India's fastest supercomputer - Param Yuva II - launched

The Param Yuva II - India's fastest supercomputer and the 62nd fastest supercomputer in the world - has recently been launched by Government of India's Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY).

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A new study examining health information technology adoption levels among infection preventionists reveals a salient disconnect, in many cases, between the two.
Study findings suggest these IT systems are underutilized by those involved in preventing and reporting infections, and officials say the numbers support the need for a greater level of engagement between IPs and health information systems.
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Now, a social media website that helps you know your neighbors better

A new social network is betting that you don't know your neighbours and is aiming to connect you to them, both offline and online.

The quickly growing website, Nextdoor, is based on the idea that "a neighborhood is one of the most important and useful communities in a person's life" and uses social media to advance that message as it looks to blur the lines between physical neighborhoods and virtual ones.

In the process, San Francisco-based Nextdoor may be redefining the overall concept of community.

Nextdoor users can swap information on everything from business referrals and garage sales to lost dogs and babysitters. The site has more than 8,000 US neighborhoods listed, the New York Daily News reported.

"There are so many ways our neighbors can help us. But these days, most people don't know their neighbors or how best to contact them. It's difficult to ask for help and advice without being a bother," the site says on its welcome page. "But Nextdoor changes all that."

The website serves as a meeting place for neighbors to get in touch with one another regarding everything from borrowing a ladder to sharing information about robberies and exchanging business recommendations.

Users must input their physical and email addresses, and after an approval, they can access an array of data, including maps, message boards and even a lost and found, all loaded up with information shared by like-minded members of their community.

Members are posting more than a half-million messages daily, according to tech blog Technorati, on everything from lost dogs to babysitter recommendations, business referrals and garage sales.

Nextdoor's basic setup appears to be a motor for its quick growth. After users are approved, they are encouraged to invite their neighbors, without whom the site has little purpose.

The company says 40 neighborhoods are added each day and is already considering an international expansion.

Unlike other quickly growing social networks, there is a large emphasis on privacy on Nextdoor.

Users must apply with their real names, and their residency must be verified by the site. Users can opt to receive a postcard in the mail and confirm their residency with a code on the card, or they can be verified by entering a credit card that is linked to their address.

Only Nextdoor members can see anything beyond the welcome page. And even members can see only content posted by people who live in their own and surrounding neighborhoods. (ANI)

India's fastest supercomputer - Param Yuva II - launched

The Param Yuva II - India's fastest supercomputer and the 62nd fastest supercomputer in the world - has recently been launched by Government of India's Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY).

Marking the latest 500 TeraFlop version of the DeitY's earlier Param Yuva at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) Pune, the Param Yuva II has undergone a 524-teraflop upgrade that is approximately ten-fold faster than its previous counterpart.

According to an Economic Times report, the Param Yuva II supercomputer was developed in a record period of three months, with a total investment of Rs. 16 crore. The most prominent features of the new supercomputer include 200 Terabytes of high performance storage; support software for parallel computing; and the ability to deliver over half a Petaflop of raw compute power.

Going by the C-DAC claims, Param Yuva II is better than most supercomputing systems when power efficiency is taken into consideration; and "would have achieved 33rd position in the November 2012 List of Top Green 500 supercomputers of the world."

Congratulating C-DAC for its notable achievement of 500 TF compute power for the new Param Yuve II supercomputer, the DeitY Secretary J. Satyanarayana said during his inauguration speech that the Indian government will continue to extend support the efforts aimed at establishing the country's place as "the primary destination for advanced R&D across the global landscape."

CFORM Automation

Itech has bagged an opportunity to develop a dynamic web based applications using J2EE.

C-Form is issued by registered dealer (purchaser) to seller of goods in case of CST (Central Sales Tax) so as to charge him sales tax at lesser rate. And C-Form is a declaration to state that you are a registered dealer in your state and eligible for concessional rate of tax at 2%. Failure to produce C Form will have to spell out local VAT rates or 10% which is higher.

Our client was facing the problem in preparing report of C-Form manually everything. i.e., they have to enter receivable amount, pending amount etc., manually every time they need to calculate & change in Microsoft Excel sheet. That is too much time consuming for them.

Itech solutions have come up with solution for them. Instead of using Excel sheet directly and doing calculation manually, we are going to convert Excel format to CSV (Comma Separated Value) format & uploading it to server. Hence window will display according to their requirements. For example, if they want report of one Quarter (Jan-Mar) they just need to enter from-to date, month & year.

The complete report will be generated. If they just enter receivable amount, in pending list it will deduct & show remaining amount automatically. And, if they want to add new customer report, that can also be done. For that they just need to enter invoice amount, CST & total amount will be calculated automatically.

Advantage of this project is that, they can save their time where in almost all calculation part can be performed automatically.

5 Magical Tips for Achieving Your Goals

We've all been taught about "SMART "goals (specific, measureable, achievable, realistic, and time-limited), but there's something missing from this piece of wisdom. It's something really fundamental to actually achieving this goal.

Consider this: 70% of our New Year's goals are never met; I believe it's partly because people create "should" goals instead of "want" goals.

Here's what's missing: How much you actually care about the goal.

How do you feel when you tell yourself that you should become more profitable in 2013? Or that you should lose weight this year? There is shame, failure, and disappointment attached to should goals.

When I review annual goals with clients I typically hear a sense of dread in their tone of voice. When I ask about their tone, they respond with comments like: I don't know if I can do it; I feel guilty that I didn't grow the business last year; It feels overwhelming. They simply don't feel good about their goal.

While revenue goals are critical to every business, working with them strictly from an analytical viewpoint could be a mistake. Our emotional connection to numbers is often based in fear--and that's not a very positive motivator?

So how can we reframe these worthy goals to make them more desirable and more likely to happen this time?

Be alert to potential mentors--on the board where you serve and among your friends and colleagues. Talk with other people who serve on boards to share experiences, lessons, and advice.

Let's say that you've set a goal to grow your revenues by 20% in 2013. Consider what that means to you. Does it mean that you can hire an assistant and spend more time with the family? Does it mean that you'll have the money to execute the new product launch that you're so excited about? That your brand will be one step closer to being a household name?

Always look at the emotional driver behind your goals. How does it make you feel when you think about achieving the outcome? Recognizing your good feelings will transition you from a shameful should to a passionate want, thereby creating a much higher likelihood of achieving your meaningful goals. After all, positive emotion drives action far, far more effectively than does negative emotion.

And as you're getting started in adding these five simple ingredients to your goal-setting strategies, try to take notice of a few things. Notice the difference in how you feel when you think about your financial goals from a position of want rather than should. The key here is to pay attention to your physical response. Does your heart seem to lift? Do you get butterflies in your stomach? Do you feel a sense of excitement? These are the things we are looking for. If you don't experience at least one positive sensation then you haven't dug deep enough for your positive emotional connector.

1. Find a Real Challenge

Make your goal compelling and achievable--yet challenging. Brilliant minds need a challenge; otherwise boredom will set in and your plan will fall to the wayside. State your goal in writing.

2. Stick to Positive Emotional Connectors

Make a list of the positive things that will result from achieving this goal. Stay away from subtly negative statements like "I will worry less." Dig for things that excite you. Your outcome must be something that you look forward to with great anticipation and enthusiasm.

3. Create a Visual Representation

Find compelling images that represent your outcome. If an increase in revenue means that you can take a family vacation, find images that represent your ideal vacation. If it means that you will have the budget to work with a distributor who has connections to your ideal clients, find images of your prospect's logos or storefront. Cut your images out and glue them onto a poster or piece of paper. Congratulations! You have just created a vision board!

4. Share

Bring others into your vision by sharing your vision with employees and others who are critical to achieving company goals. Help them to connect to it as well. Ask them what these goals mean to them and what exciting outcome they can attach to the vision. Share this exercise with them and encourage them to create a vision board too!

5. Have Patience

Now it's time to allow the process to do its magic. Make time to contemplate your vision board and feel the rewards associated with achievement. Do this daily. The more passionate you feel about your outcome the more driven you will become.

Make sure to recognize every small step that takes you closer to your desired outcome. Entrepreneurs often dismiss these achievements. Celebrate them! Recall the passion that brought you to this business--and reconnect with it often.

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Health IT underutilized by IPs

A new study examining health information technology adoption levels among infection preventionists reveals a salient disconnect, in many cases, between the two.
Study findings suggest these IT systems are underutilized by those involved in preventing and reporting infections, and officials say the numbers support the need for a greater level of engagement between IPs and health information systems.

Conducted by researchers at the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University-Purdue University, the study reveals that although the majority of IPs participating indicated they had access to an electronic health record system, only a paltry 20 percent had been involved in the selection, design or implementation process. Officials say those surveyed indicated the IT systems often did not include modules or components that supported infection control activities.

Moreover, nearly half of all IPs were unaware of their healthcare organization's participation in a health information exchange.

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are encouraging local and state health departments to use health information technologies to improve infectious disease reporting and prevention activities," said lead author Brian Dixon, Regenstrief Institute investigator and assistant professor in the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, in a press release. "We found that while hospital-based infection preventionists – the people on the frontline – may have access to health information technology, they lack specially designed computer tools needed to sift through the massive amounts of data in electronic medical records."

Dixon said sentiments expressed by those participating in the survey indicated the desire for improvement pertaining to decision support, communication and paperless reporting methods, as despite the high rates of EHR adoption reported in several recent studies, the majority of IPs still use print and fax methods for reporting notifiable case information to public health officials.

"Well-designed and supported electronic medical records systems and health information exchange can provide tools that can help prevent and halt the spread of infection among hospitalized patients," Dixon added. "But to do so effectively, infection preventionists must be made part of the selection and implementation of health information technologies."


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