TCS

Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS Limited company) is one of the world’s largest providers of information technology, consulting, services and business-process outsourcing which commenced operations in 1968. As of 2007, it is Asia's largest and has the largest number of employees among the Indian IT companies with strength of over 110,000 IT consultants in 47 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $4.3 billion for fiscal year ended 31 March 2007 and is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India.

TCS is part of one of Asia's largest conglomerates the Tata Group, which has interests in areas such as energy, telecommunications, financial services, manufacturing, chemicals, engineering and materials. TCS is the first company to be rated at Level 5 maturity for both the CMMI and PCMM framework. It is also the first Indian company to be certified AS 9100: Rev B for design of airframe structures.

VoIP

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a protocol optimized for the transmission of voice through the Internet or other packet switched networks. VoIP is often used abstractly to refer to the actual transmission of voice (rather than the protocol implementing it). VoIP is also known as IP Telephony, Internet telephony, Broadband telephony, Broadband Phone and Voice over Broadband.

Voice over IP protocols carry telephony signals as digital audio, typically reduced in data rate using speech data compression techniques, encapsulated in a data packet stream over IP.



VoIP is a revolutionary technology that has the potential to completely rework the world's phone systems. VoIP providers like Vonage have already been around for a while and are growing steadily. Major carriers like AT&T are already setting up VoIP calling plans in several markets around the United States, and the FCC is looking seriously at the potential ramifications of VoIP service.

Advantages of Using VoIP

VoIP technology uses the Internet's packet-switching capabilities to provide phone service. VoIP has several advantages over circuit switching.

For example, packet switching allows several telephone calls to occupy the amount of space occupied by only one in a circuit-switched network. Using PSTN, that 10-minute phone call we talked about earlier consumed 10 full minutes of transmission time at a cost of 128 Kbps. With VoIP, that same call may have occupied only 3.5 minutes of transmission time at a cost of 64 Kbps, leaving another 64 Kbps free for that 3.5 minutes, plus an additional 128 Kbps for the remaining 6.5 minutes. Based on this simple estimate, another three or four calls could easily fit into the space used by a single call under the conventional system. And this example doesn't even factor in the use of data compression, which further reduces the size of each call.

Some broadband connections may have less than desirable quality. Where IP packets are lost or delayed at any point in the network between VoIP users, there will be a momentary drop-out of voice. This is more noticeable in highly congested networks and/or where there are long distances and/or interworking between end points. Technology has improved the reliability and voice quality over time and will continue to improve VoIP performance as time goes on.

MESOTHELIOMA

Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that is almost always caused by previous exposure to asbestos. In this disease, malignant cells develop in the mesothelium, a protective lining that covers most of the body's internal organs. Its most common site is the pleura (outer lining of the lungs and chest cavity), but it may also occur in the peritoneum (the lining of the abdominal cavity) or the pericardium (a sac that surrounds the heart).

Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles, or have been exposed to asbestos dust and fibre in other ways, such as by washing the clothes of a family member who worked with asbestos, or by home renovation using asbestos cement products. Unlike lung cancer, there is no association between mesothelioma and smoking.

Signs and Symptoms of Mesothelioma

Symptoms of mesothelioma include:

# Shortness of breath
# Chest or abdominal pain
# Cough
# Difficulty swallowing
# Hoarseness
# Blood in sputum coughed up from the lungs
# Significant weight loss.

Treatment for Mesothelioma

There is no cure for mesothelioma. Supportive treatments to help thin or remove lung secretions, postural drainage, oxygen and painkillers can only relieve distressing symptoms for a short time.

Prognosis and Mesothelioma

75% of people who develop malignant mesothelioma die within 1 year. A few survive for 18 months.

Preliminary mesothelioma detection can be achieved through a chest imagery scan (CT scan, x-ray); however, mesothelioma is often misdiagnosed as viral pneumonia at this stage because of certain symptomatic similarities between the two. The only way to definitively verify a suspected case of malignant mesothelioma is through a biopsy.

A biopsy is a relatively minor procedure (dependent on the location of the tumor) during which a small section of suspect tissue is removed. The removed section is examined by a histopathologist, an expert in the study of diseased tissue. Histopathological examination can confirm a case of malignant mesothelioma while also typing and staging it. Understanding the type and stage can help doctors suggest the best of treatment.

TECHNICAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ON UNIX/LINUX

1. How do you list the files in an UNIX directory while also showing hidden files? ls -ltra

2. How do you execute a UNIX command in the background? Use the “&”. for eg : cp file1 file2 &

3. What UNIX command will control the default file permissions when files are created? umask

4. Explain the read, write, and execute permissions on a UNIX directory. Read allows you to see and list the directory contents. Write allows you to create, edit and delete files and subdirectories in the directory. Execute gives you the permissions to run programs or shells from the directory.

5. What is the difference between a soft link and a hard link? A symbolic (soft) linked file and the targeted file can be located on the same or different file system while for a hard link they must be located on the same file system.

6. Give the command to display space usage on the UNIX file system. df -lk

7. Explain iostat, vmstat and netstat. iostat reports on terminal, disk and tape I/O activity. vmstat reports on virtual memory statistics for processes, disk, tape and CPU activity. netstat reports on the contents of network data structures.

8. How would you change all occurrences of a value using VI? %s/(old value)/(new value)/g

9. Give two UNIX kernel parameters that effect an Oracle install. SHMMAX & SHMMNI

10. Briefly, how do you install Oracle software on UNIX? Basically, set up disks, kernel parameters, and run orainst.

11. Q: What is the way to view a unix network share on a Windows computer, within explorer ?
NFS, The Unix computer can be running a NFS Server Daemon.

12 . In Unix OS, what is the file server?
The file server is a machine that shares its disk storage and files with other machines on the network.

13. What is LILO?
LILO stands for Linux boot loader. It will load the MBR, master boot record, into the memory, and tell the system which partition and hard drive to boot from.

14. What is NFS? What is its job?
NFS stands for Network File System. NFS enables filesystems physically residing on one computer system to be used by other computers in the network, appearing to users on the remote host as just another local disk.

15. What is HTTP Tunneling ?
HTTP Tunneling is a security method that encryptes packets traveling throught the internet. Only the intended reciepent should be able to decrypt the packets. Can be used to Create Virtual Private Networks. (VPN)

ORACLE 9i : TECHNICAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What is DDL, DML ? How are they different?
2. What are different types of joins in SQL?
3. How do you select unique rows using SQL?
4. What is the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE ?
5. What is the difference between a "where" clause and a "having" clause?
6. What is the difference between "procedure" and "function"?
7. What is the difference between "translate" and "replace" ?
8. How to remove duplicate records from a table?
9. What is a "trigger"?
10.What is the difference between "translate" and "replace"?
11.What is a VIEW?
12.What is the difference among "dropping a table", "truncating a table"
and "deleting all records" from a table
13.Explain new feature of 9i Database ? Explain new feature of 10g Database ?
14.How to use DECODE function?
15.What is “Group by” clause?
16.What are cursors and what are the situations you will use them?
17.What default packages are provided by Oracle?
18.How do you debug a oracle procedure /function?
19.How many triggers are available?
20.How are procedures executed?
21.Which date function is used to find the difference between two dates?
22.What is the advantage of specifying WITH GRANT OPTION in the GRANT command?
23.What is the use of CASCADE CONSTRAINTS?
24.Which function is used to find the largest integer less than or equal to a specific value?
25.What is the parameter substitution symbol used with INSERT INTO command?
26.Which command displays the SQL command in the SQL buffer, and then executes it?
27.What are the wildcards used for pattern matching?
28.What are the privileges that can be granted on a table by a user to others?
29.What command is used to get back the privileges offered by the GRANT command?
30.Which system tables contain information on privileges granted and privileges obtained?
31.Which system table contains information on constraints on all the tables created?
32.What is the difference between TRUNCATE and DELETE commands?
34.What command is used to create a table by copying the structure of another table?
35.What is the use of the DROP option in the ALTER TABLE command?
36.What is the difference between Single row sub-Query and Scalar sub-Query?
37.Difference between Store Procedure and Trigger?
38.Explain normalization with examples?
39.How to find out the database name from SQL*PLUS command prompt?
40.Whats the back end processes when we type "Select * from Table"?
41.What is the difference between SQL and SQL Server?
42.What is table space?
43.What is difference between Co-related sub query and nested sub query?
44.What is reference cursor?
45.What is difference between Oracle and MS Access? What are disadvantages in Oracle and MS Access? What are features&advantages in Oracle and MS Access?
46.Difference between a equijoin and a union?
47.Difference between VARCHAR and VARCHAR2?
48.How write a SQL statement to query the result set and display row as columns and columns as row?
49.What is cluster.cluster index and non cluster index?
50.What is difference between DBMS and RDBMS?
51.How to test the complex view using manually testing?
52.When using a count(distinct) is it better to use a self-join or temp table to find redundant data ?
53.What is the advantage to use trigger in your PL?
54.What the difference between UNION and UNIONALL?
55.What do you mean by TCL ? Give examples .

TECHNICAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ON NETWORKING

1. Describe the OSI model.
2. What is the difference between a repeater, bridge, router? Relate this to the OSI model.
3. Describe an Ethernet switch and where it fits into the OSI model.
4. What is a VLAN? What is an ELAN? What is the difference?
5. Relate FDDI/ATM/SONET to the OSI model.
6. Explain how to configure a host network interface (e.g. IP address, netmask, broadcast address)?
7. Describe Ethernet packet contents: min/max size, header.
8. Describe TCP/IP and its protocols.
9. Describe ATM and what are its current advantages and disadvantages.
10. Describe SONET.
11. What are the maximum distances for CAT5 cabling?
12. Describe UDP and TCP and the differences between the two.
13. What is your current IP address? Hoiw do you find that out on different OSs?
14. Describe what a broadcast storm is.?
15. Describe what a runt, a giant, and a late collision are and what causes each of them.
16. How do you distinguish a DNS problem from a network problem?
17. Describe the Bandwidth Delay problem.
18. Describe the principle of multi-layer switching.
19. Describe the purpose and basic functionality of things like HSRP, VRRP etc.
20.What is the difference between MAC address and IP address ?
21.What is binding order?
22.Explain how traceroute, ping, and tcpdump work and what they are used for?
23.Explain the contents of a routing table (default route, next hop, etc.)
24.Mention some routing protocols that you have configued .
25. Describe what a VPN is and how it works.
26. Describe how VoIP works.
27.Describe methods of QoS.
28.What does Wi-Fi stand for?
29.What does the command “IP name-server 255.255.255.255″ accomplish?
30.How does Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) work?
31.What is a router?
32. What is a gateway?
33.What is LDAP used for?
34.What is the significance of the IP address 255.255.255.255?
35.What is NSLOOKUP ? What options are available in NSLOOKUP ?

C TECHNICAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1.What does a static variable mean?
2.What is a pointer?
3.What is a structure?
4.What are the differences between structures and arrays?
5.What is a static identifier?
6.Where are the auto variables stored?
7.What is recursion?
8.In header files whether functions are declared or defined?
9.What are the differences between malloc() and calloc()?
10.What are macros? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
11.Difference between pass by reference and pass by value?
12.Where are the auto variables stored?
13.Where does global, static, local, register variables, free memory and C Program instructions get stored?
14.Difference between arrays and linked list?
15.What are enumerations?
16.Differentiate between a for loop and a while loop? What are it uses?
17.What are the different storage classes in C?
18.What is difference between Structure and Unions?
19.What the advantages of using Unions?
20.What are the advantages of using pointers in a program?
21.What is the difference between Strings and Arrays?
22.What is a far pointer? where do we use it?
23.How can a called function determine the number of arguments that have been passed
to it?
24.Which one is equivalent to multiplying by 2?
Left shifting a number by 1
Left shifting an unsigned int or char by 1?
25.What is the use of typedef?
26.What are register variables? What are the advantage of using register variables?
27.Out of fgets() and gets() which function is safe to use and why?
28.How would you obtain segment and offset addresses from a far address of a memory
location?
29.Are the expressions arr and *arr same for an array of integers?
30.What do the ‘c’ and ‘v’ in argc and argv stand for?
31.What is the similarity between a Structure, Union and enumeration?
32.Can a Structure contain a Pointer to itself?
33.How can we check whether the contents of two structure variables are same or not?
34.What is the difference between an enumeration and a set of pre-processor #
defines?
35.What are bit fields? What is the use of bit fields in a Structure declaration?
36.Which bit wise operator is suitable for checking whether a particular bit is on or
off?
37.Which bit wise operator is suitable for turning off a particular bit in a number?
38.Which bit wise operator is suitable for putting on a particular bit in a number?
39.Which bit wise operator is suitable for checking whether a particular bit is on or
off?
40.How would you dynamically allocate a one-dimensional and two-dimensional array of
integers ?
41.How can you increase the size of a dynamically allocated array?
42.How can you increase the size of a statically allocated array?
43.What is object file? How can you access object file?
44.How much maximum can you allocate in a single call to malloc()?
45.Write a function similar to printf()?

PROGRAMS:

*Write a program to compare two strings without using the strcmp() function.
*Write a program to concatenate two strings.
*Write a program to interchange 2 variables without using the third one.
*Write programs for String Reversal. The same for Palindrome check.
*Write a program to find the Factorial of a number.
*Write a program to generate the Fibonacci Series?
*Write a program which employs Recursion?
*Write a program which uses command line arguments.
*Write a program which uses functions like strcmp(), strcpy(), etc.

INDIA CHALLENGE AUSTRALIA'S SUPREMACY

India created history by notching up their first-ever cricket tri-series title on Australian soil by pipping the world champions by nine runs in a nail-biting second finals which saw fortune fluctuating from one team to the other till the very end. The series win came after a long hiatus of 23 years after a hard fought series that made headlines on the ground as well as off it.

India survived a valiant fightback from Australia to win the second Commonwealth Bank final by nine runs and claim the series 2-0.

Defending a target of 259 after Sachin Tendulkar's classy 91, India made a fine start as Praveen Kumar (four for 46) removed Adam Gilchrist - playing his final international innings - Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke.

Matthew Hayden (55) and Andrew Symonds (42) put on 89 and James Hopes (63) threatened to see Australia home until Irfan Pathan struck twice in the final over.

These moments come hard in a cricketer's career. Going to Australia and winning a tournament must have began as a distant dream for Dhoni's men, but it turned out to be a reality. India clinched the humdinger of a second final against Australia and with it, won a one-day tournament for the first time in 23 years.

Indian captain MS Dhoni Tuesday said the Commonwealth Bank tri-series win was "important because this is the building stage of my team".

Speaking at the post-match presentation, Dhoni said he was proud of the way his team had performed in "the toughest conditions and against the toughest team in the world".

This will challenge Australia's dominance in world cricket and India's impressive show during the Australian Summer proved that the Oz are not invincible .

HOW TO DELETE THE RECYCLE BIN ICON FROM DESKTOP IN WINDOWS XP / 2003

--> Open Registry Editor.

--> In Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace



--> Find the following key:

{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

Delete the above key.
Note: As always, before making changes to your registry you should always make sure you have a valid backup. In cases where you're supposed to delete or modify keys or values from the registry it is possible to first export that key or value(s) to a .REG file before performing the changes.

--> Close Registry Editor.
There is no need to reboot. Just wait a few seconds and see how the icon disappears from the desktop.

--> In order to restore the Recycle Bin icon to the desktop just re-create the missing key (or import it back to the registry in case you've exported it earlier).

In Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace

Create the following key:

{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

(just copy & paste, including the brackets)

JOB ACCOMPLISHED !!!

GPRS

GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is the world's most ubiquitous wireless data service, available now with almost every GSM network. GPRS is a connectivity solution based on Internet Protocols that supports a wide range of enterprise and consumer applications. With throughput rates of up to 40 kbit/s, users have a similar access speed to a dial-up modem, but with the convenience of being able to connect from anywhere. GPRS customers enjoy advanced, feature-rich data services such as colour Internet browsing, e-mail on the move, powerful visual communications such as video streaming, multimedia messages and location-based services.

For operators, the adoption of GPRS is a fast and cost-effective strategy that not only supports the real first wave of mobile Internet services, but also represents a big step towards 3GSM (or wideband-CDMA) networks and services.

The class of the device determines the speed at which GPRS can be used.

For example, the majority of GPRS terminals will be able to download data at speeds of up to 24Kbps (kilobytes per second). At the higher end, speeds are theoretically possible up to 171.2 kbit/sec when 8 slots are assigned at the same time to a single user. In reality 40-50Kbps.

PC cards capable of GPRS will send data up to speeds of 48Kbps.


The class indicates the mobile phone capabilities.

Class A
Class A mobile phones can be connected to both GPRS and GSM services simultaneously.


Class B
Class B mobile phones can be attached to both GPRS and GSM services, using one service at a time. Class B enables making or receiving a voice call, or sending/receiving an SMS during a GPRS connection. During voice calls or SMS, GPRS services are suspended and then resumed automatically after the call or SMS session has ended.


Class C
Class C mobile phones are attached to either GPRS or GSM voice service. You need to switch manually between services.