Sunday, January 30, 2005

Philosophy of Charles Schultz

I found this one from Collectives.org and at several other sites (using Google), but nevertheless it's a very inspirational one:

The following is the philosophy of Charles Schultz, the creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip. You don't have to actually answer the questions. Just read it straight through, and you'll get the point.


1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America contest.
4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winner for best actor and actress.
6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

How did you do?

The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday.These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields.But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.
5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.
6. Name half a dozen heroes whose stories have inspired you.

Easier?

Moral of the Story: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards.They are the ones that care.

A sad incident about Religious exploitation

While I was reading a post about Airtel's CusHtomer Service at Soumya's Blog, someone had this link posted in the comments. I am not that much of a religious person, but using religion when someone is at distress is mere exploitation. I also ackowledge that there have been incidents of religious oppresion to minority religions. But I simply dont understand why religion seems to take so much importance over humanity. In my view, religion merely teaches you to understand the right from the wrong. Nothing more. Your comments are quite welcome on this, as always.

The Curiously Strong Mints - Altoids

I had been to an ASDA (UK's Walmart, quite literally - Walmart acquired ASDA) when I had gone to Swindon, UK, a funny incident happenned. I was searching to buy “The Curiously Strong” Altoids Mints, which boats of a “Made in the UK” tagline. I couldn’t find it in the whole of ASDA. Thats when I realized maybe it was just a silly marketing Tagline to fool the Americans (or people from America, in my case) :-)

Picasa 2

This is from my comment on the LazyGeek's Blog about Picasa 2 :

Picasa 2 is an excellent software. It's got a lot of good features added onto the basic Version of Picasa. There is a way in this version to make movies out of pictures which is really cool. I used it to create a movie of my brother's marriage pictures and then added a song to it using Windows Movie Maker, that came out really well. And it's got more options for beautifying your digital pictures than the earlier version. Although I found one small issue with it, when I installed Version 2 of it, it couldnt detect that I had the previous version installed in it. I had to manually uninstall the previous version!

Here is a snapshot of the Picasa 2 Team.


Picasa 2 Team at Google Posted by Hello

Samsung [V] Super Singer

There was Aasma, there was Viva...Now there is Samsung[V] Super Singer. This is one more reason why I wish I was in Madras right now. But for some reason both these pop bands didnt survive the test of time. Let's see how long the Super Singer will last for.... LazyGeek's got the link <Right Here>.

Another article about Sony's Pop Idol.

Best Blogs of 2005

This is an international event. The nominees have been decided and the winners will be announced in March ... <Read More>.

Friday, January 28, 2005

Startups in Bangalore, Hyderabad or Madras?

Why are we not seeing any startups in Bangalore, Hyderabad or Madras? Indians play an active role in many of the startups in the Silicon Valley, be it in their creation or in their management. Here is an interesting article about why this is not hapenning and how soon it might happen ... <Read More>.

Beijing is calling Indians

I read an interesting article in NewIndPress.com about China opening an Sino-Indian Cooperative Office to woo in Indian companies to China. With China about to join the WTO in a month or so, their government is taking deregulation very seriously. Pretty soon, the outsourced work from Europe/US to India might get re-outsourced to China if things go the way China wants it to ... <Read More>.

Free MIT Courses online

MIT has this Open Foundation where they give out free course materials (online) for some of their courses. <Read More>.

Ethernet over power lines

This is a tech post. Sometime back (maybe a year back) I was reading about Ethernet over Power lines, and now it is a reality. Netgear has a product and this one just went on sale at www.buy.com for about $30. Not that any household would need it at this point, as 802.11 (a/b/g) are almost ubiquitous in broadband-rich countries, but still it is a big leap in technology. Talking about technology, which is one of my favorite subjects, I will write a post later about how much I like technology ... <Read More>

Believe in Rebirth?

A Strange story about rebirth...A vague memory hit a pair of twins in Agra, Surender and Narendar, while travelling on a bike. The older one was the first to spell it out. They had died in a road accident in their previous birth ... Read More

Why India is the next target

Pretty humurous. Read it at IdlyChutney.com.

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Honda's Ad

I saw an article about this Ad in a British Newspaper a year back, just got an email forward of that, so here it is. It's a really well made Ad. You could either click on the title or here.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

A Productive Day

This happened to me sometime back. At that time there was a cricket match that India was playing (I think with Australia). And usually the cricket matches happen at such odd times for the people in US that most often people(desis) either come in late or pretend as though they are working from home.

So there was this guy at work who had gone to one of my friend's home to watch that day-and-night cricket match and on that day after he got to work in the afternoon, he wanted to thank him for letting him watch the match, but instead of sending that thank-you email to him, he sent it to me. At first I was suprised to see an email from someone whom I didnt know, but when I looked at the contents, I immediately started laughing. It said, "Thanks for letting me see the match. I felt the whole day was very productive". And after reading that email, I simply couldnt resist replying to it, and for every word that I typed in, I must have laughed my heart off. This is what I replied to him, "I am sure your day will be even more productive, if you send it to the right person!"

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Saarang is here

Saarang, the finest College Cultural Fest held at IIT Madras, is here (and about to get over too). Their Music shows (or more popularly called the Pro Shows)are one of the best. So far they have brought in Shankar Mahadevan, Drummer Sivamani, Shaan, Udit Narayan (2005), Ustad Amjad Ali Khan's sons (Amaan Ali and Ayaan Ali) (2005), Kay Kay (2005), Guitarist Prasanna (2005) and bands Moksha and Orange Street (2005).

Anybody from Madras or those who have studied at Madras would have certainly heard about this grand event. This event brings in a lot of sponsorship (am very disappointed to see Motorola's absence in the Sponsors list this year) and a lot of talent. The acoustics in the Open Air Theater (OAT), where the professional shows take place are just amazing. They show movies (at a subsidised cost to IITians, so all you needed was a friend or acquaitance who could get you tickets for cheap) every week and I have seen quite a few of them over there.

Here is the link to Saarang 2005.

Monday, January 24, 2005

Holy Cow!

I was reading Suderman's Blog (His is one of the regular blogs that I visit - I have him bloggrolled on the left...Suderman, would that hint do?) about his Bovine intentions, and here are some photos I could get on Google. I couldnt exactly find Udder bovines, so here are the ones that I could find. 



Suderman can use this in his site right next to the Kamadenu photo.
Here are a couple of other Udder/sudder bovine sites:
http://www.webstitch.co.nz/cowsbulls.html

And here is the Chicago's Cow Parade. This used to be quite popular in Chicago Downtown, everywhere you go you would see a statue of these cows. Here is the link. This is like the bovine version of shaadi.com, so Suderman, feel free to read up on each and every Udder's/Dudder's profile. I am sure out of the 300 pictures there will be something you will like. And yeah, dont forget to invite me for the marriage once you hook up with one of them. My Madras visit is due, so wouldnt mind a visit back home ;-)))

And following are some more cows:

Another Super Cow



Super Cow (I think, this one was right next to Wacker Drive in Chicago Downtown)



Macho Cow



Rollo Cow

How nerdy are you?

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Gmail invites

2 gone...2 more remaining...if you need a Gmail account just email me at anandvis (at) gmail.com

The Best Dream I ever had

I was reading about an article in one of the blogs I regularly visit, and ther was a talk about studies, thats when I remember about the best dream I ever had...

The best dream I ever had (and perhaps, will ever have) was when I woke up early in the morning, totally scared that I had to read for my exams the next day and I hadnt started my preparations. That was quite a jolt...moments later when I came to senses and realized that I wont have to worry about that, I was totally relieved, believe it or not that was the best dream I ever had so far. And the reason for the relief was my employment with the company of my dreams. But now that dream is slowly turning into a reality - I should start searching for another dream company soon :)

Sunday, January 23, 2005

Gmail invites

I have 4 Gmail invites left with me. If any of you need one, email me at anandvis (at) gmail.com

This one is for comparison with the Guduvancheri Sign Board. This, I took in London inside the Oval Train Station. The Oval Train Station is right next to the Oval Cricket Stadium. Posted by Hello

Guduvancheri! Took this while coming back from Rameswaram to Madras. The train stopped for sometime here and was surprised to find the London style signs in our Railway Station. Posted by Hello

And by the way that's the road. Posted by Hello

Big Snowfall in Chicago. About 10 inches of snow. It took quite a bit of effort and time to clean the snow and get the car out of the snow that had accumulated around it. Posted by Hello

Mall on Brigade Road - Bangalore, India Posted by Hello

MG Road - Bangalore, India Posted by Hello

This, I took during my last trip to India. I had gone to Bangalore at that time and went to MG Road. Posted by Hello

A distant look at the Sears Tower from the IIT Campus. Posted by Hello

The Tube in the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. They have put an enclosure around the El (stands for Elevated) Train to supress the noise. But I hear that the project was stopped half-way through. Posted by Hello

Skating Rink outside the Millenium Park. Posted by Hello

The Army...Chairs in the Outdoor Concert Hall inside the Millenium Park. Posted by Hello

A modern sculpture in the Millenium Park Posted by Hello

The Amoco-BP building, when I came to Chicago in 1998, I was told that this was the tallest RCC (Reinforced Cement Concrete) building. Dont know if it still is. Posted by Hello

A better and closer look at "The Art Institute of Chicago". Posted by Hello

The Art institute of Chicago...havent been inside it. Passed by it a million times. Posted by Hello

Right there is the Sears Tower. Been there on the top of it, a couple of times during my regular deluxe tour package that I take my close friends to. Close friends or relatives get the Deluxe Tour Package. Everybody else gets the normal package (mostly includes places around chicago which dont have admission fees) Posted by Hello

CNET's Top 100 Gadgets of 2004

It's got the Xbox and the Treo PDA Cell Phone in the list. It doesn't have the Dell DJ MP3 Player, Canon S1 IS Digital Camera.

Friday, January 21, 2005


Another collage from my Fremont trip. Posted by Hello

This is a collage that I made using Picasa 2.0. This version of Picasa seems to be having a lot of good features. I will be making a collage-movie of some of my photos, let's see how that comes out. Posted by Hello
The movies came out really good, but still trying to find a way to upload these, as not many sites allow mpeg uploads. Anyone know of any sites offering mpeg uploads?

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Bhindi - Bombay Hindi explained

Wednesday, January 19, 2005


I know that Bill Gates doesn't blog (he said that in his recent interview), but apparently Steve Jobs does. Posted by Hello

Fortune Cookies

From Mamatha's Blog:

Fortune Cookies:
-Be aware of the still small voice w/in u
-Purposeful prior planning prevents poor performance
-Do onto others as you would have them do onto you
-You find beauty in ordinary things, do not lose this ability
-You will step on the soil of many countries
-People find it difficult to resist your persuasive manner

A very humbling picture. Posted by Hello Photo taken from someone else's blog (forgot the name of the blog).

Xbox 2 this year?

Maybe by the end of this year we will see Xbox 2. Which will be the killer game on this? Halo 3 ???

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Tsunami Murthy visits India

Tsunami Murthy visits India to setup the Tsunami warning system...

Monday, January 17, 2005

Stunning slide shows of photos for your web page

While surfing a Picasa forum, I found this cool application, PhotoBlox. It seems like you can use it even on blogs, as this webpage has it in a blogspot blogspace.

...account creating powers are all gone.


I wanted to see what would happen if I re-used a Gmail Invitation, and this is what I got. Quite funny... Posted by Hello

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Is the CEO position at McDonald's unlucky?

Mr.Cantalupo died of a sudden heart attack, and now Mr.Bell dies of Cancer. Both were former execs of McDonald's.

Bloggers rise to the occasion

This is a nice article on "The hindu" newspaper about the blogging community's efforts to support the Tsunami victims. And this was written by Ramya, she is one of the bloggers I visit frequently.

The different faces of Chicago. Right next to the Millenium Park, there are two big screens which just show different faces, probably a sign to indicate the diverse crowd in Chicago. Posted by Hello



The different faces of Chicago. Posted by Hello



The different faces of Chicago. Posted by Hello



The different faces of Chicago. Posted by Hello