Quake in Andaman, jolts felt in Chennai

An earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale shook the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and parts of Chennai on Friday triggering panic among residents.

With its epicentre near Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the quake occurring at around 1700 hrs lasted a few seconds and rocked several parts of Chennai including the busy T Nagar, Nugambakkam and Koyambedu areas, Met office sources and the police said.

Employees working in a multi-storied building in Venkatnarayana Road in T Nagar rushed out of office as they experienced the tremor, police said.

However, there is no immediate report about any loss of life or property due to the quake.

Ash-Abhi not so happily married?

Be it award functions, film promotions or press conferences, the gorgeous Bachchan bahu is evidently quite happy whenever seen with family. Recently, Ashs usual over the top behaviour became a cause for embarrassment for hubby Abhishek. The couple lately had a heated argument, on their way to attend the IIFA ceremony, when the actress was getting a little too loud and Abhi wanted her to just be soft in her expression.

As the couple was proceeding to attend the award function, with actor Kunal Kapoor, Ash got too loud and vocal, while Abhishek subtly asked her to keep her voice low. Understanding the need of the situation, Kunal promptly left the place in order to stay out of their marital spat.

However, reports reveal that the actress in spite of being warned by hubby couldn't maintain a low profile. Abhishek then took wife to the hotel lobby, made her sit peacefully and had a word with her to make himself clearly understood.

According to sources, things did not work out for them and Ash continued auguring at the top of her voice, and which is when Abhi completely lost his temper and ended up telling his personal security guards to escort his wife to her room.

Now, does that imply that the couple has finally outgrown the so very happy-happy beat of their marriage? We definitely hope not.

Set up Autocorrect in Microsoft Word and Outlook Express

The Auto Correct feature is one that enables the application to correct the spelling of misspelt words — automatically.

The advantage of Auto Correct over Spell Check is that Spell Check will only report the misspelled words and provide a list with the option of words that can be replaced. One will have to manually choose the correct one from the list of options whereas in AutoCorrect, the correct word gets replaced automatically.

For instance, if we type the word “the” as “teh”, if Auto Correct is enabled, the application will change the word to the correct spelling “the”.

This feature is useful for persons with low vision or visual impairment, people with learning disability and users with mobility impairment.

This feature is available in Microsoft Word and from Outlook 2002, also referred as Outlook XP. To enable this in Word, please go to the “Tools” menu, Click “AutoCorrect” (in Word 2000) in Tools menu, “Auto Correct Options” in Tools Menu (in Word 2003), in “AutoCorrect: English” dialog box, in the Auto Correct Tab. Select the check boxes “Replace text as you type” and “Automatically use suggestions from spelling checker”. In the same AutoCorrect tab, you can scroll down to browse through a long list of words with correct spelling for replacing in AutoCorrect. You can also add words for this auto correction.

To add words to AutoCorrect, please type the word to be added in the word document and highlight it by selecting it. Then click AutoCorrect in Tools Menu. In the AutoCorrect tab, the ‘With’ box will display the highlighted word. Select the Formatted text radio button if you want to retain the format of the text, or select Plain text. Type the word that has to be replaced with, in the Replace window.

It is possible to move the Auto Correct entries from one computer to another. More details about this are available at this URL: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/207748 for Word 2000 and at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826147 for Word 2003.

To enable Auto Correct in Outlook 2003, from the Microsoft Outlook window click Options in Tools menu. In the Spelling tab, select the check box “Use Auto Correct when Word isn’t the e-mail editor”. Click the Auto Correct options button. The Auto Correct dialog box will open. “Select the check box Replace text as you type”.

Spell Check is available in Outlook Express and if you run it, will prompt you to manually replace with the correct words.

Enrich the search for local information with a mouse click.

Returning to India after a stint in the US, Ravi, an avid surfer of the Internet, found it difficult to locate small yet useful information — such as a Chinese restaurant in his area/place of posting.

Not to worry. There’s a way out. “The India-specific search product, Google Local Search, is a useful tool for users searching the Web for locally relevant information,” says Amit Somany, Product Manager, Head of Search, Consumer Application and Infrastructure at Google India.
People search the Web for all kinds of information — placement consultant for a business process outsourcing firm, PG Diploma in Fashion Technology, travel information and booking, among others.

By simply doing a search on one can get information of local relevance, says Somany.

But that’s not all. The surfer has a role to play too, for information on local businesses, such as restaurants, shops and hotels, will not be available if the same has not been added to Google Local, says Somany.

Take, for instance, coaching classes for Plus Two children.

You probably are conducting the class for 50 students in a small room. You may be known in and around that area. How do you get better reach and for free? Just get online, make your listing, such as contact details, address, your offering, etc, available to users, even if you are working offline.

The Google Local Business Centre at <> allows any business to add its information to Google Local for free, he says.

When users search on Google Local Search, the listed business information is displayed.
Local Business Centre already exists in other geographies.

“The Local Search and Local Business Centre will provide better local business results by increasing the corpus and depth of business listings and ensure visibility on the Internet for free,” he says.

These will typically provide the address, phone contacts and location of local shops, establishments and institutions — and will also link their own Web sites, if available.
According to Somany, millions of questions are posed everyday on the search engines — from eye clinic to fashion institute, to old age home in Bangalore, guest house in Anna Nagar, Chennai, or best place to hang out in Delhi.

Such information can be made available at the click of the mouse by listing it on Google Local, says Somany.

India clinches first foreign deal to sell Dhruv

India has made aviation history by concluding a USD 51 million deal with the South American Republic of Ecuador for the sale of seven 'Dhruv' Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH).

The deal signed between Ecuador Aviation Authority and bluechip state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) envisages the supply of seven helicopters in semi knock-down conditions to the Republic in a time-frame of 15 months to two years, Defence Ministry officials said.

With this, India has joined a select group of nations with a capability to bid for international contracts for choppers. So far, the helicopter market has been dominated by US, European companies and Russia.

The ALH 'Dhruv' has been making waves in international air shows worldover from the past two years but international sales of the helicopter have eluded HAL.

HAL came very near bagging its first international order when it bid for the Chilean armed forces contract two years ago, but was beaten to the closing line by the US competitors.

AMERICIANS SEEK EMPLOYMENT IN INDIA

Americans seek employment in India

Robert Durbin was looking nervous when he went to the India Visa services centre in Manhattan this past week.

With a professional degree in Information Technology from New York University last year, Durbin has been desperately looking for a job for the past six months; but unsuccessful so far, primarily because US companies these days have been cutting jobs rather than recruiting new people.

After months of job search, the only place Durbin received a job offer was from a Bangalore-based IT major this month. ''I am here to apply for my work visa to India,'' Durbin told NDTV.com, standing outside the India Visa Services Centre in Manhattan, to which the Indian Embassy and Consulates have outsourced visa-processing system.

Durbin, requesting his identity not be disclosed till he joins the job in Bangalore next month, said he was nervous as he did not know if he will get the work visa or not. ''I hope, I will,'' he said, as he went inside to submit his applications. It will take another couple of days before he knows if his application has been approved.

Without referring to this particular case, P S Sasi Kumar, who handles the visa section at the Indian Consulate in New York told NDTV.com that normally most of the applications for work visas are being approved. Of late, the Consulate in New York has been experiencing a steady flow of such applications seeking work visa.

Though, India might still not be a hot destination for foreigners like the US is for Indians for jobs, Kumar said applications for work visa has been gradually increasing. From what used to be a rare category of visas a couple of years ago, hardly a day passes when the Consulate in New York does not receive at least one such application in this regard.

In the past two years, the New York Consulate has issued work visa to more than 900 people. In 2006 the New York Consulate issued 335 employment visas while in 2007, more than 430 employment visas were issued. If the trend of the first three months is of any indication, 2008 could well break all previous records. It is a couple of applications every day, Kumar said.

While New York tops the list, the three other Indian consulates in the US - in San Francisco, Houston and Chicago - and the Indian Embassy in Washington have also seen quite a number of applications for work visa.

Figures made available indicated the Indian Embassy in Washington issued about 300 work visas in past two years, while Houston Consulate down South issued nearly 100; indicating India is gradually emerging as employment destination for the Americans as job opportunities in the US has increasingly been shrinking in past two years.

KAJOL-WANTS 3 MORE KIDS

.Kajol wants three more kids

Kajol was never the one to talk too much.

The lady likes her privacy and prefers to talk to the media mostly when her films are about to release. And her father’s death recently has made her quieter still. Recently, she was in the city to endorse a brand but kept her appearance to a short 30-minutes pose-appear-and-disappear routine.

Asked what she has been doing of late, she said, “Ajay is busy shooting and my daughter Nysa keeps me busy.”
Kajol, who has said in the past that “she was born to be a mother,” perks up immediately at the mention of her daughter. “Everybody I work with knows that my kid comes first. In fact she occupies the one to 10 slots,” she said. And does she plan to become a mother again? “Oh definitely,” she says, “I want to have at least three more kids.”

The actress who has done only selective work since she became a mother may completely go off the screen then! But what is she working on just now? “It’s a film that I will do with my husband. It’s actually an animation film with human characters called Toonpur Ka Superhero, something like Who Framed Roger Rabbit? We’re actually playing ourselves, yes, we’ll be Ajay and Kajol. But the cartoon characters get the main roles. It will be healthy competition.”