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.

Dont kill'em

I heard of an incident which made me deeply saddened and frustrated over the state of social affairs in India.

The girl has two baby girls. Her husband wants to go for another pregnancy for the having a 'boy'. Before 3rd month they went for ultrasound scanning. They found that the baby is boy. Everything is great. Right!!!.

No... It is not. If it is not a boy their Plan-B is to go for an abortion!!! Here we are not talking about some village crowd. They are educated high caste town dwelling folks.

First that bastard(or bitch) OB/GYN doctor should not have revealed the sex of the fetus. It is illegal in our f**ing country. Like all great paper laws this is violated. Instead of giving in writing they tell orally. I also heard that many scanning centers run by money minded radiologists reveal sex for a good sum.

Second, these educated moron parents should be ashamed of their plan B. Whether they executed or not, they plotted a first degree murder.

Could not sleep for few hours... Next day I am OK. Like all old news...it is a stale news and I am adjusted well to the fact that in India (and world) value of life is nothing. It is another freaking nightmare I went through...

Is there anything I can do!! Please tell me!!!

Eat at your will

Usually I keep away from blogging political stuff. But the comment made by President Bush made me blog this.

Before i came US, my diet used to be
Breakfast - 2 idlies in Hotel Krishna Prasad Udipi on Mount Road, Chennai
Lunch - Company subsidized lunch. Still I could never manage to eat more than 2 uthappams (yes that used to be served as lunch)/ 2 chapathis, 1/2 cup rice with rasam, little porial, curds and pickle.
Snack - 1 samosa/ Kachori and tea
Dinner - 3 rotis with sabji. Salt Lassi or just water

Now after coming to USA, if I calculate what I eat - 40% of it is processed.
Breakfast - Cereal (mother of all processed foods) and Soy milk (what the heck is that)
Lunch - Every possible vegetarian item in the world. No limits. Lavish portions. Half of the times eating out.
Snack - Coffee all day long(Starbucks coffee cup seemed to be extension of my hand), doughnuts, cakes, leftovers from meeting rooms, birthday party foods, baby shower punch, Diet Coke, bottled water
Dinner - Good portioned food always end with some Gatorade or some junk juice.

Somehow struggling to keep weight in control( you can never count the number of times I blame myself about my food habits when I am doing the squats at fitness center)

The bottom line is USA is number 1 food waster and number 1 resource waster. While I dont know whether we can believe in sweeping assumptions like bio-fuels are causing food scarcity or not, food consumption in India can never reach to the obscene levels of US and other developed countries. So, start reforms from home front and make everyone realize the value of any product food or electronics or anything that needs energy to produce.

This also applies to Indian Republic. Most of the urban populace are now thinking it is fashionable to live like Americans. You could not be more wrong. If you can learn anything from American lifestyle, it should be how not to waste. At least American population is small and they have a vast country. With heavy subsidy, by next year, I will not be surprised if there is American long grain rice every corner of the world. But Indian state can never withstand the thrist of a billion Indians who want to live like Americans.

And coming to President Bush's comment. Why do you guys care what he says? Even in USA not many are paying much attention to him. Why should you all give so much mileage to Mr. Tough Guy. Leave the poor chap. He will fade into history after Jan 2009.

One phone number forever

One of my friends referred me to a service called GrandCentral
You can reserve a phone number and it will be your phone number forever. Once registered, if anybody calls on that number ALL phones you registered with that will get a simul-ring. I found it very useful.

Apart from all the great features of this service, what I am impressed about most is it's superb account management page. It is a treat to see everything visually clear and crisp. One of the best usable websites I used.

I found that this company is acquired by Google back in July 2007.

Twitter

This is an amazing story of how powerful the social networking is and how social communities help in real life.

On the side note, I would like to warn that privacy is a never ending debate. I see orkut for sure is abused by many folks. The scrap messages range from sharing phone numbers, addresses to much more personal details. Some even proposing, dating on scraps. Either the implications are not well thought of or they are careless.

I am also not sure how much net educated are parents. I hope that these social networking sites publish some articles on child safety etc for creating awareness to parents. Ideally teachers also should play a major role in this.

BTW, I twitter at https://twitter.com/vamc Welcome to my friends

The Marine and the Nub

Last night, while returning from New York at the Tampa International Airport, I noticed few ABC Action News reporter along with camera crew outside the airport luggage belts. Then I saw a short guy come out of the door and I thought he is the celebrity. But surprisingly the cameras were aimed down towards a dog. I thought this is crazy. When I asked the reporter who that guy is, she gave me a dont-you-know-anything look and told he is the US Marine who saved Nub. My mind went numb. First I thought Nub is a person saved by the Marine. Then when I saw news crew focusing on the dog, I thought K-9 sends dogs to Marine Corps and that dog is the marine.

When I came home and googled, I found that the dog is a stray dog in Iraq. Marine Maj. Brian Dennis who hails from our area saved it from abuse at Iraq and reunited at USA. It is a touchy story with a pet angle. I also read that they are planning to make a move. (what a metaphor!!! Hail Hollywood). But really a noble act by this Marine.

Check out my Guestbook!

uuuuuuuuuuuuuubuntu

I struggled trying to use Vista on my new Sony Vaio NR110E. When do these stupid companies learn that every user doesnt use all that preloaded software? It made my laptop slow. So slow that I took a decision to install Ubuntu with Dual boot on Vista.

Everything started great.
1) I shrinked the drive space on Vista.
2) Downloaded and burned Ubuntu 7.10
3) Installed Ubuntu
4) Started the OS
5) Next logical step - tried to connect to wireless lan. No luck.
Struggled but in vain. Will post next if I am able to crack the Da Vinci Code.

Edited on Mar 7, 2008: After 3 hours of battle, I could make wi-fi work using the same steps I tried day before yesterday. I am posting this using the WIFI itself. Hurray....

First I tried the steps as in this post. It did not work.
Then switched strategy and used the instructions as in here

My first impressions - Ubuntu is great. I am now really feeling the speed of my 2GB RAM. With Vista, I dont know what it did, always applications were slow. Why do Sony preinstall Quickbooks and Corel Draw on a laptop? Are they crazy!!! Like these two there are 100 different software which I never use in my life all preloaded.

Mourning the name change

One thing that infuriated me these days is change of my district name - Nellore as "Sriramulu District". Who the heck is this Sri Ramulu? Why should my district name changed to his name. What if his ancestors are born here? Idiotic governments run by morons like YSR doesnt have any useful business to do or what? Why cant he change Kadapa district name to Sriramulu District .

Why is this sycophancy to get votes of Arya-Vysya community. They are fine with a majority of that community in businesses and trade. They have very good self support with many charities run by the communities wealthy.. I have great respect for that community. Almost all my friends are from that community. But why change the name!!! God save Andhra Pradesh from these morons.

Dont mistake me. I respect Potti Sriramulu. Nothing matches his selflessness and act of courage to give one's life for the cause he believed in. Please erect statues, include his biography in curriculam, understand that great man and also importantly follow his principles. Not just a silly symbolic move like name change.

Toyota, Be my Valentine....

I may be mistaken for a Republican if you just read the title. Please read on to get the complete context.

Usually our cars give few miles less than EPA mileage because we do not always drive in ideal conditions. Recently I drove to Key West on Overseas Highway (US 1). When I casually checked the mileage, I went for a shock. My Toyota Camry Hybrid gave 47.3 miles per gallon (20.11 KM Per Liter) all the time running AC but with an average speed of 40 miles per hour due to traffic. It is a very good gas mileage I believe. Toyota is one of the few companies that got their hybrid strategy right. If they could bring their price levels a little bit low, they can really claim to reduce the green house emissions significantly.

Amudirta Grandhachintaamani

Inspired by my friend Archana's blog post about her grandfather, I too wanted to share some legacy I am proud about.

Few months back my father had sent a new paper article on an old literary journal called "Amudirta Grandhachintaamani". In the 19th century, like in many languages, Telugu literature also had many revolutionary changes. New forms of poetry and prose evolved. This journal used to play a prominent role by acting as a primary media for all telugu literature, by publishing great articles of critics there by contributed to the development of Telugu literature.

And the news I came to know is that my great great grandfather, Late Poondla Ramakrishnayya, was the founder and publisher of this journal. He took great pains to run this journal just out of passion (it must have limited subscription base thus may not be a big commercial success). Poondla Ramakrishnayya garu started this at the age of 23 and ran uninterrupted until he died. I read that this venture was supported by his friends like Ulligondam Ramachandra Rao, Rojukurti Venkata Krishna Rao etc. I am very proud of this legacy and feel humbled by his greatness.

All I know about him was an old photograph of him which I doubt is still there at our ancestral home in Nellore. The only similarity between him and myself is jaw bone. Yes, we have the famous and unique "Poondla Jaw" that runs in our family.

Infy - New Models

S. Gopalakrishnan, Infosys CEO announced about a new pricing model
for it's services. It is nothing new in the IT industry though it could be first to be offered as a service offering by Infosys. I would be interested in how that could be adapted by the clients.
Conventionally, the custom business software applications we developed as considered as IP of the clients. They drive the business requirements, develop key algorithms etc. How would the per user licensing be sold to the clients? The model is nevertheless very interesting. It is a blend of Software Development and BPO.

Immigration Voice fights for Green Card Admin Reforms

Immigration Voice, Florida Chapter, wishes you Happy New Year Wishes to you and your beloved families. Another year started with great hopes in all fronts. And that Green Card dreams seems to be sour grapes. But Immigration Voice is using all means at its disposal to make things better.

If you are not already a member of Florida State Chapter of Immigration Voice, please take 5 minutes to become one http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FL_Immigration_Voice/

Action Item
This year begins with a massive campaign for making administrative reforms for those in AOS. Please write letters to your lawmakers as in the following thread http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?t=16506

This takes perhaps 10 minutes but will create all necessary impact. Every letter counts. Your spouse perspective could be different from yours. Please encourage him/ her to write separate letter.

What these admin reforms mean to us? Pl read on...

1) No Green Card Number Unused - This means if there are any numbers unused for that year, one person from our community loses a chance. That member and his family will be competing for next years number. This has to be avoided and ALL numbers as mandated by the congress should be used that year.

2) Revise the administrative definition of "same or similar". This is the provision that will make you move up in your career utilizing your full potential. I know cases where some folks remained as senior programmers for more than 4 years before he got the GC. When he got the Green Card, within 3 months he became Senior Manager. He lost around $150,000 in bonus and salary alone due to the wait time. And so many opportunities to grow were lost. Broadening the definition should be a boon for so many of us.

3) Allow filing of Adjustment of Status (Form I-485) when a visa number is not available. This reform will benefit the entire EB category to get all interim benefits like EAD, AP etc, allow H4 spouses to work, allow job mobility using AC21(rules apply) etc.

4) Multi Year AP and EAD - Again eliminates a hassle of renewing every year, getting Driving Licenses in some states will become very easy.

5) Allow visa revalidation in the United States, and reinstate premium processing of Immigrant Petitions - Very helpful for EB based GC applicants.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us or put a question on http://immigrationvoice.org forum. Many friends from the Legal Immigration community will be there to help you.

IV Florida Chapter
voiceofimmigrants at gmail.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FL_Immigration_Voice/

Another HT combination - more expensive than earlier

• AV Receiver – Denon 2808CI – $829.00http://tinyurl.com/355chj
• Surround and Sub – Mirage NANOSAT Home Theater Speaker System - $599.00 http://tinyurl.com/3b7wau
• Central Channel - Mirage NANO CC - $199.00 http://tinyurl.com/38c4w2

Total – $1627.00

Home Theater Setup

I am planning to buy a Home Theater System with these components. I will buy it next year. But these are my plans as of now

1) AV Receiver - I found that Onkyo TX-SR605 gives more bang-for-the-buck. It has good audio and video processing power including much desired HD processing.

• Product - http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Onkyo-TX-SR605-7-1-Channel-Home-Theater-Receiver-Black-TX-SR605/sem/rpsm/oid/181406/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
• CNET Review http://reviews.cnet.com/av-receivers/onkyo-tx-sr605-black/4505-6466_7-32430579.html?tag=pdtl-list

2) Surround Speakers Set

• Product http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8206201&productCategoryId=pcmcat96200050047&type=product&tab=3&id=1177718655876#productdetail
• Review I listened to this speakers powered by a Pioneer Elite VSX-94TXH. Sound was remarkable. Almost life like. I will do more research and update this.
  

3) Blue-Ray/ HD-DVD Combo Player - I am not sure which one will win the format war. At this point of time, HD-DVD may win. But at the end, I wont be surprised if it is going to be a stand off with hybrid HD players catching up fast. I hate these format wars though. So, will defer the decision until Fall 2009.

4) HDTV - I have not decided on the brand. But I will pick whatever best 50" TV is available in Fall 2008. Until then, I will enjoy my 26" Panasonic HDTV

I am not a great audiophile and cannot differentiate much between a $100 set and $2000 set by listening to a CD. But at the end of the day, I want value for what I invest. I believe that quality AV Receiver will last at least for 10 years (speakers even more). Did I use the word invest? I think I am talking like a sales man. Once I buy and bring it home, it never appreciates in $ value...So, I dont think it is an investment. So, let us use the word indulgence.

My new Toyota Camry Hybrid

We bought a new Toyota Camry Hybrid 2008. It is loaded with Navigation, 17" Alloy Wheels, Bluetooth, Sun roof, leather, heated seats, power everything.

I really liked the mileage..steady 37 MPG in the city. i already put behind 250 miles on it. It is also quite powerful..never felt like driving Hybrid car...It has ample power for whatever needs I have.. Over all fun car to drive without conspicuously declaring that I care about our environment. I love my Toyota......

Happy Days - A must watch film