TCS announces Q3, Stellar performance, No Salary Hikes ,Promotions – yes

TCS announced its 2009-10 Q3 results today and produced better than expected numbers.

Q3 Revenues at $1.64 Billion up 10.3% YoY and 6.3% QoQ
Q3 Net profit at $364 billion up 38.9% YoY ; up 14.2% QoQ

TCS also added 10 major clients.
Able to maintain margins by leveraging offshore movements.
Overall growth in All verticals.
BFSI also grew considerably.

Also Ashok Mukherjee announced there wont be any wage hikes this year, they might decide on the hikes after April 2010.

Given the excellent performance of the company in this quarter, I am happy to share with you that management has decided to pay once again 1.5 times of the quarterly component of the variable pay (QVA) for the quarter ended December 31, 2009. This will apply to all eligible employees on India payroll.

Additionally, we have decided to go ahead with the 2009 promotion cycle globally with effect from January 1, 2010. This will apply to all associates recommended as per our process and guidelines.

For this Quarter there is a 50% hike in VA.

More updates as information is available

See the US GAAP presentation here

Best Dual Sim Mobile phones in India

When I heard the name of Dual sim mobile phones, I was wondering why would  anyone ever use two sim cards in a phone? But with so many Operators providing many offers on various ways, and with Prepaid connections going lifetime way, it makes sense to have more than one sim card. So here are the best Dual Sim phones available in market.

Samsung C5212 –

Samsung is possibly the only popular brand which is into dual sim phones atleast for timebeing. But Samsung comes with a differentiator, it is also the only brand which allows actual usage of both the Sim at the same time. What I mean by use is “Receiving calls” with the Samsung C5212 even if you are on a call from Sim 1, you have the ability to receive call from Sim 2, you can switch and put one call on hold or decide to ignore it.
Cost – Rs 5500/-

Karbonn K550
Karbonn K550 brings in many features in one neat phone, boasting of a 1800mAh battery and music player functionality all with the Dual Sim does makes this phone a irresistable option. You can go for this phone if you are ready to forego on the full featured dual sim capability. When you are on call on one sim, and if someone is trying to reach you they will get a “Subscriber out of coverage area” message, basically your second sim is equivalent to being swithced off when first one is in use.
Cost – Rs 3000/-

Apart from the Karbonn K550 there are quite a few Karbonn Mobiles which compete for the top spot they include Karbonn K330,K440,K10 (QWERTY keyboard) and K661 etc. Check the Karbonn website for more details. All these phones come with 1 year warranty (as with Nokia,Samsung etc).
Karbonn is ajoint venture between UTL a telecom services company and Jaina a popular distribution firm involved with many Multinational Mobile giants. They source their phones from OEM’s in China.

Fly Dual Sim Phones –
Fly is also a new mobile manufacturer similar to Karbonn specialising in Dual sim phones . Fly has a wide portfolio from Music Phones, Windows Smart phones to the QWERTY phones. Notable models include V180 DS, B430 DS (QWERTY) ,Fly IVORY (Touch screen windows), Fly DS 200 etc.

Intex Mobiles
Intex also is a popular mobile manufacturer in the Dual Sim area they offer quite a number of Dual sim phones which are GSM + GSM and GSM + CDMA area. IN4495 , IN2020E , IN3070 and IN6611 are some popular models. The intex phones are quite good in terms of features and build quality. Intex has been in the Indian market with its computer hardware spares for the last decade (13 years) and it is headquartered at New Delhi.

Micromax Phones
Micromax is positioned similar to Intex and has specialiased in Wireless technologies in India since 1991. It also offers quality Dual Sim phones.

Videocon and Onida too offer few models in the Dual Sim space. But everyone except Samsung offer Dual Sim Single Active Phones (Only one sim is Active when receiving call)

How to obtain older versions of Sun Java – JDK or J2SDK or J2SE

Many have asked me how to obtain the older versions of Sun’s Java Development kits and runtimes. Here is the archive of all the older versions of Sun’s Java installations and runtimes.

Sun Java – Older JDK,J2SDK,J2SE Archive link

One might wonder why these older versions are needed, most developers use older versions of JDK , J2SDK for sake of compatibility with respect to servers. For instance any IBM WAS server running version 6 will need J2SDK 1.4.2 update 9 . And most Development teams all over the world are still using J2SE 1.5 versions of JDK and JRE.
The above link has download links for

JDK/JRE – 6 6 Update 16 6 Update 15 6 Update 14 6 Update 13 6 Update 12 6 Update 11 6 Update 10 6 Update 7 6 Update 6 6 Update 5 6 Update 4 6 Update 3 6 Update 2 6 Update 1 6

JDK/JRE – 5.0 5.0 Update 21 5.0 Update 20 5.0 Update 19 5.0 Update 18 5.0 Update 17 5.0 Update 16 5.0 Update 15 5.0 Update 14 5.0 Update 13 5.0 Update 12 5.0 Update 11 5.0 Update 10 5.0 Update 9 5.0 Update 8 5.0 Update 7 5.0 Update 6 5.0 Update 5 5.0 Update 4 5.0 Update 3 5.0 Update 2 5.0 Update 1 5.0

J2SDK/J2RE – 1.4 1.4.2_191.4.2_181.4.2_171.4.2_161.4.2_151.4.2_141.4.2_131.4.2_121.4.2_111.4.2_101.4.2_091.4.2_081.4.2_071.4.2_061.4.2_051.4.2_041.4.2_031.4.2_021.4.2_011.4.2 (Initial)1.4.1_07 + documentation1.4.1_061.4.1_051.4.1_041.4.1_031.4.1_021.4.1_011.4.1 (Initial)1.4.0_04 + documentation1.4.0_031.4.0_021.4.0_011.4.0 (Initial)

J2SDK – 1.3 1.3.1_251.3.1_241.3.1_231.3.1_221.3.1_211.3.1_20 + Documentation1.3.1_191.3.1_181.3.1_171.3.1_161.3.1_151.3.1_141.3.1_131.3.1_121.3.1_111.3.1_101.3.1_091.3.1_081.3.1_071.3.1_061.3.1_051.3.1_041.3.1_031.3.1_021.3.1_01a1.3.1_011.3.1 (Initial)1.3.0_05 + documentation1.3.0_041.3.0_031.3.0_021.3.0_011.3.0 (Initial)
J2RE – 1.3 1.3.1_251.3.1_241.3.1_231.3.1_221.3.1_211.3.1_20 + Documentation1.3.1_191.3.1_181.3.1_171.3.1_161.3.1_151.3.1_141.3.1_131.3.1_121.3.1_111.3.1_101.3.1_091.3.1_081.3.1_071.3.1_061.3.1_051.3.1_041.3.1_031.3.1_021.3.1_01a1.3.1_011.3.1 (Initial)1.3.0_051.3.0_041.3.0_031.3.0_021.3.0_011.3.0 (Initial)
J2SDK – 1.2 1.2.2_17/_017 + documentation1.2.2_16/_0161.2.2_15/_0151.2.2_14/_0141.2.2_13/_0131.2.2_0121.2.2_0111.2.2_0101.2.2_0091.2.2_0081.2.2_0071.2.2_0061.2.2_0051.2.2_0041.2.1_004
J2RE – 1.2