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!.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
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.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Friday, May 2, 2008
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.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
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!
Saturday, April 26, 2008
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
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...
Friday, April 25, 2008
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...
Thursday, April 24, 2008
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")
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")
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
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.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
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!
Monday, April 21, 2008
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!
Sunday, April 20, 2008
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.
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