YouTube opens first video production studio in India

Stepping up its India focus, YouTube along with Subhash Ghai-owned film school Whistling Woods International, has opened its first video production studio in the country.

Called YouTube Spaces, it has similar collaborations in Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, New York City, Sao Paulo, Paris and Berlin. The company said that the “watch-time” of its content in India was growing at 80 per cent on a year-on-year basis while the content uploaded to India has grown by 90 per cent.

Through this collaboration, India’s popular up-and-coming YouTube creators, as well as their students, will have free access to Whistling Woods’ studios, high-end audio, visual and editing equipment, in addition to training programs, workshops and community events.

Lance Podell, Director, Global Head of YouTube Spaces, said, in addition to physical studio space that is available to students and creators, YouTube and Whistling Woods are developing original courses to train filmmakers, especially to create content for the digital and online media.

YouTube said that the viewership from mobile devices was growing much higher than desktop. “There is a 55 per cent watch-time from mobile devices,” he added.

“We see growth coming from not just metros but also tier II and III cities. The headroom for growth from India is huge as net connectivity improves,” said Ajay Vidyasagar, Regional Director, Youtube Partnerships, India and South East Asia.

Youtube, which has a billion in viewership, is seeing a huge surge in creator-based content. He said the company was also looking to step up the offline views.

Only one-third internet users create strong passwords: Survey

Netizens all are very particular about the safety of personal and financial assets, keeping them locked and in vaults. However, when it comes to online presence, not many pay a lot of attention to creating a secure password. One of the most common mistakes of netizens is the use of the same password or its variants for multiple accounts.

This was among the findings of a study conducted recently by cyber security giant Kaspersky Lab to test people's cyber savviness. The study found that only 38% users made the effort of creating strong and separate password for each of their accounts. Around 36% use just a few passwords for a larger number of accounts and 12% use variations of the same password pattern. Another mistake was in the form of storing passwords in easily accessible places.

"Passwords are the basic level of security for our virtual presence. Unfortunately, not many internet users understand the scale of cyber threats they face because of a weak password," said Altaf Halde, managing director South Asia of Kaspersky Lab. A strong password is the basic security requirement for anybody using the internet to share sensitive data, he added.

Microsoft, Karnataka chamber partner to help 2 lakh SMBs

Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) and Microsoft have partnered to help more than 2 lakh small medium businesses (SMBs) in Karnataka to adopt technology with cloud computing.

This initiative will not only open more avenues for SMBs but also help them connect better with their existing customers and reach out to the potential customers across India.

“Technology lies at the heart of any business and the right mix of IT adoption helps businesses accelerate their growth at a minimum cost. We are excited to partner with Microsoft to drive the next wave of growth for our member organizations,” said Tallam R Dwarakanath, President, FKCCI.

Meetul Patel, General Manager – SMS&P, Microsoft India, said, ”Amongst SMBs the primary workloads are productivity, Internet connectivity, mail and messaging, business applications, collaboration, cloud storage and cloud platform. With our association with FKCCI we are able to reach out to thousands of SMBs and democratize information technology for small businesses while providing enterprise-class solutions that level the IT playing field for them and offer superior value to SMBs. This will open new avenues for them while gaining access to new markets resulting in profitable growth.”

Zuckerberg Invests In A Better World

There is something undeniably unnatural in amassing wealth only to voluntarily give almost all of it away to strangers. The level of unnaturalness is only increased when the amount, worth 99% of the person's total shares in his own company , amounts to a neat pile of $45 billion. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced making such an act of charity in order to “leave the world a better place“ for his newly born daughter and “all children“. This is, in effect, taking the perfectly normal desire to use one's wealth to better the lives of one's loved ones to its logical extreme: using money to make the world in which they will grow up and live in a better place.

As a role model for 21st century entrepreneurship, Zuckerberg sends out a powerful message for other high net worth individuals to emu late. More cynical (and perhaps less wealthy) observers will cite Zuckerberg's act of redistributing his considerable wealth--as they do with other philan thropists such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates--to be yet another act of cannin ness to be associated with one of Silicon Valley's most success ful protagonists. They are right. But only to the extent that the Facebook founder is not doling out his money in a fit of com mune-istic `I'm tired of material things' zeal but to make mate rial comforts more widely accessible to people lacking them.

Sure, nothing makes for a better brand endorsement than the face of Facebook being `unnaturally' generous. But the end re sult is Zuckerberg's wealth reaching people who need what money can provide and that they lack. For this breaking away from the herd, his announcement is to be lauded. It is part of a grander plan with one pivotal idea behind it that both individ uals and states should heed: to share wealth, one must first create, and then keep creating, it.

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Nucleus Software launches digital cash solution

You may soon be able to withdraw money from your banking

 account sitting in the comfort of your living room.

This could happen without having to go out and search for an automated teller machine (ATM) to get the withdrawal done.

Nucleus Software - a leading provider of transaction banking solutions to the global financial services industry - on Wednesday launched “PaySe”, an offline smart digital solution that could potentially democratise money.

PaySe - which is a play on the phrase ‘pay securely’ and denotes ‘cash’ in hindi language - could also address the challenges faced by banks and microfinance institutions in making basic banking services accessible to the unbanked, Ashutosh Pande, Executive Vice President, Nucleus Software said.

“We are bringing in a technology that could help banks provide efficient services for financial inclusion”, said Pande, who is the Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, PaySe.

This solution comprises of three components - PaySe processing system (a platform that digitises cash); PalmATM (a bank teller application allowing smartphone to perform functions of an ATM including the ability to withdraw and deposit) and ‘Purse’ (a mobile device to carry digital money).

“PaySe has been developed to primarily address the requirements of citizens at the bottom of the pyramid. It does not mean the solution is only for those at the bottom of the pyramid. PaySe will revolutionise the way money is saved, carried and spent. Not only does it have the capability to facilitate online withdrawals and deposits, but also enables completely offline usage like cash”, Pande said.

This peer-to-peer digital solution has potential to revolutionise banking and is going to save money for individual users, save cost for banks and increase the velocity of money in the economy, he said.

“Just like democratisation of music was possible because of ability to rip music, the PaySe platform makes it possible to rip currency and make it digital”

The digital platform allows transaction history to be captured and allow banks to analyse data and provide loan products to unbanked.

As this is a peer-to-peer digital solution, there is also no levy of any fees. “When I make ₹ 100 payment to a merchant, he receives ₹ 100. That does not happen in the digital world till today. We have to face fancy words like merchant discount ratios, where card companies extract some money out before giving it to the merchant”, Pande noted.

PaySe comes across at different price points. While the consumer purse is being launched at ₹ 1,000, the merchant purse is being launched at ₹ 2,000.

Pande also said that all the mobile wallet providers can use the PaySe platform to provide offline solutions.

Plustek eScan A150 network scanner

The instructions are lacking, but persevere and the eScan A150 is a decent scanner with useful online features, ideal for digitising multi-page documents. There's some great third-party software thrown in too.

Pros: Compact, big screen with a good UI, can scan directly to major cloud services, includes Abbyy OCR software

Cons: Convoluted initial set-up, no Ethernet cable included, very light colours aren't detected

Specifications:

Maximum resolution: 600dpi
Automatic document feeder capacity: 50 sheets
Scanning speed: Up to 17ppm/34ppm
Scanning area: 13.2x13.2mm to 216x356mm
Paper size: 50.8x50.8mm to 244x356mm
Connectivity: WiFi, Ethernet, USB 2.0
Display: 7in IPS touchscreen at 1280x800
Processor: RK3188 Cortex A9 quad-core GPU at 1.6GHz
RAM: 1GB
Dimensions: 318x170x189mm
Weight: 2.8kg

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Ransomware - Malware

Ransomware is a type of malware that compromises computer systems, thereby restricting access to it or making files unusable until the user pays the demanded amount of money to the attacker or to the creator of the malware.

Ransomwares are capable of disrupting the operations of major enterprises or small businesses, as well as potentially wiping out individuals’ personal documents.

Latest Ransomware Threats:

The ransomware family has rapidly grown with many new players such as Cryptowall, TeslaCrypt, LinuxEncoder creating havoc in Indian geographic region by gaining control of critical computer systems until a ransom is paid. Predominantly targeted towards gamers, the latest version of these malwares are now effectively being used to target Indian businesses & individuals.

When a victim visits a compromised website or downloads untrusted email attachments, the virus uses vulnerabilities in the browser (usually in plugins) or unpatched software’s/operating system to install Ransomware in the system & encrypts the victim’s files rendering them inaccessible.

It also displays warning indicating that the computer’s files have been encrypted & a set of detailed instructions on ransom payment modes to recover the files. However, there is no guarantee that the victims can recover the files even after making the payment.

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