News Tabloid

Please Forgive Me!!!

2007-03-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

Please forgive me, and let’s start anew. Our relationship means much to me. I’m so sorry my blunder hurt you.

Though your memory may bring it back up, won’t you please try to put it away? I’ll be tactful and sensitive now; I’ll think of your needs every day.

Let’s go on with our lives as we were; I’d take it all back if I could. Let’s focus on positive things; what we have is important and good.

sometimes I don't know what to do when every week you say something new

I have tried so hard to be open and repair the trust i had broken I wanted to live with you so much to be a family .

I know the love is there so we need to meet in the middle everywhere and get our relationship back TOGETHER... FOREVER...

Please Forgive Me!!!

2007-03-21T12:51:00.000-07:00

Please forgive me, and let’s start anew. Our relationship means much to me. I’m so sorry my blunder hurt you.

Though your memory may bring it back up, won’t you please try to put it away? I’ll be tactful and sensitive now; I’ll think of your needs every day.

I have tried so hard to be open and repair the trust i had broken

I wanted to live with you so much to be a family . I know the love is there so we need to meet in the middle everywhere and get our relationship back TOGETHER... FOREVER...

Marry Chirstmas!!!

2006-12-23T05:37:00.000-08:00

The Times of India - Headlines Dated 1.1.2020!!!!!!

2006-11-24T05:29:00.000-08:00

1. President Sonia Gandhi n Prime Minister Priyanka Gandhi receive Italy Prime Minister Rahul Gandhi at airport!!!

2. This is my last film - Rajnikant.

3. I'll surely enter in to Indian Team - Ganguly.

4. Salman, Vivek, Abhishek attend (Ashiwarya rai –Dhoni) wedding.

5. "Kyunki Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi" completes 25000th Episode. Tulsi virani becomes Great Great Great Great Grand-Mother. And the best part, baa is still alive!!!!

Cheers!!!

Meaning of Yahoo

2006-10-06T08:23:00.000-07:00

Yahoo!

Y-et

A-nother

H-ypertext

O-nline

O-rganizer

After returning from abroad!!!

2006-09-19T08:49:00.000-07:00

Top 21 things an Indian does after returning from abroad...... ......... ......... ..
(applies to return from any country)

21. Tries to use credit card in road side hotel.

20. Drinks and carries mineral water and always speaks of health conscious.

19. Sprays deo such so that he doesn't need to take bath.

18. Sneezes and says 'Excuse me'.

17. Says "Hey" instead of "Hi". Says "Yogurt" instead says "Curds". Says "Cab" instead of "Taxi". Says "Candy" instead of "Chocolate". Says "Cookie" instead of "Biscuit". Says " Free Way" instead of "Highway". Says "got to go" instead of "Have to go". Says "Oh" instead of "Zero", (for 704, says Seven Oh Four Instead of Seven Zero Four)

16. Doesn't forget to crib about air pollution. Keeps cribbing everytime he steps out.

15. Says all the distances in Miles (Not in Kilo Metres), and counts in Millions. (Not in Lakhs)

14. Tries to figure all the prices in Dollars/Dirhams as far as possible(but deep down the heart multiplies by 12 times).

13. Tries to see the % of fat on the cover of a milk pocket.

12. When need to say Z (zed), never says Z (Zed), repeats "Zee"several times, if the other person unable to get, then says X, YZee(but never says Zed)

11. Writes date as MM/DD/YYYY, on watching traditional DD/MM/YYYY, says "Oh! British Style!!!!"

10. Makes fun of Indian Standard Time and Indian Road Conditions.

9. Even after 2 months, complaints about "Jet Lag".

8. Avoids eating more chili (hot) stuff.

7. Tries to drink "Diet Coke", instead of Normal Coke.

6. Tries to complain about any thing in India as if he is experiencing it for the first time.

5. Pronounces "schedule" as "skejule", and "module" as "mojule".

4. Looks suspiciously towards Hotel/Dhaba food.

Few more important

3. From the luggage bag, does not remove the stickers of Airways by which he traveled back to India , even after 4 months of arrival.

2. Takes the cabin luggage bag to short visits in India , tries to roll the bag on Indian Roads.

Ultimate one

1. Tries to begin conversation with "In the London/Dubai.... " or "When I was in the US/Dubai.... ....."

Students choose iPods over beer

2006-07-07T08:33:00.000-07:00

Apple's iPod portable music player has proven more intoxicating to US students than even beer drinking, a new survey concluded. Students from one hundred US universities surveyed by Student Monitor, a market research firm, ranked the handheld hard drive a full two percentage points below social drinking, according to the poll.

The firm has conducted a study of student trends biannually for 20 years. Not since 1997, with the rise of the Internet, has campus boozing been knocked from the top spot on
the list of favorite student pastimes.

"Apple has been selling iPods faster than they can make them," Eric Weil, managing partner of Student Monitor, told. "For students, the iPod is not a fashion accessory, it's functionality," said Weil. The iPod's "in" factor has leapt more than 20 percentage
points from last year's student survey.

Part of the explosion in its popularity may be due to the iPod's use as a learning tool in the form of "podcasting", technology that allows students to download lectures directly
into their handheld devices to be listened to and viewed at their convenience, suggested Weil. "Professors are using whatever way they can to jam information into students' brains," said Weil.

US college students, known by marketers as "early adopters", are generally considered to be six to 18 months ahead of the general population in national trends. "But don't sell your brewery stock just yet," warns Weil. "Just like 10 years ago, beer drinking could be back on the top of the heap by next semester.

Disruptive Innovation-V

2006-06-21T08:33:00.000-07:00

61. One needs one strategy for sustenance and one for disruption. The questions and process adopted for the sustenance strategy is the following : Make assumptions, Build projections based upon assumptions, make decisions to invest based upon projections, implement the deliberate strategy. If one’s projections are going wrong one reexamines the assumptions. For instance one assumes that based on a GDP growth of 7% one will achieve a certain revenue figure. If one’s projection is not being achieved one goes back and examines the assumption.

62. For a Disruption innovation one indulges in Discovery – driven planning. The steps one follows are : One makes projections on a pilot basis. Now in this pilot what assumptions must prove true for the projections to happen ? Implement the plan to learn – to test whether the critical assumptions are reasonable. Invest when the key assumptions prove valid.

63. Be sure the brand is positioned on a job and move up the value chain as fast as possible.

64. When one integrates with another company be sure it’s for resources and not for processes or profits.

65. Everyone has a desire to create history. How can empty nos. create passion.

66. What matters is challenge, a desire to create history, burn one’s bridges, removing the escape buttons, and getting a breakthrough insight.

67. Most leadership teams outsource insight. One cannot outsource insight. The Grameen Bank in Bangla Desh was built on an insight which stated that people in the rural area are not affected by a loss of money inasmuch as a loss of credibility and face. Small loans are therefore given to women with the community as collateral. This could not have come from outsourcing.

68. All markets are ready but we just don’t have the ideas. We need to rethink the source of insight. We can’t source it from the same journals read by everyone. Big ideas don’t get killed; they just get diluted. We need to convert ideas into real time experiments. Just one idea is not enough. We need more and then roll them out as ‘fission’. We can’t execute new ideas with the previous mindset. We need to create escape velocity and avoid dilution.

69. There is a disruption taking place in management education. Operating companies are starting their own universities. Today there are 2000 corporate universities. The number of students applying to Harvard is coming down. Another thing is that everything is being uploaded onto to the Internet and is made foolproof and idiot simple for professors in corporate universities. In this way professors in management institutes are getting commoditized. If this is done by Harvard then Harvard would make money because it would be providing the teacher with better material rather than targeting the end user.

70. There are examples where incumbents killed entrants. Kodak came out with Easyshare targeted for girls. Where there is an emphasis on ‘Click and send by email’. It’s share jumped from 6% to 28% of the Digital Market. Fuji and Polaroid missed it.

71. What kind of innovation which a competitor would ignore or adopt ? is a key question to ask when approaching disruptive innovation.

72. By becoming so good hospitals overshot their patients with so much of care which these patients could not afford. So now if the technology is made available for these patients in outpatient clinics, doctors’ offices and homes of patients, there will be a new disruption. With nurses doing more sophisticated work the doctors are getting commoditized. The nurses become low cost high quality providers.

73. Culture needs to shift from proof seeking to experimenting.

74. A company relies on people as resources for innovation. But if it is to be sustainable then one needs to make it process dependent.

Disruptive Innovation-V

2006-06-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

Disruptive innovation-IV

2006-06-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

46. There are 3 levels of architecture where a job is concerned viz. What is the fundamental job or problem the customer is facing? This includes its functional, emotional and social dimensions. What are the experiences in purchase and use, which if all provided, would sum up to nailing the job perfectly ? What are the products’ attributes, technologies, features, etc. that are needed to provide the necessary experiences ?

47. Any company’s products get hired for 3 to 4 jobs. We need to catch customers right after they hired a product. We don’t ask ‘why’. We understand and write a case about the situation. We need to ask what the customer hired or did when in that same situation but didn’t hire your product. We then need to do research on what else is the product hired to do as well as find out what were the situations in which one made do with nothing. Understanding customers without understanding the jobs which arise for them, will give one a wrong direction.

48. By understanding jobs we find for example that most people take photoprints and look at them just once. They like to put them in an album but seldom look at them. From this perspective the use of a digital camera is mainly restricted to the click and attach facility. What is the use of trying to get the customer to do editing which he/she is not interested in. A Purpose brand is not built through advertising. It is built around the jobs it is hired to do. If one has a job to do and the brand pops up in one’s mind then one will go out and hire it.

49. The following steps need to be adopted :

Design a product that does a job well.
Create this brand that uniquely links the product to the job.
Trust that brand for that purpose.
Whenever that job space comes up the customer will hire that brand and talk about it.
Only then can advertising help to build it.

50. Sawzall helps to drill a hole in the wall. It is a brand built around this specific job. It’s share is more than 80%. Similarly Holehawg is another brand built around a product which is a right angle drill for plumbers. It’s share is again more than 80%. Both brands belong to Milwaukee. All the rest of Milwaukee’s brands have less than 10% share. Purpose brands create value. Corporate endorser brands do not create value. Similarly Sony has Walkman and Playstation which are huge Purpose brands while the other Sony brands have a much lesser share.

51. Usually companies have a proprietary end to end architecture. They are integrated. When the modular architecture takes off the coin flips. If Apple opens up its architecture then iTunes will be in every iPod no matter who manufactures it just like Intel. Components become more important.

52. Automobiles today struggle to sustain a premium through differentiation on some dimensions. If one looks at jobs which need to be done by cars then one can come up with the following possibilities viz. a gift to a loved one of the family which then necessitates creation of a package of experiences for that car. Or one can say that my car is my office. There are 20 mn. people who need to work out of their car. The car can then become a Purpose brand. Customers will then be willing to pay a premium for the job the car is being hired for. In the automobile market one cannot have the attitude of one size fits all.

53. Every brand today that is valuable started as a Purpose Brand. One can develop other product forms to do the same jobs or develop brands for different jobs.

54. Crest Fluoride is a disruptive technology because it prevents cavities. The advertising is associated with that job. If Crest is extended to other product forms like mouth rinse then the consumer gets confused. Because J&J also has mouth rinse. When P&G did that with Crest and applied it to many jobs it transformed it to an Endorser brand. P&G lost its leadership. The hotel chain J.W.Marriott created a hotel chain for conferences and company meetings. When there were other jobs like if one is just interested in a clean and inexpensive room then J.W. Marriott created another brand ‘Courtyard’. ‘Residence’ is another brand which is meant for the job of catering to those who get transferred. In this way one lessens the confusion.

55. If you hire the product to do the job but it doesn’t do it then you will lose trust in it. If consumers don’t hire it for the wrong reason they will not lose trust in it.

56. The dilemma is that one can’t prioritize low margin and high margin at the same time. Echo is a small low end car of Toyota. But it is sold through the same channel as other cars. One can therefore not prioritize ‘Echo’ because of the other bigger cars having bigger margins. When one is dealing with bigger margins one cannot prioritize smaller margin products. One needs to grow faster to sustain the stock market. The bigger one gets one can’t prioritize emerging markets. Drugs coming out of R&D will be evaluated by Pfizer in terms of how much will they contribute to the growth of its current base of $5bn. revenues.

57. When looking at disruptive innovations one needs to ask the following questions viz. Do they have the Resources ? Will they have the right Processes? A process which is good at one thing may not be good at other things. Will the profit model (Business Model) allow them to prioritize medium range/low range products?

58. For organic fibers, some years ago one needed to go to Dupont to find a molecule. One engaged in unstructured and exploratory exercises. But as others came into the field patterns emerged. One now didn’t feel the need to be an expert. When Quantum theory began to be used they found that they could predict properties even before the molecule was developed. So reverse engineering was indulged in.

59. Original problem solving was embedded in the experts. And there was a lot of experimentation. But gradually patterns emerged which were recognized. One now knew how the world worked and created a set of rules.

60. When it’s a new business one doesn’t know the right assumptions. In 93% of the cases one finds that the strategy that leads to success is different from what the initial strategy was.

Disruptive innovation-III

2006-06-14T02:17:00.000-07:00

31. Disruptive innovations enable a larger population of less-skilled, less wealthy people to do things in a more convenient, lower-cost setting, which historically could only be done by specialists in less convenient settings.

32. A new disruption brings in a new population which are mainly non-consumers.

33. The low cost advantage of India is temporary but the number of non-customers is huge.

34. The transistor disrupted the vacuum tube. The vacuum tube manufacturers concentrated on Table top radios and floor standing TVs and kept on trying to improve their vacuum tubes for these products. While this was happening Sony created the transistor radio which was a pocket radio which was not of a good quality but was targeted to non-users who were teenagers. Sony didn’t sell to Parents. Sony then came out with the portable TV with the transistor. Again it was competing with non-consumption. Soon the vacuum tubes just got sucked out by the transistor using devices. The vacuum tube improvements were being crammed into the space where one would certainly fail.

35. Similarly voice-recognition software was being developed by IBM and was being crammed into the space of the Word processor. In the meanwhile this software was launched in toy robots with simple standard phrases being used and in chat rooms. Not very sophisticated but gradually improving over time. The disruption of new technology is accepted more by non-customers.

36. IBM needed to make the voice-recognition software more cost-effective and increase its performance. This is not so achievable in the upper segment as it is in the low end segment. Among non-customers one doesn’t have to spend so much money to be successful.

37. Billions of dollars are being spent to make the use of solar energy more widespread among current users of electricity in the urban area. No matter how much improvement one makes in solar panels its adoption in the urban areas will not be much. The expectations are too high. Whereas in Mongolia 40% of the population lives in tents. They have no access to electricity. The adoption of solar panels is a tremendous success here. They are non-consumers.

38. Linux is a modular architecture. It cannot compete head-on with Microsoft which is an interdependent architecture. So Linux creates a web-centric use which is a new space. It will disrupt by fuelling web-centric computing. There are problems in the software today but gradually it will improve.

39. Not only products and companies get disrupted but whole channels get disrupted. Vacuum tubes were being sold through appliance stores. When Sony started developing its transistors the same appliance stores were refusing to keep them. At the very same time K-Mart and Wal Mart were coming up and they decided to sell Sony’s transistors and thus disrupted the whole channel of appliance stores.

40. In new markets rules don’t apply. Rules like IRR, ROI etc. Patterns need to be seen and which customers one is serving. One needs to go after non-customers.

41.The rule of shareholder value is no longer valid. In the 60s it was valid because the average time a share was held was 6 years. Now it is 60 days. Shareholders have become speculators. Therefore the long-term value of the firm is the goal and not increasing shareholder value.

42. If existing managers are taught how the world works they can use disruption effectively.

43. The way we segment markets makes new products fail. We usually segment markets according to product categories or customer categories. It’s usually an inside-out approach. We need to look outside-in. From a customer’s point of view he/she needs to get ‘jobs’ done or important problems solved. We need to find out what are the ‘jobs’ which are arising in the customer’s life and for which jobs will the product be hired.

44. In the example of Milk Shakes purchased from a Mcdonald’s outlet the question one needs to ask is ‘What job arises that gets a milk shake hired?’ It was found that 40% bought milk shakes in the morning from the Mcdonald’s outlet. They did not consume it in the outlet and bought the milk shake alone. It was found that they used it as a nourishment and pastime while driving to work in the morning. So they had one hand on the wheel while the other hand held the milk shake. Competition for this ‘job’ therefore gets restated to include bananas, snickers, bagels etc. In the evening the same milk shake was being hired by parents who were saying ‘no’ to their children throughout the day and needed to alleviate their guilt by giving in to their children by buying them a milk shake in the evening. Once one understands the ‘jobs’ for which the product is hired one can now go on improving vis-à-vis the ‘job’ for which it is hired. For instance the morning milk shake could become more viscuous and fruity while the evening milk shake could be packaged differently. The size of the market now gets defined from the customer’s perspective.

45.From this perspective one sees that the market is larger, one’s share smaller, the real competition is not in the product category, the growth potential is greater, and one understands the constraints under which non-customers operate.

Police to take action against Playboy!!!

2006-06-10T04:07:00.000-07:00

Jakarta: Indonesian police could take action against the publishers of the Indonesian version of 'Playboy' if the magazine carried pictures and stories against the norms of decency, National Police said today.

"Any pornographic taints will be dealt with. But so far we have not found such indecent factors," Deputy Chief Spokesman, National Police Brig Gen Anton said here yesterday. He also said there was no need to wait for the passage of the pornographic bill to take action, because the Penal Code was "quite sufficient" to take action against indecent behavior and acts. "Penalties under the Penal Code are normally much lighter than those under the pornographic law," he said. The magazine as pornographic icon in the United States has appeared for the second time in Indonesia.

In its maiden edition in Jakarta in April this year, the publication triggered protests from the community although it did not carry any pornographic content. On the pretext of averting any social unrest, Jakarta city police managed to persuade the magazine's publishers not to publish it from Jakarta.

This week, the second edition of the magazine appeared but its office had moved to Bali. Even this time the publication triggered protests from various circles who have already been opposed to the magazine from the beginning.

World Cup Fever Goes Digital and Mobile

2006-06-10T04:02:00.000-07:00

SINGAPORE: A recent online 5-country survey revealed China is set to catch a strong dose of World Cup fever, with 95% of respondents preparing to follow the tournament, of which 32% plan to track results on their mobile phones.

On average Chinese fans plan to watch over 11 nights of matches on television, and 84% plan to visit sports websites for World Cup news. The games will also be followed closely in Singapore (84%), Malaysia (82%), Australia (63%) and Thailand (59%).

World Cup goes digital in Asia Since World Cup 2002, penetration of digital media, including the internet and mobile phones, has increased substantially across the region, and fans intend to use both to track the matches. More than half of the respondents are likely to visit websites to follow their teams. Official World Cup websites were cited as the most likely destinations in Singapore (67%), Malaysia (71%), Thailand (46%) and Australia (57%), but Chinese fans are most likely to head to other sport websites (84%).

A surprising number of Asian fans are preparing for 'World Cup information on the go' using their mobile phones, ranging from 32% in China, to 14% in Singapore and Malaysia, 10% in Australia and 7% in Thailand.

"The only thing Asians are more passionate about than the World Cup is their mobile phone, so it's not surprising to see so many fans starting to track their teams in real-time,
on-the-go," said James Chadwick, MindShare Asia-Pacific Insights Director. "It's just another reminder that we need to think beyond traditional marketing and media."

You'll never walk alone in Asia Although their teams may not have qualified this time, fans across Asia have picked favorite teams to support. Many Chinese will be supporting the hosts Germany, Singaporeans favor England, and many Thais will be adopting underdogs Australia. Australian fans of course will be firmly behind their team, which has reached the World Cup finals for the first time in 32 years, and 80% of Australians fans will be cheering for the Socceroos.

Wives and girlfriends making game sexy

2006-06-09T07:41:00.000-07:00

Berlin: It's not just the 32 teams at the World Cup who are about to have their shape, style and movement furiously picked over. The same fate awaits the image-conscious, credit-card wielding army of players' wives and girlfriends at the month-long tournament.

Some relish the limelight; others have it thrust upon them. As wife of the England skipper, Victoria Beckham is used to the cameras, Wayne Rooney's fiancee Coleen McLoughlin is growing into her role while Melanie Slade has gone from unknown blonde student to snapper's delight courtesy of being the girlfriend of shock call-up Theo Walcott. Asked how the pressure of being a footballer's girlfriend was affecting her, the 17-year-old Slade said recently: "I just concentrate on my school exams. I just keep my head down and keep doing it."

However, she received advice from beauty queen Danielle Lloyd, the partner of former England player Teddy Sheringham. "It is difficult for all of us. We are all used to this situation, but it is still scary," said Lloyd. It must have been equally frightening for former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham to find that she was voted top of a poll to find the most annoying footballer's wife. She polled 46 per cent of the votes, while McLoughlin, lampooned in the British tabloids for her love of shopping, was second with 18 per cent.

Even England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson's partner Nancy Dell'Olio couldn't escape coming in third with 16 per cent. Victoria won't be too concerned. Type her name into the Yahoo search engine and it will feature in 2,520,000 entries. Both Beckham and McLoughlin have seen their partners' off-field activity splashed all over a voracious tabloid media.

Rooney's girlfriend believes she is a victim of jealousy aimed at a couple who grew up together on the mean streets of Liverpool's run-down Croxteth district. "People call me names," she once complained to Marie Claire magazine. "When people see that you have money, you're the worst person in the world."

However, she shrugged off the bricbats to buy a new car for the boy wonder. According to one report, it was a 190mph Aston Martin Vanquish worth 195,000 pounds. "She wanted to do something lovely for Wayne," said a member of the army of 'friends', all anonymous, who are the source of a limitless production line of red-top tittle-tattle.

Brazil's superstar striker Ronaldo can breathe a sigh of relief that his supermodel girlfriend Raica Oliveira has pledged never to pose nude. "I never felt right about it. It's not something that would make me proud," said the 22-year-old at a pre-World Cup fashion show in Munich where she modeled 'football lingerie'.

By contrast, Alena Seredova has done 'glamour' work which will help boyfriend and Italian World Cup goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon take his mind of seeing his name dragged into the Italy football corruption scandal. Meanwhile, Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin has no problem with players' wives.

He says that if his team, making their World Cup debut, reach the semi-finals, he will insist his men spend time with their wives. "Even those who don't want to go, I will drag them there," said the veteran coach. (AFP)

India’s first e-Wallet launched

2006-06-08T04:44:00.000-07:00

India’s first e-Wallet, Wallet365.com has been formally launched on Wednesday. Times of India group’s Managing Director along with Amitabh Bachchan formally launched Wallet365.com at a glittering ceremony in Mumbai.

Wallet365.com is a revolutionary service that enables secure electronic payments. Users can send money to anyone, receive money from anyone, or make payments to businesses. Wallet365.com will also ease payments for online shopping and utility bills. Using Wallet365.com the user can store money electronically.

Wallet365.com is safe and secure for its users. It is 128 bit encrypted and VeriSign certified. Customers are often averse to e-commerce and using credit cards online fearing financial loss. Wallet365.com takes e-commerce beyond credit cards and all financial details are protected during transactions. Customers can use any bank account on Wallet365.com.

Customers can log on and sign up for a FREE e-Wallet account with Wallet365.com and experience the “Future of Money”.

Disruptive Innovation-II

2006-06-06T07:59:00.000-07:00

16. One sees that in the 60s, 70s and 80s Japan grew rapidly by following this strategy. In every industry they entered at the low end and then moved up the value chain. By the 90s they had done this in every industry. And therefore by the 90s in every industry they were at the high end. And there is relatively no growth in the high end and therefore for 15 years they have experienced stagnation. In the U.S. one has the facility of venture capital which encourages one to go back to the low end of the market and create market disruption all over again. But in Japan they don’t have a culture of venture capital.

17. In Innovation the creation of new products or services will give one a temporary benefit. But the creation of a new process will give one more staying power.

18. Within the same business it is difficult to find the leader in the sustaining wave as well as in the emergent wave. In order to capitalize on the emergent wave the leader usually creates another business.

19. IBM was able to remain atop its industry when minicomputers disrupted mainframes because it competed in the minicomputer market with a different business unit. And when the personal computer emerged, IBM addressed that disruption by creating an autonomous business unit in Florida.

20. Originally Department Stores were more involved with selling Hardware. As Discount stores entered the Hardware segment, Department stores moved into Clothing and relinquished the Hardware segment. Soon Discount stores moved into clothing and other segments and gradually the Department stores started shutting down. Today only 9 Department Stores remain out of an original number of 315 Department stores.

21. At the highest end of the market there is too much capacity and therefore mergers take place.

22. IBM had a better operating system than Microsoft and a better processor than Intel. IBM could easily have entered the PC market but still continued in the mainframe business and outsourced the operating systems and processors. We need to question whether it is always good to outsource.

23. Integrated firms compete on the basis of functionality and reliability. But as the market needs change to desiring improved speed, responsiveness and customization, the structure moves from being Integrated to being Modular.

24. Interdependent or integrated architectures optimize performance, in terms of functionality and reliability. These architectures are proprietary because each company will develop its own interdependent design to optimize performance in a different way. A modular interface is a clean one. Modular components fit and work together in well-understood and highly defined ways. A modular architecture specifies the fit and function of all elements so completely that it doesn’t matter who makes the components or subsystems, as long as they meet the specifications.

25. IBM as the most integrated competitor in the mainframe computer industry, held a 70 per cent market share but made 95% of the industry’s profits: It had proprietary products, strong cost advantages, and high entry barriers. For the same reasons, from the 50s through t he 70s, General Motors with about 55% of the U.S. automobile market, garnered 80% of the industry’s profits. Most of the firms which were suppliers to IBM and General Motors, in contrast had to make do with subsistence profits year after year. These firms’ experiences are typical. Making highly differentiable products with strong cost advantages creates these circumstances of dominance.

26. When this circumstance changes - when the dominant profitable companies overshoot what their mainstream customers can use - then this game can no longer be played, and the tables begin to turn. Customers will not pay still- higher prices for products they already deem too good. Before long modularity rules, and commoditization sets in. When the relevant dimensions of your product’s performance are determined not by you but by the subsystems that you procure from your suppliers, it becomes difficult to earn anything more than subsistence returns in a product category that used to make a lot of money. When your world becomes modular, you’ll need to look elsewhere in the value chain to make any serious money.

27. When one looks at IBM and Intel one finds that because the architecture of IBM was integrated it did not enter the components segment even though it had the capability of doing so. There was less profit in that segment. But when the market expectations shifted to more speed, customization and responsiveness then Intel opened up its architecture and entered every computer and thus created a modular structure. Intel now solved problems that absorbed IBM’s engineers. And thus commoditized IBM’s engineers. A similar scene was witnessed in the case of Compaq outsourcing to Flextronics and ultimately Flextronics the circuit board manufacturer commoditizing Compaq. The irony is that if Compaq had not outsourced it would have been killed earlier. But because it outsourced it was killed later.

28. As the low cost entrants move forward up the value chain, they trivialize what is left behind so that very little value can be added after disruption.

29. Implant makers have commoditized doctors who are surgeons for, say, ‘hip and knee’. The implant makers have created ‘fool proof and idiot simple’ solutions. Diagnostics have commoditized physicians. Once one has been diagnosed precisely one can then be given standardized therapy. Bloomberg has commoditized Wall Street analysts.

30. Low end disruption or low end businesses address over served customers. That is when existing products and services are ‘too good’ and hence overpriced relative to the value existing customers seek. Wal-Mart is a low end disruptive innovation. It began by offering customers a low-priced, relatively straight-forward product. These customers were over-served.

Disruptive Innovation- I

2006-05-30T06:36:00.000-07:00

By: Clayton M. Christensen

1. When you are wildly successful you are doomed.

2. Companies often fail because of the very management practices that have allowed them to become industry leaders. Because these practices make it extremely difficult for them to develop the disruptive technologies that ultimately steal away their markets. (Technology means the processes by which an organization transforms labor, capital, materials, and information into products and services of greater value. This concept of technology therefore extends beyond engineering and manufacturing to encompass a range of marketing, investment, and managerial processes. Innovation refers to a change in one of these technologies).

3. Well-managed companies are excellent at developing the sustaining technologies that improve the performance of their products in the ways that matter to their customers. This is because their management practices are biased toward : Listening to customers, Investing aggressively in technologies that give those customers what they say they want, Seeking higher margins, Targetting larger markets rather than smaller ones.

4. Disruptive technologies, however, are distinctly different from sustaining technologies. Disruptive technologies change the value proposition in a market. When they first appear, they almost always offer lower performance in terms of the attributes that mainstream customers care about. But disruptive technologies have other attributes that a few fringe (generally new) customers value. They are typically cheaper, smaller, simpler, and frequently more convenient to use. Therefore they open up new markets. Further because with experience and sufficient investment, the developers of disruptive technologies will always improve their products’ performance, they are eventually able to take over the older markets. This is because they are able to deliver sufficient performance on the old attributes, and they add some new ones.

5. Good theories are statements of what causes what and why. Most managers are not aware of good theories. Their analysis is based on data. And data refers to the past. And therefore to guide their actions in the future, with or without data, they have to rely on randomness. Because they do not have recourse to a good theory. This is the case with innovation.

6. Flight became possible only after people came to understand the relevant natural laws and principles that defined how the world worked : the law of gravity, Bernoulli’s principle, and the concepts of lift, drag, and resistance. When people then designed flying systems that recognized or harnessed the power of these laws and principles, rather than fighting them, they were able to fly to heights and distances that were previously unimaginable.

7. Another aspect of ‘Innovation’ is that it changes according to the various needs of constituencies. Just like a piece of legislation being passed through Parliament. The innovation may be different from the original idea because it has been shaped and morphed in order to mirror the economic model of the company.

8. There are 10 questions which we need to get right for creating new businesses.

How can we beat the competition ? (Business Model)
Which customers should we target ? (Resource)
What products will our customers want to buy ? (Resource)
How should we distribute to and communicate with our customers ? (Process)
Which things should our company do, and which should our partners and suppliers do ? (Process)
How can we avoid commoditization ? (Business Model)
Who should be on our management team ? (Resource)
What is the best organizational structure for this business ? (Process)
How can we know when to change course ? (Business Model)
Whose investment capital will help, and whose will hurt ? (Resource)

9. The Disruptive Innovation Theory states that there are 2 trajectories. One trajectory represents the pace of technological progress or how products and services are getting better over time. The other trajectory relates to how much of improvement can the customer utilize or absorb.

10. In the initial phase any new product or service is not good enough for anything but gradually as it improves it gets too good for everything. Intel when it introduced its first chip it was not found good enough but through gradual improvement it became too good at everything.

11. In stable business incumbent companies nearly always win because they play catch-up with the progress of technology and use it to increase their profits.

12. Innovations that disrupt usually emerge at the low cost end of the business. In the 70s and 80s Digital was the most admired company having gone from zero to $16 ban. In 16 years. However, in 1988 it collapsed and with it every mini-computer company collapsed. Why? The mini-computer companies were making around a 45% margin and with innovations in mini-computers they were predicting a 60 % margin. So DEC had to adopt a set of values that essentially dictated, “If it generates 50 per cent gross margins or more, it’s good business. If it generates less than 40 per cent margins, it’s not worth doing.” At the same time one found that the PC, which was a disruptive technology, was earning a margin of 40%, which would move down towards 20%. Digital entered the PC market 4 times and each time found that it could not achieve the profitability it had in the mini-computer business. Good companies find it easy to move up but difficult to move down.

13. When one looks at the Steel industry one finds that Integrated Steel Mills dominated all segments of the market. The lowest segment of this market was the steel used for concrete reinforcement, which was termed as the ‘Rebar’ segment. When the Mini-steel Mill entered this segment, the ‘Rebar’ steel, which they made was much below quality but as they improved they had the cost advantage that the large integrated steel plants could not match. The Integrated Steel Mills gave up this segment to the Mini-Steel plants and concentrated on the higher quality and more profitable segments of ‘Angle iron’ steel. The same story was repeated by the Mini-Steel Mills also moving up the chain, at first creating a below quality product and then improving and getting the large Integrated Steel Mills to relinquish this segment and concentrate on the next more profitable segment which was ‘Structural Steel’. Again the same story was repeated and the Integrated Steel Mills relinquished the ‘Structural Steel’ segment to the Mini-Steel Mills and concentrated on the most profitable segment, which was ‘Sheet Steel’. The same story was played out and ultimately all but one Integrated Steel Mill closed down.

14. The lesson from this is that one needs to define the fight in such a way that the existing giant wants to run away from you rather than fight you. Disrupt them by taking a piece of the market they are motivated to run away from. Enter from the low cost end of the market and target non-customers.

15. One sees the same game played out in the automobile industry. GM and Ford never entered the small low cost car market. It didn’t make sense to enter. Just like it didn’t make sense for the Integrated Steel Mills to remain in the low end of the market. Toyota came in and disrupted them and moved up the value chain. Today Toyota has a Lexus at the premium end.

Food Survey by the UN

2006-04-29T05:14:00.000-07:00

A worldwide survey on food was conducted by the UN.

The only question asked was: "Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?"

The survey was a huge failure,
In Africa they didn't know what 'food' meant,
In India they didn't know what 'honest' meant,
In Europe they didn't know what 'shortage' meant,
In China they didn't know what 'opinion' meant,
In the Middle East they didn't know what 'solution' meant,
In South America they didn't know what 'please' meant,
And in the USA they didn't know what 'the rest of the world' meant

Icing on your electronic cake

2006-04-14T07:27:00.000-07:00

Pumpup your website or blog with a few add-ons that will help you get under its bonnet, add functionality or just provide a bit of fun. You won’t need a degree in HTML coding to install any of these little helpers: cutting and pasting is as technical as it gets.

Statistics

Statistics counters not only track the number of site hits, unique visitors and returnees your site receives, but they tell you whether your readers are from Leytonstone or Lima, how long they browse your site, what browser and operating system they use, and whether they take one lump or two.

StatCounter (www.statcounter.com) Sitemeter (www.sitemeter.com) and eXTReMe Tracker ( http://extremetracking.com) are three options. All offer basic free versions as well as paid-for upgrades.

More interaction

A tagboard is a message box that sits one side of your blog. Readers leave notes, which encourage conversation. They differ from a comments box as they are not post specific. Tagboards run throughout your whole blog. Tag-Board (www.tagboard.com) and Chatterbox (http://chatter.flooble.com) are popular and free. You can also add a poll in your blog. Go to www.freepolls.com or www.pollhost.com for the free tools you need.

Skype me

If you use Skype (www.skype.com), the free internet telephony software, add a Skype Me button. Readers, friends and colleagues can call you straight from your site to tell you what a great post you just made, so long as they also have Skype installed. See www.skype.com/community /skypemebuttons.html.

Live Message Alerts!

Let your readers know in real time when you update your blog. Live Message Alerts (www.messagecast.net) is free. Add the icon to your site and readers can opt to receive alerts by email, desktop alert, mobile phone or PDA. Readers receive a headline and can click through to read your new post.

License your work

Adding a Creative Commons licence (http://creativecommons.org) lets everybody know what they can and cannot beg, borrow or steal from your blog. RSS feeds A blog isn’t a blog without an RSS feed. Adding a Bloglines (www.bloglines.com) or a Newsgator (www.newsgator.com) feed to your site allows readers to sign up quickly by hitting the icon you install and adding your feed to their RSS reader or online Bloglines account.

Gimmicks

The Truth Laid Bear Ecosytem (www.truthlaidbear.com/ecosystem.php) will let you know where you stand, crawl or sliver in Blogdom. Let the narcissist in you take over and add the “Who links to me” code ( http://wholinkstome.com) and it tells you what it says it’ll tell you. Technorati (www.technorati.com) offers a similar, more sophisticated service. Add a clock with www.clocklink.com. Do you use the Flickr (www.flickr.com) photosharing service? Add their zeitgeist — www.flickr.com/fun/zeitgeist. It displays an attractive patchwork of pictures recently uploaded to Flickr, in your sidebar.

Stop Spam

Foil the spam robots crawling your blog for email addresses with SpamPoison: www.spampoison.com.

Source: Guardian

Tension Reliever!!!!

2006-04-11T04:39:00.000-07:00

A married couple was in a terrible accident where the man's face was severely burned. The doctor told the husband that they couldn't graft any skin from his body because he was too skinny. So the wife offered to donate some of her own skin.

However, the only skin on her body that the doctor felt was suitable would have to come from her buttocks. The husband and wife agreed that they would tell no one about where the skin came from, and they requested that the doctor also honor their secret. After all, this was a very delicate matter.

After the surgery was completed, everyone was astounded at the man's new face. He looked more handsome than he ever had before! All his friends and relatives just went on and on about his youthful beauty!

One day, he was alone with his wife, and he was overcome with emotion at her sacrifice.

He said, "Dear, I just want to thank you for everything you did for me. How can I possibly repay you?"

She replied, "Darling, I get all the thanks I need every time I see your mother kiss you on the cheek"...

Happy Fool's Day!!!!

2006-04-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

** FOOL se **

* * FOOL ne **

* * FOOLon ki **

* * FOOLWARI main **

* * FOOL ke saath wish kiya hai **

* * u r the most **

* * BEAUITFOOL **

* * WONDERFOOL **

and ColorFOOL **

* *amngst all FOOL's **

HAPPY APRIL FOOL's DAY

What does Love mean...

2006-03-23T04:23:00.000-08:00

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?"The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined.

See what you think:

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So, my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."Rebecca - age 8

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."Billy - age 4

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."Karl - age 5

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."Chrissy - age 6

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."Terri - age 4

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."Danny - age 7

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss."Emily - age 8

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."Bobby - age 7 (Wow...)

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,"Nikka - age 6(We need a few million more Nikka's on this planet...)

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."Noelle - age 7

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."Tommy - age 6

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."Cindy - age 8

"My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."Clare - age 6

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."Elaine - age 5

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is more handsome than Robert Redford."Chris - age 7

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."Mary Ann - age 4

"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones."Lauren - age 4

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you."(What an image...)Karen - age 7

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross."Mark - age 6
"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."Jessica - age 8

And the final one...

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four-year-old child whose next door neighbour was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbour, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry."

A very sweet short story

2006-03-02T03:53:00.000-08:00

A Little girl and her father were crossing a bridge. The father was kind of scared so he asked his little daughter, "Sweetheart, please hold my hand so that you don't fall into the river." The little girl said, "No, Dad. You hold my hand." "What's the difference?" Asked the puzzled father. "There's a big difference," replied the little girl. "If I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are that I may let your hand go. But if you hold my hand, I know for sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go."

In any relationship, the essence of trust is not in its bind, but in its bond. So hold the hand of the person whom you love rather than expecting them to hold urs... This msg is too short..........but carries a lot of Feelings....

Wife is a wife!!

2006-02-25T07:25:00.000-08:00

A Wife is a wife, no matter who you are!!

LPG gas cylinder's expire date?

2006-02-16T07:50:00.000-08:00

Have u ever heard about LPG gas cylinder's expire date? How to find LPG cylinder's expiry date

Most of us do not know this.
There is an expiry date (physical life) for LPG cylinders, Expired Cylinders are not safe for use and may cause accidents. In this regard please be cautious at the time of accepting any LPG cylinder from the vendor.

Here is how we can check the expiry of LPG cylinders:
On one of three side stems of the cylinder, the expiry date is coded alpha-numerically as follows A or B or C or D and some two digit numberfollowing this e.g. D06.

The alphabets stand for quarters -
A for March (First Qtr),
B for June (Second Qtr),
C for Sept (Third Qtr), &
D for December (Fourth Qtr).

The digits stand for the year till it is valid.
Hence D06 would mean December qtr of 2006.

Similarities between Girls & Windows

2006-02-01T07:07:00.000-08:00

Girls and Windows

Both have a great UI...
Both consume large resources and do less work...
Both crash unexpectedly...
Both are not easily portable on different architectures (environment)...
Both can't work on low resource architectures (environment)...
Both are costly to maintain...
Both give mostly unexpected outputs...
Both's working often contradicts with their documentation...
Both are easily prone to viruses (rumors and doubts) (and they (viruses) do spread very fast in windows based networks)...
In spite of all above disadvantages, both are liked...

Boys and Linux

Both have an average UI...
Both are robust...
Both are highly secure...
Both can be easily modified to support new concepts / features...
Both are highly efficient...
Both are easily portable to any architecture (environment) no matter how low are resources...
You can easily guess the output for your input (in Linux just open its code, for boys they are mostly transparent by nature)...
Both provide large support for development (work environment)...
Both are poorly documented...

Search engines offer detailed images of cities

2006-01-18T05:11:00.000-08:00

Internet portals' newly evolving local search and mapping services, where the photographic images are typically rendered as search results, make it easier than ever to scout out everything from vacation destinations to restaurants.

The images, most featuring US cities, are so detailed you can sometimes tell whether a hedge was recently trimmed or get a good look at cars parked on the street. Such views are available online for anyone to see from some of the biggest names on the Internet, including Amazon.com, Microsoft Corp
and Google Inc.

Never before have searchable databases of detailed pictures covering wide swaths of urban areas been readily available like this to the public. And that has privacy advocates worried about the risks of such picture perfect exposure to vulnerable citizens such as women in domestic violence shelters.

"I think there are going to be privacy issues, no doubt about it somebody's going to feel uncomfortable with it," said Charlene Li of Forrester Research. "So the question becomes, what are the tradeoffs? Is the value worth it?"

Yes, according to research by Forrester. Li said she's already seeing consumer interest, and she expects companies to continue to develop such tools because they see the potential for online advertising from local businesses who may not want to buy national online ads.

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!

2006-01-16T00:19:00.000-08:00

A case of kiss and a slap:

Bush, Manmohan, Aishwarya Rai and Sonia are traveling in a train.

The train goes through a tunnel and it gets completelydark. Suddenly there is a kissing sound and then a slap! The train comes out of the tunnel. The women andManmohan are sitting there looking perplexed. Bush isbent over holding his face, which is red from anapparent slap. All of them remain diplomatic andnobody says anything.

Sonia is thinking:
These Americans are all crazy after Aishwarya. Bushmust have tried to kiss her in the tunnel. Very properthat she slapped him.

Aishwarya is thinking:
Bush must have tried to kiss me but kissed Sonia instead and got slapped.

Bush is thinking:
Damn it. Manmohan must have tried to kiss Aishwarya.She might have thought it was me and slapped me.

Manmohan is thinking:
If this train goes through another tunnel I will make another kissing sound and slap Bush again.

Flickr. What’s that?

2006-01-13T03:50:00.000-08:00

2005 was named the Year of Digital Citizen as new technologies and tech terms became part of our vocabulary. Podcast was the word of the year

Remember the London bombings, the Katrina and the tsunami that were the big news in 2005. People blogged, podcast and flickred them, and they (and the technologies they used) became news. Now that trend has become official with the year 2005 declared as the Year of Digital Citizens in recognition of the camera-phone wielding citizens of the world who posted the pictures of the historic events on their blogs, wikis, social networking and photosharing websites.

The icing on the cake for the geeks was the naming of ‘Podcast’ as the 2005 word of the year by the the Oxford dictionary. Closely following them were the techie words like lifehack, wiki, rootkit, etc. There is no doubt that these technologies have transformed the western world to a large extent. But many of these terms strike a discordant note amongst the Indians. ‘Flickr, what’s that? Is that a new kind of fan?’ and such remarks is common. We ask some people in the city who might know a thing or two about gadgetry on their tryst with the digital year that just went by.

Sanjiv Kataria, Group Executive Vice President, NIIT: I bought a new PC which is bundled with all the latest features of TV, radio and just about anything to make it a home theatre system. I also bought two ipods, one for myself and my daughter.

Rajat Raina, model: I am a game freak. All the gadgets that I have from the mobile phones to the computers are all centred around just one purpose: gaming. I also play games on Gameboy Advanced and PSPs.

Anthony Braganza, band manager, Black Slade: I am quite comfortable with internet and downloading music. Last year, I taught myself to use a recording software called Cakewalk for audition and composing.

Nafisa Ali, socialite: I am comfortable with computers and in the process of creating a website for myself. I am also thinking of starting a blog.

Meera Ramchandran, principal, Gargi college: My college has just installed an intranet communication facility at which I am quite adept. I am also involved in updating the college website.

Palash Sen, singer: I love internet surfing. Computers are my passion and in fact I have set up my own recording studio equipped with software like Cubase and other sound editing tools. I record all my new songs myself.

Perfect Love

2006-01-04T04:34:00.000-08:00

Never say I Love You
If you don't really care

Never talk of feelings
If they aren't really there

Never hold my hand
If you mean to break my heart

Never say forever
If you ever plan to part

Never look into my eyes
If you are telling me a lie

Never say hello
If you think you'll say goodbye

Never say that I'm THE one
If you have dream more than me

Never lock up my heart
If you don't have the key

New year will be a second late

2005-12-27T05:36:00.000-08:00

As New Year revelers count down to the last second of 2005 this December 31, time will, literally, stand still for a moment.

But only for a second, as standard clocks around the world will add an extra second to the year, to make up the difference between solar time and "real" or "absolute" time. For the first time in seven years, that is, since 1998, a "leap second" will be added to time standards, on instructions from the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) located in the United States.

Indian Standard Time (IST) will also add this time-difference. IST is monitored and controlled by the
National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Delhi, which maintains SI units in India, and also calibrates the national standards of weights and measures.

"Through an Act of Parliament, we have been designated the official timekeepers of India. And it is our
responsibility to see that we keep time properly," says Dr P. Banerjee, Head of the Time and Frequency Division at NPL.

This time-addition, however, takes place even as scientists, astronomers and technologists debate on the need for "leap seconds" at all. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) at Geneva recently postponed its decision on a proposal to ban leap seconds from December 2007, in view of continuing
discussions on the subject.

"The debate was postponed because people are confused," says Dr Banerjee.

There are two time systems which are accepted worldwide:

International Atomic Time, based on relatively stable, invariant atomic clocks, and
Universal Time, derived from the rotation of the earth.

The difference between the two systems should not exceed 0.9 seconds. If so, it is decided to give a jump in the opposite direction, and this jump is colloquially termed "leap second".

"The decision to introduce positive or negative leap seconds was made in 1971, and the first was added the
following year. Since then, we have added 22 such seconds to our clocks. And this will be the 23rd time in the history of time," he says. "NPL has been following the system for years. If the ITU chooses to continue with it, it is fine. If it chooses to ban it, there is still no problem."

One faction in the debate suggests that this time differential need not be maintained at all. "One can perhaps
consider it when the difference reaches that of one hour. Which means 3600 seconds. And taking an average addition of +/-1 second per year, it means approximately 3600 years. Which is equivalent to several human lifetimes," the scientist says.

Astronomers and navigators who want their clocks to match the natural day-night rhythm of Earth's rotation tend to prefer the leap second, because it helps them keep track of
where astronomical objects are in the sky.

Whereas, technologists, who depend on the unvarying, uniform frequency of the atomic clock, are not entirely in favour of the leap second. For it can create problems with modern communication systems and other electronic operations which rely on synchronicity

"In the olden days, time as we knew it was determined by the rotation of the earth. Based on calculations, and the periodic difference from sunrise-to-sunrise, people arrived at the duration of a second," he says.
"Now, we have moved far beyond the pendulum and the quartz-clock. The standard of measuring time is now the atomic clock."

"It is very stable since it is based on atomic phenomena, so much so that it led to the discovery of the variation in earth's rotation, which effectively meant variations in the length of day."

"It was then discovered that we needed to keep the atomic clock in time with the earth clock. Which is how scientists arrived at the need of the leap second," he says. Leap second corrections are made either on June 30 or December 31 of a given year, and are normally declared in advance by the IERS. International time-keeping standards adjust their systems accordingly.

There have been no changes since 1998 because of a relative stabilization in the earth's rotation.
The addition of a second may not mean much to revelers this year end, but for scientists, every leap is worth a debate.

Courtesy: PTI

Jackson negotiating to avoid defaulting on loans

2005-12-22T04:20:00.000-08:00

US pop star Michael Jackson has sought a six-month extention on repayment of about a 270 million dollar loan to save his state in the Beatles catalogue and Neverland ranch. Jackson's representatives are trying to seek a six-month extention to repay the Fortress Investment Group, which owns the loans that came due on Tuesday, a media report said yesterday. Fortress purchased the debt from Bank of America in April.

The loans are collateralized by Jackson's 50 per cent partnership in Sony/ATV Music Publishing, a joint venture between the singer and the electronics company that owns a 4,000 song catalogue, containing songs as Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" and more than 250 Beatles songs, including "Yesterday", The Los Angeles Times said.

Jackson's share in Sony/ATV, which also owns his valuable catalogue and Neverland ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley, is worth more than 500 million dollars, according to court testimony.

According to the report Fortress will demand interim payments during the extension, and may insist on an interest rate that could reach be more than 1.5 million dollar a month. Fortress also owns another Jackson loan worth 70 million dollar, that has not come due yet. Fortress declined to comment on the negotiations.

However, a spokesperson for Sony/ATV declining to discuss the specifics said the company is "trying to be a good partner, and keep the partnership with Jackson going," the daily said. Jackson's lawyers and spokesperson did not return phone calls.

Hard Drive

2005-12-08T07:50:00.000-08:00

One hand on wheel, one hand out of window: Chicago...

One hand on wheel, one hand on horn: New York...

One hand on wheel, one hand on newspaper, foot solidly on accelerator: Boston...

Both hands on wheel, eyes shut, both feet on brake, quivering in terror: Ohio, but driving in California...

Both hands in air, gesturing, both feet on accelerator, head turned to talk to someone in back seat: Italy...

One hand on horn, one hand greeting, one ear on cell phone, one ear listening to loud music, foot on accelerator, eyes on female pedestrians, conversing with someone in next car: Welcome to Delhi!!!!!!

Yoga at your fingertips

2005-12-06T03:40:00.000-08:00

Yoga has tremendous healing power and can cure all major diseases, if performed properly. It also offers happiness. We are telling you some simple yet effective mudras, which if practiced daily can keep you healthy for life.

VAYU MUDRA

Sit with your back and neck straight. Keep your index finger at the root of your thumb and press it. Index finger should also touch the middle finger. Then, move your hands to the knee region with the palms facing upwards. Put a little pressure on your palm and the rest of the hand should be in a relaxed position. Practice this for 10-15 minutes everyday.

Helpful for gastro problems, joint pain, backache, sciatica, arthritis and Parkinson’s disease.

AKASH MUDRA

Sit with your back and neck straight. Join the tip of your middle finger with the thumb in both hands, press a little and keep rest of the fingers straight. Now, keep your hands near the knee with palms facing upwards. Sit in this position for five to ten minutes.

Helpful in heart diseases. Strengthens bones.

SHUNYA MUDRA

Sit comfortably. Put your middle finger of both the hands at the root of the thumb and press a little. Now keep your hands near the knee with your palm facing upwards. Sit in this position for five to ten minutes.

Helps control deafness, strengthens gum muscles, and most importantly, regulates thyroid gland functions.

Courtsey: TOI

The power of dreams

2005-12-02T04:16:00.000-08:00

THEY TAKE over our minds while we are sleeping. They may be intriguing, ridiculous, mundane or frightening. Every night while you sleep, your subconscious mind unlocks parts of your psyche that your waking mind is never aware of. Your dreams often reveal powerful inner wisdom and can bear the messages you need to lead a happy life. Dreams are, at their simplest, a function of learning. They are also a means of exploring possibilities of resolving anxiety and conflict, a means of integrating new experiences into old attitudes (or changing old attitudes in the light of new experiences) and a method and result of the search for meaning in life. What do these dreams really signify? Dreams can be classified into four categories:

The house cleaning dream or a dream that cleans away thoughts of fear, anxiety and prepares the dreamer for the next day. Even a simple overdose of television can stimulate a long house cleaning dream.
The problem solving or mechanical dreams revolve around a real problem the person maybe facing. It could mean any kind of problem.
The psychological dreams are a result of the current mental state of the dreamer. These dreams mean an attempt by the unconscious to get in touch with the conscious.
The spiritual or occult dream, the highest order of the dreams, comes from the super conscious rather than the unconscious.

A very simple but common example of a dream which all of us must have seen at a certain point of time, is the dream about falling. If the dream is spiritual, we would see falling as going from a higher level to a lower level of consciousness. In a psychological dream we even if we are falling there is a feeling of loss of confidence, anxiety and stress. There is no such thing as coincidence in dreams. However, one can interpret common symbols. Here are a few symbols and what it means:

Animals: Signifies instinctual side of our selves

Abandon: Reflects loss of friends and favours

Abroad: Indicates changing lifestyle

Accident: Signifies obstacles or an impending illness

Adultery: Reflects guilt complex and anguish

Castration: Indicates feeling of sexual inadequacy or impotence

Cleaning: Recovering from old injuries, preparing for a new phase in life

Death: Indicates a sense of loss, of separation from the world of a known person. It could also indicate hostility. If you dream about death of an unknown person, it indicates the dreamer is involved in an intolerable situation

Falling: Indicates failure or fear of it

Fighting: Indicates struggle, conflict, inner turmoil

Illness: Reflects uncleared bad feelings

Nudity: Indicates exposure or lacking defenses

Losing something: Being out of touch with feelings

Poisoning: Indicates danger

Rejection: A refusal to accept an influence in life

Repairing: Indicates recovering from bad feelings or injuries

Running: Indicates physical pleasures or exhaustion of resources

Suffocating or drowning: Indicates being overwhelmed with a situation or emotion

Suicide: Indicates aggressions or frustration in some form or another

Sweeping: A desire to remove old ideas and attitudes

Sex with stranger: Represents whim for a different kind of sexual experience. Dream of sex with partner acts as a reassurance of your love and bonding

Thus, dreams are the one essential path to enlightenment and reveals inner wisdom and is available to everyone.

Writer: Tarot card reader and karmic healer POONAM SETHI

Are cyber cafes safe?

2005-12-01T03:15:00.000-08:00

Cyber cafe were once a very rarefied place that existed in only select parts of the city and visited by those in the know of the latest technology. But with the ubiquitous usage of Internet in all aspects of our life from work to play, cyber cafes have mushroomed in every nook and corner and at all public places imaginable. While this have made life easier and more efficient, there are security issues too that can compromise your online identity. As Niraj Kaushik, country head of Trend Micro says, “The public terminals at the airport, libraries, cyber cafes are not safe at all if one has to make online transactions that involves typing in sensitive information like the bank account’s username, passwords and other confidential data. Unless you are quite sure that the cyber café’s administrator has put in place all the security firewalls and softwares that can identify and block spywares, do not ever give out your credit card number details or anything that might be stolen by others at your cost. Sometimes your email account can be hacked and used to harm your reputation.

Criminals may also hijack your screen name and use it for illegal purpose.” For Rajeev Barman, a cyber security expert, keyloggers that record every word you type is a great risk. “These run in the background unobtrusively and keep a log of your typing activity, including the passwords to your email and banking accounts. Even the highly trained security expert might be hard pressed to tell whether a particular PC has such kind of stealth programmes installed for they are hidden from the users,” says Rajeev.

So the best security tip is to desist from using any public Internet access terminal. If it becomes exceedingly important to use it for some urgent transaction, one should follow certain security tips.

Be cautious

Look around: Make sure nobody is trying to look at your screen or keyboard. Also, don’t walk away from the computer while you’re logged in.

Beware of keyloggers: Many public computers are locked down by the administrator to disallow installation of any additional softwares by the users. But there’s a chance a hacker could install a Trojan keylogger to capture keystrokes, and an industrious crook could use a hardware device—such as the KeyGhost Hardware Key-Logger—that connects between the keyboard and PC. Check the hardware carefully and if you find any suspicious piece of device, find another PC.

Don’t reveal sensitive information: We recommend that you avoid typing any sensitive data at public kiosks. Many sites set cookies for an online session so if you close the browser and reopen it, you don’t have to log on again. If you close the browser and walk away, the next user could pick up where you left off.

Erase your tracks: Be sure to delete your electronic trail of temporary files, cookies, and surfing history. If you’re using Internet Explorer, click on Tools / Internet Options. On the General tab, click on Delete Cookies, Delete Files, and Clear History.

Still in Internet Options, click the Content tab, then click the AutoComplete button. In the resulting dialog box, click the Clear Forms button and the Clear Passwords button.

If you downloaded any documents, delete them too. If you edited any documents, clear the “recently used documents” list.

Courtesy: DT

Nice picture!!!

2005-12-01T02:51:00.000-08:00

good one!!!!!!!!

2005-12-01T02:49:00.000-08:00

Miss Universe on India AIDS tour

2005-11-16T08:28:00.000-08:00

Miss Universe 2005 of Canada, Natalie Glebova, poses for media representatives during an AIDS awareness campaign in New Delhi, 15 November 2005. Glebova arrived in india for an AIDS awareness Tour of India and will visit the Indian cities of Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi from 14 to 26 November.

Interesting Mathematics!!

2005-11-10T07:58:00.000-08:00

ROMANCE MATHEMATICS

Smart man+ smart woman =romance
Smart man+ dumb woman =affair
Dumb man +smart woman =marriage
Dumb man +dumb woman =pregnancy

OFFICE ARITHMETIC
Smart boss+ smart employee =profit
Smart boss+ dumb employee =production
Dumb boss+ smart employee =promotion
Dumb boss+ dumb employee =overtime

SHOPPING MATH
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need.

GENERAL EQUATIONS & STATISTICS

A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

HAPPINESS

To be happy with a man, you must understand him alot and love him little.
To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all.

MEMORY
Any married man should forget his mistakes, there's no use in two people remembering the same thing.

PROPENSITY TO CHANGE
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
A man marries a woman expecting thatshe won't change, and she does.

DISCUSSION TECHNIQUE
A woman has the last word in any argument. Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

Blogged down?

2005-11-09T08:25:00.000-08:00

Despite all the noise about the coming of age of the blogging phenomenon in India, the active blogging community in India is a shockingly tiny group, comprising mostly of journalists and IT professionals. Their preoccupation nevertheless continues to be slamming and analysing a very wide variety of things in an attempt to display their intellectual might. If anything was in dispute, the 3rd annual Delhi bloggers meet just proved how big (or small) is the Indian blogosphere. Just four bloggers attended it, counting the host. ‘‘It’s a flop,’’ concluded Tarun Pall, the host. ‘‘I have booked the entire section of the restaurant,’’ he added, pointing at the empty sofas reserved for an army of bloggers that he had expected. Luckily for him, Saket, owner of a blog tracker, turned up and gave company to the lonely host. Like Tarun, half of the Indian bloggers are IT professionals, while three-fourths of them live in the metros, according to a survey. As a result, the focus of the Indian bloggers is fairly limited. Their favourite pastime remains MSM (blog speak for mainstream media) bashing, often without caring to provide substantiations and taking cover behind free speech platitude. As Sajan Venniyoor wrote in a media watchdog site, ‘‘If blogs are to be taken seriously as an alternative medium, they should measure up to the standards of accountability and reliability of the mainstream media that the bloggers so deplore. When the IT Act 2000 comes into force, bloggers will face bigger challenges.’’ Indian bloggers are quickly realising that there are legal hurdles ahead, so they are beginning to tread cautiously. ‘‘We are in the process of forming an association in Mumbai for the protection of our rights,’’ revealed 24-year-old Saket, who works as a recruiter. The Indian blogosphere has a long way to go before it even comes near to achieving the influence of the American bloggers, whom they emulate. We are yet to see the Instapundit of India or an Andrew Sullivan. And this is not lost on them. ‘‘We are the elite bloggers of India,’’ announced Tarun, as Aanchal and Neha, who showed up later, nodded in agreement. No one posed the question, at least not yet: When can we have our own Dan Rather moment, where bloggers forced a prominent US journalist to resign by proving that his stories were false?

Courtesy: DT

Blooker Prize for Bloggers

2005-10-28T06:37:00.000-07:00

Blooker Prize has been launched few days back for honouring the finest blooks around the world. This is the first ever literary award for “blooks,” books based on blogs or websites. Sponsored by online self-publishing house Lulu, the competition is accepting entries from anywhere in the world, although all blooks must be printed in English.

The judging panel will be chaired by prominent net activist Cory Doctorow, with the first shortlist announced next March, and the winner on 3rd April 2006. It will reward the best entries from three categories – fiction, non-fiction and comic-blooks – but with one overall winner. Each category winner will win $1,000 (£565), while the winner will receive $2,000 (£1,130) and a place in the annals of tech history.