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SQL SERVER - ColumnStore Index - Batch Mode vs Row Mode

Ratan Tata Retirement

When long-serving employees retire, companies present them with mementos or gold watches as a form of gratitude and in recognition of services rendered.

But what should a company do when its boss, or sort-of owner, is about to hang up his boots?

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest infotech company, is facing just such a question. It has probably answered it the wrong way.

It’s superboss, Ratan Tata, is about to walk off into the sunset in the next six months, and TCS has decided that Rs 5 crore is a fitting reward for his “long-standing contribution to the sustained growth and success” of the company, according to a report in Business Standard.

Is the company honouring or diminishing Ratan Tata, India’s tallest businessman by far, by putting a price of Rs 5 crore on his life-long efforts to put TCS on the global map? Getty Images

Is the company honouring or diminishing Ratan Tata, India’s tallest businessman by far, by putting a price of Rs 5 crore on his life-long efforts to put TCS on the global map? This, when the formal compensation Tata will receive in 2011-12 will exceed Rs 8 crore.

There’s no question Ratan Tata, who retires this December when he turns 75 as per group policy, has rendered invaluable services to every part of the Tata group and to business, in general, both in India and abroad. If Indian business has a reputation abroad, it owes much to Ratan Tata and his group.

TCS, as the crown jewel in the Tata group, has taken in the lead in recognising Tata’s contribution to its own growth and that of the group.

But there are several reasons to think it is not doing the right thing by trying to put a monetary value to Tata’s contribution – even though this may not be the intention behind the TCS gift.

First, listed companies should not be singling out individual directors for special compensation when there are already board and AGM resolutions that specify what Tata should be paid for his work.

Second, when an exception is supposed to be made to this rule, it is the minority shareholders who should vote on it – not all shareholders. As owner of the vast majority of TCS shares (nearly 74 percent), any such resolution is going to pass, especially since Tata Sons, the main holder of TCS shares, is also run by Ratan Tata. The TCS management is thus putting Tata in the embarrassing position of being the promoter who votes on his own retirement bonus.

Third, since it is fairly certain that almost all Tata companies will also be bidding farewell to their larger-than-life promoter, they could all fall into the TCS trap of saying it not with roses, but cash. The TCS example, if followed by other Tata group companies, will be no different from the political spectacles we see where leaders are weighed in gold or garlanded with cash for services rendered.

We think a Mayawati being received with a garland of Rs 1,000 notes is gross, but a Tata being gifted a Rs 5 crore cheque is somehow sane and sensible. The difference is only in the optics: one looks gross, and the other doesn’t because it happens out of public view.

The point is simple: if Ratan Tata’s services have been priceless and invaluable (which they demonstrably are), why try and show gratitude by trying to do precisely the opposite – by indicating a price and putting a monetary value on what is inestimable?

The Tata Group should not bring down Ratan Tata to the level of our crass political class. They should say it with roses.

Firstpost Tech Infographic: Facebook releases world’s ‘most social’ cities

We’re all addicted to Facebook. We can’t  stop checking in, F-liking, posting pictures, no matter where we are, thanks to our smartphones. Facebook has compiled a list of check-ins made on the site from 25 cities worldwide to determine the world’s most social landmarks. And  they’ve released some very cool info graphics along with the data.

According to Facebook’s data,  the Number 1 ranked landmarks across the 25 cities include:

7 sports stadiums and arenas
6 public areas such squares, parks and gardens
2 amusement parks
2 concert areas
2 shopping-related: shopping centers and malls

It seems shopping malls are the popular places for people to login worldwide. Delhi’s Hard Rock Cafe also finds a mention in the list of the most the popular places for logging in. Here’s the complete infographic. Sadly no special infographic for just Indian cities. That’s sad since India has the second highest number of Facebook users in the world, after the US.

The following infographic looks at the most social landmark in some cities across the world

Windows 8 for Android mobile

New York: As it struggles to gain a foothold against the iPhone and Android phones, Microsoft Corp is planning to issue a dramatic update to its phone software, one that won’t be available to current Windows Phones.

The new software, Windows Phone 8, will be available on new phones this fall, Microsoft said Wednesday at a presentation in San Francisco. The software will bring Windows phones closer to PCs and tablets running the company’s upcoming Windows 8, which is also scheduled to launch later this year.

With its planned software updates —and the Surface tablet computer it introduced earlier this week— Microsoft is taking dramatic steps to ensure that it plays a major role in the increasingly important mobile market.

But the company is playing catch-up in an arena dominated by Apple and Google. Microsoft launched Windows Phone 7 in 2010, making a clean break with its previous phone software, which had become outdated. Nokia Corp., until recently the world’s biggest maker of phones, has pledged to use it for all its smartphones, and launched its first Windows Phone in the US earlier this year.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="250"] Image via CrunchBase[/caption]

The new software, Windows Phone 8, will be available on new phones this fall. Reuters Sales have been anemic, however. IDC estimated that 2.2 percent of the smartphones shipped worldwide in the first quarter of this year ran Microsoft’s software, compared to 23 percent for Apple and 59 percent for Android. Still, US wireless carriers support Windows Phone, seeing it as a valuable counterweight to the clout of Apple Inc’s iPhone and phones running Google Inc’s Android software.

Windows Phone is making progress in one respect. Hit games “Words With Friends” and “Draw Something” will be among the apps available for Windows 8. There are 100,000 applications available for Windows phones today, Microsoft said. That’s far less than the

number of apps available for iPhones and Android phones.

Windows Phone 8 will accept expansion memory cards, like Android phones do. It will also work on processors with more than one computing “core,” which are common in high-end smartphones. More cores boost computing power and can cut power consumption.

The new software will also work with near-field communications chips, allowing phones to be used in place of credit cards at some payment terminals. At the conference, Microsoft’s head of phone software, Joe Belfiore, demonstrated how NFC can be used to link two phones so their owners can play a Scrabble-like game. Tapping the phones together can engage NFC, and prompt the devices to establish a link over Wi-Fi.Some recent Android phones come with NFC capabilities, but they’re missing from the iPhone.

Windows Phone 8 will share the operating system “kernel,” or most basic functions, with Windows 8 RT, which will run on tablets and computers. That means manufacturers will have an easier time making hardware that can use either system. Developers will have an easier time moving applications from one platform to the other, Microsoft said.

Changing its phone software at such a basic level means that it will be difficult to install on existing Windows phones