Happy 2010

A very happy new year to all of you.

Action rightly done will bear results. Have no doubt about that. There are other factors that can affect a person such as ability, attitude, environment, previous birth karma etc. But if a person rightly decides to nullify all this and proceed right ahead in a positive frame of mind (Attitude) then come what may, the action will have the intended result.

But do not hanker over the results. That's what Lord Krishna says. You have a right to the action but not to its fruits. Action done in the right spirit will sow fruits of returns and in the future it will come back to you. Surely.

In the meanwhile try to understand inaction in the midst of action. A person being silent in a meeting will send the signal that either he understands everything or nothing. In both cases the person will be driven to action by the Gunas (basic nature) But the Gunas can be overcome if you decide and take massive action (as Anthony Robbins says) Once you are situated in action, life around you will change. They say 'Shit happens' . I say we make it happen. Think about it.

All in all, I wish you an action oriented 2010 and may God willing you get all the results that you are looking out for.

Cheers and have a great year ahead ..

Guru30

Let positive thoughts always surround you.

Let positive thoughts always surround you.

We are in the midst of a spiritual revolution. In fact the right word would be awakening, more than revolution. If you look at an ordinary man's life, he is a circumstantial creature, always reacting to the world that he encounters. Not thinking to stop once a while and see how it's going. Churning along, day after day, and then it is one more day again.

If you ask me, there is nothing wrong with this, except for the fact that you start feeling hollow after a particular age. When you look back, you should not regret any actions, because they were right for that particular point of time. If you learnt mainframes, and the demand for this skill has bottomed, it doesn't mean that those harrowed years went for nothing. There is a learning which was appropriate for that point of time.

Focus your goals in alignment with nature. Clouds exhibit polymorphism. Sometimes they block sunlight and sometimes they rain. Serializing is found in many training sessions. So all these terms are our way of subconsciously being in sync with nature. Going through life is like driving a car. You never know what's ahead. But you must drive. And if the weather is good, your drive becomes a pleasure.

God always sends good weather. If you find that the weather is bad, it's to strengthen you. To heed the call. And once you learn how God works, you will be blessed with an insight that always make you happy. And this is my wish to you. Be happy, always ... (Hope it doesn't sound condescending)

Best

Guru30

The blueprint of your life

What's your blueprint? Did you find it out yet?

Life is like a can of soft drink. When the can is not opened everything is OK. The moment we open it we have to sip it. Then come in the surprises. Maybe it does not taste that good. Or maybe the water has some pesticides in it. And all those cronies called doubts start popping up.

But if you are like the normal lot, you don't encounter this situation, except in dire circumstances. Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. If you analyze this statement you will realize that the common thing between all these people is a factor called greatness. Why is this such a do-goody thing. Because we always aspire for the top. All of us are born with a greatness gene. Whether it becomes docile or active is left to us.

Let me explain this further. We all come to this life with a blueprint. Like a construction company creates a blueprint before beginning work, in the same way, we also carry along with us the blueprint when we are born. Once the construction work has started (that is we take our first breath), the blue print starts getting modified. Maybe a bathroom here, maybe a toilet there starts getting altered. We change the very blueprint that we are born with and there is nothing that surpasses the original design. Because that design is beyond comprehension. It just is.

The greatness gene is docile in nature. When you make it active by your karma, that is when the fun begins as you finally realize that a docile gene was better than an active one. You really don't need to prove a point, because there is none. Action in inaction, you see.

Lately, did you checkout what's the blue print that you came with ?

To life and love ...

Guru30

Till death do us part ...

Learn the language of the heart. What is true is like light. Pure and full by itself. Never doubting itself because it does not know the negative. When what we fear is nought we become one with the light. In this life which is a short time consider that all your wishes will be fulfilled, no matter whatever negative stories that you hear but always remember to hope for the positive. Because this hope will carry you far.

In God's realm we are all his children, friend, or whatever way we chose to be. Aim for the long road. Because that's the road worth taking. It will take you towards the path that other people have walked – the right path. Protect yourself from the temptations as they are nothing but time guzzlers and worst of all they don't lead us anywhere towards the truth.

Believe in his will, in his mercy and a heart that cries with anguish is a heart that has been heard. Forgive but don't forget. The latter because you may have to face a similar situation. You may fall down in a fight. But get up and fight again till you don't get exhausted. Life is a gift. It is to be lived in the right spirit. Choose things with care – especially friends. You were meant to be free, like that albatross which circles the ship in mid sea because it knows there is nowhere else to go.

So get up and claim what is rightfully yours. And soon you will find that nothing belongs to you – not even yourself. Everything is God given. We are just trustees of this body, of these emotions, of these thoughts and of this soul. Treat it with care and love. Because you never know when the gates of heavens will open and embrace you for just that time which some call death. Celebration day.

Cheers

Guru30

Does Obama deserve the Nobel Prize for Peace

Does Obama deserve the Nobel Prize? I say he does.

You measure a man not by results, but by intentions. And I believe they are noble. Results are not in ones hands. It's God given. We have a right to work but not to its fruits. That part is awarded by God. This whole system of measuring everything as per output is a little skewed. Let me give you an example:

2 colleagues (let's say Sales managers) given a target of 1 million to be achieved within a year's time. Let's say that 1 accomplishes it and the second person doesn't. Logically speaking the person who achieved the target should be paid more than the one who didn't. And so goes the rewarding system. For a moment you consider the time that both of them spent and find that both of them have worked equally hard. But digging deeper you find that the area where the sales manager who didn't accomplish the target was a victim of a cyclone and hence the inventory in that place got damaged. Further replacements had to be made, and new orders were hard to come by. This is a fictitious example.

But the same thing applies to Obama. Whether the middle east crisis will get solved or the dollar will appreciate – nothing is in our hands. We can just try.

And that's what this man is trying to do.

Failure is not an option some say. Wish it was true always.

In whichever case, you don't have to win a race. Just participate. Try winning definitely, but even if you don't, you are a winner in God's eyes.

Cheers always,

Guru30

Today understand it. Tomorrow the same opportunity may not be there

You know life is strange. You have a past that follows you everywhere and a future that you follow everywhere right in the present. In life what is important is not the attainment of a goal, but how you traverse through the untrodden path. If you are wise, you will have a great time doing so. You have to live for now. The past is dead and the future is unknown. What you can be sure of is the time. There will never be a moment like this again. Live it. Savour it. Do what you love and every instant is a celebration.

The good old days of the forgotten years are still beckoning us. We have made this world so complicated, when there is simplicity all around us. Look at nature. It is consistent. Contradictions don't exist outside. It's within our minds. People unnecessarily complicate things. Rather than doing ten things half done during the day, it is better to do two fully.

We are so much in a hurry that we don't listen to that divine voice inside each of us. Stop for a moment and hear it. Follow it. See through it. Become it. (This is a borrowed idea) What is yours is waiting there to be claimed. Seek it and use it. Life's greatest gift to you is yourself. The calm pulsating undying self within you.

Realize it.

Aaj Samjhle. Kal ye mauka haath na tere aayega (Today understand it. Tomorrow the same opportunity may not be there)

Cheers,

Guru30

When words lose all the power

When words lose all the power

Words don't come easy

How can I find a word

To make you see

I love you ...

Words don't come easy

So goes a song. It's true. Have you noticed sometimes how we fumble for a perfect word for whatever it is we want to say. Words are just approximations of our feelings. They do not fully convey the language of the heart. Words fall short of one thing – the actual meaning. A better repertoire of words can come in handy. But it is absolutely useless if the person on the other hand has a limited vocabulary.

In programming parlance, words are keywords and the rest are additional constructs. Although programming is made up of words, that follow strange rules, it is more structured. The moment we enclose something within a structure, the meaning tends to dissolve. It's like a bird in a cage. For the heart to speak, freedom is the essence of the soul.

And the worst is when a word is misconstrued for that kills the entire meaning.

My opinion:

1. Keep it short and simple. I have seen many proposals marauding the entire aspect of the same – namely to be understood.
   
2. Even if you don't use an appropriate word, it's OK, as long as your intention is true
   
3. Some people have a gift of gab. It's OK, if you are not in the same category.
   
4. Trust more in eye contacts, handshakes or other form of exchanging meaningful communication.
   

Words have their own fallacy. You don't. Rely on yourself. You are a gift beyond words.

Best Wishes,

Guru30

Behind Collaboration

I was thinking of honey bees today.

They painstakingly gather honey from different flowers for us. And in a single moment we take that honey and use it for ourselves. The effort for them maybe is a year or two to gather all that honey. And we break it just in an instant. God has really blessed us in order for us to be able to do so.

The same is applicable to the software industry. We use different products which have been painstakingly created by a number of our friends. Imagine using the System Namespace in a .Net program. It just takes 1 line to include the same. But can we contemplate how many Microsoft programmers and other team members have made it simple for us.

This is true of Open source also. As a matter of fact it just does not apply for IT but for construction too. A house built, a school here, a hospital there. We are privileged to use the summary rather than walking through the process of creation. Then we use the summary to create further summaries. As time whizzes by the old meaning is lost but it gives rise to new application. We treasure this because of the simple reason that we built it. But was it not teamwork. You see teamwork doesn't always have to be real time but it can be across time and eternity.

Collaboration on a tears and sweat foundation.

Wishes

Guru30

Standards – The opposite of Personalization

Standards – The opposite of Personalization Wouldn't it be nice if we had standards for personalization? Let me explain. Standards are linked to discipline. If everyone was to follow their own way, the world would be one unmanageable place. Hence we need standards. They help us towards responsible behavior. Standards improve over the course of time. But they should always be downwards compatible. By that I mean that the previous standards should not be disposed away. If we do, then the change can be more difficult to implement. So ideally speaking the new standards should not replace the old. But supplement them. Take personalization now. There are different levels of the same. It can be for an individual, a group, a community or other aggregates. The higher the level the more people benefit. At the individual level it ceases to be a standard anymore. Imagine a world were everyone were to Personalize their choice of desktops and display it to others. People would get confused. I think there should be general strokes of standards applicable to personalization also. This would help others. But then comes the personality aspect. This would be restricted if we limit it. And can anyone restrict freedom of expression. Ideally speaking naught, as long as it does not harm others. Individual is important as long as there is consideration for others also. Hence I believe that standardization for the benefit of one and all is good and will stay and make this world a much better place to live in. Cheers,

Guru30

Vanity – The enemy of happiness

Vanity – The enemy of happiness

There are moments of pride for almost everyone. This is typical when we get praise for what we have done. To bask in the happiness is good as long as it is short. Move on to the next target. For that we have to know what the next target is.

Many people do not make goals. In such a case all roads lead to the target as the same is unknown. The difference between having a goal and not having one makes the difference between one who has achieved success and the one who has not yet made it, since he/she does not know when we have arrived.

Goals serve an intention. The purity of the intention is the one that guides the goal towards its fulfilment. A goal is a true goal when nothing is expected out of the actions that move us towards the goal. A tool like MS Project helps us with tasks which build up towards a goal. When a task is assigned, the assignee or the assignor is not important. The task is.

We need to focus on work for work's sake. As long as vanity does not set in when things are going as per plan or a small goal is achieved, we can safely steer away towards work. A fact is more important than its interpretation. The latter is just opinion. The former is truth.

And there is nothing beyond the truth. Not vanity. Not work.

That is probably the reason that numbers drive any business. When the quantification is precise, the base data is correct. See the importance of metrics. Rest is the interpretation. This may be like reading a general knowledge book. If temperature in a place is 30 degrees, it may be too hot for someone and for some others it may be cold. But having felt so, does not change the temperature. Objectivity should not have a tinge of bias because of preset notions.

Goodbye vanity. Hello truth.

Regards

Guru30

Platonic Love

Platonic love

You say it all when you say nothing at all.

Programming languages which have no datatypes like Javascript, assumes the type of the datatype as variable and does translation automatically. A platform like Ruby on Rails with its Active Records also denote the understanding of a database in discovery mode. So much needs to be said but it is implicitly understood.

Wordsworth's poem about Lucy is apt.

She lived among the untrodden ways

Besides the springs of dove

A maid whom there were none to praise

And very few to love.

 

The poet falls in love with her but does not convey this to her. Lucy dies and this is what the wayward lover has to say.

She lived unknown and few could know

When Lucy ceased to be

But she is in her grave

And oh! The difference to me.

 

The future of software is platonic. There will be so much of functionality packed into it, not just to inundate you with features, but less said cousins of them which I term as blocks that do not advertise themselves much but gets the job done.

Search Engines are also getting contextual. Imagine getting results the way you wanted it. So much of symbolisms and mathematics behind the scenes – the less you say it the more it is understood to be of use to someone somewhere trying to find his/her graceland in the information jungle.

Platonic – Say less, Mean more.

Or better yet.

Do not say it at all.

The choice is up to you.

Regards,

Guru30

Why can’t we see God?

Why can't we see God?

Can we see the sea from a beach? Can we see what is underneath the sea? Alas, we can't.

We can see the mountain, but do we know what is behind the mountain.

The answer is quite simple.

Our senses are limited. On top of that we wear a veil which we call our personality.

As long as this personality is skewed, we will be looking at the world through a coloured glass.

By this I mean our lower nature – inferior energies like anger, greed and fear blocks us from achieving the meeting with the divine.

Once we remove our glasses, we will be able to see him clearly.

Being a child again. Helping the needy. Praying for a purpose. These are some of the activities that take us one step further towards God.

But mind you – he is truth personified. Can you look at the Sun directly?

It takes a lot of perseverance and hard work to achieve a lofty goal such as soul seeking.

With his grace upon all of us, we will be able to see him one day.

And that is the Bible's promise.

"One day you will know the truth. And the truth will set you free"

Have we not had occasions where a voice inside us tells us if a thing is good or bad.

That is divine wisdom knocking.

We believe in miracles – but isn't rain pouring down a miracle, a tree growing up a miracle ?

As we let go of our false beliefs and assumptions, the path becomes clearer.

He is nearer to us than we are to ourselves.

Submit to him. He is the merciful. And he will surely bless us with things beyond our expectations.

Three Cheers,

Guru30

The emotional nirvana

Frequencies of emotions

What we feel at any point of time is a frequency like sound or light. The lower level frequencies are made up of emotions like anger, jealousy, greed etc. The higher level frequencies are those of joy, compassion etc. Both these affect our outer bodies, which is nothing but the body with its aural glow. We can feel the frequencies of others all the time. Recollect that some people drag you while some people elevate you to a higher experience. These are the radiating frequencies which makes the difference.

Emotions may hinder work. Hence it's always advisable to keep ones emotions in check. The best position is the position of joy where we feel great reverence towards everything in the universe. This is different from respect. Respect may come out of fear, but not reverence. To get back to a joyful state, we will have to unlearn a lot of our baggage that we unnecessarily carry around with us. If we are able to do that, then we reach a position of solitude filled with bliss not loneliness.

As we all find that Silence is bliss and sometimes ignorance also is ...

The Tao Te Ching clearly tells us that those who speak they do not know and those who know they do not speak. But don't mistake a fool who keeps quiet from a genius who's got the formula. The truth is never the word. It's unspoken. It's understood. It's felt. There is nothing beyond it. It just is. The abstractions that we go on creating take us farther away from the truth. But they do have some semblance of the truth buried into some places. Simplicity is the way. If you can explain a concept simply to anyone, then you have really understood.

The next stage is sharing. When the intention and the meaning is comprehensible in its real sense, that kind of time is really soul sharing. Technology can act as a catalyst but for a group of two or more people, the effective time is when knowledge is shared simply.

Most of the people hunt for knowledge and once they have it they try to make it actionable. Alas, if there was a clear cut way of making this knowledge effective, there wouldn't be so much of confusion. We have to cut through the veil of illusion that surrounds the how of the decipherable ocean of knowledge that surrounds us and start getting results – the right way.

Now coming back to the topic of emotions – we need to be situated in joy in order to do this.

Nirvana for everyone.

Cheers

Guru30

Google’s Chrome OS

Google's Chrome OS

Sure it will be a marvel, as this is the first internet OS in the true sense of the word. People will want to believe that the net is the computer and not the desktop. Cloud computing would pick up and will favour those, whose applications are on the cloud. Lot of data centres will mushroom. A net connection would become ubiquitous. Wherever you are, the net follows you. Be it an airplane or the waterloo.

Chrome OS will be introduced in conjunction with some service provider like Verizon or AT & T and the plans would again be available for different experiences. Security will be a concern, but I'm sure Google guys are going to build in a tough sandbox for malware to crack.

On the downside, this new OS needs an always on connection to the net. Data Privacy is also another issue, as data would be on the cloud. So the next question that comes to mind is 'Is the data safe?'

What about applications? They will all be cloud and an instance of the same would be downloaded to the client. The client will possess just rendering intelligence and the dense intelligence would be on the server side.

Welcome back to the mainframe day's guys.

Reminds me that in the end after all the world is a circle. You end up where you started out with.

Cheers.

Guru30

We live in a magical world ...

We live in a magical world. Miracles surround us. Imagine an acorn becoming an Oak tree. An oyster giving birth to a pearl. Or a baby which starts walking on its own. If these aren't miracles, then what are ? Here's a song to celebrate miracles.

 

Raindrops falling on a tree

Waves lashing, did you see

An eagle flying so very high

A human hand with fingers five

 

In the midst of all this I know

A beating heart whispers low

In dreams that brave men dream

Of beauty and the gracious queen

 

So spellbound am I in this tune

Words fail to become immune

A jet that was flying so very high

Suddenly stopped with a sigh

 

Friends now it's time to go

Things awaiting for me to know

And somewhere in my memory

My love will wait like history

 

As long as these stars shall shine

I will await by your shrine

One day I will call upon thee

In forlorn days just you and me

 

Cheers,

Guru30

I have promises to pay

I have promises to pay

The morning star beckons me
As the dawn spreads its glory
And angels gather up above
To ordain the deeds of the day

Breakfast on the table
It's time to take the tube
Many a million faces
Huddling so near yet so far

After the pleasantries are over
It's meeting time again
Status checks and reviews and more
Somewhere a clock ticks away

Back on my desk for the next chore
Many calls to make
Deadlines on the to-do list
Time to take a break

Sitting late once again
The proposal has to go tomorrow
Done and am about to leave
And the phone rings for a second time

Back home after a long day
Wife and kids are asleep
Underneath the shower I think
Highlights of today

After a winding sleep
Yet it's another day
All dressed up and ready to go
'Cause I have promises to pay

Best

Guru30

Do you need a Guru to guide you ?

Do you need a Guru to guide you?

The 'guru' phenomenon is mushrooming all the way from Jakarta to Jordan. The reason is quite clear. In today's world we are surrounded by a wide variety of choices or options, each promising us to make our lives better, in some way or the other. In the days of yore when the multiplicity of options was limited, deciding on something was much easier. It's the good old question of whether having 2 friends or 20 friends is better. In the former, your hedge is small but your relationships are deeper. What plagues today's world is the same. The breadth has increased. As a result fundamentals take a hit. The trend in the technology world is towards depth - limited but clear. Subject Matter Experts (SME's) are in demand. The number of consultants in a project is increasing. The employee syndrome is dwindling. The world is changing at breath taking speeds and in such a world we need people who can give us direction - 'clarity' in one word.

Take the software industry for instance. Most of the technical paraphernalia's that are out there are all ephemeral. Today Java is in vogue. Tomorrow it is some other product. What you learn has become inherently transient. By the time you claim to be master of a language, that concept is on the way to extinction. Programming in the future would be restricted to certain specialized kind of activities as cognitive pick and choose tools gain dominion. This is the mantra that I promulgate 'Learn programming concepts, not languages. Learn semantics, not syntax'. Silicon intelligence today is resting somewhere in the cradles of knowledge and intelligence, but say 5 years from now we will find a new trend viz. Wisdom software. In short Silicon intelligence is destined to overtake us in terms of processing speed and parallelization. Then we will be left with only one alibi - our Soul. This will be the only thing that will make the difference between us and these contraptions.

But now comes the million dollar question. Of the 6.5 billion of us on this Earth, how many of us have realized the soul. Forget that. Here's a basic question. How many of us know the true purpose of life and are we headed the on the right path? So many questions in a short life that we have to live. Hence the need for Gurus. By Guru's I don't mean industry pundits who predict a thing or two. My definition of a guru is more fundamental. It is attached to meaning. He/She is somebody who provides answers to the questions that abound in the inner recesses of our heart. Help us with a way or the Tao that will make our life more meaningful or complete. Help us become a happy person. Help us contribute to the world. But, this is just the first level.

There are so many steps to achieve emancipation, but there are no shortcuts. People want to become enlightened in the shortest possible time frame. But I am afraid this just is not possible. You can't jump from standard I to Standard X without experiencing the classes in the middle. And most of the people just want that. If you don't know the alphabets, how can you form words and then sentences? It takes time and effort to achieve a certain position. A guru can short-circuit your search for the ultimate truth. But finally it's up to you. Your attitude, your education, your experience all add up to the quandary. Inside each of us is a Buddha or a guru, but to realize the same, we have to go through a learning experience. Most of us are not equipped for the same, hence we need external gurus. But mind you, there are many gurus out there who promise Nirvana to you, but they themselves are lost in the soul searching game. You need to steer clear of these fakes who masquerade as genuine seers.

Finally, you need God's grace. You may have reached the pinnacle of knowledge and experience, but still liberation may have eluded you, for long. For it to happen, you just have to wait - persevere. Till he deems that you can join the elite club, it will stay so. But he is very kind. And will shower his blessings upon you, as soon as he finds that you are fit to get the certification. Till then, keep fighting.

Cheers,

Guru30

Real Time - Real or Utopia

Real Time - Real or Utopia

My loan payment happens on 1^st of every month. But I get the acknowledgement as SMS by 5^th. Why can't I get my notification from the loan company immediately. Four reasons mainly

1. Processing is done by different systems
   
2. These systems are not talking to each other in real time
   
3. Consolidation is taking time
   
4. Payment info is not available on time
   

Whenever I make payment via internet, I have noticed that it takes some time to reflect on the payers account. Why> I do not know. Either the bank is delaying which I think is not the case as the debit in my account reflects immediately. Sometimes the credit message may have missed the payers account , due to say power failure. Hence the message was not received. In this case the bank's system should be notified that the intended recipient did not receive the message. And their system has to keep trying to send the message. There must be alternative numbers, IP addresses etc. for a payer, so that the message is received.

Anyway, I inevitably get a call from the credit card company saying that they did not receive my payment. When I tell them that I have paid through internet banking, they ask me for the transaction number. Here comes another surprise. The payment confirmation is done normally by a third party which acts as the payment gateway. They generate a transaction number and this number I'm sure is relayed to the bank, but not to the Payer. I'm sure this is the case as they don't seem to have the transaction number.

I do avail of the ECS facilities provided by various banks. Good automation at its best. The other thing I like about banks is Mobile Alerts. Simple rule based systems. I'm awaiting the onset of agents that will do transactions on our behalf. In the future banks will not be the only money related corporations. Individuals will become banks and wealth would be digital in nature. K-bits and not money will be the new currency.

Best

Guru30

Office 2007 – Ramblings of a novice

 

Office 2007 – Ramblings of a novice

Today I went through some Microsoft Word 2007 tutorials from Microsoft Website. They were just awesome. For the first time in my life, I could envisage the work that goes into making a project like Office 2007 successful.

The sheer idea of Office 2007 is revolutionary in nature. Maybe not the back end, but the user interface definitely is a complete revamp. It's a complete makeover of the Office 2003 interface. For a moment, I was taken aback by the beauty of the Ribbon (a feature in Office 2007) and the intuitive interface.

I think the team who made this possible really need to be congratulated. It's such an awesome work that they have done. From Microsoft's point of view it's a departure from their standard image of being a Aggressive marketing company and releasing products with bugs.

There are all those complaints about Microsoft, but for a moment imagine the sheer amount of work that goes in into building such products. There is no such thing as a perfect thing, so we all live on betas perpetually.

I think we need to thank Microsoft's team for whatever little they have accomplished. (And I think they have released some awesome products, which is the very reason why their products are so popular). For the time being let's remove our spectacled vision from the cons to the pros – a decent product; just wish it were free.

One thing that people do not want is having to pay for those features which are not used. Well that was the old model of Microsoft. The next version of Office would be on the Cloud and will be offered as Software as a Service (SaaS). Google, are you listening ?

Best

Guru30

 

Evolutionary and Revolutionary innovation

Evolutionary and Revolutionary innovation

As the aforesaid statement indicates 2 types of innovation.

1. Evolutionary way
   
2. Revolutionary way
   

An evolutionary upgrade to a product is when there is a minimal change and learning curve to move from the older version to the new version. If you have a version of the software in the following format aaa.bbb.ccc, then 'aaa' is called the major revision number and the other 2 are minor version numbers. Now assume that the current version number is 10.2.3. If the next version increases to 10.2.4 or sometimes maybe 10.3.3, then the progress is evolutionary. This new version of the product is easier to upgrade to and also easy to use.

Whereas a version number like 11.2.4 or maybe 10.3.3 may indicate a revolutionary version. This version is typically an overhaul of the entire system. For E.g: Office 2007 is a radical departure from Office 2003. I just got to see it today. And it rocks !!!

A small detour now.

A prototype is a model of a system. It may partly or fully depict the system. There are 2 types of prototypes:

1. Evolutionary
   
2. Throwaway
   

Evolutionary prototypes evolve with time.

Throwaway prototypes are used only once and then thrown away, like many types of bags. Many times a throwaway prototype can be compared with throwaway innovation.

You may be thinking as to why did I take you through a detour. The answer is simple. A prototype is a type of innovation - hence the relation.

To tell you the truth what matters in the end is what the customer gets. If its beneficial truly for the end user then it will succeed, have no doubts about that.

Regards,

Guru30

Words don't come easy

Words don’t come easy.

How do you describe a tree? In many ways. Each description falls short of one thing. The feeling. You can say ‘I sat by the tree and it felt good’. Well if you are describing the tree later, the feeling is already gone. Or let’s say you are writing a poem while you are under the tree, by the time you have felt it and the time you take to describe it using words, you have missed a beat. Because while describing it you are not feeling it, you are simply imagining it.

That is the primary difference between a man and a machine. A machine will be able to imagine but not feel, in the sense that we do. So much so that a machine may reach 99.99% accuracy in feeling but never the 100%. Why? Because machines are trapped in the time delusion. A true feeling transcends time. It just ‘is’. Hence cannot be described in words. What we describe in words is just an approximation.

Assume that you have a computer in which you are using Photoshop. Further contemplate that you have drawn a picture. When you see the picture, you may not feel it. But at a certain point of time, you will. And that is the same feeling as when you were working on it engrossed fully drawing the beauty.

Feeling is our intimate connection to God. It is a prayer. A kind of gratitude that we feel towards an object – be it animate or inanimate. The best I can extrapolate it to a ‘one’ ness with the object where the observer (you) and the observed (the object) merge. There is no objectivity. No subjectivity also. It’s just a moment in eternity.

Learn to be more alert whether you are watching a movie or working on a program. And you will start feeling the creation in its entire-ity. The entire universe is a projection in a point of time. But as you feel more, you know that the delusion of time withers away into the ‘one’ with your consciousness.

I myself have failed to describe it in words. And it just cannot be done. Till such time, lets compromise for the pseudo real, and then we wake up in Bliss ... Someday. Somewhere.

Cheers

Guru30

Computers for Students

Computers for Students

For those wishing to study computers, here’s what it takes

1. Passion, Passion, Passion
2. Read, Read, Read
3. Understand deeply
4. Reflect
5. Relate to nature

A flair for mathematics would be of help, but not necessary.

Computing is as vast as Pacific Ocean. There are so many different branches and so many things to learn. You need to specialize.

But before you do so, get a broad understanding of the subject. Look out for mentors. Submit to them and they will show you the way. The friend you have here is the internet. There is so much of good stuff available there that it can inundate you. But don’t get intimidated.

Some Do’s and Dont’s

1. Learn atleast 1 new thing everyday
2. Listen to the voice of the experts and the people (the long tail)
3. Follow news regularly
4. Pick up a subject and keep a timeline for studying it. Monitor it to closure.
5. Move onto related subject areas for eg: Computers are being used almost everywhere in every facet of life.
Study the line of application also very well
6. Don’t be in a hurry. You will learn
7. Focus and Concentrate. Don’t let your thoughts drift when you are studying.
8. Think of the work. Remember, the ‘What’ is more important than ‘Who’

And finally pray to God before you embark on anything ...

All the best

Guru 30

The fire in the Fox – Getting to understand Firefox better

The fire in the Fox – Getting to understand Firefox better

I started using Firefox sometime back and have never stopped till now. Although I have used other browsers,I must admit that Firefox is my favourite. Maybe it’s for the reason that I did not try other browsers enough to get attached to them.

Let me anyway tell you my experience with Firefox, starting from their logo. The logo itself raises waves of anticipation in my heart and mind and I’m eager to get to the Firefox open window. I just love the tabs – what would one do without them
– multiple windows – no way. I think tabs are more visible and alive than windows tucked away as tasks in the taskbar.

The best thing about Firefox is that it is extensible using extensions and add-ons. I still do not know the difference between the two, but why should I really care as long as my work gets done. Not being an escapist; just trying to be practical.

Some cool extensions are InterGlue, WebMailNotifier, McAfee Sit Advisor, WikiLook, Zotero, Personas etc. These are the ones that I use, and I really would have loved to talk about it. But let me hear from you if you are using any of these extensions/add-ons. There are so many extensions/add-ons that it may be more than the leaves in a banyan tree.

The Fire in the Fox refers to the extensions/add-ons of this clever product.
Hence the Fox (the base product) is a runaway hit primarily because of the
way you can customize it using extensions/add-ons.

So far so good.

Now let me tell you about Firefox, right from the heart. It’s not a program, it’s a gift from all those people who worked on it for several years and gave us this marvel. I do not know any names, but here’s three cheers and kudos to the entire team that was involved in giving us this special gift. We treasure it and thank you for the same.

P.S: I would also like to thank Firefox competitors who keep them on their toes – always up and running.

HipHip Hurray

Guru30

The Zen of shopping

Today I went out shopping. For the first time in my life I noticed so many people wanting to buy something or the other.
If there was one thing common among them, it was this – they were all in a hurry. They had stopped listening;
instead all they wanted was to get the thing that they wanted, no matter what.

Nobody seemed to care about the person (the store merchant) sitting across taking their orders. They just want it.
And they want it now. For a moment I thought that the Supermarkets are a better place where you can pick up what you want
without any middleman. The only person you have to encounter is the checkout cashier.

But what do these middlemen (in non supermarkets) bring to the table.

a) Expert knowledge about the market
b) Helping us get a product in one place rather than going all around the supermarket with a trolley
c) Interact with us in real time about products and related topics

To sum it, it is personalization at a gross level. I call it gross because the merchant still doesn’t know you intimately.
But he will, with the help of technology in the near future. Technology is going to be the edge for the merchant
as he differentiates his service better than a supermarket. Otherwise people are going to walk into that mall
and buy what they want. No consulting.

Anyway, the other thing that struck me was how people don’t listen attentively to the expert
(here the merchant being the person) They just browse through some points that satisfies them instead of engaging
in a discussion. I think that is probably because of lack of time.

According to me decisions made in hurry can be wrong ones. If only we had the patience to listen and by that I mean
willing to be slow, and let time take its own time, till what is revealed is pure satisfaction coming out of insight,
will we be actually content. Learning not inorganically but step by step and enjoying it too.

A beautiful world for all of us going round and round in circles
– is there an end ? Did it have a beginning ? You guessed it.

Best

Guru30

People are unique, not equal - one side of the story

“All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”

This is the catch phrase in the Orwellian classic ‘Animal Farm’. Think about it. Is this true? From a demographical point of view this statement holds good. From a biological view, it doesn’t. When we look at this statement at a very basic level (in fact a level 0 interpretation) we can argue that we are all made up of DNA, the building block of life. Assume for a moment that we all are made up of DNA and don't look at differences in the DNA. Think at a fundamental level. We could have gone deeper and say that we are made of Carbon. Can we now safely presume that for all carbon based living beings (including the tobacco-mosaic virus), the primary instinct of survival and replication are hardwired? We know that alphabets in a word can be strung together to form words that mean different. In the same way, at an abstract level, the rules of the game change, but, at a very fundamental level we are all the same.

Look at democracy. At a vital level it does not seem to seem to support the tenet. However, it does when you apply segmentation to it. But imagine now for a moment that a vote is being cast by 2 people. An illiterate farmer and a Ph.D. They have the same voting rights. Not just that. Their votes count also the same. Now some may feel that this practice is alright. But what happens to millions of votes which are purchased on ‘muscle’ power or obtained as a kickback. Now we have an honest vote and a dishonest vote. But all end up in the count as a ‘vote’. Is this fair? A vote should not be binary. Because, it’s not the vote that matters, but the people behind it who do. And people are unique, not equal.

In the same way, you cannot compare a Nokia mobile with a iPhone. Both are used for communication, but the applicability varies. And so does the design. At a basic level both of them may be using the same chip to process voice, but the final outcome is different. We term it as user experience, which once again is subjective. Let us not try to compare apples with oranges. However we always do this. The moment we get hold of two things that looks or feels similar , we tend to compare. Two things: Absolute and relative. The former is intrinsic in nature and holds the same weight age across the universe. But perceptions fall under the latter category. And the world that we see is nothing but a perceived view of an underlying hypothesis.

To get to point ‘B’ from ‘A’ on the same train, it pretty much looks like standard transport. But one person is trying to get to ‘B’ while another is running away from ‘A’. For a third person point 'B' may be a stop-over. Needs vary and this is time dependent. In the same way, perceptions also vary with time. What may have been true in the last 10 years may not hold good after 10 years.

But one thing is there: the stars will keep shining; the rivers would flow; the trees would rustle in the wind, whether we treat things equal or otherwise …

Cheers,

Guru30

Recession. Depression, Uncertainity

Recession. Depression, Uncertainity. People losing jobs. Banks losing money. Stimulus package by governments. Markets at all time lows.

And some people say that the worst is not yet over.

In these unsure times, fear creeps into peoples minds, faster than ice cream melts. If there was a pill for giving peace of mind (rule out Prozac) that would take off beyond doubt. These are times for introspection; restructuring and thinking of making dreams come true. If you are in an existing business, this is the right time to expand as rates are low and people are reasonable.

Today, for any organization there would be 3 things on the top of their list

1. Cost Cutting
2. Improving Efficiency
3. Increasing Revenue

These are trying times. The wheat and chaff would be conspicuous in any organization in a while. And hence the stars who multitask and give more bang for the buck would keep their jobs for sure. One thing apparently good, would be that productivity would zoom and valuations of companies will return back to alignment. Speculations would be low like inflation and value would trump over price as a measure of quality.

Free markets would get a socialist tinge and governments all over the world will intervene more into corporate affairs. Surely, a good thing to happen, if they act as responsible regulators.

Whatever happens the old adage to believe in is 'Everything happens for the best'. If a door closes for you, God certainly would open another door for you. What we need is perseverance and willingness to work. As long as we keep trying we are sure to hit the jackpot in a while.

People seem to equate the jackpot to riches. Well, money is no doubt important but more importantly pray for good health and peace of mind.

You may lose money, but if you lose faith in yourself that is possibly the worst thing that can happen.

So get cracking and enjoy the ride while you are at it.

God Bless

Guru30

The Weapon Delusion

The weapon delusion

One of the biggest spenders for any economy is their defence budget. I fail to understand the idea behind piling up weapons. Maybe it’s an insecurity. Because just having the latest and the greatest weapons does not make a country powerful. It is the happiness quotient that matters. For any country- no matter how the demographics are, the point to be noted is how happy do the citizens feel ? How safe do they feel ? Is help available easily ? Does everyone get the basic necessities ? Is the economy on inclusive growth?

In computer parlance, every program has a goal of happiness. This is true when the program is being used the way it was supposed to be. Any variations like mistakes does not fulfil its original goals. Hence it becomes unhappy – oh I mean the person using it. Of course programs don’t feel or do they ?

A country piles up so many weapons to threaten the foes. It’s like me using MS Word. All I require as a writer is an editor , a spell checker and a thesaurus. And the remaining 98% features of this wonderful program remains unused. It’s like buying C4- when all I require is a small firecracker.

I honestly think that weapons piling up (which can destroy the planet maybe 100 or more times) in a country is a sign of derangement. I’m not saying that weapons are not required. For the cops they do require some ammunition. But keeping a military force to fight with other countries is a big waste. They should assist the police to keep law and order everywhere. In the past there were no countries. We made the differentiation, and we built the weapons. Man against man – and who has the best weapon wins – or does he really ? If I’m not wrong, one of the commandments is ‘Thou shall not kill’ – whatever happened to that ...

Anyway I think that most of us suffer from Amnesia ,and before I forget I wish every person happiness always but don’t blame me if I forget, because I’m also suffering from Amnesia.

Best

Guru30

Swine Flu equivalent in technology

Swine Flu equivalent in technology

There is so much news about Swine Flu that we forget to note the following facts:

1. Swine Flu is just like a computer virus
2. Instead of infecting a computer it infects a human being
3. Like antivirus which eradicates viruses (techno speak), the medicine for Swine Flu has been identified (TamiFlu and others)
4. The equivalent medicines in Computer World are antivirus software like McAfee, AVG etc.
5. Swine Flu spreads through air. Computer Viruses spread through a network (mostly)
6. Swine Flu lives for 2-8 hours if it does not find a suitable host.
Computer Viruses live for as long as they are not eradicated by an Antivirus.
7. Swine Flu has a signature just like Computer Viruses do.
8. Swine Flu and Computer Virus if treated early will not be fatal.
9. Swine Flu does not infect all people. Some people have a stronger immune system.
Similarly, in a Computer if you keep the Antivirus updated, it won’t get infected. Good Health is Wealth,
as they say.
10. At any point of time there may not be enough awareness about the Flu, which may erupt as some freaky case.
As in Computer Viruses which are not yet classified and tackled.

P.S: The points mentioned above may not be entirely true due to my limited knowledge about the Flu