Posts filed under ' General'
Well, I am a religious follower of Dilbert and Garfield!. Never miss it, thanks to bloglines. Have been following both these series for over two years now.
Why Dilbert ?
Short Answer : I work in IT industry :).
Its just true to life. You can relate almost everything that’s going around you at your work to Dilbert :). The pointy haired boss character is soo real. The catbert….. I remember HR folks of my company whenever i see catbert :))
Why Garfield ?
Well, somehow I can relate myself to the Garfield character pretty well…:)… (ya.. more than half the men out there think so … .. hehehe)Never heard of Dilbert and Garfield ?… Check these article on wikipedia on
Dilbert and
Garfield. They are very informative.
So, which cartoon series do you follow and like the most ?…. Do leave a comment.
Oh yes, in the animated world, I love Tom and Jerry :) Cute. :)
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May 18th, 2006 at 10:54pm
Check out this article by John Dvorak on Microsoft. 100% true. Great read.
I am fully convinced that Microsoft is loosing focus on its bread and butter business - i.e., developing good software. Instead its spending most of its energy in territories like advertising and search. Leave those things alone! Yes, agreed that there is lot money involved in advertising, but that does not mean that you should jump into the other territories without having the capabilities.
Microsoft is too occupied and obsessed with what Google is doing and that’s gonna cost Microsoft a lot!. Where as, Google doesn’t bother about what Microsoft does!!.. The day it does, Google too would be in big trouble!
One of the points from the above article…
8. Preoccupation with Google. Microsoft is too easily distracted by successful companies who are not competitors. There is a deep-rooted belief that if a company like Google is successful, then they are an enemy per se. So the company obsesses on what Google is doing rather than concentrating on important Microsoft projects. Now Microsoft is about to do a deal with Yahoo to flank Google. This old-lady-like skittishness is unbecoming for a company this size.
Check this: Possible Microsoft & Yahoo merger article on slashdot.
More: Mr. Ballmer’s mail to Micro$oft folks.
I feel that the next couple of years would really decide Microsoft’s future!
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May 3rd, 2006 at 04:41pm
Patents = big money… Well, not always. But this one is the latest Patent Infringement suit which involves big money : Netflix suing Blockbuster for Patent Infringement.
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V/S |
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Here is what it says…
Netflix holds two U.S. patents for its business methodology, which calls for subscribers to pay a monthly fee to select and rent DVDs from the company’s Web site and to maintain a list of titles telling Netflix in which order to ship the films, according to the patents, which were included as exhibits in the lawsuit. The first patent, granted in 2003, covers the method by which Netflix customers select and receive a certain number of movies at a time, and return them for more titles. The second patent, issued on Tuesday, “covers a method for subscription-based online rental that allows subscribers to keep the DVDs they rent for as long as they wish without incurring any late fees, to obtain new DVDs without incurring additional charges and to prioritize and reprioritize their own personal dynamic queue — of DVDs to be rented“
WTF ? I am just wondering at the IQ of people who granted this patent!
It also means one can Patent things like…
“I get up early in the morning, brush my teeth, and then go to the restroom… have bath and then go to office”…. and then once the patent is granted, can sue anyone who follows this routine………..including the person who issued this patent.
How about a restaurant which says……
“The guests at our restaurant can sit at the restaurant as long as they want and enjoy the food served……. ” - Yes, surely you can patent this….
Then how about…..Walmart or any big shopping chain says…. “Our customers can shop as long as they want and we won’t charge them for being at our shop & spending time …..” — Well, this can be patented too… and sue every other supermarket chain on the planet.
Oh.. ya… what about breathing…? I am sure a patent would soon be granted for that too.. Just a matter of time…Real crazy.
More discussion on Digg.com & Slashdot
Check these crazy patents too!
BTW, did you know that Micro$oft has been granted a patent for double click??
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April 4th, 2006 at 11:59pm
Went to Ice Age : The Meltdown movie yesterday (i.e., Friday). First day first show.
Good movie. I liked it. There is no strong story line as such, but its got lot of humor which would make you laugh.
The animation too is great.
From Wikipedia…. :
The working title for this movie was Ice Age 2: The Meltdown. For the movie’s final release, they decided to remove the number 2, calling it Ice Age: The Meltdown, as the creators considered the movie not a sequel but an entirely new movie. However, in the UK, Ireland and Australia, its title is promoted as Ice Age 2: The Meltdown.
More Info & reviews at the IMDB.
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April 1st, 2006 at 08:41pm
Cell Phones. One area where India rocks. No questions.
Ok, lets see the differences :
- In US, first of all, its very difficult to get a cell phone connection!. You need to have a good “credit history” to get a cellphone. If you don’t have a credit history, you need to pay some deposits. And guess what? I was told that I need to deposit $750 to get a cell phone connection since I did not have any credit history!!! In India, almost everyone can manage to get a cell phone service. No major deposits etc!
- In US, almost all the providers ask you to sign a 1 year or 2 year contract. In India … “What contract?? Are you kidding?”
- In US, you get a mobile phone with your plan. This is good one way, but then you will have to sign a one year contract for sure (and pay some money for the handset…offcourse less than the market price - but this depends on the plan and the phone in question)!. In India, you have the freedom and flexibility to select your phone, based on your budget, from Rs 500 to 25,000! And you can change your handset anytime (except CDMA providers)
- In US, the airtime charges (or the call charges) are way too high!! There is air-time charge for incoming calls too!. In India, incoming is *free*, and the outgoing calls tooo are hell lot cheaper compared to US. Infact, I had almost forgot the term “air time charges” !
- In US, some plans charge you for receiving SMS !.. Nice way to get screwed!. In India, I don’t know of any plans where you get charged for receiving SMSes.
- In US, sending out SMS is pretty expensive (from 4 cents to 40 cents!!!). In India…….its 1/10th the price!
- In US, prepaid SIMS are contract free, but are way too expensive. i.e., the postpaid plans them self are expensive, but prepaid is more expensive. In India, the call charges on pre-paid and post-paid are almost comparable.
- One more point is, in US, with most of the plans, you get some free minutes. If you are within the limit, then you are safe. But if you exceed, then you will be charged like crazy. And the minutes are used even if you call a Toll Free number! Most plans count the minutes for incoming call too!
I also noticed that in US, Nokia handsets are not that popular. I haven’t seen many people use Nokia handsets. I found more people using Motorola handsets.
Clearly, India is far ahead! Hope to see similar progress in other areas too!
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March 15th, 2006 at 08:22am
Still stuck with 2MB or 250MB hotmail mailbox ? Follow these three simple steps in IE… and enjoy!
Step 1: Log into your hotmail account using Internet Explorer - Does not work if you try to activate this using Firefox. Also make sure your address in your hotmail account is United States.
Step 2: Click on this link
(better copy the link given above and paste it into the window in which you have your hotmail account opened!)
Step 3: Click Join Mail Beta
Now your hotmail account is upgraded to Live Mail with 2GB of storage!
This procedure worked fine for me when I tried it out a couple of mins back.
Not sure how long it would last!
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January 3rd, 2006 at 07:54pm
Wordpress v2.0 Release Candidate (RC) is out. If there are no bugs, then the RC would be v2.0! I am really excited about this new version of wordpress. I had read this article called “Whats new in wordpress 2 ?” summing up the changes from v1.5.x to v2.0. Cool. Lot of changes in the code. Performance must be much better. Also, lot of cool facilities provided to the plugin writers. So, in the near future, we can expect to see plugins which perform better!.
Quite a lot of features in the admin interface have been updated/added. … Keeping fingers crossed…..waiting for the final release.
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December 21st, 2005 at 11:32pm
Update : KlueLess 2 is out ! Check out : http://www.iimi-iris.com/iris-2006/irising/klueless/index.asp
Some of you might have already come across this one. Its one of the coolest and the most amazing puzzles I have every come across. Do give it a shot if you haven’t. Its unbelievable!
http://www.iimi-iris.com/iris/irising/klueLESS/
Kudos’ to the creators of this puzzle. I am sure *lot* of thought process and effort would have gone into its creation.
Caution : You might spends days together solving this! :) Enjoy.
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December 14th, 2005 at 08:41pm
Now sure how serious this is!. They are planning on renaming Bangalore to Bengaluru. That’s how you pronounce Bangalore in Kannada.
Link : Bangalore to be re-named Bengaluru (and here)
This is what the above article says…
Chief Minister N Dharam Singh told reporters in Gulbarga on Sunday that he had asked the chief secretary to take steps for renaming Bangalore.
He said Kannadigas were calling the city as Bengaluru but taking an Anglicised form, it became Bangalore.
Dharam recalled that a suggestion to call the city as Bengaluru had emanated at a meeting of prominent Kannada litterateurs he had called recently to seek their views on celebrating the golden jubilee of the formation of the state of Karnataka.
Well, if this is true, then Bangalore would be the 4th major city in India to undergo a name change. First it was Bombay to Mumbai, second was Madras to Chennai, third was Calcutta to Kolkotta.
So, would the next one be Bangalore to Bengaluru ?
Personally, I strongly feel that the government should give more stress to important matters related to development, infrastructure, rural reform etc. It should not get into overheads like these. Renaming Bangalore to Bengaluru wont make the city any better.
My friend Harsh asked me, ……. Is Mangalore next ? Since it sounds like Bangalore. But, in case of Mangalore, renaming wont be that simple I guess. Why ? Its because, Mangalore has different names in different languages!
In Kannada, its known as Mangaluru (like Bengaluru)
In Konkani, its known as Kodiyal
In Tulu, people call it by the name of Kudla
Malayali people use the term Mangalapuram!
And since Kannada is not what majority of people speak in Mangalore, I seriously doubt it would be called Mangaluru. (i.e., if and when it would be renamed!)
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December 11th, 2005 at 11:20pm
Update (13-Apr-2007): Apparently, I heard recently that they have changed the design - due to the nature of the soil at the construction area. I think it won’t be a inverted pyramid as shown below.
OK. This one is for real, unlike the major HOAX forward mail that was floating around a couple of months back.
The real proposed Design of the new Infosys Campus at Mangalore looks as shown below:
Source : http://www.hafeezcontractor.com
Will post more pictures if I get a chance!
You can find designs of other proposed Infosys buildings at the Hafeez Contractor’s website.
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November 11th, 2005 at 12:41pm
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