Wildlife and Conservation Photographic Expedition

One of the things I always wanted to do is a photography workshop. First I thought of trying Ken Rockwell's Rt 66 Tour. I almost booked for 2008 tour but my wife's situation did not allow that.

I came across Kalyan Varma's, a wildlife photographer's site through Indira's blog. He also conducts this workshop. Though bio-diversity is better in USA in large national parks, I might participate in India rather than at USA since in India forests disappear faster than in USA . Apart from that I love Western Ghats. So, my next India trip should include this Wildlife and Conservation Photographic Expedition.

Smile at the problems

I just came across this wonderful story of Naresh Karutura, who has an amazing attitude and smile that is inspiring. Despite the poverty and losing his legs in an accident (due to lack of proper treatment), he went to study B.Tech (CS) at IITM and joined Google Labs.

Naresh may be physically handicapped, but in his heart and mind, he has two strong legs that will take him wherever he wants to go in his life.

All the best Naresh.

Dr. Manmohan Singh won No-Confidence Vote

Who says that he is not a politician??? He is as good (or as bad) as anyone out there. Next election, he should pick a good constituency in Punjab and become a LS Member

JFK Airtrain

Just a tribute to this cool service. I wish all indian airports are as connected to their respective cities as JFK is. I usually fly into JFK even though La Guardia is closer to midtown.
From the gate to air train - 8 minutes walk
Wait for Airtrain - 5 minutes average
Airtrain ride to Jamaica Station - 12 minutes
Jamaica Station to Subway station - 6 minutes
Subway Train E to 50th Street 8th Ave - 40 minutes

A little over 1 hr 15 mins and 7$ total fare, I can be in my client office. I love it..

Homem do Ano, O (2003)

I watched this movie on Sundance Channel today. It is an interesting crime movie with a macbethian style. The casting is brilliant so is the music and editing. I did not like the underage sex. If you enjoyed Cidade De Deus (City Of God) and Godfather series or Tarenteno movies then this may appeal to your taste.

Discount Baby Products

2 weeks back my wife delivered a baby boy. So far so good. After the initial euphoria is over, I just did some number crunching... Boy.. babies are expensive.
Diapers - they like to wet them. Sometimes, as frequently as 3 in an hour.
Formula - a fine dining restaurant equivalent
Furniture - cribs, swings, bouncers, sheets, socks....everything costs more than you think they should cost
Doctor visits - they need it more than I thought. And did I mention anything about cord blood cryo storage. Let us not even go there
Toys - my son looks at nature and doesnt pay attention even to the most expensive one. But since we want to give the best, we spent quite some. Once he grows a bit big, then I see this bucket one of the biggest.
Education - If your state has no good public schools, then you are talking of 15 Grand or more..per year
Travel gear - car seat, stroller, booster seat...

What amazes me is almost every item under the sun has discounts these days. But even on Amazon, I dont see any discount price for any baby product. Even if it is there it is less than 1% average. Is it a syndicate/ racket?

But my son's smile at me in a playful mood...it is priceless

Why I like Rhapsody?

Few days back I saw a teaser deal from Rhapsody music service by Real Networks. A $9.99 value of downloads free for first 100K new registrants on their eShop. I promptly did that and started learning about their service. It is a cool site which doesn't slap DRM on the users. We can move our songs in the ubiquitous MP3 format, to any number of devices.  In the iTunes Store, we can preview any song for just 30 seconds. But on Rhapsody, we can listen to full song which is really good. The best part of the composition on any song could be after first 30 seconds for many songs. Check other features here

Aamir - the movie, FARC - the fools

Last evening I watched the movie Aamir. While the story seemed familiar, I liked Rajeev Khanelwal's performance. He emoted very well in a controlled manner. I thought the climax was a bit draggy. The big villain seemed to be prompting the hero to become a noble person. If that fellow has so much network to cause havoc, I dont understand why he cant get someone to plan the bomb. He doesnt need an NRI doctor for that IMO. The movie has good technical values and honest story telling. A must watch if you like movies like Bhopal Express, Satya etc

Last week mainstream media is full of praise for Columbian Armed forces for ending the 5 year hostage drama in a bloodless fashion. First I thought that this would make a good Bollywood movie. But wait, isn't the movie Drohikaal (or the Telugu/ Tamil movie Drohi the same story!!)

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/07/03/hostage.drama/index.html

Interesting....

Millinials - The Whiz Kids of Indian IT Industry

I accidentally came across a bit older Gartner podcast interviewing Van Baker, VP (Research) Media Advisory Services about Millinials, the Generation Y population group. Some interesting details about them is in this wikipedia link.

I am very impressed because I got an opportunity to come across such groups in my job on day to day basis. Being in an IT services company with Global Delivery Model, our offshore team consists of three primary Persona - Old Age Managers, Mid-level Tech Leads and Gen Y developers.

My observation (highly generalized. There are many exceptions IMO)

Old Age Managers - This group is primarily TCS products (being a leading consulting services company since 1980s it can boast of producing many IT leaders in Indian IT Industry). They are well disciplined, may have strong hands-on experience (often 4/5 years) on IBM, DEC/ HP platforms. They are very process oriented and people skills are high and personal integrity unmatched.

Mid-level Tech leads - Most of them are web 1.0 folks. Strong ambition with average execution speed. Speed is the key here. Often uses institutional contacts to grow. Good PR skills and team players. Most of them still struggle to use iPods. Cannot understand dual boot OS means. Started accessing Internet during late 90s just for 1 hour on a small computer set aside. They think browsing is waste of time.

Gen Y developers - This I feel are closest to Millinials demographic. By the time they are in 10th grade/ 11th Grade, IT industry started booming. They would have decided that they will enter IT as engineers during that stage itself. Would use Orkut, Blog often, SMS a lot, would have got the internet connectivity from their 1st year BE itself. Very aggressive group. Usually confident.

The success of any company is channeling this energy into the right direction and setting the goals clear for this group. They will do wonders.