Top 7 Useful Adobe AIR Applications for Bloggers!!

Adobe AIR aims to facilitate access to web apps and services from your desktop. I was introduced to Adobe AIR applications just a few days back and now I am totally addicted to them. Out of a number of Adobe AIR apps that I tried and tested, here’s a compilation of the top 10 which bloggers would love to have in their armoury.

But before that just make sure you have the latest version of Adobe AIR installed on your system. You can get it from here.

1. Google Analytics Reporting Suite

The Google Analytics Reporting Suite brings Google Analytics to the desktop. You can access your blog’s traffic statistics from your Desktop itself - you need not necessarily login to the analytics website.

2. ReadAir

As mentioned before, you can access Google Reader from your desktop using this Adobe AIR application. ReadAIR’s features include:

• Mac themed scrollbars and form elements
• Add/Remove/Manage tags
• Subscribe/Unsubscribe from feeds
• Search your feeds
• Auto software update

Another similar app is the Fresh RSS Reader

3. Twhirl

Twhirl is again a desktop twitter client, based on the Adobe AIR platform.

Some of twhirl’s features are:

• connects to multiple Twitter and Friendfeed accounts, cross-post updates to Pownce and Jaiku
• notifications on new tweets
• post images to TwitPic
• search tweets using TweetScan
• timeline filtering
• localized to English, German, Italian and Spanish

4. Webkut

WebKut is an Adobe AIR application that allows you to capture web pages, or parts of them in a very simple way. It provides you 3 capture options: the entire page, the current view, or only a selection.

5. AIRPress

AIRPress is rich blog editor. You can create new posts, and manage your WordPress blogs AIRPress. The only issue is that it requires an older version of Adobe AIR (i.e., Adobe AIR beta 2)

6. Color Browser

Colour Browser lets you create and organize your favourite colour palettes. Sets of colours are easily viewable in a clean interface. Edit them, rearrange them, create new sets, and make your own. This is a must have application if you are going to design your blog theme or redesign an existing blog template.

7. ShifD

With ShifD, you can create notes and bookmark websites. You can add content with tags that are easily editable. These are then synced, and you’ll be able to access them from your mobile too.

I hope you like the above mentioned applications. If you know any other apps that may be useful to bloggers, please tell us in the comments.

Think Today: What is the commonest problem we face today? Too much efficiency and not enough effectiveness.

Efficiency is based on doing what you already do — only faster and cheaper. Effectiveness comes from doing whatever you need to do to be a success. Since that is often something new and different, you’re usually not that efficient (at least at first). That’s why efficiency is what keeps dying businesses (and careers) afloat, while effectiveness is what launches new ones into the stratosphere.

Building effectiveness into your life
Look at your own life and work. Are you fixated on being more efficient: on doing more and more of what you already do (though perhaps more easily, cheaply, and with less effort)? Or are you looking to make yourself more effective: to learn new skills, add new experiences, become more creative, and follow your ideas wherever they may take you?
Many people rush about being efficient while strangling their effectiveness. They follow the latest fads in time management and personal productivity, yet cannot spare a moment to discover if what they are getting done so much faster and more easily is worth doing at all.
Here’s the fundamental difference: efficiency tries to save time to do more of the same. Effectiveness uses time to avoid doing only what you have done before, in favor of working out how to do something better. And since time cannot be saved — you can’t store it somewhere to use later — only redirected, saving time to do more of the same is no saving at all. Only by choosing to use your time in new and different ways can you let go of the past to find what the future will offer you.

India's best-known soldier dies!

The Indian general who commanded the military campaign that led to the creation of Bangladesh has died at the age of 94.
Sam Manekshaw, whose career spanned four decades, was one of India's best known and well-respected soldiers.
Under the British, he was decorated for gallantry in World War II for his part fighting the Japanese army in Burma.
After India gained independence, he became chief of the army in 1969 and in 1973 was made field marshal.
Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw: Hero or villain?

http://churumuri.wordpress.com/2007/05/07/field-marshal-sam-manekshaw-hero-or-villain/

Flexible working attracts IT staff - 25th June 2008

Flexible working is second only to salary in attracting IT professionals to accept a new job.

Despite the attraction of working for home or part time, research by UK online recruitment site www.theitjobboard.co.uk revealed that the IT industry has a long way to go to truly embrace flexible working. Although 61% of IT professionals said they worked flexibly, almost half believed their company had yet to adapt to the whole flexible working culture. For that reason, a fifth of the respondents to the survey thought that flexible working affected their chances of promotion.

Alex Farrell, managing director of www.theitjobboard.co.uk, said that offering flexibility could be a key to attracting staff and combating the skills shortage.

"A flexible working policy is essential to many female IT professionals because it allows them to balance the demands of their career with family and childcare commitments. Employers have no time to lose in introducing this practice," said Farrell.

New Blog arrived : http://steps2invest.blogspot.com/

http://steps2invest.blogspot.com

This blog is an attempt to learn and share about Personal Finance.

I’ve tried to run away from finance. Maybe because I was not able to understand the jargons and the maths. But I guess ignoring personal finance worsens the situation. And the only way to get maximum out of your personal finance is to look it into its eye and grapple with it. You will come out stronger.

Check this out!

Top Story : Indian students are the best,rates Oxford University!

The Oxford University considers Indian students among the best in the world and would like more of them joining its campus, Chancellor Chris Patten has said. The university, which produced the likes of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, has presently 257 Indian students on roll.

Todays Head Line : What are Stocks and should you invest in Stocks?

When you buy a share of a company you become a shareholder in that company. Shares are also known as Equities. Equities have the potential to increase in value over time. It also provides your portfolio with the growth necessary to reach your long term investment goals. Research studies have proved that the equities have outperformed most other forms of investments in the long term

This may be illustrated with the help of following examples:
a) Over a 15 year period between 1990 to 2005, Nifty has given an annualised return of 17%.

b) Mr. Raj invests in Nifty on January 1, 2000 (index value 1592.90).The Nifty value as of end December 2005 was 2836.55. Holding this investment over this period Jan 2000 to Dec 2005 he gets a return of 78.07%. Investment in shares of ONGC Ltd for the same period gave a return of 465.86%, SBI 301.17% and Reliance 281.42%

Therefore, Equities are considered the most challenging and the rewarding, when compared to other investment options. Research studies have proved that investments in some shares with a longer tenure of investment have yielded far superior returns than any other investment.

What precautions must one take before investing in the stock markets? Here are some useful pointers to bear in mind before you invest in the markets:
# All investments carry risk of some kind. Investors should always know the risk that they are taking and invest in a manner that matches their risk tolerance.
# Do not be misled by market rumours, luring advertisement or ‘hot tips’ of the day.
# Take informed decisions by studying the fundamentals of the company. Find out the business the company is into, its future prospects, quality of management, past track record etc
# Sources of knowing about a company are through annual reports, economic magazines, databases available with vendors or your financial advisor.
# If your financial advisor or broker advises you to invest in a company you have never heard of, be cautious. Spend some time checking out about the company before investing.
# Do not be attracted by announcements of fantastic results/news reports, about a company. Do your own research before investing in any stock.
# Do not be attracted to stocks based on what an internet website promotes, unless you have done adequate study of the company.
# Investing in very low priced stocks or what are known as penny stocks does not guarantee high returns.
# Be cautious about stocks which show a sudden spurt in price or trading activity.
# Any advise or tip that claims that there are huge returns expected, especially for acting quickly, may be risky and may to lead to losing some, most, or all of your money.

Though direct stocks have the ability to give the best returns, please see the time and effort required to be able to get the best out of it.

ICANN to vote on internationalized domain names! Tuesday, June 24, 2008 !

The organization that manages the world's most important Web address extensions--what goes after the dot in a URL--is to hold a vote on Thursday that could see an entire new generation of URLs made possible.

Proposals that could be voted through at the board meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) include the introduction of internationalised domain names--those that do not use Latin characters--and companies being allowed to create their own top-level domains (TLDs) instead of using, for example, .com or .net. The highly contentious .xxx domain extension could also finally become a reality.

The policies that are to be voted on have taken around three years and US$10 million (£5 million) to formulate, ICANN president Paul Twomey told ZDNet Asia's sister site ZDNet UK on Monday. "This is the first time [ICANN will be voting on] the detail of how [such] applications would work," said Twomey. "The vote on Thursday will essentially be the board saying 'yes' or 'no' as to whether [these new domain extensions are] implementable."

Twomey said a 'yes' vote on the proposals would be followed by more work to turn them into legal propositions, which would then need further approval before turning into reality. There would also need to be a four-month public notification period, so applications would probably only be invited from the end of the first quarter next year, he added. "The excitement [on Thursday] is the confirmation of the policy, potentially, and people seeing how the whole thing will work," he said.

If the proposals go through, almost any extension will theoretically become possible, as long as it is 64 characters or less. Therefore, the .xxx domain extension could become possible as long as a suitable registrar is found--ICANN sunk the last such application in 2007, considering ICM Registry's application to be unsuitable. Companies or other organisations with trademarked names, however, will gain priority.

Guiness World Record Certificate in your name - Firefox 3!

On June 17th 2008, Firefox decided to set the Guiness Book of World Record for the most downloaded software in 24 hours. Mozilla foundation urged its users the world over to update their browsers by downloading the latest version namely Firefox 3. And the response was so massive on the D-Day that, there was an outage at the Mozilla data center for several hours. Once the servers were back online, the downloading continued and Firefox set the world record well within the 24 hours.

The record is 15,067,570 downloads (15 Million). Country wise, USA tops the list with a whooping 4 million + downloads. Surprisingly, sans the US, relatively small countries like Iran and France clocked more downloads than its larger counterparts like India and China.

If you are one of the people who downloaded Firefox on June 17th, then congratulations !!; You are a part of the Guiness Book of World Records. And the people at Firefox are ever too grateful to forget your valuable contribution.

So go ahead and download your own personalized Guiness Book of World Records Certificate (Ahem ... Firefox 3 Download Day Certificate that is) for helping set the record.

Companies Can Make Money With Widget Ads!

Selling advertising on entertainment-focused widgets such as Scrabulous or Zombies is about as easy as spinning straw into gold, yet there are plenty of people trying. And there are ways of generating revenue through specially focused widgets designed solely to sell rather than toss sheep. Brand and comparison advertising done through ad-focused widgets is emerging as a viable way of using the ubiquitous applications. Widgets’ interactive features, their ability to be virally distributed and potentially be placed on a target’s own page makes the creations appealing to advertisers.
Where that leaves startups such as RockYou and Slide, which develop entertainment widgets, and the ad networks that cater to those applications, is still unclear. I’m waiting to see if enough users buy into ads shown on their fun widgets or click through enough transactional widgets to make a viable business. However, existing online ad networks and possibly a few new widget creation and advertising firms are already proving that widgets aren’t just fun and games.
WidgetBucks is one such widget-creation/ad network company making money with this approach. CEO and Chairman Matt Hulett says the company sees click-through rates of 0.5 percent to 1 percent with its ads, which resemble interactive, dynamic banner ads. The company expects to pull in $10 million in sales this year. The company’s approach, however, has come with its share of drama, as some publishers have complained about WidgetBucks’ rates and practices.
When it comes to making his widgets a success for advertisers, Hulett based his design on the theory that people using widgets for fun aren’t expecting to be engaged in commerce, but people in other venues (such as those reading a product blog, for example) might welcome widget advertising that shows the latest deals on a device.
“It’s kind of like pre-roll advertising,” Hulett said. “It’s really hard when the context is around having fun. People do not like monetization in front of those platforms and the CPMs are awful.”
A similar approach to using a widget as a more interactive ad rather than entertainment is Toyota’s new campaign for its Scion vehicles, which launched on Tuesday. This is an example of widgets as brand advertisement, which can be spread virally around the Internet. The idea is that consumers use the widgets on social media sites as an identification of their aspirations, much like one might wear a Nike shirt.
Adrian Si, an interactive marketing manager for Scion, says the firm is using widgets as an extension of the rich media banner ads it runs through Interpolls. Si is hoping to achieve the same 1 percent to 2 percent click-through rate Scion sees using Interpolls’ rich media banners. That translates to a 4 percent to 5 percent engagement rate. Scion will measure both click-throughs as well as the number of times the widget is installed on someone’s site.
“This could be more valuable [than banner ads],” says Si. “Obviously, it shows they have a lot of interest in the brand. On their MySpace pages they can put a whole bunch of stuff, so it must have meaning to them. It’s also an opportunity to get our brand in front of them every day.”
Listening to these two companies I realized that widgets aren’t a new business, but rather a new form of advertising and entertainment. Those focused on advertising are making money; the question is, will the ones focused on entertainment do so, too?

What’s Hot for 2008? by Kevin Wheeler.

I am always looking for trends or emerging practices that are changing, or at least influencing, the way we source and recruit talent. The Internet is the engine that drives all the innovation we are seeing and has already, in little more than a decade, revolutionized how we attract, find, assess, and even communicate with candidates and how they interact with organizations.
Over the past year, several applications and new tools have appeared that are both exciting and a little frightening. Some of them will most likely go nowhere. They are just too edgy to ever become mainstream. Others may turn out to be the dominant tools of the next few decades.
Here is a look at some that I see as significant. Please send me your ideas on what other tools, applications, or practices may emerge as key.
Web 2.0 Interactive Websites
The emergence of Web 2.0 websites is going to change the face of recruiting. We are finally seeing some really cool tools that allow any size organization to put up a great recruiting website. One of the best of the tools is provided by Standout Jobs. By using a flexible modular approach, a recruiting team can put together websites with video, pictures, blogs and many other applications. Take a look at Yoonew or Zurb for some examples of what they provide. Some organizations are also putting together career sites using Ning, which also uses a modular approach to website design.
Simulations for Screening
For a long time now, organizations have used paper-and-pencil tests to assess candidates’ personality, cultural fit, intelligence, and aptitude. Some of the tests have been adapted for the Internet, although they still emulate the old paper-and-pencil tests. Recently, online simulations have emerged, especially in assessing call center staff and other positions where skills are straight-forward and success measurable in quantitative ways.
Firms offering simulation advice or tools include Rocket Hire, a consultancy led by Charles Handler in New Orleans, a simulation for real estate professionals provided by Real Estate Simulator, Previsor, and FurstPerson, which specializes in call center screening simulations. The Shaker Consulting Group in Ohio is also developing some very interesting Flash-based simulations that mark the beginning of creating simulations for management and other positions. Some clients include CVS, Starbucks, Diebold, and National City Bank.
Candidate/Position Matching Tools
Right along with an increased interest in assessment are tools that will attempt to match candidates to positions. There are several similar tools in this category including JobFox, which has been around for several years, Itzbig, which I wrote about last July, and QuietAgent, which has also been available for several years now. The tools offer anonymous matching where neither the candidate nor the organization know each other until each has expressed interest. They all urge candidates to create extensive profiles that include screening and assessment data. The more complete the candidate’s profile, the more successful the matching process.
Over the next five years, we will see a steady increase in the number of tools and the amount of energy that will be used to apply more stringent competency criteria to positions to meet legal requirements and to improve the quality of hires.
The continued growth of social networks sped to the forefront of the news in 2007, and this year, it will continue to evolve as a useful recruiting tool. LinkedIn is the largest and most well-known among professionals, but young candidates are being wooed through Facebook and MySpace. Lots of younger folks gauge your brand and your “coolness” factor by whether or not you have a profile on these social networks.
The U.S. Marine Corps has a profile and has easily met its recruiting goals this year. KPMG’s video-based profile showcases the capabilities. Many hundreds of other American and international organizations have profiles as well. Individuals are also creating their own recruiting-oriented profiles, in effect online resumes, and are assuming that recruiters will search through them.
MySpace and Facebook are examples of “destination sites,” or websites that are visited every day. They become portals to connect with friends, to share ideas and communicate, to set up collaborative work spaces, to meet new people, and to look for employers. Smart recruiting organizations will be designing profiles and will be experimenting with ways to use these types of destination sites more effectively.
Recruitment Processing Outsourcing
RPO has grown in popularity this year as recruiting management figures out what should be outsourced and what shouldn’t be. Last year, many organizations made the mistake of seeing RPO as a cheap solution to their recruiting dilemmas. This year, there is a better understanding that RPO can be a real help in filling specific types of positions, may improve the speed to present a candidate and time to fill, but it may not result in lower costs. Small organizations are finding that the right RPO provider can replace their recruiting function and deliver great results. Like all outsourcing efforts, choosing an RPO requires good planning, specific goals, and a careful search for the right RPO firm.
RPO is becoming better defined and a non-profit association, The RPO Association is attempting to define and apply standards to the industry to improve acceptance and quality.
Emergent Worlds
Other areas of excitement include the use of virtual or emergent worlds, for example, Second Life. Manpower is an example of an attempt to use Second Life as a recruiting tool. The jury is still out on how this will evolve, but hats off to Manpower for leading the effort!
While this list is far from comprehensive, I hope it provides some food for thought and a bit of introduction to what is coming.

The pros and cons of SharePoint !!

PROS:

• Biggest strength: collaboration features and forcing compliance with information management policies.

OTHER STRENGTHS:

• Blogs are built into every My Site
• Wikis are out of the box
• Reports – the ability to display and work with data from an Xcel worksheet.
• Simple to use out-of-the-box
• Search is very fast
• Contributing content is simple
• Direct integration with Office (XP to 2007)
• Most functionality “exposed” through web services (e.g. all content can be subscribed to via RSS)
• Mobile views via a PDA or phone is out-of-the-box
• Alerts and workflow (though limited to email notification)
• WSRP and SAP integration is included

I would add that if you’re an enterprise Microsoft customer, you can get MOSS for very cheap if not free (but the licensing typically represents 10-30% of the total cost). As well, simple out-of-the-box SharePoint management needs little to no training.

CONS:

• Biggest weakness: Records management and digital asset management (non existent).

OTHER WEAKNESSES:

• The wiki piece is a little weak (“The rumor is that the wiki and blog components were very late additions… they work very well, but the functionality is considerably lower than what you would expect from an enterprise deployment.”)
• Sharepoint does not support AJAX (though there are work-arounds, MS will not support AJAX)
• Customization can be expensive and complex (and limited)
• Content management (“It’s very average content management… its not very fabulous.”)
• Analytics are very, very simple
• Non-Active Directory authentication capabilities
• Social networking built into MySites
• Search returns documents and people
• WSRP and SAP integration is not terribly strong, but it works.

I would add the following weaknesses: immature technology, weak templates, and a reputation for weak service and training.

Shawn’s recommendations when considering or implementing SharePoint:

• Understand information quantities and needs
• Don’t just throw collaboration tools out there (he cited one client with “out-of-control” team sites and SharePoint sprawl)
• Establish & enforce standards for use
• Establish and closely monitor metrics for content creation
• Continually evaluate and adjust approach to match reality
• Enforce workspace use metrics
• Notify of non-use after 60 days
• Four notifications
• Delete after fourth notification
• Use workflow to suspend assets
• Re-map and migrate intranet sites into Sharepoint
• Use Search to Capture Outlying Sites
• Create a controlled vocabulary (taxonomy and meta data)
• Measure and measure again
• Track search requests against workgroup assets

Shawn’s advice of what not to do:

• Enforcing standards inappropriate for collaborative environment (ditch the Big Brother persona)
• Repeat monolithic hierarchy (reduce the red tape)
• Exclude active participants / authors
• Ignore advantages of “competing” tools (e.g. Lotus SameTime)
• Search results must be validated and in context

By the way… the next version of Sharepoint will be released in 2010 along with Office version 14 (MS is superstitiously skipping version 13).

10 best excuses for coming to work late!

Some people wake up each morning before the alarm rings, glad to see the glowing sun and excited to start the day.
They arrive to work whistling and are hard at work before most people even arrive. These rare creatures, also known as "morning people," are incomprehensible to those of you whose morning routines are exercises in panic and frustration.
A lot more people belong in that latter group than you might have guessed. Fifteen percent of workers admit to arriving late at least once a week, according to a recent CareerBuilder.com survey.
Why are so many of us running late?
You might be surprised that the snooze button is not the primary culprit of tardiness.
Thirty-two percent of workers attribute their late arrivals to traffic gridlock. Seventeen percent claim a lack of sleep is the reason, and 7 percent have trouble arriving on time because they need to get their children ready for school or day care.
Other issues, like forgetting something at home or not feeling well, are also popular.
Fortunately for late arrivers, 43 percent of hiring managers won't count tardiness against you as long as you meet deadlines and turn in good work.
Of course, some managers feel differently and will hand you a pink slip if you're late several times within a year.
Use your imagination
More than 27 percent of hiring managers say they are skeptical of employees' excuses for showing up late. It turns out their doubt is warranted: 24 percent of all employees decide to make up a fake excuse rather than tell the truth.
What does this mean to you?
If you're sitting in a traffic jam watching the minutes tick away and you've decided honesty isn't the best policy for you, think of a believable and acceptable reason you're walking in late.
After all, if you were a hiring manager who heard any of these 10 real-life excuses for being late, you'd be suspicious, too.
1. While rowing across the river to work, I got lost in the fog.
2. Someone stole all my daffodils.
3. I had to go audition for American Idol.
4. My ex-husband stole my car so I couldn't drive to work.
5. My route to work was shut down by a Presidential motorcade.
6. I have transient amnesia and couldn't remember my job.
7. I was indicted for securities fraud this morning.
8. The line was too long at Starbucks.
9. I was trying to get my gun back from the police.
10. I didn't have money for gas because all of the pawn shops were closed.
Be a crowd-pleaser
When it comes to punctuality, your best bet is to take cues from your company's culture. If everyone is diligently working when you drag yourself through the door each morning, then you probably stand out.
However, if everyone filters in at their own pace between 8:45 and 9:15, then an occasional late arrival will probably go unnoticed.
Habitual lateness, on the other hand, will help neither your career prospects nor your workplace relationships. For one thing, your boss and co-workers are relying on you to be at work when you're scheduled to arrive; you don't want to disappoint them.
Also, just because nobody confronts you about your tardiness, that doesn't mean no one's watching the clock and forming an opinion about you or your work ethic.
These judgments can damage you when it comes to performance reviews and promotions. Don't let a few extra minutes of sleep cost you your reputation -- or worse, your job.

Orissa wants to be called Odisha!!

Orissa wants its name to be changed to Odisha and the state's language from Oriya to Odia.The state Cabinet has passed a proposal to introduce a bill in this regard during coming monsoon session of the Assembly, chief secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy said.It will require making an amendment to the Constitution, he said on Monday.According to Home Secretary T K Mishra, the state's name has been wrongly spelt in the Constitution. Ever since the BJD-BJP government came to power in 2000, it has been demanding the change.Mishra said that though the state's name is written as Udisa in Hindi and Orissa in English, the real name is Odisha.Similarly, the state's language is written as Udiya in Hindi and Oriya in English while it should be Odia.''We hope that the Constitution will be amended accordingly to effect the changes in this regard by end of this year,'' Mishra said.The government's move to amend constitution was praised by all many, including former Chief Minister and leader of opposition J B Patnaik.It should be done soon, he said while noted novelist Santanu Acharya complimented everybody associated with the move.''It is the question of state's pride,'' said Acharya.

Obama seeks Hanuman's blessings in race to White House!

It's unusual. But, it's a fact. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic party's presidential nominee, is seeking the blessings of Lord Hanuman in his battle for the White House.The 46-year-old senator from Illinois, who defeated his rival Hillary Clinton in an epic 17-month long electoral battle for Democratic party nomination, carries a ''tiny monkey god'' apparently representing ''Hanuman'' with him for good luck.A recent photo posted on Time's White House Photo of the Day collection shows the first ever Black-American nominee in the race to the White House carries with him a bracelet belonging to an American soldier deployed in Iraq, a gambler's lucky chit, a tiny monkey god, tiny Madonna and child.That ''tiny monkey god,'' of course, appears to be a statue of the Hindu monkey god, Hanuman, says the posting but editors and the photographer has not identified it as such. Obama, whose father was a Kenyan and mother a white woman from Kansas, spent initial days of his life in Indonesia where Hinduism is a popular religion.In addition to a lucky penny, Republican candidate John McCain carries a lucky nickel, and a lucky rubber band, which he wears around his wrist.

‘The Happening’ is set to release on June 13!

Manoj Night Shyamalan , the Hollywood director of Indian origin, says his upcoming film ‘The Happening’ is his scariest film yet.
Presently in India to receive the Padma Shri, one of the country's highest civilian awards, Shayamalan spoke to reporters in Mumbai about his next film starring Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel in leading roles.
The film, a dark, paranormal thriller, tells the story of an estranged couple trying to survive a global crisis.
“It is an extremely scary movie. This is meant to scare you,” Shayamalan told the curious reporters in Mumbai.

Mark (Wahlberg)
“The emotional center of the movie is if you knew you were going to die, if that was a fact, what would your conversation be like? What would be the last thing you would say to your loved one?” Shyamalan said.
Like some of Shayamalan’s previous films like ‘The Sixth Sense’ (starring Bruce Willis), ‘Unbreakable’ (Willis again) and ‘Signs’ (Mel Gibson), ‘The Happening’ too stars an action hero in a non-action role.
“I like to cast action stars and then not let them do action roles. They still bring an energy to the movie…You would never have seen Mark (Wahlberg) in a role like this. He's human, sweet and funny. He plays an ordinary school teacher who is not going to come up with a genius plan to save the world,” says Shyamalan whose last film ‘Lady In The Water’ was a flop.
‘The Happening’ is set to release on June 13. The date 13, considered unlucky by many, is reported to be deliberately chosen by Shyamalan.

New ADA guidelines correlate with IBC.

Description WITH MANY BABY BOOMERS ENTERING THEIR 60s and encountering more health and mobility-related problems, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is certain to take on more importance than ever. As some join the 54 million men, women and children with disabilities in America, businesses will see an increase in the number of people who choose to spend their money at places that accommodate their mobility needs. Those businesses that provide a positive customer experience will be in a better position to capture the millions of dollars spent by this growing market.
More than 15 years after the ADA was passed, many facilities remain inaccessible to those with disabilities. Often, a business owner only becomes aware of noncompliance following an accident or a complaint. As a result, business owners devote unnecessary time and money to defending themselves and their businesses, while the building's openings remain noncompliant.
One area that has caused some confusion has been the differences in terminology and organization between ADA guidelines, model building codes and ANSI standards. In an effort to reconcile differences from the model building codes, including the International Building Code (IBC), the United States Access Board has updated the ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG).

Greenpeace Kicks Off Global Warming Campaign in Salem!

Over 50 locals turn out for global warming event.
Aerial shot of the Salem/Keizer Oregon area by Tim King Salem-News.com

Greenpeace says awareness needs to grow about Global Warming and other environmental threats facing Oregonians. Aerial shot of the Salem/Keizer Oregon area

(SALEM, Ore.) - On Saturday local Greenpeace staff announced the start of a campaign to work with community members who are concerned about the threat global warming poses to Oregon’s environment and way-of-life by registering volunteers at a community event.

Senior energy analyst Christopher Dymond of Oregon Department of Energy talked about the local benefits of renewable energy and Greenpeace organizer Sofia Gidlund spoke of the goals of the campaign.

Local writer Geronimo Tagatac read a short story by local student Deirdre McAteer about the world overcoming global warming. Over 50 local community members attended the event at Salem Public Library.

“The people of northwestern Oregon understand that global warming cannot be ignored any longer and we are joining together to make sure our candidates for Congress listen to us and develop a good plan for how to tackle this issue,” said Andy Rieder, a local volunteer with Greenpeace.

At the event attendees generated over 50 letters and photos to the congressional candidates and picked up yard-signs to place around Salem. The grassroots effort coincides with the congressional race between Democrat Kurt Schrader and Republican Mike Erickson, which is anticipated to be one of the most hotly contested congressional races in the country.

“The people of Oregon are rising to the challenge presented by global warming—they are driving less, changing their light bulbs, and buying more efficient appliances,” said Greenpeace organizer Sofia Gidlund.

“The question we’ll be asking the candidates for Congress from now until the election is: ‘What will you do if you get to Washington?’”

Greenpeace is calling on Congress to end global warming by:

- Increasing our energy efficiency;

- Putting a limit on global warming pollution;

- Investing in clean, renewable energy like wind and solar instead of coal and nuclear

Source: Greenpeace

David Byrnes Up the Webbys!

More than a few talking heads figure David Byrne should be recognized for his pioneering efforts.

The new-wave rocker will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 12th Annual Webby Awards next month for his ongoing work to bring multimedia culture to the masses, including via his own Internet radio station and blog and his celebrated PowerPoint art, which can be viewed in the book-DVD set Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information.

Also receiving an award for a career well done will be Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels, particularly for his unprecedented success with digital shorts such as YouTube faves "Lazy Sunday" and the Emmy-winning "Dick in a Box."

"David and Lorne both turned popular culture on its head in the late 1970s and each of them have continued to push the envelope for more than three decades," said Webby Awards executive director David-Michel Davies. "It's an honor to salute these two visionaries for careers that consistently challenge, surprise, and inspire audiences around the world."

The duo will be honored twice, first June 9 at the Webby Film and Video Awards, to be hosted by 30 Rock's Judah Friedlander at New York's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, and again the following day at the actual Webby Awards. Seth Meyers will emcee the ceremony at the Angel Orensanz Foundation.

This year's Special Achievement honorees include Person of the Year Stephen Colbert (which should take the sting out of being shafted by Time in favor of Korean popster Rain), Film and Video Person of the Year Michel Gondry, Artist of the Year will.i.am, and Best Actors Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim (from Adult Swim's awesomely titled Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!).

The Webbys, which have been called the Internet's highest honor, are handed out by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

Verizon in talks to buy Alltel: Vodafone!!

Britain's Vodafone confirmed on Thursday that US-based Verizon Wireless, in which it has a 45 percent stake, is in advanced talks about buying US rural mobile service provider Alltel Corp.

Verizon Wireless is close to buying Alltel for around $27 billion, including around $23 billion of its debts, a source familiar with the talks told Reuters on Wednesday. See

The deal would mean Verizon Wireless -- which is 55 percent owned by Verizon Communications -- would overtake AT&T as the top US wireless service.

Vodafone and Verizon Comms proportional ownership of Verizon Wireless will not change under an Alltel deal, the source said.

A Verizon deal would value Alltel at eight times its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, compared with its November sale to private equity firms for about nine times EBITDA, the source said.

Some analysts said Verizon could be in a good position to refinance Alltel's debt at a lower interest rate; others said that a deal could also help Verizon create savings from a network and handset perspective.

Verizon's move was a surprise to many analysts as it came only seven months after Alltel was taken private by TPG Capital and Goldman Sachs' GS Capital Partners.

The leveraged buyout saddled Alltel with the debt.

That $27.5 billion deal in November 2007 was the largest ever private equity investment in the US wireless industry, but it closed amid a mounting credit crisis that has curtailed the leveraged buyout boom.

SBI employees call for nationwide strike on June 6!

State Bank officers on Tuesday said they would hold a day-long nationwide strike on June 6, protesting against SBI management's policies on different issues.

Their demands include a review of the existing State Bank pension scheme, recruitment of adequate staff, termination of the contract system and regulated working hours for officers.

"The strike would be observed nationwide. The Government and the Indian Banks Association (IBA), despite having signed an agreement on various issues, have not taken any significant steps to resolve our issues," All India State Bank Officers' Federation's General Secretary, G D Nadaf, told reporters in Mumbai.

Nadaf said SBI management, with its decision to go ahead with the merger proposal of State Bank of Saurashtra, was not taking into account the feelings of employees on the matter.

"Such a merger between State Bank and its associates will lead to a plethora of issues, including termination of jobs in different categories. Any such move (of merger) will definitely be met by nationwide protests from the unions," Nadaf said.

Bank unions had struck work early in 2008 to voice their protests on various critical issues including the merger of state-owned banks and one more option for employees to join in the pension scheme.

Later, bank unions and the Indian Banks' Association had signed an agreement following intervention by the Union Finance Minister, leading to deferral of the two-day nationwide strike called for, just prior to the Budget in February end.

Nadaf charged the IBA with not taking any steps so far to resolve the outstanding issues.

Communist and opposition parties in India are holding nationwide protests against a 10% rise in fuel prices!

The Communist-governed states of West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala are badly hit by a strike called by the parties who say the rise will fuel inflation.

The government says it had no choice because of surging global oil prices.

India imports nearly 75% of its crude oil requirements but subsidises the cost of domestic fuel products to help contain inflation and protect the poor.

India's Congress party-led government faces key state polls this year ahead of general elections due in 2009.

The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says the party is now worried about the political fallout from its latest move.

Total shutdown

Communist parties, which support the government in Delhi, say more expensive fuel will push prices up across the board. Business leaders take a similar view.

In the states of West Bengal and Tripura, where the Communists are in power, there was a total shutdown, the BBC's Subir Bhaumik in Calcutta says.

The Communists as well as the main opposition BJP are also holding protest marches in the capital, Delhi, and other cities across the country.

Calcutta saw shops, markets, schools and colleges closed. All flights to and from Calcutta airport have been rescheduled.

Vehicles, including buses and trams, largely stayed off the roads and many staff at government offices did not go to work.

Many people had trouble getting to their destinations.

"I have to stand in a queue here in pouring rain after having walked two kilometres from my hotel," said visa seeker Sumitra Hazarika Gogoi outside the US consulate.

A protest against the rise in gas prices in Delhi on 4 June 2008
Many people are angry about the price rises

Another strike, called by West Bengal's opposition Trinamul Congress, has been called for Friday.

In Tripura too, schools, colleges, shops and markets were closed and there was little traffic on the streets.

The US consul general in Calcutta, Henry Jardine, said the back-to-back strikes "reflects poorly on Calcutta".

"Your state seeks investments but investors get a wrong message if you have strikes so frequently," Mr Jardine told a business chamber meeting late on Thursday after the strikes were announced.

The business chambers have also criticised Bengal's "strike culture".

'No money'

After debating for almost two weeks, the Indian cabinet finally announced increases in the price of petrol, diesel and cooking gas on Wednesday.

It said the move was necessary because state-owned oil companies were losing millions of dollars every day because of the increase in global oil prices.

The increase - the second this year - comes at a time when inflation is already at its highest level in four years.

"It must be appreciated what has been done is the bare minimum," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in an address to the nation on Wednesday night.

"There are limits to keep consumer prices unaffected. This way we will have no money to import oil," Mr Singh said in defence of the price rise.

Malaysia and India Increase Price of Subsidized Fuel

India and Malaysia risked the wrath of voters by raising the price of subsidized fuel, measures that could further weaken the governments of both countries, already made fragile by recent electoral setbacks.

In India, the increase was quickly condemned by political parties from all sides, two of which promised demonstrations. A Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman called the move the equivalent of “economic terrorism.”

Economists and policy makers described the increase as painful but necessary. Fuel subsidies in Malaysia alone would have totaled $17 billion this year.

Consumers in Malaysia, like the woman above, will see gasoline prices go up by 40 percent, and more increases are planned, said Shahrir Abdul Samad, Malaysia’s domestic trade and consumer affairs minister. Gas prices vary across India, but the announcement amounted to an increase of around 10 percent.

Review of open source content!

You need a content management system (CMS), but you don't know which application framework to choose. The software must be free and open source, with a web-based user interface. Perhaps your employers have already mentioned that they want to avoid committing to a proprietary, closed application. With all the choices available, it can be daunting to choose one.
Whether you want to build the next big social networking site or a personal weblog, there is a CMS for you. Rather than searching for the CMS par excellence, choose the solution that best fits your project's requirements.
This article provides an overview of five of the top open source software (OSS) solutions: CMS Made Simple, Drupal, Joomla!, WordPress, and XOOPS. I describe their differences and similarities — based on my personal experience — to help you choose.
The similarities
All five OSS applications are free and licensed under the GNU General Public License. Their server-side code is written in PHP, and they use MySQL as the database. And all five are operating system–independent.
Software bundles such as WAMP (Windows), MAMP (Macintosh), and LAMP (Linux) make it easy to install the set of components (usually Apache, MySQL, and PHP) that make up the web server infrastructure.
All five CMSs have:
Online communities that provide free support via forums
Developers who contribute modules to add new functionality
Human-readable and search engine–friendly URLs for search optimization
Web browser WYSIWYG interfaces for site maintenance
Themes and templates to update the page design
Translations and multilingual content integration
Syndication of site content in RSS/XML feeds
They can be used to create the following and more:
Blogs
Contact forms
Events calendars
Guest books
Image galleries
Online newsletters
Search engines
While these five CMSs have many similarities, each one also has unique benefits and limitations. The following sections describe each application and make comparisons based on my experience.

CMS Made Simple
CMS Made Simple and Drupal both include workflow engines for process management beyond basic approval of content. You can get up to speed much faster with CMS Made Simple, but Drupal has far more features (which you may or may not need).
I found that setting up a CMS Made Simple site was very straightforward, but not nearly as easy as using WordPress. Creating site navigation is easy, and you can quickly launch a simple site.
CMS Made Simple, Drupal, and WordPress all follow the W3C specification for XHTML compliance.
Theme templates enable you to easily update your site's layout, and modules extend functionality.
Unlike the other CMSs, CMS Made Simple does not offer support for creating the following features:
Forums/discussion boards
Tests/quizzes
Wiki sites
System-wide content versioning
E-mail verification (using an activation key)
On the support forums, there's a great deal of activity in the German language section, which creates a bit of a barrier for English-language speakers. The documentation is not as extensive as the other CMSs reviewed in this article, so accessing help in the forums is essential.Sample site: Russell Davis Architects

Drupal
Drupal is pronounced droo-puhl. (To hear the correct pronunciation, listen to the Drupal song.) This CMS won Packt Publishing's Overall 2007 Open Source Content Management System Award.
Drupal has extensive online documentation, supplemented with active forums, and Drupal.org is chock-full of instructions, such as the Drupal Cookbook, to help you get started.
I've found that Drupal is flexible and accessible, while being fairly easy to use as a powerful solution for a wide variety of projects. However, its vast feature set may be too much of a good thing if you are only planning to build a simple blog.
Unlike the other CMSs, Drupal offers some database replication for better scalability. And only Drupal supports NTLM authentication.
Drupal includes a PHPTemplate theme engine to create custom themes. PHP code snippets are used to define the look of the site, and are kept in a presentation layer — enabling designers to own the page layout without interacting with site functionality code.
After installing modules, the process of enabling, setting, and configuring permissions feels a bit redundant. Locating the areas to perform each of these tasks in the Administration menu can be challenging until you have done it a few times.
Drupal really shines in the way taxonomy and permissions can be assigned at a granular level. Rather than being limited to groups, individuals can each have their own access levels. And the level of categorization in Drupal is unlimited, so you can set up infinite views.
Drupal's global developer community participates enthusiastically and contributes new modules with add-on functionality at an amazing rate.
Sample site: FIEL

Joomla!
Joomla! is a forked evolution of Mambo. The differences between Joomla! and Mambo are subtle to the end user. Joomla!'s administration panel has been redesigned, but the primary difference is the large online community involved with Joomla! that is committed to the principles of open source development (there is a frenzy of activity on the Joomla! forums).
Developers create free extensions to add functionality, and these are available in the Joomla! extensions directory. It is worth noting that, for now, extensions that work with Mambo also work with Joomla! without requiring modifications, although this may change in future versions.
Joomla! supports e-commerce functionality, such as shopping carts, inventory tracking, and payment processing through third-party vendors. However, taxonomy is an area that could be improved because you are restricted to only a few levels. This may or may not affect your development — depending on the levels of categorization you need for your site.
Although I haven't experienced it myself, I have read that sites with high traffic report slower load times. I have also found the WYSIWYG editor to be less intuitive to use than the other CMSs I evaluated.
Sample site: ArtSessions.net

WordPress
Since 2003, WordPress has become the largest self-hosted blogging software in the world, visited by millions of people every day.
Due to its popularity and longevity, there are more themes available online for WordPress than for any other CMS I investigated. The ThemeViewer is a great way to find one to use for your site.
According to WeblogToolsCollection.com, 0.8% of the Internet is run by WordPress. They project that at the current growth rate that number could reach 2–2.5% in a few years.
There are many online resources, such as the very clear online documentation, the WordPress Podcast, and plug-ins you can download to extend functionality.
Some high-traffic sites report slow performance, but by installing the WP-Cache plug-in and doing some tweaking to the wp-config.php file, you can enable caching to help increase load times. Many online tutorials address this if you happen to run into this issue.
Sample site: Ford Motor Company

XOOPS
Pronounced zoops, XOOPS is very customizable for controlling the layout of content blocks. The modules, while not as numerous as some of the other CMSs, are easy to install. Future versions promise to add even more Web 2.0 functionality, which is exciting.
The official home of XOOPS has recently been relaunched, and you can visit the XOOPS Foundation site to get more information. Additionally, many modules are available at the XOOPS Addons repository.
Like Drupal, XOOPS has a template engine (named Smarty) to help you customize page design while keeping the presentation code separate from the functionality.
XOOPS and Drupal both offer the ability to display product information and can also manage inventory — making them good candidates for building e-commerce sites.
XOOPS is popular globally, and it is nice to see such a variety of translations for both the software and the user documentation. However, that can also be a disadvantage if you are an English speaker because there is less online support.
Sample site: Concrete Connections
Where to go from here
Drupal, Joomla!, and XOOPS are best for building an e-commerce site because all three offer:
Inventory management
Support for third-party payment processing mechanisms (such as PayPal)
Modules for shipping and sales tax calculators
Shopping cart functionality
If you are looking to build a single blog website that doesn't need all the bells and whistles — then I recommend WordPress. It's easy to use, has a huge collection of available themes, and is XHTML-compliant.
I tend to agree with Packt Publishing's award. I think Drupal is the best overall CMS available — based on its high level of customization, flexibility, scalability, taxonomy, SSL support, e-commerce functionality, and extremely enthusiastic user community that develops modules and provides technical advice and support.
I hope this has given you some sense of direction as you navigate the many options and determine the CMS that best suits your requirements.

Indian Political Foes File $100 Million Suit Over American Newspaper Ad!

Windsor Genova - AHN News Writer

New York, NY (AHN) - An affiliate of a political party in India has filed a $100 million libel suit in Manhattan against rival party supporters who criticized its leader, Sonia Gandhi, in a newspaper ad in October.

The Indian National Overseas Congress, composed of supporters of the Indian National Congress (INC), took issue with two supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party for placing a $65,000 ad in the New York Times during Gandhi's visit to New York City in 2007. The ad pointed out that the INC chair was not related to Mohandas Gandhi, who led India's independence from British rule.

At the time, Sonia Gandhi was attending the commemoration of her namesake's birthday at the United Nations in observance of the International Day of Non-Violence, a movement Mohandas Gandhi formed.

Sued were former law firm secretary Narain Kataria and retired insurance agent Arish Sahani. Their lawyer described the lawsuit as INC's attempt to silence its critics in the U.S.

Dr. Surinder Malhotra, head of the INC subsidiary, said the unprecedented suit has nothing to do with the party in India, according to NYSun.com.

Malicious software threatens internet economy!!

National economies and security interests face a growing threat from malicious software, says a damning report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Communities involved in fighting malware "offer essentially a fragmented local response to a global threat," says the report, which urges international cooperation to combat the danger.

The report cites evidence that around one in four personal computers in the US – or 59 million – is already infected with malware. A booming market in cyber attack software and services has also made attacks more sophisticated and cheaper to perform.

Day of the 'zombies'

Malware is commonly used to turn ordinary PCs into "zombie" computers, which can then be controlled by criminals over the internet without their legitimate owners' knowledge. These machines are used to send out roughly 80% of all spam and to attack commercial websites and other internet-linked systems with meaningless traffic as part of extortion schemes.

An army of remotely controlled PCs – known as a botnet – can now be rented for as little as as 33 cents per machine, far less that the actual cost of the hardware.

The largest botnets on record have comprised more than 1 million computers. While the number of machines corralled into botnets is increasing, the OECD found that botnets themselves are shrinking to avoid detection.

Rather than launching high-profile attacks to bring down a target, small botnets can subtly reduce the target's internet service over a prolonged period.

Most malware infections (93%) occur on home users' computers. However, OECD research suggests that this can have a knock-on effect on national industries reliant on online transactions such as banking. For example, malware may deter people from using the internet to access more efficient savings products.

A group of British banks put the cost of malware for 2006 at £33.5 million, 90% higher than in 2004 and growing. But such estimates do not include indirect costs such as losing the trust of consumers, the OECD points out.

International rescue

Thirty-eight countries around the world now have national bodies focused on computer security. But the OECD says international organisations and agreements are needed to properly measure the impact of malware attacks and counteract them.

Just weeks ago NATO opened its first "cyber defence centre". It is located in Estonia, which saw its entire internet service crippled by botnets in 2007 after a diplomatic row with Russia.

The full OECD report Malware: A security threat to the Internet economy is available online. Ministers from the OECD's 30 member nations will discuss malware later this month at a meeting on the internet economy.

Pappu Can't Dance salaa....

Aamir Khan is at it again. After making digs first at Amitabh Bachchan and then at Shah Rukh Khan on his blog (via a dog Shahrukh), his next target is Salman Khan. At a recent music sitting of his nephew Imraan's debut film, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, Aamir and director Abbas Tyrewalla put together a hilarious song inspired by Salman.
Aamir Khan has not only been an intrinsic part in discussing every minute detail of his nephew's film but also played an important role in composing and writing the songs of the film. A source says, “Aamir has been meticulously planning and executing every aspect of his nephew's debut film with director Abbas Tyrewalla. He also roped in A R Rahman, the best name in the music industry to compose the music of this film.”
But Aamir seems to have more than just personal interests in the film's making. He didn't spare a chance to make personal digs at co-stars wherever possible.
Says a unit member from Aamir Khan Productions, “Recently, Aamir had a music sitting with Abbas Tyrewalla to discuss the concept of a particular song. Abbas had to come up with the lyrics as per Aamir's expectations. The song has a lot of attitude and spunk and is filmed on Imran and his gang of friends where they are addressing the song to Pappu, a burly rich guy in their college. It was hilarious to watch Aamir discuss the concept keeping Salman in mind and he also ended up saying, 'I hope Salman doesn't mind this song' at the music sitting.”
“Throughout the song's discussion, Aamir went all out to make fun of Salman Khan who is well-known for his muscles, penchant for wearing and gifting expensive watches, fast cars and bikes, his popularity with women, his peculiar accent, and his unique dance style,” adds the source.
Check out the song:
Hai muscular…
Very muscular
Hai popular…
Very popular
Hai muscular hai popularSpectacular! he's a bachelor
Pappu ki gaadi tez hai
Pappu kudiyon mein craze hai
Pappu ki aankhen light-blue
Pappu dikhta angrez hai
Rado ki ghadi haathon mein
Perfume Gucci wala… But Pappu can't dance, saala!
But Pappu can't dance, saala!
Haan Pappu naach nahin sakta!

Forbidden Kingdom: Jackie and Jet love fighting and this is only the first film!

The teaming up of a Jackie Chan and Jet Li had everyone in the martial arts community salivating and smacking their lips. Things got a bit apprehensive when it looked more and more like Forbidden Kingdom would turn into a family film. While I don't think that is too far off from accurate at least there is going to be some appropriate action scenes for film-geek parents who take their spawn to the theater.
Both Jackie Chan, 53, and Jet Li, 44, said their on-screen duels were the most enjoyable ones they had shot in more than a decade, reported Sina. Jackie Chan said, "Just one fight scene would take 12 days to shoot. Before a shoot, we would say to each other, let's be slower, slower. Once the fighting started, we couldn't control ourselves, we would fight faster and faster." Their duels went by in such a quick blur, the playback had to be set a a lower speed so the moves could be seen, said Jet Li. Even Yuen Wo Ping said that they were too fast.
When Todd wrote about Fearless he noted that Li was slowing down. He was fast, but not as fast as he has ever been. And that's fine, we understand aging and growing old. But perhaps this proves nothing can be hindered by sheer enthusiasm to work together and bringing your 'A' game. Even if it is an 'A-'. But for Yuen Wo Ping to say they're to fast? One word. DANG! Just don't end the movie with a goof reel. Follow the jump to read Jackie Chan's personal reflection about fighting with Jet after the jump.
Also, we can tell you that it slipped during a press conference yesterday that Forbidden Kingdom may be meant to be one of three films [haven't we learned anything about trilogies this summer?]. Yesterday, drector Rob Minkoff declined to confirm talk that the movie is the first of a trilogy. Li Bingbing gave the game away, however. Asked about her character, she said: "Can't tell too much. We have to shoot a sequel."

Adobe Acrobat now with Flash!

Adobe Systems launched a new version of its document sharing software Acrobat on Monday. This time it can package videos.
Acrobat allows users to package documents so they can be read across different hardware and operating systems.
Acrobat 9 comes with Adobe’s video-enabling software Flash. Users can include Flash-based videos when they create and share documents with PDF.

How H-1B Visa holder should handle a layoff in USA?

The INS law's contradictory interpretation at times has seen ripples of worries in the minds of people with technical jobs. This article tells you about the possible steps of action when you have been laid off.
A hand at understanding the law would help one visualize the true picture. The confusion originates from the regulation (8 C.F.R. ?214.2(h)(13)(I)(A)):
"A beneficiary shall be admitted to the United States for the validity period of the petition, plus a period of up to 10 days before the validity period begins and 10 days after the validity period ends. The beneficiary may not work except during the validity period of the petition."
The mentioned regulation has been interpreted as that a laid off worker can apply for a new job in ten days or else would be deported. But the truth is that the regulation is applicable only for those H-1B workers who have to leave the U.S., but does not affect the case of workers who change employers or are with non-immigrant status.
The laid off H-1B worker is allowed to request to change his status to some other non-immigrant category if his H-1B petition has not been revoked. This can be done even while he is seeking employment at other firms. The law does not define the time that a laid off H-1B worker may stay for while seeking a new job. INS officials suggest submitting the same within 30-60 days but those are mere suggestions, and have no correlation with the law.
The new employer of the worker submits an H-1B petition to the INS requesting a change of employers when the same happens. It is advisable to act wisely by asking the employer to submit the application without wasting a moment when an offer of employment is made.
The H-1B worker can begin work with the employer under AC-21, in accordance with the H-1B cap law enacted during October 2000, once the H-1B transfer petition has been submitted to the INS. The same can be approved or else, H-1B petition approved but the application for changing employer in US denied if the INS feels that the layoff period was a little extra long. Issue of a Notice of Approval that allows the worker to leave the U.S. and apply again, for a new H-1B visa from some other country follows the second case. Another scenario is when the old H-1B visa's expiry is still due. Then, the worker can travel abroad and return using the same H-1B visa and the actual Notice of Approval (form I-797) issued for the newer H-1B petition which was approved.
On failure to obtain another employment quickly, application may be filed and status changed from H-1B to either a business visitor (B-1) or a tourist (B-2) while the worker searches a job. On getting the job, the new employer can get the status changed to H-1B again.
The dilemma associated with the layoff law does not end with it and another special case exists for the laid off/terminated workers who are already beneficiaries of a visa petition for an approved employment. The new employer should submit an RIR labor certification and an EB visa petition for him so that the worker can use the previously approved priority date.
In case of a laid-off/terminated worker with an EAD, job loss does not affect the validity of the EAD and he can work for a new employer immediately but the employer, again, needs to submit the RIR labor certification along with a visa petition for him urgently. But the denial of the application for adjustment of status invalidates the EAD.
A key point to remember is that the applications to adjust the status of persons with allowed EB petitions take a few months for processing. But a new labor certification's and visa petition's approval might not be possible unless the adjudication of the application filed for adjusting the status. Then, the worker's employer should file another H-1B petition despite he still having an EAD. The same rules as when the worker?s H-1B petition was approved but change of employer application rejected holds in this case.
When the application to adjust the status is pending for more than 180 days before the lay off, the worker, if chooses a similar new job or occupation, may switch jobs without affecting his application for the green card.
This detailed write up should have cleared all the incorrect notions regarding the time at hand for a laid-off or terminated H-1B worker. So, the laid off worker can act on the following plan in such a situation.
? Apply for a status change to B1/B2 within 30 days of layoff to stay legal and back your application with an itinerary plan and financial proof in the form of bank statement to support your stay. The itinerary should disclose your intentions as to leave US when B1/B2 status ends. A letter from your lawyer mentioning the necessity to stay to manage your responsibilities (both financial and material ) before leaving should also be provided to support your application.
? Search a new employer and once found, ask him to follow the already mentioned details.
The second part of the plan of action is to hold a grip of yourself as you look for a new job. The search should be determined and disciplined and at times, also with a humorous sense. A few points to note are mentioned below.
? Update your resume regularly even when employed securely. Use verbs which symbolize action and keywords and mention all new skills gained.
? Display your skills in the form of material achievements for the employer. Example might be cost cutting by USD X through automation of delivery system to deposit directly.
? Do not fluff up the resume with experience of skills that you cannot defend or justify. The interview is a chance to prove your understanding of the industry and the implementation of specific processes and operations as desired by the to-be employer.
? Use networking to get referrals from friends in companies and extend your network beyond the employer by seeking contacts of recruiters and/or HR personnel. You become a known commodity to the company when a friend refers you in his working environment and you have a better opportunity to impress the employer.
? Develop new skills and add knowledge to the existing ones. Use the internet to know about newer skills in your field of work.
? Pray to God for being knowledgeable, clear and fluent during rounds of interviews instead of worrying in your cubicle.
? Make a good impression in the interview when selected. Do not just be professional but also personable. Recruiters prefer employees with good personality who can talk about various aspects of lives other than their technical skills. The length of your answers does not matter but be sure; they are meaningful and try asking sensible and relevant questions in the end.
? Avoid depression and tension and try elevating your mood with good company of friends and relatives who might have been avoided so far due to job demands or other deployment problems.
? If you want to move back to your country to use your skills and work closer to family and/or friends, consider doing that. You were here for moving ahead in career after completing your education; decide what you want to do in life.
Anyways, keep faith in God and hard work. The best will happen and fate would ensure success as long as it can last.

:Gus Taperman