Monday, April 29, 2002		Article

One of the most novel uses of the Internet is to use it in the field of education. The portal, www.etests.biz with content-offline-testing-online, is targeting PMT and CET students.

"There are many academicians and even companies who really wish they had a way of putting their exams or tests online which are tailor made for their own students or employees and which they should be able to give from the convenience of their own place. A service like this goes a long way in reducing the examinees hassles," remarks Kirti Singh, a Sun Java certified programmer, who has developed this site.

The portals home page gives, those who log on, the option of choosing between PMT and CET papers and also gives a sample feel of their exam engine. A kind of 'test drive.' "In this system anyone can prepare for own exams with the help of the software and later upload them to the Website. There is no limit to the numbers of exams or tests or questions you put. Plus when the tests run on our site, each question can be reviewed

any time during the test. And more over you can also continue a previous exam or test if you were to get disconnected," Kirti explains.

The candidate can either prepare for the exam with the help of Kirti's software or can send the questions that can be uploaded to the site. "Besides this, you can also make your own examinees accounts who are authorised to give only those exams which you have assigned to them. And you can also set a limit on how many times they can appear," he says.

Kirti is also working on other multilevel marketing portals like kingsmoney.com, expressmoney4u.com and other sale-purchase sites like chandigarhbiz.com and computerjoint.com.

WEB giant Yahoo! Inc said it has settled a $5-million lawsuit with a yodeler who claimed the company used his trademark cry in television and radio ads without his consent.

Terms of the out-of-court settlement were not disclosed, but Yahoo! said it would continue to use the signature yodel in its advertising and marketing materials.

Wylie Gustafson, whose yodel captured the freewheeling spirit of the popular Internet portal, claimed in a lawsuit that he had not been paid by the Sunnyvale, California-based company, for the continued use of his voice.

Gustafson, founder of the Wylie & the Wild West country band, said he had been hired in 1996 to create and record the signature yodel for Yahoo's first television commercial.

He was paid $590 for his performance with the understanding his yodel would only be used for that specific commercial, he said. The company never told him his stylised vocal arc would be used in thousands of subsequent commercials, he said. A spokesman for Gustafson was not immediately available for comment.

Yahoo spokeswoman Diana Lee declined to comment on the settlement, saying the company has a policy of not discussing specific legal issues. —Reuters

Punjab has achieved another distinction in the field of Information Technology with Amit Roy of Ludhiana becoming an Oracle Certified Associate – Data Base Administrator for Oracle 9i (OCA). He joins the elite group of information technology personnel who have passed this latest certification from Oracle Corporation.

Amit claims to have cleared his examinations two weeks prior to Ms. Ritu Punj, who was earlier reported to have cleared her Oracle certification. Since there is no concrete method to determine as to who was the first person in the state to achieve this distinction, Login Tribune congratulates all those who have achieved this distinction.

The Oracle recently announced its 9i DBA certification program that features a new three-tier structure as well as online testing and a hands-on lab component. The 9i DBA programme consists of three levels, Oracle Certified Associate (OCA), Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) and the Oracle Certified Master (OCM).

A former senior executive at Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has sued the Silicon Valley chipmaker, alleging he was forced out after the September 11 attacks because he is Arab and a Muslim.

Walid Maghribi, formerly a president of AMD's memory group, made the allegations in a suit filed in US District Court in San Jose. He charged that AMD Chairman and Chief Executive Jerry Sanders and President Hector Ruiz were responsible for wrecking his career in the months following the attacks.

"He claimed it wasn't until after the events of Sept. 11 that executives knew that he was an Arab and a Muslim and once he told our senior executives that, his career at AMD effectively ended and it ended because of his Muslim faith," AMD spokesman John Greenagel told Reuters.

AMD denied the charges and said it will fight the suit vigorously.

"We're very confident that if this ultimately goes to court we'll prevail," said Greenagel, adding that when Maghribi notified the company of his intention to leave he made no mention of racial or religious discrimination.

Maghribi had worked at AMD for 16 years and was among its five most highly paid executives, receiving more than $1.5 million in salary and bonus last year, Greenagel said.

Among other allegations in the suit, Maghribi claimed his troubles began at an October meeting with Sanders and other top executives and directors in which the topic arose of the Sept. 11 attacks, the San Jose Mercury News reported on Friday.

The suit contends that Sanders, who steps down as chief executive next week and hands the reins to Ruiz, was surprised at that meeting to learn that Maghribi was born in Lebanon and was Muslim, the paper said.

From that point on, Maghribi said he was treated poorly by Sanders and went from being a member of Sanders' inner circle to being an outcast. He said he subsequently quit in March because of the hostile environment.

Maghribi's suit seeks unspecified damages.