Microsoft has launched a major initiative termed ‘Unlimited Potential’ to improve educational opportunities for poor students in India and to give them easier access to computers. To achieve this, the company will launch an ‘IQ’ programme, which will involve the setting up of an education channel an-d the marketing of a low-cost personal co-mputer for students. It will be priced at Rs 21,000. The education channel will of-fer online coaching, tests and counselling along with ‘edutainment’. The IQ PC is being marketed in pa-rtnership with local companies. MS will launch the channel and the IQ PC as a pilot project in Pune and Bangalore on July 1. By November, they will be accessible throughout the country. Apart from this, an employability portal will also be launched by the company to help engineering graduates im-prove their communication and technology skills.

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Browser battles

The Net is abuzz with reports abo-ut the ongoing battle between Apple’s new version of its Safari browser and Micr-osoft’s Internet Exp-lorer for lordship on the desktop. However, there is a hidden agenda behind this war, says Mozilla, which developed the popular open source Firefox browser. Ac-cording to Mozilla Chief Operating Officer John Lily, Apple wanted to carve the browser terrain into two—one chunk for Safari and one for IE. There was no space in Apple’s scheme of things for other bro-wsers and this was evident from its CEO Steve Jobs’ speech while launching the Safari version for Wi-ndows. Lily lambasted Apple in his blog for this ‘world view’ and said that it reeked of ‘duopolism’. He added that Mozilla was not too obsessed about market share. "We just want to keep the Web an open and public resource," said Lily.

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Malware beware

Anchiva, a security provider, has created a record of sorts by identifying and including over seven lakh ‘signatures’ of malicious software and viruses in its web security appliances. Anchiva’s appliances can now protect ent-erprises during online transactions from ev-ery enemy out there in the Web. Its security programmes have the power to store more than one million signatures and An-chiva’s research unit, Rapid RxLabs, is co-nstantly scouring the Net and updating ma-lware signatures ev-ery day.

It uses a global network of ‘honey pots’ for this, luring malware and viruses to get their signatures.

Courtesy : Asianage.com

Ar-uba Networks Inc., a global leader in secure wireless network solutions, will expand its India operations by targeting growing corporate sector in the country. Aruba Networks, a Nasdaq listed company founded by a non-resident India, provides secure wireless network solutions to 2,500 companies including Micro-soft, Google and Yahoo.

Speaking to this correspondent, Aruba Networks co-founder and vice-president Keerti Melkote said his company’s Secure Enterprise Mesh technology sends information from location to location over an exclusively wireless network, which can be inst-alled, moved, or changed as needed cutting down the cost of wiring.

"The $1.6 billion company, which is giving tough fight to network solutions leaders like Cisco and Motorola’s Symbol, has also been accredited by the US Air Force for providing secured network solutions to its bases around the world," he said.

Funded by Sequoia Capital, the US-based venture capital company that backed Google, Aruba Networks succeeded to sell its wireless network to prestigious companies like Microsoft, Google and Yahoo.

According to Mr Melkote, "Mobility is the buzzword around the world. Just as people prefer mobile phones to fixed phones, the companies would like to come out of the limitations of a wired network if its alternative is secured. Aruba Networks provides precisely that and it has been validated by the accreditation accorded to us by the US Air Force."

COurtesy : Asianage.com