Recently in Television news I saw a news about Anna University Coimbatore implementing a complete automated Exam Management system. They seem to have implemented online solutions to manage all the phases of examinations in an university. This includes Question Paper Authoring, Hall Ticket printing, Secure Question Paper delivery and Evaluation of answer sheets.

In all this, what caught my attention was the Answer sheet evaluation process.  Normally when you think of automation, you tend to think of students taking the test in a computer (CBT like model). But here, the tests are taken by students with traditional paper/pen; after which the answer sheets are scanned by a back office operation; then each examiner sitting in their own college/university can login online, see the answer sheets and evaluate. This saves lot of costs incurred by each of the examiner travelling, lodging, venue and more.

Good luck to the university for success of this scheme.

My views on international politics (and in India politics) are in general formed based on issues rather than personalities or political parties. I normally refine myself from forming strong opinions on US politics  (especially between Republicans and Democrats) on their domestic issues - and of course there is enough to occupy oneself with what's happening in our own backyard (in my case Tamilnadu).  On the other hand I can't be without an opinion on USA's international policies, as the world's only remaining super-power their policies affect every one on this planet - including every Indian in some way or other.

Over the last 8 years, I was disappointed with Bush Administrations "Cow-Boy" style of operations especially on all sensitive world issues - IRAQ War, Palestinian cause, Russia and others. One area where Bush administration should be credited by Americans is the way they secured USA "borders" from terror attacks repeating after the devastating 9/11. In a way with the unjustified war on IRAQ they took the "War on Terror" to someone else's backyard and secured their own borders. With Obama's administration I am pleasantly surprised by the reversal of various US International Policies. Today I saw in papers the news about Hilary Clinton presenting to her Russian counter-part a big red "Reset" button symbolizing a new beginning. Though critics can argue this to be a childish gesture, I feel it is a nice beginning and a great symbolic one which clearly communicates the intentions - it makes your foreign policy easy to understand and doesn't require a PhD to interpret.

I just wish this new beginning goes beyond symbolic gestures and moves into substance. There are many important world problems which can be influenced by USA for a possible solution - including ever present ISRAEL/Palestinian issue, Terrorism in Pakistan & Afghanistan and above all the crumbling World economy.

Last two months climate in Chennai  has been comparatively (for Chennai) cooler and there is common cold in the air - with every other person I see being affected for few days one time or other this season. I find that I am more prone for picking up common pollution caused allergy, which in turn triggers common cold and sore-throat in me. Though the running nose gets cured in few days, the side-effects of cold & dry-cough stays for a longer time - usually for 1 or 2 weeks, affecting my work and productivity. This time I have been suffering with this for more than 2 weeks - with me deciding not to take any drugs, which I got sick of taking every time this happens and as I said I am very prone for this. I asked my Homeopathy doctor and she advised I take Steam Inhalation few times every day with the water mixed with Tulasi leaves (Ocimum tenuiflorum). I have been trying this for last few days and it has been effective, especially clearing the nasal blockage and allowing me to sleep better in the night without breathing through my mouth (and aggravating the sore throat). 

I used the below Facial Steamer that I got few years back from a Utensil shop in Pondy Bazaar, Chennai for Rs.200 (US$4) - for curiosity when I checked in Amazon today similar facial steamers sells for an average $25 in USA.

Tulasi leaves are commonly seen in Vaishnavaite temples in India and they are given as the first offering to the lord, households in south india normally have this plant in a specially built structure in the back of the house. If you are in India, the easiest place to buy Tulasi leaves is in front of "Vishnu" temples - you can get a handful for just few rupees. 

References I found while doing a web search on the above:

1. Definition of Common Cold
2. How to inhale steam vapour?
3. Tulasi as a nose-care agent
4. Tulasi as a Siddha cure for cold, asthma and cough

Wish all of my readers in Tamilnadu a very happy “தை பொங்கல்”, for others a Happy New Year 2009. As everyone else is predicting and media shouting from the roof, this year is going to be a tough one “economically” world wide, all I pray is that the bottom is reached and it doesn’t go any worse than what is it now.

Tomorrow marks the sixth year anniversary of this blog.  Thank you all of my readers for your continued encouragement through emails and comments that you keep sending it my way. Though my blog was never intended to be a serious journalistic work of any kind or meant specially for anything other than being my scribbles and rattlings, I am gratified and humbled to see a good number of dedicated following. The page views have been growing Year-On-Year from last year to this year it has shown about 20% increase. Thank You all.

Wish you all my readers, a very happy and prosperous new year 2009.

I thought it will be good to start the new year with a post on sweets, so here it is. I was visiting my in-laws house yesterday and saw this gigantic sweet box from Sri Krishna Sweets lying on the dining table. When I opened it I was greeted by "60" varieties of mouth-watering sweets, everything from Chocolate Chakra, Dry Fruit Halwa to Rava Laddu and Kaju Beda. All of them neatly labeled on the inside top for information. A great gifting idea.

Yesterday was a proud moment for all Indians.It was the placing of Indian tricolour on the Moon’s surface on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s birthday.  The Indian flag was painted on the sides of Moon Impact Probe (seen above), one of the 11 payloads of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, that successfully hit the lunar surface today at 20:31 hrs (8:31 pm) IST. This is the first Indian built object to reach the surface of the moon. The modern Indian space programme was initiated in 1962 when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister of India.

I have been reading in some sections of media where critics are arguing against spending for space programs in a country like India, when much has to be done here for Poverty eradication, Healthcare and Literacy. I don't see merit in this argument. If you say that space can be explored only when everything is completed in ground then no country can qualify for doing it - ever. I am against arms race and space wars, but scientific space programs are must for a developing nation like India. It has several benefits including Employment, Challenge, Ambition for youngsters without which literacy or poverty eradication becomes meaningless.

What do you think, please post your comments.

The last view days I am staying in Cupertino, CA - One of the cities in Silicon Valley which includes San Jose, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Fremont, Milpitas, Sunnyvale and others where you find the largest number of Computer Software & Hardware companies. What was interesting to me when I drove around to find few of the well known one's are headquartered in Cupertino alone. The list includes Apple, Symantec, SugarCRM.

India has successfully launched its first spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 today. With the launch, India joined the elite club nations -- USA, Russia, European Space Agency, China and Japan. It is definitely a huge step for India's space ambitions. ISRO had announced a week back that they will do it today (October 22) I was hoping  in particular they do it today, which happens to be my birthday!

As a surprise, I got a call from Radio Mirchi RJ "Anjana" about my purchase of land in Moon for my wife. I told her I did it because I thought it was a cool idea - a novelty. At the same time, listeners should be aware that there is currently no real value or legal framework for buying lands in Moon today, so this is a not an investment for future. 

I was surprised by the first page of Economic Times newspaper today. First there was no colour it was all Black, then the headlines. For about 15 to 20  minutes I was left scratching my head trying to make sense of the headlines I was reading and re-reading.

The headlines were:

- Sensex hits year's low at 2832 points (I even checked the latest stock market figures in TV after reading this)

- Now, pay your bills via ATM (haven't this feature been there for years now? )

- Infosys income rises 115% to Rs.98.43 cr (Something was wrong here, they do more than that figure in a week now)

- Incoming calls are now free and Rs.4 /min for outgoing calls (This is when I started becoming suspicious)

- Crude Near $10 (Now I know for sure this is a prank, looking up the mast-head I saw the date as September 1998)

It turned out to be a prank by Economic Times to "Commemorate 10 years of the Economic Times Awards" and the great journey Indian Inc. has made in the last 10 years. Very nice work by ET, kudos to their team who imagined and pulled off this coup.

Bill Gates is my inspiration in technology and I love Jerry Seinfeld shows, so what more better than seeing both of them together in a hilarious clip. It doesn't matter it was a commercial from Microsoft - did it?

 
[Watch the low-bandwidth version here]

Watch the above clip which is the first of a series of advertisement campaigns coming from Microsoft featuring Jerry Seinfeld. If this is the answer to hugely successful "Mac vs Windows" advertisements from Apple, I think Microsoft is on the right path. I think the beauty of this pilot is that it has no direct references to Windows Vista or any Microsoft Products (Read here what The Register has to say on this).

I am very happy when I first heard the news in Radioone while driving to work in the morning now. India's Abhinav Bindra has won a gold in men's 10-metre Air Rifle event in Beijing.This is India's first ever Olympic gold in any individual event and ninth in total. So far the nine gold medals have been won in group events like Hockey. India is growing by every other parameter in the last 50 years - whether it is eradicating poverty, education, economy, Nuclear Power, IT Services, etc. but it was a shame that India hasn't performed well in sports. We are all celebrating this in our company now with some Cadbury's chocolates. 

 
(Image Courtesy: NDTV and DD Sports Live)

I was in Bangalore the other day, there I saw a different type of Aldrop used to lock the main gate in one of the house - don't ask me why I noticed it!.

Normally the Aldrops (which are bolt latches with a provision for putting a padlock) will be vertical and you lift the handle and move it sideways (mostly right hand side to open) with the padlock in vertical orientation. This one that I saw was oriented differently - you lifted the latch up and down vertically with the padlock in horizontal (lying down) position. Thinking hard with my little brain I couldn't figure out the advantage of this model - please post in the comments if you know the advantage.

While writing this post I had to find out the name of this device, I was wondering whether to call it Gate Latch or Bolt Latch or Gate Bolt. After few searches I found an item in Amazon with the name "Aldrop", then after few more searches confirmed that this is how it is called in India.

I had a good laugh now by watching this video clip of a recent CSI episode that carried a dialog "create a GUI Interface in Visual Basic to track the IP address". I love "Visual Basic" and it was good to hear it getting prime time media attention!

 

If you are from India (or Asia) and you happen to visit USA, in the first few days itself you are likely to notice the amount of food (and other stuffs) that is wasted here in this country. For example, today I was in a nearby Safeway (Grocery store) and I couldn't find a small (100 Grams) pack of Potato Chips. Most of the time, it is because it is cheaper to buy in bulk, much more than what you need and throw the rest. This is encouraged by sellers, you only get everything in really big packs - whether it is socks, handkerchiefs, envelopes, pens or Coffee or Popcorn. In my many visits over last one decade to this nice country this is one thing I wish they can do without. The good thing is that in recent years there is a very slow but sure awareness growing about this, especially due to environmental concerns.

Having said the above, it is also in this country that you see many grass root movements to encourage reuse, donations, etc. It does exist, but it has to expand to general population in large. I was impressed to see few years back Used Clothes Donation Bins (like the ones you see below) in many apartment complexes and malls. They normally place these strategically near to garbage dumps so that even at the last minute before throwing people are reminded to donate and make a difference to the life of a poor. If you are India - you can donate to a near by orphanage like Udhavum Karangal and the likes, all of them accept wholeheartedly any donations.

When posting this, I remembered my grandfather's saying "Don't buy anything just because it is being sold cheap" (or) in other words "buy only what you need when you need it"

Yahoo! has released an exclusive Women portal called Shine. You might be wondering why I am writing about a Women site!. It is to highlight a small innovation they have done in the site. Most of the times you use a newly released application or a website you may not be aware of all the features. As a result you will end up using only 20% of the features. To overcome this, Yahoo! in Shine has come up with a good idea of showing "help balloons" the first time. The balloons auto-scroll to various sections below and introduce you (this negates the complexity associated of scrolling to novice users). To top it, they don't show it (by remembering with a cookie I suppose) the next time and irritate you. Check out the screen shots and judge for yourselves.

Yahoo! seems to be working overtime to complete as much as they can before the (almost) inevitable takeover from Microsoft. This week they released the first meaningful (and hence useful) map service for India. Earlier none of the three (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!) had any useful data on India for maps. I read in blogosphere that Google was active in data collection by sponsoring with mapping instruments and paying volunteers for plotting Indian cities. That's about it. Now Yahoo! Maps for India seems to have beaten the other two by significant points. Go check it out.

 

I was impressed by Yahoo! maps features like Auto Fare, Walk the Route and above all "Vernacular" languages. I got a beautiful and correct directions in "Tamil" from our Habibullah Road office to Lakshmi Colony office in Chennai.

The first motorized vehicle I learned driving (after learning Bicycle) was my father's Bajaj Scooter with Gear. This was a Vespa style scooter with engine on one side and gears on the left hand steering bar. The trick to learn in riding one of these is that you should keep only your left feet on ground whenever you are stopping as the right feet is needed all the time near the brake (the brake is near right feet). This should have been 15 years before and I was driving it for just few years before I moved to other vehicles. This is one of the most dangerous two wheelers on the planet, as even in medium speeds it is impossible to control it from skidding especially because of the engine (and hence the weight) on one side.

So why I am writing about this here?. I became nostalgic about this today, when I rode my Uncle's scooter (it was the same Bajaj Chetak model that my father had) for a short distance from my home to a restaurant to have my breakfast. I was left marvelling at how our human brain works - for almost 10 years I have never rode a geared scooter (for that matter hardly I drive a two wheeler nowadays) and when I got on to one today it was easy. Instantly I remembered how to operate one and I was up and running. If only computers and software applications worked like this (human being) we all would be better off...

My wife keeps complaining that I am not creative in my gifts to her. So for our wedding anniversary last November I wanted to gift her something out of the world. What more can be more befitting than few "Acres" of land in Moon as a gift.

Few weeks back I read in Ananda Vikatan magazine about sites in the Internet for you to buy lands in the moon. So I went to one of the sites LunarRepublic referred in the article. The site is supposed to be run by a Society based in USA which aims to promote moon exploration and space science. The society is not owned or sponsored by any government so its legality is definitely in doubt. According to a UN resolution, no nation or individual has rights over moon so technically speaking your claim over land in moon may not be valid in future. All said, I found the idea interesting and the idea certainly novel for a gift, so I went ahead and bought two "Acres" of land in Moon in an area called as Bay Of Rainbows (Sinus Iridium) at Rs.2940 (~ USD 32/Acre) in my wife's name.  Today I got the certificate from USA brought from there by my co-worker coming to India.

I am going to give this to my wife in the evening and I am keeping my fingers crossed as to whether she will feel happy for this gift (or) I am going to get it royally from her for wasting Rs.2940 on something close to being a rip off

Registered claim of land in moon

Satellite image of the land I bought in moon

Anyways, the certificate (shown above) and the satellite image make me feel I got my worth for the money I paid!

Update: When I gave it to my wife, it was more of an anti-climax. The response from her was neutral & cold. I wish I had used the money on some "worldly" items.

As of last week (Pongal week) this blog completed its four years and into its fifth year - unbelievable to see me having patience to do the posts. What is even more surprising for me is the number of pageviews I am getting for the blog. Though the time spent and bounce rates are below average, I am glad that for a personal log getting 6800 pageviews per month.

Every Indian Engineer was made to feel proud yesterday. The event was unveiling of Tata Motors dream project the world's first Rs.1 Lakh (USD 2500) car - Tata Nano. When first talked about 4 years by Mr.Ratan Tata noone believed it to be possible that too by an Indian company. Thanks to the ingenuity and hard work of Indian Engineers it was made possible and demonstrated yesterday. From being an under-dog in the world's automobile scene, India overnight has graduated itself to the premium club of the GMs & Toyotas. With this Tata's have made themselves more than qualified to be the future owners of Jaquar & Land Rover.

I found it heartening to see the congratulatory message from Anand Mahindra, managing director for Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors’ primary competitor “I think it’s a moment of history and I’m delighted an Indian company is leading the way”

I came across this PDF from Microsoft Auto that talks about how a new Microsoft technology developed in partnership with Auto majors will help drivers manage and make voice requests to make a call, select and listen to music and more. Interestingly the technology is supposed to work with all major mobile devices (including Non Windows Phones), Zune, IPod and more. I hope it lives to the promise.

Finally, as always the availability is currently limited to USA.

For 17 years or so, Bill Gates has done the keynote at CES and this year is claimed to be his last year. At the show yesterday they had shown a funny (imaginative) video of last day of Bill Gates at work in Microsoft. You can have a Good Laugh, check it out. 

Bill Gates Last Day CES Clip

Over the few years our team size in Vishwak has grown from less than 50 to over 150 now. This means as the Chairman of the organization I don't get to meet every team member individually, have a chat with them and get to know them better. So few months we experimented with a program titled "Coffee with Venkat", obviously inspired by the TV talk show by a similar name. This is a bi-monthly event normally held on the first & Third Saturday's of a month. A few randomly selected team members spend an hour over coffee to have an informal chat with me. Only one condition - no work related topics. I have done over half-a-dozen of this programs so far, and mostly the topics they choose to talk are around their aspirations, ambitions, school/college days and future plans. Every time after the program I feel extremely energized and inspired. I highly recommend this to every business or organization heads. 

This is a complete time pass post with no serious value , anyway here it is.

My mother keeps telling us all the time to close with lids non-empty bowls. Last night in our bathroom we had left a bowl with Ginger Oil left overnight without covering. In the morning when brushing I saw something suspicious - a cockroach dead and it was almost indistinguishable from the herbs in the oil, we could easily have mistakenly used it.

Today I saw in The Hindu/Business Line newspaper an advertisement from Emirates Airlines about their new route from India to Toronto. It talked about Toronto having the world's longest Road - Yonge Street at 1900Kms. I was surprised on this for two reasons - 1) I thought the longest road will be in Russia just like the longest train track which is the Trans-Sibera rail which runs for 10,000Kms, 2) How come a city have 1900kms of one road, no city can have a diameter of more than a hundred kilometres, so this road had to be running across the country and I thought the longest road will be US I101 which runs from Canada to Mexico - some of the stretches of this which I have been to in San Diego county happen to be beautiful pacific coastline drives.   

When I searched in Wikipedia I learned that Yonge street was called as the longest road way back in 1998 when people wrongly attributed it to be the same as Highway 11. Currently as per Guiness Book of Records the world longest road is Pan-America Highway. Pan-Am Hwy is a network of roads nearly 48,000 kilometres in total length. Except for an 87 kilometre rainforest gap, the road links 15 countries in mainland of South and North Americas.

I am here in LA with my team for the Digital Hollywood 2007 Fall event happening at Hollywood & Highlands (which is where the Oscar Awards famous Kodak theatre is). As we went up and down the floors between the conference floor and the exhibit floor I noticed this big piano complete with sitting stool hanging in air above 5 floors. What a creative use for a old piano!. Click on the photos above for a larger view.

Just like every other year, we had a wonderful Golu (Display of Dolls and Idols) festival celebrated in our house this year. Instead of keeping it in Steps fashion this time we had a linear display.

Navarathri Golu 2007

This month (Sep '07) has been double lucky for Indian Sports. Last week Indian Cricket team won the world cup for Twenty:20 championship in South Africa. Today Viswanathan Anand has become the new World Chess Champion. The authorities should use this opportunity to give a sustained improvement to Indian Sports.

After the debacle of Indian team in ODI world cup, the media wanted desperately some win, they have got this big bonanza and making the best use of it. Too much hype is going around, which has the risk of making the team over confidence in subsequent matches.

One of my good friends is a doctor. Few years back when we were chatting he was talking about how Opposing Fingers (a.k.a Thumb) are very important to us humans. He went on to give a lecture on how Thumb as the only finger opposing the other 4 fingers helped apes/human ancestors in using Tools for hunting and eventually to invent Fire/Wheel, etc. I hardly gave this any thought, until few days back. Reason?.

An Infection few days back in my right hand thumb possibly through a cut or piercing I am not sure how. My thumb is swollen and entire right hand is numb and painful. My Doctor has assured I should be fine in next few days, but till then it is painful. This episode made me remember my friends comment and what little I can do with my right hand without using my thumb. For example, I can drive my car with my left hand, but how do I turn the ignition key without using Right Thumb?.

Uninteresting update (22/Aug/2007): After 3 painful surgeries to cut the infection(s), drain the puss and several tiring dressings - my thumb is healing. It should take another week or so for the thumb to be fully functional.

For the last 3 weeks, every Wednesday I had to go through this ordeal of a Dentist Appointment. Thank God, with yesterday I am done. I don't know what it is with Dentist (like any other Doctor they are also in a Noble profession), but majority of the people - Kids and Grown-ups dislike going to a Dentist. In the 3 hours of time that I was staring at the roof with my mouth wide open while the doctor filled my cavities I came up with this thought-provoking list of why we might be disliking Dentists (List is in no particular order):

• The pain while surgeon is operating, especially the drilling
• The thought of keep your mouth opened for long period
• The discomfort of so many instruments inside your mouth
• The fear that the dentist will pull off your teeth
• The idea that you will be told not to eat sweets/ice cream hence forth
• You are awake and the fact you have lost control over your body
• You can't cry or shout for help

In India, everyone likes to think the rich culture and close-knit families gives people the psychological cover to handle modern day stresses. This is believed to shield Indian (and Asians) societies from growing menaces of Gun shooting in schools, Sexual Harassment of kids, etc. which have now become repeated occurrences in the western world. Critics have said that, in this connected world no society can completely protect itself from these menaces - and in India though Sexual harassment of kids happen they go unreported due to community fears and pressures.

Recently (about a week or so back) I learned the news of a shocking incident that happened in a Chennai School, which was covered up and went unreported in any main stream media. The school is one of the popular private English schools in the city and I came to know about it through few of the parents who have their kids studying in the school and who were called for a meeting on this. The incident was about a school support staff (watchman or someone) had taken few girls (studying 4th or 5th standard) into a room, locked it and tried to misbehave with them sexually. Reportedly he didn't succeed much as the kids shouted and they were rescued subsequently. What was shocking was the attempt the school made to cover the incident up, they didn't handover the culprit to police and the school board's reluctance to even dismiss the culprit (he was eventually fired after pressure from parents).

As a parent this is a shocking news. Parents have been recommended by experts to teach school going girl children and make them aware to the extend possible (of course you can't make a 8 year old aware of sexual advances) of not going when strangers / adult males call them unwarranted.

Update 9/July/2007: After I posted this story yesterday I was pointed to the Deccan Chronicle (Chennai Edition) 8/July/2007 issue which has carried this same news.

In every Indian Marriage (especially Tamil Marriages) in the evening there is an event called "Reception" where you have friends and relatives gathering and wishing the newly wed. In the event you have something named appropriately as "Loud Music" which is a performance by a local orchestra singing popular film songs, wishing the newly wed and to entertain the audience - so that there is festivity in the air.

A decade or so back, it used to be primarily classical / carnatic music that will be played which makes it enjoyable especialy by the elders, but nowadays it is only Film Music and "Kutthu" songs. With the advent of portable electronics and powerful speakers, the orchestra sets the sound volume to its maximum. On top of it, imagine these playing in indoors in a closed atmosphere - you have a perfect recipe for a headache. With nuclear families and with people having less time to meet friends/relatives face to face, marriages are the only occassion to meet and catch up on happenings. But songs at these sounds levels ensures no one hears anything, even the person next to him. The whole atmosphere becomes no more enjoyable, but leaves you irritated. 

I think the only reason the orchestra's do this is so that they can get away with any person pretending to be a singer - because at these levels the instruments shadow completely the human voice.  In my mariage (2001), we were lucky to have one of the popular carnatic singers Mrs.Nithyashree singing - and we enjoy hearing the CD even today. I am not saying everyone should have only classical music, but all I am saying is whatever music you have please have it set to low-medium decibel levels.

In Western countries this may not be a news item, but in a country like India where infrastructure works are known to take years due to Democratic party politics, Bureaucracy, Lack of planning, Corruption this is indeed news item worth being blogged. I was pleasantly surprised to hear this news. Last week in Srirangam (my mother's home town) Southern Railways have in 5 Hours (yes you read it correct) have completed a sewage work by removing and fixing the tracks. This rail line is a busy one and it was commendable they finished the work with minimum disruption to traffic.

"The work started at around 10 a.m. Around 150 labourers were engaged in the exercise. A total of 24 pre-cast concrete box segments, each weighing 18 metric tonnes, were placed one by one after removing the earth up to 3.8 m below the formation to a total length of about 40 metres"

Today is Father's Day, I was travelling last one week so couldn't buy a gift for my Dad. So today morning I went to this online e-greeting card site that gives a variety of customizable, printable ecards and then printed a wonderful card with my parents photo. I gave this to my "Dad".

After that, I was filling up several copies (Mr.Sam Pitroda was right 100% we still have this outdated process) of address and personal details in my son's LKG Diary and doing labels for his books. When I did the labels, I remembered my school days and my Dad getting me pre-printed labels with my name in them. How lucky I am to get a Dad like that!

(Pre-Printed Labels for my school books)

Thanks Dad, you have been the greatest dad - giving me the believe in my abilities, freedom to fly, I promise to do the same to my son.

I bought a new car - Honda City GXi early April this year. We all know Honda to be the best car makers' in the worldwide, Yes, the car is fabulous to drive but their service is pathetic & cold.

After the first month, when I left it for the first service, in the bright sunlight of Chennai I noticed for the first time a colour variance (can you believe this in a Honda car) of one of the rear-doors from rest of the vehicle. On complaining this to the dealer (Sundaram Motor, Chennai) they accused me of painting it with a 3rd party - how attrocious. Later when I complaint on how they can accuse like this, the manager in Sundaram said that is their normal procedure to grill down customer before accepting a warranty problem - what a great customer service.

Coming back to the story, after several faxes to Sundaram, Honda (which no one bothered or acknowledged) they accepted the manufacturing defect. Then after repeated complaints to Honda One2One I got my car back nearly after three weeks of being in service. It took them 3 weeks to do it, since they wanted to find what went wrong in their supply chain up to Japan keeping my car in their service. They re-painted (have you ever heard about a new Honda Car getting painted) that side of doors and gave it back to me. Sundaram or Honda never called me once during the whole episode - not even a courtesy "Sorry". Even after I repeatedly demanded to One2One that I needed an explanation from Honda on why this happened, no one called me back. It seems they have a policy in One2One that customer can only talk to them, they will reply only through dealers - and they call the program One2One.

Sundaram after all my screaming promised to give one year of extended warranty free (Rs.8500 value) in 2 days - even after 3 weeks now, no sign of it. 

Read my full complaint to Honda One2One. Finally I would like to congratulate Honda for being completely Indianized (for the worse).

Is there something like this - does Proactive and Indian Bureaucracy go on the same sentence ever. I was pleasantly surprised to see the news today in Mumbai Mirror, that the Mumbai Local Body is taking Proactive measures to handle the monsoon season. The article talks about how local grounds have been booked for parking vehicles during heavy rains, on how companies like SBI have volunteered to sponsor food for the affected people and how health measures have been planned.

Of course since I am not a Mumbaikar so I can't vouch for the true meaning and the impact of the above, but still even the thought of it I feel should be appreciated and copied by other cities or at least the metros administrators. Chennai begs for something like this.

I haven't seen either of the movie, this post is not about the movies themselves but on how they are made and marketed.

I also wanted to break my pages after pages of technical bullet points from Tech Mela . Those tech posts are more my notes and it is easier to take down using Windows Live Writer (blog) and access them later, rather than using Paper (and never look at them) or Outlook or OneNote; and also share it with others and with my team.

Coming back to movies, I am amazed at how movies are now made in Bollywood and Kollywood. Sivaji was made at a cost of Rs.80 Crores or more - unbelievable!. Look at the original VCD & DVD packaging and cover designs of recent Hindi Movies like Dhoom2 or Jhoom - I am not able to find a difference between them and Hollywood movies. Packaging is certainly international quality. Hindi Movie houses also seem to have understood the benefits of DVD market and how to make them work rather than fight technology. They now release the Original VCD & DVD after few months and keep selling them for years. For example, today in Mumbai PlanetM I found tons of Lagaan DVDs, I bought one and I was told it sells very well not bad for a movie that got released few years back. I hope, if Tamil Producers follow suit sooner and release movie DVDs shortly after screering, rather than release them after the movie is all forgotten.

Every Media is talking only about Sivaji or Jhoom whether it is English, Hindi or Tamil or whether it is NDTV, CNN IBN or Times Now. I am amazed at how movie houses have tied up with Media to create such a hype for Sivaji. Well I suppose to get back Rs.80 Crores + Profit you got to do every marketing trick in the book, isn't it

I was reminded yesterday while reading Economic Times paper, of a book "Far from the Madding Crowd" by Thomas Hardy. The book was in my 12th Standard syllabus and our English Teacher "ShantiShri" was very fond of the book that she made us read it umpty number of times. The most likely question on the book was to be on "Chance Happening" - on how few of the unplanned events resulted on big turning points in the characters lifes.

(Scanned copy from my XII school book)

Anyways, the reason for me to be reminded on "Chance Happening" and hence the book, was a piece on the paper's ViewPoint section. The piece was an extract from a lecture given in New York University-Stern by Infosys Founder Mr.N.R.Narayana Murthy. The lecture was titled "Learning from experience: Some lessons I have learned from my life and career" where Mr.Murthy talks about "Chance Events" that changed his life and hence Infosys. What I enjoyed most was his first paragraph where he talks about the impact role models or a one-off speech can have on an individual. I could relate to that in an indirect fashion.

"The first event occurred when I was a graduate student in Control Theory at IIT, Kanpur in India. At breakfast on a bright Sunday morning in 1968, I had a chance encounter with a famous computer scientist on sabbatical from a well-known US university. He was discussing exciting new developments in the field of computer science with a large group of students and how such developments would alter our future. He was articulate, passionate and quite convincing. I was hooked. I went straight from breakfast to the library, read four or five papers he had suggested, and left the library determined to study computer science."

LIFCO's (our family publishing firm) guide to Far from the Madding Crowd (Published:1957)

The US Patent Office has already granted 150 yoga-related copyrights and 2,315 yoga trademarks.

Indian Government normally reacts too late in protecting against Patents being awarded in Western world for age old Indian traditional practices. In an unexpected sense of urgency it seems to be acting now on Protecting several Yoga techniques from being patented.

"The Indian government is getting old Sanskrit and Tamil texts translated and is also cataloguing ayurvedic medicines. The information will be made available in five languages so patent offices around the world can access it, according to the International Herald Tribune"

1. If I like it, it's mine
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine
4. If I had it a while ago, it's still mine
5. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way
6. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine
7. If if looks like mine, it is mine
8. If I see it first, it's mine
9. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine
10. If it's broken, it's yours.

The above list has been shamelessly copy-pasted from Shonalee's blog. As a parent to a toddler myself I enjoyed the original post and thinking on how true it was !

It is now (almost) over - India is out of World Cup 2007, after their bad performance yesterday and losing to Sri Lanka. Without any doubts Sri Lanka proved they are a much better qualified. The problem for Indian team has always been their unpredictable nature. One day they are the best, the next day they are the worst and loose to Bangladesh.  But for a World Class team and to be World Cup winners, consistency is most important and Indian team certainly doesn't have it.

One good thing is School Students in India having their exams will not waste time anymore in watching late night matches but concentrate on their studies. For that thank you India team for losing!

Next few days media will write few columns on what went wrong for India and soon World Cup 2007 will be over, everyone will forget it. Then Media and Sponsors will start projecting the next Indian team as World Cup 2011 prospect winners and all of us can day-dream all over again.

My earlier post on India losing to Bangladesh

I don't understand what is the big fuss the media is making this to be. Cricket is a game and in any game winning and losing are common. They are sounding as if, Bangladesh Cricket team is playing the game for the first time and Indian team has come from heaven. Yesterday the Bangladesh team was better than India and they should be appreciated. If at all anything has to be done, the Indian Team should take this as a caution for their over-confidence coming from their Sponsors and Media. If present Indian Team members spend more time in practising than Ad Shoots, they will play better Cricket.

Read my earlier post on Cricket World Cup 2007

Cricket World Cup 2007 has finally begun today. A two month marathon of some of the finest teams and games of cricket will be played in the Caribean Islands. Though "1" billion Indians love the sport and watch it occassionaly, the noise level about the game in the recent few weeks have been deafening. The amount of money adverisers are pouring to the sponsorship are really huge - unheard in India & Asia before. All the radios, websites, mobile phones carry nothing but about "upcoming" World Cup. I am doing this post while watching the first match between West Indies and Pakistan with the PIP feature of Samsung SyncMaster 910MP. In the stadium again, I am seeing mostly Indian Companies advertisements.

Is it all warranted?, I am not sure.

The matches are happening from 7:30PM IST, so most of the people in India will be catching up on the match from their Telly. One good thing I like about the attention on World Cup is that it does distract people from everyday worries and relax a bit - including myself.  

As a business, I am feeling great and certainly not complaining - as at Vishwak we are working on several cool projects on Web/Mobile for the World Cup for our Media customers.

Last week while in London, I saw a very good programme in BBC TV titled "How to be Slim?". The programme contained scientific study results and common diet myth debunkers. It included suggestions on adding non-fat Dairy, Visual Clues to reduce in-take, under-sizing, eating filling foods like soups, etc. Check out the webpage here at BBC.CO.UK website.

Unfortunately the accompanying video of the programme only plays for UK Visitors. If you are adventurous you can pretend to be from UK and view the Video content from here [the link uses an UK Anonymizer Proxy Service to do this].

Related Link: Seven common diet myths

What I started casually has now completed THREE YEARS and into its Fourth Year. I am talking about this blog that you are reading (www.venkatarangan.com/blog). I started it more as a log book - but now has become a reference and as a good outlet for me. I myself keep coming back to this blog mostly to reference on some links or recollect on how I felt on a issue or technology sometime back. Blogging has convinced me that who you are here, your thoughts changes on the experiences you keep having - and the experiences themselves change on time; in short we evolve over time.

If you haven't started blogging, please do so - and remind yourself constantly to keep posting. In reality if you prepare for each post mentally before hand it takes only few minutes for the actual post to be done.

• Second Year of my blog - Anniversary Post
• Third Year of my blog - Anniversary Post

If you are wondering what happened to me over last few weeks - here is the scoope. Over the Christimas '06 I was in a much needed vacation with my family in Hosala Village near Belur, Helibedu temples; over the last few weeks business traveling in USA and London. Will post about the places and photos of these trips shortly - stay tuned.

Today Indian PM Dr.Manmohan Singh left for a 3-day visit to few ASEAN countries. I saw now in the TV news a whole bunch of Senior people from Indian Government and Politics are there to see him off.

What is there to see off a PM who has done these foreign trips multiple times and he is not doing this trip for anything ground breaking. Right from Sonia Gandhi to a dozen Cabinet ministers and numerous number of senior bureaucrats where present to see the PM. I am sure each of them have tons of work to do, other than giving a bunch of flowers to PM and most of these people will be seeing people many times during a day as well. 

If this many important folks appear in the TV Clip, think about the hundreds of accessory people and cars (like Police, Security, Assistants) that would also have been wasted the time, energy, road-traffic coming for this. Why is our government and officials not waking up to 21st Century and see that these are wasteful?

I am not sure any western countries follow these protocols - do they?

Microsoft has recently launched a viral marketing effort for an upcoming product through a website titled Center for Digital Amnesia. It is rumoured on the Internet blogsites that it is about Windows Live Storage (something similar to xDrive).

And personally - I haven't heard from any Microsoftie on this

(Image Copyright: Microsoft Corporation)

 

No formal training, poor nutrition in childhood, parents working as labourers in brick kiln yet S.Santhi has made all Indians proud. In the Doha Asian Games, S.Santhi a girl from Kattakurichi village in Pudukottai district, Tamilnadu has won Silver in 800metres.

Best Wishes to Santhi and her parents who had the courage to see her through this. Great, Quick decision by Tamilnadu Government to award her with Rs.15 Lakhs to help her to continue. We need more such cash awards from all quarters - so that young prospective atheletes go for it big and not suffer for economic considerations.

I hope and pray that more Santhi's of India won worldwide regonization. India cannot rest on its laurels just as World Economic powerhouse, when out of 1.2 Billion people we score pathetic in all atheletic events including olympics.

Read the full story here from "The Hindu"

Update 19/12/06: It was disappointing to read about the sudden turn of events in this story. Shanti had failed a "Gender Medical Test" and OCA has asked for return of her medal.

I don't understand why the media is so intrusive behind what happened on the kidnap and release of Anant Gupta (3 Year old son of Adobe India's CEO). The truth is important but at the same time the privacy of the affected party too.

Everytime I am seeing the news about this incident this week I am reminded of two things. As a father myself of a small kid I feel the pain Anant's parents would have felt; Second I couldn't help to think about hundreds of other kids who get kidnapped around the world every day - who are less fortunate to have a high profile father like Anant. My prayers for them.  

In connection with IndiMix '06 Microsoft India announced a contest to select Top Bloggers from Indian Subcontient who will get special prizes. Microsoft nominated me as one of the Judges along with two of my good RD friends - Praveen Srivatsa and Sanjay Shetty. Going through hundred of blogs and select a few is a tough job and we thoroughly enjoyed it. My wishes to all the winners - in few of their blog sites I manage to write the wish in their comments. Good Luck!

One suggestion to all the Indian bloggers

1. Post more Original Content - it has to be your own experiences, rather than just collection of Hyperlinks in your posts
2. Keep your Writing Style & UI simple and clean - especially avoid Google Ads clutter and fancy graphics
3. Post often - which helps your writing and also builds readerships
4. Make few posts in your mother tongue - Spice your blog with few posts on Indian Language as well

Being an award from Microsoft I was hoping to find blogs with deep technical content, code/samples and architecture. I would have also loved to see blogs on Vista, Office 2007, Atlas/Web 2.0 & .NET 3.0 but personally I was a little dissappointed not to find any one blog worth mentioning on these topics.

For record, the parameters in the Judging Panel we worked on were:

• Frequency of updates - 20 %
• Originality - 40 %
• Writing Style and User Experience - 20%
• Content and Technical Relevance - 20%

Winners list is available here in PDF format (Source: Microsoft.com)

I got this touching greeting from Udavum Karangal (An Old Age, Child, AIDS Orphanage in Chennai) for my humble gift to them towards Diwali 2006.     

I request each one of you to donate a small sum to any good cause of your choice during one day in a year, it could be - your birthday, spouse birthday, marriage day, Diwali, Pongal or New Year.

The online video sites are seeing action like never before. Last week Google bought the market leader in this Youtube.com for over $1.6 Billion dollars. The Social networking site Myspace.com has a popular video section as well. MSN is launching soon its Soapbox service.

Though I have been to these sites a few times and seen few of the videos, I was not that captivated with them - as the media expects everyone who visits video sites to do. I guess I am not the target audience - which predominantly is Teenagers. I am also not sure on the business model - presently I find no advertisements in Google Video and the advertisements on other services are also very minimal, if not absent.

Anyways, today I decided to give these sites a try by uploading a video. The video I selected was the speech I gave last month in Jayaram College of Engineering on "Can India Sustain its IT Growth and what I look for in freshers?"  (Hyperlinked to the other post which has the links to various sites)

The first disappointment for me was all these sites, expects you be with a video - edited, fine-tuned and ready to upload. None of these sites provide you either an offline or an online tool to do typical video editing jobs, which if you are not a professional can take hours.

Though almost all of them worked the same, these are the differences I found:

1. Google Videos: Two good things about the service - This service allows files more than 100MB; It gives you a small (240KB) downloadable Application that makes uploading files more than 100MB a breeze.
2. Myspace Video: Though easiest to use also has the minimal features. Limits to 100MB of filesize
3. MSN Soapbox  (Beta): Currently Invite only site; Uses extensive AJAX to give a multi-task interface and file upload - you can upload and watch videos at the same time; Limits to 100MB of filesize. The post upload processing here took hours. Good think, it gives readily the Hyperlink, Code for Embedding Player, etc. Scores high on UI.
   
4. YouTube.com: Simplest interface; ability to group videos into playlists; Limits filesize to 100MB.

Americans and People familiar with USA, know "Uncle Sam" is a national personification of the United States. Several years back when I first came across this term , I didn't understand it but eventually figured it out from the context. Over the years many times when I came across the term, I was curious on its origin and official status but never bothered to check it out.

Today I took the effort to find out and got the answer from here & here. It dates from the War of 1812 and there are multiple theories behind the actual origin.

The Register (UK) carried a news item about an interesting idea to prevent Students from cheating in exam halls - it is to put them behind cages . Read more here at "How to stop exam cheating: put teenagers in cages | The Register"

I am wondering on what happened to good ol' copying by seeing the answers of the Topper in front of you?. Nothing can beat the thrill and joy of it - I am not advocating this, but doing it during your class trial tests are neverthless fun, right?  

Today MSN India has launched the new version of its homepage. Check it out at msn.co.in. This version supports all major web browsers including IE 6.0, 7.0, FireFox, Opera & Mac Safari and is written with 100% XHTML and Table-less design. While you are there check out the language editions - Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam.

MSN yesterday released its www.live.com site out of beta. It has been in beta for more than a year and soon this will power all MSN Search queries around the world.

I lived till my teenage in Ranganathan Street, T.Nagar, as our house was in the same compound as was our office (LIFCO). As a result I am used to the chaos and crowd that Ranganathan Street is famous for. After we moved our residence to West Mambalam in early 1990s, I hardly get to go to Ranganathan Street - in fact it has been 5 years or more since I last went in there.

Yesterday I visited Ranganathan Street (RS) with my wife and kid, the purpose (do you need one) was to go to Khadi gramodyog bhavan to see their Dasara doll sale. Since Khadi is a government organization their other major outlets in Mount Road and Town are kept open only on weekdays 9 to 5.

Golu Show (Taken by me in my in-laws house)

You can't take your car anywhere near RS (or) find a place to park without getting spending few hours in the traffic chaos. So I parked my car in a relatives house near by and walked over to RS. The experience going to RS after all these years, brought in pleasant memories for me. At one time I used to remember all the shops in the street and most of the shop owners will recognize me; but now the street is completely unrecognizable to what it was a decade back. Shops have grown multifold, crowds have grown more than that, but the street still retains its buzzling charm. 

TV Antenna's were a common thing on every building top in Chennai City till about a decade back. With the advent of Cable connections it has become a thing of the past and virtually not to be seen anywhere. I realized how scarce this technology has become only today - when my 3 year old son while playing in the terrace asked "What are those Rods in the nearby house?". It took few seconds to understand what he meant - I had a good laugh while explaining him about it!

(A Lone TV Antenna in my neighbourhood)

In my childhood Antenna's where very special, especially for me. I have spent hours working on installing multi-band antennas with boosters and then tuning our TV for hours to days - just to catch up signal of Sri Lanka's Tamil channel (if I remember right it was called Rupavahini) transmissions. The best I could manage (being in Chennai) has been few disturbed screens with audio

Though I am in my early 30's, just like millions of other sedentary lifestyle folks (especially those in IT jobs) I have started to get concerned about my Weight and lack of Exercise.

In my case I have been doing Yoga twice a week for almost 5 years now, which has helped me to control my stress and to a large extend bring in flexibility in my back and joints. But Yoga has to be practised every day along with proper diet for weight control. That not being the case for me I have started gaining weight in recent years, especially due to working late and disturbed sleep. I have tried walking, but didn't suit my timings, so decided to exercise in my own timings and indoors, I finally bought a treadmill yesterday. The machine (2.5HP) got delivered today and I have started my first work out. Hopefully I should do it every day.  

The purchase was an interesting experience y'day in the shop (ACME, K.N.K. Road, Nungambakkam, Chennai). The machine costed about Rs.45K but the sales tax in Tamilnadu was 21% or so. It seems in neighbouring Karnataka (Bangalore) it is half of this and I can end up saving say about Rs.3-4K if I give a Bangalore address. I strongly declined the offer (the guy looked at me pretty strange and surprised though) and instead requested for a Chennai billing for two reasons: One, of course doing this is the right thing (by law); Second, I don't believe these sales guys when they say you can save money - I have burned my fingers enough over the years and become wise (I suppose) to know there to be hidden costs and trouble to pay. Especially when it comes to service, they will certainly take you circles just because you have done an out-station billing.  

As per law wearing an Helmet is optional for two wheel riders in Chennai. Traffic Police and NGOs recommend people to wear it to protect themself - because major percentage of serious accidents involving Two Wheeler result in Head Injuries. Inspite of this risk, during my commute every day in Chennai I am finding the number of people wearing helmets shrinking. Even people who do wear it, or not buckling it!.

Photo above has nothing to do with Chennai, 
taken by me in Lankawi, Malaysia

Another recent trend is the growing number of two wheelers - in which more than 2 people (as allowed by law) riding in one two wheeler. It is now a common site in a traffic signal to find a two wheeler with 2 grown-up adults and a teenager riding altogether and Traffic Police turning a blind eye to them. I find it very scary to see mother(s) riding in the back of a two wheeler holding in one hand (with little grip) her small baby who can't even sit properly in her lap. Any sudden jurk or shock can throw the baby and cause severe injuries. The dress code of Ladies (Mothers) in Chennai wearing Sarees also doesn't help in safety - it prevents them from sitting in the same direction as the driver - because of the saree they sit sideways with both their legs getting no major support.

For me who has admired Bill Gates for his lifes work with Microsoft; yesterday was a big day. Bill Gates announced yesterday that from July 2008 he will primarily work in Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He has announced a transition team that will take over from him the job in Microsoft. I guess it is a good coincidence that from next month Narayana Murthy will relinquish his job in Infosys. Two great achievers in IT field have decided to move on...

I always wondered what makes someone like Bill Gates even after making billions motivated to come to work every-day. Though I don't have the answer for it; I remember a quote by Narayana Murthy once in a Interview saying that biggest thing for him about making wealth "Is creating a positive impact on other's lifes". A very profound thought indeed.

Webcast of Bill Gates' announcement 

What will her voice sound like - it was everyone's imagination when they see Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa Portrait. Now that puzzle has been solved by a Japanese Scientist "Dr.Matsumi Suzuki". Based on her perceived Height, Facial Dimensions, he claims to have produced to 90% accuracy of how Mona Lisa's voice would have sounded. If you want to hear it, go to Mona Lisa Speaks site. Dr.Suzuki also explains his method in the video. Only downside all of this is in Japanese  

Normally I don't like to send unsolicited Joke emails or posting the one's I received in my blog. But this one that I received from my sister was so good that I had to create an exception

A man from the West, decided to write a book about holy places around the World. He started by flying to various holy places. Going to a very large place in USA, he began taking photographs and making notes. He spotted a golden telephone on the wall and was intrigued with a sign which read "$1000 a minute". Seeking out to a religious Guru he asked about the phone. The Guru answered that this golden phone was, in-fact, a direct line to Heaven and if he paid the price he could talk directly to God.

The man thanked the guru and continued on his way. As he continued to visit the holy places in Egypt, Israel, Iran, USA, Europe, Nepal, Japan, Australia and all around the world, he found more phones, with the same sign and price, and got the same answer from each Guru.

Finally, he arrived in Kerala. Upon entering a temple, behold, He saw the usual golden Telephone. But this time, the sign read "Calls: 1.26 Rupees/Minute" (which is less than 3 Cents). Fascinated, he asked the Guru. "Guru Ji, I have been to Places all across the World, and in each Place I have found this golden telephone and have been told it was a direct line to Heaven and that I could talk to God, but, in the other temples the cost was $1000 a minute. Your sign reads 1.26 Rupees/Minute. Why?

The Guru, smiling, replied, "Son, you're in Kerala now. This is God's Own country... and it's a local call"

Welcome to India! India is a heaven!

The humour is unmistakable, but I was more impressed on the message hidden in the humour! Wait a minute, you are not able to get the hidden message?. Simple: In this commercial world, we have put a prize tag for everything including GOD

About a year back (Jan 2005) I had written about MS Research India doing work on Digitizing India maps. Nearly a year later, recently I learned from these two blogs (Atul's Blog and MapPoint Blog) that MS Research India have released a limited trial of the same. I seem to get detailed maps of Bangalore but I believe other cities are to be followed soon. Check it out, cool stuff.

Yesterday I attended MSN - NDTV Party. The party was to celebrate 5th Anniversary of MSN in India and announcing the Sales Partnership between the two companies and the new India country manager for MSN India - Mr Jaspreet Bindra. Many industry and media stalwarts were also present.

The party was at Rampart Row, Kalaghoda of Mumbai – Kalaghoda seems to be an exclusive street full of party joints, restaurants and pubs. It was fun!.

 

Today was a shocking day for all of us at Vishwak - at 8:45AM we lost to fate, one of our coworker "Kumaresh Prasanna", aged 29.  He was being treated in Malar Hospital and was fighting for his life last two weeks.

Being a true team player, Prasanna was always there to help others with a smiling face.

Please join me in praying for his soul to rest in peace and to give his parents, brother and friends strength to overcome this.

Losses like this makes us appreciate how fleeting is our life...

If you thought attending Interviews are tough and being on the other side of the table is easy - think again. It is equally difficult doing an interview. 

Heading a company I am made to conduct many interviews. The interviews are for positions ranging from Dev Leads, Project Managers, Accountants to BDM's.

For all of them, irrespective of the role I have my standard questions aimed at knowing their Attitude, Presentation, Communication, Job Experience and most important their Trustworthiness. Each of the roles have to be quizzed on their respective topics - for some of them like Sales/Marketng in which I have no formal education, I prepare by talking to experts on the subject or reading on the Internet / Books / Magazines. This reading is not for me to pretend that I know the subject, but to get a first hand feel of the candidate after which they can be referred to an external/internal expert on the subject before hiring.

When doing these interviews I find many times candidates come less prepared. With demand for IT Professionals increasing day by day in India, candidates seems to take interviews easily - especially when you are starting your career I always recomend people to take your interviews seriously, come prepared for it. After all it is a small world, you don't know you will meet again or where. So if you are less prepared you can leave a lasting impact that you will regret. Recently I found this good article about "How to Answer These Tricky Interview Questions by Kate Lorenz" in MSN, check it out.

For candidates taking a new job can turn out to be rewarding, but it always carries a risk and anxiety. Similarly for a company hiring a candidate is also risky as well - they spend so much money, time and effort in every interview and the interviewer is equally or more keen in finding a candidate quickly. So I suppose the risk balances!

First let me wish all of you a very happy new year. Hope 2006 will bring peace and prosperity for the whole world.

(Seen above in one of my favourite Hangouts - Singapore Funan IT Mall)

The year is beginning on good note - After years of drought water reservoirs in Chennai are full; Indian Stock Market is at its record peak; IT spend worldwide showed signs of recovery in 2005 - with good indications that is set for growth in 2006; Farm output in India is set to do above expectations this year; India & Pakistan still continuing their dialog and expansion of rail/road links;

Lately I have been so caught up in work, that I missed blogging for couple of weeks now. Hopefully I will be regular again.

 

It is a problem of plenty - I am talking about the Rains this season in Tamilnadu. All major rivers, lakes and ponds are full/ over flowing / about to over flow.The biggest casualty for this has been about 140 people being washed away in flash floods while travelling in two seperate buses plying on different places in Tamilnadu. Read more about the tragedy.

Let us pray for their souls to rest in peace. SARVE JANA SUKINO BHAVNTHU

Two weeks when I was in New Delhi, my meeting for the day got cancelled and I had few hours to burn; We (me and my friend Bala) were in Connaught Circle and after visiting Palika Bazaar and few other stores, I noticed a "Bose" Store. I have heard from my friends that Bose systems sound great and they equally cost a fortune to own. As an electronics graduate, Bose speakers have also amazed me on how they can engineer such audio brilliance into such small speakers. Recently one of my friend had also mentioned about the Bose Experience in their live theatre (inside every Bose store). So curious we went in and when we came out I should confess I was blown away.

The theatre experience (Free) itself was great - it is about 20 minutes on a self running Audio Visual; this definitely changes your outlook about Sound/Audio listening. The 20 minutes time spent was worth every second. You can listen to such small notes in there true colours. Next time you are near a Bose store, I recommend this. The other best part in a Bose store is their Sales Staff's service and explanation - each of them say the same about the systems, in the same order and with the same body language. This was true in their stores in other cities as well; I validated this in their Chennai Store, which I visited this week. Definitely very effective Staff Training!

Two systems impressed me the most - One was their high end LifeStyle 48 system that stores, plays Audio (CD/MP3/Radio) & Video (DVD/VCD), controlled with a 65-feet range Radio Remote that works across Walls/Ceilings/ Controls TV/VCR/DVD as well, suggest tracks as per your mood/listening pattern and of course includes the legendry Bose speakers; The other was their WAVE Audio Player with Radio. Though I certainly love to own the LifeStyle system, the price tag of Rs.2.5 Lakhs+ made me postpone the buy. Instead this week when I was back in Chennai, I went to their store in Ispani Centre, Nungambakkam High Road and bought the WAVE Player for Rs.33K. Since I had done all evaluation in their New Delhi store, I was in and out of the Chennai Store in like 10 minutes (Probably in Bose history the quickest sale ).

So for the last few days I am enjoying my WAVE Player thoroughly!.

Update 12/Jun/07: After nearly two years of buying this, I finally cracked on how to set the correct time in the device. It was too easy - just hold the Time +/- button(s) for few seconds, that's it. Courtesy to Bose Owners Guide page where I found this Manual (768.69 KB)for the device.

Finally rains have stopped fully from today morning with heavy down pours stopping y'day night itself. Water is receding from all roads, power has been almost restored in all parts of the city. Slowly Chennai city is coming back to normal today.

It normally doesn't rain enough in chennai, water shortage has been a perenial problem here due to failed rains. The water situation became a little better in the last 6 to 12 months, thanks to World Pioneering Rainwater harvesting scheme enforced by local government and Veeranam water project. Still in the last 4 years+, we didn't have a decent rain fall. All of this changed with the rain pouring down in Chennai for last couple of days. It has been raining non-stop for nearly last 24 hours. Very few people managed to leave their houses, so almost all schools and offices have been closed due to rains. Thanks to Internet many of my office colleagues are managing to work from home. Main Electricity supply has been switched off for safety, I hope I will be able to work few more hours with my Battery power.

(Pictures taken from my Balcony)

விஷ்வக்கில் மாதம் ஓரு சினிமா போவது வழக்கம். இதில் போனவாரம் சனிக்கிழமை சங்கரின் அந்நியன் பார்த்தோம். படத்தில் நம்மை கவர்வது

• விக்ரமின் அருமையான நடிப்பு - அந்த Multiple Personalityஐ மிக யதார்தமாக செய்துள்ளார்,
• Harris Jayarajன் இசை - சுருக்கமாக சொன்னால் பின்னி விட்டார்,
• சங்கரின் பிரமாண்டம் - அவரின் முந்திய படங்களை அவரே மிஞசுவது கடினம் இருந்தாலும் முயன்றுயிருக்கிறார் பாராட்டுகள்.

எல்லாம் சரி, படம் பார்க்கும் நமக்கு அம்மினிஷ்யா (Amnesia) வந்து "Gentleman", "இந்தியன்" படங்களை மறந்து பார்த்தால் அந்நியன் அருமை, இல்லையென்றால் தங்க பெயிண்டடித்த எருமை!!!

This thursday when I was signing a letter, I wrote that day's date as 05/05/05 (dd/mm/yy format). It suddenly dawned on me that the day, month and year are same. Interesting but useless fact, right?

நேற்று இரவு ஒரு டின்னரை முடித்துவிட்டு, நானும் எனது விருந்தாளியும் காரில் ராதாகிருஷ்ணன் சாலையில் வந்துக் கொண்டிருந்தோம். மணி  சுமார், 11:30pm இருக்கும், நான் தான் ஒட்டுனர். சாலை குறுக்கே பல காவல்துறையினர், வரும் ஒவ்வொரு காரையும் நிறுத்தி சோதனை செய்துக்கொண்டிருந்தனர். எனது காரை நிறுத்திய ஒரு காவலர், மிகப் பவ்வியமாக "சார், கோவிச்சுக்காதிங்க வாய கொஞ்சம் ஊதரிங்களா?". அவர் கேட்டவிதம் எனக்கு அச்சரியம், சென்னை காவலர இவர்!.

கதையை தொடர, ஊதினேன், "ஒன்றுமில்லை, போலாம் சார்" என்று என் காரை அனுப்பிவைத்தார். 

Recently I came across The World Fact Book, this is a US Government's CIA website that provides comprehensive information of all countries - their geography, history, economy, people, culture, concerns and more.  Unlike the popular belief, seeing this site you will get convinced that US Government is well informed about rest of the world!.

Two sites I normally turn to for Encyclopedic content - the first is MSN's Encarta and the other is free Wikipedia. Wikipedia even has a Tamil Encyclopedia (if you notice even this URL has a Tamil folder name!)

Immediately after Tsunami I contributed a sum to Tamilnadu Chief Minister's relief fund. I wanted to donate some for other affected countries; Though in my earlier posts, I have written posted URLs of NGO's, I wanted to give only to official Government Funds (don't know why, I just felt so!). Only today I got myself some time to do some search to find the site of “Central Bank of Sri Lanka Tsunami Fund” and donate. Their Credit Card payment didn't work, so did “Wire Transfer” through my bankers. I also donated some money to WorldVision India, heard from my friends they do a decent job in helping the victims. I searched Google and MSN Search, but couldn't find the official fund of Indonesian Government, if anyone knows the URL, please post it in the comments section below.

What are you waiting for?. If it is just sluggishness (like me), get over it, reach out to your hearts (and thru' it to your pockets) and donate to your favourite fund.  

After completing 1 year of blogging, I have taken a break longer than I wanted . These things (breaks) have a course of their own - kind of the opposite to the “Positive Cycle” that BillG talks about in his book Road Ahead (BTW why is he not writing anymore, his last book came in 1999?). If you take a break for few days, it turns into weeks and then you never continue. Anyways, here I am back and have broken the curse - atleast that's what I tried to communicate in the image below.

I have lots to blog, so expect posts more frequently for some-time now.

Today I was asked (should I say ordered) by wife to go to Naidu Hall after office and buy some dresses for my 18 month old son. Naidu Hall is one of the famous Textile/Readymade Garment store in Pondy Bazaar, Chennai. I dreaded the idea of shopping alone and that too now – when I will get absolutely no parking space.

Since it was festival times, Pondy Bazaar Main Road, had little carriage way free for vehicles to move, not because of too many vehicles but mainly due to haphazard parking. The Corporation permits only one row of parallel parking in the stretch in front of Naidu Hall, but it is common to see two rows of vehicles parked. Apart from this, there are couple of more rows – one by People walking on Roads (as FootPaths are occupied fully by hawkers) and the other by Autorickshaws.

I somehow managed to find a parking in a side-street some 100 feet away from the shop. Walked and got into the shop, it was overflowing with people. Somehow I managed to go to the section which had Boy Baby dresses and I was surprised to find only few people here. I managed to select few dresses that I liked. I thought to myself, so far so good, less than 10 minutes and I managed to shop, what would have taken if I had come with my wife, a minimum of 1 hour.

I went into Cash Counter to pay, there were two people in front of me paying and only one cashier inside the counter. I waited behind the person in front of me, suddenly couple of hands with bills and cash/credit card popped left and right of me towards the cashier. Absolutely no regard for Queue or Order. It was a classic demonstration of Darwin's survival of fittest (fittest in this case being the one who could push his/her hands as far as closer to the cashier and maker her notice you), though I am sure Darwin didn't mean this. Almost half-a-dozen people who came after me, managed to make their payments. I kept waiting; thankfully the cashier got two of her colleagues join her and so I was serviced. This same ordeal repeated itself in the collection counter – it was even more chaotic here. Finally after nearly 30-35 minutes of me entering Naidu Hall, I managed to come out, completing my assignment.

The reason for me to blog this was not what happened above, but what happened later. My wife and my mother both liked it, approved my purchase and said my selections were good. Oh' god, I just couldn't believe my ears... It was indeed worth the trouble.

Today Microsoft announced grand plans of digitizing India's vast geographical maps and survey information. For this it has signed an MOU with Government of India. This is good news, not because MS is involved , but because this might finally evolve into a website that will allow me to search and access quality maps for India. Everytime I see Mapquest or MapPoint or hundreds of other maps website for USA, I envy the US for having excellent maps including driving instructions readily available. In contrast, in India we don't even have one single website providing comparable service.

The other news here that makes me feel happy is that, Microsoft Research Lab in India which will work on this, is headed by Microsoft's P. Anandan, who is a native of Chennai (My Home Town) !

 

Though I wished I could start my first post for the new year with a “Happy” posting, it is about Tsunami everywhere – Radio, TV, Newspaper, Friends, Neighbourhood & even in office. So I toe the line. 

The New Year celebrations this year was anything but Jubilant. In Chennai, just couple of hours before the midnight on 31st I drove down to several parts of the city - Mount Road “Spencer Plaza”, Radhakrishnan Salai, Pondy Bazaar, Panagal Park, Nungambakkam, Marina Beach and other normally “Busy” districts. Normally on a festival day/holiday these places will be crowded with people, flashing lights and colourful display in every shop, hotels and bars overflowing with music & with people. But all this was absent this time. Many hotels cancelled their New Year parties; government too cancelled all its New Year celebrations.  Understandable!. How can you celebrate when in the first place you are still unable to come to terms and comprehend the happenings of December the 26th.

In all the media – Radio, TV & Newspaper people are being encouraged to look forward to the new year with hope for better. I feel this positive outlook itself is for better – when media is not reporting about human killings (terrorists, bombs, human destruction), wars, political fighting’s and corruptions. For someone like me who is born and brought-up in India, Government Machinery’s inefficiency, bureaucracy and its in-humane attitude is common. Even when a tragedy happens, the machinery doesn’t change its behaviour. But all this seems to be “untrue” for the Tsunami relief efforts. Though initially media claimed slow response from government machinery (across the sub-continent), everyone seems to be acknowledging now that it has improved for better drastically. It seems impossible for anyone (even the UN) to have comprehended the scale of the disaster as it happened and to react.

It is also satisfying to see the entire world to have responded immediately and comprehensively to help the victims. Right from USA to Japan, Russia to Australia, governments, NGOs, individuals are all helping the victims. In fact, even though it was affected India has pledged US$25 Million to help Sri Lanka. Almost all the websites from Google to Chennaionline , Microsoft to Apple carried links prominently calling for help. In a BBC interview yesterday, I saw Sri Lankan Health Minister acknowledging the international help and he said they have already got adequate medicines and pharmaceutical supplies to tide over this devastation (the speed at which Aid has come for Tsunami is really surprising, if this is the result of Technology/Communication and Globalization; then I am in full favour of Globalization).  Tourists are coming back to Thai Resorts – though no “Resorts” exist now, they are coming back so that the people who live there, who depend on Tourist/Foreigners’ money can have their livelihood. Almost all the tourist who come are turning into volunteers.

Near home, even in the street where I live, the local “Exnora” (A neighbourhood association) volunteers yesterday came door-to-door collecting aids/utencils/food/money for the victims. They are going in person to villages in Nagapattinam (in South Tamilnadu) and distributing the aid.

All these show signs of caring and co-operation across the world, a sign of true brotherhood and friendship. Probably what years of round table discussions, United Nations couldn't achieve is now achievable b'cos of a tragedy. I feel, like how “9/11“ changed the world order forever, the Indian Subcontinent Tsunami is changing the world for ever. If 9/11 helped us all understand the evils of global terrorism, the Sumatra Tsunami is helping us all to come together as “Humans“.

Tsunami related links:

• About Earthquakes for Children – A Childs' view of Earthquake
• How Indian Ocean Tsunami Occurred? – An animated view from BBC
• Tidal Tragedy Tsunami Report from: M S Swaminathan Research Foundation

Oh what a year this has been.

• Smooth elections for two world's biggest democracies (India & USA), Peace between India & Pakistan;
• Worsening of Iraq Situation, Rise of Oil Prices;

But the year has ended with a sad note - with the terrible South Asian Tsunami claiming thousands of lives.

If you wish to help for the Tsunami victims you may contribute to Tamil Nadu Chief Ministers Public Relief Fund or India Prime Minister Relief Fund.

Anyways, let us all join in welcoming 2005 with open arms - hoping that will bring peace and prosperity to all.

Happy New Year 2005.

India's bandwidth consumption is growing by the days. But most of the traffic goes to servers outside the country (primarily the US). One of the ways, to reduce the broadband cost is to increase the traffic within the country. ISPs in India instead of going outside the country to exchange traffic, instead do it internally. This saves Foreign Exchange for the country and also helps in reducing the cost for a consumer. In this direction, Govt. of India (GOI), couple of years back established NiXi (National Internet eXchange of India). Unfortunately, so far its impact was not felt by consumers.

This week, GOI announced that .IN Domain (the top-level Country specific domain for India) will now be made easy to register online. NiXi will be made the nodal point for the registration. This hopefully will improve the number of registrations with .IN Domain and also help NiXi with much needed cash.

(Navarathri Arrangements in my house)

Update 29/Sep/2006: The above photo has been featured in குமுதம் சிநேகிதி (பக்கம் 9) - செப்டம்பர் 15, 2006, . Not sure how they got it

It is the time of the year again in India - the time of festivals. From yesterday in South India (and more particularly in Tamilnadu) it is the nine days of Navarathri (Nine Days) festivals. During this the dolls and idols of gods and godesses are kept neatly decorated. Friends and Relatives are called to each others house to see their arrangements and we exchange “Sundal” - an South Indian Snack.

Read more about Navarathri here. 

 

In the late 1990s and especially during dot-com boom days, the corporate dress around the world went through a major change. This was first seen in US Software Firms, then in US corporates, and then in firms around the world. Indian IT firms who modeled their companies, work culture on the USA also followed the same trend.

During this, Ties, Suits and any kind of formal dressing was given a big “No“; Jeans, Collar-less T-Shirt with some crazy message was the in-thing.

Now according to this Reuters Report, Suits and Ties are making a come-back in the US Corporate world.

Personally, I always like to wear relaxed formals (Neatly pressed cotton shirt, trouser and a simple leather shoe) for work. Once in a while I like to have a good silk tie for meetings and on important occassions with a formal suit. Of course, during weekends or late night-shifts, I love the feel of a Blue Jean, T-Shirt & a Sports shoe.

I am surprised that a developed country like US has problems in Elections; I am talking about the Florida problems in last US President election. This time around they appear to have issues. In this year US President elections, they are planning to use Electronic Voting Machines in about 1/4th of places, but even for this there is huge hue-and-cry about the effectiveness/correctness/security of EVMs.

In India *a developing country* we have been using our own indeginious EVMs for over a decade now. In fact, in this year Parliament elections in India, we used EVMs all across the country. And this was for an electorate of over 600 millions, out of that probably over 40% are illeterates as well and with hundreds of different Politicial Parties. Still we had no nearly no issues with EVMs, people voted peacefully, effectively & decisively. And we got a new government in place in no time. All this was possible because of the great Indian Democracy and thanks to our Autonomous Indian Election Commission. Election Commission is a constitution authority in India which is independent and vested with powers to run free-and-fair elections in India. It has been doing the job successfully for last 50 years plus.

I have always admired the expertise of Indian Election Commission (EC) and seeing these news, I can't help but feel that United States, apart from IT Services, should *Outsource Elections* to India. If our EC can do it for 600 Million People, shouldn't it be easy for it to do for a developed country of just over 200 Million and two major parties?.

Anyways, the world is now recognizing India's expertise in Elections. Yesterday United Nations (UN) has signed a MOU with EC seeking its help to conduct elections in Afghanistan and Iraq.

What do you think about this?. Post in the comments link below. 

I am very happy today. 

My country of 1 Billion, India after a wait of 104 years has yesterday won a medal better than Bronze in an event other than Hockey (India's National Sport). Major Rajvardhan Rajore has won Silver in double trap shooting competition. Congrats Major, you have made every Indian Proud!.

(Courtesy: ChennaiOnline.com)

Perhaps, this will break the Jinx for India and help her to win many more medals in athens and in coming years.

You are on the move, sitting in a Hotel Business Centre, connected to the Internet using a PC that's there. You want to use MSN Messenger to talk to your friends or wife back home and the machine doesn't have Messenger installed. Don't worry with the new Web Messenger you can be connected using nothing but a web browser. Check out http://webmessenger.msn.com. It works with IE, Netscape or Mozilla.

A symbolically very significant event of celebration happened this month. The Inventor of the World Wide Web, “Tim Berners-Lee” was Knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in London on Friday, 16 July 2004. Everyday when we use Internet in many ways in our life, we need to thank “Sir Timothy Berners-Lee”. He is credited with several inventions that today form the pillars of Modern Web. The list of his inventions include the first web browser, the first web server (httpd), the Web Language (HTML) and more. In the era of 'Software Patents' and using your invention solely for commercial benefit, Mr.Lee was different. Though there are thousands of companies worldwide who made Billions of Dollars because of WWW, Mr.Lee purely worked on it with an academic interest. To experience his journey through the WWW invention, read his book "Weaving The Web". I am a lazy reader, but this is one book that I couldn't keep it down, without completing. Check it out. The rank of Knight Commander is the second most senior rank of the Order of the British Empire, one of the Orders of Chivalry.

Being in a City, where the temperature throughout the year is “Hot”, I have always opted for Light Coloured Cars. My reasoning was simple. If you have a dark coloured car parked under the sun for long and then when you get into it, it is going to feel like sitting inside a toaster. Whereas a light car will reflect most of the sun light and you will relatively feel better.

Now my choice is being proved right by a study conducted by an Australian Auto Insurance firm. The study has categorized (in the order) light colours like Yellow, Beige, White & Silver to be safe and dark colours  Red, Blue, Green, Black and even Gold as not so safe.

“Strange” are the illnesses that affect Humans. What else can you call an illness where our own Immune System, that is designed to protect us from foreign bodies starts attacking our own Nervous system. Even strange is that, scientists don't have a clue on what causes this deadly disease or why it occurs or how to cure it effectively. So deadly is the disorder that one site on the Internet calls this disease as "From Healthy to Helpless"

In the last two weeks alone, I heard about this serious illness “Guillain-Barrè Syndrome” affecting relatives of two of my colleagues in office. One of them had her Sister-In-Law in her middle age affected by this and for the other it was his sister barely in her teens getting affected. I pray for the speedy recovery of both of them!

While trying to educate me on this disorder, I came across several numerous voluntary organizations' websites around the world about GBS; I even found a special GBS Support Group based in UK that aims support not only patients but also their families and friends in a number of ways.

While Internet search definitely helps us to be more informed about these illnesses, the numerous websites also raises serious questions.

• How credible are these sites?
• As general public, do we face any danger because of this wealth of information?
• Should all information about an illness be made available to general public - meaning can some information known outside the medical community, can it pose threat to society's overall health and well being?
• At times, faith and trust on your doctor does have tremondous healing power. Does all this, make us doubt our doctor and affect his treatment?
• Sometimes, hiding the actual health condition to a patient, who is critically ill by his friends and relatives may help to ease his pain and anxiety. Does all this information, affect this as well?

Post your thoughts about this in the comments section below.

Today was a sad day for all of us in the house of “LIFCO”. Our beloved V.V.Mama (Brahmasri Kureru V.Venkatesa Ayyar, affectionately “Mama” for us) left all of us and attained the lotus feet of Lord Sri Lakshmi Hayagreeva. Mama passed away yesterday at 8:20PM in his bedroom, after suffering for last 1 week, with the last 48 hours unconscious. On Saturday he had stopped breathing for few minutes and was revived by the help of a near-by doctor; it happened once again, but on that last moment it didn’t work.

V.V.Mama (88 Years) has been part of LIFCO (Estd.1929) for over last 60 years. During these 60 years, he had performed various roles as a clerk, accountant, manager, administrative officer and always an advisor. He was well versed in 4 languages – Telugu (his mother tongue), Tamil, Sanskrit and English; amazingly he was equally fluent in all of them. He had edited/written several of the titles in LIFCO, his hardwork being eminent in LIFCO’s various Dictionaries. Apart from Administration & Accounts, V.V.Mama was experienced in Astrology, Brahmin Traditions, Traditional Medicine and Typing. He was a Musician as well – a Mridhangam player, he has also conducted various religious discourses and bhajans. 

For all of us, the younger generation at LIFCO, he was our “Grand Father”.

May his soul rest in peace!

Last Saturday, we had the privilege of having a pooja for God Danvantri (God of Medicine) in my house. The occassion was made special with the oppurtunity of having in our house for few hours, the utsava (smaller version of the main idol, which is taken out of the temple to places during festivals) idol and main idol of God Danvantri from Sri Danvantri Arogya Peetam, Walajapet.

Utsava Idol of God Danvantri

Main Idol of God Danvantri
(A beautifully decorated granite sculpture, measuring about 6 1/2 feet)

We all have heard about "Black" Gold, right?.

"Black" Gold is a term used to refer to Crude Oil/Petroleum to bring out that oil is precious and expensive as the original “Yellow” Gold. This term is very apt with today's high oil prices of around $40 per barrel.

Anyways, yesterday while driving I listened to a question being asked in one of the local FM stations, on what is "White" Gold?. It turns to be "Cotton" (பருத்தி), the term is used to highlight the high demand for quality cotton seeds worldover.

Bugged with this, I searched in Google for Gold of other colours. Do we have a 'Red' Gold or a 'Pink' Gold?. So far I could find nothing. If you do know, drop about them in the comments link below.

 

While the world is paying tributes to the late American President Ronald Reagan; Reuters today has carried a story on his lighther side. I am giving below two of the quotes that I enjoyed reading.

He told a story about how an old Russian woman had asked Mikhail Gorbachev whether communism had been invented by a scientist or a politician. Gorbachev said he thought it was a politician. "That explains it," said the woman. "A scientist would have tried it on mice first."

I enjoyed this for its good timing and also on how it communicates Reagan's strong views on communism in a way that reaches even to the common man.

The other quote satires the political office of a President. "A lot of people wondered, 'How dare an actor have the audacity to run for this job,'" Reagan told the Chicago Sun-Times in 1990. "There were times when I wondered how you could do this job without having been an actor."

 

In recent times, there are two advertisements that really impressed me. Both of them don't shout about their products, features, company or compare with competition. Both do soft selling or idea selling very well.

One of them is the Hutch TV Ads, where a small boy with a dog walks across all the places and the ad closes with a punch line “Where ever you go, our network follows you”. It is a joke, that the same type of visual (with a boy and dog) is being used now by Miranda; somebody seems to be running out of creativity.

The other good Ad, that I enjoy is Microsoft's new series of ad with the theme “Your Potential. Our Passion”. This new line sounds much better than the old “Where do you want to go today”; What an useful question everyday I want to go home to meet my family .  

You can watch the complete (upcoming and archives) TV ads and Print ads of this campaign from Microsoft Website. I especially like the 2003 Ads with the “School“ theme.

 

You are bored. You also interested in learning the history of America and got only 3 minutes and 18 seconds to do it. What is your best option?. Check out this funny film clip on the brief history of america from the maker of “Bowling for Columbine”.

Thanks to Harish for forwarding me this link.

Recently on my way back from New Delhi to Chennai by Air Sahara, not knowing what to do for the nearly 4 hours journey (Flight delayed for 15 mins & a scheduled stop over @Bangalore) I started reading the in-flight magazine. You know, this is the magazine that Airlines hide behind the AirSick Bags. Kidding, honestly I find the in-house magazines of Domestic Airlines (Jet and IA) much better than the International Airlines (they suck!) and most of the time, I take a copy home for further reading.  

Air Sahara calls their magazine, XPRESSIONS (all caps?). In the Feb '04 issue, there was an useful article “The Desktop Philanthropist“ by Payal Dhat. Payal points out to lots of sites on the Internet, which we can use to donate/help for worthy causes.

3 sites impressed me a lot, that I made sure to register with them as soon as I reached home.

The first is Hungersite, in this site for every click we do in a button, a new page opens up with sponsor advertisements. Each such click helps feed the hungry with the value of 1.1 cups of staple food. So far they seem to have given 47,919,670 cups of food to the hungry.

The second is Panda P@ssport.  It is your licence to campaign for the environment, no matter where you are in the world, all over the world. Recently,  Norway said no to oil drilling in Lofoten Islands because of the pressure from Passport holders, WWF along with other stake holders.

The last if  http://www.fightaidsathome.org. This is the first biomedical distributed computing project that uses your idle CPU time to do drug compounds computations against detailed models of evolving AIDS viruses —an accomplishment previously impossible without expensive supercomputers. It does this by installing on your Windows machine a Screensaver software that wakes up when your PC is idle, doing nothing other than painting beautiful Windows with no one to see it. It then downloads compounds over the Internet and then tries to solve them. Once done, it uploads the results and gets the new set.

All these are worthy causes right?. Now when my wife says, “What are you doing in front of PC for hours, are you saving the world?”. I can reply confidently “Yes, I am saving the world!”.