In the last couple of weeks, chances are that you've run into SOPA some way or the other. The Stop Online Piracy Act is a widely notorious bill that hammers the freedom of the internet and makes pretty much every website subject to US jurisdiction.

By now you might have already read a couple of articles on SOPA and PIPA; the controversial and now widely notorious bills that hammer the freedom of internet. In this article we will try to investigate how SOPA negate the spirit of e-world.

Introduced just before Halloween by a bipartisan group of 12 members of Congress, SOPA is ostensibly intended to strengthen U.S. law enforcement, better protect copyrighted intellectual property and decrease the traffic in counterfeit products.

SOPA gives intellectual property owners the power to effectively pull the plug on foreign sites against which they have a copyright claim. Perhaps the most galling thing about SOPA in its original construction is that it empowers IP owners to take these actions without a single court appearance or judicial sign-off. One key component of the bill allows the U.S. Department of Justice and copyright owners to petition for court orders that would stop websites charged with facilitating copyright infringement. This is the main reason why almost everyone's up in arms against it.

The official line on SOPA is that it only affects seedy off-shore torrent sites. That's not entirely true. As the big legal brains at Bricoleur point out, the potential collateral damage is huge. And it affects you. Because while Facebook and Twitter have the financial wherewithal to stave off anti-circumvention shut down notices, the smaller sites you use to store your photos, your videos, and your thoughts may not. If the government decides any part of that site infringes on copyright and proves it in court? Your digital life is gone, and you can't get it back.

Opponents - which include Google, Yahoo!, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, LinkedIn, eBay, Mozilla Corporation, Roblox, Riot Games, and Epic Games the developer of the Gears of War, Reddit, Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation - contend that such a sweeping law might threaten the entire e-commerce industry. The Internet is a completely un-biased and truly democratic technology and has provided an opportunity to every individual who uses it to properly use their freedom of expression no matter where they are. Under this bill, the Internet will fall pray in hands of a central power that can, and already has, without any reason ban any website, even before genuine investigation.

The momentum behind the anti-SOPA movement has been slow to build, but we're finally at a saturation point. Wikipedia, BoingBoing, WordPress, TwitPic: they turned their pages dark on January 18. An anti-SOPA rally has taken place in New York. The list of companies supporting SOPA is long but shrinking, thanks in no small part to the emails and phone calls they've received in the last few months.

Opponents of the bill have proposed the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) as an alternative. On January 20, 2012, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Smith postponed plans to draft the bill.

We live in Calcutta. We work in Calcutta. We thrive in Calcutta. And Calcutta surprised us along with the rest of the world.

When the creative team at Navsoft sat down with Kritika Malhotra of 100 Watts Design and Amar and Sabyasachi Sen of MP tourism ad fame for a teaser trailer for the Roll Cal Roll event to be hosted by the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) in Calcutta next year, we kept coming back to the city's warmth, love and joy. We ultimately agreed that it has to be from the heart and have the human touch - this is something that translated very literally into the handshadowgraphy showcased in our "Let Calcutta Surprise You" video.

We know what the city is about. We know that a city is more than its people. More than its monuments, its history, its heritage and its environment. A city is about the living, about the things that matter and make it a memorable experience. It's about the human touch which changes the lives of those living in it every single day. It brings hope. It brings astronomical expectations and lives up to them for everyone who visits.

So all we'll say is, we look forward to seeing you next year. Thank you for the love, likes and retweets. Thank you for surprising us and let us surprise you further.

- Priyanka Rungta, Director.

The buzzword is the environment. For a long time, a lot has been said, a bit has been done. Everyone's talking about it, but what are we doing to make a difference? As an environmentally aware organization, there are expectations that arise. The concept of being a socially responsible Corporate, or having Corporate Social responsibilities, has been in vogue for the last 30 years. It's only now that major progress is being made in that direction.

With Navigators Software, CSR is about being responsible within the organization first. We have paid attention to the minutest details when it comes to conserving energy and resources. Take the example of wastepaper. Every piece of paper is recycled within the organization. What we do is, we take used printer paper and make notepads out of it. Every employee receives these recycled notepads. In fact, our directors use the same. While on the subject of conserving, we use low power lighting. At the end of a workday, we turn off the lights, every computer and the air-conditioning. Only the essential servers remain running.

Taking it one step ahead, we aim to educate our employees as well. We believe that action stems from awareness, and awareness is rooted in informed education. Keeping this objective in mind, "An inconvenient truth" has been screened. Employees are encouraged to think how something as trivial as turning off a light switch can affect their environment in the long run.

When it comes to disposal of our cartons or cartridges, we send them back to our vendors. We have made sure that our vendors pack the cartridges off to the supplier in Singapore, where it follows a stringent procedure as it is disposed of. Our cartons are given to the local municipal corporation which ensures proper , environment friendly disposal.

Resources don't just mean natural resources like oil or minerals, or human resources, or financial resources. It's a supply of help that can be drawn upon when required. The keyword here is "when required". By stemming our use of what is excess, we are increasing the longevity of our resources. After all, everyone talks about it. We talk about what we do.

With the increase of technical expertise, everyone is talking about value addition. Customers are spoilt for choice and developers are increasing their skills exponentially. The result is a market filled with products promising quality, efficiency and ease of use. Given the current global economy, there aren't very many new players coming in. That makes this the ideal time for established organizations to consolidate and improve their offerings.

The Gitex Technology Week is a leading event that promotes the ICT (Information Communication Technology) industry globally. The event, in its 28 year history, has been the place to learn how to wisely spend a company's IT budget. With more than 3300 exhibitors attending this year's event in Dubai, it's the place to be to see a mind-boggling array of IT solutions.

From the 19 to 23 October, Navigators Software will be showing its contributions to the IT world with its Rich Internet Apps, FLEX based projects, innovations in Web 2.0 sites and various other technologies. It's a platform in which we show the world our technical and solution oriented expertise.

If you're in the neighborhood, why don't you drop by and say hello at:

Stall number E7-27, Hall number 7, Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Center, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai.

There are new styles emerging in Web designing. Much remains the same, but new formats are also being tweaked and tried to see if impact is effective.

The biggest challenge facing a web developer today is grabbing customer eyeballs and interest. The strategy need not be blatant but it needs to be effective in order to increase and sustain web traffic. A client is aware that an effective website will go a long way towards drawing in potential customers and business collaborators. In a world of 'been there seen that' customers who have become blase, its an uphill task to hook a browser. Just looking good is no longer enough, a website must highlight the brand and follow an overall predetermined theme. A browser should be able to navigate easily about the site and the content should be illustrative, cohesive and concise. In fact the page should be designed about the content, rather than the content be artistically arranged to suit a fixed page layout.

Coming to layout.it would do well to remember that big is in. Thus big typeface, large fonts, big headers and footers all work towards making bold statements, ones that are remembered even after the page has closed. 3D effects used sparingly are quite popular off late along with a combo of bold strong colors in the foreground with neutral shades in the background. Even quirky color combinations and seemingly clashing styles of lettering and presentation can sometimes work.

Minimalism also is moving up in popularity stakes with web developers who are now giving visual relief to the browser by leaving large expanses of space. The idea is to focus on essentials and give the impression of uncluttered space. Content is to the point and excess details are either left out totally or are reworked into other pages.

There is also an emerging trend to go retro. Old fashioned designs are making their way back and a classic vintage look is often being used by web developers to impart a feel of solid timelessness. In fact a throwback to the past is often be deliberately created to stand apart from the plethora of ultra modern sites. Being different guarantees viewer interest and efficacy of the website. As Philip Brisk put it in his article" Don't decorate, communicate!!!"