Defining life with ....

Name:
Location: Dallas, Texas, United States

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Blogging ?

An interesting article in Time and a poignant comment by my wife activated my gray cells again. They are generally in a deep slumber or in a state of mechanical motion till they hit something like this.

The article in Time that I liked was about how women joining the Workforce in big numbers starting in the 1980s changed family dynamics. Men started contributing more than earlier and women started contributing lesser toward household chores. This fact was not surprising, in fact it was quite understandable. What was interesting was that parents(working parents) spent "more time" with their kids than others by cutting down on their sleep. Maybe, it was their guilt making them do more than normal. Another fact that came into light was that there was a considerable drop in the amount of time people spent with their near and dear(apart from the family).

And now for the comment by my wife..She said that, "My husband spends a lot of time on the internet (around 18 hours) and I get to know his feelings through his blogs!"..What she didn't realize was that she said this IN HER BLOG :D..

Now what do these two seemingly different things have in common? What struck me when I encountered these was the fact that in both these cases, the attempt has been to socialize (women going to work / blogging to reach out to the blogosphere), but what is weird is that this very attempt is probably making us spend lesser and lesser time with our "quality" circle. Is this good or bad ? I really cannot say. It all depends on how your friends perceive you to be and what they have to say :). For now, it is status quo for me, except for the fact that I am quite conscious about all the time I am spending on the internet!

How I wish a day had more than 24 hours/ I could co-exist in different places at the same time ...

Boom Boom, shake a leg or ..

Real Estate has become the de-facto investment standard in India for everybody. Growth has been stupendous in most markets and people in general are thirsting for more which in turn is fueling this market. Wonder if all this demand is inflated..How much land does one need? I have seen people buy acres and acres of land. Do we really need that much? As a kid playing Monopoly, that is what I used to do. Get onto a square, if I had the cash and if the rent/return for that place was significant, I just bought it. Well, now I am no longer a kid and I am not playing Monopoly. The equation is a little different too. When I played Monopoly, I had opponents to play against and bought places with an anticipation for rent.

But now, if everybody owns properties and nobody runs on the monopoly board, how would I earn my rent? Most investments in RealEstate are from NRIs who "most probably" will not come back. Prices are really not affordable for RIs and will totally get out of reach soon. It is a scary thought that most of this "new" land is going to be owned by people not residing in India(I am an NRI myself and have nothing against them). Think about it. Real Estate is an asset and you are making a profit out of it. What if our government decides that there is enough of a bubble in Real Estate and starts taxing us for the big gains we make in Real Estate? What if they impose a ceiling of some kind? And what if aam junta (common people) decide that enough is enough and stop participating in the market? Demand would slide, so would prices!

Globalization has made people reach out beyond Geographical boundaries, but our demand for land is still very localized. Technology is increasingly making internet a more collaborative environment. Telecommunication is getting faster and cheaper with VoIP, WiMax, Broadband, Fibre Optics etc. Employees are increasingly WFH (working from home), companies are formally introducing Green days (working from home for employees) and still our demand for land is extremely high in and around hi-tech city in Hyderabad and other similar areas in other cities which in my mind should and will change.

For now, banks are keeping our feet hot by encouraging us to invest by providing loans with very low interest rates, but unrealistic demand cannot hold itself for too long. I personally feel that investing in and around these "high-tech" areas is not the best of ideas at the current moment and that channeling all your assets into real estate is not good too. At the same time, you don't want to lose out in this booming market unrealistic/realistic. So, what do you do? For one, Invest in land but don't make it your investment ....and well, how about not making it localized? Steps in that direction will make the demand curve more realistic and investments a lot less riskier!

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

You get what you haven't paid for ...

My hair has been catching up with my height lately..not a very difficult task considering the fact that there is very little between the ground and my eyes, but still requires effort that can only be mentioned in months..well, quite a few months actually. I had been avoiding a haircut partly because I was busy or acting busy, partly because I was lazy and mostly because I had to cover a quite a few bald spots. One fine evening things changed ----

I opened my mailbox as I normally do and skimmed through the contents. I tore apart quite a few marketing/promotional mails voraciously (had a bad day@work) and then saw a small card that stood out like a cherry in a bowl of vanilla ice cream (hate vanilla ice-cream, feels so insipid!). $3 off on a hair-cut that was already priced cheaper than the rest. I frankly don't understand why hair-cutting salons charge that much here. Extremely disproportional to what they do. Well, only doctors can beat that here :) and of course a nails salon. My eyes light up when I see a deal and this deal really had my eyeballs. Ta da! I could finally have a haircut and pay reasonably for it. Couldn't refuse that !!

Seeing that this coupon would expire soon, I dragged myself to the salon today. I was going there with mixed feelings..happy because it was a deal and wary because I just couldn't trust this. But, USA is a land full of deals. You can buy the same thing here for 1c and $1. Right day, right time and you might even get it free here! At least, that is how I convinced myself and dragged myself to the salon.


Finally, I was there .... I was greeted by a guy with a long pony-tail who seemed to have taken a bath at least a couple of days back. He had a wicked stubble, but his smile was gentler. I greeted him and proceeded to the desk. To my surprise, he said that he was in-charge and asked me if I wanted a "trim?"..trim my hair? Was surely shocked noticing the fact that my hair was going to be ravaged by a savage looking person. He was an antithesis to a barber, who in my opinion should look a lot more prim and proper. Imagine a plumber coming into your house with a blazer and tie. That is how this was! I could have controlled my greed and got out of the salon, but for this guy whom I really didn't want to annoy. I had given up even before the massacre started.

I wanted a clipper 3 on the sides and back, but needed my hair to stay a little longer onto the front to cover my broad forehead :). This guy ripped through my hair and cut it in all directions in whatever way he could. He showed me an initial version and asked me if I was happy. I was shell shocked. Gathering up all my courage, I asked him to cut my hair in a few other directions and make it even. He did that and the end-product was still not satisfactory. After a few iterations and a few feedback sessions, my mane was cut very short and it finally was in some reasonable shape(there was hardly much left, so was easy!). I paid this guy and then vowed to myself that I would never run after deals, at least for things that would have a long-lasting effect.

I got what I hadn't paid for, a bad haircut that shocked my wife. Now I know why people pay that much to get a hair cut. A lesson well learnt!

Friday, October 20, 2006

Every moment is precious



There are times in life when you feel absolutely speechless, down, beaten to death and just out of control. You question the very essence of life, your existence, purpose and ofcourse your helplessness! Introspection surely helps one answer a few questions, try new things out, but what if a person has no time left in his/her life. What can he/she do?

All these thoughts sprung up out of deep emotion and sympathy for a friend of mine who had been diagnosed of brain tumour and he has less than a week left in his life. All he can currently do for a conversation is hear and "bat his eyelids". So much for a person who was just too boisterous and whose voice boomed in all the conference calls that we had! Bat his eyelids! That's all he can do. And what can he do now apart from waiting for death to embrace him with both his hands! He was a healthy guy, ran 6 miles every single day. I don't what I can do in this world to help him, if there is anything, I will surely do it.

How can you re-write your fate or can you not and if you cannot, why can't you? I am sure Ray had a lot of plans for his life and none of those can be fulfilled now!

This really bothers me... What are we here for? If we don't know the purpose, shouldn't we strive for one (I am not taking about a career) and work towards it? Poor Ray, my friend cannot do much now, but us all, who have all the time in this world (atleast, we are lucky to have that feeling!), should make use of our lives in a more worthy fashion and do the best we can every single day to achieve that very purpose. Hopefully, with that, when death delivers us a striking blow, we can turn back, smile and kiss life goodbye ...

I really wish Ray well wherever he is and wherever he is going to be. I believe in miracles and hope God bestows one on him...He surely has sparked something in me and I won't let that die. Think about it. Live life as if tomorrow is going to be your last day.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Friday, the 13th

Here we are! another Friday, wonder why life is running out so fast. Weeks seem to be flying past. I can't keep track of days any longer, birthdays are hard to remember and tough to forget...but this friday is a little different, because it is the 13th today.

People deem 13th unlucky and Friday, the 13th especially so. I saw a few initial effects already. I was on schedule today to present Fitnesse, an acceptance testing framework to a few teams here@work and felt very queasy yesterday when I realised that today was Friday, the 13th. I am a little superstitious myself and felt that something was not going to go right and sure enough, there were problems. Right after I sent the presentation to everybody that was going to attend the presentation, I had atleast half of them asking for a reschedule and I had to cancel it :). Don't know if it was the fear of attending my presentation or something else :)..

Having nothing much else to do, I went to Yahoo and dug out reasons why Friday, the 13th is considered bad ...Here are some :

This superstition stems from the events that took place on Friday, October 13, 1307 when the Pope of the Roman Catholic church, in combination with the King of France, sentenced the "the Knights Templar" to death and ordered the torture and crucifixion of their leader.

Some say the number 13 was purposely vilified by the priests of patriarchal religions because it represented femininity. Thirteen corresponded to the number of lunar (menstrual) cycles in a year, and the number was revered in prehistoric goddess-worshipping cultures.

Hindus believed that it was unlucky for 13 people to gather in one place. This conviction was shared by the ancient Scandinavians.

Many biblical events of negative import supposedly occurred on a Friday, including the ejection of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, the start of the Great Flood, and the crucifixion of Jesus.

Like many legends and superstitions, the origin of Friday the 13th will always be subject to speculation. In the end, we take all the theories with a grain of salt, but well it is always better to be safe than sorry, so go wrap yourself in your blankets and escape from this dangerous Friday, 13th. Good excuse...You can already see me tuning in for the weekend :)

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Live and let Live

Microsoft has been trying very hard to get into the "search" business and recently came with a new version of it's search engine which looked quite impressive. It looks a lot like Google, but a little richer and boasts on providing very 'relevant' results...everybody does it these days :). The results page is similar to Google's and even the ads are unobstrusive. Google surely has set a precedent with user-friendly ads. You can take a look at www.live.com to see what they have to offer.


Don't know if most of you have seen this, but Google surely has! Just go and search for search on Google.com and check the results. Microsoft search shows up first, even before it's own..Now, we know what's playing on their mind, don't we ..

Live and Let Live ?

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

What can technology do?

What can technology do? Well, it can almost do anything..even enable people to play games with neurological signals as was recently proved by a group of scientists from Washington University who translated neurological signals from a young man and then connected an Atari Video game to a computer that could process these signals. Amazing, isn't it?

Getting subjects to move objects using only their brains has implications towards someday building biomedical devices that can control artificial limbs, for instance, enabling the disabled to move a prosthetic arm or leg by just thinking about it. This is surely interesting, but there is something else that happened in our India that amazed me even more!

Ever wonder what technology does for a farmer in India? If you are a part of that world, you would surely know that technology and farmers are never even talked about in the same sentence. Setting up e-Seva service centers in villages was a big thing...Farmers didn't despise technology, they just didn't know it...But, so is not the case in

Raigad district (Maharashtra): Roughly 140 kilometre from Mumbai, farmers are turning to technology to fight for their rights.

Four months ago, the farmers of Pen taluka in Raigad district were told the state government was acquiring their land to help build the 25,000 acre Maha Mumbai Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

That's when an activist of the SEZ Hatao Virodh Samiti, Arun Shivkar, logged on to Google Earth and used it to prove to the authorities that the land was fertile.

Shivkar says initially state authorities claimed that only a small portion of the earmarked land was fertile and that some parts of it was submerged by salty creek water, meaning lower compensation for the farmers.

But Google Earth came to the rescue and its satellite pictures clearly indicated crop areas. This helped the farmers back their claims for higher compensation.

This technology has also brought together farmers from 45 villages to put up a common front and protest the acquisition of their land.

The ingenious ways in which farmers in Maharashtra are using Google Earth to fight for their rights is perhaps a testament to how technology can really help us in more than obvious ways.

Well, I have used Google Earth to see satellite pics of my apartment, pics of Eiffel tower etc, other saner people have used it in local weather forecasts, traffic congestion reports, discovering hidden ancient villages etc, but using it to settle a dispute with the government is a masterstroke, and this being done by villagers just adds to the delight!

Friday, October 06, 2006

More gadgets!!!

I am not a gadget freak, but these gadgets are just too fascinating :). I like the "alarm light" thing, but I guess it can get a little annoying if you are going to take a short nap and this thing starts emitting light right from the word go :). Well, I am sure Phillips would have thought about it, and has something that can turn this off!!

Philips showed off its latest free-thinking ideas for its annual 'concepts' show at the ExCel Centre in London's docklands this week. Here's one: The Light Spectrum - Run your finger along the touch-sensitive device to adjust the colour of the ambient lighting in your tastefully appointed crib.

read more | digg story

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Lovely Kids -- Kids I love

Any tiring day seems effortless when innocence in kids strikes you. A smile on a face comforts your heart, but a smile on a kids face can just melt it...Here are a few near and dear ones..Enjoy!

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Elegant design


Here's an example of design with attitude..Sheer elegance!
This is what I was talking about when I said that Sony's readers could be a lot better if they used Apple's design :). This offering is from Apple and this is their latest iPod shuffle. It carries a competitive price tag with it too..just $79 for a 1GB player..Apple claims that it is into "green" technology with this product, but I don't really buy that argument..Their claims are just based on the idea that their new shuffle is just half as big as the old one! I work for Sabre and our headquarters are in "green" buildings which is why, I very well know that making a green product is much bigger an effort than slashing its' size to half...I am surely not complaining about this product though...It's great and I love it!! Only disadvantage --> Even if you lose it, you will never know! Well, until you try to dig it out for your next song :).
Neighbours envy, owners pride!

What happened to Firefox?

I have been very loyal to Firefox, right since I picked it up around 3 years back. My bond with it started out of my hatred for all the malicious adware, spyware problems prevalent in Internet Explorer at that time. Adware/Spyware had such great determination that inspite of installing, running all kinds of toolbars, anti-spyware software, they just came back with a vengeance. To beat them, I abandoned ship, and then started using my new geek toy, the Mozilla firefox browser!

My honeymoon period with Firefox lasted quite long (all of 2.5 years!) and I have been very satisfied with it, but now, I am seeing cracks in our relationship! At times, I just hate it and almost have taken solace in it's enemy's lap...Yes, I have started using IE, but luckily it is still not a routine.

Firefox seems to have various problems now..I have extremely high CPU utilization issues, the only recourse being that I have to shut down the process, lose all my work, kill firefox from my task manager and then start all over again....Well, I hate this even more if this happens when I am blogging.. If this alone were not enough, it has great problems running Adobe files (wonder why it cannot do something that simple), and sometimes it just disappears..it almost seems like magic when that happens..I have complained, I have installed newer versions, I have put in fixes, I have cried, I have prayed and now the only option for me is to hate it and so this rant..This could well be a problem that firefox is not able to accommodate newer, AJAX-driven, content-rich websites, but well, that surely still is a problem because the whole world is going towards them!!

Just felt like comparing this to our traffic problems in India...I think we are doing a better job there..we atleast build new highways that atleast try to accommodate our increasing traffic....don't know (actually cannot see anything) if Firefox is actually doing anything handle this! In such a scenario, I almost have nothing else to do...but hell, there is....get back full-time to IE or maybe pick Opera?

Look what others are reading !! Courtesy : Digg.com

Intesting projects : Fun time :D