SAP defies tech gloom with strong software sales

Germany's SAP, the world's largest maker of business software, delivered a stronger-than-expected rise in profits led by robust sales, defying a weakening trend that has hit rivals.

SAP said its software revenues, when measured by IFRS accounting standards, rose 19 percent to a record 1.06 billion euros ($1.3 billion) for the second-quarter.

It had previously predicted a 15-20 percent increase at constant currencies.

Quarterly operating profit before special items rose 15 percent to 1.17 billion euros, above the Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S average analyst estimate of 1.11 billion euros.

SAP shares, down 9.4 percent in the last three months, traded up 4.7 percent at 48.35 euros by 1236 GMT.

"The results are much better than the market had come to expect recently," one stock market trader said.

"Very sound set of figures, given the macroeconomic uncertainties and the poor results of some competitors," said DZ Bank analyst Oliver Finger.

Analysts pointed to robust demand for cloud computing, favorable exchange rates and the purchase of cloud-software developer Success Factors.

Cloud computing provides software, storage and other services from remote data centers over the Web and holds the promise of reducing costs and improving efficiency.

The company didn't give an outlook and the general feeling is that technology spending might weaken further as the euro zone's debt crisis deepens and U.S. job creation stagnates.

There has been plenty of evidence of a weak second-quarter in the tech sector. U.S. software firms Qlik Technologies and Informatica Corp as well as Indian software services provider Infosys have issued estimates below market forecasts.

Last month, however, SAP's main peer Oracle reported stronger-than-expected quarterly profit.

SAP is expected to publish more detailed results and to provide a full-year outlook on July 24. ($1 = 0.8164 euros)

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Solar City Tower and Waterfall – 2016 Olympics

In conjunction with the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, several new structures will be erected in Rio’s cityscape. One of the many projects creating huge buzz is the Solar City Tower, an artificial waterfall designed to generate clean, renewable energy.

Designed by Swiss firm, RAAFA, Solar City Tower won the architecture competition for the 2016 Olympic Games. Inspired by Olafur Eliasson’s Waterfall series, the Solar City Tower will be built on Cotunduba, one of the islands in Rio’s Guanabara Bay.

The vertical structure will be used as an observation tower, and it will capture and distribute solar power to the Olympic Village and to the city. The 345 foot structure will have solar panels around its base, used to store energy during the day, releasing it through turbines for use at night.

For special occasions, the turbine will pump seawater into the tower and then shoot it back out to sea, creating a waterfall effect in the middle of the ocean.

In addition to this building’s sustainable features, the tower will also have an amphitheater, stores, and a coffee shop. An elevator will take visitors to a 360° view of Rio de Janeiro’s landscape. There will also be a platform from which extreme sports lovers will be able to experience bungee jumping.

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How China's First Space Station Will Work Infographic

Credit: Karl Tate Take a look at how China's first space station, called Tiangong ("Heavenly Palace") will be assembled in orbit.

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Red Market

Is the human body sacred? Or is it a commodity ready to be chopped up and exposed to the forces of supply and demand? The answer is a matter of perspective. Our own body is a temple. But when we need a spare part, suddenly we’re surprisingly open to a transaction. To a person looking for a kidney, a scientist trying to learn anatomy, a beauty parlor customer looking for the perfect ‘do, there’s no substitute for a piece of someone else.The problem is, demand for replacement flesh grossly outstrips supply. In the US and like-minded countries, it’s illegal to sell body parts—they can be taken only from those who filled out a donor card before they died or who are willing to give up an organ out of sheer benevolence. This means there isn’t enough tissue to go around. So, as with any outlawed or heavily regulated resource, a bustling underground trade has formed.Sometimes the market in body parts is exploitive: Desperate people are paid tiny sums for huge donations. Other times it is ghoulish: Pieces are stolen from the recently dead. And every so often, the resource grab is lethal—people are simply killed for their organs. Welcome to the red market.

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Windows 8 Consumer Preview arriving

You know that 2012 is a leap year and Microsoft plans on making good use of the day, which comes just once every four years. On February 29, Microsoft will release Windows 8 Beta for public download. The Beta will officially be known as “Windows 8 Consumer Preview” and will be made available to users to download and try out.


Like all public Betas from Microsoft, there will be an expiration date, telling you till when you’ll be able to use it, but like always, there will be a hack out that will allow you to bypass that and use it for a longer period.


From the screenshot above, we get a little glimpse into what to expect from the nearly finished product. The desktop seems to be quite a departure from what we’re typically used to. The icons seem to be very similar to Win 7, at least the recycle bin does. The taskbar also seems to be borrowed from Windows 7, where one can pin frequently used apps for quick access. However, there doesn’t seem to be a ‘Windows’ button in the bottom left corner.


The system tray has also been done away with and instead, we have a console on the left with options for toggling different networks. The design elements for this section are influenced heavily by Windows Phone 7. Given the fact that users will be able to switch between the standard Windows desktop and Metro UI-like interface seamlessly, we’ll have to just get accustomed to this new hybrid interface. Windows 8 will also be very customizable, so we guess you’ll have the freedom to move things around the place to suit your needs.


Windows 8 will be based on a brand new kernel and the same will make its way to tablets and other portable devices as well, like phones, in order to deliver the same experience. It appears that this MWC will be one of the most action packed events in a long time and one that you should definitely not miss.

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Google set to announce iCloud competitor?

Google plans to enter the cloud based storage service with Google Drive. The service is expected to be active in the coming weeks as reported by the Wall Street Journal. 




Like Dropbox, the service is expected to tap the "cloud storage" market where users can access their content on the go with their smartphones, tablets or even third party computers with the help of a simple app and an Internet connection.

Drive is expected to have limited storage available to users for free. Users will be able to purchase additional storage at a cost, something that's been tried and tested by Dropbox. The limit of free storage and cost of additional storage is still unknown. Users will be able to store any content they wish, be it photos, videos docs, etc. on Drive.


The Wall Street Journal also reports that users will also have the ability to upload a file through the Drive mobile app and share the link with people rather than sending it across as an attachment.


As of November 2011, Dropbox has recorded 45 million users and Apple's iCloud has 85 million users as of January 2012, so it's easy to understand why Google wants a bite of the cloud storage pie.

Another interesting fact that remains to be seen is how Google integrates Drive with its existing services such as Google+, Google Docs, Gmail, so on and so forth.


Google Drive will enter a market crowded with the likes of iCloud (although it is restricted to Apple devices), box.net Dropbox and Microsoft SkyDrive to name a few.

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RAF Menwith Hill

RAF Menwith Hill is a British military base with connections to the global ECHELON spy network. The site contains an extensive satellite ground station and is a communications intercept and missile warning site and has been described as the largest electronic monitoring station in the world. 
The site acts as a ground station for a number of satellites operated by the US National Reconnaissance Office, on behalf of the US National Security Agency, with antennae contained in a large number of highly distinctive white radomes, and is alleged to be an element of the ECHELON system. 

ECHELON was reportedly created to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies during the Cold War in the early 1960s, but since the end of the Cold War it is believed to search also for hints of terrorist plots, drug dealers’ plans, and political and diplomatic intelligence.

It has also been involved in reports of commercial espionage and is believed to filter all telephone and radio communications in the nations which host it – an extreme violation of privacy.

(Secret place)

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Twitter Can Censor by Country

BEIJING—Twitter Inc. says it can now make content selectively available to users based on geography, and plans to use that ability to enter countries with "different ideas" about freedom of expression as a human right—reflecting the difficult ethical questions facing Internet companies.
Twitter says it can now make content selectively available to users based on geography, and plans to use that ability to enter countries with "different ideas" about freedom of expression as a human right. Tom Loftus reports for Digits.


The announcement, published on the official blog of the microblog operator, said Twitter is now able to withhold content from users in a specific country while keeping it available to the rest of the world.
The effort underscores thorny issues for Internet companies as their websites become more global and interconnected among different countries, and as they must cooperate with diverse views on Internet content control. For websites like Twitter as well as social-networking site Facebook, this has meant being blocked in countries like China where controls are more aggressive.


"As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression," the post said, adding that in Germany, pro-Nazi content is banned. It said the ability has not been put to use yet, however.Twitter said in the post that it would take measures to notify users if it withholds posts. "If and when we are required to withhold a Tweet," or microblog post, "in a specific country, we will attempt to let the user know, and we will clearly mark when the content has been withheld, and why," it said.


Twitter will work with Chilling Effects, an Internet freedom advocacy website that compiles content take-down notices, to publish take-down notices. Such a practice would make it difficult for Twitter to operate in China, where Internet executives say prohibited keywords are treated like state secrets.
Enlarge Image
Getty Images


Twitter said it would notify users if and when it is "required" to withhold a Tweet.
The company did not list countries in which it plans to use its new ability, but said that it would not be a solution for all. Some countries "differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there," the post said, an implicit reference to countries such as China that have banned Twitter.


China has more Internet users than any other nation. Local Web firms in China employ dozens or hundreds of staff to police user-generated content daily, and are required by law to take down a frequently updated list of banned keywords for varying lengths of time, including those related to calls for peaceful political action.


Internet giant Google Inc., which had operated in China for four years while cooperating with censorship requirements, made the controversial decision two years ago to cease censorship in the country and to move its Chinese-language Web search service to Hong Kong. The decision was the subject of much disagreement both in and outside the company, and even among Internet freedom advocates, with some believing censorship in any form was unethical, and others believing that being present, even if censored, in China would ultimately help make information flow more freely within the country.


Twitter has been blocked for more than two years in China by Web filtering technology. Some loyal users use circumvention tools to access the website, but most microblogging users in China now use Chinese services, including by Sina Corp. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. Some loyal users use circumvention tools to access the website, but most microblogging users in China now use Chinese services, including by Sina Corp. and Tencent Holdings Ltd.


These websites have grown quickly and collectively have hundreds of millions of user accounts, despite censoring content, and new regulations that require users to register for their services using real-names.These websites have grown quickly and collectively have hundreds of millions of user accounts, despite censoring content, and new regulations that require users to register for their services using real-names.


Though the new system likely wouldn't allow Twitter back into China, initial reaction was negative among those who use it there through proxy services. "If Twitter starts censoring, then I'll stop tweeting," tweeted Ai Weiwei, the outspoken Chinese dissident artist and frequent tweeter.


Twitter has been instrumental in helping people to organize revolutionary or political protests in countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, the U.K. and U.S.


Twitter, which has said it has more than 100 million active accounts around the world, is making a push to become an online-advertising giant like Google.
The San Francisco-based Twitter, created in 2006, currently has a handful of employees in the U.K. and Japan in addition to its more than 700 U.S. employees.


As it expands elsewhere, the company will have to comply with local law or its employees could potentially face prosecution or other legal action.


Twitter's general counsel, Alex Macgillivray, is a former Google lawyer who had a hand in crafting some of that company's censorship-related policies. He also has worked on ChillingEffects.org.


Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has stated that the company is "the free speech wing of the free speech party."
More than a year ago, Twitter publicly disclosed that the U.S. government had obtained a court order requiring it to hand over information about four accounts of Twitter users in connection with an investigation of WikiLeaks, the website that published secret and classified information.
Twitter disclosed the request so that the account holders could "fight the request," Mr. Costolo said last year.


Twitter said in its post, "One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user's voice. We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent when we can't."

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Wikipedia to shut down for 24 hours in piracy protest

Wikipedia will voluntarily shut down for 24 hours today in a protest against internet piracy laws in the United States and the English version the website will be inaccessible from 5.00 a.m. GMT (10.30 a.m. Sri Lanka time). 


According to media reports, a major target of the protest, SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act), has already been effectively halted by opposition from the White House, but Jimmy Wales, the cofounder of Wikipedia, said the blackout would go ahead anyway.


He estimated that 100 million English-speaking Wikipedia users will be affected by the blackout and warned students to “do your homework early”.

Instead of a database of more than 3.8 million articles, visitors will be greeted by an open letter encouraging them to contact Congress in protest. Courtesy: The Telegraph, UK

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