IIMs announces highlights CAT 2011

Kolkata, July 25 (Calcutta Tube / IBNS) Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) announced the highlights of the Common Admission Test 2011 (CAT 2011) on Monday.

Prometric, a provider of market-leading test development and test delivery solutions, is IIMs’ partner in developing and delivering CAT 2011.

The CAT 2011 will have only two sections instead of three.

The first section will focus on Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation; the second on Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning. These two sections will be implemented sequentially with separate time limits.

The examination will be 140 minutes. Candidates will have 70 minutes to answer 30 questions within each section which will have an on-screen countdown timer.

Once the time ends for the first section, they will move to the second and will no longer be able to go back. Although new in the computer-based version of CAT, this format was previously practiced in some of the earlier paper-and-pencil years.

A 15-minute tutorial will be provided before the start of the test, and candidates are advised to go through that carefully before starting the main examination. The total duration will be two hours and 35 minutes including the tutorial.

A practice test to provide candidates with a feel of the timed sections, as well as navigation and functionality of the actual test will be made available in the coming weeks. Once again candidates are advised to go though them carefully to familiarise themselves with the screens, layout, and navigation.

The number of test days has been retained at 20 days within the window from 22 October to 18 November. This would provide candidates with the flexibility of choosing a suitable test day based on their convenience. For those candidates who are differently abled, additional support will be provided as required.

“We are confident that CAT 2011 is going to help us in identifying the appropriate candidates for our programmes, and that the examination will be fair and equitable,” said Janakiraman Moorthy, CAT 2011 Convenor.

“Considerable effort has been invested in maintaining similar level of difficulty across papers. A small number of statistically and psychometrically validated questions are randomly inserted in each question paper as equating blocks. These will be used for assessing post test equality across the days.”

IIMs and Prometric have reviewed the operational processes and contingent on the continued punctuality of candidates, the check-in procedure this year will start one-and-a-half hours before the scheduled test time instead of the previous two hours. With this change, candidates are also able to have an earlier start time of 3:15pm for the afternoon session.

To offer convenience to more candidates, three new cities – Bhilai, Jammu and Dehradun – have been added to the previous 33 test locations. This will help in bringing CAT closer to the northern states of the country.

To reduce the difficulties in purchasing CAT vouchers, now candidates will also be able to purchase CAT vouchers from 201 Axis Bank branches, an increase of 30 outlets.

A video on the conversion of CAT to a computer-based test and candidate impressions of this transition will be available on YouTube by the end of this week.

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) were established by the Government of India, starting from the early 1960s as national school of excellence in Management Sciences.

The Common Admission Test (CAT) is here again, this time in a student-friendly avatar. The test, that holds the key to the most coveted seats in the 13 IIMs and other major B-schools, has gone for a format makeover. The test will be held between Oct 22 and Nov 18.

Though the number of questions remains the same, CAT 2011 will have only two sections instead of

three, and an additional five minutes to tackle the test.

According to an official statement released on Monday by Prometric, the testing agency, and IIMs, CAT 2011 will have only two sections — on Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation, and on Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning.

“These sections will be implemented sequentially with separate time limits. The exam will be 140 minutes. Candidates will have 70 minutes to answer 30 questions within each section, which will have an on-screen timer. Once the time ends for the first section, they will irrevocably move to the second. Though new in the computer-based version of CAT, this format was used in some of the paper-and-pencil years,” said the statement. You will get 5 more mins to write CAT

CAT 2011’s new format promises to be student-friendly — one section less and five minutes more to tackle the 140-minute test, though the number of questions remains the same.

The change is vital for this entrance test as admission to IIMs is based on the sectional cut-offs. “This is a move to be studentfriendly. There are many students who lose out on a seat as they would have failed to perform in one of the sections,” said Prof. Janakiraman Moorthy, convener, CAT 2011.

An additional five minutes have been added to the existing two-and-half hours available to students. This includes a 15-minute tutorial, that will guide students through the process.

“Considerable effort has been invested in maintaining a similar level of difficulty across papers. A small number of statistically and psychometrically validated questions are randomly inserted in each question paper as equating blocks. These will be used to assess post-test equality across the days,” he added.

Bringing CAT closer to northern states, Bhilai, Jammu and Dehradun have been added to the existing 33 test locations. The number of testing days will remain 20. Check-in time has been reduced by half-an-hour from the previous two hours after considering “the continued punctuality of the candidates”. With this change, the afternoon sessions will start at 3.15pm.

A practice test to help candidates familiarize themselves with screens, layout and navigation will be made available in the coming weeks. A video on the conversion of CAT to a computer-based test and candidate impressions of this transition will be available on YouTube by the end of this week. Buying CAT vouchers won’t be very tough — they will also be available at 201 Axis Bank branches, an increase of 30 outlets. Last year, around 1.85 lakh students appeared for the exam.

More details will be available on the website www.catiim.in by August 8, 2011.

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Apple Laptop Hack Disables Batteries, Researcher to Show How at Black Hat

At the upcoming Black Hat security conference, a security researcher will demonstrate how he hacked the chips in laptop batteries to corrupt them beyond repair.

Charles Miller, a principal research consultant at Accuvant Labs, was able to take over chips inside the batteries powering several of Apple's popular laptop brands and "brick" them. Miller is widely known for his work on Mac OS X and Apple's iOS vulnerabilities.

As a result, Miller can overwrite battery management firmware to completely disable the batteries on Apple laptops to the point that the computer no longer recognizes them as valid battery units. At this point, his method can be used to launch attacks that are more of a costly annoyance than threat to data on the machines. Malicious attackers will have to do some more work to create malware that can use the batteries as an attack vector to infect the actual machine itself, Miller said.

A security researcher claims to have found a new security flaw in Apple laptops that could allow hackers to ruin laptop batteries, infect them with malware or potentially cause them to overheat and catch fire.

Charlie Miller, principal research consultant at Accuvant Labs, said he has found a way to manipulate chips embedded inside Apple laptop batteries.

The chip monitors the battery's temperature and level of charge, among other things. Those chips can be remotely controlled by hackers using a default password that Miller found on a website of the chip's creator, Texas Instruments. Apple never changed the default password, Miller said.

Miller's discovery, first reported by Forbes.com, is the latest potential security flaw found in Apple's product line. Earlier this month, security experts disclosed a bug in Apple's iOS operating system that could allow criminal hackers to gain remote access to iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices, Reuters reported. Apple said it is fixing that issue in an upcoming software update.

At the very least, Miller found he could ruin laptop batteries by altering the chip's code. Not wanting to set his home on fire, Miller stopped there. But he imagines darker possibilities for hackers if Apple does not fix the security flaw.

"I have full access to the battery and I can make any changes I want," Miller told The Huffington Post.

For example, hackers could install malware on the battery that would not be detected by anti-virus software because it would not appear on the hard drive, he said. The malware could attack the laptop's operating system again and again, even after the user installed a new hard drive.

“What I’m showing is that it’s possible to use them to do something really bad,” Miller told Forbes.

Most modern laptop batteries come with a microcontroller that monitors the power level of the unit and sends the information to the operating system so that it can keep track of the amount of charge left. The battery also relies on the chip to know when to stop recharging and to regulate how hot it gets during operation.

Miller examined MacBooks, MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs, and found that many of the batteries on those units had a 4-byte default password hard-coded on the microchips inside and a second password to give full access to the hardware firmware. With the two default passwords in hand, the perpetrator could rewrite the chips' firmware. Miller discovered the passwords after analyzing a software update from 2009 from Apple that addressed an issue with MacBook batteries. He was able to reverse-engineer the chip's firmware and modify the power information it sent to the operating system. He was also able to rewrite the firmware.

The ability to access and send instructions to the chip could be used by other attackers for malicious purposes, such as preloading malware on to the chip, according to Miller. Once the attacker figures out a way to go from the battery to the operating system, battery-based malware could be used to infect the computer and steal data, take control of the laptop or cause it to crash whenever it was in operation, Miller said.

"The battery would keep attacking it," he said.

Miller, a former security researcher for the National Security Agency, said it's possible that Apple has taken extra security measures to prevent that from happening, or worse, causing a battery to overheat and catch fire. He said he reported his findings to Apple but did not hear back.

An Apple spokeswoman did not return a call for comment.

Since his discovery, Miller said he has received some criticism.

"People thought maybe I had blown up batteries, but I haven't blown up anything," he said. "It's a step in that direction, but I don’t really know what all the implications are."

Miller said he wrote a paper on the security flaw that he plans to present at the Black Hat security conference in August in Las Vegas, where he also plans to unveil a solution called a "Caulkgun" that changes the battery's default password.

While the security flaw presents a potential danger, Miller said most users should not be overly concerned about a hacker taking over their laptop battery.

"It's really only for people who are very paranoid," he said.

When faced with this kind of malware, IT administrators and users will wipe the hard drive, reinstall software and reinstall the BIOS firmware, but not think to check the battery's firmware, according to Miller. "Every time it would reattack and screw you over," Miller said, noting the only way to eradicate or detect it would be by removing the battery.

“These batteries just aren’t designed with the idea that people will mess with them,” Miller said.

On Aug. 4, the second day of the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, Miller will demonstrate his hack and release a fix, "Caulkgun," to address the issue. He said he had already shared his research with Apple and Texas Instruments.

The Caulkgun program Miller will release would change the battery firmware’s passwords to a random string so that it would no longer be the default password. Installing this program would also mean that if Apple decides to roll out an update in the future to fix battery issues, that update would fail.

The hard-coded default password has long been a problem, as there are a number of devices that ship from the factory with passwords that can't be changed. Stuxnet compromised the centrifuges at Iran's nuclear facility in 2010 by using the default password assigned to all logical controllers from Siemens.

While Miller's research seems to indicate that malware authors can target batteries next, it is not a bigger threat than any other possible hardware-based attacks, according to Paul Ducklin, Sophos' head of technology for the Asia-Pacific region. Apple laptop batteries are not the new attack vector any more than "any other hardware in your system with field-updatable firmware," such as the motherboard, wireless card, graphics device and others, Ducklin wrote on the company's NakedSecurity blog

Ducklin also noted that malicious authors have re-written firmware on hardware devices in the past. In the late 1990s, there was a virus named CIH, or Chernobyl, which re-flashed the BIOS on infected systems on April 26, causing the machine to hang. "No malware ever appeared in the wild to do more than simply 'brick' an affected PC's BIOS," Ducklin said, noting that most personal computer BIOSes still aren't protected from this kind of attack.

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Recruitment of Spaecialists Officers in Allahabad Bank

Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) has tied up with Allahabad Bank for customer financing of its cars.

Bibhas Kumar Srivastav, General Manager of Allahabad Bank and Arvind Saxena, HMIL director signed the MoU. Arvind Saxena said that the partnership will provide Hyundai customers with competitive rates and convenient finance options at all Allahabad bank branches.

He added that as HMIL is rapidly increasing the sales network, the tie-up will further help Hyundai reach a wider base of customers and increase penetration in tier-II and tier-III cities in terms of product and finance options available. Allahabad Bank has 2,364 branches while HMIL has 307 dealers and 627 service stations across India.

Hyundai i10, i20 and Santro are among the top 10 largest-selling cars in the country. Other models include sedans namely; Accent, Verna Transform, luxury car Sonata Transform and SUV Hyundai Santa Fe.

Hyundai is the second-largest car maker in India in terms of volume. Hyundai has, within a short span of time, grabbed a significant market share from Maruti Suzuki. Hyundai’s first model launched in India during 1998, the ‘Santro’ is selling even now, clocking more than 6500 units every month. Hyundai launched the i10 in 2007 which became an instant hit and a very strong competitor.

Hyundai gave a minor facelift and launched the next generation i10 on September 23, 2010. The new i10’s sales stood at 14, 617 units in November 2010. In the premium hatchback segment too, Hyundai sold 7, 228 i20 cars as against its rivals Fiat Punto (699 units), Honda Jazz (330), Nissan Micra (1029) and Volkswagen Polo (1, 975).

With three best selling cars in the small car segment, Hyundai recently launched the premium SUV, Santa Fe on October 14, 2010. The car, which sells decently in the US markets, has now reached Indian shores as a direct import with price ranging from Rs. 20.95 lakhs – Rs. 22.95 lakhs (ex-showroom, Delhi).

Allahabad Bank has reported decent results for the quarter ended June 11 with 38% increase in NII at Rs. 1175.55 crore and 20% increase in Net Profit at Rs. 418.13 crore. Despite increase in the cost of funds, the bank has managed to improve NIM to 3.40% in quarter under review against 3.38% a quarter ago and 3.10% a year ago. However, drastic fall in trading profits by 79% and sharp increase in provisions on investments and bad debts has curtailed the growth in PBT to meager 3% at Rs. 569.95 crore. Thank to whooping 10.6% dip in the effective tax rate, Net Profit was up by modest 20% on y-o-y basis. Although the margins improved declining asset quality is a concern for the bank.

Allahabad Bank has increased base rate and BPLR by 25 bps each to 10.25% and 14.50% respectively w.e.f 15 July 11.

Allahabad Bank is going to recruit Specialist Officer – Senior Manager in all over India branches as per the rules and regulation given in the main notification. Allahabad Bank is a reputed Bank in India. We are giving there the main detail of the notification/advertisement so that you can see your eligibility criteria to apply for the posts. The detail which you required like qualification, age limit, no. of vacancies, procedure to apply is given below. You don’t need to read full notification. If you are not eligible for the posts/jobs/vacancies/recruitment, you can search the website or particular category for opening government jobs. If you have passed the eligibility criteria as per the main detail, you must see the main advertisement given by the Allahabad Bank to see the rules, regulation and law applicable in this regard. The main advertisement/notification no. can be seen at www.allahabadbank.in.

Selection procedure will be interview. Allahabad Bank follows the reservation rule as per as per Govt. Directives will be applicable. Besides, the following relaxations & Concessions would also be available to candidates belonging to SC/ST/OBC/PWD/XSM.

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Entourage Season 8 Episode 1 - Home Sweet Home - July 24, 2011

If your are Johnny Galecki's fan, you're home to the all new season premiere of Entourage, one of the hilarious drama-series that captured our attention this weekend! The hilarious scenes that catch our attention and drive us to take a look around for other important details we can share is when Johnny brought out his own theory with the other funny guys.

And yes, we finally confirmed that the man from the geeks of "The Big Bang Theory" is now here along with Adrian and the other Johnny. And according to our source, he is about to join the rest of the gang for this last season of Entourage on HBO. From the role of Leonard, he is now having a great time on his new squad as himself according to our source.

Ladies and Gentleman, this is it. The beginning of the final season. It has been a great run for Entourage and as a fan it better be the best. You can definitely expect every episode to be posted on The Come Up Show.

To make it straight, here's the synopsis of Entourage Season 8 Episode 1 - Home Sweet Home.

The funny scenes and special participation of "The Big Bang Theory" star will last to the season finale few months from now. And guess what, you are about to witness him every now and then starting last weekend night. Join him and the other stunning comedians that will give you a remarkable evening every Sunday!

But if you missed to catch the show on HBO's regular airtime schedule recently, you can visit the official website of Entourage for any available announcement about the replay. Watch the promotional YouTube video of "Home Sweet Home," the season eye-opener of another comedy-series that will take you to the world of Johnny and his new friends.

Try to check some more soon as we continue to bring you the highlights and next upcoming episodes of the Entourage Season 8 after of this break.

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Sonakshi Dread From Sonam

Sonakshi Sinha Dabangg girl nailed in the first row One Couture Delhi Sunday, 2011, and ahead with Sonam Kapoor, who started the fashion show for designerManish Malhotra

This is a first, a young actress to come openly praised the look of another day. And the title will now Sonakshi Sinha after the show,the head of purchasing design duo Nikhil Santanu and return in 30 minutes to sit and watch designer Manish Malhotra show on Sunday, July 24 Delhi Couture Synergy One 2011 e Sunday Sonam Kapoor started the show by Manish and was totally zapped bySonakshi Sonam beautiful avatar on the tarmac.

"I love it," She dropped in a low voice, and kept an eye on the rampshow, from beginning to end. She later congratulated the designer Manish too. Sonakshi both Sonam and families of Bollywood and their

friendship will be missed. Well done, lady.

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Kristin Cavallari And Jay Cutler Call Off Engagement

Looks like a long happy life together do not have maps, is Kristin Cavallari and may no longer engaged to marry Jay Cutler.With take a couple to get to work again in April and at the same time, have been together for ten months , an insider tells People magazine that the reality TV star and her boyfriend is a Chicago Bears QB pulled the plug on their marital plans.

People in this news source dished, "He hung out with Nicky Hilton and Alessandra Ambrosio desktop. He told friends that she called off engagement."

Nixed after Jay was about to be involved to provide support for Kristin, she went on the catwalk during Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Miami Swim only last weekend.

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Ashley Tisdale Back in Pre-BBQ Calorie Burner

Hollywood, after a brief trip back to San Diego, Ashley Tisdale kick off the day of his training method, in West Hollywood, CA on Saturday (July 23). After working up a sweat in the local gym, 26-year-old later joined by good friends with Haylie Duff and Austin Butler, along with her ​​sister Jennifer, as the summer cookout.

By gathering, Ashley tweeted, "Yaya!" Haylie in response to the message read, "Cooking with BBQ @ ashleytisdale ready". Off-duty this afternoon, after the Miss Tisdale made ​​her stage debut at Comic-Con in San Diego on Friday night - when he joined cast fed Vincent Martella, Olivia Olson, Dee Bradley Baker "Phineas & Ferb" panel.

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