D. Murali

Week’s pick.

D. Murali

The NeGP (National e-Governance Programme) is a huge initiative, but there has been much duplication and several interoperability issues, observes one of the essays included in Infrastructure & Governance ( www.academicfoundation.com). Arguing, therefore, for the right standards in e-Governance, the book — published in association with Skoch Consultancy Services, and edited by Sameer Kochhar, Deep ak B. Phatak, H. Krishnamurthy, and Gursharan Dhanjal — highlights typical operational issues: such as the need for seamless data sharing between the police department and the passport office; and the importance of data preservation standards when technologies change.

“The National e-Governance Service Delivery Gateway is an initiative to address precisely these challenges,” the authors observe. This core piece of architecture in the mission project serves as a middleware for interoperability – “meaning that it is a mechanism to facilitate seamless exchange of data between departments or between the front-end and back-end of any application.”

Right read for policymakers.

What was the deal that Neeraj Roy struck with Saleem and Suleman Mobhani, the cofounders of IndiaFM.com, a top Bollywood portal? An acquisition of 100 per cent of IndiaFM, ‘the biggest Internet deal after the Satyam-Indiaworld acquisitions,’ narrates Marketing Communications Industry: Entrepreneurial Case Studies, by Gautam Raj Jain and Raunica Ahluwalia ( www.sagepublications.com).

“Many investors and keen observers of Hungama, in 2000, thought this was a crazy deal. They were not able to see the synergies of an advertising-led entertainment portal…with Bollywood.”

Today, Hungama Mobile, a division of Hungama, has an India-dedicated Bollywood portal with over 70 leading mobile operators in over 30 countries, the authors inform.

“Bollywood is perhaps one of India’s most underrated exports,” reads a quote of Roy cited in the book.

An exciting collection of success stories.

A typical Saturday morning fix-it show demonstrates how to build things, such as a cabinet or a deck. Python: Create-Modify-Reuse does something similar to the construction of software instead of home improvements, says Jim Knowlton ( www.wileyindia.com).

“The experts on these shows take seemingly large, complex tasks that appear to be beyond the skill level of the average do-it-yourselfer and break them down into smaller, simple tasks, teaching you valuable skills along the way,” he explains.

Starting, therefore, with an overview of the Python language, “designed for those familiar with other languages but new to Python,” the author guides the reader through complete projects “that can be used as-is or modified and extended to suit your particular purposes.”

He includes applications that access databases, take advantage of Web technologies, and facilitate network communications.

“Python is known as a dynamically typed language, which means that you don’t have to explicitly identify the data type when you initialise a variable,” guides the primer. “Python provides a rich collection of data types to enable programmers to perform virtually any programming task they desire in another language.”

One nice thing about Python, as Knowlton put it, is that the language provides many useful and unique data types such as tuples and dictionaries; and it “stays away from data types such as the pointers used in C, which have their use but can also make programming much more confusing and difficult for the non-professional programmer.”

Prescribed study for the Python-trackers.

If you are aspiring to become a ‘voice professional’ in the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) space you should find it useful to read Kevin Wallace’s Authorized Self-Study Guide Cisco Voice over IP (CVOICE), third edition ( www.ciscopress.com).

While both VoIP and ‘IP telephony’ refer to sending voice across an IP network, the primary distinction revolves around the endpoints in use, the author informs in the introductory chapter. “For example, in a VoIP network, traditional analogue or digital circuits connect into an IP network, typically through some sort of gateway. However, an IP telephony environment contains endpoints that natively communicate using IP.”

Wallace informs how VoIP has made it possible for businesses to realise cost savings by utilising their existing IP network to carry voice and data, especially where businesses have underutilised network capacity that can carry VoIP at no additional cost.

QoS (quality of service) mechanisms are required to address the many problems that can arise when sending voice packets via IP. The clarity (that is, ‘cleanliness’ and ‘crispness’) of the audio signal is of utmost importance, Wallace insists. “The listener must be able to recognise the identity and sense the mood of the speaker.” He lists the factors that can affect clarity. Such as:

Fidelity – The degree to which a system accurately reproduces at its output the essential characteristics of the signal impressed upon its input.

Echo – A result of electrical impedance mismatches in the transmission path.

Jitter – Variation in the arrival of coded speech packets at the far end of a VoIP network.

Delay – The time between the spoken voice and the arrival of the electronically delivered voice at the far end.

Packet loss – Dropping of voice packets due to unstable network, network congestion and so on.

Dependable guidance.

The IMS architecture defines one common protocol standard to be used network-wide for all sessions within the wireless network, writes Travis Russell in The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS): Session Control and Other Network Operations ( www.tatamcgrawhill.com).

Though IMS does not represent new services to generate revenues, it is a service enabler that can ensure economy, explains Russell. “If you can reduce the cost of service implementation and make it more secure (eliminating or reducing revenue loss), your margins increase, therefore making IMS a better business case for delivering new services.” What is ‘really interesting’ about IMS is that everything is controlled using one common signalling method, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), the author highlights. For, “signalling is what makes connections happen in any network.”

Don’t think of the IMS as a means of delivering killer new applications, and don’t look for a ‘killer app’ in IMS, Russell cautions. The ‘killer app’ is something far simpler than you may think, he adds. “It’s simply providing an infrastructure that supports how subscribers communicate with one another – while shopping, while driving, while boating. By sending text, pictures, audio clips, music files, video streams, and voice.” Think of IMS as the man behind the curtain, the author analogises. “Providing control over all of these communications.”

Suggested addition to the professionals’ shelf.

Tailpiece

“We realised he was rigging the payment vouchers…”

“When he sent you a taxi bill for going from Chennai to the Andamans?”

“No, he asked for auto charges to hand-deliver e-mails!”

dmurali@thehindu.co.in

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu Business Line