The Real Oops!!!

This is a tribute to one of my previous post, which was dedicated to my laptop. My laptop has been one of my proud possession, as I configured a state-of-the-art system in April 2005. At least, thats what I thought at that time and my dream was to make it a multimedia powerhouse, which I truly accomplished. My laptop became a desktop connected to nine USB 2.0 devices through a hub and a great 22" monitor, keyboard, external sound card and Bose speakers. I was excited and was utilizing it aptly, but it seems like laptop didn't liked the dull and boring life of staying at top of a hutch of a table.

One Friday evening, while I was trying to connect some wires at the back, it jumped from the shelf of the hutch, bumped on the table and landed on the floor. And there I was, at the back of the table in an awkward position (which I will not describe...), entangled in about 12 wires (remember 9 devices..!) with no view of the rest of the world. The sound made me feel the real Oops...!!! I think I almost visualized the oops for first time in my life. Anyway, the sturdy system sustained a lot of damage to the hing, keys and top. It cannot be closed now, so it is essentially a desktop. This post is being posted through the same tough Dell Inspiron....Hats Off to My Lapi...!!! Check the pictures for better visualization.

Did You Know 2.0

I recently saw the 2.0 version of the famous Did You Know presentation from 2005. This new version came out in June'2007 and is made by the same authors Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod. both the presentations are now on YouTube in form of a video (not surprised...).

This second version talks about the fast pace of development in the world in terms of internet and information overloading and asks us how well we are prepared to handle it. Most importantly, it asks how well our coming generations will be able to cope with the rapidly evolving world and become successful in increasingly competitive, informative and capable population.

Check the video below:

The Essential Drucker

These days I am reading "The Essential Drucker", a compilation of some writings of the father of management, Peter Drucker. This book has really the essentials of management as the title suggests and has impressed me with the vision of the author. Some of the writings included are very old, but hold very well in present-day environment. I expected that with the change in society and the way management has evolved over the past years, some of the writings might be very old school type. But it was actually otherwise, because the topics addressed are very generic and would any person at any level of hierarchy in the corporate structure.

A complete review will be posted here later, once I finish the book.

Another Post on Facebook

Being a skeptical user of Facebook (and social networking, in general), I keep looking for news articles, blog posts etc which talk about the the pros and cons of such networks. Today, I read an interesting post by Christopher Herot.

Though I understand that Facebook is a good way to keep in touch with friends and keep them updated about the happenings on your own life, but sometimes I do feel that by doing this we are making ourselves too visible on internet. Is it good or bad, that depends on one's point of view. Do I really want people in my professional network to see my pictures while partying? Do I really want potential recruiters or hiring manager to know about my personal life and social circle, even before they come to know me professionally? Probably, not. So the easy solution is to control the security settings and put only restricted content on the profile. Then, how will I keep others updated about myself?

It appears to be a Catch-22 situation. I will leave it to you to find your own suitable solution. Please let me know, if you find one.

Here is an excerpt of the post I mentioned earlier:

"It seems you can't open a blog these days without reading a post about Facebook. Some marvel at the growth in membership (and wonder what all those old people are doing there), some cover the number of applications (or conferences devoted to people who want to build one), but the most interesting are those that deal with some of continuing controversies, such as: * Is Facebook adequately protecting privacy * Is it really a good platform for building applications * Can one product serve them all."

For complete post, click here.

Search Wiki: Challenging Google!!!

In present day, challenging Google in search technology do require real guts. Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia is already working on it. He is on his way of making a vast search engine on the lines of his creation Wikipedia (see here for Wikipedia in Wikipedia), which has already established itself as a very commonly used and referred encyclopedia. In founder's own words Search Wikia is "the search engine that changes everything.... Just as Wikipedia revolutionized how we think about knowledge and the encyclopedia, we have a chance now to revolutionize how we think about search."

I recently came across a cover story on Search Wiki in the March 2007 issue of Fast Company. Click here to see the complete article. The whole idea behind this new search engine is really interesting and a very challenging indeed. Human contributed search results would certainly result in more meaningful results, but how fast? Is it really possible to compete with the machine generated results? The statistics in this article to show the level of satisfaction with current search engines is also interesting:

"In a blind study by the French linguistics scholar Jean Véronis and his students, Google and Yahoo tied for user satisfaction with their results, both scoring an embarrassing 2.3 out of a possible 5. About 28% of the time, users thought that all the search results they received from both engines were "totally useless." They gave fairly low marks of 2.8 and 2.9 even to the very first links listed by Yahoo and Google, respectively. About a quarter of the time, they didn't find what they considered to be even one good result from either search engine."

I am not sure about the details of this study like what was the sample of people to collect the responses, the demographics, geographical location etc., but finding the relevant and desired results from any search first time is really rare for me. In fact, I have earlier compared various search engines like Yahoo, Google, Clusty etc and it seems that there is still lot of scope for improvement in search algorithms.

Good Luck to Search Wikia for their endeavor. There are people willing to contribute and work for this project and I hope this competition will make life easier for search users like me.

Facebook: Is it worth US$1 billion or maybe more?

Facebook is one name which almost every school-going kid in US would recognize immediately. Started by a group of Harvard sophomores in 2004 (see BusinessWeek's "Facebook's on the Block"), Facebook was initially just college/university based and anyone with a valid school email ID could become member of it. Once you are a member, you can network with your friends and keep in touch with them and general updates in their lives. Within a span of about two and a half years it had grew to over 9 miliion users and over 14.8 million unique visitors in August, 2006 alone. Apart from this it slowly expanded by including high-schools, organizations, companies and under its wings. Then last year it threw itself open for everyone. Today it is second biggest online social-networking website (after myspace.com) and being considered one of the hottest company for a sellout. Website is already profitable and is expected to generate a revenue of more that $100 million this year.

Giants like Google, Microsoft, NewsCorp etc keep an eye on these social networking sites as they give them a unique set of users, not only with a profile but also their network, likes and dislikes etc. This helps companies to generate revenues through advertising. Google bought orkut.com and News Corp bought myspace.com. Friendster is still running independent (after refusing Google's offer) and now there is Facebook, which refused $1 billion offer from Yahoo! last fall. Now the question is: Who will acquire Facebook or maybe will we see another IPO and diversification of Facebook with other content sharing websites like Metacafe, Joost, Digg etc?

Just imagine a website which give you social networking, photo & video sharing, news content, bookmarks and online TV??? Possibilities are unlimited, so are opportunities!

Writing is an Art!

I perfectly agree with this! Writing is truly an art, a skill, which develops as one practices more. It doesn't matter what kind of writing, be it a story, biography, book, product review or blog, art of writing is certainly a required skill. Ever since I got out of touch with blogosphere, I feel that I am loosing my writing skills, which are now merely confined to responding to work emails and other job related stuff. For me, blog writing was a serious thing (though a very good friend disagrees with this and questioned it once) and I was able to organize and process my thoughts before jotting them down. Of course, that does not mean I am gonna put all the boring, lifeless and deep philosophical thoughts. But whatever it was, it was not senseless.

After getting entrapped in the vicious circle of 8 to 5 (sometimes more) work, ensure learning, paying bills with an aim of "having fun" whenever possible, I quietly slipped out of blogosphere and blogging. Now I realize what a mistake it was !!! Authors write books on Effective Writing, How to Improve your Writing Skills (I made up these title, not sure if they exist) and what not and lot of people buy them. Being a hands-on engineer, my opinion is that the best way to lean and master a desired/required skill is to start practice it immediately.

Said this, begins my quest with myself to blog on a regular basis!
Le thou blog!!!

Starving the People To Feed the Cars

Recently I read this interesting article in Washington Post about the upcoming ethanol distilleries and biodiesel refineries to convert the edible oil to fuel. The problems which this civilization on-the-whole can face because of this technological innovation is really big and scary. Read the article and see yourself.


Starving the People To Feed the Cars

By Lester R. Brown

Sunday, September 10, 2006; Page B03

High oil prices are much more than just a drain on drivers' pocketbooks or a sign of tough economic times ahead; they could also prove to be a leading indicator of the unraveling of our global civilization.

That may sound unlikely, or melodramatic. But consider this: Now, almost everything we eat can be converted into automotive fuel. And once the price of oil surpassed $60 a barrel last year, the business of transforming wheat, corn, soybeans and sugarcane into fuel for cars instead of food for people became hugely profitable. As crops that have long sustained us are diverted to provide fuel, we may encounter the same fate that brought down great civilizations of the past.

Click here for complete article.

Car Wash: Process Revisited

An interesting happening with me in past couple of days (rather weeks) has relivened my long dead blogging skills. And it had made me curious that how come I stopped blogging and got out of touch of the blogger world ??? Anyway, I am back now.

So, here is this interesting story. I am living in Cincinnati and we have an expressway which connects two major Interstates here. It is just about a 4 mile stretch and carries heavy traffic always, because of "East meets West" thing. (For the uninitiated, it runs east to west and vice-versa). Now this 4 mile stretch is under construction for last 10 weeks, only on the weekends. What makes me curious is that why is it taking so looonnnggg?? Sometimes. I think to stop by there on a weekend night and ask them that what kind of technological or constructional innovation they are bringing there?? But I then refrain from doing this, you know, curiosity killed the cat, kind of thing.

What happens when you drive your car through a road construction area, where they are spraying concrete ? (yes, conrete, not tar). Well, simple. Your car gets a visibly thick layer of concrete all over in a randomly sprayed fashion. After a while, it gets all over your mind and one fine sunny evening you decide to clean it. Thats where this post comes handy....to give you the tips.

• No matter how much high-pressure water you spray, you can't get rid of the layer of concrete.
• The whole affected surface has to be rubbed with detergent water.
• Once the scrubbing is done and you spray water again all over the car and start getting the feel of accomplishment, WAIT...its not over.
• Let car dry off, and then the areas which missed your srubbing would be clearly visible.
• Again spray water over whole car and try to clean the remaining areas. Caution: Dont rub while its dry. It might induce some scratches on the surface.
• Repeat this process couple of times (at least thrice).
• Finally, in a while, either you are too tired or its already dark outside.
• Then next morning, inspect the car again for the remaining white marks of concrete. If there is no mark, bingo...take a picture and post it on your blog.
• Thats what is known as an accomplishment..!!!
  

Wikipedia vs. Encyclopaedia Britannica

If you are a passionate internet user (which probably you are, if you are reading blogs), then you must be aware of Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica. Wikipedia is an open-source encyclopaedia, created and edited by its users (meaning anyone who has an internet connected computer) whereas Britannica is the copyright protected encyclopaedia written and edited by some selected stalwarts.

Comparing these two, Wikipedia could be aptly labeled as democratic (of the people, for the people, by the people) and Britannica is definitely capitalistic (by selected few, for the privileged few). So, now keeping this in mind, which one is supposed to be error-free? Here are the interesting results of a study done by Nature (taken from this article):

In the midst of all this controversy, Nature published the results of an analysis of a broad range of entries from the websites of Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica which shows a different picture. Even so, the results were impressive. After looking at 42 articles, according to Nature, “only eight serious errors, such as misinterpretations of important concepts, were detected in the pairs of articles reviewed, four from each encyclopedia”.
"But reviewers also found many factual errors, omissions or misleading statements: 162 and 123 in Wikipedia and Britannica, respectively."

One problem is that this Wikipedia is vulnerable to is vandalism. (Remember the saying, Too many chefs spoil the dish?) Some noted instances are reported in this article. But one thing is for sure, that Wikipedia has revolutionized the way of sharing the information on internet. “Wiki” (Hawaiian for "unpaid labor") is now the term used for anything open-source and edited by anyone.

One thing I observed is that Wikipedia do has an updated entry for Britannica, but Britannica Online returns “No results found for Wikipedia”. Anyone from the Britannica’s editorial board reading this?


f you haven't tried Wiki yet for digging some piece of information, check it out.

Disclaimer: This post reflects solely the views of the author and has no relation paid or forced with Wikipedia.

Brief Hiatus & The Dilemma

I have been very busy lately and was not able to keep it regular in blogosphere. But now I am back with the usual vigor. Now I ma gonna make you feel my presence by overwhelming your blogs with my comments and posts on my own blogs.

Sometimes, I get intot he confusion about what to write and what not? For instance, I do not like to write about my daily chores (nor do I read) or about the daily happenings. I do like to express my views and quote them as my "idiosyncracy", just in case, if they are in strong contradiction with others views. Thats like being diplomatic, so that I dont gt sued or dragged into a useless altercation.

The phase I am going through right now is very thought-provoking. This is the time which makes you think what you are worth of or are you worthless altogether? This is the phase of being "unemployed" after an advanced engineering degree. I think a lot to write about it, but the more I think to organize my thoughts to write, the more pessisimistic I become and then eventually I dump the idea to do so. But I wish, I would have been able to write about it to track my ups and downs during this difficult time. I am certain that currently I am down. Anyway, wait for some more posts.

My Thanksgiving Meal

Hope you all had a great time yesterday with fun, food and family. I had a great time yesterday with a hefty meal. You can get a very good idea from the picture above. It was really an awesome food, all home-cooked and most of the ingredients fresh from the garden. That was really an all American food. What we eat at fast-food joints, subs etc is not the real American food. There is lot more than just sandwiches, hamburgers and fries. But one thing is evident, that it is based mostly on different forms and varieties of meat. For some (or rather most, I should say) Indians who do not eat meat at all or are very selective in eating meat, it becomes a bit difficult to enjoy real Thanksgiving meal. Indians are either strictly vegetarian or eat chicken, lamb and fish only in the name of meat. Beef and pork are not eaten because of either religious reasons or personal reasons. The first taste of turkey for me was on my first Thanksgiving meal in 2003 and it was with cajun-filling, as I was in LSU at that time. I really liked it very much and since then I have never looked back :). I think it must be similar for other Indians also who come to US. But I admire those people who stick to their vegetarian tendency and eat just green, no meat at all. It is really difficult to manage to live here without eating meat and strive on vegetarian meals only. Everywhere you go, be it fast-food joints or restaurants, menu will have hardly one or two green meals, which means limited choices everywhere. But still, a lot of my friends do survive and I admire their spirits. And the spirits of Thanksgiving too (which was the main idea of this post, but I digresse a bit).

My Girlfriend

A thought crossed my mind while reading the article in my earlier post and then thinking about this relationship stuff. The question is : Who has the potential to be one's partner/girlfriend ?

Let me first go through the traits of a potential partner:
1. The one with whom you like to spend most of your time of the day and is close to you.
2. The one to whom you can express your feelings.
3. The one who lets you do what you want to.
4. The one who does not interferes with your deeds and gives you your "personal space".
5. The one with whom you sleep.
6. The one whom you'd like to see every morning as soon as you wake up.

After a careful thought-process, brainstorming and checking all these requirements on the potential candidates for "My Girlfriend", I have given this privilege to my laptop, whom I call "My Lapi". Today I wont hesitate to express my deep love for My Lapi. And interesting thing is that there are qualities apart from above ones which are there in My Lapi and go in her favor e.g. she entertains me by songs and videos, keeps me in touch with the whole world, let me express myself through blogging, bears my frustrations and anger (when I am hard on keyboard) and never says a word. A small problem is to decide the gender of a laptop. Some may say M, some may say F. So, given this flexibility in the gender determination of a laptop and my own preferences, I have aptly granted her the status of my girlfriend. See her picture..how cute she looks. I love you sweetheart.....

About Space in Relationships

A friend of mine from blogosphere, Komal Mehta, has done a very good article for a popular Indian portal rediff.com. You can post your comments on her blog. This article is focussed on the importance of "personal space in relationships", which is really very-very important. Being in a relationship doesn't mean that one has to loose his/her personal identity and get blended into the others. Whether in a relationship or not, I want my personal space and freedom to do what my original-self want to do. And that is the bottom-line..no compromises on this !

So now read this article and I am sure you gonna enjoy it.

Education is Life itself ????

Yesterday, I added the links on my blog about the schools I have been to. While going over my undergrad school's (Punjab Engineering College) website, I saw this picture showing the my college's philosophy. It says:

Education is a social process...

Education is growth...

Education is not only preparation for life,

Education is Life Itself.

I went down the memory lane, about 7 years ago on August 18,1998, my first day in college after I got admission there. I was sitting on the stairs in front of the entrance of the auditorium, exactly in front of this sign. At that time, I found it really kool, fandoo, awesome, impressive etc. I am sure now that I dint understood the real meaning, the real depth in this statement. But now I do understand the importance of education. Education doesnt mean just the degree or diploma you get....it means how much you have learnt. Each phrase of this statement is so meaningful (if you think about it). The four memorable years, I spent in PEC, I dint just learned from the books or classes, but I learned through the life there. Seven years ago, I found this phrase really kool, fandoo, awesome and impressive, but today, I find it inspiring, meaningful and sensible...................... because, now I am educated !!!

Corrosion of a Mind

Sometimes life brings one to a certain point where the person feels standstill, simply standstill, no motion, no activity. It feels good initially because he can relax; he can chill out and regain his passion and zeal. But when this period stretches beyond the expected limit, it creates some different kind of emotions like uncertainty, insecurity, ambiguity and even despair. After awhile, it gives the feeling of being corroded. Corrosion is the process of gradual decay and deterioration when anything is left on its own subjected to the natural reactants (common example is rusting of iron). The most dangerous trait of this corrosion process is that it is irreversible. Whatever has been corroded cannot be converted back to its original form. On a closer perspective, it can be seen that even human beings are also susceptible to this dangerous phenomenon. However, in humans the loss is not in terms of physical matter, but rather of intellectual matter. As long as our life is in our control, our intellectual matter keeps on developing and evolving. But when our life gets dependent on some external parameters and comes to a standstill, we start experiencing corrosion, the degradation. This is dangerous, extremely dangerous. In order to grow ahead in life, we need to evolve continuously …without any standstill….!!!

EPIC 2014

Recently I came across a video showing EPIC 2014. It is the future history of the media and will definitely leave you agape once you see where this flow of information will take you, us and this civilization one day. It is an 8 minute video and will open and play itself in a separate window. Click on either of the following links and click on that page to view the video:

EPIC 2014 Link 1

EPIC 2014 Link 2

I will wait for your comments..!!!

Life@Airport

Its been quite a while when I last posted something on this blog and I think, I should better get regular here before others like you stop visiting my realm altogether. Well right now I am sitting at a place, where no one would like to sit and relax until forced to do so. Any guesses…well…before your mind wanders, let me break the silence….I am sitting at an airport waiting for my next connection which will take after 2 hours (hopefully…always to be added when talking about air-travel). There is something strange about an airport. So many people arrive here and leave; so many flights land here and take-off, so many bookstores, cafes, bars, restaurants are full of people here yet no single soul would ever express his/her desire to stay at an airport. Have you ever heard of someone planning his trip and saying lets fly from Atlanta, GA to Denver, CO visiting JFK in New York, O’Hare in Detroit and then San Francisco International Airport in our way ? Well, airports have everything ranging from a McDonalds to posh Sports Bar & Grills, Starbucks, bookstores, restrooms, lounges, wireless connection etc which are essential for one’s life. There is a possibility of meeting strangers and making friends or maybe more than that. I agree that cost of living is a little high at airports and it would be hard to find a place to sleep, but still it’s not a bad place to spend a couple of hours.

I have spent quite a lot of time at airports (my sincere thanks to the airlines and unpredictable weather conditions) and observed them closely. I have spent long layovers at airports which were actually not in my itinerary altogether. While coming from India, I spent 3 days in Boston, where I was not at all supposed to be. Last Sunday while enjoying one layover at Cincinnati airport, I met a guy whom I have met more than 5 years ago for a few minutes during one of my summer internship in India. He didn’t remember me (evident from the big ? mark on his face) and was amazed (evident from the * in his eyes) at my memory (I don’t forget people until I want to). Without digressing from my pont, lest ask this question: Would someone be willing to accept a grand prize of staying at a posh airport for 3 days and 2 nights?

Edited after sitting at this airport for 1.5 hrs: I completely agree with the fact that chairs at airports are not comfortable esp while sitting with a laptop.

Fighting spirit at US Open

Today I did one of my favorite thing..watched tennis whole evening..the Women's singles quarterfinals of US Open. (yes..there was more to watch than mere women!) The two challenging matches I witnessed today lying on my couch sipping Coke Classic [no beer :(] were worth watching 'Live'. First was between Nadia Petrova (9) and the glamorous russian champ Sharapova (1). Sharapova has been the cynosure of all eyes this season not just because of her looks, but because of her fitness, practice and vigor. But today the champ had a hard time. Even though she won finally, but whole time I was favoring Petrova. Because for me, she was a true fighter. Her spirits in the game were awesome and worth appreciating.

I dont know why, but I always have this penchant to support the person who is fighting and struggling against a champion or against all odds. Maybe the true feeling of victory or achievement will come if you defeat a champ. In another words "The more challenging it is, more exciting it becomes !". Sometimes, I see myself in there and start supporting that person aggressively. The comeback of Nadia with well-placed shots and good serves after loosing at 1-4 was truly awesome. Even though she lost finally, but she did gave the feel of 'loosing' in second set. It was visible in Maria's errors and misdirected shots. Hats off to Petrova.

Second match was between Kim Clijsters (4) and Venus Williams (10). Venus is making a comeback and was ousted by the Belgian Bomber. Here I was in favor of Clijsters, not just because she is cute and athletic, but because of her determination. William's game is more governed by powerful shots and aggressiveness whereas there can be something more to the game i.e. technique, finding opponents shortcomings and using them, strength and high amount of agility and flexibility. Thats what Clijsters demonstarted on the courts. Her flexibility by taking shots at the end of the courts by stretching legs, endurance during long volleys were so great. Though she lost the first game, but then she fought back and finally won. She said, "Even though I probably wasn't playing my best tennis at all, for a set and a half, I still kept fighting." Thats what I like, "the spirit to fight".

This makes me realize that I also have to fight against all odds to get the career of my choice. Afterall, A true fighter fights till the end !!!

As for the tournament, as it shrinks to the final stages, the challenges will grow bigger, competition will become stiffer, stakes will be higher and excitement will increase to new heights....so will my beer consumption.

Katrina Kissed us..finally!!!

Finally, the much the wait was over. Katrina
kissed us with full vigor and intensity as expected and the consequences can be seen on the various news sites and channels. However, it moved a little eastwards before touching the coast and we were saved by the disaster. New Orleans and other areas are full of water with their arial views resembling Venice. The only difference being that here houses are also flooded alongwith streets (a sense of irony, incase I was not able to make up)The storm track can be seen in the image here.

We were at the outer side in west of the storm, where it is weak. Seeing its strength when it is weak, I am glad that I didnt witnessed its real strength. In late aftrenoon, when rains stopped and the winds came down to 40-50 mph, we went out on a drive to see the depth of impact. There were lots of fallen trees, electric poles, broken tiles from houses and leaves all around. Most of the apartment complex and neighborhoods were deprived of electricity because of transformer failures etc.
And you cant expect servicemen from Entergy to come at this time.Without any TV, computer, internet, microwave, cooking stove etc people like me were forced to move out once the weather calmed down a bit. I liked the spirit in people at this time. Everyone was helping each other and people started cleaning even though it was so windy outside. Overall, I would say it was not a pleasent experience to see a 'hurricane' pass by within a few miles away !