Rebooting Myself

The Evolving Internet: A look ahead to 2025

2010-10-17T11:11:00.001-04:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

The Evolving Internet: A look ahead to 2025

India Fair on Sat Sept 18, Downtown Hartford

2010-09-17T23:43:00.001-04:00

Hello All

I wish to share the information about the Indian Fair to be held tomorrow at Mortensen Riverfront Plaza, Hartford Downtown (next to CT Science Centre).

What is the event?

Get together of Indian Community to show unity in diversity at home away from home.
Show support for Hartford Courant's Camp Courant Fund for Children.
2-mile walk (Registration starts at 10:00am)
Power packed Cultural Performances from different States of India

Submit OCI Application

Whats there for you at the event?

Participate in the symbolic 2 mile walk and help raise funds for Camp Courant Fund.
Have fun watching the Colorful Fancy Dress Competition - we have received over 60 participants in 3 categories.
Enjoy folk dances and songs from different states of India - Bhangra, Giddha
Enjoy solo and group performances on Bollywood songs.
Kite flying - relive childhood.
Relish delicious Indian food and snacks.
A day out with family and friends to meet others from our community (It‘s expected to be sunny - 75 deg F - yuppy!).
Shopping - variety of stalls by vendors (clothes, jewllery, heena, art and crafts etc).
Submit OCI Applications at The Cosulate General Of India, NY booth
Fabulous prizes to win at Raffle
Entry is Free!

When and Where is the event?

Date: Saturday, September 18th 2010
Time: 10:00am to 4:00pm
Venue: Mortensen Riverfront plaza, Hartford Downtown, CT 06106
- Next to Connecticut Science Centre
- Free Parking at Morgan Street Garage

For more information see flyer or reach me at 860 712 6615.

Please help in spreading the word. Looking forward to see you and your friends tomorrow! Add spice and dress in traditional Indian attire!

Yours truly,

A proud Indian

Giri

Posted via email from giriraj's posterous

Untitled

2010-09-17T23:31:00.001-04:00

Hello All

I wish to share the information about the Indian Fair to be held tomorrow at Mortensen Riverfront Plaza, Hartford Downtown (next to CT Science Centre).

What is the event?

Get together of Indian Community to show unity in diversity at home away from home.
Show support for Hartford Courant's Camp Courant Fund for Children.
2-mile walk (Registration starts at 10:00am)
Power packed Cultural Performances from different States of India

Submit OCI Application

Whats there for you at the event?

Participate in the symbolic 2 mile walk and help raise funds for Camp Courant Fund.
Have fun watching the Colorful Fancy Dress Competition - we have received over 60 participants in 3 categories.
Enjoy folk dances and songs from different states of India - Bhangra, Giddha
Enjoy solo and group performances on Bollywood songs.
Kite flying - relive childhood.
Relish delicious Indian food and snacks.
A day out with family and friends to meet others from our community (It‘s expected to be sunny - 75 deg F - yuppy!).
Shopping - variety of stalls by vendors (clothes, jewllery, heena, art and crafts etc).
Submit OCI Applications at The Cosulate General Of India, NY booth
Fabulous prizes to win at Raffle
Entry is Free!

When and Where is the event?

Date: Saturday, September 18th 2010
Time: 10:00am to 4:00pm
Venue: Mortensen Riverfront plaza, Hartford Downtown, CT 06106
- Next to Connecticut Science Centre
- Free Parking at Morgan Street Garage

For more information see flyer or reach me at 860 712 6615.

Please help in spreading the word. Looking forward to see you and your friends tomorrow! Add spice and dress in traditional Indian attire!

Yours truly,

A proud Indian

Giri

Posted via email from giriraj's posterous

SillyBandz all the rage in the grade school set

2010-04-26T19:29:00.001-04:00

SillyBandz all the rage in the grade school set
Bonnie McCarthy

Apr 25th 2010 at 3:00PM

Text SizeAAA
Filed under: Family Money
Move over Webkinz, Pokemon cards and Kooky Klicker pens ... there's a new playground darling scooping up the allowance money. SillyBandz, simple, jelly-like silicone bracelets in a rainbow of colors die-molded into cookie-cutter shapes of everything from zoo animals and princess silhouettes to rock band motifs. When worn in multiples, the bands look like a colorful mass of squiggly loops. Take them off, and they revert to their original shape.
In many parts of the U.S., the bands have cultivated the kind of fervor previously achieved by Tickle Me Elmo and the Nintendo Wii. Stores can't keep them in stock. Parents are reportedly signing up for waiting lists. There's fighting in the aisles. Store clerks are rumored to receive payoffs for allowing prioritized customers first dibs. As of this writing, SillyBandz's Rock Bands Shapes (a 24-pack goes for $6.95) are listed as the number one top-selling toy on Amazon.com, and have been on the website's top 100 list for 67 days.
In some schools, the popularity of the bracelets has gotten them banned from campuses, and even nicknamed "Contrabandz." "Getting banned fuels the craze like a five-gallon can of gasoline on a campfire," James Howard, the president of SillyBandz's rival, Zanybandz, told the The New York Times' Maplewood Blog.
It's a marketing dream.
Robert Croak, creator and president of SillyBandz at Brainchild Products in Toledo, Ohio, told WalletPop, "As far as predicting trends, I feel that there are some informational vehicles that can assist in trend spotting, but like anything the magnitude of the Sillybandz craze, you simply cannot predict it with any certainty ... SillyBandz are becoming a world wide phenomenon." Croak won't reveal just how many bands he's sold to date. "[Let's] just say it's in the millions," he said.
Croak credits the success of viral social media for building buzz for the bands. "Word of mouth can now be spread worldwide in days for free, whereas, in the past it took months and hundred of thousands of dollars in ad campaigns to achieve something that was usually less desirable. With viral marketing kids, young adults can sift through the endless information that they receive and freely choose what they like, and what they talk about in their peer groups...companies and products can go from obscurity to multi-million dollar operations in a matter of months." He should know.
On the SillyBandz Facebook page, which boasts 107,236 friends (almost 1,000 more than when I checked this morning), fans comment on their obsession. "I have 63 silly bandz and counting ..." wrote Olivia B. "I want the baseball pack," said, Christopher M. "At first, I thought silly bandz were kinda stupid and a waste of money," admitted Juliana R., "but once you have them you officially love themm!! They're just so much funn..."
SillyBandz also asked their Facebook friends what new shapes they'd like to see. The response was immediate and specific. Suggestions included, cheer themes, dog breeds, Pokemon ... who needs an R&D department?
Hopping on the SillyBandz wagon is also relatively affordable (they range from $2.50 for a pack of 12, or 24 for $5 and up). However, in spite of the bargain, and the trend's Justin Bieber-like following in the rest of the country, the fad has yet to take hold on the West Coast. I asked a few elementary school girls in Southern California if they had heard of Silly Bandz, "uh .... no." I surveyed mothers of trendy middle schoolers, no dice.
Time to query a professional. Using a SillyBandz listing of retailers found on the company's Facebook page, I called Michael Alsup, manager of Thinker Toys in Carmel, Calif. to see how sales of SillyBandz were going. "We're hoping it will pick up," said Alsup. "When we first brought them in, people were looking at them and wondering what they were."
It seems total world domination by SillyBandz is not yet complete.
Although the list of SillyBandz imitators continues to grow, Croak is betting the audience will grow as well. "The demographic for SillyBandz really changes all the time. It started out with kids 4 to 12 and has really expanded through college age and young adults. With so many different programs utilizing SillyBandz for giveaways and fundraising the demographic has expanded exponentially." Croak said, "Right now, we have programs with private label for SillyBandz for [organizations] like Red Cross, Michael J. Fox Foundation, Autism, Hershey's chocolate and many more, so the brand and people wearing them expands daily."
As for the magic and mystery behind the bands' success, one collector had this to say. "I'm an intern at an art studio and I'm around kids all day, I'm constantly trading mine or giving them away to the kids. They love them and so do I, it's the simple things in life...," ," wrote Emily P.
California, here they come.
Source

Tags: Family Money, FamilyMoney, Kids and Money, school, SillyBandz
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Comments (75)

via walletpop.com

Any guesses on what is making to the wait list of shoppers (other than iPAD)?

Posted via web from giriraj's posterous

Doctor Removes Live Ammo From Soldier's Head - AOL News

2010-04-11T14:12:00.001-04:00

via aolnews.com

This is a testament of the progress in medical Science - Kudos to the Surgeon!

Posted via web from giriraj's posterous

The best airline safety announcement videos

2010-04-11T11:52:00.001-04:00

via gadling.com

Its a good collection of aircraft safety announcement videos - Some of them make u smile others would have ROFL!

Posted via web from giriraj's posterous

Much Awaited is here!

2010-04-01T21:23:00.001-04:00

AR Rahman is coming soon! http://tinyurl.com/yjdp2ud

Posted via email from giriraj's posterous

foreach week in thisMonth { busy++; }

2010-03-26T04:02:00.001-04:00

Every week turns out to be busier than the last .. I need a break badly!!

Posted via email from giriraj's posterous

Harsha Bhogle: The rise of cricket, the rise of India

2010-03-21T10:15:00.001-04:00

via ted.com

A very interestingly told story - makes you feel proud! Harsha bud you rock!

Posted via web from giriraj's posterous

Forget Goa, Dharavi is the new tourist hot spot | ThinkChange India

2010-02-17T00:41:00.001-05:00

via thinkchangeindia.org

its not about the poor living conditions only - look for the economic perspective on the slum dwellers -interesting insight.

Posted via web from giriraj's posterous

I feel like dancing!!!

2010-02-10T20:00:00.001-05:00

Finally - after all odds, six months of great team effort, things are falling into place - just when we need them to. Application looks good on 2 new Prod servers. interfaces are reacting as expected, found the resolution for the last security vulnerability that has been keeping us on the hook for last month... oh yeah .. we are a good team!! Time for beers and cheers.. Hoping it would be celebration this Sunday as finally the Go button is pushed. As the proverb goes -

There is many a slip between the cup and the lip. So would have to be diligent and continue to watch for all the checks in place. But keeping fingers crossed! Yippee I am excited!

Posted via email from giriraj's posterous

Bringing my world in order!

2010-02-09T06:08:00.001-05:00

This is my first attempt to publish data using posterous.com. From what I have read and experienced so far. It seems pretty sleek and easy to use.

Its very intuitive and the user interface is very simple - something that is becoming rare in the Web 2.0 world.

We have evolved in the online Web2.0 world. Now we have multiple presence in this new world - Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, Blogspot, Wordsphere etc. It is becoming increasingly complicated to keep all the small worlds in this big world in sync. Chaos begins to seek in. If not chaos then the other alternative is oblivion from few of the sub-worlds. I was starting to force myself to choose few online platforms of choice and disregard the others. However, my 'social' network has been growing and this would have meant sacrificing friends and acquaintances made over the last few months. Not to mention the opportunity cost of new connections that I could make on other social networks that I would have chosen not to use. To avoid this, I had been looking for a tool similar to this but wasn't able to make up my mind on what are must-have features to good-to-have ones and few I-dont-need-them types.

I hope that this service really works. It promises to publish data on Twitter, FB, Blogs etc (what not? :)) with just one email.

Seems very user friendly. I am hoping this would make it easier for me to be present 'online'.

Bringing my world in order!

2010-02-09T05:59:00.001-05:00

This is my first attempt to publish data using posterous.com. From what I have read and experienced so far. It seems pretty sleek and easy to use.

Its very intuitive and the user interface is very simple - something that is becoming rare in the Web 2.0 world.

I hope that this service really works. It promises to publish data on Twitter, FB, Blogs etc (what not? :)) with just one email.

Seems very user friendly. I am hoping this would make it easier for me to be present 'online'.

World War II in the age of social media

2009-09-29T23:50:00.003-04:00

Ever imagined how would WWII be experienced if the stage was internet. I stumbled upon a very hilarious article - one of the best I have read in a long while. I would recommend all of my beloved readers to check out this link.

This article reminded me of another similar article I had read about a year ago - Facebook Mahabharata - I was ROFL and LMAO after reading this.

I want to write something similar myself - may be WWII in .Net or Mahabharata in .Net lol.

Please leave a feedback of what you think about these two links or if you might have come across any similar link. See you around!

When x=x is false!

2009-09-20T20:26:00.003-04:00

Ever wondered after so many years of software development, progress in ease of use and simplifying stuff, software is still not the end user's game. If so check out this nice article. It is completely technical - but I also find it fascinating for a layman. I mean this is why software development is so interesting.

If you think (x==x) would always result in true then you got to read this article. In Shakespearean style this could be said as "Looks could be deceiving".

http://blog.colinmackay.net/archive/2009/09/12/Tip-of-the-Day-16-NaN-Not-a-Number.aspx

P.S. My patient readers - Off late I have been reading more and writing less.. Please stay tuned.. I hope to get off this habit very soon. I am trying :) Thanks for stopping by!

This is what gets me high!

2009-06-24T00:12:00.006-04:00

The last century saw one of the greatest developments in the history of mankind. The thing that has become ubiquitous now and without which its difficult to identify ourselves. The thing thats called INTERNET. Quoting from wiki -

"The origins of the Internet reach back to the 1960s when the United States funded research projects of its military agencies to build robust, fault-tolerant and distributed computer networks."

However internet changed from a noun to a verb with the launch of Google on September 4, 1998. Google revolutionized the way we use internet. Very soon word "googled" made it to the urban dictionary. Folks at Google have earned it. The culture of innovation and vision for future blows me away.

I could go on and on with my fascination for these genius folks. However, I will reserve that for a later post. Coming back to why I decided to post today. One of my friends updated his Gtalk status yesterday with the url of a youtube video of the launch of a new product by Google at the Developers conference last month. Its an open source product called WAVE. I was so excited and thrilled to watch this video - almost jumping as I watched the video that is about one hour long.

If you are a budding software engineer then I would bet my money that you would go green with envy as I did watching this video. Even if you are not a software engineer, I would hope that you would be able to appreciate the thought process of the guys at google - how and what they think the future would entail for us.

In any case, I would strongly recommend everyone to check out this video when you get a chance.

For readers who share the same insatiable appetite for knowledge and intellectual challenge as mine - this would surely work better than any Rum, Whisky or Vodka - Lets get high!!

My encounter with failure

2009-06-15T21:30:00.004-04:00

Finally I got my driving license (DL). So what?? Everyone gets it.. its not like climbing the Mt.Everest. Why is it worth a mention on this blog which only publishes rarefied work of yours truly?

Growing up in India, I subconsciously realized that driving is something we learn after getting a driving license. Its not a necessity and getting a DL is a child's play. Ok - that might be a exaggeration. However, I am sure many of the revered readers of this blog didn't have to take the pain to go to the Motor Vehicle, stand in the queue, smile to the unfriendly remarks of the govt. officers and take the road test (yeah there is something called road test!!).

[*Jokes apart, I am a proud Indian but I don't shrug in accepting the things that we could do differently. A more robust process to get the driving license would definitely go a long way in keeping our kith and kin safe on the road. Anyways back to the topic..]

So it was quite a shock when I failed in my first road test. But in all fairness to the inspectors - I wasn't good enough. There wasn't any excuse - I was not up to the mark. This was one of the hardest things that I had to go through in recent times. Over the last few years, there have been very rare things that didn't work out as I had expected them to. I had not come face-to-face with uncompromising failure. It almost killed me from inside. I had mixed emotions. I literally was trying to convince myself - "Giri - grow up - its only a DL- not end of the world. Big deal you didn't get it .. you would get it next time." But to my dismay - this didn't help.

In the past few years, I have read Shiv Khera's books, heard webcasts of Zig Ziglar and other inspirational speakers. I had been thinking that if you are optimistic, positive and hard working then failures are only a stepping stone that brings you closer to your goal. Bunk it! No one told me its a gigantmagnomilithic task to come to terms with your failures. Its nothing lesser than climbing the Mt. Everest.(dont scratch your head over gigantmagnomilithic - yeah - its not a word - i made it up.)

I had no option. I am a fighter - kyunko fighter humesha jeetata hai. So I booked my next appointment after 2 weeks (that's the earliest one can appear again for the road test).

Anyways I prepared myself better for the next test. This time I was good but not good enough. It took me a third attempt to finally get it through. I believe now you would be able to empathize with the ecstatic tone in the first line of this blog lol.

Failure is a trivial event. It happens to many of us. But there was something moving about this incident in my life. As I reflect on this experience, I realized - truly failures are the only way one can remain humble and ambitious at the same time. If you are positive and optimistic, failures only help to make your motivations stronger. More importantly - failures have a multiplier effect on the satisfaction one attains after accomplishing success - and a more gratifying one.

Over the weekend, my younger brother - DD stumbled upon one of the draft version of my prepared speech for an inter-collegiate Debate competition. (My old files are backed up on his laptop.) This was in-support of the argument - "Only once one has known real sadness can one feel true happiness". I had got my license on Saturday and similar thoughts had been going through my meta cells as well. He shared with me his delight after reading this article. I could not recollect exactly what I had written - so I asked him to send the file in an email. This incident and my encounter with failure taught me something that would stay with me for a long time. Its like the "trend correction" in the stock market - one that was due :)

I have published it here. Hope you enjoy reading it as well.

Sometimes most important lessons are learned from trivial incidents. Did you come across anything similar that moved you and fueled your motivation to be successful even further? I would love to hear if you had gone through a similar journey.

What is happiness?

Happiness is defined by the high emotional state of the mind that is devoid of any worries. Its about feeling satisfied with one's actions and deeds. Its about relishing the moments of joy. Happiness is the expression on the child's face when he gets a new toy that he has been longing for. Happiness is in the eyes of the gardener when he sees the first bud blossoming in the spring. Happiness is in the eyes of the farmer when he gleefully looks at the lavishing corn fields enjoying the fruit of his labor. Happiness is in the tears of joy of the father feeling proud on his child's graduation. Happiness is in the warmth of the first kiss. Happiness is felt by the mentor when his protege is decorated with the National Medal of Science.

All our actions in this mortal world are in pursuit of true happiness. However True happiness is meaningless unless one has experienced sorrow. Happiness is a relative term. The appreciation of a moment of joy is very relative and differs from person to person. Two meals a day may be perfunctory for an opulent businessman. However to a beggar who has been surving on single meal - it would mean happiness. The deeper the sorrow - greater is the happiness.

Winning Wimbelendon trophy after loosing in 6 finals provides greater happiness than sustaining the win over 6 finals.

True happiness may be defined in being elated on the achievement of something one had been longing for. It comes after a series of failures or rejection. With each failure the magnitude of the happiness derived from the task is multiplied. The joy in winning a race after failing three times is much more compared to the joy of winning the race in the first attempt.

Happiness is derived on the way. Its in the means and not the ends. The tougher the path the greater is the quotient of happiness. The longer you have desired for the Wii game the happier you feel on getting it.

Is it possible for us to turn the transient happiness to true happiness? Yes - it is. Its when the happiness has been hard earned. Its when success comes after failure. Ask the student who has always topped in his class. The sense of achievement and excitement is there. The euphoria is there but the motivation is lost. However the student who has always wanted to be ahead of the race - but hasn't quite succedded at it yet appreciates the First rank better than the other student.

If you wish to know the true importance of education ask the children in the slums who stare at the school gates with gloomy eyes. If you wish to know the true importance of family ask an orphan. If you wish to gratify this life ask a handicap. If you wish to find out true happiness of the rainbow - ask a blind.

Happiness could be in the very tiny transient moments of our day to day life. It could be the refreshing cup of coffee in the morning or the comfortable ride to work. It is not bounded by size, taste, luxury or comfort. However this happiness is transient and flees away unnoticed. True happiness is something that stays with you. True happiness is something that drives you in tough times. True happiness is in giving to others. True happiness comes from rising above the selfish odds and believing in altruism.

So its true - "Only once one has known real sadness can one feel true happiness".

Today's dose of Creativity

2009-05-02T18:35:00.007-04:00

While browsing today, I came across this video of the latest song - The Reeling (manners) from the Boston band Passion Pit. I read that the directors of the video shot the entire video then printed it frame by frame on paper to provide an out-of-the workd in-camera wizadry. A quote posted at Video static goes like this -

Humble, production company: "For the lead video off Passion Pit's eagerly anticipated debut LP, 3 of our creatives banded together into a multi-headed directing beast. A beast we now call Hydra.

Inspired by the worn away layers of street art, advertising, and flyers plastered around downtown New York, they set out to create a world of distressed, animated paper. Think: Cases of spray glue, 2 video projectors, a couple of workhorse color copiers, untold reams of paper, 2 mannequins, 4 mexican wrestling masks, a stage full of cardboard Moogs, and one 1971 Charger, covered in 3000 sheets of torn flyers.

The video, shot on the new handheld Canon 5d DSLR, was edited, tracked and composited in a normal post workflow. Then, every other frame, some 4305 of them, were printed out, crumpled up, spray mounted in stacks, and then reshot on homemade animation stands. A month of long nights, razor cuts, toxic fumes, and a terrabyte of stills later, we came out with this."

Check out this video

Here is the lyrics:

We dug these holes we crawled into
Now they're my home
Now here I cannot feel the wind
Can't feel the rain (bow) ?
And I believe in gentle harmony
How I loathe all this obscenity
is this the way my life has got to be
by a single opportunity

Look at me, oh look at me
Is this the way I've always been
Oh no, oh no
anekatips
Now I'm dreaming somebody
Would simply come and kidnap me
Oh no, oh no
Everyday I lie awake and pray to God today's the day
Oh no, oh no
Here I am, and here I am, when will someone understand
Oh no, oh no

And all at once I feel this
Oh how it clings to me (clings to me)
It reels and calls me towards it
Confounding destiny (destiny)
And I can feel the magnets pinch my hands
The more I run the more I am convinced
A girl who loves is like a precious glimpse
Just like we settle in the foggy mist

Look at me, oh look at me
Is this the way I've always been
Oh no, oh no
Now I'm dreaming somebody would simply
Come and kidnap me
Oh no, oh no
Everyday I lie awake and pray to God
Today's the day
Oh no, oh no
Here I am, here I am, when will someone understand
Oh no, oh no

Look at me, oh look at me
Is this the way I've always been
Oh no, oh no
Now I'm dreaming somebody would simply
Come and kidnap me
Oh no, oh no
Everyday I lie awake and pray to God
Today's the day
Oh no, oh no
Here I am, here I am, when will someone understand
Oh no, oh no

Heard about Yahoo Pipes? Its cool :)

2009-04-20T03:24:00.006-04:00

This has been one of the most refreshing things that I have done in a long time. Learning new things have always excited me. This week I had my 3rd Driving class. Believe me its fun being behind the wheels. Don't worry I am not going to talk about my ordeals with driving here - at least for now :).

This post is about a new tool that I was recently introduced to by one of my colleagues. Over the past few weeks I have been planning to launch a personal web site. I have been looking out for tools to do so. I read some tid bits about Drupal 6 - a tool to create your own social networking web site such as Orkut, Facebook etc. Dont get me wrong. I dont intend to create something like orkut however do want to use RSS, Wiki, discussion forums and social networking tools on my website. I have just taken my first step and as of now just evaluating the options and choices that I have.

With this thought process at the back of mind, I asked one of my colleagues over a coffee break. I inquired my dear colleague Chandresh "Do you know how does one launch his own website? Like what are the tools that one must know about?". I had read some thing on these topics earlier. However I wanted to get a fresh perspective on this topic. So I chose to remain ignorant of my already acquired knowledge.

He mentioned few things that made sense. He also indicated that he is also planning to do launch a website as well. Among other things he introduced me to a new tool on the web called Yahoo Pipes. This tool can aggregate RSS feeds from disparate sources and gives you a graphical interface to manage the output. Finally, the output can be accessed over a web page or one could extract the code and plug into his own personal website or blog. This sounded too cool to me. As much of what I plan to do is about reading RSS feeds intelligently and proving the information to the user as he would like to see it.

This discussion happened on Friday Apr 17th 2009. So I decided to dig more and learn more about this. I came back home. I logged on to my Yahoo account. I hit few links and then saw a beginner's overview of Yahoo Pipes and how to get started.

Subsequently, I got involved with few other chores and then 6 hrs of driving class, chatting with old and new friends back home on Sat night. On Sunday morning, I had an interesting discussion with my pal Bharat - a Sales guy to the core. We were generally chatting about many things. One thing led to other. Here is a high level sequence of topic as far as I can recall - entrepreneurial ventures and then about the forth coming Alumni meet --> about creating the website for the Alumni --> interacting with current students --> aggregating opening for freshers and entry level engineers and sharing with all. I challenged his thought that this manual 'aggregation' of jobs from all leading job portals isnt sustainable over long run as we get busy with our own work lives.

Then the conversation logically moved towards automating this process - and Eureka!! I had my answer right in front of me. I shared with Bharat that there is a tool that could do all that we discussed - in an automated manner. He was equally amazed. Then with a Manager's concern he asked - How would you get time to create this? I said- if this tool can do it then from whatever I have read so far about it - its a matter of minutes.

So we conclude the conversation. I promise to give it a shot sometime later.

Here I was after a very eventful Sunday.. finished all chores - cleaning the kitchen, laundry, pressing clothes for next day, talking to Mom, Dad, Brother, cousin sister - wished a pretty friend Happy Birthday.. and still not feeling sleepy. The clock was ticking about 3am.

As I was closing all open browser windows - I saw the first one read - Yahoo Pipes. I thought let me just play around and see what is it all about and then may be in 15 mins I would hit the bed. I was thrilled with the output so thought of blogging it right away. In brief, here is all I did:

1. Added a 'Fetch Feed' module to my new Pipe
2. Added 4 different RSS feed urls from Naukri.com for IT/Telecom jobs, R&D Engineering jobs,Entry Level/ Freelance and All IT telecom jobs
Source: http://corp.naukri.com/mynaukri/mn_rss.php?othersrcp=2729&wExp=N
3. Add a 'Filter' component
4. Added rules to filter all items that have one of the following words in the item title or description: 'entry', 'fresher', 'freshers'.
5. Add a 'Sort' module to sort the filtered data in descending order of Publish date.
6. Connected all modules with what they call as 'Pipes' and finally I had the Pipe Output!!
7. Hit Refresh and jumped up from my chair to see it work seamlessly.
8. Saved it with a name Entry Level Jobs and clicked on Run Pipe.
9. This worked perfectly fine.
10. Subsequently, I clicked on more options and selected 'Get as a Badge' and added it to my blog as a widget. This is what it looks like:
-----------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------
Then I published the pipe on the internet so that anyone can access this.
Here is the link

The simplicity of the tool gets 5 star rating from me.

Next I would try to do more crazy stuff using this.

If you try something funky using this or if you have already tried this the please share your pipe with me. I would love to hear more from you.

Till the next post - Keep rocking and dont forget to leave a comment - thats the only way I know you like or didnt like it ;)

Now I know what it means when they say at Cafe Coffee Day - A lot can happen over coffee!

Cheers
Giriraj

Sunny with a difference

2009-04-15T00:25:00.003-04:00

I have spent roughly 6 out of the last 7 and a half years in a land where, as my close friend Amit would say, there are only three seasons - Hot, Hotter and Hottest. For the uninitiated I am referring to Chennai, India.

We always had the pleasure of waking up to a scorching sun no matter what time of the year. Incidentally, temperature was also synonymous with Sun. That is, Temperatures were less if it was cloudy and was above 25 deg C (if not more) when it was Sunny. There were exceptions but I hope most of you would agree thats how generally it works in our part of the woods.

Quite strangely, this equation doesn't hold good in this great land of Uncle Sam - atleast not in the North East. My kith and kin used to make fun of me when I told them that its cold and Sunny outside. They used to be like - you have gone crazy. Stop using oxymorons Giri!

Now I got facts to challenge them and prove my sanctity.

Day before yesterday before retiring to bed, as usual I launched the weather widget on my desktop to check the forecast for next 12 hr. I was thrilled and saved a snapshot for strictly recreational purpose :)

Check this out if you dont believe me. Isnt this funny?
Its not - its freaking cold - sub zero temperatures and sunny as well.

Stay Warm! lol

tweet tweet tweet...

2009-04-12T18:48:00.003-04:00

Hello Friends,

A couple of weeks ago, during another water cooler discussion, a learned colleague asked me - "What is twitter?". I was like duh.. you dont know what is twitter? But then quickly gathered my senses to be polite and gave her the benefit of doubt. Instead of answering her question directly, I asked her another question. (By the way this strategy is a trusted and tried strategy to get out of any difficult situation - when you are not sure what the right answer is - answer by asking another question lol)

Anyways - so I asked her.. "Its like quick answer to what you are doing to help people follow you. Do you want to know in more detail as to why is this a craze or in specific about what it is?" She clarified - she wanted to know how is this useful and different from blogging.

For a moment, I thought to myself - good question. Have I pondered about it myself? Anyways I did share some blah blahs with all that I knew about microblogging, updates through SMS, not necessarily connected to Web etc etc..

Later as I came back to my desk, I could not stop myself. I launched wiki and typed twitter to formally educate myself to this fastest growing 'cool' thing on the internet.

It was good eye-opener to some of the facts and later I decided to check this out myself. So here I am on twitter, trying my foray into microblogging as well. You can find the link to follow me at the top-right corner of the page.

Since incoming messages are charged in this country - I have not enabled the messaging updates yet. However I might revisit this decision after a month depending on how this 'relationship' grows :)

Let me know if you are a twitter fan also and the ways in which you are using it.

Bottomline - lets keep in touch wherever we are, however we can..

Hope to see you around soon.

Viashnav Janato..

2009-04-05T11:06:00.000-04:00

21st century is all about pace and advancement - and less time. In this rat race to stay ahead of the competition, subconsciously the human element seems to be lost in most of the cases.

We are always thinking about what to do next to keep my boss or client happy. How should I ensure there are no escalation? What is that would keep me ahead of my peers? Would a new certification help? Where do I see myself 5 years down the line? Can I become a CEO or head honcho at my dream company by the time I am 35? and a new question has been added to this list quite recently - How do I safe guard my job?

In essence, there is nothing wrong about these questions fundamentally. Many of these are motivated by personal asprirations or social expectations which has been always part of our culture and society. However the thing that concerns me the most is that this has resulted in a very drastic change in the human nature and attitude of the current diaspora.

Sometimes I ponder, we are so preoccupied with these thoughts that the element 'I' has superseded the compassionate human nature to empathize with the lesser privileged fellow human beings.

Personally, I have seen sign of this transformation in myself. I had never been materially ambitious to own a vast villa in the most beautiful places in the world or to enjoy the pleasures of the costliest watches etc. They didnt use to be in my wish list. Yes - earning more - was always the motivator. But I had not extrapolated that question to understand - what would I do with all the 'more' money when I earn it?. I guess subconsciously I thought the earning more is a bigger battle to fight than thinking about how to spend it. So anyways, coming back to the point - I saw signs of change in this attitude recently.

Scene 1:
I usually reach the Bus stop few mins early everyday to catch the bus to office. With Spring in the air, The Audis, the Mercs, the BMWs, the Lexus and the Corvettes are now more common than they had been during the inclement cold winter. While I wait at the bus stop for my 30 seater - 'Sedan' looking at the beautiful luxurious cars stop at the red light at 10 ft distance, I couldn't help but admire and envy :)

Gradually, as a week passed by I could realize this feeling becoming stronger and the thoughts like - When would I be able to buy a Lexus? Then my grey cells start running 1000 times faster to calculate my odds of getting one. The current market price is $80,000! Hmmm.. the odds are dim as of now :(. So I reassure my self - I do not need a Lexus - it doesn't match my personality. Yeah I hear you guys - Grapes are sour.

Scene 2:
On a bright Saturday morning, I am slacking in my bed - randomly hitting video links on you tube to find something interesting. One of my friends updates his orkut profile with a link to a TED talk by Dan Gilbert on "How we are deceived by our own miscalculations of the future". In this interesting talk - he brings up the famous equation suggested by the 17th century Mathematician - Daniel Bernoulli. Bernoulli had statistically represented the idea of 'how to do exactly the right thing at all possible times'. To cut the long story short - here is what he said - Expected Value = Odds of Gain * Value of Gain

Now the big question is how to ascertain the value of gain. Dr. Gilbert brought up an interesting perspective. He said the value of gain is determined by understanding what else could you have done with the same investment. So relating this thought to my personal fleeting aspiration of buying a Lexus - I started pondering over - what else could I do with $80,000 (thats obviously when i have it :) ) You can watch the full talk here:

As I started reflecting on this question deeply, it struck me quite soon that the element 'I' was gaining strength and featuring everywhere. But is that really me - Thinking only about myself? What have I to give back to this world? Shouldnt that be component in my thought process about my future? Why is that my future and the future of the society I live in are two separate entities? Can it merge?

Pondering over all this, there was nothing better to relieve my soul than this famous poem - Vaishnav Janato by Gujarati poet-saint Narsinh Mehta. I looked up the video on you tube where this is rendered in the melancholy voice of none other than Lata Mangeshkar.

I have always felt that there Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in all of us. However personal weakness, circumstances and situations tempt the Mr. Hyde to overpower Dr. Jekyll. Nevertheless, this equation could be reversed by conscious reflections of our actions and including compassion and empathy for a wider audience than 'I' in our current and future planning.

You can also review the English translation here.

Enjoy this beautiful rendition by Lata Mangeshkar:

Khamoshiyaan, Dooriyan...

2009-03-16T01:56:00.000-04:00

I had written few couplets sometime last year.. I saved them in my email drafts. Fortunately, I stumbled upon these today while looking for something else. I felt blog might be a easier way to find this the next time.. So here am I posting these poems for personal retreat. Nevertheless, your feedback is always welcome - so pen your thought without fail:)

Khamoshiyaan:

Aap woh cheez nahi jo bhula sake hum

Bus yeh kambakhat itehfaaq hi hai

ki darmiyaan hummare

ghuftagoo ki jagah khamoshiyaan ho gayi hai

Dooriyan:

Agar dil chahe to milne ke tarike hazar honge

kabhi hum honge to kabhi hum na bhi honge..

I finally make it!

2008-09-06T06:00:00.001-04:00

A very warm welcome to all you generous readers!

Its been my long pending desire to start my own blog. I am so intrigued by this new technology that has simplified the art of sharing your thoughts. In matter of minutes one can publish his/her thoughts to an audience spread across geographic regions, with diverse backgrounds and perspectives. This not only helps to share one's thoughts but also helps in shaping one's thought and broadening the horizon. I would suspend my advocacy of blogging for the time being and reserve this thought for a future blog. The fact that you are reading this proves that you enjoy it as much as I do (if not more!!)

After juggling with many templates and layout for the blog for almost over a month - I could finally convince the 'perfectionist' in me that its not about the layout - its the thought that matters. I hope you all like the layout. I have used one of the default templates provided by blogspot. Going forward I would try to design or use a new and different layout to provide you a unique experience.

With so many blogs floating around .. what new do I bring to the table for the avid readers. Well to start with it would be filled with my take on Life in general and some interesting incidents from my day to day life. Its not going to be all gyan and serious types. I would like to keep it candid and open to suggestions and critics as well. To lighten the mood - I plan to blog about music too. I am no musician and have been warned by my friends not to try singing - even bathroom singing. Nevertheless, I enjoy listening to good music to relax myself. I am die hard fan of old hindi songs. So if you find a rare song please share the link!!

I would like to touch base with you all on some sensitive and important topics that impact the Indian diaspora. I hope to use this medium to understand and help in forming the opinion for a new awakened India that is ready to take all forthcoming challenges and rise as 'Knowledge' superpower. I believe in the sustained development that includes every section of the society - from the Janitor to the CEO. I completely understand that this is an ambitious statement given the diversity of our nation. However that shouldnt deter us to atleast ponder over this to start with.

Last but not the least - as a blog reader - I like to read the comments section with more enthusiasm then the blogs in general. I believe - the comments shared by other bloggers goes a long way in developing a deeper perspective about the topic and hence provides the blog a logical conclusion (or many a times a new beginning.. )

So keep sharing what you feel. Vindicate or Criticize - but do leave a feedback! It would always be appreciated. Note: who doesn't like adulation! I think you get my point. :)

Thanks for taking time to read this. Wish you a happy reading experience .. Keep in touch

Looking forward to see you again soon :)

Yours lovingly
Giriraj

A word of disclaimer - The thoughts mentioned in the blog are strictly my personal opinion and do not necessarily represent my organization, family or friends. I would try my best not to offend anybody. However I would request the readers to not take it personally too. Kindly refrain from personal attacks or racist comments. Profanity would not be entertained in the best interests of everyone. The author reserves the right to moderate the comments posted on this blog. Anonymous comments are not restricted however I would earnestly request you to avoid it if possible.