Indian IT‘s temporary hiring to double by 2020

The percentage of flexi hires in the IT sector is expected to double to 20% by 2020 as IT companies increasingly outsource non-core activities and focus on high-margin businesses, said a report by the flexi staffing body Indian Staffing Federation (ISF).

"IT firms are swiftly adopting the practice of hiring flexi staff in order to beat margin pressures, maintain lean benches and also facilitate just-in-time hiring in a highly volatile market. Keeping the current situation in mind, we are expecting more and more IT companies to adopt staffing as the preferred means to man their projects," said K Pandia Rajan, president of the ISF. The flexi staffing industry in the IT sector touched $950 million last year, growing 15% in each of the last three years.

The Indian flexi staffing industry employs 1.3 million people; they form 3% of the organized sector employment. This number is expected to touch 9 million and comprise of 10% of the organized workforce by 2025. About 79% of workers in the flexi staffing industry fall in the 21-30 year age group, indicating that flexi workers are hired mostly at entry and junior level positions.

Traditionally, IT companies focused on application development and maintenance, but that's increasingly getting commoditized, pushing IT firms to explore other high margin businesses like consulting where billing is proportionate to deliverables. "The IT sector is moving towards the cloud and virtualization that will create new roles in the industry focused on outcomes," said Nagendra Venkaswamy, MD of India and South Asia at Arista Networks.

"Flexi workforce makes up for 10-15 % of our staff right from highly specialized R&D resources to tech support. With people plugging into their devices on the go, there is a huge shortage in areas like mobile device management," said Pallab Bandopadhyay, HR director in Citrix Systems.

Venkaswamy highlighted how the staffing companies should raise their bar by partnering with IT companies in their growth story. "The staffing industry is where the IT industry was in 2000, when 40% of what the IT companies did was to provide staffing solutions to their clients. So it's important for staffing firms to rise above transactions and add value by contributing to the business outcomes of the client's companies," he said.

virtual machine in Windows

Tutorial: How to create a virtual machine in Windows

The release of any new operating system is always exciting, but upgrades bring with them the potential for problems and software incompatibilities.
If you have a computer that you're planning to upgrade to the latest version of Windows, or you're thinking about investing in a new machine with Windows 8 pre-installed, you need to think about the applications and data you have been working with up until now.
Using a combination of VMware vCenter Converter and VMware Player, you can convert your computer in to a virtual machine, retaining all of your settings, applications and data, which you can then use in Windows 8.
The same can be done with other versions of Windows if you like, but here we're looking at creating a virtual machine from a laptop running Windows 7, which can then be run from within Windows 8 and used just like a regular computer.

Step-by-step: Create a virtual machine

Keep all your Windows 7 settings and data secure

1. Install the converter

Start by paying a visit to www.vmware.com/uk. Once on the website, hover your mouse over the 'Products' button in the navigation bar and click the 'vCenter Converter' link in the lower right, under the heading 'Free products'. Click 'Download' and then follow the instructions to either create a new VMware account. You can then download the VMware vCenter Converter software.

2. Installation options

Begin the program installation. You may see a security warning dialog, in which case you should click 'Run'. Click 'Next' twice and agree to the terms of the licence. Keep clicking 'Next to move through the wizard, then choose the option labelled 'Local installation'. Click the 'Next' button one more time, then select 'Install'. Once installation is complete, click 'Finish' and launch the program.

3. Starting machine conversion

You're now ready to begin the conversion process, so click the 'Convert machine' button in the program toolbar. Click the 'Select source type' drop-down menu and make sure that the 'Powered-on machine' option is selected. Beneath this, select the radio button marked 'This local machine' to convert your PC into a virtual machine, then click the 'Next' button on the lower right of the dialog.

4. Choose conversion type

The conversion tool will briefly analyse your PC before displaying the next screen. Select 'VMware Workstation or other VMware virtual machine' from the first drop-down menu and then select 'VMware Workstation 8.0.x' from the second one. Type a name for the virtual machine and click 'Browse' to choose where it should be saved - ideally on an external USB drive - before clicking 'Next'.

5. Configure hard drives

You can now choose which of your drives and partitions should be included in the virtual machine by clicking the 'Data to copy' link to the left. You may well want to include all of them, but you can untick the box next to any you would like to exclude. Tick the boxes labelled 'Ignore page file and hibernation file' and 'Create optimized partition layout', then click 'Next'.

6. Set up memory

Click the 'Device' link to the left of the dialog and make sure that you are on the Memory tab to the right. You can now use the up and down arrow buttons to change the amount of memory that will be assigned to the virtual machine. Try to get this figure as close to the amount of genuine memory you have installed as possible. Once you're satisfied, click 'Next' to continue.

7. Check and convert

WMware vCenter Converter will now display a full summary of the settings that have been chosen, and you can use the 'Back' button to change any that you're not happy with. Click 'Finish' if you're satisfied with all the settings and the conversion process will begin. You can now leave your computer for a while, as the VM conversion process could take a few hours to complete.

8. Install VMware Player

While the conversion is taking place, you could install VMware Player on your other computer. Grab it by returning to the VMware website, hovering over the 'Products' button and clicking the 'Player' link. This time there's no need to worry about being signed into your account. When the download is complete, start the installer and run through the setup process by clicking 'Next'.

9. Copy virtual machine

When the virtual machine has been created on your first computer, you'll need to transfer the VMX file that's been created on your other machine. This is where your network connection or USB drive will come in useful. The converted file is going to be large, so it may take a little while to complete the transfer. Once it's done, click the 'Open a virtual machine' link in VMware Player.

10. Launch your machine

Select the VMX file that you have copied and VMware Player will add the virtual machine to the list that appears on the left-hand side of the program window. When you want to use the virtual version of your computer, simply select it from the list and click the 'Play virtual machine' link. You can now continue to enjoy using your old system on your new computer!

Recharge Delhi Metro Smart Cards Online

Delhi Metro Launches Online Facility To Recharge Smart Cards

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC), which handles the operations of Deli’s Metro travel services, has brought an end to woes of thousands of daily passengers by coming up with an online portal for the general public which will help them recharge their already availed smart cards through online transactions by using their debit and credit cards.

“With this new facility, commuters will now be able to top up their smart cards using debit or credit cards. However, recharge using net-banking facility is not available yet,” a DMRC official said.

Commuters using the Metro can recharge or top-up their smart cards by visiting www.delhimetrorail.com and www.dmrcsmartcard.com.  ICICI bank has agreed to partner with DMRC to provide online automated fare collection and also integrate is payment mechanisms on the official DMRC website.

As far as formalities are concerned, I think the payment procedure and top-up/recharge process on their website is quite straightforward too. Commuters just need to log on to the DMRC website, type in the amount they wish to recharge and then type out the 11 11 digit Metro card number engraved on the back side of their smart card. They also need to enter their email address. After the user provides the above details, he/she will only have to choose the preferred payment option: debit or credit card.

But this does not end here. After finishing with the online recharge process, commuters will have to validate their particular recharges through the Ticket Reader Cum Add Value Machines, which have been installed at 13 Metro stations, namely Dilshad Garden, Welcome, Shahadara, Seelampur, Shashtri Park, Pragati Maidan, Karkarduma, Nirman Vihar, Laxmi Nagar, Barakhamba, RK Asharam, Jhandewalan and Rajendra Place. The Ticket Reader is a machine which can provide information about a smart card, including total value available, last five entry and exit transactions, etc.

In March this year, DMRC announced it would be launching a mobile app for Delhi Metro, which would provide commuters with fare details, nearest metro stations details etc. and had floated a tender for the same.

Overall, I strongly believe that it is a great move from DMRC’s side and will definitely prove genuinely useful for thousands of people who travel using Delhi metro daily. Additionally, it might be noted that more than 17,000 smart cards are sold from the various metro stations across Delhi-NCR, as per DMRC’s stats. Indians are currently experience a boost of Internet penetration thanks to a number of positive factors and the Internet thrust’ is quite high across the country. DMRC aims to cash in on this growing trend, and I really appreciate them for doing so.

Android 4.3 Jelly Bean or Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie

Android 4.3 Jelly Bean or Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie; what is expected at Google I/O 2013

Confusion reigns supreme right now. What will be launched at Google I/O 2013, Android 4.3 Jelly Bean or Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie? No one is sure right now

Google I/O conference is very close. With only two weeks to go for the Google annual developer conference at Moscone Center, more rumors indicate towards the possible arrival of a new Android version at the event. Google usually launches new updates to Android at its yearly developer conferences. Once again it is now the time for such an update, and the tech world is very eagerly awaiting the new Android update. What the new Android update will be – the Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie or Android 4.3 Jelly Bean?
Confirming the earlier Android Police report that it had some Android 4.3 visits in server logs, another top Android blog Android Authority has said it has also spotted many visits from devices with the rumored version in its logs. Does it suggest that the new Android update is 4.3 Jelly Bean? It is not unusual that blogs make such forecasts based on their sever log details. Apart from Android 4.3, builds like Android 4.3.3 and Android 4.3.1 are also spotted in the site’s server logs.
Obviously, most of the devices that made visits to Android Authority are Google’s own products. They include the latest Nexus 4 and its old model the Galaxy Nexus as well as Google’s two Nexus slates; Nexus 7 and Nexus 10. Further, there are two surprising entries in the list. One is Huawei’s still-not-announced U8819 handset and a low end Pantech Breakout that packs only 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM. Maybe, the new Android version will be compatible to lower and legacy models. Low end specs might give enough oomph for the software to run.
 
To your surprise again, the Pantech phone was running Android 4.3.1 Key Lime Pie. It opens the chance for the rumor that the new Android update – whether it is Android 4.3 or 5.0 – will be codenamed Key Lime Pie, the next possible dessert name Google would possible call its new Android version. After Jelly Bean, it should be Key Lime Pie as it is starting with ‘K’ and this name has been in rumors for a long time. “There is a chance the new version of the OS will get a new name, but it could just be an eager dev putting in the wrong name in the build,” says GSM Arena.
Android Key Lime Pie has been the rumored next version of Android. For a long time, tech market has been talking about the potential features and capabilities of the KLP. Now it is largely said that the next Android update wouldn’t be KLP, but Jelly Bean again. We will have to wait until the Google I/O 2013 to see whether the report is correct or not. Anyway, along with the next Android version at I/O conference, we can possibly expect a new Nexus phone.
The same confusion is actually there when it comes to the next Nexus phone also. Some say it might be a Motorola-made X Phone, while others are of the view that it should just be a second upgrade to the current LG-built Nexus 4. Whatever it is, the device will be an outstanding one and it should be able to lift stiff threat to the new line of FullHD flagships from key tech makers like Samsung, HTC, Sony and others.
The new Android update – whether it is Android 4.3 or 5.0 – will surely offer a pack of new functionalities. It will be far smoother for users to handle the device and enjoy the multimedia, web and phone features. Every new Android version used to load lots of brand new features and the new one will also have something fantastic for you.

 

How to send, share heavy files

Email service providers limit the size of the files you can attach to 25MB. That becomes a problem if you have too many photos or videos to send. Most people get round the problem by sending the files in batches, though it is annoying for the sender as well as the receiver. 

Cloud-based storage systems have made the task easier. Users of Google Drive, SkyDrive of Microsoft and Dropbox can share files uploaded to them with another user. So no need to send any file. You can also attach a file directly from Google Drive to Gmail. 

SkyDrive offers free storage space of 7GB, Google Drive 5GB and Dropbox 2.5GB which goes up gradually as an incentive with usage. 

Yahoo recently tied up with Dropbox to make the task simpler. The attachments received on Yahoo Mail can be saved to Dropbox, and files in Dropbox can be attached to Yahoo Mail. Attachments more than 25MB can also be attached to Yahoo Mail but sent via Dropbox. 

YouSendIt is another popular cloud storage device. Users upload photos to it, and send the link to the receiver, who can click on the link and download the photos to his or her computer.

Google Glass: The NextGen Technology

Google Glass: Our Lives Are Not Reality TV

Even as many in the geek-o-sphere drool in anticipation for the onset of Google Glass, some technologists are starting to question the very real privacy issues entangled with the use of these wearable computers and cameras.
Predictably, the first concerns raised about Google Glass were about the user's privacy: If I am transmitting all of this data to Google, it is going to know even more about me than ever! Or so the reasoning goes. I have to admit that this has been bugging me, but since I carry around an Android phone already, I'm pretty sure Google pretty much knows whatever it wants to know about me.
But then there's the other half of the privacy problem, which not many in the community have yet voiced: What about the privacy of the people these devices are looking at?

Anonymous Cameras Everywhere

Being monitored by video cameras is nothing new, of course; it's a risk we run every day. If I happen to absent-mindedly pick my nose in the seemingly empty frozen food aisle at Mega-Mart, it's a pretty sure bet that my gross-out was captured on a video somewhere.
The advent of Google Glass supercharges the equation, because now the number of cameras increases - perhaps exponentially - and they'll show up in ever more unexpected places owned by a much wider variety of people and organizations.

For now, there's an implied trust that someone from the store won't take that nose-picking video and put it on YouTube as part of a 'Disgusting Things Journalists Do' montage. Sure, there's nothing really stopping some bored Mega-Mart employee from scraping that video for whatever purpose. But, should they happen to post said video and I happen to see it, I will likely recognize my surroundings in the video and find someone to sue.
Now imagine the same situation, recorded not by the store's cameras, but by someone wearing a Google Glass or similar device who happened to be standing unnoticed at the end of the aisle. Our voyeur records the incident, posts it on the Web anonymously, and -boom! - my reasonable expectation of privacy is violated. And I will likely never be able to find the culprit to take the video down.
The lesson here - beyond 'don't pick your nose' - is that if these devices do indeed take off, there is nothing to stop someone from monitoring and tagging me in photos, microblogs or videos - whether or not I know what's going on.
There can be some positives out of this kind of citizen 'Eye in the Sky.' If someone commits a crime, for instance, they might have been surreptitiously recorded in the act, with less obvious danger to the recorder than holding up a smartphone. Indeed, in his novel Earth, futurist David Brin outlines a near-future where citizens keep down random street-crime just by the existence of video recording equipment they wear.
But there's a flip side to this, when a collection of Brin's characters, a group of street punks, is befriended by an elderly man who seems to want to teach them about the Way Things Were. It all goes well, until after the senior man's death, the gang discovers to their mortification that the man has been logging every conversation for use in a social-observation article about the state of youth in that society.
A little out there? Maybe so, but how long before Tumblr, Flickr and YouTube are filled with text and video content of embarrassing moments captured by Google Glass?

Anyone Can Be a Target

Beyond the voyeur problem, I keep coming back to how this technology can be abused - particularly this very scary scenario:
Imagine someone builds an app that lets you upload a photo of someone to your Google account and then uses facial-recognition software to process the face of every person you see. Sure, there are benign uses for such a tool, such as helping people remember the names of the people they meet.
But what if I was a member of an (alleged!) criminal organization who would love nothing better than to… talk… to the witness that's going to testify in the trial that might prove my organization has done some pretty bad things. We're innocent, of course, but it would be nice to… explain things… to this witness, who is currently ensconced in the U.S. Marshall's Witness Protection program.
To find that witness today, I'd have to be incredibly lucky, hack the Marshall's computer system or bribe (or threaten?) a corrupt law enforcement official. But in a Google Glass world, I could hire private detectives to be on the lookout for my target. Better yet, I could post an ad on Craigslist offering a reward to find 'my long-lost cousin/uncle/aunt.' Now I have an entire community of people using facial-recognition software helping me find this person. Heck, you might not have to actively employ Google Glass users. Just periodically run a Google Image search of your target's photo for 'Images Like This.'
Now imagine you're the witness in this scenario.
There are lots of times people don't want to be found - spouses seeking to escape an abusive partner, victims trying to elude stalkers - any one of these types of people could run afoul of these cameras. The technology to do this kind of illicit activity is not quite ready for commercial shelves yet, but the day is soon coming.
But the implications are already disturbing: besides embarrassing videos taken in public, you can add tracking by jealous spouses, overprotective parents or insurance companies to the list. If you're really paranoid, think about government surveillance of legitimate but unpopular activities.
Is this all too much? Maybe. But think about this, because as a father, I sure do: With Google Glass, what's to stop anyone from recording images and audio of children? As a parent, the thought of anyone tracking minors for any reason without parents' permission (unlike the kids in the image from the official Google video above) is abhorrent and potentially dangerous.
The technology itself makes this kind of subtle, continuous recording more likely. Unlike cellphone cameras, Google Glass is always on, always recording, capturing even the quick stuff you can't anticipate. The upshot? Far fewer safe refuges where you're not going to be recorded. 

Ready For Your Close Up?

Plenty of others are worried about how Google Glass will destroy the expectation of privacy in our normal, not-made-for-TV daily lives. Mark Hurst at Creative Good writes (emphasis his):
'Google Glass is like one [Street View] camera car for each of the thousands, possibly millions, of people who will wear the device – every single day, everywhere they go – on sidewalks, into restaurants, up elevators, around your office, into your home. From now on, starting today, anywhere you go within range of a Google Glass device, everything you do could be recorded and uploaded to Google’s cloud, and stored there for the rest of your life. You won’t know if you’re being recorded or not; and even if you do, you’ll have no way to stop it.

'And that, my friends, is the experience that Google Glass creates. That is the experience we should be thinking about. The most important Google Glass experience is not the user experience – it’s the experience of everyone else. The experience of being a citizen, in public, is about to change.' Whether we are just running errands, hanging out with friends or are on the lam from some really bad people, Google Glass has the capability to push our lives into reality of the television kind. But many of us aren't ready for our close up, and never will be.