1.      Nobel Prizes:

The award is often considered as the Asian Nobel Prize. The prize was established in 1957 April. Ramon Magsaysay was a Philippine president. The awards are given in six categories:

• Government Service-None in 2011
• Public Service
  • Tri Mumpuni and Husanain Juaini, both from Indonesia shared the 2011 awards for public service.
• Community Leadership- None in 2011
• Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts-None in 2011
• Peace and International Understanding
  • Koul Panah from Cambodia
• Emergent Leadership
  • Two Indians shared this year’s Emergent Leadership award; Nileema Mishra, Harish Hande;

Nileema Mishra, a woman lender to poorest in Maharashtra, and US-trained Indian engineer Harish Hande, who revolutionized use of solar lights, are among six people who have been awarded Asia’s prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award for 2011.”The two had helped to harness technologies to empower their countrymen and created waves of progressive change across Asia,” award foundation president Carmencita T Abella announced.

Intel suggests that the gaming experience on these Intel powered handsets will be more fluid than the handsets running on current dual core processors. Increased gaming experience is not the most important feature of the Intel processors. Intel claims that the Atom processor would support hyper-threading and will have better battery life. The better performance and the better battery life of the Intel processors could well mean that the future Android smartphones will be powered by Intel.As of now,only the prototype was shown and an exact launch date for Intel powered handsets has not be revealed.

Nokia launched their much improved version of the Lumia, naming it the Lumia 900. The Lumia 900 is a device that is more or less like a ‘bug-fixed’ Nokia Lumia 800 as some of the features which we all though should have been there in the original Lumia 800 makes its way to the Lumia 900. The Lumia 900 is undoubtedly the most powerful phone from the Nokia stables running on the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango Operating system. The device is expected to make its way to the US markets by AT&T in March . As of now, reports suggests that an India launch is highly unlikely in the near future.

The Lumia 900 comes in a bigger 4.3 inch ClearBlack AMOLED display.As in the Lumia 800, the rear camera shoots at 8 mega pickels with the lens being supplied by the German optics makers Carl Zeiss. The welcome news for the Nokia fans is the presence of the front facing camera. The absence of the front facing camera on the Nokia Lumia 800 was a major dissapointment especially when considering that many other costing less had the feature. The processor on the Lumia 900 is a 1.4 GHz snapdragon processor. The storage space on the phone remains at 16GB, with no support for memory cards.

The Lumia 900 is comparitively less thicker than the Lumia 800, but the weight is increased,mainly due to the larger battery. The new 1830 mAh battery will give you 7 hour of 3G talktime and 6.5 hours of video playback as claimed by Nokia.

Major changes comapared to the Lumia 800

• 4G (LTE) support
• Larger 4.3 inch screen (Lumia 800 had a 3.7 inch screen)
• Bulkier at 160 gms (146 gms for Lumia 800)
• 1.3 MP front facing camera
• Larger battery

There isnt a big change in the design of the Lumia 900 compared to its predecessor but the larger display,the front facing camera and LTE support (in the US only) is certainly an improvement. But the Lumia 900 will certainly not be the Android or iPhone killer as Nokia would be hoping for, as it doesnt quite have the X-factor to distinguish itself from the Androids and the iPhones.

As the name indicates the institute has its focus on Industrial Engineering for the past 5 decades. In due course the Nitie turned its focus into Industrial Management also. It now offers full time Post Graduate programs in both Engineering and Management. Established by the union government with assistance of the United Nations Development Programme(UNDP) back in 1963, Nitie is now one of the most coveted institutes in the country sharing platform with IIMs and IITs. Improvement of industrial efficiency and productivity was the primary goals of the institute. Located in the Industrial hub of the country Nitie enjoys a lot of positional advantages in terms of faculties, placements, industry exposure etc.
Now from an MBA aspirant perspective lets look at a few important question that flash through your minds.
1. Courses Offered.
2. Fee Structure.
3. Placements
4. Salary offer trends

Answers:
1. Given below are list of courses offered at NITIE(important courses)
PGDIE: A Journey Since 1971-Read from the website

“PGDIE is one of the very few courses that enjoy corporate excellence for over three decades. Its inception is to provide students with methodologies and systematic approaches to deal with diverse industrial challenges, PGDIE has evolved as a course for developing Managers with cross- functional skills.”

Note: PGDIE takes GATE scores for admission.NOT CAT.

PGDIM:

“NITIE’s Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Management (PGDIM) aims to groom young managers who will not only design better procedures and systems but also manage the associated technologies successfully.PGDIM blends classroom work and hands-on industry internship.”

PGDISEM and PGDITM are the other two courses offered at NITIE.

Note: These 3 courses take the IIM CAT scores for short listing candidates.

2. Fees come around 5Lakhs for 2 years, which includes hostel charges as well. Check the link for split ups. All the above mentioned courses has the same fee structure may be slight variations.

3. Placements and summer internships are the two facets of any bSchool placements. Summer internship is a part of the curriculum to maximize the theoretical knowledge with practical industry exposure. I checked the recent recruiters session of the website and was able to see a lot of companies spread across different domains.

4. Salary offers for
PGDIE
in 2010
Highest domestic salary 16.5lakhs
Average salary 9.7 lakhs

in 2011
Highest domestic salary 19.5lakhs
Average salary 10.17 lakhs

PGDIM
in 2011
Highest salary (Domestic) : INR 19.5 lacs
Highest salary (International) : US $ 150,000
Average salary : INR 12.97 lacs

———————————————————–

I hope the data above gave some impression on the B-School. From an aspirants eye, NITIE is value for money in terms of infrastructure, faculty, fees and placements. But before you make decision you should do some more research, go into various forums and talk with alumini and students, make sure the college suits your profile.Once you decided on that start studying for the exams, because you need very good CAT percentiles to get a call from Nitie. All the best.

Design and Display

Nokia Lumia 800:
The Lumia 800 is basically a clone of the Meego running Nokia N9, only that the display is a couple of inches smaller. The polycarbonate unibody with the distinctive curves make the Lumia 800 stand out as a very different phone compared to the many Android phones in the market. The Lumia 800 is slightly heavier at 142 gms, which when compared to the likes of Galaxy S II is a lot heavier. Measuring at 116.5 x 61.2 x 12.1 mm, the Lumia 800 isn’t the slimmest either. The polycarbonate body makes the Lumia 800 feel very sturdy compared with its competitors.

The 3.7 inch display is covered with Gorilla glass, so it is basically scratch proof and dust proof. The display unit is an AMOLED unit with WVGA resolution (480*800).The screen quality of the Lumia is best in class as the viewing in both outdoors and indoors is simply brilliant. The display is not reflective, hence meaning that viewing outdoors is not going to be a problem at all.

Samsung Omnia W:
The styling of the Omnia W is basically the same as its predecessor, the Omnia 7, with a few subtle differences here and there. The body is a mix of plastic and metal and when compared to the Lumia 800’s polycarbonate body, this won’t feel as the sturdiest phone in the market, but then Samsung doesn’t have a history of making phones that feel strong in your hands. The Omnia W is just 115 gms, a lot lighter than the Lumia 800.At 115.6 x 58.8 x 10.9 mm, the Omnia W is also slimmer than the Lumia.

The display on the Omnia W is almost similar to the Lumia 800. It also 3.7 inch Super AMOLED display with Gorilla glass. The indoor and outdoor viewing is almost comparable to the Lumia 800’s display and the nearly non-reflective screen also makes the outdoor viewing a pleasurable experience.

HTC Radar
The HTC Radar is a well built phone with an aluminum body. The HTC Radar is also a slightly heavy phone at 137 gms and measures 120.5 x 61.5 x 10.9 mm. The display on the Radar is not the greatest by any means as it sports a slightly bigger 3.8 inch display, but is Super LCD screen. The display with resolution of 480*800 is protected by Gorilla glass. The viewing experience or the viewing angles on the S-LCD screen is not comparable to the superb AMOLED screens. One thing to remember is that the Radar is not a pricey phone and hence at that price, the screen isn’t the worst.

The Lumia 800’s design is better when compared to the other two but it is a lot heavier and bulkier than the Omnia W. The HTC Radar’s body is better than the Omnia W, but it is also a bit heavy compared to the Samsung phone. My ratings on the design are as follows:
• Lumia 800 : 4/5
• Omnia W : 3.5/5
• HTC Radar : 3.5/5

When it comes to the display, the Omnia and the Lumia are almost head to head. The Radar’s display is not comparable to the AMOLED screens on the other two. My ratings for display are:
• Lumia 800 : 4.5/5
• Omnia W : 4.5/5
• HTC Radar : 3/5

Camera

Lumia 800:
The rear camera on the Lumia 800 is the best in class camera. The 8MP camera with dual LED flash and Carl Zeiss optics produces brilliant snaps. In low light conditions, the camera performance is a bit disappointing but compared to the others in the market, we could easily say that it’s the best. A major letdown is the absence of a front camera. It also records 720p videos at 30 fps. Unfortunately, the Lumia doesn’t record 1080p videos as the Windows Phone OS doesn’t support dual core processors and 1080p recording and playback is possible only on dual core processors. Quite a dilemma,huh?

Omnia W:
The Omnia W has a 5MP camera with LED flash. Compared to the Lumia 800’s camera, the camera isn’t the greatest but does a fair job when it comes to the quality of the snap. 720p videos are recordable at 30 fps. The biggest advantage is however the presence of a VGA front camera. One would think that Nokia’s biggest mistake on the Lumia 800 is the absence of the front camera when the competitors have them.

HTC Radar
The HTC Radar, like the Omnia W sports a 5 MP camera with LED flash. A VGA front camera is also present for video calling.

The Lumia’s rear camera is without doubt the best among the three, and probably better than the 8MP cameras on the Galaxy SII and the iPhone 4S, but the absence of the front camera is a major letdown. If I am giving a rating in the rear camera alone, I would perhaps give it a 5/5, but the ratings are based on both cameras.

• Lumia 800: 3.5/5 (-1 for absence of front camera. Rear camera rating :4.5)
• Omnia W : 3.5/5
• HTC Radar :3.5/5

Other Features:

Lumia 800:
The Lumia 800 is powered by a 1.4 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and a 512 MB RAM. Coupled with the Windows Phone 7 OS, the performance is nothing less than fast and breezy. The presence of a Adreno 205 GPU also enhances the performance even further. The battery is a 1450 mAh battery, with fairly decent life. Reception quality and the sound quality of the speakers are the best on the Nokia phones and the Lumia is no different. Internal storage of 16GB is also present.

Omnia W:
The Omnia W is also powered by a 1.4 GHz Snapdragon processor and has a Adreno 205 GPU on board. The Omnia W also has a RAM size of 512 MB. Battery of 1500 mAH provides fairly decent battery life. Call reception is not the best when compared with the Lumia. Internal storage is just 8GB.

HTC Radar:
The Radar is powered by a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor with a 205 Adreno GPU. The Radar also has a 512 MB RAM onboard. The Radar also has an internal storage of 8GB.

As Windows Phone 7 doesn’t support expandable storage, none of these phones have a slot for it. The presence of an extra 8GB internal storage gives an edge to the Lumia but still think its not much anyway.

Ratings:

Lumia 800: 4/5
Omnia W: 3.5/5
HTC Radar: 3.5/5

Price and value for money:

Lumia 800:
The Lumia 800 is not the cheapest phone by any means. At $590(Rs. 30000), it is a pricey phone and when taking into account the absence of front camera and storage space of only 16GB, I think the Lumia is a bit too highly priced.

Omnia W:
The Omnia W is priced at around $380 (Rs. 19000). At the lower prices, we get almost the same features of the Lumia 800. The Lumia 710 priced at around the same range is more of a competition to the Omnia W than the Lumia 800.

HTC Radar:
The HTC Radar is priced at around $400 (Rs. 21000).

Ratings on the price:
• Lumia 800 : 3/5
• Omnia W : 4/5
• HTC Radar : 3.5/5

Final verdict

The Lumia 800 isnt a value for money phone and also doesn’t offer any ‘wow’ factor that could make it a killer phone. There are many good things in it but if you really want a Windows Phone Mango smart phone, I think the Omnia W offers more value for money. Or even the Lumia 710 is a better choice than the Lumia 800.If price is not an issue and you are not concerned about video calling and you dearly want a Windows Phone running smart phone, the Lumia 800 is a very good choice for you, but an even better idea would be to wait for Windows 8 to be launched and wait for the Windows 8 phones from Nokia and others.

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Another worrying sign is that market shares of Nokia have also plummeted over the weeks. Rumors of a takeover by Microsoft had surfaced right after the Nokia deal was signed. With its strong patent portfolio and its hugely popular hardware unit, an acquisition of Nokia might well be in the minds of the Microsoft executives. As of now, Nokia and Microsoft have to pin their hopes on the Windows 8 OS doing well when it is launched next year.

1. SQL Repository: uses the Generic SQL Adapter(GSA) to perform a mapping between ATG and data stored in a SQL database.

2.Versioned Repository: is an extension of SQL repository used in ATG Content Administration. It has versions for every set of data.For example a price for a product is edited, new entry will be made with a new version number instead of editing the price.

The SQL repository is implemented through the atg.adapter.gsa package. The main ATG component in the SQL repository is an instance of the atg.adapter.gsa.GSARepository class, which implements the interfaces atg.repository.MutableRepository and atg.repository.content.ContentRepository and which extends the class atg.repository.RepositoryImpl.

Lets keep aside the hardcore theory for now and move to more practical aspects of repositories.

A repository is a collection of repository items. In general, a repository item corresponds to the smallest uniquely identifiable entity in the underlying data store. Each repository item is made of properties and these properties store the data and thus makes a repository item. These properties of a repository item are defined inside the repository’s ITEM DESCRIPTORs. Properties of repository items may be single-valued or multi-valued.

Its still confusing…??? be patient,towards the end there is a something informative which will help you enhance your understanding.

What is an Item Descriptor?
Lets keep it simple with the help of an SQL Repository, for example, each database table have its own repository item descriptor. Sometimes a JOIN of multiple tables into a single item descriptor.

Points to Note:
ATG repositories support Java collections and hence we can store a List, Map or  Arrays.
ATG repositories allow one-one, one – many and many- many relationships.

Here is what i have promised: how to setup a repository..??

We have a database table (eg:  tb_tango).
Now create a property file which specifies the repository mapping xml file, class file, data Source etc. Lets name it as “dummyPropFile.properties“. The mapping xml(repositoryMapping.xml) file specifies the repository item desciptors. And the final step is registering the repository with dynamo(I have explained it in another post(question-5)).

Table name and details

create table tb_tango{
id Varchar2(30),
prof varchar2(255),
fname varchar2(50)
}

“dummyPropFile.properties”

$class=atg.adapter.gsa.GSARepository
definitionFiles=Folder Structure/repositoryMapping.xml
XMLToolsFactory=/atg/dynamo/service/xml/XMLToolsFactory
transactionManager=/atg/dynamo/transaction/TransactionManager
idGenerator=/atg/dynamo/service/IdGenerator
dataSource=/atg/dynamo/service/jdbc/dataSourceFile

* The “dataSourceFile”  is yet another property file where the JDBC connections and database driver,server name, user, password etc are specified.

“repositoryMapping.xml”

<!DOCTYPE gsa-template PUBLIC "-//Art Technology Group, Inc.//DTD General SQL Adapter//EN"
        "http://www.atg.com/dtds/gsa/gsa_1.0.dtd">
<gsa-template>
<item-descriptor name="tango">
	<table name="tb_tango" type="primary" id-column-name="id">
		<property name="id" column-names="id" data-type="string"/>
		<property name="profession" column-names="prof" data-type="string"/>
		<property name="firstname" column-names="fname" data-type="string"/>
	</table>
</item-descriptor>

</gsa-template>

1. SampleBean.properties
The component which bridges the java file with the jsp file.This name is used to import the java class into the jsp. In our example we are keeping it simple, nothing abstruse will be written in that.

$class= rootfolder.SampleBeanJ

The “rootfolder” is the location where the java class resides.And its in this SampleBeanJ we will write our actual application logic.

2. SampleBeanJ.java
SBJ is written like any other java class, it starts with the package information, then the imports, then the class declaration with access specifiers and extentions if any.

package rootfolder;
import java.io.IOException;// not actually required in our case, written just to stick to the standard format.
public class SampleBeanJ
{
	private String varFromBean;

	//getter method
	public String getVarFromBean() {
		return varFromBean;
	}
	//setter method.
	public void setVarFromBean(String varFromBean) {
		this.varFromBean = varFromBean;
	}
}

How the variable “varFromBean” is getting/setting a value is a different issue and we will discuss it in some other session. Our prime focus is on how to use a bean variable in a jsp, also the various methods of handling the bean variables.

Lets take a look at our “ttt.jsp”
Dont forget to include the dsp tag libs at the very beginning. Also the tag libs for the jstl(Jsp Standard Tag Library).
3. ttt.jsp

<%@ taglib uri="/dspTaglib" prefix="dsp" %>
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c"%>
<dsp:page>
<dsp:importbean bean="rootfolder/SampleBean"/>
//comment : the attribute bean specifies the property file, which in turn points to the java file.(The ATG component centric architecture)
<%
String jspVar1 = "foo";
//comment : Java code inside the JSP is kept inside <% and %> characters (just like expressions, but without the = sign at the start of the sequence.)This block of code is known as a "SCRIPLET".A scriptlet contains Java code that is executed every time the JSP is invoked.
%>
<dsp:getvalueof bean="SampleBean.varFromBean" idtype="java.lang.String" id="jspid">
<%
jspVar1 = jspid;
//comment: the "jspid" has the value of the private string variable"varFromBean" in the SampleBean class.
%>
</dsp:getvalueof>
<%if("foo".equals(jspVar1)){%>
<c:out value="foo from the jsp itself"></c:out>
<%}else{%>
<dsp:valueof bean="SampleBean.varFromBean"/>
//comment:value of the variable will be printed.
<%}%>
</dsp:page>

Here we see a method of using the variable in a bean inside the jsp.There are different other ways also to do the same. I will try to explain those in other posts. Hope this one helps.

The XOOM2 is more or less the XOOM itself but with minor tweaks in the design. The XOOM2 will also run on Honeycomb, with a possible update to Ice Cream Sandwich, even though there is no official wording on this. The XOOM2 like its predecessor comes in a 10.1 inch Gorilla glass HD display and contains a Splash-guard to protect it from spillages. The XOOM2 is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual core processor and a 1GB RAM. The storage space available is 16 GB. The cameras at the rear and front have been downgraded. The original XOOM featured a 5 MP camera with dual LED flash and a 2 MP front camera. In the XOOM2, the dual LED flash has been replaced by a single LED flash, while the front camera has been downgraded to 1.3 MP. The design has been tweaked a bit here and there and the edges in the XOOM2 have been redesigned so that it’s more comfortable to hold in hand. The weight has been reduced by 100 grams, which is a welcome change. The XOOM2 is expected to hit the shores of UK in mid-November and in India by December or early January 2012. The expected price of the XOOM2 is 400 Euros (About 28K Indian rupees). Only the Wi-Fi version has been announced with the 3G versions expected to be announced later.

The second of the XOOMs, called the XOOM 2 Media Edition comes optimized for multimedia and gaming. The screen is sized at 8.2 inch, which means that the weight goes down a further more. The reduction in weight is perhaps the best thing that Motorola has done to the successors of the XOOM. The tablet becomes a lot more portable to carry around and hold. The XOOM2 Media Edition is also powered by the same 1.2 dual core processor and has a 1GB RAM and 16 GB storage space. Motorola claims that the XOOM 2 Media edition has a 20 per cent better graphics performance than the original XOOM. The XOOM 2 Media Edition is also equipped with adaptive virtual surround sound with multiple speakers and booming bass. XOOM 2 Media Edition can also be used as a universal remote control. The XOOM 2 Media Edition comes with MOTOCAST, which allows you to stream music and video wirelessly from your PC.

What we liked about the XOOM 2 and XOOM 2 Media Edition:

• The reduction in weight.
• Edges and design has been refined to be more portable.
• XOOM 2 Media edition multimedia optimization.

What disappointed us?

• No drastic change in design except for a few minor tweaks. A fresh design would have been a welcome bonus, even though the minor tweaks do make it a lot more portable.
• Downgrading of the camera
• No Ice Cream Sandwich. Motorola could have delayed the launch of the XOOM 2 so that it comes loaded with the latest version of Android.