Snubbed by Facebook, hacker who exposed bug to get reward from unexpected source

A man who hacked Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook page to expose a software bug is getting donations from hackers around the world after the company declined to pay him under a program that normally rewards people who report flaws.

Khalil Shreateh discovered and reported the flaw but was initially dismissed by the company's security team. He then posted a message on the billionaire's wall to prove the bug's existence.

Now, Marc Maiffret, chief technology officer of cyber-security firm BeyondTrust, is trying to mobilize fellow hackers to raise a $10,000 reward for Shreateh after Facebook refused to compensate him.

Maiffret, a high school dropout and self-taught hacker, said on Tuesday he has raised about $9,000 so far, including the $2,000 he initially contributed.

He and other hackers say Facebook unfairly denied Shreateh, a Palestinian, a payment under its "Bug Bounty" program. It doles out at least $500 to individuals who bring software bugs to the company's attention.

"He is sitting there in Palestine doing this research on a five-year-old laptop that looks like it is half broken," Maiffret said. "It's something that might help him out in a big way."

Shreateh uncovered the flaw on the company's website that allows members to post messages on the wall of any other user, including Zuckerberg's. He tried to submit the bug for review but the website's security team did not accept his report.

He then posted a message to Zuckerberg himself on the chief executive officer's private account, saying he was having trouble getting his team's attention.

"Sorry for breaking your privacy," Shreateh said in the post.

The bug was quickly fixed and Facebook issued an apology on Monday for having been "too hasty and dismissive" with Shreateh's report. But it has not paid him a bounty.

"We will not change our practice of refusing to pay rewards to researchers who have tested vulnerabilities against real users," Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan said in a blogpost.

He said Facebook has paid out more than $1 million under that program to researchers who followed its rules.

Read More

Corporates cutting jobs to save costs

Faced with a tough economic scenario, corporates are cutting jobs and rationalising manpower to save on costs and the situation is likely to get worse in coming days, according to an Assocham study.

“Alongwith the increasing number of corporates rushing to banks for debt restructuring, scores of them are also being forced to go in for manpower rationalising, reducing the headcount to save costs which they are unable to bear in the face of a difficult economic environment,” according to the Assocham report on on Impact of Slowdown on Employment.

The sad part is the situation is likely to become worse, rather than improve, in the weeks to come and the pain would only increase, it said.

The companies resorting to rationalisation of manpower belong to sectors like infrastructure, gems and jewellery, educational solutions, realty, non-banking finance companies, especially in the gold-loan segment, media and public relations.

“More and more companies are approaching the consulting firms seeking solutions to cut costs so that they can weather the difficult economic environment vitiated by adverse global situation, pressure on currency, sinking stock market, high interest rates, inflation and limited elbow available with the government to bail out the troubled industry,” it said.

The report further pointed out that if the situation does not improve in the near future, the negative fallout would be felt on those sectors as well which are driven by job markets like consumer goods, white goods, electronic gadgets and passenger cars.

Moreover, eroding consumer confidence would also affect tourism and its constituents like hotels, restaurants and tour operating. The aviation sector would also face tougher times, the report suggests.

However, the sectors which are still doing well include agri-related companies in implements, tractors, fertiliser, seeds, extension services and the rural product focussed FMCG.

Current Account Deficit, which indicates imports of goods services and transfer are higher than their exports, touched 4.8 per cent (or USD 88.2 billion) of country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2012-13 period.

Meanwhile, after heavy battering, the rupee, stocks and bonds today showed some signs of a fightback with RBI intervening in the market with massive selling of dollars as the domestic currency breached the 64-mark today.

Also for the first time ever, the rupee slipped below the 100-mark against the British pound today.

Read More

‘Mythology does shape management of organisations’

Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik, Chief Belief Officer, Future Group 

How mythology can shape the management in organisations?

Mythology does shape the management of organisations. Currently, the management lessons taught in B-schools are based on Biblical mythology (hence target and task orientation are on lines with ‘Promised Land and Commandments’) and the celebration of Business Leaders are ‘heroes’ in line with Greek mythology where meaning is granted by achievement. The veneer is rational but the soul remains mythical. It does not take the Indian mythology into consideration which focuses on subjectivity and consequences of actions.

How will you describe your role as the ‘Chief Belief Officer’ at the Future Group?

My role as the ‘Chief Belief Officer’ is to get people to break the frontiers of their thoughts and become aware of other beliefs and better appreciate their own.

What are your derivates from epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata which can be applied to modern-day businesses, especially with respect to HR?

Ramayan and Mahabharat are not parables – they have no lessons. They are not prescriptions, they are reflections. We can derive frameworks from them that facilitate our decision-making process and make us more aware of the consequences of our actions. They reveal the extent to which people can go in order to validate themselves in an organisation. It explains how that can be the root cause of conflict and instability in organisations.

Do you think Gen-Y is ready to connect belief to business? How do you make them relate to this?

Gen-Y already has beliefs of its own. Are they aware of it? Is it good enough to take them to a happy zone? We confuse mythology with religion or something supernatural. Mythology is a study of human assumptions that shapes our actions and society at large. Our assumption today is that technology will solve all of life’s problems. This assumption is neither right nor wrong; but it has consequences. Our assumption today is that wealth generation brings happiness. This assumption is also neither right nor wrong; but it also has consequences. Our assumption is we can predict consequences of our actions. Even this assumption is neither right nor wrong; but it has consequences.

How does your approach improve the quality of talent in your organisation? And, how does it affect leadership?

Do you believe understanding assumptions of leaders/consumers/investors/employees is important to business? If yes, then, understanding of beliefs/myths is critical. If not, then it is not important. I do not believe in evangelising the value of mythology; the demand comes because people realise its value, not because like in the American model (that is embedded in your question), we sell its value.

According to you, what would be the long-term effect of this approach? 

No one can predict consequences of any action. But yes, it has the possibility of expanding our mind, making us wiser, which will benefit both society and industry.

Read More

Tips to get flatter stomach revealed

Tips to get flatter stomach revealed 

Getting rid of belly fat is simpler than you might have thought.

With the right plan, it's actually easier to lose that stubborn lower-body fat or the seemingly impossible to tone back-of-the-arm flab.

Stick to a healthy diet and exercise guidelines, and you'll be slimmer and healthier by summer.

Obviously, you want to keep your calories in a healthy range and avoid meals that are high in saturated fat.

But research has also shown that eating more of certain foods can help you burn excess visceral fat and pave the way to a smaller middle, theHuffington Post reported.

In addition to helping maintain heart health and keep inflammation levels under control, monounsaturated fatty acids, or MUFAs, may stop belly fat before it starts.

Research in the journal Diabetes Care found that people who got roughly 25 percent of their total daily calories from MUFAs gained no visceral fat over the course of the study, while those who ate less MUFAs and more carbs added fat to their midsections.

MUFA-rich food is olive oil, as you can use it in so many meals, but avocados and nuts are other excellent sources.

Pine nuts are particularly great because they also contain high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids.

These acids increase levels of two hormones that signal your brain when you're full.

Try snacking on one ounce of pine nuts (about the amount you can fit in a shot glass) 20 minutes before mealtime to avoid overeating.

People with chronically high levels of the stress hormone cortisol tend to carry excess visceral fat.

Foods that are high on the glycemic index (GI), which uses a ranking system of 0 to 100, cause more rapid spikes in your blood sugar, in turn triggering the release of cortisol when glucose levels crash.

The constant up and down of your blood sugar levels can also lead to insulin resistance -- the first step on the road to type 2 diabetes. To help keep cortisol levels stable, choose low-GI foods (with a rating of 55 or less) like beans, lentils, and chickpeas, instead of high-GI options like white rice and potatoes.

A 2012 study in the Journal of Functional Foods found that people who drank one and a half cups of green tea enriched with a total of 609 milligrams of catechins (a group of antioxidants that have been shown to help burn fat cells) every day for 12 weeks lost almost 16 times as much visceral fat as those who consumed green tea without the added antioxidants.

To achieve similar results with store-bought green tea, you'll need to brew two to four cups daily (many varieties can contain 160 to 470 milligrams of catechins per cup).

When your body is low on calcium, dairy products produces a hormone that signals the body to store visceral fat.

Meeting your recommended daily calcium needs (that's 1,000 milligrams for adults) can help reduce levels of this hormone.

And a recent study published in Obesity Research found that calcium from dairy has a stronger effect than calcium from other sources.

It is recommended you eat low-fat Greek yogurt as a daily snack (just six ounces contain about 20 percent of your recommended dietary allowance for calcium), though any low-fat dairy will do
.

Read More

IT co IPsoft to replace humans with machines

IPsoft, which relies on artificial intelligence to manage computer networks, is ready to disrupt the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

BANGALORE: IPsoft, which relies on artificial intelligence to manage computer networks, is ready to disrupt the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry by using what it calls "cognitive technology" that enables machines to do the work of humans, the India-born founder of the New York-based company said.

"By Christmas you will see it in action in one of the largest media companies," founder and chief executive officer Chetan Dube told ET in an exclusive interview. IPsoft's cognitive technology assimilates information just like the human brain and processes it with reliability of computers to solve problems, he said. A global investment bank and a large media company will be among the first users of the cutting-edge technology, Dube said, but declined to identify the customers.

Going beyond call centres
Earlier this year, Infosys tied up with IPsoft to use the latter's technology to provide IT infrastructure management solutions to its global customers. Its autonomic artificial intelligence engine picks trends by analysing hundreds of pieces of information all at once to diagnose and solve problems on computer networks with minimal human intervention.

IPsoft expects cognitive technology-based solutions, which it is introducing soon, to go well beyond basic call centre jobs to include other services such as disease diagnosis or even medicine prescription, typically the domain of trained practitioners with specialised knowledge.

"If you think autonomics has changed the world, wait till you see cognitive technologies," Dube, 44, said. "It is not going to be just great; it is going to be a phenomenon." IPsoft was founded in 1998 by Dube, a former associate professor of mathematics at New York University. The company tops $700 million (Rs 4,500 crore) in sales, and counts Morgan Stanley and BT among its clients.

Its India head-office is in Bangalore, where it employs 800 staff and is in the process of opening a second campus. Dube, a computer science graduate from IIT-Delhi, has been arguing that the era of outsourcing simple manual tasks to low-wage countries is nearing an end and will be replaced by intelligent, selflearning machines doing the same job at a fraction of the cost.

IPsoft, he said, is at the forefront of such a "creative destruction" that will transform the "bloated"IT industry. Nearly two-thirds of all problems on computer networks are being solved by IPsoft with no human intervention at all, Dube said, resulting in cost savings of at least 30%. In the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, corporations in the US and Europe have been looking for ways to reduce costs and such technologies have been driving greater outsourcing in infrastructure management business, making it one of the fastest-growing services lines for the industry.

Dube said the company does not require capital for its current needs, but it is considering the possibility of going public. Ernst & Young is advising it on a potential IPO that, if it happens, will take place within 24 months. The intent of going public would be to help the company expand and invest more in research to be able to bring about more innovative technologies, the CEO said. "Now we don't have to report quarter by quarter; we can chase the 15-year dream.
"

Read More

Mozilla Firefox 23 brings social sharing button, mixed content blocker and network monitor

Mozilla has rolled out Firefox 23, the new iteration of its web browser for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

The new version of the browser is now available through the Firefox.com website. Existing desktop users will also be able to get the update through the browser.

The browser now sports a new logo and features a share button that lets users share a web page through a browser based dialog box, without the need to go to another web page. The sharing feature is enabled for Facebook. This is similar to Safari's sharing features, though it supports multiple services. The Firefox feature is based on Mozilla's Social API that makes it easier for web browsers to integrate with social media services. 

The update also brings a Mixed Content Blocker. According to Mozilla, when secure HTTPS pages load additional content insecurely over HTTP (also known as Mixed Content), users are vulnerable to man-in-the-middle and eavesdropping attacks. The Mixed Content Blocker blocks insecure active content by default, protecting users from these attacks. Firefox automatically blocks mixed content and displays a shield icon in the address bar.

Firefox 23 also ships with a Network Monitor tool that allows users to track how long it takes for individual components of a webpage to load.

Change Log for Firefox 22 for Windows, Mac and Linux:
- NEW: Mixed content blocking enabled to protects users from man-in-the-middle attacks and eavesdroppers on HTTPS pages 
- NEW: Options panel created for Web Developer Toolbox
- CHANGED: "Enable JavaScript" preference checkbox has been removed and user-set values will be reset to the default
- CHANGED: Updated Firefox Logo
- CHANGED: Improved about:memory's functional UI
- CHANGED: Simplified interface for notifications of plugin installation
- CHANGED: Enabled DXVA2 on Windows Vista+ to accelerate H.264 video decoding
- CHANGED: Users can now switch to a new search provider across the entire browser
- CHANGED: CSP policies using the standard syntax and semantics will now be enforced
- CHANGED: <input type='file'> rendering improvements 
- CHANGED: Replace fixed-ratio audio resampler in webrtc.org capture code with Speex resampler and eliminate pseudo-44000Hz rate
- CHANGED: "Load images automatically" and Always show the tab bar" checkboxes removed from preferences and reset to defaults
- DEVELOPER: HTML5 <input type="range"> form control implemented
- DEVELOPER: Write more accessible pages on touch interfaces with new ARIA role for key buttons
- DEVELOPER: Social share functionality
- DEVELOPER: Added unprefixed requestAnimationFrame
- DEVELOPER: Implemented a global browser console
- DEVELOPER: Dropped blink effect from text-decoration: blink; and completely removed <blink> element
- DEVELOPER: New feature in toolbox: Network Monitor
- FIXED: Various security fixes

Read More

Yahoo to unveil a new logo in September

Internet major Yahoo has announced that it will introduce a new logo next month as part of the company's renewed sense of purpose and progress.

Talking about the change on a Tumblr blog post, Kathy Savitt, Yahoo's Chief Marketing Officer said that "the new logo will be a modern redesign that's more reflective of the company's re-imagined design and new experiences."

To kickstart the process, the company has started a new '30 days of change' campaign. Starting Wednesday, Yahoo will display a variation of its logo on its homepage and across its network of websites in the US till the next month. It will publish the logo on its Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook pages, as well.

"The new logo will be a modern redesign that's more reflective of our re-imagined design and new experiences. To get everyone warmed up, we are kicking off 30 days of change. Beginning now, we will display a variation of the logo on our homepage and throughout our network in the U.S. for the next month. It's our way of having some fun while honouring the legacy of our present logo," said Savitt.

The company clarified that the new logo will retain the present logo's iconic exclamation mark and purple colour

"We also want to preserve the character that is unique to Yahoo! -- fun, vibrant, and welcoming -- so we'll be keeping the colour purple, our iconic exclamation point and of course the famous yodel. After all, some things never go out of style," Savitt added.

Yahoo's official new logo will be unveiled on September 4th at 9pm Pacific Time (US).

After Marissa Mayer's taking over as CEO in July 2012, Yahoo has been trying to transform itself into a modern Internet and mobile company. It has been on a buying spree acquiring biggies like Tumblrand has launched revamped versions of its mobile apps and its online image sharing service, Flickr.
 

Read More

Facebook adds Story Bumping in a bid to freshen up your News Feed

Facebook's quest to be a personalized newspaper for the Internet age continued on Tuesday with tweaks aimed at making sure members spy hot stories from their friends.

Changes to the leading social network's formula for figuring out which posts will be of interest included "bumping" up potentially intriguing stories that went unnoticed during prior visits to Facebook.

"It is hard for users to get back to old things; you have to scroll through things you have already seen," Facebook news feed team engineering Lars Backstrom said while discussing the latest changes.

"We wanted to make it so people weren't missing important stories that didn't make top slots but were just below the fold."

Signals weighed in the machine learning algorithm were modified to bump-up a story considered more interesting than fresher material that formerly got priority simply for being newer.

"We tweaked the model," Backstrom said, noting that about 30,000 signals are balanced in the algorithm.

"Instead of just taking the new stories, we would take all stories that were new to you, that you haven't seen, even if it isn't the freshest."

A test of the change showed that the number of stories people read in news feeds rose to 70 percent from 57 percent with "bumping," according to Facebook.

"Story Bumping is going to be a really nice tool for people if they are sitting with a Facebook account and have run out of things to look at," said Facebook vice president of product Chris Cox. "It will bump up new stuff."

News feeds were also modified to take into account the "last actor" a member interacted with and then give that friend's posts temporary priority since they seem to be up to something interesting.

"We wanted to capture your current state of mind as you were using Facebook," Backstrom said.

"A lot of signals are long term, such as the relationship with each friend; we wanted a real time factor."

Facebook's ranking software assigns numerical scores to the roughly 1,500 stories typically eligible for delivery to a member's news feed and displays the top 300.

Powerful factors for ranking are relationships, along with how often a member comments, shares, "likes," or otherwise acts on posts of friends. Hiding posts sinks content from that person in news feed rankings.

"Our goal is to create the best personalized newspaper for each of our readers," Backstrom said.

Facebook engineers are experimenting with ways for News Feeds to better handle chronological posts, such as a friend firing off play-by-play updates from a sporting event.

Backstrom's team meets each Tuesday to brainstorm ways to improve the Facebook news feed, with worthwhile ideas tested internally among workers or with a tiny fraction of the social network's more than one billion members.

"It starts with intuition and then that gets written into code as a feature," said Cox. "Then we look at interactions."

Ads displayed as promoted posts in news feeds are handled separately from content generated by people's friends or family members at Facebook, according to the ranking team.

"We figure out the most relevant news feed with the organic content, and then, as a newspaper or television program might do, we create advertising slots," said Facebook product manager Will Cathcart.

Backstrom compared the job of ranking news feed posts to the challenge faced by Internet search engines Google or Bing when it comes to quickly determining optimal results for queries.

"Facebook is one of the only places where you have a problem on the same scale as what Google or Bing is doing but you have to use different techniques because of the personal aspects of it," Backstrom said.

Read More

Twitter introduces app-based two-factor authentication

Twitter has now introduced a new way to authenticate logins while using the service's two-factor authentication feature. It now allows users to enrol in two-factor authentication and verify login requests through its iOS and Android mobile apps.

The social networking service had rolled out two-factor authentication in May, allowing users to opt for secondary verification through their verified mobile phone numbers. Users could choose to get a verification code on their mobile phones and verify the same while logging-in on Twitter's website. However, it was limited to select mobile carriers (for instance, only Airtel, Reliance and Tata Docomo were supported in India).

Following the rollout of app-based verification, users will now be able to verify their logins through the mobile app, without the need for receiving an SMS from Twitter. This means that anyone with access to the apps will be able to use Twitter's two-factor authentication for increased security. They'll also be able to opt for two-factor authentication while logging in, through the mobile apps. 

To enable the feature, users will need to tap on the Me tab in the Twitter app, open Settings and then tap on Security (Android users will need to tap on their Twitter username before they can select Security). You can then enable Login Verification from the screen. The app will then generate a backup code which you can note down at a safe place. This code can be used to login when you don't have your phone with you.

Following the process, you'll get a push pontification on you phone which will have the option to approve the login request. Tapping on the checkmark will automatically log you in. Even if you don't receive a notification, you can simply go to the app's Security settings and tap on 'Login requests' for approving them.

Interestingly, when a login request is made, you will see details related to the browser details and approximate location of the login attempt in the app.

The move increases the security of Twitter accounts, especially for users who access the service through public computers. It also decreases Twitter's dependence on telecom carriers and covers a larger number of users.

In addition to the security feature, Twitter has also added a couple of new features to its iOS and Android apps.

The service is introducing some new Search features including 'social context' that displays connections to other users when users search for a related term and a new photo gallery in search that displays a rich gallery-like interface when they search for pictures. On the iOS app the gallery would appear with user profiles allowing users to see all photos posted by a user/ account in one place.

The app also introduces list management making it easier to create, edit and organise lists and subscriptions. This feature was offered by third party apps like Tweetbot but was not part of the official Twitter app.

Read More

LG G2 with 5.2-inch full-HD display, 2.26GHz Snapdragon 800 processor unveiled

LG has announced the launch of its brand-new flagship device, the LG G2.

LG G2 comes with a 5.2-inch full-HD (1080x1920) display impressive 423 pixels-per-inch (PPI). It is powered by Qualcomm's quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor capable of speeds up to 2.26GHz. The device comes with 2GB RAM and offers 16GB and 32GB storage options.

The LG G2 comes with a 13.0-megapixel rear camera with Optical Image Stabilisation and a 2.1-megapixel front shooter. LG's latest flagship runs Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2 and is powered by a 3,000mAh battery. LG G2 sports dimensions 138.5 x 70.9 x 8.9mm and will be available in Black and White colour options.

The LG G2 will be rolled out in over 130 wireless carriers in the next eight weeks starting in South Korea followed by North America, Europe and other key markets.

LG G2 coms with a unique design that features the power buttons and the volume rocker at the back of the phone, below the rear camera, instead of the sides of the phone, as is usually the case. LG believes this will work better on a large phone like the G2. It also comes with bezels as thin as 2.65mm.

Commenting on the launch of the G2, Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of the LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company, said, "Our definition of innovation today is technology that truly resonates with consumers. We have always listened to and learned from consumers in pursuit of innovation. We took these insights to new heights in developing LG G2, the most exciting and ambitious mobile phone in our company's history."

LG G2 also comes with some software features like Answer Me, Plug & Pop, Text Link, Slide Aside, and a Guest Mode. Answer Me automatically answers the call after lowering the ringtone when the phone is raised to one's ear. Plug & Pop recommends options or related features to choose from when the earphone or USB cable is detected. Text Link allows information embedded in text messages to be selected and easily saved in a memo or calendar and searched on a map or the Internet.

Slide Aside enables easier multi-tasking by simply "sliding" open apps off to the side using a three-finger swipe. Guest Mode is designed to protects owner's privacy by displaying only pre-selected apps when guests access the phone with a secondary unlock pattern.

Also included is QuickRemote that can remotely control popular home entertainment devices, and also learn from conventional remotes and be customised to operate multiple devices with flexible layouts and keys.

LG G2 key specifications

• 5.2-inch full-HD display
• 2.26GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor
• 2GB RAM
• 16GB/ 32GB internal storage
• 13.0-megapixel rear camera
• 2.1-megapixel front camera
• Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
• 138.5 x 70.9 x 8.9mm
• 3,000mAh battery

Read More

WhatsApp claims 20 million active users in India, 300 million worldwide; launches push-to-talk feature

WhatsApp, the popular mobile instant messaging service now claims to have 20 million million monthly active users in India, part of its worldwide active user base of 300 million. It is also rolling out push-to-talk voice messaging allowing users to send and receive voice messages in real time, with the ability to play them within the app and without any limits for duration. 

The mobile focused messaging company told AllThingsD that its user base has crossed the 20 million mark in countries such as India, Germany, Mexico and Spain, and that users send 11 billion messages and receive 20 billion messages per day. WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum also told the publication that 325 million photos are shared every day on WhatsApp.

WhatsApp is now introducing push-to-talk voice messaging in the app on all mobile platforms including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Nokia (Series 40 and Symbian). While WhatsApp used to let users send audio messages of limited duration (2 minutes on the iPhone app) as an attachment, it involved a number of steps including recording the message and sending it, and messages played through the default audio player. However, with push-to-talk, everything happens with a single tap. Users just need to hold a microphone button, located next to the compose box, to record their message and release it to send the message. In case the user decides not to send it, simply swipe to the left and delete it. 

Unlike the audio notes feature, there's no duration limit for the voice message, and the message is automatically played through the earpiece if a user holds the phone close to his/ her ear, to emulate the experience of a walkie talkie. Just like the two checkmarks that denote a delivered message, a blue microphone indicates if a message has been played.

The feature will be gradually rolled out to all users within 24 hours, as per WhatsApp.

WhatsApp's competitors like Voxer and WeChat also offer similar voice chat features.

Read More

 ‘As automakers strive to sustain a new era of growth, they must ensure that their talent can grow with them’

Shvetal Vakil, Executive Director, Setco Automotive

Staff retention and recruitment in India’s automotive industry is a challenge. How is Setco managing this crunch?

The auto industry and in turn the auto component industry have been passing through rough times recently. This again has taken its own toll as far as HR is concerned. While demand for skilled technical personnel is on the rise, profile is changing. Techniques required for retaining professionals is different and it is important that the industry focuses on that aspect.

Work environment needs to be more conducive and focus needs to be on innovative employee engagement programmes in order to keep them motivated. Needless to state, compensation is a very important component and needs to be well structured in a manner to retain people. Constant up gradation of skills too is important.

Employees can also be assisted by offering education for their children, especially to those employees coming from smaller towns and cities.

The concept of ESOPS in not so well practiced in the auto component industry and even amongst multi-nationals and large corporates, it is limited to the leadership team. However, if developed properly, this can be the key towards sustainable growth and employee retention.

Since this industry will be dominated by young talent in years to come, what strategies are companies working on to motivate this particular group?

Young talent, today, is innovative, business and tech savvy, quick on the uptake with an instinctive ability to network. They possess unbridled ambition, high expectation and aim at speedy career growth. This applies to both blue and white collar workers. The challenge today is how to lead them towards high motivation, ownership and commitment to the organisation.

It’s therefore important to recruit talent from prominent institutions and put them through the rigours of training and placement in jobs which are apt, keeping their skill sets in mind. We allow young talent to rotate within their jobs and the good performers are put through fast track of growth. There are other employee engagement activities that keep employees motivated in a sustained manner.

What has been the demand for talent in this industry during the first half of 2013? What does the future look like in terms of talent acquisition?

The country’s automotive sector, which currently employs about 13 million people, is projected to have a workforce of 25 million people within next few years, effectively doubling the total number of professionals it engages. However, talent acquisition and demand for skilled talent will always depend on how well the economy and the respective sector are doing. The auto industry has been facing a severe downturn in the past few months and hiring across the industry has dropped drastically. Various measures are being taken to retain current employees.

We see today’s slow-down as an opportunity to recruit promising talent and nurture them in a manner so that they are ready to start contributing when the company needs them.

What are the different roles/functions mostly in demand in automotive industry?

With advancement in technology the world over and global players entering into India, every auto component company has to focus on innovation, quality and cost. This clearly drives the industry to constantly identify talent and recruit them in areas of engineering excellence and enhancing quality at the global cost structure. While the industry cannot undermine the role played by procurement or marketing functions, technical continues to be the key focus area right across the industry.

What are the skill gaps? What are the solutions to plug this gap?

The automotive industry is fast evolving. New technologies and operations require new competencies, as well as experience with autonomous problem solving and decision making.

Creating a workforce with these new capabilities requires more effective human capital strategies and approaches. Better workforce planning is essential, as is a more innovative approach to job design. The ability to give existing workers new skill sets must go hand in hand with better recruiting. As automakers strive to sustain a new era of growth, they must ensure that their talent can grow with them. Our focus is more skewed towards softer skills and we recruit employees with relevant functional skills.  However, from time to time, we do put our employees through refresher programmes to acquire and bridge skill gaps.

Is ‘people management’ a challenge in automotive industry?

People management is an important challenge for the company such as ours, keeping in mind concentration of employees in a geography which is industrially backward. Key focus is to identify talent at campus level, put them through the rigours of training in different parts of the company so that due appreciation is received on various facets of business. Once we cross the hurdle of recruitment, focus shifts to skill building and talent enhancement.

Read More

4 things never to share with your boyfriend

Things not to share with your boyfriend 

When it comes to relationships, there are always certain boundaries that you must have. 

They not only help strengthen your relationship but it also ensures that you have some things only to yourself. Here are a couple of things that you should never share with your partner.

Your girlfriend secrets 
This is one of the things that you MUST NEVER share with your boyfriend. Your friends confide in you and expect you to keep that confidence. After all, they do the same for you right? So try and keep their trust intact. Apart from this, guys generally do not understand the kind of talks girls do, so it's best you keep him at bay.

Your password
This is a big NO NO when it comes to sharing something with your boyfriend. Even though you might trust him a lot and also love him beyond words, but there are certain things like passwords that you should never share.

Your dislike for his family 
It is best you keep this secret to yourself and not let this one out either to him or your friends. There will always be some who cannot get along well with their boyfriend's mother or sister. You need not tell him this. Not only will it make him sad but it might also ruin your relationship.

Your past....in detail 
Well even if you've mentioned about your ex boyfriend to your current one, make sure you do not give out too many details to him. Keep this a secret. It does not mean that you are cheating on him. It just shows that you do not want unnecessary trouble
.

Read More

Facebook changes your News Feed again

Facebook will be "bumping" up potentially intriguing stories that went unnoticed during prior visits.

MENLO PARK: Facebook's quest to be a personalized newspaper for the internet age continued on Tuesday with tweaks aimed at making sure members spy hot stories from their friends.

Changes to the leading social network's formula for figuring out which posts will be of interest included "bumping" up potentially intriguing stories that went unnoticed during prior visits to Facebook.

"It is hard for users to get back to old things; you have to scroll through things you have already seen," Facebook News Feed team engineeringLars Backstrom said while discussing the latest changes.

"We wanted to make it so people weren't missing important stories that didn't make top slots but were just below the fold."

Signals weighed in the machine learning algorithm were modified to bump-up a story considered more interesting than fresher material that formerly got priority simply for being newer.

"We tweaked the model," Backstrom said, noting that about 30,000 signals are balanced in the algorithm.

"Instead of just taking the new stories, we would take all stories that were new to you, that you haven't seen, even if it isn't the freshest."

A test of the change showed that the number of stories people read in News Feeds rose to 70% from 57% with "bumping," according to Facebook.

"Story Bumping is going to be a really nice tool for people if they... are sitting with a Facebookaccount and have run out of things to look at," said Facebook vice president of product Chris Cox. "It will bump up new stuff."

News Feeds were also modified to take into account the "last actor" a member interacted with and then give that friend's posts temporary priority since they seem to be up to something interesting.

"We wanted to capture your current state of mind as you were using Facebook," Backstrom said.

"A lot of signals are long term, such as the relationship with each friend; we wanted a real time factor."

Facebook's ranking software assigns numerical scores to the roughly 1,500 stories typically eligible for delivery to a member's News Feed and displays the top 300.

Powerful factors for ranking are relationships, along with how often a member comments, shares, "likes," or otherwise acts on posts of friends. Hiding posts sinks content from that person in News Feed rankings.

"Our goal is to create the best personalized newspaper for each of our readers," Backstrom said.

Facebook engineers are experimenting with ways for News Feeds to better handle chronological posts, such as a friend firing off play-by-play updates from a sporting event.

Backstrom's team meets each Tuesday to brainstorm ways to improve the Facebook News Feed, with worthwhile ideas tested internally among workers or with a tiny fraction of the social network's more than one billion members.

"It starts with intuition and then that gets written into code as a feature," said Cox. "Then we look at interactions."

Ads displayed as promoted posts in News Feeds are handled separately from content generated by people's friends or family members at Facebook, according to the ranking team.

"We figure out the most relevant News Feed with the organic content, and then, as a newspaper or television programme might do, we create advertising slots," said Facebook product manager Will Cathcart.

Backstrom compared the job of ranking News Feed posts to the challenge faced by internet search engines Google or Bing when it comes to quickly determining optimal results for queries.

"Facebook is one of the only places where you have a problem on the same scale as what Google or Bing is doing but you have to use different techniques because of the personal aspects of it," Backstrom said
.

Read More