The article discusses new technologies being promoted by the US State Department to help pro-democracy activists in repressive regimes. A "panic button" app is being developed that will wipe contact information from a confiscated phone and alert other activists. The US has budgeted $50 million since 2008 for such technologies to provide tools for activists operating in sensitive environments. The initiative is part of broader US efforts to expand internet freedoms and support online resources that have fueled pro-democracy movements.

1. c m y k c m y k
RIM acquires
mobile app
tool
developer
tinyHippos. Technomics
Amazon may
soon launch
film, music
locker
service.
Oracle
fiscal 3Q
net
income
up 78 pct.
DDCC 13Bengaluru ●● Monday ●● 28 March 2011
IT firms are on a ‘green’ spree
Nintendo’s new world of games: 3 dimensions, zero glasses
SETH SEHIESEL
SAN FRANCISCO
March 27: Nintendo’s new
3DS device is quite literally
like nothing you have seen
before.
Have you ever watched
full-motion 3-D video with-
out wearing those annoying
special glasses? Didn’t think
so. With the 3DS, set to
makes its debut on Sunday,
you will.
In the guise of a hand-held
game machine that costs
about $250, Nintendo has
produced a most astonishing
entertainment device. In an
age of technical wonders,
Nintendo’s only competition
in innovating personal elec-
tronics is Apple.
Though the DS has sold
substantially more units
than the iPhone (about 145
million DS’s worldwide by
the end of last year, to about
90 million iPhones), it gen-
erally eludes the attention of
the technology and media
elite because so many of its
users are children.
That will change very
quickly now. Just about
every child in America who
likes video games is going
to want a 3DS; the clamor
will reach a fever pitch this
weekend and will continue
straight through the summer
and into the holiday season.
And millions of adults, who
previously paid little atten-
tion to their kids’ game
machines, are going to look
at it just once and say,
“Wow.”
The 3DS (and 3-D televi-
sion) simply feels different
from 3-D movies. In a
movie theater the 3-D effect
often brings the sensation
that things on the screen are
coming at you. Like many
viewers, I often find that dis-
tracting and unnatural.
On the 3DS and in 3-D tel-
evision, the effect is more
that of depth, as if the screen
were a window into a reality
where your eyes could per-
ceive the depth and relative
position of objects. The big
difference, of course, is that
with 3-D television, as at the
movies, you have to wear
special glasses, which no
one really wants to do for
hours on end.
Nintendo has engineered a
way for the screen essential-
ly to beam out those sepa-
rate images for each eye
without the viewer’s need-
ing any special eyewear or
headgear. You look into the
3-D top screen on the DS,
and it’s like watching a mov-
ing hologram that is under
your control. It is simply
magical.
You don’t have to watch in
3-D — in fact, Nintendo
warns that children under 7
should not use the three-
dimensional effects because
their optical systems may
not be sufficiently devel-
oped. There is a slider
beside the 3-D screen that
adjusts the intensity of the 3-
D effect or turns it off alto-
gether.
The catch is that for the 3-
D effect to work, you have
to hold the device (which is
roughly five inches wide)
fairly straight in front of
your face. If you look at the
screen from an odd angle or
from off to the side, it does-
n’t work properly. But that’s
O.K., because most people
hold an electronic device
like this straight in front of
them anyway.
This is why similar tech-
nology has not been used in
normal home televisions:
most people don’t watch TV
straight-on. Instead they
sprawl out on couches and
chairs at all different angles
from the screen. And here’s
where it gets really interest-
ing: in addition to games,
the 3DS can play 3-D
movies and streaming video
from the Internet. Nintendo
hasn’t announced specific
deals yet, but the company
demonstrated 3DS versions
of films from Disney,
DreamWorks Animation
and Warner Brothers last
year. Core display technolo-
gy involved here has been
widely known for decades,
just as the core technology
behind Nintendo’s revolu-
tionary Wii console was not
deeply esoteric.
As with the Wii, the genius
that Nintendo has demon-
strated is not so much in
basic technology but in bril-
liant engineering and empa-
thy for everyday consumers.
Nintendo doesn’t try to
compete with other compa-
nies in delivering “more.”
Rather, it tries, successfully,
to be more creative in imag-
ining unique entertainment
experiences that other com-
panies have never thought
of. For Nintendo, it is not a
minute too soon. The Wii is
looking long in the tooth,
and it is long past time for
Nintendo to at least update
the Wii with high-definition
graphics. (The arrival of
Microsoft’s Kinect, which
does away with the con-
troller completely, has also
diminished the Wii’s luster.)
But for all the Wii’s acco-
lades, the DS has actually
proved more important to
the company over recent
years. And the 3DS now is
shockingly cool.
Even beyond the 3-D
screen, the 3DS is full of
wonderful touches. There
are twin binocular cameras
on the face of the device so
you can take 3-D pictures;
of course, you can see them
in 3-D only on the 3DS
itself. — NYT
AsusTek Inc.
launches a
new tablet
Taiwan, March 27:
AsusTek Computer Inc.
unveiled a sleek tablet com-
puter on Friday, after the
Taiwanese firm saw the
sales of its once popular
line of mini-laptops stall
following the launch of
Apple's hit iPad.
AsusTek says the EEE Pad
Transformer, which runs on
the Android 3.0 operating
system, distinguishes itself
with an optional keyboard
that is superior to docking
options for other tablets
because of its light weight
and flexibility.
Its 10.1-inch screen with a
front and rear camera can
be detached from the key-
board to allow users on the
move quick Web browsing
and film viewing. Plugging
it to the keyboard dock, the
device can then be used as a
full-fledged laptop.
“In our own pursuit of per-
fection, we offer users
more options,” AsusTek
CEO Jerry Shen told The
Associated Press. “They
can get a full range of func-
tions including 10-finger
touch, Flash supported
video viewing, e-book
reading, and a physical
keyboard so they don't have
to deal with any inconven-
iences.” — AP
SANGEETHA CHENGAPPA
DC | BENGALURU
March 27: The National
Geographic Society’s
Greendex 2010 – an index
measuring the environmen-
tal impact of consumer
lifestyle choices in the areas
of housing, energy, trans-
portation, food and goods,
reveals that consumers in
India, Brazil and China have
the world’s most environ-
mentally sustainable
lifestyle. American con-
sumers’ behavior still ranks
as the least sustainable of all
countries surveyed since the
inception of the survey three
years ago, followed by
Canadian, French and
British consumers. Here’s a
look at what IT firms are
doing to conserve the envi-
ronment and reduce their
carbon footprint in India.
SAP Labs India’s 23-acre
campus attracts over 50
species of birds to its lush
green campus with some
species flying from destina-
tions 3,000 kms away. Four
hundred kgs of food waste
generated by the firm’s
4,000 employees is convert-
ed into 75 kgs of manure
everyday and is used in the
campus, by NGOs and
employees. More recently,
SAP Labs India launched a
car policy in collaboration
with electric car maker,
Mahindra Reva, to encour-
age its employees to go
green. The policy allows
confirmed employees to
own and operate an electric
car at a minimum cost of Rs
1,356 – Rs 2,678 per month
to be paid over 36 months.
The company pays a green
allowance of Rs 6,000 per
month to its employees to
support this initiative and
provides free charging
points, reserved parking
space in the campus and
routine maintenance/service
free of cost. “Our parent
company SAP AG targets to
introduce around 100 elec-
tric vehicles into its car
fleet in Walldorf,
Germany and
SAP Labs
India will
be the
largest
contribu-
tor to this
initiative
with a line-
up of 35 electric cars for its
employees” said V R Fer-
ose, Managing Director,
SAP Labs India.
Tesco HSC completely
changed its 2,500 CFL
lamps used for interior light-
ing to LED lighting, helping
to save 43,000 units of ener-
gy and around Rs 21 lakh
per annum. The firm has
reduced its carbon footprint
levels by 200 tons per
annum and the implementa-
tion of infrastructure secure
software on desktops to
hibernate the system when
not in use, has helped to
bring down its carbon foot-
print by another 100 tons per
annum.
“We installed a 1KW
windmill to reduce the
annual power consumption
however, unfavourable wind
conditions led to the wind-
mill not generating suffi-
cient electricity. Our
employees mounted the
windmill horizontally to
receive the hot blasts of air
generated by an existing
A/C cooling tower exhaust,
thereby, leading to green
power generation capacity
of 3,696 units per annum
reducing our carbon foot-
print by another 2 tons per
annum” said Sandeep Dhar,
CEO Tesco HSC, which has
3,000 employees. Solar
water heaters in the campus
gym and cafeteria further
help in reducing Tesco’s
dependence on conventional
sources of energy.
Dell has made it easy for
consumers to recycle their
non-working lithium ion
laptop batteries with its free
laptop battery recycling pro-
gramme, thereby preventing
e-waste from entering land-
fills. The programme will
run as a pilot until April 11,
2011 in Mumbai, Delhi and
Chennai and become avail-
able in other parts of India
during the next several
months. To encourage PC
recycling in India, Dell also
launched a special discount
programme where con-
sumers could send their old
computers to Dell for free
recycling and redeem a
coupon of Rs 1,000 on the
purchase of their next Dell
computer. Ness Technolo-
gies has a team of 35 Green
Rangers, including people
from the junior most to man-
agerial levels driving its
Green Mission. Ness-ians
planted 100 neem saplings
near Nimhans in partnership
with an NGO ( I own a tree)
and hosted a paper bag mak-
ing competition, aimed at
encouraging employees to
stop using plastic bags and
substituting it with paper
bags for their daily use. All
lights are switched off in
employee cubicles during
the lunch break. Free emis-
sion testing for employee
vehicles and an e-waste dis-
posal scheme are some of
the other green initiatives
taken up by the company.
A ‘panic button’ for democracy activists
Misery Tax: Some
pain, some benefits
KAPIL KHANDELWAL
T
he Misery Tax (5%
service tax) on
health has finally
been rolled back, atleast
for this year. However,
the Finance Minister may
revisit reintroduction of
the misery tax on health,
when the goods and serv-
ices taxes (GST) regime
comes becomes a reality.
Such taxes when levied
will only serve to be
inflationary in nature. In
my last article on the
budget, I had mentioned
that healthcare inflation
in India in the last few
years is hovering around
30%. This would mean
another dose of health-
care inflation. Taxing
health even under the
new GST tax regime not
only degrade the quality
of life but will improve
India's Forbes' Misery
Tax Rating in the world
and bring it closure to
China, that is rated as the
second in the world and
first in Asia. The threat of
GST tax on health beats
all the cannons of taxa-
tion! Firstly, the taxes on
healthcare do not meet
the bar for an efficient tax
system. It may raise suf-
ficient revenues of
around 0.2% to 0.25% of
GDP to pay for govern-
ment's spending pro-
grams. Let us understand
that almost 4% of GDP
spent on healthcare is
out-of-pocket through
the hard-earned incomes
of the aam admi. Such
tax proposals create neg-
ative distortions for aam
admi to delay health
spending out of pocket.
In other words, aam admi
would end up with med-
ical intervention when
the disease has pro-
gressed further. This
means increased spend-
ing on healthcare.
Secondly, the taxes on
healthcare do not meet
the principle of equity is
that taxes should be fair
and based on aam admi's
‘ability to pay’. Current-
ly, the aam admi's discre-
tionary spend on health is
around 10% of his share-
of wallet. But healthcare
is not like duty on ciga-
rettes that is said to have
a regressive effect on the
overall distribution of
income. But illness hit
all, irrespective of the
taxable bracket of the
aam admi. Therefore the
taxes on healthcare fail
the test of equity.
Thirdly, under the bene-
fit principle the health-
care taxes paid by aam
admi that have a link with
the benefit that the aam
admi is paying the tax
actually receives from
our government spending
on healthcare. However,
the healthcare tax does
not address the allocative
efficiency nor equity
issue as a large propor-
tion of our country is
spending on healthcare
out of pocket.
Lastly, there is the issue
of transparency . The
proposed taxes would
force the aam admi to go
into smaller treatment
centers that may not be
well equipped to handle
the patients. Also this
may increase the creation
of black money and par-
allel economy, when
forced by the healthcare
service provider to pay
the taxes, the aam admi
may as well walk out
paying in cash and evad-
ing the issues together.
Therefore a hole in gov-
ernment's kitty of close
to 0.1% to 0.15% through
evaded healthcare taxes.
Well, all is not lost. Our
Finance Minister has
given infrastructure sta-
tus for healthcare indus-
try that has been a long-
standing demand from
the private sector. How-
ever from the new GST
tax regime, regulators
and Finance Ministry
should consider exempt-
ing social services such
as health, education,
from the purview of the
new GST regime.
Nation-wide protests
over the last month have
helped in mobilising
mass opinion against
such misery taxes. If
healthcare services tax is
introduced under the
GST, it would not only
make healthcare costlier,
delay health interven-
tions and reduce access
for the aam admi. Some-
thing for tax regulators
and the Finance Ministry
to think over before they
contemplate taxing
healthcare services.
A dose
of IT
A dose
of IT
Dell has made it
easy for
consumers to
recycle their
laptop batteries.
Washington March 27:
Some day soon, when pro-
democracy campaigners
have their cellphones confis-
cated by police, they'll be
able to hit the “panic button”
— a special app that will
both wipe out the phone's
address book and emit
emergency alerts to other
activists.
The panic button is one of
the new technologies the
U.S. State Department is
promoting to equip pro-
democracy activists in coun-
tries ranging from the Mid-
dle East to China with the
tools to fight back against
repressive governments.
“We've been trying to keep
below the radar on this,
because a lot of the people
we are working with are
operating in very sensitive
environments,” said Michael
Posner, assistant U.S. secre-
tary of state for human
rights and labor.
The U.S. technology ini-
tiative is part of Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton's push
to expand Internet freedoms,
pointing out the crucial role
that on-line resources such
as Twitter and Facebook
have had in fueling pro-
democracy movements in
Iran, Egypt, Tunisia and
elsewhere.
The United States had bud-
geted some $50 million
since 2008 to promote new
technologies for social
activists, focusing both on
“circumvention” technology
to help them work around
government-imposed fire-
walls and on new strategies
to protect their own commu-
nications and data from gov-
ernment intrusion.
“We're working with a
group of technology
providers, giving small
grants,” Posner told
reporters.
“We're operating like ven-
ture capitalists. We are look-
ing for the most innovative
people who are going to tai-
lor their technology and
their expertise to the partic-
ular community of people
we're trying to protect.”
The United States first
began to publicly leverage
new Internet technologies in
2009, when it asked Twitter
to delay a planned upgrade
that would have cut service
to Iranians who were organ-
izing mass protests over dis-
puted elections.
Since then it has viewed
new media technologies as a
key part of its global strate-
gy, facing off with China
over censorship of Google
results and launching its
own Twitter feeds in Arabic,
Farsi and Hindi.
Some U.S. lawmakers
have criticized the depart-
ment for not doing enough
to promote the new technol-
ogy, but Posner said it was
building momentum as new
initiatives are rolled out.
“We're now going full
speed ahead to get the
money out the door,” he
said.
Posner said the United
States has helped fund
development of about a
dozen new circumvention
technologies now being
rolled out, and that more
would follow as activists
play an increasingly com-
plex game of cat-and-mouse
with censors.
He said that the experience
of pro-democracy protesters
in Cairo's Tahrir Square in
February underscored the
centrality of cellphones to
modern grassroots political
movements. The United
States, he said, was working
on new devices like the
“panic button” and secure
text message services to
protect both data and data-
bases.
The world is full of ... gov-
ernments and other authori-
ties who are capable of
breaking into that system,”
Posner said. “A lot of
activists don't know what
their options are. They don't
have access to technology.”
The United States has
funded training for some
5,000 activists around the
world on the new technolo-
gies -- and some sessions
have turned up unnerving
surprises. At a recent train-
ing session in Beirut,
experts examined the com-
puter of a Tunisian activist
and discovered it was infect-
ed with “key-logging” soft-
ware that could communi-
cate what he was typing --
presumably to security
agents.
“They started to go around
and look at what was on the
other peoples' computers. A
guy from Syria had 100
viruses in his machine ...
this is the tip of the iceberg,”
he said.
Posner conceded that the
U.S. move to develop these
new technologies carried
some risks.
Secure on-line tools useful
for underground pro-democ-
racy activists might also be
useful for drug cartels or ter-
rorist cells, raising new law
enforcement and national
security issues that need to
be resolved, he said.
“The fact is al Qaeda prob-
ably has their own way of
gathering some of these
technologies,” Posner said.
“The goal here is to protect
people.” — Reuters
Four percent of
GDP spent on
healthcare is the
hard-earned
incomes of the
‘aam admi’.
Kapil Khandelwal is Director, EquNev Capital, a
leading healthcare and ICT) expert.
Ness-ians planted 100 Neem saplings near NIMHANS in partnership with an NGO. — DC
Google delays
access to new
Android 3.0
San Francisco, March 27:
Google Inc is delaying
widespread access to the
new version of its Android
software, saying it has
more work to do before the
product is ready for certain
types of devices.
Google unveiled Android
3.0, known as Honeycomb,
earlier this year, billing it as
the first version of its
Android operating system
designed from the ground
up for use in tablet PCs.
Honeycomb software is
already available on the
Motorola Mobility Inc
Xoom tablet, which went
on sale in February. The
software represents
Google's first dedicated
effort to challenge the dom-
inance of Apple Inc's iPad
in the nascent tablet PC
market. But Google said it
will not immediately make
its Honeycomb software
available as open source
code, the company's tradi-
tional practice with
Android whereby any
developers are free to mod-
ify the software as they see
fit. The delay was because
Honeycomb was not ready
to be customized for use on
smartphones. — Reuters