Saturday, September 20, 2008

You're fired: What it costs to sack a worker

After years of fat profits and bonuses, cost-cutting is once again at the top of the corporate agenda. For companies wanting to chop out middle-management dead wood or sack factory workers, costs can vary enormously across the world. America, New Zealand and Tonga are among the most company-friendly countries, requiring no penalties or compensation to fire a full-time employee of 20 years. By contrast, a business in Zimbabwe must shell out well over eight years' worth of pay to sack a worker. But companies in Venezuela and Bolivia are even more tied—workers there cannot be fired at all.
Source - economist

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Monday, September 15, 2008

NASA Remembers 9/11

"The world changed today. What I say or do is very minor compared to the significance of what happened to our country today when it was attacked." So said Expedition 3 Commander Frank L. Culbertson, upon learning of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center.

This image is one of a series taken that day of metropolitan New York City by the International Space Station's Expedition 3 crew that shows a plume of smoke rising from the Manhattan skyline.

Upon further reflection, Commander Culbertson said, "It's horrible to see smoke pouring from wounds in your own country from such a fantastic vantage point. The dichotomy of being on a spacecraft dedicated to improving life on the earth and watching life being destroyed by such willful, terrible acts is jolting to the psyche, no matter who you are."
Source: NASA

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Monday, September 8, 2008

How to Block Ads in Google Chrome

There has been a tremendous response to Google Chrome (at least from the Techie community), however, people are still holding from using Chrome for the simple reason - it cannot stop those ads being served to you. Now, there is a 'fix' to avoid that. At Geekzone forums, Master Geek wmoore explains how to block 'em without an extension.
  1. Download and install Privoxy.
  2. Click on the Wrench icon in Chrome in the upper right corner.
  3. Choose options>Under The Hood>Change proxy settings.
  4. In the Internet Properties dialog's Connections tab, click on the LAN settings button.
  5. Check off "Proxy settings" and in the address setting add 127.0.0.1 and in the port 8118.
  6. If you have the option, you can also check off "Bypass proxy for local settings".
  7. Click "Ok", close Chrome and restart it.


Geekzone - Adblock for Chrome

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Friday, September 5, 2008

Some Basic Linux And Unix Commands

cat - Lets you view the contents of a file. Many linux commands can use the redirection symbol > to redirect the output of the command. For example, use the redirection symbol with the cat command to copy a file: cat /etc/shells > newfile ( the contents of the shells file are written to newfile ).
cd - Changes the directory.
chmod - This command changes the attributes assigned to a file.
clear - Clears the screen. This command is useful when the screen has become cluttered with commands and data that you no longer need to view.
cp - Used to copy a file.
date - Entered alone, this command displays the current system date settings. Entered in the format date , this command sete the system date.
echo - Displays information on the screen.
fdisk - Creates or makes changes to a hard drive partition table.
grep - Searches for a specific pattern in a file or in multiple files.
hostname - Displays a server's FQDN.
ifconfig - Used to troubleshoot problems with network connections under TCP/IP, this command can disable and enable network cards and release and renew the IP address assigned to these cards.
kill - Kills a process instead of waiting for the process to terminate.
ls - This command is similar to the DOS Dir command, which displays a list of directories and files.
man - Displays the online help manual, called man pages.
mkdir - This command makes a new directory.
more - Appended to a command to display the results of the command on the screen one page at a time.
mv - Moves a file or renames it, if the source and destination are the same directory.
nestat - Shows statistics and status information for network connections and routing tables.
nslookup - Queries doman name servers to look up domain names.
ping - Used to test network connections by sending a request packet to a host. If a connection is successful, the host will return a response packet.
ps - Displays the process table so that you can identify process ID's for currently running processes.
pwd - Shows the name of the present working directory.
rm - Removes the file or files that are specified.
rmdir - Removes a directory.
route - Entered alone, this command shows the current configuration of the IP routing table. Entered in the following format, it configures the IP routing table: route
vi - Launches a full screen editor that can be used to edit a file.
whatis - Displays a brief overview of a command.

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Geek 2.0: Are you a geek? Think again!

In this digital era that we’re all living in, a lot of people who think they aren’t geeks actually are. Just look at the following illustration by David Armano and you’ll understand right away.





Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Here comes Google Chrome...

On the heels of launch of Firefox 3 and IE 8 Beta launch, comes the news of Google's own browser - Google Chrome. Google has used altogether a different strategy to announce the launch - it released a comic book for the same. Certainly Google want to show that it is a fun tool, and there is still room for it in the browser space (despite the furious battle between Microsoft IE and Mozilla Firefox).
Chrome seems to have a fresh approach to browsing tools, and a new set of features. With the IE 8 in beta, and Firefox 3 going strong, it looks to be a good season for innovation on the Web.

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