Can Saurav Be The Biggest Scorer At WC 2007

Results of a recent Sakaal Blog poll suggest that Saurav Ganguly [neither Sachin or Dhoni] will be the biggest run-getter for WC 2007.



Do you REALLY agree with this?

Great Tips For Managers

Here is a great post on managerial tips, from Business Intelligence Lowdown blog.

Just a curiosity - Which 3 tips you find most important?

1. What goes around comes around [Treat your employees, peers and superiors with respect, from the lowest janitor to the CEO of the company]

2. Basic humaneness pays

3. Know your employees

4. Bring out their hidden potentialon

6. Equality among all

7. Don't be a Jack-of-all-trades

8. Match the right job to the right person

9. Delineate responsibility

10. Trust your employees

11. Pay them well

12. Reward exceptional performances

13. Praise in public, punish in private

14. Loudness does not help

15. Personalization is the key

16. Lend a ear

17. Make them feel they count

18. Family matters

19. Constructive criticism works

20. Be a mentor

21. Don't hold too tight

22. Flattery will get you nowhere

23. Ask and you will receive

24. Mistakes happen

25. Give credit where it's due

26. Group dynamics

27. Feedback matters

28. Share misfortune

29. It's a diverse world

30. Show interest

31. Allow them to complain

32. Different people, different styles

33. No technology needed

34. Equal work, equal pay

35. Judge not

36. No tattletales wanted

37. Time flies

38. Disseminate information

39. Keep your distance

40. No "I" only "We"

Work out work and vacation issues…

41. Do not overburden them with work

42. Vacations are personal

43. Keep the office at the office

44. Avoid last-minute tasks

If you are male…

45. No adult humor

46. Accord respect

47. Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus:

If you are female…

48. No false pretenses

49. Clothes maketh the (wo)man

There's always room for personal improvement…

50. Be the best

51. Manage your time

52. Ethics matter

53. Be proactive, not reactive

54. Admit your mistakes

55. Rudeness does not pay

56. Neither does arrogance

57. Waste not, want not

58. Humor works

59. Focus, focus, focus

60. Avoid the office grapevine

61. Be one of the gang

62. Take love out of the air

63. Watch what you do

64. Don't suck up

65. Practice what you preach

66. Look and learn

67. Stand firm on your beliefs

68. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again

69. Stay firm on terra firma

70. Be approachable

71. Forgive and forget

72. Wisdom pays

73. Be there

Youtube Video - Japanese Prank & Some Behavioural Science

Are Japanese the greatest pranksters? Watch out the social behaviour aspects of the prank. The prank forces a single person to follow a mob blindly, without resorting to rational judgement. Great prank.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KXviPd0fRA]

What's Special About This Number?

0 is the additive identity.
1 is the multiplicative identity.
2 is the only even prime.
3 is the number of spatial dimensions we live in.
4 is the smallest number of colors sufficient to color all planar maps.
5 is the number of Platonic solids.

read more | digg story

Do The Self-help Books Really Help?

I remember reading a book titled 'Power of Thinking Big' by Anthony Robins (or someone with a similar name). It explained in a very lucid manner that anybody could really become anybody only if he dared to think big. There were stories, similies and examples - a lot of them. I was impressed by the book to the point of euphoria. I was feeling that I am the next Lincoln (or Nepolian!). But in 2 days life was as usual for me. I then came across a number of such books; I read them with a lot of hope, and each time I was at my optimistic high regarding my future. I would think that 'Yeah! Look at this. This was the thing I needed to change my future.'

But in vain.



Now the question is - 'Does this genre of 'Self-Help books really matter? Do these books really help us in anyway to improve ourselves and our lives?'

What do you think?

A Battle Over the Costs of Global Warming

A British economist calls for urgent, sweeping action. Some Americans call him alarmist. Who is right? Read this intellectually refreshing debate over Climate Change from NY Times.

read more | digg story

Disaster Of Tire-Reef & Lessons to Learn

Solutions in case of social & environmental problems are often too simplistic - no matter, how deliberately they are planned. When policy-makers start with a wrong solution, they do the deliberations for a wrong solution. And the 'deliberately planned wrong' solution fails obviously.

Case in oint is a Tire-reef which was 'planned' near an American beach, and which now is turning out to be an environmental disaster. None of intended benefits accrued & a lot of unintended, unanticipated damages are piling up.

Read this story in USA Today.

"A mile offshore from this city's high-rise condos and spring-break bars lie as many as 2 million old tires, strewn across the ocean floor — a white-walled, steel-belted monument to good intentions gone awry.
The tires were unloaded there in 1972 to create an artificial reef that could attract a rich variety of marine life, and to free up space in clogged landfills. But decades later, the idea has proved a huge ecological blunder."

The lesson for all decision makers, from this blunder, is - If you have found a right solution, still strive for one more, and one more. Now chose the best. (For, life is too complex to anticipate everything.)

IT and Telecom Bring a Transformation in Rural India

Unless the development is inclusive, unless the process of development cuts through all sections & areas of India - the rise of India will not be sustainable. Since the development today is essentially a technology propelled development, it is necessary that the IT-Telecom benefits must spread to rural India. Prof. Jhunjhunwala talks on the rural transformation to my favorite podcaster, Kamla Bhatt. [from PodTech.net]

[podtech content=http://media1.podtech.net/media/2007/01/PID_010065/Podtech_Ashok_KamlaBhatt.mp3&postURL=http://www.podtech.net/indiatech/technology/1321/it-and-telecom-bring-a-transformation-in-rural-india&totalTime=1736000&breadcrumb=3F34K2L1]

Links to Share

Dell Ideastorm - This is a kind of Digg, basically to generate and rate ideas for new Dell products.

Online Brainstorming - A good and interesting site. Submit your Ideas for whole world to brainstorm on it. Brainchild of an Indian entrepreuner - Anand Chhatpar.

Change - This is a site where people share which things in public life, they want to change. The suggested changes are also presented in a cloud of change-ideas. I went for 'Improve Public Schools', and found that 152 people had voted for this change. There are some community blogs on this subject and also opinions of people as why they want this change.

aniBOOM (Youtube for animations) - Need I say more? This site has filled up a void of social sharing service, exclusively devoted to user generated animations.
Check this one from aniBOOM! This is my favorite.

Why Not Say 'We Messed Up Doodle This Time'?

Google for many days was an epitome of simplicity and user-friendly interfaces. But it seems that Google now wants to teach (!) its consumers!

If people don't understand your design, accept your mistake. Don't expect that the user should have poetic sense. Consumer like me would say - 'Go to Hell'

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It seems that nobody in the world has any 'poetry in their soul', because Mr. Dennis Hwang, we really didn't 'see the subtlety' neither 'immediately' nor after reading your...should we say defence?

Political Party Workers Sentenced to Death For Burning a 3 Girls Alive

"Three AIADMK workers found guilty of burning three young students seven years ago in Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu, on Friday were sentenced to death by a court.
A court in Salem on Thursday had found the three - Neduthezhian , Madhu and Muniappan - and 25 other party workers guilty of burning a bus carrying Tamil Nadu Agricultural University students in 2000. The AIADMK workers were protesting the conviction of their leader Jayalalithaa in the Kodaikanal Pleasant Stay Hotel case.
The court wants this to be a message to the state that political riots, where innocent civilians become victims of political sycophancy, will be dealt with harshly."

Read more on CNN-IBN

digg story

'World' From New York Times Perspective

What Happened To Google Reader?

Ideas for 2007 from Harvard

Harvard Business Review has published a list of ideas for 2007. The intro to the list goes like this -

"...how nanotechnology will affect commerce, what role hope plays in leadership, and why, in an age that practically enshrines accountability, we need to beware of “accountabalism.”

The complete list of Ideas is worth reading in original. Read it here.

Indian Economy Is Overheated? Nah...

If high current account deficit is a sign of 'overheating', would you label USA an overheated economy? Or China, a depressed economy for having current account surplus? In fact Indian economy does not show any signs of overheating which the East Asian economies showed before losing steam.

Read about it on Hindustan Times' Live Mint & on IndianEconomy.org

The Mobile Internet's Future Is East

It has been now a well-accepted fact that mobile handsets, the ubiquitous cellphones, will be the future of all media. Integrating these devices, having a 3G / 4G technology, with day-to-day lives of people, through the high capacity, high speed wireless networks will be the key to unhindered flow of information. In this regard, South Korea and Japan are rolling out high-speed wireless networks that provide Internet access for an array of gadgets. Businessweek Online has published a story about surge of Far East ahead of western countries in the arena of wireless mobile communications. read more

What is 3G technology?

1-3-1 Haiku

Birth
Hunger, fear, sleep
Death

Death

No end, there's no beginning
My train is at halt on earth,
Next station?...? Enjoy!

Promise

To be kept or not?
Give them as many, forget your doubts,
Is promise not promising enough?

Morning

From the warmth of foetus,
Red yellow light & a fresh soul,
Leap into life daily

5-7-5 Or 3-5-3?

Why five, seven and five
if you just allow me to rule-break
Will tell how I feel

Frustrating Battle With Online Child Porn

This is one story everybody must read & take seriously -

With all the intellectual firepower at society's disposal, why do the good guys forever seem to be playing catch-up to the sleazebags? Why can't they turn the tide? So it's understandable that when it comes to children and pornography, the frustration with the status quo is boiling over...

read more | digg story

Power Of Early Morning Routine of CEO's

There are several benefits of waking up early in the morning besides the feeling that you are up and kicking ahead of other motals. Most importantly, it gives you a detachment from daily routine. After a certain time, one gets so immersed in his/her office schedule, family matters and such things that he/she hardly gets time to realise that there is a world beyond all these. Further, you also get time to prepare yourself, mentally and physically, for tasks which are thrown at you by the day.

On Yahoo! Finance, there is a an article by Jim Citrin which corroborates above point. In his article, Tapping the Power of Your Morning Routine, Jim tells us about how an early morning routine is helping CEO's world over. Main point he makes through his study of 20 CEO's and top executives, is that you really become an early bird to reap benefits of the day, by getting up early.

Here is the routine of top CEO's:

1. Start early.


2. Get a jump on email.


3. Exercise every morning.


4. Be thoughtful about the source, form, and timing of your news.


5. Problem-solve. (Because your mind is clean in the morning)


6. Make family time.


7. Be creative with your morning routine.

Here is a great post by Dave Cheong on 'Waking Up Early & Consistantly'. The best tips in this post can be summarised in following points -

• Have a reason/motivation to wake up early


• 'Another 10 Minutes' is a trap. Don't fall for it


• Get up early even at the weekends

Some Quotes For Health

Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a common man & Dine like a beggar.

Think in the morning, act in the afternoon, read in evening & sleep in night.

He who gets early in the mornong gets Knowledge, Health & Wealth (From a Marathi saying - 'Lavkar Nije, Lavkar Uthe, Taya Arogya-Dnyan-Sampatti Labhe')

Healthy Day Routine

I started in my job in a big media house some 6 month ago. From then on, my health & fitness is totally messed up.

1. I sleep late in night.

2. I drink 2-3 cups of coffee/tea in whole day. This is worse if you consider the fact that I never touched these drinks before.

4. I sit whole day infront of computer hitting keys and moving mouse all the time staring at monitor with drying eyes. My eayes itch, eyelids droop & there is enough pain in right wrist.

5. I hardly get time during day to have a good lunch.

What a frustrating list of mistakes! I have actually forgotten whatever has been taught to me in childhood by my parents. Now the new plan for my day should be something like this -

• Get early in the morning


• Exercise (I have started a mild stretching workout on....well...yesterday.)


• Do some breathing exercise


• Have heavy breakfast in Morning - which I really love to have


• Drink plenty water during whole day


• Sleep early in light may be at 10:30 pm; currently the sleeping time is 12:00 am at the earliest

Great Photos:Firefox On A Public Transport Bus!

I just came across firefox images painted on a public transport bus in Karnataka, India. The images are great. From the photos, it seems that the front tire of the vehicle got flattened and the driver had to stop to replace it. This is when the photographer Kalyan Verma took the photos. Great!



For more images of the bus, visit here.

Most Useful Firefox Shortcuts

Those who work on a PC/ Mac for whole day understand the pain of working with mouse. Mouse is actually a single piece of machine which at once is cumbersome & indispensible. This dilemma of mouse can however be solved with the help of keyboard shortcuts.

Following are the shortcuts which I use most often in Firefox environment.

1. Ctrl+Enter: This is for the URL's which are like http://www.some name.com. This shortcut directly puts the bold part of URL. e.g. for http://www.wordpress.com, just type wordpress in address bar & hit Ctrl+Enter

2. Shift+Enter: Works in same fashion as above for URL's containing .net

3. Ctrl+Shift+Enter: Works in same fashion as above for URL's containing .org

4. Ctrl+T: This opens a new tab besides current tab

5. Ctrl+Tab: This helps in navigating between the tabs. Working with Tabs is made better if you download the Tab Mix Plus extension. You can download this extension here.

6. Ctrl+L: Take the control to Address box.

7. Ctrl+K: Take the control to Firefox search box.

8. Ctrl+W: Closes the current tab.

9. Backspace: To move to previous page.

10. Shift+Backspace: To move to next page.

Deevelopmental Refugees-Displacements in Development

What is the value of life? What is the value of a barren piece of land, which a farmer cherishes more than his heart? Is value of need of 10 persons more than 1 person? These were only some of questions which popped up again and again in my mind when I read about current conflicts between economic development and livelihood.

On one side, governments go on talking endlessly about justice (any saner person hardly believes in that talk, though) and on other policies like Special Economic Zones and IT parks are driving hundreds of poor families out of their homes. The euphoria for economic growth has been creating newer conflict points between authorities/ corporates and numerous local communities. Big dams, big industrial projects, SEZ and IT parks are a few of such points at which the authorities backed by business class is in clash with the inhabitants of the land.

The need of hour is to form a clear strategy of development and to decide what is & what is not accepatable, no matter what may, in the process of development.