Please silence your phone -- NOW!

Everyone hates that cellphone that rings in an inappropriate setting -- a classroom, during a concert or movie, in a church (how about during a wedding?) These calls are not only annoying, a new study has found, they pose the kind of distraction that can impair learning or derail someone's train of thought.

"Nuisance noises have real-life impacts," said Jill Shelton of Washington University in St. Louis, the author of the study, in a news release.

In one study, Shelton posed as a student in a crowded, undergraduate psychology lecture and allowed her cellphone to ring loudly for about 30 seconds. The students exposed to the ringing scored 25% worse on a test of material presented before the distraction. Students tested later scored about 25% worse for recall of content during the distraction even though the same information was covered by the professor just prior to the phone ring and was projected as text in a slide show during the distraction. Students scored even worse when Shelton added to the disturbance by frantically searching her handbag as if attempting to find and silence her phone.

The study, published online in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, also found that cellphones that play a popular song for a ring tone can have an even longer-lasting negative impact on attention. A custom tone that identifies the caller as a particular person, such as mom or the boss, can be especially distracting.

"Depending on how familiar people are with these songs, it could lead to an even worse impairment in their cognitive performance," she said.

The findings raise the question of what other types of everyday disturbances -- such as beeping and buzzing from incoming e-mail -- jar attention and learning processes. But the study showed that, with repeated exposure, students were able to block the distracting effects and reduce the cognitive impairment caused by the noise. Evidence also suggests that being prepared in advance for nuisance noises lessens their impact.

"There's definitely some evidence to suggest that people can become habituated to a distracting noise," she said. "If you're in an office where the phones are just ringing all the time everyday, it may initially be distracting to you, but you will probably get over it."

Number portability to be a call drop for telcos, boon for callers

The much-touted mobile number portability (MNP), expected to become operational as early as September this year, will in all probability become a boon for customers and bane for telecom operators.

The implementation would become negative for the Indian telecom sector as it is expected to hit the companies’ margins very hard due to high churn rates, possible failure in quality of services and an expected sharp fall in average revenue per user (ARPU), according to a study done by Angel Broking.

It is believed that MNP would be an additional ‘pressure point’ for telecom operators and even as it is overall a zero-sum game, it will be margin-dilutive. Based on the initial estimation, a likely 5% further decline in ARPUs, a 100-150 basis points negative impact on margins and consequent fall in EPS (earnings per share) of 9-21%, the study added.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) in March this year, issued licences to two players - Syniverse Technologies (India) Private Limited and MNP Telecom Interconnection Solutions India Private Limited (MITS), a Telcordia joint venture with an Indian company, to take up the MNP activities across the country in a phased manner and the same is supposed to be completed by mid-2010.

Given the spectrum crunch in the key metro service areas, the churn rates, which are already in the range of 4-5% a month (pre-paid subscribers), are likely to increase further. Following the higher ARPUs and revenues from the metro areas, the higher churn rates would hit the operators revenue and profitability hard, the study said.

MNP introduction is also likely to result in higher subscriber acquisition and retention costs for operators. The likelihood of high-end post-paid subscribers and heavy users porting to other operators’ networks is certainly not a desirable outcome for telecom operators. Post-paid subscribers are typically high usage customers that generate higher ARPUs. Even though these users account for a fairly low proportion of overall subscribers, they contribute more significantly to the revenues of these companies. Assuming a 5% share of post-paid subscribers, calculations show that the revenue share of these subscribers is considerably higher than other share.

Consequently, to ensure that such users stay connected to their networks, mobile operators may be forced to slash rates, offer more freebies and resort to large-scale bundled offerings and value-added services. Greater expenditure on SG&A and higher capex investments to improve quality of service are also expected. Thus, even as MNP implementation...

Dell Launches Rugged Netbooks in India

Dell has launched the Latitude 2100 netbook for students, any business or public institution that needs affordable, durable, Internet-ready devices for e-mail and collaboration. The netbook has been designed to be rugged and provide wireless connectivity that can be monitored by educators with a 'network activity light' available on the netbook lid. The Latitude 2100 is also available in five colours but the Dell-India categorically states that the 'color options are subject to availability.' An optional touchscreen is also available for education netbooks. Dell is confident that the Latitude 2100 will also be suitable for public sector and enterprise customers for functions like employee training and order fulfillment.

The Latitude 2100 has a rubberized design -- which includes a vent-free bottom that prevents entry of dropped fluids -- ideal for children to carry and use safely. According to the Dell website, an optional touchscreen may also be available. If this feature is made available in India, it will make the Latitude 2100 a great choice for enhanced student interaction and special education teaching. The Latitude 2100 also offers administrators a range of services making it easier to deploy and manage.

A keyboard with an antimicrobial protection is also available as an option -- however, for some reason, this is available only in the U.S. Solid-state drives, an external DVD-RW optical drive, quick-connect handles and shoulder straps, and a webcam are also provided as an option.

Latitude 2100 Features:

* Processor: Intel Atom processor N270
* Optical Drive: External DVD+/-RW via USB (Optional)
* Connectivity: 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet, full suite of wireless communication options
* Weight: 1.32 kg (with a 3-cell battery)
* Storage: Hard disk drive or solid state drive
* Battery: 3-cell or 6-cell battery
* Additional: Three-in-one Media Card Reader, VGA port
* Operating System: Windows XP Home/Windows Vista Home Basic/Linux Ubuntu

Nokia 6600i slide

The number 6600 has ranked high with Nokia. We all remember the days, back in 2003, the curvy form of the Nokia 6600, which was the company's top-of-the-line Series 60 business phone.

It's since been recycled in the form of a new Series 40 device, the Nokia 6600 slide phone, which has just been announced.

The company claims that it's its ''smallest 5 megapixel slider to date''. Build quality is high as the quad-band 3G phone, which comes in black or silver colour schemes, offers brushed steel covers and chrome center key.

10 most dangerous web search terms revealed

Web searches including terms like lyrics, free music downloads are most likely to put your computer at risk of virus or even malicious software, for security firm McAfee, Inc. has listed these words as some of the most dangerous search terms on the internet.

Melbourne, June 3 : Web searches including terms like lyrics, free music downloads are most likely to put your computer at risk of virus or even malicious software, for security firm McAfee, Inc. has listed these words as some of the most dangerous search terms on the internet.

In a recent report, McAfee has revealed Web search terms that put users most at risk for accidentally downloading unwanted or malicious software.

The report, titled 'The Web's Most Dangerous Search Terms', reveals that the researchers analysed over 2,600 of the most popular search terms of 2008 from a range of sources, including the Google Zeitgeist and the Yahoo! 2008 Year in Review.Search engines are our on-ramp, our highway and our off-ramp -- they're everything for Web travel. The hacking community is very smart-they can spot a trend as well as any trendspotter," the Telegraph quoted Shane Keats, the research analyst with McAfee who led the study, as saying.

After analysing the search terms, the researchers found that hackers looking for crowds.

They are also attacking Internet surfers who are ready to take an online action, like downloading a ringtone or logging in to a site with a name, address and social security number.

For example, people searching for free music downloads are easy targets for hackers because they are expecting to download an mp3.

In order to evaluate the risk associated with each keyword, the researchers looked at the search results generated by each keyword, and then calculated the percentage of links that would take users to Web sites with unwanted adware, spyware or other malicious software.

For example, the term "lyric," had an average risk of 14.8 percent, meaning that nearly 15 out of 100 search results would take users to risky sites.

The most dangerous categories of search terms include online games, free downloads, song lyrics, and screensavers.

Search terms involving online games were among the riskiest because online games often prompt users to install plug-ins or register with a name or e-mail address.

Keywords that include lyrics were risky because Web sites featuring the words to songs sometimes host links that take users to sites with unwanted pop-up ads or spyware.

The 10 Most Dangerous Web Searches in the United States are:

1. Word Unscrambler

2. Lyrics

3. MySpace

4. Free Music Downloads

5. Phelps, Weber-Gale, Jones and Lezak Wins 4x 100m Relay

6. Free Music

7. Game Cheats

8. Printable Fill in Puzzles

9. Free Ringtones

10. Solitaire

How to Get Blog Traffic

Blogging is all the rage. You set up a free blog account, write a few posts and…nothing happens. No one seems to be reading, commenting, or caring about what you’re writing. It takes some time to build up a blog audience, but here are a few things you can do at the start to build up blog traffic so your personal musings reach readers.

Blog regularly. The more you post, the better chance you have to reach a wider variety of readers.

Add the blog to blog search engines. There are dozens of blog search engines out there and more being added everyday. Create a good, concise description for your blog, as well as relevant keywords.

1. 

   Add the blog to toplists. Put the link to the toplist on your blog: every time someone hits the link, your blog moves up in the ranks.

2. Step 4
   

   Write comments on other people’s blogs. People are always grateful for a comment. More often than not, they’ll click on your link and return the favor.

3. Step 5
   

   Comment on people’s comments. A blog is meant to be a community. Respond directly to people’s comments—either in the comments or in a new blog post. This will engage readers so they’ll come back more often.

4. Step 6
   

   Post on forums. If you write a niche blog, post answers to questions on forums—be sure to put your blog address in your signature. Don’t spam forums—make sure your posts are relevant.

5. Step 7
   

   Write to other bloggers suggesting a link trade. Put up a link list of your favorite blogs and let those bloggers know about it. They might just reciprocate.

3 Column Minima-Based Blogger Template

Minibox is a free 3 column blogger template heavily based on the popular Minima template. This is an XML based Blogger template for newer Blogspot blogs. The code uses very similar structure and almost identical variable names and section identifiers so that people familiar with modifying the Minima template shouldn't have much trouble modifying the Minibox template code.

Minibox is completely compatible with Blogger's drag-and-drop layout manager.

The original 2 column version of Minima was written by Douglas Bowman of stopdesign.com. Here's a quote from his website:

The goal was to provide a fresh selection of well-designed and efficiently-coded, standards-based templates that provided solid yet flexible starting points for anyone to use as a design for their new or existing blog.

DOWNLOAD - Minibox v1.0 (Right-Click!)