According to Merriam Webster 2004 was the year of the "blog". Here is the official meaning of the word "blog":
Blog noun [short for Weblog] (1999) : a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.
Curiously the 10th most looked up word on MW was "defenestration" which means "a throwing of a person or thing out of a window"
Everybody is shocked by the natural calamity that has stuck our and our neighboring nations. The magnitude of this disaster can be gauged by the fact that the largest relief effort in the history of mankind will need to be undertaken now. We all (and especially the NRIs) can do our bit by donating to the Prime Minister's relief fund. You can do a wire transfer from outside of India as well. More details are available here.
Please donate generously.
UPDATE: Prashant Mullick
points out on his blog that you can donate online via credit card to AID as well. More here.
(via Scoble) Here is a fascinating geek story of two guys at Apple who kept working on a project even after the project got cancelled and even after they were fired. I have had my share (more than my share perhaps) of cancelled projects at Microsoft so I know how it feels when what you had been working on for months or even years gets cancelled. But a couple of years in the industry made me realize cancelled projects are part and parcel of every developers life. And perhaps there are more lessons to be learnt from a cancelled project than from a project that shipped on time.
Marc Canter did a 40 things entry on his blog to round up 2004. I shamelessly picked up 30 of his questions (hope you dont mind Marc!). Here are my answers:
1. What did you do in 2004 that youâd never done before?
- I moved my lazy ass off a comfort zone and came back to India
2. Did you keep your New Yearsâ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Yes. For the first time ever I had made a new year's resolution. My resolution was to stop cribbing about things. If I can do something about things I dont like, I will do it, else I will shut up. I think I did that to a certain extent this year.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
- Yes my cousin Amit and bhabhi Sonali had a daughter. She is a sweety!
4. What countries did you visit?
- America, Canada, Hong Kong, India
5. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004?
- Corvette? heh, I will settle for more home cooked food.
6. What dates from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory?
- November 28th - I moved back to India. That was surely a life changing event (hopefully for the better!)
7. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
- I learned to take risks.
8. What was the best thing you bought?
- My used Honda City automatic. As a kid I dreamed of owning that car and today even though its not even half of my last car, in a way its a dream come true.
9. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
- Indian cricket team's perfromance in Pakistan! Whatta series!
10. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
- Indian cricket team's performance after the Pakistan series!
- Complete lack of civic sense amongst us Indians.
11. Where did most of your money go?
- Eating out and buying protein shakes. I think I had at least 300 meals outside in 2004!
12. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
- I.N.D.I.A!
13. What song/album will always remind you of 2004?
- Boom Boom (Adnan Sami's tamil song). A lot of my friends (including myself) in Redmond loved that song.
14. Compared to this time last year, are you:
happier or sadder? happier
thinner or fatter? thinner
richer or poorer? hmm definitely not making as much as last year but richer in hope
15. What do you wish youâd done more of?
- Work out
16. What do you wish youâd done less of?
- Procastinate
17. What was your favourite TV program?
- South Park (just like last year and the year before that!)
18. What was the best book(s) you read?
- "Essential Gandhi" and "Alchemist". Both books (especially Gandhi) had a profound effect on me.
19. What was your greatest musical discovery?
- I discovered I can never learn to play a musical instrument ;-)
20. What did you want and get?
- Friends, lots of them!
21. What did you want and not get?
- To understand my calling in life
22. What were your favourite films of this year?
- Spiderman 2 ... can't think of anything from Bollywood!!!
23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
- I turned 25, friends showed up at midnight, flew to SFO
24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
- hmm a million dollars?
25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?
- Lets see, my personal fashion concept was to put jeans in one pile, tshirts in another pile, close my eyes and pick one item from each pile. Worked pretty well for me.
26. What kept you sane?
- Working out in the gym
27. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
- Amrita Rao
28. What political issue stirred you the most?
- Iraq war and Bush's re-election
29. Who did you miss?
- Everybody back in India and now everybody back in Redmond!
30. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004.
- Patience is everything.
Will be attending the Pan IIT meet tomorrow and day after. Will report on it next week. Merry xmas to everybody!
Nitin made an interesting comment to one of my posts. Quoting him:
"We IT professionals come in the top 5% of the country rich population we can at least make sure we sponsor at least one poor student complete his studies, second vote for the best available politician. Third let other people know this in the discussions we have and may be it will start a chain of events and slowly things will start to change."
That's an interesting thought. Think how fast some chain mails spread. Like the one about Bill Gates giving free money to anybody who forwarded that email or the one about free nokia phones. Now if we could start a chain mail with a link to donate online to a worthy charity (say CRY) and asking people to forward the email to their friends and colleagues. Of course emails which promise free stuff spread much much faster than emails which ask for money :) So not sure if it will work or not. But even if it convinces just 10 people to donate, it would have served its purpose.
Rajesh Jain demands that Avnish Bajaj must be released immediately. I second that opinion. It is insane that the whole world is revolving around one stupid mms. I fail to understand the reasoning behind his arrest. Should we hold the prime minister responsible for every crime in India since he heads the Executive and is responsible for upholding the law in the country? Should the dean of IIT KGP also be arrested since the mms was circulating on IIT lan?
Good job India. Scare the shit out of any foreigner who was planning to do business with us and any NRI who was planning to return back. Thanks a lot.
(sob alert! This is a long post and kind of serious in nature. Read at your own risk!)
I watched Swades last night. From the trailers it was obvious that the movie was about an NRI who comes back to India. So naturally I was eagerly awaiting this movie. I was curious to see how much I could connect with the movie.
The story is about Mohan Bhargava(Shahrukh Khan), an Indian working in NASA. After being in US for several years, he starts feeling guilty for having neglected to take care of his âdaayiâ back in India. So he decides to visit her and bring her back with him. However his trip to India proves to be life changing. He is disgusted by evils plaguing our society (casteism etc) and also moved by the plight of the villagers in India. He helps the village by constructing a dam to generate electricity. There is a love angle too (can a Bollywood movie be complete without a love angle?). The love interest along with his new found love for des make him come back for good.
The movie is certainly worth a watch. However, it is too long and the story moves painfully slowly in the first half. Director Ashutosh Gowarikar has ridden the script with stereotypes and excessive lecture-baazi. We all know that the caste system is evil and has no place in the society. So it is ho-hum to hear SK go on and on on this issue. The treatment of some of the issues that plague rural India is a little naive. For example, it is too simplistic to believe that a village deeply entrenched in caste system would accept change just because an NRI cajoled them into it.
The movie is based on a true story. Surprisingly this fact is not acknowledged in the movie. You can read more about the real heroes here.
As an R2Ier, I was able to connect with some of the emotions that Shahrukh goes through in India. The abject poverty that is so rampant in our society makes a very deep impact especially when you witness it after a long time. Seeing a little child work all day to earn a meager amount can drive you to despair. There are times when I feel shallow for working in the software industry. There are much bigger challenges that our society is facing today. All talk of mobile phones and internet and outsourcing is irrelevant to 99% of our people. We say India is changing (and I have said that many times myself on my blog). But the real India is still the same. What progress have our villages seen in the last 100 years? They didnât have water and electricity then, and they still donât have it. There was no healthcare available then and so is it now. The so called âuntouchablesâ are still outcastes. Where else in this world do we have such disparities in a single nation? Sure, there are homeless and lesser privileged in the US too. But just once witness the condition of the poor in India and I challenge you that you will be moved to tears.
When I was in America, I was far away and detached from this sad reality. Yes I knew there is poverty and suffering in India, but it was not in my face. It was a statistic. But today, each time I stop at a red light, I see the face of a little kid peering into my car begging for a rupee or two. At such moments, I feel shallow and ashamed. All talk of cell phones and internet and wifi is crap. We can talk about affordable computing or bringing broadband to the cities or creating a multi-billion dollar outsourcing industry. But are those the big problems that we should be thinking of? As a country, we want to change the world. What change can we bring about when we havenât even been able to provide water to all our people? We canât assure that our kids can get basic education and we talk about our superior work force. In the movie, Shahrukh makes a great point that we love to claim superiority over the developed world based solely on our heritage and culture. I am sorry but that is no argument. India is not a great country. Not by a mile. Not by a light year. We have a very long way to go.
As a social animal, it is my duty to work for the betterment of my fellow human beings. On the other hand are my desires and aspirations which are more materialistic. How does one reconcile oneâs duties with oneâs desires. Does fulfillment of duty mean being devoid of any desires, or vice versa? Is there no middle path? How does one resolve this conflict? Have you ever felt this within you? What did you do?
Your blog hasn't arrived until you start getting online poker comment spam ;-)
I guess people have stopped falling for the famous Nigerian scam So the scamsters came up with another ingenious scheme - "the black dollar scheme". Apparently, a couple of Nigerian nationals were trying to dupe people in Delhi by making them believe that the black pieces they were carrying with them could be converted to real dollars. Sounds incredulous but people still fell for it. This news item was in ToI today but I can't find it on the online edition. However, an older news item is available here.
From the article:
"The two have allegedly been duping several persons by making them believe that a black paper kept in a tin box can be converted into original dollars by using a chemical. In order to convince the victims that is it possible to make his own money, two original dollar notes, coated with a black substance, are placed above neatly cut black paper in a tin box.
The black paper is finely cut to resemble the size of the dollar. In the presence of the man, who is made to strike a deal with the accused, the two Nigerians wash only the original dollar notes with a chemical. "
My almamater Indian Institute of Technology was ranked 31st amongst world's best universities for science. Of course, I think it should rank higher than that :)
Based on Scoble's post, I speculated yesterday that Microsoft might release a desktop search tool. I was so right!
"Microsoft said it planned to deploy its new tool through a set of different toolbars that could be installed on the Windows desktop, the Internet Explorer browser and within Office Outlook on the e-mail, contacts and scheduling program."
Comparisons with Google's desktop search tool are inevitable. It will be interesting to see who wins this round.
Scoble claims Microsoft is going to announce something really cool tonight.
"Come back on Monday. Remember last Sunday when I said I had seen something that left me speechless? Well, in the videos I filmed (and I filmed more than 1.5 hours worth with nearly the entire team working on the thing that's being shipped into beta on Monday) I am heard saying "that's wicked."
I have no idea what it might be (desktop search?). I can't wait to find out!
Last ten years have been eventful for Delhi. The face of the city has changed and we have seen lot of economic advances. We have better infrastructure than we ever had. More money, more cars, more water, more electricity. But there is one number that has actually come down in the last ten years: Delhi's sex ratio. The ratio of number of females to males in Delhi is only 821 per 1000. That is shockingly less. What's even more worrying is that this gap is widening further. In developed countries, sex ratio is invariably greater than 1000. India averages around 930. But Delhi and surrounding states like UP and Punjab fare especially poorly with the number hovering around early 800s. The shameful reason for this disparity is all too well known. Female infanticide is prevalent even today in our society. And it is not just limited to the illetrate and poor. We might have come a long way in terms of technology, infrastructure, jobs or what have you. But beneath the surface, we are still primitive animals. Shameful.
Oh my God, its official now: techies don't have a life here (or anywhere?). Wipro has launched a matchmaking portal for its single employees. Long work hours are keeping people in the office leaving them no time to mingle. So the HR department decided to help. It is a creative move but also a sad reflection on the state of affairs of the Indian tech. industry.
C'mon Google, you can do better with Orkut! I logged in after months and its still slow and still gives the silly error message. Bad bad server, no donut for you was funny to see once in a while. But its plain annoying now. That this is "beta" software is a poor excuse. Orkut has been out for months now. Is it ever going to be released officially?
According to Rediff, Forbes has announced its maiden list of the top 40 richest people in India in its upcoming issue. Lakshmi Mittal of Ispat tops the list at $11.2 Billion. Interestingly, amongst the top 40, as many as 19 didn't inherit their wealth. 11 amongst the top 40 made their wealth in the tech sector while another 9 struck it rich in pharma. Infosys alone has 6 amongst the top 40!
McDonald has started free home delivery service in Delhi and suburbs. There can't be many places in the world where McDonald does that and it is certainly unthinkable in the US. McDonalds has a completely different profile in India compared to the US. McDonald has positioned itself as a family restaurant in India. And it is not the cheapest eat-out option available. For many, a visit to McDonald is an outing in itself. It is interesting to see how McDonalds has been able to adapt itself to the cultural and economic differences of our society.
Talking about free home delivery, customer service has been redefined in India in the last few years. Indian businesses have finally started harnessing the immense (gargantuan might be the right word!) human resource that we possess. When I had to buy insurance for my car, the agent was happy to come over to my home, that too on a Saturday. The local video rental shop delivers VCDs and DVDs at home within half an hour. The grocery store will home deliver even a single bar of soap! Who said you can't find "material" comforts in India ;-)
While customer service has made big strides in recent times, we still have a long way to go. The biggest issue I have had is that most customer service reps dont keep their word. My cellphone agent promised me that the service would be activated "by evening". It took more than 2 days. The local restaurant promises to deliver food in 10-15 minutes when it actually takes around 45 mins. What is really unfortunate is that when he is promising 10-15 minutes, he really means 45 mins. In India, 15 mins still doesn't mean 15 mins. When will we stop living by Indian Standard Time (which, as the joke goes, is one hour slower than the rest of the world)?
Redmond, the place I called home for the last 3 years, is the number 1 digital city (in the 30,000-75000 population category) in US!! What else could you expect from a city with 30,000 (minus 1) MSFT geeks? :)
Read more here.
MSN has launched the beta of MSN spaces which is essentially a hosted blogging service. Since my name is rather common, I rushed to register my space (http://spaces.msn.com/members/gaurav) The interface is great and I am sure it will be tightly integrated with messenger, and other MSN properties. I would love to switch to using it but I can't. Main reasons being:
1. I want to still use my own domain name (http://www.newdelhitimes.org) but MSN doesnt allow that.
2. I could potentially redirect my domain name to point to my MSN spaces URL. But then I would lose all my old posts. It will be awesome if MSN provides migration tools for people currently using other popular blogging tools like MT or blogger.
3. The statistics are not rich enough. Most hosting services provide much more detailed statistics, things like which search engine and what key words people used to reach your website.
Having said that, MSN spaces is definitely worth a look for anybody thinking of starting their first blog. It takes no time to set it up and the interface will be familiar to anybody who has used hotmail or other msn sites. I am not sure what kind of messenger integration MSN will provide, but it will be awesome if they add a tab to messenger to be able to keep track of your favorite spaces.
Till last week a google search for my name didn't return my blog on the first 2 pages of search results. Then Scoble linked to me. Today for the same search, my blog is the 4th result returned. This is probably because Scoble's blog has a high page rank (7/10). I wonder if page-ranks only go up or can they come down too? The number of pages that link to a certain page rarely comes down (except for maybe transient pages like news websites). So it seems like once you have attained a high page rank, you can rest on your laurels :)
This has to be a first for bollywood. Fox is making a remake of the superhit movie Munnabhai MBBS! Bollywood is infamous for ripping off ideas, music, and even action sequences from Hollywood. So this definitely comes as a pleasant surprise for a die hard bollywood fan like myself! Read more here.
CNET reports that Microsoft Research (MSR) is opening a lab in Bangalore.
"The lab, set to open in January, will initially focus on four areas: multilingual systems, technology for emerging markets, geographical information systems and sensor networks. Over time, however, the direction of the lab's research will be largely determined by the people it recruits."
Microsoft is focusing heavily on emerging markets. It will be interesting to see what they come up with for India. I wasn't too impressed by the XP starter edition.
