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.

Rs. 1 lakh car

Few dream big. Very few achieve it. Ratan Tata is one among them. Its not so easy to commit something that others thought would be impossible. you don't achieve that by just dreaming. but you need to know the reality and facts. this country has produced some of the finest spearheads in business and Ratan Tata is one among them. he brought tata groups in one umbrella, went to on make tcs a public company, now the Rs.1 Lakh or $2500 Nano. critics cry out loud that launching the nano is detrimental to the environment.

Year 1989, My father bought his first scooter, a bajaj super. Me, my father and my mom used to go in that scooter. this was a typical indian family in those days. as a kid i would look at some of my friends going in a car and wonder when my father would buy one. for a middle class family with one income, it was a tough task those days to run the family as well as meet all the needs. even today it is difficult. as a kid you wouldn't expect me to understand all those. i got my first two wheeler two years after i got my job. i could feel the pride in owning a vehicle of my own. later i got a tata indica car as a gift. you wouldn't believe me though it is called as gift, i paid 1/3rd of the price as gift tax.

when i first started driving two wheeler, some of my friends used to wear helmets. at that time it was not mandatory. after few months of driving two wheeler in the city, you understand the necessity of the helmet. its not that it protects your head, of course it does, but because it helps to prevent you from getting a facial from the pollution and the dust everytime you drive on or off the traffic. you would never know at what state you would reach the office, after going through the mud and dust and if it rains, good god.

The hot sun and the humidity makes it even worse. how many times you get into a restaurant or a coffee shop just to take a break from the high humidity and be in a air conditioned place just to feel better.

We earn to make our living better. owning a house, having a vehicle, more than a status symbol they are a necessity nowadays. we deserve to live better. now with the IT industry, buying a car is within the reach. but its not the same with all middle income people. cars are not investment as like a house. it depreciates every year. one wouldn't prefer to spend awful lot of money on that.

People need a vehicle which can accomodate a nuclear family, is affordable, more mileage for the gas and can give the minimum comfort you need to travel. i think nano fits the bill. what more could a first time buyer expect.

Is it going to impact the environment. might be. but then think this way, you have millions of auto rickshaws which are polluting the environment, you have thousands of buses which no one knows which standards they meet and they emit pollution you wouln't imagine, millions of two wheelers emit pollution and then you end up with you have millions of people suffering from asthma or other diseases due to pollution. aren't they affecting the environment. people do care about the environment, but you need to put your health ahead of it.

Does India have infrastructure to accomodate this. it may not. but you can't wait on the government to develop infrastructure to lauch a product. are they going to come with a plan if you ask them. hell no. you need to keep going. it is very important from a business perspective. new product developments are essential for the country and the people. i don't see any company in the city that has sufficient parking place if every employee owns and drives a car. this would drive the government to mandate requirements for parking when building commercial complexes. US has it. you can see a wendy's or mcdonalds with a parking space much bigger than the restaurant itself. you can't expect people to drive in autos and bikes just because you don't have a plan to accomodate the changes and to mandate it.

Its not easy to make a promise and to stick to. the engineers over at tata have put in a lot of effort to meet the needs and to keep within the cost target. this is big step in the consumer market. people over here in US are in awe when they heard that a car gives 50 mpg costing only $2500. though it may not meet the US consumer requirements, they would love someone to develop a car like that in US.

There might be a business motive to launch a 1 lakh car by tata, but this nano does sure steers and accomodates the dreams of millions of people.

Overcoming the inertia

Here Iam. This has been a long time due. Over the past few months the zeal to write blogs has grown. Thanks to some of my friends who blog regularly and for the recent happenings across the world that has driven more interest in me to start expressing my views and thoughts on various issues and to share it with others.

everyone at some point had a laundry list of things that they would like to do. passion, interest, desire or could be due to so many factors and you wonder after some time, why haven't i done anything about it. its true that it takes time to get started. its inertia and you and me have always been a victim to that.

you might have heard the term kick off or roll it out when it comes to corporate initiatives. sometimes they know that things are not going to get started if we wait for a perfect moment.
i feel good about me for having kicked this off. i know that things might get slow and fast sometimes, i may not have the same excitement all the way long, but i also know that i would continue this as long as i can, because the way i see, i have overcome the inertia.

Feel free to comment, every thought counts.