By Montclair NJ italian restaurants, and our friends at the Italian place.

Food inflation fell to a one-and-a-half month low of 7.78 per cent for the week ended June 18 on the back of cheaper vegetables, pulses and potatoes.
Food inflation, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), stood at 9.13 per cent during the previous week. It was over 20 per cent during the comparable period of June, 2010.
As per data released by the government today, vegetables became over 10 per cent cheaper year-on-year during the seven-day period under review.
Prices of pulses also went down by 9.50 per cent during the week ended June 18, while potatoes became 2.39 per cent cheaper on an annual basis.
However, prices of other food items remained high during the week.
The latest numbers on price rise of food items are the lowest since the week ended May 7, when food inflation stood at 7.47 per cent.
It comes a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that inflation will come down to 6.5 per cent by March-end if international oil prices soften and commodity prices do not rise further.
Headline inflation in the country stood at 9.06 per cent in May.
The latest week-on-week fall of 1.35 percentage points in food inflation is the sharpest in four-and-half months. The previous record of a decline of over 2 percentage points had happened in the first week of February.
Meanwhile, inflation in overall primary articles stood at 11.84 per cent for the week ended June 18, down from 12.62 per cent in the previous week. Primary articles have a share of over 20 per cent in the WPI basket.
During the week under review, fruits became 24.76 per cent more expensive, while eggs, meat and fish grew dearer by 10.32 per cent. Onions were also up by 16.08 per cent and cereals by 4.76 per cent.
Inflation of non-food primary items stood at 17.91 per cent during the week ended June 18, down from 18.43 per cent in the previous week.
Fibres were up 39.59 per cent on an annual basis, while minerals became more expensive by 28.51 per cent.
The hike in prices of diesel and kerosene announced last week by the government was also reflected in the latest inflation numbers.
Fuel and power became more expensive by 12.98 per cent year-on-year. Inflation in the fuel and power index was 12.84 per cent in the previous week.
The RBI had said that headline inflation in the next few months would be driven more by high global commodity prices, rather than prices of food items, as was the case in 2010.
Food inflation was in double digits for most of last year, before showing signs of moderation since March this year. However, it has again started going up since the second half of May.
The latest fall in food inflation numbers is likely to come as a relief to the government, which had to deal with a series of bad news during recent weeks on the economic front.

From Sun

LOS ANGELES – McDonald’s Corp, Burger King, KFC and Taco Bell are the biggest U.S. fast-food chains, but they lag smaller rivals like In-N-Out Burger and Chick-fil-A when it comes to taste, according to a new survey released on Thursday by Consumer Reports.

“Chains like McDonald’s and Taco Bell boast supersized values, but consumers don’t necessarily think they offer much bang for the buck,” said Tod Marks, Consumer Reports’ senior projects editor.

The survey, based on responses from more than 36,700 subscribers who made more than 98,000 visits to 53 fast-food chains, found that the big four U.S. fast-food chains had “uninspiring food” and “only so-so service”.

No more than 11 percent of respondents found the food at those big brands to be “excellent,” while a higher number — 15 to 19 percent — found their food to be fair, poor, or very poor.

Southern California favorite In-N-Out Burger captured the No. 1 spot among all of the chains with high rankings for food, service, value and speed.

McDonald’s ranked last in the hamburger category, with particularly poor performance in food satisfaction, to finish just behind Burger King.

Chick-fil-A’s popular pickle-topped chicken sandwiches helped the company rise to the top of the chicken chains. Yum Brand’s KFC was at the bottom of the bucket.

Chipotle Mexican Grill was the king of the south-of-the-border inspired chains, while Yum’s Taco Bell ranked second to last.

Fifty-four percent of survey participants cited low prices as a reason for picking a particular fast-food restaurant. Despite the low prices, just 19 percent of all respondents said they got excellent value for their money.

In-N-Out Burger, Papa Murphy’s and CiCi’s Pizza were seen as offering the best value, while Sbarro, Round Table Pizza and KFC were the worst.

Full survey results are available at www.ConsumerReports.org.

Consumer Reports magazine is published by Consumers Union, a nonprofit organization that independently rates a variety of products.

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has applied for a patent on technology that may let its user secretly intercept Voice over IP (VoIP) communications, amend the content and store it.

The application was filed in December 2009 and was recently made public.

The technology could allow the monitoring of conversations, voice messages and video conferences over a variety of devices, including smartphones, laptops and gaming devices.

This technology may have been developed with an eye to selling it to government agencies.

“Sometimes a government or one of its agencies may need to monitor communications between telephone users,” the patent application reads.

Microsoft spokesperson Emma Mahoney pointed out that the application is still being processed.

(original post here)

“The [U.S. Patent office] will publish patent applications approximately 18 months after a company files a patent application,” Mahoney told TechNewsWorld. “It is one stage of the application process.”

Mahoney declined to discuss the technology further.

List of useful Microsoft links.

Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft Download Center

Microsoft Support

Microsoft Windows Update Center

Microsoft Game

Microsoft Certification Courses

Microsoft Careers

There are currently four programs that enable people to become certified as Linux Systems Administrators. These programs are offered by the Computing Technology Industry Association, the Linux Professional Institute, the Novell Corporation, and Red Hat, Inc. The first two are professional industry associations whose certification programs do not depend on any specific Linux distribution. Novell and Red Hat Linux certifications are closely associated with their popular Linux distributions. Should you wish to prepare for either of these two certifications you will definitely need access to their Linux version.

What’s involved in obtaining a Linux Certification? You must pass one or more extensive tests that demonstrate your prowess in dealing with the typical and some atypical problems faced by Linux systems administrators. We’ll take a closer look at the CompTIA Linux+(TM) Certification, the one often recommended as the first certification for people new to Linux. This certification does not apply to any specific Linux version. The test is designed to validate the knowledge of individuals with a minimum of six to twelve months of practical Linux experience. According to the Computing Technology Industry Association, professionals achieving the CompTIA Linux+ certification can explain fundamental management of Linux systems from the command line, demonstrate knowledge of user administration, understand file permissions, software configurations, and management of Linux-based clients, server systems, and security. Many of these functions are available on Damn Small Linux.

The Linux+ certification is a basic, entry-level certification for Linux system administrators. It is intended for people with six-months experience installing, operating and maintaining Linux operating systems. To achieve Linux+ certification, candidates must pass the 98 question Linux+ exam which covers seven areas: Planning and Implementation; Installation; Configuration; Administration; System Maintenance; Troubleshooting; and Identify, Install and Maintain System Hardware. This multiple-choice exam costs about $232 and is a good starting point for those who want to continue with other Linux certifications including those from Novell and Red Hat.

Why would anybody want to start preparing Linux certification on a limited version of Linux? The answer is simple – certification is not to be taken lightly. Don’t make a major financial and time investment unless you know that you really want to be certified and that you possess the required skill set. It’s not hard to find schools that promise you success in Linux certification and in any of their course offerings. But Linux certification may not be for you. Don’t make a major certification investment only to find that it wasn’t what you had in mind. Work your way through my tutorials including the suggestions for going further. Get your hands on a variety of Linux books. I would start with books designed for learning Linux and for running Linux systems before working with Linux certification books.

Don’t be satisfied with running computer exercises in your mind, and nodding your head at the appropriate times. To succeed you must do the exercises on a computer running Linux. Since installation is a component of all Linux Certification exams don’t stint on installing several versions of Linux on your computer. An external USB hard drive is not very expensive. Try to make friends with someone who knows better than you how to do things. Ask a lot of questions. And good luck!

And while you’re working on your certifications take a look at some of Damn Small Linux’s other advantages in our final article in this series.

Ever wonder where the parts inside your computer came from? Intel was formed in 1968 by founders Bill Noyce and Gordon Moore. This company has been providing computer manufacturers with internal parts for many years. Originally named NM Electronics, the company changed to Intel soon after forming.

The first 10 years of Intel’s establishment proved to be very busy and eventful. Intels first product manufactured was the 3101 Schottky bi polar random access memory, along with the first ever, metal oxide semiconductor static RAM or otherwise known as 1101. Silicon chips were becoming very popular at this time, and Intel quickly became one of the leaders of manufacturing this product. Other products that Intel manufactured at this time were Integrated electronics, erasable ROM, global factories, expanding product lines, high level language developments for microprocessors, becoming part of one of the first PC’s produced, “bunny suits”, the 8080 microprocessor, and developing “bubble memory”.

The second decade proved to be just as profitable as the first. Listed on the Fortune 500 list in 1980, Intel became a more powerful company after teaming up with DEC and Xerox to work on the Ethernet project. Perfect timing with the Local Area Networking becoming very popular leading Intel to a profitable account with IBM. Intels 286 chip soon found its way into many computer systems. They then improved on current microprocessors, making them preform faster with less power. By the end of the decade they had already improved the 286, renaming it 386 and entered into the flash memory market.

By 1990, Intel had been named the worlds largest supplier of semi conductors. It was then that Intel came up with their ever famous logo “Intel Inside”. Moving along, they produced another version of their processor naming it 486. This was quickly replaced with another that was five times faster, called Pentium. This too was replaced in 1977 with Pentium II. Intel created a software program that allowed system managers a stream line approach for managing computer networks.

With the 40th anniversary of Moore’s law, a law stating the number of transistors in a chip must increase every two years, the next decade provided several new products like Celeron processor, Pentium III and IV, wireless technology, hyper-threading technology, Itanium, Xeon, Centrino, Viiv, and Core 2 Duo processors. By 2006, Intel had revamped its whole company with new marketing strategies and a new logo, “Leap Ahead”. This new logo summed up Intels new momentum for the future.

Today, Intel still remains strong, and has a part in most computer products. Personal computers, laptops, servers, workstations, Mac computers, and several varieties of processors for desktops and notebooks, are just some of the products that have Intel parts.

Intel offers several processors that are widely held to be some of the best CPU’s around for PC gaming systems. They exist in a natural progression of both performance and price, but that doesn’t mean the most expensive is necessarily the best choice. It’s all about what you plan to do with your system and what your long and short term budgets are. For near term budgeting, consider the reasonable life expectancy of your next PC purchase before you will probably want to replace it. For casual gamers purchasing a top of the line machine, this could be 5+ years. On the other hand, casual gamers may find it just as satisfying and cheaper to purchase a middle of the line machine now and replace it with whatever is middle of the road 2-3 years down the line. Hardcore gamers may find themselves upgrading more often, and should budget accordingly.

So what’s the best Intel gaming processor? Let’s take a look at them:

Intel Core i3 – Intel’s Mid Desktop Gaming CPUs

The core i3 processor from Intel is a great CPU for basic gaming and is fantastic for home and office. It’s a dual core chip with hyperthreading which is like having four logical cores. It is basically two CPU’s in one chip, with each capable of processing two commands at the same time. This multitasking ability means chips can run 4x faster than the actual rated speed when processing software that properly takes advantage of the multithreading capabilities.

Intel Core i5 – Intel’s Mid-High Desktop Gaming CPUs

The Intel core i5 processor is a chip suited for mid-high level gaming. It offers true quad-core processing, meaning it has four independent CPU’s working in tandem on the same chip. This is a very popular processor for many gamers because it gives excellent performance at a very reasonable price. The core i5 is capable of running just about any game on the market as of this writing, and running even the more demanding games pretty well.

Intel Core i7 – Intel’s High-End Desktop Gaming CPUs

Hardcore gamers have serious processing needs, so Intel offers their core i7 processors. If you demand high performance, the Intel core i7 is the way to go. It combines the hyperthreading technology of the i3 with the quad-cores of the i5 to deliver 8 logical cores for staggering throughput. These chips can process at lightning speed and deliver unbelievable performance.

Intel Core i7 980x – Intel’s Extreme Desktop Gaming CPUs

For gamers who absolutely need top-top of the line performance, the Intel i7 980x may leave you awestruck. Wit All of the benefits of the standard i7 chips but SIX cores on board, this chip has an amazing 12 logical cores. With truly mind blowing performance, the i7 980x is a must-have processor for the gamer who has everything else.

Evetech.co.za is a leading supplier of High Performance Desktop PCs and computer hardware in South Africa. When shopping for new computer, we recommend you to look at these Custom Built Home & Office Desktop PCs, NVIDIA Geforce GTX400 Series Gaming PCs, Extreme Gaming Computers and Intel Core i7 Desktops Gaming Systems.

Remember old good days when your company probably had Great Plains Dynamics? If you are in San Francisco Bay Area – you had local Great Plains Software partner consulting company, who served you basically coming onsite and charging you four hours minimum, even if the problem deserved 5-min fix? This was at the end of 20th century and remote support technologies were not very advanced – Citrix was making good progress and taking market over from Symantec PCAnywhere. Today, when Microsoft Terminal Server and Citrix are remote support standards and IT department uses them to host application server for nation-wide and world-wide users, you should probably be thinking of getting remote support for your ERP and CRM systems. In this small article we’ll take a look at Microsoft CRM remote support, customization, reporting, implementation and integration.

o Why Microsoft CRM Remote Support? Microsoft CRM market niche is still narrow and MS CRM consulting companies do not have enough clientele in their respected locals markets: Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York – even in these hypermarkets. In order to survive Microsoft CRM VAR went to nationwide and even international markets to get clients base.

o Technology-driven consulting companies. Microsoft CRM has web and MS Outlook clients and so by its nature it is web application. When you are considering hosting your web site – you typically do not care where hosting company is located – you consider price and quality. Microsoft CRM could be hosted with .Net hosting companies and implementation could be done remotely with web-session-based training.

o Customization. Today, even if Microsoft Business Solutions has open technology Microsoft CRM SDK – the complexity of the specific tasks (messaging through Lotus Notes Domino, generic MAPI, advanced MS CRM – Exchange connector) requires precision programming, which should be outsourced to nationwide development centers. As our experience indicates – clients are demanding the expertise, not just cheap generic developers. Whoever comes for the cheap price – they usually get poor results.

o Large Business ERP. Microsoft CRM proved its market strength and ability to automate large publicly traded corporation. It sits in Microsoft SQL Server and uses all the spectrum of Microsoft technologies: .Net, Active Directories, MS Exchange, Full-Text Search, Crystal Reports Enterprise. We are confident in Microsoft CRM ability to automate Aerospace & Defense, Pharmaceutical, Supply Chain Management, Medical & Hospitals, Distribution & Logistics, Oil & Gas, Wholesale & Retail, Education, Non-for-profit

o Integration. Microsoft CRM has standard integration tool with Microsoft Great Plains, Navision and Axapta integrations are on the way. However you can integrate Microsoft CRM with heterogeneous databases, such as Oracle, DB2, Lotus Notes Domino, Sybase, Pervasive SQL or Ctree/Faircomm.

o Web-Sessions and Skype training. Web Seminars are normal these days and you should be OK with the idea of remote web training. This will allow you to get the best expertise with moderate price.

So basically, this all started when NVidia released plans of the future about developing motherboard chipsets that will support Intel’s new Core i7 Nehalem architecture. Intel tried to talk NVidia out of going with this plan, but NVidia kept its plan and began the development of a new motherboard chipset that would let NVidia fans use Core i7 processors on NVidia chipsets, allowing the fans to hold the power of the Core i7 and Tri-SLI GPU’s.

However, Intel didn’t want NVidia to go on with the plans, and took this case to court, saying that NVidia does not have the license to create chipsets that support Intel’s new QPI(QuickPath Interconnect) system and integrated memory-controller technology. But NVidia says that they have a few-years old license that allows them to do the exact thing.

But what’s really the issue here? It’s really just Intel trying to hold its advantage, among other things. Currently, ONLY Intel’s X58 motherboard chipset supports Intel’s incredibly powerful Corei7 Nehalem processors. Basically, Intel has a sort of a monopoly going on in the Core i7 industry, because they develop and manufacture both the processors and the motherboards that work together.

Now, NVidia wants a piece of the cake. In the previous years, NVidia has successfully developed chipsets that supported the Core2 series of processors(680i, 780i, 790i Ultra, among others), and they have been extremely popular, competing well against Intel’s own chipsets(P35, X48, P45, etc.). And now, Intel has unleashed a processor that outperforms many of the Core 2 processors that cost a lot more than the Core i7 processors. NVidia is definitely hungry for a large piece of this new series of processors, and is now trying to do the same thing it succeeded in doing during the reign of the Core2 processors.

So, here’s the summary of what Intel would lose if NVidia succeeds in developing their new chipset:

1. Intel would lose the advantage of saying that their X58 motherboards are the only motherboards that support Core i7 processors

2. Intel will no longer be able to have an edge over NVidia with the Core i7 and X58 motherboard, because NVidia will be able to create chipsets that allow both Core i7 and Tri-SLI graphics cards to work in unison. X58 motherboards only support up to SLI.

Intel motherboards have always been at the forefront of cutting edge technology, not that surprising really considering they are one of the world’s largest manufacturers of CPU’s not to mention various other technologies at the heart of many a PC or Server. Well known for their solid performance and dependability has meant that for many years Intel motherboards have had a great deal of loyalty and support from certain market groups with some that will buy nothing but an Intel motherboard.

Being the core component of any PC the motherboard acts like the central nervous system, connecting all the components needed to provide our high tech demands and multimedia enjoyment, so it’s strange that it is often the most overlooked component when deciding to upgrade your PC.

Of course in today’s market if you are looking to upgrade your Intel Motherboard then you should really be considering boards that support the newest Intel Core i5 and i7 CPU’s. Up until recently only found in the realms of Business and Non Public Institutions these superfast processors are finally breaking into mainstream use with reasonably priced Intel Motherboards that support them. This combination of lower priced motherboards and reasonably priced CPU’s means that more and more end users have the ability to consider the purchase of these new Intel motherboards and improve performance over the Extremes and Core 2 Duos they are replacing. With the release of the Core i5 and P55 chipset Intel are poised to increase their market share with the loyal group already mentioned and one such motherboard is the Intel DP55WG.

This reasonably priced Intel motherboard delivers a great deal of bang for its buck, the motherboard is capable of supporting either the i7-800 or i5-700 processors in an LGA1156 socket, with support for up to four DDR3 1600+ DIMM’s providing up to 16GB of system memory. Couple this with the Intel High Definition Audio subsystem delivering 7.1 sound and graphics technology support for either Nvidia SLI™ or ATI CrossFire™ allowing two graphics cards to work together and you get the ultimate in 3D gaming performance and visual quality.

The DP55WG Intel Motherboard also delivers when it comes to expansion and peripherals giving the end user a phenomenal fourteen USB 2.0 ports six Serial ATA and Consumer IR receiver and emitter to mention but a few. Intel themselves advertise this motherboard as a “media machine with a touch of extreme”, its advanced on-board audio solution and Firewire™ support means that this is a great motherboard for providing a Media PC solution with all the features one could ask for to provide the Blue-Ray movie experience.

Intel know their customer base well and the Intel DP55WG motherboard delivers great performance and is ideal for mid to high performance desktops, developed with the latest generation of multimedia applications, its revolutionary twochip layout enabling multiple platform capabilities means that multitasking never looked so good. Whether for Digital Photography, Video Editing or just pure entertainment this Intel motherboard has the technology to meet the demands.