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Google Wave : An Organic Collaboration Platform Netspeak

Google Wave, launched into the wild frontiers of cyberspace recently, has commenced its journey. NetSpeak explores the potential/possibilities of this awesome new collaboration tool from Google.

The Net enables us to do collaborative tasks with ease — but only with a series of tools/services. During the different phases of a collaborative project we rope in appropriate services. For instance, somebody coordinating a project may use e-mail to send notes and other project related information to team-members.A few e-mails back and forth might settle this part.

Soon, the coordinator and his/her team might find e-mail quite insufficient to continue the collaboration. Its asynchronous nature makes real-time communication impossible. In addition, a person who chips in at a later stage may find it difficult to keep up with the ongoing email conversation — as there exists no means to provide him with all the threads.

So, the next step is to adopt other collaboration tools — Instant Messenger (IM) tools such as Gtalk/Skype, collaborative editing services such as ‘Google Docs’. In this way, by slicing and dicing different tools, one manages to accomplish the task.

During the course of this communication process, many valuable data get generated. However, as the data are spread across different locations/databases — some in the e-mail clients, some in the IM server and some in the document management system, the team will find it difficult to oragnise them into a cohesive information product. If only we could accomplish everything with a single tool, the communication/collaboration efficiency of the team will then experience a quantum leap. This, in a nutshell, is exactly what Google Wave offers.

Google Wave can be described as a communication/collaboration tool in which products like e-mail, IM, discussion board and Wiki are rolled into one. Though it can be considered a mix of these products, the final outcome is much more than sum of its components — they are all combined in a synergetic fashion.

Once logged on to the Wave infrastructure (https://wave.google.com/wave/), you will find the Wave creation interface. (You now need an invite to participate on Google Wave). Once a Wave is created, you can simply add participants using the ‘+’ button. Now, the fun begins! All the participants who are now on-line and on the Wave window can actively interact in real-time. Yes, for Google Wave the significance lies in real-time participation — real-time e-mail, real-time chat, real-time editing and so on.

When a participant types something, each of the characters entered becomes visible to all the participants. So, in the middle of his/her sentence itself you may understand the intention of your buddy and can answer his/her query before it arrives in full.

Being a hosted service, the Wave thus created (with all its historic details) will be available to all the participants as and when they need it. Another advantage of the Wave is that a new participant can join the discussion at any point of time. Unlike in the traditional e-mail, this late entrant will not miss out on information history.

The facility that lets a participant edit anywhere on the Wave anytime is another valuable feature. A Wave can contain numerous messages from its participants. The interesting feature is that one can reply to any of these messages and create a threaded conversation based on that message.

A Wave is an extremely dynamic entity that always gets enriched through the collaboration process. You can easily attach images and other documents. As you drop files on a Wave, they become immediately accessible to all the participants.

A great feature of Google Wave is the extension facility that enables developers across the world to enhance its functionality. Extensions come in two forms — gadgets and robots. A gadget is nothing but a small application that can be integrated with a Wave — like the google maps gadget.

Robots (http://code.google.com/apis/wave/extensions/robots/index.html) are software based automated participants made for a specific purpose like IM bots. To use a robot, you just need its address (it looks like an e-mail id).

Another Wave feature worth a mention is the ability to connect to other data sources like Twitter (http://wave-samples-gallery.appspot.com/about_app?app_id=5002).

The facility to embed a Wave on web pages/blogs is another innovation worth watching. This feature allows one to spread multiple communication channels to different data sources and funnel information from each of them without ever visiting them. (NetSpeak has not tested this particular facility so far.)

Google Wave becomes more enjoyable if you have more participants to play with. One shortcoming of this service at present is that not many users have access to it. So, now even people with accounts find it difficult to explore the tool in full. One solution could be to access public waves — waves available to anyone with a Google Wave account. To obtain a list of available public waves, do a search with the string ‘with:public’ on your Wave search box.

Google Wave is not an ordinary one-dimensional product. It demands a paradigm shift in the manner we use the Net to collaborate/communicate — a shift from using multiple tools in different formats to a uniform communication/collaboration infrastructure. In its current form, Google Wave is at its infancy and the features discussed here are just the tip of the iceberg. Over the coming days/months, it may evolve into a consummate communication/collaboration product.

DATA RECOVERY TOOL

File deletions by accident are quite common and to help us recover from such disasters several tools exist (like Recuva, discussed in the past). The free software, ‘Win data Recovery’ ( http://www.files-recovery.org/) is yet another one that is worth a test. You can use it to recover deleted files (even from RecycleBin), files lost from a crashed hard-disk and the like.

Courtesy : The Hindu

Keywords: google, wave, google wave, IM, Chatting, Collaboration Portal, on-line discussions

Global Gyaan

You know with PENCIL we can write almost 50,000 words. Not only that it can write a continuous line for 35 miles.

Global Gyaan

ALMOST is the longest in English when written in alphabetical order.

Global Gyaan

There are only SEVEN bones in 2 meter long neck of Giraffe, same as humans neck.

Global Gyaan

Camel can drink about 57 liters of water at once.

Save Windows XP! The clock started ticking..!

Microsoft will end OEM and shrink-wrapped sales of Windows XP on June 30, 2008, forcing users to shift to Vista. (System builders, meaning those who do white-box PCs, can sell XP through December 31) Don't let that happen!

Millions of us have grown comfortable with XP and don't see a need to change to Vista. It's like having a comfortable apartment that you've enjoyed coming home to for years, only to get an eviction notice. The thought of moving to a new place - even with the stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and maple cabinets (or is cherry in this year?) - just doesn't sit right. Maybe it'll be more modern, but it will also cost more and likely not be as good a fit. And you don't have any other reason to move.

That's exactly the conclusion people have come to with Vista. For most of us, there's really no reason to move to it -- yet we don't have a choice. When that strong desire to stick with XP became obvious in spring 2007, major computer makers such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard quietly reintroduced new XP-based systems. Come June 30, however, even that option goes away.

So what to do? Let Microsoft decide where you’re personal and enterprise software "lives"? Or send a loud and clear message that you don't want to move?

We're going for the loud-and-clear option. Join us, and tell Microsoft that you want to keep XP available indefinitely. Not for another six months or a year but indefinitely.

And ask your friends and colleagues to join in, too. Just point them to SaveXP.com for a quick link to this page.

Don't think Microsoft will listen? Consider this: Although Microsoft denies that anything is wrong with Vista or that most people don't want it, the company has already postponed XP's demise by six months. That's a start, but it's not good enough. Microsoft doesn't have to admit failure; it can just say it will keep XP available indefinitely due to customer demand.

Make your voice heard to Microsoft. Sign our petition to save XP today. We will present it to Microsoft.

Keywords: Microsoft Corp., Microsoft XP, Microsoft Vista, Bill Gates,

Reliance Power Bonus Shares Issue: 3 Bonus Shares for Every 5 Held

As Reliance Power Board announced to give free bonus shares to all it’s shareholders to compensate the losses everyone has suffered when the company was listed and was down by 32%. The company had issued the shares at Rs 450 while giving a discount Rs 20 a share to retail investors and accrued Rs 7,500 crore from IPO.

As per our updated before on Reliance power bonus shares, Anil Ambani promoted Reliance Power declared a bonus share ratio for this bonus issue. The investors would cut down their losses by as much as 40% over the IPO price after the company announced the bonus issue on Sunday.

The board of directors at its meeting considered and approved a bonus issue, excluding promoters, wherein three shares would be allotted for every five held by the non-promoter shareholders.

“This move would effectively reduce the cost of Reliance Power shares from the IPO price,” Reliance Power Chairman Anil Ambani said.

Reliance Power has informed that the Register of Members & Share Transfer Books of the Company will remain closed from June 03, 2008 to June 05, 2008 for the purpose of Issue and allotment of Bonus shares.

All shareholders of the Company's records hold shares as at the end of business hours on June 02, 2008, irrespective of whether such shares were subscribed by the shareholders in the Company's Initial Public Offering (IPO) or such shares were purchased from the secondary market or otherwise after the IPO, shall be eligible to receive the bonus Shares.

Here are few questions answered for you people:

What will be the new value of IPO shares for retail investors?

The new IPO shares price for retail investors would be Rs 269

Whom these Reliance Power bonus shares are allotted to?

These shares will be allotted to every shareholder who has the shares on record date.

Keywords: Reliance, Reliance IPO, Reliance Power Ltd, Anil Ambani, Initial Public Offer (IPO)

NASA’s Mission Phoenix on MARS

A telescopic camera in orbit around Mars caught a view of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander suspended from its parachute during the lander's successful arrival at Mars Sunday evening, May 25.

The image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter marks the first time ever one spacecraft has photographed another one in the act of landing on Mars.

Meanwhile, scientists pored over initial images from Phoenix, the first ever taken from the surface of Mars' polar regions. Phoenix returned information that it was in good health after its first night on Mars, and the Phoenix team sent the spacecraft its to-do list for the day.

"We can see cracks in the troughs that make us think the ice is still modifying the surface," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "We see fresh cracks. Cracks can't be old. They would fill in." Camera pointing for the image from HiRISE used navigational information about Phoenix updated on landing day. The camera team and Phoenix team would not know until the image was sent to Earth whether it had actually caught Phoenix.

McEwen said, "We've never taken an image at such an oblique angle before."

Monday's tasks for Phoenix include checkouts of some instruments and systems, plus additional imaging of the lander's surroundings.

Keywords: NASA, NASA's Phoenix, MARS, HiRISE, Earth, Globe

Indian Govt. to take Fuel Price RISE decision soon..!

With the price of oil skyrocketing Indian consumers are waiting anxiously for their governments' decision on raising petrol prices. After pressure from the left, second round of cabinet talks are planned with a decision expected soon. India's Petroleum Ministry on Friday said a domestic fuel price hike was "inevitable" to bail out state oil firms that sell fuel at hugely discounted rates and are reeling from surging global prices.

A "price hike is inevitable," Petroleum Secretary M.S. Srinivasan said, but added the "specific quantity of the price increase" was still being worked out. The Press Trust of India reported without naming sources that the petroleum ministry was seeking a 10-rupee-a-litre increase in Petrol prices and a 5-rupee-a-litre hike in Diesel prices. Based on current pump prices in New Delhi, this would represent a 22 percent increase for Petrol and 16 percent on Diesel.

State-owned refiners have been reporting combined revenue losses of 105 million dollars a day as international prices have surged. The government sets the massively discounted prices at which fuels are sold to shield the country's poverty-hit masses from high fuel costs and to help contain inflation.

The ministry was proposing a combination of price hikes and duty cuts to reduce the revenue shortfalls suffered by state-owned refiners from sales of petrol, diesel, liquid petroleum gas and kerosene.

But the Congress-led government which faces general elections within a year, is fearful any fuel rise could trigger a backlash from voters already reeling from high overall inflation running at 7.82 percent, far above the central bank's target of 5.5 percent.

In February this year, India hiked gasoline and diesel prices for the first time in 20 months.

Keywords: Indian Petroleum Ministry, Petroleum, Petrol, Diesel, Indian Economy