Over 80,000 engineering seats remain vacant in TN

As many as 80,689 government quota engineering seats in Tamil Nadu have gone vacant this year. And, colleges will have to pay — it will hit the quality of the education they provide and, in some cases, cause heavy financial losses to the institutions.

Of the 2.05 lakh seats made available through the single window counselling process, which ended on Friday, only 1.24 lakh were filled. Experts said the economic slowdown had impacted engineering education to a large extent: students were making informed decisions and were willing to risk signing up for alternate courses.

District-wise data shows students believe that if it has to be engineering, it has to be in Chennai or nearby places. "Engineering has not lost its charm," said S Vaidhyasubramaniam, dean, planning and development, Sastra University, Thanjavur. "Students are only rejecting engineering education in a bad institution."



Close to 96% of seats in the seven Chennai colleges have been filled, while it is 68% forKancheepuram and 73.44% for Tiruvallur. Colleges in Virudhunagar, which steadily churns out school toppers, have also been able to fill a good number of seats. The rate of seat allocation in 12 colleges there crossed 76%.

One reason is that the district is home to topnotch institutions like Mepco Schlenk Engineering College. "This keeps other colleges in the region on their toes to face the competition," said an 8expert.

Ariyalur, on the other hand, had the lowest rate of seats allocated. Five colleges in the district have been able to fill only 33% of seats.
When a college fails to fill even 10% of seats, as is the case with some institutions, it has far-reaching consequences. "They cannot offer sustainable quality education," said Vaidhyasubramaniam.

When rural colleges fail to fill more than 10% or 20% of seats, it will have a strong bearing on the rural economy, says C Thangaraj, former vice-chancellor of Anna University of Technology, Chennai. "The government should have insisted on quality maintenance on colleges, and encouraged edupreneurs to start engineering colleges in rural areas," he added.

The All India Council for Technical Education mandates that colleges seeking approval must have facilities commensurate with their intake and not with the number of seats filled. This means that the financial position of colleges, many of which are funded by banks, will already be in the negative. "Those without strong industry backing or without good investments will be forced to approach bigger players for a takeover," said S Alfred Devaparasad, CEO of Alpha Group of Institutions.

Those who don't come in for outright sale will try to cut losses by compromising on faculty salary and additional inputs. Devaprasad believes colleges that know that the trend will change in a few years are likely to keep investing - in faculty, infrastructure and R&D.

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Amazon spending heavily on digital video ahead of holidays: CFO

Amazon.com Inc Chief Financial Officer Tom Szkutak said on Thursday the Internet retailer is spending heavily on digital video content ahead of the holidays. 

The spending is partly responsible for a cautious third-quarter forecast, the executive added, during a conference call with reporters following the company's second-quarter results. 

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Get ready for a TV-like Twitter: Scientists

Social networking site Twitter, which has more than 500 million registered users, will become comparable to a non-evolving, static structure like TV in the future, a new study predicts.

The study from scholars at Columbia Business School and the University of Pittsburgh questions the sustainability of Twitter.

"Get ready for a TV-like Twitter," said Professor Olivier Toubia, co-author of the study.

The research examined the motivations behind why everyday people, with no financial incentive, contribute to Twitter.

The study examined roughly 2,500 non-commercial Twitter users. In a field experiment, Toubia and Professor Andrew T Stephen randomly selected some of those users and, through the use of other synthetic accounts, increased the selected group's followers.

At first, they noticed that as the selected group's followers increased, so did the posting rate. However, when that group reached a level of stature - a moderately large amount of followers - the posting rate declined significantly.

"Users began to realise it was harder to continue to attract more followers with their current strategy, so they slowed down," Toubia added.

"When posting activity no longer leads to additional followers, people will view Twitter as a non-evolving, static structure, like TV," Toubia said.

Based on the analyses, Toubia and Stephen predict Twitter posts by everyday people will slow down, yet celebrities and commercial users will continue to post for financial gain.

"Twitter will become less of a communications vehicle and more of a content-delivery vehicle, much like TV. Peer-to-peer contact is likely to evolve to the next great thing, but with 500 million followers, Twitter isn't just going to disappear. It's just going to become a new way to follow celebrities, corporations, and the like," said Toubia.

The study was published in the journal Marketing Science. 

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GPS vulnerable to hacking: Study

A new study has revealed that the Global Positing System (GPS) is vulnerable to hackers or terrorists who could use it to hijack ships and commercial airliners. 

Fox News reports that the new study has exposed a huge potential hole in national security. 

GPS expert Todd Humphreys and his team at theUniversity of Texas (UT) had taken over the sophisticated navigation system on a super-yacht in the Mediterranean Sea using a laptop, a small antenna and an electronic GPS spoofer, built for only 3,000 dollars. 

The UT team was able to drive the ship far, take it into treacherous waters, and even put it on a collision course with another ship. 

However, the ship's GPS system reported the vessel was calmly moving along its intended course.

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Employees daily remain online for an hour in office: Study

Employees spend one hour every daysurfing on the internet while at work, it has been revealed.

The study, conducted by Quidco, has found that workers waste an hour by shopping or looking for holidays at their desks, the Daily Star reported.

It was found that other distractions include emails, checking the weather forecast, reading news sites or updating Facebook.

Andy Oldham, managing director of the company, told the publication that with good internet access on mobile phones, surfing the internet is no longer reserved only for those who work in front of a computer.

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MEA India becomes top app on Apple‘s App Store

In less than 24 hours after its launch, MEA India app has topped the charts ofApple's App Store. 

The application, launched by the Ministry of External Affairs, was leading in the free category of the App Store. If you have an android or iOSplatforms phone, then you can track your passport application with its help. 

In the next couple of months, people will be able to even apply for passport through this app which is available for free. 

For the first time in the world, a country's foreign ministry has been able to integrate and consolidate its entire digital presence in one's hand, thanks to 'MEAIndia' app. 

The MEA envisages the application be a "one-stop shop" for you. From getting updates from all the 124 Indian missions in the world, to getting information for consular access in case you are abroad, to booking yourself for the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra, everything is now available on your fingertips. 

The MEA is the first government department to have a mobile app for smartphone users. 

It will provide details of all citizen-centric services of the MEA like passport, visa details for those travelling to India and Haj related details among others. 

Besides providing a vast information on India's foreign policies and activities, one can even take part in quiz and win Rs 1000 e-vouchers for buying books.

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How mobile phones are making your bicycle ‘smart‘

It has happened to many a bicyclist: the car beside you suddenly cuts into your path or passes close enough for you to feel the heat of its exhaust on your leg. 
A big part of avoiding those close calls is being noticed, but for years bicyclists' only defences were bright clothing, battery-powered incandescent bulbs and the cheery ching-ching of a traditional bicycle bell. 
Now that's changing. Thanks to improved LED lights, microchips and smartphone technology,bicycles can have loud horns, brake lights, turn signals and all manner of lighting. 
You can spend a few hundred dollars on a bike headlight alone these days. At just under $300, the Taz 1200 from Light and Motion in Monterey, Calif., is said to put out one-third more light than the average car headlight and is good for riding on roads and on dark trails.
But for the average street biker there are more affordable options. 
Virtually all of today's LED headlights and taillights for bikes have static and multiple flashing modes activated with the push of a button. Add to that a blue flashing light from BikeBrightz Ltd. in Toledo, Ohio and the guy pedaling home after work in the dark could be mistaken for a squad car. Strap the light bar anywhere on your frame, and at $15 each, you can vary your colour scheme. It also comes in "mean green," "rocket red," "powerful pink" and "mellow yellow." 
And then there are the lasers. 
In England, Emily Brooke is bringing her Blaze Bike Light to customers in September. The Blaze projects a green image of a bike rider in front of the cyclist, making it possible for nighttime drivers to see the glowing image even if the rider is in a blind spot.

A price has not yet been set. 
The single-speed and customizable fixed-gear bikes, which cost $325 and up, do have drawbacks, though. They don't shine as brightly in low light as they do in total darkness. Their glow fades in time.

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