Bobby Tonelli: Learning Mandarin one arm curl at a time

SINGAPORE: Most artistes learn their lines at home, but US-born Singapore actor Bobby Tonelli learned the Mandarin lines for his role in the Channel 8 drama "Double Bonus", his biggest Mandarin-speaking role yet, by going to the gym.

Strange you say?

Tonelli doesn't think so – the hunky actor believed that learning his lines at the gym made it easier for him to remember and understand them.

"The memorisation is very tough. I know what I am saying but I have to memorise all these sounds and try to make it flow, so what I did is I would record lines and I would play it through my headphones while at the gym while working out.

"It does help because when you kind of doing two things at the same time, it sort of gets ingrained into your brain a bit more," said Tonelli, who also hosts Class 95FM's "Cartunes" show with Jean Danker.

"I'm learning Mandarin one arm curl at a time man!"

"The only problem is you start mouthing [the words] out so people are looking at you and are like 'What the hell are you doing in the gym? He's gone mad at the gym!'," said Tonelli, bursting into laughter.
"I was scared sh*tless!"

He may laugh about it now, but Tonelli revealed that he literally shook with fear during the first few days of shooting for the drama, which also stars local actresses Zoe Tay and Tracy Lee along with Hong Kong actor Tom Price.

"I was nervous as hell because acting generally is hard , acting in a foreign language is even harder.

"I remember I was literally shaking the first few days. I was so nervous I couldn't sleep at night," said Tonelli.

"I was scared sh*tless! But that was part of the challenge of it and that's what made it fun for me."

Besides the challenge of acting in a foreign tongue, Tonelli's sense of obligation to Channel 8 also pushed him to take the job and get the job done right.

"Channel 8 has been really good to me. To the mass audience, they didn't notice me till I did 'The Little Nyonya'. It was thanks to Channel 8.

"So there's a part of me that always feels indebted to them for what they have given me," said Tonelli, explaining that he was especially grateful to Channel 8 for bringing him and his actress girlfriend Joanne Peh - whom he met on the "The Little Nyonya" set - together.

"Yeah, you can't beat that! That's always a plus!" said the actor of gaining both his big break as well as a girlfriend from his stint on "The Little Nyonya".

The only problem he had with shooting the show was that it left him with precious little time to spend with Peh, who was also busy with "A Song To Remember" at the time.

"When she was free and wanted to go out, I can't because I'd have Mandarin tuition," said Tonelli.
More Mandarin in his future

Although filming for "Double Bonus" has wrapped and the show is now airing, Tonelli expressed that he intends to continue learning Mandarin, even though he is still struggling with it.

"I love the Chinese language … I enjoy the culture. I'm still taking [Mandarin] lessons.

"It's just that in Singapore, it's hard to learn because you are not around it all the time," said Tonelli, adding that he is also bracing himself for criticism about his Mandarin.

"Singapore audiences can be quite critical of other people's Mandarin ... I know I will probably get slammed for my Mandarin at some point.

"All I can say is I'm trying my best and I'll continue to get better."
"Double Bonus" airs every weeknight at 9pm on Channel 8.

-CNA

Bollywood Tops India’s Twitter Rankings

Although Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan did not deliver a box office hit in 2011, this did not stop him from being crowned India’s Twitter king.

Big B was the most popular Indian celebrity on the micro-blogging site in 2011, with over 1.85 million followers on Jan. 1. The host of India’s edition of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” claimed last year’s title after overtaking 2010’s Twitter queen Priyanka Chopra, who came a close second, ending the year with around 1.84 million followers.

What’s the secret behind Mr. Bachchan’s Twitter success? Not only is he one of the best-known Bollywood names globally: While celebrities often refrain from tweeting on their private lives, last year Mr. Bachchan has been anything but reclusive on Twitter.

In June he broke the news of his daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai’s pregnancy and in November he tweeted in excitement after the birth of his second granddaughter, who was immediately dubbed “Baby B.”

Following Bollywood diva Ms. Chopra is cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, who ranked third with over 1.78 million followers, most of whom have been eagerly awaiting his 100th ton since March last year. Though the little master seldom tweets, ardent cricket fans have set him trending on the micro-blogging site pretty much each time he set foot on the pitch.

Bollywood’s “King Khan” is unlikely to shy away from popularity rankings. Sure enough, he came fourth with over 1.61 million Twitter followers, over 100,000 ahead of actor Aamir Khan, who ranks fifth. The other Khan, Salman, came sixth with around 1.5 million followers.

Twitter’s year-end statistics for India are more Bollywood-heavy than last year’s, when the followers of politician Shashi Tharoor outnumbered both Mr. Bachchan’s and Mr. Tendulkar’s. The Congress party lawmaker is still the most followed tweeter in Delhi, but with around 1.2 million followers he comes nowhere close the top five nation-wide.

Indian celebrities were no match for global superstars, many of whom have a fan following on Twitter in the 10-to-20 million range. Pop diva Lady Gaga tops the list with over 17 million followers followed by teenage sensation Justin Bieber, who has 16 million followers. Not a single Indian made it on the list of the top 100 most-followed celebrities of the year, which includes the likes of U.S. President Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama and Brazilian soccer star Kaka.

To spot the first Indian, you have to dig 12 pages deep into the list after which Mr. Bachchan finally appears at No. 244.

Follow India Real Time on Twitter @indiarealtime.

Data security, privacy concerns may hit cloud computing growth in India

Concerns over data security and privacy and an immature ecosystem are likely to stunt the growth of cloud computing in India. Despite the obvious benefits of lower capital expenditure and quicker rollout of new products and services, chief information officers (CIOs) are hesitant to make full-scale investments in the new technology.

For now, they are rolling out pilot projects or waiting for the technology to stabilise, before making this radical shift. Unlike traditional information technology, cloud computing relies on storing, managing and retrieving data hosted on the internet, rather than on a local server. As the amount of data generated grows exponentially - a McKinsey estimate believes the amount of data will grow 44-fold between 2009 and 2020 - companies may find it more viable to store this data virtually in a distant server, rather than buy more servers and storage systems to keep it in-house.

As broadband services expanded, more companies across sectors started exploring this possibility. Over the past 12 to 18 months, India's largest two-wheeler maker, Hero MotoCorp, has added 40 dealers to its sales and distribution network as it expands its reach across the country.

Hero's CIO Vijay Sethi leant on a new cloud-based software to hasten this process -- from weeks to a matter of days -- since the rapid expansion would have been impossible with its old technology. "Time reduction from four months to four days is much more advantageous than Rs 1 lakh saved in vendor negotiations," he says.

Based on the success of this project, Hero wants to extend its 'cloud' presence into six or seven other functional areas, he pointed out. Despite this major investment, Hero's Sethi and his peers across India Inc remain cautious about the rollout of cloud computing wherein applications related to supply chain and human resources are hosted on the internet.

In theory, this would have resulted in lower capital expenditure because companies would have needed to buy fewer servers and other hardware to store and access their data.

The concerns
However, concerns over security, insufficient development of cloudready applications, lack of case studies measuring returns from cloud computing investments and erratic broadband availability have forced CIOs to adopt a slow and steady route to cloud computing. Despite the service network implementation at Hero, Sethi doesn't think cloud computing will see widespread implementation across India Inc.

"There has been a lot of talk about this," he says. "But few companies have taken concrete steps to adopt this technology." HDFC Bank, India's second-largest private bank, is taking baby-steps to implement cloud computing. Anand Sankararaman, senior vice-president of IT, HDFC Bank, says a few pilot projects have been rolled out internally to gauge how ready the bank is for cloud computing.

However, it neither has a private (data hosted exclusively for the bank) or public (data hosted securely with other firms) cloud set-up yet. "In financial services, there are several concerns over data security and privacy, which aren't fully answered yet," he says.

According to experts, security and access to data is the biggest stumbling block to a wider cloud computing implementation across India Inc. Sid Deshpande, senior research analyst with technology consultancy Gartner, says basic tools like email , data back-up and video conferencing are the first tools to be moved to the cloud. "There are few cases yet of critical data related to customers or supply chain being cloud based," says Deshpande.

The mismatch
Executives at storage and security giant Symantec are closely watching the evolution of cloud computing to keep their products and services upto-date and according to one of their internal surveys, there's a lot to worry.

According to the firm's State Of The Cloud Survey, there is a stark mismatch between expectations from cloud computing and the end results. According to results from this survey , 85% of those interviewed expected cloud technology to improve their IT agility, but only 57% said that it actually did. Results also fell short in areas of disaster recovery, efficiency and security.

"CIOs are concerned about access to data and if their IT infrastructure and applications are cloud ready," says Vijay Mhaskar, VP, Information Management Group, Symantec. Others also think that cloud computing has got off to a slow start in India.

Under a third of 150 CIOs interviewed by Zinnov, a management consultancy based out of Bangalore, have full-scale implementations in place and just over a fifth have pilot projects underway. "While security and data privacy are the top concerns, companies are worried about how long they will spend (and how much money they will invest) in integrating older systems with those built around cloud computing.

"Nearly 75% of the CIOs we spoke to agreed that cloud computing would be an important part of their strategy," says Praveen Bhadada, director, Zinnov. "The biggest issue is one of perception."

The slow shift
There's no denying that cloud computing is an area of future technology investment for India Inc. Gartner says the move towards cloud computing is still in its infancy. Globally, Gartner estimates that while $74 billion was spent on public cloud services in 2010, this was a measly 3% of enterprise technology spending.

Several CIOs suggested that this would go up to 10-12 % of spending overall, as several issues surrounding cloud computing are sorted out. India's largest mobile services firm Airtel has been one of the most aggressive adopters of cloud computing.

According to Amrita Gangotra, director-IT , India and South Asia, Bharti Airtel, the firm began switching to cloud technology around two years ago primarily to reduce costs and carbon footprint globally. Gangotra says that the firm will have a common pool of infrastructure on demand for application developers. "We will have a common pool of technology resources using cloud computing, rather than a dedicated pool to each team," says Gangotra.

This means that there will be fewer peaks and troughs of server and storage usage and projects can be rolled out quicker - a key competitive advantage in the extremely competitive mobile services market. Gangotra says that Airtel has even completed at least five proof of concept to manage new cloud-centric applications with its vendors.

But not everyone is willing to take such a leap of faith. Sethi is hesitant to place the firm's mission-critical applications on the cloud because he is unsure of its availability at all times. "This is not because of the service provider but because we can't live with the slow speed of broadband," he says.

When there are hundreds or thousands of users trying to access this data, bandwidth costs shoot up and return on investment calculations go flying out of the window. Security paranoia and technology complexity too play a key role in cloud computing. "What happens if a provider goes bankrupt," asks Sethi.

"Most applications are not standalone today...enterprise resource planning software is integrated with data management tools, which are linked to the business intelligence software. How do you decide which goes on the cloud first?" Consequently, few CIOs across India Inc are willing to be pioneers in investing aggressively in cloud computing.

"There are no financial services companies on the cloud," argues Sankararaman of HDFC. The hesitancy is because there are few reports which have measured returns from these cloud computing investments-and as the economy sourspeople would prefer to restrict their expenditure on technology.

The uptick in cloud computing then, may not come from large enterprises such as HDFC, Airtel or Hero, but rather from small companies , who have limited budgets but need to have a full-fledged technology set-up.

For example, a small-sized readymade textiles maker in Tirupur in Tamil Nadu, may have to invest in IT to keep pace with a flood of orders from mega retailer Wal-Mart , which can happen only on an online order ful fillment system.

Rather than invest heavily in a complete set-up, such a company may prefer to host most of its data online and use pay-per-use software to keep costs down. With over 8 million small and business units in India, less than 10% of them connected , this may be a latent opportunity waiting to be tapped.

Changes in the approach to IT are also likely to influence a CIO's decision on cloud computing.

The explosion of mobile devices, the growing trend of bringing your own device to work, desktop and server virtualisation, explosive rate of data growth and a changing security threat landscape are the key drivers in this transition, says Symantec's Mhaskar. Before this opportunity can be tapped, a tight-fisted India Inc will need to be convinced cloud computing is worth their time-and money.

Review: Meet 'Lisa,' Linux Mint 12

For someone who has never before tried out a Linux desktop, consider telling them to make Linux Mint 12 their initial exploration.

This version of the Linux distro, which launched late last year, is code-named “Lisa” and runs the relatively new Gnome 3 desktop graphical user interface. It is based on Ubuntu 11.10.
This version has become known throughout Linux circles for a couple of big reasons. First, for new Linux adoptees, Linux Mint 12 comes across as just an outstanding, easy-to-deploy, easy-to-manage PC operating system. Linux Mint 12 is the kind of OS that, were it around in this iteration at the same time as Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) Launched Windows Vista, it might have rendered Microsoft into little more than the Xbox company.
Linux Mint 12, in deploying with Gnome 3, means essentially this: Instead of being able to customize features like themes, it trades in those capabilities for the ability to create multiple “workspaces.” And that has led to the second better-known result of Linux Mint 12: an effort by developers to keep as much of the Gnome 3 functionality while combining it with the Gnome 2 features they have all come to know and love. That effort, code-named “Cinnamon,” is now in the works.
But for now, back to Linux Mint 12. Here are some of the details:
• It took us under 20 minutes to complete a full, clean installation of Linux Mint 12 on a laptop built with a Core i7 quad-core CPU. The wizard-based process was smooth, with no hiccups or suprises.
• All primary drivers on the laptop – including those for Bluetooth, WiFi, Ethernet, audio and – this surprised us – on-board webcam worked the first time out of the gate. In fact, during installation the OS activated the webcam to provide the option of creating a user photo icon for the new account.
• Navigation is different than you’ll see in Windows XP, Windows 7 or Mac OS X, but similar to Ubuntu. Linux Mint 12 has an “infinity” icon in the top left corner of the desktop; once clicked, it provides a full menu of almost 100 pre-loaded applications and tools that can be sifted by type, from “Office” applications to Internet, games, and so on.
• It took between one and two minutes to configure the PC to print to a printer on the network, with no need to install drivers. Print management can also be easily locked to the user by the administrator.
• The default productivity suite, as it is with Ubuntu now, is LibreOffice.
If you’ve never used a PC operating system in earlier versions of Gnome, LinuxMint 12 is intuitive, straightforward and efficient if not elegant. (Think of this when installing and testing out the forthcoming Windows 8 from Microsoft, which is on track to provide significant changes in PC interface with its Metro GUI.)
On installation, one is presented with the option of encrypting the desktop, which is nice.
Linux Mint has been increasing in popularity over the past several years along with continued growth of Ubuntu. It’s not just a viable PC operating system, it’s a legitimate OS that stands as a solid option for engagements with lower-cost of acquisition demands, for repurposing existing PCs or for virtual PC deployments. (It supports VirtualBox.)
With many inside the community still disappointed that Linux Mint 12 is opting for Gnome 3 and continuing to work on preserving the Gnome 2 capabilities, it’s better to not get sucked in to that internal discussion and just enjoy a piece of great software for what it is.

Microsoft sues Comet for making 'fake' Windows discs

Microsoft are after blood, issuing proceedings against the UK's own Comet for allegedly creating and then selling 'counterfeit' Windows discs

Microsoft have filed legal proceedings against Comet on the grounds that it believes the UK retailer created and sold 'counterfeit' copies of Windows Vista and Windows XP.

In a statement released today the company laid out its plans on how to proceed and on what grounds it believes it has a right to sue. David Finn, associate general counsel, Worldwide Anti-Piracy and Anti-Counterfeiting at Microsoft believes that Microsoft has more than a strong case.

“Comet’s actions were unfair to customers. We expect better from retailers of Microsoft products — and our customers deserve better, too.”

Countering this Comet came forward with their own statement arguing that they too have a strong case and that by copying the discs they were acting in the interests of the customer.

"Comet has sought and received legal advice from leading counsel to support its view that the production of recovery discs did not infringe Microsoft’s intellectual property."

"Comet firmly believes that it acted in the very best interests of its customers.  It believes its customers had  been adversely affected by the decision to stop supplying recovery discs with each new Microsoft Operating System based computer."

Kim Walker, Partner and Intelectual Property expert at Pinsent Mason's is however less sure about Comet's defence, arguing that actually Microsoft has pretty solid ground to stand on.

"They [Comet] say what it has been doing was in the best interest of customers, but as you know making copies in the interests of customers is not a defence to copyright infringement. Making a backup copy of software is allowed, but only if it’s done by the person entitled to use the software and needing the backup, which is the owner of the PC and not Comet. If the court were to find infringement of copyright then Microsoft would be entitled both to an injunction and damages."

"I doubt Microsoft will get an expedited trial, in which case there would be a wait of around 12 to 18 months before this reaches the courts. In the meantime Comet will no doubt be going for risk mitigation and trying to settle, especially with its own sale being at the top of its agenda."

What do you think, who's in the right and who's in the wrong? Let us know what you think via the comments box below...

Lenovo announces seven laptops for small businesses

In addition to rolling out a ThinkPad X1 running Android and a buttoned-up Ultrabook, Lenovo announced a handful of mainstream laptops aimed at the small business set. Starting at the high end, the 14-inch Edge S430 (pictured) looks the part of a traditional ThinkPad (nay, IBM box), though Lenovo's sprinkled in metal accents and whittled the chassis to a reasonably narrow .8 inches (20.3mm). As the cream of this crop, it packs Thunderbolt technology, Dolby Home Theatre sound, optional NVIDIA Optimus graphics and up to 1TB in storage.

Moving on down the line, the 14-inch Edge E430 and 15-inch E530 give you a choice of Intel Core processors and AMD Fusion APUs. These, too, can be configured with discrete graphics and 1TB hard drives, though being the less-premium systems they are, you can get them in more playful colors like red and cobalt blue. If you crave a little more portability, Lenovo's also offering smaller versions, the 11-inch E130 and the 13-inch E330. Only have $400 to spend? The budget B480 and B580 bring Fusion and Core CPUs, USB 3.0 and 1TB hard drives, at the high end. The S430 will start at $749 when it hits select markets in June, but the rest will arrive in April, with the ThinkPad Edge models going for $549-plus and the B-series laptops fetching $399 and up. Though the 11- and 13-inch Edge laptops and the B-series notebooks will only be offered in certain markets the 14-inch E430 and 15-inch E530 are slated to ship worldwide. More info in the press release, just past the break.

Obama Blasts Republicans on First 2012 Campaign Trip

President Barack Obama has made his first campaign trip of 2012, taking his re-election campaign to Ohio, one of the states where the election is likely to be decided.  The president defied Republican lawmakers by announcing a key appointment over their objections.

A day after the first battle in the presidential election, President Obama directly confronted the opposition Republicans Wednesday by appointing a director for the new U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The president had nominated former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray to lead the financial watchdog agency last July. But Senate Republicans refused to confirm him, saying the agency would be too powerful and unaccountable.

Mr. Obama told a crowd at a suburban high school the U.S. financial industry needs more regulation, not less.

“The only reason Republicans in the Senate have blocked Richard is because they do not agree with the law that set up a consumer watchdog in the first place," said President Obama. "They want to weaken the law.  They want to water it down.”

The president, frustrated by the blocked nomination, Wednesday sidestepped the Senate and appointed Cordray.

“When Congress refuses to act and as a result hurts our economy and puts people at risk, then I have an obligation as president to do what I can without them," said Obama.

Angry Republican lawmakers were quick to react, saying the president overstepped his authority in making the appointment.

A so-called recess appointment can only be made when the Senate is out of session.  Republicans say that since Senators have been meeting every three days, the Senate is in session.  The White House disagrees.

In a written statement, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called Mr. Obama’s move an “unprecedented power grab” that “arrogantly circumvented the American people.”

A statement from House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said he expects the courts to find the appointment to be illegitimate.

House Republicans have asked Cordray to testify before Congress later this month.

Mr. Obama spoke one day after Republican contenders Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum finished in a virtual first place tie in the Iowa caucuses, with Ron Paul coming in a close third.

Mr. Obama’s visit to Ohio enabled him to take his campaign to one of the states that could decide whether he is re-elected this November.

Much of his speech focused on the president’s advocacy of the middle class, a theme he is likely to highlight throughout the campaign.

“I promise to do everything I can, every day, every minute, every second, to make sure this is a country where hard work and responsibility mean something and everybody can get ahead," said President Obama.

With the Iowa caucuses over, the Republican candidates will battle next in New Hampshire, then South Carolina and Florida, which all have primary elections this month. The candidates have spent much of the campaign so far criticizing Mr. Obama and the Democrats because of the country's weak economy and high unemployment rate.

The president is unopposed for the Democratic Party nomination.