Wednesday, June 16, 2004

Dust Storm in Afghanistan   Large images: True color (1.8 Mb JPEG) Surface temperature (1.6 Mb JPEG) A heavy curtain of dust lay over southern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan on June 14, 2004. The dust appears to be blowing out of the Sistan basin, which is on the Afghan-Iranian border. The Sistan basin is a vast complex of lakes and marshes fed by small streams and rivers flowing primarily from the mountainous highlands of Afghanistan. With the exception of three shallow freshwater lakes, only one of which is visible in the true-color image as a dark depression near the origin of the storm (top left), the wetlands dry completely during the dry season, leaving deposits of alluvial silt, which is easily lifted on the wind. In this Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image, the dust is masking the arid deserts of Afghanistan and Pakistan and is sweeping around the Chagai Hills, the dark land in the center of the storm. The crescent of the Siahan Mountain Range in Pakistan is preventing the dust from blowing further south. Once airborne, the dust cools considerably, which makes it stand out in this surface temperature image. Here, the dust is as much as 40 degrees Celsius cooler than the hottest regions on the ground. The land temperature in this image reaches up to 57 degrees C (135 degrees F) in pockets where the land is darker, and therefore, absorbs more sunlight. Patches of clouds also show up as extremely cold blue regions in the temperature image. Though the dust is easy to see in this image, surface temperature images can make dust storms easier to spot when the dust is the same color as the ground. Both the true-color and the surface temperature images are available in multiple resolutions. Both images were captured by the MODIS instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite on June 14, 2004. Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres and Ana Pinheiro, MODIS Rapid Response Team Credit: NASA GSFC, MODIS 7:46:17 PM    comment []

CC West Coast faces mass defection Clifford Chance is facing an unfolding crisis within its West Coast practice as it emerges that a group of partners is in talks to jump ship to Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe. Sources state that talks are ongoing at the moment about a group of nine securities litigation partners, all formerly from collapsed firm Brobeck Phleger & Harrison and from Clifford Chance’s San Francisco office, moving to Orrick. Although it is understood that the group has also had talks with other firms. One source said: “Nothing is finalised but things are moving pretty quickly.” Over the past month, four partners have already left the magic circle’s West Coast practice, with three going to Fenwick & West and one partner joining Cooley Godward. Tower Snow, who originally led the former Brobeck securities litigation team to Clifford Chance two years ago, is not thought to be joining Orrick, a firm he has already practised at some years ago. A spokesman at Clifford Chance said: "We never comment on rumour and speculation." 7:34:20 PM    comment []

India's outsourcing industry may go off the rails June 9, 2004 Bangalore - High labour attrition, poor infrastructure and lack of data protection laws could derail India's booming outsourcing industry, the CEO of Indian software giant Infosys Technologies said Wednesday. Nandan Nilekani, chief executive officer of Infosys Technologies, India's second-biggest software exporter, said business process outsourcing (BPO) was based on reputation and urged the industry to deliver quality work. "Every year, about 70 000 jobs are added and the main challenge is how to attract people," he told delegates at a conference held by NASSCOM, India's leading information technology body, in the southern city of Bangalore. "The challenge is also how to retain the pool. It's a collective challenge. We require a holistic approach to expand the pool and train people. The question here is how to retain the manpower to deliver quality and value." Analysts say outsourcing labour attrition rates vary between 20 and 40 percent in some companies while at top firms it averages at least 15 percent. The National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) said in a recent report the outsourcing industry was expected to face a shortage of 262 000 professionals by 2012. The looming shortage, even in the short-term, poses a significant challenge for the nascent industry where foreign firms have outsourced jobs ranging from payroll processing to air ticketing, it said. "We're in a situation where customer expectations are going up and we have to invest in people to make this industry successful," Nilekani said. Noshir Kaka, Partner, Mackinsey and Company, said the Indian outsourcing industry faced a tough challenge in attracting quality manpower and a "public-private partnership" was the only solution. "India churns out two million graduates (annually) and only five percent of them are employable by the call centre industry. Of the rest, 15 to 20 percent are trainable and recruitable and 80 percent are not even trainable. "This industry is going to run out of steam if that 15 percent to 20 percent trainable people is not unlocked soon, at the latest by 2007," he said. Nilekani, whose firm has an outsourcing arm in India's high-tech hub of Bangalore employing over 1 500 people, said the industry also needed to create an atmosphere in which foreign firms were confident privacy would be respected. "For mission critical applications there's a need for data privacy and intellectual protection laws. It's a big thing ... companies internally have to adhere to this (privacy) and a legal framework must be in place," he said. Arun Seth, managing director of British telecommunications firm BT Worldwide Ltd, said high wages were also eroding competitiveness of outsourcing firms. "Other countries are catching up and we can't be complacent. One has to look at areas such as telecommmunications, where presently costs are high and try to bring down costs to make up for high salaries," Seth said. The flow of jobs into India from the United States and Europe has led to an outcry from western workers but analysts say the cost savings from outsourcing still make it a good bet for foreign firms. Outsourcing contributed 29 percent to India's total software exports and posted revenue growth of 46 percent to 3.6 billion dollars in the fiscal year to March 2004, according to NASSCOM. Revenues are forecast to grow about 40 percent in this financial year to $5.1 billion. - AFP 7:29:13 PM    comment []

A Chip of Humor June 17, 2004 Helping Hand Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is always willing to help rival Intel Corp. out with problems -- or at least suggest it has them. The latest example: a "survival kit" that AMD is distributing to reporters that pokes fun at the latest version of Intel's popular Pentium 4 microprocessor line, known by the code name Prescott. The contents of the blue-and-white box include an oven mitt, described as a way to protect users' hands from the heat generated by the chip; a small plug-in fan, also to help cool users; a set of ear plugs, a reference to the noise generated by fans built into Prescott-based PCs, and a CD to back up data files, in the event of any computer viruses. Prescott indeed runs hotter than previous Pentium chips, but computer makers say they are coping fine. Heat, moreover, is an issue that pops up for many chip makers. In 2002, for example, a British tinkerer used an AMD chip in his PC to fry an egg and posted photos on a Web site. A note from AMD with the kit states: "Please use and enjoy the enclosed items in the humorous spirit in which they are intended." But Intel isn't inclined to say much, let alone laugh. "We enjoy publicity stunts as much as the next person," says Chuck Mulloy, a company spokesman. "But we will decline the opportunity to comment." 7:27:22 PM    comment []