Deven Goratela

Changing a Person

2012-01-09T10:19:00.001+05:30

Once there was a small boy whose grandma had given him a drum for his b’day. He loved the drum very much, and played with it all day long – bang, bang, bang – much to the annoyance of his parents and neighbors.

The parents pampered, begged, warned, scolded, gave fear the young boy to stop, but he ignored them and just carried on – bang, bang, bang – all the day.

The parents in desperation, sought the help of a respected doctor. The doctor tried explaining to the child how constant noise was damaging his eardrums.

But the advice was too advanced for the child, who did not know what an eardrum was, so he went on playing.

The parents called in a respected teacher. The teacher tried giving the boy a book of instructions, saying that if he read the book his drum playing would improve.

But the child found the instruction book too long and boring and so he abandoned it and went on playing.

Then parents sought the help of a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist gave the boy some meditation exercises and some lessons in anger management.

All that happened was that the boy slowed down his playing for a short time and then, refreshed, would start playing again all the more vigorously.

Then a sufi, a wise man, who happened to be passing, heard the tale of little boy and the drum. He listened to the child for a short while and then handed the boy a hammer and chisel, saying, “I wonder if you can find out what’s inside this drum?”

People do not change their behavior just because you want them to. Reasoning, morality, punishment, threat, fear or anger may help on the surface to alter their behavior temporarily but not from the core of their hearts. You are already defeated if employing these methods. People don't change their behavior unless it makes a difference for them to do so. We all choose to make changes, and there has to be a personal motivation that prompts the person to change their behavior – either potential pleasure to be gained or the potential pain to be avoided. Try to look at people's behavior in terms of their dream, goal/ambition, needs, wants and motives. You alone cannot change people behavior, only they themselves can. However, you can influence them to do so by setting your own behavior example and by motivating, encouraging, praising, supporting and if possible rewarding their sincere efforts for either gaining potential pleasure or avoiding potential pain.

Understanding Importance of Ownership

2011-12-10T22:45:00.001+05:30

Whether problem is our own or of others' related to us in one or other way, the common behavior seen is either self pity or apathy. In case of our own problems we just complain, whine, whimper, crib or blame. In case of others' problem we stand on the sidelines just watching or talking in apathy. There are always self inflicted barriers to problem solving and no concern is shown to own, get involved and participate in solutioning process. These barriers generally are: A "Yes, but'' attitude either to delay the solution or to avoid problem or ownership; wait and do nothing or others will tell me what to do; one can't blame me; It's because of circumstances or destiny or fate; quit or run away; this is so difficult or impossible to do.;I have no clue; I should always ask for help from others; it's not my problem and should not do anything; I'll simply pass the problem to someone else; intellectual defensiveness, positional rigidity or stubbornness closed to new ideas; fear of being perceived as being incompetent; fear of one's ideas being unaccepted; inability to be objective about the problem; fear of being wrong; fear of coming out of comfort zone thinking more losses and disturbance could be faced than benefits from solution; inability to be creative, imaginative or "off the wall'' in developing alternative solutions; being inflexible or too serious to have fun while problem solving; being so chronically immersed or emotionally "stuck'' in problems that no feelings or emotions can be elicited; believing that one's emotions and feelings about a problem are "wrong'' and should be discounted in problem solving; rigidity or resentment about having to solve the problem; blaming others for causing the problem; no desire to own up to the problem; believing that problems are the concerns of others not me, therefore, why waste my time in trying to solving them; mental and/or physical fatigue from trying to cope with problems and finding no fruitful solutions; burnout; feeling so stressed, anxious or tense in the face of a problem that your body systems shut down; getting so angry about the problem that all energy and attention is drawn to the anger rather than to the problem; feeling sorry for oneself so much that the "self-pity'' overwhelms and obstructs all creative thinking on the matter; getting so down or depressed about the problem that it is impossible to come up long enough to deal with the problem; denial that the problem exists; bargaining in dealing with the problem e.g., agreeing to perform certain steps only as long as the solution to the problem benefits you. The obvious point is that no concerned efforts are contributed to own, get involved and participate in solving the problems. What could be a greater pity than that in case of your own problems a resigning, complaining or blaming attitude is shown which does nothing but invite more troubles, losses and pains.

The tendency to whining and complaining may be taken as the surest sign symptom of little souls and inferior intellects. The way we see the problem is the problem. Most people spend more time and energy going around problems or just waiting, watching or talking than in trying to solve them. You won't find a solution by saying there is no problem. Hot heads and cold hearts never solved anything. Nothing can come of nothing and the shortest answer is do something about problem. If you have time to whine and complain about something then you have the time to do something about it. Have you got a problem? Do what you can where you are with what you've got. In any situation, ask yourself: What strengths do I possess that can contribute towards solving the problem. If you think there's a solution, you're part of the problem, no problem is too big to run away from and the best way to escape from a problem is to own and solve it. What all is needed that one should stay calm, go through all the materials he/she has carefully, and think about every possible cause and solution, and experiment them. One should immediately own the problem and be responsible for finding the solution if not on his/her own then in a cooperative and collaborative manner by getting actively involved and contributing as much as one can. If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact, not to be solved, but to be coped with over time. When one's own problems are unsolvable and all best efforts frustrated, it is lifesaving to listen to other people's problems. When you do nothing, you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved, you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better. You must get involved to have an impact. No one is impressed with the won-lost record of the referee.

Ten Great Steve Jobs Quotes

2011-10-11T23:09:00.001+05:30

Here are a few of quotes from Steve Jobs :

“Let’s go invent tomorrow rather than worrying about what happened yesterday.”
—D5 Conference: All Things Digital, May 30, 2007

“Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.”
—Bloomberg Businessweek, February 6, 2006

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
—The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs, 2011

“The problem is, in hardware you can’t build a computer that’s twice as good as anyone else’s anymore. Too many people know how to do it. You’re lucky if you do one that’s one-and-a-third times better or one-and-a-half times better. And
then it’s only six months before everybody else catches up.”
—Rolling Stone, June 16, 1994

“What a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.”
—Memory & Imagination, 1990

‘Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me.… Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful—that’s what matters to me.’
—CNNMoney/Fortune, May 25, 1993

One of the reasons I think Microsoft took ten years to copy the Mac is ‘cause they didn’t really get it at its core.
—Rolling Stone, June 16, 1994

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
—Commencement address, Stanford University, June 12, 2005

“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. I don’t mean that in a small way. I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don’t think of original ideas and they don’t bring much culture into their products. I have no problem with their success—they’ve earned their success for the most part. I have a problem with the fact that they just make really third-rate products.”
—Triumph of the Nerds, PBS, June 1996

“I get 50 cents a year for showing up…and the other 50 cents is based on my performance.
—AppleInsider.com, May 10, 2007

No one ever finds life worth living - one has to make it worth living

2011-10-03T14:45:00.001+05:30

In 1923, one of the world's most successful financiers met at Chicago's Edgewater Beach Hotel. Financially, they literally 'held the world by the tail'. Anything that money could buy was within their grasp; they were RICH-RICH-RICH! Look at their names and the positions they held:

CHARLES SCHWAB was President of the largest steel company.
SAMUEL INSULL was President of the largest electric utility company.
HOWARD HOPSON was President of the largest gas company.
ARTHUR CUTTEN was the great what speculator.
RICHARD WHITNEY was President of the New York Stock Exchange.
ALBERT FALL was Secretary of Interior in President Harding's Cabinet.
LEON FRASER was President of the Bank of International Settlements.
JESSE LIVERMORE was the greatest 'bear' on Wall Street.
IVAR KRUGER was head of the world's largest monopoly.

We must admit, that here were gathered a group of the world's most successful men of the time: Men who had found the secret of making Money.
Now let us see where these very men were 25 years later in 1948:

CHARLES SCHWAB lived on borrowed money for five years and died bankrupt.
SAMUEL INSULL dies a fugitive from justice and penniless in a foreign land.
HOWARD HOPSON turned insane.
ARTHUR CUTTEN died insolvent abroad.
RICHARD WHITNEY was just released from the Sing Sing Penitentiary.
ALBERT FALL was pardoned from prison so he could die at home - broke.
LEON FRASER committed suicide.
JESSE LIVERMORE committed suicide.
IVAR KRUGER committed suicide.

What happened in 25 years? They were brilliant in their respective field. They mastered the art of making money and the art of enjoying material life, but never learned HOW TO LIVE! A vast amount of their talent and potential went down the drain! Their lives were out of BALANCE! Do we know HOW TO LIVE A BALANCED LIFE? Do we know the PURPOSE and then place the foundation of our lives on VALUES based MEANS which last, bound to make life worth living and help achieve the purpose. All this give a meaning to life to live or otherwise we are just spending time here. We are always getting ready to live, but never living. We never live and are always in the expectation of living. Unless we decide to get into things, values and means that really matter we are bound to turn into people who really do not matter. The great use of life is to spend it for something to give it a big meaning that will outlast it. The price of this all important something is the amount of life we exchange for it. What we are exchanging our lives for and how many of us are really aware of this?

7 good computer habits to have

2011-07-26T07:38:00.002+05:30

You’ve always been taught to cultivate good habits and avoid bad ones. The same applies to your computer use, where habits are good, bad or ugly. Good habits can maximise your IT investment and optimise your operational efficiency, while bad ones can cost you money and slow you down. The ugly ones can lead to disaster and an ugly mess. Here’s a list of computer habits you should kick start into your regular routine to keep you going – in the right direction!

Save frequentlyTo avoid any data loss in case of software or system freezing, regularly save your changes to documents. Doing so only takes a second and won’t interrupt your productivity groove. Use the keyboard shortcut “Ctrl + S”, or click on the “Save” icon – the old floppy disk in the toolbar. Don’t rely on “AutoSave”, as it’s not a feature on every program.
BackupDon’t risk losing your files by not having them backed up. With damage, loss and theft all possible, no hard drive is guaranteed to be functional forever. Recovering data is often impossible and more costly and time consuming than people think. Tireless efforts on work-related documents can be preserved by simply copying files to a few DVDs, USB drive or portable hard drive, at regular intervals.
Think before you printA hard copy is required sometimes, but not every time. So before clicking “Print”, determine if you really need to hold a copy of the document in your hand. And if you do, do you really need the entire thing? Use “Print Preview” and the option of selecting a “Page range” to print only the pages you actually need. And use the double-sided printing feature where available – to print multiple pages onto only one sheet of paper. It would also be helpful to set your printer to print in black and white by default, manually choosing colour prints only when necessary. All of these printing habits will have a positive impact on your environmental initiatives and can save you money by using less ink and paper.
Structure foldersWhere do you save your files? Is everything scattered all over the desktop or stuffed into the “My Documents” folder? Maintain some order by creating folders and subfolders while giving your files appropriate names. It will only take a few extra seconds to do so, but will save you much more time in the future by being able to easily find and sort through files.
Store software keysMake a note of software licence keys and store them safely. In the event of your needing to re-install or activate a program, having its corresponding licence key handy can be the difference between completing a simple re-installation and having to go out and purchase a new one.
Invest in security softwareProtect your IT investment, your hard work and yourself! Viruses, spyware, adware and other malicious software are topics in the news for a reason. These threats can infect your computer without your even realising it. But do you know what kind of damage they can cause? They can delete or damage files, track your online activity, steal personal information and just outright annoy you by having a poorly performing computer. Take action before they do by investing in sufficient security software. When you do, keep the software up to date and scan your computer regularly to maintain optimum performance and productivity.
Blink. Yes, with your eyesStaring at a computer screen for extended periods of time can have a negative effect on your precious eyesight. Computer users tend to blink less frequently, so make it a habit to blink more often. Why? Blinking produces tears that coat the eyes, keeping them lubricated and moist. Other habits to preserve and protect your eyesight include focusing on distant objects every 15 minutes to relax your eye muscles, and to just take a break every hour or two to reduce eyestrain. Your eyes will thank you.

Where each of these habits ranks on a scale of importance is up for debate. However, it’s essential that you incorporate them into your daily routine, to prolong the life of your computer, save time, hassles and money, and free yourself to focus on the business that really matters.

Source: http://h30458.www3.hp.com/ww/en/smb/1088199.html

Nostalgic TV Serials of Doordarshan

2011-07-19T07:49:00.001+05:30

Below are external links to some of the classic TV serials of Doordarshan

Enjoy them...

Success City

2011-07-06T08:55:00.003+05:30

One of the most important lessons you can learn on your road to success is that failure is not a final destination, but rather a place you pass through on your way to achieving your goals.
Here is a picture to show you what it means:

This simple picture illustrates a number of very important points about the relationship between failure and success:
1. There is only one road to Success City
2. The road to Success City passes through Failureville
3. One of the main reasons people never reach Success City is because they are so afraid of driving through Failureville that they never begin their journey.
So what does this mean in the real world?
It means that failure is not the opposite of success as many people assume. On the contrary, failure is an important part of achieving success. In fact, it is usually through the process of trying and failing that we learn the lessons we need in order to ultimately achieve our goals in life.
When you understand the fact that success lies on the other side of failure you will be much better prepared for the journey that leads to achieving your most important life goals.
Source: A mail from Chirag Gandhi

Forget the past ....

2011-06-04T14:21:00.003+05:30

A wise man once sat in the audience & cracked a joke.
All laughed like crazy. After a moment he cracked the same joke again and a little less people laughed this time.
He cracked the same joke again & again, when there was no laughter in the crowd,
he smiled and said,
"When u can't laugh on the same joke again & again, then why do u keep crying over the same thing over and over again"

'Forget the past & move on'…

You are NOT a Software Engineer!

2011-05-11T07:55:00.003+05:30

Source: http://www.chrisaitchison.com/2011/05/03/you-are-not-a-software-engineer
Shared By: Amit Jagtap

You are not a Software Engineer. You do not build skyscrapers. You do not build bridges.

You grow gardens.

You are a Software Gardener.

Do you try to plan your gardens in such detail that you know where each leaf will be positioned before you plant a single seed? Do people expect estimates (or are they promises in your organisation?) on exactly how many flowers will have bloomed in one years time? Do you have a bonus tied to that? Things that would be perfectly reasonable to plan for a skyscraper seem a little ridiculous when you are talking about a garden.

You probably have a good idea of what your garden should look like a week into the future. You might even have a rough idea of the shape you expect it to be in a year from now. But you have no idea of where each branch, leaf, stem and flower will be a year from now, and if you say you do then you’re really only guessing.

If you were building a bridge or a skyscraper and you told me, before you began, that you knew exactly how it would look when it was finished – I would believe you. If you told me that you knew to some insane degree of accuracy how long it would take to get to ‘finished’ – I would believe you again. That’s how Engineers roll. Tell me the same thing about your garden and I’m gonna call bullshit. Tell me you are going to make it grow faster by hiring more gardeners and I’m gonna laugh at you.

So why do so many gardens fail, yet so many skyscrapers succeed? With a few exceptions, the technique for building a skyscraper is similar whether you are in Europe or you are in Singapore. Gardens do not work that way. Every garden is different because the environment it is in is different. Even gardens that are within throwing distance of each other can have wildly different soil. That is why the lowest bidder can probably build the same bridge as the highest bidder, but your company can’t grow the calibre of gardens that Google can grow.

Remember that time when someone in your company unsuccessfully used an Agile gardening methodology, and then went around saying that it was horse shit that doesn’t work? Well horse shit does grow gardens, it just wasn’t enough to save your garden. Your garden was probably dead before it started – a victim of the climate of your organisation. Were you trying to grow a rainforest in the desert? You can’t just plant the same plants as Facebook, Flickr or Twitter and expect them to take root regardless of the quality of your gardeners or the climate of your organisation.

Unlike a skyscraper, your garden will grow weeds. It will never be ‘finished’. Just because you stop spending money on it doesn’t mean it is finished. If you stop weeding your garden the weeds will eventually smother it, and soon a re-plant will look easier than a pruning. The environment around your garden will also always be changing, and a neglected garden will become harder and harder to keep alive.

In most countries, Engineers need a license to build a bridge. Gardeners have no such government-mandated quality control. Unfortunately, the quality of your gardeners is going to have a bigger influence on your gardens success than any other factor – so you’d better be good at picking the wheat from the chaff. Only an experienced gardener really knows another good gardener when they see them. Someone who has merely managed gardening projects will have no idea what they should be looking for (though they won’t know this). So if you are not a gardener, but need to recruit good gardeners, then quickly find an experienced gardener you trust to vet your candidates. You can’t learn gardening in a classroom, so remember to focus on gardens your candidates have grown before, rather than how much gardening theory they learned at school (which nearly always won’t be applicable to the climate you are growing in anyway).

The engineering metaphor has had its time in the sun, and maybe it even used to be accurate, but now it really only serves to help non-technical people have unrealistic expectations about how software gets built.

Some interesting facts about year 2011

2011-04-02T10:48:00.001+05:30

Some interesting facts about year 2011

This year we will have 4 unique dates: 1/1/11, 1/11/11, 11/1/11, 11/11/11.
This year in month of october there will be 5 Saturdays, 5 Sundays and 5 Mondays. This has happend in after 823 years.
Add the last 2 digits of your birth year and your age. It will give: 111. Suppose your birth year is 1980, so your age is 31 i.e. 80+31=111.

Source: An article from a newspaper
Update: This rule is only true if birth year is less than 2000, else the answer will come as 11. Thanx to my friend, Ronak for highlighting this.

10 THINGS TO EMULATE FROM JAPAN

2011-03-29T07:19:00.000+05:30

1. THE CALM
Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.
2.THE DIGNITY
Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.
3. THE ABILITY
The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn’t fall.
4. THE GRACE
People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.
5. THE ORDER
No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.
6. THE SACRIFICE
Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?
7. THE TENDERNESS
Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.
8. THE TRAINING
The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.
9. THE MEDIA
They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage.
10.THE CONSCIENCE
When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly.
Source: Mail from a friend

Swami Vivekanand's Divine Message for the Youth

2011-03-04T15:51:00.000+05:30

THOUGHTS
We are what out thoughts have made us;so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.

CONCENTRATION
When an idea exclusively occupies the mind, it is transformed in to an actual physical or mental state. How has all the knowledge in the world been gained but by the concentration of the powers of the mind? The world is ready to give up its secret if we only know how to knock, how to give it the necessary blow. The strength and force of the blow come through concentration. There is no limit to the power of the human mind. The more concentrated it is, the more power is brought to bear on one point, That is the secret.

COMMITMENT
Even a fool can accomplish a task if it were after his or her heart. But the intelligent ones are those who can convert every work into one that suits their heart.

GOAL
Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life. Think of it, dream of it. Live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body Be full of that idea and just leave every other idea alone. This the way to“SUCCESS”. And this is the way great spiritual giants are produced. Others are mere talking machines.

EDUCATION
Education is the manifestation of perfection already in man.

WORK
Every duty is holy, and devotion to duty is the highest form of the worship of God. When you are doing any work, do not think of anything beyond. Do it as worship, As the highest worship, and devote your whole life to it for the time being.

ACT
Get up, and put your shoulders to the wheel – how long is this life for? As you have come to this world, leave some mark behind. Otherwise, where is the difference between you and the trees and stones? They too Come into existence, decay and die.

ACTION
We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish to be. We have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions. So we have to know how to Act.

CHARACTER
Neither money pays, nor name, nor fame, nor learning, it is CHARACTER that can cleave through adamantine walls of difficulties.

FEAR & FEARLESSNESS
Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvelous work. The moment you fear, you are nobody. It is fear that is the great cause of misery in the world. It is fear that is the greatest of all superstitions. It is fear that is the cause of our woes, and it is fearlessness that brings heaven even in a moment. Therefore, ‘Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached. If you think that the infinite power, infinite knowledge,and indomitable energy lie within you, and if you can bring out that power, You also can be like Me.

FUTURE
All the strength and succor you want is within yourselves. Therefore make your own future. ‘let the dead past bury its dead’. The infinite future is before you, and you must always remember that each word, thought, and deed, lays up a store for you and that, as the bad thoughts and bad works are ready to spring upon you like tigers, so also there is the inspiring hope that the good thoughts and good deeds are ready with the power of a hundred thousand angels to defend you always and for ever. Society does not go down because of the activities of criminals, But because of the inactivities of the good people. The earth is enjoyed by ‘Heroes’. This is the unfailing Truth. Be a Hero. Always say I have no Fear.

MATURITY
It is good to be born a child;but bad to remain a child

Interesting learnings from FIFA 2010

2010-08-24T15:01:00.000+05:30

1. WAKA WAKA:
The words Waka Waka translate into English to “Just Do It!”. Procrastination is the worst enemy. This is the right time. Do it NOW. Seize the moment. Its not just time for Africa – Its time for you!!

2. PAST SHOW IS NO GUIDE TO FUTURE:
Don’t go only by past performance. Two teams which contested finals of 2006 were the worst performing teams in this world cup – France & Italy. This must b statutory warning for everybody else. Keep your thinking fresh!!

3. HYPE & HOOPLA:
Matches that were expected to b thrilling have turned out to b a damp squib. Many players like – Ronaldo, Rooney, Kaka & Messi came into the tournament surrounded by lot of hype. None of them actually lived upto the hype! On the other hand Forlan, Mueller & Villa have performed like a star!!

4. DON’T GET DISTRACTED BY THE NOISE:
Right from the first match everybody distracted & irritated by the buzzing sound of VUVUZELAS. Noise was deafening enough. In real life also peoples will blow their vuvuzelas into ur ears – avoid them – concentrate on the important work on hand. Stick to ur idea.

Source: Mail from Chirag Gandhi

Think out of the box

2010-06-13T08:29:00.002+05:30

An Article about the Appraisal System/

Every company has a performance appraisal system in place to measure the effectiveness of its employees.
What is the yard stick and how do you measure these aspects?

Here a simple demonstration to understand.

Employee "*A*" in a company walked up to his manager and asked what my job is for the day?

The manager took "*A*" to the bank of a river and asked him to cross the river and reach the other side of the bank.

"*A*" completed this task successfully and reported back to the manager about the completion of the task assigned.

The manager smiled and said "*GOOD JOB*"

Next day Employee "*B*" reported to the same manager and asked him the
job for the day. The manager assigned the same task as above to this person also.

The Employee "*B*" before starting the task saw Employee "*C*" struggling in the river to reach the other side of the bank.

He realized "*C*" has the same task. Now "*B*" not only crossed the river but also helped "*C*" to cross the river.

"*B*" reported back to the manager and the manager smiled and said "*VERY GOOD JOB*"

The following day Employee "*D*" reported to the same manager and asked him the job for the day.

The manager assigned the same task again.

Employee "*D*" before starting the work did some home work and realized "*A*", "*B*" & "*C*" all has done this task before.

He met them and understood how they performed. He realized that there is a need for a guide and training for doing this task.

He sat first and wrote down the procedure for crossing the river, he documented the common mistakes people made, and tricks

to do the task efficiently and effortlessly. Using the methodology he had written down he crossed the river and reported back to

the manager along with documented procedure and training material.

The manger said "*D*" you have done an "*EXCELLENT JOB*".

The following day Employee "*E*" reported to the manager and asked him the job for the day. The manager assigned the same task
again.

"*E*" studied the procedure written down by "*D*" and sat and thought about the whole task. He realized company is spending lot
of money in getting this task completed. He decided not to cross the river, but sat and designed and implemented a bridge across

the river and went back to his manager and said, "You no longer need to assign this task to any one".

The manager smiled and said "*Outstanding job* "*E*" . I am very proud of you."

What is the difference between *A*, *B*, *D* & *E* ???

Many a times in life we get tasks to be done at home, at office, at play...., Most of us end up doing what is expected out of
us. Do we feel happy?

Most probably yes. We would be often disappointed when the recognition is not meeting our expectation.

Let us compare ourselves with "*B*". Helping some one else the problem often improves our own skills.

There is an old proverb "learn to teach and teach to learn". From a company point of view "*B*" has demonstrated much better

skills than "A" since one more task for the company is completed.

"*D*" created knowledge base for the team. More often than not, we do the task assigned to us without checking history. Learning
from other's mistake is the best way to improve efficiency. This knowledge creation for the team is of immense help. Re-usability

reduces cost there by increases productivity of the team. "*D*" demonstrated good "team-player" skills,

Now to the outstanding person, "*E*" made the task irrelevant; he created a Permanent Asset to the team.

If you notice *B*, *D* and *E* all have demonstrated "team performance" over an above individual performance; also they have
demonstrated a very invaluable characteristic known as "INITIATIVE" .

Initiative pays of every where whether at work or at personal life. If you put initiative you will succeed. Initiative is a continual process
and it never ends. This is because this year's achievement is next year's task. You cannot use the same success story every year.

The story provides an instance of performance, where as measurement needs to be spread across at least 6-12 months.

Consequently performance should be consistent and evenly spread.

Out-of-Box thinkers are always premium and that is what every one constantly looks out for. Initiative, Out-of-Box thinking
and commitment are the stepping stone to success.

Initiative should be life long. Think out of the box.

Designing The “World Of Programming” Infographic

2010-06-08T06:13:00.006+05:30

Information graphics (or infographics) are used to display information in ways that are more creative than plain old text. These days, they surround us in the media, published works, road signs and manuals. Lately, the Internet has been flooded with infographics on various topics, ranging from science and technology to society and culture. In this article, we’ll look at the process of designing an infographic about programming.

What the Infographic Shows

This infographic exhibits pioneers in the field of programming, along with the history and current statistics of various programming languages. Also included are some random facts and algorithm diagrams to make the infographic more visually appealing.

Source: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/06/06/designing-the-world-of-programming-infographic/

How to convert your laptop into a Wireless HotSpot?

2010-06-07T08:02:00.001+05:30

This article will help you convert your Windows XP and Vista based laptop in a Wireless HotSpot. One you setup your laptop as HotSpot then you do not need a router, switch, hub, etc… to form a network, in fact other laptops or PC’s can connect or access the internet through this newly created HotSpot

What do I need to set a HotSpot?

   1. Active Cable Internet
   2. Laptop
   3. WiFi on Laptop
   4. Wired net connection

Once you have all the above things mentioned, you are all set to follow the steps:

How to setup HotSpot on Windows Vista:

   1. Got to Control Panel
   2. Click on “Network and Sharing Centre”
   3. Under Tasks choose “Setup New Connection”
   4. Wireless “Ad-hoc network”
   5. Now type in a “Network Name”
   6. Choose “WEP” password if you don’t want to share the connection with the entire world
   7. Click “Internet connection sharing”
   8. Done!

Now a WiFi enabled machine will be able to connect to the network you have just setup with the WEP password

Lets setup a HotSpot on a Windows XP machine:

   1. Go into Control panel
   2. Open “Network Connections”
   3. Right click on "Wireless Connection" and click on "Properties"
   4. Click on the "Wireless Networks" tab and select the check-box which says “Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings”
   5. Under “Prefered networks” click “Add”
   6. Type a name in “Network name” text box
   7. Select “Shared” from the options under “Network Authentication”
   8. Under Data encryption select “WEP” and type in your password in “Network Key” field and now click "OK"
   9. Now the new HotSpot should show in the list of preferred networks.
10. Click on the “Advance” button and select “Computer-to-computer (ad hoc) networks only" and press close
11. Hit “OK”, we are done with the wireless connection properties

One more step, we have to change something in the wired connection setting so that it knows that it has to share connection with the computers accessing our HotSpot.

   1. Go to local Area Connections, right click it and select properties
   2. Go to the “Advanced” tab and under Internet Connection Sharing check the box which says “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s internet connection” and make sure the box under that is NOT selected so that no one can disable the network remotely.
   3. Hit “OK”

Source: http://tnerd.com/2007/07/25/how-to-convert-laptop-wireless-wifi-hotspot/

What is MICR code in a cheque?

2010-02-16T16:00:00.004+05:30

Want to know the full form of MICR? Want to know the MICR code of any / all bank branches in India? Read on.

All of us have heard about the MICR code – it is present on all our cheque leaves. The MICR code is also essential for online money transfers.

But what does MICR stand for? What is its full form? How is it useful? Let’s find out.

Full form of MICR

MICR is an abbreviation for “Magnetic Ink Character Recognition”.

Ok, that is one mystery solved!

MICR on your cheques

The MICR code is a 9 digit code, which is printed at the bottom of a cheque.

Here’s how it looks:

Composition of the MICR code

A MICR code is unique to each bank branch. Thus, a MICR code can be used to uniquely identify any bank branch.

It comprises of 3 parts:

The first three digits represent the city (City Code). They are aligned with the PIN code we use for postal addresses in India.
The next 3 digits represent the bank (Bank Code)
The last 3 digits represent the branch (Branch Code)

Example 1

Let’s say you have an account in the Andheri (West), Mumbai branch of State Bank of India (SBI). What would be its MICR code?

City code for Mumbai: 400
Bank code for SBI: 002
Branch code for Andheri (West): 003

Thus, the MICR code is: 400002003

Example 2

Say you have an account in the Indira Nager, Bangalore branch of ICICI Bank.

City code for Bangalore: 560
Bank code for ICICI Bank: 229
Branch code for Indira Nagar: 013

Thus, the MICR code is: 560229013

If you have the MICR code, you can find out the bank name, branch and city by just reversing the process!

How a MICR code makes cheque processing faster

As we saw, MICR stands for “Magnetic Ink Character Recognition”. Thus, it is actually the name of the technology using which the code is printed. And therefore, the code is known as MICR code.

So, how does this MICR technology work, and how does it help?

On the cheque, the MICR code is printed using a special kind of ink or toner – an ink that contains magnetic material (usually iron oxide). The code is also printed using a specific font.

This ink is machine-readable due to the presence of the magnetic material (just like the strip at the back of a credit or debit card).

When the cheque is inserted in a reading machine or a cheque sorting machine, it can read the MICR code even if there are other marks or stamps on it. Thus, the machine can easily find out which branch the cheque belongs to.

This helps a lot in automating the cheque clearing process. And since this is automated, there is little possibility of any error!

Bottomline: Cheques get cleared faster, and you get your funds earlier!

List of MICR Codes of all bank branches in India

Want to know the MICR code of a particular bank branch?

Download the spreadsheet containing the MICR codes of ALL bank branches in India.

(Note: The file may take some time to download – it is 3.75MB in size)

http://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/content/docs/67440.xls

Source: http://www.raagvamdatt.com/MICR-code-in-a-cheque-check/263/

LIFEISNOWHERE - how do you read it

2010-02-05T19:41:00.001+05:30

A business executive was deep in debt and could see no way out. Creditors were closing in on him.Suppliers were demanding payment. He sat on the park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could save his company from bankruptcy. Suddenly an old man appeared before him. "I can see that something is troubling you," he said. After listening to the executive's woes, the old man said, "I believe I can help you."

He asked the man his name, wrote out a check, and pushed it into his hand saying, "Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time." Then he turned and disappeared as quickly as he had come. The business executive saw in his hand a check for $500,000, signed by John D. Rockefeller, then one of the richest men in the world!

"I can erase my money worries in an instant!" he realized. But instead, the executive decided to put the un cashed check in his safe. Just knowing it was there might give him the strength to work out a way to save his business, he thought.

With renewed optimism, he negotiated better deals and extended terms of payment. He closed several big sales. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.

Exactly one year later, he returned to the park with the uncashed check. At the agreed-upon time, the old man appeared. But just as the executive was about to hand back the check and share his success story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man. "I'm so glad I caught him!" she cried. "I hope he hasn't been bothering you. He's always escaping from the rest home and telling people he's John D. Rockefeller." And she led the old man away by the arm.

The astonished executive just stood there, stunned. All year long he 'd been wheeling and dealing, buying and selling, convinced he had half a million dollars behind him. Suddenly, he realized that it wasn't the money, real or imagined, that had turned his life around. It was his new found self-confidence that gave him the power to achieve anything he went after.

LIFEISNOWHERE – how do you read it-
LIFE IS NO WHERE OR
LIFE IS NOW HERE.
It is just a matter of attitude, how do you perceive it.
Confidence comes from ones own commitment and dedication to ones vision.
Seeing ourselves having what we want and feeling it with us all the time increases our confidence enormously.
Whether real or imagined, doesn't matter. It all lies in how we perceive it.
Extraordinary Times Demand Extraordinary Responses. In Challenging Situations Lie Opportunities.
Source: Chirag Gandhi

WHAT is it that's hard to break???

2010-01-29T18:31:00.001+05:30

Diamonds are hard to find but not hard to Break.
What is the hardest thing to break then?
The answer is: HABIT!
If you break the H, you still have A BIT.
If you break the A, you still have BIT.
If you break the B, you still have IT!
Hey, after you break the T in IT, there is still the 'I'.

And that "I" is the root cause of all the problems that You/me/all are facing.
We have to respect each other's opinion and views too.
As You can clearly see & understand from above picture.
We just need to listen others actively and their point of view

IT - Gabber

2010-01-11T21:32:00.001+05:30

ગબ્બરના અડ્ડા પર

ગબ્બર : કેટલા પ્રોગ્રામર હતા?
કાલીયા : બે સરકાર
ગબ્બર : હં…..એ બે હતા..આને તમે ત્રણ, તો પણ એ મારી સિસ્ટમ હેક કરી ગયા? શું વિચારીને તમે પાછા
આવ્યા હતા? કે સરદાર ખુશ થશે ?
એપ્રાઈઝલ આપશે…નવુ એસાઈનમેન્ટ અને ઈન્ક્રીમેન્ટ મળશે એમ?

અહીં થી પચાસ પચાસ કોસ દૂરી પર જ્યારે કોઈ બાળક એની સિસ્ટમ પર લોગિન કરે
છે તો એની મા એને કહે છે, કે બેટા લોગ આઊટ થઈ જા નહીં તો ગબ્બર તારી
સિસ્ટમ ની પથારી ફેરવી નાખશે…અને તમે મારા નામની પૂરે પૂરી પથારી ફેરવી
નાખી??
આની સજા મળશે…જરુર મળશે…

ગબ્બર સાંભા પાસે થી X-Terminal છીનવી લે છે અને કહે છે….
કેટલા સેશન છે આ મશીન માં?
સાંભા : છ સરકાર
ગબ્બર હં….સેશન છ અને
પ્રોગ્રામર ત્રણ ? બહુ નાઈન્સાફી
છે…Logout…Logout….Logout…હં હવે
બરાબર છે…હવે સેશન પણ ત્રણ અને પ્રોગ્રામર પણ ત્રણ…

ગબ્બર : હવે તારુ શું થાશે કાલીયા?
કાલીયા : સરકાર મેં તમારો કોડ લખ્યો છે…
ગબ્બર : તો હવે ડોક્યુમેન્ટેશન પણ કર

Boost your productivity with Hemingway’s hack

2010-01-11T20:20:00.001+05:30

I have read many valuable "5 tips", "10 ways", "50 hacks" provided by productivity gurus to help you move forward when you have trouble being productive. To my surprise, none of these lists mentions an easy to grasp rule Ernest Hemingway applied to his writing process. His hack is perhaps too nonconformist to be part of the "getting things done" gospel…
The winner of the 1954 Nobel prize in Literature explains in simple words how to keep the momentum going and how to avoid writer’s block, a common affliction amongst authors. But his hack applies to any task related to an important goal. Here’s what you should do to avoid being stuck and maintain the flow state that maximizes productivity.

The quote :

The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day … you will never be stuck. Always stop while you are going good and don’t think about it or worry about it until you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start.

Ernest Hemingway

Roald Dahl’s comment :
Let’s see what another famous writer, Roald Dahl, has to say about Hemingway’s hack (excerpts) :
« I never come back to a blank page; I always finish about halfway through. Hemingway taught me the finest trick : “When you are going good, stop writing.” You don’t go on writing and writing until you come to the end of it, because when you do, then you say, well, where am I going to go next? You make yourself stop and you walk away. And you can’t wait to get back because you know what you want to say next. »

To summarize, Hemingway tells you :

Don’t finish your daily task if you want to keep the momentum going :

Make finishing your task your « next task »
Stop when you know what you will do to finish it
Stop when you feel the drive to finish it
Stop when you reach a creativity peak
Stop thinking about it until the next day

The benefits. You :

Avoid being stuck
Keep the momentum going
Start your day by the rewarding work of finishing a task
Boost your self-confidence and motivation levels before starting the « next task »
End your day on a high note
Put your brain to purposeful rest when you stop working
Allow you subconscious to work profitably on « it » = « the bigger picture » = your goal.

My comment
Of course if you want to get into the completion habit, you should start by finishing your daily task (related to an important goal), no matter how sloppily you do it. But often, if you limit yourself to this way of getting things done, you cannot help worrying about the poor quality of your work and feeling dissatisfied with it until the next day.

And this is not good for your self-esteem. What is not good for self-esteem is not good for motivation. And without boosting your motivation level you cannot get into the completion habit.

Think Higher

2009-12-31T19:28:00.001+05:30

A man saw a poor boy looking at his beautiful and expensive car; he offered the boy a drive...

After the drive the boy said: "Your car is so marvelous, it might be so expensive?! How much does it cost?"

Man: "I don't know; my brother has gifted it to me!"

Boy: "Wow so nice of him..."

Man: "I know what you are thinking. You also want to have a brother like him!"

Boy: "NO; I WANT TO BE A BROTHER LIKE HIM!!!"

Moral: Always Think Act higher than the people's expectations.

Some known & unknown facts

2009-12-28T15:17:00.001+05:30

1. MOPED is the short term for 'Motorized Pedaling'.
2. POP MUSIC is 'Popular Music' shortened.
3. BUS is the short term for 'Omnibus' that means everybody.
4. FORTNIGHT comes from 'Fourteen Nights' (Two Weeks).
5. DRAWING ROOM was actually a 'withdrawing room' where people withdrew after Dinner. Later the prefix 'with' was dropped..
6. NEWS refers to information from Four directions N, E, W and S..
7. AG-MARK, which some products bear, stems from 'Agricultural Marketing'.
8. JOURNAL is a diary that tells about 'Journey for a day' during each Day's business.
9. QUEUE comes from 'Queen's Quest'. Long back a long row of people as waiting to see the Queen. Someone made the comment Queen's Quest..
10. TIPS come from 'To Insure Prompt Service'. In olden days to get Prompt service from servants in an inn, travelers used to drop coins in a Box on which was written 'To Insure Prompt Service'. This gave rise to the custom of Tips.
11. JEEP is a vehicle with unique Gear system. It was invented during World War II (1939-1945). It was named 'General Purpose Vehicle (GP)'.GP was changed into JEEP later.
12. Coca-Cola was originally green.
13. The most common name in the world is Mohammed..
14. The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.
15. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
16. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row ! of the keyboard.
17. Women blink nearly twice as much as men!!
18. You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.
19. It is impossible to lick your elbow.
20. People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.
21. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
22. The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.
23. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history.
o Spades - King David
o Clubs - Alexander the Great,
o Hearts – Charlemagne
o Diamonds - Julius Caesar.
24. Horse Statue in a Park…
· If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.
· If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle
· If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
25. What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers all have in common? Ans. - All invented by women.
26. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
27. A snail can sleep for three years.
28. All polar bears are left handed.
29. Butterflies taste with their feet.
30. Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
31. In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
32. On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.
33. Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump'.
34. Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.
35. The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
36. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
37. The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
38. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.
39. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
40. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
41. Most lipstick contains fish scales.
42. Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.

Dont draw conclusions until you know all the facts

2009-11-10T14:14:00.000+05:30

One old man was sitting with his 25 years old son in the train.
Train is about to leave the station.
All passengers are settling down their seat.
As train started young man was filled with lot of joy and curiosity.
He was sitting on the window side.
He went out one hand and feeling the passing air. He shouted, "Papa see all trees are going behind".
Old man smile and admired son feelings.
Beside the young man one couple was sitting and listing all the conversion between father and son.
They were little awkward with the attitude of 25 years old man behaving like a small child.
Suddenly young man again shouted, "Papa see the pond and animals. Clouds are moving with train".
Couple was watching the young man in embarrassingly.
Now its start raining and some of water drops touches the young man's hand.
He filled with joy and he closed the eyes.
He shouted again," Papa it's raining, water is touching me, see papa".
Couple couldn't help themselves and ask the old man.
"Why don't you visit the Doctor and get treatment for your son."
Old man said,
"Yes, We are coming from the hospital as today only my son got his eye sight for first time in his life".

Nice Thought on Change

2009-11-06T16:48:00.002+05:30

Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, Not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life.
A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes..
It is a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinary results.
Let's change to make a change!!!

"If you focus on results, you will never change.
If you focus on change, you will get results"

Story - "The Washer man and the Foolish Donkey"

2009-11-05T14:00:00.004+05:30

There was once a washer man who had a donkey and a dog. One night when the whole world was sleeping, a thief broke into the house, the washer man was fast asleep but the donkey and the dog were awake. The dog decided not to bark since the master did not take good care of him and wanted to teach him a lesson. The donkey got worried and said to the dog that if he doesn't bark, the donkey will have to do something himself. The dog did not change his mind and the donkey started braying loudly. Hearing the donkey bray, the thief ran away, the master woke up and started beating the donkey for braying in the middle of the night for no reason.

Moral of the story "One must not engage in duties other than his own"

Now take a new look at the same story…

The washer man was a well educated man from a premier management institute. He had the fund as of looking at the bigger picture and thinking out of the box. He was convinced that there must be some reason for the donkey to bray in the night. He walked outside a little and did some fact finding, applied a bottom up approach, figured out from the ground realities that there was a thief who broke in and the donkey only wanted to alert him about it. Looking at the donkey's extra initiative and going beyond the call of the duty, he rewarded him with lot of hay and other perks and became his favorite pet. The dog's life didn't change much, except that now the donkey was more motivated in doing the dogs duties as well. In the annual appraisal the dog managed a "meets requirement". Soon the dog realized that the donkey is taking care of his duties and he can enjoy his life sleeping and lazing around. The donkey was rated as "star performer". The donkey had to live up to his already high performance standards. Soon he was over burdened with work and always under pressure and now is looking for a job rotation…

Disclaimer:
All characters in the story are not at all imaginary. Any resemblance to any person living or dying of work is purely intentional

Place of Mirros

2009-10-30T21:26:00.002+05:30

Long ago in a small, far away village, there was place known as the House of 1000 Mirrors. A small, happy little dog learned of this place and decided to visit. When he arrived, he bounced happily up the stairs to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles just as warm and friendly. As he left the House, he thought to himself, "This is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often."

In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as the first one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs and hung his head low as he looked into the door. When he saw the 1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, "That is a horrible place, and I will never go back there again."

All the faces in the world are mirrors. What kind of reflections do you see in the faces of the people you meet?

Some misuses of new technologies

2009-09-02T14:57:00.002+05:30

GPS
A couple of weeks ago a friend told me that someone she knew had their car broken into while they were at a football match. Their car was parked on the grass area which was adjacent to the football stadium and specially allotted to football fans. Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been permanently mounted on the dashboard. When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen. The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house. They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain entry to the house. The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish and so they knew how much time they had to clean up the house. It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents..

Mobile Phone
I never thought of this....... This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on her mobile phone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag, which contained her mobile phone, credit card, wallet...etc...was stolen. 20 minutes later when she called her hubby, from a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby says 'I received your text asking about our Pin number and I've replied a little while ago.'
When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn. The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text 'hubby' in the contact list and got hold of the pin number. Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account. Moral of the lesson: Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list. Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, Sweetheart, Dad, Mom, etc.... And very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked through texts, CONFIRM by calling back. Also, when you're being text by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back to confirm that the message came from them. If you don't reach them, be very careful about going places to meet family and friends who text you.

Credit Card 1.
This is a new one. People sure stay busy trying to cheat us, don't they?
A friend went to the local gym and placed his belongings in the locker. After the workout and a shower, he came out, saw the locker open, and thought to himself, 'Funny, I thought I locked the locker. Hmm, He dressed and just flipped the wallet to make sure all was in order. Everything looked okay - all cards were in place. A few weeks later his credit card bill came - a whooping bill of $14,000! He called the credit card company and started yelling at them, saying that he did not make the transactions. Customer care personnel verified that there was no Mistake in the system and asked if his card had been stolen. 'No,' he said, but then took out his wallet, pulled out the credit card, and yep - you guessed it - a switch had been made. An expired similar credit card from the same bank was in the wallet. The thief broke into his locker at the gym and switched cards. Verdict: The credit card issuer said since he did not report the card missing earlier, he would have to pay the amount owed to them. How much did he have to pay for items he did not buy? $9,000! Why were there no calls made to verify the amount swiped?
Small amounts rarely trigger a 'warning bell' with some credit card companies. It just so happens that all the small amounts added up to big one!

Credit Card 2.
A man at a local restaurant paid for his meal with his credit card. The bill for the meal came, he signed it, and the waitress folded the receipt and passed the credit card along. Usually, he would just take it and place it in his wallet or pocket. Funny enough, though, he actually took a look at the card and, lo and behold, it was the expired card of another person. He called the waitress and she looked perplexed. She took it back, apologized, and hurried back to the counter under the watchful eye of the man. All the waitress did while walking to the counter was wave the wrong expired card to the counter cashier, and the counter casher immediately looked down and took out the real card. No exchange of words --- nothing! She took it and came back to the man with an apology.
Verdict:
Make sure the credit cards in your wallet are yours. Check the name on the card every time you sign for something and/or the card is taken away for even a short period of time. Many people just take back the credit card without even looking at it, 'assuming' that it has to be theirs.
Credit Card 3.
Yesterday I went into a pizza restaurant to pick up an order that I had called in.
I paid by using my Visa Check Card which, of course, is linked directly to my checking account.
The young man behind the counter took my card, swiped it, then laid it on the counter as he waited for the approval, which is pretty standard procedure.
While he waited, he picked up his cell phone and started dialling.
I noticed the phone because it is the same model I have, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. ?Then I heard a click that sounded like my phone sounds when I take a picture. He then gave me back my card but kept the phone in his hand as if he was still pressing buttons. Meanwhile, I'm thinking: I wonder what he is taking a picture of, oblivious to what was really going on. It then dawned on me: the only thing there was my credit card, so now I'm paying close attention to what he is doing. He set his phone on the counter, leaving it open. About five seconds later, I heard the chime that tells you that the picture has been saved. Now I'm standing there struggling with the fact that this boy just took a picture of my credit card. Yes, he played it off well, because had we not had the same kind of phone, I probably would never have known what happened. Needless to say, I immediately cancelled that card as I was walking out of the pizza parlour. All I am saying is, be aware of your surroundings at all times. Whenever you are using your credit card take caution and don't be careless. Notice who is standing near you and what they are doing when you use your card. Be aware of phones, because many have a camera phone these days.

JUST BE AWARE
Never let your card out of your sight.....check and check again!

Ease your burden

2009-09-02T14:28:00.002+05:30

A lecturer was giving a lecture to his student on stress management.

He raised a glass of water and asked the audience, "How heavy do you think this glass of water is?" The students' answers ranged from 20g to 500gm.

It does not matter on the absolute weight. It depends on how long you hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it is OK. If I hold it for an hour, I will have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you will have to call an ambulance.

It is the exact same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, we will not be able to carry on, the burden becoming increasingly heavier.

What you have to do is to put the glass down, rest for a while before holding it up again. We have to put down the burden periodically, so that we can be refreshed and are ! able
to carry on.

So before you return home from work tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it
back home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you are having now on your shoulders, let it down for a moment if you can. Pick it up again later when you have rested.

Rest and relax. Life is short, enjoy it!! Cheers!!!!!

How much would Pepsi pay to get Coke’s secret formula?

2009-08-27T21:28:00.002+05:30

A few days back some dastardly Coca-Cola employees got nabbed trying to sell corporate secrets to Pepsi. Pepsi turned the bad guys in and cooperated in the sting operation.

Did the executives at Pepsi give up the chance to make huge profits at Coke’s expense in order to “do the right thing?”

There is an interesting point here : knowing Coke’s secret formula is probably worth almost nothing to Pepsi. Here is the logic.

Let’s say that Pepsi knew Coke’s secret formula and could publish it so that anyone could make a drink that tasted just like Coke. That would be a lot like what happens to prescription drugs when they go off patent and generic drug companies come in. The impact would be that the price of real Coke would fall a lot (probably not all the way to the price of the generic Coke knockoffs). This would clearly be terrible for Coke. It would probably also be bad for Pepsi. With Coke now much cheaper, people would switch from Pepsi to Coke. Pepsi profits would likely fall.

So if Pepsi had Coke’s secret formula, they wouldn’t want to give it away to everyone. What if they instead kept it to themselves and made their own drink that tasted exactly like Coke? If they could really convince people that their drink was identical to Coke, then the new Pepsi-made version of Coke and the Real Thing would be what economists call “perfect substitutes.” When two goods are essentially interchangeable in consumers’ minds, that tends to lead to fierce price competition and very low profits. Neither Coke nor the Pepsi knockoff of it would be very profitable as a consequence. With the price of Coke lower, consumers would switch away from the original Pepsi to either Coke or the new Pepsi-made Coke knockoff, which would be far less profitable than original Pepsi anyway.

In the end, both Coke and Pepsi would likely be worse off if Pepsi had Coke’s secret formula and acted on it.

So, maybe the executives at Pepsi were acting morally and honorably when they turned in the criminals stealing Coke’s secrets.

Or maybe they are just good economists.

Source: freakonomics

Do you know this.... ?

2009-08-26T14:12:00.002+05:30

1. What is the expansion ( Full Form ) of YAHOO?
Yet Another Hierarchy of Officious Oracle

2. What is the expansion ( Full Form ) of ADIDAS?
All Day I Dream About Sports

3. Expansion of Star as in Star TV Network?
Satellite Television Asian Region

4. What is expansion of "ICICI?"
Industrial credit and Investments Corporation of India

5. The 1984-85 season. 2nd ODI between India and Pakistan at Sialkot - India 210/3 with Vengsarkar 94*. Match abandoned. Why?
That match was abandoned after people heard the news of Indira Gandhi being killed.

6. Who is the only man to have written the National Anthems for two different countries?
Rabindranath Tagore who wrote national anthem for two different countries one is our 's National anthem and another one is for Bangladesh- (Amar Sonar* *Bangla )

7. From what four word expression does the word `goodbye` derive?
Goodbye comes from the ex-pression: 'god be with you'.

8. How was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu better known?
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu is none other Mother Teresa

9. Name the only other country to have got independence on Aug 15th?
South Korea

10. Why was James Bond Associated with the Number 007?
Because 007 is the ISD code for Russia (or the USSR,as it was known during the cold war)

11. Who faced the first ball in the first ever One day match?
Geoffrey Boycott

12. Which cricketer played for South Africa before it was banned from international cricket and later represented Zimbabwe ?
John Traicos

13. Which is the only country that is surrounded from all sides by only one country (other than Vatican )?
Lesotho surrounded from all sides by South Africa ..

14. Which is the only sport which is not allowed to play left handed?
Polo

44 lessons of Life

2009-08-20T20:08:00.002+05:30

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God.. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful..
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else..
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ''In five years, will this matter?".
26. Always choose life.
27. Forgive everyone everything.
28. What other people think of you is none of your business.
29. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time..
30. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
31. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
32. Believe in miracles.
33. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
34. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
35. Growing old beats the alternative dying young.
36. Your children get only one childhood.
37. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
38. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
39. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
40. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
41. The best is yet to come.
42. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
43. Yield.
44. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

Source: Brijesh Pandya

SwineFlu: Some tips for prevention from AIMS doctor

2009-08-17T14:32:00.002+05:30

Thanks to media hype about H1N1, several people who trust me have either approached or called me to advise. The hype in media about the utility of face masks and N95 respirators as a tool for general protection against H1N1 can't be deplored enough. Yesterday, a friend who listened wanted me to write down briefly what I advised so that he could tell others in similar words. Hence this short email to friends whom I have advised recently (and others whom I haven't yet). Please realize that this is not an official advice, especially the one about face masks or N95.
Most N95 respirators are designed to filter 95% particulates of 0.3µ, while the size of H1N1 virus is about 0.1µ. Hence, dependence on N95 to protect against H1N1 is like protecting against rain with an umbrella made of mosquito net.
Tamiflu does not kill but prevents H1N1 from further proliferation till the virus limits itself in about 1-2 weeks (its natural cycle). H1N1, like other Influenza A viruses, only infects the upper respiratory tract and proliferates (only) there. The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/ throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it's almost impossible not coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is.
While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps - not fully highlighted in most official communications - can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):
1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).
2. "Hands-off-the-face" approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe or slap).
3. Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don't trust salt). H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don't underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.
4. Similar to 3 above, clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.
Do "Pranayam" for atleast 15 min a day to increase resistance power and to have control on respiratory system
5. Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.
6. Drink as much of warm liquids as you can. Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.

All these are simple ways to prevent, within means of most households, and certainly much less painful than to wait in long queues outside public hospitals.

Happy breathing!

Monkey Experiment

2009-08-13T15:53:00.002+05:30

Eight monkeys are kept in a room. In the middle of the room is a ladder, leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from a hook on the ceiling.

Each time a monkey tries to climb the ladder, all the monkeys are sprayed with ice water, which makes them miserable. Soon enough, whenever a monkey attempts to climb the ladder, all of the other monkeys, not wanting to be sprayed, set upon him and beat him up. Soon, none of the eight monkeys ever attempts to climb the ladder.

One of the original monkeys is then removed, and a new monkey is put in the room. Seeing the bananas and the ladder, he wonders why none of the other monkeys are doing the obvious. But undaunted, he immediately begins to climb the ladder.

All the other monkeys fall upon him and beat him silly. He has no idea why.

However, he no longer attempts to climb the ladder.

A second original monkey is removed and replaced. The newcomer again attempts to climb the ladder, but all the other monkeys hammer the crap out of him.

This includes the previous new monkey, who, grateful that he’s not on the receiving end this time, participates in the beating because all the other monkeys are doing it. However, he has no idea why he’s attacking the new monkey.

One by one, all the original monkeys are replaced. Eight new monkeys are now in the room. None of them have ever been sprayed by ice water. None of them attempt to climb the ladder. All of them will enthusiastically beat up any new monkey who tries, without having any idea why.

And that is how most companies’ policies get established.

(This is reportedly based on an actual experiment conducted in the U.K.)

FACE THE SITUATION

2009-08-12T18:06:00.002+05:30

Ek din ek kutta jungle main raasta kho gaya . Tabhi usane dekha ek sher uskii taraf aa raha hai. Kutte ki saans rookh gayi. "Aaj to kaam tamaam mera!" usne socha. Phir usne saamane kuchh sookhi haddiyan padi dekhi. Woh aate hue sher ki taraf peeth kar ke baith gaya aur ek sookhi hadii ko choosane laga aur zor zor se bolne laga, "wah! Sher ko khaane ka maza hi kuchh aur hai. Ek aur mil jaaye to poori daawat ho jayegi!"

Aur usne zor se dakaar mara. Is bar sher sakate mein aa gayaa. Usne socha "ye kutta to sher ka shikar karta hai! Jaan bacha kara bhago!"

Aur sher wahan se champat ho gaya . Ped par baitha ek Bandar yeh sab tamasha dekh raha tha. Usne socha yeh mauka achha hai sher ko sari kahani bata deta hoon - sher se dosti ho jayegi aur usase zindagi bhar ke liye jaan ka khatra dur ho jayega.

Woh phataphat sher ke pichhe bhaga. Kutte ne Bandar ko jaate hue dekh liya aur samajh gayaki koi locha hai. Udhar Bandar ne sher ko sab bata diya ki kaise kutte ne use bewakoof banaya hai. Sher zor se dahada, "chal mere saath abhi uski leela khatam karta hoon" aur Bandar ko apani peeth par baitha kar sher kutte ki taraf lapka. Can u imagine the quick management by the DOG...

Kutte ne sher ko aate dekha to ek bar phir uskii taraf peeth karke baith gaya aur zor zor se bolne laga, "Is Bandar ko bhej ke 1 ghanta ho gaya , saala ek sher phaans kar nahi la sakta!"

Moral of the story
FACE THE SITUATION

આપણે ગુજરાતીઓ …..

2009-08-11T19:56:00.002+05:30

આપણે ગુજરાતીઓ …..

હોટેલમાં કોઈ ચા મંગાવે અને ચામાં માખી પડે તો શું થાય…. ?

(1) ચોખ્ખાઈનો આગ્રહી બ્રિટિશર ચા વગર ભરેલો કપ તરછોડીને જતો રહે.

(2) 'કેર-ફ્રી' સ્વભાવવાળો અમેરિકન ચામાંથી માખી કાઢી ચા પી જાય..

(3) 'ચાલુ' સ્વભાવવાળો ઓસ્ટ્રેલિયન ચા ઢોળી કપ લઈને જતો રહે.

(4) 'ચિત્ર-વિચિત્ર' ખાનારો ચીનો માખી ઊપાડીને ખાઈ જાય.

આ સમયે એક 'મહાન વ્યક્તિ' ત્યાં હાજર હોય તો એ શું કરે ખબર છે? એ 'મહાન' વ્યક્તિ બ્રિટિશર પાસેથી તરછોડેલી ચાના પૈસા લે. એણે તરછોડેલી ચા અમેરિકનને વેચી દે, કપ ઓસ્ટ્રેલિયનને વેચી અને અને માખી ચીનાને વેચી દે! બધાના પૈસા ખિસ્સામાં મૂકી ઘર ભેગો થઈ જાય. આ સોલિડ ગણતરીબાજ મહાન વ્યક્તિ એટલે કોણ ખબર છે ? આ અદ્દભુત, જોરદાર મહાનુભાવ એટલે 'ગુજરાતી'!

આખી દુનિયામાં 'વર્લ્ડ બેસ્ટ વેપારી'નો જેને એવોર્ડ મળેલો છે, તે છે – હું, તમે અને આપણે બધા – 'ગુજરાતીઓ', પણ આપણે માત્ર વેપારી જ નથી, વેપારીથી પણ વિશેષ છીએ. આપણો સ્વભાવ, આપણી આદતો, આપણી ખાસિયતો આપણને બીજાથી નોખાં અને જુદાં બનાવે છે. તો ચાલો આપણે ગુજરાતીઓ કેવા છીએ એની ચર્ચા આજે એરણ ઉપર ચઢાવીએ.

આપણા ભારત દેશનો નકશો જુઓ તો એમાં પશ્ચિમ છેડે હસતાં મોઢાના આકારવાળું રાજ્ય દેખાશે. આ હસતું મોઢું એટલે આપણું ગુજરાત અને તેમાં વસતા સાડા પાંચ કરોડ હસતાં મોઢા એટલે આપણે ગુજરાતીઓ, પણ ગુજરાતીઓ માત્ર ગુજરાતમાં જ વસે છે તે માનવું ભૂલભરેલું છે. ગુજરાતીઓ આખી દુનિયામાં બધે જ ફેલાયેલા છે અને બધી જ જગ્યાએ ધંધો કરી 'બે પૈસા' કમાઈ રહ્યા છે.

વિશ્વપ્રવાસે નીકળવાના શોખીન ગુજરાતીઓમાનો કોઈ સહારાનું રણ જોવા જાય અને ત્યાં તેને ચાની કીટલી ચલાવતો ગુજરાતી મળી જાય તેવું બને ખરું! પેંગ્વિન કે સફેદ રીંછ ઉપર રિસર્ચ કરતો વૈજ્ઞાનિક એન્ટાર્કટિકામાં જાય ત્યારે ત્યાં તેને આઈસ્ક્રીમ પાર્લર ચલાવતો ગુજરાતી મળી જાય એવું પણ બને.

'મનીમાઈન્ડેડ' તરીકે જાણીતા ગુજરાતીઓનો પૈસા કમાવાનો ગાંડો શોખ તેમને દુનિયામાં બધે જ લઈ જાય છે (કાયદેસર કે ગેરકાયદેસર !).. તેમાંય ફોરેન જવા માટે ગુજરાતીઓનો સૌથી ફેવરિટ દેશ હોય તો અમેરિકા. જેમ વૈજ્ઞાનિકોને મંગળ કે ચંદ્ર પર જવાનું વળગણ હોય છે તેમ ગુજરાતીઓને કોઈ પણ રીતે અમેરિકા વટી જવાનું વળગણ હોય છે. ત્યાં જઈને ભલે 'કંઈ પણ' કરવું પડે પણ તે માટે તેઓ અહીંયા 'કંઈ પણ' કરવા તૈયાર હોય છે. કેટલાક તો માણસમાંથી 'કબૂતર' બનવા તૈયાર થઈ જાય છે.. આ 'કબૂતરો'નું અંતિમ લક્ષ્ય ડૉલરનું ચણ ચણવાનું હોય છે. (કેમકે, એક ડૉલર બરાબર પચ્ચાહ રૂપિયા થાય ને ભઈ!) આને જ રિલેટેડ આપણી એક બીજી આદત પણ છે.

આપણને આપણી ગુજરાતી ભાષા કરતાં અંગ્રેજી ભાષાનું સોલિડ વળગણ છે. યુ નો, આપણે બધા સેન્ટેન્સમાં વિધાઉટ એની રિઝન ઈંગ્લિશ વર્ડઝ ઘૂસાડી દઈએ છીએ. ગમે તેવું ખોટું અને વાહિયાત અંગ્રેજી બોલનારાઓને આપણે બહુ હોશિયાર ગણીએ છીએ. ગુજરાતી સારું બોલતા ના આવડતું હોય તો ચાલે પણ બકવાસ અંગ્રેજી બોલતા તો આવડવું જ જોઈએ તેવો આપણને ભ્રમ પેસી ગયો છે. બે-ચાર ગુજરાતીઓ ક્યાંક ભેગા થાય તો તેમને અંગ્રેજી બોલવાનો એટેક આવે છે. કેટલાક તો અંગ્રેજી છાંટવાળું પહોળાં ઉચ્ચારોવાળું ગુજરાતી બોલતા હોય છે અને તેનો ગર્વ અનુભવે છે.

(ઓ…કખે…ગાય્ઝ એન્ડ ગા…લ્ઝ….હું છું…ત...મા…રો…. દો…સ્ત…ઍન્ડ…હો..સ્ટ… વિનુ…વાહિયાત…. ઍન્ડ તમે લિસન કરી રહ્યા છો…રેડિયો ચારસો વીસ…. ઈ…ટ…સ…રો…કિં…ગ…) આવી રીતે ગુજરાતી ભાષાના 'સિસ્ટર મેરેજ' કરવા બદલ રેડિયો જોકીઓ અને ટીવી પ્રોગ્રામના એન્કરોને તો ખાસ શૌર્યચંદ્રક આપવો જોઈએ. સરસ-મજાની વિપુલ પ્રમાણમાં શબ્દભંડોળ ધરાવતી આપણી માતૃભાષા ગુજરાતીની સૌથી વધુ અવગણના કરતાં હોય તો તે આપણે પોતે જ છીએ. (અંગ્રેજી શીખવામાં કંઈ જ વાંધો નથી, પણ ગુજરાતી ભાષાને બગાડો એ ખોટું ને, ભઈ ?!)

પરદેશી, પરદેશી ભાષા અને તેની સાથે પરદેશના ખોરાકનું પણ ગુજરાતીઓને અજબ-ગજબનું વળગણ છે. આપણે ત્યાં જે ચાઈનીઝ ખવાય છે તેવું જો કોઈ પણ ચીનો ચાખી લે તો આપઘાત જ કરી લે ! સવાસો કરોડ ચીનાઓમાંથી કોઈએ ક્યારેય ના ખાધી હોય તેવી એક ચાઈનીઝ વાનગી અહીંયા મળે છે. એ છે 'ચાઈનીઝ ભેળ'. આપણે ઈટાલીના પિઝાના પણ આવા જ હાલ કરી નાખ્યા છે. મજાની વાત એ છે કે આપણે ત્યાં ઈટાલિયન પિઝાની સાથે જૈન પિઝા અને ફરાળી પિઝા મળે છે! અને તમને કહી દઉં બોસ, હવે મેક્સિકન અને થાઈ ફૂડનો વારો છે! થોડા જ વખતમાં આપણે ત્યાં મેક્સિકન મેંદુવડા અને થાઈ ઠંડાઈ મળતી થઈ જશે. (ટૂંકમાં આપણે વિશ્વની કોઈ પણ વાનગીનું ગુજરાતીકરણ કરવા માટે સક્ષમ છીએ, હોં ભઈ !)

સૌથી વધારે તેલથી લથબથ વાનગીઓ આરોગવાના શોખીન ગુજરાતીઓ ખાવાની સાથે 'પીવા'ના પણ શોખીન છે. આ 'પીવા'નું એટલે શું તે કોઈને સમજાવવાની જરૂર નથી. દારૂબંધી હોવા છતાં પણ અહીંયા ખૂબ 'પીવાય' છે. દૂધવાળા અને શાકવાળાની જેમ દરેક પીનારાનો પોતાનો અંગત સપ્લાયર હોય છે; જે હોમડિલિવરી કરી જાય છે. પીવું એ ગુજરાતીઓ માટે મોટું થ્રીલ છે, જેની સાથે આપણે વીરતાનો ભાવ જોડી દીધો છે. ધોનીને આઠ લિટર દૂધ પીધા પછી જેટલો ગર્વ ન થાય તેટલો આપણને બે પેગ પીધા પછી થતો હોય છે. ગુજરાતીઓ અને તેમના પીવાના શોખ પર લખવા બેસીએ તો એક અલગ લેખ લખવો પડે એટલે આ મુદ્દાને અહીંયા જ બોટમ્સ અપ કરી દઈએ.

ગુજરાતીઓનો જીવનમંત્ર છે ખઈ-પીને સૂઈ જવું. ઘણા તો બપોરે ખાધા પછી ચાર કલાક માટે કામ-ધંધા બંધ કરીને આડા પડખે થઈ જતા હોય છે. ગુજરાતીઓની રાતની સૂવાની એક ખાસિયત તો અદ્દભુત છે. આપણે ધાબે-અગાશીમાં સૂવાના શોખીન છીએ. ઉનાળો શરૂ થતાં વેંત રાત્રે સાડા આઠ-નવ વાગ્યે ગાદલાંના પિલ્લાઓ લઈ ધાબે ધસી જતા ગુજરાતીઓને નિહાળવા એક લહાવો છે. એવું ના માનશો કે આપણે ઉનાળામાં નવ વાગ્યામાં સૂઈ જઈએ છીએ, આ તો આપણે બે કલાક માટે પથારી ઠંડી કરવા મૂકીએ છીએ. ધાબે ઠંડી પથારીઓમાં સૂવાનું કલ્ચર માત્ર આપણા ગુજરાતમાં જ છે એવું અમારું દઢ પણે માનવું છે. (મકાનમાં ઘરફોડ ચોરી થઈ જાય એનો વાંધો નહીં, પણ લાખ રૂપિયાની ઊંઘ ના બગડવી જોઈએ, હોં ભઈ!) આટલું ખઈ-પીને સૂઈ જઈએ એટલે શરીર વધી જ જાય ને! ફાંદાળા પુરુષો અને બરણી આકારની બહેનો ગુજરાતની ધરતીને ધમરોળતી જોવા મળે છે તેનું કારણ આપણા આ શોખ જ છે. એટલે જ આપણે લેંઘા-ઝભ્ભા અને સાડીઓ જેવા 'ફ્લેક્સિબલ' ડ્રેસ અપનાવ્યા છે જેથી શરીર વધે તો પણ કપડાં ટાઈટ પડવાની ચિંતા નહીં.

વધેલા શરીરે ટીવી સામે બેસી રમતગમત જોવાનો પણ આપણે ખૂબ શોખ છે. (આ વાક્યમાં રમતગમત એટલે ક્રિકેટ....ક્રિકેટ…અને માત્ર ક્રિકેટ…) 18 વર્ષની ઉંમર પછી ગુજરાતીઓ શારીરિક શ્રમ પડે તેવી કોઈ રમતો રમતા જ નથી. તેમ છતાંય દરેક બાપ એના દીકરાને અચૂક કહેતો જોવા મળે કે'અમે, અમારા જમાનામાં બહુ રમતા'તા હોં ભઈ!'

વધેલા શરીરવાળા ગુજરાતીઓ માટે કસરત એટલે જમ્યા પછી પાનના ગલ્લા સુધી ચાલતાં જવું તે. મોઢામાં પાન કે મસાલો દબાવી કલાકો સુધી વિષયવિહીન ચર્ચાઓ કરવામાં ગુજરાતીઓની માસ્ટરી છે. પાનના ગલ્લા અને ચાની કીટલીઓ એ ગુજરાતીઓ માટે વૈચારિક આદાન-પ્રદાન માટેના આદર્શ સ્થાનકો છે. સાચો સમાજવાદ આ બે જગ્યાઓએ જ જોવા મળે છે. અહીંયા ગાડી, સ્કૂટરવાળા સાથે જ મજૂર પણ ઊભો રહી ચા પીતો હોય છે. (આ વાત પર બે કટિંગ ચા થઈ જાય, હોં ભઈ!)

દરેક ગુજરાતી મા-બાપને તેમના સંતાનોને ડોક્ટર, એન્જિનિયર કે સી.એ.. બનાવવામાં જ રસ હોય છે. સંતાનોની કરિયર મા-બાપ જ નક્કી કરે છે. કોઈ ગુજરાતી મા-બાપને એવું કહેતા સાંભળ્યા નથી કે 'મારે મારા દીકરાને કલાકાર બનાવવો છે, મારે મારી દીકરીને ચિત્રકાર બનાવવી છે, મારો દીકરો ફોજમાં જશે, મારી દીકરીને એથ્લિટ બનાવવી છે, મારા દીકરાને ફેલ્પ્સ જેવો તરવૈયો બનાવવો છે.' (નાટક-ચેટક, કવિતા, સાહિત્ય-લેખનના રવાડે ચઢેલા છોકરાંવને તો આઉટલાઈનના કહેવાય છે, હોં ભઈ !)

રૂપિયા કમાવા સિવાય બીજો કોઈ પણ શોખ ન ધરાવતા ગુજરાતીઓનો એક શોખ ખૂબ જાણીતો છે રજાઓમાં ફરવા જવાનો અને તે પણ સાથે ખૂબ બધા નાસ્તા લઈને. જ્યારે અને જ્યાં પણ ફરવા જઈએ ત્યારે ડબ્બાઓના ડબ્બા ભરીને સેવમમરા, ઢેબરાં,ગાંઠિયાં, પૂરીઓ, અથાણાં સાથે લઈને નીકળીએ છીએ. ઘર બદલ્યું હોય એટલો બધો સામાન લઈ ટ્રેનમાં ખડકાઈએ છીએ અને ટ્રેન ઉપડે કે પંદર જ મિનિટમાં રાડારાડી કરતાં નાસ્તાઓ ઝાપટવા મંડીએ છીએ અને ઢોળવા મંડીએ છીએ. ગુજરાતીઓના ફરવાના શોખના કારણે પરદેશની ટૂરમાં ગુજરાતી થાળી મળતી થઈ ગઈ છે. જો ગુજરાતીઓ ફરવાનું બંધ કરી દે તો બધી જ ટ્રાવેલ્સ એજન્સીઓ અને પેકેજ ટૂર, કપલ ટૂરવાળાઓનું ઉઠમણું થઈ જાય. (આપણે ફરવાની સાથે ફરવાની સલાહ આપવાના પણ શોખીન છીએ. નવસારી સુધી પણ નહીં ગયેલો માણસ નૈનિતાલ કેવી રીતે જવું તેની સલાહ આપી શકે, હોં ભઈ!)

ગુજરાતીઓના લેટેસ્ટ બે શોખ. એક - ટુ વ્હીલર અને બીજો - મોબાઈલ. જગતમાં સૌથી વધારે ટુ વ્હીલર ગુજરાતમાં ફરે છે. આપણું ચાલે એક રૂમમાંથી બીજા રૂમમાં જવા માટે પણ ટુ-વ્હીલર વાપરીએ. પહેલાના જમાનામાં એવું કહેવાતું તું કે 'દેવું કરીને પણ ઘી પીવું.' હવે એવું કહેવાય છે કે 'દેવું કરીને પણ બાઈક લેવું.' ગુજરાતીઓના 'દિલની સૌથી નજીક' જો કોઈ હોય તો તે છે મોબાઈલ (કેમકે આપણે મોબાઈલને હંમેશાં શર્ટના ઉપલાં ખિસ્સામાં જ રાખીએ છીએ.) જાત-જાતના મોબાઈલ, ભાતભાતની રિંગટોનનો આપણને જબરજસ્ત ક્રેઝ છે. મોબાઈલની સૌથી વધુ સ્કિમ આપણા ગુજરાતમાં જ છે અને તેનો સૌથી વધુ લાભ પણ ગુજરાતીઓ ઉઠાવે છે. જો સ્કિમમાં 'ફ્રી' લખ્યું તો તો 'ખ…લ્લા…સ'.. રાત્રે દસથી સવારે છ, 'મોબાઈલથી મોબાઈલ ફ્રી' એવી સ્કિમ જાહેર થાય એટલે ગુજરાતીઓ મચી જ પડે. બાજુ-બાજુમાં બેઠા હોય તો પણ મોબાઈલથી મોબાઈલ વાતો કરે ! (હે…લો…, અને જ્યારે બિલ આવે ત્યારે કંપનીવાળા જોડે સૌથી વધુ બબાલ પણ આપણે જ કરીએ છીએ, હોં ભઈ !)

ગુજરાતીઓની સ્વભાવગત ખાસિયત પણ અનોખી છે. આપણે એવર ઓપ્ટિમિસ્ટ એટલે કે સદાય આશાવાદી માણસો છીએ. શેરબજાર ક…ડ…ડ…ડ…ભૂ...સ…કરતું તૂટે તો પણ આપણે આશા રાખીએ છીએ કે 'કશો વાંધો નહીં, કાલે બજાર ઉપર આવી જ જશે..' આ સાથે આપણે ગુજરાતીઓ એટલા જ ખમીરવંતા પણ છીએ. ભૂકંપ આવે, પૂર આવે કે બોમ્બ બ્લાસ્ટ થાય, આપણે ત્યાં બીજા દિવસથી તો બધું રાબેતા મુજબ…

ગુજરાતીઓની એક સૌથી મોટી ખાસિયત, ખૂબી, વિશેષતા, વિલક્ષણતા એ છે કે આપણે ગુજરાતીઓ ક્યારેય પણ કોઈનાથી ઈમ્પ્રેસ થતા નથી. સાદા શબ્દોમાં કહીએ તો આપણે ક્યારેય કોઈથી ઘીસ ખાતા નથી. ગમે તેવો મોટો ચમરબંધી હોય પણ આપણે તેનાથી અંજાઈ જતા થી. 'એ લાટસા'બ હોય તો એના ઘેર, મારે શું ?' આવી તાસીર જ આપણને 'જીદ કરી દુનિયા બદલવાની' શક્તિ આપે છે અને તેના લીધે જ ગુજરાતની ધરતી પર ગાંધીજી, સરદાર અને ધીરુભાઈ જેવી હસ્તીઓ પાકી છે. (શું કહો છો, બરાબરને ભઈ?)

હાચુ કઉં તો મને તો ઍક ગુજરાતી હોવાનો બહું ગર્વ છે, તમને છે?

જો હા તો, ઍક સાચા ગુજરાતી તરીકે તમે પણ આપણી આ 'ગુજરાતી ગૌરવ ગાથા' ને આગળ ધપાવો.

'જ્ય જ્ય ગરવી ગુજરાત'. 'જ્યાં વસે ગુજરાતી ત્યાં વસે સદાકાળ ગુજરાત'. .........

ગર્વવંતો ગુજરાતી.

Proactive Garuda

2009-07-27T19:17:00.002+05:30

One day, Narad asked Vishnu, with a bit of hesitation, “Why do you insist that the image of Garud be placed before you in your temples? Why not me? Am I not your greatest devotee?” Before Vishnu could reply a crash was heard outside the main gate of Vaikuntha. “What was that?” asked Vishnu. Narada turned to look in the direction of the sound. Garuda, Vishnu’s hawk and vehicle, who usually investigated such events, was no where to be seen. “I have sent Garud on an errand. Can you find out what happened, Narad?” asked Vishnu. Eager to please Vishnu, Narad ran out to investigate. “A milkmaid tripped and fell,” he when he returned.

“What was her name?” asked Vishnu. Narad ran out, spoke to the maid and returned with the answer. “Sharada,” he said. “Where was she going?” asked Vishnu. Narad ran out once again, spoke to the maid and returned with the answer. “She was on her way to the market.” “What caused her trip?” asked Vishnu. “Why did you not ask this question the last time I went?” said Narad irritably. He then ran out, spoke to the maid once again. “She was startled by a serpent that crossed her path,” he said on his return. “Is the pot carrying broken?” asked Vishnu. “I don’t know,” snapped Narad. “Find out,” said Vishnu. “Why?” asked Narad. “Find out, Narad. Maybe I would like to buy some milk,” said Vishnu. With great reluctance, Narad stepped out of Vaikuntha and met the milkmaid. He returned looking rather pleased, “She broke one pot. But there is another one intact. And she is willing to sell the milk but at double price.”

“So how much should I pay her?” asked Vishnu. “Oh, I forgot to ask. I am so sorry,” said Narad running out once again. “Do not bother. Let me send someone else,” said Vishnu.

Just then, Garud flew in. He had no idea of what had transpired between Vishnu and Narad. Vishnu told Garud, “I heard a crashing sound outside the main gate. Can you find out what happened?” As Garud left, Vishnu winked at Narad and whispered, “Let us see how he fares.”

Garuda returned. “It is a milkmaid called Sharada. She was on her way to the market. On the way, a snake crossed her path. Startled she fell back and broke one of the two pots of milk she was carrying. Now she wonders how she will make enough money to pay for the broken pot and the spilt milk. I suggested she sell the milk to you. After all, you are married to Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth.”

“And the price of the milk?” asked Vishnu. Pat came Garud’s reply, “Four copper coins. One actually but I think she hopes to make a handsome profit when dealing with God.” Vishnu started to laugh. His eye caught Narad’s and Narad understood at that instant why Garud’s statue and not his is always placed before the image of Vishnu in Vishnu temples.

Narad had behaved like a reactive subordinate. Very obedient, doing what the master told him to, leaving all thinking to the master. Garud behaved like a proactive subordinate, anticipating all his master’s moves and preparing for it. That ‘ability to aniticpate’ made Garud more efficient and effective and hence more valuable in the eyes of Vishnu.

Mr. Kapur, senor vice president, Operations, at a telecom firm has simple method to distinguish the Garud from the Narad in his team. During all his meetings he assigns tasks to all team members. And he observes who comes to him with an update without his asking and who provides updates only when asked. He likes those people who approach him and give him feedback on projects proactively. They do not wait to for a crisis. They don’t wait for meetings. They don’t wait to be asked.

Some of the best secretaries in the world are Garuds – they know what their bosses want even before the boss asks for it. They know that when they say, “Book me a ticket to Jaipur,” they are expected to make the hotel bookings, the car pickups, update the blackberry with the appointments and reminders and alarms. They know what bills need to be processed at the first of the month, on the first Monday of every month, on the last day of every month. They know when the weekend parties have to be organized, when the stress levels shoots up, when the bosses are more relaxed. They are sensitive to the rhythms of the boss, they rituals they follow. And all this comes from the ‘ability to anticipate’.

Of course, insecure bosses can get annoyed, even threatened, by subordinates with the ‘ability to anticipate’. They feel that if he knows my every move, he may one day overshadow me. This is what happened to Jiten who went out of his way to update his boss on every thing he did, not waiting for his boss to ask him for updates. He knew the answers to every question asked to his boss. He seemed prepared for any argument or objection made by the boss. The boss said to himself, “This man does everything so brilliantly. It is almost that he does not need my help. He is merely informing me of developments. He seems to know what I will approve and what I will not.” It was only a question of time before Jiten found himself being sidelined and ignored in team meetings. The dumbest, the most obedient Narads moved ahead of him. To Jiten, Garud would say, “ While it is good to anticipate your master’s move, it must never seem like you are one step ahead of the master. That would make you look like an oversmart upstart. Remember, your master needs to feel that you need him, that your existence and validation comes from him. Never forget that you are the cog in his wheel, he is not the cog in yours.”

Source: http://devdutt.com/proactive-garuda

Divorce after 35 yrs

2009-07-24T18:46:00.002+05:30

An elderly man in Mumbai calls his son in New York and says,
'I hate to ruin your day son, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are getting a divorce; 35 years of marriage... and that much misery is enough!'

'Dad, what are you talking about?' the son screams.

'We can't stand the sight of each other any longer,' the old man says.

'We're sick of each other, and I'm sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Hong Kong and tell her!'

Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone.

'Like heck they're getting divorced,' she shouts, 'I'll take care of this.'

She calls Mumbai immediately, and screams at the old man, 'You are not getting divorced. Don't do a single thing until I get there. I'm calling my brother back, and we'll both be there tomorrow. Until then , don't do a thing, DO YOU HEAR??' and she hangs up.

The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife. 'Okay', he says, 'It's all set. They're both coming for our anniversary and paying their own airfare!!'

MORAL:
No man / woman is busy in this world all 365 days.

The sky is not going to fall down if you take few days LEAVE and meet your dear ones.

OFFICE WORK IS NOT EVERYTHING IN LIFE and MONEY MAKING IS NOT EVERYTHING IN LIFE.

21 Words of Wisdom

2009-07-08T19:24:00.000+05:30

1. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

2. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.

3. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.

4. When you say, 'I love you,' mean it.

5. When you say, 'I'm sorry,' look the person in the eye.

6. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.

7. Believe in love at first sight.

8. Never laugh at anyone's dreams. People who don't have dreams don't have much.

9. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.

10. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.

11. Don't judge people by their relatives.

12. Talk slowly but think quickly.

13. When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, 'Why do you want to know?'

14. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

15. Say 'bless you' when you hear someone sneeze.

16. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

17. Remember the three R's:
Respect for self;
Respect for others; and
Responsibility for all your actions.

18. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

19. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

20. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice

21. Spend some time alone.

This logic will make you think about loyalty????

2009-06-16T17:01:00.001+05:30

Some, rather most organizations reject his CV today because he has changed jobs frequently (10 in 14 years). My friend, the ‘job hopper’ (referred here as Mr. JH), does not mind it…. well he does not need to mind it at all. Having worked full-time with 10 employer companies in just 14 years gives Mr. JH the relaxing edge that most of the ‘company loyal’ employees are struggling for today. Today, Mr. JH too is laid off like some other 14-15 year experienced guys – the difference being the latter have just worked in 2-3 organizations in the same number of years. Here are the excerpts of an interview with Mr. JH:

Q: Why have you changed 10 jobs in 14 years?
A: To get financially sound and stable before getting laid off the second time.

Q: So you knew you would be laid off in the year 2009?
A: Well I was laid off first in the year 2002 due to the first global economic slowdown. I had not got a full-time job before January 2003 when the economy started looking up; so I had struggled for almost a year without job and with compromises.

Q: Which number of job was that?
A: That was my third job.

Q: So from Jan 2003 to Jan 2009, in 6 years, you have changed 8 jobs to make the count as 10 jobs in 14 years?
A: I had no other option. In my first 8 years of professional life, I had worked only for 2 organizations thinking that jobs are deserved after lot of hard work and one should stay with an employer company to justify the saying ‘employer loyalty’. But I was an idiot.

Q: Why do you say so?
A: My salary in the first 8 years went up only marginally. I could not save enough and also, I had thought that I had a ‘permanent’ job, so I need not worry about ‘what will I do if I lose my job’. I could never imagine losing a job because
of economic slowdown and not because of my performance. That was January 2002.

Q: Can you brief on what happened between January 2003 and 2009.
A: Well, I had learnt my lessons of being ‘company loyal’ and not ‘money earning and saving loyal’. But then you can save enough only when you earn enough. So I shifted my loyalty towards money making and saving – I changed 8 jobs in 6 years assuring all my interviewers about my stability.

Q: So you lied to your interviewers; you had already planned to change the job for which you were being interviewed on a particular day?
A: Yes, you can change jobs only when the market is up and companies are hiring. You tell me – can I get a job now because of the slowdown? No. So one should change jobs for higher salaries only when the market is up because that is the
only time when companies hire and can afford the expected salaries.

Q: What have you gained by doing such things?
A: That’s the question I was waiting for. In Jan 2003, I had a fixed salary (without variables) of say Rs. X p.a. In January 2009, my salary was 8X. So assuming my salary was Rs.300000 p.a. in Jan 2003, my last drawn salary in Jan 2009 was Rs.24,00,000p.a. (without variable). I never bothered about variable as I had no intention to stay for 1 year and go through
the appraisal process to wait for the company to give me a hike.

Q: So you decided on your own hike?
A: Yes, in 2003, I could see the slowdown coming again in future like it had happened in 2001-02. Though I was not sure by when the next slowdown would come, I was pretty sure I wanted a ‘debt-free’ life before being laid off again. So I planned my hike targets on a yearly basis without waiting for the year to complete.

Q: So are you debt-free now?
A: Yes, I earned so much by virtue of job changes for money and spent so little that today I have a loan free 2 BR apartment (1200 sq. feet) plus a loan free big car without bothering about any EMIs. I am laid off too but I do not complain
at all. If I have laid off companies for money, it is OK if a company lays me off because of lack of money.

Q: Who is complaining?
A: All those guys who are not getting a job to pay their EMIs off are complaining. They had made fun of me saying I am a job hopper and do not have any company loyalty. Now I ask them what they gained by their company loyalty; they too
are laid off like me and pass comments to me – why will you bother about us, you are already debt-free. They were still in the bracket of 12,00,000-14,00,000 p.a. when they were laid off.

Q: What is your advice to professionals?
A: Like Narayan Murthy had said – love your job and not your company because you never know when your company will stop loving you. In the same lines, love yourself and your family needs more than the company’s needs. Companies
can keep coming and going; family will always remain the same. Make money for yourself first and simultaneously make money for the company, not the other way around.

Q: What is your biggest pain point with companies?
A: When a company does well, its CEO etc will address the entire company saying, ‘well done guys, it is YOUR company, keep up the hard work, I am with you." But when the slowdown happens and the company does not do so well, the same
CEO etc will say, "It is MY company and to save the company, I have to take tough decisions including asking people to go." So think about your financial stability first; when you get laid off, your kids will complain to you and not your boss.

What do women really want?

2009-06-09T15:36:00.002+05:30

This is very interesting..........
Worth Reading
(To men) pls take time to ponder........
(To women) enjoy the story........

Young King Arthur was ambushed and imprisoned by the monarch of a neighboring kingdom. The monarch could have killed him but was moved by Arthur's youth and ideals. So the monarch offered Arthur his freedom, as long as he could answer a very difficult question. Arthur would have a year to figure out the answer and, If after a year, he still had no answer, he would be put to death.

The question was: What do women really want?

Such a question would perplex even the most knowledgeable man and to young Arthur, it seemed an impossible query. But, since it was betterthan death, he accepted the monarch's proposition to have an answer by the year's end.

He returned to his kingdom and began to poll everyone: The princess,the priests, the wise men, and even the court jester. He spoke with everyone, but no one could give him a satisfactory answer. Many people advised him to consult the old witch for only she would have the answer. But the price would be high as the witch was famous through out the kingdom for the exorbitant prices she charged.

The last day of the year arrived and Arthur had no choice but to talk to the witch. She agreed to answer the question but he would have to agree to her price first. The old witch wanted to marry Sir Lancelot, the most noble of theKnights of the Round Table, and Arthur's closest friend! Young Arthur was horrified. She was hunch-backed, hideous, had only one tooth,smelled like sewage, made obscene noises, etc.

He had never encountered such a repugnant creature in all his life. He refused to force his friend to marry her and endure such a terrible burden, but Lancelot having learnt of the proposal, spoke with Arthur. He said nothing was too big of a sacrifice compared to Arthur's life. And the reservation of the Round Table. Hence, a wedding was proclaimed

and the witch answered Arthur's question thus: 'What a woman really wants?'

She said, 'Is to be in charge of her own life.'

Everyone in the kingdom instantly knew that the witch had uttered a great truth. And that Arthur's life would be spared.And so it was.The neighboring monarch granted Arthur his freedom.And Lancelot and the witch had a wonderful wedding.The honeymoon hour approached and Lancelot, steeling himself for a horrific experience, entered the bedroom.

But what a sight awaited him.The most beautiful woman he had ever seen lay before him on the bed.The astounded Lancelot asked what had happened.The beauty replied that since he had been so kind to her when she appeared as a witch, she would henceforth be her horrible and deformed self only half the time and the beautiful maiden the other half.

'Which would you prefer?' she asked him. 'Beautiful during the day .... or at night?'

Lancelot pondered the predicament.

During the day he could have a beautiful woman to show off to his friends but at night, in the privacy of his castle, an old witch!

Or,

Would he prefer having a hideous witch during the day but by night a beautiful woman for him to enjoy wondrous, intimate moments with?

Noble Lancelot knowing the answer the witch gave Arthur to his question said that

he would allow HER to make the choice herself.

Upon hearing this, she announced that she would be beautiful all the time because he had respected her enough to let her be in charge of her own life.

Now... what is the moral to this story?

The moral is...

1) There is a witch in every woman no matter how beautiful she is!

2) If you don't let a woman have her own way, things are going to get ugly.

So, always remember:

IT'S EITHER 'HER WAY' OR

IT'S 'NO WAY' !!!

Why do we shout in Anger ?

2009-04-10T15:48:00.001+05:30

'Why do we shout in anger?' A saint asked his disciples, 'Why do we shout in anger? Why do people shout at each other when they are upset?'

His disciples thought for a while, one of them said, 'Because we lose our calm, we shout for that.'

'But, why do you shout when the other person is just next to you?' asked the saint. 'Isn't it possible to speak to him or her with a soft voice? Why do you shout at a person when you're angry?'

Disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the saint.

Finally he explained, 'When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other through that great distance.'

Then the saint asked, 'What happens when two people fall in love? They don't shout at each other but talk softly, why? Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is very small...'

The saint continued, 'When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that's all. That is how close two people are when they love each other.

'MORAL' said the saint: 'When you argue do not let your hearts get distant, do not say words that distance each other more, else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return!'

Have been receiving sms codes: DT-BJP, TA-ICICI, AX-Airtel etc. What is it?

2009-03-26T14:21:00.001+05:30

In order to protect interests of consumers receiving unsolicited commercial SMSes, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has mandated all mobile operators in India to prefix an identification tag before all application-to-peer (A2P) commercial bulk SMSes which would reveal the name of the service provider and location where the SMS originated along with the name of the company sending the SMS.

The alphanumeric identifier should be of the form XY-Name of the company where X stands for code allocated for the service provider while Y stands for the service area where the SMS is originating from.

For example, AT Citibank would mean that the SMS is sent through Airtel mobile network from Tamil Nadu by Citibank company.

Similarly VX stands for Vodafone -Karnataka, TA for Tata Teleservices-Andhra Pradesh, TM for Tata Teleservices-Mumbai, AM for Airtel-Mumbai, AX for Airtel-Karnataka etc.

The standard prefixes finalized by TRAI are incomprehensible to the common man. For example, Z stands for Maharashtra, X for Karnataka, E for Reliance Telecom, and P for Spice Telecom etc.

Source: http://tech2fame.blogspot.com/2009/03/have-been-receiving-sms-codes-dt-bjp-ta.html

8 rules to discourage your employees

2009-03-13T21:26:00.001+05:30

If you are committed to pissing off your employees, but can’t quite find the way to do so, you can follow these rules and achieve success.

Encourage proactivity: Management loves that word. It means that the employees don’t have to react, but to act in advance. This roughly translates into easier management. No documentation, specs or any kind of information needs to be provided to the employees as they will have to proactively seek for it.

Discourage excessive proactivity: If some employee still feels like doing things on their own, trying to document things himself to lower the learning curve of (your) future hires, develop an in-house tool to save (you) time or money or to do things like refactoring code or implementing agile methodologies, simply smash the enthusiast’s morale by drowning his efforts with indifference, corporate policies, lack of management back up and other tools at your disposal. Simply discard any suggestion on improvement; either say no directly, or say yes, yes and let it die slowly. Either way works fine.

Don’t let your managers get involved: Don’t ever promote any veteran developer to a management position. Things might get too smooth, as that person might not only be able manage the team great but also have a deep understanding on the subject being managed. Simply hire someone from the outside who only knows about management (carrying around a leather agenda and/or an iPhone, arrange meetings, speaking about subjects with no expertise, without saying anything of value and still sound serious, etc). The less your manager knows about the team, the better. After all, it’s the soldiers who must receive the gunshots.

Give awards: Before you think this might drive someone’s morale up, think about the other team members (and other teams) who don’t get one. It’s a no brainer: one morale up, a lot down. Give it to the people who deserve it less: those who spend their time speaking about how great their work is instead of actually doing something. That will definitively piss off everyone else.

Sever their tools: If your employees need tools, like a computer, an operating system, a database, and some tools to work better, then the best thing you can do is to deprive them of these; not of all at once, but of one by one, to extend the agony. If they need commercial tools, say they are off-budget. If they need open-source tools, say it doesn’t comply with internal norm X and that it requires special authorization (which of course they will never get). Make them fill endless forms and write emails. Don’t renew their licenses. Make them work online on a server located in another continent with more than 10 seconds latency. Forbid the use of putty for console work. All gradually, while demanding the same results.

Spoil their focus: Make sure they are included in every possible, unrelated mailing list. You will make them waste hours of e-mail reading and manual filtering. Remove any abstraction layer that prevents them from knowing problems that don’t concern them. Your best weapon here is an open space (like a whole floor) where there are 100+ people working, without walls in the middle. Encourage loud ringtones of cellphones abandoned at their desks and coffee chats that distract others.

Hit their interest with a train(ing): Give them obligatory training on subjects that don’t interest them, and haveno interdisciplinary connection with their job.

Bug them: Make sure all defects are carefully prioritized as high. If someone breaks the code (specially if that someone breaks it repeatedly), don’t let that person fix the code they broke. Instead make someone else (preferably with no background on the subject) fix it in a very narrow timeframe. Let anyone assign bugs to anyone, without any knowledge of the developers available time. Preferably, in a system on which you cannot track who assigned it to you.

Before thinking it might not work, it will.
Source: http://www.geekstuffdaily.com/2009/03/12/8-rules-to-discourage-your-employees/

What is Recession?

2009-03-13T14:49:00.001+05:30

This Story is about a man who once upon a time was selling "Wada- Pav" by the roadside.

He was illiterate, so he never read newspapers. He was hard of hearing, so he never listened to the radio. His eyes were weak, so he never watched television.But enthusiastically, he sold lots of "Wada-pavs".He was smart enough to offer some attractive schemes to increase his sales.His sales and profit went up..He ordered more and more raw material and buns and used to sell more.He recruited few more supporting staff to serve more customers.He started offering home deliveries. Eventually he got himself a bigger and better stove. As his business was growing, the son, who had recently graduated from College, joined his father.Then something strange happened.The son asked, "Dad, aren't you aware of the great recession that is coming our way?" The father replied, "No, but tell me about it." The son said, "The international situation is terrible.The domestic situation is even worse. We should be prepared for the coming bad times." The man thought that since his son had been to college, read the papers,listened to the radio and watched TV.He ought to know and his advice should not be taken lightly.So the next day onwards, the father cut down his raw material order and buns, took down the colourful signboard, removed all the special schemes he was offering to the customers and was no longer as enthusiastic.He reduced his staff strength by giving layoffs.Very soon, fewer and fewer people bothered to stop at his "Wada-Pav" stand.And his sales started coming down rapidly, same is the profit.The father said to his son, "Son, you were right"."We are in the middle of a recession and crisis. I am glad you warned me ahead of time."

Moral of The Story: It's all in your MIND! And we actually FUEL this recession much more than we think we do!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What can we take away from this story??
1. How many times we confuse intelligence with good judgment?
2. Choose your advisors carefully but use your own judgment
3. A person or an organization will survive forever, if they have the 5 Cs
* Character
* Commitment
* Conviction
* Courtesy
* Courage

Cricket Trivia

2008-12-23T17:42:00.001+05:30

Question: The batsman goes out of his crease to hit a spinner out of the ground, he misses the trajectory of the ball and gets hit on the pad. The ball goes to the silly point fielder who throws it to the keeper. The keeper removes the bails in a flash with batsman still out of his crease while trying to get back. Will it be a run-out or a stumping?
Answer: Only a wicket-keeper can stump a batsman. If some other fielder is involved in the dismissal, it is classified as a run-out.

Question: If a batsman runs for more than 5 runs before the ball hits the fence for a boundary, how many run does the batsman (or team) get? 4 or 5?
Answer: The batsman (and team) will get 5 runs in this case.

Question: Who is the youngest cricketer ever to lead a Test side?
Answer: Tatenda Taibu was 20 years 358 days old when he led Zimbabwe against Sri Lanka at Harare in May 2004, which makes him the youngest player ever to lead a Test side.
Before Taibu, the Nawab of Pataudi of India held the record of being the youngest captain in Test cricket. He was 21 years 77 days old while captaining India for the first time -- against the West Indies at Bridgetown in March 1962.

Question: Why is a Test match called test?
Answer: According to Michael Roundell's Dictionary of Cricket the word Test simply indicates that the series of games is regarded as a 'test' of strength of the two sides. He confirms that calling international cricket matches became the norm around ten years after what is now recognised as the first Test match, which was in 1877.
Some other sources mention that it seems to have been used first to describe an English team that toured Australia in 1861-62, although those matches are not considered Test matches today.

Question: What is a chinaman?
Answer:A left-arm bowler's off-break to a right-handed batsman is termed as chinaman. The bowler uses the wrist to spin the ball so that when it pitches it turns from off to leg for a right-handed batsman, i.e. from left to right from the bowler's perspective - the direction of turn is the same as that of a conventional right-handed off-spinner.
Some chinaman bowlers occasionally bowl the mirror image of a leg-spinner's googly, which turns in the opposite way. In this instance the ball turns away from the batsman, as if the bowler were an orthodox left-arm spinner.
The chinaman style of bowling is very rare, as not only is it difficult to bowl accurately, but the turn into the right-handed batsman is seen as less dangerous than the turn away from the batsman generated by an orthodox left-arm spinner, so virtually all left-armers choose to bowl orthodox. On the other hand, the chinaman bowler does have some compensating advantages. He can impart more spin than the finger-spinner, generally yielding more turn and bounce.

Question: If a bowler bowls a no-ball and the batsman hits it in air and fielder catches the same, and during this time batsman takes two runs, do these two runs count or not?
Answer:These two runs will count in the batsman's account because he cannot be dismissed caught off a no-ball and the team will get three runs (two runs + one penalty run for the no-ball).

Question: If a team has to score the same runs till the last ball and the bowler bowls a no-ball but a run-out occurs, who will win the match?
Answer:The side batting second wins the match as soon as the umpire signals the no-ball. Whatever happens thereafter is of no significance.

Brain's Caching Mechanism

2008-12-04T17:55:00.001+05:30

Do we know that similar to the caching mechanisms in software applications, we also have caching mechanism in our brain?

Whenever a request comes to brain, it processes it and sends back the response. We all know this and thats the simple path our brain follows.
But did you know that brain does this for the first time only and stores the response in a part called 'Cerebrum'. So when the same kind of request comes to brain for second time, rather then again processing it, it would see in 'Cerebrum' and if response is present there then it would directly pick it from there rather than again processing and generating the response.

This is how Cerebrum is used to cache the response.

May be thats why there is a popular proverb saying
"Practice makes you perfect"

If you practice a lot for any particular task, your brain will take the response directly from Cerebrum which would be much quicker.

Source: A Documentary program seen on Discovery Channel.

The Challenge

2008-11-26T14:12:00.000+05:30

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the water close to Japan has not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring the fish. If the return trip took more time, the fish were not fresh. To solve this problem, fish companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen fish. And they did not like the taste of frozen fish.

The frozen fish brought a lower price. So, fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, they were tired, dull, and lost their fresh-fish taste. The fishing industry faced an impending crisis!
But today, they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan. How did they manage? To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks but with a small shark.

The fish are challenged and hence are constantly on the move. The challenge they face keeps them alive and fresh!

Have you realized that some of us are also living in a pond but most of the time tired and dull? Basically in our lives, sharks are new challenges to keep us active. If you are steadily conquering challenges, you are happy. Your challenges keep you energized. Don't create success and revel in it in a state of inertia. You have the resources, skills and abilities to make a difference. Put a shark in your tank and see how far you can really go!

"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character" - Albert Einstein

Thinking Out Of The Box - True Story

2008-10-20T16:38:00.000+05:30

..."Some time ago I received a call from
a colleague. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a
physics question, while the student claimed a perfect score. The
instructor and the student agreed to an impartial arbiter, and I was
selected. I read the examination question:

Question: show how is it possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer.

The student had answered, "Take
the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it,
lower it to the street, and then bring the rope up, measuring the
length of the rope. The length of the rope is the height of the
building."

The student really had a strong case
for full credit since he had really answered the question completely
and correctly! On the other hand, if full credit were given, it could
well contribute to a high grade in his physics course and to certify
competence in physics, but the answer did not confirm this.

I
suggested that the student have another try. I gave the student six
minutes to answer the question with the warning that the answer should
show some knowledge of physics. At the end of five minutes, he had not
written anything. I asked if he wished to give up, but he said he had
many answers to this problem; he was just thinking of the best one. I
excused myself for interrupting him and asked him to please go on.

In the next minute, he dashed off his answer which read: "Take
the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the
roof. Drop the barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch. Then, using
the formula x=0.5*a*t^^2, calculate the height of the building."

At
this point, I asked my colleague if he would give up. He conceded, and
gave the student almost full credit. While leaving my colleague's
office, I recalled that the student had said that he had other answers
to the problem, so I asked him what they were.

"Well," said the student, "there
are many ways of getting the height of a tall building with the aid of
a barometer. For example, you could take the barometer out on a sunny
day and measure the height of the barometer, the length of its shadow,
and the length of the shadow of the building, and by the use of simple
proportion, determine the height of the building."

"Fine," I said, "and others?"

"Yes," said the student, "there
is a very basic measurement method you will like. In this method, you
take the barometer and begin to walk up the stairs. As you climb the
stairs, you mark off the length of the barometer along the wall. You
then count the number of marks, and this will give you the height of
the building in barometer units."

"A very direct method."

"Of course. If
you want a more sophisticated method, you can tie the barometer to the
end of a string, swing it as a pendulum, and determine the value of g at the street level and at the top of the building. From the difference between the two values of g, the height of the building, in principle, can be calculated."

"On
this same tact, you could take the barometer to the top of the
building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to just above the street,
and then swing it as a pendulum. You could then calculate the height of
the building by the period of the precession".

"Finally," he concluded, "there are many other ways of solving the problem.

Probably the best," he said, "is
to take the barometer to the basement and knock on the superintendent's
door. When the superintendent answers, you speak to him as follows:
'Mr. Superintendent, here is a fine barometer. If you will tell me the
height of the building, I will give you this barometer."

At
this point, I asked the student if he really did not know the
conventional answer to this question. He admitted that he did, but said
that he was fed up with high school and college instructors trying to
teach him how to think.

The student was Neils Bohr and the arbiter was Ernest Rutherford.

"Truly Amazing Story"
Source: AmazingPosts

10 Principles of Success

2008-10-06T18:27:00.001+05:30

How do we define success? Webster's dictionary defines success as "
the attainment of wealth, favor , or eminence." I think we would agree
that Webster's definition is quite accurate in terms of how we look at
people that we perceive to be "successful".

I would like to expand on this thinking with the following 10 Principles of Success

1) Have a Dream- Create a vision for your future, no matter how big or outrageous your dream is.

2) Develop your Action Plan- Goal setting:
Organize your thoughts and feelings on paper, when you do that they
become more real. Tape these goals to bathroom mirror, or the
refrigerator, somewhere you will see them on a daily basis.

3) Control your Focus-
In this day and age of "multi-tasking" you may find this principle hard
to follow. However, you must remain focused on your goals if you hope
to attain success. Don't let yourself get distracted.

4) Seek Guidance- Finding a mentor is of the utmost importance! Find someone you respect and would like to learn from.

5) Practice Self-Discipline- There will be times when you will be tested, you need to stay on target, and re-focus on your goals.

6) Be Aggressive-
I don't know of any successful people that sat around and waited for
things to just happen! You need to make things happen, take the
initiative and Go For it.

7) Believe in Yourself-
If you don't who else will? Be confident in your abilities to turn
things around when things don't look so good. Your attitude is a little
thing that can make a big difference.

8) Be a Pioneer-
You will undoubtedly run into people who will tell you "it can't be
done" ignore them, if you have an idea that has not been tried before
work to make it a reality. Every great achievement was once considered
impossible.

9) Learn to Budget-
Put your time, energy and money behind your plan, but do not forget to
budget time for you family! They are the reason for your success.

10) Love what you Do- No matter what, you must love what you do in order to live a rich, healthy and successful life.

One gigabyte of memory, 20 years ago... and now

2008-10-03T21:04:00.000+05:30

The one on the left is 20 years ago… the one in his hand is now.

Life's Biggest Problems And Their Solutions

2008-10-03T20:58:00.000+05:30

1. Tunnel Vision : The
tendency to focus only on the immediate crisis or sore spot . Under
stress, things look worse or more complex than they really are.

The solution
Perspective
: Ask if it will matter in 6 months . Ask what else is going on? How
did I create this situation and, in an ideal world, what would I like
to do about it?

2. Fear : The anxiety or terror that things will go badly, that we will fail or be embarrassed.

The solution
Humor
and Curiosity : Modern life has very few saber-tooth tigers . The
situation is rarely life or death . Ask, What's the worst that can
happen? What's the best? What can I learn? What would I do if I had no
fear?

3. Confusion : The sense of being lost or unclear about our direction . The sense that we don't know our own priorities anymore.

The solution
Responsible
Choices : Choose your values and priorities and set your own path .
Your life is yours . Check your moral compass, pick a direction and do
something extraordinary!

4. Guilt : The
belief that we have hurt or failed or sinned and deserve punishment .
Guilt is either accurate, because sometimes we do behave badly, or it
is false and simply an illusion.

The solution
If
we have transgressed, we must make restitution, ask forgiveness, learn
from our error and move on . If it is false guilt, set it down as an
unnecessary and irrational burden.

5. Shame : The
belief that we are worth-less than others, that we have a terrible,
incurable flaw . It is not that we have done something wrong (guilt),
but that we are bad or wrong.

The solution
Clear,
rational thinking : Everyone has behaved badly, but no one was created
badly! Any flaws only serve to make you stronger, more heroic or more
compassionate toward others.

6. Loneliness : The
belief that no one loves us, that no one cares and we must desperately
cling to anyone who finds us attractive or acceptable . This creates
dependency, not intimacy.

The solution
Accurate
Self-Assessment : Not everyone will love you, but many people will if
they meet you, get to know you, and spend time working/playing along
side you.

7. Resentment : Holding
anger and refusing to move beyond real or imagined mistreatment in the
past . Some people spend their whole lives as "victims", nurturing a
terrible event in their past.

The solution
Let
go! Life is not fair and people do not always behave well or kindly .
Use your trauma to make you wise, kind, gentle, and strong . Holding
anger will not work.

8. Self-Doubt : The
repeated, endless questioning of your own abilities, opinions or
actions . The inability to take a stand, to act boldly, or to
follow-through.

The solution
Action!
Think clearly, then take action and follow-through : Start small, but
do it! You are the world's expert on your life! Use your wisdom to live
well.

9. Stubbornness : The refusal or inability to re-assess a situation, change your mind, or admit you were wrong.

The solution
Wisdom
and Humility : Only a fool stays on a course that is headed for
disaster! Search for new and better information, remain flexible, open
and creative . When the situation changes, adjust accordingly and set a
new course.

10. Addiction : Humans
become addicted to drugs, but we also become addicted to our jobs, our
opinions or our lifestyle . We can be addicted to people and need them
rather than love them.

The solution
Take
a vacation! Periodically, walk in someone else's shoes . Break your
habits, re-arrange your schedule, delegate those things that only you
can do "right" . Use habits and traditions to set you free, don't let
habits enslave you!

Story Behind The Concept Of Paid Leaves?

2008-10-03T20:57:00.000+05:30

Before you know the story do the following.

Have u ever seen the calendar for September 1752???
If you are working in UNIX or Solaris, try this out.
At $ prompt, type: cal 9 1752
Surprised????

See the explanation for what you see.

Isn't
the output queer? A month with whole of eleven days missing. This was
the time England shifted from Roman Julian Calendar to the Gregorian
calendar, and the king of England ordered those 11 days to be wiped off
the face of the month of September of 1752. (What couldn't a King do in
those days?!) And yes, the workers worked for 11 days less, but got
paid for the entire 30 days. And that's how "Paid Leave"was born. And
that is 100% fact.

Long live the King :)))

Google shell

2008-09-25T10:46:00.000+05:30

Some more new stuff for Google lovers. It's Google shell (goosh, it's unofficial though). It's again a cool and simple thing developed for Google lovers. Though you can wonder what is the need of such a thing, but hey, you never know where it can be used. I like the web, images and video searching options. And surprisingly, it's pretty damn fast, as if we are really using a shell. Check out this link.

http://www.goosh. org/

How to Win Friends and Influence People

2008-09-12T20:29:00.001+05:30

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People
1. Don't criticize, condemn or complain.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.
Six ways to make people like you
1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person's interests.
6. Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely.
Win people to your way of thinking
1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
2. Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say, "You're wrong."
3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Get the other person saying "yes, yes" immediately.
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
7. Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view.
9. Be sympathetic with the other person's ideas and desires.
10. Appeal to the nobler motives.
11. Dramatize your ideas.
12. Throw down a challenge.
Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment
A leader's job often includes changing your people's attitudes and behavior. Some suggestions to accomplish this:
1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be "hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise."
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

Source: WestEgg

Info Thela

2008-08-22T13:49:00.000+05:30

A man speaks on his mobile phone as he sits in front of the 'Infothela-information cart,'information cart. The Infothela which has been developed by the Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Kanpur, is a mobile internet and information kiosk on a tricycle with pedal-powered generator aimed to spread internet awareness in far-flung villages of the country.

Plagiarism in Indian Music

2008-08-01T19:06:00.001+05:30

ItwoFS = Inspirations in Indian Film Songs! - http://www.itwofs.com/

Source : Brijesh Pandya

7 Key Attributes of High Performance Software Development Teams

2008-07-10T21:43:00.002+05:30

There are so many people out there writing books about the best software development processes, tools, architectures, and so much more. I woke up this morning wanting to concentrate on writing about the lower level as I see it to a High Performance Software Development team. I truly see this as the essence to great teams, and great companies. It’s simply not enough anymore to have the smartest people working for you. You need to have smart people that embody the essence of your company.

You need teamwork! Take a look at the little kids playing soccer. One of them is playing the goalie, and happy to do so, while the other is playing forward trying to score a goal. They aren’t both fighting to score a goal are they? Here are the 7 Key attributes of High Performance Software Development Teams

Software Development Team Purpose

Does your team actually understand how it fits into the overall business objectives of your company? If you are a software developer ask yourself when the last time was that your manager sat down with you to talk about the actual purpose of your team, and your role within that team to help the company succeed. If the answer is "never" or "a long time ago", you might want to talk to them about it. A team with a sense of purpose and conviction will outperform a team without purpose any day. And I don’t just mean: “Your purpose is to ship this software on time and make it awesome, here is the architect you will work with, here is the team, go at er!”. I’m talking about “Your team is critical to the success of our business. With the ongoing threat
posed to us by our competitors, your team is building the foundation for future applications built on our platform. Your key component will
drive business for the next 20 years.”

Team Member Involvement

The individual team members must be involved with each other at every level. Everyone has a role on the team. Although your team might consist of software developers, quality assurance team members, business analysts, and software architects, it is critical that everyone on the team feel a sense of involvement in the project. This is achieved by focusing on two things. Ensure that each team member understands how valuable they are with their unique skill set, and two, make sure that they understand that without their involvement on the project, without them bringing that special “secret sauce” to the table, the team would not function as well!

Commitment to the Software Development Team’s Goals

Everyone on your team must be committed to the group’s goals and direction. Nobody on your team should be looking out for #1. The level of commitment in a high performing software development team goes far beyond personal goals and agendas. If your team seems to be having a lot of turmoil, or things aren’t getting done, chances are one or many individuals on the team have forgotten what it means to be a part of the team, and have become more concerned about themselves. One has to question the commitment level of every individual when projects fail.
Not always, but a big factor in the failure can be the level of commitment of individuals on the team.

Be very careful with this one, as when commitment falls in a few members, or even just one,
it can spread like a wild fire across your team. Not putting out that one burning bush quickly, might cause you to lose more than one or two trees.

Trust in Everyone

Just like in any good family, your team must trust each other, the company, and the leader.
Everyone on the software development team must have trust in each other to honour commitments, timelines, and goals for each other. Trust within your team comes extremely handy when trouble arises, or objectives seem far too challenging to achieve. Having those relationships will ensure things keep moving. If you are a software developer and are feeling the pressure, having the trust in your quality assurance team to properly test and provide you with feedback is huge in a high stress project.

Process Orientation Critical to the Software Project Success

Software development teams that are extremely high performing are masters of process. When they work on projects, that have an arsenal of proven best practices and process’s to rely on to help them get the job done. They are usually the ones with the best tools to develop the software, as well as the knowledge that is needed to get the best out of the tools they are using. For example, some tools that our team uses include Visual Studio 2008, Cruise Control Continuous Integration, Subversion, Team Systems, and other tools.

Continuous Improvement

This is a huge one. Your team needs to understand how to constantly improve. They need to love and thirst for feedback. A team that has decided they are “good enough” and happy with the way they perform are going to get lazy and start failing. A lot of people believe that once you get to a certain level, learning stops (used to be the case anyway). In today's fast spaced world you have to be constantly learning new skills, improving yourself, and taking your game to the next level. If you don’t, you are not staying where you were, you are actually sinking.

Taking time for yourself to improve yourself is one thing, but your team also needs to take time to improve itself! Hold post-mortem sessions, have lunch and learns, promote continuous education through local colleges, and much more. While much behind lifelong learning is about the individual, the company that you work for needs to take care of its employees as well and promote continuous improvement. This doesn’t just mean just telling everyone “Always learn and take criticism well”. It means allowing the software development team to learn and take time. Give them time!

Communication

Communication in the software development process and in the software development team is extremely important. Extend that to within the organization, and any client you are working with. Yes that age old statistic of nearly 80% of the software development projects fail is true. I would lay a big bet however that had communication been at the forefront of the project, and excellent throughout the entire process, that number would be astronomically lower. With the fantastic tools and process’s we know have at our disposal as software developers, communication will be one of the major contributors to the success of the project, or the failure.

And there you have it! Now you may think to yourself “I know all this already”. If that is the case I have a few questions. Are you fostering an environment within your organization that will allow these kinds of attributes to shine through and be rewarded? If you are an employee, “Does the company you currently work at have these high performance teams?”. Everyone can effect change. And if you can’t seem to make change stick, you can always leave and try somewhere else!

Source : http://www.realsoftwaredevelopment.com/2008/06/7-key-attribute.html

Gandhi’s Top 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World

2008-06-23T21:08:00.000+05:30

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”

“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problem.”

“If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.”

Mahatma Gandhi needs no long introduction. Everyone knows about the man who lead the Indian people to independence from British rule in 1947.

So let’s just move on to some of my favourite tips from Mahatma Gandhi.

1. Change yourself.

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves.”

If you change yourself you will change your world. If you change how you think then you will change how you feel and what actions you take. And so the world around you will change. Not only because you are now viewing your environment through new lenses of thoughts and emotions but also because the change within can allow you to take action in ways you wouldn’t have – or maybe even have thought about – while stuck in your old thought patterns.

And the problem with changing your outer world without changing yourself is that you will still be you when you reach that change you have strived for. You will still have your flaws, anger, negativity, self-sabotaging tendencies etc. intact.

And so in this new situation you will still not find what you hoped for since your mind is still seeping with that negative stuff. And if you get more without having some insight into and distance from your ego it may grow more powerful. Since your ego loves to divide things, to find enemies and to create separation it may start to try to create even more problems and conflicts in your life and world.

2. You are in control.

“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”

What you feel and how you react to something is always up to you. There may be a “normal” or a common way to react to different things. But that’s mostly just all it is.

You can choose your own thoughts, reactions and emotions to pretty much everything. You don’t have to freak out, overreact of even react in a negative way. Perhaps not every time or instantly. Sometimes a knee-jerk reaction just goes off. Or an old thought habit kicks in.

And as you realize that no-one outside of yourself can actually control how you feel you can start to incorporate this thinking into your daily life and develop it as a thought habit. A habit that you can grow stronger and stronger over time. Doing this makes life a whole lot easier and more pleasurable.

3. Forgive and let it go.

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

Fighting evil with evil won’t help anyone. And as said in the previous tip, you always choose how to react to something. When you can incorporate such a thought habit more and more into your life then you can react in a way that is more useful to you and others.

You realize that forgiving and letting go of the past will do you and the people in your world a great service. And spending your time in some negative memory won’t help you after you have learned the lessons you can learn from that experience. You’ll probably just cause yourself more suffering and paralyze yourself from taking action in this present moment.

If you don’t forgive then you let the past and another person to control how you feel. By forgiving you release yourself from those bonds. And then you can focus totally on, for instance, the next point.

4. Without action you aren’t going anywhere.

“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”

Without taking action very little will be done. However, taking action can be hard and difficult. There can be much inner resistance.

And so you may resort to preaching, as Gandhi says. Or reading and studying endlessly. And feeling like you are moving forward. But getting little or no practical results in real life.

So, to really get where you want to go and to really understand yourself and your world you need to practice. Books can mostly just bring you knowledge. You have to take action and translate that knowledge into results and understanding.

You can check out a few effective tips to overcome this problem in How to Take More Action: 9 Powerful Tips. Or you can move on to the next point for more on the best tip for taking more action that I have found so far.

5. Take care of this moment.

“I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.”

The best way that I have found to overcome the inner resistance that often stops us from taking action is to stay in the present as much as possible and to be accepting.

Why? Well, when you are in the present moment you don’t worry about the next moment that you can’t control anyway. And the resistance to action that comes from you imagining negative future consequences - or reflecting on past failures - of your actions loses its power. And so it becomes easier to both take action and to keep your focus on this moment and perform better.

Have a look at 8 Ways to Return to the Present Moment for tips on how quickly step into the now. And remember that reconnecting with and staying in the now is a mental habit - a sort of muscle - that you grow. Over time it becomes more powerful and makes it easier to slip into the present moment.

6. Everyone is human.

“I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.”

“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”

When you start to make myths out of people – even though they may have produced extraordinary results – you run the risk of becoming disconnected from them. You can start to feel like you could never achieve similar things that they did because they are so very different. So it’s important to keep in mind that everyone is just a human being no matter who they are.

And I think it’s important to remember that we are all human and prone to make mistakes. Holding people to unreasonable standards will only create more unnecessary conflicts in your world and negativity within you.

It’s also important to remember this to avoid falling into the pretty useless habit of beating yourself up over mistakes that you have made. And instead be able to see with clarity where you went wrong and what you can learn from your mistake. And then try again.

7. Persist.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Be persistent. In time the opposition around you will fade and fall away. And your inner resistance and self-sabotaging tendencies that want to hold you back and keep you like you have always been will grow weaker.

Find what you really like to do. Then you’ll find the inner motivation to keep going, going and going. You can also find a lot of useful tips on how keep your motivation up in How to Get Out of a Motivational Slump and 25 Simple Ways to Motivate Yourself.

One reason Gandhi was so successful with his method of non-violence was because he and his followers were so persistent. They just didn’t give up.

Success or victory will seldom come as quickly as you would have liked it to. I think one of the reasons people don’t get what they want is simply because they give up too soon. The time they think an achievement will require isn’t the same amount of time it usually takes to achieve that goal. This faulty belief partly comes from the world we live in. A world full of magic pill solutions where advertising continually promises us that we can lose a lot of weight or earn a ton of money in just 30 days. You can read more about this in One Big Mistake a Whole Lot of People Make.

Finally, one useful tip to keep your persistence going is to listen to Gandhi’s third quote in this article and keep a sense of humor. It can lighten things up at the toughest of times.

8. See the good in people and help them.

“I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.”

“Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.”

“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”

There is pretty much always something good in people. And things that may not be so good. But you can choose what things to focus on. And if you want improvement then focusing on the good in people is a useful choice. It also makes life easier for you as your world and relationships become more pleasant and positive.

And when you see the good in people it becomes easier to motivate yourself to be of service to them. By being of service to other people, by giving them value you not only make their lives better. Over time you tend to get what you give. And the people you help may feel more inclined to help other people. And so you, together, create an upward spiral of positive change that grows and becomes stronger.

By strengthening your social skills you can become a more influential person and make this upward spiral even stronger. A few articles that may provide you with useful advice in that department are Do You Make These 10 Mistakes in a Conversation? and Dale Carnegie’s Top 10 Tips for Improving Your Social Skills. Or you can just move on to the next tip.

9. Be congruent, be authentic, be your true self.

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.”

I think that one of the best tips for improving your social skills is to behave in a congruent manner and communicate in an authentic way. People seem to really like authentic communication. And there is much inner enjoyment to be found when your thoughts, words and actions are aligned. You feel powerful and good about yourself.

When words and thoughts are aligned then that shows through in your communication. Because now you have your voice tonality and body language – some say they are over 90 percent of communication – in alignment with your words.

With these channels in alignment people tend to really listen to what you’re saying. You are communicating without incongruency, mixed messages or perhaps a sort of phoniness.

Also, if your actions aren’t in alignment with what you’re communicating then you start to hurt your own belief in what you can do. And other people’s belief in you too.

10. Continue to grow and evolve.

”Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.”

You can pretty much always improve your skills, habits or re-evaluate your evaluations. You can gain deeper understanding of yourself and the world.

Sure, you may look inconsistent or like you don’t know what you are doing from time to time. You may have trouble to act congruently or to communicate authentically. But if you don’t then you will, as Gandhi says, drive yourself into a false position. A place where you try to uphold or cling to your old views to appear consistent while you realise within that something is wrong. It’s not a fun place to be. To choose to grow and evolve is a happier and more useful path to take.

Source: http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2008/05/09/gandhis-top-10-fundamentals-for-changing-the-world/

The Do Not Call Registry

2008-06-23T18:58:00.002+05:30

All of us at some point of time must have been a "victim" of unsolicited calls from Telemarketors. Such calls not only annoy us but also waste our valuable time.

Below are some links to Do Not Call registry of various banks, telecom operators, etc. You can help the list grow by posting more links to such DNC registry.

ABN Amro (http://mail.abnamrobank.co.in/do_not_call_service_contact_from_home_1.asp)
Aircel - Chennai (http://www.aircel.com/chennai/donot_disturb.html)
Airtel (http://airtel.co.in/Common.aspx?path=0/30)
American Express (http://www10.americanexpress.com/sif/cda/page/0,1641,26614,00.asp?)
Aviva India (http://www.avivaindia.com/dnd/dnd.aspx)
Axis Bank (http://www.axisbank.com/dncr/dncr.asp)
Bank of India (http://www.bankofindia.com/home/DNCR/Customer.asp)
Bajaj Allianz (http://www.allianzbajaj.co.in/lifeinsurance/DoNotCallindex.asp)
BSNL (http://portal.bsnl.in/bsnlcca/dnc/dnclogin.aspx)
Centurion Bank of Punjab (http://www.centurionbop.co.in/site/dncreg.html)
Citibank (http://www.online.citibank.co.in/portal/citi_home_center.jsp?frameset=centerFramesetVis&frameval2=cbxCustBID&amp;frameval1=cbxgrechopgWID&framevar2=brandID&framevar1=workID)
HDFC (http://www.hdfcbank.com/personal/default.htm)
ICICI (http://www.icicibank.com/pfsuser/donotcall.htm)
Idea (http://www.ideacellular.com/IDEA.portal)
ING Vysya (http://www.ingvysyabank.com/scripts/DND.asp)
MTNL Delhi (http://bol.net.in/dnc/add_dnc.jsp)
MTNL Mumbai (http://mumbai.mtnl.net.in/telemkt.html)
Reliance Communications (http://www.reliancecommunications.co.in/Communications/Rm/rm_index.html)
Standard Chartered (https://play.standardchartered.com/smail/in/IN15/index.html)
Spice India (http://spiceindia.com/spice/vas_dnd_login.asp)
Tata Indicom (http://203.196.226.162:7777/dnd/DNDAction.do)
Vodafone (http://www.vodafone.in/vodafone/Footer/pages/DoNotDisturb.aspx)

Also Visit -

https://www.donotcall.gov/register/reg.aspx
http://ndncregistry.gov.in/ndncregistry/index.jsp
http://www.donotdisturb.in/

Logic Behind The Design Of Digits

2008-06-20T22:18:00.001+05:30

Do you ever wonder how the shape of digits were designed? What is logic behind numbers?

The
numbers we all use (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) are known as "arabic" numbers to
distinguish them from the "Roman Numerals" (I, II, III, IV, V, VI,
etc). Actually the Arabs popularized these numbers but they were
originally used by the early phonecian traders to count and keep track
of their trading accounts.

Have you ever thought why ........ 1
means "one", and 2 means "two"? The roman numerals are easy to
understand but what was the logic behind the phonecian numbers?

It's all about angles !
It's
the number of angles. If one writes the numbers down (see below) on a
piece of paper in their older forms, one quickly sees why. Angle are
marked with "o"s.

No 1 has one angle.
No 2 has two angles.
No 3 has three angles.
etc.

and "O" has no angles

Amazing isn't it.
Source: http://www.amazingposts.com/2007/07/logic-behind-number.html

what's right isn't always popular... and what's popular isn't always right

2008-06-20T22:01:00.001+05:30

A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other unused. Only one child played on the unused track, the rest on the operational track.

The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange. You can make the train change its course to the unused track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the unused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way?

Let's take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make........ ........

Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way, I guess. Exactly, to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the unused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.

The great critic Leo Velski Julian who told the story said he would not try to change the course of the train because he believed that the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train's sirens.. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids.

While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always be the right one.

'Remember that what's right isn't always popular... and what's popular isn't always right.'

Everybody makes mistakes; that's why they put erasers on pencils.

6 Ways to Sharpen Your Intuition

2008-06-20T16:52:00.002+05:30

Practical Intuition
Your intuition is a shortcut to productivity, insight, knowledge,innovation, and decision-making. So how do you harness your intuition?

You Have The Ability To Solve Problems Instantly
Have you ever looked at a problem and known the root cause and the solution – instantly – without research? You’ve been taught to distrust that inner voice, right? So you test your intuition with empirical trial and your intuition is usually right, isn’t it?You have the ability to solve problems instantly if you trust yourself. We all do. So how do we harness the power of our inner creator – the voice that cuts through all the bullshit and tells us the truth?

Six Ways to Strengthen Your Intuition:

1. Use your natural empathy – Imagine yourself in someone else’s shoes. Better yet go experience what they’re experiencing. If you are working a helpdesk and someone calls from the factory floor complaining about the speed of the printer, don’t sit at your monitor looking at graphs and metrics. Get off your ass and go down to floor and see what’s going on. Go feel their pain! Get your whole self involved it will strengthen your intuition. Great battlefield generals know this. Get out of your bunker and ride up to the front line and see it, feel it, and act on it. Experience what others are experiencing.

2. Allow yourself to feel your fear and flow past it – You don’t like fear do you? I don’t either. But most of us will have to live with it and find a way to make it our friend instead of our enemy. Unless you are superman and have transcended fear, you’ll have to find a way to harness it for good intent. Fear blocks intuition and is strengthened when we resist it. Allow yourself to feel your fear. Don’t resist any part of it. Don’t bury it. Focus directly upon it and ride it through to the end. You will come out the other side stronger with more clarity. Allowing yourself to feel your fear strengthens your intuition because it teaches you to listen to you inner world and
accept it for what it is instead of fighting it.

3. Connect with others on an emotional level – When you engage with another person, face to face, on the phone, or online, try to read their emotions. Name their emotions. Does the person sound angry, happy, hopeful, joyous, depressed, or sad? The more you connect with others emotions, the deeper your understanding of social situations and the better your intuition will function. Intuitive hunches and abstract ideas come from the same place inside you that form your emotions, so the better you are able to read and identify emotions in others the better you will be able to create and communicate via intuition. Identifying and naming emotions within yourself and others is a powerful exercise.

4. Shut down internal judgments – When you find yourself judging someone or something – including yourself – that isn’t intuition, its negative energy that blocks your intuition. When you hear the critic in your mind saying, “he’s stupid”, “she’s ugly”, “I’m fat”, or “I’m gonna lose.” Stop and think – Why did I say that? What part of me is out of alignment? When you hear your inner judge, shut him down – not by burying him, that won’t work, he’ll surface somewhere
else - but by forcing a positive question into your consciousness. When I catch myself thinking, “I’ll never get this done.” I consciously change the thought to, “How can I this done?” If I am patient and I listen to my inner voice, it will tell me how I can get it done. When my inner judge says, “it’ll never work”, I ask myself “what part of this idea will work?” or “what is a better idea?” Once you start asking positive questions your sub-conscious mind will start handing over
solutions in the form of intuition.

5. Find Solitude – The best way is meditation. Find at least thirty minutes a day to spend alone with your thoughts. Leo at Zen Habits has some great tips for finding time for solitude. Take time to sit alone with your thoughts, feelings, and visualizations. I’ve spent most of my life nearly unaware of all the stuff going on inside me. By taking the time to listen to your inner world, you’ll find out what an amazing magical being you really are. Learning to listen to yourself in solitude will train you to listen to your inner voice when you aren’t alone and will lead to catching powerful intuitive ideas right when you need them.

6. Ask questions – lots of them – This is what I call intuitive bodybuilding. Questioning is the best way to create stronger intuitions. The most powerful creative intuitions will come to
you after long question and answer sessions. Get together with a group of curious people and discuss complex issues – philosophical, scientific, sociological, medical, or literary topics. The most power comes not from the answers but from the questions, bringing you down paths you hadn’t considered, spurring further questions and more answers. There is no better way to exercise your intuition than lively question and answer sessions.

Some say intuition isn’t scientific and isn’t reasonable. They are right and wrong. The creative intuitive idea isn’t scientific unless you can prove it. However, all science starts with hypothesis. And a hypothesis comes from where? Good ones, creative ones, original ones, come from your intuition – a mental flash – the Eureka.

Source: http://www.steve-olson.com/6-ways-to-sharpen-your-intuition/

Were Remarkable People Ordinary? Yes - They Were.

2008-06-16T20:07:00.001+05:30

Do you believe that success is for other people? People who are wired for success? That you are stuck because you didn’t go to college? You’re poor, or overweight, or you aren’t as pretty as the beautiful people, or you don’t have an IQ of 170?

Do you believe that only people with special gifts can succeed in business and in life?

If you read this blog, I’d guess you don’t believe any of that garbage. But just in case, I am going to remind you.

Josh Kaufman recently wrote a post titled There Are No Magic Businesspeople in which a commenter named Robert wrote that he didn’t like the post, and believed that successful business people are “magic” or “special.” I must disagree.

One day, decades ago, two very ordinary, kinda ugly, New York Public School teachers, Eugene Klein and Stanley Eisen, decided to create a rock band which they hoped would be as big as the Beatles. These guys had very little musical talent (and still don’t). They could have done 30 years in the New York Public Schools and collected a fat union pension, but instead they choose a different path, and after many years of hard work, they became the biggest selling American rock band of the 1970s, KISS. They started life as ordinary people, what made them extraordinary were the goals they choose to pursue. Are they different? Special? Yes they are, today. But they weren’t in 1970. They were just like the thousands of other school teachers. What made them different? The power of decision. The decision to follow their dreams.

The goals you choose to pursue will determine your future. Why do the two tiny countries of Sweden and Finland produce an astounding number of professional hockey players while their neighbors Norway and Denmark produce almost none? Is it because the Swedes and Finns are genetically gifted hockey players while the Norwegians and Danes are not? Is there “magic” hockey dust in Sweden and Finland which doesn’t exist in Norway and Denmark? Of course not. The Swedes and Finns produce more professional hockey players because they choose to focus more time and energy playing competitive hockey. They choose to develop a talent which the Danes and Norwegians do not.

Am I saying anyone in Norway and Denmark could become a professional hockey player if he choose the focus on that outcome? No. I’m not even saying they should.

Am I saying that a group 60 year old men from outer Mongolia could form the biggest rock band in history if they simply decided to? No.

Am I saying someone riddled with rheumatoid arthritis and confined to a wheel chair could play golf like Tiger Woods if he simply decided to? No I am not.

What I am saying, is that you have the power of decision, the power to follow your dreams, and the power to make them come true, within reason. What is reasonable depends on your situation. Only you can decide what is reasonable for you. No one else can. And if you fail to develop your talent, you’ll never know what you are capable of.

One thing I can say with certainty, is that the younger you are, the easier it is to create the future of your dreams. As Paul Graham said, “the time to take insane career risks is in your early 20s. Once you have a marriage, kids, and a mortgage, it is much harder.” It isn’t impossible, but the trade offs are bigger, so you are less likely to take risks.

If you know what you love, see your talents, and hone them to razor sharpness, your odds of being successful and happy increase exponentially. If Tiger Woods had gone into law or medicine instead of golf because it was the safe bet, we wouldn’t be watching the greatest golfer to ever play the game. On the flip side if Einstein had pursued Football instead of astrophysics, he probably wouldn’t be a household name either.

I am not saying any of this is easy, and that it takes only a decision and nothing more. What I am saying is that your future is created by the decisions you make today, and if those decisions are always the safe choices, your life is likely to become routine and boring. If you start making the safe choices early in life, the odds that you will accomplish something remarkable decreases with each successive safe decision. Also, if your decisions are irrational and delusional and have no reasonable possibility of success, you’ll likely be poor and miserable. But that is the trick, because only you can determine what is possible and what is delusional for your life.

If there is anything remarkable about remarkable people it is that they appear to know the difference.

Source : http://www.steve-olson.com/were-remarkable-people-ordinary-yes-they-were/

Expiry Date of LPG Cylinders

2008-06-13T14:56:00.000+05:30

Most of us do not know this.
Do you know that there is an expiry date (physical life) for LPG cylinders?
Expired Cylinders are not safe for use and may cause accidents. In this regard please be cautious at the time of accepting any LPG cylinder from the vendor.

Here is how we can check the expiry of LPG cylinders:
On one of three side stems of the cylinder, the expiry date is coded alpha numerically as follows A or B or C or D and some two digit number following this e.g. D06.

The alphabets stand for quarters -

A for March (First Qtr),

B for June (Second Qtr),

C for Sept (Third Qtr), &

D for December (FourthQtr).

The digits stand for the year till it is valid.

Hence D08 would mean December quater of 2008.

Nice Statistics....A way to think positive

2008-06-12T18:48:00.001+05:30

Interesting...!

Over the weekend, I filled up my car's fuel tank, and I thought fuel has become really expensive after the recent price hike. But then I compared it with other common liquids and did some quick calculations, and I felt a little better.

To know why, see the results below – you'll be surprised at how outrageous some other prices are !

Diesel (regular) in Mumbai : Rs.36.08 per litre

Petrol (speed) in Mumbai : Rs.52 per litre

Coca Cola 330 ml can : Rs.20 = Rs.61 per litre

Dettol antiseptic 100 ml Rs.20 = Rs.200 per litre

Radiator coolant 500 ml Rs.160 = Rs.320 per litre

Pantene conditioner 400 ml Rs..165 = Rs.413 per litre

Medicinal mouthwash like Listerine 100 ml Rs.45 = Rs. 450 per litre

Red Bull 150 ml can : Rs.75 = Rs.500 per litre

Corex cough syrup 100 ml Rs.57 = Rs. 570 per litre

Evian water 500 ml Rs. 330 = Rs. 660 per litre

Rs. 500 for a litre of WATER???!!! And the buyers don't even know the source (Evian spelled backwards is Naive.)

Kores whiteout 15 ml Rs. 15 = Rs. 1000 per litre

Cup of coffee at any decent business hotel 150 ml Rs. 175 = Rs. 1167 per litre

Old Spice after shave lotion 100 ml Rs. 175 = Rs. 1750 per litre

Pure almond oil 25 ml Rs. 68 = Rs. 2720 per litre

And this is the REAL KICKER...

HP deskjet colour ink cartridge 21 ml Rs.1900 = Rs. 90476 per litre!!!

Now you know why computer printers are so cheap ? So they have you hooked for the ink !

So, the next time you're at the pump, don't curse our honorable Petroleum minister – just be glad your car doesn't run on cough syrup, after shave, coffee, or God forbid printer ink!!!!

Source: Image-e-Native Blog

Birbal's Sweet Reply

2008-06-12T17:28:00.000+05:30

One day the Emperor Akbar startled his courtiers with a strange question.
"If somebody pulled my whiskers what sort of punishment should be given him?" he asked.
"He should be flogged!" said one courtier.
"He should be hanged!" said another.
"He should be beheaded!" said a third.
"And what about you, Birbal?" asked the emperor. "What do you think would be the right thing thing to do if somebody pulled my whiskers?"
"He should be given sweets," said Birbal.
"Sweets?" gasped the other couriers.
"Yes, said Birbal. "Sweets, because the only one who would dare pull His Majesty's whiskers is his grandson."
So pleased was the emperor with the answer that he pulled off his ring and gave it to Birbal as a reward.

WHY EMPLOYEES LEAVE ORGANISATIONS

2008-06-12T15:24:00.000+05:30

Every company normally faces one common problem of high employee turnout ratio. People are leaving the company for better pay, better profile or simply for just one reason' pak gaya '. This article might just throw some light on the matter...... After reading it' I realised how true the subjectline of this mail is.

Early this year, Arun, an old friend who is a senior software designer, Got an offer from a prestigious international firm to work in its India operations developing specialized software. He was thrilled by the offer. He had heard a lot about the CEO of this company, charismatic man often quoted in the business press for his visionary attitude.

The salary was great. The company had all the right systems in place employee-friendly human resources (HR) policies, a spanking new office, and the very best technology, even a canteen that served superb food. Twice Arun was sent abroad for training. "My learning curve is the sharpest it's ever been," he said soon after he joined. "It's a real high working with such cutting edge technology." Last week, less than eight months after he joined, Arun walked out of the job.

He has no other offer in hand but he said he couldn't take it anymore. Nor,apparently, could several other people in his department who have also quit recently. The CEO is distressed about the high employee turnover.

He's distressed about the money he's spent in training them. He's distressed because he can't figure out what happened.

Why did this talented employee leave despite a top salary? Arun quit for the same reason that drives many good people away. The answer lies in one of the largest studies undertaken by the Gallup Organization. The study surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book called First Break All The Rules.

It came up with this surprising finding: If you're losing good people, Look to their immediate supervisor. More than any other single reason, he is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. And he's the reason why they quit, taking their knowledge, experience and contacts withthem. Often,straight to the competition.

"People leave managers not companies," write the authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. "So much money has been thrown at the challenge of Keeping good people - in the form of better pay, better perks and better training - when, in the end, turnover is mostly manager issue." If you have a turnover problem, look first to your managers. Are they driving people away?

Beyond a point, an employee's primary need has less to do with money, And more to do with how he's treated and how valued he feels. Much of this depends directly on the immediate manager. And yet, bad bosses seem to happen to good people everywhere. A Fortune magazine survey some years ago found that nearly 75 per cent of employees have suffered at the hands of difficult superiors. You can leave one job to find - you guessed it, another wolf in a pin-stripe suit in the next one.

Of all the workplace stressors, a bad boss is possibly the worst, directly impacting the emotional health and productivity of employees.

HR experts say that of all the abuses, employees find public humiliation the most intolerable. The first time, an employee may not leave, but a thought has been planted. The second time, that thought gets strengthened. The third time, he starts looking for another job. When people cannot retort openly in anger, they do so by passive aggression. By digging their heels in and slowing down. By doing only what they are told to do and no more. By omitting to give the boss crucial information.

Dev says: "If you work for a jerk, you basically want to get him into trouble. You don't have your heart and soul in the job." Different managers can stress out employees in different ways - by being too controlling, too suspicious, too pushy, too critical, but they forget that workers are

not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too long, an employee will quit - often over seemingly trivial issue.

It isn't the 100th blow that knocks a good man down. It's the 99 that Went before. And while it's true that people leave jobs for all kinds of reasons- for better opportunities or for circumstantial reasons, many who leave would have stayed - had it not been for one man constantly telling them, as Arun's boss did: "You are dispensable. I can find dozens like you." While it seems like there are plenty of other fish especially in today's waters, consider for a moment the cost of losing a talented employee.

There's the cost of finding a replacement. The cost of training the replacement. The cost of not having someone to do the job in the meantime. The loss of clients and contacts the person had with the industry. The Loss of morale in co-workers. The loss of trade secrets this person may now share with others.

Plus, of course, the loss of the company's reputation. Every person who leaves a corporation then becomes its ambassador, for better or for worse.

We all know of large IT companies that people would love to join and Large television companies few want to go near. In both cases, former employees have left to tell their tales. "Any company trying to compete must figure out a way to engage the mind of every employee," Jack Welch of GE once said. Much of a company's value lies "between the ears of its employees". If it's bleeding talent, it's bleeding value.

Unfortunately, many senior executives busy traveling the world, signing New deals and developing a vision for the company, have little idea of what May be going on at home.

That deep within an organization that otherwise does all the right things, one man could be driving its best people away.

India in 2020

2008-06-12T11:11:00.000+05:30

Year: 2020
Place: Two Americans at IBM, USA.
Currency Conversion Rate: Rs. 1/- = $ 100/-.

Alex: Hi John, you didn't come yesterday to office?
John: Yeah, I was in Indian Embassy for stamping.
Alex: Oh really, what happened, I heard that nowadays it has become very strict.
John: Yeah, but I managed to get it.
Alex: How long it took to get it stamped?
John: Oh, it was nasty man, long queue. Bill Gates was standing in front of me and they played with him like anything. Thats why it got delayed. I went there at 2 am itself and waited and returned by 4 pm.
Alex: Really? In India, it is a matter of an hour to get stamped for USA
John: Yeah, but that is because who in India will be interested in coming to USA man, their economy has been booming.
Alex: So, when are you leaving?
John: Anytime, after receiving my tickets from the client in India and you know, I will be getting a chance to fly Air-India. Sort of dream come true.
Alex: How long are you going to stay in India.
John: What do you mean by how long. I will be settled in India, my company has promised me that they will process my Hara Patta (Indian Green card)
Alex: Really, lucky person man, it is very difficult to get a Hara Patta in India.

John: Yeah, thats why, I am planning to marry an Indian girl there.
Alex: But you can find lots of US girls in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai.
John: But, I prefer Indian girls because they are beautiful and cultured.
Alex: Where did you get the offer, Hyderabad?
John: Yeah, salary is good there, but cost of living is quite high, it is Rs. 1000/- for a single room accommodation.
Alex: I see, that's too much for US people, Rs. 1/- = $100/-. Oh God! What about in Chennai, Mumbai?
John: No idea, but it is less than what we have in Hyderabad. It is like the world headquarters of Software.
Alex: I heard, almost all the Indians are having one personal Robot for help.
John: You can get a BMW car for Rs. 5000/-, and a Personal Robot for less than Rs. 7500/-. But my dream is to purchase Ambassador, which costs s.200000/- but has got a sexy design.
Alex: By the way, who is you are client?
John: Reddy and Naidu Associates, a pure Indian company, specializing in Embedded Software.
Alex: Oh, really, lucky to work in a pure Indian company. They are really intelligent and unlike American Body shoppers who have opened their Fly-by-night outfits in India. Indian companies pay you in full even when you are on bench. My friend Paul Allen, it seems, used his bench time to visit Bihar, the most livable place in India, probably world. There you have full freedom and no restrictions. You can do whatever you want! I wonder how that state has perfected that system.
John: Yeah man, you are right. I hope our America also follows their footsteps.
Alex: How are you going to cope with their language?
John: Why not? From my school days I have been learning Hindi as my first language here at New York. At the Consulate they tested my proficiency in Hindi and were quite impressed by my cent percent score in TOHIL i.e. Test of Hindi as International Language.
Alex: So, you are going to have fun there.
John: Yeah, I will be traveling in the world's fastest train, world's largest theme park, and the famous Bollywood where you can see actors like, Hrithik, Govinda, Shah Rukh and all. Esselworld is also near to Bollywood.
Alex: You know, the PM is scheduled to visit US next year, he may then relax the number of visas.
John: That's true. Last month, Narayanamurthy visited White House and donated Rs. 2000/- for infrastructure development at Silicon Valley and has promised more if we follow the model of High-Tech City of Hyderabad. Bill Gates also got a chance of meeting him. Very lucky person.
Alex: But, Indian government is planning to split Narayanamurthy's Infosys.
John: He is a hard worker man, he can build any number of Infosys like this. Every minute he is getting Rs. 1000/-. It seems, if you keep all his money converted as Rs. 100/- notes you can reach Pluto.
Alex: OK, Good Luck John.
John: Same to you Alex. And don't go to Consulate in a Kurta Pyjama because they will think you are too Indianised and may doubt you will ever come back and hence your Non-Immigrant Visa may get rejected. But don't forget to say "Namaste, aap kaise hai" to the Visa officer at Window5. It seems he likes that and will not give you a visa if you don't greet him that way.

75 Tips to Help You Doing What You Love

2008-06-09T21:59:00.002+05:30

Read “Think and Grow Rich”
Have a Sense of Humor
Be Yourself
Don’t Hide Yourself – Be Accessible
Visualize Your Goals Daily
Have an Opinion
Compliment People
Learn to Listen
Be a Simplifier, Not a Complicator
Learn From Your Mistakes, But Don’t Be Afraid to Make Them
Be Humble
Get Excited
Be Original. Be Grateful. Be courageous.
Be Unreasonable
Stop Being Negative – Stop justifying that you’re just being realistic. See things as they really are, not worse than they are. Then, take it a step further and see things better than they are.
Take Action
Be Nice to People
Create Your Own Luck
Stop Pretending to be a Victim
Don’t Worry What Others Think, That’s Their Business
Learn to Master Your Habits
Do Something New
Use Affirmations Daily
Beat the Odds – When you encounter an obstacle, realize that each obstacle you get through with your determination also eliminates 80% of your competition. Keep going, don’t give up and your odds will improve every step of the way.
Just Do It
Believe in Yourself – Nobody else is going to do it for you. Start now, in this moment.
Don’t be Good, Don’t be Great, Be Outstanding
Never Stop Growing
Give to Get
Don’t Talk Small About Yourself
Avoid Bureaucracy
Focus Your Energy
Read Books
Invest in the Tools You’ll Need – Stop being cheap and invest in the tools you may need to succeed.
Have Integrity
Always Be Creating Your Story
Start an Idea Journal, Capture Everything
Pay Attention to Your Dreams
Assume You Won’t Live Forever, The Time To Do This is NOW
Aim to Improve the Universe. Think Big
Don’t Give Up
Get a Psychic Reading
Make it Fun
Trust Your Gut – When it comes to logic vs intuition. Go with your gut, then justify it with logic later.
Believe in Others
Skip the Party, Work on Your Dreams Instead
Learn a Positive Word Every Day
Get Help Where Needed – Don’t try doing everything yourself. If you need web-design, hire a web designer. If you need logo design, hire a logo designer. If you need accounting done, hire an accountant. Try not to do too much yourself. Focus on what you love doing and find a way to monetize it.
Instill Confidence in Others
Take Time to Relax
Model Successful People – Read biographies, books, Blogs. Study successful people. Find someone who’s already accomplished what you want to accomplish and model their beliefs, their behaviors etc.
Repeat Your Affirmations In Your Head Until You Fall Asleep at Night
Compete With Yourself, Not Others
Smile and Make People Laugh
Be Polite, But Don’t Be Afraid to Express Yourself Either
Watch What People Do, Not What they Say They Do
Help Someone Out
Be Nice to Yourself
Enjoy the Journey
Network with People You Feel Comfortable With
Learn to Forgive – Stop wasting energy holding grudges. Forgiving someone is not the same as condoning whatever they did. It is simply letting go of the pent up negative energy inside you because it doesn’t serve you anymore. Let it go.
Try Immersion Learning
Don’t Complain. Put the Violin Away. Nobody Wants to Hear It
Stop Looking for Shortcuts. Steady Wins the Race.
Share Your Success with Others
Don’t Hang Around Negative People. Hang Out With Other Inspired Money Makers
Don’t Believe Your Excuses
Write in a Journal
Don’t Underestimate the Fear of Success
Be Decisive
Meditate
Ask for What You Want – Erase the fantasy from your head that others should know what you want. Ask for what you want, always. Stop talking about what you didn’t get, and focus on what you want.
Work on Your Communications Skills
Have Patience – Everything won’t come all at once. Have the patience to trust that everything will come at it’s perfect time.
Seek Answers Within.

Source : Inspiredmoneymaker.com

From XP to Vista to 7

2008-06-09T21:49:00.000+05:30

Windows XP is the most popular, and in many ways more reliable, than any other computer operating system offered by Microsoft. Windows XP is also one of the largest consumer software applications.

But, let’s face it, Microsoft has had a hard time selling Vista, their most recent operating system. The sales have been lower than expected because XP is still the preferred choice by home users in particular. When Microsoft stated that it sold more than 20 million Windows Vista licenses in the first month of availability, more than twice the initial sales of Windows XP, but that doesn’t sound quite right.

Anyways, to make things worse for XP users, Microsoft will officially end the lifecycle of Windows XP in June 2008, to make way for their future operating systems. That means there will be no more XP security updates, no more XP technical support, and no more XP on new computers. At some point you’ll be “forced” to upgrade to Vista, which is slower (on most computers that are 2-3 years old) and incompatible with many hardware devices.

If you love Windows XP, considering that you are not yet an open source junkie and still stuck in the Windows world, and would like Microsoft to hear you say, then join the “Save XP” movement. Close to 200,000 people have already signed the petition to show their support for Windows XP, but the petition needs more substance, from you and your friends.

Coming over to some breaking news, CrunchGear has released screen-shots of Windows 7, Microsoft’s next major OS after Vista. Microsoft’s Steven Sinofsky was interviewed by CNET about Windows 7 sometime back.

Windows 7 is expected to be released by 2010. Go figure!

Source: The Void Monk Blog

Step-by-step guide to filing your income tax returns online

2008-05-23T21:43:00.002+05:30

How do you go about it?

Visit the incometaxindia website and register as a new user. The 'new user' link is in the 'Login' section just below the image of the Indian tricolour, he specified, looking angrily into my eyes.

You will have to input five details inside the box provided on the form and click on the 'Register' button. The form asks you for your permanent account number (PAN) and other personal details.

"I hope you must be at least having your PAN," he kind of barked. "If you don't have one then even that can be sourced online." He was now furious as he was waiting for my response.

"I do have one," I said cowering a bit. "Good then," he sighed.

Once you click on the 'Register' button you will be taken to a form that will automatically have your address and other details (as submitted by you for getting a PAN). You will just have to put your own password, telephone number, e-mail and click on the 'Submit' button.

And you will be taken to a page that has links for e-filing your tax returns for the assessment year 2006-07 and 2007-08. For those who joined the party late here's what an assessment year is"

Assessment year is a period of 12 months starting from April 1 and ending on March 31 the following year. Previous year is the financial year immediately before the assessment year.

Income earned in the previous year is taxable in the assessment year.

Let's take an example to make it simple.

Let's take April 1, 2006 to March 31, 2007 as the assessment year. The previous year corresponding to this assessment year will be April 1, 2005 to March 31, 2006.

So the income earned in the previous year April 1, 2005 to March 31, 2006 is taxable in the assessment year starting from April 1, 2006 to March 31, 2007.

Similarly, income earned in the previous year April 1, 2006 to March 31, 2007 is taxable in the assessment year starting from April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008.

That's not all

Now let's say you click on e-filing for A.Y. 2007-08. You will be taken to a page from where you can download an excel utility that helps you file online income tax returns.

~ Choose which category you belong to (salaried employees with only salary income will have to download ITR-1).

~ Fill in the required data asked for in the excel sheet.

~ Save the excel file on your local machine.

~ Click on 'Submit return' link in the middle on the left hand side to upload the saved excel file to the income tax of India's server.

Still not through

Don't get bored yet. Though you may have spent a solid ten minutes reading this article now (I know it's very boring but useful too I surmise) it's not that time consuming when you do it online. After uploading excel file successfully a form will pop up in your computer's window. This is in acknowledgement that you have filed your returns online successfully. Take a print out of this form and fill in the verification part which duly needs to be posted to your nearest local income tax office.

Take due care that if you upload the file today then the income tax department should receive the verification form duly filled and signed in the next 15 days by post. If not you will have to go through the entire procedure again.

If you are already raising your eyebrows then here's a solution to it: digital signature. This is something that will make your e-filing income tax returns really paperless.

Digital signature is like your electronic identity that confirms that the person who has submitted all the details is really 'YOU'. Companies like Safe Scrypt will do it for you, again online and for a fee. As per the IT Act 2000 they are legally as valid as physically signed documents in any Indian court of law.

That's about it dear readers. Call it laziness or call it convenience. Filing your income tax returns is now really possible at the click of a mouse. I am going to file it as soon as I get my Form 16 and show to my friend that even I did it.

What's more you can file them anytime, anywhere; away from the prying eyes of sneaky colleagues and from within the confines of your home. Who said government offices work only 9 am to 5 pm. Online income tax returns can be filed even after 5 pm or at any time of the day or night.

Source : Rediff GetAhead

Java Architectural Knowledge for Job Interviews. Are we prepared?

2008-05-23T17:00:00.002+05:30

Giovani Salvador has interviewed lots of Java developers during hiring activities. As part of the interview, besides other things, he likes to understand if the person being interviewed has understanding of the applications he/she develops as a whole, not only understands business requirements but also understands the entire architecture of the application and, most important, why that specific architecture is in place for that application and its specific needs.

So below a typical dialog between a candidate (C) and him regarding architecture of a Java EE application.

- So, could you please describe, from your perspective, what should be a typical Java EE architecture for, let's say, a medium-size web-based application?
C - Of course. Well, typically I will have in place a lightweight container like Spring and persistence mechanism like Hibernate. Spring will do everything for me.
- Alright, let me be more specific, I believe my question was not well-built. Imagine if the end user is about to submit a form data. What will be the flow that data would take to be persisted in database? Describe to me the building blocks, all the path of the data, which objects will apply business rules, which objects will handle web requests, etc. Feel free to draw this architecture if you think it is better for you.
C - Not necessary. Well, I would put Spring MVC in place to handle all the requests. For persistence, Spring DAO with Hibernate support.
- hum, I think you haven't got the point. Forget about Spring. forget about EJBs. Forget about lightweight or heavyweight containers. Forget about Hibernate. Imagine you don't have these technologies to assist you. You have to propose the architecture without using any specific product. What would you do? Remember, no products. Just give me building blocks.
C - .....
C - .....
C - In the presentation layer an object will take all data submitted and...
- Which object?
C - hum...... maybe a Servlet object or .....
- Or a managed bean, something like this? Ok, go on. Once data is retrieved from the UI, what will happen?
C - ... ok, data will be sent to an object and this object will perform business rules and after that data will be persisted.
- Could you please be more specific? Do you have in mind any design pattern that could assist you for this architecture? What would be the structure for the domain layer? And Persistence layer?
C - ...
C - Man, I would work with Spring, it does all those things for me.
- Alright, that's good for me. Thank you.

Let me say somethings about this dialog.
First: I don't have any problems with Spring. In one of my posts I said that I never used it because I never had to. We need to find solutions for our problems and not create problems for given solutions. By the way, comments in that post were great.

Second: The candidate never asked how many transactions per minute, hour, etc, how many concurrent users, if it is a critical application. That dictates the architecture. We can't have silver bullet and it seems today most of the "architects" have silver bullets. And, even worst, relying on specific products. Also, based on the non-functional requirements of the application we could see if clustering would be needed. But no, no question about those kinds of things at all.

Third: The lack of knowledge on some typical design patterns is also something to take into account. Façade? DAO? Value Objects? Application Controller? Even if we don't need all of them, candidates should be prepared to use them when necessary.

I know it is hard in an job interview to remember all those things. And I really don't have answers for all problems, most of the times we just can't propose an architecture whitout digging deeper in the details, in the business requirements and having lots of discussions with peers and even business team.
But as developers and architects we can't be relying on specific products, we need to be able to understand architecture as a whole and what are the options we have to better propose a scalable architecture and build a solid system.

Here a few basic references about all this stuff.

Java BluePrints - Here some good stuff for JAva Enterprise Applications.
Java EE Design Patterns: Core J2EE patterns are here also
Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture, from Martin Fowler.
Head First Design Patterns.

There are lots of other good books and articles. Please, feel free to comment here adding more references.
Also, what do you think would be the basic understanding developers should have nowadays? Any other specific skill?

Source : Giovani Salvador's Blog

CSS-Grid Framework

2008-05-23T16:23:00.003+05:30

What is a CSS Grid Framework?

Layout grids have been used in print publishing long before the Web. They're an invisible foundation used to achieve visual cohesion in magazine and newspaper page design and layout. They essentially amount to a lattice that divides horizontal and vertical space in consistent units where text, headlines, images, and advertising can be placed.

The same concept has been adapted for web page design for much the same reason, using CSS (Cascading StyleSheets) code to position HTML elements. In fact, many editorial sites run by large print media publishers do apply grids to achieve a look on their websites that's similar to their print content. Note that the vertical axis is not as well supported in CSS Grid systems, since a web page's height is not as much of an issue as for a printed page. (Still, that's a minor issue in web page design, unless you expect the same features as with Desktop Publishing - aka DTP - systems, which is difficult to support without a PostScript-like language for browsers to implement and support.)

Why Use a CSS Grid Framework?

Not all designers support the use of using grid frameworks over tables, or even at all. But let's face it; there are layouts you simply can't do with just HTML tables without a great deal of painful effort - and lots of nesting that's hard to decipher, should ever have to make changes.

Sure, if you use grids, you'll have to add some necessary HTML tag markup to your content, thus increasing page file sizes. Also, this means that markup and style are not truly separated - a tenet which many web designers would like to adhere to. (Some people feel, rightly or wrongly, that naysayers of CSS frameworks are designers who are worried that the need for their services will decline. Though, with this logic, coders are in trouble, too, especially with the increase in cross-browser code libraries such as jQuery.)

The fact is, using a CSS grid framework means that your browser loads the CSS file(s) only once and keeps them cached "on the client side". Plus, the additional HTML markup needed to apply the "invisible" CSS framework is rarely so significant that bandwidth issues for readers should be a concern. (Interestingly, most of the naysayers seem to be talking about Yahoo UI Grids, not so much Blueprint.)

In most of the examples I've been working with, and in any of the magazine themes using grids that I've inspected, we're talking relatively small file size increases - especially compared to the blog platform code being used. A single large image will likely take up more space. With faster Internet connections, it really isn't such a big deal.

Design & Aesthetic Benefits

Regardless, of whether you use CSS grids for prototyping or production systems, there are multiple aesthetic and design benefits:

Visual design cohesion between page elements.
Uniformity and consistency in HTML element placement, thereby reducing CSS coding errors.
Easier to apply the "rule of thirds" and the "golden section" to design, which results in a visually appealing layout to most human eyes.
Mostly eliminates the need to use nested HTML tables.
Nested sub-grids, for very complex designs that are relatively simple to produce.
Easier to apply images and text callouts to produce asymmetric layouts for visual texture.
Cross-browser support, so less screaming and hair pulling when you get around to testing for that bane of designers, IE. (Bill Gates must have felt so unloved as a child to have produced so much software that does what it wants, in defiance of standards that MSFT supposedly supports.)
Reduced effort for producing slicker web page layouts, compared to coding the necessary CSS from scratch.
Reduced future effort if you need to reposition elements or change rendering characteristics (typography, margins, etc.) for related elements en masse.
Usable with static pages and CMSes/ blog platforms.
Enables the popular use of creating "magazine" and premium themes for blog platforms. (WordPress seems to be the platform that CSS frameworks are most often used with, though any other platform that allows referencing a JavaScript source file should work just fine.)

CSS Frameworks and Tools

Here's a short list of some of the more popular frameworks:

Blueprint CSS Grid Framework. Robust despite only being in V0.7 (as of this writing), with lots of support from designers, and numerous tools for generating CSS code (beyond the standard 24-column, 950 px default framework). Supports the use of Blueprint "plugins".
Yahoo! YUI Grids CSS, Grids Builder. This framework, which predates Blueprint, comes with six preset templates and four preset widths, and the layouts accomodate IAB ad unit guidelines. YUI Grids CSS is integrated with the rest of the Yahoo! UI (User Interface) Library.
YAML, YAML Builder. YAML (Yet Another Multicolumn Layout) has a fair bit of maturity, is built on web standards, and is supposedly easy to use. Though it doesn't seem to have all that much use in the WordPress community. In fact, in the many hundreds of WP themes I've looked at for the last three years, I don't recalling seeing it used once. That might be because you need a license to use it with some CMSes (Content Management Systems).
Grid Designer. This is a web tool for generating custom CSS grids. It uses its own CSS classes, so it could be said to be a framework, though it's not as well support in the design community as some of the others.
960 CSS Grid System. This system is based on a page width of 960 pixels, which is a number that's divisible by many other numbers, making it "a highly flexible base number to work with." However, 960 Grid only works with 12 or 16 columns.
CSS Boilerplate. Produced as a stripped down framework by one of the original Blueprint authors.
Sparkl. The documentations says you can create 1-, 2-, or 3-column pages, but the samples suggest you have more flexibility.

There are other CSS Grid frameworks you can find listed in Google Code, but of the three or four more that I looked at, most were incomplete in terms of documentation or even project files, so I've left them off. If you know of a framework not listed, please do let us know in the comments!

Sample Grid-based Design Process

Well this is a matter of choice, isn't it? Some CSS Grids come with a grid.png or even a .psd file that you can use in transparent mode in Photoshop, Fireworks, GIMP, etc., while you're laying down your design elements. I'm a bit more old school and always design my layouts by starting on paper:

Block off a bounding rectangle representing an entire web page. (Do this for each page you're designing.)
Partition the rectangle into smaller rectangles representing primary areas: header, footer, sidebar, content area, etc.
Further partition primary areas and pencil in "atomic" design component (site, logo, rss button, recent posts, recent comments, search box, sample posts, post thumbnails, etc.)
Translate that final sketch into skeleton HTML, using real text or lorem ipsum text. The HTML markup will include the necessary CSS Grid class and id values to support the layout I need.
Create banners/ buttons in graphics software.
Test HTML mockup in as many browsers and versions as possible. (You might need to employ a few friends if you only have one computer.)
Convert text into CMS/platform code. (E.g., convert text blocks into the necessary WP function calls and PHP code.)

You'll notice that nowhere in that process is the use of graphics software for layout mockup. That's because I am not a designer and use a very minimalist approach for what I design (for myself only). But if you do plan to use, say, Fireworks for your mockup, you would do so between steps #3 and #4.

Summary

I've tried to be comprehensive in my search for CSS Grid Frameworks, scanning over 120 articles for leads. However, it's possible I've missed some options, so feel free to offer others. Whichever CSS framework you decide to use, do so because it best suits your general needs. If the pages/ templates you design will have advertising, consider what type of ads. Early on, when I picked themes for my sites, I chose for AdSense ads (which are IAB-compliant). More recently, I've been picking/ designing for blocks of 125x125 ads, which I highly prefer over most AdSense blocks. If you're interested, there is a W3C draft specification entitled CSS Grid Positioning Module Level 3 (written by two Microsoft employees) that discusses integrating grid-based layout into CSS. The features discussed in this draft could be in IE 8.

References

Related Tools

Blueprint CSS AIR Grid Tool.
Blueprint CSS Quick Reference (PDF, 1 page).
CSS Grid Calculator.
Diagnostic CSS.
Reset CSS.

Some Articles or Sites About CSS Grid Frameworks

Here are links to a few of the many great articles out there about CSS Grids.

456 Berea Street - Grids, Tables, CSS.
A List Apart - Thinking Outside the Grid, Setting Type on the Web to a Baseline Grid.
Olav Bjørkøy - Launch: Blueprint, a CSS Framework.
Mark Boulton's 5-part series, Five Simple Steps to Designing Grid Systems.
Jeff Croft - What's Not to Love About CSS Frameworks?
CSS Demos - Hands on With Blueprint, a CSS Framework.
CSS Tricks - GridControl.
Design by Grid.
Cameron Moll - Gridding the 960.
Smashing Magazine - Design With Grid-Based Approach, Six Creative Column Techniques.
Stone Mind - First Impressions of the Blueprint CSS Framework.
Subtraction - Oh Yeeaahh! (or How to Use Grid in a Layout)
Tutorial Blog.
Vandelay Design - 65 Resources for Grid-Based Design.
W3 - CSS and Grid Layout.
Web Designer Wall - Grid and Column Designs.

Source: NetTuts

GOD Vs. Project Manager

2008-05-23T16:16:00.001+05:30

We all know this one
One day a man was having a conversation with God when his whole life flashed before his eyes as a series of footsteps on the sands of time. He saw that there were two pairs of footprints, but during the most difficult periods of his life there were only one set of footprints. He asked God "You said you will be with me throughout this journey, but why have you deserted me during the most critical times of my life??" to which God answered "Son, I did not desert you, I was always with you...you see only one set of footprints
Because during those difficult times in your life, I was carrying you in my hands".

Now know this one too!!!
Another day I was having a similar conversation with my Project Manager (PM) when my whole project flashed before my eyes as a series of footsteps on the sands of time. I saw that there were two pairs of footprints, but during the most difficult times in the project there were only one set of footprints. I asked my PM "You said you will be with me throughout the project, but why have you deserted me during the most critical times of the project??" to which the PM answered "Son, I did not desert you, I was always with you...you see only one set of footprints because during those difficult times, I was sitting on your head!!"

5 things Leonardo da Vinci did to change the world

2008-05-21T20:14:00.002+05:30

Many are known about Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, yet many things still await to be discovered. Widely considered an archetipe of the “Renaissance man”, he was a man whose curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention and talent. Among others, he was a

scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer. Many claim he was the smartest man to ever live, many claim he was the most talented to ever live… one thing’s for sure: he was a one of a kind man.

Scissors

Something as simple yet as important as the scissors had a huge importance in the development of mankind. Who knows how many centurieswould have passed without this tool had it not been for the man? Just think about all the tailors… not much of a job left for them, huh?

Parachute

Photo by The library

The first parachute had been imagined and sketched by Leonardo Da Vinci in the 15th century. It’s hard to believe something as “modern” as a parachute could be invented over 500 years ago. Leonardo’s parachute design consists of sealed linen cloth held open by a pyramid of wooden poles, about seven metres long. Still, because his ideas were way ahead of his time, the technology was not able to sustain his ideas, thus nobody invented a practical parachute until 1783.

Mona Lisa

Without a doubt the most famous painting of the world, Mona Lisa (or Gioconda) has fascinated people for centuries - and for a good reason. It is said that just the lips took 10 years to make. Also, it has fueled an impressive amount of theories, due to it’s mysterious smile and implicit (for some) sexual hint, but also because of the fact that it also has some man traits, despite having pregnant features. Still, the enigmatic smile is the crowning of a genius.

Anatomy studies

Leonardo’s formal training in the anatomy of the human body began with his apprenticeship to Andrea del Verrocchio, his teacher insisting that all his pupils learn anatomy. As an artist, he grew fond of topographic anatomy, drawing many studies of muscles, tendons and other visible anatomical features. Also, his drawing of the Vitruvian man is iconic: a nude male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square was almost a science fiction topic in 1487. The measurements are those of an average man, surprisingly correct (again, on average).

Engineering

Photo by wikipedia

During his lifetime and even after that, Leonardo was valued as an engineer. Still, with his imagination it was hard to remain practical all the time, so some of his inventions were not devisable (at least not at that time). In 2001, a vision of his was ressurected by some engineers who built a small bridge based on his ideas. For much of his life, Leonardo was fascinated by
the phenomenon of flight, producing many studies of the flight of birds, including his c. 1505 Codex on the Flight of Birds. Still, what chances would you have of somebody actually building the helicopters and tanks you designed?

Many of his ideas were unpractical, many were just brilliantly aplied, many had to wait hundreds of years before they could be aplied.

Also his connection with the masonry is widely known and speculations have always been made. Stay tuned for a list of Leonardo’s more poetic ideas, and speculations that suround his unbelievable life.

Source : http://www.zmescience.com/5-things-leonardo-da-vinci-did-to-change-the-world

Some Interesting Facts about Rajnikant

2008-05-16T17:56:00.001+05:30

Rajnikant can sneeze with his eyes open.
If you have five dollars and Rajnikant has five dollars, Rajnikant has more money than you.
Rajnikant can kill two stones with one bird.
Most people have 23 pairs of chromosomes. Rajnikant has 72... and they're all poisonous.
Faster than a speeding bullet ... more powerful than a locomotive ... able to leap tall buildings in a single bound... yes, these are some of Rajnikant's warm-up exercises.
Rajnikant can hit you so hard that he can actually alter your DNA.
In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Rajnikant could use to kill you, including the room itself.
When Rajnikant goes to donate blood, he declines the syringe, and instead requests a hand gun and a bucket.
Rajnikant can divide by zero.
Newton's Third Law is wrong: Although it states that for each action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, there is no force equal in reaction to a Rajnikant kick.
While urinating, Rajnikant is easily capable of welding titanium.
Rajnikant grinds his coffee with his teeth and boils the water with his own rage.
It takes Rajnikant 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes Movie.
Rajnikant once ate an entire bottle of sleeping pills. They made him blink.
Rajnikant is responsible for China's over-population. He hosted a Karate tournament in Beijing and all women within 1,000 miles became pregnant instantly.
Some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Rajnikant pajamas.
Simply by pulling on both ends, Rajnikant can stretch diamonds back into coal.
When Rajnikant does a pushup, he isn't lifting himself up, he's pushing the Earth down.
Rajnikant can slam a revolving door.
Rajnikant is expected to win gold in every swimming competition at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, even though Rajnikant does not swim. This is because when Rajnikant enters the water, the water gets out of his way and Rajnikant simply walks across the pool floor.
Rajnikant is the only person in the world that can actually email a kick.
Rajnikant can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.
The easiest way to determine Rajnikant' age is to cut him in half and count the rings.
Nagasaki never had a bomb dropped on it. Rajnikant jumped out of a plane and punched the ground.
Rajnikant once went skydiving, but promised never to do it again. One Grand Canyon is enough.
Rajnikant got his drivers license at the age of 16. Seconds.
Rajnikant doesnt wear a watch, HE decides what time it is.
When Rajnikant does division, there are no remainders.
Rajnikant never wet his bed as a child. The bed wet itself out of fear.
Rajnikant doesn't go on the internet, he has every internet site stored in his memory. He refreshes webpages by blinking.
When you say "no one's perfect", Rajnikant takes this as a personal insult.
When Rajnikant plays Monopoly, it affects the actual world economy.
There are only two things that can cut diamonds: other diamonds, and Rajnikant.
When Arnold says the line "I'll be back" in the first Terminator movie it is implied that is he going to ask Rajnikant for help.
The pen is mighter than the sword, but only if the pen is held by Rajnikant.

Bruce Lee’s Top 7 Fundamentals for Getting Your Life in Shape

2008-05-12T20:32:00.000+05:30

Lee was a very famous martial artist and actor who sparked the first big interest of Chinese martial arts in the West in the 60’s and 70’s.

But besides being an awesome fighter and iconic figure Lee also had some very useful things to say about life.

Here are 7 of my favourite fundamentals from Bruce Lee.

1. What are you really thinking about today?

“As you think, so shall you become.”

Perhaps the most basic statement of how we work. Think about what you are thinking today. What do those thoughts say about you? About your life? And how well do they really match your plans for your life and your image of yourself?

It’s easy to forget abut this simple statement in everyday life. It’s easy to be quite incongruent with what you think on an ordinary day compared to how you view yourself and your goals. A simple external reminder such as a post-it with this quote can be helpful to keep you and your thoughts on the right track.

2. Simplify.

“It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.”

If you want to improve your life then it’s tempting to want to add more. One problem with this may be that you don’t really have the time or energy to do more though. And so your efforts to improve become short-lived.

Adding more and more just creates more stress and anxiety. Removing clutter and activities, tasks and thoughts that are not so important frees up time and energy for you to do more of what you really want to do. And as the clutter in your outer world decreases the clutter in your inner world also has a tendency to decrease. This has the added benefit of making it easier to actually enjoy whatever you are doing even more while you are doing it.

Adding more thoughts and thinking things over for the 111:th time may create a sense of security. It’s also a good way to procrastinate and to avoid taking that leap you know you should take. And the more you think, the harder it gets to act. Perhaps because you want to keep that comforting sense of security and avoid the risk of wrecking that feeling.

Thinking has its place. It can help you plan a somewhat realistic route to your goal and help you avoid future pitfalls. Overthinking is however just a habit that will help you waste a lot of time. It’s more useful to replace that habit with the habit of just doing it.

3. Learn about yourself in interactions.

“To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.”

The one person that is the hardest to get to really know may be yourself. Studying yourself while you are alone may result in some insights. But it’s also likely to produce a lot of made up thought loops and doubts in your mind. A good way to really learn more about yourself is study yourself in interactions with other people. How people react and act in these interaction can over time teach you a lot. And what you think and how you react can perhaps teach you even more.

What you see, feel and hear in other people may be a reflection of you. The things you learn by thinking this way may not always be pleasant, but they can be enlightening. They help you to see yourself and also how you may be fooling yourself. And these powerful insights can be very valuable for your personal growth. So, in interactions with others, try asking yourself: what is reflected?

4. Do not divide.

“Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.”

This is a very useful and powerful thought. It is also one that obviously is hard to live by. Why? I believe it’s because the ego loves to divide and find ways to “add more” to itself. It want’s to feel better than someone else. Or more clever. Or prettier. Or cooler. Or wiser.

How can you overcome this way of thinking and feeling?

To me it seems to boil down to not identifying so much with your thoughts or feelings. That doesn’t mean that you stop thinking or feeling. It just means that you realize – and remember in your everyday life – that the thoughts and emotions are just things flowing through you.

You are not them though.

You are the consciousness observing them.

When you realize and remember this it enables you to control the thoughts and feelings instead of the other way around. It also enables you to not take your thoughts too seriously and actually laugh at them or ignore them when you feel that your ego is acting out. When you are not being so identified these things you become more inclined to include things, thoughts and people instead of excluding them. This creates a lot of inner and outer freedom and stillness. Instead of fear, a need to divide your world and a search for conflicts.

To learn more about this I would recommend Eckhart Tolle’s books and signing up for the 10 free and excellent webcasts - available both in video and audio form – that he’s doing with Oprah right now.

5. Avoid a dependency on validation from others.

“I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.”

“Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.”

The ego wants to add because it thinks it’s not enough. One way of doing that is by craving validation from others. We want to feel smart, pretty, successful and so on. And the validation makes you feel good for a while. But soon you need a new fix.

And the problem with being dependent on validation from other people is that you let other people control how you feel. This creates a rollercoaster of emotion in your life.

To find more emotional stability and to take control of how you feel you need to get your validation from to a more consistent source. Yourself. You can replace the expectations and validation of others by setting your own expectations and by validating yourself.

And so you validate yourself by thinking about how awesome you are. You don’t sell yourself short. You appreciate how far you have come and the positive things you have done. You appreciate your own value in the world. You set goals and you achieve those goals. This builds confidence in yourself and in your abilities. These things will help you to build a habit of inner validation.

Now, showing off. Why do we do that? To get validation from others. However, this need for validation often shines through and that is why a thing like bragging seldom works. Instead of seeing the cool and successful person you are trying to project people just see the insecure and needy person looking for validation. And your bragging falls flat.

6. Be proactive.

“To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.”

It’s easy to get locked into a reactive mindset. You just follow along with whatever is happening. You do what the people around you do. You react to whatever is going on.

And so you get lost in your circumstances. This way of thinking doesn’t feel too good. You tend to feel powerless and like you are just drifting along.

A more useful and pleasurable way of living is to be proactive. As Bruce says: to create opportunities despite the circumstances around you. This feels better and provides better results. But on the other hand it’s also more difficult. It’s easier to just drift along in the reactive stream of life. And if you want to be proactive then you may have to take the lead quite often. And that can be scary.

Still, living proactively is so much more rewarding and exciting.

7. Be you.

“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.”

Just being yourself is a hard thing to do. You may do it sometimes. And other times you may forget or fall back into old thought patterns. Or you may imitate someone else.

And that comes through too. And it may work.

But I believe that being the real you will work better. Because there the genuine you is shining through. Without incongruency, mixed messages or perhaps a sort of phoniness. It’s you to 100%. It’s you with not only your words but you with your voice tonality and body language – which some say is over 90% of communication - on the same wavelength as your words. It’s you coming through on all channels of communication.

So I’m not saying: “yeah man, you should just be yourself because it’s the right thing to do etc.” I’m saying that I think being your authentic self – the one where you do little dividing, the one that needs little validation from others, the one where your ego is not running the show and trying to get something from someone – will give you better results and more satisfaction in your day to day life because you are in alignment with yourself. And because people really like genuine and people really like authenticity.