Here's why Coca-Cola bottles have yellow caps right now

© Courtesy of Coren Feldman Here's why Coca-Cola bottles have yellow caps right now

• On Passover, observant Jews refrain from eating leavened foods or foods with leavening ingredients.
• The yellow caps indicate that the soda is kosher, or fit, for drinking on Passover.

If you've perused the beverage aisle of your local supermarket lately, you may have noticed that some soda bottles are sporting yellow caps instead of their usual colors. That's because the Jewish holiday of Passover is in full swing, and if you're a devoted foodie, you might want to grab a bottle before it disappears until next spring.

Need to Stop Emerging 2nd Wave of Covid-19, PM Modi Tells States, Warns Against Vaccine Wastage

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said it was crucial to contain the “emerging second peak” of coronavirus with steps such as setting up of micro-containment zones and enforcement of restrictions amid a surge in cases across the country.

Speaking at a meeting with chief ministers, PM Modi said: “If we don’t stop this pandemic right now, then there could be a nationwide outbreak. We have to immediately stop the emerging second peak and take big and decisive steps.”

He added: “The self-confidence that we gained in our corona fight should not turn into overconfidence. Our success should not be the reason for carelessness.”

Amid reports that the health ministry had proposed opening up vaccination to all above the age of 45 years on the request by states, the prime minister also warned against vaccine wastage. He pulled up states such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh for high vaccine wastage, saying it was akin to “stealing someone’s health right by letting a single dose go waste”.

Praising states which have got back into mission mode, the prime minister said localised containment zones are way forward but measures must be enforced without spreading panic among people.

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh counterparts were missing from the meeting amid campaigning for the upcoming assembly elections.

The meeting came on a day when India’s daily coronavirus infections jumped by 28,903 today, data from the health ministry showed, for the highest increase since December 13 and taking the nationwide tally to 11.44 million. Deaths swelled by 188, the highest figure in two months, to stand at 159,044.

India has the world’s highest tally of infections after the United States and Brazil. Nearly 62% of infections in the past 24 hours and 46% of the deaths were reported by Maharashtra, the country’s worst affected. The Centre has blamed crowding and a general reluctance to wear masks for the spike, ruling out the virus mutations that have been a factor in Western countries. Maharashtra, home to India’s commercial capital of Mumbai, is among the states that have already tightened rules to curb the spread of the virus.

Samsung offering cashback upto INR 8000 on its flagship offerings

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Samsung has collaborated with Paytm Mall to roll out cashbacks of up to INR 8,000 on Galaxy smartphones. 

To avail cashback, buyers need to visit select Samsung stores, pick the Galaxy smartphone they intend to  buy, scan the Paytm Mall QR code at the store and pay for the smartphone.

Samsung cashback scheme is valid on models including  Galaxy Note8, Galaxy S8+, Galaxy S8, Galaxy C9 Pro, Galaxy C7 Pro and Galaxy J5 Prime smartphones. 

The company's smartphones will also be up for sale at discounts of upto INR 6,700 off during the Happy Hours sale of the company on Amazon which will begin on December 12 from 12PM to 2PM.

“Our partnership with Paytm Mall will make it easier for customers to buy Samsung smartphones at never-seen-before prices. This offer gives us an opportunity to give more value to our customers. We will continue to wow our customers with such offers. This partnership is also a great example of Samsung’s ‘Make for India’ initiative in our distribution channels. We strongly believe in co-prosperity and this partnership gives us the perfect opportunity to work together with our trade partners on an unprecedented scale,” said Mohandeep Singh, Senior Vice President, Samsung India.

Cisco says IoT projects are failing, here’s why

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We’ve all heard about the Internet of Things (IoT) over the past few years and how it’s really going to shake things up. Even predictions by noted organisations seem to suggest so. IDC predicts that the worldwide installed base of IoT endpoints will grow from 14.9 billion at the end of 2016 to more than 82 billion in 2025.

Similarly, Gartner predicts that 25 billion “things” will be connected to the IoT by 2020. Even Cisco and McKinsey Global Institute predict that the IoT will generate more than $10 trillion in the coming decade—with Cisco predicting the market could be worth $14.4 trillion by 2025. While the smartphone market was the quickest business to hit the trillion-dollar-mark in history, the IoT space is, by definition, much larger in scope and is growing at an almost unthinkable clip — a report released earlier this year predicts that the IoT market will have a 43% CAGR through 2019.

However, despite the IoT being called the Fourth Industrial Revolution, there have been several concerns regarding the pace of this revolution, given the overwhelming majority of enterprise IoT project failures.

In a recent news report, Cisco’s Australian CTO Kevin Bloch has revealed that three quarters of all IoT projects are “failing”, primarily because they have been designed to solve individual problems, and have become siloed and unsupported as a result.

“The inaugural phase of IoT is characterised by numerous point solutions from a multitude of new -- often startup – vendors. Typically, these solutions have been designed to solve a particular societal problem such as lighting or parking. In each case, a complete IT stack needs to be built in support of the solution,” Bloch was quoted as saying by the news report. “"Eventually, customers find themselves with multiple siloes from multiple vendors that don’t interoperate, are not cybersecure, use different protocols, and generate more complexity at greater cost.”

The CTO added that IoT projects are also failing due to a lack of cybersecurity, qualified skills by those running them, project definition, governance, and support.

In fact, a study conducted by Cisco and released at the marquee industry event IoT World Forum in London in May this year also shows that 60 per cent of IoT initiatives stall at the Proof of Concept (PoC) stage and only 26 per cent of companies have had an IoT initiative that they considered a complete success. Even worse, a third of all completed projects were not considered a success.

“It’s not for lack of trying,” Rowan Trollope, senior vice-president and general manager, IoT and Applications, Cisco, was quoted as saying by media reports. “But there are plenty of things we can do to get more projects out of pilot and to complete success...”

For the study, Cisco surveyed 1,845 IT and business decision-makers in the US, UK, and India across a range of industries — manufacturing, local government, retail/hospitality/sports, energy (utilities/oil & gas/mining), transportation, and health care. All respondents worked for organisations that are implementing and/or have completed IoT initiatives. All were involved in the overall strategy or direction of at least one of their organisation’s IoT initiatives. The goal was to gain insight into both the successes as well as the challenges that are impacting progress.

Among the other key findings, the survey noted that “human factor” matters. IoT may sound like it is all about technology, but human factors like culture, organisation, and leadership are critical. In fact, three of the four top factors behind successful IoT projects had to do with people and relationships.

Also, 60 per cent of the respondents stressed that IoT initiatives often look good on paper but prove much more difficult than anyone expected. Top five challenges across all stages of implementation: time to completion, limited internal expertise, quality of data, integration across teams, and budget overruns.

Great Online Shopping Festival Saw Nearly 80 Lakh Visitors, Google

BANGALORE: Google on Saturday said that the Great Online Shopping Festival saw nearly 80 lakh visitors during the 3 day festival.

The site clocked a total of over 1.4 cr visits including the earlier promotion period. "Compared to last year, the user engagement is up by 7 times," said Nitin Bawankule, Industry Director, eCommerce Google India.

People from 220 cities in India participated in the festival. Shoppers form smaller cities like Ranchi, Guntur, Hubli and Bareilly also ended up on the site.

This Is A Typical Day For A Pampered Google Engineer

Year after year, list after list, Google consistently ranks as the best place to work in America. Great pay, fun projects, and a downright astounding number of perks make it so.

But what's it really like to work there, as in what's a typical day in the life of a Google engineer? A lot more ordinary than you might think, according to a description posted on Quora by Google software engineer Kenny Leftin.

6 C s for More Efficient IT In 2015

There’s no getting away from the inevitable round of IT predictions that mark the end of every year. Just about every research company and IT vendor has its own list — and 451 Research is no exception.

This time it comes in the shape of 6 C’s for 2015 that cover a range of issues from content management to containers to cloud and crowd working. Combined, they envisage a year that will see workers using more agile IT, largely through cloud and converged platforms. These same workers will also be more mobile and disassociated from the enterprise.

India Inc Loses dollar 4 Bn Due To Cyber Attacks

MUMBAI: India companies lost around $4 billion due to cyber attacks in 2013 and the amount is set for a 30% jump this year, according to experts.

Vadodara-based, BSE listed Deepak Nitrite was surprised that one of its old customers didn't pay even after receiving its consignment. It transpired that the client had received an email just a few days informing it of a change in account details.

The client then made the payment to this new account in Malaysia. The Vadodara cyber cell registered a complaint in this regard on August 12 and investigations are currently underway. Cyber fraudsters are increasingly targeting businesses, not just individuals.

13 Revelations From The Sony Hack

Sony Pictures has had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad few weeks since November 24. That's when hackers broke in to its computer networks and leaked thousands of financial documents and emails revealing the film studio's inner secrets.

Some of the revelations have been merely interesting, a few have been shocking invasions of privacy, while others could damage individual reputations. All of the revelations have been reported previously in a variety of publications.

Here are 13 things we didn't know about Sony:

1) Men are paid more than women

Sony's 17 biggest-earning executives are predominantly white men. According to a spreadsheet called "Comp Roster by Supervisory Organization 2014-10-21," Amy Pascal, the co-chair of Sony Pictures Entertainment is the only woman earning $1 million or more at the studio.

Tech Companies Have the Most Rigorous Interview Processes

Tech workers have to endure the most rigorous interview processes of all professions, according to research out today.

The research comes less than a month after Google's eighth employee, Urs Hölzle, told Techworld how important it is for technology companies to hire the right talent.

The study, carried out by specialist recruiter Randstad Technologies, found that 60 percent of tech professionals went for more than one interview before being offered their current job -- significantly more than the UK average of 35 percent and the highest proportion of any sector.

5 Most Popular Frontend Frameworks of 2014

Nowadays there is a deluge of CSS front-end frameworks. But the number of really good ones can be narrowed down to just a few.

In this article we’ll compare what I think are the five best frameworks available today. Each framework has its own strengths and weaknesses, and specific areas of application, allowing you to choose based on the needs of a specific project. For example, if your project is simple, there is no need to use a complex framework. Also, many of the options are modular, allowing you to use only the components you need, or even mix components from different frameworks.

The frameworks that I’m going to explore are presented based on their GitHub popularity, beginning with the most popular, which is, of course, Bootstrap.

Introducing Docker to a Java developer

You might have noticed we are currently experiencing a Docker frenzy. Every day there is a new framework or service popping up that is based on Docker. A lot of people have been asking what this Docker thing is all about. I’m going to try to explain what Docker is and see how it it fits into a Java developers ecosystem.

What is Docker

Docker is an open platform for developers and sysadmins to build, ship, and run applications. It basically allows you to create a container for your service with all its required components. Every application needs quite a few things to run correctly, which can all vary from one system to another, just think about it: the Operating System and related libraries, JDK 1.x, application server and so on.

Microsoft Launches Dedicated Online Store through Amazon India

Microsoft has planned to substantially increase retail presence in India over the coming months. The company has now taken its first step towards this plan by launching a dedicated online store dubbed the Microsoft Store through Amazon India's website.

 

This means that the company's online store is not available on a standalone website, but in partnership with Amazon. This doesn't exactly replicate the business model that we've seen in regions like the U.S., where Microsoft single-handedly manages the retail aspect of the business as well.

Now IIT Indore Student Gets Rs 1.7 Crore Job Offer From Google

INDORE: A 21-year-old B Tech student of IIT Indore has bagged a job with Google at an annual salary package of Rs 1.7 crore, one of the highest packages offered by the US-based internet giant during campus placements at the premier institutes.

Gaurav Agarwal, a student of B Tech final year in Computer Science and Engineering, has accepted the attractive offer made by Google, a spokesperson of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Indore told PTI today.

The offer by Google to the young student is one of the highest salary packages offered during campus placements at IITs across the country, she said.

Top 10 Smartphones of 2014 In India

The year 2014 is about to end and we witnessed some explosive action in the smartphone market throughout the year. Apple Inc.launched the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus along with iOS 8. Google launched the new Nexus line-up; the Nexus 6, the Nexus 9, and the Nexus Player along with Android 5.0 Lollipop. Microsoft announced Windows Phone 8.1 and added some new smartphone vendors as their family members.

To make your life easier we have listed out the top 10 smartphones of 2014 currently available in india. Whatever your budget or preferences may be, you can pick and choose one from the below list, for sure.

Xiaomi India Ban Exposes Wider Patent Risks

MUMBAI/BEIJING: The court order that banned Chinese mobile maker Xiaomi from selling its phones in India has halted its breakneck expansion into the world's fastest growing major smartphone market and could be just the start of a string of patent challenges. 

Xiaomi Technology only started selling in India in July and quickly became the country's fastest growing smartphone brand; with minimal marketing, it is already outselling even low-cost smartphones running Google's Android One. 

Hugo Barra, the former Google executive now leading Xiaomi's international operations, told Reuters in November how rapidly the country had taken to his brand. 

All it took was a single Facebook post to draw dozens of superfans to a California Pizza Kitchen in Mumbai to meet him, he said. 

"It was far more than we expected. The community has really, really embraced us," he said. 

FindBugs, A Way to Automate Code Review

Code review helps to improve the code quality and avoid runtime failures resulting from poor coding practices. It can also give you a chance to modify your code for simplicity, better exception handling, readability and easy maintenance. Most importantly, I found while explaining my code to someone, as part of code review, I myself got to know many things that could be improved.

But over the time developers feel code review as one of the most boring activity of a Java project. Reviewing thousands of lines of somebody else’s code proves to be the real pain. To make matter worse, code reviews are typically constrained by tight project deadlines thus leaving less time for detailed evaluation of code. Hence, code reviews often become just an exercise in code beautification. To resolve the problem some aspect of code review has been automated via tools and one such solution is tools for Static Code Analysis.

You May Soon Use WhatsApp From Your Desktop

It looks like WhatsApp might be bringing its messaging service to the web.

The rumours started shortly after the the co-founder of rival messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, told TechCrunch that he thought WhatsApp was working on a web version "since they tried to hire our web dev."

While WhatsApp has yet to make any official mention of a web version of its popular messaging app, a recent discovery by the team at AndroidWorld.nl appears to back up Durov's suspicions.

TCS Planning To Increase Freshers Salaries

BENGALURU: Indian IT bellwether Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is planning to increase its pay offer to freshers recruited directly or through campus interviews, a senior official said. 

"We want to increase the entry-level salary offered to freshers to attract more talented youth and ensure their retention with bright opportunities to move up the value chain," TCS global human resources head Ajoyendra Mukherjee told reporters. 

Admitting that the salary offered to new recruits at the entry level has remained static over the years, Mukherjee said the company had started paying city allowance as an additional incentive to all employees, including trainees hired from engineering colleges or directly through online tests and personal interviews offline. 

9 Jobs Robots Could Replace In 2015

Walking through the city, I find myself thinking about all the jobs a robot could do.

A robot could probably stand in for my coffee truck guy, though I doubt he’d smile, call me “buddy” and ask if I said “three sugars” or “no sugar.”

A robot could probably take over for that guy spraying down the street every morning — though I often wonder why we need anyone doing that at all.