Things from, of and about the head on the shoulders.
C|NET has a pretty nice brief history of Indian IT Industry. Makes for a good read. It’s part of their series on India’s IT industry.
They got the Indian boundaries wrong on the map though (J&K is chopped off badly) making the re-publishing of this report with that map anywhere in India a criminal offence. I bet they don’t know that.
Read this hillarious story in The Register based on a revealing report about employees in Indian Call Centre getting ‘rumpy-pumpy’ within their BPO office spaces in The Times of India.
Exquisite. 😀
Taj Chandigarh is the latest to open from the Taj chain of hotels in India. It is also the first 5-Star hotel in Chandigarh. Since I’d been to the Taj in Mumbai (the oldest and most prestigious one which dates back to 1903) a few times, I had been very excited about the whole deal when Taj bought the IDTC property to build their hotel.
They had a soft launch of their Lava Bar and round-the-clock open Cafe-17 on Monday, June 20. Gagan told me this on the morning of 24th. I called them up to verify that afternoon and fixed up the program to visit there that evening.
3 of us went by car while me and another friend went on our bikes. The car went in. Both of us on bikes were stopped at the gate!
Cutting the story short, I had to park my bike about a 50 metres away under a tree in the middle of the ground with no attendant and walk into the hotel. The team members were smiling. Yes, I was pissed off at the whole thing. So I didn’t tip the bartender or the cafe waiter. 😛
Won’t talk about the experience otherwise because it was the classic Taj experience.
On the way out, I decided to write down my complaint but the Guest Relation Manager (actually I’m not sure if this was his title but it was Guest something-something) told me they didn’t have any such thing where I could air my grouse.
Next morning, I called them up and they promptly gave me the GM‘s mobile number on my requesting it. Mr. Anil Malhotra (the GM) seemed surprised at the incident. He apologised to me on the behalf of the hotel and said he’ll look into it and take corrective action. I let him know that I was curious about what he would do so would wait to hear from him.
A couple of hours later Payal Grewal (Dy. Manager) called me up (Aside: A peculiar thing was how she introduced herself: “I’m the Dee-Vai Manager”; pronouncing “Dy” as letters.). She was curious about the incident to. She too apologised and I was slightly more verbose about how I was disappointed, felt insulted, was promoting Taj as the place where bikers shouldn’t think about going, and had decided not to visit there again unless something was done. She apologised profusely and said she’d definitely do something about it.
The apology from these two was enough for me. I thought something on the lines of, “Hey, the GM and Dy. Manager apologised. What else can I expect? I thought right about Taj. They’re cool. I should go there with my parents.”
Anyway, she continued talking about how it would be nice if I met her next time I visited the hotel, and how she was very keen I visited again, and that she would look into the matter personally and get things sorted, etcetra.
I was in a meeting later that afternoon when a nice bouquet of roses and a mint cake was delivered to me from Taj (Payal sent it) with a 5-minute apology from the executive who delivered it. I was damn impressed.
So I called up Payal to thank her. I think she’d done her homework by then. After the niceties, she went into the tailspin about how Taj Chandigarh was the first 5-star hotel in Chandigarh, etc. Basically the tone and content that builds up the platform from where to shoot. The shot was (paraphrased), “We have a severe parking problem and have space for a very limited number of cars. So we’ve had to take the active decision of not allowing 2-wheelers.”
I started laughing. I still smile when I think about it.
I don’t think they realise Chandigarh youth. I don’t think they did their maths either. Many bikes can park in the space occupied by 4 cars. At least then they’d be able to tell people that the parking is full for 2-wheelers instead of turning them away. Stupid people. 😀
Thanks to Ricardo for giving me the inspiration for this post’s title.
There are now, to my knowledge, 4 active blogs from Sylpheed-Claws developers:
Of the two more known to me, Alfons seems to have shut down his blog and looks like Thorsten has a girlfriend again. 😉
A whole lot more SC user blogs are going to come to fore when Planet Sylpheed opens up. They seem to be working on finalising the transfer of the sylpheed.org domain to the project (it was very graciouisly donated to the project and is a very good example akin to firefox.com being donated to Mozilla Foundation).
This also means that the default “Links” category on the side-bar has been replaced by a new “Sylpheed-Claws” category with pertinent links.
After a super job of correcting IMAP, Colin has started work on printing in Sylpheed-Claws. This was perhaps one of the biggest issues in SC and it’s wonderful to see him getting his hands dirty on this. Paul tells me this was the first commit after v1.9.12 (released today) too.
Whoo! 😀
Now only if Thorsten gets the Win32 binary of the GTK2 version out fast… 😉
Seriously.
One article in Businessweek led to a discussion about retaining talent (hey, we’re a normal company; even we have people walking out). So, he wrote in an email that makes a whole lotta sense to me as a manager. If you’re working in a senior position in any organisation, you will have members of your work force going away sooner or later. One way is to not do anything about it which is stupid. The other, and more sensible thing to do, is to try to retain the good ones for as long as possible.
This is what he wrote in the email (slightly pruned on the edges):
Everywhere I have read, the most important things to do are:
- IDENTIFY people who wish to work hard, who put their minds in understanding the jobs and problems, and want to improve and deliver.
- SHOW them a CLEAR career path in the organization to grow.
- APPRECIATE their work.
- Provide them with CHALLENGES.
- Finally create a fun and happy ENVIRONMENT to work.
I am sure there are other things, but if we can do all of the above, I am positive, we can improve the quality of resources in the company, and move towards a steady growth path that benefits everyone.
Told you.
So I found myself reading the transcript of Steve Jobs’ Commencement address at Stanford University on June 12, 2005. It runs into about 4 pages (yes I printed it) and through personal example, Steve set forth, or rather paraphrased in his unique manner, a few very interesting and useful ideas for anybody who’s starting out on a career and is in the middle of one, questioning it.
#1:
you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.
#2:
You’ve got to find what you love.
#3:
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
These are the things perhaps each of us know and will never pay much attention to. Some may even end up retorting, “So what’s new in what he said? We know that.” I ask them if anybody ever remembers it all in our regular daily lives. There really is no answer to that question. Some will retort back an affirmative, while some might be pushed into a little deeper meditation on it.
The problem I’ve seen is this: We listen. We agree. We don’t act.
Note to self:
I so much identify with these unspoken rules of graphic design I caught at AdLand Ad-Rag.com.
From among these all, the one that really stands out for the message is #7.
#7. Speed. Quality. Affordability. Pick any two.
As part of the list, it is probably getting understated but this is actually a very profound rule. If you are even remotely connected to any production environment, this rule applies to you in some manner:
Yet, as clients, we want all three, and as production people, we never point out this rule to any of our clients; mainly because nobody would like to acknowledge it as being true and will hate you for even suggesting such a thing.
On May 3, I wrote about Indian IT minister’s planned visit to woo Intel to set up a factory in India. From the report on eWeek, looks like he succeeded!
Intel Corp., the world’s largest computer-chip maker, plans to spend up to $400 million on a chip assembly and testing plant in India, Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran said on Tuesday.
In addition to Intel, Mr. Maran has apparently been making rounds of other offices as well as is amply clear from his statements mentioning other potential investments. He threw up some big names there.
Anyway, what is especially cool about what he had to say about Intel’s agreement is the presence of Noida in the list of cities that are supposed to be in Intel’s potential site for their investment. Noida is just 5 hours away from me by road.
Potential locations include the southern port city of Madras, tech capital Bangalore or the Noida industrial township near the Indian capital, Maran said.
Madras (now called Chennai BTW) is where I’m betting Intel will finally settle down. The two factors I see being key in that decision would be that it is an international port and a State capital. If Intel wants this to be a manufacturing hub, they’ll need easy access to an export site. Chennai gives them that. Tamil Nadu (the State) will of course bend over backwards to accomodate their wishes in light of the investment and potential employment to be generated.
Bangalore is a city that has grown too fast for its own good. I don’t think it’s going to be able to cope up with this fast pace much longer and the city, already straining on the seams will likely see a collapse of infrastructure. In a recent report I read, Bangalore’s hospitality industry is charging rates equivalent to New York (one of the most expensive cities of the world) only because the demand if far in excess of supply. It might have surpassed Silicon Valley to become the biggest hub of IT, but in my opinion, given the state of affairs, a significant investment in that city would be foolhardy.
Noida is a cool city. Planned. Maintained. Indulged by the politicians. Almost a suburb of the National Capital. It has everything that Intel could want. The only reason I think Intel will not want to set up it’s infrastructure in Noida is because it’s not a port city and they might not get that kind of resources made available to them as they would in Chennai. IMHO, Noida might be a better city to be in, but not necessarily vis-a-vis Intel’s business point of view.
So let’s see where they finally land. 
I’ve not worked with him much but boy, does this guy have a sense of humour! I’ve wanted to work with him for a long time but opportunity has never presented itself. We chat once in a while. This conversation happened a couple of days back.
Client: dude… where is (name omitted)? im gonna kill him
Me: I think he presented himself for the slaughter already?
Client: he had to
Me: hehehe… can’t imagine anything worse happening to him.
Client: lol
Me: how’s family? and work?
Client: good and good. you?
Me: good and good too. Finally, we have something in common!
Client: ha!
Me: oh, only if you were a girl and unmarried and I was slightly better looking with a tad more money… that would be a great opening.
Client: lol. you mean a lot better looking? LOL And tons more money! 😀
Me: hahahaha… we’ve had this conversation before. 😉
Client: LOL. You’re pretty for a guy. Maybe only a wig and a HUGE amount of money?
Me: Yeah, I would need all that money to keep drinking to think you’re beautiful too.
Client: ha. I hear you there! Noboday said marriage was a piece of cake.
Me: Those who did, never ate it.
Client: LOL
One of those moments…
Client: They are certain to notice.
Me: Yes, they are doing that. I noticed them noticing me and I noticed that they noticed that I noticed them noticing me.
… duh. 😛
I’ve been down with viral past 2 days. The doc said the particular strain going around incubates for 2 days and then hangs on you for 2 days with sniffles and moderate temperature before sliding down. I got down on Tuesday afternoon so that would mean I got it on Sunday… should have taken care since I was at home that day and my neice had this viral. 2 days have gone by and I can feel some strengh seeping in already.
So here’s a tip for you guys: If one of your family members has an infectious ailment, take care not to catch it!
I have to admit that I was laughing out loud while reading the report in The New York Times that points to the editorial essay in British Medical Journal calling for what it termed knife reform.
The essay points out how long, pointed kitchen knives are being used to, can you believe it, stab people to death! Oh the horror! And the solution is very easy: get rid of the tip.
While people like Peter Hamm of Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in the US feel envious of England for having such problems since
In America, we can’t even come to an agreement that guns are dangerous and we should make them safer.
on the other side of the pond, The Register takes a shot at the report by looking forward to…
…proposals for the rubber housebrick (a common bludgeoning weapon), the papier mache baseball bat (ditto) and the soft plastic claw hammer (ditto).
Meanwhile, I wonder if there will be a follow-up essay in the BMJ calling for dull knives next, since a sharp edge can be used for slashing… 😉
PressDisplay is an interesting concept. They have about 200 print newspapers on their site ready to be read, every single day. Each newspaper is scanned and made available with full zoom & scroll abilities ala Google Maps. Among other features:
Requires free registration to read inside pages but I guess it’s worth it. The site is nicely done and it’s not hard at all to figure out how to use it, at least I was able to. I see myself returning to it often, even if at times it’s only for the fun of it. At least it doesn’t have the portalish-junk like the online-versions of these newspapers and is fast enough too.
[Via Jagtar]
Indian teenagers invent…
… and represent India at International Exhibition for Young Inventors held in Malaysia with the latter being judged most outstanding individual invention.
Kudos!
[Via CNET]
Self Replicating Robots Are Here!
OMG! Run! Hide! Stock up stuff. They will take over the world! All those movies about robots taking over Earth are coming true! Nobody is safe! Nowhere is safe! It’s the beginning of the end! OMG! OMG!!!!
😉
Interesting article though.
On the way to office today, I saw a damsel-in-distress pushing a kinetic scooter. The chivalrous in me (and the male) goaded me to go and help.
Me: How can I help you?
She: No, thanks.
Me: Yes, I did say that to the guy who offered me drugs. But how does that help you?
…long blank stare…
She: Excuse me?
She refused help but I couldn’t help telling myself that I should’ve used the standard, “Do you need any help?” instead.
I just posted about the successful launch of Cartosat-1. And according to PTI, ISRO Chairman, G Madhavan Nair also announced yesterday that the design of spacecraft for Indian moon mission titled Chandrayaan has been completed!
Among other things of importance in his announcement is news of 34 metre antenna for the deep space tracking network. Didn’t know about that, or BARC‘s involvement in it.
I talked about Chandrayaan before when ESA announced backing it.
Update: Link to PTI’s report of announcement.
A year ago, ISRO announced Cartosat-1. Yesterday, on May 05, our PSLV put it in orbit along with another micro-satellite (HAMSAT) while the President watched on from the Mission Control Centre. Reuters’ story has a cool photograph of the PSLV launching off with the Cartosat-1 remote sensing satellite. Read the ISRO’s official press release for more info on the launch.
The launch also marked the inauguration of Satish Dhawan Space Centre at SHAR, Sriharikota and the first launch for the Second Launch Pad.
ISRO has a nice informative brochure on PSLV, Cartosat-1 and HAMSAT online including a lot of photos and graphics. For anybody who’s not aware of the history of remote sensing activities of Indian space program, it provides a nice primer as well.
Update: Interesting discussion at /.
Update: Fixed the empty link to ISRO. 😛
Well, looks like we might have one soon. Rediff is reporting reporting that our IT Minister is going to meet Intel top brass end of May just to make that happen.
"I am meeting Intel chief Craig Barett in the end of this month and I have one point agenda to press him for setting up a manufacturing facility here," Maran told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar.
Reuters has a slightly differently phrased report but says more or less the same thing.
If it were any other person, I would simply shrug and say, “Bah, another reason for a foreign visit.” But when it comes to this man, I sit up and read the reports carefully. Why? Because Mr. Maran is one of those rare politicians who also work well. He’s 37 or maybe 38 (not sure) and that was perhaps one of the reasons he was chosen for the IT Ministry in the first place. Among his achievements are the recent opening up of .IN domain and a comprehensive broadband policy where it was made clear that anything below 256kbps simply can’t be labelled as ‘broadband’. That put a lot of ISPs in trouble since IIRC at least Sify was selling a 64kbps limited connection under its broadband range of products.
What is also significant is his statement that it that he is going there with a one point agenda. That would mean that he has specific plans and offers to put across to Intel people. Besides, since a Cabinet level minister is going, that itself says a lot on how seriously the Central Government supports this move and overt solicitation. He will have a significant arsenal of candies and goodies in his bag when he sits down with the Intel bigwigs.
Mr. Maran has already convinced Nokia and Motorola. That itself takes care of the mobile market. We will soon have locally manufactured units. And with the Intel manufacturing unit under his belt, he will find it much easier to convince others in the hardware manufacturing business. It’s the brand power baby! That is why it is so important that India gets this unit instead of China (the other contender).
Good luck Mr. Maran!