Windows 7 Logo : Domino Dhamaka

Unveiling of the Windows 7 logo by Microsoft Employees in Hyderabad using over ~ 7000 dominos. Every floor  of Building was crowded and overflowing.  They came from all over the campus to witness the event.  This video is recorded by a colleague standing next to me from the 4th floor of the building.  For the people who are familiar with my voice, see if you can recognize my voice in the background. I promise I will give you a chocolate for those who can identify my voice and the words which I am exactly speaking. 


Now stop making fun of the video saying, slow boot time it took a while to unveil the logo, the windows logo in the form of balloons got stuck at the roof, it needed a manual reboot in the middle. I have heard this enough, Its just a fun event. After all its fruit of our labor after the break.

This happens only in India...

Marketing Innovations have no limits...This is in Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park, Hinjewadi Pune.

Punishment for speaking in mother tongue

I came across this news in the regional news paper this morning.

http://eenadu.net/panelhtml.asp?qrystr=htm/panel14.htm

For those who don't understand Telugu, the intent of the article is children have been punished severely for speaking  in their mother tongue. This is one of the most disturbing trends in the current day schooling/education. Parents has to take lot of responsibility for this trend along with Government.   People take pride if their children call them dad, mummy.  I have seen many people teaching their kids to address direct relatives (attayya, mavayya, chinnanna, chinnamma etc.) as uncle, aunty.

Whatever the teachers did is very shameful on their part. I think the teacher is an educated illiterate.  This incident is a proof of their poor education, education in it's true sense.  It also gives an idea of how poor their general awareness and culture values are.  If this kind of teachers continue to educate our future generations then we will be left with no cultural or regional values once we have.  We will soon loose the real unity in diversity, for what once India is famous for, and end up with the idiotic western culture. It might be sheer stupidity on part of the teachers, but even parents are here to blame for. They feel proud when their kids talk good in English. But now the pressure is on the kids. The people conquered most in India are those who are good in their mother tongue. Future is Dark with this Attitude.

Bachelor Life

Bachelors are of different types.

• Single bachelors
• Committed bachelor
• Ready to be committed bachelors
• Desperate to be committed bachelors
• Ready to re commit bachelors
• And those who pass all these states become  “Sab Moh Maya” kind of bachelors.
  

You know you are enjoying your bachelor life

1) When you write such meaning less posts.
2) When you post such things at the odd hours of the day.
3) When you cook maggie for all three meals of the day.

So the question is which one is better bachelor's life or Married life? Which one is more enjoyable?

I had this argument with a friend of mine some time back. She is a married girl and says she enjoyed her single life more than her current marriage life. I personally feel single life is great and more enjoyable but both have their benefits. Being single is better for me than being part of a couple.  I like having my space and not always having to worry about splitting my time with someone else. When the time comes I'm sure I'll change my mind and think that married life is the greatest thing ever. I love companionship and will eventually want to share that aspect of my life with someone, but until that day comes I'm way more partial to the bachelor life.

I had a similar discussion 2 years back with my professor and his wife. They are wonderful people and you could learn many things just by their words. They shared lot of positives about marriage life. I want to put their thoughts as well.  It is wonderful  to have someone really care for how your health is!whether you ate today or not! Married life is difficult but it will help to gain you more knowledge and become wiser in life.  You will have a clear understanding of what life is really all about. You learn the meaning of unconditional love, patient and perseverance. Some say bachelors life, enjoying it to the fullest,, parties,, hang out with friends,, boozz, girls, adventures .. you name it, we have done it.

Single life has its period and in their opinion it takes about twenty five years. Every one at that age looks for friendship and study, but there is a period after that. Any one should look for marriage, to establish a family and have a good and smart children.

I want every one opinion on this topic in the comments section. Guys please post your thoughts on this.

Tagged: Innocent or Guilty

Welcome Change from posts I have been writing. I have been tagged to answer a few questions. Anyway, here is the questionnaire I had to fill.

TAG : Innocent… or Guilty?

RULE 1- You can only say Guilty or Innocent.

RULE 2- Copy and paste this into your notes , delete my answers, type in your answers and tag to your friends to answer this.

1. Asked someone to marry you? Guilty
2. Ever kissed someone of the same sex? Innocent.
3. Danced on a table in a bar? Innocent.
4. Ever told a lie? Guilty.
5. Had feelings for someone whom you can’t have back? Guilty.
6. Kissed a picture? Innocent
7. Slept in until 5 PM? Innocent
8. Fallen asleep at work/school? Innocent.
9. Held a snake? Innocent.
10. Been suspended from school? Innocent.
11. Worked at a fast food restaurant? Innocent.
12. Stolen from a store? Innocent .
13. Been fired from a job? Innocent.
14. Done something you regret? Guilty.
15. Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? Innocent.
16. Caught a snowflake on your tongue? Innocent.
17. Kissed in the rain? Innocent .
18. Sat on a roof top? Guilty.
19. Kissed someone you shouldn’t? Innocent
20. Sang in the shower? Guilty.
21. Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on? Innocent.
22. Shaved your head? Innocent.
23. Had a boxing membership? Innocent.
24. Made a boyfriend cry? Innocent.
25. Been in a band? Innocent.
26. Shot a gun? Innocent.
27. Donated Blood? Innocent.
28. Eaten alligator meat? Innocent.
29. Eaten cheesecake? Guilty.
30. Still love someone you shouldn’t? Guilty
31. Have/had a tattoo? Innocent.
32. Liked someone, but will never tell who? Guilty.
33. Been too honest? Innocent.
34. Ruined a surprise?Guilty.
35. Ate in a restaurant and got really bloated that you couldn’t walk afterwards?Guilty.
36. Erased someone in your friends list? Guilty.
37. Dressed in a woman’s clothes (if you’re a guy) or man’s clothes (if you’re a girl)? Innocent.
38. Joined a pageant? Innocent.
39. Been told that you’re handsome or beautiful by someone who totally meant what they said? Guilty.
40. Had communication with your ex? Innocent.
41. Got totally drunk on the night before exam? Innocent.
42. Got totally angry that you cried so hard? Guilty.

Guilty for 14/42.

I am going to tag some of my friends. However, who ever wants to do this tag can take this up.

Sunday Quote: Success

Sunday Quote is an idea to share with you the thoughts I have heard, read or being quoted from books, movies or conversations. I am going to quote the thought and where I heard it or read it from. The thoughts could be quotes, anecdotes, excerpts and even passages from books. They will be mostly thought provoking and they would add some element to one’s understanding and thought process. 

“He who considers too much will perform little”
“Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts”
                                                                                                 - Winston Churchill

Success is failure delayed. Failure is success delayed
Neither is failure final, nor is success permanent
Just don't quit. It is just a game, play it to the end.

(From the magazine - Frozen Thoughts)

Windows 7!!! I am a PC. I am simplified. Are you?

The most exciting event for a software professional is seeing the final version of their product reach the customers! When that product is Windows which gets used by Billion+ people across the world, then it is extra special ! When that product is Windows 7, which the whole world has been waiting for with great anticipation, then it is super special! Windows 7 is Generally Available out starting today. It’s been an eventful day: among all the breaking news about Microsoft and Windows 7.

Windows 7 pre-orders topped Harry Potter and is the biggest pre-order of all time as per Amazon UK. In Japan, the pre-order stock has already been sold out! “In fact, Windows 7 was able to tally up more sales in the first 8 hours of pre-order availability than Vista was able to collect altogether.” The reviews has been great. The response has been overwhelming. What more do you expect for a product to start.  Ever since I got my Launch Party Kit with a Windows 7 Ultimate edition, the experience has been so smooth. The upgrade has been super cool from Vista without any trouble. Not even single application broke during the upgrade process. No driver problems at all. My Laptop now talks to me through Windows 7.

Windows 7 comes with new features such as HomeGroup, Play-To, Direct Access, Branch Cache, Aero Shake, Snap, Peek, Jump Lists, Device Stage and a completely redesigned Windows Taskbar that make PCs faster, smarter and more secure.

Some Links to Reviews

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2009-10-16-baig16_CV_N.htm
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_43/b4152071041302.htm
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2010090677_brier19.html
http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/19/graphics-computing-software-technology-enterprise-windows7.html


It will be interesting to see how windows 7 changes the world. I am proud to be a part of it. Good luck Microsoft. Happy Windows 7 day to all. I am a PC. I am simplified. Are you?

Something Worth to watch - DRIVERS

This video is incredible, for the fact that it teaches such a valuable lesson. Makes you think again before speeding while driving..Are you the one who speeds? Think once again..Speed Thrills...But Kills...

This explains all..

45kmph…………………God Will Take Care of You
65kmph…………………Nearer My God To Thee
85kmph…………………This World Is Not My Home
95kmph…………………Lord, I’m Coming Home
100kmph……………….Precious Memories

Driving might be a passion to you, but not at the cost of yours and others lives.

Internet Addiction

You are addicted to Internet when...

1. You spend too much time online than you originally intend to.
2. You have a constant desire of being online when you are away from the computer.
3. You wake up in the morning with red and itchy eyes and immediately go online to check email, facebook and twitter messages.
4. You feel restless, irritable, moody when you dont have internet access for a while.
5. You are more addicted to social networking sites and try to socialize with your close friends through them instead of giving them a call.

If you are one among those crazy folks, you are surely suffering from Internet Addictive Disorder  (IAD) or Internet Overuse Syndrome (IOS). Anything excessive than normal usage becomes pathological and interferes with ones personal life and daily chores. It ruins your normal sleep cycles and makes you irritable and angry to your own professional and personal life. For some just watching some funny you tube videos all the time can be an addiction, and for others socializing with friends using social networking sites or just chatting with them. can be an addiction. No matter what form of Internet addiction you suffer from you may have a serious problem that needs to be dealt with.

Some tips to overcome this Internet addiction..

1. Try not check mails as soon as you wake up, and even in office for every one hour or so. No one expects you to reply immediately.Even an urgent mail can wait for 2 to 3 hours.
2. Try not to stay online during office hours. Even after you come home, try set a limit for the time you have to stay online. May be 1/2 hr after your day's work or at the max 1 hour. Take time off to read some book, cook something, clean your house or do some of your daily chores.
3. Try developing a hobby which is far from computers. Hitting the gym regularly may help keep you fit as well as stay away from Internet.
4. Try not to download movies over the internet. Instead go for a theatre to watch a movie. Ofcourse if you are addicted to downloading pornography, God only can save you :).
5. Make a call to your close friends instead of poking them in facebook, or scrapping them in orkut.Though you know they are most likely to jump off their chairs and break their legs when you call them, but still try to do that. 
6. Go to bed at decent hours of the night rather than stay up till God awful hours on the Internet.
7. Leave office early once you are done with your work. Don't stay late just to chat with your friends. Instead go out with your friends or family.

Internet is a wonderful tool, but like everything else in this Universe there is the sunshine and the darkness to it. Stay Positive and just practice the opposite. Your hunger for knowledge is good for you, but not at the expense of your personal life.

Google Wave: My First Impression.

I finally got my Google Wave invite a week back and has been exploring it since then. So What is it all about. After the much hyped demo from Google I/O Conference, I would say that it certainly did't live upto its expectations. I should say that its underwhelming, but perhaps it has potential. But problem is, they have stopped letting new people invite others. So I have a tool that I can only use with the guy who invited me and others in my network who already have google wave invitations. Nobody else. I thought that It would at least be like initial  GMail Beta where I could get limited wave invitations which I could send to my pals and try it out. Not much of a Trial now.

So far I don’t see enough people using it to make the experience compelling, but I could sense something built on top of Wave become compelling. Wave’s killer concept is “the conversation as a 1st-class data type,”  everything related to a conversation in one place. The conversations can be e-mail, IM, phone calls/conf, face-to-face meetings etc. What people want is all their notes in one place. Wave is trying to accomplish this, by unifying all those conversation components into a single place. Wave is trying to address some of the social collaboration needs, by policing monitoring changes in an actively changing and dynamic environment.  So its all about "Unified communications" taken to the next level.

For some views and use cases check out http://lifehacker.com/5381219/google-waves-best-use-cases. A lot of things that people can do with Google Wave, can already be done with wikipedia or sharepoint. It will be interesting to see If Google Wave can stand up to the hype?

Image Courtesy : Meera

Now This is called Creativity

XYZ Company

A fire alarm rang at 6 PM when almost all shift employees are in office (approx 5000). As usual entire office was evacuated within 3 mins & every employee gathered outside office. 10 mins passed..................................5 more mins passed. 

Security Officer started Announcement: "Dear Employees - With melting heart I am making this announcement that for many of you it will be a last evacuation drill, as we are laying off almost 80% employees. While moving in who-so-ever ID card won't work are laid off & all their belongings will be couriered to them tomorrow. We followed this approach as we don't want to fill email box size with layoff email in thousands & also to avoid any fight inside office. Hope you have nice career ahead. Please move in & try your luck". 

Cross Post from Manoj

Happy Diwali.

Its Diwali time. Let this Diwali light the lamp of happiness, prosperity and knowledge to you and your family. I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all my readers for all your constant support and feedback. Within no time, I could see the hit count reaching 500. Its overwhelming and I expect your same support going forward.

Diwali is celebrated as a symbol of prosperity and peace. It is considered as victory of good over evil. I was listening to this song this afternoon "Mann se Ravan jo nikale Ram uske mann mein hai" from Swadesh. I so fell in love with it. Can you believe that it is written by a Muslim? Diwali is not just considered as a Hindu Festival. Ram is a considered as a symbol for good, and Ravan for evil. There may be a single Ravan in the puranas with whom Ram needs to fight with. Its not the same anymore, We have to fight with several Ravans in our everyday life. We need to fight against the present day rakshasas in the form of all social evils! Its only we who can change the world around us. So Lets awaken ram in each of us, strengthen him and tackle all the Ravanas around us.

Happy Diwali to all of you. May the "Festival of Lights" bring peace and prosperity into your lives. As much as every diwali is fun, its equally worrisome to see the amount of fire accidents happen. You may be the most adventurous person on earth, but please follow safety while bursting crackers. Particularly Don't let children play with fireworks by themselves, always supervise them.

Social Networking : Stay Safe

Social networking sites have  become an important part of modern culture. When all these websites are with profiles, buddy lists, blogs, photos,video, groups, connections, communications, Its not all sunshine and roses with these sites. There are many drawbacks with them. While Social networking sites like Facebook, twitter may provide you a way to keep in touch with your pals, finding out the latest and greatest news about them, they can be dangerous too. They reveal an inside look at your private life. Few pals may be impressed with pictures of you, but not all. Today, almost anything can be found online about you, especially if you are on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or any other social networking site. There is high risk of identity theft with such sites with too much personal info online.


Some tips to stay safe with such sites while still socializing with your friends.

1. Set your profile to private.
2. Don't post confidential or personal information.
3. Don't visit SNS sites at work, unless there is no such restrictions at your workplace.
4. Don't assume that your data is private and secure. Keep googling your name once in a while and remove your information from such sites if the search engines have crawled any of your personal information.
5. Do not share your contact details unless absolutely necessary.
6. Do not use office email addresses as they may contain company names.
7. If you have your own website use a Contact Me page which delivers messages directly to you. Contactify is one such option.
8. Be conservative with your pictures on blogs and social networking sites.
9. Make sure your friends check with you before they upload your photographs. Tagging in Orkut, lets people identify you.
10. Don't share your daily feed to anyone unless they are your close friends.
11. Stalking by strangers and even close friends or bitter enemies is common in social networking. In fact they do create fake profiles to stalk on you. Beware!!!

Banker to the Poor: The Story of the Grameen Bank

This is my first try on auto biography. Beautifully inspiring book! I loved it to the core. It gave me another way to think about poverty and wealth and capitalism. Fills me with lots of practical hope and confidence. Its all about the courage of single person that can change the universe. This is a story of a man who thinks outside the box and never gave in to criticism nor did he stop at the borders of Bangladesh. It's much more than just economics, about human spirit and most of all, having faith. Its more about Microlending that about Muhammad Yunus. I like the idea of empowering women and the fact that banks should not only be for those who 'have' money.

This is how the existing model of loans in most of the commercial lending institutes or Banks work. Borrowers approach the bank for money, they are asked for income proofs, paper work and collateral (guarantee), which as per the author makes it ‘anti-poor’ and ‘anti-illiterate’. The more you have the more you get; if you don’t have it, you don’t get it’. For the poor however, then the only option is to approach local middlemen who ofcourse charge higher interest rates. If payments are not done – the mortgaged assets are seized and they end up doing slavoury for their entire life. It is said 'poor fall into a trap and death is the only way they can get out.’

How Microcredit in Grameen Bank works:

1) Loans are given out only to the most destitute.

2) Loans are given only to women, by engaging them in self-help groups.

3) Loan payment schedules are fairly simple and repayment amounts are small

4) Continuous visits to assess & assist them in any problems.

5) No paperwork; No collateral is asked for.

Overall, a beautiful read.

One Excellent quote in this book

If you take the speed of a horse, the majesty of a lion, the courage of a tiger and the elegance of a deer, in theory you might have a super animal,but in practice it might never get off the ground.

My Rating:

Some Random Reactions..

Obama wins Nobel for peace. In words of nobelprize.org - “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”. Wondering What made Nobel committee found it very unique! I am so out of touch with this world…when did US buy Sweden and Norway??? Won't there be too many candidates if we give an award for good intentions alone? Nobels should be given for achievements not for passion.

The shame of Delhi: http://bit.ly/12pJXN Getting beaten up in the streets by the same police who are supposed to be our custodians. It’s about police brutality and the protectors of law taking law in their hands. This is also about being held in custody and then tortured without due process. What this is about is a democratic country where the beareucracy is so corrupt that it can get away with demeaning citizens (and visitors) in the country’s capital.

Novel Reading: "Banker to the Poor" by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr Muhammad Yunus. If you take the speed of a horse, the majesty of a lion, the courage of a tiger and the elegance of a deer, in theory you might have a super animal,but in practice it might never get off the ground. All about how backward bangladesh is, poor, microcredit, grameen bank. An amazing piece on microfinance. My first try on Autobiography.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona..guys you will love it...its just basically not about sex all the time. Really brilliant chaos film.. great storyine...A dramedy where they all live unhappily ever after. A subtle theme handled beautifully...Loved it.. Lovely musical tracks too..

Hottest man on earth

I think google has gone crazy. Don't believe it. This is insane..I just don't want to hear about it, see it, and speak about it.

Well this post is not to say that I am hottest man on the earth. But the following script will definitely make you hottest man on the earth."javascript:document.body.contentEditable='true'; document.designMode='on'; void 0" 
Just paste it in the address bar, press enter and see what happens. You can just starting editing the html page.

Lessons Learnt the Hard way...

Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option. No one should be that special also to affect the way you are. Seriously not worth it. Prioritize your ambitions and desires in your life. And never play around with your own priorities. Standing strongly for ones priorities is never easy...at times one need to pay high cost (be it monitory or emotional) for it...but still one should stand by it...cause if the priorities get shuffled then, even one who has plethora of money in his bank account but still he will be deprived of a sound sleep in a tired night.

Having said that, I never learn lessons so easily. I am just terribly amused about the things I do, and the things that happen around me.  How easily I shut up my heart and listen to all the voices around me , when in the end , the only voice I will have to hear is the voice of my heart. How easily do I let myself be scared by the insecurities of a life unknown and continue to suffer a situation I don’t enjoy when that moment will snatch away whatever fake securities I build around myself . How easily I forget life, and thus , how easily I forget how to live .

Wait, Hold on a second, Am I getting too much philosophical...pardon me for this...got carried away by my thoughts. Don’t walk out of this blog with an ill feeling. Without wasting anymore of your valuable time, I would like to say.  In life, You may have to meet, different types of people. Some beautiful some ugly...some friendly some hostile....some good some bad...some motivational some depressing...but at the end when you tie all these things into one string, it becomes a enormous power, which do have the potential that leaves such impressions into your persona that can’t be rubbed out. And probably that is what we call “life”.

Floods after drought

What the hell is going on this year? Initially when there is severe drought, I thought it would be nice if it drizzles a bit. I use to love the rains and now that I live here and walk to class and the entire state in floods, I really hate it. Very sad to see the misery of people, I feel devastated. 

At least 230 people have been killed in Andhra Pradesh and neighboring Karnataka due to floods resulting from heavy rains since Wednesday (1^st Oct). Andhra Pradesh is facing the worst ever floods in its 60 years, as 60 per cent of Kurnool district was submerged on Friday leaving thousands homeless and stranded without food and water. Floods leave nearly 1.5 million people homeless. At least 200,000 homes were destroyed and almost 1,500 villages were partially  submerged.  Centuries old temple drowned in AP due to the floods.  Nearly two lakh people have been evacuated to relief camps in the worst-affected districts of Kurnool, Mahabubnagar and Krishna district.

The gates of several projects on the Krishna river -- including Jurala, Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar and Prakasham -- have been opened to release the flood water. While the inflow into Srisailam reservoir has touched an all-time high of 21 lakh cusecs, 10 lakh cusecs of water has been discharged from Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar reservoirs. 

Andhra appeals Centre for Rs 6,000-cr immediate flood relief: Estimating the damages due to floods at Rs 12,225 cr. A time for action is here again. Let us donate generously for the relief and rehabilitation of the affected people many of whom have lost everything overnight.

Here is the info on the various locations where Flood relief activities are carried out.

1. LokSatta has setup a call centre in Ameerpet to help the people of the affected areas, coordinating between the public and the needy. The call centre no. is 40405050. (Address: 4th floor, Chandana brothers building-Ameerpet (Kammasangham hall itself). They have arranged a transport vehicle to collect the used clothes, Food preparation material etc from the donors. You can directly submit them in the same Call Centre. Ameerpet call centre itself is a good central point. 
2. Lok satta head office , Aaykar bhavan, Adarsh nagar ,Saifabad         :  23231818  
3. NTR memorial trust ,beside TDP party office jubilee hills contact no:   30799999 

This is not a matter of a party or association or group so please do your best to help the needy….