What's with the statistics?

This is something that I wanted to talk about for quite sometime, since Kashkari was nominated to head the $700 billion bailout. Recently I read a news article where in IIT the Governor of Haryana spoke about how 36% of NASA scientists are Indian origins, 35% of Microsoft are Indians. Some might find it interesting. But I don't. While it is very clear that, of the 36% of so called Indian origin NASA scientists, most of them are US citizens. That would be same with Microsoft, silicon valley, MIT, etc., Why do we keep talking about this. I remember few years before I used to get emails about these statistics. some might argue, that these statistics are meant to motivate people. well good. but shouldn't that motivation be something that would benefit the country than the individual. while the entire US is full of immigrants, How many medias or institutions or individuals in Britain, Ireland, Germany, Italy, etc., talk about how their origins are leaders, scientists, CEO's of major companies in US. It would be very interesting to know that. some months ago, I was talking to one of my colleague here who came from India some 20-25 years before and is now a US citizen. I was talking to him about something in India, and told him "well, you know that because you are Indian". He said "You know, I am now a US citizen". I bet most of the 36% so called Indian origins would think the same way. They might keep touch base with India and Indians, just in case, if something goes down over in US, India can be their backup. Though they are the face of Indians over here, You don't have to spread that in india. You would want, the US media to report these statistics, the US corporate heads to speak out about Indians in their meetings, interviews.

Do you want India to be superpower in 2050, 36% Indian origins in NASA wouldn't help. You want 100% Indians in ISRO topping those 36% in NASA. 35% of Indians working for Microsoft wouldn't help. There is one more statistics that people have to remember. More than 90% of Indian IT Industries revenue, which India is counting on for being rich, comes from US and other countries. That means fate of India remains on the economy of one of these countries. For the news media rather than patronizing these statistics, try to focus on people in India who contribute to the development of the country than the individual, and for people who keep talking and forwarding emails on these statistics, please get a life!.

My photo collection - 4

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28379221@N06/sets/72157606233474995/

My photo collection - 3

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28379221@N06/sets/72157606424334091/

My photo collection - 2

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28379221@N06/sets/72157608461280544/

My photo collection - 1

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28379221@N06/sets/72157609859690528/

Not too complex

When was the last time you were about to curse something loud. I was this close to doing that. When you want to do something real simple and quick and the password expires, and you had to reset it, when everytime you try to reset, it says "not too complex". What on earth do you do. At one point you enter something complex, that even you wouldn't remember after sometime. This is stupid. with so many logins, passwords one has to remember in this IT world, "not too complex" would drive everyone insane.

Nameless Road

On the way from Austin to Lake Travis, there is a road named, well "Nameless Rd". At first I thought "you got to be kidding me". When I did a search, i found this interesting information.

Settled in 1869, the citizens of the fledgling committee ran up against the postal authorities in Washington. No one recalls what names were submitted, but they were rejected six times. The expressed their frustration by writing back (which may have been just what the buereaucrats wanted) "Let the post office be nameless and be damned!"The postal authorities had a laugh - and then granted their wish. The post office was registered as Nameless, Texas in 1880. The community had fifty people, two churches, a store and school in the mid-1850s. The town sent out cotton and cedar posts - and imported groceries. Sadly, the post office with the unique name was forced to close - and mail for the dwindling residents started coming through Leander. The town is mainly remembered by Nameless Road and the Nameless Cemetery - shown on detailed maps of the area.

New Interest

photography

MY FIRST BOOK

You always have this question what next? after 2 months of writing blogs, this question did pop up in my mind and I wanted to take it to the next level. I decided to compile all my blogs and publish them as a real book after I get to 50. Now that I have reached 50, I wanted to make it happen and started compiling and formatting so that to make it as a book. more than a weeks effort (it wasn't as easy as i thought) and spending $80 for printing and binding it as a professional book, Now I am the author of my very own and first book "THE WAY I SEE". Even if I publish a biography or any books in the future, this sure is special, for being the first.

50

Yes. My 50th blog. Its nice to be this far, so soon. When I started off writing blogs I didn't think I would get so involved in this. All I wanted was to shift my focus from TV to something else. well, it worked. Writing blogs was the easy part, everything just fell in. If at all I spent extra time, it would be for the images and widgets. As like the title, all my blogs were written based on the way I see things. I plan to continue the same way. Thanks to all, and for your comments keeping this blog lively. Just keep reading. Its been so far so good and I hope to keep this momentum going until I find something else more fascinating to relax!

Go Green

Everyone talks going green, well, here's few things that might help...

Ten Tips to Save Energy (and Money) in Your Home

A whopping 46 percent of home energy use is, umm, energy loss! In other words, no productive energy use at all! Here are simple ways of reversing this, mostly by changes of habit.

Thanks to climatecrisis.net and The Home Energy Diet (New Society Publishers, 2005), for many of the carbon savings figures.

1. Each degree you turn down the heat saves 3 percent of heating costs, while each degree you raise the temperature of your air conditioner saves 3-4 percent of cooling costs. By changing the temperature by 2 degrees all year, you can save about 2,000 pounds of C02 a year.

2. Cook with a slow cooker or a toaster oven (or even a solar oven!) to reduce electrical use from kitchen appliances. For a meal that requires one hour to cook in an electric oven, and which uses 2.7 pounds of C02, a crockpot uses 0.9 pounds of C02 for seven hours, a toaster oven takes 1.3 pounds of C02 for 50 minutes, and a microwave only 0.5 pounds of C02 for 15 minutes of cooking. A solar cooker requires NO C02!

3. Switch to a laptop instead of using a desktop computer and cut three-quarters off your electrical use. Turn off the laptop at the end of the day.

4. Switch to cold water washing and save 80 percent on energy used for laundry and save an estimated $60 a year. Hang dry your clothes instead of using the dryer and save 700 pounds of C02 a year.

5. Plug anything that can be powered by a remote control or that has a power cube transformer (little black box) into a power strip, and turn it off, and/or unplug, when not in use. (Power cubes are 60-80 percent inefficient.)

6. Turn off the lights when you aren’t using them and reduce your direct lighting energy use by 45 percent. Stop using heat-producing halogen lamps (they can also be fire hazards). Install occupancy or motion sensors on outdoor lights.

7. Switch to compact fluorescent from regular incandescent bulbs and use 60 percent less energy per bulb and save 300 pounds of C02 a year.

8. Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket and save 1,000 pounds of C02 a year. Insulate your hot water pipes.

9. Use public transportation whenever possible, carpool, shop locally, and ideally switch to a hybrid or energy-efficient car (if you haven’t already).

10. Keep your tires inflated to improve gas mileage by 3 percent. Every gallon you save also saves 20 pounds of C02 emissions.

source: care2.com

Drive One...Will you!

Ford made a profit of $100M this quarter. that's interesting. but more interesting is the recent ford tv ad "Drive One", which says ford equals toyota in quality!!!. check out this article forddriveone
Well, the question is, whether this will work. especially among us, indians and asians, for majority of whom, the term quality is synonymous to Japanese product. for most of asians, its either Honda, Toyota or Nissan, very few it's Mitsubishi... this new ad might work well with the American people, but to us and asians in general i don't think it would make a slightest difference to opt for ford and to Drive One...

around the world...

I wonder, why I was searching online, going crazy trying to download English songs, when my colleague sitting few cubicles away had more songs than i have heard of. All it required was an external hard drive and a USB cable. sometimes you learn again that things that you need might be in your proximity and all it need is to rise up and ask, but of course to the right people...

Super 5

There are few things I wish they would get rid off in tamil movies... (leave alone other languages, that list would take quite a while...)

5. Songs that pop from somewhere for no reason...
(except movies in which, only the song is good...)


4. Scenes, Dialogues that reflect 1960's
(old titles, remix songs, same old story... atleast come up with your own dialogues for crying out loud...)

3. Sentiments
(mother, sister, the latest father... wooo...that still leaves a lot of relations for these people....)

2. Punch dialogues
(intolerable... do they hear what they say.)

1. Storyless movie with a worst screenplay, combined with senseless scenes and worthless dialogues... like a full package
(man...I can't forget the movie "time")

IT would never get better.

No. I am not referring to Information Technology. Its the Income Tax department in India. I think there needs to be a different kind of Income tax raid. This one should be people getting into Income tax department and conducting a raid to see how many of the returns they haven't refunded to the people. I still haven't got my 2004-05 tax refund. who knows, how many pending cases are there in this department. It took me just one hour to complete my tax returns here in US and the debit or credit of the tax refunds are done automatically. I got to tell you, I don't think such departments in India are going to get any better even if we are talking about India being in the list of developed country in 2050, which in my view is hypothetical and would require a major overhaul of the entire system in India including us.

fortune enough!

On the 2008 fortune 500 list, fortune as again Walmart came in at no.1. Exxon came in at second. What's interesting is texas had 56 of the fortune 500 companies and was second next to New york with 57 companies. More interesting is that houston had 22 of the fortune 500, second next to new york city. thats impressive. whatever media or people call, walmart somehow pulls it off!

Cast your wallet!

The total money raised for the 2008 US presidential compaign by all the candidates put together till 21-Apr-2008 according to CNN report is $776,718,080 ($776 Million) that's INR 3,101,43,52,934. There's still 4 more months for the Democratic convention at Denver and 6 more months for the election. On one end, we talk about economy, expenditure, toll on middle class, on other end, almost a Billion dollar is being spent on compaign alone. lobbyist have a major take on this. one way or other each candidate would have to owe to those lobbyists once they are elected. how would you expect these candidates to do something good for the middle class. By the way, what they are up to. Power!. Being called as the most powerful person in the world!.I guess these candidates are no different from Indian politicians when it comes to elections!.

Check out this site opensecrets.org for some interesting informations about US elections and candidates!

It doesn't really matter for this sport....

I guess, it doesn't matter whether its ICC or IPL, people really don't care. I was watching the highlights of the recent IPL matches, the crowd is unbelievable. the only thing that matters as always is good entertainment. as long as they are able to provide that, any version of this sport is going to be a success. this is nothing new. its like county cricket in England.

If IPL becomes a hit, which from the initial few matches, looks like it is, will bring in more international players and be a great treat to those millions of cricket watchers, who now have a chance to watch more cricket and can associate themselves to a particular team.

With the teams owned by celebrities, there won't be anything short of media attention and advertisement for this version of cricket.

demand vs supply

The demand for renting apartments in chennai are skyrocketing and people are willing to pay more than what the owners ask for. my parents were telling me that one of our neighbour in chennai had a tenant moving out and even before they moved out, there were huge demands for the apartment and people were willing to pay more than other just to get the apartment. thats the same with buying new apartments. the more they build, the quick they sell, no matter how pricy they are. that's inflation best explained.

fun!

Animator Vs Animation!

Adiós

Woodlands Drive In, Cathedral Road, Chennai. Its a famous landmark in chennai. Those from chennai would know that. After my college, when I moved to chennai for work, me and my friends used to go to this drive in hotel. It used to be hangout place some time. though i was not so crazy about the food there, we liked to go out there.

I still remember singer P.B.Srinivas, sitting in the next table writing something. We never talked to him. most of them working there were old, maybe they were working there for a very long time. This should be hard on them. Once I told my friend "I'm surprised how none of the politicians haven't had an eye on this".

Recently I was reading Hindu and was surprised to see that government has taken over the place and have shut down the hotel. that's bad. these politicians, they jus' can't stop! can they?

take it easy....

The names of most of the women in India end either with "a" or "i". I know some of you might be thinking "room pottu yosippano" appadinnu...

How to name it?...its mystery to me!

If I have to meet a film music composer one day, my first question would be " How do you compose a song", I mean how do you come up with a tune.

I am not sure how many music composers are well versed with ragas, if that is the basis for composing a tune. Even if ragas are the basis for composing tunes, then how about those hundreds of carnatic singers who know these ragas at the tip of their tongue. shouldn't they be able to come up with numerous tunes and compositions.

Well, there could be one argument that they sing compositions rendered by thiagarajar, dikshitar and others. But they spend their whole life trying to master in ragas and to identify, differentiate and sing in different ragas. the other argument could be that they could, but they don't, which i don't completely agree with. Do all music directors know all ragas? I don't think so. Then how can they come up with 10 different tunes for one single song.

There are musicians who have more audio CD's and cassettes than the music store itself and that they pick few tunes from each and make a fusion. leave those people out of this. they don't belong to this category, though that by itself is a talent!

Sometimes when I hear movie composers say, that all music are from sa-re-ga-ma-pa-tha-ni, I would go like, what?

Can it be only god's gift like what rahman says. I don't agree in total. may be you are talented by birth, but that alone cannot produce hundreds and thousands of songs.

Once I tried to come up with some tune just to see how difficult it is. I was lost after a few minutes. leave alone the computers, softwares, cd's, cassettes, there should be a systematic way for composition of tunes. Is it a method or an art or skill or gift?

Gold is Old

With the rising gold prices, its going to be tough on middle class.

Do Something!

Having following up with the latest Hogenakkal issue, I was thinking what the hell these politicians do. those sitting at the central seems to be completely useless. Then we have the best position in India. Termed as first citizen, I don't think they do atleast what the last citizen do for a living. President of India. by the way I know the current president is a female and her name ends with patil, I forgot her first name... I started off with smitha patil, but then realized she was an actress. then I had to google it to see that her first name is Pratheeba... who is she by the way?... I know the post is dummy, but atleast don't show that way.

When I googled, I found out that the vice president is Mohammad Hamid Ansari!!!

I don't know what any of our early presidents have done something that is remarkable. Abdul Kalam is considered as one of the best presidents we had. If maintaining the mogul garden in rashtrapathi bhavan is what is achievement is as president, then we might as well be called as first citizen. most of us maintain our houses lot well than that.

The lowest level employee in a company is asked to do special projects in addition to their work. some are even asked to find new business, participate in cross functional teams. If this is the case for a young graduate, with so much experience behind them and sitting in the highest position in the country, shouldn't they be doing something.

There are so many common issues in the country, from interlinking rivers, infrastructure development, education, global warming,.. you could go on and on... how difficult it is for a person at such a high post to start initiating one of these projects and organize and push things... if you can't do this, then I don't understand what else would they be able to do...Atleast develop and promote sports other than cricket. How difficult would that be.

Please don't talk about dreaming big, if you can't at the highest office bring few things to reality.

If you have to choose one... contd....

Scenario 1:

On a single lane, a car going in front of yours is unbelievably slower than the speed limits, you are honking him to go faster.

Scenario 2:

On a single lane, you are going at the speed limit and the car behind you is coming at incredibly fast, he is honking at you to go faster.

which is worse?

If you have to choose one

If you get 10% discount on a product and end up paying the rest of 90% and the dealer gets 90% of your money by offering a discount of 10%, who is wiser?

One has the ability to foresee future needs, think, innovate and create new products but does not have the ability to market it to the consumer, another has the ability to sell the product to the consumer, but has no capability to innovate or create a new product. who is smarter?

Person 'A' likes whatever he gets, Person 'B' gets whatever he likes. who is better?

Kya!

You go to a friends house or gather around fellow indians and start having a conversation and find yourself, you are no different than your non-indian colleagues. Most tamil speaking people can visualize this scenario. you have to speak in English with your indian friends who don't speak tamil, if you don't know hindi.

If you had gone to north india, you might have experienced, when you look at the buses or any sign boards, those letters look no different that this matrix image.

Except for all states, we were the only state which opposed hindi.

Whatever be the intensions those days when DMK banned hindi, it sure is costing a lot to all tamilians. you and I have to learn tamil compulsory but dayanidhi and anbumani might speak hindi . I wouldn't be surprised if their grandkids don't even know tamil.

You can't blame those politicians. that's how they make their living. the same political party who banned tamil and the same politician who was the forerunner in that movement, would name his channel as SUN TV and people wouldn't dare to ask a question. I wonder if SUN is tamil in karunanidhi's dictionary!

STAND UP TO APPRECIATE THINGS!

Humour is something that no one can deny liking it. let it be jokes in a magazine, movies or even cartoons for some. I'm still a fan of tom and jerry. for more than two years i have been watching standup comedy shows. thanks to comedy central and youtube. to stand in front of thousands of people and talk about things with no script and to make people laugh is amazing.
Some of those stand up comedians are really great. I like those blue collar tv guys. recently i rented from netflix, a standup by Steve Harvey called "Don't trip, He Ain't through with me yet". This guy was so amazing, I have become a huge fan of him. Its hilarious if you really understand!
I relate to those tamil live comedy dramas i used to watch. crazy mohan, YGM, S.V.Sekar., I liked watching those live dramas. but somehow most of them who came to those dramas are of the same community and only a very few people from other community come to watch those shows. Its not easy to do live performances. I hate when people choose to watch stupid serials for hours but don't go to watch those shows. thats real talent out there and those people need to be appreciated and motivated.

a candid concern

In my office, currently there is a weight watcher program going on. every friday, people have to check their weights and people who are off their weights have to pay a penalty. so every friday I go over there and check my weight, but for a different reason. yeah, I check to see if I have gained any weight. so far no luck, I have been weighing the same constantly. I have tried my best to put some more weight, while many say its easy to gain weight and tough to lose, my question to those people has always been, how is it easy to gain weight. pizzaa, burgers, you name it, I am having it. But still my weight has never gone up or down. I don't work out either.

Man I wish I know one solid way to gain weight!

jeans don't change genes

You could live in the heart of manhattan, you could walk in the streets of paris, you could shop in madrid, you could do as many degrees as you want, you could very well use all the vocabs in english, you could sing rap and hip hop, you could change you accent, but there is one thing that hasn't changed, that's the genes. people still have their roots to however they were grown. very few have made a cultural shift. when compared to the population that's negligible. no matter what they say, they still can't change few things that have made their identity as Indians. no matter where they are, no matter how their outfits change, the inner soul remains the same.

the psychology that still works!

99 cents, 1.99, 2.99, 9.99, 99.99, 1099.99., this .99 syndrome is going on very strongly still. gas stations have that 9/10 permanently set up. i can understand for less than $100, but hdtv for 2099.99, that looks gross. may be that gives an option for people who don't want to look like a moron for having overpaid, to say "yeah i bought it for around $2000" and for people who act uptown, to say "its $2100". anyway with taxes in addition it crosses the mark. but no matter how many years this has been there it sure is true that this .99 psychology works!

tradition that continues

No matter how good your wife cooks, sometimes you end up saying "my mom used to make
it better". do u guys say that. honestly my wife cooks so good and sometimes the
best, but still occasionally if its something my mom used to make, i end up saying "its good, but its not the same as my mom makes". mostly i say it to tease her.i know its bad. i remember my father telling about my grand mothers food, but for me my mom's cooking was much better than my grand mothers. I guess it runs through generations like a tradition for many or guess its an inbuilt strategy by men to motivate their wife's to make food better everytime. but i got to tell you, that they are smarter than us and the strategy doesn't work many time.

Taare Zameen par

Its a nice film. It has taken so many years for someone to make such a honest attempt and make it big. kudos to aamir. if you think about it, when we were kids, very few parents gave freedom to their kids to get into sports or other extra curricular activities. All they were interested in, was the marks and ranks. to some extent it wasn't their fault either. they grew up in an environment where people with better marks lived a much better life than others and they wanted their kid to have a better life.

But today, things are not the same. todays kids get to learn a lot more than education. sometimes, because the kids are interested to learn, sometimes because the neighbors brag about their kids, to avoid that, sometimes, genuinely to have their kids be competitive and to have them options. but whatever, you can't deny that the kids today are in pressure to do something.

One thing that hasn't changed is that no matter what the kids are, parents want their kids to get into medicine or engineering, ultimately not leaving much option for them. with every thing becoming so damn competitive, for future generation kids, its a jungle out there man...

Did he really?

Did he really predict things. somehow i don't get it. yeah, lots of things that happened were mentioned in his writings. but most of them look to me like you can interpret them whatever the way you want. recently in history channel they were talking about how a painting by nostradamus of a tower being in fire is similar to the twin tower.

who knows he might have painted something that happened during his days. most of his paintings have always been compared after it happened. if you look at the literature, like always there are few who say he did predict and few who say those are mere interpretations. at this point i gotto join the latter. to me those meteorologist who predict the climate and the weather atleast a week before are real nostradamus!

change i don't believe in !!!

sometimes you cultivate certain habits, that even after many years it sticks to you. some good and some bad. i have this habit of checking the lock atleast three times, every time i lock something. it becomes worse sometimes. i'm sure everyone has atleast one such habit, which they would like to get rid off, but fail successfully!

few moments of lateral thinking...

knight rider!

This was one of my favourite tv show when i was a kid. it seems they are going to come up with new series. though it looks like a fiction tv show, some how i think cars that run without human driving is possible.

what you need is a system which can take you from point "A" to point "B" at a regulated speed without hitting or being hit by any other vehicle.

A perfect co-ordination between, steering, acceleration and brake could do that. You already have GPS for navigation, Lexus has automatic steering control for parallel parking. this can be extended for steering and driving when the vehicle is in motion.

Volvo and other vehicles have sensors that detect if there are any vehicles close to yours and signals. a sensor which can relate this signal to the accelerator and brake could help control when the vehicle is motion to prevent the vehicles from accidents.

A GPS with preprogrammed speed, could control the accelerator depending upon where you are. the only things that are left are stop signs and of course human intervention. if some electronic sensors are placed on stop signs which can be detected by the vehicle then that problem is avoided. for human intervention, you could always have human override, but may be humans should stop interfering!

With a handful of sensors and a desire to make it, this car can no more be a fiction.

May be it might come to existence in market in the 22nd century.

Diversity in Unity

India is known for unity in diversity. with 28 states, 7 union territories, 18 official languages, 200+ spoken languages, regional dialects, all religions, 3000+ caste categorizing into forward, backward,scheduled and around 25000 subcaste, its a tremendous effort that we have been in unity during the pre independance and post independance.

But if you drill deep down, is that true or are we living in an illusion. on one end we see states that kick people out, states that treat other regional people like enemies, states that would rather allow the water to go to the sea than to give it to neighbouring states, states that don't get attention, states where people want to merge with other countries. on the other end, within states we have people fighting for religion, caste, subcastes, etc., political parties who would do anything to get to power.

The only time we feel patriotic is during the cricket matches. i don't think, there is anything else that would unite indians other than cricket, not even speeches by presidents, prime ministers. the only other time i saw some unity visible among people was during the kargil.

we have been holding this unity in diversity for quite sometime. but to me it looks that india is still vulnerable the way it was when the britishers came to india. all it takes is that one stone that could stir this up. it could be in any form. with the current situation, we wouldn't even know that some one is already on it.

you got to be kidding me!

here are some of the international observance days

mar 21 - world sleep day
apr 29 - world dance day
oct 01 - world vegetarian day
nov 19 - world toilet day! really?

surprisingly they don't have a day for hangover. with a billion dollar industry and consumption by millions of people, they should declare a day as world hangover day. happy, sad, success, failure or whatever, for those people who set their "bar" high deserve to be recognized.

this program is sponsored by.....

did u see the funniest commercials of the year 2007. some are really funny. when i think of commercials it reminds me of my childhood days when we would be watching tv, and all of a sudden they would show a card which said "sorry for the break". it will be there for atleast 5 mins and then they would show the commercials. many might remember this. once commercials used to be in between programs and later programs were in between commercials. they churn out huge money. but at the sametime if there is one field where you can think beyond boundaries and stretch your creativity and imaginations, its the ad field. when you look at the commercials they run nowadays, some of them are really creative, they put a lot of imagination and thought in it and it is impressive. some, boy, they are as dumb as you can think. one of the commercials I like is the mastercard priceless ad. its good and it does reflect the product. but my favorite in the list would be the famous sony ericsson's "one black coffee please". To my rememberence that was the first ad that was made with class.

COOL!

Recently on our trip to arizona, we happen to go to a place called Sedona. Its a beautiful scenic place in arizona. thanks to my friend who suggested us to add to our itenary.I have never been in a snow before. the first experience to walk in the snow and to get the feel of it was amazing. I am not sure how much fun it would be to live in a place where it snows, but its worth every minute for the experience and feel of it.

what you give is NOT what you get!

This has been in practice in India for years, may be centuries. But recently i was watching a program and they were saying that this is currently becoming popular in US. In India, every region has its own name, in US they call as peer loans. Since the banks interest rates are high and varies depending upon your credit score, lot of people are preferring this. its a win-win situation for the lender and the borrower. the borrower gets it at a comparitively lower interest and the lender gets more interest for the money, than if he deposits in a fixed account. there are a lots of websites to check and be part of this growing community. However for us, this is old school and we know how it ends!

A gallon a day eats cash away

I remember in Jan 2006, the gas prices were around $2.0 per gallon. today its $3.2 per gallon. On one hand they say US economy is crashing, on the other hand the oil companies have cashed in $20 to $40 billion profit last year. unbelievable. with this profit, 20 million cars, consuming an average of 10 gallons a week, could fill up the gas for one year. Its high time they come up with more alternate sources.

What's yours?

I need a cup of coffee everyday morning. it does really energize my day. I am so addicted to it, the moment i get into the office, i log on to the laptop and the next thing, i will be heading towards the coffee machine. Mine is a coffee morning, what's yours?

Can India really win an Oscar!

Another year goes by and in the oscar the film selected by indian panel didn't make it to the nomination in oscar! I am not so crazy about india winning an oscar. but the question is can india really win it. with only one category for foreign language, with the rest of the world competing, with so many songs for no reason in our movies, with politics playing a major role in selection, its going to be tough.

May be its high time Indian cinema starts its own awards that are in competition to oscar. the indian film industry is definitely bigger than the hollywood in terms of viewer capacity. but the biggest advantage with hollywood is that all movies are made in english and are mostly from one single place, hollywood. but with so many regional language, bigger politics, bollywood, kollywood, tollywood, etc., it would be a nightmare to create an award similar to oscar that get international attention. but still i think it is doable if we have a selection panel who are not biased and if politicians are kept completely isolated. but that would be a mission to pluto!

jana gana mana........

Most of them know this is our national anthem. but how many of us really know the meaning of this. i wouldn't be surprised if many think it is hindi without knowing it actually is bengali.

We have been singing this song since we were kid and its so sad that many of us don't know what it means. honestly i didn't know what it meant. i even didn't bother to find it out until recently. we pay respect to this by standing up and saluting most of the time, but without knowing what we are singing.

It was bengali because tagore wrote it in bengali.but why would they still keep it in bengali. if hindi is the national language, then our national anthem should be in hindi.

Either they should tell the kids in the school the meaning of our anthem so that they know what they are singing or else shouldn't ask them to sing. i wouldn't be suprised either if many of our politicians, defense personals, government officials don't know what it means. Public in general most of them wouldn't know, thats for sure.

It was written by Rabindranath Tagore in honor of King George V and the Queen of England when they visited India in 1911 and if you read the meaning they praise the king rather than Mother India.

Its so unfortunate that we have been singing and paying respect to a song for more than 60 years after independence, that we don't understand, not written in our national language, which praises british ruler and not India, Great!

One thing i'm happy is that most of us who can speak only english and regional language can be proud that they could sing in another language bengali.

Check this website for the english translation

http://india.gov.in/knowindia/national_anthem.php

Electronic vending machine

I have used vending machine for coffee, sodas, chips etc., but recently i was in houston airport on a trip to Phoenix and i was surprised to see a electronic vending machine. it had sony handycam, apple ipod, canon powersot, headphones, etc., all you need to do is, insert your credit card, pick the item number and boom, the product falls into the bin, pick it up and you have bought it..

How simple it is... may be this was in existance for quite sometime, but i was taking notice of this in the airport for the first time and was thrilled.

Companies are trying everything to reach out to the people. a good step forward in the consumer market.

May be one day they might have vending machines from different retailers at one place and you could name your own price in the machine and it would go to the respective dealers and you might get a deal at the lowest price and then pick up the product and go on your way, just like your internet, the only difference is that you could pick up the product immediately rather waiting for the delivery.
Technology man!

Yet to be famous quotes

" If you can't help yourself; you can't help others "

" Listen; you will be heard "

" Success comes with a price; unfortunately only few can afford it "

" Indian politician: the only people who have the ability to win Oscars in all category; it’s sad that they don't get nominated "

" life is perfect depending upon how close you are in what you want,what you can and what you do"

- Simpson

how would it be?

From latest in technology to the most happening in the business, from election in politics to selection in sports, from how to make coffee to where to buy a property, from local media to attractions around the world, as crazy as it sounds, we even get the directions to our own house using this.

Its amazing that, through this small window you get to see and connect to the entire world.

how would it be to be without google?

wait a minute, are you searching it in google. i thought so.

Adam Gilchrist - An electrifying career.

Career spanning 11 years

World's Scariest Batsman

Holder of the record for most sixes in a Test career, with 100 sixes.

Holder of most Test dismissals by a wicketkeeper (416)

Holder of most Test centuries by a wicketkeeper (17)

Holder of most ODI dismissals by a wicketkeeper (455*)

Holder of most ODI centuries by a wicketkeeper (15)

He will go in the history of cricket as one of the greatest cricketer to have transformed this sport more interesting to watch. With the spirits so high on the field, no could match the aggressiveness and the involvement he showed. This sport is going to miss him for sure.

Flags and their meanings!

INDIA

Unofficial Interpretation:

• The saffron stands for courage, sacrifice and the spirit of renunciation

• The white, for purity and truth

• The green for faith and fertility

• The wheel denotes motion, justice /righteousness.


USA

• 50 stars represent the number of states.

• 13 stripes represent the 13 original colonies.

• Red symbolizes Hardiness and Valor.

• White symbolizes Purity and Innocence.

• Blue represents Vigilance, Perseverance and Justice


CHINA

• Red background symbolizes the blood shed throughout the revolution.

• Yellow color mainly symbolizes the glorious history and culture of the Chinese people

• Larger star symbolizes the leadership of the Communist Party of China

• Four stars represent the four occupations central to the state, which are Farmers, Workers, Soldiers, and Teachers


UK

The Union Flag, popularly known as the "Union Jack"

Made up of the individual Flags of three of the Kingdom's countries all united under one Sovereign - the countries of 'England, of 'Scotland' ad of 'Northern Ireland'

• The Red Cross, outlined in white, is the cross of St. George, the patron saint of England, and represents England and Wales.

• The white diagonal cross on a blue base is the cross of St. Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, and represents Scotland.

• The red diagonal cross on a white base is the cross of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland


FRANCE

• The Blue of the flag represents the great power or influence France has over other countries;

• The white, for purity and peace

• The red, for the bloodshed that must be lost in honor of their own country.


GERMANY

The colors black, red and gold have been associated with Germany since the middle ages, but the current German flag colors are traced back to early 19th century volunteers, who fought for the country in the Napoleonic wars.

The colors are based on the soldiers' uniforms which were black coats with red braid and gold buttons.

Will the gain in rupee against USD affect the Indian IT Engineers?

Some of you know and some might have heard through news that TCS cut salary of their employees for the month of february and march. the salary of an IT engineer has been on rise every year and has been one of the most attractive USP for young students to pursue engineering and get into IT industry. As sad as it sounds, looking at the future does the IT engineers face a bigger problem. will they be enjoying the benefits and wages as they are getting now in the future.

The reason for the TCS salary cut according to news soruces was due to external factors. one such factor was the exhange rate.

Most of them in the IT industry know that a big portion of the Indian IT revenue is from the US. typically 60% of the revenue for all major IT companies in India come from America. Europe, Uk contribute the next major chunk of the revenue.
Domestic market share is pretty much negligible. we do not have companies that would pay huge and since there is no currency advantage, there has never been a significant revenue from the domestic market.

Though the initital investment for the IT industry is comparitively very less than other industries, the major influential factor for the huge revenue has always been the business overseas. Huge revenues due to the exchange rates between India and other countries.

The conversion rate for 1USD was $46 in 2006. now its $39. this has cut some huge slack in the revenues generated by industries that depended upon the currency benefits. IT industry being the major beneficiary, gets bit now.

Revenues and profits for a IT company is pretty straight forward

revenue = no. of engineers x no. of man hrs x rate / hr x exchange rate

profits = revenues - overheads - operating expenditure - depreciation - taxes.

Overheads are your wages. any increase in no. of engineers or engineering man hours or exchange rate would directly increase the companies revenue and vice versa.
Increase in your overheads is going to reduce the profits considerably.

Since the US currency was stronger, higher overheads didn't mean much to IT industries. but with rupee gaining everyday, since the revenue remains the same, the overhead cost increases and the profits are going low.

Having tasted huge profits IT companies are not going to give up on it. They are going to try all possible ways to keep the profits high.

While the options are to increase the number of engineers, that would still increase the overheads which will eventually lower your profits.

Recent news stated that IT companies are planning to increase the number of man hrs per week from 40 hrs to 48 hrs. this would be tough on the IT guys. though un officially every IT engineer works more than 48 hrs on any normal project, this is going to add up more pressure on them if it comes to existance.

IT companies have already pushing for offshore projects, so that they could take little more advantage on the overhead cost. but still it is only beneficiary as long as the currency value stays constant. if rupee gains everyday in comparison to dollar, pound or euro, then my friend IT industries are still in deep trouble.

Obviously they would strive hard to acquire more business and to expand the horizon in other geograhies. but the only major IT markets and strong currencies are US, UK and Europe.

Increasing the man hr rate would be quite impossible, no overseas company is going to pay you more since because the exhange rate is low.

Doing more domestic projects might be possible, but the profits would be peanuts in comaprison to what they get from overseas market.

It might eventually come over to reducing the overheads, which would be either reducing the salaries or less pay rise or layoffs. This would be tough on IT guys and budding engineers who are aspiring to get into this industry due to its attractive perks.

Optimistic views are that no such dramatic change would happen in near future, lets hope so.

As they say in enterprise computing, do you have a contingency plan?

chaiya chaiya

Yesterday I was watching the movie Inside man. its an action thriller with Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster starring. just when the title started i heard chaiya chaiya music. the one from the movie uyire. but this was from the hindi version dilse. for a moment i was like, where am i hearing this from. then i realized that the music did come from the movie. yes, it was the title track for the movie inside man. good to see rahmans composition being used in hollywood. but to be honest, the music didn't sync well with the movie. anyways leave aside, kudos to rahman to take kollywood to hollywood. he does has the capability to make it big in hollywood. hope it happens one day.

What we pay for a gallon of regular gas

source: EIA

road trip made easier

Relax, sit back and enjoy your road trip without worrying about printing maps, having someone telling you or sometimes missing the route. get a gps. you see the worth of this when you go for a couple of trips with and without. i have a garmin c340 and have been using it for quite sometime. stress free ride. carry this small unit and navigate yourself.

Man's best friends

1. Fully loaded car

2. Hidef tv with DVD home theatre system

3. Laptop with internet

4. Phone, iphone or blackberry

5. Fast food restaurants

6. Couch or recliner

7. TV guide and chips!!

Imagine a man's life without these!!!. my friend calls it as seven wonders of modern MAN

John Mccain - Actions speak louder than words

recently we had been to corpus christi, tx. its on the gulf of mexico. we were on the USS lexington, WWII aircraft carrier. they have this amazing display of fighter planes of WWII, vietnam war. i happen to notice a fighter plane which had CDR. John Mccain written on it. for a moment i thought it might be some one else, but then when i looked closely, it was none other than John Mccain, Governor of Arizona, currently the republican nominee running for the president of united states.