send mail with eSMTP

The lightweight eSMTP allows per-user configuration files, making it useful even for multi-user systems.

Most Linux distributions install programs like Sendmail or Postfix to handle local mail deliveries.

While this works fine on multi-user systems or servers, these programs are quite large and complex for single-user desktop systems.

For Linux machines with a single user, the use of more lightweight mail “servers” may be desired–programs like sSMTP or eSMTP. eSMTP allows per-user configuration files unlike other similar programs, and so it’s useful even for multi-user systems.

eSMTP is packaged in some distributions so it may be easily installed using urpmi, apt, or yum. If not, it is trivial to install although it does require the libESMTP library.

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Five realities of Google or any other Workplace you are in

Have you heard about working at Google? They’ve got tricycle conference rooms! They’ve got free, organic, locally sourced food from gourmet chefs. They’ve got dry cleaning, free transportation, backup childcare and more brightly colored plastic things than all of the kindergartens in Silicon Valley together. And every new hire gets a pony.

Fine, I was joking about that last part, but it is hard not to poke fun at the gasping praise/thinly-veiled envy bestowed on Google’s headquarters. From all the braggy bits one hears about the company, it’s logical to conclude that anyone would be crazy to not want to work there.

Yet people do leave their coveted jobs at Google, all the time. Enough have gone to Facebook that some estimate its workforce could be up to 10 percent former-Googlers. Microsoft employee and blogger Dare Obsanjo says that he, too, knows many techies who are picking Microsoft over Google , either by jumping ship or by receiving two offers and picking Redmond.

As tales from these and other departing Googlers emerge, a few themes recur, edifying us to not only the realities of working for the Web’s number one search engine but for any company whose cool quotient is, well, significantly higher than our own.

1. “But everything is so laid back!” The chilled out, fun-loving atmosphere of Google and like minded Valley employers is hard to resist, especially if like most white collar workers, you’ve spent your career toiling in cubes under fluorescent lights. Yet you’ll still be toiling in cubes under fluorescent lights at Google, but somehow it is supposed to be more bearable because it’s Google. Unsurprisingly, this honeymoon phase doesn’t last forever.

“Google values ‘coolness’ tremendously, and the quality of service not as much,” wrote Microsoft development manager Sergey Solyanik about leaving Google upon his return to Redmond.

2. “Just working there is enough.” An ongoing complaint of employees exiting Google and other hot companies is that they were frustrated by a lack of career development, as the sheen of working for such an “awesome” employer settled into a day-to-day routine.

“Startups don’t have a career path for their employees,” writes Obsanjo. “Does anyone at Facebook know what they want to be in five years besides rich? However once riches are no longer guaranteed and the stock isn’t firing on all cylinders (GOOG is under performing both the NASDAQ and DOW Jones industrial average this year) then you need to have a better career plan for your employees that goes beyond ‘free lunches and all the foosball you can handle’.”

3. “Not everyone is making bank.” The majority of Google’s or any startup’s employees are not the bold letter named product guru or famed CEO, but recent graduates piled three and four into apartments working long hours for salaries in the low ends of their brackets. For more established professionals, it can be a harder place to work.

“Google’s hiring system is highly optimized for acquiring fresh college grads straight out of school–bright, idealistic, inexperienced, don’t know what they want to do with their lives, few or no time demands in their home life, and would be thrilled to do anything at a place as cool as the big G,” said Danny Thorpe, another former Google employee that now works at Microsoft. “The Google interview style–valuating the person as a whole on intelligence and creativity, with no particular interest in experience and no particular job title in mind–reflects that.”

4. “They really thought they were going to do something meaningful.” Surprise! Most jobs at Google, like most jobs at any company, are quite unglamorous. Valleywag, a gossip blog, routinely points to openings for what are essentially “professional gofers” whose job responsibilities “will include making restaurant reservations, ordering flowers, recommending places to dine.” Although these are just a few jobs out of more than 10,000 wordwide, it is exactly this dichotomy between high-achievers and mundane work that is the cause for so much burnout.

“[Google] makes a big deal of only hiring these super-high-IQ kiddies and the fact is that most of them truly are smart, but then you put them into this horribly dull and easy drone work on AdWords and AdSense and they’re all bored to tears and totally disappointed because they really really really thought they were going to do something meaningful with their lives,” wrote Fake Steve Jobs.

5. “Eventually, all children want to grow up.” Is working at a company that does your laundry, gives you free food and lets you sit on bouncy-ball chairs kind of like being a kid again? More than one former Googler has argued this as they walked out the door–it was fun for a while, but it got old.

“Google hires programmers straight out of college and tempts them with all the benefits of college life. Indeed, as the hiring brochures stress, the place was explicitly modeled upon college… But as the gleam wears off the Google, I can see why it’s no place anyone would want to hang around for that long,” said blogger Aaron Swartz.

cheers Working!!!

BILL Gates BYe BYe

It was tearful. have a look here

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Unexpected Phenomena

Science has the power to harness energy, allow human flight, help cure the sick, and explain much about the world. But as amazing and beneficial as science is, it cannot explain everything. Scientists may never know exactly how the universe began, or help to settle matters of faith. The same is true for the paranormal world. Though science can explain many strange phenomena, some mysteries remain to be solved–often because there is simply not enough information to reach a definitive conclusion. Some of these phenomena may one day be fully understood, as many things that were once mysterious or unexplained (such as the causes of disease) are now common knowledge.

1.The Taos Hum

Some residents and visitors in the small city of Taos, New Mexico, have for years been annoyed and puzzled by a mysterious and faint low-frequency hum in the desert air. Oddly, only about 2 percent of Taos residents report hearing the sound. Some believe it is caused by unusual acoustics; others suspect mass hysteria or some secret, sinister purpose. Whether described as a whir, hum, or buzz–and whether psychological, natural, or supernatural- -no one has yet been able to locate the sound’s origin.

2. Bigfoot

For decades, large, hairy, manlike beasts called Bigfoot have occasionally been reported by eyewitnesses across America. Despite the thousands of Bigfoot that must exist for a breeding population, not a single body has been found. Not one has been killed by a hunter, struck dead by a speeding car, or even died of natural causes. In the absence of hard evidence like teeth or bones, support comes down to eyewitness sightings and ambiguous photos and films. Since it is logically impossible to prove a universal negative, science will never be able to prove that creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster do not exist, and it is possible that these mysterious beasts lurk far from prying eyes.

3. Intuition

Whether we call it gut feelings, a “sixth sense,” or something else, we have all experienced intuition at one time or another. Of course, gut feelings are often wrong (how many times during aircraft turbulence have you been “sure” your plane was going down?), but they do seem to be right much of the time. Psychologists note that people subconsciously pick up information about the world around us, leading us to seemingly sense or know information without knowing exactly how or why we know it. But cases of intuition are difficult to prove or study, and psychology may only be part of the answer.

4. Mysterious Disappearances

People disappear for various reasons. Most are runaways, some succumb to accident, a few are abducted or killed, but most are eventually found. Not so with the truly mysterious disappearances. From the crew of the Marie Celeste to Jimmy Hoffa, Amelia Earhart, and Natalee Holloway, some people seem to have vanished without a trace. When missing persons are found, it is always through police work, confession, or accident never by “psychic detectives”). But when the evidence is lacking and leads are lost, even police and forensic science can’t always solve the crime.

5. Ghosts

From the Shakespeare play “MacBeth” to the NBC show “Medium,” spirits of the dead have long made an appearance in our culture and folklore. Many people have reported seeing apparitions of both shadowy strangers and departed loved ones. Though definitive proof for the existence of ghosts remains elusive, sincere eyewitnesses continue to report seeing, photographing, and even communicating with ghosts. Ghost investigators hope to one day prove that the dead can contact the living, providing a final answer to the mystery.

6. Dejà vu

Dejà vu is a French phrase meaning “already seen,” referring to the distinct, puzzling, and mysterious feeling of having experienced a specific set of circumstances before. A woman might walk into a building, for example, in a foreign country she’d never visited, and sense that the setting is eerily and intimately familiar. Some attribute dejà vu to psychic experiences or unbidden glimpses of previous lives. As with intuition (see #3), research into ,human psychology can offer more naturalistic explanations, but ultimately the cause and nature of the phenomenon itself remains a mystery.

7. UFOs

There is no doubt that UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) exist–many people see things in the skies that they cannot identify, ranging from aircraft to meteors. Whether or not any of those objects and lights are alien spacecraft is another matter entirely; given the fantastic distances and effort involved in just getting to Earth from across the universe, such a scenario seems unlikely. Still, while careful investigation has revealed known causes for most sighting reports, some UFO incidents will always remain unexplained.

8. Near-Death Experiences and Life After Death

People who were once near death have sometimes reported various mystical experiences (such as going into a tunnel and emerging in a light, being reunited with loved ones, a sense of peace, etc.) that may suggest an existence beyond the grave. While such experiences are profound, no one has returned with proof or verifiable information from “beyond the grave.” Skeptics suggest that the experiences are explainable as natural and predictable hallucinations of a traumatized brain, yet there is no way to know with certainty what causes near-death experiences, or if they truly are visions of “the other side.”

9. Psychic powers and ESP

Psychic powers and extra-sensory perception (ESP) rank among the top ten unexplained phenomena if for no other reason than that belief in them is so widespread. Many people believe that intuition (see #3) is a form of psychic power, a way of accessing arcane or special knowledge about the world or the future. Researchers have tested people who claim to have psychic powers, though the results under controlled scientific conditions have so far been negative or ambiguous. Some have argued that psychic powers cannot be tested, or for some reason diminish in the presence of skeptics or scientists. If this is true, science will never be able to prove or disprove the existence of psychic powers.

10. The Body/Mind Connection

Medical science is only beginning to understand the ways in which the mind influences the body. The placebo effect, for example, demonstrates that people can at times cause a relief in medical symptoms or suffering by believing the cures to be effective–whether they actually are or not. Using processes only poorly understood, the body’s ability to heal itself is far more amazing than anything modern medicine could create.

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World’s Most Reputable Companies

In ascending order..

No. 14: INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES

The Ratan Tata-led group is joined by India’s second largest software exporter Infosys Technologies in the Top-50 league at 14th position.
Both Tata Group and Infosys have leapfrogged over 100 positions from their last year’s ranks in the annual “Global 200: The World’s Best Corporate Reputations” list, compiled by US-based Reputation Institute…

Image: Indian President Pratibha Patil presents the Padma Vibhushan award in the field of trade and industry to Infosys chief mentor Narayana Murthy (right) during the presentation of the ‘Padma Awards 2008′ at the President House in New Delhi on May 5

No. 10: MIGROS
Migros is one of Switzerland’s largest supermarket chain. The Federation of Migros Cooperatives, which owns Migros chain of superstores, ranks number 10 in the world in terms of reputation.
The overall rankings are based on the companies’ performance on seven dimensions — workplace, citizenship, governance, products/services, innovation, leadership and performance.
The global leader Toyota has topped on four dimensions. Among Indian companies, Infosys is ranked fifth in citizenship and leadership categories and fourth in governance and products/services.
Tata Group has been ranked fifth in governance and third in leadership.
Reputation Institute is a private advisory firm specialising in corporate reputation management and Global Purse is its flagship research study conducted annual with about 60,000 consumers in 27 countries, from which it derives the rankings of world’s most reputed companies.
The institute said that general public tends to rate makers of consumer products, computers and electronics well above the global mean.
“By contrast, communications companies and utilities largely anchor the bottom of the distributions. Companies operating in these sectors face an uphill battle in communicating with the general public,” it noted.
Financial companies also face similar uphill battle, the report said, adding that pharma, conglomerate, raw materials, airline, food/tobacco and chemical industries hover around the middle of the ranks globally.


Image: A Migros supermart in Switzerland.

No. 9: GRUPO BIMBO SA
Grupo Bimbo is a giant Mexican food corporation. It might not be too well known in India, but is considered the world’s ninth most reputable firm.
Reputation Institute said that all the 200 companies earned scores higher than the global mean of 64.2 points, but despite earnings better-than-global average, the companies ranked 51-200 have “significantly weaker reputations than the top tier companies.”
The top-20 include six from the US, two each from India and Japan and one each from Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.


A customer grabs an industrialized cake of Pullman, a trademark of the Mexican baker products company Bimbo.

No. 8: NOVO NORDISK
Novo Nordisk is a Denmark’s largest and one of the world’s biggest manufacturer of pharmaceutical products. It is the world’s eighth most reputable firm.
Globally, food and beverage giant PepsiCo, headed by a person of Indian origin Indra Nooyi, has been ranked 100th.
Tatas are ranked higher than companies like Walt Disney, Marks and Spencers, Xerox, Colgate-Palmolive, Sony, Honda, General Electric (GE), all of which are in the top-50.
The survey was conducted on 600 largest companies from 27 countries, out of which 200 were selected for the list. Toyota earned the highest ranking with a score of 86.53, followed by Google with 85.23 points.


Image: A Novo Nordisk office building in Denmark.

No. 7: KRAFT FOODS
Kraft Foods Inc of the US is world’s third largest food and beverage company. It is also the seventh most reputable firm on earth.
However, the highest jump in ranking has been seen by China’s Faw Group (ranked 41st with an improvement of 178 spots), followed by Norway’s Coop, Canada’s Sobey’s and Japan’s AEON, all of which have gained over 100 spots..
Maruti, the country’s biggest car maker, has been ranked at 77th, SBI at 107th, HLL (now renamed as HUL) at 131st, Hero Honda at 147th, LIC at 161st, Bajaj Auto at 169th, ONGC at 186th , M&M at 191s and IOC at 199th position

Image: A Kraft Foods sign is displayed near its corporate headquarters in Northfield, Illinois.

6 TH: TATA GROUP, 6TH IN THE WORLD
The Tata Group has emerged as the world’s sixth most reputed company, joined by 10 others from India such as Infosys, Maruti and SBI in a list of Top-200 firms.
Tata Group is one of India’s largest industrial conglomerates and runs more than 98 firms. Click here to find out which are the world’s most reputable companies.


Image: Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Group.

No. 5: JOHNSON & JOHNSON
Johnson & Johnson is a global pharmaceutical major. The American major is the world’s fifth most reputable firm.
Both Tata and Infosys have gained over 100 spots each to join the top tier of global companies.
“India’s Tata Group and Infosys Technologies saw their reputations increase by over 8 points in 2008, and catapulted over 100 spots in the ranking to join the top tier of global companies in 2008, in recognition of their growing role among the world’s business elite,” the report said.


Image: A box of Johnson & Johnson Kling Rolls are displayed on a shelf at a Walgreens store in Chicago, Illinois.

No. 4: FERRERO
Ferrero is an Italian confectioner. It is the world’s fourth most reputable business entity.
While releasing its latest Global Pulse report, Reputation Institute said that Tata Group and Air India have the strongest and weakest corporate reputations, respectively, among the companies from India.
Besides Tata and Infosys, other firms that made to the top 200 list include, Maruti Udyog (Suzuki) Ltd, State Bank of India, Hindustan Lever Ltd, Hero Honda Motors, Life Insurance Corp of India, Bajaj Auto, ONGC, Mahindra and Mahindra and Indian Oil Corp.


Image: A youth photographs the famous surprise-filled chocolate eggs by Italian confectioner Ferrero.

No. 3: IKEA
IKEA is a global home products retailer. It is the world’s third most reputable firm. Earlier this year, the Swedish major trashed the Indian retail growth story saying that the country was not even ‘an emerging market’ ready for big retailers with players making more mistakes than success.
Meanwhile, the other Indian companies that were considered for the list, but failed to make the cut include the biggest private sector lender ICICI Bank, top private and public sector telecom firms Bharti Airtel and BSNL, IT giant Wipro, Birla group’s Grasim Industries, tobacco-to-consumer goods conglomerate ITC as well as two state-run firms — oil refining and marketing major BPCL and national carrier Air India Ltd.


Image: Customers drive to a new IKEA store.

No. 2: GOOGLE
Google is an American Internet company and worldwide search giant, and is the world’s second most reputable company.
Apart from Tata and Infosys, 9 other Indian firms, which were among 600 companies considered in a survey to prepare the list, could not make it to the final 200. These firms include Mukesh Ambani-led RIL, the country’s biggest by revenue among private sector firms and overall largest in terms of market value

An employee walks past a Google logo at the Google stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair

No. 1: TOYOTA
The global list, which includes 10 other Indian companies, has been topped by Japanese auto maker Toyota. The Japanese giant is also the world’s largets car manufacturer.

Image: The Toyota logo affixed to the back of a Toyota car.

Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

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