|
|
|
|
|
|
IT matters
Gone are the days when nails could be taken for granted. Any fashionista will tell you that these need as much pampering as your hands and face
PACESETTER Amarpreet Kalkat Newsmaker from Punjab Shubhadeep Choudhry Born in Dholowal village near Garhdiwala town in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, Amarpreet Kalkat (34) was one of the 10 CEOs who were acknowledged by NASSCOM at a product conclave held in Bangalore recently. 
|
|
|
IT matters Information Technology has been the sector for which has always been identified with the terms like transition, change and modification. But over the last few years the change has taken an accelerated pace with cloud computing, mobility, massive accumulation of data and along with all these security of the same have assumed the center stage.The current scenario is often referred to as a highly connected multi-device world landscape and 2013 would be yet another promising year in furthering the cause. These are some if the key IT trends to watch out for in the current year.
Cloud computing
Infrastructure-as-a-service
(IaaS) The term ‘cloud’ is inspired by the cloud symbol which is used to represent internet in flowcharts and other diagrams. The cloud services are fully managed by the providers. It is made available on demand on pay per minute or pay per hour basis. These are elastic services, which means users can avail any part of the service at any given point of time. A cloud can be private or public. A private cloud is a proprietary network for specified category of users whereas public cloud sells services to anyone on the internet. Amazon Web Services are the largest public cloud providers. Right now, work is underway for providing standardized, open, interoperable platforms for cloud computing. The ease of bringing data in and out of the cloud would be the focus in 2013 as well. More and more organizations will start using clouds as we move ahead this year.
Big Data Analysis
It is estimated that about 2.5 quintillion bytes of data is getting created everyday and as much as 90 per cent of the data in the world has been created in the last two years alone. Posts and responses as text data constantly streaming in from social media sites, cell phone signals, transaction based data, digital pictures and videos, sensor data and many other means amount to the accumulation of both structured and unstructured data and content. The data thus collected is adding up to form big data. There is a huge demand for storing and analysing this massive amount of user data which can be used as a great resource to get insight into users’ mindsets. The same can be then be used to create tailor-made products and services to suit the needs of users. Many new and much grander arenas of opportunity are waiting to get opened as ways are being devised by the companies to channelize this user information to cater to the user’s needs in much informed manner. This could be the basis for further innovation, growth and differentiation. The trick is to keep constant tab on the Volume (ever increasing amount of data), Variety (data in all types of formats), Veracity (testing the trustworthiness of the data) and Velocity (trying to process data as fast as it is getting generated) of this data.
Expiring passwords
BYOD
When everything concerning computers and IT is constantly undergoing change and transformation, can input devices be far behind. More work is underway on newer means to enter data - voice, gesture recognition, touch and that too with much more precision thereby increasing the efficiency manifolds.
|
|
|
Gone are the days when nails could be taken for granted. Any fashionista will tell you that these need as much pampering as your hands and face Time was when all that was needed for nail care was a set that comprised a nail cutter, a nail filer, an emery board and a softening cream. But now hand and nail art is becoming as sophisticated as skin care. Apart from the basics, the tools can now include a cuticle minimiser, nail hardener, nail cream, hand cream, night-time moisturiser, ridge filler, hand mask, sealers, tweezers and more.
Nail artists
In many countries, salons divide nail care in either intensive care or just maintenance category. Like beauty salons, there are exclusive studios that promise a complete makeover of nails. Specialists in some of these leading studios are as sought after by the glitterati as any big star in another field and their fee as much — and sometimes more — than that of any top make-up artist. Even in big Indian cities, experts are giving nails the royal treatment these deserve — for a steep fee, of course. Shirley, a Mumbai manicurist-turned hand specialist, says she only takes clients by appointment. “I have stopped taking walk-in customers,” says the lady, who flits from one upmarket beauty salon to another. Today nail art has become a mega business. Ladies are not just looking for a nail polish or a simple manicure. There’s a lot more to embellish those talons. There are nail extensions made of fiberglass, acrylic or silk. There are nail rings, nail decals, nail stickers, gel, silk overlays and an array of other nail decoratives.
Nail bars & spas
Nail art is big business and nail extensions are here to stay. There are specially trained technicians to pamper you with the currently in-vogue French manicure where the tips are polished white while the lower part of the nail is left natural. Many big city malls have nail pit-stops that provide services ranging from regular polish to fixing gel or acrylic nails or fitting rings on the nails and offering other enhancement services. This is a fast growing business as these pit-stops have low cost set-ups and promise excellent returns because of their relatively low prices.
Brisk business
An example of this is the nail spa, which first set up shop in Gurgaon in 2004. There’s been no looking back since then. Today, it has five branches in India and one in Nepal. All the branches offer a bouquet of services and do brisk business. Similarly, nail bars and spas in Delhi like Rhapsody, Nail Mantra, Simar’s and Nail Lounge have a steady stream of clients and offer services like nail art, nail extensions, manicure or pedicure, French manicures, overlays, silk wraps, and some even have special nail treatment with plenty of “gossip magazines to indulge in while your paint job dries,” as Simar's tagline puts it. However, if you thought there are just a standard dozen or so nail treatments, perish the thought. Like couture, nails, too, follow trends where shape, size and colour are concerned. The current trend is almond-shaped nails with a reverse French manicure — that is, a blank base and coloured tips. Red has given way to glassy blues, rich emerald greens and opaque purples. According to experts, the style for 2013 are going to be minimalist colours like cream, grey, white and light pink with top-rounded shapes. So next time you visit a nail spa to pamper your nails, keep these trends in mind before extending your hand to the hand of a ‘nailist’.
Similar to decals, nail stickers serve the same purpose of decorating nails in different patterns and designs. Some funky ones can make for eye-popping designs. Their immense popularity among young people stems from the fact that these are highly affordable as nail adornments. Price:
Rs 1,250 for 10 quality stickers
Wraps are the latest fad to embellish nails. According to experts, the best way to decorate nails is to have some eye-catching designs on these wraps that are usually made of silk. Little wonder than that a host of movie and rock stars have taken to these fancy nail wraps. Price: Between
Rs 1,375 and Rs 2,750
These are intricate, convoluted and…well…extreme. Extreme nails have complex details, 3-D designs, and even faces of famous people or flowers or anything under the sun that will evoke extreme emotions. You either love these or, if you hate these, these stand out like sore thumbs! Price: It’s art, so sky is the limit These are decals or stickers made of silk. Apart from the embellishment effect, the silk decals are excellent in repairing broken or damage nails. Many experts consider these better than acrylic nails as these are more flexible and 'breathable' and the most natural of all artificial nails. Price:
Rs 1,320 for 100 pieces
This is a simple manicure with the most stunning effect. The French Manicure comprises cutting, filing and shaping nails of hands but not polishing the nails. A white polish is applied to the tips while the the lower nails are left natural giving them a most eye-catching effect. Price: Starting at
Rs 600
This is the hot new look of 2013. Long and pointed nails have been popularised by stars like Lady Gaga, Beyonce Knowles and Adele, who have been seen sporting these at concerts. Beauty experts say that these emphasise femininity and elegance while creating a shock appeal. Price:
Rs 1,100 - Rs1,37,500 For 10 nails
These are one of the most popular and longest lasting cosmetic enhancements. Acrylic nails are artificial nails made from polymer powder and liquid monomer applied over whole natural nails or just the tip and painted in imaginative colours for that instant stunning effect. price:
Rs 3,000 for 10 nails
These are the most natural-looking nails and consist of a thin mesh that is applied on the natural nail, and then treated with UV light. Also known as silk wraps, these are the safest nail extensions. However, these are not too popular as these don’t last long and need constant maintenance. Price:
Rs 3,500 for 10 nails
These are artificial nails that are closest to natural nails. But these are not as strong or durable as acrylic nails. However, these are preferred by a number of women as these enhance the look of nails and can be used to fix split or broken nails. Price:
Rs 3,000 for 10 nails
Two of the commonest nail enhancements, manicure and pedicure are beauty treatments for nails of the hands and feet respectively. The procedure comprises softening nails by dipping these in hot water, and then, cutting, filing and shaping and applying nail polish. Price: Between
Rs 300 and Rs 1,000
Overlays are basically gels that are applied over nails to make them stronger and help them grow. These also aid in repairing damaged nails while protecting these from any further wear and tear. Overlays come in different colours and give nails an eye-catching effect. Price:
Rs 2,500 for 10 nails
These are itsy-bitsy stickers to give your nails a peppy and instant makeover. The funky designs come in sets of dozen or more. These come in different shapes, sizes and colours, and are attention-grabbers because of their quirky designs. Price: Start at
Rs 50 a dozen
Nail rings were primarily invented by the Chinese to help women protect their long nails. Today, these are a great fashion statement. Though there are a number of nail rings made from different metals, the sophisticated and expensive ones are in gold, silver and Swarovski. Price:
Rs 600
The most basic adornment, nail polish has been around since 1300 B.C. Today, there's a plethora to choose from some costing a few rupees to Models Own brand whose bottle has a hand-crafted gold lid inlaid with 1,118 diamonds to make your nails glitter like diamonds. Price:
Rs 71.50 lakh
Tips for great nails
For years, nails have been the neglected part of the hand. But with nail art and nail extensions taking centrestage, nail adornment has become as important as face and eye make-up. Nail artists suggest the following ways to have great nails:
|
|
|
TWO’S COMPANY IN THE AIR
price: Yet to be announced
SOUND OF TOP QUALITY MUSIC
price: $40,000
(Rs 22 lakh)
THE AIR CORK WINE SAVER
price: $25
(Rs 1,375)
Do you want your home to shine like gold? If yes, then just go and buy a vacuum cleaner from online home store www.govacuum.com. No, not any vacuum but model No. GV62711. This is a one-of-a-kind 24-carat gold plated cleaning machine in a limited edition of a 100 pieces that will certainly impress with its power, lightweight, and its ability to scoop up all the dust and grime leaving your house sparkling like…well, gold! price: $1000,000
(Rs 5.5 crore)
CLUTCH CLASS
price: $13,250
(Rs 7,28,750)
STERLING CHAMPAGNE
price: 57,000 for a set of six
(Rs 31.35 lakh for a set of six)
price:
Rs 11,420
BALLISTIC BACKPACK
price: $300
(Rs 16,500)
UNIQUE UNICYCLE
price: $1,800
(Rs 99,000)
|
|
|
A Bangalore-based Punjabi has developed Frrole, a technology for generating news from tweets Newsmaker from Punjab Shubhadeep Choudhry Amarpreet says: "My parents still live in a village. We have a bit of land like most rural families." Describing how he has developed a technology to scan the tweets available on Twitter to produce the content on the website (frrole.com), he says: “Big media houses, both print and electronic, have Twitter accounts. We used those tweets also to make available individual, user-generated content.” The smartphone is critical for frrole because it gives people the ability to tweet even when on the move. Since smartphone use in the country is yet to pick up, frrole gets about 70 per cent of its content from institutions, including media houses. Only 30 per cent of the content is generated by individual Twitter users. The ratio is 50-50 in the West. Amarpreet says that in the future, news will first break in Twitter and frrole.com will be able to publish the news before mainstream media. “Recently, when fire broke out in a paint factory in Bangalore, the news broke on Frrole first. There was a tweet with a photograph and we picked it up. TV channels started beaming the news an hour later”, he said. Words, popularity of a tweet, person from whom the tweet has originated are taken into consideration. The algorithms currently process more than 30 crore tweets a month and select one out of every 500 tweets on an average, discarding the other 499. Frrole covers six cities in India at present, namely, Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad, and 49 other cities located in Australia, Canada, UK and USA and the city-state of Singapore. It has sections like business, technology and entertainment, etc. About 2.6 lakh people visit the site every month. About 50 per cent users are in the US, while India accounts for 10 per cent of the users. The site is hosted from USA by using cloud technology. As for revenue, Amarpreet says they are not making any money right now but are keen to collaborate with media houses.“The media has a demand for user-generated content. The BBC has a whole team of personnel working on content generated by users. Some of the tweets can be reproduced in toto. We shall also provide social content which has a very high rate of engagement”, he says. A student of the Kirpal Sagar Academy, did computer engineering from Punjabi University, Patiala and MBA from IIM, Kozhikode and worked with HP and Nokia, before becoming an entrepreneur. Asked how he ensures authenticity of the contents of frrole.com house, Amarpreet says: “Social media is a self-cleansing oven. If there is a false tweet, it is bound to be pointed out as fake by someone else.”
|
|
Information
Cloud computing is hosting the computing resources (hardware or software) as services and making them available over the internet. The cloud computing services fall in different categories and some of these are: 
A few years back when Google started personalising the gmail accounts of the users by suggesting mail appropriate links on the side bars, it intrigued people and many found it violation of privacy. But it was just the advent of a new era.
We are so attuned to seeing the password field echoing back ******* on the screen but this method of password verification has long served its purpose and has almost reached its end. With huge amounts of sensitive data and content being transferred online, password verification has to evolve too and much more secure biometric security has the answer. Biometric authentication refers to identification of humans by their characteristics or traits. It uses the iris of the user’s eye, voice and fingerprint as a security precaution. This will ensure advent of better authentication in computing world.
Bring Your Own Device To Work trend began in 2012 as a step towards promoting greater innovation and productivity and for the betterment of work-life balance. But this obviously meant more pressure on Information Technology to manage and secure devices and data transfer. However BYOD is here to stay and would see its expansion across all industries and even in very secure and regulated environments like hospitals. Hence rigorous company privacy standards are being devised to be applied on the personal devices as well.
Modern input devices
No
Gone are the days when beauty salons offered manicure and pedicure as an add-on service. They still do, but the high rollers would rather visit a nail bar or a nail spa that has specialists skilled in painting nails with intricate designs.
Stylish Stickers
Fancy Wraps
Extreme art
Silk Decals
From France, with love
Pointed
look
Acrylic appeal
Fibreglass Mesh
Gel quick fix
Beauty Treat
Eye-catching Overlays
Peppy Decals
Ring Tones
Pricey Paint
Trim and file your nails on a regular basis. These should be chopped straight across and slope gently on the sides.
Music never sounded so good. Audiophile's Lacrima Speakers will sweep you off your feet with their tonal quality. The hand-built four-way speakers produce some of the widest and most stable acoustics. The cabinet's rounded, teardrop shape sends music across an entire room while eliminating distortions created by secondary reflections in rectangular cabinets. Tapered tubes extending to the back of the cabinet channel, dampen unwanted sound colouration and resonance, ensuring only pristine sound emanates from these amazing speakers. 
It’s a pity when you have to throw away leftover wine as it goes flat within hours. The wastage may now be a thing of the past as American company Home Wet Bar has launched the Air Cork Wine Saver that provides an airtight seal, allowing you to open a bottle to pour just one glass without worrying about the rest going waste. The wine preserver keeps an open bottle of the bubbly fresh for days. Just lower the balloon end into the bottle give the pump a few squeezes and you're good to preserve that leftover wine. So go ahead and drink responsibly without worrying about gulping down the entire bottle.
CLEANED OUT
In Chinese culture a pair of pandas may represent good and evil but in the hands of Jimmy Choo they simply spell class. The celebrated British leather designer of Chinese-Malaysian descent has collaborated with New York visual design artist Rob Pruitt to create a special 18 piece spring/summer 2013 capsule cruise collection. The most interesting part of the collection are two unique limited edition small panda bags — the Angel Panda Minaudičre Clutch and the Devil Panda Minaudičre Clutch which feature more than 11,000 hand-applied Swarovski crystals with a detachable gold chain shoulder strap guaranteed to make you glitter at any event.
It’s art in silver. Named after one of Aston Martin’s sleekest cars the ONE-77, this Champagne Flute set in sterling silver by one of London’s most celebrated silversmiths Grant Macdonald is a perfect blend of elegant design and innovative manufacturing techniques. Each flute is lined with a 24-carat gold and each stem is patterned with an intricate cross-hatching detail inspired by the ONE-77 chassis. Like the car, the ONE-77 Champagne Flute set spells class. 
Wanna shake a leg to some rocking music but don’t want to attract the attention of the moral police? You can now party hard with the colourful high performance in-ear style Nokia Purity stereo headphones by Monster which will set free your musical soul. The headphones give accurate audio reproduction for a rich and dynamic sound. The noise- isolating in-ear design means you’ll hear the music loud and clear without any distortions. So party away by creating some white noise in your head with these headset. 
Responding to the recent shoot-out by a maniac in a school in Connecticut which left many children dead, an American body armour company Amendment II has come out with the bulletproof backpack which would protect the child in case of the unthinkable. The backpack can be quickly brought to the front as a shield or can serve as centre of mass protection while fleeing the scene of the shooting. Developed in partnership with the University of Utah’s Nano Institute, the backpack utilizes carbon nanotubes applied to textile threads to stop the bullets of a madman. 
Forget pedals and handlebars and get on to the SBU V3 an electric self-balancing unicycle designed to carry a rider at a top speed of 25 kmph for up to 15 kilometres using nothing but simple natural leaning motions. The manufacturers guarantee that balancing the bike requires just a few minutes of practice. The unicycle uses an array of sensors, gyros and accelerometers to keep you upright and is compact enough to ride around the neighbourhood or to put in the trunk of the car for a day out.