Understand the Connections

Steve Jobs RIP

2011-10-07T10:59:00.002+05:30

The news is very sad and makes me think of all those wonderful devices apple has introduced. I would have personally watched steve jobs talking and presenting atleast thousand times, to get an inspiration on how to do things right.

I think Steve Jobs can be called as the "Mahatma Gandhi of the Tech World". Both have many similarities like

a) They had lot of self belief
b) Bold in their decisions
c) Their thought & speech are always really inspirational
d) Men of few words (but very effective)
e) Had a great following
f) Leaders in their own domain
g) Made people who ridiculed them look silly later

RIP

Strategic Product Manager

2011-03-07T15:02:00.000+05:30

SPM role is something which really interested me always. Having worked with R&D for quite long I feel getting into a role like SPM where you get to work coperatively wtih Sales, Marketing, Business Units and Development would be really great and challenging. The business side of that role is good and building relations with customer is somethign which I believe would be able to carry out well.

WHen I took lot of time to read about this SPM in our intranet office site go this http://www.strategicproductmanager.com/ page through google. Yet to go through it completely.

Melange

2010-11-18T10:10:00.002+05:30

We have this monthly newsletter/magazine in our office and its really interesting and entertaining to read. Recently it completed 1 year of inception and wrote some words of appreciation to the editorial team. Check below

From baby steps to turning one year
its all exciting and enriching to read I swear,
a budding editorial team which is above par,
'Melange' is truely EIL`s golden media star.

Good beginning with the 'From the chair'
on real thoughts from hedwig which are fair,
the team talks through the "Editorial Scribbles'
show their pen`s might with easy dribbles.

The R&D teams actions caught with the 'Node waves'
no more updates are hidden under teams cubicle caves,
Catch the catchy photos in the 'ERI Gallery'
wonder the skillsket of employees camera mastery.

'A La Carte', 'Pod Cast' and 'Yours Truly'
exposes employees other side very purely,
'The Lifestlye', 'Ask Melange' and with 'Money Minter',
more entertaining than what comes from real media`s printer.

oh Melange - What a year it has been,
and for the hard work thats gone 'Behind the scene',
great job editorial team and keep on your pursue,
we will eagerly look forward for the next issue.

Powerful words

2010-09-20T15:37:00.002+05:30

Some times we come across very powerful words or sentences which makes you really really thinking. Its been almost a year since these words keeps ringing in my head again and again.

What has he lived
To call it a life
Was it believed
To keep him alive

These words were from a poem that was written by my wife. She is best in whatever she does and I like these words very much. It makes me humble.

Agile Poem

2010-09-17T11:12:00.001+05:30

hmm, penned a few words on Agile :)

Agile Poem
------------

Starting the day with daily Standup,
update each other on really whatz up,
what I did , what I will do and what puzzles me,
improvement and impediments on board for everyone to see.

With the poker card on planning game
its never that two user stories are the same.
Its about being roughly right than precisely wrong
then commit to our PO for sprint thats two week long.

Split the stories into easy task
pick them as you wish and dont bother to ask.
get knowledge and help each other with pair programm
Continous integration & TDD will bring us peace and calm.

The acceptance criteria and def. of done is our scope
we even pick something from the sprints corner of hope
preparing everything for the sprint demo
the communication calender is our easy promo.

Do retro to share learnings and improve to our best
use the stickies, categorize and continue our quest
will never again go back to the method of waterfall
for we know and beleive that agile is "best of all".

Saying 'NO' to Bribe Traffic Police - 2

2009-09-30T15:24:00.002+05:30

Scene 2) September 30th 2009 - Near the new under-construction flyover at Kotturpuram, waiting to take left from Boat club road to Kotturpuram - Time 9 AM

Traffic Police Stops the car: Why is your number plate not visible ?
(The recent car cleaning service had made the number plate`s first letter disappear slightly and my car number plate is UP registred for which I had got proper NOC from UP travel authorities and got the vehicle to run in Chennai roads. )
Me: The recent car cleaning service has resulted in this, I will fix this immediately.

TP: Do you have the papaers ? license , NOC etc
I give him the RC, old license copy and the NOC
TP: This is not the NOC (ofcourse I gave him the correct NOC only but he refused to beleive )
TP: Ok park the car in the side.
Parked the Car. He checks the papers again and tells me that the insurance has not been renewed.

I always provide the expired car insurance paper first to the traffic police so that he forgets everything else and argues on the expired insurance and after sometime I show him the renewed latest insurance papers and he goes mad as he doesn't have a case against me now. This works always.

TP: You need to pay 500 for number plate and 1000 rs for NOC expiration, totally pay 1500 rs.
ME: Okay sir I will pay the fine.
I get down from the vehicle.

TP: (Shocked) Okay it will take an hour to get the formalities done.
ME: that should be fine sir
TP: (looking at the watch) at what time is your office
ME: 9 o clock
TP: So its already 9 am
ME: Yes its getting late for me
TP: Ok forget the fine, just pay me 200rs and you can push off
ME: No sir I wont do that.
TP: What if I insist on paying the fine
ME: Thats okay sir, I am ready to pay the fine.

Here the TP introduces me to another TP and explains the story but he twists it a little and claims that I expect him to give a warning.

All these times I give a very serious and stubborn look. However I was really keen on paying the fine and not ready to pay the bribe.

TP: (after waiting for around 5 mintues) Ok fix the number plate soon
ME: Yes I will do.

Traffic police is confused on why this person is ready to pay the fine of 1500rs but not to pay the bribe 200rs and he is little scared as he had openly asked for the bribe to let me go free.

I just walk away without paying any money and planning in mind that I should fix the number plate very soon.

Saying 'NO' to Bribe Traffic Police - 1

2009-09-30T14:52:00.003+05:30

Within span of three weeks in this month I stood firm and refused to give bribe to traffic police who caught me, the outcome is really very interesting.

It seems you cannot take a `U` turn at the first signal when you take kathibara junction flyover in the road which leads to Ekaduthangal and instead take a right inside to Guindy Industrial Estate via Alacatel-Lucent office and get out via the Guindy Bus stop and connect to Guindy - Saidapet road.

However I have been taking `U` turn in that signal for the past one month without realising that I should not.

Scene 1) September 10th 2009 - Kathibara junction flyover - Time around 7pm

Traffice Police: Stop Stop Stop
Me stopping the car and parked it in the road side and asked him whats the problem

TP: Don`t you see that you cannot take `U` turn and its only right turn which is allowed in this signal
Me: Oops Sorry Sir, I did not know this and I have been using this for almost a month now

At this point the discussion continues and the TP wants me to show the papers. He takes me to the Traffic Sargent.

TS: You have to pay a fine of 150 for taking U Turn and your NOC is expired, totally pay 600 rs. (My no objection certificate has indeed expired and I did not know what to do to renew that.)
Me: Ok Sir, I will not take this U again here and tell me what needs to be done to get the NOC renewed.

TS: No first you pay the fine of 600 rs
ME: Ok, I will pay the fine.
Here I get ready to pay 600 rs and ask for a receipt

TS: (Shocked) Come on sir, ofcourse you can pay 600rs and earn that money again however that is not the point we are insisting things only for your safety. Think what would happen if you take a U turn and get into an accident, it is not good. So kindly avoid and do what you can (ie pay him bribe).
ME: (Refusing to pay any amount without receipt) Ok Sir, Its my mistake and I wont do that again, fine me for this offense or consider giving me a warning without taking any money.

The TP & TS realised I am very stubborn and not keen to jump on or take shortcut to not pay the fine. They finally said to be careful in future and let me go without any fine or money after 20 minutes of ordeal.

SCons Vs Make

2009-07-19T09:34:00.003+05:30

Having used lot of Make and Clearmake was definitely impressed with reading the FAQ on SCons. Looks like this software construction tool is a superior alternative to the classic "Make" build tool. I would definitely like to explore more on this as I really feel software engineering needs a better alternative for Make.

BTW, the another tool that I used recently and was very much impressed is Hudson, really very cool and its impressive to know that is a one man`s (Kohsuke Kawaguchi) effort. Its really a great job and Hudson is very simple and easy to setup and implement.

Found a Bug in Bugzilla

2009-05-28T11:22:00.001+05:30

Had a colleague in office coming to me for fixing a bugzilla issue, they were not able to change bug status in the buzilla 3.2.2. I had to help him as he had taken inputs from me for installing and setting it up and considers me a very good expert on the technical side (really ?)

I consider myself very good in debuggin issues and I have trouble shooted successfully in the past, with that reputation at stake I had to solve his problem.

I noticed that whenever the user changes bug status from NEW to ASSIGNED, it automatically gets into CLOSED state and also tries to move the database to another. Though I could understand why this action should happen but was not sure why the bug status and database movement are interconnected.

After looking at the gui for couple hours and not proceeding anywhere, went inside the bugzilla install and checked the code. I was able to find why it was doing the reported unexpected behaviour and could fix it easily, definitely had lot of satisfaction going back home after this. :)

Again Sweden, Karlskrona

2009-04-28T18:08:00.003+05:30

One of the places I like the most in any country is the Airport. You see different types of people all very busy and looking forward to their journey. Travelers are interesting to observe. Happened to visit Sweden again for official work and this time I felt really bored with the long Chennai -> Frankfurt, Germany -> Copenhagen, Denmark - Sweden,Karlskrona journey. Anywaz I am here finally and enjoying the temporary cold weather when compared to the Hot Chennai. I remember somebody once said that the weather is only in your mind and not outside. Very true to think while I was in School/College never bothered about on raining/shining or cold, however it matters a lot when you are grown up.

Pidgin - GTalk Login Issues

2009-04-08T09:46:00.004+05:30

In my work environment I have a Linux workstation and a windows Laptop, I regularly keep in touch with people using Instant messengers of Yahoo, GTalk and MSN. However after upgrading my windows laptop to Vista I could no longer login to Yahoo IM as our network is firewall protected so for sometime I was not using any IM till I found PIDGIN.

Pidgin was definitely the Ultimate IM i was searching for, it ultimately allowed me to login to GTalk, Yahoo, MSN and Sametime in one single IM tool. But things did not work the first instance as I struggled to get through the issues like

"SSL Handshake failed"

"Connection timed out"

The above errors were mainly for connecting GTalk through Pigdin, I googled and tried all permutation & combination for the pidgin settings but with no success.

Finally after lot of reading and searching realised that it needs correct settings as my work environment is behind firewall and all ports were blocked except 80. So finally I got Pigdin Gtalk to work with the below setup

However I shutdown my laptop went home and came back the next day to work and could not login to pidgin-Gtalk as it was facing "SSL Handshake failed" error. After spending sometime realised that https looks for the default port 443 and the below settings worked perfectly fine.

For the past one week I am happily chatting with pidgin and really like it. BTW the version is 2.5.5 on windows vista.

Its a Boy

2008-12-27T12:26:00.002+05:30

December 19th morning 6.25 am, me and my wife welcomed our new born boy baby. It was really a very happy moment and I was in the hospital labour room with my wife to give her some moral support when it happened. I am really in an exhausted state even after 8 days and my friends and relatives tell me the sleepless nights to continue till the baby is atleast 1 year old. Its more so difficult for the mom as the baby needs to be fed every 2 hours. Goodbye sleep and welcoming parenthood. :)

Thumbs up for Vista

2008-12-05T17:00:00.003+05:30

Had my office laptop upgraded to Windows Vista as our enterprise environment is on Vista now. I am pretty much impressed with Windows Vista and its definitely a winner, though it took me sometime to get used to the look and feel, its very good to be honest.

Things I like about this Windows Vista

1) It loads really fast
2) The look and feel is very good
3) Automatically saves personal outlook pst files
4) Adobe Acrobat Reader is really great on Vista
5) Movies and Music rocks

Though I have never had my Windows crashing before ( I am scared here to say this as it might lead to one...) heard and read that Vista does not crash at all.

Come and Go

2008-06-29T08:29:00.002+05:30

I am back to India after working in Europe for a very short assignment, got to see Sweden and Denmark a lot. Had wonderful sight-seeing time for both these places and I really like the slow life in Europe. Having your wife along is the best and definitely had fun time together, she has more energy than me and pulled me for lot than I would normally do.

However sometime during june 3rd week got to hear through my friend that one of my friend in Delhi died of heart attack, 33/34 is not a age for that. He worked with me in one of my previous company and a very nice and gentle guy. Sometimes these types of news brings your motion into halt and make you think about life and its ups and downs. Probably this might be the time to count our blessings.

I wish and pray that my friends soul rest in peace.

Sweden, Karlskrona

2008-05-28T17:36:00.002+05:30

Its been very very long since I really wrote anything on my blog. Life had been busy to actually write and also realised I get into the writers block very frequently. Anyways, I am currently in Karlskrona, Sweden for a business trip.

Karlskrona is a beautiful city in Sweden, I am quite enjoying my trip here. Will post whenever possible.

The Dutch

2007-08-12T12:56:00.001+05:30

Well I was in Netherlands for an official work and had just come back 3 days before. Everything and anything in Netherlands is almost Dutch, many times I tried to login to my blogger account to post something I could not actually get what the blogger.nl in dutch actually refers to. Thought would wait to go back to India to write, and here I am.

The trip was supposed to be 3 weeks, but had to be extended to 4 weeks due to work requirements, I could not complain about that as I had an good apartments all for ourselves and also had my lovely wife with me, it was so fun in netherlands, no wonder why you other colleagues of jealous of being lucky.

One thing worth mentioning about the Dutch is their food habits, they eat mostly bread and soup and finish their dinner very early in the evening like 5-6pm, this is common among all dutch people, they start to work early at 7am in the morning and go home at 4pm, good system indeed.

Netherlands is a good place but you tend to get bored after your 2nd week, sure it has many places to visit like in any new foreign country but still you get bored, or should I say that I got bored.....

Very Lazy Indeed

2007-06-23T16:32:00.001+05:30

Its been almost one month since I actually thought of writing anything, and these days I am not really concentrating much on Technology, I realise that information on everything and anything, whether its technology or world news is reaching each individual much faster. Thanks to the increasing speed and density of broadbands at every homes.

But still I am quite eager and looking forward to the introduction of iPhone and the reviews on it, by June 30th it should be available to the market. Lets see what it brings......

The Bliss

2007-05-24T17:52:00.000+05:30

Back to India and very busy with my wedding. YES, I am married now and have a lovely wife. Life looks more beautiful now. Though I would actually not post personal updates, thought my regular readers should know about my new status.

So far in Netherlands

2007-04-23T18:06:00.000+05:30

We had come to Netherlands in the best period, in terms of the weather conditions. The climate is really very pleasant and gives us more opportunities to roam around and have a good feel of the city during the weekends when we dont work.

I had covered, so far
1) Herman Renz Circus
2) SiteSeeing Trip to Belgium Brussels
3) Biking in the Netherlands country side
4) Kaukenhof the flower show
5) Watching "Mr.Bean`s Holiday" in the local cinema

The place we are living now is called Breda and we had to travel 8 minutes in the local train to get to our workplace. The most common thing which strikes in Netherlands is Biking (cycling), irrespective of age, young or old, almost many people travel using bi-cycles, this seem to be the most preferred way of travelling. The roads here has separate lanes for the bi-cycles aswell.

Another beautiful thing about Netherland is the flowers, in the place of Kaukenhof we get to see lots and lots of beautiful flowers and very different and striking flowers with all mix and matching of colors. The trip on the way itself surprises you with flower plants which is strikingly beautiful with large colorful fields of different colors on both sides of the roads.

In Netherlands

2007-04-17T20:18:00.000+05:30

I am in Netherlands from April 8th for some official work. Its a beautiful country and well connected to other European countries like England, France, Belgium. More updates and photos to follow.

Multi-Tasking Mobile phones

2007-01-30T14:14:00.000+05:30

"President of Napster Brad Duea says the future of music is not iPods and other mp3 players, but music-enabled mobile phones. "

Sure thats how its going to be, remember the 1980`s and 1990`s and even the 2000`s where everyone had multiple devices like Photo Camera, Disk Man, Mobile Phone, Walk Man`s. And we need to carry all or most of this during our outing/picnic`s, now everything is compacted and available into one single device, thats the new generation Mobile phones.

They take better pictures, play your music, call/talk with others and directly send the pictures taken to the printers through bluetooth. Web/Internet browsing had also become features available in these smart mobile phones and the good thing is, with all these features and capabilities the size of the phones are not bigger, they are compact,sleek and very beautiful.

The second half of 2007 is going to be very interesting in this mobile market space, as thats the time iPhone from Apple will get introduced and that is going to set the bar very high for the other mobile phone makers and we are really going to see lots of interesting and innovative mobile devices for sure.

Good Bye 2006

2006-12-31T22:19:00.000+05:30

Boy Oh! Boy what a year this has been. 2006 had been really very very exciting for me in many ways, lots and lots of things happened in this year for me, and the beauty of everything is I never ever really thought these things would unfold this way. I changed job, relocated to new place, visited Croatia, lot of interesting challenges I accomplished in my old job which was greatly appreciated and lot more that I achieved in the new work within months of joining.

But the one thing I would cherish and remember always is that I met someone very special in the last day of this year. I am really on cloud nine now and this year had finished in a great way for me. Looking forward for a wonderful 2007 and wishing everyone to have a rocking new year.

4 Liquid Stages of Life

2006-12-01T20:00:00.000+05:30

The Picture says is all. Btw, its more apt for Men than women. :)

Sometime in Croatia

2006-11-10T14:26:00.000+05:30

well, its been never hectic. The past 2 months have been filled with lot of activities and so couldnt write/update anything. And it continues aswell, I am in Croatia and not much I can put my pen to write about.........

Vista Kernel Control

2006-10-18T08:36:00.000+05:30

Seems Microsoft will never learn from its past mistakes. Well this time the MS partners are unhappy with Vista kernel locked, this feature called as PatchGuard. This means MS will be in full control over its kernel and write all the required applications to protect its OS from Viruses and any other hacks. The anti-virus companies like Symantec or McAfee then wont be able to provide any application/solution to Vista users for any possible new viruse attacks.

I really doubt whether it would be a good decision for MS to do this, but given the fact they have best of the best R&D probably they can do this and even achieve their purpose successfully, but Symantec and McAfee may not agree as it might hurt their business.

Lets see how long MS can do such things while the whole world is turning slowly towards Open-Source.

Check this for more details.

Relocation Update

2006-10-18T08:24:00.000+05:30

Hmm, well now I can claim that my relocation is complete. Atleast all the household goods and my car reached from Delhi to Chennai in a good shape. Though the car was completely dead and interiors badly dusted when it was delivered to me, with a service everything looks alright now.

One funny incidence, the battery had exhausted and we had to push my car to start it, so I managed to start the car from my house and on my way to my Uncles place had to cross this long-waiting "Nandam Signal", by habit when I saw that I had to wait for more than 60seconds I just switched off the Car ignition without realising that car wont start. My god, guess what we are stranded in front of the signal and blocking all the hurrying vehicles behind us cursing and wondering, that too in the peak time of 7.30pm.

I got down from my car to seek help from somebody to push, expectedly I could not get any help from people waiting for the signal to clear, luckily one good hearted guy (who delivers mineral water bottle in his tricycle) voluntarily stopped and came forward to help, he was then joined by another college going student. Both of them waited till the signal to go green and helped me to start the car by pushing it, thank haven reached home without stopping anywhere.

The Chennai city looks very busy, even at night 10.30 people are seen in the roads, comparing the early sleepers in Delhi were mostly everything shuts down by 8.30 this is a welcome change.

Moved from Delhi to Chennai

2006-09-16T21:13:00.000+05:30

I have moved from Delhi to Chennai as an event of my job shift. Just landed in this city a week before and absorbing myself to the new environment. Its interesting to note the vast differences between these two cities, will cover them later.

Brazil and USA - Googles approach

2006-09-04T07:08:00.000+05:30

Google had agreed to give data about some orkut users to the Brazilian government. BTW, orkut is very very popular in Brazil. I thought it was great stand when Google refused to submit any details asked by the US Justice Department in January and everybody appreciated that move.

US Department of Justice wanted that data from Google
"to make its defense of the Child Online Protection Act, a federal law designed to keep children from sexually explicit content on the Internet".

And Brazilian government want the details to identify users
"that encourage racism, pedophilia and homophobia".

I think its not correct to reveal any details and believe they should have refused to Brazilian government aswell. My confidence grew with Google when they took a firm stand on not divulging any details to US government request in January and assumed all my data would be safe with them, but now I really dont think so, as I am not sure whether my orkut account or the communities I belong to are now with Brazilian government (ok, may or maynot be).

Also I dont see any difference in the requests between US and Brazilian government as in both cases they wanted to identify users who do malicious or trying to do something which might not be really legal. I really want to know whether Google would have given those details if orkut had been very popular in USA, I am sure then they wouldnt have.

Kiva - Microfinance

2006-08-29T22:15:00.000+05:30

Check kiva, its a wonderful concept.

"Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence."

The developed nations like USA can actively participate in promoting concepts like this where a little contribution with their currency would make a very large impact to the person who receives it in the other end of the world. I hope they run this for long time.

Zune in India

2006-08-27T20:03:00.000+05:30

The much anticipated rival of the most popular iPod, Zune from Microsoft is expected to be launched in India during this Diwali/Christmas season. The instrument is going to be manufactured by Toshiba and I am guessing that its going to be WIRELESS. Yes, that is the only disadvantage with iPod that the headset with wires is really one annoying thing you realize over time.

When I visited US during 2001 (I was there when Sept 11 happened.) I visited many big electronics/music shops to pick some gadgets, happened to interact with the store owners and during that time I was very keen to get a CDMan, but finally did not buy one. My friend who took me around for these shops got frustrated and asked what was the real purpose to look around many shops and not actually buy a music player/CDMan, I told him that these music players are big and I would like to have something small in size and also capability to store enough songs, the store owners and my friend thought I was asking weird things, but then came iPod.

But what I would have never thought is software companies like Apple or Microsft getting into developing products like iPod or Zune. We always expected some traditional consumer electronic or particularly music player manufacturing companies to get into products like this, but Apple had one attempt which was really innovative took the market by storm.

I am not sure how Zune would be, I am sure that the picture on the left might be some prototype and the final product would be radically different, read somewhere that it would have FM aswell, well that would be really interesting. I think I will buy Zune for sure.

BPO - RAG

2006-08-22T17:32:00.000+05:30

It’s a known fact that the attrition rate in BPO industry is very high as many people could not cope with high stressful work and the very odd timings. To identify those workers who would possibly quit in near future, convergys HR team had come with a tool named RAG. RAG stands for Red, Amber and Green, the person who falls in the Red category would be expected to quit very soon in a month.

I am not sure how or what factors/inputs are considered in getting the identification. But certain things which the BPO`s or Outsourcing companies can do to make their employees not quit.

a) Sponsor for part-time higher education – Most of the employees would fall in the (18-26 ) age category (its my guess from what I am seeing), the company can sponsor these employees to opt for part-time higher education where half the tution fees would be sponsored by the company and the rest needs to be paid by the employee itself. This would help the employee for sure and would retain him till he completes the education.

b) Work from Customer Country – Companies can setup centres where the employees would work for sometime or every 2-3 months in the regular timings of the customers. Say UK based outsourced work will let the BPO employee to work from UK for every 2/3 months. This would be costly for the company which is getting the outsourced job done and might actually defeat the purpose of cost effectiveness in the outsourcing altogether, but still this can be implemented atleast by the big players in the BPO/Outsourcing business.

c) 4 days working per week – Normally Saturday and Sundays are rest days, maybe for this industry they can implement to have one more day of leave so that it would help the employees to refresh and maintain the balance.

The BPO/Outsourcing industry picked up like anything in the past 3 or 4 years and I am eager to see what would happen after 5 years and whether the industry would thrive and become much better or …..

Is Quitting real hard ?

2006-08-15T21:10:00.000+05:30

Let me clarify in the beginning, the Title question is about quitting/resigning your job to get into your next job, mostly for the reason of career progression or some personal reasons for which you need to change jobs.

Hmm, I am quitting my current job with a very good US based Delhi MNC and joining a very good Europe based Chennai MNC, and I would be relocating aswell. The good thing is the new state is my hometown.

When I joined my current company I thought that I would stay for a year or two and move to US as during that time job markets in USA was very good and in India almost every house had somebody who works in US and it was my turn I thought. But I did not move to US as I liked my job + company + environment and all the challenges that it brought in. I had spent almost 6 years working in that product and loved every bit of it. Now when I think about leaving it, I really feel little sad and at the same time when I think about the opportunities that the new job is bringing in I feel excited.

My friends tells me that 6 years in one company/product is good, I guess the main reason I stayed for long is due to Delhi only, I really like Delhi, its big roads, big cars and big monuments and etc etc. Everything about Delhi is perfectly the way I would like things to be. Change is the only thing constant and I am sure I am going to enjoy my return to hometown.

But the change does not happen very easily, though I have resigned I am waiting for transitioning my stuffs to the new person. I now realize the more years of experience you have in a company + the more responsibility you carry + the more knowledge you have on the domain = more & more time to transition. I am not actually liking this waiting for sure, once you decide and wanting to move out it becomes difficult to wait, you feel like jumping out immediately and get into your next job asap, and it really does not happen that way when you have notice period of 3 months and the more + more I said above.

In another 15-20 days I would be in a new state, new home and a new job, though its going to be in the same domain where I consider myself an expert with extraordinary skils (really ?), I did not expect this to happen some 50 days back nor I planned for it aswell, when I came to know about this opening through my friend, I knew I would fit like a perfect glove, thought of just giving the interview to see how it goes as I havent given any inteview for long and also for personal/family reasons, guess thats the start and though I planned something, God planned differently. The reason for having my blog name as "Understand the Connections" is to really ponder about on why/how these things happen? I had a friend who is very keen on Astrology etc and she always tells me that everything in this planet is already planned and it would just happen that way, when I think about how things unfolded in this case, I believe it might be really true ? Dear Friends, wish me goodluck for my next job.

At 23

2006-08-09T19:39:00.001+05:30

Check this advertisement, I saw this in one of the leading newspapers in India. This is for an opening with one BPO company in Delhi, the matter of fact is, this advertisement really made me to think.

Look at it again, you would be able to follow

- At 23, many join as management trainees.
- At 23, you could be managing trainees.

So it gives an impression that if X who is 23 joins this particular company then its possible that X could be managing trainees, so who would he be managing ? My guess is he would be managing those people who got into this job without reading this advertisement, otherwise they themselves would be managing trainees.

So what happens to those who are 23 and want to join the company to manage trainees, say 20 people who are in this age group applies and all 20 want to manage trainees , so again , who are these trainees ? are these trainees are people who are not yet 23, otherwise they would have been managing the trainees themselves.

Anyhow doesnt make sense to me at all. Let me know what you think.

RSVP

2006-08-05T22:57:00.000+05:30

I have posted this idea with www.cambrianhouse.com for a web based application. Let me know what you think about it, Hot or Not ?

1) User X Create`s account
2) Marks his/her birthdays/marriageannivesarys/partys-at-home
3) Sends invitations through the site and invites friends/relatives for event/functions
4) Selects the list of Items they wanted/interested to receive as gifts on the above events/functions
5) Invitees receives the invitation mail and logins to the site and confirms participation
6) After login the invitees can check the wishlist that the User X has created for the event/function
7) They can contribute fully or partially from the wishlist of User X, then pays through paypal to buy that to User X or Contributes with others.
8) Once an wishlist is done its marked GIFTED and the User X should be able to view who has contributed/bought the gift for him/her
9) User X can also know exact number of people who had accepted the invitation.
10) Sellers can advertise their products directly in vgiftu.com or rsvp.org in the "sellers/available products" listings so that it can be selected for wishlist by users.

Blog sites banned

2006-07-24T20:55:00.000+05:30

I won't say the recent ban by the Indian Government on the blog sites like blogspot, typepad, wordpress etc was the reason I did not have any new blog entries. The couple of months have been hectic, workwise and even on the personal front and the last thing on my mind was to blog about something. Things are improving and I should be regular with more posts. So far I have been blogging, but not sure what “what is my style” or what really I am intending to do here, and no wonder I have only 6 page visists per day. I have planned to change the way I write and see whether I can become a better writter.

As the saying goes “Change is the only thing that’s Constant” I am heading towards lot of change and will update on these in the coming months.

Coming back to the Blogs ban, when I tried to get into blogger site and when the page did not open as expected I was suspicious ( missed the news on the ban actually) and was trying to debug it on why when all other sites opened this wasn’t. I was trying to relate it to my recent mail to our CEO (yes, Chief Executive Officer) and other big heads of the company that I work, on why we should also have a blog and gave them examples of how, other companies have their own blog site. It was a sigh of relief when I finally discovered that the ban has got nothing to do with what I did.

I really don’t understand on how this ban could have helped the government and definitely not the correct thing to do aswell. Any prohibitted fruit gets more attention and I really guess the blogs popularity in India would have grown more due to this ban.

Out of the Box Thinking 2

2006-07-12T15:41:00.000+05:30

Check http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/

Really awesome stuff.

Here is Out of Box Thinking 1 according to me
http://sunnyvijay.blogspot.com/2006/03/million-dollar-homepage.html

Great Stuff.

Delete Cookies ?

2006-06-26T19:43:00.000+05:30

:-))

Skype - Free calls for One Hour

2006-06-23T21:02:00.000+05:30

It really works. Very Cool. BTW, I tried calling with my skype to local
landline numbers to friends/relatives in Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai.

AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) Processors

2006-06-05T15:03:00.000+05:30

The AMD processors are gaining a lot market share and seem soon will outgrow Intel processors in near future.

“Coinciding with the third anniversary of the launch of the AMD Opteron(TM) processor and AMD64 technology launch, AMD (NYSE: AMD) announced today it has seen an increase in its overall x86 server processor market share. Based on the 2006 first quarter numbers from Mercury Research, the AMD Opteron processor now accounts for 22.1 percent of the worldwide x86 server processors shipped in the first quarter, up from 16.4 percent in the 2005 fourth quarter. These new numbers, combined with today's introduction of 12 new platforms that meet the AMD Validated Server guidelines, demonstrate strong demand and momentum for AMD Opteron processor-based solutions across various commercial customer segments.”

Personally, I find AMD processor machines are really very very fast and it’s a treat to watch its running like anything with any processes, compilation etc.

I find more customers/users switching/using AMD as another popular RedHat Linux 3.0 ES supports AMD64. Havent got a chance to use the AMD based Solaris machines but heard that they are also very good.

Even Dell is selling AMD processor machines and one of the main thing to note according to AMD Ceo Mr. Hector Ruiz is the possibility of a 100$ Laptop with AMD processors.

Microsoft Office - Open Office - Star Office

2006-06-03T12:31:00.000+05:30

Well Microsoft recently annouced that it has no plans to support PDF in Office 2007.

"Microsoft's confirmation of plans to alter Office 2007's PDF support followed a report in Friday's Wall Street Journal chronicling a breakdown in talks between the two companies about Microsoft's plans to embrace Adobe's PDF technology. Adobe has threatened to take legal actions against Microsoft in Europe, according to the WSJ report."

Converting word docs to pdf is one real requirement in any software development environment, when you have many documents, technical papers to write, its pretty easy to type in Microsoft Word and convert it to PDF. Seems it might not be possible in Office 2007.

On the side note, I have to tell that the openoffice.org on Linux & Solaris really sucks, hmm I shouldnt be that harsh, I can say that its not as good as windows office. Though I have openoffice on my linux workstation, I hardly use openoffice and always switch to my windows pc to check all documents, powerpoints etc.

Rapidshare Hack

2006-05-13T14:18:00.000+05:30

First let me begin with saying "It is not possible to hack rapidshare" the only way it seems is to be its paid premium member and opt for privileges. If anybody tries to eat the free lunch its definitely not unlimited.

Today I was trying to download some files which was uploaded to rapidshare, the file size was pretty big and it gave me a warning that I have already downloaded 250710 kb of data and to download more wait for 10 minutes. So I thought there should be some way to get away/hack this and download more. Googled to find something, and all the given tips/tricks definitely dont work, probably rapidshare folks would have also seen those tricks and got all doors sealed.

What surprised me is this, I have two machines, one windows box and another linux box, both has different ip address etc etc, the only thing thats common with both my systems is my "login" and both machines are connected through network , when the download limit was reached I smartly moved from my windows to linux and thought should be able start the downloads. But rapidshare setup is smart and I was dumbfolded when I got the same error that I have already downloaded 250710 kb of data bla bla bla.

What could be the logic, where are they storing those details ?? Will work on to find it out :-)

Parallel Workstations

2006-04-13T12:19:00.000+05:30

Very interesting technology. I know about Dual boot , VNC and use them a lot but this concept of parallel workstation sounds cool.

The problem with Dual boot is, if you have Windows and Linux configured in the same machine then you can have only one of them running at a time, but the parallel workstation would allow the same machine to run multiple operating systems, sounds really cool and exciting.

This is from a company named parallels when the recent announcement of bootcamp making a lot of news (Boot Camp to run Windows XP on a Mac) and reports on people find it little difficult to set it up, seems the not much effortless parallels is an good alternative.

Big Spending Bush

2006-04-09T16:47:00.000+05:30

Courtesy: TimesofIndia

The New Outsourcing Idea

2006-03-27T18:44:00.000+05:30

Today I happened to read some details about a book named "These Foolish Things" authored by Deborah Moggach.

This book according to some details I heard/read brings upon a very interesting idea, and that is to "Outsource the care for the elderly to Bangalore in India".

This book according to some details I heard/read brings upon a very interesting idea, and that is to “Outsource the care for the elderly to Bangalore in India”

According to some comments available about the book, readers/reviewers seem to have agreed with that idea and see some possibilities of that happening, sometime in future.
I am sure this will be quickly picked by some health care institutions here and it’s really a fact that the number of tourists who visit India to be on the rise for healthcare/medication.

Its little sad to note that the number of old age homes are on the rise here already and one of the main reasons being more nuclear families, children’s of old aged parents serving abroad without returning back etc.

But I am sure that this new outsourcing idea might not really have any big complaints from western world and to be welcomed greatly. Why? I will not get into the reasons.

Million Dollar Homepage

2006-03-14T15:42:00.000+05:30

When I first came to know about this I thought or should I say I screamed that it’s my idea. Yes, it’s true, I was toying with something similar but realized that a better version of it is already made and sold. Hmm, I am talking about the http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/

“The idea is simple: to try and make $1m (US) by selling 1,000,000 pixels for $1 each. Hence, 'The Million Dollar Homepage". “

And the 21 year old Alex Tew from England had made a cool US$1,037,100 for a simple 5 months work.

If something is available in US, then something similar or better (copy?) should be made available in India/China aswell right, so here we go, the Desi version http://crorepatipage.com/

If you are good in thinking and know little bit of technology then you can play with that aswell, check http://www.web20milliondollarhomepage.com/ it’s never too late to copy.

Oh, the sky might not be a limit if you are creative and know how to play with people’s emotions http://www.newbabyhomepage.com/

Well I guess the only thing now I can do is to make or sell pixels for pets, how about http://www.milliondollarpet.com

Though I might be upset that the pixel selling idea is already sold, I am happy to congrajulate everyone of them. Let me think of something to make my million .............zzzzzz

Ultra Mobile PC

2006-03-09T16:18:00.000+05:30

Origami – the ultra mobile pc.

Microsoft is officially announcing its origami project today at CeBIT , there was a lot of hype/questions on what it is as the origami created lots of interest and expectation and very good advertisement from Microsoft without actually explaining on what it is.

“The "Origami" project is really our first step toward achieving a big vision. We believe that UMPCs will eventually become as indispensable and ubiquitous as mobile phones are today,’ said Bill Mitchell, Corporate Vice President Windows Mobile Platforms Division.

Check here and here for complete coverage.

The price is expected to be around 599$ to 999$. Microsoft website explains

What Is the Ultra-Mobile PC?

The Ultra-Mobile PC is a new kind of computer. It combines the power of Windows XP with mobile-ready technologies that make it easy to access and use your software on the go. With small, lightweight, carry-everywhere hardware designs, you can connect and communicate, accomplish any task anywhere and at any time, and be entertained and informed wherever life takes you.

Looks like its a mixture of LapTop + Mobile + PalmTop + Blackberry , all features combined into one. I am not clear on which market segment would Microsoft target for this, who would be really using this or useful to ???

Drop a comment on what you think.

Blog Everywhere

2006-03-03T11:01:00.000+05:30

Sabeer Bhatia the popular founder of Hotmail who successfully sold it to Microsoft later had come with his new venture called blogeverywhere .

“BlogEverywhere is a simple way for you to log your thoughts and comments on any web page as you surf the web”

Seems the blogeverywhere does not require the users to migrate from any other blog tools that they are currently working, that’s really a good thing.

Q What is the "CC: External Blog" feature?

The "CC: External Blog" feature allows you to cross post any comment being added on BlogEverywhere.com to your external blog hosted with another blog provider. This way you do not need to migrate from another blog provider to be part of BlogEverywhere.com.

I haven’t used it yet, but the FAQ explains,

Q What is a Blog? What is BlogEverywhere?

A blog is the short form for web log. It is an online journal of anything an individual may want to discuss. BlogEverywhere is a simple way for you to log your thoughts and comments on any web page as you surf the web. It enables a virtual water cooler discussion on every web page. Over time we build up an online journal of your first hand accounts and unique perspectives on pages of interest to you. Everyone visiting that page can view your comments giving you a potentially large audience. Other viewers can reply to your comments thereby creating a two way conversation.

Q How does BlogEverywhere work?

In order to provide the simplest blogging interface on every website it is necessary to have our blogbar. We support Internet Explorer on Windows (other browsers and platforms coming soon). Once the blogbar is installed within your browser, simply click on the Read Blogs and Write Blogs buttons as discussed below.

Investment in India

2006-02-22T12:58:00.000+05:30

Seems, software related investment in India is picking up very high in the last 6-7 months, check the below news,

May 2005
BMC Software is planning to invest $5.5 million by the beginning of next year in India to increase its offshore R&D activities

August 2005
"By increasing our investment in India, we are well positioned to help drive Linux and open-source adoption not just in India, but in other emerging Asian markets as well," said Rhonda O'Donnell, president of Novell Asia-Pacific.

December 2005
Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft Corp, the world's largest software company, said that the company will invest $1.7 billion in India over the next four years to expand its operations.

January 2006
The world's biggest computer maker, Dell, will be increasing its workforce in India by 50% in the next two years. It will take the total number of Dell employees in India up to 15,000.

February 2006
Hyderabad will house India's first semiconductor fabrication facility - FAB City - with a $3 billion investment to make silicon chips, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy said here Thursday.

Soft Skills - Part 2

2006-02-20T15:32:00.000+05:30

This is a follow-up for Soft Skills - Part 1

The very important skill one should know about is “Searching”.

The search skills are not to do with any physical search or search for any missing things/objects; it’s all about searching for things which is already available in the World Wide Web. Almost everybody know google and it’s the leader in the search business, the search industry itself has evolved a lot, now we have all kind of searches like

a) text searches
b) picture searches
c) news searches
d) video searches

The picture search is catching up these days and many new companies are venturing into this, popular examples are Riya, or truveo (this is acquired by AOL recently)

If anybody is still not convinced why “Searching” is a skill, check http://answers.google.com , for almost, most of the questions answered, the researches answering the questions get the answers from google search itself, and many a times I wonder why somebody can’t help themselves doing the same.

If you had come till this point, and wondering what I am really conveying here, forgive me. I started with something in mind and could not actually get it presented properly. But the bottom line is, searching is a skill and with experience one can master it.

Google Video – Work around

2006-02-17T12:05:00.000+05:30

When Google Video was launched I was kind of excited as I could see/download all the funny commercials and SNL stand-ups directly, anyways I was doing it before aswell (mostly from Office and very little from Home) through different sites and download software’s, but I knew Google Vide could be “one source” for all videos.

Unfortunately, what I got was this

“Thanks for your interest in Google Video.

Currently, the playback feature of Google Video isn't available in your country.

We hope to make this feature available more widely in the future, and we really appreciate your patience. “

Then I hit upon this site , this is a very cool site about Google videos and latest updates, I found a workaround for the above problem, and it was just to add the http://translate.google.com/translate?u=

And guess what, it really works, I could now see the videos without any issues at all, though it gets translated I don’t have any issues with that as I dont see much of a difference with the actual page and the translated page except for a small top frame which has some info like "This page has been automatically translated blah blah blah"

Soft Skills - Part 1

2006-02-08T16:35:00.000+05:30

Having worked for some time in software industry now I can say you need to have good soft skills to survive in the industry and to move up. BTW, if you wonder what they are,

a) Writing Emails
b) Search

In the first place you might think writing emails looks very easy but one need to remember that everything and anything happens over emails in software world, my colleague might be sitting next to my cube, but still I would be mailing him. And most customers and users interaction with the development unit happens through emails, you name it and we do it through emails. When I got my first job and during the initial training/deputation period I asked my mentor on how will I get work, he told me it would be through emails, at that time I laughed and thought, then I won’t have much work to do, but realized it was wrong with experience.

Also the number of emails you get is really proportionate to the number of years you are in service with that company, if you get more than 30 mails everyday then you must be serving that company roughly for 2-4 years, more years leads to more mails. Coming back to writing emails, first you must spend a lot of time in reading the mails you receive, you can take for granted that 15% of time everyday would be spent on reading them and almost same or more would be on writing replies to them. In my previous company (which was a very big MNC in US/India) reading mails and replying them were part of my and everybody`s productivity time, then you can really imagine what all of us were actually doing there.

Writing mails is more like art; of course we get lots and lots of tips/inputs on how to write a better email, 90% of the email population reads it not to follow it, so you get all types of emails and need to reply in all possible ways, but still your manager will never be satisfied with your communication skills. If you are working for some multinational company where you need to exchange mails with counterparts in other countries then all the more burden, its possible that you need to digest anything from the other end, but need to make sure you write the best and perfect reply as the odds are at stake at our end according to management.

The best mails are always written short and simple, sometimes people get it wrong that writing very long emails means showing their smartness and knowledge, but the truth is the reader presses the delete even before crossing the 3rd line.

All this had made me to realize how important the “writing a letter” classes at the elementary school level I missed, after all everything works fine if you have a perfect foundation.

Computer/Cell or Basic Needs to Poor

2006-01-31T15:16:00.000+05:30

What does the poor needs?? A Computer/ Cell phone or the basic needs??? Well this seems to be a debatable topic for sure. I read Venkatesh , Arun Rajappa and NYTimes on
this topic and it made me to ponder with thoughts.

Venkatesh in his blog asks

“Did anybody bother to find out from the "poor" in "underdeveloped countries" what they really want? “

I think technology companies are doing their best in getting technology/computing to reach to even the poorer so that they can also get to see what it is all about. I understand that the poor still suffer from not getting even the basic needs fulfilled, but what we should see here is the hidden benefits that it might bring out and not the visible problems that already exist. Well visible problems are not getting the basic needs in the first place, but the important hidden benefit could be the fact that the poor would also “think” about technology and computers. Is it not true that everything surfaces from how you think and if a poor could think better will it not directly help him in his betterment and will he be not well aversed to face the real world when he grows up??

Microsoft Update

2006-01-27T14:51:00.000+05:30

Microsoft has announced that it would make the source code available to rivals and others, so far their stand was not to reveal any source code, seems they have given up on that. Redherring suggests that they are frustrated.

In another news, Microsoft had announced of revenue of 11.84 billion dollars for quarter ended December 31, 2005. Wow thats lot of money, with the windows vista around the corner in a year or two the company is sure to scale more revenue. I am also surprised on whats holding Microsoft not to release the Windows Live Messenger yet, its important to note that Yahoo, GoogleTalk and Skype are giving almost everything and anything with their Messengers.

Give it Google

2006-01-24T11:07:00.000+05:30

The US Justice Department is putting pressure on Google to hand over the data of millions of searches that’s performed with Google. Already Microsoft and Yahoo had abided by the request and had seemed to have given the required details.

Google in my opinion should have also given the required details, I really don’t understand on why they don’t want to do that. After all it’s the government who is asking for the details and its very much for sure that they will keep the data received very confidential. Google think about it, the government has the power and potential to gather/collect all the required details by various means, and why should Google think that its user’s privacy would be breached if they submit the details.

And the US government is also acting weird in my opinion, seems the action is part of a government effort to revive an online child pornography law. So the government thinks that your searches in the internet would reveal the actual, "who you are". It would have been wiser that if the US government first process the details received from Yahoo and Microsoft searches and see whether it actually leads to anything and if yes, put pressure on Google to reveal the details based on the fact.

Windows Live Messenger

2006-01-19T15:05:00.000+05:30

I have been using Windows Live Messenger beta for sometime now and found it to be good than compared to any previous versions. But I am not sure on why they are still in beta and haven’t opened it for all users, as we see that Yahoo, Skype gives exactly the same or even more features that WLM has planned/promised.

“What you will be able to do with it
• Send all your familiar winks and emoticons, plus some cool new ones
• Have real-time text, video and voice conversations*
• Call your friends’ mobile or land-line telephones by signing up for MCI Web Calling to make affordable domestic and international calls
• Easily share documents of all kinds with Sharing Folders
• Make free PC-to-PC calls with other Messenger users”

BTW, I have some 8 invitations left, if you want to try WLM beta let me know.

The tool look and feel have changed but does not impress me much, the GUI looks heavy when compared to sleek look of Yahoo and has many unwanted Tabs. 98% of the mails I receive is spam and the other 2% is from Microsoft itself. Huh! most of the people I know have discontinued using hotmail due to so much spam. Check this interview to really understand on how Hotmail works, its aptly titled "Mount everest of email services".

Blink & Hindsight

2006-01-18T14:54:00.000+05:30

How much do you think it would take to judge a website??? Research has found out that it’s just a brief one-twentieth of a second.

“In just a brief one-twentieth of a second -- less than half the time it takes to blink -- people make aesthetic judgments that influence the rest of their experience with an Internet site”

I read this post from Guy Kawasaki on hindsight, really interesting and worth reading. Go ahead and read it, sometimes you bookmark a site without thinking much and would like to comeback regularly, Guy`s site was one such.

WoIP - Wedding over Internet Protocol

2006-01-16T11:03:00.000+05:30

A very interesting wedding reported by BBC.

“Rita Sri Mutiara Dewi, from Bandung in Indonesia, and Wiriadi Sutrisno, who is currently living in California, got to know each other through the internet.

Their 25-minute wedding ceremony was also conducted via remote technology, using video, phones and a web cam.

The bride is due to meet her new husband for the first time later this month, when she flies to the US.

"We've exchanged photos, do (internet) chatting almost daily and often call each other, but never met," said Rita, 50, of her 52-year-old spouse.

"I think they did it to cut costs. Such technology has made long-distance marriages possible," Mahmur Suriadiredja, Telkom's West Java regional director in Bandung, told Reuters news agency. The ceremony cost just 200,000 rupiah ($21.30), he said. “

Read the complete Story from BBC.

iPod friendly Jeans

2006-01-11T10:43:00.000+05:30

Apple iPod have sold 42 million units so far, that’s really a very huge number. So how does it impact the fashion world ?? Make iPod friendly clothings, that’s the latest and seems Levi`s is already planning for that. Check this story

“Denim giant Levi Strauss said on Tuesday it had designed jeans compatible with the iPod music player, featuring a joystick in the watch pocket to operate the device.
The Levi's RedWire DLX Jeans for men and women, which will be available this fall, also have a built-in docking cradle for the iPod and retractable headphones. Pricing was not immediately available.”

Hmm, well there are already people stiching iPod compatable dresswares.

CES Follow-up & Google Pack

2006-01-09T16:35:00.000+05:30

The much awaited Consumer Electronic Show is over, and I guess what really turned out from that. Following the details through media/internet actually does not get the real picture on everything that’s been displayed, as only the major players or big events ( Microsoft, Yahoo, Google) were mainly covered and rest went unnoticed (at least in media).

Google Introduced Google Pack, the idea is really good. I also went through the same issues on installing stuffs when I got a new PC and Laptop; you need to install different stuffs to get your machine to work to your satisfaction.

But I also required the following,

Hotmail, Yahoo & Google Instant Messengers
QuickTime Player
Codec
Windows Power Toy Calculator
Macromedia Flash Player
Shock Player
Java- Latest
Real VNC
Cygwin
Roxio Easy CD DVD Creator

Still Google Pack is good considering nobody else thought about it, Google has the habit of thinking out-of-box, I wish they will make more additions to the pack.

Cash Reserves

2006-01-05T17:20:00.000+05:30

I was suddenly interested to know how much cash reserves some of the big companies hold and found the following details. Before that,

What is Cash Reserve?

A cash reserve is a pool of funds (and sometimes credit) that you hold in a readily available form to meet emergency and other highly urgent, short-term needs. Sometimes, it is referred to as an emergency or contingency fund.

Cash Reserves of some big companies are like

Microsoft 40 billion
Toyota 20 billion
Intel 12 billion
GE 8.8 billion
Google 7 billion
IBM 4 billion
EBay 1 billion

Hey, I don’t vouch for the approximates for the details given and don’t blame me if suddenly someone goes from Cash Rich to Cash Poor.

Enron literally had no cash reserves and seems nobody noticed it and finally it became bankrupt. One interesting article on the “Fall of Enron”.

Consumer Electronic Show

2006-01-04T14:30:00.000+05:30

2006 International Consumer Electronic Show is scheduled in Las Vegas from January 5-8. Well I wish I could attend , it has very special leading technologist addressing in the show.

Lot of expectation from it, the buzz is Larry Page, Google`s co-founder will announce or show off a new google product, which is rumuoured as Google PC that would run Google`s own OS.

I am wondering whether Bill Gates another speaker for the event will have something surprising from his side aswell. I am eagerly waiting for the conference outcome.

Happy New Year

2005-12-22T12:38:00.000+05:30

I am already in holiday mood and not planning to write anything till January 1st week of 2006. Thanks for your visit and will meet you in 2006, Bye.

Microsoft T-Shirt

2005-12-20T12:01:00.000+05:30

Everybody almost know that Google gave job to a girl as she had a Google T-shirt and was proud to wear it around apart from having the required qualifications for that job.
It was really an impressive story and made me to think on what is the use of my Microsoft T-Shirt ? I have a T-Shirt with Microsoft printed on it, though it was not officially from Microsoft, it’s a plain white T-Shirt with Microsoft printed on it in big fonts.

I was keenly following the Microsoft Live messenger blog to see what was happening on the new Live messenger world and was waiting to check their beta release, but was not sure on what was the criteria to get access to beta, I knew that it was only on invitation, so I wrote to the Microsoft Messenger team,

Hi,

You would have known that Google had given a girl a job as she had Google T-Shirt, I have a Microsoft T-shirt, can Microsoft give me a Live Messenger Beta trial for having Microsoft T-Shirt.

Thanks
Vijay

And Bingo, I got an invitation.

Self Erasing Text message

2005-12-13T16:27:00.000+05:30

UK Based company Staellium has come with an interesting text mobile messaging, called as StealthText. This is a self erasing Text message, i.e. once the receiver reads the message it gets deleted and cannot be opened again. This is an interesting concept and might be useful for users who do not want to have their messages stored in the receiver’s mobile for ever.

The receiver actually receives the link of the actual text and once read the link gets moved so it cannot be revisited, I am sure this would have very good audience. To reply to such messages the receiver also needs to be subscribed to their services. Some details from their website.

Your message will arrive at the recipient as a message with a link. The link will simply say that ‘you (Nickname chosen when you registered for the service) have sent a StealthText. Click now to read it…’ There is no other identification attached to this message and it is impossible for someone to discover the sender’s identity. The time and date that the message was sent will also be attached.

To read the message the recipient clicks to open his browser and access the message.

The message will appear exactly as written by the sender with NO other information attached like the sender’s nickname or mobile number.

The recipient is offered the choice of 'Replying to the sender' (which will require StealthText registration by the recipient), 'Barring any further messages from the sender', 'Barring all future messages from StealthText'.

When the recipient closes the browser or moves away from the message the message self-destructs. The message with the link that was sent to the recipient still remains in the inbox but the link is redundant and the page, if they try to access it again, will simply indicate that it has expired or does not exist.

Yahoo copies

2005-12-09T14:33:00.000+05:30

Recently Yahoo announced “Answers” service and expected to announce “Phone-in/out” services in the coming few days. Clearly these two services are already existing and Google doing really well with its http://answers.google.com and Skype leader in the VoIP calling. I have used/using both Google Answers and Skype and needless to say they are really impressive and I prefer them.

We need to probably wait and watch what Yahoo has to offer differently with these two new services when compared to others. Its expected that the Yahoo`s phone charges would be comparatively cheaper than Skype. Yahoo Answers is free where Google starts with 2.5 dollars minimum and they offer to return the charge if the answers are not to the satisfaction.

To touch the title, Yahoo had infact copied these ideas, but then others also cannot claim that they were their originals, If I remember correctly Sabir Bhatia of Hotmail fame did start a site named http://www.arzoo.com/ which answers for users queries for charge but did not succeed and the site does not even exist today, Skype took the leaf out of Yahoo messenger and made it bigger and better with quality of voice and ease to setup. Perhaps thats how things works and I am not understanding that, now I go on to think on where to pick the leaf from for my own company, but havent found anything yet.

Dilbert`s corner

2005-12-07T11:32:00.000+05:30

BugMeNot

2005-12-05T16:10:00.000+05:30

It’s really an interesting idea and I was impressed with the concept of www.bugmenot.com . If you wonder what is that,

“BugMeNot.com was created as a mechanism to quickly bypass the login of web sites that require compulsory registration and/or the collection of personal/demographic information (such as the New York Times).”

Every now and then you would have faced websites asking you to register with them before letting you to read an article or post some comment, sometimes you would register if you had any plans to come back but most of the time users would quit, atleast I did. BugMeNot gives you usernames/password for sites, basically these usernames are from a person who had registered with that particular site and does not mind sharing it. So it’s one registration which is shared and multiple users using it.

I was reading articles from http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/ and wanted to post some comments but was asked to register etc etc, so quit my plans on that. But now I thought of testing this bugmenot with the zdnet site and got a username and password and was really surprised it worked and voila, that’s really cool.

This is indeed an innovative service and the idea is real good.

The other idea which I am impressed very much is the http://del.icio.us/ It’s the collection of favourites ie bookmarks, now bookmarks are no longer specific to machines and my del.icio.us account helps me to open bookmark with any pc`s/computers. There were times when I really missed my bookmarks and could not remember the sites url correctly, this services puts and end to all this.

Paint.Net

2005-11-28T15:54:00.000+05:30

I recently came across the painting software Paint.Net; this is like the next version Microsoft Paint found in the windows machines. It’s really impressive that this has been developed by Undergraduate Students of Washington State University.

“It started development at Washington State University as an undergraduate senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. Originally intended as a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple tool for photo and image editing.”

It’s free and does not include very powerful features as compared to PhotoShop, but the tool is really good and efficient in getting your basic painting requirements done.

FireFox 1.5

2005-11-24T15:29:00.000+05:30

Sometimes you feel that why you said something, it becomes worse if you had written about something and had to contradict it later. Now I am in that awkward situation.

Let me say now, FireFox really rocks and is the best browser ever I had used so far.

My previous statement goes like

“Though I tried FireFox and thinking of using Opera for sometime, I think the native feeling of using IE, basically because of the fact that we have been using IE for long would make it really difficult to change from it to FF or Opera.”

I think FF has more features and reasons to move to it, than sticking to IE because of native feeling. I was playing with Opera and FireFox and was kind of bored with heavy Netscape and thought IE is the best among the lot, but then came FireFox 1.5, thought would give it a try with its beta and got hooked to it from then.

I was really happy that it allows maximum customization possible and Google Toolbar also supported. One FireFox addon which really made me happy was the inclusion of custom “Favourite Icons” ie Favicon Picker. If you have bookmarked some page you would see the small icon in the bookmark link, but this gets disappeared when you remove/clean the cache. I was surprised to see many users of web browsers were annoyed with this behaviour and Torisugari has provided an add-on in FireFox to fix this, it works really cool. So now I am more into FireFox and no looking back.

skype killer

2005-11-23T16:41:00.000+05:30

I am really surprised to see a company had come up with a software named skypekiller, which does nothing but remotely removing the skype software installed on a network. Why would somebody want to do this, and they are targeting the corporate world saying that the software would help them as Skype can cause

Uncontrollable bandwidth usage
Uncertainty as to confidentiality
Potential security flaws
Productivity issues

BTW, this is a freeware. Hmm, somebody had really spent time to develop something like this.

Another interesting news with skype is that the have tied up with Radioshack to sell skype kits, that’s really cool. Probably would pick one for myself when I got to US the next time.

Videora

2005-11-22T15:47:00.000+05:30

Videora is very good software which can download videos in the background to the local hard disk.

“Videora is the first personal video downloading program. Utilizing BitTorrent peer to peer technology and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds, Videora automatically and intelligently finds and downloads video you want to watch. With easy to use features like Watch Lists and Season Tickets you will be able to watch your favorite video, no matter where you are in the world”

It’s interesting to note on how Sajeeth Cherian came up with the idea to write this software application. (Source: Om Malik)

OM: What prompted you to write Videora?
SC: My roommate likes to watch anime and constantly scours the web looking for his favorite anime to download. (Anime is the Japanese term for Japanese animation, cartoons that are broadcast in Japan and which are then subtitled into English by groups of volunteers or commercial companies). About once a week he would complain to me how he was wasting all this time searching for these shows. I think he was wishing that these shows would just somehow download themselves. Well after a few weeks I got sick of hearing his complaints so I decide to look for a solution to his problem.

Analytics and Base from Google

2005-11-17T18:03:00.000+05:30

Google has introduced two new services: Google Analytics & Google Base and had renamed the controversial Google Print to Google Book Search.

Well, I use Google Analytics to understand how people come to this blog and visit patterns etc, it seems to be really a very good and useful service. I also take proud that I did send a mail to Google team that they should come with this kind of tool some time back. Though I can’t take credit for the birth of this Analytics, at least it would have made them to think I guess. So instead of developing something new they went ahead and bought the Ulrich Live and renamed it to Google Analytics, the best part is it’s free for a total limit of 5 million web hits per month.

Google Base suggests that you can put/upload all your contents and Google will host it. I believe users would be interested to upload contents for which they would have some business (buying/selling) interests. So this means that this Base can be a indirect competitor to E-Bay.

I am wondering how many servers Google might have for all these data and how they really manage it. How they backup & manage redundancy. ?

Electronic Perception Technology

2005-11-14T16:49:00.000+05:30

If you ever thought whether there could be a better way to type with your mobile phones then EPT is good news that you would love to know.

“Electronic perception technology is technology that permits machines, consumer and electronic devices, or virtually any other class of modern product to perceive and react to objects and individuals in the nearby environment in real time, particularly through the medium of "sight," utilizing low-cost, high-performance, embedded sensors and software.”

Canesta has announced the Integrated Canesta Keyboard™, the world's first fully-integrated projection keyboard capable of being integrated by OEMs into smart phones, cell phones, PDAs, or other mobile or wireless devices. When integrated with, you can enjoy big screen keyboard for your mobile like the displayed picture. How cool :-)

Case Modder

2005-11-13T06:58:00.000+05:30

Computer engineering is science and it becomes an art when you try your hands to become a Case Modder. The genuis of software engineering are called 'geeks' and the artists with excellent creativity becomes 'Case Modders'. The politically correct definition goes like

"Case modding or Case modification is the modification of a computer chassis (often just referred to as the case). Modifying a computer in any non-standard way is considered a case mod. Many people, particulary hardware enthusiasts use case mods to illustrate a computer's power, and for aesthetic purposes. Modified computers are often found at LAN parties where their owners display them. "

Check out these pictures, btw they are nothing but the computer chasis.

FolderShare

2005-11-07T17:32:00.000+05:30

There used to be a service called xserver which allows uploading your local files to their xserver and enables accessing from anywhere using web browsers. Seems that company xserver.com no longer exists. But something similar and infact better is available. Check foldershare.

“FolderShareTM allows you to create a private peer-to-peer network that will help you to synchronize files across multiple devices and access or share files with colleagues and friends. You no longer need to send large files via email, burn them to CDs/DVDs and mail them, or upload them to a website. FolderShare allows you to share and sync important information instantly with anyone you invite, making it the perfect solution for personal or small business use.”

The system requirements are Windows ME / 2000 / XP / 2003 and supports all major browsers including firefox and opera. It’s a very cool utility.

Microsoft Windows Live

2005-11-02T16:39:00.000+05:30

Probably this would have been the most read/talked about news on Nov 1st, Microsoft trying out Windows Live, the new strategic move from Microsoft. The reason being, Microsoft steps out from the pure PC tools/software mode to Web Browser tools/service mode. So far they have been concentrating only on PC centric softwares and services, but due to Yahoo and Google offering Web Browser centric tools and services they were kind of forced to join the race.

Some wonderful pictures from Nov 1st Windows & Office Live conference headed by Bill Gates at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel.(Uploaded by niallkennedy)

One of the Interesting things as pointed out by Om is the next generation Microsoft Messenger which integrates with address book, email, and VoIP calling. I am searching endlessly on where I posted my ‘predictions’ on “Microsoft would actually come out with something like this” some time back, but so far no luck

Some more interesting thoughts on this topic by Harry McCracken

SPAM + BLOG = SPLOG

2005-10-30T21:31:00.000+05:30

Last week I got a weird comment to my blog posting, from joegonzo68327845

"I really enjoyed your blog. This is a cool Website Check it out now by Clicking Here. I know that you will find this Website Very Interesting Every one wants a Free LapTop Computer"

It took time for me to realise its actually no real comment but SPLOG. As the Title indicates a spam in the blogosphere is called splog.

The www.splogreporter.com describes splog as

"Splog is a terrorist to our blogosphere and needs to be stopped. This site was created for "good willed" bloggers to report splog in an effort to help to clean up the blogosphere of splog"

The more the internet widens with new services, new ways of spams gets reported and securing the computer or www becomes a challenge with each step forward.

Network Mapper

2005-10-27T15:15:00.000+05:30

I always laugh at movies showing the hero/heroine hacking the computer/internet very easily without any effort. But it seems in the movie "Matrix Reloaded" Trinity had used proper hacking technique and tool in the hacking scene.

That tool shown in the movie is called Nmap. This is getting popular in the “network exploration/security auditing space” and its bundled with Redhat Linux, Debian Linux, Gentoo, FreeBSD, OpenBSD operating systems.

"Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a free open source utility for network exploration or security auditing. It was designed to rapidly scan large networks, although it works fine against single hosts. Nmap uses raw IP packets in novel ways to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (application name and version) those hosts are offering, what operating systems (and OS versions) they are running, what type of packet filters/firewalls are in use, and dozens of other characteristics. Nmap runs on most types of computers and both console and graphical versions are available. Nmap is free software, available with full source code under the terms of the GNU GPL."

E-mail Authentication

2005-10-26T14:28:00.000+05:30

One of the very important issues with emails is spam’s, I am sure everybody would have received spam mails in some form or other. To put an end to this spam’s , an email security firm named IronPort is working on coming out with an email authentication system, which would confirm whether the message received from a particular sender is actually sent by that person itself, or it’s a spam where somebody else, sending the message posing as the identified sender.

"I have no lack of confidence that, given time, it will be fully implemented, possibly within the next 18 months," said Tom Peterson, vice president of technology for IronPort Systems.

It would be really interesting to watch how this system would work.

One fool proof method which can work for anyone is,
Send mail
Call the receiver over phone/mobile &
Inform him/her about your mail.

Sometimes different technologies/methods put together would bring you the desired result :-))

Thinking Machine – Artificial Intelligence Program

2005-10-25T14:37:00.000+05:30

Try playing chess in the Thinking Machine, this is artificial intelligence program which plays chess with the viewers. It’s interesting to note that the computer’s thought process is displayed/sketched on the screen as it makes the move. The computer evaluates thousands of possible moves and decides on the best one.

Broadband via Air Balloon

2005-10-24T17:54:00.000+05:30

Recently a downlink broadband connection through Air Balloon from stratospheric level of 24000 feet above earth was tried very successfully. This is a real breakthrough and a very innovative thinking on how www could be connected. The main idea behind this test is to provide internet in the disaster zones and low cost internet access in the under-developing worlds.

I feel this would be more useful to the media, wherever they send their correspondents; they could float a balloon as well and keep in touch with them through instant internet.

One wild imagination that comes in my mind is, this might help in rescue operations or tracking missed/lost passengers/people/travelers. How ?? the VoIP/internet phone would improve a lot in future that we should be able to carry VoIP phone as mobile with our own number/logins, so imagine if I get lost in wild depth of African Jungle during my vacation, to find me they could just float this broadband balloon in jungles, If I am lucky my phone should detect the balloon network and I would shout hey! Kindly rescue me..........

Check here for the complete article from the NewScientiest.com

“David Grace, one of the project scientists behind the test, from the University of York, UK, says stratospheric communications balloons provide wireless alternatives to fixed internet infrastructure.”You could rapidly put communications infrastructure where it doesn't exist," he told. "In developing countries it could be a cheaper way to roll out, and you could do it incrementally."

The main concern with such floating communications hubs is ensuring they do not interfere with commercial aircraft. Controllers on the ground are able to alter the altitude of the balloon but not steer it.

The stratospheric craft was equipped with two communication systems: a high power radio antenna developed at the University of York, and an ultra-high-speed optical communications system built by the German Aerospace Centre (DRL).”

Distributed Computing – Server Farms

2005-10-20T12:24:00.000+05:30

One of the fast growing concepts in the software area is the ‘Distributed Computing” a k a “Compute Farms” or “Server Farms”

In simple words, it is about utilizing a set of network connected computers/servers to do parallel connected jobs. One of the mandatory requirements is the jobs being submitted should have the scope of running parallel, i.e. if the tasks defined to be preformed can only happen in the sequential form then it does not help in “Distributed computing”.

Some more basic uses of DC being

“Optimally place computing tasks and balance the load on a set of networked computers

Allow users to generate and queue more computing tasks than can be run at the moment

Ensure that tasks are executed with respect to priority and to providing all users with a fair share of access over time”

Redhat has GFS , Sun provides Grid Engine and even Google has its own Google Compute and Platform Software offers LSF. However Google Compute uses your computers idle time for their project.

I have used LSF from Platform at a very expert level and can vouch its really powerful.

Virtual WiFi from Microsoft

2005-10-19T14:30:00.000+05:30

Virtual WiFi allows the computer user to simultaneously connect his computer to access multiple wireless networks with just one WLAN card. It basically makes the single WLAN card to appear as multiple (virtual) WLAN cards to the user. This would help the user to configure each virtual card to connect to different wireless network.

Some uses for this according to Microsoft are

"With VirtualWiFi, you can connect to a guest's machine or play games over an ad hoc network, while surfing the web via an infrastructure network.

You can use VirtualWiFi to connect your ad hoc network, which may contain many nodes, to the Internet using only one node.

VirtualWiFi can help make your home infrastructure network elastic by extending its access to nodes that are out of range of your home Wifi access point."

Check Microsoft website for more info on this project.

Next Generation Mobile Phones

2005-10-18T15:25:00.000+05:30

If its really true, then the nokia 888 looks really cool. But I really dont think these images are officially from Nokia, anyhow its worth checking the below images.

Microsoft announces Harry Potter Clock

2005-10-11T15:13:00.000+05:30

It’s really amazing to see what technology can achieve. The latest (or little old) news is Microsoft is introducing the Harry Potter Clock in its next Windows Version. If you don’t know what this clock is about, check Harry Potter movies to get a better idea. To give a clue this clock is similar to that on the wall of the Weasley household in the Harry Potter Films.

This Clock uses your family member’s mobile signals to track them where they are currently, something like work, home, and club. They have plans to add more locations in future.

Writely & Numsum

2005-10-07T16:05:00.000+05:30

Writely & Numsum are Spreadsheet and Word editing tools. The unique feature is you can edit your files in the web browser directly; this is cool as you can be anywhere and everywhere (online) to get access to your spreadsheet or word tools.

I believe this is what leads to Web2.0, ie the users can do everything in the web browser itself. For example, you use IM to chat, use Voice chat to talk to your friends, use the writely/numsum tools to edit/create documents, browse, check mails, write, send, receive, search, upload, download, access applications.

Some of them are already available, the rest and others will be made available soon by someone soon. In fact I think the Google – Sun team up would head this way. This makes the internet itself as an operating system, the internetOS, and most of the stuffs would be for free. Microsoft would suffer due to this and we will see Microsoft Vs Google war as a result. Most of the tools/applications/software/OS with Microsoft are charged and Google would bring all these in InternetOS for free. Software sales are still Microsoft's bread and butter, generating $US11 billion ($14.5 billion) last year alone.

Google has announced that it would launch spreadsheet and word document editing software’s online and partners with Sun Microsystems on this.

"Sun Microsystems Australia spokesman Paul O'Connor said the deal was "huge". Mr. O'Connor said the deal was a wake-up call for traditional software companies such as Microsoft.

"At the moment most people are used to having to pay for software packages, but at the end of the day, the value is in the content and services – not in the software itself," he said. "

SystemC – Modeling platform and Design language

2005-10-06T15:17:00.000+05:30

Most of you (CS students, engineers, geeks, etc etc) might already know about SystemC, but for folks who haven’t heard about it or does not know what it is actually, here are some details, btw I assume you know what C & C++ is all about.

SystemC provides hardware-oriented constructs within the context of C++ as a class library implemented in standard C++. Its use spans design and verification from concept to implementation in hardware and software.

SystemC provides an interoperable modeling platform which enables the development and exchange of very fast system-level C++ models. It also provides a stable platform for development of system-level tools.

The Open SystemC Initiative (OSCI) is an independent not-for-profit organization composed of a broad range of companies, universities and individuals dedicated to supporting and advancing SystemC as an open source standard for system-level design.

Check the complete detail on SystemC and an article on need for SystemC.

Broadband Rates & Trends – Around World

2005-10-05T16:14:00.000+05:30

I was thinking on the broadband usage/rates/penetration around different countries and found out the following information; quite impressively India seems to have cheap broadband rates when compared to other countries. However most of the countries give minimum 512kb where in India its 256kb, but for minimum cost of 250rs (approx 6.5 dollars) with 400Mb download limit.

England
The standard broadband account offered at speeds of 512Kbps, also more than 91% of the UK has access to a broadband-enabled exchange. The figure is set to surpass 99% by summer 2005.
The above detail is as quoted in BBC

Some options available in UK
BT Broadband £29.99 per month – speed 512kb
Wanadoo BroadBand £22.99 per Month – speed 1Mb
Virgin broband £17.99 month –speed 512kb - 3GB download

Japan
Users pay about $15 a month for speeds of 30mb per second

Singapore
Singapore had the highest residential broadband penetration rate at 46.1% in the Asia Pacific region and it is expected to rise to 75% by 2009. The major players include incumbent SingTel, StarHub, Pacific Internet and Singapore Cable Vision. StarHub and Pacific Internet are DSL and wireless Internet providers while SCV is a cable Internet provider.

USA
In Philadelphia Earthlink gives wifi internet connection to its residents/visitors, and Google has bid to give free 300kbs wifi internet for all San Francisco.
However reports here & here suggest that Broadband is costlier in America

I did not have the details for countries like France, Spain, Pakistan, Germany, SriLanka and others. Feel free to comment if you have some details.

Web 2.0 – What is that???

2005-10-03T17:19:00.000+05:30

It’s really interesting to note that Web2.0 is in existence for sometime and most people are aware/not aware about this. I came to know about this when Om mentioned about it in his blog. He says Web2.0

“Is a collection of technologies - be it VoIP, Digital Media, XML, RSS, Google Maps… whatever …. That leverage the power of always on, high speed connections and treat broadband as a platform, and not just a pipe to connect.”

Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media, Inc. says

“Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform. “

The wikipedia explains better,

“Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. The proponents of this thinking expect that ultimately Web 2.0 services will replace desktop computing applications for many purposes.”

Check the complete details at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

100 Dollars Laptop & 1000 Rupees Mobile

2005-10-01T13:15:00.000+05:30

Two interesting and path breaking news for the week from two different corners of the world

A Laptop for 100 Dollars

“The machine would be powered by a 500 MHz processor and would run a “skinny version” of the open-source Linux operating system. They plan to initially target the developing countries like Brazil, China, Egypt, South Africa, and Thailand along with the state of Massachusetts, which has committed itself to equip every child in their state with a laptop. “

A Mobile for 1000 Rupees

“Speaking to reporters at the inauguration of their new Philips Innovation Centre (PIC) at Hebbal, Frans van Houten, CEO, Philips Semiconductors, said it would work with local players in India to build an "indigenous product" for an MRP of $20, which may be released sometime next year. “

Though both are yet to hit the market, it’s really encouraging to see how the technological advancement brings these products easily accessible to everybody. If we think about the costs of the Laptops or Mobiles some 10 years back it’s really unbelievable that it had reached such a level. However one can be very sure that it would be really very difficult to predict anything in IT industry. Remember “Why would anyone ever need more than 640K of RAM?" --Bill Gates, c. 1981” :-)

Google Teams with NASA

2005-09-30T18:25:00.000+05:30

The latest buzz in Google is that they have teamed up with Nasa. According to the press release, Google and Nasa feel that

“The plans envisage that the two organisations work together in a number of technology based projects such as massively distributed computing of which Google is an acknowledged world leader, bio-info-nano convergence, and what is referred to as the 'encouragement of the entrepreneurial space industry'.”

So according to google based blogs & sites there is lot more to come very soon like
a) google Calendar
b) google online drive (GDrive)

Its really interesting to see what google has planned, the below picture is taken from Niall Kennedy`s blog , where he took this picture during his visit to Googleplex.

Asian’s Share in Software Innovation

2005-09-29T14:31:00.000+05:30

I was pondering over the thought about what are the Software Innovation that had been contributed by the Asian Community, say like India or China. Its to be noted that India and China has more Software engineers and you will definitely find them in any major global company either its private or public, in US and Europe, but what is their contribution individually or something which has been very evident.

When I think about this, I could recollect Hotmail, which, an Indian Sameer Bhatia was the co-founder, what else ?? I could not recollect , but look around the softwares you use and the tools that’s part of your computer, you would easily notice that most of them had been brain child of Americans or Europeans. Ok, lets think of some big players, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Intel, IBM, Cisco, EBay, Skype, or any of the open source like FireFox, Mozilla , ofcourse we would definitely find an Indian or Chinese contributing to these software, but have they actually built something which is really innovative or their own idea.

Yes, there are some names like Vinodh Khosla ( founder of Sun Microsystems), Rajeev Madhavan ( Magma Designs ), Ram Shriram (Investor in Google, founded Sherpavo, Junglee) but none of these were from their respective birth countries, all from US.

Considering the fact that all major IT companies like TCS, Wipro, Infosys are doing really good and minting good money but mostly through services and support products. But where is Innovation ?? Something which would really make an Impact in our lives when we use that Innovation or any Disruptive Technology ???

7 Technologies that change everything

2005-09-27T16:50:00.000+05:30

Om Malik is a very good writer , in his latest article http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,1107751,00.html
he had come out with list of technologies which he feels that change everything in future. Its really a must read. BTW, I guess his blog http://gigaom.com is widely read, infact I see that being linked in many blogs which talks about software/internet/VoIP

An anonymous Internet Communication – TOR & New Age “MouseWives”

2005-09-26T15:57:00.000+05:30

One of the main concerns in the growing Internet usage is the “SAFETY & SECURITY” on the Internet. Tor is a very useful tool when you want the websites you visit not to track you, ie from where did you reach the website or whereelse you go from here. For example, at the bottom of my blog you will find a count on number of visitors to this blog. Everyweek, I get a weekly status update on how many people visited this site and where did they come from, location, website etc. If you want this information to be not visible to others then TOR is the tool for you. Check the website for more info http://tor.eff.org/

The advantages of technology is it makes you aware of whats happening around the globe and keep you hooked to it. A recent study in UK have found that with the net revolution the traditional “housewives” or turning into “mousewives”, that means more and more women are getting into using computers and internet as they have it at home, this is really a very good thing.

“The research, carried out by Demos, and based on a six-month anthropological study of five families combined with nationwide polling, reveals how the mother's domestic role has evolved in relation to the internet.
It shows that half of all women who go online have moved the home PC into the living room so it can play a central role in family life.
Two-thirds of women now research their families' health online, it says, while one third have replaced Watch with Mother with Surf with Mother as they accompany their children online to do homework or play.
Women with a computer in the household also turn out to be 'all-hours' users, with half logging on before breakfast and a fifth getting up in the middle of the night to access the internet. The main reasons cited are that the PC is becoming the social hub for gossip with family and friends as well as a means of bargain hunting, without leaving the living room. “

Check the http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1990682005 for more info.

BitTorrent makes download easy

2005-09-24T14:17:00.000+05:30

BitTorrent is getting popular and has been adopted by many publishers to “distribute” to millions of users world wide. So what is that, according to their web site?

“You have something terrific to publish -- a large music or video file, software, a game or anything else that many people would like to have. But the more popular your file becomes, the more you are punished by soaring bandwidth costs. If your file becomes phenomenally successful and a flash crowd of hundreds or thousands try to get it at once, your server simply crashes and no one gets it.

There is a solution to this vicious cycle. BitTorrent, the result of over two years of intensive development, is a simple and free software product that addresses all of these problems.

The key to scaleable and robust distribution is cooperation. With BitTorrent, those who get your file tap into their upload capacity to give the file to others at the same time. Those that provide the most to others get the best treatment in return. ("Give and ye shall receive!")”

Check http://www.bittorrent.com/introduction.html and the FAQ section, as broadband is spreading wide everywhere including Asia these kind of technology will really help.

You can download and install the software from the site, it has options to set the Maximum Upload limit aswell. Most of the file sharing software works in the BitTorrent way.

Cleanliness next to ....

2005-09-22T16:56:00.000+05:30

A recent telephone survey made in US has found that US men and women follow good cleanliness habits,

“Three out of every four men wash their hands after a trip to a public restroom, but the rest seem to be incorrigible, microbiologists reported today. Fewer women fall into that category.
Overall, 82% of more than 6,300 men and women observed leaving restrooms washed their hands in 2005 compared with 78% in 2003, said the American Society of Microbiology and the Soap and Detergent Association.
But women accounted for nearly all of that improvement, the groups said, from 83% to 90%.
Men, however, remained the great unwashed, with a negligible soap-and-water improvement to 75% in 2005 from 74% in 2003. “

Consider the above record with what would have been the case with Asian’s, I really think it would be not that much high as compared to Americans. Most of the Americans get exposed to good habits right from the very young age, as they have good public service system, also it’s to be noted that America is a developed nation and Asia is still under development. Considering the fact that the education rate is getting increased at a good pace these basic qualities will get imbibed with Asians in the coming years for sure.

The link to the actual post http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/PublicHealth/tb/1778

Opera – Free Internet Browser

2005-09-21T17:25:00.000+05:30

www.opera.com announced that their web browser can be downloaded for free by users and they wanted to catch the no.2 spot in the browser category (current no.1 Internet Explorer & no.2 FireFox). Microsoft has 86% of the market with Internet Explorer and Opera is realistic in their expectation that they can become no.1 by out placing Microsoft.

So which is better, Opera Vs FireFox. I would vote for Opera, it is really very cool and can be customized to a great extent. FireFox also is customizable but I did not some how like FireFox look & feel, Opera seems to be pretty good in the look and feel than FireFox. So why would anyone want to move away from Internet Explorer, I really don’t know, infact many people complain that IE is slow, being an expert Internet user myself, I don’t see any issues with IE, and it works fine for me. Though I tried FireFox and thinking of using Opera for sometime, I think the native feeling of using IE, basically because of the fact that we have been using IE for long would make it really difficult to change from it to FF or Opera. But Opera is definitely worth trying and it is graphical and has special effects working really good. And they have features for “voice” capabilities, and they are the first web browser to give such facility. Operas tabbed browsing works better than FireFox or Netscape Navigator. BTW, on Solaris Netscape Navigator works very fine for me. On Windows, one of my favourite and the reason I stick to IE is the “links” button that you can have, I have lot of webpages bookmarked in Links and its really easy to browse it in IE, but with other FF or Opera you have to go to your links through “bookmarks” only.

Probably I would look forward for Windows Vista and the new Internet Explorer that comes along with it.

Google Rumors

2005-09-20T18:00:00.000+05:30

Google has been source of many things in the internet world and they are doing a good job innovating the intelligent way. There are many webpages based on google and one interesting page is http://www.googlerumors.com I am not sure where they get the details but some of them are really interesting, so according to this website google is coming out with wifi services in US, check the same website for more details. A search about google in the google website gives of about 696,000,000 sites/links and the same with MSN gets you about of 65,046,404, Interesting facts :-)

Video search – www.truveo.com

2005-09-19T14:39:00.000+05:30

When I thought that all had been done in the search business by Google and no one would ever do better search than them and nothing more to be done in search, I was totally wrong. Check www.truveo.com, the ultimate video search engine. It is really good and can even play the results found.

This is very good and bad at the same time. Very good as the site really works throwing very fine results. Why bad ?? If you really don’t see any bad in this, I don’t want to get into more details on how this can be bad, but for the curious mind, let me say this would add more work to your “netnanny”.

I think down the line this search company is definitely going to be acquired by some big players like Yahoo, Google or MSN. Currently this is under beta.

Google Blog Search

2005-09-17T13:58:00.000+05:30

Google has introduced a search service for blogs, its really very cool and very useful. I should say I was very thrilled to see my posting when I did a search on my blog heading “Understand the Connections”. I should say the blogs are catching up very fast and these days everybody is interested in having their own blog, where you can blog about anything and everything.

Personally I regularly follow Om Malik`s broadband blog http://gigaom.com/
He writes really good and always gives wealth of information well in advance on the topics he covers.

The other blog which I have bookmarked is http://orangehues.com/blog/ Manu Sharma writes good and his site is really attractive and very catchy.

Finally Rashmi Sinha's weblog http://www.rashmisinha.com

For the other information and latest updates Google News is really useful.

I haven’t had any comments on my blog so far and thinking that I should treat the first person who comments on my blog for a dinner, provided they are in/around Delhi/Noida/Gurgoan or send a gift if they stay outside. Hmmm but this is not a promise.
BTW, I should mention I already got a comment but that seems to be an autogenerated spam comment where that person wanted me to check someother website. What I expect is some useful feedback on the writing style, content topics that I cover etc.