July 2008 Archives

were down 0.3 percent on Thursday at 5:25 a.m. EDT and S&P 500 futures were also lower by 0.2 while Nasdaq futures were down by 0.1 percent.

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Wall Street Journal reported that the automaker will cut 5,000 North American white-collar jobs by November 1 -- part of GM's plan announced earlier this month to save $10 billion through 2009. The day's economic data calendar has advance Q2 GDP, Q2 employment costs and weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. EDT; the New York NAPM at 9 a.m. EDT; the Chicago PMI at 1345 GMT and the Kansas City Fed's July manufacturing survey at 11 a.m. EDT.

Full Story: Wall Street stock futures down; eyes on Exxon, GDP (Reuters)

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The Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has held the revolution in technology and communication in last few decades responsible for outsourcing of jobs to India and China.

"Over the last few decades, revolutions in technology and communication have made it so that corporations can send good jobs wherever there's an Internet connection. Children here in Missouri aren't just growing up competing for good jobs with children in California or Indiana, but with children in China and India as well," Senator Obama said at a campaign rally in Springfield, Missouri. In a veiled attack on the previous government for its decision on economic reforms, he said, "It was irresponsible decisions that were made on Wall Street and in Washington. In the past few years, we have relearned the essential truth that in the long run, we cannot have a thriving Wall Street and a struggling Main Street." When wages are flat, prices are rising and more and more Americans are mired in debt, the economy as a whole suffers.

Full Story: Outsourcing? Tech to blame, says Obama

What would your favorite small open source project do with a sudden influx of money? Imagine you donated $5000 to a project, where would the money go? Less scrupulous developers might spend the money on Mountain Dew and Twinkies, but more likely the money would just sit, doing nothing.



Full Story: What Do Small Open Source Projects Do With Money? Not Much.

Gov. David Paterson said Wednesday he wants to freeze hiring and cut state spending by an additional 7 percent to shore up a state economy that his budget director said is officially in recession.

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Paterson said a budget deficit will hit $26.2 billion in three years because of high state spending and declining revenues, including a 97 percent drop in banking taxes from a year ago. He is also seeking approval of measures that have failed to gain support in the Legislature , including privatizing some state assets and resources.

Full Story: NY gov. seeks hiring freeze, spending cuts (AP)

Elastic Tapes Blog, News and Updates

It’s easy to forget with all the source compiling, the conspiracy theories, and the OS flaming going on in every corner of the Internet, that there is a fun side of our beloved OS and Open Source applications. I have compiled a list of 10 easter eggs found in Open Source project



Full Story: 10 Cool Open Source Easter Eggs

Crude oil prices sank $2.54 to $122.19 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange , extending their two-week-long retreat from record highs above $147. The prospect of lower energy costs for U.S. consumers, along with a modest uptick in the Conference Board's July index of consumer confidence to 51.9 from 51 in June, came as welcome news.

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"The thinking is that oil prices are heading lower, and that's obviously a positive for the market," said Richard E. Cripps, chief market strategist for Stifel Nicolaus . A stock bounce was hardly unexpected, though, after the Dow lost nearly 240 points Monday on worries about the sagging financial sector.

Full Story: Stocks soar after another drop in oil prices (AP)

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OpenRemote is a new, open source home automation system, focusing on the software and leaving the hardware construction to the users.



Full Story: OpenRemote grows in popularity

metropolitan areas fell 0.9 percent in May from April, bringing the measure down 15.8 percent from May 2007.

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Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the monthly and annual drops would be 1 percent and 16 percent, respectively. S&P said the composite index of 10 metropolitan areas declined 1 percent in May, for a 16.9 percent year-over-year drop.

Full Story: Home prices fell at record pace in May: S&P (Reuters)

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The Linux kernel is the core of a large and complex operating system, and while it's huge, it is well organized in terms of subsystems and layers. In this article, you explore the general structure of the Linux kernel and get to know its major subsystems and core interfaces. The Linux kernel is over 6 million lines of code...



Full Story: Anatomy of The Linux Kernel

Bush administration on Monday projected the U.S. budget deficit will soar to a record of nearly half a trillion dollars in fiscal 2009 as a housing-led economic slowdown cuts into government revenues.

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"I believe whoever becomes the next president will have a very, very sobering first week in office," predicted Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad , a North Dakota Democrat. Reacting to the White House's new prediction that the budget deficit will hit $482 billion in the fiscal year that starts October 1, Conrad said that number easily could rise by an additional $80 billion when the full costs of the Iraq war are tallied next year.

Full Story: White House sees record budget gap in 2009 (Reuters)

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A job applicant posted the questionnaire in full on Ubuntu forums asking for "help from the experts" for his job interview, expecting them to do the work for him. Someone tipped off the hiring manager, and the guy responded! Great thread, worth a read.



Full Story: Guy busted asking for answers to a job questionnaire

Despite having been in existence for a while, index funds have never quite captured the domestic investor's imagination. And the reasons are not hard to see, given that index funds have been outscored by actively managed funds for a better part of their existence.

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However, a related investment style i.e. index-plus investing has delivered better results. Index-plus investing combines active and passive investing, thereby attempting to capitalise on the best of both worlds. ] Top 200 Fund has made a name for itself as a proponent of index-plus investing. In this article, we put HTF's investment proposition under the scanner and study its performance.

Full Story: Has HDFC Top 200 delivered?

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gave a vote of confidence to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke , saying he had made some good decisions in difficult circumstances.

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"I think that Chairman Bernanke was handed a pretty tough hand and I think some of the decisions he's made have been the right ones," the presumptive Democratic nominee told Reuters in an interview on Saturday evening. Obama, speaking on the flight home to Chicago from his nine-day overseas trip, also said he would convene a meeting on Monday on the economy and the financial system.

Full Story: Obama gives Fed's Bernanke vote of confidence (Reuters)

Elastic Tapes Blog, News and Updates

Hurrah! Major Wi-Fi vendor finally opens all the way up to Linux.



Full Story: Atheros makes friends with Linux

gave a vote of confidence to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke , saying he had made some good decisions in difficult circumstances.

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"I think that Chairman Bernanke was handed a pretty tough hand and I think some of the decisions he's made have been the right ones," the presumptive Democratic nominee told Reuters in an interview on Saturday evening. In a move that some criticized as a bailout, the Fed came to the rescue of investment bank Bear Stearns by helping to broker its takeover by J.P. Morgan Chase .

Full Story: Obama gives Bernanke vote of confidence (Reuters)

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fter using the mv command all too many times and typing things like mv FILE.TXT file.txt, I wrote this script. I was thinking I could put a new coat of paint on it but, in reality, it does the job and is easy to understand. (The line numbers are there, of course, just for reference.)



Full Story: Convert Filenames to Lowercase

ABBA 's a mega-hit and Elton John's going to be performing at Madison Square Garden. Had enough of these '70s flashbacks? Brace yourself for another: the return of the national speed limit, courtesy of one of the country's most venerable politicians.

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The National Maximum Speed Limit of 55 mph was created in 1974, when Richard Nixon signed the Emergency Energy Highway Conservation Act. Prior to that, states had been free to set their own speed limits, but the new law threatened to strip Federal highway funding from any state straying above the national standard. The ostensible purpose of this limit was to keep down gas prices, which had been driven through the roof by an OPEC embargo touched off by the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. And with gas-prices once again sky-high, Warner isn't alone in talking up a cap on speeding. , is already on the case. Earlier this month, she introduced a bill that would cap highway speed limits at 60 mph - 65 in rural areas. It's currently awaiting a hearing before the House Committee on Transportation. Warner says he hasn't contacted Speier, but adds that he'd be willing to "stroll out on the floor" in favor of a speed-limit bill. He has yet to propose a similar bill in the Senate.

Full Story: Would You Drive 55? (Time.com)

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Since version 2 came out in 2005, Google Desktop for Windows has included a sidebar that users can fill with screen gadgets, but the Linux version (version 1, from June 2007) provided only indexing and search functions, with no eye candy whatsoever. This has finally changed. Google recently released Google Gadgets for Linux (GGL)



Full Story: Google Gadgets for Linux -- Almost There

CHICAGO - Consumer spending is down and gas prices are up. That's bad math for the scores of destination retailers across the country that want customers to fill up the tank for a gas-guzzling day of retail therapy.

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So to cajole shoppers into stores, some of the nation's chains are changing marketing strategies, launching in-store classes and drumming up other special events aimed at getting road-tripping shoppers to pump up sales. Customers at Bass Pro Shops drive an average of 100 miles to reach the company's 50 locations and many are known to drive up to 300 miles each way to spend time at the massive outdoor supercenters.

Full Story: Destination retailers feel gas price pinch (AP)

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The Ubuntu developers are moving very quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source Community has to offer. The Intrepid Ibex Alpha 3 is the third alpha release of Ubuntu 8.10, and with this new alpha release comes a whole host of excellent new features.



Full Story: Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex" Alpha 3

said Thursday, as buyers showed little interest amid falling real estate prices and uncertainty about jobs and the economy.

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Home and condo resales fell 2.6% from May to an annual rate of 4.86 million, the lowest since the NAR began tracking the series in 1999. Economists expected 4.95 million. Sales sank 16% vs. a year earlier. Rising mortgage rates, tighter lending standards, job losses and stagnant wages are discouraging even credit-worthy would-be homebuyers.

Full Story: Home Sales Sink To New Low As Job Market Weakens (Investor's Business Daily)

Elastic Tapes Blog, News and Updates

The best systems administrators are set apart by their efficiency. And if an efficient systems administrator can do a task in 10 minutes that would take another mortal two hours to complete, then the efficient systems administrator should be rewarded (paid more) because the company is saving time, and time is money, right?



Full Story: Lazy Linux: 10 essential tricks for admins

I n a trend that shows no signs of abating, investment advisors continue to find ingenious reasons to make their investors churn their mutual fund portfolios. Now some investment advisors are raising the red flag on falling AUMs (assets under management of the mutual fund, also referred to as net assets). They are telling investors to redeem funds that are seeing a drop in their net assets because this is a sign that those funds are in trouble.

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Surprised? Redeeming funds would mean a fall in the advisor's AUM; that in turn would mean a loss in income for the advisor one might say. Well, the key here is that the investor is being persuaded to churn his portfolio i.e. redeem his holdings from a fund and invest in another. Of course, there's more than a fair chance that the second fund is also losing AUM on account of the falling markets. But then there's a stronger possibility that the second fund belongs to a fund house that has recently announced a contest/attractive compensation structure to incentivise advisors to combat the challenge posed by falling markets. Of course, none of this is likely to find mention in the advisor's sales pitch.

Full Story: What falling AUMs mean for your mutual fund

Elastic Straps Blog, News and Updates

A report showing a larger-than-expected increase in the number of people filing for unemployment benefits in the latest week added to concerns about a slowing labor market.

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Even so, technology shares could rise after a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit from Internet retailer Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), whose stock shot up nearly 9 percent to $76.64 before the bell. "Not everyone is going to jump in here. There's some apprehension as to the sustainability of the recent market bounce," said Andre Bakhos, president of Princeton Financial Group in Princeton, New Jersey. "On the surface, Ford is not a positive." S&P 500 futures fell 1.3 points and were near break-even with fair value, a mathematical formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract.

Full Story: Wall Street set for flat open, techs may gain (Reuters)

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Books, CDs, flashcards, classes -- there are a lot of tools to help you learn a foreign language. If you spend much of your time near a computer, software may be one of the better options. Ian McIntosh's Amigo is a friendly language utility for the Linux user, notable for how well it integrates into the desktop.



Full Story: Why not learn a little language while you work, Amigo?

T hat's a question we routinely hear nowadays. Ever since the equity markets have been engulfed by volatility, the most frequently heard piece of advice is - invest via the systematic investment plan route for the long-term. While regular visitors and clients of Personalfn have since long bought into the merits of SIP investing, we are rather surprised to note that it took a prolonged volatile phase for most investment experts/advisors to appreciate the importance of SIP investing.

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Coming back to the original question - which is the best SIP? Thanks to all the hype around SIPs, several investors have been led to believe that the SIP is an investment avenue. Furthermore, the panacea to the present testing phase is to select the best SIP and get invested therein. The SIP is simply an investment mode i.e. a means to invest in mutual funds and not an investment avenue . When an investor chooses to invest via an SIP, he makes investments (usually) in smaller denominations at regular time intervals as opposed to making a single lump sum investment. The underlying intention is to benefit from the volatility in equity markets by lowering the average purchase cost. In this article, we discuss the pros and cons of SIP investing.

Full Story: Which is the best SIP?

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, said on Wednesday second-quarter profit tumbled 92 percent as the housing slump cut into home sales and refinancings.

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Net income fell to $6.9 million, or 3 cents per share, from $84.8 million, or 38 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 21 percent to $1.18 billion. Analysts on average expected profit of 13 cents per share on revenue of $1.17 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

Full Story: Title insurer Fidelity National's net sinks 92 percent (Reuters)

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Billionaire, cosmonaut and founder of the fast-growing Ubuntu Linux distro Mark Shuttleworth dreams impossible dreams. That dream? To produce a desktop more beautiful to ordinary users than legions of Apple programmers supping on the milk of chief exec Steve Jobs' alleged brilliance are capable of producing.



Full Story: Ubuntu founder: We can surpass Apple in two years

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Rising prices at the gas pump appear to be having at least one positive effect: Traffic deaths around the country are plummeting, just as they did during the Arab oil embargo three decades ago.

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Researchers with the National Safety Council report a 9 percent drop in motor vehicle deaths overall through May compared with the first five months of 2007, including a drop of 18 percent in March and 14 percent in April. Preliminary figures obtained by The Associated Press show that some states have reported declines of 20 percent or more. Thirty-one states have seen declines of at least 10 percent, and eight states have reported an increase, according to the council.

Full Story: AP IMPACT: Traffic deaths fall as gas prices climb (AP)

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Life would be a lot easier if we could live in a Linux-only world and if applications never required data from other sources. However, the need to get data from Windows, MS-DOS, or old Macintosh systems is all too common. This kind of import process requires some conversions to solve file format differences; otherwise, it would be impossible



Full Story: Linux tools to convert file formats

Reuters - Record gasoline prices are fueling a boom in sales of fuel-efficient scooters across the United States, as commuters ditch their gas-guzzlers and don helmets and goggles to beat high prices at the pump.

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Full Story: Soaring gas prices drive scooter sales skyward (Reuters)

Elastic Tapes Blog, News and Updates

Windows’ memory usage went up by 0.07GB, or 71.68MB. The CPU still fluctuated madly but hung around 20%. Under Fedora, memory usage increased by only 50MB and with a maximum processor utilisation of 4%, shortly resuming to 1% while sitting idle (with Windows still jumping all about.)



Full Story: Face off: Windows vs Linux real world RAM and disk tests

W e receive several queries from investors on investment-related dilemmas. Irrespective of the nature of these queries, they help us understand the investor's perception on investments. Typically, such queries highlight the conflicts that investors face while making investments.

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Getting into a dilemma while investing is a common phenomenon. It usually happens when investors are indecisive about two seemingly similar situations or investment avenues. If the dilemmas are not tackled early on, it could lead to a flawed investment decision, which can be disastrous for your finances. These dilemmas are usually a result of the lack of knowledge among investors about various investment options. This leads to confusion about which investment option is most suitable in a given situation. In a bid to simplify things, investors look for answers that may have worked for their friend or colleague in the past.

Full Story: 5 common investment dilemmas

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NEW YORK - Factories laying off workers, stocks tumbling and shoppers ditching their credit cards forced the economy to contract in June, a trend likely to continue in the second half of 2008, a private business group said Monday.

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The New York-based Conference Board's forecast of future economic activity fell 0.1 percent last month, in line with forecasts by Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson Financial/IFR. The group also revised May's number downward to a 0.2 percent decrease, from a 0.1 percent increase.

Full Story: Unemployment, stocks push down leading indicators (AP)

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Intel's enthusiasm for open source is gathering speed: now it is endorsing professional Linux certifications, snubbing the old Microsoft certification program.



Full Story: Intel snubs Microsoft; offers Linux certification

irfan answers,  at 2008-07-16 12:52:18 hi, sip is a mode of investment and not an investment avenue by itself. you need to determine a fund that is right for you and then consider making an investment via sips.

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chris asked,  Hello Mr. Irfan. My portfolio consists of dsp opportunity, fidelity equity, franklin flexi-cap, hdfc equity, hdfc top 200, hsbc equity and reliance vision. Out of the funds listed which one to keep for the long term growth especially in the case of 2 hdfc funds I am holding for I will retire soon. With thanks, please advice. irfan answers,  hi, if you are about to retire soon and are going to rely on your investments to provide for your daily needs, there is a case for gradually shifting from equities to lower risk avenues like POMIS, FDs, FMPs.

Full Story: Investing through SIPs? Choose wisely

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on how to resolve the country's banking crisis, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

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Goldman's most senior financial-institutions banker, who has played a big role in capital raisings and reorganizations across the banking sector, will join Paulson to address issues from a more macro perspective, the paper said. The move comes as the Treasury and Federal Reserve grapple with issues including the threat of bank failures, alarming capital levels and crises of confidence in important institutions such as Fannie Mae (FNM.N) and Freddie Mac (FRE.N).

Full Story: Goldman's Wilson to advise Paulson on banking: report (Reuters)

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Aegis BPO Services, an Essar Group business process outsourcing (BPO) company, is close to acquiring an 8,000-seater BPO firm in the Philippines. The exact size of the deal is not clear.

Aegis has been bullish on inorganic growth as its races to reach a turnover of $500 million (around Rs 2,000 crore) by 2010. Aparup Sengupta, managing director and CEO of Aegis BPO, had told Business Standard that the company was in talks with 7-10 companies for a 'strategic fit' and was looking at firms in the US, South America and the Philippines. The company has also stated its intent to invest anything between Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) and Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) to acquire these companies.

Full Story: Aegis eyes Philippine BPO

After working my butt off on the WM and DE guides, I’m back for some more distro goodness! To stay politically correct, I’ll state the real title of the post, which should be something like ‘The top 5 New Awesome New



Full Story: Top 5 Linux Distro Upgrades Coming Out in 2. Half of 2008

W ith the Sensex tottering at 13,000 levels, a whole lot of investors would be wondering if they should exit their mutual funds or stop their monthly systematic investment plans. While the latter does not make sense, especially if you are in good equity diversified funds, the former can be contemplated in certain cases.

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Generally, getting into a mutual fund is associated with a long-term relationship whereby, there are good times as well as bad times. However, most investors are willing to enjoy the upside, but at the slightest hint of a downside, they start crying foul. Here we address the issue of when you should take the tough call of exiting your mutual fund. Consistently poor performer: There are times when even a star fund manager will not be able to get great returns. Especially, in times like these, where all funds are sitting on cash simply because of lack of opportunities.

Full Story: When to exit your mutual fund

Elastic Straps Blog, News and Updates

told Congress Wednesday that troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in "no danger of failing." The Fed chief made his remarks to the House Financial Services Committee, his second day on Capitol Hill where he briefed lawmakers on the problems plaguing the economy.

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Bernanke appeared amid a backdrop of fading confidence in the U.S. financial system and in the national economy. The Fed and the Treasury Department on Sunday came to the rescue of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, offering to throw them a financial lifeline.

Full Story: Bernanke: Fannie, Freddie in no danger of failing (AP)

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For instance, a digital advertising contract between India's second largest IT services provider Infosys Technologies and a major American newspaper group is threatening to become a rallying point for the brigade to regroup and renew attacks on outsourcing of management information systems (MIS) and key operations-related work to India.

Infosys Technologies, according to sources, signed an advertising outsourcing deal with Missouri-based Kansas City Star sometime last month. The daily, a part of the McClatchy Company that also publishes the Miami Herald, will outsource advertising production work for its new media/digital business to Bangalore. ] . "While the deal is not substantial in terms of payback, over the next three to five years, City Star has been looking at gaining the economy of scale in its production set-up over the past year by outsourcing digital media production across a few of its publications to different vendors," the source said.

Full Story: Media outsourcing attracts ire of US brigade

Linus Torvalds quietly released another update to the Linux kernel over the weekend that offers better support for kernel-based virtual machines, a kernel debugger, improved webcam support and new support for the One Laptop Per Child architecture.



Full Story: Linux 2.6.26 kernel update released

O ver the last few years, when equity markets were surging northwards, balanced funds were relegated to the sidelines. Instead, equity funds, especially new fund offers were the season's flavour. Fund houses were busy launching a slew of infrastructure and global funds, among others.

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And most advisors (taking a cue from the markets and fund houses alike), were busy piling up their clients' portfolios with equity fund offerings. As a result, several investors landed up with investment portfolios lop-sided in favour of equities. Expectedly the volatile equity markets have adversely affected such portfolios. Then there are balanced funds with the mandate to invest at least 65 per cent of their portfolio in equities and the balance (35 per cent) in debt instruments. In effect, balanced funds offer investors the benefits of asset allocation, while investing in a single avenue.

Full Story: Is DSP ML Balanced Fund a good buy?

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Wednesday as Wells Fargo & Co's (WFC.N) upbeat quarterly results eased concerns about the impact of the credit crisis on banks, overshadowing data that pointed to rising inflationary pressures.

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Consumer prices in June rose on a continued surge in gasoline prices, adding more pressure to an economy beset with a stressed banking system and the worst housing downturn in decades. Even so, shares of financial services companies rose as investors bid the beaten-down sector higher, with shares of Wells Fargo up more than 18 percent to lead the S&P 500 's advance.

Full Story: Stocks rise as Wells Fargo eases bank fears (Reuters)

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A meeting with the staffs at the bank's lending services centre in Auckland and customer transaction service centre in Wellington took place on Tuesday, which according to NZPA report is the beginning of a two-week consultation period over the outsourcing of the work to India.

Meanwhile, Finance workers union Finsec accused the Australian-owned bank of being greedy and a bad corporate citizen. The work will be done in India at a quarter of the cost, the report said. The bank disputed the union's claim of job losses when the story first broke, saying that the back office workers would be offered the chance to work in bank branches, report said.

Full Story: New Zealand Bank to send jobs to India

The first version of Auto-NDISwrapper helps you out to setting up your wireless card in Linux in the case that there is no native or free driver available for it. Although not a pretty solution NDISwrapper has been helping out the poor people who's wireless cards aren't supported in Linux. Now things are a little bit easier. Get it while it's hot!



Full Story: Auto-NDISwrapper is out! No more hunting down for drivers

H olding your nerve in a bear market requires both sound knowledge and a cool head. If you can do so, you can both reduce losses and find profitable gems gathering dust. After all, it's worth remembering that that most revered of all investment prophets Warren Buffet eyes bear markets with a special gleam in his eye - for it's at such times that buying opportunities are available with handsome value in-built into their prices. Here are ten rules from a master trader to steer by in difficult times...

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Flick the switch You'll never make rational investment decisions if you're mesmerised by the gyrating prices on your screen. Steel yourself not to look at prices, read market reports or talk to stockbrokers during trading hours. Markets are not going to turn for the better just because you will them to. And, as prices have fallen so far, it matters little if you miss the first inch of their eventual recovery. Pound the streets You don't just need a sense of perspective; you need the widest possible perspective. The best investment opportunities are those you discover by observation of the workings of the economy in the aftermath of the stock market collapse. If you can bear it, take the taxi driver litmus test.

Full Story: 10 rules for investing in a bear market

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INFLATION: Wholesale prices jumped sharply in June, reflecting surging energy and food costs. For the past 12 months, prices are up 9.2 percent, the biggest gain in 27 years.

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CONSUMERS: Retail spending edged up just 0.1 percent in June, the weakest showing since February, even though the government was mailing out billions of dollars in economic stimulus payments. Trade Forex Online with GFT Free Practice Account & Training. Trade 24 hrs-a-day 5.5 days a week.

Full Story: Summary Box: Wholesale prices surge (AP)

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“Of all the commands available you picked the wrong one!”



Full Story: A Little Linux and Unix Humor - Error Messages

A t Personalfn, we regularly interact with investors who need assistance with their financial planning. And often the latter entails (among others), conducting a review of their existing investment portfolios. An increasingly common and rather disturbing trend is the absence of a solid 'core' portfolio.

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In recent times, we have met several investors (most were new to investing in mutual funds) whose investment portfolios were constituted of only thematic and sectoral funds. To further complicate matters, these investments were made in new fund offers launched at a time when markets were surging northwards. Expectedly, such portfolios are in dire straits at present. The core portfolio By the core portfolio, we are referring to a mix of investment avenues that is capable of delivering an enduring performance across market cycles.

Full Story: Do you have a core portfolio in place?

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Weak retail sales and a rise in producer prices at their highest annual rate in 27 years provided further evidence of "stagflation" in the U.S. economy on Tuesday.

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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reinforced the troubled outlook for the world's largest economy, saying growth faced significant downside risks, even though the Fed raised its forecast for economic growth as well as for inflation. In its semi-annual monetary policy report to Congress, the Fed raised its projection for growth in 2008, but this provided cold comfort to investors hit by the downturn in the stockmarket and to consumers facing soaring energy prices and higher unemployment.

Full Story: Data paint stagflationary picture (Reuters)

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The developers of the open-source GNOME desktop environment have announced their plans for version 3.0. This milestone will be reached through the current strategy of incremental development.



Full Story: GNOME 3.0 officially announced... and explained

T he rise in the interest rates is impacting every borrower. And even investors have not been spared because a sustained high interest rate implies that they will have to earn higher rate of return to keep their real rate of return in positive.

Add to the high interest rate, high rate of inflation and the cocktail becomes really heady. This is because the overall expenditure rises, leading to imbalances in the household budget. So such situations, where the rise in expenses coupled with fall in returns are rather challenging for investors. During such times, it is important that investors are able to ensure that they keep earning good returns, even after things cool down a bit to make up for the money they lost in bad times.

Full Story: How to earn high returns on bank deposits

Elastic Straps Blog, News and Updates

told Congress Tuesday the fragile economy is facing "numerous difficulties" despite the Fed's aggressive interest rate reductions and other fortifying steps.

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At the same time, Bernanke, testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, sounded another warning that rising prices for energy and food are elevating inflation risks. This problem looms even as officials try to cope with persistent strains in financial markets, rising joblessness and housing problems. The situation, he said, poses "significant challenges" for Fed policymakers as they try to chart the best course for keeping the economy growing, while making sure inflation doesn't dangerously flare up. All the economy's problems, including slumping home values, which threaten to make people feel less wealthy and less inclined to spend in the months ahead, represent "significant downside risks" to economic growth.

Full Story: Fed chief details woes in markets, housing, jobs (AP)

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Customizing linux terminal window.



Full Story: Configuring Terminal to Work as a Transparent Wallpaper

F or years, banks have had to fall back on their own experience to gauge consumer's credit worthiness. However, in the last few years, things have started to change for the better.

Lenders now are armed with your credit report provided by Cibil (Credit Information Bureau India Limited) that has all the pertinent details of your credit pattern (loans and credit cards). More importantly, since this data is collated from across the country, whether you have defaulted in Mangalore or in Mumbai, you are still on the radar. And when you apply for a loan or a credit card, lenders call for a copy of credit report from Cibil before considering your case. This report has a credit score that is arrived at by analysing your repayment record, outstanding debt, credit enquiries, amount of credit limit utilised and various other parameters.

Full Story: How banks decide to give you a loan or not

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as a weakening housing market, tighter credit and rising oil prices threaten the economy, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Tuesday.

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"Accurately assessing and appropriately balancing the risks to the outlook for growth and inflation is a significant challenge for monetary policy-makers," Bernanke said in remarks to the Senate Banking Committee. Bernanke was delivering his semi-annual testimony on economic conditions to lawmakers. "The possibility of higher energy prices, tighter credit conditions, and a still-deeper contraction in housing markets all represent significant downside risks to the outlook for growth. At the same time, upside risks to the inflation outlook have intensified lately," he said.

Full Story: Bernanke: Financial markets under heavy stress (Reuters)

Elastic Tapes Blog, News and Updates

I've been a fan of gOS for a while now. I've been running their Rocket release for about a year. It's based on Ubuntu and has the benefit of pre-installed Enlightenment. It's solid, runs well on lower-end hardware, and...it's Enlightenment (what more do you want?) On January 7, 2008 gOS...



Full Story: gOS Space: OSX like operating system without Apple

C ontra investing draws from value investing and is regarded as a subset of the latter. It entails investing in fundamentally strong companies/sectors/themes that are presently out of favour. In other words, the fund manager takes a bet that is contrary to the popular trend in the markets and hence the name contrarian investing.

A contra fund operates on the premise that investment opportunities fall in two categories a) those that are identified by most investors and therefore already form part of their portfolios and b) those that are ignored or not yet identified. Since investment opportunities under Category A are identified by most they are overbought and are therefore trading at higher valuations. The investment opportunities in Category B are what really interest the contrarian investor. These opportunities come by way of temporary/short-term occurrences which make fundamentally strong stocks/sectors attractive investment propositions for the investor. When markets turn around, these investment opportunities tend to get valued in line with their fundamentals and investors clock a return based on the uptick.

Full Story: Has Magnum Contra delivered?

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told Congress Tuesday the fragile economy is facing "numerous difficulties" including persistent strains in financial markets, rising joblessness and housing problems — despite the Fed's aggressive interest rate reductions and other fortifying steps.

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At the same time, Bernanke, testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, sounded another warning that rising prices for energy and food are elevating inflation risks. The situation, he said, poses "significant challenges" for Fed policymakers as they try to chart the best course for keeping the economy growing, while making sure inflation doesn't dangerously flare up. All the economy's problems, including slumping home values, which threaten to make people feel less wealthy and less inclined to spend in the months ahead, represent "significant downside risks" to economic growth.

Full Story: Bernanke: economy faces 'numerous difficulties' (AP)

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IT-BPO firms, which are already facing a US slowdown and currency fluctuations, are now busy in firming up their plans to tackle a rising inflation in the country and its impact on salary, sales, general and administrative (SG&A) and travel costs, which can dent their profit margins.

] do it during the year. If inflation continues throughout the year the firms would have to effect a mid-term hike or raise the salary by a good measure in the next financial year. Next in line comes transport costs as many transport associations are planning to increase their rates. The Maharashtra Call Centre Drivers' and Owners' Association (MCCDOA) has asked for an increase in remuneration. "All BPO units pay us Rs 6 per kilometre. Considering the increase in petrol and diesel prices, we now want the charges hiked to Rs 10 per kilometre," said Nana Kshirsagar, president, MCCDOA.

Full Story: BPOs grapple with inflation

Amarok 2 alpha 1 was released last week. Ars conducted extensive testing with the prerelease to give you an early look at the highly-anticipated update of the popular open-source audio player.



Full Story: First look: Amarok 2 alpha 1 looking strong

A s the Samajwadi Party demands its pound of flesh from the United Progressive Alliance, select companies could benefit. A smart investor can profit from such firms.

The new power structure is less stable. Elections are guaranteed within the next 12 months anyway. But a handful of defections could trigger the end of the UPA and that makes the environment even less conducive to long-term planning. The SP doesn't have ideological hang-ups. It has always been consistent in its commitment to generating return on its investments. That commitment to ROI could lead economic policy in new directions.

Full Story: The 'Super Party' impact

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fannie Mae (FNM.N) and Freddie Mac (FRE.N) said on Friday that their finances were sufficiently sound to withstand the housing crisis as government officials scrambled to restore confidence in the country's two largest mortgage finance companies. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson indicated that a bailout of Fannie and Freddie was unlikely despite financial market concerns that the agencies, which finance nearly half of U.S. homes, may have trouble raising enough money to keep buying mortgages. A key senator said the U.S. Federal Reserve was considering allowing Fannie and Freddie to borrow directly from the central bank, spurring speculation that the Fed may take action as early as this weekend. Fannie and Freddie shares, after taking a beating, recovered some of their earlier losses but ending lower on the day.

Full Story: Fannie, Freddie say they have plenty of capital (Reuters)

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With this new store comes a new app that at least gives us Open Source a life line. The leading Open Source development website, SourceForge has announced today the release of its application ‘SFNetNews’ via the newly opened iTunes store, which will enable users to read news from Slashdot, install apps from Freshmeat, browse Thinkgeek! The price?



Full Story: Sourceforge on Your iPhone!

W hen it comes to investing, it is commonly observed that investors tend to replicate the investment strategy followed by their colleagues, friends or relatives.

It is generally believed that an investment strategy that has worked for one will also work for others. However, this is the wrong approach, simply because 'one size does not fit all' while investing. Instead, investors need to build an investment portfolio that is right for them. Building an investment portfolio requires the investor to put in a fair degree of thought and time. The need for the latter is only accentuated in light of the overwhelming choices available. In this article, we present a 4-step strategy that will help investors build an investment portfolio.

Full Story: 4 great tips for safe investing

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WASHINGTON - The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in May as exports — including industrial supplies and consumer goods — climbed to all-time highs. The latest snapshot of trade activity, reported by the Commerce Department on Friday, showed that the nation's trade gap, thanks largely to the declining dollar, decreased to $59.8 billion. That was down 1.2 percent from April's trade deficit and was the best showing since March. Exports of U.S.-made goods and services totaled an all-time high of $157.6 billion in May. That marked a 0.9 percent increase from April. The declining value of the U.S. dollar relative to other currencies, especially the euro, is helping to make U.S. exports cheaper and thus more attractive to foreign buyers. Growth in exports has been one of the few bright spots for the U.S. economy, which has been pounded by housing, credit and financial crises.

Full Story: Trade deficit ebbs as exports rise to record high (AP)

Elastic Tapes Blog, News and Updates

Outlining his vision for a strong US economy, presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has said outsourcing of American jobs to India and China cannot be reversed.

"Revolutions in communications and technology have sent jobs wherever there's an internet connection, that have forced children in Raleigh and Boston to compete for those jobs with children in Bangalore and Beijing," Obama said in a speech in Raleigh, North Carolina. "We live in a more competitive world, and that is a fact that cannot be reversed," he added.

Full Story: Jobs' outsourcing to India, China not reversible: Obama

The increasingly popular Ubuntu Linux distribution will soon be sold on the shelves in Best Buy. Will users pay $19.99 for what they can get online for free?



Full Story: Canonical hopes Best Buy Ubuntu will spur Linux adoption

Chesapeake Bay city of idled crab processing plants and costly vacation homes has had a not-too-distant history of racial strife. But when Cambridge elected its first black mayor this week, residents said their worries about joblessness and the economy were foremost on their minds — not the race or gender of the winning candidate. Decades after the demise of segregation, this sleepy city on Maryland's Eastern Shore has elected not only its first black mayor but also its first woman to the post. For Cambridge, the choice of Victoria Jackson -Stanley signaled just how much times have changed. "I didn't set out to make history, but here it is," said the 54-year-old social worker, who ousted an eight-year incumbent in a nonpartisan election.

Full Story: Md. city with edgy racial past elects black mayor (AP)

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] , the UK-based insurer may drop plans of absorbing the outsourcing operations from its existing vendors, including WNS Global Services, EXL Services and 24x7 Services, sources who declined to be identified said. The outsourcing deal is valued at $1 billion over a 10-year period.

Aviva's BPO operations are run by Aviva Global Services on a built-operate-transfer (BOT) basis and managed by WNS Global, EXL and 24x7 Services. The insurer had plans to absorb these operations over a period of time. "We have been reviewing our offshore operations and that review is now coming to a close. We expect to announce our decision shortly and will let you know as soon as we have further information," an Aviva Global Services (AGS) spokesperson said. The executives of WNS and EXL Services declined to comment on the matter.

Full Story: Aviva may not absorb vendors' operations

The Linux desktop has come a long, long way, but there are still times when I have to use the command line. (I am a hardcore user, after all.) But even though I’m used to typing, spending hours upon hours with my fingers at the keyboard, I still grow tired of typing the same commands over and over. To reduce that tedium, I always add aliases to my



Full Story: 10 Handy Bash Aliases To Cut Down Linux Command Line Typing

Toyota Motor Corp said on Thursday it would start building its Prius hybrid in the United States in 2010 and suspend production of slow-selling big trucks for three months in a sharp reversal of strategy forced by slumping sales and high gas prices. Toyota, which has faced widening shortages of fuel- efficient small cars in recent months, will start building its top-selling hybrid at a new Mississippi plant, originally scheduled to produce the Highlander sport utility vehicle . The unusual and costly moves by Toyota, now the global auto sales leader, underscored the pressure across the industry as major automakers scuttle truck production and take steps to ramp up output of passenger cars to keep up with a dramatic shift in U.S. buying patterns.

Full Story: Toyota to build Prius in U.S., slash truck output (Reuters)

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National Australia Bank is expected to send another 400 information technology jobs to India by the end of the year.

] and Oracle to develop its billion-dollar, next-generation platform, which will form the key pillar in the bank's technology transformation plan, dubbed Program NEOS. NAB chief information officer Michelle Tredenick told technology staff this week that it was ramping up its offshoring initiatives as part of Program NEOS, in an email quoted by The Australian .

Full Story: Australian bank to offshore 400 IT jobs to India

The next stable release of GIMP nears. Version 2.6 is in the final stages of developement and the developers prepare for a pre release version soon. Here you can find the new features with screenshots etc



Full Story: GIMP 2.6 in July? - What will be new?

R ecently, we met a rather hassled investor. His concern was that his Monthly Income Plan (MIP) had skipped dividends over the last few months. As a result, the investor was in two minds about the prospects of the MIP and wasn't sure if he should stay invested.

Before discussing the case further, first let's understand the investment proposition offered by MIPs. MIPs are hybrid investment avenues that invest a minor portion of their portfolio (around 15 per cent-25 per cent) in equities and the balance in debt and money market instruments. Typically, MIPs are suited for investors with a low-moderate risk appetite. For instance, investors who wish to clock higher returns than those offered by fixed deposits or bonds and are willing to take on commensurately higher risk should consider adding MIPs to their portfolios.

Full Story: Are monthly income plans safe?

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The most commonly used elastic tapes are Tpu tapes, which are used in making straps for undergarments. Lycra is one of the renowned and in demand fabrics and elastic tapes are available in Lycra as well. These elastic tapes are extracted from Lycra, which has excellent stretchability and is widely utilized in swimwears, underwear, medical

finished sharply higher Tuesday as oil prices dropped for the second straight day and investors were encouraged by the possibility of more help for the ailing financial system. The Dow Jones industrials gained more than 150 points, and all the major indexes were up more than 1 percent. Crude prices tumbled $5.33 to settle at $136.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange , bringing oil's two-day drop to more than $9. Other commodities also pulled back. JPMorgan Chase & Co . Chief Executive Jamie Dimon gave the market some reassurance about the financial sector. Investors have been concerned this week about the health of government-backed lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; the two companies' troubles helped send prices lower on Monday, but they also helped lead the rebound Tuesday.

Full Story: Dow ends up 152 on decline in oil, Bernanke talk (AP)

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The loss of critical data can prove devastating. Still, millions of professionals ignore backing up their data. While individual reasons vary, one of the most common explanations is that performing routine backups can be a real chore. Because machines excel at mundane and repetitive tasks, the key to reducing the inherent drudgery and the natural h



Full Story: Automate backups on Linux

That was slightly better than Wall St. estimates, while April's rise in consumer credit outstanding was revised down to $7.8 bil. Credit card and other revolving debt grew by $5.7 bil after April's drop of $424 mil. Auto, boat and other nonrevolving loans rose $2.1 bil. Wholesale inventories rose 0.8% in May, more than expected after a 1.4% gain in April. But sales jumped 1.6% for a 2nd month, pushing the stock-to-sales ratio to a record-low 1.08 months. Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker said inflation is "unacceptably high" and said the Fed should hike rates as the economy improves. U.K. recession talk mounting The service sector is in its worst shape since Britain's last recession in the early '90s, while unemployment could rise by up to 300,000 by the end of '09, according to the British Chambers of Commerce's Q2 survey. A Mon. report said U.K. industrial output suffered a sharp 0.8% decline, while other data show mortgage activity falling sharply. But rising inflation makes it hard for the Bank of England to justify lowering borrowing costs. European Central Bank is more worried about inflation than the Fed and why it hiked rates last week.

Full Story: Economy - Tuesday (Investor's Business Daily)

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The US sub-prime crisis may have affected the fortunes of Indian IT firms, which have clients with mortgage exposure, but the country's legal process outsourcing outfits are laughing their way to the bank as American law firms have begun offshoring the credit crisis-related work.

The portfolio includes legal analytics, discovery and litigation support, and first-line document drafting. This is in addition to the renewed demand for traditional LPO skill sets like bankruptcy filing and processing, and claims' scrutiny out of India. The 200-odd LPO firms in India include SDD Global, Evalueserve, Integreon, OfficeTiger, CPA Global, Mindcrest and Pangea3, besides service providers such as Infosys BPO, Quattro BPO and Wipro BPO.

Full Story: Sub-prime swells coffers of Indian LPOs

Linux filesystem developer Hans Reiser has revealed the location of his wife's corpse to law enforcement officials. Meanwhile, development on his namesake filesystem appears to be grinding to a halt.



Full Story: ReiserFS fading into obscurity as maker leads cops to corpse

fluctuated Tuesday amid sinking oil prices , as investors remained jittery about the ailing financial system and weak economy ahead of second-quarter earnings.

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The drop in crude oil also arrives amid escalating worries about deteriorating lending conditions and the still-slumping housing market. Late Monday, cash-strapped IndyMac Bancorp Inc . said it is no longer accepting new mortgage loan submissions and is cutting 3,800 jobs — more than half its work force. IndyMac shares fell 34 cents, or 48 percent, to 37 cents a share. Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that pending sales of U.S. homes fell by 4.7 percent in May from the previous month. The worsening housing market not only stifles consumer spending, but also hurts the chances of a recovery at the banks that make loans and are invested in risky mortgage debt.

Full Story: Stocks fluctuate after Bernanke talk; oil down (AP)

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KOffice, like most KDE applications, has the unique selling point that the same codebase can be compiled and run on various platforms. The latest KOffice alpha release has attracted extra attention since it ships Windows and Macintosh binaries. This naturally means a much larger audience will be able to try it out and kick the tires. Techworld has



Full Story: KOffice 2 Alpha 8 Reviewed

Warning bells are ringing on Bangalore's future as a leading BPO destination. It is not a full-blown crisis yet but the portents are disturbing, according to a cross section of industry, human resource and real estate experts.

"From January 2008, only a handful of BPO companies have set up shop in Bangalore, as against an average two or three companies beginning operations every month in 2007," says a source in a real estate consulting firm. "Of late, we don't hear of too many companies coming to Bangalore, whereas we have seen many BPO companies starting operations in cities like Chennai, Noida, Kolkata and Kochi. I feel Karnataka is losing its advantage as a BPO destination," said S Nagarajan, founder and chief people officer of 24/7 Customer, a Bangalore-based BPO firm which employs around 7,000 people across various cities in India.

Full Story: Warning bells ring over Bangalore as BPO destination

If the cost of Windows is getting your small business down, consider shifting to Linux.



Full Story: Move Your Business from Windows to Linux

's top auto maker, said on Sunday it had cut its local sales target for this year by 6 percent as record-breaking oil prices are hitting consumer sentiment in Asia's fourth-largest economy.

But its affiliate Kia Motors Corp (000270.KS) and the country's No.2 car maker said it had raised its domestic sales target by 11 percent, helped by the popularity of its fuel-efficient mini-car and new model launches. Hyundai, which controls about half of the South Korea's car market, said in a statement that it aimed to sell 630,000 vehicles in the higher-margin domestic market, compared to its previous target of 670,000 units.

Full Story: Hyundai cuts, Kia lifts domestic sales target (Reuters)

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President George W. Bush said on Sunday the American economy was not growing as quickly as he would like and that his administration supported a strong dollar policy.

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The U.S. economy grew at a 1 percent annual rate in the first quarter amid soaring oil and commodity prices. In a sign of continuing weakness, the Labor Department reported last week U.S. employers cut jobs for the sixth straight month in June.

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The Bush administration has come under pressure from abroad to take action to stabilize the weak U.S. dollar, another issue likely to come up during the G8 meetings at the lakeside resort of Toyako July 7-9, after complaints the weakness has contributed to soaring food and fuel prices.

Full Story: Bush says backs strong dollar policy (Reuters)

Elastic Tapes Blog, News and Updates

SAPPORO, Japan - Between surging oil prices, food inflation and a credit crunch that's depressed global growth, leaders from the Group of Eight economic powers face the gravest combination of economic woes in at least a decade when they gather next week.

The outlook has darkened dramatically since last year's summit in Germany , when the leaders declared the global economy was in "good condition" and oil cost $70 a barrel — which seemed high at the time. Since then, the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis has erupted, roiling markets and battering major financial firms. Oil has doubled to above $140 and food prices have jumped, hurting the poor in particular and raising the threat of political instability .

Full Story: G-8 meets as economy storm clouds thicken (AP)

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So what if Ubuntu is a fast operating system?... There is always room for some more tweaking...



Full Story: Optimize Ubuntu 8.04 for Speed

The first Long Term Support updated image for Ubuntu 8.04 has been released. This release contains all the security and bug fixes in the two months since it was released, including Firefox 3 final. If you tried 8.04 and had an issue with a bug, you may want to give it another try.



Full Story: Ubuntu 8.04.1 has been released!

Garmin has posted Linux source code for its Nuvi 8xx and Nuvi 5xxx-series GPS navigation devices. The Nuvi 8xx offers a 4.3-inch, 480x272 display, and appears to be based on a Marvell PXA-3xx processor, Gnome Mobile Linux, and GeoClue location technology.



Full Story: Garmin Nav devices run Gnome Linux

This tutorial is based on Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. You should already have set up a basic Ubuntu 8.04 server system, as described in the first eight chapters of this tutorial: http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect-server-ubuntu8.04-lts This howto is meant as a practical guide; it does not cover the theoretical backgrounds.



Full Story: Ubuntu 8.04 LTS: Virtual Hosting With Proftpd, MySQL & Quota

caused service businesses to shrink in June, as falling new orders and rising costs hit the nation's coffee shops, paper mills and corner stores.

The Institute for Supply Management said Thursday that the services sector index fell to 48.2 in June from 51.7 in May. It missed economists' prediction of a reading of 51.0, according to the consensus estimate of Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson Financial/IFR. A reading above 50 signals growth.

The sector had been growing modestly, while much of the rest of the economy stalled. June's decline in the sector, coupled with Thursday's employment report showing the sixth straight month of job losses, added to the recent streak of bad news about the economy.



Full Story: Service sector contracts as orders fall (AP)

1 The 6th straight monthly payrolls drop was in line with forecasts, though April and May payrolls were revised lower. That bodes ill for the economy, but recessions typically have bigger job cuts. Unemployment stayed at 5.5%, defying forecasts for a dip after May's spike. Factories and home builders slashed staff. Rising jobless claims signal more job losses ahead.

Oil Nears $146, Backs Off A Bit 3 Aug. crude futures rose as high as $145.85 a barrel, closing up $1.72 to $145.29. The dollar's rally temporarily curbed oil, which briefly turned negative. But a rally in the final hour of Nymex trading pushed energy closer to its intraday peak. Ahead of the Fourth of July holiday, retail gasoline averaged $4.098 a gallon.

Nasdaq fell 0.3% as Nvidia's post-warning 31% dive hit chip stocks. The Dow rose 0.7%, the NYSE composite 0.2% and the S&P 500 0.1%. It was the major indexes' 5th straight week of losses. The 10-year Treasury yield rose 1 basis point 15 3.98%.



Full Story: IBD's Top 10 - Thursday (Investor's Business Daily)

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"There's a new beta for Flash Player 10 (Astro) available for Windows, Mac, and -- you guessed it -- Linux." Drop-down menus, like the one on Adobe's webpages, can now properly overlay Flash animations in both Firefox and Opera. There's also better camera support, better language support and speed and stability improvements.



Full Story: Flash on Linux no longer breaks webpages

aren't the only thing skyrocketing on this Fourth of July . The price of gas has hit another all-time high.

The AAA fuel-gauge report puts the national average price of a gallon of regular at a fraction over $4.10.

A month ago, regular was going for $3.98 a gallon and a year ago you could gas up for $2.95 a gallon.



Full Story: Gas prices hit another high for holiday weekend (AP)

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"Our view is that we continue to have confidence in the long-term fundamentals but we're going through a very rough period," Kimmitt said at a conference on transatlantic relations in Berlin .

"I'm quite optimistic about the future." Economists are worried about the outlook for the U.S. economy which has suffered from a sharp housing downturn and seen related strains in credit markets.

There are also fears about the inflationary effect of rising oil and commodity prices on the world economy .



Full Story: Kimmitt confident in economic fundamentals (Reuters)

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Controls everything from your TV to your security system using anything from your cell phone to a Wii remote.



Full Story: Linux Media Center Edition

Flash Player 10 beta 2 was released on 7/2/2008 and includes new features and bug fixes.



Full Story: Flash 10-beta2 Linux

Japan next week, but solving the problem requires more than just a strong message from rich nations.

supply and demand of oil , officials from member countries said. It will also aim for closer cooperation with oil producers.

When leaders from the G8 -- the United States, Britain , Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia -- gather at the July 7-9 summit in Hokkaido, northern Japan, they will discuss concerns that a weaker dollar is a factor behind high oil prices.



Full Story: G8 to tackle inflation, but concrete action elusive (Reuters)

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SAPPORO, Japan - Between surging oil prices, food inflation and a credit crunch that's depressed global growth, leaders from the Group of Eight economic powers face the gravest combination of economic woes in at least a decade when they gather next week.

The outlook has darkened dramatically since last year's summit in Germany , when the leaders declared the global economy was in "good condition" and oil cost $70 a barrel — which seemed high at the time.

Since then, the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis has erupted, roiling markets and battering financial firms. Oil has doubled to above $140 and food prices have jumped, hurting the poor in particular and raising the threat of political instability .



Full Story: G-8 leaders face ominous economic woes this year (AP)

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Mozilla's chairman explains why mobile devices need an open-source browser.



Full Story: Firefox Goes Mobile

Even if there aren't big changes compared to the final version of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, released on April 24th, 2008, the Alpha 1 of Intrepid brings a brand new theme, completely redesigned, which in time will become what everyone was expecting.



Full Story: Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 1 Screenshot Tour

, but food, in areas where there is poverty, this is a huge problem," Paulson added, noting that despite concerns over inflation, he was "very supportive" of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve .

On the comparisons between America's present-day economic woes and the Great Depression, Paulson insisted the United States had "strong long-term economic fundamentals" and described the comparison as "hyperbole".

"In the Great Depression, we had foreclosures at 50 percent, today they're two percent in the US. Over 90 percent of the people are making their mortgage payments on time," Paulson said.



Full Story: Inflation, not credit crunch, is top concern worldwide: Paulson (AFP)

AP - The nation lost jobs for a sixth month in a row in June, a storm of pink slips drenching this year's July Fourth holiday for more than 60,000 Americans and leaving thousands more worried about the future.

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Full Story: 62,000 jobs lost, off nearly half-million for year (AP)

Blender's first open game, codename "Apricot" and featuring the characters from Blender's open movie "Big Buck Bunny", is making great strides forward, with the first playable demo now released to the public.



Full Story: Playable demo of first Blender Open Game released!

OpenMoko has announced plans to launch the Linux-based FreeRunner mobile phone on July 4. The highly-anticipated open source handset will be distributed through OpenMoko's web-based store and will begin shipping on July 7. The FreeRunner will also be available from several vendors in Europe and India.



Full Story: OpenMoko FreeRunner Linux phone to launch on July 4

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employers cut workers for a sixth straight month in June for the longest such streak since 2002 and vast service sector unexpectedly contracted, underscoring the economy's frailty.

A separate report showed new applications for jobless benefits hurdling to 404,000 last week, a level associated with past recessions. It also suggested the labor market would continue to weaken.

"It shows that the labor market still is very soft. We're not seeing dramatic job cuts, but clearly companies are trying to hold the line on costs," said Gary Thayer, senior economist at Wachovia Securities in St. Louis.



Full Story: Economy extends job loss streak (Reuters)

WASHINGTON - Employers cut payrolls by 62,000 in June, the sixth straight month of nationwide job losses, underscoring the economy's fragile state. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 percent.

The latest snapshot of business conditions, released by the Labor Department on Thursday, showed continued caution on the part of employers who are chafing under high energy prices and are uncertain about how long the economy will be stuck in a sluggish mode, reflecting fallout from housing, credit and financial troubles.

Heavy job losses in construction, manufacturing and financial services, along with cutbacks in retailing, eclipsed job gains in education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and government.



Full Story: Employers cut jobs for sixth straight month (AP)

Linux is a hacker’s dream computer operating system. It supports tons of tools and utilities for cracking passwords, scanning network vulnerabilities, and detecting possible intrusions. I have here a collection of 10 of the best hacking and security software tools for Linux.



Full Story: 10 Best Hacking and Security Software Tools for Linux

AMD has released faster new ATI Catalyst drivers for Linux customers of its ATI FireGL professional graphics cards. The 8.49.7 Linux driver provides 33 percent faster OpenGL performance than the previous driver, claims the company.



Full Story: Graphics board vendor touts faster Linux drivers

said Wednesday that the US economy was enduring "a rough period" and warned that home foreclosures would likely remain high in the near future.

crude oil prices , a widespread credit crunch and a two-year long housing market slump had taken some of the wind out of the sails of the US economy.

"The US economy is going through a rough period. US foreclosures will remain elevated and we should not be surprised at continued reports of falling home prices," Paulson warned during a speech in London.



Full Story: Paulson says US economy enduring 'rough period' (AFP)

WASHINGTON - Orders to U.S. factories turned in the slowest performance in three months in May as a surge in demand for commercial aircraft was not enough to offset weakness in autos, heavy machinery and steel.

Factory orders rose by 0.6 percent in May, less than half the gains turned in during April and March, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. It was the poorest showing since factory orders had fallen by 0.4 percent in February.

Analysts said the figures for the past three months have been inflated by big increases in the cost of refined petroleum and related products such as chemicals, which have been soaring because of the rising cost of global oil prices .



Full Story: Factory orders see 0.6 percent gain in May (AP)

Common reasons cited for not moving to the open-source operating system include system complexity, lack of in-house IT skills and a shortage of business applications. Both the open-source software community and the vendor world have done a lot to address these shortcomings, and the inroads gained are plain for all to see.



Full Story: Seven Reasons to Move to Linux

Picture this, you just bought built a brand new computer and want to install the brand spankin’ new Windows Vista Ultimate, you plop down $300, and away you go! What does $300 get you? A bare minimum operating system with nothing but MS Paint and Media Player.



Full Story: Windows Hater (in response to Linux Hater)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. private employers slashed 79,000 jobs in June while planned layoffs at U.S. firms rose nearly 50 percent above year-ago levels, according to data that may spell bad news for a government payrolls report this week.

Wednesday's data brought some brighter news as well, however, with a boost in demand for aircraft lifting new orders at U.S. factories by an unexpectedly large 0.6 percent in May.

Also, U.S. mortgage applications rose last week with help from lower home loan rates , though the bounce follows a 6-1/2-year low the prior week.



Full Story: U.S. jobs picture grim, housing struggles (Reuters)

NEW YORK - Stocks gave up a brief rally Wednesday and resumed the selling seen in recent weeks after factory orders showed their the weakest performance in three months in May and as energy prices rose.

The Commerce Department's report that factory orders rose by 0.6 percent — in line with a consensus of Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson Financial — offered investors little incentive to make big moves either way. The increase follows a gain of 1.3 percent for April and showed weakening demand for autos, heavy machinery and steel.

The data offer further evidence that higher energy prices are causing some businesses and consumers to pare their spending. The report comes a day ahead of the June employment report from the Labor Department , which is expected to show the sixth month of jobs losses but a slight improvement in the unemployment rate. Employment is crucial because consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.



Full Story: Stocks decline after rise in factory orders (AP)

Like everything else, what goes up must come down. This must apply to Linux distributions too, right? So, what’s happening with Linux? Which distributions are growing?



Full Story: Which Linux Distributions Are Dying?

In the spirit of linux and open source (not so much for opera), it is only fair that we are aware of alternate options for linux browsers out there.



Full Story: 9 Web browsers for Linux

UNITED NATIONS - Rich and poor nations have more in common this year — a growing sense of economic insecurity, the U.N. says in an annual survey of world economic and social trends released Tuesday.

Their shared anxiety is largely due to "trade shocks" from rising oil and food prices, rattled financial markets, natural disasters and armed conflicts, the report said.

"The food riots that broke out in a number of countries in early 2008 have laid bare the fragility of economic livelihoods for those at the bottom of the development ladder," the report says.



Full Story: UN: economic insecurity hits rich and poor nations (AP)

The Medford, Oregon-based dealer withdrew forecasts for the second quarter and for the year. It plans to discuss more details of the restructuring plans later in July.

U.S. carmakers and dealers have been struggling with what has now been described as a permanent shift in consumer demand toward cars and crossovers and away from large trucks and SUVs in the face of rising gas prices and a slumping U.S. economy.

Automakers reported a plunge in sales for June, especially in the larger trucks and SUVs, and a constrained supply of the smaller vehicles that customers were seeking.



Full Story: Lithia withdraws outlook, cites weak car sales (Reuters)

gasoline prices have dramatically changed Americans' views on energy and the environment with more people now viewing oil drilling and new power plants as a greater priority than energy conservation than they did five months ago, according to a new survey.

The poll released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center shows nearly half of those surveyed — or 47 percent — now rate energy exploration, drilling and building new power plants as the top priority, compared with 35 percent who believed that five months ago.

The Pew poll, conducted in late June, showed the number of people who consider energy conservation as more important declined by 10 percentage points since February from a clear majority to 45 percent. People are now about evenly split on which is more important.



Full Story: Gas prices change views on energy (AP)

NEW YORK - Each week, Ira Cooper opens a letter from another supplier with the same message as the last: We're raising our prices, effective immediately. We can't tell you how long the new prices will last.

Institute for Supply Management said Tuesday that its index of prices manufacturers pay for raw materials hit 91.5 in June, up from 87 in May and the highest reading since 1979.

Its overall index of manufacturing activity was 50.2, barely breaking a four month contraction streak. Any reading above 50 signals growth.



Full Story: Manufacturers struggle to overcome rising prices (AP)

will shut its St Louis minivan plant, cutting production of its top-selling vehicle and 2,400 factory jobs in a sign of the automaker's troubles with a market reeling from record gas prices .

The third largest U.S automaker, which relied on sales of trucks (which include minivans) and SUVs for almost 70 percent of its sales, said it expected to post a significant decline in sales in June.

Chrysler's production cuts follow similar steps from larger rivals General Motors Corp (GM.N) and Ford Motor Co (F.N), both of which have cut truck production in response to weaker sales in recent weeks.



Full Story: Chrysler to shut minivan plant as sales slump (Reuters)