Microsoft asked to Layoff Indian Engineers

In a letter to Microsoft, which employs thousands of people through the H-1B visa programme, a majority of them Indians, senator Chuck Grassley urged the IT giant to make efforts to retain qualified American workers during its recently announced lay-offs.

Noting that last year, Microsoft had advocated for more H-1B visas in the US Congress, he said the purpose of the H-1B programme for professionals in "specialty occupation" is to help companies hire foreign guest workers on a temporary basis when there is not a sufficient qualified American workforce to meet those needs, he said.

However, the programme is not intended to replace qualified American workers, Grassley said asking questions of both American and foreign based companies about their use of the H-1B visa programme. A majority of the 60,000 professionals given H-1B visa every year are from India.

In his letter reacting to Microsoft Corporation's reported move to layoff 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months, Grassley expressed concern "that Microsoft will be retaining foreign guest workers rather than similarly qualified American employees when it implements its layoff plan".

"As you know, I want to make sure employers recruit qualified American workers first before hiring foreign guest workers," he told Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer.

Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer - Layoffs Mail

From: Steve Ballmer
To: All Microsoft FTE
Subject: Realigning Resources and Reducing Costs

In response to the realities of a deteriorating economy, we're taking important steps to realign Microsoft's business. I want to tell you about what we're doing and why.

Today we announced second quarter revenue of $16.6 billion. This number is an increase of just 2 percent compared with the second quarter of last year and it is approximately $900 million below our earlier expectations.

The fact that we are growing at all during the worst recession in two generations reflects our strong business fundamentals and is a testament to your hard work. Our products provide great value to our customers. Our financial position is solid. We have made long-term investments that continue to pay off.

But it is also clear that we are not immune to the effects of the economy. Consumers and businesses have reined in spending, which is affecting PC shipments and IT expenditures.

Our response to this environment must combine a commitment to long-term investments in innovation with prompt action to reduce our costs.

During the second quarter we started down the right path. As the economy deteriorated, we acted quickly. As a result, we reduced operating expenses during the quarter by $600 million. I appreciate the agility you have shown in enabling us to achieve this result.

Now we need to do more. We must make adjustments to ensure that our investments are tightly aligned with current and future revenue opportunities. The current environment requires that we continue to increase our efficiency.

As part of the process of adjustments, we will eliminate up to 5,000 positions in R&D, marketing, sales, finance, LCA, HR, and IT over the next 18 months, of which 1,400 will occur today. We'll also open new positions to support key investment areas during this same period of time. Our net headcount in these functions will decline by 2,000 to 3,000 over the next 18 months. In addition, our workforce in support, consulting, operations, billing, manufacturing, and data center operations will continue to change in direct response to customer needs.

Our leaders all have specific goals to manage costs prudently and thoughtfully. They have the flexibility to adjust the size of their teams so they are appropriately matched to revenue potential, to add headcount where they need to increase investments in order to ensure future success, and to drive efficiency.

To increase efficiency, we're taking a series of aggressive steps. We'll cut travel expenditures 20 percent and make significant reductions in spending on vendors and contingent staff. We've scaled back Puget Sound campus expansion and reduced marketing budgets. We'll also reduce costs by eliminating merit increases for FY10 that would have taken effect in September of this calendar year.

Each of these steps will be difficult. Our priority remains doing right by our customers and our employees. For employees who are directly affected, I know this will be a difficult time for you and I want to assure you that we will provide help and support during this transition. We have established an outplacement center in the Puget Sound region and we'll provide outplacement services in many other locations to help you find new jobs. Some of you may find jobs internally. For those who don't, we will also offer severance pay and other benefits.

The decision to eliminate jobs is a very difficult one. Our people are the foundation of everything we have achieved and we place the highest value on the commitment and hard work that you have dedicated to building this company. But we believe these job eliminations are crucial to our ability to adjust the company's cost structure so that we have the resources to drive future profitable growth.

I encourage you to attend tomorrow's Town Hall at 9am PST in Café 34 or watch the webcast.

While this is the most challenging economic climate we have ever faced, I want to reiterate my confidence in the strength of our competitive position and soundness of our approach.

With these changes in place, I feel confident that we will have the resources we need to continue to invest in long-term computing trends that offer the greatest opportunity to deliver value to our customers and shareholders, benefit to society, and growth for Microsoft.

With our approach to investing for the long term and managing our expenses, I know Microsoft will emerge an even stronger industry leader than it is today.

Thank you for your continued commitment and hard work.

Steve

EDS Layoffs

EDS plans to lay off about 29 employees and 25 contractors from its Old Spanish Trail facility in March. The layoffs are part of the Plano-based company's integration with Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP.

Patni to 'Hire' Satyam Employees

Pune-based software services provider Patni is ramping up its onshore operations in Bloomington, Illinois, to accommodate additional demand from US-based State Farm Insurance, which terminated its contract with beleaguered Satyam Computer Services Ltd earlier this week.

Patni is already working with SFI for many years

Satyam Clients cannot move out

Satyam provided services to some of its clients at as little as $10 or $11 per hour, per resource. "This is dirt cheap, as good as charity. Billing rates of other IT firms are much higher and this is where customers may feel the pinch if they do wish to move out of Satyam," predicted an IT industry analyst.

Top customers of Satyam such as GE, Qantas and DuPont will wait for a few months before exploring any possibility of terminating their outsourcing contracts with the company, as they seek more clarity about the new leadership, and a potential change in the management, if a rival tech firm acquires the company.

No Salary Hike for Wipro Employees

 
There will be no hike in Salary for Wipro employees who are working in Client locations.

Aegis BPO keen on acquiring Satyam BPO

Aegis BPO, the Essar group company keen on acquiring the BPO business of Satyam Computer Services

vazka vazhamudan

Top 20 Tips To Speedup Your System

 
Top 20 Tips To Keep Your System Faster
 
Follow these tips and you will definitely have a much faster and more reliable PC! Most of the below tips works for windows XP.

1. Wallpapers: They slow your whole system down, so if you're willing to compromise, have a basic plain one instead!

2. Drivers: Update your hardware drivers as frequently as possible.  New drivers tend to increase system speed especially in the case of graphics cards, their drivers are updated by the manufacturer very frequently!

3. Minimizing: If you want to use several programs at the same time then minimize those you are not using.  This helps reduce the overload on RAM.

4. Boot Faster: The 'starting Windows 95/98' message on startup can delay your booting for a couple of seconds.  To get rid of this message go to c:\ and find the file Msdos.sys.  Remove the Read-Only option.  Next, open it in Notepad or any other text editor.  Finally, go to the text 'Options' within the file and make the following changes: Add BootDelay=0.  To make your booting even faster, set add Logo=0 to remove the Windows logo at startup.

5. Restart only Windows: When restarting your PC, hold down Shift to only restart Windows rather than the whole system which will only take a fraction of the time.

6. Turn Off Animations:  Go to Display Settings from the Control Panel and switch to the Effects Tab. Now turn off Show Windows Content While Dragging and Smooth Edges on Screen Fonts.  This tip is also helpful with Windows XP because of the various fade/scroll effects.

7. Faster Start-Menu Access: Go to the Start menu and select Run.  Now type Regedit and hit Enter.  The Registry Editor will appear on the screen.  Now, open the folder HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Control Panel\Desktop.  You should see a MenuShowDelay value.  If you don't then do the following: right click on a blank space in the right pane and select New\String.  Change the name in the new value to MenuShowDelay.  Now that we have the MenuShowDelay value, double click on it and enter 0 in the value data field.  This sets the start menu delay to 0 milliseconds.

8. Resolutions: If you are willing to do anything for faster performance from your PC, then try lowering your display resolution.  The lower it is, the faster your PC.

9. Turn off Active Desktop:  Go to your Display Properties and switch to the Web tab.  Uncheck View My Active Desktop As a Web Page.  Since the Active Desktop option under Windows 98 uses a lot of system resources, this option can have a dramatic effect on the speed of the whole system.

10. Defragment Often:  Windows 98's Defrag tool uses Application Acceleration from Intel which means that when you defragment your drive, data is physically arranged on the drive so that applications will load faster.

11. Take your PC to Bed:  Using the Advanced Power Management feature under Windows 98 gives you the option to use the sleep command.  That way, you can send your PC to sleep instead of shutting it down and then restarting it.  It's as simple as pressing a button and then pressing the same button to wake it up.  You can tell Windows after how many minutes/hours of inactivity to automatically sleep the machine in the Advanced Power Management section of the Control Panel.

12. Faster Internet Access: If you use the Internet for reference and the sites you visit are rarely  updated then try the following.  In IE (the same can be done in Netscape) go to Tools, Internet Options.  Next, click on Settings... In the Temporary Internet Files  section.  Finally, select Never for the first option and double the amount of storage space to use, click OK!

13. Benchmarking: Benchmarking can be very useful when run frequently.  It can tell you how your PC's components are performing and then compare them to other machines like yours.  For example, when you overclock your PC, you want to know how much more speed you have and whether it is stable.  All this and more can be discovered using benchmarking.  An excellent piece of software for doing this job is SiSoft Sandra which can be found in the Downloads File Archive!

14. Refresh the Taskbar without restarting: If you in some way change the taskbar, either in Regedit or elsewhere, you can refresh the task bar without restarting.  Hold down Ctrl Alt Del, and double click on Explorer.  Say Yes to close Explorer, but no to closing Windows.  This will refresh the Taskbar and system tray.

15. Quick CD Eject: Instead of pushing the button on your drive, right-click your CD drive letter in My Computer and click on Eject.  This will also remove any icons that have become associated with the CD drive.

16. Start Up Programs:  Windows can be slowed down when programs run on start up.  To eliminate this, check your Start up folder.  You can access it from the start menu: Start, Programs, Start Up.  Another way to eliminate programs from loading even before Windows actually starts is by doing the following: Click on Start, then Run.  Type msconfig.  It will take quite a long time for this program to load, but when you finally see it on your screen, explore the different tabs.  They all have to do with how quickly your PC boots, so select what you want, and uncheck what you don't want!

17. Fonts: When Windows starts, it loads every single font in the Fonts folder.  Therefore, the more fonts you have, the slower the booting process.  To get rid of unwanted fonts, simply go to the Fonts folder under c:\windows and remove whatever you don't want.  Fonts that have a red letter 'A' as their icon are system fonts, so don't delete them.

18. Stretching Wallpapers:  Don't "stretch" your wallpaper in Windows 98 since it actually slows Windows down when you drag icons around on the desktop.

19. RAM Matters: If you have less than 32MB then you should seriously think of upgrading it to at least 64MB.  Windows runs much more smoothly with 64MB or higher and tends to use less hard disk space for virtual memory.

20. Partitioning: A very nice little thing you can do to boost system performance.  By partitioning your hard drive, splitting one physical drive into several logical ones, you can gain several advantages.  1. If you get a virus or you accidentally format a drive, not all will be lost.  2. By placing the swap file (Win386.swp) on a separate drive, The swap file will be less fragmented and thus, faster. 3. Place Windows on a separate drive and whenever you need to reinstall it, you rest assured that your data is safe on a separate drive.  Partitioning can be done using a few programs such as FDisk which comes with DOS.  However, FDisk formats everything on the hard disk before partitioning. Alternatively, you can use Partition Magic from Power Quest to partition your hard disk without losing your data.

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How to disable Ctrl+C at Windows startup

The problem: Windows lets anyone press the Ctrl+C keys during its initial booting phase and stop the booting. If the user is knowledgeable enough about the MSDOS mode, s/he can then examine the contents of all your drives and folders, etc. To prevent this from happening, you can reconfigure your computer to disable the Ctrl+C keys in the MSDOS mode.

The following method may be used to fix this problem:

First, make a backup copy of the C:\CONFIG.SYS file (just in case something goes wrong) by copying this file onto your emergency startup disk. Also, make sure that you can actually use the startup disk to boot your computer into the MSDOS mode.

Open C:\CONFIG.SYS with Notepad and add the following line at the very beginning of the file:

BREAK=OFF

Now save the file and reboot the computer.

For more information about the CONFIG.SYS file and its contents, please refer to the file Config.txt, installed by Windows in your C:\Windows folder.

Note: Note that this setting also disables Ctrl+C for all programs running in the MSDOS mode.

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Turn Off Hibernation

Hibernation is a feature that allows your system to shut down quickly and save everything that is open in the RAM to be stored on the hard drive until the computer is powered on again.

XP and 2000 use a file called hiberfil.sys to save everything it needs when they go go into hibernation. If you never use the hibernate function, you can turn it off.

When this feature is disabled, the hiberfil.sys file is deleted. This can free up the as much disk space as the amount of ram that you computer has. For example, if you have 1GB of RAM, you could be freeing up to 1GB of hard drive space.

In XP, go to Control Panel > Power Options > Hibernation and uncheck / Enable hibernation.

In 2000, go to Control Panel > Power Options > Hibernate / tab and uncheck / Enable hibernate support.

If you should want to re-enable hibernation, go back in and check / Enable hibernation in XP or Enable hibernate support in  2000.
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About Linux

What is Linux?

Linux is a free Unix-type operating system originally created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers around the world. Developed under the GNU General Public License, the source code for Linux is freely available to everyone which is causing a major evolution in the world of computers. It outperforms other operating systems on similar hardware and is available on architectures ranging from a PDA to supercomputers.

A modern operating system like Linux is even easier to install and use than Microsoft® Windows™, especially given the reboot nightmares, viruses, worms, driver-update hassles and Service Pack annoyances that come with Microsoft® Windows™.

Linux and Open Source technologies have become the standard platform of choice for IT system deployment. Over seventy percent of the Internet is running on Open Source technologies and international vendors such as Sun, Novell and IBM are deploying Linux and Open Source.

With proven reliability, security by design and a world class reputation throughout the IT industry there really is no reason why you cannot move to Linux and freedom right now. Why wait for your next systems failure? Now is the time to start your move to Linux and Open Source.

Moving to the Linux platform does not require abandoning existing investments in Microsoft Windows applications and infrastructure. Linux runs on the same hardware and can run many of the Microsoft Windows applications, like OpenOffice. What makes this even more amazing is that Linux and Open Source applications are freely available to anyone who wishes to download them.

Why Move?

The big question for many corporate IT professionals and developers is "Why would I move from Windows to Linux?" Windows is well established in the enterprise computing space and applications currently deployed on Windows may be running just fine in their organisation.

However, many organisations are migrating from Windows and UNIX to the OSS Linux platform. They are moving in order to gain better business value, a greater choice of solutions, and richer capabilities for addressing their enterprise computing needs and abilities. This is what no proprietary vendor can do...

1. They don't have the hugely productive environment of KDE to program in.

2. They can't run development crews of the Open Source Community size without considerable investment.

3. They can't gather the input of thousands of users.

4. They can't design in such an open fashion as to remove all their hooks.

5. They can't make a product so extensible that it takes away their upgrade leverage.

6. They can't give it away for free.

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Increasing The Life Of Hard Disk

Taking care of your hard disk is important because this is the place where all the data is stored and once the hard disk crashes, data in most cases is not recoverable. There are data recovery softwares and programs which recover data from crashed hard disks but that is not for normal computer users.

But why do hard disks crash and what can be done to prevent them from crashing?. At the same time how can a hard disk be made more efficient? Here are the answers.

Hard disks crash due to many reasons. Voltage fluctuations, physical impact, improper alignment and of course mechanical failure due to wear and tear of internal parts. Let us start one by one and get the answers to the above problems.

1. Voltage fluctuations or spikes as they are called can be prevented by using voltage stabilizers or spike guards. This will limit the damage to the hard disk to a great extent.

2. Physical impact can be prevented by handling the hard disk carefully when installing/ re-installing. When installing the hard disk care should be taken to see that it sits perfectly horizontal and that it does not vibrate or shake once the computer is started.

3. The natural wear and tear of parts can be limited by defragmenting your hard disk from time to time.But what is defragmentation? All newly created files are stored in various places on the hard disk in a single cluster ( contiguous file ). But, as the number of files and programs increase, these files are not stored as one contiguous file but broken down and scattered in various places on the hard disk. In short files get fragmented. When these files are accessed by the user, the head on the hard disk moves to and fro to locate these fragments. These fragmented files puts lot of mechanical pressure on the internal parts of the hard disk. This leads to crashes. To start disk defragmenter from the start menu, click the start button and follow this path (All Programs / Accessories / System Tools / Disk Defragmenter) . A minimum of 15 percent free space on your disk is needed for disk defragmenter to run. The disk can also be defragmented automatically by using schedule task. This program can can be accessed via system tools.

4. Power management tool can also be used to enhance the life of hard disk. To access this program go to start / control panel / power options and set the parameters for various hardware devices.

5. Disk cleanup increases the efficiency of the hard disk. So delete unwanted files and programs regularly.

Follow the above rules to increase the life of you hard disk.

Article Source: http://EzineArticle s.com/?expert= Lalit_Navani

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Disable popup warnings in Windows XP

Windows XP may be one of the more stable and developed operating systems (Vista is like a beta right now). But there are many irritating aspects in Windows XP.

Windows has a really stupid popup system, which pops up for every unnecessary thing imaginable. For example, there is a popup to warn that disk space is low on the system drive (usually C:\). Also, there is a popup for alerting you that a new program installed. As if you didn't know that you've installed a program!

There is an easy registry hack to get rid of all these popups. Do not be appalled by a registry edit - this is really simple.

Open up the registry editor - go to Run, type regedit and click OK. Backing up the registry before a hack is always a good idea, so click File > Export, choose a location and click save. Then, proceed to HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentV ersion\Explorer\ Advanced

Right click on the right-hand pane, make New> DWORD Value and name it EnableBallonTips. Set the value to 0 to disable ballontips, and set it back to 1 to enable balloontips.

This hack disables most balloontips. In order to eliminate all popups, some more work is required. In each of the following locations, change the values to 0 to disable balloontips.

Location: HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentV ersion\Explorer\ Advanced\

1. Change the value of FolderContentsInfoT ip to 0

Location: HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentV ersion\Explorer\ Advanced\

1. Change the value of ShowInfoTip to 0.

Location: HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentV ersion\Explorer\ tips\Show

1. Change the value of Show to 0

If anything goes wrong, restore the registry file that you had explored before and settings will be restored.

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How Processor Speed Is Reported to a Computer

The System tool in Control Panel uses currentspeed to do its reporting rather than maxspeed, but the System tool may display the wrong clock speed for the Central Processing Unit (CPU).

As of January 2002, Windows XP uses the currentspeed value rather than the maxspeed value because the maxspeed value was reporting inconsistent values.

After startup, the processor may not correctly reflect its correct speed until a program utilizes processor cycles.

The computer basic input/output system (BIOS) in some laptop computers may throttle the processor because of heat, load, power AC/DC.

To check the currentspeed setting:

1.Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.

2.Click See basic information about your computer. On the General tab, the processor speed (in MHz) appears under Computer.

To check the maxspeed setting:

1.Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Information.

2.The speed (Maxspeed) of the processor appears in MHz in the System Information window, in the right column of System Summary, under Processor..

NOTE: System Information from Administrative Tools always reports Maxspeed.

If you click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Information, the correct processor speed (for example, 797 MHz = 800 MHz) is shown. After you start the System Information tool, the System Properties tool in Control Panel displays the correct speed. However, when you first start your computer, the incorrect speed is shown in the System Properties tool in Control Panel.

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How to make Two clocks for two time zones

If you work in different time zones, you can add up to two additional clocks on the system task tray.

Left-click on the clock, select Change date and time settings, and go to the Additional Clocks tab.

You can then enter the display name for the clock(s) and choose its time zone.

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Computer maintenance tips

With the amount of information available for download on the Internet, it's easy to quickly fill up your valuable hard drive space and turn your computer into a sluggish, unresponsive monster. Keeping your hard drive clean is essential to the high performance that the latest computers can achieve. Fortunately, it's a simple process; one that can easily be performed on a regular basis and, with some organization, keep your computer running like a well-oiled machine.


You can discover how much hard drive space is available on your computer by accessing the DriveSpace program in your System Tools. A pie graph will show you the amount of used and unused space for each of your drives. Check this often to keep an idea of how much space you are using.

There are six simple steps to clearing up your hard drive:

1. Uninstall unused programs.

Many times a new program will come along that looks fun to have or play with, but after a week or two you simply stop using it. These programs clutter up your drive and take up valuable space. You might be tempted to delete these programs from your drive, but doing so will cause problems. You must use the uninstall function of Windows for the program to be removed safely and completely.

2. Clean out temporary files.

When your computer is not shut down properly, it will pass information from memory into fragmented files. Also, while you are running programs, your computer will write information that it does not immediately need into temporary files. Installation files will also expand themselves into the temporary folder and will not always clean up after themselves. You can delete these temporary files safely by using the Disk Cleanup option in your System Tools.

3. Empty your Internet cache.

As you surf the Internet your computer stores web pages and images into a temporary Internet cache so that it can quickly recall and access information when you move back and forth between pages. This backup information can quickly add up and eat hard drive space.

Whether you use Internet Explorer, Netscape, or one of the many other browsers available, emptying out your cache is quick and easy. Simply follow the instructions in the Help files located within those programs. You may also wish to set a specific maximum file size for your cache folder, so that it is not allowed to run rampant.

4. Empty your mail programs of clutter.

It's easy to browse through your email and leave old messages there, promising yourself you'll sort them out later. One or two messages don't take up much space, but hundreds certainly do. Take the time to sort through these old emails now and delete what is not important. Create folders and organize what is left. Make it a habit that when new emails come in, they are either filed immediately or thrown away. Set your email program to empty your deleted items folder each time you close your mail program.

5. Empty your recycle bin.

Once you've emptied your drive of cluttering, unnecessary programs; empty your recycle bin to remove what has been placed there in the process.

6. Scandisk and Defrag.

When Windows installs programs, it will put the files it needs anywhere that it finds free space, and not directly after the last program installed. As a result, your hard drive has patches of empty space on it that are not big enough to fit a full program, and will result in a drive space error if you attempt to install something new. Scandisk your drive to check for lost file fragments and to fix any errors it finds, then Defrag to pack all of the program files together at the beginning of your drive. This will clear out those empty patches and move all of the free space you've just created to the end of your drive.

Now that you've got it clean, keep it that way. Perform this quick maintenance routine every week. For your work computer, Friday afternoon before you leave for the weekend is the perfect time. When you return to work on Monday, you'll have a computer that is clutter-free and as responsive as it should be.

Organize your surfing habits. Direct all of your downloads to the same folder, so that you can easily find them and delete them when necessary, or move them to zip disks for storage. Keep track of the programs that you install. For trial versions, note the date that they will expire on a calendar. This will remind you to uninstall the programs that you can no longer use rather than allowing them to clutter up your drive. Also, if you run into problems, keeping track of new downloaded and installed programs and the date they were installed can help you track down the cause of problems.

Remember that the cleaner your hard drive is, the better your machine will respond! In order for your computer to be user friendly, it must have a friendly user. Be your computer's best friend and clean out the cobwebs regularly.

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(Know) Motherboard
 
The motherboard is the heart of the computer, every part of the computer relies on the motherboard to function correctly.

It maintains connection between every PC component and ensures that things are operating smoothly between them.

Many signs of motherboard failure is that the computer won't boot up, not reaching the POST test, erratic system behavior, different combinations of components not working. The motherboard is the heart of the computer, every part of the computer relies on the motherboard to function correctly.

It maintains connection between every PC component and ensures that things are operating smoothly between them.

Many signs of motherboard failure is that the computer won't boot up, not reaching the POST test, erratic system behavior, different combinations of components not working.

Because everything is connected to the motherboard certain parts may or may not work correctly if the motherboard is faulty so be sure to test those parts before thinking they're dead and getting new ones.

Be sure to do a visual inspection of the motherboard to make sure all cables are seated properly, the fans are spinning, and that the CMOS battery is in it's proper place. 

Also check for any broken or leaking capacitors, those can immediately render a motherboard dead.

Make sure that all of the jumpers are set correctly as well, you should be able to find jumper information in your motherboard's manual, and if you don't have the manual you should be able to find the manual on the Internet at the motherboard manufacturer's website.

Many of the problems caused by a bad motherboard is also similar to problems caused by a faulty or dying power supply, so be sure to check if the power supply is faulty or swap it out for another to see if your problem is fixed.

If you have a spare motherboard you can try swapping out the motherboard to see if that solves your problem, if that's the case then the motherboard is most likely faulty.

If you think the motherboard is faulty and it is still in warranty you should be able to send it back to the manufacturer for a new one with no hassle, sometimes they might even pay for the shipping & handling if it is a big problem that is happening with a certain line of motherboards.

Make sure that when you open a motherboard you keep all of the packaging and the box, and if there are any stickers that will void the warranty if removed make sure you do NOT remove them, so that way it is easier to send back.

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Create a shortcut to lock a PC in Vista


Slice steps off your system log-off routine by putting a log-off shortcut on your desktop.

Start by right-clicking an empty space on the desktop and then selecting New shortcut. In the space below Type the location of the item, type in rundll32.exe user32.DLL, LockWorkStation (remember to watch your spacing and case).

Finally, create a clever name for the icon besides the default "rundll32"—how about "Lock PC"? Then click the shortcut to lock your computer with ease.

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How to start windows programs quickly with Run Command...?

The run option of Start menu is used to run a program or to open a document directly. If you

Do not know the exact location of the program or document then click on Start button to open

Run and type the programs shortcut name to open it directly.

Run Commands

Appwiz.cpl -- Used to run Add/Remove wizard

Calc --Calculator

Cfgwiz32 --ISDN Configuration Wizard

Charmap --Character Map

Chkdisk --Repair damaged files

Cleanmgr --Cleans up hard drives

Clipbrd --Windows Clipboard viewer

Control --Displays Control Panel

Cmd --Opens a new Command Window

Control mouse --Used to control mouse properties

Dcomcnfg --DCOM user security

Debug --Assembly language programming tool

Defrag --Defragmentation tool

Drwatson --Records programs crash & snapshots

Dxdiag --DirectX Diagnostic Utility

Explorer --Windows Explorer

Fontview --Graphical font viewer

Fsmgmt.msc -- Used to open shared folders

Firewall.cpl  -- Used to configure windows firewall

Ftp -FTP.exe program

Hostname --Returns Computer's name

Hdwwiz.cpl -- Used to run Add Hardware wizard

Ipconfig --Displays IP configuration for all network adapters

Logoff -- Used to logoff the computer

MMC --Microsoft Management Console

Msconfig --Configuration to edit startup files

Mstsc -- Used to access remote desktop

Mrc -- Malicious Software Removal Tool

Msinfo32 --Microsoft System Information Utility

Nbtstat --Displays stats and current connections using NetBIOS over TCP/IP

Netstat --Displays all active network connections

Nslookup--Returns your local DNS server

Osk ---Used to access on screen keyboard

Perfmon.msc -- Used to configure the performance of Monitor.

Ping --Sends data to a specified host/IP

Powercfg.cpl -- Used to configure power option

Regedit --Registry Editor

Regwiz -- Registration wizard

Sfc /scannow -- System File Checker

Sndrec32 --Sound Recorder

Shutdown -- Used to shutdown the windows

Spider -- Used to open spider solitaire card game

Sfc / scannow -- Used to run system file checker utility.

Sndvol32 --Volume control for soundcard

Sysedit -- Edit system startup files

Taskmgr --Task manager

Telephon.cpl -- Used to configure modem options.

Telnet --Telnet program

Tracert --Traces and displays all paths required to reach an Internet host

Winchat -- Used to chat with Microsoft

Wmplayer -- Used to run Windows Media player

Wab -- Used to open Windows address Book.

WinWord -- Used to open Microsoft word

Winipcfg --Displays IP configuration

Winver -- Used to check Windows Version

Wupdmgr --Takes you to Microsoft Windows Update

Write -- Used to open WordPad

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Accenture layoffs - Philippines

Accenture lays off approximately three percent of its total workforce in the Philippines or approximately 500 out of a total headcount of more than 16,000 employees.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) interested in acquiring Satyam Computer Services.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which owns 4% in Satyam, is believed to have approached top government officials saying it has an action plan to save the software-maker.

Persons familiar with the matter said Naik has sought an appointment with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to drive home the point that the engineering company is best suited to take over Satyam, provided the government took care of Satyam's liabilities.

Any potential buyer, including L&T, may have to participate in the formal process conducted by the board.

400 Satyam Onsite Employees returning back

State Farm Insurance Company has terminated  contract with Satyam Computer. "The current uncertainties surrounding Satyam's future and potential impact to State Farm resulted in this decision," the newspaper quoted the company as saying.

As a result of the termination of contract, a large number of Satyam employees are likely to return to India because of their visa requirements.


Satyam State Farm Insurance Company Onsite is at

Satyam Computers Fraud - Cartoon

TCS Layoffs - 20 in Kolkatta

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) fired about 20 people from its Kolkata centre on charges of using fudged resumes to get jobs.  It is taking stringent measures to stop the incidents of such candidates joining the companies in future.

MindTree Layoffs - Fires 70 after background checks

A Student working on Software Programming

Mid-tier software services company MindTree, which just completed its integration with Aztecsoft, has completed the second phase background verification of some employees who joined the company almost two years back.


At the end of the process that was completed on Tuesday, the company said close to 70 people have been asked to leave with immediate effect. The company was not even required to serve them the mandatory notice period since all these employees were asked to leave on the ground of 'integrity' for showing false information in their resumes at the time of joining.

Was Raju threatened for telling the truth?

The story Ramalinga Raju of Satyam Computers has narrated in his letter has too many loose ends and is too incredible to believe. Is his narrative a cover-up? Who is he shielding?

Most of us are too shocked to react in any coherent manner. But, the story given by Ramalinga Raju in his letter to the board of directors of Satyam Computers is absolutely impossible for just he and his brother to carry out. There are far too many loose ends.

As of 30 September 2008, Satyam's stated cash and bank balances were Rs5,361 crore. Of this, Raju's letter says only Rs321 crore is real and Rs5,040 crore is fictitious. Almost the entire amount was reported to be held in deposits with banks. This amount was steadily built up over the last many years. One of the first items auditors check is asset confirmations, and for bank deposits they have to be original certificates from the banks. Given the large amounts involved, it is likely that the entire amount would have been split among many banks. That means the auditors were given forged balance confirmations from multiple banks all these years. There is no way the chairman or managing director of Satyam was directly giving these confirmations to the auditors. At least a few in the finance department of the company clearly knew about this all along.

Raju says in his letter that Rs376 crore of accrued interest is 'non-existent'. This amount was accrued over the last many quarters. For those not familiar with accounting jargon, a company 'accrues' an income when it is due but has not yet been realised in cash. If all the money was parked in bank deposits, which normally pay interest periodically, this means the bank defaulted in interest payments. And Satyam's auditors believed that story!

Satyam had reported Rs2,854 crore as unsecured debtors and Raju's letter says only Rs490 crore is real. Again, for such a large amount, the company would have shown many debtors and confirmations would have been submitted to the auditors for each one of them. Any auditor would go through the ledger account of at least some of the unsecured debtors to see if there are transactions happening. It is difficult to fudge a large number of accounts for a long time as each transaction must have a corresponding entry in the bank account. If the ledger accounts and bank statements were actually fudged, many more people must be involved, including some bankers.

There is only another way this can happen and that is the auditor didn't bother to check anything. That is hard to believe. The statutory audit team for a company the size of Satyam will have at least a dozen or more members, besides the audit firm partner who signs the audit report, and every year the team will change even if the partner remains the same. Assuming that this has been going on for many years, this implies that at least 50 trained employees of the audit firm were duped into believing this fiction. That is beyond incredible.

Satyam had a full-fledged internal audit team, presumably including many accounting professionals. This team must have been going through the books in much more detail than the statutory auditors and submitting regular reports to the audit committee of Satyam's board of directors. The audit committee had only external, so called independent directors and Raju or his brother Ramu were not members. How come not even one of these capable professionals, either in the internal audit team or in the audit committee, didn't detect anything amiss for many years? 

These days every business manager analyses threadbare the profitability of each project or contract he or she manages. If Satyam's margins were so low or non-existent, unlike those of its competitors, it would have been apparent in the profitability analysis done by individual profit centres or managers. If it was so low, it would have come up at least in some of the project profitability sheets. If that is the case, why didn't any of the senior managers suspect the healthy margins reported by Satyam, quarter after quarter?
As mentioned earlier, almost the entire cash surplus of over Rs5,000 crore was parked in low-yielding bank deposits. No investments in the stock market or mutual funds or bonds. These days, even companies with Rs100 crore of surplus cash will set up treasury departments to manage the money and seek better returns. Why didn't any director, manager or auditor question this practice?

Raju says he brought in Rs1,230 crore as cash over the last 2 years to 'keep the operations going'. If true, this clearly means the company was facing a severe cash shortage over this period when it was reporting healthy profits. Surprising that none in Satyam's finance department took notice! There is also the small matter of how Raju brought in such a large amount of money, without even a single soul other than his brother knowing it.


This story is too incredible to believe. There are two possibilities:
1.     This is a much bigger fraud, involving a large number of people.
2.     The profits were not fictitious and the cash was real, at least until a few months back. Somehow the cash disappeared or was lost and this incredible story is a cover up.

Who is he shielding? If local politicians are threatening him, why is he kept in CID custody for this long? Why can't the AP Police allow him to speak to media?

World Bank Bans Megasoft, Wipro too

World Bank Bans Wipro technologies for 4 years (2007-2011) for providing improper benefits to Bank staff, Megasoft Consultants Ltd. for 4 years (2007-2011) for participating in a joint venture with bank staff while also conducting business with the Bank and Satyam Computer Services, Ltd. for 8 years (2008-2016) for giving improper benefits to bank staff and failing to maintain documentation to support fees charged for its subcontractors.

Times Group backstabs Hyderabad

Andhra, and in particular, Hyderabad was patronizing Times Group news papers – Times of India (TOI) and Economic Times (ET). They were also part of many campaigns conducted and Hyderabadis considered TOI to be the paper of their city. But the backstabbing done to Hyderabadis during the recent Satyam fraud imbroglio took a heavy dent of the media's image

Both newspapers known for their sensational news went many steps further to systematically malign Satyam and its employees. They created rumors of  '10000 job layoffs', "Shares heading for zero", "Two month paycuts etc", which irritated many of its readers

Srikanth Reddy, a hard core Economic Times fan, discontinued reading the news online stating that ET went overboard in maligning Satyam rather than spreading the truth. Jayanth Nagaraj smelt something sinister in the media's reporting and have suspended the newspaper's subscription. As the dirt from the Satyam settles down, we might know if many will follow Jayanth

Indian Media might get Partial Ban, Fine or Both

Sankranti Gift for Indian Media

The leak from Home Ministry shouldn't be encouraging for the Indian media. After their irresponsible role in Mumbai attacks, they diverted their attention on politicians to conceal the blunder they did to Indian citizens. Many in Israel, Germany and other parts of the world vocally condemned Indian media for publishing live images of the commando operation, which eventually led to deaths of many.

After a month of investigation, the Indian Home ministry might be of the opinion to partially ban the media from airing for a couple of months. This would mean that the live telecasting licenses to many news operators might be revoked or suspended. The Government is also mulling the option of slapping a hefty fine on the media group as a deterrent

Satyam Share is Trading @ Rs 6

Satyam Share is Trading @ Rs 6 (almost 85% down from previous close) as the rumors of Layoffs and arest spread

Satyam Fraud : Explore Politicians and Realtors Links

The 7200 crore accounting fraud in Satyam is a tip of the iceberg. Though the initial suspicion points out to Rajus, the actual devils might be hiding inside.

One story goes that Rajus used to bribe the realtors and politicians with Land when they used to get new contracts (for Maytas). As the real-estate crashed in Hyderabad, the realtors wanted cash instead of land. This led to a cash crunch which led to the demise of Satyam.

It is high time that the probe delves into the activities of state politicians, real-estate bigshots and unearth the real story behind the fraud.

Satyam might Layoff 10000 employees

Headhunters India CEO Kris Lakshmikanth has said "It is most likely that Satyam will cut 10,000 jobs next month as the company is left with no cash to pay the salaries. The current fiasco is likely to put pressure on salaries, which may reduce by 10 per cent due to the surplus of about 20,000 people in the jobs market,"

Appeal to Satyam Employees

Dear All,

A day after, when the entire world is considering Mr. BR Raju as criminal let us just look around on what we should learn from this incident.

Everybody must have read lots of stores including his own letter to board which was circling on the net. I am not going into the details of the letter but few other things beyond that.

We all know Raju is the founder of the Satyam and with his abilities he took the organization to the one of the world’s best organization. We should really appreciate his efforts and today more than 75,000 families are depending directly or indirectly on this organization. We all should be very proud of him.

While this process he forgot few basics and we just look into that.

· Owning a business: You can own a business only by having major shares in that. In no other manor you can own that for a long time. For may be any reason he and his directors sold the shares and they had faced the takeover threat. He used all the other tactics to be the king and proved to be futile.

· Openness: Trust comes from openness. As Raju unreeled the secrets the entire world considering him as fraud person even though he had not done anything for his personal gain. Whatever he did, he did to keep his organization as one of the best. In this process he even pumped in the 1250 crores of personal money into the company which he can never recover. But in the process he lost everything, money name and fame because he is not open.

He has done nothing wrong other than discussed above. But at this juncture it is more important for everybody to support the 75,000 families dependent up on this organization.

One thing we should remember that the company is still intact. Still running in profits. Still having the customer confidence. Only thing it has lost is the moral. Of course if your leader and your role model is being doubted by the entire world, you automatically loose the moral. If you lose money you can earn, if you lose name still you can recover. But you lose moral you had lost everything.

Now it is in the hand of the employs to keep the organization intact.

Ø Stick to the basics: Work your best. You will get the best salary. This applicable to all the departments including sales, key account management, finance, not to mention the basic IT service people.

Ø Keep your customer happy: If you deliver the best to keep your customer happy, he will definitely deliver the best to you and to your organization.

Ø Never lose Moral: As said earlier never lose your moral. Put off TV and news papers.

Enron or any other company were became bankrupt after any scandal were erupted. If all people stood together bring Satyam back into limelight and it will be miracle in the Indian history and India would automatically become No 1 country.



Wishing you all the best.



PS: If a Satyam employee receive this mail request you to send this to as many Satyam employees as you can. I am writing this mail just to make India a better India. I am an outsider not an Satyam employee.


Pradeep Meesala

Satyam Fraud not a surprise - Ex-Employees

The biggest corporate fraud by Telangana based Satyam doesn't come as surprise to many of its ex-employees. For most of ex-Satyamites, it was a question of when and not if the fraud will be exposed.

Many of them share the view that Satyam was NOT the best employer to work for. The HR practices were worse and employee satisfaction was nil

Actual Value of Satyam Share

Actual Value of Satyam Stock

According to CLSA, the value of Satyam stock in current conditions is about Rs 25-30.

Some analysts, however, say the stock is worthless as the scale of fraud is not yet known.

Satyam price target slashed to Rs 25

CLSA which rated Satyam as 'underperform', has now slashed its price target to Rs 25 after the revelation of the company's accounting fraud.

AP to act against Satyam and not Maytas

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister's faith and friendship with realtors continues even after 7500 crore fraud by Satyam promoter Mr Ramalinga Raju. In a brief press conference, he refused to take any action against Maytas, the company which executes Metrorail project in Hyderabad, Telangana.

Scrap Maytas Hyderabad-Metro Project

With the Satyam Fraud coming open with its chief admitting it, the investors are busy arguing against the Hyderabad Metro project. The prestigious project was involved in many controversies from day one.

Maytas has no previous experience in the construction of a project like the HMR. Its financial position was not sound, convenor of Citizens for Better Public Transport in Hyderabad (CBPTH) C Ramachandraiah said.

It has rejected the Viability Gap Funding and offered to pay a whopping over Rs 30,000 crore to the State Government based on real estate business. It appears that financial institutions and banks are not willing to lend money to Maytas Infra for this venture. As the financial closure was coming closer, it was scandalous that Satyam tried to divert people's money to their family ventures, Ramachandraiah said.

"What Sreedharan of DMRC has cautioned in his letter to Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia in September last may come true in Hyderabad with a heavy social and economic cost,'' he said.

The project is heavily banked on real estate business which is on a downslide now. In future, if Maytas withdraws from the Metro Rail project, the State Government will have to take over the entire project.

"We demand that the Concession Agreement signed between the State Government and the Maytas should be scrapped immediately in larger public interest,'' Ramachandraiah said

The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh was partial in coming our open in support of Raju and his family. An high-level inquiry should be demanded against the Congress government for its alleged involvement in many development projects






Earlier, the Citizens for a Better Public Transport in Hyderabad (CBPTH) has once again questioned several aspects of the Concession Agreement (CA) signed by the government with Maytas Metro Ltd., (MML) for building the elevated metro rail system in the city.


The organisation maintained that the agreement should be "scrapped immediately" and the "issue of public transport should be debated." Dr. Ramachandraiah pointed out that the GHMC alone stood to lose "hundreds of crores of rupees" in various taxes as no such levy was being imposed on the rail system. There was also no guarantee that more land would not be given to MML in future or if the estimated passengers per day (26.76 lakh a day) would fructify considering the poor record of Delhi Metro which was not even carrying 30 per cent of the projected commuters, he said.

Satyam Chief might land in Jail

Terming disclosures of financial wrong-doings at Satyam as an event of "horrifying magnitude," market regulator Sebi today said it would take all steps under the law for which it has started discussions with government and bourses.

"We are in touch with Ministry of Corporate Affairs... We are also in discussion with them as to what steps need to be taken from the perspective of power they have under the law and Sebi has under the law," Sebi Chairman C B Bhave said.

TamilNadu worse than UP and Bihar

The alleged irregularities in the run-up to the Tirumangalam by-election has put Tamil Nadu ahead of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar when it came to violating election code of conduct, CEC N Gopalaswami said.

The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) on a personal visit to the city, parried questions regarding his department ordering registration of a criminal case against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's son M K Stalin for allegedly distributing money to people in Tirumangalam, where a by-election is scheduled on 9th January.

The Election Commission, on Monday had directed officials to register a case against Stalin, also the Local Administration Minister, on charges of bribery.

Satyam chief accepts fraud: resigns

Ramalinga Raju, chairman of India's embattled Satyam Computer Services resigned on Wednesday and said the company's profits had been inflated over the last several years, sending the stock down 72 percent.


"The gap in the balance sheet has arisen purely on account of inflated profits over a period of last several years," Raju said in a statement to stock exchanges on Wednesday.

Pakistan Militants Fire in Air after watching Gaza Videos

 
Pakistan militants had a first-hand account of bombings and devastation when Geo TV played visuals of the ruthless Israeli bombardment of Gaza strip. Young militants who couldn't control their anger fired in air with the automatic rifles.

The latest round of attacks by Israel started with the instigation of rockets from Palestine by Hamas. Hamas with its own power had 'pinched' Israeli positions number of times and have been castrated by Israelis equal no of times.


Poor Islamic children of Palestine who depend of Christian aid from America are caught in the cross-fire and suffer a lot

IBM to layoff 16,000 ?

A message in an independent Web site for IBM employees states that IBM will announce 16,000 layoffs on Jan. 23, affecting workers worldwide. Similar predictions are made in other recent posts on the site, which is run by the Alliance@IBM/Communications Workers of America Local 1701, a union that is trying to organize IBM workers.


IBM has more than 386,000 employees worldwide, according to its Web site. If the rumored 16,000 figure proves accurate, then, it would equal roughly a 4 percent reduction in headcount.

Company spokesman Fred McNeese said Monday that IBM "does not comment on rumors and speculation."

The layoff rumors are swirling as IBM prepares to release its fourth-quarter 2008 earnings, which are expected later this month.

Microsoft Layoffs

Microsoft lays off contract workers and not the full-time staff. According to sources, some companies who depute their workers for Microsoft have been asked to take back their staff as some of the projects were either shelved or taken over by 'regulars'

Two billion dollars' fake Microsoft goods in China

A court in the southern chinese city of Shenzhen on Wednesday sentenced 11 people to jail terms of up to six-and-a-half years for making high-quality counterfeit software that was sold in 36 countries, Microsoft said in a statement.

Satyam might be stripped of 2008 Golden Peacock Global Award for Excellence

UK-based World Council for Corporate Governance that bestowed Satyam Computer Services Ltd its highest honour—the 2008 Golden Peacock Global Award for Excellence in corporate governance—in September, plans to reconsider the decision after serious questions over lack of governance at India's fourth largest technology outsourcing company.

If its board concludes the award was undeserving, given recent questions about Satyam management's attempts to use company money to buy two firms owned by the family of Satyam chairman B. Ramalinga Raju, the Council may ask Satyam to stop using the award in its branding and publicity.

L&T Infotech & Wipro busy buying Satyam shares

Stock market data shows many India-based players have also started accumulating Satyam shares. L&T, which has interests in IT through L&T Infotech, has reportedly been buying its shares through a group firm. Cognizant was also busy in buying Satyam shares

Satyam's loss in SAP is HCL's gain

Forrester report says HCL's acquisition of Axon helps it build strengths in the lucrative package implementation space. The report further says "It helps new competition like HCL-Axon attack Satyam's sweet spot - SAP services... HCL is raising debt to strengthen its IT services business through a stronger SAP capability, and incumbent SAP services leader. Satyam is spending its mountain of cash to diversify out of the IT services business,"

The announcement of Satyam's plan, incidentally, happened within 24 hours of the formal finalisation of HCL's purchase of Axon.