Infosys CEO designate Vishal Sikka with cofounder Narayana Murthy. Photo: PTI

Vishal Sikka is equally comfortable designing cutting-edge software as he is negotiating in the boardroom, skills the new chief executive of Infosys Ltd will need to turn around a company that was once the poster child of India's $108 billion IT services industry.

Sikka, a former senior executive at German software giant SAP AG, takes over as India's second-largest IT services exporter struggles to retain staff and market share.

Some investors blame its outgoing risk-averse management for blunting the innovative edge of a company that was once the employer of choice for young IT workers.

Employees at SAP and business associates said Sikka was seen as the bridge between the "brains" - the IT engineers that helped him create the flagship HANA programme and the besuited executives that spearheaded product sales globally. He was also SAP's first chief technology officer.

"He was on the board at SAP and he ran all development on the technology and application side. That says it right there," said Donald Feinberg, a US-based executive at IT consultants Gartner who used to be the lead analyst for SAP and who has known Sikka for five years.

Sikka's skills will come in handy as investors expect him to move Infosys towards high-margin, high tech services like cloud computing and away from the low-margin, labour intensive outsourcing contracts that it battles for against peers Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and Wipro Ltd.

Colleagues say he is a demanding but communicative manager whose persistence helped bring HANA to life. The programme, which took several years to develop, analyses large amounts of data quickly and clients include Unilever PLC, Lenovo Group Ltd, Lonmin PLC, Deloitte & Touche and Procter & Gamble Co.

"Vishal's a visionary and one of the smartest guys in the Valley," said Vivek Ranadive, CEO of U.S. firm Tibco Software who has been friends with Sikka since meeting him at an airport seven years ago. They hit it off by talking about surfing in Hawaii. FRESH BLOOD

Sikka, 47, is an American citizen who was born in Vadodara in Gujarat. He currently lives in Los Altos, California with his wife and two boys and has said he plans to travel to India for the new job.

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New CEO Sikka to revive Infosys with tech, boardroom savvy

WATERLOO -- The city will hold its cleanup Buck Day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Waste Management Services site, 3505 Easton Ave.

The program is open to all Waterloo residents, but identification will be requested.

To defray costs, the driver of each vehicle entering the site must pay $2. Dropping off major household appliances will cost $1 each with a limit of three.

Tires will cost $3 per tire for the first four; five to eight tires will cost $5 each. Nine and more will be charged $10 each.

Residents should bring exact change.

The public can bring:

Appliances: limit three per household, including air-conditioners, dehumidifiers, freezers, refrigerators, clothes dryers, washing machines, dishwashers, stoves, microwave ovens, furnaces, thermostats and water heaters.

Tires: for automobiles and pickups, with or without rims.

General bulk trash: televisions, computers, furniture, lawn furniture, clothing, bedding, scrap lumber, carpet, housewares, toys and bicycles.

Gas powered equipment: lawnmowers, string trimmers, tillers and snow blowers. Power equipment must be drained of gas and oil.

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Waterloo Buck Day cleanup is Saturday

RaceDeck flooring and One Day Garage Cleaning NJ Give you Your Garage Back in One Day!
Imagine if you could make the ultimate customization to your garage. Something that #39;s even more custom than a painted garage floor or walls. Slightly hard to, right? Spice up the liveliness...

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On paper, investing in your home can sometimes make a lot of sense.

Minor kitchen remodeling jobs, for instance, have brought homeowners an average return of 82 percent since 2002, according to a recent report by Remodeling Magazine. Adding a deck/patio or converting the attic to an additional bedroom yielded a return of around 80 percent.

But dont forget a crucial variable: A successful remodel can hinge as much on strong relationships as savvy math or smart design. Poor communication with a contractor or spouse can lead to higher project costs and it might just ruin your marriage.

Your home is so personal, theres so much emotion tied to it, that its a mine field, said Stuart Klein, a licensed clinical professional counselor in Helena.

In a 2013 survey conducted by home improvement website Houzz.com, 12 percent of couples reported that their home remodels drove them to consider separation or divorce during the project. Almost half of respondents found the experience frustrating.

Klein has seen the fallout from home remodeling in his practice. He joked that the best way to get to know a partner might be to build a house with the person.

Youre seeing someone in a different role than youre accustomed to, he said. Bad things can happen.

Money is a common point of tension. Couples must negotiate how much to budget for a project, then manage any overruns that might arise during the work.

Differences in taste account for many tussles, and disputes with contractors can end up affecting a couples relationship. Do-it-yourself projects inevitably require teamwork during construction or installation.

These pressures can reveal aspects of your partner that you werent aware of, or the stress might lead you to take out frustrations on each other. You might think of it as weeks, or months, of shared decision-making and conflict resolution.

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Home improvement increases property value, but can be a strain on relationships

Weve been talking about air conditioning for so long that it seems as if weve covered every possible question four or five times. But at this time of year, it still remains the No. 1 most popular subject among Arizona residents who write to us or call our radio program.

To kick off the summer, here are some of the most popular AC questions, the ones that homeowners ask over and over again in one form or another about air conditioning along with some up-to-date answers:

Q: Why do I have to replace a perfectly good furnace when my air conditioner breaks down? Why cant I just replace one part or the other? Isnt it wasteful to throw out both parts of the HVAC system when I only need one new component?

A: The main reason for replacing the entire system is that the newest air conditioners and furnaces are much more energy efficient now than the ones installed in your house 10 to 15 years ago. So you want to install a new air handler/furnace that has the same capacity and efficiency as your new air conditioning compressor. Mixing the old technology with the new can decrease system performance and comfort. Replacing both at once may also cost slightly less than replacing one part of your system one year and another part the next. Actually, if your AC needs replacing now, the air handler/furnace is probably on the brink of extinction as well.

Q: My air conditioning does a great job in the living areas at one end of the house, but the bedrooms on the other side of the house are always hot. What can the problem be and what do I do about it?

A: Some homeowners in this situation have solved the problem by changing the type of registers they have on ceilings and walls the grilles that supply heated or cooled air to their rooms. Often, homes have stamped-faced air registers with fixed or semi-fixed grilles. These registers have smaller openings that cannot be adjusted to redirect or restrict the air flow. As a result, cooled air can back-flow, creating an imbalance in the system.

So install bar-faced grilles with larger openings and adjustable blade dampers, allowing more air to pass through and keeping rooms more comfortable. By changing the registers and adjusting the blades, you might solve your problem.

For optimum cooling, it would be ideal for every room to have a return-air register that will draw in the hot air that rises to the ceiling and move it back into the HVAC system. Maybe you can install extra return registers in bedrooms if they dont have them. Sometimes this can be difficult to do, but when done, it will cool warm rooms practically every time.

In addition, you might want to hire someone to do a whole house energy audit for your home. Besides testing the registers, the audit may uncover some structural defects in your air ducts or deficiencies in your exterior wall or attic insulation that are causing the problem. Some utilities in Arizona will subsidize the cost of the audit so that it can be done for under $100.

Q: Can installing radiant barrier insulation in my attic help keep my home cooler in summer?

Continued here:
Rosie on the House: Answering those too-hot-to-handle AC questions

1. Make a Family Room or Rec Room

Basements are ideal for casual social activities for the whole family, or just for the kids. It's the perfect spot for the big screen TV, pool table, and to stash board games and craft supplies.

Make this space inviting by finishing and decorating it like any upstairs room. Choose comfortable furnishings that can be easily rearranged to accommodate a few people or a crowd. Incorporate sound systems, internet connections, and good lighting to make the space functional.

For more family room ideas and rec room designs, see:

A basement bedroom and full or half bath makes an ideal suite for guests or teens.

Think about who will sleep in the basement and the amenities they'll need to help you determine the best dimensions. To comfortably fit a double bed, you'll need a room with a minimum of 125 square feet. If twin beds will serve your needs better, plan on at least 150 square feet.

Building codes also require that basement bedrooms have an emergency exit that leads directly outside, either through a door or a window.

For ways to create comfortable basement bedrooms and baths, see:

A wet bar or mini kitchen in the basement makes entertaining much easier. The inclusion of a mini kitchen makes a basement with a bed and bath into an entire guest suite.

A kitchen requires access to hot and cold water, as well as electrical outlets for an undercounter refrigerator, a microwave oven, small countertop appliances, and possibly a small dishwasher or dishwasher drawer.

Excerpt from:
10 Basement Remodeling Tips - Better Homes & Gardens

Architects - (08/06) - Video 4
Architects live Athens - Greece Kyttaro (08/06/2014)

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Pier Solar and the Great Architects Presents...A Relic From A Forgotten Age
Get at me on my blog, Facebook and Twitter http://TripleDaGod.blogspot.com http://tinyurl.com/TripleDaGod http://twitter.com/ReXXXSoprano.

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Pier Solar and the Great Architects Presents...A Relic From A Forgotten Age - Video

Relentless Kerrang! Awards 2014: You Me At Six and Architects

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Dorset architects in TV documentary about dream homes

2:00pm Wednesday 11th June 2014 in News

A DORSET-based architect studio is starring in a 15-part BBC documentary about dream homes.

Rbstudio, managed by architects Paul Robinson and Laurence Bowen featured on the programme Building Dream Homes with the cameras following the architects as they designed and built homes in Dorset.

It was filmed during the autumn and winter, with Mr Robinson and Mr Bowen taking the cameras behind-the-scenes in the designing process, and showed how they juggle the needs of client, planner and builder.

The documentary started last week and is shown every night at 6.30pm on BBC 2. It is scheduled to finish on Friday, June 20.

In tomorrows episode, Paul and Laurence are filmed nervously awaiting the delivery of a factory-built home as the south coast is battered by the severe winter storms.

Mr Robinson said: Rbstudio is about making a positive difference to the way people live.

Our goal is to create innovative, functional and aesthetically pleasing buildings and spaces which enhance the environment and the lifestyle of the people who inhabit them.

Well designed spaces have a positive impact on our lifestyle.

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Dorset architects in TV documentary about dream homes