You can buy health insurance online too

Use an aggregator website to learn details of all the policies available, then zero in on the one that best suits your needs

Worried that unexpected hospital bills may leave you stranded? If you have not built up your health kitty and are looking to buy health insurance but don't know where to begin, don't fret. You can discover the features of health insurance policies available in the market from your home, as several providers have started offering assistance online. Aggregator websites such as insurance.com, policybazaar.com, apnapaisa.com, eHealthInsurance.com, click2insure.in, policytiger.com, myinsuranceclub.com and many others help you compare the basics of various plans and required premium under each plan, helping you to zero down on the policy that best matches your needs. Browsing these websites will let you take your own time and research policies well, without being pressured or misguided into a policy. The services on these websites are freeto use, but some of them will require youto provide your mobile number and otherdetails, which are then shared with insurance companies. So in case you are using theseand giving away your mobile number, beprepared to get calls from insurers offering you their products.

Tata Comm to take care of Google Apps' India clients

Dials entry into small and medium enterprises

Tata Communications plans to make inroads into the small and medium business (SMB) segment in the country by being the single point of contact for users of Google Apps' suite of online applications. Google Apps' arrangement with Tata Communications, first announced in July this year, will mean users can get Indian pricing, billing and support. "We are now concretising our go-to-market with the launch of InstaOffice. Google Apps are available even otherwise. But what about the support and hand-holding? That's a huge requirement. We will be the one point contact for Google Apps users in India," David Wirt, global head of managed services and senior vice-president, Tata Communications, told DNA Money.

Can the real Atif please stand up?

Atif Aslam is upset with the bosses of Twitter, following their refusal to grant him a‘Verified’ badge for his account. The website has been known to verify celebrities’Twitter handles, in order to avoid confusion caused by impersonators. But apparently the popular Pakistani singer has been denied this privilege.

BMC to put pet licence process online

Getting a licence for your pet is about to get easier, with the civic body planning to put the entire process online.
Currently,getting a pet licence is a cumbersome process as there are very few pet licensing officers. Officials saythat’swhy most people avoid getting a licence for their pets.

According a Right to Information petition filed by activist Vilas Durve, there are 27,147 pet dogs in the city, but only 7,652 of them have a licence. This has resulted in a loss of over Rs5crore to the civic body over the past five years.

“Toboost the registration process,we will make the process completely online in amonth’s time.The BMC website will have all the necessary forms needed to get the licence,”said executive health officer,GT Ambe.

WR motormen on Facebook to 'connect' with commuters

Next time you want to know whether the trains are running on time or not, just check Facebook. Motormen from the Western Railway on Tuesday took to the popular social networking site so that they could directly connect with Mumbaikars. "More than 33 lakh commuters travel by suburban trains. Whenever trains are late, we are the first target. Motormen are mobbed and beaten up by angry public. We want to have a say and put things in the proper perspective," said a motorman on the forum.

200 drivers penalised every day: Police

The traffic police said on Tuesday that they penalise 200 taxi and rickshaw drivers on an average every day for refusing fares.

Acting on complaints from commuters, the police kicked off a drive in August against drivers who refused to ply.Police officers said they have also started counselling drivers who were fined, but the number of complaints remains high.

Refusing a fare is punishable with a fine of up to Rs 200 and a suspension of the licence.You can post a complaint on the traffic police’swebsite (www.trafficpolicemumbai.org) or the Facebook page they’ve set up.

Filipino flight safety demo is the latest YouTube sensation

Flight attendants for a low-cost Philippine airline who dance to Lady Gaga to keep passengers from snoozing through an in-flight safety demonstration are the latest YouTube sensation. A video of stewardesses performing a choreographed routine aboard a Cebu Pacific flight last week to demonstrate safety procedures has received more than 6.5million hits after being posted on the popular video-sharing website. The Manila-based airline, known for holding party games and singing contests on its low fare domestic and Asian flights, said on Tuesday that it resorted to dancing stewardesses to draw more passenger attention to its in flight safety reminders.

Google TVnames content partners, but top networks are absent

Google has announced its first content partners for Google TV, its effort to marry two mediums — the Internet and television. But the announcement underscored the difficulties companies face as they try to work their way into the living room. The major television networks — ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC — will not participate, at least for the moment. However, several Internet companies and media outlets, including HBO, CNBC, Twitter, Netflix and Amazon, will work with Google to offer Web content and programming via television sets, the company said. They will allow on-demand viewing or build apps for TV screens.

UNFLATTERING PORTRAYAL

Fans ignore ‘reel’ Zuckerberg’s failings

The Social Network, Hollywood’s unflattering portrait of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, pulled in moviegoers eager to see an account of the social-networking website’s early days. 
    

Fans attending openingweekend showings in Los Angeles and San Francisco said they understood why some events were fictionalized in the movie, which chronicles the acrimonious beginnings of the world’s largest virtual gathering place. “I know they took a lot of liberties,” Dylan Kellogg, 16 and seeing the movie for a second time, said in Glendora, California. Zuckerberg is “really smart,” he said. “The movie portrays him as a person who’s driven by his own goals, but I think what he made was something that’s pretty cool for a lot of people.” 

United wee tweet

People spread positivity about CWG through social networking websites

Before the games, most newspapers and channels showed pictures of the bad state of the Commonwealth Games Venues and the Games Village. The shocking visuals became a talking point. Focusing on the unpreparedness of the city to host the games, no one mentioned the spectacular arrangements that have been made for athletes. Now when the games have started, we see a different and far more positive picture. Social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as certain blogs, have become the medium for many to describe the good things that are happening. Images of rooms, the arenas, and the swimming pools are being posted, and people are urging the city to be positive about the biggest event India will see this year. 

Increase blog visitors

Today, I'm answering reader queries. First up is Harsh, who says: 


Q I have started my personal blog. However, I'm not satisfied with the content on it. Please help me with tips to improve the content and bring in visitors.

A Oh my god! There are a million ads on your blog.Are you making any money off them? Sometimes, people just put in ads hoping readers will click on something.But youshouldn’t do that unless you have a visitor count of about 500 a day. Too many ads just looks annoying and makes me want to click away fast.

'why don't you use Facebook?'

HC SUGGESTS State police could follow traffic police, use social networking to address people’s grievances and update them on cases

You(police) do 10 good things,it will go unnoticed, but one thing goes wrong, and it will  highlighted.

Don't politicise it.

Looking at the response the traffic police’sFacebook homepage has received from citizens, the Bombay High Court suggested that the Maharashtra police use the social networking site to help citizens get in touch with them.

London school outsources maths teaching to India

A north London school, Ashmount Primary, has outsourced mathematics teaching to India. And, according to BBC, pupils in this institution are improving in this subject. Shortage of maths teachers in British schools has for some time presented an opportunity to Indians to teach the subject. Many of them have even immigrated to Britian to teach mathematics.

    

A British firm, Bright Spark Education Company (BSEC), is facilitating the online mathematics classes by teachers thousands of miles away in Ludhiana. Lessons are booked 24 hours in advance; and at a stipulated students log on and converse with their tutor over the internet. The lessons, designed for children between seven and 16, cost £12 an hour; and parents sign up for blocks of two or 
five hours. The students appear to be excited about the project. BBC quoted several 10-yearolds saying this. Adam, a student, said: “It’s fun because it’s on the computer and not doing it on your books.’’ Another student Rosa added: “It’s fun because you’re talking to someone from somewhere else.’’ 

US phone nos on 'masked' website

 After the electoral reverses the BJP has suffered at the hands of the Congress, the party now claims to be at the receiving end in cyberspace too. 
    

On Sunday, the party said it had served a legal notice to the Congress, accusing it of “petty, pickpocket-like theft’’ of its online identity. Clearly, the clash in the virtual world promises to be as fierce as that over ballots.

CBSE tests could go online

New Delhi: CBSE-conducted engineering and medical entrance exams could be held online if the educational board has its way.

BJP windows open into Cong's yard

What an incredible week on Twitter! Right from Twitter's new user interface to the historical Ayodhya verdict followed by frantic calls for maintaining peace andbhaichara to Rajnikanth's new film to the run-up for the CWG opening ceremony, the week had the makings of a Bollywood potboiler.  BJP's address hijacked In a bizarre incident, the BJP's website URL began redirecting users to the Congress website. The development had web junkies in splits, especially after the BJP got wind of the situation and served a legal notice to the Congress party suspecting it to be their doing. @raggedtag tweeted: "BJP website directed to Congress? Bwahahaha! Yeh jo des hai mera!" BJP continued to be in the Twitter timelines as @gkhamba noted that the party — just like every time it gets into a mess — used the phrase it has mastered by now: "Yeh ek rajneeitik shadyantra hai!"

Up in the clouds

Cloud-based computing is here to stay, and here are few internet-based free software—including wordprocessors, antivirus, and even photoeditors—that you just cannot afford to ignore

You may have heard of “cloud computing”, and you may have heard most techies—and folk who claim to be in the know—say that “the future is in the Cloud”. But really, what are these people talking about? 

    

In plebeian speak, the term refers to internet-based computing. As bandwidth in our homes and offices increases, more and more applications are turning webbased. For example, your Windows Live account, Yahoo!, and Google account—with all their myriad services—come under this Cloud (no pun intended). So while the concept is not wholly new, there are more and more online software that leverage on internet technologies to work almost as if they were installed on your system. The only thing that’s required at the user-end is decently-high bandwidth and a web browser. Consider: The ‘hole-in-the-wall’ cyber cafe you frequently visit does not have an office suite installed, but you need to update your CV before you mail it to a prospective employer. No problem. Log on to Google Docs at docs.google.com, which will allow you to create and share your work online; besides managing documents, spreadsheets, and also presentations.

Looking Beyond IE, Chrome and Co

There is more to web browsers than Internet Explorer and Chrome. We take a look at five software that may not always be in the news, but are terrific at browsing the internet

Mention the word “browser” and there is a fair chance that most people will think that you are talking about Internet Explorer (IE), Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. A few (geekier than thou) might even think of Apple’s Safari and Opera. And with good reason. Between themselves, these ‘Famous Five’ (Sorry, Blyton) pretty much dominate the internet browser market. 

    

However, it would be grossly unfair to assume that there are no browsers beyond these. In fact, there are a number of other applications that will let you surf the web and are quite capable of rubbing shoulders with their better-known alternatives—and in some cases, these even come with better features. 

FBI says cyber-thieves stole $70 million

Washington: The FBI and law enforcement agencies in Ukraine, the Netherlands and Britain are tracking down international cyber criminals who stole $70 million by using malware that captured passwords and account numbers to log onto online bank accounts. At a press briefing Friday, the FBI said Operation Trident Breach began in May 2009 when agents in Omaha, Neb., were alerted to some of the stolen money, which was flowing in bulk payments to 46 bank accounts around the United States. Ukrainian authorities have detained five people thought to have participated in some of the thefts and Ukraine has executed eight search warrants in the ongoing investigation.

cutegirl_looking_hot: ASL please?

Arcopol Chaudhuri takes a trip down memory lane to the Stone Age of social networking and the original playground of online mischief — the chatroom

The meaning of the term 'shooting in the dark' can perhaps be adequately expressed by the analogy of a person swatting mosquitoes in the darkness. But log into a Yahoo or MSN chatroom, and I can better illustrate for you what 'shooting in the dark' means. Your magic letters: ASL. Age, sex, location. Best described in Hindi as haath maarna, for long, ASL was the first step towards what millions had convinced themselves as the only way to land a mate. The first time I was prompted with ASL, I replied, "18, male, Mumbai."  I did not hear from that person again. The sixteenth time someone asked me my ASL, I replied, "23, female, Texas". That's when things got rolling.

Woman wins China's first cyber abuse case

Beijing: A 34-year-old woman has won 80,000 yuan ($12,000) in compensation after being harassed online by a lesbian, in what is being termed as China's first case of cyber homosexual harassment. Huang Xiaoyan, a resident of Nanjing, sued the other woman claiming three years of online lesbian torment, China Daily reported citing the Jinlin Evening News. Huang met an internet user who went by the name of 'Beautiful Mood' in 2007 through another internet friend who was reportedly Beautiful Mood's husband.

From TV to Twitter, verdict followed with bated breath

No sooner was the Ayodhya verdict out than one question zipped around the world among Indians online: what is Nirmohi Akhara? And as one query added: “And what does it have to do with Sita’s kitchen?” While the curious online world waited for word and insight on the third party to be given a third of Ayodhya’s disputed land by the Supreme Court, glib answers flew: from ‘Mayawati’s gym’ to ‘a sect of wrestlers to keep peace between Hindus and Muslims’.

Innocent to the world of akharas, online India’s curiosity prompted interesting takes including equating Nirmohi sadhus with the Juna akhara ones as the ‘cool guys’ who would eventually bring “Rastafarian” culture to Ayodhya”. As another user pointed out, “Nirmohi akhara is not on any social networking site, has no website, does not have a Twitter handle and no wikipage. How are we supposed to know about it?” No sooner than asked, within an hour and a half a basic wikipage on Nirmohi akhara was up. By evening, searches threw up about 23,000 results for the Hindu sect, in the main reports on the Ayodhya verdict.

Facebook and Skype exploring partnership

AllThingsDigital says joint venture will see integration of messaging and voice chat on the social network

New York: Facebook and Skype are working on a broad partnership that will include the integration of the two services through Facebook Connect, according to a person briefed on the plans, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity because the plans were supposed to be confidential. The partnership will be announced in the next few weeks, the person said.

A Facebook spokeswoman and a Skype spokesman declined to comment.

Under the partnership, people who use their Facebook credentials to log in to Skype will be able to see their Facebook friends on Skype. They will also be able to see their news feed and to sent text messages and call their friends' landlines using Skype.

Facebook to take mobile route to grow in India

Working with mobile handset makers to provide applications for its platform

Social networking major Facebook is likely to adopt a different strategy for increasing its presence in the Indian market considering the mismatch between the population and the internet penetration. The company, instead of eyeing the web users alone, would look at the mobile users. Currently, the company has about 15 million active users in India while it has about 500 million users globally. "In India, we are focusing on bringing the users onto the platform. There are a billion people and 600 million mobile phones. We have a long way to go. In India, people have more mobile experience than the web experience. We have been working with several mobile handset makers to provide some compelling applications for our platform. We are working with almost all the operators including Aircel, Airtel, Idea, etc," Meenal Balar, international marketing manager, Facebook Global, said.

The Ayodhya verdict set cyber cafes and chat rooms across the world buzzing as it became the mosttalked about, tweeted and searched topic on Thursday. On Google Trends Hot Searches, eight of the top 10 searches in India were linked to the subject while it was number eight on the US list: The verdict on the Ayodhya title suit was the most talked about, tweeted and searched topic in cyberspace on Thursday across the globe.

It was also the hottest subject for status messages in social networking sites and chat rooms.

On Google Trends, Hot Searches (India) listed the top 10 searches thus: “1. allahabad high court ayodhya,2.

ayodhya verdict latest news, 3. allahabadhighcourt, 4. ram janmabhoomi, 5. ram jan mabhoomi babri masjid conflict, 6. ayodhya judgement, 7. ayodhya case result, 8. aaj tak hindi news live, 9. lucknow high court judgement , 10.ndtvlive”.Clearly the subject occupied eight of the top 10 search slots in India.

BlackBerry's PlayBook to take on Apple's iPad

Toronto/San Francisco: Can-adian wireless giant Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of the BlackBerry, on Monday unveiled its tablet computer called PlayBook to take on Apple's iPad. Targeted mostly at business people (like its BlackBerry smartphone), the PlayBook is half the size of the iPad. Weighing the same as the iPad, it is 9.77 mm thick.

Google defames French user by linking his name to rape searches

A French computer user has accused Google of defaming him after the Internet technology giant linked his name to the word 'rapist' in web searches. Court documents said the function, which suggests options and phrases as a user types, linked the man's identity to words including "rapist", 'satanist', 'rape,' and 'prison'. In a turning-point decision, the superior court of Paris found Google guilty of the "public slandering of a private individual".

Facebook vs Google is about a showdown of paradigm

Corporate rivalries often revolve on little differences. Take Coca Cola and Pepsi's decades-long battle — whose product is really the real thing? That's what makes the rivalry between Facebook and Google at times seem a strange one, because the two companies are so, well, different. But the internet is a crowded place and, stripping away the interfaces, there is one, principle product the two companies are hawking — information — with its inevitable sidekick, advertising. Once thought to be Google's domain, through its rapid growth Facebook has, by accident or design, infiltrated the field. The boom of Facebook's Like function, reported in The Financial Times on Wednesday, is a clear example of just how this is happening.

Second worm attack on Twitter web site in a week

New York: Micro-blogging site Twitter suffered a second worm attack in a week. But it put a stop to the worm that posted obscene messages to victims' tweets. Users whose accounts got infected with the worm would see a message posted that read in part "WTF:" followed by a URL. If someone clicked on the link, his or her profile would also be hijacked. The same link would be reposted, increasing the chance that one of the user's followers would click on it and spread the worm.

Bye-bye pen & paper, hello online tests

Thane school introduces web-based exams, happy with results

The pen and paper format in class tests may soon be passé. Providing a glimpse into the future to its students, a school in Thane discarded temporarily the old way of writing papers and conducted unit tests for the standard XII science papers online. The move seems apt at a time when competitive examinations for professional courses like the Common Admission Test (CAT) are shifting to the online mode. Smt Sulochanadevi Singhania School wanted its students to have a feel of the system. Though the number of questions was the same, their order was re-jigged to stop students from peeping into each other's computers. The software for the test, developed in-house, was programmed to deliver the scores immediately. "The software pointed out their mistakes to the students and provided the correct answer with an explanation. The papers carried multiple-choice questions, which is the format of the papers set in entrance exams," said Revathi Srinivasan, the principal of the school. The school plans to extend online tests to other senior classes as well. "We have initially started it only for science subjects; we are going to develop the software in phases to accommodate language papers as well. We also plan to introduce subjective questions in the later stages," added Srinivasan.

US to make wiretapping web easier

Seeks Sweeping Regulations To Help Track Criminal Suspects On Internet

Washington: Federal law enforcement and national security officials are preparing to seek sweeping new regulations for the internet, arguing that their ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is “going dark” as people increasingly communicate online instead of by telephone. 

Facebook’s appi fizz

If you thought that Facebook was just a network for keeping in touch with your friends, think again. The social networking service also boasts a number of applications, ranging from the mundane to the highly useful

 Mention Facebook applications to most people, and there is a fair chance that they will think that you are talking about popular games such as Farmville or Mafia Wars. However, lurking beneath the surface of one of the world’s most popular social networking sites is a whole host of applications that will not only let you have fun, but will also allow you to perform a number of useful tasks…

Chinese hack UPSC website

Bangalore: After an attempt to enter a defence proc u re m e n t website, Chinese hackers have now targeted the Union Public Service Commission site. While the hacker gave a link to a tractor-manufacturing company in China, other links appear to be downright dangerous. 

Google puts $10 mn into ideas that can change the world

San Francisco: Google on Friday named five groups that will be sharing $10 million that the Internet powerhouse is investing in ideas that promise to change the world. More than 150,000 ideas from 170 countries were submitted to 'Project 10-to-the-one-hundredth' launched two years ago, Google vice-president (marketing) Lorraine Twohill said in a blog post announcing the results. Google whittled the selection down to 16 'big ideas' and the public got to vote online to determine the five that would be backed by the Mountain View, California-based firm. The non-profit Khan Academy will get $2 mn to bolster its free online library of educational videos and translate core works into the world's most widely spoken languages. The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cape Town will get $2 mn to open more centres to promote graduate-level math and science study on that continent.

Virtual world is a real threat to children

If your young child or teenage kid is showing signs of being a loner,your broadband Internet connection may have something to do with it.

Excessive use of the Internet maybe exposing children in between eight and 18 years to risks such as social isolation, insomnia and obesity, says a survey by industry chamber Assoc ham.

New media: As important as the A minor chord

For indie artists, being online is no longer about having just a MySpace profile page. It's about connecting with fans which helps them score gigs as well as sell their music online. R Krishna reports

Singer Shibani Kashyap's video from her debut album, Ho Gayi Hai Mohabbat, was a hit on music channels and would be aired several times a day. This was 1998; for Kashyap and other non-Bollywood singers, music videos were the best way to get word about your album out, which in turn would drive album sales. Today, reality shows have edged out music in terms of air time. And Bollywood gets priority over every other kind of music (according to experts any non-Bollywood music is considered 'indie' in India). In a move that symbolised the change, MTV dropped the words 'Music Television' from the baseline of its logo late last year.