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In the cloud space, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure are the two heavyweights. Many developers agree that these two services are the best public cloud hosting available. Beyond that, it’s a polarizing discussion. Many professionals swear by Amazon, but just as many swear by Microsoft. In the following article, we compare them head to head and highlight the differences. DEFINING THE CLOUD A cloud is on-demand storage, computing and application resources managed remotely. A cloud provides either Platform as a Service (PaaS) or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) or both. These technologies are quite distinct, but a fine comparison is beyond the scope of this article. Since most end-users use IaaS, we’ll compare Microsoft Azure to Amazon Web Services from an IaaS-centric perspective. That does put Azure at a disadvantage, and is an important consideration for PaaS-centric consumers. Business oriented clients tend to evaluate cloud based on the following five fac...

Increasing the rate at which customers return to your business is a great goal for business owners, and retaining clients is not difficult if customers are treated well. Customers who receive wonderful service will not only come back to a business that has treated them well, but also spread the word about the business, to their friends and neighbors. This type of word of mouth advertising has much greater effect than the more costly methods of attracting new customers.  The following five tips are paramount to good customer service and are well worth any investment required to implement them: 1. Keep It Personal Every employee should be trained to treat customers in a friendly, non-threatening manner. They should be taught to use a polite tone throughout a transaction and to end all conversations with a special word of thanks. If an employee cannot learn to do this in a sincere way, he or she should be replaced immediately. An ongoing training program is worth the ef...

Since the booming financial success of James Cameron’s 3-D venture, Avatar, it should come as no surprise that Hollywood has been jumping on the extra-dimensional bandwagon with its other projects. Some of the most recent blockbusters have been in 3-D, in particular, animated family films and horror movies. There may not be an apparent correlation; perhaps both genres are meant purely as thoughtless entertainment, intended to seduce the viewer to sit back and let the screen come alive, no matter how little substance the film exhibits. The horror series, Saw, has hopped on board the stimulating wagon of visual indulgence, but so has the Harry Potter series, and even Toy Story has stepped up to the prerequisite for the ADD-era audiences. While it’s true that Toy Story 3 does convey meaningful messages, one has to ask, must the viewers be spoon-fed these messages by characters popping out of the screen? Effective or Detracting? It is hard to determine whether or not...

Facebook is all set to make their latest profile layout "Timeline" - compulsory. In the next few weeks all Facebook users will be compulsorily upgraded to the "Timeline" feature - whether they like it or not. Ever since the introduction of this feature, the social media circles has been abuzz with people debating the suitability or unsuitability of the "Timeline" layout. One aspect emerging from these discussions was that people were concerned that the new feature would interfere with their privacy, as "Timeline" suddenly makes every thing that they ever shared on Fb, including past status updates and photographs visible to the whole world. In this backdrop security company Sophos conducted a survey where they "   asked over 4000 Facebook users what they thought of the new Timeline feature, and the response was overwhelming negative." This is what the survey revealed: Only 8% (7.96% to be precise) of the respondents c...

The beautiful game in Barcelona, match day in Manchester, or the roar of the crowd as a try is scored at Twickenham. Every serious sports fan has their favourite team, and all teams have a home base to share with their fans. Old Trafford ,  Image Credit If you every wanted to know what it feels like to be Sir Alex for an hour then the most popular home of club football in England has to be Old Trafford. As you walk through the tunnel and make your way onto the field, you can almost hear the whispers of the legends of football echo through the stadium. Manchester United has excellent tours of their home stadium, and a museum dedicated to the history of the club and football as a sport. A tour of the Theatre of Dreams is the best way to kick-off your stadium sports tour. Santiago Bernabéu Stadium . Image Credit Spain is the perfect destination if you are serious about your teams. Pay a visit to FC Barcelona and spend a couple of hours at the Camp Nou exper...

"Delhi is a huge city with billions and billions of vehicles.. but driving around is fun and exciting" This humorous video shares with you the a-b-c of Driving in the Delhi roads. One look at the video and you will realise that these rules apply to almost all other Indian cities. Just sit back and play. You are definitely going to enjoy watching this. Video brought to you by Pratik Arora of CultCamp.

Deanna Proach, the author of "Day of Revenge" shares her experiences with us. '' Over the last year, since the release of my book "Day of Revenge", I've learnt that Facebook is better used for networking than for marketing. That's why it's called a social networking site. Yet, many business owners--including authors--use Facebook to promote their products. There is no written rule saying that people can't promote products and services on Facebook; they do it all the time. Although, when it comes to marketing, Facebook is very tricky. If you do one--or two--things wrong, you will offend people. Sometimes, that can lead to heartache. It happened to me last year. As a new author, I didn't know how to use Facebook as a marketing tool. I posted links to every guest post, review and Internet Radio interview on my wall. At first, people were thrilled to see the cover art and to see that my dream of becoming a published author had finally come t...

Only those who have never been on a business trip view business travel with any sense of romance. Most business trips involve a fair bit of preparation, a certain amount of sleeplessness and sometimes a dash of chaos. If you are a young up and comer planning his first trip abroad or a seasoned executive visiting her client for the seventh time this year, there are a number of things you can do to make your business trip a success. 1. Know where you’re going . It sounds like such simple advice, but it’s key to ensuring your trip is a success. For example, San Jose in California is in the heart of Silicon Valley within spitting distance of Google’s headquarters and Stanford University. San José, on the other hand, is the capital of Costa Rica. 2. Make sure you have the right documentation . People have been turned away from airports for not having the correct visa. Furthermore some countries insist that your passport is one of the modern, machine-read...

The coming and going of 2011 saw a lot of great advancements in technology, but we thought it would be a good time to wonder what is coming next. To help you get a better idea of what to watch and save for, we have gathered a list of top 7 pieces of tech to anticipate in 2012. 1. iPad 3 – One can't help but wonder if it was Steve Job's final wish that the new iPad that offers a rumored three dimensional technology would also be its third version. The screen resolution is expected to be vastly superior and for those of you who thought the previous versions' HD capability isn't enough, the new version promises to give you an experience like never before. In addition, upgrades have been made to the battery and OS. 2. Smart TV's – Although the concept of a combo computer and television haven't quite caught on the way they were supposed to, 2012 promises new and improved features. Televisions will have a better capability of both finding and storing m...

So often, we forget the good things about the people in our lives. While we may be excited and ecstatic about them in the beginning, after time passes, we find ourselves focusing on the negatives and do not take the time to remember the good things that drew us to them in the first place. By taking the time to express our appreciation for our partners, family members and friends, we not only nurture the good in them, but also build better relationships. Mirror, Mirror Frequently, the very things we do not like in others are the things that we do not like in ourselves. It can be very easy to point the finger at a friend or family member and draw attention to something that they are doing that is driving us up the wall. But the reality is that often this is the very thing in us that we hate looking at. We may feel that we would “never” do something, but in actuality, if we are being honest with ourselves, we are afraid that we would do just that very thing. By taking an honest ...

Post-It notes get everywhere (chances are they're already all over your office). Their obvious use is for leaving notes, usually reminders, for yourself and others in places where the intended recipient will easily see them. However, in the right hands a Post-It note can be so much more. Follow here five unusual uses for your everyday Post-It note. However, as with any piece of paper and a writing implement, the possibilities are endless! Car Covered In Post-It-Notes. Image Credit Art Post-Its can easily be used to create impressive art installations (and if you don't believe me then proof is just a Google search away). Whether it's a multitude of classic yellow ones covered in painstakingly drawn ink sketches or a multicoloured mosaic, finished Post-It note works can be really "quite striking". Animation You could argue that animation is a kind of art, but I believe a second category is necessary in order to properly convey all the potential anima...

The human brain is a wonderful and complex organ that is responsible for nearly all of our actions, reactions and responses to situations, scenarios and circumstances. We use our brains every day, and we access different parts of our mind to tell us how to perform certain activities. Your Mind Remembers... Image Credit . Can human memory be trusted ? You are able to drive a car each day because your memory tells you how to do so. We do not have to re-learn the basics of driving every time we get behind the wheel because our unconscious memory works for us. You can trust your memory and your mind for many aspects of daily life, but can the human brain and more specifically, the human memory, be trusted all of the time? Legal Eagles – Eyewitness Testimony The memory of an eyewitness in a criminal matter can often be the most damning evidence that leads to the conviction of accused people. Can eyewitness testimony be trusted to the extent that it has been in the ...

This post provides some very interesting and useful Numerical data (trivia) about internet usage and its penetration in 2011, sourced from pingdom.com Internet Usage In 2011 So lets take a quick look at some of the stats. Email Usage 1. 2011 marks the 40th year since the first email was sent. 2. 19% of all emails delivered to corporate email inboxes were spam. 3. 112 was the average number of emails sent and received by corporate users in a day. 4. Microsoft Outlook was the most popular email client in 2011 with a 27.6% market share. 5. Hotmail the largest email service in the world has an estimated 360 million users Websites 1. The total number of websites as of Dec 2011 was 555 million out of which an estimated 300 million websites were added in 2011. Domain Names 1. $2.6 million, the price for social.com makes it the most expensive domain sold in 2011. 2. 95.5 million is the number of registered .com domains as at the end of 2011...

Internet giant Google has announced another product shut down and this time its PICNIK; one of the world's most popular online photo editing site which is about to closed down. Picnik to be officially retired on April 19,2012 In an official blog post Dave Girouard, VP of Product Management at Google announced that the company will be officially retiring Picnik on April 19, 2012. Services offered by Picnik have been integrated into Google+ Picnik was acquired by Google on March 1, 2010.

  Yes! you have read it right. A man as extraordinary as Rajnikanth ought to have a website that's as extraordinary as him. " All About Rajni" the site dedicated to the legendary superstar runs without the Internet; albeit on RAJNI POWER! All About Rajni runs with out the Internet To enter the website you have to disconnect your internet connection. And If you think you can outsmart the website by re-connecting to the internet once you have entered the site, the following words warn you "Aiyyo! That was unexpected ( of you ). To keep browsing switch off your Internet".... and you better do so for you are in Rajni territory.  All About Rajni; the micro site designed by Gurbaksh Singh for Desimartini.com is home to interesting trivia, fun facts, quotes and much more about the towering personality that is Rajnikanth. According to Singh, "The unbelievable spectacle of running a website without the internet is a tribute to Rajinikant...

The automotive world is always full of surprising new developments, and 2012 will probably be no exception. However it is possible to identify the trends within the industry from which the latest innovations are most like to emerge. Here are five major automotive trends to keep your eye on as the New Year unfolds: A Hybrid car on display at the NAIAS , 2012 1. The Hybrids The shift to hybrid vehicles is already well under way across the industry and is expected to only accelerate this year. Major releases are expected from both Ford, with its C-Max plug-in hybrid, and Toyota with it Prius PHV. However the most attention is being paid to the so-called micro-hybrid or "start-stop" vehicle. Already available from Fiat and Volvo, this exciting new technology allows vehicles to automatically shut off their engines at opportune times, such as when waiting at lights or in heavy traffic. Ford, Chevy and Kia intend to introduce the technology on select models this year...

Sustainable business practices and green business practices are all in rage right now. People have finally realized that their actions are directly responsible for the health of the environment that they live in. As a result, communities and consumers are demanding that companies of all sizes take more responsibility for the impact that they have on the environment. Fortunately, it is easy to reformat most business activities to make them more environmentally friendly and sustainable, including publishing activities. Publishing and the Environment Publishing has a number of impacts on the environment. To begin with paper is a product that is made from wood pulp. In order to acquire wood pulp trees have to be chopped and then processed using a variety of chemicals and mechanical processes. Pollutants are created at various points along the paper production process including processing, transportation and manufacturing. Once paper products have been developed and purcha...

There are few people who’ll argue with you when you say politics in the work place leaves a bitter taste in your coffee. Yet co-workers have been known to get at each other’s throats after the slightest altercation. For example, one disgruntled employee once explained to me that he had followed due procedure when laying a complaint against another noisy employee. Somehow the details of his complaint reached the noisy one and that increased stress in the work place for him. The fact that his duly followed procedure was leaked in such a manner is exactly the kind of office politics that leave many burnt. Let’s look at ways to win in the game of office politics and come out unscathed and perhaps better for it. Fight or Flight Instinctive Behaviour Fight or flight is a common response in nature; to either face a problem head on or bolt for the hills. The work place is no different; when dealing with a problem we have the choice to either fight it by lodging a complaint or...

Here are a few interesting figures shared by Wikipedia post yesterday's blackout protest against the SOPA and PIPA bills :- 1. The Wikipedia blackout page received more than 162 million hits. 2. More than 8 million people looked up their elected representatives' contact information via the Wikipedia tool.  3. The Wikimedia Foundation blog post announcing the blackout received comments from more than 12000 people . Judging by the numbers, all we can say is that the impact of the blackout has  been HUGE!

The 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship Race Calendar which will feature a total of twenty races over a period of 9 months. Get ready for yet another action - packed season...

You are a Facebook addict if.. 1. Facebook maintains a dedicated server to support your media uploads. 2. Your average Facebook session lasts between 78 and 96 hours. 3. The last time you saw what you ate was before Facebook was founded. 4. You and your fiancee are planning to exchange vows on Facebook. In fact you have even sent out event invitations for the same. 5. Your cat has attained celeb status on Facebook. 6. You got fired from your last job because you insisted on receiving instructions from your boss on Facebook chat. 7. You put all your money into Google's Driverless Car project so that driving doesn't interfere with your FB experience. 8. You account for 1.87% of global Facebook page views. 9. You new iPad broke down after you took it under the shower with you. 10. You directed an emotional 8 page letter to Mark Zuckerberg pleading with him to remove the 'Logout' feature from Facebook 11. You were so sho...