Happy New Year

-- Shibu

ADVANCED WISHES

Govt. Departments?

Two different departments & two different treatments and they both are part of the Indian government.

With my friend's advice, I had registered for my new landline & broadband connection at BSNL. Ten days went by and didn't really find any response. Hence, made a walk into a BSNL office near my house and happened to meet the manager at the office. From that point onwards, the office manager himself took so much interest in making sure we get both the connections. The same was treated with very high priority. The heights of it is, the manager called me at 9.45PM on the day I got the net connection, just out of his concern and made sure that as a customer I'm satisfied with the service. I really wonder, if I can get such a treatment from any other Governmental organization. :)

Here is another department representing the domestic LPG Gas Cylinder service, where I'm really trying to transfer the name and location for past 4 months. And still, there is only one answer - The person who had the authority to do so in the department had passed away & still, no one has taken over the same!! :(

Headlines...

Quite some interesting headlines in the newspaper last 2 days...

• Dead body found in the luggage hold in an Air India flight and that made a scare in the Britain Airport. Just not sure, why such things always end up happening in Air India:)?
  
• Lalu, the new Management Guru for Harvard & Wharton students! From the time I have been in India, people have always been talking about the Indian Railway Sector turn around which Lalu has made in like 30 months time and that too with no layoffs. I really wish, he had done something very similar in Bihar too.

  "Bihar is too difficult. It has no potential. Per capita income is low, there are constant floods. But the Railways is like an empire. It has huge potential,"

Hutch.. Hot or Not?

From the day I started looking into options of taking a cell connection at India AirTel, Reliance, BSNL and Hutch have had been the major players. But past four days have changed my opinion on Hutch infact.

Like, when I heard from one of my friends that Reliance have made an offer for Hutch, I just couldn't believe my ears. So, as I was trying to get this fact into my mind, the next day I saw the news of Vodafone thinking about Hutch. Hmmm... And wait for a day more and now Essar group have made an official offer to buy the remaining 67% of the stake in Hutchison!

Haven't really gone into the details. Well, Hutch is too hot in the Indian cellular communications business market now, but from a customer perspective...

'e'ducators!

There are so many graduates especially girls & ladies who tend to sit at house after marriage and engage themselves within the word called 'House Wife'.

The studies, the efforts & the pain they have undergone all in their earlier years can be made worth and it is being made possible by some websites now-a-days. Like, TutorVista is one. It is bringing teachers from India closer to students in USA via web technology. Great stuffs, indeed! To term it in another way - Tutions outsourced to India, but it is reaching a bit more to the house wives:)

Well, 2 things to note though - The teachers have to be awake at odd times like early in the morning in India inorder to manage the time zone differences.

And the other one is, I remember the tutors when I was in Masters at OSU were being paid like USD10 per hour and a tutor is allowed to work for 20 hours per week. That means, a tutor in US should be able to make more than say USD 800 per month, which is around Rs. 36,000/- - May be the Indian house wives should be getting say Rs.8000/- per month. Real cost cutting, real cheap labours & real outsourcing:)

Likewise, I have heard real good reviews about EduComp too! May be, I'll get to see the demo of it soon...

'Wiki' What?

So, the new word is out in the market. Wikiasari - yet another competitor for Google & other web search giants but with some difference from the makers of Wikipedia.

The difference is, there will be Human Intervention in the algorithm based searches. Humans can sure help in making better decisions rather than completely depending on machines, just like the logic Will Smith gives in 'I, Robot'! But... What we are looking at, is a stupendous job of finding the relevance from millions of pages. So, can human really make a difference in such areas?

Meanwhile, on a side note is - The funders are Amazon.com. Why? What happened to A9.com? Anyways, let's wait 'n watch what Jimmy Wales is upto.

Invite - Orkut Way:)

Getting More Innovative:)

Thanks To SM

Simple 'X'lication

Xmas Gift

Thanks To SM

Auto Gambling?

When the trio deal between GM, Nissan & Renault didn't happen, it was all over for Kerkorian. His words were no more a pressure tactic on GM's CEO Wagoner. Now, he is more like a gambler, a person who owns Casinos who atlast made a decision to sell all of his stake in GM. One headache gone for Wagoner, now its high time for him to make some turn arounds with the greatest backing from the board of directors.

Well, its in fact high time to act because Japanese auto makers are not showing any slow down in US market - Toyota just tipped Ford from No.2 spot.

Bruins Ruins...

Haha... Wooohhh...
Trojans are out from the run for the National Championship game... I never expected that UCLA Bruins could go ahead & beat their cross town rivals USC. Whenever I used to stay in Sou Cal, the whole crowd around me used to cheer for USC & it always used to be easy win for USC... Well, not this time. The run for national champs against the Big 'O' is still a big question!!!!

And so, most probably it's yet again a game of the rivals:) Wolverines & Bucks. What a great game it would be for the Columbus-Ann Arbor fans!

Players Play...

Just wondering why to blame Chappell alone when the experienced Indian cricketers are also supposed to be playing the game? Why a single person has to be blamed, for the major debacles of the Indian cricket team against the South Africans?

Cricket is not a game like NFLs or NBAs where each and every move by the players is pre-determined by a coach. At the same time, should Greg Chappell take moral responsibility and step down?

Well, he sure has enough guts to make statements on Indian MPs:)

Time to Find Time...

It's high time for me to find some time to give myself some more time:)

I just wish I can blog more...

Shuffle

An email at my inbox. That is yet another gadget from Apple called iPod Shuffle. If I compare mine with that, mine is too bulky:)

I should really appreciate Apple's strategy. The right time to introduce this product into the market for the upcoming holiday season, the same 1GB, the same shuffle features, the smallness and the price tag - USD79/-. Check it out.

The Comment

A comment really worth an uproar & ofcourse, there are lots of hidden truth in it...

You know education, if you make the most of it, and you study hard, and you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq. -- John Kerry

Champs Trophy...

Two gooooood games!! Pakistan beating Sri Lanka... And W.Indies beating Australia after their humiliating defeat against Sri Lanka in the qualifiers.

With all controversies & the latest being the drug one, with poor bowling line up, Pakistan still managed to win...

Some good batting performances from Morton & Gilchrist. A full 100 over match. The doubts on low scoring Mumbai pitch washed away and goes along with it, the talks of switching the finals from Mumbai... And the first hat-trick for W.Indies... ICC Champions Trophy matches are interesting.

The next match for England & Australia should also be equally good thinking about the up coming Ashes.

Line Drawn...

Advanced Diwali Ramzan Wishes... Thanks To Appalla

Sun @ Google...

I know that heading makes things a bit more interesting & increases curiosity... Anyways, this is nothing to do with Sun Microsystems.

It's all about the new project in Googleplex about installations of some solar panels for energy generation & hence, helping Google with some electric power! This sure is an interesting development because it seems, the project will be capable of generating power for like 1000 homes.

Hmmm... Wouldn't that be sufficient to meet Google's needs? Well, not really. It seems, that is gonna be sufficient only for half of Google's needs!!! Whatever it is, this sure will help them conserve some energy & save some cost, down the line in future. And ofcourse, they'll get some financial incentives too from government.

Madai Thirandu

Thanks To Sathya

G Spreads...

Ahhh... From the time Writely got integrated with Google's spreadsheets, the Google's product performance has depreciated a lot. Not sure why!

• Especially, only half of the sheet actually gets displayed or rather loaded in Firefox if we move on to other tabs or windows when the spreadsheet is actually loading!
• Sometimes, the sheet says only 50% uploaded and it never completes uploading.
• Very often the sheet loses connection to the server and automatically goes for 'Switch to Read only mode'!
• The sharing options has become more distractive rather than a great feature....
  

Gen Sec...

Hmmm... We got our new UN General Secretary, Ban Ki-Moon and the important aspect of (s)election is Ki-Moon is the Finance Minister from... South Korea!

I really wonder if there is something else behind this. Well, obviously we know this comes right at the time when North Korea has conducted their Nuclear tests and UN is in high spirits to impose tough sanctions against them. And who else will be more than willing to do it, than someone from South Korea!

Credit... & Peace

The guy who sells a hot dog on the street is as much an entrepreneur as anyone else.

That is MicroCredit's stand. An interview of the Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhummad Yunus.

Why Tube?

So, with all the popularity of YouTube getting more day by day, why should they give themselves into Google? On the other hand, is Google not in a great position to compete with YouTube?

Isn't Google moving towards a competition for the phenomenon called Television? I guess that is where this online video community is going to. And no wonder Google wanna take a bite in this apple - A site where like 100 million videos are seen daily & yet, 60000 videos are uploaded daily...

But the issue is why didn't Google's video website gain the same popularity as YouTube. Though they have come late into the market, they still have success written all over their history in similar situations. Why this business decision to buy up for USD1.65 Billion - a largest in the history of Google too?

Confidential? Not @ BPO...

Hmmm, the new claim is that Indian call centers are stealing information about Britishers. The complete report on the same will be published like on Thursday.

Obviously when calls centers are operating for Banks and other similar financial instituitions, people have to provide very sensitive & personal confidential information inorder to access the accounts and other details. I always have had doubts about providing such information to any telephonic customer service representative. Like from US people need to provide Passport numbers, SSN, credit card details & bank account details to get things done over phone. Not good at all.

Like here in this report that is yet to be published it seems the information are more on the credit cards that are used by people for personal purchases and all. And it seems the information is taken by the tech support people in jump drives out of the centers.

So, how to make a good judgement decision on who is reliable?

Google's Bad News Picture...

I have always had a better idea about the Google News website. I do visit it very often. Even otherwise, the Google search site is itself atleast to some extent safe, preventing from pornography or bad search links/images with the 'Safe Search' feature.

But today, the Google News site is a bit different. There is a news link in 'Entertainment' page related to the Ugly Betty TV comedy serial. This show is being produced by Salma Hayek and that is the only relation for her to this news story. But as I see, the small thumbnail display picture against this news story link is a nude picture of Salma Hayek!

Which website will put up such a non-related picture for totally a different news story? Even so, shouldn't Google news website make sure the links and thumbnail pictures are still following the 'Safe Search' rulez?!!

Equalizer...

So, China proved for Mike that he is still on the run for the Championship:) And the deciders are Japan & Brazil.

You sure know what I'm talking about. It was Alonso's run for the title and he couldn't make it. But Schumi took advantage and he equalized the championship points to 116. From 6th pole position to the top, he yet again proves that he is worthy to take his 8th championship.

So, every eye is looking forward to the last 2 races... Is it gonna be a championship retirement?

Quote Redefined!

I was never aware that there has been a controversy on the famous statement which Neil Armstrong made from moon in 1969. The quote read... till date

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind

Do you see anything wrong? Well, people have seen that there was no 'a' before 'man'!! So, people have argued or criticized Neil to have actually meant "That's one small step for mankind..."! Did he mean that or not is the question:)

It seems the statement would have been dramatic and grammatically correct if Neil had said 'a'! Hmmm... who cares? Peter Shann Ford has cared about the same, used some audio research softwares and has proved that Neil infact used 'a' before 'man' in his famous quote!

Who knows, this may turn out to be another controversy:)

Rockin' Bucks...

Go Bucks, Go! This year is yet another one after 2003, standing in front of you....

Nittany Lions, LongHorns & Hawkeyes are gone. You guys are now not only the toughest defense team, the best offense too. Our rival, Wolverines is the only other ranked team we are yet to meet. That game is always the last and we stand the best in front of them forever.

Is it Auburn or USC to face us in the National Championship?

Playful Holidays...

The long awaited holiday season for this year is almost here. Two months down the line, we'll have the new set of gadgets and the big ones expected are the Zune & PS3.

PS3 had been on the pipe line for a long time. And the advantage is its 60GB version being compatible with that of Blu-Ray DVDs. PS3 is already one year behind XBox 360 and has already lost a good percentage of the market. Now, the question is can it make a great entrance as their PS2?

Blu-Ray has been in the market more time than its competitor HD-DVD. People who would have bought Blu-Ray DVD players won't really wait for PS3's advantage on the same. Also, if people who have bought HD-DVD may probably go for XBox360 foreseeing some future compatibility.

And now, Microsoft has made the announcement of XBox360's compatibility with HD-DVD discs. This add-on drive for USD 200/- is also coming by mid-november right for the time of holidays. And the conference with Peter Jackson would sure have its own positive impact on HD-DVD & XBox360's new add-on drive.

So, probably HD-DVD will have better chances this holiday & that would probably put down the sales for PS3!! What say, Sony?

More Hours Same Pay...

This sure is an interesting Management strategy - The way Volkswagen have come up to a deal with their manufacturing unions.

So, the deal says that the employees will work for 4 more hours per week increasing from 29 to 33 and will be getting the same pay. This is something that is unimaginable for me from an Union's perspective. Where can you expect the union to sign a deal for the workers to work for more with the same pay? Well, on the other hand the union have made sure that the company will give job security for their employees till 2011.

When most of the car companies are trying to get out of the industry from negative slope, this strategy will atleast help VW to some extent of increasing their profit from their hot-selling Golf brand. What more can you expect? Usually the strategies for reducing the production costs are to make sure the company implement those manufacturing based industry-wide jargons like Kaizen, Lean, Pull, JIT etc. Or atleast increase production with some overtime hours from employees making a trade-off between the extra pay & the profit to be made.

But, with no extra cost for the "documented" excess working hours and at the same time increasing the prodcutivity & production is worth a success for the company.

BTW, whatsup with Ford & GM? Any improvements...?

Burning Recall

Well, the recalls from most of the companies have been painful. What else, the notebook recall. Dell's notebooks started burning. Then last week, Lenova's too. Most of the companies have joined in the recall of their units. Even Apple, Toshiba & Fujitsu adding up the total to around like 7 million books... And I guess HP's recall has nothing to do with this.

And the culprit is Sony! Sony batteries have got all the bad names because of the short circuits, burns & explosions. So, is it time for a transition from Sony to Sanyo or Panasonic? Can the competitors promise a better product? Will it be a fast transition? What'll happen to all the losses which the whole industry has been experiencing? Or can Sony retain these businesses with a much better, reliable & quality battery?

Even otherwise, will these bad quality have effect on other Sony's products? May be this'll have some effect on PS3 sales!!!

Hmm... Why different?

Atlast found some time to scribe something... It's been travel all these times and trying to get settled and ofcourse, am still trying...:)

While I was finding ways to travel, smethings came up like - I was looking for the rates to fly from Chennai to Hyderabad and back - And came up with so many rates like SpiceJet is offering a flight journey for Rs.99/- while KingFisher is offering the same distance for around Rs. 2700/-. Well, all the other airlines like Indian Airlines, Air Deccan do fall inbetween.

So, why is such a price difference? Can people fly for Rs.99/-. That's like USD2!!:) How can SpiceJet operate for profit? If that is the price, then would ever people want to drive or atleast take a train to go from Chennai to Hyderabad? Is there any customer service difference in flights like SpiceJet and KingFisher? Time to learn the Indian Air market, I guess!

It's Tough!

Am I having very less time to write in my blog? Well, actually not. I should accept I'm in India.So, where is the difficulty for me with my blog entries? Is?? They are all 'are's. Complaints from my frustrations:)

• Slow... internet. Parallel telephone lines at house. So, can spare very less time early morning or late night. Otherwise, the phone line becomes dead. A download speed of 2Kbps:(
  
• The other case is, the system is still Win 98!
  
• Well, why not browsing centers? Speed is comparatively ok but still Win 98. Crashes badly. Not able to handle Yahoo Messenger & browser windows at the same time. Gmail doesn't work. Yahoo mail complaints. Is it just IE? No, latest Firefox is equally bad. Blue screen every 5 minutes

I just saw that the almost release Vista candidate is out. No way I can get a hold of it soon I guess. Hope, I come out of this transtition state soon...

Travel... Out of States

If at all you are thinking about travel to say India from USA, now is the time. I mean, just at the end of summer, when actually people travel towards USA, passengers going out of USA sure get cheaper deals and "free" seats rather, berths:)

So, when I happened to do such a travel couple of days back, it was quite enjoyable. The flight from LAX bound outside USA, is like 50% full which means that many passengers do get 2-3 seats for their comfortable sleep:) The business class section of the flight happened to be so empty that some of the aged economy class passengers were given multiple seats, I mean 3-4 seats for them to stretch their legs and rest.

At one end, though this can be beneficial for the customers, I just keep questioning how come the airlines are actually making profits? No wonder, they are all lined up for bankruptcy:). I mean, I also happened to travel in a domestic flight AirBus 330 inside India and it so happened that I should say only 50 seats were filled out of like 250+.

Well, though the actual travel is smooth, the hassles around the same - the security checks & clearance before starting, no carry on luggages, no toothpaste, deos, hair gels etc, requirement of carrying only a transparent polythene bag with passport & ticket only and atlast, the safe arrival of the luggage at the end of the journey - are still points of concern for travel...

Did 'He' Drink?

Well, I happened to check out the latest editions of Hindustan Times and some other English dailies in India. And there were colorful pictures in some of them with related stories on how the statue of Shirdi Sai Baba and statues of other Gods in Mumbai actually started drinking milk!!??

Man! Is this possible? A statue when "Spoon-fed" drinks milk! I feel like, people take such things to heights of beliefs and they also make sure the news spread just like forest fire to the near by community. Ofcourse, if I had also been around, I would have walked into the temple just to peek on how a statue suddenly, on one fine day starts drinking milk!

On similar lines, is it 1995 when actually all "Lord Ganesha" statues in Tamil Nadu started drinking milk? Till now, I haven't witnessed these events but I do wonder, is the explanation of capillary/surface tension, factful? Or do we have a new explanation for this new story?

The New Sun System!

So, the discussion started with whether Pluto is supposed to be a planet! Then, the physicists & astronomers not only accepted Pluto but also defined some new planets.

Well right at this moment, I guess our Solar System is kind of getting redefined! Pluto is still the ninth planet and its moon (till now!!) Charon got the new status called planet - It is supposed to be called 'Double Planet' with Pluto. The already available '10th Planet' Xena is in. The 'dwarf planet' Ceres inbetween Mars & Jupiter is also in! So, the count is like 12...

Now, having defined the planets astronomers started grouping them. The nine fellas from Mercury to Neptune will be 'Classical Planets' and the remaining three which actually take like more than 200 years to come around the sun, will be 'Plutons'... Well, Pluton has a different definition in geology! And now the geologists are contesting the name:)

Anyways, what does this new solar system mean to us? May be some school text book changes, some new set of toys & probably some changes at the planetariums... Is that it?

Lost Connexion!

When there is really a big hype about internet and Web 2.0 and accessing everything over the internet, even your files, documents, codes & spreadsheets, I really don't understand how Boeing lost its interest in the same.

As per Boeing, they don't really foresee a big market for the inflight Internet broadband service and hence, they have decided to pull off their respective project called Connexion! Man! That is like solid 6 years of investment and will really be fruitful if it would have gone through. Though, they see this as good for the company from long term perspective, I would say this is just in benefit of short term gain against that of their competitor Airbus. Bad move!!

I mean, people will be more than happy to spend some entire international flight with computer and internet browsing for some cheap hourly rates and that sure, would make a big business for any airlines who are more than willing to invest on the same. Aren't we seeing a big difference the hotel chains which give internet service are making ?

I just hope, Lufthansa would atleast continue their internet facility implementation in their jets...

Are They Lost?

So seriously, have NASA lost the original set of tapes which actually contain the remarkable event of Apollo 11's moon landing in 1969? Well, that's what NASA website have shown the info as! Quoting...

Despite the challenges of the search, NASA does not consider the tapes to be lost.

Well, they have atleast left out with something though:)

First-generation copies of the converted video from Apollo 11 as well as other first-generation copies and some original versions of the converted video for the Apollo 12 through Apollo 17 flights are still in NASA Johnson Space Center's Informational Resources Directorate's video vault in Houston.

Well, looks like the search has been going on for 18 months as of now, and still they feel it as simply to do with the logistics and labelling of the boxes??!!

I mean, as anyone else I'm also kind of looking forward to this (supposed to be) "high-quality" version of this event compared to the actual controversial relay pictures & videos shown to the public then. By the way, the videos that were seen in TV were of poor quality because obviously the stored data had like 10 frames per second of data and the TV asks for like 60 frames per second...

But, how can they lose these tapes? Is this yet another setback story for a governmental agency?

Why Hate?

Here is one information I came to know today. There is one community in Orkut called We Hate India! And the main display picture for this community is a burning Indian flag!

"The sole purpose of this community isn't meant to offend india...its against all those people who are against Pakistan...its about having a group of people who have enemity for india just coz of its oppressive & hostile approach..."
-- Community Description

Why to add more fuel to the fire??!!

Funny...Failure!

Here is what you need to do....

1. Go to Google. (Let me provide the link too)
2. Type in Failure.
3. And... the first link is to George W.Bush!:)

Thanks to J!

Crushed... & Suppressed!

Vegetarians on alert! Not only vegetarians, there is something everyone of us should know before we consume some processed food.

Let's consider the Yoplait Yogurt from General Mills - Especially the pink colored Starwberry flavor! The pink color is termed as artificial coloring but at the backend it seems the color is obtained from an extract called Cochineal - To be more specific they are obtained from crushing female cochineal beetles and their eggs!

"And it's not just yogurt. The bugs are also used to give red coloring to Hershey Good & Plenty candies, Tropicana grapefruit juice, and other common foods."
--BusinessWeek

At one end, is it required to make the product attractive by using artificial color? Even so, is crushing bugs the only option for that reason? If so, shouldn't the customer be warned about it in the product label itself - Well, they need not type it out as 'crushed bug' in their content list but atleast they can type it out like 'Cochineal Beetle Extract' or like 'WARNING: This product has beetle extract'!!

Wish FDA & food activists act on this issue and find a solution quick enough!

M Tech Kid!

I should accept that this kiddo, Chandrasekar has got brains - Otherwise, there is no way he gets admitted for M.Tech in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and that too at the age of 15! And the guy's history states the facts...

• Complete schooling at 12 years (with some double promotions)
• Microsoft Certified System Engineer at 10
• Cisco certified Network Associate
• 99.32% at the IIT Entrance Aptitude Test

Good, great, excellent...

But, aren't all these a bit too much for that kid? Well, I kind of see this kid as a big time geek & researcher with not much of a normal fun filled life in his future! If it is so - wishfully, someone should make him understand soon that life asks more than just studies & knowledge!

Salute!

Happy Independence Day

Vande Matharam

Sensational Oldie...

Yet another news from YouTube and this time, it is not about any cool video or some sensitive one either! The latest sensation in that video site is Peter or nick named geriatric1927 - An 78 year oldie from England!

Just watch this video -

That is supposed to be the first video by Peter and it has been watched like 850,000 times after it got uploaded on 5th August! And now, there are like 14,000 subscribers for his page!

Don't you think, it is tough to understand people's mind set?:)

Homeland MS Patch...

I'm just wondering, what made this patch alone a special difference compared to all those other patches?

Hmm... Microsoft announced yet another set of monthly security updates & patches. And one of them made a difference. Because, the Department Of Homeland Security, took one step more (for the first time) and made an announcement... Basically, it asked Windows users to apply the patch.

So, what made the difference? On first thoughts, may be one of DHS' servers is already being exploited because of the specific buffer overrun vulnerability... Hmm, scary though!

Third Eye...

Well, well... The Israel Lebanon crisis will ofcourse get all different perspectives and view points. We as common citizens do try to make a "picture" out of what the reporters give as a 'story' to us.

Here is Aish.Com giving some details on how news reports are actually 'making up" stories and images about the demolitions in Lebanon and hence, increasing the world's pressure on Israel. Check it out! Thansk to Biju...

Likewise, yet another video from Aish, giving an eye for actually what US sees.

I'm not sure if Reuters or Aish is correct. But I do wish as anyone else that I get some true facts!

Sky Shooting...

Have you been in a snowy place? Especially have you driven in snow strom kind of snow fall? It is so good to drive around in snowfall, because we don't need to worry about skidding tyres (which actually happens after snowfall) and the other best thing is, the all those snow flakes especially seem to appear from one single spot ahead of us in the road. Really a great sight which gives a great soothing feeling!

Hmm.... Tonight's & early hours of tomorrow's celestial fireworks of 'Shooting Stars' is a much anticipated one! And here are some of the interesting details surrounding the watch of those fireworks.

And it seems the same optical illusion concept like that of the snow one works for these meteor showers too - The Perseids which are actually part the tail of the dusty Swift-Turtle comet, seems to fly out of the Perseus constellation!

People are ofcourse expected to be awake the whole night and try to get a glimpse of this great fireworks at the early hours of morrow. And it is simple enough. These dust particles are comet's left over after it has passed across the sun. So, as the earth rotates while revolving around the sun, the people who are about to see the sun (early dawn hours) should be able to see more dust particles!

Well, here is another vision concept -

"And shooting stars are best seen from out of the corner of your eye due to the way that the eye's most light-sensitive nerve cells are arranged away from the central focal point of the retina."
--Independent

I don't know if I'll be watching these "showers" tonight, but sure, this reminds me of some sweet memories when I used to wait at open terrace all night long with friends & watch such meteor sparks!:)

Biassed?

Yet another time, George Galloway MP stood against the policies of US & UK in the Israel Lebanon crisis. Have you seen this heated discussion?

Do you think he is biassed? May be, may be not!

Bean Drink Race...

They still amaze me... Howard Schultz & his Star Bucks business! 3 to 5 bucks per coffee and people go behind them - That sure is a great business out of nothing:) It ain't that simple and obviously we just can't stand & watch these guys being the leader forever.

I have never been aware of illy - the coffee bean fella - I guess, because they are more Italian and they really are not at the front end... till now. Probably, I may have tasted the coffee made out of their beans because it seems one of the biggest coffee chains in India do sell their coffee made out of illy beans!

And, now they are crossing the barriers of grinding machines and entering the front end, serving the customers directly... Espressemente - That is the shop we are bound to see in our corners in the near future! May be they may take some time to establish in US, but sure the initiatives are on the go with illy Galleria!

So, wanna peak into one of Espressementes on how they may look? Businessweek shows off! Another Star Bucks on the making??!!

Caution...

I know I haven't been writing as frequent as I used to do. "God! Need some time off to relax from this busy schedule!"

So, what to write? - May be F1, or Mel Gibson's DUI or Jaswant's PMO Mole controversy or Castro's illness or Landis' doping or the new sensation in coffee bean business illy & Espressemente... & in came a story from Google! Quite handy & useful:)

These guys are making everything in that text box page user friendly:). The new improvement being warning the user about the page they are about to visit if the page hosts some malicious wares like Spy, Ad etc. Well, as per the statistic, it seems every search result leads to like 5% of malicious page contents. Till now I haven't run into that warning but sure, in case I run into them, I would dare to continue forward - A Value Addition worth every penny of it.

And the statistic also reads that it seems 64% of results for the search string 'Free Screensaver' lead to malicious contents & page! Hmmm... Aren't people satisfied with the variety in WebShots?

Being 'Online' More...

Have you visited MySpace lately? Well, there are ofcourse many new features in it, including this 'MySpaceIM'! My feeling is like 'Ohh! Yet another chat client & instant messenger'!

Well, actually speaking, my curiosity did increase because MySpace is a socializing site and so, if we need to chat in MySpace webpage it should be something like 'GMail with Chat Enabled'! So, with more research ended up in Meebo! You would have already seen this chat client here in this blog page:)

Yes! This is yet another means of making everything available online in internet like Google's spreadsheet & word! Another concept of Web2.0 :)(a bit hyped up though). Meebo, sure is going to help me make myself available online and interact 'live' with my friends & blogmates but... I'm still wondering why I need to keep a browser window open for that purpose!

Ofcourse, I don't need to download & install another software.

A quick trial with my "widget" displayed here wasn't successful! I mean, my first set of impressions are not that great with it. Because, even when I was online at Meebo, I wasn't shown online here in my blog "widget"... Well, there is an answer for that.

Update: We're trying to fix a few things over here, so if you're having trouble using your widget we're on it!

At this point, I'll keep my fingers X'ed and wait for this "widget" to function a bit more efficiently
and then try our some available features. Still quizzed, if I really need one more besides MSN, Yahoo, GTalk, AOL...

Sharing But No Sharing!

So, the Kazaa guys are putting an end to their lawsuit! And there is no more music file sharing servers... Well, kind of!

But, the emerging trend now a days is a different kind of sharing - Videos! And ofcourse, YouTube & Google Videos are the best examples of what I'm talking about. Now YouTube is facing the legals, for allowing people to post copyright videos in their site. Not only that, the ads against the videos are also becoming an issue!

This YouTube & video sharing concenpt is sure a run away success and hence, people just want to do the ground checks beforehand to settle things ahead! For me, I do feel YouTube is protected very well in this regard because, it doesn't take the ownership of the video -

"You shall be solely responsible for your own User Submissions and the consequences of posting or publishing them. In connection with User Submissions, you affirm, represent, and/or warrant that: (i) you own or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to use and authorize YouTube to use all patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights in ..."
- YouTube's Terms of Use

And if needed, the video can still be removed. And the ads are not against user's videos but are against the search terms and so I think, they still are in good shape...

So, here is one such copyright video which the owners (Fritz Grobe & Stephen Voltz) don't want to be in YouTube. (-- BusinessWeek)

And here is the other one (I guess) which has started the legal battle from Robert Tur!

In Comes A Third Party...

Let's put the previous topic on roll. Not from WalMart's perspective but from China & WalMart's influence over the area! A related news article reads,

"A few days ago 11,000 factory workers employed by a Metron toy manufacturing plant in Dongguan, Guangdong, with sales to US companies like Disney, McDonald’s, Mattel and Hasbro, went on strike. Many of them threw stones and clashed with police—riot vehicles were sent in to control the situation and dozens of workers were arrested."
-- AsiaNews

The reason behind being, exploiting laborers with low pay and inhuman working conditions! And WalMart have always been on the similar kind of talk for long time - Why just in Asian countries, but in Americas too where the regular complaints are that the employees work without proper lunch timings and with improper health insurance benefits.

What has changed now is, a section of WalMart's employees in China are part of a Union! All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), a government backed trade union has come into terms with the retailer to make their employees part of their union! Is it good for WalMart or for any foreign-funded company? If things work productive enough, this is sure good in terms of humanitarian basis.

At the same time, is WalMart hinting employees in Americas & Canada to get into Union too? BTW, what happened to the labor charges of the China's iPod factory?

Retreat...

What is wrong with WalMart? After 10 years of trying, the retailer accepted thier defeat in Germany!

"It is pulling out after almost a decade with a loss of $1 billion (£540 million) and has agreed to sell its 85 stores to local rival Metro for an undisclosed sum."
-- TimesOnline

And I'm trying to understand, why they need to sell their stores for loss? Metro sure will not only gain a lot financially, but also will become advantageous with WalMart's stores and supplier resources & networks.

It is really not long back that we learnt about WalMart's death in South Korea too. And we also know that they are not only expanding in South & Central America but also in China. Isn't China a very similar market to that of South Korea? Yes, it is understandable that most of WalMart's products are coming from Asian countries and hence, moving things over its supply chain network to China won't be that bad of a hassle as that of the Americas. But, similar to the South Korean market, WalMart will have really a tough time to compete with the local big retailers who sure have a cultural advantage and hence, a better way of attracting the local customers. Don't you agree?

I already wrote this question. Can WalMart be stopped from becoming a leader in other international markets too? Two countries representing Asian & European markets just shut the door to WalMart within 3 months. Global expansion for leaders in retailing industry, is not that easy!

Hmm... Sure, I would like to read & know what happened in these 2 markets if at all there comes out a 'Failure Analysis'!

It Ain't Cool!

My Goodness. These days, the temperature in Southern California is just unbelievable. Almost crossing 110 degrees almost all days and the problem with this climate is, we don't sweat! So, ultimately we end up feeling the pain of the sun piercing our skin... and in the evenings, the whole air is burning around us, when actually the land surface is trying to cool itself! God!

Last week, I played almost the whole sunny afternoon and everyone whom I played with including me, got seriously sick:(. This year summer is especially so bad that atlast I saw the news that more than 100 people and around 16500 cows are dead because of the heat. And the concerns are still growing -

• More & more use of AC & Plasma TVs & hence, energy crisis!
• More blackouts.
• Elders in house somehow are not able to withstand the pressure.
• Health officials are worried about hospitals running out of power & evacuation plans...

Today I had been to one Hindu temple near by and the priest gave a 'cool touch' for the heat:)! Today's prasadas include 'ButterMilk' too - The representation of Goddess Lakshmi & the planet Venus who/which it seems, actually try to reduce the heat and make you feel cool:)! Hmmm... I don't want to cross check the genuinity of that statement;)

On More Happier Terms...

May be someone over saw Dinesh's safer place comment and gave it a different angle - The Happiest Places:)

As BBC reports,

"Adrian White, from the UK's University of Leicester, used the responses of 80,000 people worldwide to map out subjective wellbeing."

Well, Denmark stood for all the wrong reasons when the Muhammad cartoon issue sprang up and now, it is called out as 'THE PLACE' to be in if you want to live happy.

May be the number used, is sure something big for getting some accurate stats but are the measurement criteria of health levels, prosperity & education the real representation of happiness? I wonder, how 'secured/safer' feeling in today's life didn't enter the criteria? Likewise, are education & prosperity "required" to be happy?

Isn't Happiness, a relative term that defines the 'sense of satisfaction' in what we have?

Reliable Enough?

Hmm.. I have put a car sale ad in some of the sites which I heard from my friends are good enough to get some better impressions and hence, quicker responses! Well, yes there are responses, but just that the responses are not only from private parties but that from agencies also who work as middleman, I guess.

So, here is one such email!

Had any luck getting this sold? If not, call me. My name is ****. I work for Itmotors

And we sell cars just like yours all the time. We offer full-financing in addition to nationwide marketing. We charge no commissions and you receive a check for the full asking price. If you want to get this car sold fast, call me toll-free at **** Thanks!!!

Just wondering what their business model is? Why do they need to leech on websites for their customers? If we visit ITMotors, they do boast that their traffic is more than AutoTrader.com and Cars.com. If that is the case, then why do they need to get customers from other websites. Well, looks like they are building the traffic just by pinging all the customers of other websites:)!

Not A Service - Obviously, these people are not going to help their customer as if its a service they are doing. As the email reads, "no commissions" is a good sign but for sure, any customer will be ripped off for all the 'National Marketing' they are planning to do with the car. I'm sure, customers can look to an extent of $200 to $300 for "their service":)

Let's think in other terms. How far is their marketing going to be different than the online customers who are going to take a look into the online car ad or as a matter of fact, into the Auto Sales Magazines? Assuming its my car - does it really need a nation wide marketing when I guess, am in a place where the rich meet the poor and where the cars of low end to high end sell without much of differentiation?

Assuming, a customer crosses over all these worries and still makes a call to ITMotors. I think (s)he would end up in much deeper trouble with the continuous unwanted marketing phone calls from them - who knows even after (s)he may have sold the car.

Certain things just won’t change and I guess, its better to avoid some unwanted future tensions. What say?!

Bad Nature!

What is happening in & around Indonesia? Today, I ran over this another news of volcanic activity around that area. And yet another time, I saw the same statement as in any other news...

"Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin."

We all know of the worst tsunami on 26th Dec 2004, the Mount Merapi blow (and its Lava Dance!), a tremor in May, a tsunami earlier this month and yet another volcanic activity now. And if we see the status of recent earthquakes that are being tracked from Ask.Com, almost everyday we can see Indonesia producing a tremor more than 5 richter scale!

Don't we need better theories on the tectonic plate movement in that area? I'm still not sure about why the movements are more dynamic in that area... If the place is prone so much for such bad disasters, isn't a necessity to foresee them & warn the public or for that matter, evacuate people around that area permanently?

Why BPO....

Here is the news -

Tanya Banerjee, 25 years old is killed in Bangalore.

This is just another isolated incident in India, but I have no idea why this is so much hyped - by relating her to that of a BPO/Call Center employee! Yes, it is purely coincidental that she is another BPO employee and is killed just 6 months after a similar killing!

Guess, news makers need something to really 'cook & make' some news:)!

Wh's...

Over to International politics & crisis - These are just some open ended questions at my end (with some vague history details)... and some personal comments modified as questions:)!

• Why is US (alone?) against a short term cease fire in the Israel-Lebanon conflict?
  
• Isn't it better to save civilians' life at this point of time instead of thinking about a sustainable "putting down" Hezbollah cease fire?
  
• Where did C.Rice fail to find a diplomatic resolution for the conflict? Does that mean G.Bush got to involve himself personally?
  
• Even then, can we see any progress - I mean, it shouldn't turn out like Clinton's diplomacy?
  
• Why the "urgent meeting" in Rome of International leaders failed to find a solution?
  
• And is the suggested 'International Peace Keeping Force' for patrolling the Israel-Lebanon border going to be effective?
• Do Syria & Iran, have some influence?
• Why do I feel that the world's response to the killing of four UN Observers by Israel, kind of sluggish?
  

Every second, minute & day now is making history and ofcourse, there are going to be lots of answers to these questions floating around online everyday...

We Fly Too!

Hmmm... At one end there are these small car segment (like Yaris or Fit) which is expanding like anything in the US market. Meanwhile, we also saw that Toyota has been expanding into some unrelated territories! Unlike Toyota, Honda is atleast entering a segment which it can categorize somewhat into its core Transportation business - Aviation!

The news on the making is Honda's readiness for the Very Light Jets (VLJ) (I guess, they are still termed as Air Taxis)! Still don't know what a VLJ is? Just have a quick video preview from Honda themselves! And you know what is best about Wiki - They already have the HondaJet segment updated with the July 25th, 2006 announcement:)!

"HondaJets will sport several innovative features. Unlike on other light jets, the turbofan engine will be mounted on top of the wing instead of on the fuselage's tail section. Its fuselage exterior will be made of lightweight, composite materials, not aluminum. Those characteristics, combined with its unique-shaped wings, result in larger cabin space, higher cruising speed, and greater fuel efficiency than its competitors' models, the company says."
-- USAToday

Okay! So, what about the possible competition? We don't need to look anywhere else than Wiki! With AirBus & Boeing already into too much of technical issues & delays and hence, into some financial issues, should sure keep VLJ's too in their mind!

With so many companies into VLJ production, the Air Taxi service providers like DayJet & Linear Air are sure looking into some bright future!

Talking About Video Ads...

Video Ads are impressive on their own fashion and some of them are really fascinating enough for me. Talking about it... I just placed this Video Ad for Happy Dent White here today. It seems, what Irshadh & I have done is in fact, give more publicity to so called 'Viral Ad'! I never knew that there is this term and a big business behind it! Who else is going to introduce this to me other than BusinessWeek:)! Check it out!

I'm sure Google Videos & YouTube are making great profits out of this business model. Especially, the model where they provide the code snippet for 'embed'ding their videos in blogs, is sure helping 'us'! Google has slight advantage because they also provide links for directly blogging into MySpace, Blogger, LiveJournal & TypePad!

You Don't Park!

I got that photo from Skyscraper Page Forum and thanks to Sridhar for the forward.

And some information on the same is available at AutoStadt! As you can see, this is VolksWagen parking space in Wolfburg's Auto City (AutoStadt) technology theme park as pointed out in the forum referenced.

Wow... Doesn't it look like some futuristic sci-fi place? Just started looking for more info on it! Wiki is not of that much help. And the picture explanation of VW assembly plants in another forum doesn't explain these towers either!

But, as we think about it, this sure is less space consuming than any other US parking facility. I mean, if we consider theme parks like Universal Studios, Sea World or Disney Land, the parking lots occupy too much of land & space. And the time to find the parking by any customer is almost a ridiculously frustrating experience. But, this VW tower facility kind of parking is more like Valet Parking and sure, customers will welcome this as they don't need to find the "parking space".

So, where does the actual implementation of such parking lots for day to day use stand? I would atleast love to see this in Irvine Spectrum ASAP!

Journey - A Looong Way...

Well, I'm not sure how to put this in perspective but things are becoming more & more accessible in everyday life. Here is an example... An ordinary citizen can now do a SpaceWalk!

Well, we had been aware of the Dennis Tito's space station tourism vacation. But, looks like the next step now, is to step out of the space station and literally do a space walk:)! That is what Space Adventures have been planning now!

"For a mere £19 million, Space Adventures will broker 190 hours of training at the Star City cosmonaut school near Moscow, a stay of 16 days aboard the space station, round-trip rocket flights from Kazakhstan, and the chance to float outside the orbital outpost for 90 minutes — the time it takes to orbit the planet once."
-- TimesOnline

Well, as you see the £8 Million, is for those 90 minutes float outside the space station. Otherwise, you can just make it a cheaper deal like that of Tito's for £11 Million! BTW, the next tourist (fourth right?) to space is Dice-K!

Let me buy a lottery today;)

'Cool'ness Stands Out!

If there are somethings which I miss from India in US, one of them is the TV Commercials. I guess, I have already told... The cool aspect of Indian Ads are not there in the US TV Commercials, not even in many of the SuperBowl Ads. I don't see Indian channels in US and so, got no idea how the 'coolness' have increased.

Here is one of the latest cool-innovative Indian TV Commercial.

Thanks To Irshadh!

'See' Internet...

I guess, my mind lingers a lot around sufferings of handicapped people and I wish I can help them as much as I can. So, when I see things that are aiding them to use 'stuffs' (like latest technologies et al.) just like any other normal people, I feel a sense of happiness.... Like for instance 'To Move... You Think'.

And now, it's time for Google to get into some action on this. One of the latest from the Google Labs is Accessible -'Accessible Web Page for the Visually Challenged'! What is different...

"The software sorts and ranks search results based on the simplicity of page layout, the quality of design and the organization and clear labeling of information on each page making it easier to enlarge or for voice synthesizers to convert to spoken words."
-- Hawaii Health Guide

Really an great appreciatory initiative!

Atlast... A Way Out!

For internet browsing, pop-ups are frustrations and we have pop-up blockers. There are two, in fact three other places where we get unwanted rather unrequested irritations. One is TV - We have got used to it so much that we accept the TV ads as such (Well, there are ofcourse other ways out)...

The second is the unsolicited marketing phone calls in our landline - heights of frustration. The worst case scenario for me - From some phone card company who mis-informed my roommate that the sales rep (on the other end of the phone) is MY friend!!! Also, it had always been a pester from competitors - the phone companies (AT&T and SBC before), internet (DSL, Dialup, Cable) or TV (Cable, Dishnet etc). And thank God, we ended up in Do Not Call Registry!

But the third one has been the biggest problem for me & my friends. The junk letters that always fill up our mail boxes - Visa, Discover, Amex, MasterCard pre-approved credit cards from different banks & agencies... I guess Citibank & Chase stand first on my list followed by Amex & Chevron! My goodness, most of the days we can see atleast one junk letter for one of us and many days, almost all the mails go directly to trash!!??

Atlast, I found a solution for that too. Just wondering how I have been unaware of this! Its like the famous statement from the movie 'I, Robot' - "You have to ask the right question to get the answer". Probably, I didn't put the right search query:) Anyways, here is the solution provider! Not bad.

Actually, Rock sent me this video on what to do with your junk mails :) and that is when I started looking for the real answers.

More Burns...

Some 'Anonymous' had asked me a question on buying a Dell Notebook! Well, we already know the incident of Dell Notebook burning. So, whoever you are, you better learn the latest facts about the Dell notebooks. All you need to do is visit these two links...

• The Inquirer (With the relevant photos!!)&
• CRN

Doesn't look like a good sign for Dell, the largest seller of Notebooks... May be Google is still reconsidering its Deloogle deal:)

It's About Us!!!!

Ofcourse, there should be a lot of surveys on this new changing looks of internet - The blogs. And here is a survey findings from Pew Internet & American Life Project!

Well, in probability terms, the sample set the survey would have used should be very less comparative to the actual number of bloggers because for sure, the number should be in millions. I guess, most of the findings can be accepted as general facts about any blogger -

Like more than half of the bloggers are less than 30 years and ofcourse the next 40% should be from 30 to 40 years I guess.

But, if we see the distribution of bloggers based on time, its quite interesting. About 18% are blogging for less than 6 months and 33% is for around an year. Those sure represent the real hype in Web 2.0:)

And you can obviously expect the number of daily 'impressions' on the blog page to be less - The survey reports like around 22% of the blog sites have less than 10 hits a day. Well, I guess my blog has been consistently falling in the next 17% of 10 to 99 hits per day! Thanks to whoever is visiting my blog;)

Well, the fact for sure is mostly the blog visitors should be some friends, relatives & colleagues and looks like 50% accept the same. But there is always this unknown factor of "who knows who is visiting our page?"...

Whatever it is... This blog really helps me keep my mind busy in sharing somethings which I come to know from lots of Internet & news browsing. That's how I see it:)

It Kills...So What?

Does advertising always have a positive impact on us? Most of the cases will be YES. The advertisements will linger in consumers' mind for whatever reasons, setting the mind to look for the respective products & services later. So, does that mean the ads always talk about the strengths of the product? Once again, most probably yes but...

Let us take Cigarettes for instance. Does it really matter that we need to put on commercials for these products? Even then, do people worry about the statutory warning - 'Cigarette Smoking is Injurious to Health'! It sure is saying the weakness of the product but who cares. People got so much used to smoking pleasure that they don't even worry about their health anymore!

Tobacco industry sure is big and so, curbing it as a whole from the market is next to impossible. But that doesn't mean, their usage need not be checked & kept under control. The Health Ministry in India has put forward another effort to reduce smoking - Made another warning to be mandatory for all the tobacco products - Tobacco Kills, Smoking Kills. Along with it, the packages may contain some signs like bones & skeleton representing the ill-effects of tobacco consumption. Once again, is this going to affect the market? Probably, a negligible percentage because no one cares...

Some things like this & alcohol consumtion are to be digested as daily facts of life because, they ain't simply walking out of our lives. Are they?

Still IE?

Both Mozilla & Google are pushing Firefox a lot to capture market from IE! And here is the latest marketing strategy!

Well, if you are still with IE (generalizing on the 85% market), may be you can consider the offer of your name encrypted in Firefox 2.0:) Haven't you heard about World Firefox Day? I guess, this July 15th is like the 3rd year for Mozilla. Am just wondering what will be their next move? May be something like EathLink opening retail stores or may be, capture the whole college kid market with tents and freebies in schools:)!

Well, at the same time installing Yahoo Messenger 8.0 Beta does give the feature of tabs in Internet Explorer too. Guess, Yahoo is just trying to put forward some advantageous features of Firefox into IE and hence, encourage people to download Yahoo Messenger!

Painful Send Off!

He claimed my father’s body for Rs1 lakh compensation
-- DNA Mumbai

That is how the news headline read. And the complete news article expressed much deeper pain.
When you know a person is so punctual, to be available back at house at 7PM and if he didn't turn back, and if that happens to be your father, just imagine the hard feeling...

Already there are lots of complaints about corruption and malpractices in the Tsunami funds distribution in Tamil Nadu & Kerala. And now, comes this sad story about a family who couldn't find their father's body one week after the Mumbai bomb blasts. The worst part is, the body had been already claimed & cremated by a different person just for claiming a lakh rupees from the government.

Can't corruption atleast spare the loved ones? Or atleast can't they feel the pain the family will undergo and give them their dutiful rights to perform the last rites? When there is going to be no procedures to follow, everyone is sure trying to exploit the situation...:(

A Livelier Version!

I don't know how I have been ignorant of this format of the game for such a long time, probably because I have not been following too much of international cricket except for that of India:) Well, once in a while, I do have seen the newer version of the game mentioned in different places but haven't took time to know what they are talking about. Like recently I wrote about the charity game between Pakistan & International team which was played as Ten10!

Well, today once again I ran into it because it seems BCCI approved this form of cricket. And is called Twenty20!Ahh... Wiki, you got something to help? Well, ofcourse!

I always used to wonder why the ODI game of cricket alone has been defined to be played for the whole day? I mean, when I enter a stadium for say a Football (American) game (or may be NBA), it becomes so lively for three & a half hours and then, we walk out with a complete satisfaction! But in cricket, I guess we walk out with more of tiredness rather than satisfaction...

Anyways, I think 'Livelier' is sure a better way to define this new form of cricket & I hope, it'll sure live upto my expectations. With fouls defined with additional runs, penalty 'stumps knock out' procedure for a tie & sudden death too, this is a whole new game!

Tag...

I know I got Tagged by Vazz & I have been postponing this for quite sometime now... Alright, let me see...

I hear & sing light music songs a lot.

I wish I can join a light music group to enhance my singing & mridangam playing skills. I guess, I have been doing quite some here in US.

I always try to be enthusiastic about every moment of my life.

I always want to answer 'Good, Great & Beautiful' for 'Hoz life?'

I hope my cool aspect towards life goes on forever.

I want to do whatever I want, to keep people around me happy.

I really miss those young Diwali days at my house.

I wish US immigrants policy is more flexible...

I want to settle down in USA.

I want to do a job of my liking:)

I want to shave less often & with better electric razors!

I know I don't initiate the chat sessions... Too many friends online all the time.

I want to enjoy some more of the college football games with my buddies at the stadium and the tailgate parties:)

I need to play volleyball more often in Sou Cal beaches...

I wish I can walk back in time and undo some of my mistakes...

&....

Alright, looks like this never is gonna end...

Will tag Dins as of now...

To Move...You Think

This is kind of cool. All we need is a brain implant and we are almost ready to work on our computer without touching the mouse:)

And the simple strategy is, our spinal cord is by-passed. Well, the neural signals from brain that are supposed to be transferred to the hand mucles and finger nerves via the spinal cord are received by the Interface called the BrainGate, implanted, decode them and transfer them to the computer as mouse movement signals.

And the experiment has been successful on a patient who is paralysed.

The first of those is Matthew Nagle of Weymouth, Mass., who has been paralyzed from the neck down since his spinal cord was severed five years ago. After receiving his implant two years ago... The device allowed him to open e-mail, draw circles using a paint program and play a simple video game - using only his thoughts. -- CBC News

That's worth an invention to keep someone happy who has lost one half of his/her body movements!

But Why Krrish?

This is making the story! Well, some of the older ones are Krrish is an Indian SuperHero, the movie is kind of a sequel of Hrithik's previous movie, to be released in many languages and turned out to be one mega blockbuster with 100 crores within a week. All those don't matter...

The new news is 'The making of Krrish, the movie' is selected to be a MBA case study at international level! Well, it's not that small of a news because the schools we are talking about are some of the big names - IIM(I), Harvard, University of Hong Kong & Asia Case Research Center (Haven't seen this name in the case studies which I did) and the places this case study will be going are like all over Europe, Asia, Latin & North America!

I'm really not sure what is too special about this movie and its making. I mean, how does this movie stand different than any other mega-budget movie or for that matter, is Hrithik's martial arts training (the program as shown in Star Plus) different from that of KamalHassan's military training?

"This research will immensely help international and Indian students to learn about implementation of best management practices, global management of business, global factor of production, leadership as well as devising new management strategies regarding industrial marketing, global competition, global penetration and market capitalisation," professor of International Business and Marketing, Dr Prashant Salwan, wrote in a letter to the film's producer-director Rakesh Roshan.
-- CNBC

All those are too general terms for a case study. May be the marketing for the product could have been different. Hmmm I guess... Well, need to keep guessing about it till I get a hold of the actual case study itself. Anyways, watch the making here...

And you should find its 2nd & 3rd parts too somewhere out there!