In a day's work.....!!

Wondering and wondering

2009-07-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

I have always been mesmerized with the infinite capability of human mind. Gone are those days when finding an answer required an expert. In school days I remember stumbling around to find answers for even small little things. It was a quest, talk to cousin for cricket stats, talk to my brother for music related questions, talk to my sis for anything related to movies. And then internet dawned upon us with its infinite wisdom, every answer was a click away. Every single second every single person is contributing in this vast accumulation of knowledge via internet.

But I think now I agree with Bing Ad, much to my chagrin, “What has search overload done to us?"

Whenever I am searching the internet I am trying to find out a way where I don't need to weed out the irrelevant results. I try to be precise but that means the information page should have those same words or what if even if the words are there but the content or information is irrelevant. I thought Wolfarm is the right direction to move in but it is frustrating in that too.

I guess we still need to find out a search engine which changed the world like Apple Lisa did.

A interactive search engine, which will try to interpret my search requirement and then gives the result back unlike today's search where words have lost their meaning.

I have faith in human mind and I am waiting for an Intelligent Voice operated search/answering engine.

Sun rises and sun sets.....

2009-06-14T19:01:00.001-07:00

How do you calcultae a length of the day? Don't you feel some days are longer and some are smaller? Some of the nights when I lay down in my bed and think about what I did the whole day, it is so difficult to pin point where the whole day went.

For me if I am able to finish some of the things I wanted to do, it brings a sense of fulfilment. And much to my amazement these things can be really mundane or trivial but it just gives the pleasure of a productive day. Sometimes I can spend weeks or months avoiding something and spend countless hours worrying about those things. In reality if I set on doing those it is not so bad and doesn't really take much time.

Every time I finish my task list (well there is something about me, life without the task lists feels like life without purpose, I know I am pathetic :-), back to my stroy of task list. Finishing a Task list is always so delightful. I feel relaxed and feel a huge burden off my chest. But this ephemeral feeling soon is replaced with a quest of new task list. Is it because I can't really enjoy life and live care free or is it beacuse a regimentated life from early childhood forces me to seek out something to worry about.

I still miss those summer vacations where there was no school, no homework, no schuedle just plain long summer days to fill with imagination and unplanned activities. O life my dear life I wait for one more true summer vacation and I promise I will not waste it on anything productive, I will let it wither away slowly very slowly. I will sit on my porch with no computer or book I will just sit and watch the sun rising and sun setting far far away !

Interesting tools on internet

2008-02-29T11:08:00.001-08:00

I am not sure how many people feel the need of a collaborative tools in their day to day life. But I really need them and it is so difficult to decide on one.
For those who aren't sure about collaborative tool, it is a simple collection of tools to share, delegate and track the documents, tasks, mails, views etc etc.

I always find these tools very productive and I am not talking about the work space. I mean I need it with friends, social circle, volunteer projects etc. I like to share my calender, my tasks, interesting articles I found, send some tasks to friends, share videos, photos, invite people to check out something, create projects, share work etc.

There are a lot of companies invested in this and it is so unfortunate to see the innovation is missing in most of them (well I tried a lot of online products available in market ). Even Google is falling quite short in this. They recently game up with googlesites (sites.google.com), it is a step in the right direction but it is still not there.

Some of the simple tools you can try
http://www.basecamphq.com/
simple, easy to configure and provides a lot of features but not so elegant
http://hitask.com/
Elegant, simple, good number of functionalities (Best suited for individuals or small groups)
http://www.dotproject.net/
Best free ware but requires a lot of work in installing configuring. It covers almost all the things you need but the UI etc is not at product level.

If you have come across any good tools let me know, I would like to try !

Time for Mergers

2008-02-28T13:04:00.000-08:00

Last 3-4 weeks have created a lot of turmoil for Yahoo. The search engine, email and other services provider company is in news for last 1 year. Founder CEO coming back, constant decline in the search users base, stiff competition from google, profit shrinking, massive layoff plan and then a bid for buy out from Microsoft.
Well Isn't it strange to see in this economy how companies rise and fall. Gone are those days when it used to take years of hard work for people to establish their company to attract any funding from market. Look at GM, Ford and then look at Google.

The dot com boom changed the way investors look at new companies and their prospect. The short term wealth, millionaires over night, 10 people company bought over in billions of dollars, all this has created an illuision in people's mind. Every one wants to be the one betting on the company, which will be valued billions of dollars on the very first day of listing.

Let's take a look at Yahoo, company has been successful in almost every service they provided. They got amazing response from the market but soon their success was well over run by other companies. Yahoo couldn't compete with the innovation Google brought in the market. I might sound like a Google advocate but I just love their thinking in innovation.
Yahoo tried its hand in almost every single thing Google was doing. But the problem in my eyes is they could never come up with innovative service or come up with an exceptional value addition to existing service.

The market is brutal, though yahoo gained the 10$ in market share, employees are promised best severance package etc. But it is almost certain Yahoo will be bought over soon, it may or may not be Microsoft. Time has come for yahoo to show they are different from other companies or they will be another case study for MBA schools.

Honesty

2008-01-17T13:47:00.000-08:00

What is honesty?
I wonder sometimes how honest we are? The very definition of honesty has changed.
Every one has its own way of defining what is honesty.

For some people sticking to the good old values and being truthful etc etc is honesty and for some people it is "do whatever you want to do as long it doesn't hurt any one?" Or for some people it is ""do whatever you want to do as long it doesn't hurt the ones you know?"

Isn't it too confusing? When did honesty become a shoe size with every one having different numbers?

The moral degradation of our world can be attributed to our quest of convenience. We have been finding ways to make our life convenient, finding every possible way to make it easier and easier. And along the path we lost a lot of things as simple as honesty. We started with the physical convenience and reached to a state where we want everything convenient even our moral standards.

Some times I look at the problems surrounding us and try to analyze them, every time I find these problems are someway related to degradation of moral values. I wish all of us can realize the simple solution to most of the complex problems is simple, plain 'Honesty'.

One more year

2008-01-07T16:42:00.000-08:00

Always the new years starts with fanfare, every one has tons of things on their mind, eating healthy, regular work out, better time management, more fun, spend time with family and so on....

Guess what, the first 2 weeks seem to be very long with all of us trying to fit things in our over filled daily schedules. We are excited and we try to do all the things we have resolved to do this year. But as the time fades so the enthusiasm. It is only 1 week and I am already feeling I have been trying to accomplish a lot (may be I have already done a lot for this year).

All above I said seems so right... unfortunately it is not 100% correct. Look back at your schedules you will find holes. There are long over stays in front of computer, there are idle chit chats, there are daily routine of channel flipping, watching re-runs.

May be this year instead of putting anything more in the schedule we should start taking out the stuff from schedule like NO TV between 6 PM and 11 PM or NO TV on Saturdays.

Or no checking of emails every 1 minute or close all the browsers when working.

I am sure we will find some time for our self and our loved ones, and who knows some of us might write a book or invent something :-)

what the heck may be I will just kick back relax open my laptop hit the refresh button of my email while flipping the channel on my TV....!!

Skype Crash....!!

2007-08-20T14:41:00.000-07:00

Latest crash in the skype Service proved our vulnerability and reliance on high tech industry.
There were number of small to medium size companies with their communication system screeching to a dead silence because skype services were down. Other then those companies there were millions of users stranded with out one of the services they are accustomed to.

Quite strangely the reason Skype came up for meltdown was "too many users restarted their computer".... What ?? Doesn't it seem like some one making a story, though from their news release it looks like one of their software bug kind of got activated with this multi users restarts.
This event made me rethink how closely this information technology world is connected.

Fortunately skype is back on and now I can get all those annoying advertisements from unknown users.

Changes

2007-08-03T15:37:00.000-07:00

All exciting things last for a finite time.

Every changes brings a new aspect to the whole environment. I am sure a lot of us would have noticed "the feeling of change"
Anything new or changed brings "uncertainty, doubt and excitement". All these strong emotions can be triggered with even a slightest change in our environment. Imagine you sitting in a big room at mid night working on some time critical project and suddenly it is dark. With in a fraction of second your mind races to thousands of thoughts filled with fear or confusion or worries of consequence of this darkness, you start creating situations, scenarios (positive, negative) you analyze them, you rationalize them etc. All with in a split second.

Have you thought how we are able to do all this with in a split second.

I think it is the power of change and uncertainty, which kicks of our subconscious and conscious mind working together to its best.

Our mind has infinite capability and it has an amazing trait of learning & evolving based on situations. We hardly utilize our brains to 15% of its capability. We always prefer known compared to unknown. Our brain does the most important work in an unknown situation, What to do and How to do. Instead of giving a chance to our brains, we always go to known, comfortable and easy situation.

I know If given an opportunity I would like to settle in a city where I have lived, go to a party where I know a lot of people, work in an organization where I know the work, travel to a place where I know the road. It is all because I don't want to deal with "unknown", anything which involves uncertainty.

But as some one said if you don't explore the unknown, the mystery, You will never know the possibilities available in this universe.

Go take some risk, try an unknown. As Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump said "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."

Entrepreneurship.....

2007-07-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

Today I am thinking of entrepreneurship, a very exciting and dear subject for me. I have always been interested in doing something, which takes me away from the feeling of working under a lot of constraints.

My definition of entrepreneurship actually differs a lot from definition you get at
Wikipideia entrepreneurship I have always seen entrepreneurship as a freedom call. Freedom from all the work I have to do and do what I want to do.

If you look at websites, companies you will find small ideas carved into a beautiful concept, executed in an excellent way. Networking websites likes linkedin, facebook, myspace and then the next set of enhancing applications like http://www.kartoo.com/ or spock.com - a constant en devour to enhance the functionality, usability etc. All these things excites me a lot since I always wanted to do something which gets me excited, which challenges me, something which I say "I created". I know a lot of people who have left their established careers at the peak for doing something, which to an untrained eye looks like a mundane work. But the satisfaction of doing what you want to do is unparalleled and one has to enjoy it firsthand, no words to describe.

I still remember my first software program I sold (a very basic accounting program I wrote in Dbase III) when I was 14 years old. The money I got in return was way too less compared to my efforts yet it was most rewarding. Satisfaction is a state of mind and no one can explain this.

I feel the process of growing up kills the creativity, as a child the world seemed simple I thought of doing almost every profession possible in the world. Those dreams and creativity couldn't survive the harsh reality. But I think giving up on your dreams and creativity is the first step of growing older. Believing in yourself and trying to live up to your dreams is getting younger.

For me Entrepreneurship in other words is growing younger....!!

Lifestyle.....

2007-07-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

The other day I was discussing with one of my friend and we started talking about afford ability.

He had absolute number (well he is a financial and risk Management Analyst) like a person having x salary should be able to afford a house of around 4.5x cost. We had a lengthy discussion on the numbers etc and how it is being calculated.

But now when I look back at it I think the whole concept of afford ability is relative. You can see people with the same salary having a different life style, driving different kind of cars and so on.

I think the lifestyle can be attributed to certain personal traits...like Family upbringing and impact of that upbringing, personal constraints like earnings and responsibilities, passion and risk taking capabilities etc.

I have been watching a lot of people and thinking how they analyze afford ability of certain thing. My realizations is afford ability is a concept, which people try to apply on day to day expenditure, long term investments, big expense items but avoid to consider it when human emotions like passion, love, envy are involved.

I guess I need to analyze more and understand in deep how people spend, what are those things which tick people to consider something as affordable or not...!!
If you have some interesting theory or observation, let me know.

WiFi...!!

2007-07-18T15:20:00.000-07:00

I don't think life with out internet is possible now...whoever disagrees please let me know why are you reading this blog.

Well think over just a decade back information was something which was acquired, written or passed on to selected ones. Now it is something which is readily available, can be googled and every one has the power to get it.

My thought is not actually on internet it is the way we get it.....WiFi. Look around everyone is just doing WiFi. Cafes, markets, streets, home, offices, mobile phone(http://www.technewsworld.com/story/58377.html), Automobiles. I mean every one is selling, creating or marketing on single functionality WiFi. Isn't it amazing that how seamlessly all these things are moving into our lifestyle. You are lost on a road you used to ask directions, later on you started using maps on google, now your cars navigates you. Your cell phone, your car everything seems to be having access to infinite wisdom (Internet)

I loved this whole idea of having everything WiFi, every appliance, equipment should have WiFI, Bluetooth, internet access.
And soon this whole world will be integrated with no boundary. I am woken up early by my alarm clock" because I have an early meeting or I have gained weight and I should go to gym. My bath is ready and my breakfast is getting ready while I am soaking.
I sit in the car it navigates and drives me to office, where I WORK. My refrigerator orders for all the supplies I am running low, to my grocery store.
It might seem like watching a sci fi but I am sure wi fi will make this a reality pretty soon.
read these interesting articles
http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/top-10-strangest-gadgets-of-the-future

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.04/fetishwish.html

http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2006/12/19/9_military_tech.html

Faith....

2007-07-17T16:17:00.000-07:00

A lot of you must have already read, visited and experienced the phenomenon of Facebook, a social community based website. This company was founded by a Harvard student in 2004 and right now it is valued at around $12 billion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
Isn't it amazing how a small concept can be so big...well in continuation to that check out about ConnectU http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ConnectU

In a nut shell

Owners of ConnectU (Divya Narendra, Cameron Winklevoss, and Tyler Winklevoss) filed a lawsuit against Facebook, alleging that Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, had stolen both concept and source code intended for a website they'd asked him to build for them. ^[1]^[2]

In November of 2003, ConnectU had engaged Mark Zuckerberg, then a sophomore at Harvard, to complete the computer programming for their website. Upon joining the ConnectU team, Zuckerberg was given complete unfettered access to the website code. Allegedly, Zuckerberg intentionally hampered the development of ConnectU while using code originally intended for ConnectU in the development of Facebook.

Not sure if this is true but it is sickening. Imagine it being false then your friend is trying to steal from your success and pushing you in legal problems. If it is true it is even more sickening. You believe on your friend and share your idea, concept, work & everything. And the guy exploits the idea and takes the complete credit.

I remember having discussions with friends in school and college, talking about various new ideas, products etc. We never really thought of copyright or patenting exercise. If this kind of incidents happen regularly, imagine how dramatic can be impact on our social lifestyle. People will not be able to talk freely or discuss on new ideas.

Have we lost the basic element of humanity...trust.

MFT......

2007-07-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

Cryptic title isn't it...
Well MFT means MOST FEARED TASKS.

I am not sure about the rest of the people but I always have some tasks I want to do and I really have to do them but I just can't finish them. Those tasks can be as simple as sending some post or replying to an email but I tend to delay them. I call these kind of tasks, which are simple yet I am not able to finish as "MFT"

I always think about these tasks like "oh that thing ya I will do it when I will be free" Well amazingly even though I sit idle in front of TV flipping channels, lazing around, checking random websites I never get time to finish those tasks.

So I came up with a solution "MFT first thing in the morning"
I choose some tasks and whatever happens I try to finish them first thing in the morning. And you know what, as soon as I am done with MFT the day is wide open.... I feel like I have done most of my day's work. It relives the stress for the whole day.

Try it out and let me know if it works for you !!

Think for a second.....

2007-07-13T11:24:00.002-07:00

Sometimes don't you think , why do I do a lot of things I don't enjoy at all.

I am always afraid to dwell upon this subject "why do we do something we don't enjoy". Today I am going to fight my daemons.

I am sure you must have gone to numerous parties you don't enjoy or talked to people you can't stand. So the question is why we do that...is it the social responsibility, is it something we do because we never really gave much thought on it or we do it in hope we might start enjoying it.

Well here what I think....(you might not agree so go ahead and send me your thoughts)
We do a lot of things just because they are inbred in our mind since we are born. I remember being told to be polite, suppress my freedom of speech & thinking because it might offend some one. Initially it was just a matter of our parents, teachers, relatives, friends telling us how to be normal in this society.
Guess what, time passes and you are one of them, you loose individuality. You can't do something which is against the social boundaries. This thinking grows so strong that It is difficult for us to break the mold. We stop thinking about if there is any other way...
We do things we don't like and we keep on doing them.

I am not saying we should be a rebel and start breaking all social rules. I think we should seriously look at the things we don't enjoy and still have to do them. You might find a way to make it enjoyable or may be get out it.

All we need is "think for a second"

Why do I come to Blogging??

2007-07-12T12:08:00.000-07:00

It had always been a puzzle for me why would some one go online and blog...
Is it the endorsement from other people, is it the satisfaction of getting recognized, coming first on google search or is it some thing like galvanizing our thoughts...

But now I think the biggest reason for some one to blog and put the ideas in words means believing in those words, shaping the ideas and solidifying the thought process.

Since we have established this fact that I am writing for myself. I hope any one reading it realizes that the thoughts, ideas might not be right for you...but hey who said I will be writing A Bible.

I love to discuss, argue and believe me I am a person who loves to be convinced about new ideas so write on....