by Peeyush Agnihotri JUST a handful of jobs in India demand a complete transformation of personality. Call centres fall in this category. The whole day out (they usually work at night), a call centre agent is free to haggle in Hindi, abuse in Punjabi and exchange sweet nothings with his girlfriend in Hinglish. Press Enter at the call centre door and Vishal becomes Viv, Darshan is Daisy and Poonam gets to be known as Patty. As soon as they wear their headphones, they metamorphose from 'Arre Yaar' speaking guys to 'Hi! Buddy' pouting pals. It's an essential part of their job. Call centre business is all about satisfying customers overseas.

Digital scents may promote products on Net
Vibhor Sood
MANY of us spend just as much time in cyberspace touring the electronic landscapes of the Internet as we spend offline. But for all of the time we spend in front of our computer monitors, this virtual world lacks many of the real world's most precious attributes.

Avoid booting from floppy drive
Vipul Verma
TERROR is the new order of the day both in the real world and the virtual world. The real world terror may cause the loss of life and property but the threat perception in the virtual world is also equally big though it is limited to property in terms of your computer and precious data.

MNCs, get your act together
Sumesh Raizada
DESPITE the fact that computers were in industrial and commercial applications since decades, their utility and importance has increased only after the growth in the Internet and Web-related services. Today we can hardly imagine any manufacturing, marketing, finance or human resource activity without the utilisation of IT services. 

Eavesdropping on computer data through LEDs
Elinor Mills Abreu
BY monitoring the flashes of LED lights on electronics equipment and the indirect glow from monitors, scientists in the USA and the UK have discovered ways to remotely eavesdrop on computer data.

Internet art galleries in vogue
Vanessa Thorpe
SPENDING on art has trebled to more than $ 4.3 billion in the past year, as Britons abandon stuffy galleries and rush to snap up bargains at art fairs and on the Internet.

Net at home
NEARLY half a billion persons around the world had access to the Internet from their homes by the end of last year, Nielsen/NetRatings said last week. The Internet measurement firm said some 498 million persons could surf the Web from home by the end of 2001, a jump of 5.1 per cent from the figure in July-September.

Hi-tech help for Bacchus lovers
FANCY a pint but don't know where to turn? A pair of beer-loving entrepreneurs have just the solution - a computer that straps onto the wrist and directs the wearer to the nearest pub, Britain's Sun newspaper reported.