Links

Ethical resume writing (via)
Infineon India has announced Annual awards for Phd and Maters research Thesis. Awards definitely look attractive. (via)

One idea

There should be a way by which i can click on an email link on any webpage, the browser opens the Gmail/Hotmail/Yahoo "Compose mail" page, and not the MS Outlook client that i have on my PC. If a method doesn't already exist, whats the feasibility of implementing it?

Israel's ynetnews reports on a research report which talks on how Israel is in a better position for technical innovation than either India or China. The article also quotes a number of interesting statistics. Iam quickly quoting the paragraphs that i find interesting.

Given the number of engineers that graduate out every year and the cost per engineer per year, Israel will simply not be able to compete against India and China in terms of scale or cost.

Israelis have been much more successful in developing breakthrough technologies than either the Chinese or the Indians. In the case of China, OECD figures indicate that Chinese nationals filed a mere 200 patent applications in 1995 and 299 in 1997. In 2001, only 5.43 percent of the patents filed in China by Chinese inventors were for invention. This was remarkably fewer than the 72.8 percent of innovation patents, as a percentage of total patents, filed by foreign firms in China. While development centers of international companies in India filed for over 750 patents by mid-2003, Indian IT service companies filed for less than 90.

While China and India may have hordes of good but less than phenomenal scientists and engineers, their numbers alone will not mute Israel’s advantage in producing transformative breakthroughs. It is interesting to note that India is having difficulty finding even small numbers of exceptional software programmers.

Links

A look inside the iPod Shuffle

File Managers for Linux

Links

Click Fraud: How to Detect and Stop a Growing Problem

Why Linux can't kill Windows - Very valid points.

Optimizing FFTW and Split Radix

SpaceMonger - A very nice and intuitive application which gives a very detailed view of what's occupying all the space on your hard disk (Windows only). I never knew my GDS was taking up more than 780 MB of space!

Nokia 6600

Finally i bought myself a light grey Nokia 6600. What swayed me was the excellent support for Python on Nokia Series 60 phones

Microsoft BhashaIndia.com. The website hopes to empower Indic Language Computing. They have also announced an Indic Developer Challenge for college students.

BhashaIndia invites all college students to participate in the Indic Developer Challenge and create applications and solutions in Indian Languages. The best application adjudged by our panel will win a cool Toshiba Tablet PC. 1 Smartphone each will be given away for the best applications in the following categories:

- Most innovative Indic Enabled Web application
- Best Application Documentation or Tutorial for the Submitted Application
- Best Indic Enabled Software Application
- Most Innovative Office application (using VSTO, Smart Doc, InfoPath application)
- The Wildcard – An application that displays excellence in any other aspect other than those mentioned above.

Good to see Microsoft putting a good amount of effort into Indian language computing!

Chandramukhi - A quick review

** I hope there are no potential spoilers ahead. Anyway proceed at your own discretion **

Watched it at the Innovative Multiplex yesterday. If you have seen "Manichitrathazhu" in Malayalam, you already know the plot completely, but you can still watch the movie for Rajini. Fight scenes mostly defy logic, but what's the point in trying to see logic here? Its mostly enjoyable, and thats what we are looking for. Nayantara looks good, and thats about it for her role in the movie. Jyothika does justice to her role, but don't bother comparing her performance to Shobana in Manichitrathazhu. Prabhu? Yaa, he's also there in the movie. Vadivel's exploits with Rajini is fabulous at times, but there are instances when its gross. Songs are good, especially "Raa Raa". Overall, a highly watchable movie.
PS: Liked the way the film titles were shown. Found that its done by Rajini's second daughter Soundarya. Cool job.

More Links!

More on the Google 20% time

Bruce Perens asks Linus "to cool it"

Bruce Eckel on Python (Old, but good articles)
   Part 1 - Python and the Programmer
   Part 2 - The Zen of Python
   Part 3 - Type Checking and Techie Control
   Part 4 - Python and the Tipping Point

Hacking the Papal Election

Schneier on how hacking the Papal election process will be tough. After Reading Angels and Demons, the entire election process looked hugely familiar.

Blogbridge - Another RSS reader

This particular feature makes it interesting!

It also includes a server-based service (free!) that enables you to synchronize your subscriptions between different computers.

Need to try this out soon! Link

Currently Reading

The Performance Paradox

If you deliver, you only qualify to deliver more.

Motorola opens Bangalore research centre

Motorola Labs has opened an applied-research facility in the Indian city of Bangalore.

The lab - the 11th such centre opened by telecommunications giant Motorola and its first in India - will work on diverse applied areas such as converged networks, autonomic networking, enterprise applications, embedded systems and physical sciences.

Schaumberg, Illinois-based Motorola already has an India-based R&D infrastructure, which employs 1,700 engineers but it works mostly on software. Read more

That marks one more research facility to be opened by an MNC in Bangalore in recent months.

Links!

GPE is a Free Software GUI environment for palmtop/handheld computers running the GNU/Linux operating system

A First Look at OpenOffice.org 2.0

A Symbian Programming Tutorial Blog

Real World XML Web Services. A draft online book. If you are not into .NET, atleast the first few chapters are interesting

Interesting Google Satellite Maps

Delphi sells 5 millionth Satellite Radio Reciever

Delphi announced today it has sold 5 million satellite radio receivers to retail and automotive customers. The company is the first satellite hardware manufacturer to achieve this milestone, and remains the world's leading provider of satellite radio receivers. Read More

Amazon Zuggest

Amazon Suggest. It lets you search Amazon as you type. You don't have to press Submit or Enter, just type. So a small improvement over Google Suggest.

Google Bangalore

How Google Searches -- For Talent A look at why Google is finding it tougher to staff up their Bangalore Office.

Links

Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications

RFIDs: Technology Friend or Foe?

A city of islands shaped like the World. Each island is shaped similar to a country. You can buy your own private island here. Amazing idea. Wonder how much these will cost though!

From the Times of India

Swaminomics - My family and other globalisers. Very interesting read (Thanks, Rahul for the link)

More Google

Newsweek on Living by Google Rules. The most interesting quote:

When we started Google News, we forgot to put ads in it. It's not deliberate. We actually forgot.

Loved this quote

"Sure, our software interoperates. It interoperates the same way the U.S. does in Iraq." (via Scott)

Most Interesting April Fool's day story!

Here is the most interesting story i have read on April 1st.Google and Yahoo talk merger?
If it really happens, that would be a sensational story!

Update: Somebody has come up with a YaGoohoogle website as well.

How Nerdy are you?

That's my score. I doubt whether iam that nerdy.

Google enhances search for Firefox

Google will use the Mozilla Link prefetching feature to make user searches faster. I already see a potential problem here. Think of the cases where your search results include links to *inappropriate* sites which are normally banned from being accessed from corporate environs. Prefetching is no different from you actually clicking the link. So some users could potentially get into issues here. Luckily Google has a way to actually disable this feature as well.
Update : InsideGoogle notes another problem(?). Prefetching pages like this could cause websites to register a site hit even if no one actually visited the website.:)

Kiruba stops blogging

That came as a real shocker. I sincerely hope thats a Pre-April Fool Day's Joke. Kiruba was one of the main inspirations for me in starting my blog two years back. His non-stop blogging and his varied interests made it a great and interesting blog. Here goes wishes for everything that Kiruba does in his life. We'll miss you pal! [ And hope you reincarnate in a different form soon enough!]

Yahoo! 360°

Got a Yahoo! 360° account. This looks more like an Orkut+Blogger+Yahoo Photos+ Yahoo Groups all put together in one big basket. Wonder how long it will be when Flickr also gets integrated into this basket. May be i can use this as a photo blog, if i find the time and inclination to use my Canon to click some pictures which will be fit for public consumption! :)
Ping me if you would love to have a Yahoo! 360° invite. Send me either an e-mail or leave a comment here.

Greatest Innovation of the Past 15 Years

Texas Instruments today announced that its digital signal processors (DSP) that helped spawn the wireless communications revolution were named the “Greatest Innovation of the Past 15 Years.” Honored by EDN magazine, TI’s TMS320C55x DSPs were heralded as the most significant design innovation in the last decade and a half, beating out the likes of Intel’s Pentium processor and products from HP, ADI and others.

TI's Press Release

An excellent essay!

Organics and Mechanics - Figuring out how your manager acquires information

Today's Links!

How to be a successful intern programmer

Problems of search personalization

A Google OS by 2010? - More speculation!

Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload - A few really good ideas.

Links!

• ZoomInfo - Search for info on people!


• Is Public opinion tide turning against Google?


• The 18th International Obfuscated C Code Contest started on 21st March.


• Metafor: English as a Programming Language


• How does the 'Google 20% time' work? (*Must Read*)

Today's Links!

Q&A with Subramanian Ramadorai, chief executive of Tata Consultancy Services
Eric Sink chimes in on the new Microsoft Team System pricing
Mark Fletcher on the lessons learned building Bloglines
Queryster - One more GoogleX look-alike search interface
The PC Era is just beginning - Bill Gates

Today's Links!

• Windows are not cheap objects


• An interview with Alan Kay. Alan Kay is the creator of SmallTalk and an Alan Turing Award winner


• Google Hyderabad


• Do Ads still work?


• SuperKaramba - Themes for KDE

Mallu Rock Band!

Avial - A mallu rock band. I love the music as well as the Video. (via Ashwin)

Help a deserving student

Raj has posted an appeal from Propoor on his blog to help a deserving student from Chennai. Please read through it and help the deserving boy.

Omea Reader

Finally found a RSS aggregator, that i seem to like. Omea Reader is the lite-version of the Omea Pro which is an all-in-one software. According to the site

Omea pro is a powerful universal client for aggregating and organizing all kinds of information: emails, files, web links, RSS feeds, newsgroups, tasks, contacts, and even custom resource types that you define.

Omea pro costs around 49$, but the good news is that Omea Reader is free(for now). What i liked more is that i can now read usenet newsgroups and RSS feeds in a single tool. And even though the UI looks complex, i somehow felt nice in using it. One thing is sorely miss in this tool, is a way to sync my RSS feeds with Bloglines. That would have been the killer feature for me.

Firefox crashes'

Last two days, and four times Firefox(on Windows XP) has crashed! And iam also unable to report the problem using the Mozilla feedback agent. The feedback agent tries multiple times but fails to send the report. As i normally have multiple tabs open during each crash, iam unable to pinpoint whether the crashes are site-specific or whether iam seeing a general stability issue. Side Note : By any chance, Is "Stable software" an oxymoron?

Cool Photos of Pixar!

A trip to Pixar. Scroll down the page to see the pictures. Really fascinating

Google Personalized!

Google Personalized! You can even set the amount of personalization to be included along with the normal search results. Cool stuff! As Jeremy pointed out a few days back, what seems to be missing is a login functionality. Is Google expecting us to save preferences in every machine that we use?

Today's Links!

• Why Venture Capitalists are the way they are!


• Windows XP Embedded team starts blogging


• How to destroy the earth! Doesn't look an easy thing to do after reading this!


• An article on Donald Knuth (audio)(via Larry)

MSN Desktop Search vs GDS!

Why Google Desktop Still Falls Short of MSN Desktop Search - I tend to agree completely. I have tried both tools for a considerable amount of time. What i have felt is that Google Desktop Search loses out on the relevancy aspect of the search results.

Today's Links!

• The long tail of software


• Firefox Tweak Guide


• Wikipedia has an entry for Madras Bashai (via Sowmya)

Quote!

I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image. - Stephen Hawking

iPod Shuffle look-alike!

LuxPro has come up with a iPod Shuffle look-alike mp3 player, with FM Tuner and voice recorder. It should be interesting to see how Apple tackles this!

Amazing statistics!

Iam amazed reading the recent recruitment figures of the Indian IT companies! A few snippets..

Infosys Technologies has been hiring about 50 people a working day for the last nine months
Wipro adds three employees to its staff every working hour
Satyam will see an addition of 30,000 to the present 20,000 in the next few years
TCS’S headcount stands at 43,681 people with over 6,200 added in last two quarters.

Read the full article here

FYI : Amazed because, after starting operations more than 15 20 years ago, we(TI India) are still at a total employee strength of around 1300. That number is approximately what Infosys or Wipro adds in a month. :)

Bloglines!!

What the heck happened to Bloglines today? Its been down all day long, and i dont even have the backup OPML file. Looks like i should start using a desktop RSS aggregator as well. Any suggestions for a simple and free RSS client?

End of an era!

Kasparov retires! And what a nice way to retire!

Link-o-mania

• OSS Software, Deaf Developers & Unsatisfied Users - Interesting read!


• Firefox Is Heading Towards Trouble - eWeek


• Advagato's number - Advice for young free software developers (via Sudhir)


• Best hacking tools and tutorials

MSN Sandbox

MSN Sandbox. This is where MSN puts up its tech previews. Much like Google Labs.

Today's links!

• Why blogging is good for your career?


• Paul Graham on How to start a startup


• Colorization Using Optimization - Excellent (via Chris DiBona)


• Linux Kernel Programming by Examples

Reading wishlist!

My updated reading wish list

Today's links!

• Why Google isn't what it used to be


• The Ten worst engineering pitfalls


• Sony's new range of flash-based MP3 players - Looks interesting, but doesn't have the simplistic look of an ipod!


• Journey of mankind. An amazing animation. (via Chandrachoodan)


• Parsing Techniques.- A Practical Guide (online book)


• Fast Company carries this article on Georgia becoming the outpost of many Indian technology companies.

That's strange!

Boeing's CEO ousted for having an extra-marital affair! I couldn't figure out why the CEO's personal affair could be such a big problem for Boeing's board!

:-(

You know you have been wandering too much on the web, when you read a newspaper headline "RSS conference from March 11" and think, "Oh, Great! They have a RSS conference in India! ", only to realise a bit later that RSS here means the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and not the RSS protocol for syndication

GNOME memory bloat reduction!

In case you have some spare time to donate, you can help GNOME reduce its memory bloat! And in recognition for this donation you can also pick some handful bounties. Link to the MemoryReduction wiki. As quoted at the site,

The plan is to reduce the amount of memory that Gnome applications consume. Gnome is barely usable on a machine with 128 MB of RAM; contrast this with Windows XP, which is very snappy on such a configuration.

Some quick links!

• Kernel Locking Techniques - Robert Love


• How to get ahead in the software development business


• Larry Osterman is running a multi-part blog post on Concurrency. Very interesting read! He has already in the 11th part, and here is link to part 1


• Google wants your brain :-)

Sick!

Down with fever and extreme cold. And the Bangalore climate isn't helping either! Looks like its much hotter now here than in Chennai or Trivandrum!

Peeking into Google

Another look into the Google Internals.

Today's Catch!

• Interesting recruitment posters


• Al Zimmermann's programming contests


• Code as Design: Three Essays by Jack W. Reeves (pdf)(via /.)


• opensource.adobe.com


• Jeff Atwood On interviewing programmers


• Some quotes by Feynman and Einstein

Amazon has a development center in India and they have an interesting blog on blogspot too.

Currently Reading

Update: Even though the novel was fast-paced, and the author had done his research well, the climax seems straight out of a bollywood flick. Other than the climax, a readable novel.

Google Code Jam results are out!

The Google India Code Jam 2005 Qualification round results are out. The qualifiers are being individually intimated of the result. Here is some info of what i understood of the selection process. A total of ~2500 people participated in the Qualification round. The qualification round was conducted in 20 online 'rooms', with 10 sets of questions. So two rooms shared a question set. The top 50 scorers in each set made it past the qualification round. That gives them 10*50 = 500 qualifiers for the next round. However due to internet connectivity issues a good number of people couldn't properly attend the test on Sunday. For these people, a makeup test is being conducted today evening starting at 6pm IST. So the final number of people for the next round may be slightly above 500. One interesting comment made by one of the contest admins was that they had to disqualify about 300 people who they suspect have been involved in cheating! Thats a pretty good percentage of the total number!

An interesting quote!

The next important moment in my life was in 1955 when I decided to become a programmer; I took that decision because I had concluded that of theoretic physics and programming, programming embodied the greatest intellectual challenge - Edsger W. Dijkstra

Early morning catch!

A blog that posts free fonts that don't suck
Another article about the Google founders.
Michael Brundage on "Working at Microsoft". A nice and interesting read.

Killing Google's Autolink

After listening to days and days of ranting from bloggers about Autolink, someone has come up with a script that webmasters can insert in their webpages, which effectively kills Autolink.

Fake NASA Exam claim!

This story of Saurabh Singh proves how the press is ready to just jump over any sensational story without really verifying the authenticity of the events. Coverage also by BoingBoing. Also try Google search on nasa exam for the press reports which reported the lad's success(!) in the exam.

Today's catch

• What Google is and What it is not?* - A good article by Michael Cusumano. Michael is a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management
  (* subscription required)


• Chris Justus has done an elaborate analysis on how Google suggest works. A bit older blog post, but i just found it.


• Most Software Stinks! - Added to my ToRead list!

Just a passing thought!

Doesn't it make sense to have fingerprint identification for voting, instead of the voter id cards we are given? This should also prevent bogus voting to a considerable extent. Agreed that it will not prevent people from capturing entire polling booths and then mass voting for the candidate of their choice, but it will atleast make sure misrepresenting identity during voting would not happen.

Today's Catch!

• Writing bug-free C Code - Online book


• Metaclasses and Reflection in C++


• The C++ source - A C++ blog

Test post!

Test post using w.bloggar

• Linux 2.6.8.1 CPU Scheduler Documentation (pdf)
  
• I wish i could do this to the telemarketeers calling and bugging me while at work.
  

ICFP 2005 Programming Contest

Check out their webpage

This year's competition rewards programmers who can plan ahead. As before, we'll announce a problem and give you three days to solve it. Two weeks later, we'll announce a change to the problem specification and give you one day to adapt your program to the new spec. And you guessed it: the second half will be worth considerably more than the first.

That is an interesting competition idea!

This is broken!

I got this prompt when i plugged in my Sandisk USB drive into my Windows machine!



Look at the third entry in the list of options i have!

RMS Blog

RMS had a blog at https://www.fsf.org/rms-blog. It seems to have been moved somewhere in either the FSF site or in the GNU site. Google, MSN and Yahoo all point me to the old location. Th FSF blogs page too does not list it. Does anyone know where it has been moved?

Update : Found it at http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms

Some random links

• Kottke has some explanations on why we call toilets as 'loo'
• In case you need some royalty-free music, you can go here. Pricing is on the higher side, though.
• A novel design for a light bulb. Mahendra Chauhan and Sanjay Rajput propose a novel way to double the life of the common lightbulb
• Top 55 blog directories

Salem Kitchen

Found a new Tamil restaurant "Salem Kitchen" in Indira Nagar. Its actually a house-turned-restaurant. Loved the Dosa and the accompanying chutneys/sambar. Better than anything i have had in Bangalore so far. As we reached there a bit late, the non-veg items were over, and so couldn't lay our hands on those. Certainly worth another visit.
Route: From the CMH Road-100ft Rd intersection, proceed on 100 ft Rd towards Airport Road. On the first signal on 100ft Rd, take a right. Once on that road,take the first right lane. Keep going on that bylane till you see "Salem Kitchen" on the left.

Looking for some VB.NET fun?

In case you dabble in VB.NET, Eric Lippert has a set of interesting questions for you. And if you manage to answer the questions with full explanations, you can even win a free autographed copy of his book "The VB.NET Code Security Handbook"

How does Google Maps Work?

A very nice analysis of how Google Maps work.

Google India Code Jam 2005

Google has announced Google India Code Jam 2005. The competition will be in C++ and Java. The Qualification round will be held on Feb 27th, 2005. As the website explains,

Google is looking for engineers with the programming skill to rewrite the world's information infrastructure. The Google India Code Jam 2005 is one way we hope to find them. While we don't impose arbitrary deadlines on our engineers, we do put a premium on well-implemented code.

Also,

Google is using the results of the GICJ05 to identify possible employees for Google's Research & Development Center in Bangalore, India

This should be the first time a company in India is resorting to a coding competition to identify potential candidates for employment.

Blogmap

Chandu Thota has a nice blogmap utility. You can register your blog at his site, and you can then view your blog's geographical location on a map. A nice way to browse blogs quickly. Here's my blog map. (Warning : Works only on IE)

Ukraine has a new prime minister. Should be one of the best looking prime ministers in the world today. :)

Bookpool has an excerpt from the upcoming Vol 4 of The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth. (Available in pdf)

I had applied for the BSNL broadband sometime in December' 04. I haven't been contacted by BSNL since. Does anyone know of someone in Bangalore having already got the broadband connection, or atleast been contacted by BSNL.

Just completed reading The Davinci Code by Dan Brown. An excellent and well reasearched novel, and the author has managed to retain the suspense till almost the very end.

Taiwan has rejected the theory that Subhash Chandra Bose died in a plane crash in the country on 18th August 1945, saying that there was no plane crash at Taipei between 14 August and 20 September 1945. Will the Bose mystery ever get solved?

History of Computer Languages - From 1954 to 2005.

Check out Telecom Italia's ad featuring Mahatma Gandhi. :)

Stumbled upon Learning Curves - A blog by someone teaching and doing math. Interesting!

20040098536. This number has a significance for me. Lets see if anyone can guess it correctly!

Tim Oren writes about New Model Software Startups: Two Stage Ventures

Iam off to Chennai for a couple of days, and then to Trichi for another coupe of days. This will be my first visit to Trichi, so looking forward to it. I will be driving down to Chennai, but on a different route this time. Everyone seems to be discouraging me from going the Chitoor route, because of the violence in Andhra. So am planning to go via Hosur, even though its going to be a crowded route, because of all those overloaded trucks going at their own slow and steady pace. So mostly no blogging till Tuesday, unless i get some time with a internet-enabled PC.

Well, So Much for *That* Drive: The Story of Hard Drive Failure and Data Recovery

Folklore.org - Stories about the development of Apple's original Macintosh computer, and the people who created it.

An inspiring essay by Azim Premji. Iam not sure whether this was given as a talk, or written as an article. But i surely found it inspiring.

--------
These are changing times. Yet in the middle of all the changes there is one thing that constantly determines success. Some call it leadership. But to my mind, it is the single-minded pursuit of excellence.

Excellence endures and sustains. It goes beyond motivation into the realms of inspiration. Excellence can be as strong a uniting force as solid vision.

Excellence does not happen in a vacuum. It needs a collective obsession as I have experienced the benefits of excellence in my own life. Excellence is a great starting point for any new organisation but also an unending journey. What is excellence? It is about going a little beyond what we expect from ourselves. Part of the need for excellence is imposed on us externally by our customers. Our competition keeps us on our toes, especially when it is global in nature.

But the other driver of excellence is internal. I have found that excellence is not so much a battle you fight with others, but a battle you fight with yourself, by constantly raising the bar and stretching yourself and your team. This is the best and the most satisfying and challenging part about excellence.

*How does one create excellence in an organisation?*

*First*, we create an obsession with excellence. We must dream of it not only because it delivers better results but because we truly believe in it and find it intrinsically satisfying to us. We must think of excellence not only with our mind but also with our heart and soul. Let us look outside, at the global standards of excellence in quality, cost and delivery and let us not rest till we surpass them.

*Second*, we need to build a collective self-confidence. Organisations and people who pursue excellence are self-confident. This is because excellence requires tremendous faith in one's ability to do more and in a better way. Unless, we believe we can do better, we cannot.

*Third*, we must understand the difference between perfection for its own sake and excellence. Time is of essence. Globalisation has made the customer only more impatient. This may seem like a paradox: should we aim for excellence or should we aim for speed?
Excellence is about doing the best we can and speed lies in doing it quickly. These two concepts are not opposed to each other; in fact, speed and timeliness are important elements of quality and excellence.

*Fourth*, we must realise that we cannot be the best in everything we do. We must define what we are or would like to be best at and what someone else can do better. Excellence is no longer about being the best in India. It is about being the best in the world. We have to define what our own core competencies are and what we can outsource to other leaders. Headaches shared are headaches divided.

*Fifth*, we must create processes that enable excellence. Today, there are a number of global methods and processes available whether it is Six Sigma, CMM or ISO. Use them because they are based on distilled wisdom collected from the best companies in the world. Also, we must build a strong foundation of information technology, because in this complex, dynamic world, it is imperative that we use the most modern tools to keep processes updated.

*Sixth*, we must create a culture of teaming. I have found that while great individuals are important, one cannot have pockets of excellence. Quality gives ample opportunities to build a culture of teaming. Cross-functional teams that are customer facing can cut through an amazing amount of bureaucracy, personal empire building and silos and deliver savings that one would not have imagined possible. The other advantage of building teams focussed on quality is that the teaming culture eventually spreads to the rest of the organisation and teaming becomes a way of life.

*Seventh*, invest in excellence for the future. Future always seems to be at a distance. But it comes upon you so suddenly that it catches you by surprise, if not shock. What constitutes excellence in the future will be significantly different from what it is today. In these days of severe market pressures, there is big temptation to sacrifice the future to look good in the present. We must certainly trim our discretionary expenses, but we must ensure that our investments in strategic areas that lead to excellence in the future are protected.

*Finally*, excellence requires humility. This is especially needed when we feel we have reached the peak of excellence and there is nothing further we can do. We need an open mind to look at things in a different way and allow new inputs to come in. Otherwise, there is a real danger of becoming complacent or even downright arrogant. I would like to end my talk with a story that
illustrates this very well.

A brilliant young professor went to meet a famous Zen master to have a discussion with him on Zen. He found himself in front of a modest house. He rang the doorbell and waited. A while later, he heard shuffling footsteps and the door was opened by the Zen master. He invited the professor to sit with him on the dining table. The professor was a little disappointed with the shabby appearance of the Zen master. He started quizzing him immediately on comparative
philosophies and the Zen master gave some brief answers.
When the professor began to debate with him on those answers, the Zen master stopped speaking and kept smiling at him. Finally, the professor got angry. He said, "I have come from a long distance just to understand the relevance of Zenism. But apparently you have nothing to say. I have not learnt anything from you at all."

At this point, the Zen master asked the professor to have some tea. When the professor held the cup, the Zen master started pouring tea into it. After some time, the tea started spilling and the professor shouted, "Stop! The cup can contain no more."

The Zen Master stopped and then, once again smiling, he said, "A mind, full of itself can receive nothing. How can I speak to you of Zenism until you empty your mind to learn." The professor understood and apologized to the Zen master. He parted from him, the Zen master -- a wiser man.
----------

MoonEdit - A multi-platform collaborative text editor :)

Tried out MSN Web Messenger. This is excellent. You get to use the entire interface as you see using the MSN messenger executable on PC. Its fast. And what i liked the most, is that you dont seem to need a hotmail account to login and use MSN messenger. I created a passport account using my gmail account, and iam able to use msn messenger. That, was a pleasent surprise for me.

Circuit city is planning to introduce wireless headsets which can act as sales reps at its stores. An innovative idea indeed. As the article explains
"When the customer stops in a certain area, the headset can explain items, present audio from a TV demonstration and potentially even connect the customer live with a centralized sales assistant. In theory, that sales assistant might be 2,000 miles away—assuming no one in that store is available."

Did anyone notice this fineprint on Apple's iPod Shuffle webpage?

1. Music capacity is based on 4 minutes per song and 128Kbps AAC encoding.
2. Do not eat iPod shuffle.
3. Rechargeable batteries have a limited number of charge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced. Battery life and number of charge cycles vary by use and settings. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information.
4. Some computers require either the optional iPod shuffle Dock or a USB cable extender (sold separately).

Note point 2. :)

I use Firefox almost 95% of the time (the other 5% for those crazy sites which seem to work only on IE. This includes a few of our intranet webpages). And i find the following extensions simply hard to live without.

Livelines - This helps me add a RSS feed directly into Bloglines
BlogThis - This is to post a blog entry in Blogger
IEView - View the current page in IE (for those 5% sites i was talking about)

Do you have any such 'hard to live without' Firefox extensions?

Linux for Embedded Systems?. This is an interesting article by David N. Kleidermacher. His views: Linux is a desktop OS, and so using it for embedded systems carried its own risks.
And the disclaimer : David works for Green Hills Software, which makes Integrity, an Embedded OS which is in direct competition with Linux for the Embedded market. But the article is a very good read, even though its a bit old.