Boca Grande, big mouth port

We went on a full tank tour covering Anna Maria beach, Lido Key Beach, Sarasota, Boca Grande, Gasperella Islands and Fort Myers. This is Boca Grande picture 

IBM's offshoring story

Check this interview with Randy Walker, IBM's Outsourcing Head, Asia Pacific. I particularly likedhis reply "IBM does not only have an India outsourcing model, but rather a global delivery model that no one else can match." This is how companies should look into outsourcing. By spacing the delivery centers across different time zones and making them all work in a synergy is the biggest challenge for all offshoring companies.

Colas, a healthy dose of toxins, guaranteed

Check this report by CSE. Personally I believe in capitalism. But in the name of free economy and liberalization exploiting developing countries is highly deplorable. Will Coca Cola or Pepsi Co hide behind laws when they face such charges in US? The moment such news comes out their sales will be hit, followed by various consumer groups coming out suing them with multi-million dollar class-action lawsuits. But in India, these companies probably will be bribing different govt agencies, lower the prices and fight against groups like CSE rather than implement better quality standards in their bottling plants.

Colas, a healthy dose of toxins, guaranteed

Check this report by CSE. Personally I believe in capitalism. But in the name of free economy and liberalization exploiting developing countries is highly deplorable. Will Coca Cola or Pepsi Co hide behind laws when they face such charges in US? The moment such news comes out their sales will be hit, followed by various consumer groups coming out suing them with multi-million dollar class-action lawsuits. But in India, these companies probably will be bribing different govt agencies, lower the prices and fight against groups like CSE rather than implement better quality standards in their bottling plants.

Train Derailment in Tampa, FL

These are the pictures of a cargo train accident that happened few minutes before I passed by. It was on July 30th 2006 on Busch Blvd in Tampa. Myself, Ravi, Sreedevi and Sandhya were on our way to Busch Gardens theme park for summer nights event. I got some kind of sadistic happiness when I saw a train accident that too in USA in the middle of the city. I though these are common only in India. After seeing this accident, I did a simple Google search and found that so many train accidents happened even in the developed countries (like the 1999 London collision). Here is the list from Wikipedia. Strangely, I did not find any huge accident in India earlier to 1981. May be that is when most of the tracks started becoming old and safety issues started to show up.

Closeup

I tried this close-up shot with my new lens. I liked the vibrant colors and saturation...Should have used 70-300mm for much more magnification. Thanks for Ravi for making me capture this. 

One more

 

Evening at Florida

This is one the the 200 photos I took to test my new lens- a Nikkor 18-55mm DX. I managed to take all my earlier pictures using my film lens Nikkor 24-85mm AF-S on D70 body. But I choose to buy a new and light weight 18-55 for more flexibility and that little extra wide angle. This lens is very good, light and is one of the best SLR lens for such a low price ($154 + shipping). It delivered more than I expected in all my test shots. I got this from www.bhphotovideo.com where I have been buying all my photographic goods since I came USA 3 years back. Eager to capture the beauty of Great Smokies with my new tool. 

IC-814 Hijack Episode - when India lost face

Check this article in Rediff about Jaswant Singh's version of the Hijack episode.

Nations are not made up of just cities, villages, rivers and mountains. They are made up of values and importantly with how much conviction the majority of it's people have about their values. The way IC-814 hijack crisis handled by Indian Govt showed to the world that India is a nation with no spine. Lifes of around 160 passengers and crew is definitely more valuable than 36 individuals if they are not terrorists. But India bent on it's kneels and accepted defeat and our own external affairs minister personally being present before world media and doing this shameful act of exchange doesnt reflect good about a billion strong nation. It made us a billion weak nation...

Shame on media for dramatizing this episode and putting nebgative pressure on the Govt. SHAME.....

You can write me off another cynical NRI..But still...I am a patriotic Indian and could not accept Indian Govt's action.

BBQ on July 4th

What is the best way to celebrate American Independence Day and World Cup 2006 - Germany Vs Italy semi-finals? Our friends Harith and Madhuri invited us for the BBQ. We went there at 1:30 PM and assembled a new grill, lit the coal and started BBQ. Tobasco sauce and Smoky Chipotle sauces added the gist of flavor. Chicken, Pork, Vegetables, sweet corn...Like Sri Sri said "kaadedi Grill ki anarham" ;-) Had a blast.

JP, Lok Satta and Indian Politics

I am an honest Indian. This doesnt mean that I never bribed anyone or never lied to anyone. But most of the time, for all day to day transactions I strive to be honest and feel guilty after I commit any mistake. I could be in the same level of self-consciousness of many other Indians. But, at the ground level, India is corrupted to the core. Nothing moves unless some lubrication is applied to the machinery. One of the very few groups promoting the change and in fact trying to be change catalyst is Lok Satta. Lok Satta started with the sole aim of political reforms. But after more than 10 years of existence, they concluded that nothing could be moved in India until they become part of the process.

I wish Lok Satta all the best.

The memories of my meeting with JP in October 1999 still remains fresh. When my uncle Dr. Mitra Puchalapalli mentioned that JP will be visting his house, I immediately requested for an appointment. JP talks smooth with a metallic voice. What amazes me is his conviction and clarity of thought. That time he just came Chennai after Elections Analysis for AP state elections. He predicted that TDP may win elections which became true. Then we talked at length about the politics and other casual matters. Then myself and Mitra uncle dropped him at airport. What an experience!!!

www.freecreditreport.com rip-off

I visited to freecreditreport.com and tried to pull a credit score 2 months back. Yesterday while verifying my credit card statement I found an entry for "CIC Triple Advantage - 12.xx USD". To my agony, I observed that FreeCreditReport.com (an Experian company) is charging me 12 dollars every month.

When I double checked that on their homepage they clearly wrote that after 30 days they will charge my card if I dont call them and request for cancellation. And that is a very small print with Blue font on a Blue background!!! Perhaps Sherlock Holmes also wouldnt check that.

This is a classic case of white collar crime. Businesses like this are in 1000s in USA. How this website www.freecreditreport.com and Experian are better than identity thieves? Identity thieves steal our money without our knowledge. Experian also steals without our knowledge but does that in broad day light with a 24x7 backed up server and credibility of a respectable business.

Some years back BankOfAmerica also charged me a fee of 10 USD on my credit card without my knowledge. They call it Card Holder Security Plan. I had to cancel it by calling them and waiting on a fricking line for 20 minutes. These a*se h*les need to know that begging is more decent than stealing without customers knowledge. Shame on these reputed businesses.

PS: For you information ONLY www.annualcreditreport.com provies one free credit report from 'each' of the three credit monitoring agencies. Do not visit any other website for your free credit reports.

OBC Reservations - Column by an OBC IIT professor

Dont miss this column by Prof M S Gopinathan, former IIT Faculty, himself being an OBC ridicules the reservations.

It is below the dignity of OBCs and SC/STs to rely on these politicians. They need to get strong foundations and compete with everyone.

Reservations stir - a new turn

I came across this article by Praful Bidwai. He wrote some nonsense about starting point of an upper caste individual versus that of a backward class individual. Perhaps Mr.Bidwai lives in 1950s where such things existed. But today in India, an OBCs starting point is much ahead.

To quote him -"S/he(upper class student) can always call 'Uncle' so-and-so in the civil service, judiciary or the medical profession to get useful tips" That is what my argument is about - Create academies, info kiosks, computer centers and bring up the level of OBCs and dalits, information and access levels. Buy books, improve quality of education. If they cannot travel to the examination center, arrange for buses. If they want extra scholarships, arrange for that. Then they can compete with anyone on their merit.

Dont send them into the educational institutes without merit or level of IQ (or similar parameter) same as others. That will make OBCs and Dalits second class citizens.

Dude, these are Globalization days where students need to compete with others in cut-throat competetion. Even Dr.Ambedkar must be moaning at the half-assed ideas of Mr, Bidwai, Arjun Singh etc.

Supreme court thinks that the students should stop their agitation. That is unfortunate. Govt will create yet another committe and somehow will implement this amendment. That is exactly what Govt wants to achieve. We have to see how this will turn out.

Parasailing in Clearwater Beach, Florida is a wonderful experience. We wanted to do something different from ordinary on last Sunday. We hit the road that leads to the busy beach at 4 PM. After few minutes of haggling, we got a good deal 60 USD per person for 12 minutes in the air, with couple of dips. After we sailed into the choppy Gulf on a small but powerful parasail boat, we got into the life jackets . Then they hooked myself and Sandhya into the parchute and slowly released us into the air. The tow line is 800 feet and they lets us up all 800 ft. The areal view of Clearwater beaches is amazing. We were lowered couple of times for dips and drawn back into the boat. A great experience. 

Youth For Equality

Youth For Equality Movement

The student group fighting against increasing reservations in India. Based right in the capital New Delhi, this group has overwhelming suppory of millions of individuals, students and groups.

I support this group whose fight is equality. Period.

Also check the article by Subash Kak

Photo Practice - Ambient Light

I am trying to practice how to make good pictures using ambient light after seeing great pictures taken by Ken Rockwell. Last monday, when I was returning back from workout I saw beautiful sky. I rushed in and took my camera out and started shooting. I could get mediocre results. Next time, I will try to time well. (and keep my tripod ready. I dont want the blurry shots anymore). 

What I like about Ruby On the Rails?

I came to know about Rails framework and Ruby language when Martin Fowler mentioned about Rake (sometime during Aug 2005)

I was in a state of denial for more than 6 months because I felt that Java is good enough to do anything serious or silly on most of the platforms. But I could not resist to see what is there in RoR and why such a vibrant community is building up.

I promptly downloaded InstantRails, RadRails Eclipse plugin and started playing with it.I found that Ruby is a wonderful language. Notation is simple enough to be understood and it is a very natural language. I felt like communicating with the computer in a very natural way. Keeping the language aside, I see the real power comes from Rails framework. It is a classic MVC framework and combined with smart domain objects (or ActiveRecords) Check MartinFowlers Pattern and a variety of generators.

Some of the cons of RoR is lack of support for Sybase Database Drivers. Sybase in spite of low market share, has a significant presence in market. I am checking RubyForge (Kind of SourceForge for Ruby) for other useful frameworks.

Overall it is an interesting alternative. I will explore more...

10 steps backwards....Kill Merit

India was a castist society. Naturally some castes were socially downtrodden. Hinduism, particularly priest community (brahmins) and ruling classes like Kings, Reddys, Chowdaries did nothing special to reform the society as it served their vested interests.

When India became independent in 1947, some polititians like Dr. B.R Ambedkar wanted a quick means to uplift the downtrodden and bring them to mainstream society. The scheme they devised is "Reservations in jobs, education etc". It definitely did wonders and would have worked well if vested polititians did not meddle into the process. All these years, constitution was ammended multiple times and the % of seats allocated to dalts/ OBCs are increased. Most of the times to create vote bank politics.

Did these reservations achieve what they are supposed to achive. I say yes and no. Today there are 3rd/ 4th generation backward caste families enjoying the reservations even though they are in a socially enviable position than many other forward caste families. Personally I know many OBCs who are much much wealthy (some are millionares), but will bypass the merit and enter educational institutes through this short cut. Dalits is a different issue. They may need more reforms (not necessarily reservations).

And there is no dignity in a Dalit/OBC student entering an IIT with 25% less score than their forward caste counterpart.

I feel Dalits and other backward caste communities should fight against the Indian Government policy and demand dignity, respect and provide equal opportunity. They should demand world class primary education, health benefits and financial security, scholarships.

To add more fuel to the fire, Congress politicians from AP are trying to create some quota to Muslims.

Respect merit.
Save Dalits/ OBCs dignity.
Don't become vote banks.

Minimalism

I feel that most of the problems could be solved by adapting minimalism in our life style. It starts with simple things in life.

Take for instance, cell phone. Why buy a phone with 120 features which we may never use in our day-to-day. I agree a cell phone should have a good phonebook, caller list, > 1MB camera, bluetooth. But why that crappy currency controller.

I see some of the projects picking an app server even if the current and future requirements doesnt demand? While picking something like JBoss which can be slimmed down is a good choice, why go for a full stack J2EE container for creating a read-most website with few CRUD ops?

Minimalism means wearing less jewelery, going for unbranded quality apparel, eating less fat, less cal food, using bike for pedalling to work instead of driving a full-sized SUV burning adding to global warming, using less resources and conserving.

It may sound a step backwards and going back into stone age. But it is a step in the right direction. True power and progress means not wasting when there is no need. Artificial needs created by marketing buzz should not control one's life.