Facebook fans and Twitter followers we’ve accumulated over the last several years, and given that at the time of this writing, I don’t even have a company presence on Google+ yet, or any Google +1 buttons on our website. (Though plans are in the works for both!)”


Kim brings up a couple of good points there. When Google launches its business profiles, it’s going to potentially be a huge part of how sites are able to gain more traffic from Google+. For that matter, we’re still wondering if Google will eventually include further integration of the +1 button into Google+ itself (for example, allowing it to share content to the stream like the Facebook Like Button) or merge Google Buzz with Google+ (which would mean this type of sharing via the Buzz buttons). Either would also potentially lead the way to increased traffic on heavily shared content.


Kim speculates that reasons why Google+’s estimated 20 million users could beat LinkedIn’s 100 million users as a traffic driver may have to do with the lack of spam that has appeared on the service so far and a higher level of engagement among users. In terms of spam, I’m sure more will come in time. I’ve already seen a report of comment spam on the network.


Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land raises some good points about how building your following on Google+ may serve to help you in search rankings, based on Google’s use of social signals and personalized search features.


He notes that he saw a search result show him for him that was marked as being shared by Ford on Google+. That’s Google’e social search in action.


“Until recently, the social connections that Google Social Search uses have been mostly actual people,” Sullivan explains. “While brands were allowed to have Google Profiles until March of this year, few of them did. That meant relatively few brands were available for direct connections through Google.”


“It was possible to connect with brands in Google Social Search if you followed brand profiles on Twitter, Facebook or some other ways,” he adds. “However, it was fairly unusual for me to spot that something was getting a boost in Google’s search results through that type of connection.”


The point is that brands will soon (in the coming months) have Google+ profiles, and the more people that have your brand added to their Circles will probably mean you’ll have a better chance in ranking better for those people.


I’ll take it a step further and suggest that having your brand in these people’s circles may mean additional +1′s on your content. Google has already said flat out that it looks at +1 info as a ranking signal. If you’re putting your content in front of your circles, they may follow your links and +1 your content on your site, or they may +1 your actual Google+ post (which contains the link to that content).


It’s probably as good a time as ever to be a big brand.
Do you think Google+ is going to be a critical traffic driver for sites? Tell us what you think.
Source: webpronews.com

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Google Search Gets a Tablet Makeover

A new Google design was spotted earlier this week. Now, Google has officially announced it. It’s not a complete Google redesign, however. It’s a redesign of Google for the tablet experience.

“As part of our effort to evolve the Google design and experience, we’ve improved the www.google.com search experience on tablets,” says software engineer Xiaorui Gan. “We’ve simplified the layout of search results pages and increased the size of page contents like text, buttons and other touch targets to make it faster and easier to browse and interact with search results in portrait or landscape view.”

“The search button located below the search box provides quick access to specific types of results like Images, Videos, Places, Shopping and more,” explains Gan. “Just tap to open the search menu and select an option to see results in one category. For image results, we focused on improvements that enhance the viewing experience such as enlarged image previews, continuous scroll, and faster loading of image thumbnails.”

Here’s what it looks like





The new look is rolling out in the coming days for Ipad, and tablets that utilize Android 3.1 and above. It will be available in 36 languages. You will see it by simply going to google.com in the tablet browser. source: webpronews.com

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How to Trade Derivatives in Stock Markets

Derivative is a product whose value is derived from the value of an underlying asset, in a contractual manner. The asset in question could be equity, forex, commodity, index or any other.

In India trading of derivatives is governed by the framework under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956.

Derivative products initially emerged as hedging devices against wild fluctuations in commodity prices, and commodity related derivatives remained the only form of products for almost three centuries. Post 1970 financial derivatives came into the scene due to growing instability in financial markets.

In Indian scenario popular derivatives products available include

-Futures based on Indices, equity, currency and commodities. Eg. Nifty futures, Bank nifty, USDINR, Gold futures, Infosys futures etc

-Options based on stocks, currency and indices. Eg. Nifty call and put , Reliance call and put, USDINR call and put.

Futures is an agreement between two parties to buy or sell an asset at a certain time in the future at a certain price. Its standardized exchange traded contracts.

Options are premium based contracts which give the buyers right to buy (Call option) or right to sell (Put option) without any obligations to buy or sell a given quantity of the underlying asset at a given price on or before a given date.

DERIVATIVES TRADING INVOLVE A GREAT RISK AND REWARD

Derivatives were originally meant for hedging of the portfolio against wild fluctuations but gradually it became popular instrument of trading. Since these are leveraged product it involves a great risk of capital loss. Greater the leverage (Borrowing) greater is the risk and reward.

Let’s take a small example

Mr A has got a capital of Rs. 100000 and he buys a contract of Reliance having lot size of 250 shares @ Rs 1000 each.

Here total volume becomes Rs. 1000 x 250 = 250000

Assuming required margin to be deposited is 16%, therefore he needs to deposit Rs. 40,000

Now ,the capital utilized is 40 % and if the stock falls or rises by Re. 1 ,his account is affected by Rs. 250.

Assuming, the stock fell by Rs 100 and now trading at Rs. 900, he has to deposit another Rs. 25000 to maintain his position as Mark to market. Otherwise he may exit and book a loss.

The loss is 62.5 % of the capital utilized i.e. Rs 40000.

And a fall of Rs 160 or 16% of the stock could wipe out all the capital of Rs. 40000 and vice versa.

Options are like melting ice slabs, it keeps melting as time passes and becomes worthless on the day of expiry if its At –the- money or Out- of- money. ie the asset price closes at or below the strike price.

The greatest examples of financial disasters caused by reckless derivatives trading could be the collapse of Barings bank the United Kingdom’s oldest investment bank. It was caused by a single derivatives broker Nick leeson’s fraudulent and unauthorized speculative trading.

Recent economic crisis of 2008, bankruptcy of Lehman brothers and like are other examples.

According to Warren Buffet “Derivatives are WMD’s, weapons of mass destruction.”

Following are a few suggestions for traders who deal with derivatives trading.

a) Before getting into any trading understand your RISK, what is the maximum amount you may lose if things go wrong. If you do not have answers to this do not proceed.

b) Trading is like any other business, there is nothing like unlimited profits. Define your risk and expected reward.

c) Always follow stop losses and put in the system, without putting stop loss order is like driving without brakes.

d) Learn technical analysis for meaningful grasp of the price chart movements, its always better to learn driving before going to the busy roads rather than paying heavy fines.

e) Keep your losses small.

f) Always hedge yourself against overnight risks.

Though Derivatives involve a great risk of capital, but if handled with proper care and training can yield much larger returns. It is suitable for people having some risk appetite. One should preferably learn the ropes in detail before getting into trading them.

Jaswant Aditya Singh, a Technical trader and stock market trainer, on behalf of WinTheMarkets which provides various online Courses on Stock Market. Online Stock market courses in Delhi are affordable and easy to learn. At WinThe Markets vast range of courses are available, from, Basic course on stock market, Technical Analysis Courses for beginners to Advanced Technical analysis courses for already initiated traders who may deal in equity, commodity or Forex derivatives.

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