Persistence Pays !!!

I wanted to use Linux ever since I heard about it (June 2003). Not because I am going to use it for some nation building activity but just to know why so much fuss over it. Till today all my experiments with Linux have been failures. The closest I have got to get a PC working but, it wont connect to Internet and just sit there as a dumb terminal. Finally the day has come when I have Linux installed on my PC and it is able to connect to the Internet. I was so desperate to get it working this time that I have wiped of XP completely from my PC and now its just "Ubuntu - Linux for Human Beings!".
It works nicely & I am impressed with the live version because it could connect to internet on live mode. I know my expression sounds so dumb but still seeing it work from a CD is reassuring to say the least.
I am freaking proud that this works lolzzz!!!
I had imagined such a day 6 years back... so I persisted long enough it seems.
As they say persistence pays and it surely did. I would like to be this persistent in few other aspects of my life so that I could get sucess there as well.... (though I wont like to wait for 6 yrs)

Absolute fun

We as a class have been planning to go out since long time but then it didnt materialise. So this time I was determined to go. So we went to Suraj Water Park on Saturday. There were just 5 of us who made it to the outing since the planning started. Krupa-Reshma, Saba, Sangeet and Me. It was one of the best outings that I had in the recent times. I was a bit apprehensive of the fact that it was a water park and that I dont know to swim. But it was a nice experience. I must have tried all the rides in the park. The best were the steep sloped ones it was as good as vertical falls. Next day by whole body was aching (no body pain :P) and I discovered some muscles that existed in my body. I am not uploading the pics as others may not be comfortable with the idea.

After resting for two nights I attended college and the 1st lecture of International Business was less than impressive. I am no one to comment on the professors competency but still I didnt like his way of teaching. Today we had Rao sirs lecture and he is a typical marketing guy. Lively, Loud and he creates interest in what he is teaching. He makes you uncomfortable and does not thinks wee bit before dismissing your answers point blank. He somehow reminds me of Swapnila maam especially the Bisleri example. I still remember the 1st presentation after which I felt like crap !!! I think his lectures will condition us so as to take on when real life deals its worst cards. :)

Budgets were announced yesterday and markets reacted negatively. Some 6.2% of GDP is the fiscal deficit. Its a huge number and some analysis states that they do not have any road map to fill this gap.

BMC is planning to go for cloud seeding so that it rains and we have water supply for the next year. Hope it works and city do not have to face water shortages!!!

Catching up with time

A lot happened since the last post. I tried posting few times but then didnt really find the patience to complete. Even this post is out of the feeling that its been a long time rather than an urge to write some thing. So I am scribbling things as they come to my mind. It was Aditi's bday on 25th and she celebrated at her home. Couple of us attended it. It was a bit odd to attend birthday at someone's house. The nice things were the

We had a nice time and got her to pose for some of the wierdest poses. We gifted a collage of pics + a bag + a clutch + ..... few more things. Reshma and Krupa were the creative brain. Romeel was not spared even at her house (final placements !!!). Then we had our mad photo sessions and then the performance round .... lolzz no one performed actually....!!!

Father of Pop Michael Jackson passed by :(. It took the world by surprise because there were some news about his revival. This had its affect on the virtual world as well. Google thought that an attack was launched on them and even twitters crashed.

An Unique National ID program was launched since some time but this time something new happened. Mr Nandan Nilekani has been called in to lead this project and he has been given a Cabinet minister's power to get this done. This is something new that has happened someone has been called from corporate sector to get things done in the government sector. This is a landmark project because it will act as a stepping stone for many other projects. Mr Nilekani stepped down from Infosys to prevent conflict of interest. This whole project seems to be inspired from the social security system in US. "As they say imitation is the best form of flattery". But there is a pertinent question which needs to be answered and that is why now?

My answer is now because, at this time there is a lot of brain power which is lying idle (remember companies paying people half the salary to work for NGO's). So I see this as the new form of public expenditure (remember the digging of well during the great depression). This is a huge project and will leads to lot of employment in this sector. Its completion will lead to many changes in delivery channels of many services. Even I would like to have my share in this pie !!!

Nothing Fancy.

I have been planning to go out with college friends but things didnt materialise. Anyways this saturday office friends got together and we went out for a movie. We watched star wars. I dont know why we did that hmm.... :( I simply could not digest the fact that the enemy starship was so unasthetically designed. It simply was not aerodynamical at all It literally looked like a rusted piece of crap......... Now dont give that look ( See I have a point here, when you give a good ship to the lead actors give something comparable to others.) After the movie we went to Juhu Beach played some idiotic games had a lot of pani puri and other junk food. Came back to 5 Spices @ lokhandwala. The food was awsome I mean the quantity was unbelievable even quality was nice. Dont ask the name of the dishes, I just know that starters was shrimp and then chicken all the way!!! Hail all non-vegetarians ... It ended with ice creams from naturals ...... choco chips rocks!!! and also the other flavours.

At office I have already tied up 4 hotels with our feedback system. One more to go.

I am simple at loss for words when I see the naka bandis (police checks on roads). Everyday when I travel from Goregaon to Lower Parel. I come across at least 4 naka bandis daily. On an average in a week I am being stopped 4 times. I am thinking of filing a RTI to know how much have these naka bandis helped. Our police have a habit of putting up a naka bandi right after a signal. It irritates the hell out of you. What I dont understand is if someone is carrying some thing how are they gonna know it??? These guys just ask for RC Book License and Insurance papers so if someone has these papers then he will easily slip through...

Anyways I console myself by saying that this torture is better than having bombs ripping throughout cities and people losing their lives.

I came across this awsome piece of information from todays newspaper.

I always believed that some times drivers act like morons and create traffic jams without any rhyme or reason. A team at MIT has identified this and calls this jamitrons or phantom traffic jams. Those who want to read more can read here

The irony of recession

New product launched in this week.

Search Engines : Googlesquared Wolfram Bing

Wolfram is positioned as Knowledge Engine. This one is cool its like really trying to get you answers for the questions that you have asked, though I have not used it for searching anything extensively but quite liked the concept.

Downside the file that is downloaded is not in a readable format. It gets downloaded in some format (dont remember the extension) which you can open in notepad but then the message is not clear.

Google squared looks amatuerish. I didnt like the UI. It looks geeky, I know its a bit harsh but then google products are always a step ahead than you think they are more user friendly and intutive... but this one quite did not cut the ice.

Bing is Live with a new wardrobe. It looks jazzy and plays video just by hovering your mouse over it. Lets see.

But I am still using google for searching lolzzz!!!

Apple launched Iphone 3GS. This one looks nice, with improved camera and more gadgets and if still wondering wats the 'S', it stands for speed thats wat they say !!! I would surely love to lay hands on one of this beauty.

So now we talk about recession but here companies are launching products which are not some need based. I mean you can still survive without a new Iphone 3GS !!!

"Gonna Get Some Skin in the Game "

I tried to post something yesterday but then scrapped it half way coz that didnt make sense. There has been few events some good ones some not so nice ones. So lets start with the nice ones

One of my friend is getting married by the end of this year. I would have posted her name but anyways people will come to know when they are supossed to know. I dont want to be the spoiler.

My project seems to have hit a dead lock. It lays direction less without movement. I need to do something desperately to get it working. I saw some of the projects which were submitted by the senior students. Not bad work but not very impressive. I searched for information online but not sucessful in getting something.

I got to know that Sunil is going to get married soon, he has left the office and he has started working full time with his dad. Vineet was lamenting how Sunil is not able to find time for friends. So this topic popped up a question why guys fear getting married. We had few nice comments being made, but an argument raised was if you are not enjoying your bachelorhood then better get married !!! This one was really thought provoking one. I mean guys want to lead a chilled out life with no responsibilities and complete freedom (inclusive of speech, action, et all....) but if you are not using any of this then there is no point fighting for bachelorhood. Its like fighting for a country where even you dont want to live... This somehow was applicable to all of us. I dont want to pack my dreams. I want to start few things, there have been few promises made which needs to be honoured and somethings to be said ..... and to follow the adage "Get Some Skin in the Game "

Summer Internship update

I completed 3 weeks today at CT. For the research project we had selected two topics, of them (consumer insight) was selected.  We had a meeting with the Business Head. He suggested a different project which is about deploying a feedback mechanism for the hotel industry. Actually they have already launched it but its just that since sometime it was on the backburner as they were busy with some other things. So now the offer to us is to get this things going again and we manage the whole show for a month. This looks to me as an exciting project. I am definately looking forward to get this working. Few other goodies in store on sucessful completion of the project!!! I would love to see this things yield results.

I read this webpage today and I liked it, its called 1001 rules for my unborn son to read click here.