First Facebook office in Asia

Social networking website Facebook is expanding its operations worldwide and it is opening its first office in Asia in Hyderabad, India.

Announcing the move on its official blog Monday, Facebook said they are growing their operations and teams to support their web users around the world.

Just last week, Facebook announced plans to invest in a new Austin, Texas, office.

With more than 400 million users, the world's top social network has felt the need to have multiple support centres in a variety of time zones so that "we can provide better round-the-clock, multi-lingual support."

The Hyderabad office is an important development for Facebook, according to the announcement. The company, co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, has experienced phenomenal growth.

The blog post states that 70% of the people using Facebook come from outside the U.S.

"Having an international presence and support system is therefore crucial in continuing to expand and connect," says the blog.

The new offices join Facebook’s main headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., as well as the office in Dublin, Ireland.

More than 8 million of Facebook's total users are in India, Facebook's director of global online operations, Don Faul, said in his post on the Facebook blog.

Incidentally, Internet powerhouse Google and software giant Microsoft also have offices in Hyderabad where they employ Indians to work on everything from writing software codes to providing customer services at lower salaries than in developed countries such as in the U.S.

Facebook also has offices in Atlanta; Birmingham, Michigan; Chicago; Dallas; Detroit; New York; Venice Beach, Calif.; Washington, DC, as well as in Milan; Paris; Stockholm; Sydney and Toronto. - Markk

     

Glammy Granny is Mamy Rock the DJ

From the Cannes Film Festival to the top Paris nightspots, a British glammy granny has become a sensation in France. She has got the French dancing in a frenzy.

And the Internet buzz is catching on with videos of Mamy Rock as she's known on the disco circuit appearing on YouTube.

At 69, grandma Ruth Flowers aka Mamy Rock is hot news and the latest cool on the Paris party scene.

She is undoubtedly the oldest deejay in the world.

Flowers' new-found fame brings back fond memories of Susan Boyle, the unlikely singing sensation from Scotland who won the hearts of millions with her angelic rendition of "I Dream A Dream" on the Britain's Got Talent show last year.

Flowers' exploits as the "hippest English DJ" in France has captured the imagination of the media and it looks like more and more people are getting to know about the awesome old lady.

She wows the dance crowd with a mix of old-school hits and sprinkling her techno beats with tunes from Abba, Queen and the Rolling Stones.

Spotting a spiky silver hair and clad in her leopard-skin shrug and dark sunglasses, she comes across as an unsual sight among the younger set.

Mamy Rock mania is here.

A Ruth Flowers official website is up and running with an inspiring, heart-warming quote posted on the home page that says: "I'd rather sign a contract with a recording company than to sign up for the nursing home!"

On the site, she is described as "an unusual and charismatic woman who shows with facility her unique fresh and dynamic personality."

Indeed, Flowers is planning to launch her first electro-rock EP "Mamy Rock" this spring. She's a trained singer who is more at home with church songs, German lieder and classic pop.

The grandmother from Bristol, in south-western England, is now in great demands in clubs throughout Europe.

Flowers described on her official site that the idea of becoming a disc jockey popped up during her grandson's birthday party at a disco in London. She was so taken by the party that she decided to become a DJ.

"This night shattered my view of things but above all the way I saw my life...I had a lot of free time, I was on pension you know… I talked to my grandson about it, he thought I went mad," says Flowers.

Flowers went on to describe how she was introduced to French director and producer Aurelien Simon who coached her to become a DJ.

Girls wanna have fun. . .and so do grandmas, too! - Markk