At the rate people are joining and interacting on Facebook, Internet giant Google has something to worry about. Speaking at the D9 tech conference Google chairman Eric Schmidt admits that he was so busy with managing Google that he count not do anything about their new social networking competitors Facebook and LinkedIn. What actually could Google have done? Improve Orkut? In recent years there has been massive tweaks done at Orkut to match facebook features. Biggest improvement was sharing API so that developers around the world can develop apps for Orkut just like Facebook has. Orkut did not have any games earlier but now it does but none of those are as engaging as those on Facebook. Still Orkut has a long way to go to match Facebook.

Indian PayPal users received a mail from PayPal few minutes back about some upcoming changes to PayPal User agreement for India.

This is totally ridiculous, now Indian users can’t buy anything using their PayPal funds and only use it to accept payment that too with $500 limit. This is the worst ever hit Indian PayPal users (incuding me) will get because many of us rely on PayPal for purchasing domains and buying stuff online.

Here is the copy of that mail:

With effect from 1 March 2011, you are required to comply with the requirements set out in the notification of the Reserve Bank of India governing the processing and settlement of export-related receipts facilitated by online payment gateways (“RBI Guidelines”).

In order to comply with the RBI Guidelines, our user agreement in India will be amended for the following services as follows:

Any balance in and all future payments into your PayPal account may not be used to buy goods or services and must be transferred to your bank account in India within 7 days from the receipt of confirmation from the buyer in respect of the goods or services; and

Export-related payments for goods and services into your PayPal account may not exceed US$500 per transaction.
We seek your understanding as we continue to employ our best efforts to comply with the RBI Guidelines in a timely manner.

We regret any inconvenience caused to you and hope the advance notice will enable you to plan your future use of our services accordingly. For further information, click here.

If you have any questions, please contact PayPal customer support by logging into your PayPal account and clicking on ‘contact us’ at the bottom of the page. We sincerely thank you for your patience and continued support.

Sincerely,

The PayPal Team

The year 2009 is going to end soon and in this holiday season most of us may not be going on long vacation and spending time at home watching TV. To bring more channels on your TV at affordable rates Direct TV has introduced special offers, which will bring you lots of saving all year. What makes this deal even better that it does not require you to stand in any queue or fill out lengthy forms, all it takes is just one phone call and you are good to go.

Talking about the quality of channels you get, its just awesome. With Satellite Directv you get many high definition channels of all genres to enjoy with your family together. Enjoy movies, sports and other favorite programs at crystal clear clarity on your TV with Direct TV. All this at a low price of just about $1 per day, yes you heart right at a monthly price of just $29.99 you get 150+ digital channels.

There is one more offer which Direct TV is offering its customers and that is a Visa pre paid card worth $100 free, this is special holiday offer. Bring Direct Satellite TV to your home and make best of your holidays!

One of my friend who is currently running his health club wanted to buy his first phone and to get a number he needed an identity proof. He does not drive so he doesn’t have any driving license and he is not in any college as well so no ID card of college as well. This was a big problem and what I was thinking that being a citizen of country like India; he has no proof of his nationality and existence. I don’t know about other things he might be having like birth certificate but that is not accepted as ID proof! I was little shocked that day and today I hear a good news from Indian Government. As part of a project to issue ID cards for all 1.1 billion of its citizens, Indian Government has announced plans to place information of every single citizen in what will be the world’s second largest citizen’s database. This will help in identifying Indian Citizens anywhere in the world and it should be really helpful in national security.

All I can hope that such good plans don’t get dumped. Corrupt officials will definitely try to make some quick bucks in this too. May God keep the database away from corruption!

TATA Nano will soon be seen on Indian roads and if you are looking for the TATA showroom then wait, you don’t have to actually. State Bank of India (SBI) has announced that they will be the sole agency for bookings of world’s cheapest car, TATA Nano. So next time you head to bank for any work, don’t forget to ask your friendly accountant sitting there because they might give you any inside news which is not public yet.

Ubuntu we all aware of now is one of the famous free Linux flavor has a new version of its LTS series available. With each new release, it’s getting better and better and giving tough competition to premium operating systems. This new Ubuntu 8.04.2 LTS can be downloaded from here instantly or you can order free CD’s of this OS from here if you have a limited or slower internet connection and cannot download big files.