Rise of Asian institutions (Though.... )

---------------------- ... "The 2011 QS World University Rankings ® have been compiled following the most wide-ranging surveys of their kind ever conducted. Universities are complex, and numbers alone do not tell the whole story. While other rankings focus primarily on measures of research productivity such as citations, the QS exercise counterbalances this information with the views of global academic and graduate employers.

In order to harness these views effectively, they must be drawn from a truly representative global sample. To this end, QS has dramatically increased the scope of its surveys in 2011. This year's rankings draw on the views of over 33,000 academics and 16,000 graduate employers from around the globe.

.....................

Rise of Asian institutions
One of the talking points in 2011 is undoubtedly the performance of Asian universities . Of the leading 25 Asian universities, 21 improve on their 2010 position, with just three moving in the opposite direction. There are 47 Asian universities in the top 300 (two more than last year), and 88 institutions make the top 500. Hong Kong University repeats its 2010 performance by taking the top spot in Asia, moving up one place to 22nd and increasing the gap with University of Tokyo to three places. HKU is joined by fellow Hong Kong institutions CUHK and HKUST in the top 50, while HKU, University of Tokyo and National University of Singapore cement their places in the global top 30. However, the news for India is less positive, with all of the nation's universities ranking lower than in 2010. IIT Bombay dropped from 187 to 225, meaning there is now no Indian university in the global top 200. No Indian university ranks in the top 200 for citations per faculty, indicating a lack of research impact. Large class sizes are also reflected in the fact that no Indian university makes the top 300 for student faculty ratio.

However, there is better news among global employers . Four Indian universities were rated as among the top 100 by employers for producing highly skilled graduates, indicating that though they may lack research strength, the best Indian universities are nonetheless doing a better job at equipping students with skills that help them thrive in the workplace. Methodology While no single ranking can ever cover every aspect of university performance definitively, most existing rankings methodologies will provide useful information to the right audience. The QS methodology is devised for a primary audience of prospective students and their parents, and focuses on four key areas of academic life: research, employability , teaching and international outlook.

To measure these areas the rankings use six indicators : Academic Reputation (40%), Employer Reputation (10%), Citations per Faculty (20%), Student/Faculty Ratio (20%), International Students (5%), International Faculty (5%).

A full explanation of the QS World University Rankings methodology can be found at www.topuniversities.com.
For the full rankings candidates can go to www.topuniversities.com.

Source Page : Times of India

The Mechanic (2011)

Plot

Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) is a 'mechanic' - an elite assassin with a strict code and unique talent for cleanly eliminating targets. It's a job that requires professional perfection and total detachment, and Bishop is the best in the business. But when his mentor and close friend Harry (Donald Sutherland) is murdered, Bishop is anything but detached. His next assignment is self-imposed - he wants those responsible dead. His mission grows complicated when Harry's son Steve (Ben Foster) approaches him with the same vengeful goal and a determination to learn Bishop's trade. Bishop has always acted alone but he can't turn his back on Harry's son. A methodical hit man takes an impulsive student deep into his world and a deadly partnership is born. But while in pursuit of their ultimate mark, deceptions threaten to surface and those hired to fix problems become problems themselves.

My Views

Another excellent movie starring Jason Stathom Lee..
But I like the kind of action movies Stathom does so there might be a caveat for you in case you absolutely don't like him for any reason at all..!!!

Trailer



Download using Torrent..



OR

– – –

How Google Works

Got a good animation on how Google works from here.

50 Mac Apps With Well-designed and Sexy Interfaces

Hi Guys I have stumbled on a good list of possibly-required applications for your Mac. I thank the guy who has prepared such an exhaustive list.

Here goes the list. Enjoy and take your Pick...

Pixelmator

[$59 | Website]

Pixelmator is a great alternative to Photoshop, low memory footprint and extremely beautiful.

Tapedeck

[$25 | Website]

TapeDeck is a powerful and fun new audio recorder for Mac OS X Leopard. It’s just like your old analog tape recorder, only better. A lot better.

Snowtape

[$29 | Website]

Snowtape lets you listen to radio stations and record them live. And more! Read my review.

Delibar

[$18 | Website]

I have a review for Delibar coming up next week, so stay tuned! Delibar is a full featured Delicious.com Mac client. Delibar focuses on giving Mac OS X users an easy and quick tool for searching, managing and sharing their Delicious bookmarks.

CleanMyMac

[$29.95 lifetime or $14.95 6 month license | Website]

CleanMyMac represents sophisticated all-in-one-suite utility that helps keep your Mac clean and healthy. With just two simple clicks you can delete useless files that basically pile up and waste your valuable disk space.

Swatch

[$4.95 | Website]

Swatch lets you group your colors together in ‘Swatches’ to later be used throughout your project. Working in CSS? Easily copy the hex value to paste right into your stylesheet.

Snippet

[$12.95 | Website]

An unobstrusive snippets management tool for your Mac.

Anxiety

[Donationware | Website]

Anxiety is a super-lightweight To-do list application for Mac OS X Leopard that synchronizes with iCal and Mail. Its aim is to provide a streamlined, easily accessible interface to add and check off your tasks, while remaining poised to melt into the background at a moments notice.

Capo

[$49 | Website]

Capo is a musician’s best friend. It lets you slow down your favorite songs, so you can hear the notes and learn how they are played.

Bodega

[Free | Website]

Bodega is like Apple’s App Store, but for Mac! Extremely well designed to say the least.

Blogo

[$25 | Website]

Blogo is a blogging app for Mac that supports Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad, Typo, Drupal, Joomla, and Expression Engine. This post is composed speedily with Blogo!

LittleSnapper

[$39 | Website]

LittleSnapper is a screenshot snapping and management app.

Things

[$49.95 | Website]

If you only have budget for only one Mac OS X to-do list tool, look no further than Things. There is also an iPhone app that can sync with Things for Mac

The Hit List

[$49.95 | Website]

Another to-do list tool for Mac, more fancy design, no iPhone app yet.

Notebook

[$49.95 | Website]

More than just an outliner or text processor, NoteBook is idea management software that supports Mac users at every stage of a project, no matter how large or small.

Coverstream

[€14.95| Website]

Control, search and browse music unobstrusive with a coverflow like interface. Gorgeous!

Tangerine

[$24.95 | Website]

Tangerine! lets you easily create playlists of upbeat music, or playlists for relaxing. It works by analyzing the BPM and the beat intensity of your music. Spend your time listening to music, not making playlists.

TuneUp

[$29.95 lifetime or $19.95 annual license | Website]

Your music collection is a mess. TuneUp fixes it. Automagically.

Coversutra

[$19.95 | Website]

CoverSutra gives you a handy and attractive way to control iTunes without having to leave your current application.

Notify

[Free | Website]

Notify provides a simple and elegant way of keeping track of what’s in your Gmail inbox. With support for multiple accounts, and a beautiful tabbed user interface, you can’t go wrong with Notify.

Just Notes

[Donationware | Website]

A simple, beautiful and powerful notes app. The nice user interface lets you focus on the important things – taking notes

Postbox

[$39.95 | Website]

Postbox lets you work with email the way you’ve always wanted. Powered by an ultra-fast email engine and a sharp-looking, intuitive interface, Postbox will help you focus, save time, and get more done.

NewsLife

[$14.88 | Website]

NewsLife is the simplest way to stay up-to-date with tons of websites without even having to touch your web browser until you see something you want to read.

Stuf

[£12.99 | Website]

Stuf is a clipboard manager with a beautiful HUD like interface.

Cha-Ching

[Free during beta | Website]

My personal favorite finance management app. Manage your finances quickly and easily with Cha-Ching 2 for the Mac. Quickly create a budget, enter transactions and track spending, all within a beautiful user interface that will make managing your finances a true pleasure.

Awaken

[CAD$15 | Website]

Gently fall asleep with the sleep timer and wake up on time with Awaken.

Fontcase

[$56 | Website]

A beautiful font management app!

DaisyDisk

[$19.95 | Website]

With DaisyDisk you can free up disk space by quickly finding and deleting big, useless files. The program scans any mounted disk and displays it on the sunburst map, where segments mean files and folders, proportionally to their sizes. The map is easy to read and navigate. You can also quickly preview any file and reveal it in Finder to delete.

iStat Menu

[Free | Website]

The most advanced system monitor for Mac, and dare I say the most beautiful.

Dropzone

[$10 | Website]

Dropzone is a Mac application that makes it faster, easier and more fun to get things done on your Mac. Share files and text, launch applications and extend via a powerful ruby based API.

Midnight Inbox

[$35 | Website]

Midnight Inbox helps you work smarter and with less stress, automating your inputs and organizing your tasks, files, and information so that you can always be in control. Collect emails, files, calendar and to-do items and notes automatically. Process all of your collected items into to-do items you can actually do when and where you are able. Organize those to-do items into projects you can track easily. Review your lists, projects, and collections to make sure nothing slips through the cracks. Do everything on your lists with a Zen-like focus.

Picturesque

[$29.95 | Website]

Picturesque is a simple app with a simple goal: to make images more beautiful. Whether you are in web or print, your images can benefit from a touch of Picturesque magic.

Aperture

[$199 | Website]

Aperture 2 delivers streamlined tools for moving photos from capture to output with uncompromising quality.

Lightroom

[$299 | Website]

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 software is essential for today’s digital photography workflow. Now you can quickly import, process, manage, and showcase your images — from one shot to an entire shoot. With Lightroom 2, you spend less time in front of the computer and more time behind the lens.

ScreenFlow

[$99 | Website]

Capture the contents of your entire desktop at the same time as your video camera, microphone and computer’s audio. Sophisticated editing tools allow you to create incredible screencasts in no time.The finished result is a QuickTime or Windows Media movie, ready for publishing to your website or blog.

Tweetie

[Free (w/ads) $19.95 (no ads) | Website]

Very low memory footprint and pretty Twitter client for Mac! A standalone iPhone app is also available.

Socialite (previously known as Eventbox)

[Not Available Yet | Download Socialite beta 2 from here | Website]

You can manage your social life on Socialite, an all in one social media client where you can tweet, digg, Facebook, Flickr, read RSS feeds, Google Reader, Reddit and more.

Eventbox has been bought over by RealMacSoftware who subsequently renamed the app as Socialite.

Twistori

[$12 | Website]

Twitter visualization app for Mac.

Canary

[Free | Website]

Canary is a Twitter client that is beautifully designed, fun to use and has everything you’ll ever need. Canary’s user interface is slick and straightforward and helps you do what matters most fast and easily. It does more than you would expect it to and the best part: it’s free with no ads.

Delicious Library

[$40 | Website]

Catalog your books, movies, music, software, toys, tools, electronics, & video games

Tags

[$29 | Website]

File tagging app for Mac.

1Password

[$39.95 | Website]

I wonder what I’ll do without 1Password! 1Password can create strong, unique passwords for you, remember them, and restore them, all directly in your web browser.

Propane

[$20 during beta | Website]

A Mac client for users of Campfire. Campfire^™ is a web-based group chat tool from 37signals^®. It’s like Instant Messaging, only better because it’s designed for groups and runs in your web browser.

Espresso

[€59.95 | Website]

Espresso is a web development app by MacRabbit.

CSSEdit

[€29.95 | Website]

Also created by MacRabbit, CSSEdit lets you, as the name suggest, edit CSS!

Coda

[$99 | Website]

My personal favorite for web development! Text editor + file transfer + svn + css + terminal + books + more = whoah.

Billings

[$39.99 | Website]

Billings is an invoicing and time tracking app.

On The Job

[$39.95 | Website]

Similar to Billings, On The Job gets your invoicing job done.

Rapidweaver

[$79 | Website]

Rapidweaver lets you create beautiful websites quickly and easily!

xScope

[$26.95 | Website]

Want to measure stuff on your screen? xScope can help you get the job done.

Flux 2

[£40 | Website] Suggested by Irfan Q

Flux 2 is an extensible web development tool that enables developers to write HTML, CSS, PHP etc. FTP (including SFTP), Local Disk, and MobileMe are all supported in a completely rewritten publishing system.

Textmate

[£40 | Website] Suggested by svenlito

Peeps who uses Textmate stands by Textmate, they must have done something right as one of the most popular tools for developers.

Writeroom

[$24.95 | Website] Suggested by Powitsjj

For people who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter, but live in the digital world. WriteRoom is a distraction free writing environment. Unlike the cluttered word processors you’re used to, WriteRoom lets you focus on writing. Also comes with an accompanying iPhone app ($4.99)!

Scrivener

[$39.95 | Website] Suggested by twiedi

Scrivener is a word processor and project management tool created specifically for writers of long texts such as novels and research papers. It won’t try to tell you how to write – it just makes all the tools you have scattered around your desk available in one application.

Vinoteka

[€29.90 | Website] Suggested by William

Vinoteka is a brand new wine cellar management software for Mac. Extremely easy and fun to use, Vinoteka offers a realistic interface to manage your bottles (wine, liquors or spirits) recreate your cellar and organize wine tasting sessions. No matter if wine is new for you or if you already are an expert, Vinoteka is here to make your wine experience the best.

Contactizer

[$119 | Website]

Contactizer Pro is an amazing all-in-one solution for managing, sharing and organizing your personal and business information. Contactizer Pro 3.8 makes your business management experience more efficient, productive and inventive. Following the prodigious success of its predecessor, OD4Contact, many users worldwide continue to choose Contactizer Pro for their calendar, organizational and management needs. Contactizer Pro, specifically built for Mac OS X, provides a wealth of powerful PIM features, all through an innovative, elegant and intuitive interface.