Google Office in Zurich

We all know how Google pampers its employees with lavish office environment and all kinds of facilities and these are a set of photos inside the Google building in Zurich, Switzerland from Picasa. Bathtubs where you can sit and relax while watching an aquarium, a hallway slide, peculiar meeting rooms makes you envious with awe for those who can work in the Google workplace.

Blogs Rule By BOB-ular Vote

For all the bloggers out there, November could either be a stressful or a rewarding month - or even both.
Why? Because November is the month that the online blog awards, the Best of the Blogs competition (BOBs for short), will conclude and announce its winners.
Now in its fifth year, the BOBs have announced the finalists as of today; 176 blogs have been chosen for the finals, but out of the more than 8,500 blogs that originally entered the competition, less than 100 were from Canada.
According to the BOBs' map, the majority of the blogs were from Brazil (1,071), Spain (1,004) and France (1,337). Other big contributors were Argentina, Russia, China and Indonesia.
In North America, the U.S. led the way, but not by much. With 216 votes, the country beat out Mexico's 181 by a small margin. Canada, on the other hand, had only 76, the majority of which were split between Toronto and Montreal.
Perhaps this is more of an indicator that blogging is a faster-growing phenomenon in less wealthy countries where blogging is a more valuable and respected form of expression than in countries where blogs -and the Internet - are taken for granted.
By checking the BOBs' map, one can see that countries all over the world have entered into the competition, from Uganda (10 blogs) to Guatemala (9 blogs).
Founded by Deutsche Welle and sponsored by HP, O'Reilly Publishing, and others the BOBs accept blogs from 11 different languages and give awards in a variety of different categories.
To vote on the finalists or to keep an eye on the site for your chance to enter next year, go to http://www.thebobs.com/.

No More Pencils, No More Books with NoNotes

Can you imagine yourself sitting through a college or university lecture without being in the classroom or lecture hall? We've all sat through a few lectures paying very little attention, but now you can conveniently receive the full lecture as an audio file with a transcript.
That is what NoNotes.com is trying to achieve with both students and teachers recording class lectures and discussions and uploading them to an audio file with a full transcript of the class e-mailed to their account.
This also means that even if you're in attendance you wouldn't have to worry about scribbling down notes all the time. Instead, you and the teacher can engage and concentrate more on the subject matter that's at hand.
Matt Whitteker, 24, company manager of NoNotes.com and a Carleton University graduate, believes that his company will help to break barriers within the current classroom setting.
"We have had several centres for students with disabilities open accounts for note taking as well as several athletes who must miss classes, use the service to get notes while away at competitions," said Whitteker. "It seems quite obvious that the service would tailor itself to some very specific groups, like those who have hearing problems, language barriers, learning disabilities, or simply want to make the most of their class time."
NoNotes.com has currently opened up accounts in Canada, United States and the U.K. and seems to be growing by several new accounts per day for each of the aforementioned countries. Users of the service must use some form of voice recorder such as ones in cell phones and MP3 players. NoNotes does recommend recorders use a higher end voice recorder with a microphone in order to obtain the best recording results.
"At NoNotes.com, we want students to be able to enjoy their class time, and we want to promote information sharing among students and teachers everywhere," said Whitteker. "If a sociology teacher in Britain has a great way of teaching about research methods, we want them to be able to share that transcript in seconds with peers in the US or Canada."
NoNotes.com will charge their clients just under eight dollars an hour. Students are welcome to share the cost of the service making it more accessible for students on a budget.
For more info on the service, go to http://www.nonotes.com/.

Midnight Launches Continue for Hit Games

On certain nights, coffee shops located near select Future Shops could see an increase of sales around midnight thanks to hardcore gamers lining up in the cold for hours to be one of the first to play their favourite titles.
Yesterday, Future Shop announced the midnight availability of two games that are predicted to have great success this season: Gears of War 2 and World of Warcraft: The Wrath of Lich King.
The new installment in the Gears of War series is expected to surpass its predecessor and match or exceed sales of the Halo series. It will be available on November 6 at 11:59 p.m. at Future Shop.
The first Gears, which was built on the Unreal engine, received much attention for its grittiness and raw violence. The ability to carve through bad guys with a chainsaw and crush fallen enemies' skulls underfoot were just a couple of the game's selling features.
World of Warcraft is one of the most successful games ever for the PC and Mac and will continue to draw attention with the new World of Warcraft: The Wrath of Lich King, to be released on November 12 at 11:59 p.m. at select locations.
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG, for "short") that allows players to team up and play quests with each other or just kill one another.
These two midnight launches follow the precedents set by big name titles of the past including Grand Theft Auto IV and the recently released Fallout 3.
There will be launch parties for both games on their respective midnight release dates in both Vancouver and Toronto. Future Shop stores opening at midnight for the launch of WoW will also be hosting costume contests and offering prizes.

Air Travellers Get the Net at YYZ

Trying to open up an important e-mail in an airport and finding out there's no connectivity in the terminal can put someone into a bit of a funk. That is why the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) and Plaza Premium Lounge have teamed up with Samsung Electronics Canada to bring an innovative new lounge to Terminal 1 at Toronto Pearson Airport.
Visitors travelling through the Toronto Pearson Lounge can now expect to have full wireless internet access as well as the use of Samsung printers, monitors and large departure screens.
Run Hulse, vice-president of IT marketing for Samsung Electronics Canada, is excited about the partnership with the GTAA and the opportunity it will provide for Canadians who travel by air.
"Canadians are busier than ever and need options that will support their hectic lifestyles, even while travelling," said Hulse. "This new lounge offers the most up-to-date, technologically-advanced products that will support connectivity, whether it's for business or personal reasons."
Steve Shaw, vice-president of marketing and business development with the GTAA, is pleased to have Samsung Electronics Canada as a partner in this venture.
"Passengers will have the option of relaxing in this new and innovative space when travelling through Terminal One (at Toronto Pearson Airport) no matter which airline they are flying with," said Shaw.
The Toronto Pearson Lounge will have a pay-as-you-go fare with each visit costing $35. The price will let the visitor have full access to all of the products provided for them in the lounge including unlimited food and beverages. Frequent travellers can take an opportunity and purchase an annual membership for the lounge at a cost of $399 per year.
Hulse believes that the Toronto Pearson Lounge will provide a valuable service.
"Whether they (visitors) need to send a quick e-mail home or a report to their boss or they just want to enjoy a relaxing drink and refreshments before their long flight, the new lounge will allow them to go about their business in comfort and style."

Auto Sign-Off with Viion's Sentinel

For as long as they've been around, firewalls and antivirus programs have dramatically helped computer owners and users surf the Internet while minimizing security concerns. Now, a new application has come along that should make give users peace of mind when they walk away from the computer.
Montreal's Viion Systems Inc. has announced the launch of a solution for the IT security market: The Sentinel Sign-Off 1.0.
Sentinel Sign-Off will automatically lock a computer following the departure of a user. This will eliminate security vulnerabilities when users forget to manually log-out of computer sessions prior to them departing. It does this using several methods, with webcams being integral to the program.
Sentinel Sign-Off should work best when it is installed in workstation environments like health-care, enterprise and financial markets.
Dr. Michael Kelly, president and founder of Viion, believes that Sentinel Sign-Off is the solution IT security professionals should have if they want to improve the security of their organizations computing infrastructure.
"Sentinel Sign-Off uses a combination of computer vision technologies to identify and detect the presence of a computer user," said Dr. Kelly. "This is the first time that an intelligent sensing approach has been used to address the walk-away security issue."
Because of this innovative product by Dr. Kelly, Viion has filed a patent protection which will cover the active presence and identification for the Sentinel Sign-Off 1.0.
For more information on Viion Systems and the Sentinel Sign-Off 1.0, go to http://www.viionsystems.com/.

Devaluation of Taka ruled out: BB Governor asks RMG exporters to be careful about deals

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed yesterday ruled out the possibility of local currency (Taka) devaluation at this moment, demanded by exporters, but suggested to be careful about any deal with their buyers in view of the current global financial crisis.
"There is a recent tendency that importers place huge orders when they reach the verge of bankruptcy. So, the exporters, particularly in the RMG sector must remain alert," he said at a press conference at Bangladesh Bank.
The BB Governor recognized that the currencies in most of the countries other than China have depreciated, but said the Taka remained stable for quite a long time and that helped reduce the import cost.
Consumers in Bangladesh, are yet to benefit form the reduced import cost and inflation is still soaring over double digit through prices of essential commodities have declined sharply in the international market.
Dr Salehuddin is optimistic about pulling down inflation saying there are enough indications in the market that the inflation, already eased to some extent, would further come down significantly in the days ahead.
"The inflation will fall substantially by the year-end from around 10 per cent at present due to sharp fall of global prices and bumper boro harvest and a better outlook for aman this season, Deputy Governor Ziaul Hassan Siddiqui supplemented.
Replying to another question, the Governor said the regulatory bodies of banks, financial institutions, insurance companies and stock market should be more active and, at the same time, they would have to be cautious that over regulation does not affect market discipline.
He mentioned that Bangladesh Bank has strengthened its supervision of commercial banks and financial institutions and asked the banks and financial institutions to strengthen their internal control to consolidate their position.
"We'll have to remain alert so the recession does not affect us," he said.
Dr Salehuddin said the central bank has long been trying to encourage commercial banks to provide adequate credit to agriculture, SMEs and housing sectors of Bangladesh to help accelerate the country's economic growth.
He, however, said: "Our major challenge is to protect the real sector from the financial sector."
The press conference was to review the country's economic and financial sector situation in view of the global financial meltdown that pushed developed and developing countries into recession and made the countries like Bangladesh vulnerable.
Replying to a question, deputy governor Nazrul Huda said Bangladesh Bank has a target to reduce the interest rate spread from 6 percent to 5 percent through reduction of the lending rates. During the last three quarters, the spread declined to some extent, but still remained above the target.
He, however, expected that the spread would come down to the target level by December.
The Governor said the central bank was still pressing private banks to further reduce interest rates on bank loans to reduce their rate spread to below five points.
To maintain expected GDP growth targets and keep inflation tolerable, the central bank will not change its monetary policy against the backdrop of the world crisis, he said in answer to a query.
The bank has no plans at the moment to adjust the value of the taka against the US or any other currency, Salehuddin added.